Here’s the first chapter preview for Like A Fine Wine 3.
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“Hey, Jack, you busy?”
Jack glanced over his shoulder at Elizabeth. He was crouched before a panel in the control room of the isolated outpost that was now his home, having just finished replacing a faulty circuit board. Elizabeth, all six feet five inches of her, filled the doorway.
“Let me rephrase that,” she continued before he could respond, and a small smile came onto her pale face. “You’re no longer busy. I need you for something, and Maureen says I can have you. So you’re all mine.”
Jack closed the panel, feeling a thrill of excitement and anticipatory lust shoot through him. He stood straight up, turning and dusting off his hands. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Come on. We’ve got a special assignment to drive out to.”
“All right. What do I need?”
“Grab your armor and at least one weapon, though I doubt we’ll run into any real trouble.” She paused, a frown marring her roughly beautiful features. “Well, I guess that’s kind of bullshit on this planet. It seems like it can go from zero to ten in no time flat out there. But know that we aren’t doing anything intentionally dangerous...for the most part.”
“Uh...okay,” he replied, deciding to trust her. Mainly because he was almost certain that any attempt to get her to elaborate would result in stonewalling. While she’d certainly been pleasant around and to him more than ever recently, he knew that Elizabeth was the kind of woman who you couldn’t make, bribe, or convince to do anything she did not want to do.
She was already in her own suit of dark, intimidating armor, a rifle slung over one shoulder, a pistol on one large hip.
“I’ll be in the rover,” she said, then turned away from him as he approached and began walking away, towards the garage.
He found his eyes drawn to her broad ass like metal to a magnet.
Fuck, that woman had a really huge ass. Even in full-fledged power armor it looked goddamn good. And the way she was swinging her hips, he knew that she knew he was checking out her ass. He sighed softly and headed off towards the armory, where he kept his gear. As he did, he considered the past three days.
They were…
Interesting days.
He’d rested off and on the first day immediately following his time in the mines, nursing the injuries he had sustained saving their lives. Although the meds that Sylvia had pumped him full of accelerated the healing, and he wasn’t that banged up to begin with, he was injured (and tired) enough that he was confined to bed for that day. In the morning, after breakfast, he’d at least moved to his own bed. Of course, that hadn’t kept Riley, Sylvia, and Anya from coming in and riding his dick once apiece. Twice for Riley.
Maureen had come and spent the night with him, sucking and riding him into a wonderfully pleasant sleep.
He was deeply glad to see that most of these women were happy with temporarily adopting care-giving roles, though he thought at least some of it had to do with the fact that they liked being in charge of him, even if only temporarily and in a small way.
He had hoped that Elizabeth would come visit in a similar way, but during that first day assumed that the other women had gotten in her way. During the second day however, despite coming to see him, (he had admittedly milked the resting part through almost all of the second day, but they kept telling him this was a working vacation so he figured why not?), nothing sexual had happened. She’d been friendly, and she seemed more relaxed and at ease around him than ever, but after their intense makeout session in the garage, he thought she was ready to go all the way.
Apparently not, though.
Not that he minded...well, okay. He was frustrated, but that wasn’t going to get in the way of him giving her as long as she needed.
That had been yesterday.
Today, he’d woke up feeling absolutely fantastic. Anya had spent the night with him, and that tight, fit redhead had let him hit it from the back until they both had orgasmed intensely, and then they’d fucked again in the shower.
Now that was a way to start the day.
Jack was still a little sore from the endeavor, but he was well enough to get back to work helping the women get the outpost back online. By now, Lyra, tech genius and hard worker that she was, had already completed most of the repairs with the parts they had gathered from around the region. Contracts had either been fulfilled or were on the verge of being fulfilled. At this point, most of the work left to do on the outpost was cosmetic. Giving the place a new coat of paint, repairing or replacing dented or scuffed panels, making everything look nice and neat and new and shiny again. Except for that busted circuit board, that’s all Jack had been doing since waking up. It was satisfying work, in its own way, but he was already craving more.
In more than one way.
Elizabeth had been teasing him all day long, bending over in front of him, brushing against him, actually outright flirting with him. It was a totally different side of her, one he almost hadn’t been sure existed, given how awkward she had been so far, even after they’d come right out with it about the true nature of the ‘job’ and that he not only fully intended to have sex with her, but would do so gladly. But it was really nice to see.
