by Krista Wolf
“It’s just kissing,” I gasped, as his mouth went to my neck. He dragged it slowly downward, to chew on my shoulder. “Lots of people kiss…”
His hands found their way under my shirt, lifting it up and over. I helped him with his. Seconds later were chest to chest, warmth against warmth. My breasts felt like they were on fire.
God!
He kissed further down, eventually reaching my nipple. When his mouth closed wetly over it, I breathed his name.
“Holden…”
He nibbled, then bit down with just the right amount of pressure. I leapt up, arching my back. On my other side, his hand was already playing. His fingers twisting. Rolling…
And somewhere down between his legs, that bulge. Bigger now. Huge, even. It was rubbing even harder. Grinding against me.
I reached down and closed my hand over it.
Oh FUCK YES…
I felt his foot come up. It caught the crotch of my sweatpants and kicked down, shoving them to my ankles. I spread my legs wide for him. Grabbed his ass with both hands, as he found my already-drenched entrance and sank into me…
“Ohhhhhhhhh!”
He started pumping right away. Churning and thrusting and rolling his hips in a circle, every time he bottomed out in my pussy.
“It’s just sex…” I gasped, clawing him deeper. The muscles of his ass were two thrumming machines, rolling hard beneath his warm flesh. “Lots of people have sex…”
Holden rose up on his elbows just long enough to look me in the eye.
“Not like I do,” he said, before fucking me deep and hard.
Twelve
ANDREA
We fucked like animals, in the center of the boxing ring. Grunting and groaning. Sweating all over each other as we traded blows, like so many others who’d battled on this same stretch of ancient canvas… but in a much different way.
Holden’s stamina was that of a boxer’s, too. He took me with my legs pinned high over his shoulders, growling into my mouth as he slammed himself home. I rolled over for him, taking him from behind. Clawing the edge of the mattress as he dogged me deep, pulling back on my hair as I slammed myself backward to meet his thrusts.
Nothing we did surprised me. It was like all the pent-up sexual tension between us was being released at once. The sum total of those fiery kisses, his hands on my face, the dancing and cuddling and grinding… anything and everything was fair game, as the last of the walls came down between us.
I eventually rolled him onto his back, his cock jutting straight up like a glistening spike. My eyes crossed a little as I impaled myself on it, marveling at its thickness. Then I spread my hands across his washboard abs, and rode him until I was delirious with the need to come.
“You…” I gasped, sweating all over him. “You have to…”
Somehow, he knew what I meant. Without leaving me he rolled me onto my back, his sharp blue eyes boring into mine. Then he pulled back, grinned wolfishly… and screwed me deep into the makeshift bed with that gorgeous, beautiful cock.
OH GOD…
I came almost immediately, squeezing my thighs together. Pulling him against me, as the familiar molten fire rocketed up from my core. It consumed my body. Washed over my mind. Blanked out every other thought in my endorphin-fueled brain, as I drifted off into the pure white euphoria of a heaving, shuddering climax.
GODDDDD…
I was cursing and screaming. Whimpering in pure pleasure. And then all at once I was coming down, basking in the delirium. My eyes fluttered open just in time to catch him trying to withdraw…
“In me.”
My ankles hooked him against my body, leaving no doubt as to what I wanted. His face contorted in that special way, and then suddenly he was flooding me, filling me from within. Surging into me again and again, as rope after rope of his hot, thick seed began splashing somewhere deep in my womb.
When it was all over he held me, shoving one hand’s worth of his thick fingers through my sweaty tangle of blonde hair. Then he leaned down… and kissed me in the sweetest, most romantic way.
“You’re incredible,” his lips murmured against mine.
I could only stare up at him in silence, my whole body trembling. My smooth, porcelain legs were still wrapped around his muscular waist. His cock was still hard, all thick and swollen inside me. I wanted it there. I wanted to keep him in me forever.
“Oh really?”
We both whirled in the same direction, with the same look of confusion and dismay. Not ten feet away, Randall stood off to the side. Watching us with a smile.
“Nobody told me we were doing this again.”
He was holding something — a travel bag, dangling from one long arm. My brows knitted together as I realized I knew it from somewhere. And then…
It’s yours!
I blinked in total disbelief. Our two bodies remained frozen as Randall casually unzipped his prize.
“Grabbed you some clothes,” he said, pulling out a few of my things. “Underwear too, although that went against my better judgment. It was a struggle, really. In the end, I just cherry-picked the skimpy ones.”
He was the same Randall as before. That was the strange part. If he was mad or upset by what he’d just walked in on, he sure as hell wasn’t showing it.
“Here’s everything I could find from the medicine cabinet, too.”
He plucked out a makeup case, stuffed with toiletries. I saw my toothbrush. My razor. The purple loofah I’d left hanging around the hot water spigot of my shower.
“Oh yeah,” he added, “and this too.”
In one smooth motion he tossed something my way. Holden reached out and caught it. A little circular packet of blue and white.
My birth control pills.
“Looks like you might be needing these,” Randall winked, before turning away.
