Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 19:34:23 -0800
From: qwb <qwb@san.rr.com>
Subject: Stonegate Stables chapter 30

Danny pulled into the yard about 8am on Tuesday morning,
stretching as he got out of his truck.  I watched him from
my office window, enjoying the strain of his packed crotch
against his jeans as he arched his back.  Tommy put the
first horse in the cross-tie stall and Danny went to work.
When I got out there a few hours later, Danny was bent over
with his back to me rasping a hind hoof.  His legs were
spread and tensed with the effort he was putting into it,
and it was all I could do not to squeeze his hard, round
butt.  Tommy and I gazed at it in appreciation until he
released the horse's leg.

I grinned at him when he straightened up, but he gave me
only a half-hearted smile in return and barely met my eyes.
Uh-oh, I thought - the pantry episode must have been a
little too much.  Tommy went off to supervise the arrival of
a horse van, so I held the next two horses for Danny,
talking about inconsequential stuff, trying to get him to
loosen up with me.  He finally smiled when I told him about
Katie and Matt 'practicing'.

"Matt's never been with a girl?" he asked as he ducked under
my arm to get to the other side of the horse.

"Uh-uh.  Me neither," I added.  He glanced up at me with a
look I couldn't read, so I decided to force the issue.
"Look, Danny, I'm sorry about that day in the pantry.  I
shouldn't've grabbed you like that.  I was pretty hammered
and just doin' what comes naturally."

He looked off across the yard before licking his lips and
turning back to me.  He said it so softly that I would have
missed it if I hadn't been looking right at him.  "Me, too."

Danny looked away again, and now I could see misery and
confusion in his face.  He stared unseeingly across the yard
for a few moments as I watched him.  I was trying to decide
what the hell to say when he heaved a big sigh.

"I been fightin' it a long time, Sean.  I didn't really even
know what the fuck was wrong with me until that day in your
office.  I never got that hard in my life - even when Becky
really worked at it.  Cow kicked me in the nuts when I was a
kid, and I always just sorta figured somethin' wasn't
workin' right down there."  He paused for a moment.  "But it
worked fine with you.  I don't know how many times I've
thought about that day.  A lot.   At your wedding, I was
prayin' I wouldn't feel anything when I kissed you, but I
did, and then you grabbed my dick and I knew."

He still had the rasp in his hand and suddenly whipped it
out into the yard as emotion overwhelmed him.  His voice
shook as he said, "But it ain't gonna happen.  It'd fuckin'
kill my old man if his boy was a queer."

As he walked over to pick up the rasp I could see him
getting himself under control, and by the time he got back
to me his face was set.  He finished shoeing the horse and
packed up his truck before he spoke to me again.  He met my
eyes as he talked, and the naked pain in them shocked me.

"You been a good friend to me, Sean, and I reckon I needed
to tell somebody.  But it ain't gonna happen, so just forget
what I said."

"Danny."  I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, but
he ducked away, climbed in his truck, and drove away down
the lane.  I stood there watching him until he was out of
sight.

Talking to Danny had really shaken me up, and I felt
terrible that I had been the catalyst for something that had
upset him so badly.  I left the barn shortly after he drove
off, riding out the back gate on Zena to find some peace and
quiet on the trails.

My own coming out had been pretty much a non-event due to my
sensitive, accepting mother.  God knows what my dad
initially thought about it, but after Colleen was through
with him, he was very supportive.  That wouldn't be the case
with Danny's dad, apparently.

After an hour spent wandering around the back part of the
neighborhood, I concluded that there wasn't much I could do
for Danny other than be receptive if he ever decided to talk
to me again.  After today that seemed unlikely, but I
decided I'd spend as much time with him as possible when he
was at the barn shoeing.  Maybe he'd get comfortable enough
with me that we could discuss it rationally.  It really
bothered me to think of him going through the rest of his
life as miserable as he'd been this afternoon.

I told Vincent everything over dinner.  He listened without
comment, and then said, "You know you can't do anything,
don't you?  Not until he's ready to explore what he feels."

