The Honeymoon Gambit (Catalina Dreams Book 2), page 9
Todd…
“Look at you,” Todd whispered. “God, you’re beautiful. You always are, but like this…”
No. Eric almost said the word. But he held back, biting hard on his lip. The words were like caresses to his insides. They made him feel turned inside out and he trembled to hear them.
“I’m sorry,” Todd mumbled. “I don’t mean to… Don’t worry about it. I’ll make you feel so good.”
Eric forced himself to open his eyes, his vision blurred by a tear or two. He looked down and saw Todd staring at him just as he ducked his head and-
“Oh!” Eric cried out. He was lucky he didn’t buck or kick Todd in the face. It took all his focus—as a drop of sweat slid down the center of his chest—to stay still and bask in the sensation of Todd’s mouth on his cock just before a pair of soft pink lips wrapped around him.
Todd Ellis sucked Eric off the same way he sold clients on a pitch, as if he were showing off and confident in his talents, and as if he had absolutely no doubt that he was brilliant. He did this brilliantly too. Because Eric had felt himself about to come the second Todd’s mouth touched him, which would have been mortifying. Instead, that about-to-come sensation lingered and intensified as Todd sucked in his cheeks, humming around him, his eyes fixed on Eric, demanding his attention.
Eric thought he’d had decent sex before because, most of the time, it felt pretty good.
But the entire universe now revolved around his cock as Todd gripped his hips and quickened his pace, drooling around him. Eric yelled, and he arched his hips, feeling half-possessed as he bucked up and fucked into Todd’s throat. Todd groaned around him, encouraging him. The fact that Todd liked that was what threw Eric over the edge. He had no warning. All at once every point of pleasure fizzed, electrified, and Eric pulsed, Todd’s fingers digging into his hips as he swallowed him down.
He heard horribly embarrassing sounds jumping out of him as he jerked and rode the waves of sensation until he began to come down again. All the while, Todd stared at him, as if cataloging every moment in his mind.
Todd was sweet, letting off of him with a soft smack of his lips and tucking him back in his boxer briefs while Eric lay there, catching his breath. He coughed and mumbled something about a glass of water and patted Eric’s thigh before climbing out of bed.
Eric stared at the ceiling, still drifting back down to earth from euphoria as he wondered how he was supposed to go on with his life without being sure this would happen again.
10
Todd
Todd was in the golden world; the pleasant haze between sweet and wakefulness. It was a fragile place. The slightest move and you’d be ripped right into the terrible real world; the one where Eric was still too far away and where he could no longer pretend he didn’t care about that.
But in the golden world, he was sleeping on a cloud with two strong arms wrapped around him. It wasn’t something he’d realized he badly wanted, but now that he had it, he hoped it wouldn’t end. Forget clients, pitches, ambition. None of it mattered, because a man was holding him and the man smelled like Eric’s cologne.
His dreamy mind imagined it was Eric. He was at home, in bed, and Eric was holding him…
When “Africa” by Toto started blasting in his ear, Todd yelped and jerked in the sheets before falling off the bed.
Hitting the floor brought him kicking and screaming from the golden world and he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as Toto continued to croon tinnily.
“What the hell…” Todd’s throat was phlegmy. He coughed as he stumbled to his feet.
It was Eric’s phone blasting his morning alarm. Todd raised an eyebrow, picking his phone up off the nightstand. He tapped the snooze button and blinked at Eric who frowned in his sleep, his eyebrows turning down as his arms searched for the body he’d held. But somehow, he did not wake. Instead, he rolled over and stuck his tousled head under a pillow.
He reminded himself to tease Eric about his choice of alarm later. It was so unlike him.
Todd snorted and left him to sleep as, all at once, every memory returned.
HE’D GIVEN ERIC A BLOW-JOB.
Todd clapped a hand to his mouth, his cheeks burning as it all came flooding back. Yet he smiled into his fingers as he headed off to the bathroom to piss and shower.
