Prince of Darkness vs Prom Queen 07

"That's right," Laci responded. "Let's go meet Stormy." She opened the gate and ushered the boys inside then turned to Donovan. "Are you coming with us?" She did her best to hide a smile at her husband's reluctant response to accompany them.

At the sound of the gate opening, the monster horse snapped to attention and glared at the intruders. Naturally his demeanor changed the instant he saw it was Laci. The big show-off almost turned into Pegasus as he flew to her side to greet her.

As always, Prince Ogre gently nuzzled his human girlfriend, completely ignoring her husband standing nearby. The horse obviously had a lot on his mind as he nickered quietly in response to Laci's petting and hugs. Damned horse was getting more attention in two minutes than Donovan had seen in the last two weeks.

When he finished flirting with Laci, Prince leaned his big head down to nuzzle at both Matthew and Jeremy, ruffling their hair with his nose and seemingly enjoying the sound of their giggles. Prince nudged the two little boys along, clearly pushing them towards his own new son. As Laci followed the boys, Prince glanced over his shoulder and tossed a dirty look at Donovan. Great. Just great.

Butterfly was instantly alert and protective of her foal but Prince had the situation in complete control. Donovan watched as the slick two-timing horse brought his human mistress over to visit with his equine wife. Standing alone Donovan felt like the outsider as he watched Butterfly carefully nudging the two boys toward Stormy.

"He's so soft," Matthew said as he gently patted the tiny horse. "Hi, Stormy. You're a good surprise."

"Can we ride him?" Jeremy asked.

"Eventually," Laci told him as she gently stroked Stormy, "but it's going to be quite a while. He might look big but he's only about two weeks old so he's just a baby. You have to wait until his little legs get strong enough or you could hurt him."

Donovan was suddenly aware of Butterfly standing behind him. Coming closer she shoved him in the direction of Stormy. Prince was glaring ominously.

"Butterfly wants you to meet Stormy," Laci told him.

"She might but that fire-breathing Ogre doesn't want me anywhere near him."

Laci just shook her head. "Prince!" she scolded the horse. "It's time you two got along." Walking to Donovan's side, she took his hand and pulled him towards the group.

Donovan reached out, carefully stroking the foal's coat while Butterfly nodded her approval. After a couple of minutes she showed her appreciation by nuzzling against Donovan's back. Judging from the growling sounds coming from the huge grey horse, he was neither appreciative nor approving of Donovan's actions.

"Prince!" Laci spoke sternly. "Donovan didn't growl when you met Matthew, now apologize."

The monster ambled over to Donovan and grudgingly gave him a slight nudge. How the hell did she do it? Stupid horse listened to everything she said, not that it was such a surprise. Laci had powers to do almost anything. She could have tigers purring and kangaroos dancing in the outback. She could probably tame dragons. Too bad she seemed to have forgotten how to unhorny a horny husband. That would be one magical power Donovan would happily and willingly have unleashed.

"C'mon boys. Are you ready to ride on the hay wagon? The foreman is going to take you all around the whole ranch so you can see everything. Say goodbye to Stormy."

Within minutes Matthew and Jeremy called their excited goodbyes to Stormy, Butterfly and Prince and had made their way out of the paddock and over to the waiting wagon. Promising to be on their best behavior, the two waved to Laci and Donovan as the horse-drawn wagon slowly started on its journey.

"Are they going to be okay on their own?" Donovan asked.

Laci turned to him. "I've known the foreman for years and he's going to put them to work helping him with the hay. They're going to have a great time and be totally exhausted tonight. They'll be gone for a while. Was there anything you wanted to do?"

Was that a trick question? "Uhh...it's a little hot and dusty out here. Maybe we could wait in your room."

"Okay." She led the way looking calm and relaxed. Unconcerned and serene. Casual and tranquil. Anything and everything except horny. Good word -- HORNY! Remember horny? Whatever happened to horny? Why the hell wasn't she as horny as he was?

The room was cool and comfortable. Donovan was anything but cool or comfortable. It was ridiculous for him to feel the way he was feeling. Laci was his wife. She loved him. He adored her. They'd been together for years so why was he nervous? Again?

"Laci, I didn't take Virgil. I know I threatened him but that's because he hates me. Threatening isn't taking. I wouldn't do that. Take him. I'd threaten but not take. Never take. I wouldn't take. And he always watches me. It's creepy but I still wouldn't. Take, I mean. Okay, so I threatened. A lot. But I didn't take. I put him on the chair. I didn't do anything else. Just the chair. That's all."

