2. FRIDAY, AUGUST — SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO #3
“Baby,” I whispered before allowing the absolute truth to bleed out of me.
I needed him to know exactly how revered he was, how deeply I felt the staggering weight of what he had just confessed.
“I was miserable. I was out there trying to numb the fact I didn't have you.
I learned the hard way that physical touch means absolutely nothing when it isn't the person you love.”
My hands slid up his arms and gripped his heavy shoulders gently, trying to ground him. I knew how self-conscious he was about his lack of experience. How easily his brain could twist this into him feeling inadequate or naive compared to me.
“Every time I tried to move on, it just made me feel emptier,” I murmured, holding his gaze so he could see the absolute awe I had for him through my eyes.
“I was trying to force something you already knew was impossible. You never even tried to separate your body from your heart, Si. The fact you held onto that…that you’ve only given yourself to two people in your entire life because that connection is sacred to you? It’s beautiful.”
I slid one hand up to cup the back of his neck, my thumb softly stroking his jawline.
“Knowing I’m the only person who has ever gotten to have you in the most vulnerable way…that I’m the only one you’ve ever fully trusted to just let go with?” My voice dropped, thick with emotion. “It means the absolute world to me. Please don't ever feel bad about that.”
Silas squeezed his eyes shut again, a single tear slipping free and leaving a track through the tanning oil.
“Where would we be?” Silas whispered, his voice barely audible.
I paused, stepping a fraction closer. “What?”
Silas opened his eyes, gazing upon me with a devastating desperation. “If I hadn't left. If we didn't lose those seven years. Where do you think we’d be right now?”
The image hit me so hard, it knocked the air from my lungs. I saw it all instantly. A completely alternate timeline where I didn't spend my twenties angry and hollow. I saw the life we were robbed of.
“We’d be married,” I said instantly. The words left my mouth before I could even check them. I stepped closer, my voice strong with the absolute certainty of it. “I would’ve asked you years ago. We wouldn't be hiding in this hotel room. We’d be out enjoying the island, with you as my husband.”
The word hung in the air between us. Husband.
Silas stared at me, his chest heaving as the reality of our stolen future washed over him. A cold kind of quiet fell between us, one that held grief and longing. But in that silence, something in my brain violently clicked into place.
Why am I waiting? The thought was loud, sudden, and ultimately terrifying.
I had spent so much time worrying about the company, about the championship. About protecting Silas from the fallout of a potential scandal. But looking at him right now, as I watched the tears fall down his face over our lost years, none of that mattered.
I needed to lock this down. I needed to fix it.
My mind started to race, trying to do frantic, desperate math.
Today is Friday. The match is Sunday. We leave Tuesday afternoon.
Could I do it here? Would I be able to find a ring in San Juan before we got on that plane?
It felt insane. Reckless. But the urge to drag him to the courthouse in Old San Juan and sign the papers before the sun went down was clawing at my throat.
I didn't want to leave this island as his boyfriend.
I wanted to leave as the husband I should have been years ago.
“We can’t change the seven years, Cal.” Silas’s whisper pulled me out of my planning spiral. His voice was gaining back its strength, a new resolve settling in his eyes. “But we can decide what happens next.”
He stepped close to me, and rested his forehead against mine. We stood there for a long moment, finding our footing in the silence together until his breath fanned across my lips. “After Sunday, we have the week off. We’re going home.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, my mind still stuck on Tuesday. I have three days. I can make this happen.
“Why don’t we take the week?” he whispered and swallowed hard. A nervous but fiercely brave light in his eyes.“To decide if we’re ready for that step. If we’re ready for the world to know.”
My heart stopped. Silas wasn't just talking about coming out. He was talking about us. About finally starting the life I just admitted we should have had years ago.
“You’d do that?You’d risk it all?”
“For you?” Silas’s eyes shined with a fierce devotion. “Cal, I’d burn the whole company down for you. I’m done wasting time.”
