Retreat to Eremenos

The two figures, looking handsome together, stood at the doorway of the rambling adobe house on the heights overlooking old Santa Fe. They were standing close together, silhouetted shadows as seen from inside the house, where, in the great room beyond the foyer, small groups of people gathered in proximity-but not too near-a long trestle table, drinking wine and talking in subdued tones.

The woman, tall and thin, her skin tanned and weather-beaten without distracting in any way from her finely chiseled features, gave the impression of a Native American princess, accentuated by the long, plaited braid cascading down her back and the beaded band around her head. Her tawny-colored, long, form-fitting dress was of some sort of suede that matched the moccasins on her feet. The desert artist Lillian Vain, one of the centers of the Santa Fe art community in the early twentieth century, had gone native, but, in doing so, had set styles for the art community nationwide.

Standing with her, closer to her, and speaking in low, measured tones was the Western novelist, Edward Deal. Lillian was a tall woman, but Edward towered over her, and the bulk of him, distributed perfectly over a well-muscled body, made the spine-of-steel artist of the desert look almost delicate and feminine. Eschewing the effects of the "gone native" artists' community, which Deal only skirted the edges of, as he was a man's man who valued his individuality and isolation, Deal was dressed in an elegant black suit. His salt-and-pepper hair was close cropped and his mustache well trimmed. He came by his muscular physique honestly, as he was a man of the mountains, although wealthy and well-educated enough to dominate in dignified parlors, and one who wrote novels of rugged men overcoming the brutal natural obstacles of the West.

Lying on the trestle table in the great room was a simple wooden casket encasing the remains of Lillian's husband of twenty years, William Ware, sculptor of bronze statues of cowboys on bucking horses that were represented in nearly every major museum in the United States and Europe. Edward, the closet neighbor to Lillian and the artist community gathered about the Wares, albeit his ranch was five miles distant, was just leaving, having come to pay his last respects.

"It was so good of you to come, Ed. And I much appreciate what you have offered to do for Alo. If he agrees to it, so do I. It is very generous of you to offer."

"Where is the lad?"

"Hardly a lad, Ed. I almost didn't recognize him in Chicago. He had grown into a man."

You hardly noticed him throughout his childhood, Ed thought. But what he said was, "Where is he today? I haven't seen him since we all went back to Chicago to see him graduate from that private school and then brought him back here. You're right. He's grown into such a fine-looking young man, Lillian. Has he decided which college he will go to-or what he wants to do in life? An artist like you and Bill? He's so good with his hands. His wood carvings already are first rate."

"Who knows what Alo wants?" Lillian said, with a tone hovering between wistful and distracted-her mind was still on the composition she had been working on early in the morning before William's friends had started to gather for the last viewing. "Alo was distant from Bill and me even before we sent him to school in Chicago. I have no idea what he wants, although he has mentioned writing novels, as you do. But he hasn't come in from his room for the viewing today. I think he took Bill's suicide personally."

How could he not, Edward wondered as he raised Lillian's hand to his lips. Neither Bill nor Lillian had had much room in their artistic lives for the son and only child, who had come to them almost as a surprise. A beautiful boy, always, who they had named Alo, Hopi for "spiritual guide," and who they had promptly turned over to servants and minor artists worshipping at Lillian's and Bill's feet to raise. Only those close to the family called the handsome young man, barely in his majority, Alo now. To most in the world, he was Al, and when they wanted to be formal, they mistakenly called him Allen. The young man seemed to prefer the separation from his parents' inattentive world, so when alone with him Edward called him Allen too.

"Perhaps, Lillian," Edward said gently, "We shouldn't talk too much about Bill's death being a suicide. It's so distressing to the art world, and probably is doubly so to Alo, coming as it did right after our return from Chicago. Alo was all aglow from having graduated and having his summer here with the two of you stretching out before him. The death must have crushed him. That's why I've offered to take him with me on my writing retreat for the summer. This probably isn't a place he should be now."

If this was a veiled rebuke for Lillian, a suggestion that the wife had no need for the son or vice versa in this time of tragedy, Lillian didn't seem to discern it. "Death is what it is, Edward. We have lived our life honestly. Bill would not have taken his life if he wanted to hide his pain. It was his health, you know."

It was not his health, Edward thought. How little you knew of your husband, he mused, although all he did was look sympathetically into those beautiful milky-blue eyes of hers and cluck his regrets.

As he was standing out on the porch and Lillian was still in the doorway, Edward said, "If he would prefer not being here today, please tell him he's welcome to come over to my place through dinner. He can come back tonight after the . . . after Bill has been taken away to the mortuary."

"Thank you, Ed, I'm sure that would relieve us all."

Edward had spoken what he had just now because he was aware that Alo was at an open window farther down the porch line and could hear every word he said. As Edward moved down along the front of the porch in that direction to unhitch his horse from the porch rail, he looked up directly into the young man's eyes, receiving, as he hoped, a look of relief and affection.

An hour later Alo rode up to a wooden ranch house far smaller and less pretentious than his parents' rambling adobe mansion set in a compound with smaller matching artists' adobe houses circling it. Edward was far richer than his parents were, even though they also were wealthy, but Edward carried his "frontier man" rough and simple persona through to his dwelling. The ranch house wasn't small, but, beyond the great room with its soaring cathedral ceiling and varnished oak cross beams openly showing how the house was constructed, there were just two bedrooms; two baths; a large eat-in kitchen, where the housekeeper reigned and left shortly after noon every day for her own family ranch four miles away; and a large study, where Edward wrote his novels when he was in residence.

Alo walked into the house without knocking, turned right in the great room, and walked down a dark corridor, past the study on one side and the extra bedroom, bath, and storage room on the other side to the door at the end of the corridor leading into the large master bedroom.

Edward was lying on the large bed, his torso propped up by pillows covered in Native American textiles. He was dressed in the black trousers and starched white dress shirt he had worn to the viewing and had a book open on his lap. He looked up at Alo standing in the doorway, took his wire-rimmed spectacles off, laid them on the nightstand on top of the book he was reading, and beckoned to the young man.

