His Horizon - Con Riley Page 0,65

Rob seemed to struggle with his own inhalations. His breaths shuddered, stopped and started as Jude ran his palms up Rob’s legs from shins to knees, and then up his thighs, quads tensing under his palms when he reached their juncture. Jude pressed the swell of Rob’s cock with one hand while wrestling with his belt buckle, an urge to get his mouth on him relentless, a wave that was unstoppable until Rob yelped the sole word that could stop him.

“Louise!”

Jude’s fingers tightened around the leather he’d been about to free from its loops. He looked up to find Rob as dazed as he felt, eyes pitch-black and glinting, colour as hectic as if he was just as turned on as Jude before he’d slammed on the brakes. “Did you really just mix me up with my sister?”

Rob’s next yelp was of laughter. “No. For fuck sake. She’s much prettier than you. It’s just…. We have to go back,” he panted, breathless. “For her. For Louise. To make sure Guy Parsons isn’t giving her a hard time.” His back was still pressed to the door as he slipped down, ending in a crouch that brought his mouth within kissing distance. “It’s not that I don’t want…” he held Jude’s face in both hands, and Jude saw himself reflected in his wide pupils, just as starstruck. “The minute I get you alone….” Rob’s kiss was a filthy promise of where they’d pick up when this crisis was done with.

For good or for bad now, no matter how Guy framed his review, at least they’d still get to have this.

“The very first minute, Jude.” It almost sounded like a warning that came with a hint of frustration as Rob looked over Jude’s shoulder at the narrow bunks where they slept. “I only wish we had somewhere…”

Better?

He’d thought the same only that morning about giving Rob the best room in the place rather than the worst one.

Bigger?

A wider mattress would make stretching Rob across it much easier.

“Private,” Rob admitted as he pulled Jude upright, his hold tightening on Jude’s hand as they left the boatshed. “Can’t help feeling a bit under a microscope here.” Susan and Carl confirmed that, waving at them both from the far end of the harbour, hand-in-hand too on their way home. “Since we put on a show,” he said under his breath as Marc exited the pub with Louise, one arm slung around her shoulder that he removed the moment he saw Jude in the distance. “I feel like they’re all watching.” He inclined his head in the direction of the harbour opening where Guy Parsons posed, Byronic hair whipping wildly as Ian crouched with his camera. “They’re all waiting for something to happen.” His grip on Jude’s hand loosened as they drew closer to the Anchor, his tone reverting to teasing. “Not gonna lie. It’s all giving me a tiny bit of performance anxiety.” He winked, but Jude wondered if there wasn’t something truthful buried beneath that humour.

“Hey.” Jude wouldn’t let go of Rob’s hand. Instead, he stopped and pulled him closer. “You know I’d give you that, don’t you? Privacy, I mean. I’d take you away in a heartbeat if I could.” The kiss he pressed to Rob’s lips came with a whisper. “Take you anywhere on the planet. Sail you, fly you, walk you there if I had to, if that made you happy.”

“Wow.” Rob blinked. “Romantic.”

“Maybe there’s something in the water.” He nodded again in Guy Parsons’ direction, who now stood with Ian’s back to his chest, chin resting on his photographer’s shoulder as he pointed out to sea.

“I see your sister’s drunk it as well,” Rob noted when she edged closer to Marc.

“I’m pretending not to notice,” Jude said, but it was hard to sound too grumpy.

They headed inside to finally serve some dessert that Guy Parsons ate with obvious pleasure, agreeing to stay the night so that he could sample a New Anchor breakfast as well.

Jude cleared the kitchen later while Rob went to work on something in the office, but fragments of their conversation circled, returning to Jude when he found the office empty and the laptop open later. A map of the nearby coastline filled the screen, a hand-written list of boutique hotels in St Ives beside it. Jude sat down and searched a few of the hotels listed, all of them pricey and perhaps worth emulating. And wasn’t that something? Even after a stress-filled few days, Rob was still