His strokes quickened and the entire bed shook with the percussive, carnal harmony of flesh meeting flesh and the song of their shared, urgent moans. The familiar buzz of another incoming, colossal release struck Marie, and she pressed the side of her face into the mattress as it took over.
All of her muscles clenched in unison and a spike of pure pleasure powered its way from deep in her core to the base of her skull, tingling there for a moment before exploding outwards and bringing Marie into a state of sheer bliss. Ethan’s thrusts became a frenetic hammering and his strong hands grasped more firmly onto her waist. With a muffled cry through his teeth, Ethan erupted inside her, filling her passage with warm, fluid come.
As they both lay on the bed, reflecting in the awesomely fulfilling experience, the sounds of the event outside filled the room again. It sounded like one hell of a party. “Too bad I don’t think I can move from this spot,” Marie thought hazily.
“I don’t suppose you’re up for some dancing, are you?” Ethan joked. His hand found hers and their fingers interlaced.
Marie puffed out and said with a sigh, “My body refuses to budge a single inch. Dancing right now might as well be climbing a mountain…which I pretty much already did once today.”
“How about I just tuck you in and hold on to you all night?”
Marie felt like some heavy weight had lifted off and away from her. A bit of mental baggage, perhaps. It was replaced with contentment just as strong but vastly different from the pleasure Ethan had just brought her. Being in his arms was like being wrapped in the safest, most wonderful thing in the world. She’d always wondered what it felt like to be in love. Was this it?
Chapter Eight
The next morning when Marie awoke, she was stretched out all across the bed, fingers touching the headboard and toes nearly hanging off the sides close to the bottom. It had been a more fitful rest than usual, brought on by the exertion of the previous day spent running, climbing, and…doing something even more enjoyable.
She yawned and felt the soft bed, searching for Ethan’s warm heat on the covers or the feeling of his skin. Her hand swept around a few times, not detecting anything, and her eyes slowly opened. There was no Ethan in the bed.
Marie sat up and listened. He wasn’t in the shower. The door was closed and locked. “Where is he?” she wondered and peeled back the sheets. “He wouldn’t have just left without-“
“No!”
A horrible thought struck her, sending a spike of adrenalin into her gut that made her feel momentarily sick. She sprang across the bed to the other side and scooped up her bag, quickly unlatching it and hoping with all her heart that what she most feared hadn’t happened. When the corner of the map appeared and nothing seemed to have been touched, she closed her eyes and mentally kicked herself for not trusting him.
The lock in the door clicked and Marie dove back under the covers, just in time for Ethan to appear in the entrance carrying a tray. She feigned sleepiness and sat up, returning his good morning smile with one of her own.
“Good morning, sleepy-head,” Ethan said. Marie didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone that looked so completely happy.
“Good morning, yourself,” she replied and looked at what he was holding.
On the tray were plates of food, each one piled high with bacon and eggs, toast, and something that looked like oatmeal. There was also an assortment of local preserves in glass jars and two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, made from the finest São Tomè cacao available. He placed the whole thing on the nightstand next to the bed.
“Wow, this looks incredible, Ethan. I don’t even know where to start.”
“Let’s start here,” he answered, and kissed her soulfully. Marie’s stomach grumbled abruptly and she placed one hand over it.
“Maybe you had plenty to eat last night,” she replied with a jaunty countenance, “But I’m starving. How about we get our strength back first?”
“Your wish is my command.”
They both dug in, ravenously devouring every morsel. The hot chocolate was so rich and smooth, miles better than the powdered stuff Marie usually drank on cold December mornings, back in the life she’d pushed to the back of her mind.
Marie swallowed the last bit of toast and washed it down with the remainder of her beverage. “That was wonderful, Ethan. I’ve never had someone actually bring me breakfast in bed before.”
“You’d better get used to it,” Ethan said, looking coy. “I plan on doing lots of things to you in bed. Things you probably didn’t even know could be done.”
