by Alison Paige
“You can’t be in there. Only one person to a dressing room, sir.” She sneered.
And just like that the cold front moved back in.
“Joe, be a doll and get me a fresh soda,” Kate said from the center seat at the overcrowded counselors table.
Joe didn’t move from the wall he leaned against five feet away.
“Oh, wait.” Kate glanced at her fellow diners. “Anyone else need a refill?”
Ginny waved. “Me.”
Eddy scooted his chair closer beside Kate. “If he’s fetchin’ I’ll take one.”
“Me too,” another counselor said.
“Diet for me,” said another.
Kate swung her attention back to Joe. “You get that?”
“Abso-fuckin’-lutely.” Joe didn’t budge.
He wasn’t her damn assistant, although that didn’t stop Kate from ordering him around like one. Carting him off to the mall pushed his tolerance level to the max, though where she went he would follow. But Joe was nobody’s flunky. And he sure-as-shit didn’t fetch.
Behind his thick glasses Eddy’s eyes narrowed on him. He swiped his stringy bangs to the side and tipped his chin toward Joe. “Why’s he always hanging around?”
Kate turned to look at Joe, though she likely knew who Eddy meant. “He’s a…”
Joe and Kate had agreed it was best to keep his true profession secret from the male staff so as not to tip off the stalker. They’d maintain the cover he’d established, affair and all, though nothing official was ever stated, in hopes of driving the creep out of the shadows. Kate was safe. He’d make damn sure of it.
But Joe knew the summer-affair scenario was lacking authenticity lately. A fact he’d have to rectify—for professional reasons, of course.
“He’s just hanging out like the rest of us.” A smile flickered at the corners of her mouth. She turned back to Eddy. “Besides, he’s kind of old to stay with the other campers. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t actually talk to any of us. It’s creepy.”
Joe pushed from the wall and closed the distance to Kate.
“He’s shy. He talks to me,” she said. “Sometimes.”
Eddy’s spine stiffened. “Still think it’s weird. He your boyfriend?”
“Ah…we’re, ah—”
“Yes. I am,” Joe said from behind Kate.
She jumped. His name whooshed through her lips on a breath. “Joe.”
He leaned over, bracing his hands on the table, caging Kate between his arms. Her scent wafted up to play havoc with his libido, but Joe ignored his body’s quick response.
“Ready, dollface?” He bent at the elbows and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. Jeezus she smelled good and her hair felt like spun silk against his lips.
“Ready?” she asked.
The table had gone eerily silent. Joe flicked his gaze. Just as he thought, all eyes were on them.
“Ready to…” He bent lower, his upper body surrounding her. He rested his lips to her ear. No one would hear clearly enough but Kate. “We’re lovers. Remember? Hot ’n’ heavy. Time we acted like it.”
He kissed the tiny nub of flesh at the entrance to her ear—because people were watching and because he needed to kiss her.
Her breath shuddered. Her voice came weak and airy. “Ready to go to the breeders? Uhm, yeah. Sure. Let’s go.”
She shoved her chair back and Joe huffed, doubling over. White, blinding light streaked through his brain. The searing pain of a hot poker stabbed through his groin and his balls shot up into his body lodging somewhere in the vicinity of his gut. Then it really started to hurt.
Kate glanced at Joe’s groin as they walked down the stable aisle at the breeders. He was still limping a little. Lord, she hoped she hadn’t broken anything.
He caught her looking, must’ve read her worried expression and shot her a frown laced with male embarrassment.
She mouthed the word, “Sorry.”
He shook his head, brow tight, and turned his attention to the man between them leading the way. Albert Finnegan, head breeder at Maple Run Farm.
Joe glanced around then back to Albert. “Horses need all this to, ah…”
“Copulate?” Albert said with a slender brow cocked high over the frame of his glasses.
“Right.”
“No. Don’t be stupid.” Albert walked on, passing the run of stalls on either side. He had a peculiar feminine sway to his hips that said as much about him as the sass in his tone and the flaring swing of his arm.
