Sassy and Smart Micki

CHAPTER 1

The heat of a Blenheim hot and dry summer heated Micki (Michelle) Collins as apple orchardist Selwyn Peters spewed semen over her belly and breasts, grunting to end his toil in near-explosive feeling over the sweaty body of a female twenty-four years his junior.

"Thanks."

"For what?" Micki said sarcastically, her eye following the arc of the condom he'd ripped off seconds before he ejaculated and now tossed it away to land under a tree laden with apples. She thought he was mean enough to want to wash it for re-use.

Selwyn stood and looking at the streaks of white mess on her olive skin said, "Clean yourself up and get back to work."

He was such a charmer.

Micki used her panties to clean up and joined him after pulling on her shirt and overalls and footwear. They were thinning apples prior to fruit picking due to start in two months.

When they returned to the packing sheds Mrs Peters was waiting for them. She ignored her husband and said grumpily to Micki, "Please follow me."

They entered the small room used as an office and for storage and Mrs Peters handed Micki an envelope.

"There's your money, now get off my land."

"Why I'm not due to leave until four weeks?"

"Because you had sex with my husband, that's why. I saw you threshing about and screaming like a stuck pig."

"Well you know how big he is."

"Shut your mouth you slut."

They glared at one another and Micki reached out and took the envelope off the desk.

Mrs Peters said, "You're a lovely young woman but you have just been involved in adultery and in my book that makes you an utterly despicable woman. This happens most years so don't think you are unique. "

"It's only fucking, Mrs Peters. It's not Armageddon."

"Leave and leave now or else I'll set our dog on to you."

Not looking back, Micki hit the road, angry with herself. She'd felt like sex and had succumbed but the outcome was she was fired, out of work a month ahead of schedule.

She was lost in her thoughts but stepped aside for a vehicle coming up behind her. The vehicle stopped and a woman called, "Would you like a ride dear?"

Micki looked at the woman aged about thirty and said yes.

"I can take you as far as the crossroads as I'm not going into town. You'll easily get a ride because it's the main road."

"Thanks, much appreciated. I've just been fired."

"What by Mrs Peters?"

Micki sucked in breath but then thought what the heck and said yes.

The driver, who'd introduced herself as Meg, laughed and said. "Was that because Mr Peters got a piece of you?"

Her passenger sighed and said yes.

Meg laughed and said, "That bastard got me some ten years ago. I was working alone with him when he pulled it out and said, 'Do you want to suck this?' I went weak at the knees and thought I must fuck him, that I'd never had a dick that big. It wasn't lust because I wasn't running hot. I regarded it as part of my education. What was it with you?"

"Loneliness. I graduated with my degree in animal husbandry and had to find work for a couple of months before I'm due to start in my job in Aussie and this place got me out of Christchurch so here I am."

"I can offer you work cleaning motel rooms. The pay will be a bit higher than the rate for thinning apples."

"But I really want work connect with agriculture or horticulture before I return home to America."

"California?"

"Yes."

"I guessed that. I worked a summer in CA. Well you can work with my husband on our grapes."

"Are you mad, letting my work with your husband after what you know about me?"

"Well if he got to lay you I'd think he was lucky. But he adores me so is unlikely to try for a piece of you, although one never knows."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this."

"I was looked after with great hospitality in California Micki. I'm only doing the reciprocal thing. I'm also surrounded by older females including David's mother who bullies me. Having you around will be like a breath of fresh air."

"No I can't."

"Micki, be a good girl and do what you are told. You are coming home with me and don't worry. David and I have both been married before and our wedding was only six weeks ago."

"Then you see having sexy me around will taunt your mother-in-law."

"Oooh you are very intelligent Micki."

They laughed and Meg said, "Climb in and kiss me Micki but careful how you go because I might try for a piece of you."

Micki froze when half-way into the SUV.

"Come on Micki," Meg laughed. "You should be used to Kiwi humor by now."

A month later, Meg drove Micki to Christchurch airport almost four hours away just to see her off to Australia. They had become such great friends. Two days earlier Meg had confirmation she was pregnant and was hugely excited.

"When I'm on my way back to America in a year's time, I'll pop over here to spend a few days with you."

"Oh yes, please do that. I'm so unhappy that you are leaving us. God you even talk like a Kiwi now."

