The Cowboy's Secret

by Riley Knight

  He came hard, shooting it all over his own hand, and Kyle’s, and Kyle’s hot, slick cock. At the same time, Kyle was also surrendering to his own pleasure, his slender body shaking as his dick twitched against Malcolm’s and they shuddered together through their shared release.

  It had been perfect. Just completely perfect. Such a bad idea, now that he had come and his brain was a little less fogged by arousal, but he couldn’t even regret it.

  “We’re going to have to be careful,” Kyle murmured, his head resting lightly against Malcolm’s shoulder, his weight solid and pleasant in Malcolm’s lap.

  “Yeah,” he admitted back, knowing that it was true. That had been the best sexual experience of his life, by far, and also the most ill-advised.

  “I gotta admit, though,” Kyle mused, his lips smirking but his eyes thoughtful, “that might just be the best way to get through a storm that I’ve ever tried.”

  While Malcolm was still musing that over, Kyle winked at him, and then he was up and out of Malcolm’s lap, leaving him to deal with what they had just done.

  NINE

  How long had it been? Months, if not longer, Kyle realized. He just hadn’t gotten laid recently enough, that was all there was to it. The only reason why that, just a simple shared hand job, could get to him so much was just that it had been his first experience in so long.

  Doubtless, that was why it had felt like the best thing he’d ever felt. But he had that out of his system now, and he’d had an absolutely mind-boggling orgasm, one which had left his legs so shaky that he had almost stumbled as he had walked away.

  It wasn’t that Malcolm was special, not like there was anything real between them.

  Likely it was also because of that that Kyle couldn’t stop thinking about Malcolm.

  He could still remember, just as vividly as if he was right there with Malcolm, how it had felt to look into those beautiful emerald eyes, to watch them fog with pleasure, to see those gorgeous, sinful lips part as he worked up to his release. Malcolm was not only handsome, but he was also nothing short of the most devastatingly gorgeous human being on the planet, and that only increased when he came.

  Still, the right thing, the best thing, for him to do now was obvious. It had been a mistake to let his passions get away from him there, a mistake that he wouldn’t make again. Now that he had that out of his system, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to focus on his job, and for the next few days, he did just that.

  However, even as he tried to tell himself that he was talking with Logan or Anna, working on them instead of Malcolm, he couldn’t stop thinking about Malcolm. He had decided that his best shot was to get the other people on the ranch, who didn’t seem quite as opposed to the idea, on board with him, and even Malcolm would have to see …

  But he kept seeing those eyes, hearing those muffled little cries against his lips. Days passed until he had somehow been there for a week with nothing to show for it, but it wasn’t until he woke up gasping and hard to deeply erotic dreams of Malcolm giving him a blowjob that he had to admit something that should have been obvious to him already.

  He didn’t have Malcolm out of his system at all.

  Not that it mattered. He had lost control that one night, vulnerable because of his stupid fear of the storm, but he didn’t need to do it again.

  Kyle had been persistent. He had been doing his job or trying to. But when his phone rang just after lunch, he was alone. He had seemingly worn out even the calm, patient Anna, and Logan was nowhere to be found. Probably working, he supposed. Maybe he should go try to find him, not that he had the slightest idea where the man might be, and the ranch was not small.

  Still, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. And this was his job right now.

  His phone rang, and he winced as he picked it up and glanced at the call display. Wonderful. Just what he needed, but he supposed that he probably shouldn’t be ignoring the man who was, like it or not, his boss.

  “Mr. Hart.” Kyle forced his voice to come out professional and competent, even though he was acutely aware that he was glad that this wasn’t a video call. Kyle had found a place in town to pick up some jeans, but he was wearing one of the t-shirts that Malcolm had given him. No special reason, though. It was just comfortable.

  “Kyle.” Wyatt’s voice had that same grating quality, like misaligned brakes or a high-pitched, obnoxious whistle just barely in the right register for the human ear to pick up. “I haven’t heard from you in a few days.”

  Which was true, Kyle had stopped checking in, because there had been nothing to report. Not to mention, he couldn’t help but feel vaguely guilty every time he spoke to his boss, couldn’t help but remember the night that he and Malcolm had given in to feelings which neither of them should have. The fact that it hadn’t happened again didn’t make anything any less confusing.

  “I was waiting until I had something to tell you,” Kyle said smoothly, even as his stomach clenched. There was this sense of failure, of letting someone who had counted on him down, but he tried not to show it. “Your brother is very stubborn.”

  “I hired you because I was told that you are also very stubborn.” Wyatt’s voice was just short of a snarl now, and Kyle winced and rubbed at his temples, where a low, throbbing headache had started up. “You’ve been there for a week. I’m not paying you to have a vacation.”

  Kyle let his eyes drop closed, with one more look around to make sure that he was completely alone. He rested his head back, trying to keep it together, trying not to let his mouth run away with him. As much as he would love to tell this repulsive human being off, he had to admit that the guy was right, at least on some level.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been doing my best,” Kyle said while wondering if it was completely true. Wyatt’s dismissive snort seemed to echo his own self-doubts.

  “That’s not what I’ve heard.”

