Chapter Three: How About Calculus?
A small meal and two chocolate malts later, Kara turned the wheels of her pickup into a dirt lot in front of a small office. Behind it sat row upon row of different varieties of apple trees as far as the eye could see.
Sawyer's Family Apple Orchard was a bit larger than what Lena had expected. The orchard itself spanned about fifteen acres and backed up to a winding creek— which she was told was waist deep in some parts and shallower in others.
Kara turned her hips slightly as the pickup continued an idle to gaze at Lena, who was staring full on in amazement at the expanse of fruit filled trees. Her mouth held agape and eyes wide sans their sunglasses now.
"What do you think? Kara asked, brimming with a small amount pride.
"Well. I can say without a shred of doubt that I've never seen so many apples in my entire life. How many are there? Do you know?" Lena replied inquisitively.
Kara puffed her lips and blew through them exaggeratedly. "Do I know how many…" The blonde chuckled and then wriggled uncomfortably. "No, actually, I don't." She deadpanned defeatedly, her comical and confident façade dropping away as quickly as it had appeared. "But uh, there's about fifteen acres and up to three hundred trees on each of 'em, though some have less to make room for the hayride trail through the middle there." She finished with a nod of her head.
"You mean to tell me that there are almost forty-five hundred apple trees in front of us right now?" Lena said, astonished.
Kara paused and squinted her eyes at the raven-haired woman sitting next to her. If Lena hadn't still been so enthralled by the sight in front of her, she would have witnessed the crinkled lines between Kara's eyes that appear from time to time.
"Interesting." Kara took a deep breath in through her nose. "Would you by chance know how many square feet there are in that many acres?" The blonde asked as she cocked her head to the side, leaning an elbow over the steering wheel.
Lena dropped her gaze to the dashboard for a moment as if staring right through it. "Six hundred, fifty-three thousand and four hundred." She replied nonchalantly and lifted her eyeline back to the trees.
"Woah." Kara exclaimed. "Okay. How about calculus, you do that too?"
Lena laughed and turned her head to look at Kara. She then bit the corner of her red painted bottom lip and half-lidded her eyes. "Do you really want to sit in here all evening and do maths?" She asked.
Kara's cheeks suddenly flared red as she loosed a laugh with the full measure of her chest. "Not really. I uh- I actually thought I'd show you my favorite spot when we got here. Wanna see?"
Lena hummed with her excitement and nodded. Tossing the shift lever back into drive, Kara drove them down a narrow path through rows of trees. After a minute or so, the blonde spun the crank for her window and stuck her elbow out comfortably. Lena found that her eyes snapped to Kara's arms nearly every time they moved. They were like worked clay stretched over a frame that she was oh so desperate to climb again.
A little while later, a small clearing ahead appeared to their left and Kara turned the wheel full tilt into it. She then shifted the pickup into reverse and backed up a few feet towards a lone tree before throwing the truck into park again.
"A'right, come see." Kara said, swinging her legs out of her door. Lena followed her around to the bed and set her eyes upon a tire swing that hung from a low branch on the tree that stood before them. The sound of calm running water was somewhere in the distance, but she couldn't see from where. Kara stretched out an arm, placing a palm flat upon the scaly bark of the tree and leaned against it. She smiled at the swing as if she were greeting an old friend.
"I planted her here when I was a kid. But she um—" Kara stopped, pulling her lips into her mouth. "She's never made any fruit. Not once."
Lena was melting, and the sun certainly wasn't to blame.
"Why not?" Lena asked and strode over to the suspended tire, placing her legs through one at the time.
Kara shrugged her shoulders a bit and stepped closer. "She should have by now, plenty of times over. But…" A sigh then. "It's like she's waitin'? Not sure what the hell for, though."
Lena craned her head back with curiosity. The blonde looked somber, as if she longed to give a piece of herself to a tree of all things, just so it would bear fruit as it was meant to. Kara gave her another push before she shook her head to free herself of her forlorn sentiments for the poor apple tree.
"I'm actually terrified every year when she loses her leaves that she'll just… up and die on me. I come here a lot in the spring when they flower just to stare at her and make sure." Kara scrunched her nose and then gave Lena another push. "That's silly, isn't it?"
Lena hugged the top of the tire and leaned her head all the way back, letting her silky, raven-colored hair fall in a straight curtain behind her. Kara grew closer as she swung back toward her.
