Sun God (28 page)

Swiftly he untied their wrists, bowed, and backed away while Luiz said, “
Gracias. Gracias
,
amigo.
”

While Pedrico clapped for silence, Luiz hastily rebuttoned his damp shirt. Then a hush fell over the crowd as Luiz turned and stepped forward.

Addressing the throng, he said in perfect Castilian Spanish, “Four days ago I received a dispatch from our
presidente
, Benito Juarez. My orders and yours are to remain in ready reserve here at this command post. So,
mis amigos
, enjoy yourselves. There will be no reveille sounded on this post come daybreak.”

Cheers went up. Luiz immediately turned to Amy. His back to the crowd, he ignored the whistles and shouts, his undivided attention on her.

“Now say it again,” he ordered firmly, the shooting flames of the bonfire reflected in his black, penetrating eyes. “Say you want me.”

“I want you,” Amy whispered, and it was almost a sob. “I want you. Take me,
Mi Capitán.
”

A
MY WATCHED THE MUSCLES
in his gleaming throat work as he swallowed with obvious difficulty. The expression in his glittering eyes became a strange mixture of passion and tenderness. The hard lines of his mouth softened into sensuous fullness.

For once his impenetrable cloak of coldness fell completely away. The inflection of his voice registered a surprising vulnerability when he said, without a trace of sarcasm, “And I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything in this world.”

“Luiz,” Amy murmured, her trembling hand slowly lifting to his chest.

He reached for her hand, laced his long bronzed fingers through her slender white ones, and said, “Come with me.”

Amy didn’t ask where but nodded eagerly, willing to go anywhere with him. Willing to do anything with him. Because she felt exactly as he did. Never had she wanted anyone or anything the way she wanted him tonight.

Hurrying to keep up with his long, supple strides, Amy gave no thought to the guests and what they might conclude. Her usual fanatic need to keep her private life her own was swept away on a tide of rising passion.

She was not, on this warm May evening, the wise, unshakable, level-headed young widow about whom there had never been a breath of scandal.

She was half tipsy from the fiery tequila and totally intoxicated by the dark, compelling man decisively leading her away from the party. The likelihood that their departure would cause whispers and speculations concerning her behavior had no effect on Amy.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the fierce need to be in this man’s arms, to feel his sleek naked body against her own, to look unwaveringly into those magnificent dark eyes while he masterfully brought her to ecstasy.

Luiz didn’t take Amy back to the hacienda. Drawing her along with him, he quickly circled the roaring bonfire and headed in a northwesterly direction, away from the
Cinco de Mayo
celebration. Away from the ranchhouse.

Hard-packed dirt crunched beneath their feet as they skirted the perimeter of Orilla’s many bunkhouses and outbuildings. They continued on across the flat desert floor until, moving down a gently sloping incline, Amy saw, rising in the moonlight, the red-tiled roof of a barn set apart from the others. It was the stable where Luiz kept his prized stallion, Noche.

The big black caught their scent and began whickering long before they reached the corral’s tall fence. He was there waiting when Luiz threw open the gate and handed Amy inside. Noche was glad to see them. He wanted to play, but his master ignored the spoiled stallion.

As soon as the gate closed behind the pair, Luiz took Amy in his arms and kissed her. Noche whinnied his outrage and nudged forcefully at Luiz’s back. When the passionate kiss ended, the stallion followed the pair across the sandy lot, biting at Luiz’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong with him tonight?” Amy asked as Luiz guided her toward the stucco stable.

They stepped in out of the bright moonlight and Luiz backed Amy up against the wall, ran his hands down her slender arms and said, “He’s jealous.”

“Of me? Noche’s never been jealous of me.”

“Not of you. Of me.” His eyes flashed in the shadowy dimness.

“I don’t understand,” Amy said, her fingers eagerly working at the buttons of Luiz’s white shirt.

“He knows why we’re here.” Luiz’s hands moved up, clasped the sides of Amy’s neck. His thumbs made slow, caressing circles in the hollow of her throat.

“You’re teasing me,” she said, not quite sure he was. Her head fell back against the wall and she looked into Luiz’s flashing eyes. “Noche couldn’t know …”

Luiz’s warm lips covered hers, silencing her. It was a hot, open-mouthed kiss, but it lasted only a few seconds. His lips moved to Amy’s closed eyelids. He told her, “The stallion knows. He mounts Orilla’s mares in this barn.”

