The Riding Master

by Alexandrea Weis

  Whenever she had searched for her clothes, he had taken her again to a different part of his house and threw her onto the dining room table, or pinned her against the kitchen counter. When she swore she needed to go home to Frank, he had lugged her to the pool, tossed her in, and made love to her in the shallows.

  After he had carried her to bed, she remembered feeling so safe and complete with him that her urge to leave had been completely stifled. They had drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms, and at one point in the night when she had attempted to climb from the bed and sneak out on him, he pulled her back into his arms and took her with such ferocity that when she came, she swore her screams could be heard by the neighbors.

  But now, in the light of day, she considered whether all that passion had been worth it. Not only was she sore as hell, she had slept very little and had a full day at work ahead of her. Reclining back in the bed for a few more minutes of rest, she felt him stir next to her.

  When arms wrapped around her, Rayne smiled.

  “You can’t leave,” he insisted, biting her shoulder.

  “I have to.” She stretched out her arms. “I have to get home to Frank, who has probably done God knows what to my house. Then, I have to get ready for work.”

  “I know.” He kissed her neck. “By the way, last night….” He sighed into her skin. “It’s never been like that with anyone.”

  “Is that what you usually say the morning after?”

  He shook his head as he sat up next to her. “What makes you think I could possibly go five times in one night with any other woman?”

  “Six,” she corrected. “We did it twice in the pool.”

  He dramatically slapped his hand over his forehead. “I feel so cheap.”

  Rayne tossed the covers aside. “I think that’s my line.”

  Trent sat up as she walked to his open bathroom door. “I’m glad you stayed.”

  “Like I had a choice?”

  He climbed from the bed and went to her side. “You had a choice, Rayne.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Tonight, I’ll make it easy on you and Frank, and sleep at your place.”

  Rayne leaned back against the bathroom doorframe. “Are you sure about that? Perhaps you might want to have a break from me.”

  “Stop it.” He glared at her, enraged by the suggestion. “I know what I want, and time away from you isn’t it.”

  “What if I need time?”

  Trent’s anger disappeared and he anxiously searched her features. “Do you?”

  Her eyes outlined the square cut of his darkly stubbled jaw, and the concise line on his thin lips. She knew she should play hard to get, perhaps leave him wondering where her feelings stood, but in her heart Rayne could never be so calculating. Despite her fears of him growing bored and walking away, she decided that she would not hold back anymore. It was time to take a chance.

  “After last night, I’m not sure how I’m going to get through the day without…wanting you again.”

  The smiled that curved along Trent’s lips was so heartwarmingly genuine that Rayne was uplifted.

  “Finally, an honest answer about your feelings. Didn’t that make you feel good?”

  She shook her head. “No, it made me feel…vulnerable.”

  “Vulnerable? You’re standing naked in my bathroom doorway, baby. You’d better be feeling something other than vulnerable.”

  Rayne inclined her head to the side. “What should I be feeling?”

  “Relieved that you’re opening up to me. I can’t make you happy unless I know what you want, Rayne.”

  “And last night you were trying to make me happy?” she asserted in a suspicious tone of voice.

  “I was trying to show you what it feels like to open up to someone.”

  She noted the grin on his lips as a question that had been eating at her since their first date came to mind. “Can I ask you something?”

  His eyes hungrily glided over her naked body. “You can ask me anything.”

  “Why me?”

  He appeared taken aback. “What?”

  “Why me, Trent? In the brief time we have been together, you have fought very hard to make me feel….” She paused, searching for the right words. “It’s like you have been on some kind of quest to woo me.”

  “You should know the kind of man I am. Competitive, driven, and I get what I want. Right now what I want is you.” He cocked a single dark eyebrow at her. “Is that a bad thing?”

  “No, but to someone as distrusting as me, it makes me feel like you have some ulterior motive for wanting me; that this isn’t just about sex, or getting to know me.” She folded her arms over her chest and perused his face. “It’s like you want something more.”

