The Hitchhiker

[dr_mabeuse]

I had a nice warm feeling over my right asscheek where my wallet was now crammed with big bills. I figured I was still hot, but if I played anymore in this place they might get wise to me. They'd never believe I could see the cards before they came up, but they'd bounce me anyhow. That's the way it works.

Lucky and her sister were standing over by the five dollar slots, and as I strolled over there I checked her out. Even dressed in those funky clothes she was a knockout. Get her cleaned up and into some decent threads and she'd have guys hanging all over her.

There was something a little weird about their attitudes though. They were obviously sisters, but I didn't get that falling-all-over-each-other goofiness you saw during a surpsie family reunion like this. There was something between them for sure, but wasn't all sisterly love.

“What are you two ladies talking about?” I asked them. Lucky was holding a bucket full of five-dollar chips. Looks like my luck was rubbing off.

Sis was looking at me like she'd already undressed me with her eyes and liked what she saw a whole lot. I could just about feel the heat in her gaze. Then as I watched, she leaned over and gave Lucky one of the wettest, hottest, kisses on the cheek I'd ever seen. And she did it for me, I have no doubt. That got my attention.

“Lucky has been telling me a great deal about you, Paul. I am anxious to learn more. My name is Destiny.”

I could just imagine what Lucky had been telling her!

"Lucky and Destiny, huh?" I said. "Everything a guy could want!" From the looks on their faces I could tell they'd heard that oen a lot, but they smiled anyhow.

I was just going to suggest that we head over to another casino when Destiny said, “It looks like we have both been lucky today. Would you care to celebrate?”

The last thing I wanted then was to go see Sigfried and Roy or whatever she had in mind, but then I saw Lucky's eyes light up in that way they had. “Yes, Paul! We should. It has been far too long since I’ve had any fun with my sister.”

There's only one thing that makes Lucky's eyes do that, and it's not blackjack. I immediately felt my cock twitch. Was she serious? Did they get it on together? Hell, gambling could wait.

"Well if you ladies are suggesting what I think you're suggesting, then deal me in." They'd just given me a big suite up near the roof as a comp and I had the keycard right in my pocket.

And isn't that the way it goes? When you're hot, you're fucking hot! And I was hotter than hell!

With a girl on each arm I strolled over to the elevator, giving the suckers a good look. Eat your hearts out, losers!

 

[Honey_B]

The suite was breathtaking by any stretch of the imagination with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the sparkle of the city and the lonely desert beyond. The room could have been decorated by the Sultan of Brunei and was painted in rich blues and gold. It exuded enough sensuality to overload the senses. Even the air was scented with a musky incense.

Destiny was careful not to wrinkle her nose in disgust. By the look on Paul's face, he was thrilled with the place. She put the chips down on a small gilded table and set her guitar case next to it.

"If you will excuse me, I have a dozen miles of dust to wash off. Why don't you and Lucky start enjoying yourselves. I will not be long."

She gave her sister a lascivious grin before opening the door that could only be the bathroom. Destiny went inside and closed the door.

Lucky turned to Paul, a wicked little smile on her face. He really was such a delicious little plaything. His hubris and greed made him more dependent on her everyday.

"Look at this place, Paul!"

She said the words like a little girl who had never seen such a room before, had never been entertained in the palaces of kings. Lucky twirled with her arms out-stretched, her dark hair swirling around her body like an ebony curtain.

"Come here, you salacious hunk of a man!"

He did and Lucky gave him a kiss that bordered on savage, hungrily claiming his mouth with her own. She felt his hard cock rubbing against her thigh. Just a smile from Lucky was enough to arouse any man.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Lucky raised her arms and encircled his neck, one hand combing through his hair as she kissed him. He felt the firm globes of her breasts pressing against his chest, her long, shanks against his thighs, and he took her buttocks in his hands and pressed her crotch to his, massaging her ass through the supple leather of her tight skirt. She moaned in his mouth and he felt her smile.

"You see, baby." he said, grinning at her. "You stick with me and it'll be like this all the time."

She dropped her hands to his chest and started undoing the buttons of his shirt, extending her tongue to lick him wherever she exposed his flesh.

He was still too keyed up from the gambling though, still wired to that winning rush.

"You see this?" he said, gesturing to the vast room around them. "You see this? This is the just the start, baby! Just the start. And you know why? Because I believed in myself. I knew I could do it. And that's what happens when you believe in yourself. Just like in the songs. 'I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky!' Shit yeah!"

He threw off his jacket and kicked off his shoes, stopped and looked at her. His look sobered and he came over. "I always knew I had a gift." he said. "I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew I had something special. I wasn't the handsomenst guy, and I wasn't the most athletic or the smartest, but all my life I knew I had something. And then it just came to me. Playing blackjack, and I'm thinking, 'Look at those cards. They're twelve inches from my nose and I can't read them just cause they're face down.' You know? It just didn't seem right. Why couldn't I read them? X-ray machines can do it. Why can't I? Why can't I? And so I looked and I looked and I stared and I listenedm and finally...finally... Holy fuck! I can read them! I can because I believed I can!"

Lucky didn't say anything during this. Let him think what he wanted, she didn't much care about that. What she did care about was his desperate crazy need for her. What she loved was the way men wanted her, the things they would do for her, the way they squeezed her asnd held her and tried to possess her. She loved that desperation in their touch, that wild passion in their lovemaking, the way they gave her all they had.

As Paul was talking whe was unbuttoning her blouse. She wore no bra and didn't need one, despsite the lush fullness of her breasts. She walked up to him and touched her nipples lightly against his chest, moved them in small circles against his skin, loving the rough scrape of his chest hair against her senseitive skin.

