Jesse

by Jan Irving

  Panting, Jesse nodded once. “All right, but you have to give me something in

  return.” His groin stroked against Kyles, and Kyle moaned at the feel. He was

  going to come just from that friction, just from being so close to Jesse at last. “What?”

  “A kiss,” Jesse said. “Kiss me once a day somewhere David cant see us, where

  itll be a secret, since youre so sure the kid will freak—”

  “Jess, I have no idea how hell feel, but hes jumpy and troubled. Im worried

  about him.”

  Jesse leaned his forehead against Kyles. “I know. If we have to keep it from

  him, we will, though I dont think we can do that forever.”

  “Forever? Jess…” Kyle sighed, feeling an ache under his breast bone. It was an

  amazing thought—that he could have Jesse in his life, in his bed—but it couldnt

  happen.

  “But I want my kiss,” Jesse asserted. “I want my man-to-man, no-bullshit, fullon kiss.” Again the mixture of vulnerability and determination in Jesses beautiful

  eyes.

  “We need some ground rules.” “For a kiss?” “Yes.” Kyle didnt want to admit he needed them as much as Jesse. “If I say

  stop, you stop. And we dont go further than a kiss.”

  “Unless you want it. Unless you beg me for it,” Jesse said.

  “Beg you…?” Kyle smiled, but he lost that smile when Jesse cupped his face,

  looking into him. “All right.”

  Now Jesse smiled, and there was again a predatory edge to it.

  What have I unleashed?

  “Kyle, man, I’m going to make you feel so good.” Jesse purred in his mind. Kyle licked his lips, breathless. Jesse was so close, warm and hard and wild,

  like an unbroken stallion. “So when do we kiss?”

  “Right. Now,” Jesse said.

  Chapter Six

  “Come here.” Jesse reached for his hand. Suddenly very, very nervous, which was ridiculous in a man his age, Kyle had to be dragged away from the truck. “Where are we going? I thought wed…you know, get it over with.”

  “Well, thats fucking flattering.” Jesse twisted his lips.

  Kyle sighed. “You know what I mean! We have fences to repair.”

  “And well do that. Youll be my boss man as soon as youre out of my arms. But right now, Id like to repair a fence of my own.” His eyes softened on Kyle. “Kyle, I missed you. Dont be afraid.”

  “Afraid?” Kyle scoffed. He took his cowboy hat off. Then he put it back on, fidgeting. Jesse gave a crack of laughter. “Will you relax? What do you think is going to happen here?”

  Kyle took his hat off again and let it fall to the ground. He ran his hands through his hair, aware it was brown and gray, but damned if Jesse hadnt called it sexy. Huh. If Mac had said that, he would have believed him. If Darren said that, same deal. Was he guilty of putting Jesse into a box simply because he was twenty?

  “I dont know whats going to happen, and for me, thats damn rare. I eat the same cereal I ate as a kid. I like my armchair in the same place. I buy the same jeans. I eat the same food. Lucky for me all the work I do around the ranch means I can still do that.”

  Jesse tapped his chin with one finger, studying Kyle. “Umm. And then I got inside you.”

  Kyles eyes widened.

  “I mean, in your head.” Jesses lips curled. “But it is a hot thought, isnt it? You know, theres this club I know in the city, all leather and sweat and gorgeous men.”

  “Leather.” Kyle blinked. Who was this tough young man now? Hed had experiences even Kyle had never had, though Kyle was embarrassed to admit it. He was the most vanilla guy compared to Jesse.

  “Yeah.” Jesse brushed Kyles hair off his forehead, and then they were close again, his hand knitting itself naturally to Kyles. Kyle felt the brush of Jesses chest against his, the brush of cotton T-shirts, the brush of muscle. Perfect. “Id love to take you there when you were wearing nothing but chaps. Theyd be brown, to set you off. And your ass would be pale compared to the deep tan on your face and arms. Or thats how I imagine it. I didnt get a real good look the other day in the hallway.”

  Had he fallen down the rabbit hole? If so, why was he so turned on? “Uh-huh.” It was all Kyle could manage to say.

  Jesse laughed. “Just imagine, your bare ass, your cock… Men would see and appreciate you. See whats mine.” He cupped his hand possessively over Kyles rear end, squeezing. Kyle experienced a throb in his balls and deep in his ass. He liked Jesse touching him there.

