15. Garrett
Garrett
I slid into his warm, loose hole in one smooth motion. The sensation had my eyes rolling in my head. His body invited me like it knew me.
Even though most men said they liked my big size, when it came to this part, reality was often very different.
I’d had issues before. Some of my one-night stands from my youth, with their tight holes, couldn’t accommodate me.
And others didn’t want me moving too much, barely able to tolerate my girth.
I had become accustomed to the disappointment, to the shame and guilt of being too much, too brutish, too intense.
Nate lay beneath me with no sign of discomfort on his face. His long and lithe body handled me easily. Strong muscles flexed under his supple skin as he adapted to me, and instead of needing to be cautious, I found myself egged on by the open lust shining in his breathtaking green eyes.
I trusted him to tell me if I went too far, just as I had trusted him implicitly on the Zodiac to take my weight or, when I was floundering in the water, to rescue me. I drove into him, my balls slapping against his skin.
“Ahh… yes, yes!” He threw his head back. “God… don’t stop… yes, just like that.”
I let go completely of any control. Again and again, I pounded into him. Every thrust had him gasping and writhing under me. I needed both hands to hold me steady, and I hated that his dick was getting neglected.
“Touch yourself,” I panted. “I want you coming with me.”
He complied immediately, crying out as soon as his fingers curled around his pretty cock. Nate lifted his hips and started meeting my thrusts with his own powerful ones. We both groaned at how deep I was hitting inside of him.
He was so perfect from head to toe. His long hair, his full mouth, his narrow waist—everything about him radiated perfection.
Nate erupted under me, his cum splattering both our stomachs.
The sight of his blissed-out face had me going over the edge.
My cock pulsed deep inside him as I unloaded my seed.
My whole body shook as my orgasm barreled through me for several long seconds, until I collapsed over him, only remembering to slide off at the last minute to spare his sore ribs.
* * *
The data suite had never felt crowded before. Even with half the ship gathered inside, there was usually enough room for everyone to spread out along the conference table, the wall of screens, or the long bank of workstations beneath the portholes.
Today, though, every chair had been claimed, and several crew members stood along the walls with mugs in hand, speaking in low murmurs.
Captain Birch stood near the head of the table. Nate was speaking with him. He wore a pale green sweater today that made his eyes look extra magical under the lighting. He glanced at me across the table while nodding at something the captain was saying.
I ducked my head, avoiding his gaze and feeling nervous and stupid. Memories of last night were fresh in my mind. I groaned internally, remembering how I had apparently fallen asleep immediately after coming inside of him.
Fucking hell.
I never did that. I prided myself on taking care of my partners and cleaning them and making sure they were not hurt. How did I just fall asleep like that? And with my dick still inside him, too?
To make it worse, I slept all through the night like a sack of rocks and probably would still be asleep had he not woken me up with a shake and a kiss to my temple.
Nate had slipped out of my room without any complaints about my behavior.
In fact, he had smiled shyly and said something about my snores being “cute.” My face heated up just thinking about his words and the way he had teased me.
That smirk of his. Instead of being annoyed, I’d felt like I’d been handed a winning trophy.
I wanted to bang my head against the wall. I wanted to jump off the ship again. I wanted to take him into my arms and kiss him again.
“Mr. Landry,” the captain’s voice snapped me out of my brooding.
“Sir?”
The captain had walked up to me at some point while I had been zoning out. He had a big smile on his face. “Tell me what sort of conference you’ve arranged aboard my vessel. I think every team member except for the bridge crew is here.”
“It’s just a consultation, Captain.”
“Just.”
I hastened to explain. “The design’s finished. I wanted some eyes on it before we start building anything.”
Captain Birch nodded. “Excellent.”
On the wall, screens lit up one by one as one face after another appeared as connections opened across time zones. A crew member was helping with the technology so I didn’t have to monitor the connections.
Captain Birch turned toward the wall of screens as another face appeared, followed by another.
“That’s a lot of people for a consultation. A lot of countries, too.”
Something in the way he said it made my stomach tighten.
Had I missed some rule?
Back at Waypoint, I led projects all the time without asking the station chief for permission every step of the way. A ship might be different, though. Though I had made sure to speak to the communications officer before sending out the invitations. That much I knew I had done right.
In Antarctica, you did not assume you could pull bandwidth out of thin air, especially not enough for a call spanning several countries and time zones. At Waypoint, anything that required this much data had to be approved first.
I’d made sure to check with the ship’s communications officer because the meeting had to be timed for when the communications satellite crossed the sky above the ship, giving us the strongest connection and enough bandwidth to support all the calls at once.
Down here in this remotest part of the world, ordinary cellular and internet service did not exist.
I looked back at the captain. “Is something the problem, Captain?”
He turned at once and shook his head. “No, no, Mr. Landry. Nothing of the kind.”
I waited.
“I’m merely impressed.” He glanced toward the screens again, where faces now filled nearly every panel. “You appear to have assembled an extraordinary range of international experts with very little lead time.”
“Oh.”
“These sorts of conferences are usually arranged months in advance.” He looked at me for a second, then gave one sharp clap of his hands. “You must be very well respected in your circles.”
I blinked, and my gaze darted to Nate without my permission. He was looking at me like I had indeed pulled off something extraordinary. Heat crept up the back of my neck.
“Well,” the captain continued, “I’ll let you get on with it. I think I’ll stay at the back for a while. Pure curiosity. I’d like to hear how this goes.”
“Yes, sir.”
He gave me another smile and moved away from the table. I checked my watch.
Two minutes.
My gaze swept over the room. Still no Dexter. That was unlike him. Dexter was never late, especially not when I was the one speaking. Usually, he showed up earlier than necessary, hovering around me, asking if I needed help with anything even when there was nothing for him to do.
