Authors: Barbara Elsborg
“What the hell was that about?” Paul asked as his horse nervously pawed the ground.
None of the horses looked happy. Even Ring had trouble with his mount. Anxiety spread like flu among herd animals.
“You okay?” Gunner asked Jasper.
Jasper nodded. Nothing broken, but he was plenty bruised, particularly his pride.
“Gunner, come and hold Spider,” Calum called.
Jasper could see the concern in Calum’s eyes and forced himself to his feet. “You might as well go without me,” Jasper said to Ring.
“Get back on the damn horse and show her who’s boss,” Ring snapped. “Damn pussy.” The last two words were whispered though no one could have missed them.
Jasper sensed Calum moving and snapped, “No.” He directed the word at Ring but it applied to Calum too. “I’m not riding Spider today.”
“Got your eye on something else?” Ring muttered.
“Fuck off, you piece of shit,” Jasper said quietly.
Ring stared at him and then spat at Jasper’s feet. He wheeled his horse round and cantered off. Paul and Matt cast each other confused glances and then followed. Once Gunner took Spider’s reins, Calum rushed over. Jasper wanted those strong arms around him, but knew he couldn’t let Calum touch him. Bessie on the other hand, jumped up, licking his hand and Jasper kept the dog between them.
“I’m okay,” Jasper said, trying to warn Calum that Gunner was watching. “There’s nothing wrong with me, but there is with the horse.”
Calum’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Oh God. You could—”
“No need to reach for your gun.” Jasper forced out the joke. He knew what Calum was thinking, because in that split second when he had to decide what to do, Jasper had thought of Ben, who’d landed on his head on a paved road. Dirt was a more forgiving surface on which to acquire bruises, but landing awkwardly could have snapped his neck just as easily.
“Spider’s high strung,” Calum said. “Who the hell said Jasper had to ride her?”
“Boss’s orders.” Gunner held the now docile animal.
“Out, Bessie,” Calum snapped and the dog slipped under the rail of the corral.
Calum stroked Spider’s neck. When he loosened the girth, the horse tried to skitter away. “Steady, girl. What is it?”
“Check the saddle.” Jasper brushed dirt from his clothes, relieved his breathing had eased.
When Calum lifted the blanket from the horse’s back, the reason for Spider’s discomfort became plain. A smear of blood and a thorny twig in the wool.
“Shit.” Calum turned to Gunner. “Who saddled her?”
“I did. I checked the blanket. Always do. Christ.” Gunner put his hand to his jaw and rubbed the lower half of his face. “I’m sorry, Jasper. I must have missed it. That’s never happened before. Let me saddle up another. Won’t take but a minute.”
“It’s okay. I don’t have anyone to ride with now.”
“Calum can take you. You might catch up with Ring.”
Jasper turned to look at Calum.
A slow smile spread across that beautiful face. “Sure. Did Ring say he was heading for Bonnet’s Ridge?”
“No,” Gunner said. “I thought I heard him mention—ah yep, I think he did. I’m sure he did. Course, I have been known to make mistakes.”
Jasper tried not to limp as he followed Calum and Gunner back to the stable with Spider. Calum carried the saddle into the tack room.
“Look after Spider and I’ll see to Blue,” Calum said to Gunner. “Jasper can ride Star.”
Calum lifted a gray Stetson from a peg and tossed it to Jasper. “It’s mine. Wear it.”
Jasper put it on and heard Calum give a quiet moan. A moment later, Calum had sidled up behind him. “You might have to leave that on, cowboy, and take everything else off.”
Oh God, now we
think
alike
? Jasper’s cock purred despite the voice in his head reminding him of Calum’s words last night.
“Star’s good as gold.” Gunner led a brown mare out into the sunshine. “Well, unless you try and ride her through a gap you could drive a semi-trailer through. She thinks she’s fat.”
“Polo?” Jasper offered one to Star who sniffed it. “Sugar-free,” he added and the horse snaffled it off his palm.
