Page 18 of A Little Campfire Blues (Pride Camp 2025 #10)

Chapter Fifteen

Ezzy

“Tag, Tag, Tag!” I chanted as I waved my flashlight around, sending slashes of light all over Roman and the tree he was half hidden behind.

“You got me!” Roman declared, stepping from behind the tree and turning his own flashlight on.

“You’ve got thirty seconds to hide while I hunt for the other two,” he informed me.

Picking my way over branches and logs, I took off in search of the perfect hiding place, only to damn near jump out of my skin when a hand touched my leg.

“Shhhhh.”

My heart felt like it was in my throat when I looked down to see Axis’s face and arm sticking out of a moss covered log.

“Get in, there’s room for both of us,” he whispered, so I did as he said and squirmed up inside the fat hollow log beside him and turned my flashlight off.

“Ro is totally going in the wrong direction,” I whispered, snuggling against him when he lifted his arm to wrap it around me.

In the darkness, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could feel the warmth radiating off his body and the way his jeans clung to him like a second skin. Shifting his hips, he turned on his side while I mirrored his movements, the flashlight slipping from my fingers as I slid my hand along his side.

“I think we’re about to tick off another first,” I murmured, brushing a kiss along the edge of his jaw.

The groan he let out sent a shiver up my back as he hauled me closer and slid his fingers through my hair, then kissed me like it was the last time he’d ever have the opportunity.

There were probably grubs in this log, and spiders, and who knew what else, but I couldn’t have cared if there were ladybugs crawling all over me; every moment was perfect.

Deepening the kiss, I plastered my chest against his, slid my hand beneath his shirt, and lightly raked my nails down his back, just to feel him arch and rock his hips.

He was as hard as I was, fingers digging into the ass of my jogging pants as he rocked me against him.

We made out like the teenagers we’d been the last time we’d done this, rocking, squirming, and breathing hard and heavy as we sought as much pleasure as we could manage before we got caught and one of us had to take over being it.

My hair snarled on some bark, and I hissed, freezing as the strands were pulled, but the careful way he untangled them and kept his hand pressed against the back of my head so it wouldn’t happen again soon had me forgetting all about the slight bit of pain I’d felt.

His fingers were cold when he slid them beneath the waistband of my joggers and over my ass, chuckling against my lips.

“Commando?” He murmured.

“I may have forgotten to pack enough underwear,” I admitted, giggling, which almost turned out to be our undoing.

Footsteps crunched over leaves, hurrying in our direction, while Axis tried to stifle my giggles with a scorching kiss that left us panting. Fortunately, the loud hooting of an owl drowned out his groan of need.

“Fuck you, owl, goddammit,” Roman murmured before the sound of his feet snapping twigs headed off in a different direction.

Axis tipped his head back, and I kissed his throat, nipping and sucking on the skin until he squirmed and gasped, clinging to me tight enough that I was certain there would be a handprint on my ass and a bruise or two from the knobs that pressed against my hip and thigh when I rocked over them.

I was just about to beg for more skin when a low rumble of thunder reached my ears, followed by a flash of lightning so bright it illuminated everything.

The hair on my arms stood up as I froze, trembling for an entirely different reason now.

“We need to get you back to the cabin,” Axis said, seeking his flashlight the same way my fingers were scrabbling against the bark, trying to find mine.

He remembered that I hated being outside in a storm. A close call with a lightning bolt in my childhood treehouse had left me terrified of it. He kept hold of my hand as we squirmed out, our flashlights in his other hand, the beams bright when he turned them on before handing mine to me.

The next roll of thunder made me flinch and squeeze his hand tighter as we made our way back towards the cabin, illuminated in the distance when the next lightning strike came and the sky unleashed a torrent of rain all over us.

“Boys!” Mackenzie bellowed, a beam of light cutting through the raindrops as he called for us. “Call out if you can hear me!”

“We’re here!” I hollered and sprinted towards him, tugging Axis now.

I forgot to be careful and fell, the collision with the ground just as jarring as the thunder. Axis’ hands were firm beneath my arms as he hauled me up and wrapped an arm around me, hurrying me towards the light and Mack.

“Have you seen Roman?” Mack asked.

“He ran past us right before the storm started,” Axis said. “I can find him if you’ll take Ezzy in; they’re scared of storms.”

