FIC: Western Lovers:Cowboys & Biologists (Epilogue)
Title: Western Lovers: Cowboys and Biologists
Author:sassywitch
Beta by the talented alassenya
Pairing: OB/DW
Rating: NC-17 for the series.
Summary: David is a hard, jaded warrior, Orlando is a biologist tracking Big Cats on the Double L.
Feedback: Feedback is my writers crack, which is not to be confused at all with plumbers crack.
Disclaimer: Not at all true in reality. These men whilst adorable and perfectly happy to slash themselves, their actual relationship is something that they only know. This story is adapted from a series of books that I adored when I was younger written by Elizabeth Lowell.
Word Count: 3194
Previous Story: Can be found here
Previous Ordaisy chapter: As suggested by mystery_ink can be found here
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1| Chapter 2 | Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7| Chapter 8| Chapter 9| Chapter 10| Chapter 11| Chapter 12| Chapter 13| Chapter 14| Chapter 15| Chapter 16| Chapter 17| Chapter 18| Chapter 19| Chapter 20| Chapter 21| Chapter 22| Chapter 23| Chapter 24| Chapter 25| Chapter 26| Chapter 27| Chapter 28| Chapter 29| Chapter 30| Chapter 31| Chapter 32| Chapter 33| Chapter 34
Posted to: fellowshippers, monaboyd and ordaisy
Header Art: Courtesy of the incredibly talented loki_girl.
Authors Notes: Finally, the end of David and Orlando’s dedicated story, the final brother, Craig’s Story (WL:Cowboys and Geologists) will be making it’s appearance soon. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for hanging in with me. I know it’s been a long and perilous ride but here we are at the end.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
As David shifted gears, he risked a glance across the seat at his lover. For the last three months Orlando had tried every trick he knew to gain David’s permission to see their new home, but to no avail. Twice a week, David made the solo trek to check on building progress, to ensure the completion of their house on schedule.
Smiling as he caught sight of Orlando, his lover had his neck craned forward, eager to see the surprise so long kept, he had to repress a chuckle. Sometimes Orlando was as childlike as the tribe of munchkins they were collecting on the Double L.
Reaching across the expanse of seat between them, David clasped Orlando's hand tightly and drew it to his lips. It had taken time for Orlando to recover from the illness that had almost separated them forever. It had been three weeks before they could even leave Alaska, and it had taken another two to make the slow leisurely drive back home to the Double L, since his pneumonia-weakened lungs weren't up to a long plane journey. It had been a family road trip that Rory had chronicled with Polaroid photos and a journal she announced would be handed down through the following generations, their own version of a family bible. A further six weeks had elapsed before David had been willing to let his lover do anything more strenuous than eat or sleep. Now, a little less than six months after David had driven Orlando from the Double L, he declared the frustrated biologist was ready for his surprise.
“What are you smiling at?” Orlando, unclipped his seat belt and slid across the seat until their thighs touched, letting his head rest on David’s shoulder, one long arm sliding around his waist.
“You.” David answered simply.
Orlando leaned up to press a kiss to the side of David’s neck. “I’m glad I can amuse you,” he grumbled, his lips curved into a smile.
“You could have come up and had a look see.” David lifted one hand from the steering wheel and caressed Orlando's knee, before resuming his driving. “It wouldn’t have been the end of the world.”
“I gave you my word I wouldn’t see it without your permission.”
“That’s why I knew I didn’t have to worry. You’re as good as your word.”
“Besides, I knew the surprise was important to you.” Orlando shrugged, nuzzling the side of David’s neck.
“Careful.” David sighed, tilting his head to give Orlando's mouth better access. “Or neither of us will get there. Get your ass back over there and buckled in.”
“S’not my fault you’ve been withholding privileges.” Orlando pouted as he slid back across the seat.
“Only some privileges, I didn’t see you complaining last night.” David turned toward him one eyebrow quirked in question.
“hand and blowjobs don’t count. I want all of you David.” Orlando grumbled, reaching across the seat to stroke David’s thigh.
“You’ve been sick. I don’t want to rush you.” David lifted his hand to cup Orlando's face, his thumb caressing Orlando's clean shaven cheek.
“I’ve been well for a couple of months now, you know that I could have been working at least two months ago, you were just being too careful.”
David shrugged. “I’m careful with the ones that are precious to me.”
Orlando raised an eyebrow and looked into his lovers face, his eyes misting. “Now, I’m your precious?”
