Texas_Heat- (10 page)

Robbie pulled in to the drive of the large house he had dropped Eli at earlier that day. The edifice was still as imposing as it had been in daylight, even more so with the faintly sinister lighting washing upward from hidden lanterns in the undergrowth. He wasn't exactly good with architecture but the house looked very old and big and was probably incredibly expensive. On the drive here Eli had explained that the owner had made his money in men's underwear. Interesting way to earn a living and apparently a lucrative one.

Eli banging on his window pulled him out of his thoughts and he pressed the button to lower the window.
"Michael would like to meet you," Eli immediately said.
"I'm not exactly dressed for—"
"That's fine. Come on." Eli pulled the door open and Robbie was probably too shocked to argue. That was the only explanation he could think of when he looked back on what happened. He locked the 4x4 behind him and followed Eli up the six stairs that led to a huge porch area and an open door. A man stood there, older than Robbie, with gray hair, all dressed up in a suit and tie and with the widest grin. He was a good-looking guy, if you liked the silver fox type.
"Robbie," he said. "Eli has told us so much about you."
Robbie returned the smile and they shook hands. He had no sense from either man what was about to happen and he had no tools to draw on—he wasn't prepared.
"I told you," Eli said excitedly.
They were still on the porch and Robbie looked at Eli, confused.
Told him what?
He realized Eli was talking to Michael. The guy who was looking him up and down with an assessing leer and who actually laid hands on Robbie with a firm touch. Robbie didn't move. He was trapped between Eli and Michael and immobility was the result of a clash of shock and manners.
"And you can get ten or so others like him?" Michael was saying as he patted him.
Robbie was way past confused now but at least his muscles began to work independently of his brain.
"Easy," Eli said. "The gay rodeo is here in Dallas, I can go out tomorrow and see who'd be interested."
"This one has good bone structure. Interesting musculature. And I assume he's said yes?" Michael was talking to Eli but gesturing to Robbie.
What the hell? Are they talking about me?

"Of course." Eli's voice sounded odd and held a note of hesitation that he covered up really quickly. Robbie stared at him for clues as to what the hell was going on. "He said yes."

Eli's voice then took on that cocky tone that Robbie knew so well and finally the flag was raised and Robbie saw the whole picture. Before he could say a word Eli was pushing him down the steps and toward the car calling something back to Michael that Robbie couldn't even hear over the anger in his head.

"What the fuck?" Robbie snapped.
"Don't say anything out here, Rob," Eli pleaded. They climbed into the car. Since when did Eli call

