Changes Coming Down

by Kaje Harper

  He turned abruptly and led the way into the bedroom. After a moment of hesitation, he began stripping. He wanted, no, needed, skin on skin now, that feeling of the edges between them blurring. He needed to know he was still part of something bigger than just him. He crawled into the middle of the bed and closed his eyes, leaving the other two to figure things out.

  The bed sagged behind him. Casey’s furry chest pressed against his back and his strong arm came across Will’s hips, a wide palm on Will’s abdomen pulling him back into Casey’s body. Will could feel that Casey was half-hard, but Casey didn’t make a move to do anything about it, even when he squirmed his ass back against him in a perverse desire to know he could still make that dick behind him respond. He clearly could, but Casey just kissed his neck and held him.

  Scott got in against Will’s chest. He wiggled around until he was pressed close, his arm across both Will’s shoulder and Casey’s, hugging them together. Scott’s breath fanned Will’s cheek. Will turned his face blindly, brushing a kiss against a random patch of stubble, tasting Scott against his mouth. He nuzzled in, against Scott’s cheek, his neck, not even kissing anymore, just hiding his face in welcoming skin.

  Will lost track of time. He didn’t think about the future, or even the present. Every time that dark cloud of loss threatened to descend, he sent his mind off chasing memories.

  Arriving at the Tri-Cross when he was seventeen, all his belongings in one ripped-up duffel and himself in not much better shape than the bag. Graham had been mending the corral, and he’d looked over, silent, letting Will come to him. Will had managed to get out, “I heard you were looking for workers.”

  “You know anything about ranching?”

  “No. I’ll work hard for you, though, and I can learn.” As Graham looked him up and down for a long, long time, he’d steeled himself for another rejection, glancing at that long driveway, wondering if he could make it back to town before dark.

  “I’m thinking you can,” Graham had drawled. “Bed in the bunkhouse, your keep, and if you stay a week, you start at thirty a day on top of that. Fair enough?” He held out a work-rough hand.

  “Oh, God, yes, plenty fair.” Will gripped that hand like a lifeline.

  Behind him now, Casey shifted, rubbing his chin against Will’s back. Casey was always clean-shaven for the start of his workday, but by this time of night he’d half a beard growing in. Rough skin rasped over Will’s shoulders, and he sighed at the well-loved sensation. It felt safe, when everything was chaos.

  What if the ranch was sold and he had to leave? What if he had to leave the town itself? Jobs around here were hard to find. What if…? He distracted himself with another memory, the first time he’d felt that stubble-rasp from the man who held him so close.

  He’d entered the bar quickly, automatically ducking his head even though no hat was there to shield his face. The music was loud, the lights low. As the only gay bar in a hundred miles, this place drew everyone with a need and no one around to scratch it. Lots of guys wanted to see, but not to be seen, and the bar gave them what they wanted in the oddly shaped room with mirrors and dark corners and spotlights and floor strips.

  Will had been here off and on in the seventeen years since he’d made his home at the Tri-Cross. Less lately. He’d gotten older and the bar scene was losing what little appeal it’d once had. But some nights he still followed its siren call down two hours of open highway. He moved to a shadowed corner and looked around.

  The lighting mix wasn’t flattering to most of the guys, but… Oooh, yeah. Very nice. His eyes met a dark, amused gaze across the room. The guy was young, probably twenty-one since he had a beer in his hand. Maybe younger, if this place was lax with carding. He was tall, lean but definitely not skinny. His short hair suited him, leaving his big eyes, open face and lush mouth on display. Even though he was ten years too young, Will was tempted. Then a hot older guy walked up behind the young one.

  Now there was exactly what Will was looking for. Shorter but solid muscle, with eyes that looked steady and calm, with a confidence that said he’d been around a while. Closer to Will’s own age.

  But his hopes sank when the older guy put a hand on the younger one’s shoulder, and the kid tilted his head to listen. That was enough to show those two were together. Will turned away.

  He was sitting on a barstool an hour later, nursing a brew and sourly downgrading his chances, when the younger guy slid onto the next stool over. “Hey, can I buy you a beer?”

