Chapter Two #2
Tyler looked down at his hands but didn’t release Owen’s shirt.
“I can’t.” Those two words took Owen back to the first day they’d met.
Ty had been battling withdrawal symptoms from his pain pill addiction and was frightened out of his mind.
Doing the simplest tasks, like leaving the cell to get in the chow line, was too much for him.
“I can’t” was a common refrain during those first weeks.
It had taken a ton of patience to earn Tyler’s trust, and Owen would sooner lose a limb than break it.
Tyler leaned forward in the booth and rested his head on Owen’s shoulder. “I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going to disappear on you, Ty. It’s me and you, remember?”
Tyler wrapped his arms around Owen’s waist as if he were holding on for dear life. “Promise?” he whispered.
“Always.”
Tyler’s sigh ghosted over Owen’s neck and made him shiver. “Can we go talk now?”
Talk, kiss, grind until they came in their pants.
Owen was up for anything Tyler wanted. “Let’s go.
” But neither of them stepped away from the other.
“We’ll have to separate if we’re going to get through that skinny doorway.
” Owen received another nod. He longed to kiss Tyler again in case it was the last time, but he stepped back and opened the door instead.
He felt every curious gaze swing their way when they exited the booth.
“We deserve this,” Owen said as he studied every raised brow, smirk, and wink.
“And so much worse,” Tyler replied.
They’d placed a lifetime’s worth of bets on relationship outcomes and instigated twice as many shenanigans on the ranch. The chickens had come home to roost, and payback would be hell.
“Come on,” Owen said. “Might as well give them something to talk about.”
“I need to grab something first,” Tyler said before making a beeline for the kitchen.
Owen watched his retreat longer than he should, knowing he was just fanning the flames of their audience.
He tore his gaze away from Tyler and forced his feet to move, not stopping until he reached the front door.
Owen grabbed his coat off the hook but didn’t stop to put it on.
He was hot enough to fuel a furnace for days and should probably cool off a little before he shut himself in a small cabin with Ty.
Owen needed to exercise caution and control—two things no one ever associated with him.
“Okay, I’m ready.” Tyler sounded breathless when he joined Owen by the front door with something wrapped in tinfoil.
“What’s that?”
“I snagged the remaining pumpkin spice whoopie pies for you.”
Tyler’s thoughtfulness never failed to move Owen.
He showed how much he cared in a million little ways and made him feel like the most important person in Tyler’s world.
Owen leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Tyler’s mouth.
So much for caution and control. Tyler’s lips trembled and parted invitingly, and Owen wanted more than anything to deepen the kiss, but not until they talked first. Tyler scowled when Owen pulled back, and he wanted to kiss his cute pout away.
“I really, really want to be alone with you right now,” Owen told him. The front door wasn’t visible from the great room, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t wander down the hallway. They didn’t need interruptions or input from anyone else.
Tyler thrust the whoopie pies at him and grabbed his coat. “My cabin is closer.”
Fat snowflakes pelted them as they stepped onto the porch.
It was coming down much harder, and the wind had picked up.
The quick trip to Ty’s cabin took twice as long as normal because of the deepening drifts, and Owen wished he’d put on his coat.
They’d traveled this route so many times together, but this time, Owen didn’t resist the urge to reach for Tyler’s hand.
They ducked inside the cabin and shut themselves away from the outside world.
Two cats—one bright orange and one the color of butterscotch—raised their heads from where they curled around each other on the couch.
When the ranch rescued a pregnant stray, Little Mama, they couldn’t bear to part with her precious kittens.
Tyler and Owen each chose one, naming them Lucy and Ethel after their favorite fictional duo.
The cats followed them nearly everywhere on the ranch, but Owen wasn’t sure he wanted witnesses to what he hoped would happen next.
Then again, if what he truly wished for came true, there would be a lot of sleepovers, and the girls would have to get used to it.
They hung their coats on the peg by the door, and then Tyler was on him, backing Owen against the wall.
Tyler’s lips were cold, but his tongue was hot and curious.
He took the foil package from Owen’s hand and flung it toward the coffee table, but it overshot and landed on the sofa.
The girls bolted from the couch and darted under the bed.
A protest danced on Owen’s tongue, but Tyler licked it away, along with his resolve to talk before they did anything else.
Owen fisted one hand in Tyler’s hair and gripped his pert ass with the other.
He thought the frigid walk to the cabin would have cooled his lust, but his internal fires blazed hot.
The earlier thoughts of caution and control returned, but Tyler’s needy groans waved a red blanket in front of Owen’s raging bull.
Six years of longing and loving had led to this moment, and…
he wanted it to be perfect. Sanity prevailed, and Owen eased his lips away and stared into glazed dark eyes.
He brushed a thumb over Tyler’s swollen mouth and barely resisted the urge to dive back in.