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some point fairly soon; it was that kind of night.

Jake settled himself next to Tor and considered the coals a moment before leaning forward to stir

up the fire and toss another few sticks of found wood on top. "You were right," he said, glancing at Tor and tugging the blanket up over his shoulders. It wasn’t cold yet, but it would get there.

Tor gave him a lazy smile. "I know. Feels good, yeah?"

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"Yeah," Jake agreed. "Damn fine. Didn't know it had gotten that bad."

"I told you," Tor pointed out, not unkindly. "You worry me, Taggart. So damn stubborn."

Jake shrugged a shoulder. "I guess," he said. "Don't know how to stop it, though. I just… this is what I do, what I am."

"Only part of it," Tor said, leaning closer. "You always take care of what's yours, yes. And me and the ranch and Jacob, we're all yours, no mistake. But the last few months, you've been way over the

top, cowboy. I ain't kidding when I say you're going to work yourself up to ulcers."

Jake sighed. Talking was getting easier, but it was only because he was alone with Tor, miles from

everything, that he could force the words out of his mouth. "I'm scared, I think," he said, looking at the fire. "It's so fucking much. Ranch. Being the boss and making sure people have jobs. Jacob."

He swallowed hard and turned to give Tor a fast look. "My sister died. She just… died. Anyone

could. You could. Can't control that, can't plan for it, can't stop it."

"Jake," Tor breathed, a hand suddenly, gently, on Jake's face. "That what this is about?"

Jake nodded sharply, pushing into Tor's hand. "Think so," he admitted. "Kind of stupid, but there it is. I'm running everything because I'm running nothing, not really. Everything's tethered so fucking

poorly. One accident and the world ends."

Tor didn't say anything, just kissed him, kissed his jaw, his mouth, his cheeks. Tiny, rapid little

kisses, not breathing at all, and all the while, pulling Jake closer to him, manhandling him until

Jake was wrapped in blankets and Tor, so tight he couldn't get free if he'd tried.

"I'm sorry," Jake tried to explain, tried to take some of the pain away. "I didn't see it."

"Hush." Tor's voice was rough, and he started breathing again, mostly in harsh gasps. "Right here, I'm right here, and I'm not ever going to leave. No accidents, no walking away."

"Can't promise me that," Jake whispered, twisting until he could touch Tor back. "Can't."

"I can," Tor insisted. "Have to. There's nothing that'll tear me away from you, Jake. Not one fucking thing. Can't be."

Jake knew that was wrong, that it wasn't a promise that could be kept, but it didn't matter. Even if

Tor couldn't stop it from happening, the fierce determination in his voice, the way he loved Jake

with every heartbeat, that was important. That he would stop the universe in its tracks if he could so

he could make things whole for Jake… that mattered.

It mattered that Tor was damn near choking, his breathing still rough and uneven. It mattered that

when Jake reached up to him, touched his cheek with work-scarred fingers, they got damp. There

wasn't anything more powerful than that, the promise there in Tor's eyes and not in the words.

"Okay," Jake said, curling himself into Tor and letting him clutch at Jake as much as he wanted.

"Ain't gonna happen." His heart tripped up and he could feel them both shaking more than a little.

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"Won't let it," Tor insisted and Jake smiled.

"Stubborn," he said in a low voice.

"Damn right. You and me, take on anything. We can outstubborn anyone, anywhere and anytime."

Jake's smile turned into a grin. "Probably," he agreed.

After a few moments Tor reached out and snagged a belt from the pile of leather, chaps and belts

all tangled up, then tossed it back with a muttered, "Wrong one." Then he pulled the other one to them, and held it up. "Now, what are we going to do about this?" he asked, breathing steady again and his fingers caressing the belt holes. "You're tightening up another notch, don't think I didn't notice."

"You notice everything," Jake said, batting his eyelashes.

"Stop that, and don't change the subject." Tor gave him a stern look. "You're needing to take better care of yourself. Don't make me get all pissy again."

Jake sighed and took the belt from him, touched the dent where his buckle now sat. "Yeah, I

know," he admitted. "I'll try."

