Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III

by A. J. Downey

  When I got to the Captain’s place, I backed my bike into line, I was a little nervous, my palms sweating. I wiped them off on my jeans and took a deep breath to steady myself. I went into the house and found Charity in the kitchen, making salad.

  “Hey, Baby,” I said going up to her. The smile she turned on me liked to have my heart doing somersaults in my chest. She lit up, from the inside out, and immediately raised her lips to mine, standing on tiptoe to kiss me enthusiastically.

  How could I be so lucky?

  “Hi! I missed you,” she said and a bunch of the guys all went “Aww!”

  “Shut it, you ass goblins!” I barked, and was met by a bunch of laughter.

  “Why is it when you get a group of men together they always revert to a bunch of thirteen year old boys?” Hope asked. Charity rolled her eyes and went back to her salad prep.

  “Is this a rhetorical question, or do you really want to know?” Marlin asked.

  “Totally rhetorical,” Hope confirmed. It set the tone for the rest of the meal and light hearted antagonistic banter just kept on rolling out.

  I was helping Charity with the dishes when I brought up the rest of my evening plans.

  “How about you and I get out of here?” I asked. “I figure we can go back to my place, lounge in the backyard, maybe a fire and a glass of wine… what do you say?” Charity stopped, drying her hands and wrapped her arms around my neck. My hands found her waist and we simply stood together, soaking in each other’s presence for the time being.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” she said rolling her eyes at a couple of the guys getting rowdy out on the back patio. Her fingers slipped down to my chest, the tips caressing my name flash. She smiled and said, “I like this,” and I kissed her.

  “I’m glad on both counts; I’ll be right back,” I spun her back to the sink and I kissed the back of her shoulder, heading off to find Faith.

  “Hey,” I said and she looked up, shading her eyes in the sunset. “Do you have a spare set of riding gear here at the house that Charity can borrow for tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Might be a little bit tight on her, but yeah,” she answered.

  “Can you grab it for me? We’re going to head on over to my place.”

  Faith smiled and nodded and got up from Marlin’s lap, she went upstairs, still wraithlike, moving through the crowd out here and up the stairs as unobtrusive as possible. The girl, for as beautiful as she was, did invisible well. It was a damn shame how she’d acquired the skills.

  “You gonna ask her?” Marlin asked me.

  “Gonna try,” I affirmed.

  “I think it’s a good move. You two are made for each other.”

  “You think so?” I asked.

  “I know so, brother, I know so.”

  I smiled and we knocked fists, Faith came back downstairs with a bundle of leather, and I took it from her, “Thanks, Babes.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I slipped around the house and stashed the bundle in my saddlebags, then went and found Charity. She was up in her room, packing an overnight bag.

  “Ready to go?” I asked.

  “Almost,” she smiled and sighed, a happy sound.

  “What was that for?”

  “Honestly? I feel like I get zero privacy around here, it’ll be nice having it be just you and me tonight.”

  I smiled, “Yeah it will,” I agreed.

  We rode to my place, and I have to say every time she got on the bike in just denim, I got nervous, hence why I’d asked Faith for some tougher leather for the long ride the next day. Dress for the slide, not for the ride, played out in my head for like the thousandth time as I pulled us into the garage when we got to the house. I breathed a sigh of relief when Charity got off the bike, whole and in one piece. I shut it down and heeled down the kickstand. I needed to get her into her own gear so I could stop worrying and enjoy the ride more.

  I told her, “Go ahead and stash your bag in the bedroom, I’ll get the fire going out back. There’s a couple bottles of wine in the fridge, pick which one you’d like and meet me out there?”

  “Absolutely,” she said and we went into the house. She hesitated outside the bathroom door, but didn’t open it, I smiled to myself secretly. She was going to have to eventually. I had the lid off the back of the toilet in the half bath off my bedroom, in a bid to make it look like it was out of order.