* * *

The O'Toole's lived in Northern Victoria on a 'mixed farm'. They had three sons who'd attended the same agricultural university where Micki had graduated and the family offered a year's scholarship at the university to extend a top graduate's practical farming knowledge working on the family's highly intensively farmed property.

Kitty O'Toole, a wiry woman with short-cropped hair and facial skin cut into premature wrinkles by years of over-exposure to the relentless sun and wind, met Micki with the greeting, "Oh Jesus."

Huh?

"You're not only a great looker but you have a stunning body."

"Mrs O'Toole, please understand I am coming to you to work and learn, not to flaunt myself."

"You won't have to do a thing dear. Out where we are, eyes will do the talking."

Huh?

"We are fairly isolated in our district where young men think of the high living life in the cities they are missing and their two main thoughts are rain and beautiful bodies of city women."

"Rain?"

"We have a bit of a drought on at the moment dear."

"But the floods...."

"Two years ago and it could be another century because we get another motherfucker like that one."

Motherfucker? God and Mrs O'Toole had appeared to be quite ladylike. Well, apart from her skin.

"Oh and while we are at this induction, you can stop calling me Mrs O'Toole. I'm Kitty to man and beast."

What?

"Um yes Kitty. Kitty is Irish isn't it?"

"Oh stuff the crows, we are getting an educated America rather than one who asks if O'Toole is a Welsh name."

"It's an English name isn't it?"

"Oh spare me Lord."

Micki smiled and said, "That was just a joke Kitty."

"Ah we thought those Admin people at Lincoln were having a joke when the top graduate had accepted the scholarship and was female."

"I apologize for being successful."

Kitty smiled wryly. "Was that more evidence of your peculiar brand of humor?"

"Only you can be the judge of that Kitty."

Kitty and muttered something that sounded like a frustrated 'Fuck me.' Micki thought she should stop being so clever by half. Now didn't that sound Irish?

"Um you have three sons, all in their twenties I believe."

"Yes and they all will be eager to start having sex with you, probably lining up to take turns, but then again...."

"Kitty stop!" Micki shrieked as they waited to collect her bags. People near them moved away.

"Well I was only attempting to describe how it will be like Micki."

"Or are you attempting to get me to board the next plane out of here?"

Kitty sighed. "And here was I thinking you were only clever by half. Yes take the return flight out of her. Digger and I were appalled to find the scholarship went to a female this year. Up till now females haven't been within a bull's roar of taking our scholarship."

"The world is changing and so is the performance of women and world attitude's about women."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well stuff the crows. I've met a young woman who's not scared of me. When I growl at my best most of them crap themselves."

"Well if you ever get to meet my father you'll know why I'm tough. On our ranch north of San Francisco are dad, my two brothers and me. Mom ran off soon after weaning me."

"Oh you poor darling. Let me hug you. I could kill that mother of yours."

Enduring the hug, Micki said dryly, "Thanks but that abandonment happened twenty-three years ago and dad should have made a better choice. Mom was a city girl."

"Well here come some bags on the conveyer. Then we head out Horsham way, our main town in the Wimmera region."

"Yes 190 miles from here plus the extra miles to the farm. You are old; do you wish me to drive?"

"Each minute that goes by I find myself liking you more and more young lady. Perhaps you'll turn out to be a cracker. Yeah you can drive for a while. That will allow me to see how you cope driving on the wrong side of the road compared with Americans."

"I have been driving in New Zealand."

"Oh I'd forgotten about that. You'll be partly acclimatized."

"But I'll miss its wonderful scenery."

Kitty scowled and asked was Micki attempting to antagonize her.

"And how is it you are called Micki?"

Micki said her dad adored her and Micki was an affectionate shortening of her given name which was Michelle.

"Pardon me for asking but is Kitty short for Kitty Hawk?"

"Tread carefully darling," Kitty said not smiling. "The driver sits in the right-hand seat."

Micki already adored her boss's wife. Obviously Kitty was the product of a male-dominated society and would have learned to scratch her way forward in order to have a say in anything.

"Now the ignition key..."

"Thanks but just giving me road directions will suffice."

Micki drove all the way and Kitty slept for almost an hour.

"Omigod where are we?"

"Almost to the farm."

"How did you know which road to take out of Horsham?"

"You stated in a letter you were off this highway. I remembered that detail."

