Chapter 32

Anthony

“You look fucking perfect,” I whisper in Joey’s ear as I press against his back.

The club is dark, and everyone, regardless of gender, are all dancing so close, I hope Jon doesn’t think anything of me dancing so close to Joey.

The sway of his hips as he moves to the song is too enticing to ignore from the other side of the bar.

“What are you doing?” he hisses and takes a step away from me.

“Not so fast,” I chide with a firm grip on his hips.

“They’ll see us,” he warns looking in the direction of Jon and Dave at the tall table in the corner.

“They’re wasted,” I assure him, mouth dangerously close to his ear. “They won’t even remember this in the morning.”

“It won’t matter if my brother beats your ass tonight for it.” He takes a step away, and I allow it this time. “He’s not Dave’s mom. He has a great memory, drunk or not.”

“I’m thinking,” I say pulling him against my chest again, “that it’ll be worth it.”

“Oh really?” He turns, leanly muscular arms slinking over the tops of my shoulders until his fingers are toying with the sweat-damp hairs at the nape of my neck.

I don’t feel the need to pull away, to check the eyes of the guys around us, or try to judge if I’m going to get my ass jumped for being a “faggot” when I need to take a piss. The only thing I see is him.

“Totally worth it,” I assure with my mouth only a couple of inches away from his.

“You might want to reconsider.” Letting him guide us, he turns me so I can see the group’s table behind him.

Jon, who was in an animated conversation with a girl earlier, is glaring at me. My body responds immediately taking two steps away from him. Without missing a beat, he raises his arms and continues to sway to the music.

“That’s what I thought,” he teases with a wink.

“I want to tell him,” I urge.

“Right now while he’s drunk?”

Groaning when he flexes and his shirt strains over his abs, I actually consider it.

“If not now, when?”

“After we get home,” he offers.

I’m mesmerized by the hypnotic roll of his hips, the pull of his jeans over thick thighs.

“Are you sure about that?” A smirk pulls at the corner of my lips. “What is that look for?”

“I want to fuck you,” I grunt.

“And I want to be fucked.”

My cock reaches for him, growing angry at the restriction of my dark jeans.

“I won’t fuck you again until I’ve laid it all out for your brother,” I challenge.

Eyes narrowing, he takes a half a step closer. “You wouldn’t.”

“We’ve crossed enough lines, Joey. He may never forgive us.”

His nose crinkles. “I don’t need his forgiveness. I need your cock.”

He needs you, too.

“Pineapple!” he screams

“What?”

“Pineapple!” he yells again.

“It’s go time?” Andi asks, appearing beside him out of thin air. Joey nods. “I’m on it.”

Shifting his feet so he’s dancing beside me, we both watch as Andi saunters toward Jon and Dave. Chuckling, Dave finds my eyes as Jon watches every move her long legs are making.

“What the fuck does pineapple mean?”

“It’s a code word,” he offers as he continues to dance.

When Andi makes it to Jon and Dave begins to talk to them, Joey grabs my hand. “Let’s go!”

Even though I have no fucking clue what’s going on, I allow him to pull me through the crowd. We circle around the dance floor, giving the group at our table a wide berth as we sneak out of the doors of the club.

If he thinks we’re going to get privacy out here, he’s sorely mistaken. What became blatantly clear when I stepped on this ship is that no matter how big it is, there are people everywhere. The only place you’ll ever find alone time is in your own ro—

“Stop,” I insist digging my feet into the carpet.

He tugs on my arm as if it’s going to get me to budge. “We need to discuss your ultimatum.”

“We can discuss it in the Martini Bar,” I offer and point to the right of where we’re standing.

“What I have to say can’t be done in front of others.” A mischievous grin spreads his face. “Unless you’re into that sort of thing?”

“Public sex?” I cringe. “Hell no.”

“Thank God.” He sighs in relief. “Me neither.”

“We can talk in there.”

“I want to talk in your room,” he counters. “On your balcony.”

“I don’t want to talk on my balcony.”

“I like where your head is at. Go with it.” He tugs on my arm again.

