Alex shrugged once more and looked down at his breakfast, already knowing the answer. Yes, he could.
The only question now was, what was he going to do about it?
Chapter Six
Even with the breeze coming off the ocean, the heat was unbearable. The sweat beaded on Matt’s bare back and dripped from his temples. Mixed with the sand that blew in over the fence when the gusts were strong enough and the stickiness of sunscreen on his shoulders, Matt should be fucking miserable.
Instead he was staring at the way Alex looked bent over in the large storage shed on the side of his house. It held all sorts of items used to maintain and repair the ten beach rental properties to the left of their little yellow house. This tiny area was fenced off, keeping the less-than-eye-pleasing shed concealed from the other properties. It was also hidden from all the tourists, and Matt let himself enjoy the privacy by studying Alex Hunter with blunt appreciation he rarely allowed himself to indulge in.
Alex’s hair color was unique and impossible to name. There wasn’t any one word to describe the array of silky, streaked strands that ranged from honey brown to gold to near bleach blond, like something a hairstylist might try in hopes of capturing the natural art of the sun and likely fail at.
His hair alone intrigued, but it was more than that. Alex was easily six-two, giving him a good three inches on Matt, and that was just the start of the differences between them. Alex’s muscles were more well-honed and defined, reminding Matt of those perfect men on the designer magazines his mother read. There was also an easy grace to him. His athleticism was based on speed and agility, as opposed to the brute force Matt utilized.
“Were you a quarterback?” Matt asked distantly as he admired the way Alex’s muscles gleamed and moved while he dug through the shed.
Alex turned and frowned at him. “I played baseball, man. I never had any use for football. Sorry.”
“Really?” Matt’s eyebrows rose. He was from Georgia. Football was their lifeblood. Baseball was just something to do in the spring. He’d never met a guy who played it exclusively. “What position?”
“Shortstop.” Alex handed him a box of used cleaning supplies. “All this shit is decades old. We can toss it. Just don’t let Holly see you doing it. She’ll start bitching about the environment and disposing of it properly.”
Matt tried to imagine Alex playing shortstop. He was swift, quick thinking, and cool under pressure. Matt could see it. He wished he
had
seen it, that he’d gone to one of Alex’s games over spring break all those years ago. He wasn’t really sure why he hadn’t, because he’d always noticed Alex. Since his parents first bought the beach house when Matt was in seventh grade, he’d been aware of Alex, who was one of those guys everyone liked. He stood out in his group of friends. The best looking. The most athletic. The hottest girlfriend.
Matt may not have noticed or cared about most of the locals he’d passed on the beach and in the quaint coffee shops and ice cream parlors of Mirabella Island, but for some reason, Alex stood out, and for the first time Matt was really trying to figure out why.
He threw the stuff away, being careful to look for Holly who was cleaning the rental units the tourists had checked out of this morning. The pile of shit by the garbage cans was growing. More was being tossed out than kept.
“How long has it been since you’ve cleaned out this shed?”
“Never.” Alex appeared from the deep recesses of the rusting shed, pulling several large, warped pieces of wood. “Four years maintaining these places and I’ve never gotten around to it. Who knows how long it was before that?”
Matt walked over and took the wood from him. He lifted them off the ground easily. “We could break these up and burn them tonight.”
“Yeah.” Alex seemed to pause, a hitch of something sounding in his voice. “We could do that.”
Matt turned curiously, the wood still in his arms, and stared back at Alex who was just standing there as if struck by something. His eyes were wide and dazed as he studied Matt, his gaze trained on his biceps that were straining from the weight of all the wood.
Matt turned around when that look started affecting him. As bullish as Alex’s lithe, cut body made him feel, Matt was suddenly grateful for his big, broad body because he’d seen it, the spark of interest in Alex, and even if it was half insane, Matt still wanted to be interesting to Alex Hunter.
A million questions formed in his mind, the same ones that had been brewing since yesterday morning in the kitchen. Some he didn’t want to name, but others were easier. Like, what was Holly to Alex really? And why did he go all the way to Key West to go fishing when there was plenty of fishing to be had right there in Mirabella. What exactly was he hoping to catch?
