by Lou Cameron
Her eyes blazed. She started to slap him, thought better of it, and sobbed. ‘Oh, how could you speak to me like that? I am not used to being treated like this, you brute!’
He grinned crookedly down at her and replied, ‘You’re going to have to get used to it unless you start talking sense, Teresa. I don’t admire prick teasers, and I’m the closest thing to a gentleman you’ll be talking to until we can get you out of here, see?’
‘Oh, you said it again! How dare you mention the private parts of a man in the company of a lady?’
‘I didn’t bring the subject up. You did. I’ll never understand dames like you. You bust a gut looking yummy, bat your eyes, and talk about sex, and then you go all shy-convent-girl when a man even looks at you.’
She shook her head wildly, tossing her black curls becomingly, as she protested, ‘That is not true. It was you, just now, who suggested that we sleep together!’
He shook his own head and said, ‘Suggested it, hell. We don’t have any choice. The others outside would wonder a lot about a soldado who didn’t want to sleep with his own adelita. So aside from my being taken for a sissy, you could find yourself fending off another sudden admirer. What happened in that other camp was partly your fault, you know.’
She gasped and demanded, ‘Are you suggesting that I encouraged the advances of that ruffian you saved me from?’ So he said, ‘He was only the segundo. I don’t imagine El Jefe gave him orders to rape you. So he must have thought it was okay by you until you kicked him in the nuts. Look, I know you didn’t think you were flirting with that Indio. But he did. You have natural bedroom eyes and a dumb way of talking to men. We can’t do much about the eyes. If you don’t want men leaping on your bones, don’t bring the subject up. Some guys ain’t as couth as me. So they naturally figure a dame who brings the subject up must be interested in the subject.’
‘Listen here, it was you, not I, who mentioned going to bed with me, you brute!’
‘No, you listen, you silly broad. I told you to get some sleep. I didn’t even ask you to kiss me night-night. So what gave you the right to assume that I had mad carnal desires for you?’
She lowered her lashes and tried to suppress a smile. The results were Mona Lisa as she asked, ‘Well, don’t you? Most men seem to want me, for some reason.’
He laughed despite himself and said, ‘That’s neither here nor there. The point is that I’ve yet to make a pass at you, and frankly, I’m a little hurt that you dames seem to take me so for granted. Just move over some and pull the covers over you and we’ll say no more about it, right? I promise not to ravage you like the beast I am while I have you in my wicked power and all that shit.’
Teresa lay flat and pulled the canvas as high as her semi-exposed chest as she said with sad resignation, ‘Easy for you to say now. But you forget that I have been married, Dick. You men are all alike in the stillness of the night.’ She probably had a point. She sure was built, even in dim light and under stiff canvas. It was too early for a guy with a dawning erection to consider sleeping innocently. So even though he knew it was smarter to lay low in strange surroundings at first, he crawled out of the hut and stood up to see what else was going on.
Nothing much was, outside the huts. From the passionate moans coming through some of the improvised walls he passed, some other camp followers couldn’t be so shy. He moved toward the central fire. There was nobody in sight but a sad-looking adelita sitting cross-legged by the canvas-draped machine gun. Captain Gringo hunkered down to remove the night cloth as he asked the girl if there was any coffee left. She sighed and said, ‘The cook is off-duty. Please do not beat me if you find that weapon dirty, Captain Gringo. I do my best. But in God’s truth it is difficult keeping metal rust-free in this climate without proper cleaning materials.’
He said he’d noticed that as he opened the action of the Maxim machine gun and found it had been cleaned and oiled since the last time it had been fired. The head spacing was set right too. He nodded and told her, ‘This gun would pass inspection most anywhere. But how come you say you cleaned it? El Generale told me you just lost your only heavy weapons man, señorita ...?’
‘I am called Emesta. As you see, I am not a man. The gunner I was assigned to assist is the person you are speaking of.’
He stared thoughtfully. She was right about being a woman, and a damned pretty one if a guy admired tawny mestiza types. He said, ‘I am sorry you lost your hombre. I must say that he trained you well as his loader.’
