She stopped currying, her thoughts distracting her once again. It was actually difficult for her to accept the change that'd come over Lee since Tucson… they had been so close at thirteen… But then, she had only to remember Peggy Farnum, her Danny's sister, to realize she had the basic answer. Perhaps, it was only that childish affliction that adults are wont to call "puppylove", but whatever it was, the four of them had enjoyed an ardent case of it… until they'd moved… then had come the disillusionment and loneliness to breed little animosities and confused defiance.
Daddy had been so proud, she remembered. He'd gotten the appointment as Bank Manager of the Breynar branch of Saguaro National Bank and Trust Co., that beautiful suburb of Phoenix… and nothing had been the same since…!
Gallant Red whinnied once more, jarring her from a state of rapidly growing moroseness.
"Okay… you're right, Darling," she said, reaching up to tweak the great horse's ear. "I shouldn't bring my problems to my beautiful loves… but there wasn't any damned reason for Lee to make a fuss because I smoked my second stick of grass. God, you'd think he was my guardian or something," she went on, as if her pets could understand her. "He made such an issue of it that I actually ran out of there… and that disgusting Larry Beehman… the whole evening, trying to get his hands up my dress… though, I can't help wondering what he'd ever do if I decided to let him…!"
She began to curry once more, the repulsive, yet, sensuous thought of Larry Beehman's clumsy attempts to fondle her semi-virginal secret-parts blending with the existing maze that was embroiling her mind. Genghis whimpered behind her and she petted him absently…
She pictured their house on Orange Drive in Tucson… the happiest moments of her life had been spent there… and Danny would come over… His young carefree face appeared before her… smiling as always… what a sweet boy he was… she had let him touch her there and caress her budding breasts while she would hold and gently stroke his hot, hard rod, but it had never gone beyond that, and he was the only boy she'd ever let do it… God, she had to stop thinking about such things, or she'd get all worked up…!
Instead, she forced herself to remember the day Daddy had told them the "good news"… they were moving to Breynar…! She had thought she'd die! Even her mother's smile had seemed nauseous… but Daddy had been too elated with his appointment to notice their dejection. It was going to be a whole new and wonderful life for them, he'd predicted happily. At last, the Martins were going to be important in this world… attain status and have all of the luxuries he'd never been able to give them…!
Well, it was done! Now, Mom didn't even cook the meals… Rosita did! And Daddy didn't prune his pet rose bushes… Juan did! Nor was there any more Danny Farnum…! Instead, she had the pot and the parties and the Larry Beehmans… and Lee had Millie Stone… the judge's daughter… the pig…! Oh, how stupid it was to keep rehashing it all… but God, Daddy… what have you done to us…?
Katie felt the hot tears stinging her cheeks, and she'd vowed days ago that she'd never let it happen again… Yet, she hadn't counted on this Ron Carter either, and somehow he'd stirred her up miserably. Lord knows, Daddy had meant only the best for them; he'd given them the K Bar L with its splendid furnishings, ample wardrobes, three cars, and finally her Gallant Red and Genghis, the latter being a magnificent beast she had seen in a San Francisco zoo and fallen in love with. She knew he had cost her father a sizable amount; and somehow he'd managed the difficult purchase from the zoo; then, it had taken several months of gradual and professional acclimation before the Lobo could cope with the desert heat. Now, he was her prize possession… like the ranch was Daddy's, while to Lee and herself, if was only a figurehead place. She guessed that it probably hung fine amongst the Breynar Country Club group, placing her parents on the exclusive social level; it was a beautiful, gentleman-spread that most people would give a great deal to be a part of, but neither Lee nor did she feel quite that way about it… and although she wasn't certain, she had her doubts about her mom's professed contentment there…
If only she and her brother hadn't drifted so far apart. Whatever had come between them, Katie couldn't put her finger on it; they'd always been so close… in fact, there'd almost been a secret bond drawing them closer to one another in Tucson, and thinking about it caused an unexpected ripple of excitement to tingle along her spine again. She recalled that he would come into her room at night before going to bed, wearing only his shorts, while she might sit at her vanity brushing her hair in her nightie… and why not? Dear God, hadn't they even bathed together a thousand times in their little years? All the same, she remembered, he would stand there talking about idle and unimportant things while she would glance a hundred times at the bulge at the front of his shorts, knowing he was eyeing her breasts through the diaphanous material of her nightgown, and staring at her hips and buttocks, waist and thighs when she stood and crossed the room intentionally… then at the partially hidden light-haired mound of her young womanhood as she faced him… but she'd never thought of their actions as being wrong… After all, he was her brother… yet, as strongly attached as they had been, she couldn't remember anything they had ever done to each other that could be sexually frowned upon…
Lord, what was she trying to come up with, anyway?
Genghis suddenly gave out with a loud bark.
"Damnit, be quiet!" she snapped. "It's six o'clock in the morning! You want to wake up the whole place?"
The wolf stirred, moving in a circle, then sat once more, contented with the hand she grazed backwards over his massive head as she curried with the other. She wished she'd put on slacks or jeans instead of the skirt she'd hastily jumped into. What she needed was a wild ride down through the wash to clear her head of all the erotic little thoughts she had let accumulate there… and now thinking about that, it occurred to her that she'd been restless all night, ever since Larry Beehman's crude fumbling around… that, in addition to her general confused frustrations, had roused her from bed early…
Again, Genghis barked, startling her this time, and angrily, she raised her hand as if to slap the brute, but then he whimpered and at the same moment her eyes caught sight of it, too! It was Gallant Red… her gentle currying of his glistening coat had caused it to happen again, just as it had the other day! His heavy shaft suddenly hung dangling out, thick and black like a length of oversized rubber tubing, and Katie couldn't take her eyes from it!
Immediately, she sensed an uncontrollable twinge of excitement charging upward through her as her widened blue eyes stared fixedly at the ever lengthening rod of black, velvetlike animal flesh!
"S-So that's what you were harking at, Darling…" Katie half-whispered, both fascinated and aroused by the fierce and sensually inspiring spectacle. Of course, she'd seen it before and had been no less moved, but until this very morning she hadn't been certain that she was its stimulus… Juan usually curried him… God, had she subconsciously had this in her mind all night? Was that why she'd been so restless… with Larry Beehman's awkward passes inciting her, along with memories of Danny and even Lee adding to her impetus…? Was that why she'd hurriedly grabbed up the first things she could find to wear and rush down here with Genghis right behind her…?
She couldn't help but drop to her knees where she could observe more closely. Gently, she rubbed at the great horse's belly with her small soft hand while she spoke softly and the huge grey wolf came over to nuzzle against her cheek affectionately.