Desert Blade (8 page)

After examining Nathan and helping him with his tea, Lidia and Trudy watched the boy fall asleep, his lungs laboring.

“He hasn’t been able to breathe easy in months. It’s been getting worse every year, but after the last dust storm—I mean, we miss most, but we still get them—he’s been in bed since.”

“I’ll watch him closely and do what I can. Is there anyone else who needs my attention?”

Trudy nodded, leaning against the wall outside the bedroom and staring in at her son. “My other son, Jared. Both boys inherited Nathan’s asthma. Jared’s already fifteen and doesn’t have as much trouble, but it’s still bothersome when it hits. Lives with a few of the other boys who’re learning to be guards with Derek. Derek’s a good teacher. A good influence.” Trudy looked sideways at Lidia with a knowing smile. “He doesn’t think so, but I can see you agree. It’s all over your face. When Nathan died, Derek promised to stay and watch over little Junior.”

Lidia didn’t ask many things. Maybe when she’d gotten to know Trudy a little better, and she had a strong feeling she would, she’d ask how her husband died. She’d ask about Derek, now that he was gone. He had to be gone. She’d seen him go down.

It hit her like a two-by-four upside the head. She sank to the floor, weariness taking all her strength.

“Did something happen to Derek?” Trudy knelt beside her but Lidia couldn’t answer. A dull static filled her head, drowning out everything around her. Sobs gathered in her stomach, burgeoning, ready to escape.

It hurt so damn much.

Clamping her hands around her middle, she couldn’t quite breathe right. She’d finally found him. Finally started to live, and he’d been taken from her again. Trudy grabbed her hand, pressing hard, talking, her words running together.

Squinting, trying to understand Trudy, Lidia shook her head and focused on the noise around her. She had to snap out of it. Gripping herself tighter, she shoved down the sharp pain inside.

“Dr. Lidia.” Trudy leaned toward her with a frown. “Dr. Lidia, can you hear that? Outside?”

An outside commotion penetrated the buzzing in her head. Yells of getting help, finding somewhere to put the horse, and calls to…

“Derek?”

She stumbled to her feet and staggered outside, her mind not yet prepared to hope and her leg still throbbing from the deep cut. With unerring resolve, she dodged through the hodgepodge village to the ledge where she’d climbed up.

If he came up that ladder, she was grabbing a hold of him and not letting go. She was going to live. She was going to help these people. They needed a doctor. She needed to be needed. She wasn’t going to hide anymore.

She wanted to be found.

* * *

With the last of his strength, he hefted himself from the ladder and onto the village platform. He splayed there, needing to rest before he could move again, to muster past the pain that had jarred him with every stride of the stolen horse’s gallop.

Hands reached to help. People asked if he was all right. He wasn’t. He wouldn’t be until he saw her.

Then his own sweet doctor pushed through the crowd. She still had those braids. She smiled and his body relaxed. He’d found her.

Blackness claimed him.

Derek hurt everywhere. He forced his eyes open and found a familiar scene—his place, a converted semi which took the term
studio apartment
to a whole new level. The light shone in through the window he’d cut in the side, the leather curtain covering pulled back. His bed sat at the back of the big rectangle, a trunk with most of his possessions shoved against the side with Hester’s quilt covering the top. Hester would be proud of him. He’d made a family, of sorts.

The sweet addition to his sparse house was his doctor, all clean and fresh-looking in her scrubs, bending over him with a concerned frown on her beautiful face—just like in Chicago. His rusty voice croaked, “I think I ruined your work.”

Lidia glanced toward his legs and back up at him with a line between her brows. He wanted to smooth away all the worry there.

“You were out of it for a few hours. I’ve patched you all up. The leg gash was nasty, but I did my best with the stitches. Shouldn’t be too bad a scar. Besides, I have one too. We’ll match.” She gave a weak smile.

“I mean the robot arm.”

She pulled up a chair and, as always, didn’t coddle him, didn’t mother him, smother him with a bunch of “I’m so glad you’re okay” platitudes, though maybe that’d be…nice.

“I was worried about you.” She grabbed his fake wrist. “Nathan Junior is resting. Breathing a bit easier. I’m waiting to see if he continues to respond to the tea I gave him.”

“Thank goodness.” He blew out a breath and relaxed into the bed.

Lidia turned his arm and bent his elbow. “It’s not ruined. Seems to work fine.”

“I ripped more of that covering off. It was the best way to block some of those knife thrusts. Guess it saved my life.”

