GLITTER GULCH

Chapter 34: The Wet Stone

Once more wiping perspiration from his sunburned brow, Cye squinted up at the noonday sun and swore softly.

Blast that Philip Masters anyway.

The redhead trudged along slowly, having abandoned most of his baggage and attire along the wagon trail, too overcome by the oppressive heat to tote the heavy steamer trunk or sport the tight cravat. Hot, tired, and thirsty, he was beginning to condemn the ancestry of everything and anything that he happened across. The rocks, the dirt, the scrub brush, the sun, the heat, the lack of wind. Every possible, conceivable bloody item in the world. But most of his anger was directed at one man - Philip Anthony Masters.

Cye condemned yet another shrubbery to eternal damnation through Original Sin.

Masters, that impudent scoundrel, had the audacity to voyage to the ends of the earth just to tell him what to do. Tell him that- that… Tears welled up in green eyes and Cye brushed them away angrily. No. He wouldn't waste precious fluid for that blonde moron. That lying, cheating… Damn it all to hell. The tears were coming anyway. That… that… scoundrel!

Cye stomped along, rage overcoming the oppressive heat. It wasn't that Cye hadn't been thrilled about returning to Great Britain and taking up a profession he'd always dreamed of, it just wasn't the means he'd expected to use to get to that end.

Mr. Masters had taken it upon himself to forge a deal with the Dean. An arrangement that Cye never would have agreed to. One that Philip had failed to mention and wouldn't have brought to light before they were on the boat back to home. It had been an accident that he'd told Cye at all before they'd left American soil. Philip had been begging Cye to help him "relieve some tension," claiming that Cye was the best. Claiming that was what ultimately got Cye the job. Or, rather, Philip the job.

When Cye moved back to England, he and Philip were to reside with the Dean. Then basically from there, on principle, Cye was to assume the role of… bed-bouncing slave whore. He was to serve as cook, cleaner, chamber maid, and wife. All while he kept his classes and helped his husbands with their research.

Well, bugger that all to bloody hell.

Philip had been apparently touting Cye's virtues - his talented mouth and athletic prowess - to the Dean while involved in a tryst with the man. Intrigued, the Dean had told Philip that if he could persuade the redhead to return from the Americas, Philip would have his fellowship and Cye an assistant position. Especially if Cye was half as talented as Philip had said. And this had all happened the very same day that Cye had left for Glitter Gulch.

Shock swept over Cye. He'd planned this… That sneaky bastard had secreted the note into Cye's baggage while Cye was comfortably curled up in Philip's bed - the same bed they'd been sharing for 2 years. The man had kissed Cye goodbye then gone straight to the Dean.

Pouting, Cye decided he really wanted to punch Philip again. Really badly. Almost enough to turn around and start after the stagecoach… again. Give the bastard another black eye. Maybe it was enough that his talented tongue wasn't traveling back to England and Philip wouldn't receive his bloody fellowship.

Damn that bastard.

Matter of fact, if the guys would let him, Cye was staying in America permanently.

And hopefully Kento wouldn't hold any of this against him.

The sound of hoofbeats thundered in his ears and Cye wanted to curse again. There was no way he was going to let Philip take him back to England. He was staying here. He'd be damned if that fool was going to get him on board a ship. Even if he did, Cye would jump overboard and swim back if he had to.

Turning to face the approaching horse, Cye put his hands on hips and a scowl on his face. Maybe it was just as well that Philip came after him, he felt like boxing something.

But the approaching rider didn't look anything like Philip. Matter of fact, the masked man looked downright terrifying. And he wasn't slowing down.

Old Doc Kaos let his feet take him toward his inevitable doom. He knew that sure as he knew the sun would rise the next day without him. Sure as he knew that his death would not be the only sacrifice the young men would have to make. But he had every confidence that the five would succeed. Talpa would be defeated yet again and the cycle would be started anew until finally, one day, the evil that sustained the fiend would begin to fade. The devil's ability to exist in this world would dwindle. The physical form would dissolve.