  Trent rested his back on the doorframe opposite her and his eyes lost their friendly glint. “I do want something more, Rayne, but as long as you think I have an ulterior motive for taking you to bed and spending time with you then you will never believe me.” He leaned forward and put his hands on the wall behind her, bringing his face to within inches of hers. “From the moment I met you, you have been pushing me away. For once, stop pushing and let me in.”

  Her hazel eyes challenged him as her doubt surged forward. “What if you turn out to be like all the rest?”

  “I’ve told you before, I’m not Foster.” His arms slid down the wall to her waist. “I’m not looking for a woman to make me look good. I’m looking for someone I can build a life with.”

  “What makes me any different from all the other women you’ve been with?”

  A fleck of frustration surfaced in his eyes and then vanished. “Well, for starters, you don’t have an agenda,” he began. “You’re the first woman I’ve met that didn’t try to impress me with your looks or influence. You’re stubborn, nervous, distant, make no excuses for who you are, and most important of all, you don’t wear lipstick to the stables.”

  “Lipstick?” Rayne giggled, startled by the admission. “You’re kidding.”

  “No.” He shook his head, sporting a comical frown. “Big turn off for me.”

  “I don’t get it. Why is that a turn off?”

  “It means you’re not serious about being there.” He let her go. “Next time you go to the stables, look around to see how many women are wearing lipstick.”

  Rayne silently ran through a list of women she knew from the stables, but only one name stood out. “Does Selene wear lipstick?” she questioned, leaning on the doorframe.

  “Deep red,” he said, walking to his wide shower stall. “She keeps it in the front pocket of her riding pants and reapplies it frequently.”

  As he turned on the shower, Rayne admired the curve of his firm ass. “You’ve seen her do that?”

  He tested the water temperature with his hand. “Yesterday, when I observed her class.”

  “Some men might find that a turn on.”

  Trent chuckled and held the shower door open, motioning inside. “Perhaps, but not me.”

  Rayne confidently sashayed up to the wide shower stall door, accentuating the sway of her hips just like Selene. “Are you sure about that?”

  Trent rested his hand against the outside of the stall door, mesmerized by her movements. “I’m not interested in her. I’ve told you that before.”

  Rayne directed her eyes to the cascading water flowing from four different showerheads into the middle of the wide stall. She was still not completely convinced of his sincerity, but her reasons for staying with the man were beginning to outnumber her excuses for walking away. “I guess I’m still a little mystified that you want to be with me,” she divulged, turning her attention to the ripped muscles in his abdomen.

  “Stop questioning my motives, and just relax. I’m a one-woman man, Rayne. I gave up juggling women when I was a teenager. It’s too hard and you create a lot of enemies.”

  Her fingers traced the muscles in his abdomen. “Then why are you so different from other men?”

  He nodded to the shower. “Get
in there, and I’ll show you just how different I am.”

  “Yes, sir.” She gave him a flirty smile and then stepped into the shower. “Just remember I have to get home to Frank.”

  “Eventually,” he murmured, following her under the spray of water. “Once I’m done with you.”

  ***

  Rayne spent the morning at the clinic, chugging down coffee and catching up on a backlog of paperwork. It was well past lunch when she finally pushed away from her desk in the cramped, broom closet of an office she had next to the lab. Desperate for food, she made her way to the break room to warm up the leftover pizza Trent had sent home with her.

  Thankful to have the break room to herself, she popped her leftover pizza in the microwave. While waiting for her food, Rayne went to the coffeepot on the trolley, but found it empty. She began to make another pot, hoping maybe her next cup of coffee would be the one to finally jump-start her floundering body.

  “Are you making more coffee?” Lindsey admonished as she stood in the break room door. “Haven’t you already had like four cups?”

  Rayne went back to the microwave. “They didn’t help.”

  “What was it; another late night of phone sex with the hot riding guy?”

  Rayne blushed at the mention of Trent.

