...Their lips came together again, a mutual seeking of closeness.

Kissing Nick was both more compelling and more intimate than any kiss he’d ever shared with a woman. The realization surprised him. But even as he repeated it in his head, there was a truth to it he couldn’t pretend to ignore.

This time when Nick’s mouth slid lower, licking over the flat, pebbled discs of his nipples, Rafferty gave himself up to it, rubbing his hands in Nick’s short hair and holding him close, encouraging him.

Then Nick rose and looked down at him. “I want to touch all of you.”

Rafferty knew he was asking permission.

“I want to touch you, too.”

When Nick’s hands slid just inside the waistband of Raff’s sweats, his palms callused and warm against Rafferty’s hot skin, Rafferty almost shuddered with the jolt of need that hit him. Then did shudder when Nick eased his pants down, exposing Rafferty to the chilly air.

Holy mother…I can’t believe I’m doing this. But at the same time, he couldn’t imagine not doing it.

When Nick had Rafferty’s sweatpants off, he stripped out of his own and knelt between Raff’s legs

Needing more contact, needing…he wasn’t sure what exactly, but knowing it had to do with being closer, touching, feeling more, Rafferty sat up and let his hands roam Nick’s body. Slowly, he tested the feel of his friend’s ripped abs, his sleek, hairless pecs, then back down again, following the line of his hips to his lightly furred thighs, and finally slipping around to stroke the soft skin over rippling muscle of his ass.

Nick held his arms out to the side and let Rafferty explore without pushing for more. But when Rafferty pressed his face against Nick’s groin and took a deep breath to soak up the masculine smell that made his own cock twitch in eager need, Nick huffed out a soft breath and gripped Raff’s shoulders.

His turgid shaft brushed Rafferty’s cheek, hard and sleek. The rocking of the boat beneath them played a game with it, sliding it up and down, bringing it closer and closer to his lips. When he turned his head and the crown brushed over his lips at last, he opened his mouth and teased his tongue over the tip, surprised…and yet not…to taste a bead of slick, salty dampness.

“Holy…unnh, God, Raff…”

Nick’s hands burrowed into his hair and cradled the back of his head, offering all the encouragement Rafferty needed.

He held the younger man’s hips in place and licked again, across Nick’s slit. Then he eased his tongue around the ridge of the corona, knowing what felt good to him when he touched himself and trying to translate that into what his tongue did to Nick. Nick’s masculinity seeped through his senses, hard, alluring…so very different from the softer curves, scents, tastes of a woman. Better. Damn it all, it was better.

Nick shuddered and his hands tightened in Rafferty’s hair, his fingers flexing and releasing against his scalp. “More,” he moaned. “Please…”

The words rippled through Rafferty, settling in the depths of his belly. Spurred to continue, he broadened his path, exploring the full length of Nick’s thick, veiny shaft, admiring the sleekness of hot skin pulled like tight satin over even hotter steel. He licked his way down the length of it, tasting a hint of salt from Nick’s dunking in the ocean, nuzzled his nose in the moist warm curls at its base, tongued his heavy sac, growing drunker by the moment on his friend’s musky arousal.

A part of him was shocked at his own open willingness, but at the same time, as it had been from the moment Nick had kissed him, it just felt like it was meant to be.

By the time he’d worked his way back out to the tip of Nick’s swollen cock, the man was shaking and soft panting breaths escaped him.