Chapter 5
While Martha stood in the customs line, holding a place until Alva could locate the rest of her luggage, the man whom she'd seen in the low-rent, one-room travel offices of Inca Econo-Tours in Miami came up beside her and eyed her with open intentness.
"Ah, I was hoping I would catch you before you go away for the night," he said, his voice, soft, having a pleased sound to it.
His eyes were dark and moist, with wild, unconcealed recklessness in them. His face was broad, seemingly open, with the Mongolian roundness through his forehead and cheeks of pronounced Indian blood. His skin had the golden, coppery color of a deep tan. His black hair was straight and long and shiny, combed at the front and sides, but falling over his shoulders in back in a thick style that was nearly hippie. His mouth was wide, and it should have been soft. But she remembered a set to it at unguarded moments that showed the brooding tension of constant thought over big plans.
Martha had seen that expression on him in Miami when he'd come into the office, looked at the passenger list on the girl's desk there, then stared moodily through the window. He'd hit the side of his hip with his fist in a gesture of self-flagellation, then left without comment and without acknowledging Martha's presence, as if something had gone awry.
He looked at her now in an entirely different way. His smile was sensual and engaging, and he made an open challenge to her with his eyes in a way she would have thought him incapable of a few days ago. His whole manner, in fact, had been transformed into that of a sexual animal on the prowl, and she was stunned by her response to him. She felt a surge of primitive desire for his lithe body shoot through her womb, and her knees grew suddenly weak. She held on to the railing next to her and wished Alva would hurry and get back.
She didn't know whether her reaction was from her own state of mind, because of her discussion with Alva, or whether it was the man, but she remembered Ken's joking comment about her falling into bed with some hot Latin stud who wouldn't take no for an answer. The possibility that the man in front of her would be the one made another thrill pass through her.
"You're Mr. Tosta, aren't you?" she asked, smiling back, feeling her lips quiver uncontrollably.
"Tuesta," he corrected. "Martin Tuesta. How did you know that?"
"You came into the office while I was there, then went out again."
"And I didn't notice you?" His eyes caressed her breasts and the curving lines of her waist, hips, and buttocks with undisguised heat. "That would be impossible."
"You were preoccupied-with the passenger list, it seemed."
A peculiarly tense expression fitted across his face. "Well, maybe I was," he said, smiling again. "I didn't get as many people signed up as I needed."
"Needed?"
"What I meant," he said quickly, "was that we've just started the tour. This is the first one, and...."
"It'll get better. You shouldn't worry. I'm anxious to see the hotel and the sights that have been arranged."
"That's why I wanted to catch you before you left the airport," he said, all smiles again. "I heard you and your friend talking about the tour, making light of it. Naturally, you can't expect everything to be first class on an economy tour, but I want to try to make up for that by showing you around Bogota tonight. As for the hotel-it's nothing. There's a lot more to see here than a second-rate hotel. What do you say-we'll let the others fend for themselves and go have an exciting time tonight." Martha didn't know what to say. She felt frightened and excited at the same time. From the corner of her eye, she saw Alva coming toward them, and she breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn't stop her from trembling.
"Well, I see you're learning fast," Alva commented, rolling her hips and torso with lithe grace. Her eyes were fixed on Martin, and Martha could see them boldly appraising the man's body and the crotch of his tight pants. She sent off her own challenge in a way that made the inner fires flare into brilliance. "Who's this-the local escort service? We don't need any, mister-I found her first."
Martin regarded her in a way that gave Martha the disquieting sensation that she was witnessing two combatants squaring off, as if two animals of the same kind had found each other in the midst of the jungle and were ready to see which one could outdo the other in the only form of battle they knew.
"I overheard you trying to frighten Martha about the shoddy nature of the tour," he said, ignoring her insult for the moment. "I was offering to show her around to make up for whatever might be lacking in other respects."
"I've already offered that."
"I have a friend," he said.
She eyed him boldly. "You had me fooled. I'd thought you were my kind of man-that maybe you could help me out after all. But now you're ready to call for help yourself."
"I don't need any help," he said. "I thought maybe one of you might be a little shy, that's all."
Alva laughed with a low, exciting sound. "Nobody here is shy anything," she said with double meaning. "Except me. I've been lacking that for so long you were still sucking your mother's tit when it happened."
Tuesta's eyes flared with sudden heat. He glanced at Martha again and licked his lips, his eyes dropping to the swell of her abdomen and the area just underneath. Then he laughed slightly, as if a joke had been played on him.
"She's too beautiful. I don't believe you," he said.
"Then call your friend and let him tell you about it in the morning," Alva countered. "We're wasting time here. Airplanes always make me anxious. It must be the going up and down again that does it, do you think?"
"The hell with my friend," Tuesta said, swallowing suddenly.
"Do you think you're man enough to handle us both?"
There was a charged atmosphere between them, and he smiled with sudden lust. "Try me," he said.
"We intend to."
Martha swiveled her head from one to the other of them, savoring each word, each challenge met and returned. The whole of her in-sides grew warm and fluid with excitement and anticipation of the night to follow. She knew Alva was setting it up, firing his lust, pricking his ego until he would be a raging bull. She knew her virginity had been flapped at him like a cape, tossed out as a piece of tantalizing bait to snare him in the trap of Alva's insatiable lust. The realization that everything would happen at last seemed unreal. Then it began growing slowly, gaining intensity, making her whole body sing with increasing passion.
She felt her panties grow damp from the honey forming with readiness inside her virginal cunt and leaking through the swelling gates of her slit. She felt her pussy walls spasm and send a jolt of sensation through her, like a small orgasm, that made her breasts throb.
She ran her eyes up and down Martin's body again and again, as if trying to picture him nude, as if trying to see his gold-copper cock spearing forth from the tangle of black pubes like some artful Incan treasure, worked into shape with sure hands.
She felt thrill after thrill chase through her as her mind and body came alive and responded to the blatant taunts being hurled between them. She was being lifted out of the morass of her dreary, frightened life and thrust into the midst of the teeming stream of Amazonian power that Alva had talked about.
She wished it could be Ken the first time. But with Ken, there would have to be a commitment or a withdrawal from his life. The decisions would still have to be made. With Martin Tuesta, there would be no agonizing choices other than the one she'd made last night when she'd smashed her toy to bits. With Martin, there would be only raw, pure, elemental sex, vibrant and devastating at the same time. And Alva would be there to help her and give her the strength she lacked.
She shivered uncontrollably with the anticipation of it all and felt Alva pry her fingers from the railing she clutched.
"Let go, Martha-let go," Alva said.
"I will-I promise I will!" she cried.
Alva laughed with a triumphant sound. "I meant the railing, honey. The line has moved up."