“Holy shit.” He rubbed his eyes, chuckling to himself. His jaw was still a little tight. If he concentrated, he could still taste Eric’s salty cum on his lips, feel that firm, pink cock in his mouth, and feel the tickle of Eric’s pubes at his nose.
He’d lucked out, and he knew it. He’d fantasized about blowing Eric (doing anything with Eric) forever. He’d just stumbled on the guy with a dream-induced hard-on. It wasn’t likely to happen again, and he’d have to just suck it up and remember the incident fondly.
In the bathroom, Todd pissed, turned on the hot water in the big glassed-in shower, and took off all his clothes. He saw his naked body in the giant mirrors behind the dual sinks and sighed; a little too much hair, way too much softness, the roll in his stomach, the thickness of his thighs…
Meanwhile, Eric’s body was sculpted and flawless. He shouldn’t care. In his better moments, he felt confident about himself. But it wasn’t easy around Eric, and Putnam’s comments hadn’t helped.
Todd curled a lip at his own body and stepped into the shower.
The Gigis wanted to brunch later in the morning and go snorkeling. That meant wearing trunks in front of not just one but four men who were much more fit than him, including Eric. He wondered if he could get out of it without disappointing the Gigis? Surely, if he said he needed to work on the pitch, he could get away with it. It wouldn’t be a lie necessarily. He had more work to do now that he’d expanded the theme. He also had (by his own metric) plenty of time to do it before their presentation.
Todd managed to wash his hair and most of his body before he started thinking about the blow-job again.
The sight of Eric, helpless and undone on the bed, had engraved itself in his memory.
He conditioned his hair before he finally slumped against the shower wall and reached down to stroke his thickening cock with a soaped hand.
The sounds Eric had made…
The intensity of his gaze when he looked in Todd’s eyes…
The way every inch of him had been so alive, locked into the moment. He had been a live wire wherever Todd touched him.
“Fuck,” Todd whispered as the water sluiced down his chest and his hand stroked harder, faster, chasing bliss.
Eric had come in his mouth. In his mouth! He’d only been thankful that Eric didn’t reflexively pull out to come. Tasting him had sent Todd straight to the bathroom to jerk off alone, which seemed silly in hindsight.
“Ah!” Todd opened his mouth and moaned, coming over his fist in the shower.
Eric was in the bathroom.
The shower was mainly glass. Todd was coming and there was Eric in his boxer briefs, standing in the middle of the bathroom, frozen and wide-eyed. Todd gasped and his orgasm intensified just as Eric turned on his heel and abruptly left the room.
“W-wait... ugh…”
It was easy to forget, after having Eric’s dick in his mouth, how good the guy was at pretending everything was normal when it emphatically wasn’t.
Todd took his time in the bathroom. He brushed and flossed and tried some complimentary moisturizer and finally brought himself to leave the bathroom, a towel fixed high on his waist.
“I made coffee,” Eric said. He leaned on the counter, already holding a mug. He tossed Todd a casual nod as if he hadn’t just seen him come.
Todd froze in the middle of the suite and blinked at him. “Okay…”
“I think we’re going to that brunch place around ten, so we still have about an hour,” Eric reported. He set down his mug. He was still only wearing his boxer briefs, the very same ones he’d worn when Todd sucked him off.
Every little thing felt so significant.
But apparently not to Eric, who brushed past him on the way to the bathroom and said, “Just be a minute.”
Okay.
The rest of the morning passed as if nothing had happened.
“Do you think you’re ready for the presentation?” Eric wore a peach-colored polo shirt and shorts. His hair was perfect. He was reading from his iPad as he sipped his coffee.
Todd sat as far from Eric on the couch as it was possible to get. He was restless, futzing around on his phone, and trying not to think about wearing nothing but his trunks in front of everyone later. Sure, Eric had just seen him naked. But he had to think the shock of seeing him jerking off had drawn more attention than the unfortunate nudity.
