by Ariel Tachna
Macklin didn’t reply to that, and Caine didn’t push any more than he already had. He was skirting the edge of Macklin’s comfort zone, and while he intended to keep skirting that line until the line moved back a bit, he didn’t have to accomplish that goal tonight. He could give Macklin time and space to get used to the idea of Caine’s tongue, fingers, and maybe even his cock inside him.
They showered quickly and headed down to the canteen for dinner. Caine walked inside first, Macklin two steps behind him, not at all sure what kind of reaction they’d face from the rest of the crew. Caine had barely gotten over the threshold before he was mobbed, the men shaking his hand, patting his back, asking if he was all right, thanking him for helping Neil. The throng of people carried him forward deeper into the room. He looked for Macklin, but the crowd around him had separated them completely. Caine smiled at Macklin, surprised and touched by the reaction he was getting. He hadn’t known what to expect, but it hadn’t been this.
Macklin’s sharp whistle cut through the hubbub in the room. “Let him get some tucker,” Macklin ordered. “He’s had a rough day.”
“Here, boss,” Neil said, pushing through the crowd. “I got a plate for you.”
“Thank you,” Caine replied, taking the plate and finding a seat at the nearest table.
Jason plopped down next to him almost immediately. “You’re a hero, Caine! All the men are talking about it.”
“I just did what had to be done,” Caine said with a shrug. “Anyone else would have done the same.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Neil interjected, taking a seat across from Caine, “but you’re the one who did it. Whether anyone else would have doesn’t matter.”
Before Caine could think of a way to ask what kind of reaction Macklin’s coming out and the revelation of their relationship had gotten, Macklin plunked his plate down next to Caine’s and glared at the men who were hovering nearby. “Don’t you have work to do?”
“No,” Neil said. “Nobody’s given us new orders now that the search for the sheep was called off.”
“Do we need to be worried about flooding here in the valley?” Caine asked.
“No,” Macklin said, “we may get more runoff than usual, but the valley is open at the far end so the water doesn’t build up enough to be a danger to the buildings. Michael planned well when he decided where to build.”
“Then our next concern is finding the person who’s been damaging our fences,” Caine said. “I hate to make people stand watch in this weather, but we can’t keep losing sheep.”
“We’ll take short watches,” Neil offered. “Like you said, it has to be done.”
“Can you organize that?” Caine asked. “Macklin has already decreed I’m not allowed back outside tonight.”
“Anything you need, boss,” Neil said. “I meant what I said today. I’m your man.”
“Have you recovered from the cold?” Caine asked. “You weren’t as wet as I was, but you got pretty soaked crossing the gully too.”
“I’m fine. I might take an early morning shift, though, so I have the night to stay warm.”
“You’ll stay inside just like Caine will,” Macklin snapped. “Tomorrow night you can stand watch with everyone else. Neither of you is going outside tonight.”
Neil looked like he wanted to argue, but Caine smiled and shook his head. “You heard the man, Neil. We’re under house arrest tonight.”
“UNDER HOUSE arrest?” Macklin said when they were alone in Caine’s room again.
Caine smiled. “You didn’t really want me to tell them I couldn’t stand watch tonight because you had to make love to me since you fucked me earlier, did you?”
“Um, well, no, not really,” Macklin said. “They’ll think it, but we don’t have to tell them they’re right.”
“You don’t mind that they’re thinking it?”
Macklin shrugged. “I’d rather they not think about it at all, but because it’s private, not because I’m ashamed of you.”
“That’s fair,” Caine said, pulling his sweatshirt over his head. “Come to bed. The nap this afternoon helped, but I’m still exhausted.”
“Too exhausted to make love?” Macklin teased, stripping down with an ease he’d never before had in Caine’s presence.
“I’ll never be too tired for that,” Caine said, climbing into bed and pulling the cover up to his waist. Macklin climbed in on the other side, drawing Caine toward him. Caine moved willingly enough, latching onto one of Macklin’s nipples and sucking lightly.
