Chapter 8
"Oh Laurie's just fine and prettier than ever," Ned Dow assured Will and Barbara Ross, the smile on his face like a parental swagger as he lifted his full glass of straight whiskey to his mouth. As often happened when Ned came to Sugar Pine, the small Sierra town where he traded, he had met Will and his wife in the Shuteye Saloon, and the trio had retired to a back booth for a session of horse talk and hard drinking.
Will was the forty-eight year old heir to an industrial fortune who was well known in the area for his successful "dabblings" in real estate and the string of winning thoroughbred horses he bred on his large ranch, Clouds Rest. His wife Barbara, was an attractive auburn-haired, brown-eyed woman who at thirty-five was rumored to be an easy lay, even though she was in every other sense thoroughly devoted to her wealthy husband. Several times she had drunk too much at parties and invited Ned Dow, in front of everyone including Will, to enjoy a romp in the sack with her. Ned had always declined, partially because Will was a good friend . . . but mostly because there had never been a real opportunity to slip away gracefully, undetected by Will, and take the promiscuous, hot-blooded woman up on her offer.
"Say, Ned, how old is that sexy little filly of yours?" Will asked with more than just casual interest. As almost everyone knew, he was no purer than his wife when it came to appreciating the various charms of the opposite sex.
Once, several years before, Barbara had become thoroughly soused and spilled the beans about her husband's attack on one of the young baby sitters they had hired to tend their son while the couple had attended a party. Evidently Will had disappeared from the party and driven home, as he later told it, "to check up on the boy." He had arrived home drunk and offered the frightened girl fifty dollars to go to bed with him. When she had refused, he had "attacked" her. Additional details were never made public, for obviously the girl's parents were not opposed to accepting hush money, and so the matter was thereafter shrouded with mystery.
"Well, she's sixteen now," Ned answered, "But you'd never guess it from lookin' at her. Damned if she doesn't look like a grown woman these days, all curves and with a spicy glint in her eyes. You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say she's already been up in the loft with some young buck. Anyway, I'll bet she's startin' to think about it."
Ned's whiskey was talking, but his words were a mild shock to Barbara, who normally was the first to rise to any conversation that even remotely concerned sex. Now, however, she thought it crude and unjust that Ned should talk about his own niece in such blatantly erotic terms especially when the girl was not around to defend herself.. . and besides, Laurie was just a kid, a pretty little teenager who had probably not even begun to think about sex except in the most romantic way.
On the other hand, her husband listened intently to Ned's speculations, a queer blind smile on the older man's face as he remembered the last time he had seen Laurie . . . as far as he was concerned, the ravishing young red-head was ripe for plucking, and even though he was no spring chicken, he certainly wouldn't mind having a crack at her himself. Just the thought of it made his cock lurch and begin to throb lustfully in the confines of his trousers.
Then his memory carried him back to the trouble with the baby sitter, a lush little number about the same age as Laurie was now. Jesus, he had been hot to fuck that sweet little bitch; and he might have been able to, too, had he not been pie-eyed and so damned anxious to rush things. Well, that was water under the bridge, so to speak, and now was now. It was considerably less painful, and more exciting, to contemplate what Ned had said about Laurie.
"Hey, you two, I've got an idea," Ned said, breaking into their thoughts. "Why don't we all go over to my place and have a few drinks? You can say hello to Laurie, and later, we'll have some real steaks some Dow Ranch beef, the best in the state!"
"Gee, Ned, I don't know," Barbara demurred, realizing that these seemingly innocent get-togethers usually resulted in their staying the night.. . after six or seven hours of drinking straight whiskey, loud although harmless arguments, and in the morning, monumental hangovers.
"Hell yes, we'd be pleased to guzzle some of your cheap booze," Will enthused kiddingly, "and we'll even choke down some of your wormy beef. And as for Laurie, it'll be interesting to see if she's learned anything at that imagine school you send her to."
"Will, I-" Barbara began.
"Dammit, woman, I've never heard you turn down a free drink before," Will broke in, annoyed at his wife's reluctance to contribute to the spirit of the prospective party. "Anyhow, you know damned well that Ned's got the ruggedest, most handsome lot of hired hands anywhere around here. You can't tell, I might pass out and you'll have a chance to sneak off to the bushes with two or three of them."
