Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
He started to look away but then did a double take. His eyes met mine and held. A frown of confusion furrowed his forehead, and his lips parted slightly.
A wave hit the side of the boat, causing it to roll. The sudden movement surprised Oscar, and he teetered for a moment on the edge of the bow before pitching overboard.
He landed in the shallow water with a very inelegant and ungraceful splash.
I shoved my camera at Brant and lunged toward the ocean. I was the closest, so I reached him first, but Oscar had already dragged himself upright, sputtering seawater. I grabbed his arms to steady him. “Are you okay?”
He was drenched, rivulets of water cutting across his sculpted cheekbones. “You’re… here,” he said simply.
I couldn’t find any words to reply.
For a small sliver of time, the world froze around us. My stomach flipped as memories from the night we spent together churned through my head. The way I’d tried to memorize the warm scent of him. How I’d trailed my lips down the center of his sleeping back before silently telling him goodbye and slipping out of the hotel room.
And here he was again, a mere breath away. Close enough to pull him toward me, to touch my mouth to his, to feel him against me—
The moment was broken by Roman as he splashed toward us. “Nice of you to show up, Oscar,” he called, laughter in his voice. “Only you’d make an entrance like that.”
Oscar’s eyes lingered on mine a beat longer. His expression was unguarded yet impossible to read. Was he overjoyed to see me? Terrified that we were inadvertently breaking the rules when we’d already slipped so much this week? Too overwhelmed by desire to care? Or was it just me who felt like he’d stepped onto an unexpected emotional roller coaster?
Roman said something else, and Oscar blinked, shaking his head slightly as though coming awake after a long sleep. He planted a smile on his face and turned to the groom. “I couldn’t let a little traffic get in the way! Who’d give the best man speech if I weren’t here?”
“You’re the best man,” I said numbly.
It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact. Because as the shock of seeing Oscar again receded slightly, I realized that I’d known Oscar was going to be Roman’s best man—hadn’t he told me so that night at the bar when we’d drunk champagne and I’d let myself believe a single night with Oscar could possibly be enough?—and I’d known, as of this morning, that this was Roman and Scotty’s wedding. But somehow, through cognitive dissonance or distraction or willful ignorance, I’d failed to put these fragments of information together and arrive at the truth…
That after months of being oh-so careful, Oscar and I were in the same place at the same time again. For an entire weekend.
Roman planted a hand on Oscar’s shoulder and smiled at me. “He sure is. You wouldn’t believe the number of times this man has saved my ass over the years.” He looked back and forth between us. “I take it you two know each other?”
Oscar and I exchanged a glance, and I thought about the way I’d jerked him off in his hotel room as I ground my cock against his ass. I coughed, clearing my throat. “You could say that.”
“Ahhhh.” Roman laughed. “I shouldn’t be surprised. Oscar knows everyone. Just be careful, he’s a heartbreaker.”
Oscar’s smile tightened. “I wouldn’t say that. After all, your heart recovered just fine. Now, where’s that groom of yours? I need to congratulate him.”
They started toward the beach and were quickly swallowed by the crowd of wedding guests waiting to say hello. I watched them for a moment, unable to look away from the way Oscar’s wet shirt clung to his shoulders. I barely even noticed that my own clothes were sopping wet.
“You okay?”
Brant stood next to me, holding out my camera. I’d forgotten I’d shoved it at him. “Oh, yeah. Fine.” Even I could hear how unconvincing my voice was.
“Why don’t you call it a night?” Brant offered. “You had a long drive today, and now that Karlie and the baby have gone in for the night, I’ve got it covered.”
I was torn, wanting both to escape the beach and put distance between me and Oscar but conversely wanting to stay as close to him as possible.
I glanced once more at Oscar. As I watched, he threw his head back and laughed, and I stared, transfixed. I could practically feel my own features softening as I vicariously soaked in his happiness… which was a pretty fucking ineffective way to show Oscar how cool I was with being just friends.
Hell, I was having a really hard time convincing myself.
The smart, rational choice would be to escape while I could.