Love in Xxchange: Rory's Last Chance by Bailey Bradford (poetry books to read txt) 📗

Rory nodded at the questioning tone in Chance’s voice, felt a rush of warmth at the sympathy gleaming in those rich brown eyes.

“Yeah. Sorry he did that. He’s just really bitter and…nothing is going to change his mind about what I am. I knew that, grew up listening to him rant about gays. I tried to keep it from him.” Rory just shook his head. He’d been naïve to think his father would never find RORY’S LAST CHANCE

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out, and just plain stupid to hope the man would change his views if he did learn that his own son was gay. “I should have known better.”

“Rory, it doesn’t make you a fool to want your family to accept you, to hope that they love you unconditionally. Mine didn’t, either, but they just cut me out and never had anything to do with me again.” Chance glanced down and cleared his throat before continuing. “I always hoped that me and my folks would reconcile, but they were killed in a house fire three years after I told them.”

Chance’s eyes filled, but unlike Rory, he didn’t seem inclined to stop the tears from escaping. “In truth, they probably wouldn’t have ever changed their minds, opened their hearts, but as long as they were alive, I had hope.” Chance tugged on Rory’s hands, bringing them to rest on the older man’s thighs. “I wouldn’t wish it for you, Rory, but maybe it’s best to know that your father will probably never change and try to deal with it as well as you can.”

Rory tried, he really did, but he couldn’t just sit there and watch while his lover’s cheeks were tracked with silent tears. It only took a good tug to pull Chance onto the couch, where Rory stretched out and held the man to his side. Even if this talk ended with Chance telling him they were done, Rory would at least have this, the memory of holding his lover…as the man grumbled something about not being a pussy. Biting back a smile, Rory held Chance close.

“Never said you were a pussy, boss. Or I guess if you are, so am I because this is hard for me, too.” But maybe, even after I tell you what needs to be said, you’ll still want me. “I’m sorry about your parents.”

Rory didn’t know what else to say, words seemed inadequate in the face of his Chance’s loss. He felt Chance nod, felt his lover’s hand clasp tightly before locking their fingers together and resting them on Rory’s stomach. He stroked Chance’s back softly with his injured hand, as if seeking to relieve the pain from the man.

When Rory felt they were both ready, or as ready as he could be, anyway, he closed his eyes and continued, letting the memories play out in vivid detail behind his heavy lids.

“So, I knew that I was gay. Pretty much just kept to myself, though. There weren’t a lot of…opportunities, I guess you’d say, and I wasn’t interested in fucking for fucking’s sake.”

Chance tensed against him, and he wondered what he had said that had already put the man off.

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Nothing jumped out at him, but if his lover was going to react like that already, it damn sure didn’t bode well for the rest of the conversation.

“About a year ago, I, uh, my dad hired a foreman—I tried to convince him I was ready for the job. Hell, I’d been working the ranch since I was fifteen—eight years of doing everything that needed to be done. It didn’t matter—he didn’t believe I was mature enough to handle it.”

Chance muttered something Rory couldn’t understand against his neck. He waited, hoping for some clarification, but it didn’t come. “He hired a guy older than me, not as much experience, but older. Seemed to be all that mattered to my dad. Man had a couple of years’

experience as a ranch hand and”—Rory drew a steadying breath—“several years on the rodeo circuit.”

As he feared, those words had Chance stiffening so much Rory was surprised the man’s spine didn’t snap. “I was prepared to hate the man on sight, but he…somehow he knew.

About me. Any time he caught me alone, he’d flirt and flatter me.” Rory couldn’t hold back the bitter laughter as he opened his eyes to block out the images that had sprung up as he spoke.

He felt Chance watching him, made himself look and accept the anger burning in his lover’s eyes. “He worked me like a skittish colt, until the day he bent me over a saddle and made me wonder that I’d ever thought sex could be enjoyable.”

The memory of that violent penetration, of hard flesh tearing through dry, unprepared tissue still sent a shiver down Rory’s spine. He knew now of course that sex didn’t have to be something that left you hurt and bleeding, wishing you’d just die. Rory shook his head when Chance started to speak.

“No. I was blind and a fool. I let him use me because I wanted to believe the words he told me. After he finished, he slapped me on the ass, pulled off the condom and told me it could have been better and that next time he was going to teach me how to suck his dick.”

Heat flamed over Rory’s chest, crawling up his neck until it covered his face and the tips of his ears. He’d been such a dumbass, and got what he had asked for, even if he hadn’t asked out loud.

Rory nearly jumped out of his skin when Chance let out a string of foul words before sitting up and giving Rory his back. Instead of the pain he had feared at Chance’s rejection, numbness washed over Rory.

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“Tell me who the fucker is, Rory.”

Rory really didn’t want to do that, but when Chance moved to sit half on the couch facing Rory, he couldn’t deny the demand. Stomach clenching and burning, he