Bareback

by D. Jackson Leigh

  Jessica took a shortcut through the barn next to the warm-up ring, and was surprised to spot Skyler leaning against the entrance talking to a very attractive, slender blonde. Not just talking. There was something else going on. The blonde was standing a little too close for casual conversation, and Skyler was gazing down at her.

  Jessica forced a pleasant expression on her face as she approached the pair. “There you are, Sky. Rachel and her horse are warming up, so they must be on the program soon. We should get back to our seats.”

  But Skyler avoided looking at her. Waving a dismissive hand, she said, “You go ahead.”

  Jessica felt her hackles rise. “I thought we came here to evaluate horses and riders. To see who our competition is.”

  “I’m going to watch from down here,” Skyler said.

  “You’ll miss Rachel’s run through the jumps.”

  The blonde finally dragged her eyes away from Skyler to look Jessica up and down. “Do I know you?”

  “Amy, this is Jessica Black,” Skyler said with obvious reluctance. “I’m training her and her stallion. Jess, this is Amy Satterfield. She’s…”

  “An old playmate,” Amy supplied. She trailed a slender finger along the outline of Skyler’s deep-cut V-neck shirt.

  “Are you coming or not?” Jessica asked Skyler.

  The hesitation said it all. “I told Kate I’d meet you guys back at the farm.”

  “Fine.” As Jessica turned on her heel, she heard a stifled giggle.

  The blonde’s smug words followed her. “Pity about the accident. She must have been quite attractive before it happened.”

  *

  “Let’s get out of here,” Jessica snapped, hovering over Kate.

  “Now? Isn’t Rachel coming up in the program soon?”

  “Not much point in evaluating the competition without our trainer, is there?”

  “Well, I’m here. What am I? Chopped liver?”

  Jessica’s shoulders slumped. She was tired. The sunny day was suddenly too warm, the glare too bright, and she wasn’t in the mood for company anymore. “Do I have the only trainer who is terminally in heat? She draws every bitch in season like a magnet.”

  Kate didn’t reply, but her eyes were apologetic. The gentle older woman was a steady, bright spot in Jessica’s life, and had always been her confidante for issues she didn’t want to discuss with her mother. But, Kate wasn’t the person to talk to about her confusing feelings for Skyler.

  “I must be PMSing or something,” Jessica said. “I just want to go home, okay?”

  “Sure, baby, whatever you want. I’ll just go make sure Sky has a way home if she isn’t coming with us.”

  “If the blond hussy I saw her with earlier has anything to say about it, Skyler may not be home for days,” Jessica muttered.

  “Yeah, well, that’s our Skyler.”

  Jessica glared at her. “That’s your Skyler.”

  Kate wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Honey, you need to accept who Sky is. She’s one of the best trainers I’ve ever worked with. And, she’s not a bad person. In fact, she’s the best friend you could ever have. She’s just lousy in the love department. There are reasons for that, reasons that are too deep and too personal for me to share with you. That’s up to her to share if you become good enough friends. But to get the good part of Sky, you have to allow for her flaw. When you accept that, you’ll have a friend you can always rely on.”

  A friend. Jessica sighed. Trouble was, she seemed to want more from Skyler. Her mind ran wild, replaying images of Skyler. She couldn’t stop thinking about the sexy trainer, seeing Skyler on Rampage or rubbing oil into a saddle. She constantly fought not to notice her body or wonder how her touch would feel. Common sense told her she needed to keep Skyler at a distance, but she wasn’t sure if she could suppress her impulses indefinitely. She had to keep her mind on the prize, and most of the time she could, but seeing Skyler with that blonde made her want to cry.

  “Jess, I’d have to be blind not to see the chemistry between you guys,” Kate said. “But you shouldn’t pressure Skyler for more. She has a lot of respect for you, and her leaving us today is her rather stumbling way of discouraging you. She knows her limits.”

  “And I know mine,” Jessica said. God, if she started dreaming about her, too, what was she going to do?

  Chapter Seven

  Rampage made steady progress over the hot summer months that followed, but the pain in Jessica’s leg never let up.

