Inherit the Sky (Lang Downs 1 ) (27 page)

Caine simply bucked his hips harder, urging Macklin to move.
He’d proven the night before that even if he came first, he wouldn’t
leave Caine hanging, and that was good enough for Caine now.
Burying one hand in Macklin’s shaggy hair, he pulled his lover down
for a kiss. The other hand dug into Macklin’s ass, for leverage and
encouragement both.
That silent permission given, Macklin stopped holding back,
driving into Caine with all the force and fury Caine had imagined.
Caine planted his feet on the mattress and met Macklin thrust for thrust,
reveling in the clash of bodies as they strove for mutual pleasure.
Macklin worked a hand between them, closing his fist around Caine’s
cock and shunting along its length in time with their movements. Caine
threw his head back, a choked cry escaping as his orgasm blindsided
him. Macklin pounded into him a few more times, extending Caine’s
release, and then Macklin was shuddering against him, his hips
stuttering as he collapsed on top of Caine.
Caine stroked Macklin’s hair and back as their breathing returned
to normal. Eventually he felt able to speak again. “You didn’t learn to
make love like that fucking in an alley.”
Macklin shrugged. “No, but I’ve had a lot of years alone in this
bed to dream of what it might be like to have a lover, of what I’d want
someone to do to me and what I’d want to do in return. I tried a few of
them, and you seemed to like them,so I tried a few more.” Caine leaned up and kissed Macklin tenderly. “Try as many as
you like. I won’t complain.”
“You’ll tell me if you don’t like something, though, right?” “Of course,” Caine promised. “And you’ll let me try a few things
out on you too.”
“I’ll try,” Macklin agreed.
Caine figured that was the best he was going to get at this point,
so he wriggled out from under Macklin and snuggled against him.
Macklin rolled away for a moment to toss the condom, but he kept one
hand on Caine’s hip as he did, making it clear he wasn’t really pulling
away. “I guess I should clean us up.”
“Use your dirty boxers,” Caine said. “I don’t want you to move
now. We can clean up in the morning.”

“You’ll have to get up early if you stay,” Macklin warned. “You
have to be back at your house before anyone else is up.”
Caine suppressed a sigh. “I know,” he said simply. “I’d rather
wake up earlythan spend the night alone.”
“I’ll set the alarm.”
Caine grimaced when he saw Macklin had set the alarm for four
thirty. That was so early Caine almost got up and left, but while he
would accept Macklin’s need for discretion for a time, he wouldn’t
accept not sharing a bed with his lover. He’d keep trying to convince
Macklin to relax his restrictions, and in the meantime, he’d abide by
Macklin’s desires. It really was better than sleeping alone.

C
AINE grumbled to himself all the way home the next morning in the predawn chill. He had slept poorly, the comfort of Macklin’s arms warring with the awareness he would have to wake up in a matter of hours, and so he had jarred himself awake every half an hour or so to check the clock so he wouldn’t overstay his welcome. He’d make Macklin sleep in his house tonight so Macklin would have to be the one to get up and leave, not Caine.

Opening the door quietly, Caine slipped through the dark room toward the stairs.
“It’s a little early for a walk.”
Startled, Caine spun around, searching for the owner of the voice. “K-kami, you scared me.”
“If you’d turned on a light instead of skulking around in the dark like a Galah, you would have seen me.” Kami switched on the light as he spoke. Caine blinked a couple of times as his eyes adjusted.
“I c-c-couldn’t sleep. I went for a w-walk.”
Kami pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his broad chest, making Caine feel like a student called before the principal.
Caine looked away guiltily. “I fell asleep at Macklin’s house. We were talking and I must have dozed off. I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, so I came home when I woke up.”

“Seeing you sneaking in at four thirty is far more likely to give people ideas than you walking out of his house at a reasonable hour like you didn’t have anything to hide,” Kami pointed out, “but I don’t believe that’s the truth either.”
“Why is this your business?” Caine asked.
“Because Macklin’s my friend. If you’re just messing around, you need to stop now,” Kami ordered. “Having the men find out you were fucking around with him would ruin him.”
“And if I’m not just f-fucking around?” Caine asked. “If I want history to repeat itself too?”
“Then you need to start acting like you’re proud of him and your relationship,” Kami advised. “The men respect strength. If you’re strong enough to stand up for yourself and for him, they’ll shrug and move on. If you act like you have something to be ashamed of, they’ll never let you live it downand you’ll both be laughingstocks.”
“He’s the one who’s afraid to stand up for us,” Caine said softly. “Not me.”
“Because he knows what could happen,” Kami insisted, “but you’re different. You’re the boss. They don’t have to like you, but they can’t drive you off. If you’re strong enough to win their respect, Macklin’s position won’t ever be in doubt, but if they can’t respect you, how can they respect him when he’s with you?”
“How do I do that?” Caine asked.
“You be yourself,” Kami said. “All of yourself. You’ve got your uncle’s strength or you wouldn’t have lasted more than a few weeks out here. The men have begun to see that. They don’t call you blow-in anymore. Now it’s time to let them see the rest of you. That doesn’t mean you have to make any big scene. Macklin would skewer us both if you did, but you can’t act like you’re ashamed of him. No more hiding, Caine, because if they find out without it being on your terms, you’ll have a much harder time winning them back over.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Caine said. “I have to talk to Macklin first, though. I can’t do anything without at least warning him what I intend to do.”
“That’s fine,” Kami said, “but the longer you wait, the harder it will be. Now get upstairs and get cleaned up. I have breakfast to make.”

“Thank you, Kami,” Caine said, hugging the other man impulsively. “I won’t let you or Macklin or Uncle Michael down.”
“I don’t think you will at that,” Kami agreed, patting Caine’s back before sending him toward the stairs with a gentle shove.
Caine climbed the stairs and walked into his bedroom, his thoughts racing as he pulled off yesterday’s clothes and found something to put on after his shower. He’d known Kami was sympathetic, but he hadn’t considered going to the man for advice. Now he wished he’d thought to ask sooner, not that it had really been an issue before now. He walked into the bathroom and turned the water on hot. He needed a plan because he had no real idea how to do what Kami suggested.
The first step, he supposed, would be to let people know he was gay. Coming out had been anticlimactic as a teenager. He had two older cousins, one on each side of his family, who were gay, married now in Massachusetts and Maine, but even before they got married, Caine had their example and his family’s acceptance of them to assure him of his own. They had given him the sex talk his parents hadn’t known how to give, they’d given him his first box of condoms, and they’d helped him download his first gay porn. In college, he’d joined the Gay Straight Alliance right away, and when he moved to Philadelphia, he’d spent most of his time in the Gayborhood even before he lived there. He wouldn’t get the same reaction here.
It didn’t matter. The men respected strength, both Kami and Macklin had said repeatedly. Fine. He would be strong and face down their reactions, whatever they were. Maybe he’d lose a few men in the process, but they’d deal with that if it happened. The important thing was not to falter where they could see him. He had to be the strong, confident man he’d never known how to be.
He thought about Macklin, lying in bed, too edgy to make love to him this morning because of the time. He didn’t want his life to go that way. He wanted to wake up with his lover, his partner, and make love if they felt like it, or snuggle back beneath the covers and simply hold each other if they didn’t feel like making love. He wanted a life with Macklin, and if having that life meant tapping reserves he hadn’t known he had before coming to the outback, then that’s what he’d do.