Nobody's Perfect (64 page)

Still straddling her breasts, he leaned over the side of the bed and laid the piece of broken headboard on the floor.

Damián Orlando had lost control one of the few times since she'd reunited with him last year. She'd done that for him.

"The sex-video people should have you as the star in one of their films."

He cocked his head. "You want me to be a porn star?"

"No! I'm saying, if they had someone who put his heart into the act like you did, then maybe those movies wouldn't be so boring. They just focus on the mechanics of sliding Part A into Slot B."

He chuckled and bent down to kiss her again. "
Bebé
, whenever you want me to demonstrate how to slide Chico's Part A into Chiquita's Slot B, just issue the Frag Order, and I'm on it."

The suggestive words sent a jolt to Chiquita. Savannah grinned. She'd certainly knocked down a lot of walls tonight, ones that she'd slowly built up over decades.

Maybe she should stop worrying about what she couldn't do and focus on what she could. Look at what she'd just done. Savannah Gentry had just let a man—no, not just a man, but Damián, the love of her life—come all over her. Even more amazing was she hadn't been triggered by anything from the past. She still had demons she knew would attack from time to time, but if she'd tried to protect herself from that possible trigger, look what she would have missed.

Watching his face as he reached orgasm—the play of pain and pleasure over his features—brought her a sense of accomplishment unlike anything she'd imagined sex could be. Empowering and totally unexpected.

"
Bebé,
sex happens 90-percent or more in the mind and the heart. Believe me, what you and I shared here tonight is a helluva lot more exciting for us because it's real. We share a commitment to each other." He bent to brush a kiss across her lips. "Plus that was just fucking unbelievable,
mi
mamacita
. Thank you for doing that for me. Now, let me go get something to clean you up."

She grabbed his wrist when he would have moved away from her. "Wait!"

He looked puzzled, and she tried to find the words to express the many things rolling through her mind, but this moment wasn't about speaking the words. She needed to demonstrate what was in her heart.

"Lie down. Please…Sir." She grinned as Damián stretched out beside her and placed a hand on her hip to roll her to face him.

Glancing at the cooling pools of his essence dotting her chest, she reached up and drew the shape of a heart over her left breast. She focused on his warm, chocolate eyes. "You won my heart, Damián Orlando, the first time on a hotel bed in La Jolla." Tears stung her eyes and she swallowed past the lump growing in her throat. "And you've had a special place in my heart ever since. You gave me Mari, who is my very life's breath. I wouldn't be here today if not for the two of you."

Tears swam in Damián's eyes, too, not helping her at all to control her own. She glanced away.

"Damián, I love you more than I can say. I'll always be wounded and a little messed up—"

He placed a finger against her lips and she glanced back at him. "
Mi sueño
, you are perfect. You always have been, from the first time I saw you sitting in that hotel restaurant in La Jolla."

He traced another heart, interlocked with hers. He lifted his gaze and grinned. "I like marking you with my cum more than with Karla's lipstick."

"Karla helped you with the scene in the dungeon?"

"
Querida
, you'd better get used to it. The people who frequent this club are one close-knit family. We laugh together, celebrate each other's joys, and cry over each other's pain. I've learned by the way I was accepted by the members here and at other clubs that's what the BDSM community is all about."

"I've noticed the members and owners here have a very special familial connection."

"Savannah, you were accepted into my family a long time ago. Dad would whip my ass if I did anything that caused you or Marisol to leave us. He loves you two like a daughter and a granddaughter."

More tears flowed. She'd fantasized about having a father—no, a real
Dad
—for most of her life. To find that at any time in one's life was a blessing. And now Mari had both a daddy and a grandpa, too, among so many others in Damián's family.

"I'd say it also sounds like Karla's accepted you into the sisterhood of submissives here at the club, if she had you over here watching porn with her all afternoon."

She laughed through the tears and thumped his chest. "You're not going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Not on your life,
chica
. I'll buy you a whole fucking video library if it gives you any more ideas."

"Fucking videos, huh? I think maybe we ought to make some of our own. They'd be more fun to watch."

