Heat Stroke (Beach Kingdom Book 2)

by Tessa Bailey

  “Whatever it is, Andrew, we’ll handle it. Okay?” Jamie said. “Together.”

  His older brother shoved a pen behind his ear and got to work pulling a pint. His smile was warm, but his eyes were distant. “Go enjoy yourself, Jamie. You deserve it.”

  Jamie meant what he’d said. They would handle whatever came their way.

  As brothers.

  But if the cop had walked out the door, nothing was coming their way tonight.

  Jamie latched on to the reprieve and went to go join Marcus, Mr. O’Shaughnessy and Joey at the table, vowing silently to work on the problem tomorrow. Tonight, however, was about the man who shot to his feet as Jamie approached with his heart in his eyes.

  *

  I, Marcus O’Shaughnessy, am marrying Jamie motherfucking Prince.

  Life was sweet.

  Better than sweet. For the last few days, he’d had to restrain himself from hugging random strangers everywhere he went. When he’d taken up residence underneath his bed, he’d thought life would never be worth living again—and now he was determined to live as long as possible so he could wring every drop of time with Jamie out of it.

  Swear to God, Marcus had to concentrate on not flipping tables over, he was so alive and happy and invigorated. What man alive wouldn’t be, knowing they got to wake up next to Jamie for the rest of their lives?

  Marcus frowned.

  No man alive, that’s who. Except for him.

  While weaving his way through the maze of tables and chairs, Jamie gave Marcus a secret half smile and Marcus’s jealousy melted like candle wax. He didn’t have to worry about things like Jamie finding someone else. Or not being good enough for Jamie. His fiancé loved him more than anything in the world—he’d told Marcus so, in those exact words. He’d been all mussed up at the time, too. Mussed up and naked and playing with Marcus’s hair—

  Marcus’s cock started to swell and he let out a choked noise as the metal cage around his johnson prevented his erection from growing too large. Oh. Oh Jesus Christ. That felt terrible, painful and amazing all at once. Lust rippled through his abdomen and the blood in his head rushed south. No, no. Don’t go down there. There’s no room at the inn.

  Jamie raised an eyebrow as he reached Marcus, his step slowing ever so slightly. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes,” Marcus managed, a trickle of sweat rolling down his spine. “All good.”

  You can’t spend every moment of the day horny. This is an important night.

  Control your dick.

  The moment Jamie and Marcus sat down, a girl tapped the mic at the front of the room. “Who’s ready to take the quiz and win some money?”

  Marcus watched Jamie out of the corner of his eye. This is when his fiancé would pretend he didn’t want to participate but ultimately wouldn’t be able to restrain himself from showing off his intellect. Which is why Marcus had deliberately invited his father and Joey to meet them on this particular night, at this exact time. Jamie was so freaking smart—so sue Marcus, he wanted to show off his man.

  Marcus slid the empty answer sheet onto the table, along with a pencil.

  “Oh.” Jamie adjusted his glasses, sitting up a little straighter. “Are we doing the quiz?”

  “Yeah, why not?” Marcus leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, well aware that he looked like a smug son of a bitch. “Might as well, since we’re here.”

  “I’m just here for the beer,” Joey announced, tipping his Budweiser to his lips.

  “I like trivia,” Marcus’s father said, leaning forward. “Count me in.”

  Jamie smiled and ducked his head a little. “Cool.”

  “Okay, pencils at the ready! We’re starting with a film and television round,” the quizmaster announced. “Question one. Never Say Never Again was the final James Bond appearance for which actor?”

  Jamie was already jotting down the answer. Sean Connery.

  Marcus’s father sent him an impressed nod and Marcus’s chest inflated like a life raft.

  “I’ve got the entire Bond collection at the house,” Marcus’s father said to Jamie, shifting in his seat. “You should come over and watch sometime.”

  “Yeah,” Jamie said, having no luck subduing his smile. “I’d like that.”

  “Can I come, too?” Marcus teased.

  His father’s lips twitched. “Sure, if you bring over some of that juice.”

  “Which one?”

  “Sex Machine, of course.”

