Saddle Up 'n Ride! Read online

  * * * *

  Normally when visiting Rusty, Jack would plan his trip far in advance and never had to stop in Toronto for a transfer to another plane. Toronto wasn’t at all what he expected. When the plane landed at Pearson International Airport, they told him he should be back in the airport by first thing in the morning because his flight to Calgary left at nine. They were letting him go because of his badge. He didn’t think it would be any good there but apparently it was. In the hotel, he stared out the window at the highway longingly. He would have rather the plane had gone straight through to his final destination, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He was desperate to get to Calgary and now that he was so close he felt cheated. He was close enough to taste it yet couldn’t. Folding an arm over his naked chest, he walked back to his bed and grabbed his shirt. Shoving his arms into the shirt, he wished he smoked. He needed something to calm his nerves.

  Back home, he would have just gone to the gym and beat a bag into submission. He couldn’t do that because he didn’t know where anything was in Toronto. There was always a second option, sleep. He looked at his bed and that turned his stomach. Grabbing his wallet and his keys, Jack left his room. In the lobby he got a cab to carry him to downtown Toronto. The air was becoming a little nippy which told him that winter was just around the corner. He had loved visiting Rusty when he was younger during the winter. Everything was covered in white snow and though it was cold, he didn’t mind. From time to time lately, he could see himself on all fours before the giant fireplace in the ranch’s living room with Rusty taking him from behind. That thought caused him to stumble and he crashed into a lady. She smacked him with her purse and he apologised. He ducked into a movie theatre to see if he could catch something but nothing caught his attention. Eventually, he returned to his hotel and climbed into bed.

  Closing his eyes, he stroked his chest. Then he pinched his nipples and growled. One hand remained to torment the tight buds while the other moved down between his legs. His cock was already hard, with the tip brushing against the sheets. Tossing the sheets from the bed, he pushed up to watch his cock dance slowly before falling stiffly against his flat stomach. Licking one palm, he grabbed hold of his cock and began stroking it.

  He panted, groaned, tightened his fist and moved it in long, slow strokes. Visions of Rusty pushing out of the river after a long swim flashed though his head and Jack’s back arched from the bed. The fingers pinching his nipples tightened and he whispered Rusty’s name.

  Rusty was bent over, ass in the air.

  Jack’s eyes widened as he saw the image. His hips pumped upward into his tight fist. The head of his cock throbbed, for it was tender. Each time it brushed his hand his body jerked.

  “Oh, damn,” Jack managed. His hand was moving faster and faster now. Different images of Rusty, in extremely sexual poses, flashed through Jack’s mind. His chest heaved and his breathing quickened even more. He licked his lips and pinched down on his nipples hard. This time it was too much for Jack to bear.

  “Oh, yes!” He arched his back, slammed his hips upward just as his cock exploded. His body trembled uncontrollably as his fist continued working over his dick. Hot white liquid spewed upward against his chest and stomach but all he could do was yell his release at the top of his lungs and ride his orgasm out. When his body relaxed against the bed, his hand fell away from his cock, and he drifted off to an unconscious sleep.

  * * * *

  Rusty looked up at the sky and wiped the back of a hand across his forehead. It was getting cold but even with that, because he had been working for so long, his body had heated up. Dropping the pitchfork he was wielding, he peeled the wet shirt from his body and hung it over a nail in the stable. He had to finish piling all the hay that day because they had called for rain. Normally he would have people helping him but it seemed they all wanted to head back to their places. He let them; they had worked hard for him all summer long. It was time for them to prepare for the winter. Walking over to the last roll of hay, he hoisted it up and looked at the large stack. That should be enough for the winter, but he was going to head into town a little later and get some extra feed from the store. It never hurt to have some back-up.

  With that done, he stopped by one of the stalls to check on his horse. The black stallion was busy eating. Satisfied, he exited the barn and stopped in his tracks as the SUV pulled up into his front yard. He couldn’t remember if he was expecting anyone. Shirtless, he stood there with his Stetson in one hand to wait until the driver exited the car. The last person he expected to see was Jack Malone. But it didn’t matter; Jack Malone stepped from the luxury SUV and walked towards him.