David lifted Orlando's hand to his lips and licked his knuckles before pressing a soft kiss there. “Absolutely. You’re all warm and golden and when I’m inside you, you’re my entire world and control me completely.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Orlando sighed into the curve of David’s shoulder.
“Just don’t go comparing me to Gollum and we’re all good.” David smiled, his thumb caressing Orlando's knuckles.
“I was thinking more of Frodo, you’ve got hairy enough feet.” Orlando snickered.
“I’m going to kill Dom.” David growled playfully.
“What for?” his fingers brushed over David’s softly as he asked.
“For giving you that damned book.”
“You know damned well it was Liv. And I know that you remember exactly why I love it.”
David’s eyes misted as he remembered the afternoon he had returned to their room in the bunkhouse to find Liv and Dom, both sitting on the edge of Orlando's bed, all three of them laughing at something Dom had said.
Seeing his lover’s skin flushed and his eyes dancing with happiness, David had gruffly ordered their guests away before sliding onto the bed with his lover. The thick volume of Tolkien’s works had stood little chance against their mutual passion, trapped between their bodies as David had driven Orlando past delirious with need. The cover of the paperback bent and torn and still residing on their bedside table, a constant reminder to both of them of their home and the power they each held over the other.
“I love you.” Orlando murmured, pressing his lips against David’s neck.
“I know.” David let his fingers trail over Orlando's face before returning them to the steering wheel.
“Close your eyes, fairytale boy.” David ordered quietly as the truck turned the last bend in the road before the clearing that housed their new home.
Orlando leaned up to press his lips to David’s cheek before he closed his eyes and waited patiently. David stopped the vehicle and bent his head to press a gentle kiss against Orlando's lips before sliding out of the cab and running around the front of the pick up to open Orlando's door.
Tugging on Orlando's hands, he helped him out of the vehicle and waited until he was standing in front of him before he cupped Orlando's face in his hands. Pressing his lips against Orlando’s, he let his tongue tease Orli’s lips before pushing slowly into his mouth, tasting him, his fingers tracing across Orlando’s soft skin, the tips of his fingers brushing against the curls that thankfully regrown.
“Are you ready, Orli?” David murmured softly, his words breathed against Orlando's lips.
“For you to make love with me?” Orlando sighed, his hands moving to cup David’s head and caress his scalp lovingly. “Absolutely.”
“That comes later.” David spoke against his lips, as he stepped away from Orlando , his hand tightly clasped in Orlando's. “Open your eyes fairytale boy.”
Orlando turned his head and opened his eyes, watching his lover watching him, before he leaned in to press his lips against David’s for a soft, chaste kiss and turned away. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of their new home.
In place of the small ramshackle cabin they had consummated their love in, stood a beautiful rustic two storey building. The entire bottom floor seemed to be completely enclosed by huge glass doors, opening their home to the outdoors they both loved so much. At the corner of the main house stood a small barn and corral that begged to be filled with the horses David loved to ride. Turning back to David his eyes filled with tears, Orlando wrapped his arms around his lover tightly.
“David?” Orlando questioned quietly.
“You don’t like it?” David’s smile fell as he lifted a hand to brush the tears from Orlando's face quickly. “I should have let you help with it…I haven’t furnished it yet, I wanted you to be able to bring your things from Alaska if you wanted to.” David moved to wrap his arms around Orlando and nuzzle his face into Orlando's shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“David?” Orlando whispered softly. “Shut up and kiss me, you beautiful, sexy, caring man.”
“I wanted to give you nature and a home. I hoped you’d like it. I knew I’d fuck it up.”
Orlando caught David’s face in his hands. “I don’t like it.” Orlando explained. “I love it, it’s beautiful, just like you. We might need to winter in the bedroom though with all that glass.”
“The architect assures me that the glass is double glazed or something and we’ve got a central fireplace, so if we get the right drapes we’ll be plenty warm enough.” David kissed his way to Orlando's mouth. “Not that I’m complaining about hibernating with you.”
“I hope there’s a bed in there.” Orlando's hands framed David’s face as he spoke against David’s lips.
“Nope.” David shook his head.
“Then I hope the floors are polished, I wouldn’t want you getting splinters in that gorgeous ass.”
“Are you propositioning me?” David bent his head to nibble on Orlando's neck, his hands moving down to cup Orlando's buttocks and pull him against his aroused body. “You think you might want to live here with me?” He murmured, his lips drifting down Orlando's neck, trailing wet kisses to his collar.
