Drilled by K.M. Neuhold
Chapter 15
RIDGE
After we clean up from breakfast and the guys pitch a couple of tents—camping tents, not pants tents, just to be clear—everyone starts to pile into various cars. It’s a bit of chaos, coolers being loaded back up, seats being shuffled around, laughter and loud chatter filling the air and drowning out the peaceful sounds of birds and nature I’ve come to really appreciate about this place.
Apollo hangs back, still looking irritable and tense.
“There’s some space in here if you guys want to squeeze,” Ren offers, gesturing to the cramped backseat of Cole’s truck.
“My car is fine,” Apollo says, slipping into the driver’s seat of his own car without another word. I follow him in a hurry, half-afraid he’s going to speed off without waiting for me, just to get away from all of the pandemonium. He’s never been one for a lot of people, or ruckus, or honestly much of anything. My brain conjures the image of a million smiles that he always seemed to reserve only for me, and my heart flutters. Fine, he does like some things. Me-type things.
Everyone starts their cars, and they pull out one by one. I reach over and switch on the radio, propping my leg up on the dashboard like I did when we drove in a couple of weeks ago. And just like before, Apollo reaches over and swats at my calf.
“That’s dangerous.”
I roll my eyes but drop my leg anyway. It’s kind of sweet that he’s worried about me.
“So, kind of annoying that the guys showed up unexpectedly like that, huh?” I say as we hit the main road, following behind the caravan of our friends.
Are they friends? I haven’t been at Four Bears Construction long, but it definitely feels that way. Even if they are majorly cramping my style this weekend, I think they came with good intentions. I know Apollo thinks they’re just here to check up on the bet, but I think they genuinely wanted to make sure we weren’t too bored or lonely up here after two weeks away from civilization.
I cut a look at Apollo out of the corner of my eye. Definitely not bored, that’s for sure. Although, I am literally dreaming of a bubble bath as soon as I get home. Fuck, that will be amazing. I accidentally groan aloud at the thought.
“Thinking of something interesting?” he asks, his voice dipping low, full of suggestion.
I nearly laugh. Not this time, unless he considers the idea of floating in a lavender-scented bath to be interesting.
“Oh yeah.” I match his tone, reaching over to put a hand on his thigh. “I was imagining stripping down slowly, one item of clothing at a time, and then slipping into…a nice, hot bath.”
He huffs an amused sound through his nose. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Why? Did you think I was thinking about you?” I tease.
Apollo shrugs, keeping his eyes on the road. “Maybe you were thinking about what we could’ve spent the morning doing if the guys hadn’t shown up.”
“Hm,” I hum, running my hand a little farther up his thigh. “Do tell.”
He makes a deep, rumbly sound but doesn’t offer me an answer, instead focusing even harder on the road while easing off the gas, letting the other cars pull farther ahead of us. I’m about to ask what he’s up to when he turns onto a dirt road without warning.
I have to pull my hand off his thigh and brace myself as we bump along the unpaved road that his car was absolutely not made to drive on. We only go fifty feet or so down the road, the trees getting thicker around us, before Apollo throws the car into park.
“What are we doing?” I glance around at the woods surrounding us on all sides. I’m not even sure if it’s a proper road that he took, or if it was only meant for four-wheelers or tractors or fuck knows what.
“Backseat,” he growls. The single word is so deep and commanding that the sound vibrates through me, coaxing my cock to immediately harden. Damn, that’s hot.
I unbuckle my seatbelt and scramble for the door handle. Whatever Apollo has in mind, I am so fucking down for it.
We’re not far off the road, but the trees surrounding us give the feeling of complete privacy. Birds are singing, the sun is shining through the canopy overhead, and my skin is already sticky from the humidity in the air, not to mention the heated way Apollo is looking at me over the roof of the car as I unbutton my jeans and climb into the backseat.
He yanks open the door on the other side but doesn’t climb in with me. Instead, he crooks his finger to beckon me closer. I palm my thick erection over my underwear, my jeans hanging open, and slide across the backseat. As soon as I’m close enough, he leans in and presses a hard kiss to my mouth. I can taste coffee and bacon on his lips, bitter and salty flavors mixing together on my tongue.
I moan into the kiss, grabbing him by the back of the neck and pressing myself closer to him.
