“Yeah, I’m starved. All that dancing pretty much wore me out.”
“There’s a really good hamburger place around the corner and then I know a great place to eat our meal,” he told her.
“Lead on,” she said, laughing.
He turned into the hamburger place, drove up to the drive up window and they ordered the food. Then Dusty headed down the highway and soon turned off on a dirt road.
“Where we going?” Mattie asked.
“Out to my old man’s, old place. We had a little ranch until he got cancer and we had to sell off all the stock to pay the hospital bills. That’s why I’m working for the Double D. Once I save enough money, I am going to restock my dad’s old ranch and go into business for myself. That’ll take a few years yet, but it’s a dream of mine. There’s a real pretty pond on the place and there is a full moon tonight, so I thought we could put a blanket down by the pond and eat.
“I think I would like that,” Mattie said. “Then maybe after we eat you could show me your place.”
“Yeah, I guess I could. It’s not much right now and it has been closed up for a year, but I come and check on it when I can.”
He turned off the dirt road and was following a track through the grass, that wasn’t really a road but had been traveled over before. The grass grew high between the tire tracks though. The windows in the truck were rolled down because it was a warm night. The warm air brushed over Mattie’s arm as she rested her elbow on the window seal. She could smell the fresh grass and wildflowers in the air, as the tires crushed the stems and caused the fragrance to burst forth.
The headlights caught a clump of trees in the distance and the moonlight reflected on the still water of the pond, that the trees sheltered and fed from. Dusty pulled up under one of the threes.
“Here we are, sugar,” he said. “I’ll get the blanket.”
He reached behind the seat and pulled out a blanket and a couple of towels.
“What are the towels for?” she asked.
“It’s a warm night. I thought if you wanted, after we ate, we could go swimming.”
“You mean skinny dipping,” she corrected.
Dusty grinned.
“No worse than seeing each other in the shower,” he pointed out.
“Is the water very cold?”
“Nope, the sun warms it up pretty well during the day, so by night time, it is nice and warm.”
“Well, maybe I will try it, but right now, I am starved.”
Dusty spread the blanket out and got the food from the truck. Mattie sat crossed legged on the blanket with her bag of food in her lap and pulled a hamburger from the bag, while Dusty handed her a drink.
“It is really nice out here, Dusty. How many acres do you have?”
“A couple hundred. Not as big as the Double D, but it is plenty big for me.”
“What happened to your mom?”
“When dad died, she went to live with her sister. I see her once in a while, but it’s quite a ways from here. She never liked the country. She was a city girl before she married my dad. But she loved him enough to live his kind of life until he died. My sisters were married, by the time Dad died, and no one wanted the ranch, so I got it.”
“How many sisters do you have?”
“Two, they are older than me. They were married by the time I turned ten. I was sort of a change of life baby. I just snuck up on my mom by surprise.”
“You must have been a pleasant surprise, though,” Mattie smiled, reaching up and pushing a lock of hair out of Dusty’s eyes.”
“Yeah, I was a pretty cute baby, all right. My sisters spoiled me rotten, seeing as how my dad always wanted a son.”
“I bet you were a pretty baby. You turned out to be a pretty good-looking guy, as well.”
“Glad you think so,” he grinned. “You about ready for that swim?”
“Think I want to rest a bit first.”
Mattie laid back with her hands under her head.
“When the moon is full like this, the stars aren’t quite as bright,” she pointed out, “but there sure are a lot of them out there.”
Dusty laid down beside her.
“I always liked looking at the stars. Thought I saw a U.F.O. once.”
“Really?”
“Scared the hell out of me. I was out on my horse riding at night and this light comes overhead and just sits there. I know it is not a plane cause I can’t hear an engine or anything, and besides, it is hovering anyway. And then these little red lights come out from the bottom of it and one red light goes one way and the other red light goes the other. Then all of a sudden, the big white light just zips off so fast, it’s like I never saw it there at all.”
“You sure they didn’t abduct you or something?”
“If they did, I didn’t remember it and I don’t think I lost any time, so I guess not.”
Mattie turned her head towards him and laughed.
“No little green or grey people, then?”
“Nope,” he said, as he raised up on his elbow and looked down at her. “You know, Mattie, you are one fine looking girl, not to mention the fact that you can arm wrestle a man, wrangle a horse and dance better than any girl I danced with tonight. And on top of that, you sure know how to kiss.”
“You wanting to kiss me, Dusty?” she asked.
“Sort of.”
“Well, what’s stopping you?”
“Just didn’t want to get in trouble.”
“How could you get in trouble? There is no one out here to see you kiss me.”
“You wouldn’t get all mad?”
“Why should I? I kissed you on the dance floor, didn’t I?”
“But that was to make Matthew mad.”
“Who says so?”
“I thought…”
“You think too much. You gonna kiss me or not?”
“Well, I was thinking about it.”
“Stop thinking, Dusty…”
Dusty grinned and lowered his head to her, letting his lips brush against hers.