“I never want to live anywhere you’re not.” Orlando let his head tilt back, a moan bubbling from his lips as David’s teeth nipped at the soft flesh of his neck.
“There’s a blanket in the back of the truck.” David breathed against Orlando's skin, his hands moving to knead at Orlando's denim covered buttocks.
“Then why exactly are we still standing here?” Orlando's teeth nipped at David’s earlobe, he leaned back against the side of the truck and lifted one leg to wrap around David’s hip, pulling their bodies into closer alignment.
David tightened one arm around Orlando's waist, his hips undulating against his lover as he blindly searched the back of the truck with his free hand, trailing kisses across his skin. “Think you’re ready for me?”
Orlando's teeth tugged at David’s earlobe, his breath warm against his skin as he whispered brokenly. “I was born ready for you, my warrior.”
“You want this to last until we get inside?” David moaned, pressing Orlando back against the body of the truck. “It’s been six months fairytale boy.”
“Not my fault.” Orlando trailed his tongue from David’s neck to his ear, his teeth nipping at David’s fleshy earlobe. “You’re the one who wanted to wait.”
“Not anymore.” David growled, his fingers finding the blanket and pulling it from the back of the truck. Pressing his lips to Orlando’s for a short, almost savage, hungry kiss, David pulled back, his breathing ragged and broken, one hand trailing across Orlando’s torso, to rub against the heavy ridge of Orlando arousal.
“That’s so not making me want to move.” Orlando groaned brokenly, pushing his hips into David’s touch.
David smiled against Orlando's mouth, as he kissed his lover again. “Then I shouldn’t be worried about splinters?”
Disentangling himself from Orlando's arms, watching his breathing ragged, David’s trembling fingers pushed the tousled curls back from Orlando's face, struggling to control his own burning arousal. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”
“David,” Orlando moaned, “I’m horny not hurting.” He trailed his fingers down David’s torso to cup his arousal, grinding his hand, grinning as David unconsciously thrust into his hand. “I thought maybe we could help each other out.”
David grinned back at his young lover. Thrusting the blanket against Orlando's chest, he bent down, lifted Orlando effortlessly over his shoulder and strode towards their new home.
“David?” Orlando exclaimed. “What are you doing?” Clinging to the blanket with one hand he pushed his other along the strong line of David’s back, pulling ineffectually at David’s shirt until he could touch bare skin.
“You wanted affirmative action didn’t you?” David’s step faltered as Orlando's fingers dipped under the waistband of his jeans.
Orlando's fingers brushed across the slight curve of David’s buttocks, fingertips caressing soft skin gently. “I want to feel you deep inside me, so deep I can’t tell where you start and I begin,” Orlando crooned.
Opening the door and stepping through the entrance, David knelt and placed Orlando on his feet. His hand clasped Orlando's hips, and he leaned forward and pressed a wet open mouthed kiss against Orlando's arousal. “Welcome home, fairytale Boy.”
Knees buckling, Orlando dropped the blanket forgotten to the floor, his fingers running through David’s hair as he struggled to remain upright.
His hands holding Orlando's hips tightly, David stood, pulling Orlando against him, their bodies aligned from knee to shoulder as his lips pressed tiny wet kisses along the slender column of Orlando's neck. Lifting his head to speak, his heavy lidded eyes took in the room they were standing in. “I’ll be damned.” He murmured.
“You will be if you don’t keep touching me.” Orlando almost whimpered, clutching at David’s back as he ground himself against his lover, desperate for friction.
“No chance that’ll stop.” David snickered as he pressed his hands to Orlando's shoulders and turned him in his arms. Pressed against Orlando's back, his arms wrapped about his waist, David pressed his head to Orlando's shoulder.
Orlando's eyes drank in the contents of the sunken living room that stood before them. In the centre of the floor a mound of blankets was spread, surrounded by dozens of cushions in front of a huge stone fireplace. Beside the blankets stood an ice bucket and a covered platter of what appeared to be fresh fruits.
“I didn’t do this.” He whispered into Orlando's ear, “But I can hazard a guess who did.”
“Dom.” Orlando nodded, leaning back into David’s embrace. His hand lifting to cup David’s face and pull it towards his own for a long wet kiss, before he pulled out of David’s embrace and walked down the three steps into the living room. Sitting gracefully in the middle of the blankets, he pulled the hem of his tee shirt up and over his head. “So ...” he grinned at David, “what’s the hold up?”
