15. Seth

Chapter Fifteen

SETH

With a pang of nostalgia, Seth eased the truck to the side of the road and rolled down the passenger window. "Hop in," he said gruffly.

Aiden's lips were chapped, and his cheeks were red from cold, but he didn't seem grateful. He looked annoyed. "I told Celia not to send anyone," he said irritably.

"Looks like she listens as well as you," Seth drawled, reaching across the seat to throw open the door. "I'm already here, so get in."

Aiden hesitated, looking conflicted, and Seth wondered if he was thinking about the kiss they'd shared. Was he regretting it? Or was he dying for just one more taste, like Seth had been since the moment he forced himself to stop?

As if he'd read his thoughts, Aiden licked his lips, and then he smiled. "Can't say no to an invitation like that."

While he climbed inside on a gust of wind and snow, Seth dug around in his glovebox for a tube of chapstick he used after long days in bad weather. "Here," he said with a casual toss.

Aiden fumbled the tube and then stared down at it, perplexed.

"For your lips," Seth grunted, gesturing vaguely toward his mouth before looking away fast. He was about to shift back into drive when Aiden grabbed him by the hand and pressed the tube into his palm.

"My fingers are frozen. Put it on for me," he said, grinning like a blue-eyed devil.

Seth glared at him, utterly betrayed by the way his cock twitched beneath his zipper. "Flirt," he hissed.

"Yeah, so what? That's nothing new. Help a guy out." Aiden waggled his eyebrows and puckered his lips in an exaggerated fish face.

Seth wanted to laugh and maybe smear the ointment in his ear just to teach him a lesson. It would put them back on the familiar ground of old friendship, marked by practical jokes and games of gay chicken, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not when he had an excuse to touch him again.

With a steadying breath, Seth uncapped the tube and leaned close. The air between them crackled with an invisible charge, drawing him forward and lifting the hair on the back of his neck.

"Hold still," Seth murmured in a voice that sounded too rough in his own ears. He inexpertly pressed the tube to Aiden's mouth, shocked anew by how pliant they felt beneath the slightest pressure.

Aiden's breath was a warm, amused puff against Seth's knuckles. "You're good at this," he mumbled with a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Don't move," Seth muttered, using his thumb to wipe a smear from the corner of Aiden's mouth.

Aiden closed his eyes and made like a statue. Emboldened, Seth brushed his thumb over the edge of his bottom lip, testing the softness and finding only rough cracks from the cold.

Aiden cracked one eye, looking surprised, and then both eyes shot wide open. He searched Seth's face, looking surprised, and Seth returned his gaze unflinchingly. Nothing could come of it, but there was no point hiding how he felt after the kiss they'd shared. How he'd always felt. For a moment, they just stared at each other. The world outside the truck faded away in a whirl of frost and snow, leaving only the warmth of their shared breath in the confined space.

Seth's fingers drifted, brushing over the sharp line of Aiden's jaw before cupping his cheek. It felt rough, as if he'd forgotten to shave, and his skin flinched beneath Seth's palm. Seth began to draw away, but Aiden grabbed him by the shirtfront and hauled him in to seal their mouths.

The shock of his warm, lush mouth was torture. Seth couldn't help but kiss him back for a moment, drinking him in until reason reasserted itself. He groaned, fisted a hand in the hair at the back of Aiden's neck, and yanked their mouths apart.

"We're not doing this again," he said, licking the taste of mint off his lips.

Aiden's breath was short and rabbity, and his pupils were blown wide. "You started it," he said breathlessly. "You wouldn't have kissed me last night if you didn't want me."

"Doesn't matter what I want," Seth said roughly. He meant it, but he was forced to clench the steering wheel in both hands to keep from reaching out. He'd always known touching Aiden even once would be a mistake. He craved him now. His fingers itched with the need to feel his skin.

"Of course, it matters," Aiden protested. "It's the only thing that matters. Do you drive to Boise for your dates too? Just like your saddle? You've got needs. I've got 'em, too. I haven't fucked around with a man in a long time, but?—"

Seth lunged across the seat and covered his mouth with his hand. "Shut up," he whispered, tracking the hard swallow in Aiden's throat and wishing he could touch it with his lips. "Just…shut up."

Of course, that was one thing Aiden could never do.

"It'd just be a bit of fun," Aiden protested, twisting his head to slip his mouth free of Seth's palm. "No harm in that between a couple of old buddies, right?"