“Horses, like any creature on earth, are quite capable of propagation naturally, without aid,” Albert said. “This facility simply ensures their safety and provides efficiency nature has not.”
“That right?” Joe looked quizzical and irritated at the same time, staring at Albert’s back.
“Indeed.” Albert wore the white lab coat Kate had come to expect, though she was never sure why. She suspected it made him feel official. There was a lab in the building, with a cryogenic freezer, microscopes, big syringes and other scientific-type equipment, but as far as she’d ever seen, Albert was more of an overseer than a lab technician.
“Your mare is up here.” He flipped his wrist in the direction. “We’re ready to bring in the stud.”
“Just in time for the show,” Joe said with a smile and wink in her direction.
Albert spun, small blue eyes narrowed behind his glasses. His slender face flushed all the way up through the sparse hairs neatly pressed to his head. His cheeks sank in below impossibly high bones and the spot of hair beneath his tightly pursed lips emphasized the sharp point of his chin.
“We are not seventh graders here, Mr. Garity. This is a serious, delicate procedure. Not a way for you to…” His gaze made a quick sweep of Joe’s body, ending with a raised brow and appreciative smile. “Get your jollies. I trust you’ll keep your brutish male urges in check?”
Joe slipped his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Right.”
Albert twirled back around and led on. Joe flashed Kate a questioning wide-eyed look. She shrugged. What could she say? The guy was flaming.
They stopped near the end of the stables where three mares were tied, asses out, in narrow stalls. Two padded chains below the mares’ rumps stretched across each narrow opening a foot apart.
Memories sent a flush of heat to Kate’s face. She knew what was coming. She’d seen it countless times before, but she hadn’t considered how she’d feel about watching the “procedure” with Joe.
“You two over there.” Albert pointed to a spot past the mares, closer to the end of the stable.
One of the farmhands, a young man Kate recognized but had never met, led a horse down the aisle toward them. The large bay stallion perked its ears as he neared, his nostrils flaring, his flaccid cock swinging long and pink to his knees.
He brought the stallion’s muzzle close to the wet sex of the first mare, her tail swishing, feet shifting, stomping the ground uneasily. The stallion snorted and nuzzled the mare. She squealed as though she’d been bitten, ears pinned then thrust her rear leg back hard and quick. The big stud flinched, but the chain stopped the mare’s kick, sparing him certain injury.
“Tease,” Joe said.
Albert glanced over his shoulder. “That’s nothing. Equine copulation is a passionately violent act. So driven are they by their lusts, kicking and biting, deep gashes from hooves during mounting, even risk of death won’t dissuade them.” He looked back to the horses. “Marvelous creatures.”
The scene was repeated twice more with the other mares, the large stallion growing more excited with each taunting whiff. In the end, his fat pink organ curved long and solid beneath his belly. His powerful hoofs pounded the ground before his mares, his need calling him to mount them despite the small space and the chains that separated them.
Kate stared at the impressive organ wagging thick and stiff beneath the stud’s belly. The animal’s arousal fairly sizzled in the air,
electricity tingling over her skin. Her body warmed. She watched as the stallion thrashed his thick neck, dancing closer to his females. Light gleamed over his tight muscled hindquarters, his powerful body driven by his need to plunge himself deep inside them.
“He’s ready.” Albert looked to Kate. “Take your friend in first before we bring the stallion to see Jessie.”
Joe leaned close, his arm slipping around Kate’s waist. “Jessie?”
“Short for Jezebel. The farm’s whore. She’s in here. C’mon.” Kate nodded toward the wide-open doorway at the very end of the stables to their right.
She took a spot against the inside wall and Joe edged in, his arm going around her waist, again tucking her close. She closed her eyes for a moment, relishing the warmth of his body, the firm strength of his muscles against her.
“What the hell is that?”
Kate opened her eyes, belly fluttering, as she glanced at his expression, seeing his mind puzzling out what they were about to witness. She followed his stare.