Without even waiting for an answer, he propelled me into Mackenzie’s arms, whirled, and disappeared back into the woods as Mack bellowed, Wait!” Not that Axis slowed down, not even a little.

The next boom of thunder erupted in an explosion of sound, and I shirked and buried my face against Mack’s chest and sobbed.

“Let’s get you inside,” Mack declared, scooping me up and carrying me up the stairs and into the cabin.

Shaking, I clung to him as the cold air from the air conditioner hit like a slap to my face, making me shiver harder.

“Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and get you dry,” Mack said, carrying me into my room and the bathroom on the opposite side.

In no time at all, he had a warm shower going, my clothes off, and was easing me beneath the spray, now that I’d stopped clinging to him.

“Do storms always scare you this badly, Ezzy?” He asked as the warm water made it so I finally stopped shivering so hard.

“Only when I’m outside in them,” I explained. “It rolled up so fast, I never even heard it before the thunder was right over us.”

“There were rumbles in the distance, but when I called for you all, no one answered.”

“I didn’t hear you,” I said. “Axis and I were hiding in a hollow log and were too distracted to notice.”

“Too distracted, huh?” he replied, chuckling. “I can only imagine what you two were getting up to in that log.”

“Kissing,” I said. “Lots and lots of kissing.”

“Really. No wonder you hid yourselves so well.”

“It was his hiding spot until he decided to share it with me,” I replied.

Mackenzie chuckled again, the sound low and rolling over me now that I was warm beneath the spray and could appreciate the rumbly timber of his voice. “Guess sharing really is caring.”

“In this instance, it really was.”

“I just hope they bring their asses back here soon,” he said. “That storm outside sounds like it’s getting bad.”

“Axis won’t give up until he finds him,” I said.

“Then I hope like hell he finds him quickly.”

“Me too.”

Warm, I turned off the shower and pushed the curtain aside to see him waiting with my towel held open for me.

As soon as I stepped out onto the mat, he wrapped it around me and started drying me off, grabbing a second for my hair and rubbing to keep me from losing any of the warmth the water had given back to me.

“Ready to get dressed, Sparkle Butt?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said, sighing as he held me and rested his chin on the top of my head. “Everything is gonna be okay, I promise.”

With his arms around me, we went back to the main part of my room, where I slid into the one pair of footed pajamas I’d brought with me.

“Maybe we should turn the air conditioner down a little, at least until the others get back and have a chance to get warm too,” he said, heading for the thermostat when the door slammed open and a dripping, muddy Roman burst in.

“Oh, thank the gods!” he declared, rushing over to me. “Are you okay? Did you get caught in the storm? I couldn’t find you guys and wandered all the way over to the next cabin before I realized I’d gone too far.”

“Where’s Axis?” Mack snapped, cutting through his explanation. “Didn’t he find you?”

“No, I was it , so I was looking for you guys.”

“Axis got me out of the woods, then ran back looking for you,” I blurted. “We were hiding in a log, and you passed us.”

“Son of a,” Roman growled, whirling, about to plunge back into the storm again when Mack grabbed his arms.

“No, no one else is going back out into the woods,” Mack declared. “Ezzy, do you know if he had his cell phone on him?”

“Yeah, I could feel it in his back pocket when we were making out.”

“Good, call it, and let’s hope he’s got the ringtone up high enough to hear it.”

It dawned on me then that I didn’t have his number, but Roman did, and he rushed into his room for his phone.

“Come on, come on, come on, pick up,” Roman growled, dripping water all over the floor while he paced. “Axis!”

Silence followed for several seconds, until Roman snarled and barked into the device. “Shut up and listen to me; I’m fine! I’m back at the cabin; now you need to turn the fuck around and get back here!”

More silence.

“Yes, yes, I said I was fine, didn’t I? Clean the water out of your ears and listen to me. I’m soaked but perfectly fuckin’ okay, which I won’t be if I have to go out there and drag your ass back. So come the fuck on!”

I watched him scrub a hand over his face, looking equal parts frustrated and relieved.

“We’ll watch for him; you go change and get warm,” Mack said as he moved around the room, turning more lights on in the house so Axis would have an easier time finding his way back.

“Yeah, I guess I’d better,” Roman muttered, casting a glance at the door before he trudged to his bathroom.

I stood with my nose pressed to the window, staring out into the night, waiting to see a flashlight beam through the tree line and heavy rain. It was next to impossible to make out anything through the heavy beads of rain running down the window.

