Taking the laptop from Janie when she returned, Alex smiled his thanks and quickly typed in a web address. Once the page had loaded he turned the laptop so Leah could see the screen. “Before your training would begin you would be fitted for most, if not all, of what you see here.”
A lot of what she saw on the website was familiar to Leah; she had seen and used it on the horse farm where she had worked back in Mississippi. Its familiarity did not explain how the items she was looking at were meant to be used by a human though. “So as a pony I would have to wear this stuff?” she asked, nibbling on lip as she tried to imagine himself in the equestrian gear.
Alex nodded patiently. “When we are the Ranch you will be dressed in that during your training.” He would walk her through each object, and explain its purpose, before she put on any of it, the explanations, and the demonstrations, which always took place with another pony, would make it all seem less strange to her.
“Why don’t you tell her about the stalls, Alex,” Rhett suggested to his friend. Though the equipment the ponies wore was strange in some respects, it was no stranger than some of the items submissive's wore in his corner of the lifestyle, it was the way they were treated that he was sure would send Leah running. With a smirk, he waited for the reaction he expected the answer to generate.
“I hadn’t planned on leaving it out, Rhett,” Alex told him, a touch of bite in his voice as he reacted to his friend’s judgmental attitude, though he quickly got himself under control again.
“Tell her how she’ll be living in a small compartment, where she’ll be chained to a wall, with nothing but that gear on, and she will be fed or beaten by you as you use her at will.” They’d only been talking for five minutes, but that was long enough as far as Rhett was concerned; his Leah was not some animal to be chained and caged for Alex’s pleasure.
“I think you need to control your attitude, Rhett,” Alex said sharply. “There is little difference between what I do and how you choose to restrain a submissive so you can take her.” He shook his head in aggravation, knowing he had to diffuse the situation. “It is a different form of bondage, Leah, nothing more. I promise you he is making more out of it than is necessary. Just as with what you have enjoyed so far with Rhett, there is little to no pain involved in what I do, and what pain it does entail is entirely enjoyable.”
“Please stop arguing.” Leah was already nervous, hearing about the Ranch, and Rhett’s growing anger, which was painfully obvious, was not helping her to relax and feel comfortable. Why couldn’t they all talk like normal adults, she wondered; the moment the thought occurred to her she was struck by the irony of it, most normal people wouldn’t be discussing the topic they were.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but I need you to know what he’ll expect from you. If what you’ve heard so far hasn’t opened your eyes to the kind of thing he’s involved in, why don’t you ask him about how they breed their ponies.” He knew that breeding was a choice a submissive made, but he wasn’t going to bring that up. He wanted Leah to be terrified of his friend’s lifestyle, so she would give up the idea completely.
“Breed?” She knew how horses were bred, it was part of country life, but she couldn’t imagine how that could have any bearing on what they were talking about. Breeding was for creating horses, not sexual pleasure.
“As an impregnate, Leah, Alex has a whole little flock of ponies each year, don’t you, Alex.” He was being unfair, and he knew it, but just then Rhett didn’t give a shit.
“You know very well that is only an option that a true pony can choose for themselves.” It wasn’t something he was fond of. It had only been a few years before when a submissive who wanted to get pregnant asked the previous Ranch manager to put the idea out.
“They get pregnant?” The thought made Leah nauseous. She had no intention of having children, at least not in the immediate future, and she damned sure wasn’t going to allow someone to ‘breed’ her when, or if, she made that decision.
Rhett saw the look of disgust on her face, and smiled at Alex. “Sometimes a kink can go too far.” He knew Alex’s thoughts on the whole breeding issue, but that was something to be kept to himself; the worse she thought of his friend, the better, at least as far as he was concerned.
“I think I need a break for a minute,” Leah said. The whole breeding thing was a game changer in her mind, and she needed to get some fresh air while she thought about things.
“Let me explain, Leah.” Alex knew just what Rhett was trying to do, and he wasn’t prepared to let him get away with lying to Leah, not about something so important. If she decided she couldn’t be a part of his lifestyle, he would understand and accept that, but she needed to at least be in full possession of the facts, not to mention know his thoughts.
