Private Lessons

Private Lessons Part 3

Chapter Five

Dee stood in the barn, feeling like an idiot and wrestling with confusion for a long time. Finally Ace jerked on the rope tying him to the wall impatiently. He leaned back to do so, placing his hoof firmly on Dee's foot. Dee felt like kicking him back, but she knew she really wanted to kick herself.

She saw Ace safely to his stall and left the barn, head down, not sure what to do next. She scanned the area, not really focusing until she saw Ben's truck still in the lot. Neither horse, nor human stopped her from walking as fast as she could around the area, looking for him, and trying to keep half an eye on the lot as well, to see if she could catch him leaving.

She found him, not far from where they'd started. Ben sat at a picnic table, tucked away behind the second barn in the peaceful shade not far from the woods. There were trails past the barn, but the table often went unused because there were more choice places to socialize on Deepdale's property. Places where one could be seen.

Dee sat beside him, pleased to see he didn't move away. "Sandra's married?"

Ben nodded. "To some rich guy she met in college. He's gay and wants to keep it under wraps so it doesn't affect his business. She plays the part of his loving wife, he buys her everything she wants. It works out well because they're good friends, they have each other's support and they can both pursue what they really love. Him, his men. Her, the horses."

"I sort of feeling bad for hating her now."

"You hate her?"

Dee shook her head dismissively. "Not really. Everything just seems to come so easily to her. Like she's perfect. Perfect people are easy to dislike."

"She seems perfect here, maybe."

"So you aren't taken?"

Ben smiled at her, his face half in shadow. "No."

"Not even dating?"

"Not even dating."

She leaned into him, more awkwardly that she'd meant to, pressing her lips against his. It wasn't a graceful kiss, but Dee was pretty sure he got the point.

"So just like that I'm supposed to forget that you tried to kill me?" Ben asked. Something in his voice sounded wrong, but the words made Dee's heart sink like a stone to her stomach.

"I didn't try to kill you. I was angry that you lied to me, and because I thought you were trying to get me to help you cheat on Sandra."

"Who you said you hate. So why would it matter?"

"I don't really hate her, I'm horribly jealous of her and regardless she is still a woman and I would never help a man cheat..." He was laughing. Dee was burning with embarrassment and lust that she was sure for a few terrible moments would end as it had begun, in dreams and wishful thinking, and Ben was sitting there laughing at her. "You're laughing at me."

"I'm not trying to. You're so cute when you're angry."

"Cute?"

"Absolutely adorable."

His arms wrapped around her and pulled her across the wood slats to him. After that it became easier. The tension, the emotion in her stomach melted away under the heat of new emotions. With no space between them, every touch, every brush of skin or clothing against her felt like a tiny, enticing electric charge calling her nerves to stand at attention.

Her hands went under his shirt first. She wanted to feel his skin, the hardness of his muscles that she'd seen move so often in other places. Ben pulled away from her long enough to pull the shirt over his head. His chest was a wide expanse, tanned the same tone as his arms. It felt just as good to be held against the rest of him as it had felt when he carried her. Safe, warm, loved. And a few feelings that had nothing at all to do with being taken care of.