Let's Father Swap Ch. 05

I woke up in my own bed with Dan's arm over me. I felt his warmth at my back and it felt good. The house was quiet. I could hear birds outside and nothing else.

I lay there for a while thinking about the night before, and the more I thought about it the more the heat crept up into my face. We'd had sex right next to my dad and Hailey. Barely three feet away. I'd been so caught up in Dan that it hadn't fully landed until now.

Dan stirred behind me. His arm tightened around me, pulling me closer, like he always does.

"Morning," he said, his voice rough.

"Morning."

He pressed his lips against the back of my neck once and I felt him smile against my skin, goosebumps across my body.

"You're thinking," he said.

"How can you tell."

"You went stiff."

I exhaled. "Last night."

"What about it?"

"We had sex. In the same room as my dad and your daughter."

"We did," he said, completely unbothered.

"That doesn't weird you out?"

He shifted and I turned over to face him. He looked at me with that expression he had in the morning, relaxed and unhurried.

"They were doing the same thing," he said. "Nobody was paying attention to anyone else."

"I know but."

"But what?"

I tried to find the actual thing that was bothering me and couldn't land on it precisely. "It just feels weird now."

"Because you're thinking about it in the daylight," he said. "Last night it didn't feel weird."

"Last night I was distracted."

"By me," he said, with a small smile.

"Don't be smug about it."

"I'm not being smug. I'm just saying." He reached over and pushed the hair off my forehead. "Sex is normal, Noah. There's nothing to be ashamed of. We're all adults, we all know what's going on, we don't have to pretend that we don't have sex."

I looked at him.

"Is it strange for you?" I said.

"No."

"Not at all?"

"Not at all." He said it simply. "I was with you. That's all I was thinking about."

I lay there for a moment and thought about it. I had seen my dad naked, and hard, but even though it belonged to my dad it was just a penis. A pretty big one at that, dad is a lucky guy, but besides that I hadn't really paid attention to what they were doing and I'm sure they hadn't really seen me get fucked either. Dan was probably right, it wasn't that big of a deal, even without seeing it I knew my dad and Hailey had sex anyway.

"Okay," I said.

"Okay," he said.

I looked at him, at the line of his jaw and his chest and the silver at his temples catching the early light, and the embarrassment finished draining away and left something else in its place. I pushed the covers back and moved down the bed.

"Noah."

"I'm not thinking about last night anymore," I said.

He laughed quietly and his hand found my hair.

I took him in my mouth already half hard and felt him finish the rest of the way against my tongue. I went at it properly, no teasing, just giving him what I knew he liked, and his hand tightened in my hair and his breathing changed and he said my name once, low, and I kept going until he came, his hips pushing up once into my mouth, a long exhale above me.

I came back up and he pulled me in and kissed me, his hand on my jaw.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," I said.

We came downstairs to find Hailey already at the stove making coffee and my dad sitting at the table in a t-shirt and sweatpants, looking comfortable like he usually did on a Saturday morning. He looked up when we came in and nodded at Dan.

"Sleep well?" he said.

"Very well," Dan said. "Noah has a comfortable bed."

"He picked it out himself," my dad said, which was true, and somehow this was how the four of us ended up having breakfast together, easy and without ceremony, like it was something we'd done before.

Hailey made enough coffee for everyone and my dad made eggs and I handled toast again, which was apparently my permanent role in any kitchen I entered, and we sat around the table and ate.

We spent the whole morning together, but didn't push it further than that. We had spent a really great time all together and it was a great first time. The subject of the previous night didn't really come up, as nobody was weirded out by it and everybody just accepted it. At first I felt a little awkward around my father after having seen him naked, but I quickly realized our relationship remained the same and so I stopped thinking about it.

***

Tonight was our prom night. I came downstairs at six thirty in my suit, which I'd rented and which fit well enough that I didn't feel ridiculous in it, and my dad looked up from the couch and stopped what he was doing.

"You look handsome," he said.

"Thanks, Dad."

He got up and came over and straightened my tie, which didn't need straightening, and then put his arms around me. I hugged him back.

"Have fun," he said. "You deserve a good night."

"I will."

He let go and looked at me once more and nodded like he was satisfied, and I grabbed my keys and went to pick up Hailey.

Hailey's door opened before I got to it. Dan was there first, which I hadn't expected, and he looked at me and smiled.

"You clean up well," he said.

"Thanks." I stepped in and he kissed me, one hand on my jaw, quick but warm. He smelled good and he was in a casual shirt and I thought briefly about staying.

"Hailey," he called up the stairs. "Noah's here."

"One minute."

Dan looked at me. "She's been ready for forty minutes."