Marie giggled. What a silly, silly man. She let her eyes settle on his body, enjoying the sculpted look of it. There was little doubt that he could do exactly what he’d just said. She moved the tray aside and put her arms over his shoulders, drawing him in for another kiss. Now that her tummy was full, the ache that had started between her legs wanted to be filled in a different way.
A series of light raps on the door and the sound of a raspy woman’s voice announcing, “Housekeeping,” squashed the mood.
Ethan broke the kiss and hung his head, exaggerating his disappointment. “I’ll get it. Maybe they have one of those ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs.”
He plodded half-naked over to the door and opened it, taking an immediate step back after he did so, and raised his hands into the air.
“Uh, Marie?” Ethan said and took another step back. “We have a slight problem.”
Marie shot to her feet, too late to do anything but stare down the barrel of a shiny steel revolver. There was a menacing click as the hammer was pulled back and behind the gun was the grinning face of the fat little man she’d met at the airport; Lewis Sneed.
“Hiya, toots! Miss me?” he said and thumbed his lapel with his free hand. The ugly red and green shirt had been replaced by an even uglier neon yellow disaster. “Like the new duds?”
“What are you doing here?” Marie asked and promptly raised her hands at his gun’s insistence.
Lewis pointed the revolver back at Ethan. There was no way he was letting him get the drop on him a second time. “Oh, you know, the usual. Thought I’d explore the fascinating back country of São Tomè. A little bird watching, maybe take in a show or two. Steal a priceless jewel from two people that left me to rot out in the jungle.”
Lewis crossed the foot of the bed, keeping the gun trained on both of them as he went. He found the bag and rifled through it. Then, confused and angry, he dumped the whole thing out onto the mattress. Lewis pushed aside the map and a pair of Marie’s undergarments, scattering stuff everywhere, before slamming one hand on the bed and looking back towards them.
“Where the hell is it?” he said loudly. Marie couldn’t take her eyes off his finger, which was wrapped around the trigger. “Where’s the Blue Star?”
“Are you sure it’s not in there?” Ethan spouted sarcastically, receiving a heavy whack upside the head for his trouble. Lewis pointed the gun in his face. He was tired of playing games.
“You, shut up. I want to know where you’ve hid it lady, now, before I ...uh… paint the walls a new color.”
Marie took a step closer, causing Lewis to redirect his aim. He was a criminal, that much was for sure, but she didn’t think he had it in him to just shoot one of them in cold blood. Marco, however, was a very different animal.
“We don’t have it yet.”
“Don’t you lie to me. A good liar always knows when he’s being lied to, and I’m the best. That’s the truth.” Lewis looked down, trying to figure out if what he’d just said made any sense. He decided it didn’t matter.
“I am telling you the truth. You aren’t the only one after it, you know. We’ve been busy trying not to get killed by some insane guy named Marco that also wants the jewel.”
“Marco?” Lewis said in recognition. “That crazy son of a bitch. I heard he was around here somewhere.”
“He was after the map. He thinks he can use it to find the Blue Star,” Marie said.
&nb
sp; “That guy is bad news, lady. I’ll just take the map off your hands and all your troubles will go away. You and your boyfriend can forget about all this treasure hunting stuff and get back to, ahem, whatever it was you were doing.”
Lewis snatched the map off the bed and examined it closely, turning it this way and that, until it was finally upside down. He scratched his head with the revolver, looking utterly dumbfounded.
“Trouble?” Marie asked. “Not so easy, is it?”
“Well, you’ll just have to show me the way, won’t you?” Lewis answered. He took note of her barely covered body and became even more flustered. “Get dressed and meet me in the hallway in five minutes, or I’m coming back in here…with…with my, uhhh…my guns blazing! Yeah. You heard me. I’m not kidding around. Try anything funny and you’ll regret it.”
Marie and Ethan watched in silence as Lewis backed away from them and out the door. They could see the shadow of his feet through the slot at the bottom. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“So, what’s the plan?” Marie quickly asked Ethan, sure that by now he’d come up with a truly ingenious way to escape.
