Page 5 of Waiting for a Prince (Island Tales #1)

As far as first times went, Mark’s had been painful and thankfully over fairly quickly.

Once was enough: Mark resolved never to bottom again.

There was no way, however, that his reluctant fuckbuddy would take a cock up his arse, so that was that.

Mark had to content himself with brief encounters in the bathrooms of gay bars, furtive blowjobs and lightning quick fucks in grubby little toilet stalls.

And never on the island, always on the mainland.

It was far from ideal, but it was the best he could do.

It didn’t stop him from thinking every time, as he shot his load into yet another willing hole, that there had to be something better for him than this.

He slipped his hand under his body and gave his hardened cock a quick tug.

Then it was back to the story. His hips rocked as he slid his dick against the towel, becoming immersed in the scene unfolding on his Kindle.

Mark’s imagination took over. Sam lay spread out beneath him, face down, arse tilted, and he was sliding into Sam’s tight virgin hole, Sam mewling and moaning as Mark pushed his fat dick into him until he was balls deep. Oh yeah, baby, ride my cock …

The sound of feet on pebbles froze him. A throat cleared.

Mark twisted to look over his shoulder, squinting into the sun.

A tall figure was standing a few feet away just below the pebbled shelf, the sun back-lighting him so brilliantly that Mark couldn’t make out his features, in spite of his sunglasses.

Without thinking he scrambled to stand up.

His dick jutted out, twitching with a life of its own, and Mark groaned inwardly.

Well, this is fucking embarrassing .

He grabbed his shorts and hurriedly pulled them up over his hips.

“I’m sorry to disturb you.”

That voice. Mark shielded his eyes from the sun and sure enough, it was Sam, his cheeks flushed. The hoodie was now tied around his waist and his shades were balanced on top of his head. He gave Mark a nervous half-smile, his eyes flicking once below Mark’s waist.

“You’re the guy from the salon, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. The name’s Mark Horrocks.” He held out his hand and Sam stumbled up over the pebbles to shake it. The whole situation felt so surreal.

“I know.”

That stopped him dead in his tracks. How in the hell could Sam know his name?

Sam frowned. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Oh, trust me, hon, there’s no way I’d forget meeting you.

The words flitted through his brain but Mark had the sense to keep his lips zipped.

He tilted his head. “I’m sorry, I think you might have me confused with someone else.

I don’t think we’ve ever met, at least not before Saturday in the salon.

” He was desperately trying to ignore the fact his dick was tenting his shorts.

Apparently, it wanted to shake Sam’s hand, too.

Sam’s expression grew more confident. “Okay, yeah, strictly speaking? We’ve never spoken. But I remember you. Ryde High School. You were in Year 10 when I was in Year 13.”

What the fuck?

“Really?” Mark racked his brains. “I don’t remember, sorry.” He rubbed his jaw, trying to ignore his cock that still kept drawing attention to itself, pushing against the cotton.

He’s seen you, all right? How could he miss you? Now go back to sleep. Please.

Sam shrugged. “No reason why you should.” He cleared his throat again. “Look, would it be all right if I joined you? I could use the company right now.” There was a flash of that earlier expression which had struck Mark so forcefully. That look of sadness tugged at him.

Mark came to a quick decision. “Sure.”

Sam beamed and clambered up onto the sandy shelf. He spread out his towel and dropped his backpack onto it. Then he looked up and down the beach. “Do I have to take all my clothes off, too?”

Mark’s cheeks burned. “It’s sort of an unofficial nudist beach. But you don’t have to.”

“That works for me.” He pulled at his T-shirt, lifting it up and off. Mark tried hard not to stare, but oh my God , the man was freaking gorgeous.

Silver rings glinted in the sun where they hung from Sam’s tight little nipples.

His chest was smooth: Mark liked that. Dark, chaotic swirls adorned his upper arms, spreading out over his torso, thinning out until they disappeared beneath the waistband of his shorts.

Mark drank in the lean, ripped body and came to the conclusion that somewhere, God was having a really good chuckle.

Would it have been so bad to make him gay, huh ?

“Do you like tats?” Sam asked.

Yeah, tats, riiiiight ….

Mark dragged his thoughts away from the man’s droolworthy body. “Yeah, I do. I’ve come up with a design, and there’s a tattoo place in Shanklin that’s going to do it for me, probably in the next month or so.”

“Sweet.” Sam sat down on his towel and reclined back on his elbows, those long legs stretched out. He turned his face up toward the sun and expelled a sigh. “This is nice. Do you do this often?”

“Not as often as I’d like,” Mark admitted.

“I only have Sundays and Mondays off, but Sundays tend to get full up with necessary but boring shit. When the weather’s like this, though, yeah, I love coming down here.

” He gave Sam a speculative glance, trying not to stare at his bod.

“I’m trying to figure out why I don’t recall you from school.

