by Gini Koch
CHAPTER 22
I WAS IN A HAPPY GLOW and ready to go for it by the time we reached our door.
“Bellie missed Jeff!”
Well, that put a damper on the mood. “Go take care of your girlfriend. I’ll get Jamie started.”
“You sure?”
I refrained from heaving a sigh, but it took effort. “Yes, I’m sure. Put a lid on her. She stays out of our bedrooms. Unless all you want to do is sleep while I stay awake with a Poof trained on her.”
“No. I fed Jamie before you came to dinner. Denise saidne . s L she’d just changed Jamie before I picked her up, too.” We went into the nursery and Jeff put Jamie gently into her crib, stroked her head, and gave her a soft kiss.
While he got the Poof Condos and moved them back into the nursery, I covered Jamie with her blanket. She still had her special Poof with her, and it snuggled next to her side. Several of the other Poofs joined them in the crib, as did the cats, with Sugarfoot at her head and Candy and Kane at her feet. Much purring ensued. Put her half of the baby monitor into her crib, and as Jeff closed the door softly, I put our half onto the nightstand.
Jeff had left one Poof Condo in our room, and Harlie, Poofikins, and several other Poofs were in it, snoozing away. The dogs were in their beds, looking happy. “Who’s taken care of the dogs and cats while I was gone?”
“Walter assigned some of the Operations Team to do it. They’ve had no issues.”
I didn’t like this answer, but Bellie was squawking. “Seriously, get that bird shut up so I can sleep.” There was no need to mention that if I could hear the bird, we weren’t having sex. I wasn’t going to let him touch me if I could hear the bird. Why he’d left the door open so I could hear the bird at all was beyond me.
Jeff nodded and hypersped to his beloved, thankfully closing the door behind him so I didn’t have to hear him make out with Bellie before he came back to me. I had to figure the dogs and cats hated the bird easily as much as I did, since they loved Jeff and wanted his attention. It occurred to me that the Poofs might have stayed in D.C. because of the bird, too.
Whatever Jeff did worked and he was back fairly quickly. “She’s all set. I have her cage covered.”
“With what? Her ‘cage’ fills our entire living room.”
He mumbled something.
“Sorry, missed that.”
“I had a special covering made.”
This surprised me not at all. Chose not to fight about it. “Whatever, as long as she goes to sleep and shuts the hell up, not necessarily in that order.”
“She will.” He fiddled around with the iPod dock.
“What’re you doing?”
“I made a special play list for whenever you finally came home.”
“You make it sound like I’d run off to the far reaches of the earth.”
Jeff pulled me into his arms as “Sea of Sin” by Depeche Mode came on. “It felt like it.”
“Love the song choice. Looking forward to the whole mix. However, will the music wake your bird up?”
“No. I’d have to have the volume turned up to full for Jamie to hear it through the walls, let alone Bellie. She’ll stay asleep. You, however, will not be sleeping any time soon.”
“So you claim.”
His eyelids drooped just a bit and he got the sexy “jungle cat about to eat me” look on his face. I loved that look. I was also made pretty tractable by that look, to sort of quote sot a Tito. “So I know.”
We started kissing, slowly at first. Well, slowly for about a second. In the next second we were ripping the clothes off each other. Five seconds after that we were in bed.
Jeff buried his face in my breasts. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed these.”
“They’ve missed you, too,” I gasped out, as his tongue swirled around one nipple and then the other. He took each one between his teeth in turn and toyed with them until I was howling. The first orgasm he’d ever given me had been at second base, and even with no practice for a month, he’d lost no skills whatsoever.
The soundproofing in the Embassy was excellent, which was good because I didn’t want to wake Jamie, Bellie, the pets, the Poofs, or anyone else. The animals in the room with us had gotten over the novelty and chose to remain asleep. No one else seemed to notice my yowling. This was, so far, the only place where my sounding like a cat in heat was only shared with Jeff. It made for a nice change.