  It felt a great deal as though someone had just full on dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. That was the feeling, cold tendrils radiating all over his whole body, and settling sickeningly in his stomach.

  Because there was some guilt there, and he could say that he had been doing the very best that he could, but the truth of the matter was that he had been avoiding the one person who could decide on this matter. Because of his own feelings, for personal reasons, he had not been working most effectively.

  Because he was too scared about what would happen if he let himself be around Malcolm.

  No. He had to be honest, even just with himself. He wasn’t scared about what would happen. It was nowhere near as passive as that. He was scared about what he would do. Because the little bit that he had done with Malcolm had been so good, and if he got more like he so badly wanted, how much more compromised could he be?

  “What do you mean by that?”

  He was glad when his voice didn’t come out weak and shaking, as he had half feared. He sounded coldly indignant, he thought, which was far less suspect. He hoped.

  “Let’s just say I have my sources,” Wyatt commented, and his tone was so smug that Kyle’s free hand balled up into a fist against his will. “Apparently you’ve been playing footsie with my brother, or that musclehead farmhand of his, or both. You do get around, don’t you?”

  Kyle opened his mouth, trying to find something, anything, to say, but he had nothing. How had Wyatt known? Who had told him? It couldn’t be Malcolm, the dislike between the two brothers was almost palpable, so then who?

  “But then,” Wyatt continued, his voice dripping oil, “I guess that’s how it is with gay men. They screw around. I just didn’t know that about you, or my brother.”

  There was a threat there, not so thinly veiled. Wyatt didn’t say it out loud, but he didn’t have to. Kyle had spent his whole life trying to hide this thing about himself. He had never so much as hinted to anyone that he didn’t immediately intend to take to bed that he was interested in men. He barely acknowledged it himself.

  “I just need
a few more days,” Kyle managed, and there was no strength in his voice now, but at least he got the words out. That was something. Not much, maybe, but something. “I can do this.”

  “You’d better,” Wyatt said, cold as ice, and then broke the connection before Kyle could say anything in response to the fact that he had just been very clearly threatened. The fact that the threat was vague and unspoken didn’t make it any less ominous. If anything, the complete opposite.

  “Sounds like an ass,” a familiar voice observed, sounding slightly amused but also a little bit worried. Kyle opened his eyes, sort of kicking himself for letting his guard down enough. That had been a conversation that should have been had in private, but he’d assumed that no one was around to worry about.

  “He’s my boss,” Kyle replied, which wasn’t quite the same as denying it. At the same time, he found himself looking at Logan in a whole new way. Wyatt had outright said, hadn’t he, that someone on the ranch was keeping an eye on Kyle. Was it Logan? It was hard to imagine, but would it be any easier to imagine Anna? Or maybe teenaged Mary Anne?

  “Bosses can be dicks,” Logan said, his tone as casual as his posture as he flopped down on the couch beside Kyle. The guy was handsome. He had to admit to that. Good looking, and with a sexy voice, and a lot friendlier than Malcolm. But he just wasn’t interested in him.

  Not that he was interested in Malcolm, either, although that was wearing a little thin even to himself because it was so obviously not true.

  “Yeah. They really can,” Kyle replied, and almost against his will, his lips turned up in a smile. Logan had a sense of humor which sort of reminded him of his own. He was a good guy to have around. Kyle was coming to understand that.

  “It’s my day off tomorrow,” Logan mentioned casually, but his brilliant blue eyes were focused on Kyle in a way that he didn’t quite know how to interpret. “I promised you I’d show you around. You in?”

  Kyle searched Logan’s face, his eyes slightly narrowed as he tried to read his expression, his eyes. Was Logan just being nice? Only there was this energy about him, almost nervous, he could swear to it. What did someone like Logan have to be nervous about?

  What should Kyle say? If it was a date, then the answer was no, because for whatever reason he just wasn’t interested that way in Logan. He didn’t understand why he could want Malcolm so badly and be completely uninterested in Logan, who was just as handsome and way nicer, but there it was.

  On the other hand, what were the chances that it was a date? He was probably just flattering himself on that one. So he gave a slight smile and a nod.

  “Sure, that sounds good,” he said decidedly. It was all more information at this point, and no way could that be a bad thing. Besides, maybe spending more time with Logan, one on one, without a lot of distractions, would let Kyle have a real conversation with the guy. He had tried to pin him down about if he would ever be willing to encourage his best friend to sell, what that would take because he was sure he could pass that on to Wyatt who was well-connected and could probably make whatever Logan wanted happen. It would be worth it, Kyle sensed, for Wyatt if it got him what he wanted, and Logan clearly had influence over Malcolm.

  But Logan had been slippery so far, not seeming willing to commit one way or the other. He seemed amused by the whole thing like he wasn’t taking it seriously.

  “Yeah? Okay, sounds like a plan,” Logan said, with a rare real smile. Much like Kyle himself, Logan didn’t seem to smile that much. You could get a sardonic smirk out of him, but that was usually about it.

  Logan changed the subject then, and less than five minutes later, he got up, made an excuse, and left the room. Kyle frowned as he watched him go, wondering if he had made a mistake.

