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Monday, as soon as the sun broke Reggie was in my room pulling me from bed.
“Put these on,” he said, handing me clothes. Jeans, a t-shirt, socks and work shoes. I could barely keep my eyes open, still groggy from sleep as he led me to the stables. The pink and orange sky of dawn blazed behind the corral where we stopped, and the air was so alive that I quickly awakened from my dazed stupor.
There before me two spirited horses pranced, stomping, biting each other in a wild foreplay. There was some electric in their movements, something base and feral and untamed. When the stallion mounted the mare, I watched in amazement as their furious banging exploded into violent animal sex.
At the base of my own body, I felt the tremor of their joining as if they gathered from their coupling a force that reached inside to grab those who watched the magnificent spectacle. My own body desired such heat, such violence and such passion.
Reggie watched the pair with a fixed gaze, seemingly lifted to some other sphere by the frenzied act. I could sense his body heat rising too, his passion and mine feeding off each other, like the stallion and the mare. Both couplings were destined to continue until complete. I didn’t know if he was aware of the force between us, but that didn’t matter, I did. And I planned to use it to get what I so desperately wanted.
Reggie was master of the stables, too. He was not as charming and witty in this place, but inclined to be even more detached and severe than normal. This was not a genteel feminine world, and the men here conversed without the niceties of polite conversation – although I can’t say that Reggie was crude in particular. I doubt that he would ever lose the dignity that came with his position.
When he finally turned toward me to explain my presence at the stables, I was completely unprepared for what he had planned. “Alexandra, you’ll be serving Gus this week. You are to follow his instructions as if they were mine. Understand that he is quite anxious to lay his belt on your tender ass. So if you fail to comply with his wishes or do your work up to his standards he will punish you without hesitation. With my blessing.” His voice and demeanor were icy cold; I didn’t expect anything else, but the message he delivered certainly made me experience a whole new level of fear. Serve Gus. Really? “Oh, and Alexandra, I’ve read the blue notebook. You’ve been quite candid. Let’s see if you can be as honest with this week.” His smile mocked me.
He turned and stalked off, leaving me standing stunned and bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.
I cleaned stables, shoveled shit, raked the barn, replaced the straw, fed chickens, gathered eggs, rototilled between rows of plants in the half acre garden, and harvested vegetables for the dinner meal. For five days from six-thirty in the morning until four, I lived with the sweet smells of the earth, the animals and green growing plants. I found myself knee deep in mud and slop, streaked with dirt, my body browning where it was exposed to the sun. For a woman raised in the city, I was like a child in the earth, reveling in a place darker and wilder than any I’d ever known. At times a curious feeling of calm came over me.
I kept to a rigorous schedule, laboring all day, only to stop a four o’clock and trudge back up the hill to the house where I’d see Heidi and Ann lounging pool-side. I didn’t have time to be resentful of their leisurely days. I really didn’t mind the work all that much, though I couldn’t quite understand what it had to do with my sexual awakening.
I was surprised that Gus didn’t lay a hand on me, didn’t even approach me with lewd comments. In fact, he seemed protective, chasing the other stable men away if they were too casual or familiar with me. By the time I’d showered each afternoon, and had eaten in my room (I found it incongruous to eat in the polished dining room; I understood why Gus found himself so uncomfortable in the big house), I was ready for sleep, all dreams forgotten. Becoming accustomed to the fresh air and the heavy work, the earth and even Gus, my days were mindlessly blissful.
The only unsettling moments came when at least once a day, I’d find Gus staring at me. Bending over rows of vegetables weeding, or shoveling manure, I’d feel his intense gaze. At first, I ignored him, though my body would quiver nervously. By the third day, however, I looked at him straight on and accepted the way his attention affected me. I was reminded of the men in the Red Rose, recalling that same kind of animal feeling emanating from them. Then it caused me to run; this time, I stood my ground.
