Jasper sucked Calum’s tongue between his teeth and sucked a groan out of him too. They both trembled as the kiss deepened until they were eating at each other more greedily. Jasper blazed with heat as if he’d been lying in the sun. His hips danced a duet with his tongue and the hard thickness of Calum’s cock seemed intensified by the one less item of clothing between them.
“Shit,” Calum gasped and pressed his forehead to Jasper’s for a moment before he straightened and stared him in the face. “Want to fuck you.”
Seemed obvious they weren’t playing turns, but Jasper felt a pang of disappointment as his earlier thought appeared confirmed. Calum didn’t want to bottom, but Jasper wasn’t that easy.
“Beg me,” Jasper whispered.
“What?”
“You heard.”
Calum jerked away. “Fuck you. I’m not begging.”
Jasper began to unbutton his shirt, all the time maintaining eye contact with Calum. Away from the heat of the cowboy’s body, Jasper shivered in the chill air as he tossed his shirt onto the workbench. Calum’s gaze was glued to Jasper’s tight nipples.
“Beg me,” Jasper repeated, hoping Calum would play.
“Make me.”
Jasper smiled. He reached for a horse blanket from a shelf and threw it on the floor. Then he kicked off his shoes and stood on it. Calum’s hand massaged his crotch as he watched. Jasper slid open the button on his pants and then eased down the zipper a little way, enough to make his point.
“You fucker,” Calum growled. “No shorts?”
Jasper played with the tab of his zipper, twisting it in his fingers.
“Take your pants off,” Calum snapped.
“Say please.”
Calum laughed. He dropped to his knees and, grabbing Jasper around the hips, he pulled him against his face.
“Please,” he mumbled into the part-open V of Jasper’s pants.
Calum pulled the zipper the rest of the way down and then carefully extricated Jasper’s cock and balls. Jasper looked down at his cock, tip glistening, rearing dark and hard against his belly—Calum’s mouth inches away.
“Beg me to fuck you.” Calum breathed on the wet crest of his cock.
Aggravation warred with the tingle in Jasper’s balls, but he groaned, “No.”
It was his game, not Calum’s, but then Calum’s warm, wet mouth closed around the tip of his shaft and Jasper’s head fogged. He leaned back against the leather straps, the buckles and snaps digging into his skin, and the discomfort helped him focus. He wouldn’t beg. But Calum tightened his mouth, made a vacuum with his lips as he sucked and Jasper was lost again.
Calum’s tongue delved into the slit at the head of his cock, and Jasper heard a keening noise. He realized with a touch of embarrassment that the sound had come from him. A bloody whimper. Even worse, he did it again. He couldn’t stop the noises coming out of him. Every time Calum sucked, Jasper gasped or groaned or moaned or did something in between.
When Calum lifted his mouth from Jasper’s cock, looked up at him and licked his lips, Jasper sucked in a breath. Oh God, I can’t deny him anything. Calum’s tongue shot out to flick the head of his cock, glistening with spit and pre-come, and Jasper’s toes curled on the blanket. Calum lifted Jasper’s feet one after the other to take off his pants and then stood and tossed them onto his shirt. Jasper was hugely turned on by the fact that he stood there buck naked while Calum was still dressed.
“You have to choose now,” Calum said.
“Choose what?”
“Whether you want me to suck you off or fuck you.”
“Can’t I have both?”
Calum shook his head. “Depends whether you want to…fuck me.”
Jasper was relieved to have a wall to lean against, but he heard the hitch in Calum’s voice and knew there was an issue.
“I have some rules,” Calum said and leaned forward to puff hot air over Jasper’s neck.
Jasper prepared his answers. Yes, he’d wear a condom. Yes, he’d be careful. They’d be swimming in lube. Yes, he’d beg. Damn it.
“If I fuck you,” Calum said, “you can’t come. You have to wait.” His hot tongue flicked along the line of Jasper’s chin.
“Define wait.”
Calum laughed and nipped the lobe of Jasper’s ear. Jasper shuddered. His chance of not coming with Calum’s cock in his ass was low. His chance of getting inside Calum’s ass before he came all over his butt was low. If he got inside, and moved at all, even one slide, odds he’d not come were zero.
