by Carter Blake
The young Greek girl nods and turns to the others to rely the message. Quickly, the chatter spreads throughout the room, being translated between the captives.
Janus takes my hand and begins to pull me from the room.
I watch Gryphon shut the door and try to make the scene look as natural as possible before we turn around the corner.
Janus leads me up through the hotel that we were being held in.
“Bring the car around the back, Manticore. I don’t think we can leave out the front door,” Gryphon says from behind us.
Janus hasn’t let go of my hand yet, and he’s hanging on to me desperately, as though he’s scared of letting go. Not that I can blame him. With our track record of walking out on each other, it’s not as though his fears are baseless.
“Who the hell do you have coming?”
“Friends. People that we trust and people who will make sure all these women are taken care of,” Gryphon answers with a calming smile.
Janus still hasn’t said a word to me, though, aside from whispering my name when he first saw me. But I can tell there’s so much he wants to say, but now isn’t the time to say it. I’m sure that as soon as we get back to the loft, we’ll be able to talk about everything.
We push through a fire escape, and I brace myself for the alarm to begin to ring. But it doesn’t, and the humid city air of Istanbul washes over me, filling my lungs and surrounding me, as Janus leads me into a side alley.
A black limousine with tinted windows drives into sight and blocks off the end of the alleyway. For a moment, I think we’ve been made, but then, the door is pushed open, and Mahdi sits inside, with a red-haired man on a laptop and a woman who looks a lot like Kalista von Knopf.
“Come on, quickly now!” Mahdi instructs.
Janus pushes me inside the limousine and follows quickly behind me. Gryphon slides in last and slams the door shut. The tires burn against the tarmac as the limousine begins to pull away from the curb and slips into the city traffic.
“You couldn’t have picked a less conspicuous car?” I ask no one in particular.
“It fit with Mahdi’s cover—and it carries all of us comfortably.”
“Have the cops been called?”
“Cops and our people,” the dark-haired woman says as she takes Gryphon’s hand in hers.
Janus nods his head and then goes to staring out of the tinted windows as the rest of his friends seem to chatter among themselves—he’s still on edge.
Mahdi is humming Princess Ida, and I watch Janus from the corner of my eye and place my hand on his thigh, trying to be comforting.
It looks as though we’re in the clear, but I can feel how tense he is.
We make it back to the loft in no time. Manticore—who I’m seeing for the first time since South Sudan—parks the limousine in front of the loft.
Although I want to, I don’t ask any questions. So we all walk in silence up to the loft. I walk straight through to the bedroom and sit down on the edge of the bed.
After the couple of days I’ve just had, I want nothing more than a shower. But Janus won’t let me off that easily. He follows me into the bedroom, and the heavy silence that has been hanging in the air between us fills the room.
“Let’s go and grab some beers from the corner shop,” I hear Mahdi announce in the next room. “I could use a drink!”
“Amen,” says the woman excitedly.
Five sets of footsteps head towards the door, and it slams shut. Janus and I are alone.
“Janus—”
“Dani, I’m sorry.” Janus cuts me off and steps forward. He sits on the bed beside me and takes my hands, clutching them tightly.
“I should never have left you like that. I should have stuck around. I should—”
“No, Janus, I should have been better,” I interrupt this time by lifting my finger to his lips and shushing his words. “I was shallow, and I forgot that you were a person. I was so focused on getting to the bottom of the story that I didn’t care who I hurt…but I did hurt you, and I hate myself for it.”
“I’m used to people using me for my resources, Dani. I just didn’t expect for you to do it, too.”
The phrase cuts through my chest to my heart. I take my hands and hold the side of Janus’ face. Our foreheads touch gently, and I sigh.
“You mean more to me than just your resources, Janus. Working with you on this story has been like nothing else. You push me to be the best I can be, and I trust you. I want you by my side for as long as I can.”
I look into his blue eyes as we sit in each other’s arms. He pulls me into his arms, and I bury my face into his neck, breathing in the scent of him. I feel tears begin to spring into my eyes, but I fight them off.
“You’re so special to me. I knew it when I first met you in South Sudan. You’re so strong, and I knew that I wanted to be around you. But I was scared and foolish back then. I didn’t want to admit it, but I know now. I want to be with you, Dani.”
I cling to him tighter as he speaks, and Janus lifts my face up to look at him as finishes speaking, so I can see it in his eyes. He means this.
“I love you, Dani.”
“I love you too, Janus. So much.”
I lift my head up and kiss him, gently at first, and then desperately. I whisper my confession like a prayer against his skin.
I don’t know why I was afraid to admit it until now. But I need to make sure Janus hears it.
I hold his face between both hands, and I kiss him again, trying to silently convey all my emotions as his tongue brushes against my lip.
“I love you so much.”
Then I kiss him again.
Chapter 39
Danielle
When we pull away from the kiss, Janus wrinkles his nose.
