Chapter Five

By the time they reached Jacksonville and

Brogan unhooked the trailer, Shepherd had a first draft of his next

book written. He had even begun rough sketches to go along with the

story.

He also knew Brogan much, much better,

thanks to their twenty questions, which had become more like fifty

questions. If anyone would ask him, he would classify the last four

hours as the best first date he had ever been on. And he’d done a

lot of first dates. Not so many second dates, and hardly any third

dates.

He just hoped he had not worn Brogan out

with all of his chatter.

He climbed out and followed Brogan into the

office and watched intently as he got his paperwork signed off on

as delivered. He stayed a few minutes and chatted with the office

manager, asking about her children and whether she needed help

keeping the twelve-year-old in line or not.

He was not surprised when Brogan did not

introduce him. He was still flying under the radar and preferred to

remain in the background. He was happy when Brogan handed him a

cookie from the plate on the counter, before taking one for

himself.

“If you ever need me to straighten Cody out,

just give me a call and I’ll be here,” he said as they drifted

toward the office door.

“Thanks, Brogan. I’ll remember that.”

A few minutes later, they were back in the

truck and headed out.

“Where to now?” Shepherd asked, half afraid

Brogan was going to pull over and tell him to get the hell out of

his truck.

“There’s a big box store a couple miles down

the road where we can get you new clothes and some lunch. Then I’ll

call the office and see what Sam has for us next.”

“Us?” Shepherd could not contain his

excitement at being part of an us.

“Yes, us. That is, if you want to keep me

company for a while. Having you here made the miles go a lot

faster, and while I’ve never had a partner before, I like having

you here with me.”

“Okay. Especially since I still haven’t

figure out what I’m going to do next.”

“Well, now you can take some time, get over

the shock of the day, and make decisions with an unruffled head,”

Brogan said as he turned into a massive parking lot and parked

close to the street. “Sorry we’re going to have to walk. Management

prefers we park out here instead of closer to the building.

“No problem. I could use a good walk,”

Shepherd said as he clipped the pencil he’d been writing and

drawing with into the notebook, then laid the whole thing on the

dashboard. “Um, I do need my money and cards back, though.”

Brogan pulled the money, cards, and receipts

out of various pockets on his body and handed them over. “You might

not want to carry all that inside with you.”

Shepherd nodded. “You’re right. Hang on just

a minute.” He ducked behind the seats and a few minutes later

emerged again, looking relieved. “Okay, let’s go shopping.”

“First, I’d like to try something,” Brogan

said, reaching up and wrapping his big hand around the back of the

smaller man’s neck. He then pulled gently until they were nose to

nose.

Shepherd met his gaze with wide eyes and a

nervous expression. “What do you want to try?”

“This,” Brogan whispered just before he

closed the last small distance between their lips and kissed

him.

It was more of a gentle brushing of lips on

lips, but Shepherd decided it qualified as a first kiss. He

couldn’t wait for their second.

Brogan pulled back just an inch and they

both pulled in a breath before Shepherd leaned in and kissed

Brogan. He pressed them solidly together and sighed through his

nose at the feel of it. When Brogan’s lips parted and his tongue

stroked across his, Shepherd smiled as he dropped his jaw and

allowed the man entrance.

In the next second, Brogan’s tongue entered

and stroked across his teeth, encouraging him to let him in

completely.

So, he did. Tilting his head, he allowed the

big man complete access. Reaching up, he rested his hands on

Brogan’s shoulders and held on as the kiss moved into a wild mating

of teeth, lips, and tongue.

Shepherd had never been forceful before.

Hell, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d had sex,

with a couple of fingers left over, but he was tempted to pull the

trucker into the back of the truck and talk him into having his way

with him.

But he didn’t have any condoms. So, sex

would have to wait until after they went shopping and he bought

some.

Forcing himself to pull back and break the

kiss, Shepherd stared into Brogan’s heavy-lidded eyes and sighed.

“We need to get out of here and go shopping.”

Brogan looked like he wanted to argue, but

took a deep breath and nodded instead. “You’re right. Let’s go

shopping, get some lunch, and call the office.”

****

As they walked across the parking lot,

Brogan tried to get his cock under control, but with Shepherd

brushing against his arm it wasn’t possible.

“So, Hoss, do you have any idea what all you

want to buy?”

Shepherd looked up at him with a frown. His

next words weren’t an answer, but made Brogan chuckle in response

just the same. “Why do you call me Hoss?”

He waited until they had passed a young

mother and her two children walking in the other direction. His

cock, that had been slowly deflating, twitched and threatened to

embarrass him as they walked into the store.

“I call you Hoss because I saw you naked.”

He answered simply, hoping the man wouldn’t push for the full

answer.

