Colton fixed his eyes on the fire, then his boots, then the cooler beside him. Anywhere but across the flames where she sat. The wind shifted, sending sparks spiraling upward, and he made the mistake of following their path. His gaze caught on the curve of her shoulder, golden in the firelight, then dropped to her legs stretched toward the warmth. He cleared his throat, fumbled with his beer can, and missed his friend Drew's question entirely. When he looked up, the girl across the fire from him was tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and Colton suddenly became very interested in the label on his drink.
The girl across the fire was Ashley. A mutual acquaintance-- definitely not a friend. But as much as Colton didn't find friend qualities in her, he had to admit, she wasn't bad to look at. She had the kind of body that announced itself without trying, lean and trail-worn in a way that had nothing to do with a gym. The denim shorts she'd pulled on after the afternoon hike still had a smear of dirt across one thigh, and the white tank top caught the firelight in places that made it difficult to look directly at her and equally difficult not to.
Despite his best efforts to ignore her, Colton noticed all of it -- Which was deeply unfortunate, because Ashley was also the most irritating person he'd ever met.
She leaned forward to poke the fire with a stick, the movement pulled the tank top tight across her back, causing it to ride down just enough in the front for a glimpse at her cleavage. Colton immediately looked away, but not fast enough.
"You know staring is rude, right?" Ashley said without even looking up.
Colton scoffed. "I wasn't staring."
Ashley finally glanced up from the fire, one eyebrow lifting slightly. "Sure you weren't."
Drew's laughter erupted from the other side of the fire. His girlfriend, Dani, jabbed her elbow into his ribs, leaning close to whisper, "You're only making it worse."
Drew grinned, not taking his eyes off the spectacle. "Come on," he murmured back. "This is better than anything on Netflix."
Drew and Colton had been roommates for the last couple of years. Drew had introduced himself to Colton by eating his leftovers out of the mini-fridge and apologizing so genuinely that Colton had offered him the rest. That was freshman year. Dani and Ashley had been lab partners the same year, and bonded over an entire semester building a running list of grievances against their professor in the margins of their shared notes. The four of them started overlapping when Drew and Dani did, which was fast and obvious, and required no announcement. At any given gathering, Drew and Dani could be found within arm's reach of each other. Colton and Ashley could be found on opposite sides of it.
Colton leaned back against the cooler and took a long pull from his beer, letting the cold aluminum hide his expression. He couldn't decide what irritated him more -- the way her smile tilted just slightly when she caught someone looking, or how she never seemed surprised by it. Like she'd calculated the effect before anyone else had even noticed her. That self-assurance only twisted the knot of irritation tighter in his chest. She knew she was beautiful, and she knew how to purposely annoy Colton with it.
Ashley leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out toward the fire again, spreading her feet just far enough apart to make Colton suspicious she was doing it on purpose. Like she was daring him to look. He focused harder on his drink instead.
Drew noticed Colton's discomfort. Of course he did. "Man," Drew said casually, "you look tense."
"I'm not tense."
"Uh huh."
Dani smiled into her drink. "You two have been at each other's throats since we got here."
Drew interrupted. "Those two have had it out for each other since they met!"
"That's because he's a snivelling little bitch," Ashley murmured under breath.
Colton laughed. "But at least my heart isn't black."
Ashley's eyes narrowed as she took a slow sip of her beer. "Fucking prick," she mumbled into the can.
Colton began to respond - "Cuuuhh..." He stopped himself with a fake cough as everyone's eyes fixed on him.
Breaking the tension, Drew grabbed a beer from the cooler and tossed it to Dani. "This round's on me," he shouted, laughing at his own terrible joke.
Ashley tipped her can back, draining it, then held it out over the fire and let it drop. It caught the edge of a log and tumbled into the coals with a hollow clatter. "Toss me one," she said, not looking at anyone.
Colton had already grabbed his own from the cooler and cracked it open with a hiss. Drew tossed Ashley a beer, which she fumbled, the can rolling into the dirt.
"Nice hands," Colton said.
Ashley brushed it off with a glare that briefly passed over Colton before settling back on Drew.
The beers disappeared quickly, and the more they did, the more Dani and Drew touched. Their quiet laughter grew louder, more careless with each drink. They hadn't even been dating a full year, but they were madly in love with one another, and they had no problem showing it. In fact, they were probably too comfortable with the displays for most public places. At the campground, Colton and Ashley were the only ones forced to watch.
As Colton watched the show unfold with mild amusement, the fire popped suddenly. A spark landed near Ashley's shoe as she jerked back with a yelp.
"Karma," Colton muttered.
