Splitting into two separate devils took only moments, but Everett hated the feeling of Dalton leaving him. He worried this was but a small taste of things to come. And then, most horribly, he realized that if he couldn’t remember Dalton after they shifted, he wouldn’t miss him. Everett found no comfort in that idea at all. Just because he wouldn’t know at first didn’t mean he wouldn’t eventually remember.
Dalton urged him toward the spring. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Everett stopped just short of the water’s edge.
“What?” Dalton was ready to plunge on in.
“I just wanted to say, just in case I forget, that I love you.”
Swirling particles vibrated in dappled sunlight.
“I love you, too.”
Everett felt Dalton waiting for him. In leaving the final push forward up to him, Dalton put the entire venture on Everett.
“Don’t you let me forget.”
“I won’t,” Dalton said.
They hit the water together.
Everett would never forget the feel of the spring pulling him in, washing him away to oblivion. He felt each individual grain of sand that was slipping away from his form. Such sharp terror gripped his soul that he shifted to human without really understanding exactly how it happened.
As soon as he opened his eyes, Everett was confused by what he saw. Visually, nothing made sense to him because everything was different now that he was human. As a dust devil, he didn’t see so much as he sensed the land around him. Adjusting to his vision was nothing compared to simply trying to stand. Maintaining his equilibrium without spinning felt impossible. Everett’s arms windmilled, but he hit the water face-first anyway.
Forgetting that he couldn’t breathe water, and frankly forgetting how to breathe at all, he took in a great amount of liquid that caused his chest to constrict. Thrashing about, flinging his arms and sputtering in a crazed attempt to simply survive, he slogged to his knees. He drew air into his lungs in great gasps as he groped for purchase. Whatever he grasped onto came away, and he went under.
And then, just when he thought he was a goner for sure, something latched onto him and lifted him up.
“I’ve got you.”
Everett struggled against whatever held him, his panic rising from his inability to comprehend what had happened. A part of him recognized the sound as speech, but he didn’t quite grasp what was being said.
“Relax. Let me help you.”
Everett stopped struggling mainly because the sound of the voice was soothing and vaguely familiar. Besides, whoever was helping him seemed to be able to keep his head above water. That was important. He couldn’t breathe underwater. Right now that was about the only thing he seemed to fully comprehend.
“Try to stand, Everett.”
He shook his head, wanting to stay right where he was, but the person behind him kept tugging on him until they reached the bank. Here, the water wasn’t as deep, and he was able to settle on his knees. When he turned to look over his shoulder, he saw a creature who held him in thrall.
Behind him, helping him, was something with beautiful features and the kindest expression. Familiar and foreign all at the same time, Everett merely watched the creature until he realized whatever the being was, it was built like himself. Human, he thought. Man? That seemed right, but he wasn’t certain.
“Do you remember me?”
Everett simply stared. Every moment that passed pushed words into his mind, words that helped him place what he was and what he was seeing.
The man reached out to him, cupping his hand to Everett’s face. A powerful sensation made him sway in the water. A touch, his touch, was something that Everett craved more of as soon as he had the barest bit.
“I’m Dalton.”
“Dalton.” Everett spoke the name, feeling his mouth and tongue move in concert. He giggled at how the vibration from his chest tickled his nose. Dalton. That was this man’s name just like Everett was his name. And that look on Dalton’s face. That was a smile. And when Dalton leaned close, so close that Everett could see that his eyes were the richest shade of blue, and pressed his lips against Everett, that was a kiss.
A kiss.
Memories flooded into his brain. Almost of their own accord, his arms came up and wrapped around Dalton. A kiss, a hug, and then as Dalton helped him stand, their bodies pressed together. Naked. They were soaking wet and naked and alone. Recollections of all they had done in human form surged into his mind, causing his mouth to water and his cock to harden.
“I remember.” Everett squeezed Dalton. “I remember everything.”
