Page 42 of Close Quarters

“Annoying me is like getting the ground wet when you piss. You don’t have to try,” I shrugged, realizing I wasn’t thrilled at his description of Elliot. Sure, the guy was a pain in the ass, but it wasn’t like Max had ever had anything to do with him…or any guy in the program for that matter other than Riley.

He managed a crooked smile. “Fair enough. How long have you two been stuck with each other?”

It seemed telling that he just left out stating who was stuck with who, jumping right to acknowledging the truth: we were both bound to suffer and try each other. “I don’t know, it’s been…” I had to think about it for a minute. “Month and a half? Something like that.”

“Well, seems like in what, fifty or so days, you two have managed not to kill each other,” he said, lips twitching. “Though it looked like you two made a good try of it a couple of weeks ago.”

“I had some pent-up energy, and he’s always got pent-up energy. Having a wrestling match seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess we went too far.”

“Yeah…you keep up that story. Just know that not one person is buying that horse shit.”

“We aren’t going to say different.”

“Hmph, then I guess Mona isn’t blind,” he said, eyes going distant as he stared off toward the horizon.

“Uh, what?” I asked, wondering where that had come from.

“Look, that woman does everything for a purpose. She might be a pushy bitch about it, hell she’ll tell you that, and she might put your balls in a vice to make sure it happens,” he said with a rueful smile. “Trust me, I know that tactic all too well. But she’s the kind of person who can be ruthless in getting what she wants, but what she wants is for the good of the ranch and its people.”

“Kind of a messy combination,” I noted, and he chuckled, nodding.

“It is. People are fucking messy. Not one fucking person isn’t messy, and definitely the guys that come here for the program. We’re disasters.”

“You’re not. You graduated.”

“If you think I’m not still a disaster then you’re not very far along in the program,” his eyes drifted to the duo. “But…maybe you’re further along than you think.”

“Fucking hell, are you always this vague? Or is it just a thing Tier One’s and graduates do?”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re old enough to know there’s some shit you never understand until you’ve been there. And there’s some shit that, if you’re told ahead of time, completely ruins it. All I’m saying is, this program is a pain in the ass sometimes, and the people looking out for you are going to be assholes in your eyes sometimes, but you have to try to pretend to go with it.”

“Are you going to tell me to fake it till I make it?”

“What the fuck could it hurt? Not like what you’ve been doing so far has helped you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been locked up, had to come to this ranch, got in trouble, and been teamed up with Elliot.”

It was much like the speech Elliot gave me weeks ago when we’d both been pulled in to be scolded and punished. Except Max’s delivery was a lot less passionate and more…matter of fact. I wanted to be annoyed, but really, if there was anyone who knew the process, it was a graduate. Plus, he wasn’t a ‘hope springs eternal’ sort of guy like Elliot or Riley, so maybe his perspective had a little more weight for someone like me.

“Although from the looks of you, maybe you do need to change,” he said quietly, flipping the saddle over and examining the other side.

“What?” I asked, a laugh creeping out and then dying quickly. “I’d say the past several weeks have been big changes for me.”

Particularly the last couple. Neither Elliot nor I had spoken about what happened after our brawl, but things had definitely changed. It had taken me a few days to work up the…determination? Courage? Horniness? Whatever it was, when it had built up enough, I finally took him up on his offer.

Considering he and I were…well, we weren’t exactly friends and didn’t know each other well, I hadn’t known how he’d react to a show of interest. Outright asking had felt weird and awkward, so I’d just thrown it out there. It wasn’t like we were good at communicating. After trying to figure out how to handle things, I realized the direct approach was all I was really left with. It was the best way I knew how to get what I wanted, and he seemed to respond…decently to it.

All that worrying had turned out to be well worth it when he’d walked into our cabin, not paying any attention to what I was doing. He’d dropped the box containing the chair we’d have to assemble to replace the one we’d broken and then looked up. The look on his face, eyes wide, lips parted, had made me grin.

“Hey,” I’d said, on my back on my bunk, not wearing a stitch of clothing. Which was probably surprising enough, but I was rock hard and slowly stroking myself for good measure.

If there was one thing I definitely had to acknowledge about Elliot, he wasn’t subtle about his reactions, and the same enthusiastic genuineness about him that drove me crazy did have its good moments. I had never considered myself to be an ugly guy, and hell, I knew my dick was a good one, but I had never once had someone look like they were about to drool over the sight of me naked and hard until Elliot.

To call the sex enthusiastic would be an understatement, though it wasn’t nearly as rough as the first time. It had just been trading blowjobs since, according to him, his ‘asshole was still bitching,’ which…fair enough. I wasn’t going to complain, I liked a good blowjob, and to his surprise, I enjoyed giving them as well. It was funny how much he had to fight for control and not yell to the heavens when he was enjoying himself, but really, I kind of liked it.

That had broken the door open between us, and things had been…well, good but strange. It wasn’t something we’d talked about, neither of us bringing up the fact that we were sleeping together figuratively. Honestly, it was the best sex I’d had in a long time. Elliot was an attentive and extremely enthusiastic partner. We might have been breaking the rules, though none about sexual relations had ever been given to me, but I didn’t give a shit. They stuck us with each other and wanted us to get along, and we were finding a way to do that.

It might not have been in the way they intended, but it was fucking working. We still got on one another’s nerves, but that also worked out fine for me. Somewhere in my head, a few wires had been crossed, and now, when I was frustrated with him, I just took my clothes off. Elliot was pretty hotheaded himself, stubborn, and independent, but he had absolutely no shame or worries about submitting when I got aggressive with him sexually. It was the sort of self-awareness and lack of concern about his image that I admired and envied.

I resurfaced from my thoughts and felt my face warm when I realized what kind of thoughts I’d just been having and how far into them I’d fallen. I was glad Max wasn’t paying attention as he continued working and that I’d chosen to wear looser jeans than usual. If I wasn’t careful, I would end up dragging Elliot to the nearest surface in our cabin when we got back.

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