Burn It Down

by Jess Anastasi

  Benny turned and stalked off along the track leading to the campground, quickly disappearing into the night shadows. Troy shook his head at the idiotic threats. The guy was already going to be charged for vandalism and property damage. Did he really think he could get away with anything else and not land in jail? Maybe he honestly didn’t care. Or had burned that many brain cells with booze he couldn’t even consider the consequences.

  Troy stomped back into the rangers’ station and surveyed the glittering mess of broken glass. He gave a frustrated huff as he pulled his cell phone out to call Sheriff Hayes.

  Once that was done, he started cleaning up and then had to figure out how to board up the windows so the office would stay secure overnight. He spent the whole time wishing this night was over and he could maybe get more than four or five hours sleep tonight.

  With the bonfire just getting underway, he knew it was going to be hours before he saw his pillow. The best he could hope was that whatever trouble headed his way tonight, it was the kind that was more inconvenient than serious.

  BACK AT the lakeshore, he and Jared had to text back and forth a few times before meeting in the crowd and shifting shadows cast by the bonfire.

  When they did finally find each other, they headed over to one of the wooden shelters up a slight rise from the beach. Jared sat on a wooden bench with his back to the rough-hewn timber wall. A little over two hundred yards away on the sand, Tate was sharing a fold-out lounge chair with Lewis while Aaron was sitting on the ground at their feet playing some kind of card game with a few other kids. He decided to believe whatever they were drinking out of the red plastic cups was nonalcoholic.

  “Chaperoning is a blast so far,” Jared said over a yawn, slouching more deeply against the wall behind him.

  The guy had to be beat, coming off four days of twelve-hour shifts, not to mention the late night they’d had last night.

  He dropped down next to Jared, leaving them in the deeper shadows of the shelter. No one else was making use of the benches or tables at the moment; everyone was down near the water on the sand and grass. They were alone up here, and he was glad to be away from the rowdy crowd.

  “Maybe you should have stayed home in your pj’s after all.” He crossed his arms and leaned back, shoulder brushing Jared’s as he settled as comfortably against the hard wall as he could.

  “Starting to think that might have been the better idea.” Jared tried to smother another yawn but failed. “What happened at the rangers’ station?”

  He glanced at Jared, but it was hard to make out his features in the semidarkness. How did he know anything had happened? “What do you mean?”

  “I can practically feel the tension rolling off you. Plus you looked like you were ready to murder someone as you were walking over here.”

  Damn. Was he that easy to read? “Benny Sadler came to pay me a visit.”

  “Oh shit.” Jared straightened and half turned to face him. “What did he say?”

  “About what you’d expect. Wanted to know where his punching bag had gone and was all pissed about people getting up in his business. And oh yeah, he thought the answer to those problems was to smash a few windows.”

  “What an ass. People wouldn’t have to interfere if his business wasn’t beating the spit out of his kid,” Jared replied in a low, angry voice. “Did you tell him anything?”

  “No. I let him think I didn’t know anything. Then it was the usual you’ll be sorry spiel. Like I haven’t heard that before. He’s not the first asshole to walk through my park.”

  “Sorry, Troy.” There was a note of regret to Jared’s voice, and Troy wished he could have seen his face more clearly.

  “Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, you did everything right.”

  Jared shrugged. “You shouldn’t have had to face him on your own. I should have gone with you.”

  “You couldn’t have known.” He found himself reaching up to touch Jared’s cheek since he couldn’t see his features properly. “Anyway, you don’t always have to pull it off.”

  “Pull what off?” Jared asked, leaning into his touch.

  “The big damn hero routine. You could leave a little glory for the rest of us.”

  Jared laughed, shifting closer. “Don’t worry, you can definitely hold your own.”

  Shrouded in shadows like they were, it felt intimate, like the rest of the world couldn’t quite reach them. He drew Jared in, finding his lips in the darkness. The sensation of their mouths lightly brushing seemed more intense without being able to see clearly.

