STORY EXCERPT

His beautiful dark blue truck, with new tires and a bitching-ass stereo system, was destroyed. He’d just paid the damn thing off, too. Did his insurance cover this? He sure as hell hoped so, or he was fucked.

The tires made a strange noise as the mud slowly ate them.

“Keene?” Danni looked on the verge of crying. Keene knew how the guy felt. “I’m so sorry.”

With his shoulders sagging, Keene returned to the porch. Now he not only had no truck but he was soaking wet.

Danni approached. His blond head came to Keene’s chest. Danni stared up at him through those gorgeous green-blue eyes with such sincerity that Keene couldn’t have mustered anger even if he wanted to.

“Looks like we both need a ride now.” If it had been under any other circumstance, Keene would have lost his shit over his truck. He would have been screaming, kicking tires, and wanting to kill someone.

His bear roared, but Keene ignored it. There wasn’t anyone to blame but Mother Nature, and he doubted his bear could best her.

His truck sat there looking like a sad mess. There was no way he could repair it. It was totaled. Even one side of the bed had bent outward with the weight of the branch on it, and the front tires were sinking lower and lower into the pool of mud, getting sucked down into their watery doom.

“Aren’t you mad at me?” Danni asked.

“For what? Did you strike that tree?” He really had to like Danni for as calm as he was. Keene wasn’t an emotion-outburst kind of guy, but damn it, that was his baby.

“Stupid question, but would you like to come inside?”

“Rather than stand out here and whimper?” Keene asked. “I was heading into town for breakfast. You wouldn’t happen to have some food, would you?”

“It’s the least I can do.” Danni sounded so disheartened, even though it hadn’t been his fault.

Keene followed him inside, stripping out of his wet boots and leaving them, along with his drenched socks, at the door. He whipped off his shirt, and it landed on the floor next to his boots with a thud.

“I can put those in the dryer for you.” Danni picked the shirt and socks up. “You might as well give me your pants. There’s no use sitting in them.”

With a shrug, Keene took them off. This wasn’t what he’d planned when driving over here, but fuck it. If Danni wanted him naked, Keene would oblige.

Only he left his boxer briefs on. They weren’t wet, and he wasn’t sure how the human would act if he was completely nude.

Danni walked away with Keene’s clothes as Keene looked around the living room. There was a plaid couch, a mixture of reds and browns. There were three throw pillows on it, all of them purple.

If this was a decoration choice, Danni needed to stick to cooking. There was tacky art on the wall, the kind one might find in cheap motels and knickknacks everywhere, from cowboy figurines to tiny ballerinas.

And cats. Danni had a ton of cat figurines, in all sorts of poses and colors. If Keene didn’t know any better, he would have thought he stepped into an old lady’s house.

At least it smelled good, like Danni had sprayed some kind of room freshener. Keene took a deep whiff. Tropical. A nice choice.

He heard the dryer turn on then the sounds of prattling in the kitchen. Bored, because Danni didn’t have a television and his damn cell phone had been in his truck, Keene walked into the kitchen.

“Mind if I use your phone?”

Danni jumped, as if spooked. He turned and looked Keene over, his gaze traveling from the top of Keene’s head down to his toes. “Yeah…um…what did you just ask me?”

There was a small round table with two chairs against the far wall. Keene took a seat and jerked right back out of it when it shifted too far to the left.

“That one is broken. You can use the other one.” Danni grabbed a frying pan and set it on the stove. “I can make eggs and toast. How does that sound?”

Keene was starving and had been looking forward to a big breakfast, but since he was stuck there until help arrived, it would have to do. “That sounds great. And I asked if I could use your phone.”

He eyed the other chair, too afraid to sit in it. He wasn’t a small guy, and the chair didn’t look too stable. Some of the spindles in the back were missing, and there was a folded-up piece of cardboard under one leg.

“Oh, sure. Let me go get it from the living room. I need to call work. I didn’t want to call off, but I guess now I have to.”

As soon as Danni left the room, the power went out.

“Keene?”

“Still standing in the kitchen.” He walked to the back door and looked out. The skies had gotten darker. If he was about to spend the day in a bad storm, he’d prefer to do it at home.

Keene rushed from the room when he heard something crash. He squinted in the dark and saw Danni sprawled out on the floor.

“What happened?” Keene helped him to his feet.

“I knocked into the coffee table and lost my footing.” Danni looked around. “My phone flew out of my hand, and I don’t know where it is.”

Could this day get any worse? No, strike that. It could, although Keene prayed it didn’t. He got down on all fours and looked under the couch, slapping his hand along the floor. He touched the phone, so he grabbed it. When he pulled it out, he cursed.

The screen was shattered.

“Welp, this day just keeps getting better and better.” He tossed the phone onto the coffee table. “Nothing left to do but eat.”

Danni picked his phone up and gasped. “No, we can’t even do that. My stove is electric.”

No truck. No clothes because Keene didn’t hear the dryer going. And no food. Not even a television, though that wouldn’t have done them any good right now.

If his luck kept getting shittier, the house just might sink into the ever-growing lake outside and put him out of his misery.

ADULT EXCERPT

Danni couldn’t get comfortable to save his life. No matter which way he turned, his ankle gave him hell. Keene had been nice enough to prop his foot with a pillow, and it didn’t hurt as badly as it had earlier, but it still throbbed enough to keep waking him up.

