Stonegate Stables - 25. Chapter 25

We all turned to face a bearded guy in his mid-40s, big like Wade. His face was weathered and creased, and he had a bit of a belly starting, but he looked pretty good. Cody was staring at him in delight.

"Levi? Jesus Christ, it's been years. How the hell are ya?” He stepped into Levi's outstretched arms and almost disappeared as Levi wrapped him up tight.

They hugged longer than necessary to just say Hi, and when Levi began to chew on Cody's ear lobe, Wade stepped forward and settled a meaty hand onto the back of Cody's neck, sliding his thumb in next to Levi's whiskery chin.

Levi pulled his mouth off Cody, rolled his eyes up to Wade's smiling-but-not-amused face, and said in a stage whisper to Cody, "Who the fuck is that?"

Cody laughed and pulled free, dragging Wade's hand down onto his chest to pull Wade close behind him. "Levi, this is my partner, Wade Morgan. Wade, Levi Garrett, an old family friend."

"Partner?” Levi said, raising his eyebrows almost off his forehead. "You went and got married? Well, fuck."

Wade and Levi shook hands, and then Cody introduced the rest of us. Looked to me like Levi was a bit more than a family friend, but he seemed like a nice enough guy, so we invited him to dinner. At the restaurant, Wade defined his territory a little more by maneuvering Cody so that I was on one side of him and he was on the other, with Adam and Levi across the table. As we worked on our first round of drinks, Levi and Cody caught up.

Levi had rodeoed with Davis, Cody's daddy, for years, hauling their horses from one dusty fairground to the next, and sleeping in the back of the truck when they were too broke for a cheap motel. They team roped together - Davis heading while Levi heeled - and they went to the World Finals six times, winning two of those times. Davis' horse, Ticket, was heading horse of the year three times, finally retiring to a well-deserved life at pasture with lifetime earnings of $2.1 million.

They'd parted ways when Levi went home to run his uncle's feed business in Wyoming, but they kept in touch and visited each other once a year or so. Cody had spent a summer with Levi when he was nineteen, and they'd apparently had a pretty good time. Wade listened to all this with a calm expression and a hand firmly planted on Cody's thigh. Levi had recently sold the feed business and hit the road with a hefty bank account and a couple horses. He was here this week competing in the adult amateur division and drumming up clients for his colt starting business.

Matt was fascinated with Levi and smiled at all his rough talk and rowdy stories, but Levi seemed oblivious, which was fine with me. I wasn't about to let Matt run off with a total stranger for the night, no matter how amusing his stories. When the party moved to the bar next door, Adam offered to take Matt out for some non-alcoholic nightlife and they left. Cody watched Adam leave, and Wade watched Cody, while I watched Wade. I felt like the end domino.

It was unsettling to see their relationship struggling a little, and I put a hand on Vincent's leg. He turned to look at me with a half smile and lay his hand over mine, pressing my fingers into the meat of his thigh. He kept his eyes on mine for a long time, just gazing steadily at me, and I felt my chest tighten. It was an odd moment, intimate and loving, but then the waiter brought our drinks and it was over.

We got back to the hotel around midnight and went to bed. Matt's room and ours were on a different floor than everyone else's, so I have no idea who ended up with whom, but I'd be willing to bet that Wade and Cody went home together, alone. I didn't check up on Matt, knowing that he was safe with Adam.

We all met for breakfast around nine. Cody had already left for the barn, so Wade sat down next to me with a slight smile that only got wider when I looked more closely at him. "Well?"

"Nothing.” He tried to wipe the grin off his face without much success.

"Cody happy to see you?” I ventured.

He chuckled. "Yeah, we had a good night. I guess they talked a lot on the drive here. Adam told him to quit being a jerk, and got his own room. They didn't fuck around after they got here, so Cody was ready to blow the minute I got his jeans off.” He sobered up a little. "We're okay, Sean." He didn't offer any more, and I let it drop, happy that they had apparently talked it out.

The first semi-final cutting round was at one pm, but Cody didn't figure he'd ride till around three, so we went to the Panhandle-Plains Museum for a few hours - the largest history museum in Texas, full of fascinating artifacts and displays. We had a late lunch, and headed back to the show grounds to watch Cody do his cow thing.

Queenie was on her game, and Cody rode her to a second overall finish for the day, which he was satisfied with. By the time he got her put away and showered off the dust, it was six, so we found another good restaurant and ate too much. We decided to walk it off, wandering around downtown taking in the nightlife.