David didn’t need to be asked twice. Pulling his boots from his feet, he unbuckled his belt as he almost stumbled down the steps, and began unbuttoning his shirt. Laughing as he watched David’s normal grace dissolve into hormone-induced fumbling, Orlando leaned back and lifted the bottle of champagne from the bucket, his eyes focusing on the note around the bottle's neck as he did.
“I’ll be damned,” he murmured.
“What?” David asked as he landed with a thud on the blankets beside his young lover.
“It wasn’t Dom,” Orlando stated as he turned the note towards David.
“Must have been Livvie.” David shrugged before he read the small card. “Enjoy a touch of romance. No-one deserves it more than you two. Billy.”
“Wasn’t Livvie.” Orlando thrust two glasses in his direction.
David skillfully opened the bottle and poured two half glasses before he pushed the bottle back into the ice bucket and handed one glass to his lover.
“To us.” He murmured as he lifted his own glass and pressed it to Orlando's lips.
“To us.” Orlando whispered as he mimicked David’s actions, sipping from David’s glass.
David swallowed convulsively as he watched Orlando drink, then took the glass from his hands and placed it on the floor behind them.
His hands came up to frame Orlando's face. He looked from Orlando's warm brown eyes to his generous mouth. His lips were swollen with the kisses that David couldn’t bear not to share with him. Orlando had taught him so much about himself and the emotions he had never thought himself capable of. He wondered what else this beautiful, loving, tender young man would teach him in the course of their life together, or even what he could teach Orlando, but most of all what discoveries awaited his exploration of his own private, passionate Orlando.
The sheen that covered the blue blaze of David’s eyes as he watched Orlando's mouth made shimmers of sensation curl from Orlando's breastbone to his knees. He felt like a tightly furled bud being discovered by the first, searching heat of spring’s potent sun.
“David,” Orlando whispered “Aren’t you going to kiss me?”
“Do you want to kiss me again?”
“Want?” Orlando shivered and laughed softly, almost wildly, wondering how he could make David understand feelings that were so new, so fierce, that Orlando had no names for them. “There has never been just want between us David, I need you just as surely as night follows day, we were meant to be together until the end of our time.” Orlando breathed against his lips. “David, I’ve told you before and I mean it just as much now as I did then. I was born for you and you were born for me. I want it all with you, everything, heaven and hell and the rainbow burning between.”
With a low rumbling moan, David bent and took Orlando's mouth, giving him his own in return. David’s arms tightened, lifting him, bringing his whole body into the embrace. His hips moved slowly against Orlando , once, twice and then he shuddered and eased him down until Orlando was laying over him, his legs between David’s open thighs. Holding Orlando tightly, fighting to control his own wild response, David tried to end the kiss, but the pleasure of sliding his tongue into Orlando's satin sweetness was too great to deny.
The hungry gliding return of David’s tongue drew a soft moan from Orlando. Slowly David took complete possession of Orlando's mouth, then began to retreat from him. But he didn’t want the kiss to end. He needed more of his taste, his caresses, his elemental male passion. Instinctively Orlando's teeth closed on his tongue, silently demanding that David stay within him.
When Orlando felt the response that ripped though David at the nipping caress, he would have smiled. But David’s hands had shifted to Orlando's body, finding and his firm buttocks, grinding himself up against Orlando's arousal, sending burst after burst of pleasure through him. His teeth released him as Orlando's breath came in with a sound of surprise and passion and Orlando shuddered all the way to his core.
“Do you remember our first time here?” David whispered against Orlando's lips, desperately trying to catch his breath as he plunged in for another voracious kiss.
“Of course I do. I had been waiting my whole life for you, I knew the minute I found you in the snow that I was finally whole.” He whispered against David’s mouth.
Hard, searching, hungry, David’s tongue claimed Orlando once more, stroking the sultry softness of his mouth with rhythms of penetration and retreat. David’s hands moved over his chest, his long fingers stroking, kneading and teasing his nipples until they became a velvet hardness. When David plucked softly at them, the bursts of sensation that had been rippling through Orlando merged into hot currents of pleasure that turned his bones to honey.
“David, I can’t wait anymore,” Orlando said raggedly as he clung to David’s arms, dizzy with the violence of his own response. “Please, Daisy-o-mine, don’t make me wait any more.”
“I can’t resist you anymore, Orli.” David said almost roughly, watching him, feeling his heart swell as his love for the slender man in his arms poured through his body like a river of fire. “I can tame a wild horse, I can survive alone in the middle of a hostile war zone, but I’m powerless against you.”
