by Cassie Cole
I didn’t have a voice to respond. I widened my stance for him and he slid a finger up and into my wet pussy, clenching it and my clit in a vice-like grip. Two pedestrians walked past the mouth of the alley but never looked our way. The public nature of it, having this beautiful man’s finger inside me while we were only a few yards from walking strangers, brought me to a sudden and shocking climax. Hunter grabbed a handful of my hair and watched me orgasm with hunger and excitement in his eyes.
“You’re fucking hot,” he said as his finger slid out of me. I sighed and kissed him again on the lips.
“You’re one to talk. That was a nice dessert after last night’s main course.”
He pulled away and cleared his throat. “Yeah, about last night… You, uhh, left our place pretty early.”
“Yeah…” I said. “I didn’t want it to be weird.”
He gestured at the police station. “Yeah, dude. Nothing weird about any of this, huh?”
We shared a smile at the ridiculousness of it all.
“I hope you have a safe trip back to North Carolina,” he said. It sounded like a goodbye.
“And I hope you have a safe… whatever it is that you can’t tell me about,” I replied.
He leaned down again, this time to give me a polite kiss on the cheek. It was adorable. Then he smiled awkwardly, ran his hand through his blond hair, and then disappeared.
I waited for the butterflies in my stomach to lessen before leaving the alley. My taxi still hadn’t arrived, and I was starving. I should have asked Hunter if he wanted to get lunch. I dismissed the impulse as quickly as I thought of it. Having lunch with him probably would have earned me another interrogation by Logan the Buzzkill Captain.
But the prospect of that gave me a different kind of feeling in my stomach. As intimidating as he’d been, he had a presence about him that was alluring. In any other context I would have loved to simply listen to him talk about any subject with that smooth voice and handsome face.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me of what really mattered right now. I looked up and down the street. I didn’t know this part of town, and I didn’t see any cafes nearby that looked appealing. I would take the taxi back to Café Trópico. I wanted to explain to the owner that everything was fine, that the friendly American student who had been eating lunch there all spring wasn’t a criminal.
And I wanted the order of juevos rotos I’d missed.
I licked my lips and tasted peppermint. Goodness gracious, Hunter was a good kisser. It was a shame I was leaving in two days. I could have had a lot more fun with him and Cairo.
Maybe in another life.
The butterflies in my stomach disappeared as soon as I played Linda’s voicemail. Her voice crackled in the speaker, frantic and scared.
“Karen. Come home right now. Something has happened. There are—”
Linda cut off with a scream, and then the voicemail ended.
8
Logan
I watched the grad student leave the police station and couldn’t help but shake my head. Yeah, she was hot. The kind of girl-next-door every teenager fantasized about. But to risk everything for her? A girl they’d only just met?
Absolutely fucking ridiculous.
I went down the hall and into to the viewing room, where computer screens showed camera angles of the interrogation room I’d just left. Cairo and Hunter sat with their arms crossed over their chests like a pair of toddlers in time-out.
“Well?” I asked. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
“You were a little hard on her,” Cairo began.
I rounded on him. I was looking for an excuse to go off. “The fuck do you mean I was a little hard on her? We’re waiting to pounce on terrorists, and your little extra-curricular activity last night put everything in jeopardy. You have the nerve to get mad at the way I questioned her? She’s lucky we don’t throw her in a cell on base for the rest of the week!”
“It’s not a big deal,” Hunter complained. The kid never knew when to keep his mouth shut.
“Not a big deal,” I said. “You kidding me? We’re on stand-by orders until further notice and you two decide to go out for a night on the town like a pair of PLUGs on shore leave.”
“We should have kept our cool,” Cairo admitted. “I fucked up by engaging with that date-rapist at the club.”
“We fucked up,” Hunter quickly added. “I had your back, bro.”
“Yeah, but I started it.”
“Shut the fuck up for a second,” I snapped. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about the fight. At least, not primarily. You two shouldn’t have been out at all. Do you know what Commander Richards would do if he found out two of my guys were out hunting for some strange? He’d scrap the whole mission and send our whole team out to BFE Alabama ‘til we died of boredom.”
Hunter stood in anger. “I’m going out for a smoke.”
“So long as the words I’m telling you sink in, do whatever the fuck you want.”
Hunter stormed out of the small room.
“I thought he quit?” I asked in a more normal tone.
Cairo nodded. “He did. Still likes to get up and walk around. Force of habit.”
I sighed. Hunter was the kind of sailor you had to yell at, but a softer tone worked best with Cairo. “What were you thinking?”
“We weren’t thinking,” Cairo admitted. “We’re stir-crazy waiting for our orders.”
“I know. I am too.”
“On a scale of one to discharged, how fucked are we?”
I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. “I’ll make sure it’s all swept under the rug. Nobody needs to know about your little field trip to the club. That girl, Karen, isn’t a security risk. Eventually these separatists we’re watching will screw up, we’ll probably go in and wipe them out, and then we’ll all get the fuck out of dodge.”
Cairo’s bronze face sagged with relief. “Thanks, LC.” LC was the more casual way of addressing me by my rank, Lieutenant Commander.
