“Oh, I don’t mind either way, I was just surprised.”
Stopping where the sand was dry, I dropped my towel and pulled off my shirt despite the cool night air. With a glance my way, Miles did the same, determined not to be outdone. Which was the moment I gave him a triumphant look and stripped off both my shorts and boxers.
Miles gave an appreciative groan, yet he flicked a glance away along the empty beach. “Is that what we’re doing?”
“It’s what I’m doing,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve always wanted to. Up to you whether you join me.”
And leaving him to decide, I strode toward the water, thrilled at being both entirely nakedandoutside. My toes sank into the damp sand as I went, and the small waves crashed and hurried up the beach to meet me like churning glitter. The water was barely shin-height when hurried steps followed and I turned in time to see an equally naked Miles run by and dive in, emerging farther out with a shake of his sodden hair. “Fuck it’s cold,” he laughed. “It’s always so hot in Melbourne that I thought the water would be warmer.”
“We’re closer to Antarctica here than we are to the top of Australia,” I said, pointing south.
“Oh, yetthisis where you chose?”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I might, but my balls will never recover from the shock.”
I made my way out to where he was standing chest deep, the waves rising and falling gently around him. And there in the cold water of Port Philip Bay, I finally slid my arms around his neck and kissed him. He tasted of salt water and forever, and I pressed against him in the moonlight, the moment everything I had hoped as he slid his hands down my back with one of his satisfied groans.
“I missed you,” I said. “Six weeks is too long.”
“Six and a half,” he murmured back. “Not that I was counting or anything. To think I used to want a longer off-season.”
I loved that he’d been keeping count, but I swallowed the urge to say that the off-season could last as long as it liked if home was somewhere with him. It was too soon to say it. We’d talked almost daily since Paris, sometimes for hours, but I was awfully aware we’d only been together in the same space for a total of a few weekssince I’d started calling him my boyfriend – a fragile foundation upon which to build a life together. A life that wasn’t even possible yet. Until he was free of his parents, sharing space during tournaments and stealing these occasional weeks was the best we could manage.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, having leaned back to see my face, his luminous beneath the stars.
“Nothing in particular. Between cold water and hot boyfriend, it’s quite hard to form coherent thoughts.”
“You’re a terrible liar,” he said and kissed me, and with his arms around me and his tongue sliding against mine, I could let myself sink into his steady presence and forget the worries that nibbled at my edges. Especially when he wrapped his legs around me, grinning at the ease with which I could hold his weight in the water as he bent to keep kissing me. Being able to hold him so in the moonlight was such a rare, romantic thrill.
We kissed, we swam, we kissed some more and splashed each other, laughing. It was too cold to spend long apart, a couple of minutes all we could manage before pressing up against each other again. And despite the ocean’s best attempts, our touches got hotter and our kisses deeper until Miles had his legs around me and I was rubbing against his arse in a way that was driving us both wild.
“If water wasn’t the worst lubricant ever,” he said, baring his throat to the night sky with a sigh. “I would absolutely demand you fuck me right here.”
“Not everything needs lube,” I replied, taking hold of his cock.
He let out a sound part groan, part shiver. “True, but I want you inside me. Why don’t we go back? You know, before our dicks freeze off.”
We walked back, the towels we wrapped around our waists utterly failing to hide how hard we were. The moment the door closed, I ripped his off and dropped to my knees, loving his gasp as I took his cock in my mouth. His skin was tight with the cold and he tasted salty from the sea, and god I had missed this. Missed the way he hummed and touched my hair, missed the way he set a hand to the nearest wall for support, the way he held his breath – a breath he let out on a guttural groan when I took him all the way into my throat.
“Fuck, Mat, that’s new,” he said as I drew back, concentrating hard on keeping my throat relaxed. “Oh my god,” he added as I did it again, slow and steady, savouring every moment of this reversal. “Fuck, that’s—Mat, you can’t keep doing that or I’m going to come in three seconds.”
I looked up at him, all innocence, and kept going.
“Oh fuck, no, don’t you dare,” he growled. “I donothave enough energy to do this twice tonight and I need you inside me. Tomorrow, you can make me come in the ocean and in your throat and wherever the fuck you like but—” He broke off with a sharp, shocked little cry and I pulled away before I could accidentally push him where he didn’t want to go. There would be time to tease him and taste him again, our whole weekend having no plan beyond enjoying one another as much as possible.
“Fuck, that was close,” Miles said as I bullied him toward the bedroom. “And now I’m having regrets because it felt amazing.”
“No regrets, we have plenty of time.” I shoved him onto the bed, sending him sprawling in the way that delighted him. He loved being pushed around, loved being made to forget his height and his strength, loved submitting – not just to me but to the desires of his body. And god it was hot that he loved me having my way with him while he begged for harder, faster,fuck me, fuck me, his cries so free as he pleaded for me to come inside him.
Nearing the end, I pulled him onto my lap like I was still holding him out in the ocean, and chest to chest we rocked together gasping. The weight of him and the sudden slowing of the pace shredded me, and I came fast, setting my teeth to his neck and barely staying the urge to bite. Then with him still atop me, I kissed him as I stroked him to climax, until he tilted back his head and groaned to the ceiling as he whispered my name and came on us both.
We showered together after that, cleaning off beach and sex, and as we laughed and kissed beneath the hot water, I found my chest growing tight. I wanted to hold onto him and never let go, but like every other week we’d spent together, this one would end too. Then the season would begin anduswould get hidden away behind hotel doors. And if I was doomed to only ever have brief spurts of playing well, it wouldn’t be long before I was back playing tiny tournaments in completely different cities, and us would stop existing at all.
I tried to let the worries go so they didn’t spoil our time together, but once we’d pulled on clothes and were considering a midnight snack, I couldn’t even hitch a smile for the weight of them.
“Hey.” Miles paused in the act of towelling his hair. “You’re making that troubled, thinking face again. What’s up?”
