by N. R. Walker
Travis never questioned me, just rode alongside me.
“Don’t you want to know where we’re going?” I asked.
He grinned at me. “Nope. Just happy for some—” He shifted in his saddle. “—alone time.”
I laughed. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“I believe so,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I read in the travel brochures that you could come out to the Outback for some alone time. But I’m not sure it included some hot station owner whose ass in those jeans in that saddle have been driving me insane for three days.”
Now it was me who shifted in my saddle, and I couldn’t stand it a minute longer. I pulled on the reins, bringing Shelby to a stop, swung my leg over and slid off her. I looked up at Travis, who was still smiling, still sitting up on Texas. “Can you get down?”
He chuckled as his grin widened. “What for?”
“Because if I climb up there, we might cross some animal husbandry line that rightfully shouldn’t be crossed.”
Travis burst out laughing, but he threw his leg over and slid down so he was standing in front of me, in between the two horses. He was still smiling, but now his eyes were darker. He looked… hungry.
My mouth was dry, it was fucking hot, we were covered in a fine red dust and we must have smelled like something terrible, but I didn’t care.
I stepped toward him and put my hands on his neck, just about to pull him in for a kiss when he stopped me.
He looked back the way we’d come. “How far away from camp are we?”
“Far enough,” I said. My voice was rough and my patience was low. I leaned in again, needing to kiss him, but he pulled back. I almost snarled at him. “I’ve wanted you for three days.”
He smiled, all casual and smug. “Just three?”
I couldn’t stand the ache, the need any longer. I dropped my hands from his neck and palmed my dick.
This time Travis grabbed my face and pushed me a step backward, up against Shelby. He smashed his mouth to mine. It was a hard kiss; our teeth clinked and our tongues collided. He gripped my face so tight it almost hurt. I could taste his desperation—or maybe it was mine.
His hands were all over me, his fingers digging into me as he pushed against me. He gripped my ass and pulled our hips together, making both our tongues still and stutter. Then he was fumbling with my belt buckle and I let him. I knew what he was after, and I fucking needed it. I’d never needed so bad in my life. Finally, after he undid my jeans, he slid his hand inside.
I groaned as he wrapped his hand around my cock and pumped me. I bucked my hips, fucking his fist, fucking his mouth with my tongue, and I was so close.
Then he stopped.
His hand was gone, his lips were gone. I opened my eyes to see him go to his knees, looking up at me and smiling.
He pulled my jeans open wider and pulled my cock from my briefs, then slid his tongue over the tip.
“Oh fuck,” I whispered. “Suck me.”
Travis pressed his lips to the swollen head, then took me in to his mouth, warm and wet, sliding his tongue, sucking me down. I knocked his hat off his head so I could grip his hair and he groaned. The sound snapped any control I had, and I thrust into his mouth and shot my load into his mouth.
My knees gave out. I couldn’t stand up, and Travis’s hands were on me—I thought to hold me steady. But he let me fall to my knees while my head spun. I gave my dick a squeeze, and my whole body jerked as the last of my orgasm fired through me.
Travis stood up in front of me, and without a word, he undid his belt buckle, then popped the button on his jeans. He pulled the fly open wide and freed his rock-hard cock just a few inches from my face.
Still without speaking, he put his fingers under my chin and lifted my face and fed me his cock.
And I let him. I opened my mouth for him and opened my throat. He held my head, guiding me as he fucked my mouth. He was so hard and swollen, I took every inch he gave me and when I swallowed around him, he thrust one last time and came into my throat.
“Oh fuck, Charlie,” he whimpered, unsteady on his feet.
I held his hips as he swayed, grinning up at him. I stood up and cupped his face as I kissed him, sweeter and softer this time. His eyes were all unfocused and he had that lazy smirk of his.
“Feel better?” I asked him.
“Hm mm,” he hummed. “You?”
“Much better.”
“I can’t believe you led me off away from camp to have your way with me.”
