10. Dylan
Chapter 10
Dylan
P ull. It. Together.
The mental reprimand is useless. I can’t stop staring. Jake’s skin is flawless, not a freckle or birthmark to be found. His chest, while not as thick as mine, is perfection. My mouth is watering so much, I might drown… on the boat .
I only manage to pull my eyes off his frame after he breaks eye-contact first and goes back to getting his lifejacket on. I’m doing a fantastic job of making a fool of myself because it isn’t lost on me that when I admitted to being gay, he didn’t say, oh wow, me too .
So, I was right.
Jacob Ellington is straight and I’m left to ogle his beautiful body and suffer in silence. The pressure in my balls is almost too much to bear and the day has barely started. I have hours left of this torture.
Between that and the unfamiliar sensation of jealousy over the relational proximity these guys share with Jake, my head is spinning and we’ve been on the water all of ten minutes. As soon as Hudson’s hand connected with Jake’s ass, I wanted a turn. I wanted my hand to be the last one there. I wanted to feel that solid muscle beneath my itching palm because fuck, he’d look good taking my cock.
Jake lowers himself into the water from the platform on the back of the boat and sends me a mock salute with two fingers as Hudson hands him the rope and Knox begins to pull away from him.
“You board?” Hudson asks me over the roar of the engine.
“Never tried.”
“You’re welcome to have a turn if you want. Jake can probably get you up. He’s the best at boarding out of all of us.”
Oh, he can get me up, alright.
“Uh, sure. Maybe. You guys do your thing first.” Because I can’t hide a hard-on in these swim trunks and the last thing I need is to embarrass myself further in front of the one guy who’s attempted to be my friend in the last ten months.
“Jakey, you good?” Knox yells to the gorgeous man in the water who flashes an “OK” sign above his head. Phoenix and Hudson come back into the main part of the boat and Knox turns around, facing forward and increasing the throttle. Phoenix is giving him a second pair of eyes out front while Hudson doesn’t take his eyes off Jake.
Neither do I.
Jake stands up effortlessly, shaking his head to the side to get the water out of his eyes. With one hand on the rope, he uses his other hand to wipe away the remaining water that was sprayed on his face during the boat’s quick acceleration. The confidence in the movement is so fucking hot. He’s not white-knuckling the rope or flailing around, he’s calm and steady as he bends down and makes small adjustments on his boots until he flashes one more “OK” sign.
Knox turns up the volume and Like a G6 fills the speakers. At first, I laugh inwardly, thinking it’s an odd choice. But then, I watch in awe as Jake sails over the water, swinging from side to side on beat with the music.
My mouth is hanging open when Phoenix startles me by yelling next to my ear. “Fucking good, isn’t he?”
I nod, too awestruck to speak.
“Just wait. It gets better.” When I twist to look at Phoenix, I get a quick glimpse of his smirk before he flashes a signal at Jake who returns it. “Knox, flip him.”
“What does that mea…holy shit !” A second later, the boat banks into a sharp turn and Jake and the board come out of the water. He does a sideways flip and lands so smoothly it’s like he never went airborne at all, immediately continuing to wakeboard on beat with the music.
“Right? Fucker turns me on when he does that shit.” Phoenix laughs before going back up front.
You and me, both , I think to myself.
Knox doesn’t take his eyes off the water, but shouts to me over the engine, the wind, and the music. “We try to give him as much board time as possible. Might as well get comfortable.”
I could watch this all day even if the situation in my swim trunks is anything but comfortable.
I recline in the swivel chair next to Knox’s seat and face backwards so I can keep watching Jake. His smile lights his whole face as he twists his hips to steer the board. Despite it still only being a little after ten, the sun is heating up the day…and so is the man behind the boat.
In front of me, Hudson strips his shirt off and stuffs it in a cupholder so it doesn’t blow away. His physique is impressive, as is Phoenix’s, but it doesn’t elicit the same kind of response in me that Jake’s does.
I watch in awe, wonder, and full-blown lust as Knox swerves the boat in a tight zigzag pattern. Every time Jake gets slung back across the boat’s wake, he pops out of the water, flipping sideways, forward, and backward.
Lost in my thoughts, I’m brought back to the present when another club jam comes over the speakers. The heavy bass amplifies the pressure in my balls to a point that has me concerned I might lose one soon.
Jake stays on the board wreaking havoc on my self-control for another forty-five minutes until finally, he holds a fist in the air and Hudson shouts, “Bring him in.”
Knox twists, looking over his shoulder to confirm with Jake, whose lifejacket is helping him stay afloat in the water. He pulls himself along the rope until he plants his hands on the platform and muscles himself onto the boat’s platform. He sits on the little deck undoing the buckles on his boots before calling for a towel. Phoenix throws Jake the bookbag he brought and Jake immediately pulls out a towel and rubs it over his hair. Unfortunately for me, he reaches back in and grabs a hat and slides it on backwards, putting his sunglasses on before dragging the towel down his wet body.
RIP nut sack.
Without saying anything, Jake leans over and grabs the nearly-full can of beer I’ve been holding ever since he got in the water. I watch as he puts his mouth right where mine had been and takes a swig, immediately spitting it out over the side.
