Page 42 of Pretty ’n Peak

Mateo nudged his shoulder. “I’ve got you. It’s mostly something that you feel—keeping a steady tension while the pulley does all the work. After that, there’s a couple calls like up rope to pull in slack or tension to lock off and brace yourself before I try something risky.”

“Do you try a lot of risky things?” he asked, grinning.

“That’s where the fun is.”

Austin was really enjoying seeing this other side of Mateo—where he was in his own element. Where he could shine.

“Hey! It’s our stragglers!” That was Jamie’s voice up ahead, full of insinuations. “Looks like you two enjoyed your walk.”

Austin rolled his eyes. “We stopped to smell the azaleas.”

“Sure. If that’s what they’re calling it these days.”

Austin didn’t even bother correcting him. So what if everyone thought he’d been making out on the trail?

His chest filled, pulling in the pine-scented air. There was a mountain to conquer in front of him, and a gorgeous man at his side.

He felt alive.

9

Mateo

When Mateo had gone down to breakfast this morning, he hadn’t been sure what the protocol was.

What did you say to a man whose handprints you could still feel on your ass? How did you eat eggs and potatoes beside a guy who’d called you a hungry little bottom boy, made you come so hard you saw stars, and then cuddled you to sleep?

Especially when he’d disappeared, as previously planned, before you woke up?

But it turned out that everything with Austin was easy.

The man just radiated confidence and safety, checking in on Mateo in a way that showed that he truly cared, and then answering a million questions over breakfast.

And if Mateo was disappointed that Austin didn’t suggest a second scene… Well, that had always been the agreement, right?

Still, he couldn’t keep his fluttering heart from hoping, just a little bit, when Austin agreed to go climbing with him. No matter what it was supposed to be, it still felt romantic and special. They’d been a climbing team—no question about partnering up with anybody else, even though it was clear Austin was a bit nervous.

Mateo had taken on the two most difficult climbs, which left him brimming with energy and satisfaction, especially when he looked down to find Austin’s beaming face tilted toward him, for all that he couldn’t see anything. Austin had climbed too—side-by-side with Jamie pointing out grips and holds—to return flushed with success.

After that, the whole climbing crew had decided to go for lunch together, piling into vehicles to descend on a cute little diner a couple miles down the highway. The group was loudly, unabashedly gay—teasing and flirting, swapping stories of first kisses behind the bleachers and kinky scenes like they were talking about the weather. The waitress didn’t bat an eye.

It felt startlingly normal, even if Mateo had to put up with a lot of teasing. It was almost like family, for all that the group would only be together for a few days. There was a sense of camaraderie among gay men that Mateo hadn’t felt before. It was so different from pick-ups in dimly-lit bars.

Austin told stories, too. Sexy ones. Silly ones. He brushed off all the jibes about whisking Mateo away from the mixer, lightly telling everyone to mind their business, even as his leg pressed against Mateo’s under the table.

God, if this was what it was like having a boyfriend, Mateo wanted one.

No, he wanted Austin.

Only, as the hours kept slipping by, Austin hadn’t given any indication that he was thinking of Mateo as more than a friend, and someone to mentor. The kiss on the forehead this morning, now that he thought about it, had been a pretty clear signal. He was Mateo again, not boy, and definitely not sweet boy.

When they got back to the lodge they’d both accepted an invitation to a game of poker on the back patio. It wasn’t a romantic walk in the woods or a tumble in one of their bedrooms upstairs.

But it had been fun.

Someone had picked up a couple cases of beer, and Austin had produced a deck of cards with Braille bumps pressed into the corners, then proceeded to take them all to town. The mountain of plastic chips in front of him had been staggering.

When the game broke up, Mateo and Austin had stayed on the deck, chatting easily. Mateo had wished, more than once, that he could cross the distance between their two chairs and just get a little closer… but Austin hadn’t invited that.