by Sammy Sutton
His body responded with athletic fitness, perfectly strong. Stunned by her boldness, her naked body mesmerized him. She raised herself above him and engulfed him with her hand. He shuddered as she consumed him. Frozen, she paused to look at him.
Her hands gripped his shoulders as her legs tensed. She opened herself to him completely and slowly began to make love to him. Antonio strived to contain himself amidst her softly building passion, while his hands caressed her.
Antonio felt her quake as her body began to shudder. Her powerful pulses flowed through his veins. He gripped her tight as their energies merged.
Holding nothing back, he gave her everything, all there was of him. Amanda’s body hummed within his hugging arms.
She moaned, “Hold me tighter, Antonio.”
“Amanda, I’m not letting go of you.”
Soaked in the sweet sweat of their lovemaking a periodic pulse continued to erupt within her. Limp, she fell into Antonio’s chest. There, he held her tight, for once in his life completely sated and never wanting to move. Never before had Antonio experienced emotion so pure and raw.
Amanda lifted her head. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Amanda, did I hurt you?”
“No.”
He held her longer, and tried to ease her mind of the emotional-overload that he shared.
“Amanda, I’m going to take you to bed.”
“Antonio, stay with me, please. Do not leave me.”
“SohuSohuSohu, I’m not leaving you. I’m carrying you to bed with me.”
His legs felt like Jell-o as he stood with her in his arms. After he placed her in bed, he moved to lie beside her and scooped her into his arms.
“Antonio, I am afraid.”
“Explain, what’s making you afraid?”
“I am afraid of what I just felt. I am scared of feeling it again, and I am terrified I’ll never feel it again.”
Amanda did not have the words, so she kissed him softly, and allowed her passion to ignite once more. As they made love for the second time, Antonio understood the wordless plea for assurance that Amanda needed. With kisses, he took away her fear, and with his love in every caress, he vowed to always be there for her.
Chapter 22
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
― Albert Einstein
Antonio was sure he was in for a new experience! Amanda motioned to the shopping cart. He knew she intended for him get one and roll it around. If she knew he hadn’t bought enough groceries to necessitate a cart since college, her teasing jibes would never relent.
“Antonio, this is exciting. Where I live, we do not have a Whole Food Store. Santa Fe has at least three.”
This time, he wasn’t oblivious to Amanda’s world. Early on, he had noticed the trend in whole foods and now owned stock in the Whole Foods Company. Amanda was not the only person concerned with the quality of food. He wondered why there wasn’t at least one store where she lived. He decided to tease. “This store is another reason for you to love living in New Mexico. You can go to the Whole Foods Market whenever you want.”
“I want to show you something.” She left the cart and picked something up, moving out of the other shoppers’ path. “Antonio, do you know what this is?” Her demeanor seduced him.
“Yeah, it’s a pear.” Duh! He may study the past and get lost in most normal conversations, but he could still identify a fruit; well most fruits he amended, not sure just what the spiny thing was doing lying in the pear section.
She looked into his eyes. Her voice whispered. “Not just any pear, it is a Japanese Red Pear. Antonio, it is sensual.”
He was captivated.
“You let it get just a little ripe, give it a bath and dry it off, then shine it. Closing your eyes, you take a bite and feel the juices explode in your mouth. After the explosion, the pieces rest on your tongue. Do not chew. Instead, press your tongue against the roof of your mouth. You taste a smooth, sweet honey as you realize the pear has dissolved. The perfect pear is now part of your DNA.” Her eyes twinkled at Antonio, stunning him. She had bewitched him in the market.
His voice was a little hoarse. “Where did you get that pear, Amanda?”
She put her hand in his to show him, it was a small display for such a powerful fruit. He grabbed a produce bag and loaded it with every last Japanese Red Pear in the market. He leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“You will show me, many times.” His sexy leer was laughable, but his smile was beautiful to Amanda.
She walked towards him with grapes. Antonio squeezed his eyes tight before he re-opened them. He hoped she had something to share about grapes. He spoke before she could say a word.
“Amanda, don’t seduce me in this market with another fruit. If you do, we’re leaving. We’ll have to come back another time, I can’t take it anymore.” Smiling, he kissed her cheek.
“I am not going to seduce you. Gee. You mean the pear thing turned you on?” She deliberately messed with his head.
“Amanda,” he took a breath, “I’m a lucky man.” He thought his friends would never believe him if he told them about her. They’d be jealous, but they wouldn’t believe it.
“Look at these grapes, Antonio. They are literally black.”
He put his arm around her waist. “I’m warning you, no more fruity seduction. Buy the fruit, we'll take it home and you can play with it there, and seduce the hell out of me.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a body and turned his head.
“I did not want to interrupt, Dr. Dominguez.”
Antonio stood in disbelief. It was one of the Doctorate students he advised. Andrew heard him playing with Amanda. The kid grinned from ear-to-ear.
“Andrew, how are you?” Antonio asked, embarrassed.
“Great, Dr. Dominguez. I’m surprised to see you shopping for groceries. You’ve never seemed like the Grocery-Guy-with-a-Cart type.”
The kid’s observations perplexed Amanda.
