Desert Trading Post

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  Dan said in concern, “Of course, Honey. Of course you do. But you don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.”

  Courtney said, “If that were the case, I wouldn’t tell you where Dave came from or how we met or anything. But I want you to know. But you have to know that my love for him is real, and so is his love for me.”

  Dotty said, “We believe that, Kitty. We had a good talk with Dave last night. He said that you were asleep. We like him, Dear. It feels like family already. I know we just met him and all, but your daddy and I both really like him already.”

  Dan said. “I was the Best Man at his wedding.”

  Courtney said, “So, it’s kind of like love at first sight, huh? The way you feel about him?”

  Dotty said, “Why not? Sometimes you just know what you know. You can just tell.”

  Courtney grinned and said, “Mom, I met Dave four days ago. I was on the run from people who were taking advantage of me and I was stranded at a rest stop with no money, and I watched Dave drive up and stop and sit at a picnic table for less than half an hour, and I decided, no I just knew, that I loved him and that my life would be what it was always meant to be if I could be with him. When he got back in his car, I ran up and jumped in. Literally. The men I needed to get away from were there and had just spotted me and Dave raced away and protected me without even asking my name. Then he promised to take me wherever I needed to go, no matter what and with no strings attached. But you have to understand, that isn’t why I love him. That was what told me that I wasn’t stupid for already loving him. So, for three days, we’ve been traveling, getting me enough clothes to wear, getting me out of my old life, and getting married. And he was bringing me to you. Dave knows that none of that makes me love him, but it does make me happy that I do. Daddy, he’s a good man.”

  Dan smiled and held Courtney’s hand and said, “Kitty, I gave you my blessing. You still have it. I understand. I loved your mom from the moment I laid eyes on her. I know you didn’t have that with Tim. You grew to tolerate him. But I see what you have for Dave. It’s uncommon, but I trust you when you say that it’s real. It’s like your mom and I love him already too. We talked about it. We’d really like it if you come stay with us for as long as you want. Your old room is still there. The two of you can move in and live with us if you want to. And Dave, as far as I’m concerned, you are absolutely my son now. It really made an impression on me when you told me that I didn’t need to threaten you to make you treat Courtney well. It showed me that you were thinking of her more than anything else.”

  Courtney said, “So, you believe me? And you really are happy for me?”

  Dotty said, “More than you can possibly understand right now.”

  That seemed settled, and everyone was happy, and I wasn’t in trouble, and it was time for pictures. The photographer posed us in various ways and at different spots around the area. At the end, as Courtney and her parents and I stood with Elvis for one last group photo, Courtney had a request.

  She said, “I want one more picture. I need the pilot to go over that way, out of sight. OK, now, Elvis, you’ve been wonderful and it was thrilling to meet you and have you do our wedding, but I need you to close your eyes and don’t open them.”

  Courtney bent down and took hold of the hem of the wedding dress and lifted it above her navel so that her belly button stud was visible to the camera. Then she stuck out her left foot.

  She said, “I want a head to toe shot that shows my jewelry.”

  The photographer smiled and took a photo of all of us, including Elvis with his eyes still closed, we assumed, with Courtney's dress in the air and her sapphires punctuating the beauty of her stomach and long legs.

  When the photographer was done, she sidled up to Elvis and whispered, “She was wearing panties. So many of them don’t. It was actually pretty classy for once.”

  The trip back to the airport did take just 20 minutes. We all rode together in one helicopter.

  Dotty said, “What now?”

  Courtney said, “Mom, I really do want to come home for a while. Can we just drive there now?”

  Dan said, “Of course. It’s not that far. We’ll take off right now and get a few minutes head start. You kids take your time and we’ll see you when you get there. Don’t rush.”

  Courtney said, “Can we have Mexican food for dinner? At El Serape? Like a reception dinner?”

  It was agreed that we’d either see them at their house or at the restaurant at about six. Dan and Dotty, my new parents drove away, waving and smiling.

