Heat Stroke (Beach Kingdom, #2)(43)

When Jamie offered to be his boyfriend in secret, Marcus had believed nothing could be better. And he couldn’t deny this had been the best fucking week of his life. But holding himself back from kissing Jamie goodbye on the beach was getting harder. Almost unbearably hard. Another guy had been in the bar this week checking out Marcus’s man and he’d almost ripped his skin off watching the guy ask for Jamie’s number. Jamie had said no, but still. What Marcus wouldn’t have given for the freedom to simply walk behind the bar and frame Jamie’s face in his hands. Just press their foreheads together in front of everyone and breathe, the way they did in the mornings before Marcus got dressed and left.

What would it be like to take Jamie on a date? To hold his hand and not care who was watching? To have Jamie smile all the time and not just when they were alone? With every passing day, having that reality became more and more…necessary. Maybe even attainable. Being around Jamie made Marcus feel invincible. Confident in the man he was learning to accept—and really kind of like. Himself.

Soon, he promised Jamie in his head. Soon.

Marcus blew out a breath and left the gym, his heart roaring when he saw Jamie across the street waiting for him, posted up beside the door to the Main Squeeze. This week, most of their time together had been spent with their clothes off, but when Marcus managed to climb off Jamie for a few minutes, they worked on plans for the juice shop.

Jamie had called some of the food distributors for the Castle Gate and arranged daily fruit deliveries. The power had been turned on, air conditioners repaired and tested. Furniture had been delivered yesterday. They’d spent two nights painting the walls a bright yellow and setting up the juicers and other equipment Marcus had ordered online for a steal. Jamie had created inventory sheets and programmed the registers with prices. They’d commissioned a piece of repurposed wood for the sign and painted The Main Squeeze in bright, yellow lettering. One week to go until opening day and they still had some work to do, mainly perfecting Marcus’s recipes, but it was really happening.

His throat hurt with emotion when he crossed the street and saw the weariness in Jamie’s eyes before he saw Marcus and hid it. A group of young people were walking past on the sidewalk, leaving Jamie and Marcus hovering a few feet apart, when all Marcus really wanted was to throw Jamie down and devour him.

“Hey,” Jamie said in a dry voice, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “How was your workout?”

Marcus made his pecs bounce—right, left, right, left and Jamie battled a smile. Better. “It was good,” he said, taking the keys out of his workout bag. “You know, you can go inside without me. That’s why I gave you the spare set of keys.”

“Right. I’ll do that next time,” Jamie said without meeting his eyes, following Marcus into the Main Squeeze and closing the door behind him. “What’s on the agenda today, boss?”

Finally out of view from the street, Marcus flattened Jamie up against the door with his body. “Taste testing,” he rasped against Jamie’s lips, relieved when Jamie’s lids grew heavy, his mouth opening on a soft groan. “I’m going to start with you.”

Jamie’s hands came up, fingers curling in the neck of Marcus’s shirt and dragging him down into a restless kiss. Marcus unsnapped Jamie’s jeans to loosen the waistband so he could slide his hands into the back of Jamie’s pants, kneading his ass cheeks with hungry hands. Where a week earlier he would have been hesitant to press his finger to Jamie’s puckered entrance, he did it now without thinking, knowing a firm index finger right there would make Jamie moan into his mouth—and Jesus it did.

Jamie’s moan. The most satisfying sound in the world.

With their mouths touching like this, the real world a million miles away, Marcus couldn’t wait any longer to tell Jamie what had been on his mind basically nonstop. “I was thinking…” he panted, rubbing a circle around Jamie’s hole with the pad of his finger, tapping it lightly once, twice. “I know you like when I’m inside you, but if you ever wanted to be inside me like that…I’m ready. I want it.”

A shudder went through Jamie, making Marcus press their bodies tighter together so he could absorb it. Feel everything together. “You’re ready to feel my fuck, baby?” Jamie asked hoarsely, rolling his hips and dragging their groins together. “Then I’ll give it to you.”

Marcus took both of Jamie’s cheeks in his hands and held him still while he ground their cocks together, side to side, up and down, their strangled growls filling the dim juice shop. “I want to be the last man to feel your fuck, Jamie.”

Jamie stiffened just a touch and if Marcus wasn’t so turned on, he might have rammed his fist into the wall. Every time he brought up the future to Jamie, the same thing happened. Jamie swerved to avoid the topic—and what the hell choice did Marcus have but to let him? He hadn’t offered Jamie a sustainable relationship, had he? No, he wouldn’t even kiss him in broad daylight. So Marcus had no choice but to swallow his frustration when Jamie gave him a quick, final kiss and freed himself from where Marcus had wedged him up against the wall.

A veil dropped in front of Jamie’s eyes, a casual smile lifting one end of his mouth. “Do you have the supplies for this taste test?” He shoved his hands into his pockets and paced farther into the shop. “I only have about an hour.”