His sacrifice would be worth it.

Even now he could feel the presence of the Dark Warlord. The death that was coming for him. And he knew it had to be the yami masho this time. The Warlord was possessed by an evil that transcended time. The bastard child of hell itself, the priest named Damon, was manipulating the dark forces that were beyond even Kaos' power to control. And this warlord seemed to be infected by something other than just the priest's evil spirit. Another force was at work, a human emotion - jealousy. The Darkness wanted the Light.

Kaos shivered as he felt the icy hand of death clutch his heart. Felt the pain before he heard the single gunshot. He saw the hate-clouded face of the yami masho before he fell, but he had one last gift to give to the 5 young warriors.

A beam of light radiated from his staff, blinding the Warlord of Darkness, and striking him in the chest. But the light didn't harm him, rather it embraced the masho and found a portal in his heart where the blackness hadn't taken root. There it would patiently sit and wait for its time to heal.

"I know what I've done, and I'm dreadfully sorry. I don't want to leave! I want to stay here in Glitter Gulch. I'll do anything, just don't make me go back to... to him! I never knew what an absolute fiend that man really was!"

Kento was amazed. Cye was apologizing? Still? He hadn't figured that one out yet. What the heck did Cye think he'd done? The mountain man was happy that he hadn't lost the schoolteacher to the educated prick. That the redhead was lying next to him on the big flat rock at the swimming hole. They'd been lazily swimming naked in the pond since he'd picked up the redhead. Relief and joy had brightened the schoolteacher's face when Kento had taken off his bandanna and he'd realized that it was the mountain man and not Philip coming for him. He'd hugged him and kissed him and if Kento hadn't noticed the flushed and heated face of the schoolteacher, they would have done more than that right there. Instead, he'd insisted they come swimming, secretly hoping the redhead would still feel like fooling around once he'd cooled off. Now they were lying on the big rock, pleasantly content being with one another, but Cye KEPT apologizing.

"Cye?"

"Yes, Luv?"

The mountain man turned into a puddle of goo at that word. "Can I kiss you?"

"What?! You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?!"

"Yes, I have. I have been listening to every word you’ve said, Cye Torrent. And none of it makes a bit of difference to me." Or a lick of sense. "I don’t care about any of it." Kento reached out, took Cye’s hand, brought it up to his mouth and lightly kissed it. "All I care about is you. Ever since the first time I saw your smile, I knew I wanted to be with you forever. It didn’t matter what it took." His broad muscled chest shining with rainbow droplets of water, Kento rolled over onto his side to stare at Cye. "You stole my heart, and I don’t want it back. I want you to keep it." He lightly brushed Cye’s hand with his lips, sliding the small band he'd been twirling around his finger while they basked on the rock onto the schoolteacher's ring finger.

Cye gasped.

The gold band glinted in the afternoon sun, blurring the faint engraved markings on its reflective surface. Kento held his breath as the schoolteacher squinted and held the ring up to see the tiny workmanship.

"It's a wave. It runs all the way around it. I wanted to put some kind of dolphin or something on it, but I'm not that good at it yet. Smithy tells me he'll help once I get a little farther along in the training. He barely even let me do the wave pattern by myself. Kept butting in."

The little schoolteacher didn't say anything; he just sat and stared at the ring.

Kento cleared his throat and meekly asked, "Cye, will you spend the rest of your life with me?"

Green eyes misted and Cye hauled off and punched Kento in the arm.

Rubbing his bruised muscle, Kento swore. "Shit, Cye! What the hell did you do that for?"!

"You mean to tell me that you had this ring for me this entire time?"

Kento shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

"I went through all that for nothing! You bloody arsehole! I would have never even considered going back if you'd- you'd just done this before!"

Kento blinked once. Twice. "What?"

