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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

HANK

Elliot’s lips close over mine, and my hand goes to the hair on the back of his head.

I pull him to me, sinking into the pleasure.

He groans under his breath and kisses me deeper.

With a cool breeze and a gentle, steady sprinkle falling on us, I press myself to the heat of his body, kissing him back and satisfying the desire I’ve been trying to suppress.

My body is exhausted and my mind is blank, but our jobs are done for today. There are so many things we can’t have, but every second I kiss Elliot, I want him more.

Here on the beach, I want to cling to him and feel something other than pain and fear and shock. It’s like that first sip of creek water, my thirst stronger and more evident with every drink.

The reasons we shouldn’t do this unravel in my mind, that logic as distant as civilization.

“Hank,” Elliot murmurs against my mouth. His hands goes to my chest, and he pulls his mouth back, but stays close. “Are you sure you want this?”

I paw at his side, my heart pounding as I try to regain my bearings.

“Yes,” I manage, glad and encouraged that he’s checking in. “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

His eyes are clear. “Then kiss me again,” he says. “I want to feel good.”

We join in another kiss, embracing as our weight shifts from him to me, from me to him. When we nearly tumble over, Elliot laughs under his breath and pulls me down to the sand with him. The cool rain is falling harder, but the last of the day’s heat is still in the air.

Elliot ruts up against me, meeting me in another greedy kiss. Chemicals flood my brain, pain and discomfort fading into the background as our beards scratch together.

“You’re so fucking hot,” Elliot says as he rolls on top of me, his palms flat against my chest. “Wilderness man with the beefy ass.”

I cough out a laugh. “Glad you like it.” I lean up and kiss him. “You’re beautiful, Elliot.”

He kisses me back, harder, as he straddles me. My erection is fat in my underwear, and he grinds against it as we make out. When he leans back, Elliot has a satisfied smile on his face, and all my nerves are buzzing.

“I’m usually a top,” Elliot says, “and I have been tested since my last hookup, for the record. But I know that’s not happening for either of us right now.”

He bites down on his bottom lip while he studies me, and the attention sends a shiver across my skin.

“Right. Sounds like we’re compatible, though. And I’ve been tested as well.”

He looks pleased to hear that. “Can I suck your dick?” Elliot asks, and I jerk my hips in response.

“Yes,” I answer, and he keeps staring at me with those hungry eyes.

I’m accustomed to being intimate with Elliot, fully exposed to each other. But he’s indulging in a different kind of look, now, and I take the opportunity to drag my eyes over his body, too.

His dick is hard in his briefs, up against his hips, and his muscles are all taut. A few light hairs grow across Elliot’s chest, and a soft trail goes from his belly button down.

I drag my hands down his torso, exploring him and appreciating him, and I feel Elliot react, quivering against me. When our erections throb together, I groan, and Elliot’s hand goes down and wraps around my shaft, feeling me through my underwear.

We kiss harder, almost frantically. My body aches with exhaustion, but I’m consumed by how much I want this relief, this break from reality. Elliot and I both get our hands between our bodies, stroking and squeezing each other’s dicks, and kick our underwear off.

My back is flat against the wet sand, and Elliot ends up back on top. Murmuring my name, he drags his mouth first over my chest, then down my abdomen. When he gets to my cock, he grips me at the base and pulls my sensitive crown to his mouth.

“Fuck, Elliot.” My hips jerk as he sucks me. His lips feel like the softest silk, and the warm pressure of his mouth breaks me open, right down the center. Elliot drools on my dick and pumps my shaft, and I let out a louder, guttural groan.

He sucks me harder in response, pumping me with a twist and moaning his appreciation. He keeps going, working me, relentlessly squeezing and stroking and licking. My balls get tight, and a fire burns at my core. Before I explode, I pull him up, taking Elliot in another kiss.

“Hank,” he says against my mouth, and he quickly grabs my dick again. “I want to cum.” Elliot puts his erection against mine, squeezing them together. “Can we cum like this?”

“Do it,” I grunt, quaking at the hips as our dicks rub. I wrap my hand around our shafts, too, clenching hard to hold off my orgasm. “Give it to me.”

Elliot slaps his hand on my chest, supporting himself as he starts moaning louder.

With the shadows of the island behind him and rain sprinkling down, Elliot is a vision.

I can feel every contortion of his body, every jolt of pleasure as he fucks into our fists and drives us closer and closer to climax.

He tumbles over the edge first, erupting with fat jets of semen, and I let myself release. I pump hard, shooting my load as our dicks throb against each other, and my entire body becomes a convulsing mass of pleasure.

