Sugar Daddies (36 page)

Katie climbed a couple of stairs, shouted up. “Mum, are you there?”

I had the strangest urge to snoop around, track my way upstairs and look at her bedroom. I had another urge, too. The urge to bury my cock in her on her own turf. Make her mine in her own bed. Sleep in her bed, amongst her things, amidst her regular life.

I heard footsteps on the landing. “I was in the shower, won’t be a minute.”

“I’ve got a visitor,” Katie called, and she was smiling.

“A visitor?” the voice called. “Holly? Is that you?”

A little blush on Katie’s cheeks. “No, Mum, it’s not Holly.” She turned to me. “Friend from school,” she whispered.

We waited what felt like an age until the footsteps started up again. I took a breath, prepared the smile.

The woman who came down the stairs was a real stunner, just like her daughter. Her blonde curls were still wet, and she was wearing nothing but a simple t-shirt over jeans. No makeup, but she didn’t need any. Her eyes were blue and her smile was broad. Same freckles.

She held out a hand. “Debbie,” she said. “Katie’s mum.”

“Carl,” I said, and left it at that. I shook her hand firmly.

Katie looked at me, eyes wide and a little unsure. “Carl’s my boss,” she said, and my heart dropped a little. “And a friend.”

Her mum raised an eyebrow at her. “Friend?”

“Friend. Close friend.”

“Your daughter’s doing very well,” I said. “Two leads today, topped the leaderboard.”

That made Debbie Smith smile with her eyes. “Well done, Kate,” she said, and squeezed her tight. “I’m so proud.” She turned her attention back to me. “So, friend-boss Carl. Has Katie offered you a drink?”

“No need,” I said. “I think we’ll be off soon. Quick change of clothes.”

“Samson,” Katie explained.

“How awfully nice of your boss to take time out to go and see your horse on a Friday evening.” Her eyes were suspicious, and there was an edge to her gaze.

“Friend,” Katie said again. “Good friend.”

“I’m glad Katie is doing well at the office,” she said. “I’m glad she has the opportunity.”

“She’s excelling,” I told her. “Working very hard, and it’s paying off.”

“And you’re Katie’s direct boss are you?”

“For the duration of the training programme.”

She was weighing me up, I could feel it. I ignored the niggle in my gut.

“I’ll get changed,” Katie said, and my urge to follow her up came to nothing. I felt rooted to the spot.

Both her mother and I watched her climb the stairs, I heard a door open and then close at the top. And then her mother cast her verdict.

“You’re the
special someone
,” she said, and it wasn’t a question. “The special someone
and
her boss. In my experience the two don’t mix, and Katie needs this opportunity. She deserves the opportunity to do well for herself.”

“Katie is doing very well for herself, I have no intention of that changing.”

“All good intentions,” she said, and it was barbed. “Do you have kids? Married? Divorced?”

“No,” I said, and my throat was dry. “And neither.”

She gave me a little nod. “Ok, Carl. That’s good to hear.” Her eyes seared mine. “You know Katie’s Dad?”

“I know David very well.”

“Then I trust you’ll help Katie make the best of the situation. For her sake, not his.”

“I’ll help Katie make the best of whatever situation she finds herself in. In this instance, for David’s sake as well as hers. He cares very much for her.”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure he does.” Her smile was back at full radiance by the time Katie made her reappearance, and I made sure to smile, too. I held out a hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, Debbie.”

She shook my hand and it was firmer this time, pointed. “Same to you, Carl.”

But I wasn’t so sure.

“Let’s go,” Katie said, and she seemed oblivious. “I want to hit some jumps, it’s been a while.”

She led the way, and I followed without a backward look. It felt so much more airy outside. I breathed it in, bleeped the Range, feeling Debbie’s gaze burning into my back.

Katie jumped in and waved her mother goodbye as we pulled away. I held up a hand, gave a smile, nothing too bright.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know what
to say. Boss came in my head first, then friend.”

“Is that the order you think of them?”

She laughed. “No, definitely not.”

My stomach was niggling again. “And that’s what we are? Close friends?”

“Aren’t we?”

“I’m asking you.”

“I don’t know what we are,” she admitted, and there was an awkwardness to it. “I mean, we’re friends, I know that. You’re my boss. You’re Rick’s boyfriend. And you and Rick have a thing, a
proper
thing. I’m not sure what that makes us.”

“What do you want it to make us?” I pulled away from Katie’s street and felt so much better.

She shrugged. “That’s a question and a half, Carl. I don’t know how you want me to answer that off the cuff.”

“With honesty,” I said. “It’s not a hard question, you must know how you feel.”

“I like you, if that’s what you mean. I like you both, a lot.”

“You
like
us?”

“Like you, enjoy your company, enjoy your dicks,” she laughed but I didn’t. She stopped. “I really like you guys. You’re funny and you’re smart, and kind, and different, and great in bed.”

“But you’re in it for the cash,” I said. “It’s alright, I get it.”

Her eyes burned me. “No,” she said, and there was fire in it. “I’m not just
in it for the cash
. I hardly think about the cash.” She sighed. “If I didn’t have a dream and no way to pay for it, I wouldn’t even
want
the cash.”

“So, what
do
you want?”

She pointed out the sign for Woolhope. “I want to see my baby boy,” she said. “That’s what I want.”

“Fine,” I said. “I can take a hint.” I reached for her knee and her hand was waiting. “Onwards, to the furry beast. We’ll pick this conversation up another time.”

The furry beast seemed bigger without Rick there too. Bigger and clumsier. He threw his head up, ears pricked as he followed Katie along to the stable block. I nipped ahead of him, avoiding his clomping feet, playing it cool even though the brute made me uneasy.