Emesta wrinkled her pert nose and replied, ‘He was not my hombre, and it was I who taught him. My late husband was Regular Army, killed two years ago fighting on the Granada side up north. It was from him I learned how to man and care for a machine gun. Our garrison was small, and everyone there had to know for how to defend the post.’ He cut in to assure her that he knew the Granada troops were swell eggs and asked her how come she’d wound up way down here with a guerilla band.
She sighed and said, ‘Our post was overwhelmed. I was not shot with the men and ugly women because I was not ugly. Later I managed to knife the soldado they gave me to and make my escape. I fell in with El Generale, who is not a bad man, even if he is a bit stupid. When he learned that I knew about machine guns, he ordered me to load for his machine gunner. The one who was killed tonight. Now there was a really stupid man. Do you know how he managed to get picked off, even as we were winning?’
Captain Gringo nodded and said, ‘Sure. He was firing long bursts from one position. Somebody fired up his muzzle flashes.’
Emesta looked even prettier when she smiled and said, ‘Oh, you do know how it is done. I warned him that it was time for to shift the tripod. He did not listen to me. Nobody listens to a woman at such times.’
Captain Gringo said, ‘I’ll listen, if you still want to act as loader. Would you rather be somewhere else, Emesta?’
She shrugged and replied, ‘I have no place else to be now. The Leon Faction now controls the part of Nicaragua I am from, and as I just told you, I have no man back there in any case.’
He nodded understanding^ and said, ‘Bueno. In that case, should anyone ask, you are my loader and, if you need protection, you can say you’re my adelita as well.’
She stared up at him thoughtfully, then said, ‘I saw the adelita you already have. She is very beautiful. Do you think I would make a convincing adelita for the Great Captain Gringo?’
‘Sure, I’m supposed to be horny as hell, and I guess my rank calls for at least two adelitas. Don’t think I’m getting fresh with you. I know you just lost your, ah, machine gunner, so—’
‘He was not my lover, damn it!’ She blazed, adding, ‘He wanted to be. But I do not make love with men I have no respect for, and as I said, he was very stupid and a most poor soldado.’
He got back to his feet and said, ‘Look, you can work it out any way you like. Just tell me what you tell the others, and I’ll back you. If you want to be my loader, I can use a loader. If you’d rather say you were someone else’s adelita, that’s no problem.’
She rose, too, to answer, ‘I wish for to be your loader, and I wish for to say I am your adelita segunda. You know how some men treat a woman with no protector.’
‘We were just talking about that in my hut. By the way, where are you supposed to be sleeping right now?’
She pointed across the campfire and replied, ‘I built my shelter over that way. I could not sleep because I had much on my mind. So I came out here to make sure the Maxim was well covered. But you are right. It is getting late, and El Generale is a fiend for marching. Would you care to sleep with me or your other adelita this night, Captain Gringo?’ He gulped and said, ‘Under the circumstances you can call me Dick. You know any man would want to sleep with you, of course. But are you sure you want me to?’
She shrugged and replied, ‘I do not know yet. But if I am to be your adelita segunda, don’t you think we should find out?’
They did. The pragmatic little peon led him to her l
ittle shack, and they just got in her bedroll together, as if they’d been shacked up for some time. He was sure she was just cleaning up her past a bit by claiming not to have had a man for some time, until he mounted her warm, hungry flesh and learned how hungry it was. But as she began to move under him with the skill of a very experienced woman indeed, he began to wonder if his first idea might not have been right. It was a lot of fun making up his mind, and Emesta said she liked the way he moved in her too. She said it matter-of-factly, with no mush or fake passion. So he couldn’t help feeling flattered when she began to show real passion once the ice was broken. Her orgasm was almost painful, to him at least. For the muscular peon girl was well legged-up from marching under heavy loads, and he might have found the way she gripped him with her strong brown thighs uncomfortable if he hadn’t been ejaculating in her tight, warm little love maw so enjoyably.
As they shared an after-pleasure smoke together Emesta asked, ‘Did you find that tolerable, Captain Gringo? I warned you that I was out of practice, but I tried to please you.’
He snuggled her head closer on his bare shoulder and told her, ‘I told you to call me Dick, and it wasn’t tolerable, it was grand. No offense, but you sure screw good, querida.’