“I’ve wanted to run tests. Make adjustments on your arm. See why it extends when you’re…um. Excited. But it looks undamaged. Shows you how lucky you are, my love. If you hadn’t lost your arm, hadn’t gotten this prosthetic, you’d be dead right now.”

He didn’t know what made the grin spread over his face, that she’d said he was lucky—and he believed her—or that she’d called him her love.

“I think my luck is about to change, Doctor.”

“Do you? Tell me, Derek, why didn’t you come after the train? I didn’t feel very lucky then, when the train left you behind.” She straightened the sheet over him and didn’t look up, fiddling with the fabric.

“I wanted to come for you.” His smile faltered, but he didn’t lose that warm feeling in his chest—even though what he had to say brought back memories of losing Hester. His foster mother would’ve loved Lidia. “It took me a while to find Hester and bury her. I holed up to recover. By the time I was fit to come after you, I had all these people here to see to. And I owed Nathan. We’d helped each other get out of Chicago. His family needed help. Every day, it seemed they needed me more. And you were under protection of the military.”

“You helped save these people.”

“I don’t know about that.” Derek didn’t dare move. He wanted to memorize the soft, admiring look in her eyes and hoped like hell he’d see it again. “And there was never a good time to leave these people to find Leavenworth. By the time there was, I thought I’d made you up. You’re too good to be true.”

“I’m not. I’m just a woman.” Her gaze finally rose to meet his and a blush spread on her cheeks.

“A doctor.”

Her blush warmed his entire body.

“Yes. One who should be doing her job.” She gave a lopsided smile. “How are you feeling?”

“I still have this ache.” He grinned his best invitation to sin.

She smiled, a coy twist of lips. Her gaze slowly tracked down his body, and he realized he was nude except for a thin sheet that not-so-slowly poked up at crotch level.

She gripped the material at his chest, sending gooseflesh over him, and slid it down his torso. Leaning over him, bringing her sweet vanilla scent, she kissed above his heart. “Do you hurt here?”

He sucked in a breath. “I think I did.”

“But you’re all better now?” She trailed kisses up his throat to whisper in his ear, “What can I do, to better treat my patient?”

“Get closer.”

She didn’t hesitate but got into the bed next to him with care. Her soft curves were separated from him by her scrubs, the damn sheet and too much empty space.

“I won’t break. Get closer.” He tried to turn onto his side and pain wrenched up his leg and throbbed in his shoulder.

She scooted over his fake arm, which didn’t feel her luscious body, and pressed to his side.

Heat engulfed him. “I think my doctor needs to check me out, give the okay to have hot sweaty sex. You might want to run your hands all over me. Thoroughly. Wouldn’t want to miss anything.”

She laughed and yanked the sheet off him. “You know, in Chicago I used to stare at you while you slept, and when I undressed and cleaned you today, I definitely stared.”

He glanced down and nearly winced at all the bandages covering him. But his cock stood at attention and he was feeling absolutely no pain. “I think there are a few parts of me that aren’t injured. Maybe if you straddled my hips we can discuss a treatment plan.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He licked his lips. “My dick hurts. The only way to make it better is for you to get on it.”

He loved the way her lips parted with the vulgarity. Her breathing sped up and her eyes went liquid. It turned her on. And it turned him on that being himself made her hot.

“I’m glad you got away. I thought you’d—oh, shit.” Tears streamed down her face.

“Don’t cry. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. When I managed to take down that last one and steal his horse, I knew my luck had changed. I knew you were my luck.”

She smiled, tears glistening on her cheeks, and his heart stopped. He’d never seen anything so damn glorious. “I don’t want to hide anymore.”

“I still want to fuck you. Hard.” He was hoarse and burning up hot.

Cheeks highlighted in pink, she licked her lips. “I want that too.”

Though most women thought of him as a freak, some had been eager for his advances. He’d not been with many of them for the same reason she’d avoided men, so he had to put it out there, be as blunt as always. “You could get pregnant.”

“If I do, you’ll be here.” It wasn’t a question. She was serious and decided. “It’s time I took the chances everyone takes. And I want to take them with you.”

The way the world was today, that was as much commitment as taking vows in front of a priest.

Lidia scooted away and he ground his teeth to keep from grabbing her, but she stood, pulled her scrubs top off and shoved down her bottoms. No underwear. He’d died and gone to heaven.

It took her a few false starts, but he didn’t care, not when her breasts bounced in such an intriguing manner when she sat on the bed, jumped down, tried again and finally slung a leg over his hips while he didn’t move a muscle. He’d be damned if he’d let it bother him that the first time he got inside his woman, she was doing all the work. Just as long as he got inside her, he didn’t give a rat’s ass.