"Come to me, Allen. Come as I like to have you."

Alo lay sprawled on top of Edward, facing up, his right leg extended across the bed and his left leg bent over Edward's left arm. Edward's right arm was laced under Alo's right armpit, with Edward's hand cupping Alo's chin and lifting the young man's face up to his in a deep kiss.

The perfectly formed, naked body of the young blond Alo was writhing slowly on Edward's lap as the fingers of Edward's left hand dug into Alo's channel, snaked up to the young man's prostate, and worked him there until Alo's cock had hardened. When it had, and still possessing the young man's mouth with his, Edward grasped Alo's cock and stroked the young man to an ejaculation.

"You are so beautiful," Edward whispered when Alo had come for him. The older man had released Alo's mouth but not his cock, which he continued to stroke slowly.

"I want you to fully possess me. Fuck me now. Please," Alo whispered.

"I've told you. I can't now. Soon, though, if you come with me this summer."

"Come with you? Where?"

"I've talked with your mother. I am going on retreat for the summer to a dude ranch, a special kind of ranch, in the Grand Tetons in Idaho. I wish to take you with me. Take you from here. Make you a man. Your body is beautiful as it is, but you can work with the cowboys and become even more hard-bodied."

"Is that what you want-you want me to be more hard-bodied before you fuck me? Because I will do that. I'll put on more muscle if that's what you want, if that's what it takes. Or don't you think I am serious about wanting you? I've wanted you for years."

"Yes, I think you are serious about it," Edward said with a sigh. "And I want you too."

"Is it because you are such good friends with my parents that you won't fuck me now?"

"No, lad, it isn't. It's because I want my men experienced. I get no joy out of fucking virgins."

"You will give me these hand jobs and you will suck me off-but you haven't let me do that for you yet-and yet I'm not experienced enough for you?"

"Have you let any other man fuck you? Has another man had his cock inside you?"

"No," Alo answered in a small voice, hesitating a bit as if he was weighing what the effect would be to lie and say he'd already been fucked. "It is you I want."

"Well, I will have no man who isn't well-fucked. Don't ask me to explain. Do you want me enough to let other men break you in first?"

Alo hesitated, but then, in a determined voice, he said, "Yes. If that's what it takes, I will do it. But how?"

"Go with me this summer to the Eremenos Ranch in the shadow of the Tetons. It's a ranch solely for men. Men there will prepare you for me. If you want me, that is what you will have to do. We can be lovers in the fullest sense by July. Will you come with me?"

"Yes," Alo whispered.

"And I feel you hard again," Edward said. "Will you come for me again now."

"Yes," Alo whispered as he moaned and lifted his face to Edward's for another deep, lingering kiss as Edward's stroking of his cock increased in intensity.

* * * *

The train ride from Santa Fe to the end of the rails for them was a grueling one as far as Edward and Alo were concerned, entailing boarding the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe line, headed north to Chicago; getting off in Omaha; and picking up the Union Pacific line, aboard the Overland Limited, headed west. The journey by rail took five days in 1915, and the closest rail stop to the Idaho side of the Grand Tetons was Green River, Wyoming, in the south of that new state. Green River had burgeoned in size-but was still not large-with the passage of the railroad through there having been completed in 1868. From Green River it was another five-day ride by stagecoach over rough dirt tracks north to Driggs, Idaho. The Eremenos Ranch, tucked into a finger of the Teton Valley, projecting into the Grand Tetons on their western slope, was another five-hour ride on horseback.

Fully private compartments and carriages were a rarity on the run north and existed on the Union Pacific run west primarily to serve industrial and railroad magnates. So, semiprivate compartments were the best that Edward could obtain.

When he and Alo were the only ones in such a compartment during segments of travel between station stops, though, Edward would lower the curtains to the corridor; turn the lock in the door; pull Alo onto his lap, with the young man's trousers on the floor at his feet; and finger fuck and stroke Alo to an ejaculation. In this way he kept the young man keyed up for him and continuing to beg for a fuck that Edward would not provide.

Edward fully expected to make Alo his. He just felt he had good reason to fully prepare for it. For years he had intended to make Alo his when the lad reached his majority, and everything he had done in relating to Alo as the young man grew up was to prepare for this relationship without scaring the young man away. In this situation, so near to his goal, though, he needed to exercise supreme restraint, no matter how hard that was for him to do. He needed to do it right so as not to ruin it altogether.

On the stagecoach ride north from Green River, there was a driver and relief driver in the driver's box and a young Mexican man to do the hauling chores, who sometimes sat on top of the stage coach, amongst the luggage, and sometimes in the stagecoach, when it was raining. There were two other paying passengers, in addition to Edward and Alo, composed of an elderly missionary couple en route to working on and spreading the gospel to an Indian reservation.

It rained during the first day of travel, and the Mexican, Pedro, rode inside the carriage, sitting beside the missionary couple, with the massively large Edward sitting across from Pedro and Alo sitting beside Edward. During the trip Edward and Pedro exchanged several glances that Alo didn't particularly appreciate, but he wanted Edward so badly that he wouldn't say anything.

That night they camped on the north bank of the Muddy River, which honestly earned its name. They camped near the home compound of a ranch by arrangement. The ranch family provided meals, although the passengers and drivers slept in tents by a campfire.

The second day of the journey took them to the small town of Kemmerer, where, once again, they camped in a small grove of trees at a ranch that provided meals. Edward had been moody the whole day, even though the weather was good. Pedro was riding on top of the stagecoach.

That evening, as the passengers and drivers gathered from walks they had taken after their evening meal to stretch their aching limbs from a full day's ride in a lurching coach with inadequate springs, Alo noticed that Edward and Pedro had not yet returned. First Pedro returned, stumbling and looking distressed, and lurched into the tent he was to share with the drivers. Edward entered the camp soon thereafter, whistling and almost strutting.

Edward and Alo shared a tent. The previous night, Edward had managed to embrace Alo and quietly stroke him to ejaculation. This second night, though, he merely turned over, with his back to Alo, after a furtive kiss on the lips, and drifted off into snoring.

