Saving Stakes

by Saving Stakes (lit)

  "He'll certainly enjoy your bed more than the Longhorn's," Rusty said quietly.

  "I said I'd help him. I never said I'd bring him to my bed." Even though in his bed was exactly where he wanted Jay. What made him think he couldn't take Jay or Rusty the same way he took every other man he ran around with when he left the Double D spread? A set of blue eyes and an expression of deep longing, and he all but went scurrying for the hills. Hell, he'd seen that in any number of the men he'd bedded.

  Cole gave his head a mental shake to rid himself of that copout answer. He wished he could find solace in his rapidly settling decision to push all reservations aside and take the two men he truly wanted. Damned the consequences and fuck the Duvall curse.

  "It must get pretty lonely there night after night."

  Cole glanced at Rusty.

  Rusty shot a pointed look at Cole's bed. "You never bring a man in here, do you? I know you don't go without. Why are you always so careful to keep your escapades a secret?"

  "My escapades?" Cole felt his lips twitch. "Now you're making me sound like a prostitute."

  "I'd pay any amount of money for an hour with you, babe. You've got to know that."

  Would you pay with your heart? Cole didn't ask the question. He didn't have to. He could see the answer in the swirl of hope and desire in Rusty's eyes.

  "If I win tomorrow night…"

  "When you win," Rusty leapt to correct him. "You have to win, Cole."

  Cole nodded and forced a quick smile. "Talk about putting pressure on a man. Okay, Rusty, when I win tomorrow night, I want you to come back here with me and Jay."

  Rusty's brows shot up. He licked his lips, a slow glide of his tongue between perfectly bow-shaped flesh that made Cole stifle a whimper. Then he pursed those lips and angled his head.

  "Would that be to chaperone or join in the fun? Because in case you're wondering which one I'd prefer, I've never been much of a designated watcher."

  "Too bad, because that's the role you've got now. Jay can see what's coming at him, but he'll need someone to watch his back." Cole leveled a look at Rusty. "That someone is you, and leaving him alone at Masters High with all the shit that’s about to go down ain't smart."

  Rusty nodded and stood. "Then I guess we'll see you tomorrow night. Know how you're gonna weasel your way into this game seeing as you weren't invited this time?"

  "I'll get in." Cole didn't doubt that. He figured he only needed to show up at game time at Masters High. Guy Masters would let him in the main house with a crooked smile on his pudgy face. "You just worry about sticking by Jay's side."

  "You think Bo and Jesse are gonna go after him."

  "I don't want him left alone," Cole answered and knew tomorrow night wouldn't be the end of this shit storm. Guy Masters would still have his claws in Jay even if Cole beat Longhorn.

  Cole could think of only one way to stop the event from repeating itself as often as Guy wished it. Everything had to be put on the table in the highest staked poker game the county had ever seen and Cole had to win.

  Cole shuddered at what would happen if he didn't.

  Chapter Two

  Jay rested a booted foot on the bottom of the corral fence and brought the beer bottle in his hand to his lips for a deep pull. He felt Rusty's presence at his side. The man hadn't gone far since returning from Cole's place the night before. Jay kept his attention fixed on the main house of Masters High.

  "I should be in there." The poker game that would seal his fate kicked off hours ago. From the angle of corral in position to the main house, he could see the trucks parked out front belonging to the men who would be gathered around the poker table inside. The beat up Chevy with its rusted, lime green paint job and 70’s factory rims stood out among the line of king cab trucks so gleaming they looked brand spanking new. Cole's Chevy. A part of Jay remained surprised the man came. The other half wanted to hang his head in shame because Cole had to come to his rescue.

  "No one should be in there," Rusty commented quietly. "Shit like this stopped being morally acceptable in the days of brothels and twelve-year-old brides."

  Jay felt his lips quirk. "Masters Brothel and Poker Hall. I bet ole' pop wouldn't mind the ring of that. Can't say as I'd fit the part of the twelve-year-old bride, though."

  "Oh, I don't know. We could get you one of those fancy dresses they wore back then with the hoop skirt and the corset, do up your curls real nice with a couple of bows and all. I think you'd look rather smashing."

