“Why you?” He grinned and held up a fist, releasing one finger at a time. “You’re smart and strong. You’re self-reliant. You don’t need a man to take care of you. You’re beautiful and sexy, and best of all—you’re a mom. Baby, you have everything I love in a woman. Believe it.”
She rose to her knees and put her arms around his neck. “Kiss me, amor, because when you kiss me all my anxiety dissolves.”
He didn’t need any more encouragement that that. Embracing her, he laid her across his lap and smiled into her perfect face. This woman took his breath away. Having her in his arms was heaven on earth. He kissed her thoroughly, again and again. When he finally broke away, he whispered, “God, I need to make love with you, Graciella. Please tell me you want that too.”
She sighed softly. “I do.”
He set her on her feet and kissed her on the mouth. “I don’t only want to kiss you here,” he turned her in his arms and pulled her back against his chest and cupped a breast, “but here,” cupped her other breast, “and here.” Her trembling sent him soaring. He slid a hand down her front and pressed against the mound at the juncture of her legs, “And here.”
His heart nearly stopped beating when she pressed one of her sensuous, soft hands against the hard bulge in his jeans and whispered his name. She took his hand and led him down the short hallway to her bedroom, not bothering to turn off lights or close doors. A small lamp dimly illuminated her room.
Cluny took a deep breath, told himself to slow down. “Please, I want to undress you. I have to see you, all of you.”
She shyly raised an arm, revealing a long zipper at the side of her strapless sundress. Hands trembling, he lowered it and her dress drifted to the floor. She wasn’t wearing a bra, just pale bikini panties. His hands covering her bare breasts, he dropped his head, groaned, and then fell to his knees and embraced her around the hips. For several seconds he stayed there brushing his lips across her abdomen. He slid her panties to her ankles; her knees trembled against his chest.
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. I have protection.” His last words got muffled in the thatch of dark curls where her legs met. “Oh, God, oh, my God, you’re so sexy.” He gazed into her face. “Am I alive? Tell me I’m still alive.”
She knelt before him, smiled and said, “Very much so,” while tugging his T-shirt over his head. She brushed her lips on the center of his chest. “I’ve wanted my mouth here ever since I smoothed sun lotion on you at the beach.”
Her hands felt more wonderful sliding over his chest and shoulders than in his wildest imagination. Unable to drag out this delicious torture any longer, he stood and pulled her to her feet. Before he had a chance to unbutton his jeans, her hands were at his waist fumbling against the fastener. “Whoa, baby. I’ve got this.” He pulled a small packet from the pocket and held it between his teeth as he kicked off his shoes and stepped out of his pants and boxers.
“Cluny, stand still so I can look at you.”
He held his breath, more nervous than the last time under enemy fire. She took her time. A big grin grew on his face. “Do I pass inspection?”
She twisted her lips and tapped a tapered finger on her chin. “Um hum. You’re standing at attention I see.”
“A Marine endeavors to give his all, ma’am.” He winked. “You interested in finding out what my all is?”
She flashed a wicked smile and took him in her hand. “Would it have anything to do with this?”
She screeched when he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her high. Through a couple of caveman style grunts, he carried her to the bed. “Woman! Me want you. Me have you. Now!” With that he tossed her on the bed to her scream of laughter and pounced.
* * *
Graciella’s excitement was nearly unbearable. When this beautiful man came down on top of her, every nerve in her body burned with a fire she felt could consume her. Where had this passion been hidden in her for so long? Her desire for Cluny was all-consuming. She gasped when his teeth nipped her throat and collarbone. Mere seconds after, his hand cupped her and she felt his probing fingers, she bucked against him and a massive orgasm exploded. She fell back in shock, gasped as tears welled in her eyes. “Oh, querido. Oh, Deus.”
Intense blue eyes sparkled above his smiling lips. “Now that we got that one out of the way we can take it nice and slow.” Kneeling between her legs, he lifted her knees and kissed her sensitive inner thighs.
