by Maya Riley
I twined my fingers through his hair and pulled until his lips touched mine once more, and I held him there.
One hand lightly trailed up and along my side, until it reached its destination. He cupped my breast and rubbed my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, eliciting a soft moan from me.
My lips left his and found his neck, where I continued to kiss until I found the spot I was looking for, the place I’d always stared at in the past. I began to suck at my favorite spot on his neck, the one at the top of the curve where his neck met his shoulder, and his other hand found its way into my hair, tugging gently.
I wound my hands down to his pants and undid the button and zipper. I freed his erection and wrapped my hand around the base, and began to stroke.
He buried his face into my neck and moaned. “Dammit, Cam,” he murmured between ragged breaths, before moving his head slightly to the side and latching on to my bare shoulder with his mouth. He bit down just enough and I arched my back in response. “I love everything you do.”
I smiled. “I can do more,” I purred.
“You don’t need—”
My pumping sped up, cutting him off mid-sentence. He sucked on my shoulder, biting down a little bit harder with the increasing speed of my hand, until he was moaning into my shoulder and spilling his release into my palm.
He braced himself above me, with his forearms pressing into the mattress on either side to hold his weight.
“I love you,” he confessed, and I paused.
“What?” I asked. I hadn’t been expecting that at all.
“I don’t want to scare you away. I’m sorry if it scares you. But it’s true. I have for so long. This is much more than a dream come true,” he divulged.
I met his eyes, and they were glistening with joy, his face lit up with more happiness than I’d ever seen in him. I smiled and kissed him, reassuring him that all was good and I felt the same way.
The taste of his strawberry chapstick warmed my tongue and soothed my soul. Lips that I’d snuck glances at for so long, lips that lifted me up during a hectic training day, were now all mine.
He began to pull back and found my collarbone again with his lips. He kissed there, and then kissed all down my torso, until he reached my pants. He pulled down the stretchy material and I lifted my hips to make it easier to dispose of the offending garment. He pulled them off and away and smiled. “So, no underwear, eh?” he teased with a lopsided grin.
“No way, imagine that getting all caught up in there while on the wall. It’s a little more difficult to pick out a wedgie while climbing. Clothes are such an inconvenience. Hell, I’d just climb naked if it weren’t for the worst chafing ever,” I told him.
He laughed. “Wedgies and chafing. Well, you sure know how to turn a guy on.”
I smiled. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” he replied. His head dipped low and disappeared between my legs. “You’re good. No chafing here.” He kissed my core, my lips, and then sucked on my clit. Pleasure began to build, and he slipped his tongue inside. I arched my back off the bed to get more of him, and he braced a forearm across my hips to keep me in place.
“Nuh-uh,” he warned. “You stay still. My turn to have fun.”
I felt his smile against my core, and the waves of pleasure built. He slipped one finger inside, then another. Another second later, he curled his fingers to hit my sweet spot, and I came loose. I convulsed with waves of pleasure. Once the sensations turned into a low ripple, we went into the bathroom and cleaned up.
I decided we needed some salad to go with all the pizza we were having again, saving the climbing food we’d packed for the rest of our adventure. I’d be perfectly fine eating nothing but pizza during this whole trip though. Well... maybe my body wouldn’t be fine, but my taste buds would sure be damn happy.
Carson decided to help out. There weren’t things much sexier in the world than a man in the kitchen. Especially when they were shirtless and ripped. I set him to work, cutting up the tomatoes, onions, and various other vegetables, while I started to get two pots of water boiling; one for the eggs, and one for the noodles.
I walked up behind Carson and snuck my arms around his waist. I leaned my head forward and to the side, resting my cheek on his smooth, bare back and squeezed with my arms, giving him a hug without letting go.
“Cam,” he said, setting the knife down and gripping my arms with his hands. “Watchya doing?”
“Just... nothing...” I gave a vague answer and relaxed against him. His back muscles flexed underneath my cheek.
He twisted in my arms until he was facing me, and wrapped his own arms around my back, holding me close. I rested my chin on his pec and looked up at him. My chest expanded as I breathed in the smell of coconut rum that was his natural scent, and recently discovered taste.
His long brown hair brushed my temple as he bent down and placed a sweet, chaste kiss on my lips. Once he pulled away, I rested my cheek on his chest and closed my eyes, savoring my moment alone with him. He placed his chin on the top of my head, and I forgot about the rest of the world while I was safe in his arms, and simply enjoyed the bliss of being so near him.
The sound of water boiling over the pot and sizzling on the stove top broke us out of our stupor. He loosened his arms and let me go, so I could take off the lids and place a wooden spoon across the top of each top and set the timer.
“A wooden spoon?” he asked.
“Yeah, somehow it keeps the water from boiling over. For some reason, water doesn’t want to touch the spoon,” I explained, as I dumped in the macaroni noodles and added some salt to one of the pots.
“Interesting. I knew you could make some good food, but I didn’t know you had such an extensive knowledge on cooking,” he commented, and I threw my head back and laughed.
“Yes, such an extensive cooking knowledge,” I scoffed, continuing to laugh. “It’s probably the one thing in the kitchen that my mother actually taught me when I was younger.”
