Page 77 of Close Quarters

“Good talk,” he murmured, arm wrapped around my middle, the other tucked and cramped somewhere between us. “Real good talk.”

“Jackass,” I muttered, smiling as I heard sleep catching up with him.

“Mhmm.”

“Fuck you.”

“Mmmmhm.”

He was already drifting off before I could find anything else to throw in, his breath deepening behind me. I focused on him rather than the worries of what would find me when I fell asleep. I focused on the sound and feel of his breath as it hit between my shoulder blades, on the presence of his legs pushed against mine, and the arm wrapped protectively around my waist. I was so distracted I never realized I was falling asleep and then I was past the point of knowing anything.

“You know,” Elliot began, reclining to tuck his hands under his head. “I have to admit, these random ass bonding experiences are pretty alright.”

“This one is. Just wait till they have us doing trust falls or something equally stupid,” I said, reaching into the small basket we’d been given and grabbing a couple of the grapes that were still left. Autumn was a nice time of year in Texas, especially because grapes were in season, and I’d yet to find a grape as good as the ones grown in Texas.

“It’s actually kind of funny when you think about it,” he said, leaning over to tug at the corner of the blanket we’d been given to straighten the corner out. “This is the kind of thing they always joke about on TV. Take something like a picnic and call it something like ‘Group Experiences’ or…actually, I can’t think of anything funny.”

“Well, you were bound to figure out you weren’t funny at some point. Just took two and a half decades, is all. Some people are slow learners, no shame in that,” I told him with a grin.

“Don’t ruin our perfectly nice picnic by being a dick,” he told me with a scowl. “This is really relaxing.”

I had to admit, it was pretty nice to have a whole half day off away from everyone else at the ranch. A handful of us had been given what we needed. The chance to find a spot somewhere off the ranch, to plop down, and have a relaxing meal of fruits, cheeses, and cured meats. That was this month’s ‘whittling’ apparently, but according to Leon, the ranch would pick the first Sunday of the month every few months to have some ‘bonding time’ with others. A few other Tier Threes, like Elliot and I, were allowed to do it outside the ranch without supervision, while the rest had to stay.

If there was ever a way to blatantly announce to the whole ranch that we were possible candidates for an upgrade to Tier Two, they had done it. Incidentally, it had been Mona who’d given us our basket, telling us to find anywhere that looked nice without needing half a day to travel. Leon looked surprised and tried to cover it up, but not fast enough for me to miss it. So it seemed Mona, despite her earlier issues with me, was apparently on board with Leon’s plan.

It was just…strange, knowing he’d put so much faith and effort into things, and now he even had Mona believing his instincts. I still wasn’t convinced he should have done it, but then again, I wasn’t exactly mentor material either. Maybe it hadn’t been just a gamble that paid off, but something inside him that I lacked that told him I was capable of working things out.

I looked over at Elliot, sprawled out on the blanket, his eyes closed and the most restful I’d ever seen him while awake. He’d chosen what he dubbed ‘the mini mountains’ where we’d once looked for sheep. Mona and Leon had given their approval and again warned us to keep an eye out for anyone we didn’t recognize, especially if they weren’t coming from the direction of the ranch.

“Heard something?” I had wondered at her sudden strictness.

“Nothing definitive, just gossip. Too many ranches in this area, and they’re all a bunch of gossips. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious,” she told me with a pointed look. “No testosterone moments, got me?”

“Understood,” I told her, noting how she said it to me rather than Elliot. Of course, at the time, Elliot had been cooing softly to try to get the gray tabby, Heathen, to come out from her place on a tool rack. However, his sickeningly sweet voice hadn’t convinced her to relocate, much to his disappointment.

All in all, it was a pretty good spot. It offered ample shade but didn’t keep us out of the wind when it blew over the hard earth and rock to cool us off. And we were away from anyone else, just the two of us, where we could relax.

I continued to observe him as he seemed to doze off. In the process of getting comfortable, he had scooted around. The result was his shirt bunched up in the middle of his stomach, and the shorts he had put on after this morning’s work had ridden down.

Curious, I carefully inched closer and looked, only to discover something was missing around the waistband of his shorts. “Did you go commando?”

He cracked open an eye and shrugged. “Well, I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything that involved a bunch of sweating, so yeah. After I showered, I just put on the shorts.”

“Interesting,” I said, a thrill running through me when I was reminded we were alone. We were also quite a distance from anyone else, which meant we were…well, alone.

“Interesting? Are you horny?”

“Definitely,” I said, reaching over and running a finger just under his waistband. Enough that I could feel where his skin was warmer trapped under the clothes and the faintest tickle from the hair on his groin. His eyes remained open and he watched me, not moving, as I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his stomach.

Since I had finally knocked myself mentally over the head and told myself he didn’t always need me to rail him into walking funny, I’d grown more comfortable with taking it slow. We still had a couple of hours before we had to head back if we wanted to make it before dark. So, if I wanted to gently lick a salty patch of his skin and feel his muscles tense under my tongue in anticipation, I was going to.

“Shit,” he groaned as I tugged at his shorts, sucking gently on the point on his hips I knew to be sensitive.

“I don’t think the cacti will care if you swear loudly,” I said, looking at him as I unbuttoned his shorts to pull them off, tossing them away.

“Oh shit, there’s no one around!”

“No one to hear you moan, groan, or scream.”

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