Riptide (Sand Dollar Shoal Book 2)

by Pandora Pine

  "You could never hurt me." Pres begged him to keep going with his eyes.

  Leaning forward, Drake rested his forehead against Presley's. Inch by slow inch, he pushed himself inside Presley's body. When he felt his balls brush against Pres’ hot skin, he pulled himself up to look in his lover's eyes. "I love you, Pres." God help him, he meant every word.

  XX

  Pres felt his heart stop beating in his chest. "You what?" Pres could have sworn Drake said those three magic words, but he'd been focused on being stuffed full of Drake’s giant cock rather than what he'd been saying.

  "I love you," Drake said shyly.

  Pres was speechless. Never in his life had another man said those words to him. He'd said them a few times to men he'd thought were worth them at the time. "I-I love you too."

  "Christ!" Drake let out a harsh breath. "Way to leave me hanging like that."

  "No one's ever said that to me before. I wanted to take a second and enjoy the moment." He still couldn’t believe Drake felt that way about him and had been brave enough to say those words.

  "I guess I have a lot of time to make up for then, don't I?" Drake kissed Presley gently.

  Pulling back from the kiss, Pres smiled. "Fuck now, make up for lost time later. Okay?"

  "Bossy ginger bottom." Drake bent forward to kiss him, his hips pulling back as their tongues moved together.

  Presley screamed Drake's name when his lover started pounding into his body. Each thrust of his cock was hitting Presley's sweet spot. His control wasn’t going to last long with the punishing pace Drake was setting, but man, what a ride.

  "I love it when you shout my name." Drake bent forward to kiss Presley again, his hips slowing as their tongues tangled.

  "Keep moving your hips like that and I'll keep shouting." Presley let his knees go so he could hold on to Drake. His shoulders were sweaty which made him hold on tighter. "Please, Drake."

  "I'm close, Pres." Drake slowed the movements of his hips.

  As much as Presley wanted this moment to last, he needed to come. "Me too. Please, Drake, don’t stop."

  Drake grinned at him, licking a stripe up his neck. "Together, okay?"

  Pres nodded. Drake snapped his hips faster and faster. He knew it was only going to take a few more thrusts and he'd be there. Hell, it was a miracle he'd managed to hold out this long. "DRAKE!" Pres shouted when the first blast of come ripped from his cock to splatter against his chest.

  "Fuck, Pres!" Drake stilled his hips and cradled Pres' face in his hands.

  Presley could feel Drake's cock jerking and pulsing inside him in time to the jerking of his own cock. It felt like he'd never stop coming.

  "Love you so much, babe," Drake whispered breathlessly.

  "I love you too." If he lived to be one hundred, Pres would never forget this night or the tone in Drake’s voice when he confessed his feelings.

  14

  Thankfully, the others didn't give them any shit when they came into the hotel dining room holding hands the next morning. Drake had made sure he’d shut all the windows as a precaution, but he had no doubt Gregor told the others about the fried chicken being made as a romantic gesture for Pres.

  "Well, well, well, look who finally made it out of bed!" Gregor wore a cheeky grin. He was carrying a platter filled with fresh muffins as Drake was pulling out Presley’s chair for him.

  Noble rolled his eyes. "Did you bake banana muffins? Those are my and Landon's favorites." He smacked a quick kiss to Landon’s lips.

  "I know, Romeo." Gregor plopped a fat muffin on Noble's plate. "Everything that's your favorite is his favorite." Gregor plopped an identical muffin on Landon's plate. "What about the two of you? Is your favorite muffin Presley's favorite muffin?" He raised an eyebrow at Drake.

  "Presley is my muffin!" Snatching what looked like blueberry muffins off Gregor's tray, he set one on his plate and the other on Presley’s before he leaned over to kiss his lover.

  "He loves me!" Pres gushed.

  "What?" Griff's shocked eyes popped up over the rim of his iPad. "It's been like three weeks. You don’t know each other well enough to be in love. You're in lust."

