Wild Trail (Clean Slate Ranch #1)(21)

Okay, so Wes was being a diva over this. But camping? “I hate dirt.”

“Dude, if I have to do this, so do you,” Miles said. “It could be kind of fun, too.”

Wes heaved a dramatic sigh. “Okay, fine. I’ll suffer some dirt for the fun of the group and my sister’s good time.”

Sophie squealed, then tried to smother him with a hug. “Good choice.”

“When do we leave?”

“After lunch, but to go we have to spend some of the morning working with the horses. Getting to know which one we’ll ride on the trail.”

Well, now, that certainly explained Mack’s expression. Working with the horses meant being around the horse master himself, which gave Wes plenty of chances to flirt. Camping was starting to look like a lot of fun.

*

Three different nights. Three different camping trips led by three different sets of ranch hands, and Wes had to go and sign up for Mack’s night. One in three chance, and he’d beaten the odds, and now Mack was stuck close to the guy for the next twenty-four odd hours. News he broke to Reyes when he found him in the barn brushing down Zodiac for one of the riders. She was a paint with a sweet disposition and a favorite for their younger riders.

“All five of the bridal party signed up?” Reyes asked.

“All five, and so far just them.” But the guests had until ten o’clock to sign up, and it was only eight thirty now.

Reyes chuckled as he pulled the brush down Zodiac’s flank. “Never thought I’d see the day when you’re scared of a guest.”

Mack growled. “I’m not scared of Wes. He’s irritating.”

“Oh yeah, so irritating you sat next to him at dinner. On purpose.”

“So? He looked sad.”

“And you needed to cheer him up. Pal, just admit you’re attracted to him.”

“No.”

“You’re a stubborn jackass.”

“That’s not news to anyone.” Mack had barely seen Reyes since dinner last night. He hadn’t come back to their shared cabin until after Mack had turned in, and he’d been out the door while Mack was showering. “Seems to me I wasn’t the only one getting cozy with the bridal party.”

Reyes kept brushing the horse.

“Who’s getting cozy with who now?” Colt asked, appearing with his toolbox in hand. “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing,” Reyes replied.

Perfect. Mack hadn’t seen Colt since before dinner. He rounded on his friend, hands on hips. “Why did you tell Wes I was SWAT?”

Colt rocked on his heels, grinning that irritating shit-eating grin that made club twinks fall all over the guy. “Didn’t realize it was top secret information.”

“That’s not the point. It’s personal information you had no right to give to a guest.”

“Technically, I gave him personal info about me. I just let it slip that both of us were SWAT when I told him.”

“Gee, that makes it all better, then.”

“Oh fuck off,” Colt drawled. “You’re into the guy, you just don’t want to admit it.”

“What’s the point? It’s not like I can’t get laid if I want to.”

“Gee, yeah, one-off sex with a stranger in a bathroom, versus good sex with someone you’re actually attracted to?” Colt rolled his eyes. “You’re so dense sometimes.”

The way Colt laid it out held appeal. Sure, his hookups involved some level of physical attraction, but mostly it was about getting off in the most efficient way possible. Sex with someone he was attracted to this strongly hadn’t happened in a long time, and Wes pushed all the right buttons. “It would still be a fast and dirty fuck someplace out of sight,” Mack said. “No real difference.”

“Not unless you tell Reyes to hang out elsewhere for a few hours and invite Wes back to your cabin.”

The mental image of Wes naked on all fours on the bearskin rug between the two bunks scorched its way into Mack’s head and wouldn’t leave. Mack kneeling behind him, reddening that taut ass with his hand before driving home? Fuck. His jeans got uncomfortably tight.

He glanced at Reyes, who’d stopped brushing Zodiac to stare at him, a silent question in his dark eyes. Reyes would do it if Mack asked, but he hated putting his best friend in that position.

“Let’s table this, okay?” Mack said. “We’ve got horses to prep, greenhorns to teach and a camping trip to prepare for. Sex is not on the agenda today.”

Colt waggled his eyebrows and mouthed today at Reyes, who rolled his eyes again. “For a thirty-four-year-old man, you act like you’re perpetually fifteen,” Reyes said to Colt.

“Except you didn’t know me when I was fifteen,” Colt retorted with more bite than usual. “Maybe I did all my maturing back then, and now’s when I get to be a kid.” He turned and practically flounced back out of the barn, toolbox jangling by his side.

Reyes blinked hard. “Did I hit a button I didn’t know was there?”

“Probably.” Mack was closer to Colt than Reyes was, after having shared four years in SWAT with Colt, doing the kind of dangerous work that men truly bonded over, but Mack had no idea what that mini-tantrum was about. Colt’s mysterious past, probably. He didn’t like talking about much before joining the police force, after getting a degree forced on him by his parents. And Mack wasn’t much for making someone talk who didn’t want to talk, so he left it alone.