Consent

Not that he needed telling. His experience far outshone mine, even if I was learning very rapidly, and he was putting all his experience to work.

I have no idea how long this went on. I was feeling limp, totally drained, while at the same time my nerves were screwed up tight and I was as tense as a cat waiting to pounce. And Barry still wouldn't give me any release, just holding me at a point that he must have worked out with cruel calculation.

I was literally wailing with need when he rolled me over on to my back again. He seemed to hover over me for one timeless second and then he was driving down hard, crushing me beneath him, while the world went up in flames around me and I was swept away by the storm.

I lay there on the grass, staring at the sky, feeling life slowly stealing back into me. Barry was just sitting next to me looking amused.

"Better get dressed," he murmured when he saw that I was watching him. "You have to watch out for sunburn, you know."

Easy for him to say. He wasn't the one who had to try to take off a pair of shoes that were jammed inside inside-out jeans. It took me a good five minutes to get my feet free before I could even start to get dressed, and Barry sat there watching the entire time. I could just tell he was laughing at me.

I was finally dressed and I headed over to get back on Black Star, ignoring Barry as being beneath my notice.

Once mounted I turned towards the path and geed Black Star up to the faster of her two gaits, slow rather than dead slow. It took Barry moments to mount and be riding next to me, but I grandly ignored him.

"A suggestion you might like to listen to," Barry said when he reached the point where our paths diverged.

"What? Don't ride with strangers?" I snapped.

"No. It's just an idea. Ask the riding stable for a faster horse. That way you have a chance of winning tomorrow's race."

He was laughing as he headed off down the track, leaving me there simmering. Faster horse indeed. Black Star suited me fine.

"And if there is another race?" a little voice whispered, but I ignored that. That little voice didn't know what it was saying.