Chaps and Hope (Mossy Glenn Ranch 1) (8 page)

Carlos did him one better, taking his finger out and pushing his dick into Will’s ass. Carlos knew him well, and he gave Will that harsh edge he needed. His ass burned as he stretched around Carlos’ cock, but Will shoved back, too, eager for the filling.

“Yeah, baby,” Carlos murmured. He grabbed Will at the waist and shoulder and hammered into him. Will gasped and moaned, taking the pounding and knowing he was going to have rug burn all over the damn place when they were done.

“You’re both mine,” Carlos said, thrusting with enough force that Will’s back bowed. “Just like I’m yours.” He reached under Will and tugged on his shaft. Will opened his mouth to yell, but Carlos got a hand over his mouth. The thrill of that made Will’s head spin as he came, and Carlos grunted, shoving in deep. He froze, spunk warming Will’s inner walls as Carlos shot.

“Let me help you,” Carlos said a minute or two later. “Come on, on your feet.” Will swayed a little, but he managed to stand with an assist from Carlos. “Can you get the shower started?”

“Yeah.” Will stumbled into the bathroom and turned the water on before going back to watch Carlos untie Troy. He sat on the floor and began to massage Troy’s muscles as Carlos unwound the pretty yellow rope. Red lines marred Troy’s skin and Will worked at chasing them out. Carlos joined him and soon Troy was moaning without the gag in place as he got two masseuses easing his stiffened muscles.

“Feel better?” Will asked Troy when they finished. He meant more than just physically, and the light in Troy’s eyes acknowledged that fact.

“Yeah, I do. Thanks.”

Carlos grumbled and stood, offering them each a hand. “No need to thank us. That’s what we’re here for, to love on each other, and love each other. Think the shower’s still warm?”

Will grinned. “First one there’s gonna get the hot water.” He took off for the bathroom, ready to get his men into a different sort of playful mood.

Chapter Eight

Carlos surveyed the office. Like the rest of the house now, it was tidy and still smelt of fresh paint. The stark white walls were an improvement over the dingy yellow colour they’d been before. The furniture they’d had to buy wasn’t the highest quality, but it was all decent enough. His desk was good-sized, made of pine, and it gleamed beautifully where the sunlight from the window landed on it. Eventually they probably ought to put up some pictures on the bare walls—paintings or photos, something—but for now, it was more than good enough. Different from when he’d worked here before for Antonia, the crazy old bat, but still familiar.

Will had worked hard on the house, cleaning and setting things up just so, while Troy had done most of the repairs. Carlos had spent his days working on the repairs to the ranch itself, mending fences and replacing rotted wood in the barns and out buildings, fixing up the corrals and such. He’d talked to Nick, one of the owners, and they’d set up a delivery of cattle and the horses Carlos thought they’d need. The ATVs should be delivered at any time, and they were ready to begin operations and make the Mossy G the successful ranch it’d once been.

It was a matter of pride for Carlos on one hand. He wanted this place to do better than it had when it’d been run by Nick’s daddy, who’d been a bigoted, hateful man. It surely wasn’t going to be hard to make the ranch more profitable than it’d been with Antonia at the helm. That woman had run the place into the ground.

“You about ready to start the interviews?”

Carlos glanced behind him at Will, who looked unaccountably nervous.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Will was always up, mood-wise, with few exceptions. Now was apparently one of those times. Carlos pivoted and walked over to Will, catching those fidgeting hands in his own larger ones. Will’s palms were a little rougher than usual, probably due to the cleaning and such he’d been doing, but they were still a hell of a lot smoother than Carlos’ dry, callused hands. “What’s going on?” There was too much worry bearing down on Will.

Will sucked on his lips for a second then released them, leaving them shiny with spit. Carlos fought back a groan, wanting to lick the shine right off them, but now wasn’t the time for him to give in to his hormones. Will exhaled and looked down at their hands.

“I don’t know. It just hit me, I guess. This is a lot of responsibility, running the ranch, making it work, hiring people.” Will turned his eyes up to Carlos’ then. “People’s livelihoods are going to depend on us. There’re three people already waiting in the front room, wanting jobs here. One of them was talking about her kid. We might have kids depending on us for food and shelter and—”

Will was awfully close to panicking. Carlos wasn’t immune to the emotion himself, though it took more than the thought of those things to really strike it up in him. Right now those were thoughts he refused to entertain. And he knew the best way to calm Will down. Carlos tipped Will’s chin up and kissed him, a hard press of lips and forceful thrust of tongue. Will moaned and clung to him. Carlos kept kissing him until Will went loose in his arms, the tension flowing right out of his body.