  Jay laughed, tipped his beer back for another swig, and looked at Rusty. The sensually wicked smile tilting the other man's lips made Jay's cock dance in his jeans. Christ, that was all he needed right now. His nerves were strung so tight they'd have made a helluva bow for the arrow of fear piercing his belly. His heart landed somewhere in the main house when he'd seen the Chevy pull into the drive. Now his cock looked to leap into the excitement, flexing almost painfully in its need to have this man. With the rodeo of emotions bucking inside him tonight, he wondered that he didn't explode clean out of his cowboy boots.

  "What'd you say to him?"

  Rusty averted his gaze. Jay followed it easily, straight across the spread of Masters High to the Chevy pickup truck. Jay had wanted to ask last night. He'd known when Rusty got back. Surprise and relief mixed a strong concoction in his veins when he'd heard the other man slip into their room a little after one in the morning. Jay couldn’t say what he'd expected to happen. Part of him expected Rusty to stay with Cole last night. The larger half of him hoped Jay's need for rescue would prove to be the rope that lassoed the other two men together.

  Jay hadn't slept a wink. The niggling fear he didn't want to feel, wished to God he could ignore, kept his heart hammering. The low burn just beneath the surface of his flesh to feel Rusty's body against his, to be in Cole's arms again, kept him in a constant state of arousal till dawn. He'd likely put in the longest day in ranch hand history working the cattle today. A quick shower followed by a small bite to eat and a beer, and he found himself here, hanging on the fence surrounding the corral, waiting for the end of the poker game, waiting for the darkness to fall.

  Rusty shrugged. "Didn't have to say much of anything. I said you needed him, and he started saddling up his white horse to charge into battle."

  Jay gave a light chuckle. "I doubt it was that easy." Simply going face to face with Cole, head to head with the sexiest man in four counties wasn't that easy. Being alone with the man, as Rusty had no doubt been, would've sent Jay's world careening off the Smokey Mountains.

  Rusty sighed. "You'd be right. As was I. He's crazy about you." He let out a dry sound that might've been a laugh. "Stupid thing is, I think I figured out the dumbass's problem last night. I don't know why it never hit me till then."

  "What problem?" As far as Jay ever saw, Cole Duvall didn't have a single problem. The cowboy screamed sex appeal, bedded almost anyone he wanted without restraint, ran the Double D the way he liked, and shared the joys only with his sister, Denise.

  "Ever heard of the Duvall curse?"

  Jay shook his head. "What? Is the Double D haunted or something?"

  "Naw, nothing paranormal like that. Word has it there ain't a Duvall male who's been able to hold onto a wo—partner for longer than a couple of years."

  "And that makes the men cursed? Hell, if that's the case, half this friggin' planet is cursed."

  "Sex," Rusty said bluntly. "Duvall men can't stay satisfied for long. They go looking for someone else."

  Jay turned back to look at Cole's truck. He'd never made it there with Cole that night, never made it out of the barroom. It shouldn't have been so easy to picture himself bent over in the passenger seat, sucking Cole off behind the wheel. Jay closed his hand tighter around the beer bottle, his palm feeling the warmth of Cole's stiff cock rather than the chilled glass of the bottle. His mouth watered, but he didn't drink from the beer, knowing the brew wasn't the liquid his senses wanted to taste.

  "I bet we could satisfy
him." It wasn't until Jay felt Rusty nudge his shoulder that he realized he'd spoken aloud.

  "Now we're barking up the same track, babe. See, I did a lot of thinking about this last night. I figure we both got it right. Cole wants me. That's not why he never touched me."

  "He's afraid of hurting you, afraid he can't make it last."

  This time, Rusty reached over to clank his bottle against Jay's in a toast. "That about sums it up. He knows I'm not into the whole one ride deal. As for you…" He eased back, sliding a gaze down Jay's body that had Jay fighting the need to writhe even as erotic sparks fizzled beneath his flesh from the roots of his hair to his toes. "Anyone can look at you and see you're the stayin' kind."

  "What's your excuse? If you're looking for more than a ride, and you know I want more, why is it you've never thrown your rope my way?" Jay held his breath as he waited for Rusty to answer. He'd never dared ask such a forward question of the man before.

  Their gazes met and held for several suffocating heartbeats. Even if Jay'd been able to breathe, he likely wouldn't have found enough oxygen in the air because the look that passed between them sucked the living force right out of the atmosphere.

