The next afternoon Jimmy was sitting on the front porch watching the butterflies and other assorted wildlife congregating on the flowers while Kate prepared for some of her lessons.

"Are questions okay now?" he heard from behind him.

"What?"

"Well, yesterday…you said to save my questions and I think I understand why," she explained, "You were obviously overwhelmed with sexual stimulation. But you aren't now so may I ask some questions?"

"Please do," he answered and then caught the words. "Before you do, I want to ask you something. Are you alright with what we been doing, what I asked you to do? I don't always think and remind myself that you ain't…well…you ain't done all this before. You asked me what I wanted and I told you but it didn't mean you had to do it. Some women like doing that and some don't. If you don't like it, you don't ever have to again. I don't want to take advantage of you, Katie. I don't want to make you do things you don't want to."

"I was afraid at first…it seemed so…deviant. I don't even know if it is or not. Maybe everyone does such things. How would I know? But I decided that if you wanted it, I could at least try. And I did enjoy it. It felt…right somehow. I don't even know if I was doing it right."

"You were doing things plenty right, darlin'. Felt damned good, what you did. So what did you need to ask?"

"You stopped me before you ejaculated," she said plainly. "Why did you do that? Is it wrong to ejaculate in my mouth? Does it bother you to do it there?"

"It ain't wrong and it don't bother me," he replied a little unnerved by her openness about such a topic. "I didn't think you was ready for such a thing. I didn't want to frighten you and I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable to find yourself with a mouthful of something you might not know what to do with."

Her head cocked to the side and she thought a moment. Jimmy was struck once again by how enticing she looked when she did that.

"What should I do with it? What does it taste like? Does it have a taste? Do you want to ejaculate in my mouth?"

"Katie darlin'," he sighed, "You got to stick to one question at a time. Uh…well, there's a couple things you can do with it, I guess. You can swallow it. It can't hurt you or nothing. Or you could spit it out. I can honestly say I don't know what it tastes like but I think it must have a taste of some sort."

He raked a hand through his hair wondering how he, of all people, was sitting on a sunny and proper looking porch talking to a proper looking lady about…this! He sighed and shook his head before continuing.

"And yes, I want to…what's that word you use?"

"Ejaculate?"

"Yeah, thinking about ejaculating in your mouth makes me want to pick you up over my shoulder and carry you upstairs."

"Oh," she said and then she was quiet for a while. As much as her questions vexed him, he missed the musical tones of her voice. He was just about to ask the Latin name of a butterfly that had just begun to plunder the weigela when she opened her mouth and began talking again.

"It felt different being on top of you yesterday," she noted, "Different from the other times, I mean. Are there other ways? Do they all feel different?"

He nodded and tried to stop his brain from giving him visuals of exactly how many other ways they could join together and how wonderful each would feel.

"Why did your body react the way it did to seeing me take my clothes off and touch myself?"

"Anticipation, I guess. And the way you was talking. Meeting you the first time, I never would've imagined you could be so…dirty. Don't get upset. A man sometimes likes a woman who can get like that. As long as I think you're only talking like that to me, you're going to get the same response you got yesterday."

She sat in the chair opposite him as if deflated.

"I know so little," she sighed, "Jimmy, how do you put up with me?"

It was Jimmy's turn to sport a furrowed brow.

"I'll grant you it's a little…awkward to talk like this," he conceded, "I think it's more that I ain't used to it. But you sure do make the rewards for putting up with you pretty nice."

"I think I'm very lucky," she said after a lengthy pause. "I suppose I could have fallen for a brute or someone who would take advantage of my naïveté."

He had entertained the thought himself more than once of what might have happened to her if she had taken a shine to a different man with different views of how to treat a woman. It was all the more reason to take care with her.

He stood so suddenly it startled the birds splashing in the bird bath and then turned to her just as quickly.

Kate knew she was asking too many questions but that was just the way she was. She couldn't help it. She liked learning new things and this had to do with her very own body which made it all the more intriguing.

She had always thrown herself into studying. Poor Jimmy though looked so uncomfortable sometimes and she understood why. These were not normal things for a woman to ask her sweetheart. She was about to ask if that's what he was or if it's how she could think of him when he stood so suddenly and then turned to her with such desperation in his eyes it was nearly painful. He looked almost dangerous on the surface but she looked harder at him and saw more.

He was scared. This strong and fearsome man was frightened. He had already shown her vulnerability, she thought. He had let her take such complete control the day before, he had told her his feelings for her and if that took half the courage she'd had to muster to tell him how she felt…then it was a great deal.

Now though something was in him. She had never seen another person laid so bare before her. He looked almost frail. She wanted to run to him, to hold him, to reassure him that everything was fine even though she didn't know what was upsetting him to even know if everything was actually fine.

"Katie darlin'," he said at last. His voice was reed thin and shaking. "I…I don't…I don't even know how to say the things I need to. I told you once before how my ma was treated. I know I can be mean. I ain't never been to a woman though. Honest, I ain't. Scares me something fierce though—the thought that I could be."

