TAKE ME HOME (23 page)

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the outside but not drenched like Evan’s. Then he slipped the dry coat on him, rolling him to get it in place. That would have to do for now. “Can you stand?” Evan didn’t answer. His breathing was low and shallow, but he was still conscious.

Kyle got to his feet, slid the backpack on, and forced Evan up.

“I…” Evan leaned against him. “I can make it.”

“I know you can.” He held Evan tighter to him and took a step forward. Evan moved with him, Kyle half carrying him.

They’d never make it back up the hill and to the train like that. Evan was so cold, his teeth chattering and his body jerking with the intense shivers.

Kyle stopped and searched through the side pocket on his backpack for his phone. The bottom of the pack was wet from the river, but the phone was dry. He checked the display. No signal. It was getting dark.

Panic welled inside. He forced it down.

The cabins.

If they could make it to one, he could get Evan warm and dry and rested enough for them to head back to the train. He pulled out the flashlight and shone it around to get a better view.

Farther down the embankment, there was a section of the slope that didn’t look as steep with fewer rocks and more even ground. They might make that.

“Come on. This way.” He got them going along the river, dragging Evan when his steps faltered, heading in the opposite direction of the train. It was their best hope.

When they reached the first of the small buildings, Evan was less alert, leaning more of his weight against Kyle. He hadn’t said a word all the way from the river’s edge, but he’d managed a few steps on his own. Kyle tried the door. Locked. It was unlikely anyone had come home since he’d pounded on it minutes earlier.

He propped Evan against the cabin wall beside the front door. “I’ll be right back. Just stay awake unit I come get you.”

Evan didn’t respond.

Kyle slapped him, then shook him by the shoulders. “Stay awake. Do you hear me?” That did the trick. Evan jerked his head up and made eye contact with Kyle. He was still shivering. Wasn’t that a good sign? Evan gave a slow nod, and Kyle resisted the urge to hold on to him. Instead, he headed for the nearest window, looking along the way for a rock to break the glass. He didn’t need one. The window opened without trouble, but the screen was locked. One hard shove and it ripped and came loose, dropping inside the cabin.

He looked back to Evan. He had slumped to his ass on the ground, his head leaning back against the cabin wall.

Every instinct in Kyle told him to go back to Evan, but he had to get him inside. He propped one foot on a log of the exterior cabin wall, gripped the windowsill, and hoisted himself up and inside.

Thank God there was nothing directly underneath the window. He sailed through the opening without stopping and landed on his hands and chest, his shoes stuck on the ledge of the windowsill. He was in a living room. Hardwood floors, a couch, and a fireplace. A dining room at the other end of the house. All he cared about was the front door between the two rooms. He wrestled his feet free, then got himself moving for the door.

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The lock gave his freezing, shaking hands trouble, but it didn’t stop him for long. He flung the door open and found Evan still slumped on the ground. He was breathing, his mouth open, his eyes closed. Kyle slid his hands under Evan’s armpits and hefted him against his body, then moved them inside and kicked the door shut behind them.

Less than ten feet to the couch and he tripped three times over his own numb feet as he dragged Evan across the room. He deposited him on the couch and knelt before him. “We have to get these wet clothes off you.” Evan might not have heard him, but he kept talking anyway.

“We have to raise your body temperature.” Kyle fisted his shaking hands twice to get the blood flowing and then forced his fingers to work on getting Evan naked, stripping off the coat and the drenched clothes, socks, and underwear. He grabbed a quilt from the back of the couch and covered Evan in it, tucking it along his sides like his grandma used to do when he was a child and would stay at the farm with her whenever he was sick during the school year.

Evan hadn’t stirred during the not-so-gentle removal of clothing.

“Ev.” Kyle shook him. “You have to stay awake.”

Evan groaned. It was the best sound in the world, and the brief glimpse of those blue eyes was the best thing Kyle had ever seen.

It wasn’t enough.

