Yield (37 page)

Someone who loved her should say it. It was my job.

The nurses were due in soon. Jon figured I had forty minutes, tops, but I wasn’t waking her, not when she looked so sweet. I swallowed down my sad tiredness and pulled up one of the armchairs. How much pain did my girl have to face before the world decided she needed a break?

Head bowed, I was staring at my fingers, wondering how to do this, when she spoke.

“Glass?”

All the vows to be quiet and gentle vanished. I stood and leaned over her, blinking madly to clear my eyes. “Damn, girl. You are the toughest chick I’ve ever met.”

“Me?” She moved further up the pillow, wincing. “Kiss me, you big idiot.”

So I did, a soft but heartfelt kiss. I wished I could give her all my strength through that kiss and lingered a while.

I stopped myself from telling her I’d heard what the media had figured out she’d done – how she’d released herself from those fucking cruel hooks, then dragged herself down to where he was while losing blood. It was awesome and horrible, and when I’d heard it on the news, alone in that apartment, I’d sworn enough to have the neighbor yell at me to shut up. The hardest thing ever, was to find out something like that, to not be there when your girl was hurting so badly.

But I couldn’t say it, because that’d put her mind back there, and make her remember. Instead, all I said was. “Yes, you’re brave, and I’m proud of you.”

I reached up to cup the side of her face and stroke her cheek with my thumb.

“You know you’re safe now. He’s gone forever.”

“I know. Yes. I do know that.”

She was quiet for a while, staring down along the bed, her odd little expressions making me wonder. But I let her be, figuring there’d be times like this when she needed to get her thoughts together.

“I’ll be out of here tomorrow, the doctors said.”

“Uh-huh.” I leaned in and kissed her again, once. “Wherever you go, girl, just know I intend to be there. Legally, if possible.”

Wren frowned and played with my fingers.

For a second I wondered if she intended to tell me she was leaving me. Breathing got difficult.

“Legally. That can’t be here, right?”

“No. I’ve got a track record here, due to my activities in PNG.”

Oh damn. She had a university to attend.

“Hmm. Well, I figured...I’ve got enough money to support us both, anywhere.”

Shit. “I’m no toyboy.”

Her eyes narrowed. “If you were, I’d kick you to the curb. Pick where. You can figure out an alternative career.” She said “career” as if it was dirty. “You don’t need to be a criminal, Glass. That’s my one stipulation for us staying together. Say yes, or I hit you with a fucking pillow.”

I paused, stunned, then I grinned. So be it. She was right. Why risk arrest, jail? I could start clean in Europe. Somewhere. Passports were possible.

“Wait, wait, wait. You have a course to study.”

Wren sighed. “Yeah, I know. I think I’d feel weird going back there. I think...I should be able to find a place in the UK. I know I can. So, pick a country. I’m on holidays for months yet, and until I get that sorted.”

She still wanted to finish that. It would be kind of interesting to watch her finish that degree. I’d be damn proud of her.

“Norway?”

“Uhhh. Cold, but it’ll do for a start.” She grabbed my hand again, sneaked hers inside mine. Are you going to be a good father?”

Man. Oh, man.
It was time. I drew in a long breath.

“Wren.” I nodded at the bed sheets like my audience was there. Eye contact, man. Then I raised my head and looked at her. “I’ve got some bad news. Really early this morning, they did an emergency ultrasound on you. I know they haven’t told you. Jon said I could, before the doctor.”

The change in her face tore me up.

“The baby?” She sucked in her lip.

“Yes. I’m sorry, my girl.” I squeezed her hand. “The baby...isn’t alive.” Saying died just seemed too much. Too many people she knew had died.

“Oh god.” She turned her face into the pillow. “I know...I mean...I know it was his, but I wanted this child. It’s hard not to...”

“It’s fine to be sad. I know you wanted it. I know.” Then I rose from the chair and covered her with my body and gathered her to me, giving her the best comfort I could. When I heard her cry, I only patted her lower back, and kissed her cheek. “Maybe, maybe one day, we could try too. You know?”