Amy felt her face flush hotly. The blood began to pound in her ears. But over its roar she could hear the nervous stallion. His low, plaintive neighing had become frenzied whinnying as he pranced restlessly back and forth just outside the open stable door.

Luiz paid no attention to the stallion’s loud protests. He pulled Amy’s white Mexican blouse free of her skirt’s tight waistband and drew it up over her head.

His heated gaze touched her breasts, covered only by the clinging damp satin of her lace-trimmed chemise. Luiz dropped the blouse. He shrugged out of his wet white shirt and Amy saw the muscles bunch and stretch under his glistening bronzed skin.

Finding it suddenly hard to breathe, she said, “Maybe we should leave Noche in peace. Go to the hacienda.”

Eyes almost savage, Luiz stepped closer. He wrapped his fingers firmly around Amy’s wrist and brought her hand up to his flat, naked belly. Slowly, while he looked into her eyes, he slid her hand down his body. Past the silver concho belt, over the rough black fabric of his trousers, until it rested directly atop the rock-hard erection threatening to burst from his pants.

“I can’t make it to the house,” he said, almost as surprised by his statement as Amy was.

His sexual control was usually unfailing. He could and had maintained a rigid erection for great lengths of time, bringing the woman in his arms to climax after climax before seeking his own. Not this night. Not with this golden-haired woman whose lightest touch sent jolts of electricity through him. Not with this angel-faced Delilah who had been his first and only love.

He was far too excited, wanted her far too much.

“It has to be here,” he said honestly. “Right here and right now.”

“Yes, oh, yes,” Amy murmured breathlessly, moving her knee against the inside of his thigh and sliding curious fingers up and down the hard, hot length of him. Thrilling to his trembling response to her touch.

Abruptly Luiz gripped her wrist and pulled her hand away. He cupped the back of her neck beneath her long blond hair, drew her forcefully to him, and kissed her with all the hunger and passion he felt for her. When their burning lips separated, he immediately turned her about so that he was standing behind her, her slender body pressed back against his tall frame.

While the black stallion pawed at the earth and neighed loudly less than six feet from where they stood, Luiz asked in a deep, emotion-shaded voice, “You know how horses make love?” His hands cupped her bare shoulders. Amy’s lips fell open. She drew a quick breath as his fingers plucked at the lacy straps of her chemise, peeling them down her arms. She didn’t answer. Visions of big, excited stallions mounting restrained, frightened mares flashed through her mind, and she was at once repelled and aroused. The blood beat in her ears.

But above its roar, she could hear the frenzied Noche whickering and racing wildly around the big corral, his sharp hooves striking the hard earth with a thudding vengeance.

Luiz went on in that deep, sensual voice. “First the stud bites the mare.”

He lowered his dark face to the curve of her neck and shoulder. His open lips settled on her pale, dewy skin. He kissed her, moving his tongue enticingly in a warm, wet circle. He opened his mouth wider and sank his sharp teeth into her soft flesh. Amy trembled, threw her head back, and felt all the air leave her lungs when the slippery satin fabric of her chemise whispered down over the curve of her erect breasts and settled at her waist. She squirmed and made a soft little whimpering sound in the back of her throat.

Luiz sucked at the delicate flesh of her throat, then slid his lips to her ear and murmured seductively, “After he bites her, the stud nuzzles and gentles his mare.”

His warm, dark hands filled themselves with Amy’s bare, swelling breasts. His fingertips gently plucking at the passion-hardened nipples, he kissed and nuzzled the side of Amy’s throat while she stirred and thrashed, excited, aroused, unable to hold still.

Continuing to kiss and caress her, Luiz skillfully maneuvered her farther into the dim stable, toward the room’s center where scattered hay made a soft carpet on the plank wood floor. Pressing her steadily forward with his ungiving body, he kept her locked to him while Amy softly panted and wriggled and half fought against what she knew was going to happen.

They reached the middle of the barn. Luiz stopped and stood there unmoving, pressing soothing kisses to the struggling woman until she settled back against him in surrender and laid her head on his shoulder.