He stood. He needed dry clothes and more blankets. He shed his own wet shoes and jeans and slid his backpack and coat off, then dug out the sweatpants and sweatshirt he’d brought with him. Crammed below the clothes was the journal. The sweats were dry, but had the journal gotten wet in the water? He wasn’t about to check right then. He ditched the backpack on the floor, pulled back the quilt, and got Evan dressed, then went in search of more blankets. He found two rooms down a short hall. A bathroom and a bedroom. There were several more quilts on top of the made bed. He returned to Evan and covered him with the blankets. His breathing sounded less labored, but he was still too damn cold to the touch. “Stay awake, Ev.” Kyle forced himself to step away again. He closed the window and started a fire in the fireplace. It would take time for the fire to warm the room.

What else?

Body heat.

He stripped off the rest of his clothes and crawled under the blankets to lie behind Evan.

He lifted Evan’s shirt and brought him back against his own bare chest, letting his rising body heat warm Evan’s. All he wanted was for them to be back in his apartment, eating takeout from Castillo’s and talking about how hot Jake Gallagher’s ass was. He kept moving his hands over Evan’s skin, under the sweats, over his chest. He couldn’t stop touching him.

Or stop taking in the details of the man in his arms. The disheveled blond hair plastered to the sides of Evan’s head. A scrape over his left eye and smaller scratches on his right cheek. The full lips starting to turn a more normal shade of pink.

“Ev, you have to stay awake.”

Evan groaned again. Or maybe it had been the word “okay.” Kyle held him tighter against his body. Still too cold. “Don’t you dare leave me.” He closed his eyes and listened to Evan breathe.

They stayed that way for what seemed like an eternity, but the shivers were gone, and Evan’s body was warm to the touch again.

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Finally, he spoke. “I feel better.”

Kyle let out a long exhale. “Warm?”

“I don’t remember warm.”

“I’m going to see if there’s coffee or something I can heat up for you to drink.” He started to get up, but Evan gripped the arm he had across his chest.

“Don’t go. Just…stay with me for a little longer.”

They were silent, their bodies growing warm at every point they touched, and each man’s breath fell in unison with the other’s.

Kyle rolled Evan a bit so he could get a better look at him. “Ev…”

“Hmmm?”

He touched Evan’s unscratched cheek, fingertips to flesh in a soft caress, emotions he’d promised he’d never feel for anyone surging through him. More than he’d let himself think when he’d realized Lorrie had been right about what he was feeling for Evan. More than he’d felt when they’d had sex on the train. Seeing Evan in that river, he would’ve given anything to save him.

The swell had returned, and it had taken Evan out to sea. Kyle had no choice but to follow.

He lowered his head until his forehead rested against Evan’s temple. He whispered, “I’m scared,” and hugged Evan to his chest until there was not an inch of space between them. “I…I love you.” He buried his face in Evan’s neck, breathing in the scent of pine and outdoors and underneath that, the musky scent of Evan—a very alive and breathing Evan. “I love you so fucking much.”

The snore that followed wasn’t exactly the reaction Kyle had expected.

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Evan awoke sore and stiff. But warm. Hot, in fact.

Flickers of light danced across the walls and ceiling surrounding him. A fire burned nearby, offering an occasional crackle and pop in the otherwise silent cabin. The darkness of night was visible through the window across the room. Evan lay on a couch, Kyle half beside, half behind him, his face buried against the side of Evan’s neck. Evan wished he could strip off the sweats he couldn’t remember putting on and touch more of Kyle, feel more of his skin pressed against him. Kyle’s hands were still moving all over his body, like before he’d fallen asleep. Only these touches were different, more tender, more gentle.

“Uh, Kyle, I’m warm now.”

“You sure?” Kyle asked, his voice muffled since he hadn’t lifted his mouth from Evan’s neck.

“Yeah. That fire is so dang hot, I’m about to sweat to death.” Kyle kept touching Evan, his chest, his stomach. He moved his hand lower, under the sweatpants, the strokes slow, purposeful, and unlike their urgent sexual touches on the train, like he wasn’t trying to arouse Evan but experience him.

“I feel like I was out for ten hours. How long was I asleep?”

“Not that long,” Kyle said. “How do you feel?”

“Good.” With Kyle’s focused attention, he was well on his way to feeling damn good.

“How about your hands and feet?”

“They’re fine. See.” He raised his hands out from under the blanket and bent his fingers several times to demonstrate.

Kyle turned each hand and examined it.

“I said they’re okay. Where are we?”

