I WOKE UP WITH A smile, having slept better than I had in a very long time. The soft, luxurious mattress I’d slept on may have been partially responsible, but I was pretty sure it had more to do with the way Dean had worked my body the night before. The man had kept his promise, spending hours nipping, licking, and sucking every square inch of my body. There hadn’t been one single part of me that hadn’t received his amorous touch.
I’d been nearly out of my mind with need by the time he’d finally taken me, filling me so completely, until we felt like one body instead of two. Dean was the most giving, most thorough lover I’d ever had. As he moved over me, around me, inside me, it was clear that he had been paying close attention over the past few days, mapping out my body and taking note of the areas that brought me the greatest pleasure and that could make me fall apart.
He listened to the sounds that I made and observed the changes in my breathing, knowing exactly when I was getting too close and then pulling me back from the edge over and over again. His jaw had been clenched, the muscles in his arms and neck tight as he struggled to rein in his need to come. It wasn’t until I’d shattered, falling apart in his arms, that he’d finally let go.
After, as we both lay there trembling, waiting for our breaths to even out and our hearts to stop racing, I’d thought about what an amazing man he was. In just the small amount of time we’d spent together, I’d learned that he was an extremely funny, warm, and caring person. Most of the world probably only saw the hero from their favorite movies. Vincent Wilder, the sexy film star, with smoldering green eyes and muscles on top of muscles.
I, on the other hand, had been lucky enough to see the softer, gentler side of Dean. Like the part of him that wanted more out of his career than the roles he was being given or the fact that he dreamed of having a husband and kids someday. For the most part, we’d just been playing around, having fun with each other. But a few times, he’d let me peek behind the curtain, catching a glimpse of the vulnerable, lonely man hiding behind there. It made my heart hurt for him, but it also made me feel incredibly special, like perhaps he was beginning to trust me.
Warm lips caressed my shoulder then began a slow, lazy climb along the side of my neck, and I sighed contentedly. “Good morning. How did you sleep?” he said in between kisses. His voice was rough with sleep and it sent a delicious tremor down my spine.
“Like the dead,” I murmured.
“That’s a rather gruesome saying, don’t you think?” he asked.
I tried to answer, but I was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate as his hand smoothed down my side, his fingers curling in on my hip. I drew in a sharp breath at the first touch of his erection against my skin. He was rock hard and apparently in the mood to do something about it.
“Don’t move,” he rasped. I pressed my hand on top of the mattress to help hold me steady on my side as he slid the head of his cock between my crease. I could feel the wetness against my pucker and I knew that it was his arousal making him so slick.
“Do it. Use me. Please, please, use me,” I begged. I almost didn’t recognize my voice or the words spilling from my lips.
I’d never given too much thought to sex before. To me, it was something you did when you were in a committed relationship, and even then, it was just a way of showing that person how much you cared. It wasn’t until I’d slept with him that first night that I’d discovered what it meant to have your eyes roll back in your head. He’d awakened something in me that night, a much more wild and passionate side of myself that I hadn’t even known existed.
Dean made me feel sexy and desirable. He’d shown me that it was okay to say and do whatever I wanted with him, without fear of being ridiculed or looked at like I was strange. I felt safe with him, and that allowed me to explore not only him, but parts of myself I didn’t know were there. Like the part of me that got off on the idea of him taking control and using my body for his own pleasure.
He adjusted himself, slipping his cock between my legs so that the head would brush over my sac with every thrust forward. I kept my legs closed, providing a tight space for him to fuck into. His fingers dug into my flesh as he drove his cock in and out of the snug crevice. I cried out at the sensation of his shaft dragging back and forth over my balls. I automatically reached for my dick, desperate for some friction. His hand locked onto my wrist, his fingers wrapping around it and forcing my hand back down on the mattress.
“I need to come,” I whimpered.
“This isn’t for you,” he said gruffly. “This is for me, for my pleasure. You’re going to lie there and take it and you won’t touch yourself, not even once. Do you understand?”
I nodded my head quickly. His words were like a raging inferno, consuming my every thought and stealing my ability to breathe. His hand remained firm around my wrist, ensuring I did as he said. I turned my head, muffling my frustrated cries into the pillow as he continued to fuck himself between my legs.
“Don’t do that,” he hissed. “Let me hear what you need. Tell me what you want, Garrett.”
“I want to come,” I whined.
“Yes, but there’s something you want more. Tell me what it is,” he demanded. His movements faltered, and I could feel short puffs of air blowing against my neck as his breathing became labored. His chest was slick with sweat as it brushed against my back, evidence of how hard he was working to hold himself back.
“Tell me,” he repeated through gritted teeth.
