10. Sex on the Beach #2
Robbie turned to look at him. “You really are starting to sound like me.”
“Great, so now you’re rubbing off on me.” The silence was palpable. “Sorry, bad choice of words.”
Robbie ran his hands over his face. “This is unbearable,” he said. “I mean, really, Jake, we’re two grown men. It shouldn’t be this complicated to work through our issues with each other.”
“This would’ve been easy to move past if you’d just had sex with me when I first got into town,” Jake said.
“It would not, and you know that.”
“It would’ve cut the tension.”
“Or made it worse.”
They sat in aquatic peace for a little while.
The gentle, rhythmic sloshing of the waves took Jake back to the blessed silence that broke through when he rushed out of the gay bar last night.
He closed his eyes. He was back up against that wall, the bricks scratching the back of his neck, Robbie’s breath hot on his throat.
He’d been in that position so many times before with other men. What about Robbie was different?
Jake studied Robbie carefully, his perfect, milky skin practically glowing in the dying light. If he’d told Jake right then that he was immortal—a demon sent from Hell to punish Jake for all his sins—Jake would have believed him wholeheartedly.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Jake said finally. “I need to fuck you, Robbie. I need to know what it’s like before I leave here.”
“Then you’ve got a few months,” Robbie said, trying and failing to keep his tone light. “Do it right before you’re gone forever, for Mier’s sake. Maybe then you’ll have changed your mind, and I’ll never have to think about you again.”
“No, I mean here, on this beach, tonight.”
Robbie sighed heavily. It wasn’t the reaction Jake wanted at all. “Please don’t do this to me, Jake.”
“You wanted me last night.”
“I…” He was backed into a corner, and the pitiful expression on his face told Jake he knew as much.
“I wanted to wallow in my misery last night. You were the perfect man to do that with. But that was then, not now. It’s different after a few hours of sleep and a full day to think about how stupid I was being. ”
Jake smiled. His fingers dug into the sand, getting under his nails. “Hot and cold, right?”
Robbie squeezed his eyes shut, as though Jake’s words had inflicted physical pain upon him. When he opened them again, he allowed a faint smile to cross his lips just long enough for Jake to catch it. “I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
“Probably,” Jake said. “Honestly, we’ll probably both regret it. But I’m gonna be gone soon enough, and we’re wasting a good opportunity if we don’t. If you think about it, it’s kinda perfect.”
“Perfect.” Robbie chuckled darkly. “Yeah, right. Perfect. Are you sure you’re not trying to justify your feelings to yourself, Jake? Because it sounds like…”
Jake wasn’t listening to Robbie anymore.
He’d tuned out everything else around him, including Robbie’s useless words.
All he had attention for was the physical being of the man who sat beside him, hair rippling gently in the breeze, striped shirt untucked and waiting to be unbuttoned, beige trousers that showed little more than a hint of what he had to offer.
He still wasn’t Jake’s type at all, but he was hot, and Jake was desperate.
And he would be lying if he didn’t admit that he was curious to see more of what Robbie was hiding behind that snobbish veneer.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you in,” Jake murmured. “You’re a strange man, Robbie, you know that?”
“Yes, I do, thank you very much. Plenty of people before you have told me that.” Robbie swallowed.
Jake watched his throat. He wasn’t supposed to be attracted to Robbie this deeply. He wasn’t supposed to ignore Robbie’s grating personality and the family name that got in the way of everything.
He watched Robbie cock his head to the side, his lips ever so slightly parted. His chest rose and fell gently with each breath. If he was nervous now, it didn’t show at all.
Robbie was the one to surprise Jake again, with his tenacity and the sudden passion that seemed to overtake him. He pulled Jake into a kiss, straddling him in the sand, fingers tangling through his hair like his life depended on touching Jake.
It was like the night on the doorstep and the night in the alleyway combined. It was better, and more frantic, and more demanding. Jake needed Robbie more than he had ever needed another man in his life.
It’d been just over a month since he’d last had sex, and that last bastard was clingier than a burr stuck to his clothes. He never went longer than a week or two without some kind of action unless he was sick or unbelievably busy. That was why he needed Robbie now.
Robbie bucked his hips against Jake, pulling himself up so he was gazing down at him, hair falling over his eyes, lips ruby with the blood that had rushed to them. He fingered the buttons on Jake’s shirt, easing them apart with a deftness Jake had absolutely not been expecting.
“This is a terrible idea,” he breathed, “out here in the sand, in the middle of the beach. We’re fucking fools, I’m telling you.”
“Then we’ll go into the woods,” Jake hissed back. “Behind a tree.”
“Because that’s any better?” A hint of annoyance flashed in Robbie’s eyes, and Jake had to bite back a retort.
“What about your place, then? I promise I won’t make fun of it if you let me fuck you there.”
Robbie knelt back. “You’re not setting foot in my house. We’ll get a hotel or something. That’ll be better.” He made to get up, but Jake grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back down.
The smallest of groans escaped Robbie’s lips, and then Jake had him locked in a kiss again. They weren’t leaving the beach. They were far past that decision being cemented.
Fingers fumbled with buttons, unbuckled belts, unzipped flies.
Thready, needy breaths warmed the cold air, puffs of steam rising from their mouths whenever they weren’t pressed together.
Hands groped at skin and fabric, squeezing, clawing, taking in whatever they could when there were still so many layers keeping them apart.
Then Robbie stopped, jerking his head up. A sheen of sweat glistened on the side of his forehead where it was illuminated by the moonlight. The same moonlight reflected across the water, calm and unbroken.
“What is it?” Jake whispered breathlessly, hardly daring to speak at all.
In response, Robbie held a finger to his lips.
Suddenly still after a flurry of movement, the cold air nipped at Jake’s exposed skin.
The sweat on his own forehead and chest cooled, eliciting a shiver from him.
He had no idea how late it was, or how long they’d been on the beach, each fighting for the dominance both so desired.
He was just about to ask Robbie to settle back down so they could return to what was really important when he heard it too: footsteps. Sandy, crunchy, very human footsteps accompanied by giggling were making their way ever closer to the shore.
Jake exchanged glances with Robbie, and then with renewed vigor, this time tinged with panic, they threw their clothes back on, buttoned up as best they could, and scurried out of there, not stopping until they reached the parking lot.
Jake bent over, hands on his hips, as he struggled to catch his breath. “What a fucking tease,” he panted.
“That’s why you don’t have sex on a public beach in a small town,” Robbie said. “I told you something like this would happen.”
“Yeah, well, why would I believe you? You worry enough to make any excuse sound valid.”
“Or maybe you don’t take things seriously enough.” Robbie brushed past Jake, who straightened up so he could follow him.
“Where are you going?” he called.
“Home.”
“What about—”
“Forget it, Jake. The mood’s killed, and it was a bad idea anyway. Maybe it was a sign.”
“Oh, yeah, teenagers sneaking out to the beach to get drunk on wine coolers are a sign from Mier now, right?”
“Spare me your snide remarks,” Robbie said, still not bothering to look back even as Jake trailed behind him, leaving the parking lot and his car behind.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, and this time, we’re not swapping spit just because you keep having wet dreams about me that make your already troubled brain starved of sleep. ”