Lions of the Desert-Part 7

A crown of muddy brown water crested the sharp edge of a palm-sized stone, spraying up and out over the placid pond as the rock skipped across its surface.  Tae-Jin Yoo stood at one end of the murky bowl.  It was a little bigger than a tennis court with uneven bends and grooves along its sides where it had gradually cut into the slopes of the grassy hills surrounding it.  Tae watched with unblinking eyes as the wedge-shaped stone traveled across the pond’s length.  It ricocheted away out of sight into the reeds and towering Loblolly pine trees that rimmed the far edge of the oval-shaped pool.

“Are you throwing rocks into my pond again,” said a stern, Southern voice out of the nearby stillness.

“Sorry, Mr. Randall,” Tae said, glancing to his right.  A man almost as tall as Tae and over three times his age was sauntering closer.  “I didn’t know you were home.  I’ll stop.”

Travis Arthur Randall made his way carefully down the slope of the hill leading up to his home.  His aching, tired feet took care not to slip on the loose gravel of the long driveway.  “Aaaghh,” he exclaimed tiredly with a wave of his hand.  “It’s fine.  It’s just entertainin’ for me to give ya’ a hard time.”

“Thanks,” said Lee, looking away from the older man and back to the pond.  The ripples that had turned into tiny waves crisscrossing the dark surface had mostly all faded away.

“Alright, boy,” Travis Randall said when he arrived at Tae’s side.  He put a hand on Lee’s shoulder.  Despite the strength of the eighteen-year-old’s muscles, Tae still felt the weight of the older man’s big, calloused hand.  “What’s goin’ on?  What the hell are ya’ doing up here instead of gettin’ yer shit together at home?  Ain’t you got quite the trip ahead of ya’ tomorrow?”

Tae forced a grin.  “Yes, sir.  I guess I…just needed to think.  I wanted to enjoy the quiet of one of my favorite spots before I left.”

Mr. Randall nodded his head.  “I see.  So, it wasn’t because you wanted to say goodbye to a grouchy old man.  You just wanted to throw rocks before ya’ head off to school?”

Tae felt a genuine smile on his face.  He looked side-long at the older man.  “Pretty much, yeah.”

Mr. Randall coughed a chuckle, shaking his head.

“Do you think I’m an asshole, sir?”

Travis Randall looked at the teenager beside him.  He rubbed the coarse, white hairs of his thick, handlebar mustache as he considered the boy’s question.  “I’ve known quite a few assholes in my time,” the sixty-four-year-old said with a slow exhale.  “I’m not sure I could put you high on that list.”

“But I’m on the list,” Tae said with a small smirk.

The old man chuckled again.  “You are a bull-headed, strong, independent young man.  Ya’ have the courage to stand up on yer own and stand up for yerself.  Good qualities.  Important ones.  But they will, at times, give ya’ the appearance, in the eyes and mindsets of others, of bein’ a gen-u-ine asshole.”

Tae looked down at the water.  “Right,” he said.

“Look, it just happens.  At some point, everyone is an asshole to someone else.  There’s just no gettin’ around it.  Hell, I bet there was some awful S.O.B. out in the world, once upon a time, that even thought the same about Mother Theresa.  And if ya’ can’t help but think that way about Mother Theresa, I don’t know what hope you’d have for findin’ any good in the world.”

Tae didn’t say anything.  He kept his eyes fixed on the placid water.  He felt the humid, August air sitting still between the tall pine trees.  His thoughts were a chaotic storm of the images from Carey Knowles office.  Tae’s fury-riddled actions were weighing on his conscience.

“Look, son,” said Mr. Randall, his tone a little softer than it had been a moment before.  “I’ve known ya’ since ya’ were barely taller than my knees.  While yer pa has worked for me, I’ve had the great honor to watch ya’ grown up into a fine, upstanding, young man.  You’ve done a lot to make him, yer whole family, hell, even this old asshole, proud.”

Tae laughed a little a at the old man’s words and, at least for a moment, felt a little bit better about his place in the universe.

“Just keep doin’ what yer doin’.  Keep doin’ the best ya’ can.  And if nothin’ else, try to do a little better tomorrow.  Then the next day.  And so on until all yer days are done.”

“You make it sound easy.”

