Read Tethered (The Stables Trilogy #2) Online
Authors: Penny Lam
“I do it--” His voice hitched. J.B. was watching the road but not truly seeing it. His hands relaxed on the wheel and for a second she thought she saw his chest shudder. A suppressed sob? “I do it for personal reasons, Maple.”
Door slammed shut. Back to his old ways. There was comfort to be found in habit, she knew, but it didn’t soften the blow.
What Maple had been hoping for was the chance that he could change her… but also still love her. Maybe more so, if he let her be his prized pony. She could be the Yvonne to his Micah. Maple felt sure that, despite his reluctance, things would be different with her.
Maple needed the largest possible reward. Cosmically large. She needed her very nature altered at its root. Great reward only came with monumental risk.
“I don’t have much, J.B. Just the money in the bank, a little over twenty thousand. It’s yours, just train me. Let me in the stable.”
He hissed, and the truck swerved a little, trailer squealing in protest behind. Maple’s hand gripped her door, her insides shifting and correcting with the truck.
“No,” he swore.
“Why?” The plaintive plea in her voice was pathetic, but she reached across and placed her hand on his thigh. She couldn’t help but notice his cock leaping to life in his pants at her touch. Hope sparkled a little more. When he failed to reply, she pushed harder. “Is it Rachel? Because she was… she was into it?”
Maple had always known this. J.B. had said he’d been training and selling for years, but Rachel’s memory was so fresh she couldn’t have been dead for that long. If J.B. trained her, she knew she could never replace his lost wife. She didn’t want to.
But maybe they could grow stronger together. Support each other as Master and pet.
“I’m not going to talk about her or that with you,” he spat. His face was pale. His hurt bubbled below the surface.
It was as much a confirmation as a yes. Maple wondered what Rachel had looked like. Whether J.B. had let her live in the stable as a pony. Whether he tailed and groomed her with gentle touches or the indifference her showed the others. Maple guessed it was the former.
The setting sun colored his face in reds and oranges. It illuminated each line and wrinkle. Too many for a man as young as he. They were words, telling the story of his grief, his passion, his worry. She wanted to kiss each one.
It came as a wave in the dusk-washed cab, this need to help him, too. She’d pictured herself a martyr before, but if she was calling it as it was-- Maple was not only broken. She was selfish. She’d been looking to J.B. for his love, for his answers, and for confirmation that she was worthless. He wasn’t in a place to give her the first two, but he wasn’t willing to do the latter.
Maybe that’s how she knew she could love him. It was certainly what inspired her to want to give to him. Her service. Her absolute, undying devotion. Her body and mind. She wanted to be his everything.
Reaching behind her neck, she unhooked her necklace and held it out. He released the wheel just long enough to grab it and throw her a look of distrust.
“That’s all I have, really. That and the money. An old book if you really want it. You know my past, even though I’d give anything for that not to be the case. You know that I’ve--” she chewed her lip, preparing, “--that I’ve been hurt before. Badly. It didn’t scar me. It brought my own deficiencies to light. The things I crave are awful, they just took advantage of it.”
“You didn’t deserve that, Maple! I shouldn’t have paid them off. I should have let Reece shoot them like the dirt they were.”
“That would mean jail for all of us,” Maple sighed, unwilling to be deterred. “Those men deserve a lot of bad, but so do I. Because I
liked
the hurt.” An involuntary shiver. “I liked it. Alot.”
“Take your necklace back, Maple.”
“Train me, J.B. Let me in the stable and train me.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking!” His jaw clenched so hard she heard the teeth grinding with his turmoil.
She scooted closer and leaned in to kiss his scruffy cheek. His skin was warm and dry under her lips. “I’m begging you to help me change. Please.” A tear fell, dripping from her chin. It caught on the neck of his shirt, blossoming.
“If I do accept, Maple, then we can’t be together. I don’t touch the ponies that way.” He sucked in air between his teeth, like he was savoring this last moment while she was still just an employee. The end was coming. She felt it. “If I let you in, I’ll sell you. To someone else. Is that what you want?”
“I don’t think you will. I want you to change me, J.B. I want us to change together.”
“That’s not how it works, goddamnit!” He shook his head hard, trying to convince both of them. “I
never
connect with a pony that way. It is a
rule
, Maple. A promise I make, each and every time.”
