31. Ciaran

31

CIARAN

" S o this is your bedroom?" Jason asked after we'd stepped inside. He wandered around the room, looking at the artwork and fingering the spines of the books on my shelf. "Where's Matty's room?"

Jason poked his head out to look at the deck. On his return, his fingers traced the bedspread.

I locked the bedroom door and immediately started to get cold feet…but maybe it was nerves.

"Next door." It wasn't a secret why we'd come up here. Jason hinted that he'd like to continue our "conversation" from Pirate's Cove somewhere more private, so he could remind me of what exactly we'd done.

I'd been semi-erect during the last few moments we tossed the Frisbee back and forth as he told me about our kissing, dancing, how we rubbed against one another.

As he'd described the scene, flashes of his face came to my inner mind. Images of the fire, of his hands on me, of his mouth on mine.

When he told me it was Matty who pulled him off me, and that was the reason I punched Matty, it started coming back to me. The fact that I could see his hungry eyes in my mind told me he wasn't lying. In fact, my body was responding, but then again, I'd been fighting an erection since the hot tub.

Jason added, "Matty doesn't like it when people touch what he thinks belongs to him."

"I don't belong to anyone," I said from the doorway.

Jason inspected himself in the mirror that faced the bed. It was clear he liked what he saw in his own reflection. Jason was incredibly good-looking. Brunet, lean and muscular, picture-perfect. He was the kind of person you'd see on the swim issue of a Sports Illustrated , with words like "America's Next Great Swimmer" or something like that.

"Prove it by coming here," he said. I bristled at what felt like a command, but I still closed the distance between us. "Turn around. Face the mirror," he instructed, and I complied. Closing his arms around me, he pressed his deft hands against my chest, sliding up and down my abdomen.

His breath was hot against the base of my neck as one hand went even lower, skimming the edge of my swim trunks. We were both wearing thin swim trunks, so I could feel it when his erection pressed against my ass.

My erection, however, deflated.

"Do you remember now?" He ground his hips into my backside. "This is what we were doing last Saturday night."

I watched him watch me and my stomach turned, filling with shame.

My mind screamed, This isn't right .

I stepped out of Jason's embrace and turned to face him. It was difficult to meet his intense stare.

"Jason, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm ready to do this after just meeting."

"A little cock tease, aren't you?" Jason's eyes narrowed at me. I held my breath for a long moment, wondering if he'd get physical. Instead, he adjusted his crotch dramatically. After a tense pause, he said, "Maybe some other time, when you're more comfortable."

I opened my bedroom door to show him out. Instead of following me, Jason spun around and walked out onto the deck.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I want to check out Matty's bedroom. I've heard he has an amazing walk-in closet with a gigantic safe." He turned back to me. "What's in it, do you know?"

Jason tried the sliding door and it slid open with no resistance.

"Jason," I hissed, trying to grab his arm. He shook me off. "What the fuck, man, you can't go in there."

With a wicked grin, he said, "You don't have to come in with me if you'll get into trouble, Ciaran. I won't tell if you won't."

I couldn't in good conscience allow him to go into Matty's room, so I followed him.

Jason flicked on lights, found the closet, and darted inside.

"Oh, my God," he breathed out. "Look at everything. Watches. Designer suits. A hundred pair of shoes for two feet. Amazing. The guy has everything, but all the money in the world can't prevent Coach from benching him. Karma, right?" Jason crowed, obviously pleased with Matty's slowing swim pace.

I didn't know Matty had been benched. That might explain the contemplation I saw on his face earlier.

Jason walked right up to the large gray safe, and started spinning the dial and trying the handle as if it would magically spring open. Anger burned in my belly at his audacity.

"Jason, you need leave now." With a vice grip, I squeezed his forearm and yanked back, catching him off balance, which surprised me.

We fell to the floor, but Jason's arm flung out, hitting a tray full of ties, rolled-up belts, and cufflinks, all of which clattered to the wooden floor.

