Jed couldn’t convince him this was just how men were. Gideon knew how men were, because he was one, hornier and more determined to get his satisfaction than most. This was more than that, and Jed could talk himself hoarse denying it, and Gideon wouldn’t believe a word. He lay there, limp as a dishrag, while echoes of pleasure arced through him, and he felt held together by nothing more than the steady weight of Jed’s body on his.
“Gideon,” Jed whispered after a time. He sounded weak as a kitten, but from somewhere he found the strength to pull up and out. Their parting made a wet sound, and it hurt, but not in his ass, not to speak of. Separating from Jed took more out of him, like breath but deeper in his chest.
Jed pushed himself up and away and made as if to rise, but Gideon rolled awkwardly onto his side and reached out, catching one of Jed’s wrists. “You got no reason to move,” he mumbled, working hard to make his mouth move right.
“I want to look around,” Jed said, sounding nervous. “You were loud.”
Gideon huffed a breath of tired laughter. “That, I was,” he agreed. “Your fault,” he added smugly, grinning when Jed shook his head in annoyance. He almost expected some kind of comment about his age again. But he thought the same thing Jed did about how loud he’d been, so he gathered up the strength to push up on one elbow while Jed pulled on his clothes.
“Wait here,” Jed said, which was all Gideon needed to move.
“I’ll go with you.”
“You will slow me down.”
Gideon refused to take offense. He’d taken offense in Carson City, and wasted time they didn’t have. Maybe he would slow Jed down, but he’d be lonely if Jed wandered away right now, and as long as they were both presentable, it didn’t matter how slow the going was anyway. “Best to work out some of the stiffness before it sets in,” he said, offering a reason to walk with him, and Jed tossed him a worried frown. “I’m fine—better than fine. Still,” he added, bending carefully, “you could’ve told me you were this good at that.”
Jed’s frown melted into confusion. “I am… I….”
Gideon chuckled, pleased to see the man so discombobulated. “We’d have been doing it a lot sooner if I’d known.”
Jed shook his head and looked down as he tied up his pants. “I thought you liked the other way better.”
Gideon pulled on his own pants, thinking long before he answered truthfully, “I like it almost any way you want to do it, Jed. Don’t know that I’d ever have thought that about another guy, but I guess you taught me something new.”
Jed stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. He didn’t say anything else, just slipped on his boots instead and walked away. Gideon hurried to catch up before he lost him in the dark.
They didn’t take long, stumbling around a circuit of the camp—well, Gideon supposed he did most of the stumbling, because Jed was better at dealing with the dark than he was, but at least Gideon didn’t run into any trees. As sated and dozy as he was feeling, he could have. Jed led the way while they both listened for anything that shouldn’t be there—voices, footsteps not their own, rustling in the dry grass. After a time, when Gideon was good and cold, Jed turned and headed back toward the fire. Gideon walked along behind him, enjoying the ache in his ass. He’d be sore tomorrow, but it was a good sore, one he could live with. One he didn’t like the idea of living without, in fact. Riding wouldn’t be particularly pleasant, but then, maybe that’d slow them down a little. He liked the idea of that.
They got back to camp, and Jed went straight to their bedrolls, pulling his blankets off the top of Gideon’s and moving to put them on the other side of the fire.
“Hold up, now,” Gideon protested. “You put them blankets right back where they were.”
“It is not cold enough to warrant sharing blankets,” Jed said, and he had a stubborn look on his face that told Gideon he wasn’t the only one affected by what they’d done tonight.
He slid around behind Jed and put his hands to the narrow hips, just holding them. “Let’s say it is.”
Jed stiffened, ready to resist him, but Gideon plowed on before Jed could get all reasonable. “What are we, two days out of San Francisco? Three, if we dally? And I intend to, now,” he added honestly. “The road’s only gonna get more crowded from here, Jed, and I want to lie with you.”
“You always get what you want?” Jed asked, and Gideon heard the frown in his voice.