Jeff made for a nice change, too, and headed his mouth southward. As he licked and nipped, my hips started bucking. I grabbed his head as his hands slid up and fondled my breasts. The music switched to “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Clearly Jeff had been on a Depeche Mode kick. Not that I could argue with his musical choices—I could never get enough of this.
It didn’t take much more to cause another orgasm to crash. In between howling I managed to convey that foreplay was still great, but the real thing was, I sincerely hoped, still better.
Jeff slid up onto his knees, picked me up by my waist, and slid me onto him, so that I was kneeling, too. He wrapped his arms around my back as mine went around my neck, then kissed me deeply while pressing me down so that he went deeper into me, too.
I ran my hands through his hair while we thrust together. My movements were frantic, at first. But Jeff slowed me down, as he stroked my skin with his fingertips.
He moved his mouth to my neck and the real screaming started. My neck was one of my main erogenous zones and Jeff knew exactly where to kiss, lick, nip, or bite to get a full orchestral experience out of me.
“I missed you so much, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m going to show you how much, all night long.”
I moaned. I wasn’t really able to talk much when he had me this far over the edge. Happily, being with the galaxy’s strongest empath meant he knew exactly how I felt, even if I couldn’t tell him.
Going more slowly like this was sexy and romantic. Jeff was the world’s best kisser as well as the world’s best everything else. Rubbing against his body, feeling the hair on his chest against my breasts while we moved together and his tongue twined around mine, was erotic and loving, and I never wanted it to end.
However, when Jeff shifted me just a little and I felt another climax start to build, I wasn’t going to argue. I mean, romance was great, but orgasms were better.
We started moving faster, with me rocking my hips forward and him pressing me back and down. My skin tingled anywhere it touched his and, as he went deeper still, I screamed my orgasm against his neck as he roared as he erupted inside me.tedng m
As our bodies shuddered, I kissed my way up his neck to his ear
. I nibbled his earlobe and felt him start to harden inside me. “I missed you, too,” I whispered as I ran my tongue along his ear and he growled softly. “I missed everything you do and how you do it. And no one does it better than you.”
I took his head in my hands and kissed him strongly. He purred and flipped us so I was on my back, but we were still in the same position, with my knees bent and up by his waist and his knees bent and under my butt.
Jeff grinned as “Master and Servant” came on. “Baby, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Yi
CHAPTER 23
AFTER SEVERAL MORE HOURS of truly amazing, orgasm-filled, sexual athletics—including the Alpha Centaurion Love Knot and an array of versions of the said Position Supreme—I was finally satiated enough that sleep was knocking on the door and I was willing to let it in.
Jeff knew, of course. He wrapped himself around me, I snuggled closer, took a deep breath, relaxed, and was out like a light.
I woke up a few hours later. Jeff was asleep, and we were still wrapped around each other. Jeff had turned the music off before we went to sleep, so it wasn’t hearing a song or hearing silence after music had stopped that had disturbed me.
I listened to the baby monitor. I could hear Jamie, the Poofs, and the cats all snoozing peacefully. I checked the dogs and the Poofs in our room. All we
re fast asleep, making either soft baby purrs or having happy but rather quiet doggy dreams.
So, why was I awake when no one else was? Wondered if I was still asleep, but it didn’t seem like a dream. I listened harder. Nothing.
Looked around the room. My night vision had improved due to the mutation. I was adjusting every day, but all in all, I liked my new abilities. Getting back to pre-pregnancy shape within two days and without any effort still seemed worth almost any price, let alone one that had made me more able to kick butt. And I felt like I needed to kick butt right now.
Jeff was still asleep, and I really wondered if I was dreaming. He normally woke up if I was moving around too much. And we’d been apart for a month—I would have thought my moving would have woken him up faster right now. A part of me wanted to let him sleep, but all the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. I nudged him and put my hand over his mouth.
I could feel him wake up and nod against my hand. Felt him move to look around the room, then he sat us up slowly. “What is it?” he whispered in my ear.
“No idea,” I answered in the same way. “But I feel like we’re about to be attacked.”
He nodded, slipped out of the bed, and hypersped into the nursery. He was back with Jamie in his arms. I took her, she seemed fine. Several of the Poofs came along for the ride. Still nothing.