Gunner snorted. He held the horse while Jasper climbed on and then handed him the reins. Once Jasper was safely seated and the horse showed no sign of not wanting him there, he relaxed. He ached so much he couldn’t imagine moving at anything faster than walking pace, but then he looked at Calum’s butt as he swung up onto Blue and thought there were a few things he might manage faster than that.
“Bessie, stay,” Calum ordered and kicked Blue into a walk.
Jasper adjusted his Stetson so it shaded his eyes and set off after Calum.
“I take it we’re not going to Bonnet’s Ridge?” Jasper asked.
Calum looked back and smiled. Then his eyes focused behind Jasper and the smile fell off his face. Jasper turned and saw Angie running up.
“You told me you’d take me riding,” she called to Calum.
“Not this morning,” Calum said.
“But you promised.”
“Go and help Vera make lunch. Maybe I can take you this afternoon.”
Angie turned to Jasper. “And you said you’d sit with me at dinner.”
“I’m sorry. I missed dinner. I ate your sandwich though. Thank you.”
“Was it okay?”
Jasper couldn’t detect any guile in her expression. “Lovely, thanks.” He felt bad that he could even suspect her of trying to make him sick.
“We’ll see you later,” Calum said and kicked his mount on.
Jasper followed. When he glanced back, Angie still stood watching.
“Should we have brought her along?” Jasper asked.
“Nope.”
“Are you going to be in trouble for taking me riding again?”
“Yep.” Calum grinned. “But I have somewhere special to show you.”
“I thought…”
“What?”
“You said you couldn’t do this, what changed?”
Calum’s smile fell off his face. “I didn’t mean…it was there, the ranch, my room. I didn’t want to fuck you thinking any minute someone was going to bang on the door.” He licked his lips. “I
do
want you. A lot.”
Jasper nodded. That was what he’d concluded and yet something still bugged him. Calum had known there was a risk of being heard before he’d taken him to his room. Was there something else?
They cantered and walked until they reached the foothills, and then Calum led the way up a rocky valley following the path of a stream. It was a good thing Star was watching where she was going because Jasper was too easily distracted by Calum. The way he pulled down his hat, his narrow waist, broad back, those muscular arms, the way he kicked Blue on—
everything he does turns me on
.
While they’d walked the horses side by side, they’d talked about all sorts of things—food, music, films, books. It was rare to find a guy who liked to read as much as he, let alone the same types of books. When they disagreed over the merits of an author, arguing with Calum had been entertaining. Yet in all they talked about, subjects close to the heart had been avoided. Past relationships, what they wanted out of life, how they felt.
You’ve known the guy a couple of days.
And in a couple more days, Jasper would be leaving and he’d never see Calum again. Why did that choke him up? Jasper gave himself a hard mental slap. He was an idiot. They’d sucked each other off, and Jasper wanted them riding into the sunset forever. It was fine to be an incurable romantic in his dreams, but life wasn’t like that. Life was mostly…shit.
“We’ll leave the horses here in the shade.” Calum slithered from Blue’s back. He removed something from his saddle bag and stuck it in his back pocket. Then tossed water to Jasper and took one for himself.
They were at the edge of a small stand of slender trees, their smooth white bark pocked with black scars. Jasper looked up into the green leaves and smiled when he heard them rustle as if they were whispering to each other.
Calum tethered the horses. “Quaking aspens.”
“Very pretty.”
“Something special about them.” Calum slid his arm over Jasper’s back. He twisted his fingers in his hair and heat shot to Jasper’s groin.
“The noise they make?” Jasper asked, thinking of the sounds he’d like to hear from Calum.
“Yes but not that. They can produce seeds, but that’s generally not the way they reproduce. All these trees are genetically identical, growing from a shared root system. So really this is one individual entity rather than a group of individuals. The heaviest organism in the world is an aspen clone in Utah. Six thousand tons.”