“Don’t take your clothes off,” Jasper whispered. Maybe that’d help him last longer.
Calum’s zipper sounded over-loud in the room. Strong hands gripped Jasper by the shoulders and turned him to face the wall.
“Oh Christ,” Calum muttered. “You look…fucking fantastic.”
Jasper pressed his palms flat on the wooden wall, a horse’s bridle rubbing against his cheek, reins digging into his chest. How the hell was he not going to come? Even the sound of Calum’s Western drawl excited him. Calum stepped closer so he leaned against Jasper’s back. He nudged his cock into the crease of Jasper’s butt and then bit his shoulder.
“I’m going to fuck you right through the wall,” Calum growled.
Jasper made that pathetic noise again, wished he could blame it on a mouse, and then let his forehead rest against the hanging leather.
Lube-slick fingers took the place of Calum’s cock, sliding down the crease of his butt, homing in on Jasper’s puckered asshole and coating it with moisture.
“Fuck you right through the wall and into the horse’s stall on the other side,” Calum spat the words against Jasper’s neck.
Jasper exhaled at the burn of the thick finger pushing inside him. Calum’s arm slid around his waist and grabbed Jasper’s cock.
“Oh God. You can’t do that and expect me not to come.” But Jasper wasn’t sure he cared anymore. He’d forgotten the rules of the game—if there’d been any. All he could think about was the climax brewing in his body, a seismic shift waiting to happen. One perfect touch, two surfaces slipping against each other and he’d shatter. Calum pumped his cock in smooth, hard strokes in time with his finger spearing Jasper’s anus.
“Not fair,” Jasper blurted.
“Is that right? You should have made conditions. You can’t come until I have.”
“Take your hand off my cock.”
“Too late now and you don’t mean it anyway.”
Jasper could feel his chance to fuck Calum slipping away.
“Beg me to stop,” Calum whispered in his ear.
Jasper let out a strangled laugh. “Please.” Calum could take that anyway he liked.
Calum pulled away and the coolness of the tack room washed over Jasper’s sweaty back to raise goose bumps. He heard the sound of ripping, the snap of latex and then Calum was back. Well part of him, his thick shaft sliding along the cleft of Jasper’s butt. Warm hands spread his cheeks, and when the rounded head nestled against his hole, Jasper tensed.
“Okay?” Calum’s fingers stroked his hips as he rubbed his mouth over Jasper’s shoulder.
“I can’t speak and fuck. Oh and not come. I’d forgotten about that.”
Calum pressed harder with his cock, and Jasper concentrated on relaxing into the intrusion, willing his muscles to allow Calum in. Fingers tightened on his hips as the pressure on his anus grew more firm. It seemed to Jasper as though his senses were heightened—the slightly rough feel of Calum’s fingers, the hardness of his cock, the softness of his shirt and worn jeans, the way his breath stuttered against Jasper’s neck. So much for thinking Calum staying dressed would help.
Jasper bore down, braced for the bite of pain when Calum’s cock pushed through, knowing the pleasure that would follow. The ring of resistant muscle flexed and Calum kept pushing, stretching Jasper’s passage until he was buried deep.
“Oh God,” Calum gasped.
Jasper’s toes were curled again while his f
ingers pressed hard at the boards of the wall. If Calum left his cock alone, he had a vague chance of not coming. Then Calum pulled back and made his first drive into him and Jasper knew he had no chance at all. He might as well just enjoy it. He flexed his hips back into Calum’s thrust and spread his legs wider.
“This feels so good,” Calum whispered. “Christ, you’re so sexy.”
His head dropped to Jasper’s shoulder and he rested his face there as he moved faster, lunging into Jasper’s ass. When Calum changed the angle of his thrusts and his cock brushed Jasper’s prostate, Jasper let out a long exclamation—part cry, part moan.
“Yeah, yeah,” Calum panted.
