Roping & Rutting

(Kinky Cowboys, Book 9)

by Anitra Lynn McLeod

Copyright 2019 by Anitra Lynn McLeod

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License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Copyright Page

About This Series

About This Book

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

About the Author

About This Series

Sexy cowboys with playful kinks are going to heat up things in Climax, Colorado. Each stand-alone story combines gorgeous men, passionate encounters, and a happily ever after that will touch your heart. These feel-good stories have absolutely no cheating, low angst, and plenty of romance.

About This Book

Coy didn’t think anyone would be able to save him from drowning until Hunter Rojas managed to do what twelve other cowboys couldn’t. Not only does Hunter save Coy’s life, but when it becomes clear Coy is running from danger, Hunter vows to protect him. Learning to trust is difficult but will they be brave enough to break down the wall that stands between them or will they let true love slip away?

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This slow burn contemporary western M/M romance contains a young man with a secret, an older man with a hurtful past, a shared love of reading, and a happily ever after that can’t be denied. 33,500 words or 134 pages.

Chapter One

Coy figured he was done for. Twelve cowboys had tried and failed to get him out of this massive mud hole but maybe thirteen would be his lucky number. He doubted it fiercely, but he felt in his final moments he should have hope. Foolish hope, but still, he didn’t want to drown with fear in his heart and a scream on his lips.

When his last hope arrived, Coy felt something he’d never felt toward another man: unshakeable faith. His savior rode high in the saddle, the battered hat on his head shading his eyes but the sleeveless shirt showed off powerful arms. Lifting himself up to stand in the stirrups, he detached a coiled rope from his hip and swung it around and over his head before flinging the end toward Coy. To his shock, it landed within grabbing distance. Every other cowboy had tried the same thing but hadn’t gotten close. Once the mucky water weighted down the rope, they couldn’t throw it again. It was a one-shot deal that only this cowboy—this mysterious, intriguing cowboy—had nailed.

Coy grabbed the rope.

“Wrap it around your waist,” the man said, his big hand wrapping the other end around his saddle horn.

To do that, Coy would have to take his foot off the hunk of wood, the only thing that spared him from drowning. The chunk of timber was still sinking slowly, but if he stepped off he might not be able to find it again if something went wrong. So far, everything that could go wrong had. Why shouldn’t this?

“Trust me.” The man lifted his hat, revealing pale eyes that his bronzed skin managed to highlight. “I know what I’m doing.”

Coy believed him. He believed him so deeply that to not believe him would somehow be the worst thing he’d ever done in his life. Coy took a deep breath, pulled the rope around himself, and felt the wood below his foot shift away. He started to sink but before his head went under, he drew a deep breath and held it as hard as he held the rope.

When he felt himself moving toward the edge of the pond, relief almost made him relax but a renewed desire to live made him cling to the rope like a burr on a sock. Maybe, just maybe, there was something in life worth living for.

Unable to hold his breath anymore, he lifted his head and gasped in a new breath then redoubled his efforts to hang on. Along the way, he lost his favorite hat but he didn’t care. He could buy another one. If he lived, that would be the second thing he would do. He’d go into town and buy the best goddamned hat he could afford with what little money he had left. But the first thing he would do is thank the man who’d saved him. He’d thank him in every way he could. Hell, right now he vowed to thank him in ways he probably shouldn’t.

Once Coy got nearer to the shore, the assembled cowboys tried to help him but the man on horseback told them to get out of the way.

“I don’t want to have to save the rest of you. Just let me do what I do.”

Coy could hear him but he couldn’t really see him, mainly because he had his eyes clenched tight against the watery muck. He got some in his mouth when he’d gulped air but he certainly didn’t want that stuff in his eyes.

To his shock, he felt squishy mud under him and then solid land. Now he understood why people in old movies would wash ashore and kiss the sand. Coy had never wanted to kiss the ground but he did now. The odds of him ever going swimming again were slim to none.

“Back off.”

Coy blinked and saw the man hop down from his horse.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” He lifted Coy up as if he weighed no more than a puppy. He moved him well away from the pond before settling him on the ground, sitting up with his legs out in front of him. “No. Don’t try to get up or move. Someone hand me some water.” He wetted a bandana and then used it to gently wipe Coy’s face. “You okay?”

“I am now.”

He smiled.

“Who are you?” Coy asked.

“Hunter Rojas.”

“I’m Coy. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I owe you my life.”

Instead of answering, Hunter splashed more water on the bandana. “Here, you should drink some.”

“The last thing I want is more water.”

“At least rinse out your mouth.”

Coy hadn’t realized how much muck he’d taken in until he rinsed it out. He also didn’t realize how raw his emotions until he felt tears prickling behind his eyes. No matter what he did to stop them, he couldn’t.

“It’s okay.” Hunter settled down in the dirt next to him, pulling Coy against his powerful chest. “You’re okay now.”

Coy had honestly thought his life was over. He’d kept his foot on that slowly sinking log thinking of everything he’d done and all the things that he hadn’t.

“How did you end up out there anyway?” Hunter asked.

“I was trying to save a coyote.”

“You what?” Hunter lifted Coy’s face, scrutinizing him like he needed to have his head examined.

“I thought the poor thing was drowning and so I went after him.”

“You put your life at risk for a coyote?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It wasn’t a coyote but a big piece of wood.” Once Coy had gotten to it he’d realized his mistake. He couldn’t swim his way out without getting sucked into the mud and the only thing to hang on to was slowly sinking. “The other cowboys tried to pull me out.”

“I’m sure they did.” Hunter spared the men standing around them a glance before turning those pale yet oddly intense eyes on Coy again. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“I know. Thank you.” Coy wrapped his arms around Hunter only realizing too late that he’d basically covered the man in muck and mess. “I’m sorry. I’m just shaking and I think I need to sit down.”

“You are sitting down.”

“I’ve never been so scared.” Coy wanted to wrap himself around Hunter and cling to him for the rest of his life. In this man’s arms, nothing in the world could hurt him.

“You’re going to be okay.”

Coy believed him. A man like this would never lie. Coy didn’t dare look up at the other cowboys. They’d all tried to help and their frustration had only added to the fear he’d felt while the mud pulled him lower and lower.

“There’s Sally Ann with the pickup,” one of the cowboys said.

“Come on.” Hunter rose to his feet, taking Coy with him. “I’ve got you.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To get cleaned up. To see a doctor.”

“I don’t need a doctor.” The last place Coy wanted to go was anywhere with authority figures.

“Yes, you do.”

Coy didn’t want to argue with the man, not when he’d saved his life. “I can’t stop shaking.”

“You’re in shock.” Someone handed Hunter a blanket and he wrapped it around Coy then helped him climb into the cab of the truck.

“Don’t leave me.” Coy grabbed onto Hunter’s sleeveless shirt only then realizing it was a multi-pocketed vest. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Okay. Just move over a bit. There you go.”

“You wanna try to get a seat belt on him?” The young woman driving asked Hunter.

“I think we should just get moving, Sally Ann.” Hunter slammed the door.

“I think so too.” Sally Ann put the truck in gear and took off.

“My backpack.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Hunter tightened his hold on Coy’s shoulders. “They’ll get your gear and my horse.”

Again, Coy believed him.

“What were you doing out here?” Hunter asked.

“Camping.” It sounded as good as any excuse.

“On the ranch?”

“It’s a ranch?”

“You didn’t notice all the cows?”

“I didn’t see any.” Through chattering teeth, Coy said, “I thought I was on forest land.”

“I think you got your map turned around.” Hunter pulled the blanket tighter around Coy’s shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it, okay?” Sally Ann patted a clean place on the blanket then put her hand back on the steering wheel. “We’re gonna get you fixed up.”

“Fixed up?”

“Don’t worry about that either.” Hunter shot Sally Ann a glance that baffled Coy. He wanted to ask what was going on but he was so cold and when Hunter asked him again why he’d been on that part of the ranch, he got distracted.

“I was...journaling. I saw some coyotes the day before and followed them and I woke up this morning and...and...” Coy shook so violently he couldn’t speak. “Why is the truck shaking so much?”

“It’s not—”

“It’s a rough road.” Hunter cut Sally Ann off. “Tell me more about the coyotes.”

“I thought one was in the water but it was a log. Or a branch. Once I was out there, I couldn’t get back and then the cowboys came but they couldn’t help but then you came.” Coy peered up at Hunter as if he’d hung the moon. “You saved my life.”

“Just glad I could help.”

“The other cowboys tried to throw me a rope but didn’t even come close.”

“You were pretty far out in the middle of that.”

“You managed to get a rope out to me.”

“Roping is my specialty.”

“It is? I’ve never heard of anyone having roping as a specialty.”

“How many cowboys do you know?”

“You, I guess?”

“Well, there you go.” Hunter’s warm smile soothed Coy.

“I should get out more.” Coy realized he shouldn’t have said that. He shouldn’t be talking to anyone. “I have to go now.”

“Go where?”

The question seemed an obvious one but he didn’t want to answer. Actually, he couldn’t. Coy had nowhere to go. Even if he did have somewhere to go, he had no way of getting there other than hitchhiking and that had not gone well for him the last time.

“Coy?”

“Please don’t make me go back.”

“To the mud?”

Coy nodded even though that wasn’t what he’d meant at all. He was so cold and he couldn’t think clearly and everything seemed to be spinning and the bumpy road made him shake like a paint mixer.

“I think you need to drive a little faster, Sally Ann. I think he’s going into shock.”

Coy heard the words but he didn’t understand them. He’d just wanted to be free, to do the things he wanted to do, to lie in the sun and then spend the night looking at the stars.

“Coy? Coy?”

“Please don’t tell them where I am.”

“Who?” Hunter asked.

But Coy couldn’t answer. The world went spinning and he knew no more.

Chapter Two

Coy woke up in a clean white bed in a clean white room that smelled so strongly of disinfectant it burned the inside of his nose and made him sneeze.

“Hello again.”

Coy turned to the side and found a man sitting there. He had curly black hair and riveting pale eyes. Those compassionate eyes made him realize who the man was.

“Hunter.”

“Coy.” Hunter smiled, flashing slightly crooked teeth that were somehow sexier than perfect teeth could ever be. Maybe because, like the rest of him, they were real. He had plenty of muscle from real work and not a gym. “How are you feeling?”

“Good?” Coy realized he’d just asked instead of answering but he hadn’t really taken stock of himself. He remembered writing on his laptop and then trying to rescue a coyote that turned out to be a hunk of wood and then the human hunk next to him had saved his worthless life. “You saved my life.”

“Happy to help.” Hunter lifted up a cup. “Thirsty?”

“Yeah.” Coy couldn’t remember ever being so thirsty. When the bed started moving he panicked but then realized he was in a hospital bed. Mercifully, his panic made him go stock still so Hunter might not have noticed.

Hunter lifted the cup to him.

Coy drew the straw into his mouth and drank the cup dry. “Can I have more?”

“Not just yet.” Hunter returned the cup to the bedside table. “The nurse said only a little when you woke up. She said you’d be thirsty.”

“What happened? I mean I remember the mud but how did that land me in the hospital?”

“Hypothermia.”

“Wait, what? From mud?”

“Cold mud on a cold morning with a light wind. When I pulled you out, the breeze stripped what little heat you had left.” Hunter placed his big, warm hand over Coy’s. “You also cut your leg.”

“I did? I didn’t feel it.”

“That would be because of the hypothermia.” Hunter squeezed his hand with surprising gentleness for such a big man. “That might have also saved you from bleeding out.”

“How badly did I cut myself?”

“From what the doctor said, you tore your leg on something. I’m guessing the hunk of wood.”

Hunter’s response didn’t actually answer the question but Coy thought that might be on purpose. Like a cartoon character running off a cliff, he couldn’t succumb to gravity until he looked down and realized he was hanging in midair. If Coy didn’t know how bad the injury was, he couldn’t feel any pain.

“Do you want me to ring for the nurse?” Hunter asked.

“No. I’m okay. It’s just—I went out to save a piece of wood and somehow it managed to bite me. If that isn’t my life in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re safe now.”

Three words filled him with hope. For a good minute, Coy allowed himself to feel safe. To trust that the warm bed and the strong hand were there to help him, not hurt him, but once those sixty seconds were gone, he realized he would never be safe. Never be free. As strong and powerful as Hunter might be, he’d never be able to protect Coy from his family. To ask him for help would be akin to involving him in an unwinnable war. Coy couldn’t repay Hunter’s kindness with that. He’d rather die.

“Coy?”

“I have to go.”

“Go where?”

“Away from here.” Coy tried to get up but that big, warm hand moved to the center of his chest. Hunter pinned him but not with overwhelming force. If anything, he used the lightest possible touch to get the job done. The profoundly careful treatment stopped Coy from trying to leave. It almost left him breathless. No one had ever touched him the way this man did.

“I know you probably have a million things to do, but right now, you need to get well.”

“I feel fine.”

“You’ve got a lot of pain killers in your system.”

“I’ll hobble you, boy. Like in that movie, Mercy. I’ll put a block of wood between your ankles and whack them with a sledgehammer.”

Coy stopped trying to get up. He reassessed himself but realized he wasn’t feeling much of anything at all. Even focusing all his attention on the weight of the blankets didn’t allow him to feel much of anything below his waist. Shielding his eyes with splayed fingers, he lifted the edge of the bed coverings and peered down. He half expected his feet to be gone, but they were there, at the end of his legs, right where they belonged. When he wiggled his toes, they moved, and he cried.

“Whoa, there.” Hunter grasped his hand a little tighter but not so firmly it hurt. If anything, his strong touch lent Coy strength. “You’re okay. Really. You’re going to be fine. It was just a cut that seemed worse than it was. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I’m not scared.” Coy was petrified, but he didn’t want Hunter to know. He wouldn’t let him get tangled up in his life and get hurt. “I have to go as soon as I can.”

“Why?”

Desperate, Coy latched on to the most obvious reason. “I can’t pay for a hospital stay. I don’t have insurance. I don’t even have—” a real name. Thankfully, he cut himself off from saying that. Instead, he said, “I don’t even have cash to pay.”

“You’re in the Climax Clinic. No one here is going to hound you for payment, okay? The town funds it.”

“Really?” Coy couldn’t believe people cared enough about other people to do something like that. Only in stories did people care about other people. In real life, people didn’t give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about other people.

“Really,” Hunter assured him.

Still, Coy wanted to be up and gone, long gone, because they’d find him. They had before and they would again.

Lifting the blankets, Coy pulled up his hospital gown, revealing a huge bandage on his thigh.

“How bad...”

“You had a dozen or so stitches. But they got it clean. No sign of infection. Amazing, considering what must be in that mud pit.”

“Guess I’m just lucky.” Coy filled his voice with sarcasm. Luck avoided him like the plague.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” Hunter had a rather grim expression. “I need you to be straight with me.”

“I’d much rather be gay with you.” Coy clapped his hand over his mouth. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“Drugs, probably. And it was funny.” Hunter offered a half smile. “But that still leaves me with—”

“You’re awake.”

Coy turned his attention to the door. A short woman with a full afro entered in a white coat and white tennis shoes that squeaked lightly against the flooring.

“I’m Doctor Dunne.” She picked up his chart, looked it over then put it back on the foot of his bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Better?”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“Better.” Coy tried to sound as sure as he could so he could get out of here. The sooner he got gone the better for everyone involved, especially Hunter.

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.” She settled on a stool then rolled it over to Coy’s bedside.

“Should I go?” Hunter asked.

“Not unless Coy wants you to.”

“You can stay. I don’t mind.” In fact, Coy would prefer that Hunter stayed with him. He felt safe with Hunter around. Strange, since he didn’t even know him.

Hunter did move his rolling stool down a little to give the doctor more room. She listened to his heart, checked his blood pressure, and then removed the bandage to examine his wound.

Coy stared, horrified.

“I know it looks dreadful but that’s actually a good thing,” Doctor Dunne said.

“It is?”

“It means it’s healing.”

“But it’s yellow.”

“Part of that is the antiseptic solution we put on it.”

“And the other part?”

“You bruised it. That’s the color bruises turn when they heal.”

“It’s really gross.”

“That may be.” She pressed the call button. “But it’s still good in terms of healing.”

“When can I go?”

“We’d like to keep you another day.”

“I’d rather go.”

Doctor Dunne and Hunter exchange glances, reminding Coy of the way Sally Ann and Hunter had shared wordless communication in the truck on the way here. A day late and a dollar short, he got why. He’d been bleeding badly and Hunter had been trying to keep Coy from realizing. The thought jarred him. No one had ever tried to protect him. Coy wanted to turn to Hunter and thank him yet again, but he realized that the tables had turned. Hunter wasn’t trying to protect him anymore. Now he was doing his best to help Doctor Dunne uncover secrets Coy thought best hidden.

“When you came in, you had no ID.” Doctor Dunne lifted her eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

Coy immediately thought of his backpack. Hunter had said the cowboys would get it. If they had, they hadn’t brought it to the hospital. Where was it? If he’d lost that, he’d lost almost everything he’d run to protect. But he couldn’t let Hunter or the Doctor know that. Instead of giving anything away, Coy reverted to the age-old trick of answering a question with a question. “Does that matter?” Coy asked.

“We just need more information for our records.”

“Information like what?”

“Your full name. Your social security number.” She paused for two beats then added, “Your current address.”

“I don’t want to give you that.”

Doctor Dunne and Hunter exchanged another meaningful glance.

Coy felt his heart accelerate. It was a good thing they didn’t have him hooked up to one of those machines that tracked a patient’s heart rate because it would be beeping like crazy right now.

“We just want to help you,” Doctor Dunne said.

We just want to make sure you reach your full potential.

“I don’t think you can make me give you that information,” Coy blurted. “You can’t arrest me for not giving it to you.” Too late he realized he should have kept his mouth shut. Mentioning arrest just made Hunter and Doctor Dunne flash worried frowns at one another. Something had happened while Coy had been asleep. When he thought he knew what, he shoved the bedding aside.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Hunter demanded, trying to catch him, but Coy had chosen the side of the bed opposite from where he and the doctor were sitting.

“I’m leaving. You can’t make me stay. You can’t—” Coy took one step on his injured leg and almost screamed. He would have hollered but all the air left his body in one big whoosh that almost dropped him to the floor. Pain pulsed upward, slamming first into his groin then up into his chest. Instead of drawing in another breath, his diaphragm spasmed, leaving him flapping his lips like a fish on the beach. He spun and grabbed the bed, clinging for dear life. If he fell, he knew the pain would only get worse.

“Hold on.” Hunter moved behind him so fast Coy basically saw a blur. Big men usually lumbered but not this one. “I’ve got you.” Hunter scooped him up and placed him back in the bed without inflicting any more pain on him. “Did he tear the stitches?”

Doctor Dunne leaned over Coy’s leg. “No.” She looked up into Coy’s eyes. “But if you try something like that again you might.”

Coy closed his eyes and silently willed them to leave. He could deal with the pain if they just went away. Of course, as soon as they did, he’d find a way to get his hands on a wheelchair. That would get him out of here and—damn. Where would he go? He didn’t know where his backpack was. He had no clothing but what he had on right now. He supposed he could make something out of the stuff on the bed but doing that would pretty much mark him as an escaped medical patient. Calculating the odds quickly, Coy realized his best plan of action was to do nothing. Not until he had better odds of getting away.

“Coy?” Hunter leaned closer and placed his big, strong, and surprisingly warm hand against Coy’s arm. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Coy didn’t want to cry but did anyway. “My leg really hurts.”

“Let’s see what we can do about that.”

Coy cracked one eye open. He’d expected Doctor Dunne to hold pain medication out of reach until he gave her the information she wanted but she didn’t do that. In under five minutes, Coy had been given something for the pain and the dressing on his bandage had been changed. Hunter also made a point of tucking the bedding around him. Kindness, care, and compassion. Three things Coy had never expected to get in his life.

“Look, Coy.” Doctor Dunne sighed as she rose. “I don’t know why you’re afraid but it seems to me you have a good reason to be.”

