- Hard Fall Read online

  I looked up the face of the cliff and tried to sight off where I might be. "Maybe a good mile and a half from where she fell."

  "Really?" The sound of a small rain of rocks came across the connection with his words. "What'd you find?"

  That black strip of fabric taunted me. I'd feel like a damn fool if that was just some scrap carried in by a scavenger.

  Somehow my gut told me I was right. "I think I found her camera."

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  Silence answered me for a while. Left me some time with my thoughts, damn near all of them revolved around Kabe and what the heck I was going to do about us. I did not want there to be an 'us.' I couldn't let there be an 'us.' Somehow, I'd put an end to it, shut it down quick and nurse the shame of my desire in private ... like I always had. There couldn't never be more. I wouldn't take my life down like that and no way, no how, did I have the right to ask anyone else to live with my secret guilt.

  The hiss of the speaker snapped me out of my thoughts.

  Kabe broke in and asked, "More than a mile from where she fell?" He must have been thinking on the issue of the gal and the camera. Probably a much better way to occupy his mind than mine.

  After another swallow of water, I answered him. "Could be less, but it's a fair piece."

  "That's weird."

  "It's downright suspicious." I agreed.

  Didn't need much more conversation after that. First I took a reading off the GPS to confirm what I thought, then I pulled out my ropes, minus one short bit still tied in the bed of my truck, and checked them over. One of those things about being a climber, I never went near a mountain without a full set of gear. What if the mood struck me to try a face? I'd feel like a darn fool humping back to my truck or base camp to get it all. Not like I carried enough gear to tackle Spearhead or the Iron Messiah, but I packed enough for a few pitches.

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  it. If I did though, I knew I'd likely need to go either up or down to get it.

  Maybe forty minutes after we last talked, Kabe trudged into view. If my estimate was right, and he'd managed the same distance in the other direction as I'd come this way, Kabe'd done a good three miles at double time. Sweat plastered his shirt to his chest like a second skin. "Hey!" I called out and earned a wave. "Get over here and set your gear down for a bit."

  "I need to double check my rig." He may have been sweating, but his voice sounded like he'd been out on a short stroll 'round the block ... not even winded. The last few feet gave me ample time to just drink in the sight of him. And hate myself every moment for my weakness. All the promises I made to let him go swam right out of my mind. "Won't take long." He swung the pack off his shoulders and dropped down next to me. Warm skin under hot sun filled my senses with him; I was overwhelmed by his scent. I didn't think I'd ever manage to get it out of my mind.

  I nodded, trying to come off like a buddy, not someone who wanted to jump his bones right then and there. "No problem. You wanna lead this time?"

  His confident, "Sure," came with another bright, open smile. Each and every one of those ripped my heart to shreds. I wanted him to stay that way forever, look at me like that every day for the next hundred years. Just weren't gonna happen. Once we got off this mountain, everything needed to end.

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  He dug through his pack, arranging, rearranging things for the climb. We talked about nothing that much mattered: temperature, wind and the condition of the rock. Well, all that mattered something fierce to coming off the face in one piece, it just didn't make a darn sight of difference to me and the knowledge that I'd lose him. I had to. It wasn't fair to Kabe.

  An energy bar and a bit more water served for a snack as we fastened into our rigs. Then the business of climbing took over.

  Kabe sized up the rock and stepped back. He took two quick steps forward and made a Largo Start ... the initial jump onto the face for the high up finger holds. With a grunt, he latched in and started to climb. I watched that graceful, sexy man tackle the rock like he'd been born to it. Inch by scrabbling inch, he worked up the face. Hand stretched for a crevice, a finger hold here, a toe hold there, Kabe deliberately worked his way up. The boy used about half the anchor gear I was used to. This climb would push me ... although I sensed it was an intentional push. A you-can-do-better-if-you-try, like your pa taking the training wheels off your bike about month before you thought you were ready. I watched the ropes, made sure they didn't tangle. Not much more I could do during the first part of a climb. A good piece up, Kabe tied off and yelled down at me. "Off belay!"

