“Bessie, stay,” Calum ordered and kicked Blue into a walk.
Jasper adjusted his Stetson so it shaded his eyes and set off after Calum.
“I take it we’re not going to Bonnet’s Ridge?” Jasper asked.
Calum looked back and smiled. Then his eyes focused behind Jasper and the smile fell off his face. Jasper turned and saw Angie running up.
“You told me you’d take me riding,” she called to Calum.
“Not this morning,” Calum said.
“But you promised.”
“Go and help Vera make lunch. Maybe I can take you this afternoon.”
Angie turned to Jasper. “And you said you’d sit with me at dinner.”
“I’m sorry. I missed dinner. I ate your sandwich though. Thank you.”
“Was it okay?”
Jasper couldn’t detect any guile in her expression. “Lovely, thanks.” He felt bad that he could even suspect her of trying to make him sick.
“We’ll see you later,” Calum said and kicked his mount on.
Jasper followed. When he glanced back, Angie still stood watching.
“Should we have brought her along?” Jasper asked.
“Nope.”
“Are you going to be in trouble for taking me riding again?”
“Yep.” Calum grinned. “But I have somewhere special to show you.”
“I thought…”
“What?”
“You said you couldn’t do this, what changed?”
Calum’s smile fell off his face. “I didn’t mean…it was there, the ranch, my room. I didn’t want to fuck you thinking any minute someone was going to bang on the door.” He licked his lips. “I do want you. A lot.”
Jasper nodded. That was what he’d concluded and yet something still bugged him. Calum had known there was a risk of being heard before he’d taken him to his room. Was there something else?
They cantered and walked until they reached the foothills, and then Calum led the way up a rocky valley following the path of a stream. It was a good thing Star was watching where she was going because Jasper was too easily distracted by Calum. The way he pulled down his hat, his narrow waist, broad back, those muscular arms, the way he kicked Blue on—everything he does turns me on.
While they’d walked the horses side by side, they’d talked about all sorts of things—food, music, films, books. It was rare to find a guy who liked to read as much as he, let alone the same types of books. When they disagreed over the merits of an author, arguing with Calum had been entertaining. Yet in all they talked about, subjects close to the heart had been avoided. Past relationships, what they wanted out of life, how they felt.
You’ve known the guy a couple of days. And in a couple more days, Jasper would be leaving and he’d never see Calum again. Why did that choke him up? Jasper gave himself a hard mental slap. He was an idiot. They’d sucked each other off, and Jasper wanted them riding into the sunset forever. It was fine to be an incurable romantic in his dreams, but life wasn’t like that. Life was mostly…shit.
“We’ll leave the horses here in the shade.” Calum slithered from Blue’s back. He removed something from his saddle bag and stuck it in his back pocket. Then tossed water to Jasper and took one for himself.
They were at the edge of a small stand of slender trees, their smooth white bark pocked with black scars. Jasper looked up into the green leaves and smiled when he heard them rustle as if they were whispering to each other.
Calum tethered the horses. “Quaking aspens.”
“Very pretty.”
“Something special about them.” Calum slid his arm over Jasper’s back. He twisted his fingers in his hair and heat shot to Jasper’s groin.
“The noise they make?” Jasper asked, thinking of the sounds he’d like to hear from Calum.
“Yes but not that. They can produce seeds, but that’s generally not the way they reproduce. All these trees are genetically identical, growing from a shared root system. So really this is one individual entity rather than a group of individuals. The heaviest organism in the world is an aspen clone in Utah. Six thousand tons.”
“Christ. That’s impressive.”
“They come from the same source, and so they’re all the same sex. Male trees stand separately from females.”
“How can you tell male from female?”
“Examine their catkins.”
Jasper laughed.
“Course, there aren’t any catkins on this time of year. You need to see them in the spring. Or come in the fall when the colonies change color together.”
The leaves all trembled again, the shivering aspens asking Jasper to come back, or maybe warning him to stay away.
“I wonder why they developed like that,” Jasper said.
“Protection against fire maybe, but it leaves them vulnerable. If one tree’s sick, the whole group is in danger. Having said that, they’re hard suckers to kill.”