That made Coy’s eyelids snap open. Did she know something? Had she heard something? He mentally reviewed everything in his backpack. He’d taken great care not to have anything that could lead back to his family. He’d even scrubbed his laptop clean before putting his work back on it.

“Someone hurt you.” Doctor Dunne’s eyes were at once worried but warm. “That’s obvious. If someone is after you, we can help you.”

No, you can’t. People say that and then they just take me right back to my family.

Coy almost spoke. He almost opened his mouth and said those words. A part of him wanted to. He trusted Hunter and didn’t even understand why. Doctor Dunne also seemed genuinely sympathetic toward him, but too many times people had tricked Coy. Too many times people wore masks. They promised him the world and then gave him a golf ball, telling him they were basically the same thing when they weren’t. After trying and failing time after time to make someone understand, Coy had given up and run away. This time, he would stay gone even if he had to kill himself to make sure he never went home again.

Chapter Three

After trying to get him to talk and failing, Hunter and Doctor Dunne moved to the hall while Coy stayed in bed, floating on painkillers while watching them. They remained calm, their bodies held almost unnaturally still. They had to have seen the marks. But neither one of them could bring themselves to ask about those bruises. Or, more likely, they chalked those marks up to sports or something else that all teenaged boys did that earned them injuries. No one ever imagined the truth.

Coy wouldn’t try to change their minds.

In fact, Coy wouldn’t try to manipulate their thought processes at all. That was something his family excelled at. He could if he wanted to. He could probably do it well, but unlike his family, he would feel impossibly dirty afterward. Manipulating people didn’t sit well with him. All Coy wanted to do was to live his life on his terms, free from the burden of other people’s expectations.

Eventually, Hunter returned to Coy’s bedside. For a big man, he moved with astonishing grace. Hunter had a gliding kind of smoothness that reminded Coy of an animal stalking prey. With a name like Hunter, it wasn’t much wonder that even drugged up and out of his mind, Coy made the comparison.

“Coy?”

Instead of answering, Coy just shifted his wary gaze toward Hunter.

“I know you’re running. So does Doctor Dunne. We’re not trying to hurt you.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“Have you?”

“I’m not telling you anything.” Coy rolled away so that he faced the opposite wall, giving Hunter his back. “You can keep everything in my backpack. I don’t care. I’ll find another way.”

“Another way to do what?” Hunter placed that big, warm, and so fucking comforting hand on Coy’s hip. He wanted to scream at him to stop touching him but that wasn’t the truth of what he wanted. He wanted Hunter to take those big hands of his and rub them all over Coy’s willing body.

Just once, just one damn time, Coy wanted another man to touch him with lust and longing rather than anger and force. So far, Hunter hadn’t touched him in anger, but Coy knew that the longer he lingered, the more likely that kind of touch would be. Men used their strength to control. Women used other ways. In the end, it really didn’t matter. People manipulated. They took. They made those lesser than themselves do things they didn’t want to do.

Coy wouldn’t be fooled again.

“Coy? Please talk to me.”

“Where’s my gear?”

“At my house.”

“Please bring it to me.”

“So you can run again?”

Coy didn’t answer. What was the point?

“You weren’t camping out there. I know that much. No one camps with just a bag full of clothes and battered sleeping bag.

“What about my laptop?”

“There wasn’t a laptop.”

“What?” Coy rolled over, astonished to see genuine compassion in Hunter’s unusual eyes.

“No laptop.”

“You stole my laptop?” Right there, Coy had his answer about what kind of man Hunter really was. Apparently, he could play at being the hero but when push came to shove he was just like everyone else.

“I didn’t steal anything.” Instead of reacting with anger to the accusation, Hunter kept his calm. “I only looked through your backpack to find out who you are.”

“I told you my name.”

“Your first name but there wasn’t anything in there to back you up.”

“So you’re calling me a liar?”

“I’m saying that I wanted to know your full name.”

“You don’t need to know my name at all. I’m not going to be here long enough for that to matter.”

“Coy,” Hunter said, leaning closer. “I want to help you. I really do. I have a feeling you’ve been jerked around and fucked over and I get why you’re afraid. I really, really do.”

“How can you? A big guy like you? No one’s ever shoved you around.”

“I wasn’t always this big.” Hunter sighed and took Coy’s hand in his, something Coy enjoyed and wished he didn’t. “I was a skinny teenager that got bullied for being different.”

“How are you different?”

“Half Hispanic and half Anglo. My freaky eyes made me a target to the Hispanics and my skin color made me a target for the Anglos.”

“I just thought you were tan.”

“Strange how one matters and the other doesn’t, isn’t it? If it’s a tan, it’s okay, but if it’s because of race, then there’s a problem.”

“I’m not racist. I don’t care what color your skin is or why you have pale eyes. I honestly don’t care about any of it.” But that was a lie too. Coy cared but not about stupid things that other people seemed to think were so important. Skin color, ethnicity, job title—none of that meant anything to him. “The only thing I really care about is what kind of a person someone is.”

“Me too.” Hunter lightly squeezed Coy’s hand. “What kind of a person are you?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I ran away to find out.”

“Did you run away from your family?”

“Who else would I have run away from?”

“Human traffickers.”

Coy had not even thought about that. He supposed there were far worse things in the world than what had happened to him.

“Tell me about your family.”

“No.” Coy wasn’t about to go there.

“I want to help.”

“You keep saying that and I keep not believing you.”

“What can I do to make you believe me?”

“Get my laptop back from whoever stole it. That would be a good start.”

“Okay.” Hunter got to his feet. “I’ll be back.”

“I won’t hold my breath.”

“Good.” Hunter released his hand. “If you do that, you’ll turn blue. I don’t think that would be a good look for you.”

Almost against his will, Coy smiled. “I guess you can be funny too.”

“I can.” Hunter turned to go.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah?” He turned back.

“I don’t think your eyes are freaky.”

“No?”

“I think they’re beautiful.” When Hunter smiled at him, Coy wanted to smile back but he just couldn’t, not when he didn’t trust him. Still, he wanted to be honest. “I think those people just said mean things about them because they were jealous.”

Hunter nodded, considering. “I wonder if what your family did to you might have something to do with jealousy too.”

“It had to do with money.”

Hunter frowned at that. He might have returned to Coy’s bedside to ask him to clarify but Coy’s eyelids fluttered. He could barely keep his eyes open.

“Get some rest,” Hunter said. “I’ll be back.”

Coy had no idea what time it was when he woke up. All he knew was that he wanted to drink his weight in water. He rolled over toward the bedside table and found Hunter sitting there.

“Hey,” Hunter said. “How are you feeling?”

“Thirsty.”

“Here.” Hunter poured water into the little plastic cup then offered it to Coy. He drank it down then asked for me. “Let me ask the nurse first, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Hold this for me.” Hunter put Coy’s laptop on the bed.

“My laptop!” Coy didn’t think he’d ever see it again.

Hunter left but came back in less than a minute. “You can have all the water you want.”

“Great. Let’s start with a gallon and go from there.”

“It’s the meds.” Hunter poured another glass and held it for Coy. Even though he didn’t need the help, he accepted it all the same. It felt nice to have someone care about him. “Are you hungry?”

“More thirsty than hungry.”

“Okay.” Hunter filled up his cup two more times before Coy felt he’d had enough.

“Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“Where was my laptop?”

“Someone stole it. But don’t worry, he got fired.”

“I got someone fired?” All Coy needed was someone pissed off at him and looking for revenge.

“No, his actions got him fired.” Hunter rolled his stool closer. “Caroline doesn’t want someone like him on the ranch.”

“A thief, you mean.”

“That, but there’s more. It’s bad enough to steal but to steal from someone at their most vulnerable is even worse.”

“Why did he steal it? I mean did he need it real bad?”

“He was trying to hock it when I caught up to him.”

“Does he need money?”

Hunter tilted his head hard to the side. “Are you trying to find a way to justify what he did?”

“I’m trying to understand why he did what he did.”

“He saw an opportunity and took advantage. Some people are just wired that way.”

Coy couldn’t argue with that.

“Is Caroline your boss?” Coy asked.

“Yeah. She owns the ranch where I work.”

“Roping.”

“And other things.” Hunter grinned.

“Thanks for getting it back.”

“Is it all there?”

“What?” Coy didn’t understand what he was asking.

Hunter shrugged. “I don’t know much about computers.”

“Do you have a cellphone?”

“Only the one my boss gave me.” Hunter patted one of the many pockets on his vest. “I’m kind of old school.”

“Two cups and a piece of string?”

“Older.” Hunter grinned. “Smoke signals.”

Coy laughed as he opened the laptop. “Oh.”

“What’s wrong? He didn’t break it, did he?”

“He set it back to the factory settings.”

“All your stuff is gone?” Hunter’s fist tightened.

“It’s okay. I have cloud storage.” Coy watched as Hunter released the tension in his hand.

“What’s cloud storage?”

Coy explained while he searched for a wi-fi signal, pleasantly surprised to find that the hospital not only had one but that he didn’t have to have a password to log on. Unfortunately, the kid who’d stolen the laptop had removed his security system. Coy put that back up before he did anything else. In a way, he missed his bigger computer with the Linux operating system, but since he wouldn’t be hacking anymore, he didn’t really need it.

“Can you put everything back the way it was?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

“Why do you care?” Coy had heard the saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but he didn’t quite trust that Hunter was as good as he seemed to be. Things that looked too good to be true usually were.

“Because you said you were journaling.”

“So?”

“Not only is writing hard to do but to lose it all...”

“Do you write?”

“No. I read, though.” Hunter examined the screen. “What do you journal about?”

“Nothing.”

“Coy, I really just want to get to know you. I’m not trying to find out information to use against you. Okay?”

“Every time I’ve trusted someone, they’ve let me down. Every single time.”

“You said if I got your laptop back, you’d start to maybe trust me. Did you lie about that?”

“No.” But he hadn’t thought Hunter would actually get his laptop back.

“You didn’t think I could get it back, did you?”

“Who’s to say you didn’t have it all along?” Right after he said it, Coy realized how nasty saying something like that was. All Hunter had done was be nice to him. “I’m sorry. That was mean.”

“It was.”

“I just...”

“You’re used to everyone taking a piece of you.”

“Yeah.” Coy met Hunter’s eyes. “How did you know?”

“Because I see myself in you.” Hunter stroked over Coy’s arm, making goosebumps wash over his skin. No one could call Hunter’s caress overtly sexual, but it certainly felt that way to Coy. Despite some lingering pain, he got hard. Thankfully, the laptop kept him covered. “I think we have a lot more in common than you think.”

“Maybe.” Coy felt like a politician who refused to confirm or deny.

“What do you like to read?” Hunter asked.

“Oh, man. Anything. Everything. I love—” automatic instinct kicked in, forcing Coy to cut himself off.

“What do you love?” Hunter continued his soft strokes on Coy’s arm.

“Mysteries.”

“Like cozies or murder mysteries or...”

“Sci-fi mysteries. Or paranormal ones.”

“You mean like ghost stories?”

“No, like, where people have cool abilities. Like, they can become wolves or shoot lasers out of their eyes or—I read this one story, where this girl could touch someone and take their best attribute.”

“You mean like great hair?”

“More like if they were lucky, she could take their luck.”

“Whoa, really?”

“Yeah. She turned herself into this majorly successful woman who had everything she’d ever wanted. Well, everything but love.”

“What happened?”

“Finally, she met a guy she liked but it turned out she couldn’t be with him because she’d accidentally taken his confidence.”

“Hoist with her own petard.”

Coy typed rapidly into a search engine. “Oh. Cool. Poetic justice. Yeah. Basically, she got her comeuppance with her own weapon. That’s a good one.” He transferred the saying to his note app. “And a smart one.” Coy eyed Hunter with increased interest. “Shakespeare.”

“Hamlet, to be exact.”

“You’re not just a cowboy, are you?”

“I’m a cowboy who reads.” Hunter shrugged. “What else do you like to read?”

“Graphic novels.”

“You mean comic books?”

“Well, no. They’re not—well, in a way, I suppose you could call them that but it’s kind of an insult to the artist.”

“I didn’t know that. I won’t call them comics anymore.”

Coy felt oddly proud for educating Hunter about something that mattered to him. When his brother had found out it bothered him, he’d said it more often just to be a jerk.

“I have one of my favorite books with me.” Hunter pulled a thoroughly battered copy of Brave New World from one of his vest pockets. Tape held the outer cover together but the inside pages had come free from the spine anyway.

“Did you do all that to it?”

“Guilty.” Hunter traced big fingers over the cover. “Not intentionally. I’ve just carried it with me multiple times. My work can be a little hard on clothes and books.”

“I noticed you’re not wearing a shirt.” Coy clapped his hand to his mouth.

“Why do you do that?” Hunter grinned. “You say something either obvious or funny then cover your mouth like you don’t want anything else to come out.”

“Sometimes I just don’t have a filter.”

“It’s not like you’ve said anything bad.”

“I accused you of being gay then of flashing your chest around.”

“Is that what you did?” Hunter tilted his head, considering. “I think you made a joke and then pointed out the obvious.”

“You mean you’re gay?”

“That I’m not wearing a shirt.”

“Oh.”

“But I also happen to be gay.”

“Me too.” Coy held his breath, waiting for something. A slap, a harsh word, a laugh. But what he got instead was Hunter taking his hand gently into his.

“Is that why you ran?”

“I can’t...”

“You said it was about money. Were they...” Hunter took a deep breath then released it slowly. “Please tell me they weren’t selling you.”

“Oh, God. No. No, no.” Coy did not want Hunter to think that even for a second. “Nothing like that. It wasn’t about sex. It was about money.”

“I don’t understand.”

Coy wanted to tell him but fear kept getting in the way.

“Please trust me. All I want to do is help you.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, I see myself in you, but also, a man who would risk his life to save a coyote, even if it turned out to be a chunk of wood, is the kind of man who deserves my help.”

In the end, Coy decided that if he didn’t trust someone sometime, he’d never be able to get anywhere. To start over, to live life his way, he needed help.

“You have to swear to me you won’t make me go back to them.”

“I swear.”

“They made me steal for them.”

“Steal money?”

Coy nodded.

“You mean like robbing banks and stores?”

“I mean like hacking banks and creating fraudulent credit cards.” Coy looked down at his laptop. “By the time I was ten, I’d made my family a fortune without knowing it was illegal. Once I figured it out, I wanted to stop, but they wouldn’t let me.”

“How could they make you?”

“You don’t believe me.”

“I do believe you. I’m just asking how. If they put a gun to your head, they’d be destroying the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

“They didn’t threaten me. They threatened someone else.”

“Who?”

“My mother.”

“They hurt your mother?” Hunter’s voice had taken on a deadly vengeance tone that would have put the fear of death into Coy had it been directed at him.

“They threatened to.”

“So you did what they wanted.”

Coy nodded. “But then they couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Why not?”

“She died.”

“Oh, Coy. I’m so sorry.” Hunter settled on the edge of the mattress then put his arm around Coy’s shoulders. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Me too.” Coy clung to Hunter, feeling safe and protected. He smelled of sunshine and sweat and all the things a powerful man should smell of. “Once she was gone, they—my brother and my father—threatened me with other horrible things. After I ran away the first time, they said that they would hobble me by smashing my ankles so I couldn’t run again. They kept me locked up in that brownstone but I finally got away.”

“I’m glad.”

“You won’t make me go back?”

“Why would you think that I would?” Hunter lifted Coy’s chin. “What kind of a monster do you think I am?”

“The other time I ran away, the guy returned me to them for money.” Coy watched Hunter’s eyes carefully to see if they lit up. When they didn’t, he felt that same sense of hope he’d felt at the mud pit.

“There isn’t enough money in the world to make me do something like that.”

Coy believed him. If money motivated him, his eyes would have gleamed at the mention of it. Or he would have asked if Coy kept some of the money or if he could get more. So far, Hunter wasn’t like the other guy at all.

“That’s why you won’t give your name or address,” Hunter said. “They’re looking for you.”

“They’re going to turn the world upside to find me.” Coy shivered.

“Is there any way for them to track you? You didn’t use a credit card or anything they could follow?”

“Nothing. I was really careful.” Coy had meticulously planned his escape the second time around. “The only way they could find me was if I somehow managed to get into a computer system.”

“Like at this clinic.”

“Right.” Coy tightened his hold. “If you explained to Doctor Dunne, do you think she’d understand?”

“I’m sure she would.”

“Am I listed under my first name?”

“You’re listed under John Doe.” Hunter released Coy from his hold and tried to move away, but Coy wouldn’t let go.

“Stay. Please. I’ve never felt safe until you held me.” Coy groaned and hung his head. “I know that sounds stupid.”

“It doesn’t. Believe me, it doesn’t sound stupid at all.”

For a good long time, Coy sat next to Hunter, feeling warm and safe, but deep down he knew it would never last. Good things rarely did.

“Promise me something?” Coy asked.

“If I can.”

“No matter how much they offer you, don’t give me back.”

“Like I said, there isn’t enough money in the world for me to do that.”

Hope filled him so full he almost burst into tears. Unfortunately, a shard of disbelief remained. Coy worried that he’d never feel entirely safe as long as he lived.

Chapter Four

“How did they even find out you could do what you do?” Hunter idly stroked Coy’s arm while holding him.

“Someone put a computer in front of me when I was little and I just knew what to do.” Coy shrugged. “I never took a class or anything. I just learned online from other hackers who had no idea how old I was. My father said it was perfect. No one would ever suspect a little kid.”

“Can’t they trace the line or something?” Hunter scoffed. “Sorry if that’s a dumb question. Like I said, I know next to nothing about computers.”

“It’s not a dumb question at all. It’s one of the first things I figured out. How not to get things traced back to me. See, they can’t trace what’s been bounced around the world half a dozen times.” Coy sighed. “Once, I thought about leaving a trail of breadcrumbs back to my family, but none of them know anything about computers so I didn’t think the police would arrest them.”

“They’d probably just turn on you.”

“I thought about that too. I actually thought about turning myself in just to get away from them but that’s when they started threatening my mom.”

“She didn’t want you doing this?”

“At first, I think she thought it wasn’t a big deal. It was little things that made life easier but then little wasn’t enough. My father wanted a bigger house. A better car. Once you get going on that path it’s hard to stop and then you really can’t stop because you have to make a certain amount to hang on to all the stuff you already have. It’s like, once I got in, I could only go deeper.” Coy thought about it for a moment. “Like that mud pit. The more I struggled the worse it got. I thought for sure I was going to die until you came along.”

After a long beat of silence, Hunter quietly offered, “Maybe, just maybe, if I can save you from that, I can protect you from your family.”

Coy allowed himself the fantasy of believing him but quickly let it go. “I don’t want to pull you into the mud with me.”

“You’re not. I’m pulling you onto dry land with me.” Hunter smiled down at Coy and Coy grinned up at him but then something...shifted.

Coy leaned up just a little bit more and almost kissed Hunter. He would have if an orderly hadn’t entered his room. Disappointed but not surprised, Coy pulled back. In order to serve him dinner, the orderly asked Hunter to return to his bedside seat.

The orderly fiddled with something on the side of the bed then lifted a plastic table over Coy’s lap. He placed his tray on top.

“Bon Appétit,” the orderly said as he trundled his cart away.

“Thanks.” Coy looked down at a surprisingly tempting dinner.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter asked.

“I always heard hospital food was horrible but this really looks good. And smells good.” Coy took another sniff. “Was my nose damaged in the mud?”

“Nope. That there is the fine handiwork of Kroll Putnam.”

“Kroll? His name is Kroll?” Coy loved the science fiction sound of it.

“Yeah. It’s quite a story, I’m told.”

“You don’t know the story?”

“He only tells certain people then swears them to secrecy.”

“People he dates?”

“I don’t know. Never dated him so maybe. Anyway, he works at the Climax Diner part-time and here part-time. Cooking is his passion.”

“Wow.”

“What?”

“I just realized there’s a whole bunch of things I’m going to have to learn how to do, like cook.”

“You never cooked?”

“I hardly ever left my room.” Coy took his time eating, savoring everything on his plate.

