“Now, aren’t you glad we came?” Keats handed Hannah a canteen of water; he smiled at her, that lopsided smile that made mirrors in his eyes of his feelings. It was the first thing she had noticed about him, the first thing she missed when she was away.
She smiled at him, taking the canteen and leaning back against the tree. The sun on her outstretched legs and feet freshly bare from her hiking boots easing her mind. Keats took one foot into his lap massaging the toes and kissing the fat pad below them. “If I had known Mother Nature was going to treat me like this, I’d have looked her up a long time ago,” she smiled.
Keats laughed, massaging the other foot, pulling it up to his lips and kissing her ankle. “Well she’s always been real good to me.”
He was in his element. She watched him straighten himself to his full 5’10 height, stretch his arms over his head and turn towards the water of the stream. Hannah had not been camping since she was 18, that was seven years ago. Her life was spent busy in a suit at the office. Her new wilderness came with pantyhose, heels, and a cell phone.
Keats….he had been a pleasant surprise. He was an EMT who spent the majority of his time outside. Hiking, biking, and especially rowing. Anything that would get him outside and using his hands. You could tell by the way his bronzed skin glowed and the ropy form of his muscles shaped by his passions.
Following him along the mountain stream all day had been a task for Hannah. She was not the outdoors type. When he proposed the trip she had had to hit the army surplus for camping supplies and spend a month walking around her backyard in the bulky boots to break them in. She hadn’t wanted to go. Her idea of a weekend away involved satin sheets and room service. However, watching Keats stripping off his shirt standing thigh high in the stream made her forget room service. He was wringing water out of his shirt over his head making streams trickle off his back. The criss-crossing of muscles deflected the water to different places. You couldn’t do that at the Hilton, she mused. The sun was warm, the view was great, and Hannah fell asleep.
She smelled smoke. When her eyes flew open, the sky was a pink haze of afternoon. Keats had a fire going near her napping roost at the tree. He had made camp as she dozed. She watched him shifting coals to make room for a mess kit pot. He was wearing his wrung out flannel shirt open showing the faint dust of gold chest hair. He was crouched on his heels watching the sun go down.
Hannah sat up, “you’ve been busy.” She smiled at him and stretched her stiff muscles.
Keats smiled at her; “I wanted everything to be perfect.”
Hannah blushed. They had been together for six months. Almost inseparable, however they had never been intamate. Keats wanted to go slow and believed in taking time in this area. Hanna had been embarrassed when he expressed his desire to wait to her months ago. She had never been a fast girl, but her attraction to him had been so strong she’d have slept with him on the first date. The wait had been torture for her. She felt herself tingling just thinking about it.
Keats' smile turned into a thoughtful stare. “You are beautiful when you sleep. I’ve been watching you.” His eyes were growing dark in the flames.
Hannah smiled at him she moved to his side her long legs making her only a little shorter than him. “You should have woke me up, not let me be so lazy.”
Keats reached out a hand to her cheek, stroking the lose strand of brown hair then placing it behind her ear. It was long hair when down, but she kept it up most of the time. He couldn’t wait to pull it down and hold his hands in the long waves.
He had been waiting a long time. His thumb rubbed across her full lips, so soft and he looked down at the long lashes covering her blue eyes. He knew he couldn’t wait much longer. “Like I said,” his voice shook a little, he found himself nervous, “I wanted things perfect. You needed your rest.”