Thirteen
ANDREA
It was a very weird day, especially since we’d slept through most of it and were ‘waking up’ close to dusk. I learned the guys operated mostly at night, so they were up at all hours anyway. Through their training they also were accustomed to sleep deprivation, and didn’t need much in the way of rest.
Considering how much I enjoyed sleep, that could definitely be a problem.
Despite everything I sucked it up. My body was sore from the events of the past twenty four hours, my mind still running a mile a minute. I was homeless. Jobless. Without purpose, or direction.
All of this was somehow okay though. Total disarray was almost my baseline. In other words, it wouldn’t the first time. Yet when I came to Athens half a year ago, I’d hoped it would be my last.
“Coffee.”
It was the first word I’d grunted, and it received a firm double-nod. A half hour later we were at a tiny cafe, tucked safely into the chaos of Syntagma Square. I ate ravenously while the guys checked messages and made calls on their phones. Whatever they were up to, they were extremely busy.
When I’d finally filled my belly, I sat back and studied them again. Holden looked handsome and indestructible. Like he hadn’t just pounded my body into sexual submission and stayed up the rest of the night pacing the gym and formulating a plan. Randall was leaning back in his chair, casually. He looked almost at peace, but I could see his hands busy fidgeting, his eyes darting from patron to patron. Either he was bored, or restless, or checking out everyone who walked in and out of the cafe. Maybe even all three.
“So what now?”
They looked at me, and for a brief moment I got the feeling of a being a sheep amongst wolves. Only I wasn’t a sheep. Far from it.
“We wait a little,” said Holden. “Kyrkos was there last night, but something spooked him. He left that party before you or I could get to him.”
Or the third guy, I thought but didn’t say. I wasn’t entirely sure why I hadn’t mentioned the dark-haired giant who’d come for Kyrkos as well. But instead… had found me.
“Tonight we lay low,” said Holden, “but we
need to meet up with a few of our contacts, first. See if they know anything we don’t. If Kyrkos fled—”
“Maybe we can pick up wherever he went next,” Randall finished.
I nodded silently, while calling for another cup of coffee. Shit they worked fast. My sole contact was an old friend of my father’s, and the man risked his life every time he talked to me. As grateful as I was, it would take me weeks to get in touch with him after something like this.
My eyes shifted to Randall. “When you were panty-raiding my place, did you happen to notice my wallet? It was in my pocketbook.”
“Pocketbook?” The SEAL laughed, his face twisting into the same strange look of revulsion most guys made whenever I’d asked them to retrieve something from my purse.
“Nevermind. Spot me some money.”
The two of them glanced at each other. Eventually Randall uncrossed his tattooed arms and fished into his pocket. He came out with a wad of bills and peeled me off way more than I would’ve asked for.
“Thanks,” I said, tucking the colorful drachmas away. “While you’re gone, I’m going to pick up a few things. Actual food, other than the chips and pretzels you’ve been subsisting on. Does that fridge I saw in the back of the gym’s office still work?”
Randall nodded. “I plugged it in on day one. Filled it with beer day two.”
“You emptied it on day two also,” Holden sighed. He arched an eyebrow. “You going shopping for us?”
“Yeah, well I drank from the faucet last night. I couldn’t even find a clean bottle of water.”
“What’s wrong with drinking from the faucet?” asked Randall.
I rolled my eyes. Holden chuckled. “Okay, so maybe our base camp is a little thin on supplies.”
“Thin? It’s starving.”
Randall pulled out even more money, but I waved him away. It was good to know they weren’t tight on resources, at least.
“Make sure you’re back inside before it gets too late,” said Holden. “No sidestreets. Stick to the buses, not the metro.”
“Yes, dad.”
“And make sure no one sees you enter the building. Use the side door we showed you. Double-bolt it behind you, and—”
“I got it, alright?” I stood up to leave, but not before leaning down to give each of them a quick peck on the cheek. I don’t even know why I did it. It seemed a little odd, all things considered.
But is it really though?
The more I thought it over, the more I realized it wasn’t. I felt an instant kinship to the both of them, in that we shared common ground. Maybe it was also because we’d become close, like a team.
Or in some cases… a lot closer than that.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Holden assured me. “Get whatever you need.”
“And pick up milk,” Randall added cheerfully. “And cookies. American cookies. None of these weird Greek brands.”
I put a hand on my hip. “You do realize we’re in Greece, right?”
“Yeah?” he said innocently. “So?”
I shook my head as I walked out, melting into the tourist-filled crowd. The streets would thin out soon, I knew. People here tended to go home earlier than they did back… well, back…
Home.
It still felt strange, calling it that. I hadn’t been Stateside in I couldn’t remember how long. There were times I wasn’t even sure I’d be going back, partly because I had nothing to go back to. But mostly because I knew it would remind me of him.
My father.
There were times too, when I wondered if I were chasing ghosts. Xander Kyrkos might’ve been responsible for ordering my father’s death, but in the end it was my father who’d been the one who’d chosen his own path. Indigo could be as significant or insignificant as I wanted it to be. I had my own life to live. My own path to take… all I had to do was walk it.