“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

“Since the day before the mud pit?” Coy struggled to think back. “I got some fast food before I hitched my way up here from Denver.”

“You hitchhiked all the way from New York?”

“How did you know I lived in New York?” Coy’s heart shot up to warp speed.

“You said brownstone earlier. Far as I know, New York’s the only place that has those. Well, besides San Francisco but you said up not down so...”

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I’m not. I won’t.” Hunter sighed.

“I guess I need to be a lot more careful about everything I say.”

“Coy, you can’t spend your whole life looking over your shoulder.”

“What do you propose I do?”

“Go to the police.”

“But I’m the guilty one!”

“They made you do it. There has to be something about coercion. You were a minor, right?”

“At first. I’m not now.”

“How old are you?”

“Nineteen.” Too late Coy realized he’d just given Hunter even more valuable information. In another few more hours of conversation, the man would know everything about him if he didn’t learn to stop talking.

“I’m not pumping you for information.”

“What are you pumping me for?”

“Connection.”

“You want to connect to me?” Coy wasn’t sure if he meant literally, figuratively, or both. Hunter hadn’t moved away from that almost-kiss. If anything, he’d leaned closer to Coy. Coy had only moved back because of the orderly. Given another chance, he knew he’d take the risk.

“When I rode up and saw you out in that mud, I knew there was something between us.” Hunter shook his head and sighed hard. “I know that sounds crazy, but I felt something.”

“That I was an idiot who needed to be saved?”

“I didn’t think you were an idiot then and I don’t think it now.” Hunter nodded to Coy’s plate. “Eat, okay? You need fuel to get better.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll eat later.”

“Are you sure you don’t want some?”

“I want you to clean your plate.”

“So the connection you want to make is you becoming my father?”

Hunter reacted to the question as if Coy had slapped him across the face. Hunter jerked back and disgust curled his upper lip.

“I didn’t mean that. I really didn’t mean that.”

“Maybe it would be for the best if I took on that role.” Hunter’s expression changed to one of resolve.

Coy felt his chance for ever kissing the intriguing cowboy slipping away faster than a data leak.

“I was trying to be funny. I don’t want you to be like a father to me.”

“What role did you want me to have?”

“Certainly not father.” Coy delayed answering by eating. “Believe me, I never wanted to kiss my father.”

Hunter nodded.

“Did you want to kiss me?” Coy asked, fishing in strange waters. Just how did one go about finding out if another person liked him?

“I did. I do. I think that’s why I should probably go.”

“What?” Coy tried to push the table away but Hunter held it firmly in place. “You should stay,” Coy said.

“I think right now you need friends. A protector. I can’t do that if I’m...”

“If you’re what?”

After a very long time, Hunter whispered, “If I’m interested in you.”

“Why would that be a bad thing?”

“I’m a lot older than you.”

“What, five years?”

Hunter laughed. “I’m a decade older.”

“Twenty-nine isn’t that old.”

“It is to me.”

“Are you married?”

“No.”

“Seeing anyone?”

“No.”

“Me either so I don’t see the problem.”

“We can’t have an honest relationship if you’re censoring everything that comes out of your mouth.” Hunter got to his feet. “Relationships are built on trust and we don’t have that.”

“It takes time to build trust.” Coy didn’t want him to go but saw no way to make him stay. “Did you really expect me to tell you my whole life story right away?”

Hunter hesitated, his brow knit in concentration.

“You haven’t told me everything about you,” Coy pointed out. “In fact, you’ve hardly told me anything at all.”

“Maybe what we need is a little quid pro quo.”

“Something for something?”

“Yeah. If you’ll agree to that, I’ll agree to stay.”

“And not try to be my father.”

“We’ll see about that.” Hunter returned to the bedside chair.

Coy released the breath he’d been holding.

“To show you I’m not deliberately withholding anything from you, I’ll even go first.” Hunter pursed his lips for a moment, then said, “I never finished high school.”

“Why not?”

“I got tired of fighting all the time. By my junior year, I was almost as big then as I am now and I didn’t want to keep ending up in juvenile court.”

“Didn’t your parents stand up for you? Didn’t anyone stop those kids from bullying you?”

“Your turn.” Hunter leaned back and crossed his arms.

“I was homeschooled. My family lied about educating me so I could keep hacking. I know the basics—reading, writing, and arithmetic—but I don’t know a lot about history or chemistry. Things like that.”

“And you think that makes you stupid?”

“In a way, I guess. Do you feel stupid because you don’t have a high school diploma?”

“Not in the least.”

“Really?”

“Other people attach a huge significance to that piece of paper, not me. When I quit, I knew enough to know there was so much more I had to learn so I did it on my own.”

“There’s a word for that.”

“Autodidact.”

“Yeah. Self-taught.” Coy ran his finger over the tray, scraping up all the sauce. “Funny.”

“What?”

“I taught myself computers but never even thought about teaching myself everything else.” Coy added a new note to his file.

“You have a whole world at your fingertips there.” Hunter nodded to the laptop.

“This?” Coy closed the laptop. “It’s new.”

“Does that matter?”

“It’s a mental block, I think.”

“How so?”

“With my old computer, I guess I just used it for so much crime that I never thought about using it to learn. Well, that, and they got angry if I didn’t stay on task. When they found out about the—” Coy cut himself off but changed his mind when Hunter slumped a little in his chair. “When they found out what I’d been writing, they hit me.”

“The bruises.”

“Yeah.”

“Fuckers.”

“Yeah.” Coy laughed even though it wasn’t funny. The way Hunter said fuckers made him laugh.

“What were you writing?”

“Please don’t laugh.”

“I would never laugh at you.”

“Do you know what fanfic is?”

“No clue.”

“It’s fiction written by fans of a show or a book or something in mass media.”

“Like Harry Potter?”

“Yeah.” Coy nodded hard. “There’s a shit ton of Harry Potter fanfic.”

“That’s what you write?”

“Not about Harry Potter.” Coy used his finger to wipe up more sauce.

“Let me go see if there’s another tray of food.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.” Hunter ducked out and returned a few minutes later with not one tray, but two. “Just in case.”

“Please eat with me.”

“I want you to eat.”

“I’ll eat another tray if you’ll eat one.” Coy giggled suddenly. “I mean if you eat the food on the tray I’ll eat the food on mine. I don’t want you to eat the tray.”

“Good point.” Hunter considered. “It does smell really good.”

“Come on.”

“Okay. If”—Hunter lifted his finger dramatically—“you tell me what you write fanfic about.”

“Deal.” Coy put his new tray on top of the old one and dug in. “I write about whatever appeals to me but mostly Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, and Buffy.”

“What’s Buffy?”

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer? She’s a cheerleader who kills vampires. Well, she was a cheerleader in the movie but in the TV show she’s a student.”

“And you write stories about her?”

“About the characters on that show, yeah. The series ended and I didn’t want it to. Same with the others. I just want to keep them alive.” Sudden tears sparked but Coy didn’t understand why.

“You’re like me,” Hunter said, his voice soft. “You can’t stand to see something good needlessly die.”

“You saved me without knowing whether I was good or bad.”

“I knew.” Hunter took a bite and moaned. “Damn, that’s good.”

“I know, right?” Coy hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he started eating. Apparently, the same thing happened to Hunter. He cleaned his tray in minutes. “Here. Take the rest of mine,” Coy said, offering his unfinished tray.

“You eat it.”

“I swear, I can’t eat another bite.”

After a moment’s debate, Hunter took both trays and stacked them on top of his empty one. The food didn’t last long. By the time the orderly came back to collect the trays, they’d practically wiped them all clean.

“Isn’t it your turn to tell me something?” Coy asked.

“I think it’s time for you to get some rest.”

“Well, look who’s ducking questions now?”

“I’m not ducking.” Hunter sighed. “I just don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Didn’t your mom or dad do anything about the bullies?”

“They might have if they’d known.”

“Why didn’t you tell them?”

“They had enough trouble.”

“From what?”

“From being an interracial couple. Neither of their families liked their choice of a partner so they cut them off. Same with some neighbors and some employers.”

“I thought things were different now.”

“Not really. Most people just hide their racism better,” Hunter said. “It’s just a more subtle way of excluding my parents.”

“Do they live here?”

“They’re in Denver.”

“You get to see them much?”

“Your turn.” Hunter took Coy’s hand. “Why did you come here of all places in the world?”

“I wanted to see the mountains. The stars. I wanted to ride a horse and have a western adventure.” Coy grimaced. “The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in the mud.”

“If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have met me.”

Coy hadn’t thought of it that way.

“Sometimes, something that seems bad isn’t. And something that seems good isn’t. I think the trick to life is just letting things be what they are.”

“Philosophy?”

“I’ve read a fair amount.”

“I read something about being the one who watches? Like, okay, you have all these parts of you, the immature part, the angry part, the needy part, and you should strive to be the one who just watches all of these parts of yourself.”

“I think that’s Buddhism.”

“Is it?”

“There’s a Buddhist teaching about not judging. Same idea of just letting things be what they are. I think that goes along with the parts inside of you.”

“Are you religious?”

“Not conventionally. I’m spiritual, though, I guess. I think there’s more to life than just the material world.”

After a while, Coy forgot whose turn it was to ask a question. Absorbed in the conversation itself, he didn’t even realize how late it was until the on-duty nurse came in to help him brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

“I’ll be going.” Hunter got to his feet, somehow managing to fill up the whole room with his presence.

“No. Don’t go.”

Hunter met the nurse’s eyes. “I think I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

“It’s just that, well, there are visiting hours, you know?” She pointed to a prominent sign on the wall, which indicated visiting hours had ended four hours ago. “We have work to do, you know?”

“I know. I apologize. This was a special circumstance, though. Or a special patient, I should say.”

“Well, you can come back tomorrow when he’s discharged.”

“I’m out tomorrow?” Coy felt joy and fear battling in his body. On the one hand, he couldn’t wait to be free, but on the other, he had nowhere to go.

“I’ll be back in the morning.” Hunter tucked his chair against the wall. “I’ll bring your backpack and we’ll get you settled at my house.”

“Your house?”

“My house.” Hunter frowned. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Okay? Yeah. That’s—I mean—yeah. I’m okay with that.” Criminy, he sounded like a babbling idiot.

“Goodnight.”

For a moment, Coy thought he might lean over and kiss him goodbye but Hunter didn’t. Still, the look in his eyes said he wanted to. Right now, Coy would count that as a win. Besides, he’d rather have a long and lingering kiss with Hunter. Not a quick peck while a nurse looked on. Coy was willing to wait.

Hunter seemed the kind of man worth waiting for.

Chapter Five

Coy had woken up at five and found it almost impossible to wait for Hunter to come. He’d distracted himself by writing furiously but not on any of his fanfic pieces. Instead, he wrote about a mysterious cowboy who had the power to set the world right with his rope and powerful gaze. He’d just gotten to the good part where his hero, having saved an innocent young man, was accepting his reward of uninhibited sex when Hunter actually showed up. Blushing madly, Coy had quickly saved his story and closed his laptop.

“You okay?” Hunter asked.

“I feel great.”

“You look like you might have a bit of a fever.” Hunter pressed his hand against Coy’s forehead. Coy almost swooned. He had to get his story out of his head.

“I’m just excited to be getting out of here.”

“Are you? Well, here’s your backpack. I talked to Ona last night, and she suggested you wear something loose so I brought a pair of sweats.”

“Who’s Ona?”

“Doctor Dunne.”

“Oh. Okay.” Coy took the sweats. “Are they yours?”

“Mine would probably fall off you. I got these at the thrift shop.”

“That’s why you’re late.”

“You were watching the clock?”

“Well, yeah.” Coy tried not to blush again. “I got some writing done.”

“I’d like to read it.”

Coy could not imagine ever letting Hunter see the story he’d been working on. He couldn’t even imagine letting him look at his fanfic stuff. He wasn’t that good and he knew it but he didn’t want to hurt Hunter’s feelings so he mumbled something about finding time to share.

“Why don’t you get dressed while I go see what we need to do to check you out?”

“Okay.” Coy climbed gingerly to his feet. He felt a tugging along the wound, but not excruciating pain. He’d discovered he needed to move slowly without jerking his leg around. The nurse had given him a fresh bandage and added more of the sticky topical sutures to hold it “just in case” but Coy would still be overly cautious. At least he would for another week. After that, all bets were off. He found it kind of ironic that he’d been trapped inside, longing just to get out and move around in the world, but once he managed that, he’d promptly injured himself so he couldn’t do much more than hobble along at the speed of a motivated turtle.

Feeling a little too exposed to get dressed in his room, Coy stepped into the bathroom. He opened his backpack. Right away he could tell the contents had been rifled through, but Hunter told him he’d done that so he didn’t get upset. Everything was still in there. Coy cupped his hand to the bottom of the bag and sighed. Yeah, everything was still in there.

He wanted to shower in the worst way but that would have to wait at least one more day, according to the nurse. He pulled on the sweats and grinned. They were super soft and felt nice against his skin. Uh oh. They also clung to him, showing off everything he had. To cover up, he pulled on a T-shirt and then a longer shirt over that. What he really wanted was to wear one of Hunter’s shirts. Today, Hunter had on a soft blue one that contrasted his bronze skin and made his unusual eyes stand out even more.

“Okay, I’ve got some paperwork.” Hunter entered with a clipboard.

With Hunter’s help, Coy filled out what he could.

After a lengthy lecture about keeping his wound clean, and giving him a list of things he would need to buy, the nurse discharged Coy. What almost floored him was that they didn’t even give him a bill.

Coy turned to Hunter and whispered, “Did you pay my bill?”

“It’s community funded.” Hunter paused. “Then again, I help with fundraisers so maybe in a way I did but you really have the town of Climax to thank.”

Coy would remember that. He wanted to pay his own way. He just couldn’t right now. But someday he’d be able to pay the townspeople back. He’d find a way to do that.

“Ready?”

“Yeah.”

When Hunter put his arm around Coy’s waist as if to lend support, he almost said that he could do it on his own. Realizing how stupid that was, Coy leaned a little more heavily on Hunter than he needed to. God, he was strong. Today he smelled like laundry soap and a little bit of cologne.

Hunter kept his pace casual, leading Coy out of the hospital and over the roughly patched parking lot.

“This is your truck?” Coy liked the clean lines and the deep hunter green color.

“This is my semi-restored 65 Chevy.”

“Semi-restored?”

“Most of the work I’ve done has been on the engine, not the exterior.”

“It still looks nice.”

“Thanks.” Hunter helped him in before getting in on the other side.

“You know how to fix cars?”

“I’m learning.” Hunter grinned then slipped on a pair of sunglasses. “That’s why I got an older truck. There’s too much computer stuff on the new ones. Not that I’m knocking computers, just that I don’t have the gear to fix those.”

“I guess I never gave it much thought.”

“You don’t know how to drive?”

Coy shook his head.

“Would you like to learn?”

“Yeah.” Coy had always wanted to learn. Freedom came from mobility, something he really understood after hurting himself.

“Once your leg heals, we’ll do that.”

“Are you serious or are you just saying that?”

“I’m serious. And, bonus, I’ll teach you how to drive a stick.”

Coy’s mind went right into the gutter.

“Not many people know how to drive sticks anymore.” When Hunter pulled on his seat belt, Coy followed suit, thankful that his flannel shirt covered up his reaction to his very inappropriate thoughts about driving Hunter’s stick.

“Why don’t they know how to drive a stick?” Coy took his mind off sex by watching how Hunter shifted gears. It seemed to him there was a relationship between the pedals on the floor and the gearshift held in Hunter’s hand. Hunter’s big, strong hand that merged into his powerful forearm that had lots of dark hair—

“Automatics are easier, but they’re not as much fun.”

“I can believe that.” Coy hadn’t spent much time in cars but he’d seen them plenty on shows and read about them a lot.

“Let’s head over to the drugstore to pick up the stuff on the list there.”

Given the small size of the town, it didn’t take long to get to the Climax Drugstore.

“Do you want to wait in the truck?” Hunter asked as he pulled up to the building. “I don’t want you to stress your leg.”

“The nurse said I need to walk.”

“We’ll just go slow, then.” Hunter came around and helped Coy out of the truck. Coy figured he’d move away once they started walking but he didn’t. He kept his arm around Coy, ready to hold him up if he should fall.

With a little blue basket in hand, they cruised the aisles, getting everything on the list.

“Hey, Hunter.” A tall man wearing only what looked like a white speedo approached. His body had absolutely no hair and powerful muscles that glistened with oil. “How’s tricks?” He barely paused for an answer before turning his gaze onto Coy. “Ooh, tricks is fine. Who’s your little sweet treat?”

“Coy, this is Kroll. Kroll, this is Coy, a very nice young man that doesn’t want you hitting on him.”

“So says you.” Kroll trilled and waggled his brows at Coy. “How you doing, cutie Coy?”

“Good.” Coy wanted to giggle but kept the urge in check. “You’re the cook.” Coy extended his hand. “Your food is amazing.”

“Thank you.” Kroll’s smile lit up the dark corner of the store. He shook Coy’s hand, hanging on just a little bit longer than he probably should have, but he let go when Hunter pointedly coughed. “Were you at the diner last night, cutie?”

“Clinic.”

“Clinic?” Kroll frowned then his eyes lit up. “You’re the mud boy!”

“Great,” Coy said. “I already have a charming nickname.”

“It’s not that bad.” Kroll’s gaze went to Hunter. “Better than Rope Ranger.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Walking Wind.”

“That was one time. One!” Kroll lifted his finger and his eyebrows. “Wasn’t my fault that idiot didn’t de-gas the beans.” Kroll turned to Coy. “A big fancy party and there I am, blowing wind every time I turn around.”

“Not smelly wind, mind you,” Hunter said. “But loud. And long. And at times almost musical.”

“I will never forgive you for shaming me in front of this extremely handsome young man.”

Coy pressed his lips tightly together not to laugh.

“Oh, you can laugh, Mud Boy. I won’t hold it against you.”

Coy laughed. “Sorry. It’s just so...”

“Juvenile? Yes. It is. Some people in this town have all the comedic skills of a twelve-year-old boy.”

“I’m not the one who pinned the nickname on you.” Hunter lifted his hands and shoulders in what could only be called a defensive gesture.

“I didn’t say you were but that guilty conscience of yours is something you might want to look into.”

Instead of responding to that, Hunter asked, “You on your way to class?”

“Gonna let the artists have their way with my epic physique.” Kroll posed like a muscleman at the beach.

“Just don’t let it go to your head.”

“Which one?” Kroll winked. “Later.”

“Later.”

“Bye, Kroll. Nice meeting you.” Coy chuckled. “He’s quite a character.”

“Climax is filled with them.”

“What class is he teaching?”

“He’s not teaching. He poses for the art class.”

“Climax has a college?”

“We have a satellite campus in town.”

Coy felt a little guilty when Hunter paid for his supplies, but Hunter insisted he didn’t mind.

“Please don’t worry about that right now. Let’s just get you fixed up and get your new life started.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Have you given any thought to what you want to do with yourself?” Hunter helped Coy outside and into the truck.

“Read and write all day?”

“Well, you could work at the library, I suppose, but I think it’s volunteer only.”

“What kind of paid work do they have around here?”

“Cowboy work, mostly.” Hunter climbed in and got them rolling. “A lot of people like Kroll have multiple jobs. He cooks, poses, and does a little bit of cowboy work.”

“He’s a cowboy too?”

“I think just about everyone in town is. Or was at some point in their life.”

“Why aren’t you at work?”

“My boss let me have some time off so I could help you.”

“Can you afford to do that?” Coy clapped his hand over his mouth. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked. That was so rude.”

“I can afford it just fine.” Hunter patted his knee then put his hand back on the gearshift. “Please stop censoring yourself.”

“I’m just afraid I’ll say something really stupid. Or more stupid than I already have.”

“You won’t. Okay? You ever hear of the idea that there really aren’t any stupid questions? There really aren’t any stupid statements either.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“Just try to relax, okay? I’m not going to be judging you.”

