Stonegate Stables - 7. Chapter 7

My voice cracked at the end, and with a harsh groan of longing, he reached for me. He fisted one hand in my hair, and the other in the back of my shirt, crushing me against his chest. His arms were trembling, his breath was quick and shallow, and I realized he was struggling not to cry. After two weeks without him, I tried to absorb him into me - his smell, the heat of his skin, the hard muscles of his back knotted tight with holding me. Without another word, he turned us around, crossed the hall, and took us up the stairs to my room.

He stopped by the bed to kiss me. His lips barely touched mine, a kiss of tenderness, of apology. As we undressed each other, I suddenly felt shy with him, as though it was our first time. He felt it too, because he paused with his hand on my zipper, blew out a breath, and muttered, “Fuck, I don't believe this. I’m nervous.”

But that didn’t stop us, and when we were finally naked, Vincent wrapped an arm around my chest from the side and dragged me down to the bed, climbing onto me as we landed. The dark swing of his hair brushed my face as he reached back and pulled the string loose. He’d never done that before, and when I looked up at him, he was smiling. He made love to me like we’ve done hundreds of times, but it was different somehow. Maybe everyone who falls in love for the first time - really in love - feels like this, but it was new for us.

We kissed for a long time, nuzzling, smiling into each other’s eyes, and when he left my mouth, he went straight to my cock, burying me in his throat on the first take. But I sat up, pulled him off me, and pushed a bottle of lube into his hand. “I need you in me now.”

I stroked him until he was hard and slick, then lay back and lifted my knees. I was so wound up emotionally that I began to cry as soon as he entered me, and by the time he was buried in me, I was sobbing quietly. He ignored my tears and began to stroke slowly, using his entire cock, so that it seemed like one endless motion, and it calmed me, as he knew it would.

He watched me the whole time, running his hands over me, shifting his position slightly now and then to give me the most pleasure. Vincent has incredible finesse, and he used every bit of it on me, touching me constantly, kissing me deeply. Even as his body convulsed in a powerful orgasm, he kept his eyes on mine, and I watched the anguish of intense pleasure contort his face as he climaxed.

When he was finished, he spread his knees a little more and angled himself to hit my prostate with each thrust, my erection firmly in his hand. It didn’t take long, and when I had shuddered myself empty, I began to cry again. Vincent withdrew and lay beside me, pulling me over so we were face to face.

“I love you, Sean. And I didn't know how fucking much I needed you until you weren't there,” he said quietly, wiping a tear from my face with a gentle finger. “I don’t ever want to feel like that again. It was awful.”

“I know. Vincent, I am in love with you. I never stopped." I searched his face. “Move in here. Come live with me.”

“Jesus." He rolled away and lay looking at the ceiling for several moments. When he turned back to me, his face was tight with emotion. "I need you to be sure. Really sure, because I couldn't take it if you changed your mind.”

“It's been eight years. I'm sure. Really sure.” I shook him a little. “I love you, you love me. Move in. Tomorrow. Well, Saturday.”

He stared into my face, his dark eyes roaming across my features. I don’t know what he saw there, but he finally smiled at me, a big, happy grin that lit up his face and crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Fuck.” He shook his head. “Okay.”

I rolled onto him and covered him in kisses until he was giggling, then touched the tip of my nose to his and whispered, “I love you,” against his mouth.

“I know you do,” he whispered back, nuzzling into me. “Me, too.”

“I hate to think of all the years we wasted.”

He hugged me. “We didn’t waste them. We became friends, good friends. It’s the best thing that could have happened to us. We know each other, Sean. This is just the next step.”

I hated to ask, but I had to know. "Would you ever have called me?"

He lay back again with his eyes closed. "I didn't need to. I knew you'd call. I simply refused to believe that it would work out any other way." He was quiet for a moment, and then turned to me, his expression drawn with the stress of the past two weeks. "I was fucking scared to death. Every day that went by seemed like one more you were with him." He looked away, and I knew it would take us some time to get by this. "Go to sleep. We'll talk more in the morning."

I slid partially off him, and we drifted into sleep, my arm and leg draped over him, holding him close to me. It was a few minutes after five the next morning when I felt him stretch behind me. “Did you sleep with him?” he murmured.

“Yeah, once. Before you and I talked.” I yawned and rolled to face him. “He was a virgin. Well, not totally, but he’d never fucked.”

“Fucked, or been fucked?”

“Exactly what I asked him. Neither.”

“Did you do the honors?”

“Yeah, I fucked him. I wasn’t gonna let him near me till he calmed down some. I don’t think he has much control yet. He’s 27, but he’s only been with a few guys.”