‘¿Es verdad? I am glad. You are much man, and you almost drove me out of my mind with pleasure just now. Could we do it one more time before you must return to my superior adelita?’
He laughed and said, ‘I’ll be the judge of who’s superior. Just let me get my second wind.’
‘Oh, you wish for to make love to me a second time in one night? I feel honored as well as most warm between my legs now. I so hoped you would enjoy my body. But I was afraid you would not think me as good for to fuck as that prettier blanca of yours. Are you sure she will not mind if her segunda has you twice in a row?’
He offered her a drag on his claro as he told her, ‘Naw, old Teresa’s a good sport. I don’t want you two arguing over me. Is that understood?’
‘Sí, I know she has first claim on you. I know my place. I do not pick fights with other women. It is up to the man to decide with whom he wishes to rut, no?’
‘Close enough. I sure admire old-fashioned girls like you. But as long as we’re discussing ground rules, fess up. Were you or were you not hanging around my machine gun in hopes that something like this might happen?’
She started to deny it. Then she gave an embarrassed little giggle and confessed, ‘In God’s truth, the results were even more than I was hoping for. I was so afraid you would not want me, even for your loader, and then what would have become of me?’
He didn’t answer. They both knew the answer, and he found the practical side of being a woman a little disturbing. Down deep inside he knew that the difference between a lady insisting on a ring and a puta insisting on enough for her next warm meal could be dismissed by a cynic as a matter of comparative price. But he liked women too much to feel cynical about them. So he wished they wouldn’t be so goddamn practical about romantic matters.
Emesta didn’t understand his silence. So she reached down to take a practical approach to life and, as she stroked him, asked him just when he had to get back to Teresa. He said, ‘Hold the thought. You’re holding it just fine right now. I told you there was no hurry. We’ve got all night. Or most of it, anyway. I suppose I ought to pop out of that other hut in the morning. Don’t want to make El Generale nervous.’
Emesta sat up to get a better grip on the situation as she said with a pleased expression, ‘You should have told me she was having her period. I am so glad. I mean her no disrespect, but may I assume you have not been in her, ah, recently?’
He closed his eyes and lay back to enjoy what she was doing down there as he assured her, ‘Oh, I haven’t been in another woman in ages.’ So Emesta said, ‘Bueno!’ and dived on his dawning erection headfirst. He hissed in pure animal pleasure as she went to work with her wet, pursed lips. She sure knew how to French, and he didn’t want to know where she’d learned. But just in case she was fibbing about that other machine gunner, he was reluctant to return the favor with his own mouth. So he snuffed out the cigar and began to play her clit by hand in hopes that it would be enough for her.
It apparently was. Emesta began to suck wildly as he strummed her old banjo while she got above him with a knee planted to either side of his rib cage. He put his other hand in her to massage her cervix with questing fingertips as he played with her engorged little man in the boat. He could tell by the resultant contractions that she was about to climax that way, and since she obviously wanted to climax that way, he let her, as she sucked him off all the way.
Then he rolled her limp, quivering form off him to swap ends and get back in her right. As he entered her still-pulsing orgasmic vagina Emesta crooned, ‘Is this possible? Is there yet more to come?’ So he kissed her warmly and replied, ‘Yeah, let’s come some more.’
‘I shall, I shall, I am, and oh, querido, I am so happy! Would you mind very much if I told you I loved you, just a little? I know it is a foolish thing to say. But I feel like saying it and saying it as you fuck me over and over and over!’ He assured her that he didn’t mind a little mush, as long as she didn’t overdo it. So she kept sobbing how much she loved him as he had her old-fashioned, doggie-style, and with her on top when it began to fade from true lust to just showing off. Later she assured him that she would never tell his other adelita that she loved him or, God forbid, that she’d blown him all the way. He didn’t ask her to take it anywhere else. He felt sure she would, but the bathing facilities around here were a little limited and, what the hell, sodomy was uncalled for when a gal was built so tight all over.