“Well, we’ll have to see, then. You’ve given me more chances than I deserve. I’m willful and disobedient, and you were still willing to pay five million dollars to save me. So I don’t think you’ll sell me. But I’m willing to take the risk if it means I can stop being the girl I am. Because I’ll die if I keep going down this road.” She meant it, too. She didn’t think she’d be killed by Gus, but the loathing she had for herself had turned into a monster. It was eating her from the inside out. She might go on living, but she’d be hollow. Pathetic.
Maple didn’t want to be sold. This was the risk. A huge one. Her sacrifice.
Yet she knew that, once she began to change with his instruction, that he’d see her more clearly. That she’d earn the right to approach him as a lover. As an equal. Not just a young, fucked up leftover. Not a tainted little girl.
A strong woman. A confident pony.
She was also just as sure that if he could see that she wasn’t trying to erase his dead wife, he could heal a bit with her. Come to love her, even.
“Fine,” he relented. He shifted, letting her know her closeness and touch were no longer welcome. Maple let it roll off her back. She knew what she’d signed up for. It was up to her to prove herself.
She knew J.B. wasn’t allowing himself to think of her as his pony because of Rachel. It made her heart hurt for him. She understood. How could he consider filling that role with anyone but his first wife?
Maple was determined to show that she wasn’t trying to move in and replace Rachel. But J.B. needed healing as much as she did.
They both needed change.
The sun was blazing as he tore down 85 to get home. Despite the freezing temperatures, Maple rolled down her window.
Sticking her face out, she let the brisk, icy wind scour her tears.
There wasn’t a need to build any more walls.
The sky was mammoth and open, a daunting invitation.
Change was on her horizon.
Epilogue
There is a room behind a locked door.
It’s down the hall. No one pays it much mind, not when there is the bedroom, the office, and the art room to compete with. Those rooms get used. This room was purposefully forgotten.
Inside isn’t much. A wardrobe with clothing that will never be worn again. A hair brush with raven hairs still wound loose between bristles. Two rings. The diamond on one’s sparkle was hidden beneath a layer of dust. It’s size was envied by none, since none viewed it. When it had been worn?
The jealousy had burned.
Some old boots, caked in older dirt. A wedding dress, asleep in its protective bag.
And hanging on the wall in this room behind a locked door is a painting. A large portrait.
It shows a lady in riding boots, her shapely thighs bursting above them. A narrow waist and plump breasts. Inky black hair falls in curls down her shoulders, toppling down her front. She’s tall and slim and breathtakingly beautiful.
She’s standing in front of the stable. The secret one.
A riding crop is gripped in one hand, resting menacingly against her calf.
It might be a play of the light, but her smile…
Is a warning.
Author’s Note
Hey! Whew. Book two down, one more to go. Stay with me, okay?
This was a brutal story for me to write. Not just J.B. and Maple’s journey. You know what I’m talking about. Fucking Bonnie! AH! That scene KILLS me still. I can’t even think about it too much, because I start to question (like Maple) whether I might be a horrible human being.
It may have seemed like overkill. Hell, maybe it was. If you’re interested, though, that came from a real life story and not just my head. I worked with a guy who grew up on a farm. Because I’d spent summers at a ranch in my childhood, we had stories to exchange. This was one of his. It was heartbreaking to hear, but he was clear; sometimes it was gritty on the ranch. When his dad had said move the horse outside, it was because of this.
Hard lessons are never pleasant and sometimes might not even be necessary. But they shape who we are regardless.
So, I’m going to spoiler alert a bit, because I know middle books are tough. Especially if you can’t binge read the next one like a Netflix show. While this trilogy is dark, it is still a romance at its core. And any romance reader (and author) worth their salt knows that all romances have one necessary element at the end.
You know what it is, so the clue ends there. But yes, this tale will have one. I don’t think I could bear it if it didn’t.
<3
Penny Lam grew up in North Carolina but never fully mastered the accent. Previously she wrote as Penelope L'Amoreaux-- sometimes she needs a little change. She skipped a lot of high school and went to more colleges than Sarah Palin. It took a long time to find something she loved doing enough to stick with it. When she isn't writing, she plays hide and seek with her daughter, attempts to do yoga, and drinks a lot of red wine.
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Books by Penny Lam
10 Rules to Catch a Billionaire
Writing as Penelope L'Amoreaux
Stolen Goods (sequel to Struck Down)
"Please, Maestro" (an erotic short story)
"Breaking Me In" The Complete collection (a paranormal novella)