Chasing Adonis (10 page)

“Which means Adara might have to testify this time around.”

“Not if she’s dead before the new trial date is scheduled.
And oddly enough, the district attorney’s office is missing one key file that
somehow got mislaid.”

“Terence McGill’s murder file.”

“Bulls-eye.”
 

Chapter Eight

Immediately after Shane left Adara’s room, the nurse
returned with her water pitcher.

“You know,” she said as she placed it on the tray table,
“normally I don’t envy the patients in these rooms. But in your case, I’ll make
an exception.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve had only two visitors since they brought you up
here, and they’re two of the most gorgeous men I’ve ever seen. And both of them
dote on you.” She winked. “I’d risk a fractured ankle and a few cracked ribs
for that kind of attention any day.”

Hot blood rushed into Adara’s cheeks in a flood. “Oh, well,
Detective Griffin is only here to question me. He’s investigating the
accident.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. He’s the most dedicated detective on the
force. Seems to me he’s not only here to question you, but to bring you dinner,
too. Not many cops are so attentive to accident victims.” She gestured toward
the untouched half-pita lying on Adara’s plate. “Is that a gyro?”

“Mmm-hmm. Do you want some?”

Her lime green eyes glistened in the semi-gloom of fading
twilight. “May I?”

Adara handed it to her. “Help yourself.”

The nurse took the sandwich and bit into it with a graceful,
fluid motion. A look of pure rapture filled her features. “Mmmmmmmm. Do you
have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve tasted one of these?”

“Ambrosia, isn’t it?”

The nurse snorted. “I wish.”

An odd statement, but like she’d done so often in the last
twelve hours, Adara let it slide without question. Instead she poured herself a
cup of water and sipped at the liquid while wondering how long it would be
before Detective Griffin returned.

She’d only seen him three times now, but his presence never
failed to calm her. Knowing he stood guard gave her a sense of peace at a time
when everything in her life had turned upside-down.

Maybe his placid influence had something to do with his
name. “Griffin.” The protectors of precious treasure. Not that she thought of
herself in those terms, but if griffins watched over priceless articles, then
this Detective Griffin could certainly watch over her with satisfactory
results. At least he managed to keep Ted at bay. The very thought of her
“fiancé” from Cyprus made her frown.

Contrasting with Detective Griffin’s calm nature, Ted’s
presence set her nerves teetering on the brink of a precipice. His cool
insistence about their eventual marriage itched at her logical mind. Thus far,
he’d done nothing to urge that itch into a full-blown outbreak of fear. So she
humored him. As foolish as it might seem to anyone else, she truly believed he
was harmless. A little psychotic maybe, but harmless.

“Thanks for the gyro,” the nurse said, shaking Adara out of
her mental comparisons. “I’ll be back in a little while with something to help
you sleep.”

Adara held up a hand. “No, please. No more painkillers. They
screw up my head.”

“Don’t worry. This stuff won’t give you the same side
effects as the doctor’s sedatives. It will simply allow you to sleep peacefully
and awake refreshed.”

Adara nodded her agreement just as Detective Griffin rushed
back into the room, his lips set in a grim line.

“Who’s in charge here tonight?” he asked the nurse.

“Dr. Renhardt, I think.”

“Find out for sure, and send whoever it is up to this room
ASAP.” He mumbled something else, but he was too far away for Adara to catch
the words. The meaning, however, was unmistakably clear. When he finished, the
nurse nodded solemnly and rushed into the hallway.

Unease flared Adara’s nerve endings, and the tiny hairs on
her arms danced. “Detective? Is something wrong?”

He smiled at her, but the expression held no mirth. “I want
to move you out of here. As soon as possible.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

Approaching Adara’s bedside, Shane took her hand and held it
in a warm clasp. “I don’t want to frighten you, but I think Ted may have been
sent here to kill you.”

Nervous laughter escaped her lips before she could stop it.
“You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I were.”

“But I don’t understand. Why would Ted want to kill me?”

“You remember Benjamin Cherry?”

At the mere mention of his name, tremors racked her from
head to toe. “That g-gangbanger who killed Terry?”

