Lee looked in the same direction, nodding as he saw what I saw.
“Come on,” he tugged on my hand. “Race you to the top.”
I stumbled after him as he took off, not nearly as fit as he was and struggling for breath by the time we made it to the foot of the bluff.
“Not much of a race if you’re dragging me along behind you,” I panted, trying not to show just how winded I was.
Lee laughed again, and part of me wanted to make a recording of the sound so I’d never lose it, so I could listen to it always. I couldn’t ask him for that, but I wished I could.
“Here,” Lee passed me his water bottle, squeezing my hand before he let go. “I’m going up there, but you stay down here.”
“I can get up there,” I said, which was a lie. Lee was the rock climber. Lee was the adventurer.
I was already nervous about trying anal for the first time tonight. Adventure wasn’t a part of who I was.
“I need someone down here,” Lee said, instead of saying no you can’t. “To mark the spot. You’re indispensable to the process.”
“And dying after a twenty-second jog,” I said.
Lee softened, leaning close to kiss the corner of my mouth, soft and sweet like he always did. “Indispensable,” he insisted. “I wouldn’t be out here with anyone else.”
I wanted to write that down so I’d never forget he’d said it, but I didn’t think forgetting would be so easy, anyway. Lee was…
Lee was the best thing that’d ever happened to me. No point in pretending otherwise.
“Neither would I,” I murmured, looking down at the water bottle in my hands.
“No, because no one else you know would drag you out here like this.” Lee grinned, stepping away and looking up at the bluff, picking a route.
It wasn’t exactly a sheer cliff—more an overgrown sand dune—but as I watched him scramble up it without fear or hesitation, I was in awe. I couldn’t have done that.
I wouldn’t have come out to a practically-abandoned beach in a foreign country under any circumstances without Lee.
“So, how does this work?” I asked once Lee was standing on solid ground again.
“You know how you see treasure maps? X marks the spot?”
I nodded.
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Lee said. “Way too obvious. But you can mark a spot without marking it, y’know? Pirate caches may or may not be real, I dunno, but I like to believe. If they did it, they would have used a landmark like this to mark the spot. ‘Cause, y’know, one patch of sand looks much like another.”
“But how?”
“Well.” Lee paused, retrieving a pencil from his pocket. “The idea is that the treasure’s buried where the three points of the landmark kinda… meet. If you imagine this as one side of a triangular prism.”
I blinked up at him, clueless.
“Step back about ten paces,” he said, setting the pencil on top of the pile of boulders he’d scaled, bending down and closing one eye as though he was aiming.
“Is this what your life is like?” I asked. “Treasure hunts every weekend?”
Lee's laughter carried on the breeze. “Hell no. The most exciting thing I do in real life is try a new ice cream flavor when they bring out a limited edition. But this isn’t real life.”
No, it wasn’t. This wasn’t my real life, either. It was a fantasy, and I wouldn’t even have wanted it to be real.
Except Lee. That…
That part I might have wanted to be real.
“Two paces left,” Lee instructed. “Your other left,” he corrected when I took two paces to my left, which was his right.
“There,” he said. “Hold still, that’s the spot.”
He took out his phone, took a picture, and then climbed back down, coming over to join me without a word, grinning the entire time.
Lee seemed to carry the weight of the world so easily. I’d gotten enough out of him in bits and pieces to know that he didn’t have the most charmed life, but he never let it get to him.
In comparison, I had led a charmed life and I let it get to me all the time.
“You know, I’m starting to get into the business casual look,” Lee said as he stopped in front of me. “The rolled up sleeves are hot. You could almost be a pirate if I squint.”
“I’d smell worse,” I said.
Lee shrugged. “Kinda like the way you smell at the end of the day,” he said. “After the deodorant wears off but before you shower. Is that weird?”
“Yes,” I answered, but even as I said it I remembered having the same thought about Lee. I liked the way he smelled, too. Earthy and familiar.