“ Bleh. That’s warm. How long have you been nursing that?” he asks. The smile on his face shines even brighter in his eyes.
“Honestly, I forgot it was in my hands.”
“If you don’t like beer, we have other stuff you can drink.”
“Not if anyone else is getting on the board,” Knox barks. “You know the rule. No liquor unless we’re done behind the boat. Drunk spotters are useless to me.”
“Yeah, of course,” Jake says quickly. “Phoe, you want a run?”
“Hell yeah,” he answers, climbing toward the platform to get situated. Sliding past me, he chuckles. “Aren’t you sweating balls, man?”
Shit. How can he tell?
My brows furrow, but before I can ask what he means, he tugs on my shirt sleeve. “It’s already ninety-two degrees out here. How the fuck do you still have this on? I’d have already taken my goddamn trunks off if I didn’t think Jake would do it too and put me to shame… again .” He laughs and scans the front of my shirt. Looking back up at me he asks, “Did Jake buy you that?”
“Why would Jake buy me clothes?” Is he implying that I’m poor and can’t buy my own? I hadn’t really gotten that vibe from Phoenix, but then again, I don’t really know him.
“I wouldn’t.” Jake flashes a look at Phoenix and subtly shakes his head. Turning back to me, he smiles. “Ignore him.”
Weird moment over, Phoenix plops down and straps his feet into the boots. “Jakey, do me a favor and have my liquor ready when I get back.”
“Hud, you boarding today?” Knox asks Hudson.
“Na, I’m ready to chill. That last call we took yesterday fucked something up in my back.
Knox nods.
Phoenix pushes off into the water, Hudson keeps his spot at the back of the boat and Jake thumps my shoulder. “Come on, you can be forward lookout with me.”
We take seats on opposite sides of the bow and the words rush out of my mouth before I can stop them. “That was really fucking hot. I mean your boarding skills. They’re good.” Christ, Dylan. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
Thankfully, Jake either doesn’t notice the blunder or doesn’t care.
The boat starts gaining speed as he begins to answer and I gesture to my ear and shake my head letting him know I can’t hear him. Next thing I know, he’s hopping from his seat to mine, keeping his eyes on the water as Knox’s lookout. Just as he’s about to land on the seat, Knox turns the boat and Jake loses his balance, toppling into me.
I grab his torso to keep him from smashing his face into the side of the boat and my fingers dig into his flesh. He plants a hand high on my thigh to catch himself and gain purchase anywhere he can, and holy fuck it feels good to have him touching me.
“Shit. Sorry,” he apologizes, backing up. “A little warning next time?” he yells at Knox.
“How was I supposed to know you were going to play flying squirrel right when I turned?” Knox yells back over the music which has changed to country and is currently belting Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma .
Jake rolls his eyes and turns to me, close to my face. His gaze dips to my lips so fast if I had blinked, I would’ve missed it…but I didn’t blink.
“I, uh, learned how to board after meeting these guys a few years ago. Growing up, I was expected to know rich kid shit: tennis, golf, chess, sailing, polo, fencing…you get the idea, but I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie so every chance I can, I try to learn something new. I like doing things other people can’t.”
“Polo? Fencing? ” I ask, latching on to literally anything in an effort to hide how turned on I am.
He shoves my shoulder. “It wasn’t my choice, but I’ll have you know, I’m a state champion in fencing. I figured if I was going to be forced to do it, I might as well be the best at it.”
“Impressive. Are sword jokes too on the nose ?” I ask in a really bad, fake British accent.
“Tell me the truth. Have you ever used the expression on the nose before this conversation?”
This pulls a laugh out of me. “Fuck no.”
His smile morphs into a laugh of his own. “And for the record, they’re called foils, not swords.”
“Noted.” I’m powerless to stop the smirk or the perusal of his chest that accompanies my answer.
I’ve forgotten how important it is to have this kind of connection. I’d do anything for my family and they’ll always come first, but I forget there’s a need for this kind of relationship in my life too.
As if reading my thoughts, Jake says, “I’m glad you agreed to come along today.” A sharp pang of guilt lances through me at the thought of leaving my dad with all that work. Seeing my face fall, Jake quickly adds, “It’s just one day, Dylan. We’ll be back by six or seven.”
Not wanting to be a total buzzkill, I relent. “Yeah, no, it’s all good. Thanks for inviting me.”
Half an hour later, we hear Hudson yell, “Bring him in!”
“Thank fuck. Can I break the liquor out now?” Jake asks Knox.
He nods and I hear Phoenix let out a whoop from the back of the boat.
“ Technically, we’re not supposed to have any open containers on the boat, but as long as we aren’t driving recklessly, being overly obnoxious, or obviously drunk, the police tend to leave us alone. It also helps that they know us and Knox’s boat and our fire station’s divers have done more than one body search for them in this lake,” Jake explains, opening the cooler.
“Last call if the liquor’s coming out. Dylan, you want to go?” Knox asks me, nodding toward the back of the boat.
I shake my head. “I’m happy just to watch this go round, but thanks.”
Jake starts pouring vodka and ginger ale into insulated travel mugs and handing them out to everyone except Knox as the wakeboard gets stowed and the boat ambles slowly toward a new destination.