Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Clint was watching him, his dark-whiskey eyes full of concern. “Okay. I’ll be back.”
He turned and walked away, and August couldn’t help enjoying the view. Clint was gorgeous all the time, but seeing him naked? There was nothing like all that tanned skin covering his hard muscles. The curve of his ass and his furry thighs. “Hey,” he said. Clint stopped and turned to him, half-hard, but the condom was gone. At some point Clint must have taken if off, but August didn’t know when. “I’m good. That was…good.”
Clint smiled. “Good.”
“Brat,” August said.
Clint left him there, and once he had disappeared, August closed himself in the bathroom. He felt empty—or his ass did, at least—as though he’d quickly grown accustomed to having Clint inside him, and now it felt off without him there.
“I’m ridiculous,” he said to himself in the mirror. He had dried cum in his pubes and on his stomach. August stared at himself, at his body that looked like it had just been the recipient of the best kind of pleasure.
From Clint.
His lips spread wide, making his cheeks hurt. He needed to chill the fuck out. It was sex. He was a forty-two-year-old man. He couldn’t start crushing on Clint the way he had in middle school just because they’d hooked up. This was what single people did. Plus, he had a million things going on in his life. He’d just moved back to Harmony. It wasn’t the time to try and add a relationship to the mix, not that Clint would even want to have a relationship with him. Clint had gone through his life without getting serious about anyone. It wasn’t like August could change that. August didn’t know if that was what he wanted either.
And this was why he hadn’t tried dating since the divorce. He was obviously going to be shit at it.
He grabbed a washcloth and turned on the faucet. After he got himself cleaned up, he got dressed, then headed back out to the living room. Clint was already there, wiping up the floor, which was slightly embarrassing because it was August’s load he was taking care of. He must have been in the bathroom longer than he’d thought. “Sorry, I could have done that.”
“It’s fine. It’s not every day a sexy man empties his balls at my bar counter.”
August shook his head, chuckling, but he had to admit he liked Clint calling him sexy. It had been a long time since someone had said that about him. Lewis in the beginning, of course, but as their relationship had worn on, they didn’t speak to each other that way anymore. He was certain he hadn’t been sexy to Lewis in years by the time they had separated.
Clint was shirtless, wearing a pair of jeans with the button open. His chest was broad, his nipples pebbled, and damn, August wished he’d gotten to taste Clint’s skin too.
He walked over and just let instinct guide him. He put a hand on Clint’s waist, brushed his thumb over his hip bone. “I don’t know how to do this…or what this is…or what you want…or what I have to give…or…”
“Shh.” Clint held a finger to August’s lips. “It’s okay. Don’t freak out. This is me.”
Yes, it was Clint, and he had always been able to be himself with Clint.
August laced his fingers with Clint’s, then moved toward the gray sectional. There was a sliding glass door across from it that led to the back deck. A large TV was mounted on the wall above the fireplace, the space rustic and homey.
He sat on one end with Clint beside him, Sweetie and Midnight on their beds. “We fucked in front of your dogs.” They laughed, and he rubbed a hand over his face. “God, that was a dumb thing to say. What’s wrong with me? I’m suddenly an unsure sixteen-year-old. I didn’t expect that.”
“I didn’t either,” Clint replied.
“What was it?” When Clint cocked a brow, he added, “You know what I mean.”
“Hell if I know. Attraction, obviously.”
But it was more than that. Somehow, just using that word made it sound less important than it was. “I care about you, Clint, which in some ways feels impossible. We’ve been back in each other’s lives for only a few weeks. But in others it feels…automatic? Natural? We might not have talked in a lifetime, but I’ve always cared about you and you’ve always meant the world to me. The years apart don’t matter.”
“I feel the same,” Clint admitted. “It’s kinda fucking strange how easily we fell into place again. Hell, how easily we did it the first time. I want you, August. I don’t know what it means or if it’ll last, but I want you.”
He appreciated this, the fact that they could sit there like adults and discuss what happened. It made jumping into sex or dating or whatever this was a little bit easier. “I want you too, but I just… Shit, I know it sounds crazy. Lewis just moved his boyfriend in, and Reese is a teenager. I can’t let my life revolve around him, but I feel like I’m just getting him back. I don’t want to do anything to mess that up. He already feels abandoned by Lewis, that he chooses his boyfriend over Reese, and then if I jump into a relationship—”