Three sessions of campers had come and gone now, and the impending end of the current session had Rey practically counting the hours until Wednesday evening. Rey had plenty to distract her from his absence in the intervening days, but every time she was not teaching, riding, or eating, her thoughts turned to him.

It was hard not to fidget through the afternoon craft session, and she stood frequently under the pretense of stretching to gaze out the window in the direction of the trailhead from which his group would inevitably emerge. The humidity lay thick in the valley and it was very hazy this afternoon.

"Aren't you being a little obvious?" Jessika whispered to her at the prep table where they stood, cutting more lengths of yarn for Popsicle-stick dream catchers. "You don't want to get caught."

Rey scowled across the table at her friend. "I can't look out the window? Maybe I want to see what the weather's like."

"Well, you know there's a 100-percent chance of your camp boyfriend coming out of woods and heading to the shower in the next hour, so there's no need to keep checking," Jessika replied. "What's the forecast for you actually fucking him this weekend?"

"Language!" Rey said out loud, causing several of the girls to turn from their crafting to stare at them.

Jessika smirked at her. "Pretty good, I'd say."

Rey rolled her eyes. "I just want it to be the right time," she hedged.

"Well, we only have a few more sessions to go, and it's not like he's around on the reg," Jessika pointed out unnecessarily. "I think the right time would be… any time you're together."

Rey walked away from the craft table without comment, depositing a fat handful of multi-colored yarn on the table. The girls dove eagerly for it, oblivious to her glancing out the window once more.

Her heart leapt to see a straggling line of boys emerging from the woods, trudging under the weight of their hiking packs. They straightened up one by one as they came in sight of the main camp, and finally, Kylo broke into the grassy clearing.

Rey bit her lips as she watched his long legs make short work of the green despite being loaded down with his own pack and carrying two of the boys' as well. The boys found their second wind and started racing towards their cabin, and he steadily brought up the rear, his strides lengthening to keep up with them.

She sat restlessly at the folding table and helped a few of the campers tie off their work. She looked at Jessika pleadingly, and her friend merely rolled her eyes.

"You know, Rey," Jessika remarked, "It looks like rain. Did we close the windows in the cabin this morning?"

Rey was halfway to the door before she thought to reply, "You're right, we left them open, didn't we? I'll make sure they're closed - see you guys at dinner!"

There were only four showers in the staff bathhouse - two for each gender, but the building was an identical four-by-four cube of stalls with a privacy fence on either side. Each stall had a dressing-room separated by a shower curtain from the actual shower stall, and it was here that Rey hid to talk to him as he washed away ten days' worth of bug spray, mud and sweat. She hugged her knees to her chest as she perched on the bench so her feet were not visible from the outside.

It was his shampoo that smelled good, she had discovered, and she waited until his eyes were closed and his back to her rinsing his hair to steal a glance at him. She could not resist drawing the curtain slightly to one side and peeking in.

Rey could feel her heartbeat between her legs as her eyes slid over the planes of his broad back, following the flow of the soap suds down the channel of his spine and into the cleft of his beautiful ass. She let the curtain slip back and rested her head back against the wood, gazing up at the cobwebs collected in the corner of the roofline, under the eaves. She wasn't sure if it was his nearness or his nudity that caused her breathing to stutter.

"Oh, hey kid," his voice echoed slightly in the bathhouse. "I didn't hear you come in."

She smiled and rested her chin on her knees. "Welcome back."

He peeked out modestly at the top of the curtain. "How's things been?"

She told him all the things she could think of, from Hux's newest ridiculous pair of embroidered shorts to Jessika falling off her skittish horse on a trail ride, to her own bruised foot from a pony stomping on it, to the campers' astute observation that the corpulent head cook, Unkar Plutt, always wore the exact same outfit. They speculated whether he had ten identical smelly outfits, or wore the same one repeatedly.

Rey felt like she was babbling, and was wondering how long he was going to bathe.

The water finally stopped running, and Kylo drew the curtain aside to reach for his towel. She glanced at him a split second before he was able to clutch it to his groin, and her cheeks burned to see he had a hard-on.

"Did you bring me anything?" she asked coyly, careful to look up at his face. She shifted to sitting Indian-style so that he could come closer.

"I brought you some wood," Kylo whispered hoarsely, slinging his damp towel around his neck. He drew close to her and she didn't hesitate to take him in her mouth.

