In For a Penny

by Suzy

June 2003

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The shiny copper penny landed with a plunk in Chris Larabee's lap. He jerked his attention to his benefactor and tried not to look guilty.

"You gonna share somma them thoughts? Or won't a penny cover it?" The lanky tracker who haunted Larabee's day and night dreams stood before him in the empty jail office. "Hell, Chris," Vin Tanner said, removing his hat and swiping his forearm across his brow, "You been jumpier n' a whole pot of Mexicali beans lately. Wanna tell me what's up?" He perched on the edge of the desk that held the older man's crossed feet, the room's golden kerosene light setting his profile aglow.

Larabee almost barked with laughter. Oh yeah, he thought, making sure his clasped hands covered his telltale thoughts, let me tell you what's up. Me, that's what. I'm fucking hard for you day and night and I feel like I'm gonna go stark-raving mad if I don't do something about it. Maybe I already have. What am I doing thinkin' of you naked and in my bed every moment of every day?

He looked into the vast blueness of Vin Tanner's eyes and quickly looked away. "Nothin' much," he managed to say.

"I dunno, Chris," Vin shook his head and studied the brim of his hat, which he fingered and smoothed repeatedly. "You and me been friends a good while now, and I'd say somethin's definitely eatin' at you."

God help me, Larabee fretted, if he doesn't quit doing that thing with those long fingers of his, I might just do something crazy . . . "Nope. Uh uh. I'm fine." Shit, he sounded like a moron.

"Ah." Tanner pursed his lips and nodded slightly. "Well," he said getting up and crossing to the front window where he stopped and stared into the still, late-night street. "Why're you so quiet anymore? I know you ain't a big talker - " He pulled the shade down across the window and walked to the door, " - but you been extra close-mouthed - " He flipped the lock and grabbed the ring on the shade pull and gave it a tug then turned to face the lawman. " - 'specially round me." Vin stared at the accused.

Larabee was riveted to his swivel chair, feet going numb up on the desk. He couldn't take his eyes off the tracker's graceful movements. All he could do was wag his head in denial.

Vin took off his buckskin jacket, tossing it across the back of a chair, and untied the kerchief at his throat. "Damn hot tonight, ain't it?"

"Hot?" Chris cleared his throat to rid it of the squeak that snuck out on his word. "Uh, yeah, kinda. Hot," he nodded. Steamin's more like it, he thought.

Vin was back at the desk, resting his ass against the edge next to Chris's legs. "So, do you want some company on your watch tonight?" The Texan's voice dropped to a low pitch, the vowels going all soft. "If you've got somethin' heavy on your mind, I'll stay and we can . . . talk about it." He slipped his suspenders over his shoulders. "But, if I stay," he unbuttoned the top of his shirt, "I gotta get cooler." He grasped the bottom of his shirt and tugged it out of his waistband.

Larabee felt the heat rise up out of his groin and rush to his face. He looked away and shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Vin stood and, turning his back to the seated man, finished unbuttoning his shirt. Clasping the tails in each hand, he waved them in the air to fan himself. "Whew, that's better," he drawled, turning abruptly. He raised his arms and stroked his fingers along his scalp, his mane of wavy hair flowing over his wrists. The shirt gaped wide open exposing his lean, hard torso and the narrow hips that barely managed to hold up the suspenderless pants.

Chris was caught like a bandit, taking something that wasn't his but that he wanted so bad he couldn't be held accountable. His wide eyes were drinking up all that Vin Tanner was offering and there was no pretending otherwise when the younger man suddenly dropped his gaze to Chris's. All he could think to do was squeeze his thighs together tighter and cup his hand over his crotch, while dropping his eyes to the region in question.

"Chris?" Vin asked with concern. He approached the still-seated lawman. Pulling a chair up to face him, he sat on the edge and leaned forward, the essence of concerned friendliness. He reached toward Larabee's clasped hands, brushed past them and picked up the penny that remained where it had landed.

Through clenched teeth and rapid breaths, Chris Larabee spoke. "I'd like to be alone, if you don't mind."

A heavy pause then Vin placed a caring hand on his friend's thigh. "Sure, Pard."

Larabee squeezed his eyes shut.

The molten caress of Vin's hand moved languidly across the lawman's thigh until it's heat and pressure were only vibrant memories. "But I think I'll just hang around for a few more minutes…make sure you're okay and all."

Chris felt the glacial movement of time and it's incumbent weight over the next dozen seconds and struggled during that time to control his breathing, his heart rate, and his wayward cock. But his desire won out and he opened his eyes, dying to know what Vin was doing during the silence.

Holy Mother.

The young tracker lounged in the chair before him, his eyes fixed on Chris's face. The halves of his shirt hung neglected on either side of his ribcage. The long, tapered fingers of his right hand idly stroked his bare chest, encircling first his right nipple, then his left. His left hand rested on his thigh.

The older man felt his eyes drawn inexorably upward to meet the young man's midnight gaze. The lamp threw a weak light over Chris's shoulder that created deep shadows around Vin's heavy lids and strong brow. Bedroom eyes, Chris thought. That's what they mean when they say, 'bedroom eyes.' For a crazy moment the gunslinger thought he read invitation in Vin's expression. Was he so besotted? Grunting in self-disgust, he diverted his gaze.

With his attention fixed on the drawn window shade, he was taken aback when Vin's gentle fingers whispered across his throat at his collar and the easy Texas drawl was only inches from his ear. "You oughtta loosen up that collar before you choke, Chris. You're lookin' a might peaked."

Gulping over the peach-pit-sized lump lodged in his throat, Larabee growled, "Vin, it's time you leave."