Overcome with joy, he and Dalton moved to the bank where they rested on their backs. Feet in the water, hands firmly clasped, they lay there looking up through the broad leaves of a cottonwood tree. There was no rush now, not when they were together. After a time, they grew accustomed to their human forms, and with that came remembrance of how to move without falling down. But more than that came the recollection of how they’d loved.
Rolling up to a sitting position, Everett looked around the spring, confirming that he and Dalton were alone. With a grin, he slipped into the water and pulled Dalton in after him.
Laughing, they tumbled in the spring. They played, splashing one another until desire swept away the giddy relief that caused their bubbly behavior. This time when Dalton pressed against him, an electrical surge plowed through Everett’s body, igniting a hunger that he couldn’t control.
Everett pulled Dalton against him, kissing him as he drew him down into the water. Once there he urged Dalton onto his back, near the bank, so he could lift his hands and hold on. Gently, Everett eased Dalton’s body out until he was floating on the surface.
“Hold on.”
Dalton grinned and dug his fingers into the bank, but it crumbled. Instead, he lowered his arms into the water, finding something below to hold him steady in the gentle current.
Once Dalton was set, Everett placed openmouthed kisses along his body, working his way down to Dalton’s hips.
“Spread your legs for me.”
Grinning, Dalton parted his legs.
After plunging below the water, Everett popped up between Dalton’s thighs. Tenderly he teased his fingertips over Dalton’s sac, shivering with pleasure when Dalton moaned. It wasn’t quite the sound he remembered, but that only made him want to work harder. Stroking his fingers lower, he took Dalton’s cock into his mouth.
“Everett...”
Dalton grew harder within his mouth, and as Everett slipped his finger into his bottom, Dalton uttered that plaintive groan. Like music to his ears, that sound pushed Everett to take his time and tease Dalton into a frenzy of need.
Sensing he was on the verge of climax, Everett stopped bobbing his head over Dalton’s prick. Instead, he swirled his tongue over the sensitive head and eased another finger inside him.
“Please, please,” Dalton strained, lifting his body out of the water. Unfortunately, his movements pulled his cock from Everett’s mouth.
Dalton swore in a torrent.
“Hold still.”
Gritting his teeth, Dalton clung to something below the water, his entire body rigid.
“I don’t want to tease you too much.” Everett lowered his lips back to Dalton’s cock. Rather than take him within the hot hollow of his mouth, he placed openmouthed kisses along his shaft, working his way to his balls. Swiping his tongue over the sac caused Dalton to utter a series of frustrated whimpers. When he sipped water into his mouth and gushed it out over his sac and the puckered skin of his bottom, Dalton uttered the most unearthly howl.
“I’m so close, so close, and it’s been so long. Everett, please, fill me.”
“Soon, so soon.” Everett took Dalton’s prick into his mouth, flicking his tongue and sucking in time to his heartbeat. He worked his finger in and out with Dalton’s breathing.
On a long, blissful moan, Dalton climaxed. His taste was so sweet, so lus
cious, that tears filled Everett’s eyes. Sadness didn’t fill him so much as a deep remorse that he had almost, almost, given up this most sublime pleasure because of fear.
When Dalton relaxed in the water, all the tautness gone from his body, Everett cradled him in his arms. For a long time they stayed entwined in the water. He wanted Dalton to recover but also feeling his body against him, feeling his own arousal and waiting, built his anticipation.
“Now, Everett. I need to feel you again.” Dalton wouldn’t take no for an answer. Parting his legs around Everett’s hips, he sank down into the water until he entwined Everett. “As dust devils we can blend, but this, oh, Everett, this is so much more intimate.”
Dalton’s eyes were huge and full of longing. Everett echoed his craving. He was filled with a curious blend of white-hot passion and slow wanton love. What they had as dust devils was unique and wonderful in its own way, but joining their bodies this way—there was nothing better.
