C’mon, mermaid, breathe for me. We’ve got a date tonight, you and I. Now’s our time. I need you to breathe, baby. You’re my mermaid, you can breathe underwater. You don’t understand, I can’t lose you this way. Not this way. Breathe, baby. I need you to breathe, Sierra.
More breaths sent into her. I will breathe for you as long as I need to.
“How far away is help?” I scream between breaths and then clamp my mouth down on Sierra’s again.
A gurgle erupts from deep in her chest and I pull my mouth away and quickly turn her head to the side as a mixture of water and vomit erupts in spurts, followed by coughing and gasping and then more vomiting. I’ve turned her on her side and have her propped against me.
“You’re going to be okay, baby. You’re going to be okay.” I brush her wet hair back from her face. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
“Texas Guard has arrived.” I’m informed by someone.
“Let’s AirEvac her out of here and we’ve got a wounded man in the north stairwell. His right leg is in bad shape. He’s going to need fluid resuscitation.”
“Sir, will you be going with them?” Someone asks.
“Yes. I’ll be there in a moment.” There’s a part of me that feels responsible for everyone here and making sure that they leave here securely. That is typically what I would do.
But this time, I realize there is only one place I need to be and that is with the people I love.
Grabbing Palmer and two other guys, we head upstairs and quickly find our logistics guy and the site commander with the Texas Guard.
“We’re moving everyone to Camp Mabry for individual debriefing, Mr. Lundström.”
“You realize how sensitive this is?” I need to make sure my guys let them know with what they are dealing.
“We do, sir, and Homeland is going to be coordinating everything.”
“Okay, great.” Turning to Palmer, “Make sure Colonel Hoffman is brought into this immediately. I’m going with Ms. Stone and Mr. Garber to Brackenridge Hospital. You can get hold of me there.”
And with that, I begin sprinting across the lawn so that I don’t hold up their flights to the hospital any longer.
My lungs are burning. I want to cry out, but I can’t. It hurts too much. And then I feel a sharp pain in my finger. Where did that come from? I wonder.
Opening my eyes, a nurse is squeezing my finger, trying to get blood into a little tube.
“Welcome back,” she whispers with a smile.
“Where am I?” my voice isn’t more than a weak croak.
“Shh, don’t strain yourself. You’re at Brackenridge Hospital and you are going to be just fine.”
“How did I get here?” The effort to speak is enormous. My lungs and windpipe are searing.
“Shh, don’t talk. You were AirEvac’ed in early yesterday afternoon. Your boyfriend can give you all the details.” She looks at me kindly.
“My boyfriend?” I have no idea what she’s talking about. Early yesterday afternoon?
She motions over to a sleeping figure in a chair, “He must’ve just fallen asleep. He’s been by your bedside since you arrived.”
In the dim light, Hale rests in a chair wearing hospital scrubs. The scruff on his jaw is heavy.
“Get some more rest. Your body needs it. I’m going to give you something to make you comfortable and it will also help the burning feeling in your lungs.” She empties a syringe directly into my IV line.
I want to protest, I want to talk to Hale, find out what happened, but by the time she finishes injecting the medication, I can no longer keep my eyes open.
I feel his hands in my hair. His voice is gruff with emotion even though he’s speaking at little more than a whisper. “That was a scary few minutes there, mermaid. I couldn’t let myself think the worst. That just wasn’t an option. If you think I’m going to let you go that easily, well, you don’t know me.” He continues to caress my hair. “We really need to get away. Maybe the mountains, go up to Wyoming. I would say the beach,” he chuckles, “but I think the only water I’m going to let you near is the shower and that’s only if I’m in there with you.”
I wonder if this is a dream. My mouth is beyond dry. Opening my eyes, it’s not a dream. Hale is sitting close to the bed, up near my head.
“I need water.” He gives me an odd look at the request. “Thirsty.” It hurts to talk. My throat and chest are in agony. I feel bruised and broken.
“I think you are allowed these.” He puts a spoon of ice chips to my lips. They cool my parched lips and throat for a moment. Only a moment.
“More.” He feeds me another spoonful. Looking around, I spy a small Styrofoam water pitcher and point to it with the arm not bound by an IV.
“Okay, I’ll ask the nurse.” He walks out of the room and I notice he’s in blue scrubs and remember a memory from waking last night. A few moments later he’s carrying a large cup with a lid and a straw. “She said to sip it slowly. They don’t want you getting sick.”
I can feel the ice cold water travel the entire journey down to my stomach, cooling the flames as it moves along. “What happened? Is everyone okay?” I have no voice and Hale has to put his ear close to my mouth to hear me.
“All the participants are okay. Jeff is down the hall with his right leg a bit messed up, and we lost two perimeter men.” The pain in his eyes feels like a stab to my chest as he shares the update with me. I know him, he is beating himself up for all of it. Taking on full responsibility.
“Do they know anything yet?”
Shaking his head, “Homeland and the FBI are handling it.”
“Up until that it was such a success.”
