Perspective

“Will you stop?” the gambler muttered, disgruntled. “I can’t do this if you won’t stop wiggling all over the place.”

JD grinned widely, “I can’t help it Ezra, I’m too excited that you finally agreed to do it for me.”

Ezra grunted, struggling to maintain his scowl, and keep the younger man’s infectious enthusiasm off his own features. “Well settle back and be still, or we won’t be doing it,” he grumbled.

Not buying the grumpy act for a minute, JD chuckled, pulling Ezra close in a soft, sensual kiss. He nibbled lightly at the gambler’s sensitive lower lip before brushing a long soothing lick across its swollen surface as Ezra groaned softly. JD rasped his whiskered jaw along the gambler’s smoothly shaven cheek to whisper in his ear, “did I forget to mention how grateful I’ll be?”

“Oh, stop it,” Ezra chuckled, unable to hold his poker face under JD’s teasing onslaught. “Trembling hands are not conducive to the task at hand. So you just keep your lips to yourself until we’re finished, Mr. Dunne.”

“Why, Mr. Standish,” JD grinned, imitating the gambler’s speech pattern, “are you saying my lips can make you tremble?” A bright fire burned in the younger man’s eyes as he watched Ezra, waiting for his answer.

Ezra met JD’s gaze squarely, an answering fire lighting his own green eyes, “You are very well acquainted with exactly what reactions they evoke in me.” With that open stare, Ezra shared more of his soul with the younger man than he could ever express verbally.

JD swallowed heavily, leaning forward toward the gambler.

Ezra only grinned, breaking the moment as he pressed a soft hand against JD’s naked chest, “Cut that out if you want to do this. Lay back and be still.”

“You’re the master.” JD grinned, throwing his arms wide as he laid back, “where do you want me?”

Ezra snorted. “Well, there’s a loaded question, if ever I heard one,” he muttered as JD chuckled. “And I’m no master. Not even a real artist.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Ezra,” JD scowled, “you have a real talent.” He grinned again, waggling his eyebrow suggestively, “And you didn’t answer... where do you want me?”

Heaving a loud sigh as he shook his head, Ezra ignored all but the pertinent question. “Lean back there in the grass, yes, against the boulder like that,” he directed, adjusting JD’s position, “this arm behind your head, yeah, let your other hand rest on your belly.” Sitting back, he looked over JD with a critical eye, “no, slide it a little lower. A little more. Perfect. Fold your left leg there. A little higher. Right. Got it.” He sat back again, scanning JD from his crown to his toes, “Perfect. Now don’t move.”

Ezra settled back in the shade, pulling a soft leather folder out of his saddlebag. Flipping it open, he pulled out a stack of fresh paper and a charcoal pencil. Shifting slightly to a more comfortable position, he drew in a deep breath, cast one more long glance over the young man posing for him, and set pencil to paper.

After a few moments of silence, broken only by the soft scratch of charcoal across paper, Ezra spoke without looking up, “So what did you tell the others?”

JD sighed, “I told them I was going to spend some time at the watering hole with Casey. They won’t bother us.”

Ezra felt the tension in his shoulders ease a little. He knew that JD didn’t share his concern about hiding their relationship from the others. But he was grateful nonetheless that the younger man respected his wishes in this.

As if reading the gambler’s very thoughts, JD added, “we can’t keep it a secret forever. Sooner or later we’re going to have to tell everyone the truth.”

Ezra did not look up from watching the soft strokes of the charcoal pencil as they moved across the paper. “The truth is highly over-rated.”

“Are you ashamed?” JD’s sharp gaze burned into Ezra’s, watching his reaction to the question intently.

“No. Of course not,” he answered vehemently, meeting that gaze, hoping the truth of his conviction would come across in his expression when his words were suddenly so lacking.

JD held his silence, waiting.

Damn, but he knows me too well. Knows I’ll be compelled to fill the silence with more words. And damn it, why now, when it’s most important, are my words so inadequate. Ezra looked back down at the sketch in his lap, the suddenly still charcoal pencil in his fingers, “I just... I don’t understand what it is you think you see in me.” Still, there was only silence. “And I suppose I’m somewhat... apprehensive... that the others won’t understand why you’d trust me, why you’d want to be with me. And that you’ll begin to wonder yourself.”

“I might say the same about you.”

“What?” Ezra looked up, wide-eyed, to see JD staring into the distance. “Nonsense, JD, you’re...”

“Too young...”

“A grown man who just happens to have an endearing youthful enthusiasm and conviction.”

JD grinned, but continued, “Inexperienced...”

“I’ve always found you to be an eager pupil and a quick study.” Ezra’s suggestive grin and JD’s resultant chuckle lightened the sombre mood even further.

“Cocky...” JD looked up through long, dark lashes.

