The Chocolate Palomino

A week later, Wade had driven the man back to Kerrville so he could get on a stagecoach to start his journey back to Arkansas. He stopped at the general store then for some food Amanda said she needed, and then drove the wagon back to their new home. When he got there, he saw smoke coming from the chimney. Amanda had started a fire in the fireplace.

She looked up when Wade waked in the door.

"I put the last of our beans and bacon in a pot and set them on the fire to cook. If you were able to get some flour and baking powder, I'll make us some biscuits."

Wade brought in the flour, baking powder and other things Amanda had asked him to get and then left to take care of the animals. The former owner had left enough hay in the barn Wade figured it would last until spring, and in a bin was the last of the corn crop he'd raised. That would last the animals for about a month and by then, the crop still in the field would be ready to harvest.

Wade forked hay from the loft through the holes in the loft floor and then dropped an ear of corn into each feed box. The farmer had extended the fencing down to the creek so he didn't have to carry water. When he finished, he smiled. He didn't have much, but he had a place to start. With Amanda's help he could make the farm productive again.

When he went back to the house, Amanda was wiping the flour off her hands.

"The beans and bacon are ready and the biscuits will be ready in about half an hour. You go wash up for supper."

Wade grinned. Amanda reminded him a lot of his mother now that she wasn't pretending to be a boy. He remembered his mother telling him and his father to wash up for supper every night when they finished their chores. She didn't need to do that because they always did anyway, but his father said his mother ruled the house and they had to do what she said. Amanda's tone of voice was the same his mother had used.

After they finished eating, Amanda washed the dishes, put the remaining biscuits in a bowl and covered them with a dishcloth, and then sat the pot of beans close enough to the fire they would stay warm but not boil dry. Then she sat back down at the table with Wade and grinned.

"I looked at my side today while you were gone in town. It doesn't hurt any more and the scab is almost gone. It's just a pink scar now."

Wade nodded.

"That's good."

Amanda grinned again.

"Do you suppose we could...well, I'm your wife in every way except one and I don't to wait any longer to fix that. We could do that tonight if you want."

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Wade banked the fire in the fireplace while Amanda went to the only other room in the house -- the bedroom. When Wade joined her, she was already in bed with the blanket pulled up to her neck.

Wade smiled as he took off his clothes.

"I've waited a long time for this. I've never done this before so I hope you're not disappointed."

Amanda smiled and pulled the blanket down to her waist.

"Just take it slow. My mother said if you go slow, I'll only feel a little pain right at first."

After Wade slipped under the blanket, he stroked Amanda's cheek.

"I'll go as slow as you want me to go."

Amanda was excited by what she expected would happen, excited but also a little fearful. Her mother had told her what to expect and said it would hurt the first time. A friend of hers who was married before Amanda went off to be a spy had confided in her that after the first time, it would feel very good.

Amanda wasn't sure about either, but what she was sure of was that she was ready for it to happen. After seducing a few men she'd discovered that when she aroused them she also felt a strange feeling in her belly, a sort of tightening, and another feeling in her mind, the feeling that she needed something. She wasn't sure what that something was, but she was sure that the right man would make that feeling stronger. She was also sure that Wade was the right man.

That night was a night that began in anticipation, progressed to fear, then to a need neither could nor wanted to ignore. The actual act was somewhat brief, but as Amanda lay there on the bedroll cradling Wade between her thighs, she smiled. Yes, there had been a little stab of pain, but then another feeling, a feeling of being one with Wade, a feeling of completeness.

It had begun when Wade touched Amanda's left breast and she jerked a little.

"Are you afraid?"

Amanda put her hand on his chest and stroked lightly.

"A little. Are you?"

"Not afraid, more like worried. I know how to do this, but I don't know what you would like me to do before that."

Amanda let her hand stray to his belly.

"I don't know what I'd like either. I guess we'll just have to see what works and what doesn't. Start by kissing me."

The kiss, the first one they'd shared, was pretty clumsy on both their parts, but each still felt the tingle race down their spines. Amanda didn't pull away when Wade stroked her breast this time. She didn't do anything until Wade's fingertip brushed her left nipple. She caught her breath at both the sensation of his touch and at the feeling of her nipple growing taut and her nipple beds tightening into a small, darker circles covered by tight ridges and little bumps.