“I want you to come. I want to feel you break apart all over me. I want you to bathe me in your hot seed,” I cried. I sucked in a gasp, shocked by my own words.
“That’s it. That’s what I wanted to hear,” he praised.
Releasing my wrist, he wrapped his arm securely around my chest as he began thrusting his cock between my legs, faster and harder than before. I knew he was nearing the end by the change in his rhythm. My body was wound so tight that the slightest touch to my cock would set me off. I felt a clawing desperation to come, but he’d been right. I wanted this more.
Seconds later, he stiffened behind me and his teeth latched onto my shoulder, biting down as he came. Hot liquid spilled between my legs, coating the inside of my thighs in sweet, sticky fluid. It was all too much, and I screamed as I came, jets of cum shooting out all over me and the sheets.
Before I knew what was happening, Dean had flipped me onto my back and I nearly shot off the bed as he bent over me, swallowing my cock to the back of his throat. He held me with a steadying hand as he nestled his body between my legs and began licking my cock clean. He hummed at the taste which sent a strong vibration traveling up my softening shaft. I shivered in response. I lifted my head, not wanting to miss a moment as he began lapping his own cum from my thighs and balls.
My head dropped back onto the pillow as he began kissing his way up my body. He didn’t stop until he reached my mouth, and he kissed me long and slow, sharing our combined flavors with me. “You are a very dirty boy, Mr. Wilder,” I whispered.
“So are you, Mr. Sullivan, and I couldn’t be happier about that.” I could feel him smiling against my lips, and it made me laugh. I was having trouble remembering the last time I’d been so happy.
My arms circled around him, my fingernails scratching gently up and down his back. “Thank you,” I said. He pulled his head back, so he could look into my eyes and my heart stuttered in my chest at how unbelievably handsome he was.
“What are you thanking me for?” he asked curiously.
“For always seeming to know what I need. For not judging me. For opening my world up to so many new things.”
Dean stared down at me and his expression softened. “Thank you for spending your vacation with me.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Come on. I’ll start the shower for us.”
I lay there, enjoying the view as he climbed from the bed, shooting me a quick grin from over his shoulder, before disappearing into the master bathroom. The past few days with him had made me feel like I was living the life of one of my characters. The bookish nerd, who is somehow able to capture the attention of the star quarterback, or the guy who gets whisked away from a life of misery and despair by the billionaire business tycoon.
I rolled my eyes at the direction my thoughts had taken. His words had served as a stark reminder that what was happening between the two of us was nothing like my books. We were having fun, but once vacation was over, we’d each go back to our own lives; no perfect love story and no happily ever after. At least not with each other, I reminded myself. I’d known that all along so, why then, did the thought suddenly make my chest hurt?
Garrett had been quiet as we’d taken turns washing each other’s bodies, and I wondered what was going through his mind, but I didn’t feel it was my place to pry. If something was bothering him, I was sure he’d tell me when he was ready.
We spent the morning riding scooters around the island, stopping at a few outdoor markets to check out some of the items handcrafted by the islanders. I insisted on buying the two of us matching Hawaiian print shirts, and he laughed as I held up a grass skirt, asking if he thought I could pull it off.
“With that ass, definitely,” he said with a laugh. I still wasn’t sure what had made him so quiet earlier, but I was happy to see his playfulness returning.
Eventually, we got tired of riding and decided to go back to my place so we could swim in the pool. Garrett asked to stop at a food market first though because he said I’d been taking such good care of him and he wanted to return the favor by cooking dinner for us that night. He walked up and down the aisles, gathering the supplies he needed then stubbornly refused to let me pay for any of it.
When we got back to the house, I made us a pitcher of margaritas, and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, relaxing on pool floats and making out in the attached hot tub. I’d just started to nap on one of the chaise lounges when my phone rang, startling me. I’d already instructed my agent not to bother me unless it was an emergency so that left only one other person that it could be.
“Hey, Bethany,” I answered. Garrett stood up from his chair beside me and I grabbed onto his wrist, shooting him a questioning look.
“You go ahead and talk. I’m going to start dinner.” He bent down and brushed his lips over mine then winked at me before he stood back up and walked away. I watched him walk away until he disappeared into the house, sure that I was wearing the goofiest grin on my face.
“Dean? Are you still there?” I heard Bethany calling out.
I brought the phone back up to my ear quickly. “Sorry. Yes, I’m here.”
“Who were you talking to?” she asked suspiciously.
I rolled my eyes heavenward and sighed. “He’s just a friend. Someone I met on the island and decided to hang out with,” I told her. I adored Bethany, and I would give her one of my kidneys if she needed it, but sometimes she was way too nosy for my own good.
“Ooooh! Please, tell me he’s your lifeguard.”
I chuckled. “My lifeguard? What the hell does that even mean?”
