Deadly Vision (31 page)

Fallon screamed as he powered into her, claiming her ass in one strong stroke then retreating just as quickly. She’d fisted the pillow beneath her chest as she met each thrust, angling him deeper, taking him farther into her body than he dreamed possible. She was howling in a deep primitive voice that made the hairs on his neck stand up. If he hadn’t known she was immersed in pleasure, he would’ve thought someone was killing her.

But then maybe he was.

With pleasure.

“Hold on. I’m going to come and I want to take you with me.”

She cried out, the sound hushed by the pounding of his blood, so loud it made his head spin. He released one side of her hip and landed another smack on her ass, her scream the only indication he’d sent her even higher. Her anal muscles clenched around his invading cock, milking his release even as he fought to hold on. He came in one almighty spurt, filling her with seed until his toes tingled. Sometime during his release she’d locked him tight inside her ass, her body convulsing on the bed beneath him. He made one last attempt to pleasure her by reaching around and pinching her clit, rewarded by the wail that pierced the air. She gave one last tilt of her hips, then collapsed on the bed.

Gil followed her down, dragging her over on her side as he pulled her tight against his chest. His vision dimmed and his head rolled in dizzying waves and he waited for his orgasm to ease, and his breathing to return to normal. Fallon was locked in his arms, her warm tears washing over his skin.

“I love you too, Gil,” she whispered, her voice so soft he wasn’t sure if he’d heard her.

He held her even tighter, loving how their bodies fit perfectly together. “Sleep now. We’ll talk later. But know this. I’ll never let you go again.”

He thought he heard her sob once as she kissed his arm before sexual exhaustion won the fight and he drifted into the growing darkness.

Chapter Twenty

Fallon woke to the sound of rain on the window. It was hazy and distant, but just enough to ease some of the fuzziness from her head. She squinted at her surroundings, wondering why her body felt so hot. It wasn’t until she tried to roll over she realised she was pressed tight against Gil’s chest. He’d looped one arm around her waist and the other under her head. Her heart clenched when she reran the events of last night, a small pinch in her ass confirming it wasn’t her imagination. Gil had said he loved her…never wanted to leave her. And he’d certainly gone to extreme lengths to stake his claim.

She smiled at the images that filled her head, the feel of his cock tunnelling deep into her ass still vivid in her mind. It’d been so long since she’d experienced that form of pleasure, the intensity of her orgasms had nearly caused her to black out. But it’d been more than just the physical pleasure. There’d been a sensuality to his touch he’d never shown her before. It made her feel more confident than ever. She smiled, and burrowed closer into him.

“You know, Fallon. You keep rubbing me with your ass, and I might forget what a pounding its already taken tonight.”

Fallon’s smile widened. Gil’s cock was already hardening against the small of her back and his voice was deep with lust. “Is that a threat? Or a promise?”

Gil rolled her over in his arms covering her body with his. “Dangerous words, darling.” Then his voice softened and a different emotion crossed his expression. “Are you sore?”

Tears pooled as he traced her jaw with his hands. He looked so sincere she thought her heart would pound out through her chest. “You could never hurt me.”

A vein in his temple twitched as he clenched his jaw. “I already have,” he whispered, climbing off of her and walking over to the window. “I pushed you away when all you wanted to do was help me.”

Fallon’s stomach dropped as she watched him stare out at the dreary night. She could see the pain in his reflection on the rain streaked window. It was then she realised how much leaving had hurt him too. A calm settled in her heart and she pushed herself up and walked to the other side of the window. “It’s taken me a long time to see that you didn’t leave to hurt me. I think you left because it hurt you too much to stay.” She looked down at her feet. “I never should’ve gone along that night. I knew it’d kill you inside.”

She hadn’t realised he’d moved until she felt his hands close around her shoulders as he turned her back towards the bed. “What?” His voice was harsh and the tone in it sent shivers down her spine. “You’ve spent all this time thinking I left because of the night we shared with Charlie?”

