by L. L. Ash
She was still watching from the bed, fully nude underneath that sleeping bag she was using as a blanket.
“I’ll take you there,” I told her. “You can decide from there what you want to do.”
“What do you mean? You won’t come with me?”
I gulped my trepidation down again and looked into her eyes.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
A confused look passed over her face, an expression she wore around me a lot it seemed, then she said like I was dumb, “Of course I do. I go where you go, and you go where I go. I demand it.”
Her little sparks of lush ferocity got me instantly.
“Careful,” I told her, getting to my feet and moving toward her as all my brain blood rushed south. “You’re sounding awful possessive.”
She watched me move toward her and turned onto her back, letting the blanket fall away from her perfect, luscious breasts. The come-hither look on her face wasn’t lost on me either, and I knew exactly what she wanted.
“I am,” she admitted readily, accepting me as I crawled onto the bunk and framed her body with mine.
Her fingers drew over the lines of my face and lips before dipping down to my bare chest.
The Velcro wrap holster around my waist was still there, holding two semi-automatics, one a 40 cal. and the other a sub-compact 9 mm.
A guy had to have options.
She curled her fingers around my neck, dragging my head down to hers where she brushed her lips over mine.
“Do you hear me? Spy, assassin, soldier, lover; whatever you are, you are mine.”
“Yes ma’am,” I agreed, my mouth aching for hers as she teased me with only whispers of her lips over mine.
“Good boy,” she said with a grin, then kissed the hell out of me.
Never in my life had I loved the animalistic praise so much.
Flinging off the sleeping bag, I revealed the rest of her to me as she opened her legs, accepting me into her embrace.
She gave out a throaty moan as I pressed into her, my cock so fucking eager for her warm, welcoming cunt. God, it had only been hours and I was so ready for her again.
Her fingers untangled my belt and splayed the fly before she shoved it down, releasing my cock to the frigid air around us. It wasn’t so bad though, because she was keeping me plenty hot.
Chilly fingers circled my dick and pumped as my mouth moved from hers to the long expanse of neck and chest just open for the taking. I avoided the other love bites I’d left before and gave her another just on the outside of her left breast.
“I’d be spotted completely if it were up to you, wouldn’t I?” she asked with a giggle when I unlatched my lips to observe the mark I left.
“You have a problem with it?”
“No. I like wearing your mark.”
Well fuck me.
My fingers circled over hers around my cock and I led it to her entrance, then took her hand away just as I thrust in, going full deep the first time.
She groaned, gasping at the sensation before locking her ankles behind my back.
Over the past couple weeks, she’d really let go of all her inhibitions and went wild in the sack. The meek, unsure girl was gone and in her place was a wildcat fighting to receive pleasure just as much as to give it.
“Move it,” I told her, catching her calf in one hand and moving it to my shoulder.
She arched against me as I changed our angle, fucking hard and deep just the way I had learned she liked it.
And that little silent climax she'd tried to do? Yeah, that never happened again. I made sure of it.
Grinding my pelvis against hers, the base of my abs rubbed her clit with every thrust, gliding slick and wet against it.
“Fuck!” she growled when I got it just right.
Damn, I loved it when she cursed.
“C’mon babe,” I told her, impatient to feel her throbbing around me when she reached her climax.
With a carfree cry, she moved with me as she came, throbbing and gripping into me until I was roaring my own peak, jacking right into her like a spoiled rotten brat. Damn, I never wanted to wear a condom again.
She groaned, humming with a closed mouth as she floated into that foggy headspace that always overcame her after an orgasm. Post-orgasmic bliss, she called it.
“When do we leave?” she asked in a satisfied sigh.
“As soon as you’re ready.”
She opened her eyes again and looked at me.
“Give me half an hour.”
I nodded and got up, leaving her to stretch like the sexy little feline she was. Tucking myself back into my pants, I closed them up then looked down on the floor for my shirt. It went on nicely over my concealed holster, then I wrapped my coat overtop.
Mila was up by then, looking for underwear that wasn’t too dirty since we hadn’t washed our clothes lately. Drying them in freezing weather was pretty pointless, anyway.
“I’ll be glad to have clothes again,” she said. “And a washer to clean them.”
“Funny the things you never realized you’d miss,” I said, watching her as she dressed.
“Don’t you have anything more important to do?”
“Other things? Sure. More important? Not a chance,” was my answer.
She just grinned at me as she snapped on a bra.
“We’ll get to the city, find a room, and I’ll find us a plane back to Bangladesh.”
“Then to Russia?” she asked.
I just nodded, feeling the good spirits from the lively sex seep out of me like a leaky balloon.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
I shrugged.
“I trust you,” Mila told me, taking my chin in her hand to look into my eyes. “I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t trust you to take care of me.”
Well damn. Way to make an assassin cry.
“You know I will,” I promised. “Always.”
She pressed a gentle kiss to my lips before dipping to pick up her coat. Her clothes were in rough shape, even though she’d worn some of my things to stay warm. I’d need to get her all new clothes when we got there.
