Loon Mountain

Literotic asexstories – Loon Mountain by BEWright,BEWright Chapter 1 — Morning Surprise

The sound of a shower turning on woke Amber from a dream about a Caribbean cruise from long ago. She opened her eyes just long enough to steal a quick glance at the time. Six-thirty in the morning. The sun would be just starting to rise over Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, lighting the verdant valley and encouraging all the songbirds to call to each other.

It was too early for Amber. She was on vacation and intended to sleep in until at least eight, preferably nine. Brad, on the other hand, had likely already finished his morning run, breakfasted, and was showering before reading one of the several books he brought for the weekend they would be visiting with his cousins on his family’s ranch, nestled in the heart of ski country.

Amber closed her eyes, bundled the blankets over her shoulders and rolled to her side. She let the pulsing sound of the water lull her back to sleep. Before she could resume her dream, she felt the sheet lift at the bottom of the bed and a hand begin working its way slowly up her leg. ‘Brad must want to get dirty before he showers,’ she thought, smiling to herself.

The familiar hand found its way up her calf, glided softly over her knee, and slid under the loose-fitting shorts she wore to bed paired with a comfortable tank top. Amber tilted her hips towards the searching hand just enough to demonstrate interest and felt the rush of blood as fingers began stroking and caressing the treasure they sought. Her heart rate quickened, and her breath became shorter and shallower.

Rolling to her back, she allowed the hand to slide the shorts down her legs, off the ends of her feet, and heard them land softly on the floor. She never once opened her eyes, enjoying the strange mixture of drowsiness and arousal. A second hand joined the first and lifted her right leg off the bed enough for a head to slide underneath. Seconds later, the drowsiness was gone, and her body was electrified as she felt kisses along her inner thigh and the base of her ass cheeks. Finally, after what seemed a torturous several minutes, a tongue was sliding up and down her already slickened labia.

Amber’s hands rose involuntarily from under the blankets and pulled the tank top to the middle of her chest, exposing both breasts. She grabbed them, teasing each nipple as she felt one hand slide under her ass, gripping it firmly, while the other began slowly caressing her throbbing clitoris with a thumb. The tongue continued its journey up and down, pausing occasionally to penetrate as deep as it could in her yearning hole.

Unable to further resist, Amber threw the blankets and sheets to the side, dropping them to the floor, giving her the freedom to writhe and arc without encumbrances. Her body was responding in ways it never had. The tongue, the fingers, moved in ways she had never known, and her ecstasy reached a crescendo with such force and speed, a flood rushed from her body and she spasmed, helplessly, unable to resist the will of the dexterous digits.

When the spasm ceased, the kissing resumed, navigating out from under her legs, over the tops of her thighs, across her stomach, brushed briefly over her breasts, and dove urgently into her mouth. She could taste herself on those lips and found a renewed desire burning in her. She wanted to go another round.

Amber reached up and grabbed Brad’s head, running her fingers through his hair. It was then she realized, the hair was far too long to be Brad’s. Come to think of it, his lips never felt this full. His lips were thin, and hard, like kissing two plastic straws held together.

For the first time since checking the clock, Amber opened her eyes. She was not kissing Brad! In fact, she had no idea whose face she was staring at. She jumped from the bed and quickly lifted the sheets from the floor, covering her exposed body.

“Who are you?”, Amber demanded of the thin brunette lying coyishly on her side on the bed, head resting on her arm, with a look of bemusement on her face.

“Chloe,” she replied. Chloe began teasing her brown hair, curling it around her fingers.

“What are you doing here?”, Amber asked, searching the floor for her shorts. She found them buried underneath the sheets gathered at her feet, and pulled them on.

“I’m Brad’s cousin. I’m here for the annual spring gathering, like he is,” Chloe said. She stretched her long arms over her head, arching her back.

Amber heard the water shutoff and was immediately concerned.

“You need to get out of here,” she insisted., pointing to the open door.

“You mad?”, Chloe asked, sounding confused, feigning injury.

Was that an attempt at being coquettish, Amber wondered?

“You didn’t seem mad a moment ago,” Chloe said, that look of bemusement back on her face.

“I thought you were, him. Brad!” Amber whispered loudly. “You know, the guy in the shower. Your cousin!”

“Brad can’t do to you what I just did”, Chloe said with far too much confidence for Amber’s taste.

