Romance: Luther's Property (17 page)

I made it a point to have business in town today. Taking Sam
to the local doctor for a checkup while feigning pain in my breasts from
feeding him set us in a good position to observe any goings on. I need to see
with my own eyes, my father’s plan put in to action. Until I see it unfold. I
just can’t bring myself to believe that he will actually carry it out.

Despite my begging and pleading this morning, Jim still went
to work at the general store and so it was only a matter of time before my
father’s plan was put in to motion. By two o’clock I had suffered the indignities
of having my breasts squeezed and wrapped in hot compresses. By three o’clock I
was walking Main Street for the fourth time when I saw my father’s men walk in
to the General Store.

I can’t imagine Jim’s face when they came through the door.
Even though he was expecting them I don’t think the reality of the situation
had quite settled in. I know it hasn’t for me, even when I see the men walk in
to take him. It is as though my brain and my eyes just don’t connect. I can’t
believe what I am seeing.

I clutch Sam to my chest and bounce him softly to keep him
quiet as I watch from the side of the saloon, pressing my back against the
rough wooden wall. I don’t want my father to see that I have disobeyed his
orders or that I’m spying on him. Four men come out of the General Store with
Jim held up off the ground by the elbows of the two in the back. I hear Jim
tell them that he’s innocent, but they just shout back at him to shut up and
save it for the judge. Jim tries again to tell them that he didn’t do anything,
but again they tell him to shut up and this time they threaten to beat him if
he doesn’t.
 
It takes everything in me
not to run out after them, to tell them that Jim is telling the truth. I can’t
tell them how I know, but I know that he is. He has to be because if he’s not
then everything has been a lie and that just can’t be. Jim is a good man, he
wouldn’t lie to me about this and even if he would, I would notice something
like being married to a bank robber…wouldn’t I?

Jim is hauled off to the jail. Like everything in this small
town, the jail sits on Main Street. Right at the far end of the dirt street and
overlooking the dusty mountains, it sits as a tribute to my father’s position
as sheriff. Since our move to town, my father has decreased crime rates by
fifty percent. An achievement that he boasts to anyone who will listen. He has
put God knows how many degenerates in jail…and now my child’s father is one of
them.

“Sara-May!” I knew I’d be caught, but I couldn’t stay away
any longer.

“Father.” I say as I turn around to see him standing there
in full uniform.

“Sara-May, I thought I told you to leave this well enough
alone.” His voice is stern as he eyes me.

“Father, you may believe that Jim is guilty, but I believe
that he is innocent. As his soon to be wife it is my job to stand by him. I
will prove his innocence if it’s the last thing I do!” I cringe inwardly at the
fact that I dared to speak to my father in such a way. I expect him to explode,
perhaps to throw me in jail for insubordination, but instead he sighs heavily
and shakes his head.

“Sara-May, follow me. I have something I need to show you.”
He says, walking towards his office in the corner of the small building.
 
I hesitate to follow him but when Sam starts
to fuss I know that I need to get out of the main building before we upset Jim
even more.

My father points to a wooden chair in front of his desk.

“Sit.” I do as he asks without question. Sam still clutched
to my chest. My father walks around and sits behind his desk, then opens a
drawer and fumbles inside it for a moment. “Sara-May, I want you to take a look
at this.” He puts a wanted poster on the desk top. The corners of the poster
are torn and the paper is discolored, but there, quite clearly in black and
white, is a portrait of Jim. It looks identical to him, from his shaggy black
hair to the small mole on his right cheek. I stare at it for a moment blankly
before looking up at my father again.

“What is this?” I ask as Sam reaches up and grabs a lock of
my dark curled hair in his fingers and pulls it gently.

“This is a wanted poster from four towns in Montana. Three
other towns have been struck by the same man. Seven banks in total.” My father
pauses waiting for me to say something, but I can’t even open my mouth. “Gold,
jewels, guns…he stole it all and he threatened to shoot anyone who tried to
stop him.” Finally I will myself to shake my head.

“No…” My fingers trace the face on the poster and I shake my
head again. “No, it couldn’t be. He wouldn’t do something like that, father.”
He sighs loudly, more out of heartbreak for me than disappointment.

“Sometimes, Sara-May, I wish that you would just listen to
your father.” He says, the sadness in his voice is palpable.

