Renegade 22 Read online

  Esperanza and Captain Gringo surfaced, the leak plugged at last. To get her up the ladder ahead of him, fast, Captain Gringo goosed her through her wet pants. She gleeped girlishly and told him she’d take him up on that later as she scrambled back aboard. Captain Gringo just made it. One of the hammerheads seemed chagrined to see the party breaking up just as it was getting interesting, and moved in for the kill just a little too late.

  As he rolled over the rail, Martha Pendergast said, “You’ll have to talk to Gaston, Dick. He hit poor Jim.”

  Captain Gringo said, “Hello, Gaston. I heard the shot. Felt it, too. My ears are still ringing.”

  Bowman sat up in the scuppers, protesting, “I was only trying to help.”

  Captain Gringo said, “Yeah,” and took his dry things back from Gaston’s free arm as he told the Frenchman, “Put that gun away, for Pete’s sake. It’s over.”

  Esperanza took the tall American by a bare wet arm and told Gaston, “I’m leaving you in command here. Deek and me wish for to change out of these wet clothes.”

  Gaston grinned as he took in how wet indeed Esperanza’s clothes were. Her dark nipples and the darker V of her pubic apron were clearly visible through the thin wet cloth. Captain Gringo said, “Put Bowman back to bed and make sure he stays there this time. He’s obviously not thinking clearly yet.”

  “Merde alors, it would take another four years of college to teach him to tie his shoes. But run along, my children, Papa Gaston has the situation in hand.”

  They did. Esperanza bolted the door of her stateroom and stripped off everything but her earrings as Captain Gringo dropped his dry things on her built-in desk and let his wet pants just fall wherever they wanted to. Still wet, Esperanza flung herself down on the bedcovers and rolled over to welcome him with open arms and thighs. So he mounted her cool flesh and warmed it up with a good old-fashioned missionary screwing. She liked it that way too. As she hugged, him with her big wet thighs she sobbed, “Oh, I was so frightened for us both, and now I am so hot!”

  He laughed and said, “So I notice,” as he pounded her as hard as he could. The shark scare had raised his own blood pressure, and one of the nicest things about Esperanza was that she was one of the few women a man his size could really let himself go in without having to worry about hurting her. They came together hard, and Esperanza crooned, “Oh, I love the way you make me feel so small and feminine, Deek. I told you the first time we did it how nice it felt to meet a real man, remember?”

  He chuckled fondly as he remained in position and said, “Yeah. As I recall, it was sort of an accident. I mistook you for somebody else in the dark when I wandered into the wrong hotel room by sheer accident.”

  She giggled and said, “It was such a pleasant way to wake up. I knew before I ever saw you with the lights on that you were the answer to a large maiden’s prayers. Would you kiss me, por favor? I always feel so romantico when I make love with you, Deek.”

  He did, gently at first, because he knew what she meant. They’d spoken in the past about what Esperanza called the “magic” between them. Neither of them had ever been dumb enough to call it “love.” That was probably why they remained such good friends. But he knew the big tough broad appreciated tenderness. She probably didn’t get much from other passing ships in the night. Knock around guys could be dumb about knock around dames.

  As she kissed back, with growing warmth and probing tongue, he started treating her rough again. There was no sense being too tender when a lady dug her nails into one’s back and gripped so tightly with her silky wet insides. So they did it again, missionary, and then Esperanza was in the mood for a real orgy. She said, “We’ve nothing else to do until the tide turns, and we are both so clean and salty. I wish for to try an experiment. A lonely skipper who does not sleep with the crew has time to think up all sorts of naughty tricks, you see.”

  He said he was game for anything that didn’t hurt. So she rolled out from under him and reached in a drawer built into the bulkhead near the head of her bunk bed. She took out an amazingly lifelike but impossibly ample love toy made of black rubber. It looked like someone had cut off the privates of a very well hung Jamaican, balls and all. He laughed and asked, “Is that anyone we know?”

  She giggled like a mean little kid and said, “It’s my cabin boy. Do you think I could be perverted, Deek?”