Without warning, Chris's feet were swept from their place on the desktop, landing with a thud on the plank floor. Vin's long hands came to rest squarely on Chris's thighs right above the knees, squeezing just enough to gain the older

man's undivided attention. "I think otherwise, Cowboy." He squeezed Larabee's legs one more time and unfolded his frame from the chair.

The lawman sat glued to his place, eyes wide, heart thumping.

Vin moved behind the blonde man and grasped his shoulders in each of his strong hands. "I think, Chris," he began a slow massage, "That you are feeling . . . confused." He leaned down, placing his lips lightly against Larabee's left ear. "Would that be accurate?"

Chris tried to shrug but only succeeded in forcing more of his body into Vin's capable hands.

The lips moved away as the tracker stood upright again. "And," he continued, "I think you're thinkin' that maybe you got a problem no one in the world would understand."

Larabee tried to stifle his gasp.

"I'm also thinkin' that you're feelin' extremely frustrated."

Vin moved around the seated man, trailing his feather touch down the muscular arm, setting up a cascade of sensual shocks in its wake. He settled on his haunches before Chris and placed his hands on the lean thighs once more. Slowly he inched the hands upward toward Larabee's groin, his gaze never wavering from the blonde's face. "You feel," Vin whispered, "Like you gotta do something about yer problem, but what? What can you do?" A gentle shake of his head set Vin's wavy hair asway around his face.

A squeaky groan snuck out from Larabee's parted lips.

He prayed Vin's long fingers wouldn't find the stretched denim of his crotch. He wanted to look down and see where those hands were headed, but he couldn't drag his eyes away from the sensual eyes that held him as surely as if he were shackled. The younger man settled onto his knees and leaned forward, his hands coming to rest on the gunslinger's hips. Larabee's legs parted. Did he do that himself, he wondered. His mind was caught in an eddy of desire and fear.

His mouth just inches from Chris's, Vin said, "I think you know what you should do, Chris."

Chris's whispered words kept time to his thumping heartbeat. "What if it's the wrong thing?"

Vin shrugged lightly. "Cain't be wrong if you folla your instincts."

Instincts? Did he have any left? All he felt was one giant pang of desire. Was that it? Could it possibly be that Vin was giving him the go-ahead? Only one way to find out. If he was wrong … well, Nate was a good doc. He could fix up whatever damage Vin's wrath might deliver. Chris wrenched his clasped fingers apart.

"C'mon, Cowboy," Vin's husky drawl cut in on Chris's thoughts. "Tell me what you're gonna do about yer prob-"

Chris's fingertips pressed against Vin's mouth. Then slowly, very slowly, Chris let his fingers slide over the tracker's strong square jaw, feeling the clench of muscle there, the stubble of a couple days' worth of beard. Vin didn't say anything more as Chris's hand lightly glided down his throat, resting briefly on his collarbone, then trailed down his chest. Eye to eye, barely moving, the men were caught in a tableau of dim yellow light, like two living things trapped in amber. At last, Chris placed his palm over the left side of Vin's chest. Liking the rapid thump he found beneath the smooth skin, Chris pulled his fingers together and captured the hardening nub of Vin's nipple. The younger man responded with a sharp intake of breath. Applying a steady pressure to the small mound of flesh, Larabee spoke briefly. "I'm gonna do this." And then he pressed his mouth against the one he'd coveted for too long.

It was a chaste kiss. A lingering moment that Larabee used to breathe in the scent of Vin Tanner. Buckskin, leather, sweat, an herbal scent he'd noticed whenever Vin came out of his bath at the hotel. It was all there and it was tied together with a noticeable pungent odor of man. Of spit and spunk. Of sex.

It was Tanner who broke the kiss. Keeping his face close to Chris's, he breathed, "I like a man can make decisions. Got any other ideas?" he asked, slipping his hand around Larabee's neck.

The second kiss was everything the first was not. Hot. Wet. Deep. Long. And it involved hands. Four of them. Everywhere. Standing, the seal their lips had created never breaking, the two men pressed urgently against each other. Larabee felt Vin slide a hand between them. When it grasped his cock straining beneath black fabric, he finally pulled away from a kiss, moaning into Vin's ear. The tracker whispered, "This what you been frettin' about, Chris? What a shame," he continued, grinding his own hard need against Larabee's. "If you'd jest a said so I coulda done something 'bout it long before now." Again he pressed himself alongside the lawman, adding a sensual, slow hip rotation.

Chris panted with desire. And confusion. "I didn't…you never…I couldn't…"

Somehow during the lawman's incoherent statement, Tanner had unfastened both pairs of breeches releasing burgeoning members. The men continued to embrace, kissing, groping, their engorged lengths thrusting, slickened tips parrying. They viciously ground hips together feeling their hardnesses pressed between them. Pulling apart they joined hands around their shafts and began urgent stroking, pulling, pushing and, finally, jointly fucking the warm tunnel of flesh their hands created until they breathlessly spilled their passion.

Spent, they sank to the floor in an entangled heap, regaining their breaths. Vin raised Chris's hand, still clasped in his own, and languidly licked away the remnants of sex, then placed a drowsy kiss on Larabee's slack mouth.

"In the future, Cowboy, don't be afraid to ask for whatcha want."

Larabee, still speechless, clasped Tanner to his chest. Their shoulders jarred the rickety old desk and the shiny penny fell off the edge onto the blonde man's thigh. Retrieving his coin, the tracker held it up for both to inspect. "Best investment I ever made," he said before kissing his lawman once more.

The End

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