hue.
Jessibee said, “I couldn’t sleep. I don’t go to bed early when I’m at home, you see, like most of my relatives. They’re ready to turn in when the sun goes down. Most of them farm, so they have to be up at daybreak.”
“And you don’t?”
“That’s one of the good things about living alone; I don’t have to follow anybody’s schedule. If I want to read all night, I can. Or if I feel like getting up at three in the morning for breakfast, I can do that too, without disturbing anyone.”
“A pretty lady like you are, I’d have figured you to have a husband by now.”
“I had one,” Jessibee said. “Until three years ago, when he died of pneumonia.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I’m over it by now, Custis. And to save you asking, I’m not looking for another husband. I get along quite well alone, just as you seem to. You don’t have a wife waiting for you somewhere, do you?”
“No. Never found time to get married, or a woman I’d want to tie up with for the rest of my life.”
“Good. Then we don’t have to pretend to one another, do we? Ask a lot of questions with double meanings, or say a lot of things we don’t really mean.”
“That’s a habit I never got into,” Longarm told her.
“It took me a while to break mine. But I feel a lot better if I don’t try to put a false face up to someone.”
A bit more light began to seep into the cabin now, as the moon came from behind the cloud that had shrouded it. Longarm could see Jessibee as something more than an occasional oval of blurred features in the sudden glow when she puffed her cheroot. Her eyes were deep pools in the bluish, uncertain light that turned her lips to a crimson so dark they looked almost black, accentuating their sensuous fullness.
He said, “Since you’ve got a taste for cigars, I’d imagine you might enjoy a drink of whiskey. All I’ve got is Maryland rye, if that’ll suit you.”
“It’ll suit me fine. The whiskey that old man makes is good enough, but I had all I cared for up at Sam’s house.”
“Belle’s house now, I guess,” Longarm said as he poured their drinks. “I feel sort of bad about Sam. I was just getting acquainted with him.”
“I never really knew him. Or Belle either. I wouldn’t be here now, except that I was visiting Cousin Robert and he insisted that I come along.” Jessibee sipped the whiskey. “It’s very good.” She drained the glass. “Whiskey’s like a stallion mounting a mare. Quick and harsh. Brandy’s more like a man with a woman, slow and lingering, but still with force and authority.”
Longarm smiled. “That’s as neat a way of putting it as I ever heard. But you didn’t need to give me a message, Jessibee, except to let me know you’re ready.”
“If you are,” she said.
Longarm stood up. “Maybe not quite, but I will be fast enough, if you’re the woman I take you to be.”
Jessibee came up to stand before him. She turned up her face for his kiss. Her lips grasped his and drew his tongue into her mouth. He drew her to him in a hard embrace, and the warmth of her body began to bring him erect. Longarm ran his arms down Jessibee’s sides. His fingers met only smoothness. She had on nothing except her thin calico dress.
“You got a head start on me,” he said when they broke off their kiss. “Give me a little time to get off my clothes.”
“We don’t have to rush. But don’t dawdle, either.”
Longarm made quick work of undressing. He saw her pull her dress over her head, to show her body glimmering in the bluish glow that filled the cabin. It was as he’d thought: a woman’s body, wide-hipped, full- breasted, with swelling thighs.
Jessibee moved to him. He said, “Those bunks are too narrow for us to be comfortable, Jessibee. Wait just a minute.” He dragged his bedroll off and spread it on the floor. “Now. It won’t be a featherbed, but we’ll at least have room to lay down together.”
Jessibee folded her legs under her and sat down in a single graceful sweep. Her arms were slender white columns raised to invite him. Longarm knelt beside her. Jessibee’s hands were warm on his erection, which was beginning to throb to fullness.
“I was wondering if the light was fooling my eyes,” she told him. “I didn’t really believe them.” She squeezed gently, both hands wrapped around him. “But I believe what I’m holding now.”
Longarm found Jessibee’s full, soft breasts and felt her nipples grow firm and lift to tautness as he rubbed and kneaded them with his calloused fingers. They stood out like small rough fingertips as he bent to kiss them and caress them with his tongue.
Jessibee leaned back and pulled him with her. She whispered gustily, “Come into me like a stallion, Custis. But then make love to me like I’m a woman.”
Longarm moved his fingers to Jessibee’s thighs, to spread them. She twisted her body on the rough blanket that topped the bedroll to bring herself closer to him. Her hands were holding his shaft tightly now. She rubbed its tip over her moist warmth and whispered, “Now, Custis! Go in now!”
Longarm buried himself in her hot depths. She rolled her hips from side to side as he entered, and sighed contentedly when he filled her. Longarm raised himself, almost leaving her, but Jessibee brought up her legs and wrapped them around his lower ribs and levered her hips upward to keep him in place. He thrust hard, a series of deep, swift strokes, then slowed to a more deliberate rhythm as Jessibee gripped him hard with her thighs.
“Don’t hurry!” she whispered urgently. “I haven’t had a man for a while, and I don’t want to let go too
