She gave a low bow. “Uh, hello, there. I was looking for someone named Kannon. Badass in a suit. Wears sunglasses. Know where he’s at?”
Still smiling, he bowed in return. “Maybe I can help you.” He stepped aside and gestured for her to enter.
Gina did, glancing around, then moseyed on over to Kannon. “I was instructed to meet him here. Sounded very urgent.”
Both of his arms wrapped warm and solid around her. “I’m sure he won’t mind if—”
There was a loud crash and a shriek from the back of the house. Kannon closed his eyes and reopened them on a sigh. “Time for you to meet my daughter, Zoe.”
He led the way through the open layout to balcony doors at the back. Gina quickly noted a pink bean bag chair, a deep cushioned leather couch, a wall picture of a little girl on a giant tortoise. Then they were on the back deck, Kannon moving to the railing. “Everything okay out here?” he called.
Gina caught a glimpse of a sliver of blue water, a swath of thick jungle and then she was at the railing, too, looking down into the backyard. It was punched out from the surrounding jungle and dipped sharply away from the house into a kind of zoo. A tortoise with a shell the size of a manhole cover strolled about, a tall white leggy bird had a beady eye on a fish pond, two parrots cawed and ma-cawed from posts above the scene. Geckos scurried and songbirds hopped. In the middle of it was a young woman with black braids wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and tall rubber boots, and looking up at them.
Zoe’s eyes darted to Gina and her mouth dropped open.
“Hi,” greeted Gina, “Quite the menagerie you’ve got back here.”
Zoe appeared dazed. Then, she surveyed her surroundings. “Oh, I don’t keep them. They come and go. It’s feeding time.” She glanced down at the tortoise. “Except for Darwin. He won’t leave, like ever. And the animal police came and wanted to confiscate him and fine us but then Daddy”—Zoe stopped—“but then they changed their minds.”
“What was that noise?” Kannon said.
Outrage flooded Zoe’s face. “Those freaking monkeys tore through and grabbed Darwin’s papaya. Again.”
Kannon stretched his neck the way that Gina had always put down to his tie being constrictive. “And where’s that damn snake of yours?”
“Don’t know exactly. I think she’s up there.” Zoe pointed to the roof. Kannon leaned his elbows on the balcony railing and turned to Gina. “How do you feel about wildlife?”
Gina kicked off her high heels and headed for the steps. “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” And in a louder voice to Zoe, “Could you show me around?”
She came across the backyard barefoot, and Zoe squawked, “Careful! There’re scorpions everywhere. Not the real poisonous kind. It’s just that if they sting, your foot will swell up.”
A pair of men’s rubber boots landed at Gina’s feet. “Put them on,” Kannon ordered, and Gina didn’t argue.
Properly attired in a skimpy sundress and rubber boots, Gina began her tour with Kannon’s girl. Zoe was so alive, her face so animated, her hands dancing in the air or busy stirring up the birdseed or twisting her hat about. With all her movement it was no wonder she was as skinny as a chopstick. Once when Gina was peering into the bushes to spot the elusive ‘stick’ insect, she caught Zoe staring at her with the same awe as earlier. Zoe reddened and switched her focus to the balcony. Kannon was still there, still resting his elbows on the rail and looking down at them with a soft expression.
“I think he’s looking at you,” Gina whispered.
“Uh-huh. You.”
At that moment, something long, green and very snake-y spiraled through the air and landed on Gina. The recently appointed chair of the Bangkok underworld screamed long and loud as a meter-long snake slithered and wound itself about her shoulders and arms. Zoe, too, joined in the screaming.
“Careful, she’s agitated. No! Don’t touch her tail. She doesn’t like it. Here, let me—careful!”
All at once, Zoe grabbed the serpent about its head and midsection, and shoved it into the nearest bush.
Kannon was slumped over the balcony railing, laughing his head off.. Zoe’s mouth pressed into a thin line.
“He thinks the stupidest stuff is funny,” she informed Gina out of the side of her mouth.
Gina side-mouthed back, “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never heard him laugh before.”
Zoe reached for an overturned metal pan Gina had stepped into during her snake struggles. “Get used to it.” She froze at what her words implied, and her eyes went wide. “That is—if—you want to.” Her voice was a whisper.
Kannon was doing a poor job of trying to get a hold of himself, his attempts at coherent speech seriously impeded. Gina didn’t know how it was she could feel so exasperated and so connected to him. She whispered back, “I want to.”
Zoe immediately unfroze and returned to her former hyper-animated state. “Next time, I’ll hold the snake and you can get a better look at her. She’s a paradise tree snake. They fly in this swirly, spirally way. It’s quite amazing, considering—”
Her eyes went owl-ly again. This time in horror. “Shit. Shoot. Daddy! Look at my phone. Are there any messages? It’s on the table.”
Kannon sobered enough to get on with it. “Tasanee. Ten minutes ago. Said she was on her way.”
“Shit! Shoot!” Zoe sprung away, peeling off hat, gloves and shoes as she went, her dad barking at her to pick them up so the scorpions wouldn’t get inside them again, her retracing her steps to obey, racing inside, Kannon in tow, dispensing lessons in time management and sartorial advice that would’ve had Zoe dressed like a Mennonite.