"Then why..."

"I have no idea."

Hailey came down the stairs in a dark red dress that fell to her knees, her hair up, and she looked genuinely beautiful in it.

"Wow," I said.

"I know," she said. "You don't look bad either."

Dan made us stand together in the hallway and took a picture on his phone, then looked at it and took another one because the first one wasn't right, then showed them to Hailey who approved the second one and sent it to herself.

"Have fun," Dan said, at the door.

He kissed me again, longer this time, his hand at the back of my neck.

"You really do look amazing," he said, quietly.

I got in the car with my face warm.

Prom was at a hotel ballroom twenty minutes away from school, and when we walked in together Marcus spotted us from across the room immediately and waved us over with the energy of someone who had started the evening early.

"Finally," he said. "I was starting to think you two weren't coming."

"We're ten minutes late," Hailey said.

"That's an eternity at prom." He looked us both up and down. "You both look great. Genuinely."

"Thank you Marcus," Hailey said. "You look nice too."

"I look incredible," he said, straightening his jacket. "Let's be accurate."

Priya appeared beside him in a green dress and hugged Hailey and told her the dress was perfect, and Tyler shook my hand, and for a while we were just a group of people standing around at prom talking about nothing, which was exactly what prom was supposed to be.

The DJ was better than expected. Hailey pulled me onto the dance floor early and I wasn't a great dancer and she knew it and used it mercilessly, laughing at me in a way that made me laugh too, and Marcus joined us and made everything worse by being genuinely good at it and not being subtle about that fact.

"You're doing a great job," Hailey said to me, which was not true.

"I'm aware of what I'm doing," I said.

"And yet you keep doing it."

"Commitment," I said.

She took my hand and spun herself and I managed not to drop her, which felt like a victory.

We ate at our table later, bad hotel chicken that everyone complained about but ate anyway, and there were speeches from people on the student council that went on longer than they needed to, and at some point the lights went lower and the music went slower and Hailey put her head on my shoulder and we swayed in a loose approximation of a slow dance and it felt like the last night of something, which it was.

"We did alright," she said, quietly.

"At prom?"

"At all of it." She lifted her head and looked at me. "This whole year. The arrangement. Everything."

I thought about it. "Yeah," I said. "We really did."

She smiled and put her head back and we finished the song like that. This was my last day with Hailey being my girlfriend, even though we weren't dating anymore I still felt a little sad.

The after party was at Tyler's house, which was big enough for forty people to spread through it without it feeling crowded. Marcus had made a playlist that was actually good and the kitchen counter had enough on it to keep everyone occupied and the general atmosphere of high school students who were finally done with high school.

Hailey and I ended up on the couch for a while with a small group, just talking, the conversation going wherever it went. Someone brought up college plans and we went around the group, everyone naming where they were headed, and when it got to me I said I was thinking about joining my dad's business and learning the trade properly, which got a response of genuine interest from a couple of people and genuine confusion from a couple of others.

"You want to do construction?" Marcus said.

"Renovation," I said. "It's different."

"Is it?"

"It's more skilled," Hailey said. "Noah's dad does really good work."

"My dad does really good work," I agreed.

"And you'd be good at it," she said. She said it simply, like it was obvious, and I appreciated that.

Hailey then named the prestigious college she had been accepted to which had made us all happy and proud of her, even though it meant we would see her less.

Around two in the morning the group had thinned out and Hailey found me in the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

"I'm done," she said.

"Yeah," I said. "Me too."

We said goodbye to Marcus and Priya and Tyler, the rounds of hugs and promises to hang out over summer that were partly true and partly just what you said, and I drove Hailey back to my place in the quiet of the early morning, the streets mostly empty, both of us not saying much.

In my driveway she got out and turned around.

"Tonight was really good," she said.

"It was."

She smiled. "Go see your boyfriend."

She let herself in with my keys and I waited until the light went on inside before I backed out and drove the twenty minutes to Dan's.

The house was dark and quiet. I let myself in and went upstairs and got undressed in the dark, leaving everything on the chair, and got into bed beside him.

He stirred.

"Had a good night?" he said, low and half asleep.

"It was great," I said.

He reached back and found my hip and pulled me in against him, his chest against my back, his arm over me. He exhaled slowly and was asleep again in less than a minute.

I lay there in the dark in my boyfriend's bed at three in the morning after my senior prom and felt completely at ease.

I woke up to Dan already awake, lying on his back looking at the ceiling. He turned his head when I moved and kissed me hello, his hand coming up to my jaw.

"How was it?" he said, when we broke apart.

"Really good actually. Better than I expected prom to be."

