“I promise, you’re safe with me,” Cam told him, swimming closer. “Relax.”
“Easy for you to say.” Gannon’s words were choppy, as though he was still nervous.
Knowing he would never get Gannon to relax by forcing him, Cam reached for his hand once again as he swam backward, searching with his feet for the ground. Once he was able to stand up, he tugged Gannon toward him, wrapping his arms around his waist, his fingers kneading the tense muscles of Gannon’s back as their bodies slid together.
Gannon hissed, his hands clutching Cam’s biceps. “This is dangerous,” Gannon whispered.
“Don’t I know it,” Cam said on an exhale, and like Gannon, he wasn’t referring to swimming at night.
The sexual tension tightened substantially as they stood there neck-deep in the water, skin to skin, motionless, staring back at one another. Cam knew one of them had to make a move. And soon.
Something swam by his legs, and Cam felt a tremor race through Gannon. The man was terrified, but he was still out there, and that meant more to Cam than anything.
“Put your legs around me, Gannon,” Cam ordered, pulling him closer.
Gannon hesitated only briefly but then allowed Cam to shift him so that Gannon’s legs were wrapped around Cam’s waist. He ignored his dick as it roared to life, sliding against Gannon’s ass.
Who thought this was a good idea?
The buoyancy of the water allowed him to embrace Gannon easily, holding him tighter until Gannon understood what Cam wanted. When Gannon’s arms wrapped around his neck and his lips came down over his, Cam dragged in a breath, allowing Gannon to control the kiss as he sucked Cam’s lower lip. They remained exactly like that for what felt like hours, mouths fused, Gannon’s hands sliding over Cam’s back, shoulders, and arms.
“Brace yourself with your legs,” Cam instructed, then released Gannon’s back so that his hands were free. With ease, Cam slid both hands between their bodies, gripping Gannon’s thick erection gently at first, watching those dark eyes widen.
Gannon hissed. “Cam...”
The single word sounded like a warning, but Cam didn’t heed it.
“Kiss me,” Cam demanded, continuing to double fist Gannon’s heavy cock, stroking slowly beneath the water as Gannon’s mouth returned to his. They were breathing too hard to maintain the kiss, though.
Gannon growled, hands clutching Cam’s head, holding him still as he rested his forehead against Cam’s. They were swapping air between them.
“We can’t…”
“Just this,” Cam whispered. “Just need to make you come for me.”
“Aw, fuck,” Gannon growled, his hips bucking forward, driving his dick into Cam’s hand. “More.”
Cam gave Gannon what he asked for, tightening his grip and stroking him more firmly. Faster. Harder.
He alternated, slowing his pace, thumbing the broad head of Gannon’s dick, then stroking him once again. He continued to watch Gannon’s face, enjoying the sexual tension that drew his mouth into a hard line. The distraction was definitely working.
“Cam.” Gannon’s breath fanned Cam’s face. “Fuck. I’m gonna come.”
“Kiss me while you come for me,” Cam said softly.
Cam changed the angle of his hands, allowing him to tug Gannon’s cock more insistently, jerking him beneath the water as their mouths crashed together, Gannon’s tongue working against his. Gannon’s kiss was unlike anything Cam had ever felt before. Powerful. Possessive. The way he used his teeth to pull at Cam’s lower lip… It drove him fucking wild.
And though Cam was holding Gannon, jacking him off right there in the water, Cam knew without a doubt that Gannon had complete control over this situation.
Over him.
Gannon’s arms tightened around Cam’s head as he held on, his mouth hovering by Cam’s ear.
“Fuck, Cam,” Gannon whispered, his body tensing. “Feels so good. Don’t stop.”
Cam didn’t stop; he worked Gannon’s dick faster.
“Oh, shit,” Gannon crooned. “I’m… Ah, fuck. I’m gonna come.”
“Come for me,” Cam insisted softly.
Gannon’s entire body stiffened, every muscle going rigid as his dick pulsed in Cam’s hand. Cam slowed, tightening his grip more, milking Gannon’s seed from him. When some of the tension in Gannon’s legs eased, Cam loosened his hand, caressing Gannon as he came down from his climax, arms still wrapped around him.