Gina stepped into Zoe’s bedroom and drew a deep, steadying breath. “I’ll take care of this,” she said to Kannon, and shut the door in his face.
It was a challenge. Zoe’s wardrobe was chaotic to say the least. In the end, she had Zoe outfitted in something that would do for going to a movie, hanging out with friends of mixed gender and walking Sumkhovit Road. There was a knock on the bedroom door. It was Tasanee, looking like a runway model in her short dress and heels.
With Tasanee’s help, they got Zoe out the front door, where her father put her through the drill regarding itinerary, curfew, cell phone usage, and a general reminder about the perversity of all males and the importance of determining one’s own path, concluding with a tender message of support: “Movie. Dinner. Market. Darae’s by 11:30. Call me. Boys are stupid. Don’t be stupid. Hug, kiss, go.”
Zoe fulfilled the last three orders automatically, and was halfway to Tas’s car when she stopped and turned. “Bye, Gina. It was nice meeting you.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” Gina responded, and then added on a whim, “I hope we get too see more of each other.”
“You will,” Kannon confirmed. “Tomorrow. For brunch. We’ll pick you up at 10:30, Zoe. Tell Darae and Ryota they’re invited, too.”
Zoe looked to her friend. “What about Tas?”
“Tasanee’s family,” Kannon answered. “She’s always invited.”
The second the car disappeared, Kannon turned to Gina, and she to him. She felt the heat of his gaze on her lips, the swell of her breasts. He stepped close so that the fibers of her dress brushed his shirt and bent his head until his mouth almost touched hers. His arm curled around her and he pulled her with him as he sat on the railing, forcing her to straddle him as his legs stretched between hers. “So what do you think,” he said, looking about, “of all this?”
Gina felt her short skirt rise up and up. His hand came down to clasp her inner thigh, high up, and he squeezed the flesh there as his finger stroked inside her panties. What was she thinking wearing underwear, even if it was an itty bitty lacy thing?
“Zoe thinks that there is something more between us, you know,” Gina said. “Something more than a third date.”
“You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought home to meet her.”
“Sounds…serious.”
“You okay wi
th that?”
“Yeah, I’m okay with that.” That was the understatement of the year but she thought it was too early in the evening to lay out exactly how okay she was with getting serious. Besides, his stroking was making the bottom of her feet tingle.
“You always get this wet?”
“Kannon, I’ve been wet for you since the day you showed up in my life.”
He didn’t answer. Instead he plied his fingers along her folds, rolling and rotating on and around her clit until she had to grip his shoulders for support. Her lower belly warmed and tensed.
“I need to come,” she whimpered.
He made it happen. It was not her usual wild bucking orgasm but a long, shuddering, whole-body one that melted right to the core of her bones, a gasp erupting from her that he clamped quiet with his mouth on hers, pulling her against him so her wetness was pressed to his hard cock. They kissed, a smooshing of tongue, teeth and lips.
But there was still the sweet clawing ache to have him enclosed within her. “Can we go inside now? Take it one step further?”
He lifted her, and her legs wrapped around him. He carried her inside, down a hall and into a room with a ginormous bed, mattress wrapped in white sheets with two white ginormous pillows.
“Blankets can come out later. Right now, they’d get in the way.” He set her down on her feet and tugged on the back of her dress. “Like this thing.” She crossed her arms and skimmed it off. The second her breasts came free, he lifted her by the waist until her right nipple was in his mouth. Like everything about him, he was hard yet gentle with it.
She wrapped her legs around his torso. “Kannon, you need to get your own clothes off.”
He spoke around her nipple. “We got time.” His mouth suctioned on her again, and that was that. “This is so unfair,” she whimpered. “You know if you keep going I’m going to come again?”
He lowered her to the bed, him following, his hand gliding up her inner thigh to her pussy. “You complaining about getting another orgasm?”
She took in his hand on her, his gorgeous face bent over her perked nipples, and her head fell back against the pillow. “You’re right. What was I thinking?”
In moments, she wasn’t thinking at all. She was thrusting against him, her back arching off the wall and Kannon’s mouth had lost hold on her breasts as she bucked out another orgasm. She hadn’t come all the way down from that when she was tugging on his shirt.
“Okay, baku, time to shed. I mean it. “
Kannon brought her hands above her head and encircled her wrists. “Before things go too far, what kind of protection do you need?”
“None. I’m covered.” She thought about how he might view her previous lifestyle. “And clean, too. Bet you are, too.”
Kannon sighed. “After my wife, it was Pensri. That was it.”
“Really?”
“That was all I wanted till now.”
“So, this is a big deal for you.”
His eyes warmed on her. “You’re a big deal for me.”
She swallowed. “You’re my big deal, too.”
He swept her into a long, powerful kiss. “Why is it that I want to keep sweet-talking with you and have sex at the same time?
She tilted her hips up invitingly. “We could do both. Climb on and get in.”
He grinned and shook his head. “You sure know how to romance the guys.”