The next morning, as they were loading the stagecoach, Alo noticed there was no Pedro. So did the missionary couple. The husband of the couple asked the driver about this, and the driver gave a scowl and said that Pedro had taken ill in the night and would be left at the hosting ranch to recover. When the missionaries turned away, though, Alo saw the driver's scowl turn toward Edward, who was in good spirits and not paying much attention to the loading at all.

Alo felt tense the entire day of the ride northwest, across the Idaho state line, and to an encampment on the banks of Bear Lake. The tail end of the Tetons now clearly was in sight to the north. Edward continued humming to himself and engaging in discussions with the missionary couple that Alo knew didn't really interest the novelist at all-and weren't providing anything he could use in his writing, which was normally the only topics that could loosen Edward's tongue.

It also seemed to Alo that Edward didn't want to be engaging in discussions with him.

But that evening, after the meal and while the drivers were setting the tents up, Edward asked Alo to take a walk with him along the banks of Bear Lake.

In a hidden little forested ravine leading down to the shore of the lake, Alo disrobed at Edward's request and took a dip in the water. Edward remained dressed, watching Alo from the bank. When Alo came out of the water and had dried off with his shirt, Edward pulled the young man into his lap and finger fucked and stroked him to an ejaculation, while covering his face with kisses.

Alo had tried to be standoffish and certainly was showing Edward he was ticked about something, but Edward ignored this until after he had made the young man come for him-an activity that Alo was lost to as soon as Edward initiated it.

"Tell me what's wrong, Allen," Edward said.

"Pedro. You-"

"Yes, I fucked him. And we might as well establish right now that I will fuck other men during our relationship. But if you wind up living with me, as I hope you will, I will always be coming home to you. That doesn't mean I will tolerate you fucking other men after this summer. That is just the way it will be. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Alo answered, trying to keep the whine out of his voice. "But, why would you fuck Pedro and not-?"

"I established that Pedro let men fuck him. He was experienced. I needed the relief. You can't imagine how frustrating it is to be near you like I have been on this journey and not to find sexual relief."

"But . . . anytime you wanted me, you could . . . and Pedro, when he returned . . . Oh, Edward. Oh!"

Edward had moved down Alo's body and taken the young man's cock in his mouth and was sucking it. Alo was lost to him. Edward had only rarely done this for him before, and Alo was transported to the clouds overhead, completely lost to any more questions he might have about Pedro.

* * * *

A man introducing himself as Henry-but saying most called him Hal-met Edward and Alo at the stagecoach stop in the town of Driggs, Idaho. The stop was in front of a saloon and the man came out of that wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. He was a big, strapping redhead who Alo thought was maybe five years older than he was. Alo wished that he could go into the saloon too, but civilization had reached this little town in the shadows of the towering Grand Tetons. He wasn't old enough. It didn't matter that his parents had let him drink from the moment he'd said he wanted to try it. Of course, that had worked as they probably wanted it to. Since it wasn't forbidden and he wasn't at all impressed with his first drunken state, he had only drunk in moderation since then.

He started to tell Edward that he might like to have a drop to assuage the dust of the long journey, but he stopped when he saw the assessing look Edward was giving Hal. In any event, in a short time they were on horseback and on their way east, toward the plain at the base of the foothills into the Tetons. Edward, Alo, and Hal were each astride a horse, and two other pack horses carried their luggage. Edward didn't travel light.

While they rode, Alo asked, out of curiosity, "I don't understand why the ranch is named Eremenos. Is that an Indian word?"

"No, it's because of what happens at the ranch," Hal answered. But then, looking like maybe he wasn't supposed to say anything, he clamped his ruggedly square jaw shut.

Edward looked over to the cowboy and said, "Eremenos? You?"

The man laughed. "I'm twenty-five, and, no, that was never me."

Edward sighed and looked away from the man. He turned to Alo and said, "It's not an Indian word. It's a Greek word. As this young man has said, it signals, although doesn't dwell on the actual import of the word, the business of the ranch to those of us who are interested."

"How so?" Alo asked.

"Eremenos is Greek for a young man, a boy really, younger than you by a few years, who accommodates an Erastes, like me. An older man."

"An older man?" Alo asked, still not getting it.

"Older men who fuck boys, young boys, sometimes as young as nine years old, during the ancient Greek period," Edward said, with an amused look on his face. "To keep it legal in these United States-even in Idaho now-it's younger men rather than boys. So, you won't find any underage boys at the ranch. It's like Alexander the Great and his young lover, Hephaestion. It was quite common and acceptable in Greek times. The gods did it-Zeus fucked the young Ganymede. And the Thebans were said to have three regiments made of seasoned warriors and their young male lovers. The Greeks married, of course, but they also were permitted to have boys to fuck. I guess 'Hephaestion' wouldn't be readily pronounceable for a ranch name, though. Eremenos is pretentious enough. But I'm sure it does the job for advertising what you can get at the ranch-or near enough if you take into account how young the Eremenos can be."

"So a ranch named Eremenos is a place offering young men for older men to fuck?"

"Yes, of course. They have younger men-for guests like me. But they also have their Erastes-for young men like you." He turned to Hal then, who Alo was somewhat embarrassed to realize was listening to the conversation. "And you, Hal. You indicate you aren't Eremenos, and indeed you look too old to be that, although you do look magnificent. But an Erastes? I think not-not yet."

"I am just a hired cowboy, sir," Hal answered. "There are different jobs at the ranch. I train the horses and handle them-like coming into Driggs to pick up guests like you."

"But you look too sexy to be only that," Edward said. Alo looked sharply at him again, disturbed by Edward's open interest in the man. "I'll bet there are guests who want you to handle them too."

"So, you aren't just teasing me," Alo interjected. "You really have brought me here to prepare me for you to want to fuck?"

"Yes, little one. I want you to work with several Erastes here before being handed back to me. But yes, before we leave here, I am going to be fucking you silly."

Hal cleared his throat. They had reached a rise. "There it is," he said. "Eremenos Ranch."

