Tangled Up In You Read online

  Tangled Up In You

  Jaclyn Osborn

  Tangled Up In You:

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

  Text Copyright ©2018

  All rights reserved

  Published by Jaclyn Osborn

  Cover Art by Simply Defined Art

  Edited by Undivided Editing

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the publisher/author’s written consent.

  *Please Note: Due to copyright laws, a real-life football team could not be used. The football team (Kansas City Raptors) listed in the work is a product of the author’s imagination and does not reflect any real team. Other terminology (such as NFL) had to be omitted as well to avoid any copyright violations as well.

  The author acknowledges all included trademarks.*

  Chapter 1

  Corbin

  Seven years ago

  There were worse things than to be sitting beside a lake on a sunny day with your best friend. Not just a best friend, though, but someone who was so much more. Someone who knew everything about you.

  Hunter sat with his legs outstretched on the grass, looking at the sparkling water under the bright rays of the sun. We’d just finished swimming and were enjoying the warm day. It was something we did when the weather was nice.

  We’d graduated high school Friday night, and while other kids were going on huge vacations to the beach and places like that, Hunter and I were hanging out at the lake by my house. It wasn’t technically summer yet, being only the end of May, but it was already humid and hot outside, making it the perfect swimming weather.

  “Think your grandpa will care if we go into town later?” Hunter asked, bringing his knees up and resting his arms on them.

  I lived with my grandpa because my dad wasn’t around, and my mom had committed suicide when I was six. I’d often thought it was my fault that she’d done it, that if I’d been a better kid, maybe she wouldn’t have found life so pointless. As I’d gotten older, I’d coped better, but that thought was still in the back of my head sometimes.

  To be honest, it had fucked me up for a while, but Hunter had helped me through it.

  “I doubt it,” I answered. “He might make us eat dinner first, though. You know how he likes to cook for us.”

  “Yeah, I forgot you’re spoiled.”

  “Asshole,” I said with a laugh, pushing his shoulder. “What do you wanna do in town? And please don’t say the bookstore.”

  “Actually, it’s the library,” Hunter said, grinning when I scoffed.

  “You’re such a nerd.”

  Hunter had been my best friend since we were five, and there wasn’t really anything we didn’t know about the other. And this last year, he’d started coming to mean more to me than just a friend. Subtle things here and there—fingers brushing against the other, eyes locking longer than necessary, and shy smiles—had all started and hadn’t stopped.

  Then, there were the kisses, slow and hesitant at first before growing more confident.

  It was hard to explain, but until I began developing feelings for Hunter, I hadn’t thought I was gay. I’d mostly had crushes on girls—and I say mostly because I totally had a thing for Shemar Moore from Criminal Minds, but I mean, like, who didn’t?

  Hunter’s dark hair, brown eyes, and kissable lips made him the biggest distraction, and I kept staring at him until he looked at me.

  “What?” he asked.

  I lunged forward and tackled him. He grunted as I rolled on top of him, and I kicked his knees aside until I was between his legs. His dick hardened and I grinned, but my amusement fled when he grinded his hips upward, causing me to moan.

  Then, I kissed him. He tasted like the banana Laffy Taffy he’d been eating earlier, and I flicked his tongue with mine, tasting more of him.

  “I think I could spend forever kissing you,” I said before doing it again.

  “I think I’d let you,” he responded after the next one.

  His brown eyes flickered to mine, and my heart beat just a little faster at the eye contact. I didn’t remember what life was like before Hunter, and I never wanted the reminder.

  All I needed was the boy in my arms—the one who drove me wild with lust but also touched a spot in my heart no one else ever would.

  “God, Corbin,” he moaned as I kissed down his neck. “Fuck me.”

  Ever since we’d discovered our feelings for each other, we’d fucked like rabbits. For years, we’d had sleepovers at each other’s houses, but those sleepovers were much more X-rated these days. His parents didn’t know about us, and neither did my grandpa.

  No one knew.

  We’d talked about coming out before, but neither of us was ready. Living in a small town in the south made it challenging. Hell, coming out anywhere was scary as fuck, but it was even more so there in Willow, Arkansas. The people were nice enough, but with some of the churches having signs that read Pray the Gay Away… well, it wasn’t exactly encouraging.

  At the lake, we had privacy, so we spent a lot of time out there.

  We were in our swim trunks and nothing else. I rubbed my hands down Hunter’s smooth, tanned chest, and his fingers gently scraped down my back. He kissed the side of my neck, and I tilted my head back to give him better access.

  Knowing I liked it a bit rough, he clawed my shoulders as he sucked at the base of my throat.

  “Dammit, Hunter. Mmm.” I found his mouth again and kissed his soft lips, tangling my fingers in his dark hair as the other hand worked his shorts down.

  I knew every part of his body, just like he knew mine. Being with him like this was my favorite place to be. I’d never known the touch of anyone else. Neither had he. He was my first, and I knew he’d be my last.

  The only one I wanted.

