CHAPTER 16

jamie

M ateo had taken me by surprise today. It was not often that someone was able to shock me but he had, shocked me down to my very core. Not only because he had finally been the one to reach out to me, and not just because his car was broken down, but he'd opened up to me in a way that I doubted he'd done with many other people before.

Seeing him sitting there in the café, so open and vulnerable with me had rocked me right to my centre, leaving me feeling like I needed to scoot over to the other side of the booth and hold him in my arms. I'd done the next best thing and invited him back to my place although I hoped I'd conveyed sufficiently enough that I did not mean for sex. He looked like he could do with a little coddling today and that was something that needed to be done with my arms and not my cock.

And that was why I found myself walking along the beach on a dusky late afternoon with the most beautiful guy on the entire coast at my side. The weather had turned this week and the sky was grey, the waves a murky reflection of the storm clouds that were whipping in from offshore. And yet I felt entirely invigorated, at peace, serene and calm as Mateo walked at my side, the same feeling of tranquillity slowly coming over him the longer we walked.

We'd ditched our shoes on the sand a mile back and there really was nothing like getting the sand between your toes for a moment of reflection. Mateo still managed to look like a catwalk model with his linen shirt flapping in the breeze and those snug chinos showing him off in all the right places. But I got the strong impression Mateo could wear hessian sacks and make them look like high fashion.

"When I was a kid my dad used to bring me and my older sisters down here to the South Coast to go sailing. He'd hire a yacht or a small boat and the five of us would spend hours out on these waters," I spoke. We hadn't said much but the silences had been companionable and I hadn't felt the need to break them.

"That sounds fun. Where did you grow up?"

"Just up in Wollongong," I told him. "Me with my three older sisters who treated me as you can only imagine."

"And your mum?"

"Yes, Mum was there too. She never came out on the water with us though. Never did get her sea legs."

"I never had any brothers or sisters," Mateo commented.

"Believe me, they're not all they're cracked up to be," I grinned. "There was a big age gap between the three girls and me so by the time I came along I was pretty much just a doll to them. The things they used to make me do and wear. I'm glad we didn't have too much photographic evidence."

"That's a shame," he chuckled. "I wouldn't have minded seeing you all dolled up in a dress."

"Makeup too. Sometimes my hair if it was long enough to pull into a hair tie."

"Maybe you were born into the wrong family. I'm pretty sure I would have loved that kind of attention," Mateo grinned.

I laughed. "Of course you would. You would have looked a hell of a lot prettier than I did too."

"Yeah, that square cut jaw and broad shoulders do not exactly lend themselves to pretty dresses and makeup."

"The shoulders weren't always so broad," I told him, liking the way his eyes traced across my skin.

"I can imagine. Are they all still there? Up in Wollongong?"

"We're all scattered far and wide these days. Mum and Dad are still there but my sisters are all over the place. Louise is the closest in age to me and she lives in Berlin."

"And were your parents okay with … you know? You?" he asked quietly, eyes dropping to the ground.

"Yeah, they were okay about it, Mateo," I told him. "I think I laid the groundwork pretty early on for them though. I got caught kissing one of the boys in my kindy class and my teacher of course told my folks. They thought it was pretty amusing at the time but they didn't blink an eyelid when I brought home a boy in high school."

"You're lucky," he said.

"I know I am," I agreed, reaching over and squeezing his hand. He squeezed back and then shocked me even more when he didn't let go. I didn't quite know what to do with myself, walking along the beach, holding Mateo's hand. But I threaded my fingers through his, pulling him closer and smiling when he came easily. I mean, the beach was all but deserted at this hour and with this approaching weather but it sparked a light inside me anyway.

We walked until the water met the cliffs and then we stood and watched the waves crashing against the rocks, me with my arms around Mateo, him leaning against my chest, feeling my heart expand impossibly higher. The wind suddenly whipped in off the coast and Mateo shivered in my arms. I dropped my hand down his arm, threading our fingers back together and then turned back the way we had come, his hand still in mine and me feeling like I didn't know how to explain, only that it was clear that all I wanted was to one day hope to make this beautiful boy truly mine.

We dropped hands when we made it back to our shoes and then walked back to my apartment, stopping at the local Vietnamese restaurant for takeaway. The wind was really blowing the storm in from the ocean by then and we felt the first big drops of fat rain just as we neared my apartment.

It was pouring with rain by the time we made it upstairs, Mateo looking even sexier with droplets of water in his hair, and we watched as a lightning storm lit up the suddenly dark sky as it crashed over the ocean. The light show really was something to see, very nearly as spectacular as the man at my side as we watched the storm wreak havoc with the heavens from the safety of the lounge room window.

We ate dinner together and then we curled up on my sofa, Mateo not protesting when I pulled him down to lie between my legs as I flicked through the programs.

"Any preference?" I asked, loving the feel of him here like this, his weight on me.

"Rob and I have a bit of a thing for Farmer Wants a Wife ," he admitted.

"Do you? That's kind of adorable," I smiled, finding the program and selecting the latest episode. "Tell me who the front runners are."

Mateo's face lit up as he told me all about the girls in the running for the farmers, all the fights and dramas and the ones he hoped would win. It was actually really adorable hearing him talk about the show, knowing his own feelings on romance. Maybe he was a romantic at heart, he just didn't know it yet. I would love to show him what it was like to be really loved by someone. If he would ever let me.

"Do you want to stay?" I asked as the show's credits started to roll. The storm had still not let up outside although the thunder and lightning had moved along, gone somewhere else to terrorise the coast.

"Yeah," Mateo agreed with a gentle nod.

I found him a spare toothbrush in my bathroom vanity and then we stood side by side brushing our teeth like some kind of normal couple.

