Nicole Edwards - Holidays With the Walker Brothers

As far as he knew, Ethan and Blake were dating. Maybe Ethan didn’t share that tidbit of news with anyone, but as far as Beau knew, Ethan wasn’t seeing anyone else. And to Beau, that meant they were exclusive.

Although if he had his way, they would’ve moved on from one another a long time ago. Beau didn’t need to have a genius IQ to see that Ethan was attracted to him. And if he had to guess, it was significantly more than mere physical attraction… although there was that.

Climbing out of his truck, Beau shut his door with a click, not wanting to alert Ethan that he was there. For some reason, he just needed to see him, to talk, maybe get a beer at Moonshiners, something they’d done a few times in recent months.

Nothing serious, nothing sexual and damn sure nothing of the relationship variety. Beau wouldn’t do that. Not to Ethan, not to himself, and not even to Blake. Until the pair of them figured it out – which he hoped they would do soon – Beau was settling with being friends. It seemed they had a significant amount of things in common, which resulted in hours of comfortable conversation.

Beau needed that.

As did Ethan, even if the other man wasn’t willing to admit it.

Beau made his way to the large bay door, but before he stepped inside, his attention was drawn to movement over in the shadows. It didn’t take long for his brain to register what he was seeing.

There, leaning against one of the plain white Walker Demo trucks, was Ethan. His head was tossed back, and even as Beau’s eyes tried to adapt to the dim light, he could see the pure ecstasy written on the man’s face. Following the long, lean line of Ethan’s body, he stopped when he saw Blake in front of him. On his fucking knees.

His breath lodged in his chest, a burning sensation radiating outward from his gut. What could possibly be worse than seeing Blake on his knees sucking Ethan’s cock? Well, that would be the intense satisfaction on Ethan’s much too handsome face.

Son of a fucking bitch.

Without making a sound, Beau took a step backward. Then another. When his feet shuffled on the concrete floor, he saw Ethan’s head come down, his eyes open. And right then and there, they made eye contact.

Beau was rooted in place, unable to force his legs to move. As Ethan watched him, he could see fury replace the sheer pleasure that had been there moments before.

Did he say something? What the hell could he say? Before Beau could decide what his next move would be, Ethan made the decision for him.

Beau watched with voyeuristic fascination as Ethan gripped Blake’s hair tightly, his hips moving forward. “That’s it, Blake. Suck me. All the way. Fuck yes.”

When Ethan’s head fell back again, an animalistic growl escaping from his lips, Beau got his bearings. Without worrying if he was heard, Beau turned back to his truck. He clearly was interrupting, and there was no point in pursuing someone who was already taken. Once inside the truck, he didn’t bother with his seatbelt before he tore out of the parking lot, gravel flying behind his truck as he made a hasty retreat.

Surprisingly enough, Beau didn’t blame Ethan. How could he? The man was clearly fucking Blake, their relationship not much of a secret, even if Ethan didn’t cop to it publicly. But, he hated that Blake was using him. Hated that the man was whoring around on Ethan. And he hated that he didn’t have to balls to tell Ethan.

But what he hated even more than that… that Ethan knew what he was doing, and he was intentionally keeping his distance from Beau.

After all, if Ethan accepted that there might be something between them, it would seal Ethan’s fate, and Beau sensed that he wasn’t ready to plunge headlong into something that might just be what he needed. Something Beau had been subconsciously looking for all his life.

♂♀

Sawyer

Who was to say he couldn’t be a kind hearted, generous guy?

No one, that’s who.

As Sawyer pulled out of his driveway, he whistled an upbeat tune. For the first time in a while, he had to pat himself on the back for coming up with a brilliant plan. Ok, so it wasn’t a secret that his well-developed plans were usually thwarted someway, somehow, but he couldn’t see how this could possibly go wrong. Two days had passed since he came up with this clever scheme and truthfully, he was looking forward to seeing how it played out.

The drive to the animal shelter in Coyote Ridge was a short one, and by the time Sawyer pulled into the small parking lot, he was practically floating on a cloud. This was going to be a damn good day, he could feel it. Without wasting another second, he climbed out of his car and hurried to the front door.

“Hey, Adrianne,” Sawyer greeted the young woman who was rummaging through a stack of papers on her desk. “Where do you want me?” Knowing the question was a double entendre, even if he meant it in the most innocent of ways, Sawyer shot her the flirty smile most women seemed to respond to.

“Working and not flirting would be nice,” Adrianne said, glancing over her shoulder.

“Since it’s my first day on the job, you’ll have to show me what that actually means,” he informed her, moving closer to the desk that stood in the center of the small ten-by-ten room that the shelter claimed as an office.

He wasn’t sure where to stand, hell, he didn’t even know where to put his hands, so he shoved them in his pockets and stared at the grungy walls decorated with pictures of dogs and cats in mismatched frames. Some of the pictures were crooked, probably not by design, while others were leaning as though the nail had finally given up its effort to stick around.

Adrianne continued to flip through the stack of papers hurriedly, not paying him any attention.

Aaaaannnnnddddd now Sawyer was self-conscious.

What the hell?

Ok, so maybe Sawyer wasn’t known much for his volunteering nature, so he couldn’t necessarily blame Adrianne for being surprised that he’d called, much less shown up, but he was here so shouldn’t she be paying him at least a little bit of attention?

Insecure much?

Sawyer knew he needed to get a grip.

Yes, maybe he had ulterior motives, which had led him to call Adrianne Reade to see what he could do to help out at the animal shelter. But it wasn’t like Adrianne knew what he’d been thinking when he called her.

He couldn’t blame his quest to do a good deed on the Christmas spirit, or even his selfless need to give back, although Sawyer considered himself a pretty all right guy.

No, this was actually entirely selfish on his part. He knew that any minute now, Kennedy Endsley was going to walk through the front door for her bi-weekly date with the animal shelter. Now her actions were selfless, but Sawyer’s were geared more toward trying to get close to the woman.

It was either that or get a dog. Not that the latter was a terrible idea, but for the time being, Sawyer was holding off. After all, he wanted to start out small. Getting a dog was going to require a commitment, even if he would do it just to get closer to the one woman who had erected an invisible barrier that kept her as far away from him as possible. It was common knowledge that Sawyer didn’t do well with commitments. At least not of the relationship variety.

“Come on,” Adrianne called as she turned and headed for the lone door that he assumed led to the main part of the kennels.

Falling into step with her, Sawyer glanced in the cages, checking out the animals, the sad puppy dog eyes, the eager kittens with their little toys who stopped to stare at him as he passed by. Hell, he could do this. How hard could it be to spend the day hanging out with a bunch of animals? He liked animals. If nothing else, he’d get the chance to make them happy for a few hours and he’d get to see Kennedy. It was a win-win situation for him.