Chapter 3
Ville
I’d heard the donkey even over the family around me. While I’d known it was Emery coming home from work as he was the last person to arrive, it was as if my attention was divided in two as soon as the door opened.
Now that he was in front of me, the quiet of the bathroom almost deafening after all that noise, I drank in his features.
He also looked at me like he wanted me still.
The way his pupils got bigger when using a pet name was telling.
I had no choice, I stepped closer to him, crowding him against the door he’d closed behind us.
His Adam’s apple bobbed when I leaned in, towering over him a little bit just with how he was slouching. To make himself smaller? Interesting.
I smirked. I could go so fucking cheesy with this. But I didn’t want to, and we didn’t have time.
Lifting my hand, I hovered it along his jaw and cheek. The way his head moved toward my touch was everything.
“You’re just as responsive as you were last time,” I murmured.
He began to say something, but my control snapped and I cupped his jaw and kissed him, the surprised gasp leaving his mouth open to plunder.
Emery made a helpless little sound as he melted into me, and only the loud laughter suddenly carrying upstairs made me pull back before I could sink into the bubble we’d instantly created.
“Later,” I said firmly. Maybe not tonight, but I’d be here long enough that “later” would happen, eventually.
I tore myself away from him, feeling as if I’d been pressed along his body, when the only points of contact had been our mouths and my hand on his five o’clock shadow.
I went to the sink and washed my hands, glancing at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t tired, mostly because I always felt better once I was done traveling.
“You still hate traveling?” Emery asked, his voice raspy until he cleared his throat.
I backed away from his tempting form and took my turn leaning to the door. “Yeah. But at least it wasn’t too long this time. It’s mostly the flying that gets to me. A car I can stop and take a walk before I get stir crazy.”
He smiled slightly and dried his hands, then quirked an eyebrow at me. “I could probably prescribe something for that.”
His expression belied the playfulness, and I stepped up to him, then grabbed one firm butt cheek and squeezed. “I’ll be counting on that, Doctor Harrington.”
Emery whimpered, then tilted his head up for a kiss, which I gladly gave him.
When I let go, he swayed toward me, and I was a little disappointed, knowing that we had to go downstairs.
“Okay, okay,” Emery said quietly, probably to both of us.
Just as we got back to the top of the stairs, I leaned down a bit to murmur into his ear, “Hey, look at it this way: at least you don’t have beard burn.”
When he’d left my hotel room that last time, he’d had it all over his body.
I heard so many things over the family dinner that my head spun by the time I was walking to the cabin I would be staying at.
“We lived there first,” Payton, who was hopping beside me, reminded me as if I hadn’t been told this fifteen minutes prior.
“Uh-huh.”
“And then my Daddies wanted to be together and now we live in our cabin all together. My room is brand new!”
“Pay? Let Ville be,” Crew called out where he and Mal were walking behind us.
“If you run now, you’ll get half an hour more reading time tonight,” Mal added.
“Oh yay! Bye Mr. Ville!” Payton waved and then ran.
I laughed and waited for his dads. “Can I assume that was something you would’ve given him anyway had he asked?”
Mal grinned. “Absolutely. There’s a schedule, of course, but we’ll never limit how much time he can spend reading.” His cell phone rang, and his grin widened when he saw who it was. “It’s my mom. I’m gonna take this.”
“Tell her I said hi,” Crew called after his man who jogged toward the cabin while answering the call.
As we continued walking, I asked the one thing I hadn’t really understood and hadn’t had time to ask during dinner.
“So how is Bodhi here already? I thought he’d come for the wedding.”
Crew frowned at me. “What? He’s been back for about a year. He’s done.”
I stopped in my tracks. “What?” I felt like a shitty echo.
“Yeah, he’s starting his own business on the north side of the property. There’s a build site there, with access from Millsbrook Rd.”
“Oh, well I’ll have to factor that into my plans, then,” I said thoughtfully, as if that was the thing I was so confused about.
“Yeah. You probably need to take into account each business separately. Fern has the event barn, Hawk is building the horse therapy pool, and now Bodhi’s as well.”
“Right.” Luckily we got to the cabins then, and Crew lifted his hand before going to theirs.