Strained laughter rose from the trio at Will's irreverent remark a laughter springing more from the possibility that he might be right than from the absurdity of the statement. On the way out of the darkened lounge, they stopped at the bar and shook dice in friendly combat to determine who would have the privilege of paying for the drinks.
At the ranch, Laurie paced back and forth through the rooms of the rambling ranch house, wondering what could be keeping her uncle in town. Interspersed throughout her wonderment were memories of the day before with Ken and Hank Woods. Every time she pictured the details of the torrid session, she flushed a little and began to chastise herself for enjoying what she saw in her mind. But there was something more, perhaps a small degree of masochism latent in her, that increased the pleasure of looking back at herself being subjected to the cruel lust of both obscenely aroused ranch-hands . . . and then recalling how she had turned suddenly into a wild inferno of uncontrolled lewd desire.
She began to ask herself if she would return to the cabin for more of the same, for more humiliation, for more of the wanton bliss she had experienced beneath their shamelessly roving hands and pile-driving loins. Although young, she was realistic.. . there was little doubt in her mind that eventually, probably sooner than later, she would saddle up Sniffy and make tracks up to the canyon where her strange, devilish lover would be eagerly waiting to serve her more of the same kind of sensual ecstasy. The mere-likelihood made her both nervous and excited at the same time.
"Where's Laurie!" came her uncle's gruff voice from the front living room.
"I'm right here I'm coming, Uncle Ned," Laurie called back in reply to Ned's booming inquiry, hurrying toward the spacious front room. She heard other voices as well as her uncle's and was curious to know who was with him. When she entered the room she saw Ned fumbling in the long oak liquor cabinet as Will and Barbara Ross stood by, chuckling at their host's frustration at not being able to locate the special whiskey he had promised them.
"By God, here it is!" he roared victoriously, his voice slurring, as he withdrew a handsome unopened bottle of expensive private stock from the back of the cabinet. Turning, he caught sight of Laurie and threw up his free hand, beaming.
"There you are, baby, pretty as ever," he said, advancing toward her rather unsteadily. "See who I've brought home for a few drinks and dinner Will and Barbara!" He took her in his arms possessively, lifting her off the floor and crushing her to him with an excess of fervor that made her gasp for breath and beg to be put down.
"Uncle Ned, you've been a bad boy," Laurie teased. "You've been at the Shuteye drinking when you were supposed to be seeing about buying some new horses. That's what you told me you were going to do, solemn honor."
"See-see, it's just as I told you," Ned shouted playfully, wagging a finger at Laurie, "the little bitch is a woman now, just as bossy and as much of a watchdog as her aunt was.. . only I'll bet she's a helluva sight friendlier to boys than her mother ever thought of being."
"Uncle Ned!" Laurie chided.
Will Ross silently agreed, thinking to himself how splendid it would be if the youngster were friendly to older men too. He could not tear his eyes away from Laurie's youthfully developed body, its voluptuous proportions, the large firm breasts almost bursting out of the tight white blouse, the breath-taking contours of her young rounded hips. Her waist was tiny and her skin-tight jeans clung up between her delicately curving legs, forming a visible cleft between the lips of her tight warm pussy. Christ! he thought, if he were her uncle, he would find some way to get in her hot little pants within a week!
After a round of greetings and the usual questions that always accompany reunions, the four people sat down to apply themselves to serious drinking that is, all except Laurie, who graciously gave in to her uncle's insistence that she have a small glass of sherry. Following a lull in the conversation, Will chimed in with a question about the horses Ned intended to purchase.
"So, you need some riding stock, eh? Why didn't you say so? I'll sell you a half dozen fine geldings cheaper than you can get them from that thieving bastard, Johnson."
"To tell the truth, Will, I was lookin' for some breeding stock a few mares and another good strong stud. Laurie's got the best stallion on the place, but I can't keep her off him long enough to get a mare under him."
"Listen here, Uncle Ned, I don't want you working Sniffy that way, until he's too tired to ride," Laurie scolded in mock-seriousness, evoking laughter and causing the others' eyebrows to arch at the candor of her remark.
As Will shifted uneasily in his chair, she continued: "Why don't you and Will go down into Boggy Canyon and bring out the black stallion?"
