by Alix Labelle
The tent was not at all far, maybe even a little less than the mile they had initially suggested, though at their leisurely pace they did not reach it for nearly half an hour. As they walked, they talked, and Jenna learned that Barrett had grown up in Wyoming, which definitely explained the country boy thing he had going on. Arthur was from Alaska, near Juneau. They’d met a few years ago, in Katmai, when Barrett had visited for the first time.
“It’s actually kind of a funny story,” Barrett said, leaning in close so that Arthur wouldn’t hear him. His lips nearly brushed the curve of her ear, and a pleasant little shiver ran down her spine from the warmth of the whisper against her skin.
“If by funny story you mean he stumbled into the middle of a shot I’d been waiting to get for an hour and completely ruined it, then yes,” Arthur said from up ahead of them, “it is a funny story.”
Barrett dipped his head again, his grin a little amused behind its self-deprecation.
Through the trees, Jenna could see the curves of a tent, and she leaned a little closer against Barrett, suddenly a little nervous. She’d never done anything like this before, really. The couple of guys she’d slept with in college had already been friends, and in grad school she’d been too busy to date. She’d had a tryst or two out in the backcountry, but never with complete strangers, never with two men at once. Anticipation tangled with nerves in her stomach.
They all tugged their boots off outside the tent, and then Barrett swept the door back with one arm and waved her in. In one corner, neatly packed away, she saw their gear, including Arthur’s camera. On the other side of the tent, taking up most of the space, where two oversized sleeping backs, pushed close enough together that they almost touched. Arthur moved past her and pulled them nearer to each other, to make a space where three people could comfortably fit together, and Jenna somehow found herself kneeling in the middle of it.
She realized with a little surprise that she was trembling as a pair of muscled arms wrapped around her from behind, and Barrett’s chin settled against her shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked softly. “You know that if you want to call it off, you can.”
Jenna shook her head. “No. I mean. I am okay. I don’t want to call it off. I’ve just never done this before. It’s a little overwhelming.” She flashed a smile at Arthur that she hoped Barrett would hear in her voice.
“Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.”
Those big, warm hands began moving over her, exploring the curves of her waist and hips, stroking her stomach. He reached up and caught the zipper pull on her jacket, drawing it down until she could let the coat fall from her shoulders. The thin, long-sleeved shirt she wore beneath followed, joining her jacket with their gear in the corner.
Barrett didn’t take her t-shirt off yet, just resumed his exploration over its worn fabric. He was shirtless, she realized, as she felt him press closer against her, and suddenly she wanted to see.
Arthur, she noted as she turned, had settled himself at the head of the makeshift bed, and was sitting with his hands on his knees, his legs crossed beneath him, watching them. He looked, she thought, like he wanted to get out his camera.
Barrett was as muscled under his shirt as she had imagined he would be, bronzed there too like he often went around without it, even this deep into fall in the far north. She ran her hands up the muscles of his abs and felt him shudder a little under the touch, heard his breath catch. On his right bicep was a tattooed band of pine silhouettes, reflecting off each other as though the top line of them stood at the edge of water. Jenna reached out and touched that too, feeling the smooth, warm skin under her hands.
Chapter Five
Barrett's hands on her hips turned her gently, and she wondered if he'd done this before, because the new position was specifically to give Arthur a better view as he laid a hand against her cheek and guided her up for a kiss that was slow and deep and a little showy. Not that she minded. She could feel Arthur's eyes on them, and it made her want to look good for him. She arched up into Barrett's chest, pressing them closer together, and then wrapped an arm around his neck on the side that wouldn't obstruct Arthur's view. When the kiss broke, they went back for more, the soft sounds of them moving together seeming loud in the quiet tent.
