Sharing Rose Read online

  He’d looked up and met the gaze of a young, fearless and pretty little red haired girl looking straight at him and smiling. He had immediately begun to blush, and with the sleeve of his jumper, he’d quickly wiped his eyes in a vain attempt to hide his tears, but it was clear that this girl was looking at him and knew that he was crying. Jacob’s lower lip had wobbled as he had waited for her to point and laugh, but to his surprise, she did neither. Instead she had winked and flashed him such a brilliant smile that he had immediately felt happier, and had smiled back.

  Jacob knew right away that he wanted to be her friend.

  As the headmistress had arrived and given her welcome speech, Jacob had repeatedly found himself drawn to looking over at his new friend, and whenever he did, she would glance back and smile and he would look away. Over the course of the brief assembly, it had become a game of sorts. Jacob would turn his head to look over at her, to see that she would be looking away, up at the ceiling or toward a teacher and then her head would snap back and her eyes would flash as he tried his best to look in another direction before her eyes met his.

  By the end of the assembly, Jacob had found himself wishing that this girl might be in his class, so he would have an opportunity to talk to her. He was naturally shy, but this girl was so confident and full of energy that it had been practically infectious.

  As the assembled students had departed the hall, Jacob had lost sight of his new friend and as he’d desperately searched for her he’d seen a boy, with dark olive skin, looking around a little forlorn as all the other children chatted and giggled with one another.

  His confidence boosted by the fun he’d had during the assembly, he’d decided to approach this boy and introduce himself.

  ‘Hi, I'm Jacob,’ he’d said.

  ‘Alex,’ said the boy. ‘What form are you?’

  ‘Osborne.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Alex. ‘Do you want to be friends?’

  With Alex by his side, Jacob and he had found their form room quickly and easily, and filed inside, to be greeted by their new tutor and much to Jacob’s excitement, he saw that the red haired girl was there too. She was sat alone at one of the tables, smiling happily and kicking her legs back and forth.

  Jacob had grabbed Alex’s arm and tugged him in her direction and the two had gone over to introduce themselves to the girl who would become their friend, and although Jacob didn't quite understand it yet, he had already begun to fall in love with her.

  Now here she was, ten years later. Grown up, mature, intelligent, driven and passionate, and as she caught sight of them both, Jacob immediately started to regret everything that had led up to this point.

  ‘Rose,’ he called out and waved the stupid placard he and Alex had made together the night before. It was drawn on the back of a menu, taken from the hotel they were staying at, situated just a few minutes drive from the airport.

  Their creation was a badly drawn bunch of flowers in the shape of the word Prim, Rose’s nickname from school. They’d put quite a lot of effort into it and thought it was incredibly funny at the time, but it now seemed somewhat childish and Jacob felt more than a little ashamed as Rose approached, smiling with a beguiling radiance.

  They had arrived a day early to arrange car hire and organise everything, booking a hotel for a few nights to have somewhere they could leave their belongings, registering their route with the local authorities in case something happened, prepaying for long term parking at the entrance to the trail, and then finally relaxing in the evening for a few beers before Rose arrived.

  Now she was walking towards them and Jacob was enchanted once again.

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ she said, holding her hands over her eyes and face as she drew near. ‘I have missed you both so much.’

  She leaned in to hug them and the two of them embraced her, wrapping their large arms around her lithe figure and squeezing her tightly.

  ‘It’s so good to see you,’ she said whispering. She turned her head to kiss Alex and then Jacob on the cheek and pulled back, wiping away an embarrassing tear and smiling. She laughed as she realised there was little point in trying to hide her emotions.

  ‘You’re late,’ said Alex, still holding her by the waist.

  ‘Oh sod off,’ she said, pushing him away playfully. ‘I told you I couldn’t get here any earlier, besides I didn’t want to intrude on the bromance.’