  “I sure hope so. But your cabin boy makes me sort of jealous. They couldn’t have cast that big dong from life.” She rolled on her back, dildo in hand, and assured him, “I like the real thing much better, Deek. But when one is forced to use a substitute, size helps it make up for lack of romance.”

  “Okay. Nine out of ten people masturbate and the tenth one’s a liar. So how do we manage a ménage a trois with your cabin boy?”

  “First let me get him in me, so.” She giggled, spreading her thighs wider as she gingerly forced the big, black, amazingly realistic penis into herself. It wasn’t easy, even though she was nicely lubricated from his more natural lovemaking, and it looked dirty as hell. He knew he should be ashamed of himself for getting such a hard-on just from watching, but he did, and said, “Hmm, I’m starting to feel left out. What does that feel like?”

  She started moving it as she closed her eyes and said, “Heavenly. But not real, yet. Please get on top of me, Deek.”

  He rolled over to remount her, sort of, but protested, “This is pretty silly, doll. Take that fucking thing out so I can get in.”

  “In a minute, Deek. I told you one daydreams as one plays with one’s self. I have often pretended this was you inside me. I have, I am most ashamed to say, come often with this naughty cabin boy fucking poor lonely me. Now if you would hold me, kiss me, and drive me crazy with this big black penis …”

  “You’re already crazy.” He laughed, pressing his bare chest down on her ample breasts and kissing her as he took the base of the dildo from her and proceeded to move it for her. She closed her eyes and moaned, “Oh, it feels like I am making love to two men at once!”

  “Yeah? Well, so far I’m not getting much of a thrill out of it.”

  She raised her legs and hooked her ankles around the nape of his neck, raising her big rump from the damp covers as she sobbed, “Don’t stop. You can put it in the other place, if only you don’t stop!”

  “I thought you said I was too big for you there, Esperanza.”

  “Did I? I don’t care what I might have said when I was sane, Deek! At the moment I am inspired to sheer depravity, and, ay ay ay! I am up among the stars and I never wish for to come back down!”

  It was driving him nuts, too. So he moved higher up, got his real thing into position, and tried to sodomize her with the idiotic rubber balls of the dildo riding on his pubic bone. She was right about her rear entrance. She obviously hadn’t been entertaining her cabin boy or anyone else that way often, if at all. But once he had the head in, he was able to enter fully, and Esperanza started pumping her hips wildly, sobbing, “Oh, my God, I’m being fucked all over!”

  She was, too. With the base of the dildo braced against his pubis he was able to move the real and artificial shafts in her as one, and the results were wild as hell for both of them. Her rectum would have been much tighter than her vagina in any case. With that dildo filling every bit of her up front, it felt like he was raping a six-year-old who’d somehow fit into a more than full grown woman’s body. He tried to take it easy, but it wasn’t easy, and he’d have probably ruined old Esperanza for life had not she sobbed, “Enough! Take it out! Take it all out! I can’t stand it feeling so good!”

  He whipped the big black dildo out as he withdrew from her rectum, wiped his throbbing prick with the corner of the sheet, and put it where it belonged. She moaned, “Wait! I’m too sensitized! I can’t take any more and … oh, yes, give me more, more, more!”

  So he did, and by the time he came she’d come again, and he came fast, considering it was the third time in a row.

  When they’d calmed down enou
gh to talk again, Esperanza pleaded, “Por favor, I don’t think I shall be able to walk for a week, and I have to get us off the reef at sunset, Deek.”

  He wasn’t feeling up to entering a track meet, either. So he laughed and rolled off to fumble a smoke and matches from his shirt aboard the nearby captain’s desk. He fluffed up the pillows at the head of the bunk bed and lay back to enjoy an after-sex smoke with Esperanza’s damp wet head nestled against his shoulder. But after she’d cuddled quietly against him for a time, she sighed and said, “This is so embarrassing. But what you did to my poor little popo has affected me as if I just had a most strong enema, Deek!”

  He chuckled and said, “Who goes there, friend or enema?” She didn’t get it. She said, “No fooling, I really have for to take one great shit!”

  He sighed and said, “Okay. I’ll get up and get dressed, since I assume you have the usual chamber pot under this bunk, right?”

