Page 7 of Redemption Ridge Vol II

“Yes, but does it answer any of yours?” Owen asked.

Tyler smiled shyly as he considered. “It’s answered some and sparked several others?”

“Oh yeah?” Owen waggled his brows. “Anything I can help you with?”

Tyler pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Definitely.”

Owen rested his hands on Tyler’s thigh. “We’ll take this as slow as you need. You set the pace and the boundaries.”

Tyler pursed his lips as if that were a bad thing. “Why am I in charge?”

“This is new territory for you, so you get to decide.” And because Tyler fiercely guarded his freedom to make decisions after a lifetime of having someone else make them for him. Owen didn’t want to be another person who presumed to know what was best for him.

“And if you were taking the lead?” Tyler asked.

Owen brushed his thumb over Tyler’s lips once more. “I’d stretch you out on your bed and kiss you for the rest of the night.”

Tyler moaned and swayed forward. “Yes. I want to do that. What about touching?”

“You can do whatever you want to me, and I’ll reciprocate,” Owen promised him.

Tyler’s dark eyes shimmered with curiosity and desire. “Kiss for kiss and touch for touch?”

“Exactly.”

Tyler glanced over his shoulder, then dragged his bottom lip through his teeth. “The bed isn’t very big.”

Owen cupped the back of Ty’s neck and pulled him down for a quick kiss. “Even better.”

Tyler’s brain threatened to short-circuit from the volume of information and sensations bombarding it. His heart swelled with emotions he struggled to process and contain. Owen loved him. No, he’d always known that. Owen was in love with him, which was something Tyler had never allowed himself to imagine. But the truth of his words shimmered in his blue eyes. So this is what romantic love looks like. It felt like Tyler was seeing it for the first time in his life, which was ridiculous. He’d grown up with parents and grandparents who openly loved one another. Why hadn’t he recognized it from Owen? Had he been oblivious, or had Owen masked his feelings this entire time?

He must’ve been silent for too long because the shimmering light in Owen’s eyes dimmed. Then, his seductive smile melted into a grim line, and his grip on Tyler’s hips loosened. “We don’t—”

“Have you always looked at me like that?” Tyler asked before Owen could rescind his offer to let Tyler explore his body. It was hard to say what he was most excited about—having free rein with Owen’s body or knowing that he’d receive each gesture in return. A kiss for a kiss and a touch for a touch. It startled Tyler just how much he wanted both things. And Owen had handed the reins to him. No one did that. The Booths raised their children to follow—the word of God, the will of their parents, and the rule of law. The one time Tyler had taken the reins, he’d ended up as a broken-down rodeo cowboy with a pain pill addiction. Owen was the one who’d taught Tyler how to trust himself again and demonstrated that faith once more by putting him in charge of their pleasure.

“Like what?” Owen asked, interrupting Tyler’s rambling inner monologue.

Owen’s blue eyes resumed their sparkle, and his lips curved into a wry smile. Was he enjoying Tyler’s awkwardness or just forcing him to be as honest as he’d been? Owen had never made fun of him, so it had to be the latter, and wasn’t that fair? Damn. Tyler’s inner monologue was off and running again, and Owen deserved better from him.

“How do I look at you?” Owen prompted.

Tyler swallowed hard. Here goes…everything. “Your eyes look softer and less guarded. They shimmer with a light I’ve never noticed before tonight, and it feels like it’s just for me. The lines bracketing your mouth are from smiling and laughing, not tension. Your lips look fuller and softer. I can’t stop staring at them and wondering if I imagined how soft they felt against mine.” Tyler forced his gaze back up to Owen’s pretty eyes. “Part of me thinks this is all a dream.”

Owen cupped the back of Tyler’s neck and pulled him down until their lips touched. So fucking soft. Too quickly, Owen broke the kiss. “Not a dream, and we have the pictures to prove it.” He took a deep breath and said, “I’ve hidden my feelings from you the best I could because I didn’t want to risk our friendship. My guard has slipped occasionally, and I’m pretty sure everyone else on the ranch noticed.”

He thought back to his conversations with Hope and Nick. “I’m pretty sure the others noticed our relationship was taking a new direction for me too.”

“I didn’t realize anything had changed for you until I bumped into your erection in the photo booth,” Owen said. “Then I saw your expression in the mirror.”

It was Tyler’s turn to ask, “What did you see?”

Owen inhaled long and slow before replying. “Curiosity and desire. Two things I’d always hoped to see looking back at me.”

Tyler’s heart swelled until he thought it might burst. That would be a crying shame since it felt like he was on the precipice of something truly amazing. He rubbed his aching chest and breathed deeply. “I’m afraid.”

“Me too,” Owen admitted. “We don’t—”

Tyler stopped him with a kiss. Owen’s lips parted on a sigh, and Tyler took advantage to sweep inside his mouth. Exhalations turned into groans as their tongues rubbed and rolled. Tyler’s inexperience was glaringly obvious against Owen’s skill, but their differences motivated him instead of deterring him. Tyler’s skin tingled everywhere as if a million ants crawled beneath his flesh. And it was too tight, like it didn’t fit his bones anymore. His dick throbbed and pulsed in time with his racing heart, and his balls drew tight against his body. There was an unfamiliar ache in Tyler’s core, and it took him a minute to realize it was arousal. He’d had sex a few times in his late teens with his girlfriend and had jerked off a lot, but this was the first time the yearning had bordered on painful.