“Gabe, it’s fine. I don’t have anything I need to get done right this minute,” he protested. “We’re on break. The world isn’t going to end if I’m not studying every waking moment.”
“You say that, but remember I know you better than anyone.” I leaned in, cupped his face, and pressed my lips against his. “I want you to work now so you’ll be able to relax when we get where we’re going. And if there’s stuff you need to do while we’re on vacation, I’ll understand. We’ll figure out a schedule that works for both of us just like we do when we’re at school. I love you, Trev, which is why I’m not going to let you stress yourself out.”
I could practically see the tension melting from Trevor’s shoulders as he exhaled, hugging the backpack to his chest. “I’ll put it away once we get wherever, I promise.”
I slid my hand around to the back of his neck, kissing him deeper this time, sliding my tongue between his lips. Unlike when we’d been on our way to school last fall, this time Trevor didn’t show any signs of discomfort. He slid his hands up my side and held me tight, even when we broke the kiss. I gave him one more kiss on the tip of his nose before backing out of the car.
If he’d realized my ulterior motives for suggesting he study on the drive, he didn’t say anything. The rest of the trip was quiet, other than the music playing softly in the background. He didn’t even look up until we were at the top of the bridge headed to the island. “We have beaches closer to school.”
“I know, but we both needed to get away from there for a bit.” I propped my phone on the dashboard. IthoughtI remembered how to get to the inn, but I didn’t want to get lost when we were so damn close to the end of our trip. “I think you’re going to like this place. I had to do some fast talking to get them to rent to us, but I managed to convince them we weren’t going to hold any wild parties.”
From the outside, Bird Island Inn didn’t look that much different from the houses lined up along the beach. I pulled into a parking stall rather than the loop at the entrance because I had no plans to leave our room today once we’d checked in, unless it was to go out to the beach for a walk with my man later.
My man. God, I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of thinking of Trevor that way.
My palms started sweating as I led Trevor into the lobby of the inn. Although Dane had been cool about renting the room to us after I’d explained our situation, part of me wouldn’t let down my guard until we were locked in our room. Until then, there was time for him to change his mind.
There was a cute twink working the front desk when we walked in. He glanced up at us and flashed a brilliant smile. Either he was the world’s friendliest front desk clerk ever, or word of the schmoopy gay couple had gotten around. When he brought his hands up to his heart and his smile softened, my face turned beet red. Definitely the latter, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“Welcome to Bird Island Inn,” he greeted us. I was surprised he didn’t bound around the end of the counter and pull us into a tight hug. I gave him my name and he handed me the paperwork to check in while he made our keys. “You’re in room eleven. Head up the stairs and to the end of the hall. You’re going tolovethe view from your balcony.”
I was sure he was right, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it that far. Still, I didn’t want to say that and have him figure out that my plan for the next week was to make sure neither of us could walk by the time we checked out.
“And if you’re up for it, you should check out the mailbox.”
“The what now?” I laughed, remembering that Trevor hadn’t done the research I had on this place. If he’d figured out where we were going and looked at their website, he’d have known all about this mysterious mailbox.
I wasn’t sure we’d visit, but as the desk clerk described it to him, I could see little hearts popping up over Trevor’s head. Apparently, we were hiking down the damn beach at some point.
“If you’re not in the mood to walk, we do have some of the notebooks in our library,” the desk clerk offered. He scrunched his nose up. “Personally, I don’t think they hold the same magic if you don’t at least see where they come from first, but Dane convinced the university to let us have some.”
His expression went all soft at the mention of Dane, tipping me off that this was likely Brook, the other owner listed on the website. He was cute but not at all what I was expecting. Honestly, he looked like he was our age. And then I remembered reading a bit on the site about how the mailbox had helped bring them together and played an important role in their relationship. Suddenly, the walk seemed more worth it. I wasn’t stupid enough to think it wouldn’t be torture, but if it made Trevor look at me the way Brook looked just saying his partner’s name, I’d do it.
“Anyway, don’t get me started on that topic.” He waved a hand in the air as if dismissing his thoughts. “So yeah, like I was saying, if you need ideas for things to do when you’re not hanging out on the beach or up in your room, feel free to call the desk. If no one is down here, we have it forwarded to our phones.”
“Thanks, will do.” I swiped the keys off the counter and slid my hand into Trevor’s. If I didn’t get him out of there in the next few seconds, I had a bad feeling he’d be making a new best friend in Brook.
“He seemed nice,” Trevor observed as we climbed to the second floor of the inn. When I pushed open the door to our room, his mouth fell open and he dropped his backpack to the floor. He threw his head back as he opened the doors leading out to our balcony.
Seeing him look so blissed out with his eyes closed reminded my dick why I’d brought him here. Okay, yes, relaxing was part of it, but I also wanted to see his head thrown back that way when he was pounding into me, filling me with cum.
Yeah, needed to cut off that train of thought. I reached down, pinching the base of my dick before I got so worked up I couldn’t think.
I crossed the room, pressing my chest to Trevor’s back, resting my head on his shoulder. The view from here was pretty damn spectacular. I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of waves rolling onto the sand and my boyfriend’s quiet humming. “Do you like your surprise?”
Trevor turned, cupping my face in his hands. Everything felt softer here. The gentle caress of his thumb over my cheekbone, the barely-there brush of his lips over mine. “It’s perfect. You’re going to have to drag me out of here when it’s time to go home.”
“Let’s not think about that now.”
Trevor reached back, turning his head to kiss my cheek. “You’re right. I’m going to live in the moment for a change. No thinking about what could go wrong in the future.”
“Now that sounds like a plan I can get on board with.”
We left the doors open while we explored the room. It was only a pipedream at this point, but I could almost picture this as our life. It would be amazing to wake up every morning to the sounds of the ocean and a cool breeze filling the room.
“What’s that?” Trev let go of my hand to see what was in the gift basket on the kitchenette counter. He opened the notecard that was attached, gaping at me when he spun around. “Did you see this? This can’t be part of the standard service.”
I took the notecard from his hand, easing myself down on the loveseat as I read the slanted handwriting.
