Cal Hollister shook hands with Tonio. “I appreciate your courage,” he said as they sat down. “This can’t be easy for you, I know.”
Tonio was impressed. “Thanks,” he said, and flushed a little. “You won’t tell anybody that I told you? You won’t let David get killed?”
“I won’t.”
Tonio looked at Sunny. He grimaced. “You can’t listen,” he said gently.
She smiled warmly at him. “I have to go on duty anyway,” she agreed. She ruffled his hair. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Sunny,” he promised. He smiled back.
“You like her, don’t you?” Cal teased when she was gone.
“She’s so much like my mother,” Tonio said. “Mom died three years ago. It’s just me and my dad, and he’s never home.”
“That’s a shame,” Cal said quietly. “What can you tell me?”
“Rado killed those people.”
“Who?”
“The man and woman, the ones that were in the paper,” he added, having remembered just in time not to say that his father had told him about them. “Rado did it. They were going to say that he killed that senator’s daughter, the one who died of a drug overdose. It wasn’t an overdose, David said. Rado did it. Now he and his sister are in real trouble, because Rado’s watching them like a hawk to make sure they don’t rat him out.”
Cal let out a breath. “Tonio, this is big. Really big. Will David talk to me?”
“No,” he said. “I can’t ask him to. His brother died about the time the senator’s daughter did. He’s only got his sister. Rado makes her sell herself to keep him in money,” he added sadly.
“This is where it gets hard,” Cal said quietly. “Names. I need their names. I swear to you, nobody will ever know who told me.”
Tonio drew in a long breath. It was now or never. “David Lopez,” he said. “His sister’s Tina.” He gave Cal the address, unaware that Cal recognized them instantly and felt his heart lift. “Please,” Tonio said. “Don’t trust anybody else with what I told you. I can’t stand it if David dies on account of me. He’s my best friend.”
“I can promise you that he’ll be safe,” Cal said, with a solution already in mind. He smiled at the boy. “You’ve been very brave. I’m proud of you.”
Tonio’s heart jumped. It had been a long time since anyone had been proud of him. He grinned. “Thanks.”
“Now forget who I am, and that you ever saw me,” Cal said. He glanced around to make sure they weren’t observed. “If anyone asks, you did something bad and I saw it and gave you a lecture. So don’t smile.”
Tonio made a face. “What did I do?”
“Tried to get something out of the vending machine using a washer,” he replied with twinkling gray eyes.
“Can you do that?” Tonio asked.
“Never mind if you can do that,” Cal said. He got up and shook his finger at the boy. “Don’t you ever do what you didn’t do again. Got that?”
“Oh, yes, sir,” Tonio said, nodding enthusiastically.
“Good. I’ll see you.” He left the canteen just as Rosa came up.
“Who’s that you were sitting with?” she asked curiously.
“Just a guy who was sitting at the table when I came in. It was crowded, so I sat with him. Nice guy,” he added.
“Well, he was a dish,” she said, with a soft whistle. “Why can’t I ever meet guys who look like that?” she teased. “Maybe you could introduce me.”
He managed not to blow his cover. “How?” he asked, laughing. “I don’t know who he is.”
“Darn. He looked almost familiar, isn’t that strange?” she added, laughing, while Tonio prayed that she wouldn’t remember Cal. Rosa had been a policewoman. Certainly she’d have recognized him if he’d been closer when she arrived. “Well, let’s go. I hope we can get home without sliding into a ditch,” she groaned.
“You’re a great driver,” Tonio told her. “We’ll be fine.”
She ruffled his hair. “Okay, buster, thanks for the compliment. Let’s go.”
* * *
The movie theater was crowded for the Saturday matinee. Fortunately the ticket taker wasn’t the one John had seen when he’d brought Sunny here before. He didn’t want Tonio to know about her until he could find a way to introduce them that wouldn’t produce a traumatic result.
“Here, get us some popcorn,” he told his son, handing him a twenty dollar bill.
“Want a Coke?” Tonio asked.
