Long Haul Love (Trucker Love #1)

Chapter Five

By the time they reached Jacksonville and Brogan unhooked the trailer, Shepherd had a first draft of his next book written. He had even begun rough sketches to go along with the story.

He also knew Brogan much, much better, thanks to their twenty questions, which had become more like fifty questions. If anyone would ask him, he would classify the last four hours as the best first date he had ever been on. And he’d done a lot of first dates. Not so many second dates, and hardly any third dates.

He just hoped he had not worn Brogan out with all of his chatter.

He climbed out and followed Brogan into the office and watched intently as he got his paperwork signed off on as delivered. He stayed a few minutes and chatted with the office manager, asking about her children and whether she needed help keeping the twelve-year-old in line or not.

He was not surprised when Brogan did not introduce him. He was still flying under the radar and preferred to remain in the background. He was happy when Brogan handed him a cookie from the plate on the counter, before taking one for himself.

“If you ever need me to straighten Cody out, just give me a call and I’ll be here,”

he said as they drifted toward the office door.

“Thanks, Brogan. I’ll remember that.”

A few minutes later, they were back in the truck and headed out.

“Where to now?”

Shepherd asked, half afraid Brogan was going to pull over and tell him to get the hell out of his truck.

“There’s a big box store a couple miles down the road where we can get you new clothes and some lunch. Then I’ll call the office and see what Sam has for us next.”

“Us?”

Shepherd could not contain his excitement at being part of an us.

“Yes, us. That is, if you want to keep me company for a while. Having you here made the miles go a lot faster, and while I’ve never had a partner before, I like having you here with me.”

“Okay. Especially since I still haven’t figure out what I’m going to do next.”

“Well, now you can take some time, get over the shock of the day, and make decisions with an unruffled head,”

Brogan said as he turned into a massive parking lot and parked close to the street. “Sorry we’re going to have to walk. Management prefers we park out here instead of closer to the building.

“No problem. I could use a good walk,”

Shepherd said as he clipped the pencil he’d been writing and drawing with into the notebook, then laid the whole thing on the dashboard. “Um, I do need my money and cards back, though.”

Brogan pulled the money, cards, and receipts out of various pockets on his body and handed them over. “You might not want to carry all that inside with you.”

Shepherd nodded. “You’re right. Hang on just a minute.”

He ducked behind the seats and a few minutes later emerged again, looking relieved. “Okay, let’s go shopping.”

“First, I’d like to try something,”

Brogan said, reaching up and wrapping his big hand around the back of the smaller man’s neck. He then pulled gently until they were nose to nose.

Shepherd met his gaze with wide eyes and a nervous expression. “What do you want to try?”

“This,”

Brogan whispered just before he closed the last small distance between their lips and kissed him.

It was more of a gentle brushing of lips on lips, but Shepherd decided it qualified as a first kiss. He couldn’t wait for their second.

Brogan pulled back just an inch and they both pulled in a breath before Shepherd leaned in and kissed Brogan. He pressed them solidly together and sighed through his nose at the feel of it. When Brogan’s lips parted and his tongue stroked across his, Shepherd smiled as he dropped his jaw and allowed the man entrance.

In the next second, Brogan’s tongue entered and stroked across his teeth, encouraging him to let him in completely.

So, he did. Tilting his head, he allowed the big man complete access. Reaching up, he rested his hands on Brogan’s shoulders and held on as the kiss moved into a wild mating of teeth, lips, and tongue.

Shepherd had never been forceful before. Hell, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d had sex, with a couple of fingers left over, but he was tempted to pull the trucker into the back of the truck and talk him into having his way with him.

But he didn’t have any condoms. So, sex would have to wait until after they went shopping and he bought some.

Forcing himself to pull back and break the kiss, Shepherd stared into Brogan’s heavy-lidded eyes and sighed. “We need to get out of here and go shopping.”

Brogan looked like he wanted to argue, but took a deep breath and nodded instead. “You’re right. Let’s go shopping, get some lunch, and call the office.”

****

As they walked across the parking lot, Brogan tried to get his cock under control, but with Shepherd brushing against his arm it wasn’t possible.

“So, Hoss, do you have any idea what all you want to buy?”

Shepherd looked up at him with a frown. His next words weren’t an answer, but made Brogan chuckle in response just the same. “Why do you call me Hoss?”

He waited until they had passed a young mother and her two children walking in the other direction. His cock, that had been slowly deflating, twitched and threatened to embarrass him as they walked into the store.

“I call you Hoss because I saw you naked.”

He answered simply, hoping the man wouldn’t push for the full answer.