I was about to apologize for clearly being overly dramatic when Harlie and Poofikins both growled and went large. They were facing the bedroom door and were in major protection mode. Jeff grabbed me and hypersped me and Jamie to the closet. We dressed quickly in the blue pajama bottoms and white t-shirts that were standard A-C nightclothes. We both put on slippers, too, just in case. Then Jeff put me and Jamie behind him.
The other Poofs were awake now, and to a one they were growling. We had a lot of Poofs, and that meant the growls were loud. The dogs, sensing that the game was afoot, all stood up. They were growling low, too, but not barking, which, for our dogs, was extremely unusual.
Jamie’s Poof hadn’t gone large, but it was quivering and I got the feeling it was waiting for some signal from Harlie, who was the head Poof. The rest of the Poofs were also still small, but I got the impression they were also waiting for Harlie to give them some kind of Poof Enlargement Go-Ahead.
The intercom crackled to life. “Chiefs, are you awake?”
“Yes, Walt. All the Poofs are on major alert.”
“Mine, too.” I’d insisted on Walter getting a Poof. He’d been so thrilled it had almost been embarrassing. Walter was determined to be the best Embassy Head of Security ever. I really liked Walter. Walter didn’t have a problem with his Poof being on his shoulder, either.
“Can you spot anything?” Jeff asked, his Commander voice on. He’d been the Head of Field Operations for all A-Cs worldwide for over a dozen years, and a man didn’t lose his authority just because he’d changed jobs. At least, mine didn’t. Commander, Chief, really same thing, right?
“Sensors show nothing, sir. All cameras are on, and they show no activity in the general areas or outside the building. I’ve checked with the other residents. All Poofs are awake and growling. All personnel are awake and prepared for attack.”
I considered. It was late enough that it was safe to assume that everyone had been in bed. It was a safer assumption that anyone who’d been naked wasn’t any more. So that meant we were all in our nightclothes. I didn’t call that prepared. “Jeff, do you think it’s someone coming in through the secret tunnel?”
“Reynolds insists he’s got that secured. So unless he’s completely incompetent—and before you snarl at me, I know he isn’t—I don’t think we’re being infiltrated from that source.”
“Mister Reynolds is in the Embassy, as are Abigail and Naomi Gower,” Walter shared. “They were here late, and Doctor Hernandez and Former Pontifex White insisted they all sleep here.”
“Same issues with their Poofs?” I asked.
“Yes, ma’am, Chief.”
“This is bizarre.”
“Chief, Doctor Hernandez is asking if you think this is Jamie’s doing.”
Tito had good cause to ask. Jamie had certainly made things interesting the night before she’d been born, or what I liked to call the start of Operation Confusion.
Jeff put his hand onto her head. “I don’t get anything from her that’s wrongtha
“Could she have had a nightmare that triggered all this?”
“She was fast asleep and looked happy when I got her, baby. Walter, tell Tito I really don’t think it’s Jamie.” He closed his eyes. “It’s not Ezra, either.” We weren’t sure yet if Doreen and Irving’s son had special A-C talents, or extraspecial ones for that matter.
“Chiefs, I’ve alerted Gladys to our situation.” Gladys was the overall Head of Security. She housed out of the Dulce Science Center and was technically Walter’s boss. “Building is being scanned. I also checked the sensors and scanners Mister Reynolds installed in the tunnels. No sign of any infiltration there. No alarms have been triggered.” Walter sounded tense. “Chief Martini, what would you like me to do?” This was Walter’s way of saying he had no clue. Which was fine. I’d accepted long ago that most men didn’t like to admit when they were scared and clueless.
Jeff sighed. “No idea, Walter. Sit tight for the moment.”
The Poofs hadn’t stopped growling. I sniffed. Nothing. “Walter, flood, fire, electrical issues?”
“No, ma’am, Chief. Again, I’ve checked. Have Dulce Security on com with us now.”
“Gladys, how goes it?”
