Chapter 33

"He's a beautiful animal, Joe," Danny said. They sat on the top rail of the corral.

Joe made a sound in his throat, and Thee Brigand raised his magnificent head, tossed it once, and pranced over to them, his tail twitching, his neck arched — showing off. Joe nuzzled his neck, made some more soft noises, and the animal pushed his head into Danny's hands. She squealed with delight, and did some nuzzling of her own.

"May I ride him?" Danny said.

"Sure," Joe said, and watched astonished as Danny suddenly hopped from the rail and landed astraddle the stallion's back.

She had not had the chance to change clothes after the press conference, so she still wore the stylish business suit she'd put on for that occasion, except she'd removed the jacket, and she kicked off her shoes just before moving onto Thee Brigand's back. To accomplish straddling the horse, she'd hiked up the short skirt.

Joe admired her long, slim legs.

The stallion stood calmly until Danny leaned forward and whispered in his ear. Joe, knowing horses as he did, also noticed Danny's knees turn him from the rail, and with almost undetectable similar encouraging pressure from her knees and body posture, Thee Brigand walked, then trotted, and finally burst into an all-out canter. Danny and the horse circled the pasture once and stopped next to Joe, where Danny moved off the horse onto the rail of the fence.

"He's magnificent!" she exclaimed, out of breath, more from joy than the exertion of riding Thee Brigand bareback with no reins at a full canter.

"So are you," Joe said.

Danny leaned and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Joe."

They climbed off the fence; Danny grabbed her shoes and slipped them on, and they started to walk toward the big house.

"I looked up Samuel Yost in the rodeo records," Joe said. "Gabby, as you call him, came close to a world championship for bareback bronc riding twice. He taught you about horses and riding, didn't he?"

"Yes, and more, much more. He taught me charity and how to love life. I loved him dearly." She chuckled. "He also told me that some men could talk horse. I didn't believe him. I was wrong." She hugged his arm with hers. "Gabby would have loved your little horse ranch. I know I do."

"I feel like I'm living heaven on earth, Danny."

"I bet you do. When I can afford it, would you help me buy an Arabian of my own and let me stable it here?"

"You bet," Joe said. "We need another mare."

"Then a mare it shall be," Danny said.

Joe and Danny had just stepped into the house when Nora grabbed Joe and marched him away. Flint sat alone at the kitchen table, so Danny joined him.

"Where's David and Darla?" she asked.

He chuckled and said, "Having a Stanley family reunion. I imagine their agenda is similar to the one Nora has planned for Joe, except the Stanleys have a family of three."

Danny blushed and said, "Oh." She smiled. "You weren't invited?"

"Not this time."

"Do you feel slighted?"

"No. Darla and I made love last night, and Nora and I had a grand time this morning. I'm good to go for a while. Besides, family reunions, by definition, exclude nonmembers of the family."

Danny laughed. "You guys are something else again." She hugged herself. "I rode Thee Brigand."

Flint raised an eyebrow. "How, sidesaddle?"

"Bareback."

"In those clothes?"

Danny giggled. "Yeah, I hiked up my skirt and jumped on. I think I shocked Joe."

Flint laughed. "Not likely, not for flashing your gorgeous legs, anyway. Still, that you straddled and rode that stallion bareback might have shocked him. I take it you've been around horses."

"I grew up with them," Danny said. "When Gabby got too old to take care of our horses and when I couldn't because I was too busy in school, he sold them. That was a sad day for both of us. Do you ride?"

"Badly," he said. He nodded toward the bedrooms. "They'll be awhile. If you want, I'll ask Tammy to saddle a couple of horses for us, and we can take a short ride."

"I'd like that, but I can saddle my own horse, Flint."

"I can't. How about giving me a lesson?"

"I can do that," Danny said.

Carol and Darla cuddled close to David on each side with everyone enjoying the afterglow of shared orgasms when Carol said, "How did Danny do at the press conference this morning?"

"She was amazing," Darla said. "She charmed the men and women of the press with her smiles and dazzled them with her..."

She giggled. "I was going to say bullshit, but what she said wasn't bullshit. She had the sad facts about battered women and children at her fingertips, and she rattled them off without boring or talking down to the jaded reporters avidly listening to her spiel. I'm curious to see whether the camera loves her as much as the few reporters that showed up at the press conference. She also impressed Nancy, our PR gal, and Nancy isn't easily impressed. Grace did a good job, too. Danny and Grace work well together. Danny's the right person for the job, David."

"Will her presentation get any air time?" David asked.

"Yes," Darla said. "Nancy told us to watch the five o'clock news."

"That might be difficult," David said. "I'll call Mary and have her tape the broadcast."

"Come in me, Pops. Come... in... me. Yes!" Nora gushed when her orgasm struck and took her away to her private place of pure pleasure. Wave after wave of rapturous sensations wracked her body as she felt her father's seed spurt inside her.

When she went limp on the bed, Joe started to roll off her, but she held him tightly. "Stay with me for a moment longer," she gasped, enjoying his weight on her and reveling in the feel of his hands as they caressed where they could touch.

When he became too heavy, a slight nudge signaled her desire for him to roll away, and he settled on the bed beside her, taking her into his arms.

"I love you, peanut," he said.

