25. ATLAS
Chapter twenty-five
ATLAS
STORYTELLING AND STARGAZING
I stood at the side watching quietly as Matthew guided Skye to pet Loki.
Loki’s ears twitched my way for a moment, and I thought he might give away my position, but then Skye pulled out another carrot, and all Loki’s attention went back to him.
Now Matthew wants to talk to me in private, and my stomach is in knots.
I’ve been turning the same heap of hay over with the fork for five minutes now, just going through all the things he might want to talk to me about.
He could just want to say a proper goodbye.
Fuck, what if they do like a final dinner send-off thing for him?
I can’t sit through that pretending I’m happy that he’s leaving.
If it’s what will make him happy, then fine, go, be happy, but I don’t have to like it, and I really can’t sit there and put on a fake smile wishing him well.
I push on with the work, adding a helping of hay to each stall for the horses, and then closing them up for the night. The lights are all on up at the house, and I can hear the faint sounds of laughter coming from inside.
I will my feet to move, but they stay cemented to the ground in defiance.
It won’t be as bad as you think, I try to tell myself, but after another few minutes of just standing there, I give in and turn on my heel, my feet happily taking me in the opposite direction of the house, back to my trailer.
As soon as I’m there, I build a fire and lay out the blanket, stripping down to feel the relief that comes with it.
My skin warmed by the flames, I sit watching the yellow and orange peaks lick at the air as the sun fully sets over the horizon, and the sky shines with starlight.
Lying back, hands folded under my head, I watch the tiny lights disappear behind clouds and reappear again, all the while breathing in the rich earthy scent of the ranch and wondering what might be happening back at the house.
I wish I were there. No. I wish he were here.
But that he was here and it was like it was a week ago when everything in my life finally made sense.
I could touch and be touched, feel a connection in my heart and my body that was real and perfect and…
urgh. Why can’t I just stop thinking about him and what we had and what I’ve lost?
I’m here in my favorite place, under a stunning sky, with nothing between me and the world but the breeze, and all I keep thinking is I wish Matthew were here.
I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been lying here when I suddenly hear his footsteps approaching. How long until I forget that sound, forget the way his smile crinkles the corners of his eyes just so? How long until my life returns to whatever it was before him?
“I thought you might be out here,” he says, stepping through the tree line carrying a covered plate and bowl. “I brought you dinner, and Sally-May said you’re to share the pie,” he chuckles. I sit up, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them.
“Thanks. I’m not really hungry,” I lie, and my stomach betrays me, grumbling loudly.
“Yeah, I call bullshit. Here, scoot over,” he says, placing the dishes down but remaining standing beside them.
“You should have come to dinner. Dean made a speech and everything, it was nice.”
“I’m sure it was,” I reply dryly.
Matthew strips off his jacket and lays it on the ground in front of the dishes.
“It was. He went on and on about how wonderful it’s been to have me here,” he says, unbuttoning his shirt as he kicks off his shoes.
“What are you doing?” I ask, and he takes his shirt all the way off.
“I thought you, of all people, would know what getting naked looks like,” he says, unbuttoning his jeans and shoving them down and stepping out.
The sight of his thick pink cock makes my mouth water, remembering the taste of him, but I turn my attention to the fire, hoping it’ll distract me well enough.
The uncomfortable bulge between my legs makes it clear it’s not working.
“You don’t have to get naked to talk to me,” I say. He laughs softly, and my stomach swirls. Fuck, I love that sound.
“I know, but I’ve come to like being naked. It’s sort of… freeing.”
“It used to be,” I say, and he sits beside me, legs crossed and hands resting on his thighs.
“It isn’t anymore?” he asks, and I turn my head his way, my hands clutching my legs tighter to stop me from wrapping him in my arms.
“Stripping off and feeling the cool breeze against my bare skin used to bring me to my happy place.”
“His lips pick up at the corners in a smirk.
“And now?”
I take a slow breath in, my gaze moving from his glistening hazel eyes to the tiny freckles on his nose and then to his lips, soft and perfect. I try to memorize every inch of his face, just like this, bathed in the golden light of the fire under a starry sky.
“What happens when you strip off?” he asks.
“Now, all I keep imagining is your warm body pressed against mine.”
“That’s not exactly a bad thing,” he says, and I stand to stop myself from doing what I really want, which is to cover him with my body against the blanket and kiss him under this perfectly starry sky.
I grab my bottle of water from the small table by the trailer door and take a long sip as I watch Matthew stand and stretch his arms out, head dipping back as he breathes in the night air.
“Maybe we don’t tell Dean that part when we’re trying to convince him to host the nudist weekend, though,” Matthew says, and for a second his words don’t register. I replay them over and over in my mind. Maybe we don’t tell Dean.