Coy realized that was why he tried to shut himself up. His family judged him brutally no matter what he said. He’d pretty much learned not to speak. Now that he could, he found he was doing their job for them. He’d have to work on that.

“Your boss, she’s nice?”

“She’s amazing.”

“I wonder if she might have some work.”

“Probably does. But let’s get you healed up first.”

“Yeah. She’s not going to want to hire a lame cowboy.”

Hunter gave Coy a little tour of the town of Climax on the way to his house, showing him downtown and then taking him out of town. Somehow, the fact that they would be somewhere with privacy alternately scared and excited Coy. He kept thinking about his story and the almost-kiss he’d had with Hunter in his hospital bed.

“How did the town get the name Climax?”

Hunter’s eyes lit up. “There’s an older place by the same name, now abandoned, that was at the summit of a pass. You know, at the climax?”

“Ah, got it.”

“But the mine there closed down, they moved all the buildings to Leadville, and then this place popped up.”

“One of the old townspeople built this new place?”

“From what I understand—and understand that a lot of the history is word of mouth and you know how people like to embellish tales—the man who bought most of the valley for his ranch, Colby Ranch, named the town Climax in honor of his grandfather, who died in the Climax molybdenum mine.”

Coy automatically reached for his laptop then remembered he didn’t have internet. Not being able to instantly look things up felt weird. Almost as if he’d lost a limb. He thought of the phone in Hunter’s pocket, thinking he could probably use it to set up a wi-fi hotspot, but figured he should probably get used to not having instant access to information.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter asked.

“What’s molybdenum used for?”

“Steel manufacturing, mostly.”

“Is it still in use?”

“The element? Yeah. It’s in your body right now.”

“Really?” Coy made a mental note that he had to study more chemistry, and pronto, especially if he wanted to keep up with Hunter. The idea of talking with him about Shakespeare, chemistry, and then religion all in one evening made his brain do a geeky dance of joy.

“The Climax mine came back in 2012 and it’s still in operation now.”

“Won’t people get confused about two places named Climax?”

“Well, now, again, from what I understand, the original Climax was never registered or considered a proper town. They deemed it an unincorporated mining village. All that’s there now is the mine. No houses or anything.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Reading, remember? I love reading history books about obscure little places. Colorado has a lot of them.”

“Are there any ghosts in town?”

“In Climax?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah, well.” Hunter downshifted as he climbed a dirt road that was barely wide enough for his truck. “I’ve been told there’s a ghost in the Climax Motel.”

“Yeah?” Spirals of excitement raced over Coy’s nerves, making the hair at the nape of his neck stand up.

“Don’t get too excited, Coy.”

“Why not?”

“I got told that story by the guy who owns the place. He just happens to be our Mayor and he just happens to charge people a lot of money to rent out the supposedly haunted room.”

“You think he’s lying to make a buck?”

“Well, when there’s no other room to rent, and tourists are nervous about staying in there, he claims it’s just a tall tale, so draw your own conclusions.”

“He’s probably lying.”

“Probably.”

Disappointed, Coy leaned back then realized they were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.

“Are you into ghost hunting?”

“Not really.” Coy thought about keeping the truth to himself but then realized that if anyone would understand, Hunter would. “I guess there’s this part of me that wants to talk to my mom.”

Hunter nodded thoughtfully as he continued to drive deeper into the foothills of the mountain. “If you could have five minutes with her, what would you say?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just—when I lost a friend of mine, I went to see a grief counselor, and—”

“You saw a shrink and didn’t lose your job?”

Hunter had to navigate around hairpin turns, his right hand moving between the steering wheel and the gearshift, his feet moving back and forth over the pedals. Once he’d cleared the complex part of the road, he pulled over to a spot that showcased the valley below.

The view literally took Coy’s breath away. He’d never seen anything so stunning. The town itself had been laid out in parallel lines, all right angles, but the mountains around, the wildness of the craggy peaks, offered a sharp contrast to all that symmetry.

Hunter kept the motor running while he spoke. “Coy, I realize that saying this might be cold, or that you might take it that way, but I want you to stop and think about something. If you had five minutes with your mother, if you could say anything or ask her anything, you should think about what that might be.”

“Why? There’s no point thinking about something I can’t do.”

“Then why did you bring it up and ask about a ghost in town?”

“Because I really would like that to be true. To know that there’s life after death. That if I just do the right things or go to the right places or maybe hire the right person...”

“You’d be able to talk to her.”

“Yeah.” A part of him knew the very idea was stupid but another part of him desperately wanted to believe. “I just want to know that she’s not mad at me.”

“That’s the point, though. You think...”

Coy waited, worried he’d somehow inadvertently hurt Hunter by saying the wrong thing. “I’m sorry I won’t—”

Hunter lifted his finger to his own lips, asking for silence without using words. “I’m not angry. Not at all. I’m trying to make you realize that your mother isn’t angry with you.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Do you think your mother loved you?”

“Of course she did.”

“Then why would you think that she’s in the afterlife holding onto anger at you?”

“I don’t know.” Coy had never really thought about it.

“I think we should sit here and you should think about it.”

Coy took a deep breath, his gaze on the amazing scenery below, and wondered how he’d ever gotten the image of his mother’s ghost railing at him from beyond the grave. When the answer came, he felt sick to his stomach. “I think it’s because my dad said she died mad at me. That she wanted me to do better for the family.”

Very quietly, Hunter said, “Do you maybe think your father said that to get you to bring in more money?”

It seemed so ridiculously obvious Coy felt stupid for not thinking of it on his own.

“Do not do that, Coy. Do not start putting yourself down for not seeing the truth.” Hunter took Coy’s hand. “Sometimes, something can be right in front of our faces and we still don’t see it.”

“I guess I just feel stupid.”

“You’re not. Believe me. Your father sounds like a grade-A manipulator.”

“Yeah.” Coy hated his father for what he’d done, but he also almost felt sorry for him. “My father always struck me as someone with so much empty he could never fill it up.”

“I’ve met a few people like that.” Hunter sighed and rolled down the window.

Coy rolled down his so they had a light breeze blowing through. “That’s nice.”

“Isn’t it?” Hunter sniffed deep, filling his lungs. “Sweetest air in the world up here.”

“Is that why you built your house up here?”

“That, and the land was cheap.” Hunter turned to Coy, making him think the moment for that long and lingering kiss had come. “We need to talk before I take you to my place.”

“Talk about what?”

“About expectations.”

“Okay.” Coy’s tongue stumbled over the word, giving it almost four syllables. He worried that Hunter was going to make it clear he was just doing the right thing because he was a nice guy. The almost-kiss in the hospital had probably been aimed at Coy’s forehead.

“You want me,” Hunter said, very matter of fact. “That’s not a surprise since I saved your life.”

“It’s not just because of that.”

“How can it be more than that when you really don’t know me?”

“I don’t know.” Coy felt humiliated and didn’t understand why. For the first time since he’d left home, he wanted to go back there, hide in his room, and stay there for the rest of his life. At least there the expectations placed on him were perfectly clear.

“Trust me, I understand a lot more than you think I do because I want you too.”

“You—you do?” Coy wanted to clean out his ears to make sure he’d heard Hunter correctly.

“That’s not a surprise either. Or at least it isn’t to me. The only surprising thing is that I’m not going to act on my attraction.”

“What? Why not?” Fury heated Coy’s face. “If I like you and you like me, then what in the ever-loving world are you holding yourself back for?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Hunter pulled off his sunglasses and tossed them on the dash. “You just got out of a horrifically abusive situation and then almost died in what can only be called a freak accident. Right now, I think you’d latch on to anyone who helped you.”

The baldness of his comment literally made Coy lean away from him. “So your feelings are valid and mine aren’t?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Your feelings are valid. So are mine. But just because a feeling has merit doesn’t mean we should act on it.”

“So the offer to stay at your house...”

“Is just an offer to stay there. No strings. No expectations. Well, other than you have to help out.”

“Help out with what?”

“Cooking. Cleaning. All the stuff that goes into keeping a place livable.”

“I don’t know how. We had servants.”

“I’ll teach you.”

Coy nodded.

“If you’ve changed your mind,” Hunter said. “I’ll figure something else out.”

“Something else like what?”

“I’ll find you another place to stay.”

“You’ll just cut me loose?” Coy thought they’d settled things.

“Never.” Hunter took his hand. “What I meant was that I would find you a place to stay, somewhere other than with me. Even if you decide to stay somewhere else, I’ll still help you find a job. I’ll still teach you how to drive.”

You just won’t teach me about having sex. Coy almost said it out loud. Almost. But something made him change his mind. Earlier, he’d decided that Hunter was a man worth waiting for. He realized he’d just have to wait a little longer.

Chapter Six

“Coy? Please talk to me. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. I’m just trying to be clear so neither one of us gets hurt.”

Coy had not considered that Hunter would be hurt by keeping his hands off him, but the more he thought about how difficult resisting temptation could be, the more he thought he understood. After a long moment, Coy answered, “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“I can stay at your house as just friends. I get that we don’t really know each other very well.”

“Good.”

Of course, that agreement didn’t stop Coy from getting to know Hunter better. He’d read enough fanfic to know that, under the right circumstances, friends often turned into lovers.

Hunter backed out of the view area and returned to the narrow dirt road. After a few more tight turns, they entered a wider road. At the end stood a cabin. From the outside, it looked awfully tiny. Coy couldn’t help but grin. Maybe they’d have to share not only a room but a bed.

“This is your place?” Coy asked.

“Yep.” Hunter parked then came around and helped Coy out of the cab. Again, he leaned on him more than he really needed to. From now on he was going to take every opportunity he had to get closer to Hunter.

Hunter helped him inside and Coy’s jaw dropped. “Wow.”

“You like?”

“It’s amazing.” Small, but well laid out, the cabin had several floor-to-ceiling walls of books but there were other shelves devoted to rocks. Everything from disco glittery to so dark they seemed to suck up all the light. “You should have mentioned that you collect rocks.”

“I usually don’t tell people.”

“Why?”

“It’s such a geeky hobby.”

“You’re talking to a guy who writes gay fanfic about Sherlock Holmes.”

“You didn’t mention it was gay.”

“Didn’t I?” Coy had purposely left that out but he shrugged. “I thought that was kind of a given. Most fanfic is gay.”

“Is yours?”

“Well, I guess.”

“Even the one about the werewolf killing girl?”

“Buffy? It’s vampires. And I mostly write about Spike. He’s a vampire.”

“You write about him and Buffy?”

“No. Him and Angel.”

“Is Angel a man?”

“He’s a vampire.”

“Uh huh.” Hunter dropped his keys and his wallet on the coffee table. “I think you’re living up to your name.”

I wish you’d live up to yours, Coy though. He’d love for Hunter to hunt him. The story he’d been writing in the hospital flashed in his mind. In one scene, Hunter had used his long rope to wrap his captive up so he couldn’t run away, not that he wanted to. Mostly it had just been lightly kinky bondage.

“Where do you go when you do that?” Hunter asked.

“Do what?”

“Your eyes go soft like you’re looking somewhere a million miles from here.”

“I guess I go to my made-up worlds.” Coy reached out for one of the shiny rocks but didn’t make contact until Hunter said it was okay to touch. “I feel safer in my fantasy lands.”

“Maybe that’s what you should do.”

“Become a spaceman?”

“Become a writer.”

“Nobody’s gonna buy a bunch of gay porn.”

“You never know.” Hunter rolled up the sleeves on his pale blue shirt, showing off both his strong forearms and his muscular biceps. “Ready to see your room?”

“Yeah.” Coy followed Hunter through the galley kitchen, past the bathroom, and then into a small room with a narrow bed.

“I usually use this as a junk room but I cleaned it out so you’d have your own place.”

Coy’s room at home had been easily eight times the size of this one, but he would take this room over that one any day.

“Is it okay?” Hunter sounded distinctly nervous. Did Coy’s opinion really mean that much to him?

“It’s great.” Coy dropped his backpack on the bed. “I actually figured I’d be sleeping on the couch. Having my own private space is way cooler.”

“I put in a desk and a chair, so you could work on your laptop.” Hunter motioned toward the card table and folding chair. “The table’s a little rickety, but as long as you’re not doing anything delicate it should work.”

“It’s great.” Coy put his laptop on the table and realized that Hunter hadn’t just thrown this together at the last minute. He’d put some serious effort into giving Coy a decent place to stay. Maybe his talk about keeping their hands off one another was more about reminding himself to behave than about reminding Coy.

“And there’s a closet. I don’t have a dresser but I got some of these bins at the thrift store.”

“And you put some sweats in them.”

“Ona said it would be best not to wear anything tight. Jeans are out for at least the next week.”

“I can live with that.” As long as he kept layers of shirts over his junk, he should be fine. He also realized that Hunter didn’t seem to be setting him up for a temporary living situation but something much more long term.

“If there’s anything else you need, just let me know.”

“I think I’m set. We got all that stuff at the drug store.”

“Right here.” Hunter put the bag on the bed.

“You know what this room needs? A book. You can’t have a bedroom without a book by the bedside.”

“Lucky for you I have a pretty good library.”

“Pretty good? I think you have more books here than my family had in our whole house.”

“Not big readers?” Hunter led the way back to the living room.

“Me and my mom were. She always had a book. I mostly read digital.”

“Don’t you miss the feel of a real book?”

“It was easier to sneak digital books.”

“Of course.”

Back in the living room, Coy went over the shelves, finding dozens of books he wanted to read. He finally settled on the first one. “Is this okay?” Coy asked.

“You can read anything you’d like.”

“Thanks.” Coy tucked the book under his arm. “Where’s your bedroom?”

“Upstairs.” Hunter pointed to the tiny set of stairs tucked into one corner. “I would have given you my room but with your leg, I thought having everything on one level might be for the best.”

“Good thinking.” Coy noticed a small trophy on one of the lower shelves. “What did you win?”

“Roping contest. I’ve won quite a few but that was the first.”

“Peewee rodeo? Aw. How old were you?”

“Six.”

“I’ll bet your parents were proud.”

“My dad bragged about that thing for almost a whole year.”

“Not your mom?”

“Don’t get me wrong, she was proud, but my mom worried about me getting hurt.”

“At a peewee rodeo?”

“I really liked competing. She knew winning that would lead to a lot more.”

“Isn’t there a song about that? Telling mothers not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys?”

“There is. And I do drive an old truck but I don’t pick guitars or such.”

“You could learn.”

“I think I have enough hobbies for now.”

“What else do you do?”

“I’m about to show you.” Hunter flashed a smile that had the power to make Coy’s sweats practically incinerate themselves. “Let’s get provisions.”

“Provisions? Just what are we going to be doing?”

“You’ll see.” Hunter filled a backpack with water and some food. He put a wide-brimmed hat on Coy’s head, handed him a pair of sunglasses, and then led the way outside. “Ona said it would be a good idea for you to get some exercise today. Nothing crazy, but a walk would do you good. You seemed to do okay in the drugstore.”

“Yeah. I’m up for some more exercise.”

“Good.” Hunter walked toward the back of the house. He exited a narrow door in the laundry room and stepped out onto a small patio. From there, they took a few steps down and they were surrounded by towering pines.

“Where are we going, exactly?”

“You’ll see.”

“A mystery, huh?”

“I like to keep you guessing.”

Hunter had more than managed to do that. Coy felt he knew Hunter well despite only knowing him a short time, but he also understood the idea of hero worship or whatever they called it when some caught feelings for a person who’d rescued them. Would Coy still feel the same way toward him if Hunter hadn’t have saved his life?

Coy’s gaze wandered to Hunter’s butt. The faded jeans he wore clung to his ass the way Coy wanted to. He sighed. Yeah, he’d still be interested in Hunter even if he hadn’t rescued him. Hunter was sexy, smart, and funny. Coy got that everyone had a dark side. He knew Hunter had one too but how dark could it be? The only time he’d shown anger was when he thought the thief who’d taken Coy’s laptop had deleted all his stuff. As a dedicated reader, Hunter had mad respect for the written word. If that was as dark as he got, Coy could live with that.

“Okay, come on up here.” Hunter extended his hand, helping Coy climb up onto a boulder.

“What are we doing?”

“See that tree over there, the one with a flat top?”

“Yeah.”

“Take these binoculars and look at it.”

“Okay.” Not sure what to expect, Coy had to learn how to aim the binoculars in the right direction. When he zoomed in on the top of what looked like a sheared off tree, he gasped. “Is that a bald eagle?”

“It is indeed.”

“Wow. Its beak is so yellow.”

“Can you see the little gray fluff ball next to the mother?”

“Gray fluff ball, gray fluff—oh! A baby!” Coy stared then turned to look at Hunter. “Sorry to say but the baby bird is, uh...” Coy struggled to find something not completely mean. “Gangly?”

“Ugly. You can say ugly.” Hunter laughed and pulled a water bottle out of the pack. “They don’t start to look like bald eagles until they’re two months old. Until then they look like mangled gray socks.”

Coy laughed and put the binoculars to his eyes again. “There’s only one baby?”

“This time. They usually lay two eggs but I don’t know what happened to the other one.”

“Wait, they’ve used this nest before?”

“That nest has probably been there longer than you’ve been alive.”

“Seriously?” Coy examined it again. The nest was the highest point for miles. “They must be able to see the whole valley from there.”

“That’s why they like it.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m hogging these.” Coy tried to hand the binoculars over to Hunter, but he waved them off.

“I get to see them every day.”

“You come up here every day?” Coy had never been so intensely envious.

“Unless it’s snowing too hard for me to see.” Hunter pulled a bag of trail mix out of the backpack. “Don’t laugh, but this is where I come every day to get centered.”

“Centered like meditation?”

“Yeah. Or my version of it, anyway. I like to start my day appreciating nature.”

“And then you go off to rope cows.”

“I do other things too.”

“Why would you need to rope a cow?” Coy spared Hunter a glance before resuming his view of the nest.

“To cut them from the herd. They get sick and we need to give them medicine. Sometimes they’re aggressive and we need to move them away from the herd until they calm down or we find out what’s going on. And sometimes they get stuck in mud or other places and I have to pull them out.”

“Poor cows. I know how horrible that is.”

“You feel okay?”

“I feel great.” Coy then thought maybe he shouldn’t recover quite so quickly. He didn’t want Hunter to send him on his way too soon. Then again, Coy thought about how much time Hunter had invested in fixing up his room. Hunter must want him around. Besides, Coy didn’t want a relationship built on lies. “The wound kind of itches, but that nurse said it would do that.”

“Part of the healing process.”

“You ever get hurt bad?” Coy examined the other trees, looking for other nests.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been hurt good.”

“Ha ha. You’re so funny.” Coy rolled his eyes then returned his attention to the nest. “I imagine getting hurt comes with your job.”

“That it does. Every time we have a cookout, everyone has to share their war stories, which usually involves showing off their scars.”

“You don’t participate?”

“I’m not really into that, I guess.”

“Hmm. I have a feeling there’s more to that story than you’re letting on.” Coy placed the binoculars in his lap and moved his gaze over Hunter’s body. “Where are your scars?”

“I’ve got lots of little ones all over, most of them are rope burns.” Hunter pointed along his arms at barely noticeable marks.

“That’s it?”

Hunter grimaced. After a long beat of silence, he admitted, “I got a pretty big chunk ripped out of my keister by an angry steer.”

“It bit you?”

“Gouged me with a horn.”

“Can I see it?”

“Maybe later.” Hunter held out the bag of trail mix. “Want some?”

“No thanks. I’m still full from breakfast.”

“Another Kroll meal?”

“Yep. When I asked, the orderly said Kroll had cooked it and he brought me an extra tray that went unclaimed.”

“I hope my cooking doesn’t let you down.”

“I don’t see how it can.”

“You don’t?”

“You’re not starving.” Coy smirked at Hunter before turning his attention back to the wild world before him. “If you can survive on your cooking, I should be able to.”

“Survival is one thing. Enjoyment another.” Hunter laughed. “Just don’t think it’s going to be anything like Kroll’s.”

“Of course it won’t be like his. It’ll be yours. That’s like expecting two writers to be the same.” Coy continued scanning the trees. “Huh.”