  Marcus dragged a hand down his face, but a laugh snuck out. “Sorry I asked.”

  “Question two!” Called the quizmaster. “In the TV series Knight Rider, Knight was aided by his car, which was called KITT, but what sort of car was KITT?”

  “Trans Am,” Jamie and Marcus’s father whispered at the same time, before high fiving each other. Marcus’s heart tripped over itself. Happy, ambient music—the kind that plays at the end of movies—filled his ears and he was definitely mooning at Jamie, but he couldn’t help it. Didn’t want to help it, even though Joey was shaking his head and laughing at him.

  “Question three! Which actress plays the character Oda Mae Brown in the classic nineties film Ghost?”

  Marcus almost spit out his beer. “No way.” Jamie and he traded a stunned look. “Babe, I’m telling you, it’s a sign.”

  Jamie tilted his head. “What kind of sign?”

  “We should get married soon. Probably tomorrow, I’m thinking.”

  He was waiting for Jamie’s signature eye roll, but instead, his fiancé lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “How about next week?”

  Marcus stopped breathing. He grabbed the leg of Jamie’s chair and yanked it all the way over, leaning close enough that their foreheads were almost touching. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah.” Jamie sucked in a breath. “Once the school year starts, my schedule will be tight and we’d probably have to put it off until next summer, so—”

  “I want you to go back to work with my ring on your finger. I want everyone to know you belong to me.”

  Jamie’s eyes did that melting thing they’d been doing more and more lately and it caused a matching sensation in Marcus’s chest. “I want that, too.”

  “I want to pick you up at school and bring you to your favorite Thai place.”

  “Done.”

  “Then I want to bring you home and—”

  “Marcus.”

  But it was too late. Thinking about the trifecta from heaven—calling Jamie his husband, going on a date with Jamie, bringing home his man so they could fuck in the bed they shared—had caused Marcus’s cock to fill with unbearable pressure. He swallowed a guttural groan and willed his erection to subside, but he kept picturing Jamie with his head thrown back, moaning while Marcus sucked him off. And ouch. Ouch. The metal sides of the cock cage bit into his hardening flesh and his life flashed in front of his eyes.

  “Jamie,” he wheezed, pointing down at his jailed junk. “I have to get this thing off.”

  “Get what off?”

  “Cock cage,” he whispered. “I bought it yesterday. I thought it would be a fun surprise. I put the key that opens it on your key ring while you were in the shower.” He bit down on his lower lip and tasted blood. “You gotta spring me, babe. I’m dying.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Jamie pressed his lips together. “Life with you isn’t going to be boring.”

  “Not unless my dick falls off.”

  “Everything okay over there?” Marcus’s father called.

  “You guys over there picking wedding venues?” Joey chimed in, waving down the waitress. “You’re missing the quiz.”

  Having his family within spitting distance should have been enough to lose his erection, but Jamie smelled too good and his hand was resting on Marcus’s thigh now—and it was hopeless. “Help me.”

  “Okay, hang tight.”

  “Bad choice of words, babe.”

  Jamie plowed a hand through his hair and turned to address Marcus’s fa
ther and Joey. “I just remembered I have to count out my register in back. Forgot all about it. Marcus is going to help me so we can get back quicker.”

  “Math,” Marcus offered in a strangled voice. “Going to help do math and things.”

  “Right,” Joey said, smirking. “Take your time.”

  Marcus’s father slid the answer sheet and pencil over in front of himself, cracking his knuckles. “Don’t you worry, men. I got this.”

  Jamie stared after the paper longingly for a moment, then took Marcus by the hand and pulled him through the busy bar while Marcus tried not to limp. Some of the customers they passed did a double take over seeing him and Jamie holding hands, but that only made Marcus’s dick harder. Damn right, he’s mine.

  “Ouch,” Marcus ground out, his cock fighting for freedom against the walls of its cage. “What if I die, Jamie? What if I don’t live long enough to marry you? How long would you wait to move on?”

  “Enough with the crazy talk,” Jamie said, herding Marcus into the back office and locking the door. “I’d never get over you. I’d never move on. Now drop your pants.”