“Don’t thank me,” I said with a little authority in my voice. “Just don’t fuck up again until we find this terrorist cell.”
“Roger that.”
A silence passed between us.
“Well?” I asked.
“Well what?”
“Was she worth it?”
Judging from the smile that Cairo couldn’t suppress, I had my answer.
“LC, this girl… She’s something. Something special. I don’t know if…”
He trailed off as the phone in my pocket rang. I pulled it out and answered, “This is Lieutenant Commander Carpenter.”
I listened to the voice on the other end.
“What is it?” Cairo asked when I hung up.
“Grab your gear,” I said. “Intel says the terrorists are making a move right now.”
9
Karen
In the back seat of the taxi, I frantically dialed Linda’s number again. It was the 10th time I’d called her in the last five minutes, and I knew she wouldn’t answer, but I did it because it gave me something to do. It was better than thinking about something terrible happening to my roommate.
The phone rang once, then ended. Just as it had the first nine times.
I even tried the Find My Friends app, which Linda and I used to share each other’s location in the city. Our parents had insisted on it for safety purposes, in case one of us was abducted. It had seemed irrationally paranoid at the time.
The app spun, then gave me an error message: LOCATION UNAVAILABLE.
I tapped my foot and called Linda an 11th time.
The moment the car pulled up to our apartment building I tossed the taxi driver too many Euros and ran upstairs. The door to our apartment was open, and it was then that I wondered if I was in danger by being here. If Linda was attacked or something they might still be here.
I darted through the doorway anyways.
The door wasn’t just open. It leaned against the wall like a drunk
sorority girl, with two of its hinges totally ripped free from the frame and the third barely clinging on. The area around the lock had been torn away, like someone had used a battering ram to smash open the door.
The interior of the apartment looked like a tornado had passed through. Linda’s carefully packed boxes were upended and clothes were strewn around everywhere. There was a trail of metal forks and spoons from the refrigerator to the corner of the kitchen where the utensil drawer had been thrown. Three of the chairs in the living room were on their side, as well as the end table and lamp.
“Linda?” I called. Panic gripped my throat and made it tough to breathe. “Linda!”
The television remained untouched in the corner of the room. That was strange. If burglars had come in that should have been the first thing they grabbed…
Linda emerged from her bedroom. She looked totally normal. “There you are. What took you so long to get home?”
I picked my way through the debris and enveloped my roommate in a hug. “Your voicemail scared the life out of me! I thought something terrible happened to you!”
She gestured around the room. “Something terrible did happen. Look what they did to our apartment!”
“What who did?”
Linda looked more annoyed than upset. “Barcelona police. They knocked once, then smashed the door down and stormed inside. Made me stand in the corner while they ransacked the place, and wouldn’t even tell me what they were looking for!”
I looked around the living room. “Police did this?”
“They questioned me, too.” She took a shuddering breath. “Asked me all sorts of questions about our semester in Spain. How long we had been here. Why we were here. They asked about my pond algae thesis.” She gave a little laugh. “Why do the police care about pond algae?”
I gave her a hug. “I’m so sorry, Linda. This is all my fault.”
“You’re right,” Linda said, eyes narrowing. “They said they wanted to talk to you.”
I flipped over one of the chairs and sank into the cushion. “Oh, they talked to me alright.”
I told her everything that had happened to me that morning, though I left out how Hunter had fingered me in the alley. Mentioning the cafe reminded me how hungry I was, so I walked to the kitchen and munched on cold cuts and sliced cheese while explaining the pseudo-interrogation at the police station.
“So this has to do with the guys you slept with?” Linda asked skeptically. “And not the bar fight?”
“That’s what they told me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Linda said.
“They’re some sort of special forces group,” I replied. “I’m 95% sure they’re Navy SEALs. Their boss or whoever thought I was a seductress trying to gain intel about their mission.”
“You’d make a terrible spy,” Linda said. “You can’t keep a secret.”
“Maybe not.” I pressed my forearms close to my chest to jam my tits together. “But I did a fine job of seduction last night!”
We both laughed, eager to find the humor in our shitty situation.
“I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t pack yet,” Linda said with a weary sigh. “Because everything I packed got dumped back out.”
“Sorry.”
She grabbed a stray pair of jeans, then let them drop back to the floor. “Bet you would have done things differently last night. If you knew sleeping with those two would have caused all this trouble.”
I thought about how good it had felt to be pressed flat against Cairo’s muscular chest while Hunter fucked me from behind. Like the meat in a hunk sandwich.
“Honestly?” I laughed. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
*
I helped Linda clean up her belongings, then got started on my own packing. Even though they tore apart my room they didn’t seem to have taken anything but my laptop and iPad. Probably to ensure I wasn’t communicating with any foreign governments.
Foreign governments. The whole thing still felt too ridiculous to be true. As if a college girl like me could be a spy.
I plugged my phone into the charger on my nightstand and frowned. It didn’t vibrate to let me know it was charging. I bent underneath the bed and checked the plug—it was still connected. Only when I wiggled the connector in the phone itself did it finally hit the right spot and begin charging. This thing was getting old.
