Chapter Eight
A Soft Bed and a Kind Hand
Oscar got himself a bath in the room down the hall, and Miss June had one of the girls give me a sponge bath because she said ’twouldn’t be a good idea to submerge my wound in water right now, and she’d cleaned my middle with soap and water before she’d bandaged me up.
I was filthy from the travel, and the girl she sent in was awful sweet and pretty in a plump way. My cock didn’t behave very well.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help that,” I said, my face on fire as she cleaned me with a warm cloth.
She gazed at me out of deep brown eyes. “Oh, that’s all right. I’m plenty used to men’s privates, Mr. Downing.”
I nodded. “Sure. Of course.”
She giggled, and ’twas a lovely, musical sound. “You want me to get you off? Wouldn’t take but a moment.”
I coughed with embarrassment and said ‘no thanks’. She was a lovely girl, with skin that was almost black, bright white teeth and dark hair that fell in curls to her shoulders.
“All right. Suit yourself.”
She finished cleaning me, then brought out a small bottle of something.
“Miss June asked me to dab some of this on your bites. ’Twill help with the itching.”
The mosquito bites were the least of my plagues, but I supposed anything to help me get a good night’s sleep would be welcome.
“Thank you kindly.”
When she’d finished, she helped me get into a clean cotton shirt to sleep in. “It’s one of Gus’s, so it’s big on you, e’en though you got some bulk. Kinda like a nightshirt.”
“Thank you so much. I feel much better bein’ clean.”
’Twas true. It hadn’t been a priority, and I was so tired I only wanted to rest, but it did make a difference.
“You’re welcome, Jimmy. Miss June’s told us all about you and Oscar, and I think its sweet of the both of you to come and help look for Cal.”
“Well, we got to know Cal when we were here before. I hate to think of her bein’ treated badly or bein’ prevented from coming to see her friends here.”
“I like Cal very much, too. My name’s Sally, by the way. And if you need anythin’,” she glanced at my crotch. “Anythin’ at all, you ask for me. All right?”
“Yes, Miss, I will.” I weren’t gonna ask for that, though. I could guarantee it.
My cock was still at a stand, e’en after everything I’d been through on this trying day.
I lifted the blankets to frown at it right stern and told it to behave until Oscar came back, and maybe he could do something about it.
I hoped he could, because I missed his touch, his dirty words and his laugh.
And now that I’d fought some much-needed sleep for so long and was feeling better, my body buzzed with energy and my brain spun, worrying about Cal and now about Oscar going out with Trick to try to find him.
I reckoned I might need something to settle me down.
When Oscar came back, he was wearing a shirt like mine. I hoped Gus still had some of his own left to wear.
“You look sweet in that,” I told him, a blush returning to my cheeks as I watched him walk into the room. “Reminds me of that first night at the hotel in Dawson City, when I gave you my shirt that was way too big on you. Remember?”
Oscar smiled. “I remember that.”
His skin had a fresh rosy tint from the hot water and his hair was damp and starting to dry, looking fluffy from the toweling, with strands going every which way.
It had grown long again after the trim Irene had given him.
I wasn’t sure if I preferred it this way, or short, like it had been.
His lovely eyes stood out more when ’twas real short like last time, but now soft waves of it fell o’er his ears and around his neck, and he seemed like a delicate, fairy-like creature. I reckoned I liked that a lot.
“You were so kind to me. And I didn’t deserve any of it. I was nasty to you.”
I grinned, remembering Oscar snapping at me like a wounded animal when I’d first offered a friendly hand.
“You were starvin’, and you’d been mistreated. I don’t blame you a’tall, and I didn’t then,” I said. “And you did deserve it. You deserve all the kindness in the world, Oscar Yates, and I aim to give it to you.”
Oscar blushed and came o’er to sit beside me. “Look,” he said, showing me his bare face. “I shaved an’ everythin’.”
I reached up and ran my thumb along his smooth chin.
“My, my, my. Don’t you look fetchin’.” I stroked his cheek with my finger, and Oscar closed his eyes and leaned into my touch. He opened them after a moment and his gaze scanned me where I lay beneath the soft sheets.
“Did, uh, Sally treat you well?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, she gave me a good seein’ to with the sponge.”
“A seein’ to?”
“She cleaned me up, if that’s what you’re askin’. Didn’t do anythin’ else,” I assured him.
“Hmm. Did she offer?”
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face at his proprietary interest in my activities. “She may have.”
Oscar’s head snapped up, and his eyes shot invisible bullets at me.
“I declined, of course.”
“Oh.” He gave a curt nod. “Well, good.”
“What the hell difference would it have made? I’m still in love with you.” For some reason I felt like riling him up. He was so cute when he got mad.