Barrett pulled back then, and his fingers curled around the hem of her t-shit, though he didn't lift it yet. He looked up at her, waiting for her to nod, and then he dragged it slowly upward, and Jenna lifted her arms to let him pull it over her head, her skin breaking out in goosebumps. She wasn't sure whether that was from the chill, or from the way she could feel Arthur's gaze moving up her body, lingering on newly revealed skin. Her simple white bra wasn't exactly the stuff of lingerie catalogue daydreams, but she didn't really think either of them minded, if the way Barrett's hands were running flat-palmed up her stomach to curl around her still clothed breasts were anything to go by.
He kissed her again. Heat was settling at the base of her spine. She was already wet, already wanting, and she pressed into the kiss with the same hunger that she could feel at the edge of the gentle contact from his end.
"More," she breathed against his mouth, and she heard him growl softly.
His hands reached down, fumbling for a moment with the button of her jeans, and then she was lifting up and sliding out of them, kneeling there in her underwear. She followed his example, unfastening his jeans, but he didn't take them off yet, just let them slide down low on his hips, revealing the cut of muscle that arrowed lower, and Jenna's tongue slipped out to wet her lips.
Barrett was turning her again, this time to face Arthur while he settled in behind her, his hand gently but implacably pulling her thigh open so that she knelt with her knees set wide and the support of his body at her back.
"Look at me," Arthur said.
Swallowing, Jenna raised her eyes to his face. His own dark eyes were fixed on her, and he smiled as she looked at him, settling some of the new nerves that being so blatantly on display had woken.
"You're beautiful," he said, the way he had up on the hill, his voice with a husky edge that hadn't been there then.
Hands were moving up her body, following the curve of her waist as though to emphasize it, and then Barrett was pulling back enough to unfasten her bra, and Jenna let him pull it off and toss it aside. The air of the tent was slowly warming, but was still cool enough that her nipples hardened as soon as they were exposed to the chill. She breathed out slowly, then caught it back in with a gasp when Barrett's hands cupped the weight of her breasts and his thumbs stroked across her peaked and sensitive nipples.
"You smell," he said, nose brushing against the curve where her neck met her shoulder, "like summer."
"Like summer?" she returned, teasing, if a little breathless.
She felt him nod. "Like the way the grass smells in the sun, and like ripe berries."
No one had ever told her that before, but she thought she liked it. She looked down at his hands, at the contrast between his sun-darkened skin and the paler, softer skin of her breasts. The air in the room shifted, and she looked up to find Arthur nearly close enough to touch. He grinned at her, a quick flash of white teeth.
"I was going to wait, but then I decided that waiting is entirely overrated."
His hands settled on her hips, bigger even than Barrett's, and maybe a little warmer, the calluses on his fingers rough against her skin in just the right way. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck, and she let her head fall back against Barrett's shoulder while Arthur mouthed his way up her throat, occasionally biting gently. She whimpered a little when his teeth nipped at the soft spot under her jaw, arching into Barrett's hands because he'd caught her nipples between thumb and forefinger and tugged on them.
Arthur smiled against her skin. One of his hands slid down, pressed up against her through her underwear. But he didn't move, didn't give her any friction, and she rocked her hips, writhing against him, hoping for more.
; "Yeah," he breathed, moving back down to lick at her collarbone. "Come on. You want it, take it, babe."
Jenna felt her cheeks heat, but she rocked down again against his hand, and he rewarded her by pressing up a little more firmly, the tips of his fingers dragging against her clit as she moved, and Jenna's hips hitched.
"You look good like this," Barrett said, lips brushing against her hair as he spoke.
His hands were moving, kneading—just enough pressure to make her want more. He occasionally stopped to flick at her nipples with the tip of his finger, or to rub his thumb over them until she writhed on Arthur's hand.
Abruptly, the touch was gone. Jenna whimpered a little with the loss, but Arthur's hands were on her hips, lifting her, and then she was in his lap. He'd unfastened his jeans, and unlike Barrett he had pulled them off, along with his underwear. And when he had he done that? She didn't really care. Her hands followed the ripple of muscle under his skin the way she had with Barrett. Like Barrett, he was tattooed, a swirl of sharp-edged tribal designs that started on his right shoulder and ran down to his forearm. On his left pec was the black mark of a bear's paw.