She nodded, unable to talk around the lump lodged in her throat.

Gil shook her once and moved away, stalking his way back to the bed. “That night is the only memory that’s kept me sane these past six months.” He met her gaze. “The only reason I didn’t finish what those bastards started that day.”

“But, I don’t understand. If you weren’t mad about sharing me with Charlie, then what? And why did you want to share in the first place?”

Gil sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, pressing his head into his hands. “It started five years before I met you.” He paused as if signalling her to sit down. She moved over, taking the chair across from him.

“Charlie and I used to work together out of the Reno office. We’d been stationed there since we’d left the academy, working extortion cases. I was pretty happy there, but…” He shrugged. “Charlie had met this beautiful young journalist and accepted a transfer to Seattle where she’d just been offered her own column. A couple of weeks before he was supposed to move the three of us headed off for one last hurrah.” He stopped and looked over at her. “And no, we didn’t share her. It was just Charlie’s way of saying good-bye.

“Anyway, we headed down to Central America for some cheap fun in the sun. Juliet, Charlie’s fiancé, wanted…”

“Charlie’s fiancé?” she interrupted lurching to her feet. “I never heard either of you mention any fiancé before.” Gil merely nodded and motioned her back to the chair. She plopped down on the seat, not sure if she’d decided to sit or if her legs had given out.

“Juliet wanted to see this little town in the mountains her friends had told her about. And Charlie couldn’t say no to her. We were nearly over the peak when some jackass trying to pass us on a blind corner barrelled into the car to avoid a head-on and sent us over the edge.”

He looked down at his hands clenched in his lap. They were trembling. “What happened?”

Gil’s jaw twitched and his eyes went distant, as if he was somewhere else. “I don’t really remember much. Loud noises. Screaming. The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground beside the car, my head throbbing and my ribs so sore I could barely breathe. Somehow, we’d made it to the bottom of this crag and Charlie had pulled us both from the wreckage.” Gil laughed, but it was hollow. “Charlie was the only one not hurt. I mean, not even a fucking scratch. To this day I don’t know how he managed that.”

“What about Juliet?”

Gil’s face sobered and his skin paled. “She was pretty bad. In and out of consciousness…internal bleeding. We knew if we didn’t get her some help fast, she wouldn’t make it. Charlie tried climbing back up, but…” His voice trailed off and all Fallon could do was caress her fingers over his.

“We decided to walk it out. We’d passed another town several miles back and figured we could reach it by nightfall. What we didn’t know was how fucking slow it is traipsing through the jungle. Especially when one of you can barely move. I tried to keep up, but I was coughing up blood by sunset. Charlie decided to stop and did what he could to keep Juliet comfortable. But…”

His eyes filled with tears and his voice grew hoarse. Fallon felt hers fall down her cheek, but didn’t release Gil’s hand to wipe them away.

Gil took a deep breath. “She died in the night. We moved on the next day, Charlie still carrying her. He said he couldn’t leave her there, alone. That he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t bring her home to rest in peace. But that damn town never seemed to pop up and we ended up walking for hours again. By noon I was doubled over and so delirious I couldn’t even remember where I was. I finally just collapsed. I told Charlie to go ahead and get help. That’s the last I remember.”

He stopped and looked like a man in need of a drink. Fallon thought about running to the kitchen, but he’d sandwiched her fingers between his and didn’t seem able to let go. “Did Charlie go for help?”

He shook his head and tightened his hold on her. “I woke up a week later in a federal hospital in Reno. Apparently Charlie had carried me eight more miles before he stumbled upon the highway and was able to flag down some help. They’d flown us both stateside and…”

She nodded, her chest so tight she was fighting to take each breath. “What about Juliet?”

Gil closed his eyes and she saw the first tear ease down his cheek. “He had to leave her behind to save me.”

“Oh God, Gil. I’m so sorry. Is that why he was always so…distant?”

