Firefly Lane (Briar County 1)

“Haven’t told him. Marilee neither.” Holden rested his elbows on the table, rubbed a hand over his face, clearly frustrated, while Roe’s damn breath caught in his throat. Holden hadn’t told his sister or his boyfriend…but he’d told Roe? Had he come outside hoping Roe would do the same? No. He was getting ahead of himself with that.

“It might hurt him at first when you leave, but when you come back, he’ll see. We can’t protect people from hurtin’, Holden. All we can do is ease it where we can, soothe it after the fact, and show them that even though life hurts, it doesn’t mean there’s no love.”

Holden turned slowly, looked at him. The light was still on, but the moon was shining behind him too, creating a glow around him. Fuck, Holden was a beautiful man, all rough edges and masculinity, but there was something about him in the moonlight that made Roe’s pulse race even faster.

He forced himself to look away, to shove to his feet. The man was in a relationship, for Christ’s sake. Roe needed to get his shit together because right then, in that moment, he’d wanted to kiss him.

“Thank you.” Holden’s voice was a little more hoarse than it had been a second ago.

Roe nodded, walked over to the wooden pen close to the barn, and leaned against it.

Holden followed him. “Me and Vince…we, um…broke up.”

“Oh shit,” Roe said. “I’m sorry. You’ve been together a long time.” And they’d looked happy. They got along well, from what Roe could see. Yesterday they hadn’t looked on the verge of breaking up. “Is it because of Sean or staying here?”

“No. It was just time. I think my being here gave us the perspective we both needed. We love each other. We’re good friends, we’re comfortable together, we enjoy spending time together, but we’re not in love. We never have been and never will be. We knew it, of course, but eventually, he wants that, and I’m not the right guy for him to have it with.”

Because Holden couldn’t feel the same about Vince, or anyone?

Slowly, they turned toward each other. Looked at each other, and…fuck if Roe didn’t see the damn desire he felt for Holden reflected back in his gaze. He couldn’t say which one of them moved first. He just knew that one moment they were apart, staring at each other with enough heat to warm the whole state of North Carolina, and the next they were on each other, mouths smashed together, teeth clanking, as Roe stumbled backward and Holden pushed forward. Roe’s hat fell off when he was crushed between Holden’s hard body and the barn.

Holden’s tongue pushed between his lips, and Roe’s fingers dug into Holden’s hips. Unlike Roe, he was wearing jeans, and he felt the scratch of the rough fabric against his skin. It had been so long since he’d kissed someone like this, with a collision of hunger and need swirling inside him.

Holden returned it just as fiercely, tongue probing, wiry stubble against wiry stubble, hard cock against hard cock as Holden rutted against him. God, Roe was fucking aching. He let his hand slide down to Holden’s ass, gave the firm cheek a squeeze before taking over the kiss, feeding Holden his tongue while they humped each other like animals.

“Jesus, you taste good.” Roe’s mouth journeyed down Holden’s neck, and he licked the skin of his throat, tasting the light tinge of sweat there. He wanted to bury his face in every part of Holden that he could, sample and savor him everywhere.

Holden’s fingers tangled in Roe’s hair, tugged on the strands. “Been feeling like the biggest prick on the planet ’cause I was dying to do this. I don’t cheat, though, Roe. Vince and I were over a long time ago. We just kept going through the motions.”

Roe smiled against his shoulder. “I trust you. Less talking, more tasting.” He sucked at Holden’s skin until the other man pulled his head up and smashed their mouths together again.

They fed from each other like they were starving, Roe’s cock getting harder and harder by the second. Suddenly, Holden’s hands were shoving at his shorts, his underwear, pushing them down. Roe made quick work of unbuttoning and unzipping Holden’s jeans so he could shove them down too.

Holden palmed Roe’s sac. “I really wanna pull a load out of these big balls. I knew you’d be packin’.”

Roe fucking trembled. When was the last time a man had made him do that?

He wrapped a hand around Holden’s cock. He was thick, the kind of dick you really had to work to get up your ass, and damned if Roe didn’t hope he’d feel it stretching his hole. He wanted to take Holden’s ass as well.

It was rough and not wet enough, but Roe still stroked Holden. They were standing there, clothes around their ankles, while spotlighted by the bulb glowing above them, forehead to forehead, looking down as they played with each other, Roe jerking and Holden lovin’ on his balls. He wanted it to be Holden’s tongue instead of his hand.