Page 14 of Breakfast Included

Reno sank down until the water reached his chin and then tipped his head back to catch snowflakes with his tongue. Tate suddenly wished he was a snowflake. “It’s like a little piece of heaven.”

“Yes, it is,” Tate agreed, his voice low and husky.

But it wasn’t the springs that enraptured him. It was Reno, naked and wet and glorious, and it took every bit of restraint Tate had to stay on his side of the pool.

“You know,” Reno began, his eyes still closed and face turned toward the snowy sky. “For being stranded on a mountain by an avalanche, I’m enjoying this little break from everyday life.”

Tate didn’t respond. Couldn’t. Too caught up in studying the gentle slash of Reno’s brow, and the crescent fan of his long eyelashes as they rested against the delicate skin under his eyes, and the sharp slant of his cheekbones. His beard was a little thicker than yesterday since he hadn’t shaved. His lips were an alluring shade of strawberry, and his mouth was slightly parted. His hair was damp from the snow and steam, and a lock of hair hung over his forehead to cut a line through the middle of one eyebrow.

The rest of his body was obscured by the water but not hidden. It reflected and shifted below the surface, in odd geometric shapes, like a Picasso painting. Tate’s fingers twitched with the need to reach out and trace every curve and angle of bone and muscle.

“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Reno said. He cracked one eye open and then the other.

Tate stared into those gray-blue eyes, and a tightness in his chest he hadn’t known was there loosened. He’d always loved Reno’s eyes. How they changed from a bright sky blue when Reno was excited to a stormy gray when he was angry. Right now, he looked happy.

“Just admiring the view,” Tate said. He dropped his voice an octave and deliberately pushed heat into it.

Reno swallowed but didn’t look away.

Not breaking eye contact, Tate inched his way along the smooth stone bench until he was close enough for their shoulders and thighs to press together.

He dropped his gaze to Reno’s mouth.

“And wondering how different our lives would be if I’d stayed. If I’d come out earlier.” Tate paused and licked his lips. “Kissed you again . . .”

Holy man, his heart beat so fast. As though he sat on a precipice, his body on a tipping point, waiting for a tiny gust of air that would send him tumbling in one direction or another.

“You could kiss me again now,” Reno whispered. His tongue snaked out to slide along his lips. They glistened with invitation.

No thought passed through Tate’s mind. One minute, he was rocking on a narrow ledge, and the next, he was weightless and freefalling into pure bliss. He had the strangest urge to find the bottom of the pool with his feet to ground himself, but his feet were already pressed to the floor of the spring they shared.

Reno’s lips were soft, cool from the winter air, and fit perfectly against his own. Tate angled his body so he could deepen the kiss, and Reno’s hand landed on his thigh and squeezed. He opened his mouth, and Tate slipped inside. That tight spot in his chest relaxed further, shifted, and somehow, the night seemed brighter, even though his eyes were closed. The kiss felt like home, and the future, and everything he hadn’t known he’d been missing the last decade. Like his whole world righted itself.

Reno shimmied around and straddled Tate’s lap. Once settled, he rocked forward so his hard erection pressed against Tate’s yearning cock.Yesssss. . . Tate hissed into Reno’s mouth. He filled his hands with Reno’s firm, muscular butt cheeks and pulled him even closer. Water sloshed lazily over the edges of the pool in time with their rolling movements.

The sound of a throat clearing threatened the sexual haze Tate had slid into, but he ignored it. Until Reno jerked back. Tate chased him, panting, but a tapping foot in his peripheral finally drew his attention. Linda stood on the deck, arms crossed and a frown on her round face.

“What?” Tate said in mock innocence. “That was totally PG-13.”

“Debatable,” she argued. “But the rating is G, and that exceeded it.”

Tate looked at Reno—whose skin was all flushed and gleaming, and though his eyes sparkled with laughter, his expression said ‘oh-oh’—and then back at Linda.

“Can we try again, you know, to get the rating right?”

Linda shook her head, but she was fighting a smile, so Tate knew they weren’t in trouble. Not too much, anyway.

“We’re closing in a few minutes,” she said and waved her arms up and down in their direction. “So, you know, make sureeverythingis family-friendly before you step out of the pool.”

Reno buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with laughter, and Tate saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And next time, I expect to see swim trunks,” she added before she turned and stomped off.

“You’re terrible,” Reno admonished when Linda was gone.

“Yes, and you like it,” Tate replied.

Reno searched his face for a second and then said, “I always did.”

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