The Tin Star (15 page)

Ethan nipped his bottom lip. “Get on your knees, and grab the headboard.”

He didn’t hesitate.

Just as his hands wrapped around the headboard, something cold slid across his hole again. He jumped and looked back.

Ethan had the lube and was recoating him with it. He looked up into Jamie’s eyes as he grabbed his own cock, drizzling lube over it, then tossing the bottle aside. His fist wrapped around his thick penis, smearing the lube across its surface.

A sound gurgled up from the back of Jamie’s throat.
Sexy bastard!
He eagerly watched each long, lazy pull. The red prick was already leaking come. Damn, Ethan was scrumptious! He was not going to beg, he wasn’t. He whimpered. There, that wasn’t begging.

Ethan chuckled and came up on his knees. One hand wrapped around Jamie’s hip; the other stayed on that gorgeous cock. He pulled Jamie’s hips toward him, nudging him with the wet tip of his cock.

Jamie dropped his head back and closed his eyes. Ethan’s dick rubbed up and down his crease teasingly. He thought he might have whimpered again.

The front of Ethan’s thighs pressed against the back of his as the slippery, fat crown of his lover’s penis slid into him.

He moaned.

So did Ethan.

Inch by torturous inch, Ethan slid forward until Jamie’s ass was cradled against his hips. “You ready?”

Jamie nodded.

Ethan pulled out, then thrust back in, picking up a steady rhythm.

Jamie could feel his lover’s hard body against his back, muscles rippling with every thrust, the slap of Ethan’s balls against his skin. The man was so freakin’ amazing. Even more wonderful was the feel of Ethan’s cock sliding repeatedly over his prostate. Jamie panted, having a hard time catching his breath. He was close, really, really close to peaking.

Ethan’s hand wrapped around Jamie’s prick and tugged. Jamie grunted, and his head landed on Ethan’s shoulder as Jamie came.

“Fuck, yeah!” Ethan’s arm wrapped around Jamie’s chest, pressing him close, and he continued to slam into him and pump his cock as Jamie spilled his seed.

Jamie felt the hot breeze of Ethan’s breath on his shoulder as he spoke. “Damn, baby, that’s it, come all over my hand.” Ethan’s breath caught. He stiffened against Jamie’s back, and Jamie felt the heat of Ethan’s release inside him.

Jamie opened his eyes and turned his head toward Ethan, kissing his cheek and chin, willing his own breath to go back to normal.

Ethan slumped back on his heels, taking Jamie with him. Both his arms surrounded Jamie, and his face nuzzled the back of Jamie’s neck. “You think Bill would know it if we didn’t work today?”

Chapter Eleven

It had been three weeks since the incident with Jacob Killian, and things were perfect ... almost a little too perfect. Ethan was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jamie was happy, truly happy, and Ethan just couldn’t bring himself to ruin the mood around the Tin Star by telling him the facts about his birth. He knew he needed to, but he’d kept putting it off.

It wasn’t just Jamie that was happy; so was everyone else. Jamie had that effect on everyone. The ranch hands were happy, Bill was happy, even the animals were happy. Ethan himself was practically freakin’ ecstatic. Not that he minded, and apparently neither did anyone else, because he was pretty sure they all knew about him and Jamie.

In the short time he’d been there, Jamie had managed to start giving Bill cooking lessons, which the older man enjoyed and was starting to show in the small spare tire he’d begun to carry around his middle. Ed and Hayden were pretty damned appreciative, too, but they were too young and worked too hard for the excess calories to accumulate.

Jamie had also arranged to get everyone together on Sunday nights for supper, with an open invitation to Aunt Margaret, which she took up. In addition, contrary to his previous protests, Jamie did clean. In fact, the man was a cleaning machine. He’d reorganized the tack room, made a new schedule for feeding the animals, and pretty much taken over the main ranch house and made it his. If something was out of place or lopsided, it got moved, repositioned. Everything was clean and accessible when needed. Jamie ran the place like a well-oiled machine.

The younger man not only pulled his weight around the ranch, he more than made up for the loss of two hands. He did more work in three weeks than Carl and Jeff had done together in three months. The Tin Star hadn’t felt the loss of two hands. In fact, with Jamie around it was like gaining new workers. Not only did he shoulder a fair share of the workload, but he seemed to spur Ed and Hayden into working even harder. Ed and Hayden respected Jamie and his work ethic. Because of him they got their work done quicker and more efficiently, and thus had more time off, too.