The room was twenty foot by twenty foot square, with a dirt floor and corrugated sheet metal for the ceiling and walls. On one end the wall held a door and a long window into the lab. A small group of people stood huddled in quiet conversation near the lab door. Several wore elbow-length plastic gloves. One had added a clear face mask.
“That’s Jessie,” Kate said shifting her attention to the large contraption at the center of the room. “Basically a big wooden sawhorse covered by thick foam pads and built at a slant to make, ah, mounting, easy and pain free.”
“A horse sex doll.”
“Pretty much.” Kate shrugged. “She’s easy and safe. A stud’s wet dream.”
Joe looked askance at her, his smile crooked, a flash of heat in his dark eyes. “Right.”
Though she’d never admit it, she enjoyed a secret thrill watching the breeding processes. Seeing the stallion’s fevered excitement, his primal undeniable need, the voyeuristic charge of watching another creature in a sexual act made her body pulse, her blood run hot.
Just thinking about what was coming creamed her sex. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Joe was affected the same way.
The handler led the stallion into the room. Albert followed taking a spot against the wall on the other side of the door. He folded his arms across his chest, his right hand moving to his mouth, his eyes focused on the stiffly aroused horse.
The stallion pranced toward the stationary mare, repetition putting a knowing excitement in his step. One of the gloved technicians smeared the real mare’s creamy scent along the foam padding, further coaxing the stallion.
His neck stretched, nostrils flaring, cock hard and thick, the stud sniffed twice then reared up to straddle the imitation horse.
Joe’s hand fisted the waistband of her breeches at her side, tugging her closer. Kate glanced at him, but his eyes were fixed on the masturbating stallion.
Before the stud found his position the masked technician swooped in, a long, flexible rubber tube in his hands. He fitted it over the stallion’s wide stiff cock and stroked his length, both hands gripping the tube.
The powerful animal thrust his hindquarters, ramming his long erection into his imaginary mare. His muscles rippled beneath his shiny fur, driving hard and frantic. The sawhorse shook from his strength. The technician under him stroked a counter rhythm squeezing his hands, his face grimacing, his arms taut.
Muscles deep inside Kate tightened, her sex tingled and slicked. Joe’s hand opened on her hip, his fingers hot, kneading the side of her pelvis. Kate looked at him, his jaw clenched, eyes narrow, riveted on the scene before them. She glanced down, intrigued to see the faint line of his cock in his jeans.
She felt him look at her and she met his gaze. He didn’t smile. His eyes were so filled with desire her breath caught. His hand squeezed her hip. He pressed her body against him. He wanted her then, undeniably, unmistakably, finally, and every bit as much as she wanted him.
“For all the good it did me,” Kate grumbled hours later, falling backward onto her bed. She lay sprawled over her comforter, horny as hell and without a cock in sight. Joe’s cock might as well be a hundred miles away as good as it was to her on the other side of her bedroom wall.
They should’ve come straight back to the cottage after the breeding farm. They should’ve found a room, a stall, a dark corner, somewhere where they could’ve taken care of the frustrating ache between her thighs. They hadn’t, and the moment was lost.
Not that she could really blame Joe for not making a move. She’d been throwing out so many mixed signals even Kate wasn’t sure what she wanted.
After everything she’d told Joe about her father, how could he have even considered continuing to work for him? It made her heart hurt. But worse than questioning his ethics, she questioned Joe’s motivations, his reasons for being with her.
The night of the fire she’d been so sure he felt something more for her than lust. But now? She’d once worried his constant, focused attention was a requirement of his job. Now she knew for a fact it was.
Kate wiggled up to her pillow, raised her legs and pulled the comforter out from under her. She snuggled underneath and squirmed out of her panties.
“This bites,” she said under her breath and pushed her hands down through the wet curls of her sex. After a few seconds Kate knew masturbating would be as satisfying as an ice cube at an all-you-can-eat buffet. She didn’t want her finger inside her or her happy-bunny vibrator. She wanted Joe—or at least her body did. Her heart was still on the fence.
