Golden Feather Press
EMERALD VALLEY

This chapter contains explicit sex. If you are under legal age, you aren't allowed to read this page. If you are under legal age in your state or country, and you or I get into serious trouble by you reading this short story, everyone will know you ignored this warning and read it anyway.

CHAPTER 10

Suddenly aware of the rising sun in his face, Kyle rolled over, covered his head with the blanket and slipped into a fitful dream...

He held Lake face-to-face. Both naked, their chest hair tightly entwined and drew them closer. They welded into a kiss, then pulled away slightly and looked into each other's eyes. Lake laughed. It sounded far away, echoing in clouds of dust.

A man yelled, "The drifter is dead! Lake's punch broke his neck!"

Lake groaned, closed his eyes and shoved away. Kyle felt each body hair cry out from the ripping separation.

Lake fell from him. To where? Where was Lake!

"Lake!" Kyle yelled. "Lake, where are you?"

Kyle woke with a start. Had he shouted Lake's name? He slid his hand over his chest. His skin hurt...like all his body hair had been yanked out. He remembered the dream. Lake! Rubbing his chest, he realized it wasn't only his skin that ached from missing Lake. "Lake, it wasn't your fault," Kyle whispered. Three whimpers escaped from his gritted teeth.

"Kyle?" Dix called from his room down the hall. "Are you all right? I heard you shout about a lake."

"Bad dream," Kyle growled hoarsely. As he threw back the blanket covering his naked body, a cloud of dust billowed into the brilliant sunlight flooding the room. He looked around in horror. The dawning sun exposed a thick coating of dust...on everything! This room hadn't been used in years!

"Shit!"

Kyle leaped out of bed. He had never felt this filthy! Not even on long cattle drives. He gasped for breath in the clouds of decaying dust.

Grabbing his boots, hat, gun and clothes, he stormed out of the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen. Stark naked, he dumped his things into an armchair, grabbed a pan off the top of the cookstove, clunked it into the sink and pumped it full of water. After unlocking the back door, he stomped outside, stood in the weeds and slowly poured the frigid water over his head, guiding it over his body. He repeated the process two more times until he felt frozen and halfway clean. He'd have to scrub everything in that room and wash the bedclothes in lye soap and water if he was ever going to sleep in there again. But rather than do all that housework, he decided to sleep in the barn from now on.

After he dried himself, shook out his clothes and dressed, Kyle went upstairs to Dix's room. As he entered, Dix stared at him from his bed.

"What happened?" Dix asked.

"When was the last time that room I slept in was cleaned? I could'a smothered from the damn dust!"

"Dust? Uh...I don't know. Maybe, er…Uncle Bill maybe never cleaned it."

"I'm sleepin' in the barn from now on!"

"The barn? I thought after today you'd be sleeping with me. And you said you'd give me a bath today."

Kyle walked to Dix's bed and glared down at him. God! Dix was so damn gorgeous! But for some reason he couldn't get Lake out of his mind. The skin on his chest still hurt. He knew Lake would feel the same about the dust and would insist they move to the barn, or outside. Insects and horse shit were nothing compared to stagnant, choking dust in a closed-up house full of rotting clutter.

Struggling to get away from thoughts of Lake and concentrate on things at hand, Kyle rubbed the back of his neck. "Before I inspect your wound, I gotta get our bath water heated and breakfast ready."

"Our bath? I thought I was the one getting a bath?"

"You are. I'm givin' it to you. I'm gonna be in the tub with you." Kyle frowned. "You got a tub?"

"A tub?" Dix looked at Kyle's slightly swollen dick shoved down his pants. "Uh…there might be one in the barn."

Kyle sniffed the air. "Should'a known you wouldn't know where a tub was. You ain't had a bath for weeks! A man's gotta bathe sometimes. Even if it's in the damn river!" Kyle scowled at Dix. "I can tell about a man by his fresh sweat, but sweatin' over dried sweat turns to stink. You stink like hell."

Heading toward the door, Kyle said, "I'm gonna search out a tub. Maybe it'll be a big one like Woody's."

"You saw Woody's tub?"

Without turning, Kyle went through the door. "I was in it." Kyle stopped, looked back at Dix and flickered an eyebrow. "With Woody." He grinned, then turned toward the stairs.

"You took a bath with Woody?" Dix shouted.

"We used the tub for that, too!" Kyle hollered up from halfway down the stairs. He chuckled as he descended.

In the kitchen, Kyle heard Dix shouting about him taking a bath with Woody.

"He's worse than a damn woman," Kyle muttered. He started a fire in the cookstove, placed the four largest pots of water on to boil, then went out the back door and slammed it intentionally. "Damn, I miss you Lake," he growled as he stomped to the barn.

