Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Foster
Lian’s smile is a little dimmer than usual during our last full day of the cruise. I can tell he’s trying to put on a brave face, but something is clearly weighing heavily on his mind.
I have a feeling it’s the same thing on mine.
Our trip is nearly over. What comes next?
Midday, I convince Lian to leave the cabin with me, not that he needs much convincing.
“You sure you want to go on deck?” he asks, looking worried. His hand is like a vise around my wrist.
“Yes, I’m sure. It’s the last time we’ll have a chance to enjoy the sights.”
“The sights,” Lian repeats, a challenging eyebrow raised. “You mean the ocean you love so much?”
I snort. “You love it. I’ll just…look at you.”
Lian stops dead in the middle of the hall. “We should go back to the room now. For…reasons.”
Chuckling, I give Lian a firm tug. He relents, a cheery grin taking over his face as we head out to one of the decks generally less populated. There’s live music playing below, the wind chilly today but the sun warm. We stop beside the railing, Lian’s hair whipping about as we watch the waves.
“Is it still hard?” he asks me. “Being so close to the water, I mean.”
I hum. “It’s…better. A little. It still scares me when I first look out at it, but then… Then I think about the glaciers and the seals, even the whales, and I feel calmer.”
“That’s amazing,” Lian says quietly. “Truly, Foster.”
“You did tell me I’d be changed after this trip. I think you’re right.”
His smile turns pleased, almost shy, but then that heaviness from before returns.
“Was this the vacation you’d hoped it would be?” I ask, wanting to bring the light back to his eyes.
He does brighten some. “No. It was so much more. Would you… Would you dance with me? I’d like to do that one more time before we dock.”
Heart tripping over itself, I nod and hold out my hand. Lian and I step back from the railing, the music below drifting up as we attempt some of the swing dance moves we learned last week. It’s not the smoothest, but there’s a wide smile on Lian’s face the entire time, and that makes it perfect.
A couple people clap once we’re done, and Lian’s face flushes. Happiness, I can tell.
“Should we head in for dinner?” Lian asks.
I check the time on my phone before nodding. “Just need to grab something from our room first.”
Lian has a bounce in his step as we head back inside. When I open our door, letting him walk in first, that bounce stutters to a halt.
Red rose petals are spread over the freshly made bedsheets in the shape of a heart. On the table beside the bed sits a silver dome, big enough to cover a dinner platter.
Lian turns to me with wide eyes. “I swear I didn’t set this up.”
“I know,” I tell him, stepping closer. “I did.”
He pulls in a breath.
“You planned the perfect romantic cruise, Li. I know you didn’t expect me to be the one joining you on it. But I’m glad Kevin turned out to be an inconsiderate prick. Because his loss was my gain.”
Lian tugs his lip into his mouth, his eyes watery as I go on.
“We’ll be stepping off this ship in just over twenty-four hours. But I don’t want this,” I say, pointing between the two of us, “to end there. I’m hoping you don’t want it to, either. Otherwise the rose petals are going to be embarrassing to clean up a second time.”
He sniffles out a laugh as I take his hand in mine.
“Would you date me, Li?”
“Dang it, Foster. This was supposed to be a tear-free cruise.”
“Is that a yes?” I ask as Lian blinks rapidly.
“Yes, it’s a yes! Of course it’s a yes.”
I oomph when Lian launches himself into my arms, the two of us falling back onto the bed. He kisses me once, twice, before pulling away with a gasp.
“Hold that thought,” he says, scurrying off me, taking a step, and then whirling back. “Close your eyes.”
“Should I be concerned?”
“Absolutely not. Close them.”
Slowly, I shut my eyes, listening intently as there’s some soft shuffling and then the click of the bathroom door. It takes a minute before Lian emerges, but I keep my eyes dutifully closed until he’s back, his weight settling over me on the bed.
“Open,” he says.
When I open my eyes, I nearly choke.
“Told you I look good in stripes,” Lian says, clad in the skimpy sailor’s outfit Troy stuffed into my bag. The shorts, if you can even call them that, leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, and the shirt ends above Lian’s belly button, gifting me a view of his long, slim stomach.
“You do,” I manage, my eyes taking every inch of him in.
Lian winks. “Now I’m going to raise your mast.”
I don’t have the wherewithal to form a single comeback before Lian deftly pops the button on my pants.
