Saddle up

Chapter Eighteen

I climbed into the shower and tried to scrub the dirty feeling away, but it didn't seem to make me feel any cleaner. My wrists were badly bruised and my private's ached and burned from the tears in my skin.

I covered the dark circles under my eyes with concealer. As I was brushing my hair I discovered dark purple bite marks on my neck...I tried to cover them with concealer as well but left my hair down just in case. I put a long sleeve on to cover my bruises and I headed out the door.

I got to the ranch right on time and hurried to the barn to start work. Chase was already working when I got to the barn.

"Hey girl. How goes it?"

"Fine. I'm good. Fine. How are you? Feeling better?"

"Much better. Hey listen, again, I'm sorry about calling Brant on ya. Boss's orders."

"It's ok, he drove me home."

"Ok, cool. You cold or something?"

"Uh, yeah. I might be getting sick or something. I'm a little chilly this morning."

"Gotcha. Well, you keep your cooties to yourself", Chase said, chuckling.

I offered the best smile I could muster and continued with my work.

I could hear the quad start up in the distance and head towards us. Brant was coming to pick me up to help with feeding. I had to try my absolute hardest to act normal or he would see right through me. He stopped in front of my stall and motioned for me to hop on with a sweet smile. I climbed on and we started towards the pasture. When we were out of ear and eyeshot of Chase, Brant reached down and caressed my arm that was holding him around his waist. I flinched at his touch.

"You ok? I didn't mean to surprise ya." Brant said sweetly.

"I'm fine, sorry. I hugged him tighter and kissed him on his shoulder before climbing off the quad to reassure him.

We fed the horses quickly and headed back towards the barn. When we got inside the barn and off the quad, Brant reached for me and tugged me into the hay stall and started kissing me, pushing me up against the side wall. We could hear Chase singing along to the speaker several stalls down so it was safe. I kissed him back with as much enthusiasm as I could but my mind wasn't there. It kept flashing back to the night before when Cole...

I pulled away from Brant.

"Is everything ok? I'm sorry, I just missed you so bad last night and I couldn't go the whole day without touching you again."

"Everything is fine, I'm just not feeling well today, I don't want to get you sick.", I lied.

Brant scoffed and leaned in for another kiss, grabbing me behind me neck and pulling me closer to him. When he pulled away slowly his expression changed from one of lust to confusion, I realized he was staring at my neck. 'Oh no' I thought and instinctively slapped my hand over the bruises.

Brant was looking at me now, not saying a word. Clearly trying to figure out why I would have hickeys on my neck.

"You didn't..."

"No, Brant. I can explain..." I reluctantly rolled up my sleeves, exposing the dark bruises around each wrist.

"What the fuck?!" Brant nearly shouted, startling me. "What happened?! What did he do to you?!"

Tears were pouring from my eyes now. Brant quickly moved to comfort me, Chase was at the entrance of the stall now. Brant pulled me gently to the nearest hay bail and sat me down

"Tell me exactly what happened, Jess."

I tried to control my crying as I recounted the ordeal the night before. "He was so drunk and heavy...I tried to get him off of me but I couldn't breathe..." I broke down again and Brant pulled me to his chest.