  It was as if Jack was moving in slow motion. Rusty stood there as though a cat had his tongue and watched the man, who had visited him in so many dreams, move towards him. Rusty licked his suddenly dried lips and tried to think. His brain had jumped ship and all he could do was stand there and wait. His cock was at attention, straining against the front of his jeans.

  Don’t look down! Please don’t look down!

  “Hello, Rusty,” Jack spoke. His voice was smooth as silk but Rusty could hear hurt in it.

  “What are you doing here, Jack?”

  “Closing things up,” Jack replied simply with a shrug.

  “Close what up?”

  “Us.”

  That took Rusty off guard. He didn’t know what Jack meant, but the thoughts flowing through Rusty’s head made him feel extremely guilty. “Ah, come in.”

  Leading his unexpected guest into the main room, Rusty grabbed a shirt from the back of a chair and shrugged into it. He moved to the fridge. “Would you like something to drink?”

  “No, thank you. I’m not staying.”

  “What do you mean you’re not staying?” Rusty was even more confused than before. “You’re in Calgary. You live in Texas.”

  “I know where I am and where I’m from. Look, we I can’t keep dodging this. Your letters stopped. I got worried. Now that I see that you’re still alive, I just want to find out why. Was there something I said, didn’t say, did, didn’t do?”

  Rusty braced his hand on the counter and he couldn’t face Jack. His heart was hammering in his chest. How did he answer that without completely screwing up his friendship? How did he tell Jack that he didn’t want to see him again because of some rather explicit dreams and thoughts?

  “I can’t do this,” Rusty tried walking by Jack. The Texas Ranger grabbed Rusty’s arm. Violently, Rusty yanked his arm back and walked out the door.

  “Damn it, Rusty!” Jack called. “I just want to know why!”

  Rusty stopped then but didn’t turn around. “Because it’s all going out of control.”

  He said nothing else, but exited.

  * * * *

  Jack watched his back exit the room and he wanted to yell. What in the hell did Rusty mean about everything being out of control? Sitting there on the kitchen stool, Jack didn’t know what else to do. He had traveled so far to see this man, and Rusty had all but turned him back out the door. His visit had meant nothing to the rancher. As he sat there, he tried to tell himself that it didn’t matter. He tried to talk himself into leaving, ending a seventeen year friendship just like that; but no amount of trying allowed him to walk away. Getting up, he exited the ranch house and walked around until he found Rusty leaning heavily against the corral fence.

  He walked over and leant his back against the fence. “You know,” he began, and he saw Rusty’s body tense. “I’m a cop. I should be able to read people. But you, Rusty, you’re a special breed. You never let anyone in, or even close. I sit in my office and I think about everything that I’ve ever told you in letters. When I came to visit, all of it was me telling you. All of it was me opening up to you. The only thing you did was confess to me that you were gay.”

  Jack stopped and stayed where he was for a bit before he spoke again, “I guess seventeen years of friendship means nothing to you and for all this time I have been wrong abou
t you.” Reaching behind his neck, he unclasped the necklace he always wore there and removed the pendant. Pushing away from the corral, he placed the cross pendant on the head of one of the poles and walked away.

  It killed him to do that, but between his job and his pathetic love life, he did not have the strength to fight for a friendship in which he was the only person fighting. If there was one thing he learned from life, it was that you can’t force someone to do something if they don’t want to do it. It didn’t make sense because once they did the deed, they’d be miserable and so would you. Jack was fiercely loyal but he only gave his loyalty to people who deserved it; people who proved to him that they were worth it and could return the same feelings.

  Climbing back into the SUV, he drove back through the streets into downtown Calgary. He pulled into the parking lot of one of the hotels he had passed earlier. First thing the next day, he’d try to get a flight back to Texas and head back to work. It didn’t make sense catching another red-eye back to Texas.

  What a waste of the past few years.

