Kick Start: Dangerous Ground 5 by Josh Lanyon Read Free Book Online Page B

closer. “I’m going to have another talk with him, don’t worry.”
    “I know.”
    “He’s my only brother. Please don’t kill him.”
    “I won’t touch him. I won’t touch a hair of his backwoods head.”
    Will grinned fiercely into the darkness and pressed a kiss on top of Taylor’s city boy head.
    They lay in companionable, warm silence.
    “What’s funny?” Taylor mumbled.
    “Hm?”
    “I can feel you smiling.”
    “Just thinking.”
    “About?”
    “You.”
    “What about me?”
    “I don’t know. Something about you being here now. All those years I used to lie here and think about…I don’t know.”
    Taylor tilted his face up, as though listening for what Will wasn’t putting into words. “What?”
    “The usual stuff, I guess.”
    “Homework? Football? Girls?”
    “Yeah.” Will added softly, “And boys.”
    Taylor gave a little shiver, and Will squeezed him tighter. “See. I knew you’d be cold.”
    “ Cold ? The opposite. Do you think —?” He rocked his hips insinuatingly against Will’s.
    “No! I sure as hell don’t. With Grant’s ear pressed to the wall?”
    After a pause, Taylor said, “I hope you’re kidding.”
    “I’m kidding. But we can’t . You know that. We’ve got to —”
    He floundered, and it was Taylor who drawled, “Slow their ascent so they don’t get the bends?”
    Will laughed, but he couldn’t deny — and probably hadn’t been able to hide — that instinctive surge of panic. Panic at the very idea. He was ashamed of it, but there was no denying the idea of having sex within earshot of any member of his family was more alarming than exciting.
    Taylor snorted. “Relax. Your virtue is safe with me.”
    Will groaned softly. “It’s only a couple of days. If it helps, I’d feel the same if you were a woman.”
    “Uh, no, Brandt. Actually, that doesn’t help. At all .” But Taylor was laughing, and Will began to laugh too.
    After a bit Taylor said, “It wasn’t easy for you, was it? Growing up here. Small towns, small minds. You had it tougher than I did.”
    “It was okay,” Will said, uncomfortable with Taylor’s sudden sympathy. “It was tougher being the son of the local sheriff.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. Every so often some asshole, usually one of the Dooleys, would accuse me of being a narc. You know how kids are.”
    “A narc ,” Taylor’s tone was derisive. “I bet. But you were the big varsity guy, right? Quarterback of your high school football team, then the big college star, then the marines.”
    “I did okay,” Will admitted. “It was probably tougher for Grant.”
    Taylor said unexpectedly, “Probably, yeah.”
    Will thought that over, frowning into the darkness. After a time Taylor turned his face into Will’s shoulder and began to snore softly.

 
    Chapter Four
     
     
    “Y ou sure you don’t want to come?” Will’s voice murmured warmly against his ear.
    Taylor’s eyes popped open.
    Will corrected hastily, huskily, “Fishing, I mean.”
    Taylor expelled a heavy sigh. He shook his head, burying his face in his pillow once more. It was still dark. The flannel sheets were soft and warm and smelled pleasantly of soap and Will. It felt good, very good, to stretch out after a night of sharing a too small bed.
    “I’m fine,” he mumbled.
    “I’ll leave you the keys to my Land Cruiser in case you want to drive into town.”
    “’Kay.”
    “We should be back by lunch.”
    Taylor nodded, smothered a yawn in the pillow, and promptly fell back asleep.
     
     
    The next time he woke, really woke, the sun was shining brightly and his cell phone, when he focused blearily on its screen, informed him it was nine thirty. That was sleeping in very late for him. He must have needed the rest. He smothered another huge yawn and spent a few moments listening to the birds outside and Riley barking somewhere in the distance.
    Someone had made coffee. He could smell the encouraging aroma drifting from down the hall, and the