Starfish and Coffee (20 page)

Matt rolled his eyes. “Oh, nice.”

“Please.” Alex amended, his smile still firmly in place as he admired the way Matt looked in nothing but a pair of tight black underwear.

Matt was so very tan now, making his light eyes even more vibrant. His thick muscles were also more defined after months of diving with Alex. Despite the cold waters, the two of them just wore wetsuits to get back to that perfect day out on the ocean, and they found it every single time. Even when they were forced to drag friends along, just being together in the water made life good.

Alex lifted his gaze, staring at the large marlin mounted on the wall over the bed. Matt had paid to have it done and gifted it to Alex, but this was where Alex wanted it to be, above the place where they connected and loved each other.

“Say it again.”

“Huh.” Alex looked down once more, finding a devious smile tugging at Matt’s lips.

“Beg for my mouth,” Matt clarified.

“Pretty please,” Alex said without hesitation. He
loved
Matt’s mouth. “Suck my dick like the gorgeous cock whore you are.”

Matt sat up and studied Alex’s naked body as if considering the proposition. Then he eyed Alex’s cock that got harder by the second. “I don’t think I’m fully convinced.”

Alex took a step forward on the bed and reached down, tangling his fingers in Matt’s hair. It had grown longer over the past several months. He forced Matt’s head forward until his face was pressed against Alex’s thigh.

“You know you want it,” Alex taunted. “So take it. Worship it. Be a slut for me.”

Matt’s hands ran up Alex’s legs until he was palming both Alex’s ass cheeks. He ran his lips up his thigh until they were pressed against Alex’s balls. He cupped the sac, licking underneath them.

“Tease,” Alex whispered, his voice heavy with desire.

Matt answered him by licking up to the curve of Alex’s hip. He nipped at Alex’s hip bone as his fingers caressed the sensitive patch of skin between Alex’s balls and ass, making him spread his legs in a primitive need for more. With one hand still holding tight to Matt’s hair, Alex’s other hand flattened against the ceiling, using it as leverage to thrust his hips forward. He brought Matt’s face back to his crotch, but his mouth wasn’t open like it should be.

“Really, you’re driving me crazy,” Alex ground out when Matt didn’t get the point. “Open your mouth and suck it.”

“I’m worshipping you.” Warm breath brushed against Alex’s steely cock. “Stop acting like we’re running out of time. Let’s pretend we have forever.”

Alex’s stomach clenched, and his fingers loosened their tight hold on Matt’s hair as he looked down at him in surprise. “But—”

Alex choked when Matt chose that moment to wrap his lips around the head of Alex’s cock. He pushed his hips forward, and let his head fall back as he savored the warm, wet heat of Matt’s mouth.

The blowjob never became more than a slow, sensuous reverence of Alex’s dick. He stood there, letting Matt suck him until his legs were shaking, and his arm ached as he curled his fingers against the ceiling. His chest heaved from the onslaught of pleasure, and his balls started to hurt with the need for something harder, faster—tighter.

Alex wrenched Matt’s head back from his dick, then fell to his knees in front of him. Starved and wound tight, he fisted Matt’s hair once more, only this time it was to bring Matt’s lips to his.

They kissed until they were both winded with desire. Alex ended up over Matt, the two of them arching and straining against each other on the bed. Matt managed to kick his underwear off without breaking the connection of their mouths and the hot, sensuous brush of tongue against tongue.

They angled their hips so their cocks rubbed against each other, but it wasn’t enough. Matt tossed his head back against the pillow and panted, “Fuck me.”

Alex couldn’t help but grin even if he was desperate to come. He cupped Matt’s face, forcing him to meet Alex’s gaze as he said, “Beg me for it.”

Alex expected Matt to tell him off, but he just moaned and arched into him. “Please.”

The rocket fire of lust that went to Alex’s dick was almost blinding. He released Matt to reach over to the nightstand to grab the lube and condoms already there waiting for him because Matt and Alex knew this was going to happen the second the last guest left.

“I wanna watch you as I fuck you,” Alex said anxiously as he fell back on his haunches to deal with the condom and lube. “I wanna see you loving it.”

