Hugh
C olter stood in front of him, staring him down. He knew that he wasn’t going to let him get away with lying, but he was doubling down and digging in his heels. “I think it would be best if I left,” whispered. He didn’t mean a word of what he just said, but somehow, the words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them.
“Leave?” Colter asked. “What does that mean, ?” he asked. “Are you saying that you want to leave the bar or me?” The hurt that he saw on Colter’s face was nearly his undoing. He didn’t want to hurt him. That was his main reason for leaving in the first place. If he stayed, he would have to admit that he had feelings for Colter and that would screw up everything between the two of them. He couldn’t work for Colter and be involved with him at the same time. It was a part of the rules that they had come up with, but admitting that was the reason why he wanted to leave wasn’t an option. Saying the words aloud that he was attracted to Colter would royally screw things up. But then again, he was usually good at screwing things up. That’s what Luke liked to tell him.
“You,” whispered. “I think that you are a great guy, but it’s time for me to go. I’d like to keep my job, if that still works for you.” Colter took a step forward, invading ’s space and he had nowhere to go. The guy looked like he wanted to punch him and kiss him again at the same time. He backed against the wall and braced himself for whatever Colter had planned.
“Why do you want to leave me, ?” Colter asked. His tongue darted out to run over his bottom lip and wanted to groan at just how sexy that was. But then, he found everything that Colter did to be sexy as fuck. That was why he had to find a new place to live, and eventually work.
“Because I can’t live and work with you at the same time,” admitted. That was as close to the truth as he planned to get. “It’s a bad idea.”
Colter pushed further into ’s space and put his hands on the wall behind him, essentially trapping in place. “What are you doing?” asked.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Colter asked. His wolfish grin told that he knew exactly what he was doing to him.
“You know that you are, Colter,” spat. “We agreed that there can never be anything between us besides friendship and work. So, I think the question should be—why are you doing this?”
“How about you answer my question first,” Colter insisted.
“Fine, you’re making me uncomfortable,” growled. “Do you feel better knowing that?” From the way he smiled down at , Colter was enjoying every single moment of making him squirm. “Now, you answer my question.”
“Okay,” Colter said, “I’m doing this because I like you, . I don’t want to keep pretending that I don’t. I can feel the electricity between us every time we touch each other. Aren’t you tired of pretending?” He was finding it hard to hide his feelings for Colter, but he needed his job at the bar, and falling for his hot boss wasn’t the best idea.
“I’m not pretending,” lied. “You’re my boss, and you were kind enough to offer to let me stay here, but I think that was a bad idea. I’ll just need to find my own place, even if that means taking an apartment next to college students.”
“So, we’re circling back to you leaving then?” Colter asked. “Okay, you want to live next to college students and deal with the noise and parties. Have any new places come on the market in the past few hours?” he asked. He could tell that Colter already knew the answer and he wasn’t going to back down.
“No,” said, “there are no new places on the market, but I’m ready to start looking further out.” It was the only way to escape his feelings for Colter, and if he had to commute to work, he would.
“Why commute when you can live here and be close to the bar? For fucks sake, , why can’t you just tell me how you feel about me?” he pushed.
“I’ve already told you—you’re my boss and I think that you’re nice, but that’s where things end.” Colter huffed out his breath and leaned closer to . If he kept that up, he wasn’t going to be able to keep up his walls. He would have to admit the truth to Colter, and that terrified him.
“Okay, we can do this the hard way,” Colter breathed. He was so close to that he could just lean in and take what he wanted from him. Colter’s warm breath felt like a caress against ’s lips. ’s traitorous body leaned into Colter, and when a soft moan escaped his lips, Colter pressed his lips against ’s taking everything that he seemed to want from him. Colter didn’t let up for air until he was panting with need and ready to beg him for more.
“We can’t do that again,” said. It sounded more like a challenge, and he was pretty sure that Colter was the type of guy that never backed down from one of them.
“No?” Colter asked. “You sure about that?” nodded, not able to get the words to come out. Colter pressed his hard body against ’s, and he was sure that he’d come in his damn pants if he didn’t stop rubbing against him. Colter wasn’t playing fair, and wasn’t sure if that should piss him off or turn him on. Judging from his erection, he was going to go with turned on.
“Colter,” warned.
“All you have to do is tell me how you feel about me, ,” Colter challenged.