"No." Lena replied, shaking her head a bit with her long hair following in gentle wafts. "You care about something. That's never silly." Lena's truthful words brought a smile back to Kara's face then, and she was glad for it. For some strange reason it unseated the strings of Lena's heart whenever the other woman didn't smile. Like it went against her very nature. Lena decided that she'd try to make her do as much of it as possible while she was in town.
What could it hurt?
"Tell me about your truck, though. Very masculine… I like it." Lena lifted herself up to hug the tire again. "Does everyone here have one?" She asked as her back came floating back toward the blonde again.
She was teasing the blonde, which was so unlike herself to do. Her interactions with people back home were almost strictly limited to business related ventures, and if she were being honest with herself, that left little time for friends. Her main source of enjoyment was books. Lena loved to read. But now, not only did her face seem to be stuck in a permanent smile since getting herself stranded in this little town and meeting Kara, but she realized just how easy it was to be playful. Like it was always a part of her, just waiting to come out. Warm memories of her childhood playing in the garden with her mother came rushing back. It felt like reuniting with a younger version of herself. She wasn't some ice queen with hard expressions and no sense of humor like numerous people in her adult life had led her to believe. Kara had made her feel safe.
What if she's some sort of demi-goddess who's bound herself in mortal form to spurn fate? This would be a good place to hide from destiny, for sure.
Kara huffed out a laugh from her chest, bringing Lena back to reality from yet another momentary daydream. "Darlin', nobody has a truck like mine." She teased, giving Lena another push in the swing. "Sure, the belt comes flying off every once in a while, and the a/c only works when you don't need it to..." Kara's voice trailed off and Lena wished that she could bathe in it. Every time the blonde spoke it was like being wrapped in sticky, sweet honey.
The tire stopped abruptly, and Lena was spun to face the blonde who gripped it on either side. A smile donned her face as she leaned forward and crossed her arms, laying them on the tread in front of Lena's eyes. Her chin floated down and rest there upon one of the thick swells of her brachioradialis muscle, a small hill that lay across the thick trunk of her forearm. Lena couldn't help but to bite the corner of her lip in a veiled attempt to hide her grinning like an idiot.
Lena was suddenly very thankful that Kara had decided to wear a sleeveless shirt that afternoon. It hugged her torso perfectly and the sheared seams where the sleeves used to sit stretched magnificently over her round deltoids. The front of its hem was shoved behind an oval-shaped brass belt buckle, and her denim blue jeans were starched and bootcut in style. When Kara drew the tire with Lena in it closer, her tan biceps rose along her humeri like girthy, braided ropes when pulled taut. Lena was also very thankful that she had not been standing at that moment. She simply could not trust her knees around this woman.
Kara quickly leaned in and stole a kiss from Lena's lips. A small, surprised breath of a gasp escaped the raven-haired woman when Kara suddenly let go of the swing, letting her drift away. Appearing to be pleased with herself, the blonde lifted her gorgeous sculpted arms to pull her golden hair into a high pony.
"Want to walk to the crick?" Kara said as she dropped her arms, hitting her T's again sharply with the tip of her tongue.
Still a bit flushed and at a loss for words, Lena nodded her chin and tried her best to hide a smile. She was failing miserably, and the blonde could tell. She climbed out of the tire swing, and they began a comfortable, meandering walk under the trees. Lena could hear the moving water grow closer as they continued walking and talking. She admired the lazy little creek with its slow trickle over rounded stone as they stopped to sit upon some smooth rocks at its edge. They talked more about the orchard at first as well as the town. When asked, Lena spoke about her marketing company she built from the ground up. Kara apparently found it fascinating.
The blonde's charming side effortlessly danced around any topic that would sour the mood, as it was common southern etiquette when maintaining polite conversation. She was good at it, too. In fact, she was good at a great many things. "—a lot of little things fairly well, anyway." Kara admitted.
"A Jill of all trades, huh?" Lena admired.
Kara cocked her head and then leaned back on her arm. "Thought it was Jack?"
Lena shrugged. "If that's what you prefer."
Kara hummed and seemed to enjoy rolling the thought around in her head. "But still a master of none, I suppose."
The raven-haired woman shook her head quickly and placed a hand over the one of Kara's that was palm down on the rock beside her hip. "You know, there's always a part of that saying that people seem to forget. I'm not sure why either, it's the most important."
"That's not the whole thing?"
Lena shook her head again, this time with a proud smile. "No. You're going to love it though."
Kara sat up then, dusting her hands on the thighs of her tight jeans. "Okay then, hit me with it."
"Alright." Lena said, clearing her throat. "A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but still oftentimes better than a master of one."