Jasper stopped thinking about not coming and threw his hips back harder against Calum, clenching his muscles around the thick cock. Jasper wanted to be fucked hard. He could feel his ass burning as Calum thrust deep, shoving him forward so his face scraped against the horses’ leathers. Calum inhaled with every withdrawal, grunted with every lunge and rode Jasper faster and faster.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Calum gasped. “Close. Ah fuuuck.”
The movements of Calum’s cock grew choppier as he drove into Jasper in short, hard jabs that made Jasper’s legs tremble. Electric shivers raced up and down his spine until his entire body was quaking. Calum bit down on Jasper’s shoulder and he felt the guy’s cock swell. When Jasper’s balls tingled, he gritted his teeth. He’d lasted this long, he didn’t want to lose it now.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Calum rammed up hard against him and tucked his arms under Jasper’s to pull him upright.
Jasper felt the cock inside him pulse, and then Calum let out a long sigh and melted against him. Jasper tipped his head back and turned to find Calum’s mouth. The kiss was long and slow. Calum’s rough palms rubbed Jasper’s nipples and then one hand slid down his stomach to his cock. Jasper knocked his fingers away.
“You know what happens when you shake a can of soda before you rip off the tab?” Jasper asked.
Calum pulled out of his ass. “You didn’t come.”
Jasper turned to face him. “Good God, didn’t I? I hadn’t noticed.”
Calum burst out laughing. He wrapped the used condom in a tissue and then tucked himself back in his pants and zipped up. Ah. So I don’t get to fuck him. Jasper reached up with one hand for the rail behind him and gripped tight.
“I’d like to paint you looking like that,” Calum blurted.
“That’d be one to hang on the wall and frighten small children and dogs.”
“No, your face, the expression on it.”
“Pain?” Jasper smiled. “Frustration?”
Calum leaned against the workbench. “Need. Anticipation. Desire. L—lust.”
“Are you going to put me out of my misery?”
“If you ask nicely.”
“Bastard.”
Calum raised his eyebrows.
“Fucking bastard,” Jasper said.
“That’s better.” Calum dropped to his knees in front of Jasper and swallowed his cock.
Jasper stopped breathing and his knees turned to jelly. Caught in the grip of an orgasm so powerful it neared the point of pain, his balls exploded and come flooded up his cock and splashed into Calum’s mouth. Jasper threaded his fingers in Calum’s hair, as if that would keep him upright. Air rushed back into his lungs and he let out a choked groan.
Calum licked him clean, and then kissed his way to Jasper’s mouth. “Now, we talk,” he said.
Jasper dressed as he went over what had happened, trying to make sure he missed nothing including the conversation he’d overheard between Pete and Ring, and Erik’s reaction to finding Angie half-naked in the pool.
“You think Angie poisoned the sandwich?” Calum asked, the disbelief clear in his voice.
“No. Maybe it was Ring. He knew I’d have to go back to my room after he threw the drink on my crotch. But how did he know I’d left half the sandwich? Why would he want to hurt Bessie?”
Jasper perched next to Calum on the workbench, their knees just touching.
“On the other hand, it could all be coincidence,” Jasper said. “Some ingredient gone off that so far has only been used to make me something to eat. I noticed the lock on my door isn’t working right. Bessie might have nudged it open and then found the sandwich in the wastebin. Pure chance.”
“I don’t think Angie would know how to poison anyone and she certainly wouldn’t hurt Bessie.”
“So what did Pete and Ring mean about their idea working if Gunner hadn’t tagged along? And leaving meat? Had they deliberately drawn the lion to that place?”
“That’s pretty fucked up if they did.”
“Maybe it’s all focused on persuading me to leave. Don’t have a homicidal ex lurking anywhere?” Jasper smiled and then groaned. “Ah shit, I forgot to ask you about the mountain lion. Are you okay?”
“Yep, lucky it didn’t swallow.”
Jasper’s burst of laughter was broken by the sound a key turning in the lock. Calum hopped to his feet as his father walked in. Shit. Jasper wrapped his fingers around the tissue-covered condom and slipped it into his back pocket as he pushed himself off the bench.
“What’s going on?” Erik demanded.