  “I do not wish for you to go yet. But I still have to go, myself. Are you sure I won’t shock you?”

  He laughed and asked, ‘“How, for God’s sake? I just watched you jerk off in broad daylight, honey bubbles.”

  She sat up, saying, “That was different. Sex is not the same as heeding the call to nature, is it?”

  “What did you think sex was, a call to arms? For God’s sake, go ahead and use your chamber pot, doll ass. I won’t look, okay?”

  She rolled off the bed, reached under it, and pulled out her chamber pot, blushing beet-red as she begged him to close his eyes. So he did. He could smoke just as well with his eyes shut, and he didn’t think it could be all that interesting to watch even a lady take a crap.

  He couldn’t help hearing it, though, as the big Basque brunette squatted naked on the deck and relieved herself with considerable noise at both ends. She gasped, “Oh, that feels so good. Why is it a thrill to do this in mixed company, do you suppose?”

  He said, “Beats me. You’re the one doing it. Do you have a damp towel handy, speaking of shit?”

  She giggled, told him she thought he was horrid, and washed him off properly as she sat beside him on the bunk bed again. Then she got in between him and the bulkhead to snuggle against him some more as she asked, “Do you know why I enjoy sex so much with you, Deek?”

  He said, “Sure. You’re concave where I’m convex. How much time do we have left?”

  “Not enough. Just hold me, por favor, while I tell you nice things about yourself. You know a woman in my line of work would be a fool to fall in love with any man. So I tell you frankly I have enjoyed many a passing fancy, if not quite as many as you have. But would you think me foolish if I told you that you were the best, so far?”

  He patted her bare shoulder and said, “Keep looking. You’re still young and beautiful, babe.”

  She laughed softly and said, “I intend to. If I ever meet a real man hung like my cabin boy I shall probably fall in love with him. Meanwhile, you are the only man I have ever given a shit for.”

  He laughed, hugged her closer, and removed the claro from his mouth to gently kiss the part of her thick black hair, on her head, before he returned the compliment by saying, “Thank you. I think you’re a great lay too. But the thing I like as much about you is that you’re a real buddy. I’d just as soon have you at my side in a fight as Gaston, and you’re built a hell of a lot better.”

  “My God, do you screw him in the ass, too?”

  “No. But I would, if he was as pretty as you.”

  *

  The almanac was right about the spring tide. So at sunset, with her screw in reverse, the Nombre Nada backed off the reef, apparently undamaged if not improved as the sprung seam clamped tighter on the new calking once the strain was relieved.

  Esperanza ordered her Chinese combination ship’s surgeon and cook to break out the rations and feed everybody as she set a new course for the hopefully rebel-held Laguna Chiriqui. The trades were picking up again and the sky was once more clear. So as the sun went down with the usual no-crap thud associated with a clear tropic sky, said sky turned star-spangled purple velvet. It would have been more romantic if there had been some dame on board to start working on.

  But Esperanza didn’t need working on. Her boilers were always full of steam. And Miss Pendergast was spoken for, so what the hell.

  He wasn’t even thinking about the redhead when he moved forward after supper to drape a tarp over the machine gun mounted in the bows. He was mildly surprised to find her there, alone, staring in wonder over the side at the phosphorescent bow waves of the schooner.

  She asked what he was doing and why the sea water seemed to be on green fire. He said, “I don’t want this Maxim to rust when and if we take some spray over the bow.

  The reason said spray glows in the dark like that is bugs. The sea down here is full of funny little microscopic critters that wink on like fireflies back home when air hits ’em. If you really want to see fireworks off the Mosquito Coast, stand by the taffrail of a three-island steamer some night and watch the wake.”

  She sighed and said, “I’m sorry I asked. I thought it was fairy dust in the sea. But it’s awfully pretty. Does it do that all night?”

  “Yeah, at this time of the year. It can get pretty boring after a while. But at other times of the year it just stays black as ink, so it evens out.”

  “Don’t you like the tropics, Dick?”

  “They’re all right, I guess. I’m more comfortable down here than I’d be back in the States right now.”

  She sat on the anchor winch, smoothing her skirt primly, and said, “Jim said they’d hang you back in the States if you ever went back. But I find it hard to believe you’re a bad man.”

