Indulgence (348 page)

“Think she’s ingested something, maybe X, or worse, heroin.
She’s gonna need a hospital, Armani. But her lungs sound good.”

Thank God.

“Don’t think anything’s broken. Of course if you would get
your hands off her I could check her out more thoroughly.”

“No fuckin’ way you’re checking anyone out.” Armando gripped
her, wiping her cheek with his glove. “You okay, baby? Gina, honey, we’ve got
you.”

She moaned again and arched up. He turned her head to the
side and allowed her to vomit all over Cooper’s lap.

“Thanks,” the big SEAL grumbled.

“That’s for checking out my girl while she’s indisposed.”

“I’ll have to remember that next time I take Libby to the
beach with you guys. I’ve seen how you sneak looks at her when she’s
sunbathing.”

“Fuck you, I do not,” Armando lied.

“Don’t get your boxers in a twist, ladies, time for a
costume change,” Fredo said arriving with a pair of running shorts and a
T-shirt that smelled of sweat from his last workout. “Pe-
ew
, Armani. You
must be back on your high protein diet. Don’t you ever wash your workout
clothes?”

Armando pulled Gina around and quickly threw on the shorts
out of view of his teammates. He threaded her limp arms and head through the
T-shirt and admired his handiwork.

“Put her down so I can look at her, Armani. Go call an
ambulance, make yourself useful,” Cooper said.

Armando didn’t take his eyes off Gina’s face as Cooper took
out his medic pack.

He dialed Kozinski, who answered on the first ring.

“We’ve got her, and we’ve wounded Sam.”

“Fuck what are you talking about? Did I not make myself
perfectly clear earlier?”

“Well, we couldn’t wait until you found them. We got intel
and went for it. There’s a young dead kid we’re not responsible for, but Sam’s
hit in the shoulder. Gina looks drugged but we think she’s okay. Get us some
medical ASAP.”

He gave Kozinski the address.

“I’m taking her to the hospital,” Armando said.

“Is she critical?” asked Kozinski.

“I don’t think so, sir.”

“She stays, then. She conscious?” Kozinski asked.

“Not yet. Cooper’s working on her. She’s coming around,
though.”

“Then you stay right there. I’m on my way and we’ll get a
crack team.”

Armando was rewarded when Gina opened her eyes, at first
startled and panic-stricken. Then they settled on his sweaty face, and then he
saw that softness he’d lost himself in the first time he looked down on her
face in Gunny’s old pickup.

Her lips moved. Though she couldn’t speak, she mouthed,
“Thank you.”

Before she opened her eyes, Gina could smell something
familiar. She was riding in a van, listening to voices that faded in and out.
She saw tubing, heard a chubby blonde-haired girl with a sunburned nose and
freckles speaking to her, but it sounded a million miles away.

What was that?

Her eyes kept rolling up in her head though she tried to
keep them front and center. The girl was pointing to her own eyes with the ends
of two fingers.

Yes, I’d like to look at you, but I can’t—

There was a siren in the background. Her body was bouncing
on a bed of some kind. The girl kept talking to her.

Can’t you see, I’m trying?

Her arm hurt, and she looked down to find she had an IV
running. Her finger was in a clip of some kind. She could hear
breathing—wait—it was her own breathing because she was breathing into a
mouthpiece.

Her eyes rolled back. She arched up. Sickness overtook her.
God she would vomit all over herself again, but no, warm hands held a
kidney-shaped yellow plastic bowl. Strong, warm hands with a dusting of black
hair on the knuckles. Something familiar about those hands. About the arms she
followed. One of them had footprints leading all the way to the elbow.
His
elbow. There was that scent again, and as she raised her shoulder to brush hair
from her face, his hands beat her to it. She smelled the fabric of the shirt
they’d put on her, and it smelled like, like—

Armando!

Her eyes stopped rolling as she saw his face. Curls of dark
brown hair fell over his high forehead. The normally smooth skin above his
dark, bushy brows was wrinkled with worry. His warm brown eyes pooled like
chocolate, melting chocolate. Something she craved. Something she needed.

