Page 42 of Wellspring
Perhaps that was the answer to Erick’s question.Pushing thoughts of the future aside, he determined to appreciate the moment and stepped close enough for Cade to reach him.“Only if I can return the favor,” he murmured, opening the buttons of Cade’s shirt.Moments later they were both naked beneath the cool water, and Erick drew Cade into his arms and into the kiss he had longed for all day.
Cade went easily into Erick’s embrace, resting against him as he ran his hands over as much of Erick’s skin as he could reach.He seemed especially interested in the breadth of Erick’s shoulders—why, Erick wasn’t sure, when they were nothing compared to Cade’s—and to the damp curls of hair on his chest.He licked across Erick’s lips, tempting his tongue out to play.
Not that it took much coaxing for Erick to explore Cade’s mouth, not when Cade’s tongue tangled with his to return every caress.Erick let his hands wander where they would before settling over the firm curves of Cade’s buttocks.Holding Cade against him, he drew his mouth along Cade’s jaw, the prickle of stubble beneath the water’s slickness shooting straight to Erick’s groin.He pulled Cade to fit more tightly against him, gasping when their erections aligned against each other.
Cade rocked his hips in time with the movement of their kisses, keeping the pace slow despite the heat rising between them.Each time Erick tried to speed things along, whether the kiss or the frottage, Cade reined them in, until Erick finally broke and pulled back to gasp, “More.Bitte.”
Cade nipped at Erick’s lower lip and spun him so Erick was facing into the water with Cade a line of heat along his back.He shifted to slot his cock into Erick’s crease, the tip bumping the back of his balls.He settled one hand low and heavy on Erick’s belly, holding him in place.The other he wrapped around Erick’s aching erection.“I’m going to make you feelsogood,” he whispered in Erick’s ear.“Keep your legs nice and tight.I won’t take your ass for the first time in the shower when we’re rushed, but I’m going to fuck you just the same.”
Erick bit back the groan that tried to escape at the slow drag of Cade’s hand along his cock and the press of Cade’s erection against his balls.He arched back, trying to mold against Cade’s skin, locking his legs to give Cade more friction to rub against, but it wasn’t enough.“Want to touch you.”He twisted his head, but he couldn’t reach Cade’s lips.“Need to kiss you.”
Cade wrapped around him even more tightly, carding his fingers through the hair on Erick’s chest and bringing his mouth within reach, although the angle was awkward.“You took such good care of me yesterday in the barn.Let me return the favor.”He punctuated his request with a thrust of his hips that dragged the head of his cock over Erick’s entrance and a twist of his wrist at the top of his stroke so his fingernail caught the delicate tendon, making Erick gasp and writhe in his arms.“That’s it, darlin’.Sing for me.”
“Cade.”Between gasping breaths and wet, clumsy kisses, Erick rocked between Cade’s hand and his cock, groaning his name.“Cade,ja, please, more, Cade, more….”He could only hope it was as good for Cade as he chased his release.The head of Cade’s cock nudged his entrance again and Erick was gone, lost in a flood of pleasure.He leaned back against Cade, his legs suddenly boneless as he spent himself over Cade’s hand.
A moment later Cade tensed and shook behind him and wet heat coated his skin as Cade bit his shoulder to muffle his groan.Cade stayed where he was for a few heartbeats, keeping them both steady, then slowly he pulled back until he could get a hand between them.He worked a finger down Erick’s crease and across his hole, making him shiver.“So sensitive,” he murmured.“I’m gonna have so much fun with you when we have the time and privacy to really explore.Ever had anyone open you up with his tongue?”
The image was enough to make Erick’s cock twitch again.He twisted in Cade’s arms and seized his mouth, trying to imagine what it would feel like, imagining his head buried between Cade’s cheeks, licking and sucking and—“We have to ride into town.The things I want to do to you”—the things he wanted Cade to do to him—”we need privacy for.”