“Can I speak to him?” I ask. He is silent for a moment as he
contemplates my request and then he shrugs.

“If you must.” He gets up from his chair and leads me back
to the small cells along the far wall of the jail. “You have a visitor!” He
says, shouting to Jim.

All of the cells in the jail but one are empty. There on the
broken wooden bench in the corner of the last cell, sits Jim. He looks haggard
already after less than half a day here. I smile when I see him and he smiles
back, rushing over to the bars to be close to me.

“I’ll leave you for a few minutes.” My father says and
turns, walking back down the hall.

“Sara-May!” Jim’s voice is breathy, scared. “Sara-May, I
didn’t think he’d really do it! I didn’t think he’d really put me in here!”

“He has evidence, Jim.” I grip his fingers with one hand as
they clutch the bars.

“What evidence could he possibly have of an innocent man?”
Jim asks me, his eyes wide.

“He has the wanted posters from four of the seven towns that
were robbed. The man on the posters…” I can barely bring myself to say it out
loud. “He looks just like you.” Jim’s forehead wrinkles deeply. “Identical to
you, in fact.”

“But it couldn’t be!” He says, shaking his head. “It wasn’t
me! How could it be me when it wasn’t me?!” He starts to sound panicked and I
grip my fingers tightly around his.

“Perhaps…perhaps it was someone who looked like you?” I hear
myself say. His expression flattens and his eyes squint.

“Like my brother…” He says.

“Your brother?” I ask. I didn’t know that he had any family
at all, he never speaks of them and they have never put forth the effort to pay
us a visit.

“I have a twin brother, Sara-May. He looks just like me.
It’s the only explanation that I can think of.” I find myself beginning to
doubt his story. How can anyone have a twin brother and not speak of him all
the time? “You have to believe me!” He says frantically.

“Likely story!” My father’s voice comes from the end of the
corridor. “I’ve heard it a million times before! It wasn’t me, it was my twin
brother!” I look at Jim apologetically.

“His name is John, you have to believe me! His name is John
Carson!” Jim is shouting towards my father and I find myself backing away from
the bars. Sam is beginning to fuss again.

“I should go…” I can find no other excuse so I bounce Sam in
my arm. “I need to get him home to be fed.” I say. Jim looks at me dejectedly.
I want to tell him not to worry. I want to tell him that I believe him, but
right at this very minute I just can’t.

My head has been reeling all afternoon with thoughts of Jim.
I want so badly to believe his story, to believe that somewhere out there is a
man who looks just like him…but it seems so unlikely. But then again, if the
man I love is truly a bank robber then where on Earth are all of the spoils of
his labor? Our minimal lifestyle is hardly that of a bank robber and his soon
to be wife.

I clutch Sam to my breast until he has had his fill. When he
finished suckling I set him in his crib. He has been cradled in my arm all
afternoon and it’s nice to finally set him down. While Sam rests in the small
nursery, I find myself lying on my bed. Every part of me feels drained. I know
that I must do something to prove Jim’s innocence…but how can I do that when I
don’t know that I believe him myself?

“Come on Sara-May…just a peek?” He tugs at the top of my
blouse and I squeal like a schoolgirl.

“I would thank you to kindly keep your filthy paws off me,
Mr. Carson!” I can’t hide my grin and Jim continues to tug at the neck of my
blouse. This time his fingers catch the thread that laces it closed and it
falls open. The neck, cutting just down to my ample cleavage is wide open and
Jim is still pawing.

“You could just take it off…” He says, licking his lips. I
lean in and give him a peck.

“I could…but I shan’t. I’m an honorable woman Mr. Carson and
until we are married I will do no such thing.” Jim stands on his tiptoes and
peeks down my shirt.

“Well, it seems only fair that a man should get to feel his
produce before he purchases it…” He jokes as he wraps his arms around me and
pulls me in to him.

“I am no such thing!” I say, maintaining my air of dignity.

His hands slide down to my bottom and he squeezes my
buttocks firmly in his hands. “Mmm hmm, nice and firm…” As he speaks, his warm
breath brushes against my neck and my body begins to tingle.

