Exclusive Excerpt from His Ranch Hand

by Deanna Wadsworth

Emboldened and eager, Myron shifted and took a seat across Cade’s lap, straddling him like a stallion.

Cade flinched, eyes widening in surprise. Only taken aback for a moment, he whispered, “What are you doing?”

“Well…?” This bold new position should’ve answered for him. Don’t make me say it out loud, Cade, please.

Despite the risks to his pride, he trusted Cade. If Cade labeled him as a dandy pillow-biter afterward, what did it matter? Myron would’ve already gotten what he wanted. But then, Cade had shown no shame or hesitation when he’d sucked Myron’s cock with no return favor, so why should Myron berate himself over this?

This felt right, deep in his bones, and he was tired of waiting.

Myron rocked in invitation, never looking away from Cade’s face. Cade licked his lips, and he knew then that, yes, Cade understood what he wanted.

And Cade wanted it too.

Big hands found Myron’s hips and pressed him down. With a hiss, Myron felt the hardness beneath him, so close to where he needed it. More than anything, Myron wanted Cade’s cock buried inside him, connecting them. This would be theirs, a special night, a wonderful memory to keep them both warm when their bedrolls were empty and cold.

Without warning, Cade shifted Myron off him, pressing him onto his side so they were facing each other. Myron gasped at the display of strength, moving him as if he weighed nothing. Being at the mercy of such power sent a thrill through him. How much bigger the thrill when Cade fucked him into the grass? The anticipation made him suck in another sharp breath.

“Is your arm okay?” Cade whispered, trailing a big, but oh-so-gentle hand up his arm, pausing at his injury.

Myron smiled indulgently and caressed Cade’s cheek, his beard scratchy and wonderful under his palm. “I can barely feel it.”

“You’ll let me know if it hurts?”

Damn, such tenderness might brand Cade directly onto Myron’s heart if he allowed it—hell, if Cade wasn’t already embedded there already.

“I promise. But I’m fine.” He longed to kiss him, but the sting of Cade’s declaration that kissing was “not for us” held him in check. Instead he whispered, “Please?”

That one word unleashed a torrent. They fumbled for belts, buttons, and cocks.

“I’m so fucking hard,” Myron admitted, reaching for Cade’s cock. He didn’t want to waste a moment. “Need you.”

“It scared me, seeing you go down,” Cade whispered, hands trembling. “But you were amazing. I always like having you on my side in a fight.”

“Me too. Your aim was solid. You were so brave and strong.”

Cade grinned wickedly. “I am strong.

Myron took his fiery cock in hand. “And big.”

They shared knowing, playful grins, and Myron wondered if this might be love.

But it was just sex, right? He’d been lucky in his youth, having both friendship and sex with Douglas, but they’d been infatuated boys, randy as all hell, and it had never felt like this. Myron’s belly stirred when Cade smiled, and his heart skipped when Cade let down his walls. And he loved it when Cade mothered him, whereas any other man would’ve gotten a black eye. Even if they weren’t naked, he simply wanted to be near Cade.

He pushed such rambling ideas away. He’d ponder it all later. Right now the pleasure he’d waited for his whole life was nigh.

“Shirt off,” Cade commanded, sending another shot of passion whizzing through Myron. “Boots too. Everything.”

He struggled to obey. Wide eyed, Cade stared at Myron, once completely bared. His pale, freckled skin glistened in the fire and moonlight. Cade told him that he liked freckles and Myron shivered, loathing yet adoring how much he enjoyed being vulnerable with this man.

Still lying on his side, Cade ran a weathered hand down Myron’s torso and whispered so softly, the words were almost lost in the night, “I’ve denied this… a very long time.”

Tentatively he mimicked Cade’s gentle touch, though Cade remained dressed, only his cock out. “So you’ve never… with anyone else?”

Cade frowned, annoyed with Myron, the question, or himself, he couldn’t guess.

“Of course I have,” Cade whispered, not looking at him. “But I try to control the things I really want, ignore the hunger to… take what I need. I ought to be ashamed. It’s all a sin, but….” He shook his head with a grimace.

Myron bit back a sharp protest at the word sin.

