Chapter 22
22
“ W hat’s this for?” Niall held up a rubber mallet.
I pointed towards the bag containing the tent pegs. “That’s for the tent pegs in that bag.”
“What are the pegs for?”
“To stop the tent collapsing.” Connor cuffed him around the back of the head. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“I told you I’m a city boy. I’ve never camped before. We’d better have the best presentation ever after all this shit. Tent pegs,” he muttered, shaking his head.
Leaving Connor and Niall to figure out their own tent, I stepped over to where Leo was sprawled out on a blanket on the grass, his laptop open in front of him.
“Hi,” he said, glancing up at me, shading his eyes. A bright smile curved over his lips. “I think I did it.”
“Yeah?” I sank down next to him. “Show me.”
We’d come to this little campsite on a farm in Surrey as a research trip so the boys could figure out the whole booking process from start to finish. They’d arranged to speak to the campsite owners and other campers about the kinds of things they looked for in a booking system, to ensure they were covering all their bases. Aiming for the highest possible grades, they were even designing a functioning site that would allow people to go through the entire booking process from beginning to end, choosing dates, pitch types, and optional extras.
The three of them had spent a long time talking—and Leo had apologised in person, not that he needed to, brainstorming ways they could support each other. It had taken Leo by surprise when his friends had shared that they were both nervous, and when it had sunk in, he’d stepped up his game.
What had started out as a vague idea to get Leo more comfortable with the upcoming presentation so he’d be able to answer any of the questions thrown at him had morphed into a comprehensive plan, a big part of which involved me ransacking my family’s supply of camping equipment. Oh, and borrowing my dad’s SUV for the night…which he’d finally agreed to after I promised I’d treat it with the utmost care.
Connor was the only other one who’d been camping before, although his version of camping had been at a festival with a pop-up tent he couldn’t even remember sleeping in, so it made sense for them to come to an actual working campsite for research. And so here we were, on a sunny afternoon in a quiet field, and I got to spend a whole night with Leo, just the two of us in a tent.
“You really want to see?” Leo’s brows pulled together, and I reached out, stroking my thumb over the furrow.
“Really. I might not understand it all, but it’s important to you, and therefore, it’s important to me.”
“You know your stuff is important to me, too?” There was a question in his voice.
“Yeah. I know that. Anytime you wanna hear about engineering, I’m your man.”
“I’ll listen, even if I don’t understand it. Like you do for me.”
“That’s because we’re a team.” I smiled at him, and he rose onto his elbows, pressing a quick kiss to my lips.
My stomach swooped.
“Oi, you two! Save it for your alone time in your tent! Leo, c’mon! We’ve got work to do.”
Leo pulled away from me, all flushed cheeks and shy smiles, and how was he so fucking cute?
“Yeah, yeah.” I gave Connor the finger, and he grinned at me. Leo clambered to his feet with a sigh, and then the three of them disappeared from the camping field to investigate the site facilities for their website. Because this was supposed to be a working trip, I made a half-hearted attempt to make some notes from the textbook I’d brought with me, but I gave up after a few minutes. I was ahead anyway, so it wasn’t like I really needed to be working. Instead, I opened my phone to my internet browser.
Scrolling past my eighty-seven open tabs to the page I’d bookmarked, I began to read.
I didn’t want this to be premeditated, and I didn’t want to ever put any pressure on Leo, or on myself, but I wanted to make sure that if the topic of anal sex came up, we weren’t going in blind. Although I’d slept with several girls in the past, this was a whole different ball game. Literally. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to ask anyone I knew for advice on, even though I had plenty of friends who I knew would be more than willing to share their experiences. This was private, between me and Leo, and the last thing we needed was even more questions about our friendship.
As I scrolled through the page, apprehension filled me. This was…daunting. Lube—yeah, I could do that, no problem. But the stretching thing with dildos or fingers or whatever…and who decided whose dick went in the other person? Did we flip a coin? Was it going to hurt?
“What’s that?”
Oh, fuck.
My gaze landed on a pair of scuffed Adidas trainers, and I grimaced, forcing myself to look up. Yep, it was as I’d thought. Leo was staring at my phone screen with wide eyes. The phone screen which currently had a close-up of a guy with his fingers buried in another guy’s ass.
I glanced around, and thankfully, we were alone for the moment. I had no idea where Connor and Niall were, but the important thing was that they weren’t here.
What the fuck was I supposed to say to him without making it seem like I was expecting something to happen?
“It’s just research.”
“Research,” he repeated slowly. When he lowered himself down next to me and tugged my phone from my unresisting grip, I fell back, throwing my hand over my face.
“You weren’t supposed to see it.”
