“I’m a history teacher, that’s what I do,” Dawn said, laughing. “Besides, I found all the stuff about Jacob Waltz, supposedly discovering the gold mine back in the 1860s and keeping its location hidden until he died in 1891, really fascinating.” She realized her hands were shaking a bit as she tried to open the wrapper on her granola bar.
“It was just all the other crazy stuff about how many people have died, or just simply disappeared, looking for the gold mine. Oh, and the ghosts or whatever, that guard the gold mine; those were the disturbing thoughts freaking me out back there.”
Her gaze moved of its own accord toward the opening of the overhanging. It was so black outside of the small areas illuminated by their headlamps, which were now lying on the ground beside their sleeping bags, it seemed surreal. She knew once they turned the lights off, they would not even be able to see their own hands if they held them an inch from their faces. If there was anything supernatural, or otherwise, prowling around out there, they would never know until it was too late. It was going to be a seriously long night if she didn’t stop this crap right now.
Chapter Two
Sleep would not come easily Dawn assured herself as she snuggled into the comforting depths of her sleeping bag. The strange feelings she had been experiencing since coming up on this mountain tonight would not go away. A gnawing sense of uneasiness churned inside her. There was someone, or something, watching them.
She pulled the top of her heavy Coleman sleeping bag over her head like she used to do with the blankets on her bed when she was a little girl, and imagined there was a scary monster hiding in her closet or under her bed. It didn’t help anymore tonight than it did all those years ago. She’d better cowboy up if she hoped to get any rest at all.
It was barely a matter of seconds after she cowered under the covers of her sleeping bag before her lids felt heavy. Now, she was trapped between wanting to fall asleep to escape the lingering memory of her recent unnatural fear and a building sense of anticipation over what awaited her once she lost consciousness. The choice was not hers to make.
It was darker than any night she had ever known. Although she was still in her flannel-lined sleeping bag, Dawn was not alone. Strong arms held her in their embrace. Her head rested in the crook of his neck. The long locks of her hair were spread out beneath her and she could feel the way the strands splayed across the man’s muscled chest.
The heat of his breath brushed against her ear. He was whispering something. It was a word she did not understand. Udaya…
She inhaled his musky scent. He smelled like the flowers that bloomed on the prickly cactus covering the desert floor; an intoxicating mixture of sweet succulent floral and the heavier earthy scent of cacti.
This man—he was like a cactus—deceivingly beautiful and dangerous. Dawn knew when she leaned closer to smell the flower, the cactus spines would ensnare her and their daggers would penetrate deep into her skin; deep enough to pierce her very soul.
But it didn’t matter. There was a reckless hunger burning in her like nothing she ever experienced before, and only this mysterious stranger could sate her craving.
The man was kissing her neck now. His lips were full and warm; his kisses tender on her fevered skin. His gentle touch promised paradise. She quivered with excitement.
His hand was inching up under her T-shirt and sliding along her taut ribcage, up to the band of her sports bra. He pushed the bra up until he could cup one firm breast in his hand. His fingers gently teased the little nub in the center.
Her body arched up as his mouth stole away the moan building louder in her throat with a kiss that was now demanding and irresistible. His tongue slid between her parted lips. Dawn let her tongue join his in an erotic dance in her mouth that momentarily distracted her from the way his forefinger was flicking the tip of her nipple more forcefully, making it hard and full.
Instinctively, she turned her body toward the man and felt his hard cock press into her abdomen. An internal plea from her body made her grind her body against his. She grew wet with desire and trembled at the thought of having him inside her.
“Please, make love to me,” she pleaded. The ache between her legs was becoming a screaming, throbbing pain she knew only he could satisfy. “Plea—”
His mouth covered hers again and stole away her voice and her breath.
When their lips separated, his mouth began to traipse gently along the side of her neck. He pushed her hair back over her shoulders as his kisses left a fiery trail to the base of her hairline behind her ear. Dawn felt an unexpected flash of pain, almost like the sting of a wasp or the prick of a pin, but it was over so quickly, she wasn’t even sure if it had really happened.