  “Ohhh.” Lindsey dashed to her side, the nursing paraphernalia weighing down her pockets jingling as she ran. “That doesn’t look like phone sex to me. You’re as red as a can of Coke. Could this mean you and the horse guy were up all night doing the nasty?”

  Rayne turned to the counter. “Not all night.”

  “You had sex with the guy and never told me about it. What kind of friend are you?” Lindsey rested her hip against the counter, edging her face in front of Rayne. “I need to hear everything,” she insisted.

  The timer went off and Rayne opened the microwave door. “It’s not like that, Lindsey. We had pizza and talked.”

  “Uh, huh. Is that the pizza you ate last night?” She pointed to Rayne’s slice of pizza.

  “Yeah.” Rayne put her plate down on the counter next to her.

  “Then you didn’t eat pizza and talk. On those dates, there are no leftovers, because all you do is eat. On the dates where you have sex, there are always leftovers.”

  Rayne picked up her slice of pizza. “I’ve never heard that.”

  “That’s because you weren’t a slut in high school like me.” Rayne took a bite of pizza while Lindsey waited. “So, come on. Let’s hear it. What happened?” she besieged with a roll of her hand.

  Rayne hurriedly swallowed her pizza and put it back down on the plate. “You know.” She yanked a paper towel from the dispenser hanging on the wall by the sink. “We had a good time.”

  “Good time? Honey, by the bags under your eyes and the amount of coffee you have consumed, I suspect you had more than a ‘good time.’ So how was he?”

  Rayne wiped her hands on the paper towel. “He was not a…how do I put this…a gentle kind of lover. This guy was—”

  “Knock you into the headboard until you saw God kind of lover?”

  “Not the headboard, but more like the dining room table, kitchen counter, edge of the pool,” Rayne smiled slyly, “and then the headboard of his bed.”

  Lindsey let out a boisterous howl. “Thank you, God. You’ve only been with an old man who probably had to take Viagra to get it up. What you needed was a guy who took you to bed and showed you how it’s done.”

  Rayne flashed back to how assertive and demanding Trent had been the night before. “Is it always like that with guys? You know, a kind of take what they want attitude.”

  Lindsey stared at her for a moment, grinning. “Was he strong, dominated you, and treated you like his woman? You know, caveman-like?”

  Rayne nodded her head, grinning happily. “Yeah, he was a total caveman.”

  Lindsey clapped her hands in jubilation. “Finally, you got a man who knows how to handle you.”

  “Handle me? What are you talking about?”

  “Rayne, I know you’re a good girl and all. You never cheated on your husband and you probably have a perfect driving record and never had a cavity, either. But women like you keep so much locked up inside. I see it every day when you come to work. You’re reserved, quiet, don’t have any friends, other than me, and you spend every other moment when you’re not at work with your horse. You need a man who is going to take control, and it sounds to me as if this guy is perfect for you.”

  Rayne had never considered Trent to be the perfect guy. Sure there were parts of him that she thought perfect, and the fact that he loved horses was an added bonus, but was that enough? “What if he is just taking me for a ride, Lindsey? He’s never been married, and there have been a lot of women in his past; a whole lot. Don’t you think I should be cautious?”

  The beeping of the coffeemaker distracted Lindsey, and she stepped over to the trolley to hit the off button on the machine. “Stop looking for problems where none exist, girl. You have a man that wants to make you happy. That should be all that matters. Besides, if he wasn’t in it for the long run, he wouldn’t have given a damn last night about whether you were satisfied or not.”

  The break room door flew open and a short, bald man with a thick gray moustache peered inside.

  “Lindsey, I need you to recheck the blood pressure on Mr. Dominguez in room two, and call Dr. Lender again with that consult for Mrs. Bennet.”

  “Yes, Dr. Moffet,” she chirped.

  “Is that fresh?” The doctor pointed to the coffee pot.

  “Sure is. You want your usual two sugars?”

  “Thanks, Lindsey.” Dr. Moffet left the break room door open and turned away.

