0 comments/  126685 views/  40 favorites

The Natalie Incident

By: Cactus Jack



So this was how it happened. 

I'd known Natalie for a few months, through a friend of a friend, you know how it is. After I moved to Los Angeles I found myself attending party after party filled with people just like me. That is, out of work actors/actresses waiting tables and cutting hair in between audition after useless audition. One night, I was at a typical gathering when I saw her across the other side of the pool. I nudged my buddy Keith;

'What the hell is she doing here?'

'I think she came with her brother. He knows whoever owns this house.' He looked away, his interest freshly sparked by the blonde girl who had just walked in front of us. 

She was talking to another girl that I didn't recognise, and I swear she was more beautiful in the flesh than the times I had seen her on screen. Her jet black hair was pulled away from her face in a simple pony tail, and even from a distance I could see her green eyes shining. She was dressed in jeans and a white shirt that hung loose over her butt. There was a bottle of beer in her hand and she looked liked she never had a care in the world. I couldn't stop staring at her, and when she turned her head after sensing me looking, and then smiled at me my guts churned. I think I probably fell for her in that moment. One thing was for sure; I had to go over and talk to her, or regret it for ever.

I ran my fingers through my too-long hair, took a deep breath and walked around the pool towards her. As I approached her I wondered how to play this. Did I go in arrogant or charming, shy or confident? I decided on a little of all of them.

Her friend had gone as I reached her, and her back was turned to me. I cleared my throat and spoke.

'Natalie?'

She turned quickly, hair whipping around her. Jesus, up close she was just so gorgeous, maybe too much. There wasn't a blemish on her skin, and her pink lips shone in the torchlights that had been placed around the pool.

'Natalie Portman?'

She nodded. 'That's me. Who are you?'

'You mean you don't know me?' Why the hell would she. I worked as a barman downtown and had been in one avant-garde production for two weeks in a theatre that had thirty seats and no heating. Still, I was gonna keep this tack up.

She frowned. 'Sorry, I don't think I do.'

'I'm Richard Edwards.'

She shook her head again. 'And you're Natalie Portman, both of us are great people who want each other, and that's what makes this so perfect.'

'Are you trying to pick me up?'

'Am I, you tell me.' I levelled what I hoped would be my best Tom Cruise grin at her. 'Do you want me to?'

Natalie burst out laughing and turned away. 'Forget it, you're a pompous jerk.' She strutted away towards the house, leaving me floudering like a fish out of water.

Fuck it. I chased after her and caught up as she was about to enter through a set of large french doors. 'Wait, please.' She stopped and I saw her sigh before turning towards me. 

'What?'

This time I was myself, what did I have to lose? 'Look, I'm sorry. You're right, I was acting like a fool. That wasn't really me back there.'

'Wasn't it? Why act that way then?'

'Because I was afraid if I was myself you wouldn't be interested in talking to me.'

'Oh? And what are you?'

This time it was my turn to sigh. 'I'm just an out of work guy trying to make a name for himself in this town, just like a million others. I've got no money, I sleep on my friend's floor and I drive a Pinto with a broken clutch. Why would you want to talk to me.'

She remained silent, but her face softened. This was my last chance.

'You're successful, and I'm nothing. But when I saw you across the pool I couldn't stop looking at you. This isn't a line, but you are the most beautiful thing I've seen since I've been in L.A. and if I didn't try to talk to you I'd have been kicking myself forever.'

Her face broke and she smiled. 'So, why can't you guys be honest like that more often?'

I shrugged, dropping my eyes from her own. 'Maybe it's not in our genetic make-up.'

She took me by the wrist, small fingers soft and warm on my skin. 'Let's go inside and get a beer,' she said, 'it's getting cold out here...'

So that was how I came to meet and become friends with Natalie Portman. After my bout of ill-advised arrogance that evening we hit it off instantly, and I was drawn to her natural friendliness and confidence straight away. Los Angeles is a town full of sharks, everyone wants a piece of the pie and believe me, there is never enough to go around. People drift in and out of your life with monotonous regularity and ninety-nine percent of them are only interested in what they can take from you. With Natalie, I found an honest friend, someone who I trusted, and trust is a hard thing to recognise when you are not used to seeing it. Of course, I also desired her as more than a friend, but she let me know from the outset that she had a boyfriend and that was not going to change, all though she did find me attractive. As you'd imagine, that was frustrating for me at first, but soon I began to realise that her friendship was almost as good as a relationship. Perhaps more so, with all the problems that can arrise from being involved with somebody. Anyway, I needed to find work, not be bothered with other distractions.

As it happened, she helped me on the work front, and before you ask, I didn't use her influence. A casting director that she knew saw my (thin) resume at her appartment and called me, asked me to come over to the Television section of Universal and meet with him. Before I knew it I had regular work on a new show. Nothing major, only four or five lines a week, but the exposure was there for me and obviously the money was damn useful.

So life was starting to look a little brighter. Regular work, Natalie as a friend and the Summer just around the corner. I even moved my home from Keith's floor and started sharing an apartment. However, a phone call late one Friday afternoon changed everything.

I'd been working at the bar till two, played three sets of tennis and done a half-hour in the gym. I flopped when I made it home, and was sitting in the cool shade drinking a coke and reading Hemmingway when my cell-phone went. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Natalie.

'Hey stranger, how's it going?' I said. She had been away on a location shoot and I hadn't seen her for over a week.

'Not good, I'm stuck out in the desert.' Her voice sounded thin and raw due to the reception.

'Stuck how?'

'I've got a rental, and basically it's blown something. I don't know what but steam is pouring out of the hood.'

'Are you all right? Have you called a breakdown?'

'Yes I am and no I haven't. My phone is almost out of power and I wanted to call someone that I knew would answer. Could you come and get me?'

I groaned inwardly. I was beat, and the last thing I needed was a drive out of the city against the rush-hour traffic. 'No problem. Where exactly are you?'

She gave me the details and I borrowed my room-mate's pick-up, not trusting my own hunk of junk to the journey. The picture she was involved with had been shooting out in the Santa-Cruz desert, and normally at the end of the day all cast and crew would retire to their trailers that were kept off-set. However, Natalie had hired a car to drive back to the city so she could visit her Brother. Normally, the studio would arrange a driver for a star such as her, but she had insisted on doing things her own way. As I battled against the flow of traffic I could imagine how insistant she had been, knowing full well how stubborn she was if the mood took her. Now, as I leant on the horn almost permantly and recieved the finger in return, I really wished that she had been more flexible. But I also reasoned, she was a good friend, and I knew that she would drive to me if I was in trouble.

It was gone Six when I came upon the dusty Ford at the edge of the road. I pulled in infront and smiled as I saw Natalie wave from where she had been sitting in the open driver's door. All around us was the pale yellow of the desert, and already the sun was dropping toward the horizon.

She came running up to me as I climbed out of the truck, and my heart bounced a little as she planted a kiss on my cheek. 'Rich, you are a lifesaver, thankyou.'

'Well I wasn't about to leave you out here to the rattlers, gorgeous,' I said as I moved toward the Ford. I could still see slight trails of steam leaking out from the radiator inlets. I popped the hood and spent a good ten minutes fiddling with plugs and cables while Nat sat behind the wheel and tried the ignition when I told her to, but my knowledge of automobile repair was amateur to say the least, and I suspected that the Ford was in need of an expert to get her running again. We pushed the car well off the road and locked it securely, climbed in the truck and I swung it around onto the highway and headed back to the city.

I couldn't help stealing glances at Natalie as I drove. She was dressed in a white vest with an open check shirt over the top, and a pair of denim shorts that lived up to their name. She propped her feet up on the dashboard and her lightly tanned legs looked luscious illuminated by the light from the setting sun. She stretched her arms over head and yawned loudly.

'Tough day?' I asked.

'Yes,' she sighed. 'It's so hot workng out here that all your energy is sapped. What I need is a cold drink and a shower.'

I passed her the water that I had bought with me. 'Here, it's not ice cold but it's better than nothing.'

She took the bottle gratefully and swallowed several mouthfuls. 'That tastes pretty good to me,' she said, before tipping a little of the water into her hair. I watched as it trickled down over her closed eyes and dripped off her chin, landing in spots on her vest. She tilted the bottle again and this time more water escaped over her face, rivulets showering the cotton over her breasts. Her left nipple, small and dark, poked through the wet material. I felt my jeans tighten as my erection grew.

All thoughts of lust were soon lost as I heard the engine cough, rattle and die. Natalie opened her eyes as I ground down on the accelerator to no avail, and the truck lurched forward as a series of loud backfires erupted from the exhaust. I cursed and banged my fist down on the wheel, before guiding the vehicle to the gravel embankment, where she cruised slowly to a halt. I tried the ignition several times but all I got was a mournful whine. We were going nowhere.

'What's happened?' Said Nat in a small voice.

'I don't know. Surely we can't have this kind of luck. Two dead vehicles on the same day.'

I climbed out and leaned against the wing, pulling my phone out of my hip pocket. I tried the operator but couldn't get a tone, then tried Keith. Again, no tone. 

'I can't get a signal' I said to Natalie as she came around the truck toward me. 'You?'

'I used all my battery calling you.'

'Fucking hell,' I kicked a pile of sand away with my boot. 'Damn sand,' I said. 'Probably getting in the carbs on the engine and causing things to seize up.'

'Do you think that's it?'

'Dunno. Sounds good though, don't you think?'

We looked at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing. 'Sorry I got you into this,' she said through her giggles.

'I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Anyway, what else could I do on a Friday night?'

'So what do we do now?'

I looked around me. The sun was now nothing more than a crimson stain on the horizon, and the light had become almost purple. I knew it was the fore-runner to blackness, and I didn't particularly want to be stuck out in the middle of the desert at night. Too many things lurking in the gloom.

'Well, we can either walk back to the city of Angels, which must be fifty miles, or we can sleep in the truck, which doesn't appeal either, or-' I paused, pointing my finger along the road, 'we can head back towards that motel we passed a mile or so back, see if they have got a phone and maybe a cold beer. I'll leave it up to you.'

It took her about two seconds to make her mind up, so for the second time that day I secured a beaten-up vehicle, and we began the walk back the way we had come, toward the neon sign that glowed in the rapidly advancing night.

The motel was typical of the kind found along every long and lonely highway across the United States. Cheap cabins grouped in a rough circle, and an equally cheap looking office with a dirty Oldsmobile parked out front. There were no other cars parked, which made me reason that the place wasn't exactly humming with business. The sign buzzed with a flashing and unnessersery 'vacancies' statement beneath the name; Drop-Inn Motel.

The only thing that was dropping was sweat from myself and Natalie. Although the sun had now completely disapeared the humidity was still high, and moisture covered my back like a layer of frost. We had walked fast back to the motel, especially after the low cough of a coyote had come out of the darkness, and now I was hot, dusty and becoming rapidly pissed off.

My mood didn't improve when the guy in the office imformed us that the telephone was dead.

'What?' I said, leaning heavily on the formica counter.

'I'm really sorry guys, there's a storm moving closer and it always affects the lines this way on.' He peered at both of us through thick glasses, his gaze running longer over Natalie than me. 'Don't I know you folks from somewhere?'

'We're from the city, I don't think so,' I replied. I turned to Natalie and led her a few feet away from the counter. The fatigue was evident on her face and she looked as downhearted as I felt. I brushed a finger under her chin. 'Come on, smile.'

'I don't feel like smiling. I just want this day to end.'

'Me too. Look, let's cut our losses. What do you say we bag a couple of rooms, have a shower and get clean. If a storm is brewing like he says then we're going nowhere tonight anyway. Might as well just sleep and get back in the morning.'

We negotiated two cabins, numbers 7 and 8, for forty dollars. The desk-clerk showed us the rooms and gave us clean towels before he left us alone, and I caught him looking back at Natalie once or twice as he returned to his office, and I think that the spark of recognition about who she was was finally dawning on him. Luckily we had enough cash between us for the tariff, so there had been no reason for Nat to use her credit card, which she would have had to have done as my own had been discontinued a couple of months previously.

In all fairness, the rooms were quite decent; the small bathrooms were clean and I was overjoyed to feel hot water come out of the shower-head. There was a small television bolted to the wall and the carpet reached all four walls and was not quite threadbare. Most importantly, a decent sized double-bed dominated both of the rooms, and when I sat on the edge there was a pleasing firmness to the mattress.

