"Yes, Sir"
Chris sat down and gazed at his team, taking in rested, relaxed faces and happy smiles. Nice to see on a Monday morning.
"I'm gonna have to invite you all to the ranch for the whole weekend more often. Ya look positively peaceful," the handsome leader chuckled.
Josiah leaned back, hands behind him, his large form dwarfing the conference table chair.
"Brother Chris, between the fresh mountain air, the good company and the better beef, your home truly is a haven for a tired soul."
"Amen to that, 'siah." Nathan offered enthusiastically.
"Yeah, thanks again, pard," Buck exclaimed. "Working up a good sweat in the barn was just what I needed."
No one noticed the bright red flush that crept slowly up JD's neck and cheeks … or they pretended well.
"Well I'm glad you're all rested, gentlemen, 'cause the next case is gonna be a real winner," the famous Larabee drawl intoned. "The DEA has asked us to assist with busting a large scale drug operation that is working out of private club in the city. There may, or may not, be amateur survivalists involved, so a weapons aspect is currently in question as well. We've been given the case at my request because I feel we are best qualified to deal with the kind of people we will be encountering. Ladies, I will require your sense of humor, your live-and-let-live attitude and your twisted psyches for this one," he commented wryly.
Sliding folders to the six men, he watched as they quickly perused the information provided.
"Woohoo!" Buck whooped. "A sex club!"
Vin grinned and looked at the charmer from beneath lowered lashes. "Uh uh, Bucklin. Not just a sex club, an S&M club."
"Want me to tie ya up and horsewhip ya, junior?" Buck parried with twinkling eyes.
If anyone noticed the gulp from JD, they weren't talking.
"Hell, Buck, I'd rather take my chances with the cowboy on that particular front." The emphasis on the nickname seemed to float through the air to hover directly over their leader.
The answering tone from the grinning leader was low and dangerous.
"I'm glad ya feel that way, Vin, 'cause you're gonna be my slave."
"Your sl … what?"
JD slid lower in his seat.
"So, here's how this is gonna play out. Josiah, dungeon master – that's the equivalent of an educated bouncer. I can't get ya in
'cause management might be involved, so you'll have to make this happen on your own. Vin and me and Buck and JD will be patrons in from the East coast. Ez and Nathan'll be our comm crew this time around."
"Thank gawd," came a relieved voice from the Georgian to his left.
Chris smiled. "Any questions?"
He waited a beat, but recognized that all – save perhaps JD – had put on their game faces as they began sorting through the intel. He rose, effectively dismissing the meeting.
"Okay. Read through the file and get me your preliminaries by the morning. Check your email for links to sites with additional info about the club and the scene. JD, Buck, my office. Vin stick close, I'll talk to you in a minute."
Chris closed the office door behind a smiling Buck and a nervous JD. The youngest agent opened his mouth to start his usual chatter when Buck closed his hand warmly over the back of JD's neck. Snapping his mouth shut, the tech waited silently. Buck squeezed gently in praise.
"I'll leave you two to talk," Chris said, stepping into his private bath to allow some privacy.
Buck walked around in front of JD and stood quietly. Fighting the urge, and winning, the young tech remained gazing at his new lover's boots.
Buck's lips quirked in a proud smile and he lifted JD's chin.
"Very nice, but you can relax now. The only reason I'm breakin' the agreement about work is so I can reassure you before you get all worked up. Nothing is gonna happen over the course of this case any faster or more intensely than it would have happened, anyway. You have my word."
Buck was rewarded with a wide, genuine-JD grin. "How'd ya know?"
Buck chuckled.
"It's my job to know, kid. Now get back to the bullpen and get my keys while I order some pizzas."
Swatting the cute backside as JD skittered out of the door, Buck watched him thoughtfully. Chris emerged from the bathroom just as his old friend turned to the phone.
"He gonna be alright," Chris asked quietly.
"Yeah," Buck smiled, turning back to glance at Chris. "But I'm not if I don't quit coddlin' him."
Chris grinned. "Why Buck," he drawled in true Larabee style. "Are you tellin' me that hot little colt is still a virgin?"
Buck's smile grew to a grin and he winked.
"Not after tonight, pard. Not after tonight."
"Well," Chris offered as he settled into his chair. "I guess you'll be needin' tomorrow off, then. Call it a field trip. You need to buy some clothes and toys for the club, anyway."
"I knew I liked workin' for you for some reason."
Buck quickly ordered pizzas for the group and set out to round up JD and go to pick them up. Chris sat thinking for a minute, then rose to stick his head out of his office door.
"Vin!"
Ezra, still concentrating on the inventory list he was beginning, spoke up.
"Mr. Tanner has departed. He requested that I inform you he will be gone for the rest of the day."
"What!?"
Ezra winced.
Chris continued. "Is he sick?!"
Ezra raised emerald eyes to the blond he respected above all men and – just for the moment – wondered how he could be so dense. Smiling carefully, he replied.
"He did look a little peaked, yes."
Chris scowled and disappeared into his office, surprising the men of the twelfth floor once again by managing to slam his office door at a decibel level just short of supersonic without breaking the glass surrounding it. Ezra winced once more and vowed that he'd see that, once and for all, the proverbial fat between Chris and Vin hit the fire before the Team got inside their cover.
