Lonely nights by the coast

Night was starting to fall and the morning’s storm had yet to subside – or even slow down for a minute. The third mug of tea stood steaming in front of Lisa and the view over the ocean still failed to bore her, but the day was arguably getting a bit long. As beautiful as her new home by the coast was, as much as she loved waking up knowing she had finally made it there were only so many books one could read before the mind begged for some entertainment.

And there her new life fell a little short if she was honest, entertainment was a rare commodity in a village of ten thousand in the summer and maybe a thousand during the off-season. She had quickly found out that every single woman that lived here was not only married, but also saw her as an immediate danger to a continued marriage. At first she had smiled about that, found it amusing the first few times but now she was slowly coming to the realization that those women were the norm, not the exception and it was starting to piss her off.

She had hoped to join a little book club or whatever people down here had going on, make some friends but instead she failed to find an entry into a community that seemed to thrive on bickering and boredom. The continued, almost palpable adversity was starting to wear her down, even when she went grocery shopping the cashiers would throw her stuff into the bag instead of easing it in as they did with others.

At first it had just annoyed her, but lately it made her angry and pushed her to the point where she actively considered dragging every single married man into her bedroom just to spite these bitches. And frankly it seemed less and less of a bad idea the longer time dragged on. Most of the guys living out here had some kind of interesting thing going on, some kind of passion or hobby that everyone back in the city had lacked. City guys seemed content with going to work and going to sleep, but out here the days were long and easily filled with a variety of fun activities.

Some of them drove self-maintained cars older than themselves, welded scrap art and others again collected driftwood to make art and figurines that the tourists loved to overspend on. In the few instances when Lisa had been able to throw a couple sentences back and forth with one of them she had found herself enjoying the time as much as that smile guys like them showed when someone showed actual interest in their work. And of course they all had wives who were quick to drag them away, quite literally at times.

But then, as she gazed out of the window another time she could see someone walk along the shoreline, still a slowly moving blob of color that made it hard to tell whether it was a man or woman. In either case something fascinated Lisa about the way he-she walked, slow and without haste yet somehow with clear purpose. What that purpose was Lisa could not tell but it was there, hidden behind apparent boredom, mismatched steps and frequent turns to look at either see or something in front of him. Yes, now she could tell it was a man, the shoulders too broad for a short-haired chick and those didn’t exist out here anyway.

Lisa couldn’t quite tell why, but she was in her coat and rubber boots before long, venturing out to meet this mystical creature that would hike along the coast in midst a storm. Even out here where long yellow rain coats were fashionable people still seemed to fear the wind and rain. Back in the city it had been even worse, the slightest dribble leaving the busiest streets deserted but here, too most people preferred to stay inside.

Lisa however loved it, that brutal adversity of nature blowing rain, wind and sand into her face and making every step feel like two. It took her longer to make her way down to the beach than it took for the man to come into shouting distance and yet they had to walk even closer before they could make out words.

“I asked what you are doing out here in this weather”, Lisa shouted at the top of her lungs, her hand holding the hood of her coat to prevent it from flying off.

“Not many others around, helps me think. Didn’t think it would get this bad though.”

It was one of those conversations that seemingly steered themselves, anything but the forced elevator talk she had left behind.

“I live up there, just moved in if you want to warm up a little. Unless you want to continue thinking that is.”

“No, that’s really nice of you and I must admit I ventured a little far today.”

Lisa liked him, the way he expressed himself efficiently, yet with smooth flowing style had first come to her attention but now that she looked at him his appearance played along. She could tell he was in that undefinable middle-age where his scruffy beard didn’t look out of place and his eyes had a certain experience in them that she always found fascinating. They had seen a lot of things, but lacked the cynicism and anger of most.

They dragged each other up the little path without physical touch, progressed through silent small-talk and by the time Lisa unlocked the door they had already established a mutual respect for one another. Immediately she noticed a lack of pretense about him, he did not hurry to get her out of her coat or hold up doors or any other of those behaviors usually connected to first encounters with other men. And yet in doing so he achieved just what those little annoyances intended, to make her feel somewhere between safe, respected and most importantly understood. This was a man who had progressed past seeing women as alien beings, was neither fearful of nor did he feel superior to them.

His eyes explored every room she lead him through and she could tell that he was actually seeing things and using them to understand her history a little. She was still in the process of unpacking everything but the critical, defining things were all in place from the little picture frames to the books on her shelves.

“Can I get you anything? I was just having tea.”

He looked at the half-finished mug on the windowsill that still fogged up the window and chuckled as he sunk into the seat next to the couch.

“And then you saw a lonely man in desperate need of rescue from the elements and decided to hurry out.”

Lisa chimed into the chuckle, her little blush equally unfamiliar and treacherous of her thoughts.

“I guess so, and you walked right into the trap it seems.”

“That I did. Some tea would be nice, whatever you have.”

That wasn’t much of a problem, her choice of tea was only surpassed by her collection of books and the real problem was figuring out what a guy like him liked. Something black was an easy choice, it was the kind of day for a strong Assam or something along those lines, but it was also a little boring. Instead she opted for a mixture of green leaves and lemon grass, a little luxury she had treated herself to the week before.