Along the way, we ran into the daughter of the couple next to Queenie with her posse of boys and girls around Matt's age. She introduced herself to me again (her name was Katie) and chatted politely for a few minutes. They seemed like decent kids, and when they invited Matt to go with them for the evening, I let him, making sure his cell phone had a full charge, and that he had enough money for a cab, just in case. They were headed for the mall, and I was a little surprised that he wanted to go after his experience with her the day before, but he stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered off with them.

About nine we found a bar that seemed okay. It definitely wasn't a gay bar, but there was enough of a mix that we blended in okay. By the time we'd been there an hour we'd identified a few other homos in the crowd and had quit worrying about the occasional affectionate touch. I'm just a toucher by nature and can't go long without putting a hand on Vincent's leg, or patting Adam's arm as I laughed at something he said.

As Vincent walked towards the washroom, I saw a guy wearing a big black Stetson stop him for a moment. They spoke briefly, Vincent gestured my way, and they both smiled at me. Vincent winked as he turned away, and I gripped my drink a little harder. It looked like cowboy night might be tonight. We hadn't discussed it, but after Vincent's eyebrow yesterday afternoon, I'd been wondering if he'd actually do anything about it. As a couple, we'd never been with a total stranger, and the thought had me half-hard in about three seconds.

We were definitely exploring the boundaries of our relationship as we settled into the security of knowing each other well. So far, I was okay with the direction Vincent was taking us. He and I talked easily about sex, about the things we did with each other and with other people, and I never felt pressured by him. Our conversations were always a two-way street, and as long as we were communicating well, I was willing to follow where he led. Didn't somebody once say that the ideal relationship consists of one-third communication and two-thirds fornication?

When Vincent came back, he had the Stetson in tow and parked him next to me, squeezing in a chair so that we couldn't help but rub legs under the table. Vincent gave me a quick, intent look as DeLaCroix Boudreaux introduced himself to everyone. He was from the bayou in Looozianna, as he pronounced it, and had come to Amarillo for the Quarter horse sale tomorrow night.

He was a big boy, probably 6'3", 235 or so, muscular as hell, and turned out to be a calf roper and a steer wrestler, or bulldogger, as it's sometimes known. At twenty-four years old, he was in the prime of his rodeo career, and looking for a good horse or two to add to his string. He had dark hair, curling slightly over the collar of his shirt, and big brown eyes with long lashes. He was fair-skinned with a full lower lip and a deep dimple when he smiled. When he gazed at me from under the brim of that big black hat, I fell in lust.

We drank and swapped stories and even danced a little, keeping it PG-rated so as not to offend the tourists. Del was in the same hotel we were, so he walked back with us when we called it a night around eleven. I had a wet spot on the front of my jeans from my dripping cock, and couldn't wait to get Del naked so I could run my hands over the bulging muscles that strained the fabric of his shirt.

Everyone peeled off to go to their own rooms as the elevator went up, but Del stuck with Vincent and me as we said goodnight to Wade and Cody, then Adam and TJ, then Ben and Jesse. I opened the connecting door to Matt's room, where he was sleeping peacefully, and when I turned around, Vincent was removing Del's western shirt snap by pearl snap. A sexy wedge of dark hair fanned out to his nipples, already hard in anticipation.

I stepped close and circled my finger lightly around one brown nub, causing him to tighten his jaw and close his eyes briefly before leaning toward me to slide his tongue along the seam of my mouth. My lips parted, and he closed his mouth over mine, kissing me softly at first, then deepening it as I responded. He lifted off his hat as we kissed, setting it carefully on the dresser.

Vincent reached for Del’s belt and Del broke the kiss as he shrugged out of his shirt, his arm and shoulder muscles flexing deliciously under his smooth, pale skin. Vincent turned to me, holding me with his eyes as he tugged my shirt out of my jeans, then over my head, tossing it out of the way. Del had moved around me and was unbuckling my belt from behind, mouthing my neck as he undid my jeans. When he got to the last button, he put both hands on my chest and slowly rubbed his way down my body, breathing softly against my neck. I reached back to wrap both hands around his ass, pulling his dick tight against me and grinding back into him.

Vincent had been undressing while he watched us, and now he came to me, dropping to his knees in front of me and nuzzling into the crotch of my jeans. I was so hard by this time that I needed someone to do something with my cock, but as I reached for it, Del pushed my hand away and slid his palm down into my shorts. As his big, callused hand closed around my penis, I shuddered with pleasure and lay my head back against the rocky pillow of his pecs.

