~ 34 ~
PEYTON
Ripley was the first one to join me. He stripped casually and without fanfare, rolling his layered shirt overhead as my eyes crawled his musclebound body the whole way. He stopped at his boxer briefs, smirked at my disappointment, then stepped purposefully into the steaming, super-heated water.
“Fuuuuck…” he sighed, gliding in up to his shoulders. His eyes even rolled back.
“Worth it?” I giggled.
“Shut up, you’re interrupting my orgasm.”
Theo and Colson followed suit, and I enjoyed the double feature. Watching them disrobe, inch by rippled inch, was almost as fun as the end result. Soon the four of us were floating together, letting the geothermal heat from the thousand-year old mineral springs soak into our tired, travel-weary bodies.
“The grotto opens up to the outside,” Theo motioned. “Follow the cooler air.”
Through the backlit blue dome we swam, the boys brushing their mostly-naked bodies against mine every chance they got. It didn’t bother me one bit that I was the only one totally naked. With their wet, skin-tight briefs revealing every bump and curve of their front and rear packages, I deemed the trade-off to be more than enough.
At the back of the grotto we had to dip through a smaller crevice, and then suddenly we were outside. The pool continued in a rough half-circle, along the back of the house. Above us, the star-flecked sky was tinted with a shimmering ribbon of green and purple. I gasped when I realized what it was.
“Solar particles interacting with atmospheric gases—” Theo began.
“You mean the Northern Lights?”
He stopped narrating and chuckled. “Yeah.”
I stared openly, totally awestruck, enjoying the moment. Two arms slid around my waist, pulling me gently so that I floated weightlessly onto my back.
“It’s so beautiful,” I sighed. “So… safe.”
“Iceland is one of the safest countries in the world,” I heard Theo say.
“C’mon,” Ripley grumbled. “Don’t jinx it.”
“I’m just saying,” Theo went on. “Not only is Iceland safe, but the people who provided this place for us pride themselves in keeping it invisible. It’s totally off-grid. Stocked for months. Connected only through impenetrable layers of encryption, and—”
“You could like,notdo this right now?” I asked him sweetly.
Theo chuckled again and swam closer, gliding alongside me. His touch was gentle as he guided my cheek his way, then leaned in and gave me a soft, bold kiss.
“Smooth move,” I sighed. “And confident, too. You wouldn’t have dreamed of trying that a few weeks ago.”
“Trust me, I dreamed of it,” he assured me. “I just kept my dreams to myself.”
Ripley’s hard body floated closely beneath mine, supporting me, allowing me a full, unobstructed view of the shifting sky. The white and green ribbon changed colors, even as we watched. The light pulsated outward like a living, breathing thing, where it turned the most beautiful blue and violet at the very edges.
“This is the first time I don’t feel hunted,” I sighed.
“Doesn’t mean we aren’t.”
“I know. It’s just… I want to enjoy this. While it lasts.”
I twisted from Ripley’s hold, then turned to face him. The french manicure I’d gotten before the wedding was mostly holding up, so I used a single nail to trace his cheek, his lips, his sharp, angular jaw. My eyes wandered his face slowly, bit by bit, taking mental photos of every rough, rugged part of him. Then I kissed him, inhaling him as his lips parted to kiss me back. Our tongues slid hotly through each other’s mouths, the kiss deepening as the heat built between us.
As I melted into his arms, my gaze shifted to the others. There was jealousy in their expressions, for sure. Colson’s was a quiet, but focused envy. Theo’s was sharper and more desperate, as he was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve.
Both expressions gave me pause, maybe even a little worry.
But they also turned me on.
