Page 16 of It Starts With Summer

“Man, why does camping make you so hungry?”Dex chimed in, licking his lips in anticipation.Their words were met with laughter from the group, and I smiled.“I want all of it.”

“Let’s not get too carried away.”Ravi kept his tone light and teasing, making me think of how sweet he must be with his younger siblings.“I think we’ve got enough food to tide you over.And it looks ready.”

“Yes!Feed us!”Owen was so excited for food that he was literally bouncing, as was Damien, the kid standing next to him.

Ravi shook his head.“Parker has the hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.Please clean up first!”

They all turned towards me.“I do?”I asked, spinning around, and finding that Ravi had set up a clean-up station beside me on an upended log.I guided the campers over to that, shooting him a smile.

“When you’re clean, come back and hold out your plates,” he said.

The campers jostled and shoved for the nondescript egg scramble, then took more than their fair share of muffins and settled on the logs around the campfire.

As we all ate together, laughter and chatter filled the air, creating a warm, comforting atmosphere that was hard to resist.I tried to forget about the time in the tent with Ravi, focusing instead on the camaraderie of our group and the simple joy of sharing a meal in the great outdoors.

By the time we'd tidied the camp and cleaned up the breakfast mess, it was warm enough for a swim in the little lake at the campsite.It was a pristine high country lake, with cool, clear water, and the temperature was perfect on our aching muscles.Between dips in the water, we relaxed on a series of huge, warm rocks.

And Ravi was starting to be a problem.Watching him dive into the water, and then stand to shake it off, was like a slow-motion sexy scene in a movie, all rippling muscles and glowing golden brown skin.He was unaware of his own hotness, which only made him hotter.What I wouldn’t give to be the droplet of water that slowly slid down the ridges of his abdomen.

I forced myself to look away before a camper caught me leering again, but in the back of my mind, I was imagining what it would feel like to be pressed against him.I sent my imagination in a non-lewd direction, to avoid a boner in the lake, imagining what it’d be like to hug him, to be held by him.Our bodies would fit nicely, I was sure of it — he was lean, and I was thicker.I liked leaner guys, and our height was a good match.

I fucking loved guys who were around my height.

Shit, I needed to stop cataloging his boyfriend-like attributes before it was too late.And I had one more night in a tent with him.

“You okay?You suddenly look panicked.I have some disinfectant wipes?First aid kit?”Ravi asked, startling me out of my insane thought spiral.

“What?”I asked, frowning at him.“What would disinfectant do?I’m in a lake.”

He grinned, shrugging a little sheepishly.“I don’t know.It was the first thing that came to mind.What can I say?I'm awkward.”

“But cute.”The words fell from my lips before I could stop them.Typical Parker.

He ducked his chin, smiling a little, then shook his head.“So, are we doing that day hike from here?Or should we let them swim a while longer?”

"Owen has a blister, I say we chill here.The lake is beautiful, and there’s plenty to do.We can pick some wild strawberries later."Hell, if it was up to me, the kids could swim all damn day, especially if it meant I got to sunbathe on a rock and watch Ravi in a swimsuit.

"Great!"Ravi said."I'm going to go get my notebook.I saw an interesting valerian over there.Sitka valerian, I think?I'd love to sketch it."

"As long as you do it shirtless!"That made it official.I had no self-control around Ravi's abs.

"What?"Ravi swung around, frowning at me.

I coughed."Um, I said sure!"Fuck, that was a terrible cover-up.“I think I'll go hang out on the rocks.I’m getting a little chilly.”

I could have sworn he replied with, “As long as you do it shirtless!”but I must have imagined it.Or maybe he was muttering to himself about my stupid words.

eight

Ravi

“So,ifIfindgay ogres sexy, does that mean I’m gay?”I asked Ben as we sat down for breakfast a few days later.The backpacking trip had gone off without a hitch, if you ignored my two days of pent-up lust for Parker.I’d taken four showers after we’d gotten home, and Parker had teased me that I was plenty clean.He didn’t understand that I’d needed that much time to jerk off again and again, obsessed with fantasizing about owning Parker’s body the way Garuk now owned Caladrel in my book.

We’d spent the next few days doing mellower activities — an archery day and a nature hike around the lake.And I was now on Mages of Aleron Volume Two, and I was so damn sexually confused.“I mean, does it count if it’s, you know, magical gay sex?Like in book two when they, you know.And there’s telepathy so he can feel everything.”

“Oh fuck, I remember that scene,” Ben said, chuckling.“I so want telepathy.It’d be so fucking hot to feel both sides of the pleasure.”

I studied Ben for a moment.“I thought you said you weren't gay?”

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