Woman Seeking Man

Alex had been a bridesmaid at the wedding, squeezed into a taffy-colored gown that did nothing to hide the swell of her hips. All the women in her family were bottom-heavy, but that suited Alex fine. A little more mass in the ass to shake on the dance floor later. As if she dared anyone to come along and slap it.

Someone did.

Rory was a cousin of the bride, there to represent his side of the family. A little younger, a little taller, with a roguish glint in his eye as the DJ switched to some party favorite from the late nineties. Alex's auburn hard had fallen in her face as she bent over and twerked, and then Rory had bumped into her...and before they knew it, they were in the grind, her butt rubbed against his crotch...and the bride's mother in law had shot them an evil look as the pair of them staggered off the dance floor and toward the bar.

When it came time to catch the bouquet, Alex had missed it...but only because she and Rory had been in a supply closet, her dress hiked up around her hips, Rory's face buried between her thighs. It was, Rory would say later, the last time he would come to a wedding without a condom in his wallet. She had never met a man so utterly willing—one might say dedicated—to cunnilingus, and when they returned to the reception, it was arm in arm and very definitely, determinedly, together.

They had lived for a while in texts, telephone calls, emails. Their first formal date was decidedly informal, dinner at Rory's house...or more precisely, the house he was building. He owned the land and the trailer of it, had the foundation poured, and now put up the frame himself. They had dinner in the skeleton of what would be the dining room, and Rory had walked her through the living room, library, kitchen, bedroom...and they had first made love there, in two sleeping bags zipped up together on an air mattress, beneath the stars.

One day, when it was done, Alex thought he'd ask her to move in with him. For now, he was at Rory's apartment almost more than he was at his own trailer...and Alex didn't mind that at all. She liked to have him around, to ask him questions, pick his brain on things. As much as she admired his daring, she loved his keen intellect...