by Cameron Dane
“Oh, Mr. Quick. Hi.” Cassie Hawkins -- Alex recognized her from their paths crossing at the youth center -- smiled up at him. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Mrs. Hawkins.” Alex traipsed down the steps and extended his hand. “Hello.”
“Please, call me Cassie.” She pulled off work gloves before shaking his hand. “Can I help you with something? You didn’t have an appointment with my husband, did you?”
“No. I’m actually here to see Aaron.” Alex withdrew a folder from under his arm. “Ty told me this is where I would find him.”
“We finally did get temporary custody of him.” From conversations at the youth center, Alex knew the Hawkinses had worked to achieve foster care status so they could bring the twelve-year-old orphan into their home. “He’s out with Connor getting the official tour of the property right now.” She crossed her arms, and the smile suddenly left her eyes. “What do you want with our Aaron?”
Damn it. “No. I apologize. It’s nothing bad or weird.” Alex suddenly felt like a defense witness on the stand against a star prosecutor. “I heard from Ty that Aaron wanted to join my stock market program at the youth center but was too shy to ask. I wanted to come out and invite him, and I wanted to give him this information.” Alex handed over a blue folder. “It has a schedule of the classes, the tools he’ll need, and what is required to maintain eligibility for the competition.”
Cassie flipped through the pages inside the folder. “Aaron hasn’t mentioned anything about wanting to participate in your program, but at this stage that’s probably to be expected. This looks like a lot of fun.” Upon scanning the final page, Cassie whistled. “Wow.” She glanced up at him, her eyes wide. “You’re giving out some decent scholarship money for the top three winners.”
“Quick Holdings runs this program in every city we own property,” Alex explained. “And while we ultimately won’t own the homes we’re building in Quinten, we are undertaking major construction and a long-term presence, so we decided to implement the stock market program here as well.”
A twinkle lit Cassie’s eyes. “Sounds like you plan to stick around Quinten for a good long while.”
“Yeah…well…I mean…” Good God. No other place or people in the world managed to tongue-tie Alex as much as the folks in this town. Starting over, he took a moment to gather his thoughts and said, “I don’t actually have to run the program myself. I can train someone. And honestly, the private Web site we’ve created for the kids perfectly mimics not only the New York Stock Exchange but also the major global exchanges. It is the biggest, best teaching tool we have available.” Back on solid ground, Alex slipped into selling with ease. “The kids can talk to other kids who are in the program, and they can leave questions for experts that Quick Holdings makes sure are answered.”
The glint in this woman’s gaze only grew. “You didn’t exactly answer my question, but you sound very proud of your outreach program. Congratulations.”
“Not just me.” Alex waived off the praise. “It was a company-wide idea. It’s fun for all of us. We like participating and getting kids excited about business.”
Cassie flipped through the booklet again. “And you’re sure Aaron wants to do this?”
“That’s what I understand,” Alex replied. “He has missed a few weeks but still has a real possibility of being able to catch up and become a contender. It’s all about how well your mind has the ability to absorb this kind of information and how you learn. I might be biased, but I think it’s an excellent learning tool, along with the plus that it offers the possibility of earning scholarship money.”
“It all sounds great to me. If Ty is right about Aaron’s interest -- and Aaron trusts him, so I see no reason why he wouldn’t be -- I’m sure Aaron will be excited you came to share this news. Connor and I will make sure he’s there” -- Cassie ran her finger down the first page in the folder -- “on Friday for his first class.”
“Excellent.” Another potential future Quick Holdings employee. Alex didn’t have entirely altruistic views about this program. Great minds could come from anywhere. As an employer who coveted a combination of street smarts and intelligence in his associates, Alex had intentions that were as ruthless as they were charitable. “I look forward to getting Aaron up to speed.”
Cassie tapped the folder against her thigh. “Let me put this in the house before I get manure all over it.” She moved past him and took the stairs to the porch. “It was good to see you again, Mr. Quick.”
“Call me Alex.” He took the steps three at a time to reach her and exchange another handshake. “It was nice to see you too, Cassie. Bye.”