"I never would have put one foot on that stupid carriage with that- that scoundrel of a man if I'd thought you wanted me to stay!"

"Oh." Kento chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully for a moment or two before it hit him what Cye had just said. "Oh!" A smile brightened his face and he sat up quickly. "So? Does that mean you will? That you'll be mine?"

Joyous tears glistened in Cye's green eyes. "Yes. Yes, you imbecile. I love you."

Kento's grin widened even more and threatened to be permanent. "Hot damn!" The mountain man pounced on top of Cye, hugging the redhead and planting firm, chaste kisses on Cye's face and neck, the Brit giggling and laughing from Kento's exuberance.

Then Kento realized exactly where he was - naked and on top of his most favorite person in the world - and the chaste kisses turned passionate. Cye moaned and responded by hooking his legs around the mountain man's, pressing their bodies and groins closely together, causing Kento's breath to hitch and his kisses to become more insistent, demanding. His big, brawny hands traveled down Cye's firm body as the schoolteacher's hands tangled in his smoke black hair, holding him hostage to heated, deep-tongue thrusts.

"Oh, god," Cye gasped when the mountain man's hands wriggled underneath his body to knead the flesh of his ass.

"Say my name."

"Pardon?"

"I want to hear you say my name," Kento breathed against Cye’s neck, causing gooseflesh and shivers.

"Kento."

Kento shook his head. "No. Not like that. Like this."

He plunged his tongue into Cye's mouth, tasting the sweetness - imagining he could still taste cherries, while his hands groped between their bodies for two stout erections and rubbed them together.

"Uggnnh! Oh god! Kento!" the schoolteacher screamed, arching his back and thrusting his hips upward into the bigger man's hand.

"Oh, yeah," Kento moaned. "That's more like it."

He attacked Cye's mouth again, wanting to taste and memorize every inch, but the schoolteacher had other ideas. Rolling the mountain man onto his back, surprising Kento with the amount of strength in his smaller frame, the redhead kissed the bigger man's muscular chest, rubbing his face against the flesh, teasing the nipples with his tongue.

"Ah, Cye… That- aw, shit. That's… oh, yeah. Right there."

The Brit licked, sucked and nibbled his way all over Kento's body, not stopping at just the chest, and not ignoring a single inch of flesh, even nipping and adoring the thick, throbbing organ between the mountain man's legs. Finally getting the kind of action he'd been wanting from the redheaded schoolteacher, Kento hissed and grunted, thoroughly enjoying the attention and teasing.

Several times he tried to catch Cye's face and pull him up to his for a deep kiss, but each time the redhead managed to elude him - either sucking one of his fingers into that luscious mouth, causing Kento to lose all sense of what he'd been trying to do, or kissing on a particularly sensitive area that had Kento's hands pushing Cye's head to that spot instead of pulling him up for a kiss.

Giving up trying to take back control as a lost cause, Kento lay back on the rock and just concentrated on feeling. Opening his body and soul to the emotions and sensations that were overwhelming him. Every time Cye touched him, he swore he could feel everything that was buzzing around in the schoolteacher's mind. It was more of a sensation rather than a vocalization. He knew that the redhead was as anxious as he was. That Cye truly intended on this going farther. A LOT farther. And Kento was completely content with that.

When Cye's mouth engulfed his swollen cock and the Brit swallowed, Kento all but bolted off the rock with a roar. It had been so long since he'd been with someone besides his hand - those times with Anubis at Kayura's had been so long ago - that this was so very intense. Every scrape of pearl white teeth over sensitive flesh, every bit of pressure by an agile tongue… It didn't take long for Kento to be dangling over the precipice of orgasm, not wanting to save himself from tumbling headfirst.

It was when that finger starting rubbing and caressing a certain sensitive region hitherto unexplored on Kento's body that the mountain man lost it. He dove right over that orgasmic cliff and into a pool of euphoria, barely registering that initially Cye was swallowing, but quickly pulled away and let the semen finish spurting onto Kento's stomach. "Oh, god. Oh, god. Cye… Oh, god," the mountain man chanted as he came, his body shaking uncontrollably.

