Chapter Fourteen: Ezra

Keeping my eyes to myself as I laid out on the beach with Lacey was easier said than done, but I somehow managed to keep it in my pants even when she got up a short time later, took off her skirt and her top, and waded into the chilly water in her bikini.

“Do you want to come in?” she shouted from the gently rolling waves. “The water feels wonderful!”

I’d rather watch you, I thought with a smile and then shook my head. “I’m a sissy. I’d rather stay in the warm sand.”

Lacey laughed that beautiful laugh and dove into the waves, long, brown hair cascading down her back as the afternoon sun glistened and glowed against her skin. As I watched her, my prick hardened, and our night together came back to me in full swing.

Our night. God, that had been something else. I always knew that finally being with Lacey would be a magical moment, but I had no idea how wonderful it could be until last night. It was everything I’d hoped for and more, and all I could think about was how perfect it all had been. The sensation of her naked body against mine … the taste of her lips, the scent of her skin. She drove me wild. And honestly, waking up the following day to face what we had done in a moment of raw and animalistic desire hadn’t gone as I’d wanted. But before I was able to reassure her of how great it had been, she’d pulled the one-and-done thing on me, and I felt as though I’d had no choice but to accept it. I didn’t want to be one and done, not with Lacey. But maybe she was right; maybe it was for the best. I couldn’t in good conscience keep this up and risk losing my best friend. We’d had a night, enjoyed it immensely, and now it was time to move on. We wanted different things, and I refused to lose her. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.

“Okay,” Lacey said, making her way through the sand and back up to the beach with her arms wrapped around herself with a shiver. “I lied. It’s only nice for a few minutes. And now I’m freezing.”

“Come here,” I said, patting the beach towel next to me as I tried to avoid staring at her half-naked body to the best of my ability. Fuck, she looked so good, and I had to physically restrain myself from rolling over and taking her right there in the sand.

Lacey settled down next to me, supporting herself on her elbows and stretching out so that the sun could dry her perfect body. Rarely had I ever seen Lacey in so little clothing (aside from last night, of course), but she was absolutely stunning, and that alone made every moment with her that much more difficult to resist.

“I really like it here,” she said, throwing her head back as she closed her eyes and let the sunlight wash over her face. I stared at the freckles on her face and the ones that dotted her chest, standing out seductively against the sun's shine. “I could make a habit of visiting Hawaii at least once a year.”

“Me, too,” I said, resisting the urge to add, as long as we were together.

“I guess you were right,” she continued. “I need to get out more.”

I nodded, not trusting myself to say more than short, to-the-point answers. God, I wanted her. I needed her. How could I live like this? Maybe things had changed between us now that I knew what I was missing. But what could I do? It would never happen, and that was the worst situation of all.

“Elijah and Ava’s rehearsal dinner is in an hour,” Lacey said, leaning over me to check the time on her cell phone. Her naked abdomen briefly touched mine, and my entire body went rigid with desire. A hiss of breath escaped my lips, but either Lacey didn’t notice, or she pretended not to. “We should probably head back to the room to get dressed.”

“Sure.” I nodded, but the last thing I wanted to do was go to some stupid rehearsal dinner. I wanted to stay here, lying in the white sand with my best friend, ignoring the reality of the real world around us.

But hey, maybe there would be booze. At least that would give me some sort of distraction.

Or make everything worse, I thought bitterly but then shrugged it off. I didn’t care. I needed anything to keep my mind off how fucking nice it was to be with Lacey last night.

“Come on,” she said, hopping to her feet. She brushed the sand off her legs and ass and then offered me a hand, which I took gratefully. I didn’t want to let it go, but I focused on gathering up our beach towels so I couldn’t openly stare at her as we walked. “Thanks for coming to the beach with me today,” she said as we moseyed back up the pathway leading to the hotel lobby. “It was a lot of fun.”

“It was paradise,” I agreed, holding my breath every few seconds, so the mere scent of her didn’t send me over the edge. “It almost makes me wish we’d just come on our own and not for some stupid wedding.”

“To be fair, Hawaii is the place you go with either your family or your lover,” said Lacey. “And we are neither of those things, technically.” She sounded slightly nervous as the words left her lips, but I only smiled.

“Friends come together all the time,” I reminded her. “If two female friends or a group of male friends can go on vacation together, why can’t we?”

She didn’t answer, and I knew she was thinking exactly what I was: those kinds of friends didn’t usually end up fucking at the end of the night.

We were silent as we rode the elevator back up to our room. I could tell things were starting to get awkward again, and that bummed me out more than anything else. Would things ever really be the same now? Had that one night completely fucked up our entire friendship? Were we just pretending at this point that everything was fine and jolly just to survive the rest of this trip?

None of these things I could say aloud, even though I’d always told Lacey everything. I hated that I suddenly couldn’t now. How would we get past this?

“Okay,” Lacey said, stepping into the room. “Does this need to be fancy?”

“It’s just the rehearsal dinner, so no,” I said with a shrug. “I’m just going to swap out my shorts for pants.”

She nodded, digging into her bag for a dress instead of a skirt. I watched her do this, taken with every move she made. I noticed everything now, even the small things. The way she ran her hand through her hair far too often, probably because she was used to having it up. The way her nose wrinkled when she was thinking hard about something, the way the freckles on her face stood out more prominently when she wasn’t wearing makeup. God, I loved it.

