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We made plans to surf that weekend, and later, I blew him in the kitchen, slipping a digit in his hole till he came. Call it a thank-you for the meal or call it what it really was…lust.

Pure and simple lust. With a little curiosity and yes…admiration thrown into the mix. Mateo fascinated and confounded me in equal measure. Sure, there was a bagel and pizza war to win, but at the moment, I was more interested in winning him over.

ChapterNine

Mateo

Waves cascaded onto the shore, fiercely one moment and almost gently the next, as if the gods of the sea hadn’t agreed on a mood for the day. The sun was doing its best to fight its way through the pewter gray skies, beaming the occasional ray of light through the clouds behind us on the empty beach. It was so peaceful, so still, so beautiful.

It felt strange to share this with someone, as if it were significant somehow, and that was just…silly. It was Rob, for fuck’s sake. And we were surfing, not sucking each other off. Again.

Sex had been on the menu daily these past two weeks. Once that cat was out of the bag, there was no going back.

We were voracious. Ten-minute booty calls weren’t enough anymore. We’d graduated to dinners at his place, chopping vegetables while debating NFL stats, sharing cups of coffee in our offices, discussing our favorite flavors of cream cheese or ice cream, and…surf lessons at dawn.

Let’s talk sex for a second here, though.

I’d been with a lot of men and thought I’d done it all, but it was different with Rob. Get this—we hadn’t fucked yet. We’d done everything else. Hand jobs, BJs, sixty-nine, rimming. It was all very fucking good. He’d used a dildo on me the other night. I’d thought it was a prelude, but it had been the main event, and I’d come so hard that it hadn’t occurred to me to be disappointed that it wasn’t his cock.

I was being edged to the brink of sanity, and I didn’t mind. Which was nuts. I should have been restless, bored, and done with him by now. I was more of an in and out, move on kind of guy. I didn’t feel that way about Rob. Once I’d gotten past the ick factor of being attracted to someone I’d thought was an opportunistic charlatan, I could admit that…I liked him. A lot.

I liked his dry sense of humor and the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his family and Amber. I liked that he wasn’t afraid to discuss past struggles or credit the people and places who’d influenced him. Rob could be vulnerable without ever seeming…weak.

Take now, for example.

The dude wrestling his board into submission sported a big-ass grin as he trudged through wet sand toward me. If I hadn’t known better, I’d think he’d just won a surfing competition, but I’d witnessed him lose his balance and plunge into the ocean over and over again this morning. He was either a glutton for punishment or he truly enjoyed falling.

“Did you see that last run?” Rob shook his head, spraying me with ocean water.

I fixed him with a death glare I had no hope of maintaining when he smiled like a kid in a candy store. I huffed instead and motioned for him to turn so I could help unzip his wetsuit. “I saw everything. You’ve improved.”

“Thanks. I stayed on for a whole twenty seconds.” Rob peeled his suit off his arms and chest before flopping onto the towel I’d spread out.

“Not bad.” I handed him the thermos I’d packed on a whim. “I forgot how much I like being out here first thing in the morning.”

Rob leaned into my side. “I thought you were a regular.”

“Not since I was a teenager. Early football practices messed with my surf time in high school and college.”

“Hmm.” He uncapped the thermos and sipped. “You were drafted after college too.”

The sentence hung between us like a bubble I could pop and forget. Rob wouldn’t pester me for details I didn’t want to share. I’d learned that much about him. But if he could share bleak episodes, I should be able to do the same.

“Yeah, to Tennessee. I lasted five months…wasn’t good enough. What worked for me in college didn’t translate in the pros. It was a hard pill to swallow,” I admitted, my gaze locked on the horizon.

“That sucks.”

“It did. I felt like I’d let everyone down…my dad, my coach, the whole town. I could’ve stuck it out, but my uncle got sick and my family needed me here.” I inhaled then slowly released the air from my lungs. “I also met someone in San Francisco and thought I was…”

“In love?” he supplied.

“Something like that. It wasn’t love, though. It was an unhealthy secret that made me feel almost as sad and defeated as losing my shot at the pros.”

Rob passed the thermos to me. “I’ve been there. I had a mutually beneficial arrangement with someone deeper in the closet than I was. I thought that was a good thing at the time, but I wouldn’t do it again.”

“Me either.” I scrubbed my hand over my stubbled jaw. “He was a corporate lawyer, a little older, and bi. I was his low-risk experiment ’cause neither of us was out. But then he met a girl who fit the suburban lifestyle-dream he’d been spoonfed his whole life, andboom, that was the end of me.”

“Ouch.”