Chapter 31
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Present day
After spending all of last night and this morning giving orgasms to the hottest girl that I’ve ever seen, I can’t deny that I’m feeling pretty fucking incredible.
Aisling’s currently sashaying up the mountain’s incline at about ten feet ahead of me, occasionally throwing impassive little glances over her shoulder as the guys and I trail behind her.
As if I don’t have her nail marks all over my chest.
She flashes those dismissive vixen eyes in my direction while Fallon and Winter talk on either side of her, and I give her a quick jerk of my chin, forearms flexing as I give her a once-over. I’ve got four bags in each fist slung back over my shoulders, six carrying either tents or camping equipment and the others belonging to Miss Two-Hundred-Dollar Panties in front of me.
Seeing as most of Aisling’s belongings are extremely expensive, the group collectively decided to help her bring most of her stuff with us while we’re camping up the mountain – just in case any shit was to happen down at the lake while we aren’t there. It’s unlikely that it would but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
And I don’t mind carrying half of Aisling’s possessions, especially when some of them are of the lacy-variety.
Aisling lifts a hand above her eyes, shielding them from the bright morning rays, and then turns back to face the make-shift trail, a wooden post that the girls just walked past signalling the opening of the campsite just ahead.
It only takes another two minutes and then we’re breaching the clearing.
There’s a large National Parks bathroom situated inconspicuously to the camp’s edge in deep brown wood, but the remainder of the space is a bright open expanse.
The clearing is so large that the trees can’t eclipse the canopy overhead, meaning that there’s plenty of sunlight pouring through to make the area a perfect suntrap.
We start dropping our gear into the centre of the clearing, where previous campers’ make-shift seating logs are still hauled into the middle. There’s a medium-sized circle of rocks beside them that they must have used to set a small controlled campfire inside. It’s cute.
Then we itinerate who’s sleeping where and start hauling the tents into a large circle, although the area of it is quickly swallowed up by the size of the gear.
Because the clearing may be big but our tents are damn massive.
Ash and Fallon would have been sharing the tent that they brought to Larch Peak, but seeing as Hunter bought the store’s worth of camping gear, Fallon is now going to be bunking with her boyfriend. Meaning that I’m going to have a tent to myself and, even more importantly, so is Aisling.
I catch her eyes across the clearing while I’m crouched down unzipping the tent and I can’t help but flash her a small smile, my chest expanding at the sight of her. She’s sat in the centre of the campsite soaking up the sun with Fallon, long legs stretched out across the length of the log while she rests her palms behind her back. The golden summer rays make heat flood to her cheeks, so she’s flushed a pretty shade of pink while she smiles back at me.
I glance to the other guys setting up their sticks around the campsite, and then I’m getting to my feet, rolling my shoulders, and just thinking fuck it . Aisling’s tent is rolled up right beside her and there is no way that I’m setting mine up before I’ve done hers. Doesn’t matter who’s watching.
I should be the one to do it for her.
And if that secretive smile on her lips is anything to go by she can tell exactly what I’m thinking, her eyes sparkling wildly as she arches her neck in the sun, her body golden and glowing.
I keep my eyes locked on hers without needing to say anything, a satisfied feeling in my chest as she watches me grab her tent and haul it over my shoulder.
“Hey,” I rumble as I grip one hand over the tent bag, re-shifting it on my shoulder as I flick a wary glance across to Fallon. I’m not sure how much Aisling has told her – if anything – so I’m not sure of how I’m supposed to play this. Although from the way that Fallon currently looks as if she’s about to explode with excitement, I’m pretty sure that she may be in the know.
Aisling drapes one leg over the other and I try not to get hard as I look down at her thighs.
“Hey,” Aisling replies, all husky and casual, swishing her hair out over her shoulders and drawing my attention back to her neck.
I shove my free hand through my hair and take another step closer.
“Where’d you want your tent?” I ask, unable to stop myself from smiling as Aisling lifts up and stands to her feet in front of me. I might be the one towering over her but it’s pretty obvious who’s really in control here.