“He never really came to terms with his decision. And I always felt like I’d made a part of him die that day. So I applied to transfer with him, and we continued on here as if things were the same.”

“But they weren’t.”

“He’d changed. Never dated, or showed any interest in women.” He stopped and looked her straight in the eyes. “Not until I introduced him to you.”

Fallon pulled back a bit, not sure what to say. Had she somehow made Charlie think she was attracted to him? Or worse, had she been, but too ashamed to admit it? “Gil, I never meant…”

Gil patted her hand and forced a smile. “I know. It wasn’t anything you did. It was just you. Your personality, your sense of humour. The easy way you accept people as if they’re family. You were the only person who could make him smile…I mean really smile.”

“So how does that translate into a threesome?”

Gil’s lips tightened and he pulled his hands away. “We were working a very involved case. There was a new sect in town supplying weapons to American mercenaries abroad. We needed to know where and who, and to do that, we needed someone on the inside. Charlie volunteered. He was supposed to find out where the weapons came from and went so we could intercept a shipment. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until a few days before the raid. We were sitting at his place, drinking beer and going over the details, when he just out and confessed he was in love with you.”

Fallon’s stomach flip-flopped as she stared at Gil. But he didn’t seem angry or jealous. “And you were okay with that?”

He shrugged again and sighed. “It’s not like he was going to try and steal you away or anything. It was more a revelation. He hadn’t cared about anyone for so long, and all I could think about was how he’d finally let Juliet go.” He reached out and took her hand. “I wanted him to remember what it was like to be loved so…”

Fallon nodded, all too aware of how the story ended.

“You saved him, Fallon. You gave him back that part of him he’d left in the jungle.”

“So if that’s true, then why did you leave?” Gil’s face tightened at the question and she watched him fight against some inner demon. It was obvious there was more to his story than he’d told her. After a few minutes he stood up and once again walked over to the window. “What happened in the warehouse, Gil?”

Gil bowed his head as if holding it up took too much strength. “It involved this woman he’d had to
work
with during his undercover time.” He waved his hand in the air. “It doesn’t really matter. In the end, he got hurt and I didn’t save him.”

“That’s not true.” She stood up and padded over to him, stopping behind him. “You did everything you could.”

Gil’s face twisted with guilt as he shook his head. “I let him die, I…”

Fallon silenced him with a soft finger over his lips. He turned to look at her, tears staining his cheeks. “You didn’t let him die. You carried him through that warehouse. You walked until you fell. I saw you try to keep him alive until you were lying beside him, unconscious.” She ran her fingers over his cheeks, wiping away the light wash of tears. “You gave him your last breath. No one could ask for more than that.”

Gil choked back a sob as he grabbed her and pulled her tight against him. She moved easily into his arms and surrounded him with her warmth. He burrowed his head into her hair, inhaling the fresh scent until the smell of blood and fear he’d always associated with that memory faded. A weight lifted off his heart, replaced by a new deeper emotion.

“It kills me to think you saw that,” he finally mumbled. Fallon merely held him tighter. “I wish you’d told me about this before.” He pulled back and placed his hand under her chin. “Two years is a long time to keep a secret.”

Fallon’s expression changed as she pulled away and put her back to him. “It wasn’t something you needed to know.”

“Maybe not. But it was something you needed to tell me.” He closed the distance. “I might have doubted your ability. But I never would’ve doubted you.”

Fallon’s shoulders hunched, tension bunching her muscles. “I couldn’t risk it,” she whispered.

“Risk what?”

A soft sob echoed in the room as she glanced back at him over her shoulder. “That you’d leave.”

Gil’s heart clenched at the sight of the fear in her eyes. “Why would I leave because of…” he waved his hand in the space between them, “…of what you can do?” He saw the hurt flash and the way she kicked up her chin spoke volumes. “Did someone else leave because of it?” She looked away. “Fallon?”