Cowboys Down

by Barbara Elsborg

  “Toby, get back here!” Pete shouted and then turned to Calum. “You okay?”

  “What the hell were you aiming at?” Gunner gasped from the other side of the clearing.

  Calum levered himself upright and stood.

  “Are you okay?” Gunner asked. “Jesus, Calum. You thumped it.”

  “I’m fine. Don’t fuss.” Except his knees were still shaking and the contents of his stomach were trying to emulate Houdini. He glowered at Pete. “You nearly shot me.”

  “But I didn’t.”

  “There’s no need to look so fucking disappointed,” Calum snapped.

  Pete stepped right into his face. “Don’t be such a dickwad.”

  “Cut it out.” Gunner nodded toward Calum’s shoulder.

  Calum tugged at his shirt to find the material ripped and wet. He felt pain then when he hadn’t before, but the claw marks were little more than deep scratches.

  “Up to date on tetanus?” Gunner asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s get back to the Jeep,” Gunner said. “I’ll clean that up.”

  Calum fell into step beside him, wondering if the cat was watching.

  “I’ll bring a couple wranglers out here tomorrow morning and look for it,” Pete said. “Means a change of venue for the campsite.”

  “Reckon Black Ridge will do?” Gunner asked.

  It lay on the other side of the Neilson spread.

  “Yep.” Pete strode on ahead, Toby at his heels.

  “You did well there,” Gunner said. “Remembered not to run or curl up in a ball.”

  “I was too scared.”

  “Like hell you were. You did exactly the right thing. Pete did the wrong thing in splitting us up, particularly when you had no rifle. We should have walked the circle together. Thin line between everything being okay and you ending up as cat food.”

  Oh Christ.

  “Feel that bullet whizz past your head?” Gunner whispered.

  “Yep.”

  Gunner caught his arm. “Watch your step with Pete.” He kept his voice low.

  Back at the Jeep, Calum stripped off his shirt and winced. There were three long scratches on the front of his shoulder. He was really lucky they weren’t deep. He must have shoved the cat back when he’d thumped it, only a fraction, but enough to reduce the impact of the claws.

  Gunner held Calum’s bunched-up shirt under the wounds and poured water over them. Calum gritted his teeth.

  By the time Gunner had cleaned him up and slapped a dressing on, Calum ached from head to foot. At least they could go back to the ranch now. They wouldn’t let him in a restaurant without a shirt.

  “There’s a shirt in the back you can wear,” Pete said.

  Shit.

  “I’m not missing out on ribs because you got sideswiped by a lion.” Pete grinned.

  “We might even get a free meal out of it,” Gunner said.

  Jasper missed the evening meal again, but this time by design. He just couldn’t face everyone, particularly if the word had spread that he was a sexual predator. Vera might be on his side, but Erik wanted to think the worst and Jasper had yet to hear from Calum. While he waited and hoped, he answered emails, sent instructions to a colleague regarding a couple of clients, read a boring report about the markets and eventually Googled laminitis and found an article on a treatment using stem cells. He wasn’t supposed to be interested in stuff like that anymore, but Jasper couldn’t turn off the tap.

  Pulled out of his room by hunger, he bypassed the lounge and headed for the kitchen. Relieved to find it empty, he opened the fridge and hesitated when he saw the sandwich and bottle of water. Made for him, no doubt, but after the last sandwich he wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk eating it.

  “What are you doing?”

  Jasper turned to find Ring scowling at him.

  “Getting a sandwich.” Jasper grabbed it and the water and closed the fridge door.

  “Think people were going to call you names at dinner?” the wrangler snarled.

  “What? Like hero?”

  “More like pedo.”

  “Fuckwit,” Jasper muttered.

  Ring clenched his fists and Jasper smiled. “Go on. Hit me. I dare you. I’ll slap you with a lawsuit.”

  Jasper hoped he sounded braver than he felt.

  “You won’t be smiling soon,” Ring sneered.

  He walked off and Jasper went back to his room to slump on the bed. Why wouldn’t he be smiling soon? Had that been just a throwaway line or did it mean something?