“Oh Glass!” She peeked at me with those pretty blue eyes, with tears spilling and wetting her eyelashes. “That would make me happy,
so
happy, but right now, I need to cry. Just keep on hugging me, you big beautiful man. I need you so much. I love you so much.”

“You cry all you want. I’ll be here for you for as long as you want me to be. Longer, if I have any say in it.”

Her answer,
good
, was muffled and soggy sounding but it made me smile.

Wren was still in there. She just needed to heal.

Listening to her sob, and not being able to fix her troubles, was the most difficult thing I’d ever done in my lifetime. I let a few tears out myself, though I’d not admit to it. We’d get past this. We would.

Glass

While I toweled off the sweat from my bike ride through the village, Wren barely looked up from her latest book. Since we’d come here to Cyprus, she’d not gone outside except to a few restaurants.

“Coming for a walk on the beach?” I lifted an eyebrow at her but she had her nose in the book again.

It was great that her fascination with reading had returned but last night she’d still had a crying jag that I figured had left me shaken inside as much as her.

All the quiet talks we’d had might have helped her but it was time to branch out. The moping around had to stop sometime and be buggered if I was going to let her get entrenched in the psychiatrist path as some sort of crutch for her sanity when there were simpler methods I could try first.

“Okay. Enough’s enough.” I grabbed her ankle and hauled her to me along the bed until I had her under me, with her butt perched on the edge.

“Glass!” She struggled and sat up on her elbows, but I rested my palm on her, making sure she couldn’t rise any higher.

“I get that you like books and that you need time to get your head straight.” I nudged her under her chin. “But this is Greece. I think you need sunshine.”

“Sunshine? Is that like a prescription now?”

“Yes.” Her pout was laugh worthy but I managed to adopt a stern expression. “I haven’t been fishing here yet and I’m going now, this afternoon, and you’re coming too.”

“What if I say no?” Her mouth twisted, as if she was wrestling with a smile.

At last, a hint of that mischievousness I’d been missing since she’d killed Moghul. He was a hard man, as close to evil as I’d come across perhaps, though I guess I might be biased. Coming back from that had involved a truckload of crying. I was cool with her needing that but now, nope. Time had come for more to happen.

“Saying
no
means, one, I get to tan your butt until it’s red. Two, I get to come back and dump the worms I’m going to buy for bait all over you and this bed.”

I grabbed her hips and pushed her down into the mattress, bouncing her softly off it a few times.

“Worms?” She made her face run through every look from nose-wrinkling, to rolling her eyes, to grimacing.

“Worms, yes. You’d like some?”

“Ugh.” She tossed her paperback aside. “Insufferable man. Fine!”

“Good. Wear that new yellow bikini and keep those cute little ass-revealing shorts on too.” I let her go and straightened.

“Yes, Sir!” Wren said sarcastically then she sat up and saluted.

“Oh hell. You girl... You just...” I shook my head slowly, trying my best to look unhappy.

I hadn’t spanked her for so long. We hadn’t even had sex but maybe, just maybe, she needed this. I sat myself heavily on the bed and hauled her over my lap, bottom up. Her protests and wriggles to get free were minimal, revealing even.

“Something tells me you want this.”

She only turned her head to peek at me, her bottom lip already sneaking between her teeth, her eyes unblinking.

“I haven’t seen your ass like this for ages.” I circled my palm on one cheek, then shoved up both sides of the back of her shorts and panties so I could see more of her most gorgeous, smackable, and naked ass. “I might need to break you into this slowly, hmmm, Miss Wren? Have you forgotten what it’s like for me to spank you?”

I leaned down closer to her face, my elbow propped on the bed, while I kept on playing with her butt. “What’s this? I found a hole. A wet, wet hole.” Then I wiggled a finger under the denim and into her pussy. When I shoved my finger deeper, she shut her eyes, curled her tongue tip onto her lip, and made a small noise.

