by S. J. Lewis
“Care to tell me a little about your run-in with the Anderson boys?”
“What? Oh, yes. They kind of surprised me,” Alexa said. “I was pretty sure I could outrun them, but I almost didn't.”
“Different girl catchers have different styles,” Jacob commented. “The Andersons'll run a female into the ground before they move in and take her. She's usually too winded to put up a fight for a while, and by then it's too late. Me, I like to stalk 'em.” His eyes were fixed on Alexa's: Penetrating, intense, and unreadable as a professional gambler's.
“Are you thinking of stalking me, Mr. Farmer?” she asked.
“No,” the man replied. “No offense, but you just aren't my type.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one thing, you wear your hair way too short. Suits you, but it don't give a man anything to grab hold of.” Jacob gave Anne's head a small shake. Her eyes flew open and she made a snarling noise.
Alexa couldn't help smiling at that. She'd let her hair grow out before she'd gone to visit Will, and when he'd grabbed her by it she'd been so immediately and so intensely turned on that she'd simply frozen in place, waiting for him to do whatever he wanted. It had been such a powerful moment that she'd wanted to keep it special, which was why she'd had it cut again once she'd returned home. In the back of her mind the thought still lingered that any other man might provoke the same reaction in her simply by grabbing her hair, and she didn't want to find that out for sure. She wondered how Anne felt about it.
“Besides,” the girl hunter went on, “I like 'em smaller and blonder. Mind you, if you happened to come into my possession I wouldn't just turn you loose. I can see you've got a wild streak in you, and I like a challenge. But I got to warn you, the Andersons are probably gonna come after you.”
“Really?” Alexa felt a thrilling little chill at his words. “Why is that?”
“You got away from them,” Jacob replied. “You didn't just get away from them, you did it with lots of people watching. Hurts their reputation. And they like challenges same as me. They get hold of you, they'll put you through the wringer, sure as shit.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Alexa said. She finished off what was left of her whiskey with a quick gulp and felt it burning on its way down her throat. All of a sudden getting a good night's sleep in the barn sounded as unappealing as it did impossible. The Andersons already knew she was here, and it was entirely possible they were on their way here right now. She could stay safe from them simply by staying inside the safety zone until they got tired of waiting and gave up, but that wouldn't help her achieve her goal, and she didn't think they'd be all that easy to discourage anyway.
“Thanks for the company, Mr. Farmer,” she said as she stood up.
“My pleasure,” he replied as he looked her up and down. “Best of luck to you,”
Alexa went out of the saloon and took a deep breath of cool night air. Then she took another. The whiskey had been strong stuff, she hadn't had much to eat, and her head was fuzzy. A third deep breath chased off the last of the alcohol fumes for the time being, and she made her way back to the barn. As she gathered up her meager belongings she heard the unmistakable sounds of a female being spanked, slowly, deliberately and hard, each resounding smack immediately followed by a muffled feminine grunt. She checked to make sure no one saw her before she slipped out of the barn and set off down the road to the next hamlet along the line. She moved at an easy lope. The Moon was up, and while it wasn't full it gave her enough watery light to see by. Maybe up ahead she'd be able to rent a room and sleep like a civilized person.
The exercise helped to clear her head, and she began to think more clearly. She'd hoped to visit every one of the little hamlets along the way and get herself noticed at each and every one before striking out into the wilderness and making her way back to Gordburg. Unfortunately, she'd done too well at attracting attention. Besides the Anderson brothers, Mike had been dogging her footsteps from the very beginning. Mike was attractive. Fucking him earlier that day had been very enjoyable and had worked off some of the nervous energy she'd built up during the long chase. It had also been great fun riding him cowgirl-style. She was sure that if he ever caught her he'd make her pay for that, but that might be fun too. He was well-muscled and in really good shape, and could probably overpower her if she didn't use some dirty-fighting self-defense moves she'd learned on him.