"We are three miles from the turnoff. I can't believe you continued on driving into the Victorian heartland with me asleep and you not panicking when you've only been in Australia five minutes."

Micki turned and winked and Kitty grinned and said yes, Micki was a tough-ass bitch.

They turned in and passed under the high metal arch over the gates holding a sign, 'Tikitiki Farm'.

"Tiki is a New Zealand Maori word."

"Yes."

"Omigod you are a former New Zealander and probably from Canterbury and that would explain why you had your sons receive their higher education there and why that scholarship is awarded."

"Micki will you shut up."

"Why? Omigod it took you years to erode local hostility that you were a Kiwi bride."

"Yes you smart-ass. Now just forget it. There's no need to stir sleeping dogs with long memories."

"Kitty is a Kiwi, Kitty is a Kiwi."

Kitty said evenly, "Do you want you pretty face scratched? You are making me very angry."

"Kitty is an Aussie, Kitty is an Aussie."

"Thank you darling. We are driving through wheat land that is presently been rested growing grass that is being grazed by our Merino sheep. My son Andrew manages the sheep, Joe manages the Angus cattle and Charlie and his father look after the crops."

"And that leaves you running the house."

"No you fool. I manage the men and run the farm cooperatively because the men have had an agricultural education. But I know livestock better than any of them and I know how to run a business so over time I came to be accepted as the boss. Any questions?"

"Um no, boss."

A plump and jolly Italian woman named Maria (what else?) ran the house and her Aussie husband with the cute name of Snake was a trained mechanic and welder. He kept the vehicles and machinery and the irrigation systems running. Maria would later tell the American her husband was the most valued person on the 9400-acre property.

Kitty had called Digger and he and the boys were lined up waiting for Micki. Er waiting to greet Micki.

"This is my husband Digger. Call him by his real name of Digby and he might punch out your lights."

"Hi Micki. I guess with a name like that you didn't like your given name either. It's great you are here and thanks for being such a good-looker and we hope you'll enjoy yourself and you manage to last out the year."

"Thanks Digger."

"Oh one thing Micki. Me and the boys have accepted the fact that this year's scholarship winner is a piece of skirt."

"Why thank you guys. Acceptance means I don't have to regard you as spent dickheads."

The guys looked bewildered and hearing a noise behind her Micki turned and saw Kitty and Maria holding on to each other and attempting to smother their laughter.

"I'm Charlie."

"Ah hi Charlie. You graduated from Lincoln last year and will have emailed tutors you know to find out what I was like as a person and what were my strengths and weaknesses."

"Um yes. Who told you? I'll murder the big-mouth."

"No one said anything. It seemed logical to me your mother would have asked you to do that."

"Jesus."

"Does your mother allow you to use language like that in front of women?"

"Um you ought to hear mom when she lets rip. We don't see any Roos (Kangaroos) or galahs (Australian pink cockatoos) around here for days after that."

"Just a simple yes or no would have been sufficient. I wasn't inviting you to incriminate your mother."

A heavily built guy stepped forward and identified himself as the oldest son Joe.

"Do I kiss you?"

"You may but no tonguing."

He looked nonplussed and held out a hand to be shaken, glaring at the two older women laughing again.

"And you must be Andrew, who plays a guitar and is an accomplished singer and rides motor-cycles and owns three of them."

"Did mom tell you that?"

"No I read the Tikitiki Farm pages posted on the Web and I also enquired about you three guys with my tutors and learned about the three of you, some of it quite disgusting information in fact about dormitory panty raids and even worse."

The guys shuffled their feet.

"God mom is going to like you," Joe said. "On behalf of my brothers I welcome you to Tikitiki. Are we invited to sleep with you?"

"Oh have you a bed that big?"

When the laughing stopped Micki said, "Sex with me could be possible, but by invitation only. If you decided to take what you want irrespective of the consequences, I suggest you think of the consequence I have in mind and that would be to visit the sleeping culprit when least expected and with a skinning knife in my hand."

None of the brothers was smiling.

"Well you have met Micki," Kitty said, breaking the strained silence. "She's quite a character isn't she? After her mother ran off after weaning her, Micki grew up with her father and two brothers and the guys working on their ranch. I suggest she has a special brand of toughness that should not be under-estimated. Now get back to work. Thank you for coming in to greet Micki. Pleased be showered in time to join us women for drinks at 7:00."

"Do you play the guitar and ride motorcycles Micki?"

