Page 37 of Freedom Fighters
Carmen didn’t mind. She wasn’t sure how she felt about this herself, yet. Keeping it private suited her fine.
Her body tingled with anticipation.
Garrett pushed the door to his office open and stood back and looked at her. In the light that shone from the room, his gaze was blank.
Carmen stepped into the room and looked around. She had only been in here a few times. Most of those times, she had been so roiled up by Garrett’s sub-human responses she had failed to take much notice of the room itself.
It was as bare as any of the monks’cells. There was a window high in the wall behind the small desk. Another tiny table had been added since she was last here. The radio transmitter sat on it. The walls were bare, smooth rock, bereft of any paint. The floor was plain tiles.
“Here?” she asked as Garrett closed the door behind him.
“There.” He nodded his head toward the bedroom. He opened the door and once more stepped aside. Carmensuspected he waited for her to make her own way into his room because last time he had given her little choice.
She stepped into the inner room and looked about. There was a bed and an old army footlocker and that was all. A gas lantern sat on the locker, turned down low, in defiance of Garrett’s orders that gas be preserved wherever possible. The colorful coverlet on the bed and the sheet beneathwere tossed to one side.
It was an odd-sized bed, something the monks had made themselves, with little regard for standard mattress sizes. It wasn’t a single bed and it wasn’t quite a double. It didn’t matter if they both fit or not. Carmen didn’t intend to sleep there.
Garrett came up behind her. His arms moved around her. She felt the strength in them. He pulled her hair back over her shoulderand kissed her neck. His touch sent a shiver through her.
She turned in his arms so she faced him. She was back to wanting him again, only this time her need was stronger than ever. She trembled with it.
Garrett examined her face. A crease marred his brows.
“What?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “Nothing.” He bent his head and kissed her and Carmen sighed into his mouth. Until this moment,she hadn’t been aware that all day, in the back of her mind, she had been replaying his kisses, his touches. Replaying them…and wishing for more.
Is that what Garrett had been doing? The covers on the bed looked as though he had thrown them aside in frustration. Had his sleep been as fractured as hers? He was barefoot, the heavy army boots he wore tossed up against the chest, as they might beif he had shucked them off before going to bed. Had his wakefulness caused him to sit up in the dark, throw the covers aside and come to find her?
The questions faded as his kiss deepened. She didn’t hurry this time, even though she badly wanted to. She let the kiss extend and grow.
By the time Garrett let her go, she was breathless. Even her fingers throbbed.
Carmen reached for the buttonson his shirt. She wouldn’t hurry, yet she did want to touch his skin, to touch the warmth and softness once more.
She got three buttons undone, then he gripped her hand, halting her. He reached for the lantern.
“Don’t turn it off,” she said quickly. “I want to see you.”
He paused, his head toward the lantern, away from her. He let his hand drop. “No one has ever seen…me.” His voice was low.
Carmen’s mouth dropped open as she put it together. He’d never let anyone see his scars. If no one had seen them, had he blind-folded his lovers?
Then the secondary implication dropped into place.
He’d never had a lover. Not one, not since his family was murdered.
Carmen swallowed, pushing aside all her questions. Now was not the time. She held out her hand. “I want to see them. If you willlet me.”
Garrett glanced at her. There was pain in his eyes. His jaw was tight.
“Show me,” she coaxed. “If I gag, you can shoot me. I’ll deserve it.”
His mouth twitched. Yet there was still an animal wariness in his eyes as he slowly unbuttoned the shirt. He watched for every little movement or reaction she made.
Carmen deliberately dropped her gaze from his face to the flesh that appeared.He pulled the shirt from his shoulders, dropped it to the ground and waited.
The scars were horrible. Carmen acknowledged that grim fact, then made herself look at them closely.
