“I’m so glad to hear that,” Doug added. “You had us all worried there for a minute. By the way, I kinda told some people outside that if I came in here and didn’t come out in five minutes, it meant that you were awake.”
Alisha opened the door and one by one, they walked in: Heather, Thomas, Wren, Phillip, Jay, and Lawrence. Jay was holding a fistful of giant balloons that read “We Love You,” and Phillip pulled a vase of red roses from behind his back and placed them on the table beside Larke’s bed. For the next few minutes, she was bombarded with hugs and well wishes.
Heather pulled a plastic container from her purse and placed it next to the flowers. “I made your favorite last night,” she said. “I snuck it past the hospital staff.”
“She almost got caught though,” Jay jumped in. “When she walked by, the big dude at the front desk started sniffing hard.”
Heather gently pinched him and Jay playfully reacted as though he’d just experienced the most painful thing in the world. Larke laughed and her family grinned in delight. It was finally all over and they still had their Larke. Things could finally begin to even out.
“As soon as you’re back on your feet, we’re going shopping,” Wren told her sister. “I’m also looking into transferring out to a law school near you so that we can be closer. Oh yeah, where’s Jay? Jay, tell her your good news.”
Jay cautiously sat at the edge of the bed. “Well, I got a scholarship offer from Georgetown, so guess where I’ll be living next year?”
Larke’s eyes widened and she wanted to squeal in delight, but didn’t have the lung power for it just yet. Instead, she motioned for a hug and squeezed Jay as hard as she could.
“Congratulations, Jay,” she told him. “So what, both of you will be in DMV area with me by this time next year? Dammit. Just when I thought I was getting rid of you.”
The room laughed and Tandi notified Larke that she too owed her a nickel for the swear jar.
As everyone continued to chat, Desmond moved over to the corner of the room and silently watched on with folded arms. Heather nudged her husband in the side, and Thomas nodded towards her before walking over to Desmond.
“Desmond, I never got the chance to thank you, man to man, for what you did for my daughter. Not only am I thankful for what you went through to protect her, I’m also grateful for what you went through to protect our country. I can honestly say that I have never met a man greater.”
Desmond smiled, slightly embarrassed. He held out his hand, but Thomas wrapped him up in a hug instead.
“I have one more surprise for you,” Doug announced. He placed Tandi on the floor and motioned to someone in the hallway. When they entered, Larke’s jaw dropped.
“But wait,” Ivor began, making his way through to her. “What happened here? The last time I saw you, you were supposed to be in good hands.”
Eva walked in behind him with a tote full of food in her hands. She placed the bag on the table next to Larke before leaning in for a loving hug, and planting a tender kiss on Larke’s cheek. Ivor looked around the room until he spotted Desmond in the corner. He then motioned him over.
“Mister, what happened here?” He asked.
Desmond jutted his chin out towards Larke. “Why don’t you ask her?”
“Me?” Larke responded. “I didn’t do anything except heroically save your life.”
Ivor gently “tsked” before squeezing Desmond in a tight hug. “It is so good to see you, son. You don’t know how good it is to see you. The two of you.”
Eva touched Ivor on his sleeve. “Tell him what we talked about.”
Before Ivor could speak, Desmond put his hands up in front of him. “First things first. What are the two of you doing here?”
Doug raised his hand. “That would be my doing. Remember that I told you I had an informant in Jamaica? Well…”
Ivor proudly tucked his thumbs in his belt loops. “That’s me. They call me The Informant.”
Desmond stared at him incredulously. “So, all this time, you knew way more than you were letting on and that Larke and I were really married?”
Eva’s head shot up. “What?”
“Lord…” Ivor started.
“Really married? Ivor, you didn’t tell me that there was ever a doubt.”
“I forgot, sweetie,” he cooed.
“Don’t sweetie me,” Eva warned. “Sometimes I want to just deck you.”
Ivor sent her a devilish grin. “Not me, baby. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
She fought to hide a grin, but Ivor had already spotted it. All he needed was to see that grin to know that he’d won her over with his charm. Even after nearly eighty-years, he still had it.
“But anyway,” he said, turning back to Desmond. “Me and Eva were thinking that, since you don’t have any family, we could adopt you.”
Desmond smiled. “Adopt me? Don’t you think I’m too old for that?”
“Not at all,” Eva chimed in. “We don’t mean with papers or anything. We wanted to let you know that you can come visit us for the holidays. And we can come to you. You can call, write, email me since Ivor still doesn’t know how to use the computer…”
Ivor shot her a look.
“Think of us as your family,” she added. “Even like parents…if you want.”
There was no mistaking the hopefulness in her voice.
“We loved having you around,” Ivor continued. “And we missed you when you were gone. The two of you. Having you there made me and Eva realize that it would be nice to have a son like you. Plus, watching the two of you in love renewed an even greater passion in me and Eva’s relationship.”
Eva blushed and Desmond ran an embarrassed hand over his face.
