35. Shoua
CHAPTER 35
shoua
I let out a heaving, heavy breath as my heart pounded. I glanced up and wondered how much longer I’d have to climb to get to the top of this hiking trail. Maybe I should’ve stayed back at the lake house after all.
Auntie Gao and Uncle Gary loved hiking, so they always made their way up here with a hiking group. They had been raving about a secluded trail they recently discovered in the spring through a hiking group and had wanted to bring us all along to trek on it. They claimed it should be easy, but I was still worried. I was physically inept, and I doubted I could survive hiking any trail. No matter how easy it claimed to be.
Sweat was already dripping down my back and it was only nine thirty in the morning. Kelvin hadn’t glanced my way once all morning as he sulked. Evelyn didn’t say anything as she hiked at his side. Meanwhile, Sai was even quieter than usual. He and Jonathan seemed to be rooming again, but I could tell there was some tension there.
Our party split up into groups of two or three, and each included members with different levels of stamina. Auntie Gao and Uncle Gary led the groups, followed by Andy, Julie, and Jonathan, and the others. Anthony and I were at the very end. I was out of shape, but it was a bit humiliating to barely be able to walk up just a hill.
“You doing okay?” Anthony asked as his knuckles brushed over mine. We were walking side by side.
“Yeah,” I said and then sighed. “How long have we been hiking?”
Anthony checked his watch. “Thirty minutes.”
“Only?”
He let out a booming laugh. “Yeah. It’s only been thirty minutes, but at least we’re almost at the top to see the view.”
“It feels like it’s been two hours,” I grumbled with a frown. “Now I feel bad. I’m so slow.”
“Just take your time.” Anthony took a hold of my hand and gave me a reassuring squeeze. “They can wait.”
I groaned, feeling guilty that I was going to make everyone wait for me.
Anthony suddenly swallowed thickly, grabbing my attention with the arch of my brow. He reached for the backpack he was carrying and handed me his water bottle. I took it without saying anything, unable to look away from him.
My boyfriend was hiking half-naked like Andy and Jonathan were. I wasn’t surprised, but I found it was distracting me from the lush forest we were in. Instead of enjoying the beauty of nature, I couldn’t keep my eyes off Anthony. A thin, slick film of sweat misted over his tanning, golden skin. Drops of sweat beaded down his neck, over his chest, and down the dips of his hard abs to his belly button drawing in my attention even more.
I quickly averted my eyes as I opened the water bottle for a quick swig. The midafternoon heat was quickly rising, and I doubted this measly amount of water would cool me down.
“Just let me know if you need to rest, okay?” Anthony didn’t seem to notice my gaze as he smiled softly at me.
“It’s fine!” I insisted with a light heave as I took another drink of water. “I’m out of shape, but it’s completely fine.”
We were on a gradual incline up to the amazing lake view we were all promised. While I tried to control my breathing, Anthony’s sweaty and muscular arms were the only thing in my peripheral vision. The fingernail marks I left behind on his shoulders from the day before yesterday were now scabbing over.
“We should rest here,” he announced. The trail was finally beginning to flatten out.
“Why? I’m fine,” I insisted with a ragged breath. We could hear Aunt Sue’s loud voice followed by Auntie Yee’s laugh not too far ahead of us.
“You sure?” Anthony’s brows knitted, worried. He pulled me over to a fallen tree under a leafy canopy and sat down. “C’mon, let’s take a break. We don’t need to catch up to them right away. Let’s take our time.”
He patted the seat next to him and I took it. He let out a low, dissatisfied grunt when I didn’t sit right next to him. So he immediately wrapped his arm around my waist and scooted closer to me until our thighs were touching. He lazily grinned as I shook my head.
Anthony’s hands were soon on my face, and he planted a trail of kisses on my cheek to my lips. I kissed him slowly back, considering we were out in public, until he sucked on my bottom lip. I let out a moan and was ready to wrap my arms around him when he pulled away.
“You need to behave, Shoua,” he said with a chuckle and then reached into his backpack. He pulled out a granola bar and handed it to me. “We’re in public.”
I laughed as he let out his cutest hyena laugh. We sat in silence for a moment as I took a few bites of the snack and a few sips of cool water. Birds and insects chirped in the distance and a warm breeze blew in between us.
“You’re my boyfriend now,” I said quietly. I had been calling him my boyfriend in my mind, but I had yet to say it out loud. It almost felt surreal to feel the shape of it on my tongue and knew that it referred to him .
“I am. It almost feels like a dream, to be honest,” he said. His voice was just as gentle as mine. “My best friend is my girlfriend.”
“Is it a dream?” I asked, stupidly.
“No.” Anthony laughed. “Not when I fall asleep with you at my side and wake up to the sun shining in my face every morning with you in my arms. This is real.”
I smiled as I felt a flush creep up my cheeks.
“Why did you wait so long to tell me you are in love with me?” he asked softly. “Were you worried I wasn’t going to love you back?”
I hesitated.
“Part of it was that, I suppose. But most of it was because I was scared I’d lose you,” I answered. “I feared losing you more than you never loving me back. I love you, but I loved our friendship more.”
“Same,” he said. “I was so fucking scared you’d hate me for falling in love with you.”
My brows creased together and I pursed my lips into a frown. “Why would I ever hate you for that?”
He shrugged as a pink flush crept up his neck. “I-I don’t know. I expected things to be awkward between us once I said something. I . . . I thought I’d lose you as a friend . . . as someone I’ve deeply cared for all these years. And it would’ve hurt to see you distance yourself from me when I love you so fucking much,” he said as his cheeks turned a deep shade of red. “To lose you would be losing my soul—my essence for life. I realized that last year when you got into that car accident. I would never be the same if I lost you then or now. Loosing you would destroy me, Shoua.”