The look on his face was priceless. Savannah Gentry and Damián Orlando starring in their own private skin flick. Too funny.

Damián grew serious. "Now, I have a question I've wanted to ask you for a long time."

Damián got to his knees beside her and Savannah's heart pounded. He pressed her shoulder back onto the mattress until she was looking up at him, and he reached his left pointer finger to her chest, where he wrote on her chest above their joined hearts as he spelled out the words MARRY ME?

The uncertainty in his expression as he met her gaze and awaited her response confused and warmed her heart.

Not giving her time to respond, he continued, "I asked Anita for her blessing back when you were in the hospital, but I wanted to give you time to heal before asking you to think about turning this page in our story."

Savannah reached up and pulled him into her arms until the hearts on her sticky chest devoured the dragon tat on his. "Earlier tonight, I told you I wasn't ready for happily ever after. But you've shown me there is no obstacle that can ever destroy or overcome what we feel for each other, unless we let it. I promise you, I won't do anything to allow that to happen."

She sealed their union with a kiss.

Epilogue

Cassie López squirmed in her seat. She tried to follow Kitty's latest plan to seduce Adam, but the last thing she wanted to talk about was sex. On top of that, Luke Denton kept watching her. She'd glanced at him across the room a couple of times, where he stood talking with Adam, but both times had found him scrutinizing her.

She shifted on the uncomfortable chair again. The tiny bar in Aspen Corners had opened especially so that they could hang out. They'd brought Angelina back from Denver and she'd arranged with her friend Ricco to have a private party, just the five of them. Well, until Marc had shown up an hour or so ago. He and Angelina had retreated to a booth in the back.

Being in a bar again stressed her out enough—the smell of stale beer assaulting her senses when she walked inside. She'd scanned the room quickly and had been relieved there was no pool table.

But Luke's focused gaze was disconcerting, to say the least. Not quite a leer, but very intense.

Oh, no! Luke and Adam were coming this way. Luke held a beer bottle. She shuddered.

I need to get out of here!

"Mind if we join you, girls?"

Without waiting for an answer—which for her would have been "yes, I mind"—Adam set his bottle of water on the table. Kitty looked up at him with an emotion akin to adoration. She couldn't believe her friend had succumbed to the man's
charms
so completely and in such a short time. In college, she'd never even looked at guys.

Cassie had been the wild one, dragging her to the clubs. Kitty would rather be singing in them, than drinking. Perhaps if she'd been more like Kitty…

Cassie blinked and looked at Adam, who certainly hadn't charmed her. Ever since he'd interrupted their annual cleansing ceremony on
his
deck and in
his
hot tub, she'd been upset about the way he'd treated Kitty. The man had a possessive streak a mile wide and seemed to have Kitty under his thumb.

If he ever did anything to hurt her friend, Cassie would make sure he paid. Kitty was like a sister to her—a sister of the soul. They'd probably been together in many lifetimes. In her heart, Cassie knew Kitty had been sent to her this time to help her through the attack in the bar during the break between junior and senior years.

She probably should call her friend by her given name, Karla, now that she was married and about to become a mother, but she'd always be Kitty to her.

Adam took a seat next to Kitty at the square table for four, and Luke sat closer to Cassie. She sat back in her chair, putting distance between herself and both men. Adam gently rubbed Kitty's belly, as if to greet his baby, too.

The way they were always touching each other reminded her of her brother Eduardo and his wife, or Papá and Mamá.

She ached to see them sometimes, but she couldn't bring herself to go home to Peru—ever. Colorado was her home now. Eduardo was due to make his annual visit, but her sister-in-law, Susana, wanted to stay home in Peru with their three kids. Last year, he'd brought the whole family. She'd miss her nephews and niece this year, too.

In their last Skype call, he'd hinted there might be a fourth before the year was over.

Kitty's eyes grew round. "Someone kicked." She grinned at Adam, who looked as if he'd been poleaxed. Kitty turned toward Cassie and Luke, "There's always a lot more activity in there whenever Adam is touching or talking to my belly. They…" Her friend stopped herself and amended, "He or she—it's just easier to say they, because we don't want to know the sex…"

Adam leaned closer to her ear. "Take a breath, Kitten." She did and calmed down.