I nodded glumly.  Why did life have to be so difficult
sometimes?


When Katie pulled into the yard the following Friday, I took
her to the tack room and presented her with a protective
body vest like the ones eventing riders wear when they ride
the big cross country courses.  It protects your chest and
back if you fall off the horse as Katie had last week.
Seeing the bruises on her back had prompted me to buy it.

"Wow, Sean, thanks.  I never wore one of these before, but
it's probably a good idea, huh, cause I'm jumpin' higher
fences now, and - urgghhh."

I had dropped it over her head, then stepped behind her and
cinched the side straps tight.

"What's wrong?"  I asked.

"My boobs," she said in a strangled voice.

I'd purchased an extra-small in the men's style without even
thinking about it, and the front was only slightly contoured
for a man's chest with no room whatsoever for breasts
especially Katie's.  Alejandro walked by as I started to
loosen the straps.  He grasped the problem immediately,
lifting Katie's arm and studying the soft curve bulging out
the side.  He gingerly hooked a thumb into the edge of the
front panel and pulled it slightly away from her body.  The
bulge disappeared and Katie let out a sigh of relief.

Alejandro motioned to me to give him the vest, so we tugged
it off Katie, and he walked away with it.

Twenty minutes later he was back.  He had cut a V out of the
plastic on either side, then glued it back together and
sanded it smooth.  The darts added fullness to the chest and
snugged up the waist a little, something else I had
neglected to take into consideration.  This time when I
tightened the straps, Katie wiggled the vest just a bit,
settling into it, and then grinned at Alejandro.

"Perfect!  Thanks!"  She hugged him, which brought a pink
bloom to his dark cheeks, then bounced off to get Donna out
of her stall.  I made a note to order her a women's model as
soon as I got back to my office.

Saturday Katie rode really well, piloting two of our better
jumpers around a big course.  Not GP big, but big enough.
After she had gone home, Adam found me in Ginger's stall.  I
could tell he wanted something fairly major because he beat
around the bush a little before getting to the point.

We covered whether it might rain this week, how cute Eeyore
was, Matt's latest drawing of Katie sailing over a fence.
Finally, he took a breath and said, "I want to put Katie on
Calvin."

I looked up at him from my position at Ginger's left front
foot.  "He's too much horse for her right now.  Maybe ever.
You know what he's like."

"And you know she's good on the strong ones."

"Adam, he's a handful for you or me, and we're a lot
stronger and much more experienced than she is."

"I'll work him for a couple hours first, and I won't have
her jump him.  I just want to see how she does with him on
the flat."

Now he had me thinking about it, though I still had my
doubts.  "Well, all right, but I wanna be there."

We agreed on 11AM the next morning, and I could see the
surprise on Katie's face when she saw Adam on Cal.  She
turned to me with a questioning look, and when I nodded, she
let out a whoop of excitement and began to put on her vest,
helmet, and gloves.  When she picked up the vest, I didn't
tell her that she wouldn't be jumping.  I figured it
couldn't hurt to wear the thing on the off chance that
Calvin dumped her and then decided to step on her for good
measure.

Adam had worked Cal into a lather, but I knew he still had a
lot left if he was feeling frisky.  Adam replaced his saddle
with Katie's and gave her a leg up.  Calvin is big, and I
could see Katie eyeing how far she was from the ground.  She
gathered up the double reins and asked Cal to walk.  His
head came up at the unfamiliar signals, and I thought it was
gonna be all over right there, but when she cued him more
firmly, he dropped his head and walked to the rail.

Adam ran her through the gaits, and we watched as Katie
tried to adjust Calvin's big strides and arrogant attitude.
At one point, she circled him away from the rail to change
directions.  He didn't feel like doing that and shook his
head a few times as he moved sideways under her.  She stuck
a spur in him, growled in his ear, and swatted him with her
crop as she legged him into the turn.  90% of the battle
with a strong-willed horse is to have the courage of your
convictions.  Katie had that (this time), and Calvin
conceded the match, completing the turn quietly, but riding
him on the flat in the arena was entirely different than
piloting him around a big jumping course in front of a noisy
crowd.  Katie had a lot of work ahead of her if she expected
to ride him in competition.

