Page 34 of The Seascape Between Us

“I can take care of me.” I opened my pants and pushed my underwear down, freeing my erection, hard and straining until it ached.

Daniel’s gaze darkened as I took myself in hand and began stroking. He pushed up onto his elbows, maybe to see better, while my hand flew up and down my length. I knew it wouldn’ttake long. It had been a while since I’d been with anyone, and having Daniel like this drove me half out of my mind.

His dark, hazy gaze locked with mine at the same time my balls tightened. Streams of cum splashed across his stomach and chest, marking him as mine. A few stray drops struck his chin and his tongue darted out, catching them.

Mine.

Spent, I sagged forward, breathing hard. After a minute or so, I felt Daniel shift beneath me as if he meant to get up. I lifted my head. “Are you okay?”

He chuckled softly. “More than. I just need to…” He gestured to my cum already drying on his skin.

“Relax.” I stood from the bed, my legs rubbery under my weight, and grabbed his towel from down on the floor. “Here.” Carefully, I wiped up the mess I’d made. “Was this okay?”

He grinned. “Um… Yeah. It was amazing.” A faint frown clouded his sleepy expression. “Didn’t you think so?”

I kissed him, slower this time, without the desperation from earlier, but no less hungry. “Yeah, I thought so. Better than I remembered.”

It had always been amazing between us. Even that first time together, fumbling and awkward, jerking each other off in one of the hotel room showers, fighting to keep our voices low, so no one would catch us. It had still been hot.

I collected the dirty towel and Daniel’s clothes, then took them to the laundry room. There was nothing to wash the clothes with, and I hadn’t thought to ask Carter to pick up laundry soap. If we were going to be staying here for the next few days, I’d have to make a list of everything we needed, then stop at the store when I went to pick up mine and Daniels’s things tomorrow.

When I got back to the room, Daniel was lying on his back, his eyes closed, his good arm over his head. Soft rhythmic breaths escaped from his slightly parted lips. He finally slept.

It would be so easy to fall for him again. Those feelings I convinced myself were long dead hadn’t gone anywhere. They were still buried inside me, like I'd stored them all away in a glass box where they had remained dormant until I’d come into contact with Daniel again.

While his chest rose and fell with sleep, finally having claimed him, I gave into the urge and gently brushed his hair back from his forehead.

Chapter Thirteen

Grey

I’m not sure how long I stood next to the bed while Daniel slept. Probably long enough that it would have been creepy if Daniel had woken up and found me there, but I couldn’t make myself turn away. A part of me was terrified that if I looked away, he would disappear from my life all over again.

In sleep, Daniel’s face softened, making him look younger, closer to the man I remembered. A strange ache gripped my chest, and I finally forced myself to turn away. After all, I couldn’t stand there all night—tempting as it was.

I slipped out of the bedroom and quietly closed the door behind me, wandering through the dining room into the living room, uncertain what to do with myself now that Daniel was sleeping. Once again, I wished I’d thought to have Carter grab my laptop when he’d brought over the bedding and towels. I supposed I could have sent him a text and asked him to bring it over now.

After I slipped my phone from my pants pocket, I changed my mind. It was past seven. Carter would have left by now, and June would have taken his place. Quite frankly, the woman terrified me. I’d only met her once, and since then, I made a point of avoiding her.

Daniel’s night manager, who had been working for the hotel back when Ramona had still been running the place, had been very clear since my arrival that she wasTeam Daniel. To be fair, so was the rest of the staff—even Alistair—but only June had threatened my testicles with a blender if I did anything to screw Daniel over.

Intellectually, I knew she wasn’t serious, of course, but that faint smirk twisting her thin mouth, lifting her wrinkled cheeks left me less than convinced her threats were idle.

I could wait until tomorrow when I went back to the hotel for mine and Daniel’s things to grab my laptop. In the meantime, I’m sure I could find something to fill my time until Daniel woke up and I ordered food.

In the living room, I stood at the front window, watching the sun sink into the ocean and casting a soft rose-gold glow over The Square. A lot had changed in the years I’d been away, but enough had stayed the same so that I could almost convince myself, back in my father’s house, that I’d stepped back in time. That I was twenty years old again, and despite all the family turmoil in my life, I didn’t give a shit; I was in love, and the future was stretched out like a gleaming, golden road.

Of course, all I had to do was look down at my rumpled pants and shirt that I wouldn’t have been caught dead in at twenty, acknowledge the twinge in my lower back from the Seascape’s uncomfortable hotel bed and I felt every one of my thirty-seven years.

I backed away from the window and dropped onto the sofa. Man, it was strange being back here after so long, especially withDaniel asleep in my father’s bed, considering how everything had ended when I’d last stayed here.

To say my father hadn’t been a fan of Daniel’s would have been an understatement. My father had not liked when I’d first started seeing him, and he sure as hell didn’t like it when Daniel and I had started to get serious, and I’d wanted to transfer to the university in Saltwater Cove.

“He’s a nice enough kid, but he’s going nowhere. He’ll drag you down with him,” my father had said the first time I brought it up. He’d even warned me about Daniel and Ryan, that he’d seen them together and they’d looked like a hell of a lot more than just friends.

I’d told him he was wrong, that he must have misunderstood. But the truth was, his every word had been like thin, sharp darts to my chest. I’d already started having my own doubts about Daniel’sfriend, Ryan—their quiet conversations, the way Ryan would sometimes grip Daniel’s shoulder or rub his back. Then I’d finally seen them together, and I’d had to admit my father was right.

With all that in mind, I couldn’t figure out why my father would have invested in Daniel’s hotel as a silent partner years later, or how Daniel would be the last person to see my father alive, since Daniel was the only person my father saw regularly after Sean passed away.

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