What Remains

by Bailey Bradford

  Laine had to twist around like a pretzel to see Sev, but it was worth it because Sev looked so horny Laine thought he’d come before he ever got his dick in Laine’s ass. He poured a generous amount of lube onto Sev’s fingers, chuckling when some of the cool liquid dripped onto Sev’s stomach.

  He turned back to facing Sev’s feet and leaned forward, his chest only inches from Sev’s legs. The position put his ass up and open, and Sev took immediate advantage, sliding one finger in deep.

  Laine tipped his butt up, ready for more in a matter of seconds.

  “You’re eager for it tonight,” Sev rasped.

  “For you,” Laine corrected. He moaned when Sev worked a second finger in, then he began rocking back to meet each thrust of those digits into his ass.

  A third finger breached him and Laine’s eyes rolled up. His hole was burning pleasurably and Sev was brushing over Laine’s gland every few strokes. Everything inside and outside of Laine’s body tingled with little electric currents as Sev stretched him.

  “More?” Sev asked in a guttural voice.

  Laine hesitated. It might hurt. But it might feel fucking good. “Yeah, do it.”

  Sev moaned then Laine’s asshole went from burning pleasurably to burning almost too much to bear. He opened his mouth to tell Sev to back that fourth finger right out. The pain ebbed as Laine’s little muscle gave, opening for the wider penetration.

  “Fuck,” Laine mumbled as a line of ecstasy shot up his spine from his ass. “Jesus, Sev. Do…something!”

  Sev did. He started pumping those fingers in and out of Laine, long hard strokes then slow, harder ones. Laine arched his back and slammed his butt against each thrust. He was bouncing eagerly on Sev’s fingers, moaning and chasing the climax tightening his balls.

  “Come on, baby,” Sev purred, his other hand reaching between Laine’s legs to press at his drawn up nuts. Laine felt a scrape of fingernails over that sensitive skin just as Sev’s fingers filled him again and that was it. He shouted then grunted as cum spewed from his dick. Sev kept working his balls and ass, never letting up, dragging out Laine’s orgasm until Laine could hardly breathe.

  Then the fingers were gone, and Laine’s hips were jerked down. Sev’s thick rod speared him in one thrust. Sev made a sound close to a sob, then his hands began lifting, his hips working, and Laine was fucked to within an inch of his life.

  “Love this sweet ass,” Sev babbled, “love you, love fucking you, feeling your muscles clench around my fingers, my dick…”

  It was a good thing Laine loved all those things too. He found the strength to sit up and start doing some of the work. Sev moaned his approval and fucked him harder. That was all well and good, but Laine wanted to see Sev, watch him fall apart as he came.

  Later, once Laine’s dick was properly recovered, Sev could fall apart again with Laine’s shaft buried in his tight ass.

  For now, though… Laine pried Sev’s hands off his hips before rising up and letting Sev’s dick pop out of his hole.

  Sev started protesting but Laine shushed him—and knew he’d pay for it later—then he turned and mounted Sev again. He reached behind him for Sev’s dick then held it up to his pucker. Laine figured his grin was probably evil as he dropped down and took Sev’s cock in his ass in one move.

  Sev howled and writhed and Laine’s cock started to take interest. He rode Sev hard, grinding his hips with each full penetration. Sev’s hands were latched onto Laine’s thighs. There’d be bruises there come morning. Laine liked that idea a lot.

  “Laine, God, I…”

  Laine squeezed his inner muscles and Sev let loose a strangled shout. Hot cum filled Laine’s ass, painting his channel with streaks of Sev’s release. Sev whimpered when the last shot came, then he panted and pried open his pretty eyes.

  “You’re hard again.”

  Laine waggled his eyebrows at Sev. “So I am. What are you gonna do about it?”

  Sev made a lewd smacking noise with his lips. And Laine decided he was the luckiest man on the planet.

  * * * *

  “I can’t believe Mr. Kyle was driving seventy down Main Street,” Rich muttered. “Seventy! All because he wanted to get to the pharmacy before it closed.”

