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Authors: J. Roberts

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“Okay, Hank.”

“Okay?” Flood asked. “You'll do it?”

“I'll do it,” Clint said. “Not for wages and not for a piece. I'll just do it for you.”

“Jesus, Clint, I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Clint said. “I'll ride out to your camp in the morning.”

“I'll have a couple of men comin' in with a buckboard for supplies.”

“That's a fine,” Clint said. “I might pass them on the way.”

“I'll ride back tonight and let everybody know what happened,” Flood said.

“I think I'll get a bath while I have the chance. Might be a long time before I get another one.”

Flood picked up the whiskey bottle. “How about a drink on it?”

If the beer had been cold he would have turned it down. Instead he said, “Why not? One moreâfor both of us!”

TWELVE

Roy Sobel found Andy Dirker sitting in a wooden chair in front of the hardware store. He was rocking back and forth on the rear legs, chewing on a toothpick.

“You finished with your whore?” Dirker asked as Sobel approached.

“Yup,” Sobel said. “I'm ready to go on the drive.” There was no other chair, so he sat down on the edge of the board-walk. “What've you been doin'?”

“Nothin',” Dirker said. “Just sittin' here.”

“You ate?”

“Not yet.”

“Let's go get a steak, then, before we go back to camp.”

“Suits me,” Dirker said.

They got up and started walking.

“Saw Flood in the Crystal,” Sobel said, “but not Trevor. We don't wanna run into either of them. We're supposed to already be in camp.”

“Don't think we have to worry about that,” Dirker said. “I heard they had some trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I heard somethin' happened to Trevor.”

“Like what?”

Dirker shrugged.

“Don't rightly know,” he said. “Just heard there was some trouble.”

“Well then, maybe we'll have a chance to get back to camp before they notice we're gone.”

“Right now, I'm just thinkin' about that steak,” Dirker said.

“Me, too.”

Debra decided that Roy Sobel was her last john for the day. She was going to go and have a hot bath and a meal, and then go to her place at the rooming house.

She was the only whore who didn't actually live in the same room where she worked. She'd spent too many years doing that, and she had saved enough money over the years to get her own place.

As she passed through the front hall in her street clothes she heard from two of the girls.

“The princess is leaving,” one of them said.

“Yeah, she's too good to live here with us,” the other girl said. “Goin' to her rooming house.”

Debra ignored them, and as she went out the door she heard one of them mutter, “Wish I could afford a rooming house.”

“Shhh,” the other one said.

Debra smiled and closed the door behind her.

Clint went to the barber shop, which had bathtubs in the back rooms behind it. He paid for a bath, waited while the man brought buckets of hot water and filled the tub. He turned down the offer of a haircut and shave, ushered the man out of the room and then undressed and sank gratefully into the tub of hot water.

In the room next door to his, Debra was sitting in her bathtub, wondering if Eddie the barber was peeking in at her through a hole in the wall. His wife wouldn't let him come to the whorehouse, and she'd caught him peeking once before. She told him if she ever caught him again she'd poke his eyes out, and then he'd have to explain that to his wife.

She luxuriated in the hot water, used a cloth and soap to clean any vestige of her clients from her body. The hot water felt good on her right thigh, where Roy Sobel may, indeed, have caused her to stretch a muscle.

She was lying back, enjoying the last of the heat before the water began to cool, when she heard something bang against the wall on her left.

She sprang up out of the tub, grabbed a towel, wrapped it around her, and went to catch Eddie peeking at her.

Clint's tub was close to the wall, so when he picked his gun belt up off the seat of the chair next to him and went to hang it on the back, the gun swung and banged into the wall before it settled into position, hanging from the back of the chair, within easy reach.

THIRTEEN

As the door to the room slammed open Clint's hand streaked for his gun. He found himself pointing it at a blond woman standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped around her.

She froze when she saw the gun pointing at her.

“Whaâ” she said.

“That's what I want to know,” Clint said. He holstered the gun. “What's going on?”

“IâI was taking a bath in the room next door, when I heard something hit the wall. I thought Eddieâthe barberâI thought he was back here trying to peek in at me again. He, uh, he done it last time.”

“I see,” Clint said. “Well, I think when I hung my gun on the back of the chair it banged into the wall. I'm sorry it caused you to get out of your tub.”

“Oh, uh, it's okay, I guess, butâ”

“Why don't you go back and finish your bath?” Clint suggested.

“Well, I would, but by now the water's probably gone cold.”

She looked at the steam that was still rising in Clint's tub.

Suddenly, he recognized her as the woman who had been smoking on the balcony of the whorehouse.

“Well, my water is still pretty hot.”

“I see that.”

“I'd invite you to get in with me,” he said,. “but . . .”

“But what?”

“I saw you out on the balcony before, smoking,” he said.

“Oh, was that you?”

“That was the whorehouse, right.”

“Right,” she said. “What's wrong, you don't like whores?”

“I think whores are beautiful,” he said. “I think you're beautifulâ”

“Thanks . . .”

“âbut I make it a practice not to pay for sex.”

“Really?” She was fascinated, regarded him with sudden interest. “You've never paid for a woman?”

“Never.”

“I find that hard to believe,” she said. “Why is that?”

“I just never got into the habit,” he said. “Besides, there are plenty of women out there.”

“I see,” she said. “Well, I guess you're in luck, then.”

“Why's that?”

“I happen to be finished for the day,” she said. “That's why I was having a bath.”

“Well,” he said, “what do we do, then?”

“Why don't I feel your water and see if it's hot enough for the both of us?”

