“Shit,” I muttered. Horse laughed in my ear as the man pushed slowly into her. His friend took her by the shoulders, bracing her as his buddy conquered her ass, inch by inch. Horse reached down with both hands, grabbing my thighs from the inside, pulling me up and onto his lap so my ass cradled his jeans-covered cock. The girl gave a startled grunt as the man bottomed out. I watched as she twisted, pinned by his cock, arms and legs quivering from the strain of taking him, but she didn’t protest or fight back. To my amazement, she opened her mouth and caught the other man in her mouth again.

As they started moving this time, I saw her stiffening a bit each time the cock in her ass hit bottom. The man reaming her stroked her back almost tenderly as he fucked her deep. The guy in front jerked and came, hips bucking. He pulled free and she collapsed forward onto the grass, face down, ass still in air. By this point I felt so wound up I knew it wasn’t a matter of if I’d come, but when—now or after the little show in front of us ended. Horse must have sensed the same thing, because he slowed and stopped as the man in the back abruptly shoved the girl flat into the ground, covering her as he went to town on her ass. Over and over he pounded her—so hard I worried he’d hurt her. But she didn’t complain or protest, and she definitely could’ve. This was no rape.

“You wanted to know what a sweet butt is?” Horse whispered in my ear, pausing a second to trail his tongue along the shell of my ear. I shivered, twitching around his fingers deep inside. “That’s a sweet butt. She’s here to take cock and clean up after the party. Anyone who wants her can have her. Do you think for one minute that I see you like that? That I ever could?”

I shook my head, almost afraid to ask the one question burning through me.

“What is it?” he asked, starting to move his fingers again. I shuddered against him, muscles deep inside clenching as I wound tightly toward orgasm.

“Are you going to do that to me?”

He gave a low chuckle.

“Gotta be specific, babe. You mean fuck you in the ass or share you with another guy?”

“Either,” I whispered, wiggling my hips as my butt rubbed his penis, the layers of fabric keeping his skin too far from mine. “I don’t want you to share me, Horse.”

He didn’t answer, just rubbed my clit harder. I squirmed against him as he caught a nipple and rolled it between his fingers. In front of me the man stiffened, thrusting one last time. He grunted as he came. Then he rolled off her to the side. She caught his arm, reaching over to kiss him. He pushed her away, laughing, and stumbled to his feet.

“I can’t do that, Horse,” I said, shivering with a mixture of physical need and fear. “Please, don’t give me to them. I couldn’t handle it.”

“I’m not gonna share you, Marie,” he whispered, digging his fingers deeper, grinding against my clit with the heel of his hand. Pleasure pulsed, hovering just out of reach.

“I told you before, this is my pussy,” he continued, softly but with a hint of threat too. “I fuck you, nobody else does. Which hole I fuck is up for negotiation.”

At his words I tipped over the edge, moaning as stars exploded through me, grinding his cock with my ass. I collapsed against him, panting. He lifted me, laying me down in the grass flat on my back. Now the panties getting ripped were mine as he covered me, pulling out his cock and slamming it into my well-lubed center without a word. I moaned achingly. I had no idea if anyone could hear me but I didn’t care at all. I just wrapped my arms and legs around him as he pumped furiously into my body. That dick of his was huge, but it felt good and I’d loosened up a lot because taking him didn’t hurt at all. It felt great, and I loved the way his girth pushed me open, stimulating my clit like nothing I’d ever felt before. It didn’t take long for me to shoot over the edge again, and he followed right after. I felt his hot seed spurting deep inside and moaned as my body slowly recovered.

That’s when I realized he hadn’t used a condom.

I pushed him off, sitting up and trying to pull my skirt down so that I didn’t give the entire party a crotch shot. He leaned up on one arm to stare at me speculatively.

“What’s the problem now?” he asked. I narrowed my eyes, wondering if he’d “forgotten” on purpose. Apparently Horse liked riding bareback. “I know something’s crawled up your ass, so spill it.”

“You didn’t put on a condom!” I hissed. “I haven’t been tested yet, I’m not even on the Pill, what—”

He reached out, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck and pulling me to him for a kiss, ending the conversation. He didn’t stop kissing me for a long time. Then he let me go and smiled.

“Calm down,” he said. “It’s not that big a deal. We’ll get you to a doc tomorrow, get you tested, make sure you’re clean.”

“I’m not on birth control, Horse,” I said through gritted teeth. “What if I got pregnant? I’m not having an abortion, you can’t make me. I won’t do it.”