  Jasper’s stomach rumbled. He unwrapped the sandwich and as he was about to bite into it, realized what he was doing and opened it up to look inside. Beef, lettuce, pickle, tomato and mayonnaise. It looked okay and smelt fine, but Jasper only ate half.

  Ten minutes later, he was vomiting into the toilet. Oh Christ. Angie was deliberately trying to make him ill. Or force him to leave. Jasper let out a choked groan. Though it didn’t have to be Angie. Fucking Ring?

  He crawled across the bathroom floor and sat leaning against the wall clutching his stomach. This was shaping up to be the craziest day ever. And it wasn’t over yet. Once his heart slowed and his breathing eased, Jasper pushed himself up. He cleaned his teeth and drank water from the tap. The seal on the bottle appeared intact but he wasn’t going to risk it. He dropped the rest of the sandwich in the waste bin and lay on his bed.

  Was it crazy to think someone was trying to poison him? More likely to be an accident, some contaminated food. The mayonnaise? Should he tell Vera? Maybe Angie didn’t realize she was using something that had gone off. Perversely, if others had been sick too, Jasper would feel better. One half of his head told him to say nothing, the other half persuaded him Vera ought to know.

  Jasper smartened himself up before he left his room. He found everyone sitting in the lounge. All the furniture was large and looked comfortable, a mismatch of sofas and chairs with lots of cushions. They’d gathered to watch an elderly guy and a young woman, both dressed in Native American clothing, make arrows and thread beads.

  There was no sign of Calum. Angie sat at a table sorting different colored feathers with Vera close by. Jasper waited for an opportunity to catch Vera on her own and then wasn’t sure how to start the conversation.

  “I wondered…um…the sandwich left in the fridge.” A sudden thought struck him. “It was for me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Angie make it?”

  Vera frowned. “Yes. Why?”

  Jasper lowered his voice. “I just ate half of it and it made me sick. It’s happened before.”

  He could almost see Vera prickle.

  “Something you’re allergic to?” she asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of. I wondered…”

  “What?” she snapped.

  Jasper changed his mind. Vera had been on his side and he was about to lose her as an ally. “Doesn’t matter. Probably me. Jet lag.” Christ, if I blame anything else on jet lag, I’ll never fly again.

  Vera gave him a steely glare. “If you have a problem with the sandwiches my daughter made, I suggest you make more effort to dine with everyone else.”

  “Of course, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

  He looked up at the sudden lull in the buzz of conversation. Calum strolled in with Pete and Gunner. Jasper heard the sigh escape from his mouth and clamped his lips together. One glance from Calum and Jasper’s ears burned. He forced himself to look away before his cock began to behave badly.

  Jasper managed no more than a couple of seconds staring at the wall before Calum drew his gaze again. When he looked at the cowboy, somehow everything that held Jasper balanced tipped and slid beyond reach. His life in London was ordered and safe. Calum made him do reckless things like take off his clothes and fuck in a wood then jump in a waterfall. And he loved that. Oh fuck. Jasper wanted to walk across the room, pull him into his arms and kiss him. Only that was the last thing Calum needed. The cowboy had told him people here kept the
ir differences to themselves.

  I’m different and I’m not ashamed of it. Except Jasper didn’t know who he was anymore. Working a job he hated, with a mother he could hardly bear to visit, lonely, hoping for something to happen, and now it had, he couldn’t keep it.

  “A lion?” Janie squeaked.

  What? Jasper tuned back in.

  Erik rushed over to his son, Vera on his heels. Erik actually looked concerned, as though he wanted to give Calum a hug. Maybe there was hope for the two of them, especially if Jasper left.

  While Jasper listened to the story, he felt his heart pounding all over his body. Calum caught his eye and shot him a little smile. The idiot is smiling? Jasper wanted to kill him. Kiss him and then kill him. Oh Christ.

  “Which is why we tell you not to go off on your own,” Erik said and looked round pointedly at the guests. “This is dangerous country.” His gaze lingered on Jasper. Of course Erik would be delighted if he became cat food.

  “What should we do if we come face-to-face with a mountain lion?” Melissa asked.

  “Just what Calum did,” Gunner said. “Make a lot of noise.”

  She wouldn’t find that a problem.

  “I can do that,” Melissa said with a laugh.

