And then her mouth was back on his, her hips still pulsating into his groin. Longarm could feel the firmness and heat of her buttocks as they slapped into him. But he could also feel the power of his own, final passion rising. He knew he could not hold back for another half a moment. And then came a low, keening sound from deep in Dulcima’s throat. She began to gasp, and then the gasp became a soft wail that grew and grew until her wet lips and tongue were all over his face and her hips were working faster than he would have thought possible. Her lips left his face and she put her head back, arching her neck and her body, and he could feel the quiver run all through her as she began to scream and to dig her fingers into his back, clawing at him.
And then he knew no more, for he exploded in a cascade of pent-up fever and excitement and release. Some giant wind seemed to be tumbling him end over end across a misty plain. He was a tumbleweed swept up in a tornado. The world went black as he was buffeted and toppled over again and again.
Then it was over and, gasping, trying to hold his weight off Dulcima’s tender body, he collapsed as his arms gave way and his legs betrayed him. He fell full length on her, feeling her softness, her arms around him and her hands in her hair, but not being aware of much else.
After a moment he felt her squirm slightly beneath him and he knew his dead weight was probably suffocating her. As gently as he could, he slid off her, toward the edge of the bed, and rolled over on his back. For the moment, he was as satisfied as he reckoned he’d ever been in his life. Even his aching tooth was at peace. For a long moment he lay with his eyes closed, letting his body sink into the cushiony softness of the bedclothes. He could feel her moving around beside him, but he had no intention of opening his eyes until he recovered. The sight of her body was sure to arouse him all over again, and he didn’t want to start anything that he wouldn’t be able to finish. But then he felt her soft little hand on his hard belly, felt that hand work its way down until she was stroking his member. His emotions began to stir. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She had propped a couple of pillows behind her back so that she was almost sitting up, making it easier to reach him. As he lay still, she squirmed around and leaned over and he could feel her smooth, hot tongue working its way down his belly, kissing and licking and leaving streaks of heat in its wake. He groaned, feeling himself coming erect. Then he felt her slip him inside her mouth, and it was like being dipped in a churning bucket of hot liquid. He could feel his member stretching its head to touch the back of her throat, feel her taking so much of him inside her, he wouldn’t have thought it possible. His groans were coming faster and faster as she worked her mouth over his throbbing penis. Then she suddenly stopped. His eyes fluttered open. She was sitting straight up on the bed, and staring toward the door. Her eyes had gone wide, and her face was suffused with fear. Longarm didn’t hear anything, only felt a presence. He did not hesitate. Without thought or plan he pushed Dulcima hard with his right hand shoving her toward the far side of the bed. In the same instant he rolled to his left, rolled off the bed and landed on the floor, his hand frantically seeking his revolver. In the instant he pushed her and started his roll he was aware of a thud against the wall, the back wall, and the crack of a gunshot.
But now he was on the floor, and the butt of his revolver was in his hand. He cocked the hammer as he raised it to aim at the figure in the wide-open door. He did not bother trying to jerk the gun out of the big cut away holster. There was no time. The figure at the door, having missed him in the bed, was now turning his gun toward him on the floor. Knowing his first shot was going to have to count, Longarm fired an instant before a second crack from the intruder’s gun resounded.
Chapter 10
He saw his bullet take Raoul San Diego square in the chest. The force of the slug knocked the man backwards just enough so that his second shot was jerked up and went harmlessly over Longarm’s head.
But Longarm was leaving nothing to chance. As San Diego was falling, Longarm cocked his revolver and fired again. The second slug took the gunman in the side of the chest, sending him sprawling to his left, the gun falling from his lifeless fingers.
After a long moment Longarm slowly raised himself to his knees, his ears still ringing with the sound of the gunshots echoing in the room. He had finally shaken the holster and belt off the revolver and it was naked in his hand. He could see San Diego’s boots and most of his left leg, but the rest of his body was hidden from view. He looked to his right, toward where Dulcima had last been. She’d gone off the bed on the other side, but now, she too, was up on her knees staring toward the bedroom door. Longarm watched her, not sure of what her reaction would be to him shooting her lover. She had been critical of San Diego and said she didn’t care, but that was when he was still alive. Now she slowly turned to look at Longarm, saying, with just a slight tremble in her voice, “Yeah, you chure escared of heem. Yes, I theenk I was right about you.” She gestured toward the door. “He make the beeg mistake. He should have been escared of you, not you heem.” Longarm listened to her, not saying anything.
She pointed toward the wall. About a foot and a half up from the head of the bed, Longarm could see where San Diego’s first bullet had plowed into the whitewashed masonry, burying itself in the soft concrete and leaving what looked to be a big black eye in the white plaster.
“I doan know who he chooting at,” Dulcima said, “you or me. I theenk maybe he doan care, but I theenk you save my life when you push me so hard that I fly off the bed.”
Longarm looked at her, standing there naked. Nothing stirred in him, which he could well understand. “He got home a little faster than you said, didn’t he?”
She shrugged and put out her hands philosophically. “He comes, he goes. I doan always know. But, yes, he come back faster. I tol’ heem I didn’t want heem to come back, but he come back anyway. Beeg surprise for me.”
He still looked at her. “Yeah, I guess you were surprised.” He swung his eyes to where the slug had hit the wall and to where she had been sitting on the bed just before San Diego had fired. The trajectory of the bullet had been too high to have hit Longarm, because he’d been lying flat on his back. But it would have caught her neatly right between her lovely breasts. “Still,” he said, “we could have locked the door. Might have saved us a surprise. And his life.”
Dulcima crawled slowly back up onto the bed. “I was een too much of the hurry. I din’t theenk of the door. Maybe you din’t theenk of it also.”
He shrugged and sat down on the bed and started pulling on his jeans. Behind him he heard her say, “Why for you get dressed? We jus’ start, no?”
He looked around at her. “There’s a dead man out there just beyond the door. I killed him. You really think I feel like making love right now?” He stood up, walked past the foot of the bed, and crossed to the door. There he could see the remains of Raoul San Diego. He lay halfway down the stairs with just his boots and part of his left leg on the small landing. Longarm knew he didn’t have to go down and touch him to make sure he was dead. There was not a great deal of blood. The first slug had taken him so flush in the chest that Longarm reckoned the second shot had been wasted. But it was reflex and he had gotten it off so closely on the heels of the first that San Diego hadn’t fallen very far before the second bullet twisted him to his left, taking what life remained in him. Longarm looked down and shook his head and sighed. He had escaped San Diego’s bullet, but he still had a hell of a mess on his hands. The very thing he’d tried to avoid had happened; he’d killed Caster’s go-between and gunhand. And Caster wasn’t going to like that. As he walked back into the bedroom, Longarm debated his options. There didn’t seem to be many, unless he could somehow persuade Dulcima to help him drop San Diego’s body in the Rio Grande
