Chasing Adonis

by Gina Ardito

  Adara held up a hand. “No, please. No more painkillers. They screw up my head.”

  “Don’t worry. This stuff won’t give you the same side effects as the doctor’s sedatives. It will simply allow you to sleep peacefully and awake refreshed.”

  Adara nodded her agreement just as Detective Griffin rushed back into the room, his lips set in a grim line.

  “Who’s in charge here tonight?” he asked the nurse.

  “Dr. Renhardt, I think.”

  “Find out for sure, and send whoever it is up to this room ASAP.” He mumbled something else, but he was too far away for Adara to catch the words. The meaning, however, was unmistakably clear. When he finished, the nurse nodded solemnly and rushed into the hallway.

  Unease flared Adara’s nerve endings, and the tiny hairs on her arms danced. “Detective? Is something wrong?”

  He smiled at her, but the expression held no mirth. “I want to move you out of here. As soon as possible.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  Approaching Adara’s bedside, Shane took her hand and held it in a warm clasp. “I don’t want to frighten you, but I think Ted may have been sent here to kill you.”

  Nervous laughter escaped her lips before she could stop it. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “I wish I were.”

  “But I don’t understand. Why would Ted want to kill me?”

  “You remember Benjamin Cherry?”

  At the mere mention of his name, tremors racked her from head to toe. “That g-gangbanger who killed Terry?”

  Shane nodded. “They released him yesterday, pending a new trial, Adara. A trial where, this time, you’ll be expected to testify. Ted’s sudden appearance in your life at the very same time Cherry gets out of jail is too coincidental for my peace of mind.”

  “But Ted doesn’t look like he’d be part of some adolescent street gang.”

  “Benjamin Cherry’s no small-time hood. Drugs, weapons, you name it, he’s into it. His father’s a pretty wealthy man, and Cherry can afford the best, even if the best is a hired assassin from Cyprus.”

  The tremors racking her limbs increased in severity, and her heartbeat accelerated to that of a hummingbird’s as she recalled more of her earlier conversation with Ted. “He told me Terry wasn’t good enough for me,” she managed, but the statement came out a mere whisper.

  “What?”

  “Ted. He called Terry ‘that foolish Terence,’ and he said that Terry didn’t deserve a place in my heart.” The full import of what was happening slapped her face like an icy wind. “Oh my God, what am I going to do?”

  “You’re going to try to stay calm and leave this to me, okay? I want to move you to another hospital and keep you under a twenty-four hour surveillance.”

  While Adara’s horrified brain tried to register this new information, the nurse returned with a plastic bag filled with a clear solution.

  “I’ve paged Dr. Renhardt,” she told the detective. “Ms. Berros, this is the sleeping aid I told you about. I’m going to hook it into your I.V. Once it drains into your system, you’ll simply become drowsy and fall asleep.”

  Terror gripped Adara, and she clutched the detective’s hand for comfort. “Will you stay with me?”

  “Yes,” he assured her. “I’ll be in the hallway if you need me.”

  “Not in the hallway. Right here by my side.”

  He squeezed her fingers in a comforting gesture. “If that’s what you want, yes.”

  “That’s what I want.” Pasting a smile on her face, she turned her attention to the nurse. “Okay, I’m ready now.”

  With a serene smile of her own, the nurse expertly hooked the bag to the top of Adara’s I.V. pole, then clipped the tube on the bottom to the shunt in the back of Adara’s hand. “It won’t be long, dearie.”

