Page 11 of The Seascape Between Us (The Men of Saltwater Cove #4)
Chapter Seven
Daniel
I didn’t know what the hell had just happened.
A minute ago, Grey and I had been at each other's throats. I’d been on the verge of storming out, half tempted to tell him to sell the Seascape.
I could barely stand three days in close proximity to him.
How could we go on with renovating a hotel and then managing it together for who knew how long?
Then, before I could say anything else or walk away, Grey was backing me into the wall, his hands grasping my hips and his mouth devouring mine.
I should have pushed him away and walked out… but I didn’t want to.
Nearly two decades had passed since the last time we’d kissed. We were different people now, and the feel of his mouth drawing on mine was different and new and yet achingly familiar at the same time.
He pressed closer to me, his body pinning me to the wall.
The solid weight and strength of his frame tight against my own, his grasping fingers twisting in my shirt while his mouth hungrily fed from mine, turned my insides hot and weak all at once.
My legs felt rubbery beneath me. I might have melted to the floor like a puddle of warm wax if not for Grey trapping me against the wall.
My cock started to swell. A little groan rumbled from the back of my throat, and almost without thought, my hands flew to his waist and dragged him closer.
I should stop this. Whatever Grey was doing—slumming it again like that summer seventeen years ago, messing with my head for his own amusement—I should stop this. We had way more at stake this time. We were business partners. The hotel, the people who worked here, they were all depending on us.
Grey dragged his mouth from mine, and for a long moment, neither of us spoke while we struggled to bring our rapid breathing under control.
While the kiss had ended, neither of us had let go of the other.
I could feel the heat from his body seeping into my own, even through our clothes, and at that moment, I would have given anything to lose the clothes between us and feel his skin moving against mine.
“What are we doing?” Grey whispered.
“I don’t know.” I refrained from pointing out that he’d started it. After all, as bad a decision as this was, I hadn’t pushed him away.
“I don’t want to stop,” Grey said.
“Me either,” I admitted, and I lowered my mouth to his and picked up where we’d left off.
God, he tasted good—different from when we’d been kids, when he'd always tasted of mint gum. Now, his flavor was richer, with traces of coffee and something that was all him . In the past seventeen years, I’d never met anyone I liked to kiss as much as Grey.
I was fairly certain I could spend my life standing right here in this hotel room with Grey’s mouth on mine and I’d die a very happy man.
Grey’s hips rolled against mine, dragging his swollen cock over my own, the friction feeding into my growing need.
“Oh God, I’d forgotten how good you looked when we fucked,” Grey murmured between trailing nibbling kisses down the column of my throat. His voice shivered over my skin. “How hazy and needy you get.”
I probably should have been embarrassed by the things he was saying to me, and later I probably would be, but right then, I did feel hazy and needy, and I wanted more.
My hands slid down over his ass, and I dragged him closer against me, rubbing my erection against his while his hands slid under my t-shirt and over my stomach.
His fingers trailed across my chest, fingernails lightly scraping my nipples and sending another shiver rippling through me before he grasped the waistband of my jeans.
“Is this okay?” he asked, fingers gripping the top button of my fly.
I swallowed hard, my throat surprisingly dry, and nodded. “Yeah, it’s good. You?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He pulled open my fly, shoved my underwear down and wrapped his fingers around my cock. I couldn’t stop the whimper that slipped from between my lips as his hand slid up and down my length.
Fuck, it had been so long. Not just without Grey, but in general. I wouldn’t last long.
I opened Grey’s suit pants, not just so I could jerk him off too, but to give me something else to focus on besides the blindingly good sensation of his hold on my dick. Almost on autopilot, I slid my hand inside his underwear and began stroking. I felt him shudder against me.
“I’m going to come,” I gasped.
“Good, I want you to. Go ahead, come for me.”
He kissed me again, hard and furious, desperate and hungry, and I exploded in his hand, the power of my orgasm nearly stealing the strength from my legs. Without Grey’s hold on me, I might have crumpled to the floor.
I’d completely lost my rhythm while stroking Grey, but it didn’t seem to matter. He followed me over the edge a few seconds later, his cum spilling over my hand.