  Laine had to ask, though he suspected he’d regret it. “What’d he need from there that was so urgent? Heart medicine? Blood pressure? Dia—”

  “Viagra.” Rich actually kind of whined the answer, which maybe wasn’t very manly, but damned if Laine could blame him.

  “God, I just had to ask.” And now he’d be having the occasional thought that Mr. Kyle was getting down and dirty with his bride of fifty-plus years. Laine sighed and took off his hat then set it on the desk.

  It promptly went skittering off onto the floor. “Damn it, Conner, you shit.”

  Rich shook his head. “Time for me to split, boss man. I expect Mr. Kyle will be in here throwing a fit over me ticketing him first thing in the morning. He was too, er, too busy to come by here today.”

  Laine pointed at his office door. “Out. Go home to your guy and tell him about your traumatic ticketing.”

  Rich snickered and waved Laine off. “Look who’s all fancy, rockin’ the alliteration.”

  “Gotta have some skills besides being an awesome sheriff,” Laine retorted. His hat floated up until the crown touched the ceiling.

  Rich was already gone, and had missed Conner’s little display.

  “You must be bored, Conner,” Laine murmured. “Didn’t you just have enough of an adventure?”

  The breeze that swept over Laine was tinged with an electrical current that made the hair on his forearms stand up.

  “If that’s your idea of a hug—” Laine stopped, a familiar tightening in his throat and chest forcing him to take a steadying breath. Sometimes it hit him like that, like a punch, when it became real all over again that he was talking to Conner, a spirit Conner, that he’d lost the man he’d loved years ago only to regain his friendship in this unusual way. Laine had grown so used to the way things were now with him and Conner that he managed to leave the past in the past.

  But sometimes it hurt, and he wished Conner was there in the flesh, so he could hug his old friend and see Conner for himself.

  As if Conner sensed his mood, he caressed Laine’s cheek with an unmistakable touch.

  “Keep working on that and maybe you’ll be able to appear to me.” Laine shook his head. “Don’t listen to the rambling of an old fool. I’m just melancholy and contrary all at once.”

  A soft ripple of sound flitted past his ear. Laine cursed his moody self as his eyes burned and he closed them against the threat of unshed tears. He was just tired, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he needed to take a vacation—something Sev usually had to force him to do.

  “You’re looking awful contemplative, there.”

  Laine opened his eyes and found Zeke Matthers leaning against his doorway.

  “Door was open,” Zeke said. “Brendon’s at Virginia’s Café picking up dinner for us. Thought I’d stop in and see how you were doing.”

  Laine leaned back in his chair. “Uh huh. And your mama didn’t have anything to do with you showing up here?”

  Zeke hitched one shoulder up in a lazy shrug. “So what if she did? I’m here, extending a friendly hand, so to speak. Maybe a friendly ear.”

  “I’m just tired,” Laine said. And that was all he meant to say, but his damned mouth rebelled against his brain. “Sometimes I get a bit down about a few things, like not being able to see Conner, you know, or touch him. Not that I want to do anything improper with him, but to be able to hug him, to hear him tell me himself that he’s happy… And the thing is, I know he’s all right. Sev can tell, so there’s that. It’s just not the same, and I realize all at once, just out of the blue, what I lost when I lost him. Not as a lover, but as a person. Conner was—” He struggled to find more of the damned words that he hadn’t wanted to let out. “Conner was one of those vibrant peo
ple, you know, and now he’s a vibrant spirit, so why do I get to feeling like this?”

  Laine hadn’t been able to meet Zeke’s gaze for most of that babble-fest, but he did then, telling himself to get a backbone.

  Zeke hadn’t budged an inch, but there was something in his expression that matched up with how Laine was feeling.

  “Yeah, I get that, actually,” Zeke said after a moment. “My mom is here but not, and it’s great, on the one hand. At least I have her on some level, but goddamn, there are times I could use a hug and a pat on the head. And advice, yeah. Let me tell you, my mama had advice on everything, and once I got my head out of my ass and grew up, I listened to her. She wasn’t ever wrong. But…” He sighed. “I guess we have to learn to do things for ourselves. Grieve, for instance. When it comes to who we’ve lost, you and me, I mean, well we haven’t had to grieve like most people do. At first, sure, but when you found out Conner was still here in spirit, didn’t you get this big, warm ball of happiness that just spread out from your chest to every part of your body?”

