Natural Attraction (33 page)

“Good.  One more thing and then we are ready to go,” Jax says stepping towards me.  “I need to know that you fully understand you have an eject maneuver.  You ever heard of an eject maneuver?”

“Um…  Not really.  What do you mean?” I ask confused.  I assume eject means get off.  If he only means get off, I’m pretty sure he knows I can do that so I guess that’s not it.

“The eject maneuver is an emergency bail from the horse.  I want to make sure you have a plan so if something starts to go wrong, you eject.  At
no point, not ever
, if you think there is something wrong should you stay in that saddle.  I’m not talking about nerves, if you are nervous you need to stay there until you aren’t nervous any more. What I’m talking about is if you clearly recognize that something is just not right.  It could be he’s going too fast, he feels like he’s gunna take off, he feels like he’s gunna buck.  Any of these things, you need to eject without hesitation.  I’d rather see you eject fifty times and stay safe than see the one time you don’t eject, you are hurt.  You hearing me?”

“Sure
,” I agree wholeheartedly.  Sounds like a good plan to me.

“Now the eject
maneuver is simple.  First you
drop one rein.
”

Fuck no!

“Drop a rein!” I startle and hear a slight screech in my voice as I stare at him in disbelief.  “Are you nuts?”

“No Ash, I’m not nuts.  Believe me it's safer than try
ing to hang onto two.  You only need one rein to stop a horse and you only need one rein for an emergency eject.  Relax and listen, I’m trying to keep you safe here.”

I breathe out slowly and nod as I listen.  I decide I need to trust him on this.  I
can
trust him.  How many times has he proven that already?

“So first, drop one rein.  Doesn’t matter which one, whichever one feels comfortable to let go.  Then, with your free hand, I want you to slam it down hard into the pommel of your saddle.  At the same time you need to use the other hand to flex his head to your foot. 

While this is all happening, you also need to drop both feet out of your stirrups as you push off with the hand on the pommel of your saddle.  As hard as you can.  You should fling upwards and a bit sideways with the right amount of pressure.  All going to plan, you should also be able to swing your leg over his back and push away from him to land on the ground.  Does that make sense?  Doing all this, his head will also flex and you should end up standing beside him with his head flexed towards you.  Give it a go and see if you can do it.”

“Crikey.” I mutter as I consider the multitasking he has just explained I need to do.  It sounds full on but I am up for the challenge.

My first try does not go well.  With my feet remaining in the stirrups, I nearly hang myself off the side of Maverick like a rag doll.  Luckily, he continues to stand quietly while I perform a
bad
emergency eject.  I am thankful he doesn’t chose that moment to do something energetic because I am almost positive I would have died.

“Sorry about that dude.” I
rub him as he flexes towards me looking slightly amused at my stupidity.

I hear Jax chuckle,
“Again,” he urges.

Mounting again, I give it a second go and it goes better this time.  Except that I forget to drop the first rein and so his head doesn’t flex so well. 

Jax explains that’s a no-no because the flex is important and I go again.

By the third go it all comes together and I leap of him like I’m launching off a pommel horse at a gymnasium.   Feeling pleased that I have worked it
out, I do it once more for good measure before Jax agrees I’m there.

“Yay!”
I do a small fist punch in the air feeling pleased with myself.

I then give Maverick a scratch on his chest to reward him for his patience.

“Up and at ‘em Tiger.  You’re ready to roll.” I look to see Jax grinning.

Climbing quickly back into the saddle, I look to Jax for further guidance.  “What next?”

“Start walking Ash, you’re ready.  No kicking though.  Kicking is
not
the way to move a horse on.  Squeezing or clucking only.  Got it?” He checks in with me and waits for me to nod. He then continues to explain further.  “Take a few steps then ask him to flex to a stop.  If that goes well, go further and so on.  Off you go.”

Excited that I have permission to move off, I take a huge breath and gently squeeze for Maverick to move on.  Without a moment of hesitation he steps off keenly and starts striding out quickly.

“Stop him Ash.” I hear Jax caution.  “Don’t let him rush.  You want him moving slowly.”

Letting one rein go, I flex his head to the left and he starts to circle my foot, his feet slowing but not stopping. 

I look to Jax wondering what to do next and he nods with encouragement, “Just hold until he stops, then release.”

After another circle, Maverick finally realizes he is just wasting effort circling and so he stops.

“Good, wait for him to chew, count to twenty then go again,” Jax encourages.

We continue with the stops and starts at a walk for a while until Maverick is stopping as soon as I lift one rein.

Jax continues to tutor.
“You can refine that stop by breathing out before you lift the rein Ash.   It’ll give him more warning.”

I start adding the breathing out to my process.  Maverick is soon stopping at a walk when I breathe out and roll my bottom back into the saddle.  This is
very
cool!

“That’s enough for the day Ash.  You’ve ridden him, it’s gone well.  It may only be at a walk, but believe
me, you’ve both learned more today than you think.  Tomorrow will go so much better.” 

I grin at him and flex Maverick to one final stop before launching off to display my eject skills.  I hit the ground smiling and throw my hands in the air like a gymnast does when they dismount a pommel horse.

I see Jax smiling as he stalks towards me and grabs my ponytail to drag me in for a hard, hot kiss.

“Well done little girl.  No unexpected ejects, no scary moments and no injuries.  An excellent days work don’t you think?”

I agree wholeheartedly and show my agreement by melting against his chest and wrapping my arms around him, hugging tightly.

“Best day ever,” I mumble against his lips. 

