Chase the Stars (Lang Downs 2 ) (17 page)

“ A
WOMBAT
? ” Caine asked when Jesse and Chris reported their discovery at dinner. “I’ve never seen a wombat before.”

Chris could practically see Macklin swallow a putupon sigh. “You don’t particularly want to see one,” he said. “They can be dangerous, especially if they’re cornered, which this one is. Which hut was it in?”

“I’ll drive back out after dinner,” Macklin decided. “When it leaves to forage for the night, we’ll block whatever hole it used for an entrance so it can’t get back in, and then tomorrow, I’ll send someone to clean out its den.”

Chris chuckled as Macklin rolled his eyes. “It’s really a one-man job,” he said. “There’s no reason for both of us to stay up half the night. Someone has to be in charge of the shearing tomorrow.”

“And you really think I can do that?” Caine joked. “Put Neil in charge of the shearing tomorrow if we’re up too late for you to handle it.”

“We’ll finish the huts tomorrow unless you need us to do something different, boss,” Jesse said, grabbing Chris’s arm and pulling him away from the table.

Jesse said. “There are some things I don’t need to see.” “You’re no fun,” Chris said.
“That’s not what you thought earlier today,” Jesse

Chris laughed, as Jesse had certainly intended, but he couldn’t deny the truth of the statement either. He’d had quite a lot of fun earlier in the day. He was tempted to kiss Jesse now to show him just how much fun, but while a quick glance revealed no one within his field of vision, he knew better than to think it would stay that way for long. The canteen door would swing open and someone would come outside, or someone would step out of the bunkhouse for a smoke or to check on the sheep still in the pens. He settled for elbowing Jesse with his good arm.

“See you in the morning?” Jesse said. “We still have half the huts to finish.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Chris replied.
Jesse’s smile changed from that teasing grin to something more shyly pleased, making Chris’s heart beat a little faster. He chided himself silently. They’d only known each other for a couple of weeks. He couldn’t fall for someone that fast, especially not with everything up in the air. Keeping his smile in place so he wouldn’t reveal his suddenly spinning thoughts, Chris waved good night and headed back to the station house.
He didn’t go inside, taking a seat on the porch again and hoping he’d have some time with his thoughts since Caine and Macklin were going out to deal with the wombat. He wondered if Macklin had, as Jesse insisted, known what he and Jesse had gotten up to that afternoon in the drover’s hut. He hoped not. He wasn’t embarrassed by it; he didn’t think they’d done anything wrong; it was
private
, and the thought of Macklin knowing, speculating even, rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe he and Jesse weren’t in the middle of some grand love affair. Maybe they weren’t meant to be together always the way Caine and Macklin were. Their time together was still special, and he didn’t want to share it.
The sound of one of the utes driving by drew his attention from his thoughts momentarily. He couldn’t help a smile when he saw two silhouettes in the cab as it headed out of the valley toward the hut where he and Jesse had found the wombat. He didn’t envy Caine and Macklin a night spent in a truck cab, but he did feel a small twinge of jealousy at the openness that allowed them to be together.
He had to remind himself that they were the boss and the foreman and that they had paid a price for being together that way. Neil had admitted they’d never had as many new jackaroos all at once as they had this season. While quite a few of the seasonal hands had chosen to return despite Caine and Macklin’s orientation, that many more had chosen not to return, a far higher turnover rate than usual. They weren’t short staffed, but they could have been. For Chris, the price would be different, but he had no doubt he’d have to pay one. He’d already paid once, not for being in a relationship, but simply for being different.
One good thing had come out of it. He had a place to live for both himself and Seth, and he had Jesse.
That made two good things. Maybe Jesse wasn’t “it” for Chris the way Caine was for Macklin—it was way too soon to be thinking that way, regardless of what might develop between them in the future—but Jesse was good for him. He made Chris laugh. He made Chris feel good. He listened when Chris needed to talk. Now if they could just find some time and privacy so he could fuck Chris when he needed release, everything would be damn near perfect.
The blow job in the hut had been phenomenal. Chris had gotten blow jobs before, but mostly back in school from guys who had no real idea what they were doing. They’d fumbled more than they’d sucked, and they’d always pulled off before Chris could come in their mouths.
Jesse knew what he was doing. Chris’s heart beat a little faster at the memory. Jesse had kept him there pinned against the wall, and Chris had felt
taken,
like Jesse had hijacked his brain and turned his body inside out. Chris had spent enough time on his knees in this bar and that to know what it felt like to give a blow job, but he’d always felt like the control rested with the man he was blowing. Not today. He hadn’t had any control over the encounter with Jesse, not from the moment Jesse’s mouth had closed around him. It had been all he could do to stay vertical and not beg Jesse to take him bare and dry.
He shifted on the chair, stretching his legs out to accommodate his sudden erection. He ought to go inside and get ready for bed. Even if jerking off left-handed was awkward, he’d be more comfortable in just his boxers than in his jeans. He wasn’t ready to go inside, though. The sun had set while he sat there, leaving the western horizon tinged in pink and orange while the clouds on the eastern horizon flashed with lightning. The sheep still waiting to be sheared baaed occasionally, a quiet, calming sound that carried to Chris on the light breeze. If the storm blew in overnight, the wind would undoubtedly pick up, rattling the windows of the station house, but for now it was calm.
He hoped the storm passed during the night. He didn’t want the weather to keep them from going out to the rest of the huts tomorrow. He’d actually felt like he was contributing something today instead of being a drag on the station. That would change once his cast came off, he hoped, but for the time being, he was pretty much the least productive person there, and he knew it, even if everyone had the tact not to mention it.
A burst of laughter drifted across the road from the bunkhouse, making Chris wish he had an excuse to join them. Maybe he’d talk to Jesse the next day and see what the other man thought about him hanging out there some in the evenings. If he was going to make a future out of working on Lang Downs, he’d need to get to know the others as well. He couldn’t always expect to work with Neil or Jesse, as much as he’d like to keep hanging out with them, Jesse especially. Expecting Neil to babysit him all the time wouldn’t be reasonable and while Jesse didn’t seem to mind Chris hanging around, once his arm healed up completely, Chris wouldn’t have the excuse of taking it easy to spend time with Jesse when he was working on the farm machinery. Chris would have his own tasks and responsibilities, and the sooner he could learn how to carry those out, the better off he’d be.
With a resolute nod, he rose from his seat and headed upstairs to bed. He’d spend tomorrow helping Jesse with the rest of the huts, and tomorrow night, he’d start getting better acquainted with everyone else.