“Sure.”
“Okay. Be right back.”
John sat on the bench, studying the messages on his phone. One of them that he hadn’t noticed was from Colter Banks, who was working overtime today. He’d found out something about Tina Lopez.
He read that and his heart jumped. He was tempted to leave the theater, but he couldn’t do that to Tonio. The boy had been excited about the movie all week. He’d get through it and then he’d go see Banks. He typed him a text message and sent it. Then he sent another, to Sunny: see you later, pretty girl. He smiled when she typed back ok, and added a heart.
Tonio gave him a suspicious look. “Who’re you talking to?”
“Someone I know.”
“A woman,” Tonio said, because his father’s face had been radiant for those few seconds. His own face grew cold with mingled fear and concern.
“I’m only texting her, for God’s sake, not trying to marry her!” John almost bit his tongue. He’d snapped at the boy, because of his reaction to his father texting a woman. It stung.
“Sorry,” Tonio said, averting his eyes.
John didn’t speak. He took the Coke Tonio had brought him and waved away the change.
Tonio felt bad. He’d made a lot of trouble for his father. It must be lonely for John without Maria. Tonio missed her. He knew that his dad did, too. But he didn’t want another woman around.
Except maybe Sunny. He adored her. He was sure that his father would, too, if he could just find a way to get them together. But he had no idea how to proceed. The woman in the text must mean something to his dad, because he’d looked...different suddenly. Happy. Tonio felt guiltier than ever. He loved his dad. But he just didn’t want any other woman in his house. Well, that wasn’t completely true. Sunny would do nicely. If only he could find some way to get them to meet.
* * *
Something was tingling at the back of John’s mind all through the movie. Tonio had a friend with a smart mouth who played video games with him. The boy’s name was David. Tonio said that he wasn’t playing lately because he’d hurt his hand.
As he processed those thoughts, he recalled the name Lopez. Tina Lopez had been the woman who let Tonio stay with her when he ran away from home. Tina had a brother. What was the brother’s name, the one who hadn’t died about the same time the senator’s daughter did? Harry Lopez was the victim of a drug overdose. Or so they said. The younger brother, what was his name? Wasn’t it David?
Lights flashed in his mind. David Lopez. Tonio’s friend. He pulled out his cell phone while Tonio’s attention was on the action scene playing on the big screen. Tina Lopez had a rap sheet. She also had gang associations. Los Diablos Lobitos. Her brother was David. He went to San Felipe. Tonio’s school.
He put up the phone. He was furious. The connection was right in front of his face and he hadn’t seen it. David Lopez was a member of Los Diablos Lobitos. He hadn’t realized it before and Tonio hadn’t told him. Tonio also had to know that David’s arm had been broken by Rado, but he hadn’t told his own father. Why?
* * *
John was silent all the way to the ranch. Tonio watched him covertly, frightened. His dad looked furious.
“Did I do something?” Tonio asked when they were walking in the front door.
John put up his coat and hat. He turned to his son. “Your friend is David Lopez.”
“Well, yes,” Tonio said hesitantly.
“He has a sister named Tina, a prostitute.”
“She’s not bad,” Tonio said. “She was forced to go on the streets—!”
“Yes. By Rado,” he replied coldly.
Tonio swallowed, hard. He looked tormented.
“Rado broke a kid’s arm for talking about him. He laughed while he was doing it. Your friend David doesn’t play with you, but not because he hurt his hand. It’s because Rado broke his arm. Isn’t it?”
Tonio almost panicked. “Dad—”
“What do you know about Tina and David, and their connection to Rado?” he persisted.
“I can’t tell you,” he began.
“You can. You will!”
“I told a cop,” he replied quickly. “Someone I know got him to come see me at the hospital. I told him all about Rado and David and Tina. He promised to make sure David and Tina don’t get hurt. If Rado finds out I told, he’ll kill David! You can’t go over there and make trouble for them. Please, Dad,” he pleaded. “David’s the only friend I’ve got, and he’s scared to death of Rado. He says Rado’s over there all the time now, because David and Tina know enough to put him away for life. David called me on a throwaway phone. He’s so scared!”