Mr. Randall wheezed a laugh.  “I promise ya, it is anything but.  Still…”  The older man looked past the canopy of branches and pine needles above them.  His weary, brown eyes seemed to be searching for something in the summer sky.  He breathed out slowly, then said, without looking down at Tae, “…you have to keep tryin’.  Do it for yourself.”

Tae watched the old foreman.  “And if that’s not good enough,” he asked.

Mr. Randall let his gaze drop from the pale blue sky.  He looked into Tae-Jin’s eyes with an intensity the teenager couldn’t remember having ever seen before.  “Then,” the older man said quietly, “ya’ do it for someone important.  Because, in the end, they’ll be all that matters in this world of assholes.”

Mr. Randall’s words lingered in Tae’s ears all the way home, even as his mind remained a battlefield of conflicting thoughts and images.  His feelings were an unending rollercoaster of sickening proportions.  Keep doing the best I can, Tae repeated to himself, almost angrily.  Be me.  Be the best version of me.  Tae breathed in sharply.  Which version is that?!  The wannabe soldier?  The mediocre swimmer?  The Key Club brat?  The pervert that likes to get naked and walk in the woods?  Or the slut that daydreams about men when he isn’t sucking their dicks or fucking them?!!

Tae punched the steering wheel of his car.  The horn bleeped, the quick honk bouncing against the garage door of his family’s house.  “Fuck,” Tae screamed.  “How can I be the best version of myself when I don’t even know who I fucking am?!”

The fingers on both hands gripped the soft, checkerboard cover wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.  Tae watched his knuckles turn white.  He was channeling all the anger, all the confusion, all the pain downward.  He was trying to push it out, to force it into the console of his little Subaru sedan.  It wasn’t working.

He gave up with a loud, exasperated growl, shoving himself backward into the driver’s seat.  He breathed in and out hurriedly, the anger still surging through his body.  He found himself staring at the house just beyond his windshield.  It was a modest two-story residence near the center of Longview, Texas.  It was far from being a mansion but was also not a rundown shack struggling to stay upright.  It was comfortable enough and Tae had grown used to it being the place he called home over the last eight years.  His father had accepted the position of a high-level chemical engineer for a large, important facility just south of town. That decision moved their life-or at least what was left of it-from Phoenix, Arizona to the humid, tree-covered terrain of East Texas.

At that moment, Tae’s thoughts suddenly settled down. Memories came forward in his mind.  He closed his eyes and saw the slideshow of his childhood in the sunny city far away to the west.  It had been a happier time.  He had had everything he needed-especially his mother.  But as his tenth birthday approached, stage four lymphoma was all but eating her away from the inside out.  There was nothing the doctors could do.  Then, on a clear morning in May, just as the sun was rising thirteen months after her diagnosis, Chin-Sun Yoo died.

“Is that why you want to go to that school,” his father had asked him just before Tae’s graduation from high school.  They were sitting alone at the kitchen table.  Heavy rain was pouring down in lightning-lit streams outside.  Tae was watching it puddle on the edge of the back patio.  He could hear his stepmother, a talented local realtor named Elizabeth, on a conference call at the front of the house.  The whole scene had only happened less than three months earlier.

Tae remembered looking at his father with honest confusion.  “Huh?”

“Because you miss the desert,” his father had asked, slowly.  “You miss your mother.”

Tae furrowed his brow.  “I miss her every day.”  He pushed away from the table.  His next words had been bitter and, ultimately, regrettable.  “At least one of us has to miss her.”

A raindrop hit Tae’s windshield with a loud and sudden SPLAT!  Tae shook himself out of his melancholy fog.  He was still sitting in his car on the far side of the driveway.  If anyone was home, they were probably wondering what he was doing.  “Just trying to figure things out,” he said quietly to himself with a sigh.  He pulled the latch on the door beside him and started to step out of his car.  “Just trying to figure things out.”

“Tae, there you are,” his stepmother called out when Tae walked past her officer door.

Elizabeth Yoo was nothing if not a constant force of positivity.  She was in her mid-forties but still looked stunning enough to pass for thirty.  She had long, golden brown hair, wide, hazel eyes, and a room-warming smile.  Despite being a workaholic, Elizabeth found time to work out multiple times per week, keeping her long body toned.  She was half-seated on the front edge of her desk, her thin-framed glasses dangling from one hand.  Her entire demeanor seemed to get even brighter at the sight of her stepson.