  He said, “Sometimes I have trouble with that idea myself. While old Jim was blabbing about me, did he mention anything about the pardon I’m supposed to get for doing dumb things for him?”

  She nodded gravely and said, “Yes. The people we’re working for are very well connected in Washington. I’m not sure just who they are, but I know one of them’s a senator or something.”

  He lit another claro to give himself time to consider whatever the hell was going on. He could barely see her, near enough to kiss, and good old Esperanza was at the helm and would stay there until the next watch. But he wasn’t as interested in kissing the redhead as he was in what she might or might not know. So he hunkered down near the anchor winch and casually began to pump her for information.

  He didn’t get much out of her. She was either dumb or too smart to give away any secrets she might know. She seemed willing to talk. A lot. But she wasn’t saying anything he didn’t already know. He’d guessed before she told him that Jim Bowman was in his cabin, feeling lousy. He knew she had her own quarters, near her boyfriend’s. He was too polite to ask if this was mere discretion or if old Jim was really stupid enough to marry such a dumb-looking little dame without at least making sure she was good in bed. It could work either way. Now that Captain Gringo didn’t have a hard-on, he could tell himself it probably wasn’t any of his business.

  She asked him how soon they’d make Laguna Chiriqui. He glanced up at the stars and said, “About this time mañana, weather and gunboats permitting. We should be safe enough until dawn and we’re making good time. Come sunrise it gets scary again. We face a full broad-daylight sail with God knows how many Colombian patrol craft anxious to intercept all the goodies in the hold. So pray for more fog by morning.”

  She said, “Oh, stop it! You’re frightening me!”

  That had been the general idea. He took a drag on his cigar to let her think it over, if she could, then he said, “Look, sis, you look like a sensible girl. Could I give you some fatherly advice?”

  “Pooh, you’re not old enough to be my father, Dick.”

  “Allah be praised. But that’s not the point. The point is that I think your best bet would be to stay aboard this tub and go right back to Limón with Esperanza as soon as we unload the cargo. The rebel-held area isn’t safe even for a
girl like Esperanza, and she’s pretty tough.”

  “I’d say you were right about her, Dick. But Jim says Los Jurados have that part of Panama securely under control and—”

  “Damm it,” he cut in, “don’t you have anything but bellybutton lint inside your pretty skull, Martha? I know better than to tell you your guy is a dunce, but right now he’s nursing a concussion he picked up just trying to get to Laguna Chiriqui! Didn’t you notice at all when we swapped shots with a Colombian gunboat right outside the harbor? Look, I’ll keep it simple. There are trolls under all the bridges ahead, and an army of wolves huffing and puffing at the three little pigs we’re delivering this shipment to! I know Jim’s your knight in shining armor. But for Pete’s sake, the idea is to rescue the maiden from the dragon. You’re not supposed to deliver her to the damned dragon’s lair!”

  The little redhead clapped her hands in delight and said, “You’re mixing your metaphors. It’s so funny, Dick. Do you always tell such amusing bedtime stories?”

  He grimaced and said, “Try this one. Once upon a time there was another Panamanian rebel faction called the Balboa Brigade. Gaston and me fought the Colombian army with them. We lost.”

  “Pooh, you got away; didn’t you?”

  “It wasn’t easy. Most of the brigade didn’t. The winners put them up against the wall and shot every one of ’em, after making ’em dig their own graves.”

  “But not any women, I hope?”

  “Men, women, and children, Red. What I’m trying to say is that they play rough as hell down here.”

  “But Jim and I are American citizens, Dick.”

  “Honey, you’d be surprised how a bullet goes through a passport. Any passport. Can’t you see that if the Colombian r military government gave two hoots and a holler about making friends with Americans, this whole damned operation would be pointless? They don’t like Yanquis anywhere down here one hell of a lot. The Colombians hate our guts.”

  He blew some thoughtful smoke out his nose before he added, “In all fairness, I’m not sure they don’t have at least a few good reasons. It took the folks down here an awfully long time to get the king of Spain off their backs. I don’t remember anybody south of the Texas line inviting Uncle Sam to climb on.”