Kit Ehrman - At Risk

When she had the apple just so, she gazed into my eyes, slid her tongue across the skin, and took a bite where I'd last taken one. I imagined our saliva mixing together, and one thought led to another.

I grabbed her wrist. She started, then I watched transfixed as the expression in her eyes and on her face shifted from surprise to daring. She parted her lips, and her warm breath brushed my cheek.

I laced my fingers in her hair and kissed her roughly on the mouth. She pushed her tongue between my teeth, and I was vaguely aware of the taste of apple. When I moved my hand over her breast, she sighed. A quiet sound, barely audible. Beneath the gauze-like fabric, her nipple hardened under my palm. I smoothed my hand over her flat stomach and curled my fingers under her sweater.

She clamped down on my wrist and pushed my hand away. "Well. It's about time you came around, Stevie. But not here, Silly. Your Mrs. Hill might-"

The door opened.

I jerked upright. Marty came in along with a blast of cold air. Elsa didn't bothered to check, and I couldn't believe her composure. Practice probably had a lot to do with it.

She licked her lips. "See what I mean."

Marty was stomping his boots on the mat when he looked up and saw the expression on my face. He paused in mid-stomp and stared with his mouth open. I looked away from him, and he burst out laughing.

"Steve… a horse in barn B," he choked on the words, "… is colicky."

I jumped to my feet. Elsa stood more slowly, behaving as if Marty wasn't even there. He had been a previous conquest, easy by anyone's standards. Elsa lowered her gaze to my crotch and smiled. When I yanked my jacket off the back of the sofa and held it at waist height, I thought Marty was going to have a seizure, he was laughing so hard. And he was making a damn ass of himself. I glared at him as Elsa reached over and took my hand in hers. She placed the apple in my palm and closed my fingers around it. She didn't let go, at least not right away.

I had a sudden vision of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Poor Adam. He hadn't stood a chance.

I cleared my throat. "I'll be right there," I said to Marty and was relieved when he spun around and went back outside.

As I leaned forward and picked Elsa's coat off the floor, I became intensely aware of her body's proximity to mine. My hair brushed against her thigh when I straightened, and I was afforded a slow-motion, close-up tour of her body-legs, crotch (couldn't help but pause there) waist, breasts (another pause) lips, eyes.

I held out her coat.

She squeezed my hand as she took the coat. "Later, Stevie."

I shrugged. Couldn't think of anything intelligent to say, and with a conscious effort, I walked slowly to the door.

Outside, Marty was waiting for me, and he was still laughing. "Fucking shit. Another couple minutes, and you'd of done it."

"Marty… be quiet."

"Why don't you put your coat on, Steve?"

"Shut up," I said. And amazingly, he did.

We walked past the restrooms, and I dropped the apple into a trash can. I was no longer hungry, not for food anyway, and the hunger I felt, I could do nothing about.

Too bad I hadn't brought a banana for dessert. Now, that would have been… interesting. I gritted my teeth. "Which horse?" I said.

"Horse?"

I looked at him. He was grinning wildly, his imagination running away with him, too. "Yeah, Marty, you know the one. Four legs, mane, tail, whinnies. Which horse is colicky?"

"Oh, Sandstone." He walked into the barn ahead of me. "She'll get you yet. Why you just don't give in and get it over with, I'll never know."

"She's not my type."

He whirled around. "Looked like she was 'your type' just a second ago." When I didn't say anything, he said, "Loosen up, for Christ's sake. Have some fun."

"Marty."

His eyebrows rose. "Yes-s-s?"

"When a boarder's around and there's a problem, wait until we're out of hearing range before you tell me what's wrong."

"What're you talkin' about? She don't care 'bout no horses. She only cares about fuckin' your ass. Only reason she's got a horse in the first place is so she can expand her territory. Though when I think about it, it was a bad move on her part, 'cause mostly it's girls 'round here, and the guys, well, some of 'em are more than a little questionable, if you know what I mean. My cousin works at that new health club by Wilde Lake, and he knows Elsa. She's a member, and he told me-"

"Marty. I don't want to hear about it." I sighed. "It's general operating procedure I'm talking about. And you need to watch your mouth."

"Yes, sir." He rolled his eyes and pulled the stall door open with exaggerated subservience.

I stepped into the gelding's stall. "Your mom never use soap in your mouth, or what?"

"My momma dishes out slop at a truck stop sixty hours a week. Compared to her," he grinned, "I'm a fucking angel."

"Then heaven help us."

Sandstone, a washy palomino, stood at the back of the stall with his head lowered. His eyes were a dead giveaway. He was so preoccupied with his pain, he hadn't even bothered to look at us when we entered his stall.

I checked his vitals. Capillary refill time was normal. Pulse and respiration right on the mark. His gut sounds were slightly louder on the left. I pinched the skin on his neck, and it snapped back fast enough. He wasn't dehydrated.

"Who noticed he wasn't feeling well?"

"I did," Marty said.

"Good work. I'm impressed. You were on top of it to have noticed that anything was wrong at all."

"Yeah." He grinned wickedly. "You oughta get on top of it."

"Damn. I stepped right into that, didn't I?" I turned away from him to keep from cracking up. "I'll give him some Banamine and monitor his vitals. Do me a favor and check on him whenever you're over here, and let me know if he gets worse?"

"Sure. You need help with the shot?"

I shook my head.

"I'm gonna go switch the horses, then."

I got what I needed from the feed room, prepared the syringe, and injected the gelding in the neck. He began eating his hay almost immediately. I looked at the syringe and rolled it between my fingertips. He couldn't have felt better that fast, not from the drug, anyway. Given intramuscularly, it takes twenty minutes before it kicks in. He knew what the injection was about. He felt better in his mind, if not his body.

"You junkie, you," I said, softly.

He stopped in mid-chew, with wisps of hay sticking out the side of his mouth, and looked at me with inquisitive brown eyes. When I said nothing further, he lost interest and turned his attention back to lunch.

Satisfied that he was okay for the time being, I spent the rest of the afternoon dragging and hosing down the indoor arenas. In truth, what I really wanted to do was take a nap, but with Mrs. Timbrook on the premises, who knew what would happen if she found me in a prone position? I smiled to myself and spent some minutes thinking about that. It did nothing to satisfy but helped pass the time.

Thursday morning, I woke around four and couldn't go back to sleep. Hanging around the loft didn't appeal to me, and lying awake in bed was worse still. For the past two years, it had been my routine to go in early and ride one of the school horses, and it would have been nice to think the only reason I hadn't done so in the last twelve days was because I was too sore. I got dressed and headed to Foxdale.

It was pitch black when I turned the corner and eased the pickup down the lane toward the indoor. I backed into a spot under one of the security lights, turned off the engine, and cracked open the window. I sat there unmoving and tried to ignore the tension in my shoulders. After several minutes, I got out and shut the door.

The mournful hoot of an owl carried clearly in the still air. After a moment, the call was returned by its mate, or an enemy. I didn't know which. I walked down to the barns.