Bodie stood in the doorway, gazing silently at the young man as he unloaded the haywagon, stacking each bale of hay neatly in a corner of the slightly dilapidated barn. Each movement of the beautiful young man showed a lithe grace, muscles rippling in the afternoon sun, the golden tan of his skin showing to advantage against his scruffy dungarees. His only other piece of apparel a red spotted kerchief carelessly knotted around his neck.

"Oh, it's you, Bodie." Ray smiled warily, faintly unnerved as always when in the hired gunman's presence. He reflected that even in the full heat of the sun, Bodie was still wearing his black shirt, with only one button undone, whilst he had long since discarded his one and only shirt, finding his threadbare dungarees quite warm enough on their own.

Ray wondered why the hired gunman always elected to dress in black, deciding that he probably thought it made him look menacing. He only answered to Bodie; call him Mr. Bodie and he ignored you, if you were lucky.

Ray's green eyes danced with amusement, thinking of his sisters' reactions to the older man, who was probably well aware that black enhanced his dark good looks, making him almost startlingly handsome.

Cathy had made no secret of her infatuation for him, a fact Bodie played on, scrounging all the home cooking he could charm out of Ray's mother and sisters. Pa, when he came home, would put a stop to all that; he would take it bad that Alex had offered to take in the gunman at the last council meeting.

Alex always had a hankering to be a roving ne'er-do-well, Ray thought, dismissing Bodie from his thoughts as he turned back to his chores. I wish I could get off this goddamned farm. I bet I could be a damned good deputy. I'm not bad with a gun, 'n it would save us having to hire someone like him to get some law and order around here. Pa sure ain't gonna like it.

---

Bodie moved further into the barn, spurs jingling as he moved. He noted 'green eyes' appraisal and the warring amusement/disapproval of him. Takes after his pa, his mother had said.

Bodie was well aware of the reception he was likely to get from Doyle senior when he returned from his trip to the state capital. It wasn't exactly a good move to put him up with the one man who was sure to disapprove of the farmers' decision to hire him in the first place.

From what Alex, Geoffrey Doyle's elder son, had told him, their father believed in American justice and was sure the law would back him and not the cattlemen over the feud of Deadman's creek. Pity it was the only decent water hole for miles around, right smack in the middle of prime farming land; only the farmers didn't appreciate cattle trampling all over their fields to get to it, hence the necessity for (Billy the Kid) Bodie.

He leaned nonchalantly on the wagon. "You disapprove of me, kid, don't you?"

Ray looked up, startled by the question. "Huh?" The green eyes wide with confusion.

Bodie grinned and straightened up, resting one hand on his low-slung gunbelt. "I said, you don't like me much, do you, kid?"

Ray flushed, looking angry. "I ain't a kid, mister Bodie. You cain't be that much older 'n me."

"I'm 28. How old are you?"

"Twenty-three," answered the surprised voice. He'd thought Bodie was older than that; he certainly acted older.

"You don't look old enough to be in long pants yet. Sure you're 23?"

"Sure I am. You saying I'm a liar?" Ray asked belligerently, rubbing his sweating palms against his dungarees. "And what's it to you if I like you or not? You're here cuz those dang fools at the council meeting said so. Ain't nothing I can do about it. Leastways not till Pa gets home. And," he blurted out, venting all his pent-up frustration on the cynically amused man. "You stay away from my sisters. When Pa finds out you've been pussy-footing around Cathy and Mary, he'll be madder 'n a horny bull."

"So," drawled Bodie, "I'm to stay away from your sisters. I'm good enough to kill for you, but not to bed with any of your womenfolk."

Ray tensed at that, catching the menace underlying the calm words. "If you've so much as touched either of 'em," he snarled, swinging a wild punch, easily deflected by the more experienced man.

Bodie punched the boy lightly in the stomach, winding him, and pushed him back into one of the straw filled stalls. He towered menacingly over Ray, a strange expression on his face.

"Oh, well, in for a dime, in for a dollar," he murmured to himself.

Ray tried to scramble to his feet but found the foot on his chest had stopped him dead. Bodie unbuckled his gunbelt and looped it over the edge of the stall. For one terrible moment, Ray thought Bodie was going to shoot him.

"No, I'm not going to kill you, Ray. Why bite the hand that feeds me? So, I'm not good enough for your sisters, eh?" His mouth formed the travesty of a smile, blue eyes locked with green. "I was going to give you a lesson in good manners, my friend." He hauled Ray to his feet pinning both arms behind him with one hand, lightly holding "green eyes" chin with the other. "But," he continued. "That would be a sad waste. I can think of something much better to do with you, and seeing you've disqualified your sisters..." He paused a moment waiting for the inference to sink in.

Ray merely looked puzzled.

My God, the boy really is naíve, Bodie thought as he leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips, coaxing them open when the boy was too startled to resist.

Ray bucked violently, struggling to escape the vice-like grip of his captor, trying desperately to wrench is head from the leech in human form.

Off balance he fell back into the straw again, this time taking Bodie with him. When Bodie at last released his mouth, he gasped like a fish out of water, interspersing each breath with a flow of curses that belied his honest, godfearing upbringing.

Bodie the octopus seemed to have acquired six pairs of hands, planting hot kisses over Ray's neck and face. Capturing the mouth once more, he put all his expertise in trying to win some response from the struggling form beneath him. He pressed closer, allowing the young man to feel his arousal.

Ray stiffened and renewed his efforts doublefold, managing to wrench a hand free and punch Bodie in the kidneys.

"Ugh! So you want to play rough, do you?" grinned his opponent, totally sure of the eventual outcome of the scenario he had planned so carefully. He allowed Ray to escape, dodging the blows aimed with more fury than accuracy. "Now, now, did no one ever tell you, never lose your temper in a fight?"

