Page 11 of Only One Beach House

“Cas!” Nolan’s voice is muffled by the bathroom door and the rush of the shower spray.

“In here,” I call, tilting my head back to rinse the shampoo out of my hair.

The bathroom door rattles and then bangs against the wall, letting in a rush of cool air that cuts through the steam.

“Cas,” he says again breathlessly, jerking back the shower curtain.

He just got out of bed, his hair is still mussed from sleep, and he’s dressed in only the pair of boxer briefs he fell asleep in last night. My cock swells immediately at the sight of him. I swear, it’s a Pavlovian response at this point. I can’t even look at him without wanting to kiss him and touch him. Six weeks of sharing a bed and spending nearly every second together and the craving I have for him just keeps getting worse. We’re halfway through the summer, but it’s starting to feel like it’s never going to be enough time.

“Come on in, the water’s fine,” I say with a grin.

“Cas,” he says breathlessly again, smiling from ear to ear. “I got an interview.”

“Fuck yeah,” I cheer. “I knew you could do it. Where is it?”

“It’s barely anything.” He waves his hand dismissively, but the smile on his face doesn’t slip an inch. “It’s a few guys with some rented office space in Portland working on a game idea. It’s a stretch to even call them Indie developers at this point, but holy shit, it’s an interview. They loved my portfolio, and they want to do a video interview first. If that goes well, they’ll fly me out to Portland to talk more about the game and see if we’re a good fit.” He rushes through all the information breathlessly.

“That’snotnothing. That’s fucking amazing,” I growl, reaching out and looping an arm around his waist to drag him into the shower with me.

The curtain falls closed behind him and he laughs against my lips as I tug his sopping wet briefs down and chuck them blindly aside. If this doesn’t deserve a celebratory shower handjob, I don’t know what does.

Nolan moans against my lips and I murmur praise, telling him how fucking proud I am of him until he falls apart in my arms.

*******

Two weeks after his video interview with the game developer, Nolan wakes me up before sunrise with soft kisses on my lips.

“Sorry. You looked so peaceful, and I almost decided not to wake you, but I just couldn’t leave without a good luck kiss.” He pecks my lips again and I slip a hand under his t-shirt to feel his warm, smooth skin.

“Good. I would have been fucking heartbroken if you’d left without a kiss.” I’d love to say that the rasp in my voice is from sleep, but it’s so much more than that. I know that whatever happens with this interview, he’s still going to come back here after. They told him they have several candidates and not to expect an offer on the spot. He’s chewed his lips raw from worrythe past few days, but I’m not sweating it. He’s going to blow them away.

“I’ll be back in, like, thirty-six hours. I’m sure you can survive without me that long,” he murmurs with a laugh, nuzzling his nose against mine.

“Hmm… undetermined.” I’m sure his ride to the airport is waiting outside, but I refuse to rush through our goodbye, kissing him slow and deep until the knots in my chest start to loosen. “You’ve got this, Nols. You’re going to knock this out of the park.”

He grins against my lips. “I’m going to borrow some of that cocky confidence of yours for this interview.”

“Do it. Just be sure you bring it back here afterward.”

“Promise.” He kisses me one more time and then climbs out of bed. I blink in the dim pre-dawn light, my heart swelling and beating harder as I look up at him. He looks right back at me with that light in his eyes that makes me sure he’s feeling what I’m feeling.

“I—” he starts to say, then stops and clears his throat. “I’ll see you soon.”

It’s not what I thought he was going to say, but I’ll take it.

“Hurry home.” I add the lightness of a tease to the words, but I’ve never meant anything more. I want to be Nolan’s home, even after the summer is over. But I’m not going to lay that on him on his way out the door.

“I will.”

Chapter 6

NOLAN

I’m buzzing with excited energy as I hurry up to my hotel room after my interview. It’s nothing fancy, barely a step-up from a grungy motel, but the fact that this tiny start-up game developer paid for it just to talk tomeis still blowing my mind.

The past two months have been a whirlwind—this whole thing with Caspian, taking a blind leap into a new career path. I feel like I’ve barely had a second to breathe. I toe off my shoes and cross the small room to flop down on the bed, a smile etched on my face from the day I just had.

Leaving the beach house early this morning was so much harder than I expected it to be. Or maybe it was having to leave Caspian all warm and sleepy in bed that was actually the hard part. For a second, I almost said, “Fuck it” and just stayed. If this had been an interview for a data analysis job, I might have. But I don’t think he would have let me blow this one off just to stay home and kiss him all day, even if I’d wanted to.

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