"Huh." Kara tossed her eyebrows in amusement. "I reckon you're right; I do like that."
"See?" Lena smiled. "A bit less unflattering when you say the whole thing."
Kara seemed to be trapped by Lena's gaze for a moment before turning her head back toward the orange glow of the setting sun. They had spent so much time smiling and laughing into the evening that neither of them seemed to notice how much time had passed.
Kara drew her boots in and then stood, offering a hand down toward Lena to join her. "We're losing daylight now so we should head back to the truck. Getting' lost out here in the dark ain't always good, but I know the way." She said with a wink.
Lena accepted Kara's hand and pulled in a quick, unprepared gasp of a breath with how strong the blonde pulled her to her feet. A pressure built deep in her lower abdomen, and she felt quite like begging to be handled like that again. Kara hadn't been hasty to let go of her either now that she was standing, and Lena found herself admiring the hand that held her own once again. She deeply appreciated each and every scar that peppered the tops of her knuckles, down to the round tips of each finger. It was clear Kara worked with her hands for a living, and she suddenly wanted them on her, grabbing at her, holding her down…
Lena laced their fingers together, hoping Kara would at the very least be agreeable to hold her hand for just a while longer.
The glimmer of waning sunlight peeked through the thick crown of Kara's apple tree in small, glancing rays and fell upon Lena's skin with the remnants of its warm glow. The approaching evening gloam set a fire beneath her; Lena needed but one more chance of a kiss before she went back to her life. Back to reality.
An achingly slow step brought her forward and her breath caught in her throat as she dared to place a hand on Kara's chest just beneath her prominent clavicles. To her relief, one of Kara's hands found its way to lay across her own. A subtle heat from Kara's palm radiated into the backs of her knuckles.
"Thank you." Lena said.
Kara paused and then replied, "You're welcome."
With that, Lena couldn't stand another moment of not feeling Kara's lips against her own, so she leaned upward onto her toes and kissed her. The blonde's bones seemed to jolt in her perfectly proportioned frame for a second, but then she melted right into her. The full extent of an exhaled breath through Kara's nose danced across Lena's cheekbone, and Lena gave an audible sigh against those soft lips.
Am I an absolute fool for the way that she breathes…?
Yes. Yes, I am.
Lena pulled away after another moment, drawing their lips apart with a quiet -smack-. Their eyes met once more. The hand still placed upon Kara's chest began to push gently, and Kara took a step backwards to keep from falling. Lena leaned into her momentum and continued to walk Kara backwards until the blonde's back met the tree with a quiet huff of another breath. Their lips returned to one another's with a patient and unhurried desire.
They kissed slowly for what felt like hours, enough for Lena to map the feeling of Kara's lips against her own in a treasured memory that she hoped would last a lifetime. If this was the last time that she'd have them on her, Lena would permanently commit every swipe of tongue, every suckle, and every noise they made to as many neurons in her brain as possible.
Kara seemed to have no qualms with this.
The blonde pulled at Lena by the hips, earning a small, muted moan that rose from the depths of her belly. They weren't stopping, and Lena didn't mind one bit. Her hands slid from Kara's collarbones to her arms, squeezing here and there. Her thumb followed the shallow inside of Kara's elbow. They wandered further and fell to a wall of rigid muscle. Quite like a washboard, Kara's abdomen was chiseled in a way that Lena did not expect. Her fingers curled into the taller woman's shirt, seeking to pull it free from the waist of her jeans. Lena then paused for a moment, giving Kara the space to decline.
She didn't.
A small, dainty hand splayed flat against the skin of Kara's stomach, and Lena stowed a shudder from traveling upward along her spine. She could feel the creases and ridges above Kara's navel around each cube of hard muscle as well as the smaller ones that lay beneath it. They grew into a tighter V-shape as her hand continued to travel downward.
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about last night…" Lena muttered against Kara's lips as she sank her fingers behind Kara's brown leather belt, pulling at her slightly.
"Me either." Kara replied, her voice ringing with quiet urgency. The blonde then moved her hands down and around the back of Lena's thighs, and the next thing Lena knew her feet had left the ground. A slight squeak fell from her lips. A familiar position… snippets of the night before began to flash behind Lena's eyes in quick succession.
The tree grew in distance as Kara walked them back toward the truck.