On the other hand, if the Andersons caught her they would probably make her pay for not just escaping them but embarrassing them. That might not be as enjoyable. She picked up her pace a little without even realizing it.
She figured she was about halfway to the next hamlet when she heard a shout come from the woods to her right and a little behind her. She immediately kicked her speed up to a run. She heard another shout, and dared to look back over her shoulder. She saw two men standing in the road behind her, and a third just emerging from the woods. They weren't making any attempt to chase her, so she slacked off a little. They just stood there, watching her go. Maybe in the moonlight, with her short hair, they weren't entirely sure if she was a female or not, or maybe they just didn't feel like chasing her. She let her speed slacken to a slow jog and kept going. When she looked back again, the men were nowhere in sight. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had no doubt that she could outrun most men over any kind of distance. All Mike had demonstrated was that he was able to keep up with her, not overtake her. The Andersons were another matter. She pushed them to the back of her mind.
It was some ungodly hour in the morning when she finally reached the next hamlet. It looked very much like the one she'd just left, right down to the street dimly lit by gas lamps and the saloon outshining everything in sight. She went in through the swinging doors to find a few people standing at the bar or sitting at the tables. Everyone looked up or around when she entered, took a quick look at her, and then went back to whatever they'd been doing.
“Too late for liquor, ma'am,” the bartender told her as she approached.
“Water will be fine,” Alexa puffed. The moonlight run had taken more out of her than it should have. “And a room, if you've got one.”
“We do,” the bartender said.
“Good,” Alexa turned her head and presented her ear. “Charge it to my account, would you? And what time is it?”
The bartender held one of those cellphone-looking things up to her earlobe. It made a chirping noise when he pressed a key.
“It's just past one o'clock, Miss Marx,” the bartender said. He put a container of bottled water down on the bar in front of her. “You've got Room Five. Top of the stairs, all the way down on the right.” He put a key on a wooden fob down next to the bottle of water.
“Thank you,” Alexa said with a grateful smile. She took the key and the bottle and trudged up the stairs. She wanted a hot shower, a comfortable bed, and a good night's sleep, and she wanted them all very badly.
Chapter Five
Alexa woke to find bright sunlight streaming in through the gauzy curtains in the lone window of her room. She stirred in her bed, and then suddenly sat bolt upright. What time was it? Had she overslept? It felt almost certain that she had. She tossed back the sheet and clambered out of bed naked, searching for her parcel of fresh clothing. She found it, tore it open, and quickly dressed. She bundled her clothes from last night together, wrapped them in the shredded packaging her fresh clothes had come in, and made her way downstairs, bringing her water bottle and key with her. The saloon on the ground floor was practically empty, but she saw Mike sitting at one of the tables, drinking coffee and apparently waiting for her. He looked up and grinned as he heard her coming down the wooden staircase. She wasn't exactly thrilled to see that he'd caught up with her, but better him than the Anderson brothers, she supposed. She walked past Mike and over to the bar.
“Coffee, please,” she said to the bartender. This morning, he was a young-looking man with a goatee that was a couple of shades darker than the hair on his head
. After he'd served up a steaming mug, she held up the ragged package of the clothes she'd worn yesterday and asked if it could be sent back to her hotel in Gordburg. Only after he'd told her that it could did she ask what time it was.
“It's just about ten-thirty,” Mike said from so close behind her that it made her jump so that she almost spilled her coffee.
“Thanks,” she said sourly as she turned to face him. “How did you find me?”
“You're making yourself pretty easy to find,” Mike answered. “You try to make a big noise everywhere you go. Here I thought you'd be flattered that I was still trying to keep up with you. Can I buy you some breakfast? Or maybe brunch? I'm betting that you're hungry after your very busy day yesterday.”
“Well... thanks,” Alexa relented. “Yeah, I am kind of hungry.”
“Steak and eggs sound good?” Mike suggested.
