“No.” Gavin stood, and started pacing the bar. “I’ve never really doubted who I am. I was with men. I never dated women. I might not have been completely open with it, but I know I’m gay. My family knows I’m gay.”

“Because you fucked some random guy once or twice a year? That doesn’t mean you had a love life. Hell, it’s not even a sex life—not a good one, at least. You wanted to pretend that part of you didn’t exist so you wouldn’t let your family down. You wanted to be a teacher the way they were because then you wouldn’t feel like you let them down. Wanting a man doesn’t mean you let someone down, Teach.” Mason knew he was probably way out of line, but right now, he didn’t give a shit. He walked over to Gavin and grabbed his arm so the man stopped moving. “What kind of life is it if you’re not living your own?”

***

He’d hardly known Mason any time at all. Yes, they spent a lot of time talking the day they went hiking, but somehow, Mason just summed up Gavin better than anyone in his life ever could, except maybe Braden. It had taken Braden a whole hell of a lot longer to get to know him than it did Mason.

And he thought he understood Mason pretty well himself. Maybe it was so easy for Mason to see Gavin because the two men were so much alike. “Are we talking about you or me?”

Mason’s hold on his arm briefly tightened before he let go completely. “Good call. Both of us, and you know it. That’s why I bought this bar, remember? To live my own life.”

Though, Gavin knew Mason hadn’t planned to stay. He’d bought it as an experiment before going right back to the restaurants and Denver.

It was crazy how alike they were in some ways, yet so different. Gavin’s whole life, he’d wanted parents who one hundred percent accepted him the way he was. If he had that, everything else would fall into place. Here Mason had grown up having just what Gavin wanted, yet it seemed he felt pressure, too. He’d still felt the need to be something specific for his family.

He watched as Mason walked over to a chair, turned it backward and sat down. Gavin didn’t know why he got a kick out of the fact that Mason always sat in a chair, straddling the back. It made his pants ride up, outlining the bulge between his legs. Gavin started to go hard behind his fly.

“And that’s why I’m here.” Gavin sat across from Mason at the table. The man raised a brow at him. He did that a lot.

“Here in Blackcreek or here in my bar?”

Gavin wasn’t used to making his needs known. Not really. Braden had approached him, and then as they got older, when he wanted a man he went to a bar and waited for someone to approach him.

He was so damned tired of taking a backseat in his own life. “Both. I came to Blackcreek for a fresh start. I’m at your bar because I want you to fuck me.” When Mason didn’t continue he added, “We’re attracted to each other. I see the way you look at me. I felt what I do to you when we went hiking. Between you and me, the work thing doesn’t matter. I’m tired of not taking what I want.”

The silence stretched on and he started to sweat. Hell, was Mason going to turn him down? He put himself out there, offered himself to the guy, and he had nothing to say?

Gavin moved to stand but Mason grabbed his arm again, holding him in place. “Are you sure about that? It’s important we get things out there, because I am your employer. Whether we have sex or not, it will never affect your job. We’re two grown men. I think we can handle that.”

“I agree,” Gavin replied.

“I want you. Make no mistake about that. But there’s one more thing we have to discuss. You said you want me to fuck you. I don’t do the fucking.”

Holy shit. He hadn’t expected that one. “Ever?”

“I’ve done it, more than once. It’s not something I have a real interest in. I want to be fucked.” He leaned forward, giving Gavin a whiff of his spicy scent. “That doesn’t mean I won’t take control. I’ll want you inside me when I tell you to be there. I’ll want you to kiss me and suck me and touch me when I tell you to, but it will be your cock in my ass. That going to be a problem for you?”

Lust shot through him, landing straight in his crotch. Gavin’s half-hard dick went painfully erect. He’d almost always bottomed. Not because it was a preference as much as how things always happened to go down.

He wanted what Mason just laid out for him, though.

Wanted it so bad he feared the second he pushed inside Mason, he’d lose it. “No. Definitely not a problem.”