  She slipped into the bedroom, and that’s where we parted ways. I headed straight out back to the fire pit, which sat in the grass at the foot of the two lounge chairs. I picked up some wood from the stack along the house by the back slider and set to work, glancing back and watching Charity move through the kitchen.

  This was going to be nice.

  Chapter 45

  Charity

  I slipped into Dom’s room as he had suggested to set my bag down and the first thing I saw was the pile of photos and mementos sitting on top of the contents of his wastebasket. It made my heart hurt a little and I quickly salvaged the pictures and EKG readout strips, tucking them into one of the end pockets of my gym bag. I felt like I was sparing him from a horrible mistake. That he might have been hurting when he’d tossed these things, but some day there would be regret. This way, he could be rid of them, but when the day came that he regretted throwing these things out, I would have them for him.

  I tucked my bag on the floor on my side of the bed and slipped out into the kitchen, giving the bathroom door a wider than necessary berth. I’d use it eventually, but figured it would be after a glass or three of wine to loosen up. I found two bottles, a white and a red, chilling in his refrigerator. I selected the white and after some cursory hunting in the cabinets and drawers, came up with a couple of glasses and a cork screw.

  “Need a hand?” he asked, coming through the back slider. I smiled and nodded. He took the bottle of wine and the corkscrew from me, and got it open. I poured us a couple of generous glasses and followed him out into the twilight.

  We settled into our respective seats and set our glasses on the little table between the wooden lounge chairs. He’d brought the bottle out and I sighed with utter contentment.

  “What is that?” I asked, over the crackle of fire and the emerging sounds of frogs and insects.

  “What is what?” he asked.

  “Can’t you see it?”

  “See what?” he asked laughing, looking around.

  “The little sparkles in the air,” I said.

  “Are you serious?” he asked.

  “Of course I’m serious! What are they?”

  “Haven’t you ever seen lightning bugs before?”

  “What, like fireflies?”

  “Yeah.”

  I sat back in my chair, and my hand naturally drifted to find his between our seats, “No,” I said, “I’m a California girl; they aren’t that far west and the university I went to was too far north. I’ve never seen them before.”

  “Well, now you have,” he said and brought the back of my hand to his lips, planting a soft kiss against my knuckles.

  We sipped wine, and alternately watched the fire and fireflies, listening to the night come alive. It was beautiful, and soothing, and I wouldn’t trade these moments for the world, but eventually the wine worked its magic and I had to go break the proverbial seal. Damn alcohol and its diuretic effects, I thought with a sigh.

  “Bathroom,” I murmured and hauled myself to my feet.

  “Toilet’s broken in the one in my room; sorry, Baby,” he murmured back. I nodded and slipped back into the house. I went to the bathroom, steeled myself and opened the door, flipping on the light and gasped.

  It was completely different. The walls were now a light grey with light blue undertones, like a mist settled on a lake on a rainy day. The floor was slate tile rather than the cheap linoleum it used to be. The vanity had a granite sink and an old fashioned fixture. Even the lights above the oval, silver framed, antique looking mirror bespoke a classic era. The delicate, froste
d glass of the shades casting a muted glow into the room.

  He’d bought lighter gray bath mats and the shower curtain was beautiful too. A magnolia tree depicted on the light gray cloth, the trunk a darker gray with white and pink blossoms. A white little bird perched in the branches.

  I heard the scrape of Dom’s boot on the hard wood of the hall and turned to look at him, tears in my eyes.

  “You did this for me?” I asked.

  He took me into his arms and nodded carefully, “I want you to feel comfortable here, I want you to feel safe,” he uttered.

  “So you tear out your entire bathroom and redo it, rather than just getting a new shower curtain and maybe some new rugs?” I asked, the first tears from the overwhelming, just love and gratitude began to fall.

  “Does it make you happy?” he asked.

  “Oh my god, you have no idea!” I wrapped my arms around his neck, and buried my face in his chest and felt so incredibly guilty about going behind his back with the Watch Commander.