Afraid she might swoon, Graciella grabbed handfuls of his hair and lifted his head. “Cluny, stop. I have to breathe. I can’t…”
He lay down next to her and rolled her to face him. “It’s OK, baby. I need to breathe too.” His big hand stroked her back and bottom then he threaded fingers through her hair and pulled her in for a breath-stealing kiss.
She stroked his chest and sighed. “That was so fast and incredible.”
“Sweetheart, you make me so happy.”
“I want to make you happy, Cluny. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“You can’t disappoint me. You amaze me.” He stroked her breast. “Every inch of you amazes me, makes me grateful to be alive, here, with you.”
Against her will she thought of fierce little Misty Beachy, Cluny’s former lover. How and why had she ever left him? Men like Cluny McPherson were few and far between. Graciella couldn’t get her mind around why no other woman had claimed him for her own. Her heart swelled with the knowledge that he was here with her, in her bed, telling her she made him happy. Was this fleeting? Could this last?
His hand cupped her chin. “My love, look at me. Nobody is in this room but you and me. I want you. I want us. I don’t want any other woman. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Her breath stuttered. “I want to understand. I want that so much. More than anything.” She stroked the stubble on his cheek. “I’m trying to stay in the moment. It’s hard.”
“Yes, ma’am, it is. So if you’ll allow me…” He quickly sheathed himself and rose above her emitting a long groan of satisfaction as he pushed himself slowly, ever so slowly inside. “In you, Graciella. This is where I belong.” His mouth covered her eager lips. And he moved.
Yes. Oh, yes. Here, he belonged here.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Baby, I have to go.”
“No, amor.” She clung to him. “I want you to spend the night.”
“I can’t. I don’t want to disturb your sleep. I thrash around.”
Her heart cracked at the distress in his voice over his ongoing struggle with PTS. It couldn’t be that bad, could it, a few nightmares? “I’m willing to lose a little sleep to have you here beside me.”
“Sweetheart, I can’t leave Queen in the car all night, and I have to open the shop at seven this morning. You’ll need to pick up Santos in a few hours.” He stroked her cheek. “I don’t want to leave you, your bed. Not after what happened between us tonight. I’d rather cut off an arm than leave.”
She rose on her elbow and gazed down at him. “Go get Queen and bring her in the apartment. Nobody will see you at this hour. I don’t want you to leave me.” She feathered her fingers across his lips. “Please?”
He sighed. “I’ll do it, but against my better judgment. You have to promise me something.”
“What?” She’d promise almost anything to keep him with her for a few more hours.
“If I have nightmares, you’ll get up and leave me and Queen in the room. Don’t try to wake me by talking or touching me. I’m afraid I might accidentally hurt you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, querido. I promise. How can we be together if you always need to leave?”
“You know I don’t want to go, but I’m not willing to risk losing you before we’ve had a chance.”
“Go get her. I’ll do what you say.” She slipped out of bed and donned her robe while Cluny pulled on his jeans. She could barely see him in the dim light, but didn’t need to. She knew every detail of his body.
Not bothering with shoes
or a shirt, he padded from the room with her close behind. “I’ll be a couple of minutes.” When they got to the door, he leaned in and kissed her. “I hope this isn’t a mistake.”
“It’ll be OK.” She wasn’t as confident as she sounded but wanted it to be true. This man had baggage, and she was willing to help him carry it. Down deep in her soul she felt he was worth it.
When the door clicked shut behind him, she went to the kitchen for a glass of water and got a big mixing bowl to fill for Queen. A few minutes passed and she heard a loud rap on the door. Smiling, she moved with a light step to open it. “That was quick.”
Jamal loomed in the semi-darkness. “Where’s Krystal?”
He took a step forward, and she tried desperately to close the door. “She’s not here!”
He shouldered the door open and knocked her back. She fell to the floor. He grabbed her by the hair. “Where is she, bitch?”
“I don’t know. Stop!” Terrified, she struggled upward to keep him from pulling her hair out by the roots. “Please, stop,” she screamed. “You’re hurting me!”