“What?”

“There’s a weird looking nest.”

“Weird like how?”

“It’s low in the tree and looks, well, lumpy.”

“You mean the one that looks like a pear?”

“Yeah. What is that?”

“It’s a nest, but not for a bird.”

“What then?”

“A squirrel.”

“Squirrels make nests?”

“Yeah.” Hunter moved closer so he could point out more of the squirrel nests in the trees. “Not a lot of people know that.”

“I thought they lived in the ground?”

“There are some squirrels that do, but there are others who live up in the trees.” Hunter pointed to some of the other squirrel nests he’d spotted.

“Cool.” Coy continued to scan the area while trying not to notice how close Hunter was. Close enough he felt his body heat and could smell fabric softener and trail mix. “Why is there a big clump of really green trees right there but nowhere else?”

“There’s a spring there. Eagles like to live near water. Usually, they pick rivers but the river isn’t that far from here.”

“Do they live near water to eat?”

“That. And they like the view.”

“You’re pulling my leg.”

“Only very gently.”

Coy felt the moment shift just like he had in the hospital only this time they weren’t looking at one another. He wanted to turn to Hunter and let the moment play out, but he knew if he lowered the binoculars and looked over, he would make something happen when he didn’t think either one of them were quite ready for it. Still, Coy wanted to. He wanted to make something happen with Hunter so much that it almost hurt not to. In the end, Coy kept the binoculars to his eyes. He didn’t want Hunter to send him away. To snag Hunter, Coy had to use the right kind of rope. Not a trap, because he didn’t want to make Hunter do anything he didn’t want to do, but there wasn’t anything wrong with enticing him.

After showing Coy all the other interesting and strange things visible from their perch on the boulder, Hunter put everything back in the pack, including the binoculars. Hunter scrambled off the boulder like a mountain goat and then helped Coy down.

Coy made a point of leaning on Hunter more than he needed to. Only, now, he sensed that Hunter knew. But he also sensed that Hunter didn’t care.

“You do a lot of hiking, don’t you?” Coy asked.

“One of my favorite things to do is to walk around out here. It’s one of the reasons I bought this piece of property. I can hike for miles and never run into another human.” Hunter paused. “Not that I don’t like other humans, just that I like to be alone in nature. Or with just one other person.”

“Trust me, I get it.” Coy clung to Hunter’s arm. “In New York, you can’t walk ten feet without running into another human.”

“But you can get a pizza at four in the morning.”

“Well, yeah. In the city, you can get pretty much anything you want at any hour of the day or night.”

“You can’t do that here unless you make it yourself.”

“I’ve got to learn to make pizza. And soon.”

“Don’t worry. I know how to make pizza.”

“Yeah?”

“I do. But, the catch is, I only put vegetables on it.”

“You’re a vegetarian?”

“I’m pulling your leg.”

“You monster.”

“I know.” Hunter laughed. “What kind of pizza do you like?”

“We always got the same thing, pepperoni and cheese, but I’d like to try a Hawaiian pizza.”

“Ham and pineapple?”

“Have you had it? Is it gross?” Coy honestly had no idea how those two things would taste together.

“It’s not gross at all.” Hunter laughed. “It’s actually pretty good.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Hunter turned to look at Coy then looked away. “You didn’t get to pick when they ordered pizza?”

“Not really. I mean, I’d bring it up but I’d get shot down. I’d want to order just a little one but my brother would make a big deal over it so I’d just give in. My family...” Coy tried to put his feelings into words. “They just wanted everything a certain way. I guess it was easier to just give in than to fight about things that, in the long run, really didn’t matter.”

“I can understand that. Conflict isn’t a bad thing but a knock-down, drag-out over pizza toppings seems like a waste of energy.”

“The only thing I dug my heels in about was how to make the money.”

“How did you do that? I don’t mean the specifics but the general idea.”

“Well...” Coy had to think for a second about how to explain things to a layman. “There are over a billion electronic transactions every day. You go to the store, you use your debit card. You go out to eat, you use a credit card. Now, think of all those transactions with just a penny sucked away.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Between the point of sale and the banking or billing institution, there’s a middleman that routes that charge. I found a way to siphon off a penny from those charges. Not all of them, just a small percentage of them.”

“Only a penny?”

“A million pennies is ten grand. A billion pennies is ten million dollars.”

“You’re saying that, because there are so many charges every day, taking a penny from a fraction of them goes unnoticed.”

“Bingo.”

“Then what was the fight about?”

“Well, my brother suggested we start taking a nickel. I said no. A nickel isn’t that much bigger but it’s big enough to be noticed. The odds of getting caught went up not incrementally but exponentially. My brother thought the risk of discovery would only be five times greater but it would actually be more like twenty-five times greater. What frustrated me was that we had enough money. There was no reason to change anything, to try to get more out of the system I’d set up. We were way under the radar and not hurting anyone. I think that was the second thing we fought most about. A penny here and there wasn’t going to hurt anyone, not the way I was spreading it around, but they didn’t care if we hurt other people. My mom did but not—sorry.” Coy cut himself off from that topic. “I’ve never told anyone before and I guess I’m just going to be angry and frustrated about it for a while.”

“I don’t mind listening.” Hunter tightened his hold on Coy’s waist. “I don’t understand a lot of it but that doesn’t mean I can’t listen.”

“Thanks.”

“Any time.”

“You can tell me about cowboy frustrations if you want.”

“Don’t have a lot of those. Mostly, we just get the work done.”

“You don’t have any annoying coworkers?”

“Sure, but we rotate around on jobs so I might have to work with them for three days then not see them again for a month.”

“Sweet.”

“It keeps thing harmonious. I also realize that I might be someone else’s annoying coworker.”

“How could you annoy anyone?”

“Dunno. But I’m sure I have.”

“Am I annoying?”

“Not in the least.” Hunter leaned over and kissed the top of Coy’s head then immediately pulled back. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why? It’s not like you just kicked my leg out from under me or something.”

“I think I should keep my mouth to myself.”

Coy let the matter drop because he thought just the opposite but saw no point in arguing about it. The more Hunter forgot and kissed him, the better.

Back at the cabin, Hunter made lunch while Coy watched. He wanted to help but Hunter insisted he had to rest his leg. Coy might have argued harder but he enjoyed watching Hunter move around the tidy little kitchen.

Afterward, Hunter cleaned up and they settled in the living room with Coy on the couch so he could elevate his leg. Hunter settled in the easy chair.

Coy scratched at his wound, but carefully, so he didn’t tear it. “I know how this looks but I am not fondling my junk.”

Hunter’s laughter practically echoed off the living room walls. “I didn’t think you were playing with yourself.”

“I just wanted to be clear.”

“I get it.” Hunter moved over to the couch and captured Coy’s arm, stopping him. “But you really shouldn’t scratch at it.”

“It really itches.”

“You might tear it open.”

“I’m being careful.” Coy used his other hand and scratched right up to the line of the incision.

Hunter grabbed that arm too, holding on to Coy’s wrists. “I’ll get you one of those cones of shame, but for your hands.”

The image of that made Coy laugh. “I won’t be able to finish my story.”

“What’s it about?” Hunter put Coy’s hands together then put them in Coy’s lap but he rested one of his big hands over the top.

Coy did not want to tell him the truth but he hesitated too long and Hunter shook his head.

“Never mind. You don’t have to tell me. I’ve read a lot about writers, well, my favorite writers, at any rate, and a lot of them never talk about their work. They publish it and let readers argue over it.”

“I guess I just don’t know how to talk about it, you know? I read so much fanfic online but I never posted any of my stuff for other people to read.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, I think you do know.”

“Yeah.” Coy took a deep breath, preparing himself for opening up a little bit more. “I wasn’t worried about my family finding out if that’s what you’re thinking.” Coy had been very careful. Not only did he not want them to know what he was reading, but he also didn’t want them to figure out why he liked reading slash fiction in the first place.

“Not what I was thinking at all.”

“What then?”

“I think you were afraid of being made fun of.”

“Who isn’t?”

“Lots of people. Kroll for one. People snicker about his name. They make sexist remarks because he likes to cook. They mock him for wearing those tiny white speedos. And you know what Kroll does?”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? They’re knocking him left and right and he doesn’t do anything?”

“Nope. Why should he? He says it’s a total waste of time because he won’t change their minds.” Hunter closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “I’m trying to think who said it, something about other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.”

Coy waited, considering the idea of not caring about what other people thought about him. He couldn’t imagine living that way. Everything he’d ever done in his life had been about painting the picture his family wanted to see. In some ways, he felt as if he didn’t really know himself—his real self—at all.

“Damn. Can’t think of who said it or the exact quote.” Hunter lifted his hand from Coy’s hands. “No scratching.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to look up that quote.” Hunter pulled out book after book, searching for the quote. “Sorry about this but I have to find out or it will drive me nuts for the rest of the day.”

“Tenacious.”

“I guess.”

“Why don’t you just look it up online?”

“I don’t have a computer.”

“You could use mine.”

“Will it work out here?” Hunter placed one book back in the shelf then grabbed the one next to it. “I thought you had to have a phone line or something.”

“You don’t have a phone?”

“I have my cell.”

“You don’t have internet service?”

“I’ve never needed it.”

A sinking feeling started low in Coy’s chest then migrated down to his toes. “Can I see your phone?”

“Sure.” Hunter fished it out of his pocket.

It wasn’t a smartphone but a flip phone designed for talk only, meaning Coy couldn’t use it to set up a wi-fi hotspot.

“I found it!” Hunter exclaimed, his finger pressed against the open page of a thick volume. “Regina Brett. The exact quote is, ‘What other people think of you is none of your business.’”

Coy nodded but couldn’t quite process what Hunter had said to him. The horror of being unable to connect for the foreseeable future almost gave him a panic attack. His internet access had been touch and go while he’d been hitchhiking, but he’d always found a fast food place or a coffee shop that offered free wi-fi. A lot of it was slow but at least he could stay connected to his fanfic friends and download some stories before moving on to the next place. Without internet, he felt utterly isolated from the rest of the world.

“Coy? You okay?” Hunter put the book back on the shelf then settled on the couch.

Coy nodded despite the fact his whole world seemed to be shifting out from under him. He really liked Hunter and he wanted to stay and get to know him better, but how could he do that without access to the internet?

Chapter Seven

“You need to tell me what’s wrong.” Hunter took ahold of both Coy’s hands. “Your hands are freezing.”

“I’m just a little freaked out.”

“By what? The quote?”

“That you don’t have internet.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Because I feel like someone cut off my arm.” Coy swallowed hard. “I know you think I’m being dramatic, but I’ve never been without internet for longer than a few hours. To live without internet indefinitely is more than I think I can handle.”

“You don’t want to say here?” Hurt darkened Hunter’s eyes and caused him to pull back. Before he could let go of Coy’s hands, Coy tightened his grip on Hunter’s hands.

“I do. I really want to stay here with you. That’s why I’m freaking out. I want to stay here so much it hurts, but I can’t do that without...”

“You need the internet.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not about...” Hunter trailed off, took a deep breath, then started again. “Is it about stealing money?”

“What? No. I’m done doing that.” Coy shook his head and clung to Hunter’s hands. “I swear I’m not ever going to do that again.”

“Then why is it so important to have the internet?”

“Because it’s how I connect with other people.”

Hunter frowned.

“The fanfic thing I told you about? It’s a community of people who write and read it. I talk to those people. I read their stuff and tell them what I think.”

“They’re going to wonder where you are.”

“I’m sure they will.” Coy realized he had a new problem. “Some of them are computer savvy enough they might know how to track me down.”

“I thought you said the authorities couldn’t do that?”

“For the money scam, yeah. I covered my footprints to the point they all but disappeared. But I didn’t take the same precautions for the fanfic site. Why would I? We’re just sharing stories. It’s not hurting anyone. Well, there’s some debate about ripping off other author’s characters and rewriting them, but we’re not trying to profit off what we’re doing. We aren’t selling the stories. We’re just sharing them.”

“Okay. Okay.” Hunter moved a little closer, reestablishing the intimacy between them. “What do we need to do to get you internet?”

“Are you serious?”

“If it’s that important to you, of course I am.”

At that moment, Coy fell a little in love with his heroic cowboy. Hunter didn’t want or need the internet, but he’d go out of his way to make sure Coy was happy, just like he had while setting up the bedroom he’d let him borrow. The longer Coy stayed with him, the more clear it became that the conversation at the overlook, where Hunter had stressed that they were just friends, had been about reminding himself, not Coy.

“Well, what kind of internet do they have here?” Coy remembered the way Hunter’s house was tucked down into a notch in the mountain foothills, which meant wireless broadband was probably out. “Is there a phone line?”

“Not up here. The only reason there’s electric is to feed the little neighborhood on the other side of the mountain.”

“Satellite?”

“What would we need for that?”

“A clear view of the southern sky.”

“Let’s go see.” Hunter kept ahold of his hand while they walked outside. “Looks pretty clear to me.”

“Okay. That’s one possibility.”

“What’s the other?”

“I could get a smartphone and use it to create a wi-fi hotspot. Or just buy a wi-fi hotspot.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Does your cell phone work out here?”

“Of course.”

“Okay. Then I think I should get a smartphone. I’ll need a phone anyway. I’ll have to cut back on my internet usage but I think I can do that.”

“I’m going to trust that you know what you’re doing because I haven’t got a clue.”

“You don’t have to know. Just that you’re willing to help me get what I need is more than enough.” Coy wrapped his arms around Hunter and hugged him, hard. He felt safe, wanted, honored, even. Things he’d never felt before. “If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know.”

“I will.” Hunter’s voice sounded a little strained.

When Coy moved, he realized why. Hunter was hard, which made Coy hard in turn. Determined not to push things, Coy stepped out of the hug, pretending that he hadn’t noticed. Thankfully, his layer of shirts kept his truth hidden from Hunter.

“You know what I’d really appreciate?” Hunter asked as he helped Coy back into the house.

“What? Anything. Just name it.”

“If you’d teach me how to use a computer and the internet. It’s something that I probably should know.”

“I’d be happy to.”

“Good. But right now, you need to rest.”

“I’d kill to take a nap.”

“All you have to do is climb into bed.”

With you? Coy almost let those two words out of his mouth but he held firm to his resolution. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all.” Hunter moved close as if he’d kiss Coy’s head again but swiftly changed course and took his hand, leading him into the back part of the house. “I’ll be out front reading if you need anything.”

Coy closed the drapes, darkening the room, then climbed into the narrow bed. He thought he’d never be able to sleep with all the thoughts of Hunter running through his head, but when he woke up, blinking and disoriented, he realized he’d been a lot more wiped out than he’d thought. The nurse had told him to take it easy and get more sleep but he honestly hadn’t thought he’d need it. Then again, he’d never been injured before.

Coy used the bathroom then returned to the living room to find Hunter asleep in the recliner with a book open on his lap. After appreciating the picture of contentment Hunter made, Coy found a book and settled on the couch. He’d only gotten a few pages in when his leg started itching. Coy scratched quietly while reading.

“Okay, you’ve left me no choice.” Hunter rose from the recliner and placed his book on the table. “I’m going to have to duct tape socks to your hands.”

“What?” Coy hadn’t even realized Hunter had woken up.

“It’s all I have. Hopefully, it will stop you from reopening the wound.” Hunter moved into the kitchen with Coy hot on his heels.

“I’m trying to stop.”

“Are you?” Hunter removed a roll of duct tape from one of the drawers and plunked it on the countertop.

“I am. Really.” Coy started to believe Hunter was serious.

“I think you need a distraction.”

Coy thought of the perfect distraction: Hunter’s mouth.

“I know what we’re going to do.” Hunter licked his bottom lip.

Coy struggled to yank his gaze away and managed, barely. “What?”

“We’re going to play cribbage.”

Coy hoped like hell it was some kind of kinky sex game. “What’s cribbage?”

“Oh.” Hunter dramatically slapped his hand against his chest. “You modern kids with your computer ways.”

“Okay, old man.” Coy plunked his hands on his hips. “Why don’t you can the drama and just show me what it is?”

Cribbage turned out to be a card game.

“What’s the wooden thing for?” A piece of wood with two long lines of holes and a bunch of pegs sat between them.

“To keep track of your score.”

It didn’t take Coy long to catch on to the game.

“I knew it. You’re hustling me.” Hunter had been up by two games but not after Coy had back-to-back wins.

“I swear, I never played until today.”

“Are you enjoying it?”

“It’s a blast.” Coy met Hunter’s gaze. “I honestly never thought I could have fun without a computer.”

“You’ve also stopped scratching.”

“Yeah.” Coy couldn’t believe that the wound didn’t bother him in the least.

“I’m going to have to keep you distracted just like with Hank.”

“Hank?” Coy’s heart tightened up at the thought that Hunter had lived out here with another guy.

“My dog from when I was a kid. Whenever he got bored, he would chew on his back leg.” Hunter tsked as he shuffled the cards. “He would have chewed that thing off if I hadn’t distracted him.”

“With what?”

“Walks. Tossing the ball to the end of the yard.” Hunter dealt each of them six cards but each of them had to put two cards in the crib, leaving them a hand of four. “We had a small back yard. Narrow and long, which was good, because I could wear him out making him run back and forth.” Hunter laughed. “It also helped wear me out.”

“Were you a hyper kid?”

“Eh.” Hunter shrugged as he examined his cards. “I don’t think I was any more or less overactive than the other kids.” He looked over the edge of his hand. “What about you?”

“We didn’t have a yard. I hardly ever went outside but my bedroom window faced the street that had a lot of trees. I watched the birds.”

“No squirrels?”

“Not really. Even the birds were kind of iffy.” Coy discarded his crib cards. “It took me a while to figure out that people were feeding them, so they’d disappear from the trees, but then they’d stop feeding them so the birds would come back.”

“I never lived in a big city. I’ve visited, but never stayed for a long time.”

“You know what’s funny?”

Hunter shook his head.

“I never really liked the city. I know that’s weird to say when I never really got to be in it very much, trapped at home as I was, but I always knew I wanted to live in the country.”

“Country mouse trapped in the city.”

“Isn’t that a kid’s story?”

“Aesop’s fable.” Hunter gestured to the bookshelves. “There’s a book of them over there somewhere.”

“I would have thought you’d be one of those people who would have all their books organized.”

“I did that for a long time but I could never find anything. I remember them by color, or size, or some other weird thing that sticks in my head.” Hunter discarded his crib cards. “I find it’s easier to just let there be a little chaos.”

“A good theory.” Coy played his cards. “I keep my stuff hyper-organized, but it’s digital so I can’t really find it in any another way.”

“You don’t forget the names of things?”

“Sure. But I’ll remember one word and then I can search for that.”

“From one word?”

“Sure. A lot of stuff will come up but I can trim the list down pretty fast.” It didn’t take long for Coy to win another game. “Are you letting me win?”

“Why would I do that?”

“To make me feel good about myself.”

“I’m all for you feeling good about yourself but letting someone beat me at a game I think I’m good at is not the way to accomplish that.” Hunter handed the cards to Coy to shuffle. “I’m not going to make myself feel bad so someone else can feel good and you’d better not either.”

“You shuffle.” Coy tried to hand the cards back but Hunter wouldn’t take them. “I suck at it.”

“You need to learn.”

“This is so much easier when the computer does it.”

“Think of it as acoustic cards.”

“Funny.”

They played cribbage until they forgot who had won the most games.

“That is way too much fun.” Coy stretched. When his shirt climbed up, he noticed Hunter’s gaze went from his lap to his stomach.

When Hunter realized Coy was watching him watch, he jerked his gaze away and got to his feet. “We should make dinner.”

“Pizza?” Coy asked hopefully.

“It would take two hours for the dough to be ready.”

“I don’t think I can wait that long.”

“Me either.”

“How about soup and sandwiches? I know that’s what we had for lunch but I thought we could work out a shopping list tonight and go to the store tomorrow. If you feel up to it.”

“I’d like that.” Coy couldn’t believe how much he’d like that. His family had never consulted him about groceries. He felt like an adult just by being asked to pitch in. “I’d like to learn. Not just cooking but shopping and all that.”