Smiling, I stuffed my dick back into my briefs and did up my jeans. “I can’t believe I lasted three days.”
Travis laughed and looked down at his still-exposed dick. Still hanging heavy and half-hard, it looked like he could almost go again. “We’re setting up camp here, yeah? We’re not going back to the others?” He glanced at me and grinned. “Should I bother putting this away?” he asked, giving himself a tug.
I groaned and ignored the blatant suggestion. “We’ll set camp up here.”
He tucked himself back in and chuckled. He took Texas by the reins and led him to a bit of a clearing. “Don’t listen to him,” he said to his horse. “He didn’t mean it about the animal husbandry thing.”
“I heard that,” I told him, leading Shelby in the same direction.
Travis leaned in to Texas’s ear and whisper-shouted so I could hear, “I won’t let him try anything. I’ll wear him out first, okay, buddy?”
I snorted and he looked back at me and grinned. Then he pretended to speak to Texas again. “No, no. Shelby will just fine. He won’t try anything with her. She’s a girl.”
This time I laughed. “You’re such a dickhead.”
He chuckled to himself, stopped walking and started to unsaddle Texas. “Well, the other guys might not be able to see or hear us”—he dumped the saddle and laid out his swag—“but we might teach these cattle a thing or two about sex.”
I looked over to the cattle who were finally settling down for the night. “I, um, I don’t think Brahman know what a headjob is.”
Travis shook his head. “No wonder they have long faces.”
I shook my head but couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s the worst joke ever.”
Travis laughed. “But you laughed, so I consider it a win.” He took off his hat and threw it on to the saddle, then wiped his brow with his shirt sleeve. “Now before I lay down, is there anything else I need to do? Because I don’t think I’ll be getting up in any real hurry.”
“Are you okay?”
“Okay?” he asked. “I hurt in places I never knew I had. I have saddle rash, and I have red dust in my eyes, up my nose and in my hair. I haven’t shaved in three days and my face itches—”
“I like the stubble,” I interrupted.
He scratched his face. “Well, too bad. It’s not staying.”
I laughed. “Are you really sore?”
He stopped and stared at me. “In places I shouldn’t hurt… well, not without good reason.”
I bit the inside of my lip. “Are you glad now that I said no to sex the night before we rode out?”
“Hell no,” he said. “If I was gonna be sore anyway, it may as well have involved sex.” He waved his hand at his makeshift bed. “Can I lie down?”
“Be my guest.”
Travis almost fell to the ground, slumping onto his swag. “How many times a year do you do this?”
“Twice.” I grabbed some nearby dry twigs and brush and set about starting us a fire. “This is my favourite part of my job.” Then I corrected, “Well, of what I do. It’s not really a job. It’s just my life.”
Travis rolled to his side, crooked his arm under his head and watched me. “I can see why you love it.”
I smiled as I put some bigger sticks on the fire. “Can you? I mean it must be real different to where you’re from.”
“It is,” he agreed. “But there’s something about this place.”
His words made me a little nervou
s; all his talk about the Outback and how much he loved it, seeing him droving cattle with a smile, knowing he fit right in. He was starting to sound like me.
“I’ll just put a call in to the others,” I said, changing the subject and moving away from the heat of his eyes. I picked up the radio and told Billy where we were. I told him the cattle at the back were restless and we’d camp out here the night and that I’d be in touch in the morning.
“Sure thing, Mr Sutton” was his only reply.
I collected our dinner from the kit of supplies I’d taken from camp, and Travis sighed. “I like Billy.”
“He’s a good man.” I put the pan onto the fire and tipped in the stew to heat. “He’s one of the best stockmen I’ve seen.”
“He knows his way out here.”
“It’s in his blood.”
“Like you.”
I smiled and stirred the stew. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure if you were to cut me, I’d bleed red dirt.”