"Did you dance?"

"Hailey made me."

"Were you terrible?"

"Consistently," I said. "She found it very funny."

He smiled. "I remember mine. Went with a date, a very pretty girl, and had a decent enough time."

"Did you?"

"Lost my virginity that night actually. Back of her car after." He paused. "Neither of us really knew what we were doing. It was over fast and we both pretended it was better than it was."

"That sounds terrible."

"It wasn't great," he said. "Your first time was better than that."

"Significantly," I said. "When did you first hook up with a guy?"

"College." He shifted slightly. "I always knew I was attracted to both. But it wasn't as straightforward to act on back then, not the way it is now. So I took my time getting there."

"But you got there."

"I did, and then I met Hailey's mom. We fell in love, and got married." "And then?"

"The we got divorced." He looked at the ceiling. "And I got back into hooking up with guys as well." He looked at me. "Now I have a boyfriend. Who looks amazingly good in a suit."

I pulled back and looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I could put it back on."

He started to say something and I got up before he could finish it, crossing to the chair where I'd left everything. My tie was on top of the pile and I reached for my shirt underneath it.

His arms came around me from behind before I got there, lifting me off my feet, and he carried me back to the bed and dropped me onto it and came down over me, grinning.

"I haven't gotten dressed yet," I said. "I only have my tie." I held it up as evidence.

He took it out of my hand and I watched him loosen the knot slightly and then loop it over my head and settle it around my neck, pulling it snug.

"There," he said. "I changed my mind. I couldn't wait."

He kissed me, his weight over me, one hand flat on the mattress beside my head.

When he broke it he looked down at me with the tie sitting against my bare chest and said, "Besides. You look your best when you're not wearing anything."

I felt my face go red and he kissed me again before I could respond.

He kissed me thoroughly, his hand moving down my side, and then he pulled back and brought two fingers to my mouth and pressed them against my lips. I opened and took them in, running my tongue along them, watching his face while I did it, and his jaw tightened.

He pulled them free and reached down and pressed them against me, slowly working them in while he kissed me again, his mouth covering whatever sound I made. He took his time with it, pressing in and curling, finding the angle, and I grabbed his arm and held on.

"Dan," I breathed.

"Yeah?"

"Please."

He withdrew his fingers and I felt him line up and press in slowly, missionary, his forearms either side of my head, his face close to mine. He filled me completely and stopped and let me adjust and then started to move.

He fucked me slowly at first, long strokes, watching my face.

"Daddy," I said.

"That's it," he said, low. "Just like that."

He varied it, sometimes deep and slow, sometimes shorter and harder, reading my reactions, and I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer. The tie was between us, a strange and good detail, and at some point he picked it up and held it loosely while he fucked me, which shouldn't have done anything for me but it absolutely did.

"You feel incredible," he said. "Every time."

"Mmh," I managed. "Don't stop."

"I'm not stopping."

He went harder and I gripped his back and felt the pressure build and then I pushed against his chest and he let me flip us, and I was on top of him, his cock still inside me, and I started riding him with my hands on his stomach.

"There you go," he said, watching me. "Take what you want."

I rolled my hips and felt him hit deep and did it again. His hands went to my thighs and he let me set the pace, his head back against the pillow, his chest moving with his breathing. I rode him steadily, going faster, and he made a low sound that I felt in my chest.

"Ahhh," he groaned. "Fuck, Noah."

"Yeah?" I said, breathless.

"Yeah." He grabbed my hips. "Just like that. Don't stop. Good boy."

I kept going and felt him getting close in the way I knew, the subtle tightening, the shift in his breathing. Then his hand found the tie again and he pulled on it, drawing me down toward him, and kissed me hard, and his hips drove up into me and he took over the pace, fucking up into me while I was still on top of him, and I broke the kiss and pressed my forehead to his and just held on.

"Daddy," I said. "Yes. Right there."

"Mmh." His grip tightened on my hips. "Take it."

"Give it to me," I said. "Please."

He groaned and drove up deep and held there and I felt his cum fill me, his whole body tensing under me. I stayed still and let him finish, his hands on my hips going slack, his breathing ragged.

I dropped forward onto his chest. He put his arms around me and we stayed like that, both catching our breath, the tie crumpled between us.

After a while he said, "Prom's done."

"Mm."

"Graduation soon." His hand moved slowly up and down my back. "And in less than a month, we're all going to Comporta."

"Portugal. I can't wait."

***

"Wow," I said, standing at the entrance with my suitcase. "It's beautiful."

"Oh my god," Hailey said, beside me, her hand over her mouth.

