Private Lessons Chapter Four
Private Lessons is an explicit erotic romance with a horse-lover flavor. I will be posting consecutive sections on Tuesdays until the whole thing is posted. Then I’ll post it as a free pdf on my website. Do not click the link to read more if you are offended, or bored, by adults in explicit sexual situations.
Chapter Four
Dee tried to hide a grin as she watched Ben try to maneuver Ace into the arena. Oh, the gate was wide open. But the colt had decided he didn’t like the new-ish coat of red paint on the gate and refused to go anywhere near it. Not even a belly full of delicious, and free, food could keep Dee from standing back and watching Ben struggle between who he really was and who he was pretending to be. She wasn’t sure how much of his act was real, but this, she felt, would make him ‘fess up.
The light-footed palomino colt pranced as Ben guided him toward the hole in the fence again. At the last second, he danced away, jumping to the side and spinning, scraping Ben’s right leg along the fence for a foot or two.
“What’s his problem?” Ben asked. He looked down at her and scowled. “You don’t need to laugh at me.”
Dee opened her mouth to answer but Ben scrunched his face up at her and pulled back on the reins. Ace did a little jig and tried to get the bit in his teeth, where he wouldn’t feel the pressure Ben was putting on his mouth. Ben didn’t let up and the colt began to obey, his feet taking him backwards, right through the open gate. A look of triumph washed over Ben’s face.
Ace shook his head when Ben released the pressure then turned on command and began walking in the large circle like a docile zoo pony. As if the fight had never happened. But it did prove Dee’s point. She felt fiercely satisfied as she strode through the sand to the center of the ring. Of all the things she couldn’t do to him, calling his bullshit was one thing she could do.
“How’s he feel?”
“He doesn’t like me.” Ben shifted slightly in the saddle. “It’s like riding a horse on a trampoline.”
“He’s just energetic. How about letting him stretch his legs a bit? Do a few circles at a trot.”
Ace tried to jump straight to a gallop when Ben’s heels touched him. Ben held him back. After a few steps, Ace settled into a fast, jarring trot.
Horses weren’t that different from children. Ace was in the equine equivalent of his teens and as such didn’t like doing the easy circles or the repetitive practice exercises most of the classes went through. The more steady school horses could do lessons in their sleep. Ace treated everything other than soaring over fences and racing at top speed as boring. But if his rider aimed him at one of the jumps set up in the inside of the ring they’d learn soon enough why the stable had bought him. He may have fought every step of the circles some days, but when he jumped he flew.
Ace didn’t settle down much after three loops. He still stepped high and bouncing, but he began to obey as well. Dee surged with pride at Ben. “Okay, let’s wear him down a bit, take him to a canter. I want you to do two loops, then we’ll try some figure eights.”
Ace changed smoothly into a canter. He made one loop, then started the second beautifully collected under Ben’s hand. Ace and Ben flashed by the gate and suddenly they weren’t where they should have been had they finished the circuit. Panicked, Dee’s eyes scraped the ground, expecting to see Ben in the dirt. The ground was empty. Her gaze continued across the arena.
She found Ben fighting Ace near the center of the ring. As she cringed they slammed into one of the jumps. She thought she saw other people running toward them from the barn. There was no sound, just a horse throwing his head and dancing around and a hard-faced man on his back edging the horse away from the jungle of jumps and rails and straight back toward the offending gate.
Dee couldn’t speak, she could barely breathe as she watched Ben keep Ace on a tight rein. The man guided the horse down the side of the arena, first at a trot then a walk. Finally Ben pulled Ace to a stop, with the horse’s yellow chest touching the red gate. Everything held still for a moment, the Ace stepped forward passively, pushing the gate open with his body and stepping placidly out of the ring and toward the barn.
By the time Dee caught up Ben had Ace tied in an aisle and was pulling the saddle off his back. Dee wasn’t sure where to start. Should she point out that he’d been lying to her, or apologize for her choice, which she realized now could have seriously hurt him?
“Just tell me you didn’t do that to play some sort of joke on me,” Ben said at last. He hadn’t opened his mouth until after he’d returned Ace’s tack to the tack room, returning with a brush and taking his anger out on Ace’s coat. Ace lowered his head and closed his eyes, clearly enjoying the firmness Ben was coaxing out of those well-muscled arms.
“It wasn’t a joke.” Dee sighed and tried to think very carefully of what to say. Nothing sounded right. She was horrible at fighting with people. That’s why she’d long ago developed a habit of just nodding and trying to find a way to appease them. “I know you aren’t a beginner. You don’t jump when the horse moves like beginners do. You aren’t intimidated by the horses, not even ones like Ace, and you’re a damn fine rider. You may say you don’t know what you’re doing, but your body knows what it’s doing.”
And what else would his body know how to do, Dee, she asked herself.
“So that stunt was just to get me to admit that I can ride?”
“Well, why were you lying to me, Ben?”
“I’ve been riding since I was three. I asked for lessons because I was trying to get close to you.”
“You were lying to get close to me?”
“Why else would I be? What else would I have to gain by pretending to be a student?”
“I don’t know,” was all Dee could think to say. The thought that someone would do something like that just to be around her… Well, no one wanted to be around her. She was usually overworked, tired, sweaty or smelling like horse poop, or all of the above. The barn was full of cliques. Show riders, pleasure riders, western riders, weekend cowboys and people who had decided to act on a few of their childhood dreams and bought a horse with no clue what all it entailed. Dee never fit in with any one of them. If she wasn’t the barn manager no one would give her the time of day.
“You could have at least warned me that Ace was gate shy.”
“He’s not,” Dee said dismissively, still mulling over her own thoughts. “He’s never had a bit of trouble with that gate before.”
“Then what happened?”
“He’s inexperienced. He acts up a lot. Oh, and he’s not gelded yet.”
“Not gelded.” Ben shook his head. “Out there on a stallion and I didn’t even know it. You’re lucky there weren’t any other horses in that ring.”
“What, do you think I’m completely stupid? I made sure you were the only one in there. I wouldn’t have done it at all if I didn’t think you could handle it. I’m not a complete idiot, you know.”
Anger sparked in Dee and she couldn’t stop it. It was closely related to the raw lust that had been burning in her since she first met Ben.
“And what you do you think you were doing? What do you mean you wanted to spend time with me? What happened, did you break up with Sandra already?”
“Break up…? What do you…”
“What kind of person are you, hitting on me, bringing me lunch, making me want to drag you to bed instead of out here to the barn, when you’re supposed to be with Sandra?”
Ben looked confused. It threw Dee off. Her mouth closed with a snap that almost caught her tongue and she had to look away.
“Sandra’s married. She’s not my girlfriend,” Ben said in the tense silence. “She’s my sister.”
Before Dee could answer, or ever close her hanging jaw, Ben turned in the aisle, threw his brush into the box and left her alone with the horse.