Shane nodded. “They released him yesterday, pending a new
trial, Adara. A trial where, this time, you’ll be expected to testify. Ted’s
sudden appearance in your life at the very same time Cherry gets out of jail is
too coincidental for my peace of mind.”

“But Ted doesn’t look like he’d be part of some adolescent
street gang.”

“Benjamin Cherry’s no small-time hood. Drugs, weapons, you
name it, he’s into it. His father’s a pretty wealthy man, and Cherry can afford
the best, even if the best is a hired assassin from Cyprus.”

The tremors racking her limbs increased in severity, and her
heartbeat accelerated to that of a hummingbird’s as she recalled more of her
earlier conversation with Ted. “He told me Terry wasn’t good enough for me,”
she managed, but the statement came out a mere whisper.

“What?”

“Ted. He called Terry ‘that foolish Terence,’ and he said
that Terry didn’t deserve a place in my heart.” The full import of what was
happening slapped her face like an icy wind. “Oh my God, what am I going to
do?”

“You’re going to try to stay calm and leave this to me,
okay? I want to move you to another hospital and keep you under a twenty-four
hour surveillance.”

While Adara’s horrified brain tried to register this new
information, the nurse returned with a plastic bag filled with a clear
solution.

“I’ve paged Dr. Renhardt,” she told the detective. “Ms.
Berros, this is the sleeping aid I told you about. I’m going to hook it into
your I.V. Once it drains into your system, you’ll simply become drowsy and fall
asleep.”

Terror gripped Adara, and she clutched the detective’s hand
for comfort. “Will you stay with me?”

“Yes,” he assured her. “I’ll be in the hallway if you need
me.”

“Not in the hallway. Right here by my side.”

He squeezed her fingers in a comforting gesture. “If that’s
what you want, yes.”

“That’s what I want.” Pasting a smile on her face, she
turned her attention to the nurse. “Okay, I’m ready now.”

With a serene smile of her own, the nurse expertly hooked
the bag to the top of Adara’s I.V. pole, then clipped the tube on the bottom to
the shunt in the back of Adara’s hand. “It won’t be long, dearie.”