“Almost,” Todd said, frowning down at his phone. “Just need to put together the visuals and design of the ads. It’ll be a little rough, but I think that’s expected on such short notice.”
“Hmm.” Eric’s mouth was a perfect line like usual. But abruptly he got to his feet and said, “I’ll just be a minute.”
He went to the bathroom.
He was gone a long time.
But that at least let Todd unclench. He sighed and sat back on the couch.
The buzz of his phone made him jerk. He growled and glanced down at the text that flashed on his screen.
It was something from Alphonso.
Would you be willing to work with Stackler? I get the impression you don’t love working together.
“Bwuh!” Todd blurted in surprise, sitting forward.
Immediately, adrenaline rushed through him and his fingers shook as he typed a reply.
I’m a pro. I can work with anyone. But why are you asking?
He stared at the desk, forcing himself to think before he sent it. He wanted to say he absolutely would not work with Stackler, but that would probably be unhelpful even to Eric.
We just want to consider our options. We like J&L a lot, confident in your pitch from what we’ve heard. Just not sure about acc. mgmt yet.
“Motherfucker,” Todd said aloud.
Stackler had clearly worked on Jackson and Alphonso when Todd and Eric weren’t around.
Todd wondered if Stackler even deliberately held off when they were all together, putting Todd and Eric at ease as he swiped the account behind their backs.
They needed to do something big. They needed to prove themselves as a team... hopefully without him having to tell Eric that he was losing to Stackler. Eric would get that flash of sadness and then go stiff upper lip again and somehow that was worse. And anyway, Todd really didn’t want to upset him.
“Todd?” Eric was right behind him. Todd yelped and slipped his phone in his pocket.
“You startled me. Jesus.”
“Oh, sorry.” Eric looked slightly less stoic as Todd twisted around the couch to look at him. His lips were a little swollen. His eyes were bright. He shifted from foot to foot, avoiding Todd’s gaze.
He jerked off, Todd thought. He wasn’t sure how he knew, except that he’d become pretty good at reading Eric. He was positive. Eric had just jerked off in the bathroom.
Maybe he was just a hornier guy than Todd had assumed. Though it was nice to think Eric was getting so riled up over him. He tucked that thought away for later.
“You all right?” Eric said.
“Yeah. Yep.” Todd pushed his hair back and got to his feet. It was nearly ten. “We should get down to the lobby. ‘Bout time for brunch. Sure, sure.” He had a gym bag with his stuff for snorkeling later and he nodded at Eric. “You can put your stuff in my bag if you want. I don’t mind.”
“Oh… All right sure.”
Eric had just begun to zip his things into a larger gym back and he started handing them over to Todd instead.
“You can use my sunscreen,” Todd said. “It’s the good stuff.”
“I would hope so,” Eric said. “You always burn when you forget. Came back from Memorial Day weekend looking like a lobster last year.”
“I was not that red.” Todd neatly folded Eric’s trunks as he packed, even though he’d rolled his own into a ball. He did the same with Eric’s towel.
“Lobster,” Eric said firmly. “But thanks.”
“Don’t forget your flip-flops.”
“Oh, yeah…”
“But don’t wear them on the walk. They make you trip.”
“Let’s go.” Todd shouldered the gym bag and slipped on his boat shoes and they made their way out, hoping he could think of something big and flashy he could do to swing the Gigis back over to their side before it was too late.
11
Eric
“Jordan is awfully cozy with Stackler,” Todd said in Eric’s ear.
They were standing on a small dock south of Avalon’s main pier, waiting for their snorkel instructor to join them with equipment before they would take a dinghy out to the Gigis’ boat. Todd squinted at Jordan, standing across from them and caught up in some quiet conversation. Stackler said something in Jordan’s ear and they both cracked up. Meanwhile, Alphonso conducted some business on the phone.
“I wonder if they’ve been hanging out when we’ve been up in the suite,” Eric said. He shaded his eyes and sighed. The day was unusually hot considering they were in the middle of the ocean.