Giddy as hell, Alex loped back down the steps. See? It wasn’t so stupid to come after all. Aaron’s a sweet kid, and you helped him out. Beyond that, Alex really liked what he knew so far of the Hawkins family and would love to get to know them better. Mack’s illness had driven home a number of truths for Alex, but top on that list was the realization that he had a lot of acquaintances and colleagues, and people he even trusted with his business, but very few close friends. You have Sarah now. I think Jace and Jasper too, even if they don’t say it.
As much as Alex trusted Sarah, though, something inside him still held back from talking to her about Mack and the crushing paralysis the man’s illness put on Alex. Every time Alex opened his mouth to tell Sarah everything, something deeper in his gut smothered the words. You’re not used to spilling your soul. It’s not…you.
Every nerve ending in Alex’s body suddenly sizzled to life and put the fine hairs on end. At the hood of his replacement car -- yes, another economy model -- he spun and immediately homed in on two riders in the distance. Not terribly close, Alex couldn’t see the more slender cowboy well enough or decipher the finer characteristics as familiar. He didn’t have a clear view of the second man either. Didn’t matter though. Millions of receptors in Alex’s being knew the second cowboy, and they all hummed at the sight of him. Sitting atop a horse, the brim of his Stetson shading half his face, Hunter ignited silly warmth and tingles in Alex. He’s okay. Alex smiled, unable to keep the response down. As Alex stared, a rusty sound carried across the late spring breeze. That is Hunter laughing. Hell. Alex went from a grin to a full-on internal lightness, just for himself.
Mission two accomplished. Alex had wanted to see Hunter. Check. He’d experienced an overwhelming urge to make sure the man was all right, and it looked as though he was fine. Check. Check. Now Alex could make a quick trip to visit Mack without extra worry on his heart. He’d trusted his instincts to visit Hawkins Ranch, and it had paid off.
It is a good day.
For a moment, Alex just basked in watching a specimen of male beauty sitting tall in his saddle.
Hot damn.
“DON’T LOOK NOW,” Corey, Hunter’s work partner for the day, said, “but I think you have an admirer.”
“What?” Hunter followed the deceptively slender line of Corey’s arm and found Alex in the visitors’ parking area, his focus on Hunter and Corey. “Oh.” Hunter’s mouth went a little dry. He couldn’t help it. Already classically handsome, Alex made a fitted dark T-shirt and khaki pants somehow sinfully sexy, when normally Hunter responded to what he’d grown up surrounded by and discovered he loved as an adolescent: a cowboy.
Corey’s blue gaze narrowed in a squint. “I recognize him. He’s that rich guy, right?”
Hunter’s heart started pumping blood faster, and he couldn’t look away from Alex. “He’s more than that,” he murmured, mesmerized by the lopsided grin Alex wore.
“How so?”
“I don’t know,” Hunter admitted. Innate admiration for the man filled him, though, even as the same admiration and attraction had him fighting the need to duck his head and hide. “He just…is.”
“Oh.”
Hunter blushed. Corey chuckled. Hunter went even redder, but still he couldn’t tear his stare from Alexander Quick.
Grinning, from across a trampled field of
grass, Alex dipped his head and offered Hunter a little salute. Without thinking, Hunter tipped his hat and offered a small wave back. After acknowledging the gesture, Alex climbed in behind the wheel and drove away.
“Seems like he might be a good guy,” Corey said.
“Yeah.” Hunter gave the slender young man next to him a rare smile. One that didn’t have a chaser of panic or worry. “I think he is.” I think he might be a real good man.
Alex would not have come to Hunter’s work, spotted him, smiled, and waved, if he’d gone to Sarah and revealed Hunter’s secret. Many in town called the man shrewd, and Hunter suspected the assessment was correct. At the same time, Hunter had never witnessed malice or cruelty in Alex. He didn’t appear to be the kind of man to mock people. Coming to Hunter’s work today and saluting like he had would have been cruel if he’d revealed any part of their conversation to Sarah.
Corey made a clicking noise and trotted his horse a few steps forward. “Ready to get some lunch so we can get back to work?” he asked, looking back at Hunter over his shoulder.
