Stonegate Stables - 24. Chapter 24

TJ's donkeys quickly became the hit of the stable, charming everyone who saw them with their goofy noises and sweet, friendly personalities. We learned they were a family - father, mother, and son - and mom and dad had once been part of a carnival that disbanded nearby. We named them Kukla, Fran, and Ollie for the children's puppet show that was on TV in the 50s.

Gabriel took to coming to work a little early, and as he played with them, he discovered that they still knew a few simple tricks from their carny days. He gave them each a bath, trimmed up their shaggy coats, and it wasn't long before he was entertaining millionaire owners of pricey purebred horses with his little circus of donkeys shaking hands, standing on pedestals that Alejandro had knocked together for him, and bowing when they were finished. Ollie, the baby, always got laughs when he'd shake his head at Gabriel whenever Gabriel told him to do something. I think he knew all the tricks, but it was more fun to waggle his head with his ears flopping around than it was to count to three.

It was all pretty damn cute, and we ended up building them a little pen with a shed out by the lane, just before you got to the yard. They slept in a stall at night so the coyotes wouldn't get them, but they spent the days in their pen, getting petted and fed by anyone with a minute to spare. Before a month was out, we had to grade a parking area next to the pen to keep the donkey visitors from parking all over the yard and getting in the way.

A few days after Matt's Eddie date, I invited Adam over for dinner, but he begged off. "I'm, uh, going over to Cody and Wade's for the evening."

Interesting. "Okay. Well, have a good time. They're fun."

"Yeah, thanks, I'm looking forward to it."

We said goodbye and went our separate ways as I mulled that over. I knew Adam had been with Wade and Cody a few times, but not in quite a while. Apparently, he was expanding his horizons now that Dylan was out of the picture. I wondered what that meant for Matt, who clearly felt more than a brotherly affection for Adam.

That evening as I walked into the kitchen, Matt glanced up from the island where he was getting salad fixings out of the fridge. It was quick, but I saw the flicker of disappointment cross his face when he realized I was alone.

"Adam's busy?" he asked me in a neutral tone that did nothing to disguise his feelings.

"Yeah, he is. He's spending the evening with Cody and Wade."

Matt didn't look up, but his hands slowed to a halt as his mind processed the implications of my statement. Dinner was quiet, and Matt went upstairs after helping with cleanup. I let him go, and for the first time since he'd come to live with us, his door was closed when Vincent and I went up to bed. I stood outside it for a minute, wondering if I should intrude on his obvious wish for solitude. Vincent took my hand and pulled me into our room, where he undressed first me, then himself.

"Leave him be, Sean," he mumbled around a mouthful of toothpaste suds. "You can't fix everything."

I knew that, but it gave me a little ache to know that Matt was unhappy. I didn't blame Adam for getting back into the swing of things; I was more irritated at Dylan for upsetting the applecart by not returning Adam's affection. Vincent got impatient with my mental meanderings and dragged me down onto the bed.

"Baby, let it go.” He tugged the quilt up over us and draped himself half over me with his face in my neck. I fell asleep counting the seconds between his warm breaths washing over my skin.

I felt better in the morning, and when Cody came slouching out of Queenie's stall the next afternoon, I stopped to say hey.

"You guys have a good time with Adam?" I asked as he put his tack away.

"Yup," he nodded thoughtfully. "That boy's gotta nice ass on him."

I laughed. Adam's ass was one of his better features.

"It's from all that jumping. See?" I said, turning halfway around and sticking my butt out at him. He gave it an appreciative pat, then slid his hand deeper and gave me a good squeeze. I squawked in surprise, hopping out of his grip.

"Jesus, Cody!"

He grinned at me and went back to Queenie. I gave myself a couple more squeezes just cause it felt good, and decided to call Vincent to come home early for a pre-dinner romp in the kitchen.

"Shit, Sean, I can't. The Mendelssohn rehearsal dinner is tonight, remember? I won't be home till ten probably."

"Well, fuck!"

He laughed at my frustrated tone. "Call Adam if you're so desperate . . . or Matt'll probably be home this evening."

I was silent for a moment. "Are you serious?"

It was his turn to pause. "Yeah, I am. The longer you and I are together, and the more sure I am of us, the less it bothers me if you do someone we know when I'm not around. Like with Danny."

I gave that a long thought. "I guess I feel the same way . . . about certain guys, at least. I hadn't really thought about it like that until you just said it . . . I love you."

