. 28

Standard disclaimers.

This is a story about sexual exploration and, open relationships. Open relationships can and do happily exist; but they are not for everyone. If you do not believe it is at all possible for open relationships to exist without damage to any and all involved parties, please do yourself a favor and don't waste your time reading this.

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Also, this story takes place in a world where STDs don't exist and only babies planned for and wanted do—in other words, a fantasy world. Any resemblance to real-life people is purely coincidental.

*****

Rose led the way down a brightly lit cinderblock hallway to a metal fire door and pushed it open with an echoing bang and creak to reveal a large enclosed space on the other side. Gwen immediately recognized the dirt floor beyond surrounded by concrete walls and garage doors as the staging area between the arena to her right and the outside world to the left. She had been in spaces like this many times, focusing herself on the task ahead...

The woman did not stop, instead turning to another metal door on the left and pushing that one open too. Gwen's eyes struggled to adjust to the brightness as she followed along into the sunlight beyond, but was at least able to make out an expanse of grass in front of her. A cart path drew a grey line between her and a trailer a hundred feet away where a horse was tethered to the trailer—Dart, she knew right away, and there was a small cluster of people gathered a few yards to his right. The group turned as one to look at the woman getting her bearings outside the open door. Danilo was there along with a pair of stable hands, a young blonde woman and a petite young brunette, both dressed in khakis and dark green polo shirt. That's Cricket, she quickly decided of the smaller woman, unsure how she had gotten into the standard uniform of Mrs. Danning's stable hands. There was a young man with them as well, dressed more casually in t-shirt and jeans...Gwen took a breath and walked towards the group in the practiced measured step Miss Ritter had demanded in these situations. Leave no doubt you are in control...

"Gwen, you look incredible!" the young photographer called across the expanse of grass as he came to meet her. "How are you feeling?"

"Same as last night," she admitted. "I really hope you and Mrs. Danning haven't made a mistake."

He stepped back, eying her critically, then grinned. "I'm really sure we haven't!"

"It's Dart who looks incredible," she deflected, moving to her horse, looking back in wonder at the young women coming up to join her. "This is the best he's looked in years, maybe ever! Is this your work?"

"I'm Hannah, ma'am," the blonde said, "and to tell the truth, your groom did most of it. I tried to help, though."

"We both worked on him," Cricket chirped nervously. "Hannah had the instructions on what was required, so I just did what she said."

Gwen circled the horse, inspecting him, finding that her exacting standards had been met. "Who did the braids?" she asked after noting the effort that had gone into his mane, appreciating how they hung to the right as was proper for the show ring even if her own outfit was most certainly not. "I always hated doing those..."

"Uhh, Kristen did," the young blonde volunteered. "I was told to do the tail as well, but she said you prefer it to be left unbraided so I banged it instead. I hope that's alright."

"It is, and Kristen is right," Gwen said distractedly, her head next to Dart's as she said hello, "a braid makes the horse carry the tail stiffly. Leaving the tail unbraided helps demonstrate the animal is supple all the way through its back. And the bang is cut beautifully."

There was a tinge of relief in the young woman's voice. "Thank you, ma'am."

Greeting completed, Gwen turned back to the photographer, unsure what to do next. "I'd like you to meet my assistant, Marco," Danilo offered with a wave of his hand.

The young man shuffled forward. "H'lo." Gwen shook the tentatively extended hand while evaluating its owner. Young and wiry with a shock of black curly hair, young enough to still be in high school, she thought with a hint of alarm, noting that his attempts to look anywhere but the body in front of him were occasionally failing. Just wait until the shirt comes off, the Lady darkly reminded her. He probably won't even pretend to look the other away.

The young photographer clapped his hands. "Ready to get going?"

Gwen squared her shoulders and checked her posture. "What do I have to do?"

"Like I said, just what you always do. I'm going to have you walk down from the building to the trailer, get Dart ready for the ring, take him up and put him through a routine."

She felt her stomach lurch. "I'm really sorry, I don't have a routine ready..."

"You don't have to," Danilo said brightly. "I'll be calling for you. Are you alright with that?"