“He certainly can,” Amber protested, defending her boyfriend. She could tell by Chloe’s smirk she didn’t believe her. Instead of anger, Amber felt embarrassment. Like something about how she said it, or how she looked saying it, made it obvious to Chloe that Brad had never done that to her. At least, not to that degree.

“What will he say if he finds you in here?”, Amber asked, trying to change the subject away from what they’d just done. What Chloe had just done to her.

“‘Hi cuz’, would be my guess,” Chloe said. She spun her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Chloe was at least four inches taller than Amber’s five feet, three inches. “I mean, we’re just two girls standing here talking to each other. What would you expect him to say?”

“I mean, what if he had found us…before?” Amber clarified, upset Chloe had managed to bring them back to the topic she wanted to avoid.

“‘Can I join?’, I think.” That smirk was back. “Relax. You’re Amber, right?”

Chloe took a step towards her with an outstretched hand. Amber reflexively took a step back.

“Okay,” Chloe said, lowering her hand and remaining where she stood. “Look, I’m sorry. I arrived late last night. You two were already asleep — Brad always was the first to knock off. I heard the door close when Brad came back from what I’m sure was his morning run, and I came to say hello.”

“That was not ‘Hello’!”, Amber contested.

“Fair,” Chloe replied. “When I peeked in the room — your door was open, by the way — and I saw you lying there, blonde hair shining in the morning light, all wrapped up like a burrito, I couldn’t help myself. I took a shot.”

“Shouldn’t I have had a say in that?”, Amber demanded.

“You’re right,” Chloe submitted. “Would you like to do it again?”

Amber was about to reply, though she wasn’t sure what her reply would be, when they heard the water stop and the click of a shower door opening. They stood in silence staring at each other, Amber in mild panic, Chloe with excited anticipation, listening to Brad dry off. When the door opened, Brad was stark naked, except for a towel around his head, and he was furiously drying his hair.

“I see you’re six pack is gone.” Chloe spoke first.

Brad paused drying his hair, pulled the towel to one side, looked quickly from Chloe, to Amber, then back to Chloe.

“Hi cuz!” he said, opening his arms wide and striding towards Chloe. He embraced her with a bear hug, lifting her off her feet.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Chloe gasped, finding breathing difficult in the tight embrace.

“When did you arrive?” Brad asked. He walked to his still packed suitcase resting on a chair in the corner of the room. Retrieving a pair of boxers, he slid them on and glanced at Amber. She responded with stunned confusion.

“Late last night,” Chloe replied. “Derek is still sleeping. I woke with the sun. You know how I am, if the sun is up, I’m up, no matter what time I went to bed.”

“Always the early riser,” Brad agreed. “You should have gone on a run with me.”

“Just because I’m awake early, doesn’t mean I start my day early,” Chloe replied, shaking her head at the suggestion. “I’d still be in bed meditating if I hadn’t heard you in the shower.”

“You in the room next to ours?” Brad asked. He walked to stand next to Amber, placing his arm around her shoulder.

“Yeah, Derek’s favorite,” Chloe replied. “He likes all the animal heads mounted on the wall. Makes him feel like an exhibitionist when we fuck. Sick bastard.”

“Two peas in a pod, if you ask me,” Brad teased.

“Well, I’m sorry to have interrupted your morning,” Chloe said, changing the subject. “I just wanted to say ‘hi’ and meet the lovely newcomer to our little party. I’m glad to have met you, Amber. I hope we have many adventures in our future.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Amber stammered through a dry mouth.

Chloe returned to her room and Amber closed the door behind her. Brad watched as she reopened the door, looked up and down the hallway, then marched over to her phone and started playing music at top volume.

“What’s all this about?” he asked.

“You two seemed…familiar,” Amber demanded.

“She is my cousin,” he replied, taking a seat on the bed. “She’s a few months younger than me and we’ve known each other all our lives. Of course, she’s familiar. She’s family!”

“That is not what I meant,” Amber spat. She balled her hands into fists, swaying back and forth.

“What did you mean?” he asked.

“You came out of the bathroom naked and didn’t even bother to cover up!”

“She’s seen me naked before. I’ve seen her naked. Hell, it’s a pretty regular thing when you spend your summers out here and want to take a swim in the creek after messing around in the woods all day.”

Brad pat the spot next to him on the bed, inviting her to sit down. Reluctantly, she did.

“That can’t be what’s bothering you. Your friends have all seen me naked. Remember the night we played strip poker and I lost, like, every hand?” He put his hand on her leg.