Her touch brought him sharply back to reality and he looked into her eyes and saw that hot hunger there. He knew his luck had drawn her to him, and he knew she had something to do with it. All the wild elation turned suddenly into lust for her. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him savagely, forcing his tongue into her mouth as one hand held the back of her head to keep her there.

This was what she loved. This is what had drawn her to him: his savage need for her, and she mewled in her thoat in pleasure.

He pushed her back to the big circular bed and pushed her down on it roughly. Her blouse fell open, her tits free, and she gave him a challenging smile him through the black curls that hung wantonly over her eyes.

"Yes," she breathed. "That's my baby! That's my tiger!"

Instandtly he was on the bed, pressing her down,m his hands on her breasts, his mouth all over her. He squeezed her tits, kissed them, sucked her nipples as she twisted in pleasure. His fingers funbled with her skirt, found the zipper and opened it, then pulled it over her boots and off. His hand slipped into her tiny panties and found her pussy, caressing it as he kissed her breasts.

He had no subtlety, no technique, but she far preferred passion to technique, and the wild, blatant hunger in his touch thrilled her. She could have lovers by the score, as skilled as she wanted. But it was the naked desire she wanted, that desperate anguished need, men besides themselves with lust for her. That's what she loved; that's what turned her on.

He pulled off her panties now, caught them on her boots, and in his frustration, just ripped them off her, making her giggle excitedly. She quickly slipped off her blouse and lay back down, totally naked except for her thigh-high black boots.

He stood on his knees looking down at her, and the look in his eyes made her wet with excitement. It wasn't just her beauty, though they both knew she was uncommonly even extraordinarily beautiful, even for Las Vegas. It was all she represented to him, wealth, success, power, everything he wanted.

He stripped his clothes of wildly, flinging them everywhere. She smiled when his big cock sprang into view, throbbing hard and erect. Then he was on the bed with his face between her legs, her thighs over his shoulders, sucking and licking at her pussy, holding her tight to him as if he were trying to suck her into his mouth.

Agaiun there was no technique, no finesse. His toungue was everywhere, he sucked in mouthfuls of her flesh between his lips and ran his tongue over her roughly, spreading her apart with his fingers so he could shove his face deeper into her until his nose butted against her clit and she arched up in excitement.

"Yes, baby! Oh, get it! Eat me, baby! Eat me all up!" she cooed as he rutted in her pussy like a hog at a trough, his moans of wet, slurping delight loud in the room.

She grabbed his hair and began to grind her pussy against him, enjoying his wild abandon and the heated feel of his tongue on her. It was like his excitement fed hers directly. He grabbed her breasts and held her to him, teasing her nipples with his thumbs and making her groan in lewd encouragement.

In his desperate need to possess her, he'd forgotten all about Destiny.

 

[Honey_B]

But Destiny had not forgotten him. Her thoughts lingered on Paul Leonard as she untwined her long blonde hair, shaking it out until it was the mass of ringlets cascading down her back. Through the door, Destiny could hear Paul's extraordinary speech. They were the words of a child, of one so naive that he did not know the order of things, nor his place in them. Destiny knew he would come to a bad end, even without the touch of her hand.

Her eyes fell upon the cards nestled in her bag. She picked them up and unwrapped the black velvet cloth that covered them. From the deck, she with withdrew three cards and placed them in the pocket of her jeans. The remainder of the deck, she placed on the bathroom counter, in plain view of anyone who walked in.

The moans she heard from the other room made her smile. Destiny shed her clothing quickly, and from her bag withdrew a blue silk robe that looked to have been spun by spiders, so delicate were the threads. She slipped it over her shoulders and knotted it at the waist.

The pair didn't even hear her as Destiny stepped through the door. Paul crouched on his knees, worshipping her sister. Destiny crept up behind him and slid a moist tongue up his back, from the base of his spine to the neck. Her hair fell forward, giving him a silken caress of its own. When Paul raised his head and turned to look at her, Destiny straightened and let the robe slip from her shoulders. Lucky shot her a look of pure venom.

In a voice like cool water, Destiny gently urged, "Do not stop, Paul. We shall both pleasure Lucky."

Destiny winked at her sister and Lucky ran her tongue over her blood red lips.

Lucky could have climaxed right then. Long had she waited for her elder sister to pay her homage. She reached down and pressed Paul's face back into her heated sex. Destiny pinned Lucky’s arms over her head with one hand and bending over her breasts. Destiny's mouth was hot on her erect nipples, her teeth sharp. Paul's mouth consumed her, Destiny enflamed her and together the drove Lucky into an orgasm of unending bliss.

Paul raised his head and met Destiny's eyes and she moved to the edge of the bed. His face shone in the soft light with Lucky's spendings and with a languid tongue she licked the juices from his face. When her tongue swabbed across his lips, Paul grabbed her, his hands tangling in her hair, sucking in her tongue.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Having it all. That's what it's all about: having it all. All you want and more. And having just made Lucky come like a fucking banshee, I just lay there while her big sister licked her juice from my face with long, slow licks of her sweet tongue.

There was no doubt that Destiny was hot for me too. There's no doubt that women are attracted to you when you're on a streak, and I was on the ultimate streak. And why shouldn't I have her too? She was gorgeous, she was naked and ready, and she knew what the score was. Besides, she had this something, this kind of haughtiness, this way of making you feel like she was above it all, that kind of rankled me. I wanted to get her down here with the rest of us.

I reached for her, tangled my fingers in her hair and pulled her to me, sucking her tongue into my mouth. I was on my back and she on her hands and knees over me, her tits hanging down and brushing against my chest. I held her head with one hand while I slipped my other hand down to her pussy and started to play with her. That amde her moan a little, and I felt her hips start to grind.