“Christ. That’s impressive.”
“They come from the same source, and so they’re all the same sex. Male trees stand separately from females.”
“How can you tell male from female?”
“Examine their catkins.”
Jasper laughed.
“Course, there aren’t any catkins on this time of year. You need to see them in the spring. Or come in the fall when the colonies change color together.”
The leaves all trembled again, the shivering aspens asking Jasper to come back, or maybe warning him to stay away.
“I wonder why they developed like that,” Jasper said.
“Protection against fire maybe, but it leaves them vulnerable. If one tree’s sick, the whole group is in danger. Having said that, they’re hard suckers to kill.”
Calum groaned. “My phone. Fuck it.” He took his arm from Jasper. “Yes?” he snapped into the cell.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Calum’s bloody father.
Jasper made to move away and Calum caught his arm.
“What I’m doing is taking a guest for a ride after Ring rode off without him.”
“Why did Ring go without him?”
“Because Jasper couldn’t ride Spider. That was your idea, I hear. Way to go, Boss. We have a guest who’s overcoming an issue about riding and you put him on a horse like Spider. The reason she—”
Jasper shook his head and mouthed “No.” He didn’t want Gunner to get into trouble for the thorn under the saddle.
“We’re trying to catch up with Ring now,” Calum said.
“You let your sister down.”
A muscle in Calum’s cheek twitched. “I’ll make it up to her.” He cut off the call.
“Should we go back?” Jasper asked.
“Hell no. Come on.”
They walked into the stand of trees, sunlight dappling ground covered in wild flowers, grasses and shrubs. Calum made for a grassy area, flung himself onto his back and looked up at Jasper.
“You have to lie flat to get the best effect,” Calum said.
“Really?” Jasper smiled and checked the ground.
“What are you looking for?”
“Snakes, dirt, ants, blood-sucking roots that are going to spring up and drag me under the surface. Oh, and bears.”
“I checked for all those. Come here.”
Jasper tossed his hat and water next to Calum’s, turned up his collar and carefully settled on the soft grass at his side. Calum’s fingers wrapped around his, and Jasper’s throat went dry.
“Look up,” Calum whispered.
The color of the leaves shifted through shades of green as a gentle breeze rippled through the canopy. Sunlight winked through thousands of gaps. It was so peaceful, Jasper stopped worrying about what he was lying on and let the beauty of it sink in.
“What are you thinking?” Calum asked. “Still fretting about ants and dirt?”
I want you to fuck me.
He swallowed hard. “I was wondering why the leaves move like this.”
“Something to do with the part of the stalk that connects the leaves to the stem. They’re flattened rather than cylindrical so they let the leaves flutter as they bend in the wind. And because they move so much, it allows the sun to shine on all the leaves…and on us.”
Jasper turned to look at him and found Calum staring at him. “What did you study at college?”
Calum sighed. “Agriculture.”
“You don’t sound happy about it.”
“My father pitched a fit when I said I’d like to study art. I went no farther than Laramie to please him, studied what he wanted and not what I wanted, and I’ve done a few other things besides just to keep him happy—I think I’ve had enough of doing what I don’t want to do.”
Calum shifted onto his side. A warm hand slipped around Jasper’s throat and soft lips traced the length of his face from his hairline to his Adam’s apple. The slight roughness of Calum’s chin brushing against Jasper’s temple sent waves of pleasure rippling to his groin. Calum’s breathing hitched at the same time as Jasper’s and they laughed.
“I feel like I’ve thrown myself off a cliff and I haven’t hit the ground,” Calum whispered.
“That was me, thanks to Spider.”
Calum’s eyes widened. “Shit, I’d forgotten you came off hard. Are you okay?”
Jasper nodded.
“That fucking thorn under the blanket. It’s never happened before. Gunner’s getting too old for this work, but my father won’t make him leave. He’s too fond of the guy. Though if he finds out about Spider, he might stop Gunner doing the saddling.”