A sputtered laugh broke free from the gambler. “If by that you mean self-assured and confident.”

“There, you see what I mean?” JD grinned, “Why wouldn’t I love you?”

The shared laughter drained from the gambler’s eyes, his grin faded. “Because I’m untrustworthy...”

“Ezra, you know that’s not true.” JD abruptly moved to sit up, but Ezra’s firm fingers pressed him back down. JD grabbed those fingers, holding them against his heart. “We’ve all trusted you with our lives and you’ve never let us down yet.”

Ezra looked away, “I abandoned...”

JD pulled the gambler’s gaze around to meet his own, “you came back.” He smiled softly, adding, “and we all lived to tell about it.”

“I’m suspicious and cynical...” Ezra warned softly, settling JD back into his pose, and picking up paper and charcoal once more.

JD shrugged, “I think your caution makes a perfect match to my impulsiveness.”

“Mercenary...” Ezra added, as he worked, stroking dark lines with the pencil and then rubbing them softly, using his fingertips to smooth the shading onto the sketch.

“Well, someone has to plan for our retirement years.” JD teased with a chuckle.

The silence grew again, punctuated only by the renewed scratching of charcoal on paper. Finally, settling back, eyes flicking back and forth between the young man in front of him and the sketch in his hands, Ezra set down the pencil.

“Are you finished yet? Can I come look?” JD leaned forward eagerly.

Ezra shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t understand why you wanted me to do this anyway.”

JD only grinned, crawling closer to the gambler, completely without self-consciousness over his lack of clothing. “Because you have a real talent, Ezra.” JD sidled closer to the Southerner, leaning over his shoulder to continue softly, “And because I wanted to see...” eyes widening, JD’s words slowed, “... how you see me.”

Reaching a tentative hand toward the sketch, JD hesitated, almost as if afraid to touch, “Oh Lord, Ezra,” he murmured softly, “... is that what I look like?”

Ezra ducked his head, “as near as I can render you.”

The younger man made no comment, still staring wide-eyed at the drawing of himself.

“Is it that bad?” Ezra muttered. Eyeing the paper once more, he groaned. He’d been attempting to juxtapose the ethereal beauty of the young man reclining nude in the dappled sunlight, with the sultry invitation blatantly burning in the bright hazel eyes. He should have known he could never do JD justice.

“Bad?! It’s beautiful, Ezra, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful” JD sighed, not taking his eyes from the drawing.

“Well, so it should be, considering the subject.” Ezra muttered, embarrassed by the effusive praise.

“What a romantic.” JD turned to the gambler, pressing a soft kiss against his cheek. “Thank you.”

JD sat back on his heels, pulling Ezra’s face around to meet his eyes. “And whether you believe it or not, you are loveable Ezra Standish.” Holding the gaze a moment, JD grinned, adding, “So, now, show me what other uses you’ve found for those talented hands of yours.”

“Oh, no,” Ezra pulled back, holding his hands wide, “I need to wash, I’m covered in charcoal.”

Smiling at the gambler, JD simply reached out to snag Ezra’s arm. Pulling the gambler’s hand close, he pressed it firmly against his chest before letting go. “There,” he murmured softly, “Now I’m already smudged.”

Ezra eyes fell on the dark marks on JD’s smooth skin. His fingerprints. Curved around that beautiful muscle. Marking clearly where his fingers had been cradled around JD’s flesh. He groaned softly, reaching for the younger man.

Following as JD lay back in the warm grass, Ezra leaned over him, beginning a gentle experimentation. He marked the smooth body before him with varying strokes, cataloguing the different patterns the charcoal made as he adjusted the pressure of his fingers or the location he studied.

JD squirmed under the gambler’s slow exploration. He whimpered softly when Ezra strong tongue began following the charcoal marks like a map to his hidden treasure.

Slowing the pace, Ezra worked his sinuous way back up to JD’s mouth. Nipping lightly on the stubbled chin, he took quick advantage of the young man’s gasp to press his lips against JD’s open mouth. After a quick hug, Ezra lay back with a contented grin, taking a moment to catch his breath as JD panted softly beside him.

“I believe, Mr. Dunne, you called me loveable?”

“Hmmmm,” JD murmured, planting soft butterfly kisses against the nearest shoulder, “you are, Ez, you really are.”

“Prove it.” The heated tone in Ezra’s smooth Southern voice was tempered by an almost desperate look of pleading in his wide green eyes.

“I will, Ezra. As often as it takes for you to start believing it.” JD pressed his mouth over the gambler’s, devouring the still swollen lips. A soft hum of pleasure vibrated between them.

Senses reeling under JD’s onslaught, lost in the duelling battle, the thrust and parry of pointed tongues, Ezra was only dimly aware of JD’s hands as they roamed purposefully over his body. Buttons, boots, belt, each item of clothing was quickly unfastened and disposed of, until only the gambler’s smooth bare limbs and torso were left under the younger man’s questing fingers.

