Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run 6)

“Did you, now? Would’ve liked to’ve seen that.”

Zane laid his hand on Ty’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll get another chance.”

Harrison chuckled. “Go on. I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Okay, Dad,” Zane said as he patted Harrison’s good shoulder.

Ty stood and leaned over to shake Harrison’s hand again. “It’s a relief to see you doing well, sir.”

Harrison cracked half a smile, which told Zane that he liked Ty quite a lot. “Welcome to the C and G,” he said instead of good-bye.

They were driving away from the large colonial-style mansion, and Ty had just remembered to turn his phone back on when Zane spoke again.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Zane said, shaking his head as he guided the truck down the long dirt driveway.

“I was going to call and tell you I’d be coming, but I know you. You’d have tried to come get me at the airport and stressed about it. And I was kind of looking forward to surprising you.”

Zane hit the brakes, veering off the private road onto a flat, sandy piece of land that looked just like all the other flat, sandy pieces of land surrounding them.

“What are you doing?” Ty asked, worried that he might have upset Zane by coming unannounced.

Zane jerked his seatbelt off and threw the truck into park. He left it running, though, the air conditioning blasting to ward off the blazing heat outside. Ty watched him in alarm, but then Zane leaned sideways and crawled across the bench seat to grab him and kiss him messily.

Ty flailed, a hand going out to drag down the window as he tried to keep his balance, but Zane pulled him sideways and twisted him, toppling both of them over and into the passenger side door. He grunted as his head banged against the window, but he wrapped his arms around Zane, heedless of the knock on the head or the whatever-it-was sticking into his back or the seatbelt that might strangle him if Zane pulled him again.

“You’re incredible, you know that? I’m so goddamned lucky to have you,” Zane said before stealing another kiss. Ty could only grunt in response.

He had to shove at Zane’s chest when the kiss got too heated, holding him at bay with both hands, trapped against the door panel and looking up into those dark eyes he’d missed so much. “I refuse to let you grope me in the cab of a truck in your parents’ driveway,” he said, laughing as Zane began to chuckle.

Zane sat back, nodding and straightening his shirt. Ty shifted and pulled at his jeans. They’d gotten far too tight.

“So, if we’re not staying in the big house, where are we staying?” he asked as Zane pulled the truck back onto the road.

“Guesthouse. It’s so much smoother if I’m not under the same roof as my mother.” He glanced at Ty and leered. “And no one to hear you scream.”

“I’m down with that,” Ty drawled, smirking as he watched Zane. He was wearing dark jeans and cowboy boots, paired with a soft blue denim shirt that hugged his slim hips and highlighted his impressive shoulders and arms. The black Stetson on the dashboard had clearly been worn. His wavy black hair had a hat impression in it.

He looked incredible. Ty could feel his heart beating faster as he looked his lover over.

“Say something else,” Ty prompted.

“What?”

“Say something, tell me something else.”

“Okay, that’s not weird at all.”

“Please?”

Zane gave him a tolerant sigh. “The closest town to us is Dripping Springs, and it’s about a twenty-minute drive. The ranches out this way are all pretty massive and self-sufficient. The Carter Garrett Ranch is five thousand acres, the largest in the area. We raise horses mostly, but there’s also cattle, sheep, and some llamas and emus.”

“Your accent has come out,” Ty said when Zane paused.

Zane glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “What?”

“It’s . . . incredibly sexy.”

“What?”

“Say something else.”

“No, stop it,” Zane said with a laugh.

Ty grinned, unable to take his eyes off Zane. “We need to go down to the front gate. I really did leave my rental there.”

“I thought you were kidding.”

“Nope. Climbed the big-ass fence. Impressive, by the way. It’s like a castle gate and somebody forgot to build the rest of the castle.”

“Yeah, well, around here people don’t see your house or your yard or your front door. You have to impress them with your gate. And Mother is all for impressing people.”

Ty nodded. The gate to the Carter Garrett Ranch was quite beautiful: Two towers of stacked stone on either side of the drive, with a twisted metal art piece weaving between them. A sign hung from the metal, a stylized C and G intertwined with an ampersand. A simple iron gate between the towers kept visitors out.

“I’ll call and have one of the guys go fetch it,” Zane promised.

“Why do you keep the gate closed? Is it to keep livestock in or people out?”

“The ranch is open three days a week to the public. We have school trips and tour buses and people can book times for riding the trails or getting riding lessons. Supplemental income for the ranch.”

“Really? People just drive up at any given time?”

Zane shrugged. “Thursday through Saturday, yeah. So the other days they keep the gate closed, just in case people get the wrong day or get nosy.”

Ty cleared his throat, barely able to concentrate on what Zane was saying for listening to how he was saying it. Jesus, where had that accent been all these months? He wondered if Zane suppressed it or if it was just something he’d lost along the way and then had fallen back into when he’d submerged himself back home.

He waved his broken hand toward the side of the road. “Can you pull over for a minute?”

Zane shot him a concerned glance and pulled the truck to the side of the gravel driveway, putting it in park.

Ty unbuckled his seatbelt and crawled toward him. The only thing preventing him from climbing right into Zane’s lap was the steering wheel. Zane grabbed at him, laughing as they kissed again, over and over. Ty unbuckled Zane’s seatbelt, pulling at him and leaning backward, and Zane wriggled out of the seatbelt and followed, laying Ty down on the bench seat. Ty propped his foot on the door and held on as Zane dug his hands into Ty’s hair.

“Christ, why’d you have to start this?” Zane grumbled. Ty could feel his body responding, and his jeans were going to be impossible to unzip in a few minutes if this kept up. “We’re five f**king seconds from the house.”