“What are you gonna do?”

I sighed. “I'll see him tonight and tell him about us. But I wasn't going to sleep with him, no matter what happened with us last night.”

He nodded. “Good. I wouldn’t ask you not to, but I’m glad." He was quiet for a moment. "We need to talk about this. I’m okay with us playing around, but I want to do it as a couple, and with guys we already know.”

“Yeah? Are you sure?”

“Yes. I thought about it a lot while we were apart. You’ve been my primary partner for the past 6 or 7 years, and I think, maybe, that I’ve been yours?” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I nodded, smiling. “Us being a couple doesn’t suddenly make me feel like I need to keep you all to myself. And I don’t feel that our friends are a threat to us.”

I thought about that for a minute, and then nodded. “I agree. God, I’m so happy.”

He chuckled and kissed me. “Yeah, me too. We’re gonna be good together. Shit, we already are good together. So are we okay on TJ?”

“Yeah. He’s been screwing around with Dylan and Adam. I need some time alone with you. Weeks, maybe.” We smiled at each other. “But after you settle in here, you need to meet him. He needs to play around more. Maybe with us, if you’re ok with that. You could teach him a lot.”

“Let’s have him over and see how it goes.”

We made love again, still all caught up in the emotional whirlwind of last night. I took the initiative and pushed him onto his back, kneeling between his legs, licking my way down his chest, sucking his nipples gently, nibbling the soft skin of his belly. By the time I reached his dick, he was hard and dripping, and I had to work at delaying his orgasm. As I ran my tongue up to the tip of his penis one time, I noticed him watching my every move, his expression full of love and desire, a potent combination that I’d never seen from him before. When he climaxed, I kept him in my mouth, swallowing as he pumped into me. I don’t do that often, but I knew he liked it and I wanted to please him. When he was finished, he pulled me up to him and plunged his tongue into my mouth, tasting himself in me and moaning a little.

He took the lube with him when we exchanged positions, and soon had two fingers in me, moving them gently but steadily as his other hand made twisting strokes on my cock. When I’m tired or distracted, this combination will get my attention, and I didn’t last five minutes. He jerked me quickly as I came and I thought my balls were gonna explode. The first load blasted me in the chin, surprising me, since I almost never shoot that far. The second one landed in the middle of my chest, and Vincent started to laugh.

“Felt good, huh?” he said, grinning at me. The rest gushed out over his hand - my usual style.

We showered and talked about bringing his stuff over on Saturday. We'd use the horse van, and Tommy’s and Alejandro’s muscles. I needed to call our friends and tell them about us, but we decided to do that after I’d talked with TJ tonight. We did tell Maria when we went down to breakfast, and she was thrilled for us.

“Finally!” she said, clapping her hands together in delight, then hugging us. “I knew it years ago and prayed that you would see before it was too late.”

We all beamed at each other, then I walked Vincent to his car. It took us at least 10 minutes to say goodbye - hugging, kissing, thinking of one more thing we had to say. We finally tore ourselves apart; he headed off for one of the restaurants, and I rode Zena slowly to Stonegate, thinking about what I’d say to TJ that night. I didn’t want to hurt him, but that was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not. I just hoped he’d still want to be friends, and that he would fit into our little group. He needed the emotional support we could provide, and the experience of friendly sex with men who cared for him.

TJ showed up at 6:30, and I got right to the point. "Vincent and I have been in love for years, but we each thought the other didn’t want a committed relationship. Now that we've had a chance to think about it and talk more, we've decided that we want to be together. Partners.” It sounded good to say it out loud. TJ just sat there staring at the floor. “He’s moving in here in Saturday. We need some time together to sort things out between us, but we’ve already decided that we’ll continue to play around, we’ll just do it as a couple.”

He turned raised eyebrows to me. “Really? You don’t mind . . . sharing him?”

“Well, we’re not gonna go out and just grab strangers off the street. I love my friends, and Vincent has slept with most of them already. It never hurt our friendship, and it won’t affect our partnership. They’re ‘in addition to,' not ‘instead of,' if that makes any sense.”

I gave his arm a tug and he relaxed against me. “Yeah, I guess, but it still seems sorta weird.”

“It’ll seem a lot more normal after you’re part of it. You're having a good time with Dylan and Adam, right?”

"Yeah . . . " He glanced at me. “You want me to fool around with you and Vincent?”

“Maybe. You need to meet him, and we all need to get comfortable with each other. You may hit it off with someone else and not want anything to do with me.”

He gave me a disbelieving look. “Yeah, right. I’m still crazy about you.” We kissed a little bit, talked some more and he left looking a little downhearted, but willing to give things a try.

