Pucking forbidden (MxM)

The snow fell softly over the rolling hills of Willow Creek Ranch, blanketing the world in a hush that matched the quiet ache in Jack Windam's chest.

At twenty-five, he'd spent the last three years tending the cows under Kane Hemsworth's watchful eye, his calloused hands more at home with ropes and feed buckets than with the wild dreams that plagued his nights.

Kane was everything Jack wasn't, tall, broad-shouldered, with sun-kissed skin and eyes like storm clouds, a man who commanded the ranch with a firm hand and a rare, disarming smile. Jack had fallen hard, his love a secret fire that burned hotter each Christmas, when the isolation of the country made everything feel both closer and impossibly distant.

This year, the holiday loomed with extra weight. The other hands had gone home to families, leaving just Jack and Kane to keep the place running through the blizzard warnings.

Jack shoveled the barn path that morning, his breath fogging the air, when Kane's truck rumbled up. The