See You in Valhalla

by MariaLisa deMora

  ***

  Carly

  Something Ryman had said today had stuck with her, and she held to his words as she fought to bring her whirling thoughts under control. “He already looks at you like you’re his world.” That had been right after the memorial ride ended, in those moments when she’d been so raw and humbled she’d needed to find a place to be alone for a few minutes, just to pull herself together. She hadn’t asked him what he’d meant, but looking up at Angelo Dobbs, aka Neptune, she thought she understood.

  Please, God, she prayed, feeling like it was another foxhole plea, alike and yet dissimilar from the thousands she’d lifted up over the years.

  “My mom had a sister. She was younger than Mom, only a couple years older than me. When my grandparents passed, she came to live with us. I remember my friends in school thinking it funny that I called her Aunt Jan, because she was a high school senior while I was a freshman.” She swallowed hard, trying to find room in her throat for the words she needed to say. “Aunt Jan went to college out of state, and the fifth week of the first semester, she dropped off the surface of the earth. Daddy turned over every leaf and stone, talked to cops there in Virginia, and came up empty. They kept telling him it was a good-girl-gone-bad scenario, but he and I knew differently.”

  When she paused for a breath, Angel traced her jaw with his finger, hand settling on her throat in a comforting gesture she needed. “They never found her, but Daddy had a friend who’d heard about a guy recruiting at her campus.” She shook her head. “And by recruiting, I mean abducting girls and boys and sending them to training camps, where they’d come out with a specific set of skills and a monkey on their back.”

  “You ever get a name for that recruiter?” The man staring at her now wasn’t Angel, not even Neptune. This was Dobbs, the military man she suspected had a lock on where she was going with her story.

  “Yeah. Name and then another name, and a short list of contacts. I was out of school by then, attending the academy. Daddy wouldn’t let me in on anything he was doing, but he kept me up to date on what was going down.”

  “Good man, trying to do right by his girls.”

  “Yeah, I know. It pissed me off at the time, but I understand. So fast forward to my career. I used to work for DOJ. I wasn’t able to get what I needed from that route, so I got away from that and went to work for a private company. They’ve got operatives in all different kinds of specialties. There’s a lot I can’t tell you, but they can infiltrate businesses, agencies, countries—hell, even families if needed.” Angel—and didn’t she just love that name, letting it roll around inside her head, spreading light and sparkling hope everywhere it went—stared down at her with a carefully neutral expression. Neither encouraging nor discouraging. She didn’t realize it was what she needed to get through this until he’d donned the expression. “I’ve taken lots of jobs over the past few years. Daddy knew some of it, but he wasn’t happy about me leaving the government job. Not after working my way up through the ranks and into the pocket of the general who set me up at the DOJ.”

  When she paused there, he didn’t urge her to continue, didn’t give her any indication he was impatient for her to get past this need to flay herself in front of him before they slept together for the first time. First of many, she hoped, momentarily crossing her fingers.

  “I was looking for anyone with a connection to the names I had. Those were the jobs that appealed, ones where I could put another pin in the wall of information, or where I could take an operation down. Ones that resembled what I knew Aunt Jan had been initiated into. Some of the jobs required I put myself into situations that shouldn’t have happened. I did it, but these weren’t anything close to usual, you know?” As soon as she asked the question, she shook her head and scoffed far back in her throat. “Of course you don’t know; that’s why I’m telling you. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry, baby. This is hard. I can see that just from your expression.” He smoothed her hair back from her face, the touch infinitely tender and caring, and she turned her face into his hand, pressing a kiss to his palm. “Before you go on, I want you to hear me. Really, really hear me.”

  Carly stared up at him, waiting. His gaze moved over her face, but he held his silence until she nodded slowly.