They were both breathing heavy. Her body poised above him, and he gripped her hip with the only hand that could feel her silky flesh and guided her down. No preliminaries, like when she’d gone down on him.

She was so fucking hot. So fucking wet.

In a steady but slow slide, she took him inside her and enclosed his cock in hot, tight bliss. This. This was why he’d survived the collapse of civilization. This was why he’d braved the Missouri, the desert. This was why he couldn’t wait to shove his hips up off this bed and watch Lidia’s curves respond. Her skin flushed with pleasure, and his fingers clutched at her, urged her to rock against him.

“Oh, fuck, Lidia. You feel so damn perfect.”

But she didn’t move, only stared down at him with those eyes that swallowed him whole. Her entire heart was there in her expression and he didn’t doubt how she felt. He didn’t deny how it moved him, how it turned him on, how it made him feel like the luckiest man on this forsaken doomed planet.

“You do, too.” She closed her eyes and rocked.

“Ah, shit. You could sit there and I’d come in about a minute. Later, I’ll lick you all over and give it to you nice and slow.”

“Promise?” She didn’t open her eyes but kept that slide, her face tightening as he watched her climb the precipice. That he brought her there so fast made him nearly spill. He clenched his body against the urge.

“I think I could just look at you and get off right now.”

“Do it.” Her desperate plea sent a rush through his limbs. His hips rocked up and he slid his fingers around to nestle in the blond hair brushing against his sensitive skin. She panted each word, thick in a deep passionate tone. “Derek, please. Send me over. Then do it again tomorrow. Then again. And again.”

“Fuck. Me.” He didn’t care about the injuries. He let his sword arm fall off the bed, out of the way as it responded to his unguarded emotions and extended. With the heel of his other hand, he ground against her clit and bucked his hips.

He couldn’t stop the need to thrust, over and over. The burn in his leg only added to his desperation to get so far inside her she’d never, ever get him out. “Now, baby.”

She shattered with a groan. Her thighs gripped his hips and her pussy throbbed around him, clenching and holding him tight. He groaned as he thrust up and emptied inside her, the first time he’d ever had unprotected sex and spent inside a woman.

It had never felt better.

This. This was why he survived.

This was why he was lucky and he’d never let her go.

* * *

Lidia waved at one of the patrols outside Leavenworth. In the distance, the big windbreaks added a mix of random color to the hazy cloudless sky.

“You’ve been gone awhile. Think they’ve forgotten you?” Derek teased her as he ran a hand up her leg.

“No. Of course not.” She scowled at him from atop the horse. He’d insisted she ride, though none of the six men with them did so. The excuse was that if they’d been attacked, she could get away. As if she’d leave him.

“You’re right. You are unforgettable.”

“It’s only been three months.” Still, butterflies danced in her stomach.

“General Toole might be angry.” He stated the obvious. “He might throw me in a cell again, but don’t worry. It won’t hold me.”

“Damn right it won’t,” muttered Horace from next to him.

“Let me do the talking,” she said for about the hundredth time.

“We’ll see.” He stared ahead as a formation of five land yachts kicked up a cloud of sand and headed straight toward them.

“I didn’t quite believe you, Doc, but look at those things. Think they’ll let me drive one?” Jared, the teen who shadowed Derek whenever allowed, moved up on her other side.

“Oh, they will. They’ll welcome you all.” She gripped Derek’s hand where it rested on her thigh and stared down into his hazel eyes. The band of people he’d helped survive were his family, and she’d joined that family when he’d taken her from Leavenworth.

Now, she wanted his family to meet hers. Her much larger family—with the weight of a fort, a garrison of soldiers, and a tough general who cared for his community—would take them all in.

“Funny, how when we left, you insisted you be the only one, that a few guards would draw more attention. Now that we’re back to ask help moving everyone here, you insist on as many men as can be spared.”

“I just wanted to get in your pants.” He gave her a wink with that outrageous statement and turned to face the land yachts rolling to a stop to surround them, the familiar silver of General Toole in the lead craft.

“You better be glad I let you. Otherwise, I’d have to let the general throw you back in that cell.”

“Oh, I’m glad.” His hand slid up and down her lower leg in a comforting and sensual stroke. “I know you’re glad, too.”

“Shameless man.” She laughed and he gripped her thigh in a possessive gesture.

“I have no shame. And you, my own sweet doctor, are getting lucky tonight.”