  “Shh, hey, it’s okay, Baby,” he said laughing a little.

  “No, it’s not!” I cried. “I’ve done something incredibly stupid and I feel so bad about it but you have to understand, you are so wasted painting houses! Just promise when I tell you, that you won’t be mad at me.”

  “Charity, Baby, what’s wrong? What did you do?”

  I spilled it. The whole thing, and the look on his face was surprised, but he gave absolutely nothing else away.

  “Please say something,” I begged and his face broke into a wide grin.

  “Go to the bathroom and come back outside, we’ll talk about it.” He smoothed his thumbs through the wetness on my face and the smile on his was beatific. “I promise, I’m not mad.”

  “Okay,” I said, apprehensive.

  “Go to the bathroom, Charity, and meet me back outside,” he said and I nodded.

  I used the brand new, beautiful restroom. Even the towel bars were ornamental, a decorative brushed steel with old fashioned end caps. The towels that hung on them gray, white and pink, matching the shower curtain. He really had thought of everything.

  I quickly washed up, and splashed some cold water on my face in hopes of diminishing the blotchiness. I ugly cried any time I cried, which is why I didn’t make a habit of doing it often.

  I went back outside and retook my seat. Dom looked over at me and handed me my wine. I took a fortifying sip and set the glass back down and he took my hand in his.

  “Better?” he asked, and I nodded. He looked thoughtful for a second and said, “You’re right. I’m not meant to paint houses, I’m meant to be out there helping people and I know your heart’s in the right place, Baby, because you’re just like me in that regard.”

  I nodded again, sensing he wasn’t done speaking, and I was right. He drew a deep breath, let it out slowly and said, “I want to ask you something, and you can say ‘no,’ or ‘not right now’ but…” he pulled a shopping bag up from the other side of his chair and held it out to me. I took it and looked inside.

  “No, way!” I said stunned. He smiled and hung his head, and I pulled the leather vest out of the bag. “Are you sure?” I asked quietly, “I mean, are you really sure?”

  “Babe, you’re taking care of me, as much as I’m trying to take care of you… and yeah, I’m sure. I want this, but only if you want it, and if what you’re saying is true and Figaro is offering the top of the pay scale for both of us, then yeah. I’m in, let’s do it.”

  I stood up, and crossed in front of the fire, straddling his lap in his chair, kissing him fiercely, the shopping bag getting crushed between us. He put his arms around me and held me tight.

  When we finally came up for air he said, “Figaro is a fucking budget Nazi, if he’s hurting bad enough to offer the top of the pay scale right off the bat, then we need to get our boots on the ground and do some good; he just doesn’t do that.”

  “I don’t care about him right now, I care about you and me and us,” I told him.

  “God, Charity, I love you,” he groaned and his mouth crashed down over the top of mine again. I kissed him back soundly, glad for the six foot privacy fence ringing in the back yard. I should have known better that he wouldn’t leave us out here. Instead he stood, with me clinging to him, like I hardly weighed anything at all. He carried me into the house but we didn’t make it to the bedroom. Instead, he laid me on the couch, covering my body with his.

  It was a frenzy of blind groping to get our clothing off as we didn’t want to stop kissing and when we finally did manage to get it far enough removed to make sex possible, neither one of us wanted to slow down long enough to make it last. Instead, we crashed together in an explosion of passion, love, and ecstasy.

  I wrapped my legs around his hips and held on as he thrust into me hard and harder, that golden weight of orgasm building at a phenomenal rate until I came, crying out, and holding on as my world disappeared completely only to fade back into existence. Dom kissed me, and I kissed him, and we lay crammed on the couch which was too small to accommodate us both, panting and breathless, but complete.

  ***

  “You nervous?” I asked, five days later.

  Dom’s fingers tapped out some unknown pattern on his jeans clad knee, belying his answer of “No, I’m cool.”

