Texas Fall (16 page)

“Oh.
That
salad,”
he said.

Riley yanked him down, and
they lay next to each other looking up at the ceiling.

“How are you feeling?”
Jack asked.

Riley had a thousand ways
to answer the question. His feelings were complicated and all wrapped up in
everything that had brought the two of them to this point in their lives.

“I’m good,” he said after
a pause.

Jack turned on his side
and placed a hand flat on Riley’s chest, right over his heart. “I was so
scared,” he admitted. “Completely and utterly lost.”

Riley’s chest tightened. “I
couldn’t imagine not being here with you.”

Jack sighed loudly. “You
know, when it all happened, I wasn’t alone at all. I had everyone, but I didn’t
want them. No one left me alone, and I hated it, and I realized just how much
you are part of me. Despite the kids and siblings and friends, at the core of
it is you and me.”

Riley had never heard
anything so profound, and he placed his own hand over Jack’s.

“Jeez, Jack,” he murmured.
“And you’re here in my heart.”

Jack nuzzled Riley’s neck
with his nose, then pressed a kiss to Riley’s skin right at the pulse point in
his throat.

Then he said something
that was so Jack, so right, so perfect. “I think we need to fuck like rabbits
before we turn into girls.”

Riley snorted a laugh, and
soon the two men were sprawled on the bed laughing like loons. Only the arrival
of room service actually broke them up from laughing so hard that Riley had
tears running down his face.

Good tears.

* * * * *

The two men ate burgers
and fries, but Jack couldn’t resist commenting. “These are like the tiniest
burgers I’ve ever seen,” he muttered. Then he stabbed something on his plate
and waggled it in front of Riley. “What the fuck is this doing on my plate?” he
asked with exaggerated horror.

Riley stifled a laugh. The
innocent tomato hung there in all its red glory, and in a swift move, Riley
stole it. Then in the interest of fairness, he forked some bacon and watched as
Jack took it from him. They’d nearly finished, but when Jack’s tongue darted
out to lick the traces of salty goodness from his lips, it was Riley’s undoing.
His cock, which had been half-hard watching Jack eat, went to full-on ready so
fast he swore he would be dizzy from all the blood rushing south. Pushing away
the meal on the small table, he climbed on the bed on all fours. Then he looked
back at Jack, whose mouth was hanging open.

“Dammit, Jack, tell me you
brought lube.”

Jack got with the program
in what could have been called a comedy of errors. He tripped over shoes, got
his hand tangled in the belt of the robe, and couldn’t find what he’d bought in
the hotel shop. Finally he lifted the tube aloft like a trophy, and with great
foresight, he gathered the dishes and pushed the table outside the room before
putting the Do Not Disturb sign out and locking the door.

Finally he was on the bed,
and Riley smiled at him with his best attempt at a sexy smile.

“Jeez, Riley,” Jack
murmured. Then he was encouraging Riley onto his back. “I want to see your
eyes,” he said softly.

Riley didn’t argue; he
turned as instructed and what he saw really took his breath away. Jack was smiling
down at him with so much love in his eyes it hurt to look.

They made love slowly.
They’d already taken the edge off in the shower, and as Riley helpfully pointed
out, Jack
was
thirty-five on May first and they should take it carefully
now his age could be rounded up to forty.

Jack answered by pushing
another lubed finger into Riley and making Riley arch off the bed with a
whimper as Jack’s fingers gently caressed him inside.

“I’ll show you old,” Jack
said in fake anger.

“’M ready,” Riley said.
His voice was as ragged as the need that consumed him. Jack pushed inside, and
it was like Riley was coming home.

He wrapped his legs around
Jack, urging him on, until the rhythm they set was punishing and hot.

Jack came first, his neck
muscles straining, a sheen of sweat on his skin. When he rested a little more
on Riley, it was enough for Riley’s trapped cock to get more friction and he shouted
his completion as he came between them.

“Know one thing, Riley
Campbell-Hayes,” Jack said while Riley attempted to get his breath back. “I
will always love you.”

Riley wanted to say
something clever, coherent—hell, he’d be happy to string together words into a
sentence. Instead all he managed as a lethargic peace stole his thoughts was
“Back atcha.”

Riley had a lot to
celebrate. Beta Four had paid off, and finally he felt like he was in control
of CH Consulting and the direction it was going in, and in control of the shit
that had been in his head. It had been three months since the hotel room, and
he was totally honest with Jack about every little thing he felt. He’d never
felt more in love and more needed. The school was ready for taking its first students
next week, and the July fourth celebrations had a double meaning. They were
thankful for each other and family and also for everything they could do.

And before everyone
arrived for barbecue and music, he and Jack were stealing time for a ride. It had
been a long time since the two of them had carved out time for just riding with
no purpose, and as they moved away from the house, Riley could feel himself
relax inch by inch into what the day could hold.

