Struck by Thunder

by Taylor Lee

  “You know, honey, this equipment isn’t just for horses. It’s for all kinds of fillies who need to be taught a lesson. Know any fillies around here that might benefit from being restrained?”

  Jesse flushed and looked uncertain. She smiled a shaky smile. “What lessons do I need to learn, Wyatt? You’ve taught me more in six months than I learned in my whole life.”

  “Sweetheart, you haven’t learned the half of it.”

  He stood back against the wall and lit a cigarette. He kept his gaze on her with a look between a leer and an amused half smile. She peeked at the lunge whip and hobble restraints he had put on the floor at his feet.

  “What are you going to do, Wyatt?”

  “Let’s start with what you’re gonna do. Take your clothes off, baby.”

  Jesse looked uncertain. “All of them?”

  “Yep. All of them.”

  “Wyatt, I feel strange doing that here. What if someone comes in?”

  “What if they do? You will make their day. One look at that body of yours they will think they’ve died and gone to heaven ….or maybe they’ll want to watch.”

  “Wyatt, I don’t know if I want to do this.”

  “See, honey, that’s what I’m talking about. The first lesson is to do as you’re told. I said take off your clothes.”

  Jesse tried to hide her excitement, but Wyatt saw it flash across her face. He shook his head amused at her desire to be dominated. Christ, she and Martin have more in common than they know he thought with a grin. After she took off her clothes, he separated the hobbles and slipped one on each of her wrists.

  “Did you ever wonder what those stakes were for?” He asked pointing to the stakes on either side of the stall.

  “I think they’ll work just fine for the purpose at hand.” He laid her on the floor and spread her arms wide apart, fastening them to the stakes.

  “We’ll leave your feet free this time. It’ll be easier to get at the parts I wanna explore.”

  She closed her eyes and moaned softly.

  “I think this will be more fun if I surprise you, don’t you, honey?” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a bandana and tied it over her eyes like a blindfold.

  Her breath came faster. He saw the combination of anxiety and excitement on her face.

  “Now if I recall you like it hard and fast, right, honey? Well just so you know, you don’t always get what you want. Today, I’m going to show you what hard and slow is like. You might change your tastes.”

  She gasped in excitement.

  “I know you can’t see a damned thing, but I gotta say you look erotic as hell. Oh, one more rule of the game. I’ll let you know when you can come. In case you forget, I’ll remind you.” He snapped the lunge whip lightly across her legs.

  She jumped. “Wyatt, you’re not going to hurt me are you?”

  “Not if you do as you’re told.

  “Bend your legs, honey. Spread them open. That’s right – nice and wide. Yeah, you’re good at that. On second thought, let’s start here.”

  He leaned down and took one of her nipples in his mouth sucked on it hard. She moaned when he nipped at it then bit down hard. When she shrieked, he moved over and did the same thing to her other nipple.

  When she begged him to stop he said, “Not a chance sweetheart.” He pinched and pulled on the tender tips until she was begging for mercy. And begging him not to stop.

  “Wyatt, you’re going to make me come if you keep doing that,” she said breathlessly, arching her back trying to force her nipples into his mouth.

  “Better not, honey,” he said with a light snap of the whip. She flinched and whimpered.

  He trailed his mouth across her stomach sucking and biting her as he slid between her legs to the inside of her thighs.

  “Okay, now, honey, you can open these nice and wide,” he said spreading her legs.

  He ran his fingers over her puffy labia and began to tease and explore her slit. She moaned. He smelled the musky odor of her aroused pussy.

  “Wyatt, feel up higher.”

  “Honey, we’ll get higher but not right now,” he said as he feathered his fingers and then his tongue across her throbbing clit.

  He leaned down and licked her labia along the outside edges nipping them as she groaned and pressed up against him. When she started panting and straining toward him, he teased her clit rubbing it maddeningly between his fingers and thumb, until she was begging him to let her come.