“You like that idea,” Cade said around a low chuckle.“Good, because I like doing it.”He teased around Erick’s rim a little more.“I’m going to love doing it to you.And then you’re going to tell me everything else you like having done to you or have always wanted a lover to do and I’m going to do every one of them until you can’t move without feeling me in every inch of your body.I’m going to treat you like you’ve never been treated before.”
Erick wanted to pull Cade to the ground and take him up on his sinful promises then and there, but the small part of his brain that was still rational held him back.Another part of him wanted to tell Cade how he ached for more than just physical pleasure, but that would be an even greater mistake, when that was all Cade was offering.He would take that and be grateful.Not knowing how to respond without revealing too much, he allowed himself one more kiss before drawing back to reach for a towel.“The next time Javier needs supplies, I will ask to escort him.I can tell Payne I need to return the books Miss Dawson lent me, and that you need to accompany me to select new ones.”
“He’ll agree to that because he’ll want an extra gun or two on the supplies anyway.”Cade still sounded breathless.It made Erick want to kiss him again, but they had been in the shower a long time and they were not the only ones who needed it.The dinner bell rang, settling the question.Cade grabbed his own towel and dried off quickly before pulling his clothes on just as fast and claiming a final quick kiss.“Let’s eat.And then after dinner, we can do another reading lesson so we really can return those books to Miss Dawson.”
“Perhaps we can progress beyond the letter E this time.”Erick pulled down his shirt cuffs and started toward the dinner tables.
“No promises,” Cade said with a smirk.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“WEBSTER!”
Payne’s voice cracked in the humid air.Cade stopped on his way to join the line for dinner, grumbling inwardly at having to wait even another minute to see if Erick and Matt were back from their shift on the range.Cade knew he couldn’t always be the one to work with Erick, but having Erick ride off this morning while Cade was stuck on guard duty had burned.
“We’re missing cattle,” Payne began bluntly.“Maybe they just got a wild hair and wandered off, or they coulda found a patch of locoweed and made themselves sick, or some of those JR bushwhackers mighta rustled them, I don’t know.But it’s more than I’m willing to lose without an explanation.You’re the best tracker we have.I need you to find as many of them as you can and bring them back to the main herd.”
Cade bit back a grin Payne wouldn’t understand.“I’ll do my best, but that’s a big task for one man, if we’re talking about more than a dozen head.It’s keeping them together while still tracking the others.”
Payne gave him a dry look.“And I suppose you have an opinion on who you should take with you?”
“Well, since you asked….”Cade shot him a grin.“The very first time he rode out with me, Heller helped me stop a stampede.He might look like a greenhorn still, but he’s got more skills than his appearance suggests.”
“If it keeps the two of you from getting up to trouble in my barn, I might consider it.”
“I wouldn’t call it trouble, exactly….”Cade refused to blush, refused to feel in any way guilty for jumping Erick in the stable when he’d found him working there shirtless a little over a week ago.“… but it would give Heller more experience than just a day or night on the range does.”
“And of course you’re the best one to teach him.”Payne waved his hand dismissively.“The two of you leave in the morning.Take enough supplies for two weeks.With the size of Wellspring, finding a hundred cows on the land we don’t graze on could take that long.If you haven’t found the strays by then, you won’t find them.”
Cade nodded to acknowledge the orders and forced himself not to run off in search of Erick to share the good news.Two weeks.Two whole weeks alone on the range in the most isolated portions of Wellspring.
Two weeks of riding side by side, sleeping next to each other at night, with no one to interrupt or wonder what they were doing.
It sounded better than anything he’d be likely to find outside the eternal hunting grounds.
Erick wasn’t in the bunkhouse, so Cade resigned himself to joining the line for dinner and sharing his news with an audience.Usually they went down to the spring after dinner, but with all the preparations they’d need to finish to leave tomorrow like Payne wanted, they wouldn’t have that moment of privacy tonight.
He didn’t have to tell anyone else he’d convinced Payne to send Erick along so they’d have some time together.He could simply say Payne had given him the orders to pass on to Erick.Everyone else might see through him, but most of them would let it ride.He just had to avoid Burke at dinner.
