STORY EXCERPT

“Do you have a phone I can use?” Tyler really needed to go home.

Charlie had to be going out of his mind with worry. Tyler was only supposed to be going to the city for a couple of days to pick up his school books for the next college term. He wasn’t supposed to get kidnapped. Charlie was never going to let him leave home unescorted again.

“No.”

Tyler blinked. “I really need to call home and let my family know where I am. They have to be worried.”

“Why?”

Tyler blinked again. “Why what?”

“Why do they have to be worried?”

“Um…” Blink. Blink. “I was kidnapped?”

The man’s brown-haired head tilted once more. “Were you?”

Anger flooded Tyler until he felt his cheeks heat up. “Of course I was kidnapped. Do you honestly think I like having a gun held to my head?” Tyler held up his taped wrists. “Or being tied up?”

“How in the hell should I know?” the man snapped as he stepped back from Tyler. “I’ve never even met you before.”

As rescues went, this one was sinking fast.

“Is there somewhere around here where I might find a phone?”

“No.”

Tyler’s jaw dropped as the large, burly man bent down and picked a bag up off the ground and then simply turned and started walking. He didn’t invite Tyler to come along. He didn’t untie Tyler. He didn’t even introduce himself.

He just walked away.

“Hey!” Tyler stumbled after his rescuer. “Where are you going?”

The man just kept right on walking.

"Mister."

"My name is not Mister," the guy threw back over his shoulder.

"Well, if you'd tell me your name..." There was a hint in there. Apparently, big and brawny didn't hear it. He just kept walking. Tyler hurried to catch up. It wasn't that he necessarily wanted to go with the strange man, but it was better than being lost in the woods.

He still needed a phone.

Tyler chewed at the duct tape binding his wrists as he followed after the infuriating stranger. He had an urge to kick the guy in the butt, but that would probably be detrimental to his ability to breathe. The man looked like one of those people that sat around and pulled the wings off flies just for fun.

Tyler liked breathing.

Tyler cried out when he tripped over a root. He threw his bound hands out in front of him, hoping to break his fall before his face slammed into the ground—again. As the hard ground loomed closer, Tyler was grabbed and hauled to his feet.

He gasped when he realized just exactly how big his rescuer really was. Tyler was eye level with the base of the guy's throat. He gulped as he looked up into a frowning face. "Um...thank you."

The man snorted and released Tyler before spinning around and walking away. Tyler's shoulders slumped as he followed once again. He was getting really tired of people treating him like he didn't matter. It was something he had lived with since the day he took his first breath, and it didn't look like it was going to change anytime soon.

Just once, Tyler wished someone would put him first.

Of course, he couldn't expect that out of some nonverbal mountain man. He got the distinct impression this guy would just as soon lose him in the woods than carry on a conversation with him.

Whatever.

Tyler went back to trying to chew the tape off his wrists. That blockhead that had kidnapped him from the bookstore parking lot had put enough tape on his wrists to make a duct tape prom dress.

 He blew out a deep, relieved breath when he got through enough of the tape to get it off his wrists, but he hissed just as quickly at the sting as the tape pulled at his skin when he ripped it off with his teeth. His wrists were red and achy. It looked like the tape had taken a good portion of the top layer of skin as it came off.

Tyler balled up the offending tape and tossed it on the ground. He prayed he never saw another roll of duct tape in his life, not even those printed ones with the designs. The stuff was horrid.

"Are you just going to leave that there?"

Tyler blinked up at the man who had barely spoken more than two words to him and then down to where the guy was glaring. The used duct tape. Tyler rolled his eyes as he reached down and grabbed the ball of duct tape. He shoved it into his pocket because he didn't really have any other place to put it.

"Better?"

Mr. Personality grunted and went back to walking. When he started to outpace him, Tyler wondered if it really mattered. So, he was lost in the woods. That was actually a better place to be than he was an hour ago.

Since he had arrived in a duffle bag and really had no idea where he was, following the silent man was his smartest move, but no one had ever accused Tyler of being smart. His ability to deal with rude, unfeeling, and violent people was dwindling faster than he had ripped the tape off his wrists.

He just wanted to go home, and the man he was following was no help. He wouldn't even let Tyler use his phone. Assuming the guy even knew what a phone was. Who knew how long the guy had been up here, traipsing around in the woods.

Tyler slowed his steps as he realized he was following some strange mountain man through the woods and he didn't even know his name. For all he knew, this guy could be one of his kidnappers and this could all be some elaborate plot to torture him.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

ADULT EXCERPT

Tyler lifted his eyes and followed the rugged mountain man that had taken up so many of his thoughts over the last twenty-four hours or so. God, he really was a stunning man, all rippling muscles and lickable skin. Tyler could spend hours worshipping the man's body.

