I was a horrified girlfriend in shock.
I looked up. My palms were on his cheeks, eyes delving into his one open, beautiful but pained, eye.
His left eye was swollen and closed.
“What happened? God, we need to get you to the hospital!”
He actually laughed.
“I'm so fucking relieved. Thank you, God, for keeping her safe,” he said as he looked at the sky again, completely ignoring my words. His voice was rough and gravelly. His right eye found mine again.
“Fuck. I've never been so scared. I thought they were going to get you.”
“You were worried about me? Look at you!”
I looked back, seeing his family run towards us. I was in a near panic. The wounds, God, they needed to be treated fast. I turned back to him. The intense look he gave me was one I’d not seen from him before.
“Of course I fucking worried about you, Caridad.” The good arm he’d wrapped around me flew to my cheek. His fingertips reached my hairline as his thumb rubbed my lips.
“Everything I did, was to get them away from you.”
His voice was hoarse.
He brought his head down to mine, nose touching nose.
His eye closed.
“Do you know what they would’ve done to you?”
I felt him tremble.
His whispered, thick words made my heart skip beats.
“But look what they did to you.”
“Exactly,” he groaned. “And it would've been worse for you, baby.”
“Carlos!”
Our moment was interrupted.
I looked back and saw Roman approaching. Marco stood with wide eyes and Diego had doubled over in relief. Alejandro had his head thrown back, fingers steepled in front of his face as if giving thanks. I made to move so that his family could hug him.
“No.”
His good arm remained tightly around me. I saw Alejandro lift his phone to his ear.
“Si, mi amor, está aquí. No, no. Vivo! Si…”
He told Maria Elena that Carlos was here and alive.
“I can get up myself,” he grumbled when his brothers came forward to help him up. They, too, had wide eyes when they looked at Carlos.
Once he was on his feet, albeit unsteadily, his brothers came forward and hugged him. Iza hugged him and then me.
“You ok, Care?”
My eyes found hers and her smiling face sobered. She must have seen something in my eyes before I closed them. The smile that had widened her lips had slowly evaporated.
“No matter his condition, Care, he's alive.”
He was alive.
I kept repeating this in my head.
I barely remembered the next course of actions during my disembodied state. I briefly recalled Iza looking over Carlos while waiting for an ambulance.
He was alive.
I kept repeating this in my head. The paramedics had arrived.
Thank God.
He was alive.
He didn't leave me.
He was here.
He was alive.
Don't freak out, Cari.
He's ok.
It'll be ok.
You'll be ok.
He's alive.
He didn't leave me.
We're going to be ok.
At one point as the paramedics looked Carlos over, he looked at me, pushed the hands of the EMT’s away, and grabbed mine.
“Yea, baby. I'm alive.”
With furled eyebrows, I looked at him. Had I said it out loud?
“I didn't leave you, caramelo. I never will.” He hauled me closer.
Despite his family telling him to let me go and allow the EMTs to fully examine him, he repeatedly said no and refused to remove his good arm from around my shoulders. I believe I may have tried to move on a few occasions but he would pull me back into him.
“You need to go to the fucking hospital…”
Marco.
“Our fucking sister-in-law is a doctor…”
Carlos.
“Still, Carlos, they need to check for things I can’t by just looking and examining…”
Iza. The voice of reason.
“My,” I felt his head move down as if looking at me. “Girlfriend... is a doctor.”
My forehead remained against his neck throughout all this. I didn’t want to move and he didn’t let me.
They’d managed to convince Carlos to let go of me.
Or had they convinced me to let go of him?
I haven’t figured that out yet.
“He needs to go in. Those stab wounds-”
“Are infected. A panel needs to be run and he's going to need a PICC line with antibiotics for at least three days. He needs an IV for fluids. We need orthopedics to look over his arm in case the bullet did more harm.”
I stopped to take a breath as the cloud lifted from my brain. Iza continued for me.
“He’ll probably need stitches, and will need a tetanus shot.”
“I just want to fucking go home and be with Cari.”
I stepped fully in front of him. Before I addressed his statement, I looked at Iza.
“Add an ophthalmologist to look at his eyes.”
She was on the phone. A friend of ours from med school was the ER doctor currently on duty. Iza then called friends of ours in their respective specialties to meet at the hospital. Thankfully, we were a small tight community of graduates who lived and worked near each other.
“You need the hospital.”
I was looking at him. Now that I was out of my stupor, I took a better look at him, not from the perspective of a scared girlfriend, but of a doctor.
The pallor of his skin concerned me. The one open eye was filled with pain and who knew what else. Concussion? Maybe. His pupil was dilated. The stab wounds on the areas we were able to see look crusted over.
“I want you, Cari.”
My palms framed his face. “I won't leave your side.”
“Promise?”
I swallowed. “I promise.”