  This situation didn’t need to be any more complicated, but as of right now, he didn’t even have any reason to think that Logan was doing anything other than being friendly. Kyle had to admit that he had never been the most trusting of people, nor had he been surrounded by them.

  The people who lived here might just be nice. Still, Kyle was going to have to be careful. The last thing he wanted to do was lead anyone on. He was here to do a job, and he was going to do it, and that was all there was to it. Then he would go home, to where he belonged, and hopefully back to a better life, one with a more satisfying career.

  He had it all planned out, and nothing had changed. And no matter how nice Logan was to him, no matter how great all of these people were, he still had the same goals as ever and he wasn’t going to give them up.

  Not for Logan, or Anna, or Mary Anne.

  And certainly not for Malcolm.

  None of that comforted him that much, because when it came down to it, he was too smart not to notice one very simple fact. He had thought of it all. What it would be like to leave Seattle, to tell Wyatt to take a hike and to …

  And that was where it all broke down. Because as charming as that all might sound, the next part was unclear. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to just settle down on a ranch of his own, he had no idea whatsoever how to run one. And he was only welcome here temporarily.

  The best thing was to do what he had told Wyatt he was going to do. His reputation, hell, his entire career, pretty much depended on it. And no pair of pretty emerald green eyes, no broad, stocky, muscular body, was going to change his mind.

  And if that meant he was going to have to face Malcolm, well, he was going to have to deal with his attraction long enough to do that. That way, at least when he spoke to his boss again, he would have something to tell him. It would be better than just spinning his wheels.

  Even so, while he was busy psyching himself up, some deep, dark, secret part of himself was telling him that he wasn’t nearly strong enough to face Malcolm without wanting him. And that, given half a chance, Kyle would happily go right back to bed with Malcolm, do whatever he could get away with the sexy cowboy.

  It was getting harder and harder for him to try to pretend that he wasn’t interested in men. And it was all Malcolm’s fault, damn him.

  TEN

  The work for the day was pretty much done, and Malcolm was looking forward to a very hot shower and then food. A lot of food. In that order. And then after, probably an early bedtime.

  He was in the barn, unsaddling his horse, brushing her down, when he heard footsteps coming. It was a sign of just how long he had been friends with Logan that he was able to tell who it was just by the sound of him walking, but he turned to smile at the other man before going back to brushing his mare. One of the good things about being friends with this man for so long was that mostly, after a long day of work, neither of them felt the need to speak to the other. Just the companionship that they had was enough.

  And that meant that he was more than a little surprised when Logan spoke up.

  “Hey, got a sec?”

  That got Malcolm’s attention, and he looked at Logan, right into his face. This was unusual, and though Malcolm tried to act fairly casual about it, he was most definitely listening.

  “Yeah, what’s up?” Malcolm asked, patting his horse’s neck but not taking his gaze off of Logan. The man was jittery, that became clear pretty quickly. He was shifting his weight back and forth, his hands clutching at each other, and Malcolm stared in growing astonishment.

  He hadn’t seen Logan get this worked up about anything in a long time. Maybe not ever. Just when he was about to demand that Logan spit it out already, just when he was sure that the other man had terrible news, like that he had just been diagnosed with cancer or something, Logan spoke up.

  “I asked Kyle out.”

  Malcolm found that his words had been completely robbed from him. He had been thinking, given the way Logan had been acting, that someone must be seriously injured or even worse. So his first reaction, before the raging jealousy kicked in, was relief that it wasn’t something more serious.

  Then came the anger, the rage, which flushed through Malcolm’s body, burning as it raced through his vein
s until he could barely speak. This was his best friend, he reminded himself, and Kyle didn’t belong to him. Far from it. Jealousy was stupid.

  “Good for you,” he finally managed, and his voice didn’t sound too tight and strange. At least not to himself, and he turned his focus back to his horse. He didn’t dare continue to look at Logan. Logan knew him too well. Logan might just, if Malcolm wasn’t very careful, see exactly how pissed off Malcolm was.

  “That’s all you have to say?” Logan asked, clearly amazed. Malcolm stared at his best friend again and realized that Logan wasn’t just surprised. He was pissed off. And it took a few seconds before Malcolm, who was, undoubtedly, dealing with his own shit, to figure out why.

  Logan had just come out to him.

  Guilt filled him and then came the self-recrimination. He had been so selfishly upset by the fact that it was Kyle who Logan was clearly interested in, that it hadn’t even really occurred to him that Logan had just admitted, right out loud, to not being straight. And Malcolm hadn’t even noticed.

  “So you’re not into girls?” Malcolm spoke without thinking about it much, but when he saw Logan relax, he realized that it had been the exact right thing to say. The fact that it was so obviously scripted worked to make it seem more natural, but he supposed that was the advantage to being friends with the other man for so long. The blunt way that he asked seemed more normal to them both and relaxed the tension between them.

  “I never said that,” Logan replied, and Malcolm turned his gaze away from his best friend to focus on the last few steps of grooming his horse. He was fairly certain that it would make it easier for Logan to talk about, and his instincts turned out to be right.