I liked the way her blonde curls fell around me, making like a little private room for us while we kissed. I slsid my lips over hers, I bit them, I licked them, felt her breathing faster and faster into my mouth. Yeah, she can pretend that butter doesn't melt in her mouth but she was getting plenty hot too. A kiss from a guy who just took down 5 G's that evening will do that to a girl. Like they say, money's the best aphrodisiac.

"Come on, Destiny," I siad, moving up on the bed. "You want it, come and get it. Come ride me baby. Come ride the Miracle Man!"

She crawled over to me looking at me like a tigress. She moved like a tigress too. She stopped to kiss my chest, lick my nipple, then lick her way down to my cock, but then she stopped. Yeah, later for that. I was ready now. She threw one lean leg over me and got up on her knees, looked down at me over those imposing tits, gabbed my cock, and sank down on it.

She closed her eyes as she sank down on me and when she opened them I was deep inside her and she looked like she was seeing a million miles away. Destiny was one of those women who puts all her attention on your cock, or at least that's how she fucked me. She didn't kiss, she didn't hug, she just rode a top me like a queen, using my cock for her own private pleasure. That's okay with me. I just folded my hands behind my head and watched that bitch work getting herself off on my big stick, and she was a fucking sight to see.

She knew tricks most belly dancers didn't know. She ground in circles against me, she shook, she vibrated, she humped me up and down, all the time with that kind of classy but feverish look on her face, as if she was determined not to show me how much she enjoyed it. But believe me, she was enjoying it plenty. The squeezed me, she milked me, she bit her lip and groaned, then she opened her eyes and looked at me in a way that gave me the chills; like she saw right through me.

Holding my eyes like that she said "Come in me. Come in me now!" and that did it for me.

I thrust my hips up off the bed, I went rigid and my cock pulsed with pleasure, then I spit my load right up into her as she threw wher head back and came, squeezing her own breasts in her excitement as I filled that pussy with everything I had, shooting again and again until I had nothing left and I collapsed back on the bed wqith her on top of me, both of us trying to catch our breath.

I had the weirdest feeling then. Not just the feeling of being relaxed and satisfied i usually get from sex. But I kind of felt like things had just been settled. Like I was finally done running around being nervous and worried and knocking my head into stone walls. I felt like things had been decided, and what was going to be was going to be. It was kind of nice, but kind of creepy too.

But it soon passed, and soon I was back to my old wild and crazy self.

 

[Honey_B]

Destiny sank languidly onto Paul's shaft, letting her velvet sheath slowly engulf him with an exquisitely smooth caress. Her eyes drifted closed. Time was liquid to her and she dipped her fingers into its murky pools, conjuring up another time and place.

When she opened them, the present had fallen away and she was back with him. He had been a poet her one love. He had called her his muse, even if the name did make her laugh. They had made love in the palace of his patron, the king of Knossos, a gilded place of white stone and gold. A lyre played in the distance and Destiny's body moved to its commanding melody, sliding up and down the length of his cock in an ancient dance.

Though they did not touch, save for their joining, Destiny's eyes held his in a lover's embrace. His liquid pools communicated his every want and desire and Destiny met them before he even felt their call. Her body moved to the throb of his pulse and her own heart raced with the heightened sensation of two bodies made one. Her pace grew insistent, demanding. She ground herself against him, clenching at his cock with strong muscles, driving them both towards the madness that is the body's rapture.

"Come in me. Come in me now!"

Destiny almost said the words in Minoan, but corrected herself as she recalled the present. She felt the hot rush of seed that was Paul's answer, even as her body shuddered, reaching her own shattering climax. Destiny fell against him, her sweat-slickened body melding to his. Lost somewhere between past and present, she gasped for breath.

The cold hand of reality brought Destiny back as her heated skin cooled. She shivered and it broke the spell.

Bravo, sister! You used him like a Greek slave.

Lucky was propped up on her side, where she had watched the performance of Destiny and Paul. She yawned and snuggled up to his side, sliding one of her long tan legs over his in a possessive gesture.

Destiny tried not to scowl at Lucky's catty remark. She rolled to Paul's other side and closed her eyes. Sleepily she murmured,

"You have fulfilled your Destiny tonight, Paul."

And Lucky laughed.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Sisters! These women were crazy. There was something going on between them, but it was some kind of private joke and I wasn't about to get in the middle of it. I still figured I had a chance to have them both at once, and that would be something to write home about.

That Destiny was one sexy piece of ass too. I mean, Lucky was hot, but Destiny had that kind of classiness that made me just want to take her down a few notches; make her beg for it.

Right now I was hungry and needed a shower. I called room service and ordered some of their New York strips, a couple of lobster tails, and osme of their chile. This place has chile that's to die for.

I went into the can to shower. The john was bigger than my damned apartmentm with a telephone, a bank of TV's in the wall, a sauna, you name it. And over on the sink was a deck of cards.

Funny cards. They looked like they were handmade or something. They were a finny size. I did a couple trick shuffles with them, but they were kind of stiff, didn't fit my hands right.

Two of the TV's were set to the hotel channel, showing the sports book and Keeno numbers. I turned on the shower and then flicked around till I found the racing channel where they had results from around the country. I didn't play the ponies: my talents didn't lie in that direction, but I like to check out the action every so often.

I sat on the can and checked out the line at Anita, fooling with the cards as I did. Suddenly the deck kind of split in my hands. It felt like when you try and bring two magnets together by the wrong ends? The way they bounce off each other? The cards deck split in my hands and I found myself looking at and eight of diamonds. That was weird. Some kind of trick deck.

What was weirder though was when I watched the race at Anita. Number 8 was six to one at the start, and the little son of a bitch came up in the stretch like a demon and just nosed out the favorite to win, just like that.

I looked down at the eight in my hands. How lucky was that?

