‘Look, over there,’ she said.
The two men followed her gaze and saw that just down the shoreline from where they had entered the lake, was a small group of goat like animals which had ventured down to the waters edge for a drink.
‘Ibex,’ said Rose, whispering.
One of the ibex was looking towards them alert whilst the others drank.
Rose put a hand on Alex’s shoulder to keep him still, feeling the muscles rippling beneath as he kept himself afloat.
One of the other ibex stopped lapping at the water and stepped back and another took its place as the first kept watch on the three humans, and then after another minute or so they started moving on, occasionally looking back to the middle of the lake to make sure they were still safe.
‘They're so majestic,’ said Rose, in awe.
Alex turned to her and smiled and then she felt Jacob’s hand on her back.
‘Come on, we best get out before we freeze.’
They swam calmly back to the beach together, Rose occasionally dipping under to look down below at the bottom of the lake, marvelling at how clear it was.
As they stepped out into the warm sun, Jacob opened his rucksack and removed a neatly folded bamboo microfibre towel and wrapped it around Rose’s shoulders.
‘What about you?’ she said, shivering.
‘I've got plenty of t-shirts,’ he said and pulled out a loose one to start wiping himself down with.
Rose stood warming herself up and drying off whilst watching the ibex herd in the distance as it disappeared from view. She was so happy to see them again, and she was deep in thought about her future life and what shape it might take, working with inspirational animals like these, in awe inspiring environments like this.
She couldn't help but notice though, that both Jacob and Alex kept stealing glances at her standing there in her underwear as they dressed.
As the ibex disappeared from view, Rose unwrapped herself from the towel and gathered up her clothes. The two men were sat side by side on a rock, looking out over the lake, but she knew they were idly watching her too as she dressed. She bent down to pull on her leggings in front of them, smiling to herself as she did so. When she turned around she found they were both looking up into the mountains, pretending not to have been watching.
‘You ready, Prim?’ said Alex as she finished wringing out her hair and retying her ponytail.
‘How far is it to camp?’ she said, nodding.
‘About three kilometres, not far at all.’
‘Let’s go then, perverts,’ she said and set off grinning, without looking back.
*
The area that the boys had picked out for their camp was ideal, and Rose had to admit that she was impressed. The tree line acted as a natural wind break and the surrounding land was shaped like a crater so it provided shelter on almost all sides. They wouldn't even be visible from the path, making it completely private.
Alex arrived first and set down his rucksack.
‘Home, sweet, home,’ he said, gesturing his arms out in a circle and smiling.
‘It's perfect,’ said Rose.
Now she was here, Rose suddenly felt a strange mixture of vulnerability and exhilaration. Not only was she wild camping in the Swiss Alps, but she was up here with her two closest friends. She was also completely alone. There was no one else around for miles. She trusted them both completely but her wellbeing was entirely in their hands. It was also more than a little arousing.
She wanted desperately to push them both, to tease and be suggestive and drop hints of what she wanted them to do to her, but that wasn't right. She wanted them to want her, and she was beginning to think that maybe they did. She closed her eyes and pictured it for just a second and then stopped herself before she got carried away.
Alex threw his rucksack onto the floor and undid the buckles, releasing the rolled up tent he had neatly attached to the bottom. Jacob joined him and they began to unpack it, removing the poles, placing the pegs aside and unrolling the inner and outer. Rose leant back against a rocky outcrop and folded her arms to watch.
‘You planning on helping at all or you just going to stand there admiring the view?’ said Alex.
‘Men at work,’ said Rose, raising her eyebrows. ‘It’s quite the mesmerising experience.’
‘Get your lazy ass over here and start hammering some pegs,’ said Alex.
‘Yes sir,’ said Rose, pushing away from the rock.
She scooped up the mallet and worked her way around as the two men pushed the poles through the canvas and positioned it on the second most comfortable and flat surface they could find. The ground was soft and the pegs went in easily, occasionally finding a hard rock or two beneath the surface.
Once the larger tent was up, Jacob peeled away and left her and Alex to put up her smaller one person tent as he began to dig a small fire pit and gather some nearby wood. Rose found the sight of him using the small woodcutters axe to fell a few saplings and then a small tree rather distracting and Alex was noticing.
As the light began to fade Alex lit the fire using his magnesium flint striker, laying down low to stoke the flames with long slow breaths.
Whilst Alex got the fire going, Jacob invited her to help him drag over a few large logs for them to sit on and before long they were comfortable and cozy around the fire, warming themselves in the flames as the wheel of starlight began to swing above them.
Jacob had boiled up some water and made her a hot chocolate and she sipped at it whilst staring into the embers.
‘So what about girls?’ said Rose.
Alex looked over at Jacob and grinned.
‘What about them?’ he said, laughing.
Rose raised her eyebrows. ‘Anyone pining after either of you at home?’
‘Several girls, but no one I'm missing if that's what you're getting at?’
‘Oh okay, Mr Player,’ she laughed. ‘I see how it is. You're a regular Romeo these days?’
‘I do well,’ said Alex, grinning at her and winking slowly.