On Thursday evening, I soaked at length in the bath, my limbs floating in the water as if they were not even a part of me. It was a civilizing moment free of strain or anxiousness, when I could consider the strange and puzzling play in which I’d chosen to play a part. I was certain of nothing other than my desire for Reggie, and that I was confused about everything else. My body’s highly aroused response to both the anal sex and other women surprised me greatly. It gave me chills to even think about what I’d done. I was glad that the physical labor kept me from thinking too much about that, or anything for that matter. Yet, I couldn’t help but be curious about what lay ahead.
“Alexandra,” Reggie’s voice overpowered my drowsy reverie. “Dry off.” He handed me a large yellow towel, then waited in my room until I emerged from the bath in my robe. I sat down on the bed opposite him.
“Tomorrow is your last day at the stables.” He framed his words carefully. “What you’ve experienced so far there has been easy, but an apt preparation for what comes next. Tomorrow will be quite a different matter, far darker and more demanding. I caution you not to resist.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. My body was starting to shake just listening to the chilling tone of his voice.
“Don’t try to understand, just simply accept it as you have everything else.”
“And if I do resist?”
“I’d rather you leave here tonight than resist tomorrow. But you won’t resist, will you?”
“No, of course not,” I answered, even though I had no idea if that were true. I couldn’t even guess what he had in mind.
He stayed only long enough to be certain of my resolve, and then he left.
Friday began much as the other days had. I worked, completing all the tasks Gus gave me. The list was as long as any other day, and halfway through, in the same manner as before, I found him staring at me as he had every other day. As before, I stopped and stared back at him
, which caused an immediate shiver to race up my spine, even though the day was warm and the sun was still high in the sky. There was something dark about him leaping out at me. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Surely he was aware of what Reggie had in mind when he told me not to resist the next challenge in my training.
At four o’clock when my workday was done, and Gus would have ordered me back to the house, Reggie came to me instead. He was dressed in stable gear, though instead of the usual jeans he wore leather pants, well worn pants that snuggly fit his tight behind and revealed the bulge at his crotch in an obvious manner. I’d stopped counting the number of ways he had aroused me, but I knew the leather pants would be one of my favorites, even though I didn’t have time to appreciate the look. In his left hand he carried two leather straps each about a half inch wide and perhaps six feet long. My attention fixated on those straps, on his clenched fist and the bare muscled forearm above it. He was as terrifying in these clothes and in this arena as he was in polished silk and elegant surroundings – maybe more so. I’d never seen him quite like this, nor felt his energy smoldering, raw and earthy and focused entirely on me.
I stood in the middle of the well-plowed garden, astonished by his astounding air of command, nothing but the dark damp earth around me for comfort. Only as I recovered from the shock of his approach did I notice Gus and two stablemen closing in on me from the left.
Reaching my side, Reggie grabbed my hands and quickly secured them with one length of leather behind my back. I’d worn a small t-shirt that day, one that snapped up the front. I suppose it was no surprise that by the time he had my arms secured, the t-shirt had ripped open wide and was falling off my shoulders, my chest completely bared.
“You speak and I’ll make it twice as hard for you,” I heard Gus growling behind me.
Then with Gus on one side, Reggie on the other, and the other two men at their sides, I was led from the garden and into the dense woods at the back of the property. We hiked deep into the thick brush at a pace I could hardly negotiate. Their rough hands on my arms both hindered and helped me. Though each step was awkward and uncomfortable, they kept me on my feet, pulling back if I started to fall. It wasn’t minutes before my arms were aching from the strain of being bound and the way they jerked me back and forth between them. I wanted to object, but was certain that any complaint from me would only fall on deaf ears, or worse, earn a punishment I would have regretted. I remembered Reggie’s instructions from the night before. Each time I caught the stablemen staring at my naked chest, I blushed with embarrassment and turned away.
The trek seemed endless, and I was beginning to think it would never end. My legs ached as much as my bound arms, and I found my pace lagging. This only earned me a curt, “Move,” from Reggie and a shove from behind. We traversed a long meadow, moved into the woods again, then finally reached an open path, that unlike the rugged trail through the woods was easier to navigate. I could see our destination up ahead, a small shack fashioned of timbers to look like a log cabin, rustic, but from what I could see, not particularly old.
Rather than enter the building, we circled around the back.