“I reckon it wouldn’t have meant anythin’, and maybe you’re right. But…I feel like I got some ownership rights…or somethin’—after all the trouble you put me to.”
I raised my eyebrows, my dick standing up again like Oscar was its rightful owner and only had to beckon. “Ownership rights!”
We gazed at each other, both of us feeling possessive, I reckoned, now that we were in a house filled with others who had relaxed attitudes about physical affection.
“I don’t want you bein’ so friendly with anyone else, Jimmy.”
“I know it. I don’t mind that, as long as it goes both ways.”
“A’course, it does. I ain’t even interested in girls.” He turned up his nose at the thought of them. “But…”
“But, what?”
He shrugged again, and slipped his hand under the covers to find my cock. I gasped as his fingertips made contact.
“I know you were, at one time.”
Uh-huh. That was the crux of the matter, I suppose.
“That’s true, I suppose, back when I didn’t have any inkling of the kind of pleasure a man could give me. Sure.”
He gazed at the ticking on the bedcover, pretending to be casual as he played his fingers along my erection.
“Would you ever…? Do you think you could ever bed a woman again?”
I chose my words carefully. “I suppose I could do it…maybe.”
Oscar frowned.
“If my life depended upon it,” I said.
Oscar’s touch disappeared, and his gaze flashed to mine. “If your life depended upon it?”
I tried not to smile, but ’twas so much fun to get him worked up.
“Well, I don’t know. What if I got captured by some wild, sex-addled woman, and she said she’d kill me if I didn’t fuck her?”
Oscar stared at me, then he quirked the corners of his mouth. “You think that might happen?”
“You never know.”
Then he did laugh. “Well, I suppose I’m glad you’d be able to survive somethin’ like that, Jimmy.”
I found his hand and clasped it. “Look, Oscar. I ain’t got any interest in bedding anyone but you, no matter how many offers I get. You ain’t gotta worry about that…at all.”
He blushed and gave me a sweet smile. “All right. Nor you.”
“I’m mighty thankful for that,” I said. “I’d hate to have to put a bullet in someone.”
Oscar grinned.
“I’m jokin’. I ain’t killin’ anyone ever again if I can avoid it. But I would have to do something.”
“Like what, then?”
“Well, I don’t know. Beat ’em to a pulp? So, if you don’t want anyone to get hurt, you best stick to me.”
If Oscar did take up with another man, I don’t know what I’d do.
But I didn’t think I had to worry about it, and neither did he.
Although I was glad Miss June didn’t have a stable of molly boys working here, to be honest. Seems she mostly catered to the men that liked girls, and that was fine with me.
I did wonder, though, now that Cal was gone, whether Miss June would think to take in a young man with those tastes, if one came to ask.
I reckoned she would, because men liked all sorts of things when it came to debauchery, and I was an example of that—thanks to Oscar, who’d introduced me to all kinds of fun.
“Are you still in a lot of pain?” Oscar asked. He’d come to sit on the bed beside me and slipped his hand under the covers again.
“Not too much, no. I had some more of the tea, and it seems to be helping,” My voice sounded a mite strained, what with Oscar’s fingers finding my dick again.
“That’s good.”
I gazed at Oscar and beckoned him closer with a finger, so’s I could kiss him. He tasted of something sweet, like peppermint.
I grinned against his lips. “Someone’s feedin’ you treats.”
He laughed. “You make it sound like I’m a pony,” he said, pulling back.
“You’re my pretty pony, and that’s a fact.”
I didn’t know where that had come from, but it seemed right.
“My pet,” I murmured, stroking his cheek and sliding my fingers into his hair.
Oscar smiled, seeming pleased as punch at the endearments. “If you must know, ’twas Trick. She gave me some peppermints, and I had one after my bath.”
“Oh, I see,” I said, kissing him again.
Oscar responded then pulled away again so he could speak.
“I had a feelin’ I’d want to kiss you, and I wanted my breath to smell nice.”
“That’s awful kind.”
“I’m always thinkin’ of you, Jimmy.”
“Sure,” I said, caught up in the scent of him, with his freshly washed hair and skin. “Oscar, you smell like flowers.”
Oscar sighed and traced the tip of his tongue along my lip. At the same time, he slipped the palm of his hand o’er the head of my cock, where ’twas wet with my need for him.
“I know.”
I gasped. “Does your…taint smell like flowers, too?”
“I reckon.”
“I’d sure love to taste it.”
Oscar pulled back and gave me a stern look.
“Now, Jimmy…”
“Or maybe you could climb up onto this stand I got here and”—I inhaled an unsteady breath, desperate all of a sudden—“fuck yourself on’t?”