“Nope,” he said easily, “but when I can? I try.” He stepped up close, pressing his body against Jed’s warmth and setting his chin atop Jed’s shoulder. He had to tilt his head up to do it—Jed wasn’t that small—but it was worth it, to smell his hair and feel him through the layers of their clothes. “No good reason not to, and this could be the last night we’ve got that’s this private.”
Jed’s shoulder slumped, in acknowledgment or surrender, and he tugged gently away. Gideon let him, watching to see what he’d do and gratified when he tromped, sullenly enough that Gideon thought he could do some teasing of his own, back around the fire and laid his blanket back down beside Gideon’s.
Gideon hopped to, getting his boots off and shrugging back out of his coat, and when he lay down, Jed joined him without a word. Both of them faced the fire, and Gideon wasn’t ashamed of his urge to prop up and look down at Jed’s profile in the flickering light, to card his fingers through Jed’s hair and pull it back, revealing more of him. He wanted to say some words, but after what they’d done tonight, words seemed mighty inadequate to the task of description. So he bent and planted a kiss in Jed’s hair, and finally settled back behind him.
He slept well and hard.
GIDEON woke to the feel of Jed trying to ease out from under his arm. “Mmnn,” he mumbled, and cleared his throat. “You tryin’ to slip off?” he asked, sated and warm and teasing, mostly.
“No,” Jed said, frowning at him, and Gideon drew up short, propping on an elbow to blink around their little camp. He’d remember this place for a long time, he knew, but it wouldn’t be a story he ever told, not even to another man, when there was one.
“I reckon I could find my way on into San Francisco from here, couldn’t I?” he asked.
Jed huffed. “A child could.”
“Well, you accuse me of being one often enough,” he said, smiling to take any sting out of the words. “But that don’t mean I don’t expect you to get me all the way there. Jed….” He sighed, thinking again about how words didn’t seem up to the task before him. “I know we’re close to the end of the road, all right? And I know you’ll be turning around and going home, after. But don’t slip off, okay? Don’t slip off when I’m expecting to see you in the morning. I think it’d break my heart.”
Jed rolled under his arm, stretching out flat on his back, and frowned up at him. “Gideon,” he started, and sighed. “I will not leave before we reach your destination,” he said, and Gideon wondered what he’d started to say. There was no sense asking him. Jed would just shut up tighter than a clam, and that would be that.
“Time to go?” he asked instead.
“It is early yet,” Jed said, calmer now. “I thought I would fish.”
“No need,” Gideon reminded him. “We’ll find plenty of wide spots in the road between here and Stockton. We can eat food somebody else cooks.”
Jed frowned at him, looking honestly curious. “You truly prefer food other people have cooked.”
“Well,” Gideon said, thinking about it, “I guess I just like variety. Meals that ain’t always one dish with too little salt and seasonings. Most times, that means somebody else’s cooking. The show’s head cook, she’s real good. Kind of like a restaurant cook I guess, ’cause she and her team are cooking for three hundred hungry people. You ought to try her food before you head home,” he said.
“If we have not missed them,” Jed said, but Gideon heard the doubt in his voice and didn’t push. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to share Jed anyway, not even with his folks. His ma would ask questions, and
he’d want to answer them, and he thought the telling of this tale, so close to Jed’s leaving, would just make their parting feel worse than he already knew it would.
“If it’s early yet, and we ain’t in much of a hurry,” he tried, and slid his hand over Jed’s flat belly, “I sure would be happy to suck you off right this very minute.”
Jed blanched. “I have not washed.”
Gideon grimaced, remembering, and chuckled a little. “Okay, you’ve got a little bit of a point there. So, what then?” He was rubbing circles over the hollow of Jed’s belly, from the end of his ribs to the pointed hip bones, firmly enough that the fabric of Jed’s shirt traveled with his hand.
“So, we walk,” Jed answered, and with a brief squeeze to Gideon’s hand, he slithered out from under it and rolled to his feet.
Gideon couldn’t complain. He could honestly say that he was still all soft and sated from last night, even though he already missed the feel of Jed’s body against him. He lay there and watched Jed walk to the far side of the camp and away, into the trees. First piss of the day, he thought, which finally motivated him enough to stand.
