BACK AT THE RANCH
Cowboy Games 2
Wendi Darlin
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
BACK AT THE RANCH
Copyright © 2009 by Wendi Darlin
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-486-2
First E-book Publication: May 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
DEDICATION
This book is for everyone who asked for Garrett and Clayton’s story. I can’t tell you what it means to me that these characters touched your heart in Cowboy Games. I hope Back at the Ranch is everything you hoped it would be.
BACK AT THE RANCH
Cowboy Games 2
WENDI DARLIN
Copyright © 2009
Chapter 1
Clayton’s balls drew tight. His ass sang and his nipples were so tight against Devon’s smooth chest they stung. He let the memory fade.
He hadn’t seen Devon in over a year, at least not in person. And definitely not the way he was seeing him now. Heat crept up the back of Clayton’s neck and shot like lightning to his groin. The blue glow of the television flickered and flashed in the darkness of his living room. He reached into his boxer briefs to wrap his hand around his cock. The rigid member pulsed in his hand, hot to the touch. The moaning and tangle of naked bodies onscreen flooded him with desire so thick he could taste it.
“You want this big cock?” Devon said.
The man spread-eagled beneath him answered with a cocky grin. “Fuck yeah, baby. Give it to me.”
Devon teased the other man’s ass with the broad tip of his dick, then shoved his knees to his chest. Instead of burying himself deep, he bent and licked the man’s balls before inching down to eat his ass.
Clayton’s butt cheeks clenched tight. Damn! He could remember that tongue. Devon had always been hungry. Too eager to tease. And one hell of a lover. It shouldn’t have been a surprise he’d gone into porn. He was a natural. Fucking was a true talent that Devon possessed in spades.
And Clayton had reached a level of frustration no man should ever endure. Working at the ranch, seeing Garrett every day had him wound tight enough to snap. At first, his on-again, off-again relationship with Devon had been enough of a distraction. But that ship had sailed. Except for the occasional DVD rendezvous.
Garrett Carter was all too real, and more delicious than a man had a right to be, like a piece of candy he just had to taste. Garrett ran Fantasy Ranch with an ordered but easy manner, always ready with a smile, but no-nonsense to the bone and not a hair out of place. Clayton would love to make him drop that anal-retentive façade and fly apart in his arms. There wasn’t a thing about Garrett that didn’t send his temperature up a notch.
He stroked himself, quickening the rhythm and tightening his grip as tension curled deep in his gut. He needed to come. He needed more than a self-inflicted handjob, but tonight he’d take what he could get.
Tomorrow, he’d report for his week-long shift at the ranch and grow big enough balls to let Garrett know how much he needed him. Tomorrow, he’d put his job on the line for the one man he had to have.
Tonight watching his ex fuck for a buck was better than nothing.
The big man beneath Devon squirmed and squealed as Devon’s long tongue lapped at his ass and Devon’s fist stroked his monstrous purple cock. Clayton glanced down at his own huge erection. Devon always did like them big.
Chapter 2
Patches of snow littered the grounds of the ranch, and the cold Wyoming air bit through Garrett’s jacket as he reached the bunkhouse and started inside.
“You might want to give them a little warning first.” Clayton’s voice froze him in his tracks.
He released the doorknob and stepped back from the door. The low but steady beat of dance music pulsed against the dark sky. Laughter and conversation could be heard from inside. “A wild night?”
Clayton emerged from the shadows. “Not any wilder than usual. But I don’t think they’re expecting you.”
In the soft light of the reproduction lantern hanging by the knotty pine door, Clayton’s handsome features took on an old cinema radiance that caught Garrett’s heart and gave it a squeeze. Fantasy Ranch, a resort ranch where women came for a week of make-believe love, was known for its gorgeous cowboys, but even here Clayton was in a league of his own.
“Why aren’t you in there?” Garrett knew better than to think he could fill a bunkhouse with a dozen beautiful gay men and expect them to keep their hands off each other.
Clayton leaned against the exterior wall. The ever-present sparkle in his soft blue eyes had been the vision that kept Garrett awake at night. And tonight it grabbed him by the balls. Relief that Clayton wasn’t inside sharing his body with another man flooded his chest. But that was something he needed to get over. The beautiful cowboy was off limits.
He’d worried himself sick three years ago when his brother, Gavin, risked the ranch and fell in love with one of the guests. That had turned out better than anyone expected, but lightning didn’t strike twice. Only a fool would dip his pen in company ink. And Garrett wasn’t a fool.
