Trust

With a sigh I put my phone on the table then slump back and bury my face in my hands. When Mei returns a moment later I slap my hands down and force a smile as I try to maintain the fiction that what I’d just dealt with was normal parental concern.

With a self deprecating laugh I say. “Dad was so angry. I mean, I guess I would be too if I got a call from halfway across the country from a sheriff telling me my kid was in prison. But geez, he really…” Whatever I was about to say is forgotten as Mei hikes up her dress a few inches and steps across my legs to straddle my knees. She pauses a moment, looming over me as she stared down into my eyes. “Um…”

Without warning…she sits on my knees! Through the denim of my jeans I can feel her soft, ample ass cheek meld around the shape of my knees, her weight keeping them parted as they’d been, and the subtle leg bands of her panties. Arranging her skirt so it sat just so she settles in as if I were just another piece of furniture. Again she pauses, studying me as if waiting for my reaction. After the initial shock wears off a slow grin spreads across my face. She does that ‘smiling with her eyes’ thing I was fast growing to adore then without a word takes some alcohol and a swab and begins to clean my knuckles and face.

“Ssss!” I hiss and pull my hand away as the stinging antiseptic hits one of the open abrasions on the knuckles of my right hand. Her hand snaps out as quick as a rattler to grab my wrist and slap my arm back down on the arm of the chair. Once more I look stunned, once more a smile blooms.

Glancing to my grin just for a moment she continues to clean up my wounds. Her touch is firm, efficient but never cruel. “Sit still. It’ll only sting for a second.”

“Easy for you to say.”

After the alcohol she applies a bit of antibiotic ointment then bandages them as best she can. As she does she says. “It’s good when they yell.”

“What?”

She looks at me and repeats. “Parents. It’s good when they yell.” She returns to treating my hands. “It’s when they stop that you know that things are bad.”

“That’s…one way of looking at it.” I say, not entirely comfortable with this topic but wanting to keep her talking.

“It means they still care.” She says bluntly, as if stating a simple fact though it was clear the true meaning went far deeper.

“I never thought about it that way.” I say softly.

She pats my right hand, silently announcing it was done, then turns to the left. Taking my hand in hers she inspects it and notes the reddened knuckles. Without warning she presses her thumb into the worst of the swelling!

“AH!”

“Anything broken?”

“No!” I say. “Or at least there wasn’t before.” I rub my hand. “Geez.”

“Such a whiner.” She states flatly, though the gleam in her eyes tells me she was teasing. She grabs my wrists and plants them back on the arms of the chair. GOD! I just loved how she handled me, like I was one of her antiques she was repairing. I don’t know why but it was incredibly attractive. I was thankful for the bunched fabric across my lap to hide my growing arousal. Putting my hand back down she pushes my chest, pinning me against the back of the chair, and leans over me to closely inspect my face. “Not so bad.”

“Some might even say roguishly handsome.”

She smirks, a genuine smirk, and my heart sings. What at first I mistook for cool indifference I was swiftly learning was simply a fascinating subtlety. Mei could be happy or frightened or amused or overwhelmed just like everybody else. Mei might not wear her emotions on her sleeve like I did but they were there for a keen eye to see. Like the beauty of the prairie landscape around us her feelings came out in muted shades and soft gradients, not in the more in your face mountains and valleys I was used to with women. Though subtle, the feelings were REAL and it was that honesty that made them so beautiful. She wasn’t cold at all. She was guarded. And it only enthralled me more.

Taking off her glasses and placing them on the table she works up close, so close I can feel her breath wash over my face, and dabs a few spots with alcohol. Her large breasts press into my chest and her heat warms me as her orange blossom perfume fills my senses. Beneath her my body slowly relaxes as that old yearning to have a woman to take control rages inside of me. For the first time in my life I am not disappointed.

