Cold Steel and Hot Lead [How the West Was Done 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

“Do you feel well?” Rudy asked. “I mean, with your asthma.”

Alameda took a deep, hearty breath. She did look satisfied as she picked up her sherry glass. “I’ve never felt this good. You men have the power of healing.” Her eyes caught a piece of paper on the writing desk, and she picked it up. “What’s this?”

“Oh,” said Derrick. “I’d forgotten. Percy arrived when you began magnetizing Miss Hudson. He said if you put on your cabinet act, Kittie will reappear.”

At this, Rudy jumped up. “I can do my escape act!”

Alameda said, “I can’t participate since I’m supposed to be in the
Black Crook
play. In fact, I should be getting over there right now. What is this a diagram of?”

Derrick took the paper from her. His jaw fell open when he saw that Percy had, indeed, succeeded in manipulating the pencil. It looked like a—“Design for skis,” he murmured. Percy’s ski was shorter and curvier than any Derrick had ever used and seemed to have a new binding to keep the ski on the foot. “Use birch binding,” Percy had somehow written.

“That son of a bitch,” Derrick marveled. “Alameda, do you mind if we stop at a carpenter’s on our way to the Oddfellows Hall? Not that Castillo carpenter, of course. Someone who could make me this.”

“Poor Montreal Jed.” Rudy stood at the window looking down on the mangled supine form. “Hey, what’s that in the snow?”

Alameda waited on the front porch while Derrick and Rudy put on their Indian snowshoes to go retrieve the implement Derrick had earlier seen at the feet of the white wolf. Oddly, no paw prints were pressed in the snow. With hands on knees, they bent to view the bowie knife in the snow. One spot of blood was splashed on the blade, standing out vibrantly against the blinding snow.

“Or cinnabar paint,” Derrick mentioned.

Rudy picked up the knife and touched his tongue to the spot. “Blood. This is not good.”

“Where in the hell,” Derrick mused, “did that wolf come from?”

“All right. Tie me up. Tie the most elaborate, difficult knot you can think of,” said Rudy. “Remember, the audience member is going to make the most convoluted knot he possibly can.”

It didn’t feel as though Derrick was making very complex knots as he tied Rudy’s wrists at the small of his back. “Why don’t you just have an associate sitting in the audience do it? That way he could tie the knots you know how to get out of.”

“That’s what’s usually done. People are more savvy nowadays. They’ll be much more amazed if they see me getting out of knots one of their friends tied.”

“But they won’t see you,” Derrick protested. “You’re going into this cabinet to escape, right? And you’ll shut the doors?”

“Right. I’m really hoping that Castillo decides to bring Kittie back during this act. Maybe everyone will be busy looking at my cabinet as I struggle and knock it around, and he’ll allow her to walk in the front theater door. I can get you to hide in here, too, and bang some damned tambourine around. All right. Rub that bear grease all over my hands and wrists.”

Derrick’s rubbing was heavenly. Rudy sat stripped to the waist in the center compartment of his “Remington Rudy” cabinet, the rear doors open to the theater wall. The cabinet was, for now, positioned off in the side aisle of the Oddfellows Theater. The ringmaster Cannonball had allowed Rudy to perform his trick that night for whatever experimental audience they could rustle up, as
The
Black Crook
didn’t open for another night.

Meanwhile, Alameda was being costumed for her part as Stalacta, Fairy Queen of the Golden Realm. The men had figured their presence was a good way of keeping an eye on her as well. Derrick had dropped Percy’s ski sketch off with a carpenter Alameda heard had built exquisite furniture, and Rudy had roped him into assisting him in his act.

Derrick said, “This will prove that Jeremiah didn’t steal Kittie, if Castillo allows her to return during our show.”

Rudy wished Derrick would massage his fingers longer. His squiggling of each finger with the bear grease was blissful and made Rudy’s cock plump up. This would not do, to have an obvious erection while standing in front of five hundred people. Rudy made a sudden decision. “I’m going to do this completely naked.” Derrick’s fist around his forefinger stilled in surprise. “All right, I’ll just wear some kind of drawers.”

