Both Coffin and Longarm stood up. Deke’s gun swung over to point at Longarm. “Not you,” said the outlaw. “Just Coffin.”
The two lawmen exchanged a glance. Neither of them knew what this development meant. The outlaws might be taking Coffin out to shoot him. On the other hand, splitting them up like this could mean that Longarm would be the first to die. There was no way of knowing.
But Coffin stuck his hand out anyway. “Good workin’ with you, Long,” he said. “Maybe we’ll get a chance to do it again sometime.”
“Sure,” Longarm agreed easily as he shook hands with the big man.
“Vaya con Dios, Coffin.”
“Come on, come on,” Deke said disgustedly. “I ain’t got all day.”
Coffin gave Longarm a grin and stepped out of the smokehouse. Longarm watched as the guards began marching him toward the house. Then Deke slammed the door, and semidarkness closed in around Longarm once more.
It didn’t last long. A little later, as he was sitting against the rear wall again, he heard footsteps pause outside the smokehouse. When a key rattled in the lock, he squinted his eyes against the glare he knew would fall through the entrance when the door was opened. Sure enough, the door swung back and a figure stood there, starkly silhouetted against the brilliance of the sun.
Only one person in this outlaw stronghold had a shape like that, Longarm thought.
Sonia stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind her. Longarm’s eyes had already started to adjust to the glare, and for a moment he couldn’t see her clearly. Then, as his vision returned to its usual sharpness, he could make out the white shirt she wore and the denim trousers that snugly hugged her hips and thighs. “Been riding?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said as she came closer to him.Longarm didn’t stand up. “What do you want?”
“I came to see you, Custis, to make sure that you are being treated well.”“What happened to Coffin?”
Sonia looked and sounded slightly impatient as she said, “He is in the house with Deke and some of the other men. He has not been harmed, Custis. Do not worry about him.”
Longarm shook his head. “I don’t understand. What was the point of splitting us up?”
Sonia’s hands went to the buttons of her shirt. “I did not think you would like to make love to me with the Ranger watching. Of course, if you prefer it that way, I do not mind. It would not be the first time I have made love with people watching.” She spread the shirt open, revealing her large, coral-tipped breasts.
Despite his anger at Sonia and the entire situation, Longarm felt a quickening in his groin at the sight of her body. Still not getting up, he said, “You risked coming in here alone with me just so we could fool around a mite?”
“There is no risk,” she said casually. “Inside the house, so that they cannot hear what we do, are four men with rifles trained on the door of this smokehouse. If anyone other than myself opens that door, they will open fire. So you see, Custis, no matter what you do to me, you still cannot escape.” She gave him a sultry smile. “So you might as well do something that we will both enjoy, no?”
She took the shirt all the way off and dropped it at her feet. Her hands went to her breasts, cupping and kneading them, caressing them as a lover would. As her thumbs stroked the erect nipples, her hips began to sway enticingly back and forth.
Longarm’s throat was dry, and his breath seemed to clog inside it. He knew now the kind of woman Sonia was, knew that she was thick as thieves, so to speak, with these outlaws. She had used him, then been responsible for him and Coffin winding up in this death trap. But she was still one hell of a woman, and God help him, he wanted her.
She reached down to her waist, unfastened the trousers, pushed them down over her hips. She wore nothing under them, and Longarm saw beads of moisture sparkling in the thick triangle of dark hair between her thighs. Sonia kicked her boots off, then the pants, and stood completely naked before Longarm. Parting her legs slightly, she reached between them with her right hand and began stroking herself. After a moment, as her breathing became harder and harsher in her throat, she lowered herself into a crouch. With her legs spread wide as she balanced on her heels, Longarm could see plainly as she plunged her middle finger into the folds of female flesh.
“You could do this ... much better, Custis,” she said breathlessly.
Longarm had a difficult time getting the words out, but he managed to say, “I thought you liked it when folks watched YOU.”
She closed her eyes and began stroking and thrusting harder, pumping her hips back and forth with wanton abandon. Longarm’s manhood was like a thick length of iron bar by now. Sensation throbbed through it as he watched Sonia bring herself closer and closer to a climax.
Suddenly, she threw herself forward at him. Longarm grabbed her, pulling her against him so that his mouth could crash against hers. Her fingers, still wet with her own juices, fumbled desperately with his belt and the buttons of his trousers. There was no gentleness here, only raw, naked need. Longarm lifted his hips enough for her to push his trousers and long underwear down, and as his fully erect shaft bobbed up, Sonia impaled herself on it without hesitation. She clasped her thighs tightly around his hips and stuck her tongue deep in his mouth as she began rocking back and forth, her channel filled with him.
Longarm thrust up from beneath her. His left hand cupped her right breast while his right reached around behind her to squeeze the cheeks of her bottom. Sonia moaned as she bounced up and down wildly on him. It was all Longarm could do to make sure he remained deeply socketed inside her.
The end came quickly, as he knew it would. With one final thrust, he began to spew his seed in her, even as spasm after spasm rippled strongly through her, shaking her as if the ground itself had begun to heave and buck. Maybe it had, a part of Longarm’s lust-stunned brain told him. Earthquakes sometimes occurred in this part of Mexico, didn’t they?
The movement of the earth was only in his imagination, he realized a moment later as he slumped back against the wall of the smokehouse, drained and sated. The ground was steady underneath him. Little tremors were still running through Sonia’s body, though.
“You are ... much man ... Custis,” she was able to say after a couple of minutes. “I will ... miss you.”
Longarm cupped her chin and tilted her head back so that he could look into her eyes. Whatever tender feelings he might have had toward her were gone, driven away by the knowledge of who and what she really was. But there was one thing he wanted to know. “Back in Del Rio, just before the raid ... why did you take me into that alley?”
“Why ... because I wanted to, of course.” She looked at him as if she couldn’t believe he had asked such a foolish question. And now that he thought about it, neither could he. Sonia Guiterrez took what she wanted. Always.
Chapter 14
A few minutes after Sonia had left the smokehouse, Coffin was brought back, escorted by Deke and a couple of other men. Deke planted his hand in the middle of Coffin’s back and gave the Ranger a hard shove that sent him stumbling into the little building. Deke laughed. Coffin caught his balance and righted himself, then swung around with a thunderous scowl on his face and his hands balled into fists. He looked as if he was ready to ignore the guns pointed at him and throw himself at Deke.
Longarm stepped forward and took hold of Coffin’s arm. “No point in giving them a good excuse to ventilate you,” he told Coffin in a low, urgent voice. “We’ll stand a better chance of getting out of here if we keep our heads.”