When Wade did it again, Amanda murmured, "That feels nice. Keep doing it."

While Amanda was still a virgin, she was no stranger to a man's manhood. She had often touched a man's manhood in order to coax him to give her the information she sought, or in more than one case, in order to render him easier to handcuff. She understood what men liked and what sped them to spurt their seed.

She sought out Wade's manhood then, and when she found it to be rigid and maybe thicker than she thought it would be, she became more than a bit afraid of the pain such could cause in what she knew to be a very small portal. She thought a way to hasten that pain would be to excite Wade to the point he could not wait. To that end, she began stroking his length very gently and was rewarded by Wade's groan and a throbbing in her hand.

She whispered, "Wade, make me your wife now", and opened her legs to him. Wade knelt between her legs and felt between them for the lips he knew would be there. When Wade separated those soft lips in order to penetrate Amanda, he didn't feel the slippery wetness his father had described. Knowing if he penetrated Amanda then, she would experience a lot of pain, he gently inserted a fingertip into Amanda's entrance.

Amanda had not expected the surge of sensations that swept through her at that touch. For many years she had made the same touch to herself and had felt no more than if she was touching her arm. This was a sensation that began as a tingle that increased in intensity as it raced to her core. That sensation reached her center at the same time Wade stroked her nipple and sent another wave of sensations to the same place. When they crashed into each other, Amanda gasped as her belly tightened into a knot and her hips raised off the bed.

Was this what she'd felt when she'd excited a man before? No, this was like that, but much stronger. Then, she realized the feeling of needing something was much stronger as well. She couldn't really describe that feeling. I was just there, a feeling that made her lift her knees up around Wade and then spread her thighs wider.

Wade slipped his fingertip from Amanda's entrance and then gently felt his way up and over the ripples of another set of lips he found there. Where those lips ended, he found a small bump and out of curiosity, stroked it.

Amanda felt his fingertip causing more waves of tingles, tingles that caused her to breathe faster, but they were nothing like the touch Wade made at to top of those lips. Amanda felt the waves growing stronger, then stronger still, and when Wade's finger found that place, Amanda couldn't stop the moan that slipped from her open mouth and she couldn't stop the jerking of her hips. The tightening in her core was just too intense.

Wade stroked slowly and gently back down to Amanda's entrance and tried his fingertip again. It went in easily and came away slippery and a little sticky. He knew Amanda was nearly ready for his first thrust then.

After a few more stroking trips from her entrance to the top of her lips, Wade felt Amanda put her hands on his back and pull him closer. He felt at her entrance again and found it to be more open now and his fingertip told him she was indeed ready. Carefully he positioned the tip of his manhood between her lips, adjusted his position a little, and then pushed in.

Amanda felt the pressure of Wade's manhood and steeled herself for the pain that would surely come. She was surprised when Wade did not make that thrust. Instead he withdrew enough to ease the pressure for a moment, and then pushed back in again. This time Amanda felt a stretching there, but no pain. If anything, the feeling of the stretching just increased the tightening in her belly. She couldn't stop the lifting of her hips that increased the stretching feeling even more.

Wade hadn't intended to enter Amanda so quickly, but when she pushed up, he groaned and thrust his manhood through the barrier and deep inside Amanda. He heard her cry just before he lost control and began stroking his manhood in and out. Amanda cried out one more time, but then gasped and Wade felt her hands pulling at his back, pulling him down on top of her. He made one last stroke and then groaned as seed spewed from the tip of his manhood and deep inside Amanda.

Amanda had felt that first stab of pain, but it was gone in a flash and replaced by a series of feelings. She felt the stroking in and out and the sensations that partly dulled the pain. She felt Wade's manhood throb as he filled her with his seed, and the pain changed to a feeling of being complete. When he stopped stroking his manhood in and out and held his weight on his arms, Amanda felt another feeling, a feeling of needing to feel this man as close as she could, to feel his manhood inside her and to feel his strong chest against her breasts. She stroked Wade's back and then whispered, "Come closer, husband." As she pulled gently down, Wade lowered himself with his arms until he was nestled in the cradle of Amanda's thighs and her breasts flattened out against his chest.

