Starting a Fire

Sessina lay wide-awake in the dark. Idly, she stared out at the starry night beyond the windows.

There were no words to describe this day. He'd done everything he'd said he would.

He was entirely a man of his word. He'd rammed her full of his cock not once, not even just twice or even three times, but five times he'd taken her throughout the course of the day.

Her face blushed as she remembered the positions and ways that he'd taken her in. She was literally awash in this man's seed and with the intensity of his repeated possession of her walking was going to be hard.

Would he take her again so many times tomorrow too? It was hard to say.

One thing was for sure, he would give her pleasure, even as he took his own of her. Briefly, her eyes closed as her mind raced back over an entire day filled full of nothing but sex.

The room, everything smelled like sex. It was a heady aroma of living proof over how thoroughly the man had claimed her as his bride.

He was such an enigma to her. He'd been as cruel as any stallion with his first mounting of her and then after they had woken up from the interlude of sleep afterwards he had been so incredibly gentle with her.

It almost brought her to tears as she remembered how he had licked, stroked and even massaged her entire body. In the dark her face flamed as she remembered the reality of the presence of his finger worked up her ass via the massage oil he'd used on her.

Finger in place he'd then brought her to an orgasm and so help her his finger had actually felt good buried in her ass. There wasn't anything the man would leave unclaimed about her.

He'd coaxed her to use her mouth on him and take him in deeper and she had. Whatever he'd asked of her she had done.

It was crazy. She didn't understand it, but it was a fact that he now owned her in a very deep way.

If he woke up again right now and wanted to bury his shaft in her, so help her, she'd let him do it even though it felt like she'd been rubbed raw to the point of bleeding by him from all the times previous. On the heels of that thought he did move on the bed behind her and she inwardly quaked.

Even as she'd just been serious, even so she now wished for a reprieve. To her surprise, he rolled away from her and got up.

In the darkness, she heard him dressing. Rising partially up, she whispered, "Where are you going?"

He stilled and then came close to sit down on the bed next to her. His lips found her cheek and then her lips.

It was a very sweet kiss and in a way it stole her breath away. He got up then and again she pressed, "Aaron?"

He sighed deeply. In the darkness he turned to her and said, "Evil people don't wait for the sun to come up in order to do their evil deeds. They start in the dark of the night and the best time to counteract their plans for the day ahead is to come at them in the night."

"What are you going to do?" She asked with concern.

"Start a fire." He replied with enigmatically as he started for the door.

Speaking up suddenly with volume much louder than a whisper Sessina said, "I don't want you to go!"

Many things were occurring to her in rapid fire succession.

She cared for him.

She even wanted him in her again as sore as she was.

Anything to keep him from going. It was the truth.

She would literally do anything to keep him from leaving right now.

He was a very strong-willed man though, and denying her plea, he said, "Pray for me."

Brokenly Sessina said, "I don't know how."

"Well, trust me that is something you really need to learn how to do. My Bible is over there on the dresser. Why don't you read it tomorrow as you wait for me to come home. I can assure you of this Sessina. I will do everything in my power to come home to you."

With that said he was gone from the room and silent tears began making their way down Sessina's cheeks. She loved him!

How was that possible? But it was.

Slipping off the bed, she painfully made her way to the dresser. Her thighs were wet with his seed, but she did nothing to wipe it away.

Grasping his Bible she made her way back to the bed and lit a candle, even as she heard him riding away down the trail. Doing her best to get comfortable she opened her man's Bible.

That her husband was a man of faith was truly shocking. Just as shocking was the urge within her to learn how to pray, because more than anything yesterday had shown her how she wanted the rest of her life to go and there was only one man she wanted to share the experience of the years to come with.

The man that had saved her from the evil desires of other men. He was not evil, but he was dangerous, but intrinsically she knew that she would never have anything to fear from him.

She pitied his enemies, though. Well… not really.

Opening the Bible she began to read even as her man made his way out and down the trail in the dark on his way to one spread in particular, Max Emerson's.

Max Emerson was behind everything taking place in the valley. Take him out and the ambitions of all the others would likely fizzle out.

