“Just do it!” I demanded. He dropped his mouth down, taking mine in a long, slow kiss. I tried to thrust my tongue into his mouth, wiggling against him. I wanted more and I wanted it now. He pulled back, and now his face wore a definite smirk.

“Do what?”

“You know,” I gritted.

“I’m confused,” he replied. “I think you need to explain to me. Otherwise I might just give up and go away.”

I closed my mouth and squeezed my inner muscles around his dick as tight as I could, gloating when he stiffened and groaned. I let go and then started squeezing him in a slow and steady rhythm. Two could play this game.

“Fuck, Marie,” he moaned, then pushed my hands down deep into the couch as he lifted himself, finally thrusting into me like I needed. I still couldn’t move much, but that didn’t matter because the games were over. Now he hit me with deep strokes, each one more forceful than the last. I felt my muscles growing tight as I lifted my hips to meet his. Oh damn… I was close—so incredibly close. He pushed my hands together over my head, imprisoning them as he hammered home. I hovered right at the edge then slipped over, screaming out my orgasm.

I have no idea how long it was before Horse came, because I was floating in my own little world. He collapsed on top of me, managing to keep enough of his weight to one side that he didn’t crush me. Our breathing slowed. Then he leaned up on one elbow, sliding me so we lay face-to-face.

If I’d spent a million years trying to guess his next move, I still wouldn’t have seen it coming.

“Why don’t you go down to the community college and pick up an application,” he said. That broke right through my post-coital haze.

“Why would I do that?”

“You’re here. You’re not going anywhere any time soon, and you need something to do. You told me you want to go to school, so look into going to school.”

“It’s not that simple,” I said, shaking my head. Horse’s reality and mine were two very different things. Why were we even having this conversation, let alone right now? “I can’t just go to college.”

“Why not?”

“Well it costs a lot of money, for one thing,” I snapped. “And right now I’m worth a total of eleven hundred bucks if I’m lucky. You have to do tests, you have to apply and get accepted and even then you have to… I don’t know, you have to do all kinds of stuff. And my brother’s in big trouble, I don’t have time for school…” I ran out of steam at that point, so I glared at him instead. He kept changing things on me and I couldn’t keep up.

“You can’t do anything about Jeff,” he said firmly. “But the rest? You gotta do that shit to get into school, start doing it. Go down there, see what it takes. Get the papers and fill them out. It’s not gonna happen if you sit around listing all the reasons it can’t.”

“What part of ‘I don’t have any money’ did you not get?”

“What part of ‘I’ll give you money if you need it’ did you not get?”

“Horse, that’s crazy.”

He sighed and shook his head.

“You’re here, Marie, and I know you like to earn your own way. But—and don’t get pissed when I say this—you don’t have the skills to make good money, which means any job you get is going to be minimum wage, despite the fact that you’re smart and hardworking and could do just about anything if you had the chance. But you won’t have a chance without some education, so you might as well start now.”

He trailed his hand down along my body as he spoke, fingers tracing my curves, pulling my hips closer into his. I shook my head, wondering if I’d lost my mind. Jeff might get killed, I’d just had mind-blowing couch sex with his potential killer and now I was supposed to apply for college.

Just like that.

“You’re serious? You want me to go to school?”

“Why not?” he challenged. “So long as you take care of shit around here, I’m fine with it. Might want to move on that whole divorce thing too while you’re at it. Club’s got a lawyer, I’ll set up an appointment for you. I can pretty much guarantee your ex won’t put up a fight.”

He smiled when he said it—not a nice smile.

“Okay, I’ll go check it out,” I said slowly. “This is weird, you get that? You kidnapping me, holding me hostage and then sending me to school? This isn’t how things like this usually work.”

Horse grinned at me, eyes lazy and satisfied.

“Just roll with it,” he whispered. “And keep doing whatever exercises you do to make your cunt squeeze like that. They got a college degree for that?”

“You’re a pig,” I whispered back. “You know that, right?”

“So far bein’ a pig works for me, babe,” he said. “Gotta go now. Check out the college. Hit the clinic and get some pills. Don’t call your brother. Cook something fuckin’ great for dinner and don’t wear any panties. That’s all I ask.”

With that he pushed himself up off the couch. I watched him pull up his pants, stunned and bemused. He walked out the front door. I heard his bike roar to life and then I was on my own.

That whole cooking dinner/no panties thing didn’t quite work out.

My trip to Coeur d’Alene was great. I didn’t really know my way around, but it wasn’t hard to find downtown. It was right next to the great big giant lake that gave the place its name, sort of a “once you drive into the water you’ve gone too far” kind of situation. I stopped off and bought a cup of coffee and a bagel at a little coffee shop right down on Sherman Avenue, the main strip through town. The waitress there helped me find the college campus—surprisingly, just a few blocks away, also on the lake. I ended up walking there along a broad, paved trail that had a beach on one side and a really pretty park on the other. Everywhere I looked there were kids running around and having a good time, punctuated by painstakingly casual groups of teens in tiny swimsuits trolling with their friends. Just offshore, a seaplane took off from the water. Farther along I saw someone parasailing.

The trail took me into a residential neighborhood and then I started seeing college buildings. From there it was easy to find the admissions office. I talked with a lady for close to an hour and left with a handful of brochures.

On the walk back I saw a bank, so I went and checked my balance on their ATM. Exactly $1,146.24 total. Seeing my balance felt good, and I got out $200 in cash, just in case. Horse said he’d give me money, but I hadn’t given up on finding a way to earn my own. It might be okay to play house with him for a while, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think I should count on him. I couldn’t define what we had, and I couldn’t afford to fool myself about my situation. I was a still-married woman held as collateral by a motorcycle club for her brother’s debt.

I might have to leave town in a hurry at some point.

I finished up by visiting the women’s clinic and got a prescription, reminding myself I was way too early in my cycle to seriously worry about a pregnancy. That seemed like enough for one day, so I headed home to start dinner. Horse hadn’t said what time he’d be back but I didn’t want to call and ask. That would be a little too real or something. Playing house scared me.

There were two strange cars in the driveway when I pulled up—a small, red convertible and a classic Mustang, beautifully restored. I parked my little car next to them, wondering who I would be dealing with now. No sign of Horse’s bike, and he hadn’t mentioned someone coming to visit either. I pushed through the front door to find four strange women sitting in the living room, laughing and drinking beer. All of them had that biker chick vibe going on—not slutty, but definitely not shy about showing some skin. They smiled and started coming toward me. Thankfully, Darcy walked in from the back of the house, carrying a tray with a bowl of chips and some dip on it.

“Marie! I’m so glad you’re back, we weren’t sure how long you’d be!” she said, setting down the tray on the coffee table and pulling me into her arms. It was a little overwhelming but it felt good too. Then she let me go and turned me toward the other women, who’d collected around us.