The black swan (22 page)

She shook her head flirtatiously. Her cat-eyed smile was devilish. "Oi come to be wie ye, Adam. How come do ye wanta run away, dereling?" She moved closer to him, looking up into his face.

He hardly knew what to do. She was as relaxed and fluid as the water itself, gliding in graceful motions against him and then away. When her flesh passed and touched his, there came that peculiarly sensual feeling of water being warmed by skin and skin cooled by water, sensations so stirring that they were overwhelming his ability to think.

He hoped fervently that the water was cold enough to. prevent a natural display of his desire, yet the growing feeling of heat warned him. Without frock coat or trousers to conceal it in the ordinary way, he had no place to hide, no secret desires to be left secret

His eyes riveted on her naked breasts. As far as he could tell, all she had on was a blade of grass stuck to her shoulder. And that was something he didn't want to think about because it didn't bear thinking about, but he couldn't seem to think of anything else.

Eve knew. She giggled delightedly as she put her arms around his neck and pressed full length against him. "Ye be a slow man, be'n't ye?'*

He put his hands up to take her arms away. A gentleman, even when he stood naked as the day he was born, remained a gentleman. "No, ma'am, I'm not slow. I'm just . . . just . . ." Her skin felt different from his. Her wrists were so small and smooth compared to his thickly muscled ones, so vulnerable and appealing somehow. He stood there bemused with his hands on her wrists, drowning in the nearly colorless blue pools of her eyes, feeling the seductive smoothness of her skin with every pore in his body. He put his arms around her and kissed her.

It was a long kiss that went on breath after breath. No matter how tightly he embraced her, it didn't seem tight enough for this girl, who kept teasing against him with her breasts and clasping his shoulders with fingers like claws. And the way she teased him underwater was making his knees turn limp.

Then, slick as an otter, she was out of his grasp, dolphin-ing away toward the deeper part of the creek. A Piscean mirage who swam with the quiet rippleless grace of a fish, she hung there treading water and teasing him with her pale sea-nymph eyes.

"What be yere trouble, Adam? Don't ye like a bit o* playin'?"

He could leave now if he wanted. As she had done, he dived, arching back to the surface, making his way toward her. As he neared her, she sank out of sight. He peered down and saw nothing but the soft moving shadows of the swamp creatures. But she was there. Or else it was a mermaid, running her hands over him to lure him down with her. He reached out, feeling for her, and pulled her up by the hair. She came out of the water giggling.

Again she pressed her body to his and took his breath away with her mouth. Slowly they sank and hung just under the surface till Adam thought his lungs would burst. They stroked up for air together, and he smiled at her for the first time. "Never thought I could like drowning.**

"Never know what ye might be likin' till it gits tried." She looked at him from the corner of her eyes before she swam away. She stood in the water, her breasts floating at the surface. "Not too deep over here.'*

He swam to stand beside her, wanting to touch her but unable to break through the rules that decreed he could not.

"Ye know nowt of woman, Adam," she said, sounding half-disgusted. "Oi be a-wantin' ye to reach out an* take aholt o* me boozums."

Adam stretched out hesitant fingers and stroked the curving sides of her breasts. She said, "Purty nice, be*n't they?" and smiled up at him. She was tall. He looked into her eyes, not far below his own. He smiled back and, bolder, ran his fingertips over her taut nipples. He felt his breath getting shorter. He had never held anything so alluringly fashioned, of such a desirable roundness and firmness and softness.

Eve, watching his face, said, "Ye be a-wantin* obleegin*, Adam, afore ye be a-goin' off an* a-wastin' it in the branch."

Her hands ran down his body, expending no motions on cleverness or finesse. She grasped his penis and testicles with expert gentleness. Then the end of his penis touched soft, yielding flesh, moister somehow than the water around them, warmer and more inviting than the water. He seemed to go down a long cozy tunnel as deep as he wanted, her warmth securely cradling the length of him. He took a deep breath of delight. Without knowing, he put his arms around her, his hands under her rounded buttocks pulling her desperately close against him.

Eve moved away from him ever so slightly, yet her hands held him as close as he held her. He moved into her again and pulled away, yet her warmth grew and caressed him faster and faster, holding him tighter, pulsating all the way along him until the pulsations came one upon the next and he moaned over and over with a rapture as vivid as the open cloud gates of the sky.

