“New York. It’s never dull there. There are the Broadway shows, musicals or dramas, tea dances at most of the big hotels.”
“I can see there’d be a difference. Can’t rightly say much about New York, I never get back there, myself.”
“You should, some time. It’s worth the trip.” She pointed to a thickly-wooded area that lay just ahead of them, where trees in closely spaced clumps spread across a wide patch of grassland that ended on their right at the foot of a high, white bluff. “Of course, you won’t find that in New York. The nearest thing to open country there is Central Park. Though it’s very much like that stretch ahead of us. Perhaps that’s why I feel at home when I see it.”
“I recall this place from when I was here a few years bac! They call it San Pedro Springs, don’t they?”
“Yes. It’s one of my favorite spots. On Sundays and holidays it’s overrun with families having picnics, but on days like today, in the middle of the week, it’s as deserted as the Forest of Arden.”
“Can’t say I been there, either. Matter of fact, I never even got to prowl around that stretch of woods up ahead except once when I was in San Antone before.”
Mrs. Stanley seemed compelled to talk. “Sometimes I bring my lunch out here and stay most of the day. I’ve found arrowheads and pieces of old Mexican army equipment from the Texas-Mexican war of fifty years ago.”
“You interested in history, then, Miz Stanley?”
“Not especially. But it gives me something besides gon gossip to think about.”
They were approaching an especially large growth of hachberry and pinoak trees bordered by low- branched chinaberry trees that formed a wide belt around the taller growth. Longarm kneed the dapple to turn it and skirt the edge of the motte, but the lieutenant’s wife was reining in.
“There’s a beautiful spring in the middle of this grove,” she said. “I just can’t pass by it without stopping for a sip of water.”
Longarm thought the excuse was flimsy, almost as flimsy as her story of having ridden after him to apologize. His work took him to army posts quite regularly, and he’d met bored, restless army wives before now. Almost from the time they’d crossed the river he’d been getting the groin-twitches that he felt whenever he was with an attractive woman who was obviously making herself available to him. He pulled rein and swung out of his saddle before she was quite ready to dismount.
“I’m pretty thirsty myself. We’ll go get some of that spring water together.”
He moved to help her from her horse. She was riding sidesaddle, with her right leg hooked over the horn, and had to swing The leg high over the pommel to free it. Longarm caught her booted foot in one hand and steadied her to the ground, his free arm pressing up the back of her thighs, over the soft bulge of her buttocks to her waist. She was beginning to tremble even before both her feet were on the ground. The trembling increased as he pulled her to him and sought her lips. They locked together, tongues entwined. Longarm felt himself growing erect as she rubbed her hips across his crotch.
She felt the swelling beneath his jeans, pulled away, and panted in a half-whisper, “Hurry! Let’s go into the grove! I want you right now, this minute!”
The End
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