Page 5 of Stay A Little Longer
And then he’d just kept at it because so long as he was buried in a soft, curvy body he didn’t have to worry about anyone figuring out that what he fantasized about was hard muscles, sharp planes and angles and big hands gripping his body forcefully. He didn’t have to admit what he wanted was to feel a rough jawline beneath his lips, feel the friction of a five o’clock shadow against his own. He’d thought if he just ignored the urges and tried harder to want soft and sweet and feminine then it would go away.
Denial was a powerful fuckin’ thing.
He was a grown ass man now. Not some confused teenage boy or a young man with a chip on his shoulder. He was old enough to stop lying, at least to himself.
He was gay.
He’d come to terms with that truth and stopped trying to bury his urges in every female body he could get at. But he was still hiding. Still lying to everyone in his life, everyone that mattered to him. And that was why the voices taunted him at all hours and every single time he ran into one of those women, reminding him of his sad, lonely, pathetic existence.
His work buddies thought he had a girl in the city or more likely a girl in every city. He’d built up a badass bachelor legend when the truth was he spent most of his nights at home jerking it to porn that would make his friends blush and stammer if they saw it on his computer. Occasionally he did trek out of town, all the way to Dallas, as far from anyone that might know him as he could get, to hook up at some bar where he could be a nobody in the dark. But those weekends were few and far between and being gay in a small town meant he was so deep in the closet he couldn’t even see daylight.
Because there weren’t gay guys in places like Fate. Nope. No way. They were all born and bred alpha males. Cowboys and ranchers and farmers, football gods and book nerds alike. They were all just looking for that one sweet girl to make them a nice little wife, set up a home and pop out babies. At least that was the standard line everyone was selling, himself included.
Lance knew of a few men in town that were at least bi-curious. He’d seen them give him more than a few long glances. But he’d never looked back. Never given even a hint to anyone that he might want to take them up on their offers. Because God only knew the shitshow his life would turn into if he was outed now. He was already a bastard with a line of exes ready to flay him alive. If they found out he preferred dick but had plowed through all of them in a bid to hide his sexuality, they’d string him up in town square.
He cracked his neck and tried, again, to force those thoughts to the back of his mind. It was never easy but when he had a shit day like today it was a hell of a lot harder to ignore the hard truths. His life would be easier if he got out of Fate, for good.
But no matter how many times he thought it, he’d never once considered pulling that trigger. Because this was home. Even if it was full of a bunch of small-minded people that would tell him he was going to go to hell if they ever found out who he really was.
He pulled his truck into the small driveway between his trailer and the one next door. This was home, for better or worse or some shit like that. It was a sad and sorry excuse for it but it was his.
His family had never had much and he’d scrimped and saved for this tiny trailer in the park on the edge of town. It was home though, his, and it was his safe place. He didn’t have to be anyone else inside that trailer. Just him. Gay porn and dildos and all. That’s what home was all about right?
Lance crawled out of his truck and squinted at the SUV sitting on the street. It was out of place and he’d never seen it before. He glanced at the trailer on the other side of his driveway suspiciously. It had sat dark and empty for a few months now. Had Lowry rented it out again? God, Lance hoped not.
The last tenants had let their four demon spawn run loose through the neighborhood at all hours, screaming at the top of theirs lungs like they were being murdered. They’d played in the street and bounced balls off his trailer when he was trying to sleep. He’d threatened to lock them up and throw away the key but nothing had ever deterred the little brats.
He’d been thankful for the peace and quiet when they moved out and he didn’t like the idea of new neighbors. Right now, his was the only trailer on this particular section of the park that was filled. It gave him room to breathe, one less thing to worry about with no nosy neighbors next door poking their heads in or looking through his windows. He shot a glance at the other trailer again but it sat just as dark and empty looking as it had when he’d left for work in the morning.
He made a mental note of the tag number. The SUV had out of state tags which was weird. They didn’t get too many new people in Fate and if someone was moving in, he would have heard about it.
As a deputy with the FSD he should probably check into the strange vehicle but he just couldn’t make himself care. Not at this hour. If he wasn’t exhausted he might have given it more thought but as it was he was just happy whoever was over there was asleep, just like he intended to be shortly, so he wouldn’t have to make small talk.
He’d check on it in the morning if it was still there.
Lance pulled the door of his own trailer open and stumbled up the stairs into the darkness. He toed his boots off, leaning against the kitchen cabinets so he didn’t fall over as he threw his socks aside as well. He unclipped his utility belt and put it on the counter. Locking up his gun was protocol but that would mean turning on the lights to put the code into the safe in his closet and he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
His head ached. His body hurt. And he left a trail of clothes as he stumbled his way to his bedroom in the back. He was down to his boxers by the time his legs hit the edge of the bed and he simply collapsed…
Right onto a big, hard, warm body.
“What the FUCK?”
Lance wasn’t sure if he’d said that or if the body in his bed had. Maybe they both had. They scrambled, arms and legs tangling as they struggled against each other. Lance caught a fist to his gut and wheezed out a breath. He managed to get a decent knock in on what he thought was the intruder’s jaw. There were more curses and shouts. Lance managed to get the upper hand and locked the struggling intruder beneath him with a forearm to the throat.
“Don’t you fuckin’ move!”
“What the…” The guy, itwasa guy, he’d figured that much out in the struggle, groaned.
“I said don’t move.” Lance pressed harder on the throat beneath his arm, “I don’t know what kind of moron breaks into the home of a police deputy but if you move, I’m gonna shoot your dumb ass.”
“What? I didn’t… dude, get the fuck off me! Lemon told me I could stay here.”
Lance blinked in the darkness, trying to get a gauge on the man beneath him, “Wait… what? Lemon Kelly?”
“You know another Lemon, jackass?” The man surprised the hell out of him when he bucked his hips and spun, effectively pinning Lance to the bed in one smooth move that would have gotten his full attention even if he hadn’t felt the cock pressing against his thigh in this new position. He’d been upended. Easily. By a stranger in the dark. And his dick had decided to take notice. Fuckin’ fantastic. He struggled to control his response but the guy scrambled off of him before he could react further, “I didn’t break in. She left the door unlocked for me.”
Lance was still struggling to piece together what the hell Lemon Kelly had to do with a strange man ending up in his bed when the light flicked on. He blinked, blinded by the sudden brightness. Or maybe he was just in shock.
Because the man standing across the room from him, the man that had been sleeping in his bed and pinned him down with nothing but a flip of his hips, the man that was wearing nothing but a pair of white boxer briefs that showed off every goddamned inch of him in all it’s gorgeous glory… was none other than Trent Thorne, worldwide superstar.
He was gorgeous. Sexy. Talented. The star of Lance’s every late-night fantasy. And he was here. In Lance’s bedroom. Half-naked.
Was this a dream?
