The Cowboy's Secret

by Riley Knight

  “You’re on,” Kyle replied and then stepped aside to give Malcolm access to the bathroom for his own shower. Not a thought that he needed to have, though, thinking about Malcolm in the shower, hot water caressing every chiseled, tight muscle of his body, face turned toward the spray …

  He really, really needed to rein in his imagination. None of this had any place in their negotiations, and he was going to have to pull it together. If he had learned anything, it was that this wasn’t going to be an easy sell, and he needed his wits about him.

  “Meet you in the kitchen in fifteen, then.” Malcolm’s voice was impassive, but his eyes burned with a challenge as if he expected even now for Kyle to back out. Not that Kyle had any intention of doing anything of the sort, of course, so he just nodded and retreated, trying not to think about the broad, stocky chest, the strong body, that had only been set on display more by the loose sweats which had been all that Malcolm wore.

  He was so screwed if he couldn’t pull himself together. He was going to make a complete idiot of himself, and so far, it felt like the only thing saving Kyle was that Malcolm wasn’t interested. Only there were these brief flashes in those brilliant, jewel-like green eyes that made him wonder from time to time.

  It didn’t matter, so he did what he had to do. He went to his bedroom and got dressed, or tried to. He didn’t have anything even remotely appropriate for ranching, not even a pair of jeans. He wasn’t even sure he remembered the last time that he had owned jeans, but he did his best, finding his least formal pair of pants though even as inexperienced as he was, he knew that they were not in any way appropriate.

  Still, he did his best and came downstairs in an outfit more casual than most of the people that he interacted with had ever seen him in before. Skyler would have fallen over with shock, he knew, if he had laid eyes on Kyle at the moment, and yet, he still knew that he was overdressed.

  It was better than a suit and tie, though. He hoped.

  “Morning.” Anna, who was already up and active, gave him a bright smile as she handed him a plate of bacon and eggs, along with a half of a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar. Eating on the ranch, Kyle was starting to realize, was a lot different than eating back in Seattle. “What are you up to today, Kyle?”

  “Malcolm invited me out to see the ranch,” he admitted and couldn’t help but grin when she almost dropped the coffee cup that she had just filled and had been about to hand to him. “He’s going to show me around.”

  Clearly, that shocked her, and he was pretty smug about that. Maybe he wasn’t doing as badly as people had assumed that he would.

  “How’d you get him to agree to that?” Logan asked, walking into the room with his face still puffy with sleep. Yet it was early in the morning, and everyone except for the teenaged Mary Anne was awake, which was unusual for him. He was used to being pretty much the only person who got up as early as he did.

  “He asked me.” Kyle felt smug satisfaction roll through him at the shocked look which Anna and Logan exchanged. It was easy to feel hopeless, but he was apparently already doing better than anyone could have imagined.

  “Well, I’ll be goddamned,” Logan commented, and then he raised his head and shot a teasing look toward the door. “You going soft on us in your old age, man?”

  Even without turning around, Kyle felt like he knew exactly who Logan was addressing. It was like something in his body was attuned to Malcolm, like the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up just in response to Malcolm’s presence. Which was utterly stupid, of course, no one had to tell him that, but that was how it felt.

  “Shut up.” Came the familiar voice, and Malcolm, looking grumpy, brushed past Kyle in a way that made his whole body tingle and dropped down into a seat at the table. Looking at him, Kyle knew two things for sure.

  The first was that he was overdressed, given Malcolm’s jeans and a plaid shirt. The second was that, no matter how much he kept trying to deny that he had any attraction to this man, he was developing quite the stupid, immature crush on the guy.

  So what? He was an adult, even if his whole body seemed to buzz the closer he got to Malcolm. He had control of himself, and he wasn’t going to lose that, crush or not.

  “Where are you taking the boy?” Anna asked, which would have annoyed Kyle quite a bit if not for the genuinely concerned tone of her voice.

  “Calm down, everyone,” Malcolm grumbled, clearly not incredibly thrilled to be the center of attention like this. Who could blame him for that? It wasn’t even seven in the morning yet. “It’s no big deal. I’m just gonna show him around the place.”

