“You love it, do you? Really?”
“Gawd, of course I do. All snugged up and grabbin’ onto you? Makes me feel like a goddamn princess in a fairy tale,” Oscar said, and I laughed.
“I reckon a princess would use better language,” I said.
“Maybe…maybe not.”
* * * *
Carson and Tim had helped us fix up the barn, too, and repair the wood fence around the paddock and small corral. The stable was a basic structure with three stalls, and, like our little kitchen-house, t’was warm, dry and weather-proof. Luck had been with us, and the integrity of the groundwater and well on the property had been intact. We’d installed a new pitcher pump and trough in the yard outside the barn to water the horses, and we’d put in a pump at the sink in the house, too—a luxury, as was the stove. Neither of us fancied lugging buckets of water back and forth. We’d done that enough on our journey.
Oscar helped me to feed and water Dixie and Poke. We brushed them down while they ate, then I tacked up Dixie, and we were ready to ride out. I pulled Oscar up behind me and he snugged in close and wrapped his long arms around my waist.
“Mmm, you smell so good,” he said, snuffing at my neck where t’wasn’t covered by the collar of my jacket.
I laughed, resting my gloved hand atop his. “I ain’t had a proper wash for days, Oscar. I think you’re deluded.”
“Maybe we should get baths while we’re in town. Make it a proper holiday.”
I gave him an astonished side-eye. “Je-sus. I offer you a meal and to buy you a new horse, and now you want a bath? My goodness.”
He laughed, knowing I was teasing. T’was a good idea, in fact, to get cleaned up proper. There wasn’t a way to have a bath at our place, although we had access to cold water and tried to keep our bits clean using a basin and a cloth every night before bed.
Oscar’s hot breath puffed across my ear. “I want you to do something for me when we get back from town, and you prob’ly want me clean for it.”
My cock twitched under the thick cloth of my trousers, and I inhaled a sudden breath. “That a fact?”
“Mmm-hmm. Though I reckon you’d still do it if I was dirty, wouldn’t you, Jimmy?”
I could hardly speak now that my wanting had gone from zero to a hundred with one soft suggestion. I cleared my throat. “Prob’ly. I’m sure I have before.”
Oscar laughed again and pressed himself against me so’s I could feel his own excitement. So much for a clandestine ride. At least it would be a few miles ‘till we were anywhere near other folks.
“Oh, you have—and I liked it.”
“I reckon you did. I reckon you like most of the stuff I do to you, e’en if it involves treatin’ you rough.”
“’Specially if it involves that.” His gloved fingers slid o’er my trousers to press against my stand, and I made a vulnerable sound.
I pulled Dixie up and craned my head around. “Oscar, you need to fuckin’ behave or we’ll have to turn around right now so’s I can bed you—and you won’t get your new horse. You want that?”
He had to think about it for a minute, his gaze burning hot coals as he stared at me. Then he sighed.
“Fine.”
He took his hand from o’er my privates and clasped me at the waist as he sat up straight, so that he wasn’t leaning on me.
“Good boy.”
“Aw, fuck, now you gone and said that? I’m all hard and achin’ now.”
“Good. So’m I. You might as well be, since you’re the cause of it.”
“All right. I’ll stop teasin’ you. ’Cept it’s so much fun.”
“Yeah, I know. But I swear, if you do one more thing to provoke me, I’m gonna turn this horse around and take you home.”
T’wasn’t much of a threat, because it would only be to take him inside the stables and fuck him o’er the feeding trough, then we could be on our way again. But if we wanted to get his horse, have a nice lunch and treat ourselves to full baths, we had to get going.
