Chapter 3 – Chapter 3

It had snowed in the night, but not too badly. When Jeremiah left the cabin to check on Becky, though, he could see the clouds were still ominous looking over the western range. From experience, when it looked like this, they were in for a lot of snow, and even if you could get up to the top of Antelope Gap from here, the snow would be so deep on the western slope that you couldn't get down into the Yampa valley.

He heard whinnying as he approached the barn, and it sounded like more than just Becky, so he was somewhat prepared when he entered the barn to find a painted pony stalled next to Becky—the two of them having a friendly conversation—and a young, blond-haired man bundled up in a blanket and lying on strewn hay in the third stall. He kicked the young man's boots, and Bran sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Had a good sleep in my barn, did ya?" Jeremiah asked gruffly.

"Uh, sorry," Bran answered at the end of a big yawn. "Really sorry. I thought the place was deserted until I saw the horse stalled in here. But I needed someplace to get out of the wind and snow. Really tired. Sorry. Thought I'd be up and gone before whoever owned this horse showed up. Lots of feed and water here. Thought she was being left alone during a hunt or something. The cabin looked all boarded up."

"And you didn't see smoke risin' out of the chimney? City boy, are you? Can't hunt in weather like this. Well, won't begrudge you the shelter, but you need to be up and . . . say, do I recognize you from somewhere?"

"No, I don't think so. Yeah, and sorry about not knowing better. I've come from Pennsylvania." Bran, in fact, did recognize Jeremiah. He was the big-dicked customer working Caleb over in the "best" room just a few days ago.

"Headed where?" Jeremiah asked.

"To California. Just passing through here. Sorry, I'll be up and on my way."

"Not for a while, you won't, I reckon, unless you go south from here into Hayden and then west through the wider gap in the Rockies."

"Uh, I was told there was a pass up this way."

"There is. Antelope Gap. But it's surely snowed in on the western side already, and it will only get worse for the next couple of days. You'll need to lay up somewhere and wait for it to reopen, unless you hurry and go south to Hayden."

"Uh, I don't really want . . ." No way he wanted to be going back toward Hayden. He hadn't asked anyone's permission when he'd left, and he had no idea what being contracted to Levi Yost meant.

"Suit yourself. I guess you can hole up here, if you've got your own grub. I won't begrudge you feed for the horse. Becky will like havin' the company. But you'll have to stay out here."

"Stayin' out here is fine with me, thank you kindly. I have enough hardtack to last until I can get across the mountains."

"Well, just so you keep quiet like. I came up here for the peace and quiet—and to be alone. That's why the cabin looks boarded up."

It was well after his dinner of beans, fatback, and coffee that it hit Jeremiah where he'd seen Bran before—in Hayden's saloon. In the room where he'd fucked that sweet young piece substituting for Sam. If the guy was in that room . . . He surely was a sweet young piece himself. In some ways he reminded Jeremiah of Seth.

He went to bed and tossed and turned. The longer he thought about Seth and the young man out in the barn, the more aroused he got.

It was snowing harder in the night as he left the cabin and walked toward the barn.

The young man was bundled up in the third stall, shaking a bit because it was cold out here without the benefit of a fire. He wasn't asleep though. Jeremiah kicked his boots.

"I have seen you before, haven't I? In the Hayden saloon."

"Maybe yes," Bran answered in a small voice. "I've been working there." He didn't think it would go well with him to lie about that. He too hadn't slept, more because of being aroused by what he'd seen this man doing to Caleb than because of the cold.

"You one of Levi Yost's boys?"

Bran hesitated, but yes, over the past couple of days he had definitely become one of Levi Yost's boys—and a favorite of the customers, who were always pleased with fresh meat and who were showing up at the saloon in droves now, probably at least partly because of the Christmas spirit Bran had introduced by suggesting they put up a tree.

"Yes, I was. Not anymore, though," he said.

"Well, we can work out your sheltering and some grub for breakfast in a barter exchange unless you're not willing."

Bran was willing.

"Oh shit, oh fuck. You're so fuckin' big," Bran cried out as Jeremiah started to stuff his cock in. The older man was crouched between Bran's legs. Both of them were fully dressed except for Bran missing the britches Jeremiah had pulled off him. Jeremiah had an arm under Bran's waist, lifting his pelvis up to the cock, while Bran had his arms thrown over his head, clutching at the rough boards of the stall, trying to hold steady at what became the thrusts of a huge battering ram.

"God, I've never had it this big!"

"I can—"

"No, no. I seen you doin' Caleb. I knew it would be big. Do it. Ram it in me!"

Soon, Bran was reduced to sobs and moans and groans as he clutched at Jeremiah's neck with his hands, fighting to bring the older man's lips down to his, and eventually succeeding, even though Jeremiah hadn't wanted this to have any intimacy at all. He just wanted the meeting of his animal need, to fuck someone hard to forget, in only briefly, Seth.