Rhett woke the next morning pressed against Cole. The night before, they’d had sex again, then traded secrets in the dark until they were both too loopy from a toxic combination of champagne and exhaustion. The night had felt like a fairy tale to Rhett. As if he’d been the pauper, swept off his feet by the handsome prince. Tahiti was paradise, but Rhett was starting to feel like anywhere with Cole could be that for him.

Being allowed to wake up next to Cole the way he’d wanted to, for the first time, Rhett was eager to savor the moment. He snuggled closer, breathing deep and sighing happily when Cole’s lips found his forehead.

“As cute as you were when you flung yourself halfway across the room, I have to admit I prefer this.” Cole wrapped his arms around Rhett, tugging him closer.

His erection, which had more to do with Cole now than the fact that it was morning, pressed against Cole’s leg and he found himself smiling against Cole’s skin, the heat of lingering mortification sweeping over him. “I still can’t believe I humped your leg.”

“You humped a lot more than my leg last night.”

“Mmhm,” Rhett purred, stretching, sliding his hand across Cole’s abdomen. “I did. You did too.” The night played again and again in his mind. A memory on an infinite loop that turned soft at the edges like a dream sequence.

“Rhett,” Cole rasped his name in that scratchy sort of voice that Rhett had come to recognize as lust and what he hoped was affection. Cole rolled them over, kissing him far too tenderly, his body on top of Rhett’s but not pressed hard against him the way he suddenly needed it to be.

Rhett grabbed Cole’s face, deepening the kiss as he wrapped a leg around Cole and urged him closer. So much that had started out so fake had become so real. Rhett never expected to feel the way he did, as if he’d been walking next to a dream all his life and never realized it until he’d been forced to turn his head.

Cole moaned into his mouth, his body hard and hot against Rhett’s. He kissed away the entire fabric of Rhett’s existence. Everything was different now. For better or for worse, this was real and when the wheels hit the tarmac back in California, nothing would be the same.

Rhett had never been one to take risks, but Cole made it worth it. Cole’s easy laughter, his ambition, his sense of humor, there wasn’t a thing about Cole that Rhett didn’t like.

Cole pulled out of the kiss, hot breath bursts against his shoulder as Cole buried his face there, kissing Rhett’s neck. His shoulder. His clavicle. Cole sat up suddenly, aligning their cocks and wrapping a fist around them. “I have to be inside you.” Desperation clung to Cole’s words as he reached for the side table then dropped a condom on the bed.

Rhett grabbed the condom and Cole eyed him quizzically as he sat up, tearing the package open. “What are you doing?”

Rhett didn’t say anything. He gazed at Cole, who was still just as beautiful as he’d been the night before, even with bedhead and eyes that were half sleepy, half lust-addled. He licked his lips and glanced down, then taking Cole’s cock in his hand, he unrolled the condom onto it. Even Cole’s cock was perfect, Rhett mused as Cole slanted his mouth over his and pushed him back down into the mattress. Rhett figured it to be slightly above average, but not so huge that he couldn’t take it several times a day.

“Please,” Rhett pleaded Cole, kissing the corner of his mouth.

“Now?” Cole’s cock pressed against Rhett’s hole.

“Now,” he panted, sweat beading on his forehead. “I want to feel you the whole way home. I want to sit on the plane next to you and be able to tell you were there.”

I want to know that this was real, even after Tahiti is a memory.

Cole, whether he understood Rhett’s urgency for what it was or not, listened to his pleas and buried himself inside him.

Rhett came undone. His body didn’t feel like it belonged to him in those moments. It was Cole’s. The way he fucked him, hard, ferocious, not stopping their kiss, not coming up for air, not saying anything. The only sounds in the room were the slap of flesh, moans and whimpers, desperate breaths, and the roar of the ocean in the distance.

Unable to hold back anymore, Rhett wrapped his hand around his cock. Cole had kept him riding the edge of his orgasm, hard and fast, but never quite letting him go over. He whimpered at the first slide of his cock in his fist and his balls tightened. Cole swore, and Rhett stroked his cock again, the desperation in Cole’s voice, the slight squeak in his words had Rhett coming, his orgasm slamming into him, shattering him as Cole continued to thrust into him, driving them both farther up the bed.

Cole’s movements slowed and they still kissed. Slow slides of tongue and gentle nips of teeth against swollen lips, the kiss lasted until the cum on Rhett’s stomach started to dry and Cole’s cock slid out of his now tender ass.

Cole lay plastered against Rhett, still sprawled on top of him. Rhett drew his hands up and down Cole’s back, raking his nails against his skin, enjoying the simple act of touching him.