Natalie brightened when she saw the room, and I knew after some good sleep she would be back to her old self. I fetched us a couple of Cokes and some pre-pack sandwiches from a large automated cooler in the office, smiling as I saw the desk clerk asleep with his glasses askew and his feet on the desk, a copy of Hustler laying in his lap. My quarters rattled in the machine base as I fed in the right change but the noise never disturbed him. My guess was that we were the first guests he had booked in here for some time.

We sat in my room and ate the bland sandwiches, which had seen better days, and drank the sodas which were ice-cold and slipped down very easily. With the bedside lamps lit the room took on a gentle light which never reached the shadowed corners, and I lay back on the pillows and kicked my boots off. Natalie was lying across the end of the bed, her head propped up on crooked elbow as we talked. It was still hot in the room and she had taken off her checked shirt, and the white vest clung to her slender frame and small breasts. The hem had risen up her stomach, and I could see a maddening strip of tanned skin above her shorts, her belly-button a tiny blemish on the smooth surface.

'It's raining,' she said, cocking her head back and looking at the ceiling. We both listened for a moment as droplets started to strike the wooden roof of the cabin, the sound part sinister, part comforting.

'Looks like old Magoo got the forecast right,' I said.

'Yep. Probably felt it in his water or something.'

'I don't think he was feeling water,' I replied, and related to her how I seen the magazine earlier. She laughed and lay flat on her back, stretching like a cat with her arms above her head. This action only served to raise her shirt higher, and I ran a horny gaze over her torso down to her thighs and over her bare feet. The tiny toenails were painted a delicate shade of pink.

She sensed my looking and turned to me. 'Are you alright?'

I smiled. 'I'm fine. I just never thought I'd be spending tonight in a motel room, is all,'

'I know. It feels like were on another world. I'd never believe L.A was fifty miles away unless I knew better.' She paused for a moment and looked reflective. 'I'm dirty.'

I grinned. 'Lucky me.'

'You know what I mean. I need that shower and a bed. What time is it?'

'Just after Nine-thirty.'

She sat on the edge of the bed and slipped on her sandals before standing. I also stood, but not before I'd adjusted myself. Things had gotten hard again after I had been watching her.

'Step outside and you'll get that shower,' I said, opening the door to reveal a torrent of rain lancing down.

'Great,' she replied, peering out of the doorway, 'I was hoping for something a little warmer.'

Across the now-muddy but still empty carpark I could see the dark highway, before a flash of light from a slowly passing car illuminated the tarmac. I was glad I wasn't driving in this; the cheap little motel was looking more attractive as the minutes went by.

'You gonna be Okay,' I said, turning towards Natalie.

'I think so. I just want to sleep.'

'Well, you know where I am if you need me.' 

'I know. Thanks Rich, you've been wonderful today.' Before I could offer a modest reply she slipped a hand around my neck onto the back of my head, fingers in my hair, and pulled me towards her. The kiss onto my lips was soft, and I felt her mouth slightly part as she broke it. The taste was wonderful. 

'Good night,' she whispered, and dashed off through the rain. Although it was less than ten feet to her door, the rain had soaked her by the time she pushed the key into the lock. She gave me a quick wave as I watched her step inside, then she was gone.

When I closed my own door the room seemed cold and empty. It was as if the warmth that had been had left with Natalie, and I immediately wished that she were back. I turned down the covers on the bed and pulled my shirt off and drapped it over the back of a chair, before moving into the bathroom. There were some complimentary soaps and toothpastes on a glass shelf above the basin, and I smeared a line of minty flouride protection along my finger and proceeded to clean my teeth as best as I could.

As I was rinsing, I heard a door close on the other side of the thin plasterboard wall that seperated the two rooms. A second later there was a faint hissing of a shower, and I knew that no more than a few feet away from me Natalie was preparing to step under the hot spray of water she had been craving a few minutes ago. I stood quietly in the bathroom, and imagined her pulling that tight white vest over her head, unbuckling and lowering her shorts, before stepping naked into the cubicle and gasping as the water struck her skin. I closed my eyes and leant against the basin, lost in my fantasy as I pictured her lathering soap in her hands, before smearing it over her body. Fingers stroking around her neck, along her shoulders and down her arms, before moving up her stomach to the swell of her breasts. Her nipples hard, as I had seen in the truck earlier that day. One hand moving slowly over the sensitive flesh, as the other traced patterns up her parted thighs. Rising higher to meet with soft matted hair and-


The Natalie Incident Ch. 03



(A huge thankyou to everyone who sent me feedback for the previous installments, and to those who asked for a continuation. I'm only sorry it took me so long to write it - as usual, that annoying thing we call life got in the way.)

**********

“Lonestar, where are you out tonight?,
This feeling I’m trying to fight,
It’s dark and I think that I would give anything,
For you to shine down on me...” -  Norah Jones



I stared out of the window down at the black strip of canal that lined the middle of the cobbled street several floors below me. No one was around, but that was hardly surprising due to the heavy rain and a time that was nearing three a.m. The street was dimly lit with ornately curved lamps that dripped soft pools of light, and thin iron bridges crossed the water at regular intervals. The buildings that lined the avenues were tall and elegant, many had windowboxes, all were immaculately maintained. I watched as a cat, barely more than a dark shadow, darted from the base of a wind-bent willow tree and disappeared into a small side street. The only other movement was the rocking of the moored barges as the weather rippled the canal.

Outside looked cold, but I was warm as I stood there naked. My feet sunk into heavy and expensive carpet and the heat emanating from the antique radiators dotted around the large room made sure I was comfortable. I turned my back to the window and looked through the darkness at the huge bed, all cast iron and masses of pillows, that stood against the far wall. At that moment the moon reappeared from behind the rainclouds and cast light through the window, splashing the bed and illuminating the girl that slept there. She’d kicked away the sheet that covered her, and I watched as the moonlight crept across her slender legs, curved behind and lower back before highlighting the dark tresses of hair that lay around her beautiful face. Her breathing hitched for a second, before she tucked her hand underneath her chin and rolled further onto her front.

I crossed the room silently and pulled the covers up over her, bent and placed a tiny kiss below her ear. She murmured and I watched her eyelids flicker and her small shoulders rise and fall steadily as I stroked her hair, before I turned and headed for the bathroom.

The face the peered back at me from the mirror was looking better than it had for some time. The darkness beneath my eyes was gone, my chin was scraped clean of stubble and my hair was cut short and neat. Apart from the fact that I couldn’t sleep, I was doing okay. My mouth felt dry and I brushed my teeth to restore some freshness, used the toilet and closed the door behind me to extinguish the noise of the flush as I returned to the bed. I noticed that my thighs were aching as I scrambled between the sheets, and I smiled to myself as I realized it was the result of several hours of lovemaking. After the workout we’d given ourselves I was amazed I wasn’t exhausted, let alone tired.

I blinked up at the dark ceiling as I lay with my hands laced behind my head and wondered what my friends would be doing at this moment. Back home it would be around six p.m, and the sun would be low on the skyline and my smalltown would be drawing slowly to a halt. Saturday night, a few of the boys would maybe be heading down to the Redbank Inn to lose a few bucks over nine-ball while drinking and listening to the band. Was it Saturday? Yeah, I guessed it was. Jet leg and a crazy last couple of days had completely screwed up my internal mechanisms, and was almost definitely the cause of my insomnia now.

I rolled over and molded myself against the warm body next to me, wrapping my arm around her and letting my hand fall over one small breast. I drew my legs up until my thighs were pressed against the underneath of her own and my crotch was against her soft buttocks, and lost my face in the sweet darkness of her hair. Outside, I heard the faint chimes of a church clock strike quarter after the hour, and smiled to myself once more. This time last week I’d been living and working in the town I grew up in, two hundred miles east of Los Angeles and still further from anything approaching adventure. Fast forward seven days, and I was holed up in a hotel in Amsterdam, thousands of miles from the world I knew, with a sleeping Natalie Portman in my arms. Sometimes life can throw you some real surprises.

**********

A couple of years ago I’d been trying to carve out a living in Los Angeles as an actor. Like thousands of other hopefuls I was spectacularly unsuccessful, but one of the most memorable things about my time in the City of Angels was meeting Natalie. The meeting became a friendship which in turn led to a series of misfortunes that left us stranded in a remote motel with nothing but each other for company. We made love that was sensual and exciting and the next day returned to the real world, and it was a world that we truthfully couldn’t both live in, at least not together. We drifted apart, she to a career that was heading skywards, me back to obscurity. A month later I gave up all thoughts of becoming the next Al Pacino and headed back home and became a writer for my local newspaper. I reviewed movies and music, drifted along as before, and dreamed of better times.

The better times arrived with the reappearance of Natalie in my life almost a year later. Seeking to escape the pressures of publicity and to renew our friendship she came to stay with me at my parents farm for a few days, and they turned out to be some of the best days I’d ever had. The two of us were more relaxed with each other than before, and our relationship intensified to a point beyond simple friendship and into a place that I don’t think either of us wanted to escape from. However, I knew that she wouldn’t stay in my backwater town forever, and deep down I knew I couldn’t either. Just as I thought I was going to lose her once again she asked me to go with her to New York. I looked around at what I’d got, and then thought about what I could have, and the decision wasn’t a difficult one. I packed up, said my good-byes, and was sitting next to her as we headed cross country on the American Airlines flight out of L.A. International the following afternoon.

Although I’d been there before, to a country-boy-at-heart New York will always be a daunting place. We took a cab from La Guardia, and I felt my heart start to quicken with anticipation and pure nervousness at the situation I was in as the sprawling lights of Manhattan edged ever closer. As the skyscrapers closed around us I knew Natalie could sense my mood, and she held my hand tightly and reassured me with kisses as the cab rattled over the Queensboro bridge and into the loudest, most crowded island on the face of the earth.

Of course, my nerves weren’t improved knowing that I was about to meet Natalie’s parents. I’ve had a few girlfriends in my past, and knew that being introduced to the family for the first time is never an envious experience. I gripped the bags firmly as we walked up the front steps to the door of the large brownstone situated in one of the island’s more quiet and expensive districts. Nat ruffled my hair and assured me I had nothing to worry about, and before she could even get her key in the lock the door was thrown open and woman looking twice her age and just as elegant embraced her tightly.

My fears were unnecessary. Her parents instantly accepted me into their home, and I found myself bonding and relaxing with her Father while Natalie and her Mother fussed around in the kitchen. By the time the two of them returned we were deep into a discussion concerning the genius of Led Zeppelin, and as Nat sat down next to me her Dad announced that I seemed to be a fairly sensible kind of guy. The warmth and friendliness shown to me by her parents helped me start to properly relax for the first time since we left home. That night I slept in a guest room at the top of the house which offered a spectacular view over the dark vistas of Central Park. We sat on my bed for a few minutes, Nat dressed in baggy striped pajamas which made her look unbelievably cute, drank hot chocolate, talked a little and kissed a lot. When our conversation became yawns I hugged her tightly at the open doorway before watching her trot down the stairs towards her own room. She blew me a kiss and disappeared out of sight, and I lay in a bed that was wide and comfortable and let me watch the stars through the skylight in the sloping roof. 

The next day dawned with heavy mist over the city, and I walked with Natalie to the early morning appointment she had made with her agent. Manhattan was as alive as always, and quite a few people that passed us said hello to her, and she took it all in her stride and answered everyone with a smile and friendly word. I found it hard to get used to, especially when people also looked at me when they noticed that I was holding her hand. By the time we reached the agent’s smart offices on the Upper East Side I started to feel like a curious new exhibit in one of the city’s many museums. I wondered how she coped with it as well as she did.

Natalie promised to call me as soon as her meeting was over, and after she’d disappeared inside I found a corner deli and ordered a breakfast sandwich that was roughly the size of a football and coffee that was strong enough to make my eyes water. I managed to make my way across Seventh Avenue without being killed by the torrent of traffic and into Central Park, where I watched the morning joggers and rollerbladers and became fascinated by three old Chinese men practicing the ancient art of Tai-Chi, an art which looked to be only slightly more ancient than they were. I threw the last half of my sandwich away with guilt.

After I’d finished the coffee and asked directions from a cop I made my way across the park to the large avenue known as Central Park West. I’m a huge music lover, and I always promised myself that if I ever had time and the opportunity I’d go to the Dakota building and see where John Lennon was senselessly gunned down some twenty-two years ago. The building was easy to find, and I was touched to see a lone busker standing on the opposite side of the Avenue knocking out a very decent version of Imagine. I listened until the end and tossed a couple of dollars into the battered hat that lay at his feet, before I heard the low buzz of my phone. I told Natalie my location and she told me she’d meet me by the Strawberry Fields mosaic in ten minutes.

