Love Is Always Write Volume 4

staring at and all of a sudden you see the hidden picture, or it stops looking like a bunch of flowers and turns into a person. Or in this case, Simon recognized the set of Jay's jaw for uncertainty, and read the burn in his eyes as hunger and not anger. He could be totally wrong, but he had a sure-fire way to find out.
    He bent his neck to eliminate their two-inch height difference, and covered Jay's mouth with his own. Jay's fingers curled, bunching the armholes of Simon's gambeson, and he parted his lips and let Simon inside. They both shivered this time, and his hands found Jay's waist, holding him in place. Jay tasted good, tart and hot, and he smelled like sweat and mud and horse and very faintly of mint. Their tongues twined and stroked, and Jay made a sound deep in his throat and pulled Simon closer.
    Dear God, could he kiss . Jay slid a hand up into Simon's muddy hair and angled his head, turning up the heat and increasing the pressure to just this side of painful. Simon rubbed his aching dick along Jay's hip, frustrated by all the padded clothing. He pulled back, loving the way Jay tried to continue the kiss. "Let's take this inside."
    They ducked out into the rain without a word, and Jay double-checked the latch after they went through the gate. Neither of them said anything, although Jay allowed Simon to lead him by the hand to the door of the cabin. They would have to talk about stuff at some point, but maybe they could postpone that until they were naked and possibly in the shower together.
    Before they made it inside, though, Jason popped his head out of the next door down. "Lenny went for pizzas and we have a ton of beer. By the time you guys shower, he should be back. We're eating in here, yeah?"
    "Sure," Jay said, disengaging his hand and taking a step away from Simon. "See you there."
    Before Simon could say a word, Jay was running for his trailer through the pouring rain, leaving Simon to do a slow burn in front of the door to his room.
    "You coming?" Jason asked.
    "Yeah. See you in a bit."
    CHAPTER 3
    Simon hadn't followed him, and Jay couldn't decide if that was good or not. Yes, he wanted to be alone; yes, he'd been an idiot; yes, he wanted the kiss to not have happened. Okay, the last part was a complete lie. He thumped his head on the tack room door. He'd chickened out, pure and simple, run away rather than take a chance on what would happen alone with Simon in a room with a bed.
    He stripped to the skin, grimacing at the wet, muddy state of his clothes. He hung everything up so it would dry; he'd wear his other outfit tomorrow and take care of this during the break before the next series of shows. He should really go over and explain to Simon how to –
    "God, you're an idiot." He made a face at his reflection in the mirror on the back of the door. Alan had twigged to his problem right away, and he'd blown him off, too rattled by his initial reaction to Simon those first few days at Alan's farm to act normally.
    "Just fuck him and get it over with," had been Alan's advice. "Once that's out of the way, you'll be fine."
    Easy for him to say. If Jay stuck to the scripted stuff, fine, he could do that, exchange witty banter and barbed insults lifted wholesale from Shakespeare. He didn't have to think about it. And while they were rehearsing, they didn't need to talk much, not beyond the basics.
    He knew Simon must've fucked Alan back in college. Alan had fucked everybody in college, even going so far as to try women when he got bored. While Alan didn't exactly kiss-and-tell, the impression Jay had was that Simon was a bit more of a top than Alan preferred. Jay could deal with that. He'd gotten lucky more than once over the past five years picking up Alan's rejects.
    It didn't take a genius to figure that letting Simon fuck him would just make it that much harder when Simon inevitably moved on to somebody else. Simon would figure out that Jay was boring as hell quick enough. He didn't have any interests outside of the horses and his job; reading didn't really count. The rationalization hurt, but not as much as being dumped after a week. Or less.
    Jay went through the door into the living quarters at the front of the trailer. He'd shower and change, head over and grab some pizza and call it a night. With everybody there, he could easily avoid talking to Simon. He wedged into the bathroom and turned on the water in the narrow shower stall.
    After almost a minute, it was obvious he wasn't getting