Buffalo Belle's Wild West Show

The racket flowed meaninglessly over him. The pleasure cooled into bliss and trickled through the his muscle. His cock kept pumping, still releasing, recovering, the overwhelming ache fading into the warmth of her body as she held him still. She raised a little and glanced mockingly down to make him look between her legs. He raised his head and shoulders with huge effort and squinted. He blushed. Sticky white was seeping from her seam down over his shaft and spilling between their touching skin. There was... a lot. She said something mocking to him. He didn't hear it over the riot. He buried his face in his hands and flopped heavily back onto the bed.

She snickered and tapped his balls. He barked and flinched.

There was a metallic clunk and squeak.

Cody and Belle froze.

The contraption fell apart beneath them.

"EEK!"

"SHIT!"

An intake of breath across the barn.

Cody dove for Belle and cuddled her safely to his broad body as they smashed to earth in a popping of hinges and pinging of springs. He thudded to the ground and she thudded on top of him in a cloud of glitter and dust. It cleared to reveal her scurrying on top of him, cupping his face and petting his hair urgently as the girls all craned in worry. "Oh my God, Baby! Are you OK? Are you hurt?"

He blinked up at her.

He burst into laughter.

*

The stewards cleared away the wreckage and dismantled the fence while Cody and Belle got cleaned up. It took some persuasion to make the trophy holders of Cody's clothes give them up, but eventually he was back in his jeans, tank top, and shirt. The party rambled into a sepia haze of comfort and lightness. Cider flowed, root beer fizzed, pie crust crumbled. The music turned skipping and sliding. Rachel led a square dance, Cody like an orca among seals. He fell over his own boots and was caught by a giggling Andy, guffawing with her as his weight sank them to the floor. Maisy rode his shoulders as the dancing whipped faster, her skirt flurrying in his face. Rhinestones twinkled like falling stars as the crush of brightly coloured figures twirled over the floorboards. Georgia and Belle partnered and do-si-doed with a tipsy stumble. Vi goaded Cody into going against her on the high riser. She dinged the bell with a cocky flex. He spun the mallet around his index and slammed it down. The hammer shot to the top and with a clang rocketed free of the dial. It arced and thunked to the ground. Cody grimaced as Rachel gasped at him, "have you broken EVERYTHING in here?"

The stewards clocked off and pulled him away to do shots. With the giddiness of whisky on his tongue, he tingled again with the sweet attention of this room full of girls. They jumped on him for piggy-backs, made him try on their spangled, fluffy hats, had him chase them and pour them drinks and dance with them, lift them up to steal pumpkins, and catch them as they clambered on the tables and sprang down with clicks of their heels.

Belle stayed by his side, her jacket eventually replaced by his flannel shirt and her hat long lost somewhere, cosy under his arm and doling him out like a mule for hire. She stirred the party with her natural charm and bounding, easy energy. Cody might be getting a lot of love, but the whole barn was buzzing with relaxed celebration. The horde of new and old friends made the warm air bubble with chatter and clinking bottles, threaded with hums of serenity as they hugged lazily and pulled out tight ponytails and bobbed to the music. The band grinned and swayed on their boots. Andy jumped up and sang with them out of tune. Vi slid onto the drummer's stool and bashed the symbols. Maisy swirled in lace. Georgia took over the bar and the drinks got creative. Cody was so riddled with laughter and peace and satisfaction that he was almost doped.

Belle kept catching his eye as he played like a puppy with her friends, letting him know she was shamelessly showing him off, encouraging him to be cute and dumb and flirty. She loved to make him feel delicious enough to share.

She was generous for as long as it entertained her, then she picked him up by his ruff and took her turn, basking in his instant, obsessive attention. Holding her, celebrating with her, he was happier than he'd known was possible as a younger man. She danced with him and they whirled and zoomed like bumper cars. She teased him and nibbled on his blush. She linked arms with him and they downed sarsaparilla in unison. It shot up her nose and he bellowed with laughter and swept her up as she frantically fanned her face. He kissed her through snorting and wriggling. His heart spun. He lifted her off the floor, boots kicking. He carried her through the interlace of dancers and out into the starlight.

They lay together in the matted bed of the hay wagon. Gabbling voices and the sawing, scribbling music floated from the open barn door a little way off. It mingled with the chirping of cicadas. Cody's body chimed with the echoes of pleasure and fun and togetherness, spirit and noise and naughtiness. But it was nice to have a little privacy, a little something special with her, just her, only her. He yawned in the soothing night air and savoured the dark and the quiet, intimate, tucked out of reality, as if they were trinkets in a pocket.

Belle snuggled close to him, pulling his shirt around her, then his arms. He cuddled her close and cradled her warm. The cool, crisp air brushed over his bare arms in the tank top, soothing the last of the smoulder in his used limbs. Their legs entwined instinctively. Cody took a deep, slow breath of sweets and straw and cinnamon, homey and pretty. Belle's body felt perfect against his. He could feel her breathing and getting drowsy with her head on his shoulder.

He gazed up at the festivity of stars. You didn't see stars like this in town. They were painted across the deep blue in a wide streak of watery, wistful sparkle.

He stroked his fingertips around the small of Belle's back. "Have I mentioned in the last ten minutes that you're the best girlfriend in the entire world in a whole bunch of millennia... and I will need you to push me around in a wheelchair for like five days."

Belle chuckled sleepily and looped her arm over his stomach. She kissed his cheek. "Happy Birthday, Bronco."

"Also, please call me that for the rest of our lives."

"You got it."

He wrapped her closer, shielding her from the cold. He ducked his lips to her hair and took another deep, peaceful breath.

The night whispered around them.

"I'm thankful for you," he murmured.

She raised her head, the starlight adorning her cheekbone and cupping her large pupils. She smiled and ran her hand up his torso to cup his jaw and stroke it tenderly. "You're my adventure."

He beamed. His great heart rose and filled his chest. He dusted his nose on hers. She grinned and nudged to press her lips to his. They kissed softly, deeply, settling into the hay and their secret embrace in the blue shadows.

Belonging to each other.

Butternut squash light trickled from the barn. It shone in the vast darkness of the fields, like a seeded sun growing ready for the sky.