by Tilly Delane
“Such as?”
“That I spent six years at an international boarding school where the common language was English and most of the other students were British army kids,” I say with a shrug.
He gently slugs me back for that.
“Superpower, my arse.”
I turn my head to grin up at him sweetly.
“You know what the most annoying thing about you is?” he asks, and I shake my head. “That you’re fucking cute as a button even when your face looks like it’s been put through a mangle.”
“Does it really look that bad?” I ask seriously.
“Worse,” the entire round replies.
“I want to get back to the story,” Grace says. “You got any pictures?”
I nod, slowly.
Telling them why I’m here is one thing. I’m not sure if I’m ready to show them my notes, though. On the other hand, their input is already proving more valuable than I could have ever imagined. In ten minutes, they’ve given me more new avenues to explore than I’ve come up with in months. But I’m also really tired all of a sudden and hungry.
“Tired?” Raven asks.
She’s been the quietest so far, but her nursey sense obviously just kicked in.
“A little. But more hungry.”
“Hey, no problem,” Rowan says and pulls out his phone. “Let’s order some pizzas.”
Raven shakes her head at him.
“Not a good idea. Chewing is really gonna hurt her for a few days. Soggy pasta would be better.”
“No problem. I’ll give Sheena a ring,” Rowan deadpans.
Everyone in the room who’s ever had to endure Sheena’s cooking laughs. Raven is the lucky odd one out, but she’s heard enough stories to get the gist. Silas gets up from his chair, picks up the clothes he dumped on the floor and puts them back on it before he turns back to look across at Diego and me on the bed. He locks eyes with me.
“Do you want us to know the rest?” he asks evenly. “It’s your case. This is your work. You can always tell us to fuck off out of your business, Kalina.”
Trust him to have the courtesy to ask. Trust him to just accept this new version of me so readily. I’ve always wanted a big brother. It dawns on me that my wish has been granted. At least for now.
“Yes,” I answer, and I realise that it feels good.
Suddenly, it feels like I don’t just have a new brother, I have a crew. I’ve never had a crew.
Silas nods.
“Okay, then I suggest you get some rest, I’ll see what I can find to cook in this house and if not, Grace and I will get some groceries. I’ll make you something nice and soft, but not soggy.”
Rowan takes a breath, but Silas cuts him short.
“I know you want pizza. I can see the pizza thought bubble above your head. Order some pizza if you must. But I’m cooking something for Kalina,” he says and then ushers everyone out, until only Diego and I are left on the bed.
“You know he’s the real boss, right?” I say.
Diego chuckles.
“Always has been.”
“You mad?”
“At him? No. At you? A little bit. But not really. I was, before you decided to drop out of the scenery. But that scared me so fucking much that now I don’t care who you really are, I’m just glad you are.”
“You actually mean that, don’t you?”
He turns onto his side, slides his hand across my stomach and tugs at my hip, so I do the same to face him. He holds my gaze for a very long time, making my heart beat faster with every second that passes. Then he smiles.
“Yeah, I do. I love you, whoever you are.”
Before I can say anything back, he puts a finger to my lips.
“Shhh. Don’t say anything. I didn’t say it to hear anything back. I said it, because I do. One day you might feel the need to say the same. But when that day comes, be sure. Don’t say it with one foot out of the door. Say it when you’re content to leave your passport in a drawer somewhere.”
I swallow hard at that.
Some days your number is up.
And sometimes, somebody’s just got your number.
Diego
I watch her swallow hard at my words and though it hurts that she clearly isn’t as far in as I am already, there is a flicker in her eyes that tells me I stand a chance.
I’ll fight for that chance. Tooth and fucking nail.
Before this afternoon, I thought I’d found an equal in bed, in food, in leisure. But now I know I’ve found an equal full stop. How many women are there in the world that are this badass but so fucking cute? That understand the grey nuances of right and wrong? Of legal and not so legal? Of there being more than one version of you? It all makes a lot more sense now. Why she neither balked at my business, nor painted me some ruthless criminal without a moral compass. How she can accept all the different incarnations of me. How she got me just right.