He grinned, sending Ray crashing to the floor yet again. "Can't seem to stay on your feet, can you?" He pounced, starting his seduction in earnest.

From the moment he had first seen Ray working in the fields, he'd known he wanted him. He had been slightly shocked, sure he'd forgotten that part of his chequered past. Garth had been a good teacher. He'd eventually grown fond of the wily old bastard.

Eventually, Ray exhausted himself tussling about the floor with Bodie, realizing to his growing horror that Bodie was finally getting to him. His traitorous body was beginning to respond to the insistent stimulation of the warm mouth and hands. He lay still, willing his body to stop it. Oh, God, what's happening to me?

Bodie, realizing Ray's capitulation was at hand, redoubled his efforts. Sliding a hand lingeringly across Ray's naked chest -- the bib of his dungarees having been dislodged earlier -- he teased one nipple erect, feeling the shudders running through his reluctant lover.

"Touch me, Ray," he breathed huskily into one pink and shell-like ear, trailing his mouth along the one flaw he could find in Ray's physical appearance, the damaged cheekbone. He kissed him deeply, forcing the lips apart, tongue driving voraciously into the unwilling mouth.

"Go on, Ray. You know you want to," he urged, releasing his arms enough to let him respond if he wanted to, but not enough to inflict damage to his would be seducer.

Ray shivered as fire shot through his deadened limbs, tinglingly aware of the almost unbearable desire to do as Bodie wanted.

"I can't," he groaned. "Oh, please..."

"Oh, please...what? Do this?" Bodie caressed his buttocks and thighs, finally coming to rest on what certainly shouldn't be there, if all Ray's protests were to be believed.

Ray shuddered with pent-up desire, his arms slowly curving round Bodie's back, caressing the shoulder muscles, tentatively at first, then with growing confidence. He hadn't been aware that Bodie had even taken his shirt off. He opened his eyes, curious to see Bodie's chest, having almost begun to believe that the shirt was an extra layer of skin Bodie had acquired.

Bodie suddenly grunted as a heavy boot landed in the seat of his pants. He rolled over to find himself facing the end of a shotgun barrel leveled right at his groin.

"I oughta shoot the balls right offa you, mister," thundered the head of the household. "I want you to take that gunbelt of yours 'n get the hell offa my land. And don't you never come back. If you ever so much as set foot here agin' I'm gonna kill you. You understand me?"

"I understand." Bodie grinned unrepentantly, dragging on his shirt and gunbelt. He knew that the old man wasn't gonna kill him. He was worth more to this corn pone community alive.

He cursed himself for being so carried away that he'd forgotten the most elementary precaution of self-survival. Never take your gunbelt off. Mind you it mighta cramped his style a bit. He left without a backward glance, inwardly laughing to himself, wondering how the boy was going to explain it to his father.

---

Ray sprawled in the hay as his father advanced on him, fury and revulsion clear on his face. Ray had never seen his father look so angry.

"And now to deal with you. That a child of mine... that a son of mine, could, could..." He spluttered to a halt almost incoherent with rage. "I'm gonna horsewhip you within an inch of your life, boy." He pulled Ray to his feet and began to hit him, beating him into the corner of the barn, his eyes searching for the bull whip.

"You've sinned against the Lord, boy," he panted, as he raised the whip for the first time, seeing everything through a red haze. "Against the LORD and the laws of MAN. Well, say something, boy. Defend yourself to me and the LORD. Tell me you and that trash weren't committing the most heinous of the sins of fornication."

Ray remained silent. He agrees wholeheartedly with his father's judgment. That he had been unwilling to begin with had nothing to do with it. He felt dirty and unclean. He despised himself more than his father ever would.

Geoffrey Doyle, almost weeping, begged his unconscious son to tell him that he was wrong. Blinking tears from his eyes, he brought his son round with a bucket of water.

"You hear me, boy? Good." He threw down a bundle at Ray's feet. "Now get outta here. I only got one son now. You ever come back and I'll kill you for sure. You're already dead to us. Now git!"

"Pa," Ray croaked.

But the man left his bedraggled child and went to tell his wife they no longer had a second son.

Ray dragged himself to his feet, clutching the precious bundle to his chest. It was all he had of home. He couldn't afford to lose it now. Refastening his clothes, wincing each time he moved, his muscles protesting at their ill treatment, he headed for the nearest town, Ravenirn Bend.

When he'd gone as far as he could, he collapsed in a heap by the side of the road, still in a state of shock at what had happened.

Only a few hours ago he had been busy about his chores, grumbling about the monotony of his life. And now look at him, damned for all time by the Lord, and disowned by his father.

He closed his eyes and slipped into an exhausted sleep.

---

Bodie waiting by an outcropping of rock, had watched the ex-pilgrim's progress for some time. "I knew the stiff-necked bible-thumper would throw him out," he said softly to his horse as they made their way towards the ragged bundle.

"Those god-fearing bastards are all the same," he raged, checking the extent of the youth's injuries. "He certainly gave it to you. And I bet you just stood there and took it, pious brat that you are. Well, I'll soon cure you of that."

He'd have to take the kid with him. He'd have no idea how to survive in the big, bad world. Bodie felt disgusted with himself, falling for a pair of jade green eyes like that. You'd think he would have had more sense. Now he was lumbered with a 23-year-old kid still wet behind the ears, a responsibility he didn't want or need.

All he planned had been a quick roll in the hay, a pleasant way of passing the time till he got to work in earnest. Now it seemed he'd been the victim of a shotgun marriage.

Still, he grinned to himself as Ray stirred in his arms, from the way he'd been catching on, the honeymoon might just be worth it.

-- THE END --