The resort sat at the edge of a pine forest with the Atlantic directly in front of it. The buildings were low and white with terracotta rooftops, terrace rooms facing the water, a pool to one side and a restaurant with an open terrace on the other. The air smelled like salt and pine.

Dan chuckled behind me and put his hand on my lower back. "Let's check in."

Our room was on the second floor, facing the ocean. Not a suite, just a well-proportioned room with a big bed and white walls and a bathroom with a rainfall shower and a window that looked directly out at the water. I stood at it for a moment after Dan dropped his bag and just looked.

"Good?" Dan said.

"Very good," I said.

He came up behind me and looked over my shoulder and I felt him exhale slowly.

"Yeah," he said. "Not bad."

I turned around and put my arms around his neck and kissed him, and he caught me and kissed me back. I was so grateful to him and my dad for offering us this vacation. And I wanted to show him how grateful I was.

"Thank you," I said, against his mouth. "For organizing this."

"Your dad did half of it."

"I'll thank him later." I kissed him again, then looked at him with what I hoped was a persuasive expression and started to kneel.

"We have to meet the others," he said.

"We have time for me to get a snack," I said with my most mischievous grin.

He looked at me for a second. Then he reached back and sat on the edge of the bed.

I got his shorts open and took him out. Even half hard he was already thick and heavy in my hand, eight inches when fully hard, and the sight of him never got old. I wrapped my hand around the base and looked up at him, while making eye contact with him, I licked his cock all the way from the base to the tip, in a slow and deliberate motion. Then I lowered my head and took him in.

I went at it with intent, no teasing, just working him properly, lips and tongue and hand at the base the way he liked. He put his hand in my hair and exhaled above me. I took him deep and held it and felt his grip tighten.

"Fuck Noah," he said. "That feels amazing."

"Just enjoy, Daddy."

I pulled back to the head and circled it with my tongue before taking him deep again, working a steady rhythm. He was fully hard now, filling my mouth completely, and I felt his thigh tense under my free hand. I moved my hand from the base and cupped his balls, rolling them gently, and heard him pull in a sharp breath above me.

"Christ," he said.

I kept working his cock while my hand stayed on his balls, alternating between gentle pressure and soft movement, and his grip in my hair went tighter. I pulled off him completely, then took him all in, held for two seconds then pulled off half way before going back in. I repeated it multiple times, taking a breath every now and then, and it was driving him crazy.

"Noah." His hips shifted up. "Don't stop."

I kept going, varying the pace, and his breathing went rough and his grip tightened and he came with a low groan, his hand pressing down once on the back of my head, and I took it and swallowed it all and stayed there until he was done.

I sat back and looked up at him. He lowered down to meet me and we kissed, with his taste still on my tongue.

Then he put his shorts back on and followed me out the door.

We met my dad and Hailey at the resort restaurant for dinner, a terrace overlooking the water with white umbrellas and candles on the tables. My dad had his arm across the back of Hailey's chair and she was leaning into him. They both looked relaxed, letting the calm and beauty of the place surrounding us take over them.

"Nice room?" my dad said.

"Great room," I said.

"Good." He picked up the menu.

"Ours is great too," Hailey said firmly.

The waiter came and we ordered, fish for the table, and Hailey and I both ordered a fruity cocktail, which we were legally allowed to since we were in Europe and over 18. Dan raised an eyebrow at mine and I said nothing and took a long sip.

"So," my dad said, looking at the four of us. "Ten days. What are we doing?"

Hailey already had a list. She pulled up her phone and went through it, the paddleboard place she'd spotted, a market in the village that ran on weekends, a day trip to Lisbon that was apparently not optional, and a seafood restaurant about twenty minutes away that had been recommended to her by three separate people online.

"Sounds like you've planned our whole trip," Dan said.

"Someone had to," she said.

"I thought that's what Rob and I did for the last three weeks."

"You planned the resort," she said. "I planned the fun."

My dad looked at Dan and Dan looked at my dad.

"Fair enough," my dad said.

We ate and talked about it, settling on rough days for each thing without locking anything in too tightly, and the food was good and the cocktails were better than expected and by the time we'd finished I could feel the flight in my shoulders and my eyes.

Hailey yawned first, which set off the rest of us.

"I think we're all tired," my dad said, standing up. "Time to go to bed."

Nobody argued, and we left the restaurant saying our good nights.

Back in the room Dan and I showered, not together, just taking turns while the other one unpacked, and by the time I got into bed he was already half asleep, his arm out waiting for me. I got in and he pulled me close and I felt amazingly comfortable in this amazing place with this amazing guy.

"Good start," he said, into my hair.

"Really good start," I said.

And we fell asleep.