-clunk-
-snap-
Lena felt the tailgate beneath her catch her weight, and Kara followed her down with another feverish kiss. A whine spilled into the blonde's mouth as small hands flew around broad shoulders. Lena noticed how hanging from Kara's frame yet again was just as terrifying and exciting as the first time. Down, down, down they went until Lena's shoulder blades felt the smooth surface of the truck's bed.
Kara balanced herself over Lena in a plank, supporting herself on her knees and the heels of her hands. A fist balled itself into the front of her shirt again, pulling, begging. Their chests heaved with heavy, excited breaths. Their eyes met again, and Kara's right hand flitted down to the top band of Lena's leggings, pausing for a short moment. Lena couldn't nod her head fast enough with a "yes". She was too busy trying hard to keep her legs from shaking where they wrapped around Kara's hips, still slightly sore from how they had been put to work the night before. It was almost a familiar feeling from her equestrian team days during her time at boarding school. It had been years since Lena rode, though, Kara was built like a fucking Clydesdale.
Her leggings came down and over her ass with one firm pull, making Lena suck her bottom lip into her mouth. She groaned lowly with an approving tone. Kara backed away from her just long enough to take long pulls at the laces of each of Lena's sneakers and tugged them off at the heels, sending them falling to the ground. Her panties, shirt, and bra followed in a flurry of arms and hands. Kara's shirt was over her head and thrown with them as soon as she could lean upright.
There she was, not an inch of creamy skin unblessed by a Texas sun. She wore a tight black sport top with a Nike check mark. Of course… Lena remarked inwardly.
"Fuck- you are so sexy." Lena barely rasped the words out, her throat suddenly parched like the flat, dry earth.
Kara leaned down and kissed Lena's jaw just beneath her ear, and then began to trail smaller kisses down her swan-like neck. "I feel like I could die if I don't find out what you taste like." The blonde whispered hotly onto her skin. Lena was completely naked under a cloudy maroon sky, writhing in the bed of another woman's truck… And to her, it was heaven. Or some other place where gods of old rest.
"Oh- I want more than anything for you to live." Lena replied, nearly breathless.
With one last kiss just above Lena's navel, she felt Kara's strong hands grab and pull at her thighs again, bringing her to the edge of the tailgate. Shakily, Lena lifted her head and peered down the length of her body. Her legs rest on a pair of shoulders where a blonde head of hair pressed hot and wet, open-mouthed kisses on them, closer and closer and closer…
The flat of Kara's tongue ran from Lena's entrance up through her folds and over her throbbing clit in one long, agonizingly slow swipe. Lena's body responded like the touchy joystick of P-51 Mustang, nearly sending her into a tailspin each time Kara's lips and tongue made another pass. The blonde was relentless, circling her and dipping her tongue deep inside. Lena was loud. She knew it was highly unlikely that anyone else was around to hear, so she granted her voice the freedom it begged of her. After several more passes of her tongue, Kara's hands ran smoothly over Lena's torso and up to her breasts where they squeezed, making the raven-haired woman arch her back with a severe curve.
"Ahh- you're gonna make me cum—" Lena's voice rang with surprise. Her orgasm had built quickly, much more than that of the night before.
Lena smacked a palm onto the cool metal of the bed to ground herself, and her other came down to grasp the back of Kara's head as it bobbed up and down between her legs. Higher and higher the pressure continued to rapidly build until suddenly her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her toes curled all at once. Beyond her control, Lena's legs did their level best to come together at their knees while she rolled her hips into the mouth lapping at her below. The blonde, pleased to no end, moaned her satisfaction with each wave.
Lena thought it would never end. Then again, she didn't want it to.
Once she was able to, Lena relaxed enough to release Kara's head from between her thighs and propped herself up with a hand on the bed behind her. With deep, shaky breaths and her heart thudding loudly in her ears, Lena watched as Kara stood and leaned over her. It was easy letting Kara fall into her like this. Everywhere they touched each other they seemed to fit.
Kara leaned forward and whispered into the shell of her ear, "Delicious." Then she bobbed to place a small kiss at the corner of Lena's mouth.
The raven-haired woman huffed in astonishment as she brought a hand up to swipe the remaining wetness from Kara's chin with her thumb and forefinger, and then sucked each of them into her mouth. The heat between them was like being split open wide like a chestnut. She'd never been devoured like that before, and Lena marveled for a moment at how Kara was so careful of her strength, but still knew just how much to exert and at all the right times.