“Okay, I just need a few minutes first.” She attempted a smile, but knew it must look as false as it felt and she quickly pushed herself up from the couch.
Rhett reacted the moment he saw Alex lay his hand on Leah’s arm, holding her back in an attempt to prevent her leaving. “Get your fucking hands off her, Alex; she said she needed a minute.”
The battle was won, Rhett thought, as Alex let go of Leah and allowed her to walk away. The look on his friend's face was one of a defeated man, and Rhett tried not to gloat over that, though he couldn’t help one comment, “Accept defeat,” he suggested with a smile and a shrug as he settled back on the couch to await Leah’s return.
Janie followed Leah out onto the veranda, sliding the glass door closed behind them to cut them off from those inside. “You okay, honey?” She didn’t know how much of what Rhett had said was true, or how much Alex had failed to reveal, though she was sure Alex hadn’t told everything, but she could well imagine the thoughts that were going through her best friend’s mind.
“Better now, I just had to get away from them for a moment.” Taking a few deep breaths she tried to wrap her mind around the things Rhett had told her about the Ranch. “The Ranch sounds a little extreme,” she said, turning to her friend in the hope of gaining her opinion.
“I’m sure Rhett is making things seem worse than they are, it’s clear he doesn’t want you to go with Alex to the Ranch. That said, I’m not sure Alex is telling you everything. I’m sorry, honey, I just don’t know enough to help you out here, not really.” She was silent then until an idea struck her, one which she thought might deal with several things at once, though she wasn’t sure Leah would go for it. “Why don’t we see if Alex would be willing to let us train together,” she suggested.
“You’d be willing to do that?” She wasn’t sure why, she knew her friend loved her like a sister, but it seemed a little much for Janie to train to be a pony simply to help her out and make her comfortable.
Janie gave a brief shrug of her shoulders. “Sure, though I admit it’s not just to help you out,” she said with a smile, “I’m curious about the place myself, and well, if we’re together it might be a little less overwhelming, for both of us.” She was sure that David would go along with the idea, and it definitely appealed to her to be there with Leah while she was introduced to the lifestyle.
“It definitely would be easier with you there, and I’m sure they use safe-words and things like that to avoid serious problems.” Just a few moments before she had been prepared to tell Alex that she wasn’t willing to go to the Ranch, but now she knew that Janie would be there with her she found the idea a whole lot more palatable.
“I’m sure they do, and if they don’t, well we’ll just make Alex agree to them for us.” Janie pulled her friend into her arms; she found the idea exciting, though she wasn’t quite willing to admit that, even to Leah.
“No breeding though,” Leah said with a laugh, the first she had felt like giving since the meeting began. “I like Alex, but I’m just not ready to have someone’s kid, especially not under those circumstances.”
“Definitely a hard limit for me there as well.” Janie shook her head and together they shared a laugh over
the idea.
Returning to the living room, Leah smiled at Alex. “Okay, here’s my offer. I’ll agree to a weekend of training at the ranch, as long as Janie comes with me to be trained as well. There will be no breeding though.”
Alex smiled at her words, and at the idea of Janie coming along. He was always happy to train someone new in his lifestyle, and he was sure if Janie came then David would too. The fact that their presence would help to relax Leah, and make it easier for him to train her, did not escape his thoughts; he was sure she was less likely to feel overwhelmed by any aspect of the training if she had her best friend there to support her.
“Have you lost your fucking mind, Leah?” Rhett couldn’t believe that she was willing to go ahead with such a stupid idea, especially after what she had heard that evening. He was sure Janie was responsible for persuading her to go ahead with it, and he felt a flash of hatred surge through him, aimed at her for her interference. “We’re leaving, now!” If she had any sense, he thought, she would leave with him, before he lost his senses and beat Alex to a bloody pulp. He’d had enough; there was no way he was going to let his ‘friend’ turn his girl into some damned pony ride for his entertainment.
