Page 30 of Burn It Down

Dylan

Pull. It. Together.

The mental reprimand is useless. I can’t stop staring. Jake’s skin is flawless, not a freckle or birthmark to be found. His chest, while not as thick as mine, is perfection. My mouth is watering so much, I might drown…onthe boat.

I only manage to pull my eyes off his frame after he breaks eye-contact first and goes back to getting his lifejacket on. I’m doing a fantastic job of making a fool of myself because it isn’t lost on me that when I admitted to being gay, he didn’t say,oh wow,me too.

So, I was right.

Jacob Ellington is straight and I’m left to ogle his beautiful body and suffer in silence. The pressure in my balls is almost too much to bear and the day has barely started. I havehoursleftof this torture.

Between that and the unfamiliar sensation of jealousy over the relational proximity these guys share with Jake, my head is spinning and we’ve been on the water all of ten minutes. As soon as Hudson’s hand connected with Jake’s ass, I wanted a turn. I wantedmyhand to be the last one there.Iwanted to feel thatsolid muscle beneath my itching palm becausefuck, he’d look good taking my cock.

Jake lowers himself into the water from the platform on the back of the boat and sends me a mock salute with two fingers as Hudson hands him the rope and Knox begins to pull away from him.

“You board?” Hudson asks me over the roar of the engine.

“Never tried.”

“You’re welcome to have a turn if you want. Jake can probably get you up. He’s the best at boarding out of all of us.”

Oh, he can get me up, alright.

“Uh, sure. Maybe. You guys do your thing first.”Because I can’t hide a hard-on in these swim trunks and the last thing I need is to embarrass myself further in front of the one guy who’s attempted to be my friend in the last ten months.

“Jakey, you good?” Knox yells to the gorgeous man in the water who flashes an “OK” sign above his head. Phoenix and Hudson come back into the main part of the boat and Knox turns around, facing forward and increasing the throttle. Phoenix is giving him a second pair of eyes out front while Hudson doesn’t take his eyes off Jake.

Neither do I.

Jake stands up effortlessly, shaking his head to the side to get the water out of his eyes. With one hand on the rope, he uses his other hand to wipe away the remaining water that was sprayed on his face during the boat’s quick acceleration. The confidence in the movement is so fucking hot. He’s not white-knuckling the rope or flailing around, he’s calm and steady as he bends down and makes small adjustments on his boots until he flashes one more “OK” sign.

Knox turns up the volume andLike a G6fills the speakers. At first, I laugh inwardly, thinking it’s an odd choice. But then, Iwatch in awe as Jake sails over the water, swinging from side to side on beat with the music.

My mouth is hanging open when Phoenix startles me by yelling next to my ear. “Fucking good, isn’t he?”

I nod, too awestruck to speak.

“Just wait. It gets better.” When I twist to look at Phoenix, I get a quick glimpse of his smirk before he flashes a signal at Jake who returns it. “Knox, flip him.”

“What does that mea…holyshit!” A second later, the boat banks into a sharp turn and Jake and the board come out of the water. He does a sideways flip and lands so smoothly it’s like he never went airborne at all, immediately continuing to wakeboard on beat with the music.

“Right? Fucker turns me on when he does that shit.” Phoenix laughs before going back up front.

You and me, both, I think to myself.

Knox doesn’t take his eyes off the water, but shouts to me over the engine, the wind, and the music. “We try to give him as much board time as possible. Might as well get comfortable.”

I could watch this all day even if the situation in my swim trunks is anything but comfortable.

I recline in the swivel chair next to Knox’s seat and face backwards so I can keep watching Jake. His smile lights his whole face as he twists his hips to steer the board. Despite it still only being a little after ten, the sun is heating up the day…and so is the man behind the boat.

In front of me, Hudson strips his shirt off and stuffs it in a cupholder so it doesn’t blow away. His physique is impressive, as is Phoenix’s, but it doesn’t elicit the same kind of response in me that Jake’s does.

I watch in awe, wonder, and full-blown lust as Knox swerves the boat in a tight zigzag pattern. Every time Jake gets slungback across the boat’s wake, he pops out of the water, flipping sideways, forward, and backward.

Lost in my thoughts, I’m brought back to the present when another club jam comes over the speakers. The heavy bass amplifies the pressure in my balls to a point that has me concerned I might lose one soon.

Jake stays on the board wreaking havoc on my self-control for another forty-five minutes until finally, he holds a fist in the air and Hudson shouts, “Bring him in.”

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