by Jisa Dean
"But, if you change for me this won't work. We can't make this work if you give up who you are. You'll end up resenting me and blaming me for one of your biggest mistakes. I..." I see the look in her eyes. She's about to run. Predators can always predict when the prey is about to bolt.
"No, Cherry!" that no is not just to get her to stop running but also to let her know that she is wrong. "Who I am is not what I do. Who I am is someone who has found his mate, his missing half. What I am, I suppose, when you strip it down is someone who protects what is his and Cherry," I wait for her to look at me again. "You very much are mine. That and the fact that I will protect you with great amounts of violence if need be is who I am. Everything else is window dressings and trimmings. Flash and bang."
Her smile lights her face back up and she stares at me from under her eyelashes, "What will you do if you retire?"
"Well, I know what will start my day and end my nights." Her smile gets bigger and color splashes across her cheeks. "What will fill my days in between is something we will both work out over time. My brothers have an idea that our life would make a pretty sick video game. They want me home so we can speak to the guy who will be our partner and designer. Maybe help another young lady save her man by playing for hours on end." I reference the fact that she shot someone after being trained by a game. I'm still not over that by the way.
"You know I'll always be looking for people to shoot to keep you safe, right?"
"That is why my heart will always belong to none other than you, my lover." She rolls her eyes at my melodramatics and we go back to comfortable conversation over dinner. Camergo isn't leaving any time soon and he isn't a threat right at this moment. For that, I let my guard down ever so slightly so that I can laugh with her and indulge in the warmth of her smile.
"You know there is something I've always wanted to do." There is a mischievous look in her eyes that has me tentative to ask. But I don't have to. Before I can say another word she is slipping underneath the table and her fast nimble little fingers are on the snap of my slacks. I look to the side of the table to make sure the linen is draped all the way to the floor. No way anyone in this place is going to see my girl down on her hands and knees, even for me.
I feel several tugs and hear her giggles and the next thing I know she's wrapping those lush lips around the head of my cock and driving me insane. Her lips are the softest thing to ever touch my dick other than her sweet little virgin pussy. Thinking about her pussy makes my cock throb harder and makes Nat suck harder.
She tries to take as much of me in her mouth as she can and when she finds that she can't take it all the way she uses her two hands to wrap around what is left over. My little Cherry Bomb doesn't suck dick quietly either. She moans for it and makes wet, happy sounds that have my balls drawing up tight against my body ready to unload in her. I have to look at her but there is no way in hell I'm lifting the table cloth for the whole damned room to see too.
I try to stay focused, to count my breaths, to think about compounds or poisons, to mentally go over maneuvers but nothing is going to stop this train from coming. It was going to happen as soon as her little mouth gave my dick a warm, wet hug. Once I get her little ass back to the room though I am going to spank her and make her take it in the ass for teasing and taunting me in a restaurant.
God, thinking about sinking my cock into her tight ass has me going off faster than I planned to. I hear her gurgled laugh as she sucks it down. I have to fight not to groan out loud with how good it feels. I still jerk and the rattle the table, getting worried glances from the people sitting around us.
When the waiter comes over to ask if everything is alright I still don't have my normal cool back. "Fine. Everything is fine. Thank you." Fucker is messing up my afterglow but I realize he's just being courteous.
"And your companion is she finished with her meal?" He points to the half-eaten desert lying on Nat's plate.
"She's...full." I motion for him to go ahead and take the plate and try to cough over the giggle that slips from under the table at my words.
Once I assure him that everything is good and we are done he flits off to go find another diner to harass. Nat crawls back out from under the table as quietly and quickly as she can and holds up a fork, "Here it is. He must have just missed it when he was taking the plates. Are you ready, Dear?"
I'm already up and taking her soft hand in my own. Blowing in her mouth didn't even take the edge off the need I feel for her right now. She giggles again when I rush us through the payment and niceties that go along with it until we are finally outside. I've canvassed the entire area so I'm aware of where everything is located, like if I take her hand and pull her just to the side of the building another is there to block out prying eyes. I also know there are no street lights on this side of the building.
I push her up against the brick and grind my cock into the junction of her thighs. Our mouths meet in a passion that is every bit as frenzied as the first time we went at one another. Nat is meeting my lust with her own. She is just as eager and hungry for me as I am for her. My perfect match and I still have the scratches on my back to prove it.
Both of us work to get the other free of the clothing below our waists. I pick her up and she comes willingly into my arms as I slide her down on my engorged cock. She hisses at the first couple of inches and I am reminded that this woman was a virgin not twelve hours ago. She could still be sore and I have her pinned to a wall trying to fuck her into the brick. I hate myself but I don't stop. I can't, not with her.
"Does it hurt, Cherry?" it's all I can grunt out. I have never lost my control so completely before.
"Yes," she hisses around the word again but pushes her hips down farther to take more of me into her waiting cavern. "Feels so good though."
She leans into me and puts her lips next to my ear so she can whisper to me on a moan, "I like it when you hurt me. Just a little." And licks up the side of my face as she sinks to the root of my erection.