“T
HE
weather report warned of storms today,” Macklin said at breakfast the next morning. “If it gets bad, come back down if you can or take refuge in one of the huts if you can’t. Radio in every hour and let us know where you are and what the weather is. We don’t want you taking chances or getting hurt. The huts don’t have to be finished today. They don’t have to be finished this week if the storms blow in and stay for a while.”

“Yes, sir,” Jesse said. He could feel the chill and dampness on the breeze, even down in the protected valley. They’d be glad of the heater in the ute today. “Did you get rid of the wombat last night?”

“Yes, but it came back, trying to get inside. Let’s give it a few days to give up before you clean out that cabin. No reason to do it more than once if the wombat manages to get back inside.”

Chris joined him at the ute, looking even younger and more vulnerable than usual wrapped up in a drizabone that looked two sizes too big for him.

“Oh, good, Caine found my old drizabone,” Macklin said. “I knew it had to be there somewhere. We’ll get one that fits you right when we go to Yass to get your cast removed. Jesse, you remember what I said out there. You’re experienced enough to make the call about coming back or waiting it out.”

Macklin strode off before Jesse could reply. The condom was burning a hole in his pocket as he contemplated the possibility of getting stuck in one of the huts with Chris for an indefinite period of time. God, he hoped Macklin didn’t guess or he’d lose his job for sure. He had to think about something else or he’d give them away.

“You have to go back to Yass to get your cast removed?” Jesse asked as they climbed in the ute and started back to the highlands.

“Apparently. Boorowa doesn’t have an X-ray facility, but Yass is only an hour farther away. It’s not like we have to drive to Melbourne.”