"Go inside."

"Huh?" Tyler glanced up, his cheeks reddening when he realized he had been so mesmerized watching the guy's body move that he hadn't realized he stood right in front of him. "What's your name?"

The stare was hard, intense, the guy's gray eyes giving nothing away. "Go inside, kid."

Tyler huffed as his shoulders slumped. He was so tired of being told what to do by everyone in his life. It had been going on since the moment he took his first breath. That didn't seem to have changed just because he had been kidnapped.

"Whatever," he said as he stood and turned to go back up the steps. "Somehow, I thought you'd be different, but you're just like every other asshole in my life." He wanted mountain man to be different, but he wasn't. He treated Tyler like a kid. Tyler didn't understand why he was so disappointed by that thought.

The second he put a foot down on the top step, he was grabbed, pushed forward, and spun around before being slammed into the side of the cabin. Mountain man's glowering face was within breathing distance.

Eyes wide, Tyler glanced up.

Oh man. The dark flush on the guy's face was supposed to scare Tyler. He knew that. He was supposed to tremble in fear, not arousal. He just couldn't seem to help it. To have all of that powerful body pressed against his and be the center of the mountain man's attention? Tyler was going to melt into a puddle right there and then.

"You don't seem to know when to quit, Tyler."

The growl in that tone made Tyler's cock weep. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're playing with something you can't handle, little man. You'd better stop while you're ahead."

"Or what?" Tyler snipped, losing the grip he had on his temper. He was getting so tired of people treating him like he didn't matter. "You'll ground me to my room? Send me to bed without my supper? Take away my TV privileges?"

"Oh, no, baby." Dark gray eyes flickered down to Tyler's lips. "I'll use that pretty mouth of yours for what it was meant to be used for."

Tyler's breath came out in a gasp. If the guy meant that as a threat, he had missed the target. It was the hottest damn thing he had ever heard. He saw mountain's man's gray eyes flash when he licked his lips, so he licked them again.

Hard, gray eyes rose to meet Tyler's, something deep and dark and decidedly primal flashing in their smoky depths. "Oh, Tyler, you should have stopped while you were ahead."

Tyler had just enough time to inhale a quick breath before his mouth was captured, hard lips pressing over his. Tyler groaned as he leaned into the kiss, opening his mouth to let the gorgeous mountain man in. The kiss sent the pit of his stomach into a wild swirl.

The touch of lips on his was a delicious sensation, one Tyler never wanted to give up, but the feeling of those same lips kissing a path down his throat was just as good, the sweet caress setting his body aflame.

Tyler groaned as he was picked up and carried into the house so fast he could barely tell the room passed him by. He was dropped on the bed, and then his clothes were stripped from his body in a sensual move that made him ache with need. His body was on fire and only one man could put it out…if the man would just fuck him.

“Please.” Tyler was so not above begging.

Tyler tilted his head back when the side of his neck was nuzzled. He groaned and dropped his head back against the bed when his lover started to lick up the inside of his neck. The man's tongue felt hot against his skin, smoldering, like an actual flame flickering along his body.

And Tyler loved it.

A hot ache grew in the back of Tyler’s throat as gray eyes met his. His cheeks heated under the heat of the eyes gazing back at him. His heart took a perilous leap at the deep need he could see shining in those smoky gray eyes. Maybe his mountain man needed this as much as he did.

An involuntary shiver raced through Tyler’s body. His cock ached, his need growing with every passing second. Tyler knew if he didn't get a cock in his ass in the next sixty seconds, he was going to blow without his lover.

“Ty,” the man whispered roughly, almost reverently. There seemed to be a sort of awe in the guy's eyes as he brushed the hair back from Tyler’s face. His touch was oddly soft and caressing.

Tyler’s heart pounded in an erratic rhythm when his mouth was covered with a hungry passion. It was surprisingly gentle for all of its furiousness. Tyler’s mouth was devoured, his lover demanding a response that Tyler gladly gave.

Tyler grunted when he was pulled roughly, almost violently, into the mountain man's arms. He felt his body molding to the hard contours of his lover's body as if they were made to go together.

Hard, but gentle, hands were everywhere, moving along Tyler’s body and leaving a scorching fire behind. Tyler felt his blood surge from his fingertips to his toes. He was conscious of every spot that was touched, caressed. Tyler’s hands slipped up strong, muscular arms to his shoulders, pulling his lover closer. He wanted to feel their bodies press together.

Tyler’s breath hitched in his throat when he felt a hand move down between his thighs, a finger brushing against his puckered entrance. “Oh, god!” he cried out when that finger slid inside of him. It was the strangest feeling in the world, and the most wonderful all rolled into one.

He wanted more!