My tears stung the corners of my eyes. “But you confessed.”
His warm hand reached hold my hand. “I did.”
“What made you do it?” I sniffed.
“Andy. He told me to be honest with you because it was the least you deserved. The irony . . .” His voice was amused, yet gentle. “I used to make fun of him and said that all the time to him for never admitting to Julie how he felt about her. How stupid was I to judge him?”
“Remember how we used to discuss how dumb it was with the way he always ran away from his feelings for her or talked himself out of ever confessing when we were teens?” I asked. My voice was barely above a whisper.
Anthony let out a low chuckle. “Yeah, and karma got both of our asses.”
“She’s a bitch, but I had a feeling we both had it coming to us.” I shrugged and smiled at him. “Because I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
His hands were on my face before I could react, and he pulled me into a kiss. Slow and soft. He sighed into my mouth when I placed my hands over his slick, bare chest and danced my fingers down to his shorts. My hands stayed there, playing at the hem just inches below his belly button.
He groaned into my mouth, sending vibrations of need through my body straight to my clit. It slowly began to throb, and I clamped my thighs tightly together, trying to relieve the ache. One of Anthony’s hands quickly slipped down to help me instead.
My breath fluttered as he rolled deep circles into my clit through my shorts with the heel of his palm. I grabbed his other hand and pushed it under my shirt and sports bra to my aching nipple. Then I palmed him through his shorts.
We shuddered into one another’s mouths through slow kisses as he worked my clit and I concentrated on getting him to grow bigger in my hands. Which didn’t take much since I was already soaking through my panties, and he was half-hard growing with want.
As my sex began to clench, I knew I was about to climax. I lifted my hips off the edge of the tree and rolled against his hand desperately, muttering his name quietly instead of moaning.
“ Anthony, Anthony, Anthony...” I chanted as I grabbed a hold of the tree under us for leverage.
I came with a roll of my eyes.
He pulled away from me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He didn’t have to say a single word because I wanted the same. We blew hot puffs of breath into each other’s face to catch our breath. All before he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the trail.
We walked a little way into the forest. Once we were behind a big enough tree to conceal us behind it, Anthony threw off his backpack while I tugged down my shorts. He let out a low groan at the sight of me and pulled out his hard dick.
He lewdly licked his fingers and stroked over the tip, watching me for a moment. I turned around to face the tree, braced myself on the rough bark, and leaned forward, positioning my lower half out in the hot air as he moved behind me, breathing hard. I inhaled sharply when he slicked his tip wet by swiping long strokes over my folds. I moaned when he entered me, and his lips came to my cheek.
“Ssshhh, you’re going to get us caught,” he whispered, brushing his lips against my skin.
He flexed his hips, and I stifled my moan into a whimper as he pulled away from my face. I could feel him grab my long ponytail and I heard him wrap my hair around his hand as I threw back into him desperately.
A sharp slap to my ass made me moan again. Anthony mounted me by tugging at my hips and pulling sharply on my hair to look up at him, guiding my body to the perfect position. “You should see the way you look from the back—all sexy with your tan lines. So fucking hot,” Anthony said as he panted quietly.
He let out a deep but hushed groan as he began picking up his pace to match mine. The rhythm of his thrusts soon followed to the tune of my sighs and whines. With each hard, raging thrust from him and the rough tug of my ponytail, my lower stomach tensed bit by bit.
“Oh my god, Anthony. Yes ,” I cried quietly when he hit my sweet spot. “Right there. Fuck me?—”
His hand immediately clamped over my mouth, and I let out an uncontrollable muffled moan. My tongue darted out to lick his fingers as he pummeled deep into me—right into where I was becoming undone.
I could feel him filling me to the hilt as his breath came out as low grunts. I squeezed around him as a tease. He shuddered deliciously as he tugged sharply on my hair. I let out a breathy giggle when I felt him pulling out almost all the way, slowing down his tempo. But my laugh was cut short when he rammed back into me. We sighed heavily at the same time.
I hung onto the tree bark in front of me as he did it again with another deep-seated thrust. Then another. My legs began quivering as my wetness dribbled down my thighs. Anthony pulled out almost all the way again and thrust intensely back as I met him sloppily in the middle. We moaned together.
I whimpered loudly as I threw back harshly, and he moaned softly in return. He began picking up his pace again, getting faster with each thrust and shaky breath. I could hear how sloppy our joined sexes were becoming as I let out a cry into his hand and our bodies snapped together.
The sweet bliss of my climax was so intoxicating that I could hardly recall Anthony coming in me or the way he pounded out our highs until he pulled out of me. We were still heaving messes when he did. He dramatically slumped against me, pinning me to the tree.
I giggled as he wrapped his arms around my waist and showered me with kisses. But his hand suddenly came up to muffle my laughter and stilled me against the tree. A voice was soon heard from the trail.
“Anthony? Shoua?” Jonathan called out. He sounded slightly worried, but he didn’t seem to be frantic. “Are they that far behind?”
We heard him pacing for a moment near us before heading back to the rest of the group. The moment he was gone, Anthony placed a quick kiss on my temple.
“We should catch up to them before they start suspecting anything,” he said.
We quickly cleaned up with baby wipes so we would look and feel presentable again, giggling quietly the whole time. Once on the trail again, Anthony pulled me into a tight hug and buried his nose in the soft spot behind my ear, where I put my perfume. He took in a deep inhale and exhaled, lightly tickling me with his breath.
The chuckle he let out was low and teasing. “I’m yours, baby,” he whispered into my ear.
“I know now, gorgeous,” I said with a smile.