Kitty Russell was almost well, which meant that Doc still wanted her in bed a few more days after her injury out at the Judson homestead, and that Kitty was tired of lying around and ready to be back to work. She started out by spending the morning at the desk in her room doing the books and catching up on the orders, inventory, and deposits that Bill Pence had made while she was out of commission. By the time that was done, she decided to get dressed and go down for the afternoon shift at the saloon. Matt Dillon looked over the top of the batwing doors to the Long Branch to see her standing at the end of the bar having a drink - with Doc Adams sputtering angrily beside her.
"I'm not going to work through the evening, Doc," she told him, "But I'm tired of sitting upstairs doin' nothin'. I just want to see what's happening and I'll go to bed early and let Bill close up."
"You're not well enough to even be standing up, young lady," Doc railed, "Now I want you back in bed or I'll go get Matt to carry you up and put you there!"
"Someone mention my name?" Matt said walking into the bar room and heading towards his feuding friends.
"Matt, I'm glad you're here…" started Doc, but Matt ignored him.
"Hello, Kitty," he said with a big smile for the redhead leaning on the bar in front of him. "Nice to see you back among the living."
"Now that's just exactly what I…" Doc began, but Kitty interrupted him with a warm smile up at the Marshal towering over her.
"Hello, Matt. I was gettin' a little bored so I thought I'd come down and see what was going on," she said.
Matt moved past Doc as if the smaller man wasn't even there, and laid a big hand very lightly against the small of Kitty's back. "Let's go on over and sit down, Kitty," he said, "I was hoping to talk to you."
"Sure, Matt." Kitty responded, and threw over her shoulder, as Matt led her to a table at the back of the room, "Clem, would you bring the Marshal a beer?"
Doc Adams followed them to the table, but when the couple continued to ignore both him and his comments he finally turned away, shaking his head and muttering dire predictions about patients who didn't follow the excellent advice of their personal physicians. But as he exited the Long Branch he swiped a hand across his mustache and stopped trying to hide the grin that played over his lips. Kitty would do just as well sitting quietly with Matt as she would sitting alone in her room. Better probably. He thought a little of the aborted journey the two had been taking when a snake caused Kitty's horse to throw her. She'd hit her head hard and the concussion had been fairly serious, but he regretted almost as much the fact that the two of them had needed to come back to town without having the private time together that they had obviously been seeking. Doc stomped up the stairs to his office hoping that at least Matt and Kitty would get some time together on this quiet September afternoon.
Back in the Long Branch, Matt sat close enough to Kitty to let his leg rest against hers under the table, but kept his hands busy with his beer mug on the table top. "You really feelin' better, honey?" he asked softly, the endearment slipping out without him even noticing.
Kitty kept her face straight but let her eyes smile up at him. "I really am, Matt. A little tired still, and my head still aches just a bit, but I think I'm ready to start doing things again," she replied, "And I'm sure ready to see someone other than Doc." Her lashes lowered over the blue of her eyes and then raised again as she looked at him very directly.
"Is that an invitation?" Matt inquired.
"It is," she told him. "I've been missing you, Matt."
His hand rested on her forearm for just a moment. "I'll come by tonight before Bill closes up," he promised. The tension that had built just a little between them as they talked seemed to ease. Kitty sat back in her chair and told him about how Bill had messed up the books in the days she'd been out of commission, and Matt talked about what was going on in town and how, despite the lateness of the season, he still expected two more herds through in the next week.
"You think it will be rowdy, Matt?" she asked, a little concerned.
"They're Texans, Kitty," he snorted, "It's bound to be rowdy, but the herds are fairly small, and I don't think they'll be here at the same time. Do you have enough folks working that you can manage without being on the floor for a couple of evenings?"
She nodded. "I can roll my way over Doc in the afternoons, Matt," she said, "But I wouldn't want to try it late at night." She frowned a little, "I need to have a word with Bill about being sure all the cowboys are gone before he closes down at night."
"That been a problem, Kitty?" Matt asked, trying to keep the question casual.
"Well, it has, Matt," she admitted, "I don't like to complain, but unless I keep a close eye on things Bill is likely to leave one or two cowboys up there with the girls for the night, and I don't like knowing there's men walking free in the Long Branch after hours. It's caused trouble a time or two."
Matt frowned, "What kind of trouble, Kitty?"