Maybe it would happen today, on this ‘trip’.
After making out, she had told him soon.
How soon was soon?
Again, he didn’t intend to push the issue, he was just...so fucking eager! He was sure that some of his attraction to Elizabeth was generated simply by the fact that he hadn’t had her yet, and now she’d been teasing him, hitting on him, making it worse. But he was genuinely very attracted to her. He didn’t care that she was big and strong and twice his age and headstrong. Honestly, he really liked all those things about her. He thought she was attractive in a number of ways, physically and with regards to her personality.
Jack finished pulling his armor on and ran a quick check of it. This stuff had saved his life more than once now. He laughed softly at that particular thought. Twice now a mission on this ‘vacation’ had ended in him risking his life for the sake of others. He didn’t regret it, and he wasn’t new to it, but he was surprised that it was coming up as often as it had. As he decided to just take his pistol with him and holstered it and pocketed his ammo, his suit told him that it was fine. Lyra had worked hard to fix it after the incident and after checking over it himself last night, he was not surprised to find she had done an excellent job.
His radio came to life as he turned to leave the armory. “Any day now, Jack.”
He sighed softly. “I know you can’t stand to be apart from me for too long, Elizabeth. I’m on my way right now. Try to keep your panties on.”
“I’m not wearing panties,” she replied, and his response died in his throat. They’d been quipping back and forth just recently and she was clearly skilled. She’d found his weak spot, his kill-code, as it were. To be fair, it was obvious. All she had to do was say something sexual and he’d just freeze up a little, not sure what to say.
It was weird. If he’d already had sex with a woman, then it wouldn’t trip him up like that. If Maureen or Riley said something like that to him, he was fine. Mostly. He was still getting used to these mature women and their overtly sexual nature.
But if they hadn’t been together yet…
Elizabeth laughed at his silence. “Cat got your tongue?”
He tried to fire something back. “I’m sure there’s a clever phrase regarding pussies and tongues in there somewhere, but I can’t think of it right now.”
Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to be silent. He hoped he was having the same effect on her. So far, he really liked the way their relationship was building. It felt nice and steady and, most importantly, organic. It wasn’t quite organic with the others. Sure, there was a real connection there with all of them, and he was very happy with where he was with each woman, (even Lyra, despite the fact that they hadn’t slept together yet either and sometimes it seemed like she was avoiding him), but something just felt different about Elizabeth. He hoped he wasn’t getting too involved, but he felt like there was something more, something deeper beginning to form and grow between them.
A closer connection.
He supposed, once they’d made love for the first time, he’d be closer to knowing if she felt the same way, or if he was just imagining it.
That was totally possible.
Jack came into the garage and found the rover ready to go, the garage door open. He slipped into the front passenger’s seat and buckled his safety belt.
“All right, we’re good to go?” Elizabeth asked.
“Check,” he replied.
“Perfect.”
She brought them out of the garage and then began driving away from the outpost, heading to the southwest. It was a nice day out. After that last heavy rainfall, the sun had come back with a vengeance, shining down and almost blaring through the windows. But there had been a cool breeze out, and there were clouds on the horizon. They’d been drawing closer all day long. He hoped that it meant more rain. Even a light rain would be great.
They drove in silence for the first few moments. Inside the rover, the atmosphere was also pleasant, though he could sense an undercurrent of tension in Elizabeth. Both of them had their helmets off and he studied her pale features out of the corner of his eye. She was staring straight ahead, sitting up straight, both hands on the wheel. Her vividly red hair was pulled into a ponytail. By now, it was no secret that Elizabeth had some difficulty with social situations. Especially, he imagined, if it involved guys she liked.
And she’d made it clear by now that she really liked him.
“So, Jack,” she said after almost five minutes, “I want to talk.”
“What about?” he asked. He had no intention of making this difficult for her.
“Us,” she said. He waited. She glanced briefly at him, then laughed softly.
“What?” he asked.
“I just...I’m sorry. I keep half-expecting you to be grinning like a shark, ready to take advantage of my...emotional attachment to you.”
Interesting. She hadn’t said sexual attraction, she’d specifically said emotional.
“That won’t happen,” he said.