“Logan will be here today,
don’t forget,” Jack commented as they reached a high point toward the very end
of D land. “Hayley seems okay, but …”

“Yeah, I actually think
she might be over him for a while. She’s determined he’ll notice her when she’s
twenty-one, so she’s biding her time.”

“She told you that?” Jack
laughed. “Sounds like she has some of you in her.”

“Me?” Riley was affronted.
“I’ll have you know I very rarely bide my time.”

“I remember, you were
always more of a feetfirst, ask questions later kind of man.”

Riley reined Alex to a
stop, and Jack followed suit with a question on his face. “What?” He looked
around as if there would be something physical that Riley was looking at.

“You,” Riley said. “Sitting
on Solo with the D behind you, looking all cowboy.” He smiled and was pleased
when Jack smiled back. Then he leaned over and they kissed, deeper and more
intense than they managed in the house with the kids. “We need some time so I
can show you how fucking sexy you look.”

Jack sighed, then teased, “You
want me to wear my hat again?”

Riley leaned over the
saddle with his hands resting on the pommel. “Just the hat,” he confided.

They exchanged heated
smiles, and only after the longest time did Jack move Solo forward and the two
of them set off to the farthest extents of the D. The land to the east climbed
to a series of tall hills; green and lush, the whole area was fed by a natural
stream that wound its way down to the D itself. Solo took the lead, and Alex
followed, up the winding flattened grass that hid a path underneath.

“I don’t get to come out
this far as often as I want to,” Jack observed as they dismounted at the top of
the tallest of the hills. “We used to have cattle out as far as here, when Dad
was running the place. But the longer he was in control, the more the working
side of the ranch contracted.”

“Did he sell land? I don’t
remember hearing he’d sold off the land? I didn’t think he could?”

“No, it was just the
horses. He couldn’t sell the land, it was Mom’s and was never in his name.
Otherwise we’d probably only have the house, if that. He sold off cattle, the
programs for breeding were shut down, not deliberately, but it was enough to decimate
what we had here.”

“You remember that
happening?” Riley sat cross-legged on the dirt and grass, and Jack sat next to him.

“I remember the arguments,”
Jack answered. “You ask Josh, they were loud. Mom never did take kindly to Dad destroying
what Grandpa had left. I think Dad hated it that he couldn’t sell the land.
Anything to use in the legal shit he was embroiled in.” Jack’s expression was
even, but he wasn’t holding back on memories.

Riley’s family had been
the ones to rip money from Derek Campbell. It was Gerald Hayes and then Jeff
Hayes who had, bit by bit, swindled the Campbells out of money they were owed.
But that was open and discussed between him and Jack. They’d covered the fact
that it wasn’t Riley who had been the cause of the Campbells nearly losing
everything. Still sometimes, at moments like this, looking down on D land,
Riley felt guilty. He’d give everything to go back in time and stop his dad, or
the man he’d thought of as his dad, from stealing Derek Campbell’s claims.

“I want to say—”

Jack held up a hand to
stop Riley. “I know what you want to say, and I don’t need to hear it, don’t
say sorry. You didn’t turn my dad into a drinker or a gambler, a bitter man who
felt the world owed him a living, that isn’t on you.”

Jack extended his hand,
and Riley took it immediately and twisted their fingers together.

Riley sought a different
subject, one that didn’t pick at old scabs. “I swear Lexie will be running for president
one day,” he said out of the blue. Where the thought came from, he didn’t know.

“She’s a little spitfire,”
Jack agreed.

“And Connor is going to be
a professional sleeper.”

Jack chuckled. “Is that
even a thing?”

“If it isn’t, then I bet
our son makes it something. A mattress seller or something.”

That made Jack’s smile
turn into a belly laugh. Once he stopped laughing, he tugged Riley in for a
quick kiss. “Hayley will be a teacher or work with kids,” Jack offered.

“You think?”

“She’s awesome with the
twins, but have you noticed Max around her? She’s so good with him, and he
responds to her. She said she found a James engine in her bed last night, and
when she gave it back to Max, he didn’t want it. Said ‘yours’ and made her keep
it.”

“Max gave Hayley his
James? Wow, that is a big one.”

For a while they sat in companionable
silence. Riley loved all of his kids, but there was a special place in his
heart for the young woman that Hayley was becoming. She was well into being a
teenager, and she was so damn smart. And she’d managed all of that despite him.
He’d missed out on so much because he’d been an idiot.

“What about Max?” he
asked. Max worried him, the little guy had so many anxieties, and at Riley’s
lowest points, Riley was scared for what the future held for their son.

“I don’t know,” Jack
replied. He sounded as thoughtful as Riley. “He’s only little still, and we
don’t know what he’ll be like when he’s older. He’s so in tune with the horses,
it’s like they’re an extension of him.”

