24. Jackson
twenty-four
Jackson
H ometown rodeos are great.
Until all you want is for it to be over so you can get the man of your dreams naked and celebrate a victory in private. But local celebrity status requires shmoozing with sponsors and greeting fans. Both of which I love, just not right now.
After I accepted the prize money for us, I did three separate interviews. My favourite was the local 4H club who asked if I could come talk to them sometime about caring for steers. The least favourite was the man from the championship rodeo panel who asked me far too many questions about who I was acknowledging in the stands and not enough about my actual sport.
Then there was an autograph and meet the cowboy session that I never turn down. It’s usually kids just wanting to be like you when they grow up and I can’t say no to that. I love answering their questions and encouraging them to get involved with the sport.
As the session winds down, the one person I want to see the most steps in front of me at the signing table.
“Do you sign body parts? They ran out of glossy photos for me to buy just to get in here.”
Riley grins at me, and I slide my chair away from the table to meet him in front .
“Will a kiss be enough to make it worth your while? I’m all out of photos.”
“Perfectly acceptable substitution, yes.”
Thankfully, there aren’t any kids left in the area because our kiss quickly turns into something very X-rated. The burning inside me to get this man home is fierce.
Riley comes up for air first and pats my chest with his hand.
“Wow, cowboy. You sure know how to make a man feel good.” His cheeks glow and he radiates a pure happiness I’ve not seen from him since we met. Yes, he’s laughed and been happy, but right now… he’s next level and the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.
“I can make you feel even better.”
Riley’s gaze drifts to my mouth, and he licks his lips. “Yeah? Does that mean you’ve fulfilled your cowboy duties for the night?”
“The banquet I must attend is tomorrow. Tonight, the party is optional, and I opt to spend it with you. Alone.”
Riley swallows with a soft sigh.
“Lord, I was hoping you’d say that. Ever since you did your show and pointed at me from the ring, I’ve been…” Riley trails off with a soft laugh. The people securing the area for the night shuffle around us and he glances at the exit. “I’ve been anxious, maybe. It’s weird. There’s no word I know to describe what I’m feeling right now, Jack. It’s all so new to me and you make me feel like I’m floating one minute and burning up the next.”
Riley closes his eyes and exhales slowly, all while keeping his hands anchored to me. One on my hip and the other flat on my chest… over my heart. When he opens his eyes and meets my gaze again, I draw him closer .
“Baby, I get it. It’s okay.” Pressing a soft kiss to his mouth, I bring my lips to his ear. “It’s hard to understand big feelings, but I promise you that you’re not alone, Riley. It’s like you’re a part of me I need to breathe.”
“Will you take me home now?”
“Of course.”
Grabbing my hat and thanking the few lingering staff, I take Riley’s hand and lead him out of the tent, where we almost run into Gabe.
“Oh, there you are. I’m going to the big party thing, if you don’t mind?”
Riley shakes his head. “No. Why would I?”
“No reason. Just wanted to make sure you found Jackson and have a way home. Jamieson, I think, he found me and invited me along with the group, so I’m doing that.”
“Jamieson likes to sing sea shanties when he’s drunk, FYI,” I add with a laugh. “But they’re good people and it’s a fun event.”
Jamieson rounds the corner with Griff beside him and throws an arm around Gabe.
“You disappeared! Ready to party? There’s even a mechanical bull! I can teach you!”
Riley raises an eyebrow when Gabe laughs and agrees, just as Hunter ambles up to the group.
“Come on. There’s an Uber waiting. You know how hard it was to find a ride to fit all of us? Don’t waste it goofing off here,” Hunter barks as he motions to follow him, and Gabe looks positively pissed.
“Is he always an asshole?” Gabe quips .
Jamieson laughs. “Yeah, but he’s our asshole, so we just let him do his thing.”
“Have fun, Gabe. Seems like you might have your hands full,” Riley chirps, but Gabe just shrugs and follows my friends. “I’m a lawyer. I’m used to assholes.”
Riley grabs my hand again and pulls me towards the lot where my truck is parked.
“Let’s get out of here, Jack.”
We stop and kiss far too many times, if there is such a thing, in the short distance to my truck. Riley is an expert flirt. Touching just enough to light the fuse, but not enough to make it flame to life and burn the house down.
Finally at my truck, he tries to dash ahead and slip into the passenger side, but I catch him and easily pick him up by the hips and spin him around to pin him against the truck door.