And then things began to obscure as water covered her eyes
and spilled down her cheeks. He was crying too. He set the bowl down and was
holding her hand with both of his. Both his big paws holding hers, rubbing the
back of her hand and her knuckles. He bent and his lips traced across her
fingers. She extended them to touch the side of his cheek with the back of her
palm.

Armando. You came for me. You saved me. You saved me in
every way possible.

Gina awoke to a hospital room filled with flowers.

Have I died?
She smirked at her own bad sense of
humor. In a way, she
had
come back from the dead. She remembered those
last frantic moments Sam had her in his grip. She’d felt the terror of his
soul, the dark pit he crawled out of just long enough to pull her down into it
with him.

How wrong I’ve been about everything.

She thought she’d lost Armando. As she sat up, she noticed
she was all alone.

An IV still trickled into her vein. She knew there’d be a
call button, so she felt along the edge of the pillowcase and found a cylinder
with a button on the end of it and pressed it.

Instantly the door swung open. A pretty young redhead leaned
over her.

“You’re awake. How would you like some breakfast?”

“Breakfast? I can’t remember the last time I ate. I’m
starved.”

“That’s awesome. The doctor will be glad to hear it. You
want to fill out a menu?”

“I don’t think I can hold a pencil. Just some juice, I don’t
know.”

“I’ll do it for her.”

Armando walked into the room, freshly shaven, light blue
shirt immaculately ironed and blue jeans. His hair was still wet from a shower.

A shower!

He laid some roses across her lap and sat on the edge of the
bed. “Hello, beautiful. Now what would you like for breakfast?” He leaned over
and kissed her tenderly.

Gina felt self-conscious that she wasn’t clean. “I’d like a
shower for breakfast, and then perhaps some juice, some oatmeal, and a
cappuccino.”

Armando looked up at the nurse. “Can she?”

“She’s not steady on her own. I’ll have to assist but I’m
still doing rounds.”

“Not a problem. I’d love to assist the lovely Gina in her
very first hospital shower.”

“Are you family?” the nurse asked.

“Yes,” he said. He winked at Gina. “I’m her fiancé.”

Gina could tell the nurse was affected by Armando’s big
white smile and handsome face, his buttery voice rolling off his tongue in an
almost hypnotic rhythm. She blushed and nodded. “Then of course.”

Gina didn’t hide her smile. He’d said they were engaged!

“You feel up to a shower?”

“You mean like the last one we took together?”

“Well, if you insist. I guess it would be a shame to get my
clothes wrinkled.”

“I’m going to need lots of help.”

Armando sighed. “I think I’m just the man for the job.”

She extended her arms to him. He leaned forward and her
fingers found his silky curly hair. “You are exactly the man for the job.”

Their kisses gave her the shivers. Her entire body tingled
at the touch of the man. He nibbled at her lower lip and then sat back,
watching her.

“Armando, I’m so sorry—”

“Shh, baby.” He put a finger over her mouth. “We can talk
later.”

“No, I want to apologize for lying to you, for not telling
you who I really was.”

He slipped her hair behind her left ear. “I knew who you
really were. I knew it all along. And I knew we belonged together; it was
something I never doubted.”

She let her palm run up his muscled forearm. “It was the
hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, and I won’t ever do it again. I’m never
going to lie to you, or keep anything from you, if you’ll—”

“If I’ll what?” His eyes danced with fire. The wide smile on
his tanned, clean-shaven face almost made her pass out.

“If you’ll forgive me.”

“Oh, baby, I’ve already forgiven you. But I can’t wait to
see you prove how sorry you are.” He glanced down at her body underneath the
sheets. “I think it’s time for a shower. And then I’m going to get them to
release you to my care, much sooner than they planned.”

Two days later they were back at Armando’s house. They’d
been making jokes in bed after a gentle lovemaking. Armando had been so
careful, Gina began to feel like she was a porcelain doll.

She paused. This was the point in the conversation things
could go either way. Would he be able to see her damaged parts? She swallowed
and began. “Can you help me face my fears?” She looked for any sign she was losing
his interest.

She could see he was confused.