She threw back the covers, kicking her feet free and stood. “If Daddy dearest can pay Joe to follow me around and have sex with me…so can I.”
Kate yanked her nightshirt over her head and tossed it in the corner. She grabbed her fluffy terrycloth robe from the end of the bed and went to the dresser mirror. She slumped when she saw her reflection. The thick comfy robe made her look like a belted pillow. To make things worse, she had bullet head from her riding helmet.
“Crap.” Nothing she could do about it. The robe was the only one she had. Warmth over sex appeal had been the order of the day when she’d bought it. She finger-combed the thick waves of her hair, refusing to examine her reflection below the neck.
Better. She went to the door and took a few deep nerve-calming breaths. Was she really going to do this? Did she need sex this badly?
“Abso-fuckin’-lutely,” she whispered and creaked open the door.
The living room was cast in dusky shadows. Joe slouched on the couch across from the bedroom door. His face was in profile to her, his head lolled back, his arms in his lap. Kate stepped out on tiptoes. She stopped, narrowing her eyes. Something in his lap was moving. She stared, waiting for her vision to adjust.
Joe made a soft groan, shifted his hips and Kate noticed the rhythmical pump of his hand.
She swallowed hard, her belly fluttering. She knew she should look away, at least let him know she was there, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move. The sight of his big hand stroking up and down the stiff shaft of his cock, his left hand cupping his balls, made her muscles tight, her thighs wet.
Joe rocked his hips once and then again. His jaw clenched. His eyes shut tight. The soft sound of friction, skin against skin, finally reached Kate’s ears.
He made another soft sound. “Kate.”
Her name on his lips while he pleasured himself sent a fresh wash of heat through her pussy. Joe’s hand gripped his shaft hard enough to raise the veins in his forearms. His rhythm quickened, turned rough. Dark veins roped up the side of his neck. His hips rose, leg muscles tensing, and Joe pumped himself faster, harder.
Gawd, she’d come just watching him. Kate edged forward, hoping he’d somehow feel her presence. He didn’t, obviously too lost in the build of sensation.
Kate moved closer, stopping at the arm of the couch. She could see clearly now, the front of his briefs pushed down under his balls, his cock standing straight and stiff, t
he shiny head poking up and down through the rim of his fist.
She licked her lips, her mouth cotton-ball dry. “Want help with that?”
Joe jumped, reaching lightning fast for the throw cushion, covering himself. “Fuck, Kate. Warn a guy.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
Joe looked up at her, his wavy hair curtaining around his face. His brows drew tight above sexy dark eyes. “You didn’t. Just startled me. How long have you been there?”
Kate fingered the edge of her robe, her body hot, excited. “Long enough.”
“Just watching me?”
She nodded.
Joe reached up and took her hand, pulling her to stand in front of him. He shoved the coffee table back with his foot then untied her robe.
“Say it, Kate.”
“What?” She swallowed, her thighs trembling.
He parted her robe, pushing it off her shoulders, exposing her naked body to him. “Tell me why you were watching me jack off. What you want.”
“I want…” She allowed him to lower her hands, so the robe slipped to the floor. “I want…I want the same deal you gave my father. You work for me, like you did him.”
His eyes flicked to hers, his brow etched with confusion. “That’s right. What deal, sweetheart? Tell me.”
“You fucked me in order to stay close. To guard me. Now you work for me and…”
“You want me to fuck you because I work for you? Because you’re paying me? That’s what you think?”
Her heart skipped, a ripple of insecurity shuddered through her belly. “I don’t know… I just want…I just need you inside me. I don’t care why you’re there.”
A sob choked at the back of her throat. She fought hard to swallow it down. Dammit, she did care. But her body ached to be filled, to be satisfied. Her need far outweighed the silly wishes of her heart.
“Kate, I—”
She grabbed his face with both hands, stopped him before he said something that would make it impossible for her to continue. Like apologizing that she’d guessed his reasons exactly.