Country Boys, page 2
We broke camp and began the day’s travel north toward Fort Laramie, alongside the North Platte, and I found myself in high spirits to such an extent that Pa remarked on it and I had to say it was due to the fine summer day and easy progress.
As I was herding stock later on and lost in thoughts of fucking which never really left my mind now, Luke rode up beside me which only made it worse. He had a fine black horse that made my mule look even more ragged and he sat astride his mount like he was captain of the whole country. “Dawe welcomed me into your party,” he said. “Told me I could help scout, tend the cattle.” I grinned, embarrassed that I was so happy and so aroused.
Pa liked Luke but then everyone did. He was attentive to all, polite with the elders, amusing to the children, helpful to the women. And when we neared Scott’s Bluff, a huge rock formation that would block our route and force us south to Robidoux Pass, he suggested we ride out to the bluff and have a look around. I was near beside myself as we would for the first time be truly alone.
Those in camp had settled into singing and dancing to old Harkin’s fiddle and we heard his music for some time as we rode away. As it was mid-June, the day was long and we enjoyed an easy ride to the bluff which Luke said was our own Gibraltar, which puzzled me until he told of the giant rock across the ocean.
“How do you know such things?” I asked as we climbed off our mounts.
“Books,” he said. “My Ma taught me to read early and she liked books and encouraged me to do the same.”
I didn’t know what to do next but Luke did. He sat in a patch of grass and took off his boots and socks, acting like resting his feet was his purpose. “C’mon, Cullen,” he said and I joined him. We were so far from camp we would not be seen and so I settled into the tall grass and bared my feet. Luke then lay back, put hands under his head as pillow, drew a long breath and let it out and I did likewise, stretching out beside him. Of course my dick was hard and I thought how even his bared feet had aroused me because they led to his legs which between them held what I wanted most.
He said nothing and I wondered if it was up to me to see to things even as I wasn’t sure what things were. Maybe he just meant to rest here with a friend; maybe he just wanted clear of the others for a while; but maybe he wanted to fuck. Why else bring me out here with him?
Before I knew it my hand had strayed to my crotch and I rubbed myself as I spoke. My words came with difficulty but I knew if I didn’t say it now it would never get said.
“You’re a man of the world,” I began which caused Luke to snort a laugh. “Well, compared to me you are,” I amended and he agreed.
“Anyway,” I continued, then stopped, for how was I to say it?
“What?” Luke asked.
“I am curious,” I said, “but I have no one I can ask so will ask you.”
“Then ask.”
“I saw Dawe fucking Frazer some time back, at the river’s edge, putting his dick up his friend’s bottom, and since then I’ve heard them going at it regular so I want to know is this what men do because I never knew of it before.”
My hand was still on my cock, clutching it in fear I’d done wrong in saying what I’d said. He’d either answer me or fight me.
“It’s what men do,” he said quietly. It was the softest he’d yet spoken and I heard him sincere and caring in even those few words, which allowed me to press on.
“I am curious about the men in your party, traveling without women. Did you fuck among you?”
“A man fucks when he needs it,” Luke said, “just like the stock. Fuck who’s available. We did it as we needed. Climb onto a man in the night; most are willing to take a cock. One night a man name of Ethan and me were guarding the horses and he just got it out and we did it there standing. It’s everywhere, Cullen. I’ve seen it everywhere.”
“Tell me.”
Here he undid his pants and pushed them down to reveal a good-sized and very hard prick which he took in hand as he spoke. I hurried to get mine out as I listened.
“I once saw a scout with his buckskins at his ankles, fucking a naked furry mountain man who looked more bear than man. And one man who traveled with a wife put it to his hired man more than her. At Fort Hall I came upon a man with it in another, going at it, and they saw me and didn’t care I watched and when they finished they asked did I want it.”
“And did you?”
“I put it up one, then the other, and allowed them the same of me.”
