Lone Star 03

by Ellis, Wesley

  They stood beside the blanket, holding their fervid embrace. Farnam became hard quickly under Jessie’s caressing fingers, and as she felt him swelling and growing stiff, she also felt the gentle brushing of Farnam’s fingertips through her damp pubic hair. He slid his hand between her thighs. She parted them enough to let his fingers rub gently along the soft lips that nestled between them. Then a fingertip slid into the warm nest that was quickly growing ready to accept him.

  “Come into me now, Joe,” Jessie invited when she felt the moisture beginning to form as Farnam’s probing fingers moved within her. Her lips were on Farnam’s ear as she spoke, and the warm breath that came from them was in itself a soft caress.

  “Yes. Of course,” Farnam whispered hoarsely.

  Jessie sank back on the outspread blanket, pulling Farnam with her. They lay on their sides, their lips glued together, their darting tongues entwined. Jessie had not released her grasp on Farnam’s erection. She bent her knee to open herself to him, and guided him as he raised his hips. She slid her lower leg under him and pulled her hips closer to him as the firm cylinder of flesh slid slowly in.

  Famam moved to bring his body above hers, but Jessie turned on her side and whispered, “In this position for now, Joe. Do you mind?”

  Intent on entering her fully, Farnam did not reply, but shook his head. Jessie pressed her thighs hard against Farnam’s hips, holding him in her shallowly, feeling his shaft throbbing to go deeper. She held him motionless for a moment, savoring the sensation. When she sensed Farnam’s urgency mounting and felt him stir restlessly, she released the pressure of her thighs, spreading them wide and bringing her hips up to meet his as Farnam drove into her full-length.

  Moaning softly with delight, Jessie lay quietly at first while Farnam pounded into her again and again. She knew he could not hold his fierce pace very long, and gradually brought her thighs together, forcing him to shorten his long, driving strokes. Lost in his own pleasure, Farnam did not at first realize that Jessie was controlling his rhythm, and when he did, he stopped and looked at her, his eyes worried.

  “Am I hurting you?” he asked.

  “No. I’m enjoying it as much as you are. I’m enjoying it so much that I want to help you last as long as possible.”

  “I’ll go slower, then.”

  Jessie released the pressure of her thighs and let him go in deeply once more. His tempo slowed for a few moments, but soon he was racing again. Jessie did not move until she felt Famam’s muscles beginning to tighten. She waited until he’d buried himself in her at the end of a deep penetration, then locked her legs tightly around his waist and clamped him to her once more, holding him motionless.

  “We don’t have to hurry, Joe,” she reminded him, her voice a soft sigh in his ear. “It’s a long time until daylight.”

  “But don’t you—” he began.

  Jessie smothered his question by closing her lips over his and sliding her tongue into his mouth.

  She held the kiss as she continued to savor the sensation of Farnam’s hard shaft filling her. Her first response was building quickly now, and she did nothing to slow its arrival. After a few more moments she started to rotate her hips gently, rubbing the tip of her sensitive nubbin of erectile tissue against the fleshy cylinder that impaled her, until the first gentle spasm rippled through her body.

  Farnam felt her shivering, and raised his head to look down at her. There was a question in his eyes, and Jessie shook her head before assuring him, “No. Not yet. That was just a beginning, not the end.”

  Farnam nodded. He rocked his hips from side to side while Jessie’s shudders continued, and when they ended he lay quietly until she had relaxed and sighed contentedly. After a moment he began to caress her breasts with his lips, drawing their stiffening nipples into his mouth and teasing them with soft raspings of his tongue. Jessie arched her back as her muscles began responding to Farnam’s flicking tongue. Then, dismayed, she felt him beginning to grow soft within her.

  Moving quickly, Jessie used one of the geisha tricks her instructress had taught her. Slipping her hand along Farnam’s belly, she slid it past the bond of flesh that still connected them. Finding the seam of flesh that started at the bottom of his buttocks and extended between his legs, she began to rub her tumbnail gently up and down along the little ridge, in a series of slow, prolonged caresses.

