Page 30 of His Country
“Now that’s how you say goodbye after a date.”
When he stepped back, Aiden shivered at the loss of his warmth. He nearly chased him, like a comet unwillingly pulled into the orbit of a planet. Catching himself, he watched as Ethan strode back to his truck.
He tracked the brake lights as they bumped down the drive. His lips tingled and he reached up to touch them, to see if he could feel a difference. They felt the same. But he was different.
Aiden had kissed a man sober. And he didn’t regret it.
Turning on his heel, he couldn’t keep his lips from curling into a grin. In the privacy of the dark, he let himselffeelwhat he could only assume were butterflies in his stomach. He’d long thought them migrated, moving on to more hospitable climes. But they buzzed around, wings fluttering with the thrill of something he’d never allowed himself to experience before.
Just before he got to the bunkhouse door he paused.
Did he say date?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Winter hit. Not with a punch, but with a slap. Snow and Ice flurried in the air, and the wind rattled the windows. Isaac shuffled around the bunkhouse with his comforter wrapped around him and Carol brewed enough coffee for an army. The cows huddled together, coats fluffy, and the horse’s ears laid back every time the trees shook with another frosty gust.
But Aiden didn’t feel it. He didn’t notice the hard press of grey cloud over head or miss the sunshine. His breath plumed when he whistled, and he pulled his hood up over his hat, but he wasn’t cold. Not like the winter before. Or maybe it was just that he didn’t notice it as much.
What he did notice was the ache in his cheeks. He was smiling a lot more. So much so that his face hurt. Isaac nearly fell off the tractor the first time he caught him laughing at one of the barn cats trying to walk across a frozen water trough. Frank even asked if he needed to see a doctor.
When he looked in the mirror, he saw himself. Not the shade of the boy he was, or a wraith of the man he could be. He just saw himself—cheeks red from the cold, hair long enough to fall into his eyes when it wasn’t stuffed under his hat, and eyes that nolonger reminded him of the algae in a water trough but of a field of grass fresh off a spring rain.
He felt lighter, too. The tension in his chest was gone. A bit like when he was congested, he could still breathe, but when it was gone, and he could take a full breath the difference was staggering.
As a coincidence Aiden refused to believe was a correlation, Ethan kept kissing him. There was no reason for it either. He’d be in the barn and Ethan would grab him, spin him against the closest surface and kiss the surprised gasp from his lips.
It would always start with Ethan kissing Aiden, but it didn’t stay that way. Eventually Aiden would kiss back, clumsily and with no finesse. He would start to get frustrated, fingers digging into Ethan’s shoulders until the man would slide a warm palm around his neck and still him. With a press of fingers that always feels like a suggestion rather than a demand, he would shift Aiden to where he needed to be.
Like finding the correct puzzle piece, they slotted together, and it was a sigh of relief. Kissing before had been frustrating, a build up with nowhere to vent it. But when they slipped together, stubbled cheeks brushing and spit soaked lips chasing each other in a game of tag neither wanted to win, it was euphoric. He felt it deep in places he didn’t know existed.
Just when he’d get to the point where his hips stuttered, so hard he worried he might have a permanent impression of his zipper on his dick, Ethan would stop. Rest his forehead on Aiden’s with a victorious smile.
Weeks went by like that. It got to the point that every time Sugar barked, Aiden’s blood rushed south so quickly his blood pressure bottomed out.
Aiden brushed hay from his shoulders as he jumped out the bed of the truck. Sugar snapped at his heels, tongue lolling. She was covered in hay, and he stooped to dust her off.
“I’m just saying,” Isaac called out as he leaned out the window, carrying on a conversation they started while they’d been feeding the cows. “The reason the government isn’t properly funding schools or libraries is because they don’t want us to think independently.”
He peered up at Isaac from under the brim of his hat. “Always figured it was because they were greedy assholes.”
“Nah, man.” Isaac thumped his hand against the door. “They want us to be completely reliant on them. Why else you think their raising taxes and giving away land?”
It was a bad day when Aiden agreed with Isaac. He finished with Sugar and sent her off with a tweak of her tail. Standing up, he cast a glance up at the sky. The clouds were looking ominous. Forecast said there was a big storm rolling in. They’d dropped extra hay for the cows and horses, but he wondered if it would be enough.
“Going to go grab some more goat feed. Need anything from town?”
“No, I’m good.”
Isaac waved as he drove off, hay flying out the bed of the truck. Aiden made his way back to the barn, debating whether he should bring Eagle in for the weekend. The gelding hated being stalled, but he wasn’t as furry as the other horses this year. He was considering pulling up the weather on Frank’s computer, when someone snagged him by the hip and shoved him up against the side of round bale.
Ethan smelled like coffee and chewing gum as he knocked Aiden’s hat off so he could kiss him properly. Fingers dug through his hair, nails dragging along his scalp in a way that sent shivers down his spine. Like a trained response, Aiden’s hands buried in his coat and he swallowed thickly. They were completely out in the open. Anyone could walk around the barn and see them.
He pulled back from Ethan’s sinful lips, head smacking into the bale with a dull thunk. Bits of hay rained down and caught in his eyelashes.
“What are you doing?”
Ethan’s cheeks were as pink as his lips. “Trying to quit smoking.” He kissed him again, hard and desperate. His hands were shaking, and he rutted up against Aiden’s hips in a way he hadn’t done before. It left him breathless and weak kneed.