Page 6

6

Cody

I wake up feeling weird and I’m not immediately sure why. Then Luke shifts behind me and I’m hit with exactly why.

Conflicting emotions and sensations war within me. Being held like this by Luke’s big strong body feels so good . I’ve missed this, probably more than the sex. I feel like I want to melt into the sleeping bag and never return.

On the other hand, I know how dangerous this is. I realize even now that my feelings of tender warmth toward Luke are far from the anger and resentment I felt for him at first. Anger and resentment were safe. This is a lot less safe and it scares me.

I battle with myself for a few minutes before deciding to give up the comfort of this position in favor of relieving the anxiety it brings. I carefully extract myself. Luke mumbles something indistinguishable under his breath but doesn’t wake.

I grab my toothbrush and crawl out of the tent. It’s early and most people aren’t awake yet. I brush my teeth and wash up by the river alone before returning to camp, my stomach grumbling. The coals of the fire from last night are still glowing—thank God. I don’t think my hands could stand making another fire from stupid sticks.

Over the next half hour, people come out of their tents, yawning and going back and forth from the river. Once everyone is up, Brandon hands out rolls and lots of cold ham to go on them, which are surprisingly good.

“Right, everyone, it’s time for our team-building exercises for the day.”

I exchange a gloomy look with Luke. My hands still haven’t recovered from yesterday and I wonder what fresh torture Brandon has come up with for us.

He goes into his tent and comes up with a number of buckets.

“Cody, Luke, go fill this one at the river, then I’ll fill you in.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I mutter to Luke as we take the bucket and walk toward the river.”

“Me too. I don’t suppose there’s much we can do about it.”

“Perhaps if we convince Brandon that we’ve made up, he’ll forget this whole thing. After all, everyone knows that it’s for us.”

Luke gives me a wry grin. “What, you plan to tell him that you made me come last night with just your fingers up my ass? Or how loudly I moaned as you stroked my prostate?”

I find myself blushing. “Well, I wasn’t exactly planning on going into that much detail.”

“I know Brandon. I doubt anything except that much detail would convince him we have truly buried the hatched so quickly. So unless you want Brandon to know more than he ever expected to know about our sex lives, I suggest you get okay with the team-building exercises.”

I heave a put-upon sigh. “Then let’s fill this bucket, I guess.”

When we get back, Brandon has arranged the team into a line, one person behind the other, each holding a bucket. I think I know where this is going and I don’t like it at all.

Brandon quickly confirms my worst fears. “Right, this is how it’s going to work. The person in front will take their bucket and try to pour the water into bucket of the person behind them without looking around. Then that person will pour the water into the bucket of the person behind them, etc. In the end, we’ll see how much water is left in the last bucket. I expect it to be at least half full, or we’re doing this all again.”

The team exchanges gloomy looks. None of us hold any illusion that we’ll make it through this remotely dry. Brandon, the hypocrite, positions himself in front, where he’s unlikely to get water dumped on his head. I stand behind him and watch with horror as he tips his bucket way too far back. the water is going to go all over my head and then we’ll need to do this all again.

“Brandon, wait! Hold your bucket at a greater angle. No, not angled that way—the other way!”

I can see that Brandon is trying, but he still manages to spill a fair amount of water on my head. The rest of the team is giggling behind me.

“You just wait until it’s your turn!” I shoot at them.

In the end, the challenge doesn’t end up being nearly as bad as I expected. It takes five tries before Brandon is satisfied, and we’re all soaked by the time it’s done—even Brandon, who decided to alternate the front spot—but it was actually kind of fun. There was a lot of laughter and teasing, which distracted from the freezing water being dumped on us.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath when I accidentally spilled half the bucket all over Luke, but Luke just grumbled under his breath and playfully poked me in the shoulder before trying to tip his own water backward.

When Brandon finally declares the game over, we all hurry into our tents to get changed into dry clothes before coming to warm ourselves by the fire.

“So, team, what have we learned from that?”

“Never give Cody a bucket of water,” Jason mutters.

There are murmurs of agreement. I was undeniably the worst at the game, and whoever was standing behind me quickly came to regret it.

“Hey, I never claimed to be good at this stuff! Give me a ball, great, but water? No way, man. You can all get your asses soaked for even thinking I’m competent in this shit.”

Everyone laughs, even Brandon. “So, up next…”

The entire team groans.

“Hey, don’t worry! I didn’t mean for today. I was just filling you in for our exercise for tomorrow. We’re going to do a scavenger hunt. We’ll split into two teams. Each team will make a scavenger hunt for the other team, and whoever completes the other team’s hunt the fastest wins.”

“What do we win?” I ask at once.

“You win my approval and the other team’s respect.”

“Lame!”

“Shut it, Luke.”

Brandon’s eyes are twinkling as he says it. “If you all behave, I’ll think of a good reward for you all for putting up with all this once we’re done.”

“It had better be a spectacular reward.”

“Don’t even try, Jason. I saw you laughing your ass off during that bucket game. You loved it.”

