Vaughn had worked until after midnight the night before, woke his ass up before dawn to make it over to Bryant’s place, and then hauled heavy shit around and dug trenches—exactly the sort of back-breaking labor he’d escaped by hustling for so long to build his own business—just to spend as much time as possible with his geeky cowboy obsession. And still, his dick wasn’t too tired to persuade him that blowing off clients for a fuck and a famous Compass Ranch steak dinner would be a nice way to round out the long, hard day.

Long and hard, indeed.

He stared at Bryant as the guy stripped his sweat-stained shirt over his head and flicked open the button on his jeans, preparing to wash away the proof of their efforts so that he could slave over a home-cooked meal for Vaughn. Right there, on Compass Ranch, where his truck in the driveway overnight would ensure every damn person knew exactly what they were doing inside. Gossip moved at lightning speed in a place like this. They both knew it, which meant Bryant was deliberately broadcasting their involvement to his family and the rest of their community.

He wasn’t ashamed of being associated with Snake’s bastard kid.

It didn’t take more than that simple fact to disengage Vaughn’s brain and fire up every one of his animal instincts. He staggered forward and yanked Bryant’s pants to his ankles, then held out his hand so the guy could step from them without losing his balance. Look at him, being all chivalrous and shit.

Bryant brought out things in him no other man ever had. Probably because of his artless attraction to Vaughn, and the way he surrendered to his urges when they were together, something he’d never done in the past.

In this relationship, whatever it was, they were both on unfamiliar ground. It turned Vaughn on to know he was the only person Bryant had shared this intimacy with. It made him feel valued, and special, and honored. All things he’d rarely experienced.

It also made him horny as fuck. He wasn’t sure how his dick wasn’t chafed by now, but he was glad it wasn’t. Because he needed more. Maybe he would never get enough.

He led Bryant into the bathroom, and then the shower.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Bryant asked as Vaughn flicked on the water, making warm droplets rain over them both, soaking the clothes he hadn’t even bothered to take off yet.

When Bryant covered his hand and snapped the faucet off, Vaughn blinked several times. Was he really getting shut down? Had he read the situation wrong? “You seriously don’t want me to fuck you right now? I’m dying to be buried inside you again. Watching how confident you were directing everyone like a well-oiled machine, realizing just how fucking brilliant you really are, and knowing that you still gave me a second chance at this all day has me about to burst. But if you’re not into it…or me…”

“What? Hell no. That’s not the problem.” Bryant reared back, smacking his head on the tile in the process.

Wincing, Vaughn rubbed the fine golden hairs there in apology. “Then what is the problem exactly?”

“Wasting water is a boner killer, and I have a feeling we’re going to take a while if we…well, you know.” Bryant dropped his stare, struggling to adequately describe the feral passion they’d indulged in recently. Vaughn didn’t blame him. He’d had way more experience in the bedroom, though none of it half as hot as what he’d shared with Bryant, and yet he couldn’t quite explain it either.

How could someone as generous and greedy in bed still be so reserved and endearing the rest of the time?

Vaughn wasn’t sure, but he loved that about his new playmate. He grinned and kissed Bryant on the cheek. “You’re really fucking cute, you know that?”

Bryant shrugged one shoulder, a hint of his old shyness returning. Vaughn wouldn’t stand for that. Oh no. He put his hands on Bryant’s shoulders and urged the other man to lean in so that he could seal their mouths together. Right before he did, he rasped, “I’m happy to fuck you dirty, for the sake of the planet and all.”

A groan slipped from Bryant’s lips just before he nodded vigorously. “Yeah, do that.”

“Better yet…” Vaughn growled when he needed to pause to catch his breath. Never before had a man been able to push him so hard with a simple kiss. “Why don’t you take your shower while I watch? Go ahead.”