“I’d be happy to teach.”

“We can trade,” Coy said, following Hunter into the kitchen. “Living lessons for computer lessons.”

“I think that would be a fair trade.” Hunter started pulling out food and cooking gear while Coy settled at the table with his leg up on the opposite chair.

“There’s got to be something I can do.”

“Umm.” Hunter considered the food on the counter. “Oh. Here.” Hunter put a plastic cutting board, a knife, and a small block of cheese in front of Coy. “Cut thin slices.”

“Thin?” Now that he had a job to do, Coy worried he’d somehow screw it up.

“Yeah. Just slice it thin. Make a little stack.”

By the time Coy had sliced four thin slices, Hunter had everything else ready.

“What’s it for?”

“Grilled cheese.” Hunter took the board and the knife then cut a different kind of cheese.

“Two kinds of cheese?”

“It’s fancy grilled cheese.” Hunter grinned at him. “I’m trying to impress you.”

A flush of awareness went through Coy. No one, at least no one to his knowledge, had ever tried to impress him.

“This isn’t your everyday grilled cheese.” Hunter dropped a pat of butter into the pan then worked slices of bread around in it until he’d coated them. “This has extra sharp cheddar cheese in between the bread but gouda—that’s the cheese you cut—on the outside to give the sandwich that extra crispy crunch.”

“Extra sharp cheddar?”

“This cheese is so sharp it can cut concrete.” Hunter opened a glass jar and poured the contents into a pan.

“What’s the difference between that and regular cheddar?”

“The older the cheddar, the sharper the flavor.”

“Oh. Just like men.” Coy smirked. “The older they get the sharper their wit.”

“I don’t know about that.” Hunter grinned as he put everything together.

“And I don’t know jack about cheese or anything else but that smells so good I’m drooling over here.”

“Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Can you set the table?”

“Sure.” To do that, Coy had to get the silverware from the drawer near Hunter, allowing him to get close enough to feel his body heat and smell his scent blending with that of the food. Nothing in the world had ever smelled as good as Hunter and grilled cheese. Coy wanted to eat and get physical in fairly equal measures.

With Hunter’s help, he put small plates and big bowls on the table along with silverware and napkins.

Hunter dished everything out then sat down across from Coy.

“I’m really glad you’re here.” Hunter stretched his hands across the table.

“Me too.” Coy took hold of Hunter’s hands, half expecting him to offer up a prayer. Instead, Hunter closed his eyes so Coy did too. After a moment of silence, Hunter let go and turned to his food.

Coy took a bite of his grilled cheese and practically had an orgasm. “And to think, you accused me of hustling.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how to cook as well as Kroll.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“I would.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret.” Hunter leaned across the table as if imparting the wisdom of the ages. “Kroll’s the one who taught me my tricks.”

“Yeah? So he teaches cooking too?”

“No. He took pity on me. I’d never cooked before and we were sharing an apartment so...”

Coy almost spit out what he had in his mouth.

“Not as boyfriends. We shared an apartment as good friends. We’d both just moved here and started working for the Colby Ranch. He knew how to cook and I knew how to do just about everything else.”

“Everything else like what?”

“Like setting up utilities, laundry, running a household. He taught me what he knew and I taught him what I knew.”

“And now you’ll pass it on to me. I like that.” Coy finished his tomato basil soup. “Wait. How did you know how to do everything but cook?”

“Long story short; I had a fulltime live-in boyfriend and he did all the cooking. Wouldn’t teach me.”

“Why not?”

“It took me a long time to figure that out. I think he thought if I didn’t know, I couldn’t leave him. It made him valuable to me. Or at least that’s what I think he thought. I’m not actually sure.”

“Why did you break up?” Coy dropped his gaze to his plate. “Never mind. That’s really nosy of me.”

“I don’t mind.” But the expression on Hunter’s face said the opposite. “He cheated on me. I can handle a lot of things but not that.”

“Why would he ever do that to you?”

“Opportunity, I guess?” Hunter shrugged as if he didn’t care but Coy saw below that mask. Hunter cared very much. His boyfriend had hurt him a lot more than he wanted to let on. Coy could understand that. It would devastate him to discover someone thought he wasn’t good enough to deserve fidelity. “When I found out, I wanted out, but he convinced me to stay. To try to make things work, but the trust had been broken. No matter how much we tried to rebuild it...”

“It stayed broken.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m really sorry that happened to you.”

Hunter nodded.

“Did you ever live with anyone else?”

“Not until you.”

Coy felt special but then he felt fear accelerate his pulse. He couldn’t imagine ever cheating on a man like Hunter, even though they’d not shared a single kiss. He supposed he felt that way from a lot of the fanfic he’d read. People hated stories with cheating in them. Coy did too. He’d always thought that if someone wasn’t getting their needs met in a relationship, they should leave. That was one of the things that had prompted him to leave his family. They were holding him back and keeping him down to serve their own needs, not his.

“Coy? You got awfully quiet over there.”

“I just—cheating is wrong. I’d rather someone leave me than cheat on me.”

“You had a boyfriend?”

“No, but, it comes up in my online community. How much it hurts people.” Coy took a deep breath. “I’ve never had a boyfriend but that doesn’t mean I’d like someone to do that to me.” He held his breath for a moment, considering if he should continue or not. What decided him was looking into Hunter’s eyes. He deserved honesty. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

Hunter stiffened. Not a lot, just a little. He sat up just a bit straighter and squared his shoulders as if bracing himself. “Okay.”

“I wasn’t completely honest.”

“About what?”

“About the money.”

“What do you mean?”

“I took some money before I left.”

Hunter didn’t say anything for a long time.

“Well?” Coy asked Hunter. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“I’m not sure what I should say.” Hunter pushed back from the table. “It’s not like it wasn’t already stolen so you basically took money from thieves.”

“I’m a thief.” Coy grimaced. “I don’t want you to say that about my family when I’m one too.”

“Did you want to steal?”

“Once I understood what stealing was I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t because I couldn’t have survived on my own. I felt trapped.”

“I think this is what they call a gray area.”

“Meaning what?”

“People would like morality to black and white, right or wrong, but in this case, it wasn’t your idea to steal. Your family pushed you into it.”

“But I kept going once I understood.”

“Because of threats and intimidation.”

“But then I turned around and stole from them.”

“That’s the part I’m not too sure how to feel about.” Hunter rose and cleared off the dishes. Coy tried to help but Hunter wanted him to rest.

“I’ve rested enough.” At Coy’s insistence, they did the dishes together. It wasn’t just about helping. Coy wanted to be close to Hunter, especially now that he knew he was a thief twice over for stealing the money and giving it to his family and then again for taking money from his family.

Once they had the kitchen cleaned and everything put away, they returned to the living room.

“Are you angry with me?” Coy settled on the couch, automatically elevating his leg.

“I’m honestly not sure how to feel.” Hunter took the recliner across from the couch. “Not that it’s any of my business, really.”

“But it is. I’m in your house. If you’re worried that I’ll steal from you—”

“That’s the last thing I’m worried about. Seriously. I know you’re not going to steal from me. What I’m worried about is you.”

“Me?”

“If you think stealing is the only way to get ahead, you’re going to end up in jail.” Hunter frowned then added. “Or become a politician, I suppose.”

From the way he said it, Hunter thought worse of politicians than he did of going to jail.

“What do you want me to do?” Coy again felt trapped between what he needed to do and what someone else wanted him to do.

“That I can’t answer.”

“Why not?”

“You need to make your own choice here.”

“But if I want to keep the money, you’ll think badly of me.”

“Does it really matter what I think?”

“It does to me.”

“Why? You don’t know me. Who cares what I think?”

“I care what you think. I want you to like me.”

“I do like you.”

“But you’re not going to like me if I’m a thief.”

“If that’s how you intend to make your living, then no.” Hunter closed his eyes and uttered a long, harsh sigh. “What I mean is I’ll care about you, but I won’t really want to be your friend. My concern is with getting tangled up in a crime.”

“That’s why you asked about what I wanted internet service for. You wanted to make sure my crimes wouldn’t rub off on you.”

“That. And I really don’t want you doing that in my house.” Hunter leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “I don’t want anything illegal going on under my roof. Another example? If you were a drug addict, I’d still care about you, and I’d do everything in my power to help you, but I wouldn’t let you do drugs in my house.”

“I get it.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah.” Coy had never felt so ashamed or trapped. He finally understood that saying about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. He needed that money. He’d earned that money. But he’d earned it by stealing it. The people he’d taken it from first had no idea and even his family didn’t know he’d taken some of their money for his own use. But that still didn’t make it okay. Stealing from thieves was still stealing. In the end, Coy would have to decide what he valued more: having money to make staying out of his family’s clutches easier or having Hunter’s respect.

Chapter Eight

The question nagged at Coy for two weeks. Despite not having an answer, Hunter still helped him get internet service. He made it clear that he expected Coy to abide by his rule about not doing anything illegal under his roof. Coy swore he would honor that request, and he would, but he couldn’t make up his mind between the safety of money and Hunter’s high opinion of him.

Money mattered.

The only way Coy had been able to run away was by having money. Without it, he’d still be stuck in his room, living in a fantasy world online. Now that he’d escaped, Coy found he spent less time on the fanfic site, but he also had access to things he hadn’t before, mainly Hunter’s library, Hunter’s backyard, and Hunter himself.

Coy had much more of a life now than he’d ever had before. He’d even met some of the other people Hunter worked with. It became ever easier for Coy to imagine a real, full life for himself.

Eventually, when Hunter had to return to work, and Coy had more hours to fill, he found himself back on the fanfic site, but he wasn’t as engaged as he’d been before. The problems of fictional characters paled beside his own. He wanted the escape the stories offered but that wasn’t helping him solve his dilemma.

At least one good thing had come out of him constantly pondering the issue. He didn’t spend a lot of time mooning over Hunter. Oh, sure, he couldn’t help but look at him with lust, but it was easier to hold back when he didn’t really know what mattered more to him.

For his part, Hunter stayed true to his word. He was there for Coy, helping him get settled and become a part of the community without pushing for anything more. However, the truth was in his eyes. Every once in a while, things would shift between them. Coy realized if he turned his head, or moved just a little closer, he could open that door.

But he didn’t.

Coy wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment until he knew what kind of a man he was going to be.

Coy had no idea what might help him work through the issue.

“Coy? You almost done with that pepperoni?”

“Yeah.” Coy added two more slices to the pile. “Sorry.”

“You’re really distracted tonight.” Hunter smeared sauce on the pizza dough. “What’s up?”

“I just wish I had someone to talk to.”

Hunter gave him the side eye and lifted one brow.

“What?” Coy asked.

“I’m someone,” Hunter said, his tone pointed.

“You’re what my problem is about.” Right after he said it, Coy realized he’d made it sound like he had a problem with Hunter when he didn’t. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

“Okay.” Hunter added cheese to their pizza.

The first time they’d made a pizza, Coy had wanted to slather it with stuff. Indulgently, Hunter let him. It had come out chewy and greasy and underdone in the center. Coy demanded to know why Hunter hadn’t told him what would happen. He’d countered that telling was one thing and showing another. Coy finding out for himself would bring the lesson home. And it had. The time after that, Coy had put far less on his pizza than he thought he needed and he’d enjoyed it more. Hunter had taught him a clear lesson: sometimes, less was more.

“What I meant to say was that my problem involves you.”

“And you don’t want to talk with me about it?” Hunter’s hurt bled into the tone of his voice.

“You already said you can’t tell me what to do.”

“I don’t ever want to tell you what to do.” Hunter sprinkled a different kind of cheese over the pizza then put the pepperoni on top.

“Why not?” Coy thought it would make things a lot easier if he would.

“Because then you’re not thinking for yourself.” Hunter frowned at him. “Didn’t we already have this discussion?”

“Kind of. I guess. I just—I need money.”

“Of course you do. Everyone needs money to survive.” Hunter washed his hands. “I told you we’ll worry about getting you a job once you’re healed.”

“I know. I don’t mean that money.”

“You’re talking about the money you took from your family.”

“Yeah. I need money but I also want you to like me.”

“I do...like you.”

The hesitation made Coy’s heart skip a beat. Had he already lost Hunter’s respect for not making the right decision fast enough? Of course, that thought led him to the inevitable conclusion that he already knew what the right decision was, he just hadn’t wanted to act on it.

“You want me to give back the money.”

“I didn’t say that.” Hunter slid the pizza into the oven, the heat of which lifted his open flannel shirt back from his T-shirt as if he stood in the wind.

“You hesitated before saying you liked me.”

“I did.” Hunter closed the oven door and turned away. “But not because of the money.”

“Why?” Coy started racking his brain trying to think of what else he’d managed to screw up.

“Because at this point it’s not just about liking you.” Hunter kept his voice very soft, hardly above a whisper, while keeping his gaze on his bare feet.

“I don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do.” Hunter met Coy’s gaze and that shift happened again, stronger than it had ever been before. If Coy stepped forward and opened the door that stood between them, there would practically be an explosion of lust. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Coy had tried to tell himself that Hunter wasn’t as aware of the shift as he was but now he realized Hunter was even more aware of those moments. Longing seemed to flow like water from Hunter and over Coy. After this, they weren’t going to be able to go back into the “just friends” category. Even if they never kissed, they’d already changed everything by acknowledging the yearning between them. But still, the wall remained.

“I really want to be your friend. And I’ll be your friend no matter what you decide to do.” Hunter managed to pull his gaze away. “But being something more...”

“You don’t want to be more?” Coy asked.

“That’s just it.” Hunter turned away and set the timer. “I want that a lot more than I thought I would. I tried not to. I tried to be the good guy, you know? Do the right thing and let you recover here and help you start your life, but along the way, I discovered I want to be a part of your life. I want that a lot more than I should.”

“Why shouldn’t you want that?” Coy itched to reach out and touch him. Nothing sexual. He just wanted to place his hand on Hunter’s back, but even that felt like making a commitment that neither one of them was ready for.

“Because I’m too old for you. I know a lot more about the world than you do. It seems unfair, somehow.”

“So I should date someone younger than me? Or are you saying I’m too stupid to date you?” Coy had no idea what the hell Hunter was talking about now. “You know what. No. Don’t answer. I think you’re just trying to find ways to put more walls between us. Even if I figure out what to do with that money, you’ll just find something else to keep us apart. And I really don’t know why. I’m starting to think it’s not me. It’s you. It’s something you’re not telling me.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid. That’s not what I said and certainly not what I meant.” Hunter pulled out plates while Coy got silverware.

“Then what’s really going on here?”

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea. Us, I mean. I think you can do better.”

“What?” Coy had thought Hunter was pushing him away over something he had or hadn’t done but now he grasped that Hunter was pushing him away over something someone else had done. “What’s wrong with you?”

“That’s not—why don’t we eat dinner and then talk about it later?”

“Fine.” But Coy’s appetite had all but vanished. Still, he put the salad on the table and all the usual condiments.

When the pizza came out, the smell perked up his appetite and he ate, but he couldn’t really focus on food. What had happened to Hunter? What had someone done to him? The answer came suddenly.

“The guy who cheated on you was younger than you. Afterward, he said something that made you think what he’d done was somehow your fault.” Coy took a quick sip of water, needing to get the taste of harsh words out of his mouth. “You might not have believed him at the time, but it’s coming back to haunt you now.”

Hunter leaned back. Not a lot, just enough movement to let Coy know he’d hit the nail on the head.

“I might be younger than you, and I might not have experienced a lot of the real world, but that doesn’t make me any less perceptive.” Coy pushed his plate away. He couldn’t eat another bite. He wanted to cry and there was no way he was going to do that in front of Hunter. “I’m sorry. Excuse me. I don’t feel well.”

“Coy, wait.”

But Coy darted past Hunter and hurried to his room. He closed the door and tried to lock it only to realize the door didn’t have a lock. Oddly, he didn’t feel unsafe. His bedroom at home hadn’t had a lock. It might have at one point but his father had removed it. The only privacy Coy had back home was on his computer. Here, in Hunter’s house, Coy realized he didn’t need a lock to keep Hunter out. All he had to do was ask him not to come in. Hunter would never try to force his way in because that wasn’t the kind of man he was.

Coy dropped onto his bed, sitting there, trying not to think. He felt bad for leaving Hunter with the cleanup but he couldn’t face him right now. He dropped his head in his hands and cried. When he realized he didn’t have any tissues, he considered getting some from the bathroom but didn’t want Hunter to see him with his red, puffy, and tear streaked face. He already thought Coy was weak. He didn’t need to prove it to him.

“Coy?” Hunter rapped his knuckle against the door.

Coy cleared his throat and tried to sound normal. “Don’t come in.”

“I won’t. I just wanted to talk.”

“I’m sorry.” Coy struggled to push his tears away. “I can’t right now.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” Hunter’s sigh came easily through the thin wood. “I didn’t mean to get you mixed up in my mess at all.”

“Mixed up in your mess?” Coy rose and yanked the door open, almost causing Hunter to fall into him. “I want to be mixed up in your mess. I want to be with you.” Once he said it, the decision became clear. “I don’t want the money.” Coy pulled his backpack off the floor and handed it to Hunter. “I’d rather have you.”

“Oh, Coy.” Hunter tossed the backpack into Coy’s room. With tender fingers, Hunter wiped the tears from Coy’s face. “I don’t care about that. It’s your decision to make. I just don’t want you to keep doing it, okay? I don’t care if you keep—that’s not the point.” Hunter swallowed hard. “I’ve been keeping you at arm’s length because of what he did to me.”

“Your ex?”

Hunter nodded. “When I saw you, I felt a rush of connection. I know it’s crazy. People say it’s hormones or pheromones but—”

“I was covered in mud.”

“I know.” Hunter’s gentle fingers went from Coy’s cheek to his neck. “There was something about you. I don’t know what. I’ve been fighting it and I’ve been blaming my ex when the truth is I’m afraid.”

“Of me?”

“Of feeling that way about someone again. Of getting hurt again.”

“I would never hurt you.”

“I said I would never hurt you and look what I’ve managed to do.” Hunter lifted his hand, showing off Coy’s tears as if they were an accusation.

“You didn’t mean to.”

“That’s the point. We can swear up and down we won’t hurt someone and end up doing it anyway.” Hunter put his hand by his side. “The only promise we can really make is not to hurt one another intentionally.”

Coy couldn’t argue with that so he nodded.

“I want to be with you.” Hunter stepped back. “But only if you want to be with me.”

“I do.”

“Then we should talk about that.”

“I...”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m all red in the face and covered in snot and tears.” Coy turned aside. “I’m going to go clean up.”

“I’ll meet you in the living room.”

“Okay.”

Coy blew his nose, washed his face, and changed his shirt. He grabbed his backpack and went into the living room.

“I told you I don’t care about that.”

“I know. But I meant what I said. I don’t want it.” Coy ripped the lining out of the bottom of the bag then dumped the stacks of money onto the coffee table.

“How much is that?”

“Couple of grand.”

Hunter picked up one of the stacks. “It’s fives and tens and twenties.”

“Yeah. My family always had cash in the house. To pay for maids and yard care and pizza and stuff. I did the same thing with that cash that I did with the online transactions.”

“You mean you took a little at a time.”

“Yeah. Not from the people we hired. From the money drawer.” Hunter’s frown prompted Coy to add, “My father called it that. He’d just put money in there to pay people and I pilfered a little bit at a time.”

“I see.”

“I can’t really give it back to my family so I was thinking maybe I could give it to the clinic? It probably wouldn’t make much of a dent in my bill but it would be a start.”

“Coy, I honestly thought...”

“What?”

“That you’d taken millions. Or at least thousands. I thought you had taken it in computer form.”

“I thought about that but I didn’t want to get caught.”

“I thought you said the authorities would never know?”

“When I was doing it, yeah. They weren’t going to catch me stealing pennies from the middleman. But I knew when I left that my brother and father were still going to be running the scam. If I’d taken some then, it might trace back to me. Basically, no matter how many of those transactions they look at, they all trace back to one bank account.”

