Thankfully, the car came quickly, and we got inside. We were halfway back to the airport before I realized Mikey was crying.
“Jesus, what’s wrong?” I blurted. Here I’d been trying to keep from losing my composure, and Mikey was the one to lose it.
“It’s so unfair. You had a shit family. You deserved better.”
I laughed at that and leaned over to kiss his forehead. He was so damned sensitive. I loved that about him. “You had a shit family, too. Many people do.”
He sniffled. “Still not fair.”
I put my arm around him and squeezed, sending up a silent prayer of thanks for Tiller Raine giving Mikey a new home, a better family. “But now you have a good one. The family we’re making on our own. By choice.”
He glanced up at me with wet, spiky eyelashes and a devilish smirk. “You think we can add Truman to our family?”
I shoved him away from me with a laugh. “Now you’re fishing. Don’t bat those eyelashes at me and try to get me to declare my undying love to someone I’ve known for all of five minutes.”
We rode in silence for a few more minutes before he said, “He’s good for you. But more than that, I love how you are with him.”
“How do you mean?”
“I remember you dating Will a few years ago. You were protective of him, too, but in a different way. You wanted to carry his burdens, and man did he want you to as well. He used to preen whenever you got all controlling and possessive.”
I thought back to the guy I’d dated for a few months one summer. He’d been harassed by an ex, and it had taken me a long time to discover he’d actually loved every minute of it.
“He had problems,” I muttered.
“That’s an understatement. But you tried solving his problems for him, and that’s not really how you are with Truman. It’s nice.”
I didn’t really follow what he was saying. Of course I wanted to solve Truman’s problems. I’d do anything to solve his problems.
“He’s a grown man,” I said. “Will was twenty. There’s a big difference.”
Mikey nodded and grinned. “Four whole years. I don’t think Truman’s used to being seen as an adult. And I can tell it’s hard for you not to take over and bulldoze him over this Stanner brothers’ threat.”
“I want to beat those fuckers into the ground,” I grumbled.
My phone pinged with a million texts and calls from my mom and sisters, but I put all of them on ignore. That left a few messages from Truman.
Truman: I know it’s late there, but I wanted to tell you I ended up staying at Tiller’s. He opened a bottle of wine and asked me if I wanted to hear stories about you. Needless to say, I kept asking for more wine and stories until I was too drunk to drive home. Wish you were hair.
Truman: OMG. No. I wish you were here. Not hair.
Truman: But I also really like your hair.
Truman: It’s very blond.
Truman: And thick and stuff.
Truman: *tries to stop talking about hair
Truman: I’ve never dated a blond man.
Truman: OMG not that we’re dating ha. HA!
Oh my god. He was so fucking cute. I turned the phone so Mikey could see the text. When he was done reading, he showed me his.
Tiller: Truman is adorable and we need to keep him.
Mikey: I believe I said that the minute I first saw him.
Tiller: I got him wine drunk and told him about the time Sam threw up when your appendix almost burst.
Tiller: Then I told him about the time Sam saved those kids from drowning.
Mikey: ??? What kids?
Tiller: So I made some shit up. Sue me. Truman wasn’t the only one drinking the wine.
Tiller: Now he’s in Sam’s room singing Beauty School Dropout.
My heart filled with joy, and I let out a breath of relief. Knowing he was safely tucked into my room at Rockley Lodge with a giant, hard-bodied NFL player watching over him gave me peace of mind I didn’t know I needed.
“God,” I groaned. “Thank him for me. Jesus, that makes me feel a thousand times better.”
Mikey tapped at his phone for the rest of the drive as I began to realize just how late it was. “Not sure there are any flights this late to Denver,” I finally said out loud.
“No worries. Tiller hooked us up. He’s just drunk enough to get bossy and throw his money around. We’re flying on a charter.”
Sure enough, we flew in a sleek private jet direct from Houston to the Yampa Valley Regional Airport where a driver was waiting to take us to Rockley Lodge. I’d dozed most of the flight home between bouts of waking up enough to stress over the confrontation I’d had with my family.
I had so many mixed feelings. Guilt, confusion, anger, frustration, betrayal, sadness. But I didn’t have a single moment of regret. I knew I’d done what I needed to do to protect myself, even though it hadn’t been easy. And I knew that more than anything else, I wanted to be in Aster Valley right now with my friends and with Truman.
When the driver pulled up in front of Rockley Lodge, Mikey was dead on his feet. I helped him into the house and nudged him toward his bedroom before heading to mine.
Truman was sprawled out like a half-naked starfish on top of the covers. The light from the hallway was enough to reveal he was wearing my oversized T-shirt that was rucked up under his arms and a tiny pair of royal blue briefs I wanted to stick my face in.
God, he was beautiful. His face without his glasses looked young and vulnerable, but his body was as hot as a thirst trap picture on social media.
I kept my eyes on him as I began removing my own clothes, but after realizing I smelled like an airplane, I headed into the bathroom to take a quick shower.
When I finally got back to the bedroom and pulled on a fresh pair of boxer briefs, I moved him under the covers and slid into the bed beside him, pulling him into my arms and inhaling his cherry smell that was only partly edged with the scent of alcohol.
I moved my hand under the T-shirt to rest it on his chest, and I fell asleep to the steady thunk of his heartbeat against my fingertips.
It seemed like no time had passed at all before I awoke to the hot, wet suction of a mouth on my dick.
16
Truman
Waking up to Sam’s arms around me was a shock. The best kind of shock. I didn’t care how it had happened, only that he was there and already almost naked.
I started by sneaking just a few glances at him while he slept. Then a few caresses of his warm skin. After that, my lips wanted a quick taste of his mouth, his shoulder, his chest. I nudged his underwear down just a tiny bit to see the blond curls hidden there.
Before I knew it, I was giving him a blow job like some kind of porn star.
Well, like some kind of amateur porn star who didn’t really know what he was doing. But Sam’s dick was hard after all of my touching and kissing, and I wanted to see what it would be like to kiss it, too.
He groaned in a deep, sleepy voice and stretched his muscular legs. Sam’s hand landed in my hair and yanked gently on the curls. “Fuck that’s a nice way to wake up.”
His voice was so sexy, it was enough to make me even more desperate. “This okay?” I asked quickly, to be sure.