They looked down in a bowl nearly surrounded by higher ground-much higher ground, the foothills of the Tetons, to the east. The ranch complex was a large one, with several buildings radiating out from a central long, low-slung log cabin structure that was the heart of the operation.

"If you need me while you're here, you can usually find me by that corral over there," Hal said, standing up in his saddle and pointing to the edge of the spread. "I train all of the horses here."

"I indeed may need you," Edward said, laying his hand on the rump of Hal's horse, giving Alo the sense in the look Edward gave the cowboy that he'd lay his hand on the cowboy's rump at the first sign of acceptance.

Alo couldn't see the expression on Hal's face, but he was disturbed enough by the expression he saw in Edward's face.

They were met by the ranch manager in the great room of the central building.

"We are honored that you are staying with us for the summer, Mr. Deal," the manager said. "I understand you will be writing a book while you're here and that . . . ah . . . you have special needs. We have a young man for you, Tom, who I'm sure will meet your specifications. And this," he said, turning to Alo, "is the young man you have other needs for?"

"Yes. I believe I set forth the program for him in my letters to you."

"Yes, of course. There won't be a problem. In fact, seeing him, I can say that there will be no problem at all-not for anything or anyone on the staff who he might fancy."

"That's all of the luggage," Hal interjected. He'd just arrived in the great room with the last of the baggage. He turned and gave Alo a big smile. Alo was somewhat comforted that the smile had been given to him and not to Edward, but he was mostly preoccupied with the conversation going on between Edward and the manager.

"Your rooms are down here," the manager said, as he guided them down a corridor off to the left the great room.

"Rooms?" Alo involuntarily spurted out.

"Yes," the manager said. "Mr. Deal will be in this suite here, with the bedroom and a study. You will be in a single room down the hall."

Alo turned his face, showing concern, to his companion. "Edward?"

"I will be in here with . . . I believe the young man's name is Tom," Edward said. "Until you are prepared to come to my bed in full acceptance," he continued. "I've asked for an isolated single room to be provided for you. One with its own door to the outside. They have such here, they advertised . . . for complete privacy of the guests. As I told you, Allen, until I am assured that you are ready to come to me, we will sleep separately, and I will have someone already ready for me in my bed. Your job is to prepare yourself. I want you to accept anyone who takes your fancy here into your bed. And I do want you to select men to fuck you. I have a routine settled for you, but I want you well-seasoned. The sooner you take care of this the better."

Alo was bumped a bit before he could respond and the manager and Edward already had entered the suite, leaving Alo in the corridor.

"Excuse me. If you could tell me which of these cases is yours and which is Mr. Deal's . . ." the man who had bumped Al, the cowboy Hal, said.

Alo couldn't explain why a jolt of electricity went through him when Hal's shoulder touched his, but it did. Turning away from the door to Edward's suite and shivering with second thoughts of having agreed to come here, the young man busied himself with the separation of the luggage.

* * * *

While Edward holed up in his suite with his writing by day, and with the young prostitute, Tom, at night, Alo spent the first three days settling into the ranch and building up to what he knew was coming. In a few days he was scheduled to accompany a hunting trip up into the Tetons. There would be just him and five of the older cowboys on the ranch-ones Edward made clear to him when they took their dinner together were of the Erastes category.

"You are going to come back from that two-night hunting trip well fucked," Edward said, with a cheery note in his voice.

Alo wasn't left entirely to his own devices. At Edward's instructions he was given odd jobs around the ranch, mostly muscle-building work, as they had agreed. One of the jobs was to carry bags of feed out to the corral where Hal trained the horses.

The two inevitably struck up conversations while Alo filled the feed boxes, and Hal volunteered to show Alo around the ranch buildings. They ate lunch together the first two days.

On the third day, Alo arrived at the corral to find Hal holding a rope and having a horse trot around him in the center of the ring. Hal was shirtless and Alo felt tinglings in his crotch at watching the rippling of the young hunk's muscles as he exercised the horse. Hal correctly gauged the "tongue-hanging-out" look Alo was giving him and walked over to the wooden-slat fence, raised a booted foot to one of the rings, and leaned on the top of the fence on his elbows.

"I will be direct with you, Allen," he said. "I know what you are here for. I know what will happen the day after tomorrow when you are taken up into the mountains. What will be will be there, but is it true you've never been fucked-that you a virgin to a man's cock?"

"Yes," Alo answered in a small voice.

"And are you here willingly for this preparation Mr. Deal speaks of?"

"Yes. I want him to fuck me. I want to be with him. But he says he won't take me without experience."

"But he doesn't tell you why?"

"No, he hasn't. Do you know why?"

Hal didn't answer this. What he said instead was, "I find you arousing. You make me hard. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes," Alo said shyly.

"I can be gentle and patient with you for your first time. The men who take you up on the mountain won't be. Mr. Deal has made it clear to them that he just wants it done. It's not up to me to tell you why he wants it done by five men. Do you find me at all arousing?"

"Yes," Alo answered in a small voice.

"When those men take you into the hills, they are going to fuck you hard. Mr. Deal has certain needs. They will make sure they meet those with you. I can make your first time easier and more pleasurable. Will you let me be the first to fuck you?"

"Yes."

"Now?"

"Here? In my room?"

"No. I know a place up in the hills where you will like it better for your first time. Do I saddle a couple of horses for us?"

"Yes."

"One thing," Hal said when it was really too late to stop. Alo was lying on a bed of ferns next to a waterfall on a stream in a glen up in the foothills above the ranch. The horses were hobbled and grazing nearby. They both were naked, and Alo had melted at the muscular body of the cowboy, who was seven years older than he was and enjoyed the best of a lingering youth along with the powerful body of an older man. Hal had already embraced Alo and run his hands and his tongue all over the younger man's body. He'd sucked Alo to an ejaculation and guided Alo to stroke his cock and even to tentatively taste it. And, with the help of much spit and his probing fingers, he had Alo's passage well open.

"What? Please. Please fuck me," Alo whined between pants. His pelvis was already moving against the palm of Hal's hand cupping his balls, a thumb in Alo's ass.