Seth leaned back in his seat and shook his head, so tempted that it felt like his heart was twisting into a painful knot. He felt like a kid with his nose pressed against the glass of a candy shop. It hurt to have the thing he'd always hungered for being offered on a platter and to know he could never help himself. It would be a disaster for them both.

"It's a bad idea," he said flatly.

"Yeah, so?" Aiden grinned, trying to lighten the mood like always. "I'm full of bad ideas, you know that. That's what you're here for—to protect me from the consequences of my own actions."

That was all the confirmation Seth needed that he was making the right decision. His desire cooled so quickly that Aiden might as well have dumped him in the snow.

"You still haven't grown up," he said with an incredulous laugh, wiping the sticky film of Aiden's chapstick from his lips with the back of his wrist.

Aiden sat back hard in his seat, looking like he'd been slapped. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"It means you jump headfirst every time an idea flies into that fool head of yours! You never even think how it'll impact everyone around you."

"Jesus, you sound like my mother," Aiden muttered. His wind-bright cheeks had drained of color, leaving the sleepless hollows beneath his eyes more pronounced. "I've never once asked anyone for a damn thing!"

"You don't have to," Seth said with a snort. "Just give 'em that big, blue-eyed stare, and you've got folks eating out of the palm of your hand. You roped me into that goddamn stupid competition, you had West practically creaming himself to rush down here to pick you up?—"

"I never asked to get picked up! Walking never hurt anybody." Aiden reached for the door handle, but Seth shifted into gear and hit the gas, speeding sharply back onto the open highway.

"Don't be stupid," Seth said through clenched teeth, furious at the taste of mint still in his mouth. "I promised I'd drop you off at work."

"Yeah? Well, you can go fuck yourself and that high horse you rode in on." Aiden waited for a beat, but when Seth didn't slow down, he shrugged and flung the door open anyway.

"Jesus Christ!" Seth grabbed him by the back of the shirt just as he began to roll out. He slammed the brakes so hard they both went flying into the dashboard. The tires squealed and the truck rocked, skidding sideways along the frozen asphalt before coming to a stop mere inches from a snow-filled ditch. The stench of burning rubber filled the air.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Aiden roared, clapping a hand over his nose and checking for blood.

Seth was too furious to speak. His mouth was dry, and his hands shook as he slammed the truck into park and lunged across the truck cab. He shoved Aiden back in his seat with one arm and held him there.

"Ow! What?—"

"Shut up." There was something awful in Seth's voice. Something violent.

He reached into his glovebox and pulled out a roll of silver duct tape, ripping the edge free with his teeth. Aiden's eyes got huge, and he began to struggle, but Seth just threw one leg over his thighs and pinned him down. He started with Aiden's shoulders just below the neck, winding the tape around his body and the seat, trapping his arms inside a sticky prison. Aiden kicked and bucked his hips, flailing like an unbroken pony, but he was no match for Seth's superior bulk. He pressed Aiden's hips down into the seat with his own knee.

"Ouch! Watch where you're sticking that knee, you rat bastard!" Aiden gnashed his teeth and lunged forward as if planning to bite him, but the tape around his shoulders brought him up short. He cursed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Protecting you from the consequences of your own actions," Seth said grimly, finishing with three layers of tape around his ankles. "Just like you wanted."

"You sanctimonious sonofabitch ? —"

Seth sliced off a long strip of tape with his teeth and calmly placed it over Aiden's mouth. The truck was plunged into silence. They were both sweating and breathing heavily. Aiden's complexion was a furious red from his jacket collar to his mop of blond curls. Veins stood out in his neck as he strained against his bindings. His hat had been knocked off and nearly crushed beneath their boots in the scuffle. Seth scooped it off the floorboard, slapped it against his thigh to shake off the dust, and set it at a jaunty angle on Aiden's head.

The light in Aiden's eyes was murderous. He grunted beneath the duct tape, blowing a furious breath through his nostrils, and slammed his head back against the seat in frustration. The only thing it accomplished was once more knocking his hat askew.

Seth shrugged. "Have it your way."

He tossed the hat in the back seat and resettled himself behind the wheel, trembling with suppressed anger. He took a deep breath and then finally eased the truck back onto the road, driving much slower this time, mostly so he didn't stomp the pedal and put his boot through the floorboard in his rage. "I must've been out of my mind when I let you talk your way back into my life," he muttered under his breath. "You're going to be the death of me."

Aiden couldn't speak, but he'd been grunting a string of muffled curses behind the tape ever since Seth slapped it over his mouth. Now, the sudden silence from the other side of the truck was chilling.