by Tabor Evans
"No," she broke in. "This will be fine. Thank you." She looked at Longarm questioningly. "I'm Jessibee Vann." She waited.
Longarm hesitated. It went against his grain to lie, and so far his deviousness with the gang at Belle's hadn't extended to outright lying. Rather, he'd just let them draw a lot of mistaken conclusions without correcting them. He didn't relish being called "Windy,' but the name had attached itself to him and he'd been contented to let it stand. Jessibee Vann deserved better, though, he thought.
"Around here I'm answering to a sort of nickname," he told Jessibee. "But my name's"--he hesitated for only a breath--"Custis."
"I'm very grateful to you, Custis," Jessibee said. "Both for drawing the water and for the cigar. Perhaps we'll talk again before I leave tomorrow."
"I'd like that, Jessibee," Longarm said gravely.
"I'd better hurry back now," she said. "They'll be wanting this water to wash up with."
Looking at Jessibee's retreating form, Longarm tried to figure out whether she was full Cherokee or just part. She walked with an Indian's upright posture and straight-pointed steps, but there was something about her that didn't jibe with the idea that she was a full Indian.
He tried to recall what he'd heard, in bits and scraps during his wanderings, of Cherokee history. It seemed to him they'd been early to intermarry with white settlers, in their ancestral home in Georgia. And there had been some kind of split in the tribe a long time back that had brought part of them to settle along the Arkansas, even before the Cherokee Nation was carved out of the raw Western land. But that was years before Longarm's time, and history had never been his long suit. It had always seemed silly to him to study the past, when the present had so many things to keep a fellow busy.
After spending a few minutes trying vainly to recall things he'd never really learned, Longarm gave up. The day was dropping down into evening, and he'd started early and worked harder than usual. He didn't have much taste for going into the barn; in fact, he had a feeling that he'd find himself an outsider at a family gathering. He wandered down to his cabin, slipped off his boots, and poured a tot of his own Maryland rye into the glass that sat waiting beside the bottle on the table.
Longarm had long ago learned the wisdom of the old Indian axiom, "Never stand up when you can sit down; never sit down when you can lie down." He stretched out on one of the narrow bunks and lighted yet another cheroot, realizing ruefully that he'd been smoking a hell of a lot of the things ever since Billy Vail had put him on the case. He figured it was probably due to the strain of maintaining his facade as the close-mouthed Windy. Vowing silently to quit as soon as he'd wrapped up this whole nasty affair, he turned his thoughts to the business at hand. Sam's kin would be gone tomorrow and he'd need to think up some pretty convincing reasons to persuade Belle to join with the gang when the raid on the bank was staged. As the sun dropped into the bare little cabin, he noticed, not for the first time, that the pleasurable combination of his favorite liquor and tobacco had taken a few of the sharp edges off the world. He decided that maybe he'd been a mite hasty in his resolution to quit smoking. He'd definitely cut down, though--just as soon as he got back to Denver. Having thus appeased his conscience, he stubbed out the cigar and lay back. Then, after a bit, he dozed.
Longarm woke with a start and rolled from the bunk to his feet. He'd taken off his gunbelt and put it on the floor beside him. His hand moved as if by instinct to scoop up the Colt as he left the bunk. He was facing the door when a soft voice from the darkness said, "I hope I didn't disturb you, Custis, but you said to ask you if I wanted another cigar."
"Jessibee?" Longarm asked.
"I hope you weren't expecting someone else. If you are, perhaps I'd better go."
"No, no!" he said hastily. "I wasn't looking for anybody at all. And if it's a cigar you've come for, I've got plenty. Wait, I'll light the lamp."
"Don't," she said. "The moon's just behind a cloud right now. We'll have all the light we need in a few minutes."
"If you say so. Wait, though. I'll guide you in and get you sat down. That is, if you've got time to visit a spell."
"I'm not in any hurry, Custis."
Longarm groped his way to the door, and extended a hand. He found her arm, warm and soft, and led her to the table, put her hand on one of the chairs beside it, and sat down himself in the other.
