Western Skies Ch. 03

My father, bless him, weakly and fruitlessly protested to a chorus of "Nonsense, nonsense!" before we were all seated around a large table in the back corner of the restaurant.

Nervously, I chose the seat between my dad and Evan. Looking up, I realized I was directly across from Luke. Cursing my luck, I kept my eyes tilted firmly downward while everyone but Luke and I broke into conversation. Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I did my darnedest to glance surreptitiously across the table. Luke was pale and uncharacteristically quiet, clearly as uncomfortable at the sudden family meeting as I was. Feeling my gaze, Luke looked right at me, the panic evident in his eyes. He looked like a beat horse, ready to flee at the slightest threat. Forcing myself to relax, I smiled at him, trying to provide a reassuring look. It must've come out as more of a grimace because the lines on his face grew even more taut.

With a muffled sigh, I glanced down the table. Our fathers were deeply absorbed in a political discussion, oblivious to the rest of us. Evan had picked up conversation with Luke, granting me a temporary reprieve. Nora was telling her mother all about the dress she'd bought for the dance, occasionally directing a suspiciously knowing look in my direction.

I was beginning to retreat back into my thoughts and worries when the mention of my name grabbed my attention.

"Kaden, Nora here tells me you're on the football team with Luke. Have you two gotten to know each other at all?" Luke's mother was looking at me with an easy smile, her warmth lending me the courage to respond.

"Yes ma'am," I replied, hoping my voice was level. "We've hung out together a little bit. I have some experience riding horses, like Luke."

Nora's eyes were crinkled in barely-contained amusement, enjoying every minute of our uncomfortable situation. "Come on, you and Luke are practically best friends on and off the field," she teased.

My heart sank. What was it with her?! Paranoid as I was, any mention connecting Luke and I sent a wave of panic through me, my deep-set worries fueling trepidation that something said, some look we'd unintentionally share, would be enough for someone to make the connection that we were more than friends.

Mrs. Robinson smiled again, tempering my anxiety. "That's wonderful, maybe you and Luke could spend some time roping together! We have some steers back at the ranch."

By now, Luke had shot his sister an angry glare and put his game face back on."Yeah, Kaden's an excellent rider, he's been over to the equestrian center with me. Dad said he could come stay Saturday night, so I'm sure we'll be out in the arena on Sunday."

The rest of our dinner passed uneventfully. Luke's father was delighted to talk horses with me and describe the operations on their ranch. I'd heard it all before from Luke, but it was nice to have an easy conversation with his dad. I decided that he wasn't quite as intimidating as I'd first thought, but he still struck me as the type you wouldn't want to cross.

We managed to get to dessert before Nora decided to mention that she was going to the dance with me. Her parents' heads swiveled towards me in unison, meticulously reexamining me in light of this newfound information.

Mr. Robinson raised his eyebrows, but after a moment, a grin spread across his checks. It was eerily similar to the grin Luke always wore. I swallowed, averting my gaze.

"Michael, I'll trust your son will take good care of my daughter," he said. "It's reassuring to already know your family, Kaden. You two will have a wonderful time, I'm sure."

After assuring him that I would indeed look after his daughter, the conversation slipped back to football, weather, and upcoming vacation plans. When the check came, the congressman claimed it, eliciting heavy protests from my father and mumbled thank-yous from Evan and I.

On the way out the door, I lagged behind, hoping to catch a few words with Luke. Nora reached me first, smiling mischievously as Luke always did. "Excellent rider, are you?" she whispered, barely audible. Then she threw me a wink and scurried along ahead.

I was still struggling to decide what she did or did not know when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Mr. Robinson. "Kaden, I'd like a word please." Butterflies swarmed in my stomach as I walked slowly with him, angling away from the others. "It really is nice to meet you, finally. You seem like a polite, respectful man, and I know that is how you will be with Nora, as well."

Of course. I was getting the warning speech every concerned father gave to the boy going out with his daughter. "Yes sir, absolutely. We're going to the dance as just friends, anyway."

