Island Heat (11 page)

Serving tables of drunk, rich men was far more pleasant than Kevin had ever imagined. He'd thought they'd be a lot more inconsiderate and rude, but there seemed to be some basic code of etiquette here that kept men from stumbling around like overgrown kids and smashing up the place.

In general, they just wanted to be shown good service, yet bantered with and teased just a little – and flirted with, too. Troy was much better at flirting with them than Kevin, but Kevin was quickly picking up the art of how to flirt with drunken customers and enrich their experience without committing to ending up in their bed.

It helped that everyone here seemed to be attractive – and not just business owners. The guests were sometimes a little older, but others were younger, and nearly all of them were good-looking. Kevin figured it was because they all had the money to look their best from their wardrobes to their haircuts. The catty part of him thought about surgeries, too.

It wasn't even midnight yet, but the table of four hot, well-dressed men kept tipping him a hundred bucks for every round of drinks he brought over. Kevin used his discretion to slip them some extra desserts, too, which they were more than happy to accept.

He carefully plated four slices of chocolate-strawberry cheesecake with crushed almonds and gold flakes on top, drizzling a white chocolate sauce from a piping bag across each slice, then arranged the four plates on a serving tray to bring over to their table.

When they saw him, they cheered and raised their half-empty drinks, happily accepting the free dessert. Kevin would take it out of their tips and he already knew Troy didn't mind; the more customers ate and the longer they stayed and ate, the more they spent in drinks and thus tips.

Just as he was heading back to the kitchen to check the fridge for another cheesecake to slice, he heard the door open.

“Welcome!” Troy called out like usual, but his voice was slightly strained with excitement.

Kevin peeked out from the kitchen, and his heart felt like it dropped into his stomach.

Oh, my god. No. Not him.

It was Tom Jones – the actor he'd admired in movies all last summer and over the past few years now, and ex-fiancé to Eli, his current love interest.

Of course he was
here
.

Kevin didn't personally know the man with him, but he knew him from photos online – the older man with a confident, quiet attitude and greying hair was Bill, the island's owner.

His hands shook as he opened the fridge door, just about ducking into it in an attempt to hide.

Fuck. What am I going to do?

If Tom recognized him, there could be a shitshow. With the owner of the island right there, all he had to do was say he didn't like Kevin and Bill could shut them down instantly. A man jealous about his lover's new boyfriend could easily be driven to such lengths.

He could faintly hear Tom's voice, “--about buying it.”

Kevin carefully sliced the cheesecake with shaking hands as Troy glanced back into the kitchen with a pointed expression on his face.

Troy mouthed,
Tom
, then jerked his head towards the table as if to indicate that Kevin should go over the menu like usual with new customers.

Kevin shook his head hard. No
way
could he risk them seeing him; on the other hand, the place was busy enough that he couldn't hide in the kitchen all night. But first, he needed a minute to think.

Troy subtly pointed to himself.

Kevin nodded.

Troy returned the nod. He dusted his hands off and straightened up, heading around the counter to approach the table Tom and Bill had chosen.

When he was there and distracting them, Kevin plated the slices and brought them out to refill the display cabinet one at a time, keeping his face turned away but listening in.

“--the French Kiss, please,” Tom was laughing. “What a name.”

“Cute little place. I'm glad Rube talked me into this one. I wasn't sure how it would go over, but it works very well,” Bill complimented Troy.

Despite the dire situation, Kevin smiled. A world-famous billionaire – the owner of the island itself – said their restaurant fit with their image. That was a compliment he'd always remember.

“Thank you so much, sir,” Troy answered. “It's a real pleasure to be here. I'll bring those right back for you.”

Kevin reached out to take out a lemon dessert plate already. When Troy passed him and murmured, “Slow burn,” he knew to take out the flambé and hand it over for Troy to scorch at the same time as his drink. In the meantime, he placed the lemon dessert on the serving platter.

“Nervous?” Troy murmured very quietly so it was audible only to Kevin over the rattling of his shaker and clinking of bottles.

Kevin shook his head, then hesitated and nodded. It was the best way to explain away his reluctance to approach his favorite actor.

Troy beamed. “You're so cute like this,” he teased and poured the drink.

Kevin shook his head, helping him prepare the serving tray. He stayed behind the counter with his face turned away but subtly watched Troy bring it back over and chat for a moment with the men.

“I'd keep a few places like this,” Tom told Bill as Troy set the drinks and plates down. “I'd need to for when guests visit, of course. But I think he'd like the beaches the most.”

Who would like it?

Troy returned and started washing glasses, still casting Kevin small, amused glances at the way Kevin was hovering behind the dessert cabinet in an attempt not to be seen.

“Excuse me,” Tom added, and before Kevin realized what was happening, Tom was approaching the counter and looking straight at him.