Pleased as punch with himself, Cye wiped his chin with the back of his hand and slowly slinked up Kento's side. "That was yummy. Want a taste?" he purred as he bent over to kiss the mountain man.

"Oh… Oh, Cye," Kento breathed right before he was soundly kissed and his mind was wiped blank. "I love you… Oh, god, I love you."

Turquoise eyes smiled back at him. "You're not just saying that because of what I just did, are you?"

Kento chuckled. "Although that does have something to do with the fact that I'm like a wet noodle here, it's not the reason I said that." He kissed the hand that strayed too close to his mouth. "I said it because I mean it."

"Good. You'd better mean it, Kento Hardrock. If I gave up my homeland for you, you better mean it with all your heart."

"I do, I do!" the mountain man insisted.

Cye swirled a finger in the gooey mess on Kento's stomach. "Ready for chapter two?"

Kento cracked open his eyes. "What? There's more?"

"Well, you bloody well don't think I'd go unsatisfied at this particular moment in time, do you?"

Kento looked down at Cye's unflagging erection. "Oh. OH!" Blushing furiously, even more so because he was even blushing in the first place, the mountain man made to get up, but was gently, albeit firmly, pushed back onto his back.

"Nuh-uh. You stay right where you are. Remember what you asked me the other day when we were in the kitchen… on the table?"

Licking his lips and swallowing to cover the fact that his mouth had suddenly gone very dry, Kento nodded.

"What did you ask me, Kento?" Cye purred, smoothing some of the milky fluid over his fingers.

"If- If you'd be my first…"

"And what did I say?"

"That- that you wouldn't. Because what if you'd left or something…"

"Yes. More or less, that's what I said." Rosy lips moved closer to Kento's dry mouth. "Well, Mr. Hardrock," said with a purr that made it sound incredibly sexy and a just a little bit kinky, "I'm staying this time."

And Kento melted farther into the rock.

But Cye's fingers found him anyway. Smoothing and slicking his skin with his cum. Taking the time to lick his fingers briefly before spreading it generously between Kento's butt cheeks and slathering it over his own cock.

Kento moaned and raised his hips as one of those slicked digits toyed with his asshole, swirling around the rim, applying gentle, coaxing pressure. "Oh, god, Cye… That- That feels so… good. Don't stop. Please."

"I have no intention of stopping now, Kento Hardrock. If you had second thoughts, you should have spoken up before I decided to say yes and wear your ring."

Kento barely had time to register the acceptance, his caramel brown eyes going wide with delight, before that questing finger plunged inside him. His body clenched reflexively as he hissed and tried unsuccessfully to grab hold of the stone he was lying on.

"Ooh, luv, I will be so good to you. Take care of you. Make certain your every need and desire is met. You won't regret it."

At the moment, Kento didn't even know what the word "regret" meant. He was too busy concentrating on the smooth, insistent finger that was fucking his ass. "Oh, jesus, Cye… Shit, that feels good."

"Not half as good as it's going to feel, luv."

Then Kento's ass was being lifted in the air as Cye pushed his legs up and his hips rotated to accommodate the move. "What?"

"Ssshh, luv. Just relax. I'll make you feel so good," the Brit cooed.

Kento nodded and licked his lips. He'd anticipated this moment for so long, but he'd never imagined it would take place at the swimming hole, on hard rock, out where anyone who happened by might possibly see. Okay, so who in their right mind would be wandering around here? Except maybe… Rowan. Or Ryo. Or Sage… Even imagining the others showing up, watching, was having positive, erotic effects on the mountain man's body. The thought of Rowan with his pale skin and royal blue hair… Or Ryo with his jet black mane and tanned flesh… Or Sage with his golden crown and pale lips…

Pressure against his ass brought him back to the present, and he watched the concentration on Cye's face, could feel the warmth and concern that radiated off the schoolteacher in waves. Moaned as the hard length invaded him, gazing into adoring aqua green eyes. Eyes that reflected love, adoration, and… lust.