Leah could only stare at Rhett in shock as he slipped into full caveman mode. “Rhett, I’m sorry, but I’ve made my decision.” She wasn’t at all happy with him telling her what to do and desperately wanted to tell him where to go, but she knew if she did that it would only make his anger worse and she wanted to avoid that.
“I didn’t ask what you wanted, Leah.” Grabbing her elbow he began dragging her toward the door, ignoring her protests.
Leah became even angrier than she had been as she struggled against his grip. “I’m not leaving with you, Rhett!” she told him. “You must be an idiot to think I’d leave with you, especially when you’re like this.” She cast a glance back to Alex, a plea for help in her eyes.
Moving quickly Alex stepped around the struggling pair to block the doorway, hoping that he could calm Rhett down. He knew just how volatile his friend could be when he was crossed. “Rhett, you have to let her make her own decisions.” What had happened to the man he used to know, the man who was so calm and controlled, he wondered. It seemed to him that Rhett had regressed back to the angry young man he had been before college, before he had learned to control himself.
“Get the fuck away from the door, Alex, now!” Rhett was done; getting Leah home so he could talk to sense into her, without everyone else around confusing her, was his number one priority. It was clear to him that they had all lost their minds and he wasn’t about to let Leah be suckered into their insanity, not if he could help it.
“Rhett, you really need to calm down,” David told his friend, astonished by the change in him; he had never seen Rhett behave the way he was before. “Take a deep breath and relax; if you can’t do that then you should leave, alone, before you do or say something you’ll regret.”
“Fuck you, David! Do you really think I’m going to leave her here with you idiots?” Shaking his head, he let go of Leah and grabbed Alex by the front of his shirt. “She is not going to be your animal, Alex, no fucking way! You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m going to let you use her the way those ponies out at the Ranch are used. What you do out there is wrong, and sick. I’ll fucking kill you before I let you treat her like one of those delusional idiots out there.”
Grabbing his friend’s hand, Alex pried it loose from his shirt and pushed him back. “You’re the one who's lost his mind, Rhett. Do you really think you can threaten me? I suggest you leave, before this goes any further.” He turned to Leah then. “I’m sorry things have ended up this way, perhaps you and Janie should go home; we can discuss things further tomorrow, when everyone has had a chance to calm down.”
Leah couldn’t believe what a jerk Rhett was being. She knew he had threatened Alex on the phone, but for him to do it again, face to face, and in front of other people, it was just crazy. “You’re right, Alex,” she said. “I’ll stop by the hotel in the morning so we can talk.”
“No way are you are you seeing him tomorrow, Leah, you can’t go near him again. He’s sick.”
“Go to hell, Rhett, I’ll do what I want.”
Leah moved away from him toward the door, but all Rhett saw was that she was leaving him for Alex, and he wasn’t about to let that happen. Reaching out, he grabbed her by the arm again and pulled her back, doing so with enough force to make her stumble and fall against him.
Amazed by what his friend was doing, Alex moved forward to help Leah, only to be further stunned when Rhett threw Leah aside and swung at him. The move caught him by surprise and he wasn’t able to react, to dodge or block the blow, before it struck him on the side of the jaw.
Alex stumbled back against the door, dimly aware of a crashing sound as he shook his head, trying to clear it of the dizziness the blow had left him with. He was still trying to recover when a second blow from Rhett, this time to the gut, doubled him over.
He managed to raise his arm in time to block the third blow, which would have taken him on the jaw, and retaliated, driving his fist into his friend’s stomach. While he was bent, gasping for breath, Alex shoved Rhett back, wanting to give himself space.
“You sonofabitch, I’ll fucking kill you,” Rhett yelled, launching himself at Alex.
David couldn’t believe a fight was happening in his home, especially between two people who were supposed to be friends; it simply wasn’t real, and he moved to separate the two of them. Knowing that Rhett was causing the trouble, David grabbed his arm as he pulled it back to take another swing at Alex.