"You have said nothing about the size of my cock. How big it is compared to many other men. Are you sure, for your first time?"

"I have no knowledge of men's cocks. I just know I can't take it anymore. I want to be fucked by a cock. I need a cock. Now!"

"Perhaps, considering, it is best. But I will be gentle as possible."

He rolled over on top of Alo, pushing the young man's legs apart with his knees. He had already selected the place of laying, where the ground had a natural fall of several inches where he had positioned Alo's buttocks. Alo's knees were bent, his bare feet flat on the trampled ferns underneath. Crouched between Alo's knees, Hal positioned his cock so that the bulb pressed into Alo's entrance. The young man already was moaning and panting hard.

"Please, please," Alo murmured. Hal didn't know if it was a plea for getting on with it or pulling back, but it now was too late for pulling back. He had an arm around Alo's neck and lifted his other hand up to cup Alo's chin. He pressed his lips to Alo's, and the young man's mouth opened to take in Hal's tongue. Alo had gone this far with Edward many times.

Hal pushed his cock in two inches, bringing the rim of his cock head to the rim of the entrance. Alo groaned and began to writhe. He made an effort to pull his mouth away from Hal's so he could cry out the violation of his channel, but Hal was holding him fast and pressed into two more inches.

He held there, waiting for Alo to adjust and calm down, which the young man did. Then he released Alo's mouth but continued to hold his head in place.

"Oh, god, oh god," Alo muttered with a gasp.

"You want me to stop or go slower? Are you in pain?"

"Yes, it hurts, but do it. Do it now. Fuck me."

Hal placed his forehead on Alo's so that their eyes were locked. Alo showed both pain and determination in his eyes as Hal gave him six inches of the cock. Alo was panting and breathing heavily. He cried out as Hal began to pump.

Crying out "fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!" Hal gave him the last two inches and set up a steady stroke, which Alo began to meet with the movement of his hips.

When Hal ejaculated deep inside Alo's channel, Alo had already come again and he was laying back in the grass playing with his own nipples. At the point of ejaculation, Hal lowered his lips to Alo's nipples and nipped at one of them, while Alo arched his back and cried out, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

* * * *

Hal came to Alo's room, through the door to the outside both of the next nights, and fucked him on the single bed. Such was their need to merge into each other's bodies that neither felt restricted by the narrowness of the bed. Hal slept with Alo after they'd fucked but was gone before dawn.

"Are you awake?" Hal asked late into the second night.

"Yes."

"We will fuck again now."

Alo moaned. He loved Hal's cocking but he was exhausted. "We've done it twice already."

"You need to be ready," Hal whispered, he was already moving Alo to his back, insinuating his knees between Alo's thighs, and was pushing fingers into Alo's channel. First one, then two. Alo arched his back and moaned deeply as the third went in. He groaned as the fingers parted, spreading his channel open. He gave a little cry as the cock entered him between the fingers.

"Hal! Hal! God, you're already big!"

"This is for you," Hal muttered, pressing the cock further in without extracting the fingers. When he was in deep, though, and ready to pump, he pulled the fingers out. He grabbed Alo's bent knees and began to work the legs back and forth in the rhythm of the stroking of his cock. Pushing the knees out with each thrust; pulling the knees in with each withdrawal. Alo panted hard, arched his back, and moaned deeply. Hal stroked harder and deeper. Alo panted harder and reached for Hal's nipples and twisted. Hal lowered his face to Alo's, took the younger man's lips in his, and bit the lower lip as, once again, he ejaculated.

They both lay heaving, struggling for breath.

"Hal. I think enough for tonight."

"You'll thank me for this one day," Hal answered with a drowsy voice that denoted that, yes, this was enough for tonight.

The following day and the day after that, Alo got an inkling why Hal had worked so hard to prepare him for the hunting party ride up into the mountains.

The collection of men he rode with were quite varied, but all where large-bodied, grizzled, and muscular hunks in their own way.

By day they did serious hunting of deer, elk, antelope, and bears in the mountains. By evening and night, they did hard fucking. All of Alo. The five of them fucked him in succession, and when the fifth was finished, the first was ready to go again. And from the very first of them, they fucked him hard, although none had a cock the size of Hal's. If he hadn't had the preparation that Hal gave him, from the well-prepared first fuck that was gentle until both lost control of themselves in the frenzy of the cocking, the first fuck from these five would have pushed him at least to, if not beyond, the point of endurance.

And Edward had made clear that this was the schedule he'd set up. He hadn't ordered the initiation of more pleasure than pain. He'd wanted Alo fucked to the edge of endurance.

The men slept in a few tents, but on both nights, nights that were mercifully warm, dry, and full-mooned, Alo had been kept outside beside the campfire as a succession of men fucked him, only occasionally giving him time to cool down or stumble off to piss and to defecate streams of cum. they fucked him over a saddle on the ground, sometimes with him bent over the saddle on his belly, with his buttocks waving in the air, and sometimes with his shoulder blades flat on the ground and the small of his back running up the side of the saddle and his feet either planted on the ground on the other side or wrapped around the thick waist of the bruiser who was fucking him.

Because of Hal's preparation, Alo endured it, but he came down from the mountain bow-legged and loaded for bear in more ways than going on a hunting trip.

As soon as he got back to the ranch, he burst into Edward's suite and into a scene in Edward's bedroom of Edward fucking the young man, Tom, who had been assigned to him.

They were stretched on their sides on the double bed, facing the door, with Edward stretched out behind Tom. Edward had one arm under Tom's chest and snaked back up to where Edward could cover a nipple. Edward's other hand was holding Tom's upper leg almost straight up into the air. Tom was a slender, dark-haired, not terribly handsome, youth the same age as Alo, if not a bit older. He'd had an arm stretched up and around Edward's neck, which stretched out the young man's hairless, only lightly muscled chest. His mouth was hanging open in a grimace and his eyes were nearly popping out of his head.