“That’s not what I was worried about,” Jesse said. “You were bashed in Yass.”
“I know,” Chris said, “but I don’t have to go back alone. Caine and Macklin said they’d stay with me if I wanted them to.”
“You don’t sound enthusiastic.”
“They already see me as a kid,” Chris explained. “If I can’t even handle getting my cast off by myself, how am I supposed to convince them I’m an adult?”
“It’s not the cast, though,” Jesse said. “It’s the fact that you were beaten nearly to death. I can go with you if you’d prefer. I don’t see you as a kid.”
“I… I think I’d like that,” Chris said. “It’s still a couple weeks off. The doctor said six to eight weeks. I don’t want to go twice so I’ll wait the full eight weeks before I go back. That’s only another month at this point. That way hopefully they’ll just cut the plaster off and let me go home.”
The light mist started as they crested the edge of the valley and drove north toward the huts they had not stocked the day before.
“Whenever you decide to go, just tell me and I’ll be there, even if I have to take a day or two off to do it,” Jesse insisted. “Remember what we said yesterday about being friends? Well, friends help each other out when they need it, and going back to Yass sounds like a time when you’d need it.”
The surprised expression on Chris’s face was too much for Jesse. He stopped the truck and tugged on Chris’s arm, pulling him into a kiss. He kept it light, tender rather than arousing, because despite the condom in his pocket, the cab of the ute was not where he wanted to be when they used it. The first time he got inside Chris— or vice versa, he wasn’t picky—he wanted to have the space and time to enjoy it. Chris wasn’t some random fuck Jesse had picked up at a bar. They were friends, and he found he liked it that way. He liked going back to his bunk last night and knowing he’d see Chris again, that they’d laugh and joke and work together, and that eventually they’d get around to getting each other off again.
The way Chris kissed him back, licking and biting at his lips, tempted him to ignore that resolution, but they had barely left the valley that sheltered the station. In the ute or in a hut, they needed to get a little farther away before they got naked. Jesse would never survive the mortification if one of the other jackaroos, or worse, Caine or Macklin, caught them. This close to the station, that was not outside the realm of possibility.
“Hold that thought.” Jesse’s voice sounded rough to his own ears, testament to how deeply Chris’s kisses, Chris’s eagerness had affected him. “Let’s get a little farther from home first, okay?”
Chris didn’t look convinced, but he scooted back to his side of the ute and fastened his seatbelt again. Jesse put the ute back in gear and headed on to the first hut.
The light mist had turned into a definite drizzle by the time they reached the drover’s hut, unpleasant, but not enough to keep them from doing their jobs. Jesse glanced at Chris to make sure his drizabone was buttoned up to keep him dry.
They did a quick inventory of the drover’s hut, finding this one mostly stocked.
“I wonder why this one needs so much less than the others,” Chris said as they changed the blankets and put fresh batteries in the flashlights. “Some of the others have been all but bare, and this one looks like we stocked it last week.”
Jesse shrugged. “Could be it gets more use and so people bring supplies more often, or it could be it gets less use because it’s relatively close to the station. If they’re this close, they can just go home for the night.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, I guess.”
As they finished up, they heard the sound of the rain on the tin roof.
“How far to the next hut?” Jesse asked.
“It doesn’t look all that far,” Chris said, “but it’s hard to tell sometimes. The map isn’t exactly drawn to scale.”
“Let’s make a run for it,” Jesse said. “We’ll get wet a little, but I’d rather get more than one hut done before we have to call it quits because of the weather.”
They dashed through the cold rain, not a downpour yet, but definitely stronger than just a drizzle. The gravel on the road kept it from turning into a quagmire even with the heavier rain, but Jesse wondered how long that would last. Long enough to get to the next hut, he hoped. The ute had four-wheel drive, but even that had limits.
Fortunately the second hut wasn’t far. Jesse parked the ute as close to the door as he could manage and still have any hope of getting back on the road.
They dashed inside and began the inventory, but Jesse’s mind focused far more on the ever-increasing pounding of the rain than on the task at hand. They had finished half the cabinets when a crack of thunder directly overhead startled them. Jesse opened the door and looked at the horizon appraisingly.
“I think we’ll wait out the storm,” he said. “I don’t like the way those clouds look, and I’m not familiar enough with the area to gauge what kind of effects the weather will have on the roads. I don’t think the boss would appreciate having to rescue another jackaroo from a storm.”
“Fine with me,” Chris said. “I have no desire to need rescuing, not when we’re safe and dry here. Do you need anything from the ute?”
“No, do you?”
“Just our lunches if we’re stuck here that long.”