The next two weeks passed fairly uneventfully.  Danny came
every Tuesday to shoe whichever horses were due.  The first
week he gave me a look when I handed him a Starbucks and
held the horse for him, obviously wondering why I didn't
have a stable boy doing such a menial task.  I just smiled
at him and sipped my mocha.

When I got called away to the phone, I snagged Gabriel to
hold the horse Danny was working on.  As I walked away,
Danny was staring at Gabriel, probably wondering which side
of the fence he fell on.

The second week Danny was pretty friendly with me, chatting
like he used to as he worked on hoof after hoof.  We had a
full day of horses, so I ordered us sandwiches from the
deli.  We went to my office for lunch, where I sat in one of
the visitor's chairs next to him, sharing the small table
between us.  It was private and quiet, and I could see the
wheels turning as we ate, but he stuck to neutral subjects
like TJ going to vet school, and the various rescues we had
now - eight in all.

He worked through the afternoon and didn't finish up until
almost five, so I invited him home for dinner.  He looked at
me for a long moment - trying to determine my motive, I
suppose - so I coaxed him a little.

"Come on, it's just dinner.  We eat with forks just like
straight guys do, for Christ's sake, and I promise we won't
talk about anything queer."

"Jesus, Sean."  He had the grace to flush at that, and then
he smiled at me.  "Yeah, okay, that'd be good, thanks.  I
got a clean shirt in the truck."

Vincent raised an eyebrow at me when I strolled into the
kitchen with Danny, and I raised both of mine back.
Sometime since we'd left the house this morning, he'd shaved
his head.  It had been growing out a bit, so seeing him bald
again was a shock.  He'd also left a mustache and goatee on
his face, and he looked really exotic to me.  My crotch lit
up like a pinball machine as I struggled for something
innocuous to say in front of Danny.  Unfortunately, 'fuck me
NOW!!!' was the only thing that immediately came to mind.

"Uh....um...you remember Danny, don't you?" I managed as I
let Danny walk ahead of me and frantically adjusted my
thickening cock to a more comfortable, if less
inconspicuous, position.  I also pulled my shirt loose in an
effort to look casual and hide my boner at the same time.
Vincent shook hands with Danny, ignoring my glares, and
directed him down the hall to the bathroom.  As soon as
Danny rounded the corner out of sight, I grabbed Vincent's
arm.

"When the hell did you do that?"  I hissed.  "You look
great!"

He patted my chest soothingly and kissed me on the mouth.
"Calm down, Sean.  We have company, remember?"

Danny came walking back into the kitchen doing up the top
button on his Wranglers and buckling his belt - kind of a
reverse strip tease.  As he tugged his belt into place, the
crotch of his jeans snugged up tight for a moment, and I saw
Vincent glance at the healthy bulge on display there.

Matt loped in from the garage just then, and stopped dead at
the sight of Vincent.  A big grin spread slowly across his
face as he walked to us.  Danny was sort of behind me and
off to the side, so Matt didn't see him as he ran his hand
over Vincent's smooth head, ending with a hand cupped behind
his neck as he wetly kissed him hello.

"You look fucking HOT!"

I glanced at Danny, who was taking it all in with an
unreadable expression on his face.  I'd told him we wouldn't
talk about anything queer - I hadn't promised him we
wouldn't do anything queer.

"Matt, I think you know Danny from the barn."

Matt's gaze passed over me as he turned to shake Danny's
hand, and I could tell he was wondering what the hell was
up.  I poured wine for Vincent and me, got a beer for Danny,
and left Matt staring into the fridge trying to decide
between iced tea and milk.

