by Jess Bryant
Lance stopped walking. The crowd stopped breathing. And Trent figured out a second too late that shaking his head made it look as if he was saying no.
“Oh God… no. I…” He took a step down and then another until he was on the ground, “No. Ask me again. Please. That wasn’t my answer… just ask me again.”
Lance’s handsome features had gone tight with wariness and Trent wanted to kick his own ass for making him hesitate. His dark eyes traced Trent’s face and he licked his lips nervously. Trent took another step forward but didn’t reach for him, scared of spooking him now that he’d already made one misstep.
“If I told you that I love you…” Lance’s voice was quieter now that there was barely a foot between them, “Would you stay a little longer in Fate?”
Trent’s heart spun in his chest, “Tell me and find out.”
Lance’s lips twitched and he would have sworn he muttered something about Trent being a bossy bastard under his breath but he didn’t care. He held his breath. Waiting for the question that was going to change both of their lives forever.
With a deep breath for courage, Lance met his gaze, “I love you, Trent.”
He took the last step forward until mere inches separated them, “And?”
Lance’s eyes narrowed and he grit his teeth, “And… will you stay a little longer in Fate? With me?”
“No.” He watched Lance’s eyes go wide but before he could react further Trent smiled and raised his hands, cupping Lance’s face between them and smoothing his thumbs over his cheekbones, “No, I don’t want to stay in Fate for a little while longer. I want to stay forever, if you’ll have me.”
There was a quick, collective gasp from the crowd gathered around them. Trent smiled. Lance gaped up at him for a long moment. They just stared at each other, like they had so many times over the past few days. Like they both knew how lucky they were to have found one another.
Lance raised his hands finally, gripping Trent’s wrists tightly, “You mean it?”
“I love you too, Lance.” He nodded, “I know it happened fast and I know we have a lot to figure out but… you jumped the biggest hurdle already and I’m ready to run the rest of the race with you. If you’ll let me.”
Because there were cameras and a ton of people watching, Trent wasn’t prepared when Lance all but launched himself into his arms. He caught up with a grunt, steadying them by wrapping an arm around his man, and then lowered his mouth to let Lance have what he wanted.
Lance kissed him right there in public, in the open, with cameras recording every second of their personal moment.
Trent groaned and wrapped him up tighter. God he loved this man. Loved how strong he was. Loved that he was being brave and that from now on they could try to be brave together. He loved the taste of him, the way it felt like coming home and he loved that no matter how crazy it might sound, that’s exactly what coming to Fate had been.
He’d found his home. The place he belonged. The person he belonged with and his soul belonged to.
It was Trent and Lance against the world from here on out.
Vaguely, he heard some cheers erupt around them and he smiled against Lance’s lips. He wanted to cheer right along with them. But more than that, he wanted to get his man alone. Because he didn’t like to share his private life and that’s what Lance was. Not a secret to keep. Not something to hide. But his and his alone. To be protected and cherished and loved.
“Okay, people. Break it up. The happy couple needs some time alone so I’m going Clint Eastwood on your asses if you don’t get off my lawn!” Lemon shouted from somewhere behind him and Trent couldn’t help it, he laughed.
Lance laughed too. A happy, rough sound that made Trent fall even more in love with him. When he looked down at the man in his arms, Lance’s cheeks were flushed pink, his dark eyes glittering and that smile. Jesus. He’d fallen in love with those dimples the first time he saw them.
“We should go inside and talk.” Trent smoothed a hand over Lance’s cheek.
“We should go inside.” Lance nodded and Trent couldn’t help but chuckle again.
“You just came out. Publicly. In a big way. I don’t think we’re going to have the privacy to do what you’re thinking about for a while, babe.”
Lance’s cheeks flushed even brighter, “Just… inside then.”