“What they say is true, you know,” Ivor added. “Old people are wise and wrinkles are just pockets to hold your wisdom as you get older.”
“And who says that?” Desmond asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“It’s in the bible,” Ivor answered, flinging one hand in the air.
“Oh really?” Doug asked. “Which part?”
Ivor stroked his chin and thought for a second. “It is right there in Puh-salms.”
The room erupted in laughter and Ivor soon joined in, doubling over in amusement. Desmond looked over at Larke to find her gaze steadied on him, the corner of her mouth slightly upturned, and the noise in the room drowned out to a low buzz as their gazes locked. Wren noticed and ushered everyone out of the room to give them privacy, but even as they left, neither Larke nor Desmond seemed to notice.
When the door closed, Desmond moved back to the edge of Larke’s bed. He leaned down and pressed a kiss against her lips which Larke readily reciprocated. Then, he placed his forehead against hers.
“Des?” She called.
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
He leaned back. “What’d you say, girl?”
She laughed. “I said that I love you.”
“I love you too, Larke.” He traced his fingers over her eyebrows, lids, nose, and lips before kissing them again. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“When I saw Jarvis pointing that gun at you, I thought the same thing,” she added. “That I don’t know what I’d do without you either.”
He smiled. “I’m sorry I left you.”
“And I told you that I forgive you.”
“I’ll never do it again. I promise.”
“Oh, I know you won’t,” she said with a laugh. “Matter of fact, you’re going to start making it up to me right now.”
She pulled him in for a kiss, this time longer and deeper. Cradling the back of his neck, she drew her sustenance from his lips. She tasted and ladled, gently nipping his bottom lip until he pulled away at the sound of her shallow breath.
“I can’t wait for you to get better,” Desmond said.
“Me either,” she honestly replied. “I want you to show me what the ‘hard’ stands for in ‘Harding.’”
&nbs
p; Desmond burst out with a laugh that reached all the way to his eyes. “You bad girl.”
She innocently shrugged in response.
“But I do know something that we can do in the meantime.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
Leaning back, he tucked his right hand behind his back and held her hand in his left.
“Mrs. Harding, I would love it if you did me the honor of having dinner with me sometime.”
Larke’s eyes clouded. “Dinner? With my husband?”
He nodded. “Dinner with my wife.”
Just one year ago, she’d assumed that her marriage was over and that her world would be turned upside down. But, just like that, fate had put them through all these circumstances just to bring them back together.
“It would be my pleasure,” she answered and he leaned in and took her lips once again, her scent and taste intoxicating him. Larke had saved him from being content with eternal solitude and had shown him that there were people in the world willing to give up their time, their comfort, and even their lives, for someone else. For him.
From the boy who’d spent almost the last two decades thinking that there was no love in the world, to the man who now understood that it had been there all along, waiting for him to uncover it.
Little did he know, saving the beautiful woman crossing the street in Washington DC would lead to one of the greatest missions of his life.
His own rescue.
Epilogue
Six months later…
Larke could never get tired of making love to this man.
He tasted and touched every aching crevice of her body, and moved inside of her with such a sensuous rhythm that she no longer cared whether anything around them existed. All she knew was that he was coupled with her body in a way that it was as if there was no line separating them.
Although focused, he was still tender enough to place wonderful kisses along her neck before nipping the one spot where he knew she was ticklish, then pretending that he didn’t know what she was talking about when she told him, and wonderful enough to laugh along with her when she accidently bumped her head on one of the boxes strewn across the floor, before placing a gentle kiss where she’d hit her head.
She melted as she reached the peak of ecstasy, and it washed over her body and pooled between her legs in warm, delirious delight. Poised over her, Desmond’s slow, purposeful rhythm continued until his conclusion surged from his body and into her heated flesh. He then turned so that she was on top of him, and she fell onto his chest to bathe herself in the radiant heat emanating from his skin.
What had begun as a moving expedition had turned into their third lovemaking session, and neither Larke nor Desmond saw any reason to change anything about it.
“At least we finished getting your boxes inside,” he declared, raising her fingers to his lips. “And it only took us four hours.”
She placed a kiss in the center of his chest. “We spent three of those hours on this floor, in the kitchen, and in your bedroom.”
He kissed her index finger.
“You owe me a dollar,” he told her. “You said ‘your’ instead of ‘our’ bedroom.”
In the past six months, Larke couldn’t believe how much had changed. Charges had been brought against Dr. Lindholm, Gano, several members of Eddie’s entourage, including Senator Dillinger, a few members of Congress, those who held executive positions in Customs and the DEA, and even some well-known names in the banking industry.
She’d also officially resigned from her position in the US Attorney’s office and had taken a job with the Department of Justice in their Office of Violence Against Women, inspired by Desmond’s, and interestingly enough, Eddie’s mother’s stories. She’d also helped Wren and Jay settle into their new lives on the East Coast, but perhaps the biggest change of all was her move back home.