“Fine, Chief Katt-Martini. Dulce Security lives to serve, at any hour of the day or night. Chief Martini, have scanned the building, nothing shows as wrong.”
“Gladys, everyone, and by that I mean every man, woman, Poof and other animal, is up and freaked out. We’d all like to get back to bed. Any chance of that?”
“No idea, Chief Katt-Martini. Scans show nothing.”
“I woke up with a feeling we were going to be attacked. Then the Poofs woke up. And the dogs. And so forth. Something’s going on.”
“I agree with Kitty.” Christopher was on the group com now. “I woke up, too, before Amy, Toby, or Mignon.” Toby was Christopher’s Poof and Mignon was Amy’s. Amy had given her Poof a French name—mignon meant cute in French. I had no argument with the name, but Jeff felt it was only slightly less silly than Poofikins. “But they woke up soon after, and both Poofs went large and are at full alert.”
Chiefs, have inquired,” Walter said. “Only Consul White and Chief Katt-Martini were awakened before the Poofs or other personnel.”
“What would wake up me and Christopher but not anyone else?”
“Good question, baby. I have no answer.”
No sooner were these words out of Jeff’s mouth than a bright glow showed under our door. Bellie started shrieking her head off—loudly enough that we could hear her through the soundproofing. And every Poof, including the one with Jamie, went large and toothy.
Yi
CHAPTER 24
THERE WAS A THUD OUTSIDE the door and the glowing stopped. “Everyone else just get a package shipped via Creep Out Express?”
“Yes. Confirmed, Chief. Unidentified objects outside all inhabited bedroom doorways. Including guest rooms.” Walter sounded tenser than I felt.
“Only the inhabited ones?”
“Yes, confirmed.” Gladys also sounded tense. “Impenetrable to our scanning equipment.”
“They’re from outer space.”
“Why?” Jeff wasn’t arguing, just asking.
“We can scan everything else.”
“What if it’s from my stepmother or Al Dejahl?” Amy sounded freaked out but also very angry. Couldn’t blame her. LaRue Demorte Gaultier and Ronaldo Al Dejahl were not our favorite people.
“Why would whatever it is wake me and Christopher up, first?” I really wanted this answered. Unfortunately, I had a feeling one of us was going to have to do something besides c
ower behind a door.
“Have put all personnel onto the com, Chiefs.”
“Thanks, Walter.” Jeff took a firm hold of my hand. “I don’t want anyone trying to be heroic right now. That’s an order, and it applies to everyone, including anyone who thinks they report into the C.I.A. before Centaurion Division.” Clearly he was worried about Chuckie, Len, or Kyle being overly brave in this situation.
“Fine, but I’d like to know how you expect us to get out of our rooms,” Tito said. He didn’t sound as scared as everybody else. Then again, one of his many hobbies was being a professional cage fighter. Tito didn’t scare easily, ever.
I started to get angry. There was something in here, threatening everyone, threatening my baby. Jeff’s hand tightened on mine. “Baby, keep it together. You feel as angry as the Poofs.”
Something kicked in my brain. If the Poofs were angry, not afraid, why would that be? “Mister White, do Poofs have natural enemies?”
“Not that I know of, Missus Martini. However . . .”
“However, what, Richard?” Jeff was just this side of snapping, and that meant he was as scared as everyone else, because he rarely snapped at the man who was both his closest uncle and his former religious leader unless he was at the end of his rope.
“Have you advised the Royal Family of Jamie’s birth?”
“Of course. Months ago. Once Operation Confusion was over, we did the whole official announcement thing.” They were our friends and family, after all. I’d essentially put Alexander on the throne. After the Poofs and I had gotten rid of the old king. “You think they’ve finally decided to get upset about good ol’ Adolphus and sent out Poof Extermination or something?”
White coughed. “No. I think it’s possible that these are, ah, gifts.”
“Gifts that scare the crap out of an entire EmbassyentEmbassy? Wow, Jeff, your relatives just rock the giving.”
“There are traditional gifts for a child of royal birth,” Gladys chimed in. She sounded underwhelmed. “Those same gifts also apply to the formation of a new principality.”