Made to Order by Brigham Vaughn

EIGHT

“Tyler!”

He jerked in surprise, then turned to look at his dad. He turned off the weed whacker and lifted the ear protection off his right ear, giving him a quizzical glance. “What?”

“You’re gettin’ awful close to that peony plant.”

“Shit, sorry.”

Pat Hewitt peered at him from his spot on the porch. “You okay? You seem distracted this morning, son.”

“Just stayed up a little too late,” he admitted. Which was the truth. But not the whole truth.

The sun had begun to lighten the sky by the time he got home from Donovan’s place. He’d crashed hard after, but he hadn’t been able to sleep in. He had this yard work to do for his dad and then he had to go into the tavern.

Pat smirked at him. “What’s her name?”

Tyler wiped the sweat from his forehead, trying to hide a wince. “Nah, it wasn’t a woman,” he said truthfully. “I was hanging out with a guy from work. We had a drink, some Chinese takeout. Nothing major.”

Nothing major if Tyler ignored the fact that he’d woken up with some gnarly bruises and marks on his ass. They rubbed against the denim of his jeans now and he could still feel the phantom thickness of Donovan’s cock inside him. Tyler still wasn’t sure how he felt about either of those things. He’d liked them, there was no denying that. But there was a perpetual refrain of “what the actual fuck?” running through his brain at the same time.

“Ahh. Well, your mother will have my head if you take out her peonies, or your own leg, so be careful, son.”

“Yeah, I will.” Tyler slipped the ear protection back over his ears and restarted the weed whacker. He tried to pay closer attention as he trimmed around the flower bed in front of the house. Those beds were looking a little scraggly too, with weeds growing up through the flowers, and he’d probably have to hire a neighbor kid to do some of it, if his mother would let him. She was gone for a long weekend, visiting his brother and sister-in-law, who’d had a baby last month. After his hip surgery, his dad hadn’t been up for a four-hour car ride to where they lived in Illinois, so he’d stayed home.

After a lifetime of working physically demanding jobs, neither of Tyler’s parents were in great health—his mom had arthritis that was getting bad quickly—and Tyler was trying to pick up the slack around the house.

There just weren’t enough hours in the day.

And now that he and Donovan were doing this thing, he’d have even less time.

Tyler still felt strange and jittery every time he remembered being helpless, his ass on fire from Donovan beating it, and Donovan’s cock pushing inside him. He was also sure Donovan expected him to get spooked. To freak the fuck out and tell him he was never doing it again. A small part of Tyler flat out refused to give Donovan the satisfaction of being right about that, but an even larger part simply couldn’t deny that it had been good.

That he had enjoyed every last second of it. Even the kissing. His lips still tingled with the brush of Donovan’s beard and the feel of their tongues tangling together.

So, no matter how weird it was to wrap his brain around the fact he was into a lot of stuff he’d never considered before, the thing that tugged at his gut was that reminder that life was fucking short.

Not everyone had a shot at a future like he did. The friends he’d lost had taught him that. So however weird and scary discovering this new thing about himself was, he was going to do it. He wasn’t going to waste his life wondering about things he could be doing instead of actually doing them.

Tyler finished weed whacking the yard and he’d just hung the machine on the garage wall when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, expecting a message from Eddie or one of his other buddies but the preview let him know it was from Donovan without having to check the sender.

Hope you’re not having too much trouble sitting today …

Tyler smiled. Nah. You’ll have to do better next time.

Is that so?

Yup. Kinda weak, man.

*chuckles* I’ll show you weak. Name the time and place.

Tyler gulped, his cock rising as a shiver of anticipation went through him despite the hot summer air and the laundry list of chores he still had to finish for his dad. Damn it, this was going to take all day and he still had shit to do at the tavern.

I’ll keep you updated.

“You sure there’s no woman?”

His dad’s voice made him jump and Tyler turned to see his suspicious glance. He walked carefully toward Tyler, the movements careful but steady. His hip wasn’t quite healed yet but he was already walking a hell of a lot better than he had been before the surgery.

Tyler slipped his phone back in his pocket with a little smirk. “I’m one hundred percent sure of that.”

* * *

The next time Tyler’s phone lit up with a text, he knew the message wasn’t from Donovan.

Would you fuckfaces actually get your shit together and make a decision already? I need to put in my time off request.

Tyler unlocked his phone to see a message from Emmett Gordon, better known as Gordo.

