Chapter 1 #2
“Why not? Horses have personalities just like humans, cats, and dogs.”
“I guess so,” I acknowledged with a sweet smile.
“I just thought ... well, it’s like human babies,” I explain.
“There are no ‘bad babies.’ There are merely babies whose needs aren’t met, and so they cry and wail and scream.
They’re not ‘bad’ per se. They’re just hungry, or tired, or frustrated, and don’t have the words to express it. ”
Julio grinned, one big hand stroking along Journeyman’s gleaming chestnut flank.
“Well, that sounds like a child with a bad personality to me,” he said in a wry tone. “Why, do you think differently?”
I laughed again, so comfortable being together, and incredibly happy in his company.
“There are bad babies! There are bad horses too—”
But then my words were cut off because Julio had leaned forward to catch my startled lips in a kiss. It was intimate, tender, and so beautiful that my heart raced as my insides heated.
“Oh my god, Julio, should we be doing this?” I panted, eyes wide when we finally broke away. The handsome polo player’s expression was conflicted, his black brows drawn in a frown. But he lifted one big hand up, square and sure as he stroked the velvety skin of my cheek.
“I don’t think I can resist you anymore, mi corazón ,” he rasped in a tortured tone. “You have tempted me for too long.”
Then, we fell into each other’s embrace, and my heart beat so hard that I thought it might fly right out of my chest. Here was a man!
A real man, and not one of the nitwit teenage boys at my high school.
Julio was gorgeous, athletic, and he was attracted to me, Jenna London.
Of course, the problem was that he was dating my mother, but he assured me that he and Stephanie were basically platonic by that point.
Sure, he and Stephanie kissed and hugged, but they saw each other as more as friends than anything romantic.
According to him, they had a “mutual understanding,” and enjoyed each other’s companionship, but nothing more.
So yes, I engaged in a passionate, romantic affair with my mother’s boyfriend. The sex was incredible, and the first time we were together, Julio claimed my virginity.
“ Mi corazón , you did not say,” he whispered tenderly in my ear after we were done. “Why did you not reveal you were an innocent?”
I smiled softly in the darkness, my curves flushed and sated although there was a bit of an ache between my legs.
“No, it’s okay,” I whispered, my heart fluttering as I clenched my thighs together. “I didn’t want you to know because ... well, I’m inexperienced and I thought adult men didn’t like that.”
Julio merely groaned deep in his chest before pulling my curves close.
“No, you’re wrong, mi corazón ,” he murmured softly into the delicate seashell of my ear. “You’ve given me a gift. The most precious gift a woman can give a man, and I am grateful to you, mi amor . Gracias .”
My heart fluttered and then swooped as we embraced again, a flood of adoration filling my veins as I kissed Julio with all the passion in my heart.
After all, he was my dream come true. He was a Latin stallion with the physique of a pro athlete, the heart of a gentleman, and who adored me in return – or at least that’s what I thought.
Because of course, we used condoms and yet somehow, I got pregnant during our brief tryst. I’m not sure how it happened because I don’t recall ever not using protection and yet, there it was.
Two lines on the pregnancy test. My pupils dilated as I began to hyperventilate.
Oh my god, was this for real? Was I really expecting Julio’s child?
Then again, I’m a curvy, fertile young woman, and he’s a virile, experienced alpha male. It was totally possible.
Now, I’m here to tell Julio about the pregnancy, and my pulse races as I watch for his tall figure striding towards the barn. He’s just finished training, and I figure this is as good of a time as any to tell him.
Sure enough, that powerful figure materializes, and my heart goes flippity-flop.
“ Mi corazón ,” he murmurs tenderly, trailing one hand along my cheek. “I missed you. Let me just put Toto in his stall.”
Then my man disappears into the back of the barn, the grey polo pony following obediently.
He reappears shortly, incredibly handsome in his polo whites.
His dark hair is sweaty but falls attractively across his forehead, and oh my god!
There’s a bulge in his pants. We’re so attracted to each other that it’s like constantly being aroused, with non-stop sex occurring at all hours in almost any location.
We’ve even done it right here in the barn a few times, sweaty and hot, praying that no one would see our illicit coupling.
Sure enough, Julio kisses me immediately, his lips tender yet possessive at once. My heart races and I look up at him with adoration in my eyes.
“You have something to tell me,” he intuits, tilting my chin up with one big hand, his blue eyes gentle. “What is it, Jennabelle?”
