Pussycat in Peril (Pussycat Death Squad Book 3)

by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb

  She stared at him as if struggling to comprehend his words. “You mean all this time…”

  “It was all I could do to keep my hands off you,” he groaned against her lips.

  “Don’t start again, if we can’t finish,” she complained when he raised his head.

  “Poor horny baby. Oh we can finish. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to make love with no risk of pregnancy,” he said kissing her again. This time he kept the kisses light and brief as he explored her face and neck. Inhaling the sweet aroma of her skin, he took a nip out of the flesh between her neck and shoulder, enjoying her shivering response.

  “This thing has got to go,” he said gesturing toward the long nightgown. Then he smiled when she immediately sat up and pulled it over her head. Now she was covered only by a pair of blue cotton briefs. Blue had always been his favorite color. Her skin glowed in the soft light of the lamp atop the dresser. He raised his hand and touched a long pendant necklace that dangled between her breasts, wondering why he hadn’t noticed it before. The chain was delicate gold filigree, while the necklace was an obelisk with some obscure hieroglyphs carved in its snowy white surface.

  “What’s this? I’ve not seen it before.”

  Astaria shrugged. “My mother had a lot of jewelry. I had to leave so much behind.”

  He nodded, then brought one hand up to cup her breast. It was small and barely filled his hand. The tiny mahogany-toned nipple was a delicate highlight inviting him in for a taste. He couldn’t resist the lusciousness of her dusky flesh and lowered his lips to take her nipple into his mouth. At first he sucked gently but as she squirmed beneath him he increased the pressure taking more of her in. The movement of her hips increased and he almost moved away because the need to be inside her was almost too much to resist. He lowered one hand to caress the soft flesh of her belly. Astaria was a warrior and her body showed it with strong muscles that gave her the bodyline of an Olympic sprinter, except for her stomach. Its softly rounded curve was an invitation to explore, to luxuriate in all that was womanly about her. He gradually moved his hand until he caressed the line of her panties and then slipped his fingers underneath.

  Now she was touching him. She pushed his t-shirt up with both hands demanding equal access. He certainly had no objection to that, and sat up to pull the garment over his head in one motion. His cock strained against the soft fabric of his pajama bottoms and he was tempted to give it a similar freedom, but he knew that there was no way he could strip down naked without fucking her. Indeed he wasn’t sure he could continue loving her this way without losing his mind. This time when he returned he began a slow descent down her torso, his mouth following the lines of her flesh as if it were the only way he could know her. As though taste was his only sense allowing him to focus entirely on the delicious feast her body presented.

  Her hips were moving so much now he had to hold her still, her thighs parted and he buried his face at the vee of her legs, inhaling the delectable aroma of her pussy through the damp fabric of her panties. Impatient now, he raised her hips from the bed so he could slip the panties over her hips. Then he brought his mouth down to her hair-covered mound. Astaria didn’t shave and her pubic mound had a thick covering of curly black hair and he was grateful. He liked a woman who looked like a woman. He used his fingers to push the hair aside to reveal her clitoris, sitting like a pearl above her glittering wet labia. The lips of her pussy were a soft coral pink in stark contrast to her dark hair and skin and he couldn’t wait to have a taste.

  He sucked one outer lip into his mouth and then the other before closing his lips over her labia. Astaria groaned and raised her hips until his mouth enveloped her entire pussy. He hadn’t moved to her clitoris yet, he was licking and sucking on her delicate folds as she went mad under his ministrations. More. More. Her body demanded and he was at her every command. He ran his fingers up her goose bump-covered thighs, which were trembling under his hands. Feeling her response he redoubled his efforts. The taste of her pussy was amazing and she was so aroused she was begging for more. He could feel her pleasure in every movement of her hips, every gasp as she tossed her head from side to side.

  His face was covered in her succulent juices and he drove his tongue into her heated channel for more. He spread her lips with his fingers and gazed at her delicate beauty. She was so wet and open for him he had to pause for moment to collect himself. It was all he could do not to sink balls deep into what promised to be paradise. Instead he slipped his tongue inside, penetrating her again and again the way he wish he could with his cock. Her hips were off the bed now totally supported by his arms as he raised her higher and higher.

  Now he sought out her clitoris. He flicked his tongue over it in a delicate motion. Her cries got louder. He began tonguing from her clit down her entire labia in a zigzag motion. Again and then again. She pushed her pussy into to his face and clamped her legs around his head. He took a moment to pause, then pushed her legs apart so he could access her pussy again. He slipped one finger into her tight wetness, then two, pumping in and out in time with the movement of his tongue on her clit.

  He kept finger fucking her, seeking, then finding, the fleshy little bump of her G-spot inside her. The movement of his fingers and his tongue brought forth another wave of juices and he used the flat of his tongue to lap them up. Astaria opened up completely beneath him, giving herself over with such uninhibited pleasure it was almost more than he could take. He made a motion with his finger to stimulate her inside; this caused another wave of her juices to flow around his nose and lips.