And I'm as good as fucked. If I hadn't wanted her before now she just sealed her fate all over again. I start pumping into her, riding her hard. Her back moves up against the wall that's going to leave a nasty burn on the skin of her back but she doesn't seem to care. She leans into it and makes me want to fuck her harder knowing that she craves the pain with her pleasure. And knowing I can give her both.
"Yes, Zander, yes! Harder, fuck me harder!" I have to cover her mouth to keep us from being discovered. My cock explodes like the fireworks in the Laos sky when her teeth sink into the palm of my hand. God damn this woman is perfect!
Fifteen
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I clinch my thighs thinking about last night. Zander fucked me so hard it's hard to sit today. I'm swollen and wet still and I love every delicious minute of it. Thinking about what happened yesterday is all I can do. I've been waiting in this car for the past, I glance at Zander's watch, hour now looking for the first signs of movement that would indicate Zander has the package. And by package I mean Camergo.
The plan is to take him tonight while everyone is still celebrating the rocket festival and he is out of the freakin' compound he lives in. I guess human beings sell well on the market they're sold on. Sick fuck! I hope we'll have time to make him suffer before we hand him over. I don't care what that makes me sound like. Nasty men like him deserve what they get.
Once we have him we're going to the airport, if you can call it that. It's really more of a field with a strip of cement on it. Then, Zander will load the 'package' on the plane and we take off for Japan. Once in Japan someone Kronos sends is going to meet with us to take the guy off our hands.
I finally spot Zander and pull the tab to pop the trunk. Mr. Camergo might be walking out on his own but he won't be able to say the same thing about boarding. I smile; knowing damned well what it feels like to be kissed by one of Zander's needles. The bastard. But even as I think it I feel the smile pulling at my lips. As soon as Zander is in I'm driving, hard a
nd fast and steady.
***
His eyes are the first thing you notice when you realize something is wrong with Camergo. They're beady and black like his soul. As soon as Zander counteracts the drug he gave him to keep him quiet in the trunk you can just tell the guy has no fucking heart. By the time we are in the air Zander has worked him over well enough that he wants to start making deals. He'll pay us more than the other guy who hired us, he'll give us anything we want – but he can't bring Noel back!
"Talk and I might let you keep your fingers." Zander picks up something that looks very similar to a nutcracker but I don't think this is going to be set on the table during the holidays.
"Yes, I remember the girl," Zander already jogged his memory where Noel was concerned, "she was the only girl who was clever enough to hide a sharp piece of metal, from God knows where in her clothing. She wove it in and out under her dress."
I'm sure he's is talking about Noel because she was always so brilliant. She was good at being sneaky too, unfortunately. If I had known...I stop my thoughts from going down a road I wore to dust ages ago. This is not the time for that; it is the time for making this man suffer.
"Keep talking." He pauses and Zander applies pressure to his pinkie finger. In the end no matter how much I want him to pay for what he did to Noel, I have to look away. When I look back I try not to let my eyes go anywhere near his hands.
"She was already in bad shape when I bought her." I screw my face up and make an audible sound of disgust that makes Zander's eyes swirl with a storm of emotion. "She hadn't been compliant at all during any part of the process. She stopped taking the drugs we put in her food and water. She bit and scratched. No one wanted her in the Asian circuit but I knew that some of the men I do business within the Middle East would love someone like her. So I took her to one of my compounds along with some other girls and waited for the buyer. We feed the girls once a day and the food was laced with some pretty heavy stuff. They had plastic utensils and we never let them around anything sharp. But none of that mattered. The morning she was to be sold, one of my men opened the door and found her in a pool of her own blood. She had cut both wrists and stabbed herself repeatedly. My men counted five before we..."
"Before you what?" Zander left my side and walked around to Camergo's hand again. This time when he cut the finger I sat and stared into the eyes of the man who sold my friend like she was a fucking head of lettuce, something to be used and bartered and traded with.
"We tossed her. We threw her body in a pile of shit that we couldn't take to the dump. We covered her up with dirt and old shit like that so no one would find her and I sent my guy to tell the buyer what had happened to her."
"Where?" Zander reaches for another finger.
"Montenagro." Camergo speaks faster in hopes of not losing another finger to my Psycho.
"I want specifics fucker." The snap of bone filling the plane along with the smell of blood and piss. Camergo wet himself hours ago. I turn away from the bloody scene and walk to one of the seats. Who cares where it is exactly? She's gone and nothing will ever bring her back. She died scared and alone. But she showed so much strength and courage in fighting for herself every step of the way. I'm glad to hear that she never became empty, that she kept hope right up until the end.
I swipe my hand at my cheek to get rid of the damned tears that leak out before I can stop them. Zander comes back into the seating area with me after another thirty minutes or so. He's cleaned up a bit and I wonder how someone who can do so much violence is also the man I am desperately in love with. He asked me to marry him once - well he might have told me I was going to marry him once, but I hope he meant it and he still wants to.
"Natasha," his soft whisper is more than I can take right now.
"Marry me!"