The mosaic is of Lennon and was laid in the Park by Yoko Ono, and the whole area around the image is known as Strawberry Fields. I stood quietly and looked at the picture, then ambled down a slope towards the boating lake and watched geese float past before they vanished into the mist that still lay on the water like thin cloud. I now understood why New Yorkers came here; with the neat paths, sloping grass and acres of lush trees I could realize what a tonic Central Park must be from the relentless onslaught of the City.

I heard a soft whistle and looked up. Natalie was coming towards me, looking simple and beautiful in her battered denim jacket and black trousers. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and patches of scarlet lay on her cheeks. When she reached me she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me in a way that made me wish we were somewhere we could be alone.

‘You weren’t long,’ I said.

‘There wasn’t much to say,’ she replied. ‘Just the usual back and forth. Anyway, we’ve got a lot to get through today’

‘We have?’

She smiled. ‘You’ve shown me your hometown, now it’s my turn.’

‘I think yours might take more than a day.’

She kissed me again, then grabbed my hand. ‘Believe me, this girl is an expert.’

The next eight hours passed in a blur as we took the subway downtown and stopped off at various points along the way. Times Square, The Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden; places I’d only read about or seen in a thousand movies. We ate a fish lunch in a hippy-styled restaurant that was all tie-dye and cushions, before wandering around the bohemian districts of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. There were many unique little clothes shops in the Village and Nat worked her way through several that she knew well, in one place she bought a dress that was black and short, the kind of material that floated away and gave the impression that you might be able to see through it, depending on the way the light struck. She held it against herself and asked me what I thought, and I nodded my enthusiastic approval and only hoped I’d get to see her in it. We went down to Battery Park and I saw a distant Statue Of Liberty, and we stood together and in silence at the former site of the Twin Towers now known universally as Ground Zero. Throughout the day I watched her with a mixture of desire and amazement; she tackled the city so well and seemed to be so at home in a place I found totally alien, and whenever I seemed like the fish out of water I was she always made me feel better with a smile and hug that restored my confidence all over again. As early evening came we rode the subway uptown towards home, and she rested her head on my shoulder as I put my arm around her. If I hadn’t been waiting for a more appropriate moment, I might have told her that I was in love.

That night we stayed in and ate a fine dinner with her parents, and not long after nine I felt my eyes grow heavy as I sat on the couch with Nat sprawled across me while we watched a movie. We had an early flight booked for Amsterdam the next morning, and I was secretly glad when she said she wanted to go to bed; the Big Apple had taken it all out of me. While Natalie was in the bathroom I examined a wall of photographs in her room that contained many faces, some that were instantly recognizable. For a moment I felt very out of place; where exactly would I fit in with this collection of people that were pictured with Natalie throughout various times in her life? When she came back into the room wearing the same sexy pajamas from the night before my thoughts must have been echoed on my face, and she came over to were I stood.

‘Why so serious?’ she said.

‘I’m just tired.’

‘You sure?’

‘You’ve done so much in your life already.’ I said, looking back at the pictures that virtually catalogued her from child to adult.

‘I’ve been really lucky.’

I looked back to her. ‘No, you’ve worked really hard. You deserve it.’

We embraced, her head on my shoulder and my face on her neck, and I dotted a string of tiny kisses around the circumference of her ear. In return I felt her hands pull at the base of my shirt, and a moment later fingers first on the small of my back before they crept an inch under the waist of my jeans. I traced my own fingers up her spine and over her shoulders until they wound into her hair, and I gently pulled her head up and lowered my lips to her own. Our mouths were open, my tongue was against hers, and as she pressed her body to me I felt myself start to respond.

‘You don’t know how much I want to sleep with you tonight,’ I said, taking my lips an inch from hers. She moved against me again.

‘I think I do,’ she said, smiling, and I took my hands from her hair and started to unfasten the tiny white buttons that held her pajama top together. I opened four and ran my finger slowly down her neck and between the small, shadowed cleavage that was visible between the fabric. I allowed myself to slide a finger over the swell of her breast and graze her soft nipple, before reluctantly pulling my hand away. Natalie opened her eyes and looked at me.

‘If I don’t stop, I’m just going to take you right here on the floor,’ I muttered, ‘and I have a feeling that might shatter any good work I’ve put in with your parents.’

She nodded. ‘I don’t think Mom would be very impressed to find us rolling around on the rug.’

‘Neither do I,’ I replied, as I finished refastening the buttons. ‘Think I’d better just limp upstairs before I can’t help myself.’

‘Believe me, wait till we get away and I’ll be all over you. You’ll be sick of the attention.’

I chuckled. ‘Yeah. I’ll probably be sick of it in around forty years. Maybe thirty.’

She pecked my lips. ‘Go on, get out of here before it’s me that can’t help herself.’

I watched as she slid between the sheets before I closed the door on the image of an angel and wearily climbed the stairs to my own room. I spent a few minutes watching the vehicle lights traverse the avenues of Manhattan like fast flowing rivers of neon before the stinging of my eyes convinced me to go to bed. The city continued to breathe while I rapidly fell towards sleep, a happy but frustrated man.

**********


That was yesterday. Today had seemed to consist entirely of traveling. Manhattan to JFK to Amsterdam. By the time the cab had made it’s way from the futuristic airport into the heart of the city it was fully dark. The journey through the streets of the city had been at breakneck speed, buildings and lights had been nothing more than a blur, and as I watched the taillights of the cab fade into the night I felt totally lost. Natalie knew exactly where she was, however, and she pulled me up a set of wide stone steps and into the lobby of the small, expensive looking hotel.

I knew that Amsterdam was one of Natalie’s favorite places. She’d first been here to visit the world famous Anne Frank house to research the history behind the story in preparation for playing the role on Broadway. In the last few years she’d returned a handful of times, sometimes with friends or family, and a couple of times alone to find some peace from the publicity of the current project that she was involved in. She’d stayed at the same small hotel for a few days last year, and I could see why as we were checked in by friendly staff and shown to our third floor room by a constantly smiling porter. It was central to the city yet seemingly very quiet, situated in the middle of a maze of canals and expensive enough to be very private. The kind of place I’d only read about.

Our room was beautiful. High ceiling, real art on the walls, rugs, a fire that flicked orange tongues of light across the shadows and a huge bed overloaded with covers. It was mere minutes after the porter had closed the door that we found ourselves naked, rolling across the bed and forgetting our fatigue as the passion we’d been forced to hold back for the last couple of days spilled forth. Nothing else seemed to be important except for what we felt for each other...

**********

I heard the clock strike again, pulling me away from the memories of the last few days. I ran my hand down over Natalie’s stomach and grazed her tiny bellybutton with my little finger, her skin rising and falling with the slow breath of sleep. Her foot pressed against my shin and a second later she moved her hand over my own, holding my fingers against her. It thrilled me to know that she wanted me to be so close, and in return I kissed her shoulder softly and pressed myself as close to her as I was able.

‘You awake?’ She mumbled in a voice almost inaudible with sleep.

‘Just about,’ I whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you.’

‘S’okay.’ She wriggled underneath my arm and twisted around until she faced me. In the darkness of the room her face was nothing more than patches of dark shadow. ‘You alright?’

‘I’m perfect,’ I said, pulling her into me and letting my fingers brush the small of her back. ‘My timing’s just messed up, that’s all. I’m not used to jetting around the world.’

‘Glad we’ve come?’

‘You bet. Even though all I’ve seen of Amsterdam is this room and all of you,’ I said, my fingers now rubbing the groove at the top of her buttocks.

‘It’s a really beautiful place.’

‘Can’t be as beautiful as some of your places.’




The Natalie Incident Ch. 03



She giggled and flicked her finger lightly against my ribs. ‘I love all your tacky lines.’

‘They’re the only ones I know honey.’

She giggled again, and rubbed her head against my shoulder, yawning gently and causing her breath to tickle the light hair on my chest. We held each other tightly, and I loved the feel of her on me, her leg drawn up between my thighs, her toes like feathers on my skin. I stroked her and closed my eyes and thought only of good things. Any problems I might have had seemed like a world away. Just when I thought she’d gone back to sleep she spoke again.

‘My parents really liked you.’

‘Did they?’ I said, and she nodded. ‘Your Dad’s a cool guy,’ I added.

‘Mom thought you were a real gentleman.’

‘How little she knows me.’

‘Yeah, she’ll learn,’ whispered Natalie, raising her head and kissing my cheek.

‘Seriously, I’m glad they thought I was okay,’ I said. ‘I was worried about meeting them.’

Nat ran her fingers across my chest. ‘I know you were, but they really liked you,’ she repeated, ‘and it means a lot to me that they did.’ I felt her body relax against mine once more, soft and deliciously warm. ‘I want them to approve of my boyfriend.’

In the darkness a smile spread across my face and my heart began to beat just that little bit faster. 

‘What are you grinning about?’ said Natalie.

‘How can you tell I’m grinning?’ 

‘I can sense it.’

I slid a couple of inches down the silk sheet until I was facing her in the blackness, the tip of my nose almost touching her own. ‘You’ve never said that before,’ I whispered. ‘I guess it must agree with me.’

‘What must?’ she said, and I could hear the tease in her voice.

It made my pulse race just to say it. ‘Being your boyfriend.’	

‘You are,’ she breathed, as her parted lips met mine, soft pressure against my mouth and the tip of her tongue tickling against my own. Then her tongue was darting across my neck in tiny trails and I shuddered as she licked one of my most sensitive spots, just beneath my earlobe. I pulled her tighter against me and felt her hard little nipples pushing into my chest, and as she stretched her lean body against me my rapidly increasing erection brushed against her inner thigh.

‘You can’t be horny again?’ Her breath was soft in my ear.

‘How can I not be?’ I replied, ‘when you’re doing that to me?’

‘I suppose this doesn’t help,’ she said, and slowly lifted her thigh until it started to push between my legs . Her skin slid over mine, until the top of her thigh was very lightly brushing the hair on my balls. She started to caress me lightly, softly, and in seconds I was fully hard.

‘No, it doesn’t,’ I said, and grazed her nipple with my thumb.

‘Thought not,’ she said, and after another brief caress she moved her leg over my waist and pulled herself up and onto my body in one smooth movement. I could feel her short pubic hair on my abdomen, and as she squirmed against me a tiny smear of wetness hit my skin. I ran my fingers along her back and up onto the curve of her butt, and she wriggled delightfully against me as I closed my palms over the velvet skin off her ass. Her thighs spread across me, held me, and then her lips were against my ear once more and her hair was across my face as she wet my skin with her tongue. She raised herself, hands on my shoulders, and in the dark her shadow looked down at me as she pushed her weight backwards. A moment later the head of my erection brushed dampness, and I moaned as Natalie moved the wet entrance of her vagina against my dick, letting me slip inside her for just the slightest moment before moving away from me. Her stomach rubbed against mine as she moved her hips gently back and forth, and as I pulled her buttocks apart and exposed her she let forth a barely audible gasp. Then, in one easy movement, she lowered her mouth to my throat and slid backwards. She sank onto me, and I felt her body shudder beneath my hands.

‘I love the feel of you in me,’ she whispered, and as a reply I held her hips firmly and pulled my body as deeply into her as I could, and as she jerked upwards I locked my mouth over a nipple, sucked gently. Her hands grabbed at my hair as I alternated my tongue against her breasts, and the sheet fell away from her shoulders as we sat up in the middle of the bed. Natalie was locked against me, legs wrapped around my waist, and I dug my fingers into her skin as I felt my penis slide ever deeper inside her.

The tip of Natalie’s nose touched my own as she looked deeply into my eyes, and although dark I believed I could see her irises spark in the blackness. Her breath was hot against my face, quickening slightly as I pushed my hips upwards and jerked myself into her. Then it was my turn to shiver as she clenched her muscles in return, the wet grip of her tight pussy holding me like a vice.

For a couple of minutes we sat that way, taking pleasure in the feel of each other, of being as close to each other as was possible. She tickled her nails across my back as I lined her throat with licks and kisses, working my way upwards until my mouth was against her lips once more. Our kissing began gently and then quickly became more passionate as we started to rock slightly against each other, barely moving. Natalie rested her forearms on my shoulders and started to lift herself up and down on me, but before she could find a rhythm I pulled her down once more onto aching shaft. I held her waist tightly and began to slide her over me, the muscles bunching in my arms as I took her weight on my body. I wanted to hold her, to give this gorgeous girl that I was rapidly losing my heart to all the pleasure that I could. To make her feel as amazing as she did to me. 