“I have to tell you something,” Amber said. She had to be honest with him about why she was upset.

“I knew something else was bothering you,” Brad said. “Tell me.”

“I was still asleep when Chloe came into the room,” Amber began.

“Did she wake you up? I know how you hate being woken before you are ready. I’m sorry.”

“Yes, she did,” Amber replied. “But it’s more than that.”

Amber paused and Brad waited patiently for her to continue.

“Well, actually, no she didn’t. Not really. I had woken and heard the shower running. I figured you had just returned from your run and would be a few minutes, so I rolled over and tried to get a few more minutes of rest. I heard a door open, and then felt a hand on my leg and someone crawling under the sheet.”

She paused again, waiting for him to reply.

“Continue,” was all he said.

“I thought it was you. I let it progress. I didn’t even look until it was over.” She couldn’t look him in the eye. She was ready for him to explode and demand she leave, never speaking to him again.

Brad didn’t respond. They sat in silence, his hand on her leg, her staring at her feet, unable to look at him. Minutes passed, and she couldn’t take it anymore. She turned her bowed head to face him.

He was smiling. The biggest shit-eating grin she’d ever seen on his face.

“She got you, too, huh?” he asked.

“What!” Amber smacked him hard on the shoulder. Her regret flipped to anger in an instant. “You brought me here, knowing she would be here, knowing she might try that, and didn’t warn me?”

“I didn’t know she still did that. It’s been years since…”

“That doesn’t matter! You owed me the courtesy of informing me you have a cousin who likes to sexually assault your sleeping girlfriends and that I’d be in the same house with her. We should have locked our door!”

“Hold on, that’s a harsh way to put it. You could have stopped it at any time and you didn’t,” Brad said defensively. “You must have liked it.”

Amber turned quickly away, facing the wall.

“Ha! You did like it, didn’t you?” Brad accused, jumping from the bed. “Tell me. I want to hear more now.”

“No,” Amber replied. “I’m embarrassed and confused and…..I don’t know. I’m not sure how I feel about it. In shock, maybe?”

Brad gently cradled her chin and turned her face to look at him. He placed his forehead on hers.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m not mad,” he consoled. “If I had come out in the middle of it, I probably would have joined in.”

“That’s what she said!” Amber fumed, jumping up from the bed. “You’ve done that with her before, haven’t you?”

“Maybe,” Brad replied. He leaned back on the bed, resting on his elbows. “She’s a beautiful woman. She sometimes like to be with other beautiful women; especially if those women are someone I’m dating. It’s a kink she has.”

“What does Derek say about that?” Amber demanded.

“I honestly have no idea. It hasn’t happened since they got married. That’s why I’m a bit surprised she did that. Like I said, it’s been a few years. They all got married over the last four years, with Chloe and Derek being the last to pair up last year. I haven’t joined them because I wasn’t seeing anyone I cared about enough to bring to our annual gathering of cousins. Until you.”

Amber felt her anger subsiding, and a very different emotion taking over.

“What’s that mean?” she asked.

“It means…,” Brad paused, reflecting on the best way to say it. “Look, this weekend is a very special event for all of us. Us five cousins are separated by just a few years, and we all grew up together, spending our summers here on the ranch with our grandparents. We continued the tradition as we went off to college, tapering it down to a month, then a week, then a long weekend, like this one. We used to bring whomever we were dating. After a few bad experiences, we agreed we could only bring someone we were serious about. Someone we would….”

“Someone you would what?” Amber asked, impatient.

“Someone we would consider marrying. Our weekend became both a litmus test and a welcome to the family event.”

“Is this your way of proposing,” Amber said, taken aback. “Because, this is not what I imagined it would be like, and, I’m not ready with an answer. I mean, we’ve never discussed. I’m not saying I’m opposed. Wow. I, well, I just didn’t think you…we, were at that point yet.”

“It’s not a proposal,” Brad assured her. “Not yet. You may not enjoy spending time with my cousins. No pressure, but that would be a deal breaker. Family first.”

“Yeah, no pressure,” Amber replied. She rejoined him on the bed, slowly lowering herself to sit next to him.

Brad sat up, gently laid her back on the bed, then spun himself on top of her, sliding between her legs. He pressed the full weight of his hips into hers, kissing her softly on her forehead, then her cheek, then her lips. She kissed him back.