“Sure.”

She approached the tub, knelt down beside it, and put her hand in. The towel was wrapped tightly around her, but he could see from her rounded shoulders and thighs that she was a woman with some meat on her.

She dipped her hand in, sloshed the water around, and then pushed her hand down between his legs. She found his penis, felt it begin to swell in her hand. Oddlyâgiven her professionâshe found herself growing excited. Sex with a man who wasn't paying was not a common occurrence for her.

“Wow, it is very hot,” she said, stroking his cock.

“Better make up your mind before it cools off,” he said.

“Oh,” she said, “I've made up my mind.”

“Better close the door, then.”

She got to her feet, walked to the door, closed it, then turned and let the towel drop to the floor. Her breasts were pale, almost pear-shaped, with pink nipples. Her belly was nicely rounded, with a deep belly button. Between her legs was a heavy tangle of hair that was more golden than the hair on her head.

“Well?” she asked. “Do you approve?”

“Oh, yes, ma'am,” he said. “I approve very much.”

“Enough to pay?” she asked.

“Well, now,” he said, “I guess if I was ever going to pay for a whore it'd be you, here and now.”

“So, should we talk price?”

“Do you want to?”

“Hell, no,” she said. “Right now I'm randier than I can ever remember being, and I think it's because you don't wanna pay.”

“If that's the case,” he said, “then get your beautiful, big ass in this tub!”

FOURTEEN

Luckily, Eddie believed in supplying large bathtubs for his clientele.

Debra approached the bathtub and bent to step in, her full breasts swaying with the movement. The pink nipples had already extended themselves impressively, and Clint was reaching for them as she stepped in and sank down into the water. He leaned forward, cupped her breasts in his hands, holding their weight gently, thumbing the distended nipples.

“Mmm,” she said, as he squeezed both breasts. She reached between his legs, took his hard cock in both hands, stroking it lovingly. Clint thought that if Eddie really did peek into these rooms he was getting more than he ever bargained for now.

She scooched forward, sliding her legs atop his, and on either side of him, so that they were able to get very close to each other. Clint pulled her close and kissed her. Debra, who did not ever kiss her clients, melted into the kiss and groaned into his mouth.

“Jesus,” she said breathlessly.

“Yeah.”

“I mean, Jesus, I'm a goddamned whore,” she said. “I'm not supposed to feel . . . feel like this.”

“You were a woman before you were a whore,” he told her.

“I haven't been a woman in a long time,” she said. “A very, very long time.”

He pulled her close, crushed her wet breasts against his chest, and said into her ear, “You sure feel like a woman to me.”

She leaned into him then, abruptly pushed away, and got to her feet, almost upsetting the tub and splashing water all over the floor.

“What is it?” he asked.

She got out of the tub, almost slipped and fell, but righted herself.

“Not here,” she said, “not here, not like this.”

She stood there then, as if confused.

“What's your name?”

“Huh? Oh, Debra. My name's Debra.”

“Debra, do you want to go someplace else?”

“Someplace?”

“Like my room?” he asked. “At the hotel?”

“I don'tâI don't know what to do.”

He got up, stepped out of the tub and went to her, taking her by the shoulders.

“I have to leave town tomorrow,” he said. “If that helps. I don't know if I'll ever be coming back.”

“That doesn't help a lot,” she said. “I'm real confused here. W-what's your name?”

“Clint Adams.”

“That means somethin'âwait, wait. The Gunsmith?” she asked.

“That's right.”

“Oh, wow,” she said, “I didn't know . . .”

“Look,” he said, “why don't we get dried off, go someplace and talk. Maybe that's all you need is to talk about . . . something?”

“Mr. Adamsâ”

“Clint, please,” he said. “After all.” He gestured to the fact that they were both naked.

“Clint . . . I really don't need to talk,” she said. “But I do need to get out of here.”

“Okay,” he said. “I have a few towels. Your clothes?”

“Next door.”

“Okay,” he said, again. “Let's get dressed.”

“And?”

“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Debra rushed back to her own room, where she'd left her clothing. She dried off and got dressed. Her breathing had not returned to normal.

This was amazing, she thought. She hadn't been stirred by a man that way in . . . well, years, or maybe even . . . ever.

What the hell was going on?

Clint dried off and got dressed, strapped on his gun. He knew that something had happened earlier, when he and Debra had seen each otherâhe from the ground, and she from the balcony. Now, being this close to her, he knew it was special.

But special wasn't something a whore was used to, and she was confused. But since he was leaving town with Flood's outfit in the morning, if he was going to help her through it, it had to be tonight . . . now.

And if all she needed to do was talkâalthough she didn't seem to think that was what she neededâhe could do that for her, too.

FIFTEEN

“Mr. Flood?”

Flood looked up from his seat in the saloon. Since Clint left he had slowly worked on the bottle until it was almost gone. He frowned now, trying to see who was standing over him.

“What? Who's that?”

“Spud, sir,” Spud Johnson said. “Are you all right?”

“Me? Sure, sure, I'm fine, just fine,” Flood said. “Spud, did you say?”

“Yes, sir,” Spud said. “You hired me to be the cook.”

“Right, right,” Flood said. “I, um, remember that.” Although he wasn't really sure he did.

“Mr. Flood, can I help you get back to camp?” Spud asked.

“Um, yeah, that would be . . . um, good . . . Do you have a horse?”

“Uh, no, sir.”

“Well, that's okay,” Flood said. “I got one for you. Used to belong to a friend of mine. His name was Jack Trevor. Did you know Jack?”

“No, sir, I didn't.”