Spurts shot out of my dick because his talk had pushed me over. I pumped frantically, crying out and carrying on and not caring who heard or saw. Luke then turned to me, ran a finger through the spunk on my belly. “Have you ever fucked?” he asked.
I couldn’t speak. A rush filled me, a flood of words and feelings, everything that had piled up since I’d first seen Dawe doing it to Frazer, and I wanted to let it all go now, tell Luke everything, but all I did was shake my head.
“But you want to.”
I shuddered with pleasure at the thought, then nodded at which he stood up and pulled off his pants and didn’t stop there. He made a bed of sorts of his clothes and had me strip as well and we lay on our shirts and pants and he ran his hands over me and invited me to explore him as well. His thing was so ready it was wet at the tip.
“Give it a pull,” he told me and I put a hand to him which caused all manner of excitement in me. He began to move in my palm, to push and as he did he took hold of my cock and did likewise and we lay facing one another, working prick for a bit. “You can suck it as well,” he said and I told him I knew this as Dawe had sucked Frazer.
“Go ahead if you want,” he told me and I saw he was encouraging it so I slid down and touched his knob with my tongue which caused even more unrest in me and I fixed on the thing and began a fierce suck until Luke pushed me off. “Keep that up and you’ll have spunk in your throat,” he said. “Better we fuck.”
This took some doing. Luke first wet a finger with spit and put it up my bottom. I had my back to him now, lying on my side, cock in hand. Over and over he ran spit into me and each time worked my hole, telling me to relax, make it easy, that I had to open up.
I was getting agitated with him doing this to me and finally couldn’t hold back, gave myself a fast pull and squirted my stuff, which was better than ever due to his finger working my backside. He continued at this but finally said he could wait no longer, he had to fuck.
Now he put me onto all fours to mount me from behind. “I’ll wet my prick,” he said, “but it’ll still hurt like hell but you just bear it and there’ll be pleasure.” And he got in behind and put his hands on my butt to open me and then I felt his cock at my hole, pushing. “Open up,” he said over and over. “Let it in.”
He pushed and it hurt some and I tried not to fight it and then he lost patience and shoved hard and popped in. I cried out but then he had the whole thing in me and I found I liked that.
“You’ll like this more,” he said when I told him how it felt and he pulled back but not out, then went in again and we were soon in a full-out fuck, him going at me like some animal with grunts and growls as he did it, slapping my bottom and then he shouted, “It’s here, oh Jesus, it’s here!” and his grunt became muffled and he thrust hard as he let go in me and I found myself in a new world, taking a man’s spunk.
He rode me a good bit, filling my passage with his stuff, and then he was done and pulled out and fell over onto his back. I turned round to see his cock gone soft, some of his spunk still at the tip. I reached over and ran a finger through it.
Darkness soon came but we stayed in our little bed, not caring about the mosquitoes’ interest in our bare skin. We played with one another, feeling and prodding and Luke telling me more what he’d done with men and what he’d do with me. Finally, when we were both hard again, he said I could fuck his bottom. “If you want,” he added.
I had come a thousand times but always in hand. Now I could gain release inside another and more, inside someone I was caring for. When I didn’t quickly reply, lost in thought of doing it to him, he reached for my dick, gave it a tug and said, “Fuck me, Cullen.” And then he got onto all fours and there was his bottom for me to use. I wet my prick as had he and I ran gobs of spit into him, then held him open and pushed in which caused my breath to catch, such was the feel.
Luke moaned beneath me and said it again, “Fuck me,” and I began to do it, to shove into him, in and out, and my juice came quickly and I spurted long before I wanted to. As I came I rode him hard for it felt much like I was astride some animal, him being my pony now, but finally I emptied and fell back, cock gone soft. Luke turned and sat, put an arm around me and I thought he’d say something then but he didn’t. After a bit more he said we’d best get back to camp.