I never looked forward to shopping so much in my life.
“Ok little pisoiaș, time to go. I expect a bath before nightfall.”
“That I can manage,” I agreed, smiling at the nickname.
She was my kitten and I was her lion.
It didn’t take long to pack, removing all the batteries from the lamps before stowing everything again in their watertight bags and bins. Hopefully I would never need the hideout again, but if I did, it would still be good and ready for me. Just without a few supplies.
I double checked the stove, making sure the fire was completely out before the two of us left out the front door, the hidden door to the bunker closed and invisible again to the unsuspecting eye.
“Let’s go get you that bath,” I told her, taking her hand in mine as we went to the dirtbike that brought us there.
The only things I took from the bunker was her bag and my backpack that still had my laptop, albeit my dead laptop, plus a couple changes of clothes. My cellphone —also dead— was tucked inside as well, along with a few other things like my wallet and the credit card we’d need to pay for the room and plane tickets
Mila climbed on behind me, evidently still remembering how to ride after nearly a month in the wildness of Tibet’s forest.
“Giddyup,” I heard her shout over the engine.
Laughing, I twisted the handle and we shot forward down the rickety pathway to the road.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mila
The man must have sprung for the nicest room the Hilton had. All while we were coated in days worth of dust and sex. A bath was in my immediate future and I could hardly keep still with excitement.
Max led me to our room, that wasn’t a room. It was a suite with a full living, dining, and separate bedroom.
“You spoil me,” I told him with a grin.
> “It was the only room they had with a bathtub,” he said, tapping the tip of my nose with his finger.
“You’ve become extravagant, but I’m not ungrateful. Thank you.”
He dropped his backpack down on the big bed and turned to the window where the bed faced.
“The view is beautiful,” I said, looking out at the river below us.
“It is,” he agreed, then turned to me. “But I’ve had the best view for weeks, so this one is ok too, I guess.”
The cheesy line wasn’t lost on me. It was a flirt. He was flirting with me.
“Will you join me?” I asked in little more than a whisper, already dropping my clothes to the floor.
Three times in one day was nothing new for us, and I was more than ready for him after the trip on his motorbike.
Licking his lips, his eyes watched each movement of my hands.
“Don’t want to distract you.”
“But you’ve yet to teach me about shower sex.”
His lips turned up as he met my eyes.
“We’d have to learn that one together,” he admitted.
I didn’t know why that made me so hot, but it did. My throat swelled as my hand dragged down my jaw, neck, glancing over one breast as enticingly as I could manage. Without another word, I turned, completely naked, and went to the bathroom. The sound of his clothes dropping had me grinning. The hard, military man was really rather easy. At least, when it came to sex. If only he could give me his heart as readily.
“You’re so mean,” Max said, his head leaned back against the lip of the tub, soaking up the rose petals and salts that we’d dumped into the bath.
“What? I’m just saying you need more practice.”
“And I’m saying a shower isn’t a great place to fuck. It’s slippery in there! One bad move and you’ll break your ass! Or I could have dropped you. How would you like it then, Ms. Know-It-All?”
I laughed, letting my eyes close in the blissful heat of the water.
“At least I got cleaned eventually, and now I get to enjoy a nice, clean bath with an incredibly handsome man. If that isn’t a good end to the day, I don’t know what is.”
He hummed, the sound vibrating from his chest right into my ear as it pressed against his pec.
“Think you got that mixed up. I’m the lucky one in this picture.”
“You pretend to be so tough, but you’re just a teddy bear on the inside, Max,” I told him.
His arm curled around me, but I caught his wrist as his fingers trailed down to the apex of my thighs.
“What? Don’t teddy bears get laid too?” he asked, opening his eyes to look at me just as I did to look at him.
“You’re insatiable!” I giggled at him, letting his hand wrap around my waist instead.
“So? You complaining?” he asked with a shrug.
“No. But I need a break. Wake me in the morning a little early so I can feel you inside me before we leave.”
He groaned. That sound echoed into my ear like an erotic call.
“Fine. We’ll get fueled up and ready tonight,” he agreed, reaching over for the hotel phone on the table nearby. “What do you want to eat?”
Eat? Real food? God, where to start?
“I’m getting a burger. It was on the front of their menu, so they damn well better have burgers here.”
“The same,” I agreed, already tasting the juicy beef on my tongue.
“You got it,” he said, putting the phone to his ear as he dialed down to room service.
While he ordered, I brushed my fingers through the water, catching a velvet rose petal between my fingertips before putting it to my nose to smell.
Even the simplest things felt like such a treat now.
“Forty-five minutes,” Max said from behind me.
He was limp as a noodle in the hot water, relaxed further than I’d ever seen.
“This suits you,” I told him, shifting so I could lean against his chest and still watch him.
“What does?” he murmured.
“This. Luxury. Leisure.”
“Now those are words I don’t hear too often,” he said with a wan smile.
“You should hear them more often. You should see how you’re glowing right now.”