  Laine would have teased Zeke about being so chatty at any other time. Neither he nor Laine were given to long dialogues in general. This wasn’t anything to joke about, however, and maybe there was a reason Zeke was standing there besides being nagged to do so by his mama. Maybe it was this loss and guilt over still feeling such a loss, when they had one of the people they loved back with them.

  “Yeah,” Laine finally answered. “Yeah, after I freaked the hell out when I found out about Conner, I was pretty happy to have him around. Even if he did mess with my stuff just for kicks.”

  “At least he doesn’t go around patting your partner on the ass,” Zeke said wryly.

  Laine gave him an arch look.

  Zeke laughed.

  “Conner likes to pull hair and pinch, too, though not hard, just enough to get a yelp out of Sev,” Laine admitted.

  Zeke stood up straight and grinned. “Mama patted Brendon on his butt one of the first times Brendon stayed with me. About scared a decade off the poor man’s life.”

  “I’d have paid to see that,” Laine said. “You’re lucky Brendon didn’t run off for good.”

  “I know it. He’s better than I deserve.” Zeke glanced at his watch. “Aren’t you off duty?”

  Laine checked the time. “Yeah, and I’m not gonna let the door hit me on the ass on the way out.”

  Zeke chuckled, and together they left the building, talking about the weather and everyday things.

  Laine parted ways with Zeke at the parking lot. He felt better having talked to Zeke, but he sure hoped he wasn’t going to become some emotional mess who spilled their drama all over the first person who looked at them with sympathy.

  The very idea of it was ridiculous. Laine stopped by his truck and glanced up at the bright blue sky. Two small, ragged clouds were overhead, doing little to encourage any hope of rain.

  What happened when a person died and their soul, their spirit, didn’t hang around like Conner’s and Mrs. Matthers’? Was there a Heaven, and if so, what about Hell?

  Laine had more questions than ever, and no way of knowing the answers. For a man who liked everything to be black or white, it was frustrating, but he’d also learned that few things in life were sure things.

  The love he felt for Sev, that was one thing that wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t say it wouldn’t change, either, because he knew it’d just keep growing stronger. Life, death, those were things everyone had to deal with, and he wasn’t an exception. His melancholy mood evaporated when he acknowledged that he had too much to be grateful for.

  The town of McKinton was his home base, but Sev…Sev was his home. Anywhere Sev went, that’s where Laine would be, in life or death.

  And brooding over anything was a waste of the precious time they had together.

  Really, he was damned lucky, having the love he did with Sev, and the friends they shared.

  Not many people could say they had a deceased lover for a best friend, either.

  It made Laine almost chuckle. He gave the sky one last look, then glanced around the nearby area, taking in the beauty of the trees and flowers the garden club took care of. McKinton wasn’t anything fancy, but it was a nice town, and he liked it.

  He waved to a couple of people then got in his truck and went home to his soul mate. “Soul mate. Yeah, that fits.”

  Sev greeted him with open arms on the porch. “Hey, how was your day?”

  “Best part of it’s happening right now.” Laine wrapped his arms around Sev. He wasn’t the most romantic of men—though when he looked into Sev’s beautiful eyes, he always wished he was—but his heart swelled with love and he could express that to Sev. “You know every day, I wake up with you and think, I’m the luckiest man in this world. You smile at me, and everything inside of me tingles. You touch me, and my troubles fade away.”

  “Laine.” Sev’s eyes had that teary sheen to them, and his expression was full of unmistakable joy.

  “Sev,” Laine whispered, brushing strands of Sev’s black hair away from his face. “I love you.”

  “I know.” Sev pressed up into a short, tender kiss that stole Laine’s breath. “I love you, too.”

  Laine held Sev until need swelled between them, then he followed Sev inside and slowly stripped the clothes off of his lover.

  Sev’s body was perfect, his skin smooth and muscles firm, cock ready for Laine’s attention.