Ever since Pastor Ambrose tried to kiss Myron after Sunday school, he’d come to determine not all preachers were as holy as Mama believed. He’d never read the Good Book all together, just the bits and pieces read to or at him in order to get him to behave. But he had read some Uranian poetry at a whore house in Kansas City about two men being together, so he knew this wasn’t a new phenomenon. Even heard that Frenchmen partook in each other, and in Venice they flaunted their affections right in public.

Might be the only reason to leave the West, to see if such places existed.

He studied Cade, not taking him for the pious sort. “I don’t think this is as wrong as folks say. I’ve seen a horny bull try to mount another bull before. Wouldn’t leave the damn thing alone. Nature, she’s funny. Makes us all different sorts. Me and you are no more wrong than that bull. Or no different than an otter is to a fly. They aren’t the same, but that doesn’t make them wrong.”

Cade’s hand never left Myron’s chest, his fingers on the other swirling delicately over the hair on Myron’s stomach and making his cock ache. “Everything you say sounds easy and natural. But how can you be so sure?”

Adoring this new vulnerable side of his strong cowboy, Myron cupped Cade’s cheek and their eyes met. He needed to assuage his doubts, not just for tonight, but so Cade could learn to accept himself for years to come. “There’s nothing wrong about two people enjoying themselves. We aren’t hurting anybody. That’s how I can be so sure. If it’s wrong, why does it feel so damn right inside here?” He placed a hand over Cade’s heart, hoping the move wouldn’t be too intimate, and make Cade change his mind.

“Maybe…” His heavy lashes drooped and Myron feared nothing more would happen. Both times they’d been together, it had been dark. He wanted to curse the golden light of the fire for exposing Cade and making him ashamed. Of course he wanted to curse whatever made Cade ashamed, and the one doing the shaming too, because from where Myron sat, there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with the cowboy beside him.

“But it is hard to be like this,” Myron admitted, dropping his hand and sitting up. He reached for his shirt and gazed down at Cade still lying on their bedrolls. “Hiding. Having a secret. But secrets are better if you got a friend to share them with. We’re friends, right?”

“Yes.”

“So I suppose we can either be friends who know about the secret, or friends who have a secret together. It’s your choice. But I won’t be ashamed of who I am and what I want, and you shouldn’t be either.” Myron felt odd to be so frank about something that could get a man hanged. But Cade made him more comfortable in his own skin than he’d ever felt with another person. “Now I can get dressed and we can just go back to being ranch hands, if you like. Or you can forget what you’ve been told, accept that men like us aren’t broken or less than any other man. Then you can get undressed and fuck me.”

Damn, did I just say that?

At Myron’s declaration, Cade looked stunned. “You really want me… to do that to you?”

Now Myron was getting pissed, seeing as he was naked as a jaybird and Cade remained dressed, resisting their attraction, even with his cock poking out of his trousers, hard as you please. After everything they’d shared, both physical and verbal, what still held Cade back? Myron had finally found the person and the courage to share this with, and Cade wasn’t responding the way he’d hoped.

And that made him madder than hell.

“Yes, I wanna be fucked.” Myron roughly put his shirt on, wincing when his wound twinged. “And if I’m being honest, I wanna be kissed too. You seemed to like kissing my cock last night, if I remember correctly. Maybe you’d like kissing me if you tried it.”

Goddammit, he shouldn’t have said that, but this was ridiculous. They were grown men. Peculiar ones, some might say, but men nonetheless. He wouldn’t allow Cade and whatever notions other people put in his head make Myron ashamed of who he was and what he needed. Not anymore. He’d come a long way toward accepting his nature completely, even more so recently, and he wouldn’t let Cade take that away. If only Cade could realize while yes, they needed to keep things secret, shame had no place between them when they were alone.

Myron let out a weary sigh, and dropped his hands in his lap. “I see no more sense beating around the bush, Buchanan. Do you want me tonight or not?”

He held his breath and the other man’s stare.

A moment before he gave up, Cade cupped his cheek. Never looking away, Cade pulled him closer. “Yes, I do want you. Have from the moment we met. You’re just so… perfect.”

Before Myron could recover from the beautiful sentiment, Cade gently pulled on his neck. When their lips met, it was feather light, the brush of butterfly wings, but it sent off an explosion within.

Our first kiss…

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