A fireball burning up the sky leads farmer Jason Thomas to the strangest thing he's ever found in his pumpkin patch. A man with wings. And no, he doesn't think it's an angel, no matter what his brothers say.
Taking the stranger into his home is hard. Keeping his heart from the stranger's hands? Harder. But everything in him calls to this being and Jason is so damned tired of only having his brothers at his back.
Castiel has no idea what this angel thing is, but the evil that knocked him out of the sky did him a favor. He’d heard the tales of his kin and their missions on Earth with envy and now he has the chance to experience it himself. Better yet, his mate takes him home. One small problem. Castiel has a duty and needs to find a way back. Of course it isn’t going to be that easy.
"You didn’t wake him up?" The disapproving frown on Danny's soft face definitely didn’t sit well.
"I figured if being manhandled onto horseback and riding back with the saddle pommel jabbing him in the ass could not wake him, I would let him do that one his own." Jason scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. "Besides, what was I supposed to do? Smack him across the face?"
"Good point." Suddenly, Danny grinned. "An angel, huh?"
"No." Groaning with frustration, Jason leveled a finger at his brother. "We don’t know what this guy is, but honestly, an angel falling into our pumpkin patch? It’s absolutely ridiculous. He’s probably an escapee from a secret testing lab."
"But he looks like the angels from those old art books Mom used to show as kids," Carmen murmured, hazel eyes lighting up at the idea.
"Maybe. However, I refuse to believe this guy is an angel sent by the same fucking Lord that would happily smite us all." Jason winced at the venom in his tone, especially when all three of his brothers flinched. All of them, down to a man, had bad run ins with the church types over the years, simply because, by some fluke of nature and genetics, all four of them were queer. None of them were ashamed of it, but being told all their lives that being who they were was going to send them to hell and having to put up with the abuse that mentality gave was something Jason didn’t want to hear about.
Lips thinning in a grimace, he dropped the attitude. "Okay. The guy seems pretty harmless. I cannot stand the thought that he really is an angel though." Reaching out, he yanked Carmen into a hug, squeezing tight. "It means I brought a danger into the house with you guys and there is no way I could live with myself if I did."
Jason held in a sniffle when Carmen hugged him back. Over his head, he locked eyes with first Danny, then Adam, hoping for understanding, almost sagging against his littlest brother in relief when both smiled and nodded. They got it.
Carmen's arms tighten for a second, and then he stepped back. "So, we wait until he wakes up. We can do that." The other two agreed easily. "Any guess at how long that will take?"
Jason and Adam shared a look. "He’s been out since I found him yesterday afternoon. Except for a nasty scar on him, I haven’t found anything else that’s keeping him asleep."
Adam started cackling. "Must have hurt when he fell from heaven."
"Shut up," Jason bit out.
Danny chortled. "To be fair, he is that pretty."
"Keep your hands to yourself, Danny, or so help me --"
"And there it is." Carmen flashed an impish, little grin. "You’ve gone so long without a date that you are crushing on an angel."
Embarrassed at the trap they had laid, Jason started shoving his brothers out of the room, face scarlet. His brothers knew him too well. "I am not, but I know you pervs. A hot guy comes into town and it’s like Friday night at a brothel. All of you will keep your dicks to yourselves."
Stumbling over each other with laughter, Jason was able to manhandle them out of his room. "Now come on knuckle heads. We might not be able to work the fields today with all the rain, but we’ve still got house work to do. Let’s get to it."
He shook his head with fond exasperation and moved to the kitchen. He loved his brothers, but damn, sometimes they were too perceptive for their own good.