  Adara merely nodded as she watched the bag overhead slowly deplete of liquid.

  ~~~~

  Before the bag completely emptied, Adara’s eyelids grew heavier, and she had no choice but to close them. Her ears picked up the sounds around her, but they faded into the background: a television set at a low volume, the chatter of nurses in the hallway, the hum of the machine by her side. They all paled in comparison to the loud, steady beating of her heart. After a time, her grip on the detective’s hand faltered, and darkness enveloped her.

  Soon the red-haired child reappeared to lead her to his glen of serenity. This time, she didn’t hesitate to follow him.

  Again, the music played, light and lyrical, and butterflies flitted from stem to stem, changing the hue and shape of the blooms around her. Honeysuckle and vanilla tinged the air with sweetness. Lush blades of grass tickled the soles of her bare feet. A soft breeze whispered across her flesh.

  She glanced down and saw she was nude, but didn’t attempt to cover herself. It felt welcome, natural, to have the heat of the golden sun kissing her in places it never gazed upon. Beside the clear babbling stream, she reclined on a mossy bank, closed her eyes, and reveled in blissful solitude.

  The sun continued raining kisses on her flesh—gentle touches around her earlobe, then to the juncture of her throat and shoulder, lower, to the globe of her right breast. Feathers danced over her nipples, prickling them into sensitive awareness. She arched her back, longing to intensify the delicious shivers cascading across her upper body. A low moan of desire rose in her throat, but she swallowed it back, too afraid that the slightest noise might break the sensual spell surrounding her.

  The sun’s mouth moved lower—to the underside of her breast and across her belly. A warm, wet tongue flicked against her navel. Then it moved lower still until it lapped at her central core.

  Waves of hot pleasure undulated from the heart of her femininity, rippling through her skin. Her bones melted like heated butter, leaving her in a languid pool of ecstasy. At last, she gave volume to cries of rapture and blindly reached out for her mysterious phantom lover. Her fingers entwined in his thick hair, pulling him closer, deeper into her soul.

  “Love me,” she murmured. “Please.”

  “Adara,” his voice husked low in the air around them. “You are so perfect, my darling. Your body was made for love. Hear how it sings beneath my hands.”

  Indeed, her every vein pulsed and hummed beneath his tender onslaught. While his lips continued to drink at her pool, his hands stroked her hips and thighs, sending rivulets of delight into her bloodstream.

  Suddenly, his mouth moved from her midpoint, and a shadow flitted across her closed eyelids. He’d repositioned himself above her, and she wrapped her hands around his neck as he hovered there. The faint smell of cloves filled her nostrils, and then his mouth closed over hers. Electricity crackled between them, fusing two individuals into one.

  She drew him inside her, one sweet breath at a time. Her lips adhered to this tentative connection as a burning need to taste all of him consumed her. As she explored his mouth’s hollow and darted her tongue against his, one thought echoed with every beat of her heart.

  She belonged to this man, body and soul.

  All too soon, his mouth began a campaign of resistance, but she refused to release him. She never wanted to be free.

  “Adara, sweetheart, no.”

  She opened her eyes to gaze into Detective Griffin’s concerned face.

  Chapter Nine

  “Welcome back,” Shane told her when he saw her eyes flutter open. “You had me scared there for a while.”

  His gaze followed hers as she glanced around the cream-colored walls then out the window. The tranquil surface of turquoise water covered the horizon in the distance.

  Confusion etched her brow. “Where are we?”

  “Hampton Hospital. I got you the best room in the house. With a view of Gardiners Bay.”

  “We’re here already?”

  He bit back an indulgent smile. The transfer took over two hours start to finish, but she couldn’t possibly know that, given her state of oblivion. “Yup, already.”


  “Was I okay?” Her top teeth captured her bottom lip in an adorable expression of uncertainty. “I mean, did I do or say anything stupid? I feel like I should remember something…”

  “You were dreaming.” He silently prayed she accepted that statement and didn’t pursue the details.

  The sedative the nurse administered to her must have been powerful stuff. She never woke up, not when the aides jostled her from the bed to the stretcher, not during the hour-long bumpy drive with sirens occasionally blaring overhead. Through it all, she remained unaware of anything or anyone around her.

