The Agent

by Ellen Lane

  She liked when he kissed her neck and shoulders gently as she fell asleep and she liked when he bit possessively at the glorious globes of her behind. In Russell’s mind, he was marking her. Alice Tate would be forever his, no matter what man came after him. She would remember his touch and his kiss.

  And she would especially remember how much pleasure he brought her.

  Russell massaged the twin globes of her arse generously, committing them to memory. He didn’t believe he’d ever come across a behind as glorious as Alice’s – from the flare of her becomingly small waist to the ample curve of her hips was divine. So divine that he lingered there for a moment, running his fingers over the angle before his lips followed.

  As he nipped and kissed at her buttocks, Alice squirmed. By now, he knew, she would be more than ready for him. There was nothing he liked to imagine more than the image of Alice Tate growing wet at the thought of him. Did she think about the way he touched her while she was working? While she was eating? All of the above?

  He certainly hoped so.

  In a trice, he lifted her behind into the air, spreading her so that he could see the fruits of his labor. To Alice’s merit, she struggled only briefly – a fight he rewarded with a swift, warning smack to her behind. When she yelped he chuckled lowly, soothing the area with a smattering of kisses.

  By the time he finally moved to where she needed him most, Alice was trembling with need. Russell took firm hold of her thighs before dipping his face between, running his tongue over her exposed sweetness in a long lap. His lover clutched at the coverlet, immediately burying her face in the pillow beneath her head to muffle the loud moan that burst from her throat.

  But Russell gave her no quarter. He licked over her swollen lower lips before his tongue slid between – into the very core of her. The sound that escaped Alice was almost animalistic and he reveled in it as he worked to milk her orgasm from her. She writhed on the tip of his tongue, both trying to escape his ministrations and bucking back against his mouth. Russell took all she had to give without the slightest hesitation.

  His hand moved forward to toy with the sensitive bud of her clit, stroking gently, and then with more vigor until Alice released a flood of honey against his tongue. Russell groaned, all but pressing his face to her sacred haven in an attempt to keep from spilling a single drop. Alice’s thighs quivered beautifully, glistening with her wetness – and by the time Russell finished, so did his mouth.

  He’d never been gladder he undressed before going to bed. Now, it was nothing to kiss his way back up Alice’s spine until his burgeoning erection was pressed against the slick crevice his mouth had just pleasured.

  “Please…” He loved how unabashed she was. Alice knew exactly what she wanted in bed, and she wasn’t afraid to ask for it. “Give it to me, Russell. I need it.”

  As if he could have denied her.

  His hands covering hers on the coverlet, Russell slid forward in one smooth stroke, sheathing himself completely. Alice cried out, pressing back against him in an eager plea for more. She was so tight. So bloody tight…If he wasn’t careful, he really would lose himself in her – and then where would he be?

  She clenched around him spasmodically, and for a moment, Russell thought she might have climaxed by simple virtue of him entering him. His suspicious were confirmed when Alice all but sobbed, trying to calm herself. He was overcome with the strange urge to comfort her – to tell her things that weren’t true. That he would always be with her – that he wanted nothing more than to see her smiling always.

  Sentiments he’d never even begun to ponder with any other woman.

  Instead of speaking, however, Russell merely withdrew to thrust in almost brutally. Alice bit her lip against the cry that welled in her throat, her fingers curling into tight fists beneath his own. She wiggled her arse back against his cock, squeezing him so divinely that Russell thought he must have died and gone to heaven.

  He quickly worked his way into a punishing rhythm, snapping his hips against hers with such force that he thought she might complain. But, not Alice. She hungrily devoured each and every thrust, trembling beneath him as she moaned and sighed his name.

  She was so goddamn beautiful that it hurt – tanned, sweat-slick skin, dark hair tangled and flowing over her shoulders…When she looked back at him with sultry, lust-filled blue eyes, it took everything Russell had not to come then and there.

  She had bewitched him, that’s all there was to it. He couldn’t picture being with any other woman in her wake – and that was the end of it.

  Lowering his head, Russell kissed her neck before biting firmly – making her clench even more tightly around him. He could feel her starting to shake – feel her stomach start to contract in anticipation of her coming orgasm.

  “Yes…” A tortured groan escaped him as his hips moved obscenely – greedily – against hers. “Come for me, Alice.”

  She barely lasted five seconds more.

  At the peak of a particularly deep thrust, Alice clamped down on him, her inner muscles milking his cock exquisitely. Russell grunted loudly, biting down on her neck once more as he spilled himself inside her clenching, wet heat in an orgasm that seemed to go on and on and on.

  Eventually, however, he was forced to come back to earth, and when it did, it was to the vision of Alice slumped on the bed beneath him, looking at him over her shoulder with a dark brow raised almost imperiously. “Are you alright back there?” She murmured, her voice thick in the aftermath of their loving.

  In reply, he merely slid from her – even as she reached for him in an attempt to keep him buried inside her. When he lay down beside her, he immediately pulled her flush against him. “Now I’m tired.”