  Then he processed Jesses fantasy, and his jaw dropped. “Uh.”

  “Maybe wed use a spanking bench. Would you like to be spanked, Kyle? Youre very responsive here, arent you?” Another squeeze and Kyle shuddered. He had always liked his ass being stroked, touched, used. It was his secret, but now Jesse knew.

  “Damn, Jesse, Im too set in my ways for stuff like that,” Kyle protested. Jesses pupils were enlarged, and his breath came rapidly. His cheeks were flushed. “Its ridiculous.”

  “Ridiculous?” Jesse tugged him closer using Kyles belt, and next thing, Kyle felt the leather loosen. He gaped at Jesse.

  “Just what are you doing?”

  “All you have to do is tell me to stop, so do it, Kyle. Otherwise…”

  Kyle felt weirdly passive, his body humming under Jesses touch as if he was coming alive, fully alive, for the first time in years. He suppressed the thought that even with Mac he hadnt felt this way, free and primitive, as if he was being taken. He let the other man open his belt, work the buttons of his jeans, freeing them slowly, deliberately as he stared into Kyles eyes, imparting a message.

  “I thought this would be just a kiss,” Kyle croaked. He licked his lips and saw the heat in Jesses eyes. He wanted to kiss him. He was holding back only because of their rule he could do it only once a day.

  “This is a kiss with benefits,” Jesse said. “You said you couldnt imagine yourself in chaps in some club, your ass red with my handprint.”

  “ Jesse, youre crazy!” Kyle gasped. “Im not that kind of man.”

  “What I think is your men thought you werent that kind of man, and so youve been hungry, Kyle.” Jesse nibbled on Kyles neck as his jeans sagged under Jesses hands. He was standing out in the middle of dusty nowhere with his pants around his ankles. “Thats where I come in. I dont care how others see you, how you see yourself. I just want you. And Ill have you the way I like.”

  Jesses palm stroked extra-light over Kyles erection, and Kyle whimpered. He wanted to thrust into Jesses hand so much it mortified him. “Im your boss…” he reminded the younger man.

  Jesse nodded. “I got no problem with that.”

  Jesses hand went under the waistband of Kyles plain white briefs. “No nonsense. Just the way I pictured. Sexy as hell.” He pressed them down, and Kyle was exposed while Jesse, his hired help, was still dressed. Why was it making him so hard?

  “Fuck, Kyle, look at you!” Jesse whispered. “Jesus, I thought so from the last time I saw you; youre uncut.”

  Kyle cupped himself. Hed always felt like an oddity because of it. “I was sick as a baby, so they didnt want to risk doing anything to me, even that,” he said.

  Jesse knelt, and Kyle stared at him, sitting on his heels between Kyles spread legs. Oh God. What was Jesse going to do?

  “You say it like it was a bad thing. I think youre beautiful. Manly.”

  “You do?” Kyle was so stiff, aching, but Jesse didnt touch his penis. He just sat there with Kyle in front of him, stripped, vulnerable, needy.

  “Theres nothing hotter than sucking on a foreskin,” Jesse said. “Peeling it back with my tongue, probing you where youre most sensitive.”

  “The stuff you say, young man.”

  “Okay, if Im going to put up with the youngster comments, I think I could get used to being your young man.” Jesses eyes flashed, and Kyles dropped away.

  “Jess, I feel kind of dumb standing
here like this. Im not anything special.”

  Jesse leaned his face against Kyles thigh so his breath touched his cock. Kyle couldnt help himself from putting a hand in Jesses long, untamed hair, feeling the silken threads catch under his work-roughened fingertips. “Youre so gorgeous, Kyle. I have no idea why youd feel dumb. Im going to dream about you tonight. Like this, just like this.”

  “Are you—” Kyle had to clear his throat. “Are you going to touch me?”

  “Against your rules, remember? Unless you ask me for it.” Jesses blue eyes held Kyles for a sustained moment before he let out a disappointed sound. “Okay. You said you needed it slow.”

  He got to his feet and very, very carefully, pulled up Kyles briefs. Kyle wanted to protest, wanted to beg him to put his lips to his cock, but how could he?

  “You dont see me as your equal yet, but you will,” Jesse vowed. He tugged up Kyles jeans but didnt try to button them over Kyles painfully engorged penis. A wet spot bloomed instantly through his briefs.