  “I got a feeling I know what’s coming, and while I hate that for you, it doesn’t matter to me. Nothing that happened before you walked in that kitchen a couple nights ago matters. Anything that you did or was done to you—all that pales by the perfection of you right here in my bed, in my arms. You need to tell me, I’ll listen, but in the end, it won’t factor in what happens between us.” As he spoke, his thumb stroked along her cheekbone, a simple back and forth that anchored her. “I’m sorry you lost your aunt that way. I get what drove you, Carly girl. I totally get it. I was in the military, and I don’t talk about it much, but my job was killing people. Not usually from far away, although I did that too. My job was to get up close and take my targets out while they were in impossible situations, which meant the path to them was never clear. I worked through the shadows or in the crush of a crowd, but the end result was I did my job. I did it and was good at my job. But that’s no longer my job.” He lifted one shoulder, bending close enough to brush the tip of her nose with his in a caress as sweet as his touch on her face. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you did for the DOJ or that private outfit you work for. I only care about you.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It’s as easy as you let it be, honey. You want it to be hard, want to tear yourself up about how I’m going to react? Well, don’t. Because I won’t. You’ll get no recriminations from me.” He brought his mouth closer, and she lifted up to meet him halfway, pressing her lips to his in an eyes-wide-open, trembling kiss. The steely resolve in his gaze reassured her that he really did mean everything he was saying, and he reiterated it when they separated finally. “Easy as you let it be. Be easy, baby. Be easy.”

  “The last job was one of those trafficking rings. We broke it up, saved nearly a hundred women and girls this time. Lost a bunch of them who were too far gone, but we saved so many. Got records on the movers and shakers in that world, and I matched things to the man. I got him, Angel. We got him and it’s over. It can be over, if I want it to be. My boss has suggested that be my last job for a while.” Her breath caught in her chest at the remembered shadow world where she’d lived for so long. “It was so bad, Angel. And to get inside, to earn my way in, I had to—”

  “I’ve got a better idea than you think what it took to earn your way inside.” He bent his neck, putting his face close to hers again. Speaking slowly, enunciating clearly with pauses between each word, he told her, “I. Don’t. Care.”

  Can it really be that easy for him? She blinked and, for an instant, was back in that tiny cell where her every move was watched, where she was fodder for fantasy for so many men, where so many evil acts had happened. Another blink and all she could see was Angel, right there in front of her. Easy as I let it be, she reminded herself, and felt the corners of her lips curl in a tiny smile.

  Rocking her hips up against him, she got to see his mouth fall open in surprise. Had a front-row seat to witness the hunger stir back to life in his eyes as he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth on a low grunt. “God, baby.” As if her action had given him permission to move, and she supposed it had, he ground down against her. His erection had flagged while they talked, which meant she now got to feel it coming back to life, hardening against her as he thrust in a slow, rolling motion.

  “Make love to me.” Carly ran her hands up his arms and over his shoulders, trailing the hard edges of her nails against his back until she gripped the globes of his ass. “Please, Angel?” She pulled and lifted at the same moment, firming the contact between their bodies from breasts to knees.

  “My baby don’t gotta beg me.” His head fell, and his mouth covered hers in a voracious kiss that went on and on. The muscles in his ass bunched und
er her hands as he moved over her, and Carly was on the edge in only moments, her breath coming ragged and quick against his lips. “Not sayin’ I don’t like it, ’cause I surely do.”

  “Please?” She kissed him softly, tongue dipping between his lips to explore and taste. “Please?” This was a murmur against his cheek as she trailed a line of gentle kisses along his jaw. He groaned when she reached his ear and breathed another plea. “Please, Angel?”

  ***

  Neptune

  Soft and giving in his arms, Carly had clearly put aside the need to bare her soul to him, and he hoped it wasn’t just in response to his disclaimers but because of them. There’d be a difference and he’d know it over the upcoming days and weeks. If she returned to the topic out of a misplaced need to give him an out of having a relationship with her, he’d do his best to set her right again.

  His earlier exhaustion had fled, and now he was buoyed up on a soaring need to be inside her, to feel her around him, under him, to work his way under her skin as she’d surely done to him. The remembered terror from the events of the evening tried to creep in, but he squashed those.