First I filled my suitcase with the clothes I would need for our weekend trip to Mallorca and then Madrid. Three days in an all-inclusive island resort before heading home to Wilmington. Three sets of bathing suits and three sun dresses to wear when we went out at night. After that we were spending a day in Madrid to celebrate San Ferdinand’s Feast Day before flying back home. A summer dress would be ideal for the holiday, and comfortable for the eight hour flight home.
I hoped I had as much fun there as I had with Cairo and Hunter.
Once that bag was packed, I set to putting my other belongings in the storage boxes that would be shipped home by themselves. I started off carefully folding and arranging things in the boxes, but after half an hour I started tossing stuff inside without a care. How had I collected so many things in just four months? I’d come over with one suitcase and one box of belongings, and already I had packed two full boxes to go back and had at least another two more to go.
Overwhelmed, I decided I had made enough of a dent for today and that I could do the rest tomorrow. “Beach?” I asked Linda.
She posed with her hand on her hip. “You know it. I want to get as tan as possible before finding my true love in Mallorca.”
“You’re not going to see Rafael Nadal there,” I said.
“You don’t know that!”
We changed, and then carried our beach bags out of the apartment. “Uh, what do we do about this?” I asked, pointing at the broken door.
“I already talked to the super. They’re sending a repairman.”
“Aren’t you worried about anyone just walking in and taking our stuff?”
“Let them. Then we’ll have less to pack.”
The beautiful thing about our apartment was that it was only three blocks from the sandy Spanish beaches. The Mediterranean sand was thick and heavy like brown mashed potatoes, but it was a gorgeous afternoon and the beach held a moderate crowd. It would get a lot busier in another hour when people got off work and came down here to relax.
We found some flat sand halfway to the water and laid out our towels. I left my shirt and shorts on, laying back on my towel and sighing as the hot sun warmed my body. The salty breeze that blew over us was refreshing. It would have been a perfect afternoon if not for the annoying tourist helicopter flying up and down the beach, rotors thumping.
“I never should have come here,” Linda suddenly said.
“What? Why?”
She gestured at the beach. “Wilmington is going to suck after this.”
“Stop reminding me. I’m trying to enjoy our last few days.”
“You’ve enjoyed them too much,” she said. “So, these two commandos or whatever. Did you get their number?”
“I did not,” I said.
“That’s too bad. It would have been fun to have them over tonight.”
“Hah! After all the trouble last night caused?”
“It’s not fair that I have to deal with the fallout without having any of the fun,” Linda whined. “Plus, I bet I could show them just as good of a time. I’m way dirtier than you are.”
I smiled sweetly at her. “I doubt it.”
“Then give me the real details about what you three did last night!”
I let them double-team me, I thought. One hard cock in my pussy and another in my ass, filling me so completely that I almost couldn’t stand it.
“A lady never tells,” was all I said.
Linda sighed and smiled up at the sun. “I wish I had failed my thesis. Then I’d have to repeat a semester here.”
I checked my phone. I didn’t have Cairo’s or Hunter�
�s number in my phone. It was probably for the best. If I did, I would have been tempted to text them. To arrange another night of fun.
Mmm, that sounded nice right about now.
I stretched out, feeling the hot sand shifting underneath my towel. I couldn’t help but imagine Cairo on top of me, kissing me softly on the lazy afternoon beach. His lips moved to my neck, sucking gently in that lovely place where my collarbone was tight against my skin, and then he slid lower and took one nipple into his warm mouth. I sighed as his thin beard scratched along my belly, and squirmed when it reached my thighs, which he spread apart with easy strength to reveal my wet, waiting sex. His tongue squirmed into my pussy, deep and wide, twisting this way and that to touch every nerve while his thumb pressed against my clit and rubbed in a circle, and even though his mouth was busy on my sex in my fantasy he managed to moan my name, Karen, like it was a spice he was tasting for the first time.
Police sirens drifted across the city, knocking me out of my dream. “Watch out, they’re coming to get you,” Linda teased.
“Don’t even joke about that!”
“All joking aside, I’m totally ratting you out if I get the chance.” She twisted and yelled up the beach in the direction of the sirens while pointing at me. “Here she is! The girl who had too much fun last night without me!”
“Shut up!” I said with a laugh.
But despite our carefree joking, I felt a rising sense of dread as the sirens grew louder. I couldn’t help it after being grabbed at the cafe. I tried my best to close my eyes and let the warm sun relax my tense muscles, but the fear wouldn’t pass.
“Oh,” Linda said. “They stopped by the beach.”
I twisted and looked. A single police car had parked on the road that ran parallel to the beach. Two shapes were getting out and looking toward the water. Searching for something.
Or someone.
They’re not looking for me. There’s no way.
The sound of the tourist helicopter grew louder. I covered the sun with my hand and watched as the helicopter hovered above us, then blocked out a larger portion of the sky as it lowered itself toward the beach. Soon the rotor’s downdraft was shooting sand in all directions. Other people on the beach yelled and ran away. The helicopter landed, though the rotors didn’t slow down.