“Seriously, no pressure,” he assured her. “If you don’t enjoy spending time with my cousins, well, you wouldn’t enjoy a life with me.”

“That sounds a lot like pressure,” she joked.

“You seem to have liked Chloe,” he teased, kissing her neck.

“That’s not fair,” she said, feeling her body respond to the gentleness of his kisses. She could feel his response, too, pushing against her belly.

“Tell me what you liked about it,” he said. He began softly stroking the inside of her thigh with his hand.

“I’m not ready to share that,” she said. “I haven’t decided how I feel about it yet.”

“I could ask her how you felt about it,” he teased, sliding a finger under her the open legs of her shorts and teasing the wiry hair he found there.

“Does she kiss and tell?” Amber teased back, starting to enjoy the banter.

“Only if I ask,” he said. His finger ventured further, finding the wetness he was after.

“Would she say you felt like this?” he asked, moving his finger like he was motioning for someone to come over.

“I thought it was you,” she said between sighs. She always found it hard to resist whatever he wanted to do with, or to, her.

Brad pulled at the top of her shorts with his other hand, and she lifted her hips to accommodate their removal. He dropped them to the floor and was removing his boxers when they heard a car announce its arrival with a constant blaring of the horn.

Brad jumped up and rushed to the window, leaving Amber aroused and wanting. She didn’t move, expecting he would return and finish what he started. She was wrong. He motioned for her to join him. She glanced at her shorts on the floor and decided her tank was long enough she could stand next to him at the window.

“The rest of them are here,” he said, nodding at the six people exiting the Tesla X that had pulled into the cobblestone circular driveway.

“The blonde is my cousin Evie. She’s the oldest of all of us and was the first to get married. Her mom, my Aunt Ingrid, married my dad’s younger brother, Steve. Uncle Steve was a leading engineer for a drilling company that worked with the Norwegian oil industry. They met when he spent a few years over there. He’s filthy rich, and she was his trophy wife, but they’ve stayed together for nearly thirty years now.

“The muscular guy unloading the bags from the front of the car — what they call a ‘frunk’ — is Evie’s husband, Fernando. They met at college in a communications class. She was studying to be a newscaster, he was doing what a lot of scholarship athletes do, majoring in communications to report on the games after they are done playing. He was really there because he could kick a field goal with near perfect accuracy from fifty-five yards out. He made the pros until, in his fifth year, a three-hundred-pound defensive lineman tackled him on a sixty-yard attempt, snapping his plant leg at the knee. He tried to come back from that, but his accuracy was gone. Now he’s a motivational speaker making ten grand for a one-hour speech at these crazy executive retreats. That’s his car they arrived in.

“Grant is the skinny guy who looks like a rocker. Because he is a rocker, just not very successful. He’s Evie’s younger brother and is still on the family payroll — they both have a trust fund. Evie didn’t become a newscaster; she decided being a wife was enough. The petite brunette dressed in all the high fashion is his wife, Heather. She’s a model and earns all the money for them. She’s walked the runway in Milan, Paris and Seoul. She’s a California girl from a Mormon family who broke away from the religion to marry her bad boy rocker. They still don’t talk to her.

“The last pair is Ines and Joe. Ines is the daughter of my dad’s sister, Aunt Becky. Aunt Becky married a Spanish hotelier she met on the gap year she spent in Barcelona. Ines, like Chloe and I, is an only child. She met Joe in the Peace Corps. They were both building houses in Guatemala, or Nicaragua, I forget which. He’s a laid-back hippie who made some amazing investments with the money his parents set aside for college, dropped out of college, and they live off the money generated from those investments. He talks about creating a venture capital firm, but he’s been saying that ever since I’ve known him. Ines sells high end real estate. She only needs one sale each quarter to make seven figures, so they travel a lot.

“What do Chloe and Derek do?”, Amber asked.

“Graphic artists,” Brad replied. “He designs movie posters, she does most of the backgrounds for major network cartoons like The Simpsons and Family Guy.”

“Doesn’t your family have any black sheep?” Amber asked, stunned by everyone’s success.

“Me,” Brad said. “You’ll see. They constantly tease me about adding no value to society as a patent attorney.”

The new arrivals noticed Brad staring at them from the upstairs window and waved. He waved back and raised his index finger, indicating he’d be down in a minute. They watched as Chloe and Derek exited the house giving hugs all around.