She was distantly aware of the shrieks of campers running towards the mess hall for dinner, the steady drip-drip-drip of water seeping into the drain, and a rumble of thunder over the nearby hills, but she closed her eyes and wrapped her hand around the base of his cock and let him thrust against her eager tongue. He tasted like the slightly rusty water and she could still smell his shampoo lingering on the scant, dark trail of hair just under her nose.

It didn't take long before he leaned over her and steadied himself with his palm splayed out above her head, cupping the base of her skull and bucking his hips against her face.

When he came, she swallowed him down and gave his head a swipe with her tongue for good measure.

"Thank you," he rasped, releasing her head. "I owe you."

Rey leaned back against the stall and wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb. "I have to take care of one of the ponies tonight after dinner," she said pointedly. "If you want to keep me company?"

He turned away to draw on his pants, which Rey found endearingly chaste considering she'd just sucked him off.

"Of course I'll keep you company," he replied after he zipped his fly. "I wouldn't leave you alone with one of those assholes."

"Do you want to go away with me this weekend?" he asked as they were standing over Oreo's abscessed hoof.

The pony was being cantankerous, refusing to keep his foot in the shallow pan of water and Epsom salts. Kylo was holding his lead rope the way one might hold a dirty diaper: between his thumb and forefinger, at arm's length from his body. Oreo's body language mirrored Kylo's: he kept jerking his head up and back, swiveling his ears backwards and even managed to get his lips on Kylo's forearm once in preparation for a sneaky nip before Rey had slapped his neck.

She didn't answer immediately, under the guise of grasping the pony's fetlock and replacing his hoof once more in the pan. Many of the counselors retreated to town over the Friday and Saturday evenings they had free every other week, before the next batch of campers arrived. They would pool their meager funds, split a cheap hotel room, and fill the bathtub with bags of ice and lousy booze. Details of what happened before they came crawling back to camp on Sunday morning were usually hazy at best.

Rey had declined Jessika's invites so far, preferring to stay behind and enjoy the solitude of the empty camp.

And, she stayed because he stayed.

There was less likelihood of them being caught together with the others away, and they managed to fill their precious free hours with repeat trips to the boathouse, trysts in the woods, and rendezvous on a blanket under the stars.

There had been plenty of chances for them to have sex already.

One of them always stopped it before it went that far, though. From her side, Rey was growing weary at their holding pattern. She had been relieved that it was he who had pushed her gently away the first time, but her lust was beginning to take on a frustrated edge now that he might be toying with her.

"To town?" she asked, avoiding his eyes by picking up Oreo's hoof and examining the foul-smelling spot in careful detail. The pony swished his tail rancorously, but held still for her attentions.

"No," Kylo said in a tone that made it clear what he thought of the town trips. "I meant on a hiking trip."

Rey wrinkled her nose, imagining them in a tent. She hated actual camping for reasons she didn't care to explain. "Would we sleep outside, or….?"

"Well," he hesitated. Clearly that had been his original plan. "There's a cabin about four miles out. We use it with the campers if it's been raining and it's too wet to sleep in tents. We could go out there?"

A cabin. This was better.

"It's nothing fancy," Kylo continued as though she had already rejected the idea. "But it has a sort-of toilet and we can cook inside."

A cabin also had beds. Rey swallowed nervously and poked her thumb at the soft pock mark.

"You don't have to come," Kylo sounded crestfallen now. "I mean, I'd like your company, but I'm not going to kidnap you."

Rey replaced Oreo's hoof once more to continue soaking before she straightened up and turned back to face him. He was threading the excess lead rope through his off-hand nervously.

"I'd like that," she smiled. "When shall we leave?"

Rey tossed and turned on Thursday night in her bunk until Jessika finally whispered, "Rey, are you sick? You're shaking the whole bunk."

"I'm sorry, I can't sleep," Rey sighed, folding back the top of her blanket to her waist. She was too warm, then too cold as her sweaty skin cooled in the night air. It was nearly midnight and the moon shone brightly outside.

"It's alright," Jess sighed too. "Are you nervous?"

Rey shrugged. She had told Jessika about their plan and immediately regretted it.

"It's okay if you are," Jess continued. "I would be."

Rey paused. "Why?"

"It's just… nervewracking," Jess said, and Rey could hear how she was trying to keep her tone light. "It's weird the first time with anyone. You have to figure each other out."

"Sure," Rey agreed.

They were quiet for a bit, listening to the crickets singing, before her friend continued.

"You packed condoms, right?"

"Jess!" Rey scrunched her eyes closed. "You were standing right there as I put them in my backpack!"

"Okay, okay!" her roommate giggled a little. "Just be safe, alright? And… try to enjoy yourself."

