I slid my right leg back behind the girth and squeezed. Justice immediately leaped into a canter and I couldn’t keep the smile from breaking out across my face. This was my first day trying the faster gait, and the familiar rocking motion was strangely comforting. I kept it up for three circuits of the arena and then slowed him down, the grin still plastered on my face. I brought Justice to a halt near Chase. “What did you think?”

            “I think you’re crazy for wanting to go that fast on a horse,” he remarked wryly. “But you also looked like you were having a lot of fun up there.”

            “It’s an amazing feeling,” I gushed, sliding off of Justice. I removed my helmet, shaking my hair out of my eyes. “I think we’ll be ready to start jumping soon.”

            He shuddered. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch you do that.”

            I slid a glance over to him as we walked down the barn aisle towards Justice’s stall. “Aw, do you worry about me?”

            “Of course I do. I love you.”

            My heart stuttered and I leaned into him when he put his arm around my waist. “I love you too.” We untacked Justice in companionable silence. When we were finished, we left the stables to go up to the house. “Jesus, it’s freezing out here!” I wrapped my coat tighter around me, trying to block out the bitter wind.

            “I think it dropped about ten degrees while we were in there,” Chase said in agreement.

            “It’s times like this that I wish I could still run. At least- ack!” my musings were cut off when Chase scooped me into his arms and sprinted the rest of the distance up to the house. I was laughing by the time we got to the door and he put me back on my feet. “Well, that’s one way to get out of the cold quicker,” I told him.

            He grinned down at me while I opened the door. “I didn’t want to stay out there any longer and I wasn’t exactly going to leave you out there to fend for yourself.”

            I wrinkled my nose at him. “You can be so cute sometimes.”

            He rolled his eyes and moved into the kitchen to make us some hot chocolate. “Where are your parents?”

            “Out for the night,” I replied. “They went to the Christmas party that one of the boarders here throws every year.”

            “You didn’t want to go?” he asked.

            I shook my head. “No. I’m not ready for stuff like that yet.”

            He nodded and continued making the hot chocolate. I loved that he understood me so well. I never had to explain my feelings to him, which made it so much easier to be around him. When the drinks were ready, we brought them into the living room so we could watch a movie while we drank them. I let Chase choose the movie, but instantly regretted it when I realized he’d chosen a scary one. “I hate horror movies,” I whined.

            He smiled wickedly. “I know, but I love your reactions to them,” he replied.

            I rolled my eyes and put my head on his shoulder, clutching his left arm with both my hands. He chuckled and reached across with his free hand to rest it on my knee.

            By the time the movie was fifteen minutes in, I was no longer sitting beside him. Instead, I was curled into a ball on his lap with a death grip on his neck and my face pressed into his throat. He hadn’t stopped laughing since the first time I’d screamed, so now I retaliated by nipping at his skin. He yelped and pulled back, glaring down at me. “What was that for?”

            “For being so mean,” I retorted. “It’s not nice to laugh at your girlfriend so much.”

            “Oh come on. You have to admit that your reactions are pretty funny.”

            I sniffed and turned my face away. “I admit nothing.” Unfortunately, I was now facing the TV again and I saw someone get brutally murdered. I let out a squeak and buried my face in his chest. “Can we please watch something else?”

            “No way, this movie is awesome.”

            I groaned and snuggled into him more, wriggling around to try and get more comfortable. I froze when he suddenly tensed. I looked at his face and saw that his expression was suddenly strained. “Chase? What’s wrong?”

            He cleared his throat. “Uh, maybe you, um, shouldn’t move around quite so much.” His cheeks were tinged with pink and he refused to meet my eyes.

            It only took me a moment to realize the problem, and then my cheeks heated slightly as well. “Oh.” I hesitated for a moment before talking again. “Chase, do you want… more from this relationship? Physically, I mean.”

            “I don’t want anything that you aren’t ready for,” he replied.

            “And what if I wanted more?” I whispered.

            He raised his eyes to mine, and I saw that they were now bright with excitement. “I’m a guy, Dana. I’m up for pretty much whatever you want to do.”

            I chewed my lower lip for a moment as I thought about it. Then I reached for the remote and turned the TV off. I cut off his protests with a long kiss. “I think you should take me to bed now,” I told him.

            He didn’t hesitate to do as I requested.

            The next morning I was eating breakfast with my parents when an idea came to me. “Do you think we could invite Chase and his foster parents over here for Christmas dinner? I know it’s short notice, but Chase mentioned the other day that they didn’t have any big plans.”

            My parents exchanged glances. “Sure, you can invite them. Maybe we can even hook Autumn up and go for a sleigh ride,” my dad suggested.

            “That would be fun!” Autumn was one of our lesson horses, but he was also broke to drive. “I’m going to go give Chase a call now and see if they can come.”