Derrick went back to his massage. “That’ll be good. That’ll be another distraction for the audience. Looking at your well-built body while you patter before hiding in the cabinet. Here. Lean back against that side compartment. I want to watch you struggle.”

Encouraged by Derrick’s sly smile, Rudy did as instructed. Derrick straddled the center bench and watched avidly. Rudy had always enjoyed displaying himself to others—one of the hallmarks of a good showman—and he knew that his pectorals flexed admirably when he strained to get loose from his bonds.

Rudy was confused by his reaction to Alameda’s pussy. He had imagined that his new mission to erase women from his life sexually had been a great success. He had not even had an erection due to a woman in two years. But when he’d watched Alameda fingering herself in full, brazen view of Derrick, something in his brain had just snapped.

He had to participate in some way. And instead of being disgusted or nauseated, fearful even, Rudy had enjoyed the hell out of frigging that luscious woman. He had wanted to lean over and suck on the nipple of her buoyant breast, but Derrick had gotten there first. Rudy was not appalled by the copious amounts of juice that had flowed over his hand. No, he had wanted to bury his face there, to lick that clitoris like it was a penis, but he refrained out of respect for Derrick.

It was Derrick’s business to toy with his belle. And Rudy had been perfectly happy toying only with other men. Now, he was afraid it was his love for Derrick—for Rudy knew he was in love with the man, had known that since first viewing him in the audience at Montreal Jed’s performance—that was breaking down all his walls. Since Derrick loved Alameda, Rudy must love her, too.

Now Rudy struggled against the bonds Derrick had tied. He could already tell Derrick hadn’t done a good enough job, and he could easily escape within seconds. But it behooved him to pretend it was difficult, as he enjoyed Derrick’s eyes roving over his naked torso. The opera singers onstage were now attempting to sing the lowly burlesque tune in harmony.

See, see, see

See the sun in Orient splendor

Gilding every glittery spray

Busy weaving jeweled wreaths

For our lovely Queen of May

“Is that Alameda?” Derrick asked. “The Lovely Queen of May?”

“Yes. Get over here. You need to grease up my shoulders.”

Derrick probably knew it wasn’t necessary to the trick, but he didn’t question it, just scooted up on the bench and dipped his fingers in the grease pot. Rudy’s eyes slipped shut as the fingers glided over his shoulders then down his pectorals. His prick twitched obviously, and he knew his one power over Derrick was the power of sex. There had to be a way for the three of them to live in tranquility, for Rudy never wanted to give Derrick up. And he was starting to suspect he might enjoy Alameda as well.

Derrick now said, “You’re a strapping, athletic stallion. I think it would distract the audience even more if you didn’t hide in this cabinet and allowed them to watch you escape. Especially in a loincloth.”

Rudy mustered a grin, but Derrick’s greasy fingers were tracing a trail to his nipple. He gasped when Derrick rubbed there. There was no need for oily nipples in the act, but Derrick was panting heavily. Now he rubbed both nipples with both thumbs, and Rudy could feel the heat from his crotch as they straddled the bench there in the dark cabinet.

“See my costume!” trilled Alameda.

She knocked on the side of the cabinet as if it were someone’s front door. The two men jumped as though they’d been caught committing sodomy, Derrick’s greasy hand hovering in midair. Alameda stuck her head and shoulders into the back of the cabinet. Rudy sat erect in pleasant surprise.

“You’re naked,” he observed.

Alameda entered the cabinet casually, bending low to avoid mussing her headpiece of ostrich plumes. Indeed, some perverted costumer had clothed her in a one-piece stocking of nude color that covered her ankles and wrists. She would have looked entirely nude were it not for the strategic glittering leaves and vines that twined over her abundant breasts and the skirt of dried grass they had allowed her to wear. Derrick’s jaw hung low in either appreciation or shock.

“I can’t allow you to go onstage in that,” Derrick said.

“Oh, come on!” Rudy cried. “This is the theater, burlesque. This is the way it’s done. I’ll venture most of those other women are scantily clad, too.”