“I know you can do better than that, Dusty,” she whispered. “It’s not like you have never kissed a girl before, and on the dance floor, you did more than just brush my lips.”
“I’ve just never kissed a girl like you before,” he admitted. “I don’t want to spook you none.”
“How can a kiss spook me? Heck, I’ve seen you naked before and that didn’t spook me.”
“I sure liked the way you were looking at me, too.” he told her, as he lowered his head again and captured her lips, sucking against her bottom lip and running his tongue over it.”
“I think I’m about ready for that swim,” she breathed against his mouth.
“You sure?”
“Sure as I’m ever going to be.”
“You want me to help you with your clothes? I believe you once took my clothes off.”
“Wouldn’t mind if you did,” she smiled
Dusty pulled her to a sitting position and undid the buttons on her blouse and then pulled it from her arms.
“When I took your tee shirt off today in the shower, I couldn’t believe how beautiful your body looked. You just threw me for a loop, Mattie.”
“You like my body?”
“Matthew told me to keep my hands off of it.”
“What did you say?”
“That I would never touch you unless you asked me to,” he informed her, as he looked over her upturned breasts with the moonlight glowing against them.”
“Matthew started to touch me once and then got all spooked and stopped because I was under-age. Only when I tried to show him I wanted him to touch me he got all uptight, and made me stop.”
“Well, you are under-age. That probably scared him more than his desire to touch you.”
“We were alone. No one would have ever known, seeing as how everyone thought I was a boy back then.”
“The night you took off on your horse, huh? That is what you were all upset about.”
�
�Yeah. He told me all this stuff about how I had all the qualities he was looking for in a woman and it was too bad I was a boy, so I let him find out I was a girl, and suddenly all those things he told me didn’t matter anymore.”
“He told me he had dibs on you,” Dusty told her, as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Do you have dibs on him as well?”
“I like him, but he doesn’t understand me. I don’t think he ever will.”
“What about me, Mattie? Do you like me?”
“I think you understand me better than Matthew does,”
“Really? I told him he was spooking you.”
“You don’t spook me Dusty, but I’m not choosing anyone. I just want to live my life and have fun until I know what I really want from a man.”
“You want to have fun now?” Dusty asked.
“I’m getting ready to go skinny dipping with you, what do you think?” she laughed.
“I won’t touch you,” he informed her, but just playing around can’t hurt anything can it?”
“Then what are you waiting for?” she asked. “I’m still half dressed.”
“Just wanted to enjoy the view for a while before we got all wet.”
Mattie reached out and started to undo Dusty’s buttons on his shirt.
“You’re wasting time, Dusty,” she told him.
Dusty bent forward and pulled off her boots, then he stood up and brought her to her feet as well.
“Okay, darlin’. Then let’s get this show on the road.”
He undid her skirt, pulled it free, along with her panties, and then carried her to the edge of the pond and tossed her in, as she squealed in surprise. As soon as she hit the water, Dusty peeled off his jeans and boots and jumped in after her.
Soon they were frolicking in the water, splashing each other and dunking each other as they shrieked with pleasure and delight. When Mattie came up out of the water in front of Dusty, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against him. For a moment they stood there, as he looked down into her eyes, while his hair dripped over her. She tilted her head back and laughed at him.
“I can feel you getting hard, Dusty. But you’ll never be as long as my horse is,” she teased.
“Don’t need to be as long as your horse. I’m long enough.” he chuckled back. “Matthew told me not to be asking you to touch me, so I won’t. Only I’m not like Matthew, Mattie. I’ll let you make up your own mind about what you want.”
“Matthew said I was playing with fire, teasing you boys by showering with you and wanting to remain in the bunkhouse.”
“He might be right. The way I’m feeling right now is on the verge of indecent.”
“Can you show me, Dusty? Can you show me what a man likes?”
“That might be a little too dangerous,” he warned. “Maybe that is why Matthew wouldn’t touch you when you wanted him to.”
“How else am I going to learn? I certainly would not let my daddy do it, even though he tried once.
“Well, I’m not your daddy, but maybe you should wait until someone who you love is willing to show you…after you turn eighteen.”
“You’re as bad as Matthew,” she murmured.
“It’s just that if I did that, I might just get carried away. If that happened, Matthew would have my hide, not to mention the law prosecuting me.”
“I kind of liked that time you asked me to measure you, but everyone was watching then. I couldn’t act like I enjoyed it. And besides everyone thought I was a boy.”
“I couldn’t understand why I was doing that. There was something about you and I was trying to put my finger on it… Now I know why I was attracted to your pretty face.”
He stopped talking because her hand was touching him as he spoke.
“You sure you don’t want to show me?” she asked.
“Darlin’, you know I do, but this is getting a little too crazy,” he breathed.
“I’m touching you. You want to touch me?”
“Yeah, but you know I won’t. Not until you are of age.”
“But I’m asking you. You told Matthew you wouldn’t touch me unless I asked you.”
Dusty swallowed hard.
“Listen, Mattie. It’s not that I don’t want to touch you. You know I would be willing, only…”
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t want it,” she responded.
