After years packed with new chapters, phases, outlooks, routines, and practices, Linny was out of names for her efforts to become stable, so she finally took Dr. Sheryl’s advice to visit a stable. As she drove, Linny pictured Dr. Sheryl’s eyes glazed over as Future Linny explained that the horses just didn’t help. "Describe for me, Linny, the 'better' you hope to get?" Boring her psychoanalyst felt worse than a hoof kick to the jaw. Or rather, imagining boring her psychoanalyst felt worse than imagining a hoof kick to the jaw. So, Linny kept her car fixed on the dirt road until she reached the hand painted sign for STABLE.
The stable was beautiful, beautiful enough to conjure the thought, "Who paid for this?" Linny wasn’t outdoors-y, but as an indoors-y person, she knew a structure was really nice when it looked like the sun shone out from inside it. The stable harnessed the sun: it made everything from the cross beams to the rack of leather leads to the clouds of knee-high dust glow. Linny thought she’d like to be a glowing thing.
Then she saw a horse, and screamed. A sunny head popped up from inside a stall. "SHHHHH. Joy spooks!"
One second in and Linny had spooked Joy. "Sorry, I just realized I’ve never seen a horse in person."
Joy’s handler slipped out of the stall, keeping the wooden door closed and Joy contained. Wow. Linny felt all the light in the place rush to her throat. Linny worried she might throw up the sun, cough it onto the dust floor like an intact egg yolk. Joy’s handler reached a fringed sleeve out to shake hands. Linny watched her own hand reach out. They shook. "I’m Linny," Linny said. Then she realized whatever Joy’s handler had said, she missed it.
Could she ask again? Would it be weirder to admit she didn’t hear a name, or just avoid it? A stable felt like an appropriate place to call someone “Buddy” or “Cowboy” when you didn’t hear their name.
"Alright Cowboy," Linny tried, "show me the ropes."
That sounded really, really confident.
"Happy to," Cowboy said. "Think you can handle Joy?"
Outside her stall, Linny saw Joy was rather squat. She was speckled, or maybe more blotched. Her coat looked like hundreds of women had cried their mascara off onto it. Cowboy put a hand on Linny’s lower back and guided her towards the horse. Linny reached out her hand to pet Joy’s gray mane. Cowboy’s hand stayed in a close hover. Sunlit dust rose off of Joy, and Linny took a step back into Cowboy’s arms.
Inside Linny’s head, Dr. Sheryl was riveted. She was nodding without blinking. She was so glad she’d stuck around to see Linny get better.
behind the steam
cover stars katherine bernard and lily olsen
Chapter two of the RA Romance Novel Appreciation Club is brought to you by Katherine Bernard "KB" Olsen who is not only a sensational writer, but also one of the models for this very cover! The scorching hot "Need For Steed" cover features KB and her wife of just a few months, Lily Olsen. (We shot the cover just a few weeks before their wedding, which they don't seem to regret inviting me to even though I spent most of the night like this and this and this. Oh and even this.)KB and I have been friends for around 15 years and I've always thought she was simply the coolest, still do. We even had a brief stint at roommates where we occasionally engaged in an activity, I'm sorry to tell you, we called RAT WATCHING. It's exactly what it sounds like! KB was one of our very first e-commerce models and was also a featured player in our Fall 2014 video, Dress Rehearsal, in which she did an exquisite experimental dance (see below).So, it is truly a privilege to give you this NSFW excerpt from Need for Steed written by AND starring the glorious Katherine Bernard "KB" Olsen.
"Rachel could have simply given her blessing for our marriage via text or card, but instead she cast us as her lesbian fantasy Brokeback Mountain, and for that we are honored."-KB
author katherine bernard
Katherine Bernard “KB” Olsen is a gun for hire in the fields of ropin’, tokin’, and crafting compelling stories for the page and screen. This is her first erotic excerpt.