“What are you asking me for?” Ethan replied in astonishment.
“You’re supposed to be the one protecting me! So, go on, protect!”
“Last time I hit the guy in the head with a rock, Marie. A lucky rock, I might add. I’m a terrible shot most of the time.”
“Well, we can, uh,” Marie tried, looking around the room. She picked up the tray and held it in her hands, testing its weight. “We can use this.”
“You want me to serve him breakfast in bed, too?” Ethan joked. Marie was beginning to lose her patience.
“I mean hit him with it. Bang, right over the head. Knock him out.”
“I can hear everything you’re sayin’ in there, you know,” Lewis called out through the door. “If you so much as take a swing at me, you’ll regret it, sister.”
“Just get dressed,” Ethan whispered under his breath. “Right now he’s the one holding the gun. We’ll get an opportunity eventually. That’s when we get away from him.”
“Fine,” Marie said, defeated.
The last clean things she had to wear were another pair of khaki shorts and a strappy, white sleeveless shirt. Without a bra, her nipples poked through the material like little buds. “At least it’s not cold outside,” she thought.
They stepped out and Lewis directed them across the courtyard, always making sure to stay behind them with the gun just out of sight. A few straggling tourists and some locals passed them by, none the wiser.
“Over there,” Lewis mumbled and jabbed Ethan in the back with the revolver. Just ahead was a car that looked like it had been to hell and back.
The front windscreen was shattered from one end to the other and the only hint of its original color was a small flake of dull red paint on a fender otherwise coated in rust. Marie didn’t dare to guess how old it was or how many miles it had logged over the tough terrain of São Tomè.
“Is that a Yugo?” Ethan said, taken aback.
“You, you’re drivin’,” Lewis said to Ethan and handed him the keys. “And you’re sitting up front, girlie.”
“You sure you want to sit in the back seat after what happened last time?” Ethan quipped.
“Don’t make me hit you again,” Lewis replied.
Once all of them had packed into the vehicle, Ethan shifted into the drive and headed slowly towards the only road going south out of the village. Just as he reached a small sign informing them of the distance to the next town, Officer Francisco Alvarez walked up to the car and held out one hand. Ethan stopped at once to avoid hitting him.
“Holy crap!” Lewis sputtered and ducked down in the backseat, covering his face partially with his short-brimmed hat. “Be cool!”
“Bom-dia, my friends! Good morning,” Francisco hailed through the nonexistent side window. He peered into the back at the fat man with the hat suspiciously over his face. “Leaving so soon?”
“Uh, yeah,” Ethan answered. “We really wanted to get a move on.”
Francisco eyed him warily. “Is that so? I thought for sure you’d want to stay until the backup from São Tomè City arrived later today. As far as I know, Marco Gustez is still a wanted man.”
“We’ll take our chances.”
“You know, I could keep you here for questioning. We haven’t concluded our investigation of what really happened in Santa Catarina.” Ethan just gave a sort of shrug and gazed out the window, not really looking at him. “But, you seem like honest people, I guess,” Francisco continued, his tone becoming less pleasant and more serious, “The next town is only about four miles down this road. Be very careful out there, amigos. A man like Marco Gustez is not one to exercise mercy.”
“Ok, we will,” Ethan replied and gave him a wave. Francisco moved back, still scrutinizing the car and the man in the backseat closely, and they pulled away.
Chapter Nine
Lewis inhaled in a deep gasp and threw off his hat. He was covered in sweat and breathing in and out rapidly. The revolver was still clutched in his hand, but he had it aimed at the door.
“Jesus H. Christ, that was close,” he said, relieved. “That cop a friend of yours?”
“We met him when we came into town yesterday,” Marie answered.
Lewis absently tried to rotate the cylinder of the revolver. “Well, he was nosy. I don’t like nosy cops. How much farther is it anyway, you know, to wherever this thing’s buried?”
Marie retrieved the map and answered, “It looks like only a few miles. We’ll have to go off the main road, though, just up ahead.” She showed the map to Ethan, who nodded.