  "I didn't think you'd want me when you could have Cole." The honesty in Rusty's eyes, in his voice, twisted around Jay's heart. Jay turned slightly, reaching to cup the side of Rusty's face in his hand. He leaned in, daring to brush his lips to Rusty's in a kiss so light he barely felt the contact. He experienced the effect, though. It shot though him like an electric bolt of erotic lightning straight to his balls.

  "You were wrong," Jay whispered.

  Rusty put a hand on Jay's hip, sliding his arm around Jay's waist like a hook and reeled him closer.

  "Was I?" He bent his head, nipped Jay's bottom lip.

  Jay sighed and, for the first time since Cole had held him this way at the watering hole, felt his world settle to rights on its axis.

  "Yeah."

  Rusty's lips tilted in a smile so freaking sexy it made Jay moan. "‘Bout time you told me." And then those lips met Jay's, capturing Jay's mouth in a fevered kiss that nearly knocked him out of his boots. Rusty's tongue swept inside Jay's mouth, tangling with Jay's in a dance as old as man and as primal as the animals that roamed the lands.

  Rusty tasted of beer and sweat, of hunger and a ball smacking need that Jay embraced as fiercely as he held onto the man now in his arms. Their bodies fit, hard muscle for rigid line. Their stance coupled with the difference in height made Rusty's cock a decidedly firm bulge against Jay's stomach, Jay's aching shaft stretching long up Rusty's thigh.

  By the time they broke apart, they were both breathless, lips swollen, chins stinging from the abrasions of stubbled flesh, and eyes alight with promises and possibilities.

  Jay's hands wound around Rusty's neck during the kiss, and he brought one down now, slowly swiped the pad of his thumb over Rusty's top lip. It came away moist from their combined saliva. "I'd like to do more than tell you."

  Rusty stilled, his gaze assessing Jay's face. "Now?"

  Jay nodded. "Now." No matter what happened tonight, he wanted to have the memory of these few moments with Rusty to hang onto.

  Rusty glanced around. "Come on." He took Jay's hand and led him between two walls of haystacks to the right of the stables. The space between the stacks concealed by the height of the hay bales hid them well enough while leaving the arousing possibility of being caught open to chance. He pulled Jay's arm, bringing Jay to stand in front of him, and yanked him against his hard body.

  "This good enough for you?"

  Jay answered by rising to the balls of his feet and capturing Rusty's mouth in another kiss. "I wanted our first time to last," he said against Rusty's lips, lowering himself to stand flatfooted as he licked his way over Rusty's jaw and down his neck. "But I don't know how much time I have."

  "It's okay, love. There'll be other times."

  Jay eased back. "I want you inside me." He reached between their bodies and palmed Rusty's bulging package. Rusty's head fell back on a low throated groan as Jay gently massaged Rusty's cock though his jeans. "God, I can't wait another second to feel this in me."

  Rusty lifted his head. "You don't have to." He grabbed Jay's waist and spun him around, his back to Rusty's front. He wasted no time dropping those hands to Jay's pants, freeing the button and zipper of Jay's jeans in record speed and shucking them and his briefs to his knees.

  Jay felt his sanity leak out his ears as one of Rusty's hands closed around Jay's pulsating cock, the other moving between their bodies to work his own pants free. And then, "God, yes." Rusty's other hand parted Jay's ass cheeks, two fingers sliding over his nether hole to trace and tease the outer rim.

  "I don't have anything to lube up with," Rusty said tightly. His hand fisting Jay's cock moved in slow strokes that made agony and pleasure clash in a bronco ride of ecstasy.

  "I don't care." Jay's vision swam with desire. Circuits fried in his brain, rendering him unable to think about anything beyond having that rock hard, enormous cock he felt nudging his backside thrusting into his aching body. "Fuck me, Rusty. Please."

  "God, love, this is going to hurt." Rusty's hand on Jay's back eased Jay to bend forward, and then the head of Rusty's cock parted Jay's back entrance. "But only for a second. Take a deep breath."

  Jay inhaled deeply and the breath rushed from his lungs as a cry that sounded more animal than human as Rusty thrust balls deep inside his tight anus. Pain ripped through him, bringing tears to his eyes, but it lasted only a second as Rusty had promised before it began to dull, morphing into amazing, burning pleasure.

  "Are you okay?" Rusty's tone thickened with concern. He held himself still inside Jay's body, his cock buried to the hilt. Jay felt the man's body quivering in its desire to push even as Rusty fought to hold steady.