  Yet her condition was far from stable. For the longest time, he sat beside her in the ambulette and watched helplessly as she writhed and moaned on the stretcher. Once the Hampton staff had her tucked into her bed in the private room, she began speaking. At first her words were garbled, as if she spoke a strange language. But soon, they became all too clear.

  “Love me,” she said in a breathy tone over and over again. “Please.”

  She reached her arms up into the sky, and one of her intravenous tubes stretched to its limit. That’s when he made his mistake.

  He leaned over her to secure the drip line, and she grabbed him around the neck to pull his mouth down to hers. Stunned, Shane could do nothing but kiss her back for the longest time.

  God, she’d tasted so sweet. Like the honeysuckle lining the fence outside his parents’ home. Over dozens of summers, he used to love to nip the tips off those golden trumpet-shaped flowers and suck out the nectar. And so he nipped at her lips, sucking every drop of sweetness from her tongue. Adara’s petals, however, held onto him far longer than any honeysuckle bloom could, and he lost himself within her.

  After what must have been hours, he finally discovered one last thread of awareness in his brain. He still needed all his fortitude to pull away from her before that thread unraveled or snapped beneath the power of her succulent lips.

  Now, she stared at him from her new hospital bed, looking suspicious and wide-eyed. A flush crept up his neck under her scrutiny, and his conscience wondered if she knew what had really transpired between them.

  She had been dreaming; that was true. But it didn’t forgive his behavior. There was no excuse, and he had no foundation for how to handle this situation. He didn’t make a habit of pawing women in states of delirium. Certainly, now was not the time to start.

  “You okay?” she asked, bringing him back to reality.

  “Mmm-hmm. You?”

  She refused to look up, concentrating her gaze on the sheets covering her from neck to toes. “Uh-huh.”

  “Are you in any pain?”

  Her eyes veered back to him, but only for a brief moment before she studied the sheets again. Still, it was long enough for him to notice the hot pink circles in her cheeks.

  “No, why?”

  “You were moaning a lot in your sleep. I thought maybe the nurse didn’t give you enough of that sedative.”

  Oh, God, Adara thought. She was moaning? A lot? The dream came back to her now—in full detail. The beautiful valley, the warmth of the sun on her skin, a lover’s hands and mouth caressing, exploring, inviting her into realms of pleasure. And a kiss. A kiss that ended when she opened her eyes and found her lips scant inches from the detective’s.

  Had she kissed him? In her drug induced stupor, had she dreamt of a phantom lover and assaulted a real-life cop? Could a kiss be considered assault? Or would it fall under the heading of sexual harassment? Fire licked at her cheeks, and she turned her head to stare out the window again until her embarrassment eased.

  “I think she gave me too much,” she admitted, her gaze locked on a cabin cruiser cutting across the waves. Oh, to be one of those lucky people out there—sailing a seaworthy craft over the water, not a care in the world besides which direction the wind blew and the condition of the tides. “It made for some strange dreams.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  She turned to stare at him in surprise and a “No!” erupted from her lips a little too quickly.

  “You sure?” the detective asked, amusement twitching at his upturned mouth. “My nephew, Tyler, always feels better when he tells me about his nightmares.”

  “How old is Tyler?”

  “Five.”

  She smirked. “I haven’t been five in a long time.”

  “I can see that.”

  His eyes raked her figure lying in the bed, and she had to fight the urge to pull the sheets up over her head and hide from the heat in his gaze.

  He must have perceived her discomfort because he cleared his throat and said, “Well, it looks like you’re all set here. Officer Stanton is stationed outside until around midnight. Then another officer will take his place. You’ll have round the clock protection, Ms. Berros—”

  “Adara,” she corrected. No sense in remaining on a formal basis if she’d already locked lips with him.

  “Adara,” he amended. He showed her an oval-shaped plastic object with a red button on top then tied it around the rail of her bed, next to the Call Nurse signal. “This is a panic device. It’s sort of like a mute walkie-talkie. I have the companion piece right here.” He pulled a similar object from his pocket. “If anything frightens you or if Ted should telephone, press the red button. Whoever is on duty will be inside your room immediately.