  Will frowned without looking, without noticing that the guy’s voice was light for his size and pleasant, that the thigh in worn jeans next to his was strong and muscular, that for all his height, this kid was deceptively solid. Right— never noticed. “Where’s your boyfriend?” he asked, expecting some kind of half-truth.

  Instead he got a dimpled smile. “Waiting to see if you’d like to play with us.”

  That startled him enough to turn and meet those mahogany eyes. “Play?”

  “Yeah. Vanilla fun for three. Interested?”

  He looked up over the guy’s shoulder and saw the older man watching. The man gave Will a nod that was slow and easy, like whatever Will told this kid would be okay. Suddenly a year of nothing, of wanting and dreaming and fucking his own fist, boiled up into a flood of need. “Yeah,” he drawled, emphasizing the cowboy tone he knew some guys liked. “I just might be.”

  They’d gone to a hotel room and it’d been awkward at first. Tentative, like a lot of first times only more so with three. Who topped, who sucked, dealing with condoms, likes and dislikes. Then suddenly, in a moment when he was thrusting his latex-covered dick into Scott’s ass, and Casey was kneeling, sucking Scott’s gorgeous cock bare, it clicked. Sex and need, sights and sounds and smells, everything came together in the best experience he’d ever had. Holding Scotty while he peaked with wordless shouts, big cock emptying into Casey’s spit-slick lips, was like nothing he’d ever experienced. Will came so hard that his knees actually gave out, and his cock jerked out of Scott as he lurched dizzily. And instead of getting mad or making fun, Scott managed to catch him by the arm and laughed, and said, “Wow. Now that’s a compliment.”

  They just worked, right from that first time. It turned out that Scott traveled, a lot, September through April. Casey got caught up in his police work and became a hermit, until Scott in his distant hotel rooms wanted to crawl down the phone line and shake him, hold him, force his head out of his ass and his heart out of the black depths he sank into. Scotty, mature even at twenty-one, had decided what they needed was a third. Someone who would be there when he wasn’t. Then he’d convinced Casey to try it, which was even more impressive given Casey’s staunchly loyal opinion of cheating.

  Will wasn’t the first guy they’d had in that hotel room, but he was the last. Scott gradually came to trust Will with Casey’s moods when he was gone. Casey told Will he mellowed Scott out. And Will found two men he could be himself with. What began as casual sex with one or both of them, when they could sneak it in, quickly became the guiding light of his life.

  Besides the ranch.

  Which he might lose, because the Slaters were dead. He pressed his face deeper into Scott’s neck and a moan broke from his lips. He bit down on skin, trying to hold back. A hand rubbed his hair, he wasn’t sure whose. Casey said in his ear, “We’re here. Let it out.”

  He opened his mouth and gasped once, hard, but the black flood of loss was more than any tears could match, and he couldn’t seem to cry. He lay in their arms and just shook. And eventually stopped, cold and empty.

  “You should get going.” He had no idea of the time, and no desire to open his eyes and check.

  “It’s not that late.”

  Scott added, “We won’t leave you.”

  “I’m okay.” He blinked his eyes and made it true, pressing a light kiss to Scott’s lips. “Sorry your first night back was this.”

  “Fuck that. There’s nothing more important than this. You really want us
to go?”

  “Not want, but we have to. Our jobs don’t change just ’cause someone died.” Although his might. He shuddered and Casey squeezed him hard.

  “Mine might change too, you know,” Casey muttered, seeming to read his mind. “The vote’s coming in four days, and we all know how it looks. Todd was there at the accident site, watching me like he was already putting my hat on his head.”

  “That bastard,” Scott growled. “What did he want?”

  “Who knows? To make me nervous? Provoke something he could use against me in his publicity tomorrow?”

  “What did you do?” Scott’s tone acknowledged Casey’s unpredictable temper.

  “Not a damned thing. Proud of me?”

  Scott leaned over Will’s shoulder to kiss Casey. “Yeah. I am. He could never be half the sheriff you are.”

  Will said, “He knows who to get in bed with though.”