Waves of pleasure replaced the brief instant of pain and started to reverberate through her body...building and building. She pressed her hips against his engorged cock. She felt the dampness flood between her legs as she breathlessly waited for what she was sure would come next. But—the man was no longer pressing his body against hers. He was pulling away. No.
“I need more,” she whispered. So much more, her body begged. She needed him—all of him—and she needed him now.
“Soon my Udaya, my beautiful Dawn,” he whispered. Then, he was gone.
Dawn opened her eyes slowly. The hazy glow of the morning sun was peeking through the entrance of the overhanging. How was it possible it was morning already? She rubbed at her achy eyes. They felt on fire and her body was telling her she needed about ten more hours of sleep.
Her erotic musings began to edge into her thoughts with vivid clarity.
Whoa, that was one hell of a dream. Make that one hell of a wet dream. It seemed so real, seriously real. But it was only a dream, right? Of course it was.
She glanced over toward Chloe, who was burrowed down in her sleeping bag, with barely the top of her head showing. A relieved breath escaped from her. At least, she hadn’t woken her up with her wild and weird sexual escapades in dreamland.
As she started to push herself up to a sitting position, Dawn realized her shirt and jogging pants were drenched with perspiration. She was actually wet from her wet dream. How ridiculous and seriously embarrassing was this? Every detail of her dream began rushing through her mind again. That man in her dream. He seemed so real—way too real.
His kisses burned their memory on her lips. All the places he touched her were tingling; her breasts ached and her nipples hardened. Her crotch tightened remembering the way his cock had felt against...Stop it.
She wiped her shaky hand across her sweating brow. Granted, she had been lacking in the boyfriend department since moving to Apache Junction a short time ago, but she had been enjoying the freedom of not having a man in her life. Her last brief relationship had been with a fellow teacher in her hometown. He was a nice enough guy, but a bit too clingy and needy. When she made the life-changing decision to move to Apache Junction, she left him behind in Colorado without any regrets. End of story.
Apparently though, she rationalized now as she was sitting here in her sleeping bag feeling very sweaty and uncomfortable, her subconscious mind and body were both trying to tell her she needed more than a camping trip with a girlfriend. A kinky, sexy smelling stranger just seduced her in her dreams, and even when she woke up, her body was still clinging to the incredible sensations she experienced in her sleep.
She reached up and touched her lips, recalling the delicious kisses that were nothing like she ever experienced in real life. She gasped. Her lips felt slightly tender as if she really had been kissed hard and more than once.
“What the hell?” she mumbled. How had she managed to do that to herself? She couldn’t even begin to imagine, and she didn’t even want to try. She definitely needed to make time to have a social life with the opposite sex again, like real soon.
Maybe it was time for Sluts R Us. In college Dawn and her friends jokingly referred to their sexual antics as the Sluts R Us Club, especially if it involved a one night stand. Of cour
se, it was rare when she actually acted on these slutty impulses, but it happened once or twice when too much alcohol was involved.
“Good Morning,” Chloe said, followed by a loud yawn. “I slept like a log. How did you sleep?”
“Um...great, really g-great,” Dawn stammered. A log? The memory of the man’s rock hard cock pressing into her abdomen, in her much too realistic dream reclaimed her thoughts. Flames licked at her entire body as she squirmed uncomfortably in her sleeping bag. Well crap. She was trapped her in her own erotic agony. All she could do was hope her flushed appearance didn’t give her away. No such luck.
Chloe pushed herself up on one elbow and stared at her friend. “What the hell, girlfriend? You look like you’ve just been rode hard and put away wet. Who were you screwing last night?”
Another hot rush of blood flooded through her cheeks. “No, I-I— Okay, I admit it. I had a really wild dream. I was making out with some stranger.” She shook her head, adding, “At least he smelled good.”
“That was one hell of a make-out session.” Chloe giggled. “Why can’t I have dreams like that?”
