Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nate watched from the broken fence as Josh said goodbye to his dad. Gabe stood by his side and said nothing, even when Lewis touched Ashley on the arm. Gabe looked tense and stressed.
"He put his hands on her," he muttered.
"That wasn't anything," Nate said, firmly in big-brother mode. "Anyway, Jay is down there with them."
"He hurt her, bullied her. He hurt Josh."
"Jay won't let that happen again."
"I want to help her."
Gabe had his hands in fists and Nate placed a settling hand on his brother's arm. They couldn't say anymore because Kirsten walked toward them and came to a halt behind Gabe.
"I hate he gets to come here," she faux whispered. "Mom hates it, and I really think Jay may kill him one day."
Nate frowned. "Jay isn't capable of killing someone."
"He was the one who got Josh to the hospital. He wanted Lewis put away for life." The single word "Lewis" was saturated with disdain. "The thing is, Lewis being a lawyer had its perks. He ended up with soft time and only four years. Look at him. He's out in three."
"Lewis was a lawyer?"
"Intimidating asshole," Kirsten muttered.
Nate glanced at her, then did a double take. This wasn't the Kirsten he knew. She was wearing black, admittedly, but her hair was all one color and shorter, in some kind of bob thing held away from her face by probably an entire can of hairspray or gel or whatever, and she wasn't wearing makeup.
"You look…." Was it appropriate to comment on a teenager and how she looked? His only real experience with teenagers was Luke, and he was a whole different ball game.
"What?" Kirsten tilted her head to punctuate the question.
"Pretty," he finished.
She dimpled prettily. "You think?" She said this with doubt in her voice. "Luke said he wanted to take some more photos, so I thought I'd… y'know." She waved a hand at her fitted black shirt with thin silver stripes and her black skirt, which was short enough to reveal long slim legs.
"He'll love it."
"I wasn't doing it for him," she protested.
"I know. Nonetheless, he will love it."
Together in silence they watched Lewis leave, and as soon as the car rounded the bend, Gabe was down by Ashley and Josh. Gabe hugged Ashley and Nate smiled as Josh asked to be hugged as well. On the ground next to Josh was a box, and Nate assumed this was the iPad or whatever Lewis had bought him. Ashley scooped up the box, and together the three of them walked into the Sullivans' house.
"I like your brother, Nate," Kirsten said. "I like him a lot."
With that, she left, and Nate waited and watched as Jay stared into the distance and the direction the car had gone. Finally, Jay turned, and with a wave to Nate, he disappeared back into the office.
What had happened in the office earlier was mind-blowing. The sex they had—the lovemaking , he corrected himself—was intense and new and enough to make Nate weak-kneed. He'd decided he was keeping Jay. Nate simply had to make Jay see that a cowboy was exactly what he needed.
That was the hard part.
Luke ambled out of his room looking all kinds of nervous. It didn't take a genius to wonder why. He was going with Gabe down to the Sullivan place for dinner—he'd been invited by Kirsten, and that was the icing on the cake with all the Sullivans accounting for all the Todds in one fell swoop.
Nate scruffed Luke's hair, which he knew would send his brother straight back to a mirror. He was right.
"So are you girlfriend-boyfriend now?" he asked curiously when Luke came back out.
Luke blushed scarlet. "No, she's just a friend," he said quickly. A little too fast to Nate's ears.
"What about you?" Nate asked Gabe as he came into the room as well. Seemed as if Gabe had taken the same care and attention with his appearance as Luke had.
"What about me what?" Gabe grabbed a jacket and shrugged it on.
"Are you and Ashley girlfriend-boyfriend?" Nate smirked as he asked.
Gabe shook his head in despair. "What are you? Twelve?"
Luke sniggered and was first out the door. "Don't wait up, Mom," he called back at Nate.
"Ass" was the most Nate could come up with.
With both brothers gone, Nate was alone. He was expecting company, and tonight he had a lot to say to Jay. Starting from how the man wasn't allowed to leave Crooked Tree, ever , and ending with the truth about how Nate felt about him. He wasn't nervous, but he'd changed three times and checked and rechecked the chicken-in-a-pot thing that Sam had given him. He poked it with a fork and contemplated whether "simmering" was the odd bubble in the sauce or whether he should turn it up some. A knock at the door had him replacing the lid and hoping to hell he wasn't fucking up something Sam had prepared so nicely for him.
"I passed Gabe and Luke on the way down to ours," Jay observed, "sniggering about boyfriends like a couple of kids. Guess they're talking about us." He shrugged off his heavy coat, gloves, and hat, and laid everything on a chair near the door. His hair spiked up from the hat and Jay patted it down while sniffing appreciatively. "You cook?"
Nate was rooted to the spot. Overwhelming emotions threatened to have him on his ass on the floor. He couldn't find any words—none of the clever things he had thought to say, and sudden embarrassment flooded him. Jay stepped close; he carried the scent of outside with him. Nate shook his head mutely. How could he think of being able to put into sensible language any of what he felt for Jay? How long had it been? Three weeks? Four? Hell, he'd lost count of the days he'd spent thinking about Jay.
"Are you okay, Nate?" Jay asked seriously. He placed a hand on Nate's chest, right over his heart, and pressed gently. "You're worrying me! Did something happen?"
Nate cradled Jay's face and stared into brown eyes filled with concern and not a small amount of confusion. He wanted to explain that he'd never felt this way before, that this was new, that it felt right. He wanted desperately to have the words to use and not only resort to showing Jay how he felt by using sex. In the end he kissed Jay softly and sighed as Jay melted against him. Jay's hand on Nate's chest was trapped between them, but Jay snaked the other until he gripped tightly Nate's bicep. The kiss deepened, and Nate spent a long time tasting Jay and growing more and more restless in his skin. They separated, but Nate kept his hands cradling Jay's face.
