The Midnight Effect

by Cassandra Curtis

  "I don't know. Hang on, I'm going to take a shortcut." He edged toward the shoulder and then veered down a side road cut into rock. A quick glance at his side mirror told him the car had tried to follow without success.

  He hugged the road, only too aware of how exposed they were on the bike. His incisors ached, and a rush of bloodlust flared in his gut. The car belonged to the Dayshifters. The bastards had to be after the camera. Minutes later they arrived at her hotel to find the room had been ransacked. After the episode with the car, he'd half expected it, but she looked shocked.

  She walked around the room in a daze. Picked up bras and panties scattered on the floor and across the chair, shoved them into her torn and slashed suitcase.

  "Allison. Look at me."

  "I never liked this suitcase. The wheels always went every direction but the same one." Her legs wobbled and she slumped onto the bed. "Javier...why? Why would anyone do this?"

  She needed an answer. But the only one he could give her would condemn them all. The Dayshifters had done this--deliberately marked the room and all of Allison's belongings with their pungent scent. It was a warning--not to Allison, whose sense of smell was not as keen--but to him.

  "I...I just want to understand. My jewelry is gone, my passport, my money, everything I had including the laptop. The only thing they didn't take was my camera, because I had it with me."

  "I know."

  "But why rip my suitcase? Why throw all my clothing, my underwear on the floor?"

  "To frighten you."

  She took a shuddering breath. "Well, it worked."

  "I think it would be best if you stayed with my aunt and uncle until we can find who did this."

  "I can't stay with your family. I'm a total stranger. And I still have a job to do."

  "If you won't stay with my family, you'll have to stay with me. You'll be safe in my home."

  "I appreciate it, but I can't impose. You've already saved me once. Twice if you count that crazy driver today."

  "You cannot mean to stay here?"

  "I can switch to another room. Besides, what are the odds it would happen again? I should be safe."

  "No. I don't like it." It would be harder to watch her here, to protect her.

  "Javier...I know you mean well, but I promise I'll be fine."

  "My aunt would love to have you as her guest. She seldom gets to play hostess."

  "Thank you, but no."

  "We need to report this to my uncle." Did she not understand? This was no isolated incident. He paced the room, thinking. Of course she didn't. To understand, she would have to know.

  He felt a hand on his arm and turned to look down into her eyes.

  "You've been a godsend, Javier. But I have no right to depend on you--to ask so much of you. I mean, we've just met."

  "Sometimes, you must let your friends help you. We are friends now, sí?"

  "Yes, we are." Her smile shook. Tears filled those glorious eyes and spilled down her cheeks. He pulled her into his arms and simply held her for a brief instant. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't withstand her silent weeping. His lips covered hers, at first gentle, then as the kiss deepened and her tears abated, he grew more demanding. His tongue played along the roof of her mouth before stroking hers in a motion that mimicked the rolling thrust of his hips when he made love. His hands dipped lower, cupped her ass and pulled her closer. He pressed his groin tight against her, and groaned when she slid her hands down his chest.

  She stepped back and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

  "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. You're vulnerable and I took advantage."

  "Don't apologize. I needed to be held. To know that someone cares." She reached up to caress his face, and placed a soft kiss on his jaw.

  "It is more than caring, querida. I want you."

  "Javier--"

  "No. Do not say it. Later, we will talk of this, but now is not the time. We must call my uncle, and you need to check out of the hotel." He had to make her understand the danger. He would have to tell her the truth, or at least a part of it.

  "The men who did this are connected to the men in the car, and the man who attacked you. They won't stop."

  "Why would you say that?"

  "Because it is not you they want. At least I don't think they want you. It is your camera they're after and they won't quit until they have it."

  "What? But why?"

  "Perhaps you took a picture of something they do not want people to see."

  "A few plants and trees? An animal or two? That makes no sense. Unless...it's something I didn't realize was going on. You mean illegal drugs? Guns?"

