Page 13

Chapter thirteen

Swimming

I left my clothes, boots, and phone with Drew on the benches that surrounded the upper level of the swimming hole.

He would be taking turns with Justin, Danny, and Lee, watching all of our belongings, so I felt safe to leave it and head to the water.

I jumped in and swam out to the buoy and rope barrier constructed to mark the edge of the swimming area.

The water was so cold and felt great.

After hiking for most of the morning, I felt hot and needed refreshing.

I paddled around and chatted with a few other guys from the law firm.

I wanted to stay in the water, but I kept eyeing the ladders.

Dog paddling where I couldn’t touch the bottom was exhausting, and it was deep everywhere.

I floated on my back for a bit but didn’t trust I wouldn’t bump into anyone or that someone wouldn’t bump into me.

I couldn’t relax enough with so many people around, and honestly, most of them weren’t from our trip.

The ladder closest to me had a bunch of kids hanging all over it, but it started thinning out, so I made my way over.

I needed to get out for a little bit.

Before I could get far, my day was ruined.

Crow popped up in front of me with that snarky-ass grin of his that made my stomach flutter.

“Sky. Here. Want to use these?” He thrust two pool noodles at me.

The fucker.

Why did he have to be so sweet?

“Yeah. Uh, thanks.” I lowered my eyes.

Mother fucker.

He had woken up next to me this morning on the ground.

And then took pity on me and blew me to take care of my raging hard-on.

Well, it was his fault I had one, so that seemed fair.

But then I ran.

And he came after me, saving me from an embarrassing situation.

And I repaid him by running and hiding.

Again.

I’d been avoiding him all day.

So mature, Sky—not.

But I couldn’t avoid him now.

I slung my arms over the floaties and kicked my feet, taking me over to a more open spot near the edge of the area.

I turned and was not surprised at all that Crow had followed me.

“This water feels really good, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it does. These help though.”

“Thought they might.”

“Crow, uh…I don’t want things to be awkward between us. I’m sorry I ran off this morning.” Words tumbled out of my mouth, completely different than what I had intended to say.

Sorry?

Was I?

His brown eyes widened and darkened, though they were already so dark, I hardly thought it possible, but he’d proven me wrong again.

“I…”

Just that one word.

Why did my heart hammer so hard?

Fuck it.

I leaned closer and gently kissed his wet lips.

“Yeah?” he asked when I pulled back.

I shrugged.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

I had to admit that Crow was sexy, and apparently, against my brain’s judgements, my body wanted to climb him.

In fact, I wrapped my legs around his waist and shifted my floats behind me, hooked under my arms.

Feeling him against me like that made my brain short-circuit.

“This is a family-friendly area, you know?”

I huffed.

“Whatever.” And kicked away from him.

He grabbed my ankle and pulled me back toward him.

“Don’t run, Sky.”

“Is it gonna make you chase me?”

He didn’t answer that question.

He raised an eyebrow, then let me go, leaning back and closing his eyes.

He looked peaceful, so I did the same.

It seemed I wasn’t wrong though.

When he pushed, I ran, and he chased.

Was that how it was supposed to go?

No.

But I didn’t know if we had any kind of future together.

So many issues.

Not the least of which was that he’d betrayed me once already.

How could I trust him?

We sat together on the bus back to the campsite, and he held my hand.

Maybe I had Crow pegged wrong.

Whatever happened back then, or what I thought, Crow was being so nice to me now.

Maybe it was his way of apologizing?

Maybe we could have something here.

Friends with benefits?

I wasn’t sure about any of it.

The rest of the night and through dinner, I was nervous.

Crow pulled me with him to sit with his friends while we ate.

Since we’d been gone most of the day, dinner was bought.

Fried chicken, mac and cheese, rolls, and some people were eating salad, but I didn’t.

I ate enough salad normally.

Lived off it.

But this was vacation, so hard pass for me on that one.

Cody was fun and reminded me a little bit of Danny.

So much energy just waiting to burst out.

But his boyfriend, Warner, managed to keep him contained.

Cody called him his daddy, but he didn’t seem like a Little.

But what the fuck did I know about it?

Danny and Levi were both Littles, but both were very different.

So, I could be wrong.

Either way, I didn’t ask.

Instead, we talked about music and movies.

Pop culture felt like safe territory.

We cleaned up after dinner, which wasn’t hard since we had paper plates.

Then everyone was building campfires and Danny passed around supplies for smores.

I hadn’t made smores since I was a kid, and it hadn’t been all that often back then.

My family had always been more into intellectual pursuits.

We went camping a few times, but mostly because my uncle bullied my dad into it.

He would always say that we needed more fresh air and to interact with others in the wild.

But I wasn’t into it, and neither was my sister.

Ember was what I thought of as a prissy girl.

She had been doing her nails since she was six.

Makeup as soon as Mom would let her at thirteen.

She mostly wore dresses, but she was into fashion, so if she wasn’t wearing a skirt, she was wearing nice clothes like slacks.

Shorts and jeans were practically impossible to get her in.

So camping?

No.

Getting dirty, fishing, hiking, and that sort of thing?

No.

We were both out.

I was glad now that I had some experience, but it wasn’t my favorite thing.

I had enjoyed this trip so far, though.

When I wasn’t moping over Crow, it had been fantastic.

Going down the river, hiking, swimming.

Maybe if I stopped being so hard on him, I could enjoy the three days we had left a little more.

What a concept.

Crow had the fire stoked, and the sun was sinking down, barely visible behind the trees and casting cool shadows across our campsite.

He handed me a metal rod and a bag of marshmallows.

