The Lonely Heart (19 page)

Isaiah grinned, unrepentant. “I’m going to go let the kid trounce my ass at some video games. Then we can put him to bed and start making up for lost time.”

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“You’re evil.” Grady’s voice rasped a bit when he spoke, his eyes glazed with lust.

Isaiah just laughed.

“Yep, that’s me,” he teased. “Evil. But hey, I more than make up for it. Just wait.”

Grady growled and lunged at him. Isaiah took off, laughing the whole way.

True to his prediction, Josh beat him badly at some racing game. Isaiah gave it his best shot but the stupid car wouldn’t cooperate. He spent more time trying to get himself unstuck from the rail than actually racing. Josh’s snickers didn’t help.

“Bed,” he announced after nearly forty minutes of excruciating torture. “It is definitely time for bed.”

Josh started to pout, but Isaiah gave him a stern look. Giving in with a sigh, Josh shut down the game and disappeared upstairs.

It didn’t take Isaiah long to lock things up, turn out the lights, and make sure Josh was settled for the night. He said goodnight and made sure the bedroom door was open a crack.

A quick detour by his bedroom to stock up, then Isaiah made his way back to Grady’s room.

This door, he closed all the way.

Grady was waiting for him. Isaiah stripped and slid under the covers with a sigh.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“Hey,” Grady echoed.

Isaiah settled in closer, dragging his fingertips along smooth skin.

Grady stilled his motions with one hand. Isaiah had to bite back a whimper at the serious expression he received.

“I need to know where this is going,” Grady insisted quietly, but intensely.

“Where do you think it’s going?” Isaiah asked sharply.

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking!”

Isaiah rolled his eyes, flipping the bigger man over in one swift move. He landed on top of that broad chest, making sure Grady looked him right in the eye and could see the utter sincerity he was feeling.

“I would be perfectly happy to lock us both inside this room and never come out again,” he said sternly. “That answer your question?”

“So it’s about sex.”

“Good Lord, Dillon! Do you always have to jump to the worst possible conclusion?”

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Grady looked away. Isaiah sighed and shifted his weight, but made certain to keep in close contact with his insecure lover. He hadn’t meant to get into this so soon, but it was obvious that Grady needed the reassurance.

“Love doesn’t always leap out of the bushes and whack you over the head with a branch,” he explained apologetically. “Sometimes it sneaks into the house in the middle of the night and crawls into bed with you, and when you wake up the next morning you realise it’s always been there. You were just too much of a blind idiot to see it.”

“You…you love me?” Grady whispered, eyes wide in shock.

A fist clutched Isaiah’s gut and he had to take several breaths until his body relaxed again. “You don’t…care about me?” he asked quietly. He’d never known it was possible to feel such devastation.

Grady’s head shook rapidly. “I’ve loved you for years,” he confessed in a low, small voice. “Ever since that first roundup. You were stunning, so confident and assured, even though you had no clue what you were doing. You kept screwing up, but you just ignored the glares and laughed and tried again.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything? Make a move?”

Grady shrugged, eyes sliding away. “You deserved better. You still do.”

Isaiah nearly choked on his fury, wanting to slam his fist into something. Or someone.

Preferably several someones. If it was the only thing he accomplished in his life, Isaiah was going to make Grady see his own worth. See himself as others saw him. As Isaiah saw him.

But now wasn’t the time to pursue it. Only time would help this particular problem.

Just as earlier in the barn, words alone weren’t going to cut it.

Isaiah smiled gently, tried to lighten the mood. “Is that why you hired me?” he teased.

“’Cause you liked what you saw?”

A small smile tipped up the corners of Grady’s firm lips. Isaiah wanted to pump his fist into the air and yell ‘Success!’ but he managed to stifle the impulse.

“That might have been part of it,” Grady admitted with a sheepish shrug. “But I’ve never regretted it.”

“I’d always wondered a bit, why you hired me,” Isaiah commented. “I have a literature degree, for God’s sake. I knew horses, but I was clueless about cattle and running a ranch.”