“I may have not hated it,” Jason admits. “But I still can’t feel my toes.”

“Your toes will survive.”

“For all you know, I could have frostbite.”

“Don’t be dramatic. You don’t have frostbite. As long as you don’t sleep outside with your feet wet and freezing in the open, you should be fine.”

We continue to banter around the fire for a while before Brandon announces that it’s nearly time for dinner. Of course, dinner out here is easier said than done. There’s no ordering Uber Eats when you’re stuck in the wilderness. Brandon has a cooler bag with some ice bricks and frozen meat in it, and we have to cook it. Not only do we need to cook it, but Brandon wants us to smoke it so we can keep it to eat later.

“Brandon, do you even know how to smoke meat?”

“Um, it can’t be that difficult. You just hold it in the smoke, right?”

I roll my eyes so hard that I’m surprised they don’t come out of their sockets. “No, that’s not how it works. You have to have a proper smokehouse. Do you have the right things to set that up here?”

“I… I have spare tent?”

Luke makes an indignant noise. “You have a spare tent and you still made Cody and me share?”

“You two didn’t seem to mind so much last night, judging by the noises coming out of your tent.”

I feel my face go bright red. I wonder if Brandon was the only one to hear us but glancing around at the smug expressions on the other team members’ faces, I somehow doubt it. I should have thought more about how thin the fabric of the tent was, and about how it wouldn’t do a single thing to keep in noise, but I was so turned on at the time that I hardly cared about a little thing like being overheard.

I glance over at Luke to see him similarly red in the face, but he grins at his feet.

“How about we change the subject?” I say loudly.

“Please,” Luke agrees.

When Luke and I return to our tent, long after it’s dark, having stayed up singing campfire songs with the rest of the team, there is an undercurrent of tension between the two of us. Not aggressive tension—something much more sexual than that.

I glance at Luke, wondering if he’s going to start something, but he’s true to his word. While he certainly looks as I get changed into my pajamas, he makes no move to touch me.

If I’m going to get what I truly want, then I’ll have to make the first move.

“It’s cold tonight,” I comment innocently. “Do you want to share a sleeping bag again?”

“Of course. It only makes sense to share our body heat.”

We crawl into the joined sleeping bag together and Luke puts his arms around me just like he did last night. It feels so natural and good, I could almost fall asleep right here and now.

Almost.

I’m not quite satisfied, though. I want more from Luke. I wriggle my ass experimentally and I’m rewarded by a sharp intake of breath from him. I wriggle again and Luke’s hands come to my hips.

“Are you teasing me, Cody?”

“Maybe. Do you like it?”

“Like is an understatement. Keep going… but don’t be surprised if I take things into my own hands if you keep moving like that.”

That’s exactly what I want, so I increase my movements, loving the way Luke’s breath hitches as I do so. Sure enough, it isn’t long before he takes matters into his own hands, literally.

He reaches around and starts rubbing my cock through my pants. Why did I ever resist this? I’m sure I had good reasons, but I can’t seem to think of any of them right now.

“Yeah, just like that,” I murmur. “Inside. Touch inside, please, Luke.”

Luke does as I ask, slipping his warm hand into my pants and encircling my cock with his fingers. I can’t resist the urge any longer—I turn around, making sure to hold his wrist and keep his hand where it is, and kiss him.

Luke moans into the kiss and returns it with equal vigor. He tastes like traces of chocolate, and I would swear he’d just been eating it if I didn’t know he’d had the same rather charred, smoky meat the rest of us had for dinner.

Unless he has a stash of secret chocolate somewhere here, in which case I’ll be having words with him about sharing.

The way Luke is stroking my cock soon makes me forget all about chocolate. I reach into Luke’s pants and start stroking his cock in return. The tent is quiet for a while but for the sound of our pants and occasional moans. It’s getting warmer in here by the second, warm enough that I don’t think I’d even be cold if I took my clothes off.

“I want you.”

“You have me.” Luke starts kissing his way down my neck. “Take me, Cody. I’m yours.”

Few words have ever sounded sweeter. Except—

“Cody?” Luke pulls away. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” I don’t want to admit that I just had an errant thought of the happiness I felt when my ex proposed to me while in bed with Luke, so I do my best to brush it aside. I don’t want to think about Zack right now. All I want is Luke.

“Take your clothes off.”

Luke grins at me. “Only if you do the same.”

“I’ll race you.”

My knee somehow collides with Luke’s elbow in our mad rush to get undressed first. We both yelp and then giggle, rubbing our joints while trying to get our clothes off at the same time.

We both tumble into our sleeping bags together, naked, but neither of us bothers to get under the covers. I’m already overheating as is and I guess Luke feels the same, because he kicks the part of the sleeping bag that’s covering his leg away.

“I want to be inside you,” I murmur, letting my hand ghost across Luke’s bare ass. Luke shivers, and I feel goosebumps under my fingers.

“Yes, please. Do you have a condom?”

“I think I have a box in my bag.”

