Hard Eight

Like I was going to worry about that now? I was in way over my credit limit weeks ago!

“Are you going to tell me, or what?”

“Remember I told you Abruzzi is a war gainer? Well, he does more than game. He collects memorabilia. Old guns, army uniforms, military medals. And he doesn’t just collect them. He wears them. Mostly when he games. Sometimes when he’s with women, I’m told. Sometimes when he’s settling a bad debt. Word on the street is that Abruzzi is missing a medal. Supposedly the medal belonged to Napoleon. The story being told is that Abruzzi tried to buy the medal, but the guy who owned it wouldn’t sell it, so Abruzzi killed him and took the medal. Abruzzi kept the medal on his desk at his house. He wore it when he gamed. Believed it made him invincible.”

“And this is what Evelyn has? The medal?”

“That’s what I hear.”

“How did she get it?”

“I don’t know.”

He moved against me and desire skittered through my stomach and burned low in my belly. He was hard every where. His thigh, his gun… everything was hard. He lowered his head and kissed my neck. He touched his tongue to the place he just kissed. And then he kissed it again. His hand slid under my T-shirt, his palm heating my skin, his fingers at the base of my breast.

“Pay-up time,” he said. “I’m collecting on the debt.”

I almost collapsed onto the floor.

He took my hand and tugged me toward the bedroom. “The movie,” I said. “The best part of the movie is coming up.” In all honesty, I couldn’t remember a single thing about the movie. Not the name or anyone in it.

He was standing close, his face inches from mine, his hand at the back of my neck.

“We’re going to do this, babe,” he said. “It’s going to be good.” And then he kissed me. The kiss deepened, became more demanding, more intimate.

I had my hands splayed over his chest, and I felt the toned muscle under my hands, felt his heart beating. So he has a heart, I thought. That’s a good sign. He must be at least part human.

He broke from the kiss and pushed me into the bedroom. He kicked his boots off, dropped his gun belt, and he stripped. The light was low, but it was enough to see that what Ranger promised in SWAT clothes was kept when the clothes were shed. He was all firm muscle and smooth dark skin. His body was in perfect proportion. His eyes were intense and focused.

He peeled my clothes off and wrangled me onto the bed. And then suddenly he was inside me. He once told me that time spent with him would ruin me for all other men. When he said it, I thought it was an outrageous threat. I no longer thought it outrageous. We lay together for a while when we were done. Finally he ran his hand the length of my body. “It’s time,” he said.

“Now what?”

“You didn’t think the debt would be paid that easily, did you?”

“Uh-oh, is this the part with the handcuffs?”

“I don’t need handcuffs to enslave a woman,” Ranger said, kissing my shoulder. He kissed me lightly on my lips and then dipped his head to kiss my chin, my neck, my collarbone. He moved lower, kissing the swell of my breast and my nipple. He kissed my navel and then my belly, and then he put his mouth to my… omigod!

**********************

HE WAS STILL in my bed the next morning. He was pressed next to me, his arm holding me close. I woke to the sound of the alarm on his watch. He shut the alarm off and rolled away to check the pager that had been placed on the nightstand, next to his gun.

“I have to go, babe,” he said. And he was dressed. And he was gone. Oh shit. What did I do? I just did it with the Wizard. Holy crap! Okay, calm down. Let’s examine this more sanely. What just happened here? We did it. And he left. The leaving seemed a smidgen abrupt, but then it was Ranger. What did I expect? And he hadn’t been abrupt last night. He’d been… amazing. I sighed and heaved myself out of bed. I showered and dressed and went into the kitchen to say good morning to Rex. Only there was no Rex. Rex was living with my parents.

The house felt empty without Rex, so I packed myself off to my parents‘. It was Sunday and there was the added incentive of doughnuts. My mother and grandmother always bought doughnuts on their way home from