The position we were in meant that Natalie’s clit was rubbing against me everytime I lowered her sticky vagina back onto me, and it wasn’t long before her gasps became more frequent in my ear. Sexy little cries of passion that were so exciting I was amazed that I didn’t come there and then. I felt her legs start to shake against me, and I knew she was getting close. I rolled a nipple across my tongue before suddenly sucking hard on the tight skin, and I felt a droplet of her sweat land on my cheek as she threw her head backwards. That tiny bead of moisture seemed to be the signal for my own orgasm to start approaching, and I willed myself to hold back, to let Natalie come first. She slammed her body down onto mine, and I knew that I was about to explode.

And then her hands were pulling at my skin and her whole body was trembling. I thrust upwards and was rewarded with a soft moan from Natalie’s throat followed by the blissful sensation of hot fluid flooding my dick. The bedclothes rippled around us as I ground her into me, and everytime her crotch beat down on me she became more sticky and cried louder, until I could stand it no more. I fell back onto my elbows and felt my orgasm rush forth, an almost unbearable sense of pleasure, and then I ejaculated hard with streams of come that shot deeply into Natalie, causing her to collapse across my sweat-soaked chest.

We lay still for a few moments, and then Nat pulled herself off me and rolled over onto her back. I raised my arm and she snuggled against me, running her fingers lazily over my stomach, down through my pubic hair and over the base of my shaft, still wet with the combination of our come. Very gently, she started to work it into my skin, her fingers massaging my balls with the lightest of touches that would soon have had me hard again save for the fact I was completely spent. 		

‘Are you trying to kill me?’ I said, bending my head and kissing her hair.

‘I’ve got to keep your skin soft.’

‘Baby, with you around I’m never going to be soft.’

She giggled, and held me in her hand while we kissed again. Just as I was considering going for another round, the sound of the church clock striking came once more, and Nat broke the kiss.

‘Maybe that means time’s up?’ she whispered.

I nodded. ‘Four o’clock. We’d better get some rest if you want to see the daylight tomorrow.' I paused and considered. ‘Well, if I want to see tomorrow.'

We pulled the covers back around us in a messed-up bundle, and I molded myself against her back once again, a position I loved to be in ever since our first night spent together, a night that now seemed so long ago. And as I lay there trying to think exactly when that time had been, and how differently my life had progressed since then, I drifted peacefully away.

**********

The night rain had cleared and been replaced with opaque rays of sunshine that were creeping slowly over the bed when I awoke. I lay still for a couple of minutes and allowed myself to do no more than look over towards the window; I was in such a perfect state of warmth and comfort that I was loathe to break it. Eventually I moved my hand and found Natalie’s fingers, stroked her skin for a time and then turned my head towards her. She was on her front again, her face obscured into the pillow, and I pushed her hair back behind her ear and brushed the tip of my finger against the tiny dark mole that contrasted against the fresh whiteness of the skin on her cheek. I kissed the mark softly, looked at her sleeping peacefully for just a moment more, and then tucked the covers up over her shoulders while I slid out of the bed.

Last night we’d done nothing more than undressed and gone to bed, and our bags were still neatly against the wardrobe where the porter had placed them. I unzipped my slightly battered leather holdall and rooted around until I found my toilet kit, and then pulled out some clothes that would have benefited from laundry and a hot iron. I laid some decent jeans and a black shirt across the back of a chair and hoped that some of the creases would drop out, and then crossed to the bathroom.

I showered quickly, brushed and flossed and spent a bemused couple of minutes sniffing and examining all off the expensive-looking complimentary stuff that stood on the marble shelf beneath the large mirror, and then returned to the bedroom. I hadn’t made any conscious effort to be quiet, but Natalie was still fast asleep in the position that I’d left her. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table and saw it was nearly nine. I couldn’t see any point in waking her though, she obviously needed the sleep, and as far as I knew we had no schedules to keep.

Although I was still tired myself, I think it was pure excitement that had got me out of bed. I still couldn’t really believe that I was here, overseas in one of Europe’s premier cities with nothing more challenging in my near future than to spend time with a girl I was crazy about. My girlfriend Natalie. Could I really say that? I couldn’t stop smiling as I pulled on clean underwear and let that statement run around my thoughts, and decided that I could. In the middle of the night, almost as if in a dream, she’d called me her boyfriend, and that was something that made me feel very good indeed. 

I watched the scene through the window while I buttoned my shirt and rolled the sleeves up over my forearms to hide some of the creases. The weather wasn’t spectacular but the sun that had woken me was still there, casting reflections on the barely moving water of the canal. An old lady with deeply tanned skin was selling flowers from a cart that was covered in a spectrum of colour, and people moved back and forth along the small street bordering our building. Some were dressed in suits and were obviously heading for a day of business, others were more casual in their appearance and manner, walking beneath the green-tinted trees and just enjoying the morning. There were very few cars around, and that made for a quiet ambiance, and I struggled to grasp that I was actually in the centre of a major capital. I could see the atmosphere; now I wanted to taste it.

There was some beautifully designed stationary on the dresser, and I quickly scrawled Natalie a small note telling her that I was downstairs, crossed a couple of kisses beneath my words and left it on the pillow next to her. I found the room key, took one final look at her sleeping form, and closed the door quietly behind me.

Last night I’d been so tired and disorientated that I hadn’t really taken in the details of the hotel, and as I descended a wide spiral staircase that was covered in heavy crimson carpet and much polished wood I could see just what a superb place we were in. Everything was neat and uncluttered, the furniture obviously antique and expensive, and the building itself didn’t seem to be much more than a large, exclusive house. Our room was on the top floor, the third, and as I descended I counted only six more numbered doors. The walls of the staircase were decorated with artwork that showed what I assumed to be past and present views of the city, and I passed no-one else as I headed downwards.

The stairs finished in the lobby, frosted glass doors giving a view of the canal, a couple of huge leather sofas, and a small reception growing out of the marble floor. Healthy looking foliage everywhere. Behind the desk was a youngish man wearing a neat suit, and he looked up as I stood taking everything in.

‘Good morning, Sir.’ His smile was friendly and his accent heavy, although it didn’t affect his excellent English. I crossed over to him.

‘Morning,’ I said, and held my hand out, which he shook warmly. ‘Good looking day.’

He nodded. ‘It’s going to be warm and dry, much better than last night. I hope the rain didn’t keep you awake?’

I shook my head and suppressed a smile, remembering instantly what had kept me awake. ‘No, not at all. It’s a beautiful room.’

‘Thankyou.’

I looked around me, almost pointlessly, and he waited until I had turned back to face him, as if he knew what I was going to ask next. ‘Please don’t think this is a dumb question,’ I said, ‘but where are we?’

His laugh was so polite and friendly that I couldn’t help but smile myself. ‘You’re in Amsterdam.’

‘Could you be more specific? All I saw last night was blurred lights and buildings.’

He quickly moved from behind the desk, revealing to me the rest of his incredibly smart grey suit and a pair of shoes with a shine that could cause blindness if you stared for too long. It made me feel as if I should tuck my shirt in. There was a leather bound folder on the desktop, and he stood next to me and opened it, folded out a detailed map of the city on the surface before us.

‘Amsterdam,’ he said, brushing the back of his hand across the entire map, ‘and we are here.’ His finger pointed to a small maze of blue lines in the centre of the city that I took to indicate canals. ‘This area is called Jordaan. You have many sights and shops around you,’ his finger draw a larger circle around the area, ‘but here is nice and quiet. Very relaxing.’

I glanced up at him, and my enthusiasm was genuine. ‘Looks fantastic.’

‘I think you’ll love it. But why stare at a map?’ He pointed towards the doors. ‘As you said, it’s a beautiful day.’

The clock on the wall behind the desk read a quarter after nine. ‘I’m guessing we’re too late for breakfast,’ I said. ‘My girlfriend is sleeping and I-’

‘You can eat whenever you want,’ the clerk interrupted, ‘there’s no restrictions on the dining here, a chef is always available. Miss Portman and yourself must treat this as your home, Mr. Edwards.’

I looked at him with bemusement. ‘You know who I am?’

He nodded. ‘As guests, it’s my job to know who you are.’ If I’d heard that statement back in America I’d have taken it to sound tacky, overbearing falseness. This morning though, spoken by the genuinely friendly clerk, it came across as genuinely meant. I held my hand out again, and he shook it with a dry, firm palm. ‘What was your name?’ I said.

‘Dieter.’

‘Thankyou Dieter, very much.’ He gave me a relaxed salute and returned to his place behind the desk, and I span on my heel and headed for the frosted glass door. Just as I reached my hand out it swung outwards, held open by another well-dressed, middle-aged man this time wearing a peaked cap and who appeared as if he’d been hiding in the shadows. I hadn’t even seen him before I’d reached the door. I thanked him as I stepped out onto the stone steps, and he wished me a good morning as I passed him.

I fairly bounded down the steps and into the narrow pedestrian street, by this time unable to stop the grin that was spreading across my face. I wasn’t used to expensive places and people treating me Iike I was someone that mattered. I wondered if this was what rock stars felt like on a daily basis. Was this how it was for Natalie all the time? Although I wasn’t sure if I could stand it continuously, for the moment I was enjoying it immensely.

The sunlight sparkled off the water as I stood against a chain fence and looked across the water. Away to my left the canal curved gently out of view, and the tall houses that lined the route curved with it, their white-painted brickwork reflecting the morning light and making me squeeze my eyes against the glare. To my right the canal continued a straight line, interspersed at regular intervals with small bridges that arched from one side to the other. There were masses of willows lining the route, the light breeze making their bows dance back and forth. I heard birds call, a bicycle bell ringing behind me, and very little traffic. People passed on foot, and I watched a young guy buy flowers from the stall next to the hotel entrance. There was pollen in the air, and somewhere across the water I smelt baking bread and fresh coffee, and I breathed it in deeply.

I’d never really traveled as much as I’d meant too. Who had? I’d been to Alaska after I’d finished school, and spent a few weeks doing the usual backpacker trail around Australia, but mostly I’d only seen various parts of the United States. And as much as I loved my country, wherever you went it was still effectively home. Okay, so maybe I couldn’t level that statement at Texas, but you get what I’m saying. It was immediately obvious to me, however, that Europe was very different to anywhere I’d previously been. I was amazed by the cleanliness of the place and the peace and quiet. I knew that Amsterdam had a reputation for dope, and I wondered if I’d inadvertently smoked something. I’d never felt this relaxed in a place so quickly.

For the next few minutes I did nothing except lean against the canal railings and absorb the scene. I felt the cool metal against my forearms, the breeze and sun alternating their power against the back of my neck, and the fresh air filling my lungs as I made myself breathe steadily and consciously. Something rose in the shallows, and I saw a flash of silver and then ripples pushing out in expanding circles. The effect was mesmerizing, and I kept my gaze on the water and watched for anything else move, until I felt a hand on the small of back.

I came out of my almost trance-like state and turned around quickly. Natalie was there, her hair loose and falling across her forehead, her eyes still slightly red after just waking, dressed simply in grey sweats and a white t-shirt, and I thought instantly, just like I always did, that she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She leant into me and turned her face up to mine, and we kissed. At that moment the surroundings that I’d previously been so enthralled with just melted away.

‘Morning,’ she said, hugging me tightly.

‘You found my note?’

She shook her head and kept one arm around my waist as she moved next to me and we both stood overlooking the water. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think it’s even better now that you’re here.’ 

She gave me the smile that always floored me, and we kissed again. This time when our lips parted I didn’t let her pull away from me. Instead I kept my nose almost against her own and stared into her eyes. ‘Natalie?’




The Natalie Incident Ch. 03



‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘I’m really glad you came to find me,’ I said, ‘when I was back home.’

‘I should have done it sooner,’ she replied. ‘I wish that I had.’

‘No,’ I said, shaking my head slightly. ‘I shouldn’t have let you go when we were in Los Angeles.’

‘Maybe it just wasn’t the right time then,’ she said, her fingers brushing the skin on my neck.

‘Is it the right time now?’

This time her kiss was open mouthed, her tongue brushing my own, and I closed my eyes and pressed her body against mine as I tasted her. When we parted she held my face in her hands for a moment. ‘Does that answer your question?’