“Know what to do with these?”

“Yeah—” I stopped myself from giving a snarky remark, trying to stick to my new fun strategy.

“Thank you.” Wow, that didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, especially when Crow gave me a real smile that lit up his handsome face.

He was kind of regal with heavy features.

I stuck my marshmallow on the stick and held it over the flames, turning it so it didn’t get too dark.

I didn’t like it burned like other people.

Like Crow, apparently, because he was blowing flames off his puffy-sugar blob.

It was charred black.

I shook my head and watched mine.

“Perfect. See?” I held the golden-brown goodness out to him.

“Uh, can you help me get it on the chocolate?”

“Yep.” He said with a mouthful of s’more.

He put a block of chocolate on a graham cracker square and pulled the marshmallow off my rod, sandwiched between the crackers.

He handed it to me.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.” I took a bite.

It wasn’t as good as I remembered.

But I turned to Crow and kissed him.

We were both kind of sticky, but worse, I was beginning to really like his kisses.

And his laugh.

We fixed a few more s’mores, then cleaned up.

Crow tasked himself with making our drinks while I ran the extra supplies back to our central cooking area by Leslie and Deanna’s RV.

They’d set up a station so anyone could use what was left.

When I returned, Crow had two chairs set up beside the fire, and he handed me a plastic cup.

“It’s the same thing we drank last time.” He waved his hand as if trying to blow off any expectations I might have for better.

“A little more seltzer this time.”

I sat in one of the chairs and held up my cup.

“To having fun the rest of this trip!”

Crow tapped my glass with the rim of his.

“I’ll drink to that.”

The night air was cool and lovely with the day’s humidity mostly gone.

Everything was quiet and above us, the stars peeked out.

There were more of them than I could count, and it made it hard to pick out constellations, especially since the big dipper was the only one I knew anyway.

I felt peaceful for a change.

It was nice sitting by the fire and enjoying the night.

Even with Crow.

“You know, Sky, you don’t have to sleep on the ground. There’s more than enough room for both of us on the air mattress.”

“There’s more than enough room for you on the ground with me, too.” Apparently, since he’d joined me uninvited the night before.

“Sure. Sure. But the air mattress is more comfortable, trust me.”

I took a long drink.

Then, a long breath.

“Well, well, Mr. Crowell. It sounds like you’re trying to get me into bed.”

“Skyler, my dear, I’ve been trying to get you into bed since the wedding.”

I couldn’t help but flip him off.

But what the hell?

It was only a few more days.

So, I stood and went into the tent.

I stripped and crawled under his blanket on the air mattress.

The situation felt surreal.

I truly thought this could never happen.

And I’d only had one drink—that I didn’t even finish.

Then Crow stuck his head in.

“You okay in here?”

“Mmm…tired.”

“Okay, sweet boy.”

I didn’t have the energy to correct him.

I closed my eyes and snuggled down, feeling more comfortable than I had since this little camping trip started.

Until Crow got on the bed, tipping it toward him.

“Hey!”

“Sorry. Relax.”

As I did, the mattress evened back out and I had a hot-skinned naked Crow beside me.

He touched my hip, slid his hand up my side, around my back, and down to my ass.

He squeezed it and gripped it to pull me closer, then rested his hand on my hip.

I tucked my face into his neck.

It felt snuggly and warm, and his naked body all pressed against mine had my cock harder than the ground I’d been sleeping on—no way was I going back to sleeping there.

“Skyler.” My name was a purr on his lips.

Looking up at him, I wasn’t all that surprised when his lips pressed against mine.

His tongue slid along my bottom lip, and I gladly opened my mouth for him.

He thrust his tongue inside, giving me more berries and lemon.

The kiss deepened, tongues sliding together, and his hands roamed my body.

I had to reciprocate that, reaching out to him.

His strong arms and shoulders were a turn-on.

He was muscular and thick.

I grabbed his ass, and there was nothing flabby about it.

“Fuck…” Everything smelled fresh, like earth but woodsy and humid, like trees, but underneath all of that, something a bit musky coming from Crow.

It was kind of primitive or instinctual and totally sexy.

“Mmm…” Crow slid his hand between us, gripping my dick and stroking it.

My pre-cum poured out.

I hadn’t been this turned on in, like…

ever.

I felt like bouncing, and I shifted up and down on the mattress, trying to get more friction on my cock, trying to simply move.

“Be still, Sky. I’ve got you.”

Oh hell, images of him pinning me down and fucking me hard flitted through my mind, and I swear my cock wanted to dance, I was so turned on.

But I took a deep breath to calm myself.

The last thing I wanted was for Crow to decide he didn’t want me after all.

At least for tonight when I was so wound up.

Once I settled down, Crow stroked my dick again.

I made a mewling sound deep in my throat.

Before I could do much more, his cock was pressed against mine.

“Damn, Crow.”

“Yeah. Hold still.” He gripped both of us together and humped into his fist, rubbing his dick against mine.

And I swear my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

Maybe they didn’t, but my mouth fell open and my tongue hung out, and it was probably not attractive at all, but oh.

My.

Fucking.

Lord.

Of.

Spirits.

I had never felt anything so good in my life.

His hand and his dick massaged my cock into total bliss.

“I…ugh. Crow…” I couldn’t make my thoughts connect, but that feeling in my groin and the tingling that was taking over my body were drowning me.

“Gonna…”

“Do it. Come for Daddy.”

And why those three words made my whole world explode, I did not know.

What the hell was wrong with me?

How could I live without this in my life now?

But I still didn’t trust him, and I didn’t know how to get over that.