It was clear that Edward had his cock inside the young man's channel, and they continued moving slightly as they became aware that Alo was standing in the door, indicating that Edward was stroking his cock inside the young man.

Alo gasped and turned to leave.

"No wait," Edward called out. "You might as well stay and watch. You might as well know. Sit in that chair over there."

Alo stumbled to a chair by the doorway he'd been standing in, a chair that still gave him a full view of what was happening. When he'd collapsed into the chair, Edward pushed Tom's raised leg over onto the bed, which made Tom's hips roll toward the door and revealed the cock in the hole.

Alo gasped again. He knew now why a particular young man needed to be assigned to Edward. Tom's body was on the slight side, but his hole was wide enough to take a mature tree trunk. And still it was being taxed. Edward's cock was thicker than a mature tree trunk. There was no telling how much of the cock he had managed to stuff inside the young man, but there was a good four inches of the root on the outside at the end of the thrust of the cock and nearly six inches at the draw back.

Edward continued to stroke as he spoke next. "I want you to sit right there and watch until I'm finished."

Alo wouldn't have had the energy to move even if he'd wanted to.

Edward pushed Tom over on his belly, rolled with him without disengaging his cock, and hovered over Tom's body with his palms on the young man's shoulder blades, his knees between Tom's spread thighs, and his cock continuing to pound the ass. Tom was moaning and groaning and writhing under Edward until Edward jerked, held still, jerked again, and then grunted. He pulled out of the ass, and Alo gasped again at not only the thickness of the cock but also the length of it.

Edward rolled over and sat up. Tom hadn't moved. Edward slapped his ass and said, "Leave us."

With a groan, Tom rolled off the bed and unto his feet, not able to move too steadily. He stooped and picked up a shirt and a pair of jeans from the floor, gave Alo a somewhat embarrassed look, and stumbled out of the room, not able to hold his legs together. Alo could see Edward's cum dribbling down the young man's thigh.

"Strip off your clothes and come over to me," Edward said.

"Are you going to fuck me now-after what you let them do to me on the mountain?"

"This all is necessary. Don't you see that now? Look at this." he held his cock up, still half hard. Not as big as it had been when it was inside Tom's ass, but still bigger than that of any other man Alo had ever seen. Bigger than Hal's. Now it was clear to Alo what Hal had been trying to do for him. Hal must have known-or have heard-how monstrously large Edward's cock was.

"Can you see now why I wanted you to be prepared before I took you? Do you think you could take this cock now? We can check, but I don't think so. I said strip and come over here."

Alo didn't move.

"Do you want to be with me or don't you? This is all necessary if you do. If you don't, get out, tell Tom to come back, and pack your bags."

Feeling numb in his limbs but churning inside and feeling himself harden up, Alo stood up from the chair, stripped, and moved over to the bed. Edward pulled him into the familiar embrace of Alo on his lap. The difference now was that Alo clearly could feel the strength of the massive cock in the small of his back.

Edward pushed him over so that his chest was on the surface of the bed and his buttocks were still on Edward's lap, sideways. Alo gasped as he felt Edward rub the huge cock around on his buttocks. Both were breathing hard as he slapped the cock on the buttocks a couple of times, pushed the underside of it up and down between Alo's buttocks and on the crack, and pressed the bulb at the hole.

Alo gulped in air and gasped. "Oh, fuck. Are you . . . are we . . .?" He was trembling almost uncontrollably. He couldn't get the size of the cock out of his mind. He managed to take Hal, but only with a lot of preparation. Edward's cock was so much bigger.

"I think not, not yet," Edward said, a tinge of regret in his voice. "Someday. Someday soon. I see that you've been stretched." Alo gasped as he felt the invasion of his channel. But it was fingers, not the cock. "You're coming along, but not quite yet."

Edward took up rubbing the cock on Alo's buttocks and thighs. His breathing was getting heavier. "But you've seen it now. Now you know what you have to take."

"Pedro? The guy on the stagecoach?" Alo murmured.

"Yes. He boasted that he could take it. He couldn't-but he did. We'd started and I was so frustrated over not having you. I couldn't stop. He screamed like a stuck pig, but I couldn't stop. I may have ruined him. If I had given in to what you begged me for, I most certainly would have ruined you. But now you know. And now that you've seen it, you can help me by stroking it."

"Do you want me to suck it?"

"I think it would break your jaw. No, for now, stroking it would help."

Edward lifted Alo's body, easily, with hands on his waist, and sat the trembling young man down beside him on the bed. He pulled Alo's chin around to his face with a hand and they kissed, as Alo moved a hand to Edward's cock. He couldn't get his hand around it, but he could-and did-stroke it.

After a few minutes, Edward commanded in a raspy voice, "Get on all fours."

"But you said-"

"Get on all fours, dammit!"

Trying to suppress a whimper of fear, Alo went on his hands and knees on the bed and Edward crouched over his hips. Alo trembled in fear as he felt the bulb of the cock on his thigh, but then he let out a long gasp as the cock pushed between his thighs and, instead of trying to pierce his hole, slid under the perineum and pressed up under his balls.

"Keep your thighs clenched, dammit. This is how I have to take most men. But it's not how I'm eventually going to take you. And it's not how I took Bill." Edward began stroking the cock between Alo's thighs. He reached around Alo's waist with a hand and began to stroke Alo's cock in rhythm with the slide between the thighs.

So shocked was Alo with all of it that he didn't think he'd heard all Edward said clearly-but in the back of his mind he did. For now, though, he was concentrated on this unusual fuck. It was arousing and he could only think on how it would feel with the cock inside him-and thank Hal over and over and over again in his mind for putting him on the road to being prepared for it.

They came almost simultaneously and, with a sigh, Edward pushed Alo over on his side and came down behind him and embraced him. His cock, flaccid now, but still huge, snaked up Alo's back, an ever present reminder of what Alo would have to be able to take.

"Now you know," Edward whispered. "But I must have you."

That snapped back in Alo's mind what he thought he'd heard Edward say.

"Bill. You said Bill. My father, Bill?"

"Yes. And I promised him I would not take you without full preparation. It had been rough for him, but we were young and neither of us could wait."