Rey glared at the underside of the mattress until she heard Jessika's breathing become deeper.

They set out separately at 4PM on Friday, and met at a spur in the trail over a mile from Camp Obikenobi. The campers had been picked up hours before, and their fellow counselors had vacated camp almost as soon as the last Volvo station wagon disappeared over the sandy hump towards the main road.

Rey followed him mostly in silence, keeping her head down to avoid stumbling over tree roots and side-stepping the wild blackberry vines that threatened to grab her shirt. They paused occasionally as he pointed out landmarks along the way, but they reached the lodge by 5:30.

To call the place rustic would have been generous, Rey silently mused as she turned around in the great room, a dimly-lit collection of rag-tag couches and chairs. Kylo had gone outside to open the valve on the propane tank so that they could use the stove, and to turn on the water heater to warm the tank of collected rainwater that supplied the bathroom.

They had both placed their backpacks inside the door of the bedroom without a word.

After dinner, they sat outside on the porch in the Adirondack chairs well past sunset, until Rey's bare legs became fodder for what felt like every mosquito this side of the Hudson.

"My legs are going to be covered in bites," she complained as they shut the screen door.

"What are those spotted horses called?" he asked as they settled onto the sagging couch. The lamp was to his left, and he didn't bother turning it on. "You'll look like one of those."

"Appaloosas?" she asked. "They're American, aren't they?"

Kylo shrugged and stretched overhead. His shirt stretched with him and a strip of his stomach appeared above his jeans. "Beats me. You're the Pony Club president."

She studied his profile in the dark and it was on the tip of her tongue. She was kneeling beside him.

"So," she started. "Are we just going to sit here in the dark, or….?"

He shrugged again. "You're welcome to turn the lamp on if you want."

She huffed at his laziness and reached across his lap, balancing on all fours on the squishy cushions. She strained and had almost reached the pullcord of the lamp with her fingertips when he playfully slapped her upturned bottom.

She froze, her arm outstretched in the dark.

It stung, and she could feel the outline of where his fingers had connected with her rear. She glanced back at him over her shoulder and said, "Have I been bad, then?" Her voice sounded hoarse.

"I don't know, have you?" His deep voice was soft.

She knew he was giving her an out. Slowly, she straightened up from her crouch, her hands braced on his thigh. His expression was impossible to read in the darkness.

"Yes," she whispered. "I've been very naughty."

He drew and held his breath for a moment before he replied.

"Take off your pants." It wasn't a request, and Rey felt the heat begin to pool immediately between her legs as she thumbed the button of her shorts.

She pushed the material down her thighs to her knees, and knelt over his lap once more. His palm was warm and heavy on the back of her neck as he forced her down onto her elbows. His fingers trailed up the backs of her bare thighs and she shivered when they reached the stinging spot. He stroked the mark through her underwear before grasping them by the waistband and dragging them down her thighs as well.

Rey breathed shallowly, open-mouthed, her eyes fluttering closed. This was not how she pictured this evening unfolding.

The second blow hit her where her left buttock cleaved into her thigh, and she whimpered with delight as he massaged the tender spot before running his thumb along the soft flesh in the cleft of her rear. She shuddered as his hand came to rest over her heat between her legs, pressing the flat of his palm to her wet nether lips. She arched back against the pressure, shifting from side to side on her knees to grind against him.

"You are very naughty," Kylo repeated, withdrawing his hand from her and wiping her juices on the back of her calf. He shifted under her and she knew his pants were probably feeling tight. She wanted to touch him, but he hadn't removed his hand from her neck to allow her to move.

Rey moaned in frustration, earning her another stinging slap layered over the first. She clawed at the couch cushions, then bit the heel of her hand when he grabbed the tender flesh and squeezed, his fingertips digging into her muscle. Again he palmed her aching sex and she longed for him to slip one of his thick fingers inside her.

The thought of it made her clench and she muttered against her hand, "Oh, please, fuck me, Daddy!"

His hand stilled instantly between her legs, and her eyes popped open.

"What did you just say," Kylo asked. He removed his hands from her and she immediately straightened up, her thighs trembling slightly.

"I…. uh," she stammered, pulling her panties back up over her smarting bottom. "I'm sorry, I just got carried away."

He stood abruptly and went to the door. "Maybe you should go to bed, Rey," he said without looking at her.

"No, Kylo-wait!" She took two steps after him, but he was already out the door and walking away into the night.

She lay awake for what felt like hours, waiting for him.

