- Hard Fall (29 page)

262

Hard Fall

by James Buchanan

Shaking, all overcome, I pulled back. Staggered off a might, leaned against an outcrop of rock and stared at what I'd wrought on Kabe's skin. A golden flush swept his cheeks and neck. Those half moons where the rope bit into him went deep cherry and over marked each other. The picture of him—lying trembling on the boulder, sweating, with his fingers dug hard into the rock and his butt thrust up in the air—seared into my mind. My fantasies could live off that for a lifetime. I swallowed a couple of times before I managed to croak out, "Kabe?"

"Fuck, Joe," He hissed, his eyes coming open maybe half way, "please." Kabe hauled himself up on his hands and knees, licked his lips and breathed out, "Now."

I laughed a little, him like that. "Come get it." Honest, I should have gone to him. Helped him. Somehow I knew that Kabe'd like it better this way. Me ordering him around touched him ... touched me in a way I weren't right ready to acknowledge. Least right then I didn't have to think, just do.

"Get your butt over to me."

Instead of getting up like I expected, Kabe crawled. Maybe he couldn't stand 'cause he was shaking so hard, but I liked to think that he moved that way for me; somewhere between a skittish colt and a mountain lion stalking. It was as pretty as the canyons behind him. He got to my feet, leaned in and licked my ankle. Shudders shot up me so hard my gear jangled. I had so much wood in my pants that it pulled the legs of my shorts up into my harness.

Kabe looked up at me. Lord, that boy's eyes were wicked.

I swallowed and hissed out, "Yeah, you can keep that going."

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He grinned and then ran his tongue along my shin. The wet trail cooled on my skin and mixed with the heat of Kabe's breath. I didn't think anything could feel so intense. Both of us shook while he licked every inch of my skin, working his way up my body. When he made it to my mouth and kissed me, I groaned hard. Both of us felt like rocks pressed into each other.

I kissed him for a long, long while. My hands wrapped on either side of his face pinned him and wouldn't let him pull away. I didn't want Kabe to ever pull away from me. Let the mountains fall and the stars burn out, I'd never let him go.

Our tongues tangled all in each other's mouths. What I couldn't just yet say to him in words—how much he meant to me, how my heart felt like bursting every time he smiled—I tried to put through in that kiss. And I felt it right back. He needed me. Kabe wanted me. Maybe he even loved me a little. About that point I could have exploded with it all.

Course, both of us needed something fierce right then.

One of Kabe's arms stretched out behind my neck, latching him in to the rock good. The other he got looped behind my head, allowing me to kiss and lick that tight chest that tasted all of dried sweat and dust. Then he walked his legs up the boulder on either side of me. Lord, Kabe was made of rubber he was so flexible. Kabe rubbed his prick just under my sternum. Didn't hold on to him none, instead I unhooked my harness while he hung around me. Anybody who could hold himself on sheer wall with his fingers and toes could manage this. A little shifting, a little twisting and my gear dropped around my ankles. Shorts didn't follow it long after.

264

Hard Fall

by James Buchanan

"What are you doing, Joe?" He managed to pant it out between kisses.

The two little bits I'd rescued from my pocket crinkled in my hand. "I thought you said anytime." I reached around him, tucked a little packet of lube that definitely smelled nothing like coconut into the waistband of Kabe's harness

"Here?" That laugh was near perfect.

"Yep." I licked his neck as I tore into the wrapper of the less metallic bit of protection I needed. "Game?"

"Fuck, yeah." Kabe breathed it out as he humped my belly.

I managed to tug his shorts off his butt and around his thighs. "Save that thought." Got them all hung up in his Mana harness. If I pushed him up enough the shorts bared his hole and tangled his balls all up in rip stop nylon. Kabe laughed, figuring what I was going for. He hooked his ankles on my shoulder. I think I ain't seen nothing prettier in a long time.

A little shifting and I retrieved the lube from where it'd got stuck under his harness. Pinched him a little I bet, but Kabe humped harder and kissed deeper when I did. Then I slicked myself, had to do it that way, and angled as best I could. I pushed up and in, all slow. Kabe relaxed and kinda slid down.