Orlando opened his eyes, saw David watching him and wondered how he had ever thought David’s eyes bleak or cold, how he could have ever even considered that David was not the burning, vibrant, loving man that wrapped him in his embrace.
“Put your arms around my neck,” David said moving Orlando's hands, even as he spoke. “I want you to ride me, fairytale boy.”
His hands moved once more, stroking Orlando from hips to shoulders and back again, pressing him closer and closer to David’s body until he felt the urgency of David’s arousal rubbing frantically against his. Orlando's response was an instinctive supple movement of his hips that dragged a groan from deep within David. His arms tightened, locking their bodies together while he moved against Orlando once, twice, three times.]
“Open your mouth and kiss me.” David begged hoarsely, bending his head down. “I have to be inside you right now. Kiss me. ”
Orlando gave David what he wanted, needing the urgent joining as much as he did. His hands lifted to frame David’s face as he kissed him hungrily, fiercely. Moving over his lover, Orlando lifted his body until his knees framed David’s hips, his own body undulating against the tumescent heat of his lover’s body. When the world shifted and spun around him, Orlando simply clung more tightly to David, his arms ferocious around his neck. David held him close and hard and even as he deepened the hungry melding of mouths. David wanted Orlando with a force that he no longer questioned, for the thought of not loving Orlando was impossible. It was all he could do to control himself within each moment, each breath.
After a long time, David shuddered and slowly--reluctantly--broke the kiss. He lifted his head and let his breath hiss out between his teeth. Nothing had ever tempted him the way Orlando did, arched over him, warm and aroused against him, wanting him until he trembled with it.
“I should never have resisted you,” David said, his eyes closed and his voice rough with his own arousal. When his eyes opened he looked from Orlando's mouth to the pulse beating in his throat and the taut nipples. “It was futile.”
“Futile?” Orlando asked, his voice husky, his eyes sparkling with arousal.
David shook his head as he reached up to lathe his tongue across Orlando's nipples. “I was a fool. I should have admitted that I loved you from the beginning.”
David’s teeth closed delicately around one of Orlando's nipples, drawing a ragged gasp of surprise from Orlando as pleasure streaked through his body, arching against David, silently grinding his insistent arousal against David’s in sensual reflex.
“Fairytale boy.” David said thickly, arching into Orlando in return. “Clean and beautiful and hotter than hell. It’s been so long and I want you so much.”
“I’m always safe with you David. No matter what. I knew that the first time I saw you.”
Thick ginger lashes swept down, concealing the smouldering blue of David’s eyes. Orlando's hands stroked his hair, his beard, his moustache, and he smiled as he gently kissed David.
“I’m ready for you, David,” Orlando whispered, touching the tip of his tongue to David’s lips. “I’ve wanted to feel you inside me for months. I have to….feel you.” He paused. “I wasn’t coming out here alone with the love of my heart without being shagged senseless, and like I said, tonight a blowjob just won’t do.”
David’s trembling hands moved from Orlando's throat to his waist. His fingers traced the milky white globes of Orlando's buttocks before tracing slowly between them and feeling his lover’s prepared entranced. Orlando blushed until when he saw the look of fevered longing in David’s eyes. The passion and appreciation in his glance made Orlando forget that he had been waiting six long months for these touches.
Letting his fingers slip slowly inside Orlando's body, the intimacy of the instant made pain and pleasure twist deeply inside David, a foretaste of what would happen as he let control slip from him.
David knew he should slow down, it had been a long time since Orlando had been touched in this way. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Orlando was too beautiful, too warm, and David had been too long without his warmth and beauty.
David’s hands moved, skimming the curves and peaks of Orlando's chest. Orlando gasped as something deep within him shimmered and burst into fire. With a combination of hunger and anticipation, David watched his tiny nipples tighten even more under his touch until they begged for his mouth. But he had seen Orlando's first blush, when his soul was bared to David’s, his body to David’s hands.
“I could hold you down and devour you,” David said huskily, aching to taste all the shades of honey and caramel, to know all the textures of Orlando's body.
“Later.” Orlando tried to speak just as David’s fingertips delicately pinched one peaked nipple. A shivering hot sensation raced through Orlando . He pressed David’s hands more closely to his chest and looked into David’s eyes. Reaching under him, Orlando stroked David’s arousal slowly, before moving to slide himself slowly and surely onto his lovers body. “I’m not a hothouse flower, David. I know that you’ll never use your strength against me, and I want to play too.”
