Chapter Three

Dawn just wanted to get a restful night’s sleep. That didn’t seem like too much to ask, did it? But she worried about having another explicit dream that seemed far too real to be merely a dream, or even worse, having a horrific nightmare about the malevolence lurking in these mountains that would feel as real as the sensuous dream. Either way, it could mean another miserable night.

The minute she snuggled into the downy comfort of her sleeping bag, her tired lids closed. And it began much the same as it had last night.

The man was lying beside her in her sleeping bag again. The small confines of the tight space were suffocating in the heat of the desert night. His mouth immediately engaged her lips with demanding kisses.

She felt one of his hands move down past the waistband of her sweatpants. That same wandering hand caressed her firm stomach as it made its way lower. She squirmed against the man’s taut form as wondrous sensations bolted through her entire body. His mere touch was unlike any she had known before.

She raised her arms up and placed her hands on the sides of his face. His skin felt smooth to her touch. It was too dark to make out his features, but she sensed it was a face nearly perfect to look upon.

Her hands moved up to his hairline. His hair was long…way past his shoulders. The texture was heavy and full. Her fingers became lost in the infusion of his luxurious locks. From the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes she thrilled to the image of how this glorious head of hair must look surrounding the flawless face she pictured in her mind.

By now his fingers had pushed her panties out of the way and he was gently massaging the soft feminine folds of her clit. The sweet agony he was inducing escaped in a breathy moan from her lips as he began to work two fingers into her eager pussy. She arched her hips upward and pressed against him like she had last night in an open invitation. Surely tonight he would do more than tease and taunt her to the brink of sexual insanity.

His lips were kissing along the side of her neck, over her shoulder and down along the inside of her arm while she was distracted with the delicious activities in her lower regions. She was slightly surprised to realize his mouth was now kissing her wrist when a quick sharp pain in that area surprised her. She involuntarily flinched. But the man held her wrist against his lips, sucking lightly, as a sweet tempestuous satisfaction began to fill Dawn with euphoria. She could only equate this wondrous sensation to making love for the first time as a virgin. First, the uncertainty, a brief moment of pain, then pleasure; and lastly, a longing for more and more and more.

Dawn had never been so glad to see the sun rising in her entire life. It had been a long torturous night in some ways, and not nearly long enough in others. This latest dream—once again so real it was hard to believe it had only been a dream—could have lasted all night and she wouldn’t have minded. But it was much too short, and once the dream was over, she woke up drenched in sweat and with a deep ache between her legs. Wet dreams. Two nights in a row? This was just sad.

If she didn’t know better, she would swear the sexy manly scent of the stranger in her dreams still clung to the material of her sleeping bag and the lingering remnants of his touch left its heated mark everywhere on all the intimate parts of her body where his exploring hands had traipsed.

With a weary sigh, she pushed herself up on one elbow to look around. The hazy gray light of early morning glowed outside the cave and afforded a tiny bit of light underneath the overhang. Only a mass of tangled brown hair from Chloe’s head was exposed at the end of her sleeping bag. She didn’t think Chloe had moved all night. Obviously, she was worn out from the long tedious hike they had been on yesterday.

Dawn was exhausted, too, both from the hike, and now, from lack of sleep, thanks to those stupid dreams. She seriously needed to either get laid, or get mental help. A vibrator might have come in handy last night. The unexpected thought made her snort with disgust. It was going to be a really long day.

“How long have you been awake?” Chloe asked in a sleepy voice. She pushed her sleeping bag away from her face and rolled over to look at Dawn. Rubbing at her sleep-swollen eyes, she yawned loudly.

Her body jerked in surprise at the sound of Chloe’s voice breaking into her thoughts of shameless self-pleasure. A hot flush flared through her cheeks. She cleared her throat and once again attempted to sound normal. “Since about ten last night.”

Chloe pushed her sleeping bag away from her upper body and looked at her friend with a curious glance. “Weren’t we just going to bed about ten last night?”

“Probably.” Dawn chuckled. “I fell asleep, I think, but then I woke up almost immediately. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that.”

“All night?” Chloe sat up and kicked her bag away from the lower part of her body. The sun wasn’t even fully up yet, and the temperature was promising to be another blistering day. “That really sucks.”

“Tell me about it,” she moaned. Those seriously kinky dreams did suck, and not entirely in a bad way. Ugh. It was definitely time for some Sluts R Us action. She pushed herself up to a sitting position. Unconsciously, she rubbed at the tender spot on her wrist. Although it was not light enough for her to see anything, she determined a spider or bug must have taken up residence in her sleeping bag. The sore spot on her wrist felt a bit swollen and tender like the spot behind her ear.

Wait? Wasn’t there something in her dream last night involving her wrist? Her mind drew a blank and she was too tired to dwell on the hazy images in her head. “I’m gonna be a total zombie all day,” she added as she tried to push the bizarre dreams, along with the worry about a poisonous spider or bug bite, out of her mind.

“We don’t have to hike again today. I don’t mind heading back to town early.”

Dawn couldn’t stop the sense of relief that caused her to exhale a big sigh. “Really? Are you sure? I mean, I don’t really mind hiking more today since we’re here. But I must admit I’m pretty beat.”

Chloe shrugged and squinted in the dull light as she focused her gaze on Dawn’s face. “I’m not really up to it, either. And if you don’t mind me saying it, you look like crap. Are you okay?”

