Vetting the Cowboy

by J. P. Bowie

  Mike turned to Seth and whispered, “That guy is full of surprises. He can really sing.”

  “Yeah,” Seth whispered back. “He wanted to be a professional, but his dad wouldn’t allow it. From what I heard, it caused some friction between them for a while.”

  “Wow, amazing how your life can take a different path from the one you wanted.” Mike frowned. “I hope he’s happy with his career now.”

  Seth grinned. “Well, let’s put it this way. Does Royce look like an unhappy man to you?”

  “Have to say no.”

  They fell silent listening to Royce’s pure tenor voice hit every high note the song demanded. At the end the applause was enthusiastic, but Royce resisted the calls of encore. People began to drift away after that and Seth went over to help Parker and some of the hands clean up.

  Mike wondered if he should make a move on Seth. He had a feeling Seth wouldn’t turn him down, but at the same time, did he want to start something that might go nowhere, or end badly…or was he getting ahead of himself? Was there anything wrong with a mild flirtation, a night of fun together, no strings attached? He’d had enough of strings. Being tied to the wrong person could lead to heartache, and sometimes, as in his case, to abuse.

  And, oh, here I am getting all morose over something that might never even happen. He had to let go of the past. He really did. He stood when Clint and Sherry came over to say goodnight, followed by Aaron Chandler and Annie.

  “I’ll be calling you soon,” Aaron said. “Got a filly about to foal and we’ll need you and Doc. Walker’s help.”

  Oh boy, that will be an experience, all right. He smiled and said goodnight then walked over to where Seth was stacking empty boxes.

  “Give you a hand?”

  “All finished. Your timing was spot on,” Seth said, laughing. “Think I’m gonna hit the road.”

  “Me too. Can I give you a ride home?”

  “It’s not far. I can walk.”

  “But I’d like to give you a lift, if that’s all right.”

  “Oh, okay.” Seth’s smile was dazzling.

  “I’ll just say thanks to Parker and Royce, then we can go.”

  Watching Mike walk over to where Royce and Parker stood talking with Andy and his wife, Seth could barely control the tingling that had inched its way into his groin and tightened his balls. That ass was just too tempting. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to spend more time with the handsome vet. He’d known Mike would be nice to talk to. He just hoped his fascination with Mike’s lips hadn’t been too obvious. God, but he wanted to kiss the guy, taste those luscious lips, full and soft-looking, ripe for exchanging lots of slow and sexy kisses. Shit, now he was getting hard just thinking about it. If Mike ever actually kissed him, he might come on the spot.

  The car ride was way too short. They talked and laughed most of the way, making it seem even shorter. Seth wanted more time with Mike, but he was shy about asking him in. What if he said no? Well, only one way to find out.

  “You, uh, working early tomorrow?” he asked as Mike pulled up outside Seth’s apartment building, a low two-story Spanish style with white stuccoed walls and a red tile roof.

  “Oh yeah, Doc. Walker’s got me doing more rounds with him, so I gotta be up real early.”

  “Oh, well, it was just that…uh…I thought maybe that…uh…”

  Mike chuckled. “You thought maybe you what?”

  “Hey, no laughing at me.”

  “I’m not.” Mike leaned across and kissed Seth lightly on his mouth.

  Seth groaned. “God, I knew your lips would be the best.”

  “Thanks.” He didn’t move away and kept his steady gaze on Seth’s eyes. “What were you going to ask me?”

  “If…if you’d like to come up to my place for a drink or something.”

  “The something sounds interesting.”

  “So you will…come up, I mean?”

  “I’d love to, Seth.”

  They got out of the car and Seth could hardly contain his excitement at what this might mean. That kiss, no matter how brief and featherlight, had felt like a promise of even better things to come. His lips were still tingling from Mike’s touch and his hand was shaking when he pushed his key into the security gate lock. He led Mike through a landscaped courtyard with bird of paradise plants and bougainvilleas illuminated by solar lights.

  “Nice,” Mike murmured.

  “Yeah, the owner looks after it all really well. I’m upstairs.” He took Mike’s hand and they mounted the steps together. Once inside, Seth hurried into the kitchen and opened the fridge.