Aisling gives me a little smile and says, “As far away from yours as possible, I suppose.”
I huff out a laugh, tongue in my cheek as her pretty eyes sparkle up at me.
Yeah, yeah. I want Aisling’s tent right next to mine so that I can sneak over tonight without drawing anyone’s attention.
I lower my voice so that Fallon can’t hear us, assuming that maybe that’s why Ash is putting on her little we’re still enemies pretence.
“Real funny,” I murmur. “But seriously. Where should we set this up?”
“Seriously,” she replies. “I want it opposite yours.”
I blink down at her beautiful face, no longer sure if she’s kidding. And then when she gives me that taunting raise of her eyebrow I know for sure that she isn’t kidding.
“Baby,” I rasp quickly, eyes widening as I search her face. “I meant what I said this morning. I want you in my tent tonight,” I whisper quietly.
“Ooh, what happened this morning?” Fallon asks, grinning.
I shoot her a look before returning my attention back to my beautiful soon-to-be girlfriend.
“I know,” Aisling whispers back to me, “but I’m not ready for people to know yet. I’m still not, you know…”
I lift my eyebrows, my heart subtly tearing at the seams.
“You’re still not what?” I rasp. “You’re still not sure?”
“I’m sure about you ,” Aisling whispers quickly, and I sigh quietly with relief. No longer caring if anyone’s watching, I entwine my free hand with hers. “But I’m still not sure about what I’m doing, or where I’m going to live for what I’m doing. So I need to be sure about all of that before we do anything… official.”
I take a deep breath and swallow, my chest still pumping hard after that moment of uncertainty.
“No-one’ll see, baby,” I murmur, shooting Fallon another look when she perks up on her log. “And anyone who does see will be sworn to secrecy ,” I add pointedly, making Fallon smile up at me, smug as hell.
I look back down to Aisling and squeeze her beautiful hand in mine.
“If I put your tent next to mine then it’ll be easier to sneak over tonight with no-one seeing. And I wanna hold you, Ash. All night.”
Please don’t make me go without you again.
She smiles up at me all confident and beautiful, making me feel exactly the way that she did when we met four years ago.
Speechless. Love-struck. Willing to do anything for her.
She squeezes her fingers around mine and I grunt, tugging her closer.
“Fine,” I rumble. “I’ll set your tent opposite mine. But don’t think for one second that I’m happy about it.”
I drop her hand so that I can give her perfect waist a subtle squeeze, and then I’m trudging my way to the opposite side of the camp. I haul Aisling’s tent down in the space between Connell’s and Logan’s, and then I glance at her over my shoulder while I start unzipping the carrier.
The smile that she’s biting back is naughty as hell, but knowing that her eyes are on me has me working like a machine.
When I’ve finally set the whole tent up I start un-bagging quilts and sheets, padding out her tent to make sure that it’s soft enough for her to sleep on.
Then, after checking that the guys are too busy either throwing around Logan’s football or watching game footage on their phones to notice, I slip her new battery-operated fairy lights from the bottom of one of the bags, twining the string through the pole-loops in the fabric so that later tonight she can switch them on before she goes to sleep. I flip the switch to check that the batteries are still working and, seeing that they are, I turn them back off. I set the power-pack on one of her cushions, and then hunch out of the tent, re-zipping the door before I stretch in the sunlight.
The guys have finished setting up their tents when I get back to mine, although Hunter and Austin are currently half-building it for me.
The other half of their concentration is going on murdering Logan at his own sport.
“Career change?” I suggest to Logan with a smirk, grinning when he launches the football right at me. I grab it with one hand and send it flying back in his direction.
He grins back at me, eyes sliding down to my precariously half-formulated tent. The football twitches tauntingly in his fists.
I splay one hand in front of the tent poles and laugh, “Leave my tent alone, man.”
But before he can launch into a full attack the four of us instantly go silent as Aisling – my beautiful secret girlfriend – walks my way.
Like, she’s walking right over to me. In front of everyone.