He nodded and hefted himself on the gurney. Once they were done wheeling him onboard, I was back right where I wanted to be.
Where Carlos wanted me to be.
Next to him.
“Is Cari ok?”
Roman.
“She is now.”
Iza.
I wasn’t so sure.
But one thing was certain- I had Carlos back. Some things righted themselves in my world.
While others tilted and fell.
33
Carlos
Cari had to be in shock. It looked more like she had been the one who’d disappeared for nearly a week rather than me.
I’d been so fucking relieved when I saw her. I had been scared beyond reason when I thought those bastards were going to go get her.
Fear for Cari.
In that moment, on the boat, it was like everything had solidified for me.
Whatever lingering questions about us, her, and whatever we were- had been answered in that moment.
The thought of harm coming to her fired a rage and fury in me I’d never known I’d had.
I was the calm, cool, stable Zambrano. Roman was too, but I was, by far, more so than him.
I’d been willing to die for Cari, and still would a hundred times over.
And I-
The stable, cool and collected, calm peacekeeper-
Had wanted to maim, kill, and dismember those fucking bastards for even nearing her.
I realized something else that night.
I’d always thought I was most similar to Roman but I’d found out I was a whole lot like Marco.
A possessive, feral beast when your female is threatened.
Scratch that.
I remember Roman the night Izzy was taken.
I guess the trait ran through all of the Zambrano men.
I'd been discharged earlier in the day. Spent three fucking days in the goddamned hospital. My wounds were healing,
I was gaining sight in my left eye, and my arm was feeling better.
No permanent damage.
I’d declined narcotic pain killers and opted for prescription strength ibuprofen. I had to still take the course of antibiotics and have some physical therapy for my left arm, but considering the shit that happened to me, I was all good.
And bonus-
Cari was helping me bathe.
We were in my jet tub.
“Why don't I play doctor and you play nurse?”
She laughed but she wasn't herself. She was reserved. I saw lingering fear in her eyes.
I had for days now.
But I wasn't going to let that stop us from making love.
Even if I had to overcome her objections that I shouldn't wear myself out.
She had it all backwards. Making love to her would invigorate me.
Plug my cells back in.
They'd shut down when I feared for her.
Since my return, she'd been as serious as I'd ever seen her.
“Baby. You ok?”
After a moment, she said, “I should be asking you that question.”
“I'm fine, caramelo. Especially knowing that nothing happened to you.”
She shook her head.
“A lot of things happened to me. You just can't see them.”
Fuck man. There were a bunch of thoughts floating around in that head of hers.
And she wasn't sharing any of them.
God knew I was a different person after what I’d survived. I had to have a meeting with my brothers and father.
Pronto.
I'd learned some serious shit and my family needed to know it.
I had put it off too long.
But I wanted time with my caramelo first.
She’d helped me dry off and told me to get in bed, and she’d be there in a moment. She was now finishing up her shower. Hearing the bathroom door open, my eyes moved to where she stood.
“You coming here?”
I asked her but she looked serious and didn't speak.
“Lets talk, baby.”
She got into bed with me. Straddling my legs, she hovered over me and palmed my cheeks.
“I don't want to talk.”
34
Carlos
Light Me Up,
Ingrid Michaelson
“Come here, baby.”
Cari walked towards me and straddled me on the bed. She squeezed me close, her fingers combing slowly through my longish hair. We stayed like that for a few more minutes. She pulled back and started kissing me.
Deeply.
She bit my lip and pulled it back. Our tongues toyed with one another's. My good hand moved over her body and I silently marveled at the change in her.
She was naked before me, not hiding herself like she used to- not hiding the burns that made her Cari-
My precious Caridad.
She was giving her body completely and opening her heart to me.
These were two gifts I would not ever make her regret.
I swooped her with my arm, rolling, and pinning her underneath me. She lifted her head, eyes intently on mine, and our mouths danced again.
“Don't. Your wounds…”
“Don't give a shit about my wounds.”
I kissed her hands.
“I would face an army of criminals, and die a hundred deaths, to keep you safe.”
Kissing her again, I pulled back.
“I love you, Caridad.”
With tears falling down her rosy cheeks, she said the words I will never tire of hearing-
“I love you, Carlos.”
I closed my eyes to savor them, and my lips wandered down to her breasts and I took a nipple into my mouth. The sound she let out hardened my dick.
“I'm going to worship this body.”
I moved to her other nipple and her hands flew to my head.
“Love this body.”
I moved down to her abdomen and kissed the skin around her belly button before nipping at her flesh. She let out a gasp that ended on a groan.
“Carlos.”
The way she fucking moaned my name made my balls hurt with the need to empty inside her.
I moved lower and she stopped breathing when I wedged myself further down.
“Carlos, your gunshot wound-”
“Is fine and won't stop me from loving every part of you.”
I looked up at her and our eyes caught.
