My Choice, My Chance: Men Of Crooked Bend Book 2

by Taylor Rylan

  “Is that what you think we do?”

  “It’s not?” I volleyed back at him.

  “Maybe you should ask your boyfriend what it is that his papa’s company does,” Jonathan told me with a devious smirk on his face.

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Jasper? Your boyfriend? It’s his papa’s company. Ask him what it is we do.”

  I wondered first why his tone was so strange. Why would I ask Jasper when I was sitting right there with him. The second thing I wondered was how he knew that Jasper and I were involved. “How did you…”

  I was interrupted by the waiter bringing out our entrees. I ordered the chicken Alfredo. I was crazy about it. Jonathan opted for an enormous sampler plate with four different entrees. How he could eat all that food and look like he did was beyond me. Somehow, he managed to finish every bite, and a basket of breadsticks, his salad, and a dessert!

  “What?” he asked when he noticed me staring at him.

  “Nothing. I was just trying to figure out where you put all of it. You ate enough for two, maybe even three people!” I replied on a chuckle after we left the restaurant and were walking back toward my apartment. It was great that everything was within walking distance. Everything I could ever need was right there. It will be a big change for me if things worked out with Jasper, and I moved to Crooked Bend. Small town living would definitely take some getting used to.

  “Well, not only do I have a fast metabolism, but I also work out every day so I keep in shape and remain ready for what my job might throw at me. I have a physically demanding job. You know, being a bodyguard is hard, physical work.” Jonathan gave me a wink.

  I knew he was picking on me just because I didn’t understand exactly what it was he did. I didn’t like that at all. I needed to talk to Jasper about what exactly it was that Stealth Securities did.

  He lessened the dig when I looked at Jonathan and noticed the smile on his face. He really was easy on the eyes. I wasn’t really looking for someone. After all, I had Jasper. With him, I really wanted to look—a lot.

  “Are we going to be able to leave tomorrow like we planned?” I wanted to desperately change the subject.

  “That is the plan. It’s about a fifteen-hour drive, so we’ll probably try doing it in two days instead of one. But, if we get up early enough, we can push through and make it in one day if you like. You left room for me in your car, right?”

  “Yeah, there’s still room for your things, and Rhett’s as long as you don’t have much. I only have two suitcases and my laptop. My office is pretty mobile so it’s easy to take it with me just about anywhere.”

  “Rhett’s clothes fit into three suitcases. That’s all he said he wanted for now. I shipped his books and Blu-rays. They’d fill up your car all by themselves.”

  “My car is small but has more room than you might think if we lay the back seats down. We should have enough room for all of the suitcases. I plan on coming back to Seattle before Rhett does, so I don’t need to take all of my clothes.”

  “Okay. I don’t get why you aren’t just moving to California, though. I mean, you plan on spending the next several months with Rhett, right? Why keep paying rent on an apartment here?” Jonathan asked.

  That sure made me think. I was close to jumping in with both feet with Jasper. Should I give up my apartment and save money? I should slow down. I made a mistake with Mike; jumping in with both feet got me beat up. Would I be making a mistake if I did the same with Jasper? As it was, I was considering splitting my time between Monterey and Crooked Bend. I knew that Rhett didn’t seem to want me around all the time. I had a nagging feeling that on some level I was a reminder to him about what Mike had done to him. What if I got rid of my apartment and Jasper and I didn’t work out? Oh, my brain was throbbing!

  “Yeah, that makes sense, but I’m not in the position to do that right now. Especially not if we only have until tomorrow. I’ve been in my apartment a lot longer than Rhett was in his, and I have a lot more shit!” I told Jonathan on a laugh. It was definitely something to consider and think about.

  Before I made such a life-changing decision, I should probably talk to Jasper about it, even though he’d already mentioned me moving to Crooked Bend to be closer to him. I could look into finding somewhere to rent there. I knew that Jasper’s house was a rental so that meant there were others, right?