  “What are you doing?” Mike asked, taking off his glasses and setting them on the kitchen counter.

  “Uh, getting us a beer?”

  “Forget them and come here.” He opened his arms and Seth didn’t need any further invitation. He stepped into the circle of Mike’s arms, seeking another kiss, and Mike gave it to him with enough force to make him see stars.

  He gasped into Mike’s mouth as they sucked on each other’s tongues. He steered Mike backward toward the bed, threw him down on it then crawled over him, peppering his chin and throat with stinging kisses. His surprise was absolute when Mike wriggled out from under him and turned him onto his back. He pinned Seth’s wrists over his head with one hand while with the other he tore Seth’s shirt open and dove onto his right nipple, teasing it with his lips and tongue, adding teeth that had Seth shuddering and rocking with ecstasy. He hadn’t expected this kind of aggressive play from Mike, who now sat up, straddling Seth’s thighs, a small smile of triumph on his lips while he undid Seth’s belt.

  “Wait, you’re a top?”

  “I am. I hope that’s not a problem.” Mike bent down to flick at Seth’s nipples again.

  Seth shuddered again. “No…not a problem. J-just surprised, I guess.”

  “Why, because I’m smaller than you? Tops come in all sizes, you know.” He went back to unbuckling Seth’s belt then undid the fly buttons. “How about you?”

  “I-I’m pretty versatile…”

  “Good to know.” Mike lifted the waistband of Seth’s tighty-whities, his breath hissing from between his teeth when Seth’s erection sprang out of its confinement.

  “Someone’s happy to see me.” Mike grinned at him.

  “You have no idea.” Seth groaned when Mike went down on him, circling the crown of Seth’s cock with the tip of his tongue, sucking and teasing the head and driving Seth out of his skull. Mike grasped Seth’s cock at the base and began pumping it, sliding his lips up and down the hot, hard length. Seth moaned and dug his fingers into Mike’s curly hair, caressing his scalp while Mike moved his hands to Seth’s butt, cupping the smooth round cheeks and using them as leverage to bring Seth even deeper into his mouth.

  “Wait, wait,” Seth almost yelled. “I’m gonna come too fast and I wanna get at you and we’ve got way too many clothes on and―”

  Mike released him, chuckling. He slipped off the bed and yanked Seth’s boots off then tackled his jeans and briefs, easing them over Seth’s muscular thighs. Seth struggled out of his shirt and threw it aside, all the while watching Mike strip to the waist.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, staring at Mike’s solid, compact body, his pectoral muscles nicely defined under a dusting of dark brown hair. Mike toed off his shoes and wriggled out of his tight jeans and briefs then kicked them away. He flung himself onto the bed and climbed on top of Seth, who wrapped him in his arms, drowning in the sensuous, almost overwhelming sensation of Mike’s warm, naked flesh pressed to his. Their mouths meshed, their cocks slid together and Seth thought maybe he had died and gone straight to heaven.

  “You feel so good,” Mike murmured on his lips and Seth mumbled something in agreement as he kneaded Mike’s butt cheeks. He’d always been a butt man and these were stellar, to say the least. Round and firm and covered in the smoothest of skin that felt like silk under his fingers. Mike moved south, kissing his way over Seth’s torso, r
evisiting his nipples with tiny bites and licks that had Seth gasping and bucking under him. Mike gripped Seth’s hands, holding him in place while he ravished Seth’s body with his lips and tongue. His slightly stubbled cheek grazed Seth’s cock and Seth cried out when Mike’s lips encircled the head. He had to grit his teeth and will himself not to come in Mike’s mouth.

  He whimpered and freed his hands to gently push at Mike’s shoulders. Mike got the message and swung his body around so that Seth could get at his cock. Seth didn’t miss a beat. He gripped it at the base and took every marvelous inch of the thick, pulsing flesh into his mouth all the way to the back of his throat. Mike’s body spasmed against Seth and he sucked long and hard on Seth’s cock, his tongue doing the most amazing things as he swirled it up and down and around the throbbing length.