“So you want to be in charge tonight?” Macklin asked.
“Will you let me?” Caine replied seriously.
“For now,” Macklin said.
It was more of a concession than Caine had expected. Mulling over his options and which would be most likely to give him a shot at what he really wanted, he rolled over to his back and urged Macklin to straddle his chest.
“You can face me and watch as I suck you or you can turn around and suck me too.”
Caine hoped Macklin would turn around, but he didn’t want to be too obvious about it. If Macklin knew what Caine had planned, he’d never give Caine the chance to get started.
“As tempting as it is to watch, it’s even more tempting to reciprocate,” Macklin said, shifting around and giving Caine a prime view of his backside as he bent over to lick Caine’s erection.
Caine took his time, fondling Macklin’s cock and licking his balls. Macklin trembled above him, giving Caine the courage he needed to slip back enough to bury his face between Macklin’s buttocks and lick the tight entrance.
Macklin froze, Caine’s cock in his mouth, every muscle in his body tense.
Caine licked him again.
Macklin shivered, starting to pull away, but Caine wasn’t done yet. He grabbed Macklin’s hips, holding him steady as he pressed his tongue against the tight iris, barely penetrating.
“Caine!”
Let me love you, Caine begged silently, his actions conveying the request his words could not.
Macklin stayed where he was, his body tense as Caine continued to rim him, focusing on the outer ring more than on pushing inside. When he pressed a finger against Macklin’s entrance in place of his tongue, the foreman’s control broke. He pulled away, flipping Caine onto his stomach and pulling his hips into the air.
Caine squirmed around, trying to get comfortable, expecting to feel fingers and Macklin’s cock in short order. Instead, Macklin’s hands gripped his buttocks, spreading them and exposing his entrance. Caine held his breath, not daring to hope Macklin would reciprocate.
“P-p-please,” Caine begged when Macklin didn’t move. “D-d-do something.”
Macklin’s teeth nipping his ass was the only answer he got. Caine pushed up onto his elbows, looking back over his shoulder. Macklin’s hands still held him open, his eyes fixed on Caine’s entrance. “You d-don’t h-have to.”
“No, I don’t,” Macklin agreed, his voice rough, “but now that you’ve done it to me, I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“So t-try it. If you d-don’t l-like it, d-do something else.”
“I can’t imagine not liking something that will make you feel like you made me feel,” Macklin said.
Caine trembled, the anticipation adding to the desire for the man behind him. Then Macklin bent his head, his whiskers rubbing Caine’s skin as he leaned in, licking his way up Caine’s crease from his balls to the base of his spine, the flat of his tongue passing over Caine’s entrance but not lingering. It wasn’t enough, and yet it was already so much more than Caine had expected to get so soon. Then Macklin’s tongue was back, circling Caine’s entrance and pushing inside.
Caine dropped his shoulders and pushed his ass back against Macklin’s mouth, breath catching in his throat as he absorbed the sensation of Macklin rimming him. He smiled at the stray thought that next time, he’d get to rim Macklin longer. If his lover liked it well enough to do it to him, the next time he’d be less hesitant to let
Caine do it.
One of Macklin’s hands slipped between Caine’s widespread thighs, reaching for his cock and stroking it in time with his teasing tongue. The stimulation was too much for Caine’s control. His release slammed through him, leaving him panting and oversensitive.
Macklin’s tongue kept teasing him, but the sensation became almost unbearable. “S-s-stop,” Caine gasped, pulling away. “T-t-too much.”
“I’m not done with you yet,” Macklin teased.
“D-do something else,” Caine said, rolling onto his back again. “Or l-let me d-do something to you.”
“You just want another shot at my arse,” Macklin said.
Caine batted his eyelashes jokingly. “C-can I?”
To Caine’s surprise, Macklin turned back around after grabbing the lube from where he’d left it earlier. “Only until you’re ready for a second round,” Macklin warned. “I’m not coming anywhere but in your arse tonight.”
“I c-can’t w-wait,” Caine said, pulling Macklin back so he could reach his prize.