The blanket moved beneath me, and warm breath skated over my ear. “Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you to think that I was expecting we’d do…that.”
He nudged at me with his head like some kind of overgrown cat until I moved my arm away from my face, and then he curled into me, pressing his nose into my neck as he liked to do.
“I’ve been doing some research, too,” he confessed.
My heart beat faster. Curving my arm around him, I stroked up the back of his neck and into his soft hair. “Yeah? The same kind of research?”
“Yeah,” he mouthed against my skin.
Okay. We were on the same page, and most importantly, I hadn’t scared him away.
“Did you come to any conclusions?”
He burrowed into me even further, pressing his face into the side of my throat.Stroking through his hair to soothe him, I waited until he’d relaxed before I tried again.
“Baby. Tell me.”
His words were a soft whisper. “I think…I think I might want to try it with you.”
My dick reacted instantly . Like he had a direct line to it. Reaching down to adjust it so it wasn’t so obvious in my shorts, I groaned, unable to help my reaction.
“Fuck, me too.”
“Okay. We, um, we should do that,” he mumbled.
How could I feel so turned on and want to cuddle him at the same time? So sweet and so hot at the same time.
“Okay, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see Finn’s boner. Niall?”
“See what? I didn’t see anything. Nope. Not a thing.”
Leo squeaked, scrambling away from me. I groaned, throwing my arm over my face and drawing up my legs, although there was no point in my doing so since apparently Connor and Niall had already seen it all.
“Where did you two go?” I asked, playing it cool despite my heated face and rapidly deflating cock.
When I lowered my arm, Connor jerked his head to the right. “We were interviewing the people with the campervan down the bottom of the field. Didn’t Leo say?”
“I think they were a bit too busy for talking.” Niall smirked, eyeing Leo, who was now sitting up with his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees. Leo glared up at him, but he was clearly biting back a smile. It helped me to relax a little. Maybe we were finally getting used to the teasing.
Still, I continued the discussion along project work-related lines. “Any new ideas for anything you want to add to your project?”
“Yeah.” Connor flopped down onto the blanket in front of us and pulled out his phone. “I made some notes. First of all, we’re gonna need to add options for electric and non-electric pitches…”
“Finn.”
“Yeah?” I turned my head, my lips brushing over Leo’s hair.
We’d arranged the tent so our camping mats were next to each other, and we’d unzipped the sleeping bags to use one as extra padding beneath us and the other spread out to cover us both. We’d topped it with an additional blanket in case it got cold during the night.
Although it was dark outside, thanks to the clear night and the brightness of the moon, I could just about make out the outline of his face as he continued. “You know the research we were talking about?”
“Yeah.” I shifted closer, running my hand down his back. His bare back. The night was warm, and we were under two layers as it was, so we’d ended up in just our underwear.
“I really want to try it.”
“Fuck.” I let my hand slip lower onto his ass, and his breath stuttered over my skin. He rolled his hips forwards, dragging his hardening cock along my thigh, and as he slotted his leg between mine, I pulled him on top of me to get some friction on my own rapidly hardening erection. “I wish we could do it now, but I didn’t bring any lube, and I don’t think our first time should be in a tent. I want you to be comfortable.”
He hummed against my throat. “Mmm. And you.” Lifting his head, he kissed across my jaw, then the corner of my mouth, and finally, our lips met.
He pulled away, panting. Palming his ass as he rolled his hips down, I mouthed at the side of his throat. “Tell me what you’d do. If we could. I dare you.”
“Finn. Oh, fuck.” His soft little whimper made my dick throb. “More.”
“You want more, baby? Tell me what you’d do.” I eased down his boxer briefs as I continued kissing and licking over his skin. The way he was wriggling on top of me as he struggled to get mine off at the same time made my eyes roll back, my dick leaking precum. When Leo moved to straddle my thighs properly, letting them take his weight, I finally managed to get a hand wrapped around both of us. I’d seen someone do this in a video, and it had stuck in my mind, and I just hoped I could work out what I was doing so it was good for Leo.
“ Oh ,” he breathed. Shifting forwards, he brought his hand up. I couldn’t exactly tell what he was doing in the dark, but I heard…was he spitting into his hand?
My question was answered a second later when his hand joined mine, sliding down our cocks, and it was wet.
I groaned. Why was that so fucking hot?
“I-I saw someone do that, when I was, um, researching,” he whispered.
Words failed me. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to expect a reply, his hand joining mine in stroking our dicks together as he carried on speaking .
“If—if we could do it now…I’d want to be underneath you so I could feel you covering me. I’d feel safe.”
“Oh, baby…” I stroked my free hand over his thigh.