Hunter pulled up alongside his coworker, shouting, “Let’s do it,” and they put both their horses into a thundering gallop.
For the rest of the day, Hunter caught himself grinning off and on without provocation. He had Alex to thank for the uptick in his mood, and he knew it.
* * * *
“Yep. I see him right now,” Hunter said. “I promise I’ll ask.”
Through the speaker on his cell, Sarah’s voice filled the truck. “Okay, I love you. Jace says hi.” A masculine tone echoed in the background. “And Jasper too,” Sarah added.
“Hello right back. I have to go.” Hunter slowed down his speed as he drew closer to Alex. “Bye.”
Four days later, Hunter still rode the high of Alex’s smile and salute. His pulse picked up considerably as he pulled up next to Alex, so very close to the man’s sweat-slick skin and near nakedness. Hunter hadn’t cut himself in nearly a week, so he took this buzzing awareness as mostly sexual attraction and very little about emotions near to bursting out of control. He could handle himself now. Shit, he’d even removed the cutting paraphernalia from his glove compartment yesterday. He managed to keep his violence in check by only fingering his pocketknife rather than using it to cut his flesh. Life is definitely getting better.
Clearly sensing a vehicle near him, Alex moved deeper into the grass. He looked over his shoulder, then came right back up to the road when Hunter pulled to a stop next to him.
Winded, Alex said, “Morning,” in a raspy voice. “Wasn’t sure I’d see you on this road again.” Still sucking air, Alex moved in a modified prowl. When he circled back, he paused at Hunter’s window and made eye contact. “It’s the one time I’m happy to be wrong.” Roughness remained in his tone.
Motherfucking shit. Hunter opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Apparently overcoming the urge to injure himself didn’t mean Hunter could now wax poetic in Alex’s presence. Say something, damn it, before he leaves.
“I was talking to my sister, and she said something about inviting you to dinner. I told her I see you in the mornings sometimes and I would mention it, so that’s what I’m doing.” It felt like someone had kicked Hunter in the back of his neck and jarred all the words loose at once. “She said something about sometime next week.”
“Oh.” Jutting his chin, Alex looked like he’d taken one on the jaw without flinching. “We’re only passing each other this morning because you’re delivering a message.” He dipped his head and again began wearing a pattern into the small patch of grass. “Got it.”
“And because I’m back to my schedule,” Hunter explained, his brow knitting as he studied Alex.
The man jerked his head up. “What?”
Oh. It hit Hunter like a frying pan in the face, and then made his belly tremble. He thought I was avoiding him. “I was working an extra hour in the morning and the evening to help make up the work of another cowboy who had to go home. He’s back now, so I’m back to my normal start time.”
“Oh.” Once again, those cute stripes of pink cut across Alex’s cheekbones.
Hunter’s mouth watered to lick that blush away. “Okay, so…” He didn’t dare look another second without hauling this man in through the window and eating his mouth raw. The beginnings of bad things churned in Hunter’s brain -- things that mixed aggressive sex and violence. His body too long denied, Hunter began envisioning a rough sexual mating that once started, he wouldn’t be able to stop.
Son of a bitch. Hunter ripped his gaze off Alex in case the brutality showed in his eyes. “I have to go,” he murmured, reminding himself it wasn’t in his nature to hurt other people. Even though hunger lived inside him, he could manage it and it would be okay. “Don’t forget to call Sarah. Bye.”
“Wait!” Alex grabbed Hunter’s truck, halting him before he started.
“Yeah?” Hunter asked, without looking.
Alex shifted, and it put his profile in the side mirror. “Will you be at Sarah’s dinner next week?” As Alex asked, Hunter could see him wringing his hands and then rubbing them against his thighs.
The nervous tic in Alex pricked deep inside Hunter, overrode all else, and pulled him out of hiding. He looked into green eyes that didn’t waver, but at the same time could still see Alex’s palm rubbing against his leg. The combination of strength and nervousness drew an answer out of Hunter he hadn’t intended to give. “I will,” he said. He touched his fingers to the brim of his Stetson. “Bye again.”