“Mmm.” Trent nodded his agreement and pulled his man into his side, grinning when Shane helped them maneuver through the crowd to Lance’s trailer instead of the one he’d been sequestered in all day. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Shane nodded and then flicked a gaze to Lance who blushed again before returning his gaze to Trent, “Just don’t hurt him or you’ll deal with me.”
Lance’s head spun up, “Shane!”
Shane chuckled, “Come on, you know I don’t need a reason to want to punch him.”
Trent rolled his eyes and all but shoved his boyfriend, his boyfriend, into the trailer. He liked Shane Lowry. It was official. He’d known he would. The man was so good to Lemon but it went deeper than that. He was a good man, a good friend. And no matter what he said, Trent didn’t doubt for a second that if he screwed things up and hurt Lance that Shane would make him answer for it.
“Get inside babe. I’m right behind you.” He stepped up onto the ledge and then paused, seeing the crowd was still lingering, “People! People!” Most of them were still watching him but the few that weren’t turned back to face him, “Go into town. Buy dinner. Rent a room. Fill up your vans at the Stop N Go. Give this amazing little town a little something in return for your intrusion and tomorrow morning, I’ll talk to all of you again, officially. Deputy Lowry will set it up. For now, I’d appreciate it if you’d respect our privacy and go away.”
There were some laughs and chuckles but for the most part, the strangers with the cameras seemed to take the hint. They began to disperse and he quickly told Shane that he’d be in town tomorrow morning and thanked him again for his help. Then, once he waved at Lemon who was graciously escorting reporters off the property, he shut the door of the trailer behind him, sealing him inside with the man of his dreams.
Who was glaring at him.
“You’re really going to talk to those people? Again?” Lance huffed. “They have no right to your personal business, Trent. You don’t owe them anything. You…”
He stepped into Lance and cupped his cheeks again, brushing their mouths together, “I love you.”
Lance softened instantly, “I love you too.”
He pushed, backing him against the nearest wall and then closing the space between them until they were chest to chest, hip to hip, sharing breath, “You came out for me.”
“I…”
“I didn’t want you to have to do that. I wasn’t going to out you. I was going to leave.”
Lance looked hurt by the very idea and wrapped his arms around Trent, “I know. I know you were but you said you were leaving and I just… I thought, if I let you go and didn’t come out now that there wouldn’t ever be anything worth coming out for. That’s how much I love you.”
“Lance, I don’t want you to regret it or resent me for it.”
“I don’t. I won’t.” Lance argued, “This is my life and it’s way past time that I started living it. I want to live it with you.”
“I want you too but it happened so fast…”
“Don’t you dare try to back out on me already.” Lance shoved and Trent collided with the closed door in the small space. His boyfriend closed the distance between them, getting right in his face, “I didn’t come out just to get dumped. I’m not letting you go that easily. So stop it with the buts.”
He grinned, “Damn you’re cute when you’re bossy.”
Lance glared at him, “I know it happened fast. I was there for it too, Trent. But it’s real. What I feel is real. I love you.”
Trent wrapped his arms around Lance, “I know. I feel it too. I love you too. I just want to make sure you’re thinking with th
e head on top of your shoulders and not the one in your pants.”
“You mean this one.” Lance tilted his hips, rubbing them together and Trent groaned.
“Fuck. You’re hard already?”
“I’m hard just being near you. Hearing you say you love me and you want to stay with me?” Lance pressed in again, “Yeah, I’m hard.”
Trent couldn’t help it. He cupped Lance’s ass and pulled him in even closer. Grinding them together. They both moaned. So good. It was always so good with this man. His man. Trent bit his bottom lip.
“We should wait. There are still people out there.”
Lance’s hand went to the button on his jeans, “I can’t wait. You’ll just have to be quiet.”
Trent moaned again as Lance unzipped him and slid a hand beneath his briefs to grip his dick, “Mmm, baby… wait… we need to… talk.”
His brain was already getting fuzzy. Forgetting why it was so important that they talk. Or what it was they needed to talk about.