The taste of sweat and musk was stronger this time, Macklin’s arousal clear in every judder that went through his body as Caine licked him. Caine didn’t repeat his mistake from the first time, keeping his hands firmly on Macklin’s hips rather than trying to finger his lover as well. That could wait for another time, when Macklin had grown accustomed to the idea of switching roles. Caine didn’t need to top every time, but he refused to give it up entirely. Macklin was already far too smug and controlling. He didn’t need to always control their lovemaking too.
It was hard to concentrate with Macklin’s tongue coaxing Caine’s cock back to life and his fingers pressing on Caine’s prostate, but Caine refused to be distracted. He would make Macklin feel so good that the next time Caine suggested it, Macklin wouldn’t hesitate at all.
Macklin pulled away sooner than Caine would have liked, but given that Macklin turned and kissed him deeply, mingling the tastes in their mouths, Caine let it go. Then Macklin covered him completely, pressing him down into the mattress as he fit their bodies together as intimately as possible, burying himself deeply and rocking against Caine like he never intended to move again.
Caine wrapped his arms and legs around the foreman and gave complete control to his lover. He was hard again, but he didn’t really expect to find a second release. Macklin was determined, though, the tip of his cock nudging Caine’s prostate relentlessly as Macklin’s treasure trail rubbed against Caine’s erection with every movement.
“Come on, pup,” Macklin urged, breaking their kiss. “Let me see you.”
The expression in Macklin’s eyes as he stared down at Caine stole Caine’s breath. In that moment, he had no doubt that Macklin loved him. The foreman might not ever say the words, but as long as he kept looking at Caine that way, Caine didn’t need them. He stroked Macklin’s cheek gently.
Macklin returned the tender gesture, the emotion on his face and the matching emotion in Caine’s heart enough to trigger a second, unexpected climax. Caine cried out, his body squeezing around Macklin, and that was all Macklin needed, his body tensing, every muscle taut as he groaned and found his release, filling Caine’s body as he filled Caine’s heart.
Caine pulled Macklin down on top of him, refusing to let the foreman roll to the side. He didn’t want the moment to end. I love you, he mouthed silently against Macklin’s cheek.
Macklin lifted his head, staring down into Caine’s eyes again before kissing him slowly, tenderly, deeply. Caine returned the embrace, closing his eyes and slumping against the pillows. “Sleep now?” he murmured through a yawn.
“Sleep,” Macklin said.
“Stay?”
“Brumbies couldn’t drag me away,” Macklin promised.
Epilogue
AFTER A month of standing watch at night, the men were frazzled, frozen, and worn to the bone. “We can’t keep doing this,” Caine told Macklin as they walked to dinner. “Half the men are sick, and if we aren’t careful, the other half are going to fall sick. I know we can’t afford to lose sheep, but we’re going to lose men.”
“I know, pup,” Macklin said. Even his usually implacable face showed signs of strain. Caine doubted the others could see it, but he’d learned to read every nuance of Macklin’s expression over the past month. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“If we had a shelter, something like a drover’s hut, so they could stay dry and warm during the night, we could put two men on a night shift together and then let them sleep through the next day. If we did the schedule right, they wouldn’t have to do it but once every couple of weeks instead of half the men having interrupted sleep one night and the other half the next,” Caine said.
“We can build anything you want,” Macklin said slowly.
“What else would you suggest?” Caine asked. “I’m out of ideas otherwise.”
“I want to catch the bloody bastard who did this,” Macklin said. “I don’t want this dragging on all summer. Even with the summer jackaroos coming back before long, this will still be a strain. We need every pair of hands for the shearing.”
“I want to catch him too,” Caine agreed, “but I don’t know how else we can do it.”
“Don’t listen to me, pup,” Macklin said, squeezing Caine’s shoulder. “We’ll build your hut and we’ll get the men well and on a better schedule. We’ll catch the person responsible or at least have the peace of mind of knowing he can’t come back and do more damage. We’ll hire a few extra jackaroos if we can find them to ease the load enough to keep the night watch going.”
