“We’re very anxious to see them.”
“You got a guide picked out yet? I got a cousin that-“
“We’re going to talk to Matt Horn,” Longarm said, cutting the woman off.
“Well,” Jenny said, frowning, “Matt is a good man and he sure knows the ruins as well as most anyone around. His brother Joe runs the livery. But I hear Matt’s a terrible cook.”
“We don’t mind that,” Miranda said. “Have you lived in Cortez long?”
“Most of my life,” the woman said. “My husband and I bought this hotel from a woman whose husband got drunk and got stabbed to death in a saloon brawl about twelve years ago. Then my husband, he up and died about five years ago, leaving all the damned work to me. I don’t mind, though. I can hire Chinamen or whoever I need to help, and sit on the veranda in my rocking chair and watch the world go by.”
“Sounds like a good life,” Longarm said.
“Oh, it is! I’m looking for a husband, though. One about your age and size, Mr. Long.” Jenny winked. “Too bad that you’re already taken, or maybe we could have had some good times together.”
Longarm chuckled, knowing that he was being teased. “Well,” he told the old woman, “if I see any likely prospects, I’ll send them your way, Miss McAllister.”
“You do that and you and your pretty wife can stay here as long as you like for free!” Jenny strutted behind her registration desk and pulled a key from a board. “I’m givin’ you Room Number Five. It has a nice view.”
“Much obliged.”
“Be a dollar a day for the room, and you get a bath every day whether you need it or not and clean sheets every week. If you want meals here, I have a dining room and my food is as good and as reasonable as you’ll find in Cortez. Tonight, we’re having corned beef and cabbage with sourdough bread and apple pie for dessert. All you can eat and all the coffee you can drink. Fifty cents each and you won’t do better anywhere else.”
“That sounds good,” Miranda said. “I’m sure that we will be down for supper.”
“Good!”
Longarm paid for two nights and took his room key. Number Five had a nice view of the main street. The place was modest but clean, and when a couple of Chinamen arrived with pails of hot water for their bath, Longarm tipped them generously. Being a gentleman, Longarm offered Miranda the first turn in the big copper tub.
No,” she said, “you’re dirtier than I am, so you go first.”
“That tub is big enough for the both of us,” Longarm argued. “So why don’t we both get in while the water is still nice and hot.”
“I like that idea,” Miranda said, starting to remove her clothes.
Longarm undressed quickly, and enthusiastically climbed into the tub, groaning with contentment because the water felt so soothing. When Miranda joined him, he could not help himself as he studied her large and luscious breasts and the graceful curve where her slender neck met her pretty shoulders.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, cocking her head a little to one side.
“You are so beautiful that I was thinking how much I’d like to make love to you.”
“In this tub?” Miranda looked at him as if he were crazy.
“That’s right.”
She giggled. “Could you? I mean, it’s not that big!”
“Yes, it is,” he said, coming over to ease down between her legs. “Have you ever done it in a bathtub!”
“No, and I think it sounds kind of crazy when we have a nice, dry bed just a few feet away.”
“I like the novelty of this,” Longarm said, rocking his hips forward as he guided his throbbing shaft into her body. “There, I told you it would work.”
She hugged his neck and scooted down a little so he could enter her all the way. “Custis, be honest. This could get pretty sloppy, couldn’t it?”
“It could and it probably will,” he said, kissing her lips as he began to move around and around as if he were stirring a big spoon.
“You won’t lose your head and half drown me like male ducks do to female ducks when they screw them on a pond or lake, will you?”
“No, I promise that won’t happen.” Longarm grinned with pleasure. “After this, you’ll want to make love more often in a bathtub.”
“I’d make love anywhere with you,” Miranda said, her own bottom beginning to thrust. “This is nice and warm and … different.”
Longarm closed his eyes and lost himself in the pleasure of their lovemaking. He took his time, and it was nearly a quarter of an hour before both he and Miranda really got excited and started thumping so hard that they splashed waves of water over the rim of the tub.
“We’re going to have a big mess on the floor,” Miranda panted, clinging to Longarm as he neared his climax.
“Who gives a damn!”
“Not me,” she breathed, fingernails digging into his back as her body began to buck wildly out of control. “Oh, come on, Custis!”
Longarm was more than ready, and when he exploded, he sent great tidal waves of water sloshing onto the
