The Copper Horse #2 Pride (4 page)

Erik blinked
and burst out laughing. “Now that would be a strange kind of man,
my dear Copper!”

“Well, corpses
walk around without hearts beating in their chests. Anything can
happen,” said Reuben before having another greedy bite.

“No, Copper, we
don’t have the necessary organs to carry a child. Don’t worry.”
Erik smiled, gesturing for John to take his salad bowl away.

“May I ask
something else, Master?”

Erik finished
his wine in one swig. “Of course.”

“Who was the
man in the cage? The zombie in the backyard...”

“Why?” Erik
blinked, not even looking at the plate of food John put in front of
him.

“Well he was
someone
. Someone of blue blood, guessing from his clothes.
And you keep him...” Reuben tried not to think about those rotting
fingers reaching to him from between iron bars.

“I honestly
don’t know.” Erik started to eat. “He was a present from my
brother.”

Reuben didn’t
even attempt to hide his repulsion. “Who gives presents like
that?”

Erik laughed
with his mouth full. “That’s Frey. I think he wanted to scare
me.”

“I don’t want
to offend, but... is it the horse thing that he hates so much?”
Reuben still remembered the harsh slap he'd received when he first
met Erik’s older brother.

Erik sighed and
gave Reuben a sideways glance. “I believe it is the
stallion
thing.”

“You think he
wouldn’t mind a mare?” Reuben smiled before bowing for yet another
portion of meat that tasted like spicy heaven.

“He was rather
clear about that when I was younger.” Erik chewed on his food as if
it didn’t bring him any enjoyment.

Now it was
becoming interesting. Maybe he would get to learn more about Erik?
“What did he do?”

Erik was mute
for the longest moment. “I genuinely believe my skilled right hand
is the only thing that kept me alive.”

Reuben could
vouch for precisely how skillful those fingers were. “It’s good to
have something you’re good at. So you can be useful.”

Erik snorted.
“You need to be careful of these hands if you truly don’t wish for
me to die.”

“I did promise
to never bite again.” Reuben smiled but couldn’t keep his mouth
shut. “Did Frey do anything though? When he first found out?”

“Why are you so
curious?” Erik gave him a smile, his mouth slightly shiny from
sauce. “Do you wish to laugh at me?”

At those words
Reuben sobered up and stopped smiling. “No. As much as I think what
you do is strange, I want to understand. My father always called
me—” He looked up at Erik to check if he actually wanted to listen,
and he found the strange eyes focused on him, waiting. “S-stupid,”
Reuben continued, annoyed by his own stammer, “and useless. He
mocked me when I tried to wash my clothes and shave. Called me
ungodly when I would go out looking for... you know...” he ended on
a mutter.

“Whores?”
offered Erik, watching him with that piercing gaze.

Reuben nodded,
feeling a flush climb up his neck. He didn’t know why he was still
embarrassed by anything after having Erik’s fist up his ass. Maybe
because it was a lie? He didn’t look for whores. He
was
the
whore. Giving up himself to any man strong enough to take him. It
had been so different from the tenderness he shared with Erik. He
couldn’t imagine ever taking pleasure from such rushed, filthy acts
after the way Erik treated him.

“Your father
must have been very stupid to overlook your qualities.” Erik drank
more wine, and John returned to his side, leaving a tiny
velvet-covered box at the side of his plate.

Reuben hung his
head in shame, suddenly less hungry. “No, I’m not really good at
anything. You had a taste of my baking yesterday. Sometimes I still
wonder why you chose me to save out of all those people.”

“Copper, you
are a sweet-hearted, hard working pony! You deserved to be saved,”
Erik told him with a small smile.

“I told you my
dumb story, so what did
your
family say?” he insisted.

Erik licked his
lips, his eyes becoming distant, as if he expected to see his past
on the far wall of the dining room. “They put down my pony.” It was
strange for Erik to speak this quietly. For a moment, Reuben wasn’t
certain if he heard correctly, so he took a step closer, ignoring
the rest of his food.

“That’s
horrible.”

Erik turned his
head away and closed his eyes. “It was.”