That little squeeze was all Caine ever got when they were where anyone could see them. Caine hadn’t given Macklin cause to repeat his public kiss, and he intended to keep it that way. Flaunting their relationship wasn’t in either of their natures. The year-rounders knew, and they’d all found subtle—or not so subtle in Kami’s case—ways to show their acceptance and even their approval of the situation, and that was good enough for Caine.
“Hey, boss,” Neil said as Caine and Macklin walked in. “Hey, boss.”
“Hi, Neil,” Caine said. Macklin tipped his head in Neil’s direction. Caine still couldn’t decide if Macklin’s cool reaction was simply the way he was or if Macklin hadn’t forgiven Neil yet for his ugly comments when he’d first found out about Caine being gay. Caine had stopped worrying about it. Neil had stayed true to his word, not uttering another negative statement about Caine and not tolerating it from anyone else either.
They were halfway through dinner when the canteen door opened and Devlin Taylor came in.
“Taylor,” Caine said coolly. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you,” Taylor said.
“I’m listening,” Caine replied.
“Alone,” Taylor insisted.
Caine could feel the tension in the room growing. With a brief nod to the men, he rose and walked outside. Macklin followed right behind him.
“I’m listening,” Caine repeated.
“I fired a man today,” Taylor said. “I overheard him bragging about how he’d damaged your fences. I don’t like you. You’re a blow-in and a pillow biter, and there’s no place for either in the outback, but I won’t keep a man at Taylor Peak who would do something like that. I thought you should know so you don’t start thinking I had anything to do with it. I don’t want a station war.”
Even if Caine had found proof Taylor was responsible, he wouldn’t have retaliated that way, but he suspected Taylor would have, were their situations reversed.
“It’s good of you to come tell us,” Caine said. “You could have simply left us in the dark.”
“I thought about it,” Taylor admitted, “but I didn’t want the blame to land on me.”
“Everything okay, boss?” Neil asked, sticking his head out onto the veranda.
“I’m surprised to see you still here, Emery,” Taylor said. “What happened to all that noise about not working for a poofter?”
; Neil had crossed the veranda before Caine and Macklin could react. “He might be a poofter, but he’s our poofter,” Neil said, hands fisted in Taylor’s coat, “and he’s more of a man than you’ll ever be.” Neil turned back to Caine. “Can I throw him out?”
“No,” Caine said, “but you may escort him back to his ute and make sure he makes it home safely.”
Neil’s face brightened.
“Safely,” Caine repeated. “Taylor came to apologize for the damage one of his former employees did, not to cause trouble.”
“Yes, boss,” Neil said.
“He’s going to get himself in trouble if he goes after every man who makes a comment about you,” Macklin warned as Neil escorted Taylor back to his truck.
“He’ll learn or they will,” Caine said with a shrug. “Let’s go back inside. I’m hungry.”
Macklin caught Caine’s shoulder before he could turn away. “Taylor’s wrong, you know. You aren’t a blow-in who has no business out here. You’re a grazier at heart. You’ve learned so much in five short months. Taylor could learn a thing or two from you if he’d look past his idea of you to see who you really are.”
“He’ll never see me as anything more than a ‘poofter’,” Caine said.
“That only proves what a fool he is,” Macklin replied. “What a fool I nearly was.”
“You weren’t a fool,” Caine insisted. “Just scared, and that’s all in the past. Neil may say I’m their poofter, but I’m really all yours.”
Macklin smiled, if a tad uncomfortably. “Don’t tell Taylor that. He won’t survive the news.”
Caine laughed and squeezed Macklin’s hand before going back inside. He’d have to apologize for his choice of words later, but since that would inevitably lead to makeup sex, he’d wait to do that until they were alone in their bedroom—the big bedroom—to mention it.
Macklin shook his head and followed Caine inside.
To Nicki, Emmet, Amy, Mary, and Andrew,
who refused to let me give up on this one.