The Copper Horse #2 Pride (20 page)

Reuben nodded.
“And I never had ice cream before I came here.”

Jack sighed,
closing his eyes for a moment, as if trying to get rid of some
picture. “ But why do you keep it a secret from him?”

“Jack, I never
told anyone I like men. I don’t know how to take it back now. It’s
so shameful.” He didn’t admit that he was also afraid Erik would
stop restraining him if he didn’t have to.

“Everyone in
this house likes men.” Jack looked at him with a frown.

Reuben
shuddered. “This house is not the only place in the world. I see
the way people look at me in the streets. Their eyes would pop out
if they knew I’m happy like this.”

Jack licked his
lips. “We’re not in the street.” He walked over to Reuben and
slowly sat down in the hay.

“So I told
you,
but I don’t want others to know. What kind of man would
agree to this?” He gestured with his hand around the stall. “I
don’t want to be that man.”

Jack’s Adam’s
apple bobbed, and he gave Reuben a hesitant nod. “Shouldn’t... the
ice cream know?”

“He cares for
me anyway. I’ll tell ‘im when I’m ready, yeah?” Even if Jack
thought he was a freak, saying all those things made him feel
better.

Jack closed his
mouth before looking at the opposing wall and nodding at it.

“I’ve never met
men who openly said they liked cock.” Reuben sighed, trying to get
back his attention.

Jack shot him a
glance. “You do now.
I
like cock.”

Reuben slowly
smiled, not without shyness. “I like cock too.”

Jack tapped his
foot against the wooden floor of the cart room to the rhythm of the
merry melody he was whistling. Everything smelled of hay and
varnish, and Reuben closed his eyes, enjoying the thorough brushing
the groom was giving his hair. He already knew Erik had something
in store for him because Jack didn’t talk to him the way he usually
did. On ‘horse days’, as Reuben called them, he was treated like a
real animal. His cock was tingling all morning, but he got no
sensual attention whatsoever. The servants would talk around him as
if he were an unintelligible animal. Sometimes people other than
Jack would come over and pet his arms, back, or even his buttocks.
It had been two weeks since Ollie had raped him, but thanks to
Erik’s tender care and Jack’s attention he quickly recovered.
Eventually it was more of a mental scar than an injury, and it
wasn’t the first horrible fuck in his life either. He felt more at
home in Erik’s mansion after confessing to Jack. He belonged here,
had a place where he could work, live, and maybe even love someone.
Someday when Erik got bored with him, he hoped not to be sent away
like the horses before him. Maybe he could become some sort of
servant. He wasn’t a complete blunderer, he could learn some new
skills. Probably.

Erik had
invited him for a drink twice already, and each time had been pure
bliss. And it wasn’t even about the high quality of the whiskey on
offer. Erik’s company made the evening special. They used a small
drawing room with a huge fireplace and shared whiskey while Erik
braided Reuben’s hair. It made Reuben’s mane wavy after Jack
untangled all the little braids and brushed in some kind of
fragrant oil. With his hair so shiny and pampered, Reuben couldn’t
wait for Erik to see him.

Jack dressed
him in the leather outfit and took him downstairs to the cart room,
so Reuben supposed he and Erik would be going out. He couldn’t wait
for his master to see how happy and ready for work he was. But it
wasn’t Erik who came in next..

“Hey, Jack!”
The door swung, and Lady Victoria entered with his supply trolley.
“You done with him already?”

Reuben looked
back at him, absentmindedly chewing on the rubber-sheathed bit in
his mouth, and whinnied as Lady Victoria stroked the side of his
butt. Being ‘the horse’ relieved him of all responsibility. He
could take things as they came, as long as his groom or his master
were around to take care of him. And since the accident with Ollie,
there was someone to keep an eye on him at all times. Jack still
had the kitchen duties, and the additional workload made him so
tired he kept falling asleep in the stables. From what Reuben had
heard, work started late at night and continued throughout the
morning, which meant Jack was only getting a few hours of sleep.
Reuben still felt guilty about causing that mess, so he watched
over Jack, letting him doze off in his stall every day.

Jack put the
brush back on the shelf. “Almost. The master will be here shortly,
and you will be free to do your job.”

