The Man Who Loved Cole Flores (Dig Two Graves 1)

“What? You wanna go under again?” Ned warned, squaring his shoulders, but didn’t dare move, overwhelmed by the closeness.

“Do you want to go under again?” Cole asked, but his usually confident smile seemed more delicate, like something that was made of glass rather than metal and could shatter easily. Heat rose under Ned’s skin when Cole’s calf slid alongside his, tickling it with hair.

He’d been so blind. His admiration of Cole had never been about considering how attractive Cole was to women. He was the one to think of Cole as handsome, to wonder how the hairs on his forearms would feel to the touch, and how strong his embrace was. What that meant was another matter.

Ned glanced to the shore, just to make sure they were alone, but they hadn’t gone along any road, and he could spot no traces of people around. “I don’t understand,” he whispered.

Cole blinked away the water stuck to his eyelashes, but then hesitation was over, and he put his palms on Ned’s chest, coming so close Ned could kiss him if he only leaned in a bit. “You’re like me. I wasn’t completely sure until last night, but that’s clear now. It was… like nothing I ever felt,” he whispered, letting his gaze wander over Ned’s features with uncertainty Ned hadn’t seen on him before.

Cole was a hot pan and Ned—butter. His flesh melted at the touch of Cole’s long fingers until he forgot why he’d been so angry and grazed the tips of his nails along Cole’s forearm. “I don’t know what I am,” he said with nerves bundling in his chest. This moment put in question everything he’d believed about attraction and intimacy, and left him at a loss.

Cole kissed him, deep and sweet, and with so much passion Ned felt as though he might not ever need air and survive on the power driving Cole’s lips and tongue. He uttered a dull sound when Cole’s knee pushed between his thighs and pressed on his groin, setting off bright flames in the middle of the lake.

When Cole’s hands slid down Ned’s back and to his buttocks, the coldest water couldn’t cool Ned’s head. Cole hadn’t just fallen into his arms last night because of booze. He’d wanted this. He wanted Ned and was as eager for his flesh as a wolf smelling the blood of a wounded stag.

There was a time to fight, and a time to surrender, so Ned held up the white flag, knowing he’d let Cole touch him however he liked. He opened his lips in invitation, and though this was barely the second time he’d done this, he had the vague impression he’d never meet a better kisser in his life. He could blame yesterday on liquor, but not even a drop of booze coursed in his veins now, and the gentle slide of Cole’s tongue against his still had him arching in pleasure.

Cole’s touch had weight, and it grew possessive, kneading Ned’s ass until Ned shook and needed to lean on the masculine body in front of him. And unlike a woman would have been, Cole was strong enough to support him.

Cole nipped on Ned’s mouth and pulled him toward the shore, a smile stretching his lips as his hand wandered across Ned’s form, fingers playing with the hair on his chest as they moved.

“You’re so hard,” Cole muttered, trailing his knuckles down Ned’s stomach with a teasing smile.

“And… you like that.” More of a statement than a question, but Ned was trying to find his ground in the new reality where he was an object of desire and affection. He might know how to swim, but in these waters, it was him who was drowning. Everything had been easier in the middle of the lake, but once they waded to the shore, Ned felt as if he were approaching a cliff and about to smash into the rocks below.

Cole was the rope to keep him from breaking all his bones, and as the light died above, Ned felt as if he was being lured by some fantastical creature who had no place in the harsh world of pain, dirt, and revenge.

He yelped when Cole gently pushed him to the moss at the shore but stayed where he’d fallen, taking in the statuesque man towering over him. Clear droplets shone on curves of muscle made bronze by the late sunlight. Black hair was peppered over Cole’s legs, forearms, and got denser on his stomach, but as Ned followed its dark trail south, his mouth watered at the sight of a plump cock nesting in a bed of curls, along with jewels that would fit so well in Ned’s palm.

Scars, bruises, and other imperfections seemed to mark the smooth flesh only to confirm Cole as a man of flesh and bone, not an invulnerable creature who shouldn’t even acknowledge Ned’s existence.