"Yes I do Andrew."

"I thought you would."

His two brothers eyed Andrew as if thinking he'd have the inside running and Andrew probably felt that way too.

When the guys had left, Kitty took the new hired hand through the house and then invited her to choose one of the bedrooms to become hers.

"Will it get much hotter than this?"

"Yeah I reckon. We usually have a few days in January of 40-plus degrees."

"Omigod, around 104 Fahrenheit?"

"Around there. We had 106F for three days once but not in my time."

"Then I choose the room in the glassed-in back porch."

"Um that is the coolest place during a heat wave but is not very secure."

"Do you have anything approaching a watchdog?"

"Yes Yeller who is next to useless as a stock dog but is a German Shepherd cross."

"What with?"

"Dunno. Her mother went missing and she came back three months later with only one pup. We reckon she may have mated with a Dingo. Her temperament is okay and we keep her because she's dynamite on rabbits and rats."

"Can it try her and if she gets on with me may I have her as my dog until I leave here?"

"Sure."

"And she's allowed to sleep on the porch in my room?"

"Ah good thinking. Yes of course."

The guys assembled at 7:00 under the awning that extended out over the pool for some distance. They were showered, wearing good clothes and had combed their hair.

"Are these our three sons?" Kitty asked Digger who also was just as tidy. The guys looked embarrassed and Kitty turned when noticing them stiffen as they looked at the doorway behind her.

She turned and sighed. The American was wearing cut-off shorts and a top tied under her breasts, displaying an expanse of bare skin, and was wearing no bra judging by the breast bounce. The tanned legs were gloriously long.

At the same time the guys noticed the sexy babe had Yeller on a short leash.

"No dogs inside, an absolute rule," Joe said.

"I felt Micki would benefit from having a guard dog," Kitty said, emphasizing 'guard'. "We have no idea that guys will come sniffing around when they know she's here.

"You excluded us," Andrew said, as if they'd been singled out unfairly.

"Oh Andrew I know my sons know how to behave and they have the advantage of knowing what a powerful jaw Yeller has. We can imagine how she'll behave is she believes Micki is threatened. Where Micki goes within reason Yeller will go and that means she has the run of the house."

"Let me test this stupid theory," Joe said.

He strode toward Micki and Yeller all but ignored him.

Joe reached out a hand as if preparing to shake hands.

Yeller's ears pricked forward.

Joe pretended to cuff Micki's ear and shot backwards as Yeller barked a warning, setting off other dogs in their line of raised kennels over by the farm machinery shed (barn).

"Down," Micki commanded but Yeller ignored her and continued to eye Joe.

"Sorry it could take a while before I have Yeller perfectly trained."

Andrew said, "May I pour you a sherry or a wine or make a simple cocktail for you Micki. Mum will have a white wine."

"To demonstrate I'm not up myself, a tinny would be great."

The guys watched as Andrew tossed the can of cold beer and she caught it one-handed and said thanks, while Yeller had her gaze on Andrew and growled softly.

"Micki you are so impressive, even with males," Kitty said as she was handed her wine.

"Yeah well I know I'm not bulletproof and know to earn respect one has to win respect."

Joe said, "Can you ride?"

"Providing the bike is not too heavy, yes."

"I mean ride a horse. It has been agreed you come out with me tomorrow and learn about our cattle operation. We have 280 Angus cows with calves plus yearling, plus replacement heifers, plus steers plus bulls."

"So we have around 780 head of cattle and it's nearing the time to get the steers away before the sun dries out the grass."

"We have 760 head actually. How the hell get that close?"

"You told me."

"When?"

"When you told me how many cows you had. It was easy to work out once I guessed you'd be hanging on to the steers for as long as possible."

"Ah yes, well I'd overlooked you are a Lincoln-trained graduate in livestock management and farm systems. Um well done."

"Thanks Joe. I had wondered if you had the guts to give a girl credit when thinking intelligently."

He grinned and grinned even more when his mother said, "Only you could have gotten away with that one Micki."

After breakfast, Kitty drove Micki the short distance over to the stables in a battered and rather ancient Holden Rodeo pick-up with Yeller without a leash riding on the tray.

Maria came over in her car and handed Micki an Acubra (Stetson). "This should fit you. Never, never go anywhere out here without a hat. Are you wearing facial cream incorporating a descent sunscreen rating?"