Page 18 of Breaking the Stallion

I started to say no, but then I remembered the two or three contracts I signed when Harvey and I got together. “Not… legally binding ones.”

“Did you put in writing something about you staying home and him working outside the home?”

“Y-yeah, he did. I signed it.”

“Then it’s legally binding, but who knows? He may have gotten rid of it.”

My head rose, and I found his eyes, and for the first time since I arrived at his ranch, the Double O Ranch, my new haven, I didn’t feel rushing guilt. “No… I mean, sure, he could have, but… but he kept his ex’s contract. I asked him why, and he said it was a memento, but I thought it was a weird memento.”

“What kind of contract was this?”

I smiled in embarrassment, but answered him. Why not? I’d purged everything else. “It was… see, when I met him, we met in a certain type of club. I thought we’d… continue that certain lifestyle.”

“You’re a submissive. Well, hell, boy, I figured that from the first.”

As my jaw dropped again, I stared, dumbfounded.

He chuckled again and went to the stove that he’d turned off and got the skillet to dish them up some food. “Let’s eat and we’ll figure all this out.”

“Noah… you don’t care? I mean, I’m a thief.”

“No, you were financially abused and took your goddamned pay when you left. Shut up with that thief shit.”

I did. With him, it felt okay to let it go, if for a little while.

I ate like I hadn’t in a month, taking a second helping of the meat and vegetable sauté and when I was finished, Noah served me up a couple of fingers of scotch. “I’m not a big drinker, but sometimes, we all need a shot or two to mellow the nerves.”

“I’m not much of one either, but this is welcome. Thank you. And, Noah… thank you for… everything.”

Chapter Six

Iwashavingthedream again. It had taken a break since I got to the ranch, but it was back, and there was more to it. That time, the dream was where all the dead men that I had seen just moments before got up on shredded legs, some of their arms hanging barely to their shoulders by strips of flesh and torn muscle.

They chased me, and their voices boomed in my head. Thief, degenerate, screaming at me I shouldn’t have been the one that lived. They had families, kids, parents, and I had no one, just a grandmother that was ready to die, and then I’d be alone. Who did I have to live for?

I woke, unable to move my arms, and it took me pulling and yelling to understand why.

“Shh, Eli, it’s okay. You’re just dreaming,” Noah said, and when I finally opened my eyes, in the dark, I could barely see his face.

But there it was, his eyes wide, like he was the one that was scared. The reason I couldn’t move my arms became obvious as I looked past his face to his hands that were holding mine to the bed.

“Why?” I didn’t know what else to ask, but Noah let me go.

“You were thrashing, screaming. Come on, now. Get dressed and come to the house. I’ll get you something to drink and you can shower off all this sweat.”

Suddenly, I was shaking with the cold. It was warm enough that evening that I hadn’t bothered with the fire, and the cold had set into the place. Sure, it was freezing, and I was dripping with sweat.

Noah helped me to my feet and wrapped my blanket around me as my teeth clattered together. “Shh, now, let’s get you in the warm house.”

Making eye contact, Noah nodded to me once, and when I saw him, his concern, I felt low. “It’s an old nightmare. I’m okay. Did… you hear me all the way in the house?”

“Yeah. I sure did. Scared ten years off me. I’m not arguing with you. You’re coming into the house.”

He leaned down to grab my duffle, scowling as he felt how heavy it was. “Why haven’t you unpacked?”

“Waiting for you to kick me out.”

“Why the fuck am I kicking you out? For that stupid shit you told me last night? God damn, you’re a stubborn fuck. Get in the house before you piss me off.”

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