            Chase asked his foster parents and they were happy to agree. Bev asked if there was anything she could bring, so I told Chase to have her call my mom and find out. Then we arranged to go out for dinner together that night before we hung up the phone.

            I spent the day hanging around the house, reading a new book that Cindy had leant to me. I was so engrossed in it that I didn’t even hear Chase knock on the door, so when he came into view I jumped slightly. He chuckled and sat on the couch beside me. “Good book?” he asked.

            “Yeah, Cindy got me hooked on them. They’re pretty good.”

            “Are you ready to head out? Or would you rather just keep reading this amazing book?” he teased.

            I grinned at him. “You’re in a pretty good mood,” I observed.

            “After last night, I’m an awesome mood,” he stated.

            I rolled my eyes. “Such a guy,” I mumbled, and grudgingly set my book down. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.”

            We had a great time out together and he came to the stables to watch me ride Justice after. When I was done riding, I dismounted and then tilted my head slightly, regarding Chase thoughtfully. When he saw me looking at him, he raised an eyebrow. “What?”

            I took my helmet off and held it out to him. “It’s time for you to learn to ride. I’ll lead you around.”

            He shook his head. “No way. I am not getting up on that thing.”

            “Aw, come on. Please?”

            He hesitated for a moment, but then shook his head again. “No.”

            I sidled a little closer to him and slid the arm that wasn’t holding Justice’s reins around his neck. “Please? I really want you to try.” I nuzzled his neck lightly. “It would mean a lot to me.”

            He blew out a breath that wasn’t quite steady. “Damn it. I’m never going to be able to say no to you again, am I?”

            I gave him an innocent smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

            He snorted. “Yeah right.” He sighed and took a step back. “Give me the damn helmet.”

            I grinned and passed it over to him, helping him buckle it on. “You look so cute!” I gushed.

            He glared at me. “Shut up. How the hell do I get on this thing?”

            I led Justice over to the mounting block and told Chase to climb onto it. “Now put your left foot in the stirrup and swing your right leg up and over his back. Just try not to kick him in the butt when you do it.”

            Chase grumbled under his breath, but did as I said and cautiously swung onto Justice’s back. He gripped the horse’s mane tightly with both hands while I went to his right side to help him get his foot in that stirrup. Then I looked up at him. “Ready?”

            “No, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to stop you from making him move anyways.”

            I laughed and moved ahead a few steps. Justice followed me obediently, while Chase’s knuckles went white from how tight he was hanging on. Then I grabbed my cane from where it was leaning against the wall and started leading them around the arena. I glanced back every minute or so to check on Chase, and I saw his grip loosen slightly as we went along. We made two full circuits before I stopped. “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

            He pretended to glare at me for a moment, but then his lips turned up into a reluctant smile. “No, it wasn’t too horrible.”

            I told him how to dismount, and then we worked together as usual to put Justice away for the night. When we were walking back up to the house again, I tucked my arm through his. “Thank you.”

            “For what?”

            “For trying that.”

            He shrugged. “It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. I may even let you get me on a horse again.”

            “Really? That would be great! I’d love to be able to go on a trail ride with you once the weather gets nicer again.”

            He looked down at me when we stopped at the door. “I didn’t know it would mean that much to you.”

            It was my turn to shrug. “Luke and I used to go trail riding together all the time. I’d like to be able to do something with you that I always enjoyed doing with him.”

            He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly. “In that case, you can start teaching me every night that I’m here, if you want to.”

            I kissed him on the lips gently. “You really are an amazing guy, you know.”

            He grimaced. “Only to you,” he mumbled.

            I shook my head. “No, not only to me. You just don’t show this side to anyone else yet, but you will one day. Look at how much you love Starlight already.”

            “He’s a kitten. It’s kind of hard to hate something that cute.”

            I chuckled and kissed him once more before pulling reluctantly away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

            He ran the back of his hand down my cheek. “Have a good night.”

            “You too. I love you.”

            “Love you too, Dana. Sleep tight.”

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It's a little short again, but I'm happier with this one than the last one. I changed one thing in Chapter 14, right near the end. I had Chase say that the project doesn't start until after the holidays, so you won't meet Vicky for another couple of chapters.

Sooooo... they slept together!! And she got him up on a horse for the first time :-D (I think I'm more excited about that lol). What did you guys think?

Thank you to everyone who sent their best wishes to my cousin. He's doing better, but he'll be in the hospital for at least another few weeks. For those of you wondering what happened, he was rollerblading without a helmet and he fell and cracked his skull open, then proceeded to roll down a hill. He's pretty cut and bruised and obviously has a massive headache, but I saw him yesterday and he was smiling and laughing, which is a good sign. There's still quite a few concerns, but the doctors are hopeful that he'll make a complete recovery.

Vote and comment to let me know what you think! There's around eight more chapters or so left, but if you guys help me get to number one in the Watty's, then I'll think about adding more. Thanks for reading!