Kevin's stomach lurched. The game was up. He felt sick but he straightened up and smiled, stepping out to make direct eye contact. He tried not to shake too much as he nodded. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“I was wondering how long you two have been doing this,” Tom told Kevin.

“Er, we've only been open a week. I've been baking professionally for three years in the gourmet food scene and another year outside of that, and Troy's been a mixologist for four.”

Troy raised a bottle he was moving back into place in a little toast.

“Wow. That's not long,” Tom commented, still cool and calm as anything. The way he was looking at Kevin, casually... Tom didn't know him. He didn't recognize him from that one late night on the streets.

He could have cried with relief.

“You're both top-notch,” Tom added.

Kevin straightened up, his shaky hands instantly settling down as he folded them on the counter. “Thank you very much.”

“Would you be returning next summer, if invited?”

“Er...” Kevin glanced at Troy, and Tom's gaze remained on Kevin.

Troy nodded
hard
.

“If we were invited and no other circumstances changed, absolutely,” Kevin answered politely.
What does he mean he'd keep it open?

“Wonderful,” Tom approved and turned to head back to the table.

Kevin nearly trembled again from pure relief that the incident ended as easily as that, instead of the other hundred ways it could have gone wrong. He exchanged looks with Troy, who had unmitigated joy in his expression.

Now that he was certain Tom didn't know who he was, Kevin headed out with renewed confidence to check on the table of four men and bring them another round of drinks, doing his best to listen in.

When he heard Bill say, “I'd be selling at the end of the summer,” everything grew clear.

“Well, that would be fine by me. I'm not in a rush. It would be a nice surprise for him,” Tom answered with a grin. “But if you
were
thinking about selling earlier... nothing says I can't take over. All the leases for--” he waved around, “everything, they'd remain in place. I'd buy out your profits, make sure you're compensated fairly.”

Bill said wonderingly, “You must care about him a lot.”

“It seemed like an appropriately grand gesture,” Tom laughed. “Yes. I know it hasn't been long, but... when he does want to get married, it would be a perfect spot.”

Kevin swallowed hard and brought his serving tray to the kitchen to rinse it off and wipe it down just to get away for a moment.

He was suddenly fervently glad he'd never had an ex. He could never imagine being so petty with his limited resources, let alone with millions of dollars, perhaps billions, to play with.

Tom was buying the island, Eli's escape, for another man.

He didn't want to distress Eli by telling him the news, but Dean... Dean was undoubtedly Eli's best friend, and seemed to care about him a lot from how Eli talked about him. Dean surely knew much more than he did about the breakup, and he'd know whether Eli would take it badly. Kevin had to find an excuse to talk to Dean one-on-one.

The moment the doorbell rang, Eli beamed and strode across the cool hardwood floor to open it without even checking who was there. It was about noon on Thursday, so there was probably only one person it could be.

As he'd thought, it was Kevin. Those beautiful brown eyes glowed with warmth at seeing him, and Eli beamed right back at him. “Hello.”

Kevin laughed. “Hi,” he answered. “You're excited.”

Oops. Don't scare him off.
“I get overenthusiastic when people come by my house. I'm a bit of a... hermit--”

“Don't--”

“--crab,” Eli laughed, then pulled Kevin in by his hips to kiss him.

Kevin yielded easily, melting under his kiss like butter in the hot noon sun outside. He always tasted sweet and smelled faintly like sugar and flour. Eli didn't want to tell him and make him self-conscious about it, because he found it absolutely endearing and a little hot.

“You're a bad man,” Kevin murmured against Eli's lips, a phrase that made Eli shiver to his core. He felt those words go straight to his cock. Holy fuck, did he ever want to be bad with Kevin that lunch break.

The chef had just left, though, and their lunch was outside and waiting for them. It would taste best fresh, he reminded himself.

“I try,” Eli murmured instead, then slowly drew back, keeping his hand laced with Kevin's to pull him over towards the outdoor patio. “How was your morning?”

“Oh, it was good,” Kevin nodded. “Nothing much to it. I'm getting a better idea for what people like, which will help design the next menu.”

“Good.” Eli slid the door open with a touch of his fingers and steered Kevin through, then closed it.

Kevin stared at the array of food on the table: a feast of picnic-style foods, from breaded chicken tenders and dipping sauce to pasta salad, strudels, sausage rolls, and lemonade. Everything had a gourmet flair – the tenders were black pepper-crusted, the salad had thinly-flaked fresh herbs, and even the sausage rolls were fresh and not greasy.

“This is... wow.”

Eli grinned. “Too much? Didn't bring your appetite?”

“Oh, I did,” Kevin laughed. “But I didn't expect all of this!” He seemed reluctant to let go of Eli's hand, lingering in front of the table for a moment before letting go to move around to the opposite side.