He said, "You sort of took me by surprise. But if you've come for a cigar-" He took two cheroots from his vest pocket and handed one of them to her. "Now shield your eyes so the match won't blind you so bad, and I'll light it for you."
Longarm took his own advice and closed his eyes until the first white flare of the match had subsided. He cupped the match in his hands and leaned toward her. Jessibee was just opening her eyes. They danced in the flickering of the flame as she puffed her cheroot into light. He lighted his own and blew out the match. The glow of the two cigars gave the little cabin a sort of radiance, a faint glow that was saved from being ghostly by its pinkish hue.
Jessibee said, "I couldn't sleep. I don't go to bed early when I'm at home, you see, like most of my relatives. They're ready to turn in when the sun goes down. Most of them farm, so they have to be up at daybreak."
"And you don't?"
"That's one of the good things about living alone; I don't have to follow anybody's schedule. If I want to read all night, I can. Or if I feel like getting up at three in the morning for breakfast, I can do that too, without disturbing anyone."
"A pretty lady like you are, I'd have figured you to have a husband by now."
"I had one," Jessibee said. "Until three years ago, when he died of pneumonia."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."
"I'm over it by now, Custis. And to save you asking, I'm not looking for another husband. I get along quite well alone, just as you seem to. You don't have a wife waiting for you somewhere, do you?"
"No. Never found time to get married, or a woman I'd want to tie up with for the rest of my life."
"Good. Then we don't have to pretend to one another, do we? Ask a lot of questions with double meanings, or say a lot of things we don't really mean."
"That's a habit I never got into," Longarm told her.
"It took me a while to break mine. But I feel a lot better if I don't try to put a false face up to someone."
A bit more light began to seep into the cabin now, as the moon came from behind the cloud that had shrouded it. Longarm could see Jessibee as something more than an occasional oval of blurred features in the sudden glow when she puffed her cheroot. Her eyes were deep pools in the bluish, uncertain light that turned her lips to a crimson so dark they looked almost black, accentuating their sensuous fullness.
He said, "Since you've got a taste for cigars, I'd imagine you might enjoy a drink of whiskey. All I've got is Maryland rye, if that'll suit you."
"It'll suit me fine. The whiskey that old man makes is good enough, but I had all I cared for up at Sam's house."
"Belle's house now, I guess," Longarm said as he poured their drinks. "I feel sort of bad about Sam. I was just getting acquainted with him."
"I never really knew him. Or Belle either. I wouldn't be here now, except that I was visiting Cousin Robert and he insisted that I come along." Jessibee sipped the whiskey. "It's very good." She drained the glass. "Whiskey's like a stallion mounting a mare. Quick and harsh. Brandy's more like a man with a woman, slow and lingering, but still with force and authority."
Longarm smiled. "That's as neat a way of putting it as I ever heard. But you didn't need to give me a message, Jessibee, except to let me know you're ready."
"If you are," she said.
Longarm stood up. "Maybe not quite, but I will be fast enough, if you're the woman I take you to be."
Jessibee came up to stand before him. She turned up her face for his kiss. Her lips grasped his and drew his tongue into her mouth. He drew her to him in a hard embrace, and the warmth of her body began to bring him erect. Longarm ran his ar
ms down Jessibee's sides. His fingers met only smoothness. She had on nothing except her thin calico dress.
"You got a head start on me," he said when they broke off their kiss. "Give me a little time to get off my clothes."
"We don't have to rush. But don't dawdle, either."
Longarm made quick work of undressing. He saw her pull her dress over her head, to show her body glimmering in the bluish glow that filled the cabin. It was as he'd thought: a woman's body, wide-hipped, full-breasted, with swelling thighs.
Jessibee moved to him. He said, "Those bunks are too narrow for us to be comfortable, Jessibee. Wait just a minute." He dragged his bedroll off and spread it on the floor. "Now. It won't be a featherbed, but we'll at least have room to lay down together."
Jessibee folded her legs under her and sat down in a single graceful sweep. Her arms were slender white columns raised to invite him. Longarm knelt beside her. Jessibee's hands were warm on his erection, which was beginning to throb to fullness.
