I didn't know if I could get out on my own, and the thought brought a chuckle to my lips. Maybe I'd just stay in the bathtub until Rafe came home and discovered me as a pruned mess.
I moved slowly, forcing myself to sit up first and wincing at the pain that pulled through my stomach muscles. "Are you feeling alright, Princesa?" Rafael asked suddenly, standing in the doorway that was open to the bedroom. I hadn't even heard it open, so absorbed in my own pain.
"Rafe," I gasped, turning my head to look at him in shock. All the bravado I’d felt in his absence was nothing but a fleeting memory the moment I was hit with the overwhelming reality of him again.
Despite the pain in my body, I forced myself to move as naturally as I could. To not allow my stiff joints to show just how sore I was. "I'm just feeling a little queasy," I lied. The random moment of nausea I'd had the day before hadn't returned since, proving to be nothing more than a case of being too tired.
It seemed ridiculous when I didn'tdomuch, but the emotional weight of all that had happened put me in a constant feeling of needing to sleep. Rafe walked forward, leaning toward me and touching his lips to mine briefly as his fingers tested the water. "It's cold," he observed.
"It is," I admitted. "I was just being lazy and didn't want to get out."
He smiled, the dark grin making my own falter. "I want to show you something," he said, holding out a hand for me. I swallowed before placing mine in his, letting him pull me to standing. He wrapped a towel around me, drying me off and picking out pants for me to wear while I stared at him in my own nerves.
Did he know?
He held out underwear for me, and I placed my hands on his shoulders before stepping into them and letting him pull them up my legs to cover my body. I knew something was very wrong, because there was no world in which I wouldn't have thought Rafael would want to fuck me the moment he came home.
Unless he'd had another woman to entertain him in his absence. My old insecurities plagued me as he helped me pull a sports bra over my head.
"What's wrong,mi reina?" he asked, his fingers tracing the seam of my pussy through my panties. "Did you do something that you shouldn't have while I was gone?"
I swallowed, letting him help me into the jeans he held out. "I think we both already know the answer to that."
He hummed, pulling a shirt over my head and leaving me to stare at him in annoyance. "Well you clearly don't need your husband's cock," he mused. "So I'm not sure why you seem disappointed that I'm dressing you." Socks and shoes followed, driving home the point that we would be leaving the house.
I suddenly wondered if I’d be returning.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked when he took my hand and guided me out of the bedroom. Regina smiled as if nothing was wrong as we made our way past her and into the SUV in the front driveway. There probablywasnothing wrong in her world.
She wasn't the one who'd defied the devil and felt like he was leading her to her funeral.
Rafael pulled up to a stable with barn hands working through the open aisle in the center. He helped me out of the car while I stared at him in confusion, letting him guide me to the massive gate across the front of the open barn doors.
"You have horses?" I asked, turning to look up at him as he pulled the gate open and stepped into the barn. A tan horse was cross tied in the aisle, looking clean and pristine with an orchid halter on its face.
"I do," Rafael admitted, stepping up to one of the open stall doors. A massive ebony horse poked its head out, turning his strong neck to face Rafe and leaning into his body. Rafe accommodated the affectionate touch, stroking his face with a gentleness I'd only ever seen him use with me before. "This is Valerio," he said.
Rafe walked to the table at the head of the barn, grabbing a cube and hand feeding it to the massive horse who took it from him carefully with massive, flat teeth. I didn't move to them despite the horse's beauty, too distracted by the tan horse in the aisle. The horse's warm brown eyes studied me cautiously as it tossed its head twice. "That's Challen," Rafael said. "Shining Moon."
"Shouldn't he be white to be a shining moon?" I laughed, stepping forward cautiously.
Rafael hummed his amusement. "Perhaps, but you were always my shining moon in the night. It seemed fitting since he's yours."
"Mine?" I asked, wincing when he took my hand in his and held it out for the horse to smell. The whiskers of his nose tickled the back of my hand as he scented me, his nose twitching against my skin. "But I don't know the first thing about horses."
"I've had him for over a year, so he's well trained. He'll be a good horse to teach you anything you want to know." Rafe released my hand, letting me move closer to the horse that studied me as uncertainly as I did him. I touched my palm to the top of his face, stroking over the short hair there and chuckling when he raised his head into the touch and his nose brushed against my stomach. His nose twitched there, tickling me through my shirt gently. Rafael went into the room off to the side, emerging with a fabric pad that he tossed onto the horse's back. He secured it beneath his body, pulling it tight. Challen nudged me with his nose, his eyes glimmering as Rafe disappeared again and came back with a leather and rope halter. He attached reins to it, tossing them over Challen's neck before unfastening the one from his face and taking it off.
He moved me to stand beside Challen's shoulder, placing the halter in my hands and helping me to guide it on over his nose. Once it was secured around his jaw, he pulled the reins free from his shoulders and placed them in my hands. I stood there, holding the fucking horse with no clue what to do, while Rafe moved and grabbed a helmet from the tack room. He put it on my head while I stared at him in horror.
"You can't possibly think I'm about to ride a horse," I protested. "Shouldn't there be a saddle or something at least?"
"I have always thought the best way to learn to ride is bareback. You can feel the horse's movement better, and there's just something about the connection it creates that you can't achieve with the barrier of a saddle," he explained, stepping out toward the back entrance of the barn. He motioned for me to follow, and I hesitantly guided Challen to turn. He followed at my side, his footsteps so close to mine making me nervous.
I backed away, giving him more slack in the reins but he just moved closer to me once again until his shoulder almost brushed against mine. "You sound like a man complaining about condoms," I said to Rafe with a swallow.
“And what would you know of that,mi reina?” He laughed, stopping just outside the barn. When Challen and I caught up to him, he took the reins from my hands and tossed them over his neck. The horse stood still as Rafe moved me to line up with his back. He bent down slightly, putting his hands out and cupping them. "Left foot in my hand. I'll give you a leg up. You get your body on his back and pull your right leg to the other side."
"Oh for fuck's sake," I groaned. "That sounds way too coordinated for me. You realize I trip over my own feet right?"