“I can protect you from anyone,” he said.

“Can you protect me from a part of myself?”

He rolled to his side and lay down next to her. “What part
of yourself do you need to be protected from?” he asked.

How was she going to put this? “When Sam and I…” she looked
sideways at Armando but he wasn’t reacting. “He used to...”

Armando lay very still.

“There was a part of me that liked it.”

There. She’d said it. She closed her eyes and waited for the
words she knew would come, telling her he was repulsed, couldn’t wait to get
rid of her. Hot tears escaped down her cheeks.

Armando was on top of her again. “Gina, look at me.”

His face was soft, but alarmed. “Like I said, we all have a
dark space within us. All of us do. Not just some of us.” He bent down and
kissed her, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. “Were you ever really in
danger?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Think, Gina. Were you really in danger?”

“I think I was. But he unlocked something in me. Like he
damaged me.”

“You’re here. You’re safe. You’re with me. Nothing bad is
going to happen to you as long as you’re with me, Gina.”

“I’m still afraid.” She suddenly wanted to tell him
everything about the undercover mission. It would be career ending, but hadn’t
she already told him her darkest secret?

“Give me your fear. Give me your danger. I can handle it,”
he whispered.

Their kisses became longer. The rising tide of their arousal
was filling the room. She focused on the salty taste of his neck, his
shoulders, the way his tongue searched her mouth, how it became all about
giving herself to him. She was giving him access again—to all of her.

“
You’re
the one who’s dangerous,” he said between
kisses.

“Danger? Me? As in here, in the bedroom?” she asked.

“Always the most dangerous room in the house. Where there is
nothing that separates flesh from flesh, where emotions pour out and passions
take over.” He traced her nipple and then suckled it between his teeth. “Losing
control is what lovemaking was made for.”

She moaned and he covered her mouth, but gave her space to
breathe. “Don’t speak. You must not talk. I want to fill you, Gina. Fill you
with pleasure.”

“Yes,” she whispered. Again he covered her mouth with his
palm, and replaced it with his soft lips.

“No talking.”

Pressing into her mouth hard, almost causing pain, and then
retracting, rubbing lips against lips as he whispered, “We call it release. The
French call it the Little Death.”

She was feeling that familiar dark blood coursing through
her veins. The anticipation and the mystery of what was to follow heightened
all her senses.

“Can I show you something about yourself?”

She nodded and was rewarded with a smile.

“Good girl,” he said. “Will you do everything I say?”

“Y—” she started and then stopped herself. Looking deep into
his eyes, she nodded slowly. It was a commitment to follow along with wherever
he was going with all of this. He was asking for her trust. He was asking for a
commitment. She scanned his face, centering on his full lips. She licked hers
and slowly nodded her assent.

She heard the small moan deep within his chest. He knew what
she was giving him.

“Good girl, Gina.”

He arched up, lifted both her arms by the wrists and placed
them atop her head, pushing them into the pillow. “Let’s try something. You
don’t have to play along if you don’t want to. Tell me to stop at any time, and
I will. I promise.”

She tried to look up to where her hands were crossed above
her head, but he held her wrists with one hand while he pulled her head down by
the chin with the other.

“No peeking. Trust me?”

She could feel his hungry arousal burning against her. She
nodded, and raised her knees to help him find a home deep inside her. Armando’s
cock stiffly rooted around her opening, but did not penetrate.

“Say it now. I want you to speak now.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“I trust you.”

“Good,” he whispered as he kissed her. “Hold on to this,” he
said as he led her hands to a cool metal loop on the headboard frame. She
grabbed it. “Good girl,” he said.

She heard the sound of silk next to her ears and felt the
cool fabric slide over her eyes. Her adrenaline began to kick in when she
realized she was being blindfolded. He carefully lifted the silk scarf up so
her nose had ample room for breathing. His fingers pressed against her lips and
she sucked at them, drawing them into her mouth. The salty remains of her own
arousal heightened her senses and her sex began to vibrate. Armando nibbled
between her breasts, which felt like they were riding higher since she was
holding onto the bedframe above her head.