Cowboys Down (32 page)

Calum nodded. He tapped in the numbers and waited, hoping his father didn’t answer.

“Neilson Ranch,” said Vera.

Calum relaxed. “Hi, it’s me.”

“Calum! Are you in London?”

“Yep. I’ve met up with Jasper. He’s fine.”
More than fine.
“We’re about to have lunch in a pub. Is everything okay?”

“Fine. Did the gallery want your sculptures?”

“Yes. He was kind of excited.”

“That’s great, Calum. I’m so proud of you.”

Calum swallowed the lump in his throat. “This is Jasper’s phone. I better not chat. Give my love to Angie. And Dad.”

“I will. Enjoy yourself.”

Jasper was against the bar, standing out in the crowd. Not many men wore suits. None were as handsome as Jasper. He turned as if he sensed Calum there, smiled and nodded toward a table. Calum sat down and snagged another stool before he took off his coat. Jasper brought over beers in tall glasses, went back for two plates of sandwiches and sat down.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Jasper said. “I’m so happy I could explode.”

Calum knew what he meant. He felt like he had a firefly inside him, darting around, lighting up his entire body.

Jasper lifted his pint and knocked it against Calum’s. “To us.”

“To us,” Calum echoed.

But as Calum sat in Jasper’s office, half-dozing in an armchair, he listened to a guy he thought he knew and realized he didn’t at all. Jasper sounded different—self-assured, efficient, controlled. As he sat there brokering deals worth millions, persuading and cajoling those on the other end of the line to accept his recommendations, Calum suspected there couldn’t be an “us”. Jasper was smart, polished and perfect. He spoke French and what sounded like Japanese, but then even some of the English words and phrases he used sounded foreign. Amortization, illiquidity, fill or kill. It made Calum feel stupid.

As one phone call ended, another began. Jasper had three computer screens in front of him and seemed able to do a million things at the same time—talking, typing and flicking through paperwork as well as rolling his eyes at Calum and mouthing
wanker
.

Calum remembered the clay he’d bought and took it from his bag. He warmed it up, molding it in his fingers until it was soft enough to work and made an erect cock and balls. Jasper snorted into the phone when he saw it.

One blow with his hand and Calum flattened the clay again and this time turned the gray lump into Bessie, sitting looking up at him with that sweet expression on her face he knew so well. Calum always felt she expected him to know what she was thinking. Course, if it was dinnertime, he did.

He used his fingernails to make her fur look real and borrowed a pencil from Jasper’s desk to add more detail. Calum became so absorbed in what he was doing that he hadn’t noticed Jasper come up behind him.

“That’s just like her,” Jasper said. “She has that look on her face of complete and utter devotion.”

“Want it?” Calum asked and set it on a plastic sleeve on Jasper’s desk. “It’s kid’s clay. It hardens in air.”

“I’d love it. Thank you.”

“Thanks for getting that bronze made. I could hardly believe it when I opened the box. Angie had guessed it was a piece of rock from the moon.”

Jasper smiled. “I bet she was disappointed.”

“She liked it. Hell, even my dad seemed to think it was something to have on display, though he wanted to sell it. Not going to happen.”

“What did Fintan say when he saw what you’d brought him?”

Calum squirmed. “He doesn’t hold back, does he?”

Jasper laughed. “No. I’d guess you’ve replaced me as the object of his desire.”

Calum frowned. “Have—”

“Don’t you dare complete that thought,” Jasper snapped. “He’s a great guy but not my guy.”

Since he stared directly into Calum’s eyes when he said that, it left Calum in no doubt who was his guy. The moment hung in the air, like a huge wave, before it broke to swamp him with breath-stealing emotion.

“Ready to go?” Jasper asked.

There was a knock on the door and an older guy walked in. He glanced at Calum and said, “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

“What do you want, Kurt?” Jasper asked.

The guy dropped a large orange file on Jasper’s desk. “I need you to check this. They’re expecting the email tonight. You should have it done in a couple of hours.”

He turned to leave and Jasper said, “No.”

The guy turned back. “What do you mean—no?”