She watches me watch her and a faint smirk appears around her mouth.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering how you know what’s in police reports of cases that I assume are still open, even if they’ve gone cold.”
The smirk grows into a grin.
“You pay attention,” she says.
I sigh.
“If you can’t read properly, you kind of have to,” I admit.
“I’ve noticed. Like I said...” she starts.
“...not all your business practices are legal,” I finish.
She nods, yawns, and winces, all at the same time, because opening her jaw that wide clearly hurts.
“Right,” I say. “Enough talk. You rest for a bit.”
“Will you...” she starts, grabbing my hand and pulling it across to cup it gently over her bruised tit.
She never finishes the sentence because she doesn’t need to. I get it. She wants protection, the healing of a gentle touch. So I keep it there, not moving, just shielding and she makes a happy sound, deep in her throat that wakes up my dick.
There is a knock on the door and Silas steps back into the room, once I’ve called out that it’s safe to come in. He takes the two of us on the bed in with a soft smile before he clears his throat.
“Right. You have no food. Well, nothing I can work with. Grace and I are going shopping. You want anything else?”
“New face,” Kalina quips, sleepily.
I shake my head and remove my hand from her breast to dig in my pocket for the lift key and throw it to him.
“Cool. We won’t be long,” he tells us as he catches it. “I know what we’re getting, and it won’t take long to cook. Rowan’s still hell-bent on pizza, though. What about you, George? Salmon and baby spinach with new potatoes or a Domino’s meat feast with extra pepperoni?”
“Bit of both?”
He grins.
“Thought you would say that. You got about an hour and a half, maybe two hours. Is that okay?”
“Hmmm,” Kalina mumbles into my side, already half asleep. “Can you chop the spinach really fine and put in loads of cream?”
Silas frowns.
“Wasn’t planning to but sure, if that’s what you want.”
“Hmm,” she purrs happily, making my dick even harder. “Kremowy szpinak.”
As soon as Silas has pulled the door shut behind him again, my hand goes back to her tit. Kalina slides her fingers lightly over my abs and unashamedly dips below my waistband. She finds my hard-on and chuckles as she wraps her fist around it.
“It’s what happens if you speak foreign around me,” I defend myself.
“Liar,” she mumbles, giving me a loving squeeze. “It’s what happens when I’m around.”
I kiss the top of her head.
“You should sleep.”
“I know,” she mutters. “Can I hold on to this? It makes me feel safe.”
“I already told you, you can hold on to it for as long as you like.”
“Hmm.”
She snuggles deeper in
to me as she gently runs a thumb over the head and begins pumping me.
“Kalina,” I say threateningly.
Her only response is to let go, slip her hand out, pop the button on my jeans and pull the zip down. Then her hand goes straight back under my boxers and back to work.
Slowly, gently, leisurely.
Kalina
He groans loudly and the sound shoots straight to my core.
I really want him to finger me to sleep right now, for the pleasure to distract me from the pain in my face. I want him to stroke my pussy that’s already sodden again just from the knowledge that I have this effect on this man, until I come on his hand, and then I want to drift to sleep with his fingers still inside me.
And he obliges, not a word said.
While I still leisurely fist his cock, he turns to his side and the hand that was cupping my injured breast slides down and into my leggings. He doesn’t bother tugging them down but works beneath the fabric.
“Hmm, no panties,” he murmurs as his fingers part me. “And so wet. Always so wet.”
“Only for you,” I mumble.
“Cheesy line,” he says as he circles my clit.
“Truth,” I reply as I spread the precum over his slit and around the head, softening my touch when my thumb slips across his banjo string.
He shudders.
