When Lili woke up the next morning it was to the pleasant realization that she and Jared’s naked bodies where still wrapped up together under the cover. As she moved her arms a bit to squeeze him even tighter against her, he smiled his greeting against her cheek.“Morning.”

“Wow no crack of dawn wakeup call this morning?” she smirked as she glanced toward the still zipped shut door of the tent, while she and Jared still refused to move from one another’s arms just yet.

“What a shame,” he told her with a lack of any believability as he rolled onto his back, pulling her with him, to a seat atop his hips underneath that same blanket.

“Yeah, feels like you’re really broken up about it,” she teased with a pointed look downward, where his mood was pleasantly apparent, considering her new position.

“Aren’t you one to talk,” he smiled up at her.“You’re like soaking wet and I just woke up so you can’t blame it all on me, this time,” he teased.

She blushed brightly but then thought about his words a moment as she looked down.“Yeah, I am,” she stated absently.

“So…I’m hard…You’re wet…And we’re locked in a tent together…Whatsoever shall we do?” he teased further.

“No I think…” she began with a slight swallow as she moved to slide off of her place atop his hips.

“Ok, that wasn’t my first guess,” he stated with a slight deflation of his tone as he rolled to his side to watch her distractedly move away. Now having moved to a place next to him, Lili looked down at herself, and took a breath. “What is it?” he asked with only a tinge of worry tinting his previously desire-filled tone.

She finally looked back at him.“Guess we don’t have to worry that the nine months has started yet,” she whispered back as she moved to retrieve her t-shirt.

“Oh…Oh!” he repeated more loudly as he looked up at her, her words finally translating in his previously distracted brain.

“Yeah, oh,” she repeated with a slight biting of her lip as she grabbed the pillow, stripping the pillow case off of it and starting out of the tent.

Outside, she moved with deliberateness toward the water’s edge where Kyle and Ian were already awake and finishing up their morning shave, both more than easily distracted by her emerging from the tent wearing only the long t-shirt.

“Well, good morning,” Ian stammered his greeting a bit as she reached their sides. Without really offering a return greeting, she reached for one of the knives at Ian’s belt before taking it and the pillow case over to a flat rock near the side of the river, where she began tearing slices in the pillow case, which only caused further confusion on both their faces.

Though their distraction was only added to when Jared stepped out of her tent, still zipping up his jeans and looking a bit distracted, himself as he moved his eyes over to her before the youngest among them spoke up.“And morning to you too, apparently,” Kyle managed to force a greeting.

Ian sighed a bit, before casting another glance at Lili’s continued mutilation of the pillow case, then looking back toward Jared.“I dunno what you guys were doing in there, but it made her really pissed off at the pillow case, apparently,” he attempted, which only caused a slight sigh from Jared rather than a real response.

“I’m not pissed off at the pillow case, Ian,” she mumbled, though continued tearing long pieces off of it.

“Coulda fooled me,” he added with a slight smirk.

“If you must know, I’m doing this cause no one else is getting laid around here, for about a week,” she offered plainly, which caused a startled expression from Kyle as well as a slightly embarrassed one from Jared, and a confused one from Ian.

“God, what’d you do to her in there?” Ian couldn’t help turning the question back to Jared.

Jared just scoffed loudly.“For crying out loud Ian, she means she got her period,” he answered with a shake of his head, causing Kyle to quickly look down and Ian to turn a raised brow back toward where Lili also shook her head.

“Sucks for you guys I guess,” Ian couldn’t help smirking as he moved toward the cooler with a slight chuckle.

Jared just shook his head as he returned to her tent to locate his shirt once more while leaving Kyle to nervously watch her finishing her shredding of the pillow case.“And the pillow case comes in, how?” Kyle finally had to ask.

“Think about it Kyle,” was her only response, brief though it was.

Then a moment later he responded.“Oh…Oh!” he repeated Jared’s earlier reaction as he shook his head.

“Welcome to life in the wild,” she grumbled as she gathered the strips of cloth and headed back into the tent, as Jared was just returning from it.

“So who’s up for breakfast?” Ian chuckled as he grabbed one of the fish and headed for the fire.

“You seem awful jolly, considering the…oddness of the morning,” Jared pointed out, finishing pulling his shirt on before following Ian to the fire.

“Hey, I’m not the one who has to get used to the idea of being celibate for a week. I already got that down,” he returned wryly as he reached for the knife Lili had set aside and began starting on their breakfast with his own still amused smirk.

That week came and went, and once again, Lili found herself indulging in a late night swim. However, this time she was alone, as the hour was nearly two and the guys were apparently suffering less insomnia than her, all three of them already tucked neatly into their tents. Finally emerging from the water and sliding only the t-shirt on over her still damp skin, she looked around at the tents with a slight biting of her lip.