“Jim…” I know I should tell him to stop now, before things
get too far out of hand, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

“Let’s see here…” He grasps at my skirt, gathering it in his
hands until it is up far enough to slide his hands underneath. He squeezes my
buttocks again, this time with just the thin cotton of my undergarments between
my skin and his touch. “Mmm hmm, still quite firm…” He says. Then he turns his
face in to my neck and his lips touch my burning hot skin. It’s as though every
part of me clenches at the same time and then suddenly releases. His touch does
something to me that nothing else ever has.

“Jim, we really shouldn’t!” I say. But he is already too far
gone to hear me. Too deep in the throes of his lust for me. And I am too weak
to say no.

Jim bends over, he tosses me over his shoulder and marches
in to the small bedroom of his house. I knew that I shouldn’t have come to see
him alone again. I slap my hands gently against his buttocks.

“Stop! Jim! What are you doing?!” I squeal, but never really
intending one word of it. He throws me on to the bed which groans under the
weight of my curves. Jim stands up straight and tears his shirt up over his
head. I stare at his sun kissed flesh and the small dark patch of hair covering
his chest. I have never seen a man quite so overtaken with passion before.

“Don’t you want to be mine Sara-May?” He says to me in a
singsong voice as he tugs my skirt down with one swift pull. As I lay on his
bed with my shirt open and just my underthings on, I nod. How could I say no? I
reach down to the hem of my blouse and lift myself just enough to peel it over
my head. Then I slide my hands behind my back and unhook my brassiere. The
relief as it slides down my arms, my large breasts finally free of its
confinement, is enough to make me moan quietly. Quiet as it was, it’s enough to
get Jim’s attention. He looks at me with a glint in his eye and bites down hard
on his bottom lip. Then, in one fluid motion I fall back on to the bed and he
tugs at my underthings.

I am naked.

I look up at Jim as he stares at me, completely absorbed in
every curve of my naked body. I can’t help but want to cover myself. No man has
ever seen me this way before. But the way that Jim looks at me tells me that he
enjoys every inch of me. I watch him unbuckle his britches and drop them, along
with his drawers, to the floor.

The firm shaft between his legs stands upright, pointing
towards me and I can’t tear my eyes away from it. I have never seen anything
like it and I’ll be darned if I know what to do with it. Jim follows my gaze
and then smiles.

“Ever seen a man’s cock before, Sara-May?” He asks. I shake
my head. What’s the use in lying when he’d find out anyway as soon as I asked
him what to do with it? “Well” He says, wrapping his hand around it and shaking
it gently in my direction, “this here is going to make you feel mighty fine.”

Letting his hand drop from his cock, Jim climbs up on to the
bed, pushing my legs apart with his knees. Just the touch of his skin against
mine makes me tingle. I start to breathe faster as he leans down over me. I can
feel that shaft pushing in to my skin. He rocks gently on top of me and it
sinks in to the soft folds of skin on my stomach.

“Ahh, that’s right…” He says, leaving his mouth open just
slightly. “Sara-May? Would you like to feel a man’s cock inside you?” He asks.
And I want to say no. I want to because I know I should. But I nod my head. I
say yes instead. And then Jim smiles at me and rocks his body down a little
further than before. Then I feel it. His cock pressing against my most intimate
place. I can hear wetness and I don’t know where it’s coming from but it feels
so good. He pushed harder against me and this time I feel him slip inside.
“AH!” He says loudly as he pushes forward until his pelvis is touching my skin.
Then he pulls backwards, sliding it out again. He starts a rhythm of pushing
and pulling and each time I hear the sound of wetness.

I can barely breathe as he starts to thrust in to me faster.
My breasts jerk up and down each time he thrusts and I watch the look on his
face of pure ecstasy. Never had I imagined that anything could feel so good.
And then it happened. I began to feel even better. At first the rush of tingles
that took over my body scared me. Every muscle I had pulled tight and I grasped
at the bedclothes.

“JIM!” I squealed his name, but before I could say anything
else the most incredible feeling of heaven washed over me. The muscles in my
most intimate place began to spasm as if they had a life of their own. Jim
breathes heavily as he watches me fall limp. He continues to thrust in to me
and then he jerks. His body stiffens. And I feel a warmth leaking inside of me
like I have never felt before.

A knock at the front door awakens me. I roll over in the
same bed where Jim and I had first made love together and wait for a second
knock. When it comes, I get up.