Chapter 40

Anthony

“Goddammit,” I mutter when Joey walks up, and with all the confidence in the world whips his shirt off right in front of everyone in the group.

It normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but the ache in my balls that has been ever-present since he left my room two hours ago, and the sight of my marks all over his body are going to make for a very long fucking day.

“What the fuck?” Jon hisses when he sees his brother.

“What?” he asks with a casual shrug as he sits in the sun lounger next to mine.

Fuck, I want to pull him on to my own chair just so our limbs can tangle and I can feel the scratch of his leg hair against mine.

“Who did that to you?” Jon continues.

“Who did you spend your evening with?” Joey snaps back, irritation clear on his face as Andi stiffens beside him.

Jon has enough wherewithal to look ashamed, eyes avoiding Andi before he speaks again.

“That’s none of your business,” he spits.

“Well,” Joey smirks up at his formidable brother. “That’s your answer then.”

“Not funny.”

“You’re not the only one with permission to get lucky on the cruise.” Joey points to Cooper who has yet another girl fawning all over him. “If you’re not going to grill Cooper, then you don’t get to question me.”

Just tell him, I urge in my head. It’s better than letting him think you hooked up with some random guy.

“Cooper isn’t my brother. He’s a manwhore, and I expect this from him,” Jon snaps.

“Hey,” Cooper interrupts, but I don’t know if it’s the not my brother declaration or the manwhore insult that is causing his offensiveness.

“Cooper fucks anything that walks,” Jon continues, not paying any attention to his friend. “You don’t just mess around.”

Covering my grin with one hand, I move my folded beach towel over my thickening cock. What is it about hearing that Joey isn’t one to sleep around that makes me want to fuck him in front of everyone to prove that he’s mine and mine alone? Knowing I have to settle with my marks on him for now, I turn my gaze away from them and watch the ocean. You don’t realize just how small you actually are until there’s nothing but blue seas for miles around you in every direction.

“True,” Joey agrees.

Keeping my eyes on the water doesn’t mean I’m not listening, but I’m not going to get in the middle of Jon’s self-righteousness. His behavior today is so misplaced, and I want nothing more than to remind him about the two chicks he shuffled to his room last night.

“You need to tell me who it was,” Jon insists again. “Whoever this asshole is needs a lesson on how to treat someone properly. Marking you up like a whore is childish.”

Bristling at his words, I shift the towel from my lap, intending to stand up and confront him.

Joey coughs, and I take it exactly as he intends. It’s a warning of sorts, a request to keep my cool and let him handle this.

“He did exactly what I wanted, and who he is, is none of your business.” The glint in Joey’s eyes is evidence enough that he’s not even slightly upset. If anything he is enjoying the hell out of this conversation with his brother.

“You should be treated with respect,” Jon says losing steam on his side of the argument.

“There wasn’t a respectful bone in my body last night,” Joey says, unable to leave well enough alone.

“But there was a bone in your body,” Andi says with a snicker.

“Knock it off,” Jon says but refuses to look at Andi.

“What?” she questions. “You can dish out the dirty talk, but you can’t take it?”

“We listen to you guys bragging all the time,” Joey adds. “I don’t see a problem with Andi and me chatting about our sex lives.”

“I don’t have a sex life,” Andi mutters.

“Damn right you don’t.”

Wrong thing to say, Jon, especially after last night.

“Excuse me?” Andi screeches.

“Nothing,” Jon snaps one final time before shoving his hands over his head.

“Hey there, handsome. Feeling better?”

“Oh fuck,” Joey snaps when one of the girls from last night walks right up to Jon and runs a seductive finger over his chest.

Not missing the shiver of irritation at her arrival, I’m surprised when he slides his arm around the girl’s back and smiles down at her. “Hey, baby.”

Andi is trembling with rage when Jon steers the girl away from our group to a couple of empty loungers halfway down the deck.

“Asshole,” Andi hisses before sliding her Jackie O sunglasses on her face and focusing on the water lapping at the hull of the ship.

“I’m sorry,” Joey whispers taking his friend’s hand and resting it on his thigh.