Gwen felt a wave of hope-tinged relief surge through her, the Lady trying to inject a note of caution. She had not had someone calling out her program since childhood, and even then it had been easy enough for her nine-year old self to get through the instructions without much effort. It should be even easier now, she dared hope, given how much experience—and age—she had accumulated. Just follow the instructions, do what you're told..."Oh—of course, yes."

Great! Now," the photographer continued, "a couple of rules. Number one, don't look at me or the camera unless I tell you to. Just pretend I'm not even here, go about your business. Two, be yourself. Trust your muscle memory, don't do anything you wouldn't normally do, just get your horse ready to ride, and then...ride the way you did that day at your house."

The Lady's need for order took over, deciding that if this perversion was to continue there should at least be some structure to it, and quickly presented a list of tasks to be done. Dart was already impeccably groomed, not much to do there, but it would only be correct if Gwen did it as well. He would have to be saddled...she looked around, wondering if his tack had been retrieved.

"Everything you need is in there," Danilo said with a nod towards the trailer, reading her mind. "Take a look, get yourself familiar with it, do a quick groom and then we can send you back to the building."

Gwen stepped up into the cool shade of the equipment bay, Cricket and Hannah hovering just outside the door. Mrs. Danning had supplied the tack; a very high-quality dressage saddle, finely polished double-bit and reins. "We made sure Dart was alright with the fit and feel of everything last night," Cricket assured her, "then polished it up, not that it really needed it. I tried to guess how I thought you might like things arranged."

"Thank you for doing that. You know me too well." She stepped back out in to the warmth of the morning sun to where the photographer was waiting for her. "I think I've got it. But..."

His look changed to one of concern. "But what?"

She tugged at the lapel of her coat. "Well, I don't normally wear this when I'm grooming or saddling up...it gets in the way...or these," Gwen said as she held out the gloves she clutched in her other hand.

"Then don't wear them now. Put 'em on when you normally put 'em on, okay?" he suggested with an easy smile. She stepped back into the trailer, identifying a safe place to hang the coat before taking it off and carefully laying the gloves on the top of the collar. His assistant—Marco, was it?-is really going to love this look, she thought wryly, not that the coat was hiding that much...

Danilo was holding his camera when she returned, Marco a computer tablet. "Ready?"

She nodded grimly. "Ready."

He led the way, Gwen following the young photographer, his assistant following her, no doubt with his eyes glued to your practically naked rear end, the Lady sniffed, until Danilo stopped at the cart path. "Okay, go back up inside, and when you're ready, come on out and go tend to your horse. Remember, be yourself and don't look at me, okay?"

She nodded and continued on alone, opening the door and carefully shutting it again. She stood there breathing in the smell of cool dirt mixed with the heady scent of horse, finding some peace and her bearings in its familiarity. "Here we go," she muttered to no one, her mind firmly set to the task, and stepped back out.

The photographer was where she had left him, Marco a few steps behind, the others nowhere to be seen. She sharply reminded herself of the photographer's instructions and focused on Dart standing quietly in the shade of the trailer, her gaze steady as each step brought him closer. Gwen willed herself to let routine and muscle memory carry her. Danilo's advice to forget he was even here proved to be exceedingly difficult, the camera clicking rapidly as she walked by, continuing as he crossed behind her, circling. Probably getting some good shots of my rear, Gwen thought, the Slut reminding her he had probably gotten an equally good look at her front.

Dart turned his head to casually acknowledge her approach, shaking a fly off his ear in greeting. "Hello friend," she murmured, her nose to his, very aware the photographer was not far off capturing the moment, "do me a big favor and try and do what you can to make me look good, and I'll try really hard not to make you look bad." The horse dropped his head to nudge her chest in response, and Gwen set to work. She went through the motions of a brief grooming, not that he needed it, before retrieving the tack and saddle. They were of the highest quality—of course they were, she thought with mild amusement, and true to Cricket's word, Dart seemed to accept them well. After a final check of the saddle's cinch, she retrieved her coat and put it on, saving the gloves until the horse's lead was untied.

"Okay, lead him up to the ring and stop in the staging area," Danilo softly directed, and as if on cue, the garage door began to roll up, Cricket and Hannah waiting inside. Horse and rider walked slowly, Gwen now staring at the grass in front of her but not seeing it, concentrating as she always had when preparing to compete, composing her thoughts and quieting her nerves, fighting her fear. She didn't look up at the young women as they stepped back into the shadows just inside the door, instead tearing her eyes from the path she had set for herself to look back at Dart and quietly praise the horse.

