Ascension by Bailey Bradford (desktop ebook reader txt) 📕

nod and that was good enough. Conner went from being surrounded by loved ones to standing on the porch beside Ro.

Ro looked him up and down, frowning. “Conner? What’s up? Are you…? Why are you wearing a tux?”

“Do you like it?” Conner plucked at one sleeve. “I can change.”

“Like it?” Ro chuckled. “I want to peel it off of you and lick every inch of your body, then I want to ride you until we both scream.”

“I’m fine with that, but first, do something for me.” Conner held one hand out to Ro. “Come with me, please.”

Ro pointed at the chickens. “There’s a fox—”

“There’s no fox,” Conner assured him. “I promise.”

“What the hell kind of trick was this, then? I hate these damned birds!” Ro planted his hands on his hips. “What’re you up to?”

“Trust me?” Conner asked.

Ro nodded. “Always. Okay. Wherever we’re going’s fancy, so let me change.” He went from jeans to a tux with nary the blink of an eye. “Good?”

Conner could hardly speak, Ro was so handsome, his black hair smooth and his eyes shining. “Yeah. Perfect.” He held out a hand to Ro.

“I love you, you know,” Ro said, placing his hand in Conner’s.

Conner’s throat was tight as emotion welled up in him. “I love you, too. So much. I hope…I hope you like this.” I hope it’s not stupid.

“I’ll love anything you’ve done for me, I swear it,” Ro promised.

Conner gulped and whisked them both back to where everyone they cared about was waiting.

“A church?” Ro asked, tittering nervously. “I haven’t been in a church since—” His eyes went wide.

“Since Adela’s wedding,” Conner finished for him. “And now, we’re here for ours. Wedding, I mean. If—” Conner went down on one knee. “If you’ll marry me.” He hadn’t bothered with rings. It’d have been too difficult to keep their ringer finger corporeal enough for such a thing. “I can’t put a ring on it, but I can tell you, I’ll love you for eternity.”

“Jesus,” Ro gasped, pressing a hand over his heart. “I—I didn’t—I—” He took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes! Oh my God, yes, Conner!”

Conner stood up and wrapped Ro in his arms. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy, and that was saying something, because he was very rarely unhappy.

“Come on. Let’s go get married.” He planted a big kiss on Ro’s mouth. Ro held on to him when Conner started for the church doors.

“Thank you,” Ro whispered.

Conner saw unshed tears glinting in his eyes. “Ro—”

“Tears of joy,” Ro said. “And love. Two gifts you’ve given me, Conner. Joy and love. I will spend eternity showering you with both of those things.”

“Hey, save the sweet words for your vows,” Sev said as he poked his head out of the door. “Y’all have a church full of people waiting for you, and I want to perform my first wedding!”

Conner kissed Ro again, then he escorted his groom down the aisle and vowed to love and cherish him forever.

 

Also available from Pride Publishing:

Coyote’s Call: Off Course

Bailey Bradford

Excerpt

Chapter One

At a quarter after three on August twenty-first, Gideon Wells’ car started sputtering, the gas pedal suddenly useless as he coasted down a desolate Texas road. Gideon knew the exact time since it was in the morning and he was now stranded in the middle of Texas without a cell phone or anyone to call, even if he’d had one.

He did note the temperature gauge, since the needle to it was deep in the red zone. Then the whole car shuddered, smoke and flames shot out from under the hood, and Gideon’s impending self-pity was drowned out by sheer terror as visions of him dying a hot, fiery death flashed through his head.

Gideon didn’t worry about his keys or anything other than surviving this hellish experience. He did grab the duffle off the front seat just before leaping out of the car.

At least he’d braked to an almost-stop first. But with the flames and all, putting the car in park hadn’t really occurred to him.

The ground was hard, without even a smidgen of grass to cushion his landing. A grunt was knocked out of him, and Gideon hoped he hadn’t broken any bones.

He heard a loud popping sound, followed by grinding and what was most likely metal on metal somehow—the car going through one of those barbed wire fences, he supposed. Gideon got a breath in, deciding his lungs worked and no ribs were broken. He started to roll onto his side when movement not three inches from his face caused him to freeze.

With the car ablaze and a full moon out, Gideon had no trouble seeing what was waving at him. He just had a hell of a time getting his brain to process the image his eyes were sending it.

Once that all flowed together, terror flared to life in every cell in his body. Gideon tried to scramble back but his limbs seemed to have forgotten they were supposed to follow his orders.

The scorpion was huge, like something out of a horror movie. It had too damn many legs—and a really scary tail that curved up and around.

Gideon couldn’t seem to look away from the creature while his thoughts spun chaotically. Surely it has more than eight legs. Is that right? That can’t be right. Only spiders have eight legs. Well, octopi have eight tentacles—and there’s centipedes… It had to be some kind of freak of nature, a scorpion with twice the legs it should have, or maybe a centipede-scorpion mutant.

And that was when he realized there were two scorpions entirely too close to his person. As far as he was concerned, a continent between them would still have the nasty things too close to him.

Should he move? Maybe his body knew better than his brain what to do. If he scrambled back, the scorpions might very well attack him, like the predatory dogs that saw such retreats as a sign of prey.

Did scorpions eat