That Summer (by Garth Brooks)... Switched Up!

I was driving down the lonely highway when a group fields met my eye. The drive had been lonely expect my companion in the back seat. I decided to roll down the windows to catch a brief scent of the dry grass. Once the air entered my nasal pathways, my mind was lost in memories of only eight years ago.

I went to work for HIM that summer
A teenage kid so far from home
HE was a lonely widowed man
Hell-bent to make it on HIS own
We were a thousand miles from nowhere
Wheat fields as far as I could see
Both needing something from each other
Not knowing yet what that might be.

I was eighteen. Fresh out of high school and off to start my life. The only problem was that I was broke and didn't have a stable home. I stayed in foster care since my parents and grandparents died when I was eight. Long had I wanted a home that wasn't filled with strangers and insignificant fools who, once they had their own children, gave the baggage away back to the government. I was never viewed more as a burden or a meaningless body. That should take a toll on someone's heart, right?... well, not mine.

At least until that summer...

I needed money and I needed it fast. I saw an ad in the paper for someone to take care of the barns for a summer home. In one of my many houses, there was a barn where I learned to manage the horses and rely on myself to get the outdoor chores completed. I also needed to clear my head before I was off to go to school on scholarship. I needed to find a piece of myself. I prayed that it would be on that farm.

The first day of summer, I got in a cab and made my way to the middle of no where. No other neighbors were within five miles of this house. Horses ran wild and there were chickens by the doorstep.

Suddenly a man came into my sight that took my breath away. He was tall, the strongest man I had ever seen. His face had lines of age that traced a history of hurt and experience. But it was his eyes that captured the missing beat my heart gave away. They were the bluest of blue that even the sky couldn't compare. He began to walk toward me and clutched onto my bag. He smirked at me and said, "Im Elliot Stabler."

I nodded and replied, "I know. Its a pleasure to meet you."

He smiled and as he was about to lead me into the house, the clip that resided in my hair fell out and sliced his hand. "Shit," he mumbled sucking the blood hoping to stop the release.

"Are you okay? Im sorry," I said trying to step close to him.

"It's fine," he growled turning away from me. "Just get inside and I'll show you your room."

I swallowed and followed him knowing this was going to be a long summer.

'Til HE came to me one evening
Hot cup of coffee and a smile
In a SUIT that I was certain
HE hadn't worn in quite a while
There was a difference in HIS laughter
There was a softness in HIS eyes
And on the air there was a hunger
Even a GIRL could recognize.

It had been two months since that day. Elliot would leave in the morning and come home late at night. It was a great place for me to catch my head and see what I wanted to do with my life. It was riding horses in the day that let my heart be at peace. Being with them was all I ever wanted to do.

Being alone brought me to a new fact about myself... I hated it. I hated and feared the idea of being alone. I was also prideful and that would always overrule my fear. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy my alone time. It was the fact that I could look at myself in five and ten years and still see myself alone, without anyone to share my life with. That horrified me.

One day on the farm, one horse lost control and I was knocked to the ground. I hit my shoulder hard and I felt it swelling. I decided to call it a day in the middle of the afternoon and moved into the house for some coffee and a nap on the couch.

It wasn't until I felt his warm hand on my face that I realized I had fallen asleep. I opened my eyes and smiled, blushing slightly, and said, "What time is it?"

"It's about eight o'clock. I just came in." I took a look at his appearance and couldn't help but find him absolutely breathtaking. He was in a nicer suit than usual and his tie was relaxed.

I began to moved but moaned when the pain in my shoulder revealed itself. "Hey," he said studying the bruise. "What happened to you?"

"Buck clobbered me when I was lost in thought. My bad," I said looking into his concerned eyes. "Don't worry. I should be fine."

"Okay," Elliot said moving into the kitchen. He came back with a cup of coffee and flashed me a smile that made my knees weak. Luckily I was sitting down, or I would have fallen over right there. He moved beside me and whispered, "What do you do while Im working in the city?"

"Well," I say, trying to maintain composure, "I wake up, eat the food you make me. Shower up and get dress and make my way to the field. From there I work and think and then its night and I make my way in here and make us dinner. Unless you call, of course, and I just make myself dinner."