“Finish what we started or go meet the crew?” Brad asked.

“Meet the crew,” Amber replied, heading for the bathroom to freshen up. “I’m afraid they may all barge in to watch if we tried to finish what we started.”

 

Chapter 2 — The interrogation

Amber and Brad made it downstairs as the three newly arrived couples walked in the front door encumbered by all of their luggage. Grant was the first to notice them. His face lit up like a man finding his lost dog.

“Brad!” Grant shouted, dropping his duffel to the floor and pulling Brad in for man-hug, complete with three solid slaps on the back. “It has been too long. I’ve had to represent the males of the family the last….How long has it been?”

“Four years,” Brad informed him. “It’s good to be back.” Brad held Grant at arms length and patted his shoulder.

Now that he had everyone’s attention, he put his arm around Amber and addressed the group.

“Everyone, this is Amber. Amber, this is everyone I identified as they were getting out of the car,” Brad said.

Evie, always ready to chat with anyone, and, as the oldest, felt entitled to go first.

“Finally someone who can tame our wild Brad-berry,” she said. She walked over to give Amber a hug and tousled Brad’s hair before doing so. “Do you think you can convince to stop doing that dreadful job and do something respectable?”

She groaned the word ‘dreadful’ with as much faux disdain as she could muster.

“It pays the bills,” Amber shrugged.

“Indeed it does,” Evie replied.

“Much gusto,” Fernando said, leaning in for the traditional Spanish peck on both cheeks.

“You’ll have to tell me how you two met,” Ines gushed, taking Amber by the arm and leading her away from the group. “Come with me to the kitchen. We’ll open a bottle of wine while the men put away the luggage.”

Joe gave her a knowing nod, grabbed the luggage and headed up the stairs. Fernando and Grant followed with their own burden. Brad and Derek shrugged and followed the men empty handed. Chloe, Evie and Heather followed Ines and Amber to the kitchen.

Ines motioned to Amber to sit at the large wooden table in the center of the room. It must have been ten feet in diameter and could seat twenty. Chloe sat directly across from her, a sly smile on her lips. Evie and Heather pulled their chairs as close to Amber as they could, leaning in to further violate her personal space.

“Red or white, ladies,” Ines said holding two bottles she’d pulled from the hundred-bottle wine fridge.

“I’ll have one of each,” Heather replied.

“I like how you think,” Evie said. “I’ll do the same.”

“What’s your story, Amber?” Chloe asked, speaking for the first time since everyone arrived.

“My story?” Amber replied, confused. “Like, what do I do, or where was I born. How far back you want me to go?”

“Around here, we go all the way,” Evie replied, laughing too hard at her double entendre.

“Well, I was born in a small town in western Michigan; Holland, specifically, home of the tulip festival. When I graduated high school, I went to the University of Michigan on a swimming scholarship,” Amber began.

“Swimming?” Heather interrupted. “That explains the slender, muscular legs.”

“Um, yeah,” Amber continued. “I was studying engineering — material engineering; fracture rates, heat tolerance, that kind of thing. I worked for Ford as an intern and joined their imagination team after graduating. I was working on a new material stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum to be the body of our vehicles. I received a call one afternoon from an attorney who had questions about our patent filing for this new material. He saw my name and wanted to know if he could come down for a visit to finish his part of the filing. Lunch led to dinner, dinner led to a date, and, well, more dates and, now, here we are.”

“Do you live together?” Chloe asked, breaking her silence again.

Ines arrived with a tray of ten glasses of wine, one white one red, for everyone at the table. Two bottles ready to refill the empties towered above the glasses in the middle of the tray. She carefully set the tray on the table, and distributed the wine to everyone before taking a seat next to Chloe.

“Do you always start drinking at nine in the morning?” Amber asked.

“Only on the weekends,” Ines said, sipping from the glass of red, first.

“During the week, we do vodka shots in our morning shower,” Evie said, before repeating Chloe’s question. “Do you two live together?”

“We each have our own place,” Amber replied. She selected the white wine – better for the morning, she thought – and did her best to hide behind the glass as she answered. “We’re on opposite sides of the city. He has a place in Grosse Pointe, I’m further northwest in Bloomfield Hills. So, we spend a lot of overnights at one or the other’s place, depending on what our schedules look like.”

“I love those neighborhoods,” Ines said. “I’ve always wanted to list a house in one. Do you know which house you two will eventually live in? Or will you sell both and maybe move to Birmingham? Those houses are spectacular!”