“Well, I’m weird,” Lee grinned. “So that makes sense. I think you’re standing on top of the treasure.”
“I thought it was gone, in your story.”
Lee nodded. “Oh yeah. If it was ever there to begin with, which it probably wasn’t. More likely whatever Perucho found had washed up from a wreck, disturbed by a deep sea earthquake or a tropical storm or something. Gold doesn’t rust, so… it’d be like new when it washed up. I bet that used to happen all the time around here, where so many treasure ships sunk.”
“But you don’t think it’s there now?” I asked.
Lee shook his head. “Not even a little. But would it be the worst, cheesiest thing to say I found my treasure out here anyway?” he asked, taking my hand.
Another one of those swarms of butterflies erupted in my stomach.
“Definitely,” I said, fingers tingling where we were making contact. “But I’d let you get away with it because you’re so sweet.”
Lee grinned at me. “Good,” he said. “Because I’m just… like this. All the time.”
“Sweet? I believe that.”
He laughed again, and it felt like the millionth time thinking I’d never get tired of that sound, that a lifetime of Lee's laughter wouldn’t be enough.
I gasped as he kissed me, surprised even now, always surprised that he wanted to. We were completely alone, and Lee was kissing me because it was the thing he wanted to do most in the world.
His fingers splayed over my chest even as he backed us up, pushing me down into a sand dune and climbing into my lap, his favorite spot.
“Five minutes to ourselves,” he murmured as the kiss broke, barely pausing before he pressed another one to the corner of my mouth.
“I’m not having sex on the beach,” I said, already imagining sand getting everywhere.
Lee chuckled. “You’re no fun,” he teased, sliding off me and moving to sit beside me, both of us looking out at the waves.
How many people could say they’d been to Aruba and had a beach all to themselves?
“I’d be a lot less fun if I spent the rest of the day complaining about sand in my underwear,” I said.
“Dunno.” Lee shrugged, taking the small sketchbook he’d shown me earlier out of his pocket and flipping it open. “Kinda like thinking about the contents of your underwear.”
I snorted, watching as he flicked through the pages to find the next clean one, eyes widening as I saw one that caught my eye.
“Go back,” I said, peering over his shoulder.
Lee flipped back one sheet to a sketchy rendering of the café we’d been to yesterday, Tyler and Andries across the table from us, Andries’ head thrown back in laughter. I remembered him sitting there, scratching away quietly, but that wasn’t the one that’d caught my eye.
“Again,” I said, and Lee went back another page.
To a sketch of my sleeping face, more detailed and done with more care than the others.
“I want the record to show that I did this after we had sex, not before,” Lee said. “Does that make it less creepy? Is this creepy?”
I shook my head. “No, I… I don’t think it is. I’m just… is that how you see me?”
“That’s how you look.” Lee shrugged.
No worry lines on my forehead, minimal dark circles under my eyes, hair charmingly
out of place…
Perhaps in sleep. But when I was awake, I looked nothing like this. I looked stressed and ten years older than I was and much less attractive.
“It’s not.”
“It’s… how I think of you, then. It’s what I remember,” Lee insisted, reaching out to pluck a slicked-back strand of hair out of place so it flopped over my forehead. “I like you soft. Laid back. Relaxed. Doesn’t get more relaxed than sleep.”
I wasn’t sure what to say about that, so I didn’t say anything.
But I also didn’t tuck my hair back into place.
Lee hummed, leaning against my shoulder, flipping back to a clean page and getting to work, putting down line after line until, like magic, the lines on the paper started to look like the landscape in front of us—the bluff with the boulders, the open sea, tufts of sea grass breaking up the sand.
A crab wandered past in no particular hurry, and Lee flipped to a new page and sketched that, too, all the while leaning against me as though there was no place in the world he’d rather be.
In this moment, I wasn’t sure I could think of one, either.
18
Lee
Rowan grunted as his back hit the shower tiles, giving me a chance to kiss him as hard and deep as I’d been dying to since we left the cabin this morning.
