Rodeo Boys (Part 4)

I chuckled to let Garrett know I wasn't serious about the sin part. Entering a loving relationship with my best friend was the purest thing a man could do.

After years of friendship, silence, and fear, two rodeo cowboys finally wake up in each other’s arms knowing the truth they can’t hide anymore—they’re in love.

But choosing each other means facing down a conservative ranching town, disapproving parents, lost livelihoods, and a future that will have to be built from scratch.

As they trade the safety of secrecy for a life lived openly, Garrett and Dirk discover that loving a man isn’t the hard part—defending that love against the world is. Together, they’ll have to decide if the life they’ve always known is worth losing for the one they’ve only just begun.

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In the last installment of Rodeo Boys

Rodeo Boys (Part 3)

In the first installment of Rodeo Boys

Rodeo Boys (Part 1)

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Waking up next to Garrett was the most thrilling thing that ever happened in my life. More than the sex, more than our first kiss. This here, the man in my arms, was the man I loved.

Garrett snuggled against me, breathing softly against my neck. We’d fallen asleep with my arm around him. It had lost all feeling hours ago, but there was no way I was going to move it. I wanted to hold him forever. I brushed my fingers through the hair at his temple.

He stirred, shimmied closer, and smiled.

“Morning, Dirk.” His voice was sleepy and sexy like smooth velvet on the ears.

“Good morning, cowboy.”

Garrett chuckled, then sighed. “Please tell me we don’t have to get up.”

“No can do. We have horses to attend to.”

“Ugh.”

I smiled at him, and he opened his eyes. My heart skipped a few beats. His loving gaze wrapped me in so much pure adoration that I felt as if I would gladly stop breathing for him.

Garrett kissed my shoulder. “Love you.”

I cradled his face in my palm and shifted to kiss him. It was a soft, gentle, solitary kiss, yet filled with so much loyalty and love. “I love you, too.”

“It’s nice to finally be able to say it. I’ve been holding onto it for far too long.”

I pressed my forehead to his. “I wasn’t sure I was there yet. I knew I was headed that way, but something … maybe fear stopped me from acknowledging and naming what I was feeling.”

Garrett placed his hand on my chest. “But you’re definitely there now.”

I kissed his forehead. “Without question.”

“So, what does that make us? Boyfriends?”

I laughed. “Never thought I’d have one of those. Figured my romantic life was destined to consist of marrying some suitable girl from town and having a bunch of babies.”

Garrett ran his fingers through my chest hair. “Me too, but this is so much better.” He brushed his bristly cheek along the skin of my shoulder. “What happens when we get back home?”

I hugged him tightly. “It woke me up, thinking about that. I think we’ll need our own place. We can’t keep living in sin in my parents’ farmhouse.”

I chuckled to let him know I wasn’t serious about the sin part. Entering a loving relationship with my best friend was the purest thing a man could do.

“Have we got enough money? I’ve been saving up a fair chunk of change because boarding with your parents has been incredibly reasonable on the pocketbook.”

“Me, too. We just need to find somewhere I can move my business and our horses to.”

“I guess I’ll be out of a job.”

“Yeah, I can’t see my dad keeping you on after hearing you’re fucking his son.”

“Jeezus, this is going to mess things up between you and your family.”

I shook my head. “I don’t care. You’re more important to me than they are.”

Garrett lifted his head. “Really?”

I rolled him onto his back and kept him pinned with my body. My numb arm was buzzing like a son of a bitch. I rested my entire weight on Garrett to compensate and kissed him.

Now that I’d had a taste of his lips, I never wanted to leave them. The more I devoured them, the stiffer our cocks grew. I undulated my hips, jamming my shaft against his.

We didn’t have enough time to make love—we’d gone beyond simply fucking. But we did have time to get each other off. Garrett wrapped his arms around my neck, then into my hair, holding my head as we kissed. I thrust against him, up and back, our dicks compressed and thick; the dry friction creating a sensation of urgency because it bordered on painful.

