It's been two days, and in those forty-eight hours, Solomon has got up in the middle of the night, leaving the house, and then I hear an orchestra of machines roaring outside. I don't go out there, though. But I wanted to. On the fourth night of hearing that ruckus, I threw my legs over the side of the bed, and made my way downstairs. That's when I noticed it was coming from the back of the backyard. I didn't even know he had a backyard here. But he did. The backyard was as big as a parking lot. There was a horse corral, where five beautiful horses pranced around. The first one I saw was a black-and-white one, with a long, black mane. The second one was a chestnut-brown color, with a white diamond on its forehead. It was chasing the black-and-white one. The third one was white as snow, with its mane being the exact snow-white color. The fourth horse was a dark-brown color, with a long and sleek black mane. The fifth horse caught my attention, and little did I know I was already nose-to-fence with the corral. The fifth horse was a pure black stallion. Its mane was just as dark, and it wasn't running, or being next to the other horses. It was a 'lone wolf', if you will. In a sense, that's me. Alone, with no one by my side, even though there's people around me, I still feel alone.

"You like my horses?"

I jumped, feeling my heart about to rip through my chest. I turned to look at a shirtless Solomon. His torso was defined and muscled, and I had to look somewhere else, because my face burned, and I knew I was blushing. Why are you blushing? I yelled at myself in my head. Are you fucking crazy? Stop it! Solomon noticed my red face and chuckled.

"Or do you like my body? Maybe both?" he asked, crossing his arms loosely over his chest. He broke our eye contact and turned towards the horses. "So, do you like them? I've had them for a few months now."

"Y-yeah, they're beautiful."

He cracked another smile and looked at me. "Like you."

"Are you implying that I look like a horse?" I tried to my best to turn that compliment into an insult, and I did. Solomon laughed while I kept a straight face.

"No, my love, I'm implying that you're beautiful." He cleared his throat, stepping onto one of the corral's boards and raising his chest above the top of the corral, so he could get a better view of his horses. I did the same. The black stallion raised its head at us and began walking towards Solomon. He petted the horse, and I watched him. I mean really watched him, watched as Solomon caressed his horse, scratching behind its ear and petting under its chin. I looked at Solomon's face, and saw he was smiling in a way I haven't seen on him before. "This one's my favorite," he added, looking at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I had my eyes on that one, too," I said. "I've never seen a black stallion before."

"Well, now you have." Solomon inched closer to the horse, gently pushing it towards me. "Go on, Elora. Pet him. He won't bite."

So I did. But I had to step onto a third board to be able to touch his mane. "What's his name?" I asked, petting the black stallion.

"His name's Apollo. The light-brown one over there is Bandit, he's a little rascal. The white one's name is Charm, she's . . uh, how you say, a lucky charm. That's why I named her that. The black-and-white one is Willow. I actually knew her owner, and her name was Willow so I decided to name my horse that. The dark-brown is Mickey. Quite a handful, huh?"

"Why'd you get five horses?" I asked him, and noticing that Apollo was slowly walking away.

"I want to breed them, and then sell them. I'll make quite a profit." Solomon looks at me with half-smile on his face. "Unless you'd like to keep a foal. Then I'd be glad to keep one for you. You can name it whatever you want and when it's old enough, you can ride it into the sunset. And, you know, come back." His smile was getting weaker, and he hopped off the corral boards, landing smoothly on the ground. "Do you want to ride one?"

I look at him with an eyebrow raised. "Are you serious?"

"Yep!"

"But . . the sun's coming up in like, an hour."

"Ohhh! So you're worried about me? Worried that I'll get burned?" He grinned at me, with those metallic gray eyes calling me. I gulped, feeling my stomach do flips and my hands starting to shake. I didn't look at him.

"Fine," I said. "I'll ride." I climbed off of the corral and faced him.

"Alright, my love, choose your h-" before he could finish his sentence, I had already opened up the corral, letting myself in and closing the massive door behind me. "Elora! What are you doing?"

I stood in the middle of the corral, eyeing the beautiful horses that were around me. Apollo came towards me, then Charm, the snow-white horse. Apollo was looking at Solomon, who was sitting the top of the corral, looking at me. Charm started smelling my face, then my neck, and the rest of my body. She made a noise that didn't sound like a neigh and rubbed her face on my face. I smiled a bit, and accidentally looked at Solomon.

"She likes you!" he called from where he was sitting. "I'll go get the saddles!"