He winced. “Stop being so apocalyptic. It bugs me.”
She giggled, which he took as a good sign. “Can you blame me?”
He thudded down, off the seat, onto the floor. So. Didn’t look like he was going to score. Not unless he forced the issue, which would make the disconnect complete. The old Bruno, the new Bruno. The Bruno who could slaughter three guys was hard enough to integrate with his self-image. A Bruno who forced a woman into sex . . . nah.
God, it was hard, though. He shoved Lily’s knees together, hard, and dropped his head down to the tops of her thighs, pressing his hot cheek against the grubby coat. The tryst in Tony’s apartment played in his head. Every hot, silken clutch of her pussy around his aching prong, burned forever into his memory. He ground his fists against his eyes until kaleidoscopic sparks swirled and spun in his inner vision.
Red like blood. Spattering Lily’s coat. Trickling out of the mouth of the guy on the ground. Oozing from the crushed skull of the other man.
So familiar. Fighting like a robot. Losing control, being taken over. Like his Rudy dreams. Except that the opponents had been real this time, and could die. Had died. Broken and bleeding.
Lily’s hands came to rest on his head. She bent over and laid her face against the back of his head. The hot rhythm of her breath had transformed his scalp into an erogenous zone. He endured it in a state of razor-edged sensual overload. Pure heavenly bliss. Fucking torture.
Click.
They jerked apart as the door slid open. Aaro stuck his head in. “I saw that,” he growled.
“Saw what?” Bruno asked, defensive.
Aaro tossed assorted shopping bags into the van. “You owe me three hundred and ninety bucks so far.” He held out a paper food bag.
Bruno took it. “Oh. Ah, thanks.”
“Don’t thank me. No favors means no thanks.”
“Yeah, right.” Bruno dug for the coffee.
“I thought you should get some caffeine and sugar into her before her blood pressure went south.” Aaro looked Lily over. “But she’s glowing. Looks like you’ve successfully regulated her blood pressure in other, more pleasurable ways.”
“Shut up, Aaro,” Bruno growled.
“Just get this straight, loverboy. No boinking in my van.”
“Fuck off,” Lily’s voice rang out. “We didn’t do anything.”
“That would explain why his head was in your lap.” Aaro reached into the bag, fished out coffee and held it out. “Enjoy. You’re welcome.”
She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t have to thank you, remember?” she said. “You’re not doing me any favors.”
“True. I’m so crushed. Now drink some coffee, dollface.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you just call me
dollface?
”
“No.” Bruno snatched the cup out of Aaro’s hand and passed it to her. “It was an aural hallucination. Have your breakfast sandwich.”
“Yeah, ignore me.” Aaro pawed through the bags until he found one with stenciled hearts on it. “By the way, you never did tell me your size. Hope nothing binds or pinches your tender pink places, babe.”
He let the bag fly. It landed on Lily’s lap. She shrank back as if it were a venomous snake. It hit the floor. Fuck-me-please panties spilled out. A tangle of satin, lace, and silk. Red, black, peach, flesh-tone.
Bruno growled expletives in a Calabrese dialect as he shoved underwear into the bag. It was his standard tension reliever. None of the people he insulted knew he was commenting on their grandmother’s predilection for sex with sheep.
“I am not wearing that slutty, disgusting stuff.” Lily’s voice was haughty. “Certainly not after you’ve pawed it. Dog.”
“Arf, arf.” Aaro’s one was more cheerful than it had been so far at any time this morning. “I love it when she spits bile.”
11
T
he van door slid open. A blast of cold, intensely sweet air swept in, along with a noise that took a while to decipher. Birdsong. And air. So clean and sweet. Lily lingered under the surface, reluctant to come up. It had been so long. Sleep felt so good. She rubbed her eyes.
Bruno peered in. “You OK? You’ve been out for hours.”
“I’m fine,” she said through chattering teeth.
“Out you come, then.” His jacket swung open as he helped her out, showing off washboard abs, that taut belly button, the arrowing trail of dark belly hair, bare to the elements. He must be cold, too, but he didn’t look it. He had a nuclear furnace raging inside him.
He set her on her feet, and she wobbled on the unsteady ground. Icy wind lifted her snarled hair into a wind-whipped halo. The absence of noise pollution, burnt ozone, hydrocarbons, smoke, or particulate matter was weirdly alien. The wind moaned. Only a jet plume proved that civilization existed. “Where the
hell
are we?” she demanded.
“About twenty miles out of White Salmon, as the crow flies,” Bruno said. “My uncle had a cabin.”
“I never saw anything about a cabin in the property records!”
“Of course you didn’t,” Bruno said. “He fixed it that way himself, thirty-five years ago. He had a checkered past, before Vietnam. Tony wanted a place where he could disappear, from the law or the Ranieris, whoever was out for his blood.” He looked around. “In fact, Kev and I don’t have a clue what the hell to do about this place. The paperwork, I mean. Who the fuck knows whose name it’s in? Tony never told.”
