I realize I am a little late posting this week (Hey, it's still Wednesday), and yes I have taken the past two weeks off.  Life happens...we will leave it at that.  Hope you enjoy the latest installment, and will check out the other flashers--links follow.

This weeks prompts: “The game is afoot!” or “Feet don’t fail me now” or feat of strength or alligator, clip, residue or use a storm in some way or “You are the wind beneath my wings” or “Come sail away” or “Please pass the…” or find a creative use for mayonnaise or make a My Favorite Martian reference.

Bane (3)

"I see you've been to the quarry again," Uncle Jamie said as I walked through the kitchen door.

He stood at the sink washing lettuce he had probably gathered that morning from his garden.  I plopped down on the barstool beside the island in the middle of the kitchen floor.  "What makes you say that?"

Uncle Jamie does not respond.  He simply rolls his eyes as he looks at my naked body from head to foot.  "If you expect to eat dinner here, you better go put some clothes on, young man.  Kevin will be home soon, and I don't need him staring at you all night."

I reluctantly gave in, and headed to the laundry room off the kitchen.  Although I officially lived in the big house over the hill, I spent more and more time at Uncle Jamie's.  I felt more comfortable sleeping on his couch than I did in my own room. Uncle Jamie was one of the only members of my family to actually get out of this place for a time, and secretly he was helping me get out as well. He had always been my favorite uncle, and it was Uncle Jamie I ran to the night my brothers found me in the barn with the Felts boy three years ago.

* * *

Everyone in Connor's Gorge works for my family in one way or another.  All of the "able bodied" men and boys work in the coal mines my family has owned for over a hundred years.  Most of the families live in the gorge, and the buses travel from the mines every morning to pick them up, and then again at night to drop them off.  There are those who are allowed to remain in Connor's Gorge if they are unable to work in the mines, but they are a few.  Jeremy Felts was one of those few.

My father had been best friends with Jeremy's dad when he was growing up. Jeremy was born blind, and the Felts feared what Grandpa Connor would do.  Dad persuaded Grandpa Connor to save a place for him to work, taking care of the horses when he was old enough.  Jeremy was three years older than me, and I never understood why people always looked at him with such disgust. No one saw any reason for Jeremy to attend school. There was no one in the Gorge who could read or teach him braille, and Grandpa wasn't going to allow a teacher to come from the outside.

Jeremy moved into a small room at the back of the barn when he was ten.  He would spend his days with Mister Jake, the man who took care of all the animals. Jake's wife would fix Jeremy meals, but they did not want him in their home. I never really noticed Jeremy, although I spent a great deal of time playing and hanging out around the barn when I was younger.  He was always around, quietly doing his work, but I never took much notice of him.  When I was fourteen that changed.

It was a hot summer day, and I was headed to the quarry for a swim.  I went down to the barn to get my horse, and was greeted by a shirtless Jeremy.  I had noticed my attraction to men growing for the past couple years, and had played around some with a few of my cousins, but this was the first time I felt feelings this strong.  I started hanging out around the barn more and more that summer. I would lay on a blanket in the hay loft, and read to him from my text books while he worked.  He would quietly listen, and occasionally ask me questions, but nothing sexual happened between us for almost two years.  I attempted to initiate things with him occasionally, but he would politely shut me down.  Jeremy always made me go home before Jake's wife dropped his dinner off at the barn.

An unseasonably warm spring evening toward the end of March, the horses started acting up.  No matter what Jeremy did, they would not settle down.

"What's wrong with them?" I asked.

"I don't know," he replied, "It could be the full moon, or maybe there is a storm coming."

I helped him secure the horses in their stalls, and calm them down.  By the time we had them settled, we could hear a strong wind rattling the tin shingles of the barn. As I opened the barn door to head up to the house, the wind caught it and blew it out of my hand.  Jeremy heard the door bang against the side of the barn along with my scream of surprise, and before I knew it was pressed up against me as we struggled with the barn door. It felt like someone was hurling buckets of ice water at us, as a mixture of rain and hail began to fall.  We finally got the door closed, and Jeremy pulled the crossbar down to latch it. 

