STORY EXCERPT

“Uh, Marshal? Yeah, it’s Dooley. No, no, I’m out in the henhouse.”

Nathan McAllister heard the man talking long before he was fully awake. Whoever he was, his voice had a wonderful cadence. It was soft yet earnest. Low but lilting. Almost like he had an accent, but if he did, it was so subtle Nathan couldn’t identify it. And then the trace of worry in that tone pulled Nathan fully out of his slumber. When he opened his eyes, he found a handsome man with the most-mesmerizing lavender eyes peering at him.

“We’ve got a situation here.”

Nathan sat up and realized he was buck naked and covered in feathers. Bloody feathers. This was a unique way to wake up, but what made it even more bizarre was the fact that the penis he was looking at, the one firmly connected to his body, simply couldn’t be his. Nathan knew this for a fact because his dick was circumcised and the one that was sitting placidly in his lap wasn’t. Moreover, he distinctly remembered having pubic hair, but that was gone, too. Tentatively, Nathan reached down and poked the penis with his fingertip. Yep, it was definitely his, but he didn’t recognize it. Must have been some kind of a party to wake up with another man’s cock.

“Well, there’s a naked man in here with me.” Dooley made a face that almost caused Nathan to laugh. “No, I didn’t bring him in here. If I was looking for a little nooky, the inside of a chicken coop is the last place I would go.” He listened for a bit but never took his gaze off Nathan. “You better come and have a look.” Dooley turned away and then whispered, “Because he’s covered in feathers and there’s blood all over his face.”

Nathan’s stomach roiled. He looked around at the explosion of puffy white down and firm feathers and then saw two chicken feet. Oh, God, he’d eaten an entire chicken but for its spindly yellow feet? The urge to vomit was truncated by his sudden fear. What the hell else had he done in the last few hours? His memory felt like a half-full balloon. When he pressed on it, the surface simply indented and bulged somewhere else. He wasn’t able to get a solid handle on anything.

“Hey, uh, no, no, don’t get up.” Dooley lifted his hands and made a pressing motion as if he were holding Nathan down with the sheer force of his will rather than touching him. “My boss, the owner of the Rough River Ranch, is on his way out here to talk to you.”

“I’m on a ranch?” Another thoroughly novel concept. No, wait, somewhere in the far reaches of his memory was a stint on a ranch learning to ride a horse. Why he’d learned that skill, he couldn’t remember, but he had. The big beasts had seemed scary at first, but once he got over his innate fear of heights, he’d learned to love the gentle giants.

“A cattle ranch. Yes, sir. That’s where you are.” Dooley rubbed his hand over his chin, which Nathan noticed wasn’t shaved yet. Apparently, he didn’t do that until after his chores.

“Why am I naked?”

“I was hoping you could answer that question.” Dooley tipped his hat back, revealing short brown hair. “I came in to feed the chickens like I do every morning and found you in here.”

“How did I get in here?”

“Another very good question, since the door was shut tight with the latch engaged. From the looks of it, you got in the little door, but I don’t rightly see how when you’re too big to fit.” Dooley pointed to the side, and Nathan looked over at a door that would easily pass chickens but not a man his size.

“What’s your name?”

It took a moment, but the answer popped into his head. “Nathan. Nathan McAllister.”

“Good. So, uh, where are you from, Nathan?”

“California.” It was then the cool dryness of the air struck him. “We’re not in California, are we?” Nathan had been all over Los Angeles, but he’d never seen a building like this filled with nothing but places for chickens to roost.

“Nope. Welcome to Utah, my friend.” Dooley’s smile was engaging and dropped about twenty notches off Nathan’s tenseness scale.

“Utah?”

“Southeastern Utah to be exact.”

Nathan had to picture a map of the United States in his head, and even then he had to work hard to remember the state between Nevada and Colorado. Once he had a clear image of where he was in his mind, he was struck by an even more perplexing question. “What the hell am I doing in Utah?”

“Gee, I was really hoping you could answer that question for me, because I’m pretty sure you didn’t come here to eat my chickens.”

Nathan’s stomach did another flip-flop. “Are you sure I ate one?”

“Yeah.” Dooley crouched down and brushed his hand lightly over Nathan’s shoulder. “You got feathers all over you.” From his back pocket Dooley took a bandana and handed it to Nathan. “You might want to clean up a bit. You know, your face.”

“Don’t tell me any more.” Nathan closed his eyes and wiped off his face without looking to see what came off. He felt nauseous, but he didn’t want to vomit, not when he was in a very small space with a very nice man. “Did I get most of it?”

“Here, let me.” Dooley took the blue swath of fabric from him, wetted it in the long metal trough that ran down the length of the henhouse, then dabbed gently but thoroughly at Nathan’s face. “There, that’s got you looking a whole lot more presentable.”