Calum groaned. “My phone. Fuck it.” He took his arm from Jasper. “Yes?” he snapped into the cell.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Calum’s bloody father. Jasper made to move away and Calum caught his arm.
“What I’m doing is taking a guest for a ride after Ring rode off without him.”
“Why did Ring go without him?”
“Because Jasper couldn’t ride Spider. That was your idea, I hear. Way to go, Boss. We have a guest who’s overcoming an issue about riding and you put him on a horse like Spider. The reason she—”
Jasper shook his head and mouthed “No.” He didn’t want Gunner to get into trouble for the thorn under the saddle.
“We’re trying to catch up with Ring now,” Calum said.
“You let your sister down.”
A muscle in Calum’s cheek twitched. “I’ll make it up to her.” He cut off the call.
“Should we go back?” Jasper asked.
“Hell no. Come on.”
They walked into the stand of trees, sunlight dappling ground covered in wild flowers, grasses and shrubs. Calum made for a grassy area, flung himself onto his back and looked up at Jasper.
“You have to lie flat to get the best effect,” Calum said.
“Really?” Jasper smiled and checked the ground.
“What are you looking for?”
“Snakes, dirt, ants, blood-sucking roots that are going to spring up and drag me under the surface. Oh, and bears.”
“I checked for all those. Come here.”
Jasper tossed his hat and water next to Calum’s, turned up his collar and carefully settled on the soft grass at his side. Calum’s fingers wrapped around his, and Jasper’s throat went dry.
“Look up,” Calum whispered.
The color of the leaves shifted through shades of green as a gentle breeze rippled through the canopy. Sunlight winked through thousands of gaps. It was so peaceful, Jasper stopped worrying about what he was lying on and let the beauty of it sink in.
“What are you thinking?” Calum asked. “Still fretting about ants and dirt?”
I want you to fuck me. He swallowed hard. “I was wondering why the leaves move like this.”
“Something to do with the part of the stalk that connects the leaves to the stem. They’re flattened rather than cylindrical so they let the leaves flutter as they bend in the wind. And because they move so much, it allows the sun to shine on all the leaves…and on us.”
Jasper turned to look at him and found Calum staring at him. “What did you study at college?”
Calum sighed. “Agriculture.”
“You don’t sound happy about it.”
“My father pitched a fit when I said I’d like to study art. I went no farther than Laramie to please him, studied what he wanted and not what I wanted, and I’ve done a few other things besides just to keep him happy—I think I’ve had enough of doing what I don’t want to do.”
Calum shifted onto his side. A warm hand slipped around Jasper’s throat and
soft lips traced the length of his face from his hairline to his Adam’s apple. The slight roughness of Calum’s chin brushing against Jasper’s temple sent waves of pleasure rippling to his groin. Calum’s breathing hitched at the same time as Jasper’s and they laughed.
“I feel like I’ve thrown myself off a cliff and I haven’t hit the ground,” Calum whispered.
“That was me, thanks to Spider.”
Calum’s eyes widened. “Shit, I’d forgotten you came off hard. Are you okay?”
Jasper nodded.
“That fucking thorn under the blanket. It’s never happened before. Gunner’s getting too old for this work, but my father won’t make him leave. He’s too fond of the guy. Though if he finds out about Spider, he might stop Gunner doing the saddling.”
Calum sucked gently on Jasper’s neck and then kissed his way back up to his forehead. At the same time, he pushed Jasper’s legs apart with his knee, shifting over until he lay on top, steel-hard cocks pressing against each other.
For the briefest moment, Jasper caught sight of Calum’s blue eyes staring into his, before Calum tilted his head and moved in for a kiss. They started slow and gentle but excitement pushed them into hot and greedy. Calum’s tongue stabbed his mouth in an imitation of sex then Jasper did the same to him. Hands all over each other, groaning and laughing, they rolled around in the grass, each trying to pin the other down. Neither wanted to win. Neither wanted to lose.