“Joey,” I chide pointing once again to the crowded bar. “In there.”

“My shirt matches my boxers.”

“Goddammit, Joey.” I pull my arm from his grip. “This isn’t a fucking joke.”

“I’m not laughing,” he says playfully, but his smile falters when he sees my face.

“We need to tell them.”

His head is shaking no before I even finish. “That’s a very bad idea.”

“It’s the best idea,” I counter. “I want to hold you, touch you, and kiss your lips before I leave the room even if your brother is around. Are you saying you don’t want the same thing?”

“I want all of those things.” He begins but stops when I have to reach for him and pull him out of the way of three rowdy guys heading our direction. All three of them sneer in our direction, and that cautious feeling I didn’t have on the dance floor returns with a vengeance.

“And that is why this is a bad idea.” His eyes follow and glare right back at the two guys who watch us until they disappear around a bend in the walkway. “You may want to tell everyone right now, but when it comes down to it, you honestly don’t want anyone to know you’re gay.”

“That’s not it—”

“That’s exactly it,” he hisses. “I’m not going to hide who I am.”

I scrub a frustrated hand over my head. “It’s complicated.”

“Can we discuss this in your room?”

Squeezing my eyes shut. “And all we’re going to do is talk?”

With the anger sparking in his eyes, I’d rather do exactly what he wanted before this intense argument began. Talking means confessions and reasoning, and that is something I’m not wholly prepared for right now.

He doesn’t respond immediately, and when I look up at him, he’s smiling with his lips rolled between his teeth. His head is nodding yes, but the glint in his eyes screams LIAR loud and clear.

I may be able to put this off just a little bit longer. Ruining the cruise for both of us is the last thing I want to do.

We don’t touch, not a single brush of my hand against his on the way to the elevator, up to my room and down the hall to the cabin door. It does absolutely nothing to calm the sexual tension that just seems to grow with every passing second.

“What are you doing?” I ask the second he steps inside and kicks off his shoes.

I knew this was a very bad idea.

“Have you ever spent hours in a pair of uncomfortable shoes?”

“I do the Red High Heels Walk for heart disease awareness every February.” Smiling at him, I shrug.

“So you have walked a mile in my shoes so to speak.” He inches closer, ignoring the warning look on my face. “You can’t say things like that without making me swoon.”

I fully expect him to jump my bones, but the quick, soft kiss on my cheek is just as delightful. He takes the glorious smell of his skin with him when he backs away.

“My mother died of cancer a few years ago,” he begins and continues before I can give him my condolences. “My dad died six months later of a heart attack. Heart health is a passion of mine as well.”

“Joey.” I reach for him, but he holds his hands up, palms facing me.

“We’re not here to talk about that.”

I can easily agree since there are numerous things I’m not ready to talk about also.

“Okay.” Walking across the room, I force my brain to shift gears. “It’s important to me that we tell your brother what’s going on before we take things even further.”

“We’ve already had sex, Tony. Can’t really take it further,” he barters.

God, I love it when he calls me Tony.

“Once,” I qualify. “And I hope he won’t kill me when he finds out about it.”

“Did you forget the bathroom?”

Huffing, because the fact that he’d even consider I’ll ever be able to forget that is ridiculous. “The memories of the bathroom are very vivid.”

“Imagine the memories we could make right now.” That finger, the same one that toyed with me earlier while he was walking around my room when everyone was in here is back at work. The tip of his finger scrapes over the end of my bed before he makes his way to the balcony door. Lapping waves can be heard as the ship tunnels its way through the ocean heading to Cozumel.

“Joey,” I warn.

“Tony,” he mocks standing in the breeze of the open doorway.

“Why do you call me Tony?”

“Why do you like it so much?”

“I hated it the first time you said it.”

“But you like it now.”

Nodding, a smile tugs at my mouth. “I do.”

“And you want me to call you Tony when I come.”

Jesus, Maria, and Jose.

Squeezing my eyes shut until the headaches starts, I pray when I open them I find him hideous. I have no such luck when my vision clears. He’s as handsome as he’s always been.

“No more cum talk until we talk to your brother.”

