Page 36 of Into the Mountains (Blue Grove Mountain #3)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHARLOTTE
E lias made me orgasm with only his fingers behind a tree—with people not even ten feet away from us.
And I let it happen. I search deep down for the usual shame I feel after I’m intimate with someone, the feeling of giving myself for a night of fun and feeling weird afterwards.
This time, I keep digging and digging, but my shovel doesn’t hit anything.
For once, that feeling isn’t there. Instead it’s replaced with a trove of whispered desires and words of adoration spoken throughout the night. I touch my fingers to my lips and revel in the ghost of his kiss and what it feels like to have him touch me.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you daydream this much since I met you.” Avery comes to my side.
“Shut up.” I try to sound stern, but I can’t help the smile that crosses my face.
“Seriously.” She lowers her voice and risks a glance back at Elias who is walking by Jacob. “What the hell happened last night?”
“Nothing I’m ready to share right now.” It won’t matter after this weekend anyway. Whatever we’re doing ends tomorrow.
“Okay, but can I just say one thing?”
I gave her a side eye and she puts her hands up like she’s about to defend herself. “I just…you seem lighter is all. Whatever did or didn’t happen last night, maybe it’s a good thing?”
I loop my arm around her shoulder, and she wraps hers around my waist. “I’ll let you know when I figure it out, okay?”
“Alright everyone.” Sky turns around to the group, clipboard in hand.
“We are ready for our next team bonding activity. This time we are going to mix up the couples. I’m going to choose randomly from the scraps of paper in this hat.
” She holds up a faded red hate and shakes it, rustling around the few pieces of paper inside.
“Each one has our names on them and we will pair up that way. Once we are paired up, we will grab a canoe and get ready.”
A canoe. Great.
“Is this a competition or something?” I ask.
“Everything is a competition,” Hudson answers.
“So what’s the game, then?”
“The game, Charlotte, is whoever reaches the end of the route first wins,” Sky answers.
“And what do we win?” Elias leans in.
“Bragging rights. And a full week free at Camp’s resort.”
Jacob grabs the hat from Sky and lifts it above her head so she can’t see the papers she’s reaching for.
“The first pair is…me and Hudson.” She groans and we all laugh. We know how those two are together and it’ll be amazing to see them fail as a team considering how much they butt heads.
“Next pair is Jacob and Avery.” They nod their heads at each other like they can see themselves working together pretty well.
“Which leaves the last pair, Elias and Charlotte.”
Wow, universe. Subtly is not your strong suit. Form a club with Hudson if you need a hobby and get out of my life please and thank you.
Without glancing at one another, we go for the nearest canoe and start getting ready. “Do you want a life jacket?” Elias asks, holding out a bright green vest to me.
Usually I’d say no since I feel like I’m a pretty strong swimmer but after yesterday, I’d rather be on the safer side. “Yes, actually. Thank you.”
He puts his arms through his own life vest and makes sure it’s secure before grabbing our oars and placing them in our canoe. “She couldn’t have at least rented two person kayaks? They’d be much easier,” he mutters.
“I think that’s the reason she didn’t. She wants to make this as hard as possible for us so we have to work together.
” If last night was any indication, we work together just fine.
But we are here to do team bonding, and even though Elias and I have bonded in our own way plenty, I do think our competitive nature is going to win out at the end of this.
“You ready to kick their asses?” he asks, further confirming my thoughts.
“Oh they don’t realize they’re all about to lose by a long shot.” We grin and giggle at each other like kids hatching up a secret plan to play a prank on their parents.
Our heads turn in the direction where Sky and Hudson are already arguing about who is sitting in front and who is sitting in the back. “This is ridiculous. Why wouldn’t you be the one to steer it?” Hudson barks.
“Because you will be able to propel us further a lot faster than I can.”
“But you know exactly where we are going. That’s an advantage so you should steer.”
“It’s one path, you idiot. It’s not like I have to make sure you get off on the right exit. You just follow the river. Surely you have enough brain power to do that!” Now we are laughing at the two of them. If we weren’t confident we were going to win before, we definitely are now.
“What are you two laughing at?”
Elias stifles his laughs long enough to bait them. “The fact that there’s no chance any of you are actually going to beat us.”