  Troy pressed in closer, sealing their mouths more firmly together, licking at Jared’s lower lip before dipping in to taste the man he was fast becoming addicted to. But who could blame him? What’d happened in the front seat of his SUV had blown his mind. Had exploded every idea he’d ever had about sex into itty-bitty pieces.

  He’d known sex could be satisfying. Could be pleasant and kind of tingly. He had not known another person could take him to a whole other plane of existence. Could make everything else in the world cease to exist. Could narrow his entire being down to a single atom that was nothing but pure white-hot ecstasy. Could make him come so hard his whole body melted into nothing but a mass of oversensitized nerves, like living flame rolling under his skin.

  Those few moments in the SUV with Jared had been a revelation, one he was keen to experience as many times in as many different ways as possible.

  Even now, he craved Jared in a way that should have been terrifying. He’d never before understood how people could lose their heads and do stupid things in the name of sex and lust. But he could now. Oh yeah. He could so easily let sanity go if only to feel the way he knew Jared could make him feel.

  Jared slid toward him, slipping a leg over his thighs to straddle him on the bench.

  Oh fuck.

  Even as his brain ordered him to put the brakes on, he was dragging Jared closer, pressing his hips upward, seeking friction, heat storming his body on crashing waves.

  Except one last little thread of logic over their only semiprivate location managed to hold out and he tore his lips away from Jared to snatch in some air.

  “Jared—”

  Whatever he was going to say got lost in a shudder when Jared closed his lips on the skin just below his ear, nipping and sucking, sending a long, deep, rolling surge of pleasure through him. He tensed, scrabbling for his self-control for all he was worth, but his hold was tenuous at best, and the way Jared rocked against him broke him down in a second flat.

  He clamped his hands onto Jared’s ass and shoved to his feet. Jared pulled back slightly, even as his legs wrapped around his waist.

  “What—”

  “Alone,” he practically growled. “Need to get you somewhere alone. Now.”

  “No arguments from me.” Jared leaned in to kiss him, and Troy somehow managed to get to the end of the wooden shelter and around the wall out of sight. Back here it was so dark he wouldn’t have been able to see his hand in front of his face. But it didn’t matter. He didn’t need to see. He just needed to feel.

  Feel the way Jared was wrapped around his body. Feel the way they fit perfectly together. Feel the way their mouths slid hungrily together.

  He slammed Jared up against the wall, pressing the full weight of his body into him. For half a second, he worried he’d been too rough, but Jared moaned and speared a hand into his hair, tugging the strands in a way that nearly made his eyes roll into the back of his head.

  “Naked,” Jared muttered, tugging impatiently at his shirt. “Too many clothes.”

  He would have laughed since they couldn’t exactly get naked behind a picnic shelter a few hundred yards away from a party in full swing, but Jared caught his mouth in another searing kiss, and suddenly it didn’t seem like the most ridiculous idea in the world.

  They surrendered to a frantic fumble of buttons, belts, and zippers until both their shirts were open, bare chests pressing together,
and pants were around thighs. Jared managed to work a hand between them and wrap a tight fist around both their erections.

  Troy groaned raggedly, one hand still under Jared’s ass, the other braced against the wooden planks of the wall, concentrating on keeping them both upright as every stroke of Jared’s hand threatened to send him to his knees.

  He’d never, ever thought about two men pressing their cocks together, never thought about how it might feel to slide against the hard, heated length of another man. But now he couldn’t understand how he hadn’t. How he could not have a fucking clue how hot and sexy such a simple thing could be.

  “Jared,” he uttered between breath-stealing kisses. He was getting dizzy, but he didn’t know if it was from lack of oxygen since he couldn’t seem to get his lips off Jared long enough to take a full breath, or because the surges of ecstasy building with every millisecond were utterly intoxicating.

  “Oh God, Troy, I’m close—” Jared broke off with a stuttered breath, the hand clutching the back of his neck tightening almost to the point of pain.