Ethan didn’t have to venture outdoors to take care of work as often as before Jamie had arrived. He still did, of course; there was always something that needed to be taken care of. A man could only take so much sitting in front of a computer, but he knew things were well in hand even without him to oversee everything, which was a first. So much so that Ethan was seriously considering expanding the operation the way he’d always wanted but had been reluctant to do because of the even longer hours and work that would have been needed. He had the land, he had the money, and now he had someone to help him so that he wouldn’t have to work himself or his men to death to make it work.

The biggest change was between Ethan and Jamie. They’d settled into a comfortable relationship. There were no doubts that what they had was real. Ethan couldn’t remember being so at ease and having so much fun with another person, even John. And the sex? The sex was phenomenal.

Jamie had moved all of his stuff into Ethan’s bedroom. At first it had been a little awkward; neither of them was used to sharing such close and intimate space. But they were working it out. In such a brief period, Jamie had not only made a place for himself at the Tin Star, but he’d carved a home in Ethan’s heart. Ethan couldn’t even imagine going back to his lonely existence. Jamie was much more than his lover; he was his friend, someone he knew he could count on.

There were bound to be a few differences of opinion from time to time, but as a whole they got along great. One of the more notable arguments had been last week when, after a day of work, Jamie had come in and cleaned house. He’d had the main house spotless and supper in the oven. Ethan had followed and taken a shower, then tossed his clothes and his towel on the floor when he was done.

Jamie had gone upstairs to tell him supper was ready, taken one look at the disarray Ethan had left the bathroom in, and snapped. Ethan had thrown a fit of his own, saying he’d worked hard all day. Jamie had put him in his place by merely lifting a brow, as if to say,
And I haven’t?

That had pissed Ethan off even more, because it was true. He’d locked himself in his office without supper, then emerged an hour later to find the house quiet and a note telling him that there was a plate for him in the oven. He’d eaten his supper, gone upstairs, woken Jamie up, and apologized. Jamie had accepted his apology by commenting that since Ethan didn’t like cleaning house, he’d best shut up and pick up after himself, or he’d find that he’d have to go back to doing it all himself again. Ethan hated housework, but he damn sure liked a clean house, so he had agreed to do his part to help. Ethan suddenly smiled, remembering the tender lovemaking that had followed his apology.

It really wasn’t fair for Jamie to do it all and the cooking, too. Hell, Jamie did too much as it was. Ethan practically had to sit on the man to make him slow down and take a break. Well, in all fairness, blowjobs worked pretty good as an incentive, too, assuming Ethan could get him alone long enough.

Ethan sighed and turned off his computer, stretching his hands over his head. He needed a break. More to the point, Jamie needed a break. He grinned to himself and picked up the phone. He dialed and waited.

Two rings later, a short, clipped, “’Ello?” answered.

“What are you doing?” Ethan stood up and walked to his office window and looked out. Jamie was nowhere in sight. He sighed.

“As little as possible. Why?”

“’Cause Jamie and I need a ride to San Antone.”

“What’s in San Antone?”

“Will you take us or not?”

“Why aren’t you driving? You have a truck and so does Jamie.”

Damn! Why did John have to be so nosy? Ethan rolled his eyes. He didn’t want Jamie to know why they were going, but he knew John could keep a secret. “I’ve been looking at the new Ford Mustangs. I think I’m going to get one, but don’t tell Jamie. It’s a surprise.”

“No fuckin’ way! You are so NOT buying Jamie a car!”

Ethan pulled the phone away from his ear with a grimace. “Damn! Do you have to be so freakin’ loud? I’m not buying it for Jamie. I’m buying it for me.”

“Then why are we keeping it a secret from Jamie?”

Ethan sighed.

“Ethan?”

“Oh, hell! Fine, I was going to put his name on the title, too, but I’m buying it for both of us, not just him.”

“Shit! That’s just not right! I’ve never had a lover buy me a car. You wanna be my boyfriend?” John was quiet for a second, then added, “You can’t fuck me, though.”

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to decide if John was giving him a headache or not. “Just get your ass over here and pick us up!”

“All right. Be there soon.”

