Chapter 8

For a moment she sat numbly while the man climbed into the cramped, stifling bunk beside her. She was bothered by anxious flutterings inside her. Once more things were going too far. She was becoming more and more like Lola, letting her body be used by any man who happened along in any way that pleased him.

She was taking Lola with her to Mexico in search of Brenda, yet Lola was taking her inexorably down another road that at this moment seemed endless and bleak. She wanted to rebel, to climb down out of this strange man's reach before he had a chance to seize her and force himself upon her.

The truck bounced into motion again as the other man, who had taken the wheel, pulled back onto the highway. Through the crack in the drawn curtains she could see Lola wantonly snuggling up to the man.

Then she realized that the man beside her, his neck bowed under the low roof, was removing his clothes. It was a slow process, but soon his shirt and then his trousers were loose in his hand.

He dropped them through the curtain into the seat below. And then he turned to her.

"Peel off, baby. Off with the duds. Let's get naked and get nice...."

Elaine hesitated for a moment, one hand on the bottom of her sweatshirt. The motion of the truck threw her off balance, making it difficult to sit up without holding onto something.

"Well, do you, or don't you?" he said harshly.

For a second she was shaken with revulsion, and then, just as suddenly she felt a stab of passion strike into her.

Each time it became easier to give in. Something in her nature was changing, something that made her behave more wantonly each time she was touched by a man.

His hand reached over, slid beneath the loose shirt and caressed her breast

She gasped aloud, unconsciously. And then she was trembling as his fingers touched her flesh. She was amazed at the suddenness of her response.

A moment ago she had been cold, despite the wild sensations Lola had started in her with her shameful display.

But now the man was caressing her breasts, pinching the nipples between his fingers. And she wanted to be with him, offer her body to him.

She had to have love again.

The need was growing more intense and demanding in her, like a disease she couldn't throw off. She had abandoned herself totally to the wildness of last night, and already she was feeling the same shivering excitement again.

The man slid closer to her and his hands raised her shirt, caressed her breasts expertly. She felt her nipples harden between his twirling fingers.

He kissed her face, opened his warm mouth upon her throat. And then his mouth was pressed to hers and he stabbed his tongue brutally through her lips. She clung to his neck and kissed him back, pushing with her tongue, feeling it touch the rim of his teeth.

She was panting heavily, her breasts rising against his clutching hand.

When he pulled back for a breath of air she showered his lean face with kisses. And then, to tease him, she dropped her hand to his body.

The struggle against her conscience was over before it had started. She was ready to surrender to him, to debase herself with this strange man in the same shameless manner Lola had done with the other.

In the closeness of the cramped cab she felt his body pressing against her. And still she hadn't removed her clothes. All at once they seemed to be binding her and she wanted out of them. She wanted to be with him.

With her free hand, while the other still held him firmly, she raised the edge of her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. With his help it was off in a moment.

She watched it disappear through the split curtain as he dropped it down to the seat, and then she heard Lola's snickering laughter.

The man was fumbling with the zipper of her jeans. They split open and she raised her hips, squirming delightedly under the touch of his hands. He pulled the jeans down her legs and tossed them after the shirt.

"Come here," the man said huskily.

"Where?"

"Here beside me . .

She moved through the semi-dark, heated cab, feeling along his body as she searched for a place to lie down.

"It's awfully crowded," she said. "We'll make out."

His arm snaked around her bare waist. She let herself be pushed down onto her back. Her breathing was growing heavier, filling her lungs, thrusting her breasts upward.

His legs were tangled in hers, forcing her knees up. He leaned above her for a moment and turned once more to her breasts. She felt a shudder like an electric current, radiating outward from her breasts as he closed both hands around them with slow, deliberate motions.

"I love that," she gasped without meaning to speak.

"It's great-"

And it got better as he squeezed with his fingers, rolling the hard nipples as though they were two tiny balls, twisting them and releasing them. Then twisting them again. It was so good she had to roll her hips.

"Baby, you've got a pair of real boobs," he said in a hoarse, unnatural voice that rasped with his mounting lust. "Big and round. They really get me, the way they stick straight up, waiting to be kissed...."