After he'd gone, she had taken off her clothes and lay cocooned in the sheets, thinking he would come in to her. Her whole body felt like a raw nerve, and the slightest brush of her skin was an aching reminder of how close they'd been to… At first she'd wondered if this wasn't part of the game, making her wait this way, but the longer she'd laid alone, the more ashamed she became of herself.

She refused to allow herself to finish what they'd started alone.

She dozed off without realizing it, and woke to the sound of rain drumming on the roof of the cabin. She rolled over and saw in a flash of lightening that he was standing at the foot of the bed, taking off his shirt. His hair looked wet from what she could see.

They were miles from any artificial light, and the cabin was nearly pitch black inside save for the storm. She felt the bed shift as he crawled up beside her, then a draft of cool air against her body as he slid beneath the sheet.

"Hey, Scavenger," he whispered as his lips found hers. "I'm sorry about that earlier. I was being stupid."

She carded her fingers through his damp hair and she drew close to him. "It's fine."

She felt boneless as he pressed her back to the sheet and lay over her, nuzzling her neck and kneading her breasts softly with his palm. She felt under the pillowcase beneath her head for the foil wrapper she'd planted there earlier.

He took it from her without a word, kneeling between her knees and rolling it on without argument. When he settled back over her, he went still.

"Are you... is this okay?" he whispered against her neck. "You're shaking."

"It's fine," Rey cupped her hand to his cheek. "It's just not my favorite… this way."

She was grateful for the dark so that she could not see his reaction. Truthfully, she normally would've done almost anything to avoid being on her back like this, but there was something soothing about his bulk over her. She hooked her ankles behind his hips and arched her back so that their bellies touched.

"What do you like better?" he asked as he sucked her earlobe. The tip of his cock was tracing indecently between her folds as he undulated against her.

"I like to lie on my stomach," she admitted. "Or be on my knees."

Kylo hummed and said, "Well, we have all night."

Rey scrunched her eyes closed and turned her head to the side. It wasn't that it didn't feel good this way- she sucked a sharp breath as he slipped inside her- it was just unrelentingly intimate in a way that Rey had never felt about anyone. She found it hard to come looking at another person, like it divorced her from what she was feeling in her own body.

What she felt right now, though, was full . She knew he was not small, but her cunt felt stretched in a way she'd never felt before. She was plenty wet, but she hitched her legs higher to make it easier for him. He slid into her until his pelvis bumped against hers, and she bit her lip to keep from saying anything else stupid.

"Rey," he rasped in her ear, "I want you to come."

"It's ok," she shook her head without opening her eyes. "It still feels good."

"No," he grabbed her hand from his shoulder insistently. "I mean, touch yourself." He threaded their hands between their bodies. "Make yourself come like a good girl."

Her eyes snapped open and she breathed hard through her open mouth. No one had ever commanded her to take her pleasure while they were fucking her. She found the spot with her first two fingers and whimpered to feel the nubbin slide away from the pressure.

"That's right," Kylo growled in her ear, picking up his pace. "Don't make me spank you again."

Rey rubbed at herself with abandon and her eyes rolled back in her head to feel how the cotton sheets abraded her bottom as he drove her hips into the bed. She pictured of them on the couch again with his hand between her legs, how badly she still craved that release, and it pushed her over the edge.

She writhed beneath him, rubbing and rubbing until he came too with a hoarse cry, bucking his hips hard against her.

She rolled onto her stomach when he left the bed momentarily, stretching to her full length before curling onto her side. He lay behind her when he returned, rubbing absently at the side of her hip.

When she woke again, she was overly warm and realized she was tucked against the inferno of his body. The storm had abated and there was a fresh, sweet humidity to the night air. It was still well dark but Rey thought she could detect a shift in the color of the sky through the window above the bed.

He moved his arm where it draped heavily over her waist, and she knew he was awake, too. His cock pressed against the soft curve of her buttocks.

She wondered how long he'd been awake.

Turning face-down, she looked back at him and ventured a small smile. "Hey there."

"Hey," he replied, smoothing his hand over her back and down her thighs. It made her shiver, and she hid her face in her arms when she saw how his expression darkened then.

She pushed up onto all fours for a moment, arranging a pillow under her hipbones. Settling back onto her front, she simply said, "Please?"

If she'd been asked to explain it, she would've said being fucked like this was the only way she could let herself feel it. Not her emotions- she meant she noticed all her other senses save for sight in a way that she couldn't when she had to look at her partner.

It was the way it sounded when his breathing stuttered in her ear. The soft, rhythmic cadence of the bedsprings squeaking beneath them.