Dawn attempted to laugh, too. She would enjoy a dream like the one she just had a lot more if her entire body and lips weren’t still feeling as if they were a raging bonfire. Since there was no way she was going to admit any of this to Chloe, she had to suffer in silence and try to push her deviant slumber activities to the back of her mind.
“I’m so excited about our adventure today,” she said in an attempt to change the subject.
“Me too,” Chloe said in an eager tone. “We’re going to an area my dad and I have searched numerous times, because we are certain the clues to the gold mine have something to do with that location.” She shrugged, and added, “I just keep hoping I will see something new or notice something from a different angle. A whole new perspective maybe?” She focused her blue gaze on Dawn. “Maybe you’ll notice something we’ve been missing when you see all of it for the first time.”
“Oh, wow. That’s entirely too much pressure.” Dawn chuckled. “I thought I was just here to be the comic relief.” She pulled her tangled blonde hair over one shoulder and ran her fingers through the thick tresses. The slight wave created from her braid yesterday was completely gone now and her hair was back to its usual state of hanging long and straight past the middle of her back. “But I’ll try not to get freaked out today, okay?”
She felt completely confident her crazy sense of panic from last night was nothing more than an embarrassing memory.
“Or go to any more wild orgies in the middle of the night without inviting me, okay?” Chloe retorted.
“Deal,” Dawn agreed in earnest. She hoped she wouldn’t be having any more of those weird wet dreams, either. She forced herself to focus on the real reason she was here. Meeting Chloe at the Apache Junction Middle school where she started teaching a few weeks ago was a stroke of good fortune. An immediate friendship developed between the two young teachers when they chatted in the teacher’s lounge, especially once they discovered they both enjoyed the same types of outdoor activities, such as hiking and camping.
When her new friend suggested they go prospecting for gold, she thought it sounded like an expedition she couldn’t miss out on. Once Chloe told her they were going in search of the famous Lost Dutchman Gold Mine in the Superstition Mountains, she had really been enthused. She was already familiar with the legendary story about the Dutch gold miner’s claim of finding a rich vein of gold ore in this range of mountains.
Now, however, being here in this remote area, she wasn’t so sure about this whole thing. Jacob Waltz was considered to be a crazy old man back in the time when he told all those bigger-than-life stories about his hidden gold mine. She was wondering if they weren’t a bit crazy to be up here on this dangerous mountain, too.
They had a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt. Well, Chloe had an apple and yogurt, but Dawn’s stomach felt a little queasy so she just opted for some yogurt. She was a bit light-headed and dizzy as if she had been drinking last night. Could you get a hangover from wet dreams?
Chloe munched on her apple as she showed her the detailed route she mapped out for their hike today. Her knowledge of the area was impressive. At least they shouldn’t get lost, or so Dawn hoped.
She grabbed her hairbrush out of her pack and brushed the long strands of her blonde hair smooth before gathering them into a low ponytail at the base of her neck and securing them tightly with a hair band. As she finished twisting the band around her hair, she felt a brief stab of pain behind her ear. She reached up and touched the area where the source of irritation was centered and noticed a slight tenderness. Maybe a spider or bug had bitten her during the night?
No big deal, well, unless it was a poisonous spider and she was going to die. Could that be why she felt queasy earlier? She drew in a deep breath. Damn, she just kept imagining the worse of everything on this trip. An aggravated huff escaped as she picked up her old straw cowboy hat and placed it on her head while she waited for Chloe to finish getting ready.
“You know,” Chloe said as she pulled the bill of her Arizona State baseball cap down on her forehead and slid her own long hair through the hole in the back of the hat, “I will not be upset if you would rather we don’t spend another night up here and just head home when we get done hiking later today? The Superstition Mountains can be more than a little intimidating if you’re not used to this rugged kind of country.”
With a shrug of her shoulders, Dawn hoped she sounded sincere when she answered, “Well, I realize I’m not in Colorado anymore, but I’m not going to be chased away by all those scary stories I read about this place or these seriously steep and narrow trails.” Chuckling, she added, “Besides, you’ve been coming up here all your life and you’re still alive, right?”