  After grabbing the small bottle of lube from my gym bag and using it on both of us, I slowly thrust into him. We’d just had sex earlier that day, so he wasn’t too tight. But still, I went slowly so I wouldn’t hurt him.

  He clawed my back harder, and I placed feather light kisses along his jaw as I pushed deeper. The sensation of sliding in and out of his heat was incredible, and I couldn’t stop from occasionally whimpering in his ear.

  “Harder,” he begged, digging his nails into my back.

  I smiled down at him, focusing on the soft planes of his face and his long, dark eyelashes. He was perfect and he was mine. And I was his. I thrust into him in the way he loved, slow and deep.

  His groans turned to breathy gasps as I leaned down and captured his left nipple with my teeth.

  “Fuck. I’m gonna come,” he said, throwing his head back and exposing his sexy neck.

  Kissing up his chest, I continued moving inside of him, quickening my pace with each thrust. With my free hand, I reached between us and started jerking him off. Each of his moans was like music to my ears.

  His dick twitched in my hand right as I felt hot cum coat my palm.

  “That’s it, baby,” I said, jerking him faster. “Fuck. You feel so good.”

  Hunter’s body shuddered with his release, and I let myself go too, coming inside of him with such force that I cried out. With one last pump into his ass, the spasms died down and my whole body relaxed. I rested my forehead against his and tried to catch my breath before slipping out of him and laying my head on his chest.

  “I love you, Cor,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around my neck and holding me close to him. His heart was going wild beneath my ear, matching the beat
ing of mine.

  “Love you too.”

  And I did. With all of my fucking heart.

  Life would only get better too. During football that year, some scouts had attended one of the biggest games of our season after seeing the video I’d submitted, and I’d been recruited to University of Arkansas. It wasn’t my top choice, but the school I really wanted to attend—one in California—had chosen another quarterback over me.

  It hurt like a bitch, but playing football was all I wanted to do, so at least I’d get that chance at U of A.

  Hunter was going for English Lit. Plans had already been made. He would room with me at school and we’d fuck each other’s brains out every day between classes. We’d come out and no longer hide who we were—hide that we were in love.

  Every day would be spent together; laughing, fucking, and loving. Creating a life together.

  Finally able to move, I rolled off him and lay by his side, staring up at the blue sky. My eyes were heavy, and I started nodding off. I felt Hunter move but didn’t look to see what he was doing. The sun warmed my skin and felt so great after having one damn good orgasm.

  Cool water hit my chest.

  “Shit!” I sat up, suddenly wide awake. Hunter stood knee deep in the lake a few feet away. “Did you seriously just throw water on me?”

  “I don’t know. Did I?” He smirked as he bent and cupped more water in his palms before doing it again.

  “You are so dead.” I pulled my swim trunks back on and leapt at him.

  He squealed as I pushed him farther out in the lake.

  I was several inches taller than his five foot ten height and way more muscular. I had the advantage over him and he knew it. In the deeper water, a dunking war ensued between us—which I might have gone a bit easy on him so I didn’t kick his ass that bad.

  Everything was perfect, and I couldn’t have been happier.

  Chapter 2

  Hunter

  Finding love was one of those things in life that not everyone experienced. And I’d found it with Corbin. What sucked was not being able to scream it to the world that I’d found my soulmate; the one person who completed me. I hadn’t known I wasn’t whole, until Corbin became my missing piece.

  But we couldn’t tell anyone. Not yet.

  Not sure why. Other gay couples in our town hadn’t been chased away with pitchforks or anything. Maybe it was peer pressure or just the thought of being categorized as different that stopped us. Being a teenager was hard enough, and neither of us really wanted to add shit on top of that.

  Corbin was the quarterback on our high school football team. I was on the team too, even though I kind of sucked. My main advantage on the field was my small size and speed. I could weave through the other players and outrun them. Football wasn’t something I wanted to do long-term; just something I enjoyed while in school.

  Corbin, however, lived for it. His dream had always been to play pro-football.

  When he was scouted, he really wanted to attend a college in California that had a Trojan for a mascot, which that had caused some taunting on my part about him being a massive condom. Another dude got the spot he wanted, though, so he’d settled with being an Arkansas Razorback.

  Secretly, I was happy about it, and I knew that made me an awful best friend.

  If he’d gone to California, I wouldn’t have been able to go with him. One, I couldn’t afford an expensive school like that—and that was if they even accepted me. Two, I loved my life there in Arkansas. I’d already made friends during the few times I visited the college campus in Fayetteville, and I’d talked to the head of the English department about the curriculum for the first semester. They had a Shakespeare seminar that I was freaking excited for.

  So, although selfishly, I was happy Corbin wasn’t leaving.

  At the library that evening, I searched the shelves for Homer’s The Iliad. School had just ended, but it was never too early to get a start on my summer reading list. I was a huge lover of the classics, and I wanted to study classic literature in college.

  “Aha. Gotcha,” I said when I saw the spine of it. After taking it off the shelf, I flipped it open, loving the smell of the pages. Seeing Corbin’s amused expression, I placed it under his nose. “Here. Smell.”