"We have chicken," he murmured.
"Is that what you wanted to tell me?" Jay asked with a smile.
"That, and other stuff," Nate replied. He slid one hand up into Jay's dark blond hair and tamed the spikes with his fingers. "Want to eat?"
Jay's stomach rumbled and they both laughed at the sound. In minutes, they were all at the small kitchen table, forking chicken into their mouths and washing it down with a bottle of white wine that Sam had chosen for them.
"God, that was delicious," Jay commented as he scraped his plate clean.
Nate finished his. "Sam's good." The two glasses of wine had gone straight to his head, and everything had a deliciously soft glow to it. Including his head.
He pushed the plate to one side and closed a hand over one of Jay's. "So I wanted to talk."
"Okay, I'm listening."
Nate nodded. The action gave him time to gather his thoughts. "I love you," he said quietly. "I can't imagine not seeing you every day, or having you go off and learn to ride somewhere else, or sleep in another man's bed, or love anyone else." He finished and exhaled noisily, then waited for a response, but all Jay did was stare at him. "Say something," Nate prompted.
"Okay," Jay began slowly. "If you think I would even consider getting on a horse if it weren't for you making me, you're mistaken. So you can cross that off your list of worries."
Nate frowned. "All I said, and you pick up on the horse thing?"
Jay tilted his head like he was deep in thought. "I kind of like your bed. It's big and sturdy and doesn't squeak like mine does. So I think I'm pretty happy agreeing to that point."
"The bed? Really?" Nate had to believe Jay was teasing him.
"And I work here, so I'm happy to see you every day. I can't really not see you every day."
A glint of something in Jay's eyes sent relief scurrying through Nate. Jay was teasing him. The fucker.
"So that just leaves the ‘love you' part." Jay leaned forward and Nate copied the movement instinctively. The table was too wide to kiss across, but they could lean close enough for Jay to whisper what he wanted to say and for Nate to hear him. "I love you too, Cowboy. So how about you give me a drawer in your room and I stay in your bed every night, you teach me how to ride Diablo, and how about we plan that I see you every day?"
"Really?"
"Really." Jay shook off Nate's hand and gathered up the plates to place in the sink. He turned on the hot tap and rinsed off the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. All the while Nate sat exactly where he was, watching Jay organize what was left of their dinner. Finally, Jay turned and leaned back against the sink.
"I need to make sure the bed is okay, really," he said firmly.
In a flurry of motion, Nate was up and dragging Jay into his bedroom. Jay was laughing and tugging back, and the combined effort caused them to trip and tumble in a tangle of legs and arms onto the large, sturdy bed. Jay landed on Nate, and the weight of him was intoxicating. Nate was already so damn turned on, and he widened his legs so that Jay could settle between them. They kissed lazily, and Nate slipped his hands up and under Jay's T-shirt before pushing it up in a bunch under his arms. A quick shimmy from Jay and the offending item was off, with Nate's following suit.
Nate couldn't recall a single memory of making love like this. With no particular goal and the quickest way to get there in mind. What he was doing here was all about learning, taste and touch. Intoxicating. The kissing turned to touching, and when Jay lifted a little to reach between them, Nate flipped them so he could cage Jay beneath him. Slowly he unbuttoned Jay's jeans and kissed each inch of skin exposed by removing the worn material. Nate concentrated for a long time on the stretch of skin across Jay's hipbones, and when he had Jay pushing up toward his touch, he knew he wanted more. Very deliberately he peeled down the jeans and boxers and pulled them off with the socks until after a short time Jay lay naked on the quilt. Jay's cock was thick with need and he kept palming himself; squirming at the touch.
"Hurry up," Jay ordered.
Nate was naked in seconds and climbing back up the bed, stopping at each knee and beginning to kiss a trail from knee to groin. Each kiss had Jay sighing, and when Nate reached the prize, Jay twisted his fingers into Nate's hair and encouraged him to get with the program.
Nate didn't argue; he didn't tease; he quietly set about sending Jay high with lips and tongue as he worshiped Jay's cock and brought him to the edge.
"Close…," Jay warned with a hitch in his breathing. "Stop." He used the grip in Nate's hair to push him away. "In me."
Nate rolled off and opened the top drawer of the cabinet next to the bed. He retrieved the condoms and lube. Slowly Nate set about stretching Jay enough so that he could get inside. He sucked Jay down and pressed fingers inside him, crooking one finger and sending Jay skyward. Massaging softly, he felt Jay swell impossibly in his mouth.
"No… God ." Jay whimpered. He arched into Nate's mouth, then down onto his fingers.
Nate couldn't wait any longer. He released Jay's cock and scrambled to a half sit. Jay made to turn over and offer his ass, but Nate stopped him and instead used his thighs to rock Jay back and spread his legs. With a press of his cock, he breached Jay, then pushed deeper as soon as Jay pleaded for him to do so. Nate checked for signs of discomfort, but all he saw in Jay's expression was obvious need.
"I love you," Nate said as he set a rhythm.
"I—I—l-love you," Jay said brokenly. He closed his eyes and it seemed like every muscle in him tensed. "So close."
"What you do to me," Nate said as he watched Jay come apart under him.
When Jay arched up and yelled his completion, Nate lost it inside him and bent to capture Jay's lips. Nate needed the connection so badly. They kissed as they fucked through the orgasm, and when they stilled, it was Jay who spoke first.
Jay patted the covers. "I think we need to test the bed again."