Longarm just sat there stunned, his mouth half open.
She said, “I knew this moment would come. I knew it was destiny.” She rapidly unbuttoned the buttons of her blouse, and before he could even speak, she had stripped it off and thrown it to the floor. Next came the buttons of her skirt, and it too fell to the floor.
Longarm said, “Lucy, now wait just a-“
But before he could finish, she had taken the long chemise she was wearing and pulled it over her head.
In a breathless, excited voice she said, “Oh, my gosh, I can’t stand it anymore.” She suddenly rushed toward the bed and flung herself headlong down its length. Longarm barely had time to stand up to avoid her.
He said, “Lucy, what in hell are you doing?”
She had turned on her back and lay there, her legs spread wide, her eyes staring at the ceiling. She said, “Take me. Take me. Take me now, Marshal. Please.”
Longarm did not relish the thought of being caught with Mrs. Bodenheimer’s daughter, but yet here was this vuluptuous, luscious-looking young woman, lying naked in his bed, with him just wearing a pair of Levi’s that were rapidly getting too small to hold him. In one swift motion, he kicked them off and crawled up on the bed. He hovered over her on his hands and knees. She had her eyes shut tight.
He said, “Lucy, are you sure you know what you are doing?”
She said, “Oh, please hurry. I can’t wait.”
He lowered himself down to her and guided his penis into her young vagina. She was dry and she was tight, and for a second he had fears that she might be a virgin. But then he thought to himself that everyone was a virgin at one time or another and he had already come this far.
To his surprise, as soon as he penetrated her half an inch, her vagina came alive and moist and welcoming. As he thrust into her, her legs came up around and clutched him and pulled him into her. Her arms drew his head down to her, and she began to lavish kisses all over his face. She had wonderfully shaped large breasts and the kind of fine-boned smallish figure that Longarm liked so well.
It was over all too soon. She brought him quickly to a high state of excitement, and she did not react to any of his attempts to slow her down. Before he knew it, he had fallen off the mountain and had exploded into her. The instant it happened, she grew still and quiet. She had been making little moaning, keening sounds, but now she grew silent. He thought it was from disappointment. He had only given her a three-or-four-minute ride, but he’d never really had a chance for more.
He rolled off her to the side away from the door, trying to think of something consoling to say. It obviously wasn’t necessary because in an instant, she had bounced to her feet and was putting on her clothes.
Lucy said, her eyes sparkling, “Oh, I knew it would be grand. I knew it would be so wonderful with a grown man, not like with those boys. Oh, that was everything I expected, Marshal Long. I am so happy, so fulfilled. I feel like a woman.”
Longarm’s mouth was open and his mind was dazed, but before he could reply, she had dressed and was out the door, closing it behind her. He sat up slowly, shaking his head. He didn’t know what had happened but it had felt good, at least to him.
He rose out of bed and began to dress. It seemed the decision had been made for him. He had plenty of time to drop by and take supper with Miss Gloria, the bank teller.
As he looked in the mirror to see if he needed another shave, he noticed blood on his left ear. He touched it gingerly. It was sore. Like a dim memory rising out of a fog, he remembered that during the moments when Lucy had gone wild, his ear had somehow ended up in her mouth. She had apparently tried to chew it off. He wet a rag, wiped the blood off, and then dried it. He said out loud, “Damned if I ain’t getting hurt worse back here at home than I did on the trail. I’m beginning to believe those outlaws that I’m always chasing are a good deal safer than these women.”
He got over to Gloria’s a little before eight. She had held supper for him. The way she was dressed told him what was to be expected. She was wearing a light linen frock that was clearly the only clothing on her body. She served him a dinner of good roast beef along with mashed potatoes and corn, with apple cobbler for dessert. He had brought his own whiskey since he did not see her that often. They sat a while after they had eaten, with her drinking coffee and him sipping his Maryland whiskey.
Gloria was a handsome woman of about thirty who had been widowed for several years after her husband fell off a windmill. She’d come in from the ranch and gone to work in Denver, until she had moved up to the respectable job of teller at one of the smaller banks.
He could tell she was anxious. He was anxious too, but not as anxious as he had been earlier that night. He dawdled another ten minutes, and then got up out of his chair, crossed to her, and kissed her long and meaningfully while he ran his hand down the blouse of her dress and cupped her ample breast in his hand. She got up silently and led him into the bedroom.
Gloria liked to tease. He got undressed and lay down on the bed while she slowly undressed. Her style was to parade around naked, keeping his gaze on her, and then to suddenly rush in for a few strategically placed kisses. After that, she would withdraw for some more teasing. Her theory, she said, was that the longer you looked at a meal, the more you wanted it. Longarm had always wanted to say that while you’re looking, it’s cooling off.
Finally, she came to him, and they mingled their bodies and their appendages and their fluids, until finally they started toward the rising sensation of passion. Gloria climaxed very physically, bucking and straining against him, beating him on the back with her hard little fists, and drumming her heels on the backs of his legs. He didn’t think about it at the time, but later, as he sat on the side of the bed, he felt the bruises that he realized would still be there the next day. He didn’t know how many more women he could stand in the short period of time he had before he left town.
He declined her offer to spend the night, begging off with the excuse that he was still writing up his report from his last trip and that it was due the next day. She gave him a long and lingering kiss at the door and said that she was disappointed that he had been so easily satisfied. Since he couldn’t very well tell her the truth, that he had been emptying his bucket in other wells, he said he was just completely worn out from his time away from Denver.
He said, “You let me get in one or two nights’ good sleep and we’ll roll and pitch and scuffle all night long.”