“We thought maybe you had gone around to the back door or somethin’,” Elizabeth exclaimed.  The “we” she had referred to included herself and her loyal assistant Charlotte-Marie Travison.  Tae glanced at the twenty-year-old brunette standing near Elizabeth.

“No,” he said, his voice flat.  “Just…looking at the house.  You know…one more time before heading off to college.”

The two girls looked at each other, struck by the cuteness of his statement.  “Aww,” they said together.  “That is adorable,” Elizabeth declared.  She patted her chest.  “And it warms my heart like you would not believe!  Here, come on.  Let’s hug.”

Tae started to take a step back from the wide doorway.  “I should…uhh…really go shower.  I didn’t get a chance before I left the aquatic center.  I kind of reek of bleach and sweat.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth said, stopping in mid-stride after she pushed off from her desk.  “Okay then.  But you owe me a hug, mister.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Me too,” said Charlotte, smiling at Tae.  It was a strange expression, at least from Tae’s perspective.  From where he was standing, that smile on her heart-shaped face seemed nothing short of flirtatious.  Yet, Elizabeth appeared to only notice the endearing smile of a caring friend.

“Okay,” Tae said, forcing a half-hearted grin at the slender girl a little older than himself.

“Make sure you get your laundry done after your shower,” Elizabeth called out after Tae started walking toward the nearby stairs.

“Sure thing,” he replied over his shoulder, hurrying up the wooden staircase and to his room.

The doorframe rattled when Tae pushed his bedroom door firmly closed.  He leaned back against the inch thick partition and sighed.  “Fuck,” he whispered to himself.  The stillness of his room made his hushed voice seem louder than it was.  He let his gaze drift across the quiet space.  It hadn’t changed much in eight years.  It was a safe and familiar place, left frozen in the changing times beyond the four walls that surrounded his belongings.  He could escape from the world in his room, leaving behind almost everything he felt was bearing down on him.

Only the thoughts he brought into the room became fuel for his anxiety.  Like now, as echoes of the early afternoon circled in his mind.  He let himself stare at the window above his bed.  He tried to focus on the bands of pale daylight reaching between the wooden blinds and leaving long, sharp shadows striped across his bed.  The longer he stared, the more other images entered his mind.  Memories of hikes where had stripped down, of stumbling upon a spot in the woods he should have stayed away from, of feeling the hands and lips of strangers on his body, of feeling himself on them…and in them.

“Fuck,” Tae hissed again, pushing away from the door. 

He sat down with a tired huff on the antique bench at the front of his bed.  He toed off his shoes.  He hadn’t bothered to put socks on.  He was surprised he had even gotten as dressed as he did.  Tae had not lingered at the aquatic center after leaving Carey’s office.  In a rush to get out, Tae had returned to the locker room only to throw on his clothes, toss the towel away, and leave.

He suddenly realized he had left his belongings from his locker in his car.  His gaze landed on a semi-organized pile of stuff crowding the floor in front of his desk and nearby bookcase.  A pair of oversized duffle bags sat against the base of his autumn red, solid wood desk.  One of them was completely empty.  The other was half filled with an assortment of lightly folded towels, wash rags, and a new pair of shower shoes still wrapped in the bag from the store at the mall.  Laying beside the second duffle was a brand-new bed comforter still in its vacuum sealed, plastic packaging.  The branding on the front was covered by two new sheet sets and a pair of pillows stacked on top.

The sight of it all was a reminder of things to come.  He was about to leave his room behind, this time for much longer than ever before.  He would stuff what he could of his belongings into those twin nylon bags.  Then, his life would begin a new chapter.  New opportunities.  New challenges.  New chances, he thought.  I can leave my stupidity behind.  I can focus on…important things.  I can be better than this place.

Tae breathed deep.  The smell of chlorine, sweat, and the unmistakable hint of dried cum slammed into his nostrils.  He shook his head.  I have to be better than I am now.

Hot water splashed against Tae’s face and hair as it cascaded down from the pewter-colored showerhead.  He’d decided not to worry about the items in his car.  He’d get them later…or the next day.  It didn’t matter.  He wanted the stink of his tryst with Carey off his body.

