Chapter 5
Noah
If things had been strained earlier? They were definitely dialled up to downright strange now. I had a tray on the side with food, things that I’d picked at random hoping he would enjoy, and now I looked at my pathetic offerings wondering if I had lost all my marbles.
I thought I had. Not only had I plonked this guy into my shower, but I had also forced him into my bed, drugged him up on painkillers and repeatedly offered to return him to his room, then chickened out.
And to top off this marvellous disaster of a holiday? Now my mother was sat on my bed, chit-chatting with my potential hook-up. I couldn’t believe I even acknowledged that in my head, and now I wanted to slap myself.
I should just go drown myself in the ocean because nothing good would ever come from this.
Hence I was walking back inside, picking up the pathetic tray and then just standing there, willing my mother to read the room.
My mother? She’d never read a room in her life.
“Mum?” I said sternly.
“Darling,” she responded, giving me a stern look. “Dad and I are doing Zumba at three. We will be out of your hair for a few hours. Will the two of you be joining us for dinner?”
“I can’t speak for Riley here,” I tried.
“You’d have to carry me.” He grinned.
Not funny. Not even remotely so.
“I’ll take you back to your room.” I was still in a mood. Perhaps I just wanted peace. A small chance to gather myself up. No chance of that today, even my dad had given me grief for behaving like a brat. I was an adult. Apparently, I was behaving like a plonker. I agreed. I fully agreed.
“No,” he said, sipping his tea, and my mum looked like I had just kicked a puppy.
“Mum, can I have a moment please?”
“As long as it’s a good moment.” She winked.
I hated her.
No, I didn’t. I hated myself. Hated everything right now. She stood up and walked out, and I stayed silent until I was sure she had given me some distance.
“I like your mum,” he said. Like it would make any difference.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted. A truth. I was good at truths. Bad at pretending I was something I definitely wasn’t. So truths it apparently was. “I feel absolutely out of my depth here. No idea what to do or what you expect.”
“That’s okay.” He shuffled on the bed, tapping his hand on the covers next to him. Like he wanted me to join him in bed. “Sit the fuck down, Fairweather.”
“Riley,” I warned. Like we were playing charades. A small smirk on his face. A weak one on mine. Truths? I was lying faster than I could admit it. He was gorgeous. I was smitten. Disaster. An absolute certain one.
“I don’t do things like this,” I started, having lost all my senses, climbing onto the bed still holding on to the goddamn tray. “I don’t hook up with people. I don’t go on dates. I gave up on all that years ago.”
“You still brought me food.” His voice was so smooth. He was reeling me in with pretty little smiles. Accepting the tray as I sat awkwardly next to him. Tried to hide my too-long legs somewhere where my feet weren’t right in his line of vision. Sand everywhere.
See? Disaster.
“I think we should just admit that it would be better if I took you back. Then I don’t have to worry about making a fool out of myself. Because I will. Eventually I’ll say or do something, and this…”
“Stop with the doom and gloom.”
I could suddenly see the teacher in him. His stern voice coming through. I could almost imagine him scolding me for being silly and threatening to cane my arse. The thought made me smirk. He laughed.
“Want me to pretend you’re in detention?
I can do that. Whip those slutty little swim shorts down and give you a good spanking.
I mean it, Noah. Stop dooms-daying here.
We’re good. You’re a nice man. I’m a nice man.
We like each other. Nobody is getting hurt here.
Apart from if you want it. A good spanking, that is. ”
“Fox, stop.” I had to say it. “The fuck?”
“You were thinking it, weren’t you? You blush whenever I talk dirty.”
“You don’t even know me!” I half shouted.
“Oh, but I do. Don’t come at me with rubbish like that.
We’ve landed ourselves right in this mess together, and we’re talking.
I think I know you, at least a little. You’re funny and shy and feisty and strong all at the same time.
And you blush as soon as I look at you, which is just very… fetching.”
“I’m not a dog.”
He laughed out loud, letting the tray settle on his lap, picking up a piece of dried fruit with his fingertips and popping it in his mouth.
“No, you’re not. But you’re a very attractive single man who invited me into his bed. Now you’re trying to kick me out because you’re scared, and that part? That’s not okay.”
He just kept eating. Picking up little pieces of dried junk food and devouring them like truffle-infused little pieces of gourmet edibles. I said nothing. I had nothing more to say.
“Please don’t be scared of me,” he continued, his voice back to that soft drawl he did.
I couldn’t even place the accent, apart from that he’d probably moved a lot.
Picked up and lost bits and pieces along the way.