  “I don’t like the looks of this.” Richard, her physical therapist, flexed the leg again. “That graft should have healed long ago.”

  “I’m too close to getting what I want,” Jessica said. “I’m not going to let a little pain stop me.”

  “Pain is a message from your body that something isn’t right. If you push this injury, you could rip that whole knee up again. Then you may not be able to ride at all, much less jump.”

  Jessica refused to meet his stern stare. “I’ll take my chances.”

  “I’m telling you now that you are probably slowly shredding that ACL graft. You should get it scoped again to see what’s going on.”

  “I can take a few months off to let it heal better after I make the Olympic team.”

  With an impatient snort, Richard lowered her leg. ???Your knee probably won’t last that long. I don’t know how you are jumping horses with the kind of pain you are in now.”

  “It’s got to last that long. What about another steroid injection to take down the inflammation?”

  “You just had one four weeks ago. Those shots are supposed to last at least eight weeks.”

  Jessica stared out the window at the deepening shadows of late afternoon. “Can’t we make an exception this time?”

  Richard mumbled something beneath his breath, then said, “If you won’t listen, I’ll go talk to your trainer.”

  “You absolutely will not!”

  Skyler had sat in on Jessica’s first appointment with Richard, but Jessica had conveniently forgotten to sign and return the form for access to her medical records. There was nothing Richard could do but back down, and they both knew it.

  “I’ll keep quiet for now, but I can’t believe Skyler can’t see how much pain you are feeling,” Richard grumbled. “She should know better. I guess she’s only concerned about the horse’s legs.”

  “That’s all I pay her to concern herself with,” Jessica shot back.

  Richard fell silent, massaging and stretching her leg.

  Jessica felt guilty about pressuring him to compromise his professional ethics. “I’m sorry,” she said after a few minutes. “I shouldn’t have asked for the extra shot, Richard. I know you are just looking out for me. Don’t blame Skyler, though. I’ve done a pretty good job of hiding it, and she’s been working Rampage herself on the cross-country course to give me a break.”

  “I’m just asking you to slow down,” he said.

  “Okay, I will.” Jessica hopped down from the table, careful to land with most of her weight on her good leg. “See you next Thursday?”

  Richard frowned. “Hey, use that cane when you can.”

  *

  Jessica hobbled down to the barn a few hours later. Rampage was going to get only a short chapter tonight. After Richard’s manipulation, her knee was painful and she needed to pop some more pills for relief. The sky had begun to dim as twilight approached. The kids and other equestrians in training had all gone for the day. The only sound was Clint Black’s voice drifting softly from a barn radio and contented munching as the barn’s equine residents dined on a supper of sweet feed and orchard grass hay.

  Grabbing the paperback she’d been reading to Rampage, Jessica was headed for his stall when Charlie appeared at the other end of the barn. He motioned silently for her to join him, then pulled her toward the barn’s rear opening, whispering, “Want to see Skyler dance with Con Air?”

  In a green meadow sprinkled with yellow chickweed flowers, Skyler sat bareback as
tride her large dappled gray gelding, the brother to Con Man. She still wore her riding breeches, but soft moccasins had replaced her knee-length boots. The horse wore only a bridle and the reins lay across his withers rather than in Skyler’s hands, which rested casually on her thighs.

  Ghostlike in the dying light, horse and rider melded magically into one being as they executed a flawless crossover and passage. When they approached the center of the meadow, the gelding halted. A smile slid across Skyler’s face as she closed her eyes and raised her arms in imitation of a ballerina. Taking an undetected cue, the big horse pivoted slowly on his hindquarters in a complete circle. He then pranced forward in a goose step, holding alternating forelegs an extra beat, each touching the ground as the other lifted to repeat the similar step. Skyler’s eyes were still closed as she extended her arms out to her sides like a high-wire walker.

  Jessica was mesmerized.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” Charlie said in a reverent whisper.

  “Yes, it is,” Jessica breathed. “How does she get him to do that?”

