Aftermath by Bailey Bradford (most important books of all time txt) 📗

the idea of being alone with nothing to do for a week was kind of intimidating. Darren would have entirely too much time to think, something he tried to avoid. He’d just have to keep busy.

The chicken coop could use a new coat of paint on the outside, and he’d been meaning to weed the vegetable garden and look up whether or not it was too late to plant anything. Darren started making a list in his head as he made his way to the office. He nearly tripped over his feet when it dawned on him he was making plans as if he meant to stay in McKinton.

Was he? Darren forced himself to keep moving as he considered the question. Would it be so bad to stay somewhere? He hadn’t wanted anyone to depend on him ever again, but he already sort of had friends here, if he considered a couple of overprotective older men friends. Darren realized he did think of Laine and Severo as friends, and Virginia, too. She’d found him hitching along 97, filthy and starving, scared, and yet she’d stopped and offered him a ride. Then a place to stay and a job here at her café. If that didn’t make her a friend, Darren didn’t know what would.

He hefted his backpack onto his shoulder, trying not to think about what he and Lee had done in here a few hours earlier. It was no use. Darren’s dick had started hardening the second he’d walked in the door. At least he was in the habit of wearing his apron home—and Mrs. Hawkins’ place was home, at least for now—and washing it out in the evening so it was clean for work the next day. No one would think twice about him leaving it on now, which was a good thing.

Glancing at the door where Lee had kept him pinned with one big hand on his belly, he regretted that he’d never get to feel Lee’s cock filling his mouth as he’d filled Lee’s.

“Jeez,” Darren muttered as lust settled in his groin, warming him from his core to the tips of his fingers and toes. If just thinking about it got him this wound up, what would actually doing it do? Darren huffed as he strode from the room. Likely he’d do something stupid like think he was in love if sex with Lee felt anywhere near as good as that blow job had. Darren could definitely understand how people got lust and love confused.

Darren stepped out of the back entrance and steeled himself for what he hoped wouldn’t become a confrontation. His anxiety eased somewhat when Laine’s lips quirked and Severo grinned.

“You look like you were walking out to meet your doom,” Severo said. “Don’t think that you’re the only person who’s ever been blindsided by lust. Me and Laine know a thing or two about it, too.”

Darren knew he was blushing to the roots of his hair as Laine scowled at Severo. “Too much information, sweetheart. You embarrassed the hell out of Darren.”

Laine’s cheeks had a ruddy stripe of color tinting his skin, too. Darren pushed past his usual reticence and gave the sheriff an arch look. “I’m not the only one, either. You’re looking kind of colorful there yourself.”

The color on Laine’s cheeks deepened as Severo laughed, and Darren felt a tingle of pride at having been able to tease back. He joined the two men beside Laine’s truck and waited until he had their attention. “I’m going to talk to Lee.”

Laine nodded and his normally icy gray eyes seemed to warm as he looked at Darren. “I figured as much.”

“Are you really planning on talking?” Severo piped up, waggling his eyebrows.

“Yes,” Darren croaked, sure he was going to burst into flames any second, his cheeks felt so hot.

“He told me some of what happened.”

That chased the heat right out of Darren, leaving him so cold inside it was almost a physical pain. His throat tightened with emotion as he glanced away, afraid he’d cry if he saw even a hint of sympathy in Laine or Severo’s faces. “What’d he tell you?” Darren finally asked when neither of the two men spoke. He listened as Laine recited a short list of facts. Darren’s friendship with Stefan, Lee joining the military, Darren’s mother’s death and so quickly on the heels of that shattering moment, Stefan’s only days after.

When Laine mentioned Lee’s suspicions that there might have been more to Stefan’s death than it seemed, Darren thought the guilt might suffocate him. He managed to murmur an appropriate response then quickly said no when Laine offered him a ride to the motel. It wasn’t far, and Darren needed a few minutes alone to compose himself before talking to Lee.

He thanked Laine and Severo both and promised to call them if he needed a ride home from the motel. Severo’s whispered question of whether or not Darren had ‘protection’ had it sinking in to him that, despite his claim earlier, Severo—and probably Laine, too, for that matter—thought he was going to have sex with Lee.

Darren wished he was. Even if it hurt, it wouldn’t be as painful as the conversation to come.

* * * *

Lee flopped back on the bed and draped his arm over his eyes. Talking to Laine hadn’t been as bad as Lee had thought. The man wasn’t a bully as Lee had suspected, he’d just been very concerned about Darren. That alone made Lee kind of like the sheriff. Laine tried to come off all rough and gruff and cold—and he was, to an extent. But he also obviously cared a great deal about the people in this town, and about Darren in particular. Lee understood—Darren brought out protective instincts in Lee he’d thought long gone.

“That’s not all he does to me,” Lee groused, glaring down at his stiff dick. About the only time that part of him hadn’t been in that particular state since first seeing Darren was when