He squeezed me a couple times, and then pulled my erection free as Vincent shoved my jeans down my thighs. Del aimed my cock at Vincent's mouth and he sucked it in, going clear to the bottom on the first slide as I arched back into Del. Vincent blew me for a minute or so, but I pushed him off and pulled him to his feet.

"Fuck, I'll be done in thirty seconds at this rate," I panted, and Del laughed as he toed off his boots and dropped his jeans to the floor. He had a cock to match the rest of him, thick and muscular, reminiscent of Danny's, but a little longer and not quite as fat, with a slight left curve. His nuts swung low as he walked backward toward the bed, pulling me by the arm. Vincent came along, since I had his balls in one hand and a nipple in the other.

In my experience, guys the size of Del usually like to top, but it was clear pretty quickly that he wanted to get fucked. He flopped onto the bed on his back, then turned around so that his head hung off the edge. He pulled me over to straddle his face and bent my cock down to his mouth. I leaned forward to brace myself on his chest, feeling the mounds of muscle shift as he reached a hand up to play with my balls.

Vincent had climbed onto the bed and shoved Del’s knees back, exposing his ass. As Vincent began to rim him, Del lost his concentration on my cock and lay there for a minute with his eyes closed in an expression of pure bliss - my cock just lying in his open mouth. I knew the feeling. I reached for him, stroking him with a wet hand, and he came back to the living, slurping my dick down his throat and tugging on my balls.

We changed around a little, but eventually Vincent pulled Del to the edge of the bed and put him on all fours, greased up, and pushed on in. Del hung his head and breathed heavily as he got used to Vincent’s cock in his ass, dropping to his elbows when Vincent began to thrust. I watched for a minute, my eyes locked onto the sight of Vincent pumping away at this big, beautiful cowboy.

I crawled onto the bed and lay down on my back under Del's face so I could kiss him. Each time Vincent drove into him, his cock slapped up against his belly, smacking wetly into the swirls of precum-soaked hair that trailed down from his bellybutton. He kissed pretty good, but the sound his cock made was irresistible, so I slid further under him until we were in a 69 position.

Vincent was fucking him steadily, and from where I lay, I had a view of Del's nuts banging back and forth, Vincent's cock sliding in and out of Del's ass, and a glimpse of Vincent's face each time he withdrew. Vincent's eyes were closed, and the look of concentration on his face - a look I knew very well - brought me almost to the edge. Del chose that moment to suck my dick into his hot mouth, so I returned the favor, losing myself in the sounds and sensations of the hottest three-way I'd ever been in.

When Vincent's breathing increased to the point where I knew he was close, I crawled out from under Del and stood up on the bed, straddling Del's back to face Vincent. I grabbed my slippery dick and started to stroke quickly, wanting to shoot with him, if possible. He leaned into me, pinching my nipple and licking just the tip of my cock as I felt my balls tighten in the familiar prelude to orgasm.

Del had been yanking his own dick, and just as I felt myself pass the point of no return, he let loose a roar and spewed cum all over the place, splattering my feet and lower legs. I gripped Vincent's shoulder tightly and unloaded onto Del's ass just as Vincent's face contorted with the force of his climax. He was silent except for a soft grunt each time his cock jerked, but he was trembling, and I knew he was cumming hard.

He slowly loosened his hold on Del's hips, leaving behind red indentations that I figured Del would still be able to see tomorrow, and withdrew after his cock had softened enough. I was sitting on the bed by this time, holding my nuts, which still ached a little. Del had collapsed face first into the bed, moaning softly, when Vincent came back from the bathroom with a few towels. I wiped my cum off Del, admiring the rounded perfection of his butt, until he rolled over and sat up, smiling at us.

Tugging on his still semi-hard dick, he drawled, "Ya'll boys really know how to fuck."

For some reason that struck me funny, and I looked at him and chuckled. He grinned back, the dimple drilling a hole in his cheek, then got up, kissed us both, and started to get dressed. He settled the Stetson back on his head, gave Vincent's dick a soft squeeze, and was out the door.

We got cleaned up a little and climbed into bed, careful to remove the sticky bedspread first. I really wonder what the maids think sometimes. After we'd settled into our usual positions, Vincent kissed the back of my neck softly, then asked me, "What did you think about all that?"

I thought about the evening - my little shock of realization in the bar that Del might be coming home with us, my excitement and eagerness to get him naked, Vincent's face as he fucked Del - and said truthfully, "It was hot as fuck."

Vincent chuckled against my neck. I thought he might want to talk about it more, but he just tugged me closer with an arm around my chest, and I knew we were done for tonight.