Lacey went into the bathroom to change, and I shimmied out of my shorts and boxers to find a fresh pair of underwear and pants. I’d just grabbed a new pair of boxers when the bathroom door opened, and Lacey came out, her eyes landing at once on my buck-ass-naked bottom. She stopped short, holding her wet bikini in one hand, and without thinking twice about it, I whirled around in panic, fully nude, and her eyes went straight from my ass to my dick.

“Jesus,” I said, whipping my new boxer shorts over my junk. Lacey looked away briefly, but the scarlet rising to her cheeks gave her away. She was trying to force back a smile, which only worsened the whole situation.

“Sorry,” she said finally, turning away from me so I could dress. “I didn’t see anything.”

“You’re so full of it,” I muttered, feeling the prick grow as I slipped my pants up and over my growing hard-on. God dammit. There was no escape.

“You’re the one who was naked in the middle of our shared hotel room,” Lacey said as I turned around to glare at her. “You could have waited three minutes for the bathroom.”

I don’t know what compelled me to say what I said next, but it only seemed appropriate. “You liked it.”

Lacey laughed, heat rising to her face. For a moment, she said nothing, merely crossed the room in her sexy, seductive black dress and slipped on a pair of fancy flats. “Maybe I did,” she murmured finally. “But maybe I didn’t.”

God dammit, Ezra, hold yourself together. She’s just teasing you.

“You like nice,” I managed to get out. “I told you, no need for anything fancy.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I feel like being fancy,” she said, running a brush through those luscious brown waves. “I don’t get to be fancy hardly enough.”

“Suit yourself,” I mumbled. The fact was, Lacey looked fucking stunning in the short, strappy dress that highlighted her breasts and showed off those perfect legs, but it certainly wasn’t helping the hard-on straining against my pants, and I knew it wouldn’t get better as the night went on.

“I will, thanks.” Lacey took one last glance in the mirror with a sly smile before heading to the door, and my only real option was to follow her and hope that I could make it through this night without ravaging her completely. Christ, all I wanted to do was skip this stupid dinner, throw her down on the bed, rip that fucking dress off, and take her until she screamed.

“Ready for a night with my crazy parents?” I asked, and Lacey just smiled.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, Ezra.”

~ ~

Aside from my father getting obnoxiously drunk and my mother flirting with the wait staff all evening, Elijah and Ava’s rehearsal dinner went exceptionally well. The open bar helped, and both Lacey and I helped ourselves to beer and martinis as the evening ended and the wedding party separated, off to do their own things. The actual ceremony and reception wouldn’t be until the end of the week, a few more days, but nobody seemed to mind. That was just extra time we could all spend in this tropical paradise.

“Your mom cracks me up,” Lacey said as we walked together down the candle-lit path towards the beach. She had a glass of wine in one hand, and every once in a while, her free hand would rise to rake itself through her wavy hair, and I’d catch the scent of the subtle perfume she wore. Every time this happened, my dick would throb against my pants harder. This had to be some record for me, a 24/7 hard-on that I just couldn’t get rid of.

“She is ridiculous.” I took a sip of my beer and shook my head, yearning to reach out and take Lacey’s hand, just to see what she would do, but I didn’t. I couldn’t ruin this moment with her. I couldn’t scare her away.

“Let her have her fun,” insisted Lacey. “She deserves it, Ezra. We all do.”

Of course, she was right, but I couldn’t help to feel bitter about it anyway. Every time I considered briefly that I could settle down and start a family, I thought of my parents and how wrong it had all been for them. When I saw them now, off in their own little worlds, happy and content and enjoying life, it pissed me off even more.

“Care for another drink?” I asked as we approached one of the sandy beach bars. Lacey nodded, finishing off her glass of wine, and I ordered her another. After last night, alcohol probably wasn’t the sanest idea, but neither seemed to care.

“Oh, hey,” Lacey said, nudging me in the ribs as the bartender handed us new drinks. “Three ‘o clock, the brunette at the table over there is checking you out.”

I turned subtly to look, but not because the thought of being checked out excited me. Not anymore, though. Not with Lacey. Sure enough, however, the leggy, dark-haired woman revealed that she had no hesitation eying me across the bar. She was beautiful, this one, and any other day I would have jumped on that opportunity like it was my last day on earth.

But she’s not Lacey.

“She’s okay,” I said aloud, turning my attention back to my best friend. “Can’t say I’m in the mood, though.”

“The mood?” repeated Lacey. “Are you, Ezra Trevino, actually telling me that, for the first time in your life, you’re not in the mood?”

Not for that woman, anyway, I thought but only smiled at Lacey.

“Yup. That’s what I’m telling you.”

“I’m not sure how much I believe you,” she said, sitting down on the barstool. I took a seat next to her, sipping my beer, knowing that the intoxication I felt, the buzz in my head, was the scent of Lacey, the presence of her, and not just the booze.

“Well, believe it, baby,” I said cockily, shooting back half my beer in one swallow. “Not even a little.”

“Ezra, we’ve been friends for a long time,” she said. “And you’re a shit liar.”

“What can I say, Lace? I’m enjoying my time with you.” I laughed, adjusting my ass on the seat as my desperate desire for her only grew.

She smiled at this, just barely, and signaled to the bartender. “I’m feeling a round of tequila,” she said. “Why not celebrate while we’re here? Does that sound good?”

I leaned into her, catching a whiff of the magical perfume she wore mixed with the salty scent of her skin from the ocean air. Her plump lips were stained red, lashes batting playfully, and my fingers itched to reach out and touch her.

To ravage her.

“That sounds perfect.”