  We returned to my apartment and Jonathan helped me take my suitcases downstairs and out to the car. Even though I had an apartment, we were both staying in a hotel for the night. I only had one bedroom, and one bed, and Jonathan wasn’t going to fit on my couch. We would get an earlier start if we both stay in the same place, and we’d picked a hotel near the interstate, away from the downtown area that I lived. I gave it another look around before deciding that what I had would do for the time being. As long as I met my self-imposed deadlines, and kept my readers happy, I could live anywhere with Internet access. I couldn’t imagine a book I couldn’t access from Amazon or another vendor. I knew Jasper had Internet access, so that wouldn’t be an issue.

  When I joined Jonathan downstairs, he took my bags from me and we loaded up into my baby. I missed Baloo over the past month and I was more than happy to be back behind my baby’s wheel. That was, until Jonathan opened the passenger door for me and tried to usher me into the seat.

  “What exactly do you think you’re doing? You honestly believe I’m gonna let you drive Baloo to the hotel?”

  “Blue? Really?”

  “No, not Blue. Ba-loo. You know, from The Jungle Book? Baloo is a perfectly respectable name for my baby!" Baloo was really my only splurge. When I saw the Ford Focus RS, Nitrous Blue, with a six-speed manual transmission, yeah, I knew I had to have it. Baloo was fun to drive. What I didn’t fully think through was that I rarely got to drive him like I should. As I said before, everything was within walking distance. The trip to Monterey and then on to Crooked Bend would give me plenty of time to drive him.

  “You’re not going to let me drive at all?”

  “Can you even drive a manual?” I was grasping at straws, trying to think of everything I could think of to come up with a reason why I couldn’t let him drive us to the hotel. It’d been so long since I’d been able to drive Baloo.

  “Yes, Liam. I can handle a manual,” he said dryly. He had to know I was making excuses “I know my way around a stick quite well, so I’ve been told,” Jonathan purred. If there wasn’t a double entendre there, I was straight. Holy shit! Was Jonathan gay? Was he flirting with me? I had no idea. I just assumed that he was straight.

  Giving up, I handed Jonathan the keys and sulked into the passenger seat of my car. It wasn’t like I wouldn’t get to drive tomorrow, right? What I didn’t realize was, not only could Jonathan handle a manual, he could drive a manual. It was definitely not his first time shifting gears.

  “I’d like to hear how you got to learn how to drive like this,” I commented while relaxing into the passenger seat of my car. I guess I could get used to sitting over here. My car was fun to drive, but also a comfortable ride.

  “Europe,” Jonathan replied.

  “Europe. That’s it? Just Europe? What were you doing there?” I asked. I realized I had no business asking so many personal questions, but I was curious.

  “I was there on assignment.”

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “I couldn’t tell you anyway. Most of what it is that we do is need-to-know, sorry.” He winked at me. “I’d have ta kill ya if I told.”

  Before I knew it, we were at the hotel and it was time to climb out of the car. That seemed to put a curt end to our conversation on the subject of Jonathan’s job. Besides, I really wanted to get checked into my room and give Jasper a call. Our earlier conversation was too short. I had a lot to talk about with him after everything that happened this afternoon.

  11—Jasper

  I certainly learned how to be patient since meeting Liam. I knew he was quite skit
tish when I first saw him and I couldn’t just jump into bed with him like I normally do with men. That was probably for the best. But now, my patience was unraveling.

  Liam said he'd be here just as soon as he got Rhett’s things dropped off in California. That was over a week ago and still no Liam.

  I couldn’t blame him; there was no way that he could get to me. We were hit with a blizzard right before Valentine’s Day and nobody could get in or out of the area. We were all hunkered down in our homes. All businesses were closed for the duration. Living in town offered some small blessing. I was lucky enough to still have electricity. Sean and Simon weren’t as lucky at Wild Creek Ranch. Sean said they had briefly lost power. Thankfully, though, Simon had a generator. After all, it wasn’t a rare occurrence in the winter. Still, better them than me.

  They had each other to keep warm. I only had FaceTime Liam, and my right hand. My right hand had much to be desired since having a taste of Liam.