“And then what?” asked. “We just live under the same roof and work together, ignoring the fact that we have feelings for each other?”
“Well, not exactly,” Colter said. “How about if we live under the same roof and work together, but we don’t ignore our feelings for each other?” could feel his heart beating and he thought for sure that Colter could feel it too. He was standing so close, and from the determined look on his handsome face, he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“That will never work,” insisted. He had a relationship like that with Luke and that turned out to be a mistake. He had gone through the worst breakup he had in his life. There was no way that he’d want him to go through all that again.
“And why not”? Colter asked.
“Because it didn’t work when Luke and I tried that,” he almost shouted.
“I’m not Luke,” Colter insisted, “I’d never hurt you, .” Colter leaned in and gently brushed his lips over ’s and this time, he didn’t fight him. let him in and when Colter’s tongue swiped into his mouth, finding ’s, he didn’t hide his moan. Kissing Colter was all he could think about since they met, and it was better than he could have imagined.
Colter broke the kiss, leaving them both breathless. “Just say the words, ,” he demanded. could see all the pent-up desire staring back at him in Colter’s eyes. He felt the same way and denying it now was pointless.
sighed, “I have feelings for you, Colter,” he almost whispered.
Colter’s smile nearly took his breath away. “See now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked.
He took ’s hand and started to lead him out of the kitchen. “Where are you taking me?” he asked.
He stopped in the hallway, still holding ’s hand. “To my room,” Colter said. “I’m done pretending that I don’t want you, . If you don’t want this, tell me now, and we won’t go any further.” He wanted Colter more than he wanted his next breath. There was no way that he’d tell him no now.
“I want this,” admitted. Colter wasted no time pulling him into his bedroom and pushing him back against the bed. He didn’t seem like he was going to give time to change his mind—not that he would.
“Are you hung up on your ex?” Colter asked.
“If that’s your idea of dirty talk or foreplay, Colter, it sucks,” grumbled. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about Luke before having sex with Colter.
“I’m being serious. I need to know that you don’t have feelings for your ex before we go any further,” he said.
“Where is this coming from?” asked.
“You talk about him a lot,” Colter said. He sounded like he was accusing of wrongdoing, and that hurt his damn feelings. “I just want to make sure that we are both on the same page before we jump into bed together.” could understand where Colter was coming from, but having to talk about his ex was going to feel like a bucket of cold water being poured onto his libido.
“That’s how I process my feelings,” insisted, “I talk about things or in this case, people who hurt me. Then, I can move on. But I can promise you that I am not hung up on my ex. If I never see Luke again, it will be too soon.”
“So, you have no feelings for him?” Colter pushed.
“No, I don’t. It’s been months since we broke up, and if you can’t tell, I’m kind of into you, Colter,” said. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and Colter did the same. If he was going to spill his guts, he needed to be sitting down for it. “Luke and I worked together. He was my boss, and that’s why I hesitated when it came to us getting together. It didn’t work out, and I don’t want to lose you or my job. I actually like this little town, and I could really use a fresh start.”
“Why did the two of you break up? Was it mutual?” Colter asked. This was the part of the story that was always the hardest for .
“I’m assuming that it was mutual since I found him in bed with another man. I walked out of there and never looked back. Luke, on the other hand, ended up with the guy that he cheated on me with, and as far as I know, they are living happily ever after.”
“I’m sorry that happened,” Colter said, “but I won’t say that I’m sorry that you came to town and walked into my bar.” Colter ran his hand over ’s jaw, cupping it as he leaned in to kiss him. “I’m so glad that you’re here, .”
He was pretty happy to be in Colter’s bed too, but he had a feeling that Colter meant more than that. “I’m glad you’re here too,” breathed. He pulled Colter against his body and kissed him like a starving man. liked the way that the two of them seemed to fit together.
“Before this goes too far, you need to know that I like control,” Colter said. wasn’t sure what he meant by control, and for a minute he panicked. Luke used to like to be in control of ’s every move. Luke had him check in every few hours to let him know where he was and what he was doing. Hell, he had even accused of cheating on him—which was laughable now. After they broke up, realized that Luke probably had him checking in every so often so that he didn’t just show up back at home and catch Luke and his boyfriend, Jace, together. For all he cared, Jace could have Luke because he was done with that life. But now, Colter was asking for control and worried that he wouldn’t be able to give him that.
