Chapter Twelve

 

 

DALTON WOKE up and looked at the clock. He had time to take a dip in the hot spring pool, maybe get a beer at the bar across the bridge.

Maybe he’d be able to not think about what he’d just done. Maybe he’d think about it, over and over.

Tank looked… oh God. Like heaven—dark lashes heavy against his cheek, thick cock lying dormant on his thigh.

Dalton ached in the best possible way, his body telling him that he’d been stretched and spread wide. By Tank. He wanted to scream. Dance. Run away.

Something.

He headed to the other room and grabbed his clothes and trunks, not bothering to try to be quiet.

When he turned around, Tank was standing in the doorway. Watching him. “Hey.”

“Hey, man. You want to go have a soak? Maybe a beer?” He wandered over, drawn to that amazing bod.

“A soak would be great.” Tank grinned. “The pool is awesome.”

“Yeah. I was hoping you’d hear me moving around.”

“I did.” Tank waved a hand. “Let me get my trunks.”

“You said you get towels down there?”

“Yep. They’ll give us some on the way in, and we get tickets every day, so we’re good to go.” Tank left him for a few, but came back in swim trunks and flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt.

Dalton blinked. Wow. That was a vacation picture.

He grabbed his phone and took a shot. Bubba would love this.

“Not posting it on the internet, are you? I need to strike a pose.”

“No posting. Only sharing with Dustin. I swear.” He knew better.

“Cool.” Tank pinched his ass on the way by. “I think we might both have some bruises. Good thing we can blame it on the job.”

“We’ll soak it out, and then we’ll try the short-go, hmm?” Oh, he was clever, wasn’t he?

Tank lit right up. “I could do that. With some food in there.”

“Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. My muscles are wanting a soak.”

Tank’s grin slid into something a little naughty. “Uh-huh. I love that.” Tank waggled the room key at him. “Passes are in here.”

“Good deal.” He burned, and when his spent cock gave a little jerk, he thumped it. They had to go get wet.

Leading the way, Tank headed out of their room and down toward the pool, which stretched out long, the lights twinkling.

“Oh man. That’s worth looking at, isn’t it?” He did love to get in the water.

“It is. I like the slide too. It’s just such a neat thing.” Tank got it, he could tell.

“Yeah, I can see your ass barreling down it.” In fact he wanted to see that. Maybe tomorrow.

“I also work that diving board.” They crossed the road, heading down the stairs that led to the pool house, the smell of sulfur strong.

They traded tickets for towels and locker keys, and they showered and headed out to the pool. “You know where to go?”

“I do. We’ll start in the regular pool, then go boil in the hot end, before we go back.”

“I’ll follow your lead.”

His words made Tank give him a heated, wanting look. Then they were wading into the pool, the water shocking to begin with, it felt so warm.

It soaked into his bones and he melted. Just went to jelly and floated there, mindless. He felt Tank moving water next to him, and then he heard a happy groan.

“Good, isn’t it? Damn.”

“I might live.” Tank sounded happy.

“Uh-huh.” Shit, he could die a happy man.

“Lord have mercy, this is fine.” Tank hummed, then fell silent. The kids they’d heard early in the day had mostly disappeared, so they could just sorta be.

He floated, letting himself feel the aches, then letting them soak away. His toes bobbed, his head back, the warmth seeping in.

“You needed this, huh? Better than fishing by yourself?”

Dalton nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, this has been a fine day.”

“It has. I’m a happy man.” Tank floated close, their arms bumping.

“Yeah. God yes.”

Tank laughed suddenly, then splashed him before barreling off like a barracuda.

“Huh.” He pondered following, but no. No, he was happy, lazy, and warm. Besides, if he turned his head, he could see Tank flailing along at a hearty pace. The man was no swimmer, but he could propel himself well.

Dalton liked swimming, but usually he wasn’t this warm, wasn’t this well-fucked. Maybe he’d come down in the morning and do some lane swimming, but this time was all about the boneless relaxation.