Kitty shook her head, "Nothing too serious, Matt. Couple of times someone has gone out and left a door unlocked, and once a cowboy finished with Mariah and went looking for a little something extra from one of the other girls. Ol' Amos kept things in hand upstairs during the summer, but I let him go the first of September – didn't expect any more herds through this late, and the locals are pretty well behaved." She took a deep breath and let it out. "I know the other saloons don't bother clearing the men out at closing, but they've usually got a couple of gents living on the premises, and, well, once Bill goes home, we don't."
Matt laid a casual arm across the back of her chair, and his hand stroked lightly up and down her back for just a moment. "We'll just make sure it's easy for you to call the marshal if there's a problem tonight."
Kitty kept her face straight but her eyes danced. "Mighty kind of you, Marshal Dillon."
They sat in light conversation for another half hour, longer than Matt usually got to spend with her, before she rose and went back to the bar to help Clem with the customers, and Matt exited the saloon with a tug at his hat and a friendly, "See ya' later, Kitty."
OoOoO
That was the evening that Spike Marlow began working his way through the girls at the Long Branch. Kitty took a supper break, but came down at seven for a couple of hours. She didn't stand in her usual place at the bar, but sat at a table just inside the door, and visited with one or another of the locals who were happy to buy a drink and spend a little time with the prettiest woman in the room. Kitty noticed Marlow right off, because he was working his way from one girl to another, a handsome, smiling lady's man who was clearly there not for drinking or gambling, but for the girls. Miss Kitty's girls were some of both the prettiest and the best behaved in town. Not all of them took customers upstairs, but most did from time to time. She saw him walk up with Stella about eight, and then back down at quarter of nine.
Bypassing Bill's reluctance, Kitty had a word with Sam and Clem before she went to bed, and got their promise to check the premises, including the girls' rooms, for guests before they locked up.
It was a quiet night and when Matt came by a little before midnight, Bill and Clem had both gone home leaving Sam to sweep up the leavings, including a pair of tipsy cowhands and Spike Marlow, flirting with Ellen Sue at a back table. The drovers were easy, but Spike wasn't interested in leaving, and Matt finally took a hand. "Bar's closing, mister."
Matt watched as the man's eyes shifted to the badge on his chest, and then up, far up, to where the tall lawman loomed over the table where he was sitting. "The young lady and I were just heading upstairs, Marshal," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"I told him already, Marshal," Sam commented from across the room, "No customers after closing time."
Matt let his hands rest possessively on Ellen Sue's shoulders for a moment and then helped her up from her chair, "You go on up, Ellie. Plenty of time for more business tomorrow if you're interested." Ellen Sue stroked her hand lightly up the Marshal's arm and then, with a smile at Spike, she headed upstairs. Accepting Matt's assistance with just the right show of warmth was a familiar game for Kitty's girls, and they understood how to play it. And if they didn't know just where that game started and ended, then they didn't last long at Kitty's establishment. The man's lips turned up again, but there was anger in his eyes as he strode across the room and left the doors swinging behind him.
It was only a few minutes before Sam blew out all but the last lamp and followed Spike Marlow out onto the boardwalk. Matt locked the front door, something he'd been doing on and off for several years, and then, thinking on Kitty's comments earlier in the day, he walked through the office and storeroom, and checked the cellar door and all the outside doors before he turned the lamp low and headed up the stairs. A figure met him at the top, before he turned towards Kitty's room.
"Thank you, Marshal," came a woman's voice, pitched low.
"He bothering you, Ellie?" Matt asked in a normal tone. He'd have been foolish if he hadn't known there were at least a few listeners.
Her shrug was a wisp of motion in the dimness of the hallway. "He didn't like it when I said no, Matt. He'd already been up with Stella this evening, and, well, I don't take customers upstairs. I'm gonna marry Johnny soon as we get our stake." Her hand reached out to him, just a little, but he didn't touch it.
"You tell Kitty tomorrow, Ellie. She'll steer him clear." Matt told her.
"Goodnight, Matt."
"Goodnight, Ellie."
Matt turned and walked down to the end of the hall and through the curtain that led to Kitty's private hallway and door. He tapped lightly before turning the knob. Kitty was waiting for him in the brass bed, lying naked, awake but sleepy. He locked the door behind him and went to sit by her. She rolled over and he took the hint to stroke her back and rub her neck. "Head still hurting?" he asked.
