Page 66 of The Mountain
They don’t, and by the time I wander back out of my room, Matty is in the shower, singing loudly off-key, and Liam and Antoine are nowhere to be seen. Lily’s door is ajar though, a beacon of light shining down the hallway. So I’m guessing they’re in there.
All of them.
That thought has my stomach flipping, an almost nauseating sense of nervousness at the thought of what they could be doing.Especially when I remember what I woke up to yesterday—after dozing off like a fucking nana, apparently.
Lily with Matty’s come painting her lips. Liam with his hands up Lily’s shirt, down her pants. Matty and Antoine sitting thigh to thigh, both pleasure drunk with their spent cocks out. And then Seth. With his hand tucked under the waistband of his sweats, getting himself off while I’d literally slept at his feet.
I’d been angry. Shocked. A little bit queasy at the sight of so many dicks. But then, when that first rush of surprise had passed me by… I don’t think I’d ever been more turned on in my life.
“It’s all yours.”
Matty’s cheerful voice has my eyes snapping up, and I almost jump when I see he’s standing right in front of me, the bathroom door open behind him, steam billowing out, and nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Sorry I took so long,” he says, frowning a little when I don’t respond. His cheeks flush, a pink that spreads down his neck and up to his ears. “Just…uh, wanted to make sure I was extra clean…” he rambles. “You know. Just in case. Not that I’m expecting anything…”
His gaze tracks to Lily’s room, to that little sliver of light and the sound of her voice mingling with the more masculine voices of Seth, Antoine, and Liam.
I lift my eyebrows at him and he falls silent, his gaze dropping to his feet. Normally, I’d probably tease him about buying condoms. Or about the almost overpowering smell of body spray wafting from the bathroom. Or make some lewd comment, just to see if I can make him blush more than he already is.
But then I remember how he looked earlier today, digging in the snow. Like all the ghosts of his past had risen up and were digging right along with him.
“Thanks, mate.” I have to reach up to clasp him on the shoulder, and it’s weird feeling another man’s bare skin under my palm, but he seems to relax under my touch. “You’re a good guy.”
Any other guy, and I’d feel awkward as fuck being so goddamn nice. But Matty… Matty’s different. He makes me feel protective and weirdly unselfish. It would be irritating if I didn’t like him so much.
“Thanks, bud.” Matty covers my hand with his own, gives it a squeeze, and then he’s shuffling toward Lily’s room, pausing to shoot me a sheepish smile over his shoulder. “I’ll uh… I’ll see you in there?”
“Yeah,” I reply, my mouth suddenly dry.
My heart races as I climb into the shower, my mind whirring, considering a million different things but always coming back to Lily’s room. To what is going to happen when I go in there. To what could be happening right now, without me.
Maybe it will be a repeat of last night. Maybe something more, something different. Or maybe we’ll just be hanging out and cuddling.
I give a wry smile, tilting my head back under the shower spray. Funnily enough, I think I’d be okay with that. With just cuddling. It’d certainly be a lot less intimidating than whatever happened last night on the couch.
I scrub at my face, then reach down to steal some of Liam’s expensive body wash.
Liam has ripped me out about being a player, about having a string of one-night stands, about hooking up with girls whose names I can’t even remember. And it’s true, all of it. It doesn’t mean I know shit about any ofthis. About being in a relationship—especially when the chick I’m dating is with four other guys. About group stuff, like what they did last night.
It probably makes me a selfish asshole, but until Lily, I never bothered to make a chick come. And even then, Lily had to show me exactly what to do.
Shame washes through me, alongside an uncomfortable rush of self-doubt, and the thought of going into Lily’s room suddenly feels completely terrifying. Because I’m just as inexperienced as Matty. Except worse, because I don’t actually have lack of experience as an excuse.
Basically, I’m bad at sex. And soon everyone is going to know it.
The water turns cold, icy as the snow outside, and I curse, frantically rinsing shampoo from my hair before scrambling to turn off the water. My hands shake as I dry off, and I try to tell myself it’s from the cold water, but my skin is heated despite the blast of cold. Almost fevered.
Because my mind is back on Lily’s room again. Imagining what she’s doing right now, what the four of them are doing with her.To her. I imagine Liam smirking at me as I come in, and Matty looking stunned as a cartoon baby deer. I imagine Antoine’s hands teasing Lily’s perfect breasts, her nipples pebbling, her lips parting, and Seth watching everything with hungry eyes and flushed cheeks.
“Oh, fuck it,” I hiss to no one in particular, struggling with a clean tee and a pair of sweatpants. “She’s my girlfriend too.”
The scenein Lily’s room is much tamer than what I glimpsed last night, by a long shot.
Lily is curled up in the middle of her mattress, with Seth at her back and Antoine facing her as Matty sits at her feet, trailing his fingers idly along her ankles. She’s wearing what looks suspiciously like Liam’s boxers, which should be disturbing, except all I can focus on are those strong, sun-browned legs stretching out, silky smooth and begging to be touched.
Antoine and Lily are murmuring to each other in French, Antoine with his forehead nearly touching Lily’s, his hand tangling in her damp hair.
Liam sits behind Antoine, half off the bed, looking mildly annoyed. Like maybe he's feeling just a little bit left out. He’s also the only one who seems to notice when I come in, and I can’t help but grin at him.Not so smug now, are you?I want to say.Not when all you’ve got is your boyfriend’s back and enough bed space for half your ass cheek.