Although they were moving a little faster than Cam had intended, he couldn’t say he was disappointed.
Not by a long shot.
Thankfully they were in the water, because Gannon’s legs were shaky as he forced his feet back to the ground, arms still clutching Cam close.
“I didn’t expect that,” he admitted, sliding his lips against Cam’s smooth, warm neck.
“Are you relaxed, at least?”
Gannon pulled back and met Cam’s beautiful gaze. “A little.”
Cam flashed that brilliant grin and Gannon answered in kind.
“I told you I’d keep you safe. Now swim with me.”
Still trying to get his bearings, Gannon nodded. He suddenly realized he hadn’t paid any attention to the water or what critters were likely lurking beneath the surface while Cam had given him the best hand job of his entire life.
Though he was still nervous, not exactly excited to be in the dark water, he decided to trust Cam on this one. Forcing his legs to move beneath him, he followed Cam out into the deeper water. They didn’t remain out there for long before they journeyed back toward shore, and Gannon was grateful for that.
He trusted Cam when he said he’d keep him safe, but that didn’t mean he was enjoying himself. However, he was trying because he knew this was Cam’s world. The man was like a fish, moving with such masculine grace, body slicing through the water easily, effortlessly. Gannon was more like a fish out of water, flopping around, jerking wildly when something brushed against his leg. Quite frankly, it was embarrassing and he was glad it was dark.
“Come on,” Cam said, tugging Gannon’s arm as they began walking up toward the shore. “You did good. I won’t torture you anymore.”
Gannon’s thoughts instantly drifted to that hand job Cam had given him. He’d take more of that torture any day of the week. Not to mention, he longed to return the favor.
After allowing the breeze to dry them off, they dressed and then made their way back to the marina office. Gannon thought Cam was going to send him on his way, so when he offered him a beer, he did his best to hide his surprise.
“Do you have to work in the morning?” Cam asked as they ascended a set of stairs on the side of the building.
“Took the weekend off,” he answered. “You’re working, though, right?”
“Bright and early,” Cam said.
When they reached the exterior door at the landing, Gannon asked, “Should I go?”
Cam turned to face him. “No. Not unless you want to.”
Meeting Cam’s gaze, Gannon smiled. “That’s the last thing I want to do.”
“Good.”
Gannon noticed Cam didn’t smile, but he didn’t get to ask him what was wrong because Cam turned, punched in a code on the electronic doorknob, and then they were inside. The second floor of the building seemed much bigger than the first. The exterior door opened to a hallway, which cut the floor in half, another door on the right and one on the left.
Cam moved to the door on the left, punching in another code, then opening it.
“It’s not much,” Cam said as they stepped inside. “But this is home.”
They were greeted by a loft-style apartment, the space completely open. High ceilings, exposed brick walls on three sides. Very Friends-like. Only without the bedrooms and the fire escape balcony.
On the far side of the room, there was a king-sized bed with rumpled sheets. Beside it was a nightstand with a clock and a lamp, nothing else. A short six-drawer chest sat beneath a window covered with sheer blac
k curtains. Closest to the door, though, a brown leather sofa sat facing a large flat-screen television mounted on the wall. In the corner opposite the bed, a sheet of opaque glass separated the rest of the area from what Gannon could only assume was the bathroom. And in the other corner, a small kitchenette.
“This is nice,” Gannon said.
“Thanks.”
There wasn’t much in the space, but the things that were suited Cam’s personality. At least the way Gannon saw him. Thick-planked hardwood floors lay out beneath the heavy, masculine furniture. Decorations were minimal, but there were a few pictures on the wall, most of them of the lake and what looked to be Cam and his friends.
Gannon walked over to get a closer look at a collage of pictures that took up nearly one entire wall. “Is that you?”
“Yep.”
They were pictures of Cam doing various things—white-water rafting, hanging from a zip line with a brilliant smile on his face, snowboarding down a mountain—looking completely in his element.
Gannon peered over his shoulder at Cam.