  After a moment, Farnam’s hips began to twitch. He moved his mouth to Jessie‘s, and thrust his tongue between her parted lips. He was still buried inside her, and Jessie felt him swelling again. She waited until he was fully erect, then wrapped her arms tightly around him and rolled on to her back, bringing him into the position he’d sought at the beginning of their embrace.

  Farnam did not need to be urged. As soon as Jessie released the pressure of her thighs, he started driving. Jessie brought up her buttocks and clasped her hands in the crooks of her knees. Each time Farnam plunged into her, she yanked down on her knees and brought her buttocks up to meet his long swift thrusts. From the vigor of Farnam’s strokes, she knew that he was close and she did not hold back. Farnam’s chest began heaving, and between her thighs, Jessie could feel his body beginning to quiver.

  Jessie herself was swept up in a whirlwind of sensation. She slid her hands down to her ankles and pulled them down to bring her hips still higher.

  Jessie’s entire body was tingling with painful ecstasy. She was aware of nothing but the pounding of Farnam’s deep, penetrating lunges, then in mounting surges each nerve and muscle was galvanized into ecstatic pulsing life for a few glorious, electric moments as Farnam lunged for a last time before the hot spurting of his own climax filled her and he fell forward on her with a contented sigh.

  They lay for a while suspended between awareness and deep lethargy as their bodies relaxed and taut nerves grew slack and the temptation to sleep became overwhelming.

  Jessie pushed away the sleep-clouds. She was tempted for a moment to use the more esoteric arts her geisha mentor had taught her to bring Farnam erect again, but second thoughts told her that he was not mentally prepared to accept such attentions. She let herself relax fully, content to wait now, but aware that the rest of the night still stretched ahead.

  Farnam brought her back to the present by stirring in her arms. He raised himself on his elbows and looked down at her. “You’re a tremendous lot of woman, Jessie,” he said feelingly. “Did I make you as happy as you made me?”

  “Every bit,” Jessie assured him. “And I know you will again later on, after we’ve rested.”

  Early darkness had crept quietly into the narrow canyon. The towering walls that formed its sides were black, the river invisible. Farnam looked up at the sky, dark blue in the east, with a few first stars showing now, shading in the west to an almost colorless blue, with a thin rim of sunset’s last pink outlining the horizon.

  “We’d better eat a bite while there’s still enough light to see what we’re doing,” Farnam suggested. “The moon won’t rise for another two hours, and even if we do have those few sticks of wood, it might not be wise to light a fire.”

  Jessie suddenly discovered that she was ravenously hungry. “A good idea,” she replied. She smiled and added, “When I said a while ago that we had the whole night ahead of us, it didn’t occur to me that nights can be short as well as long. And I’ve got a feeling now that this might be a night that won’t last as long as we’d like it to.”

  Lying beside the still-sleeping Joe Farnam, Jessie stretched luxuriously. Only half awake, she did not open her eyes, but raised her arms above her head, arched her feet, and wriggled her bare toes. As she awakened fully and became aware that light was glowing through her eyelids, she opened her eyes to the dim light of early morning.

  Beside her, Farnam stirred and opened his eyes. “I thought we were going to sleep late this morning,” he said. “We sure didn’t waste much time sleeping last night.”

  “You’re not complaining, are you?” she asked.

  “Of co
urse not!”

  “And I haven’t said anything about getting up,” she reminded him. “Ki won’t be here for two or three hours, but if you feel like we just must get out of bed—”

  Farnam cut her words off with a kiss. When they finally drew apart, he said, “I’d as soon stay here forever.”

  “Since we can‘t, do you think we ought to waste the time we’ve got left?” she asked teasingly.

  Farnam answered her by bending over and nibbling with his lips at the sleep-slackened rosettes of Jessie’s taut breasts. They budded under the gentle persuasion of his tongue, and when their tips thrust up firmly, he began to move his lips and tongue from one to the other before starting a trail of kisses up the cleft that divided the proud high mounds.

  His lips progressed up Jessie’s neck and across her chin until they were pressed to hers. As Farnam’s tongue slid into her mouth, Jessie busied her hands on his rising erection, until his shaft stood stiffly ready. Farnam moved to roll closer to her, but Jessie put a hand on the light brown curls that covered his chest and pushed him gently back.