“We’re gonna do okay, and we’ll damn sure take care of our employees and their kids,” Carlos promised him. “Ain’t no-one going to be left high and dry even if the ranch does go under again. We’ll make sure to keep a financial cushion set aside just for employees, okay?”

With that promise, Will seemed to light up. He sprang up on his toes and Carlos just barely had enough time to catch him. Will cuddled, that was a fact. Carlos held him and gave Will another kiss.

“I’ll just get Troy then we can get started,” Will said minutes later. “It’s almost time for the interviews to start. Troy’s looking over the applications and resumes again, but he doesn’t need to. I think he’s got everyone’s information memorised by now.”

Troy was trying his best to be useful, trying to prove himself, and Carlos knew that his and Will’s reassurances helped, but wouldn’t fix the problem. Troy was dealing with some insecurities that, in the end, he had to vanquish. Carlos and Will could and did love and support him, but there was only so much a person—or people—could do to help another person. Then it was up to the other person to do the rest. Carlos knew Troy would get there, but he sure wished he could just carry the burden for him instead. Then again, insecurity wasn’t something Carlos felt too often.

“Go on and get him, and bring in whoever’s first if you’re ready.”

“Oh, I’m
always
ready.” Will turned and sashayed off, putting on a show that Carlos appreciated even if it did make him a bit stiff in the britches.

* * * *

Hours later, Carlos stood and stretched, his back and hips stiff from sitting too long.

“Hot damn, I can’t wait to jump your bones,” Will growled. “Too bad we have to hang around and wait for the other two interviews.”

“We got time for lunch first.” Carlos pushed his hat back and contemplated if their lunch time included a quick fuck or suck.
Probably not.
There was, however, time for some kissing. He gestured to Troy, who was watching him with a hungry expression. “Come here. You too,” he told Will, then he had his arms full of hot, sexy men. They’d perfected the art of three-way kissing, although all of them liked getting sloppy with it too. Carlos let himself get lost in the feel and taste of his men, the scent and sounds of them until an unfamiliar voice startled them all.

“Uh. Holy shit.”

Carlos didn’t let go of Will and Troy. Whoever had talked had already seen them all going at it, so pretending otherwise was just stupid. He did ease them a little more to his sides, and they faced the short man standing in the doorway.

Short, and built like a fencepost, the man was thick, but not really fat. His eyes were huge, but that could have just been from finding them the way they’d been, all horny and happy at each other.

“Any particular reason you’re standing in our house, uninvited?” Carlos asked in his deepest, meanest voice.

The little guy blanched, his olive tone turning to a rather unattractive shade of green. He looked like he wanted to bolt, and Carlos thought he would, right before the dude put his shoulders back and drew himself up to his full height of what had to be about five-three.

“Drake Cuttington, the next interview,” Troy whispered right in his ear. “The ride-a-cowboy guy.”

“Gotcha.” And that certainly explained why the man was sporting a semi, Carlos couldn’t help but note. Yeah, he’d been turned on by what he’d seen.

“My name’s Drake Cuttington. I’m actually an hour and a half early, and I’m really sorry about that.” Drake darted a look around before settling his gaze back on Carlos. “I, um. I have an interview, and I headed out early from the hotel just because, well, I didn’t have anywhere else to be and I have a tendency to get lost even with GPS. Just so happens this time I didn’t—get lost, I mean.”

“Okay,” Carlos said, figuring the guy wasn’t done rambling yet. Drake proved him right.

“I was sitting in my car outside for a while, just waiting. It looks bad to be too early, I know.” Drake nodded, why, Carlos wasn’t sure. “But I was afraid if I left, I’d get turned all around and lost, and the temperature gauge on the car was kind of high when I was driving up here, so I didn’t want to push it, you know.”

Will wiggled beside Carlos and Carlos remembered this was the guy Will thought would be fun to have around. At least he could tell a damned story, sort of. Will curled his fingers around one of Carlos’ belt loops as he spoke. “That’s understandable. It’d suck to get stranded between here and town, or wherever you might have gotten lost at, right? And Carlos, he’s snarly, here”—Will jostled him slightly, but beamed up at him happily—“he’s been misled by his GPS a time or two. That’s how we all met, right, cowboy? Me, you, and Troy?”

Drake’s cheeks turned ruddy as he listened. Carlos grunted. Will was just throwing it right out there, wasn’t he?
And why not? Ain’t like Drake didn’t see us.
“Yeah, best damned day of my life.” Carlos had no problem admitting it. He got kisses from both his men, though Troy wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as Will, who probably left slobber all over Carlos’ cheek.