We had lamb chops with mint jelly, new potatoes, and fresh
bread.  Danny ate steadily, and I figured his bachelor
dinners probably didn't compare with Vincent's culinary
skills.  He was quiet, but I saw that he was paying
attention to the physical interactions between Vincent and
me - noticing how Vincent always touched me when he walked
behind my chair, and the way we smiled at each other when
our eyes met.  Vincent called me `babe' or `sweetheart' on a
regular basis, something Danny probably hadn't heard since
he'd never spent much time around us privately like this.

By the time we headed for the den with coffee and a box of
Corleone's finest pastries, Danny seemed pretty comfortable.
Matt joined us with a book, tugged his shirt off, dropped
his pants to the floor, and was curled up in his chair
before recalling that we had company.   Danny had been
looking at Matt during all this, studying Matt's body as he
stammered out an apology.

"Sorry," Matt stammered.  "We always, um, sit around in our,
uh, shorts in the evening."

"No problem," Danny muttered, finally turning away from the
sight of Matt's smooth, slender body.  I studied Matt for
another moment, wondering what aspect of him had interested
Danny most.  The dark pink nipples, the narrow hips, the
pale fuzz below his belly button that widened slightly just
above his briefs?  Matt looked very appealing to me, but
then, I already loved him.

I pushed Danny down onto the couch and sat next to him as
Vincent took a chair across from us.  We munched on
chocolate ‚clairs, pecan brownies, and Italian wedding
cookies while watching a slideshow of Matt's Amarillo photos
on the TV.  Each picture was on the screen for ten seconds,
and Danny leaned forward to study the one of Wade kissing
Cody while Cody held up his trophy, and later, the one of me
staring at Del in stupefied delight.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Guy named Del we met at a bar."  I figured he didn't need
the extended description of Del as the guy we took back to
our room for a rowdy couple hours of mindless sex, or the
guy his former employee, TJ, had spent a hot weekend with
recently.

Danny watched the rest of the slides in silence, except for
a comment on how good Queenie looked working a steer.  After
the last picture faded off the screen, he stood to leave.  I
walked him to the door, stopping when he turned to face me
with a serious expression.

"Thanks for dinner.  You and Vincent and, uh, Matt seem like
you got a good relationship.  It, ah . . ."

He waved a hand vaguely and couldn't seem to find a word
that covered the three of us, so I saved him.  "We love each
other."

"Yeah, I guess maybe that's it."  He looked away down the
empty hall for a moment.  "You know what old man Harper down
to the feed store calls Stonegate?  Faggot Farm."

I hadn't known that, but it didn't surprise me.  Randall
Harper was a mean, unhappy old man who hated almost
everything.  I made a mental note to check with Teresa.  I
didn't think Stonegate spent any money with him, but now I
was going to make damn sure that none of us - owners,
trainers, riders, stable boys - ever went in there again.

As Danny began to go out the door, I put a hand on his
shoulder.  When he turned back to me questioningly, I kissed
him lightly on the mouth and then pulled him into a hug.  He
hesitated just a moment before bringing his arms up around
my back.  I gave him enough of a squeeze to bump our
crotches together and then let him go.  He gave me an odd
little smile and left.

Vincent found me in the kitchen a few minutes later, raising
an eyebrow when I glanced at him.  I shrugged.  "He said we
looked good together."

"Damn right we do," he said, grabbing me from behind with a
hand on my chest and the other cupping my nuts and tugging
them up firmly.  As he nibbled on my ear, I ground my butt
back into him, giggling when he made chomping noises on my
neck.  I turned in his arms so we could kiss, and felt
another set of hands slide up my back as Matt leaned against
me.  He kissed Vincent over my shoulder, humping my ass
while Vincent was hardening against me in front.

Having Danny around had fired up my cock sucking
inclinations, so I dragged Vincent's jeans down his thighs,
pulled Matt's dick out of his boxer briefs, and dropped to
my knees.  With a hard cock in each hand, I turned my head
back and forth, working one and then the other, until both
of them were pumping into my fists.  I knew Vincent had
better control than Matt, so I got him close, and then kept
him there with my hand while I blew Matt.