Jenna leaned in for a kiss and he gave it to her. His kisses weren't slow. They were hard and deep and claiming, and Jenna was really, really okay with that. She settled into his lap, arms around his neck, feeling the hard line of his erection through the thin fabric of her underwear. He groaned into her mouth when she rocked against it. Barrett, behind her, was scattering kisses across her shoulders, his hands resting with Arthur’s over the curve of her hips.
Another slow rock down, and then Arthur was breaking the kiss to drop his head to her shoulder, growling against her skin. His hand reached down. She was pretty sure, when he stilled for a moment, lifting his head to follow his hand with his eyes, that he hadn’t expected to rip her underwear entirely off. But then he grinned at her, entirely unapologetic, and threw them aside, and Jenna couldn’t find it in her to really be mad at him.
She wasn’t really thinking of anything, in fact, except how good it felt to be naked against each other, writhing against his length. It was better like this, slick and hot, her clit bumping against the head of his cock and making them both moan every time she slid forward.
“Barrett,” Arthur said abruptly, voice rough.
Barrett must have known what he meant, though Jenna didn’t, because his warmth left her back, and she heard him rustling through their packs. A moment later he was back, dropping a couple of foil-wrapped packets on the ground beside Arthur’s thigh.
Jenna reached down for one, pulling back enough that she could rip it open and roll the condom down Arthur’s length.
“Impatient,” Arthur chided, sounding anything but displeased with the fact.
She had planned on riding him, sinking down on his cock right there, but he caught her hips in his hands and nipped gently at her earlobe. “I want you on your hands and knees,” he breathed into the curve of her ear. “That okay with you, babe?”
Yeah. That was okay with her. Jenna nodded, and he turned her so that she knelt with her back to him. She dropped forward onto her hands, and he was kneeling up behind her, his big hands on her hips, and pushing forward. Jenna moaned low in her throat as he slid inside, bigger than anything she’d taken before. She swore under her breath and Barrett was there, his hand stroking her cheek. She reached up and curled her fingers around his wrist, holding his hand there as she turned her head to press her lips to his palm.
“You okay?”
“Fuck yes,” she answered, grinning up at him. “More than okay.” Arthur pulled slowly back, then thrust forward again, and Jenna shuddered, her elbow threatening to buckle. “God yes.”
Barrett was still in his jeans, but they’d slipped down, and she could see that he was hard. Jenna reached down, slipping her hand into the opening in his boxers, and curled her hand around him, stroking once. He gasped, and she wanted to see him do it again, wanted him to come apart for her.
“Jeans off,” she ordered.
He scrambled quickly out of them, and out of the underwear too, and knelt naked in front of her, his hard cock arching up toward his muscled stomach. Arthur leaned down and pressed a kiss to her shoulder, his beard tickling a little against her skin, and rocked in deeper.
Jenna couldn’t exactly manhandle them around the way they did her, but she beckoned Barrett closer with a crooked finger, dropping her head for a moment to groan softly as Arthur thrust again, rubbing against her g-spot.
When Barrett was close enough to reach, Jenna leaned down and licked the head of his cock, enjoying the way he gasped and rocked up for more. Curling her hand around his length, she stroked upward slowly, then slowly back down, watching him shift with little faltering motions like he was trying not to buck up into her hand. His long fingers twitched against his thighs.
“How badly do you want my mouth on you?” she asked, voice skidding into a moan when Arthur hit her g-spot again. She panted a little, rocked back to meet him on the next thrust.
Barrett was staring at her mouth, at her parted lips. “Oh, fuck. A lot. Come on, Jenna.”
Jenna laughed breathlessly, rubbing the palm of her hand over the head of his cock on the next stroke and watching his fingers curl until his hands were fists.
“You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Please,” he breathed, low and heartfelt.
She didn’t answer him, just leaned down and took the head of his cock into her mouth. He swore, voice rough.