Eli?"
"I kinda promised I had proper cowboys and they
said, Michael said, my contract would be extended so I can
get the shots they need. I didn't think he was going to
assume you were one of the models. I was just telling him
how gorgeous you were and that you were all natural—" "Eli—"
"What I said back there, when I said yes you had
agreed, I just needed to get him off my back. I'll just tell
him your test shots were crap."
"He looked at me like…" Robbie was flustered and
furious. He couldn't find words enough to cover the horror
of being checked out like a prize bull. Fuck, he could feel
Michael's gaze still all over him and the firm touch of his
probing hands pushing at muscle and testing bone. "I'm sorry. That is what he does." Eli was
apologizing—Robbie could hear the words but they were
empty platitudes. "He could make or break my business." "Let me get this straight. You took me in that house
so that your creepy client could check me out as a freaking
nude model for a photo shoot he wants me in that isn't
going to happen over my dead body?"
"Not nude—"
"Semantics, Eli."
Eli slumped a little and leaned on the door. His
body language radiated defeat as if he was giving up on the
discussion. Robbie immediately jumped to conclusions. "That's it?"
"What's it?"
Was Eli being deliberately stupid here?
"You're client eye raped me, touched me like I was
cattle, and you're fucking sulking now?"
"No." Eli straightened in his seat. "I don't sulk." Useful that he didn't address the other things Robbie
picked up on. Robbie started the engine and pulled out of
the circular drive.
"Sure looks like it," he snapped. "Put your belt on." Satisfied when Eli did as he was told, Robbie joined
the flow of traffic. Robbie was seething but the fifty
minutes or so it would take from here to the Double D
would be bearable if Eli just sat back and shut the hell up.
Never let it be said Eli could sit quietly for any more than a
damn minute.
"He just wanted to meet you," Eli said. "He wanted
to see what kind of man I had in mind. I didn't know he was
going to treat you like…" Eli's voice trailed away. Robbie wasn't going to attempt this conversation,
not when anger skimmed and hissed just under his skin. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," he said.
Robbie felt all kinds of things: angry, insulted, and
ultimately embarrassed that Eli would put him in that
position.
"Look, I fucked up. I'm sorry."
"Whatever." Robbie cut that particular line of
bullshit dead and concentrated on driving back to the place
he called home.
"Now who's sulking," Eli said wryly.
Was Eli joking? If that short sharp comment was
meant to break the uneasy silence then it wasn't going to
work. Robbie refused to answer and the rest of the journey
was spent in an uneasy silence.
When the 4x4 stopped outside the ranch, Robbie
had the engine off and was out of his door before Eli had
managed to undo his belt. In seconds he was at the steps to
his room and as soon as he heard Eli shut the door of the
car Robbie locked the vehicle remotely. There was no way
Eli would catch up to him, and when his apartment door
was shut to the outside Robbie let fly a torrent of curse
words at the stupidity of it all. There was him thinking Eli
was a good guy when in fact all he had been was one huge
fucking asshole. Business or no business, he'd thought Eli
was becoming a friend with a view to more. He evidently
knew that Michael guy, being as he was Eli's client, and
probably knew exactly how Robbie would be treated. Half of him hoped Eli would come to the door just
so he could deck the guy, remission and virus or not. Eli
didn't. When Robbie checked out of his small window he
could see Eli letting himself in the main ranch and the light
going on in the kitchen. Pushing himself up and away from
the frame he stalked to his bed, pulled off his clothes in an
economy of motion, and went to bed.
Okay, so he didn't sleep, but it was a hot sultry night
and he blamed the heat.
The warmth of his temper and his embarrassment
didn't help.

Eli attempted to be quiet but it had never been his strong point. The house was in darkness apart from the kitchen and he assumed Riley and Jack had gone to bed for the night. He had a beer and a bag of chips in front of him on the table when Riley walked in.

