Page 58 of Dared

“To stop the tent collapsing.” Connor cuffed him around the back of the head. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“I told you I’m a city boy. I’ve never camped before. We’d better have the best presentation ever after all this shit. Tent pegs,” he muttered, shaking his head.

Leaving Connor and Niall to figure out their own tent, I stepped over to where Leo was sprawled out on a blanket on the grass, his laptop open in front of him.

“Hi,” he said, glancing up at me, shading his eyes. A bright smile curved over his lips. “I think I did it.”

“Yeah?” I sank down next to him. “Show me.”

We’d come to this little campsite on a farm in Surrey as a research trip so the boys could figure out the whole booking process from start to finish. They’d arranged to speak to the campsite owners and other campers about the kinds of things they looked for in a booking system, to ensure they were covering all their bases. Aiming for the highest possible grades, they were even designing a functioning site that would allow people to go through the entire booking process from beginning to end, choosing dates, pitch types, and optional extras.

The three of them had spent a long time talking—and Leo had apologised in person, not that he needed to, brainstorming ways they could support each other. It had taken Leo by surprise when his friends had shared that they were both nervous, and when it had sunk in, he’d stepped up his game.

What had started out as a vague idea to get Leo more comfortable with the upcoming presentation so he’d be able to answer any of the questions thrown at him had morphed into a comprehensive plan, a big part of which involved me ransacking my family’s supply of camping equipment. Oh, and borrowing my dad’s SUV for the night…which he’d finally agreed to after I promised I’d treat it with the utmost care.

Connor was the only other one who’d been camping before, although his version of camping had been at a festival with a pop-up tent he couldn’t even remember sleeping in, so it made sense for them to come to an actual working campsite for research. And so here we were, on a sunny afternoon in a quiet field, and I got to spend a whole night with Leo, just the two of us in a tent.

“You really want to see?” Leo’s brows pulled together, and I reached out, stroking my thumb over the furrow.

“Really. I might not understand it all, but it’s important to you, and therefore, it’s important to me.”

“You know your stuff is important to me, too?” There was a question in his voice.

“Yeah. I know that. Anytime you wanna hear about engineering, I’m your man.”

“I’ll listen, even if I don’t understand it. Like you do for me.”

“That’s because we’re a team.” I smiled at him, and he rose onto his elbows, pressing a quick kiss to my lips.

My stomach swooped.

“Oi, you two! Save it for your alone time in your tent! Leo, c’mon! We’ve got work to do.”

Leo pulled away from me, all flushed cheeks and shy smiles, and how was he so fucking cute?

“Yeah, yeah.” I gave Connor the finger, and he grinned at me. Leo clambered to his feet with a sigh, and then the three of them disappeared from the camping field to investigate the site facilities for their website. Because this was supposed to be a working trip, I made a half-hearted attempt to make some notes from the textbook I’d brought with me, but I gave up after a few minutes. I was ahead anyway, so it wasn’t like I reallyneededto be working. Instead, I opened my phone to my internet browser.

Scrolling past my eighty-seven open tabs to the page I’d bookmarked, I began to read.

I didn’t want this to be premeditated, and I didn’t want to ever put any pressure on Leo, or on myself, but I wanted to make sure that if the topic of anal sex came up, we weren’t going in blind. Although I’d slept with several girls in the past, this was a whole different ball game. Literally. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to ask anyone I knew for advice on, even though I had plenty of friends who I knew would be more than willing to share their experiences. This was private, between me and Leo, and the last thing we needed was even more questions about our friendship.

As I scrolled through the page, apprehension filled me. This was…daunting. Lube—yeah, I could do that, no problem. But the stretching thing with dildos or fingers or whatever…and who decided whose dick went in the other person? Did we flip a coin? Was it going to hurt?

“What’s that?”

Oh, fuck.

My gaze landed on a pair of scuffed Adidas trainers, and I grimaced, forcing myself to look up. Yep, it was as I’d thought. Leo was staring at my phone screen with wide eyes. The phone screen which currently had a close-up of a guy with his fingers buried in another guy’s ass.

I glanced around, and thankfully, we were alone for the moment. I had no idea where Connor and Niall were, but the important thing was that they weren’t here.

What the fuck was I supposed to say to him without making it seem like I was expecting something to happen?

“It’s just research.”

“Research,” he repeated slowly. When he lowered himself down next to me and tugged my phone from my unresisting grip, I fell back, throwing my hand over my face.

“You weren’t supposed to see it.”

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