Hard Luck Ranch (3 page)

He relaxed his throat and took another inch of Everett’s big dick. Then another. Until finally, with a tremendous effort as if he were swallowing a huge rock, his lips met the crisp golden hair at the base of Everett’s shaft and he held all of his lover’s member inside his mouth.

Performing this feat always gave him a wonderful feeling of fulfilment and protectiveness. He was sheltering Everett’s most vulnerable body part inside himself. Every other day, during every other moment, it was Everett who was strong, who protected the town, but at this moment, it was he who held the big man within him.

Everett’s fingers tightened in his hair and Kenneth knew that his lover was growing restless. So he withdrew his mouth and replaced his fingers at the base of Everett’s cock and started to rub it vigorously as he eagerly licked and sucked at the rounded tip.

Hot spunk spurted into his mouth, coating his tongue with its salty-sweet taste. He drew strongly on Everett’s shaft to suck out the last few creamy drops and Everett cried out hoarsely, his powerful body clenching and unclenching in an age old rhythm. Kenneth stroked his muscular thighs in an attempt to soothe him. At last, he let Everett’s dick slip from his mouth, feeling a stab of mournful loss that had become familiar.

Kenneth lay sprawled across Everett’s thighs as both men waited for their breathing to return to normal. But Kenneth didn’t feel any of the satisfaction Everett did.

He shifted, trying to ignore the stiff rod hanging between his own legs.

This was for Everett, he told himself. He mustn’t be selfish.

But Everett wasn’t about to let him get away with that.

He pushed his strong fingers through Kenneth’s tumbled red-gold hair. “What about you, Ken?” he asked huskily.

Kenneth lifted his head to meet his eyes, his heart pounding with renewed emotion. How he loved this incredible, sexy man!

He smiled up at Everett. “I’m a big boy, Ev. I can take care of myself.”

Everett’s blond brows came down over his gray eyes. A corner of his mouth lifted in what was almost a smile, but not quite.

He cupped Kenneth’s cheek. “I know you are, Ken. But why should you? That’s what I’m here for.”

He’d stopped slurring his words, Kenneth noticed, and there was certainly no hint of inebriation in the way Everett tossed him face down on the bed and pinned him there with one hard thigh. Kenneth’s blood pounded through his veins for an altogether different reason—not love, but its red hot cousin, lust.

Everett made short work of unbuttoning Kenneth’s trousers and shoving them down to his knees. Then he lowered his head to Kenneth’s ass and, parting his pale cheeks, gave his asshole a thorough licking.

As Kenneth started to moan, Everett moved his hand around to find his member and give it a slow rubdown. Kenneth’s moans became screams as he tried to push his ass into Everett’s face and shove his dick into his capable hand. He couldn’t do both at the same time so his hips merely rocked helplessly, fucking Everett’s strong fingers with his shaft while his asshole grew hot and moist with his spit.

Finally, when Kenneth could take no more, Everett hauled him up onto his knees, positioned himself behind, and entered his ass with a single thrust.

Everett caressed Kenneth’s cock, giving him time to grow accustomed to the huge rod up his rear chute. Then, when Kenneth started to push back against his hips, Everett held him still with his hands and proceeded to fuck his ass slowly and mercilessly.

Kenneth came first. It felt like he’d been so hard for so long. He’d devoured Everett’s dick and now this was his reward as he ejaculated into his lover’s sturdy hand.

“Good lad,” Everett murmured into his ear, continuing to play with Kenneth’s gently swaying balls.

The words made Kenneth feel warm all over. Even better than Everett’s penis and his tough but tender lovemaking was his love and approval.

If only he could have both—forever.

Everett continued fucking Kenneth’s asshole with strong strokes, gradually picking up speed until the whole bed was shaking with the force of his thrusts. Sweat poured off their bodies, lubricating their skin to glistening slickness. Their grunts made up a chorus that filled the air.

Finally Everett shoved his cock deep inside Kenneth’s moist hole and gave a shout of release, his spunk pouring into Kenneth’s ass. So much spurted out that it dripped and stained Kenneth’s crease and thighs with hot liquid.

