The Island's Secret - 9. Thursday

I woke up earlier than usual, and I immediately checked to see if my wish had come true. Unfortunately, it hadn’t. It looked like Bear had pushed Asher more into the middle during the night, and I reached over Asher’s sleeping form to give him a pat. I lay back down, careful not to wake either of them, and decided to wait until Asher woke up on his own. I looked at his face in the morning light, memorizing every perfect curve and line. I wished I had my camera, so I could capture this beauty forever, but I didn’t want to risk waking him to get it. I settled with watching him. His hair was tousled from sleep, and I resisted the urge to run my fingers through it. Even now, after a night with two warm bodies under the covers, it didn’t look sweaty or greasy.

I let my eyes wander to his ears, and I silently laughed at myself as I realized that even his ears were perfect to me. How often do you think of ears as nice? My eyes roamed down his kissable neck to his strong shoulders. I imagined myself gently biting those shoulders, making Asher moan. I pulled my eyes up to his face again, trying to keep the dirty fantasies to a minimum, but his lips were even worse. There was nothing I wanted more in this moment than to kiss those perfect lips. I moved on to his closed eyes, but even his eyelids looked kissable.

I tried to find somewhere safe to look, but there was not a single imperfection, from his straight nose to his lickable chin. I could imagine myself stroking his soft cheek far too easily, and then I’d fall into another sexy daydream. I tried to turn over, but the sound of his soft breath made me wonder how it would taste, and the faint smell of him made me want to lick him all over. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I rolled out of bed, careful not to shake it or make noise.

I padded quietly to the bathroom, where I dropped my boxers and stepped into the shower. I stepped out again without turning it on, and walked over to grab a towel. I’d learned that lesson already. When I had the towel in convenient reach, I started the shower and washed myself quickly, fighting the temptation to touch my cock. It didn’t take long before my will broke, and I wrapped a hand around my throbbing shaft. I pictured Asher, and I’d barely even stroked before I exploded. I cleaned everything up, and leaned out of the shower to grab the towel. I noticed that Asher wasn’t in the room, and I stepped out of the shower so I had more space to dry myself off.

When I was done, I wrapped the towel around my waist and quietly walked to the closet to get changed. I saw Asher, still sleeping peacefully in my bed, and I wanted nothing more than to lie down behind him and go back to sleep. I ignored the urge, got changed, and picked out clothes for Asher before bringing them back to the bathroom. When I was done, Asher was still sleeping. I walked back into the bedroom, watching him quietly, and finally decided to lie down beside him again. I carefully lay down, not disturbing the waterbed too much, and lay on my back to stare at the roof and listen to the gentle music of Asher breathing. I’m not sure how long I lay there before I heard a tiny change in Asher’s breathing, almost unnoticeable. I looked over at him, and I saw that his beautiful eyes were open, and he was watching me. He gave me a smile that looked less than half-awake and propped himself up on his arm.

“What time is it?” he asked softly, his voice sending shivers down my spine.

I grabbed my phone off the bedside table and looked at it, before putting it back down and giving him a small smile.

“Eight,” I told him gently. “You slept in.”

“Oh,” he said, the soft syllable falling from his mouth like a snowflake. He stretched, covering his mouth as he yawned, and I admired the muscle definition he had even now.

“Sorry,” he almost whispered, his eyes drifting closed again. He still sounded tired, and it was making me feel strongly protective of him again. I wanted to wrap him in my arms and help him block out the world so he could go back to sleep, but instead I sat up slowly.

“It’s fine,” I said softly, unsure if he was still awake. His eyes fluttered open again, and I hated myself for waking him up. He yawned again, and I lay back down.

Looks like we’re not getting up after all, I thought, amused. This side of Asher made me feel so soft and warm inside, and I just wanted him to go back to sleep. He blinked his eyes open again, and tried to push himself up.

“It’s OK,” I told him. “You can go back to sleep if you want.”

He managed to hold himself in a sitting position, but it looked like it was a battle.

“No,” he protested sleepily. “I can’t.”

He saw my amused grin, and realized what he’d said. He gave me a small, soft smile.

“You’d be so bored,” he clarified, blinking again.

I shook my head. “I’ll go back to sleep too,” I promised. “It’ll be fine.”

He looked like he was wavering, and he leaned back a bit, pulled towards the bed like iron to a magnet. I felt even more protective as his head hit the pillow and his eyes closed again.

I carefully rolled off the bed and stripped off my clothes again. There was no point in wearing them if I’d just get them sweaty. I turned to crawl back into bed, and saw Asher’s eyes were open again, watching me with a small sleepy smile. I should have felt self-conscious, standing in front of him in my boxers, but I didn’t. I wondered if he was even seeing anything right now. It seemed doubtful, with how tired he was. I gave him a gentle smile, and crawled under the blankets. The corner of Asher’s mouth twitched, as if he was trying to smile back, but his eyes closed again and his breathing deepened. I got into bed as slowly as I possibly could, determined not to disturb him, and I managed to get under the covers without hearing his breathing change.

Bear, I love you, but if you wake him up right now I’ll throw you off the boathouse, I thought. Bear continued sleeping, oblivious to my determination to let Asher sleep. When he looked this vulnerable, I’d do anything for him.