"Let go? Stop checking the books, stop hovering over Jacob, let the rest of us take on some of the worry?" Tor pressed.

Jake nodded. "Yeah."

"Play with Lego, ride for fun and sleep better? Eat more?'

"I eat." God, how he ate. Apparently stress burned a lot of food.

"Keep eating," Tor amended, his fingers on the belt with Jake's.

"All right," Jake agreed. He kind of thought he'd agree to a lot of things if Tor kept holding him and touching his hands like that. Sneaky bastard, taking him out in the wild and treating him right.

"Okay, then," Tor said with a nod. Then he rolled them over and pushed Jake to the ground, a tan
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gle of blankets and limbs. "Good man."

"Do I get a prize?" Jake asked, liking his new position rather a lot. He wiggled under Tor and grinned up at him, appreciating the hard ridge of Tor's cock nestled on his hip. There was the prize

right there.

"I think I have something for you, yeah," Tor said, grinning back. He moved too, but it wasn't ran
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dom wiggling like Jake; he shifted with purpose, his hands stroking down Jake's arms to his wrists

and then grasping them firmly. "We're all alone out here," he said expectantly.

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"Noticed that," Jake said, looking at the nothing all around them, save some livestock and an exhausted dog curled up near the fire.

Tor's grin grew a sharp edge. "Can make some noise," he said, dragging Jake's arms up over his head and looping the length of Jake's belt around his hands and wrists.

Jake nodded, suddenly having a harder time breathing again. "True," he said, all parts of his body reporting in. His back was happily on the blanket, his cock was getting close to rigid, his legs were

parting without him telling them to, and his hands were flexing, testing the belt.

Tor laughed at him and rolled his hips, pushing against Jake in a slow, hard grind. "Gonna keep

being a good man? Do what you're told?"

"If you want me to," Jake said, his tongue darting out to lick suddenly dry lips. "If you don't, then no."

That got him a chuckle. "So I win, either way? Sweet."

Jake tossed his head and tugged at the belt, his boots digging into the dirt as he met Tor's grind with his own. "You don't have other jeans," he pointed out.

"Aw, always thinking of me." Tor kissed him, tongue pushing in and tasting. "Stay," he said as he rolled away. "Where's the lube?"

Jake's body clenched tight, relaxation fleeing. "Don't know," he said, looking around. "Saddlebag."

Tor got up and went to find it, stripping off his shirts as he went and tossing them to the side, away

from the fire. Jake watched him, his skin smooth and catching the light from the fire and the orange

glow of the sky. His breath caught again, and with bound wrists he started tugging at his own

clothes. He had no trouble with his fly, but his shirts were hopeless so he abandoned them to con-

centrate on his boots.

"Stop," Tor said, grabbing at his hands. "Leave 'em." He shoved Jake back and followed him down, kissing him hard enough to bruise Jake's mouth, his hands pushing under Jake's shirts and rubbing

over his belly. Calluses dragged and scraped, and Tor moaned, his hands seeming to be every-

where.

Then they were gone, leaving searing trails on Jake's skin, and Jake could feel Tor fumbling with

his button and zipper. One pair of jeans opened and then the other, fabric yanked aside as Tor bared

them, pushed them together.

The heat from Tor's body was stunning, overcoming the glow from the fire even, and Jake moved

against him, unable not to. They were making noise, not the cries and yells that were likely still to

come, but grunts and moans and muttered fragments of words as they turned and twisted. Two

pairs of boots kicked up dust, and Jake struggled with his arms, bound up and keeping him from

doing what he wanted.

That he couldn't touch as much of Tor's naked back as he wanted to made his cock swell and throb.

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That Tor knew it and made all the more effort to keep him pinned down had him gasping even

harder than he normally would.

"Christ," Jake swore, nipping at Tor's jaw in growing frustration.

"Uh-huh." Tor ground against him, distracted him with a kiss that went on until Jake's lungs ached, and then fingers dug into Jake's hips turning him, rolling him.

Jake swore again as Tor's rough and wet fingers probed at him, the angle awkward and wrong, and

that annoyance piling on top of the frustration. He didn’t think he'd been harder in his life. It was

perfect.