They found a rhythm, Jenna moving between Arthur inside her and Barrett in her mouth. When she moaned around him, he shuddered and moaned in echo, and she could feel the tension, the strength it took not to buck up into her mouth. She rewarded him with a long, slow drag of her mouth upward, her tongue pressed to the underside of his cock, and he reached out and caught at the bedding with one hand, fingers white-knuckled. Arthur groaned behind her, deep in a way that sent heat up her spine.
“Can’t begin,” he said, pulling back and rocking in hard, filling her deep. “Can’t begin to tell you how hot you look like that.”
If the new pace was a hint, she thought she might be able to guess. A moan vibrating in her throat, she took Barrett farther, pulled back again, matching the shift in the rhythm that Arthur had set.
They moved together, sounds of pleasure filling the tent. Jenna didn’t think any of them were going to last long, could already feel her body pulling tighter, straining toward the edge. As the motion went on, she felt it falter, Arthur getting closer too. Barrett’s thigh trembled under her wrist.
“Fuck,” he gasped. “’M close, Jen.”
She curled her hand tighter around the base of his cock, and he let his head fall back, his body shuddering. Slowly, she pulled up, lingering at the head to tease with her tongue before she drew back entirely.
Arthur’s arm slid around her waist and pulled her up so that she was in his lap again, her back to his chest, and Jenna dropped her head to his shoulder with a moan when the new position slid him deeper inside her.
Barrett shifted closer when she beckoned him, until they were body to body, almost touching, and she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and drew him closer. Her breasts were pressed against his chest, his cock hard against her belly. She reached down between them to curl a hand around it again, stroking in time with the thrusts that rocked her in Arthur’s lap. Barrett’s head dropped down against her shoulder.
“Gonna come?” she asked against his ear, tracing the curve with the tip of her tongue. “Going to make a mess of me?”
He curled a hand around her hip, just above Arthur’s, and his groan was muffled against her shoulder.
“Yeah,” Jenna said, voice catching when her breath did. “Come on. Want to see you do it.”
She stroked him faster, forgetting words as Arthur matched her pace, his hands on her hips guiding her, lifting her easy as though she weighed nothing. She was panting, moans slipping out between breaths,
and Arthur’s breath was hot and fast against the back of her shoulder. Barrett was tense and trembling, on the edge of release.
When he came, his teeth closed the curve of her neck, a shock of pleasure-pain that made her gasp. She felt him spilling hot against her stomach, stroked him through it until he shuddered and stilled against her, chest heaving. Arthur’s hand reached down and his fingers pressed against her clit, rubbing fast little circles over it until her hips stuttered against the touch and her fingers clutched at Barrett, until she came in their arms with a soft cry. Arthur followed her over the edge.
Chapter Six
When they remembered how to move again, Arthur got up and got a cloth from his pack, silencing Jenna’s protest that she could clean herself up with a kiss. His hands were gentle. Reasonably clean, they curled together in the sleeping bags. Arthur was still against her back, his arm wrapped around her waist, his leg slipped between hers. Jenna lay with her head on Barrett’s chest, her own arm over him.
“Stay tonight,” Arthur said against the nape of her neck, nipping gently at the place where the vertebrae curved under her skin. “It will be dark soon.”
There was nothing back at her camp that she couldn’t leave until morning, Jenna decided after a thoughtful moment. And it was warm here, wrapped up between them. She didn’t exactly relish the thought of dragging herself from their embrace to dress and hike the three miles back to her camp at dusk.
She stayed that night, and the next morning they went back to her camp together and dismantled it, and she carried her gear back to theirs.
They hiked during the day, climbing hills and fording icy little streams, sitting together in the afternoon sun and eating their simple meals. They saw moose feeding in the rivers, otters along the coast. Sometimes from a distance, they saw bears feeding in the meadows, and once a trio of wolves, moving through the trees a few hundred yards away, on business of their own.
At night, they went back to the tent. Jenna had never considered how many ways three people could fit together before, but in that week they found a great many of them. She began to dread leaving, and wondered if Arthur and Barrett felt the same.