************

Dawn was a couple hours off yet, but I was already soaked wet with sweat despite the coolness of the morning. I still couldn't quite believe how well things had gone.

Maybe Sessina had learned how to pray after all. One thing was for certain. I was being aided in my quest by an unseen hand.

I'd gotten to Max Emerson's spread just as the majority of the men were turning in for the night. They'd been having a party, because tomorrow was the day they were going to clean the valley out of one of its undesirables, one Pedro Martinez.

Forty gun hands on the ranch and not one guard had been posted. In some ways it was understandable, because nobody wanted a fight with Max Emerson.

The threat of attack seemed to virtually be impossible, but in reality their methods, but showed them to be amateurs at war. I was not.

I had served as a forward scout to a contingent of Yankee Calvary throughout the course of the Civil War and I had seen much of battle tactic strategy. The strategies that worked and the ones that didn't.

Tonight my past history that I wished most often that I could forget was actually coming back to do some good for once. The rules of any war or engagement provoked by an aggressor were often dictated by the means of which they had to pay for their troops, while those being attacked often defended themselves out of sheer need for survival and for them money was of little consequence.

Max Emerson had a lot of mouths to feed and bullets to buy and thankfully he'd stocked in a generous supply of both. As the enemy passed out in drunken stupors of no doubt, idle fantasies of cornering my wife off for themselves in the day to come I went to work at stopping a war before it could begin.

The first step was money as no aggressor army moved forward without it. Creeping into the main ranch house I made my way past the big man himself.

It would've been a thing of ease to snuff him out in the darkness, but it wasn't my way. Not anymore anyway.

Gone were things and methods that one should only be ashamed of. One day I would have sons to raise and I did not want to exemplify to them an example of anything less than ideal.

Kneeling down in the dark I pressed my ear to the big iron safe in Max's study even as his snores rang out loudly in the dark as he slept in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk not ten feet away from my position by the safe. I spun the dial methodically and click by click I worked through the combination until with a loud jolt the safe door came open.

Max stirred in his sleep, but then coughed and went right back to snoring. When a man had forty guns at his disposal what safer place was there but his own ranch to keep his wealth at, as no bank could boast of the same security that he could muster.

With that squarely in mind the entirety of Max's wealth was now open before me and bag after bag of cash and gold coin I carried from the house. The gold coins I took and buried in a spot near the livery barn, but the cash I split up into three large sacks.

Two of these bags I tied off to my horse. The third bag of money I began sprinkling along the ground from building to building until it was all gone.

That done, I retraced my steps with every highly flammable substance that I could lay my hands on. Wars could be very expensive things indeed. I found myself grinning most of the night.

Going to the supply room, I proceeded to take and spread sacks of flour throughout the premises making sure to connect them to the paths of spilt lamp oil and strewn about paper money. I stowed several bags of flour directly on top of Max's ammo storage shed that had enough ordinance in it to fight several wars.

The man had certainly prepared well, just not for tonight that is. Going to the well, I closed it over with some heavy planking which I tied in place.

Ideally the planks would've been best nailed, but I wasn't testing my luck that much. Planking in place I proceeded to do my hardest work of the evening as I lifted rock by rock from a nearby wall only to stack them on top of the planking covering the well.

They may well get the well top freed of debris with enough effort, but it wasn't going to be either easy or fast. In the meantime, if all went well the place would be a literal inferno.

Breathing heavy I went about freeing all the horses in the corral. I had no wish to harm them as they had no choice in who their masters were.

With the barn and corrals free of livestock I stood in the middle of my handiwork even as the first gray hints of dawn began appearing across the horizon. Looking up into the sky, I said, "For what they are about to receive I am truly thankful for."

I meant every word of it. Tonight had been beyond easy to manipulate and I wasn't even done yet.

I stroked a match to life against my pant leg and nonchalantly let it fall to flutter to the ground. With a raging puff of flames the cycle of violence continued in an inward racing, fashion towards the structures of the ranch.

Grinning, I backed away from my evening's handiwork. Without pause flames raced along the ground and as they did greenbacks curled up in into charred cinders in an epitaph for the waste wars were so commonly guilty of creating. At least in this case it was just money and not human lives.