"I was wondering if the light was fooling my eyes," she told him. "I didn't really believe them." She squeezed gently, both hands wrapped around him. "But I believe what I'm holding now."
Longarm found Jessibee's full, soft breasts and felt her nipples grow firm and lift to tautness as he rubbed and kneaded them with his calloused fingers. They stood out like small rough fingertips as he bent to kiss them and caress them with his tongue.
Jessibee leaned back and pulled him with her. She whispered gustily, "Come into me like a stallion, Custis. But then make love to me like I'm a woman."
Longarm moved his fingers to Jessibee's thighs, to spread them. She twisted her body on the rough blanket that topped the bedroll to bring herself closer to him. Her hands were holding his shaft tightly now. She rubbed its tip over her moist warmth and whispered, "Now, Custis! Go in now!"
Longarm buried himself in her hot depths. She rolled her hips from side to side as he entered, and sighed contentedly when he filled her. Longarm raised himself, almost leaving her, but Jessibee brought up her legs and wrapped them around his lower ribs and levered her hips upward to keep him in place. He thrust hard, a series of deep, swift strokes, then slowed to a more deliberate rhythm as Jessibee gripped him hard with her thighs.
"Don't hurry!" she whispered urgently. "I haven't had a man for a while, and I don't want to let go too soon."
"Let go whenever you feel like it," Longarm said. "I'll hold out for as long as you need me to."
"If you're sure you can hold out until I'm ready again."
"I'm sure. Go on. Enjoy yourself all you want."
Jessibee took him at his word. Longarm continued to go into her smoothly and steadily, with a hard, deep thrust now and then to bring her along more quickly. Jessibee's eyes closed as he continued his paced stroking, and he felt her body tensing. Longarm moved faster now, and thrust deeper.
Jessibee began to tremble, and when Longarm stopped for a moment, buried in her as deeply as he could thrust, she gasped, "Oh, not now!
Don't stop now! Go faster, Custis, faster!"
Now Longarm started stroking with an intensity that set Jessibee panting and quivering tumultuously. He was buried in her to the hilt when she unlocked her legs from around him, spread her thighs wide, and began to gulp in a series of soft, sobbing cries. Longarm raised himself and then pounded into Jessibee with a succession of long strokes which he maintained until she shrieked deep in her throat and he felt her body heave convulsively and then go limp in a wave of relaxing shudders. He stopped thrusting then, and lay still, filling her.
Jessibee sighed. "Brandy and whiskey mixed, Custis. It's a combination I don't often find."
"We'll rest," he said. "Unless I'm too heavy for you."
"No. Don't get up. Stay in Me. Now, especially. I haven't felt this filled for a long time."
Jessibee sighed and pulled Longarm's head down for a kiss. Their tongues met and slid together. Jessibee stirred. "Can you stay hard for a while?"
"Sure. As long as it takes. But if you're ready to start again, so am I."
"You don't need to hurry, if you want to rest some more."
Longarm responded by lifting himself and thrusting hard again. Jessibee drew a quivering breath when she felt his deep penetration, and raised her hips to meet him. The hot flood that he'd felt surrounding him when Jessibee climaxed had aroused Longarm. He wanted to feel himself sinking repeatedly into her ready body, and stroked with steadily increasing vigor. He was still holding back, and continued to do so until Jessibee began to grow taut again. He was building quickly now, but she was responding faster, too.
There was a time of suspended feeling as Longarm held himself above Jessibee, looking down at her face in the strange, filtered moonlight, watching her lips twitching, her head rolling from side to side. When she grabbed him and pulled him to her for a long kiss, he knew the time was close. He let go his control, pounding hard, while Jessibee rolled and thrust up to meet him with a wildness that set him to trembling. He reached the point of no return and felt himself draining in a series of spasms while Jessibee's throat pulsed with deep, sobbing moans. Then her body went soft and Longarm fell forward, growing soft inside her. Jessibee sighed. "I've been without a man for such a long time! You've done me more good than I can tell you, Custis."
"You're a real pretty woman. Seems like you'd have a lot of men chasing after you."