Bryant blinked a few times. Vaughn was about to retract his suggestion, afraid of pushing him into things he wasn’t ready for or didn’t want. But then he realized he might be being overcautious. Part of what had made Bryant defenseless to that monster years ago was his innate tendency to let his sexual partner take control.

It was time to see if that was what he still really wanted. Vaughn said, “Hey, this is me. You can say no at any time and it will never impact what I think of you or how much I want you, okay?”

Bryant nodded.

“So if you don’t like something, all you have to do is tell me.”

Bryant nodded again.

“And if you don’t speak up, I’m going to assume you like what I’m doing. Even when I’m pushy.”

“I do.” Bryant bit his lip, his cock growing harder with each moment they stood there staring at each other.

“So get in that shower and put on a show for me.” Vaughn winked. “A fast one, so we don’t waste any of your precious water.”

Bryant smiled slow and wide. “I can do that.”

While he fiddled with the knobs, adjusting the spray, Vaughn made quick work of his clothes. He hopped from foot to foot as he tugged off his boots and socks, then peeled his jeans off before dropping them and his shirt in a pile on the floor. By the time Bryant had gathered his shampoo and started lathering his hair, causing soapy bubbles to stream down his chest and arms, Vaughn was standing with his feet planted in the bathmat, his cock in hand.

He stroked himself to the sight of Bryant Compton, gloriously naked and looking for all the world like a supermodel. If they featured him in a magazine ad for that shampoo, they’d sell a million extra bottles a minute. Vaughn was glad he wasn’t, though, that he could hoard Bryant’s sexiness, all for himself.

He’d never felt this sort of greedy lust before.

Another first for him.

Good thing Bryant was hurrying as he ran his hands over every inch of his hard body, because otherwise Vaughn would shoot all over the glass doors instead of deep inside the man who inspired his desire. All too soon, Bryant finished and conscientiously shut off the shower even for the minute it took them to switch places.

“Your turn,” Vaughn rasped as he paused to steal a single kiss. “I want you to stand there where I can see you, and show me how much you like looking at me.”

Bryant nodded, biting his lower lip. When he curled his hand around his hard-on, he groaned and shivered. Nothing could have motivated Vaughn to hurry more than that. Fuck the planet—he wanted to be in bed with Bryant. ASA-fucking-P.

About the time Bryant cupped his balls in addition to jacking off, Vaughn had finished getting clean. Just in time to get nasty again.

He practically leapt from the shower, grabbed Bryant’s wrist, and towed him to the bedroom without bothering to dry off. When they reached the bed, he put his hand on Bryant’s shoulder to prevent him from climbing on the mattress.

Instead, he bent Bryant over the edge, then swept his foot between the other man’s legs until Bryant got the idea and spread himself wide. He braced his hands on the covers, as if preparing for Vaughn to slide inside him without any preparation. Crazy. He’d never do that to Bryant.

Hell no—he planned to show him another new trick.

Vaughn dropped to his knees behind Bryant and grabbed him around his hips. He held the guy still when he leaned in and began to kiss his lower back and ass, wandering lower to suck on his balls.

Good thing, because Bryant reared up then collapsed, groaning while Vaughn teased him mercilessly. He arranged Bryant’s cock so that it was pointed down, just off the edge of the bed. That way he could stroke it and fondle Bryant’s balls as he used his other hand to spread Bryant’s cheeks.

Vaughn bit Bryant’s tight ass, not too hard, then reached out and licked upward from his balls through his crack. When Bryant froze, he paused. “Do you like this?”

“Yes. Fuck yes.” Bryant’s cock jerked in Vaughn’s hand as if trying to prove just how much it turned him on. “Do it again. Please.”

Vaughn chuckled against Bryant’s hot flesh, then gave him what he asked for. Except he didn’t stop there. He used his tongue to probe Bryant’s hole, rimming him until he was wet and slippery with saliva. All the while, he fisted Bryant’s cock, tugging on it in time to the motion of his mouth. His palm grew slick thanks to the precome leaking from Bryant’s tip.

