“Sure.” Holly bounced off the bed and started helping Alex gather everything up.
When they got outside, they found Matt had borrowed a large white truck from one of the guys who worked for his mother. He parked it on the street behind Will’s Jeep and Holly’s Volkswagen Bug that had seen better days.
“Where are the tanks?” Matt asked as he came around from the driver’s side and eyed both Alex and Holly weighted down with gear. “I can go grab them.”
“No tanks,” Alex said as he worked on putting the stuff in the back of the truck. “The wreck where we’re fishing is shallow, thirty or forty feet at most. We’re free diving.”
Matt took the gear from Holly but then turned back to frown at Alex. “
Thirty or forty feet?
You can’t dive that deep without tanks.”
“Sure you can,” Holly answered for him. “Alex can hold his breath for over five minutes easily. I’ve seen Will do it for over six.”
“No shit?” Matt looked back and forth between them as if looking for a lie. “You can do that?”
“Oh yeah. They’ve taken certification courses for it.” Holly gave him a broad smile and tilted her head before asking, “Can I ask you a question? I need a man’s opinion.”
Matt frowned. “I guess.”
“I’m going to get the rest of the stuff,” Alex said quickly, knowing exactly what sort of question Holly was going to ask him.
He gathered the rest of the fishing supplies and walked past Will’s room on the way out.
“Hey, Alex.”
Alex turned, seeing Will with wet hair pulling on a fresh pair of jeans. He took the quickest, most efficient showers in history.
“Yeah?”
“We are going fishing on Sunday.” Will gave Alex a guilty smile. “I know I’ve been busy lately with school. Hell, we barely see each other anymore, and I’m sorry about that. If you don’t want Holly to come, that’s cool.”
“Holly can come. She was my friend first. I like hanging out with her,” Alex reminded him. “Just, you know, don’t traumatize me by crawling all over each other like you do when we’re watching the games.”
“Is that the reason you’re gone all the time?” Will asked in concern.
“No.” Alex rolled his eyes. “It’s just that Matt’s got this fucking awesome mansion on the good side of the beach that’s totally empty. Why wouldn’t I want to crash there?”
“I guess, yeah.” Will nodded grudgingly. “It’s nice of him to let you stay there all the time.”
“That’s ’cause he’s a nice guy.” Alex gave his brother a look. “I wouldn’t be hanging out with him if he wasn’t.”
Will shrugged, obviously not fully convinced. “Try not to let him drown. Major liability dragging him along.”
Alex sorted. “Dick.”
“I’ve been called worse.” Will gave him a smile, but still narrowed his eyes in typical older-brother fashion. “Don’t let him break my gear, Alex.”
“It’s all in good hands,” Alex assured him as he turned to leave.
When he got outside, he found Holly and Matt still having a discussion. He tossed everything in the back and then walked up to Matt. “So what’s the consensus?”
“It doesn’t count.” Matt laughed.
Alex gave Holly a look of sympathy. “Told you.”
Holly’s shoulders slumped. “Maybe I need to ask a straight guy.”
“He
is
straight.” Alex gestured to Matt.
“Yeah, except for the whole having-a-boyfriend thing,” Matt said sarcastically. “Totally straight.”
Holly laughed at them. “Are you guys going trolling after you max out on the grouper?”
“Yes, we are,” Alex said as he opened the passenger-side door. “Don’t wait up.”
“Catch us some mahi. You catch it, and we’ll cook it. Fair deal, right?”
“We can have a cookout at my place,” Matt offered as he turned to Alex looking for confirmation. “Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, Will doesn’t work. We can do it after he gets home from school.” Alex nodded, thinking it would be good for his brother to start actually hanging out with Matt a little. It’d lessen the blow. “Sounds good. Mahi or not, we’ll have more than enough for a party.”
“Excellent.” Holly looked pleased. “Good luck!”
Alex leaned over and kissed Holly’s forehead. “Just ask him.”
Holly smiled as Alex crawled into the cab of the truck. Matt waved good-bye and then walked around to the driver’s side. He fell into the seat next to Alex and turned to look at him, “Are we really fishing for mahi?”
“Fuck, no.” Alex snorted. “Today we’re catching a marlin.”
“You say that every time!” Holly called, obviously having heard the conversation past the open window. “You always come back with mahi or tuna.”