“A cabin.” Kyle slid his hand beneath the blanket again and swept a heated palm down Evan’s chest to his abs and then lower, over his groin and along the inside of one thigh.

A cabin in the mountains. The two of them alone. Like Evan had been picturing at dinner on the train. “Is Rebecca okay?” His voice hitched. That hand was making it hard to concentrate.

And to breathe.

“I think so. They had her back on the train, and the doc was checking her out when I left.”

“And then you found me.”

“I did. Are you sure you’re warm?” Slowly Kyle ran his hand up Evan’s thigh and cupped his balls, rolling them, then grazed his palm down the other thigh.

“Yeah. I’m warm.”

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Who was he kidding? He was on fire. And the burning logs in the fireplace were only part of why heat was blazing throughout his body. He couldn’t hold still any longer. He moved under Kyle’s touches, his hips shifting forward toward Kyle’s hand, then back to meet his body.

Kyle drew his hand away. “Don’t move. Lie still and rest.”

“I’m fine. Please don’t stop.” He reached back for Kyle and was delighted to find only skin, no clothing to get in his way. He gripped his ass.

Kyle must have liked that. He cupped Evan’s chin and kissed him, slowly at first. A kiss to his left eyebrow, his right cheek, his bottom lip. Only then did Kyle grip the back of his head and deepen the kiss, forcing Evan’s lips apart with his tongue.

Evan faced Kyle, and without hesitation they were in each other’s arms, the kiss turning passionate, their bodies aligning for just the right press of man against man.

Kyle pulled back and threw the blankets off and onto the floor. He helped Evan slide off the couch to the stack of blankets. Then he was on him again, the kisses building with intensity as Kyle flattened his naked body to Evan.

There was no way they could go back to how they were before they’d gotten on the train.

Not because of the sex. Because of the way they’d touched, the words Kyle had said. “I can do this.” He wanted to try, but what would he do when they finally made it to Ohio? Would he pull away?

No. Evan wasn’t thinking anymore. He’d never felt so out of control. So on fire. So ready to explode. He thrust up, planting his foot on the blanket-covered floor for leverage. A bolt of pain shot through his ankle. He dropped back to the floor. “Fuck.”

“What?” Kyle asked. “What is it?”

“Just my ankle.” He tried to pull Kyle back down to him, but Kyle shook him off and crawled backward on his hands and knees over Evan’s body, peeling the sweatpants off as he went. He slowly lifted them past Evan’s ankle and off his foot. He examined the lower leg and, in a slow move, leaned forward and kissed the skin over and around the injured ankle. Kiss after kiss. Each one as gentle as the first.

It was all so different from any way Kyle had touched him yet.

Kyle sat up and stripped off Evan’s sweatshirt, then returned to lie over him again. They touched, skin to skin, and somehow the slow move of Kyle against him felt like it was the first time they’d been naked together. Which was stupid. They’d touched and licked and sucked and fucked, but this…this was sensual. Passionate. Loving.

Kyle thrust forward, his dick fully erect and sliding along Evan’s hip. Then he shifted, and the next thrust brought their cocks into contact, the sweet slide of their arousals working together to a new level of friction. This was definitely new.

Evan wanted more. He arched his back. “Oh God. Fuck me.” Kyle stopped and held himself above Evan so they were no longer touching. “We can’t.”

“Why?” He was expecting something about the twisted ankle, the fall into the river, the frigid walk to the cabin, and how he needed to take it easy.

He was already forming his arguments when Kyle said, “No rubbers.” Oh. Evan wrapped an arm around Kyle’s waist and pulled him forward until they were back to the intimate touch of a moment before. He leaned in to kiss Kyle and said, “I trust you.” 124

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“Jesus.” Kyle jerked back before their lips met. “Tell me you’ve never said that to some guy.”

“What?”

“It’s not about trust, Ev.”

“It is if you’re committed to someone.”

“I guess, but it’s not just about that in the beginning. I’m always careful, and I get tested every year, but I’ve been fucking other guys since my last test. I’m not going to put you in greater risk than I have to. Not even to slide my cock into you without anything in the way. No matter how much I want that.”

“Oh.” Always careful. Had Kyle ever gone bare with another guy? He’d never had a serious lover, never had a boyfriend, so maybe not. But he wanted that with Evan.