STORY EXCERPT

Moses Sandler pounded along the sand, putting all his effort into his running. The sweat band around his head wasn’t helping him one bit anymore, and sweat constantly dripped into his eyes. What’s more, his hair no longer lifted from his hot, sweaty neck as he ran, so he guessed it was too sweat-sodden to move. And still he ran, determined to get all the way to the cliffs, before turning back and slowing his pace.

First, his boyfriend had dumped him, saying he was getting old and fat. Then his sister had lectured him on eating properly so he didn’t die of a heart attack. When his favorite jeans had ripped when he bent over, Moses knew it was time to take action. His ex-boyfriend was a manipulative asshole, and his sister was a bossy bitch, but he’d loved those jeans and it was time to make a change.

His chest was heaving, his thigh muscles aching, and his shoulders were tight with tension when he finally made it to the rocky outcrop which marked the end of the Two Waters ocean-side beach. Gratefully Moses collapsed onto the sand stretching out full length on his back and breathing hard. He wiped his sweaty forearm over his face, not that it helped, and continued to heave air into his lungs for long minutes until the blood thumping in his head died down a little.

He rolled over and sat up, then grimaced at the sand stuck to his sweaty skin. “Damn. I’m going to need a swim to clean off.” He looked out to the water, noticing a man walking through the newly exposed sand toward the sandbar. The tide was a long way out, which was why he’d been able to run on the hard-packed sand, although there was still a stretch of water between where the tide had receded and the sand bar. He wasn’t much of a swimmer but likely he could walk that far. If he wanted to. He wasn’t sure he was ready to walk so far just for a swim though. Maybe he’d just jog slowly back to his hotel and the sand would fall off him as his skin dried. Or perhaps not.

Moses sighed and stood up again, wincing at the ache in his thigh muscles already. He was going to be stiff and sore tomorrow. Likely he shouldn’t have run quite so far and so hard today. Well, it was too late to worry about it. A bit of a soak in the sea would help soothe his muscles. He walked slowly out over the damp, rippled sand, then through the softer sand where there were still a few puddles and eddies of water, and finally out into the shallow sea.

He could see the other man more clearly now. He looked to be much the same age as himself, thirty-two, but he had an enviably lean body, and longish blond hair under a black baseball cap. In fact, the more he looked at the other man, the more he liked what he could see. Moses wondered why he was walking so slowly along the sandbar alone. Everyone else in this tourist town seemed to go around in groups or families, or at least pairs. This man didn’t seem to be hunting for a lost possession or anything, just looking at the sand as he walked very slowly along the sandbar.

Moses moved more purposefully now. Not that he planned to interrupt the stranger’s solitude, just that he liked the look of him and was happy to look more closely at the attractive man.

He wondered if the blond was naturally the right weight, one of those lucky people who could eat what he liked without the pounds attaching themselves to his belly and butt. Or if he was a gym junkie or fitness freak. Moses was pretty sure he could never form a relationship with someone whose entire life was framed by how many pounds he’d lifted in the gym that morning or how many miles he’d ridden on an exercise bike. Or even someone who was into counting carbs and portion control. Moses wasn’t stupid. He knew too many beers were a guarantee of a beer belly, but he also liked to eat fries and a hamburger sometimes without someone treating him like a pariah.

Oh, well, this man was likely married with a couple of kids, one of whom had lost something he was now looking for. The chances of Moses meeting a man he was attracted to at this beach were so unlikely as to be ridiculous. And he really did need to drop twenty pounds and lose the belly flab before he could even start looking for a replacement boyfriend for CT.

Despite his thoughts and the knowledge that he likely stank of sweat, Moses continued out to the sandbar and the other man. Moses told himself he was just going for a swim, but his curiosity was aroused and he changed his direction slightly so the other man would see him approaching. The water was knee deep just before the sandbar, and the other man turned as he splashed his way up onto the sand.

Wow. His eyes were a bright blue, despite his face being partly in shadow from the baseball cap. He smiled at Moses and Moses’s heart lurched with lust. He could drown in those big blue eyes as easily as he could in the blue ocean on the other side of the sandbar where they both stood.

“Hi. I’m Moses. Have you lost something? I could help you look for it.” Moses had no idea where the words had come from, but he meant them.

ADULT EXCERPT

They swam up and down beside the sandbar for a while longer, and Moses felt himself gaining confidence as they splashed and hung out together.

Saber duck-dived into the water and picked up a piece of seaweed and threw it at Moses. “Catch!”

“What the fuck? I thought you didn’t like getting water in your ears.”

“I don’t.”

“Well how about seaweed in your ears?” Moses threw the wet blob back at Saber, deliberately aiming at the side of his head.

Saber grinned widely, his blue eyes flashing in the sunlight and Moses knew it was game on.

For the next five minutes they wrestled each other in and out of the water. The seaweed drifted away, and Saber’s hat came off. Moses threw it onto the sandbar, but Saber didn’t go after it. Instead he used Moses’s distraction, to wrap his leg around Moses’s calves and flip him over.

Moses sank under the water, gulping a mouthful of ocean before getting his feet under himself again and bending down to grab Saber’s hips. Somehow he ended up with his hand hooked through the waistband of Saber’s board shorts and he brushed across a very impressive erection. Instantly his own dick went hard and he stood up straight looking into Saber’s eyes.

“Yes. I want you. And you want me, too.”

Moses nodded. His body was burning with lust even though he was chest-deep in water and hardly knew this man. But he did know he wanted him.

Saber pulled Moses hard against himself and ground his cock across Moses’s dick.

Heat and lust raced through Moses and he rubbed back, wrapping his arms around Saber just under the waterline for privacy. If there could even be such a thing as privacy on a public beach in the middle of the day. Moses couldn’t resist sliding his palm inside Saber’s board shorts and cupping the blond’s taut ass. Actually gripping the hard cock pressing into his own dick would have been even better but he liked being jammed against this semi-stranger too much to step back even to hold his cock.

And then all the air was sucked from his lungs as his board shorts were pushed off his hips and a big hand grabbed his dick and began methodically stroking it from root to tip.

“What—?”

“Sh. No one can tell what’s going on under the water. I’d like to kiss you as well, but people could see that. Right now, no one on the beach can see anything more than our heads, and anyone on a boat won’t be coming this close to the sandbar so we’re safe.”

“Safe?” Moses could barely gasp the word out as Saber gave a wicked little twist to his hand that almost made him come on the spot. But then he realized that two could play this game as well. He gripped the ass he was holding tighter and used both hands to massage the taut muscles there, before sliding a tentative finger into Saber’s butt crack.

Instantly Saber widened his legs, and tugged harder on Moses’s cock. Moses wanted to do more. To touch Saber more intimately, but he was going to come any moment now and he was struggling to believe that he was even doing this with a man he’d only known for half an hour and on a tourist beach where dozens of people were only a few hundred yards away from them.