Dawn chuckled. “Well, thanks.” Unconsciously, she traced her fingertips over her inflamed lips. “I’m good, really,” she lied. “Maybe lack of sleep is just making me weirder than usual.”

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little weird myself. Guess that’s why we became friends so quickly.” Chloe snickered. “Seriously, though, I think we should just head home early today. I’m just so damned disappointed we didn’t find anything new yesterday.”

“I’m sorry,” Dawn answered. She had been so distracted with her own issues of uneasiness and horny musings; she had forgotten what this trip obviously meant to Chloe. “I was hoping I would bring you good luck. I know how important it is to you and your family to find that gold mine.”

Chloe crawled to the edge of the little alcove they were sheltered under and stared up at the distant peaks of the mountains overhead. The last of the gray haze was fading as the sun was just starting to cast a brilliant golden glow across the highest summits. They looked as shimmery as the gold she had been hoping to find for all these years.

“For some silly reason I had been more optimistic than usual about finding the gold mine this time.” She put her open palm against her chest and gave a heavy sigh. “I had this feeling something really important was going to happen this weekend.”

Her gaze wandered out toward the direction they hiked the day before as she added, “It’s not even about the gold or becoming rich. I just want to prove that stupid gold mine really does exist. My dad has become very ill recently, and he can’t hike these mountains anymore. There’s nothing I want more than to find the gold mine for him.”

A heavy sadness filled her voice and echoed into the mournful expression on her face. “He’s been searching for it his entire life, and my grandfather and great-grandfather before him. I can’t stand the thought of another member of our family dying without knowing—” her voice faded away. She shrugged her shoulders and slumped down. “Maybe it’s time we all just gave it up and accepted the fact it’s just a crazy old make-believe fantasy.”

Dawn scooted closer to her friend. “I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. But no, you shouldn’t give up. I haven’t known you very long, but I do know how devoted you are to finding this treasure. And although I will admit I don’t totally understand it, I sure do wish I had something in my life I was so passionate about. You don’t want to give up, not really, do you?”

“No, I guess not. But I feel sort of foolish dragging you up here with me. Actually, I’ve only confided in a couple of other friends about my fascination with the gold mine, and they never showed any interest in coming up here to search with me. In fact, I’ve never come up here with anyone other than my family until now.”

Chloe glanced over at her with a quizzical frown on her pretty face. “I’m not even sure why I felt I could tell you about my family’s obsession with this place, or why I felt strongly enough about it to bring you up here with me. Maybe it had something to do with your interest in history. I just don’t know.”

“Well, now I feel really honored to be here.” Dawn grinned. “And sincerely bummed I wasn’t able to bring you better luck.”

Chloe shrugged and smiled back before crawling out from under the overhanging ledge. She stood up, stretching her arms high up over her head. “So, I guess we won’t go back rich bitches, just poor underpaid, but totally hot school teachers.”

Dawn giggled as she dragged her stiff body out from under the rock ledge and copied Chloe with a full body stretch. Today she really did feel like she had been rode hard and put away wet. She would never leave home without her vibrator again.

She noticed she had a vague feeling of nausea again this morning. What was up with that? Maybe it was just because the altitude was so different from what she was accustomed to. She took a deep breath and looked around. The unforgiving desert floor, spooky peaks and towers of the Superstition Mountains were so drastically different from the lush wooded mountains in Colorado, but this part of Arizona was still a ruggedly beautiful area in a completely different way. She reminded herself this mountain range and its hidden secrets were a part of her new home now.

Luckily she met someone like Chloe who wanted to be her friend, confide in her and take her places she would never find on her own. But she hoped Chloe would understand and still be her friend, if she didn’t want to come back up here on this frightening mountain range anytime soon.

****

Home Sweet Home.

Dawn’s little apartment on the north end of Apache Junction, and in the hub of a rapidly growing urban area, never felt so welcoming as it did when Chloe dropped her off earlier today from their weekend excursion on the Superstitions.

Curled up on the couch, she settled in for a relaxing evening before the hectic Monday she knew was ahead of her the next day.

She reached for the TV switcher, but put it back down on the coffee table without hitting the power button. It was barely six o’clock in the evening, yet she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She had to be at school early in the morning to get ready for a field trip to the Arizona State Capital Museum in Phoenix, which meant an extra-long day with part of it spent on a hot school bus with twenty-four moody twelve-year-olds.

A smile touched her lips. In spite of how difficult it could be to teach pre-teens, sharing her love of history with her students was something she never got tired of doing. It was extremely rare for her not to look forward to being at school every day.

After not sleeping at all the previous night, and very little sleep the night before, added to the queasiness she felt all day, Dawn was prepared to give in to her weariness and head to bed.

Please no kinky weird dreams tonight, okay? She had to get some uninterrupted sleep before school tomorrow, but getting up from the couch to go the very short distance to her bedroom seemed too much of an effort. In a matter of minutes, her eyes were too heavy to keep open and she fell into a deep sleep.

Engulfing blackness drew her in and she was powerless to resist the distant voice she could hear calling out to her. Udaya...

Dawn woke with a start; disoriented and gasping for air. Sweat drenched her face and body, but she didn’t notice. She slipped her feet into the white tennis shoes she removed from her feet earlier in the evening, and rose from the couch. In a trance-like state she walked to the front door.

The clock on the wall said it was approaching midnight, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except going to be with him. He was waiting for her. He had been waiting there, on the Superstition Mountains, for a very long time.