  Alice laughed softly against his collarbone before placing a gentle, heart-stopping kiss there that sent warmth through his body. “Sleep then. You might hate me in the morning.”

  Hate her?

  Once, Russell thought he might be able to. Just after they met, Alice had driven him almost crazy. When he barely knew her and all he could do was think about the way she smiled – the way she smelled and the way she laughed…he thought he could grow to hate a woman who had so instantly won his interest.

  But now, Russell knew different. He could never hate Alice Tate.

  Even if she might very well be his undoing.

  **

  When the next day dawned bright and sunny, Russell woke to an empty bed. He, however, had no time to feel bereft. Instead, he had a meeting with Regina – and he wasn’t looking forward to telling her the previous night’s negotiations hadn’t exactly gone in her favor.

  The memory that he had an afternoon trek planned with Alice, however, buoyed his mood. Russell was humming a ditty even he didn’t know the words to as he headed towards Regina’s suite – and despite the fact that she wasn’t happy with the news he brought, he still had a smile on his face as he left. All that remained was a quick lunch and a shower and then Alice was his for the rest of the evening.

  Nothing could break his mood – or so he thought.

  When Alice sent him a text to meet her in front of the hotel, he was only too happy to oblige. Freshly showered and shaved, he wondered, blithely, if she would like his newly shaven jaw as much as she liked the stubbly one.

  The thought, however, caught him completely off guard.

  Russell stared at himself in the mirror. How long had it been since he considered what a woman thought of his appearance before he himself? He didn’t think that had ever happened. At least, not that he could remember.

  He contemplated as he headed down the hall towards the lobby. By then, his smile had changed to a contemplative frown – one that he reminded himself to work on before he saw Alice. When he emerged into the afternoon sunshine, however, the sight of her at the curb next to a loudly rumbling motorbike stopped him in his tracks.

  He was almost immediately forced back to his past.

  Blood. Blood everywhere. It was streaked across the str
eet from the site where they crashed all the way across the intersection. Amy was covered in it, and Russell didn’t know if it was his or hers. The car had come out of nowhere. One second, the road had been clear and the next…

  His head still rang from the impact and Amy…. her normally brilliant red-locks were now colored with a much deeper crimson.

  And she wasn’t moving.

  “Russell?” He was yanked back to the present to the sound of Alice’s worried voice calling him. In a trice, Russell realized what had happened, and his frown only deepened as Alice hurried up the staircase to him, her hair windswept and her expression concerned. “Russell, are you alright? What is it?”

  He didn’t mince his words in answering her. “I don’t like motorbikes.” His words were deadpan, and utterly serious.

  Alice’s eyes widened as she looked from him to the two waiting drivers at the foot of the steps. “You don’t…. I mean…” she glanced up the road that wound away from the resort into the distance. “I thought that maybe we could take a ride to a more secluded spot. There are roads on the islands that cars can’t get to and I was hoping-”

  “No motorbikes.” His tone was cold and abrupt, clearly startling the woman before him. Even if she’d meant well, Russell couldn’t help the reaction the bikes elicited from him – the memories they brought back. He’d rather die than ever mount up again.

  Of course, there was no way Alice could have known that. Yet, here he was, being brusque and cruel to her instead of justifying himself.

  Alice, he knew, could never know of his past. All she needed to know was that he had an aversion to certain methods of travel…and that he didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Oh…well, alright.” Alice was visibly deflated, and Russell immediately felt bad for being so curt with her – but he couldn’t get his mouth to utter a word of comfort. If he did, that might lead to a conversation he was unwilling to have. Alice didn’t need for him to burden her with his issues – she had plenty of her own. That, and Russell hadn’t forgotten what he told her brother. He wanted Alice to be happy. If she was going to remain happy, the less she knew about him, the better. “I suppose…we could just hire a car to take us to a private beach if there’s one nearby.” This time, when she smiled at him, the gesture didn’t quite reach her eyes. Russell knew that he had startled her – that she had to be wondering where his reaction had come from.

  “That would be lovely, yes.” He did his best to cut the tension with a charming smile – but it wasn’t the same carefree gesture he had offered her for the past few days. This one felt far too much like all the hollow smiles he’d given to women before her for his comfort.

  The discovery should have pleased him – and it might have, if only he’d managed it a month ago. Now, things were different.

  With a small nod, Alice paid the motorcyclists for their time before sending them off. As she made her way back to the front desk to reserve a car for them, Russell could sense how much the atmosphere had changed. Though they had yet to go anywhere, their afternoon had already lost its light-heartedness.

  Of course, they didn’t have a bad time together. They ended up spending a pretty penny to go to a lovely private beach on the other side of the island, where they had a picnic with amazing wines, decadent breads and luscious cheeses. Russell got to see Alice in a bikini, as he had so longed for, and as he watched her frolic among the waves, he wondered for the second time in the past week: how long would things between them last?

  Technically, they weren’t even involved in a relationship. There was no label on their status with one another. They could part ways at any given moment with no repercussions – or so he liked to think.

