Epilogue
KIT
Skylar and I were celebrating the six-month mark of my surgery at the new Texas-meets-bougie restaurant in Fredericksburg, followed by an extended weekend in my prettiest rental cabin, out by Enchanted Rock.
Sky cheated, though, and gave me my present a month early to help with the last, long stretch of my recovery—a fully trained cattle dog mix named Nellie. She was a rescue, and our friend Woody was the one to train her. I immediately fell in love with her beautiful amber eyes and fluffy chocolate and white fur.
More importantly, Skylar had roped Reed into helping him find the perfect dog, which ensured that he wouldn’t be upset by adding a pet and working animal to the mix. Reed and McKenzie were watching her this weekend, and I was so proud to know that he’d take excellent care of her.
As for the knee, I’d damn near recovered fully, even though it would never be like it was when I was eighteen. I hadn’t realized how much pain I’d been walking around in until it was gone, and the first time I admitted that to Skylar, he nearly passed away from laughing so hard.
Jerk.
Not to mention the love of my life.
All apologies to Cynthia, though I had a feeling she wouldn’t be offended, seeing that she, Brandy, and Sky had become fast friends. Brandy hadn’t been lying when she said queer relationships could be complicated. In our case, that wasn’t a bad thing.
Despite it not coming from my own grill, the steak here was delicious, and Skylar seemed to enjoy the fish he’d ordered. He looked even more beautiful than usual tonight, and that was saying something. His hair and makeup were perfect, and he even had his nails done up extra-long and fancy.
He knew I loved all of these details and played into it whenever he had a chance.
Both of our businesses kept us going full tilt, at least now that I’d been allowed back into all of my systems, but Sky and I made time for each other with date nights and sleepovers. He was well and truly tired of living out in that ratty old cabin, but had been too busy to find a place of his own.
Which worked in favor of what I had planned for tonight.
After putting in our dessert order, I reached for him across the table. His pretty nails flashed in the candlelight as he took my hand, smiling.
“You look happy.”
“I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” I said, meaning every word of it.
He flushed and looked down, shy at the compliment. As much as I loved his sassy attitude, I appreciated this more vulnerable aspect of his personality just as much. He once mentioned how he appreciated the same in me, and I thought it was pretty special that we could both drop our walls around each other.
“I was hoping to ask you a question.”
He held up his hand. “Cowboy, I love you, but it is way too soon to be asking me to marry you.”
I nearly choked on the wine I’d swallowed, and he laughed. “Oh my God. The look on your face .”
I shook my head, drunk on his happiness. “The thought of marrying you doesn’t scare me, Sky. Though that wasn’t the question I was going to ask tonight.”
It did my heart a little good that he looked mildly disappointed.
“I was, however, going to ask you to live with me. If you thought you could put up with all of my grumpiness.”
He wrinkled his nose. “You aren’t grumpy. You’re a little stern, and stuck in your ways, but since I happen to be one of those ways you’re stuck in, I don’t mind so much.”
“That a yes?”
He brought my hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle.
“Yes, cowboy,” he finally said. “I would love to live with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wait. Are you only saying yes because my house is better than your little hovel?”
“Stop calling it a hovel. Though that does have a teeny, tiny bit to do with it. The real reason I’m saying yes, though, is because you’re at your house, and I happen to like you a whole lot.”
I kissed his soft hands, and we enjoyed dessert, then a long ride out into the dark Hill Country.
As we got out of the car, he looked up at the brilliant night sky. “I didn’t realize you could see the Milky Way out here.”
“Not quite as dark as West Texas out here, but we do all right.”
He kissed me as we walked into the cabin, then gestured around us. “You mean I’ve been living in that cramped place surrounded by animals, when I could’ve been living out here?”
“I have, on several occasions, offered to let you stay in one of the cabins on the dude ranch.”
“It was too soon,” he said, removing his jacket. “And, not to belabor the point, but you didn’t tell me there was something like this in your portfolio.”