He typed out a message. I was helping my dad do yardwork and shit. What’d I miss?

Jackson: Gordo being a dick.

Hewitt: How’s that different than usual?

Hayes: It’s not.

Emmett Gordon, Sam Hayes, Eddie Silva, Lyle Jackson, and Tyler had all met when they were assigned to the 10^th Mountain Division light infantry division based out of Fort Drum, New York. About a year in, Tyler and Eddie had been accepted to Ranger School. The grueling eight weeks had cemented their friendship and they’d earned their Ranger qualifications together.

Rather than request to be assigned to a Ranger unit after, they’d both chosen to return to Fort Drum and their unit. During their deployment to Iraq, the five of them, along with Rafe Johnson and Charles French, had quickly gelled.

Tyler had been through literal blood, sweat, and tears with these guys and considered them the most important people in his life.

Of course, they were also the biggest assholes he knew.

Hewitt: What are we supposed to be deciding?

Gordo: When the fuck we’re getting together. JFC. How long have we been talking about this?

Hewitt: I thought we decided on August?

Hayes: We did.

Hewitt: So what’s the problem?

Jackson: Gordo’s got his panties in a wad because we haven’t nailed down an exact date.

Hewitt: FFS, this shouldn’t be so hard. We’re going camping and fishing, not invading a foreign country.

Hayes: Yeah.Been there, done that.

Gordo: Well apparently that was less fucking work than getting you pieces of shit to plan a guys’ weekend.

Tyler rolled his eyes. At this rate, they’d never get the dates nailed down and Gordo would murder them in their sleep.

Hewitt: August 8-11 work for everyone?

Hayes: Works for Jackson and me.

Gordo: Yeah I don’t care when, I just need to know. Eddie, you in?

Jackson: Eduardoooooooooooooooooo???

Their phones fell silent when Eddie didn’t answer.

Tyler pocketed his phone and returned to reviewing staffing schedules and dealing with payroll. He liked being in the tavern on his day off. It was quiet and still, nothing like the hustle and bustle during business hours. He got up to fetch himself water and grimaced at the soreness in his body.

His ass had been colorful this morning, though the sting from Donovan’s cock had faded. Still, he couldn’t forget what he’d done. What he’d allowed to have done to him. It should have felt wrong and strange. The odd part was almost how right it had felt. How quiet and still his head had been as the pain burned away every thought and left only a peaceful emptiness.

Tyler wondered what the guys would think of what he’d done. It had gotten ugly when Jackson and Hayes had come out as a couple. Tyler wanted to believe it was only the shock of discovering they were together. Everyone had suspected Hayes swung both ways, though no one had talked about it. But no one had guessed about Jackson. Tyler got it. It couldn’t have been easy to come out as gay then, especially for a Black man in the Army, but Jesus, the fact that the two of them had been carrying on for years behind everyone’s backs had rubbed them all wrong.

Gordo had lost his shit in spectacular fashion, though Tyler had never really known if it was a combination of combat stress after another lengthy deployment and the death of Frenchie and Rafe, or homophobia. Gordo had sworn up and down it was merely that he was pissed about the fact their friends had been lying to them but it had left some gaping wounds in the group. Gordo had been distant, barely speaking to any of them for the better part of a year. It had taken a long time for him to mend fences with Hayes and Jackson and for the group to become close again.

Tyler could only imagine what their reactions would be if they learned what he and Donovan were up to. What if they thought he’d been lying this whole time too? Tyler cringed. Nope, that was never happening.

With a cold bottle of water in hand, Tyler returned to his office, wincing again as he took a seat.

He stole a glance at his phone and saw a few more messages had come in.

Eddie: I’m here. Jesus, you assholes are impatient.

Gordo: So, can you do that weekend or not?

Eddie: Let me check with Andrea.

The conversation devolved into stupid banter after that and Tyler pushed his phone away to concentrate on work. But his thoughts kept returning to Donovan and everything that had happened the night before.

* * *

The following morning, Tyler came face to face with Donovan as he arrived at the tavern. Donovan got out of his small silver car just as Tyler climbed out of his pickup. The parking lot was otherwise empty.

Donovan’s gaze swept over the truck, then up and down his body. “Huh. I’d ask if you were overcompensating for something but we both know that’s not true.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with my truck?” Tyler protested.

“It’s a bit large.”

“We do get a lot of snow here in winter,” Tyler pointed out as he walked toward the back of the tavern. “I get great ground clearance and I have a plow I use to take care of half the driveways on my street.”