Instead he asked, “What do y’all need all this wood for anyway?” because he was hard again, and he needed a distraction against it.
Shirtless, with nothing to hide the reaction, Matt was floundering and uncomfortable, but still too hungry to be around Alex to give up the afternoon. That brief moment in the kitchen yesterday had flared something to life, something better left dormant, but Matt found himself clinging to it instead.
“Hurricanes.” Alex frowned after Matt dumped the wood by the garbage cans. “There’s a fuckload in there. We’ve got enough for all the rentals.”
“Right, for the windows.” Matt winced, feeling stupid. “Are you gonna replace it all?”
Alex shrugged and turned back to the shed, cool and easygoing as if the moment had never happened. “Will and me can just pick some up later this week. We got Old Man Grover’s credit card. He lets us get what we need.”
“I could help you,” Matt offered, knowing he was being obvious but finding himself unable to stop. He was looking for a way to stretch the afternoon out longer. “We could grab the groundkeeper’s truck from my mother’s place and get the stuff after we’re done here.”
“Okay.” Alex surprised him by agreeing, and Matt thought he heard it again, that hitch of something in his voice that made Matt’s cock jerk inside his shorts. “If you’re offering free manual labor, I’m not gonna turn it down.”
Matt realized he wasn’t the only one looking to make the day last. Alex was pretty motivated to get things done, which seemed sort of out of character for him. It was likely he had a lot of other things to do besides hang with Matt and clean out a shed.
Matt thought of the two of them trapped together in that hot kitchen yesterday, of the way Alex’s voice felt against his ear. The way it sounded, low and teasing, as if he knew something Matt didn’t. His cock was hard again, and that feeling was swirling in his stomach once more, warm and exciting in a way it’d never been before now.
Girls were fun. They were a means to an end. They were expected, and Matt always did what was expected of him, but this feeling was something entirely different and wholly addicting because of it. Others might shy away from a connection that was essentially forbidden in his world, but Matt had the sort of hard-driving personality that demanded he stay there sweating from the manual labor until he found out why Alex made him hot and frustrated in a way no girl could.
* * * *
Before the sun set Alex and Matt had cleaned the shed, helped Holly with housekeeping for all the empty rentals, fixed the garbage disposal in unit three, and made a run to the hardware store for new plywood. Alex couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so productive on a day off.
Will might take him in for testing, because it was such a stark departure from his usual personality. Alex was a hard worker, but he wasn’t one to sweat and slave for no good reason. That shed would’ve been fine as it was for another two years. Sheds were meant to be filled with all the old shit no one wanted to take the time to get rid of. Now it was like brand-new, all because Alex liked the way Matt’s big, thick muscles looked when they flexed.
He liked the way Matt looked bent over making a bed too, and once they’d gotten started Alex insisted they take over the task from Holly on all the newly vacated rentals, just for the eye candy. Even if Matt hadn’t really known how to make a bed—which was a new low for the trust-fund brat—teaching him had been entertaining.
Alex was in so much trouble.
He knew it, but he couldn’t find it in himself to give a fuck. Even if this was a train wreck waiting to happen, it sort of felt like the universe was smiling on him. Holly had a girl’s night at the movies, and Will was working late. It was one of those rare evenings where Alex had the house to himself, only this time he had Matt for company.
It’d make sense after the long day to just chill out on the couch and watch something on television. Instead they broke up all the old wood in the name of finishing the job and lit a fire on the beach.
With the flames dancing, Alex and Matt sat on old towels while the last vestiges of dusk drifted away. The stars grew brighter and brighter before their eyes as the darkness blanketed the sky.
“We probably should’ve eaten something,” Matt mused and then took a drink out of the whiskey bottle. “I’m half-drunk already.”
They’d had lunch while they were out buying new plywood, but that’d been hours ago, and the booze was going to Alex’s head too. It was as if they both wanted it, that dazed, exhausted feeling of being hungry and overworked. It lowered inhibitions, and it suddenly felt like they’d worked their asses off all day to get where they were right now.
“Yeah, we probably should’ve,” Alex agreed as he reached over without asking and took the bottle from Matt. “I could cook.”