She kissed him passionately. "And I love you."

They relaxed in silence until Nora said, "You spent some time with Danny showing her around the ranch. What did you think of her?"

"She hiked up her short skirt, hopped on Thee Brigand's back, whispered in his ear, and rode him at a canter bareback around the pasture. No reins, only a fistful of his mane in one hand."

Nora gasped. "You're kidding."

"Nope. It was breathtaking."

"You like her, huh?" Nora said giggling.

"Oh, yeah."

"Wanna fuck her?"

He snorted. "I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers."

Nora laughed. "She's in love with David."

"Every woman David meets falls in love with him," Joe said. "Most men, too. Not sexually. It's more... I don't know how to express it. I just know I enjoy being around him. He respects me, and his respect makes me feel good about myself."

"I'd say you just expressed the effects of David's love very well, Pops. How would you feel if Danny were invited into our group?"

"How would you feel?"

"I'm for it," Nora said.

"Why," Joe said.

"Because David needs her to help him with his charitable good deeds, and she won't be happy unless he returns her love, and if she's unhappy, David will be unhappy, and I love him and want him happy, and I'm rambling." And another reason I'm not ready to talk about with anyone, not yet, she thought.

"Besides, I know David," Nora added. "He won't invite her into the group unless she'll fit and make the group even better than it is, which a few months ago I would not have believed something better than we had then was even possible. Flint proved me wrong on that. I've been fucking Flint silly, Pops, once a day, sometimes twice. Most of the time it's just the two of us. I love that man almost as much as I love you and David."

"How's Darla handling that?"

"She's delighted, happy for Flint, happy for me, mostly happy for herself. She found her mate for life."

"Good. Carol needs to spend more time with Flint and will now she's recovered from her miscarriage. I was surprised when she didn't invite him to join her with David and Darla."

"That was planned. David wants everyone to spend some quality time alone with Danny. She's with Flint now, probably giving him a riding lesson — on horses, not the kind of ride we just had. Why do you think I didn't join you when you left the house to show her the horses?"

"Devious," Joe said with a laugh, but the laugh quickly turned into a frown. "Not really. I'm glad I had the time alone with her."

"Can you fall in love with her?" Nora said.

"Oh, yeah. To be honest, when she forked the stallion and raced away, love started to happen for me. Strange what causes love, huh? What about you? Can you fall in love with her?"

"Yes, a platonic love, like you and Flint love David. I don't think she's bisexual, Pops."

"Shucks," he said.

"We aren't sure, though. I'm going to test the bisexual waters with her the first reasonable opportunity that comes up."

He chuckled. "I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that test."

David returned to his body just as Flint was driving the limo through the gates at the compound. "Detective Stemson just arrested Howie and Ken," David announced. "So far, they haven't implicated Brown."

"Will they?" Flint asked.

"Don't know," David said. "If they don't, I'll send another e-mail to Stemson and tell him about Brown. If Stemson implies that he already knows about Brown, Howie and Ken might do some singing."

"Don't wait, David," Flint said. "Do that now."

David nodded, phased out and returned to his body as the limo stopped in front of his mother's house.

"Done," he said.

Flint opened a passenger door, and Danny left the vehicle.

"Join us for cocktails before dinner," David said. "Mary taped the five o'clock news for us. We'll watch your Phoenix television debut then."

"All right," Danny said and walked into Carol's house.

"Flint, tell us about your quality time with Danny," Nora said as the limo rolled forward toward his house.

"While the rest of you were getting sweaty, Danny and I took a short ride. She's as comfortable around horses as you, Nora," Flint said. "She said she fell in love with those horses, and from what I could see, they loved her right back. She connected with them, not like Joe, but close, sort of like you, Nora. As planned, I forced our conversation to a discussion about the group, although not much force was necessary. Watching you, Nora, grab Joe and head for a bed, and knowing that David, Darla and Carol were already similarly engaged was the perfect segue to a discussion about incest and group sex." Flint chuckled. "The subject matter and Danny riding next to me with her skirt hiked up around her waist gave me a hard-on. Riding a horse with a hard-on can be... well, uncomfortable."

Darla laughed and said, "Did she notice?"

"Oh, yeah. She teased me about it, asked me if her unladylike behavior or the subject matter was the cause. I told her both, but that she wasn't acting unladylike, sexy yes, unladylike, no, and I complimented her lovely legs. I asked her if she'd ever had an incestuous experience, and she said she was an orphan and, as far as she knew, an only child, so an incestuous experience wasn't possible for her, but that she'd been a little wild sexually while in college the year after Gabby died. She said she was trying to compensate for the loss of his love and added that she'd enjoyed the sex but didn't find love. I asked her about group sex, and she said she'd had sex with two men at the same time and asked me if a threesome counted. I said it did and asked her if she'd enjoyed the threesome. She said she enjoyed it enough to do it again... and again... and again, which made me laugh. She laughed with me and said, 'Flint, if you and David want to do me sometime, and you ask real nice, I just might be willing.' With that, she leaned forward, clicked her tongue, and her horse took off like its tail was on fire."

"Brazen hussy," Darla said and laughed. "Flint, tell me if I'm wrong, but are you in need of a little relief?"

"You're not wrong," Flint said as he stopped the vehicle in front of David's house.