But Tor was snarling, too, and then he was gone, up and over and jerking Jake over onto his belly,

yanking him back up onto his hands and knees. Jake wasn't sure that he'd be able to hold himself

up, his balance shot by the way his wrists were bound, his attention caught by the clink of his belt

buckle on the rocks and the tail of it tickling the inside of his arm.

"Better," Tor growled into his ear, his chest laid out over Jake's back. "So much better." He panted, smoothed lube over and into Jake and then gasped as he pushed in, his ring breaching Jake first.

"God damn."

Jake nodded, his head hanging low. "Come on," he said, words almost lost as he inhaled sharply.

He was trembling, his legs feeling weak already and the head of his cock catching on his shirt as it

hung off him. Every whisper of the fabric tore through him, bolts of fire rushing through his body.

"Hurry."

Tor grunted and pushed in, hot and hard and filling him with an almost brutal thrust, and froze.

Time stopped, the seconds stretching out to frame years, and Jake could see it all. Tor owned him,

body and soul, and there wasn't any way Jake would change that. He breathed the air around them

and drew Tor into his lungs, into his blood, and it was better than right, it was living. He was

grounded on the solid flesh of an imperfect man, and only the thundering sound of his heartbeat

was louder than the air gusting past his ear in an irregular rhythm.

"Tor," he said softly, loudly, the word stretching out and up and filling the camp, the pasture, the land, the sky.

"Jake."

And then they moved, only by instinct and without any finesse. If Jake had wanted to gather his

head enough to really please Tor, to work some magic of his own, he couldn't. It wasn't needed, it

wasn't even particularly wanted. They were free to do whatever they wanted because they were

there, in that place and together.

His shirt caught at him again and he couldn't twitch it away, couldn't use his hands for anything

other than keeping himself upright, and it was enough, not being able to move as much as the insis-

tent cling of his now damp shirt, and it made him scream Tor's name to the sky again, made his fin-

gers dig into the grit and dirt as he came.

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The cattle spooked, the horses kicked up a fuss, and Jake felt Tor go, heard his name, and ignored

everything but Tor spilling and saying what Jake had always known to be true. Some truths had to

be spoken to be real, but not that one.

It made it precious, though, those few times they said the words, like a gift. A glittery treasure they shared between them, something no one else could see, so when he heard it, Jake did what he always did when he held that gift. He savored the words, tasted their color and memorized the way

they sounded, and then he gave them back. Lying on the ruined blanket, his land under his nails

and Tor heavy on his back, he said, "I love you, too."

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Fair Weather

Cath came for Thanksgiving, taking a few days extra on either side of the holiday between business

trips and extending the weekend. When she drove into the yard in time for a late lunch, Jacob

bounded out to her, already talking about Cobi before she was even out of her car.

"So, you're telling me you really want to show off your horse?" she teased, gathering him into a tight hug.

"Yes!" he said, then immediately looked chagrined. "Um, after you've said hi to Uncle Jake and Uncle Tor, I guess."

Jake shook his head, grinning. "Hey, you," he said when he got his turn to hug her. "Good drive?"

"It was all right, yeah," she said with a nod, turning to Tor. "You look good. Finally got this one to settle down?"

"Yup," Tor said, chuckling. "Only took a few months."

"That's why I let you do it," Cath said with a wink. "I would have brained him."

"Hey, now," Jake said mildly. "I wasn't that bad."

All three of them stared at him in frank disbelief.

"Oh, shut up," he said, rolling his eyes. "Okay, coffee is on. But I think you should go to the barn and let Jacob introduce you to the animals. Tor and I'll take your stuff in for you, then we'll give

you a proper tour after you've had something to eat."

Cath looked at Jacob, who was almost quivering, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Oh, all

right," she laughed. "Lead on." She tossed her car keys to Jake and started after Jacob, shaking her head. "Oh, hey," she said, turning back with a gleam in her eye. "Elias around?"

Jake blinked at her and Tor almost choked on a laugh. "Behave!" Jake told them both. "That's not funny!"