The Prince

So she grieved even more that Spanks for Nothing had been one of his horses. Such a beautiful creature with the white star on his forehead and the little red socks on his ankles. Talel had told her he’d been thinking of her when he’d named the horse. She’d slapped him on his firm bottom in reply.

“You’ll get me into trouble if anyone sees us together,” Talel said, grinning at her.

“Horses don’t talk, right? Or do they? Mister Ed wasn’t real, was he?”

“No, Mistress. Horses don’t talk. Thank God. I can only imagine what this ill-tempered beast would say if he had the power of speech. Nothing a lady should ever hear.”

“Good thing there are no ladies present. But he doesn’t seem that ill-tempered to me. Right, Spanks?” She’d reached over the stall door and patted the beast on his velveteen nose.

“He is in a rare good mood today. Submissive even. I am certain your presence is to thank for that. But tell me about your presence here. I can’t believe my eyes.”

“I believe your eyes.” Talel had the darkest, most soulful eyes she’d ever seen. Eyes that could keep secrets.

“My presence here... I’m with my boyfriend?” The sentence came out as a question, not a statement.

“Boyfriend?” Talel seemed as skeptical as she, and far more shocked by the word boyfriend than by her presence there at the race. “And your priest?”

“He knows I’m here. I’m not sure why he let me come, but I think he thought…I don’t know. I never know what that man’s thinking.”

“But you will go back to him?”

And that question Nora had chosen not to answer.

She’d seen Wesley then, standing by the paddock looking around—for her, most likely. In the bright afternoon, the sunlight caught in his too-long hair and he’d seemed for a moment to be surrounded by a halo. The sudden sight of him silenced her words and awakened her longing. It might be the wrong decision to take Wesley’s virginity and then go back to Søren again, but Wesley was old enough to face the risks.

And she had to have him.

“Wesley…” Nora opened her eyes and came back to the present moment. He had just turned into the driveway of his home. “What happened today? With Spanks, I mean?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t break anything. Horses are real fragile. Maybe a heart attack from running so hard? Maybe electrocution?”

“Are you kidding?”

He shrugged. “Nope. You can kill a horse with an electrical current so mild even a person wouldn’t be affected by it. Bunch of horses got killed not that long ago when a wire hit some water and they were standing too close. Just an accident.”

“You think it was an accident?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“That horse was so healthy, Wes. I petted him and kissed him. And when he ran…it was like someone turned wind into rage and turned rage into a horse... I’ve never seen anything like it. It was beautiful.”

“You’re starting to sound like a racing fan. This isn’t good. I don’t need you losing every penny playing the ponies.”

“You never let me have any fun.”

Wesley stopped smiling. “I could say the same to you.”

Nora’s stomach tightened at the hurt in Wesley’s voice.

“I’m trying here, Wes. With you. Figuring you out. I want us to be together, really together. This thing with Spanks for Nothing kind of freaked me out.”

“It sucks and it’s sad, but it happens. It’s a cool sport, but a dangerous one. You should understand that.”

“I do. I really do. But people don’t turn up dead all that often doing kink. The E.R. for the occasional sprained wrist or whatever? Yes. But not the morgue.”

“I told you, horses are fragile and accidents happen.”

“But I don’t think it was an accident.”

Wesley pulled up to the guesthouse and turned his car off. He looked at her and Nora steeled herself. Certain sides of her, certain parts of her past, she tried to keep from Wesley, for his own good. A sweet kid like that didn’t need to know she herself had put people in the hospital, that his wasn’t the only heart she’d broken, that she’d had an abortion, that she’d done the sort of things he’d never forgive anyone but her for…but she knew he needed to know this.

“Nora…what do you know that I don’t know?”

She pulled a small red object from her bra. In the stall with Talel, she’d seen it, recognized it immediately and hidden it quickly where no one else would look. Now she showed it to Wesley.

“What is that?” he asked.

“It’s a crocodile clip.”

“Where did you find it?”

“In the stall in the hay by Spanks for Nothing’s body. Wesley, you know what these are used for, right?”

“Yeah, my dentist uses them to keep the bibs on.”

She gave a cold little laugh.

“Not this kind of crocodile clip. This is for carrying electrical currents.”

Wesley’s eyes widened in shock before narrowing with understanding. “Are you sure—”

“Yes, I am absolutely sure.”

“How do you know what that is?”

“I’ve used them before.”

His eyes narrowed further.

“For what?”

Nora swallowed before forcing the words out.