“Yeah, it was.” Taking my hand, he leans down and presses his lips to the inside of my wrist. “You scared me, Sierra.” He’s lost in his own thoughts for a moment. “Do you know how to swim?”
I nod and feel the tears coming to my eyes just recollecting the fear of not making it out of there.
“Do you remember what happened?” He’s rubbing my hand softly on his scruff and it feels so good.
Trying so hard to pluck the memories and soon they begin to pop up in different parts of my head like Whack-a-Mole. “When the door just inched open, the water started to pull, like a tide. I got dragged under and then got my head up.” Thinking for a second, “I couldn’t move forward and I realized the heel of my shoe was caught in a grate in the floor and I couldn’t unwedge it. So I bent down to try and pull it out and something must’ve hit into me because I felt pain. And that’s all I remember.”
The smile that makes me feel amazing is on Hale’s face for the first time and the effect is like the nurse added some good drugs to my IV. “You went down for a shoe?” I’m not sure if his look is one of astonishment or amusement or a combination of the two.
“It was a Louboutin.” I am dead serious and he loses it laughing.
“Mermaid, I will buy you one hundred pairs of Louboutins. Just please don’t risk your life like that again.”
“When can I leave here?”
“When a neurologist says you’re okay. There’s a lot of testing they’re going to be putting you through before they release you.” He weaves his fingers with mine. “I called your mom and Kemp. They’re both up to speed and know you are out of danger.”
“You spoke to my mom?”
“Yes. She was very nice. Kemp got the number for me. She wanted to fly out to take care of you when you get out, but I told her that it wasn’t necessary because you would be staying with me and I promised I would take a lot better care of you than I did this weekend.”
“Staying with you?” I feel like I can only repeat sections of what he is telling me.
“Yes. I told her that maybe we could all spend Thanksgiving together.” His smile is huge as he drops bombshell after bombshell.
“Who does she think you are?”
“I think I might’ve used the phrase ‘Sugar Daddy’.”
I try to laugh
but the burn turns it into a hacking spasm. Holding the cup and straw as I drink, Hale smiles, “Last night wasn’t exactly what we’d planned. You owe me, Sierra.”
“Start coughing up those Louboutins, Sugar Daddy.”
“I think I’m going to keep you barefoot for a while. Shove over a little.”
Scooching over to make room, he crawls in to the bed, lying on his side facing me. “You look exhausted, Hale.” I press my lips to his forehead.
“Mmm-hmm,” he takes my hand again, threading our fingers as he brings it up to his lips. A second doesn’t pass before his lids close and his breathing tells me that exhaustion has claimed its next victim.
“I didn’t expect to feel this weak.” Leaning against Hale, we enter his apartment, and I’m immediately struck by the grand scale of everything. The curved glass walls make the space feel more loft-like than I had envisioned.
“This way,” he steers me to the left and down to the end of the hall to the master bedroom. His headboard is a lush dark brown padded leather and the bed is topped with a down blanket in a white duvet.
“Let me get you something to change into,” and he disappears into the closet. When he emerges he’s holding a white button down shirt. “Get in bed, woman,” he demands and gently pushes me down by the shoulders into a seated position.
Sensing my discomfort and slight confusion, “Let me go get you some extra pillows and something to drink.”
Leaving me on my own, I start to disrobe from the hospital scrubs I was sent home in and slip his shirt over my head without unbuttoning it. It’s longer than some of my dresses, I observe. Getting under the covers, I’m attempting to roll up the sleeves, when Hale reenters.
“Let me help you with that.” He sits down next to me and expertly rolls the cuffs. When he’s finished, “Sit forward, so I can get these behind you,” and he places two king-sized pillows against the headboard.
“You need rest, mermaid.” He takes a strand of my hair and lets it run through his fingers. “What can I bring you? Can I get you anything?”
I pat the bed next to me, he smiles, gets up and walks around to the other side, kicking of his shoes. Getting in, he remains above the covers.
Rolling over, I put my head on his chest and wrap my right arm around him. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
Laughing, “Thank you for letting me. I didn’t know if you would. I finally got you in my bed.” He gently strokes my hair.
“So, are you ever going to kiss me?” I’m tired, I feel like crap, but I want to feel this man all over me and he’s treating me like a porcelain doll.
“Baby, your body has been through a lot of trauma this week, you need rest. And you really need it for what I plan on doing to you.” He gently pushes the hair from my face.
“You can kiss me.” I am not letting this man leave the bed.
“Yeah, but I won’t be able to stop.”
“Are you going to make me beg you to kiss me? It’s what I need more than anything.”
Turning toward me, he gets under the blanket and pulls me into the length of his body. “How can I deny that?”
“Hale,” looking up into his handsome face, “hold me tighter.”
As his arms pull me closer, I can feel the tears surfacing, before they break into sobs, erupting out of nowhere and I realize how shaken and scared I am. Within Hale’s embrace, I no longer have to call upon strength that’s depleting my energy.
“Shhhh, it’s okay, Sierra. I’ve got you,” his voice is soothing as he starts a gentle rocking motion. “You’re safe, baby. You’ll stay here with me for as long as you’d like.”