She didn't respond, instead stood silently watching him. What was on her mind? He had no clue. She still didn't look horny although he was probably horny enough for two.

"Laci, you can't keep being mad at me for something I didn't do. It's not fair. It would be different if I did it but I didn't. Do it. I never did it. You think I did and everyone else thinks I did. I'm even starting to wonder if I really did but I didn't. I never did it."

No one babbled better. "I know what you didn't do but you don't seem to be aware of what you did do. And Donovan...your ass looks fantastic in those jeans."

"What? Uh...thank you? Was that a mixed message? It seemed kind of mixed. What exactly do you know that I didn't do? And what don't I know that I did do and how do you know I did it? I have to tell you that at the moment, I'm not sure I know anything."

She took several small steps in his direction causing him to take a few steps backward. "I know you didn't take Virgil,' she told him, "and I also know that even though your ass looks fantastic in those jeans, it would look even better not in those jeans."

Donovan frowned in confusion. "Laci? Could we sit down and talk for a minute?"

She walked over to the bed and settled on it. "Of course. Is this a random discussion or is there a particular topic?" In a swift and graceful movement she pulled her dark blue t-shirt over her head and tossed it away. Effortlessly, she slipped out of her jeans. Wearing only her pink satin bra and panties, she stretched out on the bed.

His mouth dropped open and he was instantly aroused. "Pink, huh? Pink is nice. You look good in pink. Should wear it more often. I like pink. Uh...what was the question?"

Laci patted the bed next to where she was seated. "Come sit down, Donovan."

"Why?"

"You said you wanted to sit down and talk so come sit down and we'll talk. I'm ready."

"For what?"

"To talk. Donovan, are you okay? You seem a little disoriented."

"Disoriented? Like the Disoriented Express?"

"Are you feeling all right?" Maybe you should lie down. Did you get too much sun?" She didn't sound overly concerned. "Would you like a cool cloth for your forehead?"

Cautiously, he made his way to the bed and sat as far from her as he could. "Laci, what are you doing? You've been pretty mad at me for the last two weeks and now you seem kind of like the spider inviting the fly into her parlor. Am I suddenly the fly? I'm not sure I want to be the fly. I mean, I do but you're a little too spider-ish at the moment. This might not be the best time to be a fly. Could be a little dangerous to be a fly."

He could win a gold medal for babbling. "I apologize for being angry and I think it's the perfect time for you to be a fly," Laci leered at him. "Come into my parlor, Mr. Fly."

"NO! And I don't mind telling you you're scaring the crap out of me. You never act like this. You seduce me all the time. Usually you don't even have to try very hard. I'm pretty seducible. You've probably been aware of that for a while. I tend to be highly and easily subject to seduction but you're not acting like a seductress. You're acting like a predator. You don't have your whip, do you? Is this some kind of revenge? You do think I did away with your unicorn, don't you? Admit it." He pulled back as Laci moved closer. "NO! No slithering. At least I think it's slithering? I never said anything about slithering. I'm drawing the line at slithering. This is no time for slithering."

It was a babbling marathon. She reached his side and started unbuttoning his shirt. "Is it time for talking? Didn't you want to talk? What are we talking about? I'm listening." She wasn't just listening. She was also sprinkling tiny kisses along his jaw and up and down his neck. "Did you have something to tell me about a fireplace or two?" When his shirt was unbuttoned, she pushed it over his shoulders and down his arms. The buttoned cuffs prevented her from removing it completely. Nothing prevented her kisses as they moved from his neck, along his collarbone, then scattered across his shoulders.

He had to admit it felt really good. He was lying back, relaxing against the bed. She was wonderful at making him feel relaxed. Maybe she was acting a little crazy but that was most likely just her suppressed horniness coming to the surface. He was starting to make those little growling sounds at the back of his throat. She was great at making him feel very relaxed. He usually had no idea what was happening around him. Relaxed. It was like floating on a cloud. Like being in a trance. Hypnotically relaxed. Felt so good.

Chapter 5 Dom-space

"HEY! Damn it, Laci! Untie me!" She'd done it to him again, this time using his own shirt to bind his hands to the headboard. "I mean it! Untie me right now!"

"No."