Katie could tell my unease regardless. “Relax,” she said. “He’s totally fine.” She offered me the lead rope. “Take it if you want, you’ll see.”

“I’m ok as I am for now,” I said.

“So am I,” she said, and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “That’s what I should have said in the car. I’m happy, Carl, with everything. For now.”

“For now?”

She nodded. “For now, yeah. We’re good. All of us. I like it.”

I wanted to say so much. Spill my load in more ways than one. The need to lay it all out slept uneasily in the pit of me. I could wake it with just a touch, and it would spring into life and come rolling out. And it would plough into her, and maybe she’d run. Just like the others.

“I like it, too. Very much.”

“Good,” she said. “Then we’re good, right?”

I wrapped my arm around her waist. “We’re good.”

She tethered Samson to a loop of twine outside his stable door. “Surely he could break that?” I asked.

“That’s the point,” she said. “If he got freaked, or spooked or whatever, he could break the twine. He wouldn’t hurt himself.”

“Nice to know,” I said, imagining that flimsy bit of nothing doing sweet fuck all if the brute decided to go for me.

He was still eyeballing me, still hostile. Even chomping on hay he was eyeballing me. She picked up his feet one by one, held them between her thighs as she scraped the mud out of them. Rather her than me.

I wished Rick was with us, making her laugh with his easy conversation. He’d know what to say, what to do. He’d do this
what’s going on
conversation so much more casually than I could. Probably because he wouldn’t do it at all.

Katie saddled up, fastened up her helmet. She was all smiles.

“Do you need a leg up or something?” I asked, but she shook her head.

She hoisted herself up easily, swinging a leg across his back and mounting up without a second’s hesitation. She shortened her stirrups, and took up the reins, and they were off, pacing back the way we’d come.

“Could you get the gate?” She pointed to the side of the wood-chipped arena. “That one.”

I dashed in front of them and did what she asked. She trotted on through, rising and falling in the saddle, her thighs so toned I could see the definition of her through her jodhpurs.

She pointed at the jumps laid out around the field. Poles of red and white, yellow and white. Some high, some doubles, some just poles on the floor. One of the arrangements had toppled.

I ran to it before she asked, propped it back up to height.

She thanked me. My suit definitely didn’t.

I leaned against the fence at a safe distance and watched. I watched everything, soaking her in. Samson’s easy gait as she warmed him up, long
loops around the outside, figures of eight through the jumps. I watched the way she moved, the sophisticated freedom in her posture. The smile on her face, the concentration as she turned him, guided him.

She was a picture.

A swan on water, in her element, bursting with joy.

I could watch her forever.

My heart thumped as she took the first jump, but the horse leapt it easily. She rose and fell, freeing up the reins as he needed them, then patted his neck, squeezed her legs to his sides to encourage him onwards. They took another jump and it was magical. A third and I was addicted. Feeling the rhythm in his hooves, the duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, and then the silence as he leapt, the thump of his landing, and back to the duh-duh-duh.

I was smiling as they jumped a double, two in quick succession. Willing her forwards, loving the way they moved as one.

I could love this, watching her.

I could fall in love with this.

She gave Samson a big pat when they’d done enough, and her cheeks were rosy as she walked him around the field, his head hanging low, reins long and loose in her hands. He was sweaty at the neck, and smelled of leather and beast as she walked him close by. I opened the gate for them, and they passed me close enough that I could feel the heat of him, heading back up to the stable block.

I followed, and she stared over her shoulder, leaning back on his rump.

“What do you think?” she asked. “Were we good?”

“Amazing,” I said. “Seriously. It was amazing.”

“It’s taken a long time.” She smiled. “He was green when he arrived, jumped too big. Nervous.”

“He didn’t look nervous today.”

“He’s not anymore,” she said. “He trusts me. He knows me.”

“The beauty of experience,” I said. “In becoming comfortable with each other.”

She dismounted and tethered him, taking off his saddle as he rummaged in the hay net. “We’re competing in the Cheltenham Chase in August,” she said. “The only course this summer.”

“I’m sure you’ll do very well,” I said, and I meant it.

“I hope so.” Her eyes met mine. “Verity is doing it, too, on some posh fancy horse her daddy paid a fortune for.”

“And that’s why you’re doing it?”

She shrugged. “Maybe a little. I want to win.”

“It’s a slippery slope,” I said. “Competing with just one person. It never ends up pleasantly, even if you win.”

“Still,” she said. “I want to win.” A rumble of a truck sounded in the distance and she dashed along the path. “It’s Jack,” she said. “Finally! I haven’t seen him in aaages!” She picked up Samson’s saddle, handed it to me with his bridle. Sweaty leather slammed into my suit jacket, but she didn’t notice, she was too keen to go. “Can you put this in the tack room, please? And keep an eye on Samson? I won’t be long.”

I nodded, but I doubt she even saw me. She was already rushing away.

She was gone a while. Long enough that the furry brute finished up his hay, even the scraggly bits that had dropped to the floor. He blew out a sigh and looked around the place, straining on his rope as he looked towards the farmhouse.

“Steady,” I said. “Don’t go breaking that twine.” As though the beast would understand me.

His eyes met mine and they were dark and curious, and hostile. Still hostile.

His ears flicked about, this way and that, his tail swishing idly at the flies.

I dared to take a step forward. “Hey, boy. Good boy.”

I reached out a hand, but he tossed his head away. It freaked me out enough to step back again, but the action pained me, frustrated me.

And then it hit me.