Page 14 of Saddle Studs (Rainbow Ranch #3)

SAM

Benny fell onto me in a tangle of long limbs and hearty laughs.

We playfully splashed back into the water.

I put a hand out and braced myself against the rocky floor of the creek.

The crystalline water was refreshingly cool.

I tussled with Benny for a moment, pushing him back, our splashes and laughter scaring away a large cardinal that had dropped by for a drink.

It streaked away like a bright red comet flying back toward the sky.

The wrestling between Benny and I turned more relaxed. At one point we were simply embracing. Neither of us were trying to hide the effect this kind of physical contact had on us. Part of me wondered if I should be embarrassed by this, but that part was quickly silenced.

Benny was my friend. He used to be my best friend. If there was anyone on this earth I could explore this part of my map with, it’d be him.

Benny looked up at me. He grinned and kicked a leg between mine, twisting his foot around my ankle and dropping us both sideways into the water. His hard cock pressed against mine. Thunderous bolts of electricity shot through me.

I swam backward and put some distance between Benny and me.

He rose up out of the water, his black hair dripping wet, his chest rising and falling with his breath.

He ran a hand through his hair and shook it out.

The moment slowed, as if a film editor had pressed a button on their keyboard to make sure the audience took in all of Benny’s majesty.

That’s the only way I could describe him—majestic.

The motherfucker was absolutely dreamy. All that time riding horses and working around the ranch made sure his muscles were ready to be featured on the cover of Men’s Health for any month of the year.

He had big biceps made even sexier by his tattoos, strong and rounded shoulders, a chest that I wanted to suck on, abs that should have been illegal, and that thick cock of his I found myself wanting to play with for hours.

Slowly but surely, the map inside of my soul began to defog.

I didn’t want to wrestle anymore. I’d done enough of that with myself.

That didn’t mean I wanted this to stop, though.

I licked my lips. Instead of going for another water tackle, I steeled myself and pushed forward in the water, grabbing Benny’s head in my hands and slamming our lips together. I could hear—fuck, I could taste —Benny’s surprise as his mouth opened and let me in.

The reaction was instant. A chemical explosion that rivaled a nuclear meltdown. My body came undone. My world split in half, and all I wanted to do was keep falling into the cool waters of Benny Adams and his perfect kiss.

For years, I’d allow myself, very briefly, to wonder how this moment would feel.

These thoughts would sneak in, creeping through the backdoor of my psyche when my defenses were at their lowest—just before bed, while I was drunk, after I smoked a blunt.

How would kissing another man feel? Would I enjoy it?

Would it turn me off? I’d think back to the time Benny and I had first kissed, how he had initiated that and how I had fucked it all up.

All because I was scared. Absolutely fucking terrified… and of what?

Of being myself. Of being happy.

Of this.

“Fuck, Benny.” I still held his head in my hands, resting my forehead against his.

I shut my eyes. Allowed myself to drift in the pure bliss of this moment.

Our bodies pressed together, the water creating a silky soft blanket that hid nothing.

If I were thinking with the correct head, I’d probably worry that someone else had decided today was the perfect day for a dip in the creek.

Years ago—hell, weeks ago—that idea may have scared the absolute living shit out of me.

Now? I couldn’t care less. All I could focus on was Benny’s hard, wet, perfect body against mine. I focused on what I wanted to do to him, and what I wanted him to do to me.

“I take it this means I win the wrestling match?” Benny teasingly asked.

I chuckled, kissing him soft and slow, just lips and no tongue.

Over and over again. “Yes.” I loved his taste.

Loved his lips. Fucking hell, I couldn’t stop kissing him.

There was a difference for sure, kissing him as opposed to kissing a girl, but it wasn’t a bad difference at all.

A little scratchier with the beard, a lot more carnal with our stiff cocks rubbing together. “You win.”

“Good,” Benny answered in between more kisses, his smile growing wider and wider. “What do I win then?”

“A ticket to doing whatever it is you want.”

“Hmm, really?”

“Yup,” I said, kissing him. How could this feel so natural when I’d been so apprehensive about it in the first place?

His hands slipped down to my hips. He was warm against my skin, a contrast to the cooler waters. “Anything?” He moved between us, his fingers ghosting over my sensitive cock.

“Anything,” I affirmed before moving in for another kiss.

He listened, his fingers wrapping around my length.

I groaned into the kiss, letting every muscle in my body relax.

He gripped my cock just right, gently stroking it, rubbing my tip against his.