Both of us moaned long and hard. Had to spread my legs out wide to hold us up.

Kabe's ankles and hands both wrapped around the back of my neck. My fingers, coated in chalk, dug into his butt cheeks. Then I got my back braced on the rock and I thrust up in him like mad. His hole opened up and took me in.

Although that angle ... I ain't never been inside someone so tight.

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My shirt rucked up between us and his balls rolled under his shorts against my belly. His prick, hard enough to burst, was wedged between his body and mine and trapped in nylon. He writhed against me ... felt his arms shake with the strain of getting pounded, holding himself on my shoulders and being on the verge. I moved one arm up to cradle his back so he wouldn't fall.

His little sharp gasps of, "Joe!" boiled through my blood.

My nerves had been flayed to breaking. After all of it, my body couldn't hold back. I rocked us hard and fast, just pounded his ass. Fire lit me up, swept clean through my soul and out my prick. I hauled him hard against me as I rode it out. Waves of heat and cold stripping me bare for him. When I kinda could get back focus, I moved to kiss him. Kabe laughed and I knew why. His shorts were all slick. Heck, I ain't never plowed anyone and made them cum from just that. 'Course, could be the rubbing himself off in his shorts had something to do with it.

He unwrapped himself, wobbly as a newborn calf, and slid.

I still held him, wouldn't ever let him fall whether it was two or two-hundred feet. Not that I was in much better shape. We kinda staggered over to the whipping rock—I'd remember that name from here 'till forever—where he collapsed down on his belly. Kabe fumbled a bit and found his water. Seemed all he could do just to chug it down.

"You okay?" I tugged my shirt down and worked the condom off my prick.

He turned his face. A lazy smile broke as he chuckled,

"Better than." I guess we was all good then.

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I crawled back a bit just to watch him there and get my shorts. Couldn't stop looking as I pulled them on. His legs all spread out, bare brown and cut with sinew. Black straps on his thighs, blue fabric bunched up against it, then nekkid tan ass and another thick back strap 'round his middle. My handprints, white from the chalk, covered his legs and back and butt. Here and there I could see the red welts from the rope where I'd marked his skin. I ain't never seen nothing quite like it.

Something deeper worked in me too. I wanted to take care of him, keep him safe. It rushed over me, drowned me down in feelings I just weren't used to. Like my mama said, you find the right person and you know it ... in your gut, your head and your heart. That boy had done worked himself so fast in there. I couldn't have outrun it if I wanted to.

I sure didn't want to.

Kabe's exhausted voice cut into my thoughts. "Hey, Joe."

"Yeah?" I sounded just as worn through.

He laughed again. "Thank you."

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267

Hard Fall

by James Buchanan

First afternoon home after my first day back to work in a week and it'd been hard. Sheriff Simple had me riding a desk and going over some cold cases we had. Admin work, but at least it was work and carried a paycheck ... a grade below what I was used to. Took a walk over to the courthouse and watched Gunter Warner's arraignment. Nothing special or particularly exciting happened. The wheels of justice rolled along, slow and cranky like usual.

They took his plea of not guilty, denied him bail until a better hearing could be had—flight risk and all—and set a trial date. I got that there were all sorts of behind the scenes negotiations about the when and the where and what punishment the DA would go for since Utah has the death penalty and Germany don't. So far none of us had figured why Gunter'd done it. There were rumors, though, of a mighty big insurance policy and a family photography business, of all the darn things, he stood to become sole owner of if his wife had an unfortunate accident. 'Bout as good a motive as you could pin on most domestic things.

Heck, I knew a gal who shot her husband 'cause he couldn't find the hamper with his socks.

Now home and worn thin a bit, I stretched out on the couch and tipped my Stetson down over my eyes. Sooner or later, I'd have to see about dinner. Thought a nap might do me better right about then. Most of the people at the department had been okay with my return. I'd proved myself 268

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to them enough and with Myron Simple behind me, they weren't about to say nothing to my face. Couldn't say as much for some of the townsfolk. Ramon and Pete still spouted hate and some of 'em listened. I couldn't do nothing about them, so I just took care of myself.