Then he does something new between my legs. He crooks his fingers and starts running the knuckles over my clit, my slit, my hole in slow, rocking motions, until I press up against it as hard as I can, panting, my own fist mindlessly pumping him harder with every drag of the knuckles.
Up, down, up, down.
I can already feel the first clenches of my orgasm, when he unfurls his hand to finally shove two fingers inside me, curling onto my magic spot while his thumb takes over rubbing my clit. He pumps inside me and I mimic his motions with my fist, thrust for thrust, my thumb running across his head, my fingers tightening around his shaft with every stroke he gives my insides. He shatters with a loud growl, a split second before I do, his semen spilling all over my hand. The feeling, the power, pushes me over the edge and I come just as hard on his hand, spasming up against it as if plugged into a live wire. As soon as I still, I clamp my legs shut around his hand, so he doesn’t withdraw it ─ and with his softening cock in my hand, I drift off to sleep.
His hand is still between my legs and my hand still on his dick when a soft rap on the door and a muffled, thunder-clap voice, telling us dinner will be ready in five, wakes us up. Our eyes open at the same time and we look at each other, while Diego responds groggily to Rowan that we’ll be with them shortly.
We find it hard to detach but we do, and as soon as I’m out of the cocoon, I notice the throbbing in my face. I watch Diego get out of bed and move towards the en suite.
“Diego?”
“Yes, baby girl?”
“About that morphine...”
He turns back to me, his face immediately full of concern.
“That bad?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“I’m gonna kill that motherfucker.”
I can’t help but snigger.
“What?”
“Has it ever occurred to you that your own father is the only person you can correctly call a motherfucker?”
“I think I liked you better when you didn’t speak English so well, and I only understood half of what you were saying,” he deadpans before he goes back to the subject of painkillers. “I’ll make a call. You’ll have some here in about twenty minutes. Raven can probably tell you how much is appropriate for your body size. My guess is, if we give you as much as we give the fighters, you’d drop dead on the spot.”
By the time he’s made the phone call, and we are both cleaned up enough not to smell of stale come any longer, dinner is ready and served in the living room. There is salmon, spinach and potatoes for everyone and pizza on the side, that I wisely forego. Even chewing the delicious soft food Silas made for me has me in agony, and by the time the courier turns up with the morphine and a bunch of syringes, I have dropped all my reservations about opiates. It’s good that Raven dishes out the dose, while mumbling something about totally losing her nurse’s licence over administering illegally acquired prescription drugs if anyone ever finds out, otherwise I’d probably OD in my greed for relief.
The numbness is almost instant and comes with that fuzzy rush of euphoria only opium-based products will give you. Like a rocket of cotton wool hitting you right in your soul.
I kind of lied when I said I don’t like it. I like it very much, for about ten seconds. Then I normally panic. Now I’m learning that I like it a lot longer, that I don’t panic, provided I feel safe.
The last couple of times I had anything like this, I didn’t feel remotely safe. More the exact opposite. I was hunting the bones of a junkie kid gone missing in Thailand and was partaking among a round of his associates, sitting between rats and cockroaches in a half-collapsed shanty, overlooking a river that was more plastic than water. Gaining trust by smoking heroin may have been one of the least smart moves of my career. I kept wondering if they were gonna sell me or murder me, and afterwards I felt mildly sick and dozy for days, and Konstantin nearly fired me, followed by an endless lecture about how far undercover is too far, while paranoia-me worried I’d instantly become a junkie. But I found the bones.
Now, it’s completely different.
I’m fed, I’m snuggled, it’s clean and I’m surrounded by people who will protect me, and I have a man by my side who will pull a gun on his own father to keep me safe.
“That’s big,” I say enthusiastically out loud, and all eyes turn to me.
We’re all gathered around the coffee table, Diego and I on the sofa, Silas and Grace cross-legged on the floor and Rowan in a massive armchair that would swallow the likes of me whole but for him is just about right. Raven’s gone to dispose of her gloves and the syringe she used to inject me.