Chris pulled the keys from the ignition and sat back in his truck, gazing at the battered jeep in his driveway. He'd wondered all afternoon where his sharpshooter had run, never once considering he'd find him at his back door when he arrived home. And he wasn't, really. But as Chris headed toward the barn, evidence of his presence on the ranch was clear. From Peso's open stall to the flake of fresh hay in Pony's rack, Vin's touch was everywhere, but the man, himself, was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly Chris was bone-weary of fighting his feelings. He shut down his mind and wandered to his big black gelding. Dropping his suit jacket and holster onto a convenient hook in the tack room, he entered the immaculate stall and led the patient beast from the barn by a piece of mane. Swinging up onto the broad back with practiced ease, he kneed his mount into a lazy lope, circling the generous paddock with numbing repetition.
His eyes far way, his mind even further, Chris didn't see the other black until Pony, who had been left to his own pace, stopped to say hello. Snouts nuzzled and soft knickers broke the silence. Hazel eyes met blue.
For the first time, Chris wasn't certain of what he saw in those eyes. For the first time, he and Vin needed words. He looked away, watching the sunset over the mountains.
"Wondered where you went to."
"Been here all afternoon." Shrug.
"Any particular reason you didn't tell me you were leavin'?"
"Didn't wanna have this conversation there."
"What conversation is that?"
"The one where I tell ya you gotta take Ez in undercover and let me work the van with Nate."
"And why is that?"
"Got my reasons."
"Not good enough." Chris turned his gaze back to Vin. "Gotta have more than that." His voice was dangerously even.
Blue eyes locked with hazel for a silent moment. Decisions were made. Vin dismounted and popped Peso's solid hindquarters, sending him to the trough to drink. Flexing his hands in black leather riding gloves, he stood and waited.
Chris swung down, his eyes never leaving the tall, lean man he'd come to know better than himself. He waited as Pony joined Peso at the trough.
"We gonna fight?" Chris asked mildly.
"Depends."
"On?"
"Whether or not you're gonna teach me 'bout that right hook 'a yours when I tell ya I want ya to fuck me."
Chris raised an eyebrow, effectively hiding the slam of desire that hit his belly without warning. His voice adopted an ironic note that belied the sudden pounding of his pulse.
"Don't wanna use my fists, Vin." He paused and let his eyes skip down to the moist, sensuous lips he'd been dreaming about for far too long. "Rather kiss ya," he finished huskily.
Vin's eyes filled with cautious hope as the handsome blond stepped close. Chris raised his hands and cupped the Texan's face, stroking his thumbs over the flushed cheeks.
"Want ya cowboy," Vin breathed.
Chris brushed his lips gently across the slightly parted lips at his fingertips and felt red-hot desire slam blaze in his gut as they opened for him. Swiping his tongue inside and withdrawing it on a nibble, he moaned softly, letting his captive know there was more to come. The barest hint of a flavor followed his quest and he smiled.
"Been chewin' on wild mint again." There was no question in it.
"Yeah," Vin answered on a sigh, anyway, his voice catching at the brush of breath that bathed his senses. A scent that was uniquely Larabee filled him, and he would never again smell leather, horse, mint, aftershave and coffee without remembering this moment.
Chris moved a hand to the back of the tousled brown head, and the other down Vin's arm and around to his waist, pressing on the small of the Texan's back. Suddenly, his mouth slammed down on the sharpshooter, sealing them together and removing all doubt left within the younger man.
Desperation fueled passionate flames and the two men fought to get closer; to get inside the other. Growling fiercely in the back of his throat, Chris bent down and swung the younger man into his arms, the kiss never faltering. Striding over to the fresh pile of hay Vin had pitched earlier, he dropped to his knees and laid his sweet burden down, immediately moving up to cover him.
"Touch me," Larabee commanded, his voice harsh as his teeth ravaged a path down Tanner's back.
Vin moaned deep in his throat and slid a hand to the hard evidence of the blond's lust. The next moment he was arching impossibly against Chris, gasping loud enough to startle the horses, as the black-clad lover raked lips and teeth over the juncture of shoulder and neck. A shudder that defied logic shot through his bow-strung body and he cried out, his voice topping the trees.
"Whoa, cowboy," Chris soothed, his breath coming hard and fast.
"S'okay," Vin hissed. "Just need ya."
Clothes dissolved as Chris managed to roll them onto a quilt he kept nearby for days in the sun. Strong male bodies sought each other's warmth while confident hands south to stroke and ignite, coax and open. Again Chris laid covered teeth to the sweet spot of shoulder and throat and, again, Vin responded as a man on the brink of some priceless discovery, crying out and throwing his body up into his salvation.
"God! Chris …!"
Larabee planned the moment, using the passion to ease the breech, joining his body to his lover's with a careful, quick thrust. Vin groaned hotly, long and loud, from the depths of his soul, pain and pleasure mixing on the tide of his earlier ride on sensation.
Chris sank deeper inside, willing Vin to take all of him, to welcome him home. He wanted to become Vin, to never, ever again live without the warmth that was "them".
Laying his head to the sweat-slicked Texan's he began to move inside of him, smiling in wonder as the rhythm the two found seemed older than time and more right than any creature of God deserved to know.
Laying his cheek against his partner's, Chris whispered his love as they tumbled over the top together. Vin choked out a single cry, shouting his love back and collapsing with the power of his release. Trees, streams, hawks and horses bore witness to the first coupling of two men destined to be together, forever.
Pulling a side of the huge quilt over them, Chris cuddled Vin to his body. They slept.
The End
Next Story:
Appetites Acknowledged