Eli drew up his own chair and settled down for lunch, unable to keep his eyes off the handsome, brown-haired man. His hair was just a touch longer than when they'd met last week, and he wondered if he ever grew it out or kept it at this length. There was so much he couldn't wait to find out about him.

“Are you alone today?” Kevin asked, glancing at the windows into the house as he chose the right fork to start eating the pasta salad.

“Yeah, Dean's down on the beach surfing,” Eli answered casually. “He should be out all day. And probably night...”

Kevin laughed. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

“Troy still doing his end of the job?” Eli asked, and he was surprised at the defensiveness in Kevin's eyes. That might have come off a little more accusatory than he'd meant; he only wanted to make sure Kevin wasn't working himself to the bone unfairly.

“Yes.”

“Sorry,” Eli hastened to apologize. “I just worry. You're... always at that place. In the morning, to bake... in the afternoon, to plate and prep... in the evening and night to work...”

Kevin seemed relaxed. He hadn't taken offense, then. “I like it,” he answered with a smile. “But thank you for your concern.” In fact, he looked touched. “It's hard work, but bakeries always are.”

The waves gently lapped at the white sand beach below the hill the mansion sat upon. Eli glanced down at the view, then back to Kevin. It was a bit awkward to hear Kevin talk about hard work when he knew how lucky he was not to have to do any ever again.

“What about you? What do you do, then? I mean, you obviously don't work full-time, but there must be something...?” Kevin asked, looking curious as he dipped his chicken tenders into sauce and ate them.

Eli shook his head, his sheepishness coming across in the simple gesture. “Er, not much, to be honest. I have a healthy enough bank account...”

“Right, right.”

“But I invest,” Eli quickly followed up with. He didn't want Kevin to think he had no ambitions at all. “I want to support renewable energy industries.”

That piqued Kevin's interest. “Mm?”

Eli had to finish his pasta salad first. Then, he leaned back. “Solar, wind, and other sustainable technologies. They've all got critical problems, mainly to do with implementing storage solutions for that power. Especially solar power. We can't yet make it the de facto world energy generation method until we discover the best way of storing it,” he explained. “Investing in that research could pay off, both personally and for the future of... well, the planet.”

“Oh,” Kevin answered in what sounded like a teasing tone. “An ethical billionaire. I got lucky.”

Eli laughed richly. He liked that Kevin had the balls to outright say things like that. “To be honest, it was a project Tom and I started.”

Kevin's face flickered with a shadow of something – fear? Worry? Probably discomfort, Eli thought and reminded himself to keep this short. Talking about an ex on a date was always a bad idea. Still, Kevin pressed, “Oh?”

“Yeah. We were interested in world development issues, and that was one area where we felt like we could make a real difference. Now that I'm on my own again...” Eli raised his shoulders in a little shrug. “I still want to do it.”

“I'm glad you're not giving up on a dream just because you lost one part of it,” Kevin answered, a succinct statement that nearly took Eli's breath away. “You don't have to do that.”

“No, I know. You're right,” Eli agreed. “Exactly.”

Kevin looked thoughtful as he leaned back. “I suppose it's my turn to share something...”

“Only if you want to,” Eli answered, but he was curious to see what Kevin would say about himself.

“I've never been in love before.”

Eli blinked. Kevin had told him that it was his first time that night when he'd seen Tom, but he hadn't known if he meant his first time with a man or first time in general, or if he'd ever been in unrequited love or a romantic relationship without sex...

But never having loved before? That was a whole different ballgame. He didn't know what to say.

“Weird, I know,” Kevin chuckled, starting to look embarrassed.

“No, no,” Eli urged him, shaking his head. “I was just... I mean, you're attractive and smart and driven...”

“It's not that there's something weird and toxic about me I haven't yet told you,” Kevin promised with a quiet laugh that made Eli laugh, too. “I just focused on my work completely. I mean, I've kissed a few people, gone on a date here or there, but it never progressed. My best friend once told me I could have been ace, if you know what that means. I never had an interest in anything else.” He was looking at the table and the leftover food, but his eyes flickered up to meet Eli's. “Until you.”

Eli was struck by the frank, simple honesty of the statement. This man wanted to share personal details with him without fear of them being abused or repeated elsewhere. He had a good heart; good enough that Eli was almost afraid to get involved with him. He didn't want to be Kevin's first heartbreak, but he had a feeling it was already too late.

“I want to see where this goes, too,” Eli admitted with a nod. “I wasn't expecting to meet a man I felt so interested in right away.”

“Me neither,” Kevin chuckled with an ironic quirk of his lip and Eli laughed loudly. “I mean, work's always been good for me. I worked at a top-notch bakery in New York, then L.A., then Chicago... and then a kind of okay place.”

“What kind of experiences did you have there?” Eli asked, genuinely interested in what that life must be like.