  The truth was: Russell knew better. He had hopelessly entangled himself with Alice Tate the moment he allowed himself to go to her, knowing how dangerous she was to him. Even know, watching her sluice water over her half-bare breasts made him want her – right on the beach. But more than wanting her, Russell almost wanted to give her the things he had given no woman since…well, since the first.

  He wanted her to know him like no other woman had ever known him. He reveled in the possibility that there was enough chemistry between them that he could see things…. well, he could see things he had never before considered. A future…a child…. Russell wasn’t sure whether he should be confused or merely enjoy things while they lasted. He was fairly certain that a time would come where Alice realized that there was only so much he could give.

  Then, she would be finished with him.

  For the first time in his life, the thought brought him no pleasure.

  **

  Though the trip to Aruba was lovely when she could find a moment to catch her breath, Alice worked as hard as Lemmy had promised and more. In her opinion, she earned every cent of her paycheck and then some – and all the while, she got to treat Russell Darwell as her lover.

  In truth, sleeping with Russell was a mixed bag of emotions. The man was absolutely heavenly in the actual act, but when it came to afterwards, Alice noticed more and more how little she knew about him. Of course, she knew the essentials and what he told her during their time together – but when it came to getting to know the man beneath the mask, she wasn’t particularly well versed.

  But that didn’t make her unique.

  Whenever she had a moment to do so, Alice liked to speak to the other big-wigs on the set in an attempt to find out more about the real Russell.

  Apparently, there wasn’t much to know. As she’d been told before, it was apparent that Russell didn’t like to get close to anyone. He was cordial, polite and certainly handsome – that was what everyone loved about him. He treated everyone equally, no matter what position they held on the staff – and that, of course, was admirable.

  But when she sought out sordid stories of the man’s past, wanted to know who his closest friends were, and even when she further prodded Lemmy for information about his ex-girlfriends, no one knew a single thing.

  It was as if Russell had just appeared from nowhere to charm the pants off everyone, with no foundation at all.

  If Alice had known him for a shorter period of time, she might have found it eerie – but as things were, she was more determined than ever to learn all she could about the man.

  Unfortunately, Russell like to talk more about her than he did himself. It was almost impossible to get him to expound on his past, even when they were laying together in post-coital bliss after they’d blown one another’s minds. If anything, since the day she’d attempted to get him to go out on the motorbike with her, he’d been even more closemouthed. Of course, he could speak for hours to her about her aspirations and dreams – about her family and what they were up to back in Britain. He wanted to hear how her work was going and if she enjoyed the job.

  Alice didn’t mind speaking to him about what she did on a day to day basis. A part of her couldn’t believe that he found any of it interesting. After all, she was just blathering on and on about fabrics and measurements until even she was tired of considering them. She prodded him gently, then a bit harder – but never pushed him to talk about himself, and Russell always gently deflected the conversation in another direction.

  By the time their two weeks in Aruba was almost up, she didn’t know if things between them were clearer or even more confusing. All Alice knew was that she was inundated with work for the last few days of shooting – so much so that she and Russell barely saw any of one another.

  And she realized she missed him.

  Despite whatever tensions remained between them, in Alice’s opinion, they left Aruba far before she was ready to. It was like while they were on the island, she could at least pretend they were a couple - that everything would turn out alright in the end. When they went back to LA, Alice knew that reality was sure to intervene.

  It started the moment they boarded the plane. Of course, this time, there was no need for a private jet. Lemmy made sure to inform her well in advance of when they were
leaving, and so, when the time came, Alice found that she and Russell sat nowhere near one another. It was odd, to have been so close to the man -to have slept next to him and felt him inside her - only to have him barely look her way as they boarded. Alice tried to tell herself that it wasn’t personal. Russell was, by nature, a private person. He didn’t like to get too attached.

  How many times over the past two weeks had she told herself that? First, it was fact. Then, it was something she used to remind herself that she was an adult, Russell was an adult, and just because they were sleeping together didn’t mean that they had to be anything serious. Then, it was an excuse, and she knew it was.

  Though she had tried mightily not to develop any advanced feelings for Russell, the fact of the matter was that she had failed. Really, Alice admitted to herself, she might have developed feelings for him from the very start. It was the only way she might ever allow herself to chase after a man as ardently as he.

  And she had chased him. Oh, had she chased him. Were he any other man, Alice might be thoroughly embarrassed, but as it was Russell, she could only feel somewhat...lost. What on earth was she going to do with herself? Short of reaching directly into her brain and extracting said feelings, she was going to be stuck with them.

  She could only hope that Russell himself didn’t figure out and head for the hills. It was still painfully evident to her that the man wasn’t looking for a commitment, and she wasn’t about to ask him for one anytime soon.

  Despite how much she might long for one herself.

  “Alright there, Alice.” As she was settling into her business class pod, the young woman looked up to see Russell standing over her. Try as she might, she couldn’t discern whether the look in his eyes was one of genuine affection or simply the kind concern he reserved for everyone else. She gave him a half smile and, somehow, refrained from touching him. She wanted nothing more at that moment than to plant one on him for the whole world to see but she somehow doubted that would please the man himself.