She flicks a smile over at Austin that has the fucker turning to mush and then she’s right in front of me, pushing a hand through her hair before shielding her eyes from the sun.
A sliver of a ray manages to slip through her fingers, setting her irises aflame and shimmering like diamonds.
“Thanks for setting up my tent,” she says, that husky voice making my biceps flex.
I grip a hand at the back of my neck and rasp, “Thank you – I mean, you’re welcome.” Oh God. “I mean, it’s no problem. Like, thank you for, uh, thanking me.”
Hunter lets out a low whistle.
Austin mumbles, “Oh boy.”
Aisling breathes out a laugh, that perfect smile sparkling in the sunshine.
“You’re welcome,” she says, teasing the shit out of me, but it still makes me grin like that love-struck freshman, the hand that isn’t at the back of my neck gripping firmly around my belt.
I shoot a quick glance at the guys behind her, who are looking at literally anywhere other than us, and I take a careful step forward, not wanting to breach the distance between kind-of-friendly and we’re-fucking when we’re not disclosing that publically yet.
She arches her eyebrow at me under the shield of her hand and suddenly a thought flashes through my mind, making me smirk down at her.
“You need a cap?” I ask, and her breathing halts.
Her eyes momentarily widen. Yeah, I thought so.
She tries to shake it off by rasping, “Um, I didn’t bring one.”
My smirk widens as I deadpan, “Didn’t you now.”
She blinks up at me, unsure, assessing, and then in the next second her cheeks are burning scarlet.
She glances hastily over her shoulder – checking that the guys aren’t looking – and then she spins back around to give me a rough slap across the pecs.
I grunt quietly, grinning like an idiot.
“Knew it,” I rumble.
“How the hell did you know?”
“Caught a glance of something khaki in your bags two months ago,” I smile.
I knew it the second that I saw it. When I was helping Aisling carry her bags into the lake house, I could have sworn that I saw the khaki cap I used to wear religiously. Then, after we hooked up, it never made its way back to me.
No way did I imagine that she’d keep it but it feels really fucking good knowing that she did.
I lower my voice. “And until recently,” I murmur, looking pointedly at her panty-region, “I’m pretty sure you didn’t have anything khaki of your own.”
She gasps, indignant, and scowls up at me.
“You weren’t supposed to know that I’d kept it,” she whispers, glowering straight into the centre of my pecs. Then she shoots me a look and says, “You shouldn’t have been snooping. Snooper.”
“Hey, I wasn’t snoopin’,” I drawl, laughing quietly at her expression. “You didn’t zip your bags up and something familiar caught my eye.”
I check that no-one is looking and hunch down to whisper against her ear.
“Little thief,” I rumble quietly.
A shiver ripples through her body and she gasps, shoving me back.
“Am I wrong?” I ask roughly, moving so close that her chin is almost resting against my chest. “Or did you save a little souvenir even though you supposedly ‘hated’ me?”
“What was I supposed to do?” she whispers. “Throw it out?”
I grin down at her because, if you hated someone, that’s exactly what you would do.
She reads my thoughts as we look into each other’s eyes and then she folds her arms over her chest, breathing out a huff.
“I just… I liked it, okay? Your cap, I mean. When you left it I… I tried it on. It fits me just right.”
I rub my palm over my smirk and murmur, “I know something else of mine that fits you just right.”
Aisling’s knees give way and I laugh quietly as I wrap my palms around her biceps, stabilising her.
When she risks another glance up at me my heart clenches, warm and tight.
“You can deny it all you want, but I love the fact that you kept it, Aisling. That you wanted to use it.” I lower my voice and murmur, “And honestly? I like it because you keeping that cap tells me everything that I need to know. That despite all the shit that happened, deep down, you liked me. Through it all.”
She looks up at me with those big beautiful eyes and doesn’t deny a thing.
It’s all the confirmation that I need.
She’s always been mine.
“Do I get to keep it?” she asks, less frowny now but still unsure.
I nod down at her and my heart clenches.
“Yeah,” I smile. “It’s yours. Always has been.”