“Nice night, huh?” Some dude settled next to him.

“Uh-huh. Nice and cool. Good breeze.”

“Yeah. It’s a good-looking night.”

He kept his eyes closed, trying not to make any moves that might read as overture.

“You live here or are you visiting?”

“Just visiting for a few days.”

“Ah. Well, I’m a local. I could show you around. There are some great hippie pools at the river.”

“Hippie pools?”

“Yeah. Little hot springs that bubble out. Very private.”

“Neat.” Whoa. What? He got a good fuck and suddenly he was putting out nummy snack vibes?

Huge splashing sounds reached him just before Tank yelled, “Boo!” and grabbed his leg.

He cracked up, launching himself at Tank and tackling the solid, beautiful son of a bitch.

The other guy had disappeared by the time they stopped struggling, so Tank tugged him over to a ladder. “Time to get sweaty.”

“Sounds like a plan. Good swim?”

“It was. I figured it was time to come back, though. You were attracting locals.” Tank waggled his eyebrows.

“I know. What the hell? He was talking about the river.” He grinned over, shook his head. “You ever been rafting?”

“I have. I’m pretty good at it.” Tank touched the back of his hand, just a brief, possessive contact.

“Yeah? You want to see if we can go?” His eyelids went heavy at the sensation.

“If you want to, that would rock. If you just want to relax, we can hang.”

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow, huh? Winging it seems to be working for us.”

“It sure does.” Tank dipped a toe in the steaming hot, shallow therapy pool. “Hooeee.”

He went for the whole thing, just popping himself into the water, gasping at the sudden heat.

Tank slid down next to him. “Takes your breath.”

“Uh. Uh-huh. Whoa.” He sort of loved it.

“Makes all the other stuff melt away, though.”

“There’s other stuff?” he teased.

“Sore muscles and stress and aching bones.” Tank sounded real serious for a moment.

“Yeah. Rodeoing’s hard on a body, that’s for sure.” Everyone had scars.

“Yep.” The cheerful tone was back. “Gonna be tougher if I have to fight off locals all the time.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He leaned a little and dropped his voice. “It’s like you left a sign—this cowboy likes it. I blame you.”

Tank drifted closer. “Well, I sure didn’t mean to make it open season. Just for me.”

“Good to know. I’m not available for public consumption.” That probably shouldn’t feel as good as it did.

“Nope. I got a bead on you now.” Tank touched him again, this time on the small of his back.

“Oh….” No springing wood. None. Zero.

“You okay? Do we need to go back to the other pool?”

“No. No, I’m good here.” God, Tank did it for him. Had for a long time, but now that he knew? Shit.

He glanced over, admiring the barrel chest, the fuzz that covered it. Tank was a wet dream.

“Be good now. You look at me like that and we’ll never make it up the hill.”

“Right.” He laughed but dutifully looked away.

“You want pizza, or do we want to go to the grill and have a burger?”

“If we grab a burger, we have the pizza for tomorrow.” He didn’t really care, if he was honest.

“Cool. We get breakfast down here in the morning.” Tank thought a lot with his belly. Dalton had always laughed about that.

“We’ll need it by then, I think.”

“I bet we will.” Tank didn’t look a bit upset by that fact.

“I’m going to need a cold shower to get my jeans on, if I’m not careful.”

“Oops.” Unrepentant man.

“Be good. I’m abused.” He kept a straight face. Mostly. Basically.

“Terribly. I owe you.”

“Moi?” He went wide-eyed and innocent. Hopefully it worked.

“I do. I abused you.”

“Uh-huh. Are you going to do it again?”

“Any minute.”

Okay, there was no way he wasn’t springing wood with the look Tank gave him. It made all sorts of promises.

“Fair enough. We should go… eat burgers.”

“We should. The cold air will—” Tank made an unmistakable motion.