As far as I was concerned, a cruising day tomorrow meant I had him all to myself, and I planned to make the most of it.
Kissing Rowan felt so damned good. He didn’t take, he wasn’t rough, he let me do it as much as I wanted and I felt spoiled. Kiss after kiss after kiss and he never told me to stop, never backed away except to breathe, never grabbed me by the hair and shoved me down to suck his cock.
All the same, I kind of wanted to. I’d done it this morning, but in a hurry and without a whole night and day stretching out ahead of us.
On the other hand, I’d promised him something tonight and I didn’t want to wear him out too much. Just enough to relax him, make his first time easier.
I could hardly believe it got to be me. Someone else should have snatched up a prize like Rowan before now, shown him how good absolutely every inch of his body could feel with the right touch.
“This isn’t an efficient way to shower,” Rowan gasped between kisses, muscles twitching as I skimmed my fingers down his stomach and curled them around his cock.
“I wasn’t really aiming at efficiency,” I said, making him gasp again with a sharp tug, laughing as his hips jerked, silently begging for more. “We’re in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, I’m not worried about a water shortage here.”
Rowan opened his mouth—probably to point out that seawater wasn’t the same as fresh water—but I was faster, sealing my lips over his and drinking down his low, needy moan as I slipped my tongue past his teeth, lapping his palate, thrusting into his mouth as a preview of what I was planning later.
I’d seen him flushed and panting after a good blowjob—giving and receiving, because this was the best vacation of my life—but this was going to be so much better. I could already picture him gasping into a pillow, bone-deep moans just barely stifled as I rocked into him, the sweet little hitch of his breath as I found just the right spot, the needy whimper as I changed angles to take him deeper and slower and longer.
“You’re so hot,” I murmured against his lips, shifting my grip on his cock so I could stroke him with the palm of my hand, listening for the desperate gasp that’d tell me I was catching a sensitive spot.
He was covered in those, and I wanted to map them all out one by one and use them until he came sobbing.
Rowan deserved the thorough fuck of a lifetime, and he was going to get it.
“Remind me what it was you wanted again?” I murmured, sliding my hand from his waist to the top of his butt, fingers just barely teasing the crease between his cheeks.
Rowan swallowed, throat bobbing under my lips as I kissed my way down his throat.
“I… I want…”
“Gonna need to hear it,” I teased, thumbing the head of his cock and sliding my fingers down at the same moment, drinking in the long, shaky breath Rowan drew, my own cock twitching at the thought of this.
Sweet, blushing, needy Rowan coming his brains out on my cock. I could already hear the desperate little cry ringing in my ears, feel his body going boneless under me, sweat sticking our skin together, the smell of sex hanging in the air, the taste of salt on the back of his neck.
I licked the hollow of his throat for a preview and felt him shiver under me.
“I want you to fuck me,” he said in a rush, blushing so hard I could feel the heat of it without having to look.
As a reward, I slipped my fingers down further, just barely teasing his hole. “Do you?”
“Yes,” Rowan gasped.
My teeth dug into my lip as I forced myself not to laugh. Not that I was laughing at him. Not making fun of him, anyway. His embarrassment was adorable, and the fact that he was asking for it anyway told me how much he wanted this.
“Gonna make it so nice for you,” I promised, nuzzling the shell of his ear, spreading a bead of precome down his hard cock. My own was throbbing in time with my heartbeat, dying for a little friction, but this wasn’t about me. This was all about Rowan.
“Can’t believe you’ve never done it before.”
“I didn’t trust anyone,” Rowan whispered, barely loud enough to hear. Something with thorns shifted in my chest.
“You can trust me,” I promised. Rowan didn’t think he’d been hurt, but there was hurt written all over him. He still didn’t believe I wanted to sleep with him because he was gorgeous and fun in bed. Eager and willing to learn and happy for me to take charge and take what I wanted.
I was willing to bet a lot of people had just taken what they wanted from him, but not a lot had given back.