"Excellent!" He clapped me on the back, smiling, his blue eyes twinkling just like Luke's. "We'll see you Sunday morning then. Lord knows we'll be asleep by the time you all get back from Bozeman Saturday night." As I shook his hand, I said a silent prayer, thankful he didn't know he was shaking the same hand that had been up his son's ass the day before.

As he walked away, I became acutely aware of how cold the night had grown. The chill was suffocating, crushing down on me like some immense pressure. Shivering and alone, I headed over to where Evan and my father were waiting by the car.

***

"So," began Evan, cautiously. "Did you enjoy dinner as much as I did?"

I kept silent for a moment, brooding, while I plodded up the sidewalk towards the dorm. Sighing, I gave a curt reply. "It was unexpected."

Evan emitted a loud hoot. "I know Nora's only going to the dance with you as a 'friend,' but you gotta admit it was weird to have to deal with the whole family like that. Did you have any idea your dad was working with Luke's?"

I stared off into the darkness, watching headlights zoom past out on the main road. "No. He'd mentioned some political work last time we went out to dinner but I had not clue it was for the one-and-only Congressman Robinson. Just my luck."

Still chortling, Evan patted me on the back. "Have fun dude, don't mess up!"

If someone had told me a week ago how big of a cluster I'd get myself into, in the short span of a few days, I'd have scoffed at them. The situation was stressful enough when all I was doing was obsessing over my feelings for Luke. Now there were secrets to worry about. Tristan knew. Nora was up to something, without a doubt. Evan had already grown suspicious of me, and I still felt bad not opening up to him. Then there was Luke's family, and my dad...The odds of both Luke and I surviving our current situation unscathed seemed to be dwindling, what with the tangled web we'd woven.

My phone buzzed. It was Luke: I'm so sorry, that was a shitshow. Can we talk?

An automatic smile tugged at my cheeks. I quickly shot him a text back as Evan and I strolled towards the dorm. Of course, I was going to ask you the same thing. My room, 5 minutes?

"Luke's coming by in a few minutes," I told Evan as we hiked up the stairs into the building. "We need to talk about the dance and things." He grunted in acknowledgement.

We had barely hung up our jackets and turned on the TV before there was a soft knock on the door. I jumped up, opening the door. Even as stressed as he looked, the sight of him standing there with his gray eyes, angled jaw, and hair swept back over his forehead, my stomach did a flip and I felt my face grow warm. Dinner had been tense enough to keep my feelings for him in check, but now it all came rushing back.

Luke stepped inside nervously, glancing at Evan. "Hey, man."

Evan stood, stretching. "What's up Luke." He glanced at me. "I think I'm gonna go chill with Mason for a bit." With that, he grabbed his phone and strolled out, patting me in the middle of my back like I was a puppy.

The door shut with an echoing thump. Luke looked at me quizzically, one eyebrow raised.

"Evan knows something is up, but I don't think he's put us together yet. He thinks it's about Nora," I explained.

Luke let out a long sigh. "It's already enough that Tristan knows. I just want to get on with living life, spending time with you, and not worrying about anything."

Shrugging, I walked up and gave him a firm hug. Luke melted against me with another sigh. "All we do in life is trade one set of worries for another, but we always keep moving forward," I said shrewdly. "My mom used to say something like that."

He kissed me gently. "Yes, we do. But we can be together when we're worrying." I felt his left hand wind its way into mine, and our fingers closed around each other's. We stood locked in our embrace. For once, there was nothing sexual about our closeness. If our first times together were like blazing wildfire, then this was something else — smoldering coals, burning hotter and longer. I pulled back, my eyes drinking in every curve on Luke's face. Our eyes locked, and I saw a hint of wetness obscuring his steel-colored orbs. In less than a week I had gone from barely knowing someone to being well on the way to falling for them. There was no logical explanation for it, nothing predictable...only a spark that had grown into a flame, a flame that had since caught and burned brighter and brighter.

Eventually I spoke, my voice cutting rudely through the silence even though I spoke softly. "Your family seems really nice."

"They are," Luke agreed, before laughing dryly. "But they can be be a bit overbearing...they have high expectations of me and Nora, plus they're used to getting their way." He hesitated for a split second, but I caught it.