John cursed under his breath. “You told a cop,” he said icily. “But you wouldn’t tell me? I’m your father, Tonio!”
Tonio felt terrible. “Dad, you’re like an avalanche when you’re on a case,” he said defensively. “I was scared that you’d go over there to talk to David. Rado would find out and David would die.”
“I can be discreet,” John argued. His face was hard as stone. “Who’s the cop?”
Tonio ground his teeth together in anguish. “I promised I wouldn’t tell. He’s got friends in Los Serpientes,” he added. “Well, not friends, maybe, but people he trusts.”
“A cop with gang friends. A boy who’s in danger of dying because he knows too much. A known killer standing in the shadows. Did it ever occur to you that you’re putting people in the line of fire by saying anything at all? And worse, if Rado finds out that you talked to someone in law enforcement, he’ll be after you!”
“The cop was sitting with someone I know, a woman,” he replied. “It would look like they were getting together and I was just sitting at their table. Even Rado couldn’t believe I was telling the cop anything.”
John ran a hand through his hair. “Damn it, Tonio,” he bit off. “I put you in school in San Antonio to keep you out of trouble. Your friend David is up to his neck with the wolves, and you’re his friend. Do you think Rado doesn’t know? Do you think he believes you won’t say anything?”
Tonio felt nervous. And not only for himself. Now he was worried about Sunny as well. What if he put her in harm’s way? What if Rado was watching the canteen or had people watching it for him? What if he’d seen Cal Hollister with Rado and Sunny and thought Tonio was telling both of them things about Rado that he’d heard from David?
“I didn’t mean to get anybody in trouble,” he said miserably. He looked up at John with dark, solemn eyes. “I only wanted to help David. I didn’t want him to die, or Tina, either. Tina isn’t on the streets because she wants to be. Rado made her. Dad, he’s so dangerous,” he added quietly, going closer. “I was afraid to tell anybody, but this woman I know at the hospital said she knew somebody I could trust, because she trusted him. She’s been hurt by Rado’s gang, too.”
“Some woman, a stranger, says you can trust her,” John scoffed.
“She’s not a stranger,” Tonio protested. “She’s kind and sweet.” He turned his eyes away. “She reminds me of Mom.”
John bit his lower lip. The boy was alone too much. No wonder he was making friends at his school who were out of the mainstream. John had put him there to protect him and to straighten him out. Now it seemed, he’d put him in danger as well.
“I don’t want you talking to David again,” he said firmly. “I’m going to have one of my men shadow you, even at school from now on. Rado’s not getting to you. No matter what I have to do.”
“David’s my friend,” Tonio protested.
“If he knows something on Rado, I have to find out what it is,” John said quietly. “This is bigger than us, Tonio. The man’s killed people. Two, just recently. I can’t let him walk.”
“But he won’t, that’s what I’m trying to tell you! The cop’s going after him. He said he can do it in a way that won’t involve me or the woman who helped me. He can protect David and his sister.”
“If Rado wants them dead, there’s no such thing as protection, least at all from a police officer. He may have the best of intentions, but you can’t go about something like this in a covert way, Tonio. You have to go through the front door.”
“Please don’t get David killed,” Tonio said miserably.
John didn’t reply. He put his hat and coat back on. “I’ll be late.”
“Dad, please...?!”
“I’m not going after them tonight,” he said curtly, his black eyes cutting into his son’s face. “I have to meet an informant.” That was a lie. He was meeting Sunny. “But you keep your nose out of this, understand me? I don’t want you near David until we can get Rado sorted out. Afterward, well, we’ll see.”
“I wish I’d never punched that teacher,” Tonio said gruffly. “This woman I know asked me if I just did it to get your attention.” He lowered his eyes, blind to his father’s sudden flush. “I don’t know. Maybe I did.” He shrugged. “The movie was nice. Thanks. I’m going to bed.”