“Nah. That’s just the sex. Besides, I usually get a nice room between jobs, just to decompress and research the next target.”
“But not today,” I reminded.
He opened his eyes and sat a little straighter.
“Not today,” he agreed, slipping his fingers through my knotted, wet hair.
“When we get back to St. Petersburg I’ll get you some new things,” he said softly. “It’s the least I can do after making you ditch your stuff.”
“You ditched yours too, at the airport in France”
“Yeah, but those clothes were a costume. The ones you would have taken with you were your favorites.”
“Besides, it was my father and brother and their men who prevented me from taking my bag. It had nothing to do with you.”
“I’ll still replace it,” he said. “As long as you let me into the dressing room.”
I laughed, plopping my chin onto his hard chest.
“Like the good ladies of Russia would let a man into a woman’s dressing room!”
He shrugged.
“A guy can try. Anyway, I’ll probably be busy getting my own shit. These things won’t last me long, and I’ll stand out like a sore thumb there if I don’t get some new clothes too.”
“So we’ll go together.”
Silence took over between us, and only the soft tinkling of the water shifting interrupted it.
“Mila,” he whispered eventually.
“Yes?” I hummed sleepily.
“Will you sing for me? I want to hear you sing.”
A grin spread across my face.
I would be happy to.
My voice wasn’t as exercised as it would normally be, but I hummed the introduction to ‘La donna è mobile’ which was one of my favorites.
Max grinned, and I wondered if he remembered it from when we watched the opera together in Russia.
Closing my eyes, I let my lungs and throat and mouth do the work through the song.
“That one sounds familiar,” he said after I had finished.
“You saw it only weeks ago,” I reminded.
He winked at me and sat up, arms framing the rim of the tub.
“I have one more for you,” I told him, grinning. “But you have to guess where it comes from.”
“Shit, I’m going to fuck this up,” he said, but he smiled nonetheless.
He was never going to guess it.
I went straight into the intense trills and squeaky notes of the diva’s song from the movie ‘The Fifth Element’.
Max’s relaxed face turned to one of intense confusion, then he looked plain impressed.
“This is not an opera,” he said when I held out my last long, high note.
“No,” I said with a laugh. “Wrong media. Think movie.”
He scrunched his nose, then his mouth went slack-jawed.
“No fucking way!” He laughed.
I nodded, bouncing my eyebrows at him.
“I’m so out-talented here,” he said, standing to get out of the tub.
Slick, shiny sheets of water glanced down his skin, reflecting in the light with every shift of his muscles. God, he was handsome.
“In singing yes, but you have other talents.”
“Like what?” he asked, slipping his arms into one of the robes provided in the room. “Killing people?”
I sighed, the humor gone from the moment.
He crouched beside the tub and met my eyes with him.
“You know, I don’t mind that you’re the talented one of us, right? I have my uses. I know that. I’m not insecure.”
“Whatever you say,” I told him, hoping to get that fun, teasing moment back.
He bit his lip, eyes scanning what skin he coul
d see above the surface of the water before he bounced his eyebrows right back at me, just in time for there to be a knock at the door.
Dinner.
“Hurry your sexy little ass up,” he called over his shoulder before going to get the door.
I just took another moment luxuriating in the warmth and atmosphere. Max was almost like a different person, smiling and happy and free there with me in our hotel room.
I wanted him that way forever.
With a grin on my face, I unstopped the tub and stood, reaching for my own rug while listening to Max talk to the girl who brought our food. Even to her he sounded happy.
Biting my lip, I tied up the sash of my robe and exited the bathroom. I had a whole night with the man before we had to think about tomorrow. And I was going to enjoy every second.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Max
Leaving that hotel was hard. It was really fucking hard.
The hours we spent in there, getting acquainted with electricity and indoor plumbing, were some of the best hours I’d had in years. Hours with her.
We’d only just landed in St. Petersburg when several men started toward us as we passed through the security dividers between the inner airport and the lobby areas. They locked eyes on us and came toward us with obvious intent.
They were Vishka’s men.
Once six different men were flanking us, they walked us out of the airport and into a large SUV before stuffing themselves in after us.
Mila looked around, eyes wide and round even though she’d grown up with endless security detail. Maybe it was the free weeks in the wild that made her realize just how fucked up it was to be constantly followed and watched by people.
“It’s ok,” I whispered to her in Italian, fairly certain none of the men around us could speak the language. “They’re just muscle. I’ve got you.”
She turned her eyes to me and for the first time since we left the hotel room, she seemed to relax a little as she caved into the crook of my arm, letting me hold her against my chest.
And damn it felt good.
I didn’t have a gun or a knife, but I had my skills and training, and some pretty lethal hands if I really needed them. When we met Vishka though, I was going to demand some weapons since I was Mila’s only private security. With her father and brother still likely on the loose and leftover men from Popov’s rule wandering around, she would be in danger. I didn’t want to tell her that and scare the piss out of her, but I needed to be constantly alert.