  Drake shook his head. He'd experienced a lot of lust in his life and that feeling was most definitely not what he was feeling for Presley. "Nope, this is love." Drake kissed Pres again. "I mean look at him, he's gorgeous with his silky strawberry blond hair and those blue eyes." Drake sighed dreamily.

  "Jesus Christ, someone go get my fucking boots. It's getting deep in here." Gregor set coffee cake muffins on his plate and Griff's before sinking down into his usual seat.

  "You wait and see, Gregor. You're gonna thank me when all of those food critics and bloggers start showing up at the hotel. Then you'll be the one sighing and falling head over cleaver in love." Drake took a bite of his muffin. "Fuck, this is the second best thing I've ever tasted."

  "What's the best thing?" Landon asked with a knowing grin.

  With his mouth too full to answer, Drake hooked a thumb in Presley's direction and pushed his tongue against the side of his cheek.

  "TMI!" Gregor rolled his eyes and reached for the butter.

  The rest of the table burst out laughing, while Presley blushed.

  "What's this about food critics?" Griff set his iPad down and turned his full attention to Gregor, who was frowning.

  "Drake said something yesterday about Pres trying to drum up media attention for the hotel. Since it's a different day and age, he thought the hotel might get a lot of attention through food critics and bloggers."

  Griff seemed to be thinking that over. "How would you feel about people writing critically about your food?"

  Gregor shrugged. "That all depends on whether or not you've all been telling me the truth about how good my food is..." Gregor trailed off, taking a huge bite of his buttered muffin.

  Drake swallowed the last mouthful of his blueberry muffin and reached for one of the coffee cake ones. "Your food is the best thing I've ever eaten. I would pay for this food if it wasn't free." He was definitely not a food critic, but he knew what tasted good and he knew the hotel guests would go wild over these muffins.

  "Well there's a ringing testimonial." Gregor shook his head, his tone sarcastic.

  "What's up with you, man" Griff leaned forward, slapping a hand on Gregor's shoulder. "You've been out of sorts these last few weeks. I know you’re grumpy, but you’re not usually this grumpy.” Griff waggled his eyebrows and reached for the carafe of orange juice.

  "Just nervous about the hotel opening, I guess. I mean, back when I was working at that restaurant in South Carolina, I was cooking someone else's recipes, so I wasn't really being judged on my merits but on the owner’s food. Now, I'm on my own." Gregor twisted his hands together and shot Griff a scared look.

  Griff nodded. "I'm nervous too, Gregor."

  Gregor's blue eyes bugged out.

  "Not about your food, but about the hotel opening. My father is one of the biggest names in the hotel industry and everything I do is going to be judged against his resume. Those are pretty big shoes to fill." Griff went back to nibbling on his muffin.

  “The only person’s shoes you need to fill are your own.” Noble sounded serious for once. “When I had to take over my dad’s business after his heart attack, I felt the same way. I didn’t want to let my dad down and there were a lot of customers who didn’t have the kind of faith in me that they’d had in him. Fuck, not that I blame them,” Noble barked out a laugh. “I was an eighteen year old kid with the ink still wet on my high school diploma. It took time and hard work, but customers started trusting me and started referring me to their friends.”

  “I remember it was hell for you to live through those early days.” Griff nodded. “I guess that’s what we’ll have to do with Sand Dollar Shoal. Work our asses off and build our reputation from the ground up.”

  “Some of us already work our ass off.” Drake elbowed Presley who started to snicker.

  “Serio
usly? I’m gonna start eating alone in the kitchen if this is how breakfast is gonna be.” Gregor folded his arms over his chest and frowned.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter, Gregor. Drake and I have been hard at work getting social media up and running for the hotel.”

  Drake stuck his tongue out at Gregor. “Plus I’ve got a huge shipment of accessories coming in today for the guest rooms. I’d like to get all of those things set up and then I can start photographing the rooms for the website. Where are we with the website build, Griff?”