“He’ll be alright,” Mack said, draping an arm over my shoulder as he joined me at the window.

“If I hadn’t been so afraid, he might have been able to catch up to Roman. He couldn’t have been too far away when the first lightning crash startled us.”

“None of that now,” Mack said. “No one is at fault. The storm caught us off guard, and he did what he felt was best to make certain you would both be safe.”

“I just wish he’d let us keep him safe for once since no one else ever has!” I cried, then slapped my hands over my mouth, too afraid of blurting out the secret Axis had shared with me.

He squeezed me a little tighter and kept on holding me until finally, we saw light followed by heavy footsteps thudding up the stairs. Axis was thoroughly drenched when he came in; shirt, jeans, every stitch of clothing plastered to his skin.

“Are you okay now?” he asked me the moment our eyes met.

“Am I…” sputtering, I gestured to him dripping all over the floor. “You should be worried about you!”

“I’m no wetter than I’d be if I’d fallen in the lake,” he declared, flashing me one of his trademark grins as he knelt to remove his shoes and socks. “I’ll go change before I make more of a mess.”

All I could do was throw my hands up and watch him go, while Mackenzie retrieved the mop from the supply closet and cleaned up the puddles Axis and Roman had made while I headed to the kitchen to make cocoa.

When Roman stepped out, still towel-drying his hair, his gaze darted around the room, immediately spotting the soaked sneakers beneath the rack.

“Did he look okay when he got back?” Roman asked. “He didn’t look hurt or anything, did he?”

“Not that I could see,” I said.

“Good. I can’t believe he tore off into the storm to look for me.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a fuckin’ mess out there.”

“You’d have done the same thing,” I reminded him.

“The difference is that I have the training to handle myself.”

“Doubt training matters much to him when someone he loves is in danger,” Mack pointed out. “Now let’s all settle down and get our emotions back in check. Something tells me that all scolding him will do is hurt his feelings, which I doubt either of you wants to do.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Roman said. “The last thing I want is for him to think I don’t appreciate what he did. Was just worried when I realized he was out there running around looking for me.”

“We all were, but it’s over now, so let’s find something soothing to put on while we get over the scare we had, okay?”

“Cocoa will be ready in a few minutes,” I declared.

“Good, that should help chase any lingering chill away.”

“Could you stay the night with us?” I blurted. “We could all sleep out here; there’s plenty of room. We can drag a couple mattresses out or sleep on the couch and in the chairs.”

“I think two mattresses would make it far easier to get some cuddle time in, which I think we could all use,” Mackenzie said. “Of course I’ll stay.”

“Let’s grab mine and Ezzy’s,” Roman declared.

“Yeah, and my octopus too, please,” I called after them as I stirred the chocolate and milk mixture as it slowly began to melt.

Too hot and I’d scald the milk or burn the chocolate, which was the last thing I wanted to do. Cuddles, cocoa, and a movie we’d probably fall asleep to really would be the best way to settle all the frazzled nerves in the room.

The only one of us who didn’t seem frazzled was Axis when he stepped out of his room several minutes later in sleep pants and an Anarchy T-shirt, a bright smile on his face when he saw the blanket-covered mattresses on the floor.

“We’re having a sleepover?” He declared. “Awesome.”

“Yes,” Mack said. “We’re having a sleepover, but before you get in that bed, you are going to come here and let me dry your hair.”

“It’s okay, I can dry it,” he declared, tugging his braid forward so he could undo the elastic on the end and start undoing the braid.

“Maybe I’d like to do it,” Mackenzie said, approaching him with the towel.

I knew that expression; Axis was confused and even a little uncertain, like he really didn’t understand why Mack wanted to take care of him. It hurt my heart to see that look on his face, knowing what I knew, but Mack didn’t hesitate; he just moved around behind him and finished undoing his braid.

“Was a brave thing you did,” Mack murmured as he finished undoing the strands and took the second elastic out.

As Mackenzie’s fingers carded through Axis’ hair, I could see the confusion begin to fade as his eyelids fluttered and he gave in to the sensation.

He’d always loved having his hair played with, but seeing his initial hesitation left me certain that having someone do that for him was rare.

Turning off the burner, I set about filling the mugs while I waited for the chance to hold him and thank him for what he’d done for me.

Something told me that he really needed to hear that and more from all of us.