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couldn’t…with Tracy gone I couldn’t keep up. The finances and paperwork were…I guess I was too stupid to—”

“I never want to hear those words come out of your mouth again,” Isaiah said harshly.

“But it’s the truth.”

“Is Josh stupid?”

“Of course not!”

“He has a handicap, a disability that means there are certain things he can’t do. Just like you. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid or worthless or any of those other ridiculous labels you keep pinning on yourself. It means you have to work harder than others, find creative ways to cope. It
doesn’t
mean there’s anything wrong with you.”

Grady squeezed his eyes closed. “I’m so scared,” he admitted hoarsely. “What if I can’t live up to your expectations? What if I screw this up?”

“Enough, babe,” Isaiah ordered. He tipped Grady’s chin up and captured those slightly chapped lips into a deep kiss. “Push it all away for a while. Just let me love you. Everything else will work out.”

Grady looked like he wanted to argue some more, but Isaiah was, once again, done talking. He shut Grady up the best way he knew how, with another passionate kiss. One kiss led to another, then another—both men’s hands roaming freely. Isaiah stroked Grady’s side, tilting his head from one side to the other, slanting their lips together. His tongue kept busy exploring, inside and out.

“Love me,” Isaiah said fiercely. “Now, babe, I need you.”

Grady started to turn over, and Isaiah stopped him.

“No,” he said. “I need you in me.”

Grady’s eyes widened. “You sure?”

“Positive.”

Grady scrambled for the supplies, digging out the familiar tube of lube and a condom.

Isaiah took the lube but tossed the condom to one side.

“We don’t need it,” Isaiah said in answer to Grady’s unspoken question. “I trust you.

You’re it for me. You wanted to know where this was going. Well, it’s you and me, exclusive, until you kick me out.”

“You’re sure about this?”

“Yes. I got tested not long ago. I’m clean. The papers are in the office, if you want to—”

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Grady shook his head and it was his turn to say, “I trust you. If you want this, then yes.

Absolutely, yes.”

Isaiah’s grin was huge and probably a little bit wild. They switched places, Isaiah propping himself up against the pillows. He reached one hand down, slipping two well-lubed fingers into his ass. The burn ripped up his spine, the pain almost too much. He rarely bottomed. But he didn’t want to wait. He wanted Grady in him, now.

Grady knelt between Isaiah’s legs, his hungry gaze following every motion. Isaiah found the intensity to be one hell of a turn-on, especially when Grady reached out with one callused finger to trace the rim of his asshole.

“Damn, that feels good,” Isaiah gasped, shoving in another finger. “Keep touching me, babe, please.”

Grady obeyed, his touch a bit hesitant but oh so perfect.

“Can’t…need you now, babe.” Isaiah’s breath was coming in gasps, his spine tingling.

He arched into Grady’s touch, pulling his fingers free. “Now, Dillon, now.”

“You sure?” Grady asked with concern. “You only used two—”

Isaiah cut him off expediently with a hand to Grady’s thick cock. He stroked up to the base, squeezing gently.

And still Grady hesitated. Isaiah rolled his eyes, patience gone. He grabbed Grady’s shoulders and flipped him onto his back, straddling the bigger cowboy’s waist.

“Fine,” he huffed with fake annoyance. “I guess I’ll just have to go riding.”

“Riding? What?”

Isaiah let his body drop, thigh muscles taking the strain as he balanced himself and lined all the pieces up. Grady’s cock nudged against his ass, slid into the crack.

Almost…there…
perfect
!

Isaiah sat down, impaling himself on Grady’s cock. Grady shouted, back arching, as his lubed cock drove into Isaiah’s tight heat. Isaiah tossed his head back, regretting for a brief minute not stretching out more. Because damn, Grady was on the large side, and it bloody well…
oh, there. Right there
.

The thick head of Grady’s penis rubbed across Isaiah’s prostate and all the pain vanished. Pleasure swamped him, blinding him for a second. When it cleared, he looked down to a glorious sight. Grady lay splayed beneath him, eyes wide and almost blank, skin www.total-e-bound.com

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reddened with passion, chest heaving with each breath. The man looked utterly lost in sensation. Good, that was just the way Isaiah wanted him. Pleasure-drugged and unthinking.