For their date, Desmond had taken her downtown to the Atlas Performing Arts Center to see an African Dance performance that was both artistic and passionate, leaving them both at the edge of arousal. Afterwards, they grabbed a very quick bite to eat at the Atlas Room before rushing back to the house. She’d pounced on him first because of his prior hesitance to make love to her, uncertain that her body had been ready, but he eventually succumbed when she took him into her mouth and caressed him with a tortuously slow tempo.
Before his knees buckled, Desmond had tossed her over his shoulder, carried her upstairs, laid her on the bed, and peeled her clothes off slowly, swallowing every square inch of her flesh. When she was completely naked, he took a step back and devoured her with his eyes, taking in the beauty of her curvy hips, breasts and thighs. They then spent half the night making love, fell asleep, and Larke woke up to feeling of his fullness moving inside of her once again the next morning. Not only was she in love with this man, but she could also see, plain as day, the love that he felt for her. No longer did he hide his feelings, and that security was the greatest reward that she could have ever imagined. It was the assurance of his love, and the assurance of his protection.
“I got you a gift,” he told her, reaching behind his head to pull a box towards them. Opening it, he pulled out a smaller white box and sat up to rest his back against the living room sofa while she continued to straddle his waist.
“It’s for your new office.”
Larke opened the box and pulled out an elegant crystal box. Inside the box were a pair of beautifully carved wooden rings.
“I’ve had those since Ivor and Eva’s,” he told her. “He gave them to me and said he wanted us to have them. I had them placed inside the crystal so they would look nice on your desk.”
Tears welled up in Larke’s eyes. “Desmond, these are beautiful,” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. “Thank you. I love it.”
He cupped her face and kissed her until she was breathless before lifting her into his arms, carrying her upstairs to the master bedroom, and laying her on the bed.
He trailed a line of kisses down her body and then placed a loving kiss on her stomach, right below a nearly unnoticeable mound just beneath her bellybutton, and looked forward to new beginnings.
So…what’s next?
Austin stood and grabbed Sommer’s hand, giving it a little tug to indicate that he wanted her to join him. Sommer’s eyes trailed down over the buttons of his casual black shirt and his dark rinse jeans, both which she knew hid an impeccable physique underneath. Her eyes then found his ruggedly handsome face and she gave herself quick reminder of who Austin was—a famous athlete that probably picked women like people picked daisies—in an effort to reign in anything that she thought she was feeling. The last time she’d given in to a man who’d said and done all the right things, she’d ended up walking home alone and barefoot, embarrassed and hurt to the point where she could no longer find words to describe her shame.
She stood and Austin followed her out to the restaurant’s deck and down the steps. They removed their shoes and joined them with numerous other pairs on a rocky area ahead of the sand. Austin held out his hand towards her again but she pretended not to see it and walked ahead of him, sure that if she felt the roughness of his palms again, it would prove to be her undoing. He didn’t seem to notice, however, and followed her until they were standing at the water’s edge. They stood side by side, Austin with his hands in his pockets and Sommer’s hands cupping her elbows.
“You’re a mean one, Sommer Hayes,” Austin sang, and she tried to elbow him in the ribs for comparing her to The Grinch.
After a few more seconds of silence, she mustered up the courage to face him. Unfortunately, his face was even more handsome in the moonlight.
“So, you adored me?” She began.
“Everything from the hair on your head, down to the birthmark on your left ankle.”
Self-consciously, Sommer looked down at her feet.
“Bet you didn’t know I knew that was there?”
“Lucky guess,” she shot back. “If you
so adored me, why didn’t you ever, I don’t know, tell me? Do something about it?”
Austin’s brows shot up. “If my memory serves me, I’ve thrown roses at your feet, recited Shakespeare to you, and all but declared my feelings for you at the game before the state championships.”
Sommer turned away. “Yeah right, Austin.”
“Yeah right, Austin? So, you’re telling me that you don’t remember any of that?”
“I remember it, but you weren’t being serious.”
Austin tossed back his head and laughed, then gently grabbed her forearms:
“It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that? Her eye discourses; I will answer it. I am too bold, ‘tis not to me she speaks: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes.”
Then his head fell briefly before he found her gaze again. “And please, don’t ask me to recite any more than that. In fifteen years, those are still the only lines from Romeo and Juliet I remember.”
Sommer steadily held his gaze for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes and pulled away from his grasp.
“And there it is,” Austin announced. “The famous Sommer Hayes eye roll. I was wondering when that would show up.”
She walked until there was a few feet of distance between them. “Shakespeare? Really? You’re going to recite the Shakespeare that we learned in middle school to prove that you’re not a liar? How many times has that actually worked for you?”
Confused, Austin moved towards her. “What are you talking about?”
“No, Austin.” She pointed a finger towards him. “No.”
She started towards her shoes on the rocks, but Austin grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him. Sommer wished that just once he’d let her storm out the way she’d seen it in her head.
“You’re going to have to stop doing that,” he warned. “I won’t let you run away. Trust me.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “I know men like you.”
In Love and Rescue: When love is the perfect rescue... Page 25