“Sorry to be the one to say this, Danielle, but you very clearly need a shower.”
I laugh in relief. “Tell me about it. Give me fifteen minutes?”
Janus gives me a filthy look. “Make it ten, then I’ll join you.”
Oh. I like the sound of that.
After one last, lingering kiss, I saunter off to the bathroom, stealing Janus’ toothbrush to blessedly clean my teeth for a couple of minutes before turning on the steamy, luxurious shower.
Which most definitely has room for two.
I dutifully use the ten minutes granted to me to shampoo and condition my hair, and by the time Janus enters the bathroom, I’m lathering shower gel into my skin, reveling in the feel of the silky bubbles.
“And who said you could do that without me?” Janus croons as he strips of his clothes and joins me in the shower.
His hands cup my tits, massaging soapy bubbles into them as my breathing hitches.
“I was hoping you’d show up in time for the good part,” I grin before turning around. “Wash my back for me?”
Janus happily obliges, slowly running his hands up and down my back with practiced fingers, pushing into my shoulder blades and the pressure points down my spine as he does so.
Ugh. It feels so good.
And not just on my back.
All of the tension, all of the fear, and all of the adrenaline from the past few days is melting away, replaced with an entirely new tension, tightly sprung between my thighs. I know that if Janus touches me down there, he’ll find me soaking wet.
And not from the water.
So, of course, he takes his fucking time getting there.
He rubs the soap into every inch of my skin, pushing my hair to the side to plant kisses up my neck.
All the while, his hand slides further and further down my navel in slow, torturous circles.
“You are so cruel, Janus,” I murmur.
Suddenly, Janus pushes me against the tiled shower wall and presses himself against my back. I can feel his cock sliding keenly against my skin, and my insides heat up all the more.
“Come now, Dani, you’ve teased me enough in the past. Time to return the favor.”
T
hat stupid, sexy British accent will be the death of me. He could recite the phone book, and I’d melt.
It’s simply a killer when he uses it to flirt and tease. So unfair.
I buck my hips backwards slightly, causing a little friction between his cock and my ass, and I’m satisfied to hear him gasp.
“I can still tease you now, you know.”
Janus responds by growling into the side of my neck, biting me just on the incredibly pleasurable side of hard.
Keeping me against the wall, Janus slides his hands around me to touch my clit, and I find myself bucking my hips again—this time involuntarily.
I moan.
“You want more of that?” he asks.
“As if you need verbal affirmation to that question.”
And so, Janus’ fingers get to work, circling my clit as his left hand roams up to squeeze my breasts, then down along my hips to do the same to my ass.
All the while, his cock throbs against me, insistent and hard as a rock.
“You know I…want you inside me, Janus. N-now.”
God, he’s so good I can’t even speak properly.
Janus chuckles. “So impatient. You can wait.”
He continues his onslaught, his fingers touching harder and more urgent as my breathing increases.
I never thought not having sex in the shower could be this fucking hot.
When I feel Janus slide a finger up into my pussy, I let out a cry of shock and pleasure.
“Janus, I’m going to...I’m going to come...”
“That would be the point, Miss Robinson.”
Those words set me off. I writhe against Janus’ hand, grinding against the wall as I feel my orgasm take over my entire body.
I gasp as it hits my brain, but before I have time to fully process it, Janus turns me around and kisses me ferociously.
My hands are up in his soaking wet hair before I know it, a leg hitched up around his hips as he pushes against me.
“Please get the fuck inside me, Janus,” I beg.
“How about I get to feel that talkative mouth of yours on a part of me other than my mouth?” he suggests, quirking an eyebrow as he does so.
I don’t need any more instruction. I release his hair and get down on my knees, his cock entering my mouth just a moment later.
And now Janus’ fingers are running through my hair, pushing me against the wall as he rocks back and forth into my mouth.
I take every fucking inch of him, though it almost hurts to do so.
But those moans of his make it worth the strain, as well as the way he clenches ever tighter into my hair as I run my tongue up and down the entire length of him.
And then, suddenly, Janus pulls out of my mouth.
“Janus…?”
“You’re right. I can’t fucking wait any longer,” he says, eyes blazing as he bodily picks me up from the floor and flings me against the shower wall.
When his cock enters me, I moan into his mouth, kissing him deeply as he plunges into me again and again.
The friction against my sensitive clit awakens the nerves back up again, informing my brain that another explosive orgasm is on the way.
Without stopping or letting go of me, Janus one-handedly turns off the shower and carries me back through to his bedroom, toppling both of us onto his bed, dripping wet.
“We’re going to regret that later when we want to sleep,” I laugh breathlessly.
“Who said anything about fucking sleeping tonight?”
“Your friends might have some opinions on the matter.”
“They can get a hotel.”
“Such hospitality—”
Janus kisses the rest of my words away. “Dani, shut up and let me fuck you.”
And what’s a woman to do when the man she loves says something like that?
She shuts up and lets him fuck her. Of course.