He took a careful sip, nodding his head in agreement over her choice.

“Thank you. Say, did we already exchange names?”

He continued to do that, to make her smile over the simplest of sentence or occasion with the way the words seemed chosen, crafted to some degree even. One of those rare people who could make a conversation interesting regardless of the actual content. And it was fun to play along.

“Unless we suffer from mutual amnesia I think we skipped that part. I’m Lisa, nice to meet you.”

They leaned forward to engage in a useless but enjoyable handshake, a strong hand that had seen its own share of work and life but failed to crush or baby her.

“John, a pleasure to meet you as well.”

Yes, he seemed a bit like a John, probably with a melodic last name to go along with it.

“So you moved here recently, you say?”

“About two months now.”

“Ah, that explains why we haven’t met so far, I’ve been away for the past month on a trip to London.”

“Oh really? What do you do for a living? No wait, don’t tell me. You just have to be a writer, aren’t you?”

John just smiled, slightly tilting his head. “I am, but what gave me away? I don’t even wear jackets with shoulder pads.”

Lisa shrugged with a smile, happy to find her suspicion validated. “It’s something about your eyes, I can tell they see things in a different way. As if you were involuntarily trying to describe each room to a reader.”

“Well, I guess I’m guilty of that. But I could say similar things about your eyes and yet you don’t write.”

The way he put that as a statement was interesting, Lisa couldn’t exactly tell what he based it on considering writing equipment could easily be hidden in the tiniest of places.

“No, you are right. I’m not a good writer if I’m honest, I’m mostly just bored with the people around me and let my eyes wander.”

“Which to me means you would make a great writer if you just practiced, you should give it a try sometime. It’s not like there is a lot to do out here, just a lot to see and a lot of time to put what you see to paper. But I can relate, growing up I tried long and hard to figure out why I didn’t enjoy the things other people around me did until I realized I was indeed bored. I’ve always thought the thought of being smarter than others to be arrogant, in fact I’ve been called that many a time but only as I grew older I realized that arrogance is as much of a positive as a negative thing and it wholly depends on what you make of it.”

Lisa looked at him, hiding part of her face in the mug that was approaching a state of empty with frightening speed. She had a hard time making up her mind, it seemed like everything in the past hour had rolled over her like a wave with little she could have done about it. He seemed a little too good for her, just having him sit there and talk about arrogance and seeing things and gazing right into her soul did wonders on her psyche. In fact it seemed to heal all wounds that had been inflicted on her in the past two months. This was the kind of experience Lisa had moved out here for, yet now that it happened she felt wary of it like opening a book and having a hundred dollar bill fall out.

“You seem thoughtful, may I inquire as to your thoughts?”

Again, any other person would have gone for “a nickel for your thoughts” but not John. She could tell he was enjoying their time as much as she was, something rare in her experience. And there was something else about him, she didn’t feel in- or superior in any way.

“You confuse me, somehow I like you and yet I’m wary for some reason, all in the same moment.”

He cocked his head again. “I would have thought of myself as utterly harmless.”

Lisa shook her head. “Not in that kind of way, more in that I look at you and think I like you a little too much and that frightens me, does that make sense?”

Now he smiled broadly. “Yes and no. I get what you mean, I guess it’s the meeting of two kindred spirits who are more used to animosity than familiarity. Do tell me though: What is it that made you move out here? Was it not this very thing, having the time to converse with people who themselves have time to spare?”

That was a great way of putting it. He definitely had a way with words, but somehow he didn’t come across a smooth talker just trying to get in her pants. No, that was all her, the wish to fill her loneliness with this man she hardly knew. A bad idea, he was probably secretly married to five of those annoying bitches with their steely-eyed gazes who were just looking for an excuse to pitchfork her.

Or maybe not, maybe they really were two kindred spirits in desperate need of one another. Lisa smiled and leaned forward.

“You might be right about that. And you, tell me something as well: How much of that time do you intend to spare on me?”

John, too leaned further towards her, his forearms finding rest on his knees.

“That wholly depends on how you intend to spend our time. You’ll have to excuse me but I’ve grown a little tired of people expecting me to take a look at their first drafts as if I wasn’t struggling to pitch my own books to my publisher. But we established that you aren’t a writer yet so I guess you have something else in mind?”

Lisa realized her decision had long been made, their decision really. It was just a matter of steering the conversation into the right waters, uncharted and yet familiar to both. Just like it was rare to find interesting people at all it was almost unknown to her to engage in this kind of verbal banter that seemed so useless and important at the same time.

She leaned back again, carefully maintaining an outer shell of unconcerned ease.

“I really only asked you up here because I realized that I don’t have anyone to give me a neck massage. You don’t happen to be as good with your fingers as you are with your words, are you?”

It was as crass a come-on as their seemingly distinguished banter allowed, about the equivalent of knocking at her city neighbor’s door in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a shirt and asking him to do his thing with her. And she could tell that his seemingly unfazed expression was itself a mere facade, partly betrayed by the grin in his eyes.