We woke up to sunlight coming through the curtains and the sound of the ocean since we had kept the window open, which was a good way to wake up. We got dressed and went to breakfast, which was a buffet on the terrace, eggs, bacon, fruit, fresh bread and strong coffee, and the four of us settled at a table overlooking the water. The tables were far enough apart that we weren't bothered by the other eating. The resort must have been at max capacity, or close to it, and yet we didn't feel like we were drowning in a sea of people which was nice.

"Let's go to the beach after breakfast," Hailey said and I heard both my dad and Dan audibly groan.

"Isn't it too early for the beach?" My Dad asked.

"It's never too early for the beach," Hailey insisted.

"I saw on their website that they have a gym," Dan said.

"A really good one actually," my dad said. "I saw it on the way in."

"I think I'll have a workout before going to the gym," Dan continued.

"I'll join you," my dad told him.

Hailey looked at them both, unhappy. Then she looked at me.

"I'll go to the beach with you," I said.

She pointed at me. "See. Noah gets it."

We went back up to our rooms to brush our teeth and get ready. Dan kissed me at the door and told me he and my dad would join us at the beach after their workout.

"Have a good workout," I told him.

"Have fun!" he replied.

When I made my way down to the lobby, Hailey was already waiting for me and that was how we ended up walking down the pine path to the water with our towels and a bag between us while our respective boyfriends went to lift heavy things voluntarily.

The beach was long and flat, white sand running in both directions as far as you could see, the Atlantic wide open in front of it. We found a spot near the water and put our towels down and I stood at the edge of the small waves for a moment and just looked at it.

"Come on," Hailey said, already heading in.

The water was still pretty cold and it took me a bit of time and courage for my body to accept going in. We swam out a little and floated on our backs and the sky above was completely clear.

"This was a good idea," I said.

"All my ideas are good," she said.

We came back to our towels and dried off and lay in the sun, and I was half asleep when I heard Hailey say hello to someone. I opened my eyes. A couple our age were passing, the girl with a tote bag over her shoulder, the guy carrying a cooler.

"Hello," the girl said. "We're just going past. I'm Emma."

We introduced ourselves and they stopped for a bit, to have a small chat. They were from Dublin, first time in Portugal, also staying at the same resort. Emma asked where we were from and we told her and she said she loved America and had been once for a college trip.

"This your first time in Europe?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "It's beautiful."

"It really is." She looked between us. "How long are you here?"

"Ten days."

"Amazing." She picked her bag up and nudged her boyfriend. "We have to go, but we should definitely meet up again." She looked at us both and smiled. "You make a really cute couple, by the way."

They walked on and Hailey looked at me.

"We really do make a good couple," she said.

"We really do," I said. "Terrible shame we're not one."

"Truly," she said, and we both laughed.

Dan and my dad showed up around noon, both of them looking good in their swim shorts. My dad was hairier with a stronger, stocky build whereas Dan was leaner with actual visible abs. We moved further up the beach and found a spot with a beach umbrella. A waiter from the resort came by and took orders and we ate lunch there, grilled fish and bread and cold drinks, a perfect light lunch for a day at the beach.

My dad fell asleep in his chair. Hailey took a picture of him and he didn't stir.

Dan was lying on his towel next to me, his forearm over his eyes against the sun, and I looked at him for a moment, the line of his stomach, the muscle in his arms, the silver at his temples. He was in his forties and he was the best looking man on this beach and I was his boyfriend.

I lay back and closed my eyes and felt the sun on my face. We spent the afternoon going into the water and sunbathing. It was a great day, very calming and relaxing.

On the third night we drove to the seafood restaurant Hailey had flagged, twenty minutes up the coast, small and candlelit and slightly too warm, packed with locals and a few tourists.

The four of us filled a corner table and there was local wine and good bread and the meal went for two hours. Dan's hand found my knee under the table during the meal and stayed there, and at some point my dad said something that made Hailey laugh so hard she had to put her glass down, which the couple at the next table glanced over at us and I saw the woman say something quietly to the man and he looked too.

Dan's hand tightened on my knee slightly. He'd seen it. I put my hand over his and left it there and didn't look at the other table again.

Walking back to the car afterward, just the two of us slightly ahead of the others, Dan said quietly, "That didn't bother you."

"No," I said.

"It might happen more."

"I know." I looked at him. "Does it bother you?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Less than I thought it would."

I took his hand and he let me.

Back in the room he undressed in the low light coming off the water through the open window and I watched him from the bed. He came over and got over me and kissed me, his hand on my jaw, and I kissed him back and pulled him closer. He kissed me deeply, his tongue moving against mine, one hand cupping my face and the other running down my side, and we stayed there for a while just kissing in the low light, the sound of the ocean coming through the window.