“Not this time,” Alex said confidently. “I feel good. Today’s my day.”
* * * *
“That’s our old house.” Alex pointed to one of the boathouses attached to the dock.
Matt studied the small floating boathouses. There were six of them, three on each side. They were all painted sky blue, with numbers hanging on the doors. Matt’s gaze stopped on number five as he tried to imagine Alex’s family of four living in the small space.
An image of a young Alex walking in and out the door formed in Matt’s mind, and he smiled. “I didn’t know you lived on the docks.”
“Yup,” Alex said as he worked on unloading the truck. “My dad was a crewman on all those big fishing boats over there that Teddy rents out. He did all the stuff tourists don’t like to do, bait the hooks, and gaff the fish. It was a shitty job, but it had better perks than working at Frank’s does. He always got a cut of the tourists’ catches, and Teddy let him take out the boats whenever he wanted on his days off. All he had to do was pay for the gas. We never starved, but we ate
a lot
of seafood.”
Matt nodded, still dazed by the knowledge that he had passed Alex on the beach all those years never knowing he lived on the docks. He started helping Alex unload as he tried to process the information and then admitted, “I always thought you lived on the beach.”
“Nope. I was a fisherman’s son. How cliché is that?”
“What’d your mother do?”
For one moment, Alex’s features flashed with sadness before he gave Matt a smile. “She was a nurse.”
“Then how’d you two become cooks?” Matt asked with a frown. “I had assumed one of your parents taught you.”
Alex grimaced as he set the two spearguns on the curb. “Teddy offered us jobs and reduced rent on the boathouse, but neither of us wanted to work on the ocean. We were both happier taking care of the rentals for Grover and cooking for Frank.”
“Why?”
“It reminded us of him. Doing my dad’s job, it would’ve been like replacing him.” Alex looked away, shaking his head. “It was just too painful right after the accident. It took us a long time to start fishing again. Now it’s different. It’s like reconnecting with them every time we get out there. Hell, we put their ashes in the ocean. Going out there is like being a kid again. It makes me feel like everything’s okay. That bad shit doesn’t happen to good people.”
Matt had the sudden urge to kiss Alex right out there in the open. This wasn’t a simple fishing trip Alex had invited him on; this was sharing a part of himself, and Matt felt extremely honored to be going.
“That’s awesome, having a legacy like that,” Matt said with a smile. “My dad just left me a large chain of department stores.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“Yeah, I can think about him every time I get an ulcer. That’ll be my way to reconnect, ’cause God knows he always had one.”
“I’m depressed now, Matty,” Alex said with a look of horror. “You are a cynical bastard.”
“Have you met my mother?”
“Don’t remind me.” Alex winced. “She clearly hates me. She actually called me a sea urchin to my face the last time she came over to your place.”
“And you wonder why I’m cynical?”
Alex laughed and reached out to squeeze Matt’s biceps. “You need to lighten up, man.”
Matt grinned. “That’s what you’re for.”
“Okay, then.” Alex smiled back, sounding pleased. “Let’s catch some fish.”
* * * *
The fun of fishing with Alex wasn’t catching the fish—it was watching Alex.
He could actually hold his breath for five minutes under water like Holly claimed. Matt wouldn’t have believed it if he didn’t see it with his own eyes. It was like he was made to be part of the ocean. Matt went in with him just to watch as Alex dived down so deep he was hard to see. Then he’d come up out of the wrecked plane at the bottom of the shallow waters with a fish on the end of the spear more often than not.
Alex could load the speargun underwater in less than five seconds; then he’d turn around and do Matt’s too because he was determined for Matt to play with him. The sun was shining so bright the surface of the ocean sparkled like a million diamonds were dancing over it. It made everything underwater so easy to see with the masks, and Alex’s jubilation for the sport had Matt pushing to go farther and hold his breath longer. Even if his lungs were on fire, seeing how Alex moved underwater, his fins moving faster, taking him deeper and deeper, was worth the agony.
Plus shooting fish underwater with a speargun was the best kind of manly fun. If Matt hadn’t already accepted that he was probably going to be gay for the rest of his life, this would’ve done the trick. He surely wouldn’t have had this much fun on a date with a woman.