He let her fall asleep in his arms. It was easy enough for her after all the work she’d done under and on top of him. Then he eased her head off his shoulder and slipped his duds back on. As he crept out of her hut he saw that the campfire had died down to faintly glowing embers and that nothing was stirring in the ruby light. So he was a bit surprised as, heading back to the other hut, he heard Gaston call out cheerfully, ‘Eh bien. I was hoping you did not mean to spend the whole night with that mestiza.’
‘You peeked?’ Asked Captain Gringo as the Frenchman joined him in the privacy of open space.
Gaston handed Captain Gringo back his old shoulder rig and said, ‘Mais non, there was no need to peek when these ears of the fox detected a woman sobbing that she was possibly wounded très fatale by a cock of astounding proportions. What was the matter with the Spanish girl, crabs or the clap? If you don’t want her, let your elders show you how to treat a lady. I am immune to the clap and know how to deal with crabs.’
Captain Gringo removed his jacket to strap his .38 back on as he growled, ‘Never mind about the dames. Where did you get our guns?’
‘From the other camp, of course. I did not have two females in heat distracting me. I thought they might have been keeping our stolen gear in El Jefe’s tent. They were, after some searching. I found something better as I pawed around over there. I found a map. This jungle must have made the late El Jefe nervous too. I thought he was a city boy. Eh bien, we are perhaps thirty kilometers northwest of Limón. If we started running now, we could make it just after dawn, non?’
‘Non. It’s later than that, and I’m not up to running anywhere right now for some reason. Teresa will be lucky if she can walk, even after a good night’s sleep. Hide the map away and try to keep track of where we are. Our best bet would be a shorter run to someplace closer, where they have lots and lots of cops. El Generale has a big gang, a machine gun, and an uncertain temper.’
He filled Gaston in on what Emesta had told him, leaving out the naughty parts, as Gaston walked him the rest of the way to the hut he was supposed to be sharing with Teresa. He promised Gaston that he’d ask Emesta if she had a friend who admired older men and ducked inside to see how Teresa was making out.
She wasn’t making out so hot. She was still awake and, for some reason, crying again. He stretched out bes
ide her, atop the covers, and asked, ‘Now what’s wrong, for God’s sake?’
She replied, ‘I was afraid you and Gaston had run off without me and that I would be raped any minute by these terrible bandits!’
He shucked everything but his shirt and pants as he told her, ‘Let’s get out of the habit of calling El Generale a bandit. I’m sure he feels he’s a guerrilla.’
‘There is a difference?’
‘Not really, but it’s safer to be polite. A bandit is a guy who just runs around robbing people. A guerrilla is a guy who says he has an excuse. It’s considered sort of noble for Nicaraguans to rob Nicaraguans in the name of Nicaragua, just like Irish rebels rob Irishmen for Irish freedom or the late Jesse James robbed southerners in the name of the Confederacy.’
‘But, Dick, we are not in Nicaragua now. How can El Generale rob Costa Ricans in the name of Nicaraguan anything?’
‘Easy. He’s got lots of guns. I just got his version of Robin Hood. His bunch was chased down here by a bigger gang of thugs in the name of Nicaraguan freedom. He’d made an end run and hopes to get back up north to free some more Nicaraguan pigs and chickens. So let’s not discourage the notion, okay?’
‘But I do not wish for to go to Nicaragua, Dick! You must help me get back to my grandfather and my people at once!’
Captain Gringo warned her, ‘Keep it down. Adelitas don’t give orders. I’ve been thinking about the best way to get you back to Don Alberto. I think you’d both like it better if we got you back alive. So aside from near and present dangers, we’d better bone up on our options. That other gang were city slickers, and you said you might have been drugged in your own home. Run that stuff about your wicked step-grandmother past me again. We wouldn’t want to dash madly at a light burning in the window only for you to find it was a gun muzzle, see?’
‘Oh, you agree my poor grandfather married a common slut?’
‘I don’t know anything about her. She could be a swell kid who just admires older men, or a lady who wants it all when he kicks the bucket. Frankly I can’t see even a wicked step-grandmother having you snatched when there are so many less complicated ways to get rid of unwanted heirs. Snow White’s stepmother told the hunter to kill her, not to hold her for ransom, remember?’
