“Listen!” she said urgently.
He heard the sound then, from far off, a thin wail like the cry of a woman in agony. He said, “That’s just a panther calling. It’s too far off to smell us out.”
“A panther? Isn’t that a kind of lion?”
“They’re cats,” he replied. “Big cats. But they’ll mostly let people alone unless they’re starving, or unless somebody walks up on one unexpected.”
Maidia shuddered. “It sounds so terrible! I’ve broken out in gooseflesh.” She started to stand up, but changed her mind. “Where’s the whiskey bottle, Marshal? I think I need some Dutch courage before I can go back to sleep.”
“I’ll hand it to you,” Longarm said. “I’m already out of MY bedroll.”
He walked gingerly on bare feet to the log where the bottle was sitting, and handed it to Maidia. She drank, gulped, waited a moment, and drank again. Then she handed the bottle to Longarm.
“I’m sorry I woke you up. I guess I’m just nervous, she told him apologetically. “I think I’ll be all right now, though.”
“Sure you will. You’ll drop right off back to sleep.” Longarm went to his own bedroll, rearranged the blankets, replaced the Colt on his vest, and covered it again with his hat. The wind had died as the night deepened and it was no longer so cold. Just the same, he tossed a few sticks of wood on the fire, thinking the light might add to Maidia’s peace of mind. Then he crawled back between the blankets. He’d hardly had time to settle down when Maidia called him again.
“Marshal?”
“I’m right here. What’s troubling you?”
“Would you”—she hesitated for a moment—“Would you think I was being terrible if I asked to come over there with you?”
It was the last question Longarm had expected someone like Maidia Harkness to ask. He took his time in answering.
“If you’re sure that’s what you want to do,” he told her.
“I’m sure. I know what I’m saying. I’m not a child.”
“Come on over and welcome, then.”
Maidia slipped out of her bedroll and pattered across the few feet that separated them. By the light of the freshened fire, Longarm could see that she’d left her skirt in her own blankets. She had on only a blouse that fell to her waist. Her molded thighs gleamed pink-white. She stood briefly beside his bedroll, and Longarm lifted the corner of his blanket. Maidia eased under it beside him.
“I don’t need to apologize for asking to join you, do I? You’re not the kind of man who’d expect that,” she whispered.
“You don’t need to apologize or explain or anything else,” he told her. “Anybody’s likely to feel nerved up the first time or two they try to sleep outdoors.”
“I was all right until that panther yowled. I was dreaming—well, I won’t tell you what—I was dreaming.”
“Like I said, you don’t have to tell me anything.”
Longarm was very conscious of the warmth that was reaching him from Maidia’s nearly naked body. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but made no move to do so. He didn’t want to do or say anything until he was sure what she had in mind. “It was the dream as much as the panther that Maybe woke me up,” she said softly. “But—if it hadn’t been for the panther, I might not have awakened and realized that I didn’t have to be satisfied with just a dream.”
Her hand crept out of the covers to caress Longarm’s cheek. She ran her palm across his chin, his day-old beard rasping gently as she pressed harder. Then her fingers strayed up to explore the sweep of his mustache.
Not until Maidia’s lips replaced her fingers did Longarm move to touch her in return. He brought one of his hands up from her knee, along the satin skin of her thigh and over her hip, and slid it under the edge of her loose blouse. His fingers brushed across her breast and found a nipple, hardening now, unfolding slowly until it stood firm and solid under his gently pinching fingertips.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered. “Do that. And then, some more.” She rolled closer to him, and Longarm felt the weight of her thigh resting on his.
Maidia’s tongue was pushing Longarm’s lips apart, and he joined his tongue to hers. He was springing erect quickly. Her hand had left his face now, and was stroking his groin, feeling him grow hard under its grasp. Longarm released Maidia’s breast long enough to thumb open the buttons of his fly and let her hand find his bare, throbbing flesh. She closed her hand around him, and he felt her body ripple in a small, satisfied shudder.
“I like what I’ve got in my hand,” she said softly. “That’s what I was dreaming about, you know.”
“And then you woke up.”
“Yes. But I know how the dream would have ended. And I’m glad I woke up when I did.” Maidia squeezed him, not too gently. “This feels a lot better to me than any dream could.”
“There’s a way to make it feel better than it does now.”
Longarm slid his hand between Maidia’s thighs and fingered the warm wetness that was waiting for him there.
“Don’t hurry me, Marshal. I’m enjoying hefting you right this minute, and the longer I wait, the more I’m going to like it when it gets to where it belongs.” She shifted her head a bit and began nibbling on Longarm’s earlobe.
“You take your time, Miss Harkness.”