I lent him a pair of athletic shorts that were several sizes too big for him and he laughed as he pulled them on, the sound like a gunshot wound to my heart as I realised how infrequently I heard that sound. It was enough that I almost missed how distracting he looked with those shorts hung low on his hips, that delicious v leading a path to where his shorts barely concealed his bulge.

He crawled into bed first, eyes on me as I climbed in behind him. I knew what he was thinking, probably what he was expecting too but I didn't give it to him.

Instead, I pulled him closer to me, wrapping my body around his smaller frame and pressed a soft kiss to the back of his neck.

"Night, Mateo," I murmured against his smooth skin, his scent absorbing me and making me a little heady with lust.

"Night, Jamie," he said, a soft sigh leaving his lips as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I woke the next day to the calm of a still morning after last night's storm to find Mateo's dark eyes on me, a soft smile on his face as he watched me sleep.

"Well, this is an unexpected turn of events," I mumbled.

"What is?" he smiled.

"You waking up before me," I chuffed. He smiled back at me, a brightness in those inky eyes that wasn't there when we'd met for coffee just yesterday.

"Maybe it's because I woke up feeling horny for you," he said, illustrating his point by shifting his hips and, oh yes, he was horny all right.

"Hmm," I mulled, aware I was at the pointy end of the moral dilemma of my own making. I'd made such a point about this not being about sex but what did I do when I suddenly really wanted it to be about sex?

"I know what you're thinking, you know," Mateo teased, that soft smile still on his face.

"Oh? Do you?"

"Yes. You're all up in your head because you want to be all gentlemanly because I was having a hard day yesterday," Mateo surmised and I couldn't help but smile at his correct guess. "And you have no idea how much I appreciated that last night. But guess what? I'm feeling a whole lot better about today and that's thanks to you."

"I'm glad about that but I did kind of promise you –"

"I know," he cut in before I could finish my sentence. "I am more than my body. But I don't need you to be a gentleman right now, Jamie."

I groaned, so out of my head where this guy was concerned. I also knew my resolve was paper thin this morning especially since I was feeling the exact same way as Mateo.

"Fine," I said, breaking far too easily and not minding that smile of delight that crossed Mateo's gorgeous face. I tackled him onto his back, mindless with my lust for him as I clamped my mouth to his, a moan leaving both our mouths as his taste consumed me.

We were back to the frenzy that we'd managed to control on Saturday night in Sydney, back to hands roaming and tongues grappling as I pushed my tongue into his mouth, going slightly mad at those sounds he was making.

The shorts I had lent him were loose enough that his dick was poking out of the top of them and they were easily discarded down his legs while I shucked mine in two seconds flat. We both grabbed for each other's cocks, his hard and velvety and I cursed as his soft, smooth hand wrapped around me, his thumb tracing across my slit.

"How are your hands so soft?" I moaned, grazing the contours of his jawline.

"Moisturiser," he said. "It's a very important part of my daily routine."

"A habit I thoroughly endorse," I replied, as that soft, gentle hand made me feel all kinds of good while I licked my way to his neck, finding that spot that made him hum.

I made my way down that impeccable body of his, mindful of the rules not to leave any marks even though I desperately wanted to mark up every inch of him, claim him as mine like some kind of possessive neanderthal. But I restrained myself, reminding my inner beast of how much it loved Mateo's smooth olive skin. His chest was completely free of hair which I wasn't sure was natural or due to waxing but I knew I liked it as I gently sucked my way down, teasing both his nipples and licking between each of his abs until I ended up right where I wanted to be.

His legs parted, a wicked smile lighting up his face as I leant between his legs. I licked a stripe up his dick, right from the base to the top, sucking gently along the head and dipping my tongue into his slit.

" Dio santo ," Mateo moaned, my two new favourite words right there. I grinned as I held his eye and then swallowed his length whole, taking him right to the back of my throat as he cursed and writhed underneath me.

"You are exceptionally good at this," he breathed, making me smile around his girth. I moaned as his taste flooded my mouth, loving every part of him, his scent, his taste, the sounds he was making as I took him apart.

I sucked and licked until he was mindless with it and then I gently squeezed his balls until he let out a loud " Merda ". And then he was coming, pulsing in my mouth as I sucked down everything he had to give me, his hand gripping the back of my hair as he finished down my throat.

He collapsed under me as I let him go, working my way up his body to the very content smile on his face.

"Happy now?" I grinned at him, softly biting his chin.

"Not quite," he returned, that smile of pure sin crossing back over his face as he pushed me onto my back. And then it was my turn to lie there as Mateo teased my flesh, licked and sucked in all the right places as he made his way down my body.

"Damn this cock is nice," Mateo commented as he made his way to right where I wanted him. I grinned, taking that as a compliment as he proceeded to do to me what I had just done to him, using that incredibly skilful mouth as he swallowed me whole, making me curse and groan.

He couldn't fit all of me in his mouth so he used his hand and mouth in concert as he sucked me down, making this one hell of a morning wake up call, one I would never forget. That tongue of his sure knew what it was doing as he traced the vein down my shaft and played with the soft underside before dipping back into my slit. I was pretty sure I could lay like that forevermore and be the happiest guy on the planet with him between my legs.

"Mateo," I rasped, watching as those inky eyes met mine, a smile in them that I knew was going to destroy me just as much as his mouth was doing to me right then. I let go, my orgasm ripping through me like last night's electric storms, my back arching as I pulsed in Mateo's warm mouth, again and again until it was over.

He pulled off my dick and then sat back on his haunches, a most self-satisfied smile on his face as he looked down at me, wrecked and panting on the mattress.

"Now that is a sight I like to see," he said.

"Ditto, Mateo. Ditto," was all I could muster, the sight of waking up next to him something I would never tire of.