Page 37 of Hearts Colliding
Sinking down into the sand, Ryan unzipped the bag and pulled out a plastic food box. Looking up, he quirked a brow. “You just going to stand there? Sit down, so I don’t have to look at those pug ugly trunks.”
Without hesitation, Alex sank to his knees. “I can’t believe you were going to eat all that. There’s enough to feed an army.” The box was full to bulging.
“What can I say? Swimming gives a boy an appetite.” Ryan pulled out a sandwich and bit into it.
Alex followed suit. Fresh bread, creamy, salty cheese and the tang of pickle were a flavour explosion on his tongue.
“Oooh.” Alex’s eyes fluttered to a close as he groaned in delight. How could something so simple be so good? His tongue swept over his lips, catching up every trace, and he groaned again. He opened his eyes and stopped chewing.
Across the narrow divide of his towel, Ryan stared at him, his lower lip clamped between his teeth. The cry of gulls, the whisper of breeze, and the slap of sea on sand, all of it faded leaving nothing but the rush of blood and the thump of his heart. Swallowing hard, he put the half-eaten sandwich down. Ryan did the same, his head angling one way as Alex’s angled the other. Without any thought beyond the here and now, he leaned forward, his lips meeting Ryan’s, everything else discarded and forgotten.
His eyes dropping to a close, Alex dissolved into the kiss. Salt and savoury yet with a sweetness that was all Ryan, Alex melted into the warm, wet heat. Strong hands cupped his face, quietly taking charge as Ryan deepened the kiss, a thrill racing through him as Ryan explored and devoured, laying claim with a surety that made his heart race.
The need for air forced them apart. Ryan, still cradling his face, rested his forehead against his, his breath as ragged as Alex’s own. “I seem to have a habit of kissing you. I could say I’m sorry, but it’d be a lie.”
“I could say I don’t want you to kiss me, but… I’m sorry. For how I was with you. After, I mean. I shouldn’t have turned on you the way I did. It was wrong of me.”
“Then why did you?” Ryan pulled back, putting some space between them.
“Because it felt like an additional complication, when my relationship with the house and the village is already complicated enough. I don’t know how much sense that makes, but I can’t think of another way of explaining.”Because I was scared of what I was feeling, of letting myself be pulled back to a place I only want to consign to the past and never think of again…
Ryan tilted his head back and stared up into the clear sky. “It’s a perfect summer’s day. We don’t get too many of these down here, but you’d know that already. There’s nobody in this little cove except for us two. There’s not a person in the world who knows where we are. It’s just us.” Looking back at Alex he smiled. “For today, can we keep it like that? Just us, away from everybody and all the complications, just put everything aside and be you and me. Just Alex and Ryan?”
Alex replied with a kiss.
CHAPTERTWENTY
They threw themselves down on their towels, soaking wet from the sea and panting hard.
“You’re fast, I’ll give you that. But not fast enough to get out of this!”
Alex gasped as Ryan straddled him, before he started to laugh. There was no way he had any intention of getting out of Ryan’s hold. He lifted his hand and ran his fingers through Ryan’s soaking hair, which had flopped forward, and pushed it out of his eyes. Ryan gazed down at him, his expression soft and at ease. He looked how Alex felt. It was a foreign feeling, alien, and with a sadness that was overwhelming, Alex couldn’t remember when he’d last felt so at peace.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
Alex sighed. How could this man read him so well? His instinct was to deny, to retreat behind the defences that had served him so well over the years, but weren’t they meant to be just Alex and Ryan, if only for today, everything else pushed out of sight? It was the deal they’d made, and it called for honesty.
“I don’t often get the chance to relax and just forget everything. What you said, earlier, about nobody in the world knowing where we are, and about it being only us, it’s liberating. It’s not often in my life I’ve felt free, so I’m not used to it.”
“You should try to get used to it, because it suits you.”
Ryan slid down onto Alex, his strong body a solid and comforting weight, and Alex wrapped his arms around him. He breathed in deep, drenching his senses in the scent of the sea and the warm musk aroma that was Ryan’s own, imprinting it on his memory, a treasure to be unlocked and held close when the need for the warmth of connection, and for Ryan, became overwhelming.
Their lips met in a deep, wet kiss. Alex closed his eyes, giving himself up to the moment, locking it deep in his heart along with all the other treasures he was collecting. Ryan’s hand travelled down his body, fingers hooking beneath the waistband of his trunks.
“These are far too ugly to carry on wearing,” Ryan murmured. “I think you need to take them off.” He snapped the elasticated waistband.
“But what if—?”
“Nobody here but you and me, remember?”
Alex wriggled and squirmed under the delicious onslaught of Ryan’s kisses, working their way across his jawbone, down his throat, and nestling in the place where his neck met his shoulder, the place that sent a shiver racing through every nerve in his body. How had Ryan known where…? His shuddering moans filled the sky above as Ryan sucked on the nervy, tingling patch of skin.
Ryan’s chuckle reverberated through Alex’s body. “Still need to get these off you.” He slipped a warm hand down the front of the trunks, the tips of his fingers grazing the tip of Alex’s erection. “Hmm, pleased to see me, or is that a cheese and pickle baguette in your pocket?”
