He was less sure after that question than he had been. But they had said it earlier. "I want to spend time with you." While you're here was left unsaid.
The blinding smile Carter gifted him with made him glad he'd decided to get the fuck over himself. "Sounds good."
7
Carter finished helping Sarah feed the horses for the morning and enjoyed a moment in the brisk winter cold. He could see his own breath, feel the burn of the winter air in his lungs. Unlike cold in the city, though, the air didn't feel oppressive, but crisp and clean with the sun shining down on him and the horses in the open pasture land. Even if it was doing dick to warm anything up.
Carter enjoyed helping out with the physical side of the labor that happened at the horse farm. He was able to avoid the rather upscale clients, he wasn't sitting around stewing, and he felt useful. He'd been outdoors more in the last two weeks than he had been since he got home from Walter Reed over a year ago.
He hadn't hated living in D.C. as a teen or some of the travel he had been able to do when he was in the Army. New York had even had its good points, but his soul felt like it had been recharged after some time slowing down not thinking about anything but doing his part when Sarah needed help or hanging out with Daphne while she cooked.
"I'll be damned," Sarah said behind Carter. He turned her way and followed her line of sight up toward the house where Jeremy stood, stretching, in athletic pants and a puffy vest. Jeremy smirked at them when he noticed them looking his way, flipped them off and started running down the driveway in the opposite direction, toward the road.
"I haven't seen him awake before ten a.m. since-hell, since school."
Carter chuckled and started following her toward the house. He'd already gotten in his own workout and they had been feeding for over an hour, so he was starving. He practically drooled when they opened the door to the mud room and were assaulted by the smell of breakfast cooking in the next room.
"Was that your brother? Running before noon?" Sarah's mother asked from her perch at the breakfast counter.
"That's what I was just saying," Sarah responded, making a straight beeline toward the coffee mugs Daphne held out for them. She passed one to Carter and they both sighed happily after taking sips and bussing kisses on both Daphne and her mother's cheeks.
Carter couldn't help noticing the conspiratorial look between Sarah and Daphne, though Becky was none the wiser as she glanced back down at her tablet and flicked her fingers to scroll through, telling Sarah about the day's itinerary and clients.
Carter leaned on the kitchen island and glanced out the window over the sink. It was a gorgeous day and yes, he watched Jeremy's graceful stride as he ran down the far side of the fence line and disappeared just over a hill.
His mind briefly flashed back to that powerful body being on top of his, the way the man had so much power underneath his skin but still managed to be soft to the touch. The way he used every bit of his power to please Carter.
A pleasurable shudder went down Carter's spine and he had to tear his gaze from the window and get his mind out of the damn gutter before he popped wood in the middle of the kitchen with two nosy witnesses.
Sarah was watching him, steadily. "You and Jeremy seem to be back to your old selves."
"Yeah, being home seems to be doing wonders for you boys," Daphne said with not a little hint of knowing.
He shrugged. He wasn't the best a deflecting, especially with people who know him well, but he and Jeremy had discussed this while they had laid around watching television. Jeremy had been surprisingly tactile with him, and since his mood shift the day before, he'd been much different than Carter's first day there. He was more like the old Jeremy, and Carter felt more like the old him before his parents had dragged him off to be a campaign prop for five years. He didn't know what was responsible for the change in either of them, didn't know why he felt so light-especially since a small part of him was a little bummed they were so set on just being a fling for their short stay-but he wasn't complaining.
But while lying on the bed with Jeremy's leg over his and still glowing from his first non-solo orgasm in ages, they had decided in the interest of things staying simple and drama free, they wouldn't say anything to Sarah. Not like she would want to hear about their sex lives anyway.
"Yeah," Carter said. "We went out to the old pasture yesterday."
"Oh, wow. I haven't even been out there in ages," Sarah said, her expression wistful. "Remember that time we went out there to get away from Jeremy because he was in a mood-his whole teen angst phase-and were sitting there trying to do homework and he just breezed in the barn and threw mud at you?"
"But I ducked in time because I heard him coming in and it hit you right in the face," Carter said, laughing. Daphne placed two plates filled with breakfast in front of where they were all sitting now at the counter.
"You always were a gentleman, Carter," Sarah drawled with a teasing scowl.
"Thanks, Daph," Carter said before turning his attention back to Sarah. "And hey, you grew up with him. I just assumed you could tell he was around as well as I could." Carter took a sip of his coffee, mustering a little dignity after a piece of Sarah's toast hit him in the face.
He happened to catch another one of those looks between Daphne and Sarah, and again Sarah sent him a steady gaze, one brow slightly quirked, before she dove into her breakfast.
"Well, I think it's great you're all getting along," Daphne said, and took a bite of bacon.
"We weren't ever not getting along," Carter said. "Just feeling each other out. I'd been gone so long and that last summer I was here, things were pretty intense."
Sarah snorted and Daphne opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a, "I think what my boy, Carter, is trying to say is: Jeremy was an asshole." Jeremy had come in the front door, obviously, because he'd managed to slip in on them again.
"Recently or that summer?" Sarah asked, drolly.
"All of the above," Jeremy said cheerfully and elbowed in between Sarah and Carter, stealing toast from Carter's plate and bacon from Sarah's.
"Good way to lose a hand," Sarah warned. Jeremy munched on the bacon happily, making Carter chuckle.
"Let me fix you a plate," Daphne said, going to stand, but Jeremy stilled her with a raised hand.
"No need. I'm about to head out to meet up with my friend, Milo. Got some business." Carter had a momentary flash of jealousy remembering a passing mention of Milo being a fuckbuddy at some point along the way.
He had no right to get jealous, he knew that. They'd covered a lot of rules about their little staycation fling, but no one had mentioned anything about exclusivity.
But while the ladies were distracted, Jeremy nudged Carter's shoulder with his. When Carter looked up, Jeremy winked at him, smiling boyishly, and shoved back from the counter. The simple action squashed the jealousy right there, replacing it with a frisson of warmth in his chest-and his cheeks.
"I better get while the getting's good."
"Be careful!" Daphne called out from behind Jeremy and went back to talking about a riding student Sarah apparently didn't like.
The rest of breakfast went like that; Carter laughed along at some of the horror stories of some of the more elite clients Sarah had worked with.
After finishing up and putting his dishes in the dishwasher, which earned him a pleased grin and a kiss on the cheek from Daphne, Carter was almost desperate for a shower to get the sweat from working out and the smell from feeding off him.
He'd made it out of the house with a promise to show up for lunch, and had just rounded the side of the garage on the footpath to the cabins when he was shoved bodily into the side of the building.
After an embarrassing squawk, he realized he had been tackled by a laughing Jeremy. The laughter didn't last long with his mouth descending on Carter's. The kiss was heady, desperate and sloppy. Carter was left breathless, chest heaving, when Jeremy pulled back. He stuttered out a, "Damn."
Jeremy cocked a grin. "I wanted to do that in there so badly."
Carter wanted to say he didn't necessarily mind if they confirmed what Sarah and Daphne seemed to have already figured out, but he didn't want to fuck with the moment. He didn't think this truce of theirs was that fragile, but the good mood of Jeremy's made him too happy. If being in a safe little bubble of their own made it this good, he wasn't ready to mess with that.