Rocky Mountain Shelter

by Vivian Arend

  They passed under another bridge, the smooth slope and easy access to the water making it a great spot for floaters to get in and out of the river. Some people left at that point, new people joined in, including two familiar faces for their party.

  By now the Colemans were spread out over the water. Daniel and the boys had raced ahead, barely visible before they’d vanish around another curve in the river. Others were farther behind, like Lee and Rachel who had gotten busy kissing, their rafts floating close enough to the shore to get stuck.

  Trevor wondered with a laugh how long it would be before they noticed.

  “Hey, Joel,” Trevor called. “Thought you couldn’t make it.”

  Joel kicked their larger raft over until it bumped into Becky’s. “Vicki got back early from camp, so we decided half a river trip was better than none.”

  The petite brunette waved, her dark eyes taking in him and Becky with interest. “Nice to meet you,” she said. They grabbed onto the ropes on the larger craft, staying close so they could talk. “I’ve been gone cooking at teen camp all summer,” Vicki offered with a smile as she leaned against Joel. “Are you settling into Rocky nicely?”

  Becky nodded, answering back softly. Her fingers were tangled with Trevor’s, relaxed and at ease, so while the girls talked, he and Joel caught up with each other.

  Joel played with a strand of Vicki’s hair, seeming not aware he was doing it. “Where’re my brothers and nephews?” he asked. “I thought they were supposed to be out here.”

  Trevor flicked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing downstream. “Daniel and Jesse have them running point to scare off the bears.”

  “Bears?” Vicki and Becky exclaimed at the same time, with the same tone of panic.

  He and Joel snickered.

  “No, I’m kidding,” he reassured Becky.

  Vicki gave them both the evil eye. “You guys are so bad.”

  Joel looked thoughtful. “If you girls want to talk, how about you share the big raft for a minute, and give me the single. We’ll go burn off a bit of energy.”

  Trevor waited until Becky nodded her approval. “I’m good with that,” she insisted. “Go play.”

  Joel leapt into the water, leaving room for her to crawl precariously into the raft beside Vicki.

  They left the two girls happily chatting, their boat spinning slowly. He and Joel paddled hard in pursuit of their targets. Within minutes they had sight of the rambunctious group.

  “They’ve been shouting and carrying on like that for over an hour and a half,” Trevor said.

  “You think we were any different at that age?” Joel teased.

  Trevor shrugged. “I guess not, but damn, I wish I still had that kind of energy.”

  They were hidden from sight behind a bend, closing in on the kids who were using water guns on each other, their dad and uncle. Heck, anything they could soak down within shooting range seemed to be fair game.

  Joel laughed softly, then lifted a finger to his lips. “Grab my raft,” he ordered softly.

  There was barely time to obey before he rolled backward, disappearing with a splash into the water. Trevor held the extra raft, drifting ever closer to the chaos, no sign of Joel anywhere.

  Jesse spotted him and shouted a warning. “Avast, ye matey, here be pirates.”

  A thin ripple disturbed the water beside his raft, and Trevor chuckled. “I think you need to worry more about the sharks, cuz.”

  Confusion drifted over Jesse’s expression. He leaned forward at the exact moment Joel appeared out of nowhere, flying out of the water and tipping his twin’s raft.

  The nephews shouted in surprise, and Daniel’s laugh boomed out as Joel and Jesse resurfaced, matching grins on their faces.

  “Jerk,” Jesse said, obviously pleased with being dunked.

  “Ass,” Joel replied with a smirk. He tilted his head toward the boys. “Shall we?”

  Jesse’s grin widened, and they turned to the nephews with evil laughs. Blood-curdling screams followed, accompanied by frantic splashing and much laughter as the uncles worked together to topple the teens into the water.

  After all the boys were back in their floats, and settled down, Jesse and Joel returned to the rafts Trevor had held while watching with amusement.

  “We noticed you didn’t get wet,” Jesse taunted, mischief lingering in his eyes.