Kate looked at him. He looked as if he might cry or just crumble before her. She wasn't sure what to do so she just sat there feeling tears prick at her own eyes as well.

"You're something special," he finally went on, "I need you to know that and I need you to believe it. I can't hear anymore talk of you thinking I just put up with you. If…if I ever hurt you. I don't want to and I'd hate myself for it. I know I would. But if I did…I need you to promise that you'd lock that door, that you'd hate me, that you'd remember you deserve better. Ma never saw that she deserved better. You…just please…promise me."

She felt the tears trickle down her face—tears he didn't allow himself. The fear he held inside and that he showed it to her…just to her, it was overwhelming in almost the same way as how he made her feel. This was love…if she had doubted his feelings for her, or even hers for him, there was no more doubt.

Kate rose from her seat and walked slowly to him. He seemed so fragile right then, she was almost afraid she would spook him if she moved to quickly. Slowly she extended her hand toward his face and he looked directly into her eyes. She wanted to pull him tight to her and never let him go. She was not looking right then at an imposing legend of the west. He was not some awe inspiring gunman right then. He was a small and frightened little boy seeing things no one—especially a child—should ever see or even know about.

"I promise," she said solemnly as her fingers barely brushed his cheek. "I promise much more than that but yes, I will do what you ask."

"I-I just couldn't bear…"

"I know," she said gently daring to face those wounded eyes again. He just stared at her helplessly and she led him inside and to the small couch in her sitting room. Once she had pulled him to her and held his head against her bosom, he relaxed. It was then that she spoke again.

"You're a good man," she said softly, "I don't think you hear it enough and maybe you never did. But you are good. Maybe some men would turn into the monster from your childhood. You chose different. You've already chosen it. I will promise to remember that I am smart and good and pretty and above all that I deserve tenderness. I will because you are right. I knew it but then I think we're meant to feel insecure sometimes as humans."

She stroked his hair and kissed the top of his head.

"But I want you to promise me something in return," she continued and then shushed his alarmed look as his eyes flew to hers. "Promise me you'll start seeing yourself for who you are. You are good and kind. You defend people who can't defend themselves. You are tender and patient. I know you think you are lacking something. You've said as much. Whatever it is you think I need that you don't have, I assure you it is not that important. You're what I want. You're all that I want."

"You don't know what you're saying, Kate."

She stiffened and the tears pricked her eyes.

"I do know what I am saying and do not infer that I am some silly girl who doesn't know her own mind or heart. I am a college graduate and my own mind and heart are the only things I have had to worry about for far too long. I like having someone else's to worry about for a change. And I like being your Katie darlin'. I thought maybe we had even become sweethearts, that what we had between us existed outside the bedroom and what we do there. It does, doesn't it?"

Jimmy sat back and stared at her. She was once again the strong and assured woman he had met his first day here. And she was right. The argument he was making was something he had just told her not to accept. Her eyes held his stare and he was pretty sure that if this was a staring contest he would lose.

She was smarter than he was. He knew that. She was more learned by far. She said he was worth something. But she'd just asked him a question too. She looked to still be waiting for the answer.

"There's much more," he said finally, "Sweethearts? I ain't had anyone I would call that in such a long time. It's a strange feeling but yeah, that is what we are, ain't it, Katie darlin'?"

She looked so relieved, he somehow felt like a hero just for telling her the truth.

"I got a question for you, though," he said. "You're not the only one with lots to learn."

She looked at him in expectation.

"I guess it's true I don't feel good enough for you 'cause I don't make as much money as some men and I don't have the learning…you said there's more important things. What are they?"

She smiled and ran her fingers over his cheekbones down to his jaw and then spoke.

"When a woman thinks of the man of her dreams—or at least when I thought of such a thing—she doesn't see how much money he makes. She doesn't even think about what he does for a living. She thinks about the time she'll spend with him. She'll think about talking to him and how it will feel so right. I wanted a man who shared interests with me. Maybe I know more about Latin names for things but you have the same appreciation for the visitors to my flowers and birdbath that I do. I dreamt of an honest man with integrity, a man who would be gentle to me, a man who would look at me with such love it would take my breath away. I dreamt of a handsome man who I would never tire of just staring at. Those are the important things, Jimmy. Those things matter. A stuffy job in a stuffy office with stuffy colleagues wouldn't make you more suitable in my eyes. You are all I have wanted and I can honestly say I don't care to even think of any other men."

Jimmy rested against her for a while. He wasn't sure why it felt so good to be held by her but it did. He thought he might want to stay there forever. She was so tender and warm. He thought he'd never had such a soft place to land.

"You know what I want to do right now?" he murmured softly against her. She chuckled.

"I can imagine."