I’m pathetic, I reminded myself. How can I have this much of a crush on someone I met less than a week ago?

I listened for an answer in Asher’s soft breathing, but I only found sleep.

I woke up again sometime in the afternoon to the sound of the shower running, and I was disappointed in myself for not being awake for Asher when we woke up. I wondered if he was still in the same mood, and I wandered into the bathroom to find out.

“Good morning,” I said.

“You mean good afternoon?” he asked, laughing softly. “It’s two thirty.”

“Oh,” I said, grinning. I was in such a good mood after being so close to Asher for so long that nothing could dent my happiness.

“I was thinking,” Asher said, his voice still softer than usual. “We should go camping."

I nodded slowly before realizing he couldn’t see me. “Good idea,” I said, grinning to myself. Camping with Asher sounded like a dream come true. “I don’t have a tent, though,” I said.

“My grandparents have one, I think,” he said. “They used to love going camping.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “When do you want to go?”

I didn’t have to see Asher to know he was smiling. “I was thinking today,” he said.

“Great,” I said, smiling at the wall. I couldn’t wait to see Asher today. His voice sounded so soft and calm, and it still had a hint of the vulnerability from this morning that could make me do anything for him. The water stopped, and I glanced in the mirror to see Asher leaning out to pick up the clothes I’d laid out for him. He saw me watching, and smiled softly. I returned his smile with interest, and he brought the clothes into the shower to change. He stepped out, looking perfect, and I knew I’d be taking a lot of pictures today.

We walked upstairs to make breakfast, and we were met by a delicious smell at the doorway and Tommy at the table. He’d made pancakes for lunch, and we all sat down to eat together. Nobody really said anything, but Asher kept smiling softly at nothing, and it made me want to smile too. Tommy occasionally glanced at us, probably wondering if we were high, but it couldn’t make me stop. When we finished, Asher and I told him that we were thinking of going camping today. He said it was fine with him, and suggested a spot that he’d heard from his friend who lived nearby. We told him we’d consider it, but I think we both knew we wouldn’t go anywhere near it. We were going to go camping, not sleeping in a tent a kilometer from the highway. He told me to bring my phone, and asked how long we’d be gone for.

I looked at Asher, who shrugged.

“We’d probably bring food for a week,” he said. “Maybe stay out for five days.”

Tommy nodded, and told us about a solar power generator he had ‘somewhere around here’ that could charge our phones. We thanked him, and went to look for it. We found it in the garage, and left it in the sun to charge while we went to ask Martha and Bernie for permission and supplies. They were fine with us going, as long as we brought biodegradable shampoo, a first aid kit, and a rope to hoist the food into the trees so the bears didn’t get it.

They dug out their old camping supplies, and we packed everything we’d need into two large backpacks made for the purpose. We left a bit of room in mine for the generator, and went back to my cottage to grab it and my phone. I already had my camera and the extra battery, so we were set. I took a picture of us before we left, wanting a way to remember the soft, happy glow in Asher’s eyes as we packed Bear into the canoe and paddled out into the lake.

We paddled for a few hours, and every time I glanced back Asher would give me a quiet smile. I ended up finding excuses to glance back frequently, usually in the form of taking a picture of something. There were plenty of birds, and as we reached an uninhabited area, we saw a bear at the shore, drinking the water. I got some pictures of it, and we admired it until it lumbered back into the woods. We stopped paddling soon in favor of watching the sunset, and we spun the canoe around so I could get pictures of Asher and Bear outlined by the setting sun. The refracting rays made it look far bigger than usual, and we silently watched it until it sunk below the horizon to bring its light to another part of the world.

We decided without speaking that we should continue on, since neither of us were tired. We paddled for another hour until we found a tiny island. We decided to set up the tent there, since it was close to the mainland yet safe from predators. We pulled the canoe up, and took our time setting up the tent. Bear seemed to enjoy the opportunity to stretch his legs, but we didn’t let him go in the water. He’d be sleeping in the tent with us, and wet dog was not something we wanted to smell. When we had the tent set up, it was probably one in the morning. I took a picture of us, and we sat outside, playing cards and patting Bear until we wanted to sleep.

We stripped to our boxers and climbed into our sleeping bags, laying down with Bear in between us. Just like last night, Bear wouldn’t tolerate feeling trapped by bodies on either side of him, and to my delight, he lay down beside me, pushing me towards Asher. The tent wasn’t as big as my bed, and my sleeping bag was touching Asher’s. I wished Bear would push me just a little bit more, but he seemed satisfied with the amount of room he had. I unzipped my sleeping bag, exposing my chest so I could reach over to pat Bear. The colder air felt soothing against my hot skin, and I realized I was falling asleep.

Wow, I thought sleepily. For once, I’m beating Asher to sleep. I could hear in his breathing that he was awake, and I wondered what he was thinking as I drifted off.

I wrote a short story while I had writers' block for this story, and I'll be posting it in two days (instead of Monday for this story ). I also started writing another longer story today, and I might start posting that (i'll wait until I know where it's going, and if it'll be half decent). This is just a heads up, so you know why i'm not posting this story (if it happens). I'll still keep this one coming, though. It's my personal favorite out of all my stories XD.