He smirked and said, "Yeah, nothing beats city life, right?"

I laugh and say sarcastically, "Oh yeah, its the greatest."

He laughs an takes my hand in his. Soon there is a brief moment of silence and I stare at our conjoined hands together. Each of these hands have seen times of hardship and strife, but intertwined, they look beautiful.

He whispers my name and I turn my head to meet his eyes. I knew what was coming when I stared at his beautiful lips and met his eyes once more. I nodded in permission and our lips met. It was like heaven and the air around us was slowly becoming dense with passion and longing.

HE had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightning from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Raging in a lover's eyes
HE had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burning bright
Rushing headlong in the wind
Out where only dreams have been
Burning both ends of the night.

The kiss didn't stop as I felt my tongue prodding its way to enter the crease of his lips. His hold on me tightened as our control was quickly at a loss. His mouth found its way to the column of my neck and I released noises from my body that I never knew that I could make. My heart was beating faster as our movements became more frantic. I was hungry. I was happy. I was afraid. I was loving. There were too many emotions on this couch to place with just one word. I placed a halting hand on his chest and he stared at me with his longing blues eyes. We were both suffering from loneliness and if we could find comfort in one another for just one night, that would be okay. I kissed him hungrily and he lifted me up into his strong muscular arms as he whisked me away into his bedroom, kicking down the door along the way.

That summer wind was all around me
Nothing between us but the night
When I told HIM that I'd never
HE softly whispered that's alright
And then I watched HIS hands of leather
Turn to velvet in a touch
There's never been another summer
When I have ever loved as much.

I had never been in this room before. Though now wasn't the time to study the room and its life written in the wooden walls, I saw that the window was open with the warm summer wind blowing through the room.

We were standing in front of each other and his skilled hands found their way under my shirt. I stopped him and met his eyes. I quietly whispered, "I've never done this before."

He stared into my eyes and kissed my forehead down to my neck, licked his way across my collar bone and met my other ear. He whispered, "Im going to make love to you tonight." He stopped and looked deep into my eyes and whispered, "If you'll let me."

I sighed and pulled his body to mine, my lips attacking his face as if I would never taste it again. He had extinguished my fear and I was left a victim of his love and experience. Tonight was going to fulfill needs within both our hearts and souls. Tonight I was going to make love to Elliot Stabler.

He had laid me down on the bed and his hungry look of desire feasted on my form. I moaned in anticipation and he smirked in brief satisfaction. He straddled my body and used his teeth to unbutton the plastic buttons of my blouse. With a smooth removal, I was beneath him, clad in only my blue jeans. I had taken my bra off after the fall because the wires caused too much pain. He smiled and bent his head down to capture my breasts with his mouth and hands. The warmth growing in my lower stomach was burning me alive. I released a deep and heavy moan as his tongue sucked on my harden nipple and his hand continued to massage it with great care.

My animal instincts took over as the need for skin invaded my senses. My shaky and inexperience hands found their way to his shirt and began to remove it from his body. The body I uncovered was more than any fantasy I could have imagined. His torso was made of the finest muscle imaginable and hair danced across his chest with dignity and purpose. There was a tattoo on his left arm that caught my interest, but the proximity of my lips and his chest took my attention, as I made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Soon, my lips found his again and we began rolling around in the sheets, both of us still clad in our pants. After a while of our tongue's mating call, his body traveled down my body until it found the button of my jeans. He looked up at me for a sign or a nod of approval and I gave it to him with no questions asked. He smiled as he slipped off my jeans and lacy thong, leaving myself completely bare in his presence. He lifted my leg and feasted on my flesh as moans of passion and pleasure were being released from my body. My hand found its way to his head and I petted his head and tugged on his pointy ears. My toes of my spread leg found his cock and carefully began stroking him. He moaned hungrily and placed a bite mark on my inner thigh. I bucked up to him as he came closer to my center. He looked up at me for one moment before feasting on my lower lips. His tongue invaded my vagina and I was lost in a haze. I bucked up to him as I felt my orgasm about to erupt. As if he sensed my thoughts, his tongue exited my vagina and he tugged at my tongue with his teeth. I screamed loudly as I came, with my legs encircling around his neck, sucking up the warm liquid I released. He was smiling as he made sticky kisses up my torso and found my lips once again.

