She refolded the money and stashed it away, not sure what she’d eventually do with it.
***
Linda came out of the terminal building and spotted Jack’s car. She tossed her small suitcase in the back seat and jumped in beside him, giving him a kiss that he’d be sure to remember.
“So, good trip?” he asked.
“Eh,” she said. “Okay, I guess, at least the recruiting part, and I did get to stay in a nice hotel with some good food.”
“I thought you were supposed to stay in student housing.”
“Technically, it was, I suppose. Three of the twelve floors are used for students, but the rest are just a regular hotel with very nice rooms. I doubt the students get rooms like I had.”
“They probably do that on purpose, to get on your good side.”
“Probably so, but hey, are you free this evening?”
“I can be. Why?”
“I’d like to go for a walk in the park,” she said, licking her lips and smiling at him.
“Will a lot of the walking be done laying down?”
“I hope so.”
“This is getting to be kind of fun,” he said. “Maybe we should look for another place to take our walks.”
“Your backyard is pretty dark.”
“Yeah, but if someone switches on the porch light…”
“They might see something, but thinking about that maybe happening would be kind of exciting and might ramp things up a little.”
“Linda, when I’m with you, I don’t need things like that to ‘ramp me up.’ You’re more than enough for me.”
“Too bad you’re driving, or I’d be tickling your tonsils,” she giggled. “But I’ll take a rain check on that for later tonight.”
Though she’d only been gone a couple of days, he was anxious to, well, reconnect with her as it were, even if it meant hiding in the bushes.
“What time?” was his simple question.
“Five o’clock?”
“Linda, it’s still light at five.” These days Jack never knew when she was being serious.
“Chicken?”
If he answered what he knew she wanted him to answer, they’d be having wonderful sex … in the bright sunlight. Chicken described him perfectly.
“Yes. So you lose.”
She looked like she was pouting. “Okay, nine o’clock then. But you better be ready because I missed you.”
“Should I be afraid?”
“Not this time, but one of these days.”
At nine, he was at her house, and they walked to the park, which was not deserted tonight. Linda didn’t seem concerned, despite Jack’s evident anxiety. She simply waited till no one was looking and pulled him around the bushes.
“We’re safe,” she said, chuckling.
Jack wished he could believe her.
“Do we wait till they leave?” he whispered, noticing she already had her top off.
“You chickened out about five o’clock, so you’ve used up your clucks for today,” she whispered back.
“Okay, but you have to be, well, quiet.”
“I don’t know if I’m quiet or loud, the way you take care of me.”
Another ten seconds, and she was naked. It took him thirty to join her, and, It was less than five seconds before her lips had surrounded his erection. Now it was his time to stay quiet. Her mouth seemed to have picked up a magical quality, and he couldn’t believe he was about to come…and could hear people talking and laughing.
She stopped before he did, laid back, and spread her legs. But Jack wasn’t ready for that just yet. He caressed one breast, then sucked the nipple as he loved to do. It felt like she flinched.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“Just tender. That time of the month, I guess.”
He changed his focus, and soon, she was writhing, her hand over her mouth to stifle the sounds, her hips thrusting against his face. As she was coming down from her orgasm, he rolled onto his back, fumbling with the condom.
“Don’t lie on your back,” she whispered. That thing will stick up above the bushes.”
“I wish,” he said, laughing loudly enough he was afraid he might have been heard. He waited but heard nothing. It seemed everyone had left. Jack liked it much better when they were along, although he was sure Linda preferred sneaking and hiding.
As always, sex with Linda was the best, particularly with her murmuring her desires in his ear. “Faster, faster, and harder,” she urged to his immediate response. It and she were more than he could have ever desired.
Walking home, she clung to his arm. “I love you,” she said.
“Love you too, Miss Linda.”
***
Running was going exceptionally well for Linda, and it was showing in the meet results. Her times in both dual meets and invitationals were state meet level, that level now being defined by her results the prior year. She had never lost a race in high school, and Coach Conrad was pushing her, having had her drop down to the 400-meter run in a home dual meet. Of course, he picked the one with Covington High, whose 400-meter runner was last year’s district winner. It was certainly the closest race she’d ever experienced, except for the state meet where she fell, and she won by a bare yard. In the end, she was glad she’d done the improbable and had still been able to win.
Away from the running, things seemed to have settled down considerably, and Jack had only one more park adventure. He wondered whether something had changed or was it just the cold weather. As much as he enjoyed the goosebumps and the rock-hard nipples, it made more sense to find a warmer place. When he’d asked about it the other day, she’d looked a little chagrined that he had asked. Earlier, she’d had two more visits to universities recruiting her, and, although prepared, she was housed in the student dorms, and her roommate in each case was an upper-class runner. So, no chance for a repeat of what had happened on her first trip.
The week before the state meet, Linda had her fourth visit, and the red dress and thong stayed in her dresser drawer at home. She was perplexed about what had happened on that first visit, understanding how she felt then but not understanding why she felt that way. Despite how she was with Jack, who she loved dearly, she was bewildered by what she had done with a complete stranger. Also puzzling was the dichotomy she faced; what she had done being so unlike her, but how intoxicatingly pleasurable it had been. She still had the four hundred dollars tucked away in a drawer and hadn’t decided what to do with it.
But, about two weeks before the state meet, she began to sense that, rather than an answer to her questions, she might be about to create more of them as that feeling of excitement and daring seemed to be returning. She felt more alive and energized and found herself itching to do something daring and audacious, something that pushed the limits, that threatened to put her over the edge.
Jack knew something was up when she asked if he was ready for another “night in the bushes.” He could see the extra sparkle in her eyes, the suggestive postures she sometimes chose, and the kisses he was getting were very different from those he had gotten just a couple of weeks ago.
State-meet Saturday came, and, as expected, Linda overwhelmed her opponents in both the 1600- and 3200-meter runs. Medals around her neck, she went into the stands where her parents received hugs, and Jack got his usual hug and kiss, photographed by the newspaper for Sunday publication. The look he got from Linda told him she wished she could give him a much better kiss, but…