  Laine removed his own clothes with less care and more haste. He pressed Sev down onto the couch and parted Sev’s legs with his knee.

  Staring into Sev’s eyes, Laine knew he didn’t need fancy, romantic words to express how he felt. Sev knew. He got it, and he did so because he felt the same way about Laine.

  Laine kissed Sev, cupping his face while fitting his hips to Sev’s. He aligned his cock beside Sev’s and started rocking, still kissing Sev, losing himself in the man.

  Sev arched and writhed beneath him, bringing more friction where Laine was craving it. He turned his head and gasped, dizzy with the force of his arousal.

  Sev clutched at his shoulders and wrapped his legs around Laine’s, which enabled him to thrust up harder, faster.

  As good as it felt, Laine needed more. He shoved up onto his knees and fisted Sev’s cock with one hand and his own with the other. The pre-cum they were leaking out was almost enough to make each stroke perfect at first, then the burn started, and he had to stop long enough to retrieve the lube from the bedroom.

  That was his plan, at least until he turned from the night stand and Sev growled and tackled him.

  It was damned hot, being wanted so much.

  Laine went sprawling onto his back on the bed, and Sev was on him like a man with more arms and legs than he actually had. Laine was touched everywhere, and the lube was plucked from his hand then slicked onto his cock.

  Sev’s eyes burned with need as he straddled Laine. Neither of them was able to speak when Sev held Laine’s cock steady then slowly sank down on it, his ass tight and hot and perfect as it gripped Laine’s shaft.

  Laine’s toes curled as ecstasy shot up and down from his groin. He held on to Sev’s muscular thighs as Sev began to move, undulating, rising up, dropping down, pushing Laine closer and closer to the orgasmic edge.

  “Oh,” Sev moaned when he leaned forward, his eyes rolling back before he closed them. “There. There!”

  “Yeah,” Laine gritted out, thrusting up harder, going after that sweet little spot that would make Sev scream.

  And Sev did, his ass clenching so tight around Laine’s cock that Laine had to lie still, his own body trembling as he came. Sev’s cum splattered between them, his shaft untouched by more than their bellies as they’d moved together.

  * * * *

  Later, once they’d cleaned up and shared a meal, Laine told Sev about Conner and the weird mood that had shaken him back in the office. “Of all people, Zeke showed up and we had a chat about it. I can’t believe I confided so much
in him.”

  Sev patted Laine’s thigh. “Hey, it’s okay to talk to a friend. Zeke and you might not have started out as besties, but that’s just because y’all are more alike than either of you would care to admit.”

  As much as Laine wanted to protest, he couldn’t. “You’re right, and you know, Zeke’s a good man.”

  “And so are you. The best man,” Sev clarified.

  Laine shook his head and caressed Sev’s cheek. “Not the best, honey. Not the best at all. That’d be you.”

  Sev smiled sweetly at him. “Flattery will get you laid, and an eternity of devotion from me.”

  Laine grinned. “Yeah, I’ll take it, honey. I’ll take it.”

  Also available from Pride Publishing:

  Dark Nights and Headlights

  Bailey Bradford

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  One of the good things about owning your own fairly decent-sized ranch was that you had a certain amount of freedom other people didn’t. You could walk around bare-assed naked in most places on it, let the grass grow crazy and not landscape for shit. You could have a pile, or piles, of rusty old equipment and trash that ought to be hauled off, buildings crumbling and in various states of disrepair, and you could do shit like what Joban ‘Joe’ Jacek was doing tonight—driving back across his property from his brother’s trailer, a little stoned and buzzed.

  Joe didn’t have the piles of trash or the crumbling buildings, and being butt naked outside was just asking to be mosquito bait. He did allow himself to get a bit loose sometimes. He knew the dirt road going from Trent’s place to his like he knew his own dick. Joe was on pretty damn great terms with his dick. They’d been best friends for going on two decades now.

  It wasn’t the first time Joe had made the drive in a somewhat altered state. Living on a ranch in the middle of Uvalde, Texas, Joe took his relaxation wherever he could get it. It was just him and Trent running the ranch, and at a little over a thousand acres, they were kept busy enough from morning until evening.