  The limo took Courtney and I back to the chapel parking lot. Courtney and I changed back into our own clothes, and the photographer handed over a memory card with the photos and another with video and we thanked them again and said goodbye. That left us standing beside our car.

  Chapter 14 - Homeward

  I think that Courtney and I were both a bit overwhelmed at this point. We were married. And official, and everything. I had heard friends talk about getting married, and everything going along splendidly, but a few days into the marriage, all of a sudden they would be struck by the reality of it. They often said that it was about the third day after the wedding. I think we were struck by the same thing now. We didn’t have six months to plan a wedding and to worry about the details and to fight over expenses. Courtney hadn’t even been part of any of the planning. I’d handled all of it myself.

  It wasn’t that we were at all unsure about what we’d done. It was more like we were finally sure that we had done it. It was real. It had happened. Our lives were different than they had been a few hours ago. And they would never be the same again.

  Courtney said, “Dave, I feel…funny.”

  I said, “Me too,” and tried to explain what I thought was happening to us.

  We didn’t want to move. We didn’t want to take another step. We didn’t know how to make the transition from our old lives to our new ones. Normally, there’d be a time where the wedding guests threw rice or birdseed and we’d race away in a car excitedly, and rush to a hotel to start our honeymoon. We didn’t have that. And if I didn’t take charge and move us forward, we’d stand here in the parking lot of the little chapel, frozen with indecision.

  There were two ways I could do this. Probably more, but two occurred to me. I could try to make this about safety and security, or I could make it about curiosity and playfulness. I went for playful. It was easier for me. And I hoped that it would work for Courtney, too.

  I said cheerfully, “Well, let’s get going! Change clothes and let’s get on the road. We just had a small lunch, so let’s get moving! Um, I guess you can change in the car.”

  Courtney smiled at my enthusiasm, and possibly at the idea that once again, she didn’t know quite what I was planning. I think that just not knowing what was going on excited her. She was on an adventure, and I’d just presented a new opportunity for something, but she wasn’t clear on what it was.

  She said, “Change clothes? Why?”

  I acted exasperated and went to the back of the car and opened the hatchback. Searching through our luggage, I found the tiny skirt and T-shirt that she’d bought, and held them out in a wad in my fist.

  I said, “Because. Because you bought these for me, didn’t you? Because you thought you’d look happy and that I’d want to play with you, so I do and I want you to change and let me see you on them so that we can do what you want to. So we should get in the car and you should put them on so that you can let me see them on you!”

  Courtney grinned and said, “Oh! That’s why. I see.”

  I opened her door and gently pushed her into the passenger seat and dropped the clothes in her lap and ran to my side of the car. I started the engine and headed for the freeway. I stayed within the speed limit, and I wasn’t too wild, but I did take some of the turns a bit aggressively, tossing Courtney around in her seat a few times. She was laughing and hanging on to the door as we pulled onto the open road.

  I said
playfully, “Courtney! Come on! I married you and Elvis sang at your wedding and everything, so take off your clothes and let’s go on a honeymoon at your parents’ house. I want to sleep in your old bed and play in your room, but why aren’t you taking your clothes off?”

  Courtney laughed as I tried to pull her dress up with my right hand, driving with my left.

  She giggled and said, “Because!”

  I said, “But because why?”

  She said, “Because you’re a goof-ball and you’re making me laugh so hard that I’m having a hard time not peeing myself you insane imp! Wait, quit that! Sheesh, give me a second. Stop it! I can’t get undressed with you pawing at me like that. Do you want me naked or not? Now, just keep your hands to yourself for like ten seconds and I’ll get my dress off.”

  I asked, “And your bra too? We’re married, so I get to totally see your boobies now whenever I want to, right?”

  Courtney laughed and said, “What has gotten into you? I like it.”

  I questioned her with my eyes and looked sideways at the top of her dress as she struggled in the seat to remove it.