The water was almost scalding against his skin.  Tae savored the steamy sting.  He stood motionless for a long time, a hand braced on the shower wall.  If only I could wash it all away, he thought, staring at the shallow puddle forming around his feet.  He was purposefully trying to avoid looking at the limp, slightly curved flesh of his soft penis.  It was almost impossible.  His flat, taught abs left the view to his crotch and his feet below unobstructed.  So, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back instead.

For a single, fleeting moment, Tae-Jin Yoo finally felt at ease.  And then, as quickly as it had arrived, the moment was gone, broken by the sound of a voice that should have been anywhere but in his bathroom.

“Damn it, Tae!  How long are you actually going to take in here?”

Tae hadn’t heard the door open.  He had barely felt the pull in the air.  But his eyes launched open at the sound of Charlotte-Marie’s voice on the other side of the long shower curtain.  His body tensed with a shocking jolt at the startling sound of the door slamming shut.  She was still in the bathroom.  He could hear her moving closer.

“Shit, Charlotte!  What the hell,” Tae exclaimed, leaning close to the shower wall reflexively.

“Relax.  I just have to pee.  I’ll be done in a minute.  Then you can go back to your wet and wild and jerk-a-thon.”

Tae scowled at the curtain.  “Fuck you!  I’m not jerking off.  But even if I was, it’s not like this is the only restroom in the house.”

“I’m not using your parents’ bathroom and the one downstairs has been broken for two weeks.”

“You could have knocked!”

“I did!  And that was after you’d already been in here ten minutes.”

“I haven’t been in here for ten minutes,” Tae argued.

“You’re right,” Charlotte said matter-of-factly.  “It’s actually been at least twenty minutes.”

“No fucking way!  Ten minutes, maybe.  Fine.  But I have not been in here twenty minutes.”

“You so have, dweeb!  Have you become narcoleptic or something recently?  Do you need a doctor?”

“Shut up!  Look, I’m almost done.  Just get out and give me another minute or two.  Please.”

“No need,” Charlotte said brightly.  “I’m done.  Do you want me to flush or…”

“No!  Just…put the lid down or whatever.  Then you can get out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.  Please.”

There was no response.  Tae stood awkwardly against the shower wall.  He was trying to listen for any sounds beyond the spray of water and the whirring fan in the ceiling.  A minute passed.  Tae felt himself relax.  He stood up straight, stepping slowly back under the warm spray of water.  It was definitely not as hot as it had been.  He wondered if he had been in the shower as long as Charlotte said.  It didn’t matter.  Despite the interruption by his stepmom’s assistant, Tae was actually feeling better than he had been earlier.

“But what if I want to stay here,” said Charlotte as she eased past the far edge of the shower curtain.

Lee turned around with a start.  He simultaneously tried to cover himself and keep from slipping, barely managing to accomplish both.  His eyes were wide with embarrassed terror as he watched a very naked Charlotte-Marie Travison join him in the bathtub.  “Charlotte, what the fuck?!”

The twenty-year-old girl rolled her milky brown eyes at Tae.  “Suddenly you’re so bashful?”

“I’m naked!”

“Clearly,” said Charlotte, putting her hands on her hips.  “I think it’s pretty obvious we’re both naked.”

“Yeah…but…”

“What?!  Should I let you finish in here and just join you for one of your little naked hikes in the woods?  Yeah, don’t look so shocked.  You might drown standing up if you keep your mouth hanging open like that.”

Tae blinked and did as she said.  “How do you-”

“Oh, I know all about them,” Charlotte replied before Tae could finish asking.  “You know, it’s really not fair that only the trees get to see you naked when you go for your walks.”

Tae didn’t comment.  She was only partially correct about that.  Instead, he stood there silently, still trying to keep his genitals concealed.

“Or,” Charlotte continued, practically ignoring his silence, “that I’d have to pretend to be back in high school and join JROTC so I could go on one of your lake trips for training.”  She did air quotes for that last part.