From then on we fucked every day, sometimes twice, sometimes riding away from camp or ahead to scout water and grass. We mostly slept outside, next to one another, and when the others were asleep we’d get into each other, fuck and fuck and fuck. I had never been so happy.
Of course it wasn’t all play and Luke was right about rough travel ahead. Riding alongside the Platte had been the easy part but once we’d crossed it the final time and hit what Luke called the real West where it was dry and barren, it was rough going and axles broke and oxen died and people too. There came relief at Fort Hall and sometimes at streams we’d find pockets of cottonwoods out on the plain and we’d camp and fill our water barrels for the next leg of the journey.
Luke was beloved by all as he proved to be easygoing while competent with any task. He did whatever Dawe asked and I noted Dawe saw us together often and I thought he’d come to know our bond was as his with Frazer.
We saw Independence Rock where settlers had marked their names, big whale of a thing plopped down on the prairie, and while others viewed the landmark, Luke and I rode around the other side and fucked in its shadow. Then came the South Pass through the Rockies which was not a bad pull as it’s a slow grade but after that it was like Luke said and then came the forty-mile desert which was true hardship. We pushed through the whole of it in one day, stopping only to rest the stock a couple times for there was no water or grass, and Mrs. Wynn’s baby died partway and we buried him. But we reached the Truckee River with the Sierra Nevada ahead, looking like a granite wall but none cared for they were happy to be past the desert and have water and grass.
It was while laying by here for a week of rest before the next hard leg, crossing the Sierra, that Luke and I came to our understanding though this was not much easier than a desert crossing or climbing over a mountain.
While we had fucked regular and clung to one another at such moments, he would then hurry away and I came to wonder what this meant because later on he’d be his old self and would give me the eye that said he wanted it again.
People were tired at the Truckee, months piling up and making them ragged, short in temper. The cattle had near stampeded when they first caught smell of grass and wagons were in need of repair as were some people but after a few days all were rested and looking to the end of the trip.
Luke volunteered to ride ahead and scout the South Pass to make certain it remained clear and Dawe agreed. Luke asked me to ride along which I knew meant to fuck so I went but as we neared the place where we would cross to our final destination, I suffered a sense of loss even though no loss had yet come. I saw how Luke would reach Sutter’s Fort and turn and head east in his pursuit of adventure and it pained me to see myself taking up a life without him. It was near October now, our time together running out, so I spoke as I never would have imagined I could.
We’d stopped at the bottom of the pass and it was easy to see it remained clear and there had been no need to come ahead so I knew it was just to fuck but Luke made no such move like he usually did, finding us a spot even if just to do it standing at a tree with my pants down. And I knew we had now come to something, much as had the wagon train, a last obstacle before starting the new life. But how to say it? I knew only I didn’t want him to leave me and had no idea if that meant he should stay in California or I should go adventuring with him. I was not a man of words as Luke was and I sat on my poor tired mule wishing Luke would speak what I knew. But all he said was, “It’s hell to get the wagons through,” and I wanted to say I didn’t care about wagons or anything else and could we fuck because I needed him too many ways and that was the only way open to me as yet. Finally I managed to get something out. “But once through, it’s easy going.”
“You’ve still got Bear Valley which ain’t bad,” he said, “but there’s a rough stretch after that, still some high ridges and forest before you get down to the Sacramento Valley.”
“And what then, Luke?”
He gave no answer, at least not one spoken. Instead he got off his horse and made me dismount the mule and he led me where there was some cover and made ready to fuck me but I wouldn’t, even when he had his cock out, even when I wanted it.
“Are you going east again?” I asked, near choking on the words because they made it possible which I couldn’t bear. “Are you going to leave me?”
“No,” he said and I wanted more than that but he was pulling at my pants and so I dropped them and bent and took his cock and he was rough, angry even as he took his pleasure, and my cock stayed soft, cowed by feelings churning my gut. When Luke came he let out a yell like he’d been knifed or shot and as I took his stuff I feared it was the last time because he’d given me one word and it wasn’t enough to build on. Then he was done and pulled out and I stood with pants down, not caring I was bare like that and him with his dick out and we stood apart and I tried not to cry.