With his hands
bound, Reuben couldn’t embrace him, so he kneeled by his side,
ignoring even the smell of wine. “How did you survive? Your family
is so powerful.”

Erik put a hand
on top of Reuben’s head. “I made them understand they couldn't
force me to work for them. It had to be an exchange.” His eyes
opened, and he gave Reuben a blank smile.

“I never had
courage to properly stand up to my father. But then again I don’t
have fingers as skilled as yours.” Reuben leaned in and kissed
Erik’s blue fingertips. They twitched, but Erik eventually relaxed,
stroking Reuben’s head in slow, languid moves.

“It took a
wiser man than your father to recognize how much you are
worth.”

“How did you
start training ponies, though?” Reuben switched the topic back to
Erik. He hoped to stay in this house for as long as his master
would have him, so he wanted to be closer to him.

Erik smiled,
and for a moment his eyes were distant again. “My first pony taught
me.”

“How?” How
could a pony have taught Erik anything?

Erik coughed,
pushing his plate away in favor of more wine. “There are certain
people who enjoy this kind of play... being the pony. He was like
that.”

Reuben just
stared at him, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. “You
mean...” he licked his lips. “
He
came up with it?”

Erik blinked.
“Oh yes, he was my senior too.”

“And how did
that happen?” Reuben frowned, but paid full attention.

“What do you
mean?”

“How do you
even propose something like that?”

Erik laughed.
“One step at a time.”

Reuben smiled
back. “It’s like pulling teeth with you. What was his first
step?”

Erik traced
Reuben’s cheekbone with his thumb. “He kissed me, silly.”

And at that
point, Reuben really did feel silly. He expected some flamboyant
story of pain and kidnapping, or a passionate affair started by a
quick fuck in the hay. After all, Erik did like his hay. It was
also sad to realize that his own first kiss with a man had been
with Erik. Even the first man he'd had sex with didn’t care to kiss
him. “Oh,” was all he managed.

Erik gave him a
warm smile. “Does that surprise you?”

“I just... that
sounds r-romantic.” The last word barely left Reuben’s throat. He
didn’t know how that made him feel.

“It was...”
Erik bit his lip and toyed with the cutlery. “We were playing in
the hay and it just happened.” Was that a blush on Erik’s face? It
was the last thing Reuben expected of someone as deviant as he
was.

“Sounds like a
play in the theatre.” Reuben sighed, thinking of how useless his
own first encounter was - drunk, bent over a wooden barrel and
split open by a cock he couldn’t properly take.

“I don’t
know... maybe. It was so beautiful. I had no clue where it was
going.” Erik swallowed, looking down at Reuben. “I felt like I
found something I was lacking and didn’t even know it.”

“And he wanted
to pretend being a horse?” Reuben whispered, putting his head in
Erik’s lap, eager to offer him comfort.

Erik nodded.
“He did.”

“You were a
lucky man, then.”

“For a while.”
Erik reached for the small velvet box and looked inside.

“Would it be
better it if never happened?” Reuben sighed.

Erik swallowed.
“That depends on when I think about it.”

“Well, my first
time, I was a drunk pig, and my lover didn’t even stay the night
for my first time.” Reuben laughed, though he didn’t actually find
it funny at all.

“You liked
her?” asked Erik after a moment of silence.

Reuben nodded,
still remembering how he watched Gareth for weeks at the pub before
trying to approach him. “I thought it was special.”

Erik bowed down
to kiss his temple. “Who was she?”

“Just this
local scum.” He shrugged. “But the world to me, back then.” Reuben
had never told anyone about this encounter. Even pretending it was
a woman, the whole thing was too shameful and filthy. With Erik he
didn’t have to pretend being confident and courageous.

“With the women
you were... did you let them take charge of the situation?” Erik’s
shoulders relaxed, and he took a needle out of the velvet box.

Reuben looked
up at it, unsure of what it was for. “Um, I suppose I’m not the
most decisive person....” He trailed off as Erik put a hand below
his jaw, urging him to look up.

“Were they
riding you?”

“Would that be
bad?” Reuben swallowed.

Erik’s face lit
up. “Of course not.”

“It’s not
considered a good quality in a man.”

“I don’t care.
You’re perfect.”