Her eyes flashed toward him, but before she could answer, Drew groaned and collapsed dramatically as he buried his face between Dani's cleavage.
Dani shoved at him, laughing as she stood. "Bathroom break."
Drew was up before Dani had fully risen, his chair scraping through the dirt as he fell into step behind her, one hand finding the small of her back as the darkness swallowed them both. "Are you going to wipe for her, Drew?" Ashley shouted after them.
Colton found something urgent to study in the stars. Ashley had shifted again, legs spread further apart, and the shadows the firelight threw across her inner thighs were not something he needed to be thinking about. The silence between them had teeth. He took a slow pull from his beer and kept his eyes up.
He starred up long enough that his neck started to stiffen. He wasn't really tracking time, but he knew that if he had been looking up long enough for his muscles to ache, than it should have been more than enough time for Drew and Dani to have been back. He was just starting to argue with himself whether he should go looking for them, make sure they hadn't fallen in the creek or stumbled across a bear, when the sound of muffles giggles came from their tent. He stopped wondering if they were ok and knew they wouldn't be back any time soon.
Ashley must have heard it too as she stood a moment later. "Put out the fire. I'm going to bed." She was obviously tipsy as she stomped away, her tent zipper sliding shut seconds later.
Colton stared at the empty space she'd left behind. The campsite slowly quieted, except for Drew and Dani's muffled laughter drifting through their tent walls. A cold breeze rustled the nearby trees and sent a shiver up his spine. It seemed like as good a time as any to call it a night - If he was going to be alone, he might as well be in his sleeping bag. He eventually doused the fire and crawled into his own tent.
He kicked his boots off outside, but didn't bother taking his clothes off before crawling into his sleeping bag. His head spun as he put it on his pillow, the thought that maybe that last beer was a bad idea entering his thoughts. He thought it wouldn't take long to pass out, but he lay awake staring at the nylon ceiling while the creek whispered in the dark and the night slowly stretched thinner.
Just as Colton finally convinced his eyes to drift shut, he realized the muffled laughter from Drew and Dani's tent had given way to soft groans. He rolled onto his side and pulled the sleeping bag tighter around himself.
Lucky bastard. Drew never seemed to have to wonder whether someone wanted him. Everything seemed to fall into his lap while Colton watched from somewhere just outside of it. He couldn't even remember the last time someone had looked at him the way Dani looked at Drew--like they couldn't wait to get their hands on him. He tried to think of a face. Nothing came, and that bothered him more than he wanted to admit.
Another muffled moan drifted through the campground. His irritation flared. Not at them, but at himself. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think about tomorrow's hike instead. The mileage. The elevation gain. Whether he'd remembered to pack enough water. It didn't work. The longer he listened, the more the annoyance tangled itself into something else entirely. Heat settled low in his stomach despite himself. He wondered if Ashley was lying awake listening to the same sounds, cursing Drew and Dani under her breath just as much as he was.
The creek continued its steady whisper through the darkness, but it wasn't the water keeping him awake anymore.
Almost without realizing it, his hand slipped beneath the sleeping bag...Colton was getting hard and felt guilty about it. He rolled back over and stared at his favorite spot on the tent ceiling.
Another moan, louder this time.
Colton exhaled through his nose. They're your friends, dumbass.
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on the creek.
Once again a noise caught his attention. No screams or moans this time, but footsteps through the dirt and pine needles. His first thought was a deer wondering through camp, but then his mind jumped to a bear. Did they forget to put their food away and attracted the attention of some scavenging furry friend? What if it was a bear and it tried to break into his tent? What if it was a bear, and it got into Drew's tent? Who would be more surprised - the bear or Drew and Dani? He was just the right amount of tipsy that he found that thought funny.
The footsteps drew closer to his tent and stopped. "Hey fuckhead, you awake?"
Ashley wasn't whispering so much as speaking in the quietest voice she was apparently capable of. Colton frowned into the darkness. For a second he wondered if he was dreaming.
"...Yeah."
The zipper to his tent hissed open, followed by Ashley poking her head inside."I finally found something worse than listening to you talk," Ashley muttered as she ducked inside. "If those two wake up for another round, I'm risking the DUI and driving back to town."
"Why couldn't it be a grizzly?" Colton mumbled.
"What?" Ashley sneered as she crawled into the tent and sat down.
"Nothing. What do you want?"
"You were checking me out at the fire."
He couldn't deny it. He tried not to make it a habit, but more than once his mind sketched her face when he closed his eyes. Every time he did, the image curdled -- her laugh became a sneer, her eyes narrowed in contempt. Yet, more than once he found himself lying there, sticky-fisted and furious, hating her for being in his head and hating himself for putting her there.