“Yes.” Drake coughed and shifted his feet, and Carlos saw that there was quite a bulge in the little guy’s pants. Apparently not all things on Drake were height-proportionate. It looked like he packed twice the cock he should have for his size. Carlos pulled his gaze up and looked at Troy first. Troy arched a brow at him, but grinned, and Will snickered from the other side. Carlos’ stomach rumbled and he put his attention back on Drake, who was eyeing him warily.

“Okay, here’s the deal. You’re the one whose resume has about every kind of job on it you can have without a college degree, right?” That sounded harsh, but Drake nodded and Troy moved away, coming back with Drake’s resume. He read off from it.

“You’ve been a clerk at three different gas stations, and quit each one because two of them got robbed, and the third one cut your hours.” Troy ran his finger down the paper to the next job. “Lawnscaping.”

Drake held up a hand. “I didn’t scape anything. All I did was cut grass and weedeat, pick up trash and limbs. They wouldn’t let me do anything else without a degree or certificate or whatever it was. Then I worked at a shoe store, but a customer complained because I wore heels one day.” Drake glared at the paper, or perhaps at Troy, but Carlos was leaning towards it being the former and the memories it evoked. “Heels were allowed in the company dress code, and nowhere did it say men couldn’t wear them, and I have fantastic legs. That firing was a load of crap.”

“Some people just have no appreciation for the male form,” Will huffed, posing with one leg out, toes pointed. “I have
amazing
legs.”

Drake lowered his gaze. “I bet.”

Carlos was kind of fascinated with the preening and air of competitiveness he felt sparking between Will and Drake. Maybe hiring the little guy would be more entertaining for him and Troy than for Will.

“Ahem.” Troy cleared his throat. “Getting back on track, you’ve been a cashier, a cook at McDonald’s, and again at La Cantera, a dishwasher, and an auto detailer.” Troy lowered the resume and pinned Drake with an authoritative look. “What makes you think you have any skills we need?”

Drake gulped and his gaze darted all over the place. “I don’t, but I’m desperate, and I’ll do anything you need. Forget paying me, even, just room and board will do. And meals, I…” Drake blushed over every bit of exposed skin Carlos could see. It made his eyes seem a brighter green than they’d first appeared. He focused them on Carlos and there was a resignation in them that stirred up sympathy in Carlos. Not that Drake would want it. No one liked being pitied.

“I really
am
desperate,” Drake whispered. “My ex—it was his house, his money, mostly. You’ve seen what jobs I can get.”

Carlos was afraid Drake was about to beg, and none of them would handle that well. “Can you cook?” Will had suggested something like that when they’d discussed giving Drake an interview.

Drake nodded so hard Carlos was surprised he didn’t snap his neck. “Yes, and not just fast-food stuff. My momma made sure all her boys knew how to cook, and cook well. That’s part of how I helped out with the bills with—” Drake stopped and sucked in a sharp breath before continuing. “Anyway, I could do that, three meals a day, seven days a week—”

“Six.” Carlos stopped him. “And on Saturday, you only do up breakfast. Sunday me or Will”—Carlos nudged him forward a little—“or Troy”—he tipped his head towards his other partner—“will handle our own meals, and we can sit down to lunch and work out the rest of the details. The hands have a kitchen in each of the bunkhouses, but you’ll need to do up lunch Monday through Friday for them, and sometimes on the weekend when we’re all having to work extra.”

“I can do that,” Drake said, and he grinned suddenly, his mouth wide and cheeks plumping up. “Thank you, all of you, and I don’t gossip. I don’t know if you all are planning on telling your employees about your, uh, relationship, or not, but either way, they won’t find out about it from me. It’s not my business.”

Carlos canted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly. He wanted one thing very clear. “It
is
a relationship. As far as we’re concerned, we are married to each other. Fuck the eyes of the law or anyone else who wants to judge, we love each other and are committed to each other, and while I ain’t gonna run around telling everyone about it, I don’t hide my men or my love for ’em, either.”

Drake pressed a hand to his chest and his other to his neck. “That’s just—that’s, wow. Incredible, that you three found each other when most of us can’t find one decent man.” He sighed dramatically and fanned his face. “And yeah, oh my
God
is it hot knowing you three—”

“Probably you don’t need to finish that sentence,” Troy muttered, but he was looking amused by Drake’s performance. “Think maybe you can get started on your job, oh, now? Or do you need a day or two?”

“Now’s awesome!” Drake rubbed his hands together like a man with a plan. “I can’t wait, I’m going right now. I saw the kitchen on the way in.”

Carlos watched him head off. He looked at Troy and Will. “Huh. You really think he has nice legs?”

Troy coughed and Will smacked Carlos’ arm hard enough to sting. Will glared at him. “Not as nice as mine, and it’s a damn good thing I know you’re teasing or else I’d really be mad.”