“I’m not the kind of person who will turn this into anything it’s not.
You should probably know that all the guys I came here with?
Right now? They will be sitting around the bar, laughing at me.
Oh God, what has Riley done now? Silly old stupid Riley, always getting himself in a pickle.
Thinking his boyfriend is being faithful, thinking he can just hook up with some random and get away with it.
See? Can’t even do that. I got myself drunk and lost and sunburnt and now I’m stuck here.
If you want rid of me, you’re going to have to carry me because my foot hurts like hell when I try to stand on it.
I almost screamed when I had to go to the loo earlier. ”
“I’ve got more painkillers.”
Romantic as anything, me.
“You’ve looked after me, and you haven’t laughed at me once. At least not at me being the complete tool I am. I trust too easily, fall too fast and mess everything up because. Well.”
“I think you’re the kind of guy anyone would be lucky to have,” I admitted. “I don’t know why your friends would be making fun of you.”
“Because I do things like this.”
“Like, you find a nice guy and decide to sleep on his patio, and surprise, he’s actually a properly nice guy and looks after you? And then you want to shag him to top it off?”
“Exactly!” he shouted out, looking surprisingly excited. “That’s exactly what I do. I get myself in a good place, and I fuck it up. I shouldn’t be allowed out of the house. Apart from work. I’m good at work. It’s kind of frowned upon to fuck up at work, so I tend to avoid that.”
“Good.” I had to smile. He was… Damn it. I had to stop letting him get to me.
“What I think.” He paused to whip up a bit of tomato sauce with his fingertip. Cleaning the plate before placing said finger in his mouth and sucking it.
Fucking hell, Riley. I could see it. And I was not falling for any more of his tricks.
“I think.” Another pregnant pause as he placed the tray down on the floor and shuffled over on the bed. Closer to me.
Bare chest. Messy hair. Pouty lips. A small speck of tomato sauce on his chin.
My pants.
Just that was weird as hell, and it still made me warm on the inside. Like I somehow owned part of this vision of beauty. I wanted to reach out and touch him. Wanted to kiss that stupid little smirk on his face.
“Noah, I think we should kiss. Just to see if there’s anything there. If not? Fine. Drag me back to where I belong and get on with your holiday. I might have to borrow your Crocs. Not sure I can hobble barefoot in the sand. Risk of infection and all that.”
I wanted to tell him to stop trying to reel me in. Stop with the stupid suggestions, because he knew full well he had me. That I would never pick him up and throw him out. I was weak that way. Weak-hearted. Stupid.
“You can stay,” I said. See? Didn’t even fight it.
“So, can I kiss you?”
“You want to kiss…me.”
“Mmm.” Biting his lip, and moving in slow motion in front of me. The man was a total flirt. “Only to see if we both like it. We have to try things. I already know you think I’m cute. I think you’re sex on legs. And if we don’t kiss?”
I was a rational man. Reasonable. Educated and smart. Yet he let me sit here and nod?
So what if he was now up on his knees, crawling on all fours until he was right there in my face?
Too close. I could feel his breath on me, his nose gently nudging the tip of mine.
That little touch gave me shivers, and I meant proper shivers.
My body reacting everywhere. And my hand moved automatically, doing what I wanted it to do.
I fisted his hair, crushing those curls in my grip.
Held him down so I could maul those lips.
Because yes. Maybe I wasn’t very good at all of this.
I was good at one thing, though. I was good at those fantasies that swirled in my head, the ideas of what I wanted.
What I needed. So I’d taken it before I’d even finished that thought. My lips on his.
I needed it. This. How he knew I couldn’t tell, but he let me and I was melting in his grip, his fingers around my face.
Rough stubble under his soft palm. His lips?
Fuck. Kissable wasn’t even the start of it as he leant heavily on me, making me roll back.
His hand behind my neck to catch my fall.
Him, on top of me, and me refusing to let go of that mouth.
Kissing him. Over and over again, his mouth a little open, letting me do all those things I craved.
Our tongues. Our lips. Our mouths fusing and releasing, and my leg bending up, hoping to feel him sink down against me.
I wanted him. Wanted his arse in my grip.
Oops. Yes. My brain wasn’t even catching up with my body, my fingers now squeezing that little arse on him, and my other hand still moving through his curls. Hoping I would get stuck, tied to him forever.
“Fuck,” he said into my mouth. Just a soft puff of air, but I heard it. I wondered if I said it back or if it was just in my head.
“Fox,” I whispered.
“Noah, I think we’re well beyond kissing. I think you need to fuck me.”
The strangest part of all this was…that I suddenly fully agreed.