City Girl Gone Country

[Ailith Rayner]

"Whatever, you loved it!" Ailith laughed breathless.
"Yeah... I did. I don't think Graphite will be able to walk properly for a while though."
"Awh sorry Graphite." Ailith leaned over and patted the horse tentatively on the neck. The poor horse was knackered and it was her fault. I feel sorry for this beast of a thing? Well, it did run flat out with two people for several minutes..., "Should we get off and walk then?"
"Yeah, sure," he replied, sliding off and holding out his arms to help her down.
Ailith was no girly girl, OK she was petrified of the horse before she got on but she would d**n well get off by herself now that she was no longer scared. She took her feet out of the stirrups, swung one leg over and slid down, bending her knees as she hit the ground. She looked into Jude's pale blue eyes and smiled, "Thanks for this J.D., it was the most fun I've had since ... I don't even remember when. And thanks for not giving up on me when I was bein' a dumb blonde."

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude's helpful arms fell uselessly to his side as Ailith slid off the horse, and Jude had to admit it, he almost felt a little disappointed. This was the first time he'd ever really been able to help Ailith at all, and already, she didn't need him anymore. It was... strange, at any rate.
Still, he couldn't help but flush with pride as she met his eyes and said, "Thanks for this J.D, it was the most fun I've had since... I don't even remember when. And thanks for not giving up on me when I was bein' a dumb blonde."
"You weren't," he promised her, turning back to Graphite and taking his reins. Suddenly, he froze and looked back at her. "J.D?"
"Yeah i figured it out like three days ago I just kept forgetting to say it." Ailith wrinkled her nose again and laughed.
Oh. The wrinkly nose. Jude never quite thought he would understand what was quite so endearing about that. Actually, it wasn't even endearing or cute anymore- it was getting to the point that Jude found it unbelievably and inexplicably sexy.
"My initials...?" he said slowly, trying it out in his head several times, and liking the sound of it. "J.D. Okay. Is that what you're going to call me from now on?"
"Would you hate it if I did?"
"I'd love it," he said earnestly, smiling at her as they began the long trek back up to the stables. "Really, I would. Hey! We have a thing."

[Ailith Rayner]

"A thing?" Ailith frowned.
"Yeah... like, when people are friends they have 'things'. Like, um, me and Maddox." Jude explained.
"Oh! Hey, try mine in a Long John Silver voice." Ailith giggled.
"What?"
"My initials."
"A.R!"
They both laughed at that.
"So what do you do when you give the horse back? Do you have to rub it down or something?" Ailith enquired.

[Jude Dorrian]

'J.D.' glanced at Graphite thoughtfully. "Probably have to give him a bit of a brush down, yeah, and unfortunately, if the farmer comes poking about, I'll have to start mucking out the place."
That was the not so nice bit of all of this. Ailith may've enjoyed the whole riding part, but cleaning up revolting piles of stinking muck? Hmmm. Yeah. Fun.
"Are you going to help me?" he asked her dully.
"Well I'm hardly going to leave you to do a job like that by yourself am I?" Ailith made a sarcastic face. "I'm not that kind of person."
"Oh, right," he winked. "Not as blonde as you look, are y'all?"
Ailith's mouth fell open and she landed aimed a punch at his arm, scrunching one side of her nose in a mock sneer. "Only I comment on the blondeness, Boy-O."
But she was smiling.
J.D. burst out laughing, and wincing simultaneously. That punch really had hurt. Actually, he was incredibly grateful to her for helping him. It would make the whole process that bit more enjoyable.
"I'm sorry," he said meekly to her, bowing his head. "Really, I am. The blondeness thing is nice. It suits you."
"Yeah, whatever," she replied skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"It does," he promised her, flashing her his trademark grin. "Really."
Dang, he sounded a bit of a dweeb, didn't he? The worst part was, he was perfectly serious.

[Ailith Rayner]

Jude flashed a grin. It made her want to wriggle with pride and pleasure that they were going out together. Weren't they? Are we?.. Neither of them had actually said as much but Ailith had always assumed that they were boyfreind and girlfriend. Now that she thought about it ... well she wasn't sure. She looked at Jude and forgot to smile.
Jude looked back and pressed his lips together. He was feeling awkward. Ailith transferred her gaze to her feet.
"Erm, how come Tameron was saying all that stuff at the halloween party?" Oh I'm smooth.

[Jude Dorrian]

"That's Tameron for you," Jude replied, his eyes still firmly fixed on his feet. "She's... very romantically inclined, shall we say. And she thinks we're going out."
There was a long, long pause.
"Are we going out?"
For several painful moments, Jude wished that the ground would just open up and swallow him. He wasn't used to this kind of thing at all- and he really, really wished he hadn't said a word. But... but was she not just asking him that? Why else would she have brought up Tameron...?
Both had slowed to a stop now, and the stables were in sight just over the next couple of fields. Graphite stopped with them, grumbling in protest. Jude ignored them, and slowly raised his eyes to meet Ailith's.
He had no experience with what he was about to do. No doubt it would come across as incredibly stupid... but maybe... maybe that wouldn't matter. Maybe it would be okay...
"I would... really like it if we were, you know..."
Heart pounding faster than it had the whole time they'd been galloping across the fields, Jude took a deep breath and leant down towards her, closing his eyes... and then he kissed her on the lips.

[Ailith Rayner]

As soon as their lips met a chain reaction ran through Ailith's body. Her eyes closed, shoulders and chest rose slightly and her upper body tensed, while her knees were doing the opposite, caving in on themselves so that Ailith was supported by hips and ankles only. At that moment, everything that had been running through Ailith's mind stopped and vanished except for the last thing Jude said. I would... really like it if we were, you know...
Jude lifted his head and Ailith sank back to her heels. She hadn't even realised she'd been on tiptoe. She smiled before opening her eyes to look at Jude.
"--," Ailith tried to speak. She cleared her throat, "Me too."
Her voice was so quiet. What happened? It was a 5 second kiss, it was kind of awkward, it was simple ... it was Jude. I can't feel my knees...