There was another race just starting at Hialeah, and I shuffled the cards and cut. Deuce of hearts. The number two horse was Yes I do at 2 to 5. He was first out of the gate and he never looked back. No one touched him.

I got up and turned off the shower, looking the cards over. They must be Destiny's I figured. Right: Destiny had come into the john to wash off when we got to the room. She must have left them here.

I checked out three more races and the cards were right every fucking time. For the last two races I cut three times and picked win, place, and show. I also used the phone to put a grand on Alleged and won eight hundred bucks, just like that.

I put the cards in my pocket of my robe, hung it up and got in the shower. Now this was something. This was really something. There's such a thing as wanting to win so bad that you can see cards or pick numbers out of the air, but this deck was just shoving these winners in my face.

I stayed in there just soaking in the hot water and planning how to make a couple real big killings. Real big. There was nothing stopping me now.

 

[Honey_B]

Lucky let out a viscious shriek. The dark-haired beauty has dozed off and upon awaking, found her wrists tied securely to the headboard. She violently twisted her head around and saw that the sash from Destiny's robe bound her. Her sister's face appeared in her line of vision.

"You have awakened, my sister."

Destiny's voice was soft, but her eyes glittered icy blue.

"Why do this? You know that if you wanted my body it would be yours for the asking."

Lucky sounded like a cornered cat.

"It is not you that concerns me, Lucky. It is he that I have only just met. Paul has toyed with my cards and for gains that serve only him. More damning, he seeks to make them his own."

Lucky's eyes widened in surprise. Even she would not attempt to tangle with the power of Destiny.

"The path in which you had been leading Paul down ends here, Lucky. For his offense, you shall both be held accountable. Tonight he shall be shown you're true nature."

Destiny moved away quickly, avoiding the spittle flung from Lucky's angry mouth. She crossed the room and opened the bathroom door. Steam oozed out, swirling around Destiny's feet. She stepped inside and closed the door. Paul was in the bathtub but started to get up when Destiny came in.

"You needn't rise, Paul. I need to discuss a matter of great import to yourself and Lucky. Just settle back and listen for a moment."

Paul eased back in the water.

Destiny crossed the bathroom, heading directly for his bathrobe. From the pocket, she extracted her cards. Paul attempted to say something, but Destiny cut him off.

"You know these cards have a power. They are older than even I and they have been entrusted to my care. The cards of prophesy are not to be taken lightly and you have used them without regard. For this you must be punished."

Paul began to stand and Destiny's voice rang out.

"You will remain where you are until I have said what I will. Tonight, I will give you a lesson and a gift."

Destiny crouched and retrieved the three cards she had removed from the deck.

"Do you know what these are, Paul. They are your destiny, the sum total of your life. From the moment you came into this world until the day you crawl into a grave - Holding them will reveal all. This is the lesson I give to you."

Her eyes fell to Paul. He was transfixed by the three cards in her hand.

"And the gift?"

Compassion crept into Destiny's eyes as she said,

"I offer you the choice of whether to take them up. Before you decide, know that even I do not consult the cards regarding my own destiny. What they reveal will not be changed."

Without hesitating, Paul held out his hand. Destiny knew it would be so, but it did not keep the sadness from clenching at her heart. She laid the three cards neatly on Paul's outstretched palm and waited. His eyes drifted closed, his face contorting with pain. She knew what it was that he saw...

Lucky driving him toward insanity until he lived for the turn of a card. He would see her leaving him then, cackling as he began to lose. Lucky would smile as she turned her attentions to another. For Paul, the loses would mount, yet always he would hope to recover the favor of his Lady Luck. At times she would return, but it was only to nurse him closer to his destruction before leaving him once again. The bottle would beckon to him when he had scraped the bottom of his savings. The two vices would twine together, feeding of one another, raping Paul until there was naught left but a shell.

Destiny plucked the cards from Paul's hands. His eyes opened and dark craters that hinted at madness stared back at her.

"I said that I would not change that which you have seen, but I will offer one chance to do just that."

From her bag, she picked up a small knife and laid it on the edge of the bathtub. Destiny turned her back to Paul, letting him make his own decision. She dressed quickly and left the bathroom without looking back.

"You showed him, didn't you? YOU, BITCH!!

Destiny bent to pick up her guitar case and bucket of chips.

"This one escaped you, Lucky. He has been claimed by our father."

Lucky fell silent as she watched her sister go.

 

[Honey_B]

Once out of the artificial world that was Las Vegas, Destiny drifted north. First Idaho, then the wide open spaces of Montana called her. She decended from the heights of the Rockies like a goddess, carried down the mountain by a Winebago which deposited her on a dusty road near the middle of nowhere.

The driver had intended to travel to Helena but Destiny had no desire to visit the capitol. Besides she had been watching the flowing waters of the Jefferson River. It's music would be preferable to the drone of her companion and she needed to stretch her legs anyway. With a smile and a thank you, Destiny stepped out onto the road.

She waited for the camper to disappear in the distance before she slung her bag over her shoulder and picked up her guitar. A lark sang in the distance as Destiny began to walk.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

The words drawled out by the gas station attendant back in Twin bridges, struck a chord in the back of Clays mind as he saw the sign up ahead of him come into view. “If you get to White Hall you’ve gone too far”.

