Page 62 of Wellspring

“It will be my genuine pleasure,” Cade growled as he backed Erick toward the bed.

The mattress gave easily between their combined weight—feathers, Cade thought distantly, even more of a gift than he’d realized—as he laid Erick down on the quilt and stretched out next to him.

He traced the line of Erick’s collarbone with one finger, reveling in the freedom to be together without fear of interruption or shame, of being allowed to love this man for the rest of his life, even if the only people who knew it were the family he’d built for himself on the ranch.

The feast that was Erick’s body tempted him far more than any spread Javier could put together, and he fully intended to savor every last inch.

“ Küss mich ,” Erick murmured. Cade grinned and bent his head to mate their lips in a tender kiss. Erick tasted of coffee, despite it being some hours after breakfast. He must have filled a flask and sipped out of it over the course of the morning.

He pulled back so he could stare down into Erick’s blue eyes, deep with emotion and desire. “I love you, kuhmap?.” He had never dreamed he would find a man among the Comanche or in the white man’s world who would accept him as he was, who he could call his husband.

“And I you.” Erick caught one of Cade’s braids in his fingers, drawing him down gently until their mouths mated again.

Erick opened to him so sweetly, so fully, and Cade gave thanks to the gods of both his birth parents and his adoptive parents that he had been blessed to find this man, the perfect match promised to him in his spirit quest.

Erick shifted beneath him, and Cade eased up on his elbows enough to allow Erick to reach into the drawer of one of the bedside tables and draw out a tub of salve. “Mac’s housewarming gift,” he explained with a smile. “He told me he made an especially large batch just for us.”

Cade laughed and buried his face in Erick’s neck. “I don’t know whether to thank him or shoot him.”

“Thank him,” Erick replied dryly. “Definitely thank him.”

Cade took the tub and set it within easy reach, but as much as he ached to sink into Erick, he had been dreaming of this moment for months, and he wouldn’t be rushed, not even by Erick.

“I have quite a few people to thank, it seems.” He kissed Erick more deeply, letting his hunger seep into the contact as he claimed Erick’s mouth.

Erick responded in kind, his tongue dueling with Cade’s until Cade pulled away, panting hard.

He mouthed his way down Erick’s neck until he reached the line of paler skin usually covered by Erick’s shirt.

Then he latched on and sucked hard, drawing a mark to the surface, the first of many he intended to leave before they left the bed. Erick was his now.

Erick arched up beneath him, the hard length of his cock hot against Cade’s. “ Mein Gott , I missed you,” he groaned as Cade latched onto a peaked nipple. “You should not have stayed away so long.”

Cade raised his head, rubbing a thumb over the wet nub. “It took longer than I hoped to find Nocona’s camp. And then I had to find enough mustangs to make you a proper gift.”

“He said something to you that made you laugh.” Erick ran a hand down Cade’s back to squeeze his ass. The way their cocks slid against each other was almost enough to make him forget the answer to Erick’s question.

“He told me that, having met you, he understood why I insisted on so many horses.” He kissed his way down Erick’s abdomen and sucked another bruise to the surface in the crease where hip joined thigh. “And then he told me to be careful neither of us were too sore to ride tomorrow.”

Erick bucked up against his mouth, and Cade lost all will to resist. He angled his head and took Erick in his mouth, the hard length pressing all the way to the back of his throat.

He hummed and swallowed around the flared tip.

Erick thrust into the contact, but Cade rode out the movement.

When Erick subsided, Cade pinned his hips to the mattress and set out to drive his new husband wild.

The groans and guttural German words Cade couldn’t understand were proof that he was succeeding.

They were driving Cade pretty wild too, and he wrapped a hand around the base of his cock and squeezed.

Erick wanted Cade inside him, so he couldn’t let himself come yet.

But there was no reason Erick couldn’t come first. He sucked harder, dragging his tongue up and down and around, using his other hand to cup Erick’s sac in his palm.

Just when he thought he’d tipped Erick over the edge, Erick pulled away, shaking.

“Inside me.” He threaded his fingers into Cade’s hair and drew him upward, taking his mouth in a hard, needy kiss. “I’ve been so empty with you gone. Want to feel all of you inside me, even if I can’t ride tomorrow.”

It would take a stronger man than Cade Webster to deny that request. He fumbled for the tub of salve and coated his fingers generously.

As desperately as Erick was kissing him, Cade didn’t know how long he would let Cade spend stretching him, and if he couldn’t get Erick loose, at least he could get him slick.

He pressed lightly at Erick’s hole, expecting resistance but found none. “Erick?”

“I have been waiting for your return.” Erick’s voice broke on the words as Cade found his sweet spot and teased it mercilessly. “At night as I lay in my lonely bed, I imagined this moment, and I wanted to be ready for it. For you.”