“I wish he’d talk more,”
Riley admitted. Max had a few words he used every now and then, sometimes he
would come out with a sentence, but the words he used were very often copies of
what he had heard in a Thomas story. The experts called it scripting and
apparently it gave Max his safe space to relax in his own thoughts.

“He’ll be fine.”

“And what if anything
happens to us? What will happen to Max? Who would make sure he was safe if we
weren’t here? Who would control his world?”

Jack sighed heavily, and
with a swift move, he had Riley flat on his back, and he half laid on him,
holding him flat. Riley made to move, but Jack just pushed back, and finally
Riley stilled. He wasn’t exactly liking being held like this, his instincts
still tinged with what happened to him in Mexico, but this was Jack, and he
trusted and loved Jack completely. Inch by inch he relaxed his body and began
to calm himself to the weight of his husband lying on him.

“We have a huge family,”
Jack began. “If anything happened to us, then the kids have guardians, Josh,
Eden, everything will be fine. And if anyone says those kids belong with anyone
else than Campbell-Hayes family, then your dad will have them tied in legal
knots until they’re all eighteen and ready to take control of their own lives.
And Max? He’s still so little, who knows what is round the corner for him.”

“But—”

“Riley, you know I’m
right.”

Riley did know Jack was
right. He reached up, knocked off Jack’s Stetson, then threaded his hands
through Jack’s thick hair.

“I think we need to make
out.”

Jack quirked a smile. “I’m
not sure we have the time,” he teased.

“Ten minutes,” Riley
encouraged.

Jack leaned down and
hovered just out of reach of kissing distance unless Riley moved, but then,
Riley didn’t really want to move. The weight of Jack half on him was becoming a
reassuring solid grounding, and his lover’s knee was pressed up between his
thighs. Just a small movement and he could push his hard cock up against Jack’s
leg and get some relief from this crazy need that spiraled inside him.

Too soon it was impossible
to think, and he wriggled impatiently under Jack. Likely Jack hadn’t brought
lube out any more than Riley had, and they only had a couple hours before
everyone arrived. This was going to be heated kissing and frotting, but Riley
could get with that plan as easy as breathing. Jack grasped his wrists in one
hand and pushed Riley’s hands above his head, shifting a little until Riley was
pinned to the ground and unable to move. He’d always loved this, when Jack took
charge and showed Riley he could be trapped as much as the next man, despite
his height and strength. He was just happy he was getting it back. Jack
released his hold, but Riley didn’t move his hands, although he squirmed as
Jack was free to pull and open buttons on his jeans, shifting them down enough
so that Jack could get a hand on his cock. He was hard and needy, and the touch
of Jack’s hand, the way he held Riley, and the rhythm was all too much.

They hadn’t done this in
too long, outside in the sun, just them and the land and the horses, and Riley
didn’t take long at all. He was coming into Jack’s hand, his back arching and
his hands scrabbling in the grass above his head. Jack released the kiss enough
to stare down into Riley’s eyes, his expression one of lust and need. Then he
too was groaning as he came hard. Then with a laugh they kissed until the
ground became uncomfortable and they needed to get home. To family.

* * * * *

Half an hour after they
reached the ranch, people started to arrive. As usual Josh, Jack, and Robbie
were in charge of barbecue, Donna the salads, and Riley was left in control of
the kids. Every holiday there seemed to be more, and it didn’t help that Logan
had brought his girlfriend, a sweet girl with a smile for everyone. Riley
actively sought out Hayley to make sure she was okay with that.

“I’m fine, Dad,” she
began. “I told you, when I’m twenty-one, I’ll make him fall in love with me.”

They knocked plastic cups,
hers lemonade, his beer, and everything was right in their world. Riley didn’t
doubt for one moment that Hayley would get her man if she wanted him; she was
utterly determined.

Eden and Sean arrived
late, both looking well kissed, and Riley wondered if they’d just stopped at
the top gate. The wedding planning was well underway, and Riley had interrupted
a particularly heated session of Eden and Beth discussing pink candles. Riley
hadn’t been aware of how many different issues there were with something as
simple as a candle.

His mom and dad came over
to him, and he cast a critical eye over his mom. The change in the Hayes wasn’t
just confined to Riley and Eden, because Sandra looked very relaxed in slacks
and a loose shirt. She wore a hat and diamonds sparkled at her ears, but there
was no sign of pearls or shoes that matched her top or anything stuffy. She
held hands with Jim, and they slotted into this ragtag heap of friends and
family.

The kids had an impromptu
game of football going on in the first paddock, and Max had even sat himself on
a chair just outside the fence. Riley crouched next to him and patted him
gently on the knee. Max looked up at him with his wide eyes fringed with the
sootiest lashes. He looked right at Riley before his gaze skittered to the
right. Riley didn’t say much, a few lines about Thomas and the noise and
burgers.

Max didn’t say anything in
return, he simply leaned into Riley with absolute trust, and at that moment
Riley felt like the greatest father in the world.