  She rose above him on her knees, straddled his hips, and leaned forward to let his tongue reach her breasts again while she took his erection and began rubbing its tip along the moist lips between her thighs. She kept up the gentle friction until Farnam stirred and tried to thrust upward to enter her. Then she slowly lowered her hips and slipped his rigid shaft into her.

  For a few moments Jessie was content to crouch motionless above Farnam, revelling in the sensation of being filled. Then, raising her body erect, she ground down on Farnam’s hips, as though to take him in even deeper, and began rocking her buttocks slowly on her lover’s impaling sex.

  Jessie kept up the rocking until her first light spasm seized her. She fell forward when she began to quiver, and sought Farnam’s lips with hers. Their bodies pressed close, and they lay motionless, lost to the world, while the soft ripples of sensation that were flowing through Jessie’s body faded and came to a halt.

  Her voice soft, Jessie whispered into Farnam’s ear, “I’ll take you with me this time, Joe.”

  Pulling her knees up beside Farnam’s hips, Jessie started rotating her hips. Sensation mounted quickly now, and soon she began to lift her hips high, until Farnam’s swollen shaft almost left her, before dropping with the full weight of her body to take him in fully. Faster and faster she bounced above him. Farnam clamped his hands on her hipbones. He helped her raise herself up, then pulled her down quickly, their bodies meeting with a solid, fleshy thwack.

  “Now, Joe, now!” Jessie panted as her senses began rioting. “Hurry! Faster!”

  Farnam did not answer. He was panting into the throes of his own orgasm, thrusting his hips high, going deeper into Jessie than ever before, bringing her to a quivering, shaking orgasmic spasm as he lifted himself in one final upward thrust and began jetting as his body dropped back to the blankets. Jessie lay limp, sprawled on Farnam’s lax body, and in the shaded recess of the cleft, they both fell into an exhausted sleep.

  Chapter 8

  Farnam’s tensing muscles brought Jessie snapping into wakefulness. She was still lying on top of him, and he was still inside her, though now she could hardly feel the soft flesh that had been such a satisfyingly rigid rod when they’d gone to sleep. Jessie raised her head. Farnam’s eyes were open, his neck twisted to one side as he craned to look out of the cleft across the valley floor.

  “I’m sure some sort of noise woke me up,” Farnam said.

  “What kind of noise?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is that I woke up and heard something, a scraping of some kind. It hasn’t sounded since.”

  “I guess I didn’t hear it,” Jessie frowned. She stood up, took the two or three short steps necessary to reach the opening of the cleft, and added quickly, “But I do now, even if it’s still very faint. Hoofbeats, and they seem to be coming from the arroyo we came in by.”

  “Is it Ki coming back?” Farnam asked. He stood up and came to join her.

  Jessie shook her head. “It’s still much too early for Ki to be getting here.” She glanced at the sun, just above the rim of the eastern valley wall, and added, “He’d have had to start from the south ford before daylight to get back so soon.”

  “We’ll be able to see who it is soon enough,” Farnam told her. “It’s a rider, all right. The hoofbeats are getting louder every minute.”

  After she’d listened for a moment, Jessie said, “Whoever it is, he’s not in any hurry.”

  Farnam cupped a hand around one ear and turned his head in the direction of the noise. He said, “There seems to be only one horse, but sounds can be very tricky in a place like this.”

  “From what we’ve found out about this canyon, I don’t think we can expect him to be a friend.”

  “I’m sure by now that you and Ki were right about this place being a bandit trail,” Farnam said. “My guess is that it’s a scout the rustler gang’s sent to prowl the range on this side of the border and locate another herd to steal.”

  “We’d better get some clothes on,” Jessie said, suddenly aware of their nudity. “Go ahead and dress first, Joe. I’ll keep a lookout while you’re getting into your clothes.”

  “Just stay well back out of sight,” Farnam cautioned her.