There weren’t that many kids in your year. ”

“Ah.” Sam blushed. “I looked a bit different then. My hair was longer, for one, typical island surfer boy hair, long and curly. And I used to wear glasses. Thank goodness for laser eye surgery.”

Mark stared, trying to picture Sam. And then it hit him. His eyes widened in recognition.

“Oh my God. Sam Prince.” His mouth fell open.

Sam grimaced. “Oh shit. Now you remember me. And I can guess why.”

Mark was nodding enthusiastically. “Man, you were a legend! You got suspended for?—”

Sam held up his hand to interrupt him. “For watching porn in a computer science lesson, yeah, I know.” He frowned. “I’m never going to live that down, am I? I keep forgetting what a small island this is.”

Mark chuckled. “Well, duh.” Sam regarded him for a moment and then smirked.

Mark recalled how he and his mates had talked of nothing else for weeks.

“I remember now. It was all round the school, how this kid had managed to get through all the protocols to watch porn on the school computer network. Man, we were all jealous as hell.”

“You wouldn’t have been if you’d heard what my parents said when they found out,” Sam groused.

“Talk about an ear-bashing. I got grounded for two months, they took my laptop away from me, and if I wanted to use the computer for school stuff, I had to use my Dad’s…

only I had to do it with him looking over my shoulder the whole time.

” He grinned. “It made watching porn rather difficult.”

Mark winced. “Ooh, that sucks. I couldn’t have survived high school without porn.” The two men snickered.

Yeah , but my porn was probably very different to what you were watching. Mark had spent ages searching for free porn on the Internet from the age of sixteen, when he’d first realized he was gay. And once he’d found it, there was no keeping him off it.

He tilted his head. “Wasn’t it Mr. Edwards who reported you to the Head Teacher?” Mr. Edwards had been the head of the ICT faculty.

Sam nodded. “Yeah, but he was also the one who went to bat for me when they were going to ban me from taking my exams. I needed those grades to get onto my university course.”

“That was decent of him, I suppose,” Mark admitted grudgingly. “By the way, what did you end up studying at uni?”

Sam sighed. “Computer programming.” There was a second or two’s delay before both men cracked up laughing.

They spent the next hour or two reminiscing about teachers they’d had in common and relating tales about all the things they’d got up to.

It was the most relaxed conversation Mark could remember having in a long, long while.

Sam was easy-going and funny, yet Mark got the impression of an undercurrent of…

something. He couldn’t put his finger on it.

He found himself warming to the guy. Time seemed to pass quickly, so much so that Mark had a shock when he glanced up and saw the tide coming in.

“If we don’t get a move on, we’re going to get trapped by the tide,” he advised.

Sam followed his gaze and nodded. They packed up their towels.

Mark let out a gloomy sigh. “And now for the worst bit.” When Sam cocked his head, appearing puzzled, Mark gestured toward their bodies.

“Once we get past the car park, we have to put the clothes back on. This might be a seaside town, but walking around with a bare chest? That gets you a lot of hard stares from the older generation.” He chuckled.

“When I’m down here, it feels so natural being naked, I almost forget about having to get dressed. ”

“Maybe the next time I come here, I should follow your example and take everything off.” Sam’s eyes twinkled. “But yeah, I can see how strolling up to the car park naked might cause a little consternation.”

Both men laughed as they began their walk back to the far end of the beach, taking their time.

They strolled in bare feet along the shoreline, the lacy waves frothing around their ankles as the tide crawled its way up the beach, clawing at the pebbles.

The sand was warm between Mark’s toes and the sun beat down on his bare shoulders.

They didn’t talk as they strolled. Sam seemed in a world of his own.

Mark saw the slipway which marked the end of the beach.

The morning had been very pleasant and he was reluctant for it to come to an end.

He genuinely liked Sam. During their morning together, he’d come to see him less as an object of lust and more as a warm, personable man who was easy to get along with.

At last, they reached the car park. Mark turned to Sam and held out his hand.

“I suppose this is goodbye,” he said somewhat reluctantly.

Sam took his hand and held it for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Does it have to be?” he said. Both his tone and his expression seemed hopeful.

Mark stilled. “What do you mean?”

Sam flicked his head toward the far end of the car park.

“It’s nearly lunchtime. Would… would you like to join me for a bite to eat?

” His cheeks were suddenly tinged with pink again.

“It’s just, I’ve had a really great morning talking with you, and to be honest, I don’t have anywhere else to be right now.

” He peered anxiously at Mark. “We could go to Driftwood or one of the hotels on the sea front, if you like.” Driftwood was a bar on the beach that served food.

Mark was taken aback. It was gratifying Sam obviously felt the same way about their time together. He considered the proposition, which he had to admit was a tempting one.

“Please?” That hopeful light in Sam’s eyes was hard to resist.

That did it. “I’d love to.”

Sam’s beam of delight made the decision an easy one. And after all, since when was it a hardship to sit in the sunshine and have lunch with a new friend?