  “She says to really be one, there has to be nothing between you. That’s why she isn’t using a saddle. She feels what he’s thinking, and he feels what she’s thinking,” Charlie recited. “She showed it to us in class one day when she was trying to teach us how to use your legs to tell the horse what you want him to do.”

  Con Air wheeled and moved diagonally across the field in another crossover move.

  “It is like a dance,” Jessica said. “I can’t imagine what it must take to teach a horse that.”

  “Sky’s the best.”

  Jessica could understand his hero-worship. She would never have guessed Skyler would be a soft touch with the kids, but over the past few months she’d seen her amazing patience with them. She even helped with their homework, always insisting on seeing their finished assignments before she would let them take their saddles out of the tack room.

  Jessica gave the boy a quick hug. “Thanks, Charlie. Thanks for showing me this. You better scoot now. I heard Kate say you were supposed to help her grill burgers tonight.”

  As he scampered away, she turned once again to watch Skyler for a few moments.

  Your mystery deepens, Skyler Reese. And I love a good mystery.

  *

  Jessica waited in the dusty parking lot of the honky-tonk with the Explorer’s window wound down. She wasn’t going in that place until Bruce arrived. She’d have every redneck around hitting on her. She must have been nuts to agree to meet him here on a payday weekend.

  She was relieved when her friend’s black Firebird pulled in next to her and his tinted window slid down. “Hey, beautiful.” The driver grinned. “I sure was surprised to hear you needed old Bruce’s services. Let’s go inside and have a beer.”

  Jessica eyed the stocky, former pro football player. “Just show me how to use the stuff, Bruce. I don’t want to go inside.”

  “Uh-uh. We’ll fix you up, but then we need to go inside and test it. You do want to know it’s going to work before you pay for it, don’t you.”

  “Yeah, I guess I do.” Jessica limped over to Bruce’s car and got inside.

  He patted his thigh. “Just lay that knee over here and relax. Think good thoughts.” He pulled a small vial from his console and filled a slim syringe from the contents.

  “What were you able to get?” she asked.

  “Just lidocaine, the stuff the doc would use to deaden your skin to sew up a cut. We’re injecting it right under the kneecap to deaden the inflamed tissue that’s causing you so much pain. I’ll try to get you some bupivacaine, but my contact for that wasn’t around on such short notice. It lasts longer and is better for orthopedic stuff.”

  Jessica had worn loose jogging pants so her knee would be easily accessible. He prodded the swollen joint. “Damn, Jess. This doesn’t look so good. You sure you want to do this?”

  “Just do it, okay? Let me worry about my health,” Jessica snapped.

  “Hey, whatever you want, babe.” Bruce showed her where the injection should go on each side before sliding the small needle into her skin. “You know, since you’re around horses, vets normally use Carbocaine or mepivacaine. It lasts longer than lidocaine, too. You should check around the barn to see if there is any stuck in a cabinet somewhere. All this stuff is pretty cheap, so nobody keeps a close eye on inventories of it.”

  He shot half the syringe into one side of her kneecap and the rest on the opposite side. He rubbed his hand along her silky leg. “You always did have great legs, and now you have a very sexy scar on this one.”

  Grimacing from the sting of the shot, Jessica said, “That’s where they put the pins in. And you run that hand any farther up my leg and I’ll have to call up that bad-tempered redhead you live with and tell her you were hitting on me.”

  Bruce jerked his hands up and held them aloft in surrender. “Hey, just giving you a compliment. No need to threaten my manhood. Let’s go see if this works.”

  They headed into the smoky bar and took a table away from the dance floor. They ordered two sandwiches and a couple of beers. Before they’d even gotten their food, Jessica’s knee felt very numb.

  “Okay, time for a little two-step to test it out.” Bruce stood and offered a hand. Unlike a lot of former athletes, he kept himself in good shape. Jessica was surprised that she was able to move comfortably for the first time in months. The knee was nearly painless. She grinned up at Bruce and he twirled her around a few times in celebration.

  Back out in the parking lot, he pulled two more vials from his car. “That’s two hundred dollars, little lady.”