The air around us seemed to cool with the mention of my mother, and the life I used to have with my family. “She taught both Clif and I that,” I continued on. “She told him that girls like a guy who could cook, so she wanted to make sure he could take care of his future wife.” My heart dropped even more at the memory of how we were unknowingly prepping each other for a future that would never happen. “Funny thing is, she taught him way more about cooking than she taught me.”
My voice caught in my throat and I couldn’t go on. Instead, I dropped the eggs into the water in the other pot, and watched as each new bubble rose to the surface and popped.
A rough hand on mine brought me back to the present, and I looked up to see Carson’s eyes studying my face, filled with worry. “Hey,” he murmured, “it’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it, about any of it, but you’re always welcome to whenever you wish. I’ll never force anything out of you. But, you do know that he would want you to be happy, right? He wouldn’t have any regrets on the life you helped him have, and I’m pretty sure he’s cheering you on from wherever he’s watching from. Most likely yelling at you about a simple ingredient you may be missing.”
I smiled. “How did I get so lucky with you guys?”
He shrugged. “No idea. Maybe you wished upon a star? Did you blow out your birthday candles correctly one year?”
He smiled and I laughed. “Oh, you’re funny.”
“Actually, I’m hilarious, but I’ll let that slide,” he quipped with a grin.
I set the timer for the eggs, turned, picked up the knife, and finished cutting up the rest of the vegetables and set them aside.
“Now, we wait,” I told him.
“Mmmmm, I wonder what we could entertain ourselves with while we wait?” Carson questioned, and he grinned at me with a smile that said he was up to something. He stepped closer to me but the creak of the door opening interrupted whatever it was that he had in mind.
“Do I smell some food?” Gary called, before h
e and Ryan appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, with Pete following close behind.
“Salad,” I answered, pulling a straight face. “We’re getting healthified.”
Gary scrunched up his nose. “Aren’t we having pizza? I thought I was picking up pizza soon.”
“What’s wrong with salad?” I asked.
“I really like you, Cam,” Pete began as he walked into the kitchen, “but you know that we need other food too. At least, at some point in our lives.”
“We are. And yes, you are. But you can’t live off just pizza,” I argued.
Gary rubbed his hands together with a glint in his dark brown eyes. “Challenge accepted.”
I raised an eyebrow, and he bounded over and smacked a loud kiss on my cheek before hopping up onto the counter next to the stove. “So, when will this be done? Should we head out to get the pizza? Has it been ordered?” he inquired rapidly.
“It has been. I’m about to head outside for a walk soon though, right after I finish up this salad, so I’ll go pick it up too.” The timer went off and I poured the pot of boiling water into the colander in the sink. “Can I trust someone to peel and cut up a few of these eggs into the salad once they’re cooled?”
“I got it,” J.D. answered as he ran some cool water over the pile of hard-boiled eggs. I grabbed a handful of almond and tossed it into the large salad bowl on the counter along with the freshly cut veggies.
I crossed the living room to get to the shoe pile at the bottom of the stairs. I wanted to grab my boots and go for a short walk, enjoy the outside some.
The afternoon sun was still high in the sky and beat down on me, but there were enough clouds for it to be comfortable. I took a breath of the fresh mountain air. I was looking forward to the point when we’d make it up high enough that there would be no more civilization, and we’d be sleeping on the portable ledges that hooked into the rock face. I’d done that so many times before and always looked forward to the next.
Arms wrapping around me caught me by surprise, and suddenly I was lifted into the air and spun around. Before I could even begin to think about who it might have been, my back was pressed up against the nearest wall, and soft lips were crashing onto mine. Lips that were followed by a lemony smell. A small, solid something bumped the bridge of my nose, and I knew it was J.D.’s glasses.
I smiled and threw my arms over his shoulders. Since we’d decided to come out and acknowledge the feelings we all had for each other, the guys were mauling me every chance they got. They were still going to make sure I accomplished every goal I ever set, and every dream I ever dreamed, but they were doing a damn good job at healing my heart.
“Hey, handsome,” I greeted him as soon as I could come up for air.
He pulled his head back and smiled at me. “Hey, beautiful. How’s it going?”
“Pretty good. Dinner is in progress.”
“Let me guess. Pizza? And you probably tried to sneak in a vegetable.”
I nodded. “Going to head to the shack for the pizzas. I’m also going to pick up some dill and sneak that in the salad. Don’t tell the others though. They don’t understand the power of dill.”
He nearly fell over at that, and would have if he didn’t have such good balance and righted himself before he hit the ground. “Okay, I think you’re going to need to explain this to me.”
I side-eyed him. “Explain what? Dill has powerful antioxidants that help fight infection. Dill is good for your health.”
“Ah, dill the kitchen herb.”
“Of course dill the kitchen herb, what else would I mean?” I asked, confused.
J.D. shrugged. “No idea. I just don’t normally hear people talk about dill so openly.”