Orlando lifted one hand and ran his fingertips over David’s beard, over his moustache, over his lips and dipped into the sultry heat of David’s mouth in a sensuous foray that made his breath break as he took David deep within him. He laughed softly at David’s surprise, their bodies seated firmly within him as he stilled, adjusted to the welcome intrusion.
“You’ve always worried about shocking me,” Orlando whispered, “some of the thoughts I’m having right now just might shock you. I’m not inexperienced anymore David, and I’ll never be frightened or repelled. Touch me however you want to, whenever you want to. Let me teach me how I want to be touched. Because I want you to touch me, David. I want to give you what you want, what you need, everything you ever dreamed. I want…everything, but only with you.”
For long moments, David fought a pitched battle for self-control. Orlando couldn’t know what he was doing to David, what he was offering him, it was exactly what David had wanted so fiercely since he had first seen Orlando walking toward him in Helm’s Deep, what he realised he needed to survive when he had found Orlando so close to death in a cabin in Alaska. He needed what Billy and Dom had found, he needed what Orlando was giving him without hesitation.
Orlando was a love he shouldn’t have taken. He was too pure, too good and most of all he believed in the fairytale of true and everlasting love. Yet, he was a love David would never be able to refuse.
“ Orlando …” David tried to say more. No words came that equalled his need. No words came that could express his love. What did come was a silent vow that he would spend his life showing Orlando his love in every touch, every word, every gesture.
David curled his tongue around the caressing fingertip, sucked, bit gently and released.
“Does that mean you won’t mind if I ask you to make love to me?” David asked softly.
Orlando smiled.
With a swift motion David swept his hands up the length of Orlando's spine. He fitted a palm against the curve of each buttock and rubbed slowly as his hips undulated under Orlando , then watched unexpected pleasure transform Orlando's expression.
"You know my body better than I do," he said. "Your hands are so warm and hard. I love your hands, David."
David moved and rubbed his beard against Orlando's chest, heard his breath break, felt him shiver. His teeth closed gently on one tiny nipple, while the tip of his tongue drew a line of fire to its mate. Orlando's toes curled and he made a breathless sound. Slowly, David released Orlando's nipples. His hands stroked from Orlando's buttocks up the length of his spine and then down his chest to his belly and down his thighs, the back of his fingertips barely skimming the heated ridge of Orlando's arousal. There David stopped and looked into Orlando's eyes.
“Whatever you want,” Orlando said, huskily, his hips beginning a slow and teasing rise and fall. “Just touch me, David.” His hand drifted to press against David’s face, cupping his cheek tenderly. “For God’s sake, please touch me.”
“Your trust, your love…” David’s eyes closed, then opened brilliant with an emotion that was as great as his passion and as deep as his love.
Orlando bent and brushed his mouth over David’s lips, the taut skin of his throat, the stiff velvet tips of his nipples.
Soft sounds came from David, as Orlando undulated against him, sighs like flames rippling higher, as Orlando stoked the fire higher with every movement. When Orlando realized that he David was looking at him, he trembled. David trailed his fingers through the tangle of dark curls surrounding Orlando's cock and he eased his long fingers across the taut sacs below before sliding into a tight fist around Orlando's satin hardness. Holding him in one firm hand, his other hand traced the vulnerable softness of Orlando's brow.
“It’s alright,” David whispered against Orlando's mouth, “You’ll never be alone again.”
His hand moved gently, sliding against flesh that was already throbbing, sensitized. Orlando's breath broke, caught, broke again as something shimmered and burst softly, repeatedly, inside him, melting his soul. David felt the unmistakable damp heat of Orlando's response and groaned even as he tightened his slick, sliding grip on Orlando's arousal.
“Kiss me, Orlando. Burn me with your fire.”
Orlando parted his lips and felt the hot, gliding penetration of David’s tongue. The startled sound that Orlando made was transformed into a throaty cry of passion that David drank as he deepened the kiss, his hand sliding in a clinging, grasping grip from root to tip of Orlando's throbbing arousal. The repeated sensual forays sent more shimmering waves expanding through him.
All thought of control fled Orlando, leaving him in the grip of enthralling passion. When David’s touch redoubled, Orlando shivered and cried out. His knees tightened on David’s hips and his body rocked with wild abandon against him, taking David deeper, faster into his tight clenching body. He cried out again as David’s plunging arousal brushed repeatedly against his prostate. David drank that cry, too, and his caresses deepened as his thumb slid across the slick tip of Orlando's penis.
