Business Manager in a Barn

Chapter 9

The following morning came too early. He had spent half the night in his bed, shifting between fantasizing, masturbating and daydreaming. Somewhere in the night he had probably dozed as well because his alarm clock jerked him out of a light sleep. Groaning and creaking, he hobbled with his crutches into the kitchen and made himself coffee. It was cheap and did not have the appealing smell of roasted beans but it was black and strong enough to make the spoon stand up on its own. It did the deed.

Tom had been right, both Fluffy and Lion’s Tooth were making quite the fuss outside. The heat of the mare seemed to deepen. Wherever she went, the gelding seemed to be glued to her backside. Several times he tried to mount her but she kicked him away fiercely until he gave up around lunchtime.

Ben tried to focus on the news that he was reading on his phone but found his mind drift elsewhere. No matter how hard he tried, his eyes came up to the two horses. Seeing how hard Lion’s Tooth was trying made him realize that he himself was lonely too.

So far he had only been with a man once. In a shady nightclub way outside of town. Scared that someone might recognize him, he had dyed his hair black for the night. On his nose had been the biggest set of sunglasses that one could imagine. He had probably looked suspiciously inconspicuous. Like the kind of cartoon figure that has holes cut in the newspaper and then follows the observed person directly. It had been nothing but a quick fling. A jerkoff. And not even that. Prior to his encounter he had drunk himself almost into a stupor. To be brave enough to really go up to the blonde and ask him for a blowjob. Unfortunately he also had been too drunk to present anything even closely resembling to a boner. After about twenty minutes in which the blonde had desperately sucked on his limp dick he had shoved five hundred bucks into his hand and went home for the night.

After that he had been to scared to try again. Too scared to be recognized, he had even shaved his head blank the next morning to make sure that not even the faintest trace of black hair remained. Homosexual men were seen as weak in his business. And everything weak was prey.

However, his mishap in the club had not hindered him to check out certain pages on the internet. To gaze at pictures and movies, fantasizing his lonely nights away. Fantasies that also helped when he was not alone. Which happened far too often with way too many women.

The silence around him jerked him out of his thoughts. After the constant noise and jostle of the city, the countryside was eerily quiet. The silence was like a large beast beating powerfully against his eardrums. Desperate for noise he took out a pair of headphones and switched on music. Club music blasted into his ears, assaulting them with their beats. Growling, Ben jerked them out of his ears in an instant. Club music did not fit in here. He didn’t fit in here. Suddenly angry he grabbed the earphones and threw them as far as he could. They landed somewhere in the yard, vanishing among the old cobblestone.

“Hey prettyboy! You’re like, all right?”

The jolliness in the voice made Ben wince. Kate was the last person that he wanted to talk to right now. But there she came driving a cabriolet into the yard. Waving as she switched the engine off and hollering all the way up to him.

“Heya pretty one! I thought that since you’re like, injured, I could bring you something.” She held out a basked with an honest to god red and white striped blanket on top. Was anything about this woman not stolen from a cliche or Hollywood movies?

“Look, I’ve got ya blueberry muffins. Me and my Momma made them yesterday. They’re like, the best in the world. We even have some with bacon and cheese and deep-fried them.”

Nope, apparently absolutely everything was cliche. Even the food she served.

“Thanks, I don’t like sweets”, he mumbled. Hastily he added “Or deep-fried things.”

Her face fell. “You don’t? But these are awesome. Trust me, these are, like the best in the world. You don’t know what you are missing if you don’t try.” Coming to the table she slammed the basket on it and removed the blanket. With a flurry she snatched one of each out and held them out for inspection. “See? Ah, hmm, the smell is like: SO GOOD!” She broke the deep fried one in two and held them toward Ben. The bacon was crispy and the cheese the color of an orange peel. It smelled heavenly but judging from the little pool of fat that was already starting to collect in the tear, it probably would kill him after the first bite.

“Thank you. Really. But I am not interested.”

Kate did seem slightly offended but she shrugged her shoulder and bit into it herself. She moaned and giggled as the cheese stretched from her mouth to the muffin like chewing gum. Slowly she twirled the cheese around her finger and then popped it into her mouth. Her cheeks hollowed, her eyes were half closed and her lips worked as she slowly, sensually sucked it off her digits. She repeated the sucking motion with every single finger that had come in touch with the muffin or its contents. A normal man would probably be all over her right now, begging her to fuck her brains out.

Ben felt himself grow cold. He was not interested in her or the food and appalled by the way she continued to display herself. Like a cheap whore, trying her best to seduce him. Turning his attention to the horses he observed Fluffy kicking Lion’s Tooth so hard that the thump echoed around the yard. Inwardly Ben was cheering, jumping up and down, yelling ‘Go Fluffy, show him!’

