Page 36 of Freedom Fighters
“Garrett…?” she whispered. She didn’t want to hope…or guess…or anticipate.
“Don’t talk,” he murmured and kissed her.
This kiss was so much better than the first. Thiskiss was because he wanted to kiss her.
Garrett was kissing her. It was unreal.
Carmen moaned as his tongue slipped into her mouth, stroking hers, playing with it. This was much better than any dream or fantasy she had spun sinceValleLeñosa. His lips were soft, yet the firmness was there behind the softness. Was that solidness his will, his body, the steel of his personality…? She didn’t knowand didn’t care. She let him drive the kiss and let herself wallow in the pleasure it generated.
When he let her mouth free and his lips trailed down her throat, Carmen clutched uselessly at the wall behind her, her body exploding with raw hunger. She moaned again, a desperate sound. She had dreamed of this, yet the reality was so much better.
When he tugged at the hem of her teeshirt, slidingit up, sudden understanding dawned in her. He wanted her. Here and now. Her heart leapt.Yes, she sighed in her mind.
Unbelievably, he took her right there, against the wall. He stripped her of every inch of clothing and lifted her and drove into her. Carmen could do nothing but moan and let him.
It was glorious, it was hard, it was delicious. It left her trembling with the power of her pleasure.
It was exactly what she wanted and had laid awake for three nights wishing she could have.
Garrett rested his head against hers. Both of them breathed heavily. It was loud in the still night.
Carmen swallowed. Her mouth was dry. “Let me down.”
He lowered her to the ground and Carmen bent and picked up her jeans and thrust her legs into them.
“Carmen,” Garrett said.
“It’s fine. You don’t haveto explain.” She yanked her top on and looked for the shoe she had dropped.
Garrett closed his jeans. “Nowyou know what I’m going to say?”
“Of course. This was just sex, Garrett. Don’t read anything in to it.” She smiled at him. He would be able to see her face in the moonlight. “It was good sex, but it was just sex.”
He pulled his shirt closed. “Then we’re on the same page. Finally.”
Carmenslid her foot into her shoe and straightened. “I have sleep to catch up on. Good night, Garrett.”
She didn’t wait to hear him say good night back. She went back to her sleeping bag and climbed into it cautiously, trying not to wake anyone around her. She didn’t want to sleep on top of the bag. She was cold. She snuggled into it, curled up on her side and her arms around herself.
After such apowerful orgasm, she thought she would sleep as soon as she lay down. Instead, sleep stayed out of reach. For the moment, she was satiated and her body quiescent, only now what haunted her thoughts was an odd sadness.
She fell asleep wondering why she would feel sad.
The next day was another fallow day when there was nothing to do but train, clean her gun and listen to the same sexist jokesthe men of the unit always told. Garrett didn’t appear again that day and Llora took meals to his office, meals that came back barely eaten.
Carmen went to bed with the same low-grade melancholy wreathing her thoughts.
What on earth is wrong with me? she wondered.
When Garrett woke her in the dead of the night and pulled her from beneath the net, her heart leapt and she knew. Garrett wasn’tgoing to be a one-night stand. He couldn’t stay away any more than she could.
* * * * *
This time, Garrett’s patience lasted long enough to lead her around to the front of the monastery and in through the public entrance. The public entrance separated visitors from the monks’ rooms, keeping them contained and away from the monks’ devotions and solitude.
A door at the end of the wide roomgave access to the back corridor where Garrett’s hospital was located, plus Garrett’s own office.
The only reason for going around the main building and coming in the front way was because he wanted to sneak her in so no one else would know she was there.