A massive, overwhelming wave of love crashed over me. Intense enough that it bordered on violent. I no longer wanted to talk. I needed to ground him completely in the moment, to claim him.
I am going to marry him.
The promise settled deep in my bones as I memorized every inch of his face, even more determined to put a ring on his finger the second we got home. But right now, I needed to remind him exactly who he belonged to.
I flipped the dynamic instantly. In a single smooth motion, I grabbed his wrists, twisted my hips, and slammed him back against the wall. The impact knocked the wind straight from his lungs. I stepped fully into his space, my thigh parting his legs, pinning him in place.
“Cal—” Silas gasped. His eyes flew open wide at the sudden dominant shift.
“You think she has anything over you?” I growled, my fingers wrapping around his neck. “You think I’m looking at others and wishing you were different?”
“No,” Silas breathed. The submission he had been craving all day instantly flared to life.
“I don't want women, Silas,” I said in a low, punishing tone. “I never fucking did. I want you. I want your heavy hands, your muscles. You belong to me. Now, get on your knees.”
Silas let out a ragged, desperate breath as he slid down, dropping to his knees right between my legs. He looked up at me with a dark worship gleaming from his eyes.
“Show me,” I ordered, “Show me what nobody else could ever do for me.”
Silas’s hands moved swiftly to the waistband of my trunks. He pulled them down, allowing my semi-hard cock to spring free as his hot breath grazed my skin. There was no hesitation, he leaned forward and took me desperately to the back of his throat.
I threw my head back. Harsh, filthy curses ripped from my throat.
The wet, scalding heat of his mouth around me sent a blinding shockwave straight to my spine.
My hands tangled violently in his hair, holding him in place as he ravaged me.
Devastatingly sloppy, wet sounds filled the quiet hotel room as he sucked eagerly, creating a rhythm of devotion as he swirled his tongue over my swollen head.
“Fuck, baby,” I groaned, thrusting my hips forward, chasing the incredible sensation. “Take it.”
A muffled, needy sound rumbled from Silas’s chest as his large hands gripped my hips.
It was punishingly tight, enough to leave bruises, as he swallowed me down to the hilt.
His nose pressed into my pubic bone, and a line of drool slipped from his lips as he gagged.
His full submission in sound form. I guided his head, setting a ruthless, demanding pace.
Every agonizing slide of his mouth pulled me closer to the edge.
The pressure continued to build to a blinding peak, my hips bucking forward as he brought me to my breaking point.
“Silas,” I choked out, a warning and a plea. “I’m going to—”
The heavy pop of his mouth leaving my cock echoed through the quiet room. A long string of saliva still connected his lips to my head. I gasped, my body going completely rigid. The sudden, sharp loss of his mouth bordered on physical torture.
Silas looked up at me. His lips wet and swollen, his chest heaving.
The insecurity I had seen before was completely gone, replaced by a dark, possessive, brat.
His large hand wrapped around the base of my now slick shaft, his thumb lightly stroking the pulsing vein, but he didn't take me back into his mouth.
“Not yet,” he taunted.
“Silas,” I growled. My entire body hummed with excruciating need. “Finish.”
“No,” he breathed, leaning in to press a hot, open-mouthed kiss to my stomach that left a wet smear across my abs. “You don't get relief. Not until Sunday.”
Our eyes connected, his gaze gone utterly feral.
“You’re going to walk around this hotel and then get in that ring all while you ache for me.
Every time you look at me, all you're going to be able to see is my lips around your cock until you hand me the belt.” I gripped his jaw, forcing his head back, my eyes blazing with a dark, dominant promise.
“I am going to absolutely destroy you for this,” I vowed, “When you get that belt back to this room on Sunday, I am going to fuck you until you forget your own name. I’m going to split you open, reminding you for hours that you made me wait. And you’re going to take every single second of it.”
A wicked, slow, devoted smirk creeped across his face. “Promises, promises.”