Sailor Proof by Annabeth Albert

Chapter Thirteen

Derrick

I was used to confined places. In fact, I was probably the most prepared person on the planet for sharing a small space with another human.

And the absolute worst choice to try to do it with Arthur. Arthur, who smelled amazing, who kissed like I was the key to the last life raft on a sinking ship, and who was a virgin. And my best friend’s virgin little brother to boot. Who wanted to practice boyfriend skills and sex with me.

Lord help me, I was not going to survive this night, let alone this week.

Eventually, lying there in the dark like the idiot I was who had flounced off to bed fully clothed grew intolerable. Arthur was motionless and quiet but quite possibly still awake when I crept from the bed. Operating in the dark, I shucked my pants, retrieved a pair of pajama bottoms from my bag, brushed my teeth, used the facilities, and dallied in the bathroom until I ran out of reasons to avoid the bed.

As I reentered the main room of the cabin, I exhaled softly at how appealing the Arthur-shaped lump under the covers was. Leaving the bed had done absolutely nothing to help my willpower. Fine. Maybe the universe was going to have to win this round because I wasn’t strong enough on my own.

“Arthur?” I whispered, already mentally laying out the terms of my surrender.

“Zzzz,” a soft snore replied.

Oh. I refused to acknowledge the way my shoulders slumped or the bitter taste of disappointment in my mouth. Pull it together. The crisis had been averted. I slid into bed, hugged the edge, and willed my body toward sleep, like I’d learned to do when I was on duty with precisely four hours of shut-eye available. Eventually, it must have worked, because I slept and slept deeply at that, a deep, dreamless coma.

But not, as it turned out, motionless. I might not have dreamed, but I also hadn’t remained on the edge of the bed either.

I’d figured that Arthur would be the cuddly one and that I’d have to gently pry him off me in the night more than once. And I’d maybe been subconsciously craving that, but in the end, it was me who’d done the migrating in the night.

“Huh.” I blinked awake in the early morning light after way more than four hours of sleep, more than a little horrified at my armful of Arthur.

I’d wrapped myself around him like a barnacle, holding him close, one leg over his, and an arm snaked across his chest. He too must have left bed at some point in the night because his jeans were gone, replaced by soft boxer briefs. Even through the layers of cotton between us, his ass was warm and inviting and nestled right against my groin. My lips were pressed against the back of his neck, as if my sleepy self had already been busy staking a claim on him.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Trying not to wake him, I attempted to move my arm, but he hauled me closer with a surprisingly strong grip on my forearm.

“Please tell me you’re done thinking,” he whispered. “Or...do you need us to both pretend to stay asleep so you can keep going? I’m good with giving you plausible deniability if you wanna claim sleepiness made you cuddly. Either way, please don’t stop.”

“I should.” I groaned low. “I’m not good at pretending.”

And that right there was my whole problem. I wasn’t good at this whole fake relationship thing, at reminding myself that this wasn’t real, that it didn’t matter how good he felt in my arms, he wasn’t meant to stay there. Also, my moral code wasn’t going to let me blame sleep for taking advantage of him.

“I am.” Arthur laughed, and his chest moved under my hand. And that difference between us, the ease with which he could playact, was maddening. And tempting. It would be so damn easy to go along with him.

“We should...” I made a frustrated noise, and my breath ruffled his hair. His skin was right there next to my lips, and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing his neck instead of finishing my decree.

“Do that again. Yes, we should.” Stretching like a cat against me, Arthur made a satisfied little grunt that went straight to my aching cock.

“Yeah.” I huffed out a breath, the fight leaving me in a rush so intense I swore I could hear the universe laughing at how weak my willpower truly was. Experimentally, I rocked against him and had to moan with how good it felt. His ass was warm and firm but also soft and welcoming.

“How about we try the thinking thing later and this right now?” Arthur pitched his voice low and seductive as he pushed back against me.

“Mmm.” That sounded like the best suggestion ever, and I held him even tighter, dropping another neck kiss. He moaned, clearly as into this as I was. Logic aside, I wanted him, wanted this, had spent all night craving this on some deep, primal level.

Parting my lips, I licked and teased, more purposeful now, nibbling simply to luxuriate in how it made him shiver in my arms. Each wriggle from him was an electric surge to my cock. Simply the taste of his skin and his little noises and movements were enough to get me close to the edge. It had been so long that I wasn’t even sure I could last long enough to shed my pants, get skin to skin.

Far from playing the shy virgin, Arthur knew exactly how to ramp me up, moving deliberately against me, finding an urgent rhythm together before dragging my hand lower down his torso.

“Please.”

“I’ve got y—”

“Breakfast!” A gong sounded in the distance, but voices were closer, what sounded like a group of people passing by, someone yelling, others laughing.

“Please ignore that.” Arthur continued to wriggle against me, but the happy bubble surrounding us had burst.

My muscles went stiff and tense, and I groaned. “Fuck.”

“Yes. That.” Arthur kissed my hand. “Right now—”

“Pancake time!”

“We need to get out of bed,” I whispered to Arthur. “Now.”

“Nuh-uh.” He pulled me tighter against him. “We can be fast. And super quiet.”

“If you’re that quiet, I’m doing something wrong,” I couldn’t resist teasing, resuming my slow grind against him.

“Up and at ’em!” A louder, more masculine yell this time.

“Okay. That’s a clear signal from the universe that this shouldn’t be happening.” Groaning, I rolled away from Arthur.

“Nope. Not accepting that fate.” He easily followed me, draping himself over my back as I sat up.

“We are not doing it with a pack of your relatives outside and the call for chow every three minutes,” I said sternly. “You deserve—”

“So noble.” Arthur kissed the back of my neck, exactly like I’d done to him, and I shivered, feeling the brush of his lips all the way down to my cock. “Bet we can’t hear them in the shower.”

“Tempting.” Even as I said it, logic was rushing back in, replacing my lust-addled thoughts. I stood before I could give in to the urge to topple him backward on the bed. “But I mean it. You deserve more than some one-off hookup squeezed in before breakfast.”

“Luckily we have all week.” His laugh was deep and musical and made my stomach quiver with want. His wide grin said he knew damn well that he had me.

“I—”

“Morning kayaking after breakfast! No lazing in bed!” another voice yelled right before the gong sounded again.

“Coming!” I yelled back, loud as I could.

“Not hardly,” Arthur grumbled even as he too scrambled out of bed and started rooting around for clean clothes. “You’re killing me here, Derrick.”

“You’ll live.” My fate, on the other hand, was still hanging in the balance. I wasn’t coming out of this week unscathed, that much was for sure. And there was only so much resisting a guy could do. “If we’re gonna—”

“Oh, we’re going to.” He gave me a look so pointed that my skin heated, and I had to glance away before I launched myself at him, right there on the rug beside the bed.

“Then we need to do it right,” I said firmly. “Later.”

“That better be a promise and not a way of putting me off again.”

My groan that time was the sound of surrender, soft and low and full of want that I could no longer hold back. “It’s a promise.”