“Tonio.”
The boy turned on his way down the hall.
John moved closer, his face troubled. “I know we don’t spend enough time together. I’m trying to do something about it. It’s just...” He hesitated and drew in a breath. “You don’t understand how it is with me. I can’t crawl into the grave with your mother. I loved her. But life goes on. It has to. Do you really expect me to live the rest of my life alone?”
Tonio’s face closed up. “There really is a woman, isn’t there?”
John lifted his chin. “Yes. There’s a woman. I take her out for a sandwich now and then. That’s all.”
Tonio’s face hardened. “As long as I don’t have to be around her,” he said sullenly. He turned and walked away.
John looked after him, ready to fight. But Sunny was waiting, and he was tired of trying to change the boy’s mind.
“Dad?”
He looked back from the open door.
“Please don’t get David killed,” the boy repeated sadly.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said curtly, and left. On the way off the ranch, he had a talk with his foreman about providing additional security for Tonio. As an afterthought, he phoned Eb Scott to see who he had who might be willing to shadow Tonio in San Antonio while he was in school and he put the man on the ranch payroll at once. That settled, he drove back to the city.
* * *
He sent Sunny a text and said he’d be a little late for the evening film. She sent him one back that said it didn’t matter what time. She added that she had a new movie on DVD and maybe they could watch it at her apartment. He sent back an lol and a message that he’d like that even better.
Before he went to her apartment, despite Tonio’s warning, he made a beeline to the Lopez apartment. Earlier in the week, Cal Hollister had promised to have Tina brought in for questioning on prostitution so that they could interrogate her, but the officer Hollister sent hadn’t been able to locate her. It was Saturday night. If she had a “date,” she might be at home. He was going to see.
* * *
He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He couldn’t see any lights on in the apartment from under the door. Odd, the boy at least should be there.
Troubled, he went by Father Eduardo’s church. The priest welcomed him and took him into his office. He closed the door.
“How can I help?” he asked.
“I’m looking for Tina Lopez and her brother David,” John said. “They aren’t at her apartment, and it’s dark. No lights.”
The priest nodded. “They’ve gone into hiding, is all I can tell you. But things are in motion that will bring a good result.”
“What things?” John asked.
The priest only smiled. “Good things. Be patient.”
“They’re witnesses in a murder investigation,” came the reply. “I know that Rado’s making threats. They’re in danger.”
“Not now,” Father Eduardo replied. “They’re safe, and in good hands. Rado’s future is looking darker by the second. But that’s all I can tell you. I gave my word.”
John bit back a curse. Here was the worst dead end he’d had in ages. An active murder investigation, and the two people who might finger the shooter were out of reach. “Can you tell me if they’re still in the city, at least?”
Father Eduardo laid a gentle hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Rado will pay for his crimes, sooner than he thinks. And that is all I can tell you.”
John just shook his head. “Okay. I’ll get with my task force and hope they’ve got another solution.”
“They will have. You worry so much,” the priest said gently. “It is good, that you want to preserve the peace and protect others. It is bad that you give so little of that time to yourself. God guides us, you know,” he added. “He sends us down the river of life with the illusion that we are in charge. But the reality is that we have no control over what happens to us, unless you discount prayer. You must relax and just live life.”
“Sound advice, but I have a stressful occupation,” John said with a faint smile.
“I came from an even more stressful one, to my present job. I can tell you for a fact that once I sat down and let God lead, the stress lessened drastically.”
John chuckled. “It seems I have no choice, for the moment. Thanks anyway.”
“Buena suerte,” Father Eduardo said. “Y que Dios te bendiga.”
“You, too, father. Merry Christmas.”
The priest smiled. “It is good, that we can say this once again. Feliz Navidad to you, too, my son. Y prospero año y felicidad.”
“There’s a song about that,” John said with a twinkle in his black eyes.
“José Feliciano. One of my favorites.”
“Mine as well. See you around.”
