She laughed and said, “You have a wicked imagination. Now that you’ve pointed it out, I can see how I could trap poor Calvin without, as you put it so bluntly, selling anything at all.”
“Yep, he’d likely marry up with you if you took him under your wing. Old Cal’s the marrying kind.”
“Well, I’m not a mother hen and if I was I don’t think he’d be my cup of tea. Nancy was an awful girl, but I could see how living with such a wishy-wash could drive most women to distraction. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I ran away from a husband who was twice the man Calvin is!”
Longarm shifted his weight and observed, “He’ll likely find some gal in Switchback. Word gets around quick about a lonesome cuss with a good job. Besides, he ain’t that bad—just has some growing to do. He’s already learned to ease up on the Indians and brand his livestock. He’ll make some gal a good man, provided she ain’t as particular as yourself.”
“Could we please drop Calvin Durler? A body would think you were trying to marry her off to the nearest thing in pants! Maybe I am particular, for a woman of my age and looks, but when I am ready to try again, I shan’t make the same mistake. I was a teenaged silly and my mother was after me to marry the boy next door and … no, the next time I’m going to have a much better notion what I’m getting myself into!”
“Pays to shop around a mite, eh?”
Prudence sighed. “I suppose you could put it that way. I’ve wasted some of my best years on a nice boy who bored me to distraction; I’ve made an awful fool of myself with a no-account handsome devil, and for a while, acted so crazy I hardly remember what it was like. Now that I’ve seen I’m just too … well, healthy to give my remaining good years to mission work-Heavens, what am I saying? Why am I baring my soul to you like this? And is that your arm around my shoulders, sir?”
Longarm gently drew her closer, and observed, “Lots of folks seem to tell me things they hadn’t intended to. Gal I knew once, said it had something to do with my not getting all excited in the middle of a quiet conversation. As to why I’m holding you friendly, I reckon I’m cold or something. I’ll stop if you want me to.”
She reached up to clasp the big hand cupping her shoulder as she sighed, “It does feel comforting, but you’re to go no further. Just because I’ve let down my hair a mite is no reason to get ideas. I may be middle-aged, and not much of a looker, and I’ve told you far too much about how weak I’ve been, but-“
“Slow down! You’re talking silly. You can’t be thirty yet, you know you’re a right pretty little mouse, and friends don’t take advantage of each other’s weaknesses.”
“Oh, you’re just saying that,” Prudence scoffed. “I’ll admit I’m not deformed, but ‘fess up—you wouldn’t have your arm about me if I hadn’t confessed to being a fallen woman, would you?”
“I might have hesitated if you’d stuck to beating drums for the Bible Society, but as for being fallen, I suspicion you haven’t fallen as far as you might have aimed to. Most of us have more lust than nerves. We’ve been brought up to think a lot of things that are only natural must be wicked. Somehow the people who wrote the rules got the funny notion that anything that felt good had to be bad for us.”
Her reply, if she had one, was muffled against his lips as he gently pulled her closer and kissed her. She responded, started to struggle, then moaned in pleasure and started kissing back.
Longarm put his free hand against her firm little belly, felt that she wore no corset, praise the Lord, and started moving up. Then he decided what the hell, and slid his hand down between her thighs and began to stroke her gently through her cotton twill skirt and whatever was under it.
She gasped and twisted her lips away from his, pleading, “No! I don’t want to!”
“Sure you do. Don’t you think I can read the smoke signals in your pretty brown eyes?”
“Oh, I’m so bewildered! My body’s saying one thing, but my head tells me this is wrong. The Bible says it’s wrong!”
He noticed she wasn’t pulling away all that vigorously, so he massaged her through the cloth and soothed, “Go with your body, honey. Anyway, if you really want to talk religion at a time like this, don’t you reckon the Lord would never have made us like we are, or let us be together like this, if He was so dead set against it?”
Even as she stopped struggling and opened her thighs to his caress, she protested, “Damn it, you know that’s pure sophistry!”
He grinned and said, “Yeah, ain’t that a bitch?” as he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, observing, “We could wrestle on that damn horsehair some more, but it ain’t civilized, and all these fool clothes are in the way.”
“What are you doing!” she exclaimed, even as she helped him with the hooks and eyes while he was undressing her. He gently stripped her to her shift and high-button shoes as she half-struggled, half-cooperated on the mattress. Then he popped a few buttons of his own, got most of his duds out of the way, and was mounting her. She sobbed, “Oh, I never should have told you about my past!” as she wrapped her thighs around him and gripped his naked buttocks with her leather-clad ankles. He moved them into a better position and started thrusting harder as she rolled her head from side to side and gasped, “Oh, this is terrible! What must you think of me?”
“I think you’re more wondrous than an army in its banners. You want me to take it out?”
“You do and I’ll kill you! I think I’m … oh, Jesus! I know I’m coming!”
Later, after they’d taken time to catch their breath and get rid of all the remaining clothing, Prudence held him in her arms, nibbling on one ear, as she purred, “Will you take me with you to Denver, darling?”
He said, “I’ll take you to the moon if you want, but maybe I should have explained a few things.”
She placed a finger to his lips. “Hush, don’t spoil this moment, darling. I know you’re not the marrying kind.” She chuckled and added, “As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I am, either. Not for a while, at least. There’s so much of life I seem to have missed out on. God, you must think I’m terrible!”
“No, I think you’re one of the few sensible gals I’ve run across lately. I’ll take you with me at sun-up and we’ll just sort of drift with the tide till-“
“No plans, dearest. I know better than to hold you to foolish promises and, well, you seem to have started something, for I don’t mean to be held to any, either!”
She saw he wasn’t going to answer and chuckled. “You’re not sure if you like that or not, are you? I suppose most girls you do this with fall madly in love with you?”