Garrett grunted beneath me and jammed his hips up, and spilled gloriously into the space between us, making our bellies slick and easy for me to glide alongside his throbbing cock.

I pumped faster, digging in and driving my dick harder until I blissed out and shot my load, joining Garrett’s in the sticky mess that was borne of our love for one another.

I rolled off Garrett and stared up at the ceiling. “We need to get going. I can hear them getting anxious and frustrated out there. I hope the fans were on all night.”

“I would have got up. Thought about it.” Garrett smiled at me. “Didn’t want to leave you.”

I sat up. “Now, we have to get out of this love nest we’ve made up here.”

“Shower?”

“No time. Plus, I don’t trust myself to keep my hands off you. We’ll clean up with a couple of wet wipes. We can shower after the horses are settled.”

“Are we going to compete today? I’m not really feeling it.”

“Yeah … no.” I shrugged. “I’d rather go home and start looking at real estate.”

Garrett sat and shimmied off the end of the bed, headed for the steps. “When are we going to tell everyone back home what is going on between us?”

Once Garrett was down the steps, I followed behind him. He retrieved the package of wipes from the bathroom and handed me two.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to wait. I want to live with you right away.”

“Where?”

I lifted my hand. “How about in here. We can park on the property alongside the barn … we’ve had so much sex in … and live out of the trailer until we can find a place of our own.”

“That’s not going to go over well.” Garrett wiped the cum off his stomach and his cock.

I did the same. “They don’t have a choice. My name is on the land title. They can’t kick me off my own land. The farmhouse, the barn … everything is mine. It was a business decision my dad thought was best.”

“Wow, I had no idea. Look at you, my very own landowner. So, we’re not really in a rush. We can take our time and find the perfect spot to start our lives together.”

God, that sounded good—start our lives together.

I wrapped Garrett up in my arms and hugged him. His arms around me felt so good and destined, like we were always meant to be together. Like we were two flickers of the same flame.

Garrett patted my back. “Let’s get dressed. Those horses are getting restless.” On cue, there was a bang from the horse-hauling end of the trailer. We both hurried to dress.

Stepping out into the morning sun felt good. And different from what it had done during any other time in my life. The light was cheerier; the scents more pleasant.

I felt more alive than ever.

I was in love, and it was coloring my entire world.

The horses were thrilled to get out of the trailer. We led them off, tied them to the side panel, and sorted out their food and water. We worked in tandem like a well-oiled machine.

As they ate, we gave them a good brush down. They snorted and huffed as they ate, their muscles sometimes quivering when we started to brush a new area of their bodies.

We would hang around at the rodeo grounds for part of the day. Let the horses have some time outdoors before we trailered them up and headed for home.

I would never let on, but I was nervous about how my family would react when I brought Garrett home as my boyfriend, after we left two days before as simply friends.

My dad was going to be furious. No son of his would be gay. He’d uttered those words any time any gay pride-related news would come on the television. I’d asked him what he would do if he did have a gay son. His answer, he wouldn’t be my son anymore.

My mom had objected to his harsh response, saying she’d love her son just the same as always, but would encourage him to seek help to ungay himself. That it could be cured.

Gay. Not gay. Bisexual. I didn’t care. I was in love with a man, and it felt damned good.

I put my hand on Garrett’s shoulder and kissed him right out in the open. And he didn’t object in the slightest. He wrapped his arms around my waist and danced me up against the trailer.

This is what being in love felt like. Like the world could take a hike and let us express what we were feeling toward one another. Nosy people be damned. Let them talk.

And they would. Our new relationship would race around the rodeo circuit. The sex we’d had with straight men had been kept secret—for obvious reasons. This was different.

Garrett and I were a couple. A couple deeply in love.

“Hah, I knew it.”

