Highwaymen

The next morning, after they had breakfasted simply but well, Joanna turned to Terence. "Sir, I think we've had enough of luxury for now. I don't wish to spend my money, earned at such risk, on these unnecessary things." Her dismissive gesture took in all the room and its contents.

Terence frowned. He did not wish to admit his current lack of funds after having promised to pay for their stay, and he played for time. "Let us spend one more night here before we quit it, Joanna. This is not an expensive house, and I'll gladly foot the bill for an extra night."

She returned his frown with her own. "I don't understand your wish to be here Terence, unless ... ", now her voice grew low and teasing, "unless it is Rosie's attractions draw you to it. That I can certainly understand."

He scowled darkly, reminded that Joanna had taken his Rosie. "Woman, have a care!"

Joanna looked surprised at the vehemence of his response, then nodded. "Terence, I know I tease you far more than is reasonable. I like you, and I'm sorry that I vex you so, but I don't think you will change that habit of mine, it's in my nature." She smiled disarmingly, and inclined her head. "Please forgive me."

"I'll forgive you in exchange for another day here." His answer was grudging.

"Very well." She acquiesced, surprising herself somewhat by the ease of her surrender.

Terence mused irritably on his predicament. He had put himself in a corner. Before the morrow he simply

must

make a successful interception to replenish his funds, at least sufficiently to pay the bill here and hopefully leave a little to tide him over. He spoke to the innkeeper, who having dealt with Terence previously was happy enough to accept his promise to pay tomorrow morning.

This morning passed in his accompanying Joanna to the blacksmith's where her stallion was re-shod. After returning the stallion to the inn, the sun being warm and the day pleasant, they wandered along a lane together, passing between low banks. A little way along the woods closed in, and the banks steepened. Soon they came to a bend where a swathe of wild flowers, delicate yellow primroses chief amongst them, nestled on the earthy bank. Terence stopped suddenly to admire the scene. Joanna's face turned to his, and she read his expression of wonder with some amazement. She had not realised he was as sensitive to nature as she herself. It enchanted her more than a little.

She reached for his hand, seizing it tightly in hers, and pulled him after her the short scramble up the bank and between the bushes beyond, he following in surprise. Then she stopped suddenly and turned to face him. Her face was flushed and her breasts, unconfined today, were heaving prettily beneath her shirt as she spoke. "Terence," her words came raggedly through her short gasped breaths, "we have coupled in nature more than twice already, but each time it was dark or somewhat dim. It would please me to love you in the bright light of day, here in this green place."

He watched her animated face as she spoke. God! Once more her beauty pierced him. It was not merely her physical appearance, it was her inner lusty life-force, he thought, which shone through at such times. Her eyes mesmerised him, and he had no wish to escape their siren charm. He fell into their clutch, swallowed up eagerly in the spell they cast. Their bright blue hue held a desperate urgency. She walked backwards, his two hands held in hers, until they reached a little mossy dell. She knelt, pulling him down with her, her eyes still locked together with his. They knelt face to face for a little, until he reached out and grabbed her waist, pulling her into a fierce and bruising kiss. Her eyes opened wider and shone bright with delight as he crushed her lips to his. He tasted a little blood in the kiss but, barely conscious of it, he continued his vehement attentions. His tongue invaded her mouth and prodded, tasted, then moved on, exploring it with slow deliberation. She gasped around it, and fell back onto the moss as he pressed her down. Her hands pulled at her skirts, hitching them high, and her legs parted wide. Still the kiss continued, Terence devouring her with a fervour which roused her wonderfully.

When he finally moved, pulling back from the kiss, hearing her sigh and seeing her lips pout at the loss, he reached to unclasp his belt. Her fingers were there before him, unbuckling, then joining his in pushing his breeches to his knees. Then she was tugging his shirt upwards. His rudely protruding cock enticed her, she pulled his hips up towards her face, and he allowed her to guide his cock towards her waiting mouth. She took it between her pursed lips, sucking, running her tongue around the tip, feeling it leap in response. She grazed her teeth down the shaft, and gently squeezed his balls. One of his hands reached to twine in her hair. He groaned pleasure, but he needed to be in her, and soon he moved downwards. She moaned as his cock left her mouth.