“They are very protective of Brad,” Heather said, recognizing Amber’s distress. “Think nothing of it. They are more like his sisters than his cousins.”

“He hasn’t introduced anyone to us in a very long time,” Evie said, still controlling the conversation. “We’re very curious. Maybe a bit nosy.” She cackled like someone who had finished more than just one glass of wine. Amber thought she probably had that shot of vodka with her morning shower, too.

“What do you do for fun?” Chloe continued the line of questioning.

“We like art museums, which are much closer to his place than to mine, and hiking trails in the woods or near water, which are more available where I live. We’ll go to the beach, preferring Lake St. Clair to the Great Lakes,” Amber paused to finish her glass of white. It was giving her the courage to face the interrogation. “Mostly we like to order in, enjoy a nice burgundy or sipping bourbon while watching whatever series we’ve become infatuated with on Netflix or HBO Max.”

“Netflix and chill, now we’re getting somewhere,” Evie piped in. She’d already finished both glasses of wine and was opening the extra bottle of white.

“How is the ‘chill’,” Chloe asked, being indirectly direct.

“I don’t typically share that kind of details,” Amber replied, feeling her skin flush with embarrassment.

“You’d be the first!” Evie blurted and cackled uncontrollably.

“You aren’t required to share,” Heather said, then, trying to be reassuring: “If it’s any consolation, I promise you Brad is being grilled about it upstairs and he won’t have any problem sharing.”

As if on cue, they all heard a loud cheer come from the men upstairs. Heather raised her eyebrow and cocked her head in the direction of the sound, shrugging her shoulders. Amber finished the glass of white and grabbed the glass of red, taking a tentative first sip. She hadn’t eaten anything yet and she was already feeling the first one.

“It’s the best I’ve had,” Amber replied, then quickly took a large gulp. Now it was time for the women to cheer. Amber glanced at Chloe and could swear she had a smile implying ‘the best, except for me’.

“What do you think they’re cheering about?” Grant asked the group, who had just finished throwing darts to decide who had the firewood duty for the evening and erupted in cheers when Fernando lost; he never lost at anything.

“Ines probably shared that her latest house contract sold to the young pitcher the Red Sox just drafted,” Joe said. He grabbed a beer from the game room fridge, offered it out to the group, and popped the cap to drink himself when he found no takers.

“Tell us about Amber,” Grant said, nodding his head at Brad. “How much have you told her about this weekend?”

“She’s great,” Brad said, smiling at the thought of her. “And I’ve told her nothing. I decided after the fiasco we had that year you brought, what was her name — Hensley? Hennessee? — that the best way to gauge if they fit with the family is to see how they react. It’s honest. Visceral.”

“Her name was Hensley,” Grant said, “and, yeah, she was not as prepared as she thought she was. I’ve tried to forget that year.”

“You’ll have to tell me the story sometime,” Derek said.

“Not this weekend,” Grant said. “It will definitely damper the festivities.”

“How do you think she’ll react?” Fernando asked. He still had just a hint of a Spanish accent and ‘think’ sounded more like ‘tink’.

“I wouldn’t have brought her if I had reservations,” Brad replied. “But, you never know what someone will do until they have to choose.”

“Good point,” Joe said. “I see that all the time with these companies I work with. A CEO will have to make a really hard decision that can save or destroy the company. Sometimes, they just can’t do it, and I work with other investors to replace them. Even making a bad decision they fight to recover from is better than doing nothing. I’m often surprised what I see about someone I thought I knew very well when they are forced to choose.”

“Then let’s end the suspense and get going,” Derek interjected. “The weather report said it would be unseasonably warm this morning with a fast-moving storm hitting by early afternoon. Let’s get a hike in while we can. It may be the only time all weekend we be outside.”

“Being stuck inside can make for an interesting weekend,” Fernando replied.

The men rejoined the women in the kitchen. They were opening the third round of wine bottles and listening to Heather share her latest wardrobe malfunction story during the catwalk in Milan.

“I swear that bastard wanted my breasts on display,” she explained. She set her glass on the table and used her hands to demonstrate the cut of the dress she wore. “It was these tiny little straps coming down all the way to the nipples, and what was supposed to be a cover were not form fitting, but loose, with a plunging neckline down to my navel! They were more like curtains, or a scarf, than an actual top to a dress. They kept sliding outside my breasts every time I took a step. Cameras are flashing everywhere because I’m flashing everyone!