  “Running is the worst thing to do,” Gunner said. “Calum not only stayed where he was, he fought back. He smacked that f— ’Scuse me…the lion in the jaw.”

  Jasper thought his heart had stopped. Bloody hell. The lion would have eaten Jasper before he’d thought of doing that.

  “I can’t believe you did that.” Vera stared wide-eyed at Calum.

  “You’re not supposed to play dead?” asked Matt.

  “Lions aren’t like bears,” Erik said. “Play dead and they’ll eat you. But the chances of getting attacked are small. Cats would rather run away. Best thing to do is make yourself look as big as you can and make as much noise as you can. Wave your arms in the air and yell. That way you won’t look like prey.”

  “Just an idiot,” Calum muttered.

  Everyone laughed. Jasper didn’t. Calum could have died. He felt like there’d been a sea change inside him, a movement from lust to something much deeper. The thought that the guy standing feet from him, the guy he yearned to pull into his arms and hug, could have been killed, shocked Jasper to the core. When Ben had his accident, it had been a lesson in how short life could be, how everything could change forever in an instant, how you had to seize the moment—and yet Jasper still hadn’t.

  Had he learned nothing?

  Note to self: Be a bigger man. Don’t run away from what you want.

  Chapter Ten

  While everyone crowded around Calum, Jasper hung back. He saw pride in Erik’s eyes and hoped Calum could too. Jasper thought of his own father and a bubble of pain burst in his chest. Nothing could be put right there, but Calum still had a chance.

  “It was a crap idea anyway,” came a whisper from nearby. “Mine was better.”

  Jasper froze.

  “Leaving the meat worked, but how was I to know Gunner would tag along?” That sounded like Pete.

  Jasper moved nearer to the voices, which were coming from the side of the fireplace, and knocked into a coffee table making it scrape across the floor. Pete and Ring emerged.

  “Cocksucker,” Pete muttered and pushed past Jasper.

  “If a mountain lion had come anywhere near you, you’d have pissed your pants.” Ring picked up a glass of soda from the table. “You fucking fag.”

  Jasper gasped as the liquid hit his groin.

  “Oops. You just did.” Ring sniggered.

  Jasper shivered as cold soda soaked through his chinos. “What the hell are you playing at?”

  Ring laughed and moved away with Pete. Jasper was about to go after them and then noticed Erik ruffle Calum’s hair. No one had seen what Ring had done. This wasn’t the time to cause a scene, not when Calum was the man of the moment. Jasper grabbed a newspaper from a coffee table to hold over his groin and left.

  As he approached his room, Jasper tensed. He hadn’t left his door ajar. That bloody lock. Or is someone in there? His spirits sank even lower. This vacation was becoming more stressful than his job. Hoping to catch the intruder in the act, he pushed the door fully open and stalked in. Bessie lay on the floor, shaking and drooling.

  “Bessie?”

  She showed no reaction to Jasper’s voice. He tried to get her to stand and it was clear she couldn’t. Jasper checked her gums and then groaned as his gaze caught the upturned waste bin. “Oh fuck it.”

  The dog had eaten the other half of the sandwich. Jasper scooped her into his arms and ran back to the lounge. He burst in and shouted, “First-aid kit.”

  “Kitchen.” Vera turned and ran.

  Jasper bolted after her, Calum at his heels.

  “What the hell’s the matter?” Calum asked.

  “Bessie’s been poisoned.”

  Calum gasped. “What?”

  Jasper laid her on the kitchen floor and Calum dropped to his knees at her side.

  “Hey, Bess, what you been up to?” Calum stroked her head. He looked up at Jasper. “Poisoned? What’s she eaten?”

  “I don’t know exactly.” Jasper took the red first-aid box from Vera and opened it on the floor. He was relieved to see a bottle of three-percent hydrogen peroxide. “Spoon,” he snapped.

  Calum caught his arm. “If it’s something caustic, we shouldn’t be making her vomit.”

  “It isn’t caustic.” Jasper poured out a spoonful of the chemical. “Hold her mouth open.”

  “You said you didn’t know what it was. How can you be sure it isn’t dangerous to make her vomit?” Calum asked.

  “Because I ate it too. Now hold open her mouth.”