Reaching back to the nightstand, he grabs a tissue and dabs under my eyes.
“They were trying to kill somebody,” I finally manage. “Who?” I search his dark blue eyes for an answer.
“The best intelligence resources, from multiple countries, are on it. They will figure out who leaked the location, who the shooters were, what group or person they are affiliated with, who the target was. We’ll have all the answers,” his voice is calm, intensely calm.
“Hale, do you think they were after you?” I’m so worried for his safety. If anything happened to him…
Shaking his head, “I really don’t, Sierra. There were definitely higher value targets in there. I’m kind of low on that totem pole.”
“Would you get a bodyguard for a little while?” I need him to be safe.
Smiling, he kisses my forehead. “You want me to get a bodyguard?”
Nodding, the tears begin anew. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I honestly don’t think I need personal security, baby, but if you’ll sleep better at night, I’ll hire someone until we have answers from last weekend.”
“Thank you,” I manage.
“I love that you are worried about me.” His smile is brilliant.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
Pulling me tighter, I bury my face in his neck. If there was ever a moment I needed to feel connected, have him joined to me, buried deep inside me so that I don’t know where he ends and I begin, now is that moment.
“You need rest,” he whispers in my ear.
Shaking my head, “I’ll rest after you make love to me. I need to be yours.”
“In my head you were mine from the night in the St. Regis. I just didn’t know how wonderful you really were.”
“You were so mean to me.”
“I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even look at you.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you to think I was a jerk,” he admits, candidly.
“Why would I think that?”
“Because I was tongue-tied, Sierra. I wanted to impress you and you were all like, we need to leave, we need to go downtown. Susan clearly wanted to stay and you didn’t give a shit. You could not wait to get out of there.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“And then I made that dumbassed comment about your legs and you just zinged me.”
I laugh at the memory.
Running his fingers through my hair, “I wanted to go all cave man on you, drag you upstairs to a room and fuck your brains out.”
“And now you’ve got me in your bed and you still haven’t made love to me.” I’m going to taunt him until I get my way.
“See, that’s the big difference.”
“What is?” I’m not quite sure what is so evident to him.
“I wanted to fuck you then. Which I still do. Over and over again. But right now, I want to make love to you. I want to make a memory with you that wherever we are in our lives, this will always be the standard for making love.”
“You want me having sex with other men?”
The look on his face is classic. “No. Me, only me, Sierra. The other night I said, I love you. I meant that.”
“So what does that mean, Hale? What does ‘I love you’ mean to you?”
“It means you have my heart. I will always put you first. You are the most important thing to me. You can trust me with anything and everything, but especially with your heart.”
I remain silent.
“Trust me, Sierra.”
Silently, I begin to unbutton the shirt of his that I am wearing. Watching me, I hear his breath catch. After the last button is opened, I shrug the shirt from my shoulders and kick the blanket away.
I watch as he takes me in, his eyes sweeping up and down my body that I have just offered up for his enjoyment. Reaching out, I take his hand and place his thumb and forefinger around my left nipple.
“Hard,” is all I say and he complies with a rough twist. My smile tells him to go harder and he complies, twisting until I moan. Rolling to my back, both nipples are now open to him and both his hands are on them.
“Do you like it a little rough, Sierra?” His eyes are smoldering and I know there is no way he is going to stop now.
“I like it more than a little rough, Hale. But I think you already surmised that.”
“Well today we’re not going to get too rough, but I can’t promise anything about tomorrow or the next day.”
“Suck them,” I direct and reach for his head to press it to my breasts.
“You’re telling me what to do?” He’s amused, but the look in his eyes is dangerous and I crave him even more.
“I am.” I don’t back down.
Taking my hands from his head, he holds them out to the side as he covers my body with his.
“You are really telling me what to do? You are so amusing. That’s actually pretty hot.”
He’s got my body pinned.
“Women don’t tell you what to do?”
“I do what I want.” Right under the surface is the guy who plays Russian roulette with danger, who takes chances with his life because of some deep-seated need I’ve yet to uncover.
“Well, maybe that isn’t satisfying to your partner. Or don’t you care?” I hold his eye contact. We’re in a don’t blink situation.
“Do you think I’ll leave you unsatisfied?”
His smirk makes me want to struggle with him, but I remain very calm and in control.
“Not if you care.”
“You said before that you wanted to be mine.” He uses my words as a weapon.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to be an active participant.” I realize that right now we are laying ground rules for the future and defining our relationship.
“Sierra, I wouldn’t want it any other way with you. That’s what makes you so damn hot and sexy.”
“But you don’t want me to tell you what to do.” I’m confused.
“Nope. I want you to spread your legs and touch yourself. Show me how you touch yourself when you’re thinking about me.” He gets up and sits back on his knees between my spread legs. “Touch yourself, Sierra,” he orders.
Suddenly I feel shy. No man has ever seen me masturbate before and now Hale wants to watch it from this very close up and personal vantage point. Pulling the blue scrubs top over his head, he flings it to the floor. Now sitting bare-chested between my legs, he pushes my thighs farther apart.
Slave to Love Page 16
