Page 48 of Snow Storm

Claude let out a breath and bowed his head, knocking his forehead against Harley’s. “Tu es trop bien pour moi,” he murmured.

Harley didn’t ask him to say that again in English. He just tilted his head to the side and then shifted so he could take the kiss Claude was always and forever willing to give. It lingered, soft and warm, and Harley broke away with two pecks at the corners of his mouth. “There’s a town not too far from here, right?”

Claude nodded slowly.

“When the snow clears, we can do things the regular way. On the slow path. I’ll find a place to rent, and we can figure out what works for us.”

“The regular way? You mean date?” Claude asked.

Harley grinned. “Is that so bad?”

“Hmm,” he hummed, tapping his chin. Then he rolled over, shoving a laughing Harley on his back. He kissed him slowly, with tongue this time, until he was heated all over. “Dinner. Dancing?”

Harley wrinkled his nose. “Not much of a dancer.”

“Neither am I. Cinema, then,” Claude amended. He lifted one of Harley’s hands and began to kiss the pads of his fingers. “Late-night strolls, ice cream shops…”

“Stargazing,” Harley added.

“Walking you to your door and kissing you on your porch.”

Harley swallowed heavily and lifted his head up so their lips were almost touching. “Inviting you in for a nightcap.”

Claude shivered at the thought. “Breakfast together the next morning.”

“And sometimes lunch too.”

Claude’s heart was heavy in his chest but in the best way. How had he gone his whole life without this man? How had he survived such mediocre romance before now? “And then, somewhere down the road, a happily ever after for us. Our epilogue.”

Harley stared at him for a long moment. “If you wanted to quit your day job, I think you’d make a killing as a writer. You’d hitlists.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Claude said with a small grin, “but I’ll leave the book words to you and save mine for your ears alone.”

“Kiss me again,” Harley said, breathless.

Claude leaned in and obeyed.

Chapter 14

Harley

It was Christmas.Harley had never really been big on the holiday, but he could always feel a sort of shift in the air whenever the holiday rolled around. He stretched wide on Claude’s bed, unsurprised to find it empty. Over the last couple of days, Harley had learned that his lover was a restless sleeper and a very early riser.

The day before, Harley tried to match Claude’s routine, but after stumbling in the kitchen and almost face-planting into his coffee, Claude sent him to bed and told him to stop being foolish. He felt a little silly and embarrassed, but Claude kissed the heat from his cheeks, and Harley stumbled back to the warm nest of blankets, feeling happy and adored.

Also satisfied in ways he didn’t know was possible until now.

He also felt hopeful for the first time in a long, long time. He still had no idea how he and Claude were going to make this work, but he was going to try. And hell, Darren had been up his ass about selling the condo so he could weasel some money out of him, and this might be the perfect excuse to do it. He could sell it cheap, give Darren a pittance to shut his mouth, and then never hear from him again.

Maybe moving to an entirely different side of the country was the best choice he could possibly make. Maybe it would reawaken something inside him that had started to atrophy. He’d been writing for years, but it was getting harder and harder with each passing month because he felt disconnected from himself and from the passion that made him want to be an author in the first place.

Now, he felt invigorated.

Rolling out of bed, he quickly helped himself to a shower. The water was warm, but the heat only lasted a few minutes with the pipes being as cold as they were. He scrubbed up, rinsed off, then hopped out before it could get too cold, slipping into a pair of jogging pants and a sweater the second he was dry enough for the clothes not to stick to his body.

Claude was nowhere to be found, but this time, that didn’t send Harley into a panic. He knew his lover had to check on the cattle and then take care of stuff at the hotel, which meant Harley had to entertain himself.

He took his coffee in one of Claude’s thermal travel mugs and snagged a croissant before slipping into his boots and heading down the walkway toward his room.

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