I grip onto the wooden bedpost for support as Janus continues to pound into me.
And then he brings a hand down to provide some much-needed attention to my clit, and I all but scream in response.
He swallows the noise with his mouth. He’s breathing just as heavily as I am, his hot tongue in my mouth desperate and urgent as he bucks his hips faster and faster.
“Janus, I’m gonna—”
“Same,” is all he can manage to say through clenched teeth as another orgasm rolls through me seconds before he comes himself.
I can feel all the muscles of his body tighten and flex as he loses himself in me—and I in him.
He collapses on top of me afterwards, staying inside me as we both let the moment wash over us.
Eventually, I regain enough composure to speak in a coherent sentence.
“If sex is gonna be as good as that for the foreseeable future, I may well be inclined to not run off this time.”
Janus chokes on a laugh as he rolls onto his back, bringing me with him so that I end up lying on top of him.
“You truly are a piece of work, Danielle Robinson.”
“And so are you, Janus O’Connell. Guess that makes us perfect for each other.”
He kisses me, biting my lip softly before pulling away.
He looks up at me with the fondest look on his face that I’ve ever seen.
“Guess you’re right, Dani.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Did you just admit that I’m right? I thought that wasn’t something The Jackal did.”
“Shut up, Dani.”
“Never.”
But then our mouths find each other again, and not another word is uttered for a long time.
Chapter 40
Janus
Traveling by private jet really does make flying a luxury.
Dani is sitting beside me, furiously typing on her laptop as she searches for any further information on the trafficking ring we’re now chasing up.
It feels like yesterday we were just in Istanbul taking down the traffickers there.
I never thought I’d love the word ‘we’ more than I do now.
Our work uncovering and taking down the trafficking rings in Greece and Turkey ended up going viral—massively so. It’s solidified Danielle Robinson as a megastar of the investigative journalism world.
I’d like to see any man doubt her ability to work better than them now.
I turn to look at her, smiling even though she doesn’t even notice.
“Things will be different now. People know your face, you know.”
It takes Dani a few seconds to realize that I’m talking to her—not that there’s anybody else on the plane for me to talk to.
“Huh? What did you say, Janus?”
I shake my head in fake despair.
“You’re hopeless when you’re engrossed in work, Miss Robinson. I said that things will be different now that everyone knows your face. It’s not every day you get nominated for a Nobel Prize, after all.”
Dani frowns at me. “And what do you mean by that?”
I stare at her pointedly, as if my meaning should be obvious.
“I mean that you can’t just rock up to a flesh auction with a new name and get away with it. From now on, you’ll have to enter the world of believable disguises.”
I watch as a grin slowly slides up Dani’s face.
“Good thing that that’s my partner’s forte, then.”
I laugh. I suppose it really is a good thing.
I run my fingers through her long, beautiful hair.
“I hope you’re not too attached to all of this.”
Dani snakes her fingers through mine.
“You’re the one attached to my hair, not me. And can’t I wear wigs, anyway?”
“Sometimes, it’s literally easier to chop and dye your own hair than to try and source a believable wig. Imagine trying to source one on the shady streets of Samara, for example.”
“I thought we were heading to Moscow?”
“Samara, first. Manticore is meeting us there. He prefers the smaller population of the
city compared to Moscow.”
Dani rolls her eyes slightly. “I’m looking forward to working with Manticore again and maybe get to know him this time around.”
“You’re running on the assumption that he’ll allow you to get to know him.”
“Well, Kali seems like she’s in the Brotherhood’s inner circle, so why not me?” Dani rebukes, somewhat put-out.
I muss her hair slightly. “You know I’m kidding. You’ll get to know Manticore just as much as Kali does.”
“Something tells me that’s not very much at all.”
“You’d be correct. He’s a man of few words, after all, and not one for speaking about himself.”
We sit in companionable silence for a while after that, Dani working away on her laptop whilst I look out of the window to watch the clouds roll by.
Even though we’re on our way to Russia—to take down a trafficking ring, no less—life with Dani is peaceful and easy.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more content in my life.
But then I look at the stormy, snow-filled clouds outside and grimace.
I can tell Dani is smirking at me even without turning to look at her.
“I’m surprised you agreed to work on this, given how cold Russia is this time of year.”
I sigh dramatically. “Just take it as a sign of how much I love you.”
“So, it’s not about the people that need saving from the trafficking ring? Not that at all?”
I give her a knowing glance. “You know fine well I’m doing it for them. I’m still not the bleeding heart you’re trying to make me out to be, though.”
She laughs lightly. “You keep telling yourself that, Janus. Just know that you’re blatantly lying.”
I kiss her suddenly then, stealing the words from her lips.
“You’re impossible, you know,” I murmur.
Dani gives me a look. “I’d have to be, to be with you.”
I rest my forehead against Dani’s, sighing contentedly.
“What are you thinking about?” Dani asks, curious.