By the time I tugged the last mouthful out of Matt,
Vincent's cock had drizzled precum down my arm clear to the
elbow.  I switched hands, using Matt's cum on Vincent's dick
and Vincent's precum on my dick.  As I buried my nose in the
familiar, arousing scent of Vincent's crotch, I knew this
wasn't gonna take long, and I was right.

Vincent reached a hand to my chest and thumbed my nipple as
I slurped on his dripping cock.  Matt had knelt down beside
me with a hand tickling my balls and his mouth on my neck.
When I could no longer pant and suck at the same time, I
dropped Vincent's cock from my mouth and looked up at his
shaved-headed hotness as I endured those last few endless
seconds before orgasm.  He stared at me through narrowed
eyes, waiting until I started to shoot before dropping his
head back and firing his load onto my chest.

When my breathing had slowed, I started to get to my feet,
but I'd been kneeling on hard tile for twenty minutes and my
knees wouldn't work.  Vincent hauled me to my feet and sat
me on one of the island stools, chuckling to himself as he
unbuttoned my shirt.

"This is why you're supposed to do it naked," he said,
holding up my cum-covered shirt as evidence.  We stripped
and threw all the clothes in the washer before heading back
to the den.  The three of us wedged ourselves into a pile on
the couch, covered up with quilts, and watched TV until
Vincent was the only one awake.


Late morning on the Friday before the trial, Jesse called me
as I was plowing through paperwork in my office at
Stonegate.  I'd left him a message about the trial date and
wasn't surprised when he returned my call.

"Hey.  We want to come over and see you guys this weekend.
What day's good for you?"

Vincent had a wedding Saturday, so we settled on Sunday.
"Come for lunch.  It's supposed to be hot so we can do the
pool thing."  Katie flashed through my head.  "Bring suits.
We may have a girl around for a few hours."

He chuckled as I explained Katie to him, and told him the
story of her practicing on Matt.

"Jesus, she sounds dangerous.  Don't let her corrupt him,
for God's sake."

After we'd said goodbye, I decided to try to get everyone
over for dinner and hot tubbing on Sunday.  That would give
us the afternoon with just Ben and Jesse, which I felt would
be good for both Matt and Vincent.

Wade and Cody were in town and said they'd love to come
over.  I saw Cody most days at the barn, but had seen Wade
only once since Amarillo.  We'd had lunch together a couple
weeks ago - our quarterly financial update lunch.

Adam said he'd be there.  He came over a few nights a week
for dinner anyway, so having him around for Sunday was
pretty much a given.

TJ was free and asked if he could bring Gabriel.

"Sure, if you think he's ready for the whole bare-assed
bunch of us."

"Yeah, it'll be good for him.  It's a no-pressure way for us
to get naked with each other again, and maybe seeing all
those swingin' dicks'll get him in the mood."

"In the mood?  Didn't you guys get together that day he
climbed in bed with you?"

"No!  He did exactly what you told him to do - he comforted
me.  Which was great - that's what I needed that day, but by
that night, I needed something else and I made it pretty
damn clear."

"Why haven't you just jumped him?"

"I don't know."  His voice was full of frustration and
disappointment.  "I like him a lot, but I'm not sure we're
gonna click, ya know?  That's why I went to see Del.  I
needed to remember what it's like to be excited about being
with someone.  Gabriel's a great guy - I just don't think
he's my guy."

"Well, shit, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, don't worry about it - I'm sure my man's out
there somewhere.  Anyway, thanks for the invite - we'll be
there."

That phone call explained a lot.  I had wondered at TJ's
motivation for running off to see Del when he had a
perfectly good guy right there in the next bedroom.  But
chemistry's a funny thing, and if they didn't have it, they
didn't have it.

Next I called David, Matt's artistic mentor, and to my
surprise, he accepted.  He'd become a friend in the handful
of months since he'd been helping Matt discover his
abilities, and I was pleased that he'd be joining us.

After I hung up with David, I sat there for a few minutes,
and then picked up the phone again.

"Danny here."

"Hey.  We're having a thing at the house Sunday - bar-b-q
and hot tub - and I think you should come over.  It'll be
the guy who helped out Vincent in Dallas, his partner, TJ,
Adam, and some guys you met at the wedding."