Adara merely nodded as she watched the bag overhead slowly
deplete of liquid.

~~~~

Before the bag completely emptied, Adara’s eyelids grew
heavier, and she had no choice but to close them. Her ears picked up the sounds
around her, but they faded into the background: a television set at a low
volume, the chatter of nurses in the hallway, the hum of the machine by her
side. They all paled in comparison to the loud, steady beating of her heart.
After a time, her grip on the detective’s hand faltered, and darkness enveloped
her.

Soon the red-haired child reappeared to lead her to his glen
of serenity. This time, she didn’t hesitate to follow him.

Again, the music played, light and lyrical, and butterflies
flitted from stem to stem, changing the hue and shape of the blooms around her.
Honeysuckle and vanilla tinged the air with sweetness. Lush blades of grass
tickled the soles of her bare feet. A soft breeze whispered across her flesh.

She glanced down and saw she was nude, but didn’t attempt to
cover herself. It felt welcome, natural, to have the heat of the golden sun kissing
her in places it never gazed upon. Beside the clear babbling stream, she
reclined on a mossy bank, closed her eyes, and reveled in blissful solitude.

The sun continued raining kisses on her flesh—gentle touches
around her earlobe, then to the juncture of her throat and shoulder, lower, to
the globe of her right breast. Feathers danced over her nipples, prickling them
into sensitive awareness. She arched her back, longing to intensify the
delicious shivers cascading across her upper body. A low moan of desire rose in
her throat, but she swallowed it back, too afraid that the slightest noise
might break the sensual spell surrounding her.

The sun’s mouth moved lower—to the underside of her breast
and across her belly. A warm, wet tongue flicked against her navel. Then it
moved lower still until it lapped at her central core.

Waves of hot pleasure undulated from the heart of her
femininity, rippling through her skin. Her bones melted like heated butter,
leaving her in a languid pool of ecstasy. At last, she gave volume to cries of
rapture and blindly reached out for her mysterious phantom lover. Her fingers
entwined in his thick hair, pulling him closer, deeper into her soul.

“Love me,” she murmured. “Please.”

“Adara,” his voice husked low in the air around them. “You
are so perfect, my darling. Your body was made for love. Hear how it sings
beneath my hands.”

Indeed, her every vein pulsed and hummed beneath his tender
onslaught. While his lips continued to drink at her pool, his hands stroked her
hips and thighs, sending rivulets of delight into her bloodstream.

Suddenly, his mouth moved from her midpoint, and a shadow
flitted across her closed eyelids. He’d repositioned himself above her, and she
wrapped her hands around his neck as he hovered there. The faint smell of
cloves filled her nostrils, and then his mouth closed over hers. Electricity
crackled between them, fusing two individuals into one.

She drew him inside her, one sweet breath at a time. Her
lips adhered to this tentative connection as a burning need to taste all of him
consumed her. As she explored his mouth’s hollow and darted her tongue against
his, one thought echoed with every beat of her heart.

She belonged to this man, body and soul.

All too soon, his mouth began a campaign of resistance, but
she refused to release him. She never wanted to be free.

“Adara, sweetheart, no.”

She opened her eyes to gaze into Detective Griffin’s
concerned face.

Chapter Nine

“Welcome back,” Shane told her when he saw her eyes flutter open.
“You had me scared there for a while.”

His gaze followed hers as she glanced around the
cream-colored walls then out the window. The tranquil surface of turquoise
water covered the horizon in the distance.

Confusion etched her brow. “Where are we?”

“Hampton Hospital. I got you the best room in the house.
With a view of Gardiners Bay.”

“We’re here already?”

He bit back an indulgent smile. The transfer took over two
hours start to finish, but she couldn’t possibly know that, given her state of
oblivion. “Yup, already.”

“Was I okay?” Her top teeth captured her bottom lip in an
adorable expression of uncertainty. “I mean, did I do or say anything stupid? I
feel like I should remember something…”

“You were dreaming.” He silently prayed she accepted that statement
and didn’t pursue the details.

The sedative the nurse administered to her must have been
powerful stuff. She never woke up, not when the aides jostled her from the bed
to the stretcher, not during the hour-long bumpy drive with sirens occasionally
blaring overhead. Through it all, she remained unaware of anything or anyone
around her.

Yet her condition was far from stable. For the longest time,
he sat beside her in the ambulette and watched helplessly as she writhed and
moaned on the stretcher. Once the Hampton staff had her tucked into her bed in
the private room, she began speaking. At first her words were garbled, as if
she spoke a strange language. But soon, they became all too clear.

“Love me,” she said in a breathy tone over and over again. “Please.”

She reached her arms up into the sky, and one of her
intravenous tubes stretched to its limit. That’s when he made his mistake.

He leaned over her to secure the drip line, and she grabbed
him around the neck to pull his mouth down to hers. Stunned, Shane could do
nothing but kiss her back for the longest time.

God, she’d tasted so sweet. Like the honeysuckle lining the
fence outside his parents’ home. Over dozens of summers, he used to love to nip
the tips off those golden trumpet-shaped flowers and suck out the nectar. And
so he nipped at her lips, sucking every drop of sweetness from her tongue.
Adara’s petals, however, held onto him far longer than any honeysuckle bloom
could, and he lost himself within her.

After what must have been hours, he finally discovered one
last thread of awareness in his brain. He still needed all his fortitude to
pull away from her before that thread unraveled or snapped beneath the power of
her succulent lips.

Now, she stared at him from her new hospital bed, looking
suspicious and wide-eyed. A flush crept up his neck under her scrutiny, and his
conscience wondered if she knew what had really transpired between them.

She
had
been dreaming; that was true. But it didn’t
forgive his behavior. There was no excuse, and he had no foundation for how to
handle this situation. He didn’t make a habit of pawing women in states of
delirium. Certainly, now was not the time to start.

“You okay?” she asked, bringing him back to reality.

“Mmm-hmm. You?”

She refused to look up, concentrating her gaze on the sheets
covering her from neck to toes. “Uh-huh.”

“Are you in any pain?”