  Knowing even more about Carly’s skill set now, just from the tiny amount he’d gotten from her, he knew he’d have to come to grips with the fact his woman could hold her own in situations like that. He’d had more than one conversation with Wolf on the same topic as the man had wrapped his head around how competent Rose was, because it meant his inner caveman wasn’t needed as much as Wolf wanted to be. The couple had finally come to a balanced cooperative arrangement, and Neptune trusted he and Carly would do the same. Bank on it, he thought, holding tight to the thought that she’d be around long enough so he could watch it happen.

  Her teeth latched on to his earlobe, and he tightened his grip on her, sliding his hips back and forth in a writhing circle that targeted her core. The groan she gave him was worth the ache in his cock at the firm pressure, and he fell into a rocking movement against her. Mouth on her throat, he kissed his way down to the delicate lines of her collarbones, nudging the fabric of the shirt she wore aside to reach more of her soft skin.

  “Lose the shirt, baby.” He was already tired of fighting the garment, and he pushed up so he was propped over her at arm’s length. “Love seein’ you in my tee, but I’m over it. Wanna see you in the altogether, which is nothin’ at all.”

  The smile she gave him was blindingly bright, carrying a fond affection that felt more profound than the desire in her eyes. She gave him back the words spoken earlier in the evening. “You got it, Angel.”

  Her hands moved between them, but instead of bringing the shirt over her head, she worked at the waistband of his underwear, and he lifted as she shoved the material down over his ass, halfway down his thighs. His rigid cock bounced free, slapping against his belly before arcing in an eager curve away from his body. Pushing to his knees, he finished removing boxers as he watched her graceful movements that swept free of her body not only the shirt but also the tiny scrap between her legs until she was naked, laid out before him.

  Mesmerized by the sight, he followed the path of her fingers with his gaze as she trailed a soft touch across a scar on her side, another one high on her chest, moving from place to place on her body. It took a moment, but he realized this was Carly showing him her uncertainty. Drawing attention to everything she didn’t like on her body would ensure those places were seen.

  “Perfect imperfection.” Neptune bent and placed a gentle kiss against a scar just above her hip. He repeated the path her fingers had drawn, mouth moving up her body until he was stretched out over her again, nestled between her legs as he held himself up and off her, connected at the hip. “Nothing I’m seein’ is gonna put me off you, Carly. I’ll want to hear the stories someday, and we can trade tales, because I’ve got the same records of war written on my skin. Right now? Ah, God. Right now, all I wanna do is love you. Gonna let me?”

  “Yes.” Her hands landed against his flanks, gripping and pulling him tight against her. “Oh, yes.”

  Staring down, he watched a smile begin to curve her lips and couldn’t wait to taste her another minute. Neptune possessed her mouth, falling into the kiss like a man starved, working across her lips once, then a second time. He rolled his hips, thrusting against her, and when her lips parted as his cock glided up and across her clit, he plunged inside her mouth, tongue stroking and twisting with hers.

  She wasn’t passive, not at all. Carly gave it back to him in equal measures, and he set up a steady rhythm, body and mouth working in a synchronized attack against her senses. She had her own campaign as her hands ran up and down his back, nails threatening one moment, palms soothing the tiny scrapes the next.

  “Beautiful.” Elbow to the mattress, he propped up on one arm as he slipped his fingers along her side, finding and cupping her breast in his palm. She arched up against him when he tweaked her hardened nipple, her parted lips and the inrush of air evidence of a silent reaction. Her hips moved with greater urgency, legs shifting restlessly as his cock glided through the slick between her pussy lips. “Carly, baby. I wanna be inside you when you come.”

  “Mmhmm.” Eyes closed, she hummed an answer, chin lifted as she thrust her head back when he ground down against her clit. “Please?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He gave her his weight as he reached across the bed to the drawer of the nightstand. Wrapper in hand, he used fingers and teeth to open the package, rolling the condom on without separating from her any more than absolutely necessary. “My baby don’t gotta beg.”