  She finally said, “Yes! You get to look at my boobies whenever you want to.”

  She got her bra undone and said, “See? There. From now on, and really from the moment I laid eyes on you, you can look, lick, touch, squeeze, suck and use them as pillows, whenever, wherever, and however you want to! Damn, Dave Raskin, you turn me on!”

  I said, “I’ll do my best.”

  She smiled and said slyly, “What about the panties? On or off?”

  I said in a playfully sincere tone, “Oh, Sweetie, you have to wear panties. What if we go to a restaurant? You’ll only be wearing that tiny skirt, so you better wear undies. But more importantly, even if we don’t stop to eat, if you don’t wear panties, what will I take off of you when I get frisky. You have to wear something for me to take off, or at least something that I can push to the side.”

  Courtney said, “Oh, of course. How could I have been so thoughtless? You crazy muffin, I love you!”

  I said, “You’re the one with the pretty muffin! Not me.”

  Courtney struggled to get the short skirt up over her legs and said, “You think so? I’m glad. A lot of the girls get surgery.”

  I frowned and said, “What kind of surgery?”

  Courtney said, “Plastic surgery, on their labia. To make their little lips smaller and harder to see. So that you can’t see the inner lips. Some girls think that it’s prettier, or that guys think that it is, depending on who they are trying to please.”

  I said, “Girls do that?”

  Courtney said, “In the business. You know. Not just girls at work and stuff. Maybe some of them do it too, but I meant pros.”

  I said, “Courtney, we’ve only been together for four days, and we’ve made love, but I’ve never really looked at your body that much. Not really studied you and admired you, you know? Um, you are very pretty, but if I tried to draw a picture, I’d have no real idea how to do it.”

  Courtney said, “I kind of know what you mean. I wouldn’t mind taking some time to really look at you, either. I mean, it’s like art, right? You want to sit and appreciate it for a while.”

  I said, “And go back and see it often. If it’s beautiful art. And you certainly are.”

  Courtney said, “Yeah, exactly! And I know I’d like looking at you, and if you want to look at me, I guess it’s kind of flattering. It’s just natural, isn’t it? To want to look at something beautiful? And, what’s more beautiful than the human body? Especially someone you really love.”

  I said, “That’s how I feel. I suspect that all guys do. We think you girls are stunning.”

  Courtney said, “I feel that way about you. I can’t figure out why I wouldn’t want you to want to look at me naked. People are weird about that, aren’t they? Like women who get angry that their husband finds them attractive? They want him to think they dress nice, or whatever, but it seems like a lot of women don’t really want their husbands to find them attractive. You know, attractive! Like pulled magnetically toward them. It’s weird. That’s one of the ways that I know that I love you: because I want you to be pulled toward me the way that I feel pulled toward you. Attractive. Attracted. What do they think that means? Attractive and pretty are totally different. Aren’t they? If I’m attracted to you, I want to be with you. I want to touch you and talk to you and have sex with you. I guess that you can want to do some of those things without being attracted, but it’s not the same.”

  I said, “I think you’re right. It probably depends on how you love someone.”

  She grinned and said, “But we’re getting off track. The important thing is that you think I’m pretty, and you are attracted to me, and I love you, and I want you to look at my pussy as much as you want to, and if you ever find that you don’t want to, I need to know so that I can call a doctor or a therapist and find out what’s wrong with you. Can you look at my boobies? What a question. You better look at my boobies!”

  I said, “Court, you did a lot of nudity, I guess. Were you an exhibitionist? Did you do it in public? Um, I’m not saying that I care, I just wanted to know. So that if that’s something you’re into, I can be prepared or whatever.”

  Courtney said quietly, “No. Not really. Dave, I think that an exhibitionist is someone who gets sexually aroused by having people see them naked. I don’t know. Maybe I was. But I didn’t think so. It might be hard to understand. It might be subtle. Maybe I was, and I’m lying to myself.”