“Smart.”

“But I thought about it. About siphoning more of the money for myself. I’m not like all pure or anything.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I know my brother is going to up the amount to a nickel. I figured it would take about four to six months for him to get caught.”

“But this money must have taken a long time to build up.” Hunter put the stack of bills back on the table.

“Years.”

“When did you first try to run away?”

“I was twelve.”

“And someone took you back to your family?” Hunter clenched his fist so hard he turned his skin white.

“He figured out they’d pay to get me back. He was right. But he didn’t tell them that I’d been stealing cash because he took that too.”

“Some people.” Hunter shook his head. “They have such a broken moral compass.”

“I’d say this guy’s moral compass was shattered.” Coy remembered the rage he’d felt, then the fear, then the almost soul-killing despair. “I remember thinking I’d never be free of them. Things got very dark for me.” Coy met Hunter’s worried gaze.

“I’m so sorry.”

Coy nodded. “I might have given into that darkness, but my friends on the fanfic site helped me. In fanfic, well, the kind that isn’t dark, things can get bad for the characters, but they keep fighting. They always find a light at the end of the tunnel. It might not be exactly what they thought they wanted but it’s still good. You know?”

“I know. I like books with happy endings. Not that I won’t read the other kind, but I have to be in a mood for them.”

“Yeah. Me too. About a month after that guy took me back to them, I started taking money out of the drawer again and planning my next escape. The second time, I made sure I could get away on my own.”

“What was the problem the first time?”

“A young kid alone stands out. An older kid not so much.”

“You must have been terrified.” Hunter leaned over, placing his elbows on his knees. “You’d never really been outside.”

“I was scared, but I knew what to expect. I...”

“You can tell me anything.”

“You’re just going to think it’s so weird but I knew what everything would look like, the exact path.”

“How?”

“I asked people to help me for a story. They had no idea they were actually helping me escape.”

“Smart.”

Coy blushed. “The only thing that worried me was not having ID. I could still get around but I kept expecting a cop to stop me and try to take me home. Once I got out of the city, I put all my clothes on and hitched.”

“Why all the clothes?”

“So I’d look bigger.”

“Again, very smart.”

“I read it in a story. Actually, most of the stuff I did I got from stories or from suggestions when I posted to the group.”

“I guess reading really does educate.”

“I think so.” Coy’s gaze dropped to the money. “Please help me find something good to do with this.”

“It’s such a small amount. I think you should keep it.”

“But I stole it.”

“Before, I was worried about you getting caught with a lot of money that you’d never be able to explain. This?” Hunter pointed to the rubber band wrapped stacks. “No one is going to even think twice about anyone having that kind of cash. Unless you spent it all at once.”

“You won’t hate me for keeping it?”

“I won’t ever hate you.”

“I don’t know if I can keep it now.” Coy had a lot of mixed emotions about the money. “I think if I kept it I’d just feel dirty.”

“What do you want to do with it?”

“Do you want it?”

“No.” Hunter shook his head then held Coy’s gaze. “I appreciate the offer, but if you don’t want the money, then give it to the clinic.”

“Won’t they wonder where it’s from?”

“Not if you donate it anonymously.”

“Will you help me do that?”

“Sure.” Hunter found a big manila envelope and put the money inside. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I’m sure. Starting now, I want to earn my own money.”

Chapter Nine

If he’d known how hard it was to earn money, Coy might not have given all the money away. Then again, he did feel proud of himself for letting go and moving forward. It was only on days when he struggled to earn that he thought he should have kept the cash. On really bad days, he thought about starting his scheme all over again. What always stopped him was he’d feel like crap if he did that. Worse, he’d break his promise to Hunter. More than anything in the whole world, Coy did not want to disappoint the man who’d saved his life, given him a place to live, and continued to keep his hands to himself until Coy fully healed.

Although to be fair, he’d been well enough to start his own freelance computer repair and consulting business, but Hunter still insisted he wasn’t ready to start a relationship. Well, the intimate part of one anyway. They’d started a relationship the second they’d laid eyes on one another. Coy wasn’t sure what the problem might be. Hunter wanted him. He knew that just by looking in the man’s eyes. And Coy wanted him back. Hell, every time he got near him he got so turned on he had to readjust himself.

Frustrated, Coy had decided to simply ask why they hadn’t taken the next step. Of course, deciding and then acting on it took another two weeks. Finally, Coy summoned the courage to ask Hunter why they were still waiting.

“You’re not ready.” Hunter had long ago finished his dinner but they sat at the table, hashing things out instead of cleaning up.

“You get to decide that?” Coy crossed his arms over his chest then immediately uncrossed them. He didn’t want this discussion to turn into an argument. “I’m healed. Doctor Dunne said I can do anything I want as long as I stay out of mud pits.”

Hunter cracked a smile. “That’s good advice.”

“And easy to follow since I’ll probably never be around one again.”

“You have gone the way of the white-collar entrepreneur.”

“Is that what the problem is?” Maybe Hunter only liked macho guys who rode horses and wrangled cows.

“There isn’t a problem.”

“If there wasn’t a problem, I’d be in your bed right now.”

“Coy, look.”

“Don’t ‘look’ me. I really don’t like when you do that. Just say. Just tell me why you’re holding back.”

“I think you need to get fully on your feet financially. You’ve spent your whole life working for your family. You need to feel...” Hunter trailed off then grimaced as he tried to find the right words.

Coy waited, wondering what he’d done wrong now.

“I don’t ever want you to feel trapped here.”

“Trapped here, in your house?” Coy could not imagine ever feeling that way.

Hunter nodded.

“I don’t. You don’t lock me in. I’m free to come and go as I please. You’ve even taught me how to drive.” In a few weeks, he’d be able to take his driving test. “I’ve opened a bank account and soon I’ll apply for a credit card.”

“Yeah. About that.” Hunter frowned down at the table.

“What about that?”

“You wouldn’t give the clinic your full name because your family might find you.”

“So?”

“To open a bank account, you need a social security number.”

Now Coy grimaced. He’d honestly thought Hunter wouldn’t know that or if he did he wouldn’t say anything.

“You know where I’m going with this.”

“Yeah. I know. But what do you want me to do?” Coy rose and cleaned the dishes off the table. “I can’t use the social security number my parents got for me. They’d find me. Or, more likely, they’d hire someone and he’d find me.”

“Where did you get the number?”

“Online.”

“So it’s not legal.”

“It’s a real number.”

“But not your number.”

“Not the one my parents gave me.” Coy sighed. “We’re right back at the money thing, aren’t we? I mean it’s not money, it’s a number, but it’s not entirely honest how I got that number, so you don’t like it and maybe I should just leave because you are just going to keep finding things to jam a wedge between us.”

Hunter rose from the table, dishes in hand.

They washed up silently, both of them careful not to touch the other. Coy wanted to scream in frustration but knew it wouldn’t help him or the situation one damn bit so he held it deep inside. Deeper even than his need to connect to Hunter.

“I’ll move out by the end of the week.” Coy wrung the water from the dishtowel and tossed it over the sink edge to dry. “I’m making enough now and there’s no reason for me to stay here.”

Hunter put his hand over Coy’s, making the ground shift beneath his feet. His heart pounded, his mouth went dry, and every coherent thought left him in an instant.

“I don’t want you to leave.”

“What do you want me to do?” Coy barely managed to ask the question.

“More than anything in the world, I want you to kiss me.”

Coy turned, knowing they’d never be able to close the door now.

Hunter turned too. He lifted his hand to Coy’s cheek, the same way he had the night he’d wiped his tears away, only this time, he trailed those strong yet tender fingers down to Coy’s lips, then stroked across his mouth.

Coy uttered a shaky breath he felt he’d been holding his whole life.

“I have been damn near killing myself not to touch you,” Hunter whispered. “Not to want you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know anymore.” Hunter moved closer.

Coy tilted his face up to Hunter’s.

“All I know is if I don’t kiss you, I’m going to go crazy.”

“I don’t want you to go crazy.”

“Me either.” Hunter lowered his head at the same time Coy lifted his.

They met in the middle.

When Hunter’s mouth covered his, Coy felt as if he’d finally unlocked a secret to the universe. Now that he knew how it felt to be close to Hunter, he never wanted to be away from him. Coy expected Hunter to crush him against him, but he didn’t. He kissed him gently, almost reverently. When Hunter parted his lips and slipped his tongue inside Coy’s mouth, he groaned low in his throat and wrapped his arms around Hunter’s shoulders. Never in his life had he felt or tasted anything so good.

Hunter lifted him up onto the countertop then stepped between Coy’s legs. He stayed parted from him, though. Hunter kept space between them until Coy wrapped his legs around Hunter’s hips and pulled him tight. Once that contact came, Hunter growled and cupped Coy’s ass but he still only held him.

“I want to feel you against me,” Coy said between kisses.

“I’m afraid once I start I won’t be able to stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

It didn’t take long for their kisses to go wild. Hunter tightened his grip on Coy’s ass, pulling him firmly against his body.

Coy rocked his hips while Hunter did the same, grinding their cocks together. Coy had imagined a moment like this a million times but never dared to dream it would happen with a man like Hunter. Overwhelmed by the feel of him, the taste of him, the sheer physical power of him, Coy struggled to keep his head but quickly realized there was no point. Insanity seemed to be as much a part of sex as the rest of it.

Then again, it wasn’t just sex. Not with Hunter.

“I’m a bad man,” Hunter said, pulling away.

“What?” Coy asked. “Why would you say that? I want you. You want me. I don’t—”

Hunter cut Coy off with a gentle finger against his lips. “I tried not to want you but I bought condoms anyway.” Hunter could barely meet Coy’s eyes when he confessed the truth, which only made Coy smile.

“And you want me to be upset about that?”

“If I really wanted to stay away from you, I wouldn’t have done that.”

“You can beat yourself up later, okay?” Coy tightened the grip he had with his legs. “I’m glad you did. It shows how much you care about me.”

“It does?”

“You wanted to protect me. If that doesn’t say how much you care, I don’t know what does.”

“I just don’t want you to think I thought us coming together was a foregone conclusion.”

“I always thought it was.”

Hunter grinned.

“And right now, I just want to keep on kissing you.”

Hunter lowered his head, locking their lips together again.

Coy rocked his hips, rubbing his cock as hard as he could against Hunter’s. If he rubbed hard enough and long enough, maybe he could rub his damn jeans right off.

“You feel so fucking good,” Hunter murmured while kissing his way to Coy’s neck.

“You feel—oh, God.” Coy tightened his hold as Hunter kissed and lightly bit his neck. He had no idea it would feel that good. He’d put it in stories but never imagined feeling Hunter’s passionate biting kisses would make him hold his breath and whimper deep in his chest.

“Is that okay?” Hunter pulled back so he could examine Coy’s face.

“Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. That feels great.” Coy pulled his shirt away from his neck, offering himself.

“Is harder okay?” Hunter sucked at his skin then abruptly stopped. “Sorry. I shouldn’t give you a hickey.”

“Yes, you should.” Coy yanked his shirt out of the way so abruptly he popped off the top button.

Hunter grinned against his neck then sucked gently but lower so that his shirt would cover any marks. Not that Coy cared. The feel of Hunter marking him caused a frenzy in his body. Coy wanted to be naked with Hunter rising above him, filling him, twining their bodies together until they were as close as two people could possibly be.

“You taste like sunshine,” Hunter whispered. “How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know but you taste like home.”

“Home?” Hunter met Coy’s gaze.

“All the good things a home should be. Safety and comfort. Acceptance and understanding.”

“That’s exactly what I’ve always wanted my home to be.”

Coy grinned. “You also taste like food, which is kinda weird but I still like it.”

Coy cupped Hunter’s chin and tried to say everything he could with only a kiss. He knew he’d succeeded when Hunter moaned and kissed him back the same way. Coy never would have thought he’d have so much silent communication with another human being.

“Can I take this off?” Hunter asked, his hand against the buttons of Coy’s shirt.

“If I can take yours off.”

It became a race to strip one another out of their shirts. Being bare-chested added a whole new tactile dimension to making out but it didn’t take long for that to become not enough.

“I want to feel you.” Coy reached for the button at Hunter’s waistband.

“I won’t last.”

“And you think I will?” Coy laughed but waited until Hunter nodded before he unfastened his pants. Slowly exposing him to his hungry gaze almost brought Coy to climax. Hunter’s strong body invited exploration, especially the trail of hair that went from his belly button down into clinging briefs. When Coy exposed Hunter’s veiny cock, he gasped at the heat of him, the heavy weight of him, and the conflicting feelings that threatened to overwhelm him.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter asked.

“I want to stroke it, kiss it, and ride it all at the same time.” Coy wrapped his hand gently around the shaft.

“I know the feeling.” Hunter exposed Coy and wrapped his hand around his cock too. “But I also want to slow down.”

“You would.”

Hunter laughed. “Why should we rush? This isn’t about the endpoint.”

“No?”

“No.” Hunter squeezed and stroked, making Coy tighten his buttocks against the countertop. “This is all about the journey.”

“If you keep doing that,” Coy said, “I’m going to ruin this journey before it ever even gets started.”

“You can’t.” Instead of backing off, Hunter leaned over and wrapped his lips around the tip of Coy’s cock.

A cry of shocked bliss stopped halfway out of his mouth, making him sound like some kind of wild animal.

Hunter didn’t seem to care. He swirled his tongue then flicked the pointed end over the crown before working his way down Coy’s length.

“I’m... I can’t...” Coy’s eyes rolled back but he finally managed to warn Hunter that he was on the verge of release. Instead of moving back, Hunter took him all the way to the base then sucked hard when Coy climaxed.

Blinded by bliss, Coy had to place his hands behind him to brace himself from thrusting. He’d never imagined it would be like this. That everything would feel so intense. He’d thought it would be just like what he could accomplish with his own hand but it didn’t even come close. Nothing in the world had or probably ever would feel as good as Hunter’s mouth.

Hunter didn’t let go until Coy stopped shaking but even then, he lifted off slowly, clearly aware of how sensitive Coy’s cock had become.

“You okay?” Hunter asked.

Unable to answer with words, Coy nodded, pulled Hunter close, and tasted his pleasure on Hunter’s lips. Utter ambrosia.

They kissed until Coy couldn’t stand anymore. “I have to taste you.”

“Are you sure?” Hunter touched one thick finger to Coy’s bottom lip. “I don’t want you to think that you owe me one for one.”

“I’m sure.” Coy finally understood that Hunter holding back and confirming everything before he acted wasn’t cruel. Hunter wanted to ensure that everything they did—every kiss, every stroke, every contact they shared was consensual. The realization made Coy love Hunter even more.

Coy slid sideways then dropped off the counter. “Up you go.”

Hunter got on the countertop, which put his cock at the perfect height for Coy to explore. He took his time. Stroking, smelling, touching, worshiping. He would have liked to have all of him exposed for his exploration, but he also realized that they had to take the edge off. Frankly, he couldn’t believe either one of them had lasted as long as they had.

Having written about doing this to another man allowed Coy to explore the idea in his mind long before actually doing it, but reality turned out to be a million times better than he’d ever imagined. Hunter’s cock felt like a hard sponge wrapped in velvet. His precum was sweet but afterward the taste turned bitter but no less intriguing. When Coy looked up to see what impact his wanton exploration had, Hunter’s eyes showed a desperate bid to hang on.

Power infused Coy’s spine. He’d always thought the one sucking cock was the one in subservience, the submissive, but he found he had power over Hunter. He played him the way he’d always been able to play computers. Finding the right combination of touches in a certain order caused different reactions. Sucking hard made Hunter tighten up. Twisting his tongue made Hunter flex his fingers against the countertop. Working his mouth down the thick length of Hunter’s cock made Hunter draw breath in tight gasps that showed his need more than words ever could.

“I’m close, Coy. You don’t have to—oh. Fuck.”

Coy knew he didn’t have to take Hunter’s release. He wanted to. He wanted to taste him. To know him. To feel his gushing climax would tell him without words that he’d pleased the man he wanted.

Coy drank every drop down and then looked up to see the expression on Hunter’s face. Surprise, delight, and a hunger to give back even more than what he’d been given. That keen determination made Coy shiver and his nipples tighten almost to the point of pain.

“You are—” Hunter never finished the thought. He pulled Coy up, claimed his mouth, and did exactly what Coy had done. Hunter tasted his own pleasure on Coy’s lips. “All I want is more of you.”

“I want more of you.” Coy wanted to hold Hunter and feel him. “I want to see your bedroom.”

“Of course.”

“I know why you didn’t show me.”

“You do?” Hunter asked, leading the way up those tiny stairs to the room above the living room and library.

“You didn’t want to tempt me.”

“That.” Hunter laughed. “And I didn’t want to make things worse for me.”

“Worse for you?”

Hunter stopped midway up the stairs and turned to meet Coy’s eyes. “I tried so hard not to think of you in my bed. I honestly thought if you’d never been up these stairs it would be easier not to think of it.”

“Was it?”

“Not even.” Hunter kissed Coy’s forehead with kindness and care, but now Coy felt the deeper need. “I wanted you and nothing was ever going to change that.”

“You know I felt the same.”

“Did you?”

“Every night when I crawled into bed, I tried not to think about what it would feel like to have you come in.”

“Into your room?”

“I always imagined you would come in to kiss me goodnight. It would be sweet at first.” Coy took a step up so he could place his mouth close to Hunter’s. “And that innocent kiss would turn hot and wild and you would climb on top of me.” Coy gasped. “I wanted you to pin me down and rut.”

“Rut?” Even in the dark, Hunter’s eyes brightened. His pupil expanded almost enough to cover his iris then constricted. The flair made it clear he liked the picture Coy painted with his words.

“You would pin me down and rock your body over mine.”

“Against your will?” Hunter pulled away.

“No.” Coy took Hunter’s hand and placed it against his chest so Hunter could feel his heartbeat. “With my consent. Always with my enthusiastic participation.” Coy swallowed hard. “Some people in my fanfic like that ravishment idea, but I’m with you in that I like the idea of two people who just can’t keep their hands off one another.”

Hunter’s sly grin caused Coy’s cock to twitch in his unfastened jeans. “Tell me more.”

“Take me to your bedroom first.”

Hunter nodded and led Coy up the narrow staircase to a loft that had about seven feet of headspace at the center but sharply sloped ceilings that dropped to about three feet at the edges. Coy had never realized that Hunter’s home was square. Hunter’s bed rested directly on the floor, close to a wide east window. Across the way, another window gave a great view of the sunset to the west.

“Why did you put your bed here?” Coy asked, noticing that Hunter hadn’t taken the time to make his bed this morning. The covers appeared as if Hunter had flung them away so he could bound out of bed. Of course, that couldn’t happen quite the way Coy pictured it in his mind. Hunter couldn’t fling himself out of bed without bashing his head on the ceiling.

“I like waking up to morning light.” Hunter moved to the center of the room, the only part of the upper floor he could stand up in. “In the winter, the light pours through and I can lie there and soak up the heat.”

“I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“You’re a sun baby.”

“What?” Hunter laughed as dropped his hand to his undone jeans. “Should I take these off?”

“If you don’t, I will.”

“Be my guest.” Hunter lifted his hands to the rafter above his head. “But you have to tell me about sun babies while you do it.”

“Some people crave sunlight. Others crave water.”

“Aren’t there people who want air or earth?”

“I suppose, but you aren’t one of those and neither am I.”

“Which are you?”

“Water.” Coy stripped Hunter down to nothing, exposing his powerful bronze body to his hungry gaze. “I’ve always had this affinity for water.”

“You lived in the city.”

“Lucky for me, the bathroom off my bedroom had one of those huge tubs. I got in that thing every chance I could get. But I always imagined I was in a lake.”

“And all I have is a shower.” Hunter rested his hand against Coy’s jeans, lifting his eyebrows. Coy nodded. Hunter eased his jeans and underwear down.

“I don’t mind showers for cleaning up.”

“I promise, I’m going to show you a place where you can get all the water you want.”

“Even in the winter?”

“Even in the winter.”

