Page 65 of My Darling Clementine

I love you. Three little words. Kizzy felt worse than foolish. Why couldn’t she say it?

“I know how hard it must have been to tell me.” Clem tried to meet her eyes.

She ducked her head, vision blurring through gathering tears, reeling with remorse. Just say the words; I love you.

A swift kiss landed on her trembling lips. Clem rubbed their two noses together and looked her in the eyes. “I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to…”

“Push,” she agreed, nodding. She had to tell her. “Um, and there’s something else, Clem.” Kizzy cleared her throat. “I’ve never known anyone like you before, so big, bold, and alive.” You’re damned near perfect. At least, perfect for me. Kizzy swiped a cool tear from her cheek and got closer than ever before. “I like everything about you.”

“Now I know you’re teasing,” laughed Clem, walking around to stand behind her, braiding Kizzy’s lustrous hair. “You didn’t like it when I passed wind under the covers the other morning.” She laughed. “But I do understand. To me, your snoring sounds sweeter than angels singing…”

Kizzy leaned back against her. “I don’t snore. Do I?”

“You do, but don’t worry. It’s nothing to the championship honking I heard living among miners.” She finished the braid, tied it with a bit of ribbon, then ran both hands along her shoulders, massaging them. “Besides, when we have a big, beautiful house in San Francisco,” she mused, kissing the back of her neck, “no one will hear you but me.”

Kizzy turned in her arms, looking up. “A house in San Francisco?”

“That’s what successful miners do with their gold.” Clem reached down and squeezed Kizzy’s bottom. “In our own house, behind a tall fence, we’ll be quite alone.” She smiled as she tugged her skirt up with both hands.

“Oh.” Kizzy moaned, rose on tiptoe, and wrapped her arms around Clem’s neck as her dress rose to her waist.

Craning her neck to look down her back, Clem examined the pantaloons. “They look so innocent from above, but I know better.”

Kizzy buried her head in her husband’s shoulder as Clem’s hand searched for the opening and found it. “Oh,” she squeaked, her bottom pinched.

Clem whispered in her ear. “We’re alone out here, no one to see or hear us.”

“And?” Kizzy’s arm rose to circle Clem’s neck, running her fingers through the nape of her hair.

“And, it’s been too long since we’ve…” Clem raised an eyebrow.

“Since we’ve, what?” Kizzy teased. She bit Clem’s earlobe. “Engaged in amorous conduct? Danced the blanket hornpipe? Partaken in pulchritudinous pleasure?” She blew in her ear.

Clem’s laughter startled birds sleeping in the trees. “What type of penny novels have you been reading?” She cradled Kizzy’s face with both hands, kissing her with delight. “We do have a legal license to,” Clem kissed her nose, “have our cake,” nibbled her chin, “and eat it, too.” She licked Kizzy’s neck.

“A very tempting idea.” Kizzy simpered, feinted, and with a quick move twisted free of her arms. Twirling around, she tossed the back of her skirt up, and shook her exposed bottom in Clem’s delighted face. “But you can’t catch me.”

Chapter eighteen

Ready

As good at running as she was at swimming, Kizzy raced toward the place they hopped across the creek on half-submerged stones earlier. She found the crossing, but it was dark now, and she couldn’t see the rocks.

She heard Clem closing fast upon her, so she jumped to the first rock she saw. From there, however, no others were within leaping distance.

“Ah hah!” Clem cried, bursting through the underbrush, startling her.

Kizzy whirled around, laughing. “Look! What’s that, behind you?” she cried, trying to distract Clem long enough to leap past her and away.

“Oh, no you don’t, I’ve got you now.” Taking her wrists, holding them fast, but not tight, Clem said, her voice husky, “Come with me.”

She tugged Kizzy to a fallen tree half-buried in lakeside sand, making a perfect bench facing the lake. Clem sat grinning like a cat with a mouse and pulled Kizzy toward her.

A rush of sexual excitement danced along her spine. “What are you going to do?” she asked, digging in her heels and resisting a little.

With a twist of her head and a cockeyed grin, Clem yanked her close, picked her up, then settled Kizzy’s bare crotch atop one of her broad thighs. “This,” she said, pulling her skirt aside to expose her bare bottom as the back panels of the pantaloons gaped wide.

“Uh, oh…” Kizzy gasped, cool air and warm denim teased her naked flesh with new sensations. Clutching Clem’s broad shoulders, she closed her eyes to feel it better. Her bottom twitched with delight as her naked thighs rubbed against tight jeans.