IC 2076
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IC 2076
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Twenty-four hours later and some spectacular views of the sun peeking briefly over the polar horizon later, not to mention some nipple-hardening trips through the frozen hold the head, Al had left Iceland two hours in their wake and was skimming to a landing off the coast of Cornwall.
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As the seaplane taxis up to the dock, Al and Alyce see a small welcoming party waiting for them. Stephanie and Grace are clearly recognizable, but the three men with them are strangers to Al. After Al and the other men tie up the Snakehandler, the ever-efficient Stephanie has the men removing the luggage from the airplane and carrying it to the elevator. She nods at Al and welcomes him to Cliff House then turns to follow the men to the elevator. Grace has been eyeing Alyce since she stepped onto the pier, but she takes the time to give Al a welcome before looking back at her lover.
Alyce puts an arm about the waist of the girl and walks to the elevator.
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There were about five too many people on the dock, as far as Al was concerned. Her place, her ways. None of his business.
He would have told the lackeys to keep their hands off his bags, but he had none. He’d already secured all his working gear aboard the plane, and there it would remain for his short stay. He replied politely enough to the maidservant’s obligatory greeting.
He was happy to see Grace briefly – she was a good kid, and easy on the eyes. They’d had some tolerable times. It was a shame Alyce had turned her into a homosexual, but people made their choices. He really couldn’t criticize, since Alyce’s (formerly?) wanton ways were one of the things about her that charmed – he supposed bewitched would be a better word – him the most. For Grace’s part, she had eyes only for Alyce, which was just fine with Al. When she made the effort to acknowledge him, he took his eyes off her bustline long enough to smile and tip an invisible hat.
Once the elevator doors were closed, he climbed the wooden stairs up the cliffside and headed off up the road to the village. It was only an hour’s walk, and the evening chill was just enough to wake him up after his twenty-four-hour stint in the pilot’s seat. There were only a few B-and-Bs. Alyce would find him easily enough if she still wanted to play at camping.
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Alyce leaves the elevator car and walks with Grace to the house. The comfort of having her lover near her cannot be over emphasized. Stephanie is waiting at the door her expression neutral. “And Al?”
Alyce smiles at her friend. “Al is climbing the stairs. Have preparations been made in the village?”
Stephanie walks to the railing and looks over the edge at the ant-sized man climbing the two hundred foot cliff. Shaking her head, she turns back to her employer. “Yes, Alyce, all that you have requested is in place. Your vehicle will be ready in the morning. We will know which B&B or inn he is at.” She pauses then continues. “Why, Alyce? Can you explain why you allow this man to treat you like you are nothing?”
Alyce holds out an arm and takes Stephanie around the waist before walking into the house through the large doors leading from the observation deck. “That is a question for the ages, Stephanie. The truth is that I think he believes that I am the most important person in the world and the most dangerous to him both at the same time. I have not figured it out and I am waiting for him to tell me. But even if he never tells me, I know. Something is pulling at him, something that he loves or fears or hates and he feels that he cannot talk to me about it, but it does not lessen what he feels about me.”
“But what if you are wrong? What happens to you, then?”
Alyce shrugs. “Then I will have spent years of tears and love trying to show him that I am the woman for him. Not wasted years, mind you, because no time spent on true love is wasted.”
She turns to Grace and smiles before kissing her with a passion that cannot be mistaken. “Now, shall we go inside and celebrate the love that we share?” The young woman in her arms nods and returns the kiss before taking Alyce by the hand and leading her into the house and up the stairs to their shared bedroom, where they both show each other how much in love they are.
In the morning, as Al comes down the stairs from his bedroom, he sees Alyce waiting for him, her coal-black Hell Hound curled up at her feet. The massive hound lifts its head as Al appears and Alyce smiles at the man as she scratches the ears of the dog. “Hey there. I have the vehicle outside, all packed and ready to go. I want to take you for a short drive then hike in to a campsite. I have a large hamper of food and beer in the Land Rover for breakfast, unless you would rather eat in the village.”
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Al shrugged. “Reckon ya packed it. Or some maidservant. Prob’ly oughtta should eat it.”
He did his best to ignore the animal as he moved to the door.