  She thrashed under him, tugging against the restraints. “Wyatt, please! I have to come. Please let me come!”

  “No, no, honey,” he said snapping the whip lightly across her thighs. “I’m not done with you yet.”

  “How about you pull your legs up like this and back so that I can get a better look at that beautiful ass of yours, especially here,” he said licking lightly around the puckered opening.

  “Oh god, Wyatt, do that, do that!”

  “Anything you say, baby.” Holding her legs up high and back he teased the space between her pussy and ass. He used his fingers first, then his mouth. He licked and nipped at the soft skin until she was begging him not to stop, to let her come.

  She was moaning harder now. He could taste her wet pussy, hot and tangy. He moved back down to her ass and ran his tongue around the tight pucker.

  As he thrust his tongue in and out, she groaned. Almost sobbing she cried out, “I can’t wait, Wyatt, please, please!”

  “What do you want, honey?”

  “I want you to fuck me. Fuck me now. Hard!”

  He moved his hard erect cock up tight against her pussy and whispered hoarsely in her ear, “Is this what you want?”

  She desperately tried to open her legs wider to push her pussy up harder against him. “Yes, yes, fuck me now.”

  “And hard, right honey? Always hard.” He thrust up inside of her deeper and deeper as she screamed. With a deep shuddering groan, he pulled out shooting cum over her mound.

  She struggled against him trying to maintain contact with his body while her orgasm quieted. But he moved away from her, then sat up and leaned against the wall.

  She was trembling, shaking. “Untie me, Wyatt.”

  “Yeah, baby, in a minute.” He dug out a cigarette, lit it and took a long deep drag staring sightlessly at her trembling body. He closed his eyes and sat with his head against the wall. After a couple of minutes, he took a final drag on his cigarette and tossed it to the ground. He leaned over, unfastened her restraints and took off her blindfold.

  He stood up and tossed her clothes to her. “Here, honey, you better get dressed. No telling who’s likely to come in here.”

  He walked her out to her horse without speaking to Alono, who was sitting on the fence smoking a cigarette.

  He helped her up on her horse. She gazed at him, her voice was soft, her lips trembling. “When will I see you?”

  “When I can, baby. Got a busy week.”