  “I got in touch with a friend from Harvard. Made a fortune on web design after he sold his tech start-up for a ridiculous amount of money. He said the site would be ready by tomorrow at the latest, but I think it will be sooner. He’s eager to get more business from me.” Griff smiled mysteriously.

  “Anyone I know?” Pres asked curiously.

  Instead of answering, Griff blushed.

  Pres slapped a hand down on the table. “Jesus Christ! It’s not Les Bowman, is it?”

  Griff nodded, looking embarrassed.

  “Who the hell is Les Bowman?” Noble looked at Pres.

  “Les Bowman broke Griff’s heart. Twice!” Pres shook his head sadly and met Griff’s eyes.

  Gregor started laughing. “Twice? You know the old saying Griff, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice…”

  “Eat a dick, Gregor!” Griff rolled his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “All of that shit is in the past. He’s in a position to do us a solid and I think we should let him. Fuck knows he owes me one.”

  “Fuck knows he owes you two!” Pres raised an eyebrow at Griffin.

  “Just so long as you don’t give him a solid in return.” Noble’s serious look cracked and he started to laugh.

  “Let’s get back to the website,” Griff shot Pres a dirty look and turned his attention to Drake. “I loved the room names you came up with. My favorites were the rooms named after ships. I think you were very clever to name a room after Captain Benson’s ship, the Hiraeth, and one room after the Whydah which sank off the coast of Wellfleet.”

  Drake felt a surge of pride run through his body. It was amazing to be appreciated for the work he did with his clothes on. “I can’t take credit for that one. It was Noble’s idea, but the ship took some time to find. He was pronouncing it ‘Widow’ rather than ‘Whid-ah.’”

  “Potato, po-tah-to, who cares so long as people want to book the room.”

  “Some of the pieces that are getting delivered today are pirate themed. I think the kids are gonna go nuts for those rooms.”

  “I think the adults are going to go nuts for those rooms.” Griff was all smiles. “Have you thought about add-ons for those rooms?”

  Drake nodded. “We could do a ‘Yo ho-ho and a bottle of rum’ package with nips of Captain Morgan and homemade rum cake. Maybe the tray comes with paper pirate hats or eye patches for some roll play later on.”

  “You know,” Pres leaned in close. “We could go shopping for things like that to try out.”

  Noble and Landon snorted and started laughing.

  Presley grinned at Drake. “For quality control.”

  Noble waved his hand in the air. “Count us in as product testers.”

  Landon nodded his head in agreement.

  “That’s it! I can’t take another minute of this sappy love bullshit.” Gregor got up from the table and stomped off toward the kitchen.

  For the first time in his life Drake was truly happy. As much as he’d come to admire Gregor and rely on his friendship, there was no way his sour attitude about love was going to dampen his feelings toward Presley.

  XX

  “I’m worried about Gregor.” Griff didn’t bother to knock on Presley’s office door.

  Griff’s deep voice startled him. Presley had been writing up a brief history of the hotel for the website and had been so into what he was doing, Griff’s sudden appearance made him jump. “I was going to talk to you about that later.”

  “Later when? It seems like all you do now is spend your free time with Drake.” Griff shuffled into the room, throwing himself into one of the high-backed chairs in front of Presley’s desk.

  Pres sighed. He had a feeling what was bothering Gregor was also what was bothering Griff.

  Over the last two years none of his friends had been dating or seeing anyone seriously. With Noble being a widow, it was understandable, but for whatever reason, he, Griff and Gregor hadn’t dated at all. He had no doubt his friends had been hooking up along the way, but he wasn’t about to suggest to Griff that he needed to replace the giant stick up his ass with an even bigger dick.

  “I know I have, Griff. I’d like to say I’m sorry, but I’m really not. I mean, for the first time in my adult life, someone loves me. Drake loves me, Griff. Me, plain old Presley who could never get a date in high school. I’m over the moon, but I can’t talk to my best friend about this because I don’t want him to be jealous.” God, it felt good getting that out.