Not much farther along, Ethan found another, smaller road, which led away from the town ahead and into the jungle. The trail was much rougher, but it was mostly downhill. Ethan switched gears and mostly just let the vehicle coast.
Lewis watched the trees lazily go by and looked out into the expanse of vine-covered wilderness. It seemed to him that Ethan was driving purposefully slow. “I know you can drive faster than this. What’s the holdup? C’mon. Move this thing, I ain’t got all day.”
“This is a Yugo, in case you’ve forgotten.” Ethan said, and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “But for you, Lewis old buddy, sure thing.”
Lewis was thrown against the backseat when Ethan floored the accelerator, sending the car bouncing over the rough road and around curves like it was being piloted by some Hollywood daredevil. Despite its age and condition, the little Yugo still had some life left in her. The tires shredded the mud around each bend, sending it loudly scattering out and against the wheel wells, and the springy suspension groaned on every bump.
“I didn’t say to drive like a maniac, you maniac,” Lewis called out from the backseat. He pulled the hammer back on his revolver again and, while jostling dangerously around with it in the backseat, he pointed it into the front cabin. “I’m warning you! Slow it down, now, or-“
A deafening explosion thundered through the entire cabin when the gun suddenly fired, turning all of their hearing into a high-pitched whistle. A large hole nearly the size of Ethan’s fist had appeared in the dashboard and smoke began to roll out of it. The engine made a sad series of clunks and the car shimmied, like it was running out of gasoline. As they left the jungle and entered a clearing, the Yugo rolled to a stop.
“What the hell, man! You could have shot us!” Ethan yelled and drew back a fist, ignoring the gun, and punched Lewis in the shoulder.
He was about to attempt another blow when Lewis raised the gun again and took aim. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, pal. Don’t make me use this.” Ethan’s fist remained curled up in the air, ready to come down anyway, but he shook his head and decided it might not be the best idea.
“Look!” Marie said enthusiastically and hopped out of the car. She brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the bright sun. Only a hundred yards ahead of them, a gigantic pillar of rock jutted up out o
f the ground.
It was hundreds of feet high and sparsely covered in ferns and other vegetation, rising out of the sandy soil near the coast like a tower that was made of intermingling black volcanic rock and gray basalt stone. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around, despite a paved road coming in from the opposite side.
“What is this place, Ethan?” Marie asked.
“It’s called Pico de São Tomè,” Ethan informed her. “The highest spot on the island. I’ve brought tourists here, maybe two or three times.”
“It looks like…” Marie trailed off, her thoughts going back to the words scrawled on the map.
“At the end of God’s Fingertip.”
“It’s God’s fingertip!” Marie said excitedly and handed the map to Ethan, who’d gotten out of the car to join her. He looked at her and then to the map, and nodded.
“Son of a bitch, it is. How about that?” Ethan remarked.
Lewis, still holding the gun, despondently interjected, “So, what, this Blue Star is buried somewhere under that? That’s gonna take like, a month to find!”
Marie took the map from Ethan and read over it again. Her face lit up with understanding and she asked, “What time is it?”
“Noon,” said Ethan, looking at his watch.
“Lunchtime,” Lewis answered.
“The rest of the phrase says to find the end of God’s fingertip in the mid-day sun,” Marie said. “It’s talking about the shadow of this whole thing. The end of the shadow of Pico de São Tomè!”
They walked hurriedly around, following the dark shadow of the mountain across the low grasses and then just to the edge of a bluff that dropped several feet down to the beach. Marie bent down over the brim and held on to the rocks with both hands. Just below them lied a small opening just large enough to crawl through.
“In there!” Marie said, exuberant. The fact that she was making this discovery while being held at gunpoint didn’t seem to change how excited it made her feel. She tossed her legs over the edge and dropped down. The hole was easier to see close up and it was clearly big enough for a person to fit inside.
Bad Boys and Billionaires (The Naughty List Bundles) Page 67