  He sidestepped the question, unwilling to lie to her. "Do you now understand? You are not safe here."

  "If they are after me, then I'm not safe anywhere."

  * * * *

  Thoughts swirled in her mind. What the hell had she seen? Had she inadvertently taken a picture of someone's private coca plants? A deal going down in the fuzzy background? What? She glanced over at Javier and his uncle. After Javier had called Sanchez, he'd told her to leave everything as it was. Ten minutes later Sanchez walked through her hotel room door with a deputy in tow. The deputy took pictures and bagged some of her clothes as samples for evidence.

  Javier looked in her direction, his voice low. Sanchez's cell phone rang. She watched as his eyes went cold and his lips thinned. A few minutes later he retuned the phone to the belt clip at his waist, muttered something in Spanish to Javier, and motioned to his deputy. He whispered to the man, and the deputy left the room.

  Now what? If she didn't know better, she'd think somebody didn't want her here.

  Sanchez turned toward her, his features blank. "Señorita Caufield, Javier has explained that the culprits might have wanted your camera, possibly to destroy it. I think that is likely. There has been a fire at the camera shop."

  "The owner--is he okay?"

  A glimmer of something indefinable shone in his eyes for the briefest of seconds before it disappeared. "He has been taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation, but should recover."

  Javier put his arm around her. "Allison, everything is gone."

  "Does that mean they got what they wanted? That I'm safe now?" She looked between the two men. "Well?" She asked when neither said anything.

  "The chances are good you will be left alone. But, they could still be concerned about what you possibly saw. I would recommend you go to the American consulate this afternoon, get an expedited passport and leave the country soon as possible. Allow us to find the men who did this. We will, of course, keep you informed on--"

  "No. I am not going to let a couple of bandits chase me off. Beside, I have to complete my work here."

  "I'm sure if you call your employer--"

  "I'm staying."

  "That is not a wise decision, Señorita Caufield."

  "Maybe so. But it is mine, and I'm not leaving the country."

  "You cannot mean to remain here at the hotel? At least leave the city for a couple of days. Give my deputies time to capture the men responsible," Sanchez said.

  "I suggested she stay with you and Rosalinda."

  "You also suggested something else. A couple of days, huh? I think I'll take you up on that second offer, Javier--if it's still available?" She smiled up at him. Javier made her feel safe. He also made her feel hot. Not a bad combination and it would keep her mind off the problem.

  Half an hour later, she clutched Javier's waist, her purse, and a plastic bag holding the few items she'd been able to salvage. She stuffed her meager belongings into his bike's saddlebag. She'd breathed a sigh of relief when the clerk at the front desk told her Ms. Günther had checked out earlier in the day. At least that was one call she didn't have to make.

  She'd been in a riot, attacked, almost raped, rescued, run off the road, had her room torn apart, her laptop, backpack, passport and all her credit cards and money stolen, her clothes ripped and shredded, oh--and her camera and mem
ory stick burned to a crisp. She wondered what day five in San Ybella would bring and if she could survive it. Maybe she should have caved and left. She closed her eyes, and wished she'd never heard of the town. But then, she wouldn't have met Javier...

  He slowed to take a dog-leg turn down a dirt road on the outskirts north of the city. The uneven road jarred her rear-end. The last thing she wanted was to fall off the bike. She hugged him a littler tighter, pressed into him, rubbing his back with her breasts as she shifted her weight. The vibration between her legs buzzed straight to her clit. God, she'd orgasm before they reached his place at this rate. She thought of all the years she'd wasted, driving a car instead of riding a motorcycle, and squeezed her thighs around the steel horse.

  Think of something else! She noticed the flat landscape and patches of green disappear. The scenery changed, desert and mountain met the pale blue sky.

  "So you live near Coyote Mountain?"

  "I wanted my own sanctuary, a place to build something new. But you are mistaken. I do not live near the mountain..."

  "Then where do you live?"

  "You'll see."