"What?"

Luke's eyes met mine; they were warm, but they looked wary, like he was slightly pained. "I'm sorry that happened. My thought was we'd ease into the meeting-my-family thing sometime on Sunday. You couldn't really come out to the ranch and not meet them. At least now it's already over with, I guess."

"You shouldn't be sorry about anything," I retorted, mildly annoyed at the unnecessary apology. "All that happened was we ended up at the same restaurant, Luke, it's not like you or I did anything."

"No, you're right, of course. Your dad was pretty cool, too," Luke opined with a grin.

"Glad he was busy talking with your father, otherwise we would've been tormented with terrible dad jokes and probing questions. That's his usual M.O. when he meets anyone I'm friends with."

Luke laughed weakly, a growing frown betraying his feigned mirth. "'Friends,' right...that's us, 'friends.' How's he feel about gay rights, though? He can't be worse than my dad."

That was actually a good question, one that I was still struggling to answer with certainty. "I think he wouldn't be too upset," I began in a guarded tone. "He's made some comments about 'live and let live' and stuff like that whenever the topic came up on the news, but it might still come across as a shock if he found out that I was starting to fall for another guy."

My words hadn't even registered in my own mind until I felt Luke's grip tighten on my hand. He took a step back, his eyebrows shooting together as he fixed me with one of the intense stares I'd come to expect from him whenever his emotions ratcheted up.

"Fall for another guy?" he whispered hoarsely, not breaking eye contact. His voice contained equal parts awe and disbelief, doubt and excitement. I swore he trembled, but it could have just been the vertigo that struck me as I realized what I'd been careless enough to say.

I had to place a hand on his chest to steady myself, ere I fall over. "Starting to..." I murmured, struggling to find words. "It's only been a week, okay? Maybe it was too soon to mention something like that but it's how I feel." My eyes tore away from his, gazing resolutely at my feet like they were the most interesting objects in the room.

An upturned hand found my downcast chin, tilting it skyward. Luke's thumb pressed gently against my lips while his fingers curved around the side of my jaw. As his thumb tugged lightly on my lower lip, parting my mouth slightly, my gaze jerked up to his face. I only got a brief glimpse of the wild, churning hurricanes swirling within his gray eyes before his lips were against mine.

It was like our first kiss, all over again. Hot, firm, and powerful, Luke pressed his mouth against mine, his passion overflowing into me as our arms found each other's backs. Our breathing shallowed, the mental fog of unadulterated lust rolling in thick, blanketing my mind in waves of billowing pleasure. My vision flashed red and hot, my eyes closing but never losing sight of the boy tied up in my arms.

Our tongues danced, their skill having improved with our growing experience and ease. Luke broke away, raining soft kisses down my jawline to my neck before detouring to nibble my ear. My mouth hung open and a quiet moan slipped out. The familiar scent of his cologne was suspended faintly in my nose, but a selfish twinge of regret flitted through my mind, missing the odor of sweat and horse that sometimes hung about him.

Small matter, though — Luke's hands had curled under my shirt, his fingernails biting the smooth skin of my back. Grunting, I backed up, slipping my shirt off before yanking his open, thankful Luke was wearing a pearl-snap rather than a button-down. My mouth slipped down to his perfectly defined chest, lapping at his nipples while Luke's hands scrambled to undo the button on my pants. He succeeded, exhaling loudly as he slipped a sweaty palm into my briefs. A tingle ran from the base of my balls up through my body as he tugged on my hard length, forcing my head to arch back and drawing another soft moan from deep within me. Luke jacked me roughly for a moment, my head falling to his shoulder, biting the juncture of his neck and shoulder with barely-contained pleasure. I could feel his breathing, hot and wet on the back of my neck, while his hand curved around behind me. His fingers were tantalizingly close to my pucker, but my pants were still on, restricting me — I broke away to yank them all the way off, stepping haphazardly out of them in my haste.

