the parasol off her shoulder and swung it carelessly by its handle. It seemed to Longarm that the nearer she got, the more erect and inviting her carriage became. He was thinking of bolting, turning and walking away, when she said, still a yard or so away, “You like to look at Dulcima, I theenk.”
She had a pleasant, musical voice with a slight Spanish accent, but it took the words a moment to register on Longarm’s brain. Finally he managed to stammer,“Uh, ma’am-uh, what was that?”
Now she was standing right in front of him, and once again he was very conscious of the square-cut bodice of her dress and the way her golden-hued breasts swelled out at him. Holding the pink parasol in one hand, she tapped it in the palm of the other and said, “I theenk you like to look at Dulcima, no? I theenk your eyes follow me all over the place, no?” Then she laughed lightly and ran her moist, pink tongue over her lips.
The sight excited Longarm so that he could feel his jeans getting a little tight. Trying not to stammer, he said, “Why, ma’am, I didn’t mean no offense. You are wearing such a stylish outfit that it naturally took my eye.” He took off his hat and ducked his head in a kind of bow. “I hope you didn’t take it unkindly. I shore meant no harm.”
With sparkling eyes and lips curved in a smile that was very close to a laugh, she took one hand off the parasol and shook her finger close to Longarm’s face. “Oh, no no no. Now the senor tells the lie. You like my outfit. Ha ha ha. I know what you like and it ees not the dress Dulcima ees wearing. No no no. You tell me what you were looking at, hokay?”
Longarm blushed; he couldn’t help himself. “Wh-wh-why,” he stammered, “I reckon the color and style of your clothes just seemed to catch my eye, ma’am. I can’t think of nothing else.”
She put her head back and laughed, causing her long, silky hair to cascade almost to her waist. “I theenk you are the liar, senor. I know what you were watching.” She moved the slightest bit closer to him and said, “I theenk you were admiring Dulcima’s breasts and her legs and the part of her maybe you like the best.”
It caught Longarm so off balance that he stepped back as if a flaming torch had been thrust at him. Instinctively his eyes flitted around the plaza, the image of Raoul San Diego in his mind. That would be all he needed—to have to kill Caster’s gunman right before the deal was to be completed. And there was Raymond, his brother. The Tejano Cafe wasn’t that far away. He glanced in that direction, but there was no sign of the small Mexican. And, of course, there was always Jasper. He could be anywhere. But as far as that went, anyone standing around the plaza could see him talking to Dulcima and make a beeline to tell Raoul San Diego. Longarm swallowed and tried to fight the blush off his face. “Ma’am,” he said earnestly, “I don’t reckon you ought to talk like that. I understand you are already attached to another gentleman of the town. A rather well-known gentleman. I’d as soon not get crosswise with him.”
“Raoul?” She laughed. “I doan theenk a man like you is afraid of Raoul. I have been watching you, senor. I have seen you several of the times and I say to myself, ‘Dulcima, thees is a handsome man. Very strong-looking. Very ha’some in a big, rough way.’ I say to myself that such a man would make the kind of love a woman like me would like. What you theenk of that?”
Longarm could feel himself starting to sweat under his hat. “Ma’am-” he began.
“You call me Dulcima. You know what that means in English?”
He said helplessly, “Kind of.”
“It means sweet.” She stepped up close to him, so close he could smell the musk of her body. “You taste lit, You never find nothing so sweet. You weel see.”
He took off his hat and used that as an excuse to step a little further away from her. “Ma’am,” he said, “I got to tell you that I ain’t got the slightest doubt that you are a mighty tasty dish. But the thing is, I ain’t one to go poaching on another man’s territory. Right now you are on Senor San Diego’s range, and that kind of makes it wrong to talk the way we’re talking now.”
She smiled. “I theenk you lie again. I theenk you doan care who a woman belongs to if you want her. No, you lie.” She shrugged. “I doan tell. Do you tell?”
“Ma’am,” Longarm said, “I think you ought to look around. Every eye in this plaza is on us. I don’t reckon it is going to take long for word to get back to your Raoul. And I don’t reckon he is going to be too happy.”
She snapped her fingers. “What do I care what he theenks! He ees my man so long as I weesh. But I have other men. What he going to do, keel them all? I doan theenk so.
Longarm gave a little laugh. “It’s just this one I’m worried about. Me.”
“Bah!” Dulcima said. She locked her eyes with his. “You lie. Look down at my breasts and tell me you doan lie.”
Longarm looked, instead, over her shoulder to see how much attention they were attracting. In his retreat he’d managed to keep himself hidden from the hotel porch, where a number of spectators were seated in wicker chairs. There wasn’t much behind him, but he could see a number of people to the south who appeared to be taking a considerable interest in their conversation. “No ma’am,” he told her. “I don’t reckon I’m going to do that. At least not out here on the street.”
She laughed, her voice tinkling like a bell. “You blush like a boy, but I doan theenk you do other theengs like a boy. I theenk you make love a mucho hombre.”
Longarm swallowed and tried again. “Ma’am, I reckon we ought to call off this here little talk. Or save it for some place a little less public. I can’t up and walk away from you. Wouldn’t be the gentlemanly thing to do. So I wonder if you wouldn’t mind just kind of sashaying on along.”
“Do you know where I leeve?”
“I can’t say I do.”
“I have the beeg house on the leetle hill east of town down by the river. Anyone can tell you where Dulcima leeve.”
He shifted his gaze from over her shoulder to her face. “Yeah,” he said. “Along with Mister Raoul San Diego.”
“Bah!” she said. “He leeve there when I say hokay. It ees my house. It ees my hacienda. You come see me and we weel talk and maybe then you weel want to look. No?”
“Ma’am,” Longarm said, “I assure you that if circumstances were different I’d follow you home so fast you’d need a race horse to beat me there.”