The image of Erick fingering himself each night so he would require less preparation now nearly did Cade in.

He gritted his teeth against the need to come and added a second finger.

When Erick arched against him with a breathless “please, more,” Cade gave up.

He moved between Erick’s legs, swiped a handful of salve over his own aching erection, and lined himself up with Erick’s entrance.

Gaze fixed on Erick’s face, he sank slowly into Erick’s hot depths, alert for any sign of discomfort, but Erick’s body welcomed him in like a missing piece that needed only this moment to make them both whole again.

When he could go no deeper, he leaned down for another kiss.

Erick rocked beneath him, the ridge of his scar brushing over Cade’s nipple.

Erick had said it didn’t hurt anymore, but Cade wasn’t going to take any chances.

He slid an arm beneath Erick’s back and pushed up until he was sitting on his heels, drawing Erick with him.

“Take what you need,” he murmured against Erick’s ear.

“Only you,” Erick answered. Bracing his arms over Cade’s shoulders, he rode him as expertly as any of the mustangs he’d tamed. Erick was beautiful like this, masterful even as he yielded, and Cade once again gave thanks for finding the man so perfect for him in every way.

“Can you come like this?” he asked when Erick released his mouth to draw in a ragged breath. “Come on my cock?”

Erick shifted, changing the angle of his hips slightly, and murmured, “If you make me. Fuck me harder, mein Herz .”

Cade surged up to meet each downward slide of Erick’s hips, their bodies slapping together with all the urgency they’d held in check until now.

Erick’s thighs trembled on either side of Cade’s, but he didn’t slow his pace, and Cade met him thrust for thrust. With a sharp cry, Erick threw his head back as he tightened around Cade and spattered both their stomachs with the proof of his pleasure.

Cade braced Erick’s hips and fucked up into him as he rode out the aftershocks.

When Erick sagged in his arms, Cade urged him onto his back.

He started to withdraw, but Erick wrapped his legs around Cade’s hips. “In me, remember?”

Cade rested his forehead against Erick’s shoulder as he pounded his release into Erick’s willing body. He collapsed onto Erick’s chest and rolled to the side so as not to put his weight on the scar.

“There is no pain, and no tightness when I breathe, even when you are stealing my breath.” Erick nestled against Cade’s side, wrapping an arm over his chest and a leg over his thigh. “I am healed.”

“Healed enough to try out Ned’s gift?” Cade smirked. “Since he gave us free rein to do all the things we couldn’t do in the common shower.”

“We should refresh ourselves before dinner,” Erick agreed, though he made no move to let Cade rise. “I hesitated to comment before, but you are a bit… pungent.”

Cade poked Erick in the side, startling a laugh from him. “I did suggest we shower before we tried out the bed,” Cade reminded him. “You’re the one who couldn’t wait.”

“You made no complaint at the time.” Erick dropped a kiss on Cade’s neck. “But I will be pleased to help wash you now. It would not do to be late to Javier’s special supper.”

“I’d just as soon miss supper altogether.

” Cade turned his head enough to brush against Erick’s lips.

“You realize this is the last time we’ll be able to sleep in a proper bed for months, once we leave for Abilene.

We should take advantage of it.” Erick didn’t answer, and Cade drew back enough to meet his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Payne has not named who will accompany him on the drive. He may feel I am not yet strong enough, or skilled enough.” Erick shook his head. “I would not be parted from you again so soon, for so long.”

Cade kissed Erick as thoroughly as he could, determined to dispel any doubts in Erick’s mind.

When Erick went pliant beneath him, Cade lifted his head.

“First, Payne never announces who’s doing the drive until the last minute, so the delay has nothing to do with you.

Second, you are more than strong and skilled enough to help, and he’d be a fool to leave you behind.

But if somehow he decides you aren’t going, then I’ll trade out with someone else who’s staying behind.

I’m not indispensable. They can get the herd to Abilene without me just fine.

Payne’s fair, though, and he’s not as insensitive as he pretends to be.

He won’t separate couples for more than a shift or two without a damn good reason. ”

“And if he thinks my injury or my ability to help Grace with the accounting are good enough reasons?”

“Then I’ll stay behind too. It’s not like I enjoy spending months on the road behind a herd of cattle kicking up dust and doing their damnedest to get themselves lost or killed,” Cade replied. “It’s part of the job and I do it because it’s expected, but I wouldn’t be upset if we stayed behind.”

“Payne said you read the land better than any cowboy he has ever seen. Now that you have returned, he will not want to leave without you.”

Cade flushed at the compliment. He always did his best, but it felt good to know someone thought that highly of him, especially someone as stingy with praise as Payne.

“If he’s stupid enough not to see how valuable you are, he’ll have to go without me.

And Payne’s not that stupid.” He shared another long, slow kiss with Erick before levering himself up. “Now, let’s go check out Ned’s shower.”