Searching the barn proved fruitless for finding a tub. Kyle finally spotted an oval metal tub hanging on a nail on the far side of the outhouse. The rusty tub needed cleaning. He'd noticed a pot of axle grease in the corner of the barn.

After carrying the tub to the side of the house near the back door, in full sunlight, Kyle smeared it inside and out with grease then scrubbed it with the wire brush he'd found tossed in the hay by the barn door. He rinsed the tub with soap and water.

As he entered the kitchen, Kyle let the screen door slam to let Dix know he was back in the house. He heard a boot hit the wall upstairs.

Kyle cracked an egg on the edge of the hot cast iron skillet, sighed and shook his head as the second boot made it to the top of the stairs.

Holding a tray of hot food and using his foot, Kyle scooted the chair, now Dix's table, closer to the bed. Kyle sat on the edge of Dix's bed. Both men ate in silence. When he'd finished, Kyle clunked down his plate on top of Dix's already empty one.

"I gotta check your wound." Kyle shoved the chair aside and knelt beside the bed. He tossed back the blanket Dix had wrapped around himself. Dix's naked furry body caused his dick to lurch, but the man's smell nearly knocked him out. He inspected the flour-sack bandages around Dix's waist. No fresh blood. He hadn't expected any.

Kyle carefully untied the bandages. When he pulled them away, the leaves had dissolved into a brown goop. He gently wiped it off the wound.

Both men looked at the bullet graze across Dix's side. It had scabbed, there was no apparent infection and the healing had progressed far beyond what either had expected.

"Told ya them leaves needed to work."

"What kind of leaves are they?" Dix asked.

"Kiowa never said, an' I never asked." Kyle wadded the bandage and dabbed at Dix's side. "Figured it weren't polite. They gave me them leaves as a gift."

"A gift for what?"

"I herded cows to the Kiowa village. There was a hundred people starvin' there. Women an' small ones, too." Kyle shrugged. "I got 'em two hundred an' fifty cows, two wagons of spuds, three wagons of corn, bags of coffee, flour, dried fruit an' tobacco. Also brought 'em a wagon load of elk an' buffalo hides, coyote pelts, cookin' pots an' a few bags of beads fer the women an' candy for the small ones."

"Where did you get all that?" Dix asked.

"Borrowed it from a bastard that killed a thousan' of their buffalo just for their damn hides." Kyle shrugged as he folded the bandages one more time and wiped a brown glob from Dix's bare leg. "He won't do it again."

"Why not? Some men have made a living doing that for years."

"He's dead."

"He's dead?" Dix looked at Kyle. "How did it happen?"

"I killed him. He 'cused me a stealin' his supplies an' drew on me in the street. Shot him between the eyes. I weren't stealin'. I only got back part of what he stole from them Kiowa people. An' that bastard's just one'a the dumb yaks causin' Indians to starve to death."

"How many men have you killed?"

"As of two days ago? Six. Ever' one of 'em was tryin' to kill me. They had to prove their damn manhood. The way I see it, if you gotta prove you're a man, you sure-as-hell ain't one."

Dix bent down and pecked Kyle on the forehead. "I love hearing you talk tough." He looked at his wound and touched it. "Doc, am I healed enough to get naked with you?"

Still on his knees beside the bed, Kyle grabbed Dix's half-hard cock and looked into his eyes. "You're one hunk of a man, all right." He frowned at Dix. "But you stink like hell. I gotta get you into that tub."

Having been wrapped in a blanket and ordered to sit in a chair next to the kitchen table, Dix watched Kyle lug two pails of hot water outside.

Kyle poured the water into the tub, then shed his shirt and draped it over a hitching post. When he entered the kitchen for the remaining hot water, he heard Dix suck in air as the man took in his muscular, hair-covered chest. Kyle squelched a grin.

After tempering the steaming water in the tub with cold, Kyle entered the kitchen stark naked, except for his boots. Without looking at Dix, he went to the sink and began pumping water into the four empty pans.

Dix stared at Kyle's muscular V-shaped back, his firm butt and huge, hairy legs. He grabbed at his own swelling dick.

"Take a good look," Kyle said without turning. "You're gonna give me a scrubbin' inside an' out, like I'm gonna give you."

Kyle put the four pans of water on the stove and added wood to the firebox. He'd need more hot water for what he was planning.

"When am I going to get my bath?" Dix asked.

Kyle spun around from the stove. "You sound more like a damn woman every minute. An' if you don't stop playin' with your dick, there ain't gonna be anythin' left in it for me."

"I can't help it. Looking at you naked makes me play with it."

"Well, let's get outside. Take that damn blanket off an' let me see you."

Dix stood up and let the blanket fall.

The only thing Kyle could focus on was the man's hard cock sticking out from his muscular body.

By the time they got to the back door, even Kyle had a full erection. Dix grabbed Kyle's dick and held onto it as they approached the tub.