Cody was third to go on Saturday, so we ate a quick breakfast and went to the arena in time to see the opening ceremony, which included a drill team of twenty girls on flashy pintos who rode amazingly complicated patterns at a speedy lope. Having made my living going fast on a horse, I had a lot of respect for the time and practice necessary to do what they were doing and make it look easy.

Matt had been quiet at breakfast, and as the cowgirls ran out of the arena, I turned to him.

"So - how was last night?"

He continued to gaze at the empty arena as he spoke. "Interesting. I've never been around normal kids my own age much, just talking and hanging out like that. It was kinda fun." He paused for a moment, and then turned to me. "She kissed me."

"Katie?" I could feel my eyebrows shoot up into my hairline, and quickly forced them back down.

He nodded. "Yeah. After we were at the mall for a while, one of them asked me if you were my brother, cause you didn't look old enough to be my dad. I told them about you and Vincent, that you were gay, and then another guy asked if I was queer, too. I told them the truth, and they didn't seem to care much one way or the other. Katie asked me if I'd ever been with a girl, and when I told her no, she asked if she could kiss me." He shrugged one shoulder. "I said yes."

He’d turned back to the arena while he was speaking, and I looked at his profile. He was so mature in many ways and yet so much a kid in others. He’d told me one time when we'd been talking about his past that all of his sexual experiences had been with men, all of them years older than himself. I wondered if he was questioning his sexual orientation, never having had a chance to see if he liked girls or not.

"How did it feel?" I asked him.

He shrugged a little. "Okay. Her mouth was really soft, and she smelled good, but it didn't excite me, if that's what you mean. She didn't kiss nearly as good as you or Adam. OR TJ," he added. "Did you ever . . .?"

"Have sex with a woman? No. I came close a couple times, but sanity prevailed. Are you thinking about trying it?"

He turned back to me with a sexy little smile, and shook his head. "I like boys, Sean," he replied, squeezing my dick discretely to reinforce his words.

I smiled back and hugged him to me for a moment, then they ran the steers into the arena and the event began. Yesterday had been an elimination round, so only ten cowboys were riding today. The first two guys posted good scores, but there was room for Cody to do better if he rode well and Queenie was sharp. As he jogged into the packed arena, we hooted and hollered so loudly that he actually spotted us and grinned.

When a cutting horse knows its job, it’s really something to watch, and Queenie went at it with a single-mindedness that made you shake your head in admiration. She locked onto the steer Cody chose, separating it easily from the little herd huddled in a corner of the cutting pen, then worked it well, dodging back and forth as the steer tried to get back to his buddies. As she changed directions, her front legs were aimed one way and her back legs another, and she was so low to the ground that I was sure Cody's feet would drag in the dirt any minute.

He worked three steers in his first run, scoring well. We met him back in the barn between rounds, and he was pumped. Wade grabbed him in a hard hug, and it made me feel good to watch Cody's eyes shut tightly as Wade held him. We ate a quick lunch before going back to the stands for round two. Cody scored high again, and by the end of the day, he was in second place overall.

Cody was tired, so Wade stayed at the hotel with him when the rest of us trooped off to dinner at a steakhouse Jesse knew of. Although neither of them knew anything about horses, he and Ben seemed to be enjoying themselves, and it was nice to get to know them better. Ben was a funny guy with a dry wit that I hadn't picked up on in the previous couple times I'd been around him, and he kept us chuckling through dinner.

TJ wanted to go dancing again, and Matt was hot to go, but at a gay bar this time so that they could really get into it. We asked a likely-looking waiter if there was such a thing in Amarillo. He ran his eyes once around the table, slowing slightly at TJ's blond wonderfulness, then gave us directions to a hot place just a few blocks away. We had a couple hours to kill until the club opened, so we went to the Quarter horse sale, where I pointed out the traits to look for in a good horse.

As we were watching the bidding on a grey two-year-old, I spotted Del ambling along and hollered at him. He climbed up into the stands, sitting down between TJ and Jesse in the row behind me. He clamped both paws onto my shoulders and gave me a gentle shake, which rattled my teeth. He had already purchased one horse and was waiting for the next one he liked to come on the block. We watched the action, Del and I commenting about the price each horse went for, until he sat up and pulled his number out of his back pocket.

The horse he'd been waiting for was a big bay colt that was circling at the end of his rope and snorting at the crowd noise. He looked like a handful to me, but Del said he liked 'em feisty, and raised the bid by a hundred bucks. It came down to him and a guy at the other end of the stands somewhere. Del was reaching his limit, and when the other guy yelled out an amount higher than the next bid, Del slumped in disappointment.