“Pull your dick out. I want to suck you off,” he says, biting my bottom lip just hard enough to make me gasp and my cock twitch.
“Jesus, blunt much?” I joke, hooking my thumbs into the waistband of my underwear and lifting my hips to shove everything down around my thighs.
“Sorry, did you want a poem about it or something? It’s a blowjob, stop complaining.” His tone is gruff, but he eyes my cock like it’s dessert, licking his lips as he drops to his knees on the ground outside of the car.
My cock throbs again while lust and longing and things way too deep for roadside blowjobs percolate inside of me. I swing my legs around and lean back on my elbows, biting back a desperate gasp as he wraps his hand around the base of my cock and gives it a few slow, firm strokes.
“Fuck,” I mutter, swallowing hard around the tightness in my throat, my breath already coming faster as my heart flails wildly and every nerve ending I possess prickles and sparks.
His lips are next, hot and wet, wrapping around the head and making my balls tighten and ache. An embarrassingly desperate whine slips out of my throat as he laves his tongue over my cockhead without taking me any deeper, his hand wrapped tightly around my base like the most perfect cock ring.
Apollo makes hungry sounds, lapping at my cock. He eases off his grip and then tightens it again, pulsing his fingers around my shaft until more precum oozes from me, which he eagerly tongues from my slit as well.
He releases his grip on my cock and braces his hands against my thighs, taking me in maddeningly slowly, inch by inch, as he traces every bump and vein of my cock with his tongue until I bump against the soft back of his throat.
He hums around me, sending a vibration through my shaft and into my balls.
The rough hair of his short beard abrades my thighs as he buries my cock deep down his throat, holding me there until neither of us can breathe, my whole body vibrating with self-control, my muscles quivering, and the pit of my stomach tied up in knots just begging to be loosened.
“Pol, fuck. Please,” I gasp, sliding my fingers into his hair and jerking my hips, nearly losing it when his throat constricts around my cock. “I’m so close.”
“Mm,” he hums, looking up at me through half-lidded eyes. His nostrils flare as he tries to drag in a breath, and when he fails, he’s forced to ease off my cock.
The wet slide of his mouth sends another cascade of shivers through me. He digs his fingers into my thighs, his breath puffing against my skin as he draws back until only the head of my cock is engulfed in the heat of his mouth, and then descends again. Taking my cock to the back of his throat over and over, pulsing his tongue against the underside of my shaft with each thrust.
My elbow slips, and I let myself fall back, still clutching at his short hair as my eyelids flutter and my body heats. My orgasm crashes into me so quickly that the only warning I have the chance to give him is a strangled gasp and a light shove against the top of his head.
He makes a deep, satisfied sound and tightens his lips around my cock, bobbing his head faster as I pant and moan, my cock spasming against his tongue, ropes of thick cum splattering against the roof of his mouth and back of his throat.
He sucks me until my balls are so empty it almost hurts and my cock starts to soften. I sink boneless into the seat, unable to even lift my head at the sound of Apollo getting to his feet, followed by the metallic whir of his zipper. I crack my eyes open when I hear him grunting, his legs bumping against mine. He has one arm braced against the car, his head ducked to look in at me, his hand flying over his cock as he jerks himself off frantically.
My spent cock gives a useless twitch as pleasure contorts his features, his face flushing and eyes clouding. His cock swells in his hand, turning a dark shade of purple before he growls and starts to come.
He paints the exposed upper part of my thighs with his release, wet and sticky as it lands on my skin. It’s a lot of cum. Thick spurt after thick spurt soaking me until he sags against the car and his hand stills on his cock. His chest heaves, and I reach down to absently rub the cum into my skin, loving the idea of being marked by him all day like this.
“Shit, sorry, I might have napkins in the glovebox to clean you up,” Apollo says once he catches his breath.
“Don’t,” I say, my voice almost matching his in gruffness for once.
I sit up and look at him, watching a flair of possessiveness light his eyes before he grunts and nods and then offers me his hand to help me back out of the car.
“Come on. That detour was long enough.”
“Worth it though,” I say with a grin as I round the car and get back in on my side.
A grin twists on his lips briefly. “Definitely worth it.”