I pushed Jason off me, pinned him down with my knees, and attempted to slug him in the jaw. He moved at the last second and my knuckles smashed into the floor.

Pain threaded up my arm and the force of the jolt stunned my senses for a brief second.

"Dammit." I checked my knuckles for blood. In my distracted state, Jason bucked upward, sending me backward, and my shoulder blade struck the corner of the safe. A poof of air escaped my lungs. That was going to leave a mark.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" Matty yelled from the bedroom. As if he had the ability to stop time, everything halted as he inspected the disheveled state of his closet. "Did you think you'd have a little fuck in my bedroom or were you trying to rob me?"

"Is this what fucking looks like to you, Matty?" I shouted as I came to a standing position. Jason, still on the floor, was between us. "He came in here and I was trying to make him leave."

"Did you let him in, Ciaran?" Matty asked. His face went extremely dark and I wasn't sure who he was angrier with, me or Jason.

"Don't be an idiot," I said. But then I amended, "I invited him to my room, but he came over here when, um…"

Jason started laughing. He was sitting in unraveled ties and a small pile of clothing that had come off hangers.

"Relax, I didn't take anything ." Jason's gaze shot up to mine with fairly clear meaning. My face felt hot. "Pretty boy Ciaran here ended our tête-à-tête early. Can't blame me for administering my own self-guided tour as consolation."

"Bastard," Matty growled.

Matty's eyes glittered as he pulled Jason by the arm and roughly shoved him out of his room, out into the hallway, and then down the stairs. As I watched from the top of the steps, Jason shoved Matty, who instantly reared back and punched Jason in the face.

The swim captain went down, but he wore a smug expression even as he rubbed his jaw.

"I don't want to see your face again," Matty seethed.

Where was everyone? I thought people would gather to witness the commotion, but it was strangely quiet.

"That won't be difficult," Jason said with a sharp laugh as he got to his feet, "considering Coach benched you. Hope the shoulder heals, Matty. But don't worry, Olympic Trials will come around again in four years. Maybe you'll be less of an asshole by then."

Flipping him the bird with both hands, Jason pivoted and walked away.

Matty slammed the front door, spun around and glared at me from the bottom of the stairs. Even in the dim light I could see the dark glint in his eye.

He was like a Greek god hell-bent on vengeance. I didn't know if I should be scared or excited. I felt a combination of both.

Without a word, he sprinted up the stairs, two steps at a time, grabbed my shoulders, and pushed me into his bedroom.

"Explain yourself, Ciaran, or I swear to God I won't be liable for my actions."

"I told you?—"

Matty shoved me aggressively. My back collided with the closet doorjamb. Air rushed from my lungs.

"Don't lie to me," Matty said. "Why are you in here, in my bedroom? Did he try to open the safe? Did that fucker touch you?" He raked a hand through his hair. "Did he hurt you?"

"What? No." I put an arm out and he smacked it away. Matty was being a brute, but hell if I didn't want all his passion heaped upon me, because then it might match how I felt on the inside.

I saw red. I was no pushover, so I shoved back. He stumbled into his dresser with a grunt but rebounded almost instantly. He grabbed my shirt into his fists and all but manhandled me into the closet, throwing me against a rack of clothing. Hangers stabbed me in the back.

I nearly lost my footing on a loose tie on the floor, but managed to stay upright.

Matty rushed at me but suddenly stopped short. His eyes were angry, impassioned. It seemed like he couldn't breathe, couldn't decide what he wanted to do to me. The heat radiating off his body was hot enough to start a forest fire.

The air between us crackled darkly, dangerously, and it felt like I was perilously close to falling off a cliff. Immobile, all I could do was hold my breath. I didn't want to blink, lest I missed something.

Matty's gaze flicked to my mouth.

There was something in that gaze… Longing? Misery?

I didn't see him move. One second he was a foot away and the next he was inches away, a hand on my throat, squeezing, but also pulling me to him, like he wanted to watch as he extinguished the life from my body.

"God, what are you doing to me, Ciaran?" he whispered before his mouth crashed on mine.