  Griff sighed rubbing a hand over his two-day stubble. “God, I’m a giant dick, huh?”

  “I wouldn’t say giant, but dick is apt.” Presley snorted.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could come to me with your joy.” Griff shook his head. “You’ve always been there for me, no matter what, like during the Les Bowman debacle.”

  “That sucked donkey balls.” Pres shuddered in the warm room and wrapped his arms around himself. Les Bowman was an absolute sex god. At 6’4”, with his dark blond hair and green eyes, not to mention his broad shoulders, he was the dream of every gay man in Harvard Yard. Les falling for Griff had been an awful lot like Drake falling for him, the ugly duckling ending up with the prom king.

  It hadn’t been rainbows and unicorns for long. A week into their whirlwind romance, Griff had walked in on Les fucking another man. Pres had spent the weekend with Griff eating gallons of mint chocolate chip ice cream and drying his friend’s seemingly endless tears.

  Just when Griff had finally turned the corner, Les was back begging for forgiveness. Pres wouldn’t have given the dirtbag a second chance but there was no way he would have told Griff that bit of news. Griff’s second go round with Les had ended just the way the first one had.

  “I never would have gotten through it without you.” Griff’s eyes looked distant.

  Pres didn’t have to be a mind reader to know Griff was remembering what loving and losing Les had been like. “I don’t mean to question your judgment, but after all that, do you think it’s a good idea to hire him to design Sand Dollar Shoal’s website?”

  Griff grinned. “Of course I do. I want that asshole to see what he missed out on and I don’t just mean me.”

  Pres had no idea what Griff was talking about. “What do you mean?”

  “He didn’t just miss out on me, Pres. He missed out on being part of our band of brothers, the hotel and our growing family.”

  Pres had always thought of the four of them and now Landon as a family. He thought he’d been a complete dork for christening the four of them as a band of brothers, so he’d stopped short of telling everyone he saw them as his family. “I can’t fault your logic there. I’d love to take some pictures of me and Drake together and splash them all over Facebook, but then what?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Les is gonna come here and see how amazing you look with your tan and those abs of steel. He’ll see the hotel and what an amazing job we’ve done with this run down property and he’ll see the friendship we still have all these years later. So, I guess my question is what happens after Les tells you how great you look and how impressed he is with Sand Dollar Shoal? Are you hoping you’ll fall into bed? Are you hoping he’ll get on his knees and apologize for being a douche bag back at Harvard?” Pres shook his head. “I just don’t see an end game where you feel good about yourself when he leaves.”

  Griff shrugged and stood up. “Maybe not, Pres.”

  “Hey, why don’t we all g
o bowling tonight?” While they were in high school they’d go bowling every weekend they’d gone home with Noble. “They have a duckpin bowling alley here in Hyannis.”

  “What the hell is a duckpin?” Griff shot Pres a looked that questioned his sanity.

  “It’s like a ten pin only shorter and you use the smaller candlepin balls. They even have Rock and Bowl nights where they play 80s hair bands and beer and wings cost what they did in 1986.”

  Griff burst out laughing. “Fine, sign me up. I’ll make sure Gregor comes along too.” Griff turned to leave. “Oh and Pres?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I really am happy for you and Drake. Now all I need to do is be patient and wait for my Prince Charming to show up at Sand Dollar Shoal.” He waved and headed out of the office.

  Pres waved back praying to God that Griff’s Prince Charming was not Les Bowman.

  15

  "Have you ever heard of Napoleon LeClerc?" Griff asked as he took the empty seat next to Pres at the scorer's table at the Strikes to Spare bowling alley across town.

  "Napoleon Le who?" Truth be told, Pres hadn't been paying complete attention to Griff. It was Drake's turn to bowl and he'd been distracted by his lover's long legs and tight ass.

  "LeClerc." Griff rolled his eyes. "He sent me a message on the Facebook page you and Drake insisted I needed.

  "What did I insist?" Drake smacked a kiss against the side of Pres' head and sat on the other side of Griff.