I could hear the smile in his voice. "I know you do, baby. Have a good evening, and I'll be home as soon as I can."

I was totally preoccupied by that conversation for the rest of the day, and Calvin dumped me on my ass when I asked him for an extended trot and he bucked instead. I landed on a foot and one hand and rolled out of it, but it's still a long way to the ground, and I knew I'd be sore. I climbed back on and got the trot out of him. He wasn't getting ridden enough, and I knew I had to lease him out or something to keep him from getting too frisky.

When I hobbled into the kitchen that night, Matt pulled out a chair and got me an ice pack for my hip, which had taken the brunt of the impact. He pulled my shirt off and cleaned up the scrapes on my shoulder, gently rubbing some lotion on them. When he began to massage my neck, I sighed in contentment at the feel of his hands and dropped my head to my chest

We ate leftover goulash for dinner before curling up on the couch together. I was sitting with my feet up on the coffee table, and Matt was lying across my lap with my dick in his armpit. I had one hand on his chest and the other ruffling his hair. He was feeling friendly and turned to kiss me during the commercials. The feel of his smooth body, so different from Vincent's, got me thinking about our phone conversation, and I started getting hard. Matt noticed and muttered that he wished Vincent would hurry up and get home.

I turned off the TV and pulled Matt upright so I could look at him as we talked. "You want to mess around, Matt? Just you and me?"

He looked at me for a second, and blinked. "Is that cool with Vincent? I mean, it's always been the three of us."

"Yeah, it's okay with him. In fact, he suggested it since he has to work late.” I reached out to touch his cheek. "How do you feel about it?"

He shrugged. "I love you both, so, yeah, let's do it. I was wantin’ to . . . I just thought we had to wait for him."

He turned his mouth into my hand, kissing my palm, and then dragged his tongue up my wrist to my inner elbow where he sucked softly. I had no idea the nerve endings on the inside of my elbow were connected to my cock, but apparently so, as my dick bounced around in my shorts. I flopped lengthwise on the couch as Matt worked his way up my arm, ending up with his mouth on my nipple, licking it to a hard peak.

I pulled him to me and kissed him, feeling the pressure of his hands where he leaned on my legs. He lowered himself onto me, and I cupped his ass in both hands, holding him tight for a minute, enjoying the feel of his cock hardening against mine.

Matt had taken to wearing boxer briefs, and I slid one hand under the waistband as he pulled himself up me, grinding our crotches together. As he moved up my body, my hand followed the curve of his butt, and my finger dropped into the crack of his ass, warm with his body heat. He arched his pelvis into me, which lifted his butt into my hand, and my finger found its target, soft and wrinkled. I brought my hand to my mouth, smelling the earthy scent of him, then wet my hand and put it back.

We kissed for a long time as I slowly worked my finger into him. He moved with my hand, and soon I was buried in him, tight in the slick heat of his hole. The pressure of his ass muscles dragged against the sensitive skin on the sides of my finger, and I lay there imagining that feeling on my hard cock. Matt left my lips to breathe open-mouthed against my neck, his body thrusting slowly onto my finger as our cocks rubbed together between our tense stomachs. Finally, he lifted his head to look at me with eyes that were heavy and dark with arousal.

“Please, Sean,” he whispered.

He didn’t have to tell me what he was asking for. He moaned as I eased my finger from him and pulled him to his feet. Supporting him with my arm around his waist, we walked upstairs to my room, where I tossed a pillow into the center of the bed and then tugged down his underwear.

“On your tummy,” I whispered to him as I pushed him gently onto the bed.

He lay down with the pillow under his lower belly, pushing his cock and balls down where I could get to them. I crawled up between his legs, pushing them further apart as I settled in. The light from the bedside table cast a shadow in the cleft of his ass, but I could see the darker circle of his hole against his pale skin. I wet a finger and dragged it down toward his balls, gliding over the soft depression each time until he was moaning and pushing into my hand in an attempt to get me back inside him.

I got to my knees, lubed my cock well, and positioned myself to enter him. My initial penetration was a slow push that eased me into him without the shock of popping in hard, and he exhaled in a shuddery ‘uhhhhhh’ that made my cock lurch inside him. I stopped, holding his hips still for a moment as I struggled for control. This was only the second time I’d fucked him, and he felt really good; the elastic strength of his ass held me firmly. I had to work hard at not shooting in the first thirty seconds, but gradually I got used to the feel of him and started to stroke.