The barn, the barracks, and the main ranch house along with even outlying buildings caught on fire and I began to hear the cries of alarmed men. At just about that moment the flames began penetrating the sacks of flour.

A sack of flour is worth its weight as a stick of dynamite in terms of explosive potential. Explosions tore throughout the complex and what had been raging fires became living infernos.

The ammo dump went up and rounds of ammo began firing off in every direction as the flames heated through their casings and caused them to go off. It was as if a Chinese fireworks display had been set off in the middle of the compound.

Men were scurrying about everywhere, but especially those trying to free the well of its covering. When the ammo started going off though everyone hit the deck as thousands of rounds of ammo went up in smoke.

I had just mounted my horse when I was about bucked off of it by the sound of an enormous explosion that rocked the ground and sent out a shockwave to match. Wheeling my startled horse around I witnessed the essence of a crater where the ammo shed had been.

There must've been a case or two of dynamite beneath all those boxes of bullets. Grinning, I rode off into the dawn.

I didn't head for home. No, instead I made a visit to the Circle K.

Riding into a ranch yard that was a flurry of action as everyone had been aroused by the commotion going on several miles distant at Max Emerson's place I was immediately hailed to a stop. The Circle K's owner barked out at me, "What are you doing here? I thought you left town already Mexican lover."

Smiling, I pulled one bag of money out of a saddlebag and tossed it out to spill all about the ranch owner's feet. With a gasp he bent down to pick it up even as some of his hirelings made to do the same.

He growled at them and they backed away as he selfishly hoarded it all to himself. In consternation, he gazed up at me and asked, "What's all this for?"

"Why compensation for giving Max Emerson a warm hot lead filled welcome when he shows up here in an hour or two with all his gun hands that are left."

"And why on earth would I do that?"

"Well you see, that's his money and unless you want to give it back to him I suggest you get ready to defend yourselves."

The clear look of greed on the man's face was answer enough to what the outcome would be. I rode off unchallenged as the old man trundled off into the house to count his money.

Right about now Max would no doubt have read the note that I'd stuffed into his shirt pocket in regards to where his money could be found. He'd have no choice but to go on the attack, because without money to pay his men he was through.

Riding hard it took me two hours to reach the other player in the game, the Crazy 8. They too were galvanized for action.

Riding forward I tossed the second bag of money at the feet of yet another ranch owner. He looked at it suspiciously and then up at me.

I spoke, "Hear anything last night?"

"Yeah."

"Max Emerson was attacked. His whole place was wiped out. You do the math."

Logically speaking, there was only one contender in the game that would have the muscle and motive to mount a preemptive attack against Max and that was the place that I had just come from. I saw the ranch owner put two and two together.

Belligerently he said, "That still doesn't explain whose money this is!"

"Sure it does. It's Max Emerson's. It's been liberated so to speak along with the rest of his wealth."

Beady eyed the man said, "He's got a lot more money than this. I've seen his safe open before."

"He surely did. That is a fact. What you have before you is sort of a generous payment meant for you to just sit back and relax while the Circle K takes over Emerson's place for him and assumes the leading role in this valley."

"Like hell they will! That two bit old man ain't going to be the boss of me! It was bad enough kowtowing to the likes of Emerson, but I'll be dead before I see the likes of John White running as the big hebull in this valley! Men mount up!"

Holding my hands up I said peaceably, "Point taken. Shall I take the money back to him?"

"How about I give you exactly 5 seconds to get out of here before I fill you full of lead!"

Smiling, I said, "You don't have to ask me twice."

Giving my mount the spur I jock jumped him out of the ranch yard and was a visible trail of dust long before my five seconds was up. Gunfire rang out in the distance as Max's beleaguered forces ran headlong into a rain of lead as the group that he rode with neared the Circle K run by John White.

Though outnumbered the Circle K's gun men were ready and in position and in a matter of moments the survivors of Max's unfortunate incident in the night were lying dead or wounded and John White was doing a jig in the bloodstained dust of his own ranch yard. Fortune had finally smiled upon him this day.