“We?” I ask, and he turns toward me with a wide smile on those perfect lips.
“Well, it would be a bit mean for me to make you pitch it alone now that I’m staying.”
My chest fills like a balloon, and I rush to him, wrapping him in my arms and lifting him from the ground to spin him around.
“You’re really staying?” I ask as I finally lower him down.
“I’m staying.”
“But the job… you’ve worked so hard to get into that part of the business, all your great ideas for the emergency response.”
He brushes my hair behind my ear.
“A horseman I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with reminded me that success doesn’t just exist in one form.”
“You’re falling in love with me?” I ask, swallowing the lump that has risen in my throat.
“Is that okay?” he asks, and I nod.
“Yeah, that’s okay. Because I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you too.”
He pushes up on his toes and kisses me, lips soft and warm and perfect, and it’s over way too quickly.
“You really should eat something,” he says, glancing down at the covered dishes.
“Oh, I plan to. Grab the pie and meet me in the trailer,” I say, and then I give him one last quick kiss and rush around the back of the trailer to quickly shower.
It was a long day on the ranch. When I get inside, I find him lying back on my bed, eating what appears to be cherry pie, cock hard and glistening already with precum, and beside him on the bedcover lies the vibrator and lube from my drawer and a condom.
“That looks delicious,” I say, and he nods.
“It is. Cherry is my new favorite.”
“I wasn’t talking about the pie,” I say, and I crawl between his legs.
I kiss my way along his inner thigh until I reach his balls and then suck them into my mouth.
He moans, “Oh fuck, Atlas.”
I release him and reach for the vibrator and lube, coating it well and then also my fingers to spread over his entrance.
I swirl them around, teasing for a moment as he takes another bite of pie, and then I push the vibrator inside him.
His back arches, and he lets out a sort of guttural growl as I push it in further, not slowing until it’s as deep as it can go and my grip on it is pressed against him.
The stretch is quick, but he responds nicely, sinking back into the bed, eyes opening and locking onto mine.
“You good?” I ask, and he nods, then takes another bite of pie.
“Perfect.”
“Good. Don’t forget you’re supposed to share that.”
He glances down at the bowl.
“I guess you’ll have to distract me from eating it all, won’t you.”
I twist the vibrator inside him, and he sucks in a breath, a smile fixed on his lips.
“Oh, I plan to,” I reply, and then I press the tiny button on the side of the base. The low rumble of the vibration starts, and I draw back and thrust, and draw back and thrust, leaving him no time to catch his breath between moans. “That’s it, open for me, baby.”
I turn the slightly curved vibrator and angle it just right so it hits that perfect bundle of nerves with surgical precision. His back arches high, and he shifts the bowl to the side of him as his free hand white-knuckles the bedsheet.
“Oh god, Atlas,” he moans, the scent of him rising to meet me, and my mouth waters again. This time, I shift myself down a little and grip his cock in my free hand, and then when I thrust inside him next with the toy, I suck him deep into my throat.
I draw him in with every thrust, glancing the vibrator over his prostate over and over again until his hand finds the back of my head and his fingers tangle there, gripping and pulling it tight, just on the right side of pain.
“I want to feel you inside me,” he gasps. I come off him with a pop, pulling the toy free as I go, and quickly fumble with the condom, stretching it over my leaking cock. He pushes up and turns on the bed, hands against the wall, ass out, and watching me over his shoulder.
“Holy fuck that’s hot,” I gasp, and then I shift in close, gripping his hip in one hand as I press my cockhead against his opening.
Too eager to wait for me to push in, Matthew sinks back against me, forcing me deep until I bottom out and I’m sitting on my knees, his ass in my lap, and his head lolls back to rest against my chest.
“Oh god, you feel good,” I say, bringing my arms around him and pulling him to me at his waist. He reaches back and grips the back of my neck with one hand and then lifts his hips before sinking down again, fingers twisting tightly in my hair.
“Oh fuck,” he gasps, and then he goes again, taking total control of the moment, lifting himself up and thrusting back into me over and over.
His ass grinds in a small circle when he sinks down low, and pleasure swells and expands inside me. My cock aches and my balls tighten as I pant in time with him, inching closer and closer to orgasm.
I reach for his cock and find his hand already there, but he gives way to mine, then slips his fingers over my grip to show me exactly how he wants it, and he wants it hard and fast. His body moves from a rhythmic thrust against me to an eager bounce.
“I’m close,” I cry.
“I’m so fucking close,” he moans, and then my orgasm hits. My eyes cinch shut so tight I see stars, and then his ass clenches around me like a vise. He grinds in jagged movements in my lap until his cock softens in my grip, and he sinks against me with a sigh.
“I think I dropped the pie,” he says through ragged breaths.
I kiss his neck.
“Who needs pie when I have you?”