“But-”

“My best friend’s cousin was in your squad,” Charlotte said, not giving Tae a chance to speak.  There was a strange kind of pride in her voice.  She took a slow step closer to Tae.  “I heard all about your skinny-dipping adventures in Arkansas last summer.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t-”

Charlotte pressed her finger to Tae’s lips.  “Oh, but apparently it was…and more,” she said slyly.  Her bare legs brushed against Tae’s muscular calf and thigh.  She pressed her smooth, bare pubis against the curve of his firm, wet glute.  Charlotte bit her lip.  She had too.  The touch of her skin against his was nothing short of electric.  The spark of pleasure that had suddenly raced through her was overwhelming.

“I was told so many details,” Charlotte said.  She was practically whispering now as she leaned more of her naked body against Tae’s.  She was pacing herself.  She had dreamed of this moment for years.  Charlotte wasn’t about to have it wasted by moving too fast.  She let her fingertips touch his shoulder.  The motion was so light she felt more water on his skin, at first, than his pale flesh.

“So many details,” she repeated, watching her long fingers drift delicately onto his smooth, defined pectoral and then farther onward down his torso.  Desire burned at her core and she traced the ripples of his abs.

Charlotte noticed Tae hadn’t flinched under her ministrations yet.  He hadn’t jerked his body away from hers.  His breathing was faster.  But so was hers.  Maybe he wanted her as much as she wanted him.  Her hand was almost to the prize she craved.  She only had to move her fingers down just a little more-

“No,” Tae suddenly said.  He was too short of breath to shout.  “You…I…Elizabeth,” he said hurriedly, trying to turn his body away from Charlotte even more.  “She’s going to wonder where you are.  She’ll be furious.”

“She’s not even here,” said Charlotte, keeping one hand on Tae’s back and the other firmly against his stomach.  “She’s left for some meetings.  Then, she and your dad are going to pick up dinner…a surprise dinner for you.  No one will be home for hours.”

Charlotte’s voice was barely audible as she leaned on Tae, one leg on top of his.  She was standing on the tips of her toes to put her lips close to his.  She had moved the hand on his back up to his neck, gently urging him to turn his head.  “No one, that is,” she said softly less than inch from his face, “except us.”

She was kissing him.  He hadn’t pulled away when she pushed her lips onto his.  He was still there as she tentatively touched him with her tongue.  She felt his body relax, ever so subtly, a heartbeat before she felt his tongue swipe against hers.  Charlotte’s body tingled hotly.  She pressed into Tae’s side with even more force.  He had to feel her leaking against his thigh.  He must have liked it as his tongue began an urgent, wet wrestling match with hers.  She sensed other movement, his hands unclenching, his fingers uncovering the prize she craved so urgently.

Her fingertips felt its base, so smooth, so soft, and yet so hard.  So very hard.  Charlotte moaned into Tae’s open mouth as her long fingers ensnared his cock.  She was finally holding it.  For too long she had wanted this moment.  She had dreamed of feeling and exploring every inch of it.  And, as her pussy practically buzzed with indescribable excitement, Charlotte thought about how much she needed every erect inch of his penis inside her.

Without breaking their kiss, Charlotte moved her hand up to stroke his hefty shaft.  She used his cock as a lever arm, turning his body carefully to face her.  It would only be a few more moments.  Then, she would have him.  A desire long burning, long itching inside of her would at last be satisfied.

“No,” Tae suddenly said again.

He pushed back against Charlotte, his palm feeling the top of her firm, ample breast.  He reached down at the same time, trying to free his erection from her tight fist.  “No.  It’s not right.”

Charlotte stared with narrow, glaring eyes at Tae.  She didn’t bother to take his hand off her chest.  And she wasn’t letting go her prize.  Not now.  Not after being so patient for so long.

“What would make it right, Tae,” she asked, an edge of frustration in her voice.  “Tell me.”

“Charlotte, I…”

“What?  Is it because I’ve got tits and a pussy instead of pecs and a dick?”

Tae looked at Charlotte, shocked by the sting of her words.

“Would that make it right, Tae?  Do I need to be a dude for you to fuck me?”

Tae stared into Charlotte’s eyes.  Her words hung in his ears.  They were like razor-edge knives to his ego and his soul.  He didn’t bother to question how she knew or how much she knew.  It didn’t matter.  She would know he was lying if he said anything.  And the longer he stared at her, the angrier he felt himself getting.