The horses were kicking at their stalls once again.  The staccato of the ice and rain against the tin roof, accented by the cracks and rumble of thunder outside made it almost impossible to hear. We both continued to work at keeping the horses calm, until finally the noises of the storm outside began to die down.  The temperature in the barn had dropped by at least twenty degrees, and I began to shiver.  I suddenly realized it had also become very dark within the old wooden structure, when I stubbed my toe on something.

"Shit," I exclaimed, "I can't see anything."

"Oh my God," I heard Jeremy exclaim, "neither can I."

I felt him put his arm around my waist as we laughed, and could feel him shivering, as well. Although the storm had died down, a steady rainfall could still be heard.

"You’re soaking wet." Jeremy noticed, and began guiding me through the barn with his arm still around my waist.  I could tell we were moving in the direction of his room at the back of the barn.  When we got to the room, he opened the door and led me over to the small twin-size bed.

"Take of your clothes and sit on the bed.”

"I never thought you'd ask," I joked as I did what he had instructed.  I had been here many times, and fantasized about being naked in this room with him almost daily.  It added to my excitement to realize in this darkness I was almost as blind as him. Somehow, it equalized us even more.

These days, my dick seemed to stay hard all the time, and it was so rigid, at that moment, it was almost painful.  I shuddered as he sat beside me.  The brush of his bare flesh against my own was almost more that I could take as he wrapped a wool blanket around us.  He scooted close against me, and I could feel the hardness of his muscles and the softness of his skin at every point where it contacted mine.  I shuddered again as precum wet the tip of my cock.

"Are you still cold?" he asked as he tightened the blanket around us.

I could not answer.  Words would not form behind the sudden cotton like feeling drying my mouth.  I bravely reached out my hand under the blanket and felt for warmest spot between Jeremy's legs.  He was hard as well.  He whimpered as I traced the great length of it with my fingers, and groaned when I wrapped my hand around its base.

"No one has ever touched me there before," he said in almost a whisper.

I was still shivering from head to toe, but I wasn't cold any longer.  I refused wait for another opportunity.  In one quick move, I dropped down to the saddle blanket on the dirt floor that served as a rug, spread his knees apart and buried his cock within my hungry mouth.  It was clumsy and quick, but I will never forget that first and last taste of Jeremy Felts.  My own dick spasmed and spattered the floor.  As we simultaneously exploded in his room, there was a huge cracking noise from the front of the barn.  I wondered if a tornado had hit as I was violently ripped up from between Jeremy's legs.

I only realized my eyes had been shut, when I opened them to see my brother, Jason's, angry face.  It was he who had grabbed me and pulled me away from Jeremy.  He now tossed me to the dirt floor. The storm had apparently passed, because moonlight came through the shattered doors, lighting the entire barn.

"Get your ass up to the house!" Jason yelled.

I knew that neither my brothers nor my father had ever liked me, but in that moment, I saw hatred in Jason's eyes.  I scrambled to my feet and looked back toward Jeremy's room.  I saw a glimpse of my oldest brother Colton through the door, heard Jeremy scream, a loud thump, and then silence.  Like a coward, I turned and ran from the barn.  I did not run home.  I ran straight to Uncle Jamie's.

Check out these other Wednesday Briefs Flashers.

Cia Nordwell

MA Church

Andrew Gordon

Julie Lynn Hayes

Lily Sawyer

A.R. Von

BL Morticia
Victoria Adams
Elizabeth VaLey

Check out my interview on the archived copy of Front Porch Folklore with Intuitive Andrew Jaycen on Blogtalk Radio.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/frontporchfolklore/2013/05/19/a-chat-with-newly-published-author-ja-harmon

Welcome back.  If you are looking for "heat", I am afraid you might be disappointed this week, but I must go where the characters take me.  Enjoy, and don't forget to check out the other flashers--links are at the bottom of the post.