“Nah, you’ve busted your ass enough for one day.” Matt sounded as tired as Alex felt. He fell back against his towel. “This was a day off for you? Kick me the next time I call you beach bums lazy. I’m tired as hell.”
Alex kicked him just because.
Matt laughed as he laced his hands behind his head and looked up at the stars. Alex used Matt’s distraction to study him. The way the flames reflected in his light eyes and danced over his handsome face. The broad expanse of his bare chest, his thick biceps; everything about Matt was large and powerful—including his bank account.
Alex took another long drink, willing the burn of whiskey to remind him where he was and who he was playing with, but it wasn’t working. Instead he felt the tension that had been boiling under the surface all day. The unspoken questions. The hot looks Alex kept catching when Matt thought he wasn’t looking. The dozen times he got caught doing the exact same thing when he’d always been extremely vigilant about checking guys out.
Matt’s gaze shifted to stare up at Alex as if reading his thoughts and that look made everything in him tighten with lust. Bright eyes hooded with stark desire, Matt wasn’t even subtle, and Alex didn’t know whether to yell at him or fuck him.
“What’s Holly to you?” Matt finally asked, his voice a rasp of want.
Alex took another long drink, still looking for some sort of strength from the burn, knowing on some level it was probably doing away with his last shreds of common sense instead.
“She’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember.” Alex shrugged, searching desperately for a reprieve from the sexual tension that was choking out the air around them. “I’d do anything for her. I’d die for her without even thinking about it.”
“Are you with her”—Matt paused and met his eyes once more before he punctuated the last word—“
intimately
?”
That was a loaded question if he’d ever heard one.
Leave it to Matt. It must be part of his rich-boy syndrome. He’d never had to worry about losing a job or pissing someone off. Matt was at the top of the social food chain and fearless because of it. He just said whatever he felt like and never seemed to give a shit about the consequences.
Alex took another drink that burned all the way down to his empty stomach. He was going to save himself by ending up passed out in the sand.
“Alex.” Matt’s voice was hard and impatient. “Answer me.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” Alex snapped with a look of disappointment. “And I don’t work for you, Matty. So stop acting like I do.”
“
Please
,” Matt amended, his eyes becoming softer somehow, more compelling. “Answer me.”
Alex looked to the ocean to avoid Matt who was a little too hot for Alex’s sanity. The fact that saying please before demanding an answer felt like a step in the right direction for Matt was sort of sad. Alex learned how to say please when he was three. Why was he so fucking drawn to this guy when there were countless others he could have—without the attitude?
“No,” Alex admitted, because like it or not, he was drawn to Matt, and he couldn’t seem to help himself. “We’re just friends.”
“But people think you two have been fucking since high school. And you don’t bother to correct them.”
Alex’s gaze was still trained on the ocean, the ebb and flow of the waves against the shore a gentle lull luring him into a false sense of security. “It’s just easier that way.” His voice was a whisper of lust and fear. “The truth’s a little too complicated for this town to handle.”
“And what’s the truth?”
Alex turned to Matt with a glare. “Why don’t we talk about
your
truth? What’s your deal, Matty? Why the fuck do you think I owe you an explanation for anything?”
Matt stared back at him, confident and fearless. “What do you want to hear? That I’ve been jerking myself raw thinking about you for the past three days?”
Alex’s breath caught. His dick swelled, his palms grew sweaty, and he fought for a way to suck in oxygen past the white-hot rush of lust. Even still, he couldn’t help but gape at Matt’s bluntness.
“You don’t just admit shit like that,” Alex said furiously, even if Matt was only guilty of answering honestly. “What if I was George or Daryl? What if this was all just some sick trick? We’re not exactly on the same side of the fence! How’d you know this wasn’t just some sorta set up? Shit like that gets guys killed!”
Matt frowned at Alex’s outburst. “That seems overly paranoid.”
“You don’t admit it unless you’re sure,” Alex reiterated, all the while berating himself for his rock-hard dick because Matt was too bold for his own good. Getting mixed up with him was begging for trouble. “Just ’cause you’re used to getting what you want doesn’t make you exempt from the rules. Redneck assholes don’t give a shit how much money you got. They’ll beat your ass just as easily—probably more so. Bicurious 101, you make sure the guy is gay first! Always.”