He looked me right in the eye.

“Babe, the odds you get pregnant this one time are pretty damn low. But if it happens, we’ll deal with it, okay? I like kids. I could do worse. Tomorrow we get you fixed, then we move forward. Not a lot of sense in freaking out because we can’t exactly go back in time and slap that condom on, now can we?”

I studied his face, calm and reassuring, incredibly handsome in the firelight. He smiled, encouraging me. I smiled back at him, forcing myself to breathe.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay,” he repeated. “Marie, I swear, you’re crazy sometimes, but once I get my dick in you I couldn’t care less. Just calm down and relax, sweetheart.”

He rolled off me, rising to his knees to tuck himself away and close up his pants. Then he leaned back against the fence. I pulled down my skirt as far as it would go, sitting back between his legs carefully, keeping my own shut tight. We sat like that for a long time, listening to the music and watching the fire. Couples disappeared and reappeared, their soft laughter filling the occasional lulls in the music.

Apparently we weren’t completely hidden from view, because one of the prospects stopped by every once in a while to see if we wanted more to drink. Horse nursed a beer slowly, but I ended up downing two more, bringing my total up to five. By the time I’d grabbed a sixth, I’d stopped worrying so much about someone seeing up my skirt. As I started a seventh, I sat forward and started singing and moving my body to the music. Horse laughed, but he stood and pulled me to my feet, apparently enjoying the show as I spun in the firelight. Everything was great and I was starting to think about a pee run when I heard a loud bang and the ground next to me exploded with a crack like thunder.

Gunfire.

Horse tackled me, rolling us away from the area as a second shot rang out, apparently hitting the speakers because the music stopped. Yet another shot went off. Men shouted, women screamed and I sobered right the hell up. Horse pushed me behind a big rock and then he was up and running, tackling a guy standing near the fire. The gun flew out of the shooter’s hand and another man grabbed it, popping out the magazine and clearing the slide with a loud click.

I peeked up and over the bench to see Horse dragging the shooter to his feet by the front of his shirt before punching him hard in the face. I heard panting nearby, and a girl I hadn’t even realized was crouched next to me gave a squeak of fear. It was Miss Double Penetration, and she wore a streak of dirt across her cheek and a look of total shock on her face.

I imagined my own held a similar expression.

I reached out and took her hand. She squeezed it back as Horse methodically beat the shit out of the shooter, yelling at him between blows.

“You don’t fucking shoot a gun at my woman!” he shouted, taking a final shot at the guy’s gut as the man collapsed in the dirt. Horse stood over him, panting, furious, and I had another of those eye-opening realizations that seemed to happen so often lately.

Horse was capable of violence. Terrible violence. I wasn’t sure if this guy was going to survive. I’d known it intellectually, seen him with a gun, but this was different. This was right in front of me, real and visceral and scarier than anything I’d ever seen. The girl next to me started crying shocked tears. I felt them running down my face too. The guy was definitely down, but Horse rolled him over and kicked him again in the nuts with enough force to dent metal. The horrific scream he gave tore through my soul.

Horse stood back, chest heaving, glancing around in disgust. Everyone seemed frozen.

“This cocksucker missed my girl by about six inches,” he announced, looking around at the crowd. “I should put him in the ground, but it’s not worth my fucking time. Next time I won’t be so forgiving, you got me?”

Around him men nodded, murmuring their agreement. I heard someone throwing up off to the right, back in the darkness. I hugged the girl next to me and she hugged me right back, all differences between us forgotten. Horse left the circle of firelight, reaching out to take the now-unloaded gun from the man who’d grabbed it before. Then Horse grabbed the clip, slammed it back into the gun and pulled back the slide with purpose. He turned and carefully aimed the gun at the man’s head.

“Not so fucking fun now, is it?” he snarled. The man gibbered, whimpering and shaking. Lightning fast, Horse tilted the gun to one side of the man’s head and pulled the trigger. Dirt exploded next to his face.

“Marie, get your ass over here.”

I didn’t want to move, but I really didn’t want to piss Horse off even more. I gave the girl a quick hug and stood shakily. I realized about a second later that the stripper heels just weren’t going to work, so I kicked them off and scuttled over to Horse. He tucked the gun into the back of his pants, grabbed my hand and dragged me back through the clubhouse. Boonie caught up to us, but Horse just snarled at him when he tried to talk. Darcy followed behind, eyes darting between us.