“How are you feeling?” Jack asked.
Riley had a thousand ways to answer the question. His feelings were complicated and all wrapped up in everything that had brought the two of them to this point in their lives.
“I’m good,” he said after a pause.
Jack turned on his side and placed a hand flat on Riley’s chest, right over his heart. “I was so scared,” he admitted. “Completely and utterly lost.”
Riley’s chest tightened. “I couldn’t imagine not being here with you.”
Jack sighed loudly. “You know, when it all happened, I wasn’t alone at all. I had everyone, but I didn’t want them. No one left me alone, and I hated it, and I realized just how much you are part of me. Despite the kids and siblings and friends, at the core of it is you and me.”
Riley had never heard anything so profound, and he placed his own hand over Jack’s.
“Jeez, Jack,” he murmured. “And you’re here in my heart.”
Jack nuzzled Riley’s neck with his nose, then pressed a kiss to Riley’s skin right at the pulse point in his throat.
Then he said something that was so Jack, so right, so perfect. “I think we need to fuck like rabbits before we turn into girls.”
Riley snorted a laugh, and soon the two men were sprawled on the bed laughing like loons. Only the arrival of room service actually broke them up from laughing so hard that Riley had tears running down his face.
Good tears.
* * * * *
The two men ate burgers and fries, but Jack couldn’t resist commenting. “These are like the tiniest burgers I’ve ever seen,” he muttered. Then he stabbed something on his plate and waggled it in front of Riley. “What the fuck is this doing on my plate?” he asked with exaggerated horror.
Riley stifled a laugh. The innocent tomato hung there in all its red glory, and in a swift move, Riley stole it. Then in the interest of fairness, he forked some bacon and watched as Jack took it from him. They’d nearly finished, but when Jack’s tongue darted out to lick the traces of salty goodness from his lips, it was Riley’s undoing. His cock, which had been half-hard watching Jack eat, went to full-on ready so fast he swore he would be dizzy from all the blood rushing south. Pushing away the meal on the small table, he climbed on the bed on all fours. Then he looked back at Jack, whose mouth was hanging open.
“Dammit, Jack, tell me you brought lube.”
Jack got with the program in what could have been called a comedy of errors. He tripped over shoes, got his hand tangled in the belt of the robe, and couldn’t find what he’d bought in the hotel shop. Finally he lifted the tube aloft like a trophy, and with great foresight, he gathered the dishes and pushed the table outside the room before putting the Do Not Disturb sign out and locking the door.
Finally he was on the bed, and Riley smiled at him with his best attempt at a sexy smile.
“Jeez, Riley,” Jack murmured. Then he was encouraging Riley onto his back. “I want to see your eyes,” he said softly.
Riley didn’t argue; he turned as instructed and what he saw really took his breath away. Jack was smiling down at him with so much love in his eyes it hurt to look.
They made love slowly. They’d already taken the edge off in the shower, and as Riley helpfully pointed out, Jack was thirty-five on May first and they should take it carefully now his age could be rounded up to forty.
Jack answered by pushing another lubed finger into Riley and making Riley arch off the bed with a whimper as Jack’s fingers gently caressed him inside.
“I’ll show you old,” Jack said in fake anger.
“’M ready,” Riley said. His voice was as ragged as the need that consumed him. Jack pushed inside, and it was like Riley was coming home.
He wrapped his legs around Jack, urging him on, until the rhythm they set was punishing and hot.
Jack came first, his neck muscles straining, a sheen of sweat on his skin. When he rested a little more on Riley, it was enough for Riley’s trapped cock to get more friction and he shouted his completion as he came between them.
“Know one thing, Riley Campbell-Hayes,” Jack said while Riley attempted to get his breath back. “I will always love you.”
Riley wanted to say something clever, coherent—hell, he’d be happy to string together words into a sentence. Instead all he managed as a lethargic peace stole his thoughts was “Back atcha.”
Chapter 19
Riley had a lot to celebrate. Beta Four had paid off, and finally he felt like he was in control of CH Consulting and the direction it was going in, and in control of the shit that had been in his head. It had been three months since the hotel room, and he was totally honest with Jack about every little thing he felt. He’d never felt more in love and more needed. The school was ready for taking its first students next week, and the July fourth celebrations had a double meaning. They were thankful for each other and family and also for everything they could do.
And before everyone arrived for barbecue and music, he and Jack were stealing time for a ride. It had been a long time since the two of them had carved out time for just riding with no purpose, and as they moved away from the house, Riley could feel himself relax inch by inch into what the day could hold.
“Logan will be here today, don’t forget,” Jack commented as they reached a high point toward the very end of D land. “Hayley seems okay, but …”
“Yeah, I actually think she might be over him for a while. She’s determined he’ll notice her when she’s twenty-one, so she’s biding her time.”
“She told you that?” Jack laughed. “Sounds like she has some of you in her.”
“Me?” Riley was affronted. “I’ll have you know I very rarely bide my time.”
“I remember, you were always more of a feetfirst, ask questions later kind of man.”
Riley reined Alex to a stop, and Jack followed suit with a question on his face. “What?” He looked around as if there would be something physical that Riley was looking at.
“You,” Riley said. “Sitting on Solo with the D behind you, looking all cowboy.” He smiled and was pleased when Jack smiled back. Then he leaned over and they kissed, deeper and more intense than they managed in the house with the kids. “We need some time so I can show you how fucking sexy you look.”
Jack sighed, then teased, “You want me to wear my hat again?”
Riley leaned over the saddle with his hands resting on the pommel. “Just the hat,” he confided.
They exchanged heated smiles, and only after the longest time did Jack move Solo forward and the two of them set off to the farthest extents of the D. The land to the east climbed to a series of tall hills; green and lush, the whole area was fed by a natural stream that wound its way down to the D itself. Solo took the lead, and Alex followed, up the winding flattened grass that hid a path underneath.
“I don’t get to come out this far as often as I want to,” Jack observed as they dismounted at the top of the tallest of the hills. “We used to have cattle out as far as here, when Dad was running the place. But the longer he was in control, the more the working side of the ranch contracted.”
“Did he sell land? I don’t remember hearing he’d sold off the land? I didn’t think he could?”
“No, it was just the horses. He couldn’t sell the land, it was Mom’s and was never in his name. Otherwise we’d probably only have the house, if that. He sold off cattle, the programs for breeding were shut down, not deliberately, but it was enough to decimate what we had here.”
“You remember that happening?” Riley sat cross-legged on the dirt and grass, and Jack sat next to him.
“I remember the arguments,” Jack answered. “You ask Josh, they were loud. Mom never did take kindly to Dad destroying what Grandpa had left. I think Dad hated it that he couldn’t sell the land. Anything to use in the legal shit he was embroiled in.” Jack’s expression was even, but he wasn’t holding back on memories.