Loud pounding footsteps sounded on the stairs and hallway, followed by Queen’s bark that turned into a menacing snarl. “What the hell!” Cluny threw himself forward, knocked Jamal to the floor, and dragged him out the door onto the landing. Jamal screamed when Queen clamped her powerful jaws on his crotch.
Graciella heard somebody shout, “Call the police!”
“Get this dog off me! Please!” Jamal yelled desperately.
Deaf to his plea, Cluny pounded his fist over and over in Jamal’s face as Queen growled and shook her head, undeterred by his flailing legs. Jamal stopped struggling. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth. Cluny pounded him relentlessly, seeming not to notice Jamal had stopped fighting back.
“Cluny! Stop!” Graciella shook his shoulder. “Stop, you’re killing him.” Terror and helplessness screamed in her brain. She was powerless to stop him from hitting the semi-conscious, bleeding man.
Shouting and footsteps rushed to her door. How had the police got there so fast? Three armed officers dragged Cluny off Jamal. He screamed, “You bastard! I’ll kill you, you bastard!”
“Whose dog is this? Call off this dog!”
Cluny commanded, “Queen, release!”
Graciella put out a shaky hand. “It’s OK, Queenie.” The dog stared at her, released the torn pants, and bared her teeth.
Reaching gingerly for the dog, Graciella said, “No, Queen. Good girl.” In an instant the dog sat back on her haunches, ready to spring on the officers subduing Cluny. Graciella grabbed her collar and, scared to death, held on as hard as she could, knowing she didn’t have the strength to control the powerful Malinois if she charged.
Cluny stopped struggling, aware of what was happening. “Down, Queen, stand down.” He tried to shake off the officers, but one of them yanked his hands behind his back, slapped on a pair of cuffs, then hauled him to his feet.
When they began to drag him away, Graciella screamed, “What are you doing? He was protecting me! Wait! Where are you taking him?”
“Devonshire station.” An officer held his hand in front of her face. “Take your dog and step back inside the apartment, ma’am. An officer will take your statement.”
“Cluny!” She pushed against the officer blocking her way, screaming at them because they were arresting the wrong man. She was so distraught she didn’t notice she’d reverted to her native Portuguese. “Escala! Escala, por favor!” The officer held her back.
“Graciella, call Gunny. Tell him where…” The uniforms shoved him toward the short flight of steps, and she didn’t hear the rest of what he said.
She shouted, “I’ll call him right now!” Shaking off the officer’s restraining hand, she stepped back inside. “Come, Queen. Good girl.” She slammed the door in the man’s face and turned the deadbolt. She went to the kitchen, grabbed the wall phone, and realized she didn’t know Dwayne Dempsey’s number.
* * *
Cluny struggled against the rough handling of the uniformed officers. “What’s wrong with you guys? That sonofabitch attacked my girlfriend. Don’t hurt my dog! You better not hurt my dog, goddammit!”
“Yeah? And what are you going to do about it? Shut up and get in the car.” The man shoved Cluny’s head down and pushed him into the back of the black and white and slammed the door.
Cluny leaned forward and saw two more officers dragging Jamal across the parking lot and putting him in another car. In a fury, he reared back and viciously kicked the panel protecting the front seat with the bottom of his bare foot. “Goddammit! Let me out of here!” They ignored him, got in the car, and drove.
Five minutes later the patrol car pulled in the lot in front of LAPD Devonshire station. The officers went inside and left him in the car. The second car pulled in. The uniforms extracted Jamal from the backseat and hustled him inside. Cluny waited briefly and began to shout and kick again.
The door flew open. “Look, pal, so far you’re not in any trouble, but if you don’t stop this shit I’ll have to book you. Are we clear?”
“What the hell is—?” The door slammed and the officer walked away.
Cluny slumped back against the seat, stunned and confused. If he wasn’t in trouble, what was he doing in handcuffs in the back of a locked patrol car? How had the cops got to Graciella’s apartment so fast? He’d barely gotten his hands on Jamal when they were all over him.