The light dusting of the short, neatly trimmed beard Clayton had started to wear worked for him in ways most men could never pull off. Not a thick lumberjack look, but just enough hair to scream masculine sex appeal. Facial hair had never turned Garrett on, but he itched to feel Clayton’s textured jaw beneath his hand, against the inside of his thigh, grazing every inch of his body.
Clayton stared at him with a look that penetrated his thoughts and reflected them right back at him.
“Aren’t you cold out here?” Garrett asked.
“Not anymore.” He gave a low throaty laugh that sent another surge of heat to Garrett’s belly. “And that scene’s not my speed.”
“What’s your speed?”
Clayton dipped his gaze slowly from Garrett’s eyes down to his boots. “About six-two. Built l
ike a dream and drop-dead gorgeous.”
The heat that flared between them when their eyes met again sent the fire that had pooled in Garrett’s belly rocketing to his groin. Clayton had never hit on him before. Sure, they’d joked around, like he did with all the men who worked at the ranch. He might have even caught Clayton’s lingering glance once or twice. And lord knows he’d imagined that sweet body against his more times than he could count. But nothing more than that. Never more than that.
The crisp night hovered around them and the air practically crackled with tension. Clayton moved closer. Their chests almost touched. His cheek lightly brushed Garrett’s, and his voice was barely a whisper. “I want … No. I need to kiss you.”
Garrett’s blood pulsed in his ears and his cock jumped.
Clayton leaned closer. Their lips barely touched, but Garrett felt the jolt of that connection straight to his boots.
He stumbled back like he’d been punched. Surprise quickly followed by hurt registered in Clayton’s eyes, and disappointment settled across his handsome face.
Biting back the desire that whipped through him was like wrestling a full-grown bull to the ground. He didn’t stand a chance of keeping it pinned down.
Garrett strode away from the bunkhouse, his breath escaping in clouds around him. He didn’t look back and he didn’t slow down. He couldn’t trust himself with Clayton. Not tonight.
As he approached the big house, a light in one of the second-story windows went out. Gavin and Rebecca were putting the babies to bed. There was nothing about his brother’s family that Garrett didn’t envy. His children were precious and his wife loved him with everything she had. Gavin had found the kind of love Garrett couldn’t seem to wrangle for himself.
He entered through the mudroom at the back of the house and went straight to the office he and Gavin shared. The main part of the house, including the dining hall and Fantasy Ranch office, were open to guests and employees during business hours, but now only the minimal lighting was on and the place stood quiet.
A huge desk, where they both worked facing one another, filled the center of the office. Garrett walked around the corner of the desk and sank into his chair at the far side of the room with his back to the window. Next to his computer lay a simple white envelope, exactly like the one he’d found there the night before.
Still shaken from Clayton’s kiss, he ripped open the note. A neatly drawn tic-tac-toe board took up the page. In the center square was a bold “X” and beneath it the words, “Do you know where I would kiss you?” The last note had said the same thing. But more had been added to this one. A circle filled in the box in the upper right corner. And the neat print below the circle read, “I’d wrap you in my arms and never let you go.”
Garrett folded the paper and slid it back into the envelope. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Clayton wouldn’t play games with him. Would he? How the hell did he know, he hadn’t anticipated the kiss. Hadn’t seen that coming at all. His gut told him the notes weren’t from Clayton. A sixth sense triggered the ominous possibility of a stalker, but his worry meter always ran hot.
“Still reading your love letter?”
Garrett’s eyes popped open. Gavin stood in the open doorway, a shit-eating grin on his face and his dark blond hair shorter than he normally wore it. Rebecca’s touch was all over the house, and nowhere more than on Gavin. He looked better than ever. Family life suited him.
Garrett leaned forward, offering the envelope to his brother. “It’s a new one. You didn’t see anybody back here tonight?”
Gavin pulled the note from the envelope. “Nobody’s been in the house since the staff left.”
“So you think it’s one of them?”
Gavin laughed. “One of the waiters with hots for the boss? Maybe.” He passed the note back and shook his head as Garrett dropped it into a file with the other one. “You’re convinced this is something to worry about? Ever thought maybe somebody just wants to get laid, and they’re scared to death you’ll beat them with that stick you’ve got up your ass if they just come right out and say it?”
Garrett was used to Gavin busting his chops, but there was something about the notes that didn’t sit well. He could feel it.
“Speaking of getting laid,” Gavin said, “you talked to John lately?”
