Love in Xxchange: Miles to Go by Bailey Bradford (7 ebook reader txt) 📕

cheeks started burning, a heat which spread all the way down to his chest.

“It’s stupid,” Bo muttered. Plenty of people had faced a hell of a lot worse than him and come out just fine.

“Nothing that makes you hurt is stupid,” Max said. Bo felt the barest brush of lips against his temple. He listened to the steady thrumming of Max’s heart, the muted whoosh of his lover’s breaths, until his lungs worked in synch with Max’s.

Closing his eyes, Bo exhaled and forced himself to speak. “I guess…maybe it all started with my momma. Don’t know who my daddy was, and from all the talk in the family, she probably didn’t, either. She was a partier, and her parents had washed their hands of her years before I was born. The only things I know about her came from them, along with the story of how I ended up being abandoned. I wasn’t even a year old when she went off to some party and left me alone in the crib. Left a few bottles of juice, and that was all. Didn’t tell no one, didn’t ask anyone to check on me—nothing. The cops said it was probably a couple of days I was alone until one of the neighbours in the next apartment called in because they’d heard me screaming, then…not. Someone noticed no one had come and gone from the apartment. If they hadn’t called, I’d have been dead before morning.”

MILES TO GO

Bailey Bradford

96

“Bo, Jesus…” Max’s arms tightened around Bo, nearly squeezing the breath out of him.

“I’m so sorry, honey. Some people shouldn’t ever be parents. Please tell me the police put her ass in jail.”

Bo shook his head and bit back the hysterical laugh that threatened to break free.

“Nope. No one knows what happened to her. She vanished. I used to think maybe she meant to come back for me, but her folks—my grandparents—told me she’d packed up all her shit when she left, so she meant for me to die. I don’t know why she—” Why she hated me.

“She was a waste of a human being,” Max rasped, his voice thick and gravelly. “She didn’t deserve you, but I thank God that she had you, and if I can find those neighbours, I’ll go thank them, drop right down on my knees and worship at their feet for saving you.” A series of kisses landed on Bo’s forehead and cheek. “You know that was her being a mess, it wasn’t your fault?”

“Yeah, I know that up here”—Bo tapped at his head—“but it won’t sink in, not when my first memories are of my grandparents telling me what a burden I was, and how they shouldn’t have to raise a bastard like me.” Bo ignored Max’s curses and continued. “They died when I was six, a house fire when I’d been sent to stay with one of my aunts for the weekend. Grandpa was a heavy smoker, and you know the rest of that story. Falling asleep with a lit cigarette doesn’t turn out well for anyone. After that, I was passed around to whatever relative would put up with me for a while. Not a one of them wanted me, but they were all pretty image-conscious and didn’t want to appear to be the heartless people they were, you know. So in public they tolerated me, but in private…” Bo could still hear the hateful comments, the crushing words that destroyed a lonely little boy’s hope for love. “In private, they let me know just how much they didn’t want me. Even had a couple of them tell me I should have died when my momma ran off.”

Max rumbled and Bo could feel the man’s muscles tensing, could almost scent his

anger. Instead of a trite line, though, Max merely said, “I’m sorry, honey. You know I mean it, but you need to tell me the rest.”

Bo opened his eyes and glanced up at Max, who was looking at him with that shining burst of love in his dark eyes. “How did you know there’s more to it than the poor, unloved orphan story?”

MILES TO GO

Bailey Bradford

97

Max’s lips tipped up in the barest of grins. “‘Like I said, I know you. I don’t know your past, but you, well, sometimes it’s like you’re so deep under my skin I can hear your thoughts, you know?”

Bo blinked. “That’s actually kind of creepy, Max.” Or kind of sweet.

“Nah.” Max shrugged his shoulders, jostling Bo. “Ain’t creepy, just means I pay

attention to you, and not only when we’re making love. It means I see you, not that flirty dude you show everyone else.”

“I flirt with you, too,” Bo pointed out, but he couldn’t look into Max’s eyes any longer, not when he knew Max could read everything Bo felt.

“Sure you do, but it ain’t an act when you do it with me, not like it is with Rory or Chance.”

“No, it isn’t,” Bo agreed. “I’m not teasing with you. I’m really offering.”

Max’s fingers traced over Bo’s jaw, then hooked under his chin, tipping his head up. Bo opened his eyes and found himself pinned by Max’s penetrating stare. “And did anyone else ever think it was an offer when it wasn’t?”

Bo’s mouth dropped open as he shivered. “How do you do that? That’s just fucking scary!”

“Bo…” Max sighed as Bo continued to look at him, waiting for an explanation. “It’s just from years of watching people, okay? Trying to figure out why people do what they do. It was easier than trying to figure out my own mess.”

Max had told Bo about his own childhood, which was as fucked up as Bo’s in its own way. Bo wouldn’t have wanted to deal with it, either—much like he hadn’t dealt with his own past. But Max was a stronger man than he ever would be.

He realised Max was waiting for an answer. Bo looked away and nodded once, a sharp, jerky movement that was