Sensual lightning searched through every cell in Orlando's body, drawing a surprised cry from his lips. Deliberately, David closed his teeth on Orlando's neck, both distracting him and increasing the intensity of his body’s response to the hot, intimate movements of David’s hand. His thumb returned again and again, spreading the liquid fire of Orlando’s body, teasing him, inciting, him, urging him higher and higher, drawing the sensual tension in him tighter and tighter until finally his breath stopped and his pleasure burst, his hips slamming into David’s touch as his fluids pulsed across David’s fingers. David’s own release followed less than a heartbeat later.
Gently David withdrew his touch. He gathered Orlando against himself and held him, trying to ignore the trembling of his own body. It was impossible. Every breath he took was spiced with Orlando's fragrance, infused with his warmth and the soft weight of his body against him burned him to his soul, but no longer was he afraid, now he closed his arms around the younger man and pulled him closer.
After several minutes Orlando sighed and stirred. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Orlando kissed the base of David’s neck and felt the instant speeding of his pulse and the shiver that went through his body.
One of David’s hands flattened between Orlando's shoulder blades, pressing him tightly against his chest, while his other hand trailed across his lips. Pressing one finger into Orlando's mouth, he drew in a sharp hiss of breath as Orlando licked his finger wetly, swirling his tongue around it and nipping it gently.
Pulling his finger free of Orlando's sucking lips, his hand trailed down Orlando's back, exploring the flesh that had known only his touch.
“I love you, fairytale boy,” he whispered before letting his lips brush across Orlando's mouth again.
David was unprepared for the tears that he watched gather on Orlando's lashes.
“What have I done, Orli?” he whispered desperately, his arms closing around Orlando’s torso as he rolled them onto their sides, his leg immediately lifting over Orlando’s thigh pulling them closer together.
“God dammit. David Fucking Wenham, you’re turning me into a bloody girl! I never thought I’d hear those words from you.”.
“I’m sorry I’ve not told you enough.” David kissed him slowly. “But I promise you, you’ll never wonder again.” He dragged his lips slowly across Orlando's skin. “I’ll tell you every day for the rest of our lives.”
“You don’t have to tell me … I know,” Orlando whispered, pushing his face into the curve of David’s neck. “You’ve shown me since the very beginning. It just threw me to actually hear the words.”
A groan was dragged out of the depths of David’s soul. His hands moved, tracing, touching, remembering each pore of Orlando's skin, cataloguing every sinful sound he made.
“If you had told me when I came home from fighting that I would be happy, in love and raising a tiny girl as if she were my own I would have said you were lying.” David kissed Orlando's forehead gently. “But then you happened and it didn’t matter how much I fought it, I loved you from the moment you walked up to me so surely in the bar.”
Orlando rested his weight on one elbow and looked down into David’s concerned face. Pressing the fingers of his free hand against David’s lips he spoke softly.
“David, it’s alright, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. I know.” Orlando whispered as he pressed gentle kisses to David’s face. “I’ve always known.”
“You’ve been better at this than me from the start.” David sighed, his fingers playing with Orlando's curls.
“I’m sorry I cut my curls off,” Orlando murmured, turning his face to nuzzle at David’s hand.
“Stop apologising, I had no right to expect you to keep them, especially when I had made it so painful for you.”
“I’ll never cut them again.” Orlando breathed against the palm of David’s hand.
“I’ll remind you of that when we’re old and your hair is manky.” David grinned, unable to hold the affection from his voice.
The lovers fell into silence, their hands gently stroking each other’s bodies as they relaxed together.
~*~*~*~*~*~
As David’s pick up rolled into the home yards in the middle of the morning, he wasn’t at all surprised to see the bulk of his family pretending to be disinterested but strangely all gathered around the main house.
As he climbed out of the vehicle, he met his older brother’s eyes unable to express his gratitude for Billy’s surprise without running up the steps to meet him and drawing him into his arms tightly.
“What was that for?” Billy asked with a grin.
“You know damned well,” David grinned back. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, it was Dom’s influence.” Billy blushed.
“Then I’ll leave you to thank him in the manner which he deserves.” David smiled back at him as Daisy-May came toddling around the corner of the building, closely followed by Dom, carrying the twins.