Colton sighed, "Yeah. You were making it hard not to."
"Don't flatter yourself."
"I'm not."
A long stretch of silence settled between them. Outside, the creek murmured over the rocks while an occasional gust rattled the trees overhead. Finally, Ashley let out an irritated breath.
"This was a stupid idea." He heard fabric rustle as she turned toward the tent flap. "Forget it."
Time slowed to a stand still as he squinted at the silhouette of her in the darkness. A thousand scenarios ran through his head at that moment, and none of them had a positive outcome.
"Wait."
She stopped, and he wasn't even sure why he'd said it. Ashley remained facing the zipper for another second before letting out a long sigh and sitting back down. Neither of them spoke. They simply listened to each other breathe.
Finally, Ashley broke the silence. "I couldn't listen to those two anymore."
"I know what you mean."
Ashley clicked her tongue. "I figured..." She stopped, clearly hating every word that came next. "...we could solve each other's problem."
Colton was starting to piece together what she was getting at, but he began to relish making her say it. "What problem?"
"Oh my god, you are so dense. I'm proposing a sort of arrangement."
"Don't read too much into this," she began, hesitating for a moment. "But I think we could both benefit from... something mutually beneficial."
Colton's mind snagged on itself. He stared at the shadow of her in the dark. She could be messing with him--that would be so perfectly, horribly her. If he said nothing, she'd leave. If he said no... why the hell would he say no? He opened his mouth. Closed it again.
Ashley let out an exasperated breath. "Unbelievable." The tent shifted as she started crawling back toward the zipper again. "You couldn't just answer yes or no."
"Yes."
She stopped.
"I said yes."
"You don't even know what you're agreeing to."
"I've got a pretty good guess."
For several seconds the tent stayed perfectly still. Then Ashley muttered, "Don't make this weird." She quickly slid her tank top over her head, then sat down next to Colton to slide her shorts off. It was dark in the tent, but he could still make out Ashley's bare skin next to him.
"I'm not taking your clothes off for you," she sneered.
Colton still wasn't sure if this was a dream. There is no way that the most hateful woman he had ever met was sitting next to him wearing nothing but her panties. Was she still wearing panties? It was dark, he was confused, and he was also still half erect from listening to the erotic night that was happening in the next tent over. He guessed that Ashley was also turned on from the combination of erotic sounds and alcohol. Even if it was an illusion from drunken exhaustion, he decided he might as well go along with it. He started stripping his clothes off as well. He got as far as his shirt and his shorts, but didn't get his boxers pulled off before she was grabbing them.
"For fucks sake!" Ashley said as she yanked at his waist band, tearing away the last thing covering any part of him.
Colton sucked in air as her hand slid back up his leg, moving over his thigh and coming to rest on his stomach. Her movements were not romantic foreplay, but more like she was searching in the dark to find a tool that she could use. Her fingers wrapped around him with a grip that made his body jerk.
"Huh," she said, voice dripping with faux contemplation. "I imagined you'd be, like, embarrassingly small. Like a baby dick or something. But I guess I can work with this."
"Oh, you imagined it, huh?" he chuckled. "Like during class? Maybe in the shower? Or was it when you were pretending not to stare at me by the fire?"
Ashley's grip tightened enough to make him hiss. "Shut the fuck up," she breathed, leaning down so her lips brushed over his ear. "Or I swear to god, I will break this thing off and take it back to my tent to use it without having to listen to you."
Colton reached up and grabbed a handful of her hair, burring his fingers down to the roots of her scalp and pulled ever so lightly. "So are we doing this?" he asked.
Ashley kicked a leg over to the other side and moved to straddle him. Still firmly in her grip, she started rubbing him into her wetness. Both of their breathing was getting heavier, and Colton realized that he had never felt a wet pussy around his cock without a condom, but he didn't have one and didn't want to stop what was happening. And then, as if reading his mind, Ashley stopped.
"Do you have a jerk bag?"
"A what?" Colton asked
"A condom, you moron." She contemptuously shot back at him.
"No, why would I bring a condom with me?"
"If you give me an STD I'm going to chop your balls off." Which was the last thing she said before letting his tip penetrate her.
He couldn't believe how incredibly tight she was as she eased his length into her. Her breath hitched, a soft gasp that was almost lost in the silence of the night. She rolled her hips, a subtle motion that drew him in deeper, her body weight sinking fully onto him. He felt a brief moment of tenderness, wanting to whisper endearments, to stroke her skin gently. But as his hands found her hips, her fingers curled around his forearms, nails biting into his flesh.