I scramble around, looking for the lube, which has somehow gotten wedged under my toiletry bag. I know there is a box of condoms in my bag- they have been in there a while, but I’m sure they will still be there all happily sealed in their packets. I take one little silver packet out ready. I grab it the lube and slather my hand. “Then open your legs.”

Luke does so at once. I love how eager he is for me—just as eager as I am for him. Luke’s ass is looser than it was the first time, no doubt thanks to my fingering from last night. He groans and squirms as I slide a finger inside him. My cock twitches at the sound.

I want to take my time, but I know that I’m not going to last long if Luke keeps making noises like that. I carefully insert another finger and scissor them back and forth, stretching him open. Finally, I judge him ready enough for me.

“Are you sure, Luke?”

In answer, Luke scrambles around and gets onto his hands and knees, spreading his legs and presenting his ass to me.

It’s a nearly irresistible invitation. Nearly.

“Use your words, Luke. We’re not doing this unless I get a firm yes from you.”

“Yes, Cody! God, yes, please!”

That’s all the confirmation I need. I put the condom on my trembling cock and guide it into Luke’s ass. Luke quietly cries out as I sheath myself fully inside him. I pause, giving him a moment to adjust to the sensation.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. You can move. Please move, Cody.”

I doubt I would have survived much longer just staying still while inside Luke’s ass anyway. I start slowly, but Luke immediately begins snapping his hips back and forth against mine, encouraging me to go for it.

And I do go for it. “Yes, yes, yes,” Luke chants, and not all that softly either. I find I can’t bring myself to care right now. I’ll take all the smug looks in the world tomorrow if it just means Luke keeps falling apart under my touch.

I feel like my cock is about to explode, but I’m determined to make Luke come before letting go myself.

I reach forward, encircling his cock with my fingers and giving it three firm strokes.

That’s all it takes. Luke cries out and his ass tenses wildly around my cock as he comes into my hand in hot bursts. The pressure around my cock is too much for me and I come as well, emptying myself into Luke.

I don’t even know if I’ve made a noise or not; my entire being was focused on the intensity of the pleasure sweeping through me and I couldn’t care less about anything else. I suspect that means I came loudly, but I suppose I’ll have to read that off my teammates’ faces tomorrow. I can’t be bothered to feel self-conscious about it now.

I grab Luke’s hips and pull him sideways with me, so that we’re lying together on the sleeping bags, my softening cock gently slipping out of his ass.

I pull Luke closer to me. There’s a sticky mess in front of us where he came, and I knot the used condom to stop further sticky mess. It feels so good to hold him close like this. I’ve missed this kind of intimacy just as much as I’ve missed the sex.

As we start to cool off, I pull the sleeping bag over us, by which time Luke and I are already half-asleep. We drift off like this and wake up the next morning still entwined in each other’s arms.

“Hurry up, Luke! Come on, Cody!”

“We’re trying!” I wheeze, struggling to talk through my bouts of laughter. This three-legged race is the most ridiculous thing Brandon has made us do yet, but I’ll be damned if I’m letting my team down.

I tighten my arm around Luke’s waist.

“On three. One, two, THREE! One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two…”

Once we get into a rhythm, we’re unstoppable. We fly over the finish line a clear few seconds ahead of the last pair of the other team, stumbling and falling to the ground as soon as we’re done, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we won.

I grab Luke’s shoulders to help prop myself up onto an elbow. “Will someone untie us already?”

“Oh, so you’re not into that?” Brandon raises an eyebrow but does as I ask.

“Shut up, Brandon,” Luke mutters, but there’s a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

I resist the urge to lean forward and kiss Luke. Sure, all of our teammates know about us at this point—it would be hard not to with us having rather loud sex in the tent right next to them for the past several nights—but that’s different to doing stuff in front of them.

I feel fondness and something else I haven’t felt in a long time curl in my belly as I watch Luke shake his foot, trying to get the snarl of ropes off.

“Here, let me.” I reach over and help free him. He smiles at me, and I feel my stomach swoop. I feel—

Oh. Oh , fuck.

Nope. No way am I doing this. Absolutely not a chance in hell.

“Cody? What’s wrong?”

“I—nothing. I’m just going to the river.”

The new phrase for going to the bathroom out here, and no one questions me. I hurry out of sight, allowing my knees to collapse only once I’m sure I’m well out of everyone’s line of vision. I groan as I let my head fall into my hands.

I’m so stupid. I knew this was going to happen, and yet, I let it happen anyway.

I’m developing feelings for Luke. Dangerous feelings that whisper seductively to me that there’s nothing wrong, that Luke would never hurt me if I gave in to them… but I thought Zack would never hurt me, and we all know how that turned out.

I have to put a stop to this, now. I’ll just tell Luke that what I feared is happening, and we’ll pull back. We’ll be just friends, like we discussed originally.

But that’s not going to work, is it? I know myself well enough by now that I know I can’t resist Luke, either physically or emotionally. The more time I spend around him, the deeper I will dig myself into this pit.

My heart goes cold as I realize what I have to do.