They shed their clothes as they wrestled in a clumsy, tangled mess. Kisses shifted from soft to rough and back again. Hands stroked and then fingers tightened. Fists flew though punches were held. They laughed and groaned. Jasper wanted to kiss every scar on Calum’s body, wanted Calum to kiss every inch of his. They pinned each other down, threw each other off and panted their way to painful arousal. This was play-fighting at its most arousing and Jasper’s heart beat so loud it almost deafened him.
Finally, they lay buck naked on their backs, chests heaving, cocks bobbing, pre-come glistening. Jasper wanted to fuck, wanted to be fucked. Who goes first? Calum stretched out a hand and dragged his jeans closer. From his back pocket he pulled out a string of condoms, a small bottle of lube and a quarter.
“We’re going to toss for it?” Jasper panted.
“You have a better idea?”
“Yeah, you go first.”
Jasper saw a flash of relief on Calum’s face and knew he’d made the right decision. Calum slipped a leg over Jasper’s hip and straddled him.
“You’ll be the one the bear grabs,” Jasper said. “This way I get some warning.”
Calum laughed.
Maybe that wasn’t so funny. Jasper gulped.
Note to self: Keep a look out for bears and pissed-off dads.
Chapter Eight
Calum took a quick look round to check for bears or a pissed-off father storming out of the trees before he leaned down and licked the salty dip at the junction of Jasper’s neck and shoulder. Jasper moaned. Had he guessed how much Calum needed to be on top? Was that why he’d foregone the coin toss or did he really not care who went first? Maybe he’d seen the coin and knew Calum was going to fix it.
He’ll still want to fuck you at some point, warned his brain.
But Calum would deal with that when he came to it. For now, he was exactly where he wanted to be. He ran his teeth along the hard ridge of Jasper’s collarbone, making the dude beneath him draw in his breath in a long hiss, which brought a smile to Calum’s face. He laved the rounded contours of Jasper’s pecs and teased the tight, dark nipples with his teeth. While Jasper panted and groaned beneath him, Calum’s arousal kicked off like a bronco. Every sound Jasper made was echoed by one from him. He wanted to crawl under this guy’s skin, get inside him, meld with him.
Jasper’s hands were doing some exploring of their own, fingers of one hand trailing ribbons of fire down Calum’s back while his others threaded Calum’s hair then stroked his ears and neck. All the while, Calum continued his journey south. He trailed his tongue down the center of Jasper’s chest and circled his navel over and over, chuckling as the skin there fluttered at his touch. He dipped his tongue inside, rhythmically pushing the wet tip into the shallow salty space, feeling his pulse climb as Jasper’s cock brushed his nipple.
With half of his brain shouting, Get inside him and fuck him hard and fast, Calum struggled to listen to the sensible half telling him to go slow. He danced his thumbs over Jasper’s firm abs, let his fingers slide into the creases of his groin and licked the head of his cock.
Jasper let out a ragged cry. “Oh shhh…it.”
Calum pushed Jasper’s knees up and spread his legs. Once he was sure Jasper would keep them there, he tucked down, ignoring the rough ground beneath him and sucked the tight sac holding Jasper’s balls.
“Bloody hell.” Jasper wrapped his hand around the base of his cock.
He wasn’t the only one struggling for control. Calum’s nuts were drawn up tight, threatening to blow. He shifted his attention from one ball to the other while above his nose, Jasper’s fingers clenched tighter around his shaft.
“Oh fuck, fuuuuck.” Jasper’s legs trembled as his breathing grew noisier. “Enough, enough.”
Calum released him and, using his palms to spread Jasper’s cheeks, he trailed his tongue down the dark line separating the balls and on to the ultrasensitive strip of flesh beyond. He wanted to play there, show Jasper how good he could make this feel with the slightest of pressure changes, but inside his head, his need to come rose like magma trapped under a volcano. One swipe of his tongue over Jasper’s pucker and Jasper drew up like a bow.
“Christ. Jesus. God. If I see a bear…I’m not telling you until I’ve come,” Jasper blurted.
Calum laughed into his butt, blew on his puckered hole, and Jasper shuddered. Spreading his palms on the underside of Jasper’s thighs to keep his body open, Calum buried his face between Jasper’s butt cheeks. He fluttered his tongue over the taut entrance and sucked, licked and teased the ring of muscle until he felt Jasper begin to relax.
