8
Brook
I’ve spent my whole life doing what my family needs of me. Now, I want to live my own life. I know they’ll support me, but I’m still worried how they’ll cope once I’m gone. I don’t ever want them feeling like they’ve held me back because that’s not how I see it at all. -L
I had to go home.I’d spent the holiday weekend at the inn, telling Grandpa it was because I wanted to be here in case anything went wrong. James’s obsession with overbooking wound up being a blessing in disguise that first night, when he frantically knocked on Dane’s door, telling him he had to move to the unfinished suite upstairs while I stalled the guests waiting to check in. That’d been a costly mistake on James’s part, because we had called ahead and picked up the tab for their dinner at Bomber’s, but it worked out in the end. Every night, I waited until the last guests checked in, forwarded the desk phone to my cell, and retreated to Dane’s room. Eventually this would be the manager’s suite, but that would require James hiring a manager. Until then, he and I would take turns being on call. Or not. As long as Dane was in town, I was more than happy to keep volunteering for night duty. The creepy smirk he gave me every afternoon before he took off said he didn’t believe I wasn’t sharing a bed with his nephew, but I wasn’t about to correct him.
Dane was still insistent that we take things slow. There were more tender kisses, curling up together on the balcony, sometimes cuddling while we watched a movie, but we hadn’t progressed to anything past that. There was taking things slow, and then there was taking things at the pace of a snail creeping through molasses. Which was why he was in the bedroom while I slept on the sofa in the living area.
In the early morning, listening to the waves crash along the shore as I watched the sunrise, it was easy to imagine this as our room. But that was a fantasy. Eventually Danewouldbe heading back to New York to help his dad, and even if Max moved to Sunset Beach, Dane hadn’t made any promises. It helped knowing he was considering a move, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
The sound of Dane’s phone alarm screeching broke the morning serenity. I peered over the top of the couch, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in his lounge pants. The fact I knew he went commando and was proportionate all over made me feel like a perv, but only a little bit. If he was going to waltz around with his morning wood leading the way, I was going to look. After all, I had made it abundantly clear that I had needs.
I swung my feet to the floor to start our morning pot of coffee. Up here, it was easy to latch on to the bliss of such domestic tasks. I could pretend we weren’t at my work, that he wasn’t conflicted because he owned part of the inn. We could simply be Brook and Dane, two men trying to dance their way around a budding relationship. And if he stuck around more than a few weeks, this would be the longest relationship I’d ever had.
Dane surprised me when he snuck up behind me, pressing his lips against the nape of my neck.Someone woke up in a good mood.“Do you know what today is?”
“Tuesday,” I answered as I continued the task of making coffee, a job made harder by the fact I had a man nearly a foot taller than me attached to my back.
“Mmm-hmm,” he hummed against my neck. “That means opening weekend is over. I talked to James and convinced him you needed some time off. You’ve been working too hard lately. I thought we could pack a lunch and head to the other end of the island. Would you believe I’ve never been in the ocean?”
I pressed my hands to his chest, leaning back so I could look up into his icy blue eyes. “How’s that even possible? You’ve been here a week and a half, and you grew up on the coast.”
“No, I grew up within driving distance of the beach, but when I was a kid, there was never time for us to get away for the weekend. Dad was always busy trying to make something of his life, which meant I had a lot of time in front of the TV,” he clarified.
The more Dane shared about his childhood, the more my heart ached for him. While I wouldn’t go back in time and wish my own life had been different, I did wish that for Dane. Maybe we wouldn’t have met if he hadn’t been through everything he had, but maybe we’d have met sooner too. Maybe he wouldn’t be so guarded and jaded. Maybe we’d be wrapped up in one another in bed instead of cautiously avoiding the chemistry I knew damn well we both felt.
Too damned many maybes…
I slid my hands across his neatly trimmed beard, cupping his cheeks. If Dane wasn’t going to make the first move, I would. Kissing him required me to pull his face down to my level, since I couldn’t reach even on tiptoes, but Dane offered little resistance. I closed my eyes seconds before our lips met, deeply inhaling the scent of him. I loved that he didn’t jump into the shower immediately upon waking; there was something insanely erotic about his natural, sleep-warmed scent, unmasked by bodywash or cologne. I sucked Dane’s bottom lip into my mouth, desperate to taste him. His lips parted, allowing me entrance. As our tongues tangled, his hands slid around my waist, and the tips of his fingers dipped beneath the waistband of my shorts.