  "Great," Jay growled. "Oh, fucking more than great!" He felt fantastic, empowered, stupendous, possessed. Rusty's hand continued its slow caresses of Jay's cock bringing the release closer and closer to the surface. Jay felt overwhelmed, finally being skin to skin, anus to cock, hand to shaft with one of the men he loved. They could've had all night, and he knew in that moment he wouldn't have been able to make it last any longer than he could right now. "Fuck me, Rusty," he said again. "Hard and fast. Tear me up, babe. I want us to come together."

  "Then you better be ready to come in a few strokes, because if I move that's about how long I'll last," Rusty warned. "Being inside you is, damn, love, I can't tell you how wonderful it is."

  "I already know. I can feel it." Jay closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling they spoke of, hogtieing it in his mind so he could release the memory when he'd need it most. Rusty eased back, his thick girth stretching the inner walls of Jay's anus with such delicious splendor Jay groaned like a horny mule. Then he thrust, a single rapid plunge followed immediately by a drawing back, only to drive in again. Jay nearly lost consciousness, it felt so frigging good.

  Jay sucked in a breath as Rusty's hand on his cock fisted tighter, squeezing until the pressure hit just this side of pain. All the while, Rusty continued his vicious ramming of his cock into Jay's backside.

  "It's coming, love. I'm coming. Oh, God, Jay, come with me."

  Jay didn't have to be told twice. The combination of having his cock jerked as Rusty filled his ass with such a long and thick dick sent him screaming over the edge. His control rode off into the sunset, leaving his body to tremble in the glowing aftermath of the approaching moonlight.

  Jay straightened, the movement dislodging Rusty's softening cock from his ass, and leaned breathlessly against the other man. He tipped his head back to look up at Rusty. Rusty met his gaze with a look so full of love and happiness it made Jay's heart sing.

  "Told you I wanted you."

  Rusty smiled, his arms winding around Jay's waist to hold him close. "We'll be okay, love. Cole's in there seeing to that right now."

  "And then we'll see to him?" Jay lifted a brow in question.
r />   Rusty slowly nodded. "You still want him."

  "As I know you do, too." Jay countered. "Think we'll have any problems sharing?"

  "Not a one."

  "Good, because I figure between the two of us, we can satisfy our man and make him stay around."

  "Jesus, I've unleashed a monster," Rusty whispered.

  Jay bit his lips and lifted a brow. "You think?" He pretended to consider the statement and then shrugged. "I suppose I can be a monster if the situation calls for it."

  "Oh, baby, it will tonight."

  Jay's body turned to stone at Bo's harshly teasing tone. All warmth leaked out his ears as his blood smashed through his veins so loudly it momentarily drowned out all sound. Rusty turned in front of him, an obvious attempt to shield Jay's body from his brother's view. The move offered Jay more comfort in that moment than the other man would ever know.

  "Longhorn and his wife'll drag it out of you," Jesse chimed in. "They'll do it real good, too, make you like it. Get ready for it, bro, 'cause your boy in there, Mr. Cole Duvall in all his sexy ride-to-the-rescue glory, just lost it all."

  Jay closed his eyes as the truth of his brother's evil words hit home.

  * * * *

  Cole rubbed the back of his neck, his fingers kneading at the tense muscles, the action showing a sign of weakness he never divulged. He'd lost, bluffed a hand of deuces and kings until all the other players folded the last hand except him and Longhorn. Longhorn, always the confident gambler, called Cole's bluff and, in a last wager that gained him the substantial pot, revealed a hand of four smiling ladies.

  The game was over.

  "It would be my pleasure to help you with that, cowboy." The feminine voice drifted through the air in a room of three males like velvet, yet each word held an undertone sharper than a buck knife. "I've been told I give the best massages in these here parts."

  Cole shot Isabella Longhorn a look. She'd struck a pose at the old saloon style piano in the corner of the parlor that reminded him of the showgirls in the Wild West movies. A delicate elbow rested on the piano top, the fingers barely touching the ebony hairs near her face. Her other hand splayed on one cocked hip, the leg bent enticingly to part the slit of her straight skirt clean up her thigh. He knew she tried to come off as sexy in the siren red silk with the black lace and silk corset and six inch stiletto heels. The look she achieved reminded Cole more of a devil's queen whore ready to score.