“Alive and well, and ready to be a really rich bitch,” Chloe joked as she grabbed her daypack and swung it over her shoulder.
“Oh, now you’re talkin’,” Dawn chimed in as she followed the other woman out of the campsite.
****
Hours later, just as the sun was starting to drop low on the horizon to the west, Dawn eased herself down to the ground a couple of feet from the small fire they built in a circular pit surrounded by rocks. She ran her hand over the tight muscles of her stomach and gave a tired sigh. The long rigorous hike they had done today kicked her butt big time. Since she walked a lot to stay in shape, and was now doing regular exercise at the local gym Chloe had bullied her into joining a couple of weeks ago, she thought her legs were strong. But they felt like limp noodles right now.
“I’m sort of disgusted with myself. I thought I was in much better condition,” she moaned. She placed her cowboy hat carefully on top of her backpack. After smoothing back some of the long strands of hair that had come loose from the ponytail behind her ears, she eagerly reached out to take the can of beer Chloe was holding out to her.
A smile curved Chloe’s lips. “You are in great shape, but when was the last time you hiked all day in sun this intense?”
“Well, I did a lot of hiking in Colorado this past summer before moving, but it’s definitely a different climate here.” She took a swig out of the can of beer, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I love seeing all this new country, though. Thanks for letting me tag along. I would have enjoyed it more if we were celebrating finding millions of dollars in gold, though.”
Chloe nodded her head in agreement and pulled her baseball cap off her head. As she tossed the hat to the ground a heavy frown settled on her pretty face. “I was really sure we would find something new today. I have those old clues left by Jacob Waltz memorized and I’ve studied that area so carefully; I just don’t know what I could be missing.” She shook her head and added, “Maybe old man Waltz was just a crazy old fart, after all.”
She stood up and stared out toward the distant horizon as she repeated the clues for at least the tenth time today. “You have to crawl through a h
ole in the rock. From here you can see the Old Military Trail. You can’t see the mine from the trail. If you climb up a short distance you can see Weaver’s Needle. The setting sun shines on the gold in my mine. A rock face looks at my mine.”
Dawn forced herself up from the ground and stood beside Chloe and stared in the same direction where her friend’s attention was focused. Off in the distance the sun was nearly gone from the westerly sky as her gaze settled on the ominous shape of Weaver’s Needle. The protruding column of massive rock glowed in deep shades of orange and was surrounded by a shadowy purplish haze making it appear almost spiritual.
Today, they had been on the most treacherous trails she ever hiked, crawled through a hole in a huge rock shaped like a natural arch in one of the most rugged and remote places Dawn had ever been; Chloe led them to the barely visible path called the Old Military Trail, and they stared at the huge rock formation called Weaver’s Needle from the top of a jagged range of rocks for what seemed hours. But as hard as they tried, they could not find anything resembling a face in any of the surrounding cliffs or rocks.
Chloe continued to gaze off into the distance as frustration and disappointment became evident on her tired face. Dawn felt at a loss for words. She kept thinking about all the research she had done about this area in the past few days, especially the parts about the curse of the Lost Dutchman Mine, and how it was allegedly guarded by unfathomable evil forces that would never allow anyone to live if they should ever find it.
It creeped her out to think of how many lives had been lost in these mountains looking for a gold mine that might be no more than someone’s wild imagination. The exact number of missing or dead was not even known for sure, since many explorers and hopeful gold seekers just disappeared without a trace.
Being here in the heart of these hidden recesses and rugged terrain, however, she could definitely understand how someone might easily become lost or fall into one of the deep caverns and never find their way out of this dangerous rock maze again. But what she still couldn’t comprehend was the depth of passion people like Chloe and her family had in their relentless quest to find this supposed gold mine. There really wasn’t any solid proof it existed, yet, they never gave up hope.
Superstition Page 2
