Page 31 of His Country

“How is this—God Ethan you gotta—what does you quitting smoking have to do with k-kissing me?”

Ethan hummed against his lips. “Says I should occupy my mouth with something else.”

“Who says?”

He nipped Aiden’s lower lip and then chuckled when his entire body arched into him. “Experts.”

Aiden needed to send those experts a thank you card.

Ethan never went beyond kissing. His hands stayed above Aiden’s clothes, moving with a gentle hesitancy in their purpose. Like he would stop the moment Aiden said so. But he never did. Why, he wasn’t sure. This was everything he told himself he couldn’t do.

But it wasjustkissing. As long as he didn’t admit it out loud, as long as Ethan is kissing Aiden because he’s the only one for miles who’d kiss him back, it was simple. If he didn’t think about it, just let those kisses exist in that same place outside of time he found in the truck on the way back from the bar. The one that started with pinkies brushing and ends with whatever it was they were doing pressed up against a round bale.

This didn’t mean anything. Just like waking up with morning wood. It was a biological function. Ethan kissed Aiden and Aiden kissed Ethan back. There were no labels. As long as he didn’t think about it, he was fine.

Ethan jerked himself away, pupils dilated and breathing ragged. Aiden watched him adjust himself. He got himself together before snagging Aiden’s hat off the ground, dusting it off before gently setting it on his head. He tucked Aiden’s hair into it, fingers trailing down his jaw to examine the marks his stubble left on his cheeks.

“I’ve got to go,” he said, voice as low as the storm clouds. “Frank and I are meeting with the Sheriff about the town meeting.”

Aiden nodded shakily. “You feel better?”

Ethan’s smiled, shaking his head as he looked away from Aiden for a moment. “Yeah.” He stepped close, laying a kiss against the corner of his mouth. “I’m not thinking about cigarettes anymore.” His hand was hot where it laid against his lower back. It blazed a trail as it dropped to squeeze Aiden’s ass.

Ethan was gone before Aiden could react. Not that he knew how. He was left propped up against the round bale, trying to decide if he wanted to forget about how his hand felt on his ass or ask him to come back and do it again so he’d never be able to.

His indecision followed him throughout the day. He tried to focus on his work but exhausting his body didn’t seem to do anything for his mind. That night when he was lying in his bunk, Sugar and Isaac snoring somewhere in the dark, he stared up at the ceiling and felt his stomach rising and falling under his hand.

It was warm in the bunkhouse, and he’d kicked the covers down. His fingertips brushed against the waistband of his boxers, restless. It was like a wolf pacing at the gate. Indecision stilled his hand, despite the ache in his groin.

If he moved forward, it would be admitting something. A certainty that he’d been able to keep at a distance. Inevitably, Aiden’s mind drifted back towards this afternoon. Ethan had been unusual. He was always so coy, like he was playing a game that no one else knew the rules to. But today was different.He’d thrown out the rules and reached for Aiden like heneededhim. Took, instead of giving. If the timing had been different, he wasn’t sure he’d have stopped.

Wasn’t sure if he wanted him to.

Even now, he could feel Ethan’s hands on him. The confidence with which he grabbed him, like it was a certainty. And it was that that finally broke Aiden. He slipped his hands into his shorts to find himself half hard.

Breaking every rule he’d ever set for himself, he allowed his eyes to flutter close and remember the way Ethan’s felt they were kissing. That little staccato of breaths that brushed against his skin, quick and brief, like he would rather kiss Aiden than breathe. Or how he would press his entire body against him. Chest warm and hard and hips flush with Aiden’s. The strength of the arm slipped around him to hold him up when his knees grew weak, as if Ethan liked having Aiden as putty in his hands.

How big his hand was when it grabbed his ass.

Aiden hadn’t spent much time thinking about his ass, but the way his dick twitched in his hand told him he probably should. Just with his fingers loosely wrapped around his cock, he was already hard. Precum rolled down his shaft, sliding between his fingers as he finally started jerking himself off.

With his free hand clamped over his mouth, he let his mind wander to places he hadn’t let it go since he was a teenager in a bed no smaller than this one. With the curtains drawn and his parents sleeping down the hall, he would never picture Everett, that was too much, but he’d let the faceless men in his fantasies do things to him. It was all theoretical, what he thought things might feel like.

But now he knew. Now he couldn’t not pictureEthan’sface. His hands. His lips. Everything about him came to mind so easily. Even the way he smelled, tobacco growing fainter by the day, the crisp scent of the gum he chewed. Even the chemicalsmell of the soap he used to clean his tools and hands between patients.

Two strokes and Aiden came silently, Ethan’s name on lips silenced by his palm. Toes curling and hips twitching, he came so hard he saw sparks dancing behind his eyes. They looked a lot like the twinkle in Ethan’s eyes.

Coming down, he winced as he pulled his sticky hand from his shorts. He held it out over the railing to try and minimize the damage to his sheets. As the cum dried on his fingers, the post-orgasm clarity hit him like a baseball bat to the stomach.

He’d jacked off to Ethan. Not some vague, Ethan shaped man in his fantasies, but unequivocally Ethan. And as he searched around for the shame and guilt he knew would come hurtling into him, he couldn’t find it under the desire that was still brimming under his skin. The desire that whispered if Ethan were here, he’d clean Aiden up. Maybe gently tease him. But he’d definitely grab him, wrap him in his arms and protect him from the things he’d never been able to protect himself from.

When he was with Ethan, he could admit that he liked it when their pinkies brushed. When he surprised him with kisses or teased him until his cheeks were as red as the back of his neck.

Wiping his hands off on the sheets bunched up at the end of the bunk, he rolled over and buried his face in the pillow.

Aiden couldn’t help but think that most things were better when Ethan was around.

The end of a decent winter storm had Aiden riding up into the pastures to check the cows. They were still a couple months out from calving, but he needed to get eyes on them and their pastures. He’d just begun tacking Eagle up when Ethan showed up. Without asking, he snagged Frank’s mare and they prepared to ride up into the pastures together.