“Uh-oh,” says Rowan and leans over to snatch the last slice of pizza from the table. “Here we go.”
“No really,” I say. “You guys are wonderful and you,” I add, focusing on Diego who’s massaging my feet in his lap, “are the most amazing man alive. I─“
“Don’t say it, Kalina!” he interrupts me sharply and scowls. “Say it when you’re not whacked out on morphine, when it’s just us, when I know your real name and your passports are in the drawer. All of them.”
“Hmm. You’re cute when you’re angry,” I hear myself reply. “I do, though.”
“What did I miss?” Raven asks as she re-enters the room and makes a beeline for Rowan’s lap. “She flaking out?”
“Not flaking out,” I say. “Just trying to tell people how much I fucking love them.”
“Uh-oh,” Raven responds and plonks herself sideways down on top of Rowan. “She’s cussing. I’ve never heard her cuss.”
“You don’t know me very well,” I say with a laugh.
“No shit,” Diego hisses.
“Hey,” Grace interjects, getting on her knees to stack some of the dirty dishes and clear space on the table. “Keep it peaceful. Why don’t we go back to Kalina’s case? I wanna know more.” She holds a hand up behind her to Silas, who takes a breath to interrupt.
“Save it. She already said she wanted to share before she was doped up.”
I beam at her. I love her soooooooooo much. She’s the best.
“You’re the best, Jessica Rabbit. Somebody grab my laptop?”
She lowers herself back onto her haunches, so she can flip me off, because she hates the nickname Rowan gave her. It fits her, though. She has that kind of figure, just a bit more of it, the hair, though it comes out of a bottle, and the green eyes. Her mouth is infinitely better than Jessica Rabbit’s, though. She’s got these big, full lips that curl up at the corners into a permanent cat smile. I focus in on them now. They look soft and pillowy and delicious.
“You know you got the best lips out of every woman I
’ve ever seen, right?” I ask her. “I so want to kiss you one day.”
Grace flashes her eyebrows at me with a coquettish smile, Diego and Rowan both groan and I can feel Diego’s cock twitch in his jeans under my foot. Silas looks at me stoically with the barest hint of a grin. Oh good, that’s definitely not a no-not-my-woman-lips-off. I store away that info for another time.
Grace jumps to her feet.
“Where is it?”
“Her study,” Diego answers, and my heart pitter-patters at the fact he calls the guest bedroom my study.
Silas jumps up.
“I’ll show you.”
We watch them disappear.
“How long do we give them?” Rowan asks, while he unashamedly runs his hand up Raven’s calf and under her dress.
Raven slaps his hand as it travels higher up her leg. Not that it stops him.
“I don’t know how you people get anything done,” I comment, rubbing my foot over Diego’s crotch. “All you do is make out and eat.”
Diego catches my foot and flashes me an amused grin.
“Says the main culprit,” he says and lifts the foot up to kiss the arch. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” I respond on a sigh.
“Good.”
Our eyes are on another as he moves his mouth to my toes and starts sucking on the big one, running his tongue over the pad. It should tickle, but I nearly shoot off the sofa with pleasure at the sensation. I’m vaguely aware that at the edge of my vision Rowan’s hand has disappeared very far up Raven’s petticoat and she’s hiding her face in the crook of his neck now. I can’t help but shoot them an actual glance. Rowan doesn’t make eye contact, but I know he sees me looking and I’m almost certain he flexes his arm muscles for my benefit, so I know what he’s doing to his lady under there. I’d bet my last cent that he has got his hands on her pussy by now, rubbing her clit through the fishnets she’s wearing. She’s trying hard not to show it, but she’s squirming in his lap and though I can’t hear it, I can see she is panting by the rapid rise and fall of her chest. I look back at Diego sucking my toe and realize he’s been watching me watch them. He grins around my toe then pops it out of his mouth with a last hard suck.