Ouch. As he sat up, he felt sharp twinges, not just inside but all through his lower back, reminding him of how eager he’d been, how much he’d bucked underneath Jed last night. It wasn’t painful, but it was distracting, and he groaned a little as he got to his feet, then he groaned a little more as he followed Jed’s path into the trees.
He’d ridden horses since he was big enough to climb up on one from a step or a fence, and he was in fine form, but however he’d moved last night had stretched him different, and he was more sore than he’d expected. Walking helped, and he bent to stretch the backs of his legs as he tucked himself back into his pants. The movement brought another sharp pain through his lower back, and he hissed, turning this way and that to try and loosen the pull. He was still stiff when he came back to the camp, enough that Jed stood up from where he was putting his pack in order.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, and Gideon was pleased to note the worry in his voice.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said, but he hissed as he started to bend over to gather up his own bedroll.
“Gideon….” Jed sighed just like he had earlier, and stepped up as Gideon turned to look at him. “Lie down.”
“What?”
Jed smiled a little. “It is not often that I have to ask you that twice. Lie down. On your stomach.”
Much as it would cost him in comfort, Gideon perked up at the idea. “Yeah, that’s—”
Jed shook his head and shot Gideon an annoyed look. “Just lie down.”
“All right, all right!” He stretched out carefully, propping his chin on his fist. “But if you think you’re gonna—”
“Be quiet.”
He huffed a breath but closed his mouth. When strong hands started kneading at the muscles in his lower back, he opened it again. “Oh, that’s good,” he groaned, “that’s—yeah, right there.”
“Are you able to do anything without narrating it?” Jed asked, and Gideon thought it was a joke until the annoyance in Jed’s voice registered. He started to answer before he realized that shutting up was maybe the goal Jed had in mind, and went back to clamping his jaw tight. Still, the little groans of pleasure worked their way out, and if Jed didn’t like it, he could lump it. This felt too good, and the ache in his muscles drained off him like water. Jed’s hands moved down, kneading his ass cheeks like a good baker kneaded bread dough, so that the hurt and the relief combined to confuse his body to no end. His balls itched like they did when something was starting to work him up, and he humped up against Jed’s hands then settled more deeply against the bedroll. Decades of leaves made this ground almost as soft as a mattress, and he fisted his hands and just wallowed in the comfort, ignoring the itch as Jed moved to one side and worked his way down the back of one leg, then up the other. Finally, with a light swat to his backside, Jed said, “That should help.”
“Mmm hmm,” he mumbled, thinking he could go right back to sleep for another hour, if only Jed would stretch out beside him.
It occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Jed nap during the day since he’d recovered from the fever and infection back in Livingston. And while he was in no hurry to start moving again, he reckoned that his chances of a lie-in were low.
“All right,” he muttered, and pushed up to his hands and knees. “Quick wash in a cold creek, then we head out.”
“All right,” Jed replied.
Gideon barely splashed his hands and face, thinking he could maybe get a hot bath in a town somewhere along the road today, but he did squat by the creek to watch when Jed stripped off all his clothes and washed thoroughly. I could suck him now, and he’d just taste like Jed. So he set to doing it, putting himself between Jed and the clothes he’d spread out on a branch. “Hey,” he said, looking up from where he knelt.
Jed frowned at him.
“Come here.”
“We should get moving.”
“And we will, just as soon as I do this.” He scooted forward on his knees when Jed made no move to close the distance between them, and reached to put his hands on Jed’s hips, taking a moment just to look at his manhood. It was already starting to thicken, even after that cold water. “He wants it,” Gideon said, grinning up at Jed. Jed frowned all the harder, but he didn’t try to pull away, so Gideon used his tongue to tease at the loose skin covering the crown, then sucked the cold shaft in. It didn’t take but a minute for Jed to get all the way hard in his mouth, and Gideon used his hands to guide Jed’s hips, starting an easy thrusting motion. Jed’s hands touched his shoulders briefly before they curled up, one around the back of his neck and one sliding into his hair.