  “Someone had to be witness to your victory, or those hoodlums would claim they’d trounced you,” Trevor pointed out.

  “True.” Joel gave his twin a brotherly sock in the biceps. “You’re looking relaxed. Good to see.”

  Jesse shrugged, leaning back with his hands behind his head as he closed his eyes. “I’m always relaxed. Not a worry in the world for me,” he gloated.

  Joel rolled his eyes, but didn’t taunt back. Trevor glanced upstream before he copied his cousin’s position, letting the river take him. The girls were only a few minutes behind now, and he let the raft slowly spin as he waited for them to catch up.

  The sun had made him drowsy by the time they approached, feminine laughter pulling him from his relaxed state. He opened his eyes to discover Jesse staring at Vicki, his expression unreadable.

  Trevor wasn’t surprised when his cousin silently twirled his raft away into the stronger current, moving back toward Daniel and the nephews before he had to greet Vicki.

  Joel sighed, but didn’t say anything as he stared after his twin, his disappointment and sorrow clear as he switched places with Becky.

  Trevor held a hand out to pull Becky to him, her shining eyes bringing him back to a happier place. “Having fun?”

  She nodded, joy on her face.

  In spite of the things that weren’t right, this part was. He pulled her close and counted his blessings.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Well…damn it.”

  Trevor shuffled up onto his elbows, amused and shocked all at the same time. “Holy shit, you swore.”

  Becky’s eyes narrowed, frustration rolling off her and slamming into him like a fist. “I think it’s allowed.”

  “It’s not a big deal—”

  “It is so.”

  She’d jerked away from his cock in a panic, but still straddled his hips as he sprawled on the bed. Both of them were naked as jaybirds, and had been fooling around for a good solid hour before things had fallen apart.

  Becky straightened up to glare at him, folding her arms across her body like a shield. The position framed her tits into erotic art, and his cock, which hadn’t gone down since they’d started teasing each other during dinner, somehow got harder.

  “You hear me complaining? I don’t hear me complaining.” Trevor skimmed his fingers over her nipples, squeezing her breasts and going out of his mind with lust. Debating if he should curl up the rest of the way so he could play with her a little longer. “So damn soft. You make my brain crazy.”

  “But I froze again,” she said grumpily even as she caught his hands and held them to her, a flicker of desire sneaking through her annoyance. “It doesn’t matter what position we try, I just can’t do it.”

  “And I don’t fucking care,” Trevor insisted. “I mean, I care, but it’s not the end of the world.”

  The debate was over. He was vertical now, lifting her by the hips so he could drag a nipple in his mouth. Nipping and sucking until she forgot to worry about the traitorous way her body kept reacting every time they tried to have sex.

  He wasn’t bullshitting her. As much as he’d always enjoyed full-out fucking, he was having a blast. Ever since the night she’d slept over, they’d been fooling around on a regular basis. At her insistence they’d made a half dozen attempts at going all the way. Each had ended with her turning into a statue, blood draining from her face and her breathing cutting off the instant his cock slipped into her pussy.

  No, that wasn’t right. They hadn’t ended that way. They’d ended with him finding a different way to get them off, which he was about to happily do once again. />
  Becky undulated over him, barely brushing his cock, and suddenly as good as her tits were, he had something else in mind.

  “Come here.” He caught hold of her hips, pulling her forward until the heat of her sex rested firmly over his aching cock. A groan of rising urgency escaped. “Fuck me like this.”

  “This isn’t…fucking,” she muttered on a moan as he guided her through the motions until she took over. She paused, maddeningly, wiggling back. She stripped the condom from him and tossed it aside. “You may as well enjoy this as much as possible.”

  “I always do. God damn…”

  She’d slid over him, her wet sex wrapping around his length. He angled his hips to slide through her labia, not giving two fucks that he wasn’t inside her because he had a tunnel of heat over him, and it was so damn good. He swore again. And again, seconds away from coming.