  ‘You didn’t miss much,’ said Alex, putting his arm around Jacob’s shoulder. ‘We spent most of the night drawing this stupid placard and drinking Swiss beer in the hotel bar. But tonight,’ he waved his hand up theatrically in a wide arc. ‘We’re all going to be sleeping under a blanket of stars.’

  ‘I’m so excited,’ she said. ‘I did so much wild camping on Snowdon, but this is going to be something else.’

  ‘You look incredible, Rose,’ said Jacob. The three of them fell into a brief but awkward silence.

  Rose flashed a coy smile at him. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘I mean you look really well,’ he said, quickly. ‘Physically.’

  Alex tried not to laugh, but found it too hard. ‘Smooth, Jacob.’

  ‘Don’t,’ said Rose, admonishing him. ‘It’s fine, thank you, Jacob. You guys don’t look half bad yourselves, I’m guessing you found your way to a gym at last?’

  ‘Four times a week,’ said Alex. ‘Even persuaded Jacob here to join.’

  Rose was aware she was making an understatement, the pair of them looked chiseled. The last time she’d seen them, they were both tall and thin but now they had filled out into their bodies, and Alex’s shirt rippled with muscle. His olive skin seemed to have darkened too. She wasn't sure if it was a tan or just age, but he looked incredible. Combined with his shaved head and dark, trimmed stubble, it was all a little too much. She was aware that several other women around the departure lounge were stealing glances in their direction.

  Jacob looked handsome too, though he had a more understated appearance, not as bold as Alex’s, but strong and powerful. His blonde hair seemed to have darkened and become more sandy since she’d last seen him and he’d styled it short, with shaven back and sides and a rough swoop, like he’d just rolled out of bed. Whilst he was clearly more confident than before, he still had a certain charming, British awkwardness that she loved.

  ‘How was your flight?’ said Jacob, eager to move on past his embarrassing outburst.

  ‘Quiet,’ said Rose. ‘It was a nice change of pace actually, I spent most of the flight listening to an audiobook with my eyes closed.’

  ‘What's your usual pace?’

  ‘Breakneck these days, I'm applying for jobs in conservation but they're highly contested in my field. Something like sixty applicants to every position offered.’

  ‘You’re not in demand then? I find that hard to believe. Shall we get moving?’ said Alex, picking up Rose’s luggage.

  ‘Oh, you don't need to take that,’ she said.

  But Alex waved his hand and smiled. ‘It's not far to the car park.’

  They walked side by side, Rose in the middle of the two men, eagerly chatting.

  ‘So you guys are going travelling for a year? That's amazing. Where are you going to go?’

  ‘We’re planning to follow the old Silk Road. We’re starting off in France, then we’re going to work our way east and finish off in Japan,’ said Jacob, chiming in after feeling a little left out of the conversation so far.

  ‘We’re gonna book the most expensive room we can afford in the tallest skyscraper we can manage in Tokyo as our final treat,’ interjected Alex, taking back control of the conversation again.

  ‘Oh gosh, what an adventure. I'm so jealous. When do you leave?’

  ‘Next month, twenty six days from now,’ said Alex as he pressed the call button for the lift to the parking garage.

  ‘I’d love to go travelling but I'm hoping I can do it as part of a new job. I had an interview for a position with an organisation that monitors wetland habitats
two weeks ago and if I get it, I'd have the opportunity to travel all over the world.’

  ‘Do you think you will?’ said Alex.

  The lift arrived and they all stepped in. Rose turned to face him, her back to Jacob.

  ‘I think I might, I'm through to the next round of interviews, and the woman who would be my manager was really impressed with the work I did during my course. So I'm really hopeful.’

  ‘Shit, Prim. You're like a rocket, shooting for the moon.’ Alex whooshed his hand up into the air. ‘Sounds like you're doing great,’ he said laughing.

  Jacob was starting to feel like an outsider now, a feeling he was starting to remember was common place when they were younger. The three of them seemed to be very quickly falling back into their old routines and for the second time since Rose had reappeared in their lives, he found himself feeling worried.