  “I like who I’m in bed with.” Casey buzzed the words against Will’s neck.

  He almost laughed, but shook his head against the pillow. “He came here last week, with that realtor guy Peterson, with a new offer for the ranch.”

  “Todd was here?” Casey pushed Will away and rose on his elbow to see his face.

  “Yep. Smiling and talking about how it would be retirement money for Graham, and good business for the town to expand onto the land.”

  Casey muttered, “I don’t get it. There’s plenty of land for building, if the town needed to expand, which it doesn’t. We’re just holding our own.”

  “Annmarie said…” Will bit his lip, then tried again. “She thought there was something else here, maybe oil or natural gas or something. To make it worth the effort they’ve been putting into trying to buy it.”

  Scott said, “She didn’t know for sure?”

  “She didn’t care. They were getting by fine. After fifty years on a mortgage, they now own the property clear, and there was no way she was letting anyone drill on her land. Let alone fracking, with sinkholes and tap water so full of gas it lights with a match. She always said no kind of energy was worth destroying the land for. So why look?”

  Casey said quietly, “She was one hell of a woman.”

  “Yeah.” Before he could get weepy again, he wriggled out from between his guys and stood, picking through the clothes on the floor for his own boxers.

  They dressed quietly in the dark room. The light from the den was barely enough to get by, but the routine was familiar by now. Casey tugged his uniform shirt closed. Will realized he’d come straight from work to his bed, and was grateful. Usually Casey would go home and change first, transitioning from cop to lover.

  Will dug in his closet and pulled a warmer sweater on over his sweatshirt. He felt cold, and he should probably shower. He was still grubby from barn chores. He sniffed his arm. Hell, yeah. “Sorry about the eau de horse, guys.”

  “Like we care.” Scott gave him a one-armed hug. “Are you sure you want us to go?”

  “I’m gonna shower, try to read for a while.” He’d read a little as a kid, but the Slaters had turned him on to the real pleasure of a good book. He’d never be able to sleep tonight but maybe he could read.

  “Okay. I’ll let you know if the investigation turns up anything. For your peace of mind,” Casey said. “When I hear back from the Slaters’ grandson, I’ll tell you what he says. The Iowa City cops were sending an officer to notify him.”

  Scott said, “Call me, if you want. Anytime, no matter how late. I’ll come back here tomorrow morning. I have two days free. God, I wish I was staying Tuesday, too.”

  Casey’s pained glance reminded Will he wasn’t the only one facing a loss. Unless there was a big change in opinion, Tuesday’s vote would kill Casey’s career as sheriff, even if the turnover didn’t happen till January. Casey refused to talk about what he might do afterward.

  Until today, that’d been Will’s biggest worry. “Wish you could.”

  “Yeah. But we have a game on Wednesday so if I miss practice, even if I call in sick, I’ll get scratched.”

  Casey said, “We’ll get by. One way or the other.”

  Will nodded. “Now go get some rest. I want a damned shower.”

  When the door closed behind them, he stood there, his forehead against it, listening. They called a loud goodnight to each other, open, nothing to hide, and then the rumble of the sheriff’s cruiser and the deep, rich growl of the Camaro faded down the road.

  Will stayed there, leaning on the cold steel, eyes closed, heart aching, waiting to find the strength to go turn on the water.

  Chapter 2

  Casey had hated driving away and leaving Will alone. He wasn’t surprised when Scott’s Camaro pulled up behind him as he parked the cruiser in the station lot. Scotty leaned over and swung open the passenger door. “Need a lift, big boy?”

  Casey glanced over at his own truck. “I should probably…”

  “Tell ’em it died. Come on.”

  Casey abandoned his concerns and dropped into the low leather seat. “Home, James.”

  “My place? Or do you need to go to yours?”

  He kept extras of most things at Scott’s place. “Yours.”