Walking up to a wounded Max Emerson he drew his pistol out and shot the man dead with a bullet through the forehead. Times were hard for any ranch hand unfortunate enough to have to work for an old miser of individual like John White and so the Circle K's men went to busily stripping the slain of any wealth they could find.

It was about an hour and a half later when the riders of the Crazy 8 spread attacked. The Circle K had little warning, and so they weren't nearly as prepared as they had been for Max's force and though the fighting was bloody it was John White and all of his ranch hands that fell to a bullet this time.

The Crazy 8 had lost half of their riders in the fight and as Zeke Adams, owner of the Crazy 8 wandered about trying to make sense of all the extra dead bodies on the place, especially Max Emerson, a body of riders arrived from town. Zeke Adams swallowed as he noticed that the Marshall was one of them.

The Marshall drew to a stop and looked about at the utter chaos of the place and then his gaze came back to Zeke. "Do you have any way of explaining this Zeke?"

Zeke did not and in fact he was quite mystified as to why he'd even come here this day. There was no legal way out of the ramifications of what this looked like, which was a massacre perpetrated by him.

The only way forward seemed to be through more killing. He went for his gun.

He was punched backward instantly by the bullets of several deputies and the Marshall himself, while his own gun clicked repeatedly on empty. He'd forgotten to reload it after killing the last of John White's gun hands.

Staring at it in empty shock as his life drained out of him, he fell to the dusty ground already stained bloody red from the others before him and died. His remaining men had already thrown down their guns as they too were not sure what they had somehow got mixed up in, but were suddenly the only witnesses to.

And just like that a war that had been about to start was ended. Shifting in the seat of my saddle upon my worn-out mount I gazed upon the scene below from a promontory about a mile from the Circle K.

I pulled on the reins and turned my horse and let it trot toward Ralph Eklund's ranch, which was now the only big spread left in the valley. I reached his place about midday.

Every gun on the place monitored my approach until they were waved away by Ralph. Coming up to me on foot, he spoke, "What in tarnation is going on in this valley!"

"Well, it's a bit of a long story actually and perhaps one best left unsaid. Suffice it to say though all of your competition, Ralph is gone. You don't have anything to worry about."

Glancing away from him I looked about the ranch yard and called out loudly, "And just in case some of you have been double hired to put a bullet in this man's back, I wouldn't as I'll put two in you for every one he receives."

Silence greeted my threat and glancing down at Ralph I said, "You're a good man Ralph. It would do the valley a heap of good if you were to expand your operation and be the only big game in town, while letting the little guys get by decently with what they have."

Ralph nodded, "It would be a good idea and I'd do it too, but I'm about broke as it is just taking on these extra hands I have for security purposes."

I nodded and quietly said for Ralph's ears only. "Well, Ralph there's something of an unclaimed inheritance lying about. In fact, I guarantee you if you were to put in an offer for a certain somewhat badly charred ranch stead that you'd find the means for paying for it and everything else if you dug around the third post from the water trough back of the barn."

He gazed up at me in shock and smiling I tipped my hat to him and rode out of the ranch yard. In many ways I owed that man a lot.

Without his prompting of Pedro I wouldn't have a wife waiting at home for me. Giving so much to one man might seem too much to some, but I'd gotten even more wealth than he had in the form of one woman and so I could afford to be generous.

Thanking God, I cleared the last several miles of distance and made my way up the steep path to my home. The newly fashioned gate opened before me and I nodded my thanks to Sessina's wide-eyed brother standing there balanced on a crutch.

Gazing about I took in the sight of sheep grazing on the steep slopes completely unmolested and it was a good sight to behold. The past was fast disappearing.

I pulled up in front of the house more grateful than any man could be to be where I was and to have what I did. Pedro was standing there grinning from ear to ear as if he knew everything that had happened.

Weariness hit me as I got down off the horse. He didn't know though, but as he took the reins of my horse he gazed at me as if seeking confirmation that he could be as happy as he was feeling himself to be.

I met his gaze and said, "No one will be by to bother us from now on. Maybe starting tomorrow you can acquaint me with the ins and outs of raising sheep."

His arms came around me in a bear hug as he emotionally said, "This I can do Senior!"