  I smiled to myself and pulled us off the interstate, the sun shining down, and the world golden and new and full of such promise. We’d gone for an extended ride with the rest of the club on Saturday. On Sunday, the club had helped move my things into Dom’s house. On Monday, Dom and I had spent the day in varying stages of undress, putting everything away and having sex something like two or nine times.

  Yesterday, he and Gator had gone to paint the exterior of a house and today, now, we were headed back to the warehouse full of ambulances to make good on my promise to Watch Commander Figaro and to see if he would make good on his.

  When we pulled up in front of the building, Figaro was outside smoking a cigarette, standing with another medic whose face split into a wide grin. Figaro said, “Well, I’ll be damned,” and the other medic started laughing and clapping. I shut off the Jeep and Dom and I got out.

  “She really talk you into coming back, boy?” Figaro asked.

  “She did indeed,” Dom said and went to him, holding out a hand. They shook, heartily and Figaro looked at me. I raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, Princess. You got me; I didn’t think you could do it.”

  “Never, ever, doubt a Virtue,” I told him, “We’ll surprise you every time.”

  “Virtue?” he asked.

  “There are three of them, Sir. Charity is the youngest, Hope’s the oldest and you have Faith in the middle.”

  “That right? They medically trained too?”

  “Hope’s a defense contractor, Faith’s between jobs. I’m the only medically trained one of the bunch, sorry.”

  “Well, come on in, let’s get some of this paperwork filled out and talk salary.”

  Dom and I traded a look and I raised my eyebrows, “Don’t believe there’s anything to talk about salary wise. You said ‘top of the pay scale’ and that’s exactly what we mean to collect.” I said, following him to the office.

  “Ballsy, ain’t she?” Figaro asked Dom and Dom laughed.

  “You have no idea, and you should meet Hope.”

  “Eh, I think I can do without, and she’s right. You know me, Shep, I stick to my word.”

  “That you do, Sir. That you do.”

  “You want anything else?” Figaro asked and I smiled with the devil’s own grin…

  “Actually, there is one thing…” And that is how Dom and I ended up in the back of one of the ambulances, giggling and trying not to grope each other as we took each other’s EKG readings and printed them out. I had something specific in mind for his, and an offer to make him when it came to Corrine’s and Katy’s but that was for another day. For right now, I just needed to get the print outs.

  “Why do
you want to do this?” he asked me, and kissed me gently.

  “Because reasons!” I said playfully.

  “Because reasons… that is so helpful, Baby. Really, no seriously… don’t quit your day job.”

  “Hey, thanks to me we both have day jobs,” I said and tore off the strip of his readout writing ‘Galahad’ in the corner.

  “This is true,” he said, clipping the leads to the stickers covering my torso.

  I wriggled and he laughed, “Will you hold still?” he demanded.

  “I can’t! It tickles,” I said and we both dissolved into a fit of happy laughter.

  “You know, I can’t thank you enough,” he said and he was so very serious it gave me pause.

  “For what?”

  “For bringing my smile back, and for breathing life back into me.”

  “It was there all along, you just needed a little bit more of a guide wire out of the dark.”

  “Yeah, and that lifeline was you, silly girl, and when I get us home, I’m going to have to thank you proper, over,” he kissed me, “And over,” he kissed me again, “And over again.”

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  I jumped and let out a shriek, and both Dom and I dissolved into fits and peals of laughter.

  Figaro called out, “All right you two! That’s enough shenanigans for one day, get on out of there, it’s time for this bus to get out on the street.”

  “Sir, yes, sir!” I called out and Dom tore my EKG readout strip off the machine.

  He jumped down out of the back of the ambulance first and lifted me down after him. Figaro chuckled.

  “We’ll be seein’ you day after next; you’re on the night watch.”

  “That’ll do for now,” Dom said, “But eventually, I’d like to get us on a day shift.”

  “Noted,” Figaro said, “Now get on out of here.”

  We left, and I drove us home…