A deep groan shuddered through Ezra’s chest as he thrashed his head back and forth in the grass. JD’s rough whiskered cheeks brushed across his heaving chest, tickling against his taut aching nipples. Ezra gasped, thrusting unconsciously as he felt the younger man’s callused fingers wrap around his burgeoning erection.

“Oh,” Ezra jumped at the first touch of cool lips against his fiery organ, toes curling in the dirt. He twisted his fingers tightly into the tall grass at his head, before he had a chance to tangle it in the soft black hair tickling against his hips. He was determined to hold steady, struggling against the need to grab JD’s head in a tight-fisted grip and plunder the warm wet depths of his mouth until he screamed with the pleasure of it.

But again, the younger man seemed to read his very thoughts. Or perhaps it was Ezra’s soft, incoherent pleas that urged JD on to a faster rhythm. Ezra gasped, arching his hips, as JD swallowed his full, fiery length, at the same moment as he teased a saliva slick finger against the gambler’s tight entrance.

“Oh JD, please,” he whispered brokenly, tossing his head wildly, quivering under the younger man’s sure caresses.

“Come for me, Ez,” JD whispered against the gambler’s throbbing shaft, pressing his finger in to find Ezra’s center. “Now.”

Ezra shouted his release, as pulse after pulse shot over his chest and belly.

JD grinned softly, trailing his fingers through the sticky evidence of Ezra’s pleasure. “Are you feeling loved yet?” he teased, as he used the gambler’s seed to coat his own, still straining length.

Green eyes met hazel with an intense, heated look. “Love me, JD,” Ezra whispered, “please?”

JD groaned, leaning forward to capture the gambler’s lips in a hard, swift kiss. “God, Ez, I do, I really do.” He knelt back, between Ezra’s legs, pulling the gambler’s hips up to rest on his own thighs. “Watch me Ez,” he whispered softly, smoothing his hands up Ezra’s thighs to nudge his legs a little farther apart, “watch me love you.”

Guiding his erection to rest against Ezra’s opening, JD began with a slow, steady pressure, easing his way into the tight passage.

Eyes drawn to the juncture of his body with JD’s, Ezra watched with rapt attention while the younger man’s length disappeared slowly inside his own body. He watched, as their connection was forged anew, until he cradled JD completely within himself.

JD began a gentle rocking, gingerly working his length in and out, varying each stroke a tiny bit as he searched for Ezra’s center of pleasure.

Ezra groaned at the younger man’s sedate pace. “Faster, JD. Harder,” he growled, “make me feel it.”

With a soft chuckle, JD complied, plunging into Ezra’s heat, pumping his hips in time with the gambler’s panting moans.

Ezra grunted with each thrust, revelling in the feel of JD’s length plundering his aching depths, filling the emptiness inside him. He cried out, as JD’s cock nudged against his pleasure core, shooting jolts of fire outward from his groin, trembling along his limbs.

“Feel it, Ez,” JD muttered, “feel my love.”

“Yes,” Ezra hissed, teeth clenched, eyes squeezed tight, straining to hold his release until JD had reached his own, wanting to feel JD’s pleasure.

“Please, JD,” he gasped, “now, let it go, now,”

“I love you, Ezra,” JD cried, shooting his climax deep inside the gambler’s body.

Ezra clenched his passage around JD, holding tight to the warm flood he could feel deep inside, savouring this gift, this part of JD that would remain within him.

JD sighed, collapsing against the gambler’s chest. Burying his face in the hollow between Ezra’s neck and shoulder he panted, “I love you.”

Ezra smiled softly as he worked to catch his own breath. Running soothing fingers through the younger man’s sweat-soaked black hair, he murmured softly, “I love you too.”

JD snuggled closer, wrapping his arms around the gambler as he hid his smile against Ezra’s neck. Leaning back, he smoothed his fingers across Ezra’s chest. “So,” he grinned, “what are you planning to do with my portrait?”

Ezra chuckled softly, “Why, I thought I might hang it behind the bar in the tavern.”

JD laughed, “Aren’t you afraid people might get ideas?”

“No,” Ezra murmured softly, surprised, “I don’t think I am.”

JD leaned up on his elbow, a wide smile beaming, lighting up the last dark recesses of Ezra’s worry. “Really?”

“Really,” Ezra nodded. “Besides,” he added with a grin, “anyone who gets any lascivious ideas about you is going to have to deal with me.” He gave JD a heavy-lidded look, full of promise, “Did I forget to mention that I’m possessive?”

JD grinned, “Now that’s a trait we share,” he murmured, before pressing a soft kiss against the gambler’s lips and settling once more to rest in the dappled sunlight, safe and content in the arms of the man he loved.