“Jesus, Jack,” he breathes as his hands grip my shoulders and his legs wrap around my waist. “Kiss me.”
My lips meet his and his body squeezes around me tighter.
“Oh god, Jackson…”
“Riley…” My hands support him under his ass, and when I pull away, the moonlight shines just enough to illuminate him against the truck in just such a way that his once-guarded features are now naked.
I have all of him. Those ocean blues no longer have that tiny cloud of uncertainty.
Resting my forehead on his, I sigh a shaky breath.
“You unravel me, Riley. I’m never this out of control.”
“If you’re unravelled, then I’m already in a pile on the floor.” His shaky hands cup my face. “Take us home, Jack. Quickly,” he whispers, and I lower him to his feet. I want to kiss him again and not stop, but he shoves me away with a laugh and opens the truck door.
“We’ll never get home if you keep doing that. Drive, please.”
After what feels like an eternity with Riley smashed into the passenger door to not touch me, I pull into the parking space at his condo and kill the engine.
Then I burst out laughing.
“Are we just extra horny, or is this something else? I can’t believe you spent the entire drive pushed up against the door to avoid touching me.”
Riley snorts and laughs as we grin across the truck cab at each other.
“I don’t know Jack. It’s weird, but I love it.”
Riley slides out and speed walks to his building, with me trailing two steps behind. If I can’t risk touching him, I’m going to look. And imagine. Thank fuck for my vivid imagination.
After he punches in his security code, he glances over his shoulder to find me adjusting the front of my pants. The elevator slides open, and he immediately squishes into one corner and points to the other side without a word.
“When do I get to touch you again?” My voice is so jagged, he turns to look at me as he bites his lip.
“The minute the door of my condo closes behind us.”
The second the elevator doors open, Riley is out like a shot and entering the code to open his door. I linger a half a step behind… I don’t want to break the rule he set.
We both step inside and Riley spins, pushing me into the door and forcing it closed with my body.
“ Oof . You know the door wasn’t really closed.”
Riley pauses for a breath. “Really? You want to split hairs on that now?” His hands are already under my shirt and forcing it over my head and I’ve never felt so damn comfortable with someone before. We have this connection that shouldn’t be so solid this soon, but it’s the most right thing I’ve ever felt.
My hat gets tossed on the coffee table and my shirt hits the floor all before I can even react to Riley mauling me like a bear in search of food after hibernation. His mouth is on mine before I can reply, and then I forget the question, anyway.
Like a match to gasoline, Riley’s hands on my exposed chest send a shiver through me and I’m grabbing at his clothes with zero finesse, pushing him back from the door as we race to undress.
“I’ve wanted you naked since I saw you ride into the ring tonight,” he pants as he wrenches my jeans down my legs.
Somehow, I get untangled from my pants and pull his face to mine. I can’t stop kissing him. I need his kisses in a way that throws all rational thought out the window… so I bend and lift him over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and jog down the hall to the bedroom.
“Jackson! What are you doing!?” He laughs and makes a half-assed attempt at struggling, but in the end, just lets me carry him until I flop him on the bed .
“Sorry, Rye. I just—” Riley shimmies out of his jeans and my mouth drops. “You’ve had that on this whole time?” My voice breaks like a teenager in puberty.
Riley lifts his legs, and I pull his jeans off the rest of the way, pitching them somewhere behind me before kneeling between his legs on the bed. My hands run up his thighs and stop at the band of the intricate black lace jock he’s wearing.
“You approve?”
“Damn right, I do.” My palm brushes over his lace-covered cock, and he closes his eyes with a soft sigh.
“I didn’t think you’d go all caveman on me. I thought you’d want to go s-slow.” His voice hitches as I press a kiss to his navel and run my nose along the edge of the lace. Lace on a man has always been something I kept inside. I can’t really say why. Maybe because I never felt comfortable enough to ask for it. Then Riley just shows up wearing it like a second skin and probably has a drawer full.
Karma came through.
“I did. Still do, but it feels like you’ve edged me for hours and I fucking need you, Riley. Like the air I breathe, I need to be make love to you or I might die.”
“That’s a little dramatic.” He reaches for me and pulls me to his lips. “But I feel like that too,” he whispers. “You make me feel like the biggest treasure on the planet, and I just want to give you everything I have.”
I don’t know how long we stay like that, but I’m stuck on his comment about feeling like a treasure because that’s exactly what he is to me. A treasure with an unlimited value that I’m damn lucky to have .