“I don’t know which way around we’d do it, but I’d want to make sure we spent enough time preparing. Before that, I think I’d like to kiss you. And…and for you to kiss me, and touch me, and?—”
“Fuck,” I gasped, my body seizing up as I came, hard, coating our hands in my release. Leo groaned, his cum-soaked hand moving faster on his own erection, and then he was coming, too, curling over me.
“More mess.” His soft, breathless whisper was resigned, but I could hear the humour in his tone, and it made me smile. That, and the fact that we always seemed to end up with a mess to clear up.
This time, though, I was prepared. I manoeuvred him onto the camping mat next to me, missing the feel of his body against mine straight away.
“I brought wipes.”
The noise that fell from his mouth could have been a question or agreement or something else…I didn’t know. Concentrating on my goal, I dug out the pack of wipes and cleaned us up as best I could in the dark. When I’d done everything I could, the used wipes were safely stowed away, and we were back under the sleeping bag in our underwear, I pulled Leo into me, wrapping my arms around him.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded against me. “Yeah.”
“Leo. I?—”
The noise from outside had us both freezing up. I couldn’t describe it…something like the way I imagined a tent might sound if it was collapsing…
“Is that—” Leo began, but he cut himself off at the string of mumbled swear words in a familiar voice, followed by a sentence that I could make out clearly.
“We don’t have a fucking tent, Con.”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Connor. Our tent collapsed.”
“Yeah, and that’s your fucking fault for not?—”
“I’ve never been camping before! I’ve told you this a hundred times!”
“Okay! Fuck! We’re gonna wake up the whole campsite if we don’t shut the fuck up.”
Their voices lowered, and I crawled to the front of the tent, unzipping the door flap. A rush of cool air entered the tent, and I shivered, although I did my best to ignore the sudden chill. What we’d done in this tent…let’s just say it needed some fresh air to get rid of the evidence. It wasn’t cold, anyway, just quite a bit cooler than the enclosed space where I’d been all wrapped up in my best friend.
“What’s happening?” I hissed, and the two crouching figures in front of me startled.
“Someone didn’t peg the ropes down,” Connor ground out, and Niall huffed loudly.
“I told you, I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, and our tent collapsed.” Connor paused for a moment. “Fucking hell,” he wheezed, struggling against his laughter as it all sank in.
“Our tent collapsed,” Niall screeched, and they both doubled over, falling onto the grass. I was so glad that we’d pitched our tents away from the other campers, although I was well aware that sound travelled at night.
“Hey! There are other people here,” I reminded them, and eventually, they got their laughter under control. I glanced towards where their tent had once been, the moonlight illuminating a sagging mass of canvas. Okay. It was clear they couldn’t go back there.
“You’ll have to sleep in our tent,” I said eventually. It was the only option. The car was back in the tiny car park next to the farmhouse that belonged to the campsite owners, and there was no point in making them trek all the way there to have to sleep on uncomfortable car seats when I was sharing a four-person tent with Leo. Or at least, it had been advertised as a four-person tent when my parents had bought it. It was going to be a snug fit, but we’d make it work.
Connor pulled himself upright. “Your tent? Sleeping with you and your boyfriend?”
I sighed. “We’re best friends.”
“Best friends. Uh-huh.” Niall clambered to his feet and then patted my shoulder. “Looks like we’re all gonna become a lot more friendly in a few minutes.” Without waiting for a response, he ducked into Leo’s and my tent.
“Come on,” I told Connor. “None of your shit is going anywhere. Your tent’s a lost cause, but it’s not windy or anything, so it’ll all be there tomorrow.”
“It better be,” he muttered, but after grabbing his and Niall’s sleeping bags and pillows, he followed me into my tent, where the four of us arranged ourselves as best we could. “Four person” was a definite lie. This tent had not been designed with four grown men in mind.
A bright light lit up the inside of the tent when we’d just settled down, with Leo curled into my right side and Connor to my left. I shouted, scrubbing at my eyes, Leo burying his face in my chest and Connor swearing loudly next to me.
“What the fuck, Niall?”
“Sorry, sorry. I had to get a picture of this for my girlfriend. She’s not gonna believe it happened otherwise.”
“Fuck’s sake.” Climbing over me and Leo, Connor swatted at him, and they tussled for a minute before collapsing into laughter again. Eventually, though, they quietened down, moving back to their original places. My body relaxed, and I absentmindedly stroked through Leo’s hair while I closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come.
Words echoed in my mind.
Your tent? Sleeping with you and your boyfriend?
We were best friends. Not boyfriends.
Weren’t we?
I fell asleep to the sound of Niall muttering that he hated camping, with the question still playing on my mind.