I fucked him slowly for a while, just cruising along with my eyes closed, listening to the sucking, sliding sounds our bodies made together, and the little moans he gave every time he exhaled. Just as I was about to drop forward onto my hands, a shadow fell over the bed, and Vincent's warm mouth settled onto the back of my neck for a moment.

He slid his tongue up to my ear and whispered, "You two look fucking HOT together." He kissed me wetly as he pinched my nipple, shooting a zing to my nuts, and then lay down next to Matt. "Hi, Matty. Havin' fun?"

Matt managed a smile, then moaned as Vincent kissed him long and deep, sucking at his bottom lip. Vincent rubbed Matt's back, working his way down until his hand was caressing the smooth stretch of Matt's hole around my swollen cock. After a moment, he sat up to look at what he was doing. Having him touch us like that, just tracing his fingertips softly along where our bodies joined, and watching while he did it, almost undid me, and I had to stop him after a few minutes.

Vincent moved around behind me, where he pushed Matt's legs together with mine outside them, and stood straddling me. I heard the 'pop' of the lube bottle, and a moment later Vincent's slippery finger slid into my ass. He pushed me forward so that I was lying over Matt, propped on my elbows, and then gripped my hips. "Hang on," he muttered, and entered me with a quick thrust that took my breath for a second.

Matt had craned his head around at my gasp, and when he realized what was happening, he moaned, “Ohhh, God . . .” and turned his face down into his hands.

Vincent pumped a few times to get his cock seated in my ass and then told me to start moving again. I began to thrust slowly while Vincent adjusted his angle and distance so that when I was deep in Matt, the head of his cock was barely inside me. When I withdrew from Matt, I was impaled on Vincent's steel rod.

I began to move more quickly, and the feel of having Vincent's cock up my ass while my dick was buried in Matt’s tight hole was just about unbearable. I stared at the wall and thought about the donkeys and about Amanda's silicone tits -- anything except the fact that I was fucking and being fucked by the two men I loved most in the world, but it wasn't much help, and finally my nuts began to churn.

"Fuck," I panted. "I'm not gonna last much longer."

"Go for it, Matt," Vincent grunted, and Matt pushed his hips up slightly, reaching in to grab his dick. He'd been hard all along, and began to tense up after only a minute or two. By the time he blasted into the sheets, his body trembling in little bursts, I had my face in the back of his neck, gritting my teeth and barely moving. The spasms of his ass around my sensitive cock head flipped my switch, and I short-stroked into him as I came in quick shots that jerked my body.

Vincent managed to wait until I was finished, then pulled me up tight to him, banding one arm around my hips and the other around my chest. He drove into me hard four or five times, jerking me loose from Matt, then slammed in and strained against me as he unloaded deep inside me, his cock pulsing rhythmically. Our bodies were pressed so tightly together that I could feel the contractions low in his belly against my ass as each shot surged up from his balls.

He gradually loosened his hold on me and pulled out as I leaned over to kiss Matt before lying down between them. Matt dozed for a while, but eventually, after some intense goodnight kisses, went to his own room for the night. I got up for a drink of water and came back to find Vincent propped against the headboard. He smiled and settled his arm around me when I crawled up to lay against his chest.

"You got home early," I said, running my hand down his belly to touch his soft cock where it lay against his leg. I know all about the physiological mechanics of an erection, but it’s still a wonder to me to look at a soft penis, especially one like Vincent's, which is quite average when flaccid, and know that it can grow to become so thick and hard.

"Yeah, Tony said he'd finish up."

"You shoulda called. I'd've waited for you."

He didn't say anything for a minute. "When I came upstairs and saw you with Matt, I almost went back down until you were done, but after I watched you for a minute, I realized that all I wanted to do was be with you, in you, while you were fucking Matt. It was so different than being there from the beginning."

I smiled against his chest, where I was licking the soft skin around his left nipple. "Yeah, it was a little odd to start without you. When you kissed my neck, I got this big rush of love and lust for you."

He smiled and kissed me, then sat back and looked at me soberly. "Do you really feel like you said on the phone? That it's okay for us to be with someone else . . . solo?"

I was silent for a minute, making damn sure that what I was about to say was what I truly felt. This was a door we hadn't really opened before, and it's always easier to not go there to begin with, than to try to undo it later.