The feel of Lance’s hand on him had that effect. The smell of Lance, soap and musk, surrounding him put him in a fog of lust. Lance’s mouth licking a path up his neck, sucking lightly, leaving marks that would no doubt be visible tomorrow when he went in front of the world and confirmed this relationship. And damn if that possessiveness didn’t make him want to do the same. Mark. Claim. Possess.
“Talk later. Right now, I need your hands on me. I need to forget about the rest of the world. I want it to just be the two of us.”
Whatever willpower he’d been clinging to, Lance’s words knocked him over the edge. Forget about the rest of the world. Forget about the scene they’d made. About the fact Rick was still on his way to Fate thinking to retrieve Trent with some sort of cockamamie plan. Forget even that the man he loved had just come out to the world but would still have to face his family and friends. Right now, what they needed was to go back to their bubble. Just the two of them. And with as much love as was throbbing between them, he knew it wouldn’t take much.
“Remember that first night?” He whispered huskily, knowing how much it turned Lance on when he talked to him like this.
“Mmm, you mean like three days ago?” Lance nipped him slightly.
“Smartass.” He tugged his hair in return. “I meant, do you remember how we got off with nothing but our hands and tongues between us.”
He slid his hands down Lance’s chest and found the utility belt. The one with the gun on it. The one he really did not want to touch. But he powered through the momentary panic because he loved this man, and he unclipped it and cautiously set it aside. Lance smiled up at him and that smile alone was worth every bit of his anxiety while he’d been touching that weapons belt.
He unbuttoned and unzipped him as he spoke, “I wanted you so bad. You were so beautiful. So needy. You wanted me too. Couldn’t stop staring at me and licking your lips like I was desert and you were starving.”
“Mmm.” Lance arched into his touch when he finally got his hand around him and stroked.
“Shh, quiet remember?” He warned with a firm grip.
“Fuck.”
“Not right now. Right now I want you to remember what it felt like the first time I touched you. The first time I kissed you. You were so needy. Sucking on my tongue like a slut. Do it now. Suck my tongue, baby.”
Lance moaned and complied in a blind rush. Their teeth collided before they found lips again. Lance’s tongue was there, tasting, dipping through the seam of his lips, finding his and swirling around his mouth, tasting and branding himself there. And only when Trent growled did he do as he’d been told and suck on Trent’s tongue.
His eyes nearly rolled back in his head. It had been his order but hell. It turned him on so much having Lance follow his commands with greedy acceptance. Almost as much as the suction of his mouth did, the memory of having that mouth all over him.
Lance made that sound, the one in the back of his throat that drove Trent mad and he quickened his pumps. Yeah, they were both way too close to the edge for this to last long. No use even trying to wait to get inside his man. Not this time. He had plenty of time for that later now that he’d decided he was staying.
Right now, he just wanted them on the same page, together.
He ripped his mouth away with a gasp, “You came so hard it covered both of us that first time.”
“Trent.” Lance whined as his hips bucked and his hand raced over Trent’s cock, upping the pace as he edged closer to release.
“Do it again. Come all over me. Mark me, baby. I’m yours.”
“Oh. God. I….” Lance stuttered as his cock twitched in Trent’s hand and his climax raced through him, “I love you.”
The feel of Lance vibrating against him. Those three little words. Trent gave in to his own need. He pumped into Lance’s damp hand a few more times, closing his eyes and feeling Lance’s come slicken them both, and then he joined him in sweet release.
“I love you too.” Trent nuzzled in close, holding them together as he carefully eased them to sit on the floor so they could regain their breath and their composure.
They sat that way for a long time. Arms around each other. Clothes askew. Bodies covered in come and sweat. Stuck together. Just the way they liked it.
“Mmm, that was fun.” Lance murmured against his collarbone, “But I really wanted you to fuck me.”
“We have all the time in the world. I’ll fuck you. You can fuck me. But whatever we’re doing, it’s always making love. Okay?”