“What about coming in mouths?” Licking his lips, I know he’s only doing it to force my hand. I’d say my dick, but there’s no forcing him where he’s concerned. “Although, I’d have a hard time saying anything if you make me come while your cock is down my throat.”

“Enough,” I grunt as I walk back toward the door. “You need to go.”

He laughs, but it ends abruptly when I pull open the door.

“You’re serious?”

“Very,” I answer. “I can’t have you in here without wanting to rip your clothes off.”

Crossing the room in record time, he runs his hand down my chest. “I like these jeans. You don’t have to rip them off. I’m willing to remove them myself.”

“My rule stands. We’re hands off until Jon knows about us.”

“You can’t make rules. The entire group has to be involved in group decisions. Besides,” his eyebrow lifts, “we can’t tell my brother until we talk about why acknowledging you’re gay to anyone but a small group freaks you out so much.”

“Let’s go grab them and put it to a vote.” I completely ignore the last part of his statement.

“Fine,” he huffs as his fingers toy with the waistband of my jeans. “I hope you like blue balls.”

That devilish hand sweeps over the erection I have no ability to hide in these jeans. It’s only when his fingers begin to squeeze that I brush him away.

“One little kiss goodnight?”

“Do you think I’m actually going to fall for that?” My lips tingle with temptation.

“Do you really want me to leave without kissing me first?”

“One kiss?”

My mouth is on his before his tongue can sweep across his bottom lip to moisten it.

“I commend your restraint,” Joey praises as we stand in line at the breakfast buffet.

“I was hard all fucking night.” And I’m regretting asking you to leave the second the door closed behind you.

“You should’ve just gotten yourself off like I did.”

Why did I think wearing swim trunks today was going to be a good idea?

“I did. Twice.”

“What did you do twice?”

Freezing when Jon walks up and slaps my back, I scramble to think of yet another lie. My spine stiffens, and my brain goes completely blank, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“Puking,” Joey lies with a quickness that concerns me.

Laughing, Jon reaches for a plate as the breakfast buffet line slowly moves forward. “You think it’s bad now? Wait until the day after we get off the boat. Your equilibrium is going to be all screwed up. You may even have trouble walking in a straight line.”

“What’s the game plan for today?” Cooper interrupts as he falls in behind Jon, also reaching for a plate.

“I wanted to go play board games in that little bar downstairs,” Joey says.

“Sounds good to me,” I say with a shrug. I’ll be happy just to be near him.

“Fuck no,” Andi complains from in front of him. “I’m not on a cruise ship to sit in a dark bar playing checkers.”

“I just want a little calm before the chaos hits in Cozumel tomorrow.” Joey turns his back to us, and I hate the defeated slump of his shoulders.

“Well,” Dave chimes in. “You and Anthony can go play checkers. I have every intention of working on my tan.”

“Sorry, man.” Jon slaps my back again. “Looks like you’re taking one for the team, again.”

“I like checkers,” I mutter. I keep to myself that monopoly is my all-time favorite because playing that with only two people is never fun.

“Next thing you know you’ll get excited about the towel-animal seminar,” Cooper adds with a laugh.

“They’ll teach you how to make the towel animals?” Joey turns to look at me with an appreciative smile on his face. “When is that?”

“Geez, dude,” Jon chastises. “You two are the most boring people I know.”

“Like an old married couple,” Andi adds.

Joey shoves his friend forward in line after that comment as I hear Jon grunt behind me.

“I had an elephant on my bed after we left the bar last night,” Dave informs as he piles sausage links on his plate before covering everything in a questionable gravy that’s is not quite the normal color. “Had a very impressive trunk.”

Cooper and Jon both chuckle when he mimics an elephant’s trumpet with his free arm.

“Hard not to be impressed by size when everything is bigger than what you’re working with,” Cooper teases.

“My cock—”

“Is not a topic of conversation we’ll be discussing,” Andi interrupts.

“There’s a rule,” Joey reminds the group.

“There’s a no talking about Dave’s junk rule?”

“No talking about any sex organs while eating,” Jon says with a grin.