"What do you mean, 'no'? Untie me," he demanded.

"No. You wanted to talk, so talk. I'm listening."

"I can't talk when I'm tied, so untie me. Now!"

Her eyes narrowed just enough. "As far as I can see, only your wrists are tied, not your tongue and you should consider yourself damned lucky that's all I tied. Don't tempt me to tie further. I'm good at tying."

"What does that mean? Are you threatening me? What the hell is going on? You never act like this. Why are you so mad?"

"Because you're a big dope."

"No I'm not," he said, sounding insulted. "I just get confused. Actually I get confused a lot. You make me confused all the time. Victor would confuse anybody. And I got stuck with Trent who's confused enough for all of us. Confusion is contagious. Then Virgil vanished and the whole world thinks I had something to do with it even though I didn't. That would confuse anybody. It's a whole mass of confusion. You can untie me now."

"No. I'm too confused to untie you. I guess that mass of confusion really is contagious."

"Damn it, Laci! Untie me!" He sighed when all he got was an icy stare. "At least tell me why you're so mad at me. I think we both know I'm probably not going to figure it out."

"Donovan Corbett, you are quite possibly the best husband and father in the entire world and I am madly in love with you. Are you aware of those facts?"

Bewilderment was clearly written across his face. "Is this another trick question? I have to tell you: you're not helping the confusion." His head was starting to hurt. "Did I fall asleep and miss something? Maybe I had another blackout. I've noticed that tends to happen quite a bit when I'm with you."

"Yes, Donovan. I know. You go into Dom-space."

"What are you talking about? What the hell is Dom-space?"

"It's like sub-space. Submissives go into sub-space but you're a Dominant so you go into Dom-space. You do it all the time. Did you think I hadn't figured it out?"

"There's no such thing as Don-space. How much time have you been spending with Victor? Why do you listen to him?" He pulled against his restraint. "Laci! Untie me!"

"No. Big dopes don't deserve to be untied. For someone who had nothing to do with the vanishing of Virgil, you're certainly acting extremely guilty. Can't help but wonder why. And I was more than a little perturbed when I started thinking about what you said the morning after your impromptu party with your friends. Victor told you Marian took Jeremy and left him. Then he managed to convince you that I took Matthew and left you. Victor has an excuse. He's always nuts. You're supposed to be the rational one, remember? What would ever make you believe I left you? Thanks so much, Donovan. That says a tremendous amount about your trust level in me."

"It wasn't like that," he attempted to defend himself. "He caught me off guard. You were mad at me for yelling at Trent and I wasn't sure what happened. Then he said you left and you never called even when he called and told you I was coming back. Why didn't you call? What was I supposed to think? I was frantic."

"Frantic? Really?" Her sympathy seemed to be in short supply. "For one thing, did it ever occur to you to call ME and tell ME you were coming back early? No. You called Victor because that's what you always do and we don't want to upset your routine. And as for what you were supposed to think, well...I'm not sure I can answer that. Perhaps if your frantic self had called me to ask what was happening, I might have an answer. Victor called several times, left more than one message but my frantic husband never bothered. Not once. You did say frantic, right? How frantic were you exactly?"

He wasn't sure what to say. He knew she was right but Laci never really got angry and now she suddenly seemed to be making up for it. As if that wasn't enough, her dominantly submissive anger was making him even hornier than he had been before. And his damned hands were still tied to the damned bed and she looked like she was damned well totally prepared to leave him that way. "On a scale of one to ten, with one being not at all and ten being a lot, how angry are you?" he asked.

He flinched slightly at her glare. "Thirty-seven thousand nine hundred fifty three."

That didn't sound good. "Does that include Virgil?"

She shook her head in frustration. "Now I have a question," she told him. "On a scale of one to ten, with one being not at all and ten being a lot, how much do I love you?"

He thought for a moment. "Another trick question, right? You're going into the negative numbers aren't you? Uh...negative five? NO! Negative nine! Am I close?"

"Nowhere near close enough. With ten being a lot, I'd have to go with thirty-seven MILLION nine hundred fifty three. Not negative and including Virgil."

That sounded better. "I can live with that. And I'm sorry. I should know not to listen to Victor. And I wanted to call you but I was afraid he was right. As long as he said you were gone, I could pretend it wasn't true but if you said it then it would be true."