“I do eat. By the way, this is Amanda Messenger.” Antonio thought he should introduce the beautiful woman. He even liked the idea that before class started Monday, her name would be old news in his department.
Amanda shook the kid’s hand. “It is nice to meet you, Andrew. You are the first student of Antonio’s I have met.” She smiled.
“We haven’t seen you around much, Dr. Dominguez. Are you working on a new project?”
“Yes, I am working on a project with Amanda. I shouldn’t give any details right now, but it is consuming. By the way, I’m still waiting for status updates. I haven’t seen yours, Andrew.”
“Yeah, I’ll have it this week or next, Dr. Dominguez. Ms. Messenger, are you an anthropologist?”
Amanda smiled at Andrew. “No, I am not Andrew. Please, call me Amanda.”
Antonio jumped in, “Amanda is an expert on religion, psychology, and ancient alchemy.”
“Wow that is impressive. She must be important to your work, Dr. Dominguez.” Andrew’s tone showed he was impressed, and wanted more gossip. He wanted to be the guy in the department with the scoop on the often-mysterious Dr. Dominguez.
Antonio glanced at Amanda, “Andrew, I tell the truth when I say she’s added more insight than any outside expert I have ever consulted. The strange thing is we met on unrelated circumstances. In fact, on a somewhat personal level, as soon as she and I are finished with this project, I’m going to try to share some of her work with all of you jerks.
She has a vast library of unreleased work which needs publishing.” He smiled at Amanda and continued. “That all depends on my success in convincing her to stay here in New Mexico with me. She lives in the Midwest.” He decided to give Andrew what he wanted to know, and get another convincing point across to Amanda.
Andrew laughed at his Professor’s plight. He was sure nobody on campus had ever seen this side of him. “Dr. Dominguez, don’t worry. I’m sure you will rise to the challenge. Nevertheless, if you have any problems, bring her down to the cam
pus. We’ll put in a good word for you.”
Antonio nodded.
“I have to run, Professor. Amanda, I’m glad I got to meet you. By the way, Dr. Dominguez is the best. He’s a living legend on campus. See you around.”
Antonio was shocked, and embarrassed. Amanda was impressed.
“He probably needs some help, you know, scoring points with me, Hell, maybe you too. I know my lack of a love life has been quite the topic on campus.”
“It seems good to me, Doctor. Do you want to talk fruit now, or later?” she joked.
“Amanda, no more fruit talk in the market. You already got me busted by a student. Go get the fruit, and put it in the cart. I need to get you away from the damn fruit.”
“Okay, okay, you are no fun.” she said as she finished picking fresh produce.
Once they moved from the fresh-food section, Antonio grew more curious about her serious concern with food content. Even in this store, ingredients failed to escape her scrutiny. Her research and the food-thing were obsessions in a way, but more along the lines of necessity. They weren’t irrational compulsions.
In other ways, she was anything but obsessed. He knew there was something else, something underlying. Unable to grasp a pattern, he couldn’t gain an idea of its nature.
Observing her, he concluded she was adamant: no chemicals, no hormones, only organically grown without pesticides. She preferred gluten-free and nothing could contain bleach. That meant chlorine-free paper products: unbleached tea bags, coffee filters, sugar, and anything else it crept into.
She liked peanut oil, but no peanut butter, only cashew or almond. She refused soy. He noticed other things, but couldn’t pinpoint the reason for choosing or refusing to add them to the cart. It didn’t add-up. When all else failed, she relied on almonds and organic yogurt.
Finally she was finished, and Antonio did not think it had taken him this long to choose the furnishings for his lab. Antonio happily loaded their groceries in his truck, and then irritated Amanda by going through a drive-thru for a vanilla cone, which he ate with pleasure!
Chapter 23
“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
—Rumi
Alone in his office, Antonio opened the mailer from the lab. Already, he knew his own preliminary tests indicated Amanda’s revelations about the white powder were correct. Nervous, his fear grew over having to jump out of a perfectly safe airplane.
He slipped the paper results out of the envelope.
“Damn it!”
He glared down at the page. Amanda hit it again. The results were consistent with transmutated gold with a background similar to silica.
The findings meant the witchy woman would soon have him jumping out of a plane, and surely, he would scream like a baby. The thought nauseated him. Even the other elements present in the samples supported her theory.
The fax machine caught his attention as it spit out an archaeological alert. Every time there was a significant discovery, he received a notice, via fax. Just below the red alert: Found Granite Column of Solomon.
Inscribed in Hebrew, found in Egypt, on the columns were the words: death, water, pharaoh, Edom, Yahweh, and Solomon. The structure was located exactly where the most plausible theories conclude, the sea opened and Moses trekked through with the Israelites.
He brushed his hand across his head. Sure enough, Amanda hit the jackpot. As soon as she finished her conference call, he would need to tell her. He decided to glorify her win, by grabbing a bottle of wine.
Amanda, at the bar in the kitchen, appeared engrossed in the material on her computer, and whoever was on the other end of the phone call she had made. Antonio passed her on his way to the storage room’s wine closet. He chose a nice, deep, dark bottle of burgundy for her.