“How in the hell did that even become a rule?” I ask. “Common decency says it shouldn’t even be a thing.”

Finished filling her plate, Andi circles around until she’s standing near Jon. “I was eating a banana one day—”

“Enough,” Jon grunts. “Breakfast starts now. We’re not talking about it.”

“I was just trying to explain.” Andi looks at me with a wicked smirk. “He gets uncomfortable when I discuss phallic shaped things going into my mouth.”

Jon walks off, and I’m not even sure he was finished filling his plate.

“You’re wearing him down,” I confide.

“Pfft,” she huffs out. “I doubt he’ll even hate fuck me when he finds out about you and Joey.”

Stunned at her words, I watch her walk away. I should’ve known Joey would spill the beans, but I didn’t expect Andi to openly speak about it with me.

“Do you want black or red?” I ask as we settle down at the small table with our drinks.

“We’re not playing,” Joey says, sitting beside me rather than across from me. “Do you seriously think I arranged this to play checkers?”

“You looked pretty disappointed when they shot down the idea,” I remind him. “Do you want to play chess instead?”

Grinning, he shakes his head as if I’m so daft it’s cute to him. “I knew if you played along we’d end up alone. Cooper is here to troll for women, that’s a given. Dave really wants to work on his tan, Jon wouldn’t be caught dead playing a boring game of checkers, and Andi goes where he goes. Well, she’s going where he goes on this cruise because she’s in on the plan.”

“The plan?” Even though he says we’re not playing, I have this need to keep my hands busy, so they don’t end up exactly where they want to be.

“The seduce Anthony plan,” he answers.

“I don’t have to be seduced. I got hard just seeing you at breakfast.”

“True.” He laughs. “And kudos to you for not letting your eyes wander at all of the other good-looking people around.”

“You’re the only person I see,” I say with one hundred percent honesty.

“Sweet talker.” His hand rests on my thigh. The skin under my thin board shorts tingles with the attention.

Situated in a far back corner, we have as much privacy as we can expect on the busy ship, so I allow him to keep it there.

“So,” he begins, finally lifting his hand from my shorts to make the first move on the checkerboard. “Have you gotten over your little fit?”

“I wasn’t throwing a fit.”

“Sticking to your rule then?”

I nod moving a checker of my own before picking up my beer and taking a long swig. In silence we play our game, arms brushing against each other with every move. I said he didn’t have to seduce me, but my blood is heating with the simple touches.

“I think it’s a silly rule.” We reset the board after he jumps over my last black token.

“I don’t,” I argue with no heat.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s going to make any difference to my brother. Once or a hundred times, he’s still not going to be happy about it.”

“Personally, I don’t think, rule or no rule, that he even has any right to be mad at all, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he is going to be pissed.”

“I can agree with that, but I think Jon is holding so tight to the rules because he’s afraid of hurting Andi. He cares for her as more than friend, but he’s also well aware of how he is. If I break the rule, then there’s nothing keeping him from breaking the rule.” From the corner of my eye, I watch his lips against the rim of his mimosa glass as he takes a sip. Licking at a drop as he sets his glass back down, I know he’s invested in the talk right now and not trying to make my cock hard, but he was never one to understand social cues.

“No answer?”

“I’m sorry. I spaced out. What did you ask?”

He gives me a knowing grin.

Busted.

“I asked why, if we know all of this, do you want to ruin the cruise by telling him?”

“It feels honorable.”

“Honorable would be having an honest discussion about what’s really bothering you. You say you want to tell everyone one minute and the next you’re cowering away like you’re ashamed.”

I contemplate that for a long minute before responding. “You’re referring to my reaction to the assholes last night.”

“Yup.” He lifts his glass again, and I do my very best not to watch his throat work on the swallow.

“It’s not for the reason you think.” Are we really going to have this conversation here and now?

“Because it’s complicated?” The frustration in his voice is mirrored on his face as well.

“Because the last time I hooked up with a guy, I got my ass beat for it.”

His mimosa glass almost topples from the tremble in his hand.

“Like you were out with him and you guys got jumped?”

If it were that simple, I don’t think it would’ve had such a crushing blow.

