by Mj Fields
“Wha …? What’s that even mean?”
“Daddy?”
She huffs then whispers, “I don’t have Daddy issues, for the love of—”
“You call me Daddy; I’m not assuming it’s issues with your father.”
“Then what the hell are you—”
What the fuck have I gotten myself into? Better yet, why the fuck can’t I walk away?
“Daddy means you want a boss in the bedroom; someone in charge. Outside of the bedroom, it’s a protector or someone who’s doing a good damn job taking care of you. So, you tell me, Brisa, you want a daddy or a bitch who falls at your feet, licks your red bottom shoes, and blows smoke up your ass? I can play the daddy role. But, if you want the other”—I hold out my hand to her like she did to me in Italy when this shitstorm started—“we end this friends.”
She looks at my hand, her face turning red.
I lean in and whisper, “I’m not an actor. I am who I am. You wanted to get fucked, I’ve done that. You want me on my knees, pretending to be someone I’m not, we end this right here, right now, and I still call you Brisa because I shook on it. We’ll remain friendly.”
She looks straight forward, her face now crimson.
I lean back in my seat and close my eyes. “We have a nine-hour flight. Let me know before we land.”
China
The Great Wall
Brisa
Half an hour into the flight, he’s asleep, and seeing him that way—resting—makes him look a lot like he did four years ago, like a man whose smile outshone the sun, with eyes bluer than any ocean I’ve dipped a toe in, and who calmed my fear just like the stars do on even the darkest night.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry if any part of my lie did this to you.”
I pull out my blanket and cover my lap. Then I close my eyes and pretend, just for a moment, that I’m sleeping next to the man I have dreamt about doing just that with for four very long years. The man I pictured when getting humped. Yes, humped, because it certainly wasn’t fucking, and now I know that more than ever. And it was definitely not making love, even though Miles said the words while he was inside me. I may not know what making love is, but I know what it’s like to be falling in love while the person you’re falling for is buried deep inside of you. And I know for a fact that I’m fucking up my “dirty little fantasy,” as he calls it, by wasting a moment trying to get him to see me as a badass, like his equal, because I’m totally not.
“I definitely would rather be calling you Daddy than fighting with you. And I’m definitely being a pussy by saying it when you’re asleep.”
I must be seeing things because the corner of his lips curves up, but only for a second.
Standing to exit the plane, Ranger in the aisle seat nods to Zack to go, then waits until Tris and Matteo follow him, before stepping into the aisle and grabbing our bags. Then he nods for me to go ahead as he slings mine over his shoulder and his over his back.
Once we step out of the tunnel, he grabs my hand and weaves us through the crowd that is insanely tight, like fuck personal space kind of tight, to get to them. As soon as we’ve gotten close, he guides me beside him by putting his hand on the small of my back. Once on the moving sidewalk, his fingers dip down under my waistband, caressing his long, thick finger along the crack of my ass.
I look up at him, and he looks down and lifts his chin. No words necessary, it’s the question: we good? And apparently, the answer, too, because he looks away without waiting for any sort of reply.
Apparently, we’re really good because he pulls me closer and kisses the top of my head when none of our crew, but everyone else, seems to be looking, right before the moving sidewalk spits us out, and then he has my hand again.
Guessing these are Daddy moves, and I’m not hating it one bit.
Once out of security, we follow Zack, Tris, and Matteo and stop at a restroom.
Zack looks at Ranger.
“I’m good. You two go.”
Then he turns to look at Tris and me. “This bathroom uses the same entrance and exit. You’re good. I’ll be waiting.” He holds out his hand, and Tris gives him her crossbody, and he hands her tissues. “Don’t freak out if the toilets are different. Just get in and come out. Stay together. There is safety in numbers. Go.”
Tris grabs my hand. “See? Daddy moves.”
I remember what Ranger said last night about Matteo. “So, you have two daddies then? Matteo was kind of badass the other day.”
“Badass?” she huffs, handing me some tissues. “Stupid is more like it. His hands are his tools. If he got in a fight and injured them, he’d have been fucked.”
“Oh, come on; he was—”
“Fine, it was hot, but stupid.”
“What are the tissues for?”
“I don’t ask. I just roll with it. He’s never steered me wrong.”
I walk into the stall right beside hers and look at the hole in the ground at the same time Tris lets out a laugh.
“You got the same thing over there?”
“Yep, and I’m terrified if I piss in that hole, that one kid in Jersey, who finally digs deep enough to get to China, is going to get a golden shower.”
“Throw him a tissue from Daddy Ranger when you’re done. He’ll be all right.”
Still laughing, we walk out of the bathroom to find all three of them waiting.
“Everything okay?” Ranger asks, squirting hand sanitizer in Tris’s then my hand, like a boy scout.
“Brisa gave Dirty Johnny from Jersey a golden shower. Other than that, it was all good.”
“Not even gonna touch that one.” Zack laughs as he leads the charge out the door.
I’m ten seconds from complaining about being rushed to a waiting car because, holy shit, Beijing is lit up and it’s dark as hell out, too.