He had absolutely no desire to go snorkeling. He felt broody and muddled and ever since the blow-job, perhaps ever since that scalding kiss, he had been hopelessly turned on.
“We need to up our game,” Todd said, bouncing on his toes. He was staring at Stackler so hard, Eric wanted to tell him to cool it. He would draw suspicion mad-dogging Stackler like that.
“Are you all right?” Eric said.
“You keep asking me that,” Todd muttered.
“Because you seem off,” Eric said. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He did ask Todd that a lot. He wasn’t used to asking anyone if they were all right often. His ex had accused him of not giving a damn. “Is it because…?”
“No,” Todd said, which was a little weird because even Eric had not been sure how he would finish his sentence. Because of what exactly? “Just thinking about the pitch is all. Sealing this deal. I don’t want to get too comfortable and think this thing is a lock and suddenly Stackler walks away with the account.”
“Did something happen?” Eric said.
“No!” Todd frowned down at his toes. “Nothing happened.”
The snorkel instructor finally came trotting over to the pier, pushing a cart full of snorkeling equipment and dodging other tourists.
“Oh!” The instructor said. He was absurdly hot, even with blue sunscreen on his nose. “Right, you got your own boat and we’re taking a dinghy out. Nice nice. Okay, let’s just unload this stuff here…”
The Gigis kept apologizing for not having snorkel equipment for their guests, though they had their own. Eric found this faintly amusing, as if he and Todd might be offended. Though he heard Stackler mutter something about “tourist germs” as they all climbed into the dinghy.
The dinghy was small, just large enough for six people, and Eric was squished between Todd and the snorkeling guy, who introduced himself as Chad.
Chad. His name was actually Chad. Eric saw Todd smirk when he said it, and he stifled his own laugh at whatever joke Todd would have made.
Chad looked like a model. He was wearing trunks and his abs rippled over the low waist. He had a perfect jawline and sparkling blue eyes. Eric noted his attractiveness, but he was much more distracted by Todd’s pale thigh pressing up against his in the dinghy. Todd had dark hair dusting his thighs. Soft, creamy, thick thighs that would be satisfying to sink your teeth into…
Fuck.
Eric bit down hard on his bottom lip and scooted closer to Chad, who tossed him a wink in response. He didn’t miss the slightly hurt look on Todd’s face. But the last thing he needed was a hard-on when he was about to change into his trunks. He hoped the Gigis hadn’t noticed. He didn’t want them to think there was tension in the fake relationship.
The whole thing threatened to give him a migraine.
The dinghy reached the Gigis’ yacht and everyone piled out onto the deck. Todd started to slip and Eric neatly caught him in his arms, blushing when Todd sent him a grateful smile.
Eric held onto his arm for a second. Just that touch was a little reviving.
“All right, everyone,” Alphonso said, clapping his hands. “We’ll take turns getting dressed. There’s no rush. I’m sure dear Chad is grateful for that as we’re paying him double by the hour. We’ll take turns changing into our swimwear and we’ve got Arnold Palmers for you at the bar. But no booze before snorkeling, I know I’m still a little woozy from my mimosa anyhow.”
“Ugh, this will take forever,” Todd muttered, as they followed the others into the spacious stateroom.
“I know, right,” Eric said. “I wish we could…”
“What?” Todd said.
“Nevermind.”
I wish we could be alone together.
“Eric…” Todd grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the corner couch in the stateroom, away from the others. They sat, and he hunched forward next to Eric, close enough that his hair brushed Eric’s ear. “I really don’t want things to be weird between us after what happened. It doesn’t have to… I know we were just fooling around. Don’t worry about it. I mean if you are. Just worry about sealing up the Gigis, okay? You don’t have to worry about me.”
Eric imagined his heart sliding down a trash chute. That was what it felt like anyway, and he hadn’t expected to feel so strongly; the wind knocked out of him.
But he only blinked and nodded rapidly. “Of course. No, I… I’m professional. You’re professional. We’re professional.”