He kissed down my jaw to my neck, then lower, and kept going until he had me turned over, and then his hands spread me open and his mouth found me and I pressed my face into the pillow.

He ate me out with the same patience he brought to everything, thorough and focused, his tongue working into me, pulling back and then pressing back in deeper, his hands keeping me spread open. He varied it, broad strokes with the flat of his tongue and then pointed and precise, and I pushed back against his face and grabbed the pillow and tried to stay quiet because the window was open and the walls were thin and I mostly failed.

"Daddy," I breathed. "Please."

He pulled back and I turned over and got my hand on him, stroking him until he was fully hard, thick and heavy in my grip. Then I moved down the bed and took him in my mouth.

I went at it properly, lips tight around him, hand at the base, taking him deep and holding before pulling back. His hand went into my hair and he exhaled slowly above me. I worked him for a while, varying the pace, using my tongue on the underside, and his breathing went rough and his grip tightened and I felt his hips want to move and he held them still.

He pulled me up by the hair and kissed me hard, and then pressed in slowly, missionary, his forearms either side of my head, his face close to mine. He fucked me in long slow strokes that built gradually. I had my hands on his back and my legs around him.

"So good," I said.

"I've got you," he said.

He went deeper and I exhaled and held on. After a while he shifted and flipped me onto my stomach and came back in from behind, his weight over me, his mouth at my ear, and the angle changed and the depth changed and I grabbed the pillow.

"Mmh," I said. "Right there. So fucking good."

"So unbelievably good," he said, low against my ear.

He went harder and the slap of his body against mine filled the room, sharp and rhythmic, and I pushed back to meet every stroke. His hand slid under me and wrapped around my cock and he stroked me, while he kept fucking me from behind. I was already close but he kept the pace measured and I stayed right there, shaking, for longer than I expected.

"Daddy," I said. "I'm going to--"

"Not yet," he said, slowing his hand.

I groaned into the pillow and he laughed quietly against my neck and kept fucking me while his hand moved just enough to keep me right on the edge. The sounds of us filled the room, skin against skin, the headboard, my muffled sounds and his quiet grunts.

Then he picked the pace back up and his hand moved properly and I came hard against the sheets, clenching around him, a long broken moan into the pillow.

He kept going. I lay there shaking and oversensitive and gripped the pillow and let him. He fucked me through it and then kept going, harder, the clap of his hips against my ass loud in the room, and I felt him building toward it, his breathing getting ragged, his rhythm starting to lose its shape.

"Oh fuck!" he groaned, driving in deep and holding there, and I felt the heat of him fill me, long and pulsing, his full weight coming down over me for a moment.

We stayed like that, both breathing hard. Then he rolled onto his back and pulled me with him, and I put my head on his chest and his arm came around me.

I heard the ocean again. I was hot and sweaty, but it was a good kind of hot.

"Good night," he said, into my hair.

"Good night," I said.

***

We were on the beach to try out paddleboarding, which none of us had ever done before. The paddleboard place was a shack at the north end of the beach run by a guy named Tiago who spoke four languages and was visibly amused by all of us. He gave us a five minute lesson on the sand that consisted mostly of him demonstrating the stance and then saying "You fall, you get back up" and sending us into the water with our life vests.

Hailey was the quickest to figure out, only taking her minutes to get upright on the board. My dad took slightly longer but found his footing and moved with the careful deliberateness of someone who was not going to fall in front of an audience if he could help it. Dan fell twice in the first ten minutes and took it with complete good humor, which I hadn't expected and liked. I fell four times and took it less well, especially since I was the one having the hardest time.

"You're overcorrecting," Dan said, from his board, drifting past me while I hauled myself back up for the third time.

"Thank you," I said. "Very helpful."

"Bend your knees more."

"I am bending my knees."

"More than that."

I bent my knees more and felt more stable, which was irritating because he was right.

Hailey had gone further out and was turning in slow circles, apparently having figured out the paddle entirely. My dad had settled into a steady line parallel to the shore. Dan and I drifted in the same general direction without trying to, and after a while I stopped thinking about the mechanics of it and it just worked, the board moving under me with the small swells, the water flat and bright around us.

"Not bad," Dan said, pulling up alongside me.

"Don't," I said.

He smiled and didn't say anything else and we paddled in the same direction in the quiet of the open water.

Tiago took a photo of the four of us from the shore when we came back in, all of us dripping and sun-tired, and sent it to Hailey's phone. In it my dad and Hailey are laughing at something and Dan has his hand briefly on my shoulder and I'm looking at him instead of the camera.