"You know, she might have something there," Will erupted, his eyes sparking at the mention of Ned Dow's legendary but temperamental stud. "He's one of the sturdiest pieces of horse flesh I've ever seen. All you have to do is keep the son-of-a-bitch from kickin' down your stalls and scarin' the hell out of everyone within ten miles of here. Come on, Ned, what do you say we take a crack at bringing him in? We could do a little fishin' too. God knows we need some recreation."
"And so do we!" Laurie and Barbara added almost simultaneously, giggling at their simultaneous answers.
Ned was strangely silent, though, his mind picking at the suggestion as he drained his glass and leaned forward to take up the bottle and refill his friends' glasses. In most respects the whole idea was preposterous, as impractical as it was adventurous, and yet it was also appealing.. . fuck it, why not? he chided, his eyes sparkling. Then, his expression unchanged, he looked fiercely into the eyes of each of his companions, staring them down, until at long last he fell back in his chair and let loose with a volley of laughter that shook the walls.
"Hell yes! Why not?" he bellowed. "We'll all go, day after tomorrow, about noon. We'll need at least another man, though, and I'm afraid I can't spare anyone from the spread just now."
"I know someone," Laurie blurted, her green almond-shaped eyes blazing with fierce excitement at the possibility of having Ken along on the trip.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Ned interjected. "Who is this bird, and where did you meet him?"
Praying that she had not over-extended herself, thus compromising her relationship with Ken Chester, Laurie explained how she had encountered the blond ranch-hand on one of her rides into the Chiquitas. Naturally she was not altogether honest about the meeting and excluded all the raw details involving the sexual aspects of their liaisons in the canyon.
Quite to the contrary, she painted a glowing verbal portrait of her lover, dwelling on his talent as a writer, his sincerity, and especially, his valuable knowledge of the area around Boggy Canyon. She elaborated on the man's strength of character in shutting himself off from the luxuries of the civilized world in order to attain the peace and quiet required to write profoundly, as a real artist, avoiding the influences of other men. Finally, finishing her eloquent argument on Ken's behalf, she was relieved to hear her uncle grunt a token approval and suggest that she ride up the next day to tell Ken Chester he would join them.
"Just how old is he?" Barbara inquired of Laurie, obviously quite impressed by the girl's flowing description of the Dow ranch-hand. After all, Barbara surmised, maybe he would be worth her attention on the trip. If he lived alone and was really as attractive as Laurie said, he would no doubt be disposed to indulge in a little harmless love-making with a willing and full-blown woman such as herself. God knows, she could certainly use a good fucking by someone other than Will. The selfish bastard hardly touched her anymore; and what was worse, he watched her like a jealous hawk, preventing her from moving around town in search of the cock she so desperately needed to be happy and content. No, she had never kidded herself she was as close to being a nymphomaniac as a woman could be without actually wearing a sign advertising her willingness to spread her long legs for almost any man with a hard-on. Hell yes, she admitted it: She adored stiff cocks, wanted all she could get, and had left more than one man worn to a useless frazzle in the morning.
"All right, then, it's settled," Ned said with finality. "For now, though, let's jack up the cook and have supper. I'm hungry enough to eat even your beef, Will.. . even if I died from it."
Laurie watched her uncle and the Rosses sway off toward the kitchen, chattering animatedly. It was getting late and the stunning young girl retired to her room, thoughts of Ken and the expectant pack trip whirring tormentingly through her mind. One thing particularly disturbed her, though, and that was Barbara's by no means hidden fascination with Ken. Perhaps her sex-hungry lover would prefer Barbara; perhaps he would consider the older woman's body plus her greater experience more intriguing and stimulating than her own. The very possibility made her shudder and drive such considerations from her mind, replacing them with the more acceptable memories of yesterday, when Ken had assaulted her young virginal cunt and spilled his creamy white sperm into her belly.
There was no sense trying to fool herself, she decided, for she already found herself anxiously anticipating the next screwing she would receive from him. As she undressed, thrilling visions of Ken's long hardened penis began to race back and forth across her mind's eye, causing her to chastise herself, yet becoming all the more vivid as her small pink nipples tautened and an excited wetness began to saturate her panties. Her breath quickened and her entire body began to pulse at the thought that she would be alone with him the next day, perhaps naked and pinned beneath him again with his huge hardened cock locked tightly up inside her fluttering belly . . .