“Yeah. Shrinkage.” He wasn’t sure the air was that cold.

“After the hot water, it will work.” Tank waded to the steps, moving quickly to get their towels so when Dalton got out, he had a shield.

Dalton clambered out, got the towel wrapped around him. Jesus. Okay, that was chillier than advertised. They hurried into the dressing room, bouncing as Tank got their locker open.

“Go wash off,” Tank said, handing him his gear. “I’ll be out in a few.”

“You got it.” He got in the shower, warming himself back up. He didn’t hurry, washing himself with long, slow strokes. That water in the pool had a ton of minerals in it, and his skin felt amazing, like it was healed from months of abuse from the sun and wind.

He stepped out of the shower finally, then dried off so he could get dressed. Tank wasn’t out yet, so he tugged on his pants, then reached for his shirt.

“So, uh, is that guy a boyfriend?” The local was back, and not a bad-looking guy at all, now he could get a good gander.

Dalton blinked, just a little taken aback. Did people just ask like that? Really? In small-town Colorado?

“We’re together, yeah.”

Even if they weren’t, they were here together, right?

“Oh shit. I’m sorry.” The guy laughed, the sound awkward. “Well, if you need a river guide, I work out of Glenwood Adventure.” The man raised a hand, leaving him just as Tank stepped out wearing a towel.

“Cool….” Also, weird. “I think that guy was interested.”

“I think just a little. I didn’t have to beat him, though.”

“No beatings necessary. If he’d grabbed my balls, we may have revisited.”

“I doubt you would have waited for me, honey.” Tank threw on a different pair of shorts and that ridiculous shirt.

“No shit on that.” He didn’t have to worry too hard on defending himself. He knew how.

“I told you how hot you were, right?”

“Huh?” Like this afternoon? Yeah. Yeah, told. Showed. All the good words.

“When you asked why you.” Tank strolled along, stopped to peer into the grill. “They might be closing up. Let’s get burgers to go.”

“Works for me.” They ordered burgers, fries, Cokes, and then leaned and waited for the food to be made up. They mostly grinned at each other instead of chatting, but the silence wasn’t weird.

After all, they’d known each other for a while now.

They headed back up the stairs, these coming right out at the hotel crosswalk. The burgers smelled damn good, and they set up in the little sitting area in the room, munching away.

Dalton tossed Tank the remote, and he found something pointless and forgettable on the tube. Sometimes a man needed to actually relax during his downtime.

His phone buzzed, Dustin’s name popping up with a picture of a huge steak and a bet u wish u were here.

Yeah, no.

Steak was nice. Tank was better than any food.

“Everything okay?” Tank asked. In rodeo, any text or call could be bad news.

“Bubba’s having a slab of meat. He wanted to share.”

Tank blinked, one eyebrow lifted, and then he nodded. “Ah. We’ll send him a shot of Juicy Lucy tomorrow.”

“I can do that. He loves his food porn.”

“Yeah? I feel awful how I don’t know more about him.”

“He’s a good guy. Better than me. Smart, solid.” Dalton was a better rider, but that was it.

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Tank reached out to squeeze his leg.

“I’m not. I just know what’s what.” He was his daddy’s son.

“You’re a good egg, honey.”

“Half of one, anyway.” He snorted. Ah. Twin humor.

Tank laughed right out loud, a happy sound that made him smile.

Oh. Oh, that was cool. Someone who got him.

Tank crumpled up all their wrappers and rose, then took them to the trash. When he raised an eyebrow, Tank shrugged. “They start to stink, which would put me off my cuddle game.”

Cuddle game. Okay, he hadn’t thought of himself as cuddly in a lifetime. He couldn’t wait.

When Tank held out a hand, he took it. They moved to the couch instead of the chairs, but that still had a good TV view. Tank settled against one arm of the couch, then reeled him right in. Cuddle level expert.

He could… he could learn to need this.