  “Crap, Im going to have to walk this off or something!” Kyle muttered. It was a problem he hadnt had since he was a kid. When he got this excited, it was always in some mans bedroom, so the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

  It didnt make it any easier that Jesse would give him what he craved, but only if he put aside his preconceptions and fears stemming from their age gap and Jesses naturally dominant nature. Hed never begged any man to touch him before.

  “I wish you’d let me pleasure you.” Jesses telepathic voice was wistful.

  “I can’t. I just…can’t.” Kyle wanted to tear out his hair. He was crazy about Jesse. Right now he was so aroused it was hard to care about Mac or David or his responsibilities or how he was Jesses boss or any goddamned thing but what it would feel like to have Jesses mouth on him. It was only that he had to ask for it that held him back, like thin planks holding back a bull in a rodeo chute.

  “Its okay,” Jesse said aloud, compassion burning in his eyes now. “I dont want to push; I just want to give you something to think about.”

  “Im not sure what the hell else Ill be thinking about,” Kyle grumbled.

  “Thats good. Just consider that this thing with you and me is new, and you dont know the man you could be with me.”

  Kyle slowly buttoned his jeans. He managed halfway and had to stop. Crap.

  “I guess we go to work now,” he said, aching to be another man, someone flexible and not so set in his ways.

  “Not quite.”

  And thats when Jesse kissed him.

  * * *

  “Here you are,” a familiar voice called, and David crossed his arms, slouching against the wall as Jed Hollis came out of the horse barn. Jed was shorter than David now, David noted with surprise, but hed been sprouting like a weed lately, with Jesse complaining he was having trouble keeping up. “Right on time.”

  Jed was five feet ten with brown hair and gray eyes. His mouth had wrinkles around it, but not smiling lines. They seemed more to be cast from his habitual sullen expression.

  “I got your text. Howd you wind up working for Kyle?” David asked. “You couldnt have references from your last job.”

  “The last barn boss was a friend of a friend. Ive been here awhile.” Jed also folded his arms, leaning close to David in a companionable way that made Davids shoulders tense.

  “What the hell do you want?” David growled. He was sweating, and his heart was pounding. Being around Jed brought it all back, what it was like to live under Morrisons roof.

  Jed smacked him, a stinging slap across his lower jaw and lips.

  David sprang away from the wall, spitting out blood.

  “Dont you talk to me that way, boy,” Jed ordered. “Your pa and me go away back. He dont take that from you, and neither will I.”

  “If Jesse saw you do that—”

  “Huh, Jesse. I bet he wouldnt even recognize me. Just you remember what I told you in that e-mail; a ranch is a dangerous place to work. You wouldnt want your Jesse or Kyle to be driving a tractor when a car slammed into it, would you? Things like that happen every day.”

  David sucked in a breath.

  “No, I can see you dont want that,” Jed crowed. “And Im willing to bet you never told Jesse about the night your pa and me made sure you became a man.”

  Davids gaze fell.

  Jed shifted closer, so he was right in Davids space. “Your secrets safe with me.”

  “I repeat, what are you doing on Kyles ranch, seeing how you and Pa hated him and Mac.” Once, shortly after Macs death, Morrison had caught the sound of David crying in his room for Mac and Kyle, missing them. Thered been consequences. David had been damn sure he never showed his grief again after that night.

  Jed smiled, as if he too remembered. “Well, that hasnt changed. Now let me tell you what youre going to do for me.”

  * * *

  Just like before, Jesses mouth took control of Kyles. Kyle moaned as Jesse raised a hand and dug it gently into his hair, stroking the flash of gray at his temple. Kyle had the feeling it was a deliberate act, a way of letting Kyle know Jesse saw him—and liked what he saw.

  Kyle groaned again as their bodies came closer, and he could feel Jesse hard and hungry against him.

  “Damn, were not going to get any work done, boss,” Jesse whispered against his lips.

  Without thinking about it, Kyle tugged down his jeans and briefs again, so they were just crumpled at the top of his thighs. He reached out with shaking hands for Jesses belt. When he realized what he was doing, he froze.

  “Do it,” Jesse growled. “Just do it, Kyle.”