“It has been a while since my skills were challenged, but I feel confident enough for an attempt.”

Of course a neck massage was not what either of them had in mind as their eyes and smiles could tell. It did however serve as a nice excuse for shortening the time between meeting for the first time and ending up in bed together so drastically. Nothing sexual, it said, I just like you and I think I can handle your touch on my neck. No more though, but who am I kidding.

“That reminds me I haven’t given you the room tour, have I?”

Lisa got up, dragging John in her wake as she began and ended the tour with showcasing her bedroom. She all but jumped on the mattress head-first and resting her head on her arms waiting for whatever there was to come.

A moment later she could feel the mattress shift, then his weight pressing her into it, just gently enough to avoid breaking her in half. A second later she realized that while he had the mind of a writer he didn’t have a writer’s hands. Strong enough to knead her shoulders like dough, strong enough that they seemed to tell stories of a lifetime of hard work.

And yet they were soft enough, in the right places at the wrong time to make her forget all about what she had had in mind before. Had he made her horny before John now managed to make her feel safe, harbored and protected and she couldn’t get enough of it.

And John sensed that, his hands reacting to her body’s reactions and seemingly no impatience in his movements. Lisa could tell he was enjoying himself as much as she did, one of the rare moments in time when there was no rush to change anything.

She had a strong desire to tell him to hurry, that she hadn’t really meant an actual neck massage but at the same time she wanted him to continue. But once more John seemed to sense her predicament, his fingers moving further South down her back and following her spine until they reached the top of her butt cheeks.

John just spent a passing moment there, just enough to re-balance his weight and shift down before his hands started caressing her thighs. The loudness of her moan surprised them both, embarrassed Lisa and made John giggle under his breath but the strength of that feeling didn’t seem to subside. If anything it grew stronger, the next time he touched her Lisa knew that it was right where she needed to be touched, too slow and too fast at the same time and there were no words to explain how much she craved each touch.

They still had the slight obstacle of clothes between them, but that only lasted so long and neither of them had any interest in pushing them off to the ground. No, they served perfectly fine as natural borders restricting their movement, there was little reason to even think outside that border for the next few minutes.

His fingers traveled along her cheek and his thumb parted her lips just enough to let the moans escape that she had kept in for months. Lisa could feel the tip of his dick pressed against her, but he had an infuriating patience that she had lacked all summer long.

“I can’t wait anymore”, she whispered more than she said it, partly annoyed with how begging it must have sounded to John. But John was a good listener, one that understood people had different needs at different times of the day and they just had happened to collide at the right day and wrong time.

“Close your eyes.”

She did as she was told and for a long moment all that she felt were his hands on her shoulders, then the tip of his dick coming awfully close to sliding right into her. On his second try he achieved just that and Lisa felt as if all air was pushed out of her. Again he was so slow she felt like slapping him, but also entering her deeper than she had expected. Long and slow was the way out as if he had entered the Minotaur’s lair and forgotten to tie the string. He seemed just as lost in her as she was in time and space, a wonderfully long moment that necessitated no words.

Emotions rolled over her like waves on the beach on a stormy night, heavy fog keeping her from seeing where they were headed. She wanted to say something, thank him for being there when she needed him but no words seemed to do that justice like her moans could. His fingers continued to caress her face and neck, pushing her down by the chin each time a shiver forced her head up and for a long time she remembered his face more than she saw it.

She couldn’t quite feel the orgasm arrive before it was already over, strong shivers running through every muscle and she felt as if someone had combined it with the previous five.

Her eyes opened, but she still didn’t see much and so she closed them again, somewhere in the back of her mind wondering if John had any more of a plan than she had. But the thought didn’t surface and Lisa felt dull like a sword that had fought a few too many battles with just as many scratches.

John didn’t take long either, his whole body resting on her without any chance of hurting her as he struggled to keep his balance. Forceful thrusts going deep into her, balls that slapped against her skin as they unloaded deep inside her and once more Lisa was embarrassed how much that turned her on. He hadn’t asked, she wasn’t complaining and for a small eternity they seemed to be closer than just the touch of their skin allowed.

When he finally rolled over they spent another decade in silence, just listening to the noises the old house was making.

“Where were you all my life?”, Lisa finally asked just to fill a silence she loved as much as she couldn’t stand it. She wanted to do that again right away, but her body didn’t even muster the strength to turn over and play with his chest hair – let alone the strength needed to straddle him and ride him until he begged her to stop. No, she was spent and so was he and for a while the question seemed to loom over them like the burning desire Orpheus must have felt to turn around and look at his wife on their way out of hell.

“I think”, John finally said with a voice void of its former strength and playfulness, “the desire we feel is the sum of our years of craving for someone to understand us. So we shouldn’t complain too much.”

With a grin Lisa finally managed to turn around and twist some hair to make him wince.

“Oh believe me, I’m not complaining. I just know I will be tomorrow when I’m sore and sick of lying in bed all day and getting my brains fucked out.”

“You have a way with words, I’ll give you that.”

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/e7htve/lonely_nights_by_the_coast