“Shit”, he said, as he read the sign White Hall and then he grinned at his own lack of concentration He was supposed to have turned off on a dirt road that took him to Waterloo a little town overlooking the Jefferson river somewhere back between here and Twin Bridges. He had obviously missed it. He turned around and sighed as he headed back again, two maybe three miles he figured, yet that didn’t do him a lick of good as his odometer had broke a year back now, and he never bothered to get it fixed. If you got someplace to go it don’t matter how far it is, you just went there, he figured. and it really didn’t matter much how long it took as long as the sun was right. The sun was right this morning no doubt about that it was coming up real fine. stretching out in the east over the top of the Rockies dipping down into the gorge made thousands of years ago by a larger more turbulent Jefferson river. This morning however it just babbled along its stony bed and slowed occasionally to pool up into a shimmering pond and then rush excitedly down a cascading rapids or leap lustily over a waterfall. Clay was in no hurry and if he were to have tossed a piece of bark or some other floating object into the Jefferson river when he crossed it just outside of White hall it would have probably beaten him to Twin Bridges,. if he missed the cut off to Waterloo that is. Sure enough he missed it and just before he saw the sign that he knew said Twin Bridges he saw the girl.

On the opposite side of the road with her back to him she was, her thumb out, her slim figure and her blonde hair bunched loosely up in back, her guitar case slung over her shoulder heading the way he was supposed to be heading. When he got alongside of her he slowed up leaning out of his open window to get her attention. "

Looking for a ride", he said grinning forgetting that he was going the opposite way she was.

“ You’re going the wrong way mister. she hollered.”

“Sure am, he hollered back grinning, seems like that’s the story of my life, give me a minute and I’ll catch up to you.”

He turned around in a wide spot in the road and pulled over behind her. wondering if she might think he was some kind of nut , but when he stopped along side of her, she smiled and he leaned over and pushed the door open for her. She pushed her guitar case in ahead of her and jumped easily up into the cab as Clay juggled his cooler around to make room.

“Somewhere ahead there’s a road to the left that cuts off to waterloo he said, missed it twice already this morning, keep a sharp eye out for it .”

She’d been in the truck only five minutes and already he was treating her like his co-pilot.
“It’s not much of a road. but it jumps back on to this one just this side of white Hall, if that’s where you’re going.”

She didn’t answer and Clay figured she’d let him know sooner or later where she was headed. He was more concerned about the old flour mill that was supposed to be straddling the Jefferson somewhere this side of Waterloo, the mill that he was supposed to paint for the travel magazine. “Damn” he said under his breath as he glanced over at the girl. Was she in a hurry? he hoped not, it would take him the better part of the morning to sketch and add enough color to get him started until he could fill in the details next week in Missoula.

He started to say something and then didn’t, maybe she wouldn’t mind the wait. She looked settled in. If worst came to worst he’d drive her into White Hall and she could catch the freeway to where ever she was headed. He had plenty of time, the sun wasn’t even close to being right yet.

 

[Honey_B]

Destiny unabashedly studied Clay, her blue eyes relentless in their scrutiny. Tall, lean, and with a far away look in his eyes that made her think of lost loves, long gone but not forgotten. Destiny wondered who she had been. It wasn't her way to delve beneath the surface of every person she met. If she did, life would have lost much of its meaning long ago. For now it was enough to know that Clay wasn’t the one for whom she searched, but he was a kindred spirit. Another restless soul looking for its mate.

“It matters not where I go. For now, I am with you and that is as it should be.”

She had answered the question he did not ask.

“I am interested in what it is that you do and what you prefer I call you. My name is Destiny if you should like to know. If you wish, I can direct you to your Waterloo.”

The thought made her smile. Another country, a different time, Waterloo had been a place of great destiny and she had once guided another man there to meet his fate.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

He too was busy studying the road to pay much attention to what she said only that her name was Destiny and that she knew the way to Waterloo.

"My names Clay, he said pushing up on the brim of his hat and rubbing the stubble that had started on his chin, not recalling if she had even asked and then added as it seemed the thing to do. I'm an arti...st..or rather an illustrator I guess never had any training just sort of fell into it. Always scribling when I was a kid. then about a year ago I saw this add, this travel magazine."
He realized that he had left a huge gap in his lifes story but that didn't seem to matter, at least right now. He went on.

" Anyway they wanted some one to draw pictures for their magazine odd places here and there to visit, historical places and such."

He turned to her and grinned I don't rightly know why they want a painting of an old flour mill but thats my job. theres one up ahead here near Waterloo."

"He saw her point to the left. That's it! I think..." he said as he turned on to a two rut road that looked like no one had been down in a hundred years or so.

The road meandered downward into a valley that followed the river. Willow trees lined the banks and a herd of muledeer grazed in an open meadow. they followed the river along for about a mile and there it was just like the letter had said the mill stradding the river. behind the mill the water was pooled up in a shimmering pond and it gathered behind the crude dam that was suposed to guide it throught the gate to the wooden paddlewheel.

The wheel stood idle probably had for many years and the water haphazardly spilled over whereever there was a weak spot in the dam.

The millhouse no doubt an awesome sight in its day ,two stories high and extending beyond the river on both sides was fast decaying away, The roof starting to cave in and the windows and doors broken or missing tall grasss and brush surrounded it giving it an even more abandoned look.

Clay shrugged his shoulders "Must be some mistake he said scratching his face again, but we're here, might as well get to work." He shut th truck off and climebed out into the sunlight.

 

[Honey_B]

She frowned. Decay always upset her. The neglected mill was a testimony to the transient nature of humanity. For Destiny, a human life was a brief as a shooting star, and just as beautiful. She had learned to savor the moments, the connection that two people could make even if they were but strangers. After all, a person's fate often hinged on the briefest of encounters. She watched Clay through the streaked windshield of the truck. He moved with purpose, viewing the mill from different angles. Gone was casual air of the drifter and Clay moved with intensity.

Destiny opened the door and swung her long legs out of the truck. She retrieved her guitar and walked around to where Clay crouched near the river's edge.

"Man's rape of nature. Could you imagine this spot before this rotting hulk straddled the river? I should very much like to see what it is that you paint, Clay.”

He looked up at her.

“Do not allow me to disturb you while you work."