I leaned back against the wall, and Grey collapsed against my chest, and for just an instant, I let myself give in to the moment, pulling him closer with my free hand and holding him against me.
We stayed there together for what seemed like an endless amount of time, waiting for our breathing to return to normal, our heart rates to slow down. It was probably just minutes, but I didn’t want it to end. God, I’d missed him.
As if by some extra-sensory intuition, I knew exactly when the moment ended. I felt Grey stiffen in my arms. As I tensed, I let the arm holding him fall to my side once again.
Grey leaned back and smirked. “I guess we both needed that.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said, hating the way my voice scratched like I hadn’t used it in years.
I don’t know what I’d expected him to say, but I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the glib remark.
For seventeen years, I hadn’t meant anything to him.
I don’t know why I believed that might have changed just because we jerked each other off just now.
“Um… I should probably clean up,” I told him, then hurried into his bathroom and closed the door.
The fixture above the mirror buzzed softly when I flicked on the light.
I washed my hands at the sink and caught sight of myself in the mirror before leaving the bathroom.
My hair was a mess, my skin still flushed, lips swollen from kissing.
If anyone saw me, they’d have known exactly what we’d been doing.
When I emerged from the bathroom, Grey had his back to me.
He was looking out through the window at the ocean.
At the sound of the bathroom door, he turned, his gaze meeting mine.
Somehow, his hair looked even messier than mine, over-long waves standing out at weird angles.
His lips looked as pink and swollen as my own, and I had to hold myself back from the urge to kiss him again.
“I… uh… Should probably grab a shower,” I told him, edging my way to the door.
His throat jumped, and he nodded. “Me too.”
“About the hotel, I’ll meet you in my office first thing tomorrow. We can go over everything then.”
“Absolutely.” Grey nodded, and I wished I could read his expression more easily to get an idea of what was going through his head. Was he glad we did this? Did he regret it? Or was he just looking for a way to pass the time like he had been seventeen years ago?
After muttering an awkward goodbye, I left Grey’s room and hurried to my own at the end of the walkway.
Once alone with the door closed behind me, I dragged my fingers through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut.
What the hell had I just done? As if the situation between Grey and me wasn’t tense and awkward enough, why not add making out and jerking each other off into the mix?
With a heavy sigh, I peeled off my clothes. They dropped to the floor before I climbed into the shower. But instead of getting ready for bed or even just flaking out on the sofa, I got dressed again instead.
I was wound too tight to sleep, or even relax, for that matter. Instead, I slipped out of my room and made my way to The Dunes.
The only bar in The Square, The Dunes was busy for a Thursday night. Not surprising. The bar had a steady clientele from the university, especially queer students, and with the semester coming to a close, most of those students were looking to blow off steam.
I threaded my way through the crowded tables to the bar near the back, by the small square dance floor, and wriggled my way between bodies pressed close to order drinks. The steady beat of the music thudded through my body, and the air was heavy with the smells of sweat and alcohol.
Brody, the bar’s owner, looked up and nodded when he saw me.
He’d been my closest friend for a long time, and I was his, and after playing the role of sounding board and kicker-in-the-ass when he and his boyfriend, Jett, had been working through their shit when getting together, I figured he owed me now.
“What’s up?” he asked, setting a beer in front of me. “You look twitchy.”
“Just made out with my ex,” I told him. No point in dancing around it. This was what I’d come to talk to him about.
Brody frowned. “What ex?”
“You don’t know him. We were together before you moved here.”
He shoved his long hair back from his face and eyed me speculatively. “Is it that ex?”
I frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Ryan mentioned something about you being with some guy when you were younger, and he really messed you up when he left.”
I hated to think about what conversation they’d had that involved my past love life. “Why would you assume it’s him?”
“Have you even dated anyone else long enough to call them an ex?”
Fair question, I thought with a sigh. With everything going on at the hotel, I didn’t have a whole lot of time for dating. I wasn’t a saint. There’d been a few guys since Grey, but no one serious. The hotel kept me too busy to pay much attention to my love life, or lack thereof.
“Yeah, it’s him,” I said.
“So, who is he? Where is he?” Brody continued to serve drinks while we talked.