This weeks prompts:  "He's staying with..." or show one of your MC's as disappointed or use: pizza, frigid, date.  Or: sex on a carousel or use a key party or use leftovers in an interesting way.  Use a cardinal - either the bird or the cleric.

Dillon (1)

I stood there for a few seconds watching the jeep's dust trail, before whatever spell he had cast was broken.  I looked down and realized I was standing in the middle of a wide open area, in God knows where Kentucky, on someone's private property in nothing but my birthday suit.  My bike and clothes were over a hundred yards away across the quarry, and I heard the distinct sound of several ATV's somewhere in the distance.  I quickly put aside my disappointment about the brevity of our encounter, and ran back into the water. The rocks felt like they would cut and bruise the bottoms of my feet until I was deep enough to lunge toward the other shore. The muscles in my legs and arms burned as I arrived back at my bike, and quickly put my clothes on.  I never saw the riders of the ATV's, but I could tell they were closing in on the quarry as I started the bike and fled down the overgrown road I had come in on.

Within minutes, I was back on the winding main road travelling deeper into the Appalachians that rose higher and higher around me.  The woods on both sides of the narrow two lane road were so thick, I wondered what other secrets might lie behind the overgrown brush.  About two miles down the road, I noticed an old metal sign, riddled with bullet holes and barely hanging onto an old fence post.  It pointed to the left, and in faded white paint announced, "Connors Gorge 5 Miles".  The intersection was hidden by a sharp turn in the road, and was almost as overgrown as the old access road to the quarry.

I pulled my bike over and debated whether or not to venture down the gravel road or continue the way I had been heading this morning. Were the nervous flutterings in my stomach a warning, or a tug on the strings of attraction that had somehow attached themselves to this mysterious kid from Kentucky?  What the hell, this was why I set forth on this cross country drive to begin with--something different, something unexpected. 

I slowly made my way down the road.  It had not been grated or seen new gravel in quite some time.  A canopy of trees spread over it at times blocking out the sun entirely.  I could smell the stream that cut through the mountain beside me before I saw it.  The road curved sharply and began a steep descent down into a valley.  The bluffs of the mountain rose up beside me, and I had to navigate large rocks that had fallen and been left in the road.  When was the last time someone drove through here, I wondered.  On my other side, the road suddenly fell off, and I could hear the rush of water below me.  The temperature seemed to drop the further I descended into the valley.

It seemed I had travelled much further than five miles before the road finally leveled off.  I could hear the sounds of water getting louder, and as I turned another sharp corner I discovered the source.  What I had thought to be a creek appeared more like a river in front of me.  Hints of peeling green paint speckled the rusted steel trusses of the old narrow bridge.  I hesitated for a moment, questioning the stability of the weathered wooden slats that provided the decking of the bridge, but continued on.  I had come too far to turn back now.  The clattering and creaking of the bridge mixed with the roar of the rushing water below added to my anxiety, and I felt myself relax when I had reached the other side.

As I turned alongside the bluff on this side of the river and continued to follow the road down the side of the mountain, I could see the source of the water's roar.  Twenty yards from the bridge, the water suddenly dropped off the side of the mountain.  Through the trees, I could also make out what must be Connors Gorge speckling the valley below.  I continued to descend the mountain, until finally the road leveled off again.  This time, when I emerged from the dense woods, the town spread out before me.

It was like I had been transported back in time.  The road, although gravel, was much more maintained as I travelled, what I assumed was Main Street, although there were no street signs of any kind.  An old mill was the first building with a large water wheel scooping up buckets of water from the river beside it.  As I drove by the small stick frame houses, with their faded clapboard siding, several women stepped out on their porches and watched as I drove by.  A few children played outside, and they too stopped what they were doing and watched me pass by.  Although I waved to them as I went, they simply stared as if they had not seen an outsider in years, if at all.