There was a flash of something in Dooley’s eyes. A hopeful kind of light that shone out, looking for an echo in Nathan. Whatever it was Dooley was searching for, he didn’t seem to find it because his hope evaporated rather suddenly. He stood, tucked the bandana away, then turned toward the door.

“Wait!” Nathan struggled to his feet, but he was too late.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Stop staring at me,” Jake snarled.

Nathan automatically dropped his gaze then defiantly lifted it along with his eyebrows, almost like he was daring Jake to do something.

A snarl twisted the handsome off Jake’s face, making him look animal and base. “You. Up. Now.” Jake stood and pointed toward the back of the café. “Go.”

Nathan stood and went where he was ordered. He couldn’t help but notice the farther back they went, the darker the hallway became and the faster his heart pounded. When he’d apparently gone far enough, Jake grasped his shoulder with one big hand, spun him, and pressed him against the wall, holding him there by stepping close.

Every nerve in Nathan’s body went haywire. His senses sharpened as the smell of Jake filled his lungs. Faint traces of cologne were drowned out by the scent of his workaday sweat. But what made coherent thought impossible was the feel of his powerful form pressing against him. Just like they had all those years ago, they fit together perfectly. And try as he might to appear disinterested, Jake’s hard cock told a far different story.

“I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t really give a shit, because all I want is for you to leave.”

Holding his gaze was possibly one of the hardest things Nathan had ever done. “Just because I’m submissive doesn’t mean I’m a doormat.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”

“You don’t own me.” Not yet, at any rate, Nathan thought. “You can’t tell me to go and expect me to obey.”

“I’m not getting involved with you again, Nate.” Even as he spoke, his fingertips made caressing swirls against Nathan’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice.” Nathan tried not to do anything to anger Jake, but it seemed even blinking irritated him.

“How the hell you got Elliot and Marshal wrapped up in this mess, I’ll never know.” Over and around his fingertips soothed.

“They said I’m your—”

“You’re not.” Jake cut him off and moved just the smallest bit closer. “I don’t like liars, so there’s no way in hell I’d claim one as my mate.”

The word caused Jake to flick his hips, which caused his cock to make a hot, hard swipe against Nathan’s. Against his will, he uttered a whimpering cry.

“Don’t do that.” Jake struggled to catch his breath. “Don’t you dare make that sound, and what the fuck is up with that smell?” Jake’s nostrils flared as his hand against Nathan’s shoulder tightened. “God, it’s you. You smell so—damn, you. This isn’t going to work. I’m not an animal. I’m not in heat or whatever the fuck this is supposed to be, so stop. Just stop.”

“I’m not—I—”

Whatever he was going to say was swallowed up when Jake’s mouth settled over his. Growling with hunger, Jake flattened Nathan to the wall with the entire length of his body. As he deepened the kiss, he rocked his hips, rubbing their pricks together, creating friction that increased the heat between them.

Lost in bliss, Nathan lifted his hands and held onto Jake’s shoulders.

“Up, get up against me.” Jake tore his mouth away long enough to issue his order, and then he bodily lifted Nathan by grasping his hips, forcing his legs apart. “That’s it. Ah, yeah. That’s where I want you. I want to feel that tight little hole rubbing up and down the length of my cock.”

Nathan’s head was spinning. Gone was the furious, resistant Jake. In his place was the masterful man who was never satiated. Jake had bent Nathan a hundred different ways as he tried to slake his lust, but nothing ever satisfied his beast. Over and again he would grasp Nathan, pin him down, fuck him hard, and each time only made him famished for more. It was madness, and Nathan had rejoiced in his ability to make the powerful man beyond any kind of rational thought. Even here, in the back hallway of a bustling café, Jake wasn’t able to stop once he got started. Sexual hunger consumed him.

“I’m going to fuck you, and then I’m going to forget you.” His tongue plunged into Nathan’s mouth, forcing him to breathe through his nose. Grinding his hips forced Nathan’s back into the wall, but Nathan didn’t care. If he broke him, destroying him with his passion, then at least they’d be done and finished with one another. That would be better than another ten years of longings denied and substitute partners who never came close to igniting the same fire.

When Jake pulled back to take a breath, Nathan said, “Do it. Fuck me. I don’t care if you walk away when you’re done.” It was a lie, but Nathan knew if Jake took him once, if he claimed him, even in a brutal way, he would seal their fate. There would be no going back this time. There would be no undoing of a bond forged with heat and lust. All Nathan could hope for was that love would also bloom once the hurt in Jake had been soothed.

“Liar.” Jake grasped Nathan’s hips and pounded him into the wall with his powerful thrusts. “Don’t you ever tell the fucking truth?”

“I want you. I’ve always wanted you.” Nathan’s heart squeezed hard. “Please.”

“Tell me the truth.”

“I did. It’s always been you. I don’t care how you do it, just do it. Just fuck me.”

“And what if after I do, I simply walk away?”

“A part of me will die just like last time. Is that what you want to hear?”