“That doesn’t explain what we’re doing here!” Lily’s voice shook.
Bruno frowned. “I told you I’d find you someplace safe to rest, remember? Without using my credit cards, this is the best I can do.”
“But we’re cornered here! Does this place have Internet? Phone service, taxis? Wireless?”
His face answered her. “Oh, God,” she moaned. “You’ve dropped me into the bottom of a well. This is just freaking perfect!”
Aaro edged away. “I’ll be on my way. You’ll be getting my bill soon. Not that I know where to send it, since you’re a fucking fugitive.”
Bruno grunted. “You’ll get your money.”
“You mean, you’re leaving us here?” Lily’s voice squeaked with horror. “You’re driving away, and leaving us here with no vehicle?”
“Like shit through a goose.” Aaro sidled toward the driver’s side door. “See ya, babe. Be good.”
“No! I’m coming back with you! I am not staying here!”
Aaro got into his van, eyes wary. “Keep your distance, lady.”
“Don’t you dare drive away!” She tottered toward the van.
Aaro revved the engine and rolled his window down an inch to deliver his parting shot at Bruno. “Never would have thought I’d say this, man, but your girlfriend makes celibacy look good.”
“You
asshole!
” Lily grabbed the handle, which locked with an audible
thunk
an instant befo she touched it. Tires spat dirt and pebbles. Aaro peered out his window, trying not to drive over her feet.
She hung on, but Aaro did not stop. There was no question of running in those heels. She stumbled, sliding to her knees as the van rounded the curve, roared down the hill, rattling over a narrow plank bridge laid over a dry creek bed. It turned a corner and was gone.
Oh,
ouch
. That knee had already taken a lot of abuse.
Bruno pulled her to her feet and tried to hug her, the sneaky son of a bitch, but she was in freak-out mode, arms windmilling, tottering on the useless shoes. She pitched and swayed in the gusts of wind.
“Calm down,” he was repeating, over and over, his tone pleading. “Calm down. Just calm down. This is a safe place.”
He looked worried, scared, gorgeous. She tried to breathe. Safe place, her milk white ass. She laughed so hard it started her crying. He ended up hugging her, and she was too far gone to fight him off.
“I just can’t be in a place like this,” she gasped out. “I’ll go crazy.”
He glanced around at the terrifying, appalling nothing around them. Trees, bugs, rocks, sky. “What’s this?” he asked. “A place that’s wild, clean? Safe? What the fuck is not to like about this place?”
“The reason I’ve survived is because I’ve stayed on the move!” she yelled. “I’m like a shark that can’t stop swimming or I’ll die! I can’t just look at the view while I wait for them to come beat me to death!”
“They won’t.” His voice was low, soothing. “I won’t let them. No one knows about it. No one saw us come. My friends will come get us. I have a plan. We can have a meal, a shower. A nap. Is a nap so terrible?”
“I don’t have time for a fucking nap!” she howled.
“You needed that one you took just now,” he said triumphantly. “And you could use another one, where someone is sitting by the bed with a loaded gun. How long has it been since you relaxed?”
She goggled at him. “Loaded gun? Excuse me? You mean to say you have one of those? On your person?”
He looked impatient. “Of course, thanks to Aaro. More than one.”
“And you know how to use them?”
His chest vibrated, plastered against hers. “Spare me, Lily.”
“When pigs fly! Loaded guns are not items that I find relaxing!”
“You are so fucking hard to please. I don’t know if it came across in your research, but I’m actually above average in intelligence. I can think my way out of a paper bag, and I can handle a gun. So chill.”
“But if I’m not doing something, I’ll go crazy!”
“So I’ll just keep you really busy,” he said.
She wasn’t sure quite how to take that statement, so she ignored it entirely. “I’m just so goddamn scared,” she whispered.
“Trust me,” he said, unexpectedly, and scooped her into his arms.
“Hey! Stop that!” She flopped and twisted.
“You can’t walk in those shoes, and you can’t go barefoot, either,” he said. “You’ll freeze your feet. Stop wiggling.”
He set her down on the small porch and fiddled with the padlocks on the doors. He’d done it again. Teased her through a screaming meltdown and out the other side. And he’d known her for, whaa few hours? They’d found their groove. He wasn’t afraid of her.
Wouldn’t last long, though. It never did. She never made it easy for guys. She eventually scared them or intimidated them or pissed them off or threatened their masculinity. She was a difficult proposition for a relationship in the best of times. And this was the very worst.
Look what a prize she’d been so far. Jerking him around, lying to him, spying on him, using him. Leading hit men to him. Getting him attacked, almost killed. Getting him in trouble with the law. Costing him shocking amounts of money. He was going to get sick of it.
How depressing. It made her guts feel sour. Hah. Like she had the requisite brain cells to stress about her romantic prospects right now.
At least, the sex was, well, incendiary. A point in her favor. Guys weighed sex heavily in the balance. It was a big priority for them.
That thought perked her right up.