  I wanted Liam’s hands on my body. I wanted to feel his whisper-soft kisses everywhere; especially on my dick. I regret that we didn’t get around to sucking each other off, thought we were close a few times. That was a more intense level of intimacy that I wasn’t sure Liam was ready for yet. I regretted not having experienced his plump lips wrapped around my aching shaft while I gently pumped in and out of his mouth. Yeah, I was horny. I couldn’t remember a time that I had ever gone so long without having sex. I’m thinking before I started having sex.

  It helped make me feel better that Liam was just as frustrated as I was. He seemed every bit as anxious to get back to me as I was to have him here. His texts became much more frequent and so much kinkier. Who knew the little imp was so kinky? Yeah, life was definitely not going to be boring with Liam, that’s for sure.

  Once the weather cleared up after a week of being snowed in, things were so hectic that it was probably a good thing that Liam wasn’t in Crooked Bend. I didn’t have time to spend with him. I left before sun-up and worked late into the night. I did it so my brother could help with what needed done at the ranch. Wild Creek was hit especially hard since they were further out and close to the mountains. They didn’t have the county to help keep things plowed, and since the ranch was several miles inland, it was probably going to be a few more days before Sean could even leave the ranch. They had their own equipment of course, but the animals came first.

  That meant that I was practically living in the office in Jackson. I really needed to talk to Sean about opening a satellite office in Crooked Bend. Maybe it was time to look at adding another architect to the firm as well. One who would work out of the Jackson office. Our business was growing rapidly and we could definitely support another architect. There were a lot of perks to living in a tourist town. I didn’t really miss it. I’d grown quite fond of the laid-back environment that Crooked Bend offered.

  The last week of February was definitely one that I'd remember for a long time. Sean finally returned to the office allowing me to leave work at a reasonable time. At last, Liam could finally visit. We were talking on the phone while he booked his flight. It was the first of what I hoped would be many long weekend visits. He’d arrive on Thursday and leave the next Monday. I already arranged to have Friday off. I planned on spending the three days with him; hopefully naked and in bed.

  When my little imp finally arrived, I was surprised with what I saw. He looked like he hadn’t slept in months, which worried me a great deal. I was pleased to see his bruises were gone, but I was aware of that thanks to the past month’s video chatting.

  What I saw, I thought his eyes might as well have been blackened again; the dark circles under them were so prominent. When he saw me in the baggage claim, all he could do was trudge toward me, exhausted. He crashed into me, rather than falling into my waiting arms. He was so much smaller than I was so I had no problem catching him and supporting his weight. He finally spoke, allaying some of my worry.

  “Missed you. Need you,” Liam muffled into my chest. His arms were flung lifelessly over my shoulders.

  I tightened my arms around his lower torso. I quietly enjoyed the feeling of finally having him back in my arms. “Sweetheart, are you okay? You look exhausted.” I pulled back from him enough to look down into his eyes. What I saw made my heart skip a beat.

  When Liam looked at me, I saw not only his tiredness, but something else, too. Something I didn’t want to think about just yet. I couldn't wrap my mind around what I saw. Did Liam feel for me the way I did for him? Was I ready to acknowledge that I love him? Was I ready for him to love me? I knew that we needed to take things slowly. He just got out of a very bad relationship. I’d never had a relationship so yeah, the fact that I saw what I could only describe as love in Liam’s eyes scared me a little.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just exhausted like you said. It’s nothing that a good night’s sleep wrapped in your arms won’t fix. I haven’t been sleeping the best, you can see that. Since you were so slammed with work, I dove in and finished the first draft of my latest manuscript. I brought my laptop but I don’t plan on working at all this weekend since my draft is with my editor,” Liam told me as we walked over to the carousel. We watched as it started rotating and bags started rolling around it.

  “Really?” I know I sounded like an excited kid, but I was excited. “You finished it already? Didn’t you just start it?” Liam pointed out the first of his bags on the carousel. I grabbed it before it got away from us. Liam quickly grabbed the second one and then we were off, out the door and into the icy cold Wyoming weather. I was so happy to see him wearing a nice warm sweater under his North Face coat. There was still snow everywhere and it was bitterly cold. The temperature reminded me how much I wanted to get Liam back to my place and snuggle up with him.