A dramatic sigh came through the phone, and I smiled as I pictured her shaking her head. “You never listen to me. Right before you left, I told you to meet a handsome lifeguard and fall madly in love with him. Or at least have hot, sweaty, sheet-ripping sex with him. I didn’t say that part before, but I’m adding it now because, let’s face it, you don’t get laid enough, my friend.”
“My getting laid is none of your business,” I grumbled. “And I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but there’s no lifeguard.”
“But someone is there. The stranger with the sexy voice.”
I threw my head back, laughing at the excitement in her voice. “You’re a hopeless romantic, you know that? Not everyone is lucky enough to find their soul mate and live happily ever after. Those kinds of things usually only happen in fairy tales or…romance novels.” I turned my head to look at the house. Was that the kind of thing Garrett wrote about in his books? Did he believe in everyone having a true love somewhere out in the world, that one person who was made only for them? What would his soul mate look like? I tried to picture him, but my mind kept drawing a blank. The fact was, whoever Garrett’s soul mate was, he’d have to be a very special guy to deserve Garrett. He was an amazing man and he deserved an amazing man in return to share his life with.
“Well, I guess I already beat the odds because I managed to find my soul mate. So, now it’s your turn,” Bethany insisted.
“Yeah, Christopher is a good guy and I’m so happy you found him, but I’m not so sure I have one.”
“You have one. You’re a good man, and you deserve to be happy, Dean,” she said softly. I wasn’t convinced, but I’d learned long ago that it was pointless to argue with her once she’d made up her mind about something.
“Look, I need to get going.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to keep you. I just wanted to check in, make sure you were getting some rest and having fun.” I smiled, my chest warming just like it always did whenever she did something to remind me of how much she cared. That wasn’t something I’d had a lot of in my life and I tried to never take it for granted.
“I am, I promise,” I assured her.
“Good. Now, go! Eat, drink, and practice mouth to mouth with your mystery man.”
“Not a lifeguard.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
I shook my head, laughing as I ended the call. If only Bethany knew how many times my non-lifeguard and I had already practiced mouth to mouth, her head would explode. The thought of Garrett’s full, bottom lip had me hurrying into the house in search of the man. A little more practice was never a bad idea.
Garrett was in the kitchen, putting a salad together when I walked in. He didn’t notice me at first and I took the opportunity to observe him. He’d swapped his swim trunks for a pair of tan shorts and a dark gray t-shirt. His feet were bare, and he was humming to the music playing from his phone as he moved around my kitchen. I smiled when I realized it was the same song I’d been singing when I made him breakfast at his place.
“Catchy song isn’t it?” I said, making him jump. I moved in behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist and I felt him melt against me. I loved it when he did that. My hands slid under the hem of his shirt and my fingers grazed over the soft skin of his stomach.
Garrett sighed, and it sounded happy, content. “It is. Who knew one of the guys from One Direction would end up doing so well on his own? Of course, I love everything Maren Morris does, so it was bound to turn out well with her involved.”
I rested my chin on his shoulder as we swayed back and forth to the music. I shivered as the stubble on his cheeks brushed against my own. He turned his head as the song ended, offering his lips up sweetly. I kissed him lightly at first, but as it always seemed to happen when the two of us were together, things quickly began to heat up. I turned him around and cupped his face in my hands as my tongue stroked over his.
How was it that I had just met this man a few days before and yet I already couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him without touching or tasting him? Garrett was like my best possible fantasy. How was I supposed to function when I had to go back to my real life? That last thought was like a splash of cold water and I took a step back. His lips were swollen and wet from my kisses and I could see desire burning in his gray eyes.
There was a strong, magnetic pull between the two of us. I felt it every time he was near and I was sure he’d felt it too. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew that if I let it, it could easily overpower me, and I’d be lost. But, I couldn’t let that happen. We only had a few more days together and then we’d both go back to our own lives, thousands of miles apart.
“Dinner smells great,” I said. I folded my arms across my chest, my hands balling up into fists as I fought the urge to reach for him again.
“Thanks. It’s almost finished. I just need to finish this salad and dish everything up and then it’ll be ready.”
“Okay. I’m going to grab a quick shower and change and then I’ll help. It’s a nice evening, so I thought maybe we could eat out on the veranda.” Garrett smiled at me, seemingly unaware of my inner struggles. I waited until he turned back around before I fled to the safety of my bedroom.
Dinner was already on the table by the time I finished changing, so I ran down to the cellar and picked out a bottle of wine to go along with our meal. The sun had set, making way for the stars to shine, and a gentle breeze helped cool the island from the heat of the day. We sat down across from each other and I poured us each a glass of wine.
