Operation 22 The Road Back Home #5
The path curved beneath shade trees, past a fence line where horses grazed in the wide field, flicking their tails lazily at flies.
The land opened up to rolling green hills, scattered with wildflowers and bright patches of sunlight. They didn’t talk for several minutes. Peaceful contemplation seemed to be the ranch’s gift.
Furi looked out over the pasture, the breeze moving loose wisps around his face where Amelia’s braid had lost a few strands. “It’s so beautiful here.”
“Yeah.”
“I see why Fox stayed.”
Syn glanced at him. “Bull helps.”
Furi smiled faintly. “I’m sure.”
Another stretch of quiet passed between them before Furi said with a wide smile. “I could spend all day in that petting zoo. The kids are so innocent and funny.”
Syn could tell how happy he was with all those animals nuzzling his face and fighting for room on his lap. If only their life could be that simple.
When they reached the far edge of the back pasture, the path dipped behind a cluster of old trees near a shallow creek bed. The house disappeared behind them. The barns were hidden by the slope and weeping willow branches.
Syn stopped.
Furi paused with him, a question in his eyes.
He took Furi by the front of his tank top and pushed him back against the trunk of a massive oak.
Furi’s breath left him in a sharp rush.
Syn cupped his jaw and kissed him with zero restraint.
Furi answered with a sound that went straight through him.
His mouth opened beneath Syn’s, warm and eager, and Syn pressed closer, pinning him to the tree with his body while the rough bark framed Furi’s shoulders and the breeze moved between them.
Furi sank his fingers into Syn’s hair, pulling just enough to make his control flash white.
Syn let the kiss end for half a breath before taking another from a deeper angle.
Furi tipped his head back against the trunk and Syn followed, mouth moving over his lower lip, the corner of his mouth, his strong jaw. Furi smelled like sunshine, and earth, and the faint trace of his favorite soap. The scent he’d missed in his sheets at night.
“Corbin,” Furi breathed.
Syn kissed him harder.
Furi wrapped his arms around his shoulders, holding him close. Syn slid one hand into the thick braid and Furi shivered when his fingers closed around it.
He pulled back just enough to look at him.
Furi’s lips were parted, his eyes bright and dazed, his chest rising fast beneath the black tank. Sunlight cut through leaves above them and landed in pieces over his face, his tattoos, the long sweep of his hair where it hung over one shoulder.
Too fucking gorgeous.
And mine.
Syn leaned in again, slower this time, brushing his mouth over Furi’s. Once. Twice. He felt every pulse and throb where their bodies pressed together.
“You’ve been driving me crazy all morning,” Syn said against his lips.
Furi’s hands tightened at his back. “And what do you think you’ve been doing to me?”
Syn closed his eyes.
Furi caressed the back of Syn’s neck. “What is it?”
Syn kissed him again, because he’d missed his taste so much. The pressure softened into depth. Their mouths moving together in slow, searching strokes, each one dragging them closer to something neither anger nor hurt had managed to dissipate.
Furi turned his face into his jaw, lips grazing against his stubble. “I love you.”
Syn went still.
Furi froze.
“I know you do.”
“I just needed you to hear it.”
Syn’s hand tightened at his waist. He looked past Furi for a second, through the trees, toward all that open land. Space everywhere, then back at Furi.
“I’m sorry too,” he confessed.
Furi’s eyes widened as he shook his head.
Syn put his finger to Furi’s lips to stop the protest. “No. Let me say it.”
Furi nodded once, slowly.
“When we were going through all the financial shit, I was stubborn, and proud,” Syn said, his voice roughening. “You tried to explain how scared you’d been, how desperate you felt, and I wouldn’t listen.”
Furi lowered his eyes.
“I hated what you did. I still hate that you felt like going back to that world was the only way to help us. But I know you didn’t do it because you wanted to. You did it because you were trying to save what we’d built together, and you gave up a piece of yourself to do it.”
Furi’s eyes shone as a lone tear slipped down his right cheek.
Syn swallowed hard. “So thank you. For the sacrifice. For doing what you thought would keep us standing, even though I know damn well you never wanted to step back into that life.”
Furi embraced him, long and hard, sobbing softly.
Syn had to get past his own pain, and when he did, he saw his lover for who he truly was. How generous and selfless he’d been for them. “I love you too,” he said, rougher this time. “I need you, Furious. All of you.”
“You have me. You always have.” Furi kissed his temple. “It’s only ever been you, Corbin.”
Syn tightened his hold. “Right now…”
“What?” Furi breathed.
Syn kissed him hard and desperate, before pressing his forehead to his. “I need you inside me, right-fuckin-now.”