Page 68 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“I reckon you do all right.”
Cole smiled, some lightness returning. He sat so his bare ass was cradling Grady’s dick and rubbed a bit. Grady didn’t move, but it was a test.
“You always such a sweet talker?” Cole asked, the breathlessness giving away his anxiety as he inched up and uncapped the lube. He got his fingers wet before reaching back around and working himself open.
“Ain’t no one accused me of it before.”
Grady’s hands were opening and clenching at his sides as he watched Cole riding his fingers. His head was tipped back, andlittle punched-out breaths were coming out of him. Grady really wanted to grip his thighs, but he stayed where he was.
Cole must’ve pulled his fingers out, because the next thing Grady knew they were wrapped around his shaft and stroking. Grady almost pushed up.
“Still,” Cole said.
Grady would’ve thought Cole was messing with him, but he still looked unsure and afraid, so Grady nodded and held still as Cole lined him up and sank down. Cole was shaking, his eyes closed and breaths short as he got himself all the way down. It looked like pleasure, but it looked like something else too.
“Cole.”
Cole punched out a breath and pushed up, but he didn’t open his eyes. His brow was creased, and he seemed like he was in pain, caught in some place far away from here in Grady’s bed.
“Cole, look at me.”
Cole opened his eyes and looked at Grady. He sunk back down and gasped. His eyes never left Grady’s as he got a slow, torturous rhythm going. Grady stayed still and let him. It felt incredible—the tight, warm pressure on his dick, Cole taking what he needed. Grady saw the fear starting to fall away, the pleasure and comfort seeping in as Cole took and Grady willingly gave it to him.
“Touch me,” Cole gasped as he sank down.
Grady sat up. He brought his hands to Cole’s back and moved his knees up so Cole was cradled in his lap. He kissed him. Cole kissed him back urgently, and Grady fucked up into him. He snaked his hand into Cole’s hair and pumped his hips up to hear Cole gasp. Cole’s eyes searched Grady’s as their lips parted and they panted into each other’s mouths.
Grady felt Cole clenching around him, his come wet between them. Grady thrust in and let himself go. He kissed Cole as hedid so, frantic with it. Cole met him, these little wounded sounds coming out of him like he was overwhelmed.
Grady didn’t want to let him go as he came down. He held Cole in his lap and kissed him slow and gentle. He rubbed his back until Cole pulled away and dropped his head on Grady’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” Cole said into his skin.
Grady tightened his hold. “Ain’t gotta thank a man for a good fuck.”
Cole laughed, the feel of it whistling over Grady’s clavicle.
“You know what I mean.”
Grady swept his hand up Cole’s back and thought he did know what Cole meant, but he couldn’t have put a single word to what that was and what was going on. He kissed Cole’s hairline, held him close. He felt Cole answering him when his long limbs wrapped around him, squeezed him tight.
Cole’s come was drying, cold and sticky between them, and Grady was going soft, but he didn’t want to let go, and Cole didn’t either. So they stayed like that, the fire crackling below them, the rain pattering the tin roof, the wind shaking the windowpanes in a series of whines and blows as familiar to Grady as the sound of his own heartbeat.
36
T
hey moved the lambsout to the stall next to Chloe and Red the next day, allowing them to adjust to the temperature change before they’d take them back to the pasture the day following. It was still wet and windy, and there’d be more storms coming, but there should be a sufficient break for them to get big and strong enough to withstand it. Grady never had to say any of this to Cole because he knew all this, would’ve been reading the weather as well as city folks read the paper.
Chloe peered over her stall wall at the lambs in the hay beside her and Cole laughed.
“I swear she’s glaring,” he said.
Grady nodded. “She don’t like any change, that one.”
Cole went over to the front of her stall. She swung her head away from the lambs and went to him. Grady watched as he hugged her around the neck and she nipped him on the shoulder. Little friendly nips not meant to hurt, but just saying,I’m allowing this ’cause it’s you, but don’t get too many ideas. Grady shook his head and told Cole they’d better be heading out.
The green stalks of the crop stood tall through the turned dirt as they drove past the wheatfields, right on the cusp of being in ear.