"Well, not quite the way you're putting it, no. I'd be okay with it being someone we knew well, and that both of us were comfortable with . . . like Adam or Matt. But it would have to be a situation like tonight, when you weren't gonna be home or I was out of town or something, not just for the hell of it; and I'd want to know about it beforehand. No surprises." I paused for a moment. "Maybe I'm not as comfortable with it as I thought. I mean, I am, but under certain conditions."

Vincent slid his hand down to my hip, running his fingertips along the soft skin of the crease where my thigh met my belly, bumping into the base of my dick each time. It almost tickled, but he did it just firmly enough to make it erotic.

"That's pretty much how I feel. I've been thinking about it off and on lately, and when you called this afternoon, it just sort of popped out. The only guy I'd be a little weird about would be TJ. I wouldn't tell you no, but it would . . . bother me." He stopped for a minute, and I could tell he was trying to decide whether to tell me something or not. Finally, he hugged me tighter and continued in a quiet voice.

"Back in June, that night you told me you'd met someone, I could hardly get any words out. I think I said something like 'is he the one,' and you said you weren't sure, that you'd just met him. I was so afraid that I’d waited too long to tell you how I felt, and that I was going to lose you to him." He paused again, and then said really softly, barely breathing it, "TJ frightens me."

I had become totally still as he spoke, and his last sentence repeated itself over and over in my head when he finished. Vincent had always been the more confident, less emotional, of the two of us, and I'd had no idea that he wasn't completely secure in our partnership. My heart rate had spiked up to double normal, and my stomach was knotted as I turned to face him.

"Vincent, I care more for you than I could for ten TJs rolled into one. The history you and I have together, how good we are in bed, the way you always say just what I need to hear when I'm upset, this . . .” I gestured to the two of us snuggled up in bed, “. . . are things I'll never have with anyone else. TJ's a great guy and I love him, but it's you I’m in love with, and who I've chosen to spend my life with."

His eyes roamed my face as I spoke. When I was done, he looked at me for another long beat and then pulled my head to his chest while we clung to each other. It felt sort of like the aftermath of a fight where you're still a little shaky, but you know it's going to be okay. After a few minutes, he reached over and turned the light off, pulling me along with him as he slid down flat in the bed. Instead of pushing me onto my other side like he usually does so that he could curl up behind me, he kept us face to face, holding my hand against his chest in both of his as we fell asleep.

I lay awake for a while, studying his face, barely able to see him in the dim light, but he looked sad to me, and I kissed my fingertip before gently touching it to his mouth. He didn't stir, and I rolled over, pushing back against him, needing the comfort of his body around mine.

Cody had Queenie tuned up within an inch of her life for the Cutting Horse Nationals in Amarillo, which began in early February with the final round on a Sunday. He pulled out of the yard eight days before that with Adam riding shotgun, which surprised me. Despite the fact that they played as a couple, I knew Wade was a little possessive of Cody, and sending him off for several days with footloose Adam seemed unlike him.

I gave Wade a call the next day and got right to the point. "Hey, it's Sean. Everything kosher with you and Cody?"

"Well, 'hello' to you, too." There was a pause. "Yeah, we're okay. Cody's got the seven year itch at five years, I guess. He's infatuated with Adam right now, so I'm giving him a little space."

"Jesus, what the hell's going on? You two are my model couple."

"Tell me about it. Adam came over a couple weeks ago for the first time in probably two years, and Cody had dinner with him another time or two after that. Then Cody says he needs help driving to Amarillo, that he wants to do it in one day, but it's 10 or 12 hours, and he needs another driver, and - what do you know - Adam's available. I called him on it, and he admitted that Adam got to him when he was over that night. I always thought if we played together, this wouldn't happen." He stopped for a minute, and I could hear him sigh.

"We're gonna be fine, Sean. Cody loves me - I know that - but we've been together five years, and he was only 21 when we met, so I think he just needs to kick up his heels a little. I guess I'm glad it's Adam, because I know he won't run off with Cody, even if that little son-of-a-bitch wants him to."

I hung up and just sat there at my desk for a while, the sounds of the busy stable muted by the solid stone walls. Wade and Cody had been as solid a couple as I’d ever known until now, and it shook me a little. If it could happen to them, it could happen to Vincent and me, something I really couldn’t even begin to contemplate. I dialed Corleone’s and Vincent answered on the second ring.

“Good afternoon, Corleone’s.”

“Hey, sailor, wanna have a good time?”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea.” His voice was very professional.