  The dirt road climbed the mountain, twisted and turned until they reached a dead end. A chained wooden gate blocked their way, a sign on it declared ¡Prohibido el paso! in bold letters. Why would anyone trespass here?

  He parked the bike. "Want to scoot up and drive?"

  "Really? You trust me with it?"

  He opened the gate and waved her through. She slid forward, hands on the handlebars and passed him. She stopped the bike and looked over her shoulder. He re-locked the gate and stretched a leg over the saddle. His arms snaked around her waist, the thumbs caressing the underside of her breasts.

  "I may not be able to drive if you keep doing that." She wobbled, then righted the bike, following the path around the cactus and blue agave.

  "You've been pressing your breasts into my back, driving me loco with the scent of your arousal the entire journey. Can you blame me for needing to touch them...feel their weight in my hands?" He cupped her breasts, his thumbs rubbing circles around each nipple until they grew hard.

  She shuddered, gasping at the twin ache and the throbbing motorcycle between her legs. "How--how much farther?"

  "There." He pointed to a half-covered steel door set into the rock wall of the mountain.

  "Oh my. You don't live near the mountain. You live in it!"

  * * * *

  His cock twitched and thickened in his jeans. He needed to feel the silken heat of her little pussy swallow him. Wanted to taste the breasts that had seared his back and his memory with their imprint. The animal in him rose up, needing to be appeased. He wanted their first time to be special, but he feared the beast would demand nothing less than her complete surrender...and the beast was seldom gentle or tender when the urge to mate rocked him from his slumber.

  He gave her little time to appreciate her surroundings--his hunger was too great.

  "It's beautiful. Amazing."

  "So are you." He pulled her top over her head, and tossed it on the end table by his sofa. Her large breasts bounced, unconfined by a bra. He cupped them and lowered his head for a taste. Her fingers threaded in his hair, tugged him closer.

  He sucked first one nipple, then the other into his mouth, while his hands kneaded the soft globes. A waft of feminine musk reached his nostrils. He had to have a taste or go mad. With a last loving flick at her nipples, he knelt at her feet and licked a wet trail down the valley between her breasts, to the slight curve of her belly, leaning back only when he reached the waistband of her jeans.

  He undid the snap, unzipped them and groaned as she wiggled them free of her full hips. She braced her hands on his shoulders as she kicked off her shoes, then her denims. He hooked a finger beneath the crotch of her panties and pulled the edge of the material away from his prize.

  "Spread your legs for me, Allison."

  She shivered and complied. He angled his head, lapped at the honey musk with his tongue, and felt her grip the back of his head. A soft moaned escaped her lips. Before this night ended, he determined she would make many different sounds--all would be sweet to his ears. He swirled his tongue around the tight button of her clit until he felt her cream on his chin.

  "Please...I...I..."

  He growled, tore at her panties and drove his tongue into her vagina, thrusting.

  "O-oh, Javier!"

  Her thighs quivered, then her knees buckled. He caught her around the hips, lowering her to the floor, unwilling to be denied. He pulled the scraps of fabric from her hips and spread her wider, burying his face in the center of her heat. She cried out, her orgasm ripped from her. He flicked his tongue one last time at her clit, then leaned back, smiling.

  "I've never...oh my."

  He looked down and saw the tight bulge knocking on his zipper. The beast demanded to be set free.

  "Do you have a bed in here somewhere?" she asked as she leaned up on her elbows.

  "Yes."

  "Not that I'm complaining."

  "Of course not." He smiled and scooped her into his arms.

  She stroked his bicep. "I believe it now. You really did carry me back to the hotel the other night. You're incredibly strong. Most men wouldn't attempt to lift me."

  He kicked open the door to the bedroom. "Why is that?"

  "You're kidding, right? Javier, I'm too tall and weigh, well--never mind what I weigh. But most men wouldn't even try to carry me. Katarina calls me sturdy."

  "Sturdy? Allison, you are a lush goddess any man would love to hold."

  She blinked. "Better watch that talk or I may not leave."