His knees turned to water. His entire body was water. But Eve held him strongly and kept him within her. The current flowed around them, lending a buoyancy the land would have denied. Then her breathing began to sound raggedly, shudderingly, as he felt the spasms of her delight caressing him anew.

They stood locked together, panting, her breasts rubbing against his chest. Then he was slipping out of her. He felt the coolness of the water, washing him clean again.

Adam opened his eyes, and the brightness of the sun-struck water dazzled Mm. How long had he had his eyes squeezed shut?

She laughed huskily. Across her breasts and her freckled

cheeks lay a rosy flush. "Ye air a purty fine man, dereling. Wie time ye be all an' all any woman be a-wantin'."

With passion's retreat, reality returned, and Adam stood staring at her, dumbfounded over what he had done. In his consternation, he'd been going to beg her pardon. Word-bereft, he dropped his embrace.

"Mayhap ye won't be a-wantin' to do it again?" she said, still smiling.

"Not—not right away," he answered, feeling himself blush.

The girl floated away from him, lying half-submerged in the water like a pond lily. Adam floated near her. There must be something he was expected to say. The only trouble was he didn't know the proper words to use when a girl has come up out of the creek and seduced you for the first time in your life.

It was inadequate, it was foolish, but he said it. 'That was nice, Eve. Th-thank you."

Her laughter rang out with the crafty wisdom of the natural child. "Preacher man says it be naughty 'stead o' nice, but it be nice, be'n't it?"

"Yeah." They grinned at each other. Adam took her hand, and they lay companionably together, resting in the water. Presently he asked, "Would you really want to do it with me again?"

"Aye, Adam. Aye. Ye got the kinda cock Oi be a-likin'. Long an' thick. There be a few things ye're not knowin* yet, but Oi'Il learn ye a' that, next tuthree days."

"You live around here?"

"Aye. Cabin' yonder the turnin' there. Ye an' me'll go in after a bit, an' Oi'll gie ye a mess o' grits an' aigs an' side-meat, an' Oi'll show ye tuthree things fer larkin' about."

"You live out here by yourself?"

She looked at him strangely. "Roy lives with me sometime, an' moi kin when they's a mind."

"They're all at the cabin?"

She shook her head. "Roy's went up to Wi'mton wie a chap. Ye don't injoy folks a-pesterin' wie yere fun?"

Privacy meant nothing to her. How could he explain that it was a part of his life? Feeling captured and captivated by this tantalizing creature, he said nothing, but smiled as he looked up into the sun-bright clouds and considered what wonder might befall him next.

Adam followed her out of the water, taking his trousers

and shirt off the bushes. He started to put on the trousers, suddenly shy again, now that they were on land. She laughed. "Ye'll have no call fer duds, lad." He walked behind her, insisting on carrying his clothes, feeling gratuitously exposed, yet avidly watching her bare brown butt muscles twitch as she strode along the path to her cabin. Evidently she went naked in the sun a lot, for she had no paler areas as he did where his trousers covered him. At her door she suddenly turned, and her eyes went down. She grinned. "Ye be 'bout ready agin, be'n't ye?" She fondled him briefly, then stepped inside the cabin. "Come in, if ye can git in fer the dirt."

Adam followed eagerly. "Latch thet door, Adam. If Oi don't go to he'p work today, they'll be a-sendin' one o* the younguns to see 'bout me. Oi don't 'spect ye'll be wantin' a bairn lookin' on?'*

"No, ma'am."

"Ye be of the gentry, Adam? Ye talk so."

"I—I guess I am," he said, uncomfortably aware of the differences that lay between them.

"Oi'd injoy bein' a loidy. Roy saw some loidies a-waitin' fer a sailin' ship in Smithville. Roy said they'd faces white like milk, an' totin' sunshades up on sticks to keep the sun off'm."

"You've got beautiful skin," he blurted out.

She was poking up the fire in the fireplace, lifting a lid off a kettle that hung from a hook. She smiled at him, a picture of feline grace bending toward the fire, its light painting flickering shadows along the curves of her breasts and hipbones. "Oi'm gonna show ye ev'thing Oi got," she said matter-of-factly. "Oncet ye know what it looks like, then ye'll be a-knowin' what yere a-feelin' fer in the dark. Time Oi git a' done wie ye, ye'll be a-knowin' how to pleasure any woman ye'll ever want."