Out on the sidewalk, he patted the small of his back where he kept his knife. “Reckon I got all I really need. An’ I’m guessin’ yer all set up with any other sorts o’ gear ya might want. But if not, we can buy most o’ what you might need at the shop yonder.”
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Alyce shrugs. “I think we have everything we need. Here, have a beer and open the hamper to get us something to eat. We will be at the trail head in about a half hour.”
She starts the Land Rover and puts it in gear, heading out of the village along a dirt track that is far from a road. She handles the vehicle well, holding out a hand to take the fried chicken Al hands her, asking for the legs if available. Most of the food from the hamper is eaten by the time she parks at the trail head. She turns off the Land Rover and gets out, followed by the Hell Hound, and points at the rear of the vehicle. “Packs are there. The hike is only about three miles so we should be there before too long. I have used the spot before and have some firewood cached there, but we are carrying everything else in and back out.”
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“Alrighty, then, lead on, senorita.” He’d seen her clothed and unclothed on dozens of occasions, yet still he wanted her to walk in front so that he’d be able to watch her ass move. Considering that he generally got bored with looking at a given woman after between ten and sixty minutes of viewing, depending on a composite score including marks for athleticism, pulchritude, measurements, and general trashiness, his persistent infatuation with looking at Alyce was lingering evidence of an emotional component – a cause of ongoing alarm and consternation.
The scenery was also breathtaking, and the hike easy. There was a time not so long ago when a walk like this would have left him on the ground coughing after the first half-mile. It had taken him five years to fully recover from his brush with VITAS, and he still was not the physical specimen he’d been when he’d first met Alyce, but his health had bounced back enough that three miles across the Cornwall countryside was a relaxed jaunt.
Arriving at the campsite, he set down the large backpack and for the first time grew curious as to the contents. At the trailhead he’d simply hefted it without asking. But now that it was time to make the camp, he was curious to see what Alyce had brought.
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To many, the moors of Cornwall are desolate patches of bog and brush, but there is a beauty here if one is willing to look beyond the obvious. Alyce will never truly see the wonders of the land, but her sensors and drones give her a good idea of what it looks like. She breathes deeply of the fresh air as she walks in the lead. Alfred stays close to his mistress, not one to be easily distracted by the occasional small animal or bird. Even with a heavy pack on her back, Alyce is easy on the eyes and her ass sways seductively as she walks. Her steps are as sure as they have ever been and it is obvious that she is no stranger to carrying a pack on a hike in the wilderness.
At the campsite, Alyce sends a command to the camouflaged building, turning off the chameleon coating to reveal a small, wooden structure. She points to it as she shrugs out of her pack. “There is some firewood inside the building, along with some emergency supplies and a chemical loo. Other than that, we brought everything out with us. Can you give me a hand with the tent, please? You have half of it on the back of your pack.”
Alyce carefully separates her half of the tent from her own pack and works with Al to get it set up, taking only a few minutes to accomplish the task. Two small packages turn out to be self-inflating air mattresses and she lays them out inside the tent. “We can pull them out into the open if it is a good night, but I brought the tent in case it rains. And it will get a bit chilly out here overnight. She takes a few things from the packs and gets her cooking things set up near the fire pit, which clearly has seen use in the past. Finished, she stands and faces out to the moor, waving an arm at the expanse. “I have found this to be peaceful. I am told that the scenery is beautiful, if you like this sort of thing. I wish that I could see it.” She turns back to face Al. “So, now that I have dragged you out here, what do you wish to do for the remainder of the day? The trail splits here and we can just go on a hike, or we can sit here and be two friends enjoying each other’s company for a bit, letting the horrors and troubles of the world stay out there, somewhere else.”
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Al was at a loss. Of course he knew what he wanted to do. It involved his tongue and the entirety of her body. But that wasn’t allowed. And barring that? He’d spent a lot of time outdoors. All his life. But not because he particularly liked it. At least not for its own sake. He was hunting or otherwise procuring food. Or getting himself or something else from point A to point B. Or hiding out. Or just nowhere else to go.
The idea of being outdoors just to be outdoors – it was like a great chef peeling potatoes just to peel potatoes. Hell, if they’d wanted to keep the horrors and troubles of the world somewhere else, Hawaii had been doing just fine, and with fewer pets and family members and servants.