  No one stopped looking suspicious, and Kyle couldn’t help but find it all sort of touching. These people that he didn’t know were looking out for him. He didn’t know why, but that was sort of a big deal to him, in a way.

  “He’s not going to drag me out behind the barn and shoot me,” Kyle declared and then shot them all a wicked grin. “That would spook the horses too much, probably.”

  Logan snorted with amusement, and when Kyle glanced over at him, he saw that the enormous cowboy was chuckling softly, his eyes full of approval as he looked at Kyle. At least Logan seemed to get Kyle’s sense of humor because no one else did.

  “I’ll pack an extra lunch for him, then.” Anna, apparently taking comfort in the simple domesticity of the task, and Kyle fought back a chuckle. He couldn’t help but find her adorable, the way she took such good care of everyone around her. Mary Anne was a lucky girl to have a mother like that.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Malcolm grumbled, which made Kyle tilt his head and look at him curiously. It wasn’t like he had backed the guy into a corner and forced him to take Kyle out or anything, it had been Malcolm’s idea in the first place. So why was he acting so resigned now?

  The question haunted him all the way to the barn, but no further, because that was where the horses were. Kyle had been to a summer camp once, and it had been a while ago, but he had never forgotten what it was like to sit way, way up on one of the majestic animals.

  “Here, let me help you up.” Malcolm’s voice wasn’t entirely unkind, even if it did still seem more resigned to have him around than happy, but Kyle shot him a smug smirk, socked his foot into the hanging leather stirrup, and hefted himself up onto the broad back of the cinnamon-colored horse which Malcolm had chosen and saddled for him.

  “Nah, I’m good,” Kyle informed him, although he doubted that he could have done this again in a million years, getting himself up onto the horse without help. Still, he saw a grudging sort of approval in the cowboy’s eyes, and he could try to lie and say that he didn’t love seeing it there, but it would be just that, a lie.

  “Hey, wait up.” Kyle heard Logan called out, and Kyle turned to smile at him, then outright laughed when he saw the disbelief on the tall cowboy’s face. Logan might be nicer about it, but he had a hard time believing that Kyle was actually up on a horse.

  Or maybe it was just that Kyle looked ridiculous there because, with his outfit, he probably did. These pants, he was discovering, did nothing to protect him from the leather of the saddle, but he wasn’t giving up.

  “I promised Kyle I’d show him around. You don’t get all the fun,” Logan informed Malcolm cheerfully, which sort of made Kyle glow. Showing him around was fun, now? Like it was some sort of privilege?

  “Fine, whatever, let’s just get out of here, there’s work to do,” Malcolm grumbled, and for just a split second, Kyle could almost swear that the other man was upset not to get him all to himself.

  Wishful thinking. Or even if it wasn’t that wasn’t something that Kyle needed to know. Still, he found himself glad that Logan was there if only to provide a buffer against Malcolm’s unrelenting hostility.

  “Okay, let’s go.” Logan swung up onto his own horse, a glossy black beast with a snowy white patch on its forehead, and Kyle fought back a cry and clung to the saddle horn, but luckily, it didn’t seem like much was required of him, becau
se his horse followed the others without him having to do much.

  Summer camp might have taught him some basic horseback riding, but summer camp had been a very, very long time ago. Still, there was a surge of joy, of pure, primitive satisfaction, to know that he, Kyle Mercer, could still ride a horse, despite his inappropriate clothing and his years without practicing.

  SIX

  It wasn’t like Malcolm cared, he told himself, that Logan was around. If anything, it was a good thing, not having to be alone with Kyle, who was far too unsettling. Having Logan as a sort of buffer was helpful, it meant that Malcolm could ignore him.

  But did Logan have to look like he was having so damn much fun?

  Of course, it was Logan’s way to have as much fun as possible, the guy didn’t seem to take all that much seriously, but this was a whole different level. Logan was laughing as he rode beside Kyle, and while Malcolm told himself that he was just upset that Logan wasn’t doing any of the work, he wasn’t helping Malcolm to look for any of the endless sections of fencing that needed to be repaired, the truth was, part of him was actually jealous.