“I know. By this point, I know. I trust you. I’ve just been...laughed at, preyed upon, fooled, taken advantage of, whatever, several times in my life at this point. So I get defensive. It’s, you know, it’ll take a bit to deactivate my defenses.”
“I’m willing to help in any way I can to facilitate this process...and not just because I want to stick my dick in you,” he said.
She smiled and laughed, this time it sounded happier. “I know. I believe that, too, actually. That’s one of the things I actually really like about you: you’re genuine. I feel like you’d tell me the truth to my face even if it pissed me off.” She paused. “You stood up to me after that last mission. Sylvia was right: I find that to be an attractive quality.” She paused again, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, so what I want to talk about. I’m basically ready to try sex. Like, tonight for sure. And don’t worry, I don’t feel pressured at all. Honestly it’s hard not to just pull over and fuck you right now. Seriously, you make me fucking horny.”
“You do the same for me,” he murmured.
She swallowed, cleared her throat. “My point is: I’m ready. But before that, I want to enjoy something nice with you that isn’t sex or a dangerous mission. Something that isn’t work.”
“So what are we doing out here?”
She smiled. “I scouted out an area while you were down for the count, found a great place to have a picnic and just, you know, chat. Get to know each other more. Does that sound like something you’d like?”
“I’d love that,” he replied.
She smiled again and this time blushed a little. “Uh, good.”
They drove on.
…
“Okay, here we are.”
They had driven along for another ten minutes across relatively flat, desert ground, passing stands of some of the alien trees that sprouted from the cracked earth, and at one point they passed through a small, narrow canyon.
Now, Elizabeth was slowing them down as they edged closer to a vast cliff drop. Once they got within a few dozen yards of it, she stopped, then turned the vehicle around and began backing up towards the edge. She stared at a navigational screen built into the dashboard to guide herself. Despite everything, how confident she appeared, how sure he was in her abilities and the tech they were using, Jack found himself slightly nervous.
He’d always had a bit of a thing about heights.
“Don’t worry,” Elizabeth murmured as she slowly crept them backwards, as though reading his mind, “I know what I’m doing and I already checked the place out.”
“I’m fine,” he replied.
She gave a small laugh. “It’s okay to be nervous. I’m not going to think less of you. You’ve already proven that you’re brave to a fault.”
“Is it a fault?” he asked.
She didn’t answer for a few seconds, instead focusing on the screen. Finally, she seemed satisfied and brought them to a halt, then put the rover in park.
“I guess it depends on your perspective,” she answered, killing the engine. She looked at him with her intense green eyes. “You’ll save a lot of people, but you’ll get yourself killed one day. But I can already tell you know that, and you accept it, to a certain degree.”
“Any Marine does,” he murmured.
Now she frowned. “No. Not every Marine. Most, but not all. Some get through bootcamp and discover they just don’t have the right stuff when it comes to actually for real dangerous situations. Boot weeds most of them out, but not all of them. If they’re lucky, everyone will survive the encounter and they’ll get out while they can. And some Marines are selfish. But that’s just-” she paused.
“What?”
“I was gonna say human nature but it’s clearly not related to only humans. I’ve seen brave, selfless aliens and I’ve seen selfish bastard aliens. I guess it’s nature. Sometimes. But you didn’t leave because you couldn’t handle it, I can tell that.” She paused again. “Come on,” she said, undoing her seatbelt and throwing open her door, “check out the view.”
He got out with her and walked around to the back of the rover. They were about ten yards from the edge of the cliff. Jack felt his apprehension rising but pushed it back, telling himself he’d be fine. Plus, he had to admit, it was a hell of a view.
“Wow,” he murmured as they came as close to the edge as they were going to get.
The drop was maybe two hundred feet, and the view extended for probably two hundred miles. The vast desert landscape, broken up by canyons and cliffs and mountains and forests of those cacti-trees, seemed to extend off into forever, most of it beneath a cloudy slate-gray sky.
“Wow indeed,” she said. He glanced at her. She was staring intently ahead. “You know, I used to find places like this when I was on a new world. Got to be, if there was time of course, I’d go looking for some unique place. A location with a great view or a unique landmark or some other interesting quality to it. I wanted to find at least one on each planet I visited. Did it for most of them. And not once, not a single time, did I take anyone with me. I was always alone.”
Jack immediately took the meaning in that: This is special to me, I’ve never shared it with anyone else, but I am now sharing it with you.