I knew he was teasing me and refused to take the bait. Instead, I removed my jacket and toed out of my boots. He grinned.
“What has you smiling now?”
“You just took off your boots without any pain.”
“Been doing that for a while now.” I took him into my arms and kissed him like I meant it. “You remember what Dr. K said about sex?” I asked, lifting my brows.
He tapped his chin. “Something about not using your knees for sexual activity for six months.”
I made a show of eyeballing my watch. “Well, will you look at that? Right at the six-month mark post-surgery, and my knee is perfect.”
“Oh? Were you wanting to take it out for a spin?” he asked, teasing open his blouse with those sexy nails of his.
“More than you can imagine.”
“You give me a minute here, cowboy, and I’ll put on one of my fancy little outfits for you,” he said, unbuttoning his pants.
“You know I love your pretty peignoirs, but . . .” I gestured to my growing cock. “I don’t have the patience tonight.”
“I thought that might be the case,” he teased, toeing out of his shoes and socks before dropping his trousers.
I sucked in a deep breath. He was wearing lacy teal underwear; the kind built to cup a man’s cock. The jeweled color set off his pale skin, so pretty as he ran his long nails over the nubbly fabric. He’d introduced me to ASMR, dragging his fingernails across different surfaces. Depending on the situation, it either calmed me or excited me, and the sound of those nails across lace definitely wasn’t on the side of calm.
I shucked off the rest of my things, then dragged him down to the mattress.
“Oof. Someone’s in a hurry to get started,” he teased, skimming a pretty nail up the steel length of me.
His pretty talons against my cock made me so hard that I got a little dizzy from the reversal of blood flow, and it was enough to finally loosen my tongue.
“Have you seen you?” I said, dipping down to kiss his chest.
He’d mentioned once being embarrassed that he hadn’t been able to wax, and when I told him I didn’t mind, he said it was more of his personal aesthetic. That Rich guy liked him to remove everything, but when I bought him a year’s worth of waxing appointments, I made sure he knew this was all about what made him feel pretty. When he returned from his first appointment with just a sexy little patch right above his cock, and nothing on his chest, legs, and undercarriage, I walked him to my bedroom and didn’t let him out until we were both good and dehydrated.
Which reminded me. “Turn over,” I commanded, and he immediately obeyed. The more time I spent with him, the more I enjoyed every element of the male anatomy. After the first time he’d rimmed me, I made it my mission to become a damned expert at eating ass. Mostly because he liked it, but also because I loved turning him on this way.
And I was about to add tongue fucking him to my rim job repertoire.
Look at me, growing and changing.
Gripping his hips, I raised them, then used my thumbs to spread his cheeks. He sucked in a sharp breath and let out a low moan as I leaned in, licking a slow path from his tight nuts to the tip of his crack. I did it again, and again until his bare, dripping cock was messy and bobbing between his spread thighs.
Only when he was saying my name did I focus on his tight little rim. Circling it with my tongue, I nipped at the sensitive places on his body. Spreading his cheeks even wider, I pointed my tongue and pressed it inside him, slow and easy.
“Fuck, cowboy. I’m gonna come,” he choked out. I pulled back, and he slammed his fist against the pillows. “You’re killing me, Kit.”
I chuckled, evil, then flipped him onto his back, and his eyes widened as his sweet body bounced under my power.
“Something tells me I’m about to discover a new version of you, Kit Baker.”
I kissed him, skimming his ribs, thumbing his hard nipples, teasing his hardness with mine. “That you are, Skylar Whitmore.”
I grabbed the lube, slicking my fingers before slicking his hole. It was a bit softened from my tongue, but as we’d discovered, he needed a bit more prep with someone my size.
I thrust two fingers inside him, loving the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he acclimated to the stretch. Thrusting again and again, I teased the spot inside him that made his eyes roll back in his head. We kissed again as I added a third finger. Finally, when he was about as ready as he could be, I put one of his legs over my shoulder, opening him up for me.