Garrett stood. “No, and I won’t be.” He brushed past Gavin and headed for his room. He’d wasted too many nights on John. Three years of a long-distance love affair that never gave him half of what he needed, and another four years of sporadic sex that blew his mind, but left him craving something deeper every time John flew into town. The time to move on was long past, and Garrett had finally accepted it. The next time he fell in love, it’d be with a man who cared enough to put his emotions on the line. A man who wasn’t afraid to be a fool in love. Maybe a man who left notes on his desk or said that he needed to kiss him.
Chapter 3
As morning light poured in the window, Garrett stared up at the exposed beams of the ceiling in his bedroom, the same room he’d grown up in. His eyes were drawn automatically to the notch in the wood that had captured his attention since he was a kid. Down the hall his niece shrilled with laughter as Gavin teased her. Rebecca’s soft laughter followed. His brother’s family was the stuff dreams were made of, dreams that seemed harder to grasp every year that passed.
Garrett crossed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. In the darkness, soft blue eyes stared back at him. Eyes that lit him on fire and made him want more than he’d ever dared want before. Clayton had captured him the day he first came to the ranch, before that even. Garrett had seen him at the historic movie palace downtown the day he came in and asked about teaching a drama class. Garrett sat on the board and had been a driving force of the old theater’s restoration and revitalization. He would have introduced himself that day if it hadn’t been for John.
Clayton wasn’t the kind of guy Garrett could go up to and not flirt with. Hell, it was a miracle he’d kept his hands off him the past three years he’d worked at the ranch. John and principle stopped him from crossing the line. That and the previous harassment the business had endured from a couple of dickheads on the local police force.
He wouldn’t put the ranch on the line to satisfy a sexual itch. Familiar warmth spread across his chest and the question that haunted him repeated itself in his mind. What if Clayton was more than a sexy distraction? What if he was the one?
Garrett sighed. He was crazy to harbor such fantasies, even here on Fantasy Ranch. Clayton looked like a dream but that was all he’d ever be. He was an employee. Off limits. Completely off limits. Even if Garrett was a rule-breaker, he wouldn’t break that rule.
He told himself again he’d never put the ranch on the line. He owed his parents and his brother more than that. Their father had poured his life into the land. When he fell ill and the bank almost took the ranch, Garrett and Gavin had stepped in to save what their dad had worked so hard for. Neither of them wanted to wrangle cattle, but they weren’t about to lose this place. Fantasy Ranch allowed them both to put their skills to use, and a week at their resort made a lot of women happy.
The noise down the hall faded as Gavin’s family made their way downstairs. Garrett looked over at the phone beside his bed. He should call Clayton and at least try to explain why he’d reacted the way he had.
He rolled over and punched the pillow down before collapsing face first into it. God, he wanted that man.
He reached beneath the sheets and slid his hand into his pajamas. His raging cock responded with a throb. It’d been hard as granite when he opened his eyes and getting more uncomfortable by the minute. He squeezed his shaft to relieve some of the pressure, but it wasn’t enough. He stroked slowly, firm, solid strokes that tightened the muscles in his back and raised his mental frustration as much as it eased his physical need. He was tired of jacking off. He needed to be buried deep inside a hot, tight body. He needed to feel a smooth chest beneath his, hungry l
ips on his mouth. Hell, he needed to hear the sounds of a lover. With his eyes squeezed shut, he fucked his hand, biting hard on his bottom lip as the pressure in his balls built. The beautiful face that filled his thoughts added to the urgency of his need. Clayton. Clayton’s blue eyes, the soft stubble he wore on his angled jaw.
Garrett could feel Clayton’s body beneath his. He could hear his voice, the heavy breath of his excitement. He jerked his cock faster, needing more than his hand could give him.
More than he could ever get from an employee.
Finally. Mercifully. His muscles clenched tight and his dick gave a pulse as heat swirled in his groin. He shot off with a growl and buried his face in his pillow to buffer the sound. His body shook with relief. His chest heaved and slowly his toes uncurled.
He rocked his head back and forth in the pillow. This was no way for a healthy, available man to live. He needed something real, but only one man would satisfy what he was craving. And that didn’t do him a damn bit of good.
Slowly he released his cock and got up to change the sheets.
Chapter 4
After the longest week he’d ever spent at the ranch, Clayton set grocery bags on the counter in his new house. He’d never been more relieved to have his week-long shift end. He’d made a bigger fool of himself than he’d expected to, and embarrassment still prickled at him. Garrett had avoided him since the night outside the bunkhouse. And Clayton had lain awake at night, knowing the man who rocked his world slept a couple hundred yards away.
He opened a bottle of wine and pulled a single glass from the cabinet next to the sink. A week after signing the mortgage on this house with the mountain views he’d always dreamed of, the only thing left to unpack were the grocery sacks.
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