  After I clipped in, I answered, "On belay!" letting him know of my start. I put my hand to the rock and felt the pulse of the earth in the held-in heat. Man against mountain. To my way of thinking, no truer test existed. A good clean fight against your own muscles and gravity. The strain felt freeing, 113

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  powerful. I reached the first true anchor, tied in and yelled,

  "Off Belay!" We did the dance for an hour. Kabe would take a span, tie in and call me up. Normally, I monitor everything.

  Nothing major, just a back of my head ticking it all off. How's my belay, where's the rope and what's the path look like? I'm here, you're there and there's a pocket hold two feet up. Not that I didn't do that with Kabe in the lead, but I didn't fret like I otherwise might ... even with guys I knew.

  That's when I realized the second part of my issue. I trusted him. I had faith that Kabe wouldn't let me fall. I mean, I always had that in someone I climbed with. But I knew them, Fred and Jessup and all. Lived, breathed and practiced with them. The only other time I'd climbed with Kabe, I'd been in the lead position, dragging the pig. If an anchor failed it would have been my fault. Without even thinking, I'd offered him the position I always took, putting my life at the mercy of his skills. I was all pumpy and not from the climb.

  As I untied, I yelled up, "On belay!" Then I compressed a cam about half way, yanked it out of the crack and let it spring open. It was my job to clear gear as we went. The only way to get down was to rappel. Leaving expensive equipment buried in the face of the rock, well, first off it weren't pretty or ecologically sound, and second, the key, was being expensive.

  Kabe answered with the standard acknowledgement then added, "Ready for a break?"

  "Yeah," I looked up the wall and got a great shot of his tight butt a ways above me. "I got to piss like mad, and don't 114

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  want to do it and have you slide while I got myself out of my pants."

  "Thanks for the consideration, dude," echoed from somewhere above me. I let the rope out a bit so I could lean back and sight up the face better. Kabe dangled from his fingers ten feet or so above. He looked down and a smile broke when he caught me watching. "There's a party ledge up here. Good place as any for a time out." Oh Lord, that smile after last night, it just burrowed right into my chest and made itself a home. The way his muscles strained pulling himself up reminded me of him nekkid and a lot of other straining muscles. I could taste the sweat on his skin. It filled my senses with a rush as heady as I'd ever got from a rappel.

  Kabe'd hit the ledge, tied himself in, and signaled me to come up. I shook it off and started to climb. I made the span in record time. Amazing what a little motivation will do ...

  motivation like standing next to him real close. Kabe reached down and took my hand, gave me that last bit of leg up. Not that I needed it, but I got to touch him and that I could live with. Habit, I quickly set a couple cams, fixed my ropes between them and then clipped on. A little bit of weight distribution across the anchors in case I went over.

  Safety taken care of, I shifted over to the very edge, which wasn't far. The widest part of t
he ledge maybe measured two feet and narrowed out on either side ... little bit more than an overhung shelf, Kabe'd found a wedge of space. It took a little tugging, pushing my briefs down under the belt of my harness and twisting my pants some, to free myself. One hand on the rock and one hand on me, I let it loose.

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  Sometimes the littlest things, like taking a whiz, can equal the best things in life.

  Kabe chuckled in my ear. "Whip it out there." We stood jammed up against each other. It was either that or not be on the ledge. "Don't mind me. I'll just watch."

  "How am I going to take a leak with you teasing like that?"

  "Well, I could help like this." Kabe reached over and wrapped his grip around my cock.

  Luckily, I wasn't one to start easy. "Oh, man." My bladder wasn't anywhere near shy, otherwise that grab would have had me dancing for certain. Still had me dancing. Just not in the 'got to piss like a racehorse' kinda way. "What are you doing?"

  Another laugh, his body darn near melded into mine. My shoulders against his chest, his breath teasing the back of my neck, and his hips pressed up to my butt. "Like you can't tell."

  He teased.

