The Tin Star (27 page)

Jamie groaned, his cock jerking. “I can definitely do that. Love riding my cowboy.” He stole another kiss before straddling Ethan’s hips and reaching for the lube in the nightstand drawer.

He slicked up both of them, then slowly sank down onto Ethan’s thick cock. “Fuck, yes! Love this!”

Ethan gasped, nodding slightly. His eyes were closed. “Oh, yeah!”

“You good? No pain?”

That brown gaze bored into his, full of passion. “No, no pain. Not from the wounds, anyway. But it sure hurts like hell to not move.”

“Then by all means let me fix that for you.” Jamie impaled himself on Ethan’s cock over and over again. It felt wonderful and he was soon on the edge. After having had nothing but his hand for a couple of weeks, it wouldn’t take much to send him over. The only reason he hadn’t lost control already was the niggling concern at the back of his mind about Ethan’s health. Although, judging from the sounds below him, Ethan was doing just fine.

Ethan’s stomach muscles tightened, then his features grew taut.

Shit! He hadn’t even thought about how tensing up at the pleasure might hurt Ethan. He’d just figured if they took things slow, everything would be fine. And it sure felt more than okay, but he knew damn well how hard it was not to stiffen up as you came.

“Relax.”

“I’m trying. Just feels so good.”

Jamie rubbed his hands lightly over Ethan’s chest and belly, wishing like hell he could bend down and kiss him. But no way was he going to risk putting any pressure on Ethan’s chest. So, he continued to caress his lover’s skin as he leisurely rode the cock inside him. After a few minutes, Ethan felt almost boneless beneath him. Now if he could just figure out how to keep his cowboy relaxed as he peaked. He was ready to come and knew that Ethan had to be, too. He caught Ethan’s gaze. “Close, Cowboy.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“You have to stay loose.” Even as he said it, he felt Ethan tense. Ethan cried out, and Jamie felt heat fill him.

“Oh, fuck!” Too late now. Jamie followed Ethan into his own climax. His come spilled onto Ethan’s stomach as he grabbed hold of his wayward cock, trying to avoid splashing Ethan’s healing scar.

He kept still for several moments, trying to gauge how Ethan felt. Finally, those brown eyes blinked open and smiled up at him. “I needed that.”

Jamie let loose a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, then slid off Ethan and the bed. “Me, too.” He bent over and kissed Ethan’s forehead before he went to the bathroom to get a towel. “You need any pain pills or anything?”

Ethan shook his head, his eyes closing again.

By the time Jamie came back to clean him up, his cowboy was sound asleep. He wiped them both down, then returned the towel back to the bathroom. Finally, he slipped into bed and stayed there.

He lay thinking for the longest time, trying to figure out how to hold his lover without hurting him when Ethan, still sound asleep, slid his hand into Jamie’s.

Chapter Nineteen

Jamie looked over his shoulder for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. This was the first time Ethan had been out of the house in over three weeks. He wasn’t paranoid, exactly, but he would be damned if he’d let something happen to his cowboy while they were out and about. Ethan seemed to be enjoying himself and Jamie wasn’t about to allow anything interfere with his pleasure. So, if he was a little extra wary and tense, it was still well worth it.

“This is it! What do you think?”

Jamie glanced at Ethan, and saw him checking out the others wandering around the Christmas tree lot. Good, his cowboy was paying attention, too. It was nice to know that he could have a good time without letting his guard down. Jamie wished he could do the same.

Ethan looked back at him. “Well? What do you think?”

Jamie stared at the tree his lover was pointing at. Hmm. Maybe Ethan had been paying too much attention to the crowd and not enough to the trees. “That is the saddest excuse for a Christmas tree I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe they are even trying to sell this thing!”

Ethan snorted and glanced around again. “It only needs a little love.”

Yup, he was definitely not paying as much attention to picking out a tree as he was to what was going on around him. That was good, but one of them was going to have to look for a decent tree.

“What it needs is a shredder!” He leaned in and whispered to Ethan. “I’m watching our backs; you look for our tree.”

Ethan elbowed him. “I can do both. Have been doing both, in fact. I want this one.”

Jamie looked back at the pathetic thing. It was big and ugly, and bare in spots, but if it made Ethan happy ... He groaned. “Fine. We’ll get this tree.”

An hour later, Jamie was lying in the floor, sorting Christmas decorations, and Fred wasn’t helping any. She thought he was trying to play and that the ornaments were her toys, so she kept stealing them. “Cut it out, mutt!”