No way was I letting him pull back now. I arched forward, pressing my erection against his thigh. I needed this. Needed him. And for once in my life, I was going to take it. Moving meant breaking the kiss, something I couldn’t have been paid to do, so it appeared our first time was going to be right here. Hopefully he would eventually bend my ass over the counter. I reached between our bodies, shoved my hand down the front of his sleep pants, and curled my fingers around his dick. He groaned as he thrust into my grip. He was thick and long, and I couldn’t wait to feel him filling me. I dropped to my knees, wincing as I made contact with the granite tiles, and dragged his pants down until they pooled at his feet.
“So sexy,” I praised him, running my hands down his solid, hairy thighs as I sucked the head of his dick into my mouth. My tongue flicked around the crown, paying extra attention to the places that made him cry out in ecstasy. He twisted his fingers into my hair but never shoved his cock deeper than I was ready to take. Never before had I been with someone who showed such restraint. I released him long enough to suck openmouthed kisses along the entire length of his shaft. “Want to lay you down and taste every inch of you.”
Dane growled, long and low, before hitching a hand in my armpit and pulling me off the floor. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
I practically jogged along behind him, not breaking the spell by reminding him my legs were shorter than his, and stopped short when we entered the bedroom. Dane turned to face me and lifted me into his arms. I hooked my ankles behind his back, grinding against his stomach as we continued making out. His cock bounced against my ass. It wasn’t close enough. He’d better have supplies stashed somewhere, because I was going to lose my mind if we got cockblocked at this stage.
I shrieked when Dane tossed me onto the bed, then spread my legs wide as he took my cock all the way into his throat. He shifted slightly, giving himself room to slide one thick finger down my taint until it pressed at my entrance. He never breached me, only gave me a hint of things to come.
“Nightstand,” he mumbled around the head of my dick. I twisted my body the best I could and caught the drawer pull with one finger. When I found a bottle of lube and unopened box of condoms, I let out a loud sigh. Not only was I grateful that he was prepared, but it also confirmed that he wanted this as much as I did. I placed the supplies in his hand and flopped back as Dane swirled his tongue over the head of my cock while he fumbled around trying to open the box. He tossed one condom on the bed next to me and the cap on the lube snicked open. I tensed as cold gel made contact with my skin, moaned as he pressed a finger into my ass at an agonizingly slow pace. When I tried scooting down to force him deeper into my body, a broad forearm pressed down against my stomach.
“No rush,” he reminded me. “Nowhere to be today.”
“Except the beach,” I panted. How I could even think about leaving this bedroom was beyond me, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk for a week if we didn’t take a break at some point. Hell, just having him inside me once might be enough to make me walk with a noticeable just-fucked gait for a few days.
“We’ll see.” He smirked against my thigh before sucking a nut into his mouth. No one had done that before.Whyhadn’t anyone done this to me in the past? My previous boyfriends were obviously inept at the art of lovemaking, because holy shit! My hips bucked off the bed, and precum seeped from my cock. I wasn’t going to last another minute with the way Dane managed to work so many erogenous zones simultaneously. “Like that?”
I fisted his hair in my hands, holding him away from my dick. “Need… a minute… too… close….”
My ass clenched, mourning the loss of his finger as Dane shifted me on the bed so we could lie facing one another.
“You’re not at all what I expected,” he whispered, dropping a tender kiss to the tip of my nose. “You sure you’re okay if I fuck you?”
“More than,” I promised him, trailing my fingers through the coarse hair of his chest. He hissed when the tip of a finger grazed over his nipple. Arched his back off the bed when I flicked it with my nail. I couldn’t resist parroting his words from earlier. “Like that?”
“You know I do,” he responded through gritted teeth. The bed jostled as Dane dug around, trying to find the condom. I reached for the lube and started fucking myself so we wouldn’t waste a single second once he suited up. Dane froze when he realized what I was doing. “That’s so fucking sexy. If I didn’t need you so much, I’d jack you while you fingered your ass until you came.”