He barely paid any attention to Kate as she broke off another chunk of the wretched mess in her hands and proceeded to eat with as much tongue and sucking as possible.

“What brought you here?”, he found himself asking.

“Well, like… I…” She stopped and Ben looked round. The fact that she had absolutely no influence over him seemed to baffle her. For a second there was confusion on her face. Not silly, stupid confusion. But that of a chess player who is facing an unexpected twist in the game. It vanished with a flash and the cheery version of Kate came back, jabbering something about company and loneliness. But Ben had seen that she was indeed playing a game here. That he had not imagined her intelligence. It soothed his mind. For quite some time he really had bought the act. Seeing that he was not wrong boosted his confidence.

“Look, Kate, I am honored that you came by to spend your no doubt precious time with me. But I do not feel like company at the moment. I would prefer it very much if you could give me a bit of space. The countryside is getting into my bones and I need some time to get used to it.”

She looked as if he had slapped her. Feeling slightly guilty about the harshness of his rejection he cleared his throat. “Sorry, I did not mean it quite as bad as it may have sounded. It is just that at the moment I absolutely do not feel like company. Or like talking about business. Would it be all right with you if I come and visit you when I am ready? Please do not be mad.”

The smile snapped back on her face. “Yes of course. Here, keep the muffins. No, really. You can like, eat them later if you don’t feel like eating them now”

With a flurry of wiggling body parts she left. Sighing he waved then got up and took the basket of baked abominations and went inside to throw them into the bin.

The day dragged on, slowly stretching into bits like the cheese had. It simply did not want to pass. Since he had left work to care about his health, he had to fight each day anew. At work the days had flown past, rushed toward him in great galloping chunks, flashing past before he even knew it. But since he was home they behaved like snails in slow motion. He tried in vain to pass the time in front of the television but was bored out of his mind. For the life of him he could not understand why some people spent all their time in front of it. He also was aching to move. Since he had left the city he didn’t have a proper workout at all. Sure he had run around the yard in the morning and doing push-ups and sit ups but it simply didn’t feel the same. Groaning he threw the remote control onto the table in front of him. He was bored.

When night finally fell he could have jumped with relief. Eagerly he went to the window in the hallway to gaze out, waiting for Tom to come. There was a longing in him that seemed to burn through his clothes. For sex, yes. But he also longed for the company. He wanted someone who did not talk like a dimwit and used ‘like’ as often as possible. And he wanted to see Tom. See that sunburned face with the black stubble, hear that gravelly voice. Once more he wanted to see that radiating smile. He wanted to drink it up like expensive whiskey, swirl it around in his mound and swallow it in great, needy gulps.

But he didn’t come. The clock in the kitchen ticked loudly in the silence, slicing the time in neat little chunks. It was the only noise. Midnight came and went. Ben fell asleep somewhere around one in the morning from sheer exhaustion. He woke with a start when someone rang the bell. Groaning he got up and felt his body complain loudly from having fallen asleep on the stairs. The aches and pain vanished she second he saw Tom’s silhouette framed in the doorway. A large part of him wanted to throw himself into Tom’s arms like a seafarers wife after finding her husband on the docks. Ben contained himself with a firm handshake.

“Sorry I’m so late. I had to be extra careful tonight.”

“Why?” Rubbing his eyes, Ben stepped out onto the porch.

“I am not alone.” Smiling wickedly, Tom gesticulated toward the shadows where something large was prancing around in a flurry. “This is Armageddon Commander. I brought him...”

Ben burst out into laughter. “Armageddon Commander? What kind of a fucked up name is that?”

Tom smiled and waved his hand. “Well I can see that you have not been around competitive horse breeding for long. The studs all have names that represent power. Commander, Annihilation, Power, Majestic and so on. I have seen horses called Bladestorm and Thunderstorm and even a ‘Majestic Thunderstorm of World Domination’. Armageddon Commander is harmless.”

“I see what you mean.”

“Anyway. I had to be careful because of the stud. When we dropped by I saw that Sunflower Butter mellow was at the beginning of her heat. So I figured tonight or tomorrow she might be ready to breed.”

“I don’t know about that, she kicked the gelding all day long.”

“Hmm. Well we can try. I she refuses him we can tie her down or I can try to come and bring him tomorrow. But let’s try at least.”

...

Credits

Special Thanks to:

Mayfryn who made the first pledge on 27. April 2018

Brandon who made the first pledge on 30. April 2018