quick kiss to his mouth, memorizing the shape of his smile before tugging him along out of the barn and up to the house.
Benny joins us, still at ease since Ranger gave him the signal to stand down earlier, but always on alert, making sure his human doesn’t need him. The dog no doubt sees the same thing I do: loose movements, a relaxed, happy expression that doesn’t seem to grace Ranger’s face often enough. He’s even sexier like this, more himself. I’m not under any delusion that playing with my dick cured his PTSD, but it’s nice to think that the fun we’re having can settle his demons for a few minutes at a time at least.
When we get into the house, Ranger directs Benny to the living room, then lets me tow him down the hall to the bathroom, the two of us trading kisses and bumping into the walls along the way. He chuckles against my mouth, the sound vibrating through me and lighting me up from head to toe.
We manage to make it to the bathroom, and I kick the door closed behind us before pushing him up against the sink, only breaking our kiss long enough to pull my shirt off and toss it onto the floor.
Every time we crash back together, the kiss somehow feels more frantic, more desperate, hungrier. My cock is fully hard again, pressing against Ranger’s answering steel. At least we know we have compatible sex drives, which is the most important thing to find in a casual hookup.
Casual, casual, casual. All good.
Ranger groans when I break the kiss so I can start the shower and have a few seconds to catch my breath.
“You have a paw print tattoo on your shoulder.” He gently drags his index finger along the back of my shoulder, and goose bumps pop up all over my skin as he traces the shape of my first and only tattoo.
“It’s an imprint of my first dog’s paw. When I was a kid, I wanted a dog so bad, but my mom was not about that life. Fast-forward to my second year as a prelaw student. One night I was walking back to my dorm from the library. It was freezing and had just started to snow. I stopped at a crosswalk, and while I was waiting for the signal to change, I noticed that on the other side of the road, a dog tied was tied to a tree. I scanned around, expecting to see an owner, and when I didn’t, I headed straight over to her. It was obvious she’d been abandoned there on purpose. She was whining, covered in her own pee, and shivering in the cold. When I cut her loose, she tried to bite me, but as soon as she was free, she started licking my hand and tried to jump on me.”
My throat tightens at the memory. With jerky movements, I strip out of my pants and underwear, letting them fall onto the pile of clothes on the tile floor. Nothing kills an erection like talking about your dead dog. Smooth, Julian.
Ranger takes off his pants as well. I reach into the shower to check the temperature of the water before pulling back the curtain all the way and waving him in. He steps under the spray and groans, tilting his head back to catch the water on his face and then moves aside so I can get in too.
“So, what happened?” he asks once I’m in the shower with him.
“I brought her back to my dorm and paid my roommate twenty bucks not to rat me out to the RA.” I smile as I think back to the week I spent hiding Layla in my dorm, sneaking food back, and begging her not to bark. “One night, I couldn’t get her to keep quiet, and when the RA came by to find out what was going on, I pretended I had a cough that just sounded like a dog barking.”
Ranger laughs, and I join him, reaching for the bottle of body wash perched on the ledge and pouring some into my hands.
“Why didn’t you just say you were watching a movie with a dog barking?” he asks.
“Well, snickerdoodles, where were you back then?” Without thinking twice, I lather up my hands and run them over his chest and shoulders, catching his nipple piercing against my palm and sending a shudder through him.
“Hmmm, probably Afghanistan?” he muses, all humor gone from his