  He continued with the zigzag pattern, focusing more aggressively on her clitoris with each return to the top of her labia alternating between sucking and licking. He looked up and watched her thrashing on the pillow, her face a study in pleasure that was almost painful to watch. He reached down to give his cock a couple of hard strokes, then stopped because just that amount of stimulation was almost enough to make him come.

  The shaking of her legs intensified and he focused almost totally on her clit now, sucking it with gradually intensified suction. Then she released with a loud gasp, her legs tightened around his head once more as she ground her way through her orgasm. He didn’t stop until she pushed his head away. He rose to his feet beside the bed. He couldn’t help it, he had to do it; he pulled her against him and ground his hard cock against her until his own orgasm ripped through him.

  They lay there silently, incapable of movement or thought, let alone speech. Eventually he gained enough strength to move off her, then he got off the bed and went down the hall to clean up. When he returned he changed into a clean pair of pajama bottoms. Astaria lay where he’d left her, sound asleep. He slipped behind her on the bed, drawing her naked body up against his, and fell into a sound slumber as well.

  Chapter Seven

  Kaeden swore softly under his breath as the tricky battery casing in the radio he was repairing slipped again. None of his repairs had gone right today, which wasn’t surprising. He was more than a bit distracted by the events of the previous evening. Could still feel Astaria’s shivering body under his hands. Could taste her tangy juices on his tongue. Damn. The mechanism slipped again. He’d gone out as soon as the market opened to buy condoms. Dawood had given him a curious look as he never went to the market, but that look had turned knowing once he asked the older man where he could purchase condoms. The cost had been dear, nearly fifty Euros, but he didn’t care. After last night he couldn’t wait to have Astaria again.

  He was alone in the store, which was unusual. Dawood had gone to meet with a supplier. The quarantine had gone on now for more than a month. As it lingered, getting new merchandise had become nearly impossible. Astaria and Sarai who normally worked the front of the store had gone to the market. As much for something to do as anything. There was little to buy there aside from produce. No new imports could be brought in. In the past week the political situation had become intolerable. Somehow the government had found a way to jam the
phones so that even Dawood couldn’t get around it. The fighting at Amaru had intensified and as Halil predicted, IJIWO had retreated and turned its attention toward the capital. The government responded to this news by clamping down even more fiercely.

  Everyone was tense and frightened with nerves stretched thin. Waiting for the other shoe to drop left the people poised on a razor’s edge. Such tension was never good and he wondered about the government ministers and what they thought they were doing. The whole city seethed. With the entire population feeling frustrated and afraid. Two emotions that were bound to result in more violence of the kind that had led to the Uprising and the killing of Colonel al-Fariq and a lot of other people a few months ago. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn’t what they wanted. Another Uprising. Though to what ends he had no idea.

  Thus, traffic in the store, even for the ever-popular cell phones had dwindled down to a trickle. Which was why he was so surprised when the bell over the door rang, signaling the arrival of a shopper. He put down the radio and made his way to the front of the store, automatically putting on the scowl he affected on the rare occasions he encountered a customer. Due to his lack of a dialect, he tried to talk to them as little as possible. He recognized the man as a regular patron. Dawood said he was a government minister of some sort. Kaeden wished he’d not answered the door, but not wanting to inadvertently hurt Dawood’s business; he struggled to remember the man’s name.

  “May I help you, Minister Boulos?” he asked the tall, almost skeletal man as he made his way across the showroom.

  Boulos’s face moved in a motion that on anyone else would’ve been a smile, but given his dour countenance looked almost painful and anything but cheerful. “Yes. Yes, I believe you may.”

  Kaeden simply raised a brow in inquiry waiting for the man to state his business.

  “You are an American. An American soldier,” Boulos said with as much inflection as he would give commentary about the weather, which as usual, was hot.

  The breath whooshed out of Kaeden’s lungs with the force of a blow as the words registered. His hand went instinctively to the lethal blade he kept in a holster at the back of his waistband.

  The man held up one hand in a gesture of appeasement. “No. No. There is no need for violence. I only know this because I was a translator in Iraq. During the First Gulf War, naturally. I became familiar with American speech patterns and mannerisms, especially their service members,” Boulos said. Though he still looked like Skeletor his face had relaxed somewhat, warming his expression. Even so Kaeden continued to stare at the man. He had no doubt he’d have little trouble killing him, but he didn’t want to take a life if he didn’t have to.

  “I’ve been watching you for a while and it’s clear to me that we can solve one another’s problems. Laritrea is not a safe place for you and your wife. I can help you leave. Provided you carry a bit of cargo for me.”

  Kaeden frowned. This wasn’t what he had been expecting. He’d assumed the man would want a bribe. Extortion was fairly commonplace these days, and with the money Faisal Ibrahim had left they would be able to pay a reasonable amount. But this? What the hell could the man be trying to get out of the country? Even smugglers were avoiding the place.

  “I understand your concern,” the man continued when Kaeden remained silent. “But trust me, this plan is uncomplicated. In two days a package will be brought to you. Shortly afterwards the cargo will arrive. Then you will have the necessary papers for yourself and your lovely wife and the cargo, of course, to leave the country.”

  “And if I don’t help…”

  “You do realize I have sufficient authority to have everyone in this house jailed and summarily executed? Fortunately it doesn’t have to come to that. You can, as you Americans say, scratch my back and I will scratch yours.”

