Chapter 1: Katie

Katie Martin brushed the currycomb lovingly over the big roan's withers. The great animal responded with a contented nodding and rearing of its noble head to the familiar touch of the striking young blue eyed, blonde girl. It was a task she enjoyed and she was displeased with herself for not having groomed him the day before, following her afternoon ride, but she had anticipated that Juan would do it; after all, he was the stableman. Besides, she'd been so taken up with her chance meeting of the boy who called himself Ron Carter that she hadn't quite known what she was doing.

She'd spotted him there leaning on the white railfence next to their private graveled road which led into the K Bar L some two miles from the main house, and had ridden over curiously to learn who he was and why he was there. With her inseparable, shaggy Genghis bounding along behind them like some massive and ferocious attacking greybeast, Gallant Red rapidly closed the distance to where the stranger stood casually watching their approach, and she could see the late model Caddy parked on the shoulder of the road where he'd left it. He might have been seventeen or eighteen, she'd thought, and he was tall, broad-shouldered and lean... but it wasn't until she reined in that she realized he had a chiseled, handsome young face with almost insolent, dark sparkling eyes, and a lopsided smile that seemed to be grinning contemptuously at the world.

"Hi!" she'd greeted, offering him a warm, if, questioning smile.

"Hi," he'd replied in kind, his gaze fixing impudently on her breasts, hesitating there momentarily before raising slowly to her face. She'd felt the flush in her cheeks and brushed her long, straight blonde hair back over her shoulders habitually, while Gallant Red pranced in nervous circles and Genghis began to growl viciously. Certainly, she wasn't unused to male eyes first caressing her breasts before moving appraisingly over the rest of her fifteen year old body; she was well aware of their voluptuous size and shapely pointed beauty... a sort of initial focal point(s)... but there was something wildly challenging in his obvious mental-stripping of her that raised tingles of excitement somewhere in her underbelly... "Quiet, Genghis!" she'd ordered, and as always, the imposing, lovable brute had obeyed immediately. "Don't mind him. He doesn't like anyone until I tell him to. He's a timber wolf..."

"Well, I hope you tell him to like me," Mr. Handsome replied solemnly, then, his fetching grin had become prevalent once more.

She had laughed, displaying an array of white even teeth intentionally, while she leaned forward to pat the beg roan's neck. "All right, I will. I'm Katie Martin."

"Ron Carter," he replied, his brazen eyes constantly returning to her breasts.

"What're you doing around here, Ron Carter?"

He shrugged. "Vacationing. Just riding around and stumbled onto this road."

"Staying nearby?"

"In Phoenix... with relatives," he told her.

She must have been staring at him; God, he was handsome! An insane thought raced through her mind. Suddenly, she'd said: "I'm having a party tonight... just some friends... people, you know... ? Would you like to come?"

"Yeah... I'd like to..." he started, then as if in second thought, he'd added: "but I can't make it tonight... I'm tied up... Maybe, some other time, eh... ?"

She'd felt disappointment. "All right... but I wish you could come," she'd said, making little effort to hide her aroused feelings. Lord, he was so damnedably goodlooking, along with that mysterious virile charisma that could hypnotize a girl... "I think I like you," she'd said almost before she realized it. "You'd be my date... and we throw the wildest parties, Lee and I..."

"Lee... ?"

"He's my twin," she'd informed, trying to steady Gallant Red who was anxious to gallop over the hill toward the wash, their usual afternoon excursion. "Listen... our Friday night parties are always the best... Why don't you try to make it, Ron... ?"

He nodded. "Okay... I'll try." His grin was sending the craziest sensations soaring through her.

She couldn't remember when a boy had moved her the way he had... except, of course, for Danny Farnum, but he was in Tucson... just a memory now... they'd even stopped writing each other some months past, and it had been two years since Daddy had brought them to Breynar... two frustrated, unhappy years of discomfort and unwanted new existence...

"There'll be pot!" she heard herself add with a feeling of defiance, while the big horse pivoted in circles, restlessly.

"I'll keep it in mind."

"And I'll be looking for you," she'd advised, offering him a sensuous parting smile. "Nice meeting you, Ron Carter..."

"I'll be back..."

But he hadn't, and their party had been a lousy affair without him... at least, for her; now, she was angry with herself for making such an obvious pass at him. God, thinking about it, she wasn't surprised that he hadn't showed. He'd probably been afraid of being raped! Damn, nothing seemed to go right anymore... not since Tucson... She had been a wanton little ass throwing herself at him so conspicuously, hadn't she? Well, she wasn't sorry, not really, and she'd do it again... even more with the right boy... and especially with Ron Carter! She'd had just about all she could stomach of this whole disgusting new existence! What a farce it'd become!

Gallant Red whinnied, interrupting her unpleasant thoughts.

"What's the matter, Darling?" she spoke soothingly, brushing back over his ribs toward his strong muscular flanks. "You disgusted, too?"

Genghis, sitting on his haunches behind her, whimpered at her words. Automatically, she craned her neck to look into the great beast's wild grayish-green eyes that were staring at her limpidly.

"All right, Baby, all right! Don't be jealous," she said, reaching her free hand around to stroke the huge animal's massive crown. "I love you... you know I do... God, you ought to... you old wolf... !"

He licked at her hand and she continued to pet him affectionately. Lord, she thought, what would she ever have done without them these many lonely months passed... ? They had become her whole life... her pets... her loves... her only companions! Oh yes, there'd been Daddy and Mom and Lee... three empty shells of the loving, closeknit family she'd been a part of in Tucson before the great and new existence had come to plague them, to weave imprisoning cocoons around them... social cells within which one might smother in dignity with his individual hangups... Her sweethearts! They were so far superior to the human animal... and the good Lord knew how much she loved her Mom and Daddy... her handsome Daddy... yes, and even Lee... but damn him, he'd been absolutely obnoxious the night before... !

If it hadn't been for him, she might have enjoyed some kind of time... at least, lessened the letdown of Ron Carter's nonappearance. She hadn't lied about Friday nights being their best times, because both of her parents were generally gone. For Daddy, it was a late working day, then Civic Club. Later, he joined her mother at the Breynar Country Links for whatever it was that kept them until five and six o'clock in the morning... that preliminary weekend stage that personified upper middleclass success. After all, a bank manager and his wife were expected to move in exclusive circles, and they did... but the hollowness was so blatant anymore in both of their adorable faces...

Oh damn! She wasn't going to think about that disgusting, heartbreaking nonsense this morning! No! It was too beautiful of day, and she had her closest darlings around her... Yet, she couldn't shake the anger she felt toward her twin...

Damn him, anyway! She was actually fifteen minutes older than he was and looked at least two years younger, an aggravating delusion that for some unknown reason had led him to believe he could "big-brother" it over her, and even worse, she'd found herself giving in to his domination the past year. No one ever took them for twins anymore; although they resembled each other closely, were blond-haired and fair-skinned, Lee's near six feet in height and strong, athletic build, had advanced her own kid-sister feeling.

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 'puppy-love', 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... !