I could’ve just as easily let it all go. Until now, that is.
Not now, though.
No, definitely not now. After last night, I was on their radar. They’d find me wherever I went — chase me down, the way I’d been chasing after Kyrkos. I’d started this whole thing as the hunter. Now I was the hunted as well.
But he was my father, and I loved him. No, I adored him. And he, me.
My thoughts were still conflicted as I ducked into the first supermarket I saw. My father had worked tirelessly for the scum who’d killed him. But that also meant he’d done a lot of bad things. Terrible, terrible things.
Things that made me wonder if he deserved what he’d ultimately gotten.
I was only sixteen when it happened, and even then I knew the hole left by his disappearance would never be filled. In the years that followed I’d be well-funded, well-taken care of, but no amount of money could ever take his place. I had the best clothes. The best schools. The best of everything. Yet all of it left the same unquenchable level of emptiness.
An emptiness I knew would never go away as long as Xander Kyrkos was still breathing… and my father was not.
As I walked the aisles, picking through items, I came to the same realization I always did. A compromise with myself really:
My father was gone. There was no path I could take that would ever lead me back to him again.
But no matter what, Alexander Kyrkos needed to die.
Fourteen
ANDREA
Somehow the boys arrived home before I did. I unloaded everything I was carrying into the little office, and began calling for them loudly as I wandered the gym.
“Over here,” I heard Randall say. “In the living room.”
The ‘living room’ was pretty much the couch area back at the far corner. Only now it consisted of something else too: a flat-panel television, hooked up to something that looked like a very fancy, very expensive miniaturized satellite dish.
“We upgraded?” I joked, sinking into the couch.
“Big time.”
Randall was flipping through channels as Holden made adjustments to the dish. Eventually a picture appeared. They screwed with it until it was sharp and crisp, then Holden flipped over to a local news channel I recognized. The bottom of the screen flashed with subtitles, written in English.
“Did you get cookies?”
I yawned and nodded. My sleep schedule was all screwed up. It felt like day and night at the same time.
“The good ones?”
I let out a short, sarcastic laugh. “I got whatever they had. Suck it up.”
Suck it up had been one of my father’s favorite sayings. It was just one of the many colorful mantras I’d picked up from him.
“We still laying low tonight?” I asked.
Holden nodded.
“Awesome.” I kicked my feet up onto a nearby heavy bag, which was lying on its side. They were using it as an ottoman. “I picked us up some coffee for tomorrow. And a halfway-decent coffee maker, too.”
I was looking forward to tonight. I had a lot of questions that couldn’t be answered while stealing a boat or fleeing sniper fire. Maybe we’d watch something other than the news, too. Something that could help us unwind.
Didn’t you unwind enough last night, though?
The little voice in my head was getting bolder. Much more annoying.
Holden’s phone went off with a buzz. He stared down at it, and a few new creases appeared on his forehead.
“I need to run out again,” he said. “Gotta see someone.” He winked at me and smiled. “After that, I’m all yours.”
God, he looked good. As sharp as he was in a suit, he looked equally as hot in a pair of jeans and a dark, acid-washed hoodie. Randall was just as sexy, possibly even more. Right now he had this studded-leather jacket thing going on, over a plaid blue shirt that hugged every last curve of his V-shaped chest and back.
“Need me to come with?” asked Randall.
“Nah. I got this one.”
He pulled on a coat, then reached behind him to tuck something sleek and black into his belt. I
recognized it right away, because my father had one.
“That a Glock nineteen?”
“Seventeen,” He looked more than a little impressed. “You shoot?”
“My father taught me.”
He nodded again and was out the door, leaving Randall and I staring at the television. Falling one step deeper into relaxation, I noticed another addition to the cozy little area we were calling a living room: cleanliness.
“You guys tidy up?”
The place had always been cleaner than the rest of the gym, but right now it was pretty spotless. Almost anal-retentive spotless.
“I got the itch,” said Randall, as if it explained everything. “When I do…” his words trailed off in a shrug.
I could totally see it. His restlessness, being channeled into something constructive. Someone had taught him that, probably from a young age. His mother maybe. Or later on in life, a superior officer.
He disappeared for a while, then came back with a plastic bowl of cereal and milk. He tipped it my way in salute, as a way of thanks.
That’s when something flashed on the screen. Something so familiar, so crazy, my breath caught in my throat.
“HOLY SHIT!”
It was the complex where I’d been staying. The profile of the buildings was unmistakable. No less than four police cars were parked out front, lights flashing, yellow tape strung around a central vehicle. The tape had Greek letters printed all over it, instead of the word CAUTION.
I watched the words flash across the bottom of the screen in English. They lagged a few seconds behind the story, but they were undeniable:
— THE TWO MEN WERE FOUND DEAD IN A CAR OUTSIDE THISEIO, WITH NO APPARENT WOUNDS OR MARKINGS. POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING. FOUL PLAY HAS NOT YET BEEN RULED—
I turned, open-mouthed, to look at Randall. “That’s my place!”
He stood there casually, still munching loudly on his cereal.