  Seth knew he wasn’t going to last under this full-frontal attack that had him writhing in ecstasy against Mike’s body. Determined they’d come at the same time or as close as he could make it, he gave Mike’s cock everything he had, pumping it in and out of his mouth, laving it with his tongue until Mike’s moaning response told him he was also close. Behind his tightly closed eyelids Seth saw tiny flashes of light, a tingling sensation coasted down his spine into his balls and he gave in, losing himself to the power of his climax, heightened by the salty blast that erupted into his mouth.

  Holy shit! Mike came and came and Seth swallowed it all, proud of himself that he didn’t choke on the torrent of cum that poured down his throat. He tightened his arms around Mike as he bucked and spasmed in the throes of his orgasm. Seth held Mike in his mouth until the last drop of cum was wrung from him and his body relaxed against Seth’s.

  “You okay?” Mike’s voice was a little hoarse.

  “Better’n okay. You?”

  Mike crawled up alongside him and kissed his lips. “Ditto.” He trailed his tongue along Seth’s lower lip then slipped it inside when Seth opened to him, letting them taste each other. “Mmm.” Mike hummed happily and deepened their kiss.

  Seth wrapped his arms around Mike, prolonging the ecstasy, loving the fact that Mike seemed in no hurry to get up and leave, but content to lie with him and share the afterglow.

  After a few moments had passed, Mike asked, “So, Seth, how come you don’t have a boyfriend?” He gave Seth a little smile. “At least I’m presuming you don’t have one or you wouldn’t be lying here with me. Don’t take you for the cheating kind.”

  Seth sighed. “Used to have one, but that was a while ago. Near enough have forgotten all about him.”

  “Bad break-up?”

  “Not that you could tell from the way he acted. We were young and I was the foolish one. I thought we’d be together forever. He thought it was funny when I told him that, said he wanted to fuck a lot of guys before he settled down and I should think the same way.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. I was so hurt I could hardly speak. I just walked away. He didn’t come after me and I didn’t see him again for close to a week. When I did, he was with a bunch of guys in a gay bar, drunker than a skunk and letting them do things to him that should only be done in private…if even then. I know I probably sound like a prude, but for me such…intimate things…should be between only you and the one you love.”

  Mike smiled and caressed Seth’s chest. “That’s because you’re a nice man, Seth. I don’t think you’re prudish at all. There’s a time and a place for everything. But like you said, he was drunk, so maybe he regretted it all the next day after he’d sobered up.”

  “You think so? Not Blake. I ran into him a couple weeks later and he razzed me about bein’ a stick in the mud and I’d never be anything better than I was if I didn’t go out and have fun. I told him my idea of having fun wasn’t letting men crawl all over me in a public place and he just laughed, real nasty like, told me to grow a pair and took off. I never did see him again.”

  “And despite what you said earlier, you haven’t really forgotten him,” Mike said gently.

  “Coming here was a big help, but there are times when I wonder what happened to him.”

  “You have no mutual friends to keep you up to date?”

  “No. Couple of my friends back home told me they never liked him and I was well shot of him. That didn’t help much at the time, but now I think they were right. Working here with Parker and Royce and some of the hands like Clint and Tim has made me realize there are decent people around, and I’m not gonna settle for someone like Blake ever again.”

  “Good man.” Mike kissed his cheek. “And since you’ve been here?”

  “There’s a bar in Sacramento I’ve been to with a couple of the guys, and I’ve hooked up once or twice, but nothin’ serious.” Seth turned his head on the pillow so he could gaze into Mike’s blue eyes, made even bluer without his glasses on. “What about you? I can’t believe someone hasn’t snapped you up.”

  Mike grimaced. “Oh, someone did back in Seattle, a long time ago.”

  “How long ago could it have been? You’re younger than me, aren’t you?”

  “I’m twenty-seven.”

  “So a year younger, and by a long time you mean you were in your teens?”

  Mike chuckled. “Well, the first time around, yeah, I was, but the guy I more or less ran away from, I knew for two years.”

  “You ran away from him? What’d he do, abuse you?”