When I come back to reality, Elliot is collapsed against my sticky chest, and we’re both breathing heavily. I’m dizzy, and my limbs all feel like lead. I could pass out right here.

Elliot rolls off of me, his hands in his hair. “Holy shit,” he says up to the sky. “That was intense. I feel like the earth is shaking beneath me.” He sits up a little, hand on the sand. “Is it?”

I shake my head as I rise. “No, but I know what you mean.” I’m in a daze, and it’s like the evening is floating around me. When I recenter and look down, I see the mess of sand and pebbles and cum that covers my dirty body.

“Okay,” I say and struggle to my feet. “I need to rinse off.”

Elliot gets up and follows me into the water. “You good?”

When I turn back to him, he’s standing with one hand over his tattooed bicep, his head tilted to the side.

He looks particularly handsome in the soft gray light, and a protective urge flickers in me. Like in every other aspect of our relationship, I’m drawn to take care of Elliot, and I feel that now as strong as a need.

“I’m great,” I say. “How are you?”

Elliot nods. “Hell yeah. That was fucking hot.”

I half-smile as I turn back to the water, walking straight in. At least he’s not immediately regretting his hookup with an older man. After dipping my head under, I start brushing sand off my body in the rain.

Elliot appears beside me. I turn to face him, and he offers me one of the pumice stones.

I swallow as I take it. “Thanks,” I say.

The rain slows, and we clean ourselves silently in the waves. I put my thoughts back together as we do, processing the choice I just made, and where we should go from here.

Elliot and I are compatible, and we have chemistry. That doesn’t make this a smart idea, though. We need to be emotionally careful in these dire circumstances. Not to mention how much energy we just expended. Energy that could well be used make rescue signals.

Although I haven’t felt this good in days. And it’s nice to look at Elliot and feel a twitch of something different, an emotion that helps lift my spirits.

When we join back up, walking to the shore, I address the matter directly.

“That was unexpected,” I tell him. “I don’t regret it, but I want to make sure it doesn’t lead to any problems between us. We’ve likely missed our ride out of here, which means we need to be more strategic than ever.”

We each gather up our clothes.

“Sex is strategic,” Elliot says. “If we’re going to be stuck here longer, orgasms will sustain us.”

I swallow. I hadn’t gotten my brain to process the possibility of this continuing, and I take a moment to catch up.

“Or it could distract us,” I point out. “And lead to a complicated emotional situation.”

“Being castaway together is already a complicated emotional situation,” he offers. “I don’t want to do anything that will make this more difficult, either. But for my end, I can handle the idea of being stranded here a lot better if it involves sex like that.”

A flush goes over my chest. It feels nice that he’s so into me. I hadn’t expected that.

We start back toward the shelter, veering toward the creek path first.

“We’re not capable of making any real commitment while starving and doomed,” I say. “And I don’t typically look for relationships that are purely physical. Although I suppose that’s all I can offer now.”

“I’m good at casual sex,” Elliot says. “I’m ultimately looking for love, but I don’t get horny and confused about my feelings from a few handies.”

“Not that anything from our past lives has much bearing here,” I point out.

Elliot laughs. “That’s true. You’re my first desert island boyfriend.”

We scramble up some rocks, and I feel again how heavy my legs are. When we reach the creek, Elliot sits beside a tree, and I place my hands on my knees while I catch my breath.

It’s nearly dark. My brain is trying to work to understand all of the day’s developments. I’m struggling to untangle the knot of my emotions, too. But through it all, there’s a pleasant, post-orgasmic hum, soothing the raw edges of my nerves.

Beside each other, Elliot and I drink creek water beneath a darkening sky, and it feels good to have him there.

“There are real world considerations,” I add. “Complications that we should discuss.”

“Sure,” Elliot says. He leans forward, a glint in his eyes. “But the real world is pretty distant. I think we can keep it easy.”

“Easy,” I repeat.

“We can just have fun,” he says brightly. “Because everything is hell, and we might die.”

I smile. “It does seem simple when you say it that way.”

Elliot leans forward and surprises me by brushing a soft kiss over my lips.

“Take your time, Hank,” he says softly. “I get that you’re a deliberate guy. And for now, let’s just get back to our cliff.”

Elliot stands and offers me his hand, and when I take it, he pulls me up. We’re both naked, damp, and carrying our wet clothes.

“If the wood in the shelter dries off,” I remind him, “we can still have clams tonight.”

We keep holding hands. “Cool,” he says, and we take off down the path toward home, side by side and wobbling on our unsteady feet the whole way.