  Marcus threw his back up against the door and groaned, his hands shaking as he undid his belt. “You’re making me harder on purpose.”

  “We’ve gone over this. Everything makes you harder.”

  “Everything you do.”

  Lips twitching, Jamie shooed Marcus’s hands away and finished the task of unbuckling his belt and lowering the zipper of his jeans. When Jamie tugged down Marcus’s boxer briefs, he took a quick step back and observed the crime scene. “Oh…wow, baby. It looks like a bratwurst trying to fit inside a thimble.”

  A laugh rushed out of Marcus, but that hurt, too, so he cut himself off with a whimper. “Jamie, please. Please. It’s the little gold key on your ring.”

  Jamie’s eyes ticked up to his, and Marcus saw the arousal there. “What’s going to happen when we let it out?”

  Marcus couldn’t form words. He was already so hard, he was in danger of cutting off his own circulation. Now Jamie was turned on, too? Marcus’s teeth bared themselves and he started to shake, his fingers tearing ineffectually at the tiny lock position on the base of the cock cage. “I don’t know,” he rasped. “It feels like I’m going to come as soon as it’s off.”

  Jamie’s fingertips brushed over a section of exposed flesh on the side of Marcus’s dick, making his shaft jerk painfully, his eyes rolling back in his head. “I know I laughed at this idea, but…” Jamie reached down and squeezed the bulge growing behind his fly. “But I love it. God, I probably love it way too much.”

  “Oh fuck fuck fuck. I’m sorry, Jamie.”

  Marcus pushed off the wall and backed Jamie across the room, spinning his fiancé around and throwing him face down over the desk. He reached into Jamie’s pocket and took out his keys, his breathing labored as he searched for the right one. As soon as the golden key came into view, Marcus hurried through inserting it into the lock and twisting, moaning like a tortured animal when the metal loosened and fell off his cock onto the floor. Clank.

  But the agony didn’t end there. Marcus’s body cried out for relief so loudly, he could only obey its demands. Now now now. He took a small bottle of lube out of his pocket and set it on the corner of the desk, before he essentially ripped Jamie’s pants and briefs down to his ankles, exposing the tight, bare ass that had occupied his fantasies for years. His hands climbed over the mounds of Jamie’s cheeks and molded them roughly. “Mine.”

  “Yours. That’s right,” Jamie breathed, his hands clutching the sides of the desk. “Now fill me up with what’s mine.”

  Licking his lips, Marcus drizzled lube in the split of Jamie’s ass and used his fingers to massage the way in. Neither one of them could wait long, though, and within moments, Marcus was pressing his cock deep inside Jamie with a prolonged growl. “Oh my God.” He fell on top of Jamie and humped him like a fucking animal, the legs of the desk scraping on the floor. Within seconds, the base of his spine was tightening, tightening and he couldn’t obey his mind’s command to slow down. “Jamie it hurts. I can’t hold it in.”

  Jamie’s knuckles were white from gripping the desk. “Yes you can.”

  The sound of the smacking flesh got faster, louder. “No. No. I can’t.”

  “You will wait.” Jamie grunted from the force of Marcus’s thrust. “Or I’ll make you stop and put it back in the cage.”

  Marcus bit off a curse and slowed the pumping of his hips, even though it almost killed him. Christ, he loved when Jamie ordered him around when they were physical. He loved it so much. It made something inside him whole, made him aware of capabilities he didn’t know he possessed. The connection between them burned hot at all times, but it was times like this, Marcus knew in his bones that his soul had recognized Jamie the first time they met. As the love of his life and the keeper of his lust—and his lust had tastes that continued to be revealed through Jamie’s touch, words, presence.

  Marcus’s focused on his breathing and held back his release, using his mouth on Jamie’s neck, dropping his hand to Jamie’s thick cock, stroking him loose and fast, the way he liked it.

  “Come for me, I love you, come for me,” Marcus rambled brokenly, his loins protesting the delay, his inner thighs spasming, his hips pistoning faster, harder, unable to stop. The desk scraped across the floor and wedged up against the wall and Marcus didn’t miss a thrust, practically climbing on top of Jamie to get deep as possible, fucking down into Jamie’s tight entrance from above. Again again again. “You want to keep my dick in a cage, fine. Do it. Lock me up. Just let me have this ass every fucking day. Say it’s mine again.”