  I said, “Tell me what you want to.”

  She said, “It’s more like I enjoyed, and you could probably make the case that I was turned on by, not caring. I kind of get off on not caring about being naked. It’s the freedom. And if I was on camera or on stage, or even on film, it excited me to be naked and not care that there were people around. I didn’t think about them. But it was messed up and mixed in with having to do it for my job. It was a job. But that’s why it was Amber, not me. Amber did lots of things that I wouldn’t ever want to do. Do you get that? My feelings about all of it were lies. So in a way, I don’t know how I felt about it.”

  She paused and then said, “Dave, I like being nude. I like the feeling of the air on my skin. Or the water. I love skinny dipping. Talk about something you wish you could get more of! And there was a freedom in having people maybe able to see me or maybe not. It was not caring that was exciting somehow. But so much of it when I was working was Amber.”

  I said, “So having me ask you about it doesn’t even make sense.”

  She said, “Well, in a way, no. Ask me whatever you want to, but yeah, my own feelings are separate from what I did when I was working, being Amber.”

  I said, “But you like being naked?”

  She smiled and nodded.

  I said, “And I don’t need to think about you wanting to be watched and show off to other guys?”

  She shook her head vehemently.

  I smiled and said, “Courtney, take off your T-shirt.”

  Courtney smiled and took off her tiny T-shirt. I’d been able to see her nipples poking out the whole time she had been wearing it. I wondered if they were just permanently hard. I wasn’t sure that I had seen them when they weren’t hard.

  I hit the button on my door that rolled down her window and said, “Stick your head out the window all the way, and climb up so that the wind blows on your tits!”

  Courtney looked around us to see what cars were around. I’d already checked that there was no one within at least 50 yards, both front and back. And no cops.

  She hesitated, but I said, “Do it!” and Courtney grinned and undid her seatbelt and climbed out the window all the way to her waist.

  She threw up her arms and yelled, “Woo Hoo!”

  She stayed like that for several seconds and I noticed a car coming up behind us. I grabbed the band of her see-through underwear and gently pulled her back inside the car. She landed in the seat laughing.
r />   I said, “You enjoyed that!”

  She said, “I sure did. But see, the only one who could see me was you. It was the feeling of being naked. I’d never felt the wind on my body like that. Can you imagine being in a fast boat, out on the river, topless? It would be incredible. See, at work, I did nudity in spite of the fact that guys at a strip club could see me, not because I wanted them to. I liked dancing, not being watched. Well, not until I found you. I like being watched by you. That is a total turn-on. I asked you to do it in the shower the first day so that I could find out if I did like it. If I’d like it if it was you watching me. And I did. And even right now. The thought of having you want to look at my pussy! That’s the reason I bought these panties, remember?”

  I said, “I do indeed. So that you could flash me.”

  She said, “Babe, flashing is quick. You see it and then it’s gone. You aren’t even sure it really happened. I don’t want to flash you. I want you to gaze upon me. To stare at me. To fuck me with your eyes. I want to fuck your eyes with my body.”

  I was probably driving ten miles over the speed limit now and forced myself to slow down. The sexy talk had gotten me excited and my foot pressed the gas harder than it should have. The road here was 65, but I was doing at least 80 for a few seconds.

  Courtney said, “It’s nice driving with the windows down. It’s too bad we have to turn off the air conditioner if we leave them open. It’s hot.”

  I laughed and said, “Court, why would we have to turn off the air conditioner if we leave the windows open?”

  She said, “It’s not good for the car or something. Dad always said that we had to put up the windows if we turned on the air conditioning. Look at my nipples! They’re like rocks! Eighty miles an hour with my tits hanging out the window! That felt really good.”

  I said, “Sweetie, that’s one of the three things that our parents told us that when we grow up, we learn that we don’t really have to do. You don’t have to eat everything on your plate, you can dye your hair blue if you want to, and you absolutely can drive with the air conditioning on and the windows down at the same time!”