  “Not drugs. I have no desire to spend the rest of my life in a Laritrean prison.” Even in the chaos of two governments, dozens of rebel groups and the attempted establishment of a caliphate, all the rival groups had one belief in common; narcotics were haram and the penalties for usage and smuggling were unbelievably harsh.

  “I would never be so pedestrian, Mr. Nasser. This is far more important. The future of this country depends upon this.” And with that oblique statement, the man turned and walked toward the door. Before he reached the exit he turned to face Kaeden again. “Oh, and do you have any cell phones? Mine has regrettably died.”

  Kaeden shook his head in the negative. “No. The quarantine.”

  “Yet another useless measure,” Boulos said displaying far more emotion about the lack of cell phones than he had about treachery, murder and collapsing governments. “I understand.”

  Kaeden immediately put the closed sign on the door and then sat down at his worktable. His hands were shaking too much to resume work and he could only play the conversation over and over again in his head, wondering if he’d made the right decision.

  *****

  As soon as Astaria returned to the house Kaeden hustled her upstairs to their bedroom to tell her what had happened.

  “But what on earth could want us to smuggle out of the country? After all the weeks of quarantine, there’s hardly anything left,” she said from their perch on the bed. She shivered from the chill racing down her spine, and snuggled closer to Kaeden’s side.

  “I don’t know. I think we should try to get out of here. At least we could relocate,” he said.

  Astaria shook her head. Much as she wanted to agree with him because the whole situation was terrifying, running away wouldn’t work for one simple reason. “Where could we go? He’s a government minister. He would be able to find us. Besides he would have Aunt Sarai and Uncle Dawood arrested, even killed. No. We have to stay. We have to cooperate.”

  “I’m so sorry baby. I should’ve gone with my first instinct and just killed the fucker,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Astaria shuddered. “No. No more killing. There’s been so much death. Too much. If we can avoid it we should. Besides we would’ve had to dispose of the body, and you know how complicated that can be.”

  “With a war going on? Dead bodies are everywhere.”

  “Thankfully not here in Laria,” she said. Compared to the bloodshed in Amaru, Laria had been strikingly violence free since the Uprising and the killing of al-Fariq and the royal family. Of course, that bloodbath had been more than enough gore for anyone.

  “Yet,” he said grimly.

  Astaria couldn’t argue the point. Presumably he felt the same sense of foreboding that she had. The air over the past few weeks was ripe with threats of violence to come. “Right. Yet. And if we can help keep the carnage to a minimum I would rather go that route. I’m glad you didn’t kill him.”

  “Can we work with him without telling your folks?”

  “I think we have to tell them. It’s their house, after all. Whatever it is he wants us to smuggle out is probably illegal. If there are people watching it puts them in danger too,” she said.

  “You’re right, of course, but I wonder what the hell it is.”

  *****

  They didn’t have to wonder for long. A package was delivered to the store in two days just as Boulos had said. Since there had been no regular shipments of merchandise to the store in days they knew immediately that it had to be the anticipated package. Astaria took it from the deliveryman and placed it on a table in the workroom. By tacit agreement they didn’t open it until after the workday was over. Given that they had no clue what it contained, it would be a bad idea to open it while any customers were in the store. The box was large and unwieldy; at least a yard long and a similar width. It was lighter than she’d anticipated based on the size.

  That evening they gathered at the coffee table in the living room. Kaeden and Astaria sat on the sofa while Sarai took the flanking chair with Dawood standing behind her. Kaeden made quick work of opening the box with the large knife he kept on his person at all times. He referred to it as his Arkansas Toothpick
and it was sharp enough to shave with. Once it was opened she shook her head in confusion at the contents. Clothes. Children’s clothes. Three outfits each for a girl and a boy. The clothing was plain, and could be found on any child in the neighborhood. The four of them just stared at the clothing for a long moment after Astaria spread them on the coffee table.

  “I don’t understand,” Sarai began.

  “I know Amati Sarai. I mean, I think we all suspected that they wanted us to smuggle people. But children?” Astaria said.

  “And whose children?” Kaeden asked, pulling back the flaps of the box. “There is no adult clothing here.”

  “Do you think he’s trying to get his own children out?” Astaria asked.

  “He would hardly need us to do that. He’s a minister. They can go wherever they like. No questions asked,” Dawood said, a heavy frown creasing his handsome face. The man seemed to have aged just in the weeks they’d been there. Astaria could hardly contain her distress at this fact. She had so few loved ones left.

  Astaria leaned forward when Sarai made an exclamation as she removed a piece of cardboard from the bottom of the box. Hidden underneath she found a police officer’s uniform. With a gasp Sarai immediately shoved it back into the box. To even be caught in possession of that uniform could send them all to prison. The uniform was their first clue as to Boulos’s plan. With it they could literally take anyone anywhere, no questions asked.

  “The only child I can think of who someone would take these type chances for is the crown prince,” Dawood said, quietly pacing back and forth in the small space.

  Kaeden frowned. “Who? I didn’t know Laritrea had a royal family.”