“Thank you for bringing me,” he said.
“You’re welcome,” she replied, a small smile on her face. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked serene. “Let’s eat lunch.”
They walked back to the rover and she popped the trunk. A metal case was locked in place in the rear cargo hold. She disengaged the lock, brought it closer, and opened it up. Inside, he saw that it was a refrigerated unit. There were two thermoses, some fruit, and a pair of sandwiches.
“I remember you saying you were partial to turkey and cheese, so I made you one.” She paused. “I hope you appreciate the significance that I made you a sandwich.”
He laughed. “Uh, yeah. I do. You’re doing a lot for me today. I really do appreciate it. Thank you,” he replied as he took a seat, his legs hanging over the edge of the cargo space’s floor, dangling just a few inches above the ground. She sat beside him with the case between them and they took a moment to get their food out.
It felt strange having a picnic in full combat armor, but at this point he was used to doing a lot of things in full combat armor.
“So how do you feel about your decisions now?” Elizabeth asked after a few moments of silence and staring out over the vast view.
“Better,” he replied. “I think I’m at that stage where I’m actually feeling kind of good about my decision, but I’m also afraid that the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet. That there’s something to this I just haven’t thought about yet.”
“Oh fuck, I know that feeling,” Elizabeth muttered. “I can’t say for sure, obviously, but I think you made the right choice. I think you’ll be happier.”
“I hope so...how about you?” he asked.
“I’m…” she laughed, a little bitterly. “Scared.”
“Why?”
“I left the Marines, went into private security, and I fucking hated it. And I was burned out of the Marines, just sick of it after so long. And I...don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s...yeah, that sucks.”
She chuckled. “Sorry to dump all that on you. I know an existential crisis isn’t the best thing to have on a date.”
“Is this a date?” he asked.
“Yes. This is a date. We’re on a date right now. A romantic one.”
“Oh. Okay, cool. I was hoping it was. But, Elizabeth, if there’s one thing that has been made clear to me about this trip, and about this group of people, it’s that we’re all...sharing. We’re sharing in pleasure, to be sure, but I think Maureen also meant for us to share each other’s pain, too. In whatever form that takes. I’m very reluctant to let anyone share in my pain...but I’m glad to share yours, if you want. Even if it’s just listening, or if it’s something more. I don’t know. Whatever you want. I really like you.”
She was looking at him intensely now. If there was one thing about Elizabeth that stuck in his mind besides her size, it was the intensity of her eyes. It had to be a combination of just how green they were, but also how focused she appeared.
“You’re right,” she replied, looking away, down at the cracked dirt beneath them. “That’s a good point. And I...agree with you. I’ve spent decades keeping how I feel locked up in a vault. And I know it’s not healthy, I just haven’t had many people in my life that I’ve honestly felt I could open up to. Honestly…” she hesitated and looked at him with a strange expression. One that oddly conveyed suspicion and guilt. “It worries me, how much I trust you.”
He considered that, then nodded. “Yeah, I get that. You’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Feeling like this is too good to be true.”
She laughed softly. “You being so understanding just makes it feel like more of a trap.” He began to respond but she cut him off. “I’m not saying I think you’re trying to trap me in any regard. The fact that we’re here, doing this, means you’ve mostly earned my trust. I guess I just feel like I want to discuss this kind of stuff before we take our clothes off. I want you to know that I feel like...you get me. Kind of on an organic level. Like how some people just mesh, you know? We gel. We have chemistry. And I really like it…”
“Okay,” he said, hesitating suddenly. It felt like this was actually leading somewhere all of a sudden, and it occurred to him, abruptly, that there was another reason Elizabeth might have been acting awkward recently. That she had something to say, something that she thought might upset or concern him. “Where is this leading, exactly?”
She blushed and looked down at her meal. “This is what I meant,” she murmured. “You pick up stuff about me fast. Normally I’m total poker face with most people.” He waited. She sighed. “So basically, before we have sex, there’s something I have to tell you. Because it would be irresponsible not to. Sex with me is going to carry a certain...risk.”
“What kind of risk?” he asked, wondering what in the hell she was talking about.
“Because of how much I like you, how well we get along, other factors, I’m positive that the risk of me becoming very emotionally attached to you after having sex is high.” She paused. Wow, he thought, that’s an oddly clinical way of spelling it out. But he appreciated the direct words. “What I’m saying is: I can’t offer you what all the others can, not for sure. I can’t, for sure, offer you casual sex. It might...get serious.”