“He’s so pretty
today.” Lady Victoria sighed and stood on his toes to brush his
knuckles against Reuben’s cheek. Reuben didn’t mind, and nuzzled
the digits like a real animal would. A lot had changed since his
first encounter with this strange hybrid of man and woman. Lady
Victoria was no longer mean to him, and as a horse Reuben couldn’t
care less about any human intrigue anyway.

“Master Erik’s
going out.”

“He’s been
awfully busy lately, hasn’t he?” Lady Victoria leaned against
Reuben and pulled him into a loose embrace. He smelled sweet, like
the hooker Reuben’d hired for his first suck ever. The memory
didn’t even compare with what Erik would do to his cock on a daily
basis. Damn, just thinking of yesterday’s night made him harden
again. The gentle yet decisive touch of his master’s fingers
delving into each hidden crease of his body was like nothing Reuben
had ever experienced with anyone else.

“You know how
it is with the Dals. Sometimes, he’s just laying around all day,
other times he hardly sleeps.” Jack took one of Reuben’s
hoof-shaped gloves and vigorously brushed it with a piece of cloth
until it shone.

Lady Victoria
sighed, pulling away from Reuben. “Sometimes I wonder what the
point of all this cleaning is, you know? It took me two hours to
scrub the fucking blood off the floor in his office. He slit that
poor bugger’s throat. Who does that?”

Reuben was glad
the fake ears on top of his head couldn’t betray his curiosity.
Erik killed someone?

“Now he’s a
‘bugger’, but not too long ago he used to be such a friend of
yours.” Jack gave Lady Victoria a sour smile and started buckling
up the front of Reuben’s leather jacket.

“Ah, you know.”
Lady Victoria waved his hand dismissively. “These things come and
go. I didn’t think him the kind of man to actually put his hands on
Copper. That’s what you could call a death wish.”

“Or rape.” Jack
did his best to avoid Reuben’s gaze.

Reuben blinked.
They were talking about Ollie. Erik slit his throat? For him?
Reuben didn’t know whether his stomach was clenching with fear or
butterflies.

Lady Victoria
slid his fingers up Reuben’s neck to tickle his human ear before
proceeding to touch the leather ones on top of his head. “Well,
that’s not all that surprising. I tell you Jack, that man didn’t
understand the meaning of ‘no’. This one time, he sneaked up on me
when I was scrubbing the floor and fucked me just like that, while
I was still holding that damp cloth. I wasn’t even in the mood, but
he didn’t care.”

Jack’s
expression soured. “I didn’t need to know that.”

Lady Victoria
rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. “Don’t be such a
choirboy. It’s nice to fuck once in a while. If you can’t be
bothered to spread your legs for anyone, at least be a good boy and
listen to what adults say.”

Jack’s face
went up in flames. “Why do you have to be so crude?”

“Oh, Honey, you
don’t know how I sound when I want to be crude.”

Reuben smiled
behind his bit. It was true—Jack was too shy for his own good.

“And I don’t
want to know.” Jack put his hands over his ears. “It’s
intimate.”

“You’re one to
say.” Lady Victoria broke into a grin and pointed his finger at
Reuben. “Aren’t you giving him enemas and stuffing him full of
rubber dick?”

Reuben pouted,
straightened his back, and raised his nose up high. Lady Victoria
really was crude. It was a lot less straightforward than he made it
sound.

Jack bit his
lip with a sharp glare at Lady Victoria. “Apothecaries and doctors
do similar things to their patients. It’s nothing like what you are
implying.”

Lady Victoria
opened his mouth, but he was wise enough to shut it when Erik
strolled into the room in a new brown leather suit. It was a simple
garment, and its modest design stressed the wearer’s shape in
detail.

“Copper. How is
my darling pony today?”

Reuben grinned
around the bit and whinnied with enthusiasm while pulling his foot
across the floor. His heart instantly grew in his chest, and he
stood as straight as an arrow. To get Erik’s attention, he tossed
his wavy ginger mane from one side to the other.

Erik pulled
Reuben into a hug, their matching outfits squeaking with the
friction. Bouncy with enthusiasm, he gave Reuben a peck on the
lips.

“Did you miss
your master, Copper? Did you?”

Reuben gave a
high pitched moan and nuzzled his cheek. Erik smelled so good,
always fresh and clean, like no other lover Reuben had ever had.
His blonde hair was getting longish, which meant he would probably
invite a barber soon. Reuben already knew that cycle. The
mismatched eyes, which used to make Reuben think that Erik’s soul
had two sides—one of an angel and one of a demon—now shone with a
familiar warmth.  