Donovan let out a chuckle as he fell into step beside Tyler. “I see we’re picking right up where we left off with the arguing. So much for what we did the other night helping us resolve the tension between us …”

Tyler let their upper arms brush. “We both know it’s just foreplay.”

Donovan grinned. “There’s that. Feeling okay about things still, then?”

Tyler shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Why are you so determined to believe I’m going to freak out?”

“You did a lot of new things the other night.”

“I did.”

“So, it would be understandable if you were a little jittery about it.” Donovan punched in the access code on the keypad.

Tyler shrugged. “I’m not saying that I’m not. But I also know I had a good time. I liked how it went. Does my brain know what it thinks about the whole thing? Nope. But my gut tells me if it’s good, I want more of it.”

“Ahh, gut over head. I get that.” The door beeped as it unlocked and Donovan held it open for Tyler.

He paused. “What do you mean?”

“Some people are all up here.” Donovan tapped the side of his skull. “All up in their head. Some people go with their heart. Some go with their gut. No approach is more right than the other. You’re just a go-with-your-gut person. It makes sense.”

Tyler stepped inside. “Yeah, fair enough. Which are you?”

“Heart, I guess.”

“So, neither of us use our brains.” Tyler let out a little huff of amusement. “That’ll end well.”

Donovan smirked as the door closed behind him. The hallway seemed dim after the bright summer sunshine. “We seem to be doing okay so far.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Tyler swallowed. The restaurant and bar were empty and still. He realized how close he and Donovan stood now. How alone they were. How his skin prickled with awareness. And how much he wanted to grab Donovan and kiss him again. “You were right.”

Donovan lifted an eyebrow at him. “Right about what?”

“About why I got weird about kissing you.” His tone was a little grudging.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. I, uh.” Tyler rubbed the back of his head. He’d spent the past twenty-four hours thinking about little else. “It’s pretty stupid of me to be okay with a guy’s dick up my ass but not his tongue in my mouth.”

Donovan let out a soft laugh. “Well, I get it. Sometimes kissing is more intimate and we did put limits on this. It’s an outlet for us both. Not a relationship. If you didn’t enjoy it or you just want to keep some distance, I understand.”

“Yeah, but I did enjoy it,” he admitted. “I want—”

Donovan yanked him forward and pressed their lips together. He took Tyler’s mouth in a heated, demanding kiss that pulled a moan from deep in Tyler’s chest. Donovan pushed him against the door, and Tyler slid his hand up Donovan’s back, remembering the way it had felt to have Donovan toss him around like he was a small guy.

“Damn,” Tyler said a minute later as he pulled away panting, already lightheaded, cock perking up to let him know he was most definitely into it. He’d relished the feel of the bare, warm skin against his palm.

“You were saying?” Donovan braced his hands on either side of Tyler’s head.

“Yeah, I was saying I enjoyed it,” Tyler said, a little shocked by just how much he’d enjoyed it.

“What can I say? I’m a good kisser.”

“Hey, it wasn’t all you,” Tyler protested playfully. “It takes two to tango and all that.”

“Mm-hmm.” Donovan fitted their bodies more closely together. “Well, how do you feel about another dance? Tonight. At my place.”

“I’d be up for that,” Tyler admitted. Blood flowed to his cock at the thought of it.

“Excellent. Today is going to be a long day,” Donovan said with a little sigh. He dipped his head and kissed Tyler again.

Tyler groaned against his lips. “It really is.”

Reluctantly, he slipped out from the cage of Donovan’s arms, sliding his palm across Donovan’s chest. “At least I’m in charge today.”

Donovan grabbed his wrist, spun him, and shoved him up against the door, rocking his cock against the curve of Tyler’s ass. Donovan was hard, eager, and his breath was warm against the back of Tyler’s neck, making goosebumps rise on his skin. “Today, yes. But the minute we get to my place, I’m the one in charge. Don’t you forget that.”

Donovan grazed his teeth along the side of Tyler’s neck, making him tremble. “I won’t forget,” Tyler promised, breathless as he imagined what might happen tonight.

“Good. Or there will be consequences.”

The heat of Donovan’s body disappeared, and Tyler stood there, resting his forehead against the door as he sucked in a couple of shuddering breaths.

“Better pull yourself together soon, Tyler,” Donovan said, sounding ridiculously smug. “Cause our employees are about to arrive any time …”