"I don't understand. You fucked my father?"

"Yes. We were lovers for nearly your full life. Lillian didn't take to either pregnancy or motherhood. After having you, she didn't let your father near her again. He came to me for solace and for-"

"You fucked my father," Alo said again, louder, as he sat up on the bed and looked down at Edward, who had the balls to give him an amused smile.

"Yes, I said so. He eventually was able to take the dick, but it took a long time for him to do so without pain. It's a tribute to what we had that he endured so much for so long to be with me. When he said I could have you too, he made me promise to fully prepare you first. Nothing has ever been harder for me than to keep my hands off you. And now, in just a short time . . . you're stretching nicely . . . maybe the next mountain outing . . ."

"My father said you could fuck me too? He gave me to you?"

"Well, not quite like that." The smile was a little crooked now. "I told him I was going to fuck you too and we argued a bit, but then he just made me promise not to take you like I took him."

"When did you two have this conversation?"

"While we were coming to get you in Chicago after your graduation."

"And he committed suicide when we got back to Santa Fe."

"Yes. Your father always was a bit unstable. It's unfortunate. But in some ways, it's for the best. Fucking you both at the same time would be a little awkward."

"A little awkward? A little awkward?" Alo cried out. "You . . . you . . . bastard!"

Alo struggled to get off the bed, but Edward grabbed for him and pulled him back into his arms.

"Calm down. This is all going to work out. It was meant to be. You want me. God, you are so sexy struggling like this . . . shit . . . I think . . ."

Alo was writhing and sobbing, but Edward was too strong for him. He pulled him down off the bed at the foot of the bed. He bent him over the bed, covered him close, and held him there, rocking him back and forth, with Alo trying to lash about underneath him. Edward's reengorged cock was at his hole, the bulb pressing at the rim. Alo's writhing was only helping it to lodge inside the rim, stretching him to the limit with just the bulb inside him.

They were panting hard again.

"Relax, relax. Maybe," Edward was murmuring. "Oh, god, I've got to have you."

Alo screamed and he collapsed on the bed. Two inches of the cock were inside him. Edward raised his chest off the young man's back and held himself over Alo's torso with the heels of his hands buried in the sheets on either side of Alo's chest.

It was only two inches and Alo's mouth was yawning open in a silent scream and his eyes were bugging out-exactly as he remembered Tom looking with seven or more inches inside him.

Only two inches but Edward was moving it in and out.

"Stretch for me, dammit," he cried out. "Relax. Take it. You want it. I want this." His head dipped down to Alo's shoulder and his lips latched onto the hollow of the young man's neck and he gathered up a fold of skin and sucked hard. Just as with Pedro, Edward had reached a point of no longer being able to hold himself in check.

"Yes, I want it," Alo sobbed. His hands were bunching up gobs of sheeting as his arms stretched out in a sacrificial pose. Yes, by damn, he wanted it. Regardless of anything else, he wanted it.

Three inches, with a slow stroke. And then four, all the time Alo's mouth open wide in a silent scream, waiting for his channel walls to split. But then the effort got the best of Edward. His cock spouted cum up into Alo's channel. He collapsed on Alo's back and, deflated, Alo withdrew into himself too, with a sob.

After a minute or two, Edward stood up from Alo, slapped him on the buttocks, and whispered, "Maybe next time. Ten inches. Your father took it all. So will you," and padded off toward the other room. At the door, he turned. "I guess that's progress. I've fucked you now and gotten off. It's just not like I'm going to fuck you later. You're off to the mountains tomorrow again for something special. I expect you to be able to take more when you get back. We'll not stop next time until you've taken eight inches at least and you've taken my cum again."

"Bastard," Alo murmured.

Edward laughed. "But I'm your bastard, aren't I? Tell me you don't want it."

Alo opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"I didn't think so. Go ask Tom. When you're fully conditioned, we'll fuck twice a day. And you'll love every fucking inch of it."

He turned and moved into the room, sat down at his desk, and didn't even look up, when, still sobbing, and dressed again, Alo walked past him and to the door of the suite.

"Send Tom back in, please," he heard Edward say as he moved out of the door.

He found Tom in the passage, dressed just in his jeans, and crouched on the floor, his back against the wall. He looked up at Alo with an expression of foreboding in his face.

"He wants you again," Alo said, his voice dull. "If I were you, I would leave, though. If he asks, I'll tell him I didn't find you."

Using the strength of his legs, Tom pushed his body slowly up the wall to a standing position. Alo could see him shudder as he pushed away from the wall. Rather than walk away, though, he passed by Alo toward the door to Edward's suite, or started to. Alo grabbed him by the arm, though, and whispered, "Why? You could say you left. He didn't tell you to stay around."

Tom looked at him, his eyes blazing. "Because he is Edward Deal. Because I want to know I can take a cock that big. Because you will do the same. Because when he's fucking you, I'll ache that it isn't me."

It was Alo's turn to shudder, as Tom pulled his arm away and entered Edward's suite.

That night when Hal silently came to Alo's room, Alo embraced him, initiated the kissing, pushed Hal down on his back on the bed, and rode his cock. He was still sobbing. Hal just held him and kissed him after they'd fucked and didn't, then, force him to say what was wrong.

As he drifted off, Alo heard himself moaning and panting. He felt his channel filled to bursting. Opening his eyes, he found himself arched back onto the bed, the weight of his torso on his shoulder blades. His arms were spread wide, his hands bunching up sheeting. Standing at the foot of the bed, Edward, an arm under Alo's waist, with Alo's legs stretched up Edward's torso, his ankles hooked on Edward's shoulders, gazed down into Alo's eyes, a wicked smile on his face.

"It's in. You have it all. Last chance. Tell me you don't want me. If you don't, I am going to fuck the shit out of you. Twice a day. Ask Tom how it feels. Tell me you don't want me."

"I want you."

In long strokes, Edward started the pumping, as Alo opened his mouth to scream.