David and Rhett began wrestling, and Alex tried to help David subdue the raging Rhett, who was easily the strongest of the three, when a scream froze them.
As one they turned to see that it was Janie who had screamed, and that she was kneeling over Leah, who was on the floor, unmoving, amid the shattered remains of the glass coffee table.
Alex was the first to react to the sight of Leah’s motionless form, and the dark stain, which could only be blood, on the carpet beneath her head. “David, call an ambulance,” he ordered as he rushed across the room to kneel at her side. “Leah, honey, wake up.” He was almost too scared to reach out and check for a pulse. “Get the fuck away from her, Rhett,” he snarled when the other man tried to join him at her side. “You’ve done enough damage.”
“Fuck you, this is all your fault, you sick freak!” Rhett declared, dragging Alex away from Leah’s prone form.
Alex rolled and twisted to break free and sprang to his feet. They faced off across from one another for a moment, oblivious to David and Janie as they called for an ambulance and the police, and tried to wake Leah.
Rhett was the first to throw a punch, which Alex blocked, as he did the next attempted blow, and the third. Rhett’s frustration grew as his blows were blocked, he wanted to pummel Alex, to pound him into the floor; nothing less would satisfy him. Pretending to throw another blow, Rhett grabbed Alex’s wrist when he went to block his fist.
Using all of his strength, Rhett swung his friend, letting go of him so he flew into the wall. He was on him instantly, driving his fist into Alex’s kidney and making him cry out in pain. A second blow to the same spot elicited an even louder cry of pain and Alex swung his elbow wildly.
Rhett swayed back away from Alex’s elbow and spun his friend round, slamming him against the wall. A fist to the gut doubled Alex up, and Rhett followed it with an uppercut and a left hook in quick succession, which broke Alex’s nose and sprayed blood across the wall behind him.
As satisfying as it was to draw blood from his friend, it wasn’t enough, and Rhett punched him again, finishing the job he had started of destroying Alex’s nose. The blow rocked Alex’s head back, knocking it into the wall behind him and blood flowed from the smashed nose to stain the lower half of his face.
A left to the stomach doubled Alex up once more and Rhett brought his right down on the side of hi
s face, using all of his strength to drive him to the floor.
Dazed by pain, and the blows to his head, Alex tried to fight off his friend as Rhett used his superior weight to hold him down as he rained blow after blow on him. A sharp cracking sound followed one particularly strong blow, leaving Alex sure at least one of his ribs had just been broken, if not worse, and he cried out in pain. His cry was cut off as a fresh blow struck him on the side of the head and everything went black.
Though his friend lay unmoving, Rhett continued to pound his fists into him, his blows landing wherever he could reach. It wasn’t until he was dragged away by David that he stopped, even then his anger was not sated and he reacted to the hand on his shoulder by swinging a fist at his partner.
David blocked the blow that was aimed at him and shoved his friend away forcefully, aiming him toward the doorway so he could get him out of the way. Keeping a careful eye on his friend and partner, David was ready when Rhett caught himself on the doorway to stop his momentum, and then launched himself back into the room.
David used his friend’s momentum against him, twisting and tripping him so he fell to the floor. In an instant he was on him, using his weight to hold Rhett down, while he grabbed him by his hair and lifted his head. “Look!” he told his partner. “Look,” he commanded, pointing his friend’s face at Leah’s still form. “Look at what you did because you can’t control your temper.”
“Oh god!” Rhett sobbed, seeing Leah, and the bloodstain beneath her head. “Oh god! What have I done.”
Seeing that he no longer needed to be restrained David released his friend and moved to check on Alex, who was as unmoving as Leah. The discovery of a pulse reassured David that Alex was in no immediate physical danger, but it was a great relief to him to hear the sound of approaching sirens.
Soon enough the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of the paramedics, and the police. Janie, who had recovered from her shock and distress, scrambled to her feet so she could dart from the room to open the front door. Speaking rapidly, she explained the situation to the police as she led them and the paramedics into the living room.
Beyond 10 Nights (Forbidden Desires Series) Page 24