"Well..."

"Oh, come on.  We get naked in the hot tub, and sometimes
there's a little grab-ass, but that's about it."  Danny was
silent.  "Where are you?"

"Just down the road from you at Bob Packer's place, but . .
. "

"You eat yet?"

"No, but . . . "

"Stay put - I'll be there in twenty minutes."

I hung up on him before he could object further, leaped in
the car, and zoomed down the lane to the deli across the
road.  Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling into Packer's
lane.  Bob and his wife kept two Clydesdales - sisters named
Tilly and Sal - big, gentle creatures with feet the size of
dinner plates.  Danny was just putting Sal away when I got
out of the car.

"Come on."  I tipped my head toward the pond at the side of
the house, and walked out to the end of the little dock Bob
had built for his wife.  They both worked during the day, so
I knew we had the place to ourselves.  Danny sat down beside
me, our feet dangling just above the water, and sighed when
I handed him a big, messy, meatball sub.

We ate silently, watching frogs and birds putter around the
edge of the pond.  It wasn't very large, but it was a year
round source of water and drew all sorts of wildlife.  At
one point I wiped a smear of sauce off Danny's cheek with my
finger, and then sucked it clean while he watched me.  One
side of his mouth kicked up in a tiny smile before he turned
back to his sandwich.

After I had shoved the wrappers back into the bag, I rested
a hand on Danny's thigh.  He sat there looking down at it,
but didn't move as I rubbed my thumb slowly back and forth.

"How's that feel?"  I asked him quietly.

He swallowed hard, and for a moment I thought he wasn't
gonna answer, but then he whispered, "Good.  It feels real
good."

"Come over Sunday, Danny.  Just hang out with us for a
while.  You don't have to get naked, and nobody's gonna
hassle you."

"Everybody who's gonna be there, they're all . . ."  He
paused, and I didn't think he'd be able to get the word out,
but he finally managed it.  ". . . gay, right?"

"Yup.  Every last one of us likes boys.  Well, except for
Matt," I added, thinking of Katie.  "He's kind of straddling
the fence at the moment."

He was silent for several minutes, and since I didn't have
to be anywhere else, I let him think as he watched my thumb
sweep in little arcs across his leg.  Finally he spoke.

"Can I ask you somethin' personal?"

Thrilled to have him curious and talking, I replied,
"Anything."

"When Matt came in the other night, he kissed Vincent like I
kissed you that day."  He paused, and then came out with it.
"Does Vincent sleep with both of you?"

I squeezed his leg.  "Mostly it's just Vincent and me, but
yeah, the three of us have fooled around in various
combinations, depending on who's home and who's in the
mood."

He took a while to process that, staring off across the
fields.  Somewhere during that lull, he wrapped his hand
around my wrist and held me loosely rubbing the back of my
hand with his pinky as I continued to stroke his leg with my
thumb.

"You're not jealous?  I mean, Vincent's pretty much married
to you.  Why do you let him fuck around?"

I thought about how to explain our relationship to Danny,
who'd been raised in the straight, monogamous world of a
small town.

"Well, I don't just let him - he lets me, too.  That day in
my office?  I called him to ask if it was okay before you
got your blow job."  He looked at me for the first time
since we'd sat down.  "Vincent and I trust each other.  BUT
not all gay couples play around.  Jesse and his partner Ben
are monogamous.  It can be whatever you make it, whatever
you want it to be."

Danny turned away again, and I wondered if I was getting
through to him at all.  I slid my hand slowly up his leg,
eventually bumping into his nuts.  He still held my wrist
and made no attempt to stop me, although he closed his eyes
for a moment.  I flexed my fingers into the meat of his
inner thigh.

"So, you gonna come over?"

He smiled, still with his eyes closed, and squeezed my
wrist.  "Yeah.  Yeah, I'm gonna come over."

We went back to our respective jobs, both of us thinking
that Sunday was gonna be an interesting day.