  “I’ll be careful, Joe. But just in case that rider gets too close and catches sight of us, hand me my Winchester. If he should see us in here, I don’t imagine he’ll ask any questions before he starts shooting. If that happens, I want to be the one to get off the first shot.”

  Taking the rifle Farnam handed her, Jessie levered a shell into the chamber. Then she stepped back up to the opening of the cleft, staying well back in the deep shade that shrouded its interior. She peered out just in time to see a lone horseman come from the arroyo and start along the far wall of the canyon at a slow walk, heading toward the river.

  “Has he come in sight yet?” Farnam called in a half-whisper from the back of the cleft.

  “He’s just coming into the canyon. Hurry if you want to get a good look at him.”

  “I can’t hurry much faster, Jessie. These damned balbriggans are still wet. They’re all tangled up. I’m having trouble getting into them. Besides, we’d both better be just as still as we can. Any movement from in here might catch his eye.”

  As the man came abreast of the cleft, Jessie tried vainly to make out his features, but the sun was quartering his back, and the wide brim of his hat cast a deep shadow over his face. Strain as she might, Jessie could be sure of nothing except that the rider wore a short beard.

  “How close is he now?” Farnam asked in a low voice. “Those hoofbeats sound pretty loud.”

  “He’s just passing in front of us,” Jessie replied. “But I can’t tell whether he’s Mexican or Anglo.”

  “How about his saddle gear?”

  “It’s just like any other, Joe. Plain saddle, plain roan mustang. He could be a cowhand or a bandit or even a preacher, for all I can see.”

  “Let me have a look,” Farnam said, coming from the back of the cleft to stand beside Jessie. The rider was past them now, and all Farnam could see was his back. He studied the stranger for a moment and told Jessie, “Just as you said, that fellow could be anybody, but he’s sure got a cavalryman’s seat.”

  “How can you tell that?”

  “Look at his back, straight as a ramrod. The angle he’s carrying his elbows and knees. At West Point, I studied the pattern enough to recognize it anywhere. Everything about him says that at some time or other he was army-trained.”

  “Our army?”

  Farnam shook his head. “It’s hard to tell. He’d have had the same training in the Mexican cavalry. They got their basics from the French, but Napoleon based his training on what Frederick the Great did. The British did the same, and so did we.”

  They fell silent, watching the strange rider’s back as he rode on to the river.

  “I think he’s heading for that ford Ki
crossed yesterday,” Jessie said.

  “That’s about the only thing that’d bring him into this canyon,” Farnam agreed. “Which means just—” He stopped short. The stranger had reined in at the water’s edge and was staring across the Rio Grande. He sat motionless for a moment or two, then drew his revolver and fired two shots in the air, paused a few seconds, and fired two more.

  “He’s not going across,” Farnam said. “He’s signaling.”

  “Rustlers across the river?”

  “I imagine so. It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Farnam paused for a moment and then said, “We’d better get out of here in a hurry, Jessie. If we don’t move fast, we’ll be trapped in this canyon. Get your clothes on, quick!”

  Almost before Jessie could turn around, they heard distant shouts from the Mexican side of the river. They turned back to look. On the opposite bank, a small band of horsemen, clumped so that it was impossible to count them quickly, had appeared and were riding toward the river.

  “Hola, amigos!” the man on the U.S. side called. He was answered by a medley of shouts from the opposite shore.

  “Damn it, I know that voice!” Farnam said. He turned back to the opening. Jessie followed him. The rider on their side of the stream had taken off his wide-brimmed hat and was waving it in greeting to the horsemen from Mexico, who were strung out in single file now, getting ready to ford the river. The first two riders were already in the stream. “That’s Henderson down there! Sergeant Buell Henderson! My top kick! What the hell’s he doing here? He’s supposed to be on duty at the fort!”

  Famam started out of the cleft, but Jessie grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

  “Don’t be a fool, Joe!” she said curtly. “I count eleven men in that bunch crossing the river, and the first ones are in the middle of the stream right now. You’d be shot down before you got halfway to that man on the bank. If you want to do something about him, use your rifle!”

  “No, Jessie. I don’t want to kill Henderson. I want him alive, so I can bring him in front of a court-martial!”