Marcus was just passing through Texas when he met Kent. In his cowboy hat, low-riding jeans, and black boots, Kent looks like the type of guy Marcus desperately wants to love.<br><br>But two years later, he's discovered Kent is cold and distant, the quintessential American cowboy, and spends more time drunk than sober. Marcus can never predict his mood and blames himself for the flailing relationship.<br><br>Then, one day when Kent rides into town, Marcus finds a young runaway hiding in their barn. Luke is warm, loving, and quick to please ... everything Kent is not. Though the answer seems obvious, Marcus finds himself torn between the boy who demands his love and the man whose love he craves.

Cowboy

Luke picks hay from my hair and murmurs, “You


said we don’t talk about him when it’s just us, remember?”


“Him who?” I ask playfully. Luke kisses


me again, his knee rising between my legs to press at another


Here in the heat of the sun, it’s hard to


pull myself away from the boy, he’s more intoxicating than all of


Kent’s bottled spirits combined. But I know my lover, all too


well—after two years of living with the man, I know the anger from


this morning has simmered in him all day and sooner or later he’s


going to come looking for someone to take it out on. Probably me,


he’ll head for the barn because it’s closer than the fields and


he’ll want to know why I’m still not finished sweeping out that


damn horse stall, he’ll wonder why I’m not there when I’m supposed


to be. And he may be drunk as a fish already but he’s not stupid.


He’ll know I’m with Luke, even if he doesn’t suspect what it is


Chapter 44