The idea embarrassed Adam; yet, as the girl had observed, he was ready. But such readiness had a way of disappearing. When she was willing again, would he be ready then?

He looked around the cabin. Tidy. Clean enough. A few garments hung on pegs. A homemade table and chairs and two chests that stood side by side under the windows. In the comer, a wide rope bed. Everywhere, furs. On the puncheon floor he recognized raccoon and fox. Over,the

chests and on the bed was fine beaver sewn together into a coverlet. He was even sitting on a fur-covered chair.

"Them furs feel good agin yere privates, don't they dereling?" she asked companionably.

Adam blushed. He wanted to draw his trousers on, so his turmoil wouldn't be so quickly apparent to Eve's observant eyes. At the same time he was enjoying the novel sensation of having nothing on while he watched every move of a girl who also enjoyed having nothing on.

She laid the table, served the plates, and poured out cups of bitter coffee. "Better link in, Adam." She pointed with her knife. Expertly she ate with knife and spoon. When in doubt she used her fingers. There were no forks or napkins. Adam realized he'd had only one meal in the last day and a half and followed her example with gusto.

She licked her fingers and her lips and looked across the table at him with pleasant anticipation. "Fust time Oi see ye, Adam, I seed ye be a man. But ye in no-ways 'bout to be doin' nowt wie it. Now ye kin."

The husky voice, the hands on him . . . "You mean it was you who carried me up into Seth's loft that night I got drunk?"

"Aye, Oi did thet, Adam. Ye be a load to tote, but Oi've got strong arms, an' Oi tote ye."

"But that girl's name was Johnnie Mae! I heard them call her!"

She smiled, her tongue licking across her lips. "Oi was jes' a-larkin' wie ye 'bout me name, 'coz yere name be Adam. Adam be the fust man, an' Eve be his woman. Ma read me thet fable when Oi was a wee baim. She be a-read-in' nice."

"Johnnie Mae," he breathed, looking at her with freshly opened eyes. "I've had dreams about you ever since. I thought you weren't real!"

"What be ye a-thinkin' now?" she asked him invitingly.

Thoughts came easily; putting them mto words was more difficult.

She smiled at him. "Be ye thinkin' ye oughtna be a-thinkin' what ye air?" she teased.

Tight-throated, he said, "I'm thinkin' maybe we're going over there and lie atop those furs on the bed. I'm thinkin' maybe you've got somethin' you said you'd show me."

Over the next days Johnnie Mae showed him not only

what a woman looked like but what she felt like. She taught him the areas of most pleasurable sensation. He learned how to arouse a woman without being too rough. She showed him how he could increase his own enjoyment, how to prolong his performance so he could satisfy the woman more than one time. She helped him discover the little signs a woman gave out that said, "keep on going" or "that hurts" or "I don't want you to do what you're doing." Women, said Johnnie Mae, were all made pretty much alike. But up in their heads they were different. Some women didn't like to do it. Some thought they didn't, but a skilled man could persuade them they did. It would be up to Adam to figure out which was which.

To his surprise no one came near the cabin, though Johnnie Mae was gone part of the time. During her absences Adam swam in the creek or lay naked in the sun. It was during these peaceful, solitary times that he found he could begin to think of the catcher, the slaves, and his own beliefs without the terrible, hurting demoralization. And those thoughts no longer had the ability to crowd in on him when he didn't want them. There were times when he could bask for hours, deliberately thinking of nothing, or he could sleep as he waited for her to return to him.

Sometimes when she was there with him and they lay side by side, looking at each other's bodies and talking desultorily, he would try to tell her some of the things he had thought about while she was gone.

She was hard to talk to. There were all sorts of things she had no conception of and no desire to learn. She had never learned to read. Knowing how to read hadn't done her mother much good, except to tell the pretty stories; but Johnnie Mae knew them by heart now and didn't need learning from a book. If a person had the swamp and a cabin and somebody to lark about with, what good was reading? The same with writing. Johnnie Mae had grown up in a community where everything was spoken, nothing written down. Perhaps that accounted for the oddness of her dialect. Strangely, she had a rudimentary grasp of counting and measuring and adding up. But in the main, if it wasn't a physical activity or a literal fact, Johnnie Mae didn't want to grapple with it.