Travis chuckled. “I ain’t surprised. That stuff gets into everything.” To prove his point, he rubbed his head and a flurry of dust flew out from his hair.
I dished up his portion of meat and dumplings and handed it to him. He groaned as he sat upright, but thanked me when he took his plate.
“You are seizing up,” I said with a laugh.
“I was the first day, but there was no way I was gonna act all hurt in front of the others. I’d never hear the end of it.” He took a mouthful of dinner and hummed. “Damn, this is good.”
I swallowed my mouthful. “Ma makes a good stew.”
“And biscuits.”
I looked at my plate. “And what?”
“Biscuits,” he repeated, and pushed a damper dumpling with his fork on his plate.
“That ain’t no biscuit. That’s a dumpling, or a savoury scone, I guess you could call it.”
He shook his head. “Man, you have weird names for things out here.”
I laughed. “Do me a favour. When you see Ma, tell her you liked her biscuits. But just make sure I’m there to see it.”
Travis smiled as he chewed. “No thanks. Lesson number one: don’t piss off the cook.”
“Actually, lesson number one is don’t piss off the boss.”
He looked at me and chuckled. “Nah, I think I got him all figured out.”
I swallowed my mouthful and, avoiding his gaze, looked back to my plate. “Is that right?”
He just hummed and kept eating his dinner. I hated the way he made me so damn nervous, the way his eyes could see right into me, and the way he could just say something that would throw me so off guard. I threw my paper plate into the fire. “I’ll just see to the horses,” I said quietly, leaving him to finish eating.
I gave Shelby and Texas some water and some chaff, and Shelby gave me a nudge goodnight. When I walked back over to the fire, my bed was a lot closer to Travis’s than it was when I left it.
He shrugged unapologetically. “You were too far away.”
Getting ready for bed, I pulled off my boots. “You’re gonna want to get under your netting or the mozzies will eat you alive.”
“Mozzies?”
“Mosquitoes,” I answered.
“Weird names,” Travis mumbled, shaking his head. He pulled off his boots then his shirt, but instead of getting into his own bed, he jumped over and got into mine. He held back the top cover with the netting, said nothing but smiled.
“Travis,” I started. “We shouldn’t. What if one of the others comes looking for us early?”
“I never said I was spending the whole night in your bed,” he said flatly. “Though it’s nice of you to ask, I don’t think we should in case one of the others comes looking for us early.”
I laughed and sighed, and figuring it would be easier not to argue, I got into bed. Well, I tried to. “These swags really aren’t made for two.”
Travis wriggled until we were squashed in and he was on top of me. “We do fit.”
I laughed. “You’re impossible.”
We had to shuffle a bit and I spread my legs as wide as the swag would allow so he fit snug in between my thighs. He deliberately ground his hips into me, pushing his hard-on against mine. His lips were at my neck. Jesus, he would be the death of me.
“Charlie,” he whispered.
“Yeah?”
“You taste like red dust.”
I laughed and he latched his mouth onto my shoulder. I rolled my hips into his and ran my hands over his ass. Our cocks pressed between us, rutting and sliding, and I slid a hand between us and took both shafts in one hand.
Travis tried to give me as much room as he could, and he kissed over my chest, sucking and nipping the skin while we fucked my fist. Only when we were both close to coming did he kiss me. Slow, sweet and sleepy kisses.
When we were done and cleaned up, Travis reluctantly got back into his own swag. “Oh my god,” he whispered.
“What?”
“Look at the sky.”
The Outback night sky was truly something special. Whether it was the dark of the desert or the vast flatness of it, I didn’t know. But I swear you could see every star. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“I have never seen anything like it.”
I chuckled at him. “You’ve been sleeping under that sky for days. How have you not noticed it?”
“I’ve been too busy looking at something else,” he said. “I’d call it beautiful, but he’d get a fat head.”
I snorted, grateful he couldn’t see me blush. “I’ve been called a lot of things. That ain’t ever been one of ’em.”