“Yes. You will.”
* * *
John worried the problem of the Lopezes and his son all the way to Sunny’s apartment. He couldn’t believe he’d been so preoccupied that he hadn’t realized the David Lopez with the broken arm was the same David who was his son’s best friend. He was working too hard, putting in too much overtime. He was neglecting his son.
He hated even the thought of Tonio in danger from Rado. It seemed that the boy was keeping many secrets from him. He’d said that a San Antonio cop was helping him. He wished he knew which one. He was also curious about the mysterious woman Tonio referred to. The way he spoke of the woman indicated great affection. It was amazing how much John didn’t know about his son.
Perhaps they were right. He needed to be less obsessed with his job and more attentive to his only child. If only he and Tonio could work out their problems. John wanted him to know Sunny. If he could just meet her, it might change his whole attitude. But how to bring that about, without invoking tragedy—that was the thing.
* * *
Sunny met him at the door, in her sock feet, wearing jeans and a long red sweater with a reindeer on it.
He laughed wholeheartedly. “I could use a little Christmas cheer,” he teased as he put up his hat and coat and joined her in the kitchen. “You’re not cooking?” he wondered.
“I’ve had supper. Have you?” she asked.
“Yes...”
“So I made dessert.” She indicated a cookie sheet on the stove. There were several kinds of cookies. All of them looked delicious, even to a man who didn’t normally like sweets.
“Forget the popcorn,” he said at once. “I love cookies. Just enough sweetness without overdoing it.” He made a face. “I don’t like cakes much. And pies, only occasionally. But cookies! My favorite treat! And how did you know I liked chocolate?” he teased, taking her by the waist.
“I didn’t. I took a chance.” She looked up at him, laughing. She looked very pretty with her face scrubbed clean and her long, silky hair around her shoulders. She smelled of wildflowers and soap all at once.
He bent down and nuzzled her nose with his. “We could have gone out, if you’d wanted to.”
“I’d rather be here,” she returned. She smiled. “You can relax on the sofa. In the theater, not so much.”
“True.” He let her go and grabbed two cookies.
“Here.” She handed him a red dish, which he filled to the brim. “Coffee?”
“Do you really need to ask?” he asked with a laugh.
“Silly question. I already made a pot. It’s strong,” she added and poured it out into two mugs.
“I love black coffee strong,” he said when she joined him on the sofa. “I live on it.”
“Me, too. Night shift gets long.”
He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “It does, indeed.”
“Why don’t you take off your boots?” she asked. “I almost never wear shoes inside. Too confining.”
He grinned at her. He tugged off his expensive boots and tossed them to one side, wriggling his toes in his thick white socks. “You’re right. Much better.”
He drew her up beside him after she’d started the DVD player. “What are we going to watch?”
“The new cartoon movie. Well, it’s not new, but I haven’t seen it.”
“Moana!” he exclaimed. “I haven’t seen it, either. I’ve heard great things about it from the people at work. Most of them have kids.”
She smiled. “I love cartoon movies.”
“So do I.”
* * *
The music was lovely, the acting perfect. But about halfway through the movie, John drew her across his lap and kissed her softly.
She wreathed her arms around his neck and kissed him back. In between segments of the movie, his hands slid under her sweater and up her bare back to the fastening of her bra. This was familiar now, comfortable. She felt his hands on her firm breasts with a sense of wonder at how right it felt, how good. She never protested once.
He eased her down on the sofa and kissed her hungrily, his body moving slowly against hers in a sensuous, exciting way. His hands eased up the sweater. She was so far gone already that she never tried to stop him when he pulled it over her head and tossed it to one side, along with the shirt he quickly removed.
The feel of his bare, warm, hair-roughened chest against her bare skin was so exciting that she gasped out loud.
He held her close. “Rubia,” he whispered at her ear, his voice strained, “you are every dream I ever had of the perfect woman!”
“Not so perfect,” she replied sadly.
