In an effort to hide his arousal, Matthew held the towel to his chest and let it dangle down his body. He wasn’t stupid—he knew Damien saw through him—but there were others on the beach who he didn’t want to see. Damien stopped a few paces from him and looked out over the water at the lights, but Matthew saw the glint in his eyes. Damien might not have been looking at him, but Matthew was on his mind. Knowing it spurred Matthew’s heart to beat against his ribcage like a prisoner would the bars of a prison cell, knowing full well that the beast in Damien’s soul shared its cell.
“Fire’s out,” TD declared in his overly chipper voice, cutting through the tension like a chainsaw through tissue paper. “You guys ready to head back home? Matthew, are you gonna walk with us? I promise we won’t be too weird.”
“If you’re worried, dick talk is strictly off-limits, since some of us are kind-of related,” Glit confirmed, a hint of laughter in his voice.
TD gagged.
“Yeah.” The word was too thin for Matthew’s liking, but it was better than saying nothing at all. He tucked the towel around his waist, trying hard not to notice when Damien gave him one last hungry look, then returned to his friends.
Soon enough, the Single Dads had packed up and started to move as a group toward the cabins.
No one else had seen, had they? Matthew had been so wrapped up in the moment that he hadn’t thought to check. Cheeks burning with embarrassment, he trailed behind the group, only partially listening as they laughed and joked with one another.
It was wrong to want his father’s friend, and it had been wrong to tempt him like he had, but the way Damien looked at him? It made Matthew feel right. No matter how wrong the rest of it was, for now, that was all that mattered.
11
Matthew
The Single Dads stopped outside of Matthew’s cabin. It seemed a sensible place to say goodnight—from there, the split walkway would divide the party.
“Goodnight, everyone.” xV yawned and stretched. “I had a fantastic time tonight. Thank you for making the evening so memorable.”
“Hey, it’s not every day one of your best friends gets married.” Harley locked xV in a side-hug, knocking him off balance. xV teetered on his feet, then collided with Harley’s chest. Like a cat that had been chucked into the middle of a pool, xV’s entire body clenched, and while his expression remained relatively neutral, a flicker of annoyance twitched his lips. Harley didn’t seem to notice. “Thankyoufor wanting to spend time with us.”
“What Harley said,” TD confirmed. He glommed onto xV from the other side, oblivious to xV’s thousand-yard stare. “You’re the best!”
“Guys?” Glit crossed his arms and raised a scrutinizing eyebrow. “Pretty sure xV’s regretting his decision to invite us to the wedding right about now. Let’s not turn this into a Single Dad Group Hug session, okay?”
TD hopped back, and Harley patted xV’s shoulder, then let him go. xV awarded Glit an appreciative look. Glit winked and shot finger guns at xV in return.
While the guys said goodnight, Matthew hung a few paces back, waiting for them to vacate the space in front of his door. From time to time, he sneaked glances at Damien, but Damien never looked his way. Between teasing xV about getting home to his fiancé and asking if he’d taken out glitter insurance for his wedding, he was having too much fun to spare Matthew much thought. That, and chatting Matthew up out of the blue while he was next to naked would look suspicious. Still, Matthew couldn’t help but dream.
At last, the group began to dissipate. TD and xV took the lead, and not long after, Harley followed. Glit said his goodnights and left, leaving Damien, Matthew, and Matthew’s father standing in front of the bungalow door.
“I hope you’re taking the warning from the rainbow fire to heart, Gwynn.” Damien tucked his hands into his back pockets and smirked at Matthew’s father. “Glittery devastation is coming your way soon. You won’t know when, and you won’t know where, butBAM!It’ll find you. There will be no escape.”
Matthew’s father nodded thoughtfully. “Of course. This is war, after all. I’m not expecting to get out unscathed.”
“You joke now, but just you wait.”
“I think that’s the problem—all these years spent waiting, yet here I am, glitter free. You might have thought that little water gun would be enough to defeat me, but you were wrong.” Grinning, Matthew’s father turned to face him. “Goodnight, kiddo. Sweet dreams.”
“Night, Dad.” Matthew hesitated. Would it be too much to say goodnight to Damien, too? Probably. They’d already been too reckless.
Matthew was about to push past them into his bungalow when Damien pinned him with his gaze, and just like that, the air grew thick with their shared tension. The hairs on the back of Matthew’s neck stood on end, and he resisted a pleasant shiver that would have given him away.
“Goodnight, Gwynn,” Damien said, letting his gaze linger on Matthew a moment longer before he flicked it over to Matthew’s father. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow’s the big day. xV might be the one getting married, but you’re the one who’ll need to stay on his toes. You don’t want to show up to the ceremony looking like a five-year-old’s art project, do you?”
“Keep talking.” Matthew’s father arched a brow. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Hey, it’s your life on the line. Don’t say I didn’t give you fair warning.” Damien shrugged, then turned his back on Matthew’s father to face Matthew. The light, cheerful expression Damien wore around his friends darkened with want.
“Goodnight, mini-Gwynn,” Damien said after a moment’s pause. His voice bore the same humorous notes it did when he was talking with his friends, but there was a glimmer in his eyes that said more than words ever could—a look that reached through Matthew’s defenses and claimed him from the inside. It was a promise, Matthew realized. A statement of intent. Someday, somehow, Damien would come to him, and he would make Matthew his.
Matthew shivered, then glanced aside, too smitten to dream of speaking. How could Damien do things like that with Matthew’s father right there? It’d be so easy to get caught, yet he didn’t seem to care. Matthew shivered yet again and fidgeted with the fold where he’d tucked his towel around his waist. Damien thought he was worth the risk.Him.The kid who’d made mistake after stupid mistake as a teenager, and who was paying for it now as an adult.
Damien had to know that, didn’t he? He was friends with Matthew’s father—they had to have talked. Yet he wanted Matthew anyway.