He turned to look at me for a long moment, like he was gonna say something but didn’t. He looked back to the countless stars instead. Then he told me stories of when he was a kid growing up in Texas and sleeping in the backyard, how he’d dreamed of camping out like this.
He talked until he was falling asleep, and I just lay there and looked at him. Even when he’d finally stopped talking, I watched him sleep against the flickering light of the fire.
I’d jumped into raging rivers, ridden wild bulls, bucking horses and fought off deadly snakes. I’d done a thousand crazy things in my life that made Ma yell at me, but I’d never—never—been as scared as I was when I looked at him.
* * * *
The next morning, we kept pushing south toward our final destination. We joined back up with the crew and I went to the head of the mob and led them toward home. There was an excitement amongst my staff knowing we were almost done and that we’d done the job well.
By midafternoon, when George rode up to meet me, I knew we were close. I radioed back to Billy, my lead stockman, and told Fish and Bacon to close in from the rear. This was the tricky part of the muster, this is where it could all go wrong. I had no doubt George had the gates all open and the water and molasses blocks out. All going well, we’d lead them in through the first open gates in a funnel-formation and draft them into sectioned yards when we had them all penned in.
The fenced area was huge—about four acres in itself—and there were four different fenced sections, each with water troughs and molasses and one-tonne bales of hay.
We’d done this plenty of times and had it down to an art, and when we’d finally had the mob all in, the gates were shut and the cheers went up. Not even the baking heat was dampening the mood. But now was when the real work began.
“Trudy, Fish and Travis, check the fences and how the cattle are coping.” I called out. “Bacon, Billy, start weeding the bulls out into the first yard. Water your horses first. It’s hot and I don’t want undue distress. George and I will start on separatin’ the steers.”
Getting the herd settled before nightfall was paramount. George took the chopper up doing a final scout for strays, and Billy, Ernie and Fish were making sure the calves and yearlings weren’t distressed. Mick and Bacon were doing slow laps around the holding yard in the Land Rover and on bikes, Travis and Trudy had taken the horses to be unsaddled, watered, fed
and rested.
Always the last in, I’d just gotten off Shelby, feeling every ache in my body and very relieved that we were home without injury. Travis took Shelby’s reins and Ma came out to see us.
“You boys look exhausted,” Ma said. “I promise dinner’ll be something special, then you can sleep.”
I smiled at her, just as George’s voice cracked over the radio. “Got six or seven steers headed northeast, about three miles from home.”
Shit.
Six or seven. I considered letting them go, but then Travis was beside me, still holding Shelby’s reins. “I’ll get ’em.”
I ignored his offer and pressed the radio intercom. “Billy? Where you at?”
He took a while to answer. “Got a problem with the second bore, boss. I’ll have it fixed real soon.”
“I can get them,” Travis said again.
This time I looked at him and sighed. “Alright. Take Shelby.”
Travis grinned from ear to ear, climbed up into the saddle and led her out of the yard.
When I looked back at Ma, she was trying not to smile. “You let him ride Shelby?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t start.” I pressed the radio again. “George? We got bore problems. Can you head in?”
His reply was immediate. “On my way.”
I spent the next few hours fixing the bore with George, my arms in mud and grease, in a holding yard with two thousand cattle. The heat, the smell was stifling. But without water, these cattle would die and it was a risk I wasn’t prepared to take.
When George and I walked back to the house, it was getting on dark and dinner time. Everyone was out the front in the shade talking quietly, and I knew something was wrong.
Travis wasn’t there. No one had seen him. He hadn’t come home.
“Gear up,” I ordered them. All of them. “We’ll need to go out and look for him. He was headed northeast just three miles out. He can’t be too far. Take radios, take water, we’ll fan out and—”
“Boss!” Billy called out. “Boss! Look!”
I stood beside him, looking out to the direction he was calling. Then I saw what he saw. A riderless horse came trotting into the yard. She stomped her foot and shook her head.