I asked Hailey to send it to me and I saved it on my phone, as it was a precious memory.

On the seventh day Dan and I went into the village alone, just the two of us, while Hailey and my dad made a day-trip to Lisbon.

The village was small, a few streets of white buildings and terracotta, a market that ran in the mornings with produce and handmade things, as well as a couple of cafes with chairs outside. We walked through the market first and Dan bought a small ceramic piece from a woman who explained its provenance in Portuguese and then in English when she noticed we had no idea what she was saying, and I bought olives from a man who let me try four different kinds before I picked the one I liked best. We were holding hands as we explored the streets of this beautiful tiny village, not a care in the world.

An older man passed by us, and his face clearly said that he wasn't happy to see us.

"Are you OK?" Dan asked me.

"Yeah, the weather's a bit hot but there's a nice breeze so it feels nice."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I do, but it's still my answer."

"I warned you people would judge us, and wouldn't accept us."

"And I told you I didn't care, and I meant it. What matters is what we think and I..." I stopped myself, and also stopped walking. I turned to face him. "I love you Dan. I know you'll say I'm young, but I know what I feel. I've known for a while now, I love you. With all my heart and I want to be with you, I don't want anyone else."

Dan held my face with one hand, gently caressing my cheek. "I love you too Noah. You're right, I was scared when we started due to our age difference. But I can't deny my feelings, you make me feel great and I love being with you. I love you and I won't let anyone or anything come between us."

I jumped into his arms and kissed him, tears rolling down my face. I was so happy, we had just professed our love for each other in the streets of this beautiful village in Portugal. I would remember this moment forever. I could see he was also getting teary-eyed, as he took off his sunglasses to rob his eyes. We let the moment breathe in silence for a second, and then we started walking again, hands in hands.

"Besides, that guy might have just been a homophobe," I joked and Dan chuckled.

After a while Dan said, "So, are you ready to join your dad's business?"

"Yeah. It makes sense. He's been building it for twenty years and there's no one to hand it to. And I'm good with my hands, I worked a little bit with him and I liked it."

"That's good."

"What about us?" I said. "Going forward. When the summer's done."

He looked at me. "What about us?"

"I'm about to start working with my dad, my first job. You have a career and a house." I said it plainly, not as an accusation, just the facts of it. "Does that work?"

"It works if we make it work," he said. "Which is true of every relationship."

"Yeah, but how will our schedule work?"

"I still think we should take it slow. We'll plan time together, and you'll come by and spend some nights with me. Or I'll come by your house if you prefer. And then you'll start leaving stuff at my house, and spend more and more time there and eventually I'd love for you to move in with me. But living with someone else isn't as easy as you'd think."

"We love each other, we'll be fine!"

He chuckled. "I know we will make it work, but I'm just saying it won't be smooth sailing, we'll both have to adjust."

"Yes, we will."

He kissed me, and then we started making our way back to the resort.

***

For our last night in Portugal, we had booked a table at the fancy restaurant in the resort. Which was different from the common restaurant where we had most of our meals. It was smaller, reservation-only and although it wasn't too strict, there was still a dress code where you couldn't just wake in with beach clothes.

We didn't exactly pack suits anyway, but all of us guys wore dress shirts with our best pair of pants whereas Hailey wore a simple yet elegant dark blue dress.

We were shown to a table near the window, the bay windows were open so we could feel the cool breeze of the night, as well as hear the sound of the waves which felt very peaceful.

The food was the best we'd eaten all trip, which was a high bar. Fish again, but done differently, and a good wine that my dad chose.

We talked about the trip. The paddleboards, Lisbon, the seafood restaurant, the market in the village. We were just laughing and smiling throughout the meal. Despite it being our last day we weren't feeling down as we had fully enjoyed our trip. Dan and I had gotten much closer, telling each other I love you for the first time. And it was easy to tell that my dad and Hailey had also gotten closer. It truly had been the perfect holiday.

After dessert, we ordered four glasses of champagne. Dan raised his glass.

"To a great trip," he said.

We touched glasses.

"To Hailey," my dad said. "Starting college."

She smiled. "To Noah. Starting work."

"To us," I said.

We drank in unison.

We entered our room for the last time, Dan closing the door behind us and the room was dark so he turned on the light near the door which gave the room dim lighting.

He walked to me, turned me around and put both hands on my face and kissed me.