I quickly arrived in "downtown", feeling people's eyes on me at all times.  Although I spotted a few four-wheelers around, I did not see any cars or trucks, other than what looked to be a 1950's model ford pick-up rusting behind one of the homes.  The four buildings which made up the town were built right next to the road, with raised wooden decking serving as a sidewalk.  The largest structure was about a hundred yards long and took up the entire left-hand side of the town.  It was a rustic bsrn-like building on a concrete slab, and had a rusted metal roof.  The sign that hung above the doors read "Connor Company Store".  Directly across the street were two one-story buildings and a large two-story structure.  As I read the faded paint on their own signs, I saw the smallest of the three was the post office. The larger building in the middle was the Connor Café.  The two story building had a faded red cut out of the Kentucky state bird, hanging from a pole above the door, reading Cardinal Inn.  It was at this third building, that I pulled my bike up to the wooden walkway, and went inside.

A rusty iron bell rang over my head as I closed the door behind me. 

"You kids best get out uh here 'fore I get my gun," came a voice from the doorway behind the counter.  I could hear the creak and scraping of chair legs on a wooden floor, and decided I should announce myself before I being greeted by the aforementioned gun.

"Hello," I called out as I walked up to the worn wooden counter.

The shuffling and scraping wood against wood became louder until a large man filled up the doorway.  He must have been at least six foot seven, and four hundred pounds.  He wore a threadbare pair of bib overalls and a stained white t-shirt.  The left leg of the overalls was tied in a knot where his knee should have been, and he leaned on a home-made wooden crutch as he shuffled to the counter.  He lay the crutch across the counter and lowered himself heavily upon the stool behind the counter.

"Who are you?" came the curt question from the massive man.

"My name is Dillon Michaels," I replied as I extended my hand, which he ignored.

"What do you want?"

I awkwardly withdrew my extended hand, "I was hoping you might have a room available."

He did not look at the line of dusty keys hanging on the metal hooks beside the counter, or the old composition book on the counter, that I assumed contained the names of past guests, but rather he reached over and flipped the pages on the calendar hanging on the wall.  It still displayed March, although we were now in early June.  After consulting the calendar, he announced, "I guess I got a room you can use for the night."

"I was hoping to go ahead and pay for a week."

He looks back at the calendar, "Two nights, then you gotta be out."

Why?" I questioned.

He looked confused by my question, and then shrugged, "Remodeling."

"Alright, two nights, I guess," I agree, although I didn’t believe him for a minute.  That give me plenty of time to find Bane again.

He grabbed a key from the hooks on the side, and an old oil lamp from under the counter.  I looked questioningly at the lamp. 

"We ain’t got no electricity, if that's what you's expecting," he announced as he put a book of matches beside the lamp.  "The room is the first one on the left at the top of the stairs.  The outhouse is out back, and I can have Vera heat up some water later if you's expecting a hot bath."

"Uh, that's alright," I responded, trying to get over the shock and thinking about the swim in the quarry earlier.

"That'll be ten dollars cash, and make sure you get outta here before dark day after tomorrow.  That road you came in on gets dangerous after dark.”

Check out these other Wednesday Briefs' flashers.

Cia Nordwell

MA Church

Andrew Gordon

Michael Mandrake

Julie Lynn Hayes

Lily Sawyer

Nephylim

Ava

Renee Stevens

Sorry I missed out last week, but I hope you enjoy the continuation of the story this week.  Don't forget to check out the other Wednesday Briefs' flashers listed at the end of the entry.