  He smiled and gave her horse a swat and turned to go back to the barn.

  ~~~

  Chapter 26

  Of all the ways Wyatt changed, Chief thought, perhaps the most significant was in his relationship with him, Joey, and Alono. In the past, most evenings Chief, Joey, and Wyatt had sat in companionable silence smoking cigars and drinking bourbon. After the rigors of the day were melted by the calming effect of tobacco and alcohol, the three of them talked a couple of hours every night.

  Those nights were gone. It was as though Wyatt couldn’t bear to sit with his closest companions. Chief knew he blamed himself for Lei’s leaving and knew they blamed him as well. In that regard he was correct. Joey did not seek him out. If anything, he avoided him. Alono, who rarely spoke, became virtually mute. But Chief continued to try to reach him. He often plunked himself down in Wyatt’s office and sat quietly for several hours a night while Wyatt worked and ignored him.

  Weeks passed and became months. Chief and Joey were sitting in Joey’s house, smoking their evening cigars
and drinking bourbon.

  Chief said with a slight smile, “I don’t know who I get the silent treatment from more often, you or Wyatt.”

  Joey grimaced and nodded. “I don’t have much to say, do I?”

  “I know you are angry with Wyatt, Joey. So am I. What’s most surprising is the level of Wyatt’s anger. I expected it to lessen by now. I think what may be happening is that this whole affair with Lei has reopened wounds he thought were healed or healing with Vivian.”

  “You are probably right, Chief. You know Wyatt better than anyone does. And, yes, I am angry with Wyatt, but it is more than that.”

  For a moment Chief thought Joey might talk to him, but with a disconsolate shake of his head, Joey looked away, resuming his silence. Chief saw the pain on his friend’s face. Something was tearing him apart. Taking a firm breath, Chief determined that once again he would try to get his friend to speak, to share his burden.

  “Joey, I have asked you the same question three times. I don’t think you’ve heard me yet. Now I know Chinamen like to be inscrutable. Hell, friend, we have known each other for thirty plus years. I have never seen you like this. What’s going on, my friend?”

  Joey gazed at him with an agonized expression. Chief started. He saw a level of pain on Joey’s face he had not understood was there.

  “Please tell me, Joey. Why you are looking at me the way that you are.”

  Joey’s expression tightened even more. His voice was low, harsh. “Chief, Lei is pregnant.”

  Chief stared at him in shock then he felt a cold rush of anger flood him.. He didn’t speak for well over a minute. When he could finally trust himself to speak, he said, “Joey, it is unconscionable that you have not told me this, and not told Wyatt. I am without words.”

  “I am not surprised that you are. I made a huge error of judgment. When Lei came back that awful night I went to comfort her. She asked me as her sensei, her spiritual father, to promise I would not tell Wyatt what she was about to tell me. I told her that I could never make a promise like that. She insisted. Against my judgment, I made the promise. When she told me her secret, I begged her to release me. She refused. I made a sacred oath, Chief. I know it was a terrible mistake -- the worst I have made in a lifetime of mistakes. But I cannot break my oath. I have not told you because I didn’t want to put the burden on you that Lei put on me.”

  Chief didn’t speak.

  “There is another part of this that I understand better than you do, Chief. That is Wan Chang. Lei knows as I do the only way she can protect Wyatt is to pledge she will never let him see his child or know that he has one. This is a great shame in our culture, Chief; to impregnate a Chinese woman and then be unfaithful to her. It is an even greater insult that Wyatt is an Indian. I know you understand that. I do not know what bargain Lei made with her father, but I know it is a tenuous one. If Wyatt shatters that bargain, I know nothing Lei can do will protect him.”

  They sat without speaking for over an hour. Chief muttered to himself his ancient Indian chants. He begged for mercy, for guidance.

  Chief looked up and saw that Joey’s face was streaked with tears. It moved his heart.

  “This is a terrible burden you have carried, my friend. My heart weeps for you. But you know what I must do. I must tell Wyatt that he has a child.”

  “Chief, you can’t do that. I made a sacred oath.”

  “You made an oath, Joey. I did not.”

  “Chief, if you do this, you are signing his death warrant. Wyatt will not stop until he has that child. Wan will kill him before he does.”

  Chief shook his head. “Joey, I have no choice. Just as you would have had no choice if you hadn’t promised Lei. You know Wyatt has a right to know he has a child. You know that, Joey. I am going to tell him now. You may come with me or not. It is your choice.”

  He stood to go. Joey hesitated. With a sigh he nodded and stood up to follow him.

  ~~~

  Wyatt was working in his office. He looked up as the two men came in. When he saw Chief close the door behind him his surprise became annoyance.

  “I’m sorry. I am busy. Whatever it is it can wait until morning.”

  To his surprise, Chief ignored him and sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Joey took the other chair.

  Wyatt stiffened assuming that his friends had decided it was time to confront him on the situation facing them.

  “I do not want to be rude to either of you. But I do not want to have a conversation with you about anything in my personal life. It is my life. I expect you both to respect that. I’m asking you again to leave. If you wish to talk with me about business or the dojo, I will meet with you in the morning.”

  When they stayed seated, Wyatt’s anger flared. He stood up. “I see you will not respect my privacy or my request. Good evening to you both.” He turned to walk out of the room.

  Chief said, “Wyatt, Lei is pregnant.”

  Wyatt froze. Shock flooded him, immobilizing him. He slowly turned. He walked back to his desk and sunk down in his chair. Seeing their faces he knew this was not a mistake, but he still asked the question.