I shook my head and held her, nuzzled my nose through her ear, and was about to say something else when the blast of a car horn, the first I’d heard in the city, broke us from the moment. I looked around to see a black Mercedes trying to get around the large pushcart that was being used as a flower stall. The driver tooted again, and the old lady running the stall turned towards the Merc and came out with a stream of language stopped the impatient driver instantly. I had no grasp of Dutch at all, but I guessed that she wasn’t wishing him a good day. We both watched the car creep past before Natalie spoke again.

‘So, have you got anything you want to do today?’

I took her hand in mine. ‘As long as it involves being with you, I really don’t care.’ I looked back at the hotel and thought about what the clerk had said to me. ‘I wouldn’t mind getting some breakfast though,’ I continued. ‘I need to get my strength back after last night.’

‘Oh really?’ She said, smiling as we crossed back over the narrow street. ‘You’d better get your vitamins as well then, because I intend to keep you busy.’ She pecked me on the cheek and let go of my hand, and I watched her skip across to the flower-stall and buy a beautifully wrapped spray of tulips before she returned to me and we walked up the hotel steps together. The doorman saluted us again as we entered, and once again I felt a little awkward. I also felt pretty damn good.

**********

That day in Amsterdam was easily one of the best of my life. After we’d returned to the room and Natalie had changed into dark jeans and a striped shirt we decided against breakfast at the hotel. Natalie knew of a little bistro just across the water that she assured me served the best food in the western world, and ten minutes later I was in total agreement as we sat at a table in the window and worked our way through a pile of blueberry pancakes that redefined the meaning of the word delicious. I felt re-energised after a couple of cups of dark coffee, and by the time we left the sun has chased away the remaining clouds to leave a sky that was powder blue. For a while we just walked through the quiet streets, not saying much yet not really needing to; I was taking Amsterdam in for the first time, and Nat was reliving it all over again. We wondered past a myriad of small shops, tiny cafes and neat bars that were just waking up for business. Many of the owners of the thin, four-story houses seemed to have converted the ground floors or basements into workshops; there was a middle-aged man sanding and varnishing superb hand-crafted furniture in one, and I spotted a woman working on a canvas in the sunlight that was seeping through her open door, many beautiful paintings crowding behind her. I knew that we were in an expensive residential district of the city, but it seemed to me as if everyone that lived here was an artist. If that was the case, I could see why they had moved here. I’d spent approximately an hour in the Jordann and it was already inspiring me. 

We took a canal taxi, a small boat built for six and powered by a discreet motor. We were the only passengers, and the pilot took Natalie’s hand and supported her as she climbed from the street to the deck and slid into the leather-padded seat. I jumped down and sat beside her, and she took my hand between her own and held it against her as the boat wobbled away from the bank through the hanging vines of the willow trees that lined the water. The pilot kept the speed low and we slid along the canal, the sunlight only broken when we cruised through the shadowed arches of bridges. A grand church loomed alongside us, gothic architecture competing against the ravages of time, and then a little further on Natalie pointed out to me the house where Anne Frank had hidden from the Nazi occupation of the city for four long years. She grew quiet as we passed, and I held her tightly and didn’t say anything. I knew the story of the little Jewish girl and her famous diary and was saddened by it, but I couldn’t really appreciate it in the same way that she could.

After a while the canal opened out and the noise around us increased, and it was obvious that we were approaching the very heart of Amsterdam. We left the taxi and headed into Dam Square, a huge pedestrian area flanked on all-sides by Government buildings and the old Royal Palace. It was spectacular and impressive, and I found myself unable to do anything than stare open-mouthed like the typical tourist that I was. Natalie laughed at my expression, and pulled a small camera from her purse and proceeded to snap a picture of me. Two elderly people passed us and she asked them if they’d take a photo of the two of us, and we stood with our arms tightly around each other and the Palace behind us as the camera caught our happiness in time forever. The old man returned the camera to Nat and she thanked him, and as they walked away I held her in my arms and kissed her deeply, not caring who was watching us. The square was filled with many people from many places, but at that moment as my lips touched Natalie’s and my fingers stroked her hair we might as well been in a deserted city. 

Morning passed quietly through to afternoon as we spent our time exploring the streets, stopping off in whatever small shops took our interest, sitting drinking a beer overlooking the harbor, or just walking through the parks that cropped up throughout the city at various points like a green oasis in a stone desert. We took pictures of each other until the camera ran out of film, and bought useless and delightfully tacky souvenirs to take back for our respective friends and family. Whatever we did though, it seemed as if we couldn’t stand to be separated from each other for even the smallest amount of time. We constantly held hands, touched one another, circled around one another as if we both wanted to exist within a space designed purely for one person. It wasn’t just Amsterdam that was making me feel relaxed; I’d never felt so at ease, or so able to just be myself, as I did with Natalie.

We skipped lunch, but around five-thirty that afternoon both of us had worked up appetites, and we found ourselves in a very laid back restaurant that was all dark walls, purple cushions, a ceiling filled with hand-painted stars and an ambient soundtrack. The food was Mediterranean; vegetarian and incredibly good, and we ordered various small dishes and ate well, sitting against each other in a small booth and sharing our food. A constantly smiling waitress with blonde dreadlocks and around a million bracelets bought us a couple of beers which we drank straight from the bottle. Natalie drank deeply and then turned and kissed me, and for the next half hour we whispered and giggled in each other’s ear and relaxed to the music. I started to yawn, a combination of my previous late night and total satisfaction, but before I could close my eyes Nat had taken me by the hand and pulled me to my feet. We settled the check and emerged into an early evening that was bathed in orange fire from a rapidly cooling sun. After a brief discussion we caught a tram back in the direction of the Jordann and our hotel, standing near the back of the carriage as it rattled through the center of the city. Natalie leant with her back against me as I watched the buildings and people pass us by. I thought of home for a brief minute, of my friends, of the safe, slightly dull life that I had there, and I wondered how I could ever go back to it after the time I’d spent with her. Could it be possible that my life would never get any better than it was at this minute, or was today the first step for me into the unknown, into a world where the next opportunity was just around the corner and Natalie was always by my side? I lowered my face to her hair, closed my eyes and tried to divert my thoughts, afraid of the answer.

**********

The warm water beat against the back of my neck, I could feel where the sun had caught me during the day, and it ran between my shoulders and competed for attention with the fingers that stroked my skin. In return I smoothed my soapy hands down Natalie’s back and over her butt, my palms pulling her wet body against mine, and the shower worked across us as we kissed beneath a sheen of spray.

We’d returned to the room and almost immediately destroyed the bed that had been neatly prepared in our absence, throwing ourselves across it as we tore our clothes off and made love. After we’d both calmed down we moved to the shower, washing each other with slow movements, rubbing lather into our slippery skins and holding each other tightly. Even then our lust wasn’t fully satisfied, and it was only a matter of moments before I licked my way down Natalie’s throat to her small breasts and took her erect nipple between my teeth, teasing it as I rubbed a soap-slicked hand through her wet pubic hair and slid a finger inside her. In return she took my once-more erect penis in her hand and pulled at me with increasing speed, my fingers matching her own as she rubbed me against her flat stomach, and we moaned against each other as we came almost simultaneously.

Now we just held each other under the comforting spray, tired and virtually holding each other up, until the water finally started to run cool and we stepped regretfully out of the shower and dried ourselves on the huge, soft white towels that were provided. Back in the bedroom I sprawled out across the bed and propped myself up on pillows while Natalie dialed in a radio station on the discreet and expensive stereo and then sat at the dressing table, the towel wrapped around her like a short, tight dress. I watched as she ran a comb through her damp hair, and then rubbed moisturizer into her cheeks and forehead in tiny circles. She frowned and leant into the mirror, examining her eyes, and it was only then that she noticed me watching her. She gave me a bemused look with her reflection.

‘What are you looking at?’ she said, smiling.

‘You.’

‘I don’t know why. Look at the dark circles under my eyes.’ She frowned again and looked back at herself. ‘I look totally-’

‘You look totally gorgeous,’ I said, my interruption causing her smile to return.

‘You’re biased.’

‘That’s true,’ I replied, stretching myself out on the bed with a groan of satisfaction, ‘but it’s a simple fact that to me you’re always beautiful.’

The tones of the Dutch dee-jay changed to the opening bars of an old Beatles tune as Natalie turned on the stool and looked directly at me. Her hands were folded in her lap and her breasts formed a small cleavage above the hem of the towel. A lone lock of hair fell across her forehead and she didn’t brush it away as she spoke.

‘If I ask you something, will you answer honestly?’ Her voice was soft, echoing the look in her eyes, and I nodded. ‘You do want to be with me, don’t you?’

‘Is this a trick question?’

‘No. Rich, I’m being serious.’ She rose from the stool quickly and crossed over to the bed, and I pulled myself upright, able to see from the look on her face that she meant exactly what she’d just said. She sat next to me and took my hands and held them tightly, looked at me with those dark eyes that sometimes gave everything away and sometimes told me nothing. 

‘I can’t believe you’d even ask me that,’ I said. ‘You know-’

She shushed me with a finger against my lips, then ran her hand across my jawline and held my face in her palm. ‘It worries me that you’ve just dropped everything and done exactly what I’ve wanted to. I think that maybe it was unfair of me to turn up out of the blue, to ask you to come away with me.’ Her chin dropped and her eyes left mine as she spoke.

‘I asked you to stay with me, remember?’

‘I know, I know, and I could have. I could have found a way. But I didn’t.’

‘You couldn’t. There was no way, not with everything you’ve got going on at the moment, the demands that people put on you.’ I paused and lifted her face to mine, and felt a stab of pain in my heart when I saw the first forming of a tear in her eye. ‘I knew that as soon as I asked you.’

She swallowed hard. ‘But when I asked you, you just changed your life for me.’

I sat up, tossed the wet towel away from my lap to the floor, and drew her to me. I brushed the damp hair from her face and wiped the tear that had started to slide down her cheek. ‘Listen to me, everything I’m about to say is serious,’ I whispered. ‘My life changed after that night we spent together out in the desert. It made me realize a lot about myself, about what I was doing.’

‘Do you regret it?’

‘No. Never. Being with you that night was just perfect, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. The only thing I regret was not being with you when we got back to Los Angeles. But as you said this morning, maybe the time just wasn’t right. I went back home and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you, of course I did. There wasn’t a day went by when I didn’t think about you, or wish that I could see you again. And then one afternoon, that wish came true.’

Now when I looked at her there were more tears, but a small smile had also joined them. 

‘Nat, I stood at the window last night and watched you sleep, and thought about what we’d done these past few days, and I was happy. Truly happy, for the first time in a long while. I might have left a life behind me, but it was a life that wasn’t really making me satisfied. Not like when I’m with you, I feel as if I can do anything, that nothing is beyond me. There’s nowhere else on Earth that I’d rather be at this moment, and you ask me if I want to be with you?’ I had to stop for a moment, putting my own rising emotion in check before I continued. ‘The truth is, I can’t imagine being without you.’

‘Do you mean that?’

‘You know I do,’ I replied, and she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly, her breath sweet against my neck and her skin hot where it pressed against my own. I held her tightly and lost myself in the darkness of her hair, smelt the soap on her skin, and closed my eyes while her heartbeat thudded against my chest. 

‘I’m supposed to be the neurotic one in this relationship,’ I muttered. ‘It should be me asking you these things.’

She giggled, and it was like music to my ears. I hated to see her upset, and I’d have done anything to make her feel better again. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

‘Don’t be.’ I pulled back and looked into her eyes, now regaining some of their regular shine. ‘Just remember that-’ I stopped, my voice drying in my throat before I said what I wanted to. Now it was my turn to look away, and I focused on the golden sunset that was distant through the window.

Natalie squeezed my forearm. ‘Remember what?’ she breathed.

I turned my gaze back to her, and knew instantly that what I was about to say was right, and that I had nothing to be afraid of. There had been times in the past when I’d been afraid to show my deepest emotions, afraid to fully expose myself to someone, but this wasn’t to be one of them. As I’d said to Natalie just moments earlier, she made me feel as if I could do anything. I took a deep breath.

‘Just remember that I’m in love with you.’

We looked at each other again for a moment, and then were hugging, kissing, holding each other tightly. The radio continued to hum away quietly in the background, the warm air in the room quickly dried our skin, and the shadows lengthened across the floor as the sun finally dipped below the horizon and was replaced by a clear night sky that weaved it’s way through the city.