"I'm sorry, too. Considering how much you've tried to change, how many sacrifices you've made, how much you need to be in control, I should be more understanding about your bouts of unreasonable insanity."

"Will you untie me now?"

"No."

"Why the hell not?" He started pulling at his restraints. "My shirt is going to be all wrinkled. I hate wrinkled. We talked. Why won't you untie me?"

Suddenly she had that special look in her eyes. "Because we haven't touched each other for a number of weeks and you're so far beyond horny you're almost at the point of losing control. And since you almost never lose control, I intend to take full advantage of that situation and of you."

"You're looking a little spider-ish again. Are you going to slither? Do spiders slither? And how do you know I'm horny?"

"You're always horny."

She had a good point, but he wasn't sure she was listening. She was back to kissing. He had to be honest. Laci was good at kissing. She had very kissable lips. Nimble. That was a good word. She had nimble lips. Did she do lip exercises? Probably didn't have to. She exercised them enough when she was kissing him. She had great lip skills and she was using every one of them. Now she was exercising her lips on the side of his neck and she was moving very slowly to that place on his ear. That place was especially good. It was like pushing a button marked 'relax'. She always started like this. She always ran her fingers through his hair. That transported him straight to a state of blissful euphoria. Floating on a soft, fluffy cloud. Ecstasy. Pure trance-like ecstasy.

"NO! STOP!"

"Stop? Why? Did I hurt you?" she questioned.

"Where are my jeans? You always force me to wear them and now they're gone. I just had them on so what happened to them?"

"I took them off while you were in Dom-space."

"Stop saying that," he told her. "There is no such thing as Dom-space. When did you get naked? A minute ago you weren't naked and now you are. When did that happen?"

She gave him a questioning look. "Donovan? Are you all right?"

"Untie me," he demanded again, struggling against the shirt still firmly tied to the headboard. "I'm a Dominant. I know how to tie knots. How come I can't ever get out of your knots?"

She sat back, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Because you tie Dominant knots on people who want to be tied. I use ranch knots to tie horses who don't want to be tied. And these are the exact same knots I always tie. Are we having a knot competition?"

"So you consider me a horse? Planning to ride me? No wonder that monster out there hates me. You probably tie better knots on me and he knows it. Untie me."

"Seriously, Donovan, you're acting crazy even for you. Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

"I'd just like to know what's happening. I keep feeling like I'm missing something. We get started and everything seems like it's going fine then suddenly I'm tied to the bed and I never know how it happens."

"I told you. Dom-space."

"Stop saying that. What about naked? You start kissing me and the next thing I know, I'm naked. And you're naked. Why does that happen?"

She was looking at him with disbelief. "Because sex works better that way. Considering your Dominant and trainer skills, shouldn't you know that?"

He glared. "That's not what I mean. You start kissing me and suddenly I look at you and you're naked. I'm not complaining but I'd like to see it sometimes. I like watching you get naked and I always miss it. Then you start kissing me again and the next thing I know, my whole entire body has a hard-on. Sure, it's where it's supposed to be but you do something that goes way beyond that one place and I always miss that, too. And what about your shoes? You have great shoes. One minute you're sitting there all sexy, wearing those shoes and the next minute I'm coming so hard I can't see straight. How does that happen? What comes between shoes and orgasms? And why do I keep missing it?"

"It's because you're in Dom-space."

"STOP SAYING THAT! What the hell is Dom-space? It doesn't even exist. You're making it up. And my arms are getting numb. Untie me."

Laci watched him with curiosity. "You're much more panicked than usual. I guess the last couple of weeks have been hard for you. How about if I take over and you relax and go into your Dom-space? That always makes you feel better." She moved closer.

"NO! Just stop right there. I don't go into Dom-space. Dom-space. There is no such thing as Dom-space. If there was, I would have heard about it by now."

"Donovan, you're really upset, aren't you?" She watched his pout. "This hasn't ever bothered you before, unless..."

"Unless what?" he asked suspiciously.

"Two weeks ago you were training which means you were in complete control. Then you came back and you thought I left you, Trent was on the verge of a breakdown because of Sara, then they made up and we've all been busy planning their wedding, plus Virgil vanished and you went straight from absolute control to absolutely no control and you can't handle the chaos. The transition is usually much more gradual. And I guess I've been out of sorts and a little disorganized because of my job and everything else I do, and the wedding preparations and missing Virgil. I've totally neglected you."