COLTON

WAKING UP IN THE morning to Alex hogging the covers was nothing new. Waking up to Alex sprawled naked across the bed, however, was, and I’d just decided it was the single most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Her long, dark hair draped over her breasts like a curtain, pert, pink nipples peeking through, begging to be lavished with attention. And, I mean, who was I to deny them?

It was barely after seven in the morning, but the room was already bathed in sunlight. Thanks to the floor to ceiling windows, I couldn’t sleep. Allie, however, would be in bed ’til three if I’d let her. I wondered briefly whether she’d be upset if I—

Well, there was only one way to find out. Bracing myself on one arm, I leaned in, running my tongue gently over the already erect bud. Alex stirred but quickly fell back into a deep sleep. I licked the pads of the index finger and thumb on my left hand and reached over to tweak the nipple farthest from my face. At the same time, I curled my tongue over the other.

She moaned softly, and I pressed on, lapping and nipping, tweaking and pulling until Alex was writhing beneath me. Until her hands were in my hair, pulling. Until my name fell from her lips repeatedly.

“Oh, God,” she cried out when I slipped a finger between her folds. “Don’t stop, Colt.”

I didn’t. Not until she was screaming my name and I’d milked the last tremor from her release. Until she was covered in a light sheen of sweat, lying limp in my arms.

“Is there anything about you that isn’t high maintenance?” I asked, my chest vibrating with laughter.

Her sex-hooded eyes turned up to glare in my direction. “I’m afraid to even ask where you’re going with this.”

I tipped her head up further, pressing a kiss to her warm lips. “If I’d have realized orgasms made you so agreeable in the morning, I’d have started dishing ’em out a long time ago,” I teased, earning myself a nip to the chest.

“Let’s go make some breakfast,” I suggested when I felt her cozying into the crook of my arm like she was about to fall asleep.

Lazy fingers thrummed on my chest. “You have fun with that.”

When I rolled out from underneath her, she groaned, stretching out on her stomach.

“Come on, Al.” As tempting as it was to stay in bed and fool around all day, I’d already made arrangements.

“It’s so cold without you,” she complained. “Come back.” Her arm stretched out, fingers wiggling in my direction.

After stepping into my boxers, I tossed a shirt at her. “Put that on,” I said, trying to maintain a straight face. “I have a busy day planned for us.” She harrumphed, turning her head the opposite direction. “Don’t make me do it,” I added in a warning tone.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me,” I deadpanned, quirking my brow.

Begrudgingly, she sat up, her eyes narrowed my way. “Stop staring at my tits,” she ordered, pulling the tank over her head. “You want to get rid of them, remember?”

“That was before I was allowed to play with them.” I winked. “I’ve since had a change of heart. They can stay.”

“You’re too kind.”

I bit my lip, watching and waiting for her to notice the T-shirt as she looked down, sliding both hands along her neck and lifting to pull her hair out from the back of her shirt. Alex’s hands came around to the front, stretching the shirt out in front of her, and her mouth fell open with a gasp. “Colton!”

Finally! It was a black tank with a white screen-printed rooster beneath the word, “big.” “I thought you’d never notice.” I laughed.

“Is this yours? Do you actually wear this?” she asked, aghast.

“Come on now, I’m not that cocky,” I quipped. “I ordered it just for you.”

She smiled with her whole face, shaking a finger at me. “You’re good, Colt.”

I felt my chest swell with pride.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna wear it?” she asked, staring up at me with those big doe eyes. “After all, you are a big dick.”

Dang, Alex, I thought, laughing. “You keep it...Now that you’ve been inducted into the big cock society, you gotta represent,” I said, pounding my hand against my chest twice.

Her jaw dropped, morphing into a huge grin. “I got nothin’.”

“Come on,” I ordered, grabbing her hands and pulling her from the bed. “Let’s go eat.”

I sent Allie out to the terrace while I whipped up some microwave pancakes and fresh fruit, strawberries, and pineapples—her favorites. Alex was quite impressed by my newfound ability to work a stove. I may have left out the fact that the pancakes came from the freezer. But, hey, a man’s gotta do what he can to impress his woman.

After breakfast, we cleaned up and got dressed, then biked the seven miles to Marina Del Rey. It was still early enough that the trails weren’t completely inundated with people and there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean. Best of all, Allie hadn’t stopped smiling at me all morning.

“Are we going fishing?” she asked while I was locking up our bikes near the dock.

I glanced back at her over my shoulder. “Nope.”

