Chapter 1
“What?!” Mom’s shrill complaint echoed from nearby. “I asked you to get Cynthia’s tent from the storage room, and you missed it?”
“I got it and put it in the entryway, told you to put it in the big backpack.”
“I have so much to prepare, how am I supposed to remember! Since you got it out, why didn’t you just put it in yourself?”
Hearing their daily squabble begin, a bad feeling bloomed in my gut.
I stepped forward, interrupting, “Mom, did you forget something?”
“Honey, the bad news is we forgot your solo tent.” Mom slapped her forehead, looking apologetic. “The good news is, the family tent we brought is big enough to fit all three of us.”
My eyes widened.
“Is there a second option? Like, I could squeeze in with someone else?” I asked, not giving up.
“Squeeze in with who? That single guy? Don’t even think about it!” Mom cut me off decisively. “If you don’t want to sleep with us, you can hike four hours back to the car and drive three hours home to get it.”
“Your mom’s right, going back now isn’t realistic.” Nicholas looked at me, a knowing glint deep in his eyes.
I wanted to ignore them both.
“Honey, you go help Nicholas set up the tent. This big tent is missing a wind stake, I’ll go borrow one.”
Nicholas found a flat spot on the campsite. I walked over to assist him.
Nicholas is my stepfather, thirty-nine years old, three years younger than my mom. They’ve been married for five years.
He’s the best-looking mature man I’ve ever seen. His hazel eyes are deep and captivating, his jawline sharp as a knife.
He’s usually calm and gentle, his smile radiating a deadly charm unique to mature men.
Today, he was wearing a dark grey, quick-dry t-shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, revealing strong, veined forearms.
I tried to force myself not to look at him, but my gaze kept drifting to his waist, abs, and long legs.
“Cynthia,” Nicholas’s voice suddenly rumbled, low and magnetic, making my ears tingle, “come help me pull on the guy-line.”
“Oh, okay.” I hastily averted my gaze, circling to the other side of the tent.
Just as I was about to reach him, my foot caught on a hidden root, and I lost my balance, falling forward. “Ah...”
The expected pain didn’t come. A pair of large, strong arms intercepted me mid-fall.
The world was silent for a single, frozen moment.
His wild scent, mixed with the crispness of grass and sweat, washed over me.
“Careful,” his deep voice rumbled from above.
His big hands were still firmly around my waist, not letting go immediately. “There’s a rope on the ground.”
After he made sure I was steady, his hands slowly slid away, brushing against my waistline. “It was covered by grass, I didn’t get a chance to warn you.”
I took a step back as if shocked, my ear was burning red.
In that moment of impact, the inside of my thigh seemed to graze against something hard and thick between his legs.
I took a deep breath and glanced at Nicholas.
He was standing in the evening sun, his tall silhouette outlined with an aggressive, golden-red glow.
He was looking down, adjusting the stake, a faint, wicked curve playing on his lips.
“I got the stake!” Mom’s voice came from the distance. I grabbed it, pretending nothing had happened.
The tent was quickly set up.
After dinner, everyone prepared to return to their respective tents for the night.
“You and Nicholas sleep on either side, I’ll sleep in the middle.” Inside the tent, Mom arranged our sleeping bags, stating the obvious.
I lowered my head, my face, hidden in the shadows, burning. I murmured a low “okay.”
However, the moment I bent over to crawl into the tent, I caught a glimpse of Nicholas standing outside, staring intently, with an almost wolfish, predatory gaze, at the curve of my butt, strained from bending over.
My guilt was overwhelming, and I quickly burrowed into my sleeping bag.
“You better behave yourself tonight, it’s not as spacious as sleeping alone at home, don’t be restless.” Mom joked.
“Mom, I’m grown up...” I buried most of my head in the sleeping bag, mumbling softly.
Soon after, the even and heavy snores of my mom came from the middle.
After a while, accompanied by the quiet rustling of clothing, Nicholas slipped in silently.
He turned off the camping light, and darkness instantly engulfed us like a tide.
Then, the dull thud of his large body lying down on the air mattress.
I held my breath, focusing intently on trying to catch any sound from Nicholas’s side.
In the darkness, just as my mind was on the verge of exhaustion, about to drift off to sleep –
“Shhh...”
An extremely subtle, yet hair-raising rustling of fabric suddenly sounded.
I felt the mattress behind me sinking.
Because Mom, sleeping in the middle, had shifted and taken up most of the air mattress.
And under the cover of darkness, Nicholas was moving towards the middle, slowly but surely.
On my back, a thick, hot leg was draped across my ankle, outside of the sleeping bag!
