“Once we’re in flight, I’ll get you settled in the bed and give you a good dose of morphine,” he said, seating himself beside her. “You’ll be able to sleep, hopefully for most of the ride. It’s long, Zara, a good seventeen hours.”
“Tell me about yourself,” Zara said. She needed the sound of his voice. She was looking out the window, noting the line of cars moving very fast toward the airport.
He shrugged. “I’m not the most interesting man in the world. Don’t have your brains.”
“That’s a relief. I don’t like people trying to prove they’re smarter than I am. I’ll concede every time, even if I know they’re full of crap. It gets so old. Do I really care?”
“Usually men, right?” Gino asked, giving her a small grin.
She noted he had a small dimple. It was intriguing in the middle of all that rough. She was a little shocked that she hadn’t noticed it before. “Yep. However did you know?”
“Competition. Ego. You name it, men have it.” He reached for her closest hand, the one she’d been twisting into the sheets wrapped around her. He wrapped his hand around hers and brought it to his chest. “I’m an only child. My grandparents on my dad’s side lived with us, but my mother’s parents were very close, neighbors, so I went between houses all the time. My father served in the Marine Corps and was best friends with Joe Spagnola’s dad, Ciro. They served together in the Marines. Joe serves with us in the Air Force pararescue GhostWalker unit.”
She couldn’t look away from his face, certain he was about to tell her something important. At that moment, the plane began to taxi down the runway. She looked out the window to see the line of cars turning onto the road leading to where the airplane had been waiting for them.
Her breath caught in her throat and she curled her fingers tighter into a fist within the sanctuary of his hand. He pressed her fist harder against his chest. “Look at me, not out there, princess,” he reminded. “I know you’ve had to count on yourself, but you aren’t alone anymore.”
“He planted a virus in me,” Zara blurted. She shouldn’t have. She should have kept her mouth shut. She had at least a week or longer to get back to Whitney before the capsule broke open. She just wanted to see Bellisia. Now she didn’t want to go back at all. Now she considered it might be worth it to let the virus take her if she could just have a few days of freedom—with Gino.
“I’m well aware,” Gino said. “When you were unconscious at the embassy, I did a full body scan. I knew what I was looking for because he’d done the same to Bellisia. He planted two capsules, Zara. The first and a fail-safe. He wanted to make certain you were dead. He knew we’d look for the first capsule and hoped we didn’t find the second. He also planted two trackers in you.”
“Cheng did a full scan as well as a brain scan, and he didn’t find anything.” She held her breath. She had more to hide than capsules of viruses and tracking chips.
“Because they’re attached to your ribs and Zhu beat the holy hell out of you. They’re encased in a new kind of PEEK-carbon nanotube which is invisible to X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs, but Zhu beat you so hard, he dislodged both of the nanotubes and the capsules were just peeking out. Once I go in, I’ll be able to remove the capsules as well as the tracking chips.”
“Go in?” she echoed faintly.
He gave her another small, reassuring smile. “I’m hell on wheels as a surgeon, baby, and that’s me bragging, pounding my chest and acting like an egomaniac just to impress you.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. They were in the air. The cars were sitting on the ground, watching them go. For the first time since she’d been taken prisoner by Cheng, she felt absolute relief.
7
G
ino and his fellow GhostWalkers had brought clothes for Zara with them from the embassy. Just a long skirt Gino had approved, one that wouldn’t rub over the bruises or lacerations. He hadn’t bothered to have them find shoes for her—her feet were far too damaged. She dressed on the plane with his help and he did his best to be a gentleman, an impersonal doctor, but he knew he failed miserably. Her top was cotton, a thin material that buttoned down the front. There was no underwear, but she didn’t seem to care, acting grateful for something to wear other than a sheet.
He’d been careful to keep her covered with that sheet whenever anyone else entered her room. He told himself it was because no woman wanted strangers, even doctors, to see her naked when she was unaware, but he knew it was because he felt possessive of her. That was new for him and unexpected. He’d spent five days and nights with her now, taking care of her every need and instead of being bored out of his mind, or done with the entire business, he craved more time with her.
Her breasts moved under the thin material of her blouse, drawing his attention. That wasn’t supposed to happen, not when they had a long ride home from the airport. Gino didn’t believe for one minute that Whitney would give Zara up. That meant they’d most likely get hit on the way home. Ezekiel and Draden poured over a map of the area, so they could take alternate routes. They also called for some of the other members of the team to meet them halfway and escort them home. He couldn’t be thinking about Zara’s body when they might get hit at any moment.
Gino didn’t tell Zara any of that. She was floating a little, looking out the window at the landscape as they rushed past. She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder, her eyes searching his face.
“You’re beautiful,” she said, touching the dimple at the side of his mouth.
“You’re a little out of it,” Gino told her, but he didn’t remove her fingers, now stroking gently over the dimple and tracing scars that dissected the heavy shadow on his jaw. Her fingers felt like a caress. He should move them. He should move her altogether away from him since his body was beginning to give him a really hard time—literally. At first, he just ached. Now his cock hurt like a son of a bitch, but that didn’t matter as much as having her head on his shoulder did.
Every time she took a breath, those breasts moved. That wasn’t something he was eager to share with his fellow GhostWalkers. He had the urge to cover her up, but he knew he would take the worst razzing of his life. It was going to be bad if the looks he was getting from Draden and Zeke meant anything. Rubin and Diego rarely talked, but he caught them looking once and gave them the death stare. Rubin returned a faint grin; Diego rolled his eyes.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” Zara persisted dreamily, looking at the two men seated opposite her.
“Yes, ma’am,” Rubin said. “We say that very thing to each other every day.”
“And so sweet.”
Gino wondered if he leaned forward and took her breast into his mouth right there, right through the thin material of her blouse, if she’d still think he was sweet. Probably. She’d most likely cradle his head to her chest and he’d be lost. He had to get a grip.
“We were just talkin’ about how sweet Gino is the other day, weren’t we, Draden?” Ezekiel chimed in, looking up from the map.
“Keep it up,” Gino warned. “None of you will wake up tomorrow. At least, if you do, body parts will be missing.”
Zara’s lashes fluttered and a ghost of a smile curved her lips, bringing attention to her mouth. He wanted to groan when his cock pushed hard against the material of his jeans. It was much more difficult to control his body when he’d never had a problem with that before. She had that lower lip that just begged to be sucked—or bitten.