They sat on opposite sides of one of the round tables and talked as they ate. She wanted to know what Mike had done after she'd left him behind. He seemed to take being seduced and abandoned with a certain amount of good humor, though when she looked into his eyes she knew that he was looking forward to getting some payback... or maybe at least another roll in the hay, and in these little hamlets an actual roll in the hay was a distinct possibility. But not for her, if she had anything to say about it, and definitely not today.
“So why did you keep chasing me?” she asked innocently.
“You're a challenge,” Mike replied simply. “And you really do have the tightest pussy I've ever fucked. I'd like to do it again.”
Alexa felt herself blush. She'd said a lot of things in the heat of the moment back then, and now she wished she could take some of them back. “Could you keep your voice down?” she asked, irritated.
“I could, but that wouldn't be as much fun,” Mike teased. “Anyway, what have you got to be embarrassed about? You're in Gordburg, not back at home. Say, where is your home anyway?”
“None of your business.”
“That's kind of rude,” Mike commented. He didn't seem at all upset. “I mean, after I bought you brunch and all. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
Alexa eyed him levelly. “I'm going on to the next little burg on this road,” she said. “You want to chase me again?”
Mike laughed. “No way,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I already know I can't catch you unless I get really lucky. I might try to anyway, if you could guarantee me another afternoon delight like we had yesterday.”
“No way,” Alexa said. “You want to fuck me again you have to catch me.”
“Deal,” Mike grinned. “That's what I was planning to do anyway. You know, I heard about you and the Andersons. I'm going to have to be at the top of my game to beat them out.”
“You'd have to be at the top of your game anyway,” Alexa grinned back. “And from what I've seen so far you still won't quite be able to do it.”
“Really? Well, what are you planning to do once you've hit every little town along this road? Go back to where you started?”
Alexa paused. The fact was that she hadn't thought much past visiting every town. She'd intended to take a little time to think about her next step once she'd done that, but realized now that she should have done that thinking long before now. But then she hadn't counted on finding herself in her current situation. Maybe she should have. She was pretty sure she could stay just out of Mike's reach, but it was clear that he wouldn't be easy to shake off entirely. And then there were the Andersons. She had no idea where they were, or what they might be planning. And how many other self-styled 'girl catchers' might there be here on the south side? She wished Will had warned her about those, but it probably tickled his perverse sense of humor to not even mention them.
“That's none of your business either,” she finally said as she finished off the last of her steak and eggs. “You want to catch me, you'll have to do all the work.”
“I seem to recall that you liked doing all the work,” Mike chuckled. “But could you answer me one question, at least?”
“What?”
“Why do you keep your hair so short? I heard a couple of guys saying that they thought you were into girls.”
Alexa couldn't help laughing. “I've heard that before,” she said. “Lots of times. You tell me something first. Do you think it looks bad this way?”
“Well, no,” Mike replied. “It's different, though. It makes you stand out.”
“Right. When I started with this personal training business I always tried to get my clients to work up a sweat. Problem was, to get most of them to do that I had to work one up myself, sometimes two or three times a day. I hated how my hair felt when it was like that, but I couldn't shampoo it after every session without getting it all dried out, no matter what kind of conditioners I used. Besides, when my hair was long it was always getting in the way.”
“You could have worn it in a ponytail.”
“You know, I've heard that before too. Yeah, I could have, but that still left the icky-feeling problem. So I had it cut short. It's worked out pretty well for me. It gave me a distinct look, too, and that got me a couple of exercise equipment commercials.” Alexa took a sip of her coffee. It had gone lukewarm. “And as for the me liking girls part, I found out that a lot of wives didn't mind me getting their husbands into shape because they thought that too.” She left unsaid one other reason: When her hair got to a certain length it became unmanageable and kept getting split ends.
“And it's never given you any problems?” Mike asked.
“Only with a few other women,” Alexa admitted. “I'd give them a song and dance about having to keep my hair that way so I could snag some well-off, married men as clients without having their wives hanging around to keep an eye on things. You'd be surprised at how sympathetic they were once I told them that.”
“So,” Mike mused. “You're not into girls at all?”
