Xander
Dropping into my chair with a groan, I pulled my feet up to yank my boots off.
It had been a long day, and an even longer week.
Calls were often spread out among us and three others that were nearby.
Except with the weather warming up, everyone and their grandmother had decided it was a good idea to be a fucking idiot and get themselves into spots where they needed rescuing.
And in one case, literally someone’s grandmother.
I was looking forward to putting the last touches on the reports I had left and then crawling into bed to sleep for as long as possible.
Hopefully, there wasn’t some goddamn emergency call while I was trying to catch up on sleep.
I probably should have showered, but that sounded like a lot more effort than I was willing to put in.
Glancing at the door, I considered going to find Colin and seeing if he might want to join me for a couple of hours, but I squashed the idea.
It wasn’t that I had grown so used to his frequent visits over the past few weeks, which should have been alarming, but it was hard to argue with something when it comforted you in an otherwise shitty time of your life.
But the last I had seen, he had fallen asleep in the rec room, head slumped on Jake’s shoulder while the two of them and Mika watched some old Star Trek episodes.
That had been over an hour ago, and I was sure that if someone hadn’t woken him up, he would eventually do so on his own and crawl into bed.
Sighing, I picked up my phone, which had gone neglected most of the day, and frowned when I saw a text from Mona of all people. I didn’t know what the hell she wanted since we were supposed to be keeping our distance. When I saw the words, We should talk, I swiped the notification away.
It was strange how much easier it was to ignore her lately.
Curious as I was, it was easy to shrug off.
Then again, I was exhausted, and it was more interesting to think of Colin slumped on my couch.
Which reminded me of him, stretched out and looking at home in my bed.
Much more interesting than whatever the fuck Mona had to say, as if either of us had managed an actual conversation in months.
With another groan, I rubbed my shoulders and shrugged all thought of Mona away.
Sometimes it was easy to forget I wasn’t in my twenties anymore.
I remembered my grandparents laughing when I brought up that they were old and shouldn’t be doing the things they were caught doing.
“You don’t think you’re old,” they’d told me with a knowing chuckle.
“But your body likes to remind you it is after you’re done.
You’ll see one day.” Personally, I’d thought they were just stubborn, but damned if they weren’t proving to be right and I was still a couple of decades from the age they were.
The door to my cabin opened, and I jerked as I heard a thump. I spun to see Colin looking at me with a half-smile as he kicked off his boots. “Goddamn, I could use a hot shower.”
“Just fucking let yourself in,” I grumbled.
He stopped, dropping his second boot and glancing at the door and then back at me. “Okay, but that’s what I did, so—”
I fucking hated him sometimes.
He grinned. “So I should go then? I was going to shower here, but maybe I could wake Jake up or go see if Aidan’s available. We could soap each other up and…well, a few other things.”
“You’re an idiot,” I told him, and before I could think how to explain why he was an idiot, I stopped when he tugged at the bottom of his shirt. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Taking a shower,” he told me with a snort.
My heart skipped a few beats. It was amazing how I could go from never batting an eye at seeing another man’s naked torso, let alone their whole body, to staring when one took their shirt off around me.
I couldn’t help it, for whatever reason, Colin was…
enticing. His chest was built enough to give him a distinctly…
solid look, but his body tapered to a waist that I knew from personal experience was fun to grip by the hips and move around.
It was his confidence too, even I could admit as much.
It didn’t shout or boast; it was just…there.
He could strip around me, aware that it was making my attention lock on, but also strip simply because he wanted to and had no reason to feel self-conscious.
He could say the dirtiest things to me without a trace of doubt or shame, knowing it was going to work on me but not caring that it might sound corny or ridiculous.
I watched him walk toward the bathroom, where he deposited his shirt on the sink and bent over to grab his socks. “What?”
“You were out cold the last time I saw you,” I told him dryly.
“I had a nap,” he said with a shrug, tossing his socks out of the bathroom, and I sighed.
“You’re going to make my cabin stink,” I told him in annoyance.
“Please, it smelled like a foot forest when I came in because you took your boots off,” he said with a snort, grabbing the button of his jeans.
“I’m not going to do anything more than add a few new foot trees to it.
