One month later, as Treston organized a few files in the ranger’s station, he still felt so giddy about his new life he found himself whistling You Are My Sunshine and didn’t even realize it. He was doing this when the heavyset ranger, Roger, returned from lunch. Cooper had been gone for about an hour. Roger opened the door and sent him a look, and Treston stopped whistling immediately. Then Treston smiled and asked, “Is there anything special you’d like me to do for you before I leave? I don’t mind. I have plenty of time.” Because he only worked part time three mornings a week and didn’t have a car, he had to spend the entire afternoon on the days he worked walking the trails of Lake Mead until Cooper was finished working so he could take him home. He didn’t mind staying in the station and working without getting paid. He would have done anything short of blowing Roger to pass the time.
Roger shrugged and said, “Nothing I can think of.” He was one of those hapless souls without much energy. Nothing excited him more than a dozen doughnuts or a full box of Oreos. Nothing ever seemed to upset him either, which made him easy to work with. The first week Treston had started working there, Roger had entered the back room and he’d found Treston in Cooper’s arms near the lockers where the rangers changed their clothes. They’d been kissing, thinking they were all alone, and Treston’s pants had been down around his ankles. Any of the other rangers would have gasped and kicked them both out. But not Roger. He just sent them a glance, rubbed his large stomach, gaped at Treston’s ass for a second, and continued to the bathroom without as much as a second glance. When Treston tried to apologize later and tell Roger nothing like that would ever happen again, Roger just shrugged and said, “It’s none of my business what anyone else does. I keep to myself.”
“Are you sure you don’t need anything done?” Treston said now. It was hot out and he didn’t feel like walking the trails all afternoon. “I can clean the place up a little. I don’t think the floor has been vacuumed in a while. I don’t mind at all.”
Roger glanced down at his desktop and said, “Nope. I’m good. I’ll see you later.”
Treston knew there was nothing he could say or do to change Roger’s mind. He didn’t want Roger to get annoyed with him. So he went to the back room, changed his clothes, and left the ranger’s station about fifteen minutes later. He started walking toward one of his favorite trails, as far away from the trail where Harlan Rocks had left him naked as he could get. He liked this trail in particular because he sometimes ran into Cooper later in the afternoon as Cooper was heading back to the station and Cooper would break his routine. Sometimes they would sneak behind a rock and make love. One afternoon Cooper pulled down Treston’s pants and bent him over a flat boulder, and another afternoon Treston blew Cooper while he was still on his horse. Sometimes—and only when Cooper requested it—Treston would remove all his clothes and put on Cooper’s cowboy boots and hat while Cooper threw Treston over the horse and spanked him.
It didn’t take long for Treston to learn that strait-laced Cooper Boon, who appeared so conservative and set in his ways on the outside, had a few kinky needs in the bedroom. They weren’t outrageous; just little things like Treston wearing his boots or Treston wearing long fake red fingernails. Cooper really seemed to get off spanking Treston with all kinds of things, from kitchen spatulas to the soles of his cowboy boots. Though these were not kinky things Treston would have ever done or even suggested, Treston felt the need to please the man he was in love with, partly because he was Treston’s hero and partly because Cooper was the one man with the ability to take Treston away from the only life he’d known as a stripper.
While Treston headed toward the trail that afternoon, he started to whistle You Are My Sunshine again. He felt unusually excited and didn’t know why. But as he turned right to head off the road, he heard a car coming, followed by sound of deep familiar voice saying, “Do you need a ride, bitch?”
Treston stopped walking and glanced up at the clear sky. He took a quick breath and rolled his eyes. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in the past month. He turned slowly and glanced at the long black limo that had stopped at the side of the road. He put his hands on his hips, frowned, and said, “No, thank you. I don’t need a ride.” He had to clench his teeth to force himself not to smile.
Chad Pratt was hanging out of the back window. From what Treston could see, he was naked. Chad climbed up a little higher, flashed his dick, and said, “C’mon, bitch. You know you need me. I’ll take you home. This park ranger shit isn’t for you and you know it. You need a guy like me. You crave it.”
Ever since the night they’d had dinner, Chad had been trying to contact him. Treston had thought the roses Chad had sent the day after had been the end of all this silliness. But he’d been wrong. A week after that Chad came to the club to watch him shoot ping-pong balls and he’d requested a private show later that night. When Chickey told Treston that Chad was waiting for him in the back, Treston explained to Chickey he didn’t want to do a private show with Chad because he didn’t want to get involved with him. He told Chickey the entire story about meeting Chad, having dinner with him, and the way Chad had been hounding him. Chickey listened without saying a word. After Treston explained the situation, Chickey went back and told Chad it wasn’t going to happen. This was one of the things about Chickey that Treston loved most. It was also why he insisted on giving Chickey plenty of notice before he quit his job to marry Cooper. Treston knew the ping-pong ball show was important to the club and he didn’t want Chickey to lose money. Chickey truly cared for the guys who worked for him and he never forced them to do anything they didn’t want to do. Not even with Chad Pratt.
“Will you please leave me alone?” Treston said. “I’m not getting in the car with you, you tired old movie star.” Although Treston thought Chad looked as adorable as ever hanging out of the back window naked, and they both knew he was only joking when he called him a tired old movie star, there was nothing Treston would to do ruin his wonderful relationship with Cooper. To leave a good solid man with a set routine for the worst bad boy in Vegas might have been something Treston would have done a year earlier. But not anymore.
Chad threw one of his long legs out the window and over the side of the limo. He started playing with himself—clearly not serious about getting off because that would have been insane; just joking around—right there on the side of the road and said, “I’m never going to leave you alone. I love you. I’m even thinking about starting a new career as a stripper to get closer to you.”