He nodded, both hands settling on my waist, fingers just barely squeezing as though he was testing to make sure I was real.
I pulled back to look at him, all blown pupils and pink lips, and the world seemed to stop for a heartbeat as our eyes met.
It would have been so easy to get in too deep with him. This was a temporary arrangement, a little fun while we both helped each other out, and I needed to remember that.
“I know,” Rowan said a moment too late, and I’d almost forgotten what we were talking about.
Trust.
A precious thing that I absolutely wasn’t about to break.
He deserved so much better than that.
I shut the water off and dropped to my knees, wondering if blowjobs in the shower were our thing if I did it more than once, but too eager to care.
Rowan gasped as I closed my lips around him, the salt-tang of precome bursting over my tongue and coating the back of my throat as I swallowed. His long fingers slid over my scalp as I settled in. Stroking, not tugging or pulling, like he couldn’t even accept a little loosening up before I shoved my cock up his ass without trading it for a head massage.
Not that I was complaining.
I was starting to love the hot, thick length of Rowan's cock in my mouth, pulsing on my tongue, leaking precome in a steady stream so I had to swallow and swallow. He gasped every time, voice already strained as I took him into the back of my throat.
Another low, gut-deep moan as I slid my hand behind his balls to tease his hole again. Someone more experienced, I might’ve tried the tip of my finger dry, but not Rowan. He was new to this, he didn’t know what to expect yet, and I didn’t want to freak him out.
I wanted him pliant and relaxed and easy when I spread him out on the bed and slipped a well-lubed finger into him.
A shiver ran down my spine at the thought, a sudden wave of heat flowing south, my free hand going to my cock.
Yeah, okay, fine. I’d get off, too. I’d last longer for him that way.
Rowan seemed like the kind of man who’d appreciate slow and thorough, and there was a part of me that wanted him to feel it in the morning. Rea
lly feel it. To wake up with that deep, strange ache of unused muscles right at his core, the one that meant someone had taken real good care of you the night before and you were gonna remember it all day long.
The tiles squealed under Rowan's scrabbling fingers as I hollowed my cheeks, desperate panting filling the air. I couldn’t help watching him, head tilted back, throat exposed, chest heaving and thighs trembling as he fought the urge to thrust into my mouth, considerate even when he didn’t have to be.
He could have grabbed the back of my head and fucked my throat if he wanted to, I could take it, but he didn’t. He didn’t leave me with watering eyes and a wrecked voice. I could enjoy this with him, really enjoy it, take my time even though he was desperately teetering on the edge, balls tightening as I rolled them over my palm.
I closed my eyes and sucked him down to the root, nose pressed against the soft, dewy skin of his belly, breathing in that musky scent that made all kinds of fireworks go off in my brain.
A choked-off groan echoed off the walls as he came, a thick spurt right down my throat. My lungs burned as I panted hard through my nose, cock throbbing in my hand, wave after wave of hot lust flowing through me, a tingle of pleasure as Rowan's fingers dipped down to the back of my neck and tickled the short hairs there.
Precome coated my knuckles as I tugged on my own cock, so close to the edge that I could taste it in the back of my throat, mingling with Rowan's come and the taste of his skin, so close, so close.
The floor pitched under me as I came, as though the whole room was about to topple upside-down. My gut clenched, cock spilling hot and sticky over my hand in waves, stars bursting behind my eyelids as Rowan's spent cock slipped out of my mouth and I pressed my forehead to his stomach.
Gentle fingertips rubbing circles on my scalp wrung another few tiny waves out of me, and then a bone-deep shudder as the last drops spilled out and dripped onto the wet shower floor.
I licked my lips and tasted Rowan on them, spilled over and probably dripping down my chin, too.
The tiles squealed again as Rowan slid down the wall, and the next thing I knew his mouth was on mine, hot and insistent, tongue pushing past my teeth to lick into my mouth. A moan rumbled in his chest as he thrust his tongue in deep, tasting himself.
Cruising Page 13