APOLLO
The road I impulsively pulled over on is too narrow to turn around, so I have to carefully back out, trying not to get distracted by the sated, dopey grin on Ridge’s face or the fact that my cum is currently drying on his thighs because he didn’t want me to wipe it off.
I get us back on the main road and floor it to make up for some of the time we just spent on our little detour. Ridge rolls down his window. It’s hot as balls out today, but the breeze isn’t so bad while we drive. He cranks up the radio and starts to sing along with whatever eighties hair-metal song is playing.
A sense of nostalgia settles over me, but it’s more than that. It’s nice to remember the way things were with him all those years ago, but it’s even nicer to think about the new memories we can make together now that we’re putting the past behind us.
But what if Anna can’t forgive him as easily? I wouldn’t blame her if that were the case. What if she expects me to choose?
I keep my eyes on the road, but in my peripheral vision, I can see Ridge, his head thrown back, bathed in sunlight, his hair ruffling in the breeze. My chest tightens. Fuck, I hope she doesn’t make me choose. I did it once, and I don’t regret picking her. She’s my sister, after all. But the thought of walking away from Ridge a second time is impossible.
“Only you could manage to look that miserable mere minutes after a bone-melting orgasm.”
“I’m not miserable.” I’m really not. Aside from the Anna issue, which will have to be put on a shelf until I get home anyway, I’m actually…happy. How could I not be? I have a great job and friends—at least I think the guys are my friends, Ridge certainly is again—and I have whatever this is.
He reaches over and drags his fingers through my beard, giving me a nice little scratch like I’m a dog. It feels surprisingly nice, tempting my eyes to drift closed. I bat his hand away because closed eyes and driving aren’t a winning combination. Ridge chuckles and returns to his one-man concert.
When we reach the kayak rental place, the rest of the guys seem to already have their rentals in order and are mulling around the launch point waiting for us. There are two extra kayaks resting there as well.
“There you guys are. We were about to send out a search party for you,” Ev says.
“We got lost,” I lie, which doesn’t seem to fool anyone if I’m reading their coy looks right. They can think what they want, but I’m not about to confirm it.
“These for us?” Ridge asks, gesturing to the unclaimed kayaks and paddles.
“That’s yours,” Cole confirms. “We ready to do this?”
Everyone murmurs in agreement, and we all get our kayaks on the river. The current is gentle, and with the heat today, there aren’t too many people out. They’re probably mostly opting for swimming rather than baking in the sun in kayaks the way we are.
A splash of water hits me in the side of the face, and I turn my head to glare at Miller, who’s grinning like a mischievous little kid.
“What? You looked like you were getting warm.”
After Ridge put me in such a relatively good mood this morning, I’m feeling just playful enough to scoop some water into my hand and toss it back in Miller’s direction. He gasps in shock as it hits him directly in the face, dripping off his nose and chin and soaking the front of his shirt.
A single bark of laughter escapes me, and every last one of the guys snaps their heads in my direction.
“Dude, did he just laugh?” Stone asks incredulously.
“No way, it had to be some kind of vocal spasm,” West says, shaking his head.
I growl at the teasing, and everyone snickers.
The scenery is beautiful as we make our way down the river. There are trees lining the shore with the occasional pier and cabin set back a little ways from the water. The sun glistens off the surface of the water in the places where it’s more still. The river is wide enough that the guys manage to goof around, racing each other, splashing, treating their kayaks like bumper cars. I hang back out of the fray, enjoying it in my own way.
That’s something only Ridge has ever understood about me. Just because I’m not the life of the party or getting rowdy with all the other guys doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying something all the same. Maybe, on some level, these guys get it too because no one cajoles me to join in, but they don’t make me feel excluded either. They call back to me to bring me into the conversation every so often, and Miller isn’t the last one to splash me. It’s…nice.
We navigate along a narrower part of the river, under some low-hanging trees. Ridge is directly ahead of me, his head brushing against a few of the branches as he attempts to duck low enough to avoid them.
I see the disaster about to happen a split second before Ridge realizes what just happened. A large spider lands on his shoulder, exposed by the sleeveless shirt he’s wearing today. I can tell when he feels the first tickle, jerking his shoulder instinctively. When that doesn’t work, he cranes his neck to see what’s itching at his skin, and I brace myself for his meltdown in three, two…
“Holy fucking shit,” he shrieks, flailing wildly in an attempt to get the spider off. His kayak rocks dangerously from side to side, and he swings his paddle around like a propeller, nearly hitting me in the head with it. The spider is clearly a determined one because, in all the commotion, it doesn’t budge.