  Calum gaped at him, but grasped Bessie’s jaw and Jasper spooned in the liquid.

  “What happened to your pants?” Calum asked.

  “Ring threw a drink at me.” And now Jasper wondered if it had been done to make him go back to his room to find Bessie. Did Ring want him blamed for her death? Oh fuck.

  “Should we call the vet?” Vera asked.

  “If the first dose doesn’t work, we can try another, but by the time a vet gets here…” Jasper quieted.

  Calum held Bessie’s paw and stroked her head. “Come on, girl.”

  The dog convulsed and then made the noise Jasper had been hoping for and she threw up. By the time she’d emptied her stomach, she was just about standing on her own and trying to wag her tail. Vera bent to clean up the mess and her gaze locked with Jasper’s.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  It was obvious what the dog had thrown up.

  “She ate the other half of my sandwich,” Jasper said to Calum in a quiet voice.

  Calum gaped. “What?”

  “Anyone could have tampered with it,” Jasper said. “It wasn’t necessarily—”

  “Will you let me deal with it?” Vera chewed her lip.

  Jasper nodded.

  She shot him a look of gratitude. “Thank you.”

  “Is someone going to explain what’s going on?” Calum asked.

  “I’ll look after Bessie. Go and talk to each other.” Vera gave Calum a push. “If I need you, I’ll call.”

  “The stables,” Calum muttered. “I’ll be there in five.”

  Jasper turned to Vera. “Might I have a piece of fruit?”

  “I could make you a sandwich.” Then she winced.

  “An apple would be fine,” Jasper said.

  Calum tossed him one.

  Jasper returned to his room and stripped off his wet pants and shorts. He wondered if there was some way to do laundry. He was running out of clean clothes. He reached for a pair of boxers then smiled and left them where they were. Even as he pulled on a pair of chinos, his cock was swelling.

  When he stepped outside, Jasper shivered, but he couldn’t be bothered to go back and get a sweater. He hoped Calum planned to warm him up. It was a clear night, starry
curtains hanging over the mountains, the Milky Way sprawling like a splatter of paint across the heavens. Wrapped up in something warm, Jasper could have lay on his back and looked at them for hours, particularly if Calum was by his side. He took a bite of apple and trudged over to the barn.

  He slid the large door across the track far enough for him to slip inside and was hit at once by the scent of horses, hay and leather. Jasper had been a little surprised he’d not had a problem yet with his breathing. Maybe it was only London traffic fumes that choked him.

  There were a couple of dim fluorescent lights on in the building. Jasper walked down the line of stalls past the shuffling horses. Star whinnied a greeting and Jasper stroked her neck. He gave pieces of apple to Star and Xander and gave the rest to Spider. It disappeared in a flash.

  “We friends again?”

  Spider nudged his shoulder.

  “No more apples, sorry.”

  The horse snorted. Jasper turned at the sound of the barn door opening and sighed when he saw Calum. They needed to talk but Jasper needed more to be held. He walked back and Calum unlocked the tack room. He flicked on the light as Jasper stepped inside, and then reached behind him to close the door and lock it. Calum took out the key and put it in his pocket.

  “Are you okay?” Jasper asked.

  “I am now.” Calum stepped forward and kissed his neck—slow, soft presses with soft lips that made Jasper’s cock jump in his pants like a Mexican bean as it tried to grow against the stricture of the material.

  “This first, talk later.” Calum kissed his way to Jasper’s mouth and back-walked him to the wall where reins and bridles hung. They jingled as Jasper hit them. “You taste like apple.”

  Jasper slid his hands around Calum’s waist, fingers tugging at his shirt until he could touch bare flesh. As he spread his hands over the warm skin of Calum’s lower back, pressing his fingers into the dips either side of his spine, Jasper let out a deep sigh. An ache bloomed in his chest. This might only be lust, but it still hurt to want someone so much.

  Calum’s tongue slithered along Jasper’s teeth, paused to curl around his canine and then plunged deep. Jasper let him have his fill and when Calum pulled back to breathe, Jasper took over, his tongue sliding into a moist, warm mouth as he threaded his fingers in Calum’s hair. Their hips rolled and rubbed together, Calum pressing him to the wall with the full length of his body.