**********

We’d intended on seeing the town that night, but in the end we never even made it out of the room. I think it was only after we were in each other’s arms that we realized just how tired we both were. The last few days had been busy and exciting, our lust for each other the night before had ensured we’d had little sleep, and the conversation that had culminated in my confession of love after our long day had both left us exhausted. I called down to room service and asked for a good bottle of wine, and minutes later there was a sharp rap at the door and Natalie hid her nakedness under the covers while I accepted the tray from the same porter who had helped us the day before.

We drank from delicate glasses and lay against each other and talked quietly, and it wasn’t long before I looked down and started to see Natalie’s eyes drooping heavily with sleep. I took the glass from her hand and placed it on the bedside table, and wrapped one arm around her while I lay propped on the pillow and watched the first spots of rain hit the window. Nat curled against me, her head against my chest, her breath steady against my skin. The room was virtually in blackness, illuminated only by the two candles that I’d lit earlier and by ambient light that crept through the beaded glass. I finished my wine and listened to the far-off sounds of Amsterdam in the distance, and then found the remote and snapped on the TV, kept the volume off and worked through the channels. Gameshow, news, sport. I kept going until I landed on a station showing a scratched print of Taxi Driver. I watched in silence while DeNiro mooched around his apartment and enquired if anyone was talking to him, but after a few minutes I not only heard anything, but never really saw anything either. My mind was on the girl that I held in my arms.

Regardless of the relationship you have, once you tell someone that you love them things change automatically. You’re offering up the strongest declaration of feeling that can be given, and it’s not something to be done lightly. It’s more than just words, it’s stripping bare everything that you are and letting someone see right to the core of your soul, it’s asking someone to accept you for everything that you are, good and bad. It was something that I’d only done to two other people in my life, and even then the first time had been a mistake, teenage hormones and enthusiasm substituting themselves for the real thing. Now I was old enough to realize what love was. Did I love Natalie? Deeply and honestly. The sound of her voice, the way she walked, even the way she breathed filled me with a satisfaction and happiness that I couldn’t ever recall feeling as strongly before.

She said that I’d changed my life for her, and that was true. Virtually everything that I’d done in the last year had been because of or influenced by her in some way. My return from Los Angeles and the forgotten dreams of becoming an actor. The way I’d kept a low profile in my small town and rarely gone out, preferring to stay home nights with the stereo on and book propped open on my lap. Working as a journalist on my town paper. All of these things had never been part of my plan, and while I didn’t resent the life that I’d made, most of the decisions had arisen after the long, almost dreamlike night that I’d spent with Natalie at the ramshackled motel in the desert. And now, here I was on the other side of the world, my home far away, my job already a distant memory, and no plans for the future beyond what the next morning would bring.

And I loved it. I loved the feeling of freedom, of not knowing what was next on my agenda. I’d told Natalie that she made me feel as if I could do anything, and that was true. That day we’d finally met each other again, a day that a part of me always knew would come, had released me. New York and Amsterdam were a new beginning. Had I changed my life for her? Of course I had, but that was what you did when you fell in love with someone. Life was love, and at the moment both were as good as I’d ever had.




The Natalie Incident Ch. 2



I moved around the bed and unbuckled and kicked off my jeans, stood in only my undershorts once again. 'You all right if I stay like this?' I said.

'Of course.'

'I can put on my shirt if you're going to be embar-'

She cut me off with a roll off her eyes. 'Look, you've got on more than I have. Just please get in this bed before I get mad.' She propped herself up on one elbow and smiled at me, the skin of one shoulder peeking out from beneath the covers.

I got in. The unused side of the bed was cold and the crisp sheet enveloped me like a shroud of ice. I pulled the cover up to my neck and wrapped my arms around me, clamped my teeth together so they didn't chatter. But the cold was good. It kept my mind off the fact that Natalie was warm and naked just a couple of feet away from me

We both lay quietly for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the rain and adjusting to being in the same intimate space together. I reached out and turned the dimmer switch on the lamp until the room was filled with nothing more than a candle light glow. The desert night still lashed the frail motel, and the wind spoke harshly against the window, rattling the frame like the sound of a jailer shaking his keys. Just as I had thought that the thunder had ceased, a long rumble sounded, but it was distant and without the menace of earlier. I turned my head to Natalie; she was blinking up at the cracked plaster ceiling, her green eyes dark hollows in the low light. There was another bark of thunder, and I felt her shiver, then look at me.

'Okay?' I said.

She nodded. 'Better now I'm here. You don't know how scared I was next door, on my own.'

'I'm really sorry I wasn't awake before.'

I felt movement, and a second later her hand found mine, small fingers wrapped themselves around my own. 'You don't have to apologise for anything. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be a bumbling wreck wandering around the desert like something from a spaghetti western.'

I smiled. 'You'd have been alright.'

Right on cue, another burst of thunder. Nat jumped again and squeezed my hand hard. 'Oh sure,' she said in a slightly shaky voice. 'I'm a real heroine.' 

We both fell silent again, although she continued to hold my hand. I responded to her touch by running my fingers lightly over her palm, and after a couple of minutes she yawned softly. The yawn was infectious, and I did the same. My watch on the bedside table was approaching Three.

'C'mon,' I said. 'We'd better get some sleep. There's a lot to do in the morning.'

'Will Keith be annoyed you've got his truck?'

I sighed. 'Probably, but that's tough. We couldn't help it. Anyway, I'm not going to think about that until the morning. Do you want me to turn off the light?'

Natalie turned to me, and although there was still a distance between us, I could feel the heat from her body. Her face was pressed gently into the pillow and her eyes were soft with sleep and shadows. A wave of dark hair spread around her, ink black against the contrasting pale of her skin. When she spoke I see the faintest glimpse of teeth, and her breath was sweet like a summer rain.

'Can you leave it on, if it doesn't disturb you?' I nodded my agreement, and then she said, 'Where did you get that scar? I've never noticed it before.' She uncurled her hand from mine and ran a finger carefully along the inch-long scar that runs along my jawline. My skin crackled as she touched my stubble.

'It was a few years ago,' I replied. 'A barracuda had a shot at me when I was scuba-diving in India.'

'Jesus. Really?'

'No. I fell onto a barbed-wire fence when I was a kid.'

She grinned. 'Fool,' she said, and flicked her finger onto my ear, striking the lobe.

'Ouch.' I muttered, not meaning it.

Natalie never spoke, just moved her hand onto my neck and pulled herself closer towards me. Raising her head, she lowered her lips to my earlobe and kissed it gently, her hair falling onto my face as she did so. Her skin smelt of fresh water.

'Better?' She whispered, looking into my eyes, no more than a couple of inches away.

I nodded, at that point incapable of speech.

She lowered her face and pressed her lips to mine, a soft pressure that lasted for only a moment but to which I responded, pressing against her and feeling the faint trace of moistness as we parted. 

We both said goodnight and Natalie turned her back to me, and although she moved away from me it was only a few inches. I could have moved my hand to the right and touched her, and you had better believe that every part of me was imagining her naked body curled up next to me. When she had kissed me I thought I'd felt her breast touch my shoulder. I kept thinking of that as I lay on my back replaying that sweet kiss again and again in my mind, and my erection was a hard ache in my shorts. I knew that I had to get rid of it, and as there was no way that I would be able to risk relieving myself then I knew that I had to concentrate on something entirely unerotic. I started to listen to the rain again and tried to formulate a plan for the morning. Breakfast, if I could rustle something up, then get on the phone if it was back in service and arrange for a tow-truck. Two trucks. I'd forgotten about Nat's vehicle. Jesus, what a mess we'd managed to get ourselves into.

I heard Natalie's breathing slow slightly, and I guessed that she had fallen into the first stages of sleep. Warmer now, I wrapped an arm around my head and continued to blink up at the ceiling and listen to the beating rain, a rhythmical pattern that was hypnotic and soothing. I strained my ears and couldn't hear any more thunder, and there were no more flashes of lighting transforming the room into a negative image for the merest moment. The storm was far away, and so were we. Away from our friends and families, away from everyone who knew us. I felt and brief and strange twinge of sadness, and as I let the blackness of sleep take me again for the second time that night, I realised that I would probably never be in this same situation again...

I never sleep well in a strange bed, and I found myself awake once more. I was aware of heat along the front of my body, and a smooth sensation under the palm of my hand. When I opened my eyes my vision was partially blocked with a dark mass, and when I moved my head slightly something soft tickled the end of my nose. Hair. Natalie's hair. The sleep left me quickly as I realised that I was wrapped around her, my face buried into the back of her neck and my body curled up behind her. 

The softness under my palm was the skin of her belly. Sometime during sleep I'd moved around and embraced her, ran my hand along her flat stomach. Natalie's own hand had covered mind as she held me close. My chest was tight against her back, and my legs touched her own in parallel all the way to our feet. I could feel her small toes against my ankle, and I thought briefly of her pink painted nails that I had seen earlier.

Natalie stirred slightly, wriggled herself back into me, and I felt her buttocks push into my short-covered crotch. I closed my eyes again and bit my lip, and I knew that if I didn't move away from her she was going to feel a hell of lot more than my unshaven face against her when she awoke. Slowly, I started to pull my hand away from her own.

'Don't go,' she murmured in a barely audible voice.

I stopped moving. 'I thought you were asleep?' I whispered

'I was. I think I still am.'

'I didn't mean to be all over you, Nat.'

Her hand moved onto my forearm. 'It's okay, it's nice to have you close.'

I paused for a second, and then settled back down against her. Natalie ran her fingers gently over my arm, and I responded by very softly stroking her stomach, my fingers occasionally touching her belly-button.

I'd forgotten just how good it was to be with someone, and I'm not talking about sex when I say that. I mean closeness, togetherness, the feeling of another person's hand on your skin. It had been over a year since I'd come out of a relationship, and since then I'd spent a lot of lonesome nights with nothing but cable TV and my imagination for company. Now, as I breathed in the scent of Natalie's hair and felt tingles under my fingertips from where I stroked her, I realised just what it meant to be a lonely and struggling actor in Los Angeles. 

Almost absent-mindedly I ran my hand in circles up her stomach and over her ribs. I stopped moving my hand and pushed only my thumb back and forth, until eventually it touched the underside of her breast. I rubbed the swell of skin there for a moment, then realised what I was doing, and stopped quickly. I didn't want to invade any boundaries.

As if she had read my mind, Natalie turned her head slightly toward me. 'You alright,' she said, still in that same sleepy voice.

'I'm fine,' I replied. 'Just forgot myself for a minute is all.'

'You can touch me, if you want to.'

As soon as she spoke those words I felt myself start to grow hard again, and I moved my crotch away from her so she wouldn't feel me. I started moving my hand again, slowly, until my fingers were moving around her breast, before I ran my thumb over the swell and cupped her in my palm. I lowered my index finger and lightly brushed her nipple, which was small and hard to my touch. I continued to stroke with my thumb and lightly kissed the base of her neck, my lips barely brushing the sensitive skin. As I did this Natalie raised her arm and ran her fingers through my hair, and I heard her breathing quicken as I rolled her nipple under my palm.

She moved her body back against me and her bottom came into contact once again with my crotch. This time, though, my arousal was evident.

'I didn't know I'd had such an effect on you,' she whispered.

I laughed gently. 'Of course, I'm only human. What do you expect when you let me feel you like that,' I said. 

Natalie moved her hand from my hair, and I let go of her breast as she rolled over in bed to face me. She moved against me and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled herself against my body and pressed her lips against mine for the third time that night. This kiss was different than the ones we had shared before though. Our mouths were open and her soft tongue searched out my own, our eyes were closed as we kissed with passion, not friendship. I carressed her back and pulled her as close to me as I could, her hard nipples squashing against the hair on my chest as I did so. One of her thighs moved between my legs and pushed gently against me, and when I moved my lips from hers and began nibbling against her neck she groaned and her fingers dropped to my waist and pushed under the top of my shorts, touching my hot skin no more than an inch away from my pubic hair.

She stopped me as I moved back to kiss her lips once more. 'Take your underwear off,' she said.

'Are you sure you want to do this?' She smiled, pushed her hand through my hair once more. 'Definitely. I want to make love with you. I've been thinking about nothing else ever since you were lying next to me, holding me.'

I returned her smile. 'I thought you were asleep?'

