Rowe moved closer to the SUV and started shifting its contents around. “We need to get the tents up while we’ve still got light.”
“Tent,” Lucas corrected.
Snow lifted on eyebrow in question, gazing at his oldest friend standing beside him. “Tent? Just one?”
“Ian and I found a tent that’s big enough to sleep twelve. It has three separate rooms and goes up in just a couple of minutes.”
“Twelve? There’s just three of you!”
“We wanted something that would be big enough to fit the air mattresses,” Ian chimed in.
“You brought air mattresses?”
“Of course—” Lucas started but was cut off by Rowe’s groan.
“When did you two turn into such pansies?” Rowe snarled. “You were in the Army. I remember us going out on a mission and sleeping on the ground. No tent. No mattress. No coffeemaker. We roughed it and we survived.”
“Yeah, but that was the Army. Who the hell wants to do that now? I like beds and air conditioning,” Lucas countered.
“I love my coffeemaker,” Snow added.
A sharp whistle cut through the bickering, drawing their eyes over to Jude. “We’re wasting what little daylight we’ve got left.” Reaching into the SUV, Jude pulled out the packaged tent and tossed it at Snow’s feet. “You and Lucas put the tent up. Andrei and I will get the SUV unloaded of the necessities. Rowe, can you get started on a fire? Ian will organize the food and work on dinner.”
Snow winked at Jude and then grabbed a frowning Lucas, swallowing back a laugh at Lucas’s disgruntled expression. His friend was not accustomed to someone telling him what to do. Turning him back toward the camp, Lucas fell into step beside him.
“Did you know there were cabins down here?” Lucas demanded in a low voice.
He hadn’t known until they’d started passing signs along Mountain Parkway promising comfortable cabins tucked in the picturesque mountainside with all the usual amenities. He felt like he’d been scammed by either Rowe or Andrei, but he wasn’t going to admit that.
Bumping Lucas, he lifted an eyebrow. “Who cares? You’ve got your luxury tent mansion to sleep in. But what were you thinking sharing a tent with Ian? That’s going to limit your fun with the Romanian tonight.”
Lucas bumped Snow back. “He’s in another part of the tent, not sleeping on the air mattress between us. Besides, even if he was in a separate tent, there’d be no sex tonight. The walls are just thin fabric. He’d hear us even if he wasn’t in the same tent.”
Snow stopped in the center of their camp. He could feel the wicked grin spreading across his entire face. “So what?”
Lucas jerked around to face him and groaned loudly. “Give the fucking Olympics a rest while we’re here, Ash. I learned enough about your sex life with Jude while we were skiing.”
With a small shake of his head, Snow knelt down and started to open the nylon bag holding the tent. Jude might not want to screw around in the tent considering their companions would be able to hear everything. Of course, with Jude in his bossy mood, Snow couldn’t imagine being able to keep his hands to himself when they were alone in the tent later that night. It would be interesting to see if they could actually be quiet.
But keeping his hands to himself when the sexy man was anywhere near him?
Never going to happen.Chapter 2“I cook over fire all the time,” Ian grumbled, kicking a rock into the fire pit. “I still can’t figure out what happened. Maybe it’s this damn heat.”
Jude bit back a laugh and stretched out his legs, making sure to keep them well away from the fire. He’d hoped a cool front would come in during the evening, but the temperature still made his clothes uncomfortably sticky and the massive fire in the center of their camp wasn’t helping. Ian had brought a camping stove—a stove! Yet, he’d insisted on building the fire and cooking over it.
A hot hand landed on his neck and he turned his head to give Snow a smile right as sweat dripped into his eye. That was it. He’d been the one to suggest this trip and granted, it had been years since he’d camped, but he’d always gone in the spring or fall—never the summer. He unscrewed his water bottle and poured some over his head. The cool liquid felt so good on his sweaty scalp, he groaned.
“Porno action this early? I’m impressed.” Snow leaned in close, his voice a rough whisper. “Groan like that again and I’ll be dragging you into the woods.”
Although his groin perked with the words and that bedroom voice he loved, Jude just shook his head and swiped the water out of his eyes. When he blinked them into focus, he found both Lucas and Andrei grinning at him. Andrei had stretched out some distance from the fire. Dirt streaked his T-shirt and arms. Lucas, on the other hand, managed to look pristine even though he was on the ground close to Andrei. Every so often, he caught the two giving each other looks that said a lot about whether they would end up caring about the thin tent walls.