Matt scooted back and spread his legs, opening himself to Alex, and the sight nearly had Alex coming right there. He fell over Matt, desperate to be near him again, loving the feeling of their naked bodies pressed together. He reached down, using his lube-slicked fingers to loosen Matt’s hole, pushing them in and then stretching him while Matt hissed past the burn and opened wider to the onslaught.

“Good?”

Matt nodded, panting as Alex found his gland. “Oh yeah.”

“Want more?”

“Fuck, yes.” Matt arched into the thrust of Alex’s fingers, then grunted. “Shit, Lexie. Will you do it already?”

“Always so bossy,” Alex said with a breathless laugh, but he needed it as badly as Matt, so he wasn’t complaining. He pulled his fingers away and hooked one of Matt’s legs under his arm, opening him wide as he shifted his hips until his cock was brushing against Matt’s ass. “Now it’s my turn to worship you.”

Matt’s head was tossed back against the pillow, his black hair falling over eyes squeezed tight in anticipation. Alex’s heart nearly burst in his chest from how deeply he cared for this man.

He pushed into Matt, feeling overwhelmed on every level. When he was completely buried in Matt’s tight heat, Alex surged forward and kissed Matt with every ounce of emotion that’d been welling up in him.

“I love you.” Alex breathed into his mouth. “Love you so fucking much, Matty.”

“Love you too.” Matt cupped Alex’s face and stroked his hair as they shared the same breath. “Forever, Lex. We’re gonna make it work. I promise.”

Alex leaned down and buried his face in the curve of Matt’s neck as tears stung his eyes, and he realized what he’d told Holly months earlier was a total lie.

It counted.

* * * *

Maybe it was because of how they fell in love, but Matt never got tired of watching Alex cook. Even if the two of them still worked at Frank’s, the sight of Alex dominating a stove was unendingly sexy to him.

Almost as sexy as Alex in the ocean, but not quite.

The house was still in ruins after the party, but Alex had crawled out of bed an hour before Matt and cleaned the kitchen. All the glass doors to the back were open, letting in the sea breeze that was the perfect temperature this morning.

Classic rock played over the radio mounted on the wall by the refrigerator, and Alex stood there in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs cooking eggs and bacon. Not a stellar breakfast for Matt who had a long history of heart disease in his family, but today he was feeling invincible.

Bring on the fat and cholesterol. He’d work it off later.

“Running on the beach?” Matt dumped an armful of beer bottles into the large garbage can he’d dragged from the garage to help with the disaster. “Or the gym?”

“Running,” Alex said decisively. “God, I love spring on the island. Even if the water’s not warm yet, who gives a fuck? It’ll be in the seventies all day and not a cloud in the sky. I plan to camp out on the beach until the stars come up. Then I’m going to light a fire and sit there until I pass out in the sand. I love days off.”

“Sounds fun to me.”

“That’s why I love you.” Alex tossed a grin over his shoulder. “You’re gonna miss all this when you’re gone, which is more than I can say for my brother. He won’t even look back once he gets to New York. Traitor.”

Matt walked up to him and wrapped his arms around Alex. He rested his cheek on Alex’s shoulder and just held him. Skin to skin, the two of them stood there in their underwear as “Hotel California” echoed off the kitchen tiles.

“What happened to forever?” Matt asked as he squeezed Alex tighter.

Alex took his time to flip the strips of bacon, then craned his neck to look at Matt. “Is that your way of asking me to go with you to Atlanta?”

“Do you want to go to Atlanta?” Matt probed curiously, posing the same question to Alex that he had to Holly. “Is that something you really want for yourself?”

“I’d go for you,” Alex said without hesitation. “You’re better than the beach on a spring day, Matty.”

Matt laughed. “That’s saying something.”

“It is,” Alex agreed as he squeezed Matt’s hand on his stomach for one brief moment and then went back to cooking. “I love you.”

Atlanta was a life sentence of stress and unhappiness for Matt. Why on earth would he drag Alex down with him? He wanted to keep Alex on this island forever because he belonged here. He was a god in Mirabella, and that’s exactly how Matt liked him. Alex was so golden in his element he made Matt feel golden too.

Quitting his job and staying on the island was a no-brainer.