As Everett fucked Kenneth’s ass ever more slowly now as he wrung out the last few drops from his climax, Kenneth turned his head and sought out his kiss. They pressed their mouths together in a tender kiss, tangling their tongues sweetly, tasting their bodies on each other’s lips.

Kenneth still had Everett’s spunk in the corners of his mouth when he collapsed on the bed beside him. He loved the way Ev looked at these times, relaxed and satiated from their lovemaking.

He reached out to smooth the tumbled blond strands from Everett’s damp forehead.

“I love you, Ev. So very much.”

Everett pulled Kenneth’s hand down to his mouth and kissed it but he didn’t say the words in return. He never had.

Chapter Three

Standing at her bedroom window, plaiting her long hair, Emma greeted the new day with a feeling of happy contentment.

She was in love. With her new husband. How wonderful was that?

She hadn’t loved him two weeks ago when they’d been married in the stuffy front parlor of Reverend Maybee’s home. Instantly upon meeting the good preacher, she’d disliked his round doughy face and sulky red-lipped mouth. But least of all to her liking were his eyes, which were small and shined with a fanatical light.

No, she hadn’t liked the preacher or his quiet, cow-like family who’d come to witness her wedding to Wes. And, on that first day, neither had she been so sure how she’d felt about her new husband.

He seemed nice and was good-looking enough even to please finicky city tastes, but something about their first meeting had left a strange worry in the back of her head. Glancing back, she thought it had had to do with that friend of his, the sheriff.

During the last few weeks, Wes had spoken often of his closest friend, and always favorably. Yet the other man hadn’t attended their wedding or visited the ranch since that first meeting. Though Wes didn’t say a word about the estrangement, Emma could tell that he regretted it. And she couldn’t get the idea out of her head that the rift was partly her fault.

Everett Montgomery was apparently a confirmed bachelor and perhaps he’d expected his friend to remain in the same state. Yet Wes seemed pleased and happy with his decision to marry her.

“Oh good, you’re up.”

The warm voice made her smile. To think that less than a month ago, she wouldn’t have recognized him on the street! Now he was the most important person in her life.

Emma turned, raising her eyebrows inquisitively. “Why shouldn’t I be up, husband of mine?”

Wes walked swiftly toward her then swept her into his strong arms. He lowered his head to search out her ear.

“Well, you did have an…active night. I thought you would be tired this morning.”

Emma threaded her arms around his sunburnt neck and stared up into his good-natured face. “I know I ought to be—as I ought to have been tired the morning before and the one before that. Yet I haven’t been tired since that very first morning. Perhaps I am growing accustomed to the…activity.”

“No doubt,” Wes agreed, his eyes solemn but his mouth twitching at the corners. “I’ve heard that it is good exercise. Perhaps you are growing stronger from it and less inclined to be fatigued.”

Emma didn’t do as complete a job in suppressing her own laughter. She liked it when Wes tried to match what he called her ‘city speech’. Contrary to the dire predictions her friends back home had given her to expect from a new husband, she’d found Wes eager to be corrected in such matters as grammar and pronunciation. He was even starting to read from the small library she’d brought with her and promised to order more books once those ran out.

Emma sighed. Truly, she should be content with her married life. And yet…

She leaned back to gain a better vantage of her husband. “Have you heard from your friend Mr Montgomery as of yet?”

At her urging, Wes had agreed to put together a party to celebrate their new marriage since their wedding had necessarily been such a hasty affair. She’d suggested inviting Everett Montgomery specially.

A shadow passed over Wes’ normally sunny face. “If you’re asking if he accepted our invitation yet then no, he hasn’t.”

“Are you certain that he received it?” Emma worried. The postal service back home was rather erratic.

“Arnie hand-delivered each one,” Wes pointed out, naming one of his ranch hands. “Although it could be that Ev pitched his straight into a trash heap and Arnie was too afraid to tell me.”

“I don’t imagine he would do that,” Emma said, somewhat uncertainly.

Wes leaned and kissed her hard on the lips, sending a now familiar thrill down the center of her body straight to her pussy. Wes had taught her that word, along with many others. Back home, all the pieces that belonged uniquely to a man or a woman were simply referred to as ‘private parts’, but generally they weren’t mentioned at all.

