Page 67 of Flowers To Give

Sending him another smile, Clark steps back and goes over to the bar. Jeremy takes the duffel bag off his shoulder and asks, “Where should I put this?”

“Oh, just leave it there,” Clark nods to the ground as he pours their drinks, bouquet still in his arms, “Gregory will get it later.”

Setting the bag down, Jeremy asks, “Who’s Gregory?”

“You don’t know Gregory?” Clark asks, “He’s the house manager. Kind of like a butler. He came with the ranch, Wilcox had him forever. He lives in the house in the back.”

“You have a butler?”

Clark brings over their tumblers and hands one to Jeremy as he corrects, “We have a butler.”

Lifting his glass, Jeremy meets it for a cheers. They keep their eyes locked as they sip from their respective drinks. Jeremy rolls his lips at the tasty liquor and opulent home, sharing with Clark, “You know, I always kind of saw you as this king of a castle.”

“Does that make you my queen?” Clark raises a brow, taking another sip of whiskey.

“Or your knight in shining armor,” Jeremy steps closer, feeling confident.

Clark examines Jeremy’s face, slowly biting his bottom lip. Making eye contact again, he nods his head toward a doorway, saying, “Here, I want to show you something.”

Jeremy follows Clark into another room with a big sofa and massive wall mounted TV. Clark, not letting go of the flowers Jeremy had brought, uses a small controller to turn it on and goes to the Cowboy+ streaming app. He fast forwards through the second day of the NFR and pauses at an exact timestamp, pointing at the television and saying, “Look, it’s you!”

Leaning against the back of the couch, Jeremy watches as the announcer calls his name as the bronco’s let out of the chute and he starts riding the bucking. Clark keeps talking excitedly, “They kept saying how rare it is for a first timer to do as well as you did.”

Jeremy looks over to Clark whose eyes are peeled to the TV, watching Jeremy ride that horse until the very end. He glancesback over to Jeremy and his expression softens, saying, “I wish I could’ve come to see it live.”

“I wouldn’t’ve been able to concentrate,” Jeremy reminds him, “You’re very distracting, believe it or not.”

“Still,” Clark pouts, rewinding the program again and watching Jeremy bareback ride the bronco.

Staring at Clark’s face in profile, Jeremy steps forward and touches his hand against the one that’s holding the bouquet tightly to his chest. He looks over and Jeremy says, “I appreciate you supporting me doing this.”

Clark smiles softly, “I never doubted you for a second. I just missed you every minute.”

Jeremy melts at his words, replying genuinely, “I missed you too.”

Biting his lip, Clark gestures behind Jeremy and says, “Here, I want to show you these too.”

Following Clark over to a table, there are pictures lying out haphazardly. They are pictures of Jeremy. There’s one of him riding Asher, him over the cliff in Kualoa Ranch, and other ones Jeremy doesn’t remember seeing Clark take. He touches them gently, looking over them and saying, “You took all of these?”

“Well, Francis took these,” Clark hands Jeremy the pictures of them racing their thoroughbreds along the shoreline, water splashing up. Clark smiles and continues, “But yeah, finally got them developed. It’s my series on cowboys. You’re a great subject matter.”

Jeremy looks over and catches Clark staring right at him. Having an intense draw to lean in and capture a kiss, Jeremy resists the urge. He knows once he starts, he won’t be able to stop. Clearing his throat, he manages to break eye contact and look down, saying, “I should probably take a shower. I’ve been on the road for a while.”

“Right,” Clark nods, “Here, I’ll show you.”

Leading Jeremy through a maze of hallways and up a secondary staircase from the one in the foyer, Clark takes Jeremy into a massive bedroom. He points down an internal hallway, saying, “Shower’s that way. Should have everything you need.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy nods, hands in his pockets. After all this time, Clark still makes him nervous. He escapes down the hallway and ignores the burning desire in his gut leading him in the other direction.

The shower is like a room in itself, with multiple shower heads making it feel like he’s being rained on, and Jeremy admittedly spends longer in there than usual. While he’s there, he does his best to prep without his supplies; using a few fingers to reach inside himself and make sure he’s clean. The prep excites Jeremy, having to paw at his half hard dick as his mind wanders to memories of how good it feels to kiss Clark. His mouth waters at the thought.

After the shower, he takes a little bit of time to dry off and fuss over his appearance in the anti-fog mirror. He’s picking at a stray eyebrow hair when he realizes his duffel bag with his change of clothes is still downstairs. Still getting comfortable in the house, he’s not sure if it’s alright to walk around half naked. Seeing no other option, Jeremy wraps the towel around his waist and walks out of the ensuite bathroom.

The bedroom is darker than it was earlier, shades being drawn, and candles light the room instead. The flower arrangement Jeremy had brought is in a crystal vase on the nightstand and there are rose petals spread out on the bedspread. Clark is lying on top of them in a plush bathrobe, on his side facing away from Jeremy, scrolling on his phone. Jeremy steps onto the carpet barefoot and runs his hand through his damp hair, saying, “Clark?”

Looking over his shoulder, Clark smiles at Jeremy and sits up, “Hey.”

“I, uh,” Jeremy loses his breath, saying softly, “I forgot my clothes downstairs.”