Dusty stepped back away from Mattie.
“I know you are curious. I know you just can’t wait to be treated like a woman. Only this is not the way it should be done, Mattie. I’m not going to try and give you lessons, the way you say your daddy tried to do. You need to learn all that stuff with the man you are in love with. Someone you want to spend your future with.”
“I never thought you would be lecturing me, Dusty. I told Matthew that you didn’t try to make me be someone I wasn’t, and here you are, telling me what’s best for me.”
“Doesn’t matter, Darlin’, you keep this up, and we would both end up being sorry. I know I may sound like a hypocrite, cause I like the ladies, only you are not one of those kind of ladies. You are something special. If I ever did that with you, it would be because I loved you and you loved me.”
“How am I going to know if I love you or Matthew or anyone if I don’t get any experience?” she pouted.
“It’s only two months for you to wait, Mattie. But even then, you shouldn’t just jump in blind, thinking it is all fun and games. That is how people end up getting hurt.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” she admitted.
“Guess you’re gonna learn pretty darn quick here if you keep this up,” he informed her. “I think its time we get out of the water. Come up on the blanket with me.”
Mattie followed him to the blanket, feeling disappointed.
“Let’s just lay here for a bit, while I catch my breath. Just thinking about what you suggest is going to give me a heart attack.”
Mattie laughed.
“You can’t always have just what you want, Mattie. I’m not refusing you because I am not attracted to you, or that I don’t want you to experience something great. But like Matthew said, you would be playing with fire, and the thing is, I may just cross over the line against my better judgment.
“You know when you breed horses, the end result is a foal.
He paused, and then rushed on.
“Having sex could make that happen. If I started touching you, my natural instincts would take over my senses. Didn’t you ever take sex education in school?”
“I never went to school much. Just enough to get the grades I needed to pass. Things come easy to me, so I never had to study much to pass the tests.”
“So what’d you do? Skip sex education?”
“Sorta. Didn’t think I had any use for it. I knew how to breed horses, and that was about the same thing.”
Dusty laughed.
“So I guess you do know the mechanics of it a little, then.”
“It’s not the sex I am curious about, Dusty. It is all the other stuff about how it feels when a man touches me,” she admitted, as she snuggled closer to him.
“It’s pretty darn tempting, Mattie, only I just keep thinking about Matthew beating the crap out of me if I dare touch you. Even if you do ask me.”
“How am I gonna learn, then?”
“On your wedding night?” Dusty chuckled.
“And have it a big surprise?”
“Sometimes those kind of surprises can be nice if the groom knows what he’s doing,” he told her.
“I take it, you know what you’re doing?”
“I’ve had enough experience to know what I am doing, but I don’t want you jumping the gun. Not until you know how you feel about Matthew or me.”
Mattie frowned.
“I thought we were going to have fun?”
“Sugar, we are having fun. Didn’t you enjoy the swimming?”
“Yeah, I really like doing things with you, Dusty. You are not a stick in the mud
like Matthew. Hell, he wouldn’t even wash my hair, and it’s a sure thing he would never go skinny dipping with me. It’s just when you were kissing me and I could feel you getting all hard, it did funny things to my insides. It’s doing that right now. When I’m next to you like this, I just feel all excited inside.
“You and me both. Only you know nothing is going to happen here, no matter how much you want it to. Just wait until it is legal and you know your own mind. I’ll kiss you if you want, though.”
“Oh Dusty, you are driving me crazy. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“You are driving me crazy even more. All you get is kisses, though, so count your blessings.”
Mattie lifted her lips to Dusty. She liked the way he kissed, but he was right. She felt confused and didn’t know if she had agreed to go with Dusty to anger Matthew, or if she was hoping to learn more about what it was like to be with a man? She knew this wasn’t love. It was just something new and exciting that brought her closer to the understanding of how kissing could affect her.
“You are so nice, Dusty. I hope you don’t think I am just a stupid child.”
“Oh, no. You are not a child. You are two months away from being a woman. I like this more than you know, sugar. “You’re not gonna try to make one of the other boys do what I refused to do, now, are you?”
Mattie giggled.
“Maybe,” she teased, “Only they are probably more afraid of what Matthew might do to them than you are.”
Later, as he pulled her against him, she sort of chuckled.
“Was I kissing all right,” she asked, as she saw him smiling at her.
“You little horse wrangler, seems to me you do just about everything all right.”
He sat up and placed his mouth over hers.
“I can tell how you feel about Matthew, though,” he whispered when their lips parted. “I know it confuses you, cause he’s trying to tame you. I hope you never let him really tame you the way he wants to, but if Matthew ends up spooking you away, I hope I will be your second choice.”
“Don’t start getting hooked on me, Dusty,” Mattie warned. “I’m not ready to get roped or branded by anyone. But this kissing lesson was something I’ll never forget, even if you refused to do anything more.”
“When you get older, there is plenty more where that came from. Then, if you are sure what you want and need a lesson from me on any subject you think you are lacking on, I’m your man, Mattie.”
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