Cassie must have missed something, but she was distracted by Luke holding the beer bottle up to his lips. She turned away and took a sip of her margarita on the rocks.

"So, Cassie, what are you working on now?"

She nearly choked on her drink.

Luke leaned toward her and patted her hand. "You okay, darlin'?"

She snatched her hand away and coughed. "I'm fine. Went down the wrong way."

"As I was saying, any big projects we can look forward to? Exhibits?"

She'd nearly died when he'd shown up at a gallery showing in Denver last fall. The man knew art, though. It was the only thing they'd ever have in common.

"Actually, I've spent the winter preparing to work in a new media—fiber art." Cassie relaxed. Talking about her latest loves and art calmed her nerves a bit. "I adopted a small herd of alpacas last fall. They've come through the harsh winter really well. Probably reminds them of their roots in South America.

Her cabin was located at over 12,000 feet in elevation, similar to the Andes peaks near where she'd grown up. "I should be able to begin harvesting the fleece in another week or two if the temperatures stay warm like this."

"I'd love to see your llamas sometime. Maybe I can help with the harvest."

No man would ever invade her sanctuary. She didn't want that negativity there. That's why she'd had to come down the mountain to see Kitty, because
he
wouldn't let her go over the rutted road to get to her isolated place. Not without him, at least, after what happened the last trip Kitty made over the pass.

Cassie glared at him. She needed to divest Luke of the notion that he'd ever see her
llamas
, as he called them. "They're
alpacas
, not llamas. And I can manage them myself." Belatedly, she added, "But thanks for the offer."

Seeming to take the hint, he looked at Adam. "How about a round of pool? You and Karla taking on Cassie and me?"

Cassie's hand began to shake. She'd surveyed the bar the minute she'd entered. There hadn't been a pool table.

Adam's voice sounded as if he was speaking through a tunnel, distorted by the blood rushing in her ears. "Sounds…good…to…me."

Someone's hands were on her back and arm, making her throat close up even more. Luke.

Get your hands off me.

She pushed him away and retreated closer to Kitty, who reached out for her and squeezed her upper arm. "Deep breath, honey. You're safe."

Kitty directed her next words to Luke. "No, thanks. We don't play pool."

"Since when, Kitten?" Adam asked. "We just played over at…"

Cassie didn't miss Kitty's glare at Adam. "Not anymore. My…belly gets in the way."

They communicated something silently because Adam looked at Cassie, and nodded. "Completely forgot."

The last thing she wanted was his pity, but she hadn't let Kitty or Angelina tell anyone about what had happened back then. She just wanted to bury it and forget it.

Cassie needed out of here. She scooted the chair back and stood. "I'll be heading home now. I don't want to be out too late; it'll be dark soon."

Luke stood, as well. "There were some avalanche warnings out at the passes after last night's snowfall." He pulled out his phone. "Let me check my app before you head out."

"No, really! I'll be fine. I know what to watch for."

Ignoring her, Luke pulled out his phone. After a moment, he reported, "No roads closed up that way." He cast a worried glance at her. "Why don't I follow you home, darlin'?"

"No!"
Don't panic, Cassie. Just get the hell out of here.
"I said, I'm fine." Her hands grew clammy. She hadn't let her guard down around a man in a very long time. She wouldn't start now.

Knowing she might not see Kitty for a while, she hated leaving so abruptly, but her friend would understand. Adam stood and helped Kitty to her feet. "It's been great seeing you, Kitty. Good luck with the CD. I know you're going to top the indie charts. Maybe when I have my next gallery showing, we can play your music in the background and sell some of them there."

Kitty laughed. "I hope it doesn't jangle the nerves of your art patrons, but thanks. That would be fun."

Kitty hugged her. The baby kicked against Cassie's abdomen. "Oh! I almost forgot. Good luck with the baby, too. I'll come up to see you when I can."