"I don't think you can," he said seriously as he sat up and looked into her sparkling green eyes. "I want to go for a walk—with you. I want to get out of here and offer you my arm and take note of every jealous look I get from other men on the street. I want to see them wondering how an ornery cuss like me got a lovely creature like you to give me a second look. I want to sit in the park and watch the people go by and I want you to tell me about you, your life. I want to know if you have sisters or brothers and what your folks was like. I want to know how you got so interested in the things you're interested in. I want to know everything about you. I want to fall deeper in love with you, Katie darlin'. And when you get tired of talking about yourself, I want to take you to dinner. I want to watch candlelight flicker in your eyes and then I want to offer you my arm again and walk you back here—just like any man properly courting a woman, a lady. I want to stand on your porch all nervous with my hands sweaty and wonder if you'll let me steal a kiss and then hope against hope that you'll invite me in for coffee. Can we do that?"

"That sounds lovely," she said softly. "I sort of got out of order, didn't I?"

"I ain't complaining about nothing, Katie darlin'," he assured her. "But I'm not lying when I say I love you. I can't wait to find out all of the more there is to you. I know there's so much more than what I have seen and what we've done. I want it all with you, Katie. I want the growing old and the quiet days cuddled together when it's raining and sunny days watching the hummingbirds and butterflies. I want everything. I don't even know what everything is but I want it."

His words stirred something deep within Kate. She knew he loved her and knew she loved him. She had thought she understood all of that but she didn't, not until he had said what he did. What he spoke of…it was beautiful. It was more than she could have desired or thought to desire. In fact, if she listened the right way there was something close to a marriage proposal in his words. She wouldn't hold him to it—not yet at any rate. But if he kept making her heart flip wildly in her chest like he was doing right now, he would have to make good on his words.

Looking in his light brown eyes she saw such vulnerability that it almost frightened her. She knew it was in him. She had seen it. He didn't give his heart lightly and it wasn't out of a hardened edge or callousness either. He had been hurt. She didn't know all the ways love had hurt him but it had. His eyes now were a reminder not to take the heart she was being entrusted with lightly. It was as fragile and tender as her own and just as easily broken.

In the midst of worrying if she was up to the challenge of being in love the way they were and wondering if she was worthy of his love at all…something else began to stir. It was a stirring much lower than her heart. His words had brought the realization of what love and being in love meant. But they also brought a burning desire to have him and to have him right now.

Her fingers moved to undo the top few buttons on her dress and then to release her hair. That always brought a strong response from Jimmy.

"I meant what I asked," Jimmy said, "About the walk."

Kate leaned to him and began rubbing the front of his pants.

"I know you did and I do think it sounds simply lovely. But I need something now and if I don't get it then I am afraid I won't be able to maintain ladylike behavior. You wouldn't want that, now would you?"

Jimmy looked at her with her dress hanging slightly open and her eyes darkening. He knew desire was not love but it was a helpful part of it. Honestly he couldn't but love her and her near childlike wonder at the world and her new discoveries in it.

"I sure wouldn't want anyone to ever suggest my Katie darlin' was anything but a proper lady," he replied. "Why, I would have to defend your honor and things would get awful messy…so much paperwork."

"Well then," she said looking at him through half closed eyes, "Perhaps you'd better make love to me so I don't risk creating gossip around myself."

Jimmy didn't think anymore. He just reached up her skirts and felt for the tie holding her pantaloons up and tugged at it. Soon she was rid of them.

While he had been working at that, she had been busy in her own right and had freed him from his trousers. Her hand was working over him and driving him nearly mad. He pulled her astride his lap and felt the satisfaction of sliding into her. He saw her eyes fly open a moment before sliding closed with a smile playing the corners of her mouth.

He didn't have to tell her to move or to adjust her hips to get herself a better angle. He didn't care for angle right then. He was inside her with her skirts pooled around his lap and her dress undone just enough to show her collarbone and the top of her bosom barely staying put in her corset. As long as she moved and kept making those sounds she was making, he wasn't going to have any problems at all.

Her movements were frantic and erratic and only became more so as her pleasure mounted. Her head fell forward onto him and her teeth scraped lightly at his neck. His hips began to thrust upward meeting her movements and soon they were collapsed against each other breathing heavily and coated in a light sheen of sweat.

The hairs stood up on his neck as she whispered low in his ear.

"I swear I don't just love you for your body. But I am awfully fond of it all the same."

Then she stood and collected her pantaloons. She buttoned the front of her dress and wound her hair back up and secured it with the comb. As she did all this, Jimmy stuffed himself back into his pants and set his own clothes to rights.

"Now then," Kate said with perfect aplomb, "I believe we were going to go for a walk. Let me just fetch my hat."

Hehehehe...I just love these two. They are fun...and Katie...well, Jimmy shouldn't still be shocked by anything she says or asks but I think he still is sometimes...So cute. So let me know what you think. I'm kind of looking forward to the walk...seeing them in public. Of course it's been written for a while now...so I know what happens and all.-J