The words are on the tip of my tongue, and yet I can’t get them out.
“Tell me,” he whispers persuasively against my mouth, his breath soft and warm. “Don’t be afraid to share, whatever it is, mi corazón .”
That does it. I melt whenever he calls me “my heart” in Spanish, and with a happy smile, I relay the news.
“Well, I’m pregnant! I know we didn’t expect to conceive, but it happened somehow, and I’m so excited, Julio!
You’ll be an amazing dad, and I can’t wait to be a mommy either.
I know we’ll need to tell my mom, but I think Stephanie will be okay.
She’ll be shocked, but she’ll be happy to welcome her first grandchild. ”
But instead of pulling me close with excitement, Julio pulls away. He only moves back about two feet, but I can feel something shift in the air. The change is palpable, and it’s as if the temperature in the barn drops twenty degrees.
“What did you say?” he asks, his Argentinian accent suddenly thick.
I bounce on my heels with excitement.
“I’m pregnant, Julio! We’re going to have a baby together! What do you think we should name him or her? I was thinking Julio Junior, if a boy, and maybe Julia, if a girl? What do you--?”
But Julio slices his hand through the air in a chopping motion.
“How did you get pregnant?” he grinds out. “We’ve always used protection.”
That makes me stop for a moment.
“Yes, we’ve always used condoms, but no form of contraception is a hundred percent. There are never any guarantees.”
The handsome polo player looks angry, his face turning red as he stares at the ground.
“Shit!” he curses. “ Mierda !”
I pause, stunned.
“What do you mean? Aren’t you happy? I know I’m young to be a mom, but it’s fine! You’re certainly old enough to be a father too—“
Julio cuts me off again, his eyes shooting daggers.
“You’re such a stupid, na?ve little girl,” he spits. “Don’t you get it? You can’t have this baby.”
“What do mean?” I ask, completely stunned by this turn of events. “Of course I can! I’m healthy, I’m young, I have wonderful health insurance—”
“Provided by your mother’s job,” Julio sneers. “Don’t you get it? We’re completely dependent on Stephanie. We’ve been having an affair behind her back, Jenna. Your mother’s going to go ballistic at the news.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, the blood draining from my face. “I thought you and Stephanie are just friends now. I mean, she’ll be surprised but I’m sure we can work it out.”
“ Just friends ?” Julio sneers, his lips twisting into a disgusted frown.
“How can you be so fucking stupid? What a na?ve little girl. Your mother and I are still in a relationship, and yes, I still have sex with your mom. I lied because it was the only way to get you to put out. So yeah, don’t you get it?
Stephanie pays for everything. This barn, the horses I ride, my career, your tuition, the roof over our heads .
.. everything! You must get an abortion. ”
At those words, I literally sink to my knees, my eyes wide with shock.
“ What ?” I manage, unable to breathe as my lungs go tight. “No!”
“Yes,” Julio spits in an angry tone. “We must come clean to your mother because you need to terminate the pregnancy. She’s the one who knows how to handle these things because you’re obviously nothing more than a convenient hole to fuck!”
Then, my life went haywire. We broke the news to Stephanie, and as expected, my mom lost her shit. She screamed, she yelled, and she cried, but even worse, her heart was broken because I’d committed the ultimate betrayal: I slept with her boyfriend, a man whom she loves, behind her back.
But Stephanie has always been practical too.
Despite the tumult, she scheduled an abortion for me, and within weeks, I was at a hospital for a procedure that had me terrified, depressed, and vulnerable all at once.
They put me under, and the whole thing was over in the blink of an eye.
It’s almost like it didn’t happen except that I had a hole in my heart that will never be filled again.
Despite my desperate attempts to convince myself that I was okay, I knew I wasn’t.
I was unhinged, unsure, and immensely sad, despite the doctor’s reassurances that this was for the better.
Even worse, the experience changed me because I was no longer a girl.
Overnight, I’d been transformed into a woman who had suffered and hurt.
Plus, Stephanie was no longer interested in mothering me.
She couldn’t stand to look at me, and I get it because I’d betrayed her in the worst way possible.
As a result, she packed me off, but not in the way that you think.
Instead of dumping me at a fancy boarding school and wiping her hands clean, Stephanie did something worse.
She let the State take over, and I was forced into government care as a young woman with nowhere else to go.