The door to the ring was open now as well, the space beyond cavernous and thankfully apparently empty. The cool breeze of air conditioning escaping the big building flowed past her, and Gwen was thankful that at least she would not be riding in the rapidly-building heat of the morning sun. "Okay, take a quick break," Danilo said with a smile as he joined them, "you're next rider in. Doing okay?" He smiled and quickly huddled with his young assistant, the pair talking quietly while he reviewed something on the tablet. Once satisfied, he turned back to the group. "Gwen I'm going to ask you to mount and dismount a few times—I want to get that from various angles. Ready?" She nodded and he moved to a spot ahead of her. "Okay, when you're ready."

Gwen swung a leg up and over Dart's back six times, reversing the process each time to dismount and wait while Danilo moved to another spot. The photographer was finally satisfied and the rider a little surprised to find herself just a bit winded from the repeated effort. She was instructed to take her place at the entry to the ring.

The next couple of hours were almost anticlimactic, Gwen falling into old routines as the photographer called out half-passes and flying changes of leg, passages and piaffes, many times putting himself dangerously close to Dart's path as the camera fired almost continuously. There were several breaks too, horse and rider given a chance to briefly rest while Danilo reviewed his efforts on Marco's tablet. It was during the first break Gwen reached down to sweep away a bit of imaginary dirt on her thigh and froze. Despite the air conditioning, sitting astride a working half-ton animal produces heat, and heat produces sweat. In this case, the sweat had turned the sheer white fabric covering her legs and crotch nearly transparent, the trimmed triangle of her thatch now visible beneath. The shirt had also lost what little ability it had to provide cover, and her areolae stood out like obscene buttons beside the too-short lapels of her coat. The Slut suggested it was not just sweat making her pants transparent, and Gwen fervently hoped her undeniable arousal would be mistaken for perspiration.

She urgently motioned for Cricket to join her. "Could you see from where you were how much this outfit shows?" she whispered, flicking her eyes down her body in meaning.

Cricket nodded and giggled nervously. "Yeah, sometimes, if you knew where to look...like when you were mounting and dismounting, your bum was kinda showing through your seat. Nobody seemed to mind, though," she added helpfully.

"Of course they didn't," Gwen replied with a roll of her eyes, and thought about asking whether it might be a good time to take a break and change into the spares Mr. Barofsky had prepared, but decided she would probably be losing the soaked garments soon enough anyways. The suspense as to if—when, the Lady continued to remind her—that was going to happen was beginning to weigh heavily on her. Memories of that night in the ring with Miss Ritter were refreshed and comparisons were impossible to dispel; though the fear of discovery she felt that night were diminished, her excitement from the sheer perversity of it all was even more pronounced.

She had not been called to remove anything by the time Danilo eventually called out "exercise finished, rider go tend to your horse." Dart was spurred into a smart trot back to the staging area where Gwen waited for Danilo to instruct her to dismount, imagining her pubic hair standing out like a dark arrow pointing to her sex when the leg swung wide over the horse's back. She knew it was impossible to hide anything as she led Dart back to the trailer while Danilo continued to orbit and shoot, Marco doing his best to stay out of his brother's way. She thought about leaving the coat on while she unsaddled the horse but knew routine was routine and it would be a mostly useless gesture anyways.

"I think I've got what I need," Danilo announced after she had finished her tasks and given the horse a light kiss on the nose in thanks. "Gwen, Rose is going to take you back to the house so you can freshen up, get some lunch, and then she'll take you out to the site for the afternoon shoot. Sound good?"

Gwen turned in surprise. That was it? The light breeze against her wet clothes was a reminder that it might feel nicer against bare skin. "Did I do something wrong?" she blurted.

His look was one of genuine confusion. "Wrong? No! Why would you think that? You were great, exactly what I think Mrs. Danning was hoping for. Your horsemanship is wonderful to watch! You and Dart really seem to connect. I can only hope I was good enough to get that on film."

"So, you don't need me to do anything else right now? No more posing?"

"Nope, not until after lunch. The grooms will take care of Dart for you. You go take a shower and get something to eat. You were working really hard out there—you're soaked!"