I’m swinging between the desire to rip these lacy things off and claim him right this second to making slow passionate love to him the way I’ve fantasized about since I met him. Both options are good, and it’s like trying to decide between the chocolate-coated donut and the chocolate-coated donut with sprinkles.
“Jackson?” Riley rolls us over and straddles my hips. “I can feel you overthinking. Will this help?”
Riley slides down and removes my boxers. He tosses them over his shoulder with a sexy smirk before bending over to remove his lace and display his gorgeous ass. Okay, new option, chocolate-coated donut with sprinkles and a cherry. Riley taking over is kind of hot. He crawls back over me and reaches into his nightstand.
“I’m putting a condom on you. Any objections?”
“No,” I squeak as he rips the foil.
Oh god. He’s not using his hands. Riley rolls the condom down my dick with his mouth, and I might spontaneously combust.
“Now you’re ready. You can handle the lube. I like to use a lot. Do what you want to me, Jackson.”
My breath shakes as I kiss him once before flipping him onto his back. After slicking myself and him, he practically purrs when I bend his legs back to expose his pretty hole. Not trusting myself to speak intelligible words, I notch myself at his entrance and press into him slowly.
His hands clutch at my shoulders and his eyes radiate a lust I understand, but underneath that, the softness for me he displayed earlier sits. The silent message of trust to take him like he just gave me permission for and to stop fucking around about it. Dropping his legs down, I collapse on top of him and gasp when he wraps his legs around me, pulling me fully into him.
“Jackson, I promise we can do this slow and romantic later. Just fuck me right now, like it’s the last time you’ll see me for a week.”
“Um…it kind of is. I have that rodeo…”
Riley laughs softly. “I know, babe. So please…show me.”
Loving someone like Riley is already easy, but when he reads me so well and makes me feel like I’m a whole person and not a hot guy in a cowboy hat, it allows me to let go and just be.
We move together, and I swallow his pleasured moans as I kiss him. His heels dig into me, urging me to give him more, and I do until the sweat dampens my hair, and I’m teetering on the edge of what I know will be a life-altering orgasm.
“Fuck, I’m gonna come, Rye.”
“Touch me while you do.”
He pushes me up and I grip his cock in my palm as I awkwardly continue moving my hips.
“Jackson!”
His cum spills over my fist moments before I explode. My orgasm is so intense my toes cramp and I almost crush Riley as I try to ease myself down, but my arms turn to jelly.
“Jesus, that was intense. Holy fuck, Rye. I can’t feel most of my body.”
Riley’s body shakes with a laugh. “Neither can I. You’re crushing me.”
“I’m sorry!”
Pulling out gently, I try not to make a mess of the condom with my shaking hands. I can’t catch my breath and Riley swoops in. He removes the condom with a tender touch and ties it off before dropping it on the floor.
“Jack? What happened? Are you okay?”
He lies next to me, eyes brimming with concern, and I want to tell him I think I unlocked a new erogenous zone or something. Or maybe it’s just him who makes my toes cramp and body turn to goo.
But instead, I say, “Did you know Hawaiian pizza isn’t from Hawaii?”
Riley has the decency to not look shocked and before I can apologize, he nods. “Yeah. I do. A Greek Canadian, wasn’t it? At his restaurant in Ontario. It’s a Canadian creation.”
“Yeah.”
Riley smooths his palm over my cheek, and I swallow hard.
“Did you know I’ve never been in actual love before?” He brushes his thumb over my lip. “It’s true. I thought I was once, but I was wrong. I didn’t know true love until I met you.” He kisses me and stares into my soul. “I don’t mind that I make you nervous sometimes and you blurt your facts. You’re you, Jackson. I’ll never be mad about it if you can’t find the right words because I can feel it and you show me. Every day since I’ve met you, you show me how you feel.”
Ugh. That makes me all kinds of mushy, and I pull him in for a soft kiss.
“I wish I didn’t have to go away so soon after this, Rye. I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too. But you have video calling.” He bites his lip. “And I have a whole drawer of lingerie to show you. ”
“I knew it!” I kiss him hard and wonder again if the universe knew what it was doing when Riley crossed my path. “I’ll never say no to that.”
“Wanna clean up and have a snack?”
Riley rolls off the bed, and I do too, gingerly testing my toes against the carpet. I don’t think I’ve had my toes hurt like that before.
“That sounds perfect.”
Riley leaves to turn on the shower, and I pinch my arm.
“Ouch.” Rubbing the spot, I grin and follow the sound of running water.