“This looks incredible and smells delicious.” My stomach grumbled as I looked over the large steak and baked potato on my plate. The salad he’d prepared was filled with an array of colorful vegetables.
“Thanks. I hope it tastes good. Your kitchen is insane, by the way,” he exclaimed. I laughed at his wide-eyed enthusiasm.
“I’ll have to take your word for it.”
“Wait. You’ve never use it?” He looked positively horrified as I shook my head no.
“There’s not much point when it’s just me here. My housekeeper usually stocks the fridge with some of her homemade dinners when she knows I’m coming and I just eat that,” I explained.
“Yeah. I guess I can see your point. I don’t do a lot of cooking for myself when I’m home either. Most nights I just pick something up at a restaurant. Except for Tuesday nights.”
“What happens on Tuesdays?” I cut off a piece of steak and took a bite. It was grilled to perfection; tender and juicy and I moaned in appreciation. When I looked back up, Garrett was squirming in his seat, his eyes fixated on my mouth. “This steak is delicious. It’s the second-best thing I’ve tasted all day,” I said, flashing him a wolfish grin.
He rolled his eyes at me and his cheeks flushed red, but he couldn’t hide the grin that followed. “Anyway, you asked about Tuesdays.” I chuckled at his obvious attempt to steer the conversation back in the right direction. “It’s kind of an unwritten rule that I go to my parents’ house for dinner every Tuesday night. We eat and talk about whatever’s been going on in our lives since the previous week, sometimes I’ll stay and watch a little TV with them. It’s our way of staying in touch with one another.”
I set my fork down and picked up my glass of wine. Old yearnings long buried came scratching their way to the surface and I felt my chest tighten. “You get along with your parents?”
His smile widened as he picked up his wine glass and settled into his chair. “Oh yeah. They’re the best. I don’t have any siblings, so it’s always just been the three of us. They were really hands-on when I was growing up. You know, volunteering in my classrooms and coaching my little league teams, that kind of thing.”
“That must have been amazing. They sound like really good people.”
“Yeah, they are.” Garrett regarded me carefully for a moment and I knew that he was trying to decide what he should ask.
This was the part where I usually made some joke or start firing off more questions of my own in order to deflect attention from me. Bethany was the only person in the world who knew what my parents had been like, but even she didn’t know everything. When I moved to California, I made the conscious decision to leave that part of my life behind and I’d never looked back. But, for some reason, I found myself wanting to tell Garrett.
I took a generous sip of wine and then set the glass back on the table. “My parents weren’t good parents. They weren’t even good people. I literally don’t have one happy memory of my time with them. They both were raging alcoholics who’d rather cheat the system than work an honest day in their lives. When I was little, they used to parade me around the local churches with sob stories about how I had no toys for Christmas or that I needed new shoes for school. I hate to think of how many people donated their hard-earned money, thinking it was going to help a child in need. Instead, it only went toward my parents’ drinking habit.” I took a generous sip of wine and then set the glass back on the table. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Garrett as the shame I’d felt all those years came roaring back.
“Eventually, they decided to dip into drugs and things went from bad to worse. Instead of just being neglectful, they became angry and violent. I fell asleep most nights to the sounds of their fighting and when they weren’t beating on each other, they’d start on me.”
I heard Garrett’s gasp and looked up in time to see him covering his mouth. His eyes were swimming with unshed tears and it made my own eyes burn. He stood up slowly and I pushed my chair back as he came around the table. Without a word, he crawled into my lap and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face in his neck, choking on a sob. All the pain and embarrassment, the disappointment and rejection I’d felt all those years came rushing back at once. Garrett held me in his arms, gently rocking me back and forth as I cried.
When I’d settled down, he used his thumbs to softly wipe away the tears from my cheeks, then he kissed my lips. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. You deserved better than that. You deserved to be loved and cherished,” he whispered.
Telling him about my past had opened up old wounds that I’d fought hard to keep closed, but it also set me free in a way I hadn’t realized I needed. I’d done my best to move on and create a better life for myself, but I also hadn’t ever allowed myself to grieve for the childhood I was cheated out of. Hearing Garrett give voice to the fact that I’d deserved better helped heal something in me.
“I already thought you were an amazing man, but now that I know what your childhood was like, it seems even more incredible that you turned out to be such a warm and thoughtful person.”
“Thank you, but I can’t take the credit for that. Bethany’s parents let me stay over at their house as much as I wanted to, which was pretty much all the time. They showed me what a real family was supposed to act like. If I learned anything good, it was because of them,” I told him.
He shook his head. “No, I think it’s just who you are. You’re a good man and you’ve got a good heart.” Emotions flickered in his eyes and he opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but whatever it was got lost as I sealed my mouth over his. I was done talking for the night.