  Her legs lifted at the same time he rocked his hips back, and the head of his cock notched neatly into her entrance. Neptune pushed forwards, driving into her by a few inches, then held still as she lifted against him, letting her fuck herself, taking him deeper and deeper until he couldn’t stand it another moment. Back bowing, he pulled out nearly all the way, then slipped back, pulsing in and out slightly as he forced himself farther inside, grinding against her when he was finally buried to the root.

  Her legs folded across his thighs, heels locking right below his ass, and she cried out as she arched up against him again, the name she’d gifted him with buried in the sounds pouring from her throat. “Please, Angel.”

  Then it was all bets off as he moved over her, inside her, any caution he’d still had thrown to the wind. He couldn’t get close enough to her, needed to be with her in a way she’d never lose him, so he’d never lose her. Face buried against her shoulder, he fucked her slowly, using long, deep strokes, twisting his hips when he was balls deep, torturing her clit with every thrust against her body. Sweat slicked both their bodies, and he licked and sucked at her skin, taking in the taste of her there, too.

  Carly’s fingers threaded through the hair on both sides of his head, and she gripped, lifting him up. She stared up at him, the sight of her wide pupils showing him where she was with their lovemaking. “Wanna see you,” she whispered, her chin lifting as he bottomed out again, following through with the roll of his hips that brought the root of his cock into firm contact against her clit. “Angel, I’m gonna come.” Her tongue lapped at her lips, and he dipped close enough to brush a kiss across her mouth, but she used the grip she had in his hair to haul him up again. “Wanna see you.”

  Neptune shoved an arm underneath her back, pushing his hand down to fit his fingers around her ass and lift. The change in angle allowed for even deeper penetration and minutes later gave him a glorious show as she shattered underneath him. Mouth wide in a silent cry, she kept her gaze on his, letting him see every emotion and feeling as she rode the wave up and up, cresting as he crashed their bodies together fierce and fast. He kept up the pace, hammering into her as the orgasm drew out, Carly coming hard as her muscles clenched around his dick.

  The lightning that had been coiling at the base of his spine stretched as sounds of his body slapping against hers rose to a frantic pace. “Carly, baby.” The tingle curled around the base of his dick, then rushed down his legs
and up his spine. He stiffened and thrust deep, deeper as her hold on his head slipped and he bent his neck to kiss her, needing to taste her again, driven to feel her everywhere. Tight heat surrounded him, her arms and legs wrapped wherever she could get a grip, mouths pressed together, his cock pulsing inside her, filling the condom with what felt like molten liquid.

  Blissed out, he tore free from her hold on his head and buried his face into the crook of her neck. He stayed like that for a while, holding the bulk of his weight off her as his body trembled with every round of aftershocks that swelled through him, peaking fast and fading slowly. She was responsive even to that, holding tighter and shivering along with him.

  “What’s your middle name?” Grinning when Carly laughed in surprise at the out-of-the-blue question, he pulled back so he could look into her face. Knuckles to her cheek, he stroked her skin slowly, gently, savoring the contact between them everywhere.

  “Jane.” She wrinkled her nose. “Carly Jane. I can still hear my mom yelling for me across the base housing. Where’d Neptune come from?”

  Ignoring her question for now, he asked something he already knew. “Gibby was still enlisted when she passed, right?” When Neptune moved to pull out, Carly’s arms and legs tightened and she moaned softly. He smiled and leaned down to trace the line of her cheekbone with the tip of his nose. Mouth close to her ear, he whispered, “Baby, gotta take care of the condom.”

  “I know.”

  The grumbling tone made him grin. When he pulled back to smile at her, Carly snapped her teeth at him, prompting him to possess her mouth again. The sliding glide of tongues and soft caress of her lips against his was heaven revisited.