“Have a seat,” Cam said, nodding toward the sofa as he headed toward the kitchen.
Looking back at the images once more, Gannon tried to imagine himself ever doing any of those things. He couldn’t.
Not wanting to think too hard on that, Gannon headed back across the room, dropping onto the plush leather sofa and relaxing back, still trying to take it all in.
“How long have you lived here?” he asked Cam.
“Going on eight years now. It took a couple of years for me to get the money to fix it up. There’s another apartment on the other side that mirrors this one.”
“Who lives there?”
“Roan.”
Gannon took the beer Cam offered.
“Living here…” Gannon began. “Does it make it hard separating your personal life from work?”
“My personal life is my work,” Cam said, tilting the bottle to his lips.
Gannon knew how that felt. His entire world was his company, but it wasn’t simply a job for him. He loved what he did, so he understood what Cam was saying.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, Gannon realized it was late. Much later than he’d thought.
“I really should get going,” he said, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees. “You’ve got work in the morning.”
Cam didn’t say anything, but Gannon could feel his eyes boring into him. Turning slightly, he met the heated gaze.
“Stay,” Cam finally said.
Gannon knew that was a bad idea. After what had happened at the lake, he wasn’t sure he could spend the night with Cam. Not if he wanted to keep taking things slow.
The cushion shifted, and Cam took the beer from Gannon’s hand, setting it on the coffee table, where he’d set his.
“I want you to stay,” Cam said softly as he moved over him, forcing Gannon back on the sofa. “And not because I want anything. Because I want to spend time with you.”
Sliding his hands along the firm muscle at Cam’s sides, he worked his fingers beneath the hem of Cam’s T-shirt, the warmth of his skin penetrating his fingertips, infusing his entire body with a blaze of heat.
Cam’s knee eased between Gannon’s legs, insistently pressing against his dick, which was quickly stirring to life as he stared up at the most beautiful man he’d ever laid eyes on.
“Let me see you,” Gannon whispered, working Cam’s shirt up and over his head.
Cam hovered above him, the muscles in his arms contracting as he held himself up. Once the shirt was out of the way, Gannon traced the tattoo across Cam’s chest with the tip of his finger, his gaze sliding up to meet Cam’s briefly before once again returning to take in the gorgeous body before him.
When Gannon tweaked the barbell piercing one of Cam’s nipples, Cam groaned.
“Do you like that?” Gannon asked, his voice rough with his own arousal. He noticed the line of Cam’s jaw as it tensed when Gannon applied more pressure to the steel bar.
“Fuck yes,” Cam said through clenched teeth.
“Does it hurt?”
“In a good way, yeah,” Cam muttered, eyes closed.
Gannon was tempted to put his mouth where his fingers were, but that choice was taken away from him when Cam draped his body over Gannon’s, his mouth coming down over Gannon’s.
Sliding his hands up to cradle Cam’s head, Gannon took control of the kiss, something he had already figured out that Cam wanted from him. Though he got the impression Cam was a switch, Gannon wasn’t. Not usually, anyway. He’d bottomed a couple of times, sure. It hadn’t been a bad experience, but he still preferred to be the one in control. Naturally, he was a top, and he longed to have Cam right where he wanted him.
But this worked for now. He certainly had no intention of rushing things, even if he wanted to repay Cam for the hand job from earlier. Truth was, he wanted to taste every inch of Cam’s skin, to run his tongue over those tattoos, along the smooth lines of every muscle.
The kiss was pure bliss. Gannon focused on Cam’s mouth, nipping his lip, sliding his tongue against the barbell that pierced Cam’s tongue. When Cam began grinding his cock against Gannon’s thigh, he encouraged him by adding friction, shifting his leg.
Cam groaned.
“Look at me,” Gannon said, pulling back from Cam so he could see his face.
Cam’s eyes opened, heavy-lidded as they stared down at him.
“Ride my leg,” Gannon instructed. “I wanna watch you come apart.”