I paddle closer so I’ll be able to swat it off for him, ducking another swing of his rogue paddle just before it meets my head. “Calm down,” I huff, making a reach for him but missing due to his continued thrashing.
I’m not the least bit surprised when his kayak goes over, taking me with it. These are sit-on-top kayaks, so I’m crashing against the river's rocky bottom in seconds flat, Ridge right beside me. I’m even more thankful now that the current is gentle. I orient myself and push back to the surface, my soaked clothes and shoes making it that much harder.
Ridge bursts through the surface of the water at the exact same time, the rest of the guys surrounding us with concerned looks, arguing over who should jump in and save us.
“Pretty sure you got the spider,” I say flatly.
“All that was over a spider?” Stone says while we both flip our kayaks back over.
“Look who’s talking,” Dare teases his husband with a pointed look.
“That’s different. Snakes have murder in their souls,” Stone says solemnly.
“Hey, Monty does not have murder in his soul,” Daniel defends the python he and Ollie own together. “He’s an absolute love, and he can cuddle like nobody’s business.”
“He’s not cuddling. He’s getting your body measurements so he’ll be ready when he finally decides to kill and eat you.”
“Spiders don’t even have souls,” Ridge says, carefully maneuvering himself back into the kayak while I hold it steady for him. “They’re minions from hell sent to torture good, hardworking people like us.”
“Wow, that is pretty intense,” Ren says. “You know, they do eat mosquitoes and stuff, right? They’re good for the ecosystem.”
“I’m not about to sit here and listen to your pro-spider propaganda.”
Once Ridge is settled, he steadies my kayak so I can pull myself back into it.
“That was exciting,” Cole says happily while I do my best to ring-out my soaked shirt.
The rest of the kayak trip goes smoothly, taking us a few hours to get back around to the rental spot.
The sun does its part to dry our clothes in the meantime, but we’re still pretty damp when we get back to the car. I opt for stripping down to my underwear and tossing my clothes in the trunk rather than soaking my seat. Ridge follows suit, both of us receiving playful hoots and hollers from the guys.
Back at the campground that night, we all sit around another roaring fire, again eating much better food than Ridge and I have had the past couple of weeks.
He sits right next to me, his foot nudging mine in the dark where no one can really see.
“Daniel and I have a little announcement,” Ollie says once dinner is cleaned up and a bottle of rum is being passed around the fire, all the ingredients for s’mores making an appearance as well. Alcohol, s’mores, obviously I’m thinking about the other night when Ridge told me he wished that I had been his first kiss.
Fuck, I wish that too.
“Well, spill it,” Cole prompts when Ollie and his husband share mushy looks instead of just giving their news.
“We’ve been working with a surrogate, and she let us know last week that she got a positive pregnancy test. We’re going to be dads.”
“Shut up, that’s fucking awesome,” Cole says, jumping up and making his way around the fire to hug his brother. “I’m going to be an uncle?”
“You’re going to be an uncle,” Ollie confirms.
Ren follows him, pulling his best friend, Daniel, into an equally big hug, the two of them getting a little emotional with a few tears shed between them.
Once those hugs are finished, everyone else seems to take that as a sign that it’s their turn, one by one hugging Ollie and Daniel and offering congratulations.
“Kids are cool,” I say, tilting the bottle of rum in their direction and giving them a nod.
“Wow, that might be the most emotion, aside from irritation, I’ve ever seen you show,” Ollie says with a grin.
“Don’t push it.” I offer him a brief flicker of a grin. “Congratulations, seriously.”
Everyone settles down, but a warm feeling lingers around the group.
Ridge goes back for one more hug from the both of them, and I hear him thank Ollie for making him feel like he’s part of this whole family. My heart gives a squeeze.
Anna will have to find a way to get over it because there’s no way I can take back that dinner invitation. Ridge has been away from his real family for too long. We’ve all missed him. I’ve missed him.
He sits back down beside me, and I slide my hand across the ground in the dark, hooking my pinky around his. He shoots me a sweet, secret smile.
Two weeks isn’t going to be nearly long enough.
