“Da reason I hid her from everyone is becausse da last people I trusted killed my hawks. Dey took a piece of me dat day. I always feel a little bit afraid now, that someone iss going to hurt me through da things I luff. Dats why I stayed alone for a long time. But den I saw you. And Peter. And I didn’t want to be alone anymore.”

He’d confessed so many things I almost didn’t know where to start. “Do you honestly think I would have hurt your birds?” I wasn’t sure whether to be angry or sad about that thought.

“No, not you. And not Peter. But we were meeting new peoples and some of dem were a little crazy, so I decided it wass better to just wait until da time when we know it is safe.”

I looked down at the ground. “When is that time going to be, Bodo?”

Bodo sighed. “I knew you were dare, Bryn. I saw you sleepingk over dare across da water. I played my harmonica many times, and only two times it wass for Nina.”

“Are you saying you wanted me to find you?”

“Yes, I’m saying dat.” He looked over at me finally, wiping the remnants of tears off his face and standing up straighter.

Nina spread her wings again and let out a screech.

“Welcome to my worldt, Bryn,” he said, an awkward smile on his face. “I really hope you like it.”

***

Something happened in my heart in that moment that I saw him standing there, his hawk’s wings spread wide and her mouth opened, a shriek coming out. The muscles in Bodo’s arm were bulging with the effort of holding her up. He was beautiful and hopeful, as if he wanted nothing more than to have my acceptance.

I took a big breath and decided to just go for it. What do I have to lose, other than my heart?

I looked him in the eye and said, “I want to come over there and kiss you, but I’m afraid Nina will get jealous.”

“Just giff me one minute,” he said, pulling something out of his leather wrap that had been tucked inside. It was a small bell on a strip of leather. He attached it to something on her leg and then blew a note on his harmonica, throwing his wrapped arm up higher into the air.

Nina opened her wings with a snap and took off, flying high above us to disappear over the trees in a matter of seconds.

Bodo reached down and unwrapped the leather from his arm, folding it up and shoving it into the side of his pants.

I stood in place, afraid to move. Bodo had become another person almost - bigger … tougher … more manly or something. I was suddenly shy.

He put his harmonica in his pocket and finally looked up at me.

“Well? I’m ready for dat kiss now.”

I smiled, my feet refusing to move. “Okay. Good.” I knew I sounded like a dork, but I seemed to have lost my ability to be cool or be even relatively intelligent.

He half smiled. “How much longer do you think I’m gonna haff to wait?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you hate me now?” he asked, no longer smiling.

“No way. Not even close,” I said softly, embarrassed about what I was feeling and terribly afraid I was the only one feeling it.

“If I come over dare, are you gonna kick me in da nuts?”

“No,” I half giggled.

“Poke me in da eyeballs?”

“No, Bodo, you idiot, I’m not going to do any of that stuff. I don’t want to hurt you right now, unlike before when I wanted to kill you.”

He took four slow steps towards me until we were face-to-face, his feet crunching some twigs. “Well dat’s a good thing, den. I like it more when you want to kiss me den when you want to kill me.”

I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him against me, loving the solid feel of his body as it bumped into mine and the scent of him coming up and surrounding me. “Shut up, Bodo.”

He smiled and dipped his head down to meet mine.

Our lips came together in an urgent kiss, all the frustration, anger, surprise, attraction, and respect we had for each other converging into one messy, exciting emotion.

It spilled over out of my heart and brain to overwhelm my senses. I wanted all of him and more. Every memory of every stupid thing he’d done to annoy me disappeared and was replaced with the vision of him as he came walking out of the swamp that first day we were here, soaking wet, pulling off his shirt and acting like I’d gotten him into the water on purpose so he’d have to strip down. He was sexy, funny, gorgeous, and had trained hawks to hunt for him. What’s not to love?

Bodo wrapped his arm around my upper body and slowly lowered me to the ground.

I didn’t fight him at all. I just wanted to feel more of him, and he was apparently thinking the same thing.

We laid together, running our hands all over each others’ bodies, and I reveled not only in the sensations he was making me experience but also the feel of his muscles flexing and stretching beneath my hands.

He was on top of me now, and I could feel his hardness pressing against me. I wrapped my legs around him without conscious thought, just trying to get our bodies closer and touching in the most intimate places.

His kisses sent me reeling. I’d never been kissed like this, ever.

He only stopped to move his lips to my neck or chest, and I didn’t know which I liked best. When he wasn’t at my mouth, I longed for his tongue there. When he was tangling his tongue with mine, my neck and chest felt empty and needy. I wanted him everywhere, all at once.

“Bryn, I can’t stop here,” he said with effort, in between kisses. “I want to do dis with you. Do you know what I’m saying?”

“Yes. I do, too. But we can’t!” I was freaking out. My hormones were wrestling with my brain and my brain was losing. I could feel my resolve slipping away. The things I had talked to Peter about were dissolving in my memory to be replaced by the heat that was rising up to consume me.

“I have a way. Please, let me do dis.”

“Okay. Just do it. Whatever. I don’t care.” I reached down to touch Bodo where I knew he’d like it most.