Cam didn’t slow, didn’t appear at all embarrassed to be dry humping Gannon’s leg. Not that he should’ve been, because quite frankly, it was probably the hottest thing Gannon had seen in his entire life. Every muscle in Cam’s upper body flexed and shifted as he rocked his hips, grinding his cock against Gannon’s leg.
Watching Cam was a pleasure he’d never tire of.
Gently brushing his fingers along Cam’s ribs, he felt the shudder that tore through Cam’s body as he continued to pump his hips, the thick, steely length of Cam’s erection pressing into Gannon’s thigh.
“That’s it,” he urged. “Beautiful.”
Cam’s eyes were glazed over, likely blinded by the lust that was coursing through him.
“Come for me, Cam. Let me see you let go.”
Cam’s groans intensified as he urgently pressed his hips forward and back, rocking himself.
A feral growl escaped and Gannon knew he was close. Reaching up, he twisted the barbells in Cam’s nipples, watching as the pleasure ignited on Cam’s face.
“Fuck… Ah… Fuck,” Cam roared, his body stilling, his cock pulsing against Gannon’s leg.
Cam dropped down, plastered against Gannon’s body. Unable to move, he held Cam close, brushing his lips over Cam’s jaw. “That was so fucking hot,” he whispered. “I could watch you do that a million times over.”
He felt Cam smile against his neck before he shifted. “I need a shower.”
Gannon wasn’t sure if that was an invitation, so at first he didn’t say anything. When Cam got to his feet, he waited to see what Cam would do, and to his disappointment, Cam didn’t reach for him, he simply moved across the room toward that opaque glass wall.
“Gannon?”
“Yeah?” he answered, staring up at the ceiling.
“Shower. Now.”
Smiling to himself, Gannon got to his feet.
He definitely didn’t need to be told twice.
Thirteen
Cam wasn’t sure how he’d managed to survive the night.
Sleeping with Gannon—
Wait, scratch that.
Technically, they hadn’t actually slept together. Not in the carnal sense, at least. They’d been in the same bed, beneath the same sheets, skin to skin. And yes, they’d both been naked.
But they hadn’t … slept together.
However, sleeping with Gannon—while not sleeping with him—was a hell of a lot harder than he’d thought it would be. S
ure, it had been better than good simply to close his eyes and drift off with Gannon’s warm, reassuring presence beside him, curled up around him, those strong arms holding him. In fact, last night Cam had slept better than he had in years.
The sleeping had been the easy part.
After Cam had rubbed himself to orgasm on Gannon’s leg like a horny fucking teenager, then showered with the guy without taking things to the next level, he’d fallen asleep with the mother of all hard-ons. But it had been the right thing to do. As much as he wanted Gannon, he had no intention of pushing this too fast. And he was pretty sure Gannon understood that.
There were a lot of things they had to work out between them. Sure, the chemistry was there. However, that couldn’t be the only thing they based this on if they wanted it to work. They still had to contend with the hour drive between them, the fact that they both were married to their jobs, and then there was the actual differences between them—Cam liked water, Gannon did not. Gannon was a brainiac, Cam was not.
Although at this point, too fast … well, they had obviously defined it differently.
So, when his alarm had gone off and Gannon hadn’t so much as budged, Cam had left him asleep in his bed, loving the way he looked there.
And now that the sun was up and Cam was on his second cup of coffee, he was beginning to become somewhat coherent. He’d already had a brief conversation with Teague, who had come in early to take a group of feisty ladies out on one of the pontoons. They’d asked for Teague specifically. Not that it had been the first time a rowdy group of women had asked one or more of them to take them out. At least several times a year, they’d go through the motions of entertaining women, even harmlessly flirting. Cam merely found it highly amusing considering they could flirt with the best of them but had never so much as touched a woman.
Cam hadn’t, at least. Not once. Never even experimented. He’d known from an early age that he wasn’t the same as most of his friends. He’d always been attracted to the same sex. Always. He was fairly confident that Roan hadn’t. As for Dare, Cam wasn’t so sure. The guy was wild, crazy … experimental. He didn’t confirm or deny either way. And Teague … well, the kid claimed he hadn’t, nor did he have the inclination.
Reckless (Pier 70, 1) Page 10