  Her palm landed over his mouth, and she leaned over, giving him a dirty look. “No more potty mouth.”

  Trevor snickered, then licked her palm.

  Becky pulled back with a squeal. He caught her hips and ground against her clit until they both lost it, his belly coated with streaks of semen, his cock wet from her body, and every inch of him sated and satisfied.

  Becky collapsed to the bed beside him, her breasts rocking with her heavy gasps. “That was…”

  “Freaking awesome.”

  Her next gasp was part laugh, part sigh. “Yeah, I guess it was.” She rolled up to rest her hands in his chest, chin settling on top of that. “But I wish things were different. With sex.”

  “Even though we had fun.”

  She blew in his face and made him blink. “You know what I mean.”

  He blew back and she smiled.

  This wasn’t a solution, though. It mattered to her, so it mattered to him. “We can find someone for you to talk to. A counselor. Someone who’s trained how to help. That’s the best I can think of.”

  Becky made a face. “I don’t want to talk to anyone other than you.”

  Damn.

  They ended with a compromise. The stubborn woman refused to give in just yet, but she did say he could ask someone he trusted for ideas.

  Which was why he found himself driving to the middle of nowhere to track down his cousin Travis. It was going to be the most awkward conversation ever, but the man was happily living with and fooling around with two other people.

  He had to have some ideas that could help.

  Trevor had found himself doing a lot of strange things lately—like this mission, and sending off a couple more letters to his Uncle Mark. He hadn’t heard back yet, but he was hoping the borderline-newsie updates that had damn near killed him to write would make his uncle curious enough to write back. Maybe even consider a visit, down the road.

  Maybe start to heal some hurts.

  Finding his cousin was one thing, starting the crazy conversation was another. Trevor stopped his truck beside a horse shelter then waited until Travis pulled to a halt, swinging down from the tractor cab and removing his headphones.

  He glanced around, concern on his face. “Something wrong?”

  Trevor shook his head, then nodded slowly. If it weren’t so damn important, he wouldn’t be standing there feeling like a jackass. “No emergency, if that’s what you mean. I’ve got a question for you.”

  One brow rose as Travis eyed him. “I bet it involves sex, because you’re twitching like you just got caught trying to get into some girl’s pants.”

  How the hell did he…? “What? I mean, yeah, it does, but…fuck.”

  Yup, awkward. Damn it.

  A loud snort of amusement escaped his cousin. “Ha, I was kidding. Don’t tell me you’re actually going to ask me for sex advice.”

  “Only if you’re okay with it. I don’t want to cross any boundaries here.”

  “There’s something you want to talk about that you can’t ask Steve or Lee?” Travis’s eyes narrowed. “You’re seeing Becky, aren’t you?”

  Trevor nodded.

  “You sure as hell better not be asking me for any information about having threesomes, because there is no way on God’s green earth that woman—”

  Jeez. “Nobody’s going to join us in bed, you’re one hundred percent right on that.” He swallowed hard. “The trouble is, we’re not getting to the bed. Not really.”

  Travis stopped for a moment then sighed. “Pretty sure you don’t mean you’re having so much hot monkey sex you’re doing it everywhere except in a bed.”

  “I don’t want to share secrets,” Trevor started in, hoping he could finish before he lost his nerve. “But Becky asked if I could find some ideas, and I’m at a total loss.”

  Travis folded his arms and leaned back against the tractor, all joking gone. This was the man Trevor had seen more of over the last year. A blunt-spoken but caring man he trusted would try to help and keep it quiet.

  “This is going to be awkward as hell, so just spit it out,” Travis suggested. “And seriously, the conversations me, Cassidy and Ashley have? There’s nothing you could say that will shock me.”

  “She doesn’t like sex.”

  Travis grunted in surprise. “Except that. Really? You mean you guys are doing absolutely nothing? No kissing, no touching, no going down each other, either way?”