Kento's breath hitched and time stood still as Cye remained motionless inside him, struggling to catch his own breath. "Oh, Kento," the redhead gasped.

There. That. That was how he wanted Cye to say his name for the rest of his life. That breathy, amazed, enthralled voice. The one where aqua foam eyes fluttered shut and rose pink lips never quite closed.

He was in heaven.

Every inch of his body tingled and he could barely contain his urge to move. To do something. Cye wasn't moving. The rock was beginning to dig into his lower back and although the sensation of having the schoolteacher inside him was distracting, that niggling little stabbing into his back was pretty damned annoying. All Cye seemed to be doing was… breathing.

"Cye? Could you like- move or something?"

"Give- give me just a moment, luv. It's… it's been a while since I've- I've been on this end."

That had Kento beaming. "You and Philip never-"

"No. It was before Philip. He always wanted top. That- that prick," the schoolteacher gasped out. "But I'd rather not talk about that at this particular moment in time if you don't mind. That is unless you don't want me to finish what… what I started."

"Why would that-? Oh. Won't mention it again."

"Good."

"Cye?"

"What is it now, luv?" Cye sounded just a tad bit annoyed.

"I love you."

Cye's eyes softened. "I love you, too, Kento." That's when he decided to move.

Kento moaned. "Oh god…" That tingling sensation had grown into something else entirely. Everything centered right around his groin and ass. Every single nerve ending was screaming with excitement as Cye ever so slowly pulled out of him. Kento had never felt anything like this before. The smooth glide of Cye's dick was gentle and unhurried, causing him to feel every ripple, every ridge of the swollen member invading his anus. "Oh god, Cye, please- I can't… This is too much. You gotta… gotta go faster. Harder. Don't play with me. We got all our lives to play. Just do it."

"No. I am not going to hurt you, Kento Hardrock. We should take this first time slow-"

Kento shook his head. "Nuh, that's not what I meant. I want you to. I NEED you to. You gotta do it harder. Faster. My name's not Hardrock for nothin', ya know."

"But I'll-"

"No. No you won't." Kento's big meaty hands found Cye's ass and he gave a fierce tug, moaning when Cye's member plunged back in. The muscles in Cye's face tensed then slackened almost immediately. It had felt as good for him as it had for Kento. "Move," Kento commanded.

Cye bit his lip and began pistoning his hips. Their cries were simultaneous, the moans and groans echoing off the rocky walls of the grotto.

At least that's what they thought.

Unknown to the couple locked in an embrace on top of the basking rock, another pair of lovers was similarly entwined a short distance from them, strategically hidden by the surrounding foliage. It was their cries that provided the echoes.

Dark auburn hair shone a rich russet gold in the welcoming sunshine as tan hands harshly gripped pale flesh for deeper, more demanding thrusts. Bodies drenched in sweat, cart of personal belongings momentarily forgotten, Anubis and Rowan continued their passionate lovemaking, feeling that bond that connected them to the two nearer the pond, crying out at the same time, the same moment, the four voices blending together and becoming one. Once voice that cried out in ecstasy. Completion. Fulfillment.

Anubis slumped over Rowan's prone body, slipping from the Yankee's ass, but not before copping one more feel of the glistening, quivering flesh.

"Shit. I don't know what the hell that is, but damn…" Rowan croaked.

Anubis chuckled and rolled off his lover. The two of them lay in stunned silence as the euphoric rush subsided.

"Anubis?"

"Yes?"

"Remind me to tell Kento that we need to start a schedule for visits to the watering hole, will ya?"

"Now, Rowan, where would the fun be in that?" Anubis asked, gray eyes twinkling.