Returning to Luke, it took me only a few more seconds to tear his pants down to his ankles and wrap my fingers wide round his globular, firm ass. Luke stumbled as he stepped out of his pants, shoving a hand against the wall for support. My hormone-addled brain, crazed with the heat of the moment, drove me forward before reason could catch up. From behind, I twisted my arms around his front, grabbing his pulsating, leaking dick with one hand and caressing his abs with the other. Luke's body felt feverish against mine, his smooth, tan back rubbing against the smattering of black hairs on my chest.

Panting, Luke tilted his head forward against the wall, pressing his ass to my abs while his feet slid apart on the floor. With him leaning over, I had just enough height to lunge forward, feeling the tip of my aching cock press between his taut cheeks.

My upturned dick was parallel to Luke's crack; pushing forward, it burrowed deeper, resting easily within the clenched embrace of his ass cheeks. A feral animal uncoiled itself deep within me, raising its head and sniffing the air hopefully, sensing an opportunity to stake ownership over the body in front of me...

None of us had spoken since I'd admitted my growing feelings for Luke; instead, moans, grunts, and heavy breathing were the only sounds we'd seemed capable of making in our lust-filled romp.

"No!" Luke cried, bolting upright, chest heaving. He spun around, grabbed my shoulders, and planted a quick, chaste kiss on my lips. Still breathing heavily, he pressed his forehead down against mine. "Not yet, okay? Soon...God, I want you so bad, but not right now..."

Luke's words were like an electric zap to my skull, bringing me back to solid ground almost as quickly as my cock deflated. My emotions were in free-fall from their Elysian high a moment before, some place between human thought and animal instinct.

"I'm sorry!" I yelped, panicking. I'd gone too far, too quick... It pissed me off that I seemed to come unglued every time Luke and I were together. Scolding myself, I resigned to have better self-control going forward.

"No, it's okay babe, I really do want it...you're so fucking beautiful, it's almost impossible to stop. I just have special plans for you on Saturday." Luke kissed me sweetly again, then enveloped my upper body in a crushing bear hug. "Okay?" he whispered in my ear.

"Okay," I muttered shyly. "Never thought another guy would be calling me 'babe' and it not be some sort of joke." I hugged Luke back, showing him what my words couldn't explain.

He looked amused. "If I ever call you 'dear' then you'll know I'm pissed off. By the way, you're not allowed to jack off or anything until the next time we're together, alright?"

I sighed. Luke and his games. "First of all, because you said that, I'm gonna call you 'dear' from now on, just to piss you off. Second, you're not the boss of my dick. How the hell can we start like that and then you expect to just stop? You obviously have an insane amount of self-control, 'cause if my balls were any bluer I'd be a damn Smurf!" Stepping back, I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrows in a poor attempt to look haughty.

The mischievous grin was back on Luke's face. He raised his hands, palms facing out in mock deference. "Okay, fine. Do what you want. But if you can hold off for a bit, stud, I personally promise you won't regret it."

Damn him. He drew out the word 'stud,' and dazzled me with a sensual smile. "Fine, I agreed," hoping I sounded more reluctant than compliant. "We need to go and hang out with some other guys, though, because it's dangerous to be alone in here with you."

Chuckling, Luke tossed me my heap of clothes.

My heart felt heavy as I stepped back into my pants, pulling them up. Between the Nora situation, dinner, and what had just happened with Luke, tonight had been a rollercoaster of events and emotions.

I'd finally come to terms with my new reality — secrets, exhilaration, and an unshakeable desire to push ahead with Luke. He'd planted a seed inside me, nurturing it until roots burst forth. Now, they were wrapping themselves around my heart and rapidly growing up and away. I still couldn't explain why things had taken off between us. But take off they had, and here we were. A small voice in the back of my mind warned me that things were moving fast — that we were young, inexperienced, clueless.

None of it mattered.

Luke opened the door to my room, looking over his shoulder at me. "Coming?" he asked, smiling.

I walked through the door, following him down the hallway.

Where things were going with us, I couldn't say. I certainly didn't have the slightest idea how to navigate the future. My only thought was to do the same thing I would with any other young, spirited horse: hold on tight.

Hold on tight, or fall off.

***

Next Up: Ch. 4 — Homecoming (Part Two)

Surprises loom, passions rise, barriers are broken...