Gazing up into her eyes, as dark the night sky behind her, I whisper. “You are so…”

“Weird?” She finishes my statement as if she’d heard it a hundred times before, taking the assumed the insult like water off a duck’s back.

“Different.” I correct her. “In a good way.”

This stays her hand a moment as her gaze meets mine. For second, one magical instant, I feel something…connect. A light flares to life inside of me, one I never even knew was there. As quick as the soul touching gaze started it is gone again as she returns her attention to my face.

“All good.” She pinches my cheek in an almost maternal way then gives it a pat. “Could have been worse.”

She sits up tall again and puts the supplies away, making no move to leave her perch upon my knees. Slipping her glasses back on she crosses her arms and peers down at me, as if trying to solve a puzzle.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Deciding what I want to do with you now.”

“Oh?”

“I haven’t been on many dates but it’s my understanding that a man has certain expectations.” She says as if it were a great burden. “Kissing and all that nonsense.”

Again my smile grows, I couldn’t have stopped it if I tried. “So you admit it was a date?”

“Clearly.” She says, then with that deadpan humor she delivered so flawlessly adds. “And you were…” She stops, trying to find the words. “…annoyingly tolerable.”

“High praise.”

“More than you deserve.” She says with a playfulness most would mistake for arrogance. “Protecting my honor like some stereotypical Southern gentleman? So dumb.”

“It was, wasn’t it.” I remain absolutely still, delighting in the way she was looking at me like she owned both me and this moment.

“You are entirely too proud of yourself.” She pokes my chest. “As if acting like a brute impresses anybody.”

With a bat of my eyes I quip. “Seems to be working for me so far.”

She laughs, a real honest to goodness laugh, then with an exasperated sigh she groans. “Once Marigold hears about the fight she’ll be sizing us up for wedding rings.”

“I met her today.”

Rolling her eyes she says with a sniff. “I know that, grandpa.”

“Ha!”

Growing more serious she says. “Nobody’s really stood up for me like that. Not since Grace.” Mei falls silent a moment then shakes her head before the mood could become too heavy. “You were so stupid! Fighting two guys at once. One twice your size. For a girl you barely know. Not even a girlfriend, just some girl who barely even likes you.” A blush was now coloring her cheeks. “You don’t even know me. You’re so stupid.” My dad had called me stupid more times than I could count, but he never said it like Mei. With Mei is sounded like a badge of honor.

Holding her gaze and continuing to smile I say with a pleading softness to my voice. “Stupid enough to get a kiss?”

Her dark eyes flash with amusement. Tapping my lips with the tip of her index finger she says. “Like I said, I haven’t decided what I want to do with you yet.”

My blood running hot as hopes soar. “You expect me just to sit here as you have your wicked way with me?”

After a beat she says. “That is exactly what you’re going to do, if you want to stay.”

“Do I get a say in what happens?”

“Mm.” Pressing me harder back into the chair she says. “You could overpower me and run away I suppose.”

My heart quickening I say. “Not likely.”

With a delightfully wicked smirk she says. “No. Not likely.” Her hands press against my pecs and lightly grip them. I watch as her lips part, her breath quickens, her nostrils subtly flare and her eyes widen ever so slightly. I was well tuned on picking up the signs of a horny woman and I was seeing them now. But there was something different in Mei’s hungry gaze. Something more forceful, aggressive, needy, almost…masculine. She licks her plump lips then swallows. “You kept my secret about what happened on the bridge.”

I blink at the sudden non sequitur. “It was nobody’s business.”

“No. It wasn’t.” She says. “Yet people around here are always talking about other people’s business. But you’re not from here. You’re…different.” A tiny grin curls at the edge of her lips. “In a good way.” Leaning closer, coming right up so her soft cheek brushed mine, she whispers. “I have another secret, Dusty. A big secret almost nobody knows.” Her fingers dig into my chest as her body trembles. An internal war was waging inside of her, the guarded virgin versus lustful desire. She then asks, more to herself then to me. “But can I trust you?”