“Okay?” Calum lifted his head to ask.
“Don’t interrupt. I’m just doing some complicated mental arithmetic. One plus one equals…ah damn.”
Calum smiled, said, “Two,” and slipped his tongue into Jasper’s anus.
“Oh fu…ck. Two? Are you sure?” Jasper pulled at his hair.
No way was Calum stopping. He reached blindly for the lube and condoms and dragged them close as he kissed and licked and fucked Jasper with his tongue. Calum flipped off the top of the lube one-handed and spilt it onto his palm. He replaced his tongue with a finger and pulled up to look at Jasper’s face as he pushed the digit in and out of his ass.
Jasper writhed beneath him.
Calum’s cock was blood-red at the crest. It looked thicker than he’d ever seen it.
“Fuck me,” Jasper whispered. “Please.”
Calum fumbled with the condom but eventually got it on. Way to look smooth. More lube in his hand, though most went on the grass, and he rubbed it over his aching shaft. A loud moan from Jasper, and Calum glanced up to see Jasper’s gaze fixed on his fingers. Taking a tight hold at the root, he lined the head of his dick against the entrance to Jasper’s body and pressed until he felt the muscle barrier give way. Calum stared into Jasper’s face as he pushed deeper, noting the reaction to everything he did, the way Jasper sucked in a breath, the flutter of his thick eyelashes, the wince, the sigh and finally the smile that curved his lips.
“Oh God that feels good.” Jasper groaned. “You can use your cock instead of your finger now.”
Calum snorted and, pulling Jasper’s legs into the crook of his arms, he thrust hard to bury himself balls deep.
“Fuuuuck,” Jasper gasped.
“Serves you right for joking at a critical point.”
Jasper stared straight at him and laughed. “You were taking too long.”
Now Calum’s heart ached as badly as his balls. He’d never laughed and
joked when he had sex. His partners, the few he’d had, only cared enough that he got them off after he’d fucked them and then they were gone. There was no cuddling, no sleeping together, no fun. It was just sex. Good sex, but nothing more.
This was.
Calum’s heart ached. He stared down at Jasper and slowly withdrew his cock, dragging it through nerve-rich tissue while Jasper gazed up at him through hooded eyes. Rolling his hips, Calum thrust back into Jasper’s anus. He kept his strokes slow and smooth, amazed he’d not come the moment he felt the clasp of Jasper’s muscles, further amazed he’d not immediately driven himself to oblivion in some super-fast shunting motion.
Jasper pumped his cock in time with Calum’s thrusts, and Calum’s gaze dropped to Jasper’s hand. The guy had managed to get hold of the lube and his cock glistened in the sunlight like some magic totem. Jasper’s fingers squeezed the tip and then he twisted his fist as he dragged it down. Watching him bring himself off had Calum gulping. He began to move faster as pressure mounted in his head. The long, deep thrusts had Jasper gasping more loudly, his breathy cries ricocheting around Calum’s head.
Calum slipped onto another plane as pleasure coursed through him, every muscle, every cell filled with ice and fire. Not even a bear could stop him now. He was pistoning into Jasper, the squelch of sweat-slick bodies, the sound of Jasper’s ragged breathing, every grunt and groan propelling Calum to completion.
“Calum.” Jasper closed his eyes as he groaned his name and Calum’s balls drew up tight.
Jasper’s hand jerked harder and faster at his cock and Calum’s simmering orgasm approached the boil. He wanted Jasper to come first but wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. He pushed harder at Jasper’s legs, forcing his butt higher and then canted his hips to change the angle of entry.
“Jesus.” Jasper sucked in a breath and opened his eyes.
A creamy jet spurted from Jasper’s cock and landed close to his throat. Then as he splattered his stomach in ropes of come, Calum’s cock jerked in the hold of Jasper’s body. Orgasm boiled over to race through him, surging along veins, swelling at the back of his head before careening down his spine to ignite his balls. He exploded into Jasper with such force that it stole the air from his lungs. Over and over his cock jerked and released his load. Only as Jasper pulled him down for a kiss did Calum remember he needed to breathe.
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