Chapter 1

It was the middle of July, and the sweat that ran down my roommate’s chest as he played volleyball on the beach with his buddies was distracting, as usual. I licked my lips, hoping no one else noticed the lust that I could barely hide from where I sat on a boulder, watching the game. I wore sunglasses, not only for the sun, but to hide the way I couldn’t help staring at him. His team was winning, too, and my cock was hard. Good thing my shorts were knee-length and baggy.

Chance Raynor and I met our freshman year of college and became fast friends. We were as different as night and day, but still, we managed to get along. I was studying Liberal Arts with a minor in Creative Writing, while he was a History major, soccer star, and ridiculously hot. I fell for him from the first day, but figured I’d never have a prayer at getting him in my bed. He never wanted for company, and I suspected that most of the friends I had were because they wanted to be closer to him, not me. I’d be hurt, except, I slept in the same room as the guy, got to smell his jockstraps—when he wasn’t there, of course—and jack off to his sweaty T-shirts, since I did our laundry. So there!

He was twenty-one, hung like a moose—yes, I’d seen his cock—and he wasn’t shy about his body, walking around in the buff often. Chance was charismatic, handsome, tall, and broad, with thick, rope-like muscles all over his body. I wanted to lick every one of them, tug on his short, wavy, chestnut hair, and stare into his clear blue eyes as he begged me to fuck him. He wasn’t particular about who he fucked, either—male or female—but he’d never had anyone steady. That part confused me, because he’d had so many opportunities practically thrown at him. Maybe he was waiting until he was older and his career had begun.

The blazing sun and shouts from the sand brought me back to the present. Apparently Chance’s team had won, and everyone was high-fiving each other and bumping chests. It made me smile as I watched all of them race to the ocean and dunk themselves to cool off. If James Bond movies had Bond meninstead of Bond women, the sight of Chance coming out of the water and brushing back his hair, the tight definition of his abs and the way the thin material of his shorts clung to his legs and crotch would have made me a believer. Shit. I needed to calm down or I’d embarrass myself.

I grabbed a can of soda from one of the many ice chests and guzzled down the liquid. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chance squeeze the neck of one of his buddies and shake him a little before kissing his forehead. One thing about Chance: he wasn’t shy about public affection, and if he was interested in you, whether it was for an hour or more, you always had his attention, one hundred percent.

It made me sigh to think what it would be like to have that kind of focus on me, for just ten minutes. I’d rock his world. But why would he even look at a scrawny, black-haired, five-foot-eight dude who still had a tiny bit of acne on his cheeks? Ugh. I waved at Chance when he looked up and caught my eye and smiled.

“Going home, Rico?” he yelled, and I nodded before snagging a bottle of water and trudging across the sand to the road where I’d locked up my bicycle against a light post. Chance had his jeep. I could have ridden with him, but I didn’t want to take advantage or impede his summer fun in any way. I figured the ride would help me get rid of sexual tension. Or some of it.

We were staying at his parents’ house in an upstairs apartment for the summer, which was about five miles away from the beach. It was an easy ride back and forth, the road wide and mostly flat. Chance’s parents had accepted me as his best friend right from the start, and since I didn’t have a home to go to on breaks anymore, Chance was happy to share his family with me. I caught their looks of sympathy every now and then, but I shrugged it off. I got that they wouldn’t understand bigotry and intolerance. How could they? They were the complete opposite of that.

When I pedaled into the Raynors’ driveway, my water was gone and I was drenched in sweat. I took the bike around back and climbed the stairs to access the upstairs apartment. The house was a frickin’ mansion, but the Raynors never acted like money mattered to them. They were generous to a fault and I’d often had to stop them from outright buying me stuff when I could get it myself.