“That’s it.” Keene rolled over. The guy was back in his underwear, lying right next to him. That was another reason Danni couldn’t get any real sleep. He hadn’t expected to sleep in Keene’s bed when the guy had brought him upstairs. Danni had been too exhausted to argue, but now that he lay there, the setting sun creeping through the windows, and after getting a few hours of broken sleep, he found himself wide awake.

“What?”

“Your ankle.” Keene pulled the covers back and moved until he was at Danni’s feet. Danni had no clue what Keene was about to do.

“You’re not going to touch it, are you?” Danni instinctively pulled his foot back and wished he hadn’t. The pain shot up his leg, making him hiss.

“Stop being a baby.” Keene leaned sideways, stretching, and pulled out a bottle of lube from his nightstand drawer. Danni sucked in a deep breath as he watched Keene lather his hands.

“Sorry, I don’t have any essential oils to work with.” He pressed his right hand against Danni’s ankle. This time Danni didn’t pull it back.

“Is this going to hurt?”

“All you have to do is relax and let me work my magic.”

“But I feel like this is going to hurt.” Danni lay there mesmerized at the image Keene made kneeling at his feet. Keene had pulled the blankets back, and Danni was afraid his half-hard cock would become full sail and his underwear would tent, showing Keene just how turned on he was right now.

“Just trust me, Danni. I know what I’m doing. Now lie still.”

If anyone was in the hallway listening, they would get the wrong idea about what was going on in the room.

Keene began a slow, gentle massage. Danni hissed, ready to tell him to stop, but after a few seconds, the throbbing began to ease. Keene’s dark brows were pinched, his gaze focused on Danni’s foot as he glided his hands over Danni’s ankle.

That felt so good. Danni wished Keene had done this before he’d tried to sleep. He probably would still be knocked out right now.

A tingling sensation began to work its way up Danni’s leg. Who knew lube was good for other things besides sex? He would have never thought to use it for this purpose.

“Better?” Keene glanced up at him, and fuck, those dark eyes under his thick lashes were doing things to Danni’s body that he hadn’t anticipated.

“Keep going.” Danni swallowed roughly as he tried to think of anything that would make his cock settle the hell down. He felt himself getting harder and harder the longer Keene moved those strong hands over his leg.

Leg? Danni looked down. Keene had moved from his ankle and was now massaging his calf.

“It’s important not to neglect other parts of your body.” Keene looked back down at what he was doing, leaving Danni’s brain to melt.

“We w-wouldn’t want to d-do that.” Oh god. Keene was kneading brain cells right out of Danni’s head. His thoughts had shifted from the pain to what else Keene could make tingle. He closed his eyes and sighed at how good the guy’s hands felt.

Keene had worked his way up Danni’s thigh then smoothed his hands back down to his calf. It was the most sensual thing anyone had ever done to him, and they weren’t even screwing around. Did all massages feel this freaking amazing? No wonder why people paid for this kind of service. He was willing to fork over his meager savings just so Keene wouldn’t stop.

His eyes popped open when Keene started working on the other leg, turning Danni into putty. His legs felt weightless, the pain completely forgotten.

“You’re amazing at this,” Danni muttered softly. “Do you think you can work on my lower back? It’s been…um…giving me problems, too. I think it was the fall.”

There was nothing wrong with Danni’s back.

“Do you need help turning over?”

“Yes, please.” He’d had to stop himself from shouting his answer. Danni was pretty sure he could have turned over on his own, but he loved feeling Keene’s hands on him.

With no strain at all, Keene pulled Danni up, turned him, then laid him back down. Danni turned his head, his cheek against the pillow, thankful he was now able to hide his full erection. He closed his eyes, ready for Keene’s magical fingers, only to open them when the guy pulled Danni’s underwear halfway down his butt cheeks.

That was not helping his hard-on to go away.

He heard the cap of the lube opening again, and then Keene’s hands were on him, working Danni’s lower back with slow glides and gentle kneading. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that his butt was right there in Keene’s face as the guy worked at loosening the muscles.

Danni had officially died and gone to heaven. He was so horny now that he was afraid to say a word. He just might beg Keene to take him if he opened his mouth.

“Is your back feeling better?” Keene’s voice sounded like pure honey.

“It still has a small kink in it.” Danni was milking this for all he could get out of the guy.

“Here?” Keene pressed his hand into Danni’s back, just above his butt.

“Um…lower.”

“Here?” Keene kneaded Danni’s butt cheeks, his hands working in circles. When he did that, Danni’s cheeks parted several times, and he was pretty sure his hole was exposed each time.

“Yes, there.” Danni’s voice was just above a whisper. “Maybe a tad lower, too.”

He felt Keen’s thumbs glide between his crack. When one of them touched his hole, Danni’s breathing became choppy and shallow as he ground his hard and aching cock against the bedding.

Then a finger slid inside of him to the first knuckle.

Danni didn’t say a word. Fuck, he could barely breathe. Keene had stopped, as if waiting for him to protest. When he didn’t utter a single sound, Keene inched his finger in deeper. Forgotten were his suspicions of the guy. All he could focus on was the building pressure along his spine.

The bed moved slightly, and a moment later, Danni felt Keene’s tongue licking around his hole, sending a bombardment of sensations racing through his body. Danni moaned, struggling to get his knees beneath him so he could open himself up farther.

Keene must have realized what he was doing because he yanked Danni backward, and now Danni was on his knees, rocking into Keene’s mouth.