"Allen, Allen," Hal's voice cut through Alo's dream. "What's wrong? You were crying out. A nightmare." He was laying between Alo's legs, his cock four inches inside Alo's channel. He was embracing Alo, holding his torso off the surface of the bed. He kissed Alo on the eyes and the throat; a hand was stroking Alo's sweat-streaked hair off his forehead. "What's wrong, baby? Is it Edward Deal?"

"Yes," Alo whispered.

"You don't have to stay with him. You have options."

"I'm scared. But I want him."

"He's too big for you, baby. Walk away from him. Walk away from the hunting trip tomorrow. You don't know. You just don't know."

"I want it too."

"It?"

"His cock. I want it too. All of it."

"Oh, Allen. No, baby. He's too much for you. You have options. Feel me. Feel me inside you." He sank his cock deep inside Alo. Alo gasped and wrapped his legs around the small of Hal's back. Hall began to slow stroke him, deep. "I'm big enough for you. We're a perfect fit. Stay with me. I'll take you away. I . . . love you."

Alo sighed and put his hips in motion, going with the rhythm of fuck. He reached for his own cock and started to stroke.

Feeling him tense, Hal whispered, "Stay with me, baby. Let's come together. Then you'll know. Then you'll know who you want."

Even their heavy breathing fell into rhythm as they both fought hard to find the other, fought hard to come together. And though they did, it was "Edward!" that Alo cried out as he ejaculated.

At dawn, Alo woke again, alone in the bed.

* * * *

In the morning, Alo walked out to the corral, where the hunting party was forming. It was only to be him and two of the men from the earlier hunt, two of the younger, more muscular men, Charlie and Joe.

Hal was there, bringing out the horses. He was avoiding making eye contact with Alo. First out was a horse for Alo. Their hands touched as Hal turned over the reins, and a chill went up Alo's spine, but still Hal didn't look into his eyes.

Next out were horses for Charlie and Joe. Then two pack horse. And finally, as the men were mounting, out came Hal, with a horse for him and another pack horse.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked.

"I'm going too. Boss' orders," Hal answered. He didn't meet the eyes of any of the three, though. Alo knew he was lying about that.

As they moved up into the mountains and Charlie and Joe began to concentrate on the hunting, Hal rode close to Alo and whispered, "Any time on this trip you want to cut and run, just come to me. I won't be far off. I won't intervene as long as you want what is happening. But you still have choices. We can be over the Tetons and on our way up to Montana before anyone knows the wiser."

Alo didn't answer, but something inside him fluttered, and he began to work his brain. It was not until now that he really focused on what Hal had said last night-that he loved him. That if it was a big cock he wanted, Hal had one too. One that wouldn't split him apart.

Why was he dwelling on the size of the cock, though? When he knew he had wanted Edward, he had no idea what size his cock was. He wanted him and Edward only wasn't taking advantage of his vulnerability in this because he did have a killer cock and knew that virginal Alo couldn't accommodate it. So Edward cared for him. But Edward had never said he loved him. He only said he wanted to fuck him. And Edward had been fucking his father-and probably caused his father's suicide.

Alo didn't have time to think further on that, though, as Charlie and Joe called out that they had a track on an elk, and all four men were riding off in search of the sport of the kill.

That evening, by the campfire, Alo found out who else was meant to provide sport.

As with the previous outing, Alo was on his back on the ground, the small of his back running up the side of a saddle on the ground, his right leg running up Charlie's beefy naked torso and Charlie holding his left leg spread out from his body. Charlie was crouched over him, fucking him in long strokes.

When it seemed that Charlie was about to come, though, he pulled out of Alo, with a laugh, and rose to his feet. He had an arm under Alo's waist and pulled him up as well. He carried Alo to the other side of the campfire, where Joe was stretched out, on his back, naked, with his head propped up on another saddle on the ground. Joe lifted and spread his arms, as Charlie lowered Alo on top of him. Joe embraced Alo's chest as Alo was lowered on top of him, facing up. Joe also moved his thighs between Alo's and spread them, spreading and raising Alo's legs. Charlie reached in and helped Joe's cock find and then enter, deep, Alo's channel.

Charlie crouched between Alo's raised and spread legs, and as Alo exclaimed in surprise and began to pant heavily, Charlie forced his cock into his channel above Joe's already-embedded cock.

Alo began to writhe but found that that only made the feel of the two cocks inside him feel even tighter, so he did what he could to relax.

"Easy, guy," Charlie muttered. "Such a sweet ass. This is to help you. Boss' orders. You have to take the cock of that writer guy, Deal. Have you seen his cock? Our two don't equal it. But we'll help you take him. Two nights, three times a night should help open you more for him."

Joe started to pump his cock while Charlie just worked to hold steady inside. When Joe had ejaculated, Charlie started pumping to his own ejaculation.

Alo felt full, but he was able to take them-so he knew Charlie was right. That Edward's cock was bigger yet than the two of them.

He looked over in the shadows, where Hal was standing, his own oversized cock out and being stroked. The way he was standing and looking hard at Alo gave Alo the impression that he wasn't doing it to get off on what Charlie and Joe were doing to him but that he was trying to connect with Alo, showing him again the option he had for Alo.

Keeping his eyes on Hal, Alo reached for and encased his own cock, and when he came, it was for Hal.

Later, the two took Alo standing, Alo sandwiched between them, his legs hooked on Joe's hips as, crouching, Charlie fucked him from behind and Joe fucked him from in front. Again, off in the shadows, Hal was standing, ready to intervene at any moment Alo wanted, connecting with him as closely as he could.

The two men were big, but together they weren't as big as Edward. And the two cocks were stretching him, wearing him out. He wasn't sure he could take this a third time in a day. Even twice was a chore. Edward was bigger, quite a bit bigger. And he'd fuck Alo twice a day-mercilessly. He said so. He'd even driven Alo's father to suicide.

The next morning, When Charlie and Joe stumbled out of their tent, expecting Hal to have boiled the morning coffee, the campfire was out, barely smoking, and both Alo and Hal were gone, already far up into the Tetons about to drop down on the eastern side of the mountains and then to travel north into Montana.