Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 5

but it would be a bit of a distraction, and certainly better than mooning around in the forest going crazy. If there was some crazy, lucky shift and Aiden wanted him to stay, he could always unpack.
    It was harder going downhill than it had been going up and Cade's leg had flared into a burning pain by the time he reached the bottom. That was good: another distraction. He kept his head down, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other, and made it to the back porch of the cottage.
    "Hey! Wait a second!" a male voice called. It wasn't the one Cade wanted to hear, but as he turned to see Warren jogging toward him, he realized that he didn't have to dread this meeting anymore.
    "What?" he asked, with no effort to keep the irritation out of his voice.
    "You told him?" Warren peered at Cade's face and apparently read his answer there. He looked disgusted. "You told him. What the hell did you do that for?"
    "Better me than you."
    "It didn't have to be anybody . Cade, buddy, I was just kidding." Warren shook his head as if he couldn't believe how stupid Cade was. "I wouldn't rat you out! That was going to be our little secret. God, kid, I was just joking around; can't you tell when somebody's joking?" Warren smiled with only a hint of his usual greasiness and edged in a little closer. "What did you tell him, exactly?"
    It took Cade a moment to realize what was going on. "Did I tell him about you , you mean? Now that you know I'm serious, now that you know I'm not going to go along with your disgusting blackmail, now you say you were just joking?" Cade had taken more than enough from this asshole. "I told him everything. I told him you came by every week; I told him you couldn't even get hard unless you were humiliating me or hurting me. I told him you tried to blackmail me into starting up again," and Cade took a step closer before he growled, "and I told him the thought made me want to puke, and that there was no way that I would ever touch a piece of shit like you again. Ever ."
    "You told him that? And where is he now? Where's your little Romeo now, after hearing all that?"
    "Right here," Aiden said, stepping out from the corner of the building. "I'm here, and you're leaving."
    "What?" Warren said. Aiden's surprise appearance had finally shaken the man's composure.
    "You need to get the hell away from here and not come back." Aiden's voice was shaking, his emotions barely under control, but he kept going. "If you do that, I'll maybe talk to Cade about keeping this quiet. It'll be his call, if you leave now. But if I have to get my parents to kick you out of their cottage, I will absolutely tell them why, and they'll tell anyone else who needs to know, like your wife and her divorce lawyer." Aiden had been moving while he spoke and he was standing next to Cade now. They still weren't touching, but he was there, and he was saying the right things, even though he'd heard what Cade had said; it was more than Cade had ever hoped for.
    But Warren was getting his cool back. "Your mother already thinks he's a loser. She thinks he's a low-class dirt bag who isn't good enough to lick your feet. And now you're going to tell her he's a whore, too? I don't think so."
    "Don't call him that." Aiden's voice seemed to come from low in his chest.
    "It's what he is, son." Warren looked at Cade and shrugged. "It's what you are, and what you'll always be."
    "Don't talk to him," Aiden growled, and he stepped between Cade and Warren. "Don't look at him, don't think about him."
    Warren smirked. Cade recognized the same empty, pointless instinct for destruction that had made half the boys on the block refuse to ever get in his car, back in Chicago. "That's impossible, son. You should know that. Once you've felt those lips wrapped around your cock, once you've worked your way inside that tight ass—"
    Warren probably had more to say, but Aiden was already moving. He swung hard and fast, and even though Warren had been looking straight at him, even though Warren had to have been expecting it, Aiden's fist connected hard with Warren's jaw. Warren staggered back several steps but kept his feet, and he stared at Aiden with what could only be interpreted as triumph. "I made him gag on my dick, I made him cry from pain and shame, and I will always remember it, and you'll always know I got there first."
    Aiden was moving again, but this time Warren dodged the punch and grappled with the younger, slighter man. They stumbled over the porch steps,