  'Course I couldn't tell if he sported wood or not, with all that rig in the way. "Why?" The last little bit trickled out and I shook myself off. Not the easiest maneuver since Kabe still held me.

  "Don't you like me holding your dick?" This time the taunt was eased by him kissing behind my ear.

  "Not opposed to it." I managed to stammer out. "Never had anyone offer to hold it while I whizzed off the side of a mountain."

  Kabe licked the sweat along my hairline. "New experiences, what my Grams says, keeps us from going bat-shit in old age."

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  Lord it felt good. "I'm finished, you know? You could let go."

  "No, I can't."

  I swallowed, "Why?"

  "'Cause then I couldn't do this." Slowly he eased away and to the side. "Come here."

  "Why, what are you going to do?"

  "I'm gonna suck your dick."

  There's times and places for everything. Ten stories above the canyon, I don't know if it really qualified as either. "No you're not." I protested. But I stood next to Kabe on a sliver of rock no wider than we were with all my soul focused completely on us.

  I have to be that focused when I climb with a partner.

  Down to Kabe's breathing, anticipating if he'd go right or left, looking for the barest shred of exhaustion in how he moved.

  And, damn it all if he's not poetry in motion. I don't think I'd really ever understood that tired old phrase before. And I knew I couldn't resist him.

  "Why not?"

  I stammered out a half-hearted protest, "Sixty feet down."

  All the way up, I'd been watching bands of muscle straining in his arms and legs. Pulled that brown skin so tight and those shorts even tighter every time he did a span. Hell summed up my last two hours, trying to climb with a stiff dick. Splits don't work so good in that condition. It kept just the barest bit of my thoughts focused on someplace they shouldn't have been.

  And now my cock dribbled out all that want in a few sparkling 117

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  drops of pre-cum. Every inch under the harness throbbed, that webbing compacted my desire and doubled it.

  Like he knew my torment, his hand still gripping my prick, Kabe maneuvered me a few inches into the wedge. With a rock-jockey's practiced ease he managed to keep our ropes untangled, move around me and drop to his knees without letting go. One leg behind mine, the other between my feet, Kabe leaned in. "Where's your sense of adventure."

  "I got a great sense of adventure." I tangled my hand, the one not holding on to the cliff, in his sweat damp hair. Maybe I should have shoved him away. The only way to manage that would send him right off into a screamer. "You have a lousy sense of timing."

  He rolled his head into my touch. The movement brought him even closer to me. "Oh, come on, Joe." Cheek against my thigh, his dark eyes stared up into mine. "Haven't you ever thought of it? Up here, nobody around for miles." I must have looked a sight, 'cause Kabe laughed and snaked his tongue out to tease the slit of my prick. He pulled back a bit and a shiny, thin bridge of pre-cum spanned from the tip of his tongue to the head of my cock. Lord, what a sight.

  I started shaking. Yeah, I'd fantasized about something like this near a hundred times. There's fantasy, and what you think's ever really gonna happen. I'd never thought it'd ever happen. The rock, where I dug my fingers in hard, scraped my skin. My carabineers jingled against each other, rocked by the breeze playing on the face of the mountain.

  When he slid his lips over my head, I hissed out, "Kabe!"

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  lips and my skin. Letting go of my prick, his mouth the only thing to touch it, Kabe reached over and grabbed onto my harness. He sucked me down hard using his grip to pull my hips close. Cheeks hollowed, Kabe took me deep. Those lips sparked every nerve in my body. His mouth was warm and wet. That darn tongue of his seemed to be on every inch of my prick at the same time.

  I couldn't keep from moaning out loud. Then it hit me, not like I couldn't be loud. Kabe was right. Who would ever know?

  Hundreds of feet above the earth, miles from anyone, surrounded by nothing but endless vistas of red rock, hoodoos and pine trees. Just that thought shot shivers all over my body.