  “Okay, man, you gotta let go of the saddle horn now,” Logan said, chuckling in a quiet, indulgent way that Malcolm wasn’t sure he had ever heard before. “You can’t be a real cowboy if you don’t use the reins.”

  “Who wants to be a real cowboy, anyway?” Kyle shot back, a comment which probably would have made Malcolm bristle, but Logan just smirked and kept on giving instructions.

  Which Kyle, damn him, seemed to pick up way, way too fast. Whenever Malcolm glanced back at Logan and Kyle, he was surprised by how naturally Kyle, even in his ridiculous outfit, sat on the saddle. Now that he was gripping the reins, he didn’t look half bad up there, even if he was holding the leather strips one to a hand instead of both reins in one hand.

  The whole morning was like that. Malcolm didn’t say one word to either of them, and neither of them seemed to notice, which wasn’t to say that Logan didn’t do any of the work because he did. Especially, Malcolm noticed with some annoyance, the parts that let him show off for Kyle, which he did at every chance he got to like his life depended on it.

  And that gave Malcolm plenty of time to think. Why was Logan acting like this? If Malcolm didn’t know better, he would have said that Logan liked Kyle, that he had a thing for the guy. But Logan had never shown any sign of interest before, not in a man, and Malcolm frowned over at his best friend as Kyle occupied himself with staring with interest at a cow, which he had obviously never seen this close before and was fascinated by.

  What’s going on with you?

  Since when are you interested in flirting with guys?

  Those were the questions he had, but he didn’t know how they would come out if he did ask them. He had to be more careful than that because Logan wasn’t stupid and would figure out Malcolm’s shameful secret if he didn’t hold it tightly to himself.

  “You’d better watch out,” Malcolm finally commented, leaning over to speak directly to Logan. “He might get offended if you keep hitting on him.”

  There, that could sound like nothing but a joke, right? Just some lighthearted teasing? But Logan gave Malcolm a deeply thoughtful look, one which Malcolm wasn’t so sure that he liked to see.

  “I don’t think he’s going to get offended,” Logan replied, his voice quiet, and more sober than Malcolm was used to hearing it. “I really, really don’t think he is, Mal.”

  He didn’t want to know. He wasn’t going to ask. He wasn’t.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Damn it.

  “I mean, the guy is gay. Can’t you tell?” Logan was looking at Kyle, who was controlling his horse with the reins now, a huge jump from where he’d been before. The man was a quick learner, Malcolm had to give him that. Which only, he reminded himself, made him more dangerous.

  “What?” Malcolm’s voice came off strange and stupid, and Logan just shot him a pitying look before spurring his own horse over to Kyle. Doubtless, to try to instruct him on the finer points of what cows were, Malcolm thought uncharitably, to try to hide, even from himself, that he thought he should be the one to be educating Kyle, not Logan.

  His dad had told him to show Kyle around, after all. He was the one who was supposed to be making that look of wonder come over the smaller man’s face. Maybe his father should have sent Logan, he grumbled to himself, who was apparently doing a much better job than Malcolm ever could.

  If anyone was going to make Kyle fall in love with the ranch, it would be Logan, not Malcolm.

  “I’m gonna repair this section of fence,” Logan finally commented, and Malcolm told himself that he wasn’t relieved. And also that he didn’t panic a little when Logan continued, “Kyle, you wanna learn how to do this? I swear 90 percent of being on the ranch is repairing fences.”

  It should have been the perfect opportunity to get rid of Kyle, to foist him off on Logan, who was, let’s face it, doing a much better job of showing Kyle around than Malcolm ever could. Logan seemed to like the guy, maybe a little too much, and Kyle was warming up to Logan, too.

  “I was gonna break for lunch, show him the creek,” Malcolm protested, without even meaning for the words to come from his mouth. What had he done? This had been his chance to get rid of Kyle. He should have just let it happen. He could have said, with perfect honesty, that the matter had been dealt with if his father asked.