He sucked in a sharp breath and then moaned a little. “Oh, God, Bryn, dat’s not a good idea. Not yet. Just wait.” He pushed up my shirt and I released him to help take it off. He pushed my bra up too and took a few seconds to put his mouth to my breast. I nearly died at the shocks of sensation that flew up and down from there. I didn’t know if he was sucking or biting, but whatever it was, I didn’t want him to stop.

His hand went down to my shorts, making quick work of the button and zipper. I pushed them and my panties down, stopping to undo his pants too while my hand was there. Neither of us bothered taking our clothes the rest of the way off, leaving everything at our ankles in our hurry to get back to the fun stuff.

The next thing I felt was his hand in my most intimate spot. His fingers stroked me and instantly ratcheted up the sexy level to a place where I could no longer think straight. All I wanted was to feel more, and to ride this roller coaster car to the top of the peak and fly down the other side of the mountain. Something was building in me, making me move myself against him, guiding his fingers into doing something that I didn’t even really understand.

“Something’s happening,” I gasped, nearly crying with the sweet ache of it.

“Chust keep going. Don’t wait for me.”

I reached down and took his length in my hand, reveling in the sounds that came from his throat in response. I stroked it in rhythm with his hand, now moaning along with him, unable to stop myself. Our hands were smashed between us, not in the most comfortable of positions, but neither of us cared. We were kissing and moaning and grinding and stroking while something took both of us over. Something big.

I felt the crescendo arrive a split second before it grabbed me and sent me into oblivion. First there was a tensing and then a pulsing between my legs that went on and on and on, as if my very essence were leaving my body while I gasped for breath, pushing against Bodo so I could feel every bit of it and make it never stop.

His body tensed over mine and he shouted out something in German before going still for a second and then collapsing on top of me. There was a wetness in my hands and between my legs now.

We both came down from our frenzied ecstasy and stopped moving at the same time, our hands trapped between us as we gasped for air. His stomach went in and out rapidly and his breath steamed up my neck.

I felt dizzy and a little lost.

“Oh, Bryn. Dat was somesing. I can’t say da words in English, I’m sorry.” He sounded tired and out of breath. He dropped his head so it rested on the side of my face.

I was embarrassed a little about what we’d done, but I didn’t want him to think I regretted it. “It’s okay.” I pulled my hand out from between us, resting it lightly on his ribs.

He’d fallen a little over onto his side and was now tipping his head, looking down at our bodies, still mostly naked and touching.

I looked too and saw that we were covered in pieces of leaves and dirt. “Wow. I’m dirty,” I said, wondering how much of the swamp had ended up in my butt crack. It was not a comfortable thought.

“Maybe we can go take a shower togedder,” he said softly, reaching down to nuzzle my neck again.

I tried to roll away, but Bodo held me fast. “Where do you think you are going, little girl?”

“To get dressed?”

“Not until you kiss me again.” He licked and sucked my neck, moving his lips slowly up to my cheek, his light breath giving me chills everywhere.

By the time he was at my mouth, I was yearning to feel his tongue there again and his hands on me too. I moaned.

He kissed me slowly at first and then more passionately. I found myself being swept away again. I couldn’t believe how turned-on Bodo made me feel, even with something so simple as a kiss.

He pulled away all of a sudden, a look of frustration in his eyes. He ran his fingers through is hair, making it stand on end.

“What?” I asked, searching his face, wondering if I’d done something wrong.

“You! You are too beautiful. I can’t stop touching you. If you want me to stop, you haff to chust slap me on da face. Go aheadt. Do it now.” He put his hand down on the other side of me, propping himself up and sticking his chin out with his eyes closed. “Do it. Slap me.”

“You idiot,” I said, a smile in my voice, reaching down to take him in my hand again and begin stroking. “I don’t want to slap you. I want to …”

My words were cut off by his mouth, devouring me again.

We started the whole game over again and spent the next hour, as the sun went down, rolling around on the ground and finding out exactly what kind of trouble two teenagers can get into without any adults or rules around to stop them.

Somehow we managed to keep our wits about us enough to avoid doing the one thing that I knew for sure I’d regret, but a piece of me wished we didn't have to.

***

An hour later we found our way to the shower and cleaned off, me spending the majority of the time fending Bodo off, worried someone was going to come along and find us there together. I didn’t try too hard, but he didn’t press me either. It was weird how comfortable I was feeling with him, all things considered.

“What happened to that sore arm of yours, anyway? Earlier you acted like you needed a sling or something.”

“I was faking a little maybe. It was pretty tricky, yah? You gave me a nice helping.” He smiled devilishly at me, and I threw a dirty sock into his face.

We were getting dressed in our dirty clothes when Bodo broached the subject of us.

“You let me touch you today,” he said simply, looking at me.

My face burned red. “Yeah. I did.” I averted my eyes, pretending like I had to fix the zipper on my shorts.

“Dat means you like me. A lot.”

“Yeah, it does.” Captain obvious.

“So dat means I’m Mr. Bryn.”