“I don’t have time. You’ll have to get someone else.”

The guy snatched up the file and stormed out. Calum swallowed. Was he distracting Jasper from his work?

“Do—” Calum began.

“No. I’ve not spent the afternoon tying up loose ends to get involved in Kurt’s problems. His couple of hours is more likely to be five or six. I’ve better things to do. We’re off, though we need to hurry before Kurt calls my uncle to moan about me.”

“Your uncle?”

Jasper packed up his briefcase. “He’s one of the partners in the company.”

Calum put on his coat and shouldered his bag. “So shouldn’t you—”

“Yes, but I’m not. I already told you, I have better things to do.” He brushed his thumb over Calum’s lips and smiled.

As Jasper led Calum down the tree-lined street to his house, he felt nervous. He knew it was clean and tidy. It always was. But would Calum feel comfortable there?

“This one’s mine,” Jasper said.

“Why don’t you drive your car to work?”

“Too expensive, too time-consuming, nowhere to park.” Jasper stared at his blue Vauxhall, wishing it would turn into a Porsche or even better a Ferrari.

He climbed the three steps to the front door, opened it and bent to lift the mail from the mat. When he heard Calum growl behind him, Jasper laughed. Calum closed the door and put down his bag.

“Come here,” Calum whispered.

Jasper dropped the mail and walked into his arms. His cock had been semi-hard all the way home, now it completed the journey north. Calum’s tongue slid between Jasper’s teeth and then pulled back to trace the line of his lips.

“You still taste of beer,” Calum whispered. “Christ, why do I love kissing you so much?”

He pressed his lips against Jasper’s and slid his hands over his back and up to his neck to hold him exactly where he wanted him. Jasper’s hands gripped Calum’s butt under his coat, his fingers grinding the seam of his jeans into the crease. Then they were shedding clothes, pulling at each other’s buttons while they kept their faces together in a frantic lips-nose-tongue kiss that grew wilder by the moment.

They left a trail of clothes along the hall, up the stairs and the length of the landing as they stumbled and laughed and snogged their way to the bedroom. Calum broke away, panting, his gaze fixed on Jasper. Calum was naked while Jasper still wore black socks—and that bracelet.

“Think I’ve got socks-appeal?” Jasper asked.

“Loads of it, but I want you naked as me.”

Calum pushed Jasper to lie back on the bed and then pulled the socks off with his teeth. When Jasper felt Calum’s lips around his toes, he shuddered, closed his eyes and wrapped his fist around his cock. One nip of his big toe and all but a couple of Jasper’s organs turned to soup.

“Like that?” Calum asked.

“Speak. Can’t. Sense. What. Fuck.”

Calum laughed. Jasper opened his eyes and pointed to the bedside cabinet. “Lube, condoms, nipple clamps, handcuffs, raclette.”

“What?” Calum gaped at him.

“It was a joke.”

Calum narrowed his eyes. “Which of them don’t you have?”

“The raclette’s downstairs.”

Calum yanked open the drawer and threw lube and a string of condoms onto the bed. “I don’t know what the hell a raclette is, but we’ll leave that for another time.”

He pushed up Jasper’s legs and leaned through the V to lick his nipples. When he drew his teeth in tight and tugged, Jasper sucked in a breath at the bite of pain.

“Aaah shiiiit,” he hissed.

Calum licked him all better and then bit him again. Jasper held Calum’s head, fingers threading his hair, pulling him off, pushing him down. The rough stubble of Calum’s cheek, together with his hot, wet tongue had Jasper writhing. Calum lowered himself onto Jasper, pushing their cocks together, and they rutted, lips joined, panting into each other’s mouth. Jasper slid his fingers into the seam of Calum’s backside and massaged his butt cheeks with his palms.

Calum licked his way to Jasper’s neck and whispered, “I want to fuck you so bad. Can I?”

What could Jasper say but yes? It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be fucked by Calum, but he had to push back the disappointment that once again he was on the bottom.

Note to self: I have to talk to him about this.

Tomorrow.

Mmm.

Maybe the day after.

