Chapter 25
Ville
Iparked the rental truck in front of the cabin and maneuvered us out of the seat. Emery wasn’t letting go, which made me chuckle a little.
When he almost slid down my body when my feet hit the ground, he just hopped up again. I kissed his temple, then walked around the vehicle and up the couple of steps. I was incredibly grateful for the shape I was in, because getting him inside wasn’t exactly easy, but it was doable.
I stopped and closed the door, then kicked my shoes off. Then I reached back with one hand to pull Emery’s shoe off and changed hands to do the other one.
“You know, there might be easier ways to do this,” I grumbled.
“Mhmm, but I’d have to let go for that.” His voice was muffled against my neck, and his breath made a shiver run down my body.
“Fair point.”
I carried him to the bedroom, then laughed when I saw what someone had done.
“What?” Emery asked, confused at my laughter.
I turned so that he could see the bed. “We have a turn down service, it seems.”
The bed had been turned down, and there was a bottle of lube in the middle of it.
“Did you tell someone you were coming?” he asked as I carefully placed him on the bed.
“Your mom knows, and I guess she or someone else came to clean this place up. I just doubt she did this,” I nodded at the lube as I started to strip.
Emery looked a bit wild-eyed for a moment. “I really hope not.”
“Yes. God forbid your parents knew you have sex,” I teased as I grabbed the legs of his sweatpants and yanked them off his body.
He squirmed out of his underwear while I finished undressing myself. Then he went to turn onto his stomach, but I halted the movement.
“No.”
He blinked at me, then smiled as though understanding me without words.
I crawled up his body, settled on top of him, and kissed him like I’d wanted to for months. I felt his absence acutely while we were apart, but somehow, right then, I felt it even more.
This was my other half, and having his skin pressed against mine made me realize how empty I felt when he wasn’t by my side.
“Hey…,” he whispered, again, reading something in my expression.
“Yeah,” I whispered back, then kissed him once more.
I reached for the lube and began to prep him in silence.
We looked at each other, touched every inch of skin we could reach.
When I pushed inside him, it was nothing like our usual, almost frantic coupling.
I would’ve thought that was what we defaulted to after being apart, but no. This felt right.
To my shock and a bit of horror, I felt my eyes welling up when I bottomed out. I lifted my head, trying to look at the ceiling as I blinked rapidly, my breath catching.
Emery pulled me down on top of himself and held me as I… well, I didn’t weep, didn’t really even cry, but I needed a moment. When I lifted my head again, I could see tears in his eyes. The love mixed with the longing and the hurt and the joy of being this close.
Kissing him again, I began to rock my hips. I hadn’t gone soft; there was no way I could with his tight heat clutching me.
We made love, then curled up together, just holding each other for a long time. Eventually, the muted sound of Payton’s voice carried through, and I chuckled.
“I bet he’s asking why there’s a truck there.”
Emery pecked my lips. “Come on. Let’s shower and go find lunch. Your stomach just rumbled.”
The weekend proved what I’d already known: I belonged with Emery.
The location didn’t matter, but I also knew he was so entwined with the town, the community, and of course his family, that I would never ask him to move away from any of it permanently.
Hell, I didn’t even want to ask for a temporary thing, because he’d just gotten his feet under him and had his boss’ respect.
We savored every moment, every interaction, while I was on the ranch.
When he worked, I hung out with his siblings and parents. I took pictures and video of Wren’s still unnamed horse and watched as Crew brought the funny looking donkra to meet Juanpablo.
Apparently they’d been doing it a couple of times a week pretty much since the beginning. The donkra enjoyed the walks and the donkey was actually showing interest in her. That was promising, but they weren’t taking any risks knowing how spicy Juanpablo could get.
I went with Payton to feed the corvids, and on Saturday, he and I called Wren so he could show the kid the studio. Music, or maybe it was just Wren’s music, fascinated Payton. I had a feeling one day, he’d drag Wren to some sort of a show and tell at school.
I called Nessa and told her how the dogs were doing from my perspective. She was incredibly pleased and was especially happy about the heated dog houses and the fact that everyone respected the dogs, treating them with kindness and feeding them well, not that it had ever been in doubt.