“How’re those knees holding up, cowboy?” he asked, winking at me.
“Perfect,” I said, slicking my cock. Dr. Kleinfeld had been a miracle worker.
Gripping his jaw with my free hand, I kissed Sky with everything I had. We’d joked about a proposal, but one of the many things that had changed in the last six months was that the idea of spending forever with Skylar no longer terrified me. It wasn’t just that I was burning up to make love to him properly; it was that he made every aspect of my life better, merely by being himself. He made me better.
As we kissed, I nudged against his entrance, taking in how his body loved every second of this. As responsive as he always been, he wasn’t the only one seeing something new tonight. Of course, Sky had been understanding with my physical limitations, but I’d always suspected he liked it when I took control. Letting him and the rest of my loved ones batter me into getting the surgery meant I could, among other things, enjoy him the way I was always meant to.
Sliding inside of his hot, tight body, I had to pause, nearly losing it before we’d even begun.
“God, I love you,” I said, kissing him as I slowly began to pump my hips.
He wrapped his legs around me, returning the kiss. “I love you so much.”
The sparkle in his eyes was more brilliant than I’d ever seen before. We made love like that, holding each other, looking deeply into each other’s eyes, his hips rising to meet my downward thrusts, moving in time with one another as we never had before.
“I didn’t know it could be like this,” I confessed, my chest constricting. How could someone be so beautiful?
“Neither did I,” he responded, a single tear spilling down his cheek.
I thumbed it away, kissing him as pleasure, ecstasy, and loved rolled down my spine. I sped up, and he threw his head back, his mouth open as his body tensed. Warmth spilled between us as he came, and I chased after him, finally letting loose, filling him as he completed me.
After we cleaned up, he changed into a sexy little negligee, and we snuggled up on the bed in front of the fire, watching the flames dance as we held each other. In our own little cocoon, away from the world. It was hard to remember how afraid I’d once been to be seen with him.
“I’m so proud to be with you,” I said, nosing into his hair, gripping his body tight to mine.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said, sincerity shining out of his eyes as he traced his lipstick prints down my neck.
How I’d ever gotten so lucky, I’d never know. But I’d spend the rest of my life trying to deserve it.
Skylar
SIX MONTHS LATER
This last year had been a whirlwind. I launched a new business, my friends started getting married and having kids, and I fell in love with a straight man. Then moved in with him.
I’d be lying if I’d said I hadn’t been a little nervous to move in with Kit. I loved him more than anything, but I wasn’t sure if our different personalities would mesh living on top of each other twenty-four-seven.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. Yes, Kit was set in his ways, and a neat freak, but he was also kind and thoughtful. We needed to work out a few things between us, namely that our dynamic was that of boyfriends and partners, not sugar baby and sugar daddy. This was tricky because he loved being generous, and I loved receiving gifts, but it could sometimes feel like one of my previous arrangements if we weren’t careful.
So, we were careful.
“I like buying you expensive, sexy things because I like seeing you in them, and then I like taking you out of them. This is not transactional, and you don’t ever have to wear them if you’re not in the mood to. I’m doing this because I’m selfish, not because I think I have any control over you. Promise,” he said, kissing away my tears the one time I got it wrong in my head.
And as much as he loved showering me with gifts, it wasn’t one of those toxic love bomb things, either. He’d been slow to come around and give in to this thing between us, and nothing he ever did was about obligating me to stay in his presence. He was simply thoughtful, and I soon saw how he was that way with everyone else, too.
Similarly, as hot as our sex life was—and it was hot —it had nothing to do with the gifts he gave me, and everything to do with that fantastic, enormous heart of his.
Also, his big cock.
“I’m beginning to think you only love me for my body,” he’d sometimes joke.
“It’s true,” I’d joke back, and then he’d make love to me like he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Just like our relationship, my business had grown in leaps and bounds. I recently hired two additional nurse practitioners to keep up with the demand, and Dr. Kleinfeld adjusted her hours so she could join us a few times a month to handle some of the more difficult cases.