“I hope we aren’t, but I’ll grab them now before the weather gets worse.” He turned up his collar and pulled his hat as low as he could on his head to protect his neck and dashed to the ute. The rain soaked his lower legs, but his back and neck stayed dry as he rummaged through the sacks for their lunches. Finding them, he ran back inside, shaking water from his drizabone as he stood just inside the doorway.
“Maybe we should get a fire going?” Chris asked. “I put some logs in the fireplace, but I don’t really know much beyond that.”
As wet as his feet were, Jesse thought a fire sounded heavenly. “I’ll do it. Why don’t you finish the inventory so we can get everything from the truck when the rain slows down?”
Chris nodded and went back to checking cabinets while Jesse started the fire. Once it was going, he pulled off his boots and propped his sock-covered feet in front of the flames to dry out and warm up.
“Your jeans are soaked too,” Chris said. “I promise not to jump you if you take them off to dry. You can wrap up in a blanket if you’re cold.”
Jesse stripped off his pants, sitting back down in only his underwear. “Let it warm up in here and you can jump me all you want.”
Chris grinned. “I like the sound of that.”
Jesse grabbed his jeans and pulled out the condom he had hidden there before he left his room that morning. “You’ll like this even better, then.”
“I thought you didn’t carry condoms when you were working,” Chris said, swallowing around the lump of desire clogging his throat. Jesse’s cock started to fill at the sound.
“I got tired of waiting.”
Chris launched himself at Jesse, straddling him and kissing him wildly. Jesse ignored the rasp of denim on his bare skin as Chris devoured his mouth. The sense of being desired so powerfully fired his blood. He ran his hands down Chris’s back and pulled the hem of his shirt free so he could reach skin. As easy as it would be to lift Chris up a little, push aside their remaining clothes, and let Chris ride him into oblivion, they had the time and privacy to linger, and Jesse intended to take advantage of it.
He broke the kiss, already breathing hard. “There’s a perfectly good cot over there. We could actually get undressed and lie down.”
Chris grunted, not moving as he worked a hand between them to stroke Jesse through his briefs.
Jesse caught his hand and pulled it away. “What’s the rush?”
“The chance to have you fuck me?” Chris retorted.
“I will if that’s what you want,” Jesse promised, “but listen to that storm. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and I only have one condom, so there’s no rush. We can take our time getting there.”
Chris stood up and shrugged out of his drizabone, the sleeve catching awkwardly on his cast. Jesse followed him, freeing his arm and pulling him into an embrace, his back against Jesse’s chest. “Not rushing, remember?”
He ran his hands over Chris’s cloth-covered chest, enjoying the play of strong, sleek muscles. Chris might not have a jackaroo’s wiry build yet, but Jesse would put money on him filling out by the end of the summer.
Chris leaned back against Jesse so trustingly Jesse nearly called off their sex. Chris needed someone so much better than Jesse, someone with a stable life and the ability to make promises and keep them. Jesse didn’t know where he’d be afterApril when the seasonal work at Lang Downs ended.
Jesse rolled his eyes at himself. Chris would kick his arse for that kind of condescension. He’d proved his ability to take care of himself and his brother. He didn’t need Jesse hovering over him and taking his decisions out of his hands. Furthermore, Chris had made his hopes for the next few minutes very clear. Jesse had no reason not to give it to him.
Especially not when Chris rubbed his tight, sweet arse against Jesse’s erection. Oh, yeah, Jesse was going to enjoy this. It had been a while since he’d had the time to really linger over sex rather than feeling obliged to rush for release. He worked open the buttons on Chris’s shirt, finding the dusting of chest hair he’d seen but not had time to explore when he helped Chris shave the last time. Lifting one hand to Chris’s cheek, he nuzzled the nape of Chris’s neck. “I’ll have to help you shave again tonight. You’re getting scruffy.”
Chris tipped his head into Jesse’s hand, the gesture so vulnerable Jesse felt his heart melt. He urged Chris to turn his head until their lips met in a tender kiss. Jesse shifted so they stood facing one another as the kiss continued. He pushed the shirt off Chris’s shoulders, taking care to keep it from getting caught on Chris’s cast, and tossed it aside.
Chris returned the favor one-handed, leaving them skin to skin for the first time. Jesse shivered at the contact and slid his hands around Chris’s waist, simply holding him for the moment.
“I thought we were going to use that cot,” Chris said. “In a minute,” Jesse replied.
Chris didn’t seem inclined to wait, though, moving his good hand down Jesse’s back and inside the waistband of his briefs. His fingers dug into the muscle of Jesse’s arse, pushing him toward Chris.
Jesse took a step back. “Get naked.”
“As long as you do the same,” Chris replied.
Jesse raised an eyebrow at him, stepped out of his briefs, and toed off his socks. “Your turn.”
Jesse resisted the urge to help as Chris fumbled with his boots and jeans, but while he would have enjoyed helping Chris undress, he’d already crossed far too many lines. They weren’t lovers, not really, and he couldn’t let himself think that way. Instead he stretched out on the cot, stroking himself leisurely as he watched the rest of Chris’s hot, tight body come into view.