Page 44 of His Country
“I didn’t get you a gift,” he admitted softly.
Ethan’s looked up at him, lips pressed together. “You still can.”
He raised his eyebrows, resting his cheeks against his crossed forearms. The fine hairs on his arm tickled his ear.
“Stay like this. With me.”
“It’s snowing. I’m not going anywhere?—”
“Forever.”
Aiden blinked. “What?”
Ethan didn’t move. He was unnaturally still and the skin around his eyes were tight. “You said it took Everett five seconds to fall in love with Billy.”
He swallowed, nodding slowly.
“It took me three to fall in love with you.”
Squaring his shoulders, Ethan reached for Aiden. Slowly, giving him plenty of time to run. Or bat his hand away. Aidendidn’t. He let Ethan’s hand slide across his cheek, cupping his face. He didn’t move him, just gently held him in place.
“You were shattered. Cornered and terrified, but you walked away with your shoulders back. Your face was just…full of pain but you didn’t let anyone see it. Then you cried into your dog, and I was gone.”
Aiden couldn’t breathe. His chest was loose. There was an abundance of space and he thought it would feel strange. But he realized that’s how he always felt with Ethan. Easy. Free.
And now Ethan was looking at him. Not like the sun. The sun burns. And not like he was the first rain of the season, full of hope and promise. No, Ethan looked at him like a river. Slow moving, steadily churning, beating up against the rocks as an unstoppable force against an immovable object. Powerful enough to destroy mountains. To carve away the earth with its stubborn, unceasing stream.
He didn’t stop looking at him. Not as his hand gently guided their lips together. Not when his kiss brushed against Aiden’s lips, a whispered question punctuated with the promise of more. Aiden stopped looking at Ethan. Eyes fluttering closed so he could feel him instead.
Ethan took that for the permission it was. He kissed him again, harder this time. Chapped lips against skin half warmed by the fire. Continuous brushes that were like the ocean, waves ebbing and flowing. Noses shifting so they could slot together. Clumsy at first, like they were treading unfamiliar territory, but gaining confidence. Ethan’s hands were cold as they slipped around Aiden’s face, thumbs tracing any skin they could reach. Aiden didn’t know what to do with his hands, so when he gently rested them on Ethan’s shoulders the man smiled into the kiss, lips curling against Aiden’s.
The kisses felt different. Aiden felt different. His head was spinning, but not in the way it had before. Close to the way hefelt in the barn when he justwantedand nothing else mattered. With every touch, fingertips skittering across skin, he felt himself come alive. This was more than furtive touches under his quilt.
This was desire.
All encompassing, when Ethan’s lips left his he felt like he was in a vacuum. A void where his only lifeline had been taken away. His kisses felt closer to CPR, breathing life into him with every press and pull.
Aiden wanted, and so like he did in the barn, he let go. Peeled his fingers from the death grip he had on things he thought mattered—his shame, anger, heartbreak, and gave himself over to this man who made things so easy.
Easy to let Ethan’s sure hands pull his sweatshirt over his head, laughing when his hat tangled in the hood. Easy to kiss him, tasting stale coffee and nicotine gum. Easy to part his legs and let him press their bare chests together, skin pebbled with goosebumps except where they touched. There it was warm.
Ethan’s hands dragged down Aiden’s chest, fingernails applying just enough pressure to have him gasping into it, back arching and heels digging into the thin rug. He peppered kisses along his sternum and down to his belly button, licking into it in a way that should have been gross but had Aiden’s hips bucking up, seeking friction Ethan wouldn’t let him have.
His dick was so hard it felt like it was being strangled in his pants. It burned with need, so bad his legs trembled as he clung to Ethan, desperately trying to focus on all the sensations exploding across his skin like fireworks at the county fair.
“I don’t—” he began, not sure he could articulate what he needed to say.
Ethan paused from where he’d been sucking a dark mark against Aiden’s hipbone. “Do you want me to stop?”
Aiden was shaking his head so violently the room spun. “No, no, I just…I’ve never done this and…” he trailed off, swallowing thickly. “Don’t know what to do.”
His thick lashes fluttered closed for a moment, Ethan just breathing against Aiden’s stomach. Before he spoke, he reached up and took Aiden’s hand in his, threading their fingers together.
“Do you want to?”
Aiden squeezed his fingers. “Doyou?”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed and he bit down on his hip, hard enough to leave an imprint of his teeth. “Don’t be a brat,” he snapped, eyes boiling in the light of the flames.