Page 36 of His Fresh Start Cowboy
Kid.Hugo’s temper snaps and before he realizes what he’s done, he grabs Brand’s hips and smashes his groin against Hugo’s. Neither of them are hard, but Brand makes a soft, almost-moan deep in his throat, and Hugo’s insides quiver with want. Need. “I’m not a kid anymore,” Hugo snarls as he thrusts upward.
Brand gasps sharply, his expression going from concerned to fierce in the blink of an eye. “What are you doin’?”
“I have no fucking idea but it feels good.” It feels too fucking good, and it takes the last of Hugo’s restraint to keep still rather than buck up and get more pressure on his dick. This is too amazing, too right, with Brand’s pot-scented breath fanning over his face. They were so close now, in each other’s space with nowhere else to go.
Brand stares down at him, a war happening in his eyes and in the twitches of his mouth and cheeks. He wants this, Hugo can see it, but he’s hesitating. So Hugo takes a chance and slides his right hand around the back of Brand’s neck. Urges him forward, down. Parts his lips. Gives a gentle thrust up with his hips. Brand moans, and the sound only drives Hugo’s need. He pulls Brand’s head down until his mouth covers Hugo’s.
For a moment, Brand doesn’t move, his entire body frozen. Hugo chances moving his lips and that seems to wake Brand up. His lips quest over Hugo’s, as if asking a silent question, and Hugo tries to say yes without words. The kiss is everything Hugo dreamed of, everything he wants and needs. Brand’s broad body drops down heavily over his own, his groin flush to Hugo’s. Hugo rocks his hips upward, gently rutting while their mouths move and explore. He’s only kissed a girl once, and it was basically a quick peck on the lips, but this is so much more. It’s intensity and need and perfection in one action. Brand plunders his mouth while hands play with the ends of Hugo’s short hair, exploring without holding him down. Questing without taking. As the kiss goes on, Hugo wants to give him everything. Whatever he asks, for no matter what.
A little drunk from the kiss, Hugo wraps his calf around Brand’s leg to keep their hardening dicks pressed close, the friction almost overwhelming, even through two pairs of jeans. This is the first true kiss of Hugo’s life, and he never wants it to end. He reaches for the edge of Brand’s shirt and tugs it from the waistband of his jeans. Tries to get it off.
Brand lurches away with a pained gasp and sort of crab-walks backward until he hits a bale of hay. Hugo sits up, panting, half hard, and unsure why everything stopped. The naked horror in Brand’s expression stabs him right in the heart, and he nearly flings himself out the hayloft doors to avoid the humiliation of what he knows is coming next.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” Brand says, voice rough. “I’m sorry.”
Hugo covers his flaming face with both hands, his erection dying a fast death as he realizes he’s just lost his friendship with Brand. No way is the older man coming back from this, not considering the look on his face.
“Hugo, I didn’t mean to take advantage.”
He hazards a look at Brand, confused by the statement, because Hugo had been the one to initiate all this. To rub on Brand and then bring him in for the best—and now worst—kiss of his entire life. “You didn’t.” Hugo doesn’t recognize his own fractured voice. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have.”
Something flickers in Brand’s eyes that seems to disagree with him. “No, I’m the adult here, and I should have known better. I’m twenty-four, and you’re only sixteen.”
“I’ll be seventeen in a few months.”
“That’s not the point.” Brand scrubs a hand over his face, then through his sun-kissed hair. “Even if I was gay, which I’m not, I couldn’t. You’re my brother’s best friend and you’re way too young for me.”
Annoyance begins overtaking Hugo’s humiliation, and he stands, no longer wanting to talk about this on the floor. Brand remains seated, though, staring up at him with a weird mix of regret and determination. “I may be sixteen, but I’m not a child, Brand. I had to grow up quick when my dad left us, and then Mom remarried and life became a new nightmare. Maybe kissing you was the wrong thing to do but I wanted to feel good for a change.”
I’ve also had a crush on you since the first time we met, but no way am I admitting that now. Or ever.
“Thanks for, uh, whatever this was, but I’m going home now,” Hugo says. “Can we just, you know, forget this happened?” As if.
He swears Brand’s gaze drops to his lips once before he nods. “Yeah, of course. Um, do you need a ride?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll ask Rem.” Hugo flees then, taking the ladder more quickly than is probably safe, but he needs to get away from Brand. To put distance between this awful failure and lick his wounds. Having a crush is one thing but to get stoned and then act on it? Stupid. Epically stupid.
Once he’s on the ground, he texts Rem to come get him, then storms over to the truck Rem and Brand share. Leans against the passenger door and stews in his own mistakes. He glances up at the hayloft doors once. Brand stands there, one hand braced on the frame. They seem to hold eye contact for several seconds, and then Brand backs away and disappears into darkness.
Chapter Eleven
When Hugo reported for work on Friday morning, he seemed more like his old self. Less like the spooked teenager he’d once been and back to the more confident guy Brand knew now. But something had changed in Hugo and it bugged Brand. Hugo was completely professional around him, acting like any employee, rather than someone Brand had started to consider a friend.
Exactly how Hugo had acted around Brand after that ill-fated kiss in the hayloft. For a little while, Brand had allowed himself to have something he didn’t even know he’d wanted until Hugo showed him what it was like to kiss a man. To press against another hard body and grind his dick against a thickening dick.
Thankfully, Brand had come to his senses before anything more had happened that night. He’d seen the hurt in Hugo’s face and had wanted to make it better, but he’d also had to be the adult. To shut that down before they both got in trouble. Now Hugo was very much an adult, and his lingering feelings for Brand seemed to be gone, while Brand’s were only growing stronger.
Since Hugo’s hands were still healing, Brand sent him and Jackson off to ride the fences and check on the herds, while he took over the task of mucking the stalls. As the boss, he usually delegated that particular chore, but he didn’t mind so much today. The physical labor kept him out of his own head for a while, away from his tangled thoughts about Hugo.
For a little while, anyway.
Those thoughts came rushing back at lunchtime. Brand was already in the break room with his sandwich and potato salad when Jackson and Hugo entered, chatting and laughing about something, Dog right on their heels. Hugo instantly sobered when he spotted Brand and that...kind of hurt.
“Hey, boss,” Jackson said with a grin as he grabbed his brown bag lunch out of the fridge. “Have fun playing with horse shit this morning?”
“Loads,” Brand replied. “Bet it’s nice to see the boss can still get his hands dirty.”
Hugo shot him a funny look, then retrieved his own lunch. Brand kind of hated that Hugo’s lunch always seemed to be a plain roast beef sandwich and a cola. Then again, he didn’t have much of a kitchen setup in the trailer. Not like the big, airy kitchen Mom cooked meals in every morning and evening. Sending her men into the field full of eggs and sausage, or pancakes and bacon. Or sending them to bed each night full of some home-cooked meal or other, often with leftovers ready for everyone’s lunch the next day.