Lance glanced up at him from beneath the curtain of his dark lashes, “I think it always has been.”
Trent liked that answer so much he had to kiss him again. Sweetly, softly, he joined their lips and then their tongues. There was no rush. Just the perfection of knowing that he would get to do this for the rest of his life.
A phone buzzed somewhere close enough to rattle his skin and he groaned as he pulled away, “Damn it. They can’t give me one day.”
Lance gave a sheepish look, “That’s mine actually.”
“Oh.” Trent let his boyfriend untangle himself from him and reach down to retrieve a phone from the pocket of his pants around his ankles. He raised back up and then looked at it, his face going pale, “Oh, shit.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“We need to take a shower.” Lance tucked himself back into his pants and motioned for Trent to do the same.
“What? Why?” Trent’s brows furrowed but he zipped up tentatively
“Because that was a text from my sister, Lulu. She saw the news and she wants to meet you.”
“Oh… okay.” Trent shrugged easily, “That’s not so bad. I can handle meeting your sister. Just tell her to give us a few hours.”
“You don’t know Lulu. She’s not a patient kind of person. She’s… young. A lot younger than me and she can be a handful so...”
Trent chuckled, “I don’t mind meeting your sister, Lance. It was going to happen sooner or later.”
“Yeah well, prepare yourself for sooner because….”
A knock came on the door behind them and Trent automatically yelped. Lance cracked up laughing and then Trent couldn’t help it. He was laughing too.
They were out and proud. They were in love. They were messy and covered in come. And the door was swinging open behind them, causing them to fall halfway out of the trailer as they kept right on laughing and a squeal of shock came from the girl Trent could just vaguely make out, upside down in his blurry vision.
“Lulu Nichols, I presume?” He laughed when Lance poked him in the ribs, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m the one that’s gonna make an honest man out of your brother.”
Lance gaped at him, looking horrified. The tall, beautiful brunette cracked up laughing as well. She looked a lot like her brother. Same dark eyes, mysterious and intense, flicked with amusement. Her features were thinner, more feminine, but there was little doubt she was the sister Lance had said was on her way. And she confirmed it
when she put her hands on her hips and shot a dimpled grin at him.
“Well it’s about damn time.”
Epilogue
Thanksgiving – One Year Later
“Are we ready for this?”
Lance glanced at his boyfriend in the mirror as he buttoned his shirt. Usually he was the one that was nervous and couldn’t stop fidgeting. Usually it was him that second guessed their every move, that worried about the consequences and what would come of it. But Trent had been the one pacing the house all day, anxious and edgy.
Even now, with his back turned so he could look out the window, Lance could see the tension radiating off the man he loved. He could see the tense muscles bunched beneath his dress shirt. Trent’s shoulders were up and more than anything Lance wanted to go to him, to slide his fingers along those broad shoulders, to force them down, to help ease some of his unease.
So he did.
It had taken him a long time to get used to that. Being able to touch Trent whenever he wanted. Not needing to hide how he felt about this man. It hadn’t been easy. Some days it still wasn’t. But in the privacy of their own home, he never shied away from reaching for his man, not when he needed him.
He crossed the room and stroked his hands up Trent’s back. He dug his fingers into the tense muscles and Trent gave a small moan. He let out the breath he’d been holding and Lance wrapped his arms around him, leaning his check against his shoulder blade.
Trent wrapped his arms around his middle, crossing his hands over Lance’s. Pulling him closer. And relaxing against him. Lance held him from behind and let the ease that existed between them settled some of his nerves right along with Trent’s.
“Are we ready for this?” Trent repeated himself after a few moments of silence.
“I don’t know.” Lance answered honestly, “But we told them we’d try and it’s too late to back out now.”
“It’s not. We can call, tell them something came up in Nashville and…”
“We’re not backing out, Trent.” Lance squeezed him to get his point across, “We’re in this together. Just remember that. We have each other.”