  “Can I help you, sir?” the smiling woman at the front desk wanted to know. He nodded his head but realised that he needed words.

  “Yes, I’d like a room please,” Jack told her while reaching for his wallet and his credit card.

  “How long will you be staying?”

  “I’m not sure. Depends on when I can get a flight out of this place.”

  She nodded and typed away at her computer. Jack took the time to look around him. The hotel was beautifully decorated. The chairs were brown leather in sets of two with a potted plant between each set. The carpet was a dark red colour with Arabic designs. The door handles were gold and shiny clean. Visitors went to and fro through the lobby. Some looked as though they were on vacation and others were dressed as though they had business to tend to. Jack wondered how many of them just lost a friend.

  “Sir, could you sign here please?”

  Jack turned and read the paper before putting his signature on it. She handed him his key and credit card. “Tenth floor, left out the elevator, room ten twenty-two.”

  “Thanks,” he nodded to her before catching the nearest set of elevators. When he finally got his bag into his room, he chucked it on his bed and sat down beside it.

  “What a waste.”

  Leaning forward, he buried his face in his hands.

  * * * *

  Long after Jack left, Rusty stood in the same position he had been in. He stood there for so long that his leg that rested against the corral fence began cramping. He knew that Jack had left something on the pole but he hadn’t had the courage to look at it. Looking would be an end, and Rusty’s heart didn’t want an ending. His mind and head were doing battle and the side-effect was a wall around his heart. It was a shield that he didn’t want anymore, but had no idea how to get rid of it.

  When Rusty finally turned his head to the pole, tears flowed down his face. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cried but the pendant was a gift to Jack ten years ago. It was Jack’s birthday and Rusty wanted to give his friend something that would last forever. He had bought two cross pendants, one for himself and one for Jack. That birthday, Rusty got on a plane for the first time in his life and flew to Texas. He wrapped his fingers around the pendant and just held it. What had he done? How could he just let Jack walk away?

  “I need a drink,” he muttered while shoving his hair from his face. Hurrying into the ranch house, he dumped some whiskey into a glass and drained it. He repeated the action and when his throat burned with the drink, he placed the pendant on the table and sat staring at it. He didn’t know what he was going to do. A regular adult would simply tell Jack what happened, explained it all. But Rusty didn’t want to seem weak. He didn’t want to fall prey to the saying that “two gay men can never be just friends.” He was tired of hearing it and he hated falling victim to it even more.

  He couldn’t just sit there; he had to do something. He had to find Jack.

  Reaching for the telephone, he dialled the number quickly and paced the kitchen while it rang. He tried Jack’s cell phone first before he panicked. Calgary was a large place with many hotels. Jack could be in any of them and if it meant searching them all, that was what he was willing to do.

  “Malone,” the voice was husky.

  “Jack...”

  There was silence now. It was a silence that scared the hell out of Rusty. He froze in his kitchen, praying to hear something from the other side of the phone. Anything at all, he would take to prove that Jack hadn’t hung up.

  “What do you want, Rusty?”

  “You...”

  “What?”

  “I need to talk to you. Can I come see you?”

  “I came to talk to you earlier, remember? You didn’t want to hear it. Let me go, Rusty. Tell me what I did wrong so I can move on.”

  Rusty felt like a tool.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong...can we talk in person about this? This feels really strange—I can’t do this over the phone. Please...”

  After Jack told Rusty where to find him, Rusty hung up the phone, buttoned up his shirt and grabbed his helmet. Rushing out the door, he stopped to pick up his motorcycle keys. Pushing his hair back, he entered his garage and slipped his helmet on. Soon, he was speeding through the late evening air towards the center of town. He was running through his head exactly what he was going to say to Jack. Would he tell Jack the truth? What happened then? This was one of those no win situations. If he told Jack the truth, Jack was gone. If Rusty lied, Jack was gone. Either way, he was fucked.