Now, are you going to get off that sexy ass and join me in the shower?
I know that’s a whole ass kink of yours. ”
“It is not,” I said, even as I stood up to do what he suggested.
“Please,” he said, shimmying out of his jeans and dropping them in the bathroom. “Get me naked and wet, and you’re like a horny teenage boy discovering porn for the first time, all drool.”
“The fuck I am,” I snarled and then blinked when I realized he was smirking.
And he was smirking at me because I was staring at his midriff, waiting for him to shuck his underwear and look like the walking sex god he was under all his professionalism.
“Fuck off,” I grunted at him.
“Alright,” he shrugged and disappeared out of sight. I heard the water start.
“Fucker,” I muttered as I yanked my shirt off and dropped it on the floor, fussing with my pants as I reached the bathroom and stopped when I found he hadn’t actually got into the shower, or taken his underwear off as he leaned against the wall. “You asshole.”
“I know how much you like peeling me out of my underwear,” he said, because he was an arrogant bastard.
“Idiot,” I said, kicking my jeans out of the way, stepping into the bathroom to close the door behind me.
“A sexy idiot,” he said and chuckled when my hands went to his hips and squeezed.
God, I loved the feel of him against me, the hardness of his chest against mine, the warmth of his almost hairless skin against my far hairier one.
The way his fingertips were just as calloused as mine, but far more nimble as they tapped my biceps then slid down to brush my hips.
He was every bit as strong, muscular, and hard as the women before him had been soft, lithe, and graceful…and I wasn’t comparing each experience as much as before. If anything, the comparison still happened, but it was done with an appreciative eye.
“Ass man,” he teased as my hand found his ass and gave a squeeze.
“Always,” I admitted, sliding my finger to his hole and pressing. “And I’m gonna fuck yours after this shower.”
“God, I hope so,” he said as I slipped his underwear off.
His dick flopped out, and I smirked when I could see how heavily it flopped, half hard already, and all I had done was grope him and promise my dick to him.
He was so easy, and it was nice to see I could influence him so easily.
I wouldn’t say he was wrapped around my finger… or my dick, but I was thinking it.
The water was warm as he pulled me under it after making sure I’d taken off my underwear.
As much as I needed to wash, I thought less about hygiene and more about the fact that he was growing hard at the sight of my naked body.
That was one thing I had never considered about being with a man as opposed to a woman.
There was physical evidence when a guy was into you, and his evidence was hard enough to break a brick.
“C’mere,” he said softly as he got us both shampooed and then handed me the body wash.
That was just an excuse for us to touch each other, but at least it was a productive excuse.
The shower quickly filled with the smell of soap, but I barely noticed as I rubbed his body and felt his lips on the parts of my skin not touched by the soap.
Then his hand wrapped around my cock and I realized I didn’t give a fuck about what we were ‘supposed’ to do in the shower.
All that mattered was the feel of his hand gliding over my shaft, as eager and passionate as he’d been the first time we’d done anything.
I covered his mouth with my own, sucking on his bottom lip and loving the way his fingers flexed against my shoulder as he held me while jerking off.
His dick was in my hand then, and it wasn’t the first time, and probably not the last, but I realized I was going to need to kiss the idea of my heterosexuality goodbye.
It was no longer pure, not when I found myself loving the feel of his cock in my hand, and not only had I grown used to it in my mouth occasionally, but I had dedicated energy to learning to take it better.
“Shit,” he muttered hungrily against my lips as I chased them with my teeth.
I could forget about everything: this shit awful week, the divorce that God save me should be finalized soon, the idiots I had to corral, so long as I had him right here and—
THUMP.
We both went rigid before I heard Cait’s voice from the other side of the door. “Fucking hell, are you showering?”
He stiffened, and I whipped my head toward the door. “Jesus fucking Christ, Cait! What the fuck are you doing?”
“Coming to see you after the week we just had,” I heard her snort. “Jesus, it stinks in here. What is it with you men? I’m lighting a candle.”
I completely forgot what was happening. “I don’t have a fucking candle!”
“Sure you do,” she called out. “I keep one here just in case it smells like feet.”