For a second, it shocked him to realize they were so close. He looked quickly around the hotel lobby to see if there might be any strangers who could be allowing Lily Gail to lead them to him, but the lobby was mostly deserted except for a few familiar faces. Nevertheless, Longarm said, “I don’t much care to be sitting out here in the open with you, Lily Gail, with the Gallaghers anywhere near.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. They have sent me in to see if I couldn’t persuade you to take a trip over the line to meet with them and see if something couldn’t be worked out.”
Longarm looked at her with amazement. “Lily Gail, have you lost what little mind you ever had? I can’t make any deals with the Gallaghers, even if I wanted to, which I damn sure don’t. The only way I would meet with them is if I had a troop of calvary behind me. The Gallaghers could raise half a hundred men at a moment’s notice. If you think that you’re going to lead me into some trap out in the flatlands of the Cimarron Strip, you’ve got another think coming, girl. I mean, you are a pleasure in bed, but you ain’t worth dying for.”
She gave a pouty look and gazed up at him with that innocent lewdness in her eyes, the look that, if a whore could copy, would be worth a million dollars to her. She said, “The last time I saw you, you said you hadn’t had all of me that you wanted, just all that you could take.” She put her hand on his thigh, still gazing up at him. “Do you still mean that?” As she said it, she leaned slightly forward, thrusting her breasts at him.
He looked her over carefully. For a change, she was wearing a yellow print frock that was closed at the neck with a lace collar. It had balloon sleeves and a tight-fitting waist and bodice and then ran snugly down over her hips. He could see that it was an expensive garment, and he could see that she was wearing patent-leather slippers. He supposed the Gallaghers had been good to her of late, or she had found someone else with very loose scruples.
Longarm said, “Like I said, I don’t like being out here talking about the Gallaghers. Why don’t we go on back to my room and discuss this matter?”
She said, “Oh, no. I couldn’t do that.” She smoothed the material of her dress in her lap with her chubby little white hands. “That wouldn’t be right, for a lady to go to a gentleman’s bedroom in the middle of the day.”
Longarm pulled out his watch. “Lily Gail, it is going on half past four. That’s nearly the shank of the evening. It wouldn’t be as if you were going in there right after lunch.”
She looked thoughtful, and then looked up at him with that same innocent look. “Did you know that I am not wearing a thing on underneath this dress? Can you imagine? This morning, when I got dressed, I forgot all about my underclothes.”
Longarm could suddenly feel the pulse beating in his ears. He said, “Is that a fact?”
She nodded slowly. “Of course, with the weather being so unseasonably warm, it is more comfortable this way.”
“Well, you probably have had a long trip. I think we should go back and let you rest. Perhaps I could order you a bath.”
She smiled with her cupid-bow mouth, her red full lips. “Now, that would be proper, wouldn’t it?”
He nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes. That would be more than proper.”
She smiled again. “Well, so as not to give anyone the wrong idea, for certainly we wouldn’t be doing anything wrong, why don’t you walk along ahead of me and I will follow you?”
He stood up. “All right, Lily Gail, but just make sure that you don’t pick up any company on the way back. It’s on this floor, the fourth door on the left, down the hall in that direction.” He nodded his head across the lobby.
“I don’t know what you mean by not bringing any company. I am simply trying to keep up proper appearances, as Mister Baxter would have said.”
“I’ve noticed that you are talking a great deal more high-toned here of late, although I’m not sure that you know all the words that you are saying. Did you get that from the late Mister Baxter?”
She nodded gravely and said, “He was a very well-educated man. In trade, you know. Haberdashery. Gentlemen’s clothing. A very high-toned establishment.”
Longarm said, “I’m on my way. I’ll expect you in about two minutes.”
She nodded. “That will be agreeable with me.”
Chapter 2
It was a few minutes more than a couple of minutes when he heard the tiny knock at the door. He opened it with his revolver in his hand, but it was just Lily Gail. He let her in, closed the door carefully, and then turned the key in the lock. He had windows on two sides, one on the side street and one toward the alley, but he’d carefully pulled the shades down so that no outsiders could see in.
He said, “Why don’t we sit down and have a drink? I don’t have any lemonade, which I know that you like, but I’ll water down your whiskey so that it’s not so strong.”
She unbuttoned the collar of her dress and then the next button and then the next, so that he could begin to see the cleavage of her breasts. She said, “That would be ever so nice. You will be pleased to learn that, with Mister Baxter, I learned to enjoy an occasional drink of whiskey. Mister Baxter approved of it and said that it seemed to make me even more lively.”
“The prospect of you being any more lively in bed is frightening.”
She said, “Why, Mister Custis Long. I’m not sure that’s a proper remark to make to a lady.”
He laughed. “Lily Gail, in spite of everything, I’m glad to see you. I know that you’re here for a purpose that’s not going to do me a bit of good if you have your way, but I’m glad to see you.”
As Lily Gail accepted the glass of whiskey from his hand, she said, “It’s just some little old piddling thing that the Gallagher brothers asked if I would do. They know that you and I are acquainted and that you would be inclined to trust me.”
That caused Longarm to throw back his head and laugh out loud again. If there was anybody that he was not going to trust, ever again, it was Lily Gail, even if he got what he wanted from her. He realized that there were some folks who might think that such calculations were not of a gentlemanly nature, but they didn’t know Lily Gail as well as he knew her.
She was sitting a few feet away from him in a straight-backed chair. Longarm was sitting on the side of the bed, handy to the whiskey. He held his glass up and said, “Let’s drink to old times, Lily Gail. Here’s a toast for you. Bottoms up.”
She giggled and took a good healthy swig of her whiskey and water. He followed suit, keeping his eye on her. He said, “Lily Gail, that next button is looking mighty loose. It looks like you’re throwing a strain on it. You might want to undo it so as to save the thread.”
She said, “Oh,” and looked down quickly. “If I am losing another button …” She stopped and gave him a look. “Why, Mister Custis Long, you’re trying to trick me into unbuttoning my dress.”
“Yeah, there’s that old devil in me, Lily Gail. I don’t know what makes me get up to such things.”
With that innocent, guileless look on her face, she unbuttoned the button, and the strain of her breasts pushed the material of her dress back enough so that the V widened and he could see the rise of those milky white breasts. He could see the side of one of the big pink rosettes that made the nests for her big nipples.
He said, “Drink your drink, Lily Gail, and let me fix you another.” As an encouragement he downed his and then poured more whiskey in his glass. She followed him, quickly finishing hers, and leaned forward to hand him her glass. As she did, he could see clearly down the front of her dress. “My, my, Lily Gail, I do believe they have grown,” he said. “They’re two of the prettiest puppies that I have ever seen.”