Neither said anything until Wade's manhood slipped from Amanda's body. He started to raise up then, but Amanda pulled him back down.

"Stay like this for a while Wade. I'm your wife now and it makes me feel good to feel you on top of me."

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It was about two months later that Wade judged the corn in the field was ready to pick, and Amanda worked along side him, pulling the ears from the stalks, stripping them of shucks, and then tossing them into the wagon. The field wasn't large, but it would be enough to keep the livestock over the winter until the grass grew again in the spring with some left over. Wade and Amanda spent the last months of the year hanging the biggest and fullest ears in the barn to dry. As the oaks and other trees began sprouting buds, they spent the days shelling the corn kernels from the dried ears and bagging the kernels for use to seed the next year's crop.

That spring was relatively dry, and Wade took advantage of the weather by plowing up enough land to double the size of the corn patch as well as plant a garden. A trip to town got the garden seeds Amanda wanted, and while Wade planted corn, Amanda planted her garden. It was about then that Wade noticed that Amanda's dress fit tighter than he remembered.

When he asked her about that, she grinned.

"I'm going to have our baby, that's all, probably in November. Don't look so worried. Women have been having babies forever."

Amanda kept up work in the house and her garden and said she could do more, but Wade wouldn't let her pick corn that fall. He thought she'd hurt herself and the baby. Amanda just laughed.

"Wade, you act like I'm sick. I'm not sick and there's nothing else wrong with me either. I can do anything I used to do. Well, I can't get as close now because of the baby, but I can still work."

Wade finally relented and let Amanda drive the wagon through the field while he picked and shucked the corn. The horses already knew to follow the corn rows on their own, but Amanda seemed to think she was helping.

Their son was born the tenth of November. As soon as she told Wade she thought it was time, he'd ridden his bay gelding to Kerrville and roused the doctor. The doctor spent eight hours with Amanda before walking out of their bedroom with a smile on his face.

"Wade, you got a fine son, and Amanda is fine too. That little lady is a lot stronger than she looks. She'll need to rest for a few days, but after that, she can do about anything she feels like doing."

He chuckled then.

"You'll probably have to make her stay in bed. The way she kept telling me she didn't need me there makes me happy I'm not the one who has to tell her to rest."

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Wade and Amanda did well over the years. Amanda bore him two more sons and two daughters. Once his sons were old enough to help, Wade bought two more farms and increased the size of his beef herd. He was soon the farmer with the most acres around Kerrville, and while he didn't have enough beef to need to drive them to a railhead, he sold a lot of beef in Kerrville and the surrounding towns.

Amanda taught their daughters the skills of a wife and mother, but soon discovered her daughters were much like her in that they feared nothing and really preferred being with their brothers. They were perfect young ladies as long as they were with Amanda, but once she turned her back, they'd be off catching frogs in the creek or taking grass and sugar to the horses.

The day she went looking for the girls and found them sitting bareback on the chocolate palomino, Amanda gave up. The girls still had to learn to cook, sew, garden, and keep house, but one day a week, Amanda taught them to saddle and ride a horse and how to shoot a pistol, rifle, and shotgun. She reasoned that she'd found a strong man by being a strong woman, and her girls could probably do the same. In the end, they did. One married the new marshal in Kerrville and the other married the blacksmith's son.

Wade and Amanda were successful, but they never forgot how fate brought them together. When they were alone one night, Wade stroked Amanda's bare breast and then chuckled.

"For a boy bounty hunter you sure changed into a really fine woman."

Amanda laughed.

"Just be happy I didn't shoot you back on that hill."

Wade stroked her nipple and then whispered, "I am happy. Wanna make us both happy like you did after we stopped being bounty hunters?"

"Do I have to get shot again? I don't think I'd like being shot again."

"Nope, all you have to do is be the woman you were when we came back to Kerrville, a pretty woman riding beside me on a chocolate palomino. I'll take care of the rest."