Ascension (12 page)

Ro laughed, delighted to have the man he’d dreamed of for so long in his arms.

* * * *

They checked in on Sev and Laine, and, though Ro hated to, he told them about the confrontation with Adela and Martin. Laine was not happy about Roger begging off the autopsy, but he said they weren’t necessarily required. Ro didn’t know if they were or not, but he was actually glad his family had been spared the details.

“Still, I want a chat with this JD fella,” Laine growled, glaring at the door like he was just about to head out to find JD.

“Why?” Ro asked. “He didn’t do anything I didn’t let him.”

Laine glared in his direction then. “Yeah, and I’d tell you to stop fucking strangers in alleys but now you and Conner are—” He made a wavering gesture with his hand.

Ro wished Laine could see him roll his eyes. “Oh my God, seriously? Why is it you and Adela can’t say ‘you and Conner are having sex’?” Ro leaned over until his lips would have been touching Laine’s ear if he’d had an actual body. “He loves me, and I love him.”

“Jesus!” Laine hollered, swatting at Ro. “Don’t
do
that! I swear Conner’s a bad influence.”

Sev was laughing so hard he was wheezing, and he soon had tears streaming down his cheeks. Ro obviously wasn’t going to get anything sensible out of him.

“Did you even hear what I said?” he snapped at Laine.

“Yeah, yeah, y’all love each other,” Laine said nonchalantly.

Ro was getting pissed off then, but Laine finally smiled, and not the little one he usually gave, but a big, happy one. “That’s great, guys. I’m happy for you both. Makes me feel better about what’ll happen after we pass away, too.”

Sev stopped laughing then and swiped at his cheeks. Laine stood up and gathered Sev in his arms. “No matter who goes first, or if we die together, we won’t ever leave each other.”

“No, we won’t,” Sev agreed, and Ro hoped and prayed that they were right. Conner looked away from them and put a hand on his chest.

Ro had seen him do that before, become contemplative and push at his chest, as if feeling for something or holding something back. He popped them both out of the house and back into the meadow where they’d first made love. There in the sunlight, he saw fear etched in Conner’s features.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, icy tendrils of dread tracing his insides.

Conner looked up again, squinting at the clear blue sky. “Before you died, I was just thinking about things. I saw your mama’s soul when she passed. She went right up into that great big blue. She was so bright, Ro. Crystal clear, pure, and she moved so fast. She was just gone, and that terrified me. Something tugged at me here, maybe because I’d been restless, questioning things, I don’t know. But it felt like an invisible cord was pulled, and it was tied to my soul and strung up all the way to the ends of the sky. It was like a suctioning in my chest, and I didn’t want to go. I don’t want to leave this existence.” He looked down at Ro. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I won’t let you,” Ro promised, “not without me, not ever. If you go, I go, and that’s all there is to it. Whatever happens next after this afterlife, it will happen to us both.”

Conner glanced at the sky again then sighed and hugged Ro, resting his chin on the top of Ro’s head. “I’m holding you to that promise.”

“You do that, Conner. I’ll keep it.” He wouldn’t let anything separate them. Death had brought them together, and not even a new life would tear them apart.

“Now come on, let’s go see what we can hide from Sev to give him something to yell at us about. I’m pretty sure he and Laine are busy bumping uglies.” Ro waggled his eyebrows at Conner. “No popping in. First one there gets a blow job!”

“Like that makes either of us a loser?” Conner laughed, and the race was on.

Chapter Fourteen

Conner heard the scream even though he and Ro were miles away. Ro heard it too, his eyes just huge in his head as Adela’s panicked voice rent the air.

“Dad,” Ro said at the same time it clicked in Conner’s head. Adela hadn’t left McKinton when Martin did. She’d stayed to take care of Roger.

“Come on.” Conner knew Ro was in a stupor, held in place by absolute terror. He took Ro’s hand and had them at Roger’s before a second had passed. The usual barrier that had held them back was gone, and they arrived to find Adela with the cellphone on the floor beside her dad as she performed CPR on him.

“Don’t, oh, Ro, help me, help him!” she pleaded, sweating as she gave Roger chest compressions.