[Jude Dorrian]

That was... weird.
Like, really, really weird.
Tameron had thrust all that sissy romance at him before- and he'd read some pretty... well, pretty scary stories about girls swooning over guys. He didn't really understand why all of them were making such a big deal- guys were not all that great! He'd already had to explain that to Tameron- so how many more naive, innocent, love-stricken girls were wandering about goo-goo eyed right now? He felt like he owed them some kind of apology, really.
One of the things they all made a really huge deal out of was their first kiss. Jude felt like he could understand that, at least. The first first kiss was not quite in the same league as all the others, after all.
That'd been Jude's first kiss.
He blushed at the thought, and suddenly, he heard Ailith's voice bring him back to earth with a bang.
"Me too."
That was probably the weirdest part of all.
"Really?" Jude croaked, surprised his voice sounded so hoarse. "Like- no kidding?" Suddenly, he laughed. "Can I kiss you again?"
It'd been weird, sure. But it'd also been... pretty goddam unbelievable.

[Ailith Rayner]

Without much thought, or hesitation for that matter, Ailith took a step forward, took Jude's hands and stood on tiptoe to press her lips to his again. Ailith did hate her height but strangely she care about it now. She just thought round it, and actually she liked stretching up to him. It was less awkward this time, her arms were doing something this time rather than hanging limp. But Jude twisted his hands gently out of her grip and he wrapped them slowly round her back bringing her closer. Ailith moved her hands up his chest to carefully hold his upper arms. Ailith's breathing increased and her heat banged against her ribs. Never had she been held like this, never had she though she would be.
After a while Graphite must have become impatient as a dull, hollow thud sounded and Jude stumbled forward suddenly into Ailith. Breaking something that could have gone on for quite some time. d**n horse...

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude had never been as close to anyone like that in his life until the goddam horse decided to give him a good hard butt in the back. Stumbling into Ailith awkwardly and cursing silently, Jude turned away from her to glare at the grumpy horse- although he thought he could detect a glimmer of mischief in its dark eyes.
"Right," Jude muttered darkly, "right. You're galloping us back, mister."
The horse grumbled in disgust.
"I'm sorry, Ailith," Jude sighed, looking back at her, and the second he did, all his bad feelings towards Graphite melted away.
A familiar heat he knew was causing a dull red flush to creep up on his cheeks caught him offguard, so he cursed that briefly too. There was a short silence, where Jude found himself incapable of speaking- then finally, the torture ended and his senses snapped back into gear.
"Alright, I'll help you up again," he smiled warmly, taking her hand.

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith looked at the stirrups. Yeah, there was just no way she was getting up there with any elegance whatsoever without some help. Not that she minded the help now. Ailith laid her other hand on the saddle and pushed down on both hands so that her body rose higher while Jude applied pressure upwards. Quickly she shoved her foot into the stirrup and swung the other leg round. It was quite technical and neither Ailith or Jude had spoken so it was quite a piece of teamwork also. Of course, Jude hopped up and into the saddle like he was born to.
"Can I drive this time?" Ailith asked hopefully.

[Jude Dorrian]

The shock of what she'd just said hit him like a slap in the face. Jude cleared his throat loudly, and then turned around to look at her.
"I don't think so," he replied smoothly.
"Why not?"
This was stranger still. Jude laughed uncertainly. "Because, Ailith, I've got the stetson- and therefore, I drive." It'd always been that way, after all.
"Why?" Ailith asked politely with a hint of a pout.
"I just told you," he replied, simply. "I've got the stetson."
"Fine, let me wear the stetson!" Unexpectedly, Ailith lunged for it, whipping the stetson off his head and cramming it on her's. Jude whirled in surprise as he felt his hat leave his head, and there was a dull thud as he felt off Graphite and landed on the ground with a string of curses.

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith felt him fall and made a grab for him but missed by and inch. The thud at the end was the worst bit. Never had she hated that noise more. Graphite took a few little worried side steps. Ailith barely felt them, she tensed and asked in a choked voice, "Are you ok?"
He sat up groaning, "If I've just fractured my skull you're not getting a Christmas present."
Ailith sighed heavily and went to fling a leg over Graphite when Jude stood up, dusted himself off and came back to the horse. Ailith took off the Stetson and held it out to Jude who snatched it out of her hand and placed it respectfully on his head. Ailith bit her lips together, almost upset by what she’d done.
“Sorry Jude. Didn’t mean for you to fall off.”
"As the Brits would say- you cheeky, sodding blighter!"
“Actually in this case we’d say ‘you stupid li’ew caow’ or stronger bu…” Ailith caught Jude facial expression and shut up, “…never mind.”

[Jude Dorrian]

In actual fact, Jude hadn't really been hurt all that badly, and actually, he found it sort of funny. He'd have to make a mental note of this one...
Note: Ailith Rayner - most likely to steal a stetson.
It was another of those things he was sort of learning to love her for.
"You can drive if you really want," he relented as they began to trot back up to the stables. "Just please don't touch the hat... although," he glanced at her, "it did sort of suit you."

[Ailith Rayner]

"Think I should get one? Oh! What about those pink sparkly ones?!" Ailith raised her voice and imatated an excited girly-girl, you know the ones that bounce up and down clapping their hands and make squealy noises?
"Um... pink? I saw you in red and black. Or leather. Nice."
"Mmm we'll think about it," Ailith replied skepticly and she leaned forward around Jude, "OK, so, what do I do?"