“Gideon,” Jed said on a sigh. He was sighing a lot more since the Hennessey homestead, but this time the sound was filled with need. Gideon smiled around the cock in his mouth, lingering at the crown when Jed pulled away a few inches. The tip delivered a drop of bitter fluid, and he licked it like a lollipop before going back down, all the way.
The hands at his neck and in his hair tightened, reflex motions that warmed Gideon right down to his own cock, which he manfully ignored. A piece of him wanted to pull it out, jerk himself off while he did this, but the greater part wanted to remember this, wanted every detail for cold and lonely nights to come. Hot and smooth, all man, tasting woodsy and natural and clean, topped with that bitter taste at the tip that he kept pausing to lick off. Jed was getting close, he could tell just from how tightly the man held himself, so he pulled back and off Jed’s manhood to look up at his face. “Let go, Jed. You ain’t gonna hurt me.”
“I don’t—I do not….”
“I do,” Gideon said firmly, and sucked the shaft back in. It seemed like Jed wound himself even tighter, so Gideon slid one hand over a narrow ass cheek, seeking with a fingertip until he found the pucker. His other hand, he slid in between Jed’s legs from the front, rolling the tight balls in their sac, and it seemed like he’d found the combination that would make Jed cut loose. Both hands went to the sides of his head, giving him what he’d been wanting for minutes now, and Gideon tightened his lips around the shaft and let go himself, tonguing the underside as it slid into and out of his mouth, urging Jed on with grunts and the finger pressed into him from behind. That’s it, he thought, as hungry for this as Jed was. That’s it…. Jed actually let loose a garbled shout when he came, startling Gideon so bad he almost fell backward onto his ass. He caught his balance by grabbing Jed’s hips again and held on through the shuddering, swallowing around the head of Jed’s cock and moaning his satisfaction at a job well done.
When Jed’s hands tugged at his ears to pull him off, he knelt back and grinned. “Ain’t such a bad way to start the day now, is it?”
Jed just looked at him for a long moment, naked and glowing in the dappled morning light, and reached a fingertip to trace Gideon’s lips. He knelt in front of Gideon and kissed him, and Gideon felt like whatever
inhibitions Sioux had against the act of kissing, Jed had clearly overcome them. His tongue went everywhere, seeking out the taste of himself or of Gideon or both, and Gideon relaxed into it, struggling not to just surrender to this assault and fall back into the leaves.
“I can do for you now,” Jed said when he pulled back, and Gideon sat there and watched Jed’s eyes search him as thoroughly as his tongue just had.
“You could,” he said, “but I c’n wait ’til we bed down tonight.”
Jed looked around their little campsite, and a tiny frown marred the sated, tender look on his face. “I do not know that we will find a camp away from other white men,” he said slowly.
“Well,” Gideon said, pushing to his feet and adjusting his hard cock in his pants, “I guess you’ve got good cause to, now.”
Jed’s frown deepened. “You are trying to manipulate me.”
“I think I just did manipulate you,” he teased, touching a finger to Jed’s softening cock.
“Very funny,” Jed said dryly, like he was trying to criticize. But he couldn’t pull it off, naked and flushed, and the idea that he was trying so hard made Gideon loose a full-throated laugh.
“You don’t gotta be so buttoned up all the time, Jed,” he said. “If you can’t find us a good place to repeat that performance, well, it’s your loss. Or I ain’t as good at what I just did as I thought I was.”
Jed’s chuckle was low and throaty, but he didn’t say a word as he edged around Gideon to gather up his clothes. Neither one of them spoke as they packed up their gear, readied their horses, and picked their way back to the road. Gideon did say a choice word or two when he mounted and a sharp twinge of pain shot through his ass, and he grumbled for a while afterward, but Jed, after offering a concerned look or two that Gideon waved away, mostly grinned at him.
They rode for a while, but the slow pace that they started with didn’t waver much. Gideon didn’t complain, not just because of his own discomfort but because he was glad of the extra time with Jed. They stopped for breakfast and coffee at the first wide spot in the road they came across, and Jed encouraged him to walk a little after. It amused him that Jed walked with him, leading his horse along like Gideon did. “You gonna sell that horse when we part?” he asked.
Well Traveled Page 25