Looking around, Destiny saw a stump of a great oak that had lived for 359 years before it had been cut down. The tree would have been magnificent, having grown tall long before Clay’s people had even dreamed of coming to this land. Destiny sat down and began to play her guitar, picking out chords that echoed the music of the flowing water.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

"Man's rape of nature. Could you imagine this spot before this rotting hulk straddled the river? I should very much like to see what it is that you paint, Clay.”

Her voice was soft, begining with a a melancholy sad lament and ending wistfully. He shrugged his shoulders wanting to tell her he was only an illustrator not an artist, she needed a Leonardo or a Michaelangelo to acomplish what he felt she was asking for, not some broken down old cowboy painter.

Returning to the truck he dug out an easel, a fresh canvas, his palette, a box of chaercoal pencils and tubes of various colored oils. Stuffing a rag in his back pocket he returned to the waters edge and set up facing upstream towards the old mill.

"Sun's not right from here." he muttered as grabbed his gear and headed to where Destiny sat on an old stump. Stepping a few paces beyond her away from the river he set his easel up and looked again at her and the river beyond..

He listened to the sounds flowing from her hands down to the river and back again, watching her slender fingers press out the chords.

Better he thought with her to give the scene some life, The sun catching in her blonde hair. if only.....He grimaced thinking.

"You old fool, just concentrate on that broken down old mill that's what your here for."

And then he chuckled, what in tarnation did they want with a broken down old mill. would anybody in their right mind want to visit this forsaken place. He should have been here a hundred years ago when this place was alive with human activity...no better yet five hundred yeas ago before man even steppped on this virgin soil. When that old stump was still a tree young and vibrant as the girl who sat there was.

Clay paused, his sketching pencil poised in midair having yet to touch the canvas. He'd often wished that he had lived in that time, The renaisance, standing alongside of Botticeli as he painted the Birth of Venus or below Michealangelo painting the ceiling of the Cistine Chappel.

But here, and now as he looked at that decaying old mill he struggled, unable to draw a single line, make a simple mark.

He threw down his pencil and returned to his truck to pull a cold beer out of the cooler. A weak sad apogetic smile on his face, he walked to where Desiny sat and cross legged sat on the ground below her. Looking up seeing the sunlight again in her hair wanting to reach lossen it and and pull it foward to fall around her soft shoulders in front of her.

"Must be the light." he said though he knew it was just an excuse to start something he was afraid of not being able to finish.

 

[Honey_B]

Destiny watched him with her quiet eyes. She felt his frustration as surely as if the emotion ran through her veins. It had been a many lifetimes since she had played the role of muse. Perhaps it was time to take up the cause of inspiration once again. She carefully set down her guitar, leaning it against a young tree. With long strides, she walked over to the truck and got out a beer. Her strong fingers twisted the top and she took a sip as she returned to Clay.

"I hope you do not mind if I helped myself, Clay."

His face flushed and he sputtered in embarrassment over his lack of manners. In answer, she placed her fingers over his lips.

"Please do not worry yourself. You are an artist, as rare to this world as a flawless diamond and infinitely more precious. It is for you and your kind to hold up a mirror to the society in which you live. In doing so, you reflect the essential nature of what they and you are. This has made you sensitive. All those with your calling are and you do not like what you see."

Her eyes left his for a moment to scan their surroundings. Not far from where they say, there was a heap of rusted scrap metal. In between the torn shards of forgotten steel, pushed up a profusion of wild daisies. Destiny got up and walking over, crouching over the quivering flowers. Gently she stroked the velvety petals and murmured forgotten words softly.

"You have beheld a smiling rose
When virgins' hands have drawn
O'er it a cobweb-lawn,
And here, you see, this lily shows,
Tomb'd in a crystal stone,
More fair in this transparent case
Than when it grew alone,
And had but single grace."**

She turned to look at Clay.

"Would these daisies look as beautiful without the ugly contrast. I think not. Perhaps, I could offer my services, Clay. Look here.”

She straightened and walked nearer to the river, standing between Clay, the mill behind her.

“I have served as a model for painters before and would enjoy seeing what you would make of me."

Destiny stood poised, her fingers on the buttons of her shirt, waiting to see if what she offerred inspired.

** "A Lily in a Crystal" Robert Herrick

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

His eyes followed her as her words of praise and encouragement echoed somewhere deep within his mind. Somewhere deep, a place that hadn't been spoken to in a long time began to glow and spread out like ripples on a pond reverberating out and up bringing to the surface that last time.

He had been at a park near a stream much as this one, painting while in his exuberant and imaginative youth. The dragon flies that flitted in the summer air became fairies on his canvas, with gossamer wings and bright eyed smiling faces twittering happily as they dipped naked in and out of the the cooling water.

A child approached him, courious to see what he was doing and seeing the painting clapping her hands in joyfull glee, ran towards it as if she wanted to leap into the scene. He smiled down at her and reached out to keep the child from stumbling and hurting herself. A scream behind him shattered this precious moment as the childs mother shaking her fist at him and grabbing the girl pulled her away.

"You pervert! They outta keep guys like you off the streets."

He cringed and looked away, hearing the childs anguished cry, not so much from the physical pain but from being wrenched from her innocent youth into the harshness of society and its judgements and beliefs.

The glow now rekindled move to his hands, his fingers as he picked up his sketching tool and drew a rough outline framing in the scene before him.

As she smiled and continued to unbutton her shirt one button at a time he watched the sunlight push back the shadows that followed the opening cloth.
It flowed silently over her bare shoulders and lit up the hills and valleys below her neck between her breasts. The last button slipped through its hole and the shirt parted and fluttered to the ground.

Clay caught his breath as sunlight bounced of each pink tipped sphere. She turned to the east to face the sun raising her arms, welcoming its presence against her skin.

