Colin was happy for Jordan and Tag and even for his other travelmates, Alison and Tom, and Sylvia and Gayle. But damn, he did not kid himself that traveling with three happy couples wouldn't sting. Jordan had encouraged Colin to invite someone, but ever since he broke up with his previous partner and then started having the dreams, he didn't feel a connection to any man he would have wanted to bring to such a special occasion. At least none that exist outside of my head. To bring a virtual stranger on a trip halfway around the world, to have him sit there and watch a very dear friend get married… Something felt very dishonest about that.
The deck shifted under Colin's feet as the boat slowed down, and he opened his eyes to the bright afternoon sun. He slid his sunglasses off the neck of his shirt, slipped them on, and noticed the boat decelerated as it approached the first in a series of small islands.
As the boat slowly coasted past the first, Sylvia, the third partner in their PI firm, said to her girlfriend, “Honey, when we retire, we are going to live here. In that house.” She pointed at a bungalow-style home on stilts; the front portion of the house had a balcony that jutted out over the water.
Her partner Gayle laughed and drew Sylvia into her arms. Sylvia leaned in for a kiss, and the woman's mahogany skin gleamed with pearly-dark shine against Gayle's pale coloring. Gayle's hand slid down Sylvia's back, and she tugged the woman in close with a hand cupped on her ass.
“Break it up, ladies,” Tag said, drawing everyone's attention. He pointed at everyone in the group and added, “Nobody gets any nookie on this vacation until I do.”
Everyone booed and hissed, and Jordan stood up on her tiptoes to cover her fiancé's mouth with her hand. Laughing and mock accusations of retribution ensued. Alison, the final member of PI ownership, finally busted everyone up in her very organized way, pointing the group back in the direction of the spectacular sights all around them.
It was all very heartwarming; these people were Colin's extended family.
And he had never felt more alone in his life.
The boat continued on its journey, floating by more bungalow-style homes with each beachfront property they passed, and soon Colin dropped his attention to the water, letting the brilliant color, the reflection of the sun, and the steady rise and fall of the waves lull him into a half-trancelike state.
The familiar scent of strawberries and vanilla tickled his nose, and a second later, Jordan bumped her shoulder into his biceps. “Doing okay?” she asked.
Hell. Half a day in, and I'm already turning into a pity case. “Yep. I'm fine.” He even plastered on a big, cheesy smile for his friend.
Jordan didn't look like she believed him. “Okay.” She took a sip from one of her ever-present bottles of water. “The skipper says we'll circle around the last island and coast up the other side. Then we'll head back for some rest. All right?”
Colin stooped down and pecked a kiss on Jordan's cheek. “I promise I'm having fu—” The boat swung around the final island in the chain right then, and Colin's heart dropped right into his stomach.
The picture before his eyes provoked a stir from his cock too.
Holy shit. I do not believe it.
Colin's heart stopped, and he had to blink and look again more than twice. But his eyes did not deceive him.
On the back end of the island stood the house in Colin's dreams.
Chapter Two
Colin stared at the house from his dreams, dumbfounded, angered, and confused.
What the hell happened to my house?
A rush of possession and fury rocked through Colin, and he barely suppressed the urge to jump out of the boat and swim to shore so he could confront his phantom lover about the ramshackle condition of their home. Colin didn't have to research ownership of the residence; a certainty in his gut, a rush of anticipation simmering right under his skin, told him that a single man lived in this house. The same man who had been making love to him for two years in his dreams.
Son of a mother.
The house was in complete disrepair, and Colin wasn't sure he would have recognized it without the stained glass window or the unusual tiles on the roof, even though there were now a few patches of rusty-red colored ones mixed in among the Wedgwood blue. The siding didn't look like anyone had pressure washed it in years, and even if they had, the pristine white beneath was probably permanently faded to a dull gray with age.
And where the fuck was the red door?
The boat continued to move, and soon the house slid out of sight. Colin rushed down the length of the deck to the back end of the boat and leaned over the railing, searching for just one more little peek of the house, anything to convince himself he hadn't hallucinated the entire thing.
Jordan, fast on Colin's heels, clapped her hands in front of his face. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“That place we just passed,” Colin said, his focus still in the direction of the house, even though they had circled the line of islands to the opposite side and he could no longer see it. “The one that looked like it was falling apart.”
“With the blue tiles on the roof?”
So I really did see it.
“That would be the one. Excuse me for one second.” Colin grabbed Jordan's arms and moved her aside. “I'll be right back.” He needed to talk to