I looked over Garrett’s shoulder at Austin, who was watching us with his hands on his hips, his big cowboy hat shielding his eyes from the sun. He was like pure sex on a stick.

“I knew you two were in love. Yesterday was all kinds of fucked up. The sex was hot until you both started staring at each other. Went right off the rails after that.”

I slipped my hand down Garrett’s arm and held his hand as he turned around. “It was a long time coming. Lots of denial and fear until we finally got it sorted.”

“So, it’s the real thing?” Austin tipped his head.

“Absolutely,” Garrett replied. “We’ll be moving ahead as partners from here on out.”

Austin let out a breath, almost a whistle. “Folks ‘round here aren’t going to like it.”

I gripped Garrett’s arm. “We don’t care. It’s our life.”

“We want to spend it together,” Garrett added, finishing my thought.

“What about your business?” Austin crossed his arms.

I exhaled. I knew the score. I’d lose clients … I knew that. But most of these monied folks were more liberal than the Christian-right, blue-collar crowd. More accepting. We’d be fine.

“I’m sure enough of my clients will stick around. And I’ll get new ones who find our lifestyle of same-sex bliss refreshing in our conservative town.”

“I sure hope so.”

“We’ll be okay,” Garrett said to me. “Maybe I can get a job at a different ranch.”

I nodded. “There are quite a few of them around. Surely, one of them is run by someone with an open mind. You could try Everett’s farm to start.”

“Will do. He’s a great guy.” Garrett raised our joined hands and kissed my knuckles. It felt good to think of him as my partner … officially. We’d been aligned for many years. Garrett had been my best friend in high school. We’d done everything as a team of two.

Falling in love and starting a life together felt destined.

“You guys done for the weekend?” Austin asked.

“Yeah, we’re going to head home,” Garrett replied, clinging tighter to my hand. “We have a lot of things to face and plans to make now that we’re together.”

“How are your folks gonna take it?” Austin asked me.

“Terrible.”

Austin nodded and looked at Garrett. “And yours?”

“My parents don’t care what I do.”

“That sucks.” Austin wrinkled his nose. “Well, best of luck to you. Give me a holler if there’s going to be a wedding and you want a surprise on your wedding night.”

Garrett and I both chuckled. I wouldn’t put it past Austin to make our wedding night much more interesting than being two husbands alone.” I slapped my hand to my forehead.

Slow your roll, buddy.

Marriage was so far down the line and might not even exist as an option. Austin left us to scramble around and make some breakfast. Bacon, eggs, and pancakes were on the menu. Once we cleaned up and packed everything away, we loaded the horses back into the trailer.

They weren’t impressed. They loved competing. Got a real burst of energy and excitement over it. They whinnied and stomped their feet as we drove past the arena.

We listened to music as I drove, Garrett softly singing the words. I loved his voice. Singing like this and singing my name when we made love. I briefly looked over at him.

Such a handsome beast of a man.

And he was mine. I reached for his hand and took it. We stayed like that until I took my hand back so I could pull off the road into a rest stop. We climbed out of the truck’s cab and made our way into the human end of the trailer. We’d deal with the horses after lunch.

Garrett had other ideas as I set about making us a couple of sandwiches. He wandered up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and kissed the back of my neck.

I hummed as he held me, but kept buttering the slices of bread.

He swayed his hips back and forth against my ass until his obvious hard-on was pressing against my crease. I reached back for him over my shoulder and gripped his neck.

“You’re distracting me.”

“That was the plan.”

“I’m trying to make lunch.”

“The only thing I want to eat is you.”

“I gathered that.”

I closed my eyes and moaned quietly when he lowered his hands and undid my jeans. I set down the butter knife and clung to the edge of the counter with my unburdened hand.

Garrett squatted behind me as he stripped my jeans and underwear off and jammed them down around my ankles. He kissed my tailbone. I separated my legs as best I could. Garrett was satisfied because he spread open my cheeks and laid a delicate lick across my hole.