The rumble of an engine carried up long before I heard the wheels crunch in the drive. Guess a nap was out of the question. Pushed the hat up, but didn't sit up. I waited and soon the porch steps creaked and somebody knocked.

"S'open." Whoever it was could take me as is. Door swung open, showing me my pretty boy. My heart went all warm and a good deal of the rest of me, too. Yep, I'd fallen hard. "Hey, Kabe." I barely looked up and waved him on in. "What, you get lost, puppy," I teased, "and end up on my doorstep?"

"Funny. No, I was down this way and thought I'd drop by."

After shutting the door he just kinda stood there, not doing much but staring at me. Finally, he spoke, "T and I were over across from the station, couple hours ago." That would have been about the time I got off shift. "Met this guy to see about an old truck I wanted to buy." Kabe shifted and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Anyway, I saw the counter girl from over at Ruby's, saw you run into her over there. She just walked away from you, wouldn't even talk to you. I've seen some snubs before, but man, that was literally 'flip up her nose and cross to the other side of the street.'"

"Well there you go." I mumbled. I didn't want to remember that. It'd been like a gut blow when Jessie'd done that. I'd said 'hi,' just to be polite. Likely what T and Kabe hadn't caught was the choice bit of words that'd gone along 269

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with Jessie's snub. "It don't matter much what Jessie did."

Gonna have to live with a lot of that in the coming days, months, years. "You come all the way over here to tell me that?"

"No, sort of." Kabe shrugged, "Bought the truck, thought I'd bring it over and show it off."

The backcountry was wearing on him. "Truck huh?" Soon I'd be on him about chaw and dressing in flannel shirts. Right now, least I still had tight T-shirts and dark denim to ogle.

"Yeah, cheap. Something to drive." Boy was like a kid talking to his dad. Lord, that thought was nine ways of wrong.

Still, somehow, kinda fitting I guess. Maybe that shirt-tail uncle everyone's always got ... not really related like, but always around. He shuffled his feet and bobbed a bit. "You know, so I can get to my job."

"You got a job? You didn't tell me nothing about that!"

'Course I hadn't seen Kabe since the day before yesterday.

Talked to him on the phone though, he could have said something then. He'd been hiding it from me. We'd have to talk about that.

"Surprise." He grinned. "Actually, Ranger Slokum helped me. Hear something, know somebody kinda thing, happened real quick."

"So you gonna tell me what it is? Working at the Park?"

Figured it might be a seasonal opening, if Ranger Slokum had a bead on it. I'd done cottoned to that gal faster than just about anyone I'd met, 'cept maybe Kabe. While I was off, she'd twisted my arm to help her unpack then we'd spent the afternoon with her showing me photos. Her and her gal who'd 270

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died, all normal like at bar-b-que's and such. Never much thought of someone like me, or like her, being normal.

"No," Kabe's cough dragged my attention back to him, "a canyoneering outfit. Runs guided tours and such, Bryce, Red Rock and Zions. I get to teach
tourons
how to climb."

Well now, my Kabe had a job and a car. Productive member of society and all that. Still, he looked like a pretty boy with his shaggy black hair and hard-laced muscle.

Dressed like it, too. Kabe leaned near the door in hiking boots, low slung but tight jeans, and a red shirt that set off his dark skin. I smiled, beckoned him with one finger, "How long you gonna hold up my wall and not come over here?"

Kabe grinned and sauntered over. Then he sat down heavy on the edge of the couch, butt pressing against my shins. "So what happened to love thy neighbor and all that bullshit?"

Guess he was back on Jessie and what he'd seen. Not like my thoughts weren't all wrapped up there, too. Not with just her, but a lot of little things lately that screamed just as loud.

Lightly, like he was afraid I might break, Kabe set his hand on my knee. That little touch felt better than just about anything I could think of. "They're just going to turn their backs on you?"

I shifted a little so I could see him better. I must've looked like hell warmed over with the way he stared at me all wide eyed and worried. Couldn't say I'd been taking the best care of myself recently. 'Bout all I could manage some days was to drag my carcass outta bed. Heck, I hadn't shaved in a week.

Diamond teased me about going for the mountain man style.