Jack and Lady
Victoria pulled away as well-trained servants would. Erik’s
attention was completely focused on Reuben, anyway.

“Ready to go?”
Erik withdrew, gently stroking the center of Reuben’s chest through
the leather. “You’re in for a treat today.”

Was he? What
could Erik have planned? Reuben tapped his foot against the floor
again to show his excitement. After some more cuddling and playful
teasing, Erik had Jack strap Reuben to the cart, and they headed
out into town, Hans trailing along. It was a peaceful sunny
afternoon, and with few passersby in the streets, the outing felt
more like a romantic walk than anything else. Erik didn’t make any
attempt to rush him, merely relaxing in his seat, and Reuben was
happy for him after watching Erik spend almost all of his day by
his desk. In fact, he’d even go back to work after dinner
and
a round of fucking with Reuben. He deserved a break. It
was such a nice day too, warm, sunny, but cool enough for Reuben
not to transform from a horse into a sweaty pig. Were they going to
a park? He loved parks.

Reuben wasn’t
wearing blinders today, so the beautiful face of Percy Preston
smoldering at him from the poster captured all of his attention.
Reuben looked back to Erik, to make sure he was allowed to stray
from the path, and pointed the front of his horse mask at the
wooden fence layered with various posters and announcements.

Percy Preston
was illustrated as an extravagant man with flame-colored hair in a
purple suit with a green carnation boutonniere. The title of the
play was
Dandy Science
, and judging from the silly
characters painted around the main figure, Reuben supposed it was a
satire.

“Let me guess.”
Erik laughed behind him, and Reuben felt the riding crop licking
the side of his butt. “Percy Preston?”

Reuben let out
a soft moan. He was curious what the play could be about, but then
again the riding crop touching his ass shot excitement straight to
his prick, what wasn’t the best thing to happen in the middle of
the street.

Erik sighed. “I
know that in the last few days I haven’t paid you as much attention
as you deserve. Should I be jealous?” The crop skimmed up and down
Reuben’s thighs.

Reuben mewled,
instantly heating at the touch. Erik knew damn well how his pony
reacted to that kind of caress, and yet he still chose to tease.
Reuben pointed to the poster once more, shifting his weight from
one foot to the other, but it seemed Erik didn’t want to waste his
time talking about Percy Preston.

“I’m so fucking
tired of my brother. You think you could make me forget my work for
a day?” Erik smiled at Reuben and patted his leather-sheathed balls
with the crop.

Reuben moaned
and pushed back against the touch.
Oh, yes, yes, yes
. He
didn’t even care that they were in a street and possibly attracting
the eyes of passersby. That kind of teasing made his cheeks heat up
and balls tingle. He couldn’t wait to help Erik forget about his
work.

“You ready?”
And when Reuben gave Erik a fervent nod, he was told to keep on
going.

“See? It’s a
perfect fit.” The blacksmith weighed Reuben’s calf in his hands and
traced the horseshoe at the base of Reuben’s new hoof shoe. They
fit him like a glove, and even though they weren’t the epitome of
comfortable, the twinkle in Erik’s eyes more than made up for it.
The new shoes bent Reuben’s feet into an awkward angle, but thanks
to the daily training sessions it wasn’t that much of a shock.

Erik had
brought him into far Bylondon, to a large stable that offered
carriages and horses for hire. It didn’t smell as good as Reuben’s
room at Erik’s house or Alexander’s Mews in London, but he liked
that the horses were looking out of their little stalls with
curiosity. Checking out the new horse in town. Erik led him along
the place, allowing him to mingle with other stallions but was
quite firm about not letting Reuben meet any mares. Reuben found it
ridiculous, but he played along and tugged on the reins as if he
were desperate to get into a stall with a mare. He remembered how
Coal had done that and how much it delighted Alexander to see his
horse in heat.

After the mock
fight that followed, Reuben ended up in a small wooden seat, with
hoof shoes on his feet. The blacksmith was attaching horseshoes to
the bottom of Reuben’s hooves while his assistant watched closely,
tying the laces on the second shoe. Made with black leather, they
were true works of art, and reached up to Reuben’s knees.