He lifted his head and looked down at her. His fingers lightly traced over the breast with the scar. “This makes no difference,” he whispered. “Except that I wouldn’t have had you hurt for all the world.”
“It’s unsightly—”
Before she could finish the sentence, his mouth was on the nipple, moving down, coaxing, invading, consuming her with a faint suction that lifted her right off the couch in a helpless, anguished arch. Her nails dug into his thick hair as she shivered with unexpected pleasure that seemed to feed on itself.
“You like that?” he chuckled, deep in his throat. “I like it, too. So much!”
His mouth shifted to the other breast and he repeated the arousing caress, joy shafting through him as he heard her soft cries of pleasure, felt her body go rigid with desire, with delight.
While his mouth was busy, so were his hands. At first, she protested, a little, but another feverish caress and she let him unzip the loose jeans and push them down her legs. She was vaguely aware of his own jeans following, along with his gunbelt and pistol, but she was so intoxicated with pleasure that she had no will of her own left.
“This is going to end badly,” he bit off at her mouth as his body covered hers. “Very badly...”
“I know,” she whimpered. But she was pulling, not pushing. It was the most exquisite physical pleasure she’d ever known.
“You’re a virgin,” he ground out. “It will hurt!”
“Not much,” she managed.
“Baby,” he breathed into her mouth, “we shouldn’t do this!”
But while he was talking, he was removing the last barriers. He settled onto her and began to move her long legs apart while his mouth invaded her own, teasing, hungry, sweeter than honey.
She lifted up to him as his body slid up, so that he could find her where she was open and moist and hungry. She shivered as he moved down, one hand firm on her thigh as he lifted his head and looked into her misty eyes.
He pushed, very gently, and she bit her lower lip.
“Yes,” he whispered, his voice slightly unsteady, because this was a rite of passage for her. “Let me make it easier,” he added.
He moved away, just a little, and his hand moved against her, wise and slow and tender, bringing up her blood, making her shiver and shift, reaching up to tempt him closer. Her breasts had hard, dusky nipples. She was moaning with need, her eyes glazed with it. He probed softly and she began to jerk with the growing pleasure.
“Yes, that’s it,” he whispered, making a rhythmic motion that swiftly brought her to the very edge of ecstasy. “That’s it. Here. Yes. Here, like this, hard, hard hard, rubia, hard...!”
His hand was on her thigh, his body invading hers, stretching it, in a mania of passion that blurred pain and discomfort, that defied reality. She moved with him, crying out softly as he went into her, all the way into her, so deep that she sobbed with every quick, passionate movement of his hips.
She was going to burst, like a balloon, like a dam. Her body throbbed. Her eyes opened to look straight into his. He ground his teeth together. He’d never watched. Now it seemed that he needed to.
“Yes,” he bit off, just as her body stiffened and she began to sob, her hips jerking upward, pleading.
“John,” she cried out.
“Yes!” He pushed down with all his might, thrusting into her as hard as he could. She convulsed, the pleasure was so overwhelming. It was unbearable. For him, as well. He cried out as his own body shuddered and shuddered, completion washing over him like hot water. They pulsed together in each other’s arms, held tightly, tightly, while they endured the sweet agony of fulfillment.
It was a long time before he could get his breath. He lifted his head. His hair was sweaty. So was his body. Sunny looked up at him with the face of an angel. She was shy with him now, in the aftermath.
“No,” he whispered shakily. “None of that.” He turned her face gently back to his. “Nothing so beautiful should ever be a source of embarrassment. We loved.”
Her face flushed. She searched his eyes, seeing not indifference or apathy, but the sharing of something intensely intimate. She touched his hard face, drawing her fingers over his hard mouth.
“It didn’t hurt,” she said, faintly surprised.
“I didn’t rush you,” he explained, smiling tenderly. “I would have gotten nothing out of it unless you did, too.”
“Really?”
He bent and drew his mouth tenderly over hers. “Really.” He started to lift away.
Her hands protested gently.