I could scream right now. It’s not his responsibility to apologize for his brother’s callous behavior. At the same time, I don’t think Jon should be forced to return Andi’s obsession if he isn’t interested. The biggest problem with all of this is that Jon’s attraction to Andi shines as bright as the Gulf of Mexico sun. On the other hand, I can also commend him for not giving into lust since he knows how he is, and acting on the sexual chemistry between them would only be detrimental to Joey’s friend.

“What are you thinking about?” Joey asks after a gentle nudge to my shoulder.

“Where’s Dave?” It’s the first thing I can think of because discussing Andi and Jon isn’t any of my business no matter how strong of an opinion I have.

“Food poisoning,” Cooper mutters as his fingers drift between the breasts of the girl on his lap.

The sight has me pulling the towel back over my lap. Not because the sight of messing around with a chick in public turns me on, but because it reminds of the way Joey teased every inch of my skin last night before sucking me dry.

“Every year,” Joey mutters. “You’d think he’d stop being so adventurous in what he eats since he spends the better part of a day puking and wishing he was dead.”

“We should go inside,” Cooper whispers to his conquest.

“Seriously?” Andi snaps. “Is that all you asshole guys think about? Can you not go a couple of hours without fucking some random chick?”

The girl in Cooper’s lap looks embarrassed at the outburst. Cooper just grins and shakes his head.

“Let’s play shuffleboard,” Joey says as a distraction before grabbing his friend’s hand.

Tugging on Andi’s arm, Joey plasters a fake smile on his face.

“That’s a great idea,” I add as I stand from my lounger.

Honestly, I have no fucking clue how to play the game, but I have the feeling that Joey is going to need all the help he can get in distracting his friend.

“I’m not playing shuffleboard,” Andi says as she jerks her arm from Joey’s grip. “You guys have a good time.”

“Are you sure?” Andi peels her sunglasses down her nose and looks past Joey in Jon’s direction.

“Have a good time,” she insists. “I’m going to work on my tan.”

“Okay.” Joey hangs his head in defeat before turning in Cooper’s direction. “Cooper? Shuffleboard?”

Cooper just laughs and waves us off.

Resisting the urge to take Joey’s hand and usher him to the top deck of the ship, I fall in line behind him as he leads the way. My hackles rise again when he pauses in front of his brother who is ignoring the girl in the lounger beside him. His attention is focused down the deck, and when I look back and see a fit guy in low hanging board shorts sit in Joey’s abandoned lounger, I want to grab him by the shoulders and shake the hell out of him. Alpha dominance is hot, but not when you’re combining it with a have your cake and eat it too approach.

“Mom would be disappointed in the way you’re acting,” Joey says, only pausing near his brother long enough to spew the words before he’s walking away.

“I’d love to meet your mother,” the ignorant girl beside him purrs as she tries to reach for his arm.

Chastened, Jon pulls away from her and storms off of the deck.

Fuck, this trip is going to shit without Joey and me making our disclosures. I can’t fucking wait to call it an early night so we can just disappear into my room and block the rest of the world out.

“You suck at this,” Joey says with a laugh. “Why did you even agree to play if you’ve never done this before?”

“Is it that obvious?” I ask with a grin. He smiles back at me and fuck if I don’t love having one hundred percent of his attention. “I agreed to play because I want to be where you are.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” I tell him and make another attempt to get the disk where I want it. I fail, again. “It was either this or dragging you back to my room like a guy who can’t go four hours without slipping his dick in something after seeing all the marks on you from that rude asshole who doesn’t know how to treat you right.”

“Is that so?”

Coy looks so good on this man.

“It must seriously be a guy thing because I was thinking the same exact thing as Copper when Andi went on her little tirade.”

“Nothing stopping us,” I offer, making a huge show of putting my cue back on the built-in rack.

“Just over ten hours we’ll be able to satisfy our urges,” he assures me.

“I don’t think I can wait that long. How about a quickie in your room to take the edge off?”

As if he’s seriously contemplating it, Joey taps his finger against his chin. “What about hand jobs in the bathroom before we grab lunch?”

“Fuck yeah.”

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten down two flights of stairs quicker in my life.