“We’ve been talking,” Calum snapped.
Erik’s snort showed what he thought of that. Jasper thought about saying something and changed his mind. It wasn’t his place. Nor his fight. Then Erik turned to glare at him. Maybe it was his fight.
“You think if you accuse my daughter of trying to poison you that it’ll deflect attention from what you’re really up to?”
Oh Christ. “I—”
“Angie wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Erik barked. “She wouldn’t know how to poison a sandwich. You would—though you wouldn’t need to. You can pretend it’s made you sick then feed half of it to Calum’s dog to prove it. What did you give Bessie to make her fit like that? Chocolate? Anyway, you make sure you save the dog and suddenly you’re a hero. First on the plane then at the pool, now with the dog. Makes me wonder how Angie got into trouble in the water in the first place.”
Jasper was too flabbergasted to speak. He glanced at Calum, but his lips were pressed in a tight line.
“You know what I think?” Erik looked Jasper up and down. “I think you’re some sick fuck who gets off on the idea of being a hero.” He strode across the tack room to stand right in front of Jasper. “Stay away from my son. Stay away from my daughter. Stay off my fucking radar. That was your final warning.”
Jasper was desperate to hear Calum stand up for him, but he said nothing, and that hurt. When Jasper glanced at him, his face was blank as he stared at his boots. Was he wondering if his father was right? That Jasper had somehow engineered all this?
“You’re wrong,” Jasper said. “I haven’t lied. But I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy who works long hours who wanted to come to terms with riding again and do it under wide blue skies. Except it turns out Wyoming’s not so beautiful under the surface.” He looked from Erik to Calum. “I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve never intentionally hurt anyone, man or animal. If I hadn’t returned to my room when I did, Bessie could have died. Maybe you’d better start thinking about who on this ranch would benefit from causing trouble.”
“That’s crap,” Erik snapped. He turned to Calum. “Not hard to guess what you two have been up to in here. I can smell it. I can’t believe you let this guy stick his cock up your ass.”
“I didn’t,” Calum blurted.
Oh God, this is over.
“I hope you used protection,” Erik snarled. “Christ knows where this dude’s been.”
Jasper’s gut bubbled with fury, anxiety and deep sadness. “I feel sorry for you,” he said, the message for both Calum and his father, though Jasper was addressing Erik. “You have so much and you’re too blind to see it.”
He walked out.
Note to self: Cancel thought about not running. It’s time to leave.
Chapte
r Eleven
Calum started to follow Jasper but his father pulled him back.
“I want to speak to him.” Calum jerked free of his grasp.
“Please, Son, think. You don’t need this sort of complication. The guy’s leaving in a couple of days. Sooner if I have my way.”
Calum bristled.
His father sighed and lowered his voice. “He’s not good for you. You were just getting better and—”
“Getting better?” Calum gaped. “I’m not fucking ill. I’m attracted to men not women. There’s nothing you can do to change that, though Christ knows you’ve tried hard enough.”
His father’s jaw tensed but now Calum had started, he didn’t want to stop. He’d just stood there and let Jasper be insulted while he felt everything bubble up inside him until the dam finally burst.
“Being gay doesn’t make me any less of a man. Makes no difference to the way I do my job. If people choose to treat me differently, then that’s their problem.”
“The wranglers don’t respect you.”
“And whose fault is that?” Calum snapped. “If you don’t show me respect, then why should they? You made Pete foreman when it should have been me, and Pete hates my guts. Ring’s the same. I get the shittiest jobs and I never complain. I work harder and longer than any other wrangler and I never say a word. When I find something that makes me happy, can you blame me for wanting to make the most of it?”
Shut up, shut up. I’ll make him explode.
Erik stepped into his face. “You weren’t ready to be foreman. The wranglers wouldn’t have listened to you.”
The words readied to spill out. Calum couldn’t stop them. “How do you know? You never gave them the chance. You made me look the lesser man because you chose Pete over your son. I know this ranch inside out. My mother gave birth to me here, but guess what? I hate the damn place as much as I love it because it’s turned into a fucking prison.”
Cowboys Down Page 14