“Dolphin sighting?”

My lips puckered in thought. “You might get lucky and see some dolphins.”

Alexis held up a fist, using her other hand to reel up her middle finger just as my buddy Ryker pulled up in his boat. His big, lime green boat with the word “Parasail” in huge white letters.

“Oh my God!” she screamed, jumping up and down. “I haven’t been since we were teenagers.”

I felt like the king of the world when she looked up at me with those big brown eyes bursting with excitement. “Good surprise?” I asked, watching as her whole face lit up.

She squeezed my hand hard enough to cut the circulation off. “Ahhhmazing surprise!”

Allie and I boarded the boat, fastening our life jackets and taking our seats in the back. She looked around in confusion when it took off with just Ryker, his helper, Jude, and the two of us.

“It’s just you and me.”

“How’d you pull this off?” Her finger came up, cutting me off before I could answer. “Lemme guess...another ‘star of the basketball team’ thing?”

I gave her a wink and shrugged. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I pulled her in closer, kissing the side of her head. I couldn’t tell if this all really made her uncomfortable or if she was just bustin’ my chops. Allie and I had always had a playful relationship, and I hoped that’s all it was. I guess I didn’t really see any of this as weird anymore. Although Allie and I were in constant contact with each other, there are some parts of my life she wasn’t accustomed to. She’d better get used to it because if I ever made it pro, I had every intention of taking her with me.

Any awkwardness or reservations she may have had vanished when they strapped us in, and we went soaring five hundred feet into the air. Allie’s face was exuberant. I couldn’t stop myself from staring.

“What?” she asked, her face blushing.

“I just like looking at you.”

Her foot reached to the side, hooking around my ankle. I was suddenly regretting the decision to trap us in harnesses for an hour because with the way she was looking at me...I wanted nothing more than to put my hands on her.

“I’m going to be a mess when I have to leave you.” We still had two weeks, but that dreaded day was already looming over us.

My chest felt tight. “So, stay.”

Allie let out a loud sigh, her head tipping to the side. “You know it’s not that easy, Colt.”

“It could be, Al. It could be that easy.”

Allie’s eyes drifted out over the water. I could tell she was deep in her thoughts.

“Hey,” I called after she had been quiet for a few minutes. Alex turned back to look at me, her eyes a little glossy. “No pressure. I just want you to know that it’s an option.”

A slow smile moved across her face. “Thank you.”

“Come here,” I growled, moving both of my hands to the rope in the center so I could lean my body toward hers. Alex’s face brightened, following my lead. Her mouth found mine in the space between us. Our teeth clashed amid lips that couldn’t keep from smiling. It was such an adrenaline rush, our bodies firing on all synapses. I knew that nothing would ever compare to the taste of her laughter on my lips.

We were still kissing when Ryker dropped us down, allowing our feet to skim the water. Still kissing when he lifted us back into the air and began towing us in. Only when we landed on the boat’s deck did our lips part, and instantly I wanted hers back.

“Thanks, man,” I said to Ryker as he pulled up to drop us off at the dock.

“No problem,” he answered with a knowing smile. “Hope you two had a good ride.”

We left our bikes tied up there, walking a couple of blocks to Third Street Promenade, where we grabbed a bite to eat, and Allie shopped ’til she dropped.

“We’re going to have to grab a Lyft to get this all back.” I laughed. Alex and I had completely forgotten the fact that we’d biked out there. “We can swing back for the bikes with the car when we leave and drop them at the beach house.”

“Do we have to go home?” Allie whined. “I love this place so much, Colt.” Her eyes drifted around the outdoor courtyard lined with shops and street performers. “It feels like ours—like we belong here, doesn’t it?”

“We’ll come back again soon,” I promised, not wanting to leave either.

“How soon?”

Biting my lower lip, I stared into her brown eyes. As soon as you move in, I thought, but I stopped myself from saying it aloud. I’d told her I wouldn’t pressure her, but it wasn’t easy. “Next visit,” I answered, placing a kiss on her forehead.

When our car arrived, we loaded the bags into the back before climbing inside. Allie sat right beside me, her leg pressed against mine. She smelled like sunshine and coconut lotion. The apples of her cheeks were rosy, kissed by the sun. I spent the five-minute ride to the house memorizing every detail of the way she looked tonight. It had been the best weekend of my life, and I didn’t want to forget a thing.

Before leaving the house, Allie and I paid one last visit to the rooftop cabana, making love by the ocean to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.