  The lift door opened and they headed out into the garage. Alex leading the way to the car as the other two followed.

  Rose on the other hand, was trying her very best not to skip.

  *

  CHAPTER TWO

  IT WAS A short drive from the airport to the hotel and Jacob and Alex had been considerate enough to allow time for Rose to shower, get changed and get ready for the three hour drive to the starting point of their first day of hiking in the Alps.

  Rose had no idea what sort of adventure they had planned for them, but Alex had dropped a few hints as they’d discussed the trip over email, so she’d done her best to pack for a few eventualities.

  But for now, Rose had an hour to unwind from her flight in the comfort of a private room as the men enjoyed a coffee downstairs whilst preparing for the lengthy drive ahead. She made herself a complimentary chamomile tea from the basket of assorted packets underneath the cheap little flatscreen television that was mounted on the wall. There was a strange game show playing where the contestants were bobbing for apples in some sort of unpleasant looking gloop. She turned down the volume and walked over to the window, breathing in the steam from her cup. Outside was a small park and in the distance the snow capped peaks of the Alps.

  She sat down on the bed behind her and then lay down against the pillow. The covers had been badly made, thrown together by Alex or Jacob, she wasn't sure who. She breathed in deeply, her nose filling with scent of one of the men, her eyes closed.

  Back when they were in school she would often borrow jumpers or hoodies from them, taking them home overnight and keeping them, sometimes for weeks on end and she would lay them beside her pillow and bury her face in the material if she was feeling lonely.

  The clock on the side of the bed rolled over the hour and reminded her that she didn't have long.

  She stripped down and left her clothes and underwear strewn across the twin beds, smiling to herself as though she was marking her territory and then tip-toed naked into the bathroom, turning the dial on the shower up high, and enjoying the steam as it permeated her nostrils and invigorated her skin.

  Her thoughts quickly wandered back to Jacob’s complimentary outburst at the airport. She knew he hadn't meant to be quite so forward, that had never been his style. Perhaps he had changed at University and become a little more confident and suave, but Rose wasn't some girl he’d met at freshers night. The way he’d said it, and the way he’d tried to cover it up had meant something, she was sure of it, but she wasn’t sure what.

  Or she was reading too much into it. She had wasted a lot of her time at school, reading too much into Alex or Jacob’s behaviour.

  She lathered up a small bar of travel soap in her hands and began to wash, letting the warm water cascade over her face and down her body.

  Alex was acting different too, at least to how she remembered him. He was cocky and confident, and she’d liked it, a lot. Both of them had changed so much in three years, and she had too but the difference didn't feel quite so stark to her.

  She realised that she was doing it again. What she had done to herself so many times throughout the last two years of school and all through her time in college; overthinking everything that the two boys did or said. It was like the last three years hadn’t even happened, she had slipped straight back into obsessing over them, and she’d only been back alongside them for just over an hour.

  She rubbed the soap gently into her stomach, letting the warm water wash away down her legs where it gathered in bubbles around her feet and between her toes, and then she looked up into the stream of water and let it flow over her face.

  She couldn’t help it though. The two of them were her boys. From the day they had met on the first day of school, she had sensed a connection between them all. Something beyond friendship, something powerful and raw and full of energy and love.

  At the time she just wanted them to be friends forever. But as she’d grown up, she had started to think about them more and more. To start with she would have week long crushes on either one. Doodling their name for hours or dreaming of becoming Mrs Jacob or Mrs Alex, then, as she grew older, she began to fantasise about them.

  She’d wanted them to take her, to make her theirs, to have their way with her and do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. To leave her breathless and satisfied yet desperate for more every day. But she knew it could never happen, that it was unconventional and outrageous. Filthy even.

  Which of course, had just made her want it even more.