He matched my moan with another. I felt like I’d caught fire, an impossibility given how we were surrounded by water.

Yet that’s who Benny was. An infinite expanse of possibilities, each one sweeter than the last. No matter which way our conversation drifted or how our day ended, I’d be assured I’d be a happy man. That’s the effect Benny had on me.

Unexplainable. Infinite. Blissful.

Benny broke from our kiss, his hand gripping the base of my cock. I ran a thumb along his jaw line. Had I ever been so close to my best friend?

Could I call him that? Did I have to earn that title again?

“God, Sam, you’re hard as an iron rod.”

“So are you,” I said, looking down at Benny’s stiff dick. It aimed upward, breaking the surface of the water, creating ripples with his movements. He was so sexy. The definition of man .

I’d seen dicks before—locker rooms, rated-R movies—and of course, enjoyed porn when dicks were all that was featured, but I’d never been this up close and personal with one.

Especially not one that was rock hard and pulsing, attached to someone giving me the neediest puppy eyes I’d ever fucking seen.

“Touch it,” Benny said. “Jerk me off.”

I didn’t need any more encouragement. Another large land mass of my internal map became clear through the fog. I reached under the water and wrapped my hand around another dick for the first time in my life.

Benny’s eyes fluttered shut. He loosed a pleased breath as I stroked him, biting my bottom lip hard enough to make it sting.

Fuck. I was already about to bust. This was so damn hot.

Benny felt insanely good in my hand. I couldn’t explain it.

Closest I could get to describing the moment was slipping a key into a locked door, throwing it open and getting your first breath of fresh air and blast of warm sunlight, realizing you’d been trapped inside a windowless room for far too long.

Basically, jerking Benny off while he jerked me felt like fucking heaven.

I never wanted it to end. But, likely due to my inexperience, it was unfortunately about to end very, very soon. “Fuck, Benny, this is really hot.”

“It is,” Benny said, leaning forward and biting at my neck.

I could feel my core tighten. It wasn’t much longer now.

I moaned, tilting my head back, giving Benny even more access to my neck.

I stroked him harder, picking up my pace.

Water splashed between us, mixing with the sounds of nature and passion.

“I’m already close,” I warned. There was no holding this back.

“Same.” Benny’s eyes locked with mine, his grip tighter around my shaft. “Do it. Come for me, Sam. Let it go.”

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. Come for me. Make me come.”

Each word that fell from Benny’s lips served to pull at a separate thread of my being until I completely unraveled.

My entire body shuddered, and my eyes snapped shut as the orgasm washed through me, my feet pushing into the rocky ground.

Benny shouted out that he was coming at the same time, his cock shooting a couple shots of cum out of the water and hitting me in the stomach with it.

I leaned forward, taking deep breaths, trying to keep myself from floating up into space. That’s how weightless I felt. “Holy fuck.”

“Yeah,” Benny said, face flushed, eyes drunk with… with something. “Yeehaw.” He chuckled and ran a thumb across his bottom lip.

“That was really fucking hot,” I said. “I’m glad you ended up winning the wrestling match. I might need a rematch, though.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah,” I said before playfully splashing at him. He splashed back, laughter taking the place of the sexy grunts that filled the air just moments earlier.

Today brought with it a lot to think about. But one thing was for sure—the friendship between Benny and I had never been stronger. We’d gone through some shit together, but clearly that only cemented our bond and not broken it.

I had full confidence that it would only keep getting stronger.

“Alrighty, you’ve distracted me long enough,” Benny said, “I have to get back to the ranch and start prep for dinner. I’m thinking smash burgers”

“What if I just pick up take-out on the way home, and we can replate it and secretly present it like you made it.”

Benny’s eyes opened wide as a hand flew to his chest. “Sam, that’s wild… Let’s do it.”

I laughed as I followed Benny out of the creek. He had a towel in a duffel bag inside his truck that we used to dry off. It took everything I had in me not to start kissing him again. Hell, I had to force myself to stop looking at him as he got dressed.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Full of relaxed smiles and lazy laughter.

Hours later, when I was getting under the covers and splaying out in bed, I realized that I felt like I’d been given the best massage of my life.

I wasn’t sore or tense or tired at all from the day’s chores.

On top of that, not only was my body relaxed, but I realized I hadn’t thought at all about being fired.

Not since I got the email and talked to Benny about it.

Being with him had completely shielded me from all the bullshit stressors I normally would have been dealing with.

Yeah, my map was coming together, and it seemed like Benny was my compass.