  Jared jerked against him, moaning in a way that sent an answering bolt of lust arcing through his already hypersensitive body. Warm wetness hit his abdomen and coated his cock where Jared was still stroking him, and he exploded like a spark to gasoline, bright and intense. He gripped Jared harder against him, dimly aware of him gasping and shuddering as though a second wave of pleasure had washed through him.

  He dropped his forehead to Jared’s shoulder, fine shivers and shakes chasing over his skin, the tepid night air pleasant against his heated, damp flesh.

  “Still not a bed,” Jared murmured, slumping against the wall behind him.

  Troy laughed, the sound a little rough, his voice gone hoarse from pleasure. “Next time. I promise.”

  “Promises, promises.” Jared sighed, sounding completely satisfied as he stroked idle fingers through the hair at the base of his neck.

  He reluctantly let Jared slide down until he was on his own two feet.

  “Not sure I can stand after that.” Jared let the wall behind him take his weight.

  “I thought my knees were going to give out halfway through,” he admitted with rueful amusement. “Don’t think you would have appreciated being dropped.”

  “Honestly, I don’t think I would have noticed.” Jared’s voice was full of affectionate amusement. “Probably just would have climbed on top of you and kept right on going.”

  He shuddered, remembering the dream he’d been rudely woken up from that morning—Jared riding him until he’d been ready to melt into a puddle of horny goo. They definitely needed to try that in the very near future.

  “Come on.” Jared pushed off from the wall. “We better get back to the chaperoning thing before Tate corrupts the younger boys.”

  “Somehow, I get the feeling Lewis might enjoy being corrupted by your brother.”

  That made Jared freeze in the middle of pulling some tissues from his pocket to hand over. “What?”

  “I think Lewis might have a little crush on Tate.”

  “Oh great,” Jared huffed. “Because Tate’s ego isn’t big enough as it is.”

  “You don’t think Tate would try anything if he knew?” He hated to ask, making it seem like he thought Tate might be predatory or stupid enough to take advantage of the younger guy, but Jared simply shook his head.

  “Tate might like a taste of trouble every now and then—what teenage boy doesn’t? But he’d never do anything like that. You don’t need to worry.”

  “Sorry. I’m not worried, really. Just felt like I had to ask. It’s stupid. Forget I said anything.”

  Jared stepped forward and cupped his shoulder gently. “Don’t ever think you can’t talk to me, Troy. You can ask or tell me anything. I can’t promise I won’t ever get angry if it’s something that really matters, but I promise to always listen.”

  Troy released a breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. Jeanie had never given him that kind of unquestioning, undemanding support. It was always about her. What he could do for her. How he didn’t listen and understand her problems. Never once had she bothered to really listen or try to understand his side of things.

  He swallowed down the sudden tightness in his throat and turned his attention to making himself decent again. He’d been telling himself he owed Jared some explanation of his past. With a few words, Jared had lessened his fear of admitting the truth. The apprehension that Jared might see him differently once he heard the story—like he was somehow less—started to drain away. Jared was the complete opposite of his ex-girlfriend. He needed to stop seeing Jared with the expectations he’d learned from his volatile relationship. And he needed to start with how he’d ended up in a foster home at the age of twelve.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  WHEN THEY emerged from behind the wall of the picnic shelter, Jared studied Troy’s pensive expression. A few moments ago, he’d practically been able to feel the sated relaxation rolling off Troy, but the tension had returned. Had it been something he’d said, or was Troy finally starting to have second thoughts about being with him—being with another man?

  No, he didn’t think that was the problem. Or maybe it was more about him not wanting that to be the problem. Not when Troy had him tied up in so many pleasurable knots, he never wanted to be untangled.

  “I’m just going to check in with the boys,” he said, deciding to give the guy some breathing room and hoping that’d help wherever his mind had gone just now. Maybe Troy was just back to thinking about the confrontation with Benny Sadler.

