Stay Lucky

by Halsey Harlow

  Grant whimpered. He tensed against how good it felt when Leo thrust again. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to tell himself that he wouldn’t fall apart from a fuck. But it wasn’t a fuck; it was Leo, and Leo was making love to him. Grant felt stripped to his soul under so much adoration.

  “Grant,” Leo said. “Please look at me.”

  Grant opened his eyes and Leo slammed his hips forward. The long slide of his cock into Grant was so fucking intense that Grant arched up and broke into jittery convulsions. He hooked his feet around Leo’s waist, wanting to slow him down, to control the depth of each thrust because he couldn’t take much more.

  Leo didn’t stop, though. He just cocked his head and studied Grant intently, his lips rolled inward with concentration, as he kept to the rhythm he wanted while Grant cried out, kicked at his back, scrabbled at the sheets with his fingers, and finally cracked open with pleasure. He sobbed, riding too much sensation, too much emotion, and Leo’s eyes ate him up in his shuddering madness. Leo took him, and adored him, loved him so hard that Grant ached through and through. Grant wanted that love, he wanted it more than he could ever say, but he didn’t know if… didn’t know….

  “You’re scared,” Leo said seeming in awe of his own understanding. “You’re scared for me to see you like this.”

  Oh, God. Leo knew. He knew what he was doing with his cock, what he was doing to Grant, how he was breaking him open emotionally. Leo kissed him again, and then redoubled his efforts, fucking him so hard now, not faster, but forcefully, commanding Grant’s body to respond. Grant’s heart pounded, his dick throbbed, and he squirmed on Leo’s cock. He pushed his hips up to take it easier, feeling like he was going to twist out of his skin it was so good. So scary.

  God, he was terrified for Leo to see.

  “Just look at me. Please, Grant, look at me,” Leo whispered, thrusting in a rhythm that didn’t give Grant time to get a better grip on his reactions, or to hold his face in some kind of expression that didn’t reveal everything.

  Leo was so tender, so in love, that Grant couldn’t hold on anymore, not when Leo murmured, “I love you so much,” and gazed at him with open-mouthed adulation.

  Grant slipped his hand between them, grabbed his own cock and squeezed it with Leo’s thrusts. He wasn’t going to last much longer, not with Leo staring at him like that, not with Leo pummeling his prostate, and not with Leo forcing Grant to look at him, to see how Leo loved him.

  “It’s okay,” Leo said, softly. “I’ve got you.”

  Grant would have laughed but he was too far on the edge, too far out there, and wildly desperate for it to be true. He hoped that it was. He fell, dropped over into the terrifying fall of the fuck, of the love that Leo was making to him. He trusted Leo to have him, to be there when he hit bottom and smashed into hundreds of thousands of pieces, and then he did.

  Grant came hard, sweaty, trembling, pulling at the sheets and struggling to keep his eyes open as Leo demanded, “Look at me. Don’t take your eyes off me.” And through the near-white out of his own orgasm, he saw Leo’s expression as Grant’s ass gripped around Leo’s cock, watched Leo’s face collapse as he lost control, and they fell together, entangled, twitching, whimpering as they came and cried out as one.

  Afterward Leo didn’t pull out, holding Grant close and staring down at him for a long time.

  “I love you,” Grant said. He hadn’t intended to say it with so much need for reassurance in his voice. It just came out that way.

  Leo stroked a hand over Grant’s cheek. “I know. I love you, too. And whoever made you think that you weren’t good enough for this was wrong. You’re everything to me, Grant.”

  Grant swallowed and looked away. Leo took hold of his chin and made him look back.

  “Did I do it okay?” Leo asked, eyes worried. “Was it all right?”

  Grant blinked at him. Leo had just taken him apart, torn him down, and broken him completely with that making love thing he’d just done, and now Leo wanted to know if it was all right? Grant didn’t know actually. It’d been terrifying. He was a mess. He had no idea.

  “Grant?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah,” Grant said, shifting a little. “You were amazing.” The thickness of Leo’s cock in his ass was still soul-shiveringly good, and he licked his lips. “You’re still hard,” he observed.

  Leo nodded, looking worried, and Grant had to get that look off of his face. “I came, though,” Leo said like he thought Grant didn’t know.

  “I remember,” Grant said. “You’ve got me.”

  Leo’s face softened in understanding and he said, “Yeah. I’ve got you, Grant. You don’t have to worry. I’ve got you.”

  Grant nodded and said, “Well, then, maybe you should have me again.”

  Leo brushed his fingertips over Grant’s eyebrows, down across his cheekbones, and leaned down to kiss his lips. Leo moved his hips, thrusting. Grant was still sensitive, and it was almost too much, but he relaxed and tried to open up for Leo, to let it happen. He gripped Leo’s shoulders, holding him close, burying his face in Leo’s neck as the pace picked up again. He could feel Leo’s come squishing out of his ass with each thrust of Leo’s cock easing the friction of the fuck. He wrapped his legs around Leo’s waist, feeling the new transplant scar rub against his thigh as Leo moved.

  Leo kissed Grant’s neck and murmured romantic nonsense in his ear. Grant listened hard, taking in every word.

  “I love you,” Leo said. “I love you so much. You’re amazing. Everything to me.”

  Grant’s eyes rolled up as Leo fucked him harder, clinging to Leo as he was taken apart again. This time it wasn’t as hard to let go, to fall, and to let Leo have him. It was better, even, because this time he knew he was going to be okay. Leo loved him.