‘That doesn't work on me,’ she laughed. She would never admit to him that it had.
‘You wait,’ he said, biting his lip.
‘Oh my goodness, does this really work on girls, Jacob?’ said Rose, gesturing at Alex.
‘Unfortunately, almost every time.’
‘I despair,’ she said, aware and almost annoyed that she was now intensely aroused. ‘So what about you Jacob? Are you charming the intellectual pants off any post-graduate psychology majors?’
‘Not at the moment,’ he said, more reserved than Alex.
‘Don’t hold back,’ she said. ‘There must have been someone special over the last three years?’
Rose knew full well that there had been, Jacob’s profile pictures included several taken with his arm around a gorgeous red head.
‘Mollie, Mollie, Mollie, Mollie!’ said Alex, laughing.
Jacob smiled and looked down. ‘There was Mollie,’ said Jacob, nodding.
‘Was?’ said Rose, secretly hopeful.
‘Was. We broke up two months ago.’
‘She broke his heart,’ said Alex and feigned stabbing himself with a knife in the chest. ‘It was brutal, Prim.’
‘It was a mutual decision,’ said Jacob, calmly but still smiling.
‘She shagged a bartender named Tanner,’ whispered Alex.
Rose’s eyes widened and she burst into laughter, then held her hand over her mouth in shock. ‘No, really?’
Jacob nodded. ‘I never said who the mutual decision was between.’
‘Oh my goodness,’ said Rose. ‘You poor thing.’
‘Don’t feel too bad for him, she was just the runner up in the Rose look-a-like competition.’
Jacob looked sharply at Alex, admonishing him but his friend just shrugged back.
‘What do you mean?’ she said, puzzled.
‘Alex,’ said Jacob, trying to stop him.
‘I mean,’ he said. ‘Tha
t Mollie, was the consolation prize in the Stunning Scottish Redhead Race.’
Alex winked at her as she frowned.
‘He's winding you up,’ said Jacob.
Rose knew what Alex meant, she wasn't stupid. But she was also hoping he wasn't winding her up.
‘What about you?’ said Jacob. ‘Is there someone special up in Wales?’
Rose shook her head. ‘Not for a little while now,’ she said. ‘I haven't really felt like dating much, I've just been focused on work and studies. I kind of wish my flat mate would think the same way sometimes and stop shagging about, but that's another story.’
‘I would like to meet your flat mate,’ said Alex, leaning forward.
‘She would love you,’ laughed Rose, but her head was preoccupied, thinking about what Alex had said before about Jacob.
Mollie was the consolation prize, those were the words he had used.
Interesting.
As the fire died down over the course of the evening, the three of them began to tire and Jacob was the first to turn in, saying goodnight to them both and crawling into the three person tent that both he and Alex would be sleeping in for the next few nights.
Alex and Rose sat together for a little longer, both staring into the fire, seeing shapes, shadows and visions in the flames. Rose found it mesmerising.
‘I'm sorry if I was a dick earlier,’ said Alex.
Rose frowned and turned to look at him.
‘When?’ she said.
‘About the water park,’ said Alex, still looking into the fire.
‘That's okay,’ said Rose.
‘I just get carried away around you.’
Rose blushed and looked back into the fire.
‘Sorry,’ said Alex. ‘I don't have Jacob’s way with words. I'm not a poet. I'm just glad you're here.’
Rose flashed a smile. Then she reached out and took his hand in hers, interlocking his fingers. Her hand felt tiny inside his.
Neither of them spoke for a while, but both of their minds were racing. After a few minutes, Alex turned to look at her face, the flames dancing on her skin.
‘Do you think… if I’d, said something, back then?’
‘Yes,’ said Rose, not waiting for him to finish.
Alex nodded and looked back into the dying embers, his hand still clasped around hers.
After a while she let go, and stood up to head off towards her tent, pausing next to her old friend and placing her hand on his shoulder affectionately.
‘Alex,’ she said. ‘Are you happy?’
He looked up at her and smiled.
‘Now that you're back,’ he said. ‘Yes.’
*
Rose was cold and lonely.
She had been wild camping hundreds of times on her own. She loved the feeling of being away from the bustling towns and cities, away from the intensity of the University. Far from family and friends. Just a thin piece of nylon between her and the rest of the world, half way up a mountain. Whether she was knee deep in snow, being hammered by torrential rain, lighting, thunder, wind or the quiet stillness of a bright Summer’s night. It didn’t matter where she was, when she was alone, she was happy.
But now, with Alex and Jacob just ten feet away, she was lonely and desperately sad. She wanted to be back with them. So much so, that it hurt.
Everything about today had been perfect. It was as though the last three years hadn’t happened. As though nothing had changed.
But that wasn’t strictly true.
Something had changed but she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to believe it. Both Jacob and Alex seemed to be vying for her attention, as though there was a little competition between them.
They had always been competitive, always intent on outdoing each other, but the competition had always been between them, not about her and now it seemed like the dynamic had shifted.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, she thought.
That’s how she felt right now.
Absent, as though she was missing.
Fuck.