HE had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightning from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Raging in each other's eyes
We had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burning bright
Rushing headlong in the wind
Now where only dreams have been
Burning both ends of the night.

He was kissing me and I tasted myself inside him. It was the most surreal moment I had ever experienced. Within moments, I knew I needed him inside me. I began playing with his belt buckle until it was released and I could successfully removed his slacks from his muscular hips. As I fingered the waistband of his boxers, he moaned loudly and I smiled in satisfaction. I removed them quickly and was met with his erect penis. He was beautiful. "You're an amazing man," I told him as I licked my way up his neck and to his lips.

He smiled and held me close to him. I felt him upon my thigh and I moaned in delight and anticipation. He looked down at me and whispered, "Are you ready?"

I nodded and kissed him deeply. He thrust into me and I almost lost myself with one movement. "Hold on," he whispered to me and I willed myself not to come right there. "Follow me," he said as he began to make love to me in slow, long strides.

Our passions were being released this night. I wanted to give him something to hold on to for the rest of his life because I knew that I would always remember this. I kissed my way to his ear and whispered, "Ride me, El. Ride me like the wind."

With that, he heatedly captured my lips and thrust into me harder and faster. With every movement, I was more and more lost in my love for him. He was perfect and I couldn't begin to describe the blessing he gave me.

Harder.

Faster.

Harder.

Faster.

That was his pattern until I burst. I screamed, "Elliot!" as my fingernails raked along his back, with my hips locked behind his back.

He looked down at me and moaned my name as he was losing control. "I can't hold on," he moaned as my fluids met the blockade his hardened dick provided.

"Then don't," I moaned as I urged him to orgasm within me. I kissed him deeply and he screamed my name. Our liquids were mixing within my body and it was the most comforting sensation I had ever felt. With the rolling of the bed and the moans we shared, we both tried to hide from the moonlight and stay lost within each other.

As our rush came to an end, he exited from within me and held me close to him. I kissed up his neck until he fell asleep. I considered leaving the bed to go to my own room, but he put me in a strong hold to keep me there beside him. I kissed him quickly before going to sleep myself... feeling the safest I had ever felt in my whole life.

Unfortunately for me, when I woke up the next morning, I was naked and alone.

I often think about that summer
The sweat, the moonlight, and the lace
And I have rarely held another
When I haven't seen HIS face
And every time I pass a wheat field
And watch it dancing with the wind
Although I know it isn't real
I just can't help but feel
HIS hungry arms again

That case the following morning that sent him away kept him away for two weeks. I had left a week later. We never spoke of the encounter until we packed our things to leave this summer retreat.

He touched my face and looked deep into my eyes and whispered, "Will I ever see you again?"

I sighed sadly and met his eyes, not knowing a tear fell down my cheek. I whispered, "I don't know, El. I just don't know."

He leaned down and kissed me softly. The taxi came and I separated from him. I whispered, "Find love, Elliot. You are a wonderful man who deserves someone to love you."

He nodded and whispered, "You too. You deserve someone to love you the way I loved you. I still love you."

I shook my head and opened the taxi door as I was about to leave. "No, no it wasn't love. When you find it, Elliot, you will know." It was then I got in my car and left that farm, turning my head to look at the first love of my love leave my life... but this time, I was leaving happiness.

Now I sit in my car, driving with the windows down, smelling the wheat in the air and remembering my favorite summer eight years ago. I had kept in contact with Elliot for a short time after that summer. He found love again, with his partner of ten years, Olivia Benson. I remember meeting her once and I remembered her beauty. I only wish him happiness.

It was my little seven year old companion in the back seat who interrupted my thoughts. "Mama, where are we?"

I look back in my rear view mirror and look at my dark haired blue eyed son and smile, "Honey, don't you remember we are looking for that horse today?"

"Oh yeah! Mama, what's that horse's name going to be called again?"

I smiled as I whisper to him, "Elliot, honey. Elliot."

HE had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightning from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Raging in a lover's eyes
HE had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burning bright
Rushing headlong in the wind
Now where only dreams have been
Burning both ends of the night.

Rushing headlong in the wind Now where only dreams have been
Burnin' both ends of the night