“Customers nearby?”

“Yes, but we can arrange for a private party. What did you have in mind?”

“Your big, thick, dripping cock buried to the balls in my hot, pulsing ass?” I never talked like that in real life and I could tell he was surprised. There was a pause as he swallowed and cleared his throat.

“I think we can arrange something along those lines. Corleone’s aims to please.”

“And your aim has always been excellent.” I started to laugh at that point and gave up the charade. “Just called to tell you that I love you.”

“I know you do. Thank you for thinking of Corleone's, and rest assured that I will take personal responsibility for the success of your special evening.”

I hung up with a grin on my face and felt a whole lot better. Good enough, in fact, to go ride a new horse Frank had bought, a rascally two-year-old with the dubious barn name of Spike, who had bucked off the trainer Frank had hired, breaking his arm. Frank had begged me to give it a try, so I tacked up Spike with a standing martingale - no guarantee that he wouldn’t buck, but it certainly helped - and I got through an hour on him with no mishaps. Spike moved really well, and it occurred to me that Frank might finally have purchased a winner.

When Vincent got home that night, he came straight to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and backed me firmly up against the kitchen island. He pinned me there with his hips, gripped my face in hard hands, then dropped his mouth to mine and kissed the daylights out of me.

“Fuck!" he exclaimed. "I’ve wanted to do that since you called. You know who was standing there? The entire goddamn Ladies Garden Club - all twenty-seven of them - watching me with nods of approval as I assured you I could take care of your fucking little party. Thank Christ I was wearing a jacket to hide my big, thick, dripping cock.”

He kissed me again, a little less forcefully than before, but just as passionately, sliding his hands down my arms until our fingers were entwined.

“Lock your elbows,” he said, then bent his knees slightly and lifted me onto the island, where he released my hands and went for my belt. Dinner was late, but Matt was out with Eddie the gangster, so it didn’t matter.

The rest of us had originally thought to drive over to Amarillo, but here I was with William's little jet (I still couldn't quite think of it as mine) gathering dust in the hanger, so I lined up the pilot to ferry us to Amarillo in style. Jesse and Ben had decided to come along, so they joined Matt, Vincent, TJ, Wade, and me as we climbed aboard on Thursday, humming 'Amarillo by Morning' as we stowed our bags.

The flight was uneventful, and by lunchtime we were checked into the hotel and on our way to the show grounds to find Cody and Adam. There were several big barns of gorgeous horses, so we wandered for a while, checking out the denim-clad cowboy butts that were everywhere you looked. I finally quit pointing out the good ones to Vincent, because there were just too many. He turned to me at one point and raised an eyebrow ever so slightly in a look I knew well, and I realized we might be enjoying 'cowboy a la carte' some night this weekend.

We finally ran into Cody in the next to last barn, where he was just putting Queenie away after a workout. Wade greeted him with a casual hug, which Cody returned, although he seemed a little reserved to me. Adam was out sightseeing, so we called him to meet us later for dinner. We hung around for a while and met the people stabled on either side of Queenie.

On the left were a man and his wife who were into various horsy pursuits, and had seen Adam and me ride in Florida. The woman laughingly inquired if I had recovered from my 'incident,' and I assured her that everything was fine and in good working order, while Vincent smirked at me from behind her. Their names were Jack and Paula Baker, and they lived about two hours from us. They were there because Paula's horse was in training with one of the cutting competitors who had ridden him in a few practice sessions.

Their cute, blond, teenaged daughter, whose name I didn't catch, was heavily into horses, and was the defending state champion in the 18-and-under amateur-owner jumper division. She had started chatting with Matt, and I happened to be watching him at the exact moment he realized she was flirting. He was surprisingly naïve sometimes, especially about girls his own age, with which he had no experience.

He straightened up from leaning against the stall door and took a step back. She stepped with him, and they danced across the barn aisle until she had him up against the opposite stall door. I was trying hard not to smile, but it was tough. I poked Vincent, who glanced at them and then watched with interest as the girl traced her finger along the word 'Coors' on Matt's t-shirt, chuckling when he flinched as she coasted across his nipple. That was too much for Matt, and he ducked free to come over and wedge himself between Vincent and me. Eventually we said goodbye and wandered back through the barns again.

As we were walking toward the parking lot headed for dinner, a deep, gravelly voice from behind us growled, "I'll be goddamned if it ain't Cody Birdwell."