“Well, tough guy?”

A spark of fury erupted in Tae.  It was almost exactly like the rage he felt break open inside him in Casey’s office.  Tae moved his body in a flash of motion Charlotte wasn’t expecting.  The soles of her feet skidded across the wet base of the porcelain tub as Tae shoved her backwards with a growl.  She grunted unstoppably when she hit the far wall.  Her pulse jumped at the way his face had turned red and a fire consumed his jade green eyes.  Part of her wondered if she had made a mistake, if she had pushed him too hard.

Now Charlotte was the one being pushed.  There was nowhere else for her naked body to go but up as her feet scrambled and slipped on the back of the tub.  She found footing on the narrow lip where the base of the wall met the rim of the damp, rectangular bowl.  Charlotte winced as Tae pinned her shoulder to the wall.  She felt herself shaking as he leaned his face close to hers.

“You think you know me so well…” Tae said, his words whispered harshly.

Their noses were almost touching. Her gaze kept shifting between the fury in his eyes and the beads of water rolling off his face and chest.  Charlotte gasped loudly when she felt the head of his cock touch her body.

“But you don’t,” he hissed, brushing her lips with his.

Charlotte’s eyes went cross.  She moaned, loudly.  She couldn’t help it. As if to emphasize his point, Tae thrust his cock between the soft, wet folds of Charlotte’s mound.  His fully hard and throbbing seven inches found her waiting hole and sank all the way in.  “Ohhh, fuck,” Charlotte breathed, or at least tried to.  She had wanted this so bad.  Now, the eighteen-year-old stud with his god-like prong was buried to the hilt inside her pleasure-wracked body.

Tae didn’t give her any time to recover from the sudden invasion.  He wasn’t in the mood to play games, not with her and not anymore that day.  He had pulled his hips back, sliding almost all the way out of her tight, soaked tunnel before taking a breath, rocking his hips, and pushing, hard, all the way back into Charlotte.

The twenty-year-old’s eyes blurred and watered.  She panted and moaned desperately.  The sound of her excitement echoed over the spray of the shower behind them.  Tae was moving nonstop now.  The harder and faster Tae thrust his seven-inch sword into her hungry pussy, the louder Charlotte became.  Tae shifted his arms, the pressure on Charlotte’s shoulder finally gone.  She felt her body hoisted up.  She wrapped her legs around his tight waist as he bounced her body mercilessly on his long, turgid shaft.

“Ohh, fuck,” she screamed as Tae leaned in to suckle and bite, first her left nipple, and then her right.  Back and forth he bobbed his head between her breasts, soaking each tit in his spit.

“Ohh, yes!  Fuck!  Yes, Tae!  Keep going!  Fuck me!  So close!  So close!! Fuck me,” Charlotte shouted, her vision swimming on the tidal wave of her orgasm.  “Fuck me!  Fuck me!!  Ohhhh, yes!!”

Tae felt her heat suddenly become molten.  The muscles in her vagina tightened and spasmed.  He gasped and thrust as hard and deep as he could.  He felt the shaft of his cock swell and jerk as streams of his jism raced out of his balls.  He groaned into Charlotte’s breasts, his eyes clamped shut and overwhelmed with stars as he flooded the older girl with his sperm.  His own orgasm seemed to last as long as hers.  Every muscle in Tae’s fit, young body was tense while his cum blasted its way into Charlotte’s core, flooding her pleasured pussy.

Finally, the ride was over.  The ringing in Tae’s ears faded so he could hear Charlotte humming softly.  He opened his eyes, leaning back to look down at her face.  Her own eyes looked glossy, like she had gotten lost coming out of a dream.

“Sorry,” Tae said, his chest still rising and falling as his breathing gradually slowed down.

Charlotte smiled at him.  “Don’t be.  You didn’t break me.”

Tae’s eyes widened when he felt her flex the muscles enveloping his cock.  Even after all that, he was still hard.  At least, he was hard enough.

“Besides,” Charlotte said, pulling his face closer to hers.  “You’re not done yet.”

I hope you are liking this story so far. There's so much more still to come. Please leave a comment to help support this story. And if you'd like to help make sure I stay caffeinated and keep the lights on to keep writing more, please check out the link below to leave a tip. Thank you! -T.F.