'I was, for some of the time. But when you had your hand on my hip I felt so warm and safe.' She kissed me once more. 'Felt so horny, too,' she continued.

'I was touching your hip? I don't remember.'

'I know you don't. You were fast asleep. If you hadn't woken up I may have had to, you know, do it myself.'

This made me grin, as I remember how I had layed next to her with a hard-on and nothing to do with it. Natalie asked me why I was smiling, and I told her.

'Well, you can definitely do something with it now,' she breathed in my ear, as I felt her hand start to pull my shorts down.

Being with Natalie was everything I could have dreamed of, and more. She clamped her legs around me as I slid easily into her hot wetness, and my pelvis bumped against her own as we moved slowly with each other. I propped myself on my elbows and looked down into her gentle eyes as we made love, my own excitement increasing as I watched the pleasure on her face. When I lowered my mouth to her breasts she cried out as my tongue scraped over her nipples, which were dark in the low light of the room, and as hard as rubber. Her skin was hot wherever I kissed it, and tasted as good as fresh watermelon on a summer day. Her heels pulled against my thighs as she pulled me deeply into her petite body, and her nails dragged gloriously against my back.

I stopped, pulled her over and onto me, never once coming out of her as she straddled herself over me. Natalie lowered herself down onto me, and this time it was my turn to groan out load as she ground her clitoris down onto the coarseness of my pubic bone. I held her hips and looked up at this beautiful girl, hair around her face and her eyes closed, throat exposed as she threw her head back and rode me. Lines of sweat dripped down her body, over her pert breasts, down the flat skin of her stomach, before finishing between her legs, mingling with our own bodily fluids. She threw herself forward, and a droplet of sweat landed on the corner of my mouth, and I licked it away with my tongue before pulling her down to me once more. Our mouths locked onto each other as she slammed her sticky vagina down onto my thrusting penis, and for a moment I raised both of us off the bed with the force of my lovemaking. I wanted this girl so badly. I wanted to be close to her, in her as much as I could, to almost become her. My heart was pounding like a cannon.

I grasped the tight skin of her bum and pulled her down onto me harder, pulling at her buttocks and spreading her wider, which caused her to yelp in my ear.

'Oh God,' she gasped, 'I'm going to come.'

Natalie pushed her face into my neck and I felt her scalding breath as she ground herself onto me one final time. I pushed into her as deeply as I could, and a moment later felt her whole body shake with the arrival of her orgasm. She gasped as it hit her, and her vaginal walls clamped around my hardness, and the wonderful rush of her juices washed over me, ran down my shaft and coated my balls. This in turn was the final sensation I needed to send me over the edge, and I screwed my eyes tightly shut as my own climax came. I ejaculated into her again and again, and we kissed deeply as our bodies shook with that rare thing; the simultaneous orgasm. I collapsed back onto the sweat soaked sheet and Natalie collapsed on top of me. The combined heat from our skin could have started a fire. We were both gasping as we struggled to get our breath back.

I ran my hand over her bum and felt her wriggle on me. Although my erection was decreasing I was still inside her, and I wanted it to stay that way. I didn't want to break the connection between the us, wanted us to stay joined together in a mixture of sweat and come-juices for as long as possible. I turned my head and kissed her ear, then pulled a sheet over the two of us and reached out my arm and extinguished the lamp. The room fell into an eerie grey light, and I knew that dawn was moving swiftly upon us. The searching rays of sunlight would soon bring a new day to the desert motel, but I wanted this moment to last as long as possible.

'You sleeping, baby?' I said quietly.

Her lack of answer and deep breathing were the confirmation, and I wrapped my arms tightly around her and closed my eyes before drifting away to a land filled with sky-blue dreams.

I awoke with a shaft of hot sunshine falling across my chest. The room was filled with the morning, and a gap in the curtains let the desert air in through the open window. The bed clothes were strewn about and the sheet was bunched up around my waist. I was alone. I looked around the room and saw everything as I had left it, and I stretched my hands out and felt the rest of the empty bed, as if doing this would confirm that I was indeed on my own. Had I imagined everything? I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked over at my watch. Eight-forty.

Just then, I heard the lavatory flush, and a moment later the door opened. Natalie padded softly out of the bathroom and across the room towards the window, where she peeked through the gap in the curtains. She hadn't seen that I was awake, and I watched her silently. She was naked, and I realised that this was the first time I had seen her fully nude in the light. Her skin was perfect, glowing where the sunlight hit it, and my gaze travelled down her back to her round buttocks, further still to her slender thighs and bare feet. Her hair was tied back, and when she turned I saw her small breasts and dark, neat pubic area. She looked happy, a small smile on her face, and I felt an ache in my heart that hadn't been present for a long time.

'Morning,' I said.

She turned to look at me, and her smile broke into a grin. 'Hey, you,' she replied, moving to sit on the edge of the bed next to me. She ran a hand over my chest. 'Didn't mean to wake you.'

'You didn't.'

'The storm has gone. It's a glorious day out there.'

'Don't let our proprietor friend see you like that, or he'll have a stroke.'

She laughed, and lay down next to me, her hand moving down to my thigh. I kissed her forehead and stroked her hair as I held her, and after a moment said out-loud the overriding thought in my mind.

'Natalie, I don't want this adventure to end.'

She raised her head. 'Adventure?'

I nodded. 'Yeah. All this. You and me, stranded in the desert. The Bates motel. Us being together. It's been one of the best nights of my life, and I really mean that.'

'For me too. It's not over yet either,' she said, and we started to kiss again.

We took a shower together and made love once more; slowly and sensuously, washing each other with soaped hands before my excitement got the better of me and I span Nat around and penetrated her from behind while the steaming water fell upon us. We stayed under the spray until the water ran cold, then jumped out shivering and laughing before we dried each other with large and slightly rough white towels. Back in the bedroom Natalie sat on a stool while I stood behind her and ran the comb through her damp hair and watched her body in the mirror that was infront of us. I almost dropped the comb as she spread her legs wide and began rubbing he fingers over herself, and when she span around on the stool, grabbed my hips and took my throbbing shaft into her mouth I forgot about combs and just about everything else. The fellatio was mindblowing, but I knew that I had to feel myself inside her again at least once, and I almost threw her onto the bed before sliding between her soft thighs once more. This time there was no tenderness between us, just pure, animalistic sex. Total fucking, if you will. By the time I had finished both her and myself off I felt as if my penis had been rubbed raw. But it was a good kind of feeling, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

Lying there, limbs entwined, naked as the day we were born and no sound filling the room save for our breathing, was a perfect moment in time for me. However, as is the way in life, all perfect moments have to come to an end. This one was over for me when Natalie spoke.

'Honey, it's almost Ten O'clock. We have to get moving.'

'I know,' I said, trying to hide the sadness in my voice. 'I'm just too comfortable to move.'

She stroked my neck and kissed my chest, before looking up into my eyes. 'We'll have times like these again you know.'

I looked into those green eyes, eyes that almost seemed to dance with life, and nearly said what I was thinking. But I didn't. I held the thought in my mind.

'I know,' I said gently. 'I know we will.'

The rest of the morning moved by quickly. We dressed, Natalie sliding back into her denim shorts and white shirt that was so simple and yet so sexy on her, and we straightened both of the rooms before making our way to the reception. The Hustler King was there, watching wrestling on a beaten-up TV with a foil-wrapped aerial and eating noisily from a bag of doughnuts.




The Natalie Incident Ch. 2



'You folks sleep well?' He enquired, once more running his thickly-lensed eyes over Natalie.

'The storm kept us both awake, but we got through it,' Nat said, glancing at me and giving me the kind of smile that made me wish we were back in the room again.

'Hellish weather,' he said. 'Comes by only once in a blue moon. You guys were unlucky.' He stood, brushing sugar from his shirt. 'Want some coffee?'

We both said that we did, and Hustler King wandered away into a back room, whistling as he went. I crossed over to the payphone that was on the reception counter and fed quarters into the slot, and dialled Keith's number. He answered on the second ring, and instead of being pissed with me, as I thought he would, he was actually filled with genuine concern for our well-being. I told him our location and he promised to arrange the breakdown services to come and collect us. I gave him my cellphone number and told him to call us if plans changed, then thanked him and hung up.

The King returned with the coffee, and although the cups were chipped and not entirely clean, the coffee was hot and good, laced with sugar and cream. Natalie took a couple of sips and then used the phone to call the Location Manager of her shoot. While she spoke to him I took one of the donuts offered by The King and let him explain to me the delicate details of Pro-Wrestling. He seemed to know more about the business than was healthy, but I guessed that stuck out here in the middle of the desert there wasn't a great deal else to do. 

Natalie finished on the phone and we drained our cups, thanked the King and returned the keys. He waved at us as we walked hand-in-hand out of the dirty screen door, and when I looked back over my shoulder his attention was already back on the TV. 

The sun was already hot, and the rain filled car-park had returned to the dust bowl of the previous day. We walked slowly toward the deserted highway, and when we reached the blacktop I turned and put my arms around Natalie, pulled her to me and held her tight.

'The crew are sending a car out for me, Rich,' she said into my chest. 'I have to get back to the set or I'm going to be in all sorts of trouble. Can you sort out the details with the breakdowns?'

I sighed. 'Of course, no trouble. I just wish you were coming back to the city with me.'

'So do I, but I've got to work. Anyway, so have you. Aren't you at the studio today?'

I nodded, but it was a glum kind of acknowledgement without any conviction. Natalie tickled me lightly under my chin.

'Hey, c'mon. Smile. Isn't that what you told me last night?'

I did smile. 'Sure. Need to take my own advice I guess.'

'You'd better. I don't want to kiss a sad face.'

We stayed like that for the next few minutes, arms around each other, caressing each other, kissing occasionally, until the sound of an engine roused both of us from the attentions of each other and made us look along the highway. A black Lincoln with dusty arches pulled to a stop on the edge of the road opposite us, and a large man with a shaven head and a polo shirt climbed out from behind the driver's door. The sunlight glinted from his expensive looking shades.

'Miss Portman, everything alright?'

Natalie nodded, still holding onto me. 'Everything's fine, Ed. Give me a minute will you?'

He nodded and got back into the car, closing the door quietly.

'Will you be Okay?' Nat said, taking my face in both her hands.

'You bet, I'll meet the tow-truck and get everything squared away. Just make sure you have a good day on set.'

'I'll try. I just wish I was spending it with you.'

'Don't say that sweetness, this is hard enough as it is.'

'I'll call you as soon as I'm back in the city, I promise,'

I lowered my head and kissed her once, my hands in her hair, and then pushed her gently away from me. 'Go on and go,' I said, 'before I pick you up and run back to L.A.'

Natalie turned away and trotted lightly across the road, a cool breeze picking up the tails of her shirt and whipping them around her. She opened the back door of the Lincoln, turned and blew me a kiss and climbed in. The door thudded behind her.

The car span around in a cloud of dust, and the driver called Ed tipped me a quick salute as he went past. Then I saw Natalie's face in the back window, those deeply beautiful eyes looking forlorn as she disappeared into the large expanse of the desert road. She waved at me as she left, and I stood on that road side until the car and her had gone from my vision. Everything immediately seemed to become deathly quiet.

I broke the silence with a huge breath of air that whistled out of my lungs. I gazed around me at the hot, scorched desert earth and suddenly felt totally alone. For a second I even contemplated returning to the motel reception and settling down for a day of porn and wrestling with The Hustler King, but I decided against it.

I started the walk to where the car was still hopefully abandoned, my head down and my hands thrust deeply into my pockets. It was only when I felt salt on the corner of my mouth that I realised my face was wet with tears.

So, I want to be able to tell you that Natalie and I met up back in Los Angeles and carried on where we left off at the Drop-Inn Motel. I want to tell you how we became a great couple, sharing everything and spending long days and nights in each other's company. In a book or film, that's what would happen, right?

Things rarely work out in real life like they do in fiction.

I got back to the city that afternoon, after spending a few hours sorting out the details of the sick vehicles, and I made it down to Universal Studios with minutes to spare, delivered my lines satisfactorily and returned gratefully home. Around Seven I met up with Keith and we shared a couple of beers while I related what had happened. I didn't tell him how close myself and Nat had become, obviously that was something I wanted to keep to myself. He left my place after Nine, and minutes later the telephone rang. I picked it up excitedly, hoping it was her, full of expectation to hear her voice once more.