“I get off the stage, and walk right over to the designer and say, ‘Why do you even have these flimsy pieces of fabric?’ I pulled the straps off my shoulders and let them fall to the side. ‘This is a much better look, anyway, no?’

“His mouth dropped open and I just stormed off,” Heather finished. She acknowledged the men had joined them and directed a question to them: “What would you do if a woman was at a cocktail party with a dress that looked like this?”

She yanked on her silk blouse sending buttons flying across the table. She pulled the front to the outside of her breasts, displaying them to the group. She shimmied her shoulders a few times for emphasis.

“I’d find a reason to talk to her,” her husband, Grant, said. “Probably offer to get her the drink of her choice.”

“I’d want to know who she was wearing,” Chloe added. “I can’t find anything like that these days. Not even on Amazon.”

“As fun as this conversation is,” Derek interjected, “I think this morning is the only time we’ll have this weekend to be outside. We’ll regret not making the most of it. Shall we hike up to the fishing hole?”

“Can we bring wine?” Evie asked.

“It wouldn’t be a hike without it,” Derek answered.

“I love the idea,” Ines said. “Meet outside in ten minutes? I want to change and maybe grab some food. You did remember to stock up on food, as the first one to arrive, right Brad? I know it’s been a while.”

“You’ll find everything you like, and more, has been supplied,” Brad answered. He had a service deliver it a few days before they arrived and asked their caretaker to unload everything so it would be ready.

“Meet you outside in ten minutes, then,” Heather said, trying and failing to close her now damaged blouse. “I definitely will need a new top.”

 

Chapter 3 — Too hot for a hike

They gathered in the driveway ten minutes later dressed for a hike in the forest. Most had hiking shoes, tank tops, shorts with pockets, and wool socks. Amber, who had no idea what to expect, just had her runners, a sports bra and the yoga pants she would normally wear during an evening run. Ines brought a backpack full of packages of nuts, granola bars, fresh fruit, and a blanket to sit on. Joe handed everyone a camelback full of water.

Ten minutes into the hike, the men, who had not had anything to drink, were at the front of the line, forging ahead to make the most of the daylight. Amber had limited herself to two drinks and was doing her best to keep up with Brad. Brad slowed his gait enough to stay with her, but did not want to lose sight of the other men. They were known pranksters.

“This was our favorite place to hang out during the summers,” Brad explained to Amber as they navigated the trail. Newly sprouted pine needles filled the air with their fresh scent, energizing them with each breath as they struggled to ascend the steep trail up the mountain. He looked back for the rest of the women. They were breathing heavily, laboring to ascend the steep climb, especially those who tried to finish three bottles of wine, despite the fitness of their appearance.

“When we were kids, we’d spend the entire day up here, often leaving so late we’d be walking in the woods at night, scared we’d be attacked by a bear or a mountain lion,” Brad continued. “We never saw much more than a fox or random racoon, but we’d heard the stories of dogs going missing, or cats that went out at night and never returned.”

“Evie liked to fill our heads with those stories,” Chloe added, out of breath. She began jogging when she realized the pack of women could no longer see the men in front of them. She was hunched over with her hands on her knees, signaling for them to wait for her.

“That is true,” Brad agreed. “Chloe and I, being the youngest, were always her target. That hasn’t changed much as adults. But it never stopped us from making the climb with fishing poles and a bucket of worms.”

“Is this the creek where you would skinny dip?” Amber asked, remembering that tidbit from their conversation this morning. Chloe paused her step half a second from surprise, but kept moving, hoping neither noticed.

“Yep, that’s the spot,” Brad said. “With as hot as it is this morning, we may just have to go again for old time sakes.” Brad glanced at Amber trying to gauge her reaction. Unable to discern any reaction at all, he made a note not to play her in high-stakes poker.

“How much further?” Amber asked, wiping sweat from her brow. “And when did it get so hot? I thought mountain air was chilly in the morning?”

“It normally is,” Brad agreed, “But like Derek said, we’re on the tail end of unseasonably warm weather this morning with a cold front moving in early afternoon that will bring rain and heavy storms for the rest of the weekend. So, whatever you want to do in the woods, today is the day to do it. And, it’s not much farther.”

“Well, I’m going to run on ahead then. Get my trail running in,” Amber announced. “Will it be obvious where to stop, or should I just fall in with the guys?”