  Her wet fingers brushed across her pussy as she recalled the fantasy that had brought her to orgasm so many times as she’d grown up. She closed her eyes as she quickened her touch, slipping her fingers up and down herself and leaning back against the wall of the shower.

  It always started the same. The three of them in her dorm room at University, playing a game together on her little television set. Rose lying flat on her stomach, wearing just a t-shirt and her underwear, as the two of them sat either side of her, their interest divided between her almost bare bottom and the screen.

  She pressed her fingers against her clit as she began to play it back again in her mind.

  Her foot twitched as Alex’s fingers tickled her, trying to distract her from beating his high score and she kicked him away as he persisted, trying his best to put her off.

  ‘Get off, Alex,’ she said.

  ‘You’re not going to beat me,’ he said laughing and grabbing her foot. ‘Grab the other one, Jacob. Hold her down.’

  Jacob laughed and Rose reacted too late as he gripped hold of her right foot and held it tight. Laughing she tried desperately to keep playing as the two boys tickled the soles of her feet relentlessly, but it was no good, she was already losing and she watched in dismay, amongst fits of giggles, as her character died, not quite besting Alex’s score.

  ‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ she said, rolling over to admonish the pair of them and dropping the controller onto the carpet. ‘You two owe me.’

  ‘Oh yeah, and what do we owe you? Another ass kicking?’ said Alex.

  Rose turned back to look at them, squinting her eyes.

  ‘One full body rub. Right now,’ she said.

  Alex laughed.

  ‘A full body rub?’ he nodded. ‘Fine, deal. On your front, Prim.’

  He knelt up on the bed, as Jacob sat back.

  ‘From both of you,’ said Rose, looking at Jacob and widening her eyes.

  ‘You heard the girl, Jacob,’ said Alex, grinning. ‘She wants us both.’

  ‘Hang on,’ said Rose, as she stood up and put her hair back up into a pony tail, sliding a hair band off her wrist. She gestured for them both to move aside as she lay down on her front again along the length of her bed, stretching her arms out to the side.

  In the shower, Rose quivered and pushed her fingers inside herself, biting her lip as she pictured the scene.

  ‘Now you can start,’ she said.

  Jacob was on one side of the bed, and Alex was on the other, both standing still.

  ‘Come on,’ she said, and wiggled her bottom.

 
; A moment later she felt Alex’s hands in the middle of her back, and then Jacob’s by her feet and she began to melt.

  Little by little, the two of them caressed and squished and massaged her body, inch by inch from her toes to her thighs, and then back to her shoulders, and finally her neck and her head, Jacob running his fingers through her hair as her whole body tingled.

  Then she realised that Alex wasn’t touching her and as she looked back she could see that he was removing his trousers.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she said.

  ‘Seemed like it might be easier this way,’ came the reply, and then he was up on the bed and straddling her, sitting just below her bottom and pinning her down, his muscly and strong legs either side of her.

  Then his hands were just above her waist, but this time beneath her t-shirt. She bit her lip and settled her head down in the pillow and Alex’s fingers inched their way up her spine against her skin.

  Now she could hear that Jacob was doing the same, pulling down his trousers near to her head. She wanted to look, but she kept her eyes screwed shut.

  A moment later she felt his hands sliding into either side of the arms of her t-shirt and caressing her back and shoulders, leaning over her, his bulge inches from her face.

  Alex was leaning forward now, his hands all the way up the back of her shirt, so it was bunched up underneath her and pushing against her breasts and then she felt another sensation.

  Alex’s cock, pressing against her ass.

  She breathed deeply as she felt it moving against her, her mouth going dry with excitement. Opening her eyes she found that Jacob’s bulging boxers were barely hiding his cock and she had to resist reaching out to touch it. Instead she closed her eyes again, and then parted her legs ever so slightly.

  Alex responded by sliding up her back again, pressing himself against her once more, but this time as his hands glided back down her body, he slid them onto her rump, pulling the edge of her underwear down a few inches and exposing just a little of her bottom.