“Yes,” Alameda agreed, putting a hand on Derrick’s shoulder. “Let me. The Fairy Queen of the Golden Realm must be an attractive life-giving being, not some prude from a nunnery. Look. I have golden slippers on.”

Derrick looked skeptical, unable to take his eyes from her gravity-defying breasts. “Maybe if you wore some kind of a jacket. How do you use the necessary in that getup?”

Slyly, Alameda leaned back on the bench and spread her thighs. “A slit. I can piss very easily.” Sitting upright again, she brushed her bosom against Derrick’s arm. “Maybe a tiny little glittery vest. I will ask them. And now.” She pointed at Rudy—at his throbbing erection, to be more accurate. “I wish the two of you to continue what you were doing.”

“Doing?” Derrick asked innocently. “I was just applying grease, so Rudy can get out of his bonds easier.”

Grabbing the grease pot from Derrick’s hand, Alameda shoved him slightly by the shoulder. “I will apply grease. You must continue to satisfy your friend.”

Had Rudy truly heard what he thought he heard? He wiggled his hips to show eagerness, but Derrick wasn’t so easily sold.

“Satisfy?” he stammered. “We were merely—”

Now Alameda seemed impatient. Her free hand undid the buttons at Rudy’s crotch while jiggling about his expanding erection, and all Rudy could do was squirm in his bonds. “Oh, merely
what
, with this giant penis staring you in the face?” Her look became sly. “I know what two men like to do together. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s done a lot in the circus. Right, Rudy?”

“Right,” he agreed amiably, especially since her little fist was now encircling his prick.

Derrick whispered, “But I’m a politician. I can’t be seen dallying around with another man.”

Rudy pointed out, “Is that your only excuse? I notice you didn’t say that you didn’t want to.”

Alameda added, “No one will see us. That’s why we’re in a cabinet.”

She let Rudy’s cock pulsate against his bare hip as she grabbed the edge of the rear cabinet door and shut it. There was an interior lock the magician could use to keep out prying eyes, and she flicked it closed. Now it was so dark Rudy could barely make out her shapely, seemingly nude form, and he gasped when she closed her hand over his cock with a handful of grease.

“There,” she cooed into Derrick’s ear, stroking Rudy’s cock to prepare him. “Take his big cock into your hand. Frig him the way you frig yourself. Right, Rudy?”

“Right,” Rudy agreed. Moon-shaped cutouts high up in the cabinet allowed in enough light for him to watch as Derrick, now eager, took ahold of his prick. What a difference, a man’s broad and warm hand, after the delicate frailty of Alameda’s stroking. The knowledge that Derrick was frigging him in front of his belle, with an entire troupe of burlesque entertainers not thirty feet away, whetted Rudy’s appetite to even greater heights.

And the siren that was Alameda now twined her limbs all about Derrick, sucking on the side of his neck and murmuring lewd things in his ear as she massaged the bulge in Derrick’s pants. “That’s right. You know how to do it. Grease up that big pole. Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Derrick grunted, his fist jerking up and down Rudy’s prick.

“You like that he’s bound,” Alameda suggested. “You like that he’s helpless, at your command. You like being in control, being the dominant one.”

Derrick whispered, “I like that a lewd little minx is watching me do depraved things to another man.”

Apparently this pleased Alameda, for she slithered her tongue in Derrick’s ear and squeezed his cock, although evidently she didn’t plan to give Derrick release, too. Maybe that was part of her evil plot, as the costume of the Fairy Queen of the Golden Realm seemed to have altered her personality.

Altered it for the good
. Rudy’s balls flooded with jism, and Derrick’s expert and enthusiastic pumping would bring him off much too soon.
I’m going to squirt all over his lap.
Knowing that his cock was displayed proudly and being jerked by the most beautiful and powerful man he’d ever known instantly sent Rudy to the pinnacle of libidinous rapture.

Alameda whispered, “You like having another man’s big tool in your hand.”

“Yes,” Derrick grunted. When he admitted, “I like stimulating Rudy’s bulging cock,” that did it. It set Rudy off instantly, spurting great streams of jism against his friend’s abdomen. Derrick’s free hand slid down to caress Rudy’s balls, jiggling them, urging more and more seed to splash.