Ethan hung up and went in search of Jamie. He started to dial Jamie’s cell, but his lover wasn’t too far. He decided he needed the exercise.

Jamie was alone in the barn, shoveling out George’s stall. He looked up as Ethan came in, leaned on the handle of the shovel, and pushed his gray cowboy hat back a little. Those blue eyes leered at him and his full, kissable lips turned up at the corners. “Hey, Cowboy.”

Ethan grinned. “Hey, yourself, Blue Eyes. You think you can leave mucking out the stalls to later and take the rest of the day off?”

One dark eyebrow arched up under the gray felt. “Well, I’m almost done, actually. Can you give me five more minutes?”

“That depends. Can you also shower and redress in less than ten minutes?”

Jamie went back to shoveling, but not before Ethan saw a flash of teeth. “That depends.”

Oh, he knew what it depended on, but he wanted to hear the little flirt say it. “On what?”

“On whether you’re going to be in the shower with me.”

Ethan chuckled and shook his head, turning to leave. “Not this time. I need you ready to leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Why so soon?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“What kind of surprise?”

Ethan shook his head. “Nope. Not gonna tell you.”

Jamie sighed. “Okay, I won’t pester you about it, if you take a shower with me.”

“No time. Hurry up!”

“Okay, fine, be that way! You hog all the hot water anyway!”

Ethan smiled. He could hear the laughter in Jamie’s voice as he left the barn.

Twelve minutes later they were in John’s truck and pulling out of the driveway. Jamie leaned forward, his elbows on the front seat between Ethan and John’s shoulders. “So, where are we going?”

John chuckled and looked at Ethan. “Well, Ethan, where are we going? The youngster wants to know.”

Jamie’s head snapped around to John. “You’re driving. Can’t you tell me?”

“Nope. Ethan said I can’t.”

Jamie’s head snapped back around to Ethan.

Ethan rolled his eyes at John and groaned.
Bastard!

Jamie walked around the dark red GT in awe. He ran his hand down the side of the door.
Nice!
Red was his favorite color. He couldn’t believe that Ethan had added his name to the title. He’d been speechless. It hadn’t been the car that had made him so breathless and weak-kneed, either. It was the ramifications of Ethan putting something in both their names. It smacked of commitment.

Be still his heart, he wasn’t just getting a new car -- he was getting Ethan. Technically, he already had Ethan, of course, but this was tantamount to a public declaration for a man who didn’t want everyone to know he was gay. At least to Jamie’s way of thinking it was.

Damn! His dick was thickening. Maybe later he could talk Ethan into pulling over down the road somewhere and breaking the car in. Shit, thoughts like that were not going to make the ride home a comfortable one. He shifted a little from anyone’s view, relieving the press of denim against his crotch. He needed to get his mind off Ethan.

His lover walked out of the dealership, saw him by the car, and smiled. When he got about six feet from Jamie, he tossed him the keys. “Let’s go.”

Jamie caught the keys with a grin.
Yes!
Ethan was going to let him drive
their
car.

“No fuckin’ fair!” John groused behind him. “I drove y’all out here. I should get to drive it home as payment.”

Jamie opened the door and slid in. He started up the Mustang and listened to her purr before turning to his brother. “Get your own boyfriend!”

John huffed. “I’m thinking about it! Boyfriends apparently give better gifts than girlfriends.”

Jamie grinned at him. “Yeah, and they don’t bitch when you watch football, either.”

John flipped him off and went back to his truck.

Ethan chuckled. “Oh, Lord!”

“He started it.”

Ethan squeezed his shoulder. “Just go to the Riverwalk, so we can all eat something. John’s following us. I had actually planned on John just dropping us off, but apparently he’s sticking around. I figured the least we can do is feed him.”

They made a day of it and hung out with John. They went shopping at the Mercado, visited Julia, ate out. John left soon after. Ethan and Jamie only started home when it began to get dark. On their way back, Ethan’s phone rang.

Ethan unhooked it from his belt and looked at the display. “It’s Bill.” He flipped it open and put it to his ear. “Ethan here.” He reached over and rubbed Jamie’s thigh.

Jamie grinned, sliding forward in the driver’s seat, trying to make Ethan’s hand touch his cock.

Ethan’s hand stilled, tensed. “WHAT?! How many got out? Did you find all of them?”