“As in we both worked in the same place, were hooking up for weeks.” Joey’s face falls, but I don’t get upset. I know it’s the same reaction I would have listening to stories about his sexual past. “One day we couldn’t wait to clock out and got a little carried away in the conference room. When we were interrupted, he turned on me and told the floor manager that I was hitting on him and he wanted to file a sexual harassment suit.”

“Umm,” Joey looks confused. “How could he blame it all on you if you guys were full on fucking?”

I shake my head. “We weren’t. It was a heated kiss, but I had him pinned to the wall. Besides, people see what they want to see.”

“So he beat you up then?”

“He waited until after work. He and a couple of guys from the hand-racket court helped him get it through my thick skull that just because a guy likes to get fucked in the ass doesn’t mean he’s gay.”

“He said that to you?”

I can’t help the chuckle that slips out. “No. The guys helping him thought I attacked him. Adding in the fact that they clearly hate homosexuals, they were all for a little gay bashing.”

“Jesus,” Joey mutters bringing both of his hands up to his mouth.

“So,” I pause, “I’m not worried about your friends knowing. They accept you and this is nowhere near that same situation, but if you want to know if I’m fearful of waving my gay pride flag around in public—”

“I understand,” he interjects. The compassion on his face is enough to kiss his soft lips, but I refrain.

“I am not afraid to be in a relationship with you, but I’m also not going to lie and say I want to scream it from the rooftops either.”

Resisting the urge to rub at the phantom pain at the back of my neck, I watch his face as it morphs from sadness to sympathetic and sensitive.

“So we’ll tell them.” I smile and nod my agreement. “But after we get back.”

“A compromise,” I say. “So we don’t ruin the trip.”

“Yes,” he agrees. “The no sex rule is sort of ruining the trip also.”

He jumps over three of my checkers.

“Which side are you arguing for? Are you saying it’s ruined either way?”

“No.” He takes another drink, this time fully aware I’m watching, he runs his tongue over the rim. “I think broken bones and a ship-wide search for your body would put a bigger damper on the trip than suffering from sex deprivation.”

“I don’t think his reaction will be that bad,” I argue. “Between dancing with you last night and all the hints Dave and Andi have been dropping, I think he’ll be more open to the idea when we tell him about it.”

“I don’t think he’ll hurt you either,” he agrees.

“Then why are we sitting here instead of talking to him about it?” I inch closer, placing my own hand on his leg this time. “We should just go tell him, and then I can give you a tour of my balcony. You can scream I’m Queen of the World with your arms out, all Titanic style while I fuck you from behind.”

“We can do that without getting Jon involved.”

Pulling my hand back, I use it to jump over one of his checkers. “No.”

“Something else is stopping you.”

Tilting his head, concentrating on the board game as if winning will solve world hunger, he avoids eye contact.

“Talk to me,” I urge.

“We might as well tell Jon.” I smile, extremely happy with hearing his acceptance. “Andi already knows what’s going on, so the exact thing I’ve been trying to avoid has already been set into motion.”

“What are you talking about?” I place a hand over his and curl my finger under his chin so he has to look me in the eyes. “Talk to me.”

The second request seems to work.

“Andi.” He sighs, and my hand moves to cup his cheek.

“What about her?”

“She’s obsessed with my brother.”

“He’s just as obsessed with her,” I confide. “Do you not want your friend hooking up with your brother because that double standard is a little—”

“I’d love to have Andi as a sister. Those two getting married would make me extremely happy.”

“Jon is never going to get married.” I haven’t known the guy for long, but nothing about him says he’s the marrying type.

“Exactly,” he huffs. “She’ll fall even harder, and he’ll toss her aside just like he’s done with every other girl before her.”

“I can see that getting messy,” I agree.

“And since she knows and Dave knows, it’s only a matter of time before our business becomes group business. I’d just like to avoid that while we’re on vacation.”

I press my lips to his temple. “We’ll wait until we get back home.”

“So you want to head to your room and fuck me on the balcony?” His grin is contagious.

“Not a chance.”

He frowns, and my cock threatens to revolt.