“I'm hungry, caramelo. I'm going to savor and lick every part of you.”
Her breath hitched.
With my right arm, I spread her left leg more and brought it over my shoulder.
“Carlos!”
She yelled and arched her back as my tongue met her juicy lips. I began sucking and then licked her again.
“Ohhh.”
She sounded like the wind had been knocked out of her.
My tongue slid over her slit from bottom to top, and then I sucked her clit.
“Fuck.”
Her legs began shaking. Her moans, fuck, her moans were driving me crazy.
My tongue hit her center and licked her core. Cari grabbed my head and reared up.
“Uhhh. Carlos!”
She was breathing heavy.
I felt the electrical tics move through her body and it was fucking amazing.
My tongue continued to fuck her core. My right thumb separated her so that I could continue my loving on her.
I felt her stiffen. Her legs were no longer pliable. Her knees rose and lightly squeezed my head.
I fucking loved it.
“Carlos…”
Her voice was breathless.
“More. Please don't stop. More!”
I moved away for a moment and she growled. I laughed.
“Easy, baby.”
I looked up at her with every intention of dragging this out but the hazy and far-gone look in her eyes made my balls ache more. My head dipped again and I sucked on her clit again.
“Come for me, Caridad. Come for your man.”
She whimpered.
“The man who would kill a legion of bastards to protect you.”
She cried out and arched again, and then I felt the waves hit her. I continued to suck her clit until she lightly pushed me away.
“Too sensitive.”
Her voice was breathless.
I kissed her body as I moved upwards. When I reached her mouth, our kiss was open mouthed and eager. I lined us up but she stopped me.
“Sit against the headboard.”
We reversed and I sat up.
She hovered over me, her wet lips teasing my rock hard cock. The flames relit and we burned in our own fire.
She devoured my mouth. Our kiss was passion and fire erupting.
Feral.
She reached down, lined herself up, and sank down.
“Yes, baby.” I closed my eyes and groaned. I let the delicious feeling of her core surrounding me elevate my soul from my body. After a few moments, I spoke.
“I thought you didn't want to wear me out.”
Her eyes were guarded.
“You, not me.”
Her fingers wove into my hair, and her thumbs stroked my cheeks that now sported a beard. Her eyes were intently on mine as she rode me. She moved her head down and our mouths welded together. Our tongues stroked and played. Cari lifted up and slowly sunk down. Her moans were as loud as mine. Her thumbs continued to stroke my cheeks. Her pace was slow, loving. Breaking our kiss, her lips caressed my face.
And she sunk down again.
A little harder.
I threw my head back.
“Fuck!”
She rose and her fingers threaded into my hair again. Her mouth found mine and our tongues made love.
And she impaled herself again.
So hard, the slap was audible.
We both groaned.
She broke the kiss and kissed my face, then trailed a path down below my chin. She licked and sucked my neck.
I growled when she bit me.
“Jesus, Caridad. I missed you baby. You fill my heart, my soul.”
I took one of her hands and kissed her palm and then her wrist. I placed her palm over my heart.
“It beats for you.”
She closed her eyes and touched her forehead to mine as she continued to ride me. At this point, we couldn't form words. Our moans echoed one another’s. I felt her begin to tighten.
“Oghhh,” my voice was rough.
We climbed and climbed, and she stopped for a moment.
And she sunk down again.
We exploded.
My bellow overpowered her moan.
There were tears on her face as we climaxed, eyes focused on each other, never wavering through the spasms of our blissful release.
And her tears never stopped.
“I love you.”
I sucked in a breath. Her voice was throaty and thick. She choked on her words.
“I love you, Carlos. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't say the words before now.”
Her voice became tremulous and sad. My fucking heart was soaring by her admission, and breaking at her tone.
“I was so scared after that night. I thought I would never see you again. I feared that you'd died after being shot and falling into the ocean.”
Her hands fisted on my chest, and she rested her forehead on me. I was still inside her, and I didn't want to leave her haven.
She looked up at me.
“You didn't put on a life vest. But you did everything to save me.”
“Because I love you, Caridad. If they'd gotten their hands on you, baby…”
My voice ended in a raw whisper as my good arm crushed her to my chest. I closed my eyes as my worst fears played before me. My imagination spared me nothing, spared me no possible horror befalling her. Thank God they were only my fears, and not flashbacks and nightmares she would ever have- she was spared those events that ran wildly through my mind. I took a few calming breaths, and spoke against her hair, smelling her sweet scent.
“They would've raped you, Caridad. These men were ruthless.”
I couldn't finish. The thought of her and those men- broke me. They would've taken turns with her. Tortured her.
My arm tightened around her as my forehead rested on the side of her neck.
“I’m sorry.”
Her voice was so sad. Tremulous.
Pulling back, my eyes met hers. Tears fell down her cheeks.
Carlos: A Zambrano Family Novel Page 17