And you're sweaty, too, the Slut guffawed. Gwen blushed. "Sorry, but it was warm in there, even with the air conditioning..."

"Nothing to apologize for—it was actually the look I was going for—you know, two athletes in sync. Now go and relax a little—we'll see you this afternoon."

She accepted the ride from Rose after giving Cricket instructions she didn't need and getting politely shoo'd away.

The break was brief but welcome. Gwen resisted the urge to relieve her sexual tension with a quick touch in the shower, promising herself something more with Tim later, the ever-present fear and nervousness of the afternoon schedule making the choice somewhat easier. She donned a robe for the lunch served by the pool and then she was back into her own clothes for the short ride to the afternoon's shoot.

Rose steered the ATV down a fragrant path surrounded by Southern pine into an open field Gwen remembered from her ride with Mrs. Danning. A small wooden barn had been added since she had last been here, impossibly weathered and worn for the short amount of time since its construction. "That barn was on one of Mrs. Danning's ranches out west," Rose explained. "She had it taken down piece by piece and rebuilt here at Mr. Castigalli's request."

She definitely spared no expense for this, Gwen mused as the ATV rolled towards a bus-sized RV set a short distance away. Danilo and his assistant were waiting for her there, Dart, Cricket, and Hannah nowhere in sight. Their whereabouts was her first question for the young photographer after they greeted each other.

"They're in the barn, out of the sun," he explained, "figured since we'll be starting there..."

She was led into the bus that was to serve as her dressing room, her hair set in a loose ponytail and makeup sparingly applied before she got into the jeans and t-shirt she had tried on the night before. Just as in the morning, one accessory was added, a folded red bandana wrapped and tied about her throat. At least no cowboy hat, she thought with some relief. She always looked so dumb in them...With a satisfied smile, Rose pronounced her ready and escorted her out the door to where the others now waited.

"Dart took the morning ride really well," Cricket volunteered before being asked. "Not tired at all or favoring anything as far I can see." She looked to Hannah for confirmation and got a quick nod in response.

"Thank you both for taking such good care of him. It's such a relief for me." Danilo quickly set up the afternoon's events, an outdoor repeat of the morning's performance. Gwen could feel the heat of the midday sun beginning to reverse the effects of her shower even as he talked, the back of her shirt quickly sticking to her. The trickle of sweat forming between her breasts meant the front would soon be in the same condition.

The photographer again circled her as she walked to the barn through knee-high grass, gaze steady and head high as if she were walking to the winner's podium in the ring she had ridden in that morning. She was thankful to reach the shade of the barn but knew the stillness of the air inside would do nothing to dry her shirt. Its interior was a simple affair, and authentic; Dart loosely tied to a rail at the far end, hay piled deep on either side of the split upper floor. His tack was nearby as well, simpler affairs than what she had used for the ring but still high quality, the western saddle nicely broken in yet still in immaculate condition. She smiled at the grooming brushes she had been left. Even those were off a more basic design. They had apparently thought of everything.

Dart looked different as well, the braids gone, the hooves clean but no longer brightly polished. Even his tail had somehow been magically un-banged, regaining its more natural look, albeit just slightly shorter. Of course, only Gwen would ever notice the change in length...

She again pressed her nose lightly against the horse's while Danilo snapped away. "Take two," she murmured, "you were perfect this morning. Can we try it again?" She worked at her accustomed pace to ready him, the effort and the still heat of the barn soaking her, a wet spot beginning to stain the tight denim between her legs. It's just sweat, she tried to convince herself, nobody's going to think you've wet yourself. Maybe they'll think it's something else, the Slut teased.

The shoot progressed as the morning's had, Gwen leading the horse from the barn before being asked to mount and dismount while Danilo orbited the pair, Gwen certain her breasts and the spreading dark spot would be impossible to miss on the images he was capturing. Danilo called out her moves from there, more trotting and galloping as would be natural for a horse and rider in this element, light on the technical maneuvers they had expertly displayed in the ring. There were frequent breaks too, chances for Gwen to confirm just how transparent her shirt had become and how much her wet spot continued to creep down the inside of her thighs. Just like before, she was not asked to change into the fresh clothing she was certain was in the RV, or just remove it altogether.