“What do I do?” Ro asked, tears filling his eyes. At that moment, Conner saw it, the bright circular pulsing of Roger’s soul as it began to pull free of his body. It wasn’t the same brilliant glowing form Alma’s was, perhaps tinted grey by Roger’s guilt and anger. “No,” Ro howled, which made Adela scream and pound on Roger’s chest. Over the phone the emergency service dispatcher squawked out directions no one was paying attention to.

“Tell Adela to get her shit together and keep doing the CPR right,” Conner said, hoping he sounded like someone to be obeyed. He wasn’t the bossy type, but he needed them to listen.

“Don’t stop, Adela, keep working on him,” Ro got out between sobs. Conner watched Roger’s soul hover, half in and half out of his body. “In, in, in,” Ro muttered, obviously seeing it too. “Get back in there, Dad, please. I know you miss Mom, but Adela and Martin need you, too. Mom would want you to stay and take care of them.”

“Like I took care of you?” Conner heard, a faint whisper on the wind as the front door flew open.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ro said. Conner held up a finger, pointing to the EMS workers running their way. Ro bit his lip and Roger made his departure then, his soul shooting up.

Conner was moving before he could talk himself out of it. He felt it, that tug reeling him up and up like a trout on a hook. It terrified him more than anything had, because he knew, he
knew
that if he went too far, he’d never be able to come back to Ro.

Roger’s soul wobbled and wasn’t as fast as Alma’s, but it was still zooming right on up. Conner forced himself to keep going, up and up until he was past the trees and could only faintly hear Ro’s shouts, calling his name.

God help me. He can’t lose both of us.
But Conner couldn’t turn back, not when he could almost touch that grey-bright blob. “Roger, damn it! Don’t make Ro lose us both! Don’t be a coward and give up now!”

Conner went up farther still, until there was nothing but that bright blue sky around him and Roger. He felt his form waver, as if he were changing.
No, no, no, no! Not now, not now, please, God, if You’re there, please don’t take me now!

He began to fold in on himself, or perhaps he was turning inside out, Conner didn’t know. He screamed in fury and fear and lunged up, his fingers brushing Roger’s soul. The touch was like a shock, hurting him, but Conner didn’t stop. “You can’t have me yet!” he bellowed to whoever would listen. “And Roger, stop being a selfish ass!”

Whether it was luck or Roger finally listening to him, Conner didn’t know, but suddenly he and Roger both were plummeting down at a startling speed. Even already dead, Conner was scared shitless. He screamed the entire way down, Roger’s soul making an odd whistling noise as it accompanied him.

Conner fully expected pain when he hit the ground, but instead he stopped suddenly, lying right beside Roger’s body. He heard Ro’s yell but was amazed by the sight of Roger’s soul slamming back into him. Roger’s body went from a grey, lifeless thing to a living, breathing—well, coughing and gasping—man again.

Ro tackled Conner and they were gone, back into their meadow.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again!” Ro screamed at him. “I can’t lose you, Conner. Not you!”

Conner felt like his insides had been taken apart, tossed in a blender, and turned on purée before being poured back into him. And he didn’t even have insides, as far as he knew!

“Dad… Losing him would be horrible, but he’s older, and he wants to be with Mom,” Ro was babbling, waving one arm all over while clutching Conner with his other hand. “But you, Jesus Christ, Con, that would kill me all over again. I tried to follow you, but you were just gone and I couldn’t catch up no matter how fast I went. I saw it, you started to glow.” Ro’s eyes were huge, his complexion pale as he talked. “It started at your chest, then you kind of, it was like you started to shrink, and turn the same colour as the sky. I’ll hate that colour forever, and longer than that! What was that, Conner?”

Conner rubbed his chest, fearful he’d feel that tug again, but he didn’t. He looked into Ro’s eyes and felt a peace different from any he’d had before. He didn’t know what that place was, but he wasn’t afraid of it, not anymore.

“I think it’s the next level, what comes after this, when we’re ready for it.” Conner looked up into the bright sky for the first time in a while without the dark edges of fear peeking at him. “I think that maybe we can stay here if we’re needed, or we can go on up there and get another chance. Maybe watch over our loved ones in a different way, as a new soul on Earth. I don’t know for sure, but this is true.” He turned his focus back to Ro, loving everything about the man. “I won’t go without you, and I won’t ever have to. Whatever happens next happens for us together. If that means we’re born again and start life all over, I’ll find you, and I’ll love you until we die then, and it’ll be that way, always.”