"You gotta let go'a me so I can give you a scrubbin'," Kyle snapped.

"No. Scrub me anyway."

"Let go'a my cock an' get in the damn tub!"

Dix obeyed and stepped in. "The water's too hot!"

"Hold your nuts and sit down!"

Dix grabbed his balls and jerkily sat in the tub of steaming water. He groaned and felt almost scalded up to his navel. His wound burned. The hot water forced him to forget about Kyle's hard dick. He hunched over and held his balls with both hands.

Kyle grinned. He removed his boots and scooped water over Dix's head and body. He grabbed the soap, plowed it through the water and attacked Dix's smelly hair, then his armpits.

"Ow! I've got soap in my eyes!"

"Rinse 'em and shut up!"

Kyle soaped Dix's entire body, being gentle near his wound. He slid his hand down Dix's back to his butt, then slipped his middle finger into Dix's butt hole.

"What are you doing?"

"Stickin' my finger up your bugger. What the hell do you think I'm doin'?"

"Why?"

"'Cuz you'll like it. Like I do. We're gonna plow each other's bungholes clean."

"With our fingers?"

Kyle sighed, pulled out his finger and stepped into the tub facing Dix. "Soap your dick. I'm gonna sit on it."

Dix raised up so his hard cock stuck out of the water. He groaned in pain from his side, but soaped his dick. Kyle moved closer, grabbed Dix by his cock and aimed it at his butt, then lowered himself on it. He stopped a moment as the head entered his rectum, then grinned and slid all the way down Dix's shaft.

"That feels wonderful!" Dix shouted. He grabbed Kyle's dick with one hand and slid his left arm around the muscular man. He pulled Kyle to his body and kissed his chest as he thrust his dick far into Kyle's butthole.

Pulling back after a moment, Kyle said, "This'll feel even better." He began raising and lowering his body so Dix's cock slid in and out of his bunghole. He groaned in pleasure at the sensation inside his butt.

Feeling Kyle's tight asshole sensuously massaging his dick and seeing the man's massive, hairy body in front of him, Dix buried his face into Kyle's chest and stroaked Kyle's cock with the same rhythm Kyle rode him.

Both men shot at the same time. Kyle's spunk repeatedly hit Dix under his chin and the last few shots splattered his chest. Kyle could feel Dix's spunk reach far up inside him.

They fell into each other's arms and kissed until their breathing slowed.

Finding his voice, Dix asked, "Did you and Woody do this, too?"

"Of course." Kyle scooped water over Dix's body, licked his pecs, then slid his tongue from Dix's left nipple up to his lips and kissed him. He felt Dix's still hard cock twitch inside him and he gyrated his hips to feel it even more.

They stayed locked together until the water got cold.

Kyle raised off Dix's cock, soaped it and his own butt, rinsed, then stepped out of the tub.

"Where are you going?" Dix asked.

"The other pails of water should be hot."

"More water?" Dix asked. "We're already clean."

"I'm gonna do the same thing to you," Kyle said. "If you ain't ever had a dick up your butt, you're in for a treat."

"Will it hurt?"

"It would have if I'd done you first. But now you're relaxed."

After Kyle poured the three pans of hot water into the tub, the overflowing water again became steamy.

"Let's get our dicks hard," Kyle said as he sat facing Dix.

The men hardened each other under the water.

Satisfied about his own cock, Kyle grabbed Dix under his arms. Careful not to touch his wound, he raised Dix, positioned his own dick against Dix's bunghole and lowered the man onto it.

Dix yelled in pain.

"Relax!" Kyle growled.

After a few moments, with Kyle's cock deep in his butt, Dix felt a wave of ecstasy. He began raising and lowering his body. The feeling increased to the point where he was close to spunking.

"That feels wonderful! I can't hold it any longer. I'm going to shoot!"

"Shoot, then! That's what we're doin' this for! I'm ready, too."

Dix watched Kyle close his eyes and lean his head to the sky. He heard him groan, then he felt Kyle's spurting juices blast deep inside him. Dix groaned. He raised out of the water and shot white droplets over both their chests.

Kyle closed his eyes as he came inside Dix. He and Lake had done this to each other for two winters in a line cabin, both getting off on the oneness they experienced. One time, they had spent three days naked in bed, only getting out to eat and stoke the stove. Glorious times!

Kyle opened his eyes. Shocked for an instant seeing Dix's face and not Lake's, he grinned weakly and relaxed. Life goes on.

With Kyle's dick still deep in his butt, Dix collapsed against Kyle's chest. He felt the man's arms slide around him. What they had just done together seemed more fulfilling than anything he'd ever experienced in his life. He kissed Kyle's neck and gyrated his body on his hard dick, glad this tough cowboy had become an intimate part of his being. Kyle was sure to take his side after this.