  Kyle loosened Jesses belt and then unbuttoned his jeans, tugging so he revealed silk boxers with teddy bears on them. He smiled at the incongruous sight, knowing there had to be a story there.

  “Gift from Davy. Kind of a joke.” Jesse breathed. His lips hadnt quite left Kyles all the time Kyle had been loosening their clothing. And then they pressed together again, hard cock desperately rubbing against cock.

  “Thats fucking it!” Jesse swore. His hands bit into Kyles hips as he began to rut against him, as his tongue entered Kyles mouth in a possessive, claim-all kiss. Fucking hell, Jesse turned him on! “Jess, oh God, Jess…!”

  “Yeah, Kyle! Youre mine. Fucking mine!” They fell against the truck. Jesse lifted him, and he was sitting on the hood, and Jesse was between his legs, and it was almost like they were coupling, as if Jesse were inside him, giving him the fucking of his life.

  “Uhhh!” Jesse covered his wrists with both hands, holding him still as he rutted, up and down and up and down, slick now, and Kyle could only imagine how they looked together, hair wild, hats gone, lower bodies bared to the strong wind.

  “Say youre mine, Kyle.”

  Kyle arched up, taking everything Jesse was giving him with his lower body. Jesse nipped at Kyles bottom lip, getting his attention, letting him know he meant it. “Say it. I wanted to hear it since I was sixteen. Wanted to hear you say youre mine, that you want me to do you, do you just right.”

  “H-how can you want that?” Kyle whispered, dazed.

  “Spread your legs wider for me, baby.” Jesse helped him to adjust. “Im going to come on you, youre going to come on me.”

  Just hearing that was the sexiest thing Kyle had ever imagined. His legs were wide open, Jesse between them, and right that moment, Jesse owned him.

  “Jess, oh, Jess!”

  Jesse crushed his mouth as Kyle came, and then Kyle held him when the younger man shuddered, spilled hot over Kyles skin. Kyle actually felt tears against his cheek. He didnt know if they were his or Jesses. They were so good together it hurt.

  Chapter Seven

  Kyle was still huffing, feeling like hed died and been reborn as some kind of…? What? But it felt almost as if he were as young a man on the inside as Jesse in that moment. Never had he imagined the thoughts, fantasies, the kind of rubbing off together theyd indulged in. Not at his age.

  But now as he
came down to earth from one of the most intense climaxes of his life—and they hadnt even fucked, God help him—he realized as much as it might feel like a new experience, his body was a little too old to lie sprawled over a truck hood with Jesse standing between his wantonly spread legs. Damn it, he was getting a charley horse.

  “Jess…”

  “Fuck!” Jesse covered him instinctively as a crack of thunder sounded like a spear thrown from the skies, and suddenly hard, cold rain fell like it had been dumped from a giant wash bucket on the two of them.

  “I appreciate the sentiment, but you don’t need to protect me from thunder and lightning, young man.”

  “Double fuck!” Jesse tugged up his jeans and dived for the passenger side of the truck. Kyle followed, barely able to make out the drivers side, the downpour was so heavy. He was soaked, and with them both in the truck, heaving for breath, the windows steamed up in no time.

  Jesse looked at him struggling to pull up his saturated jeans and briefs and then laughed.

  “Jesse. Damn it,” Kyle groused. He hated getting wet outdoors like that. Maybe he was part barn cat, like the one-eyed mouser that haunted the ranch. “I wish I could kiss you again,” Jesse said, a wistful look in his eyes. Kyle left the jeans and leaned close, brushing his lips gently against Jesses.

  “Mmmm.” Jesse had his eyes closed when Kyle finally made himself pull away, as if savoring the sweetest of sensations. He flushed, embarrassed his little kiss was such a big deal.

  “It’s the first time you gave yourself to me without me shoving you into it.”

  “Hogwash.”

  “Nope. Progress.”

  “Grounds going to be very muddy,” Jesse noted.

  “Yeah, not ideal for seating fresh cedar fencing,” Kyle admitted. “But Id like to take a look at the condition of the stuff thats fallen over, make sure we brought out enough wood for the job.”

  Outside it was like a waterfall was hitting the hood of the truck. The very hood where not so long ago hed been lying on his back, letting Jesse do damn all he wanted with him. Kyle rubbed his eyebrow, suddenly wanting to get out there, do some work, and avoid looking into Jesses eyes for a while.