“What kind of control?” asked.
“From the look on your face, you don’t like the idea of having to give up any control,” Colter whispered.
“It’s not that,” assured. “Luke had me check in with him every few hours and liked to control every aspect of my life—including what I wore and ate. I don’t think that I can ever do something like that again.”
“And you should never be asked to do anything like that, babe,” Colter said. “I meant that I like control in the bedroom, during sex. You can wear whatever you like—preferably nothing, and eat whatever you want. I have a suggestion for that too, but we’ll get to it in a minute. I’d never want to control your every move, and if you aren’t good with the control in the bedroom thing, we can come up with another solution. I’ll have to learn to live with it, but not having you in my bed isn’t an option, .”
“No, as long as you’re good with only having control during sex, I’m good. I kind of like the idea of you being in charge while we’re here. It takes the pressure off having to figure out what you want.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you exactly what I want, babe,” he agreed.
“Well, what’s your first wish then?” he asked, joking. Colter didn’t seem like he was in a joking mood at all. “Sorry, what do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Strip,” Colter ordered. They both stood from the bed and started stripping out of his clothes as Colter did the same. He couldn’t take his eyes off the guy and when he pulled off his sweatpants, nearly swallowed his damn tongue.
“Jesus, ,” Colter said, trying to cover his massive erection. “If you keep looking at me that way, this will be over before we even get started.”
“Well, that’s not what I want at all, babe,” said. He took a step toward Colter and stopped, waiting for his next order.
“On your knees,” Colter ordered. “You’re going to suck me off and then, it will be my turn to taste you.” moaned at the idea of them both giving and taking from each other. It had been so long since he had been with someone, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last.
hit his knees and wasted no time, reaching for Colter’s shaft. He ran his hands over his cock and Colter growled at him to stop playing with him and get on with it. When he wrapped his lips around Colter’s cock, he took over, pushing to the back of ’s throat.
“So fucking good,” Colter growled. Watching Colter come undone was the sexiest fucking thing that had ever seen. Colter pushed to the back of his throat a few more times and when swallowed around him, Colter shouted out ’s name, losing himself down ’s throat.
“On the bed,” Colter ordered, his voice hoarse from shouting ’s name. It was a complete turn-on knowing that he had that kind of power over Colter, even though he’d never tell him that.
He did as he ordered and crawled up onto Colter’s bed, loving the way that he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off him. Colter worked his way down ’s body and when he got to his cock, it was practically begging him for attention. looked down his body to find Colter smiling back up at him.
“You’re not going to play fair, are you?” asked.
“Now, why would you say that?” Colter teased. He wrapped his big hand around ’s shaft and sucked him into his hot mouth. God, it felt like heaven to have Colter’s lips wrapped around his cock.
“That feels so good,” breathed. He pumped his cocked in and out of Colter’s willing mouth, taking what he needed from him, and when he came, he shouted Colter’s name.
He worked his way back up ’s body and pulled him against his own. “That was fantastic,” whispered.
“Oh, babe, we’re just getting started. Stay in my bed,” he said. wasn’t sure if Colter was asking him or ordering him to sleep with him.
“Is that an order?” asked.
“No, it’s a request, and I won’t pressure you into it if you don’t want to,” Colter admitted. gently kissed Colter’s lips which were still swollen from sucking his cock. There was no way that he’d tell him no. He wanted to stay in his bed, but wondered if Colter meant for a night or longer.
“I can see your wheels turning, babe. I want you in my bed, and if you’re not ready for that, I understand. But if I had my way, you’d be sleeping in here every damn night.” Hearing Colter admit that he wanted him there long-term did crazy things to his heart. There was no way that he’d tell Colter no.
“I’d like to stay,” admitted, “for more than just a night.”
“Thank you,” Colter whispered. “Now, how if we go check on the kittens and grab something to eat, I’m starving.”
“It’s still the middle of the night,” challenged.
“Yeah, but I’ve worked up quite an appetite,” Colter teased. “And I plan on burning even more calories with you once we get back to our bed.” He emphasized that word, “Our” and swallowed bast the lump of emotion in his throat. What was it about this man that made him want to go all hearts and flowers? He wasn’t the romantic type—ever, but something about Colter made him want to be. One thing was for sure— would never get enough of Colter and his bossiness.