And just when he thought he’d die if he couldn’t find some relief of his own, Bryant shouted. “Vaughn! Fuck me. Please. I need it. I need you.”

Vaughn practically snarled as he thought about the condom buried in his jeans, somewhere in the pile of clothes in the bathroom. “Hang on. I need to get protection.”

“Don’t. Not tonight. I don’t want anything between us.” Bryant moaned. “Fuck me bare.”

They hadn’t discussed it since their first time, and Vaughn hadn’t been about to push it. Bryant knew where he stood, and Vaughn had left it up to the other man to tell him what he wanted. Neither was he going to argue. If that was what Bryant asked for, that was what he was about to get. “Okay.”

As soon as Vaughn had one last thing. He couldn’t explain the urge he got then, but he only knew things were getting stirred up inside him. Lust, affection, and something else… Inspiration.

“Do you have a pen?” Vaughn asked.

“What?” Bryant shook his head as if to help the question penetrate his passion-hazed mind.

“A pen. Quick.” Vaughn closed his eyes to maintain the vision that had flashed through his mind when he saw Bryant laid out on the bed before him.

With one arm, Bryant reached over to the nightstand and slapped his hand around blindly until he clutched a pen in his fingers. He tossed it over his shoulder in Vaughn’s direction.

Vaughn didn’t hesitate. He ripped the cap off with his teeth, then spat it onto the floor. He aligned his cock with Bryant’s ass using his left hand, then pressed deep in a single firm but fluid stroke. Bryant gasped. Still, he rocked back, asking for more despite the rudimentary lube they were using.

Once he was sure Bryant wasn’t hurting, but loving the cock in his ass instead, Vaughn leaned forward. He braced his left forearm on Bryant’s back then let his right hand, which gripped the pen, fly. It was mindless.

All he concentrated on was rocking into Bryant, over and over, the steady medium pace like keeping time to a song by tapping his toe. As he fucked, his hand took on a life of its own, roaming over Bryant’s skin. It traced, outlined, and marked.

Vaughn couldn’t say why it was so deeply satisfying to make Bryant look like the living embodiment of the art he’d starred in recently, but it was.

Vaughn grunted and fucked deeper into Bryant’s ass. It turned him on to watch the ink spreading over his lover, snaking around his upper arm, forming the undeniable pattern he’d envisioned highlighting Bryant’s form. The artwork fit him organically, as well as his own skin, enhancing his natural beauty.

“Turn over,” Vaughn demanded with a smack on Bryant’s ass. He withdrew his cock only long enough to help his lover change positions.

They groaned in unison when he sank back inside Bryant, filling him completely.

When he normally would have taken the opportunity to make out with the other guy, instead his hand kept going, this time decorating Bryant’s chest.

“What are you drawing?” Bryant shook his head and tried to peer down at Vaughn’s handiwork.

“Don’t worry about that.” Vaughn gasped, then rode Bryant harder, art pouring out of him faster as his rapture mounted. “Just lay back and…”

His hips ground forward, drawing Bryant’s attention to what mattered at the moment.

Then they gave up conversation in favor of action. Lots and lots of action.

Vaughn lost himself in the way Bryant made him feel. And he didn’t only mean his dick. Being with Bryant impacted him profoundly, opened parts of himself he’d kept locked away for too long. He only hoped he was doing the right thing by making himself as exposed as Bryant had when he finally took what he needed.

Sometime later, Vaughn realized he’d finished. He threw the pen aside and stared into Bryant’s wide, glazed eyes. He cupped Bryant’s cheeks between his palms, then kissed him long and deep. Bryant’s cock jumped, where it was sandwiched between them.

“You’re close?” Vaughn asked, though he already knew the answer to his question.

“So close. Feels so good, but I don’t want it to be over.”

Vaughn rested his forehead on Bryant’s, then concentrated on nudging the other man’s prostate on each return pass of his cock. “Have to finish so we can start again some other time.”

