Page 49 of On the Run
“Oh. Um. I used to go to this dive on the mainland called the SandBar.” I shrugged, starting to get uncomfortable.
“Ah ha. And let me guess… you didn’t leave alone?”
“No, actually I did. There’s a back hall, and…” I winced, remembering the last time I was there. “It’s kinda dark.”
“Why, Beale Goodman, as I live and breathe!” Toby grinned. “Clandestine, semi-public hookups?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said tightly. “It sounds better when you say it than I remember it.” Like a success instead of a catastrophic failure.
Toby stroked my chest with gentle pressure. “What’s going on in your brain, Virgo?” he whispered.
I ran a hand over my face. “Those experiences were super awkward. I kept trying, thinking it would be less awkward eventually, but it wasn’t.”
“Because they weren’t your soul mate.”
“No! I mean… yeah, probably,” I allowed. “But also because… Look, you might have noticed last night that I’m, you know.” I waved a hand down toward my erection, which was still jutting insistently against the front of my shorts, proving that my dick had no ability to read the room.
“You’re…?” Toby shook his head, confused. “More effective than Viagra? Mouthwatering? Perfectly formed? A testament to the existence of a higher power? Paul Bunyan with a great big axe?” Toby palmed his own erection and gave a littlemmmphthat made me wish it was my hand there instead. “Help me out here, Goodman.”
“Big! Really big. Possibly too big.” I swallowed. “And before you say I’m crazy, be aware that these other guysthoughtthe size thing would be great, but it turned out to be too much work.” I clenched my hands into fists and struggled to speak around the vise that gripped my chest. “So, I don’t want you to… you know.”
“To blow you?” Toby looked almost tragically disappointed, and somehow I found myself huffing out a chuckle. “But my blow jobs changelives.”
“No!” I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I mean, yes. I mean… If it’s uncomfortable for you, please don’t feel obligated to—”
Toby laughed out loud. “Beale, I don’t know who these philistines were that they could not appreciate the utter work ofartthey had a chance to see up close, but I promise you, obligation is the very last thing I feel when I look at you.”
He pushed me against the column again, pretty forcefully for a guy his size, and I was so startled I let him. He looked up at me with brown eyes gone liquid hot. “You’re at my mercy now, Beale Goodman.”
I swallowed. “I am?”
Toby nodded. “Oh, yes. And hear me now: I did not survive a half-dozen near-death experiences and at least two painfully awkward conversations only to have this body withheld from me because you’re getting in your head over this.”
He whipped his shirt off and threw it on the ground, and…oh. Just oh.
My brain turned to soup at all that golden skin laid out before me like a feast, and I couldn’t think of words that had more than two letters.
He licked his lips and ran his fingers just behind the waistband of my shorts, trapping my shirt against my stomach. His thumb teased over the button.
“I wasn’t asking you about this stuff because I wanted a resumé of your sexual experiences, Beale. I was asking because I want this to be good for you. I wanted to know what you liked, and I didn’t want to rush you. Okay?”
He glanced up at me through his eyelashes, and any resistance I had faded away. He was so damn beautiful, and I could see how badly he wanted me. It made me feel powerful.
I cupped his jaw in one hand, committing the feel of his skin to memory. “Okay.”
“Okay.” Toby grabbed the hem of my shirt and tugged, and I bent to help him. He dropped my shirt on the ground next to his, and something about the sight captivated me—the way the fabric pooled together in the sunshine, the symbolism of the thing, the—
“Fuck, look at you,” he breathed, pulling my attention firmly back to him. He slid both hands up my stomach slowly with open palms, exploring each ridge and bump, and then he pinched my nipples lightly.
I hissed, and he did it again. Then slowly, deliberately, holding my gaze the whole time, he leaned in and captured one between his teeth.
My head thunked back against the pole, and I groaned. My cock was hard as iron, and I couldn’t help the way my hips shifted up, seeking attention with each brush of his thumbs.
“Later on, I’m going to spread you out on the bed,” Toby said conversationally, tilting his head toward the guesthouse. He licked a stripe over my left nipple while his fingers toyed with my right, and I gasped as the breeze blew over the damp skin. “I’m going to straddle you and tell you not to move.”
“Hmmphokay,” I managed.
“It’s gonna be better than okay, baby,” he purred, and my mind tried to catch hold of thebaby, but it slipped away like ripples in the pool. He brushed kisses over my collarbone and up my neck to my ear. He tugged my hair to one side, to give him more room. “I’m going to lick and suck every square inch of this chest, and mark you up, and do all kinds of things. I’m gonna make you tell me every single thing you’ve dreamed up for the last decade but never got to do, and then we’re going to do them.”