It looked inviting with lights on inside. There wasn’t a light on in Russ’s cabin, but apparently that was because he was visiting a friend in Denver for the weekend. The old foreman was family just as everyone else here, including Wren. Which was why I was so fucking confused.
I went inside the little cabin that had clearly been cleaned. Everything smelled faintly of citrus over the wood scent all proper cabins had. I couldn’t help but smile at the view when I turned the lights on. There was a kitchenette, a little living room corner, and a bedroom in the back.
Mal had told me they’d taken down the separating wall that had been built when he and Payton originally moved in, so the back of the cabin felt roomier now. Apparently. To me, it was still small and quaint, but not in a derogatory way.
I unpacked quickly, since I never had much stuff with me, and then decided to take a shower before I’d have to call Wren. By the time I sat on the comfortable bed and got out my phone, I had just as few answers as I had on the walk to the cabins.
You up? Can I call?
It took Wren a few minutes, but he video-called me instead of answering the text.
He was sitting on the porch on the second floor of the cabin and smiled at me immediately.
“Hey, how’s it going in Colorado?”
I smiled back. “It’s good. They’re… a lot.”
Wren laughed and took a sip of what I knew to be a mug of honey lemon tea. He downed that stuff by gallons, it felt like. “They are. But they’re also the best.”
“That’s true.” Emery’s face flashed in my mind, and I bit back a smirk.
“Everything went well with the travel?”
I’d sent him a message while I waited for the rental so he already knew this. “Yeah. As usual. Everything okay there?”
The smile he gave me was exasperated and fond. “No, I’m being accosted by hordes of rabid fans and a few assassins.”
“Brat.”
He rolled his eyes. “What’s going on, Ville?”
Ah. He had picked up on my mood. I looked away from the screen and sighed. “Did you know that Bodhi is back?”
I looked at him in time to see his forehead scrunch with confusion. “Uh, for the wedding, already? It’s still weeks away. How did he get all that time off? He hasn’t said anything to me.” I winced, and Wren caught it. “What’s going on?”
“I genuinely don’t know, but Wren….” I took a deep breath, and then looked into the camera as I said, “Hon, he’s back. Has been since last year. He left the Marines.”
The expression that flitted across my best friend’s face hurt me physically. There was confusion and hurt and anger and more confusion.
“But… but why didn’t he tell me?” He sounded wounded, and I hated Bodhi for that.
“I don’t know.”
Even through his upset, he suddenly nailed me with his gaze and snapped out a firm, “Don’t talk to him about it. Don’t do anything.”
“I’m not some loose cannon, Wren,” I said, groaning a little.
“No, but you’re protective as fuck and you get het up way too easily when it comes to people you love. So don’t.” Before I had time to answer, he added, “Promise me, Ville.”
Sighing, I nodded. “Okay. I’ll be civil. And not ask him why he’s being a wank stain.”
“What are you, a thirteen-year-old?” he teased me, trying to lighten the mood.
I went with it, sticking my tongue out at him as we changed the subject because I could see how badly Wren was trying not to spiral.
“Hey, call me at any time if you need me, okay?” I made him promise before we signed off fifteen minutes later.
“Yeah. I will. And you do the same.”
“Okay.” It was easy to agree to it. “And daily proof of life texts.”
“Yes.” He downed the rest of his tea and lifted his ever present notebook. “I’m gonna write a bit more and then go to the studio.”
“I’m gonna sleep. Work starts tomorrow.”
“Good luck. Tell everyone I miss them.”
I bit back “except for Bodhi” and instead said, “Will do. Good night, Wren.”
“Night, Ville.”
I put my phone on the bedside table and sighed. This was going to get messy before it got better, knowing Wren.
He had an artist’s sensitive soul and Bodhi was… well, not the most observant of guys. The most obvious testament to that was the fact that he hadn’t realized Wren had been in love with him since they were teenagers.
There was a sudden knock on the door, and I got off the bed. For a moment, I wondered who it could be, but then… yeah.
I smirked as I opened the door and Emery slipped inside like he was on some covert op or something.
“Well hello there,” I purred at him as I watched him march through the cabin, heading straight for the bedroom.
I closed the door and then stalked after him.
When I got to the bedroom, he whirled around and practically launched himself at me. I caught him easily, making an oomph sound into the kiss. I chuckled as I moved my head back and looked at him.