“We should shower,” Rhett said, but didn’t move. Neither did Cole, who made a disapproving noise.

“If we keep showering every time we do that, Tahiti will run out of water.”

Rhett laughed and hugged Cole to him. “I need at least fifteen minutes and some coffee and maybe something to eat. I’m starving.”

“Fine, but room service.”

Rhett didn’t argue; he didn’t particularly want to leave the room either. He was greedy for Cole’s undivided attention.

“I’ll order us some food while you clean up?” Cole asked, pushing himself off Rhett, but stealing a kiss before climbing out of bed.

“It’s after noon already. Do you think they still serve eggs and bacon?”

“It’s bacon and eggs,” Cole corrected with a grin, as he headed for the bathroom to dispose of the condom. “But it’s Tahiti, not a drive thru, I’m fairly certain that you can get breakfast whenever you want.”

Rhett showered quickly, wrapping himself up in one of the fluffy hotel robes. He exited the bathroom and found Cole on the bed in matching terry-cloth.

By the time breakfast arrived, Cole had also freshened up and they ate in the room, enjoying the saltwater breeze and the ridiculous smiles on the other’s face. Cole stood after breakfast and went back to the bed, stripping out of his robe. He tossed it aside and stretched out on top of the very rumpled bedcovers, demanding, “Show me your pictures.”

Rhett shoved his empty plate aside and went to his suitcase, retrieving his camera and handing it to Cole. Then he let his robe slide to the floor in a heap before climbing in bed. He let Cole hold the camera and flip through the pictures at his leisure.

“I have other pictures on my phone, but these are mostly ones I took when you weren’t with me.”

“So this is what you did yesterday morning?” Cole mused thoughtfully as he scrolled through the images, stopping at the one that Rhett had taken of his feet in the sand.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Cole looked at him, grinning. “You have really cute toes.”

“Oh, my God, stop. I was bored, okay.”

“So you took a picture of your feet?” Cole raised an eyebrow and Rhett felt his face get hot.

“I wanted to remember how the sand felt.”

Cole’s grin softened into a sweet sort of smile and he turned back to the camera, flipping to the next picture. “Tell me why you took this one?” Cole asked and Rhett explained. They continued that way, talking in hushed tones as Rhett showed Cole Tahiti the way he saw it.

Until they reached the picture of the flower pot he’d spied in the market, but hadn’t bought.

Cole laughed. “Lucy would look adorable in that.”

Rhett laughed and, for fun, turned his head and bit Cole’s pectoral muscle. Cole fumbled the camera, and they both burst out laughing. Rhett took the camera and set it aside. He wasn’t interested in pictures anymore. The only thing he was interested in was Cole.

“Are we really going to do that again? Already?” Cole asked as Rhett slid over top of him, straddling him.

“I can stop if you want,” Rhett started to move, but couldn’t, not with the iron grip Cole had on him then.

“That’s the last thing I want.”

Rhett lost track after that of how many times they’d kissed, how many minutes and hours they’d spent stowed away in that room, a perfect bubble in paradise where the rest of the world didn’t exist.

Checking out the next morning was bittersweet. Tahiti had turned out to be more than he’d ever dreamed it to be, and he was returning home with more than he left with. A fake relationship that wasn’t entirely fake anymore and feelings that were more real than anything he’d ever felt before.

The bright side of the return trip was that Kristen wouldn’t be travelling with them. She and her new husband had booked an extended, and expensive, honeymoon that would take them around the world. She wouldn’t be returning for three months, to both Rhett and Cole’s delight.

At the airport, Rhett let Cole be the gentleman and handle their luggage. In turn, he bought them something to eat in the lounge after they’d passed through security. Rhett fished his phone out of his pocket and turned it on.

“Penny thinks I’ve died and that you fed my body to the sharks.”

“Tell her it wasn’t sharks. You were taken hostage by an errant street crab. I tried to save you, but it was a lost cause.”

“I told her that you lost me at sea. I’m in a rubber dinghy with two percent power and she’ll have to find a new babysitter for Tyson.” Rhett tapped out an entirely different message, one that was fifty percent emoji and that gave away very little information.

“Already harassing you about me, is she?”

“You don’t want to know,” Rhett answered truthfully and he tried not to think about how different things were going to be when they landed back home. After they’d eaten, they sat next to each other, their hands linked, Rhett resting his head on Cole’s shoulder. He drifted off, only waking when Cole shook him gently and told him their flight was boarding.

Rhett headed for the gate, boarding pass in one hand, Cole’s in the other.

He already missed Tahiti.