This week's prompts:  "An ounce of prevention is worth..." or use: cauliflower, pastor, enable or "When will I see you again?" or dress your characters in blue or "Count sheep? I'd rather count..." or "My ... is so sore.... (fill in the blanks)

Bane (2)

My skin tightened as I slid into the water.  I could still taste his salt upon my tongue from a few seconds before.  As soon as his abdominal muscles had begun to contract and his knees weakened, I withdrew and dove into the water.  He still stood upon the rocks above my head convulsing and splattering the rocks with his own wetness.  I laid back in the water and slowly paddled away from him as he regained his composure and dove in after me.  Within moments he surfaced in front of me.

"What about you?" he asked with a genuine desire and urgency in his soft baritone voice.

"I'm fine," I lied still feeling a heated desire despite the icy cold embrace of the quarries waters.  Uncle Jamie had taught me to always stay in control of every situation. I would not let myself lose it, even in this instance when I so wanted to do exactly that.

"You're a strange one, Little Pup," he says as he splashes water in my direction.

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"I don't know," he tells me with a tilt of his head.  "It suits you for some reason, and I don't know your name."

"Bane." I announced. "Bane Connor"

"Blaine?" he questioned.

"No Bane, as in 'The bane of my existence'"

"There is a story there." he says.

"Maybe I will tell you if I our paths cross again someday," I quipped as I started swimming toward the shore where I had left my clothes.

"Don't you want to know my name?" He called as he swam after me.

I had arrived at the shore.  I stepped gingerly from the water, careful not to cut my feet on any of the rocks.  I slowly turned, once again taking pleasure at the look of lust in his eyes.

"I don't know," I told him, "Biker Guy will seem much more mysterious when I write it in my diary."

"It's Dillon," he announces as he slowly follows me out of the water.

"Damn, now you've ruined the mystery," I smiled to let him know I was joking.  People tend to take me entirely too seriously. I slowly gathered my clothes and threw them into the back of the jeep.  I couldn't help but laugh at the look of confusion that crossed his face.  "I like to feel the wind and sun against my naked flesh as I drive home."

"You're not afraid of someone seeing you?"

"This is all my family’s land, and trust me, they have all seen me naked."

"When will I see you again?" he asked, looking suddenly vulnerable in his nakedness.

"I doubt you will," I announced, although something inside told me something was different about this encounter.  A thought at the back of my head assured me this was not the last time Dillon and I would cross paths.  "I am sure you are just passing through.  People don't visit Connor's Gorge, and they definitely don't stay here."

"I don't know," he smiled, "if everyone is as hospitable as you, maybe I should check out your little town."

"Suit yourself," I told him as I climbed into the jeep, careful to keep a towel between my exposed skin and the hot seat.  "You might want to get out of here, though, before any of my uncles or cousins decide to show up.  They have a slightly different idea of hospitality."

I don't know if he took my warning seriously, because I could still his naked body in the rearview mirror as I drove away.  There is definitely something different about this one.

Check out these other Wednesday Briefs' flashers.

Cia Nordwell

MA Church

Andrew Gordon

Michael Mandrake

Julie Lynn Hayes

Lily Sawyer

Renee Stevens

Due to unforeseen medical and work issues, this weeks blog will be postponed until next week.  My heartfelt apologies, but circumstances are beyond my control.

Sincerely
J.A.

Time to lose my Wednesday Briefs' virginity.  I hope you enjoy the post which follows, and will check out the other members posting this week.  See the list at the end of my post.

The prompts for this week:  "How can you look me in the eye and say...?" or use silk in an original way or use: candy, blossom, serenity or "I knew you were the one when..." or "Hold on there, I'm no..." or "When we were young..." or use a peacock in your tale.

Bane (1)

What the hell was I thinking?  Truth be told, I wasn't thinking.  I was reacting.  Sure, moments before I had been deep in thought, but the moment I saw him nothing else seemed to matter.

Like so many other summer afternoons, I left the house in my jeep and headed down to the quarry.  Stripping off my clothes, I jumped into the cool water and swam to the familiar outcropping of rocks on the far side.  I climbed onto my favorite boulder, and immediately the sun began to suck the moisture from my skin as it further darkened my tan.  I lay there counting the days until I would never see this quarry or this town ever again.  Two weeks ago I finally graduated from the small high school in this small town, and in just a few weeks I would leave for college and never look back.