  Troy nodded and, instead of returning to the bench in the shadows where they’d been sitting before, went to sit on a spot on the grass, just at the lip of the verge going down to the sand.

  Jared made his way to the bonfire, where the three boys had moved on from playing cards to making s’mores. Tate was waving his sticky fingers at Lewis, who was doubled over laughing. Even Aaron was grinning like he didn’t have a care in the world. Jared smiled at their antics, so damned glad he could give the pair this, especially remembering the shadows he’d seen in their eyes that first day at the campsite when he’d realized all wasn’t right in their world.

  “Having a good time?” he asked as he stopped a few steps away.

  “These two dorks have never had s’mores before!” Tate announced loudly, making Lewis hiss a shhh at him as he glanced around like he was worried someone had overheard them.

  “As opposed to someone else I knew who ate so many when he was eleven, he puked them all back up again?”

  Aaron and Lewis erupted into laughter as Tate blushed pink in the bright dancing firelight.

  “Thanks, asshole. I’m never going to live that down.”

  “Nope, you really won’t.” He grinned and backed up a few steps, leaving Lewis and Aaron teasing Tate, who took it all with a good-natured smile.

  As he started to turn, an uneasy sensation prickled along the back of his neck and he paused to glance around, worried maybe Benny or Hal Sadler had come down here for some reason. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation. Not only would it embarrass and upset the boys, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist giving the two men a piece of his mind, demonstrated by his fists.

  He froze when he spotted a familiar figure standing between two pickup trucks near the vehicle with all the speaker equipment.

  Fuck. No. It couldn’t be.

  Kevin.

  The crowd shifted and he lost sight of the figure.

  He’d feared his ex-boyfriend wouldn’t be dissuaded so easily, even though he’d been hoping like hell Del’s warning had actually sunk into that thick skull of his. Jared had absolutely no doubt Del would go above and beyond if Kevin was still in town—probably call in every favor owed to him by every other Texas Ranger in half a dozen counties to run the guy off or get him arrested. But this was his mess and he was determined to put it behind himself once and for all. He didn’t want or need anyone else mixed up in it�
�not Del and definitely not Troy.

  Determination, lit by a smolder of aggravation for everything Kevin had put him through and the nerve in Kevin thinking he could just walk back into his life and he’d be sitting here waiting for him, drove him forward, long angry strides eating up the ground beneath him.

  He skipped around a couple of teens who were stumbling and laughing arm in arm near some blankets and coolers. When he reached the pickup trucks, there was no one standing nearby any longer. Definitely not Kevin. Maybe he’d imagined seeing his ex. It was dark, and the distance meant he hadn’t been able to clearly see Kevin’s face. Maybe the anxiety over his ex was making him see ghosts were there were none. Because why would Kevin come to a crowded bonfire just to watch him? It wasn’t the guy’s style. He wasn’t patient or subtle. If he was here—if he’d seen Jared even talking to Troy—Kevin would have been over in a flash, pissing where he considered his territory to be and making a scene.

  He spent a few more moments searching the shifting crowds but didn’t see anything, so slowly returned to where he’d left Troy sitting.

  “Everything okay?” Troy asked him as he sat down and left a good three feet between them.

  “Yeah, the boys are making s’mores and getting along like they’ve known each other for years.” He was surprised at how normal his voice sounded. That he’d been able to shove down the apprehension so successfully that Troy seemingly didn’t notice his turmoil. Because it hadn’t been Kevin. No, it had to just be his imagination being totally stupid.

  “That’s good,” Troy murmured, voice a low rumble that skittered over his skin. It went a long way to bringing him back to reality and calming him down.

  “What about you?” He kept his gaze trained off in the middle distance, trying to keep the question sounding casual, even though he was still on edge.

  Troy sighed and shifted so he was reclining on his elbows, staring up at the stars powdering the inky night sky.

  “A long time ago, I thought things would never be okay.”