That didn’t make any sense to me, but guys were weird. His hand reached for mine and our fingers tangled together as our hands connected. We began our walk, side by side, and hand in hand. Like a real couple, except for the several other people who were involved in this relationship. This was going to be fun to figure out and explain to people when we got back to the real world. I was never one to care about other people’s opinions or how others saw me, but I was still worried about how all of it was going to affect the guys. They promised me that nothing could come between us, so we’ll see. For now, I would just enjoy what we have in the moment.
The smells of hot pizza goodness teased me all the way back to the cabin. My taste buds were already in heaven when we walked through the door. “Guys! We’re back!” I called out.
Toeing off my shoes and leaving them by the door, I skipped excitedly into the kitchen. The scene before me stopped me dead in my tracks and the blood in my veins iced over. Sitting on the stools at the breakfast bar were two people I never expected to see here. Or together. One of them, I never expected to see ever again. Yet, here they were. Mom and Steve were sitting next to each other as though everything were normal. The worst of it all? They were eating my dill salad.
“The fuck is this?” That was probably not the best greeting to give one’s parents, but this wasn’t a normal circumstance. This wasn’t your typical parent and daughter meeting. This was insanity.
“Cameron,” my mom started, but I wasn’t going to have it.
“I said,” I decided to try again, “what. The fuck. Is this?” I handed the pizzas off to J.D., before pointing between the two newcomers and then to the counter they were both sitting at so casually.
“You know better than to use that kind of language young lady,” Steve scolded as he stood up from his chair, his hands adjusting the waistline of his pants as though he thought he’d actually have some authority here.
“Do I, Steve? Do I? Because please, enlighten me. Tell me all the things I supposedly know,” I challenged him, but he held his ground.
“Don’t use that tone with me, Cameron.” His voice raised, determined to be heard.
“And don’t you dare raise your voice at me!” I yelled at him, unwilling to back down. “You can’t come into my cabin, on my adventure, interrupt my life like this, and expect me to actually respect you!” I could feel the steady movement of my nostrils as my nose flared. This was going to spiral downhill so fast, and I was a ticking time bomb. All the negatives from the past few years were speeding to the front of my memory, and taking an unpaved route to my mouth. My filter was absolutely nonexistent in this moment.
“Oh, fuck no. It doesn’t work like that. I don’t give a shit what you two want. After Clif died, you,” I pointed at Steve, “abandoned us. And you,” I pointed at Mom, “abandoned me. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. You haven’t actually given a shit about me in years. Always trying to stop my climbing rather than support it. Trying to stop me from living my life. I understand losing your son,” my voice cracked, “was hard, but you just went cold. You didn’t bother teaching me to be safe and how to avoid accidents. You only managed to treat me like shit in your lame attempt to discourage me from living my life. But guess what?”
I stood there and waited for their response, daring them to indulge me in this verbal fight. “I’m not the coward either of you are. Neither of you cared to even know me. It was always Clif this or Clif that, or don’t step outside because you’ll catch a severe case of the funsies. No. All you cared about were yourselves, under the guise of caring about me.”
Steve opened his mouth to scream, but my mom placed a hand on his forearm to stop him. His face turned red from anger, but I didn’t care, I was out of the kitchen within moments.
I had no idea where I was going, but I needed out of that room. Preferably off this planet, but small steps.
J.D. stood at the bottom of the stairs, his face turned down in concern, and his arms opened wide.
Tears were already falling by the time I ran into his chest. His arms wrapped around me like protective, steel bands keeping out the rest of the world, and he kissed the top of my head. He rested his lips there, just holding me. While my dreams were crashing down around me, at least I’d be safe in his arms.
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A commotion sounded behind me and I turned my head to see. Steve was trying to leave the kitchen, but all the guys were standing in front of him, blocking his path.
I knew all along I had some good guys in my life, but that was an understatement. They weren’t even just great. They were amazing, and I didn’t want to think about where I’d be in this world without them.
“Come on, let’s get upstairs and let everyone cool down,” J.D. whispered in my ear, and I nodded. He unwrapped his arms and took my hand in his, and led me up the stairs.
Once on the landing, he ushered me into the room I’d been staying in. He motioned for me to sit on the bed and I did. The mattress was practically vibrating from the shock and outrage I was shaking with, and I had no idea which emotion was taking over the most.
The sight of both of my parents sitting there, in my kitchen, in my cabin, on my lifelong dream trip, was too much to handle. They’d ruined the whole trip, and I felt like I had worked so hard for my entire damn life for nothing.
Sure, I could always come back and try again, but I was doing it on this day, at this time, for a reason. And that reason was no longer here with me to change the date in our pact.
No, I couldn’t let them win. I wouldn’t.
The bed dipped as J.D. sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my back, pulling me close to him and surrounding me with his lemony scent. Just as Carson’s lips permanently tasted of coconut rum with years of working at the distillery, J.D. permanently smelled of lemons from all the cleaning products after years of working as a veterinary assistant. One would expect him to constantly smell of dog, but his body accepted the lemon smell instead, which I was perfectly fine with.
He rested his chin on the top of my head, and we sat like that. Me, an internally mangled mess, and him, the strong protector, sitting in silence and holding my broken pieces together.
