Page 19 of Only One Tent
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 andjeans 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’thaveto 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 situationfelt 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.