"Fuck," she hissed.
There was no love in this, no softness. Her body moved against his, a rhythm that was harsh and demanding. He matched it, his own resentment adding heat to the primal lust they were sharing. The tent filled with the sound of their skin cracking together, their breaths coming in ragged gasps.
Within a couple of minutes her body was convulsing, a sudden and violent tightening that gripped him like a vise. Colton felt every muscle in her contract, her thighs squeezing his hips, her insides clamping down on him so hard he couldn't move. He was enveloped by her, locked into place as she threw an arm over her mouth, biting into her own flesh to muffle the scream that tore through her. He could make out the corded muscles of her neck stand out as she threw her head back, could feel the shuddering waves of her orgasm pulsing around him. The sensations were overwhelming, her body drawing out his own response, pushing him toward the edge.
Suddenly, her body went slack, the tension releasing him as she panted heavily. She leaned forward, her hair creating a curtain around them, before she pushed herself up and off of him. Colton watched, bewildered, as she began to scramble around the tent on her hands and knees, still trying to catch her breath. He propped himself up on his elbows, following her with his gaze as she tossed his things around the tent, her movements frantic. There was an empty feeling as the cool air rushed in to fill the space where she had been.
"Hey," he started, his voice still hoarse from their previous exertions, "where do you think you're going?"
"I got what I came for," she replied.
Just as her fingers grasped around the waistband of her discarded panties a sudden grip on her hips yanked her backward. Startled, she let out a gasp, her heart leaping into her throat. Colton, now on his knees behind her, had seized her with a firm grasp, pulling her back towards him. He hesitated for a moment, waiting for her to voice any unwillingness before he continued. Her approval wasn't in words, but in her movements as she pushed back against him. The sensation was intense, almost overwhelming. She was ready for him, her body slick and yielding as he entered her with a single, powerful thrust. A low groan escaped her, the sound mingling with the rustling of his sleeping bag and the distant trickling of the creek outside.
Colton, driven by a cocktail of bitterness and desire, began to move with a rhythm that was almost punishing. Ashley buried her face into his pillow to muffle the sound of her involuntary moans.
"Don't you dare cum until I tell you to," she squeaked out between breaths.
This somehow turned into a challenge for Colton. It wasn't about the desire to pleasure a lover, but more of a way to achieve a bragging right to hold over her head if he sent her over the edge again.
His grip on her hips tightened to the point of leaving bruises as he found enough adrenaline to pick up speed even further. "Oh fuck!" was all he could make out through her face back in his pillow. A few thrusts later and he knew he had won - her body shuddering as she reached back to put a hand on his leg, which he took as her way of asking for mercy. With a sense of both mental and physical satisfaction, he sucked in a sharp, ragged breath, his hips stuttering and his body tensing.
"Fuck, I'm gonna..." was all he got out before he began to quiver with his own climax. His vision blurred from the sheer intensity of his release, his lungs sucking for air as he finally released the breath he was holding.
Ashley collapsed underneath him briefly before she resumed searching for her clothes. She haphazardly pulled her shirt over her head, unzipped the tent, and stopped just long enough to turn around and say "This never happened." before storming away holding the rest of her clothes.
Before he could think better of it, the words were already out. "So... you gonna call me?"
She didn't even hesitate. "Go fuck yourself."
Colton grinned despite himself. He briefly considered shouting back that, thanks to her, he probably wouldn't have to. Then he remembered Drew and Dani were still thirty feet away in the next tent and decided some victories were better left unspoken.
A second later, Ashley disappeared into the darkness. The tent flap hung open behind her, letting a rush of cold mountain air spill inside. Colton reached over and yanked the zipper closed. The rasp of nylon sounded strangely loud now that the campsite had gone quiet again. He lay back and stared at the ceiling.
Sober. That was the first thought that landed. Somewhere between her climbing into his tent and storming back out of it, every bit of the beer buzz had vanished. His heart was still hammering, adrenaline humming beneath his skin, while the cramped tent carried the unmistakable evidence that two sweaty hikers had made some spectacularly questionable decisions.
"What the hell just happened?" He scrubbed a hand across his face and let out a slow breath. This trip was supposed to be him and Drew escaping civilization for a weekend. Fishing. Hiking. Sitting around a fire talking about absolutely nothing. Less than an hour ago, Ashley had been sitting across the fire from him, and he had actively, consciously, with full conviction, hated her. He pulled his sleeping bag over himself and waited for that fact to start making sense. It didn't. He fell asleep waiting.