“The trail ends where we’re going,” Chloe said. Amber nodded and took off running. Chloe reached for Brad’s hand, holding him back.

“I’ve missed you,” she said, when she was sure Amber was out of earshot. Brad nodded, and started walking, so she continued. “Are you sure she’s ready for our gathering?”

“Like I told the guys, I won’t know until she has to choose,” he said, not looking back at her.

“With how she reacted to my visit this morning, well, she could go either way, I think,” Chloe said.

“What, exactly, happened this morning?” Brad asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Chloe said, nodding up the trail. Amber was running back towards them.

“That was a lot closer than I thought,” she said. “I barely got my breathing going when I stumbled on the guys stripping down and jumping in the creek. Figured it was better for me to come back here than to stand awkwardly on the shore with your naked cousins splashing each other.”

“They didn’t waste any time,” Chloe said. “Want me to stand awkwardly with you?”

“Nah, I’ll walk with Brad from here,” Amber said. Chloe shrugged and jogged ahead on the trail.

“You could have gone,” Brad said.

“I know,” Amber replied, “but I have a question for you. Did you know we’d be skinny dipping and didn’t think to discuss it with me in advance?”

“I never know what’s going to happen with this crew,” Brad replied, honestly. “I figured it was a possibility, if the weather permitted, and we’d discuss it if it did. Do you want to discuss it?”

“What’s do discuss?” she said playfully. “This heat is torture.”

She pulled her sports bra off over her head, threw it at him, and ran back up the trail topless. Brad, caught by surprise, juggled the sweaty fabric, lost control of it and watched it fall to the ground. As he bent over to retrieve it, he heard the remaining hikers coming up the trail.

“Getting a head start on us?” Of course, it was Evie, smiling at the sports bra in his hand. She made a show of looking around the woods. “Did Amber duck behind a bush?”

“She ran on ahead,” Brad explained, unable to contain a satisfied smile. “She got a head start on the swim preparations.”

Evie, Heather and Ines exchanged looks of surprise. Maybe Amber was going to work out, after all.

“We shouldn’t keep them waiting,” Heather said, removing her shirt. Ines and Evie slipped out of theirs and continued by removing everything but their shoes. Evie led the pack up the trail, pausing to hand Brad her pile of clothes.

“Be so kind, would you?” she said as she handed them over. “I’d give you my shoes, but the trail can get a bit rough on the feet.”

Brad accepted the pile from Heather and Ines, too, nodding ‘you’re welcome’ as they each stacked their clothes on his outstretched arms.

“See you soon,” Ines said, dropping her thong on top of the pile. She kissed him softly on the cheek, gave a quick curtsy, and jogged after the rest of the crew.

Everyone was fully naked and in the water when Brad arrived. Shoes with socks tucked inside were lined nicely atop a fallen log at the shore’s edge. Ines had already prepared the blanket on a grassy spot fully exposed to the sun. All the camelbacks were tossed in a pile in one corner of the blanket.

At this place in the creek, the water spread out into a large, calm pool the size of a small pond and nearly eight feet deep at its deepest point. At its widest swimmable point, from where the creek enters the pool to where it continues meandering down the mountain, it can measure fifty feet. Depending on how much snow runoff remains in the season, and how much recent rain they’ve had, it can vary from two to four feet in average depth.

“It is a lot colder this early in the season,” Grant warned him. “Feels almost like swimming in a snowbank.”

“Is that why you’re keeping everything below your waist submerged?” Brad asked. He dropped all the clothes on the blanket and removed his own. He placed his shoes and socks on the same log and took the first, timid steps into the water.

“Show off while you can,” Chloe shouted from the far end of the pool. “A few more steps and you’ll be shriveling to the size of a sweet pickle!”

“I heard you’re a fan of sweet pickles,” Brad retorted. He took two quick strides into the ice water and dove in headfirst. He emerged gasping for breath and shivering.

“Holy shit that’s cold,” he said. Amber swam over and locked her arms around his neck and legs around his hips.

“You get used to it, but I hear sharing body heat can help warm up faster,” Amber said, and kissed him deeply on the mouth. Brad, unaccustomed to a public display of affection from her, initially held his arms out to his sides in surprise, but quickly embraced her tightly and responded with a kiss of his own. He did wonder if she was starting to feel jealous of the attention Chloe was giving him. Chloe was flirting more than he expected.