  Kabe sucked so hard, working my prick in his mouth. All the time staring up at me with his eyes half-closed and drifting. The breeze caught his hair and tossed it about. It licked the sweat off my skin. The voice of the wind thrummed in my ears all but drowned out by my pulse. Kabe swallowed my prick again and again. Each time he pulled back I neared a little closer to gone. Just beyond Kabe's shoulders the world fell away to blue sky. There weren't a prettier sight in the world than what I saw right then.

  Damn how he made me feel all jumbled up inside. I couldn't remember what was up, down or sideways. All I knew was I was falling hard, everything tumbling out of control. I shuddered under the strain of it. My hips bucked into that mouth of his.

  Fire balled up in my belly. "It's coming." I managed to hiss out through clenched teeth.

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  Kabe pulled off and grabbed my prick in his palm. That hard, honed grip with fingers used to hanging on thin spurs of rock jacked me. He pumped so fast his hand was a blur moving over my cock. The heat roiled through me and, shaking, all my senses collapsed. In time with his laughter, thick spunk shot off over the rim.

  "See," Kabe used my harness and ropes to pull himself to standing, "dreams do come true..."

  I rolled my head back against the rock. "You're something worse than awful." If I hadn't had been tied in, I knew I'd have gone over. Death wobbles ate my joints.

  "I think with your reaction," Kabe pressed against me, "I'm something close to wonderful." Nips at my throat and my chin told me he just played with me. "Hey, Joe, why don't you tuck yourself back in and then see if you can manage to belay me."

  Not that I wanted to move, but Kabe was right. I shifted so that I could pack my prick away. "Why do you want me to belay you?" Well, I knew the why of it, just not the why now of it.

  "Thought you might need some time to recover." He jerked his chin up toward the rocks. "There's maybe half a pitch left.

  If I free climb it, it'll take me no time at all. Give you a bit to recover." He snorted. The sound traveled through his chest into mine. "I'd free solo it. But I think you'd freak if I dropped the gear at this point."

  "Yeah, I would." I hooked my thumb into his harness and tugged. "Not big on the whole, 'you fall, you die' aspect of soloing."

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  Kabe brushed my lips with a quick kiss. "Keep the light on for me, mom, I won't be gone long."

  I teased back, "Don't be staying out past your bed time." I added another tug to his harness to stress what I really meant—come back in one piece.

  With a smile playing across his mouth, Kabe stepped to the side. Quickly he scanned the face width, reached up and took a hold. A grunt of, "On belay," and he was on his way.

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  Chapter Seven

  Took us a while to rap back down the face. Kabe'd done like I'd asked—shouted up to him actually—and not touched the camera with his hands. Bagged it in plastic, what he used for picking it up, so he didn't mark it. Soon as he handed me the package, I closed it up, scribbled my name, date, time and badge number on it, then dumped it into a stuff sack for carrying. After getting down we still had to hike out and drive out. My tires didn't hit pavement until well into the afternoon.

  Kabe left a message at the ranch, letting them know he still lived. We'd stopped off just long enough to use the facilities and for him to grab a pair of jeans. Then I checked in with the department by phone. I might have been on my day off, but that didn't mean that things didn't happen. Nothing urgent, Nadia Slokum'd called and given my boss, Sheriff Myron Simple, a rundown on Gunter's whereabouts. The Sheriff'd actually read the report I'd left on his desk about it.

  Not that he'd ignore one of his deputies, but my priorities about my beat weren't always his priorities for the whole county. A death rated pretty big all around.

  Didn't talk to the Sheriff direct, but instead to Diamond, one of the other deputies who'd just come on shift herself.

  Got to hear an earful about her kid and the hospital. Little fella was real sick, been that way for about a year. Told Diamond about the camera and she promised to tack a note on the file for me.

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  From there I figured we'd drive into Ruby's, see if I could pull a favor outta Jessie Dane. As I recollected, she worked the photo lab for them this season. Ruby's got it all: grocery, gas, food, hunting/fishing licenses. As we walked into the lobby of the main lodge, Kabe thumped my shoulder with his knuckle. "Hey, Joe, I'm thirsty. Want anything?"