Chapter Eighteen

Jasper melted under Calum’s caress. He still couldn’t quite believe the cowboy was here.
In my bed.
Jasper lay on his side, Calum behind him, panting into his ear as he held up Jasper’s leg and slid into him.
So good, but I wish I was doing this to you.
It took only moments before Calum grunted and cried out, his hips jerking as he spurted into Jasper. Jasper’s hand pumped at his cock but his heart wasn’t in it. They needed to talk. Now. Not tomorrow or the day after.

Barely a heartbeat passed before Calum withdrew. He pulled Jasper onto his back and buried his face in his shoulder. Jasper’s hand fell from his softening cock. He slid the condom from Calum’s dick, put it aside and then wrapped him tight in his arms. Another heartbeat and Calum was asleep.

A smile curved Jasper’s lips at how fast Calum had zonked out, though the smile didn’t last. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to Calum about the rape. Back in Wyoming, Calum had blurted it out, rushed off, and Ring and Pete had burst in. Jasper guessed the rape was at the root of Calum’s reluctance to bottom, but how the hell could he bring it up? Maybe Calum didn’t want to talk about it—ever. What if he thought merely telling Jasper was enough? If they only had this week together, then maybe it should be left to rest, but that meant always being the subservient partner.
That’s not me.
And the longer it went on, the harder it would be to do anything about it.

Jasper had no idea how to handle this. Or if he should even try to.
Fuck it.
Maybe he was already handling it by lying here and holding Calum and saying nothing. Jasper brushed his cheek against Calum’s tousled hair. He was the first guy he’d ever had in this bed. Not that he’d wanted it that way, but Jasper was cautious. He never rushed into anything.

Usually.

“I’m sorry,” Calum whispered.

Jasper stiffened.
Had he even been asleep?
“What for?”

“For not coming back to your room soon enough,” Calum mumbled into Jasper’s shoulder. “For what Ring and Pete did. For not letting you fuck me.”

Jasper tightened his hold. “First of all, you’re not responsible for Ring and Pete’s actions.”

“Yeah, I am. If I’d taken it more seriously about the burr under the saddle, the sandwich making you sick, the stuff about the mountain lion, maybe I’d have been able to stop what followed. If I hadn’t shown any interest in you, they’d never have picked on you like that.”

Jasper shuffled down so that he lay face-to-face with Calum. “But I showed interest in you as well. And you
did
come back to my room, which was the important thing. If you hadn’t spotted those beads, the outcome would be very different. You saved my life. I don’t think I ever said thank you.” Jasper kissed him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Jasper smiled. “What lovely manners.”

Calum thumped him in the kidney. Not hard.

“What did your father think about you coming over here?”

Calum winced and then stroked Jasper’s neck. “Pointed out a whole load of reasons why it was a bad idea. I had to come. I have to… I want to…” He shuddered and pulled away to sit on the edge of the bed with his back to Jasper.

Jasper swung his legs on either side of Calum’s hips and sat behind him to massage his shoulders, pressing his thumbs into tight muscles, willing Calum to talk.

After a couple of minutes’ silence, Jasper gave in.

“I’ve never found it easy to talk about personal things,” Jasper said. “I think that’s true for most men, but even as a boy, if I had a problem, I kept quiet. I was bullied at school for a long time and it was only Ben blabbing to our father that eventually stopped it. I was geeky, wore glasses, always did my homework, always came top of every test and it was my hand that rose in response to questions no one else could answer. The phrase ‘Teacher’s pet’ could have been coined for me. I appeared on the surface to be the perfect child—biddable, smart, polite, always well groomed.”

“Christ, I’d have bullied you.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Jasper pressed his thumbs harder into the knotted muscle, and Calum rolled his shoulders with a moan. “The thing is, below the surface I was different. Sex mad, constantly jacking off in the school toilets after I’d showered surrounded by cocks, not understanding why boys’ butts turned me on, why I was entranced by the size and shape of those dicks, fascinated in the way balls hung and knowing that if anyone caught me even taking a glance, I was dead. My Latin teacher was an accident waiting to happen.” Jasper took a deep breath. “Not quite an accident. It was me who seduced him.”