"Not much," she replied, humming a little at the feel of his hands on her neck and in her hair. "Mmmm. That's good."
Matt leaned over to lay his lips softly against the side of her neck. "You want to just visit, Kitty, or you want me to stay?" he asked, hands still moving on her.
"I want you to stay." She rolled back over and caught his hands to lay them against her breasts.
He chuckled a little, low in his throat, and cupped the fullness of her bosom with both hands. It only took a minute or two to remove his boots and clothes. He blew out the lamp and came back to the bed. Kitty lifted the covers to invite him in and moved into his arms as he lay down beside her. She nibbled his neck a little before asking, "Who were you talking to in the hall?"
"Ellen Sue. Fella was determined if he stayed long enough she'd take him up to bed. Sam told him he was closing down, but he didn't seem to listen." Matt's fingers traced the outline of her ear, remembering it bleeding after her fall, and then went back to softly rubbing her neck.
Kitty sighed, "But he took a hint from the Marshal?"
She felt Matt shrug where her head lay on his chest. "No one seems to want to argue with me over a girl, Kitty."
"Need me to talk to Ellie?" Kitty asked.
"Nope. She knows the score." Ellen Sue dropped quickly from his mind as he turned Kitty to spoon against him, hands on her breasts, lifting their soft weight before running his palms against her nipples, feeling them tighten against his hands and then his fingers. "You sure you feel well enough for this, Kitty?"
Kitty wiggled her bottom back against where she felt his rising hardness. "Well, I suppose we could just try it out for an hour or so and see if I felt like stopping," she suggested.
"We'll just see how well you do with that," Matt laughed low against her hair, reaching down to fondle lightly between her legs with one hand, letting his fingers skim over her, rubbing just a single stroke against her hooded pearl. She tried to lie still, letting his hands tease her, but it wasn't long before her hips were moving against his slow hand and she was gasping just a little.
"Matt, we do have to be careful tonight." She managed to get that out, but his mouth was on her neck, and there were no more words left, just soft sounds and little moans.
"I can do that, Kitty. Relax. Don't worry." He lifted her knee up towards her waist and ran his fingers down to circle her wet opening before entering her slowly, returning his hand to rub against her, and matching that slow rhythm with his hips.
They held it as long as they could manage, and it was Kitty who finally put a hand down to stop him. "Matt, I can't… can't wait... you know… you know what…" Her voice was breathless and intense. Matt let himself push hard twice, three times, and then pulled out of her to spill against her thighs, his hand moving harder and faster against her, hearing her wordless cry and wishing he were still inside her to feel her muscles clutch him as she spent. They lay breathless and silent, tight against each other. Eventually, Matt reached over for his edge of the sheet and wiped the wetness of his seed from her skin.
Kitty turned in his arms, reaching her face up to his lips. "Do you have to go?" she asked.
Matt kissed her mouth, before he told her, "Not until first light." He moved his lips languidly against her face, her throat.
"Someday, I swear," she said, "We're going to manage a whole night, together, in a bed, with nothing to think about except each other."
"I was kind of hoping for that when we were riding out to Salt Creek." Matt told her.
"Yeah, I know," she said with a sigh, "I didn't tell anybody that Ted and Mary would be in Missouri while I was visiting their place." She snuggled against him, "Matt, you really are good to me."
He stroked her hair. "Now where did that come from, sweetheart?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"You put up with so much to be with me. And you look out for my girls. And you… you always manage to…" she stopped without finishing, and then finally went on, "And I know it's better for you when you don't have to do that." She stopped again, and her voice in the darkness sounded almost shy, "And it's better for me too."
His first temptation was to make light of it, but he didn't. She deserved an answer even though there hadn't actually been a question. "Kitty, neither of us wants a baby right now. Nothing's sure, but we can at least try. I promised you that years ago, honey. It's not such a big thing, is it? And it's not all the time." He hesitated, running his hands over her warm skin, "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't be with you, Kitty."
And that was a little too much, even for darkness and the intimacy after their loving. She hugged him, and yawned, settled sleepily against his shoulder. "Wake me before you go, Matt. And use the side door. Doc would kill me if he saw you coming out the back."
His chuckle was the last thing she heard as she settled into sleep.