  Frustrated, he flipped a left turn and pulled in the parking lot. Rusty didn’t even stop at the lobby but simply entered the elevator. As it moved upwards slowly, Rusty was panicking. He was tough when it came to other things—fights, bets, anything but this. He paced the elevator like a caged cat and when the door opened he slowly exited; not because he didn’t want to, but because his brain wasn’t communicating well with his feet. Sluggishly, he walked to Jack’s door with his helmet beneath his arm and inhaled deeply before knocking. The last time he felt this nervous was the night he had decided at the age of twenty to lose his virginity to a man. He had had sex with women before that, but it wasn’t the same. That night as he stood there, waiting for his lover at the time to come into his bedroom, Rusty had tried so many times to back out.

  Rusty took a step backwards when the door swung open and Jack stood there with his shirt hanging open. Swallowing nervously, Rusty nodded, “Hi.”

  “Come in.” Jack stepped aside. Hanging his head like a scolded child, Rusty did as he was told.

  * * * *

  Jack closed the door and as he walked back to where Rusty now stood in the sitting area of the room, he buttoned up his shirt. Whenever he saw Rusty, his whole body went into overdrive. There was a solid sexiness about Rusty that made Jack’s cock swell with excitement and his heart hammer. Whenever Jack thought of Rusty getting hurt, Jack’s anger soared and his heart broke. It had been happening for years but now he had to get over that. He had to find a way to release his sexual frustrations and Rusty Hunter was not that way.

  Leaning against the fridge, he looked over the small wall to where Rusty was now sitting. “You got me, so talk,” Jack managed in a strong voice. He was actually proud of how the voice came out. The sound didn’t shake or waver. It held the lie that he was in total control of things.

  “I know, I haven’t been the best person to be around lately,” Rusty began. “I mean I should have written you back but something happened and I couldn’t get myself to write to you. I just couldn’t—not in good conscience.”

  “What in the hell could have happened that was so horrible? I thought we had each other’s backs.”

  Jack’s fierce green eyes locked onto Rusty like laser beams. He suddenly felt like slime for being so angry at Rusty but the truth was, he needed answers so he could make a decision about what he was to do.

  “I—I...”
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br />   “Come on, Rusty,” Jack pushed. “You’ve never been the one to be speechless. Remember? Spit it out.”

  Still, Rusty stuttered and Jack was beginning to get seriously irritated with each false start to Rusty’s demands. Sometimes Jack wondered how he had stayed a cop for so long because of his quick rising temper.

  But Rusty didn’t speak. Instead, Jack watched Rusty get up from where he was sitting and moved around the wall like a hunter looking for his prey. Rusty grabbed Jack by the front of the throat—not tight enough to hurt—and slammed him into the fridge. To Jack’s utter astonishment, Rusty fused his lips over his and plunged his tongue into Jack’s mouth. Jack’s shock didn’t last very long. It disappeared when a searing heat surged through his body and he wrapped his arms around Rusty. But Rusty wasn’t having that. The man simply tangled his fingers with Jack’s and slammed Jack’s hand backwards and restrained Jack against the fridge.

  Growls filled the air as Jack pushed his body forward, spun around and pressed Rusty against the fridge now. Their kiss deepened, tongues danced around each other and electricity sparked through the air around them. Jack felt Rusty’s cock throbbing through their jeans and he moaned, aching to reach down and massage it. That thought caught him off guard and Rusty took advantage. The two struggled with each other across the room, through the side door and through the sitting area. But Rusty got the upper hand and bent Jack backwards over the table.

  Their lips were still fused together. Their fingers untangled and Rusty began fighting with Jack’s clothes.

  “Do you see now why I stayed away?” Rusty growled, ripping Jack’s shirt open and bowed his head. Rusty licked at Jack’s nipples, then moved his mouth to Jack’s chin. He sucked on Jack’s chin only to have Jack’s fingers tangle in his hair and snap his head back. Rusty made a sound in his throat that was borderline primal, but hissed when Jack’s hot, wet tongue licked at his neck. To Jack, Rusty tasted like sweet, hot fire. He welcomed the delicious musk of Rusty’s body.