"God damn. I really wanted that colt," he said, looking at the prancing horse with regret.

Without even thinking about it, I grabbed the number from his hand and jumped to my feet, shouting out a thousand dollar increase. The auctioneer stopped his gavel just short of selling the colt to the other guy and looked at him to see what he'd do. He nodded to the auctioneer, and we were off, going back and forth while the crowd went nuts, and the colt kicked at a handler who got too close.

Del kept grabbing at my arm trying to get me to sit down and shut up, but by now I was determined to own that damn horse, nodding grimly every time the auctioneer looked my way. I ended up paying more than the colt was currently worth, but young horses are all about potential, and this one looked to me like he had a lot of promise. Del watched glumly as I wrote out a check at the cashier's stand.

"What're you gonna do with him? You don't even like him."

"I like him fine - I just don't want to start him. That's your job."

Del blinked at me, and I set him down at a nearby table.

"I'm gonna lease him to you for a dollar a year. You get him broke, show him, whatever - and then bring him to my place in a year, cause I have a couple mares I want to breed to him."

Del was grinning from ear to ear, and I just wanted to stick my tongue in that dimple, but I settled for shaking his hand. He went off to collect the colt, and we caught a cab to the dance club. Matt nonchalantly produced a false ID and walked into the club like he owned it. Vincent gave me a leave-it-alone-for-now look, and we made our way to the bar.

The club was loud and crowded, and the dance floor was jammed with sweaty bodies in various states of undress. I closed my eyes for a minute, pondering my responsibility to Matt, but Vincent pointed out that a dirty dance in a public bar was a huge step up from blow jobs in dark alleys, so I took a big slug of my drink and kept my mouth shut.

Matt was a great dancer - not that you needed to be in this place - but he moved well and he was fun to watch. He tugged his shirt over his head and jammed it into the back of his jeans as he moved closer to some hot looking guy in spandex pants. Jesus. Eventually we all ended up out there, shirtless and sweaty like all the others boys, and I had a blast. This weekend was so far removed from my Monday through Friday, nine-to-five existence, that I felt like a different person.

I saw TJ grinding away with someone, and recognized the hunky waiter who'd given us directions. He grinned at me as he leaned in to chew on TJ's neck. Vincent and I had gone dancing a few times soon after we'd met, but neither one of us was crazy enough about it to make the hour drive to the nearest club very often, and we'd eventually stopped going. Vincent moved pretty well too, shimmying up behind me with his dick in my ass and a hand down the front of my jeans.

After a couple hours everyone was hot, tired, and ready to go, so we cabbed back to the hotel, showered, and fell into bed. Matt slept with us that night, snuggling up to me for a kiss as Vincent turned out the light and climbed in behind me. Matt lay on his back with my arm holding him close, and his own hand working slowly in his crotch. I would have fallen asleep regardless of Matt's hard-on, but Vincent slid a hand down my belly, and soon I was wide awake and thrusting into the snug grip of his fist.

I took over Matt's erection, stroking him in the same rhythm Vincent was doing me, so that we were all moving together. After a few minutes, I felt Vincent's cock slide between my legs from behind, shoving my nuts forward with each stroke, and putting the perfect friction on the area just behind them.

Vincent came first for a change, something he doesn't usually do, preferring to make sure I'm taken care of before releasing himself. As his thick cum spurted against the back of my balls, he let go of me for a second to capture some in his hand, using the slickness to finish me. Matt, who'd started all this in the first place, took his time about it, finally shooting when Vincent reached over to squeeze his nuts in a warm, sticky hand.

After a few minutes, Matt got up to get towels and I rolled onto my back to kiss Vincent. He nuzzled into me, affectionate in the afterglow of good sex, and I thanked whatever gods may be for the choice I'd made back in June that had brought Vincent and me together permanently.

Matty crawled onto the bed and toweled us off while I tickled him and tried to blow a raspberry on his belly as he leaned across me to do Vincent. When he was laughing too hard to be useful with the towel, he threw it at me and curled into a ball to protect his stomach. I pulled him to me then, kissing his neck softly so that he knew I was done tormenting him. We all settled down again, hopefully to sleep this time, and soon both of them were breathing evenly.

I lay awake for a while longer, Vincent's chest moving against my back and Matt's rising and falling under my arm. I don't think there is a safer feeling in the world than falling asleep in the arms of someone who loves you. I pulled Vincent's arm a little more snugly around my body, pushed my face into Matt's neck, and let myself drift off, secure in the knowledge that they'd both be there if I woke up in the night.