Wild Trail (Clean Slate Ranch #1)(31)

This is ridiculous. I got laid two nights ago!

Mack bit his tongue hard enough to bring tears to his own eyes, and that helped kill his boner a little.

Wes finished his business and came back around the bushes. “My hero.”

“Uh-huh.” Mack inclined his head toward the campfire. “Let’s go, scaredy cat.”

“What’s the rush?” Wes flicked off the flashlight, then tilted his head to the sky. Angling his long, pale neck. A neck that needed a mark or two on it. “I love that you know the constellations. It’s very unexpected.”

“No sense in being a stereotype.”

Wes met his eyes, hurt reflecting back at him. “Is that what I am to you? A stereotype? Sassy city slicker who’s scared of dirt and occasionally wears eyeliner?”

Mack blinked, stupidly turned on by the idea of Wes wearing liner. “No. You do you, pal. I don’t think you’re a stereotype. I was talking about me not being a dumb cowboy.”

“Oh.”

“You really wear eyeliner?”

“Sure. I like how it makes my blue eyes pop, especially if I go out clubbing.”

Mack could definitely see Wes out in the clubs, shaking that ass in tight jeans, attracting every bear and gym rat like catnip. “You ever been to Belladonna?”

“Sure, every few months. I prefer Club Base. When do you find time to go to the clubs in San Fran?”

“Most Saturday nights. Hard to find tail out here in the middle of nowhere.”

Wes cocked his hip and grinned. “I don’t know, I think you found something worth catching.”

Mack’s heart tripped at the deliberate come-on. It would be so easy to grab Wes, go behind the bushes, and get that pretty mouth around his dick. Too easy, and entirely too inappropriate. He was out here to do a job, not get laid. “Maybe so,” Mack said in a deliberately low voice, “but I ain’t hunting tonight.”

“Shame.”

Big damned shame, but nothing Mack could do about it. He really needed to stop thinking about having sex with Wes, so he latched onto the first thought in his head. “That scandal on your TV show, that was the reason you left Hollywood?”

Wes flinched, shoulders hunching. “Pretty much. And no, I did not leak those photos.”

“Didn’t figure you had. You said earlier that you didn’t, and I believe you.”

“Thank you. No one else does, except my family. I would never out somebody on purpose.” He cut his eyes at Mack. “Or by accident, if I can help it.”

Mack smiled at his hesitation. “I’m out. Don’t usually share it with the guests, but everyone who works here knows. No sense in hiding it.”

Relief lit up Wes’s eyes. “Good. I mean, I didn’t figure you on being bi-curious, but I don’t like to assume someone’s sexuality, and you were really vague.”

“Old habits. Like I said, it isn’t really something I share with the guests each week.”

“So what makes me special?”

Every damned thing about you, up to and including that fine ass.

“This doesn’t seem like the kind of place you’d enjoy,” Mack said, “but you’re here because you love your sister.”

Wes beamed. “She’s my best friend. I’d do anything for her, even suffer through a week of dust and horse smell to make her happy. And it isn’t as if I’m completely suffering.” He inched closer to Mack. “I met you, didn’t I?”

Mack refused to look at the pink lips Wes just licked. “Tell me more about the show. If you don’t mind.”

“Meh. It was my first and last big Hollywood break.” Wes kicked at a loose stone. “I auditioned for a role in the pilot and didn’t get it, but a few months later, I got a callback for a new part. It was supposed to be for one episode and in the script draft I got, I died very tragically in the end. But I guess the showrunner liked me so much, they let me live and expanded the part. Said I brought much-needed humor to the show.”

“I remember.”

Wes startled. “You watched it?”

“My ex loved it, so I watched it with him. Never did connect you with the show, though, until Miller said something earlier. You really were good.”

“Thanks. I loved it. We shot a lot on location, which was amazing, and the main cast was great. Drake Sellers was obviously gorgeous, and I was a little bit in lust with him from our first scene together. He was so subtle about flirting with me that I wasn’t entirely sure he was, until the season one wrap party. He invited himself back to my place, which turned into a vigorous fuck-fest.”

A flash of protective irritation burned hot in Mack’s gut.

“We kept seeing each other in secret during the hiatus, and then again when season two started filming. My role expanded into recurring, instead of just guest, so we got to spend more time together. But Drake didn’t want to come out until he’d really cemented his career, and I understood that. I mean, I didn’t exactly go running around waving a rainbow flag, but anybody who’s met me can see I’m queer. Drake was crazy good at passing, though.

“But by the end of that year, I was getting tired of being a dirty secret. I’d fallen head-over-heels for Drake, and Drake intimated he felt the same without coming out and saying ‘I love you,’ but we were both still in the damned closet. The show was renewed for season three and had steady ratings, and I was tired of being a booty call.”