  “It’s yours!” Jamie shouted, his voice breaking as he hit his peak, his body jerking and shuddering underneath Marcus, driving him out of his mind and past the breaking point.

  Black spots danced in front of Marcus’s eyes and euphoria battered him like a boat against the rocks, robbing him of every sense besides touch. He couldn’t see or hear or do a goddamn thing but pump the pressure that had been torturing him into the man who created it every moment of the day. Just by existing. And as the frustrated weight in his lower body eased, eased, eased, the ever-present ache in his chest became more noticeable. It beat in his ears, his fingertips. It echoed throughout his whole body “Jamie, I love you. I love you so much.”

  Jamie turned face up and they breathed into each other’s mouths for a moment. The future was written in his fiancé’s eyes. Bold and big and happy. Real. Forever. “I was going to say you can keep my heart in a cage. But the truth is, I think it was in a cage before. Before I let myself love you,” Jamie said, his throat working. “You turned the key and let it out. Now it feels…like it has so much more room to beat. Like it could keep growing forever because you’re around to fill it up.”

  Marcus swallowed hard but couldn’t quite clear the crowded feeling from his throat. He made a mental note to get on his knees later and thank God for sending him Jamie. For making him the kind of man who could make this incredible person happy. Thank God, thank God, thank God. “So…” Marcus brought their mouths together for a thorough kiss. “Next week?”

  “That’s right,” Jamie said, his gaze roaming over Marcus’s face. “Next week, we’ll become Mr. and Mr. Diesel.”

  Marcus laughed into Jamie’s shoulder, his heart so full it could explode. “When we’re married, I automatically get the chair next to yours on the beach, right?”

  “Every time.” His fiancé’s nod was jerky. “We’ll write it into the vows.”

  Marcus grinned. “Thanks, Jamie.”

  Eyes suddenly serious, Jamie clasped the sides of Marcus’s face and pulled him down into a hard kiss. “I love you, Marcus O’Shaughnessy.”

  It took a moment to gather himself. “I love you back, Jamie Prince.”

  THE END

  Acknowledgments

  There’s something so romantic about a boardwalk. It seems like it goes on forever, doesn’t it?
All different kinds of people roam the planks. When you lean up against the rail and look out at the ocean, you can be anyone. A woman on the run, a barmaid waiting for her sea captain lover to return. So many possibilities. I took my daughter to Long Beach one afternoon last summer and the energy there really captured me—and that very same day, there was a real, live rescue! Lifeguards and whistles and sirens. The whole shebang.

  That’s where my fascination with lifeguards took on new life. What do these young, tan people get up to after hours, hmm? The rest is history. Almost. There’s one more book.

  Thank you to my family for putting up with my highs and lows.

  Thank you to Eagle at Aquila Editing for your sensitivity, humor and expertise.

  Thank you to Juliana at Jersey Girl Designs for my lovely cover.

  Thank you to Ratna Okhai for letting me consult her about Indian culture for Jiya’s sake—and thank you as well to Dulcy, for introducing us. Waffle House for life.

  Stay tuned for Andrew and Jiya.

  Curious about Rory and Olive’s story?

  Here’s a little peek…

  MOUTH TO MOUTH

  The Beach Kingdom Series

  Book One

  By Tessa Bailey

  CHAPTER ONE

  God, I fucking hate summer.

  Rory Prince shoved the ice pack against his throbbing eye and tried unsuccessfully to tune out the offensive early morning kitchen sounds. The scratching of his oldest brother’s pencil across the table might as well have been an air horn pressed directly to the center of his forehead—and was way too efficient for nine a.m.

  “Do you mind?” Rory muttered. “I’m in recovery mode.”

  “When are you not?” Andrew didn’t even bother to look up from the two clipboards on which he seemed determined to make endless notations. “It’s Memorial Day weekend and I have two schedules to organize. Sorry I can’t accommodate your hangover.” His pencil flew from one set of grids to another. “Where did the black eye come from?”