And it would be, Conner swore, as he took Ro into his arms. There were some truths that were indisputable, and the fact that he and Ro belonged together was one of them.

“Me too, I swear,” Ro said against his lips. Conner didn’t doubt it. He kissed Ro there, under that sky he’d nearly lost himself in, and he knew their souls would always find each other. Neither death nor life would keep them apart.

Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:

Mossy Glen Ranch: Chaps and Hope

Bailey Bradford

Excerpt

Chapter One

“Wow, I don’t know about this,” Troy muttered, looking out of the passenger side window. There were freakin’ mountains. They made Troy feel small and he didn’t like that at all.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Will said, leaning against Troy. Will, lithe guy that he was, always sat in the middle of the truck’s bench seat. Will loved being in the middle, whereas Troy only loved it in certain situations—like when he, Will, and Carlos were all naked and fucking like bunnies. Troy pulled his gaze away from the intimidating ginormous mounds and cast it towards the stoic, chiselled cowboy driving so competently.

Carlos could be a mountain, Troy decided. Their mountain, his and Will’s. It had taken Troy a while but he’d come to believe he could depend on Carlos—and Will. Sometimes he thought he was the weak link in their relationship, but he tried not to let his insecurities get the best of him.

“I missed this when we were in Texas,” Will continued, and he began to stroke Troy’s thigh, just teasing at the inside seam of his jeans. “South Texas is so damn flat, and dry, God, it’s awful. Nice people though.” Will shifted and nipped Troy’s jaw, drawing every bit of Troy’s attention then. Will’s eyes gleamed with the knowledge that he’d just made Troy’s dick so hard he was surprised it didn’t drill right through his jeans. Troy knew Will’s expressions better than he knew his own.

“Sexy men,” Will added, dragging fingers across Troy’s rigid length.

“You two gonna put on a show, I might just have to pull over,” Carlos rumbled, and Troy’s dick got just
that
much harder. Carlos was still looking straight ahead, watching the road, as far as Troy could tell. He either had awesome peripheral vision, or he knew his men quite well. Probably the latter, Troy thought as he sucked in a sharp breath. Will rubbing his balls was guaranteed to make Troy whimper unless he bit the crap out of his lips.

“We could put on a show for you, Cowboy,” Will purred, using his pet name for Carlos. “Or you could pull over and join in, ’cuz I’m gonna be all over Troy and his big dick in just a few seconds.”

The whimper Troy had been trying to hold in burst free in a gush of warm air, blood surging through his veins at the promise in Will’s voice. Dimly, he was aware of Carlos cursing in that low, rough way he did when he got horny as hell. The truck swerved, bumped along for a few seconds as Will bent and blew on Troy’s denim-covered dick.

Troy grabbed a handful of Will’s sweet, round ass with one hand and the Oh Shit bar with the other. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, sliding down as much as he could. Someone—Will, most likely—unbuckled his seat belt, and Troy made another one of those embarrassing sounds as Will unfastened his jeans.

The fact that it was day—a bright, sunny one—rather than night, and that they were out in the open didn’t faze Troy at all. After you’d inadvertently made a porn tape, like he and his lovers had back in the bar Troy used to work in, you tended not to be so shy. Troy had never been much on the shy side to begin with, but he really had forgotten about the security cameras in the storage room.

Hell, no one in their right mind would have been thinking about anything other than the two sexy men he’d been with, was still with. A little sunlight and possible exposure wasn’t going to stop any of them. Besides, Troy trusted Carlos to take care of them.

There was a subtle scent on the wind, an almost sweet odour that somehow added to Troy’s stimulation. Eyes closed, Troy moaned softly at the first flick of Will’s tongue over his slit. Everything else ceased to register when Will sucked his crown into the tight, wet confines of his mouth.

Troy’s worries along with his doubts and insecurities melted away under the skilled tongue and hard suction. He heard the metallic sound of Carlos’ seatbelt being unfastened then the grunts and murmurs as Carlos moved to lean over Will. His mouth was taken and ravished by the expert kiss Carlos laid on him. Troy quivered and keened as his balls drew tight.