“Bet we can make it better,” he says pulling away from me.  “Time to head to the supermarket for supplies, then it's gunna be home for a spa.”

He starts wiggling his eyebrows at me, his eyes sparkling with cheer.

“A spa sounds heavenly,” I agree with a huge grin splitting my face as I turn to head towards the round yard gate.  It is then that I realize my three golden girls are all lain out, sound asleep, still waiting for Jax.

“Definitely team Jacob,” I mutter looking at them.

“What was that?” He asks quizzically from behind me.

“Nothing.”
I reply realizing I have not been paying any attention to his interaction with the dogs. 

I am so going to be watching him
closely
tomorrow.

You’re the boss

Returning from the supermarket I am once again amazed to discover the day is getting away from us.  I clearly lost track of time out in the round yard with Maverick.  It was
mid afternoon before we made it to Jax’s truck to head into town. 

Time really
does
fly when you are having fun.  This is something I experience daily here in Jax’s world.

It is now just after five and Jax has left me to unload the truck while he feeds the horses.  As I travel from the truck to the kitchen, I chuckle to myself at our antics of the afternoon.

The trip to the supermarket had provided my girls with another opportunity for a truck ride.  I was starting to realize that it might be the truck trips that were becoming the highlight of their day and therefore swaying loyalty to Jax. 

Canine reasoning deduced that truck rides happened with Jax.  This needed maintenance of a keen canine eye on Jax to ensure that no opportunities were lost.  Canine deduction equates this to
stick closely to Jax.

The girls have already learned to launch unassisted into the back of the truck.  Once there, he has three lead ropes ready to clip them up to behind the cab. 

This afternoon, they were like little doggie drug addicts, bursting with excitement as the tailgate dropped.  I soon realize that riding in the back of my four-wheel drive will no longer be their transportation mode of choice.  Fresh air and open views from the back of Jax’s truck clearly win.

At one stage during the trip I decided to look back to see how they were traveling.  What I saw was blissful faces, noses tipped to the air as they breathed in the fast flowing, fresh air.

“Trade secret huh?” I muttered looking across to see Jax grinning broadly, not saying a word.

I then decided to scowl at him for the next few
kilometers.  When it finally got the better of him I heard him rumble quietly, “Women just love me, I’m like a drug you know.  I reckon it's got something to do with my irresistible
scent.
”

Unfortunately even though he was being a cocky bastard I probably had to agree with him.  Especially that he had an irresistible scent.  After deciding this, I stopped scowling and smirked out the window instead.

The supermarket was an eye-opening experience for me as well.  Not sure why Jax needed a large trolley to buy condoms, muesli and yoghurt, I was soon initiated to Jax’s shopping style.  Everything is purchased in bulk.

At first I had been amused at his shopping style.  That was until he insisted I buy three full boxes of my
favorite muesli.  He assured me I would need them during my frequent sleepovers and so I should not risk running out. 

Not impressed at being ordered to buy three boxes of anything, he then upset me further by buying some cereal for himself.  This upset me because it involved a painstaking process where he insisted on reading the various ingredients and good health messages on each box. 
In full. 

He then carefully considered each different brand of cereal before finally deciding to take one of each.  This equated to another six boxes being added to the cart. 

I should however point out that our time spent in the cereal aisle was not all boring.  This was because I kept myself seriously amused by touching Jax inappropriately at regular intervals.  While doing this, I would scowl at his many female admirers to ensure they could see they were encroaching on my turf. 

The only reason I had ended my lewd groping game was because Jax had finally worked out what I was doing.  Knowing my game, he then announced loudly, “Babe, if you want to fuck we should head to the clean
ing aisle so we have access to paper towels and such to clean you up afterwards.”

Smart ass.

The looks we also received from shoppers in the toiletries aisle as we discussed what size condoms he would need (the biggest of course), had been priceless as well.   Even better were their faces as they watched Jax load ten boxes into our trolley. 

As well as his condoms, Jax also managed to balance six slabs of caffeine free diet
Coke in the trolley.  This led me to ask him how long he thought I
was
staying and was he concerned Coke was going out of business?  The final additions to our trolley were yoghurt, dog bones and peanut butter cookie treats for my girls.

We finished our expedition with me silently vowing to always come to the supermarket on my own if I needed any sanitary products.  The thought of Jax pushing a trolley around piled high with ten different brands of tampons would probably be a bit
too
much to cope with, even for me.

Eyeing off the mountain of condoms now laid out before me on the kitchen bench, I feel a shiver run down my spine as my body heats slightly remembering last night. 

I am definitely looking forward to a spa.

Dragging my eyes off the condoms and trying to dispel the images of what they mean, I decide that once again I should to do something on the side of meal preparation.  Lunch had been a rushed affair because Jax had been keen to, “Get this supermarket shit over with so we can do more interest
ing activities.” 

To reduce delay, we had ended
up eating more muffins.  This had involved one muffin for me, with a crisp pink lady apple.  Jax had consumed six muffins with both an apple and a banana.  The man sure could eat.

Not that I was complaining. 

Watching his face as he enjoyed his food and constantly licked his lips, his tongue slicing out to catch crumbs as they stuck to his moist lips was swoon worthy.  I had almost suggested we delay the supermarket run because I knew we had one condom left, there were no flies on me!

I have just bent down to start digging through Jax’s freezer for inspiration when I hear the back door slam and the laundry tap running.  A small thrill of excitement shoots through me at the thought of seeing Jax again.  It's scary that I feel this way after spending a whole half hour without him.