"I don't let just anybody catch me. I do the choosing, not them."
"Like you chose me?"
"Exactly. I didn't see any way that you could come looking for me. And I wasn't sure you would, or even if you wanted to. So I came to you."
"You're a right strong-minded lady."
"Most Cherokee women are. We run the families, you know. If we have a husband who doesn't live up to what we think he should, we divorce him. You whites haven't gotten that far yet."
"Are you a full-blooded Cherokee, Jessibee?" Longarm asked.
She chuckled throatily. "As much as any Cherokee is. We've always been tolerant, maybe too tolerant for our own good."
Jessibee stirred under him, and as much as Longarm was enjoying feeling her wet heat around him, he rolled off to lie beside her.
"Do you have enough cheroots so you can spare me another one?" she asked.
"Sure. You lay still. I'll get one for each of us." Longarm padded over to the table, where his vest hung on a chair, and took out two cheroots and a match. He asked, "How'd you get a taste for these, anyhow, Jessibee?"
"That's an easy story to tell."
"You might as well tell it to me," Longarm said, "unless you're figuring on going back to your kinfolks real soon. I hope that ain't in your mind, though."
"It's not. I know you can't stay hard forever, though, so we might as well talk while we're resting. But don't worry about me wanting to leave. As far as I'm concerned, I'm settling down for a very enjoyable night."
"I'll do my best to keep you full," Longarm promised. "And I aim to enjoy it as much as you do. But go on, Jessibee. Tell me how it was you started smoking cigars."
"I didn't start out with cigars. It was cigarettes at first. That was when I was going to Mills College. I don't suppose you've ever heard of Mills?"
"Can't say I have. Whereabouts is it?"
"In California, across the bay from San Francisco. It's a college that teaches young women such as I was then to keep just a little bit ahead of the times. It's what they all are becoming, advanced thinkers."
Jessibee sighed. "That was quite a while ago. Just thinking back on it makes me feel old."
"As long as you don't look old, which you sure don't--you're pretty as any woman I've ever seen--and as long as you don't act old, then you ain't old," Longarm said seriously.
"That's a very nice compliment, Custis. But when I see all the changes that are taking place-" She shook her head. "I'm getting off the subject. Smoking was one of the advanced things I learned at college. Cigarettes, of course. But when I came back home, I found out that
the storekeepers here don't balk at selling cigars or chewing tobacco or snuff, but they look on cigarettes as the work of the devil. So I switched to cigars. It's just as simple as that."
"Your folks must've been well-fixed, if they could send you all that way to school," Longarm suggested.
"They were. Are, I should say. My family got a head start here in the Nation, you see."
"Oh? How's that?"
"We're what the tribe calls West Cherokees." Jessibee caught the question before Longarm asked it, and added hurriedly, "That hasn't anything to do with the West family. I suppose you've never heard of Tahlonteskea?" He shook his head. She went on, "He was a Cherokee chief, many years ago. He saw that you whites were determined to take our homelands in Georgia, so he didn't wait for it to happen. He led a group of our people to resettle on the Arkansas River back in 1809 or 1810. So my family's been here for three generations. We were here long before the East Cherokees were resettled."
"What you're hinting at is that your folks got here first and sort of skimmed the gravy?"
"You could put it that way. My grandfather was an attorney. So is my father. Very good ones. They made a lot of money."
"So they could send you to a college where you learned to like cigarettes," Longarm said. "And being a pretty girl, you had beaus there, too. They took you to fancy restaurants like the ones I saw when I was in San Francisco one time, and you learned how to drink liquor like a lady, too."
"Yes. And even if it's not considered ladylike, I learned to like what we just did, too. That's very important."
"At least you're honest and open about it," Longarm said. "Most women ain't. They act like they're just putting up with a man."
"I was open enough to come in here and practically tell you what I wanted," Jessibee said. "Why not? I knew you wouldn't come to me, not with my relatives up at the house. At least I've learned that if I want something, it's up to me to go after it."
She turned on her side and Longarm felt her hands surrounding his flaccid shaft. "Is it too soon for you to get hard again? Maybe if I helped a little bit?"