“You're a pretty smart guy,” Alexa told him. “I'm sure you'll figure it out.” She pushed back her chair and stood up. “Now, if you'll excuse me,” she said, “I'm going up to my room. Nice seeing you again, Mike.”
In all her time in Gordburg, which, she had to admit, wasn't all that much, Alexa had yet to see anything in the way of a television, a radio, or even an electric alarm clock. She knew that they had electricity. Even in the scattered trading posts on the 'north side' they had it for lighting and, she suspected, refrigeration. There was an overhead electric light in her room, and another in the tiny bathroom. But there were no wall sockets anywhere, so even if someone brought in their own radio there was no place to plug one in, and batteries would only last for so long. Now that she thought of that, she realized that she hadn't seen any batteries for sale anywhere either. And even in the newer, resort part of Gordburg itself, while there were outlets in the hotel rooms, she still hadn't seen a television or a radio. Up until now, none of this had really registered with her, but at the moment she would have liked to have either one here in her room, just for background noise, while she thought about where she was, what she wanted to do, and how she might yet do it. Instead, she settled for lying on her bed and thinking quietly, which was turning out to be harder to do than she would have thought. She really missed that background noise she'd become so accustomed to without even realizing it. Back in the city where she lived, you could hardly go anywhere without coming across a television screen: Bars had them, lots of restaurants had them, and coffee shops had them. Hell, even the bank branch she used had one up on a side wall. It used to run news and commercials, the sound muted, until her bank had been taken over by another, bigger bank. Now it was never on, but the screen was still up there on the wall, a blank reminder of things past to anyone who happened to notice it.
Her main problem, as she saw it, was that she had tried to get herself noticed and succeeded in doing that far too well. Mike hadn't been the first, but he was proving to be the most dogged. In retrospect, maybe she shouldn't have dragged him up to
her room after that long chase and ravished him on the bed, but by the time she'd reached safety she was so very, very excited that she'd barely known what she was doing until it was all done and Mike was drifting off to sleep.
She probably shouldn't have brought up how tight her pussy was either. Men really seemed to be intrigued by a tight pussy. Hers was a byproduct of all the exercising she did to keep herself in great shape, plus some pelvic exercises she threw in because they made her feel good. She should have just let Mike lie back and enjoy it, but she'd been in a very strange mood and Mike, still winded from the long run, had been so... submissive? Yes, so submissive while she was riding him that she just had to taunt him a little. There had been the thought in the back of her mind that a hot afternoon quickie with her might satisfy him so that he would go on his way and leave her alone while telling his friends about the tight pussy that got away. It would seem that she'd misjudged him. And, truth be told, if she was going to be captured she wouldn't mind if it was Mike who did it. Just not now, not so soon. Would he stay after her until she had broken the near-legendary Elf-Girl's record? Or would he finally get discouraged and go after a female who was easier to catch?
Well, she had no control over that.
Then there was the matter of the Andersons. They advertised themselves as 'girl catchers', as had Jacob, that interesting character she'd met last night That was different enough from 'female catchers' so that she'd tried to get more information on just what a girl catcher was. When she saw Will again she'd have to ask him why he'd never bothered to mention them. Last night, she'd asked the bartender about them, but he'd been too busy to tell her much. One of the waitresses who had just gone off shift had been a lot more helpful. According to her, girl catchers usually only went after the younger women, preferably the smaller ones. Tiny blondes were especially prized, 'tiny' in this case meaning no taller than five-foot two, which meant that Jacob Farmer had hit a jackpot with his little ex-gymnast. Once captured, a girl would be given some rough basic training in obedience and submission, with the emphasis on 'rough'. Then she would be sold off at auction, either back at the big slave market in Gordburg or in one of the little hamlets on the south side. Normally, Alexa would have been safe from girl hunters, but she probably wasn't safe from the Andersons at all, not after eluding them the way she had in front of an audience. Dumb luck had had a lot to do with that, but nobody seemed to realize it and she didn't feel like telling them.