  They were silent for the twenty-minute drive, until they turned into the parking for Scott’s new condo. The building was big, the parking unassigned. Casey could park here a dozen times a month, if Scott had been home that much, and no one would notice, or care. Scott had bought it with privacy in mind, when his parents had pulled up stakes for Florida. He’d spent everything he could of his rising salary in the AHL to get them this safe place, and hadn’t let Casey chip in, even under the table. Sometimes Casey thought Scott felt like he had to compensate for being gone so often. As if Scott wasn’t the one, out of the three of them, who could walk out any time and find a hundred other willing guys at a moment’s notice.

  The lobby was empty, the elevator waiting on the ground floor. They got in and turned to the doors, standing close enough that Casey’s shoulder brushed Scott’s arm. He leaned, as much as he dared. These days, elevators had cameras, and the door could open at any time. He suppressed his urge to grab Scott and settled for looking at their reflection in the mirrored wall. A young, tall, strongly built guy in a tight leather jacket stood next to a shorter, battered-around-the-edges cop in an unflattering brown uniform. Not an even match at all, and yet when their eyes met in the glass, the need Casey felt was mirrored in Scott’s face. His personal miracle. He barely waited for the elevator to begin to slide open on eleven before pushing through. Striding down the hall, he fumbled for his own key and held the door open for Scott.

  Two steps inside behind Scott, reach back, push, flip the latch. They both sighed, as the door locked behind them. Then Scott turned, hungry-mouthed, and they pressed together as hard as they could while the kiss went zero to sixty.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t,” Casey muttered, despite the painful hardness of his dick against Scott’s thigh. “Will…”

  “Sent us away. We did what we could. Now I need you.”

  “Jesus. Yeah. Smart man.” Sometimes Scott cut right to the heart of things while Casey hemmed and hawed around the edges. “More.”

  They kissed each other down the hallway, dropping shirts along the way. The bedroom door stood ajar. Scott shouldered it open, tugging Casey in after him. Casey paused long enough to shove it closed and then set clumsy hands to his equipment belt. Scott stood back, eyes on him while slowly stripping off his own jeans and T-shirt. They rarely went this far with Casey in uniform, but it happened enough that Scott knew better than to take liberties while Casey still wore his sidearm.

  Casey set the Sig aside carefully in a top drawer of the dresser, then yanked the rest of his clothes off fast. When he looked up, the big bed was decorated with a very well-built, naked, hard guy sprawled on top of it. Scott gave him a hot look and reached down to take himself in hand.

  “Let me.” Casey dove onto the bed, jolting them together, and reached for Scott. He
slid over on top, his chest pressed against Scott’s, thrusting against him, already precum-slick, in short drives against the groove of Scott’s groin. That rasp of skin and curly hair over Casey’s cock made him grunt and tighten his fingers on Scott’s arms. An aching heat built in his balls.

  He kissed Scott, hungry for the taste of him. He loved the way he could make Scott moan and gasp with just lips and tongue. He thought maybe that was what he’d fallen for their first time together. The moment when he’d realized this tall, gorgeous man with hard muscles from serious work would come apart from just a kiss. He pushed his tongue into Scott’s mouth, gripping his jaw to hold him still. Scott bucked under his weight, then pulled away enough to gasp, “God, I missed you so much!”

  Casey didn’t reply, just repossessed his mouth. The time apart was hard on all of them, but hardest on Scott, up in Canada alone. Playing pro sports meant travel and moving around. Casey’d known that when he got involved with a hockey player. But with Scott up playing for the Toronto Marlies, distances and costs had become painful, and times apart far too long. Casey tried to show him, with hands and lips and tongue, with the thrust of his whole body and the clamp of his thighs alongside Scott’s, how much he’d been missed too.

  They writhed together, unwilling to separate enough to fuck. Scott forced his hand between them. “Here. Like this.” He nudged Casey until their cocks met, sliding along each other, gripped firmly by Scott’s long fingers.

  “Fuck, yeah.” Casey picked up the rhythm of his hips, shoving himself into that familiar grip. His dick slid against hard satin-skinned cock and knobby, strong fingers. The textures, the tightness, just knowing it was Scott touching him, made him shudder and leak slick drops.

  “I love this.” Scott’s magic hands lined them up together with exquisitely perfect pressure. “I don’t need more. God, yeah. This’ll work.”