“Did I hear a squeak? Do you like my finger up inside you, Miss? Hmm?”

As I pumped my finger into her a few more times, curving it in slow, taking my time in the best possible way, she sighed.

“Oh yes, I do, it’s...nice.”

Simply having my finger in her was such a possessive act that I could’ve crowed like a fucking rooster. I pinched one lip of her labia between my inserted finger and my thumb. “Answer me. Have you forgotten?”

“
Mmm
.” Wren squirmed and whimpered, then she whispered, “I haven’t forgotten, Sir, what’s it’s like when you spank me, though it was flip-flopping, I recall.”

It was too.
Wow
. So long ago. It seemed years.

“Sir again?” I could take that label, keep it even if she wanted to do it this way. “I like Sir coming from you.”

I kissed her, sweetly, playing a little with her tongue and amused at the moans I was getting from her. Then I pushed myself up off the bed again and removed my finger from her cunt.

I raised my hand. “For that first smart ass remark and because I can’t resist.”

I smacked my hand down on her six times. Every slap awakened me. Skin to skin...seeing the wobble of her pretty female flesh and the pinkness coming out...her yelps too.

Damn, those yelps and whines were so sexy. Why hadn’t I done this already? I could comfort her to hell and back, hold her, late at night, when I felt the shake of the pillow from her crying softly. We could talk and talk, and talk some more, but
this
was us. This was how we started, and I wondered if we didn’t both need this to get us healing.

Even I had my scars. Who wouldn’t, after that?

War was war, but when someone you loved had to kill to stay alive, the hurt and fears ran deep.

I pulled her upright and set her before me with my hands curved into her waist, amused and also fucking happy at how fast she was breathing and how low her eyelids dipped. I kept her there a while longer, watching and feeling all those little movements of her body, even the shift of her small feet with the red toenail polish, appreciating this woman, appreciating how she gave herself to me.

We could fuck now, but no, I wanted to get her outside, not get me into her. My cock swelled at the thought. I grinned. Okay I wanted both. This first.

“You, love, are almost edible. I could use you as bait. Think of all the mermen I’d catch.”

Her small smile said more to my heart than any words. Yes, this was the key. For both of us, connecting was more than sex, it was kink.

“You liked me doing that? Getting all dominant on you?”

Her eyes opened fully and she blinked at me for a few seconds. Her toes curled in the rug, then she said one wonderful word, and it was “Yes.”

“I thought so. Me too.” I squeezed her waist. “I feel more alive after spanking you than I have for weeks.”

“I could help you with that?” She glanced down at my rising cock, where it was putting a dent in my shorts.

I laughed. “Later. If you earn it.”

For a second I imagined myself making her kneel, then making her take out my cock and suck on it. Holding her head and getting a blow job from her. She’d make all those little groaning and humming noises I loved. But I wanted to do this right and a BJ wasn’t how I wanted to restart our sexual relationship.

I stood. “Later. Let’s go see if this hotel has fishing gear we can hire.”

After talking to the receptionist, we ended up with all the gear we needed and it was only a fifteen minute walk along the sand to an inlet where, supposedly, fish could be caught on the late afternoon tide. I didn’t really care if I caught nothing, just having Wren hold my hand as we strolled along, talking about shells and the color of the sea, us, a happy couple again – that was my reward.

Sunshine and spanking, that was what Wren needed. I could deliver those in spades.

When we reached the inlet, I threw out the line while she pottered about on the shoreline or climbed some of the rocks to sit and watch me. I didn’t catch anything, story of my fishing life, but I didn’t mind. I had a dark-haired siren up on the rocks calling to me with the late sun painting her thighs with gold and haloing her head. I waded ashore, tossed the rod to the sand, and beckoned to her.

“Take off those shorts and let’s have a swim!”

I had plans, of course. Even with the cool water lapping at me it’d been agony watching every lithe flow of her muscles as she walked and the sway of her breasts as she bent to pick up something from the beach.