  “No, we’re doing that stuff, and she likes it. So do I, but any time we try actual sex, she freezes and it’s hell, no.” Trevor paced in front of his cousin. “She’s got her reasons, and they make sense. Only she says she wants to keep trying, but every time it doesn’t work, it frustrates her more, which isn’t what I want.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want her to be happy with what we’re doing,” Trevor answered honestly. “I mean, yes. I like fucking, but she won’t see a counselor right now, so I need ideas that might help get her past this trouble.”

  His cousin stared at him for a good long time. “Okay. Straight up, she likes everything except when you put your cock in her. That’s what we’re talking about here.”

  “Right.”

  “Hell. Thanks for asking me an easy one, cuz.” Travis shook his head as he held up a finger. “For the record, you are having sex, asshole. Everything you’ve been doing is sex. Just because you’re not sticking your cock in her doesn’t mean you’re not having sex. I’ve only got one dick, and I’m with two people. We can’t all have sex at the same time if it’s only about insert tab a into slot b, or I’d constantly have one person I’m not satisfying.”

  “It was easier to say sex than to say…cock in pussy, or something.” Damn it, his cheeks were fucking hot like he was running a fever.

  “You’re such a dweeb,” Travis muttered.

  “Hey, you have two people you talk about sex with all the time, and one of them is Ashley who doesn’t have a shy bone in her body. Give me a break.”

  “Dweeb,” Travis repeated before growing serious again. “You say she’s got good reasons for why this happens. Don’t tell me the details, but I can guess, and that fucking sucks. Goddamn screwed-up assholes in this world.” He ground out the words, violence shaking his voice by the end.

  “You can say that again.” Trevor knew he couldn’t change her past, but damn if he didn’t wish he could, every single day.

  Travis went on, calmer now, the anger that had burst out controlled, but not gone. “I’m not going to tell you she needs to get over it. I’m the last one to say somebody needs to drop what’s important to them, or just forget about their issues. And I’m not an expert. I think you should get her to talk to someone who really knows how to help.”

  Trevor nodded slowly. “Yeah. I figured that was the best thing too, but she’s not ready. I’m looking for ideas we can try in the meantime.”

  “I don’t know. Visit a sex shop and buy some vibrators, see if they make a difference.” His cousin stared off into the distance for a minute. “Don’t tell me her issues, but if it’s something like a lack of power, give power back to her. Get her a
strap-on, and let her fuck you.”

  A shock wave struck, and Trevor swore. Loudly. “What the hell?”

  An evil grin broke across Travis’s face. “You asked for suggestions.”

  Trevor wasn’t sure if he should kiss his cousin or punch him in the face. “Jesus, you’re a damn menace.”

  “Go on—keep trying new things. And give it time,” Travis encouraged. “Sex is fun, yeah, but it’s also about connecting in here…” he banged a fist into his chest then tapped his forehead, “…and here. Until all three parts work together properly, something will always be missing. Not just dealing with Becky’s problem, but big picture.”

  His brain was still reeling, but Trevor had at least one idea to try. “Thanks. For everything.”

  Travis turned back to the tractor with a chuckle. “Anytime.”

  She’d never seen so many penises in her life. Or boobs, or…whatever that thing was that seemed to have more appendages than an octopus.

  Everywhere she looked there was something else she wanted to examine in more detail mainly to figure out what on earth it was, but the idea of looking closer at the merchandise lining the walls made her heart pound faster, and another wave of embarrassment swept over her.

  “Remind me I never want to meet your cousin and his partners,” Becky whispered as Trevor tugged on their linked fingers and pulled her after him.

  He chuckled. “Why? Just because he suggested we go shopping doesn’t mean they own stock in the company, or that they use everything in here.”

  “I mean…”

  Nope, she was speechless. He’d brought her in front of a selection of penises. The ones that were shaped like man parts, but florescent blue or green made her brain hurt. And the sizes—

  “That’s not possible.” Becky pointed at one that was anatomically correct, but as thick and long as her forearm. “No. Way.”

  “People have different kinks, Rodeo. Each to his own.”