Starting out slowly, Isaiah began to ride his lover, gaining speed with each motion. Up and down, he kept the rhythm erratic, wanting to draw this out as long as he could. They thrust and grunted, panted and swore, for endless minutes. Until their muscles were shaking and Isaiah’s thighs, as hardened as they were from years of horse-back riding, began to scream a protest.

Isaiah shifted forward, bracing his hands on Grady’s shoulders. He dropped down while Grady thrust up. Neither could form words anymore, bodies straining for release.

And then it came. Grady shouted wordlessly, slamming up into Isaiah with such force that Isaiah thought he was going to jam his cock into Isaiah’s throat. Thick, hot cum flooded Isaiah’s ass.

Isaiah gasped in shock at the feeling. He’d never had sex without a condom and the feel of Grady filling him up, spunk dribbling out of his ass, was incredible. The heat seared him and a sense of intimacy he’d never experienced nearly overwhelmed him. Isaiah dropped his head back, balls drawing up, tight and painful. When he moved forward again, his cock rubbed against Grady’s stomach.

It was too much for over-sensitised skin.

“Dillon!” Isaiah’s yell probably made it clear to the bunkhouse that his release was ripping through him. He sprayed the warm skin beneath him with his mark, wave after wave of pleasure jarring up his spine. Spots danced in his vision as the longest orgasm he’d ever experienced consumed him.

Isaiah could barely suck air into his lungs. He collapsed onto Grady, smearing spunk between them. The change in position caused Grady to grunt. Isaiah echoed the sound when Grady’s cock jerked out of his sore ass.

“Damn,” Isaiah said, when he finally managed to get enough air to speak. “I’m dead.”

“Me, too,” Grady said, patting Isaiah on the ass.

“Sorry if I’m squishing you,” Isaiah said, “But I don’t think I can move.”

“You’re good,” Grady assured him.

“So are you,” Isaiah teased.

A loud pounding shook the walls. Isaiah yelped and fell sideways, losing his precarious perch atop Grady.

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“What the hell was that?” Isaiah demanded.

“I don’t—”

The pounding sounded again. Grady groaned and suddenly buried his face into Isaiah’s shoulder. “Oh, God, kill me now,” he moaned.

“Maybe we should consider moving him to a different room,” Isaiah replied dryly while Josh banged on the wall a third time. “I guess that means we’re done for tonight.”

He should probably be embarrassed or, at the least, feel bad that Josh had heard them.

And maybe he would. Tomorrow. When he came back to life.

For now, Isaiah put any—and all problems—on the back burner before draping himself over his big lover. At the moment, he was too tired to even care that he was leaking cum all over the sheets.

“There’s always the shower,” he mumbled sleepily. “Loud water’s good for cover.”

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Micah threw down his cards and scowled. “I fold.”

Tommy chuckled gleefully and all but rubbed his hands together. “I am the king!” He spread his own cards out, crowing with delight at the disgusted expressions surrounding him.

Isaiah watched the action from his position in the doorway, trying to stifle his amusement. He was having too much fun observing to be noticed just yet. Josh snickered at Tommy.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Tommy glared back at the pint-sized card shark on the other side of the table. “That is just plain wrong, buddy.”

Josh simply smiled wickedly and laid out four aces. Groans sounded all around the table and Joseph was laughing so hard he almost choked.

“That about does it for me,” he declared. “I think the kid’s wiped me out.”

“We’re playing for pennies,” Micah drawled.

“Yeah. And I’m down ten bucks. Kid, you’re gonna be deadly when you hit twenty-one.”

Josh chortled and waggled his eyebrows, prompting another wave of laughter.

“I’m gonna get another drink,” Joseph announced. “Anyone want something?”

He got a chorus of requests and Josh held up his empty glass imperiously.

“We’re corrupting the child,” Joseph said. Isaiah stepped aside to let Joseph by, getting a small nod of acknowledgement. None of the others paid any attention, not even when Joseph returned a few minutes later with an armful of drinks. He passed out beer bottles.