Ethan chuckled and hung another ball on the tree. “Put her to work. Have her bring them to me.”

“You think that’ll work? I don’t think we can get her to do that without her taking off with them.”

Ethan turned to look at him, “Sure we can. Give it to her and tell her to ‘Take it to Ethan.’”

Jamie shrugged. It might be worth a shot. He was sick of chasing her down to get the ornaments away from her. And he hadn’t even started going through the box marked “breakable” yet.
That
was a nightmare just waiting to happen. Jamie held out a plastic angel to Fred. “Take this to Ethan.” She grabbed it with her mouth.

Ethan bent down immediately and stuck his hand out. “Fetch.”

Fred looked at him, then at Jamie before she trotted over and dropped the angel into Ethan’s hand.

Well, son of a gun!
He’d known she was smart, but this! He dug out another ornament and held it. “Fred. Take this to Ethan.”

She bounded over, snatched the plastic Santa out of his hand.

Ethan grinned at him and winked, then repeated, “Fetch.”

She took the Santa to Ethan and ran back to Jamie, waiting for yet another decoration. Within a few minutes, they had her picking up the tree accessories on her own as Jamie laid them out and taking them to Ethan without being told to. Ethan didn’t even have to say “fetch” to get her to bring it to him. Pretty freakin’ cool!

Jamie lined up a dozen or so more for her, then stood up and stretched. He could really use some hot chocolate. He walked over to Ethan, patting him on the butt.
Damn, what a fine ass.
He knew what
he
wanted for Christmas. “Going to make hot chocolate, Cowboy, you want any?”

“Nah. Go ahead.”

When he came back with his hot chocolate in hand, Fred was barking at Ethan. She’d deposited the last two decorations that he’d laid out for her at Ethan’s feet.

Ethan groaned. “Okay, okay! Hold on a minute, you’re getting ahead of me. Slow down.”

Fred barked again.

Jamie shook his head. Too cute! He sat back down and lined up more decorations, gaining Fred’s undivided attention and giving Ethan time to remove the two at his feet to hang on the tree. They were having a great time when Bill came in with Margie.

Jamie waved to them from the floor. “Hey, y’all! Is it cold out there?”

Margie nodded. “Freezing.” She walked over and leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead, then walked up behind Ethan and put her hands up the back of his sweater.

Ethan jumped. “Mean old broad.”

She chuckled, then wound her way to the couch. She looked up at the tree and raised her eyebrows.

Jamie knew she was thinking. He gazed at the tree, too, as he took a sip of chocolate. Yeah, it was still ugly.

Bill sat down next to Margie. “Damn! It’s even uglier than last year’s! Boy, decoratin’ that tree is like puttin’ glitter on cow shit.”

Jamie laughed with the hot chocolate in his mouth and snorted it through his nose. “Shit! That burns.”

Everyone chuckled as he blotted the warm liquid off himself with a sleeve, then got up to find a towel.

He went upstairs and changed shirts, then returned in time to hear his sister’s voice.

“It’s not the size of the tree that counts, but what you do with it.”

What the hell did that mean? It was a damned big tree. And more grotesque than hell. “Jules, it’s huge.”

She nodded. “I know, that’s what I mean.”

Okaaay.
Jamie sat back down on the floor, taking up his post at the box of ornaments again. He glanced over at Bill and Margie. They both shrugged, so he went back to sorting the different items.

Jules flopped down next to him, then peered up at Ethan and the tree. “It’s ugly, Ethan! It’s big and ugly, and decorating it isn’t making it any better.”

Jamie chuckled. “We tried to tell him.”

Ethan took another decoration from Fred. “Y’all don’t know what you’re talking about."

Jamie wasn’t going to argue. His cowboy liked the damned tree, and it brought Ethan pleasure. But next year, he was picking out the tree.

They finished embellishing the thing and had a great time, talking and teasing. Just being family. It felt perfect, normal, just like it had before the shooting. Better, really, because Julia and John had decided to join their Sunday suppers, too.

Jamie wasn’t sure, but he thought maybe Ethan’s getting shot had taught everyone a tough lesson about taking people and things for granted. It sure had for him. At any rate, John and Julia had both invited themselves to their weekly gatherings and for Christmas the following week.