As Hunter drove away, his cock pushed against his jeans, painfully reminding him he hadn’t buried himself inside another man in far too long. The image of Alex running remained in Hunter’s rearview mirror, and the ache to get that man under him and open for a fucking stayed front and center. Violence and fear did not dominate the hunger in Hunter’s desires this time, though -- just healthy, vigorous wanting.
Hunter’s heart rate settled, and he even managed a victorious fist bump against his steering wheel.
He took another glance at Alex, so fucking sexy, and suddenly couldn’t wait for dinner at his sister’s next week.
CHAPTER THREE
MAY
Alex shifted on the lumpy couch, the cotton sheet beneath his half-naked frame cool against the humidity already setting nasty levels for late spring, even in Georgia where the folks were used to it. After Alex had gone away to college, Mack had slowly converted Alex’s old room to part office and part storage room. Mack had told Alex he would leave the space alone for when Alex visited, but Alex had assured Mack that he did not mind sleeping on the couch or the floor when he came home. Alex didn’t see any point in inconveniencing Mack by putting a bed back in there now just because he was home more often than usual.
Letting his eyes drift closed, Alex blocked out the light from the streetlamps bleeding into the living room through the sheer curtains on the windows. An occasional shift in the breeze lifted the faded, dusty rose lengths like long scarves floating in the small room. Muted sounds from the rest of the neighborhood streaming in from late parties or getting up to work ungodly shifts for unlivable wages worked to invade Alex’s mind, but he had his hand on his cock and that overrode all distractions.
Hunter Tennison filled Alex’s thoughts, as he did most of the time lately. Every time Alex crossed paths with Hunter while in town, or when Hunter slowed down his truck to wave and exchange a murmured “good morning” or “hello” when he passed Alex in the mornings, Alex more easily accepted that he had a case of good old-fashioned lust. Actually it had started out as lust, but somewhere along the way Alex found himself working to hold Hunter’s gaze for more than two seconds or trying to pull more than a few sentences out of the man when they came into contact. Each time he was successful, which was sporadic at best, Alex found himself drawn into Hunter’s quiet nature. Alex began to sense he could actually like this person a lot if given a chance. More and more, when Alex went to sleep, Hunter invaded his dreams.
/> Alex had woken up a few minutes ago with his cock sticking straight up, hard as hell and pearling cum as if he were a teenager and fantasizing about the college boy across the street. Remnants of his last interaction with Hunter still monopolized Alex’s thoughts.
Holy fuck. Alex couldn’t get their little meeting on the side of the road out of his mind. He wasn’t avoiding me. In the darkened living room of his childhood, Alex’s chest constricted as much as it had that morning. It wasn’t so much the few words Hunter had said but rather the gruff way he’d said them. Along with that, the way Hunter had looked straight into Alex’s eyes for that split second continued to fill Alex with tentative hope.
Those deep brown eyes and almost too-severely angled cheekbones, nose, and stubble-covered jaw filled Alex’s vision where he lay right now and spurred him to pull on his cock. Alex gasped as sharp lines of shooting pleasure raced from his prick in every direction, tagging his balls and tightening his belly on its way to his nipples. The stroking action simultaneously pulled contractions deep in Alex’s chute and rippled tingling tendrils up his spine. Alex rubbed his shaft and thumbed the thick ridge of his glans, pinching himself, and then groaned as nearly unimaginable joy thickened the dark red head of his dick even more. Satiny slick early ejaculate overflowed from his slit, and Alex opened his eyes to watch himself anoint his fingers with the stuff.
Soon Alex had his shaft covered with the sheen of precum. He whipped his hand up and down his length with quicker and fuller drags, the action thrumming wonderful tension throughout his frame. His balls throbbed full and heavy between his legs. Alex shoved his other hand into the mix, squeezing and tugging his sac in a way that sent a silent moan of thank you throughout his being. Sensation after sensation rippled within every nerve ending in Alex’s prick and balls. He writhed against the cotton sheets in an effort to cool his heated skin, and he even clamped both hands around his cock and punched his hips off the couch into the tight squeeze. Still it wasn’t enough to make him come.