“Okay, the Big Tease is over.” She pushed him onto his back, and straddled him. She unbuttoned him, revealing the surgical scar across his stomach. “You sure you’re up for all this tonight?”
“Things get too tender, I’ll tell you. How’s that?”
“Deal. The best one I’ve made since coming to Bangkok.” She flipped off him and dispensed with his shorts, as fast as he’d done with her panties. And what was revealed—“Wowza. Considered a second career in porn?”
She clamped her hand around his hard dark length, and his entire body jerked in response. “Gina!”
She heard his urgency, felt her own, and slowly slid onto his cock.
Despite all her fantasies of him, despite having had sex with a hundred people, despite knowing exactly what turned her on, she was not prepared at all for how powerful it felt to have Kannon inside her. They fell silent, and very, very still.
“If I so much as wiggle my toe,” she whispered, “I’m going to come.”
He clenched his jaw. He seemed to be experiencing the same difficulty.
It was like a pressure system that hung hot and heavy, a tropical storm about to break.
His whole body tightened underneath her, his hands flexed at his sides and gripped the sheets. “I want to make our time together special.”
She cupped his face and kissed him. “You and me are together. Alive and well and safe. It’s special.”
His eyes snapped open. His hands locked onto her hips and he thrust upwards. The sudden movement inside her was enough and her body began convulsing, and finally, finally their long wait was over, and he didn’t hold back any more.
Orgasms four through to seven came with licks, flicks, swallows, commands to lie still (Kannon’s), sweat (Gina’s, mostly) and an inadvertent clip to the side of his head with her heel (“I’m sorry, baku, I always lose control during my climaxes.”). Eight and nine involved a late dinner and cayenne pepper.
They were back in the bedroom where Kannon was setting things in motion for number ten when his phone rang. Zoe’s check-in time. Kannon watched Gina snag his shirt on the way out of the room. Where was she going? It was probably the shortest call on record with Zoe but she was smart enough to know not to prolong it. The second he disconnected, Kannon was hunting Gina.
She was on the balcony, leaning back on the railing. He pulled her into his arms.
“You’ve got a great home, Kannon. A great daughter.” She gestured to her side. “You even have a dog.”
The mutt sat up and smiled at Kannon.
“I don’t. Thought he was with you.”
Gina grinned. “Told you I have a way with animals.”
“You and Zoe both. Between the two of you this place will probably get overrun. Be lucky if a herd of elephants doesn’t show up.”
Gina went still. “Did you just say I was moving in with you?”
After weeks of planning, it was time to make his pitch. “I’ll always be a killer, Gina. No escaping that. What has changed is Bangkok, thanks to you. It means I’ve got options. I have a mind to start a school. Teach the gangs of the Namchai Circle what I know, like I did with Ryota.”
“I can picture all these kids in business suits and sunglasses filing into Baku’s School for Assassins.”
Kannon grinned. He could, too. The image Gina had created gave him the lift to carry on with his most nerve-racking question. “What are your thoughts? About us, I mean?”
“When you were dying, Kannon,” she replied, “I swore that when you were out of danger, I’d grab hold of you and never, ever risk losing you again, but all you’ve ever asked for is a third date. My thoughts are I’m ready for a fourth, and a fifth, all the way up to a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary if you’d have me.”
In his wildest dreams, he hadn’t expected that, had thought she’d make him work for it. She deserved to have him work for it.
“The twenty-fifth, huh?”
She nodded.
“I hadn’t figured it out much beyond the honeymoon.”
Gina let out a whoop like when her fighter had won at the arena. “You love me! I knew you did under all that grouchiness! And I love you, Kannon! I love you.”
His arms banded tight around her as she jiggled up and down. Before he could pose the question she beat him to it.
“Kannon, will you marry me?” she asked, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
He sighed. “You got the shot off first.”
Even within the tight circle, she bounced, then pulled back to study his face. “You weren’t planning the third date. You were planning ho
w to propose to me.” She gave a hoot of laughter. “What, were you planning to seduce me into marriage?”
It was a good thing he loved her so much, otherwise he might be embarrassed. She gave a louder hoot. “Brian told me about this. Called it the slow seduction. You’ve been working it for two months now.” Jiggle, jiggle. “The long con.”
He grinned. “It worked, didn’t it? You’re practically begging to marry me.”
“It did. And I’m not too proud to say it, if it means getting what I want. See?” She went on her tiptoes, nibbled at his neck. “Feel me begging you?”
He did more than feel. He dropped into a crouch and pulled her into a fireman’s hold, giving her behind a playful swat. “Time to beg for mercy elsewhere.”
She squealed all the way to his bed, finishing up with a special high-pitched one when he tossed her on the mattress, him following, trapping her bounces underneath his body. They kissed and touched, their caresses slowing, their limbs twining and growing heavy. Then, they murmured goodnights and slept.
Bright and early the next morning, amid sunshine and bird calls and a dog barking, they woke and, still caught up together, it was Kannon’s turn to beg and she granted him his pleasure. And while he conducted a private celebration upon his fiancée, she snatched up her phone and announced to the world that Gina Zaffini was officially, and thoroughly, taken.
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Gina Takes Bangkok (The Femme Vendettas) Page 26
