Chapter Five
Hunter
Crystal clear water lapped against the edge of the boat, the colour so vivid and sparkling it was almost unreal.
The sky was the same, cloudless and bright, and when I gazed out into the horizon the two seemed to blend into each other, making it difficult to know where one ended and the other began.
If I looked for too long, it started to give me a headache.
In the distance, the island of Ibiza emerged from the ocean, its outline the only thing breaking up the non-existent line between the sky and sea for miles.
From here, I couldn’t see any details of the Old Town or the port or the hills beyond.
It was a far-off speck we’d return to at some point, where we’d be lured in by the bright lights like a siren song.
Despite my wish for sun, I was glad there was an awning across the deck that gave us a space to stretch out in the shade.
Bailey had already turned pink, even though I’d nagged him endlessly about remembering to put sun cream on.
If he burned, I’d never hear the end of it.
And I’d forever be mad at myself for not pinning him down and slathering him in it.
I was big enough that it wouldn’t be easy for him to tip me off and run away.
Maybe he wouldn’t want to either.
Maybe it would lead to other things… things we still hadn’t talked about but that loomed over us like a herd of fucking elephants.
It had been two weeks since our last hookup with Aiden. Two weeks since he’d fucked me and made me realise more than one thing about myself. Two weeks since Bailey had let me try sucking his cock and had come all over me.
And in those two fucking weeks, neither of us had said a bloody thing about it.
We’d even tried picking up other people at clubs—men and women—and while they’d all been fine, every one of them had left me feeling kind of empty. Bailey hadn’t kissed me, hadn’t touched me… fuck, he’d barely said a word to me throughout any of them.
Had I done something wrong? Had I crossed some line?
Well, yeah, I had done. We both had. But if he had a problem with that, why the hell hadn’t he said anything? He was a grown-ass man. If there was something wrong, he needed to talk to me.
Not that I had ever been good at that either. I was the first one to admit I wasn’t good at talking about shit, but I never wanted to bother Bailey. He’d done enough for me over the years. He didn’t need to deal with any more of my shit.
“Want to go swimming?” Bailey asked, appearing from below deck in the tiniest pair of swim shorts I’d ever seen.
Fucking hell. I could see every inch of his dick through them, and I had to tear my eyes away before he caught me staring.
Now I’d had his dick in my mouth once, I really wanted to try it again. And do it better next time.
Like actually suck him instead of doing… whatever the fuck I’d tried to do.
“Sure,” I said, swinging my legs off the edge of the sun bed.
I hadn’t really been doing much. Mostly trying to avoid doomscrolling through my phone.
I’d been served up a whole bunch of fitness influencers recently, and I was trying to find a way to get away from their content without having to go through and block a million people.
Because I knew if I ended up on their pages, trying to block them, I’d end up getting lost in a rabbit hole of routines, hacks, and food ideas.
And then my brain would start comparing everything I’d done since the end of the season to those videos, and I’d immediately start spiralling.
That was not how I wanted to spend my holiday.
And I wasn’t going to inflict that on Bailey either.
“Did you put more sun cream on?” I asked as I put my sunglasses down and stretched.
Bailey shrugged, giving me a withering look. “I’m going in the water. I don’t need it.”
“Yes, you fucking do!”
“I’ll be fine. I put some on earlier.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re an arsehole,” I said, reaching out to grab his wrist and pulling him towards me.
Bailey yelped in shock as I dragged him into my arms, putting one around his chest to hold him in place while I tried to bend down to grab the sun cream.
It wasn’t working and he slipped out of my arms with a laugh. “Oi, come here, dickhead!”
“Seriously, I’m fine!”
“Don’t make me tackle you.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
We stared at each other for a second, waiting for the other to move first. Then Bailey winked and dashed towards the edge of the boat, jumping off the side and cannonballing into the water, sending spray into the air.
“Twat,” I muttered fondly as I strode over to the side and watched as he came up for air, pushing his wet hair off his face with one hand. There was a shit-eating grin on his face and I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? All this over sun cream? Are you fucking twelve?”
“You worry too much.”
“No, I don’t. This isn’t a joke, Bailey.”
“You can put some on me later,” he said as he casually trod water. The sea was so clear I could practically see his feet from here.
“Fine, but if you burn, I’m not letting you bitch about it. I’ll just say I told you so.” I jumped off the edge of the boat, neatly dropping into the water. It was refreshingly cool, the salty spray landing on my face and coating my lips.
Bailey was only a couple of meters away from me, the drops of water on his skin sparkling like diamonds under the sun.
I shouldn’t have been thinking about the fact he looked beautiful, but I was.
The temptation to lean in and kiss him was right there, needling away at me under my skin like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
I’d been so good at resisting since December, but our last hookup with Aiden had blown open the lock of the box I’d tried to shove my feelings into. There wasn’t even a fucking box left. Just me still trying to pretend I didn’t want to kiss Bailey until my mouth went numb.
“You still haven’t caught me,” Bailey said, a wicked grin on his lips as he began to propel himself backwards away from me.
“I thought you said I could put some on you later?”
“True. But you also said you’d tackle me. And you haven’t done it.” He was still grinning as he flicked some water towards me. He was in a weird-as-fuck mood today, but I couldn’t say I felt any different.
“Really? Are we really doing this?”