I frowned and looked toward the door. A head appeared around the edge of it. Big round eyes met mine.
Dexter stood half-hidden in the corridor, staring at me as if he expected me to throw something at him.
What the hell?
I jerked my head toward the room. Move your ass.
He slipped inside and eased the door closed behind him.
I expected him to come straight over and take the chair beside me.
Instead, he gave me such a wide berth that he nearly brushed the opposite wall.
He moved carefully, almost on tiptoe, like a man trying not to attract the attention of a dangerous animal.
My eyes narrowed. Then he surprised me again by going directly to Nate. The two of them began speaking in whispers.
I stared. Before I could decide what in the hell was going on, the screens gave a soft electronic beep, indicating it was time for me to begin the meeting. I’d have to talk to him later.
I rested both hands on the conference table and looked around once, making sure everyone had settled.
“Welcome, everyone.”
The room fell quiet.
“Thank you all for making the time. I know some of you are calling in from different time zones, and I appreciate it.”
Several heads on the giant screen nodded.
“Before we begin, would you all mind introducing yourselves? I know all of you already, but it’ll help everyone aboard the ship put names to faces.”
My colleague on the first screen unmuted herself.
“Laura Bennett. Chief structural engineer, British research station.”
“Anton Weiss. Senior mechanical engineer, German research station.”
“Mei Chen. Marine systems engineer, Chinese research station.”
“Callum Fraser. Underwater welding specialist, offshore engineering facility, Scotland.”
One by one, the remaining participants introduced themselves.
“Thank you again.”
I turned to the faces inside the room. Quite a few people looked impressed by those titles.
“The purpose of today’s meeting is straightforward.
I’ve completed the preliminary recovery design for the whale skeleton, and before we begin cutting, welding, or fabricating anything, I wanted experienced eyes on the full plan.
I already sent my blueprints to my colleagues you see on the screen, and they’ve had time to review them.
They are all experts in their fields. If there’s a weakness in the design, this is when I’d like us to find it. ”
I glanced around the data suite. “And I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting quite this many people aboard the ship to attend.”
A quiet laugh moved through the room.
“I figured it would just be Nate… I mean, Dr. Braddock, my brother, and the crew members involved in the deployment.”
“Not every day we get to watch an international joint operation,” Captain Birch announced. “The ship is quite proud of being involved.”
“Ah, of course.” I rubbed the back of my neck.
“Since we have such a broad mix, I’ll take everyone quickly through the recovery from the seafloor all the way to surface transport. I apologize in advance when my colleagues and I start pulling it apart section by section. The technical details might not make sense to some of you.”
“I’m quite sure we won’t.” Nate grinned at the room.
Then he turned to the screen and waved. “Dr. Braddock here.”
Shit, I should have introduced him formally instead of admiring his fucking sweater.
He continued, “I had the opportunity to look over some of the calculations earlier, and I haven’t the faintest idea what was on those pages. I, for one, am very glad we have Mr. Landry’s expertise to guide us. And thank you all for being so generous with your time.”
I blinked at him stupidly. Was he being sarcastic like usual or was this something new after we had…
? Well, he had called me handsome while I was drowning, but later when I thought about it, I had chalked that up to him trying to stop me from thrashing.
However, last night he’d called me handsome again and said a bunch of things that didn’t sound sarcastic at all. What was I to do now?
Was he still my arch-nemesis even after I had literally fallen asleep in his arms with my damn dick inside him? Or was I one of those men, after all, who thought with their dicks and threw all their principles out the window once a beauty had graced their beds?
Because I’d not forgotten his cheating. And he had not denied it either.
Not really. He had insisted he had not cheated, but he had been equally mad at me when I had landed here first. Why would someone punch another if they truly had no beef?
And yet… he had been thoughtful and shown me kindness again and again. I was so fucked up.
“Ahh… Mr. Landry?” Nate’s eyes were wide, and a slow blush crept up his cheeks.
I blinked. Jesus. I almost died of mortification. Everyone was staring at me because I had been staring at him.
I quickly got on with the explanation and prayed to anyone listening in the skies above to wipe out everyone’s memory of that awful lapse in my focus.
An hour later, as I thanked everyone and the meeting was wrapping up, a hand rose beside Nate. I stared at my brother. “Dexter, did you have something to say?”
He nodded nervously, then stood and faced the screens. “I’m aware this is an unusual question, but has anyone’s research station recently lost its supply of tater tots?”
For one long second, nobody spoke.
I groaned inwardly.
Goddammit, Dexter!
After another fifteen minutes, the meeting concluded and almost everyone left the room or signed off.
The captain walked up to me and thumped my back.
“Excellent work there, young man. I’d heard high praise from your station chief, but to see it with my own eyes today was an absolute honor.
Some of your colleagues looked several decades older than you.
Despite that, you held your own well. I see a very bright future ahead, Landry. ”
“Please call me Garrett, sir.” I felt like strutting around like a rooster. It was rare for someone like him to say such words to me. I wasn’t looking for the praise, but damn, did it feel good. “And thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m also pleased to see you and Nate getting along. Wonderful.” He clapped his hands once. “I was worried about the submersible dive, but I see now there’s no reason to be. Well, let me—”
“Sorry? What dive?”
“The submersible dive.” He gestured at Nate, who was deep in conversation with Keith and Dexter across the room. “Now that the design has been approved, you’re scheduled to take a look at the site, correct?”
Was I?
I stared at the captain.
“Don’t worry.”
How could I not worry if I was supposed to be going hundreds of feet underwater inside a bubble?
“Nate is an excellent submersible pilot. It will be just you and him, so there shouldn’t be any issues.”
With that bombshell, he walked away, whistling some loony tune.