  “I thought you said this stuff was cheap.”

  “Risk mark-up. My contact takes a risk swiping it, and I take a risk selling it to you.” He held the vials just out of her reach, and his eyes grew serious. “Be careful, Jess. Use it too much and you’ll do permanent damage to your knee and never feel it. How do you think I screwed up my football career? Total knee replacement is no fun and a real career ender.”

  “I’ll be careful,” she said, handing over the money. She couldn’t wait to ride Rampage free of pain.

  *

  Lantern-shaped lamps lined the main drive as cars pulled up to the house and deposited their guests. The cars were then parked near the gymnasium by valets. The yard was illuminated by string after string of lights, and the large brick patio served as a dance floor. A live country-western band cranked out Garth Brooks and Shania Twain tunes for the dancers while caterers pulled sizzling burgers and tangy barbecue ribs off a hot grill.

  The dance was the biggest local fund-raiser put on by the Parker Foundation each year. This year’s western theme promised to be a fun evening for both the upper crust who paid five hundred dollars a plate to attend and students of the youth equestrian program who, along with their families, were honored guests.

  Skyler paused at the edge of the lights to wipe the pointed toes of her dusty western boots on the back of her jean-covered legs. Attendance was mandatory for center staff, but Skyler didn’t mind. At least the party’s theme allowed her to dress in something comfortable. Her tall frame fit well into the faded Levi’s and dark blue V-neck knitted top that accentuated her broad shoulders.

  “Hey, Sky. I’ve been waiting for you to get here. I need a dance partner.” Clint Hansen’s eyes glowed and he held out his hand as an invitation. “Come on, let’s show these shufflers a step or two.”

  “I do declare, I just can’t resist such a handsome devil,” Skyler replied in her best Scarlett O’Hara voice.

  “You have to let me lead,” Clint warned.

  “I guess you’ll never get better if I don’t let you practice. Lead on,” she replied with a mock sigh.

  She was teasing, of course. Clint was an excellent dancer. He was several inches taller than Skyler’s six feet and was ruggedly good looking. He knew and accepted Skyler’s sexual orientation, but her height and graceful athleticism made her the perfect dance part
ner. They appeared to be the perfect couple as they glided a fancy two-step across the dance floor, Clint twirling Skyler and her following with ease.

  He had been one of the few people not influenced by Skyler’s blacklisting from the circuit. As a trainer, he’d tried to throw a few rides her way, but the owners he worked for had sided with the other gentry and threatened to hire a new trainer if he continued to employ her. That was before they both came under Kate’s protective arm. Only Kate had enough money and influence to stand firm against blacklisting. Her compromise was to employ Skyler as a trainer, not a rider. That had satisfied the angry gentry, since it meant she would be less visible.

  The dance floor thinned as couples paused and stepped aside to watch Clint and Skyler. When the band wound up the tune, they were the only couple left on the floor, and the crowd clapped their appreciation. Clint bowed to the crowd, then to Skyler, and they both laughed when she grabbed him and gave him a smacking kiss on the mouth.

  Thirsty, she headed to the bar and ordered a Crown Reserve and Coke.

  “Don’t forget the cherry, honey,” a familiar throaty voice instructed the bartender, and Skyler turned to find herself nose-to-nose with Alexandra. “Been hiding from me, huh?”

  “No, I’ve been right there at Creek Barn, doing what I do every day, working horses and training riders.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Alexandra batted her eyes. “I could use another private lesson.”

  “Alex, you know me. I have a short attention span. But you sure were fun, sweetie.” Skyler winked.

  “Now, Sky.” The socialite imitated Skyler’s drawl. “I wouldn’t want to have to tell my husband that you seduced me. He would be very upset.”

  Think again if you think you can control me, lady.

  “Oh, you are so right, you know. You messing around with a lowly horse trainer, a female to boot, wouldn’t impress his business clients. Why, I’ll bet that would give him the ammunition he needs to cut off your shopping money and take up publicly with that secretary he’s screwing.”