The next day was Friday and I worked my ass off tuning up four horses for a show the next day. Vincent was in the kitchen when I got home, putting the finishing touches on a big salad. I paused when I came in the back door, watching the muscles move in his arm as he chopped tomatoes, thinking that, starting now, I'd come home to him every night for the rest of my life. That was an amazing realization, and I heaved a happy sigh. His head came up as he realized I was there. He turned slowly, and we looked at each other across the kitchen as great big smiles spread slowly across our faces.

“Hey, babe.”

He’d never used any terms of endearment with me in the 8 years I'd known him, and the sound of it gave me a physical rush that fluttered low in my stomach and made my knees weak. He came around the island where I met him halfway, grabbing him into a huge hug and lifting his feet off the floor as I burrowed into his neck.

“Christ, put me down. I feel like Donna Reed,” he grumbled, but he was grinning like an idiot and I knew he was as thrilled to see me as I was to see him. It had been two whole days. He pulled lasagna out of the oven and we ate on the patio, enjoying the breeze and watching the sun go down. We didn’t talk much over dinner. We were so comfortable together, holding hands when we were finished eating, leaning over to kiss now and then. When the bugs came out, we wandered down to the hot tub, undressing each other slowly and bobbing around in the hot bubbles, enjoying knowing we’d be going to bed soon. When I started to lift myself out, my shoulder protested all the riding and gave out. I slid back down in the water with a sharp cry that had Vincent at my side instantly.

“What’s the matter?”

“Aaahhh, shit! My goddamn shoulder.” He pulled me out of the tub by my good arm and dried me off. By the time we got to the house, it felt better, but only if I didn’t use it much. He refused to touch me until I promised him I’d make an appointment with a joint guy he knew in the city. Since I’m usually on my back when he fucks me anyway, it didn’t slow us down much. He was a little rough with me, and I felt as though he was marking his territory, wanting to leave me sore so I’d know he’d had me.

He braced himself on his arms and pushed up off his knees, using the strength of his legs to drive into me. It worked. I was shaky and sweating by the time he let me come, and I almost passed out. He grabbed my face in a hard hand and forced me look at him as he took me to one of the strongest orgasms I’ve ever had. It almost hurt, and he watched every gasp and cry with those dark eyes, then kissed me sweetly and held me until I quit trembling.

“What the hell was that?” I asked him when I could breathe normally.

“That was living together, we’re a couple, I love you so fucking much, partner sex.” He planted a noisy smack on my cheek.

“Yeah? Well, you can just bury me now cause I won’t live long if you do that to me every time.”

He chuckled. “Sorry, baby. I really missed you." He nuzzled into my neck, chewing on my earlobe. "Did I hurt you?”

“Not permanently,” I huffed, as he snorted. “I missed you, too. I love you.”

He pulled back to look me in the face, running his hand down my cheek, brushing his thumb across my bottom lip. “I know you do. I’m starting to believe that Wednesday wasn’t a dream. We’re gonna do this, huh?”

I smiled at him, sucking on his thumb for a moment. “Yeah, we are. Scared?”

“No.” He shook his head slowly, watching me. “I’ve been waiting for this for years. I never quit believing it would happen.” He eyes roamed over my face for another long moment, then he lay down and pulled me close. “Sleep good.”

The next morning we moved Vincent’s things into the house using the small horse van and Tommy and Alejandro. They were the first to know about us, and I thought Tommy was going to burst into tears. He’s known me a long time, 13 years, and he's been with me through all my highs and lows once I started riding nationally. They stayed around to play in the pool while Vincent and I began merging our lives, hanging up clothes, unpacking his pots and pans and knives. He said if he was going to be cooking here, he needed decent equipment. He had gadgets I’d never seen before and didn’t have any idea what they did. I suppose it would be the same if he walked into the tack room at Stonegate and looked at all the crap we use in modern horse care.

After he went down to the kitchen, I walked into his closet, running my hand down the sleeve of a shirt, burying my nose in it, feeling him becoming part of my home, a more intimate part of my life. I looked around the room, seeing him in it already; a book he was reading lay on the table on his side of the bed, and his good watch and a couple other pieces of jewelry were in a jumble on his dresser. I walked over and picked up a necklace I had given him for Christmas the first year I’d known him, pouring it through my fingers. It was gold and heavy, the links intricate, and he wore it often.

I glanced up to see him watching me from the door. His face was somber, in shadow, his eyes black, and I couldn’t read his expression. I put the chain down and turned to him, wondering what he was thinking. He looked at me for a long, still moment before he spoke.