The weekend ended too soon, of course. Four nights weren’t enough when I didn’t want to be apart from Emery at all. But it would help sustain us, I hoped.
“Things will get crazy,” I whispered to him on Monday morning half an hour before his alarm would go off. “The beginning of the tour before the routine sets in will tire us all out. The travel will, too.” We had buses for the shorter journeys, but we’d fly, too, depending on the leg of the tour.
“So if I don’t hear from you, don’t worry?” he made an educated guess.
I sighed. “Yeah. Leave me voice messages, though. I’ll listen to them first thing when I wake up.” I kissed his temple. “Oh, Jenn said that you might be all coming to the Red Rocks concert in early November.”
“Yeah. We talked about it. Not sure who is going to make it, but I’ll definitely be there.”
“We have two days in Denver, so we can have a slow morning the next day,” I promised, because that was something I wouldn’t play with. Wren also knew that if there was a chance of having Emery in my arms for one night while we were on tour, I would take it.
“Okay,” he said quietly.
Then his hand on my chest slid lower until his fingers curled around my cock. I rolled us to the side so I could take him in hand, too. We slowly jerked each other off, panting into each other’s mouths, whispering words that seemed sacred until we came.
Our breaths had barely slowed down before the alarm went off. Kissing me once more, he rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom. I had about two hours until I needed to leave for the airport.
When we made it to the house, Jenn was ready with breakfast. She put plates in front of us—both of our favorites, waffles with fruit and whipped cream for Emery, French toast for me—and looked at us pointedly until we picked up our forks.
It was clear she wasn’t going to say anything, but she wanted us to eat, even when she knew we didn’t feel like it.
She was a good matriarch of the ranch, a good mother figure, and I loved her.
The tasty food still felt like lead in my stomach by the time I kissed Emery goodbye, knowing that I wouldn’t have the chance to do that in the next month.
November sixth rolled around, and the whole family—sans the babies who were at home, being taken care of by a young hand called Tommy and Russ—was there in the wings. We’d asked if they wanted to go into the audience, but they had declined and chose to watch the show from the literal sidelines.
Payton and Aria had big headphones on, and Payton had some book under his arm.
The kid went nowhere without books.The family had carpooled in various combinations, and I knew Hawk and Carter would be staying at the same hotel Wren and myself, with Jen and Mike picking another one for the night.The rest of them would go back to the ranch, because the next day would be business as usual, and Demi and Luke wanted to get back to their boys.
Wren didn’t know who all had come. He knew they would’ve tried to, but he was probably expecting a few people instead of the…
I don’t even know how many there were. Either way, he’d only get to hang with them for a while because he always got tired really fast after concerts and couldn’t really go out with them afterwards, given his celebrity status.
When the encore was winding to an end, I gestured for the family to follow me to the large dressing room next to the smaller one Wren was using.
The kids were giggling with enthusiasm at being able to surprise him, and when Emery and I went to the smaller room to wait for the few minutes we had left, we could hear them talking next door.
I knocked on the wall and called out, “It won’t be a surprise if you don’t quiet down.”
They did that, and I turned to Emery, then gathered him in my arms.
“Hey there, sugar,” he murmured, then kissed me with all the longing we both felt.
The door opened without us separating.
“Jesus Christ, guys,” Wren complained, but when we looked at him, he was beaming.
Well, he was a disgusting, sweaty mess as usual, but he was still beaming.
“Good concert,” Emery told him.
“Thanks. Felt good.”
“They thought you had the bigger room so your snacks are there,” I told him. It was another thing that was routine: he needed to hydrate and have something to eat before we left the venue.
“Oh, okay. Well I’ll change and come over there, then,” he said easily, which was a testament to how chill he was even at this level of fame.
Emery and I went back to the bigger room and he shushed his family, explaining the situation.
About ten minutes later, Wren opened the door and Payton and Aria yelled, “Surprise!”
The instant tears in Wren’s eyes were no surprise to me. He’d missed his family.
“You little buggers,” he play-growled at the kids who ran to him as he crouched to their level. “Were you hiding?”
“We were, Mr. Wren!” Payton said, hugging his neck. “You sang really good tonight.”
“I did? Thanks, buddy,” he replied, then tugged at Aria’s braid. “How about you, Miss, did you have fun?”