Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“I wanted to take a swing at Russ,” he said.
His words surprised me. “For what? For preferring men?”
Doc stepped in front of me and got close enough to almost touch chests.
“No,” he growled. “For preferring mine.”
We stared at each other, practically nose to nose. My heart thundered and hope damned near took all the oxygen from my lungs.
“You’re grieving,” I whispered. “You’re confused.”
“Grief doesn’t get my dick hard, Major. Confusion doesn’t make me want to kill some idiot cowhand for moving in on something that’s supposed to belong to me.”
“Since when do I belong to you?” I breathed.
Doc’s hands shook when they tentatively reached up to land lightly on my upper chest. They were warm and dry as he smoothed them up to cup the sides of my neck. Every single hair on my body was standing up straight like I’d put my finger in a socket.
“I don’t know, Wes. You just do. Part of me feels like somehow you always have. But…” His voice caught. “I loved her too. So much, Major. So fucking much.”
I held his hips before running my hands around to his back to pull him in closer. “I know you did. And I know you still do. It’s enough for me just to know I mean something to you. I don’t ever want to take Betsy away from you. I hope you know that. I loved her too, and I’d do anything to bring her back for you. For all of us.”
There was enough ambient light from the safety light in the barn to show me his eyes were full to overflowing.
“I know. And I… I don’t think I’m ready for… for…”
I cut him off. “Shh, it’s okay. I will never push you. And if you’re never ready for more, that’s all right too.” I pulled him in for a hug and held him tight, truly exhaling for the first time in my forty years. “Just please let me keep on loving you, Doc. I don’t know how to stop.”
He turned so his face was buried in my neck and his lips brushed right next to my Adam’s apple. I tried to keep my hardening cock from pressing into him and scaring him off.
“I don’t want you to stop,” he whispered into my skin. “Ever.”
I pulled his face away from my neck and cupped his cheeks. “Get some sleep, Doc. It’s late.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead and relished seeing his eyes flutter closed.
When I stepped out of his embrace, he swayed a bit but then gazed at me steadily. “You, uh… you gonna be here for breakfast in the morning?”
He was so damned beautiful when he was unsure.
“I promised a certain rose gardener I’d give her double braids before school,” I said with a grin. “So I’ll be there with bells on.”
It seemed like he wanted to say something important, but he held back.
“All right, well… I’ll, ah, see you in the morning, then.”
I couldn’t help it. I reached out and pulled him in again with a hand around the back of his neck. This time I pressed the kiss to his cheek about a millimeter away from the side of his mouth. “Sleep tight, sweetheart.”
He melted against me for just a brief moment before he nodded and pulled away. When he got to the top of the porch stairs, he turned back around to find me watching him. He smiled at me and went into the house.
I’d never wanted to follow someone into bed as much as I did in that moment.
Doc was right.
I was his and he was mine. But I wondered if and when anyone but us would know it.
After blowing out another breath, I turned to hop in my truck. The drive back to my house had never been quieter, nor my bed emptier.
Chapter 25
Liam “Doc” Wilde
I didn’t sleep a wink that night. The interlude in the barn replayed in my mind like a film on a loop. The thick veins on the back of his hand as he held Russ’s head to his dick. The way his eyes never left mine, the hoarse roar of his release as soon as I turned my back on him. The way my insides turned to jelly both times he’d called me sweetheart.
I couldn’t make my heart slow down, much less my brain. What the hell did all this mean? Did I want him… like that?
I barked out a laugh. Of course I did. There was no denying my body’s reaction regardless of how surprising it was to me. By the time I got to the privacy of my bedroom, I was hard for him again just remembering. I masturbated three more times until I was sore and my balls ached. I wanted him desperately. After imagining him naked against the barn wall, I pictured myself being the one to kneel at his feet. I wanted it to be my hands that explored the trail of dark hair up his belly to his defined pecs, my mouth that teased his red-brown nipples to tight buds, and my name on his lips as he came in a rush, hot on my skin.