“No way,” Hudson denies. “You two can’t get along for shit.”
Interesting. With the way he was so flustered this morning, I could have sworn he definitely heard us last night. Or maybe he just temporarily forgot with the competition in the air.
“You’d be surprised what we can accomplish when we put our differences aside,” Elias chimes in. Did he just—I shift my eyes over to Avery and see her eyes widen. Yep, he did just.
Avery barely manages to stifle her laugh, but no one notices. They’re all too engrossed in whatever this next phase of team bonding is going to bring. So far, it’s bringing out everyone’s more competitive side and I’m trying to figure out how we are going to bond over this.
“Let’s just get this going, alright?” Jacob, forever the pacifist. Him and Sky compliment each other more than perfectly.
We each take our positions on either side of our respective water vessels and get ready for the whistle. At this point, I’m only assuming there’s a whistle with the way Sky has planned this whole weekend. I wouldn’t be shocked if she blew an air horn or had a starting gun at this point.
“Ready.” Every one hinges their hips and bends their knees ready to push the canoes into the lake.
“Set.” I actually see Hudson readjust his grip on the back of the canoe like he’s really focusing on beating everyone.
Elias lightly bumps his elbow against me. “You ready?”
“To win?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“Hell, yeah,” I echoe at the same time Sky shouts, “Go!”
The next few seconds are a frenzy of grunts and shoes squelching in the mud trying to find some sort of traction.
Elias and I manage to find a tree root to push off of.
It’s enough to get the canoe into the water, which is freezing.
We’re shin deep before we are able to pull ourselves into it.
Elias helps me with ease. Jacob and Avery are close behind us.
They had a large rock near them they were able to push against. Shouts are already coming from the direction of Sky and Hudson and I’ll be shocked if they both make it to the end.
At least one of them is going to end up in the river.
“Have fun you two,” Elias shouts back to them.
“See you for dinner,” I add.
Sky pauses her effort to help push for a second to give us a very unkind gesture that makes us descend into another fit of laughter.
“Maybe this will be more fun than I thought.”
“You didn’t think this would be fun?” Elias asks as he gets situated in his seat in front of me.
“I mean, I wasn’t sure what to expect with Sky honestly. This whole team bonding thing has been kind of a bust so far.”
He shrugs like he hasn’t had two near death experiences in just as many days.
“I mean, we’ve had our struggles.”
“Struggles? I wouldn’t call last night a struggle.”
My cheeks flush at his words as heat rises in me remembering the “struggle” last night.
The ripples of the water and our oars fill the silence.
I put my oar to the left of the canoe so we can drift enough into the left turn without hitting any of the nearby embankments.
The current is trying its hardest to carry us into one, but with Elias rowing back and forth at the front and me being able to steer efficiently from the back, we make it through with ease until it opens up to a wider section.
“Think Sky and Hudson are going to make it through that?”
“No chance,” he chuckles. “Siblings have their rivalries, but when it comes to those two, they get in their own way when they need to work together. They’ll definitely get stopped there for a while.”
“And Jacob and Avery are already really far behind us.” I shouldn’t be considering this, but since we said we’d keep it to this weekend, I feel our time slipping away from us quickly and there’s a chance we can get away with it if I hurry.
When I don’t say anything else, he looks over his shoulder. “What are you thinking, red?”
“Really diabolical thoughts.”
“Do tell.”
I don’t. Instead, I abandon my oar and scoot over to him as gracefully as I can manage. “Switch me seats.”
He doesn’t bother to ask questions and maneuvers his way around me until he’s sitting in the back. “Now the narrow path ahead is about a half a mile long.”
“Did you look at a map?” He says with a small laugh.
“I did. I was curious enough to see what Sky had planned and figured I could use the advantage. And now it's your advantage too.”
“How is that exactly?”
“Because once we get into that narrow path, the current will propel us enough that all you have to do is steer.”
One eyebrow raises. “And what will you be doing?”
“I’ll be fucking you with my mouth and by the time we are through that path, your cum will be down my throat.”
Heat fills my body at my own words and I know from the look of surprise on his face, he feels the same. It’s not often I see Elias flustered, but he is now and it’s because of me. I like that fact.