  Mike hesitated then nodded. “Yeah, mentally and physically.” He let out a long sigh. “The crazy thing is that he showed no signs of it when we first started seeing each other, or even for the first year of our relationship. He’s an attorney, very successful, very handsome, and I fell hook, line and sinker for the son of a bitch. I won’t go into detail, but it’s kinda scary when you wake up to the realization that you’re living with a psychopath.”

  “A psychopath?”

  “Yep. Victor Torrens. A very well-disciplined psycho, but a psycho nevertheless. I knew that none of our friends, who by the way were mostly his friends, would’ve believed me had I talked about it with them. I met his parents, sweet people. Only my mother seemed to have recognized what he was, probably because of the bruises she saw on me one time I stayed over at her house. A moment of forgetfulness when I stripped off my shirt in front of her, to change into a tee so I could help her in the garden. I didn’t tell her Victor had beaten me, but I knew she suspected, even after I diverted the conversation.”

  “God, that’s terrible, Mike. Was he…was he bigger than you?”

  Mike laughed. “Isn’t everyone?”

  “Stop, you’re not that short.”

  “I’m five eight and he was six one and outweighed me by about twenty pounds, so yeah, the advantage was on his side.” He chuckled softly. “I even went to the gym to pack on some muscle so I could defend myself.”

  “Well, I can see the muscles. They’re very nice…feel nice too…but why didn’t you just leave him?”

  “I did, eventually, but he persisted in getting in touch, stalking me really. I left Seattle after about six months of his shit to get the hell away from him and his stupid idea of us getting back together.” He fell silent. No way was he going to tell Seth about his and Victor’s last conversation. “So, that’s the story,” he said after a moment or two had passed. He picked his watch up from the nightstand and sighed. “Guess I better get going.” He slid off the bed. “I do have that early morning with Doctor Walker, and I have to be awake enough to pay attention.”

  Seth rolled off the bed and caught Mike in his arms. “Listen, can I tell you that I don’t want you to leave…like, after that…what you just told me, I mean? I want to hold you and make it go away. I know I can’t really do it…there’s too much there for me to just go poof and everything’s okay, but maybe if we get to know each other better, it might help. Am I making any sense?”

  “None at all.” Mike smiled at him and kissed his nose. “Kidding. But I think you are the nicest guy I’ve met in a long time, maybe ever, and that makes me want
to take you up on your offer. Truth be told…” Mike’s eyes flared. “I’d like to fuck you through the mattress, have your big strong body under me and call you mine—”

  “Jesus.” Seth growled and tightened his arms around Mike, grinding his hard-again cock against Mike’s burgeoning erection. “Then do it…fuck me, Mike, fuck me, please.”

  They fell back onto the bed and Mike kissed Seth’s neck and chest, scouring each tiny nipple, nibbling on them gently, causing Seth to writhe under him and make little whimpering noises in the back of his throat. He kissed his way south over Seth’s muscular torso, dipping his tongue into the small indented navel, lingering there before Seth’s muffled entreaty urged him to follow the treasure trail of blond hair that led to Seth’s hard cock. With one wide swipe of his tongue, he scooped up the pre-cum from the glistening head, then slid his lips inch by inch down the rigid, silken length of Seth’s erection.

  Seth gasped, grasping at Mike’s shoulders. Mike fondled Seth’s balls while he sucked, using his middle finger to caress Seth’s perineum then probe the cleft between his ass cheeks. Seth bucked at the sensation, raking his fingers through Mike’s curly hair. Mike shifted position to kneel in front of Seth, lifting his legs so he could lean in and take Seth’s balls one by one into his mouth, rolling them gently between his lips. Seth moaned, clutching at the sides of the mattress as Mike burrowed his face between Seth’s butt cheeks, using his tongue to bathe the puckered hole with his saliva.

  “Mike…oh, Jesus…”

  This was a new experience for Seth. He’d never been intimate enough with a man to get this far and it was beyond anything he could have imagined. Mike teased the sensitive skin around Seth’s opening with the tip of his tongue before probing gently in and out. Seth arched his body into the sensations he’d never known before. But now the need to have Mike inside him was even greater.

  “Fuck me,” he moaned. “Need you inside me now…need that beautiful cock…”