Holding his gaze, Dalton eased himself down onto Everett’s cock. So slowly did he go that Everett bit his bottom lip to hold back a bellow of need. After all this time, it wasn’t just the physical sensation of penetrating Dalton that held Everett in thrall. It was the way Dalton looked at him. They shared a connection that nothing, not even death, could take away.
Balls deep, Everett refused to let Dalton move. He wanted to hold him this way, keep him bound to his body, and feel all of him. Taking his time, he teased his fingers over Dalton’s face, his throat, his chest, back, and arms. When he eased his hands down to his buttocks, Dalton clenched his body around Everett’s cock with a rhythm that matched Everett’s breathing.
“What are you doing?” He’d never felt anything as good.
“I learned that from you.” Dalton continued to quiver around Everett’s shaft, prompting him to clutch his hips and rock gently.
Going slow made everything more intense. When his climax rose, Everett slanted his lips over Dalton’s, and kissed him as he pumped his pleasure deep into Dalton’s bottom.
Clinging together, breathing hard in the afterglow, they let the world move around them as they stayed perfectly still.
After a very long time, Dalton whispered, “And to think that you didn’t want to shift to human.”
Everett chuckled. His fears seemed almost silly now. Softly, he whispered back, “I was afraid of losing you.”
“I know.”
They stayed entwined in the spring for a long time. Only the coming night compelled them to leave the water. Naked and laughing, they lay upon the bank, debating what they would do with themselves. The one thing that Everett knew for certain was they were going to do exactly what Dalton had wanted to do in the first place. They were going to stay right here.
Chapter Thirteen
They made crazy love for days and might have continued on but for the demands of their human bodies.
“We have to have the basics for when we’re human. Food, shelter, warmth—”
“A bed to make wild love in,” Dalton interrupted.
“That, too,” Everett said with a grin. He looked around at the hills that encircled the spring. “We should be able to build something tucked back around here. Something we can hide from nosey travelers.”
They found a good spot for a simple lean-to, but privacy wasn’t their biggest problem. How in the world were they going to get supplies? Without clothes, they couldn’t approach the wagon trains, not without a great many questions. It was Dalton who suggested they riffle them in the dark.
“If we take only a little bit from each group, they’ll never notice.”
Everett agreed. They also agreed to never take anything from folks in dire need. If worse came to worst, they could shift to dust devils. Their needs in that form were far less. Everett had his concerns about remembering, but Dalton thought if they shifted together, they could minimize the risks.
They lived at the spring all through that summer. When travelers came, they headed for the hills, watching and waiting until the cover of darkness.
Over the months they outfitted themselves well, and inadvertently, they drove people away from the spring. Everett believed it was the unearthly howl Dalton made when Everett teased him beyond endurance. That sound rising from the area around the spring in the dark was more terrifying than the yipping of coyotes. If only they knew it was the sound of pleasure and not a tortured soul!
Word quickly spread that the oasis was haunted by two ghosts. One a prankster who stole things and the other a tormented gunslinger who bemoaned his fate. After a time, travelers stopped coming altogether as another spring was found. It wasn’t as nice, but that spring held no scary stories.
They didn’t have enough to see them through the winter, so they had to shift. Holding hands, they did so, and emerged entwined, with full memories. Dalton speculated that maybe the not remembering part was because he hadn’t had anything worth remembering until he met Everett. Everett agreed, and thought his own blankness came from his inexperience with shifting altogether. The more they shifted, the easier it became, and the more they remembered.
After five summers of picking off items from travelers, they had created a cozy little lean-to with all the items two men could ever need.
And finally, at long last, Everett and Dalton found a place where they belonged.
THE END
ANITRAMCLEOD.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Reading, writing, and white-water rafting are the three things Anitra Lynn McLeod enjoys the most. Please visit her at www.AnitraMcLeod.com
Also by Anitra Lynn McLeod
Siren Classic: Devil’s Due
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
McLeod, Anitra Lynn - Dirty Cowboy (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 7