  I proceeded to flip the pages, making ooh and ahh sounds.

  “God you’re such a nerd,” he said, fighting a smile. He leaned on the shelf and arched a brow. “Now that you found your little book, you ready to go? I thought we could catch a seven o’clock movie before I took you home.”

  His blue-gray eyes made my stomach flutter and one glance at his sexy as sin lips took away any intelligent thought in my head. I almost kissed him right then, but I had to remind myself where we were.

  Too many people were around.

  “Yeah, I’m done,” I said, hugging the book to my chest. “What do you wanna watch?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Bridesmaids,” he answered before giving me a silly grin. “I’m in the mood for a chick flick.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  His taste in movies—and music—was eclectic. He loved all types of it. Corbin was the kind of guy who got hyped up for the big action films like Transformers and any Marvel movie ever, but he also liked chick flicks, horror, suspense, and tear-jerker movies. And Disney. He was a connoisseur when it came to those. When we watched them together—something we’d done when we were kids and for some reason he still required us to do—we had epic singalongs.

  After I checked out the book, we left the library and headed toward the movie theater. It was a small town, so we only had one theater, but it was a nice one, having just been built a year before.

  Once we bought our tickets and concession, we went into the theater. No one else was in the same movie as us, so we sat in the very back row with our two large drinks and huge bucket of popcorn. We made our own commentary as the movie played and laughed at the ridiculous shit that spewed from our mouths.

  Over halfway through, our attention drifted from the movie and to each other.

  Corbin softly kissed my neck, and it sent chills up and down my arms. His hand roamed across the top of my leg and trailed to my inner thigh as his kisses on my neck turned to gentle bites.

  “No hickies,” I said with a laugh—a laugh that was cut-off with a sharp gasp as he sucked hard at the base of my throat. He started rubbing the growing bulge through my pants and I was already close to losing it. “Fuck. Okay. Don’t stop.”

  “Know what I’m gonna do, Hunter?” He moved his face close to mine, and even in the dim theater, I saw the devilish grin.

  I shook my head, and that grin widened. He slid out of the seat, causing it to flip back up, and he moved between my legs. My pants were unzipped and in record time, he pulled them down and my dick sprang out.

  And when his lips surrounded my tip, I groaned. The wet heat of his mouth was mind-blowing. He gave me head right there in the theater, and when I started coming, I had to clench my jaw to keep from moaning too loud.

  Corbin swallowed every last drop and licked me from base to tip one last time before tucking my dick back into my pants.

  I was about to get on the floor to repay the favor, but the credits started rolling, and the house lights came back on. The ushers would be in soon to clean the theater. We stood, walked down the steps, and went out into the hall.

  My muscles felt wonky after the orgasm, and Corbin smirked as we passed the workers. I could tell he wanted to hold my hand as we went through the main lobby by how his knuckles brushed across mine. But we didn’t.

  “Wanna take the back way to my house?” I asked once we were in his truck.

  “Hell yeah,” he answered, finally grabbing my hand and linking our fingers.

  He knew exactly what I meant.

  The back way was a dirt road that hardly anyone ever drove down. When we were younger, we’d walked the road and had epic adventures. Now, we had a different type of adventure. Corbin and I had often pulled off t
o the side of the road and into the trees to have sex. With having to hide our relationship from everyone at school, my parents, and his grandpa… well, it was hard to find places for that.

  Still feeling a bit sore from the few times we’d already had sex that day, I gave him a blowjob instead. He tugged on my hair so hard during it that my scalp ached, but I loved it.

  I loved it all—the feel and taste of him, the sounds he made, the way his muscles moved beneath his tan skin.

  Afterward, we heavily made out in our secret spot. He squeezed my ass as his tongue tangled with mine. Our labored breaths blended as one, as did the beating of our hearts.

  The quiet sighs and moans leaving Corbin as I straddled him in the cab of his truck were my favorite sounds. I loved being the one to give him that kind of satisfaction.

  “I fucking love you,” he whispered, nuzzling his forehead against mine as he splayed his hands on my lower back. “You’re everything to me, Hunt.”

  I hugged his neck and ran my fingers through the short blond strands of his hair. “It doesn’t really seem like enough, does it? Saying I love you. Those words seem too small to explain the way I feel.”

  “Look at you being all mushy.” He chuckled and moved his hands up my spine. “Probably all that Shakespeare you read, little literary genius.”

  It tingled where his fingers touched my bare skin.

  “Hey, don’t mock my Shakespeare. But I’d say he was better known for his comedies and tragedies,” I pointed out. “Sure, there was romance too and the relationships were a huge part of the plot, but not exactly pure romance.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Corbin asked. “Romeo and Juliet is a romance. How can you say Shakespeare isn’t romantic?”

  “Romeo was a fickle bastard who jumped from one girl to the next in like the same night, and Juliet was young and naïve,” I explained, gliding my thumb along the sensitive spot below his ear. “They were infatuated with each other, but it wasn’t true love. Sure as hell isn’t a romance and—”