A man approached the car and stood outside staring at him for a few seconds, then opened the front door and got in. “I’m FBI agent, Jim Harris. Here’s what we’re going to do. Two officers will take you inside the station and make a show of booking you, and then you’ll be put in a holding cell. You’ll cooperate and keep your mouth shut.”
“But, I…what…?”
“Jamal Mujahid is under surveillance by Homeland Security. We’ve been shadowing his movements and tonight we followed him to the lady’s apartment. If you don’t cooperate, and keep your mouth shut, you’ll blow our operation. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
Homeland Security was watching his movements? “He’s under surveillance?” How the hell had Graciella ended up in the middle of this crap carnival? “But, my girlfriend…she doesn’t have anything to do with him.”
“We know that.” Harris cocked his head. “Are you ready to go in peacefully, Mr. McPherson, or do you need more time to cool off?”
“Shit, let’s get it over with. I’ve gotta get back to my girl. She’s probably scared out of her mind.”
Two LAPD officers escorted him inside. They put him through the booking process, making sure Jamal Mujahid saw what was happening. After Cluny handed over his watch, wallet, and keys, they fingerprinted him using a modern inkless scanner, and then took his jailhouse photos. Now he’d been moved to a different location in the building and the escorting officer removed his cuffs. He handed him a pair of disposable paper booties for his bare feet, and opened the door of a holding cell.
Cluny stepped inside and sat. “How much longer?”
The man shrugged, walked away then came back with a jail shirt and shoved it through the bars.
“What in hell am I supposed to do with this? Am I under arrest? Are they going to move me? Do I get a goddamn phone call?”
“I don’t know, man. Just relax. The watch commander will come in and talk to you.”
He cooled his heels for almost an hour. Nobody came. He had to keep it together, but he was ready to tear the next person he could get hold of limb-from-limb. He paced for a while, then gripped the bars on the small cell door. Growling with impatience, he raked his hair.
Voices! The door to the outer room opened.
A tall, uniformed man opened the cell door and stepped inside. He held out his hand. “Mr. McPherson, I’m Watch Commander Johnson. You’ll be free to leave soon. In the meantime, there’s someone here to see you.” He signaled to the guard who watched from the window in the outer door.
&nb
sp; Gunny, bleary-eyed with a dark five o’clock shadow, stepped in the room.
Johnson motioned Dwayne inside the cell. “Mr. Dempsey will take you home as soon as the FBI completes whatever-the-hell they’re doing out there. Would you like coffee?”
“No.”
“I’ll leave you men alone then.” He exited the outer room and the guard outside closed the door.
Dwayne walked in, pulled Cluny into a hard hug and thumped him on the back. “How you doin’? You sure know how to top off a good party.”
Relief flooded through him. “Thanks for coming, Gunny. I’m still not sure what happened.” He slumped down on one of the benches and dropped his head. “I’m worried about Graciella. And Queen. I have to know they’re OK. This is a goddamn nightmare.”
Dwayne took the seat across from him. “They’re both fine. She called and asked me to come to her place. There are a couple of federal agents there who tried to explain what was going down. She was pretty shook up, had a couple of bruises, but otherwise she’s OK. Queen’s fine. She’s a pro.”
“Yeah, she got a good bite of that jerk’s junk and wasn’t about to let go.”
Dwayne chuckled. “He’ll probably be out of commission in that department for a while.”
“Permanently, I hope. How did Graciella find you? After they hauled me in here I remembered your home phone number’s unlisted.”
“She called the off-hours emergency number for Big D. They phoned my home and relayed her message. Soon as I called her back she started to cry, poor kid.”
Cluny looked into the face of his old pal. “What have I gotten her into?”
“From what the agents at her place told me, I don’t see that it has anything to do with you.”
“I went out to the car to get Queen. Graciella probably thought it was me at the door. She wouldn’t have opened it if she’d been there alone.”
“You’re not responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world, McPherson. They’re after that Jihad guy.”
Love of a Marine (The Wounded Warriors Series Book 2) Page 17