  “How do you know?”

  Chief said, “Joey was sworn to secrecy, but I was not.”

  Wyatt stared at Joey dumbfounded. “You have known this and you did not tell me?”

  Joey said, “I told Chief tonight. And yes, I have known since the day Lei left.”

  “She knew she was pregnant when she left?” The image of her wavering in the bathroom door at the hotel flashed through his mind. She had whispered to him that she was not feeling well.

  Joey nodded.

  “She told you more than three months ago she was pregnant and you are telling me tonight?”

  Joey responded, “I told the Chief tonight. I did not tell you.”

  As if he was discussing the gestation of one of his mares, Wyatt asked, “How far along was she when she left?”

  “I’m not sure. She said she had missed two courses.”

  “You have known that I have a child that is approximately five, maybe six months along and you are telling me this evening?”

  “I am not telling you, Chief is.”

  “How long did you intend to keep this information to yourself?”

  “I had hoped to my grave.”

  Wyatt stared at him, his shock slowly replaced by cold fury. Disbelief, then anger and finally rage overtook him. That it was his beloved sensei and spiritual father who had betrayed him only added to his fury.

  Chief said, “Wyatt, Joey made....

  “Please be quiet, Chief. I am talking to Joey. I need to get something straight. You would have been willing to go to your grave knowing that I had a child and not tell me? Yes? How could you, Joey? How could you? Knowing I was abandoned by my father. How could you allow a child of mine to grow up without a father?”

  Joey responded, anger as potent as Wyatt’s surfaced. “How could you, Wyatt? When Lei came to me that night I made the mistake of a lifetime. But she would not speak to me unless I first promised that I would not tell you what she told me. At first I refused. She asked me to leave. She was shattered, Wyatt. I tried to comfort her then gave her my sacred oath. I thought she was going to tell me she saw you with another woman or something of that nature. When she told me her secret, I begged her to release me. She would not. She said that I had made a sacred oath as her sensei, her spiritual father.

  “There is a reason for her secrecy, Wyatt, and you know what it is. Lei has been deeply shamed in our culture. The only reason Wan Chang has not had you killed is because Lei has made some bargain with him. Knowing Wan, that includes her never seeing you again or ever letting you see your child. Both Lei and I were trying to protect you.”

  Wyatt’s voice was ominous. “I protect myself. You don’t. Lei doesn’t.”

  “Unfortunately, that isn’t true.”

  “Where is she?”

  Joey stood up and glared at Wyatt, months of anger and anguish bubbli
ng to the surface. His voice was harsh. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

  He added, “You know the view in the Chinese community is that you abandoned her because she is a Chinese girl.”

  Wyatt stepped back in shock. “You don’t believe that, do you, Joey?”

  Joey shrugged his shoulders, his face tight with anger.

  Wyatt trembled with rage, his fists clenched at his sides. His voice was low, fraught with fury.

  “Joey, if you weren’t my sensei, I would break your neck.”

  Joey’s voice shook with quiet rage. “If I wasn’t your sensei, Wyatt, I would encourage you to try.”

  “Goddamn you, Joey.”

  “And goddamn you, Wyatt.”

  Chief stepped between them shaking his head, tears shimmering in his eyes.

  Tears streamed down Joey’s face. He turned to hide them, then fled the room.

  Wyatt was shaking with anger. He turned to Chief. “Do you know where she is, Chief?”

  “No, Wyatt, I don’t.”

  “Find her.”

  He added, “By tomorrow evening at the latest.”

  ~~~

  Wyatt walked over to the dojo. He started to enter then turned and walked across the yard to Lei’s room. The door was unlocked. He hesitated for a moment, then went inside. The light from the moon cast shadows in the empty room lighting the dust on the once immaculate polished floor. Ash from the fireplace had blown over the hearth, settling in the cracks of the wood. He stood in the doorway then walked to the wall where the bed had been. He stared at the empty space.