“Oh, the place in L.A. was the best. We did gourmet cakes.”

“Ahhh.”

“We did the craziest stuff,” Kevin laughed, looking completely at ease. “I mean, there was this one cake – it was for a famous male stripper company.”

“Oh, no,” Eli laughed. He had a feeling he knew what was coming.

“Yeah. They wanted a naked man. As 3D as possible. I mean, naked, head to toe, and not just nude... but with a...”

“No!” Eli exclaimed, nearly spilling his glass of lemonade. He'd been so enraptured by Kevin's soft, melodic voice that he'd forgotten he was holding it after his last sip. Their chemistry wasn't just physical: Kevin could hold him spellbound by telling his life story.

“Yes,” Kevin laughed. “I ended up doing that bit.”

“You what?” Eli exclaimed, setting his glass down as he laughed even harder. “But you – weren't you straight, or...?”

“Oh, yeah, but everyone else was afraid of doing that bit. I wasn't a prude, or shy,” Kevin laughed. “I just wasn't interested.”

Eli couldn't stop laughing, holding the back of his hand over his mouth with his elbow resting on the table as he watched Kevin tell stories about the strangest and most elaborate cakes he'd done. He soon joined in with his own stories about solar development, then about some of his other ventures and investments and the strangeness of that world.

It wasn't until Kevin glanced at his watch that he realized that time had to be passing rapidly.

“Oh, shit, I've only got... fifteen minutes, maybe twenty,” Kevin frowned, and he looked so disappointed that Eli wanted to find someone to talk to about shutting down Main Street for the night. Maybe part of that wild thought was Eli's own selfish desire to talk to this utterly charming man for longer, too.

He resisted the impulse to suggest skipping work and instead winked at the cute young man to catch his attention. “Fifteen minutes can be a long time.”

Kevin caught his breath for a moment as he watched Eli as if figuring out what he was implying.

“C'mon,” Eli encouraged, rising to his feet and holding out a hand.

Kevin stood up and walked around the table to take his hand, the other man's grip firm and confident. He followed Eli as he led him into the house.

The living room was spacious and breezy, and Eli steered Kevin to sit together on the couch facing the view of the water.

“God, it's beautiful here,” Kevin murmured, settling onto the couch and leaning into Eli's side. He let go of Eli's hand to put his arm around his shoulders instead.

The affectionate gesture made Eli smile. He ran his hand up along Kevin's knee and thigh, his gaze drawn to the waves breaking on the beach below. “It is,” he agreed. “You fit in well.”

He was pleased to see Kevin's answering blush. The younger man was so easy to tease and embarrass, even with compliments, but he never shied away from them. He instead seemed to be just getting used to hearing these kinds of things on a regular basis, and Eli intended to keep it up.

Eli wanted to make Kevin feel good. He deserved to be spoiled and treated a little. Fuck, spanking him and then having a quick, hot round of sex had felt amazing that night, but Kevin had made it clear he didn't want it to just be about sex. Secretly, Eli was relieved.

Perhaps it was just because he was unused to sex these days without romance and tenderness. He liked the intimacy of waking up together and spending days together, of attending events arm in arm and sharing sweet kisses as well as dirty ones. After Tom, Eli didn't want hookups yet.

It stung that Tom hadn't felt the same, but Eli was doing his best not to dwell on that. So far, he felt like he was healing well considering it had only been a few weeks.

“Do you want to have sex?” Kevin asked boldly, snapping Eli out of his momentary distracted thoughts.

“Oh, listen to you now,” Eli teased, squeezing Kevin's thigh and trailing his fingers further up to the crotch of his trousers. “You know what you want.”

Kevin nodded. “I have a lot of ground to make up.”

Eli chuckled and leaned in to press a kiss to Kevin's lips, then shifted on the couch until he knelt straddling Kevin's lap.

Kevin looked like he wasn't sure where to put his hands, but he tentatively rested his hands on Eli's waist and glanced up and down to take in the full view of Eli over him.

Eli reached down to take Kevin's hands and push them further back until Kevin was squeezing his backside, leaning in to press another kiss to his lips and turn him that little more. He ground against Kevin's lap, their bodies arcing together and sharing the slow burn.

Kevin's cheeks were pink but he did exactly that, rubbing a little before letting one hand run down to Eli's thigh and the other slip under his shirt to rub Eli's bare back.

“That's it,” Eli breathed out against Kevin's lips, his tongue flicking out to tease at Kevin's lips and slip inside. He found Kevin's tongue there and gently pressed and twirled their tongue tips, every nerve in his lips sensitive as Kevin clumsily returned the attention. Kevin's kissing style was gentle and slow, and Eli loved it. It was sweet, but also very arousing. He tended to go in for the kill, but Kevin slowed him down.

Kevin moaned quietly through the French kiss, his lips parting more as he gasped for breath.