  And Leo wasn’t letting go.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  One Month Later

  The outdoor reception at the farm was relatively low-key, and exactly the way that Leo had wanted it. Grant, for his part, hadn’t cared so long as they got married and he didn’t have to profess a belief in God in order to do it in a church. So, they’d chosen the open space by the Garner Pond, and Leo had decided that the reception could be held around the barn.

  There was a dance floor set up inside the barn, and a DJ that Jennifer had arranged. She was dating the guy. Apparently he was in her Narcotics Anonymous group, though Grant wasn’t supposed to know that, but he might have been privy to Sheriff Marie’s plan to put a tail on the skinny-looking kid when Jennifer first mentioned him. In fact, Grant might have been the one to call Marie to suggest the idea.

  “Oh, my God, Grant! It was beautiful!” Alec said, dragging Grant into a hug and holding him tight.

  When Alec released him, Grant grabbed a second piece of wedding cake, and shoveled a bite into his mouth. He pointed his fork to where Leo was dancing with his mother.

  “It wasn’t The English Patient.”

  “Nope,” Alec agreed, nodding, and looking ridiculously pleased with himself. “It was, however, a triumph of the human heart.”

  “No,” Grant said. “It was a terrible, over-the-top, tear-jerker. I’d be demanding my money back if Leo somehow convinced me to see it in the theater.”

  Alec rolled his eyes and huffed. “Oh, come on. It was epic.”

  Grant caught Leo’s eye and his heart clenched at the smile aimed his way. He lifted his chin in acknowledgement of it, wanting to go over and kiss the grin off of his brand-spanking new husband’s face.

  “Yeah, it was,” Grant agreed.

  Alec placed a hand over his chest, faking a heart attack from shock. “You agree with me?”

  Grant handed him the now empty plate and his empty champagne glass, too. “Hold these.”

  As he moved through the crowded dance floor, he saw Lucky dancing with one of her cousins, and he laughed at how she kept stomping on the boy’s toes. He noticed Nurse Jim chatting up Mr. Superstar Banks in the corner by the punch bowl, and h
e rolled his eyes imagining the drama that might unfold from that potential connection.

  Grant tapped Meryl’s shoulder and asked, “May I cut in.”

  She kissed his cheek and said, “Of course, you can. He’s your husband after all.”

  Leo grinned, and wrapped his arm around Grant’s waist pulling him closer than their ridiculous dance lessons had allowed in the mirror-lined classroom.

  “So,” Leo said, happily. “What’s the plan for tonight?”

  “Well, you’d better be the blushing virgin you’ve made yourself out to be, or I’ll have the wedding annulled before you can say cheese-whiz tomato.”

  Leo cracked up and Grant pressed their foreheads together. Leo whispered, “Holy crap, we’re married, Grant.”

  Grant brought his hand to Leo’s cheek and kissed him hard. He heard the whistles and cheers, but he didn’t let go. He kissed Leo until he needed to see his face to know that Leo felt the same. Grant pulled back and gazed into Leo’s eyes.

  “I love you,” Leo said.

  Grant nodded kissed him again and was about to answer that he loved Leo, too, when the noise of a low-flying prop plane droned so close that it was impossible to ignore.

  “C’mon,” Leo said, tugging him out of the barn and toward the pasture. Once they were both out there, Leo pointed up at the sky.

  MORE THAN BACON

  The banner flying behind the plane proclaimed it for all the world to read. Grant snorted and started laughing. Leo laughed, too, as he asked, “Isn’t it great?”

  Grant rolled his eyes. It was horrible. And he couldn’t stop smiling. He thought his face was going to break from it. “You’re ridiculous.”

  Leo nodded, wrapped his arms around Grant’s waist, and pointed up at the sky again. “And you love me more than bacon.”

  Grant shrugged helplessly. What could he say? It was true. More than true. “I love you more than anything.”

  Leo’s grin was beautifully bright. If Grant could, he’d frame Leo’s happiness and hang it on the wall. He’d look at it every day and it’d be the greatest accomplishment of his life.

  As the plane circled around to leave, Grant noticed that on the reverse side of the banner, there was an odd imperative.

  “Does that mean something?” Grant asked. The words didn’t ring a bell to him.

  Leo shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a wedding wish from the pilot.”

  Grant’s eyes narrowed against the bright light of the sky. Lucky ran up to them, shouting excitedly about the plane, demanding to know what the banner meant. Grant picked her up and the three of them stood together watching the plane fly into the distance until the words became unreadable.

  Then Leo kissed Grant’s cheek, and Lucky struggled down from his arms. A new song filled the silence left by the plane, and Leo and Lucky whooped together as the dancing began again. Grant stared up at the blue, brilliant sky.

  After several long moments, Grant turned back to the party, grinning at the sight of his kid and his husband dancing in the grass in front of the barn. Things weren’t perfect. Leo’s health was always going to be fragile. The average life expectancy post heart-transplant wasn’t anything Grant wanted to dwell too long on, even with a new kidney helping out. Still, this farm, these people, and this life was everything to him. It was all his to have and love as long as he could hold onto it.

  He threw self-consciousness aside to swoop Lucky into his arms and move to the music with Leo. Clinging to each other, a brand new family, they laughed and kissed and danced. Through it all, the words on the back of the banner burned through Grant with a fiery hope.

  STAY LUCKY

  THE END

  About the Author

  Halsey Harlow is a fan of writing second chance romances, shifters, alpha-omega, and generally hot scenes. She loves chocolate cake, singing in the car, and long road trips. She lives in the Southern United States with her little family, her dogs, and computer.

  If you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or another review site.

  Other books by Halsey Harlow:

  Omega Mine: Search for a Soul Mate

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