Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
What had he done?
Fuck.
Joaquim nudged Estrella into a trot, eyes on the early morning sun. They’d eaten, showered, piled up on the bed together and… What had he done? What if Balta thought that he wanted someone else? What if Raul thought that he didn’t want him? What if…
Fuck.
He’d woken up, Balta and Raul curled around him, holding him and he’d… Fuck. Just fuck.
He rode until the sun lit up the sky, checking fence, watching the bass in his pond. Thinking. The dogs had come with him, and they set to barking, running off up the hill. When he glanced up, it was Balta, riding one of his geldings, face set in a frown until Balta saw him.
“Joa! I wondered where you were, huh? You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Wanted to see… The land. And stuff.” He pulled his hat down, hiding his face. He was no good at lying to Balta. No one was any good at lying to Balta.
“Uh-huh. Come on, doce. Let’s ride a ways, huh? I brought some water.” Balta nudged the big gelding over next to Estrella, reaching over to pat his thigh.
He tried to find a smile, tried to find the words to apologize to his Balta. “I could have a drink.”
“I made some coffee, too, back at the house. We can have a cafezhino back there soon.” Handing him the water bottle on a strap, Balta smiled like all was right with the world.
“I…I’m so sorry, Balta. I don’t. You are my heart. You know that, sim?” The words just poured out of him, once they started.
Balta glanced over, long moments passing before he nodded. “I know that, namorado. You know I love you more than anything.” Balta laughed. “I love you more than I love me. That’s saying something. What are you sorry for?”
“For… I don’t… For looking at Raul.” For wanting him so badly.
“Oh, Joa. No. No guilt.” Balta reached out and grabbed Estrella’s reins, stopping him. “If you’re upset about what we did, we never have to do it again, but I don’t want you thinking I’m jealous, huh? Or mad. It was hot, no?”
“It was…” It blew his mind. “It was… Balta, I… Sim. It shouldn’t be, should it?” He loved Balta.
“Why not? You like Raul very much. He’s lonely, huh? It doesn’t mean you love me less.” Balta sounded so…reasonable.
“Because it’s wrong.” How many times had they had this talk? For months before he let himself touch his Balta, revel in his demon lover.
“Oh, doce. Nothing is wrong as long as we both know what we’re doing, huh? Do you think Raul doesn’t deserve some happiness?” That big, square hand clenched on Estrella’s lead. “I love you.”
“Sim? You’re not ashamed of me? I should have resisted…” But Raul was… Special. Lonesome. Happy. Beautiful.
“Not a bit.” Those dark eyes sparkled, a tiny smile playing around Balta’s mouth. “How could I resist showing you off?”
“Balta!” He shook his head, lips pursing. “You are a demon.”
“Of course I am. You’re my angel, you know? Come back to the house with me and have coffee. I’ll make you Texas breakfast, huh?” Balta always teased him about the big breakfasts he liked, so unlike the Brazilian coffee and bread and fruit.
“Is Raul…? He is happy, sim?” Happy and hung.
“I left him sleeping, doce. I think he slept better than he has since he came up.” Grinning, Balta let Estrella go and nudged the gelding back toward the house. “We should make sure he doesn’t wake up and think we ran away.”
“Sim. Sim. I…I would not have him hurt. He is a good man.” They headed in, the sun beating down on his shoulders.
“Of course not. You’re a good man, huh? I’m the one who’s not.”
“Bah. You are…Balta.” He waved one hand.
“I am. Which means I’m a demon. You say.” They made their way back to the barn, getting the horses settled, the dogs bouncing around their legs.
“My demon.” He stopped, grabbed Balta’s hands. “And I am yours, sim?”
“You are. Nothing will change that. I always want what’s good for you, namorado.” Bringing Joa’s hands up, Balta kissed each one of his scarred knuckles.
“You do.” He leaned, breathed Balta in. “You do.”
Turning, Balta gave him a kiss, his good morning kiss, which he’d missed. It made things better, easier, just to feel that hot mouth against his.
“Mmm.” He thought he could taste Raul there.
“Better, huh?” Winking, Balta pulled him back to the house, getting him settled at the kitchen table and starting to bang pots and pans around. The man cooked like he did everything else—with great enthusiasm and lots of noise.
Joa started stretching, using the chair to balance. He hadn’t been riding for so long.
“Oh…” The tiny sound had him blinking up to find Raul standing in the doorway, wearing a pair of low-slung jeans and some white socks.
“Mmm. Bom dia.” He arched and rolled, then crouched, muscles aching.
“Bom dia.” Raul smiled, and there was nothing awkward about it, only maybe a little shy.
His gaze traveled along Raul’s belly, down the dark trail of curls that disappeared behind the denim.
His cock jerked in his jeans and he sank deeper into his stretch.
He heard that catch in Raul’s breath again, and out of the corner of his eye he snuck another glance.
Raul was bigger than he had been a few moments before.
“Been a while since I rode. I’m a little stiff.”
“I can see that.” Raul smiled all of a sudden, the expression full of mischief.
Balta laughed out loud. “He’s a bit naughty, huh, doce?”
“Sim. Not a demon like you, but wicked.” He kept his hands on the floor, straightened his legs and stretched.
“A demon?” Raul hummed, and the floor creaked as someone moved closer.