Today, though, Kit and I were making our way up the California coast. I’d mentioned offhandedly a few months ago how much I loved California wines, and Kit surprised me with tickets for our one-year anniversary. Yesterday we spent the morning in Muir Woods, and the afternoon at a lovely Sonoma winery. This morning, we held hands as we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping to take pictures and, once, for a furtive hand job after a particularly spectacular view.
Kit had been coy with the details, so when he pulled into the driveway of a fantastic cliff side home, my hand went to my mouth. I’d never seen such a beautiful place before.
“You like it?”
“I love it,” I breathed out, emotion swelling in my chest. “I couldn’t have picked a more magical, perfect location.”
“Welcome to my newest vacation rental,” he said, grinning.
I turned to him, eyes wide. “You’re expanding into California?”
“Well, probably not expanding so much as buying the place I would want to return to with you again and again.”
“Kit,” I said, barely able to believe it. “This is too much.”
He shook his head as he kissed me across the console. “It’s never too much.”
I waited as he opened the door for me, and we kissed again as we stood outside, taking in the spectacular architecture and the view. I had no doubt he’d talked to Cynthia before buying it, and I immediately hoped she and Brandy planned to take advantage of this place, too.
As beautiful as the house was on the outside, though, it was even more gorgeous inside. Massive floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the coast and into the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. Every room had a spectacular view. Kit took my hand and led me out to the deck that overlooked the water, right as the sun was beginning to set.
“This is the most perfect place I’ve ever been,” I sighed.
I turned to kiss him, only to have to look down. Kit was kneeling on his perfectly restored knee with an open ring box in his hands. My vision blurred. I couldn’t even see the ring itself, just my future in front of me.
“Skylar Whitmore, I have loved you from the moment I met you. I’m sure of that now. You were patient with me as I processed through my fears, and I could never repay you for your generosity and depth of kindness. I can only pledge to love you for the rest of my life, if you’ll have me. Will you marry me?”
I could barely get the words to cooperate, so I nodded until I could finally croak, “I will. I’ll marry you, Kit Baker.”
He smiled, tears streaming down his face as he placed the ring on my hand. I knew, without asking, that he would be wearing a simple platinum band because that was the kind of man he was. He’d, however, given me a ring to match my personality: flashy, ostentatious, and beautiful.
I’d have married him with a string on my finger.
He rose to his feet, and we kissed as the sun dropped below the horizon, sending orange and purple and pink into the sky like a blessing on our union.
We made love that night, and again the next morning. Finally, when we made it to the deck with our morning coffee, he grabbed my hand.
“Yes?” I asked, not sure what to make of the urgency in his blue, blue eyes.
“We’re set to fly home at the end of this week, but I’d like to suggest a change to our flight plans.”
The following week, when we arrived home, we walked in the door, tired and jet lagged, to a small surprise party.
“Congratulations, Newlyweds” was strung out over the massive fireplace as our families and closest friends, along with their children, gathered around us. Nellie pressed against our legs, tail wagging as though she were proud of the tiny veil someone had affixed to her head.
We would have a proper ceremony, of course, but when Kit suggested over coffee that we elope to Vegas, I had to say yes. I couldn’t wait another day to be married to this man.
As a glass of wine was placed in my hand, Reed stumbled up to me and threw his arms around me. Kit, grinning at the rare sign of physical affection, took the glass from my hand and gave us space.
I love you, Sky , Reed signed before burying his face in my neck.
“I love you, too, buddy.”
He pulled away and pointed to me, then to his dad, who’d begun dancing with Nellie and Brandy in the living room. “My family feels complete.”
I laughed as happy tears spilled down my cheeks.
“Mine, too, Reed. Mine, too.”
Thank you for reading Gone Country! Make sure to check out the Rebel Sky Ranch series to see how everyone found their happily ever afters!