“It smells like sex in here.” It’s a pretty typical Roman Lennox greeting: gruff, abrupt, and accusatory. His tone is also laced with amusement, but only if you know what to listen for. Dacen flushes lobster red all the way to the tips of his ears. The look of panic betrays his inability to pick up on Roman’s, uh, social cues. Roman smirks and turns to me.
“Man, you know I’ve got a bet going with Blake and Jax on who’s gonna snag the biggest buck this weekend. How the hell are we supposed to attract male deer when it smells like horny human testosterone in here? Hey, Pecker,” he adds as an aside to Dacen.
Dacen chokes, coughing roughly, and I slap him on the back a few times while glaring at Roman. “Fuck off, dude.” I turn my attention back to Dacen. “You good, babe?” He grabs the water bottle I hand him and takes a long drink, glancing between Roman and me with wide but less panicked eyes.
“Yeah,” he mumbles in a scratchy voice, coughing once more to clear his throat and then nodding. “Uh, hi Roman.” Dacen manages to greet Roman with a slightly less alarming shade of red creeping up his ears. He’s so fucking beautiful, especially when he blushes. His flushed cheeks and bright eyes take me back to twenty minutes ago, to his nearly identical coloring as he’d begged me for more, groaning out my name while I filled him up. The reminder makes me want to forgo bow hunting and rush us back to my house for an encore.
Roman waves cheekily and turns to peek out one of the windows. I surreptitiously reach down and adjust myself while his back is to us. Dacen glances at my crotch and bites his lip. I so badly want to reach over and touch him everywhere. My fingers twitch in anticipation but Roman would never let me hear the end of it. I squeeze my hands into tight fists at my sides. Dacen looks down again, taking in my tense forearms, and gives me a warm, knowing smile. His eyes silently mirror my desire and my dick stirs. Kill me now. I can see my tombstone clearly in my mind. The engraving reads: Here lies Ryne Sutton, instead of being bested by a spiral-bound planner, the poor bastard perished from an epic case of blue balls while attempting to placate his best friend with buck hunting when all he wanted to do was bone his hot boyfriend.
I wince and adjust myself again. Thank God for camouflage, although I don’t guess even Realtree Original camo can hide a raging hard-on.
Roman turns back around and assesses Dacen, who is clearly not dressed for hunting. “Becker. I thought you didn’t hunt.”
“I don’t. I’m just here for...”
Roman raises his eyebrows. “For?”
“Turkey.” The word tumbles from my lips before my brain has a chance to filter them.
“Uh, dude, the fuck? Turkey season’s not for another few months.”
Dacen responds in a smooth tone with a perfectly straight face. “It’s always turkey season as far as I’m concerned.”
Roman glances back and forth between the two of us. “If that’s some kind of sex joke, please do me a favor and spare me the details.”
Dacen pulls his shoulders back and stands tall, then redirects us. “Anyway, I don’t know, Roman. I guess I’m here for moral support? Go, team.” Dacen waves his hands around and if it’s possible for hands to be sarcastic, he’s nailed the look.
Roman laughs and Dacen’s mouth twitches as he holds back a smile. “Are you gonna be our one-man cheering section today? I’m down with that. I can see it now.” Roman raises his voice into a quiet but obnoxiously high pitch. “Shoot that bow! Pierce that heart! Slash that throat! Remove those entrails!”
I snort but beside me, Dacen looks a bit green and takes a small sip of water. “So what exactly is it supposed to smell like in order to attract a buck?” Dacen lobs the question to me and I open my mouth to answer but Roman cuts in.
“Like piss.”
“Excuse me? No effing way am I standing here while you whip your dick out and let loose with a stream of pee, Roman. Not happening.” His slightly green pallor turns a deeper shade I like to refer to asimpending puke.
“DEER piss. Not human piss,” Roman clarifies dryly.
Dacen side-eyes him and then returns his focus to me. “Yeah...” He draws out the word. “That’s really not much better.”
Behind us, Roman mutters under his breath something about not catching anything but a pain in the ass today.
“Hey wiseass, you’re the one who made the bet.” I wave a hand in the general direction of my hunting pack. “I’ve got a bottle of doe urine in my bag. Spray that around. It’ll be fine.”
Dacen looks positively ill at this point. “You’re going to spray deer pee? Here. Where we’re standing?”
I shrug my shoulders. “I mean, mostly down below on the ground but yeah.” He’s trying so hard to school his disgusted expression and it makes me chuckle. I grab him by the belt loops, pull him against my chest, and nuzzle into his neck, inhaling him deeply. “What’s the matter? Has hunting lost its sexy appeal now that it’s gotten real?” I nibble on his neck a little. I can practically hear Roman’s eyes rolling around in their sockets, but fuck it. If I want to kiss my boyfriend, I’m going to kiss my boyfriend, deer hunting be damned.
“Listen, loverboys,” Roman pipes up near the door. “I’m gonna go get something from my—eh, fuck it. I’ll be back in fifteen. Y’all do what you need to do and then you better be ready to get your hunt on, Sutton, because I’ve got a hundred bucks on the line this weekend and my no-good cousin breathing down my neck about it. Capeesh?”
“Capeesh,” Dacen and I reply in unison.
Roman exits and talks to himself as he makes his way back down the metal stairs. “Scoring in the box,” he scoffs. His voice gets carried away in the wind as he walks away. I shake my head and lean in to kiss Dacen.
“Southerners are so freaking weird.” He makes this whispered proclamation while our lips are still pressed together and I smile.
“Yeah,” I move to kiss the smooth skin below his right ear and am rewarded with a cascade of goosebumps along his neck. “But you love it. Or me, anyway,” I whisper into his ear and suck on his earlobe. A shiver runs through his body and he presses even tighter against me. Then he leans back enough to see me. The depth of emotion pouring from him is staggering.
“I really do. I love you, Ryne.”