Shepherd seemed to think about that for a few seconds, then his cheeks turned red right before he whispered, “You mean you saw my cock and that’s why you call me Hoss?”

Brogan felt his face growing warm in response as he said, “Yep. That’s about the size of it.”

He could not hold down the laughter that bubbled up in him as Shepherd’s eyes grew even bigger. A moment later, the smaller man giggled with him.

They laughed until they entered the store and the greeter gave them a curious look before winking with a small grin. “Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Good morning,”

they said in unison as Brogan grabbed a cart.

“Lead the way, Hoss,”

he said, setting Shepherd to laughing once again.

Shepherd led the way to the men’s department and started tossing things into the cart. Two pair of blue jeans, socks, a pair of gray sweat shorts, and black sweatpants with a matching hoodie were selected without much thought. He chose two Henley t-shirts and then stopped at a wall of t-shirts with pictures on them. He found three he liked, all of which Brogan thought were perfect for him.

He then led the way across the aisle to the shoe department and after some looking, found a pair of sneakers that fit him.

When he looked like he was done, Brogan stopped him. “Suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack?”

The question threw him for a moment. He bit his upper lip and rubbed one hand up and down the outside of his thigh. “I don’t know. Can we look at them before I decide? I might need two, one for my clothes and one for my work gear.”

Brogan nodded. “We can do two. Any more than that and we might have storage problems in the truck.”

Shepherd nodded and looked at what was already in the cart. “Did I buy too much already?”

“No, Hoss. That’s not as much as I have. Don’t forget we also need to get toiletries,”

he said with a comedic lifting of his eyebrows to break the man out of his worries.

Shepherd nodded and they headed toward the back of the store where he found a purple backpack for his notebooks, pens, and other work stuff. They then visited the luggage department, and he found a matching purple duffel bag which would hold all his clothes with room to spare.

It would fit perfectly in one of the overhead storage bins that to date had remained empty. Or maybe he would move his clothes to the upper bin and let Shepherd have the drawers below the mattress.

Their final stop was the toiletry section where Shepherd picked up soap, deodorant, and shampoo. With a hesitant look his way, the little man led the way to the condoms. He stood and looked at the selection for an extended period before shrugging and turning to Brogan.

“Have a favorite?”

he asked, waving toward the wall of boxes that was impressive to say the least.

“I think these will fit both of us,”

Brogan pulled a box of the extra-large ones he preferred.

He then pulled a second box and tossed it in as well, earning another shocked, red-faced, wide-eyed gaze from the man he already knew he wanted to keep, even though they had only known each other for less than twelve hours. The two large tubes of lube he then added had the man sucking in a breath.

“O-o-okay,”

Shephard stuttered before leading the way to the linen section where he picked out a bright orange beach towel and a package of white washcloths.

“I have one more thing I want to look at, if it’s okay,”

he said, his face still bright red.

“Whatever you need, Hoss.”

Brogan then followed him to the office and art supply department where he picked up a big box of crayons, another package of pencils, a multi-pack of pens, two notebook size sketchbooks, and a small package of large manilla envelopes.

“Is that everything you need?”

Shepherd nodded. “I think so. At least until I figure out how to get a computer tablet. My agent is used to my weird ways, and when I submit this book, I’ll send a letter explaining why it’s not in my usual format and hope everyone can work with it.”

“I’m sure they will.”

Brogan turned the cart back toward the front of the store. “And if you need anything else, we can pick it up on the road.”

After checking out, Brogan helped Shepherd pack the clothes, toiletries, and condoms in his new duffel bag, and his work supplies in the backpack.

Taking possession of the duffel, he took Shepherd’s hand in his and led the way next door to the deli.

After lunch, they had one more stop to make before returning to the truck.

Shepherd looked from Brogan to the clinic door and back again. “Are you sick?”

“No, we’re going to be tested,”

Brogan said, pulling the man through the door behind him. “I want you to be sure that I’m healthy so we can become more.”

“More?”

“Yeah, more than a trucker and his hoss.”

That comment got Shepherd to giggling so hard he didn’t mind the nurse taking their blood and promising to call the results to Brogan the next day, as soon as they got them.

As they walked back to the truck, Shepherd pouted. “So that means we can’t be more until tomorrow?”

Brogan smiled down at him and said, “There’s a lot we can do without full penetration. We’ll just have to get creative.”

Shepherd’s expression lightened and he said, “You’re right, there is. But I really wanted to see if we could get the truck rocking.”

Between the man’s hopeful expression and his words, Brogan could not help the full belly laugh that burst out of him. “Come on, Hoss, let’s go get you settled into the sleeper and call Sam.”