Snick,
the lock gave. Bruno pushed the door open into a black, stifling cave. She was blinded as she stepped inside to the scent of woodsmoke and dust. Bruno opened the shutters, jerked a curtain aside, revealing a double bed swathed in plastic. Bedding was bound up in plastic bags as well. Her eyes adjusted to see him dragging blankets out of one of the bags. Laying one down on top of the plastic bed cover.
“Lie down,” he said. “Cover yourself up while I get things going. The fire, the propane water heater. Some food.”
“I can help,” she offered.
“It’ll go quicker if I do it alone. I’ve got the choreography of this place down. You rest, get warm. Relax.”
Relax, her ass. Like she ever had, in her whole life, with her complicated baggage. And this was even before killers closed in. She sat on the bed. Bruno plucked off her shoes, scooping her legs up. He tossed another blanket on top of her.
He got to work on making the place habitable.
The blankets were fuzzy and thick, but she was stone cold from the inside. She huddled into a ball and watched him, teeth chattering.
Bruno kept looking over at her as he built a fire in the stove. When the flames were crackling, he came over to the bed, flung off his jacket, kicked off his shoes, and slid under the blanket with her.
Her glands went bananas. The bed creaked under his weight. Plastic crackled. He smelled like salt, sweat, the coppery tang of blood, and under that, his own special Bruno smell. He hugged her. The release of tension in her body was cataclysmic. It felt so good, so hot.
“You’re freezing,” he said, his voice disapproving.
“Yeah, well,” she said. “You’re helping.”
“Not fast enough.” He rolled over right on top of her, squashing the breath out of her. The bed sagged, creaked. “That better?”
A flush rose, like a hot cloud, until her whole body felt red. She wanted to say something offhand. Sure. No biggie, having a gorgeous sex god who held all the keys to her destiny, squishing her onto a bed.
He propped himself onto his elbows so that she could drag in some air. She didn’t do it consciously, but suddenly, she’d moved so he was resting the stiff bulge of his crotch against the vee of her opened thighs. The wind moaned, singing of a vast empty solitude outside that made it so much more intimate within. The last two lovers in the world.
There was no reason in the world for him not to just open his jeans, twitch the gusset of her thong aside and have her. She ached for it. A hot pull of mindless yearning that actually hurt, it was so strong.
He answered her silent call, settling into an incredibly slow, sensual pulse. Her face got hotter, her breath shallow. They couldn’t break their eye contact. It blazed out of her like light, how badly she needed him to press against that sweet ache, just like that, again . . .
She lifted herself against him. He seconded her every move with such grace, such perfect swirling pressure and the slow . . . firm pulse and push, and oh, God, yes . . .
yes
. . .
She exploded, energy pumping down to her fingers and toes. Beyond. Extending out into infinity, fused with him, with everything.
When she got enough presence of mind back to be mortally embarrassed, he was kissing her. Tender, coaxing kisses, wordlessly asking for something from her that she didn’t even dare put a name to. Let alone grant him. She just didn’t have it to give. She turned her face away, but Bruno was having none of that. He cupped her face, forced her gaze back until their eyes locked. “You warmed up?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I just meant to get you warm. I swear to God. I didn’t mean to dry hump you. That just sort of happened.”
He lifted himself up. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d yanked him back down. He landed on his elbows, wary. “Huh?”
“Don’t you want . . . ?” She couldn’t say it. She wound her legs around his thighs and let her body ask the question.
He gave her an are-you-kidding look. “Of course I want it. But you’ve been skating on the edge of a breakdown ever since those guys attacked us. You almost had one right outside. It’s not a good time.”
“I’d be OK,” she assured him.
He shook his head. “You can’t be sure how you’d feel. And if I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
So? Who wanted him to stop? She wanted to scream, slap him, force him to stop trying so hard to be a good guy. But that would make her seem crazier. Push him further away.
“Get warmed up,” he said. “Get on your new clothes, get some food into you, then we can talk about everything you know, suspect, or guess, or fear about what’s happening to you. Then we hike up to the bluff.”
She jerked up onto her elbow. “Are you kidding? Is this a time for a flipping nature walk, Ranieri?”
“It’s the only place with cell reception,” he said. “I can use the phone Aaro gave me, with encryption software.”
“To call who?”
“My brother’s brothers. My adopted brother Kev recently hooked up with his biological family a few months ago. Real eventful, you might say. But you know all about that, right?”
She dropped her gaze. “Um. Some of it.”
His eyebrow tilted. “I figured that. Anyhow. Once I’ve talked to them, I can make some decisions.”
She blinked. “Um. Excuse me?
You
will make the decisions?” “Yes.” He stared her straight in the eyes. “Me. It’s your own fault, Lily, for dragging me into this. Now you have to deal with me.”
“Don’t get masterful on me, Ranieri. I don’t respond well to that.”
“You need someone to make some decisions for you, babe,” he said. “Just a few. For a little while. Just restAnd trust me.”