He stepped into the hallway, and as he neared the kitchen, he noticed Amanda’s concentration had deepened.
As he entered he waved the bottle of wine like a victory flag. Amanda laughed at him and said; "You are in a great mood, what happened?"
"Oh, just the confirmation of your theories, I mean, I knew it all along, but having the lab guys confirm it, well, that's just icing on the cake." He finished smugly. He was holding onto the other test results; he would give them to her, but one victory at a time…
Amanda's face said it all, she was excited about the confirmation, but not too thrilled with his smug delivery.
He watched her bend over, pulling a disc out of her bag.
“Install this on your hard drive.” She instructed Antonio.
The drive ejected, and he inserted the disc. While waiting for the files to load, he gave Amanda a sip of wine, once again mesmerized by her beauty. She shifted to reach the keyboard.
The monitor demanded his attention. Smoothing her hair to the side, he saw the entire screen and his voice gained several decimals.
“Aw hell no, you’ve got to be kidding…Torah Codes?”
Without flinching, her fingers tapped out the answer. Next thing he knew, the printer spit out her results.
“See Antonio, the gold dust at Hidden Mountain. It says it right here.” She paused, and then continued. “…The Lord give you the bread of adversity…yet shall not thy teachers be hidden anymore, but thine eye shall see thy teachers….thine ears shall hear a word behind thee…”
The stunned expression on Antonio’s face was indescribable. The wave of her hand in front of his face regained his attention.
“Amanda, Honey, I can’t go here. Damn, it’s too far, they’ll lock me up.”
“Antonio, you asked me a question and I answered it. That does not exactly make you accept, or do, anything.”
“Yeah, right…!”
“Here, I can uninstall the software and you will never need to corrupt your beautiful mind with it.”
“Don’t be silly, leave it on the computer. I’m just not letting you seduce me into this concept.”
“Seduce you?”
“Yeah, seduce, you know pears and grapes and things…oh my.”
“Yes, funny, I just remembered that we have a deal. You, gorgeous man, out of an airplane you must jump.”
His eyes rolled. “I haven’t forgotten. Amanda, your deal proves it.”
“It feels great.”
“Wait a minute. Amanda, you didn’t check that before we found the powder?”
“Oh, you are so correct. I ran my hunch.”
“You’re killing me.”
“You say that every day, and I want nothing more, than for you to stay alive. I like tormenting you too much.”
“I can’t argue with that. We need to fix this text.”
“Antonio, I am so touched with your willingness to do this for me.”
“I told you, I respect your findings, and believe in all you do.”
Chapter 24
“Mathematics is the Language with which God has written the Universe.”
— Galileo Galilei
Her demonstration of the Torah Codes was too compelling for him to discount. He meant to research with some criteria extracted from the Scrolls of King Solomon.
His fingers tapped the keys as pertinent words appeared on the line. Swallowing his breath, he hit enter. The communication took seconds.
“Damn!” he blurted without thinking.
Concluded, the data was humongous. According to this, the King knew Hidden Mountain was holy and would provide a protection that would manifest in the beginning of a new era. The new era projected by the Prophet Isaiah.
Nervous, Antonio reached for a reference in the Hebrew Bible. Sweat pellets squeezed from his pores, attempting to cool the heat that flushed through his body. His hand brushed over his hair as he thumbed the pages.
Still, it always returned to King David, God’s favorite. The House of David always influenced by David. Antonio felt he had missed something important.
Dwelling on any issue would only prove counter-productive. The c
lick of the keyboard sent his next puzzle up to the equation. This one was difficult. Perhaps, his intention screamed passive aggressive to an onlooker, but his brain moved at incredibly speeds. His haughty attempt to make the system fail was in vain. Instead, the system was alive and met him with clues that contributed even more.
Engrossed in the madness, her words knocked the wind out of him.
“Antonio.”
“Damn, Amanda! You startled the hell out of me.”
“I apologize.”
He quickly tried to diminish the computer’s screen, but the damn thing wouldn’t cooperate. He was busted. Not that he would have deceived her, but still, she caught him and he felt so devious!
“Antonio, what kind of shenanigans have you pulled? Hours ago, you discounted the Codes, and now you sit here, all alone looking like a criminal.”
“Damn it, you’re right. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Honey, this is crazy, it defies my life’s work. You know I would have told you the minute you were awake. Hell, I’m so mesmerized by you I can’t control my urge to treat this as a confessional.”
“I am not sure I wanted you to get so sappy. Do you understand how it works?”
“Presently, it is turning me into a lunatic. I need you here with me, come sit.”
She honored his request and joined him.
“Feel me, it has me all jittery. I need you really bad.”
“You need some sleep. Antonio you have been awake for more than two days.”
“I guess I have. Take me to bed, do something. Can you make me sleep?”
“I am willing to try.”
“Why are we waiting? Do we have anymore of those pears?”
Chapter 25
"Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever."
Nancy Lopez
Amanda watched Antonio closely. All afternoon he had obviously struggled with something. When he finally threw a folder across his office, and papers fluttered down amidst a spate of words that turned the air blue, she invaded his space. "Hey, my sweet man, what is up with the attack of the flying papers?"