Hay and Heartbreak by Bailey Bradford Page A

squatting in that shack?” He didn’t know what a line shack was, he just wanted Hector to be safe.
    Hector nuzzled the side of Dan’s neck. “Mmm, s’gonna be fine. I doubt anyone’s out there. Rocky isn’t the best tracker, and she could be wrong. Probably is.” He chuckled. “Don’t tell her I said that. She’ll beat the tar out of me.”
    Dan tilted his head to the side to offer up more skin. He’d have begged for more kissing and touches if he’d had to. Fortunately, Hector didn’t make him. Instead, Hector licked a spot under his ear then sucked on it.
    It felt divine. Dan closed his eyes as goosebumps raced down his body. Apparently his neck was another newly discovered erogenous zone. He hadn’t had a clue about that, just as he hadn’t guessed how much he liked having his nipples played with.
    Hector scraped the spot with his teeth, then blew on it.
    Dan shivered and nearly dropped his coffee.
    “Here.” Hector placed one hand around Dan’s on the mug, and brought it to Dan’s lips. “Drink.”
    The coffee was the perfect temperature, not too hot or cold. Dan took a couple of swallows while Hector held him. When he lowered the cup, Hector turned him around. Dan saw his intent and said, “I haven’t brushed—”
    “Don’t care,” Hector interrupted before kissing Dan with a fierce yet tender possessiveness.
    Dan told himself he was reading too much into it, that it was just a kiss.
    Yet when Hector raised his head and touched the mark he’d made beneath Dan’s ear, there was something in his expression that told Dan he’d been claimed in some way.
    “I’ve got to head out. I’ll see you tomorrow evening, okay? Sooner, if possible,” Hector tacked on.
    Dan agreed, and after another lingering kiss, Hector left him alone.
    Chugging the rest of the coffee, Dan tried to make sense of what he was feeling and what he thought he saw when he’d looked at Hector a moment ago. He decided that Hector had just wanted to make sure he was still going to have access to hooking up with Dan when he got back, that was all. “Didn’t mean anything more than that.”
    A second knock on his door had him groaning. He knew it wasn’t Hector, and was fairly certain he was about to get grilled. “Come in, Frankie.”
    Frankie entered, holding a plate in one hand, and scowling at him. “How’d you know it was me?”
    Dan took the plate. Some kind of breakfast casserole was piled on it, along with a good-sized stack of bacon. “Who else would it be?”
    “Right, because Hector already came in and—” Frankie gasped, and widened his eyes. “Jeez, he’s marked you up like he’s staking a claim.”
    Since that statement mirrored Dan’s thought from earlier, Dan wanted to preen, but that wasn’t his nature, and besides, he knew Frankie was off base. “Don’t. It doesn’t mean anything.”
    Frankie closed the door and leaned against it, giving Dan what he could only guess was a speculative look.
    “What?” Dan asked after he couldn’t take being studied anymore.
    Frankie shrugged. “Just, you know. I used to let guys do stuff to me, when I was down on myself. Not anything I liked, for the most part. It was messed up. I was messed up.”
    Dan propped a hip against his dresser and took a bite of the casserole. It was good, something with potatoes, cheese, meat and onions. After he swallowed, he got another forkful ready to go. “Are you giving me some kind of sex talk? Because I gotta say, it’s about a decade or so too late.”
    “A decade?” Frankie jumped on the time, and Dan realized his mistake. “You were in prison then, weren’t you?”
    Dan wished he were smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, he’d already blabbed. “Yeah, so? I had sex before then, if that’s what you’re about to freak out over.”
    “So you weren’t a virgin when you went to prison?” Frankie whispered, and Dan had to glance away because if that was pity he saw in Frankie’s