Clay set his pencil down and walked quickily towards her. his step direct and sure. At her side while she still worshiped the sun he loosened up her golden hair and bringing a handfull around the front he let it fall over her breasts He did the same with the other side gently arranging it as she turned back to him.

He stepped back and his gaze went to her waist and below down to her bare feet and back up again to her face.

Acknowledging his silent request she unbuttoned her faded jeans. Clays eyes quietly lingered as her jeans slid down her narrow hips and when she turned again to face the sun he saw it thread its light through the soft nest of hair that covered her curved mound. He returned her warm smile as she turned back to him stepping away from the blue puddle of cloth.

He picked up her guitar and handing it to her, motioned toward the stump and then walking backwards as if he were afraid to turn around for fear that she would disappear, moved back to his easel.

 

[Honey_B]

Destiny resumed her seat on the aged stump, the wood worn blissfully smooth by time. Modesty was not part of her make-up and she gloried in the feel of the sun upon her naked skin. She sensed Clay’s tension, his disbelief that this was all real. It touched her, as did his wanting to paint her with her guitar.

The instrument had been her only companion for far longer than Clay had been alive. Music was the only way she revealed her true self, the aching of her ageless heart. She bent her head over the guitar once again, although not so low as to obscure her face from Clay’s view.

When her fingers caressed the strings, it was to play the old folk song that she loved, the tale of the star-crossed lovers. Her voice was as clear as the song of the birds that stilled their own voices so they could listen.

She watched Clay as she sang, watched the muscles beneath his skin move as he began to work. He drew with obstinate grace, knowing exactly what he wanted to do and accomplishing the task with poetry. Such was the artist at work. Standing before her was not the illustrator, the hack that drew cold lines for coin, but the artist who could produce something drawn from his soul. The very idea enflamed Destiny with desire. Emotion ebbed into her voice as she sang, for Destiny loved those who could create beauty.

Clay had ceased to draw. He had stopped altogether and stood looking at her through hooded eyes. Destiny set down her guitar and beckoned to him.

“Come forth, Clay.”

The husky timbre had yet to leave her voice. When he drew near, she pulled him close, wrapping her arms around his neck. Clay’s eyes opened wide with surprise, but Destiny kissed him anyway.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

All was still and silent except for Destinys soulfull voice along with the ageless melodic chords and gentle plucking of strings as she sang and played.

The birds had ceased to sing, the breeze no longer sighed, the river in the background became a motionless ribbon of water, All waited for Clay. For his mind and his memory to picture this moment, to capture it so that in the hours to come he could recall it and transfer it to his canvas. He looked down at his canvas where he had sketched in the framework, contemplating his next move. Taking his palette he squeezed some color from several tubes making little mounds of bright and darkness. Choosing a large brush and adding oil to red and yellow he spread his background wash upon the canvas. A dab of white and he created a golden hue lighter towards the sun and then combining some blue darker near the river and the mill. Pulling from his memory the images he'd captured before as he watched the girl disrobe, he turned to his sketch book and a sharp pencil.

While he waited for his wash to dry he brought to life the curves and hollows, the soft places and firm areas of Destinys body as he had seen them before. On several pages his pencil qiuckly moved in his strong fingers creating in separate images the total essence of her beauty .Later he would transfer this to the canvas. for now he needed to absorb her, pull her deep inside, blend reality with perception combine what he knew of her and what he wanted her to be.

He stopped and stood and then as his mind combined all that he had absorbed, he knew her.

"Come forth, Clay.”

She beckoned him and he moved toward her, as images of natures ageless beauty appeared, a glorious sunset, a wild horse galloping across a fertile prairie a turbulent pool below a thundering waterfall.

She drew him toward her pulling him into her enmbrace bringing to him the reality of her presence and a feeling that he would soon know her much more. Her kiss confirmed that knowledge.

Pulling away no longer surprised but intently concentrated he ran his finger across her lips adding a tactile dimension in his mind His hands cupped her strong face, his thumbs circling her cheeks and then moving backwards to probe the hollow under her earlobes his fingers threading through her hair next to her scalp. He pulled her forward to taste her lips again and catch the sweet salty scent of her arousal. Bringing her naked body against his, he shuddered feeling her breasts through the cloth of his shirt. his trong hands on her shoulders he pushed her away again and watched in anticipation as her slender tan fingers slowly unbuttoned his cambray shirt.

 

[Honey_B]

After opening his shirt, Destiny slipped it from his shoulders. She took a step forward so that the points of her nipples grazed the warmth of his skin. The contact shattered them both. Destiny pulled Clay's mouth down to hers, kissing him, crushing her mouth into his. She reveled in the taste, the texture, the everything that was their kiss. Her tongue sought out the smooth slickness on the interior of his lips and then probed the hidden recesses beneath his tongue. She drew back and brushed her lips across his, moving from side to side, breathing in the imprinted scent of his essence, immersing herself in him.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

He felt swallowed up in the depth and length of her kiss and soon was joining her returning with his own firm yet gentle demand. the melding, merging, meshing of their mouths brought them to a fevered pitch as hands clutched around each others backs and shoulders, waists and butts demanding closeness at each of these points of contact. He felt her breasts grind into his chest a hardness he hadn't expected from what appeared to be soft golden globes of flesh.

He shared his own hardness with her as he arched his hips into her crotch pulling her up and in at the same time with his huge hands surounding the bottoms of her firm rounded butt.

Locked together this way they shared the same breath until shards of crystal light somewhere in the back of Clays mind told him to release her from this eurphoric union.

They shared a downward look as they slowly pulled apart first from the top, their lips and then their chest and breasts. Their stomachs and then their groin and mound, the sunlight chasing the shadows out and away from their bodies as they moved apart. They both looked at the hardened arousal pressing outward against Clays jeans. He felt her hands release him from behind and move around tracing a path to the big buckle on his belt and then sucked in his breath as she slowly unbuckled it.