“Am I correct in my assumption that it’s been a while?” I asked, because sure, he’d changed and I understood why—you grew up fast in such a serious profession, after all—but this was more than him having become more assertive since the last time.
“Yeah, let’s go with that,” he replied hastily, then latched his mouth onto my collarbone and sucked.
Not wearing a shirt after my shower had definitely been a good idea.
I scooped my hands under his thighs and practically threw him on the bed. He was wearing sweats and a T-shirt, and he’d kicked a pair of flip-flops on the floor before I got to the room. This boy was nothing if not efficient. I liked that in a guy.
“I like this new you,” I said as I tugged the sweats off him while he was taking his shirt off.
“Oh?” He looked a bit confused at that.
“You’re much more assertive.”
Emery let his head fall back and laughed. “Okay. I’ll take that.”
“Now let’s see if you still take direction as well as you used to.” I pushed my sweats down and kicked them to the side, then climbed on the bed on top of him.
The expression that had haunted me for two years was on his beautiful face. It was part being turned on and part just submitting instantly. It wasn’t a kink thing, I didn’t think we were that kind of people, but there was something in Emery that wanted to let go and I was a toppy bastard at best.
He went a bit slack-jawed and opened up like I’d never had a lover do before. That was why I hadn’t been able to shake him out of my head.
I leaned in to kiss him, and he let out a happy little moan that made me smile. I’d missed him. I’d known that before I got onto the property, but the thought hit home hard right then.
Speaking of hard, I wrapped my fingers around his cock and hovered over him. “What do you want tonight? My lube and condoms are in the bathroom.”
His eyes focused back to my face and he stilled my hand. “C-Can’t talk if you’re doing that. No, can’t think.” Then he chuckled. “Go get the lube.” Then, like the doctor he was, he added, “Unless you mind the mess and slash or haven’t been tested recently.”
Going bare with Emery? Yeah. I was too cautious in my regular hookups, because they were often spur of the moment things with complete strangers and I was distrustful of people at best. I might’ve been on PrEP but I wasn’t stupid enough to risk my health.
I got off the bed, trying to be smooth about it instead of scrambling, and went to the bathroom to grab the lube from my toiletry kit. I knew already that Emery wasn’t going to risk his own health or anyone else’s, so the only reason I would need the condom was for easier cleanup.
The idea of him dripping with my cum as he snuck back to the house—I already knew he wouldn’t stay the night—made my cock throb as it bobbed like a fucking arrow pointing to where I needed to be.
I tossed the lube on the bed and heard Emery’s breath hitch. Then I got between his legs again, pushing his thighs up until he was exposed to me in the most delicious way. Emery blushed. I grabbed the tube with one hand while soothing him by petting his thigh with the other.
As I squirted the slick to my fingers, I looked at his face and smiled. “I’ve been thinking about this moment since the last time,” I admitted surprisingly easily.
It still didn’t mean anything more than I really, really liked his ass and the way he took me.
Emery whined a little as I pushed a finger into him, then quickly followed it with another one before giving him time to adjust a bit more.
“S-Same,” he managed to say. “God, just… add more lube and get in me already. Just—” He cut himself off with a moan when I pegged his prostate.
“Just go slow. I know.” I smirked a little as I pulled my fingers out and lubed my dick first, then pushed some more inside Emery.
I wasn’t ready to hurt him, even though the way I fucked wasn’t exactly slow and gentle. I didn’t do slow and gentle with anyone.
As I pushed his knees toward his chest, he grabbed one of them and held it for me.
I wasn’t a small man, and my cock was proportionate, if not a monster. I was pretty sure there weren’t many people in existence who actually enjoyed regular fucking from one of the things you saw in porn.
I locked eyes with Emery and started the smooth, slow slide inside him. Here, I could be patient and slow, but as soon as he gave me the go ahead, all bets were off.
His eyes fluttered closed, and he reached his free hand toward me, grasping my arm and squeezed as I bottomed out.
We both panted for breath for a moment, and then he opened his eyes and looked at me, already dazed and flushed to perfection.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” I ground out as I pulled out and pushed back into him.
And then, well, I fucked him in the way we both needed it.