Now all he had to do was face the nightmare of coming out. Then he could pull Alex away from the shithouse that was Frank’s café, and they could make a real life together. They could start their own boat chartering business, if that was something Alex thought he wanted to do now so much time had passed since losing his parents, or they could just enjoy being together for the rest of their days and live the life other Tarringtons before Matt never got the chance to live.

But he didn’t explain that yet. All he did was press his lips to Alex’s back once more. “I love you too.”

It was a simple statement, one he’d said hundreds of times before to Alex, but this time it had a life-changing impact. A stunned gasp had both of them turning around in shock.

Matt gaped at his mother standing behind them wearing a pale-pink Versace pantsuit and clutching her Louis Vuitton purse with white knuckles as she stood stock-still, staring at them with wide, stunned eyes.

“What’re you doing in my kitchen?” Matt snapped as the shock of being discovered and rush of fear made his voice a low growl of fury. “This is my house. You call before you show up.”

“We’re doing tea at the club with the Hastings at two. You said we’d go early,” she whispered in a stunned voice, her gaze darting back and forth between Matt and Alex wildly as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She finally let out a little sob of raw horror. “What is this?”

“Okay.” Matt walked up to his mother and gently grabbed her arm, forcing her to follow him. “We’re not going to have this fight right now.”

“You said you loved him,” she said wildly, her voice rising in octaves as the panic clearly set in. “That sea urchin!”

“Yes, that one,” Matt agreed, still ushering her out of the kitchen and toward the doors. “And I
do
love him.”

“B-but,” she stuttered, her heels clicking against the tiles so loudly it was amazing they hadn’t heard her come in. “He’s a man!”

“He’s poor too.” Matt opened the front door. He looked down the driveway, finding his mother’s Rolls Royce parked on the street and waved to her driver Charlie. “Good-bye, Mama. I’ll call you later.”

“You’re indecent.” Her gaze darted down quickly to make her point as if Matt had forgotten he was standing at the front door in his underwear. “That boy has made you into a hedonistic pervert!”

Matt snorted, because his mother was nothing if not creative with her insults. “Maybe I’m the one who corrupted him,” he suggested.

“You were
normal
before you started spending all your time with him!” She shrieked loud enough that her voice would have easily carried back to the kitchen where they’d left Alex. “This is a sin! Do you hear me, Matthew? He’s sending you straight to hell!”

Matt actually recoiled from the strength of her vehemence. He’d been dealing with his mother’s hysterics since the day he entered the world, but he’d never felt such unadulterated hatred spew out of her before. It was so powerful the air was thick with it, making him feel like it was sticking to him. He had the sudden urge to get into the shower and scrub his skin raw just to get it off.

“Get out,” Matt said through gritted teeth as he stood there shaking in fury. “And you can
stay out
, Mama. There’s no reason why I need you in my life. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

He closed the door before she could respond. He flipped the lock and stood back breathing heavily, looking at the etched glass like it’d reach out and burn him.

As if hearing his thoughts, his mother hit the door with her purse, screeching, “You will end this! You will not ruin me for that sea urchin!”

Matt’s mouth dropped open as he searched for words to stop the onslaught of hate the woman who gave birth to him wasn’t just directing toward him, but at the person he loved more than anyone in the world.

“What you’re doing is a crime against nature and God, and I will not let it go on! I’ll end it! I WILL END IT!”

Matt took another step back, looking to Alex who’d come out of the kitchen and was gazing at the front doors with the same abject horror Matt felt.

“Your daddy is rolling over in his grave, Matthew Justin Tarrington! ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE!”

Matt narrowed his eyes at that and stepped forward to flip the lock as Alex shouted, “Don’t!”

He jerked the door open and stepped out into the sunshine to tower over his mama, as the boiling rage at twenty-two years of her mental abuse surged through his system.

“The only reason he’s in a grave is because of you!” Matt leaned down to meet her gaze dead-on. “It wasn’t the job or a bad heart that killed him.
It was you!
He’d rather be dead than stay married to a bitch like you!”

She sucked in a startled gasp and clutched her chest as tears filled her eyes. “Matthew!”

“Two can play this game,” Matt said with an unyielding threat ringing in his voice. “And I promise you, if you decide to stay on this doorstep, I’m going to say things that’ll give you nightmares. I’ve got a fuckload of anger issues to unleash.”

“I’ve never done anything to you,” she whispered, her voice quivering.