“I don’t understand,” I said, choking up.
“I don’t neither,” he said which surprised me as he was the man of experience and always had answers.
“What’s between us…” I started but stopped because that wasn’t it because that was speaking for him too and I couldn’t do that so I tried again. “I have come to feel for you, Luke,” I said but couldn’t keep my eyes on him as it didn’t sound right even though true. But when he gave no reply it turned the lock in me and it all rushed out because what did it matter now if I was to lose him anyway?
“I don’t know what’s right anymore but I know how I feel and I want to be with you, Luke, to make a life together, maybe farm or get a little spread with cattle. Get those six sections from Sutter. I can’t take you leaving.”
“I said I won’t.”
“You gave me one word and I need more. Tell me what’s in your heart, Luke. I’ve told you what’s in mine.”
He put his cock away so I pulled up my pants and we stood like a pair of gunslingers ready to shoot it out. But he finally told how it was with him. “This has never happened to me,” he said, “feeling like I do and I don’t know any more than you what’s right. We’re friends and we fuck and I want it to go on but more than that I can’t tell.”
“But you won’t turn and go east.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Because you want to stay with me.”
He considered this and I saw it was foreign to him, like it didn’t yet fit while I already wore it. For once I knew more so I led now. “It’s all right then. When we get to Sutter’s Fort we can decide where to go next. I don’t have to stay with my Pa. He’s fine with his brother and that family. I hear good things about San Francisco and we might find a life there. And who knows what lies ahead. California is the land of promise.”
Speaking my piece gave me courage and I approached him, embraced him, put my lips to his and felt the whole of me grow warm. He stood stock-still awhile, then a hand found the small of my back, then the other my shoulder, and he pressed hard against me as the kiss went on. And there we stood in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, grinding our bodies together while our pricks came up hard.
GOODLAND, KANSAS
Jay Neal
Alan met Donny for the first time at Ross’s funeral, though he’d known for some time who he was: Donny was the other gay person in town.
For his part, Donny also knew who Alan was, and was hoping to meet him. He finally got his chance at the potluck reception following the service, behind Alan in the line at the buffet table.
“Those potatoes look really tasty,” Donny said as Alan dipped a spoon into the casserole. Donny thought his remark particularly banal, but it got the conversation started.
“They are. My mom makes them. It’s my Aunt Becky’s recipe for ‘funeral potatoes.’ ”
“I guess we’ve never been introduced—I’m Donny Doyle.”
“Sure. I mean, I know who you are but we haven’t. Been introduced, I mean. I’m Alan Morrison.”
“It must have been quite a shock for you when Ross died.”
Alan looked more thoughtful than sad. “I suppose it was a surprise, the accident and all, but…”
“I’m sorry. I thought you and he had been pretty close.”
“Oh, we were, at least until the end of high school.”
“What happened?”
Now Alan seemed more distracted. “Oh, that’s a long story.” Donny barely hesitated to take his chance. “Maybe we could have a cup of coffee this week or something and you could tell me.”
Alan seemed surprised by Donny’s offer. “Yes. Yes, all right then. How about Wednesday at the diner. Ten-ish?”
“Sounds great. Ten-ish it is.”
Alan smiled and nodded his head in a distracted way, then moved off to spend some time with Kenny, whom he had finally spotted. Donny watched and absently took his first bite of funeral potatoes.
Kenny was late for the meeting, but then Kenny was often late for the meetings. Eighth grade was off to a busy start for him, but it wasn’t like he had all the after-school band rehearsals or theater projects like Alan, or all the after-school swim meets or debate-club practice that Ross had. It was all the after-school chores on his aunt and uncle’s farm that kept him busy until late in the afternoon.