Finally, she moved up the incline while shivering a bit as the light wind moved over her. Once she reached the top of the small hill, she took a breath and moved to unzip the flap at the front of Ian’s tent, only to be greeted by him startling awake and immediately targeting her with one of the many guns that were never out of reach.

“I surrender?” she offered quietly, holding up her hands as she stooped in the doorway of the tent.

“Damn, girl!I am the last person you want to sneak up on at night,” he warned her, as he set the gun aside, though his voice was still gentle despite his words.“What time is it anyway?” he added as more of an afterthought.

“Like two.”

“Two?” he repeated with a raised brow as he pushed himself up to his elbows.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she shrugged as she moved the rest of the way into the tent, zipping it back up behind her.

“Might have been a little difficult in the river,” he teased as he glanced over her wet locks in the dim light of the lantern that sat off to the side of his store of weapons.

“I went swimmingafterI decided I couldn’t sleep,” she told him wryly as she moved to take a seat next to him.

“Yeah, that makes a bit more sense,” he conceded, his eyes still traveling over her with a bit of a stammer to his breath, considering that she was only wearing the light colored t-shirt which easily clung to her damp skin.

“Yeah, and now I’m too cold to sleep.”

“Such problems,” he allowed a teasing smile.

She just shook her head at him.“This is where you’re supposed to offer to keep me warm, isn’t it?” she prodded.

Instead of answering, he just grinned over at her again before moving to lift the cover around where he himself was only wearing a pair of snug boxer-briefs.

“Such a gentleman,” she returned wryly as she moved to slide under the cover, easily moving to wrap her arms around his waist as she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Wet hair.Lovely,” he smirked again as he laid back, though still allowed his arm to encircle her still slightly shivering frame as she moved to wrap her leg around his lower body as well.

“You complaining?” she returned.

“Just observing,” he smiled back down at her as he used his free hand to turn off the lantern before returning that hand to her side.

“Observing, huh?”

“That’s me, ever watchful.”

“Yeah, I noticed you’ve gotten really good at just ‘observing.’”

“Isn’t that my job?” Ian returned as he gently kissed those wet locks.

“I meant in relation to your love life too, not just your job,” she dared.

“Should I make an attempt at deciphering that one?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Here, let me give you a hint,” Lili told him with her own plotting grin before moving her hand slowly from his side and trailing her fingertips across his stomach.

His breath caught a bit as she continued running her fingers over the taut muscles of his stomach before he finally allowed another comment.“Well, my temperature seems to be rising. How ’bout yours?”

“Your temperature’s the only thing rising, huh?” she couldn’t help teasing.

“Oh, I think I’ll plead the fifth there,” he added with another slight chuckle.

“Will you now?” she purred as she spread a few kisses over his chest before moving her hand further downward, sliding her fingers slowly inside the waistband of those quickly tightening boxers.

“Mmm,” he made an attempt at a further response as she moved her fingers downwards further to encircle his ever hardening penis.“I’m beginning to think you had some ulterior motive aside from just keeping warm,” he breathed the words and arched his back slightly as she continued caressing him into even further distraction.

“Why would you ever think a thing like that?” she teased as she cuddled closer, grinding her hips slightly against him as her fingers continued their assault on his libido.

“I’m thinking that this last past week has gotten to you even more than our teenage friends down there,” he taunted, though couldn’t help arching his hips even further into her caresses.

“Can’t you just be quiet and enjoy it?” she giggled back at him as the first tremors of his approaching orgasm began.

“What if I have other plans?” he teased as he rolled to his side, pushing her onto her back as he did.

“And what would those be?” she giggled up at him.

“Oh, I don’t know…” he began as he placed a few light kisses over her cheek and neck before his own hand disappeared beneath the blanket.“I’ll think of something,” he promised with a smile before she felt his hand move down to part her thighs with a skilled deliberateness.

Before she could guess at what his complete plan had truly been, she felt his fingers slide inside her, beginning to move with the ease of someone whose sexual reputation had indeed preceded him long before they had even shared their first kiss.

It didn’t take many moments before he had her shaking and gasping for air through more than one of those perfect seconds, so to speak. When her nails began digging into his shoulders in an almost silent plea for a moment’s relief, he finally moved his hand away and looked down at her with another grin.“You warm now?” was his only desire-filled whisper.

Lili let out a combination of a laugh and a breath.“To say the least,” she managed.

“Then I guess I did my job, huh?” he smirked again, before placing another long kiss over her still trembling mouth.“Night, Lili,” he added before simply moving back to his pillow and closing those beautiful eyes of his once more. Lili could do nothing more than just stare over at him in a breathless, stunned, spent moment of utter astonishment at the strength of will he seemed to display despite all of her previous beliefs that he hadn’t had one shred of self-control when it came to carnal matters. Of course now he was doing quite well to convince her, despite her very best efforts, that quite the opposite was actually true in this, apparently, very new world of theirs indeed.