Not the quick kisses of arrival or the purposeful kisses of urgency. This one was long and deliberate, his thumbs against my jaw, my hands on his chest. We undressed each other slowly. He unbuttoned his shirt and I undid mine and we took our time, no rush, his hands moving over my shoulders and down my arms, mine across his chest, his stomach, the muscle of it warm under my palms. We'd been here before, this room, this light, this man, and it felt different tonight in a way I couldn't entirely name.

We got into bed and I went on top of him and he kissed me again, and I put my hands in his hair and held him there. I kissed his jaw, his neck, his collarbone, my mouth moving slowly down his chest.

I kept going until I reached him, already half hard, and I wrapped my hand around him and took him in my mouth.

I went at it slowly, the way the whole evening had been slow, lips moving down the length of him and back up, tongue working the underside. I felt him finish hardening against my tongue, thick and full, and his hand came down into my hair and held there without directing. I worked him properly, varying the depth and pace, and his stomach tightened under my free hand and his breathing shifted.

"Noah," he said, low. "Come here."

He pulled me by the hair up toward him and turned us, pulling my hips back toward his face, and his tongue found me and I dropped my head and went back to his cock.

We stayed like that, his mouth working into me while I worked his cock, and the sounds we made were low and continuous in the dim room. He ate me out thoroughly, both hands spreading me open, his tongue pressing deep, and I kept losing my rhythm on him because of what he was doing to me and found it again and lost it again. He groaned against me at some point and I felt it go all the way through me.

When I was shaking and barely managing he pulled me up and turned me around and kissed me, his taste on my tongue and mine on his.

I got on my hands and knees and felt him line up and press in slowly from behind. I exhaled through it, feeling him fill me completely, and he gripped my hips and started to move.

He fucked me from behind in long measured strokes, his hands steady on my hips, and I pressed back to meet him. After a while he shifted, planting his feet flat on the bed on either side of me and squatting slightly over me, and the angle changed entirely. From up there he had leverage and range and he used both, driving down into me with a force that pushed the breath out of me on every stroke.

"Oh fuck," I said.

"Yeah," he said.

He fucked me like that, from above, the slap of his body against mine sharp and rhythmic in the quiet room, and I dropped my head and grabbed the sheets and just took it. It was deeper from this angle, more direct, and every stroke hit something that made my thighs shake.

"Daddy," I breathed. "That feels so good."

"Fucking amazing," he said.

He kept going until I was a mess, then he pulled out and lay back and pulled me onto him, and I got on top, reverse cowboy style. I sank down onto him and felt him all the way in and started to move.

I rode him like that, my hands braced on his thighs in front of me, his hands on my hips helping me find the pace. The angle was different again, shallower but wider, and I rolled my hips and felt him shift inside me and went faster.

"That's it," he said. "Just like that."

"Mmh," I said. "So good."

His hands tightened on my hips and I went harder, lifting and dropping, and he made a low sound that I felt in my chest.

Then he pulled me back, shifting us both, until my back was against his chest and his stomach, his arms coming around me from behind. He got his hands behind my knees and pulled my legs up and back toward my chest, folding me open, and pressed back in from underneath.

I made a sound the other rooms must have heard. I had no control in this position and it felt incredible.

From here he had everything, depth and angle and control, and he fucked me slowly at first, feeling it out, and I lay back against him completely and let him have it. His chest was warm against my back, his mouth at my temple, and I could feel his heartbeat.

"Dan," I said.

"I've got you," he said.

He built the pace gradually, his hands holding my knees back, and I reached up and back and found the back of his head and held it and he turned his face and kissed my cheek, my jaw, whatever he could reach. The pressure built from somewhere deep and central and spread outward and I felt tears at the corners of my eyes without knowing entirely why.

"I'm close," I said.

"Me too," he said, against my ear. "Together."

He went deeper and I clenched around him and came hard, spilling onto my own stomach, a long broken sound tearing out of me, and felt him follow immediately, driving in once and holding there, his whole body tightening against my back as he filled me.

We stayed like that for a long moment. His arms loosened from my knees and came around me instead, holding me against him, both of us breathing. I felt his cock go soft and out of my used hole.

After a while he kissed my temple, then my cheek, then turned my face and kissed my mouth, soft and slow. I kissed him back, trying to convey all my love for him in that one kiss.

He pulled back and looked at me in the dim light.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," I said.

The words sat there between us, plain and real, and I felt them land somewhere they were going to stay.

We started in a weird place, I was dating his daughter, trying to fool myself into thinking I was straight. But they pushed me to realize I wasn't, and thank god for that because now I was sharing a bed with the most incredible man, the man I love.

Yes, he was older than me but my feelings for him were true, and I wasn't going to let that or others stop us from being ourselves. Stop us from true love.

I love him, and he loves me, and that is all that matters in this world.

THE END