He didn’t answer me. He just flicked more water at me then turned and began to swim away, cutting through the water towards the front of the boat in a swift front crawl. Just before he turned out of view, he glanced over his shoulder to see if I was following him. “Come on!”
I wanted to tell him I wasn’t doing this. But there was no way I could resist.
Bailey laughed as I swam after him, kicking my way through the cool, clear water as the boat bobbed next to us.
The couple of members of crew on board would probably think we were complete twats.
They wouldn’t be far wrong. But I doubted we were the strangest thing they’d ever dealt with.
And unless they happened to be huge fans of English rugby—which was unlikely—then we weren’t the most interesting people they’d deal with this summer either.
It didn’t seem like they’d recognised us, and anyway, they’d signed non-disclosure agreements.
Not that they’d have anything interesting to share.
It wasn’t like Bailey and I were doing anything other than dicking around.
Bailey was still ahead of me, but it didn’t seem like he was swimming very fast. He wanted me to catch him. But I couldn’t help thinking it was a trap… like as soon as I did he’d splash water in my face or try and dunk me under.
“Got you,” I said, grabbing his ankle and tugging it gently as I reached him. “Dickhead.”
Bailey laughed and wrapped his legs around my waist, his arms sweeping the water gently, keeping his chest from pressing against mine. He was pretty much sitting in my lap, and I tried not to think about the fact I’d been able to see his dick through his trunks.
“You didn’t exactly try very hard,” I continued, flicking a tiny bit of water at him. It was the only thing I could think of to distract myself.
“I’m on holiday. I’m not making an effort unless I have to.”
“Then why the fuck did you make me try and catch you?”
“Because it’s fun.”
There was a long moment of quiet between us, where the only sounds hanging in the air were the slap of water on the hull and the distant rumble of another boat engine.
“Bailey, I…”
“Yeah?” He floated a little closer, tightening his legs around my waist to anchor himself to me.
“What did you want to do for dinner tonight?” It was a coward’s question but the only one I could bring myself to ask. Fuck, I really was sinking low if I was asking about food. It was normally the last question I ever asked and something I never thought about unless someone brought it up first.
“Oh, er, dunno. Did you wanna try that restaurant on the marina? See if we can get a table there?”
“Which one?”
“The one on the end. Where there’s, like, water on all three sides. And it’s got the bar with the sofas. A lot of the tables look pretty private, and they have a lot of seafood. I checked the menu last time we walked past.”
“Oh yeah, that looks nice,” I said, grateful Bailey wasn’t pointing out my strange choice of conversation. “Do we need to book?”
“Not sure. I can ask when we get back,” Bailey said, offering me a tiny smile. “Or if you don’t wanna try there, there are a couple of other places on the marina we can look at. I made a list of the ones you might like.”
“No, that sounds good.”
“Cool.”
Another long moment and I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Could Bailey hear it too?
The heat of the sun was relentless, and I wasn’t sure if that was what was making me dizzy or if it was the glare of the light off the water. Either way I wanted to get moving again before I gave myself a headache.
“I’m gonna swim around the boat a little more,” I said, gently pulling back so he had to let go of me. “Want to come too?”
“Sure. Yeah, sounds good.” He bit his lip and wrinkled his face up. “Is the water really salty, or is it just me?”
“I think it’s just you.”
“At least it’s warmer than Skeg,” he said as we began to swim slowly, and I chuckled at the memory of our team trip to Skegness earlier in the spring. We’d all ended up in the water, but that had been the North Sea in fucking April. Not exactly a pleasant experience.
Throwing the coaches in had been fun, though.
“Yeah. Think we could get away with suggesting a training camp here? Or, I dunno, Spain? Anywhere warmer than Skegness.”
“We can try,” Bailey said. “The worst they can say is no.”
“We’ll ask Clive when we get back.”
Bailey hummed, cutting slowly through the water. I could tell he was thinking but I wasn’t going to interrupt. I always hated when people tried to jog thoughts out of me before I was ready, so I tried not to do it to anyone else, even if I wanted to know.
“How do you think Jonny and Devon’s move went?” Bailey asked eventually.
I coughed, trying not to swallow a ton of seawater. “Don’t know. Hopefully well.”
“Do you think Aiden’s still there?”
“No. It’s been two weeks. He’ll have gone back to work.”
Bailey nodded as he reached the ladder to climb back on board, putting one hand on it as he began to tread water. He was clearly lost in thought but trying to hide it. I wondered if his thoughts were the same as mine. But I still didn’t know how to ask without it sounding weird.
I mean, it was weird, wasn’t it? To pine after a guy you’d randomly had sex with twice.
Even if he had completely upended your entire world and made you rethink everything you thought you’d known about yourself…
It was still weird. Right?
“I think you were right,” Bailey said, distracting me before I wandered down yet another Aiden-related rabbit hole.
“About what?”
“I need more sun cream. I think I’m gonna burn.”
I chuckled. “Wow, you can listen.”
“Sometimes. When I have to.”
I nodded, trying not to remember the way he’d followed Aiden’s instructions without hesitation. And how good he’d looked between Aiden’s legs…
“Come on,” I said, gesturing up the ladder with my head. “Let’s do it now before you turn into a bloody lobster.”
Getting my hands on Bailey wasn’t exactly going to help my wandering thoughts, but I couldn’t tell him no.
Not without a reason.
And I didn’t have a good one to give him.