Wes had taught her to love her pussy rather than be ashamed of it. Now, she was eager to spread her thighs to let him see it…and kiss it…and lick it up like ice cream. Meanwhile, she’d learned how to touch and stroke his cock and to tickle the head of it with the tip of her tongue. But best of all was when he pushed it into her cunny after he’d already made it nice and wet with his mouth and fingers, and he held her down and pounded his dick in and out of her, she visited heaven every time. It was a place where she thought she might like to live. Just as she’d started to love living at Hard Luck Ranch with Wes and Arnie and even Dorry.

But the stories Wes told about the ranch, they always involved Everett. Without the man there, it was as if the ranch wasn’t quite home for her husband.

Emma decided it was about time she did something about that.

* * * *

“Sheriff?”

Everett was feeling pretty rotten, sick and hung-over, so it wasn’t surprising that at first he thought that sweet feminine voice was a figment of his imagination. But when he looked up from his plain wooden desk, a lovely vision matching the voice stood before him.

Pristine and perfect in a flower-like pink dress, complete with layers of luxurious ruffles and edged with lace, the woman standing in the dusty sheriff’s office was an incongruous sight. Her heart-shaped face glowed above the demure neckline while a wide straw hat sheltered it from above. Still, he could see curls of blue-black hair escaping from beneath the hat’s brim and blue eyes gleamed from under its shade.

Only one woman in Desert Rose was that bandbox perfect.

Emma Miller. Wes’ wife.

Everett got to his feet as courtesy demanded, although he took his time doing so. His guest seemed to realize that as well for her lips tightened momentarily.

Odd, how that tiny telltale gesture caused his crotch to tighten. He’d been attracted to women before—Lord knew it was difficult enough finding another man in these parts who was willing to admit to the same predilection—but something about this one’s city sheen made him lustier than he’d ever been for a member of the opposite sex.

He had to swallow hard before he could speak.

“What can I do for you, Mrs Miller?”

Instead of responding right away, Emma Miller strode across to his desk then snatched a piece of paper from it.

“You can read this and answer it, to start with,” she said.

He recognized the heavy piece of card without any difficulty—the invitation to Hard Luck Ranch. How it had stuck in his craw.

An invitation to Hard Luck. For him. Him, who’d grown up there, who’d never really wanted to leave until it became obvious that it would never do if he stayed on with Wes. Two bachelors living together, Wes had hinted, wouldn’t be too seemly.

So he’d left—and a part of his heart had remained behind on the ranch.

Now Wes and this woman—this, this stranger!—wanted to invite him back to his long-time home to celebrate their marriage.

It was absolutely the last thing Everett ever intended on celebrating.

“I’ve got your answer,” he drawled, striving not to betray the depth of his emotion on the subject, “and I can give it to you right now if you’re in such a rush for it. I respectfully decline, Mrs Miller. Please let your husband know.”

Amazingly, those blue eyes flashed sparks at him. “I will do no such thing,” she insisted. “I will not go back home and give Wesley such a hateful, hurtful reply.”

Everett tugged at his hat. “Suit yourself,” he told her. “Good day, madam.”

It was time for a drink anyway. A drink at the tavern then a pleasurable hour in Kenneth’s room. His groin tightened just thinking about it. Not Emma. No, those blue sparks weren’t the reason he was feeling so horny.

When he glanced down, she was still there. Still flashing away. Due to their differences in height, he could see down her bodice, despite the modest style of her dress. Lush pale curves rose up to fill out the gown.

With the slightest of movements, he could hook his fingers into the lacy edge and pull the entire bodice down.

What would her nipples look like? Would they be big and brown or small and pink?

He looked back into her face. It was getting red. He’d stared too long at her breasts and they both knew it.

“If you want to refuse Wesley’s invitation and break his heart,” she said, too loudly in the empty office, “then you can very well do it yourself. After all these years of friendship, you owe him that much.”

Everett pursed his lips in a silent whistle. The lady had some nerve. He owed Wes, according to her.
He
owed
Wes
.

“As if Wes don’t owe me for making love to me then adamantly withholding his love afterwards.”

“What did you say?”

Everett tried to focus on the woman again but he could make no sense of her wide eyes and the hand she clutched to her chest as if he’d dealt her a blow. It was the liquor. He could barely think.