Page 51 of Overtime Goal
“Join me or stay here and let the old man win.”
In one long motion, he was out of his chair. “Race you.”
He took off like a shot, with me right behind him. We hit the water at full speed, splashing and laughing, and it was much colder than I expected. My lungs seized, and I looked around in time to catch him diving under a wave.
He surfaced in front of me, wet and grinning.
“I hate you,” I said.
“No, you don’t.”
He swam closer and flicked water on my face. I lunged at him, and we wrestled like kids, half-shoving, laughing too hard, and not caring who saw. When his hand landed low on my waist under the water, he didn’t move it right away. I gazed into his eyes, admiring how the sun brought out a lot of gold in the green. It was all I could do not to kiss him when he licked his lips, but I remembered the prowling paparazzi. I may have been out and proud, but Riley was far from being out as whatever he was.
We floated and swam until we were exhausted. Back at our chairs, we spread two more towels on the sand and dried off in the sun. Riley fell asleep with his mouth slightly open. His trunks had slipped low on his waist, not even covering the top of his pubes, and I snapped a picture I’d probably never delete.
Later, we shared a bag of sun-warmed cherries from the snack stand, tossing them in the air so the other could catch them in his mouth. They were very ripe and softened by the heat, so when one landed on Riley’s chest, it burst. I wiped it away with my finger.
“Logan…” His voice was low, and he angled his chin toward a nearby photographer.
“Just helping you stay clean.”
He kept his voice soft. “When we go back to the villa, you can clean me all over.”
That made my dick take notice, and I glanced down to be sure he saw. We laughed it off, but there was no missing the nervous energy bubbling underneath our chuckles.
When the crowd on the beach started thinning out, we changed and wandered through town. Golden sunlight striped the streets. The air was salty, touched with lemon, and thick with the scents of garlic and seafood from the restaurants around us. We ducked into a rental shop for Vespas, and I pretended to be skeptical. My reluctance disappeared when the clerk showed us pictures of her favorite route, one that wound through ancient cliffside towns with views of Mount Vesuvius.
After reserving a Vespa, we looked for a place to pick up food for dinner. “I want you in front of me on a scooter,” Riley said. “My arms around you while I grind my boner into your back.”
“Fuck, I’m in.” He really was going to drive me crazy, and I was apparently along for the ride.
In a small open-air market, I found steaks, pasta, and the makings of a salad, while Riley picked out snacks. Among his finds was a kilo of cherries. “We had so much fun with them on the beach,” he said. “Tonight, I want to feed them to you and see if the juice stains my dick when you suck me off.”
Like I said, he was driving me nuts.
At the register, I added a bag of espresso and a box of pastries for breakfast. On the way back to the villa, we passed a group of older women gossiping on a shaded bench. One of them winked at me, and another looked at Riley and made a kissing sound.
“She wants you,” I whispered.
“I think she wants you to feed me cherries so she can watch.”
I grinned as we made our way up the mountain, bags swinging between us, and our shoulders brushing whenever one of us could get the right angle. Though my legs ached from theincline, and my arms were sunburned, I didn’t want the day to end. The awkwardness from earlier had disappeared, smoothed out by swimming, bad jokes, and the simple joy of eating fruit on a beach with someone who made you laugh.
20/
riley
The next morning,we were sitting down to breakfast when my phone rang. It was on the nightstand in the bedroom, and since it was my agent’s ringtone, I ran through the French doors and scooped it up just in time.
Instead of saying hello, he snapped at me. “I assume you got there okay.”
“Yes, Frank.” Since he hadn’t wasted time on pleasantries, neither did I. “AndIassume this must be important if you’re bothering me on vacation.”
When he spoke again, he sounded friendlier. “It’s my job to look out for you. It’s four o’clock in the fucking morning here, so of course this is important.”
My mind was already on high alert because when Frank said he was looking out for me, it didn’t always feel like it. “What’s going on?”
“Only an excellent opportunity to up your reputation several notches, and it’ll even be easy.” He snickered. “Hell, you may have a lot of fun.”