She was pleased by his words. She knew that she had nice breasts, and she liked for a man to tell her.

"Do you like them?" she murmured.

"You'd better believe it."

"Don't you want to kiss them?"

"Give me time, baby."

"Go ahead," she sighed. "Kiss them now. Please do-"

His hands clung for a moment, squeezed tighter, and then he lowered his head and closed his lips over her jutting right breast.

She gasped, and her breathing stopped for a moment.

"Oh, yes-" she cried deliriously.

She lay on her back in the hot cab of the truck as it rolled down the highway, enjoying the delicious agony the man was inflicting on her breast with his hungry caress.

"Oh, damn, don't stop," she cried out, clutching his arms with her fingers clawed. "You're driving me wild. Don't stop ... man ... whoever you are...."

She didn't even know his name, but at the moment that didn't seem the least bit strange. He was a man, with a man's body and a man's touch. And she was a woman. She was responding as a woman could to this wild sensation he was creating in her with his hands and his caressing lips.

It wasn't strange at all that she didn't even know his name.

"Oh, damn," she moaned as a surge of passion shot through her, making her furious with desire.

His caress moved to her other breast and began the same slow, maddening torment.

She reached up and found his head, tangled her fingers in his hair and held him clasped to her.

It was a wanton gesture to express the wantonness she felt. The utterly abandoned feeling that was sweeping through her, pounding in her veins.

She was on fire.

She wanted to take the man, force him to her, though she didn't know his name. She sucked in her breath as he opened his lips wider against her breast, clamped down gently and then harder with his teeth.

Vaguely, as if in a dream, she heard the big diesel motor roaring with dull monotony, heard the wheels hum as they rolled over the smooth surface of the highway.

Carrying them to El Paso.

And she was earning her fare. But she enjoyed earning it in this manner, because she was getting her kicks.

And what kicks! Never in her life had she felt so wild and carefree, so wantonly bursting with excitement. She was trembling with it.

She was quivering with anticipation of the moment when he would pin her fiercely to the mattress that was pressing against her back.

Now. she understood the intoxication that had seized Lola and driven her to make love to the man, sitting on his lap in so wanton a manner.

It was the excitement of wickedness. She wanted to be wicked, and all at once she could stand it no longer. She sank her fingers into the flesh of his back and pulled at him frantically, trying to drag him onto her so he could finish the ravishment she was craving now.

"Love me-" she hissed through gritted teeth. "Do love me now."

He took his lips away from her breasts, turning his body in the cramped space.

Hot breath poured from his throat as he dropped down upon her. He searched for a moment, and then he found her.

"No, go-" she gasped.

He pressed to her, forcing a cry of pleasure mingled with pain from her parted lips.

She rolled her body, moved back at him. She locked around his waist and held on as he moved, while the motion of the rolling truck rocked them from side to side.

"You're good-" she cried.

And she heard Lola's bawdy laughter on the other side of the curtains.

"Save some for me!" Lola called gaily.

Spurred by the violence of his driving body, Elaine went completely primitive. She clung with a wild desperation to his neck while he pounded at her.

"Go, you sweet witch," he cried. "You like me, don't you?"

"Yes-" she gasped. '

"You like this? Is it good?"

"I love it!" she cried.

The words gushed from her throat in a high shrieking wail, a pagan cry of pure passion. "You want more?"

"More-more," she chanted. "Don't ever stop."

He pulled back to thrust into her, pulled back again. Her legs clung tightly, trapping him, refusing to let him escape for an instant.

He left for a moment and she let out a cry of sheer horror. Her fingers reached for him, clawing at his back, frantically bringing him to her again.

She clung to him with a fierce desperation, fearful that he might slip away again.

And then, when she realized that she could stand it no longer, she felt a sudden violent explosion within her body, shattering her completely, driving wave after wave of spasms along her spine, into her brain.

She screamed into his ear, and at the same instant felt his body tense and then shudder.

She screamed above the roar of the truck, screamed until she was hoarse, until there was no breath left in her. And still the spasms continued to flame through her like liquid fire.

And then at last it was over, and she fell back, releasing her hold on his neck. She lay for a long while, totally exhausted and totally satisfied, while the man fell away from her and collapsed at her side.