Page 80 of Vistaria Has Fallen
Two hours later, she still felt safe. Also bored and exhausted. No one had looked in on her. When she looked along the passage she saw no one. She considered going to look for people in case she had been forgotten. Then she remembered the officerin the gatehouse, his recognition of the St.Christopher medallion and knew she would not be ignored.
Forty minutes later Calli heard people in the passage outside and saw a shadow on the glass panel in the door.
She held her breath, her nerves prickling to the alert.
The door opened and Nick stepped into the room. He shut the door behind him and stood looking at her.
“Nick, I’m sorry. I wouldn’thave come here if I’d had any other choice. I’d have stayed away forever. It’s Minnie, Nick. She’s gone to find Duardo—”
He crossed to the table and she braced herself, wondering if he would vent his anger in closer quarters.
Instead his arms enveloped her and crushed her against him. He kissed her thoroughly, deeply, until her thoughts scattered and her body tingled with thick, warm arousal.
She groaned beneath his lips. He pushed her hat off and held her head in his hand and rained kisses on every inch of her face and finally her lips again.
“Sweet,” he said, his lips against hers.
“Nick—”
He made a small sound. “I dreamed of you whispering my name last night,” he said, his voice rough. “Just as you did then.”
Her heart gave a tiny leap. She had expected Nick to be angry whenshe stood before him. She had braced herself for it, even while in her heart, deeply buried, was the hope that he would be pleased to see her. She had not expected this. She had not dared hope he might speak of missing her, even indirectly.
“I dream of you.Still.” His voice was the gravelly one from her dreams, from the first night they’d met, and from every moment when he spoke of somethingclose to his heart. His low rumble sent a shiver through her. She had not thought she would ever hear it again.
He spoke by her ear. “Two mornings now, I have woken in my lonely bed and cursed myself for wasting all the moments I had with you. I crave with an addict’s need for just one moment more. Just a single moment. Seeing you here, when I did not expect to ever see you again... I am weak,when it comes to you.”
She smiled. “Nicolás Escobedo and ‘weak’ are mutually exclusive,” she teased. “You just know what you want, that’s all.”
His arms tightened about her in response.
With her cheek against the soft cashmere of his dark sweater, she felt the beat of his heart and heard his breathing. His unique, masculine scent washed over her.
He let her go at last and stepped back enoughto look at her face. He smiled. “I certainly didn’t think I would see you again, with all this madness around us.” He pushed a stray wisp of her hair off her face.
“It’s a horrible disaster, Nick. It hurts to watch. It’s all because of—”
“No!” He said it quickly and put his finger against her lips. “Don’t ever say it,” he said. “Not ever. What has happened, happened, and what will happen, willbe. No regrets, no guilt. That’s what we agreed, remember?”
She nodded.
“Tell me about Minnie. Duardo. What has happened?”
Calli told him quickly. Just the facts. He would figure out the rest for himself. “You phoned him, Nick. You have the number. I can find out if she made it that far. It must have been his family’s house you phoned. That’s where she’d head, I think. If I could talk to her,arrange a place to meet her and pick her up, then...”
Nick shook his head. “Pascuallita has fallen. It’s in the hands of the rebels. Any resistance there is being dealt with. We can’t go in.”
“Then Minnie could not either,” Calli said. “What will happen to her?”
“She will be forced to abandon the car because traffic out of Pascuallita will be too heavy. If she tries to go further on foot, shewill have to fight her way through refugees. If she continues she will collide with the fragments of the army, making its way south, escaping the guns of the rebels. The army is broken. The base abandoned. They’re on the run.”
“Is there nothing I can do?”
“You?” Nick’s smile was small. “You would take on two armies by yourself?”
“There is no one else.”
He studied her.
