GENRE: Gay Western Erotic Romance
LENGTH: 21,298 words
RATING:

Long ago, Mack MacIntyre left his life as a wild cowhand in the Big Sky country of Montana behind. For thirty-five years, he’s been a devoted husband, father, and successful New York City businessman.

One day his past comes knocking in the form of his former lover, Seth Buchanan. Seth has a business proposition, and a dream Mack finds hard to refuse.

Even though he’s widowed and his children are grown, does Mack have the courage to come out to his family and return to the wide open spaces of his youth and the love he once shared with this man?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

When they reached the Gem’s entrance, they stopped. Seth turned to Mack. “Here we are.” He reached out and laid a hand on Mack’s shoulder, curling his fingers around the nape of Mack’s neck, massaging softly. “How about a nightcap? Ain’t that what they call it here in the Big Apple?” He smiled and winked. “Can I invite ya up ta see my etchin’s?”

Mack felt a tightness in his groin. He hesitated, ambivalent about Seth’s offer. Half of him wanted to say yes, the other half feeling like, if he did, his neatly ordered life would change. Finally he said half-heartedly, “No, thanks. I got me an early meetin’ in the mornin’. I need ta get home.”

“To what, to who?” Seth asked earnestly. “I really would like ta have ya come up for a bit. I come all this way ...”

Mack sighed, his resistance crumbling. “All right. But just one drink. Then I gotta go.”

The men crossed the small lobby and Seth nodded to the pretty young woman behind the counter. They took the elevator to the fourth floor. Seth then led the way down the narrow halls to his room. They went in.

Mack looked around. It was a typical New York boutique hotel room: small, well-decorated, and stylishly furnished.

“Bed takes up mosta the damned room,” Seth said as he tossed his hat on a small desk and turned to Mack. “But then a bed is about all ya really need, right?”

He walked toward Mack and wrapped him in a hug. Mack didn’t resist but let his arms hang at his sides. The same look Mack had seen in the restaurant was in Seth’s eyes once more -- the one that seemed to be searching for something, hoping to find it and bring it out into the open. Mack felt his heart start to beat wildly.

“How about it, cowboy?”

Mack hadn’t been called cowboy in years, not since he’d left Montana.

“Will ya share my bedroll with me tonight?”

“Seth ...”

Seth pulled him closer, their hard bodies pressing together.

“Seth, I ...”

That was as far as Mack got. Seth’s hands came up to cup Mack’s face and pull him into a kiss. At first Mack held back, but as Seth’s tongue brushed his lips he gave in and put his arms around his former lover’s back and pressed him close. He allowed Seth’s tongue access to his mouth and groaned softly as he surrendered to the feelings that had danced in his mind just out of reach and below the surface all evening.

Seth stepped back. The smile on his face and the light in his eyes told Mack the man had found what he’d been looking for -- something that they’d shared in their youth under the wide-open, star-filled sky of the Montana cattle range.

They didn’t speak as they slowly undressed, eyes roving over each other’s bodies, reconnecting with the familiar yet altered contours of young men grown to full manhood. No longer the lean, smooth-bodied youths they once were; both were now filled out, with powerfully muscled torsos and legs.

This time it was Mack who stepped toward Seth, his hands exploring the well developed arms and chest with its covering of short hair mirroring the salt and pepper of the man’s goatee.

Mack pulled Seth into an embrace and rubbed his more heavily hair covered chest against Seth’s.