“The Summer Palace is about forty minutes away. We need to get checked in and get some sleep, or we’re not going to get through Brisa’s list of things to do.”
“We don’t have to get through all of them. I listed them by importance.”
“Don’t fight her on this. I warn you, she will win,” Tris jokes, although she’s not wrong.
Something has changed over the past week, and that something is me.
Soaking in the bath, I hear the classical music begin to play from the other side of the suite. The walls are definitely thinner here than the house and hotel in Norway. With the time change, I’m not sure who’s supposed to be staying in the suite or who will be leaving to stay in one of the courtyard rooms. I didn’t get a chance to ask. I haven’t been able to think to ask, because my head has been in two places at once.
It’s the excitement of a new country, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and the excitement of Ranger sitting beside me in the third row, holding my hand.
I know, Lord I know, that it shouldn’t mean anything, but it totally does.
When the suite door opens, my question is answered, since there’s no way Zack would just come in here, so Ranger must be taking the night shifts again. That makes my heartbeat accelerate and heat pool in my core.
“You opposed to me sliding in there with you?” he asks, tossing his shirt off.
“Not at all. But I will warn you, my bath water is a bit warmer than you’re used to.”
He smirks as he drops his jeans. Again, no underwear. And again, he’s already hard.
When he steps in, I slide forward and push up on my knees. “You mind if I have a taste?”
His eyes darken, and he shakes his head. “Don’t mind at all. Anytime you’re hungry, taste away.”
“Fucking starving,” I say, wrapping my hand around his cock and stroking down then back up its length once before chasing my hand with my mouth up and down his shaft.
He fists my hair and groans when I flick my tongue over his broad head and purposely graze my teeth across it.
“You take this away from me again, I swear I’ll bite it off.”
/> “I’d love to tell you not to talk to my cock that way, but right now, those pretty lips and that hot, wet, sexy as fuck mouth of yours, and you working me up the way you are, I’ll just give you the real. You can try, but you may chip a tooth.”
I grin up at him, and he shakes his head.
“You want it, suck it. You stay looking at me like that for another second, I’m pulling you out of this tub and taking my turn. I’ve missed your sweet little cunt on my mouth.”
We feast and fuck like we’ve been starved for days, because we have.
Asia … check.
Packing up for the next leg of the trip is bittersweet. I have fallen in love with China. The food, the culture, the landscape, the architecture, and the ease of the schedule in which we’ve kept. One day of touring, one day of blending, observing, and one day of rest. It has been a perfect pace.
Looking down at the display screen of the camera, I zoom in on my favorite photo off the wall. It was the end of the day, Tris and Matteo were exhausted, and the perfect sunset was just above one of the watch towers.
“Last trip down. Come on,” Tris calls to me as she heads toward the gondola returning to the base of the wall.
“But the sunset,” I mutter, not wanting to push. It has been a seriously long-ass day, and all the meds she’s on surely have to be messing with her energy levels.
“I’ll stay back if you can walk the trail down and keep up,” Zack offers.
“Keep up?” I huff. “You’ll be eating ancient dust.”
Eye to the lens, the area completely empty, I get some of the most beautiful shots of the area.
“You get what you need?”
The hair on the back of my neck stands at attention at the sound of his voice—thick, throaty, raspy, and sexy as hell.
I look over my shoulder. “I could always use more.”
He looks around before he steps forward, his chest hitting my back, and then he brings his lips down on mine. “How many laws do you think we’d be breaking if I fucked you right here, right now?”
I turn around and look up. “I’m not sure, but I’m not opposed to finding out.”
He crashes his lips against mine and covers my ass with his hands as he lifts me up. “Wrap ’em around.”
His dick hard against my core, he stalks toward the ruins of a watch tower as I shamelessly rub against him.
“God, I love yoga pants,” I moan at the feel of him against me.
My back hits brick, and then he releases one of my legs to push my pants down as he grinds against me. “Leg out,” he says before bruising my lips with his own, licking my mouth, then pushing my panties aside and plunging a finger deep inside me.
One leg free, I unbutton, unzip, and then shove my hands down his pants and pull his rock-hard dick out, stroking it.
“Fuck.” He withdraws a finger and drops his head to my shoulder.
“What the hell are you stopping for?”
“No fucking condom.”
I grab his shoulders and wrap my legs around him. “I get the shot, and I’m clean. So are you.” I reach between us, grab his dick, and rub it against where I need him the most.
“How do you know I’m—”
“When you were passed out, I had Doc run blood work.”
He grips my hips and pushes me harder against the wall. “You did what?”
“It was a couple vials of blood, not a kidney. And you’re wasting time.”
Head buried in my shoulder, he hisses as I rub his head against my slick heat. When he lifts his head and his eyes meet mine, they are black.
“This wall can’t handle this shit, Brisa.”
“I bet it can.”
Driving into me in one movement, his growl echoes through the air as he fucks me like a man with no control, fucks me like we are two animals in the wilderness with no regard, no reserve, and we come, crying out each other’s names.