That was when I heard the roar of the motorcycle as it skidded on the gravel and came to a stop.  At first I was surprised.  Everyone knew my grandfather owned this property, along with most of the town, and no one was stupid enough to set foot on it uninvited.  My uncles and cousins would sometimes fish here at night, but it was the middle of the afternoon.  This was my time.  I am the only one who ever comes here at this time.  I raised up to look over the rocks, and that was when I saw him.

He had apparently driven in on the old access road, and could not see me or my jeep from his side of the quarry.  He was tall and slender, with dark brown hair that fell just below his shoulders.  I would soon discover, that same brown hair also spread across his broad chest and down the center of his defined abdomen. He removed his black t-shirt and threw it across the seat of his bike.  The black leather boots were the next to go, quickly followed by the well-worn jeans.  Within seconds, he stood naked on the shore.  I ducked behind the rock as his eyes scanned the quarry, and dared not look up again until I heard the splash of him entering the dark water.

After a few moments, I looked up again, he was nowhere to be seen.  I scanned the surface of the water, but there was no sign of him anywhere.  Great, he hit his head on something and drowned.  It was too nice an afternoon to deal with this.  I stood up on the rock, where I could see the entire quarry. I did not see the strange man anywhere, but his motorcycle and clothes still sat in the gravel by the old entryway.  The water below my perch was still and quiet.  Its silken surface glistened in the sunlight and only occasionally rippled when tickled by the wind. 

I came around the rocks that had screened me from his view and scanned the entirety of the quarry.  I was just preparing to dive in, when I heard a deep, soft voice behind me.

"Nice ass."

Thankfully I don't startle easily, or I probably would have fallen into the water.  Instead I slowly turned, allowing him plenty of time to admire my smooth, tan body.  "You do realize you are on private property."

"I didn't see any signs." He boldly announced, as he made no attempts to hide scanning me from head to toe.  The thickening of his cock was obviously more than just the effects of coming out of the icy waters of the quarry into the warm sunlight.

"We have no need for signs," I informed him. "Everyone within a hundred miles of here knows not to venture onto Connor property."

"Obviously, I'm not from around here. I will leave if you want me to."

I moved slowly toward him.  The water that had not yet evaporated in the sun's heat sparkled in his hair.  I suddenly had an urge to lean forward and lap it up from the crevice between his muscled pecs.  Instead I reached down and took his dick into my hand.  It jumped at my touch, and he quickly backed away putting up both hands.

"Whoa there little pup.  I've already trespassed today.  I don't think it would be a good idea to add statutory rape to the list."

"Hold on there, I'm no child, and I'm definitely not some innocent little virgin."  I moved toward him once again, steering him toward the rocks and no escape.  "I turned eighteen two months ago, and you don't look much older than me."

"I'm twenty-one." He replied to my unasked question.  I could hear excited nervousness in his voice as he realized I had backed him up between two rocks with only the steep bluff behind him.

I moved in close, placing my finger gently on his full pink lips and whispered.  "You're on my grandfather's property now.  It's time to take you punishment like a man."

The next thing I heard come from that beautiful mouth was a gasp as I knelt down in front of him.

Hope you enjoyed.  Now check out these other flashers.

Cia Nordwell

MA Church

Andrew Gordon

Michael Mandrake

Julie Lynn Hayes

Nephylim

Welcome to my new blog.  The adventure begins.  I am unsure what you might find here in the future, or even how often you will discover new entries, but stay tuned. If you have not checked out my first novel Beyond Love from Dreamspinner Press, please do so.  You may visit my website at www.j-a-harmon.com for more information and purchasing links. Next week I will make my debut entry into the world of Wednesday Briefs flash fiction group.  Join me on this new journey.