"Go okay?" Riley asked as he yawned.
"They're happy with the new idea," Eli said. There was caution in his voice and if he could hear it then so could Riley.
"What's wrong then?"
"Nothing."
Lying is easy.
Riley sat down next to Eli. That in itself was odd. If Riley wanted to sit down wouldn't he be better off opposite Eli? This could only mean one thing. A chat.
"Are you feeling okay?" Riley asked.
Sudden irritation built inside Eli and he grimaced. Just because Riley knew about the cancer didn't mean he had to ask Eli all the time if he was okay.
"Fine," he snapped.
Riley turned in his seat and his hazel eyes were filled with empathy. Gently he placed a hand on the one Eli had resting on his chest. Shit, he hadn't even realized it was there.
"Then why are you sitting here looking so miserable and pressing your chest like your heart hurts?"
"I fucked up."
"You need to talk?"
Eli considered the offer for a while. How did he admit to Riley he had been an idiot who had hurt Robbie, and that he didn't even really need to discuss that fact, he just needed to know how to apologize. The whole sorry story slipped out in rapid sentences.
"I want to use real cowboys for the photo shoot and Michael said this was a brilliant idea but he didn't understand what a 'real' cowboy could look like. So when Robbie picked me up—and God, Robbie is hot, right?—I asked Robbie in and Michael assumed he was a model and was all over him like a rash. Robbie is pissed at me because I didn't correct Michael." Eli paused for breath. "See, you have a cowboy, right?"
Riley's gaze widened and his mouth fell open in a perfect O of surprise.
"You are not using Jack in your shoot." His words were almost as fast as Eli's explanation.
"I wasn't. I wouldn't. You're not listening to me. I hadn't finished."
"Go on then. This is going to be a good one." Riley sat back and away from Eli and waited.
"How would you apologize to Jack and not make it come over as pathetic? I should have realized what Michael would do and even if I hadn't I should have just said that Robbie was my…" His voice trailed away. What was Robbie to him exactly? Friend? Potential lover? The guy he wanted to climb all over and kiss from head to toe?
"Yes, you should." Riley started evenly. "But jeez, if you heard about some of the idiotic things I did and said to Jack you would wonder why he stayed with me. Nothing's perfect. Leave Robbie to calm down. If he's anything like Jack, all calm on the surface but heat underneath, then his temper will be hot. You let him get his reaction out of the way, and then you can use the patented Eli charm to make him see you are not a complete loser."
The two men sat in silence for a while.
"Do you remember that time you rappelled from the dorm roof using the telephone cable?" Eli asked. He wanted to settle the terror inside him that he had fucked up this whole Robbie thing big time. College memories, before Lexie/Riley and before he crashed the damn car in the lake, were safe ones.
Riley didn't look surprised by the change in direction. They had exchanged a few stories like this one since Eli had gotten back in touch. Riley flexed his hand and winced.
"I remember the sprained wrist," he answered. "And the look on Booker's face when I landed on him."
"I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself." Eli laughed.
"I think Booker actually peed himself."
"Ri?"
"Uh huh?"
"You're happy with Jack, aren't you? I mean, it's obvious how happy you are. I wasn't really meaning that as a question. When did you know you were in love with him?"
"Really? You mean the actual time I felt like there was something more than irritability and sex between us?" Eli nodded at the question. "I don't know. Not really. I was heartless to start off. I remember feeling like I had pulled off the greatest business transaction of my life and feeling proud of myself when I convinced him to marry me. Then suddenly I wasn't so proud. Maybe it was the horses. Or the Double D. Or his sister Beth. Sometimes I wish I could pinpoint the absolute time."
"The time matters to you?" Eli asked.
"No, not really. All that matters is that every time I see him now I fall in love with him all over again."
"What if I told you something that is going to sound real crazy."
"You mean like every other time you open your mouth?" Riley smiled.
"It's been such a short time but I want Robbie. No, I want more than that. I need Robbie. If having cancer has taught me one thing it's that you don't fuck around with the life you have."
"And how does Robbie feel? Have you told him this?" Riley reached again to still the hand that was pressed to Eli's chest, stopping it from moving.
"Before or after I reduced the potential of anything at all to a heaping pile of horse shit? No."
"So you tell him. In the morning. Now, it's past midnight and you get to bed, get some sleep, and stop worrying."
"Yes, Mom." Eli smirked.
"Ass." Riley released his touch and left the kitchen with a waved 'later'.
Eli sat for a while. Nursing his warm beer with no real intention of drinking it, he looked up and out of the window and over to the barn. Robbie was in there, probably pissed as hell and feeling like Eli had treated him like shit. He stood and even took a step toward the door. Some nebulous thought in his head was telling him to go over now and sort this out. Thing is, there was really nothing to sort out. Eli was a loser and Robbie had seen his true colors. Kind of inevitable really.
Why the hell hadn't he thought about what was happening? It wasn't like he needed the money from Michael and he could say what he damned well wanted to the man who needed his photos. Suddenly his skin felt too tight and scratchy, and irritated with himself, he made sure the door was locked and then turned off the light.
Bed sounded good. He just hoped he could sleep.

When he woke he knew Riley would have left for the office, Hayley would be at school, and Jack and Robbie were likely in a far field working the horses.

With Hayley at a friend's birthday it was only Riley who accompanied Jack to the second and final day of Jack's part of the Rodeo. Today was prize-giving day and proved to be more hectic than even the hours they had spent there before. Riley was proud of the man who so confidently appraised horses and riders. Other men regarded his husband with a combination of awe and some very definite lust. Who wouldn't look at Jack with lust; it was something Riley did every damn day. He amused himself with a combination of watching Jack and the other cowboys and cowgirls who streamed from one event to the other. The barrel racing may well be the part of the rodeo Jack was judging, but to be honest Riley was drawn to the bull riding.

It was something about the power in the rider's arms and legs, the strength of muscles that tensed and released with the violent movements of the bull they were riding. The clowns were bright and welcome when a participant hit dirt and the bulls were big and nasty and dangerous. A couple of times Riley noticed Austin Hemmings in the periphery and wondered if the guy was here to compete. The irrationally jealous part of Riley wanted Austin to last no more than two seconds on the bull's back before landing on his ass in the dirt. Safely of course. No broken bones or goring. Riley wasn't entirely evil in his thoughts.