Kara's forehead came forward and rested on the suprasternal notch at the base of Lena's neck where she panted proud, shallow breaths until the sound of a -pop- from her belt buckle coming loose broke the silence between them. Kara's body racked from crown to heel with a shiver. Then with a hard swallow, she fussed Lena's hands at her belt out of the way and yanked it like the ripcord of a chainsaw. Lena moaned. The slapping of leather as it was pulled quickly through each loop on Kara's denim jeans made her eyelids flutter heavy with want again.
"I want to fuck you so badly…" Lena admitted, licking her lips.
Kara was up and in the bed of the truck again in a flash. She kissed Lena hungrily, sending her downward to lay flat on her back again. After everything, there was no way on earth Lena could leave town without having Kara come undone against her, on top of her, or in whatever way she wanted.
"Do whatever you want, however you need to do it." Lena whispered against the blonde's lips.
Kara whimpered. The sound of it was quiet, but absolutely unmistakable. Kara's masseter muscles on either side of her jaw rose and fell every time she repeatedly clenched her teeth. She was considering it. Lena wanted more than anything for this woman to take a leap and allow herself to be satisfied in what she assumed was a way that she had been unable to with anyone else. So far. There was something just beneath the surface with Kara that told her this was the case. Lena would give her that space to act on it. She wanted it, and Kara obviously needed it.
After a heavy pause, Kara nodded. "Okay."
The blonde shifted on top of her slightly to toe off each of her boots and then sat up to pop the button on her jeans. She pulled her legs through one at a time and then fell forward again, catching herself with her hands on either side of Lena's hands. The feeling of Kara's warmed skin against her own felt incredible. She was so soft.
Kara rocked her hips once, pressing herself against Lena's center. A hard shudder ran through her shoulders then, and she came down to her elbows with a huff. Lena understood perfectly.
This… yes.
Maybe Kara hadn't been able to articulate or explain what it was that she wanted during sex before. Lena knew that it wasn't exactly easy to just come out and say things sometimes, especially if you didn't know the person very well. She thought to try and help Kara to get there at least by reaching for the boy shorts that lay just beyond her fingertips…
"It's okay… I want it. I want you."
Kara sighed a breath of relief into Lena's neck as she let her underwear come down over the curve of her ass and pulled a leg through. Though the blonde was unable to bring herself to look Lena in the face, the way her body melted from head to toe said everything and more. Lena had found the hidden path to Kara's undoing.
A knee slipped between her legs then, and a second later Kara's thigh where it met her hip pressed hard onto Lena's sopping wet cunt. The rumble of a moan that billowed out of Kara was earth-shattering in Lena's ears. She'd never heard anything more beautiful. A sharp gasp pulled between her teeth as Kara reared back and rocked into her once more. They were perfectly flush together like this, without single a gap of space anywhere between them. The blonde shook more intensely now, and Lena decided to give her exactly what she knew she needed.
"Please—" She begged.
Lena had called down the thunder, and Kara had answered. The uninhibited moans in her ear did little to stop the rise of a second orgasm, as this was undeniably the singular most intimate sexual experience of her life, which there was no doubt in her mind that it was the same exact thing to Kara. Years of apparent pent-up sexual frustration spilled into her as the blonde thrust, rolling her hips with perfect, precise revolutions. Time and space could have folded out of existence and Lena would have been completely unaware. Everything was gone, all that was left was Kara.
The blonde began to gasp and jerk wildly, and Lena could tell that she was trying with every remaining ounce of her strength to be careful not to hurt her. It was all so much to take in, and before long the sounds of slicked skin moving below and Kara's choked moans in her ear sent Lena's climax barreling into her without warning.
"Oh Kara- oh my God, yes…"
Every single glorious inch of muscle on Kara's entire body had became as dense as stone, and with a final jolt, a strangled cry fell against the side of Lena's face. It was an indescribably powerful experience, but if Lena could compare it to anything, it was somewhat like being held underneath crashing tidal waves. Or taming a wild bronco who'd rather die than be put to the rope. Kara heaved breath after breath as she laid limply on top of Lena for another little while.
They both seemed to only possess the energy to bask in the precious afterglow between them and were content to lay tangled together for as long as the other liked. Long enough that the sun had fallen below the horizon, and the moon eventually took its place. Lena stayed there, running a hand softly back and forth over Kara's lower back as she stared up into the night's sky. Had she ever seen the moon and the stars so bright before? Perhaps when she was a child, halfway around the world. They all seemed so close, like she could reach up with a hand and pluck one from its deep blue blanket. There was just something about a place so untouched by industry and so unmarred by the traffic of humans that made her feel strangely at home.
And she'd have to leave it all behind.