Ed, Hayden, and Cam, the new hand, were coming later tonight, closer to suppertime. And somehow, Jamie had lucked out. Since this was the first Sunday get-together since Ethan had been shot, Margie and Bill had volunteered to do the cooking, saying that Jamie needed to spend time with Ethan. So, an hour after Julia’s arrival, he was doing just that.

He sat on the couch with Ethan leaning against him, the two of them watching the tree lights and Fred. Now that she wasn’t helping, Fred was stealing stuff off the tree, or trying to. Every time, she got too close, Ethan would growl out in warning, “Fred! Get!” It was pretty funny but seriously cutting into his necking time.

Hell, everyone was in the kitchen cooking -- he
should
be making out with his cowboy.

“Mmm, this is nice. Love getting to sit with you like this.”

Ethan leaned his head back against his shoulder, smiling up at him. “Me, too.”

He bent a little to kiss Ethan’s neck, nibbling just a bit, bringing up goose bumps and a shiver from his lover. He chuckled and fished his hands under Ethan’s sweater.

“Feels good, Blue Eyes.” Ethan kissed his jaw, then snuggled deeper against him. He began to rub up and down Jamie’s thighs.

Ah, yeah!

“Damn it, Fred! Get!”

Jamie groaned. Apparently Ethan needed a better distraction than a few itty bitty kisses on his neck. He pinched and pulled on a nipple through Ethan’s sweater, drawing it up tight.

Ethan’s hands stilled on his legs, and his breath rushed out against Jamie’s ear. “Ah, fuck, Jamie!”

“Yup, that sounds like a good idea. Fucking Jamie, that is. Think anyone would notice if we went upstairs?” He nipped Ethan’s throat and twisted his other nipple, then slid his other hand inside the waistband of Ethan’s jeans --

“Oh, good God, Ethan! Do you
have
to pick the ugliest damned tree in the lot every year? When are you going to get over your Charlie Brown Christmas Tree syndrome?”

Ethan stilled, then flipped John off.

Jamie removed his hands and sighed. Maybe it wasn’t so nice having family over.

* * * * *

Ethan turned off the lights, then slipped into his office.

Christmas was wonderful. Well, Christmas Eve had been. He felt good, better than he had in a while. He wasn’t as stiff as he had been, and the pain was pretty much nonexistent. He was already doing his own work again, and pretty soon he’d be able to help outside more. Well, as much as either he or Jamie could with the fucking shooter still out there.

Neither of them had been taking risks more than necessary. Jamie was pretty much doing all his work in the barn or stables. It was really chapping his ass to be forced to do so, but the important thing was he was doing it. Thank God! Jamie had sent the hands out to work in the open and did all the things he could indoors.

Ethan was still worried about someone hurting Jamie, but he was dealing with it. He knew deep down that taking a stand had been the right decision, but he’d feel a whole lot better about it once the sheriff found out who had been responsible not only for shooting him, but for the vandalism, as well.

Thankfully, everything had been pretty quiet since the attack. He thought some folks might have felt the sniper was a bit of a coward since Ethan had been shot from the back. Even nowadays, that wasn’t something that was looked upon kindly. Whatever the reason, people in town were either polite and respectful or they ignored him and Jamie entirely, which was fine with him. He could deal with being ignored. He’d much rather be snubbed than have slurs shouted at him or any other aggressive actions take place.

Even Jacob Killian had been unusually quiet of late. There was no way to tell whether it was from the suspicions facing the man over the ambush or John’s doing, but Ethan wasn’t going to discount small favors. He wasn’t quite convinced that Jacob was responsible for anything other than running his mouth off, which he had done -- the feed store and town council confrontations cases in point -- but Ethan wasn’t naïve enough to think it was over, either. Whoever -- and he wasn’t ruling Jacob out entirely -- was responsible for the vandalism and his attempted murder, maybe even slipping Jamie that date-rape drug, was more than likely biding their time. No doubt Jacob was doing the same. Ethan was just glad that the man hadn’t upset Jamie any more of late.

Jamie. He didn’t know what he’d do without his Blue Eyes. Didn’t even want to think about it. Jamie was not only his love and his friend, but he’d also become his partner and right hand. He had really stepped up to the plate when Ethan had gotten hurt. The man hadn’t buckled under the extra hard work -- and the responsibility or commitment. He’d done what was necessary and never once complained. Heck, Ethan was positive that Jamie could single-handedly run the Tin Star if he had to. And honestly, he’d probably do a better job of it than Ethan.