His hand fumbled for a breast, pushing under the thin fabric of her shirt and grasping, kneading her soft flesh gently, then running his fingers over the slight bumps of her areola, before squeezing her nipple hard, eliciting a delighted squeak. He pushed his cock rudely into the waiting embrace of her hot wet pussy. Joanna's arms went around his shoulders and dragged him down into another long kiss. Her tongue leapt, and it seemed she was determined to invade his mouth with as much possession as he was invading her sex. He was shocked at the insistence of her tongue, but it stirred him further, and he began to pump into her with gusto. Her hand grasped his head by the neck as she plunged her tongue deep into his mouth, her tongue matching the rhythm of his pumping cock stroke for insistent stroke. Terence felt her free hand slide up between her breast and his, and his nipple was seized in a vice-like pinch. Breath gasped from him, but he was too far gone in his own pleasure to complain, and he endured the pain of it. Suddenly, the pain bloomed into an intense focus of arousal, pulsing from breast to crotch.

He came, groaning pleasure as he pumped cum into her in jerking spasms. When he was spent he lay still above her. Now she was mewling, her legs wrapped around him, her teeth grasping his ear, as she wriggled and squeezed around his still-hard sex. He felt the flood of her climax as she keened her pleasure, and then her limbs began thrashing wildly. He pinned down her arms and legs to protect her (and himself) from harm. And now they both lay gasping for breath.

For a long time afterwards they lay there, looking up at the trees climbing and meeting above them, bending as if to enclose the pair in a leafy high cathedral. They watched the thin upper branches sway gently against the blue sky. Joanna was the first to speak, and her tone was awed. "Terence, I don't believe I have ever experienced anything more passionate … more complete, than we just had."

He considered her words a moment. "Aye, I do know I can say the same my lo.." and he bit back the word which had almost escaped his lips, finishing instead ".. my lovely Joanna."

She smiled secretly to herself at that. True, he had not fully uttered the word, but it had been thought and half said! She felt warm and happy. This man shared much of her natural and animal passion. He was a fitting partner in many ways. She

would

show him how to enjoy all the possibilities of nature in the ways of loving, and she was sure he would be able to appreciate them as much as she. Yet still she held herself back. She would not, could not quite admit that another could harness her in love as she surmised she had harnessed him. She was too used to playing the coquette, leading men on, staying safely at a distance even while her body enjoyed the most intense sensations. So she believed herself to be merely infatuated with a new lover.

Meanwhile, Terence was regretting the way that little word had slipped itself into his speech. Like Joanna, he also was not yet prepared to admit that he could love this girl, though he did recognise that she held a unique fascination for him. And it was galling that now she might think he loved her. Surely she would be hoping to control him now with that, making it another lever for her artfulness?

Finally they dressed. As they were returning to the inn Terence began to brood on his necessary adventure to come. He had to intercept a traveller tonight! So he became rather short and distant with Joanna, and she in turn grew distant when she perceived it, mistakenly thinking that he now regretted their recent dalliance.

Finally, as the afternoon wore on, he approached her. "Joanna, I must run a little errand. I should be back before midnight, and with luck it could be much earlier."

"With luck?" She guessed what sort of errand he might mean, but she did not want to embarrass him by naming it outright when he so clearly did not wish to admit its nature. "Then I wish you luck and God speed on your errand." She managed to give the last word only the slightest of emphasis.

"But Terence", and here she laid her hand solicitously on his arm, "have a care. I know you are not always as cautious as you should be. Stay safe for me." Joanna wondered at her own words. She had sounded to herself like some silly worried wife entreating her husband to take care!

He smiled back at her, somewhat curiously she thought. "Aye, I'll be safe. Have no fear of that my Lady."