When Matt actually shot something after several failed attempts, Alex was more excited than Matt was when they broke the surface. He pushed his mask up and then grabbed Matt with one arm, treading water easily as he tilted his head and kissed him full on the lips before Matt even had a chance to get his mask off.
The kiss had the salty tang of the ocean. Their skin prickled with goose bumps from the mild chill in the October air, and they were still holding their spearguns. Matt’s had a snapper at the end of his, but they didn’t let any of that stop them.
Kissing in the sunshine, alone, with nothing but ocean surrounding them was addictive. Matt pushed his mask up and then opened to the push of Alex’s tongue into his mouth.
He was still breathing hard and heavy after the dive. Matt should probably be focusing on his oxygen-deprived lungs, but he needed Alex just a little more than the air. His cock was already hard, pushing against his swimming trucks insistently.
Alex broke away, now as winded as Matt. The kiss had stolen his breath in a way the ocean couldn’t. “You ever do it on a boat?”
Matt had done it on a yacht belonging to the CEO of a popular clothing line on a trip to Bimini last year. The guy had practically shoved his daughter in Matt’s lap while he wined and dined Matt’s uncle. Matt spent one entire afternoon in the master bedroom with her. She was wild and free. One of those girls who didn’t want more than a one-night stand. Before now it was one of his more favorite memories. Now it didn’t feel like it counted at all. She was fun, but she wasn’t Alex.
“No.” Matt grinned. “Wanna help me remedy that?”
Alex’s smile broadened. His light hair was plastered to his head. His lips were tinged blue either from diving deeper into the cooler waters or the lack of oxygen. He had a ring around his face from the mask and he’d never looked more handsome than he did right at that moment.
They both swam to the boat, and Alex pulled off his fins, tossing them one at a time onto the deck. Then he climbed on board and put his speargun aside before he reached over the edge for Matt’s gun, taking care with the fish Matt had caught.
Matt pulled off his fins and mask and then crawled back onto the boat while Alex stored the fish inside the cooler.
“We’re maxed out on grouper. We could catch one more snapper, but I’d rather go for that marlin. Wanna eat lunch and then go trolling? Catch the white whale? I’ve never gotten a marlin, and I’ve been deep-sea fishing since I was six.”
“But you said today was your day.” Matt walked over to where Alex was still bent over the large cooler. He leaned into him, pressed his bare chest against Alex’s slick, cut back, and wrapped an arm around his waist. He nuzzled his face into the curve of Alex’s neck. “When does the fucking fit into your schedule?”
Alex turned in his arms and fisted Matt’s hair with both hands. The kiss was hard and aggressive. His tongue pushed into Matt’s mouth, forcing him to take what he was giving. When they connected, everything else faded to the background, the breeze against Matt’s chilled, wet skin, the gentle rocking of the boat, the smell of freshly caught fish. Nothing mattered but the hot rush of pleasure that spiraled through Matt’s bloodstream.
Alex ended up taking Matt bent over the side of the boat, with both of them still wet. As he spread his knees wide on one of the padded benches Matt never once felt cold. He looked down to the ocean with his wet hair dripping into his eyes and Alex’s cock pushing into his ass without any prep because they’d been too desperate to bother with more than a condom smeared with lube.
He hissed past the sting, but then Alex’s cock breached the tight ring of muscle and the addictive white-hot sensation washed over Matt, making his neck burn and his dick jerk from the pleasure. Matt dropped his head in submission as he closed his eyes against the vision of the sun glimmering on the water and just let himself feel Alex own him.
Matt savored every inch of the claiming as Alex pushed deeper until he was buried in Matt all the way to the base. Then Alex fisted Matt’s hair, jerking his head back, and nipped at the curve of his neck.
“God, I fucking live to be in you like this.” Alex panted, his breath warm against Matt’s wet skin. “Do you know how much I love you under me?”
“Yeah, I know.” Matt grunted when Alex grabbed his hip, pulling Matt tighter against him. “Christ, will you hurry up and actually fuck me?”
“Bossy,” Alex growled and then bit at a tender spot harder than usual. “You’re not in charge right now, Matty.”
No, he wasn’t and that was exactly how he liked it. Topping Alex was nice sometimes, but it was rare for them. For the first time in his life, Matt could just lie back and let someone else be in control, and it never stopped being a novelty. Now more than ever it turned him on as he knelt on the bench remembering Alex underwater like a god of the sea.