  "Then don't." He placed her on the soft, Sherpa-covered bed and undressed in record speed. When his cock sprang free of his briefs, he heard her little gasp. He must remember to go slow, so as not to hurt her with his power.

  He reached over her and pulled a condom from the nightstand drawer.

  "Have a lot of guests up here?"

  "Actually, no. You are the first. But I did hope to convince you to spend time with me." He knelt between her legs and rolled on the condom. He grabbed first one leg, then the other, put them over his shoulders, and sank into her silken heat.

  * * * *

  She gasped at the first slow thrust. Deeper, she took him in, and still he had more to give. Her pussy burned, stretched wide to accommodate his entire length and width. Pleasure mingled with pain. He pulled out, rubbed the swollen head of his cock over her clit until she arched her hips, then plunged back inside her heat.

  Each stroke brought him closer to her core. She gripped the comforter until her knuckles were white. The intensity spiraled, a hot surge that tipped her over the edge of orgasm and into the dark chasm below. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her body shuddered from the aftershocks. She opened her eyes and saw him frown.

  "I'm sorry I hurt you. I never meant to cause you pain."

  "I know. But sometimes the pain blurs...becomes pleasure, and the intensity of both, well, these aren't sad tears, Javier."

  He kissed her lips, her eyes, then the pulse at the base of her throat, and rested his head in the valley of her breasts. She ran a hand through his hair, loving the texture of it between her fingers.

  She didn't remember falling asleep, but when she woke he was gone from the bed. The sound of running water caught her attention and she followed the noise. She opened a door to her right and found him, his big, powerful body wet and gleaming. The massaging spray from the shower beat his flesh in a pounding rhythm. She heard his sigh and decided to join him. She slid open the fogged doors and slipped inside. His eyes flashed open in surprise.

  "You weren't going to invite me, huh?"

  "You were tired and needed your sleep."

  "I'm not tired anymore." She slipped her hands down his muscled chest and traced a line down his abdomen, before encircling his cock with her fist. He groaned and muttered something in Spanish.

  "You are too sore, querida. It is too soon
."

  "Let me be the judge of that. Besides, that's not exactly what I have in mind."

  "It's not?"

  "No." She pulled the spray head from the holder, adjusted the pulse, then worked it between his legs so it massaged his testicles. She dropped to the tiled floor. With one hand still encircled around his cock and the other holding the shower head steady, she licked the crown of his shaft with her tongue.

  "¡Dios!"

  She sucked him midway and wondered how in the world she'd get all that glorious cock in her mouth without choking. After a few minutes she realized he really was just too big, and growing by the minute. Her hand must have let the shower head slip, because now he held it.

  "Stand up and turn around."

  She obeyed, waiting to see what he'd do next. The hot, punishing spray hit her behind, then her clit as she wiggled and spread her legs wider.

  He slid his fingers inside, scissored them back and forth, then hit her with a direct spray and she gasped, climbing the wall on her tiptoes.

  She heard him replace the shower head on its cradle, then he grabbed her hips and drove into her from behind. She caught her breath at the fierce mating, and gasped when he bit into her neck as he surged inside her.

  Later, both of them stumbled from the shower stall, their need for each other sated for a little while. He dried off, put on a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then offered to fix dinner while she dressed.

  Allison opened the plastic bag. Emotion poured through her, scalded her. These pitiful scraps were all she had left. For a moment Javier had given her a gift of solace with the warmth and power of his body. But now, she stood, forced to face it anew. Without Javier, or his help, she had nothing. If he hadn't rescued her, cared for her, she might well be dead.

  She wiped away the tear with an angry hand. After a dinner of pan-seared fish and rice, he gave her a tour of his home.

  The interior reminded her of a den lodge. Rough timber beams, polished hardwood floors, and Aztec inspired woven rugs. She sat, bounced on the big comfy sofa. All that was missing was a bearskin rug and a fireplace.

  "It's truly gorgeous.

  "Also very secure."