And wasn’t that the truth. He hadn’t meant to be philosophical, but he thought of the day Bryant had left Compton Pass, and how amazing it was now that he was home again.

He vowed to himself right then and there, that even if something came between them, he’d never give up on trying to make it right again. Because this was life. This was everything.

Vaughn ignored the burn in his thighs and picked up his pace. He made sure to stroke Bryant’s cock with his abs as he plunged into him. He squeezed Bryant’s ankles, then lifted his legs so that they could come even closer together.

It only took a few strokes in that position to make Bryant shatter.

He stared up into Vaughn’s eyes as he let go. And flew.

Bryant groaned in time to the pulses of his cock, which pumped come onto Vaughn’s abdomen. The first blast of hot fluid set him off too, and he emptied himself into Bryant so hard he forgot to breathe. When his vision became tinged with blackness, he gasped, drawing air into his lungs until he could shout his release to the exposed rafters.

He stood there, half crumpled over Bryant as the other man caressed his shoulders and helped him come down from the most intense high of his life. When his cock slipped from Bryant’s body, along with a trickle of fluid, Bryant sighed.

That soft, wistful sound brought Vaughn back to reality. One where he was crushing Bryant after fucking them both senseless. He rained kisses over Bryant’s face before pushing to his feet, where he swayed for a moment, trying to regain some semblance of balance.

Which is when he saw what he had done, fully, for the first time.

“Holy shit,” he murmured as he raked his gaze over Bryant’s relaxed body.

When his boyfriend—when had he started thinking of Bryant like that?—tried to look down at himself, Vaughn helped him rise from the bed. He walked Bryant over to the old-fashioned oval standing mirror in the corner and stood behind him.

He wrapped one arm around Bryant’s middle and the other at his collarbones, clutching him tight to his chest while dropping light kisses on his shoulder and the crook of his neck. In between his forearms, Bryant’s entire torso was decorated in ink. Vaughn had no idea how he’d drawn so much in such a short amount of time, unless they’d fucked a lot longer than he thought while he was in his sex-trance.

“I can’t believe you just did this. While we were…”

“Fucking?” Vaughn finished for him, although he’d nearly said making love instead. “Because you do things to me that no one else ever has. You pull things out of me that I’ve only wished existed before. You’re turning me into a better me, and I hope I can do the same for you.”

Bryant nodded, more solemnly than Vaughn had hoped. “You are.”

They stood there together for a while, looking at one example of how their lives might come together. How they might mesh into the perfect intelligent badass duo if they harnessed both of their skills and cancelled out each other’s weaknesses.

“Will you take a picture of me? Like this?” Bryant’s gaze never left his reflection. “I love the way you see me. The guy I could become if I let you mold me into him.”

Somehow Vaughn didn’t think they were talking about tattoos anymore.

He left Bryant only long enough to grab his phone off the bedside table, then took his time framing Bryant’s gorgeous body and his even more handsome face in the shots. Vaughn knew he’d treasure them forever, no matter what happened after tonight.

“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you, for helping me find myself and for all your support here…and on my project.” Bryant swallowed hard.

Vaughn felt dangerously close to professing his feelings, and maybe scaring Bryant off. They’d only found each other again a week ago. Too soon for the things he was suspecting. Too many things had changed. They’d lost Jake. Bryant had uprooted his entire life. And they’d each begun to open themselves to the possibility of something…greater, whether physical or emotional.

So he sidestepped.

“You can start with that steak dinner you promised me.” Vaughn smacked Bryant on the ass, then aimed him toward the kitchen.

“Now that I can do.” Bryant smiled and plucked an apron from a peg on the hook near the stove. The fact that his bare cheeks, red handprint and all, peeked out the back didn’t bother either of them in the least. Dinner and a show? Yes, please.

Vaughn ate twice that night. Once, a delicious meal. Then after, he devoured the chef.