Reuben stared
at him in shock. Could that really be what Erik thought of him?

Erik leaned
down to kiss his lips, slowly tracing his fingers up Reuben’s
shoulder and to his right ear. “I want to give you a present for
being such a darling.”

“Me?” Reuben
was breathless when he stared into his piercing eyes.

“Yes. Something
you can keep whatever happens,” Erik told Reuben as he gently
stroked his cheek.

“That’s too
kind...,” he muttered, fighting tears that started to well up in
his eyes. He didn’t even know what it was yet, but he already felt
undeserving.

“No it’s not. I
want you to have it.” Erik picked up something small and showed it
to Reuben. It shone in the light, round and red: a jewel.

“It’s
beautiful, Master...” Reuben was stunned with disbelief.

“Mind you,
Copper. This is a real ruby, not some cheap glass bead.” Erik
turned the jewel in his hand. It was an ear stud.

“And you would
give such a thing to me?”

Erik nodded
with a smile. “I want you to wear it.”

“It would be an
honor, Master.”

Erik smiled,
gently lowering the stud back into the box and picking up the
needle. “Then turn your right ear to me.”

A tickle of
fear ran up Reuben’s throat, but he shook his hair out of the way
and offered up his ear to Erik. He would willingly take pain from
him. Especially when it was delivered after being touched and
spoken to so gently.

“It will only
last a brief moment, Copper, don't worry,” promised  Erik,
carefully drawing Reuben’s ear away from his skull.

“I trust you,
Master,” Reuben whispered and as much as there were still moments
when he didn’t, he wanted to. With all his heart.

Erik nodded and
picked up the needle. As the thing disappeared from Reuben’s sight,
he felt his stomach clenching. And there was the pain, sharp as it
spread over his ear, but just as Erik promised, it was brief. He
thought the earring would be placed in the lower part of his ear,
but instead, it was his upper ear that was pierced.

“Now I need to
replace the needle with your ruby. It will sting a bit,” Erik said
apologetically, retrieving the stud from its place in the tiny box.
His voice was a caress curling around Reuben’s ear, so intimate and
gentle.

“I understand.”
Reuben couldn’t even smile, too emotional to say anything else. The
pull was unpleasant, and he could feel each tiny bit of the needle
move through his flesh. As soon as it was out, a wet trail curled
into his ear shell. Erik stopped the blood by inserting the stud
and securing it at the back.

“There, just be
careful to sleep on the other side for now,” Erik told him with a
small smile.

“I will, thank
you,” whispered Reuben, mesmerized. Erik was such a handsome man.
Once one got used to those strange eyes, they were more fascinating
than anything else. And just as Reuben realized he was staring,
Erik pulled him closer, slowly running his tongue up the side of
Reuben’s neck, over the ear, lapping at the blood.

A moan escaped
Reuben’s lips, but he gave in to the touch like a boneless puppet.
“Demon...”

“You’re mine
now, Copper. Nothing could ever change that.”

Reuben sighed
with pleasure. He wanted to belong, and he loved how Erik seemed to
always know what to do. Reuben turned his head a bit and licked the
inside of his master’s wrist.

Erik’s other
hand traced his shoulders over and over. “Do you feel good?”

“I do.” He
hoped it wasn’t a shameful thing to admit. The fact that he'd got
not just a present, but something that would be permanently in his
body made him feel even more attached to Erik. Even when his master
got bored with him someday, Reuben would have something to remember
the good times by.

Erik cocked his
head, gently rubbing his thumb over Reuben’s lips. “How about a
fuck then?”

Reuben entered
his stable on wobbly legs. He couldn’t say ‘no’ to a fuck after
such a wonderful present. At least that was his excuse, because the
truth was he'd been waiting for penetration since the bath they had
in the morning.

Erik made him
rest the front of his body on the dinner table, feet spread almost
as wide as the legs of Erik’s chair. He spent so much time stroking
Reuben’s bare thighs and buttocks, probing at the hole, staring at
it as if it was the most exciting thing in the world. Reuben could
barely contain the moan that escaped him when one of Erik’s fingers
didn’t go deep enough. He didn’t even care about privacy when Erik
asked John for butter to slick Reuben up.