But he hadn’t come here to be an asshole.
“Bit o’ both, I reckon. Hike a bit more, come back, take a load off. Ol’ Al’s pretty easy in that regard.”
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Alyce smiles. “You only have a couple of days to see how beautiful this place is. I think a short hike is in order. I will set Alfred off to hunt. He likes coming out here and I can turn him loose to do his own thing. After all, you are here to keep me safe, right?”
She goes over to her pack and hefts it up onto her shoulders. “Oooh, that feels better with some of the weight gone. Unless you have a preference, I think that this trail to the left goes through some of the prettier land and there is a nice pond about a mile out that we can use as a marker for turning back.”
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“Toots, you need pertectin’ ’bout as much as I do. An’ ain’t neither one of us needs no pond ta find our way back. But yeah, exit stage left it is.”
Al wasn’t sure what she had the pack for. He left his at the camp. And masked his delight at the departure of the creature.
The hike was pleasant enough, as was the company. It was good and warm by the time they’d reached where Alyce wanted to turn around. He said, “Make ya a deal. I’ll carry yer pack….if’n ya put all yer clothes in it.”
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Alyce totally enjoys the walk. The pace is good and the trail is mostly easy to follow. When she gets to the pond, she shrugs the pack off and sets it down, laughing at Al’s comment. “You have a deal. I thought that we could go swimming here. The pond is fed by a fresh water spring and the water is cool and clear. Will you join me? Oh, and there is cold beer and water in the pack.”
She reaches into the pack and tosses Al a cold bottle of his favorite beer and a bottle opener. Smiling, she strips from her clothes and even this act seems very sensuous as she moves and sways to the tune of some music only she can hear. When finished, she grins at the man she loves and walks down some steps carved into the side of the pond and slips into the water, squealing a bit at the cold. “Frag, it is bloody cold, Al. Come on in and enjoy it with me. It is not a beach in Hawaii, and it is just you and me. No other naked girls to ogle for miles.”
Alyce turns on her back and floats on the water, using her hands to move herself about. The pond is not too big, perhaps thirty feet or so across, but it is large enough for two people.
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“I ain’t sure I git how ‘bloody cold’ conflates with ‘enjoy’. An’ I thought all o’ y’all sharin’ polyamorous types was immune ta jealousy an’ the like.”
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Alyce laughs. “No jealousy here, Al. I could not be me if I were jealous of you looking at other women, or when other women look at you with desire in their eyes. I was just saying that right now, I am the only girl available for you to ogle. And you get used to the cold fairly quickly. Come on in.”
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Al understood the no jealousy thing. It was one of the only things about her that he got. He’d never felt jealous about anyone, even though he knew the expectation was that he should. Even with her, for whom his feelings were unique in his experience, he knew about her sexually adventurous lifestyle and it had never bothered him in the slightest. He didn’t know why that was.
But for right now, if the goal was to see her, he could do that just was well, if not better, from right where he was.
Still, be nice.
He shed his clothes and dove into water.
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Alyce smiles as she plays in the small pond. She has had the water tested several times and it is free of contamination, so they can swim in relative safety. The water is cool after the long hike and it feels good to relax like this. “Damn, Al, I wish that you had more than forty-eight hours to live like this.” She lazily makes her way to the edge of the pond, where she had some steps put in and sits on one, keeping her lower body in the water as she stretches her arms to the sun.
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No matter how you sliced it, she could get his blood up. Traipsing around in her birthday suit in public was one thing, and, truth be told, her studied shamelessness had always gotten him hot. And being here just the two of them, it was a whole different sort of arousal, the heightened possibilities attendant to their isolation adding an immediacy to the constant threat she presented. The cold of the water was losing a battle to the rising heat of his loins.
Fortunately, like an alarm clock with a snooze function you couldn’t shut off, she spoke and provided a reminder of his peril, of the price of weakness., the immaterial but deadly-real cage He inwardly sighed and let it slide.
She went and sat on a step and stretched and that was all it took for him to nearly forget himself again. He thought about monster trucks for a minute until he was in a state that wouldn’t get her too excited, then climbed the steps past her and shook himself like a dog.