He was silent for several moments, looking at her. “Are you okay with that risk?” he asked finally.
She bit her lower lip. “Right now?...yeah, I-I think I am.”
That surprised him. “Elizabeth-”
“I could be wrong,” she said quickly. “I’ve been wrong about this before. I really like you. A lot. But it might pass. Which isn’t a reflection on you! I could just...this could be a passing infatuation.” She hesitated. “Is this too honest?”
“No,” he said. He reached out and put a hand over the back of hers. They had their gloves off, so he enjoyed the sensation of her smooth, hot skin. He felt a brief shiver rush through him as they made skin contact. He thought he felt something similar happen to her. “Elizabeth, however the conversation turns out, I appreciate that you chose to tell me this. I imagine it must be difficult to talk about. But I genuinely appreciate you just straight up telling me this stuff. As for the risk, as you call it, from where I’m standing right now…”
He paused. Sometimes, it felt like decisions were made for you by some internal force.
“I can live with that,” he said.
She smiled. “You’re sure? We could be going through a brutal, bitter breakup three years from now.”
“Or we could be fucking like rabbits every day for the next several decades, in unexplored realms of bliss.”
She laughed. “I like those odds.” Then she grew a bit more serious. “I won’t be mad though, if you change your mind. I just want you to know that. You don’t owe me anything.”
“I don’t know, I think I owe you a sandwich at least,” he replied.
She smirked. “No, this is repayment for that amazing burger you made for me on the way out here.”
“Oh...right. Say, you’re not one of those people who ‘keep score’ in a relationship, are you?” he asked.
“Fuck no.”
“I didn’t think so.” He felt some of the tension go out of him. Not all of it, but most. That was not what he’d been expecting to talk about.
Riley really was fucking spot on about him and her.
“So, now what?” Elizabeth asked.
Over the course of their conversation, they’d managed to finish their meals. At first, Jack wasn’t sure what to say, then it abruptly occurred to him exactly what to say.
“Oh, uh, hold on, be right back,” he said, getting up and returning to the front of the vehicle. There, he grabbed his helmet and came back with it. “Something a few of you ladies asked me about was if I had any hobbies. I used to. Photography. My helmet has a camera built-in and I’ve decided to try resurrecting the hobby, and this seems a great place to do it.”
“Oh yeah?” Elizabeth replied.
He glanced up. She sounded oddly defensive. “Uh, yeah. I was gonna take a picture of the view. Did you wanna-”
“No,” she said immediately, her voice sharp. He continued looking at her. She looked away and sighed. “I’m sorry. I just-having my picture taken is a whole thing. My parents were really fucking just obsessed with it and I always fucking hated the way I looked and I just, you know, I hate it.”
“It’s fine, I won’t ask again. Sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay. And thank you.”
Jack nodded, then put on his helmet, locked it in place, and walked towards the edge. He looked around for a bit for a good shot. From what he remembered, he hadn’t exactly been great at studying up on photography, but people had been surprised by his ability to frame shots. He’d also been oddly good at screwing with the hues and color grading and applying tweaked filters to make it look even better. Finally, after a minute or two, that feeling hit him as he spied a flock of those large, weird bird creatures in the far distance, flying against the backdrop of a mountain range. He zoomed in a bit, waited a few seconds, and when the time felt right, took the pic.
“Okay, I got it,” he said, walking back, taking off his helmet. “I’ll screw around with it when we get back and I get some time.”
“I’d like to see it when you’re finished,” Elizabeth said. “I didn’t mean to spoil the mood.”
“You didn’t,” he said, sitting back down beside her. He offered his hand. She smiled and took it. He laced their fingers together. “I understand how you feel. I’m not upset.”
“You’re probably the sweetest guy I’ve met for a long, long time. Certainly you’re the sweetest Marine I’ve met,” she said, a genuine, beautiful smile creeping onto her face.
“I found it to be conducive to making people happy,” he replied.
She laughed. “And getting laid?”
“Well...yeah, it helped. Sometimes.”
“Probably more often than you think.”
They sat like that together, looking out over the immense plains of the alien world, holding hands in the back of the rover, and just enjoying each other’s silent companionship.