He let go then and moving off with my horse I heard him talking to God. Something had definitely changed for the better here it would seem.

I walked through the door of my house and followed my nose to where I found Sessina in the kitchen. She turned when she saw me and quickly moved to pull out a chair at the table.

She was smiling and crying at the same time. I sat down only to be surprised by the feel of her arms coming around me from behind in a tight but brief hug.

She kissed my ear and then before I knew it, I was being served a meal fit for a king. I ate with satisfaction and as I did she watched me the whole time with something in her eyes that I liked an awful lot.

"Did you read my Bible?"

"All night and all day." She said and then added, "I learned to pray again. My papa too. We even prayed together and now your home and…. and God is very good!"

Food forgotten I sat there watching as her happy tears flowed down her warm dusky colored cheeks. Wiping at them, she moved closer and said, "I have much to learn, but this I know. God will help me. He helped me when I wasn't even looking for Him and now that I truly know Him and His Son Jesus I can't but thank Him all the more. I do not deserve everything I have been suddenly given, but I... I will do my best to show Him my appreciation just the same."

A single tear fell down my cheek and looking away, I said, "Yeah, me too."

She was pulling me up out of my chair then and before I knew it she was leading me outside.

Curiosity took hold, "Where are you taking me?"

She glanced back at me impishly and said, "You stink."

There was no denying that. I heard water and then we turned a corner and I saw a pool of water at the base of a waterfall that was too picturesque for words to describe.

Sessina stepped ahead of me and as I stood mesmerized by first the falling water I soon became mesmerized by something else – the sight of Sessina's clothes falling to land on the ground beside the pool.

I watched as she bare as the day she'd been born stepped into the water only to look back at me with such a smile of open invitation as to start a stilled heart beating again. Everything in the past that had been a torment along with everything that had been stolen from me had somehow been repaid almost virtually overnight and like Sessina I didn't deserve any of it.

"Thank you God." I said heartfeltly.

It was all that could be said really, it would never be enough, which was why for the rest of my life I would make my life about Him instead. Free of my own clothes I stepped into the water in pursuit of my wife and found her in the cascade of falling water.

The water was cool, but her full lips pressed onto mine were warm. Her bare thigh stroked up my side invitingly and I stooped down to slide both of my hands beneath her thighs as I split her legs around me.

I let her slide down until just her knees were hooked over my arms. My hands full of her perfect bottom I pressed her back against the smooth wet rock at the back of the waterfall.

With the water cascading onto my shoulders, I drove my way into where I had ached to be all day, even as her fingernails dug into my shoulders with passion. I knew she was sore from yesterday, but I couldn't stop myself from the abandoned relief that it was to simply be back inside of her.

I surged back and forth into her hard and before long I felt her teeth bite into my neck and then she was screaming as her nails dug into my back. She was such a wild one and yet despite her passionate personality it was I who had her dominated and crying out I shuddered in orgasm deeply within her, even as she began wetly kissing the spot she had bitten on my neck.

I let her legs come down and I slipped out of her. We stood together hugging each other and then she was taking my hand and leading me back to the house.

"Your father?"

She laughed and said, "Has orders to stay away."

Smiling, I followed her into our bedroom. "You don't have plans of ordering me about do you?"

With a look of erotic playfulness she said as she turned, "Only if you let me." Then she was kissing down my front until eventually she was on her knees and my resurgent passion for her was buried in her hot eager to please me mouth.

Groaning, I rested a hand on the bed post even as I knotted the other into her rich black hair. A man simply couldn't ask for more in a wife than this and I thanked God over and over on the spot for the gift of her to me.

My verbally spoken thankfulness to God only seemed to drive her to greater passion and soon I found myself erupting in her mouth as if I had an endless supply of seed when it came to this woman. Pulling back, she licked every last bit of my essence free from my shaft and then standing up, she pulled me onto the bed with her.

Joy was something to be felt and yet weariness beckoned. I tried to force it away as I simply didn't want to miss one moment of the warmly nuzzled in contentment of her form pressed in against me.

She was kissing my chest softly and with a sigh, I fell asleep with my arms about her.