How his fingers tasted when she sucked the ones nearest her face and how she could smell herself on his palm. He could've been anyone, really, but she was furiously aware of his unmistakable scent surrounding her.

The feeling of a cool spot of sheet against her cheek as she gazed listlessly through the curtain of her hair at his forearm planted near her shoulder, contrasted with the hot press of his hard thighs against the softness of her inner legs.

"Say it, Rey, " he whispered into the shell of her ear. "Say it."

Her face twisted with ecstasy and she convulsed under him, his weight keeping her from moving as much as she wanted to.

"Yes, fuck," she hissed, "Oh, yes, fuck me, don't stop!"

He groaned too then, forcing her flat against the pillow and thrusting so hard she could feel him in her stomach. She bucked her hips in time with his, and she did not slow until he did, smoothing his hand over her cheek to push her hair back.

When he did finally pull back from her, he knelt on all fours over her and slowly kissed his way down her spine. She shivered when his mouth reached the triangle at the top of the cleft of her buttocks and his tongue darted out to taste the sweat that had formed here.

"Thank you," he whispered, tucked the sheet up around her body and got up.

The sun was well up by the time she awoke, and she found him lounging on the deck with a cup of coffee and a cigarette in need of ashing languishing in an empty sterno can.

"Hey," he said, glancing over his shoulder at her. "Did you get some sleep?"

"A little," she replied. She had lain in bed dozing, but the stillness of the cabin had tipped her off that he was no longer inside.

He nodded and picked up the cigarette, delicately tapping the ash from it before taking a drag and offering it to her.

"I didn't know you smoked," Rey commented, taking it and inhaling much more deeply than he had.

"I don't," he grinned. "Not any more, anyway. I just found that pack here - I think one of the campers stashed it."

"Sneaky," Rey blew a cloud of smoke up towards the eaves.

They were quiet for a moment before Kylo said, "Rey, I'm sorry about last night, how I freaked out on you. It had nothing to do with you."

Rey only raised one eyebrow. "Didn't it?"

"No, you just… surprised me with that," he shook his head. "I didn't expect it, and it dredged up some… stuff about my dad. You were fine, I was wrong to criticize you for it."

Rey took another drag on the cigarette without comment before handing it back to him. He had mentioned before that he didn't get along with his parents, especially when he was younger.

"It's fine," she said. "Really."

He narrowed his eyes, gauging her reaction, and turned his coffee mug in a circle. "C'mere, sweetheart," he said, extending one hand to her with a small smile.

She stiffened immediately, folding in on herself. "Don't you ever call me that," she gritted out.

His hand dropped lamely to his thigh and he looked rightfully confused. "Jesus, Rey, I was joking."

"I wasn't in Pony Club," she told him flatly. "It was an equine therapy program for juvenile delinquents. After my parents died, I was in an orphanage." He looked up at her, his expression sliding from confusion to surprise. "But, I ran away with a… a boy. We lived on the street for awhile, until he got picked up for selling drugs. That's why I hate camping. Anyway, after we were separated, I had.. anger issues. They elected to try the horse therapy program first before incarceration."

"But…" he shook his head and she could tell he was trying to figure out what she was telling him. "But how did you live? What did you do for money?"

Rey cocked her head at him and rolled her eyes a touch. You know .

"How old were you?"

She looked away. "Not old enough for that."

"Oh," he leaned forwards and rested his elbows on his knees, his fingers laced loosely together. "Oh."

She could tell by his tone that understanding was beginning to set in. Rey scrubbed one bare foot over the other and waited for him to say something else.

Kylo stared at her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Which bit?" Rey hugged her elbows and shrugged. "I don't want you to pity me. And I thought we were just having fun, so…. It was a long time ago, what happened to me. Almost like it happened to someone else, instead of me."

"So are we…?" Kylo asked. "Just having fun?"

"I am," Rey replied lightly. "Aren't you?"

He steepled his fingers together before he said tentatively, "Of course I am. I also… thought you might be looking for something… more."

Rey dropped her chin to her chest and bit her lips. "But… you live in New York," she said weakly, her heart beating too quickly. "I live in Colorado."

"I know," Kylo looked at his hands. "Sorry, maybe I misunderstood," he glanced up at her. "Maybe we want something different from this."

"That's not true," she whispered. "I can't stop thinking about you," she admitted. "It makes me sick when I think about the end of the summer."

He stood and walked over to her, placing his hands on the porch railing on either side of her. "Okay," he nodded. "We don't have to decide anything right now."

She wound her arms around his neck and huffed as he picked her up. She hitched her legs around his waist so that he could carry her inside and curl around her under the sheet once more.