Page 15 of Killer Honeymoon
Sawyer rolled his eyes and pushed Play on chapter one. Royce was fully sucked into the story before they left the driveway.
“This narrator sounds familiar. Is this the same guy who caused you to run the stop sign?”
“Shut up and listen to the book.”
“That’s a yes, then,” Royce said. “We’re definitely not listening to this book when you drive. We’ll switch over to theDatelinepodcast.”
They’d planned to switch seats when they stopped to fuel up, but Royce was so invested in the story he got back into the driver’s seat. Sawyer didn’t comment, but Royce didn’t miss the delighted smirk on his face. It was a good thing they’d stopped when they had because the guys encountered a horrific accident that closed both sides of the interstate for a few hours. By the time they reached Grace and Darren’s isolated mountain cabin at the top of a winding, ass-clenching road, it felt like they’d been on the road for days instead of hours.
Sawyer had packed a duffle bag with a change of clothes and bathroom essentials for their overnight stay in Tennessee, so they took it and the cooler inside and left everything else in the SUV.
“You didn’t leave any food in the vehicle, right?” Sawyer asked. “Bears will smell it and come investigating.”
Royce looked around him as if one might pounce on him right then. As beautiful as Grace and Darren’s cabin was, he was leery of black bears. His fear grew exponentially when he saw several framed photographs of a mama bear and her cubs taken at that very cabin.
“Grace calls her Heidi,” Sawyer said when he noticed where Royce’s attention had gone. “Makes her less scary, right?”
Royce snapped his head around. “Hell no. A little fear is good. I don’t want to have a run-in with Heidi, especially not when her cubs are around. I don’t know much about bears, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the phrase ‘mama bear’ comes from, right?”
Sawyer pulled Royce into a kiss. “I believe you promised me a good time in the hot tub. Something about making me come so loud it echoed through the mountains.”
Royce’s fatigue and wariness faded in a snap. “I did say that, and I am a man of my word.”
Royce locked the front door and started stripping out of his clothes as he made his way through the house to the master bedroom in the back. He heard Sawyer’s uneven tread as he too stripped down. The sliding glass door opened to a large deck with a breathtaking view of the Smoky Mountains. He stood there buck naked and stared in awe for several seconds until Sawyer smacked his ass on the way to pull the cover off the hot tub.
“Last one in—”
Royce streaked past and vaulted into the hot tub before Sawyer could even get the words out.
“—comes first,” Sawyer finished.
Royce eased down into the water. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and let the heat soothe his muscles. Driving for extended periods always made him tense. The hot tub and the sexy man climbing onto his lap would make it all better.
Royce cracked one eye open and saw Sawyer smiling down at him. He dropped his hands down to cup his husband’s sweet ass. “Hi.”
Sawyer rocked his hips forward, grinding his dick against Royce’s. “Hello.” He lowered his head and captured Royce’s mouth in a kiss hot enough to rival the temperature of the water.
Royce was about to let himself go when scratching sounds penetrated his lust-fogged brain. It reminded him of Bones and his beloved scratching posts. Royce managed to tear his lips away and look around Sawyer to make sure they weren’t about to become the victim of a murderous, mountain-man psychopath. It took Royce a moment for his brain to register what he was seeing. When it did, his blood turned to ice. Two black bear cubs had climbed the pilings on the opposite side of the deck and were walking along the railing toward them. The sliding glass door was in the middle.
“How likely is it to see black bear cubs without their mama?” he asked in a voice so calm it scared him.
Sawyer stiffened in his embrace but didn’t make a move. “Not likely. Mama is always somewhere close unless she’s been killed.”
That wasn’t a risk Royce was willing to take. “Run!” he yelled.
The two men shot up out of the water as if they’d been fired out of a cannon. Royce’s feet slipped when they hit the deck, but he didn’t lose his balance. Heidi’s head peeked over the deck railing on the opposite side when they were a few feet from the door. She let out a roar that made Royce and Sawyer scream in terror as they lunged toward safety. They fell inside the house and quickly slammed the door shut. Royce slid the lock into place, and they collapsed onto the floor, breathing like they’d been running for their lives, which of course, they had.
The two cubs jumped into the hot tub like it was their private swimming pool. Heidi stalked over to the glass door and roared until Sawyer and Royce scrambled out of the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind them.
“Well,” Royce said between pants, “your screams echoed through the mountains.”
Sawyer glared at him but couldn’t hold on to his irritation. “What now?”
Royce shrugged. “We safely try to get pictures of the bears splashing around in the hot tub for your sister to frame. Maybe some videos too.” There was a part of Royce that wanted to grab Sawyer and the few things they’d brought into the house and make a run for their SUV. And go where? Home? Royce tried to discount the ridiculous idea but couldn’t shake a sense of foreboding. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Surely this isn’t a sign of things to come.” Sawyer opened his mouth to say something, but Royce shook his head. “Don’t say it.”
“Famous last words,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and savored the warm sun on his skin and the lake breeze ruffling through his hair as the ferry set sail. The second leg of their journey to South Bass Island was long but thankfully uneventful. Royce had become engrossed in the audiobook and insisted on driving so they could finish it. Sawyer wanted to dispute Royce’s notion that he couldn’t listen to the books while driving, but it would have been a halfhearted attempt at best, and he didn’t believe in wasting energy on futile things. Sawyer had big plans for his husband, and they didn’t include petty arguments.