“When the mare no longer tries to flee or to kick him”—Luiz spoke again—“the stud knows that she is his and he covers her.” His hands gently squeezed her bare breasts and moved down to her rib cage. “Are you mine?”

“I … yes. Yes, I’m yours.”

“You’ll let me take you like a stud covers a mare? Let me make love to you in that position?”

Luiz fell silent then, holding his breath, waiting. Her hands clutching frantically at the black twill fabric stretching across his hard thighs, her head lolling to one side, nervous breaths coming fast, Amy finally whispered, “Yes. Yes. Take me like a stallion takes a mare. Be my stud.”

A deep, new surge of sexual excitement raced through Luiz’s lean body. Her words alone very nearly brought on his shuddering release. He stood there almost afraid to move. Then Amy turned in his arms. Her hard-nippled breasts brushed against his chest as her bare slender arms came up around his neck.

She whispered in the darkness, “Will you show me how? I’m not sure I know exactly. I never—”

“Ah, baby,” he murmured, the blood scalding through his veins. “I’ll show you, sweetheart. I’ll show you.”

For a long, frozen moment they stood looking at each other. And then, as if by unspoken agreement, both took a step back and began hurriedly undressing. While the black stallion continued his manic sprinting and neighing outside in the bright moonlight, the eager, excited couple in the dim stable frantically stripped.

Unwanted clothing was peeled off and sailed carelessly away. Luiz was totally naked within seconds and Amy was bare except for the long red sash tied around her waist, a stubborn knot that refused to loosen. Making little sighing sounds of frustration, Amy looked to him for help. Luiz immediately swept her hands away and took over.

But the knotted sash was damp and refused to budge.

Luiz wasted no more time. He wound the long sash around his hand and drew her against him. He kissed her upturned face and said into her mouth, “It’s all right. I’ll take care of it.”

He again turned her to face away from him. He slid the red sash around her narrow waist until the unyielding knot was at the small of her back. He drew the sash’s long streamers behind his own back, crossed them, brought the ends around, and tied them at his waist.

He urged Amy close back against him. His face pressed into her golden hair, he said, “I like this. I like you tied to me.”

“Me too,” she whispered breathlessly, turning her face toward his. “Yes, me too.”

Her eyes closed when Luiz’s hand, warm and sure, moved down over her bare belly to the triangle of moist curls between her legs. For a sweet, brief time he simply cupped her, pressing her firmly back to the throbbing erection stirring against her bare bottom.

Then his long skilled fingers gently raked through the golden curls and Amy exhaled a along shuddering breath as he began caressing her in just the way he knew she most liked.

He had, on their first night in bed, easily found the key that unlocked her surprisingly fierce passions. Now, as his fingers touched that sensitive spot, he found it already swollen and silky wet.

“Sweet baby,” he murmured. Placing a bare brown foot between her ankles, he nudged her feet farther apart. When there was ample room for both his feet between hers, he slowly urged her to her knees, going down with her.

Naked save for the crimson sash binding them together, they knelt there in the pale moonlight that spilled through the open stable door. Amy sighed with pleasure as Luiz’s hot lips pressed kisses to her sensitive back and he murmured endearments in three languages—English, Spanish, and the Aztec tongue, Nahuatl.

The fire in her blood burned brightly. So brightly that when Luiz urged her over onto all fours, it seemed the most natural thing in the world, the ideal way to love and be loved. The red sash pulling tautly between them, Luiz knelt behind her, his heart hammering in his naked chest.

One hand settling on the curve of her hip, he gripped himself, slid the smooth, swollen tip of his throbbing masculinity into her waiting warmth.

Cautiously he sank into her. Both gasped with pleasure. He withdrew, almost completely, before thrusting once more. Deliberately taking it slow and easy, Luiz did not give her all of himself. Wary of hurting her, he slid only a little of his rigid length into her.

It was enough to make Amy want more. Rolling her hips in an unconscious effort to draw more of him inside her, Amy sighed and moaned and bowed her bare back, her breasts swaying back and forth with her excited movements. Frustrated, she suddenly became aware of Noche’s savage whinnying just outside the door and heard the laughter and shouts of party guests who were no more than a hundred yards away up the incline.