Shepherd seemed to think about that for a

few seconds, then his cheeks turned red right before he whispered,

“You mean you saw my cock and that’s why you call me Hoss?”

Brogan felt his face growing warm in

response as he said, “Yep. That’s about the size of it.”

He could not hold down the laughter that

bubbled up in him as Shepherd’s eyes grew even bigger. A moment

later, the smaller man giggled with him.

They laughed until they entered the store

and the greeter gave them a curious look before winking with a

small grin. “Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Good morning,” they said in unison as

Brogan grabbed a cart.

“Lead the way, Hoss,” he said, setting

Shepherd to laughing once again.

Shepherd led the way to the men’s department

and started tossing things into the cart. Two pair of blue jeans,

socks, a pair of gray sweat shorts, and black sweatpants with a

matching hoodie were selected without much thought. He chose two

Henley t-shirts and then stopped at a wall of t-shirts with

pictures on them. He found three he liked, all of which Brogan

thought were perfect for him.

He then led the way across the aisle to the

shoe department and after some looking, found a pair of sneakers

that fit him.

When he looked like he was done, Brogan

stopped him. “Suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack?”

The question threw him for a moment. He bit

his upper lip and rubbed one hand up and down the outside of his

thigh. “I don’t know. Can we look at them before I decide? I might

need two, one for my clothes and one for my work gear.”

Brogan nodded. “We can do two. Any more than

that and we might have storage problems in the truck.”

Shepherd nodded and looked at what was

already in the cart. “Did I buy too much already?”

“No, Hoss. That’s not as much as I have.

Don’t forget we also need to get toiletries,” he said with a

comedic lifting of his eyebrows to break the man out of his

worries.

Shepherd nodded and they headed toward the

back of the store where he found a purple backpack for his

notebooks, pens, and other work stuff. They then visited the

luggage department, and he found a matching purple duffel bag which

would hold all his clothes with room to spare.

It would fit perfectly in one of the

overhead storage bins that to date had remained empty. Or maybe he

would move his clothes to the upper bin and let Shepherd have the

drawers below the mattress.

Their final stop was the toiletry section

where Shepherd picked up soap, deodorant, and shampoo. With a

hesitant look his way, the little man led the way to the condoms.

He stood and looked at the selection for an extended period before

shrugging and turning to Brogan.

“Have a favorite?” he asked, waving toward

the wall of boxes that was impressive to say the least.

“I think these will fit both of us,” Brogan

pulled a box of the extra-large ones he preferred.

He then pulled a second box and tossed it in

as well, earning another shocked, red-faced, wide-eyed gaze from

the man he already knew he wanted to keep, even though they had

only known each other for less than twelve hours. The two large

tubes of lube he then added had the man sucking in a breath.

“O-o-okay,” Shephard stuttered before

leading the way to the linen section where he picked out a bright

orange beach towel and a package of white washcloths.

“I have one more thing I want to look at, if

it’s okay,” he said, his face still bright red.

“Whatever you need, Hoss.”

Brogan then followed him to the office and

art supply department where he picked up a big box of crayons,

another package of pencils, a multi-pack of pens, two notebook size

sketchbooks, and a small package of large manilla envelopes.

“Is that everything you need?”

Shepherd nodded. “I think so. At least until

I figure out how to get a computer tablet. My agent is used to my

weird ways, and when I submit this book, I’ll send a letter

explaining why it’s not in my usual format and hope everyone can

work with it.”

“I’m sure they will.” Brogan turned the cart

back toward the front of the store. “And if you need anything else,

we can pick it up on the road.”

After checking out, Brogan helped Shepherd

pack the clothes, toiletries, and condoms in his new duffel bag,

and his work supplies in the backpack.

Taking possession of the duffel, he took

Shepherd’s hand in his and led the way next door to the deli.

After lunch, they had one more stop to make

before returning to the truck.

Shepherd looked from Brogan to the clinic

door and back again. “Are you sick?”

“No, we’re going to be tested,” Brogan said,

pulling the man through the door behind him. “I want you to be sure

that I’m healthy so we can become more.”

“More?”

“Yeah, more than a trucker and his

hoss.”

That comment got Shepherd to giggling so

hard he didn’t mind the nurse taking their blood and promising to

call the results to Brogan the next day, as soon as they got

them.

As they walked back to the truck, Shepherd

pouted. “So that means we can’t be more until tomorrow?”

Brogan smiled down at him and said, “There’s

a lot we can do without full penetration. We’ll just have to get

creative.”

Shepherd’s expression lightened and he said,

“You’re right, there is. But I really wanted to see if we could get

the truck rocking.”

Between the man’s hopeful expression and his

words, Brogan could not help the full belly laugh that burst out of

him. “Come on, Hoss, let’s go get you settled into the sleeper and

call Sam.”