Joa nodded, chin bumping his knees. “Truly.”
“Why is that?” It was Raul who was moving, that voice just above him now.
“He… He makes me want things.” His hands reached back, touched Raul’s legs.
“Sim. I can see that. He says things, you know?” Muscles flexed under denim, and he could smell Raul’s hot spice.
Joa stood, halfway, and that pushed his hips back toward Raul, eyes meeting Balta’s.
Balta was watching, eyes heavy-lidded, mouth open.
Those sharp cheekbones had a red tint to them, and Balta’s wide chest rose and fell fast. A soft sound left him, and he licked suddenly dry lips. His demon. His Balta.
Raul pressed against him, hands coming to rest on his hips. “Are you all right, Joa?”
He groaned, leaned back. That heavy, hard cock teased his crease, making delicious promises. He was incredibly, wonderfully all right. “Sim.”
“Good. Good. I would not want you to be uncomfortable.” Raul was rubbing, and Balta wandered closer, and Joa didn’t feel the least bit upset of all a sudden.
Balta came close as he was deciding whether to stand up or go back down. His lips brushed the soft cotton of Balta’s shirt, just by his bellybutton. Balta moaned, stroking his cheeks for a moment. Then Balta moved to open the faded jeans below that T-shirt, letting what was in, out.
“Balta…” He rested his hands on Balta’s thighs and his legs spread. The scent of his demon filled his nose, made him whimper with hunger.
“Mm-hmm. I need your mouth, Doce. Very much.”
Raul moaned behind him, too, hips popping against his bottom.
One of Balta’s hands cupped his head, encouraging his lips to go where they wanted so badly to be. He wrapped his lips around the tip, sucking softly, gently, wanting that salt upon his tongue.
“Sim. Oh, namorado.” Balta jerked, pushing into his mouth.
Behind him, Raul worked at his jeans, one warm hand sliding down between cloth and skin.
He tightened his abs, giving Raul room to work and thrilling at the joint moans he heard when his suction increased about Balta’s dick and his ass ground against Raul.
They rocked together, Balta moving in and out of his mouth, Raul’s fingers finding his crease. Oh, God. Yes, please.
Raul pushed Joa’s jeans down, his touch hot as brands. Balta grabbed his shirt and tugged it up.
The warm air was on his skin for a few seconds before even warmer hands started tracing his body. Raul had his hips, his butt, his belly. Balta’s hands were on his legs, and then his balls. He cried out around Balta’s cock, fingers digging into the heavy thighs.
Dizzy. They made him dizzy.
Raul moved back for mere seconds, and there was bare skin against him, then Raul’s heavy cock against his ass. Hard. So hard. Like Balta between his lips. He arched, hips pushed back in a silent offer. It was the sound that Balta made—desperate and fierce—that let him know how hungry he looked.
Raul breathed a curse, pushing down and up, cock pressing between his cheeks.
Not at his hole, really, just enough to give them both friction.
Filthy words started pouring down over him, Balta whispering how needy he was, how tight his ass was, how his mouth was perfect around Balta’s cock.
From Raul there was only panting, only tiny moans that sounded as much like pain as they did joy.
He could tell how much Raul liked it, though. Very much.
Joa closed his eyes against the waves of dizziness, hips moving faster, harder, while he swallowed Balta down.
Raul was driving him against Balta, and he almost thought he had two demons now.
Raul knew just where to press, just how hard.
Balta leaned and Raul pressed and then he could hear them kissing, the sound wet and hungry.
It was too much. In his mind, he could see them, so beautiful, and he knew how Balta loved to kiss. Maybe Raul was that way, too. Maybe he could have more kisses than any man had a right to for the rest of his life.
Joa took Balta down to the root, pulling as hard as he ever had, head bobbing as he demanded. Balta shouted, and it was so good that Balta could, that this was his house and it was safe. Raul’s cock jerked against his bottom, wet heat splashing on his skin.
His orgasm was delayed by sucking and swallowing and breathing and not falling and all those things.
Once he was upright, Raul’s arms like steel bands around him, Balta’s rough hand pulling his cock?
Deus. Then he had time to come. His entire body jerked, the house spinning like a tornado hit it.
When the wildness was over, his head was back, resting against Raul’s shoulder.
Balta leaned close, kissing his mouth, tasting like heat and sweat. “My Joa.”
“Sim. Sim, Balta.” His breath came like he’d been on the weights.
Raul was solid as a rock behind him, panting in his ear. “Obrigado, Joa,” Raul whispered. “For letting me be here.”
“You… It’s good. You. Here. With us.” He was proud that he knew so many words.
Balta was the one who laughed at him, not Raul. “I think Joaquim needs breakfast, huh? He likes orange juice and lots of eggs and sweet things.” Casually, Balta started putting them all back together.
His stomach snarled, tried to crawl its way out at the thought of breakfast.
Raul laughed, patting his belly for him before setting him back on his wobbly feet. “I can make bacon.”
“I like bacon.” He let Balta ease him down into a chair where he sat bonelessly.
Beautiful men.
“And I am the king of the American pancake, huh?” Balta stroked a hand over Joa’s hair, which was getting a little long.
“Sim.” He watched for a few moments, then went to feed the dogs.