Michelle didn't know exactly what she and Raul were. At first she'd thought he was just her massage therapist, but he'd disabused her of that notion less than halfway into the first massage. And then a few days ago, he'd cancelled their appointment altogether and taken her hiking instead. They'd stripped naked and had sex twice in a mountain meadow. Did that make him her boyfriend? She hesitated. She hoped the answer was yes, but they hadn't ever really talked about it, and he'd never stayed the night at her place, or she at his. She hadn't let anyone stay with her since she caught her last boyfriend with another woman and kicked him out.

But she missed that: missed having someone to come home to, someone to put his arm around her while she slept, another presence in the bed. It was wonderful seeing Raul during the day, but at the same time it made it all the harder to sleep alone at night.

Michelle glanced at her clock. It wasn't time to be thinking of this. Raul would be showing up soon; she had to get ready. She pulled on a T-shirt and jeans and swept her hair back into a ponytail.

Then she went and sat by the front door and waited. She smiled at the thought of seeing him again. Even if she didn't know exactly what they were, she did know that he was searingly sexy, that the thought of him was enough to get her pulse racing and her juices flowing. Maybe that was enough to know.

Raul's truck pulled up, and Michelle rushed out the door to meet him.

"Hey," Raul said, and he hugged her. Michelle hugged him back, pivoting her hips to grind against his groin. "I see you've been thinking about me too," Raul said with a smile.

"Can you blame me?" Michelle asked.

"Woman wants what woman wants," Raul said, and he thrust against her.

They got in the truck and started driving.

"We going the same place as last time?" Michelle asked. She half-hoped they were. She wouldn't mind lazing about in that meadow again, making love in broad daylight with the feel of the sunshine and the wind around them.

"No," Raul said. "Life is sweeter with a little variety."

As they drove, Michelle looked out the window. It was a beautiful summer day, nearly cloudless, and although it was early, she could tell that it was going to be hot. She glanced back at Raul. She'd thought before that she wanted him because she hadn't had him yet, that she'd hungered for his cock because it had taken so long for them to finally get to really have sex. But as she looked at him now, she realized that she still wanted him, still hungered for him. As she looked at him, she could remember him naked: the strong, large chest under his shirt, the flat stomach, the muscular arms. And the way his cock lay under his pants. She looked at the bulge in his jeans, trying to decipher what was him and what was just a fold in the fabric.

His penis was lying there flaccid now, but she remembered what it looked like as it grew erect, the way that it raised itself slowly upward, like a snake or like an elephant's trunk, swelling and twitching with each beat of his heart.

"What are you thinking of?" Raul asked. His voice was like smoked glass. Michelle didn't think she'd ever get tired of his voice, of his accent.

"Your cock," Michelle said. She was half surprised to hear herself admit it, but things were different with Raul. She could tell him things that she wouldn't say to anyone else.

Raul smiled. "Well, that's a better answer than I could have hoped. Although I think it's a little unfair that you get to undress me in your mind while I have to stare at the road. Next time maybe you drive and I watch you."

"Next time, maybe," Michelle said. She glanced at his crotch again and imagined what he looked like underneath. The chocolate hue of the skin and the dark purple of the head. The sweeping, round ridge of his corona and the slit at the top, like a cat's eye. She imagined it in her hand, hot and hard, but suddenly imagination wasn't quite good enough.

Michelle couldn't remember the last time she'd been this horny. And she couldn't even claim that it was because she wanted to please Raul. No, she just wanted him because of plain, simple, pure lust. With anyone else, she would have tried to swallow the lust down, to squelch it. But Raul had never turned her down before, had never berated her or made her feel ashamed of her desire. So she leaned over, unzipped his pants and reached in.