  Lindsey removed a white mug from a tray next to the coffeemaker. “At least I won’t have to smell his breath if he drinks this.”

  While Lindsey poured Dr. Moffet’s coffee, the black iPhone in the front pocket of Rayne’s scrub top played its jazzy ringtone. When she saw the number on the caller ID, Rayne frowned.

  “Bad news?” Lindsey inquired, easing the coffeepot back on the warming plate.

  “No, just my mother.” Rayne put the phone back in her pocket.

  “How is the mother of the year?” Lindsey joked with a snort.

  “Oh, ha ha.” Rayne walked across the break room to Lindsey’s side and selected a mug from the trolley. “She fell over the weekend, hit her head, and called Foster to take her to the hospital when she couldn’t find me.”

  Lindsey’s jaw dropped. “All that happened in addition to your night of caveman sex with the horse guy?”

  Rayne poured the fresh coffee in her mug. “Trent and I were having dinner at his place Saturday night. I drank too much and fell asleep. Sunday morning I got home and Foster left a message on my machine.”

  “Is Estelle okay?” Lindsey took two packs of sugar from a dish next to the coffeemaker.

  “She’s fine, but the ER doctor said her blood work was pretty bad. He wants her to see her internist for follow-up.”

  “How did she react to that news?” Lindsey dumped the sugar in Dr. Moffet’s coffee mug.

  “She wasn’t happy about it. But honestly she wanted to know more about Trent than what tests they were going to do to her.”

  “Wait?” Lindsey took a breath. “She met him?”

  Rayne drank from her mug. “Trent went with me to the hospital Sunday morning.”

  “And you’re wondering if he’s serious? Honey, you’re really in the dark when it comes to men. If he went with you to the hospital, met Foster and the notorious Estelle, and still wants to be with you, you’d better hang on to him.”

  “He seemed really worried about how it all affected me,” Rayne admitted.

  “I want to meet this one.” Clutching Dr. Moffet’s mug of coffee, Lindsey headed to the open break room door. “He sounds like those guys I read about in my books. The kind you live happily ever after with.”

  After Lindsey had disappeared out the door, Rayne
carried her coffee mug to the counter and collected her plate of pizza. Getting comfortable at the faux wood table, Lindsey’s comments about Trent circled like a hawk in Rayne’s head. Munching on her pizza, she debated if he was her “happily ever after” or just a man who would make her “happy for now.”

  Rayne was certain that the most she should count on was some great sex and a few happy memories before Trent Newbury inevitably walked away. But as the idea of having more with the addictive man tantalized her, the slightest glimmer of hope awakened in Rayne’s soul. Maybe she had to start with “happy for now,” before she could arrive at “happily ever after.” After all, true happiness, like trust, took time to build.

  Chapter 16

  After work, an exhausted Rayne opted to let Bob out in the paddock for exercise instead of tacking up for an afternoon of jumping fences. The cool nip in the air combined with the warmth of the sun had a sedative effect on her. Deciding to stretch out on the grass next to the paddock, Rayne closed her eyes and took a few moments to rest her weary body.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” a smoky voice griped.

  When she opened her eyes, Trent was standing over her, scowling. Wearing gray dress slacks, a long-sleeved pale blue shirt, and black leather loafers, he appeared as if he had just come from the office.

  “You’ve got a show in less than a month. You can’t afford to lounge around.”

  Rayne sat up. “Well, if someone had not kept me up all night, doing unspeakable things to me, I might have the energy to get on my horse and jump a few fences.”

  Trent took a seat on the grass next to her. “Try a mid-afternoon nap. Worked wonders for me.” He kissed her lips and Rayne was instantly rejuvenated.

  “I can’t nap in the lab,” she complained, pulling away. “I don’t own a business like some people.” She motioned to his clothes. “Did you come from work?”

  He reached into the front pocket of his trousers. “Yeah, I have a meeting with Rebecca in a few minutes.” He handed her a folded slip of paper.