Dressing, he said, “Feel free ta luxuriate all ya want – don’t reckon we’s in no hurry. But ol’ Al’s had ’bout enough hippified nudism fer one week.” Once his jeans were on, he stuffed her clothes into the pack. “Not that yer gittin’ these back. Men are fer lookin’, womern fer lookin’ at. That’s how she goes.”
He put a towel and her boots by the pond and found a comfortable place to sit with a beer.
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Alyce puts her arms about herself and hugs tightly, dreaming of what it would be like to have him with his arms about her. Grinning, she throws her arms up in the air and twirls slowly, her feet barely under water on the step. “For looking at? I should hope that you like looking at this.”
She stops twirling and faces Al with her arms outstretched then steps out of the pool, bending over to pick up the towel. If Al has never seen a woman making love to a towel as she dries off, he is in for an amazing show. By the end, the towel is simply a prop as the air has dried her well before she is done. She steps into her boots, not even asking where her clothes are as her sensors had shown her what Al was doing.
Moving to the center of the small camp, she kneels to light the small cook stove and brings her pack to her to begin getting a meal together. Her body tingles in lots of places as his eyes move across her.
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Al dozed off as Alyce cooked.
The first sensation upon regaining consciousness was the incredible smells of her camp cooking. She could do better with a hunting knife and an open flame that a Michelin-starred chef could hope for with the latest kitchen appliances and an army of assistants.
And if that wasn’t a good enough reason to open his eyes, the knowledge that she was going about her womanly duties in the nude made the prospect of sight irresistable. When he did sit up and take a look around, however, he found not one but three nude lovelies. Two he did not recognize.
“Hey Al,” chirped Alyce from where she squatted by the campfire, “You remember Gem, don’t you? And this beauty is Lydia, her unnatural lover.”
“Well pleased ta make yer acquaintaince, one an’ all,” Al answered politely. “I’d stand, but, well….”
“That’s no problem, Al,” answered the slender hottie Alyce had referred to as Gem. “Understandable. But I’ve been waiting so very long to see you again.” She leaned over him and her young breasts swayed as she extended a hand to shake. “To thank you, I mean. Properly.”
The sight of the three of them was arousing enough to make Al forget the chill of the cell’s stone floor. “No thanks necessary, li’l girl. Reckon I’m jist sorry for yer loss.”
“Well, the past is the past,” the girl answered. “And anyway, you saved him a lot of suffering. Not to mention I’m rich now. So let’s get started on the thanking part of the visit….” She stepped over his lap and began to lower herself towards him. “You don’t even have to move, Al. Let me do everything. I really am sorry about the chains, but they’re just for until we finish cementing the cage bars into….”
She didn’t finish her sentence because her lips had found his forehead. They were really warm and he tilted his head to cover her mouth with his. But then it was Alyce he was kissing. She was so perfect, everything about her taste and teel and smell. One scarred hand found the smooth curve of her hip while the other gripped her hair. The other two girls were gone.
And he was dressed.
And there were no chains.
Waking fully, his breath caught and he sprang to his feet in a suffocating panic, knocking Alyce into a heap on the ground.
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The meal prepared, Alyce had thought to simply wake Al with a light kiss to the forehead, not willing to go further on her own than that without an invitation to do so. Al very much surprises her by reaching out with his hands to touch her and by lifting his face to kiss her on the lips. Alyce’s heart leaps for joy at the touch and kiss, losing herself in the love she has for the man. She is about to wrap her arms about his neck when he panics, leaping up and thrusting her backwards, catapulting her into the small camp stove and spilling the meal onto the ground, causing the flame to lick at her right leg before going out as the stove’s auto-off function kicks in.
Alyce cries out in pain and shame as she sprawls on the ground, one hand reaching for the burn on her leg and the other being used to right the small stove. She kneels over the spilled food, trying to save what she can then gives up. Her hair, still wet from the pool falls down over her face and her voice is low. “I am so sorry, Al. I did not mean to make you angry. I should have awakened you in a different manner. It will not happen again. And look, clumsy me has ruined the meal. I will get started on another, but I need to get some water.”
Standing, she picks up a small can she was using for water and makes to leave for the pool, the burn spot a dark red against her skin.
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