Coy couldn’t imagine what Hunter would show him, but he believed he knew of such a place. Without his pants or underwear on, Coy got his first look at Hunter completely bare. Bronze skin, strong muscles, and dark body hair tipped with gold along his arms. Coy found himself touching Hunter everywhere. He wanted to memorize him so that even in the dark, he could trace over his features and see it all in his mind’s eye.

“Wait. If I’m sun and you’re water, aren’t we opposites?”

“We complement one another.” Coy leaned up and kissed Hunter.

Hunter took him over to his bed, laughing about how they had to hunch over so as not to hit the ceiling.

“Why didn’t you just add a few feet to the house?”

“I wanted to keep it small so I could build it myself and pay for it as I went.” Hunter frowned. “You don’t like it?”

“No! I mean yes, I like your house. It’s amazing. I didn’t know you built it.”

“With a lot of help.”

“You have some very good friends.”

“I do.” Hunter pulled the covers over them. “I guess I also thought that all I’d really do up here is sleep so why waste space that I wouldn’t use?”

“Good point.” Coy peered up at the ceiling. “I like the shape, how the points all come together in the center. I also like the wide windows.”

“I love this view.” Hunter turned on his stomach. Coy followed suit. “Watching the sunrise is just as amazing as watching it set.”

“If you wanted to, you could move your bed back and forth and catch both.”

“I’ve done that when the sunset is really amazing and it’s too cold to go outside.”

“It would be warmer up here with the heat rising.”

“Or with you in my bed.”

Coy grinned.

Hunter grinned too.

And then they were right back to kissing as if they were the only two people in the world. Only now, Coy got to feel all of Hunter against him. His heat, the roughness of his hair, the thickness of his cock, but more than that he felt the gentleness of his touch. Hunter stroked over Coy as if he were made of glass.

“I won’t break,” Coy said.

“I know. I just don’t want to rush you.”

“I don’t feel rushed.” Coy tried to pull Hunter on top of him but Hunter resisted. “What’s wrong?”

“I just—tell me you’re in my bed because you want to be here.”

“I am. I swear.” Coy frowned and tilted his head, trying desperately to understand. “Am I doing or saying something that makes you think I don’t want to be here?”

“I guess I just need to make sure you’re not doing this because you have nowhere else to go.”

Coy paused, ready to give his usual retort, but then he realized something. “You do understand I have the same worry? Or at least I did.”

“About why I want to be with you?”

“That I was here only because you saved me and not because you really wanted me here.”

“I want you here.”

“I want to be here.” Coy kissed Hunter. “Can we finally put that to rest?”

Hunter nodded and then moved on top of Coy. He held his weight off him with strong arms but he gave Coy a taste of what it would feel like to have him up there, pinning him down, rutting hard against him. And that taste made Coy crave the real thing more than he had before. But Hunter refused to rush. He took his time, building up Coy’s need to a fever pitch that had him writhing in the sheets and whimpering with need.

“Relax.” Hunter moved to his side then bit and kissed Coy’s neck while working his hand down between his legs.

Coy would have tried to pull him back on top but then Hunter fingered his ass. Stars exploded behind Coy’s eyes as electrical shocks flared over his skin. Touching himself there wasn’t even remotely the same as how it felt when Hunter caressed him there. Strong fingers swirled gently then pressed teasingly, making Coy strain upward and softly beg for more.

Hunter poured lube over his fingers. When he went back to teasing Coy, the slickness made his touches even more earthshaking. Now when Coy begged for more, Hunter slipped his fingers inside, and Coy almost climaxed.

“Are you okay?” Hunter asked, moving away so he could look down. “Should I stop?”

“Please don’t stop.” Coy grasped Hunter’s arm. “It just feels so gooood.”

“How about more?” Hunter kept his attention on Coy’s face while he pumped his fingers in and out.

Coy lost the ability to talk. He rolled his head back and spread his legs wide.

After taunting him well beyond the point of frustration, Hunter finally pulled on a condom and rose up over him.

“I need you to look right at me, Coy. I need to make sure you’re okay.”

Coy cupped his hands to Hunter’s shoulders, holding onto him as if he might just go poof! into thin air. “If I wake up and find out this is all a dream, I’m going to be so pissed.”

“It’s not a dream.” Hunter kissed him as he pressed his cock against Coy’s well-lubed hole.

The sensation of slowly being filled overloaded his senses. It wasn’t pain or pleasure but a curious blend of both. Coy wanted Hunter to hurry and fill him but he also wanted him to drag the moment out. Confused, he just kept watching Hunter’s face. Emotions darted over his features. Lust and longing but always that caution. Hunter would never hurt him. Coy knew that down to his very bones.

With a sudden flick of his hips, Hunter’s thick knob breached Coy’s opening. Pain reached an almost unbearable level then retreated, leaving only the bliss of his entry.

“You okay?” Hunter’s voice sounded strained.

“Very.” Coy wrapped his legs around Hunter’s hips, altering the angle of his channel, inadvertently drawing more of Hunter’s cock inside.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.” Hunter clenched his eyes closed and his arms trembled.

“Do you need to roll over?” Coy thought he couldn’t hold himself up anymore.

“I need to think about the most boring thing in the world.”

“Rice.”

“What?”

“Rice. It’s pretty boring. There’s not much to it, really.”

“I think there are about a billion people in China who would disagree with you.”

“But they aren’t here and you’re not about to climax anymore, are you?”

“You know, for someone who’s never done this before, you’re surprisingly good at it.”

“I have a very vivid imagination.” Coy flicked his hips upward, gaining another inch of Hunter’s cock while rubbing his own against Hunter’s coarse body hair. The dual sensations brought him dangerously close to release.

“Careful,” Hunter said. “Or you’re going to need to think about rice.”

Coy laughed, which tightened him around Hunter, which made Hunter close his eyes and utter a growling groan that made Coy whimper.

“Are you ready?” Hunter breathed the question into Coy’s ear.

Coy didn’t have to ask for what. He knew. He’d been waiting for this moment ever since he laid eyes on Hunter.

Hunter flicked his hips once, sharp, drilling his cock as deep into Coy as he could.

Coy’s eyes went wide and his mouth came open but all that came out was a demand for more.

“More?” Hunter gave him another flicking thrust.

Coy teetered on the edge, perilously close to release but determined to hang on. “More.”

Hunter pressed his forehead against Coy’s for a brief moment then rose up and gave him two rapid flicks.

Coy nodded and whimpered.

Hunter built up steam, always while keeping watch on Coy’s face. When he hit what Coy would call a rough rut, Hunter closed his eyes and growled.

Coy met each possessive snarl with a submissive whimper that encouraged Hunter to give him more. And more. Until Coy couldn’t hold on. He climaxed, gushing between their bellies.

Hunter grunted his approval, lowered his head, and thrust hard and deep three times then came. Quivering, he held himself above Coy then dropped his weight on him, which pushed all the air out of Coy but he didn’t care. Pinned utterly, completely, Coy clenched around Hunter and finally finished coming.

Hunter moved to his side, careful to keep Coy close.

“This is the not fun part.” Hunter pulled out and got rid of the condom. “Are you sore?”

“I feel really, really good.”

True to his personality, Hunter stroked all over Coy, checking him to make sure he hadn’t hurt him. He hadn’t. Coy felt a deep satisfaction, completely unlike what he’d felt when he took himself in hand.

“I didn’t think it would be like this.” Coy stroked over Hunter’s chest, loving the way touching Hunter’s nipples made his cock twitch even when he’d grown soft.

“How do you mean?” Hunter asked.

“Everything. It was sweet but hot. Hard but soft. Like, all these contrasts that I just didn’t expect.”

“But good?”

“Very.” Coy frowned. “Was I good for you?”

“You were amazing.” Hunter kissed Coy’s face and squeezed him tight. “I have a feeling it’s always going to be amazing with you.”

Coy grinned. No words would ever be able to tell him how much Hunter wanted to be together than those. Clearly, this was something both of them wanted to repeat.

Chapter Ten

A week later, they watched the baby eagle take her first flight from the nest.

Coy felt his heart in his throat as the little bird struggled to get her wings open and then used them to rise up. When she managed, Coy gave a little victory cry.

“How do you know it’s a girl eagle, again?” Coy asked, his new binoculars glued to his face.

“They’re bigger and stronger than the males. Last year, there were two and you could see the size difference right off. This one is bigger than the female from last year.”

They watched the baby eagle fly for a while then put their binoculars back in the pack.

“Ready to go to the water?” Hunter asked.

“I am.” Coy had packed a towel but no bathing suit. Hunter said he could bring one, but he probably wouldn’t get to wear it for long. Just the idea of skinny dipping with Hunter had his cock straining against the front of his jeans.

Hunter led the way from the big rock down along the cliff that bordered the valley below.

“You’re not taking me all the way over to that spring over there, are you?” Coy’s leg had never felt better but just eyeballing that hike told him the distance was well beyond his ability. A good ten-mile trek each way, at least.

“Not that one.”

“Another one?”

“Yes. Now pay attention so you can come whenever you want.”

Coy thought Hunter had to be kidding as the way seemed obvious until it wasn’t. Instead of following along the cliff, he had to drop down to a second cliff that hid under the first one.

“I see your low ceiling bedroom pays off.” In order to walk along the cliff, they had to walk hunched over.

“There’s a method to my madness.”

After a quarter mile or so, they were able to stand. They continued along a path that seemed hardly used at all. When Hunter led Coy right up to what looked like a big bolder with no way around it, he dropped down and went under.

“Come on,” Hunter called from the other side. “If I fit, I know you will.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“What, then?”

“What if it settles suddenly?” Coy realized someone, probably Hunter, had dug underneath a natural cleft in the bolder to make a tunnel. Despite it looking small, Coy realized it could easily pass him while he wore his backpack. But still, he worried about the rock suddenly squishing him.

“What are the odds on that?” Hunter asked.

Coy figured it was possible but not very likely. Determined to follow, he sucked up his concerns, got down on his belly, and crawled through only to have the scene on the other side take his breath away.

“Nice?” Hunter stood buck naked on a smooth flat rock that had plenty of sunshine.

“Very.” Coy would probably never get enough of looking at Hunter. Lucky for him, ever since they’d had sex, Hunter stopped wearing clothing in the house. He draped a towel over the furniture when he wanted to sit down, but he enjoyed being nude. Coy discovered he did too. “I see it’s a perfect place for a sun baby,” Coy said.

“And for a water baby.” Hunter pointed between two sloping rocks.

“A spring.”

“A hot spring.”

“So even in winter...”

“You can get in the water and be perfectly warm.” Hunter pointed to the upper area. “That water there is pretty hot but if you come down to here, it’s cooler.”

“It has a summer and winter area. Sweet.” Coy dropped his pack and then his clothes. He toed the water and found the upper spot hot, but not unbearably so. The only drawback was that it only seemed big enough for one.

“Don’t worry.” Hunter wrapped his arms around Coy from behind. “We can make it big enough to fit two.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I didn’t know you until now.” Hunter kissed Coy’s neck.

“Why didn’t you show me this before?”

“I wanted to make sure your leg was healed up all the way.” Hunter slid down the back of Coy’s body then stroked over the pale pink scar before rising. “But also...”

“What?”

“I wanted to make sure you were going to stay.”

“Why?”

“I’ve never shared this with anyone. I’ve shown a few friends the eagle’s nest, but this place always felt...” Hunter sighed. “This place felt important to me. I wanted to save it for a special person.”

“Are you trying to make me cry?”

“Maybe.” Hunter turned Coy around to face him. “Actually, I’m trying to show you how much you mean to me. How much I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Hunter kissed him softly. “When you told me about sun babies and water babies, I instantly thought of this place. That I’d finally found the right guy to share it with.”

“I’m glad you waited.”

“I’m glad you showed up.”

“Drowning in mud.”

“Well, I’ve never really been much of a conventional guy.”

“Me either, apparently.”

“And there’s something else.” Hunter moved back a bit. “While doing my computer studies, I came across a news story this morning.”

“I thought you didn’t like the news.”

“I don’t. Usually. But this one caught my eye.” Hunter told him about a family in New York who’d been arrested for a very clever scheme of taking small amounts from electronic transactions. “They didn’t give the details on how, of course, but there was enough information for me to figure out it must have been your family.”

“So now you know my real name.”

“I’ve always known. You’re Coy.”

Coy couldn’t help himself. He smiled. Hunter accepted him for who he was now, not who he’d been back then.

“And if I’m really lucky, maybe someday your name will be Coy Rojas.”

“I’d like that.” Coy’s heart pounded so hard he was pretty sure Hunter could feel it when Coy plastered himself against his chest. “I’d like to have your last name a lot.”

“I’d like that too.” Hunter kissed him gently, but like usual, the kiss went wild. “You always do this to me.”

“Do what?” Coy asked breathlessly.

“Make me crazy.” Hunter nibbled along Coy’s neck.

“Are you trying to tell me that’s a bad thing?”

“Not if you like my crazy.”

“I love your crazy.” Coy stroked and lightly pinched Hunter’s nipples, making his cock twitch. “I love it when you have to have me or you’ll go even more insane.”

“Just like the way you whimper with desperate need until I’m convinced you’re going to burst into tears.”

“See? We were made for each other.” Coy palmed Hunter’s cock. “And now that we know we’re both safe, we can dispense with the condoms.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Hunter pulled back just enough so they could be eye to eye, something he always did for important discussions.

“I’ve never been more sure.” Coy wanted to feel him. All of him. Without any barriers between them at all. “But only if you’re sure too.”

“You know how I feel about it.”

“I know.” The last time Hunter had gone without protection, he’d trusted his partner, who had cheated on him. “But I’m not him.”

“I know. I guess the question is if I can let go of that hurt.”

“Can you?”

“Like you said, you’re not him. It’s not fair for me to hold myself back from you when all you’ve ever done is show me how much you love me.”

“I really do.” Coy kissed him. “And I know you love me.”

“Is that so?”

“I’ve known for a long time because of the way you treat me.”

“The way you deserve to be treated.” Hunter kissed him almost breathless.

“If only one of us remembered to bring lube.”

Hunter’s grin said that he had. “Now, where should we do this?” Hunter examined the sheltered area but not for long. Coy knew he’d been imaging what they would do once they got here. Coy would have too if he’d known what the place looked like.

“I want you here.” Hunter had Coy stand with his arms outstretched in front of him, his hands pressed flat against a smooth rock. “Perfect.” Hunter stroked over Coy’s back, down to his buttocks, then eased his legs apart so that he could tease his fingers over his hole.

Coy held onto the rock for dear life. When Hunter got to teasing him like that, he made him crazy with longing. Each stroke intensified his need until his whimpers could certainly be heard for miles around.

“Tell me you want me.” Hunter breathed into Coy’s ear.

“I want you.”

“Tell me you need me.” Hunter continued to breathe into Coy’s ear while slipping two slick fingers into his ass.

“Oh, God, I need you. I need to feel you inside me.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you so much I—oh!”

Hunter didn’t wait for Coy to finish. He pressed his hard cock against him and slipped the thick head inside. Coy gasped at the invasion as he always did. No matter how many times Hunter filled him, the thickness of his knob breaching his hole always caused a pinch of pain that his shaft immediately soothed.

“I’m sorry,” Hunter whispered. “I know that part always hurts.”

“It does, but I don’t mind, because afterward it’s nothing but pleasure.” Coy closed his eyes as Hunter slipped that thick head deeper, rubbing it over his prostate, making his whole body sparkle with awareness. Coy had never imagined having sex outside. Hearing the water burble, feeling the sun on his back, smelling the rich scent of pine and growing things—all of it was almost dreamlike—but when Hunter pressed tight against him, everything vanished from his awareness but for him. Hunter became his entire world as he grasped his hips and rocked himself back and forth along Coy’s channel.

“Are you ready?” Hunter asked.

“Yes.” Coy braced himself.

“Are you sure?”

“Hunter, please. I need—oh, fuck!”

Hunter gave one powerful thrust that buried him as deeply into Coy’s body as he could get. Right after that he pulled back, dragging the ridge of his prick over Coy’s sweet spot before slamming back into the full length of his cock. Over and over Hunter worked his prick in that increasing rhythm, making Coy whimper and shake as precum poured from the tip of his bouncing cock.

Finally, Hunter gave him the rutting he’d always dreamed of, the one he’d longed for, the one that rattled his teeth and made him feel utterly and completely owned. Hunter power fucked him to the point Coy could barely stay upright.

“Should I stop?” Hunter growled the question between thrusts.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Coy arched himself so that Hunter could more easily pound his ass. Each thrust shook his whole body. His nipples tightened, his breathing rate increased, and that warning tension spiraled around his body, tightening, tightening, until—

“I’m going to come.”

“Good.” Hunter snarled and redoubled his efforts. He fucked Coy so hard and fast that he lifted Coy off his feet, forcing him to stiffen his arms against the rock so he wouldn’t fall into it.

And every second of it was perfect.

Coy’s whimper of bliss turned into a cry of victory as he climaxed without touching his cock. Everything in his body turned super sensitive but it didn’t hurt. It felt impossibly good to be so aware, so alive, so utterly consumed by the act of rutting with Hunter. Coy swore he felt the pulse of Hunter’s heartbeat in his still-thrusting cock. Felt the thick veins along the side. Felt his breath like a chugging locomotive against his back.

“Fuck!” Hunter lost his rhythm and buried himself to the hilt, releasing his load deep inside Coy.

Coy swore he felt every pulsing jet of his pleasure.

Gently, Hunter set Coy down on his feet and released his hips from his powerful grip. “You okay?” Hunter kissed Coy’s back.

Coy uttered a weak laugh. “I’m fantastic.”

“I didn’t think that was possible, for you to come that way.”

“It’s that thick ridge.” Coy reached back and stroked over Hunter’s side. “It rubs me soooo right.”

Hunter chuckled. “Hang on.”

“To what?”

“Wrap your arms over mine.” Hunter lifted Coy and held him against his chest as he walked back toward his sunning rock. Hunter settled against it then lifted Coy into his lap. They sat there together until Hunter went soft and slipped out.

“That’s the sad part.” Coy wished Hunter could stay buried in him for hours.

“I know.” Hunter kissed Coy’s neck. “Are you sore?”

“No. I told you, it only pinches when you breach. After that, it’s nothing but pleasure.”

“You know I have to ask.”

“I know.” Asking was just one of the many ways Hunter said he loved him. “Are you okay?”

“I am fantastic.” Hunter kissed the edge of Coy’s ear. “In fact, I feel inspired.”

“To do what?”

“To widen the spring so the two of us can sit in it together.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea.”

Working together, they widened the area of the spring so that both of them could sit side by side in it at the same time. Of course, that wasn’t the way Hunter wanted to sit in the water. Hunter settled in first then patted his lap while lifting his eyebrows.

“You insatiable satyr.” Coy sat with his back to Hunter’s chest.

“You only wish I had a permanent erection.” Hunter pulled Coy close and sighed.

“This is nothing short of amazing.” Coy wiggled his toes in the water.

“You’re nothing short of amazing.”

“You still going to teach me how to rope?”

“Well, you did teach me how to rut so I think it’s only fair.”

“I didn’t teach you that.” Coy turned so that he could look at Hunter. “That’s animal instinct.”

“Is it?”

“Does it matter?”

“Probably not.” Hunter kissed the tip of Coy’s nose. “The only thing that really matters is that we’re happy.”

“I am.”

“Me too.” Hunter nibbled on Coy’s neck, exciting him all over again, only this time, Hunter took his time and made love to Coy in the spring then they dozed on the sun-drenched rock. A year ago, Coy never could have imagined his life would turn out the way it had. He was grateful. And he would spend every day of the rest of his life showing Hunter just how much he loved him because Coy knew without a doubt that Hunter would do the same for him.

About the Author

Reading, writing, and white-water rafting are the three things Anitra Lynn McLeod enjoys the most. She is the author of erotic gay romances from contemporary to science fiction and everything in between. Even though her tales range from sensual to sizzling, with settings from the high rises of New York to the distant shores of an alien world, one thing all her stories share is compelling characters involved in unforgettable romances.

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