  “Yeah, I finished it. I’ve never written a manuscript that fast before and honestly, I probably never will again. I had a lot of free time on my hands.” He shrugged. “Rhett spent a lot of time going from one appointment to another. Most of the time Taylor took him so I just spent most of the day writing. With you working long hours, too, I put in a lot of eighteen hour days,” Liam explained.

  None of what Liam told me sat well in my mind. Not only that Liam was working so much, but also because I didn’t realize that Rhett had so many appointments. I really should have taken more time asking him or our dads about Rhett. I probably would have better luck getting information out of Papa than I did Rhett. He’d become reclusive since reaching California.

  I put Liam’s bags in the back seat of my truck and helped him into the passenger seat before climbing in and starting the engine. “I thought we would stop for dinner in Jackson if that’s okay with you? I went shopping so we have plenty of food at the house, but I thought with you being cooped up in an airplane for hours you might just be happier eating out tonight?”

  “That sounds great, Jasper. Almost like a date even,” Liam said while looking at me.

  I still couldn’t get over how tired he looked. Reaching toward him, I realized I hadn’t yet even given him a hello kiss. “Come here, you.” I wrapped my hand around the nape of his neck. The contented sigh he let escape reassured me that I’d made the right choice when I chose to kiss him before we left the airport parking lot. The kiss was soft and gentle, which was exactly how I felt about him right then. He just looked so fragile and it made me want to protect him from everything. “It’s a date. The first of many, hopefully,” I replied after ending the kiss.

  “Is it okay with you if we pick something up quick?” He glanced at me apologetically. “I’m sorry Jasper, I really am beat. All I want to do is curl up with you and sleep for twelve hours. I promise I’ll be up for anything come tomorrow.”

  “I know just the place. There is this amazing diner by my old house. The food is great and the service is quick. It’s better than fast food any day and I really don’t want to take you to McDonald’s for our first date, alright?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Now that I had a
destination in mind, I headed toward the diner in hopes of getting Liam fed before he fell asleep. The place was just as I remembered it. Then again, it hadn’t been that long since I’d been there. The food was always delicious and the service quick. If the noises Liam was making while devouring his bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and chocolate milkshake were any indication, he approved of my choice of dinner location.

  After paying our check, I ushered Liam back into the truck and headed for Crooked Bend. I couldn’t wait to get home and wrap Liam up where he belonged, in my arms. I’d hoped for a more eventful reunion, though I couldn’t put him through that when he was so tired. I knew that sexy times were out of the question tonight. I was more than content to hold him in my arms again. It’d been a month since I had and it was just as long since I’d had a decent night’s sleep.

  Once we got to my place, Liam went to take a quick shower while I made sure everything was locked up for the night. I moved his bags to my bedroom and was in the process of placing them on the bed when he came out of the shower wrapped in a towel.

  “I just need some pajama pants from the little one tonight.” He paused and gave me an impish grin. “Unless you wanted to sleep naked?” he said with a smirk on his face. There he was, that was my Liam that left with my dads and brother a month ago.

  “Naked works for me,” I replied. At that, he dropped his towel and climbed into my king-sized bed. I couldn’t wait to join him, even if I was only going to hold him all night. He was here and I was going to make the most of it. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes, alright?”

  “Mmm,” Liam mumbled to me as I walked toward the bathroom to have my own shower and brush my teeth. I’d no doubt that he'd be asleep when I came back out of the bathroom. Ten minutes later, I discovered that he had indeed fallen soundly asleep while snuggling into my pillow. I quietly crawled into bed and he immediately latched on to my side. I somehow managed to get my arm under his head so I could wrap around him. When he put his head on my shoulder, I, too, let out a contented sigh and fell asleep faster than I had in the past month. Yeah, definitely needed to figure out how to get him here sooner rather than later.