He tugs them low, shifting down my body, his striped ass in the air as he feathers kisses up the underside of my clothed cock.
My head hits the bedding, the smell of roses strong as Lian brings my cock swiftly to life.
The moment I’m fully hard, he tugs the band of my briefs aside and swallows me down.
My groan is loud, the smooth, wet heat of Lian’s mouth a heaven I have no desire to leave. “So good,” I tell him.
“Sailor,” he says before his mouth is back on my dick, his tongue licking long stripes up the sides, his hand rolling my balls.
“What?”
“So good, Sailor,” he corrects.
I let out a garbled laugh. “That’s so good, Sailor.”
“Oh, Captain,” he teases. “You just wait.”
Lian’s hand slides up my stomach as his eyes hold mine.
And then he slips his lips down to the root of me.
I nearly swallow my tongue, Lian’s mouth and throat working around me seamlessly.
Spit coats my dick as Lian bobs his head, the sight of my shaft disappearing again and again between his lips too intoxicating to look away from.
I fight the urge to thrust, but Lian gives the side of my hip a slap before pulling his mouth off my cock. “Do it.”
“You sure?”
“Don’t make me ask twice, Cap.”
I groan as Lian sinks back over me, his eyes hooking mine. Slowly, I start thrusting my hips upwards as Lian sinks down. It doesn’t take long at all to find a rhythm, my cock sinking inside Lian’s throat and the man himself moaning as his eyes turn half-lidded.
“Close,” I tell him.
Lian nods around me, his hand wrapping around my base as his mouth works my cockhead. One, two thrusts into his mouth, and I’m coming.
Lian pops upright and jerks me swiftly, his enthusiastic, “Thar she blows!” causing me to wheeze through my orgasm. I feel utterly wrung out once done, the sight of a grinning Lian wiping my cum off his cheek to drag into his mouth making me groan anew.
“Sailor. Get those shorts off.”
He sends me a cheeky salute. “Aye aye, Captain.”
Lian looks like an angel spread atop the strewn rose petals as he lies flat on the bed. I feel a bit like the devil when I wrap my mouth around him and make him come.
We lie panting together once spent, our dinner surely turning cold beneath its dome. Lian’s fingers run through my hair as I draw shapes on his stomach below the striped cut-off shirt he’s still wearing.
“Do you think it will be the same?” he asks, a hint of nerves in his voice.
“What?”
“Us? Off the ship.”
I lean over to kiss his belly button. “It’ll be better.”
“You promise?”
“Mhm. You’ll meet Troy and Ava, and we’ll get to see each other’s homes.”
“I share an apartment with Bailey,” he says. “Did I mention that? You’ll have to meet him, too. Oh! And his new beau. Can you believe my best friend is dating the Remington McRae?”
I huff a short laugh. “I didn’t take you for a hockey fan.”
“The butts, Foster. The butts.”
I nod, trying to keep my amusement to myself.
Lian’s hand through my hair slows, his eyes taking on a serious edge. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“This,” he says simply, running his other hand through the flower petals on the bed. “For…putting in the effort to make me happy. For trying. I don’t need grand gestures or fancy things. But the fact that you did this because you knew it was something I missed out on? That means a lot.”
I scoot up the bed until we’re nose to nose, Lian’s big brown eyes holding me captive. They slip shut when I brush my nose to his and then my lips to his mouth. His kiss is soft, his breath shuddering.
“You deserve effort, Lian.”
“The fact that you think so makes you…” He lets out a soft sigh, finishing with, “Perfect.”
I brush my nose against his again. “I’m far from it, I assure you.”
“Stop selling yourself short,” Lian chides, prodding me in the stomach. “Admit that you’re brave and kind and perfect.”
“How about I admit you’re right.”
Lian waits for me to go on.
“Stripes are your thing.”
His smile grows, even as he shakes his head. “I know they are, but you’re skirting the topic at hand.”
“Am I?” I mutter, dropping my lips to Lian’s neck.
“Hngh.”
“Did you have anything else planned for this romantic getaway?” I ask, slipping Lian’s ridiculous shirt higher and kissing his chest.
“Um… Not, uh… No. Nothing else on the schedule.”
“So I get you all to myself tonight?”
He blows out a breath as I kiss his stomach. Lower. His hip bone. “Guess so.”
I hum. “Best vacation ever?”
Lian’s words are choppy as I begin worshiping him the way he deserves. “Best. Vacation. Ever.”