One lone knock on the door before it opens, and I know it’s him.
“You good?”
“I am.”
“That doesn’t sound convincing. You need some help?”
Stacking up the postcards that I just signed, I shake my head. “I’m kind of loving it here, and I’m worried our next stop won’t be the same.”
“Don’t wanna try to sell you on the pyramids to get you to hustle, but I will promise you multiples on another continent if you do.”
I look back at him, unable to hide my smile as I stand. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“Um … that would be you.”
I grab my bag. “We need to drop these off with the concierge to mail off before we leave.”
“I’m gonna guess they have postal service in Egypt.”
“That’s not how it works,” Tris calls from behind him. “Don’t try to change the system.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, Trouble,” he calls back to her.
“Just the one bag?” he asks me.
“Souvenirs shipped home yesterday. So, yep.”
He waves his hand in front of him. “After you.”
As I’m walking past him, he yanks on my bag.
“I can carry it.”
“Don’t give any lip. Hand it over.”
I do as I’m asked. “Okay, Daddy.”
Egypt
Fuck Sand
Ranger
As soon as we walk out of the terminal, I feel like I’m choking yet know I’m not. We’ve yet to leave the damn airport!
I fucking hate the desert. I hate sand, and I hate the idea that I have two damn weeks in this hellhole. The only thing that will get me through this is the fact that I won’t be in a foxhole or a tent. I won’t be looking up at the stars at night, praying to God that I make it home.
Home was a joke, too; a mirage. Back then, during my first tour, I didn’t even know there wasn’t shit to go back to, so I lay there, wishing on stars that twinkled back. It wasn’t a sign like I thought. They were mocking me. But I’ve made my peace with that. I even consider myself lucky to have left there intact, so many others did not.
“You good?” Brisa whispers, and I look down, realizing I have her tucked under my arm, held tightly against me.
Looking around, I let out a sigh of relief because, somehow, my momentary lapse of reason didn’t go unnoticed.
Zack stops and veers right from the exit, leading them to an area that’s the least congested, and I walk out to see if our hired driver and armed guard has arrived.
I lift my chin when I see him. He lifts his in return, gets back in the black SUV, and starts toward us.
I shoot Zack a text then wait by the door for them to walk out.
Brisa walks out, her eyes big and beautiful, in awe of her surroundings. When she looks at me and nods, I give it back, thankful as hell I have on my shades so she isn’t feeling this part of me.
It’s just sex—really good fucking sex—and it’s now done.
Once everyone is in, I slide in the front with Cairo and make brief introductions.
“This is Cairo. We’ve worked together before. Cairo, Tris and Matteo are behind us in the back, Brisa and Zack. Zack’s on duty. He’s one of us.”
Cairo smiles. “Welcome to Egypt.”
“Were you named after the city?” Brisa asks.
“The city was named after me.”
When he drives past the hotel where we have reservations, he announces, “I took the liberty of changing hotels to better suit your needs. I believe you’ll enjoy my part of the city much more than this.”
“Will we still see the pyramids from our rooms?” Brisa asks.
“You will not, but you will be on the Nile, and in a safer location. I secured tickets for your tour of our pyramids that are much more desirable than the simple tour you all had booked.”
I look back and see her roll her eyes.
Leaning back, I close my eyes and attempt to wrap my brain around the fact the I’m way too fucking close to the Middle East for my taste, and that the night
mares that have disappeared since that night will surely be starting up again. Same terrorizing torment, different monster.
“Is that the Nile?” Brisa asks, excited again.
“It is. And the two suites overlook the Nile. Much more beautiful, yes?”
“Well, I’m not sure,” Brisa answers.
“Take my word for it, yes?” Cairo asks.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath for them to just agree without judging for themselves.” I chuckle.
“Then no soldiers?” Cairo asks.
“No.”
“Ah … clients.” He nods his understanding.
“How do you two know each other?” Brisa asks.
“A past life,” I answer, looking out the window.
“In which he saved mine.”
“All right.”
“Beautiful women in the vehicle, and you wish to hide your heroic—”
“Clients,” I cut him off.
“Understood.”
“Good.”
“Check in or dinner first?”
“Check in, shower, snack, eight-hour nap, then the pyramids,” Tris states.
He looks at me. “She’s the boss.”
“Okay, I’m going to admit I was a bit annoyed that you messed with my itinerary, but you’re right; this view is amazing.” Brisa stands on the balcony with the lens of her camera to her eye.
“You must be an actress, because I had no idea,” Cairo replies dryly.
“I’m also the boss,” she says, not looking away.
“Ah … sure you are.” He chuckles as he stands from the lounge chair.
“I am.”
“Your sister, tigress; you, kitten; and I’m tired.”
“That’s too bad,” Brisa states sarcastically as she continues taking pictures.
He chuckles. “I’ll see you at six in the morning.”
“Wait—what?” Brisa nearly drops her camera.
“The best time for the most beautiful sunrise you will ever see,” he tells her.