 

[Honey_B]

Unbuckling his belt, removing his jeans and underclothes - they were both free, released from the fetters of society. In the dappled sunshine, they were a man and a woman standing before each other in the openness of nature, as it had been in the beginning, as it had been for all time. Clay’s body melded into Destiny, her own flesh yielding where his advanced.

Together they fell to the sun-warmed grass. Destiny reclaimed Clay’s mouth as he pulled her to him. Their bodies writhed together, a tangle of limbs, each trying to consume the other. Destiny lost herself completely, giving everything to the moment and to Clay. The ache in her heart eased as she found comfort in his arms.

Her mouth moved from the heat of Clay’s lips to his throat, her tongue dancing over the sensitive skin. The taste of him filled her mind and she breathed in deeply, wanting to suffuse all her senses with the essence that was him. Her hands moved over his body, down his torso, her fingernails trailing lightly over the skin.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

The taste of her mouth left Clay hungering for more and when her mouth left his he began his quest. The quest to taste more of her. His mouth moved down to the hollow of her throat and then across her shoulders. His tongue traced a path around one golden breast and then across the peak to stop for a moment to lap at the rigid nipple.
As his lips parted he drew the bud into his mouth and suckled urgently and then moving to the other breast he repeated this delicious journey.

The salty pungent taste of her skin drew him downward again and as he moved his knees under him his hands circled around her waist and raised her up just as his mouth came down onto her flat stomach, his tongue traced a path across and then downward into the damp golden nest of curls between her thighs. His hands moved downwards again and pushed her thighs apart his fingers splaying outwards. His thumbs moving across the edges of the swollen folds that covered her vagina, parted them.

Clay sucked in the scent of her along with his breath and he held it there for what seemed like an eternity. Releasing his breath he slowly lowered his face and kissed the center of the opening. Rising up again he moved his hands behind her back and scooting his knees under her he slid his hands further up toward her shoulders
Feeling his need to bring her to him, Destiny hooked her arms around his neck and pulled herself into his lap. In one combined movement his hands suported her as she rose up over the tip of his erect shaft, and in the next his fingers from behind her prepared the way as she plunged down.

 

[Honey_B]

And they joined, two becoming one, in a dance that was older than Destiny herself. Her body embraced his as she sank down onto his shaft. Destiny threw her head back and laughed with the sheer delight of the moment.

"Whatever comes, we shall always have this. This perfect moment in time."

Clay's hands moved to her hips as he deprived her of speech with another kiss. While he claimed her mouth, Destiny began to move. By gently rocking forward, she slid up and down on his embedded manhood, her movements small and subtle enouth to madden them both. Clay broke off the kiss.

"You have the power to move me, Clay."

Her small smile gave her hope that he would grasp both meanings of the statement.

 

[prometheus 2]

Clay

Leaning back away from her now his hands having moved from her hips to her breasts cuping them, Clay threw back his head and closed his eyes listening to the echo of her laughter returning from the mountains to the west joining with the babbling of the river and the lightness of the breeze.

He felt her heat both from the inside where his shaft was enveloped in the velvet caress of her supple erotic movement and on the outside against his thighs below and his hands above enclosing the round warm softness of each breast.

So engrosed was he in this sensation that he barely heard her words, the sound alone was enough to tell him of the joy she was experiencing and the wish for them to continue with this timeless dance.

She lowered her head to kiss his hands and her golden hair fell across her shoulders brushing against the backs of Clays hands. He smiled and opening his eyes leaned foward to kiss her softy his hands turning threaded their way up through it and cradling the back of her head as he deepened the kiss searching her mouth again with his tongue arching forwad and up against her sensuous thrusts.

His eyes were closed again, he felt rather than saw a shadow pass over them blocking out the warmth of the sun. He sensed an urgency in the air as well as in his body and ending the kiss pulled her close to him her chin cupped in his shoulder and his face in her flaxen hair.

They felt the earth move at the same time that a flash of lighting lit up the darkened sky. They pulled back startled waiting for the thunder and when it came they moved with it. Raisng up Destiny still on his lap and his shaft deep inside her, Clay leaned forward his hands behind and under her guiding her shoulders to the ground. Her slender legs encircled his waist her ankles locked behind his back. The lightning struck again and Clay saw it reflected in her eyes alng with the wildness of her passion as he filled her with his own.

She clung to him from below her body suspended from his, his hands on her shoulders pulling her against the plunging of his shaft filling her time after time, a storm raging inside of him just as the storm above. Jagged bolts of lightning in the back of his head, his blood thundering in his veins and arteries, his breath coming like blasts of wind. Wanting, needing, seaching for the rain of release. The climax in the eye of the storm.

 

[Honey_B]

The heavens themselves echoed their passion. Destiny’s body ached, every nerve attuned to him, to Clay. As she rose and fell in a steady rhythm, the points of her breasts scraped against his chest, thrilling her and driving her to greater intensity. Her eyes were open and so she was aware of the impending storm. Destiny watched the lightening reflect in Clay’s eyes, his expression revealing the tempest within. She felt the same force building within herself.

The wind lifted her hair, whipping it around her face even as her nails scored his back. Destiny felt Clay’s hands in her swirling hair, gripping, pulling. The pain cut straight through to the center of her being, transforming her pleasure, purifying it, like heat refining steel. Her body pulsated around Clay’s, embracing him, as she drew him into the very core of her.

She poised at the edge of release and them tumbled over. Her voice rang out, a sound as primal as the storm that hovered overhead. In answer, the heavens opened, and a curtain of warm rain began to fall on the lovers.