She unzipped her sleeping bag and wriggled out of it then bundled it up into her arms. Trying her best to keep her head down low, she crawled to the end of her tent and opened the zip as quietly as she could and then turned around and backed out, slipping on her boots as she went.
The night was bright and filled with stars, just a few wisps of cloud here and there, scattered across a deep and beautiful sky.
Alex and Jacob’s tent was just a few yards away, the guy ropes luminous and reflecting the starlight.
She wanted to be with them. Not in her own tent, like a third wheel or a spare part. They weren't fourteen and on a residential camping trip, barred from entering the boys tents, segmented by gender. They were adults, and she didn't want be alone, and they were her friends.
She wanted to be close to them.
Close enough to reach out and touch them.
She took a deep breath and walked over towards the thin, erect sheet of canvas that separated the three of them, clutching her sleeping bag as her heart pounded in her chest.
As quietly, and as slowly, and as gently as she could, she began to unzip the men’s tent, but as she reached the halfway point she started to panic.
What was she thinking?
That she could just slide in between them without them noticing? Then wake up in the morning, like… Surprise! The whole impulsive idea seemed foolish now and she was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of shame and silliness.
She froze, her fingers still on the zipper.
‘Rose?’ came Alex’s voice from inside the tent.
There was some shuffling and movement and then the inner fly sheet was opening and Alex’s hand appeared. He fumbled for the zip and instead found Rose’s fingers and for a brief moment he paused as they touched. Then he was unzipping the tent and looking up at her with a broad but quizzical smile.
‘Everything okay?’ he whispered. ‘What’s wrong?’
Rose didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing at all.
Alex frowned and then saw the swaddled up sleeping bag in her arms. ‘Do you want to come in?’
She nodded tentatively, and he smiled. It was such a disarming and friendly smile that she immediately felt as though she was eleven years old again and all her worries about school and making friends and being intimidated by the older children were fading away.
She knelt down and shuffled inside, pulling her sleeping bag in with her.
Jacob was still sleeping, so Alex shifted over and made a space for her between them and then lightly patted the groundsheet inviting her to come and lay down.
She rolled out her sleeping bag into the space and then realised that she had left her travel pillow back in her own tent. Alex saw her expression change and then looked around, turned over and came back with his jumper, bunching it up into a ball and tucking it inside the hood of her sleeping bag. He winked at her in the twilight and then lay back down as she wriggled in beside him, pulling the zip closed past her hips and snuggling down onto the make shift pillow.
She placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered.
‘Thank you.’
He smiled back and closed his eyes and within a few minutes he was gently snoring.
Now Rose had a different problem. She wasn’t lonely anymore, and she wasn’t cold. In fact she was warm and getting warmer by the second.
The smell of Alex’s jumper was intoxicating. As subtly as she could, she buried her face in it and breathed in his scent, sensing a mixture of spice, wood and sweat. Her legs twitched.
She rolled over, away from Alex and found Jacob’s closed eyes facing her, sleeping more quietly than his friend. She could feel his breath on her face, and she trembled as a few loose strands of her hair shifted as he exhaled.
She bit her lip and breathed in deeply, then closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down.
Here she was, miles from another person, but inches from the two men she loved more than anyo
ne else in the world, and she was tucked between the two of them just like in one of her fantasies.
She couldn't help it. She was incredibly aroused, and her arousal was building by the second as her mind raced.
Her body shook with adrenaline as images flashed through her mind of the two men ravishing her inside the tent. Their bodies dripping with sweat and desire as they each fucked her in turn.
Oh shit, she thought as her lips went dry.
She was soaking wet already and her pussy was aching to be touched. She bit her lip again, hard enough to draw blood, but it was no good.
As slowly and as carefully as she could, she squeezed her legs together and started to gently rock her hips back and forth inside her sleeping bag. She realised she was holding her breath, and as softly as she could, she exhaled through her nose, trying to not breathe onto Jacob’s brow, not wanting to disturb him or wake him up, but just to look upon his face.
She was going to do it.
It was a huge risk, but she had to, she couldn't take it any longer.
Trying to make as little noise as possible, she rolled onto her back, slid her hands down past her hips and tucked her thumbs into the sides of her leggings and her underwear. Then she arched her back and raised herself off the floor of the tent and in one slow and smooth motion she pulled both garments down around six inches until they were resting beneath the curve of her bottom.
Just the sheer act of removing her underwear, so close to Jacob and Alex had her whole body quivering and close to climax.
She stayed still and silent, holding her breath again and listening intently, shaking and so incredibly turned on by what she was doing that she was worried she might orgasm the moment she touched herself.
The boys remained asleep.
She moved her head ever so slightly to look across at Alex, and then back over to Jacob. One last check. Then she moved her hand down, sliding her knuckles under the soft material lining of the sleeping bag. She parted her soft lips and twitched as the tip of her finger brushed against her clit, and then she began to circle herself, excruciatingly slowly.
She’d never felt like this before, never touched herself like this. The fear of being caught by either one of them was like an adrenaline rush of arousal. She didn't want to breathe for fear of being discovered, but the idea that one of them might wake up and roll over and see what she was doing was a turn on too.
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