He settled back over her. He looked into her soft eyes as his hips moved first one way, and then the other. He was still inside her. She was sensitized and he was suddenly capable all over again, probably a result of the long abstinence.
He caught his breath as pleasure tingled up his spine.
“I want very badly to have you again,” he whispered. “Will it be uncomfortable? You must be honest.”
She shifted under him with new knowledge. “It won’t,” she said softly. She moved and gasped. “My goodness,” she burst out as lights flashed behind her eyes at the jolt of pleasure.
He laughed, deep in his throat. “And now you know a little more about pleasure, yes? Curl those long legs around my hips,” he whispered huskily, “and let’s see how deep I can go...”
She flushed. It was very intimate, not only what he said, but what he did. She watched him watching her. She didn’t look away or close her eyes. It was a revelation, being loved physically and watching it happen. She was so gloriously happy that she thought it would be all right if she died.
And then he began to move very quickly, very deliberately, and she thought she had died, when he pushed her over the edge of passion into ecstasy, into climax, into total, absolute orgasm. She cried out helplessly, sobbing as her body throbbed in time to his. She heard him cry out, too, felt his body cord and push down hard as the pleasure took him as well. She looked into his eyes and it was like sharing a soul, for those few faint precious seconds while they transcended earth and space and became one person.
* * *
Afterward, of course, she cried. She’d done something that her mother had cautioned her about all her life. She’d had sex with a man to whom she wasn’t married. She’d committed a sin and her conscience hurt.
He held her tenderly, kissed away the tears. “Listen to me,” he said tenderly. “I would never have touched you if I didn’t see a shared future. You were a virgin, Sunny,” he added. “I’m not the sort of man who looks for a good time with an innocent. Now, am I?”
She looked up at him, vulnerable, hopeful. “No,” she said finally.
His hand smoothed down her creamy body. He smiled. “I haven’t had it like that in my whole life,” he confessed.
She was surprised. “Never?”
He shook his head. “I loved my wife,” he said. “But even with her...” He made a face. “This was beyond any experience I’ve ever known.”
“It had been a long time,” she began.
He chuckled. “That isn’t why.” He traced her pretty mouth. “My own beautiful little blonde nurse. I adore you.”
She relaxed in his arms with a faint, shy smile. “My very own gorgeous man,” she replied.
“We belong to each other now,” he said solemnly. “There won’t be anyone else. Ever.”
She stared at him with a heart that overflowed. She’d never known such belonging.
“You have to say it back, Sunny,” he prompted with a wry smile. “No other men, ever.”
“There won’t ever be another man,” she assured him. “But you knew that already.”
“I knew.”
They dressed. The movie had long gone off. He looked at his watch and grimaced. He pulled her close. “I would have preferred to stay all night, but I have to go home and get my cowboys started first thing in the morning.”
“I’d love to see your ranch,” she said.
“And you will. Very soon.” He wouldn’t think about Tonio. Not yet. He was too full of Sunny and joy and...love. The thought shocked him. He looked at her and knew, very suddenly, that he loved her. Why hadn’t that occurred to him before? He smiled.
“You look very odd,” she remarked.
He chuckled. “I’ll tell you why, one day. Not now,” he added, kissing her nose. “I’ll text you.” He hesitated at the door. “Don’t beat yourself up over what happened,” he said.
She bit her lip. “We didn’t use anything.”
He came back to her and drew her close. “Sunny, I want children. Don’t you?”
She flushed. She beamed. He really had meant it, that there wasn’t going to be anyone else. “Yes,” she said softly. “I want children very much.”
“Then we have to do more of what we just did,” he replied wickedly. “But not just yet. I have a few problems to work out first. Okay?”
She grinned. “Okay.”
“Be safe. I’ll text you. Keep the door locked,” he added gently.
“You watch your back out there,” she countered.
“I will. Good night, mi alma.”
“Good night, John.”
She heard him drive away. And then the guilt began to grow. Once passion grew cold, reality set in. He’d mentioned a future together. But he hadn’t mentioned marriage. Not once.