We spend considerable minutes looking at one another, both of our eyes round in shock. Until Zander breaks first by smiling his dazzling smile and laughing - a sound I love more than anything.
"What's a man to say to that but yes. Yes. Yes."
I didn't mean to ask. It was just I was thinking about it and I want it. I've always been the type of person to go after what I want. Both of us are smiling when we touchdown in Tokyo. It takes a little while before we work everything out and the tall dark man from the club in Spain is back.
Zander is talking with the pilot about getting us airborne again as fast as possible and I have the overwhelming urge to call Poppie. I wonder if she still has her cell phone after all she went through. Deep in thought, I don't realize Camergo is so close to me until too late. I'm in his arms and he's reached a letter opener left lying out before anyone could stop him. He smells of sweat, piss, and blood and it makes my stomach roll.
All of the commotion has reached Zander and I see it in his eyes the minute he reads the situation. This guy really does not realize the hell he is about to step into if he doesn't let me go. Zander's eyes go fucking purple with so many blues and grays and greens mixed together. This is the eyes of the man people see when they see death. Those are the eyes I thought would be my last sight before I too met my end but now they're eyes I know, the emotions running through them are ones I can put words to.
I react on pure instinct instead of going forward I go back and slam my head into Camergo's nose. The man has lost so much blood that he's already unsteady. I drop. I let my body weight carry me to the floor so the gun now in Zander's hand, the one he is never without, can have a clear target and he doesn't have to worry about me. He puts three in Camergo's chest before the man knows what hit him. He stares down at me and sways towards me like he is going to fall on me. I put my feet up to catch his weight and as the light fades out of his eyes I can't help but tell him, "That's for Noel, fucker."
I kick with all my strength until his weight is going backward instead of forward and on me. Zander is on me before Camergo's body hits the floor.
"Boss, we got a problem." The big guy is on the phone with who I can only assume is Kronos. He nods and then puts it on speaker so both us can listen too. When he speaks his voice surprises me but I don't think it surprises Zander. It's a cool, calm voice of authority with a touch of mirth. To be honest it's a lot softer than I thought it would be. Not that it's wispy or feminine but I was looking forward to a boom.
"I'm told you shot my suspect. Not a very good note to retire on, Zeus. But I understand your priorities have changed. It's no longer about the money I take?"
"It was never about the money where Nyx is concerned. Never will be."
"I suppose this means I will have to pay you one last time, you and your brothers, so you will keep your mouths shut about everything I had you do. Let's call it a retirement package and leave it at that." The mirth ends and this is the voice I was expecting, "Thank you, truly Zander, for years of loyalty to someone without a face. Take care of her; I've grown quite fond of her over the years we have talked. Natasha, be well. If you ever need anything..." The phone goes dead before he finishes. I think he did it on purpose because we will know how to reach him if we ever need him when the time comes. Men like Kronos and men like my future husband and his brothers never go away for good. They're always there watching, keeping the world balanced by taking out a few bad guys here and there.
Sixteen
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The man hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket. He was sad to see the three best assassins he had leave the game but it was time. When it's time you just know. He takes his gun back in his hand and starts for the stairs leading up to the third floor. Bodies have fallen all around him and the floor is running red with rivers of blood in some places. His boys were never clean when they got the job done - not like the brothers - but they always got the job done just the same.
His short military cropped hair made him almost indistinguishable from anyone else. The only thing that gave him away were his eyes. A hunter could never quite hide the glint of death in them and he was no different. One of the many reasons he chose to w
ear glasses when he wasn't on a mission like the one he was on tonight. Glasses can hide most anything because no one ever looks hard enough behind the lens.
His men had breached the compound as soon as he received word that Camergo had been taken. Fires lit the night sky. Not sure about the rain but he did know the locals would have one hell of a story to tell their kids about this Boun Bang Fai. He reached the top alongside one of his men. Both sweeping to make sure the other was covered. They started kicking in doors. The men kept the women on the second floor and he had men there now getting the girls clear of the compound.
Up on this level, however, were Camergo's private rooms. When his foot landed on the last door, and the wood splintered under his strike, he knew he had found what he was looking for - Camergo's records. This was worth more to him than any money could be. Intelligence often was in his world of cat and mouse.
Someone had sold his men out as surely as they had sold the women's bodies, and that was a crime he couldn't let anyone other than himself handle. These men put their trust and loyalty in him, it was up to him to protect them and get them home safe during missions. He couldn't do that if his own people were selling secrets.
Not his men. His men would never betray each other or him like that. No, this came from higher up, someone all of them worked for but it wasn't the Senator. He was a stupid patsy in the real game this faceless puppeteer was playing. Espionage.
"Hey, Archer," He looked up from scanning the ledgers that he would take with him. If you wanted to find where the snake is, look for the trails. One of his men stood in the doorway, "the mayor, or whatever he's called here, wants to know if his men can put out the fire in the courtyard now. I think he's worried about it spreading throughout the town or something."
He nods briefly before halting his man, "Ace, have the plane ready to fly back home in an hour."