“Have a good time, Dais?” Dom asked one eyebrow quirked innocently under his shaggy blonde fringe.
“Outstanding,” David chuckled as he ruffled Dom’s hair and accepted his nephew into his arms.
Orlando had lingered at the pick up, intent on watching his lover and his family, all of them at peace for the first time in an age. Well all of them except Craig. His eyes darted to Craig’s ground floor rooms in the bunkhouse, seeing the familiar figure sitting just inside the window, always watching, but rarely ever venturing outside. Seeing a flash of colour, Orlando opened his arms to accept a tight embrace from Rory as she ran on her long coltish legs from the barn, squealing and flinging herself into her beloved brother’s arms.
“Good to see you too, Rory.” He laughed against her hair, pulling her close to him.
“Enjoy yourself?” she asked, her dark eyes so like his own twinkling with merriment.
“You’d have to be daft to think I wouldn’t.” Orlando answered honestly, looking closely at his baby sister. The move from Alaska had been kind to Aurora - her pale skin was now kissed with golden colour, her once almost shy demeanour, gleaned from living on her own for too long when she should have been socialising with her friends, was as boisterous and rambunctious as any teenager. Plucking a stray piece of hay from her hair, he spoke softly. “What have you been up to while I’ve been gone?”
“It’s been one night Orli, trust me I can look after myself just fine.” She sighed, swatting at his shoulder playfully. “Jenny is sleeping, so Lee has been teaching me to ride.” She gestured towards the barn, waving at the petite blonde woman who stood beside the corral.”
“You already know how to ride, Rory.” Orlando frowned.
“You can never get enough practice right?” Rory giggled and untangling herself from Orlando's arms bounded up the stairs to the house and the faint sounds of her niece waking.
“She’s a feisty one.” A faintly British voice spoke from behind him.
“She never used to be.” Orlando shrugged as he turned to speak to Sean, Liv’s brother.
“It’s what being happy does to you.” Sean replied, “She’d have all the hands falling at her feet if she’d even hint at being interested.”
“I don’t think she’s interested in the opposite sex yet.” Orlando murmured as he watched Aurora emerge from the house, Jenny happily cradled in her arms.
“No, I don’t think she is.” Sean responded with a broad smile as he clapped Orlando on the back and walked up the steps, disappearing into the house.
Orlando walked slowly up the steps and into David’s loose embrace, kissing him gently before he bent down to lift Daisy-May into his arms.
“I see you’ve run foul of the welcoming committee.” Viggo’s voice floated from the doorway as he walked out onto the porch, his baby daughter in one arm, Milo following closely behind him, his free hand closed tightly around Liv’s long elegant fingers.
“We couldn’t convince anyone to do any work today.” Liv murmured, moving closer to press a soft kiss to Orlando's cheek, reaching up to ruffle David’s hair.
“Apparently.” David quirked an eyebrow, his cheeks flushing pinkly at Liv’s affectionate touch. His eyes turning serious as he pulled Orlando tightly against his side, he pressed a gently kiss to Daisy-May’s upturned, expectant lips before he looked back at Billy. “Craig?”
Billy’s face fell sadly, “He won’t have anything to do with me, he just sits in his room all day, watching.” Billy’s regretful gaze lingered on the window, where he could see the outline of his brother’s watching form.
“You just need to give him time.” Sean spoke softly from the doorway. He leaned against the door frame his own gaze drawn to the window. “He’s trying, but he just needs time.”
“What would you know?” David’s voice was cold, his eyes like shards of blue ice as he stared at Sean.
“More than you apparently.” Sean replied calmly, pushing off from the doorframe he moved down the stairs before he spoke again. “It’s not about you Daisy, it’s about Craig and if I can help him, I will.”
Orlando laced his fingers tightly through David’s as he felt his lover’s body tensing beside him. Billy moved forward and lifted Lennox from David’s arms. “Let it go, Daisy.” Billy spoke softly, “He lets him in and he won’t let us. Just let it be.”
“I don’t care who he is, I won’t let him hurt Craig.” David ground from between tightly clenched teeth, watching Sean stride towards the bunkhouse.
“He won’t.” Orlando murmured, tilting his head to press a gentle kiss against David’s beard.
“How can you be so sure?” David turned his head to brush his lips across Orlando's, smiling as Daisy May clambered to find her way into his arms. Swinging her from Orlando's arms to his own he pressed his mouth against her cheek to blow a raspberry against her cheek.
“Because I know, David. Trust me.” Orlando murmured.