“You’re starting to heal,” Alma said the following morning as she traced a finger delicately along one of the cuts that were starting to close and would eventually form a raised, red ridge of flesh between Lucca’s shoulder blades.

“The scars are to remind me of my transgressions.”

“Yes, but you escaped with your life. That has to count for something.”

Lucca winced as she replaced the remaining bandages. He was sitting up with his feet on the floor. She was perched on the edge of the mattress next to him. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on how good she always smelled. Sweet but not like flowers. He hadn’t quite figured it out yet. He would need to get closer to her to do that.

“Here, take these.” She reached into her pocket and offered him two Oxycontin.

“No, no more. I need a clear head.”

“Stubborn man.”

“That I am. I know it’s vain, but I hate the idea of having to think twice about taking my shirt off every time I go swimming or spend an afternoon working outside. Scars like this mean questions, and questions in my line of work? Well, you know how it is.”

“I do. And just think, every time you fuck one of your cartel whores you’ll have to explain how you got all those stripes on your back. But that will probably just make them want you even more.” She said it more sharply than she intended, which did not go unnoticed.

He turned toward slowly, his eyes glinting with sexual interest as he cupped her jaw in his big hand, softly caressing her ear lobe between his thumb and forefinger. “Say you belong to me.”

She pushed his hand away and met his gaze steadily. “How can you ask that of me? You can’t possibly know if you really want me.”

“I could say the same about you. Are you a virgin, sweet Alma?”

“Are you?” she asked saucily, her cheeks aflame.

“No, I’m not. But does it help that I wish I were? I wish I could come to you that way. But fate has seen fit to bring us together as we are. It’s true, I have fucked a lot of women to sate my body’s baser needs, but the memory of them doesn’t linger. They don’t haunt my dreams or consume my thoughts. But you do. I don’t think of them when I get myself off. I think of you.”

“But you can barely move! How can you--”

“Desperate times and all that. I think of you, of all the things I want to do to you, all the ways I want to touch you and taste you.”

“Oh.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you a virgin?”

“Yes. I was sheltered. Protected. And since I’ve been here, I don’t exactly get out much except for school.”

He closed his eyes for a long moment. “You have no idea what I… I don’t want to scare you, so I need to understand. Where, exactly, have you been touched?”

She shook her head. “Nowhere.”

“Do you enjoy it when you touch yourself?”

“No. I mean, I don’t…I don’t do that.”

“Baby, are you telling me you’ve never come? You’ve never had an orgasm? No one’s ever gotten you off?”

“No, okay? Just, no. Okay, so I’m going to go now–”

“No, no, don’t go. I’m not making fun of you, baby. I just didn’t realize. I’ve told you, I’m a selfish man so I’m glad. I’m also greedy where you’re concerned. I get all your firsts for myself.” He grimaced and hissed as he moved back onto the bed and made room for her next to him. “Come here.”

“Why? What are you doing?”

“Come here. Lay with me. I have to kiss you and hold you.”

“But your back…”

“Let me worry about that. I may not be at full speed, but I’m moving around okay, and, look,” he turned slightly and winced, “I can lay on my side just fine as long as I’m careful. I’m perfectly capable of making you feel good. Let me show you just a little of what we will be together.”

He held out his hand and waited. There was nothing he could do to stop her from leaving, but he prayed that she would stay. She looked from his face to his chest as he lay on his side, braced on his elbow, to the empty space in front of him on the bed. Her decision made, she placed her hand in his and let him pull her down next to him.

No other woman would do. He had come to understand that when he started feeling grateful for the wounds that had required so much medical care. Now he would tend to her needs in a way that no other man ever had. And he intended to keep right on tending to her for the rest of his life.

Someday he would thank Antonio Wayne for every bloody slash that had brought his angel to him. Alma had rescued him. No one else had ever wanted to. Hell, no one else had ever even tried.