It was Natalie, and we talked for over an hour, about the day and the previous night, but when I said goodnight and replaced the receiver, I sat on the couch for a long time, staring out of the window at the crescent moon that hung low over the city. I replayed the conversation over in my head, and I knew then that we would never be properly together. Something had changed between us, when we talked it was not as the lovers that we had been twenty-four hours earlier, but as the friends that we had been for the past few months. We'd shared something very special, something that I knew I would never forget, but it was that perfect moment that I mentioned earlier, and perfect moments can rarely be repeated. Mine and Natalie's moment would always be lying together in a storm battered motel room, and even if we tried that was something we could never capture again.

We did see each other upon her return, and we still went out together as friends. We kissed a few times but never slept with each other again, and Natalie returned to her old boyfriend, Chris. Just as I was sure jealousy on my part was going to drag our friendship down, she called and told me she was going away to Australia for three months to work on the second part of Star- Well, I'm sure you're all familiar with how her career is going. Into outer space, you might say.

And me? I kept on with my bit part acting career, but it never really seemed to be going anywhere, and eventually the frustration of the business and loneliness of the big city became to much for me. I got behind the wheel of my old Pinto about Five one Thursday morning and started the long drive back home to my folks in the country. I got myself a little apartment, and used my degree in Journalism to land a job reviewing movies and music for the local paper. I'm happier these days, life is much more simpler than it used to be, and I get paid to go to the cinema, which can't be a bad thing. I go out with friends at the weekend, play some basketball, even go on the odd date now and again when I can win some poor girl over with a dumb chat-up line.

But I still think of Natalie. Some nights I can be lying in my bed, cool drafts coming through the open window, and I stretch out my hand across the sheet and almost feel her hot skin under my touch. I close my eyes and see her slender body and delicate face, almost feel her lips against mine. And whenever a storm hits town, and the thunder shakes my house, my thoughts and dreams are always filled with her sound of her voice...

End



The Natalie Incident



I stopped quickly, opened my eyes and got out of the bathroom as fast as my aching erection would allow me. It was wrong to lust after her and I knew it. We were good friends, and she trusted me. Christ, she trusted me enough to call me infront of anyone else when she was in the shit, and was this how I repaid her, by catching sounds of her through the wall as she engaged in personal habits? What was next, stealing her underwear and jacking off into them? I closed my bathroom door firmly and was glad of the rainfall on the roof to block any further sounds from her cabin. I slipped off my jeans and undershorts and climbed into the bed, the cool sheets reacting against my hot skin.

I thumbed the remote and got the T.V going, and finally settled on an old episode of The Streets of San Francisco with the sound turned down. Michael Douglas, looking bearly old enough to shave, was filling the screen but I was barely watching, the sound of the rain filling my ears and Natalie filling my thoughts. I felt sleazy for my previous actions, but was I being too hard on myself? After all, minutes before she had kissed me in a quite sensitive way, and surely it was only natural for a guy to have a desire for a girl, especially one as beautiful as her. I turned off the lamp and lay on my side, punching the lumps out of the pillow and leaving only the light of the Tube to illuminate the room with flickering patterns. Would Natalie be lying in her own bed by now? Would she be thinking of me? I chuckled softly to myself at that one, thinking how ludicrous that was. Of course she wouldn't. If anything, she'd be thinking of her boyfriend Chris, a guy I had been determined to dislike but had actually ended up getting along with famously. I guessed she'd be lying there wishing she was back in her cosy appartment in the city, safe in his arms, not stuck in the outskirts of the desert in a crummy motel run by a guy with thick spectacles that probably came about from reading too many stroke books.

And yet, that kiss. Was I interpreting it wrongly? Was it more than just a goodnight gesture, or was my mind only wishing it was. Almost certainly the latter. Too many questions. It had been a long day and sleep was approaching fast. I curled into the feotal position I always slept in and listened to the rain lashing against the window. The last thing I remember was a rumble of thunder, echoing like the sound of distant drums across the desert plain. Then I was gone.

What time I awoke I can't say, but it was a loud bang that stirred me back to consciousness, and for a few moments I had no idea where I was. I thought there was a torch being waved in the room until I raised my head and saw the working television, and then the realisation hit me. Just as I was rubbing sleep from my eyes another crash filled the room, and I jumped. Two more explosions hit in quick succession before I realised it was thunder and nothing more serious. It sounded like the storm was right above the tiny motel, and a fierce wind was caressing the walls of my cabin, one of the mats lifting and falling as air rushed in through a small crack in door-jamb. Another huge burst of nature's fury hit, and a second later the TV flickered and cut out. The room was plunged into blackness and I blinked at the sudden change in vision. I wasn't in the dark for long, the lightening cracking down sent a starburst of light through the thin curtains and lit my surroundings like a flashbulb from a camera. It was the that I heard another bang. Smaller, closer, but still outside. And again, competing with the weather. A definite thump on the door.

I threw back the covers and quickly pulled on my shorts, crossed the room and snicked the lock back. I had the door open no more than an inch before two things burst into the room. The first was wind, the second was Natalie. I forced the door closed and turned to her.

'Jesus Christ, Nat. What are you doing outside?'

'I've been banging on the door for the past two minutes. What were you doing?'

'I was asleep.'

'Asleep, in this?' She cried, before throwing herself at me, burying her face into my bare chest. I wrapped my arms around her and only then realised the state that she was in. Her hair was wet and so was the blanket that she was wrapped in. She was shaking in my arms and I could feel a wetness on my chest that I guessed were tears. I raised a hand and stroked her hair.

'Shhh, don't cry,' I soothed. 'What's the matter.'

Her voice hitched as she spoke. 'The storm. I hate it.'

'The storm? I thought something serious had happened.'

'It is serious. I'm terrified of thunder. I know that makes me sound like a little kid but I can't help it.' She pulled away from me and looked up at me, and I could just see in the gloom that her eyes were rimmed with tears. 'I'm sorry I woke you.'

'I had woken up anyway I think. You should have come before.'

'I was too scared. I've been lying in bed with the pillow over my head for the past ten minutes.'

She started to cry again and I pulled her toward me once more, holding her tighter this time. Finally her weeping stopped and she fell silent against me, her breath tickling my chest. The thunder struck again and she jumped, the top of her head almost striking my chin.

'Come on, it's just weather, nothing more.' I said. 'Worse things could have happened tonight.'

'Like what?'

'Well, how about our friend behind the counter coming to offer you some midnight cocoa?'

She laughed at that, and I was pleased that I had managed to lift her spirits. Moments later the tube also sprang back to life as the power was restored.

I pushed her gently away from me and crossed toward the bedside table before turning on the lamp and switching off the T.V. I turned back to Natalie who was still standing in the doorway, and in the light I could now see the state she was in. Wrapped in a gray blanket which was splattered with rain, her long hair was loose and matted to her face and neck. The blanket covered most of her but I could still see her ankles and bare feet poking out from below. She shivered.

'Come on, let's get you dry,' I said, and I went to the bathroom and got a large towel. It was only with the light on that I became aware of my own nakedness. I was wearing only white under shorts and I suddenly felt exposed and a little embarrassed. Nat had never seen me like this before, but if I suddenly covered up now she might feel as awkward as I.

'I'm sorry I left you out there for so long,' I said. She took the towel and sat on the bed. The blanket dropped to her waist as he moved the towel to her hair and began to rub vigorously and I saw that she was still wearing the white vest from earlier. With her arms raised her breasts pushed against the material, but I was in no position in my state of undress to look, so I quickly sat down on the other side of the bed where I couldn't see her front.

She took the towel from her hair. 'Got the worst of it,' she smiled. The colour had returned to her cheeks and with her hair messy from the toweling she looked as gorgeous as I had ever seen. I needed a good reason to pull my jeans on, and I thought of it.

'Give me a moment and I'll go next door and get your shirt,' I said, reaching for my denims. "If you don't get dry you'll catch a cold." Just as I got the words out there was another tremendous crack of thunder that made both of us jump. Nat also gave a little scream

'Okay, just please be quick. I'm scared on my own.'

As soon as I pulled the door open biting rain lashed against my bare skin, causing me to gasp. I ran barefoot along the rough wooden porch that separated the two cabins and leapt into Natalie's room, almost taking the door off the hinges. Once inside I could see that she'd had all the lamps burning, and the bedclothes were strewn this way and that over the mattress. I felt a moment of guilt that she had been in here terrified while I had been sleeping soundly next door. I couldn't understand her fear of storms; there was nothing more I used to enjoy as a kid than sitting in my bedroom window at night watching the lightning fork to the ground and the rumbles of thunder that would follow. Me and my Dad used to count the time that would elapse between the flash and the sound, and Dad would tell me that if you counted to five then the storm was five miles away, count to three it was three miles away, and so forth. It was a habit I got into and in fact still did to this day. I'm sure the meteorological office used a more sophisticated method of measurement, but my Father's old method suited me just fine. One thing was for sure though; tonight the storm was right above us. The thunder and lighting were walking hand in hand.

I grabbed Natalie's checked shirt from where it hung on the back of the door and also a comb from the dresser. I stood in the open door way for a moment and watched the rain blister the muddy ground and the lightning split the clouds, before I slammed the door shut and bolted back to my room.

She was in my bed when I got back, sitting up with her knees clasped to her chest and the covers pulled up around her. My eyes left her and went to the floor, where I saw the wet blanket that she'd had around her earlier. On top of the blanket was also her vest and a small pair of white knickers. That meant one thing; Natalie was nude in my bed.

'I had to get my things off Rich, I was freezing. I'll go in a minute.'

'Don't be dumb,' I said, picking up the towel from the end of the bed and drying myself. 'You can stay there as long as you want. Anyway, I don't want you to go out in this,' I continued, another burst of thunder emphasizing my statement. 'Okay?'

'Okay' she replied, and leant back against the pillows. 'I'm not so scared with you here anyway.'

'I told you, you should have woken me before. I bought you a comb.'

She took it with a smile and I excused myself and went to the bathroom and washed my hands and face, grateful of the hot water after the misery of the rain. I'd have loved a scalding shower but I didn't want to leave Natalie alone for long while the storm was still raging.

When I returned to the bedroom she had combed the wind from her hair and was lying back on the pillow with the covers pulled up to her chin. 'Do you think the storm is going?' She asked.

I told her about the counting method that Dad had taught me and for the next couple of minutes we judged the storm, me sitting on the edge of the bed by her legs. We never counted above two before the thunder hit; it seemed that the weather was here to stay for the time being. I yawned loudly and Nat pulled her hand from under the covers and placed it gently on my wrist.

'I'm sorry about all this, Rich.'

'Please don't keep apologizing honey,' I said. 'None of it is your fault. Anyway, I was only saying to Keith yesterday how I needed more excitement in my life.'

'Something different to this though?'

'Oh, I don't know. Crazy weather, rough terrain, wooden cabins. Just like a trip to the Rockies but without a bear behind every tree. And cheaper.'

She laughed. 'Good company too.'

I'd been looking toward the window, but now I turned and faced her with a smile on my face. 'The best company,' I said, and stroked the back of her hand. 'I wouldn't change that no matter what.'

A silence fell between us then, but it was a comfortable pause where nothing needed to be said. The raging weather was the accompaniment as we sat holding each other's hand. Every time thunder struck I squeezed Natalie's palm slightly to reassure her.

'What time is it?' Her voice was soft with sleep and I could see the fatigue in her eyes.

'Nearly two,' I answered, and shivered slightly. I was still only wearing my jeans and the air was cool after the continual pounding of the storm had taken the humidity from the night. I released her hand. 'Listen. You stay here,' I said standing, 'and I'll crash in your room. Okay.'

'Please don't go Rich.'

'I have to Nat, I'm cold and I'm getting really tired.'

'I don't want to be alone.'

I sighed. 'I either go next door or I'm getting in there with you.'

'Then you'd better get in.'

A look must have crossed my face because she said, 'That suggestion really so awful?'

'No, of course not. It's just, well, erm.' I was mumbling, and it didn't sound becoming.

'Look Rich, we're friends right. Good friends?' I nodded in agreement. 'And this is a big bed with enough room for two of us. I'm scared to be alone, and you're tired and cold, so why don't you just get in and get comfortable.' She paused, and when I didn't reply she said. 'Friends share things, including each other's company.'

I shivered, not knowing if it was from the temperature or from the fact that Natalie had invited me under the covers with her. Covers that she was naked beneath. My eyes flickered for a moment to her tiny knickers lying on the floor. With that, I made my decision.

To Be Continued...