  “Don’t worry about anyone unauthorized getting in here. You’re under an assumed name, and absolutely no one but the medical staff and the police will be allowed into your room for the duration of your hospital stay.”

  Hey, now, this was something she hadn’t planned on.

  “Not even visitors I want to see, like my friends or coworkers?”

  “No one. No one is to know you’re here. Ted has an awful lot of information on you, and we have no clue how or where he learned any of it. Your closest friends could be providing tidbits of gossip to him without realizing who he is.” He chewed on his lip. “I’m sorry. It’s inconvenient, but it’s the only way I know to keep you safe.”

  “Are you sure all of this is necessary, Detective?”

  “Shane,” he told her, and she nodded. “Answer this question for me. Do you intend to testify in the second trial?”

  “You’d better believe it.” She folded her arms over her chest, hugging herself to ward off the rack of chills that always accompanied thoughts of facing down Benjamin Cherry in court. “That cold bastard killed Terry. And I won’t rest until he pays for what he did. He’s going away for a long time if I have anything to say about it. And this time, there’ll be no loophole to let him out again.”

  One eyebrow rose as he glanced at her with approval. “You’ve got guts, Adara.”

  The chills started in earnest now, and her teeth chattered. “It’s not guts—just guilt.” She couldn’t face Shane’s sincere gaze, and she concentrated on the black print on the hem of her sheet. But the letters may as well have been written in Japanese. They couldn’t permeate the memories filling her mind. “It’s my fault Terry’s dead.”

  “You didn’t pull the trigger.”

  She plucked at the sheet with nervous fingers. “I might as well have.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “It never would have happened if I hadn’t…”

  The words choked her throat before she could utter them. She coughed, and the pressure eased slightly. In a whisper-soft voice, she tried again.

  “Terry and I had been dating for about six months, and I really didn’t see the relationship going anywhere. About a week before the incident, he asked me to marry him. I replied by telling him it was over between us. I didn’t feel that spark of passion I thought a couple should feel for one another. He took it well at the time, but then asked me to go with him to a party that weekend.”

  “Memorial Day weekend?”

  She nodded. “Since the hosts were old friends of mine, I agreed. I think Terry planned to use the event to convince me to take him back. But I kept insisting it was over, and by the time we
left the party, he must have worked himself up into a real frenzy. He didn’t show it, though. That wasn’t his style. He simply told me in this sad little voice that he’d had enough fun for one evening and he would take me home. It was a long drive, and I’d been putting in some crazy hours at work all week. I was completely wiped, so I crawled into the back seat to sleep for a while. That’s when Cherry sideswiped our car.”

  “So, how does that make you responsible?”

  “Normally, Terry was probably the most easy-going guy you could ever come across. I mean, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. But that night, because of our break-up, he was pretty on edge. That’s why he started chasing Cherry and flashing his brights at him. If I hadn’t insisted that our relationship was over, Terry wouldn’t have been so angry. He would have just driven away from Cherry, filed a police report, then called in a claim to his insurance company. It’s my fault that he’s dead. And the only way I can atone for that is to make sure that the man who pulled the trigger spends the rest of his life in prison.”

  Shane shook his head. “It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, Adara, but you’re not responsible for what happened to Terry that night.” His expression grew grim. “Still, if you’re determined to testify, then I’m going to make sure you get to the courtroom in one piece.”

  ~~~~

  “Good evening, my dearest.”

  Adara opened her eyes, but only blackness surrounded her. Squinting in the darkness, she discerned an outline—not a full silhouette, just the blurry shadow—of a man seated in the chair by her bed. Ted!

  She fumbled for the panic button Shane had given her, but a mellow golden light filled the room, and she spotted the tiny remote control device upheld in Ted’s hand.

  “You have no need of this contrivance at the moment. I have not come to harm you, regardless of what your moon-eyed detective says.”

  Adara curled into a tight fetal position, hoping to shield her heart from any bullet. “H-how did you get in here?”

  He smiled, and his teeth lit up the room like fireworks in the night sky. “Doors and police guards cannot keep me from you.” He gestured toward the door. “Your detective believes I am here to kill you.”