  “I am pretty hungry,” Kyle unexpectedly announced, and Malcolm couldn’t help himself, he shot a bit of a smirk at Logan, who gave an easygoing shrug in return. It took a lot to faze Logan, always had, and he took this in stride as much as he seemed to take everything.

  “Okay. Saddle up, then,” Malcolm ordered, and he had to admit that he felt much better suddenly, much lighter and freer, which wasn’t a good thing, given what it meant. He was happy because he was going to be spending time with Kyle? With the incredibly, sinfully sexy man who was trying to sell the ranch right out from under him?

  “Catch you guys later,” Logan said casually enough, but he was giving Malcolm a thoughtful look, one that Malcolm didn’t particularly like. It was a relief to turn his back on his friend and ride away, the sound of Kyle’s mare’s footsteps behind him letting him know that Kyle was following.

  Part of this, a big part, or so he informed himself firmly, was that he liked showing off his family’s land, and he so rarely got a chance to do so. He wouldn’t have thought that Kyle would be a receptive audience to that, though, and actually now that Logan wasn’t around Kyle lapsed back into silence.

  Logan’s words haunted him. Was Kyle gay? Not that it mattered if he was because this man was the epitome of off-limits to him. But it brought up a world of possibilities that Malcolm wasn’t sure he should be thinking about.

  A few times growing up, Malcolm had found himself kissing, even groping, another man. Never anything more, and always rushed, but he couldn’t say that he hadn’t done it before, even if it didn’t mean anything. Still, it was an entertaining way to spend the ride out to the spot where he and Logan, more often than not, had lunch. What would Kyle, uptight, snarky Kyle, say or do if Malcolm pushed him up against the side of the barn and kissed him?

  It was a seductive thought, one which, once Malcolm allowed it in, didn’t easily go away. Kyle would make some sort of joke, more likely than not. Or was it possible, and Malcolm didn’t even like thinking about this, but wasn’t there at least a chance that Kyle would see it as a sign of success and redouble his efforts to get Malcolm to sell?

  Those weren’t the thoughts that got to him, as he and Kyle crossed the little stream which gave the ranch its name. No, the thoughts which haunted him were all of what would happen if Kyle didn’t push him away, or make a joke? What would happen if Kyle wound his arms around Malcolm and kissed him back?

  It would never happen. It was almost impossible to think of Kyle lost in the throes of passion, except that somehow it wasn’t. Somehow, he had no issue at all imagi
ning it, and he had to fight off a groan as he thought about Kyle rubbing against him, Kyle hard for him, Kyle’s tongue flickering into his mouth and …

  And he needed to stop that right there. It wasn’t going to happen, and more than that it should never happen. This was all just a sign that he needed to get laid if even this obnoxious man could turn his head like this.

  “Wow,” Kyle murmured, just softly, like he hadn’t meant to say the one word at all, when they came to the place on the far bank of the river. It was always a gorgeous place, but right now, in the late spring, it was particularly lovely, and Malcolm looked around with a pride which he thought was pardonable. Even this city boy could see the beauty of this place, lush and green, planted with trees that stretched out overhead to cast comforting shade and protect them from the sun.

  “Not bad, right?” Malcolm dismounted and then turned to see that Kyle was still on the back of his horse, staring around him with eyes round with what seemed to Malcolm to be an unfeigned wonder. There was no trace of irony on his face, not that Malcolm could see, though he shouldn’t entirely discount the thought that Kyle was just an incredibly good actor, trying to endear himself to Malcolm so that Malcolm would do what he wanted.

  After all, he barely knew the guy, and he already knew that he was stubborn and focused.

  “Not bad at all.” Kyle actually smiled, a real, true smirk which lit up his whole face, not his usual faintly sardonic smirk, and when Malcolm impulsively offered his hand to help Kyle down off the back of his horse, Kyle took the hand without hesitation, which shouldn’t have made Malcolm so damn happy.

  “It’s one thing I’ve missed about Seattle, all the trees,” Kyle suddenly said once he was on the ground, his hand still nestled firmly in Malcolm’s and it was hard for him not to think that it felt like that hand belonged there.