He closed his eyes. “I don’t know, but it will be fun finding out.”
And that was all he said before his head fell to the side and his chest moved up and down in a deep breathing pattern, telling me he’d fallen asleep.
I leaned over and went to kiss his forehead but in the last moment, strayed down and placed my lips feather light against his, stealing a tiny kiss from the man that saved my life. A man I wanted to get to know better. In every way that counted.
“I’ll look forward to that,” I whispered and cupped his cheek, soaking in his dark, beautiful features one last time before I let him go and slipped out of his room.
I couldn’t wait until tomorrow when I’d see him again.
Circumstances be damned.
Meeting this man, surviving what could have been a horrible tragedy, changed everything I knew in one evening.
It was time to live for me.
Work toward what I wanted, and grab hold with everything I had inside of me.
And the first thing I wanted…
To get to know my savior, FBI Agent Jonah Fontaine.
Sleep slipped away as I felt a weight across my stomach and heat at both of my sides.
What in the world?
Blinking my scratchy eyes open, I came face to face with culprit number one. Her bouncy brown curls were all over the place in messy waves. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows, even in rest, gave her a sleeping beauty affect. Only this sleeping beauty was little and a spunky Latina to her core. My sister Liliana slept soundly, her face right against my wounded shoulder but not hurting me in the least. Her arm was slung over my waist holding on. Next to that arm was yet another slender limb not of my own, this one ghost white in color. Her perfectly painted nails were a startling purple and the tattoo she had down the side of her hand of a cross was prominent against her pale skin.
Her flaming auburn hair was a flat sheet of red against the white linens. Charlotte. Better known as “Charlie,” my serial-dating bisexual foster sister let it all hang out, and often, depending on her mood.
I lay there for several minutes held between the arms of two women I adored as if they were my very own blood relations.
There were eight of us in total. Foster sisters. Well, me and Sonia were related by blood. The other six came from all different walks of life. One thing remained the same. We’d grown up together in Aurora Kerrighan’s house. Since we were little it had always been the nine of us.
Me. Sonia. Addison. Blessing. Liliana. Charlotte. Genesis. Tabitha. And last but not least, Mama Kerri. She’d taken each of us in and since I was around eight, the entire house had been filled with females. From then on, we were just sisters…a family by choice. We celebrated birthdays, holidays, graduations, jobs, and everything in between just like any other family.
Our lives weren’t normal by any stretch of the imagination, but we made it work and it was filled to the brim with love and sisterhood.
I’d have it no other way.
I lifted my arms and put both of them around the two women. The jostling woke them and each one stirred. Liliana smiled huge, her dark gaze twinkling.
“Dios mio, you had us worried, hermana.” She leaned forward and kissed my bandaged shoulder, and I could have imagined it, but I believed it did take away a little of the burn.
Sisterly magic. Worked like a charm.
Charlie on my right lifted my bandaged hand and brought it to her cheek, pressing lightly. “Mama Kerri said you’d been shot.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes filled with tears.
“When did you guys get here?” My voice was hoarse, and I tried to clear it of all the cotton I felt coating my throat. Pain meds did a number on the body. Damn. Everywhere felt sluggish and lethargic, not to mention the aches and throbbing at my shoulder, hip, and hand.
“We rushed right over when Mama called,” Liliana explained. “You were asleep when we got here. We didn’t want to wake you up.”
I tugged them close, closed my eyes, and breathed deep, allowing their presence to fill me up and give me the comfort I needed this morning.
“Are you really okay?” Charlie asked.
“How can I not be? I woke up warm and comfy to two of the best sisters in the entire world.”