by Dawn Kunda
She changed topics. “Cal, why did you come after me?”
“Why? Because you’re my partner and you were in trouble.”
“That’s not good enough.” She turned in her seat, wanting to have all his attention as he located the address on a quiet, tree-filled street.
He didn’t elaborate, but said, “Here’s the address. Let’s drop the car off further on and take the nearest metro back.”
* * * *
The metro dropped them off five blocks from the address. The next stop on the route would’ve required only a block to walk, but their combined instincts agreed on the distance to allow a check for any followers. Cal looked straight ahead, yet his eyes didn’t miss anything around them.
They walked in silence, each with a small bag casually slung over their shoulders.
The valley Graz had been built in, records going back just short of the middle ages, keeps the climate similar to the Mediterranean area they had left. The cool morning air would warm up as the day progressed. Either way, Cal was glad for the slight zing and freshness of the air to give him one last perk to make it to the finish line.
Walking into the chosen house, they stopped at the threshold to peruse the starkly furnished surroundings. Cal stepped forward first. He walked down a short hall, peered into a bedroom with space for a full-sized bed and dresser, and continued to a bath at the end.
Mary hadn’t budged as he came back to her. “There’s only one room. I’ll take the sofa.” He sighed, sent her a forced smile, and dumped his bag on the floor at the end of his new bed.
She didn’t argue the offer.
Turning back to her, he let his hands fall to his sides. He looked around her and over her. The surroundings had no life and he began to wonder if that’s where he would be headed with this arrangement.
He took a deep breath and began, “I guess we need to—”
“Yes, we do need to talk. We’ll do that after I check out my room.” She passed him closely, proceeding to the obvious extra room.
He watched the door close slowly behind her. Sitting on the couch, his new bed for an indeterminable amount of time, he became aware of the aches and allover weary sensation floating through him. He leaned his face on his hands, elbows resting on his thighs. Briefly holding this stance, he then rubbed his hands down his cheeks. He sensed a layer of grime encrusted over his body along with his clothes which stuck to his skin.
Mary remained behind the closed door. She may have fallen asleep. He planned to do the same, if she didn’t come out to have their “talk.” A shower would enhance the comfort of a snooze, so he zipped open his bag, pushed aside the leftover gun, ammunition, and articles of defense, and pulled out a clean pair of jeans. He made a mental note to shop for clothes as he had traded off the two existing pairs of pants he’d had since they left Cairo.
In the bathroom, he set the water at a steamy level, just short of scorching, and peeled off his shirt. Unbuttoning his pants, they dropped to the cracked tile floor. The shower looked clean, yet aged with worn areas of ceramic. Didn’t matter. Hot water in any form would be a pleasure.
He located a bar of soap and hopped into the lightly pressured spray. At first he let the water soak his hair and stream down the length of his torso. The draining water didn’t show as much dirt as he expected to wash off his skin. Part of his impression probably originated from the mental picture of the operation, of the hiding, of the killings. The water should’ve turned black.
It didn’t add to the dirt of the situation, but he also knew he had saved Mary again. This time she had to realize his intent to be involved had one reason, to save her. By protocol, he should’ve called in help. She knows that, too.
He scrubbed his chest until the hot water and friction turned it a blushing pink between the dark waves of hair that narrowed to his waist.
If nothing else, they’d discuss what they would do for survival. She might want to strike out on her own. Idealistically, they should separate. Separated, it’d be harder for anyone to find them.
He stared at the shower wall in front of him as he slowed his diligent scrubbing to a circular motion with the soap on his chest. The water cascaded down his neck, running over his strong shoulders, and splitting off to drain down his back and across his pectoral muscles which twitched in comfort.
It’d be for the best for her to leave, to disappear on her own as he should. He dropped his gaze to the shower floor as he set the soap on the edge of the tub.
The heated mist of the bathroom swirled as a cool breeze entered the bathroom. He paid little attention and swiveled his feet on the slippery tub floor to face the showerhead with his chin lifted.
He felt another presence.
* * * *
Standing with a towel clutched to her chest, she let it drop down to her thighs. Hiding the condom she had dug out of his satchel in the folds of the material, Mary tentatively stood inside the bathroom door. Her bare hips peeked from the sides of the cover.
She closed herself in with the man who once again saved her life. If he didn’t care for her, more than as a working partner, he wouldn’t have changed the rules and risked his life.
Her government claimed she didn’t exist. He didn’t exist. Maybe she had never given herself a chance to really exist in life. Being alone amongst her coworkers had been intentional. But now, she didn’t want to exist by herself entirely. Cal had proven his loyalty, if nothing else, and she decided to test herself. The time had come to explore the unfamiliar feeling which lurked beneath the physical need.
She stood in the fog of the tiny bathroom and waited until he looked her way. She watched his profile, muscles flexing as he raised his face to the spray of water. He wiped his eyes clear and turned his gaze toward her.
Shameless in his nudity, he stood under the shower as if he’d been waiting for her. He didn’t cover up or tell her to wait her turn. He simply watched her.
Her heart pounded against her sternum. Her fingers trembled. He didn’t dismiss her unspoken offer.
She took a step forward and watched his expression. It wasn’t the look she expected. His eyebrows knitted together briefly. A few drips of water curved around his motionless eyes and down his cheeks. She had confused him again.
Their nakedness, with only a glass shower door in between and a strip of a towel running down the middle of her body, appeared to be an obvious suggestion of her intentions. Although, he might think it’s just for the sex again. That was all she gave him the first two times. Three strikes and she’d be out.
Before she lost her nerve, she released the towel and bared her body. Her soul would be next.
Cal turned to the shower door and shook the water from his hair as the shower continued to spray against his back. He placed both hands, palms out, on the glass door.
Contrary to the speed of time, Mary swore the last few minutes were an hour. Apprehension weaved through her body. She looked down to see her skin had tightened with goose bumps.
A slide of metal, the glass doorframe, squeaked. Her attention returned to his hands as they pushed the door to the side.
Sucking in her breath, her eyes riveted to his powerful body. He didn’t cover himself. His solid legs stood slightly parted. His chest rose and fell slowly, which helped calm her nerves. She glanced to the side where his biceps flexed as the door slid.
A welcome she dared herself not to refuse.
“I want to try again.” She reached out her hand. She endured more long seconds before he took it.
With a slight tug, she followed his gesture and stepped into the shower. He pulled her close, yet didn’t make an advance. Her hardened nipples brushed against his chest as he rubbed his hands from her shoulders to her elbows.
Touching his forehead to hers, she felt a long breath escape in waves, followed by a raspy request. “Fill me in on why now, why it’s different than the other times.”
She deserved that. “I didn’t need anyone before. Or at least I didn’t admit it or
know it.” She shivered. His body blocked most of the water as he remained silent. “I’m not very good at this. I’ve never tried, or considered…having a boyfriend.”
Cal spoke. “I know you’ve been with a man before.”
She fluttered her lashes and shook her head. Staring him in the eye as she trembled again, she responded. “Yes. Yes, I’ve been with men, but that’s all it was. Physical satisfaction. I can’t get hurt when I leave it at that.”
He switched positions with her, letting the hot water cure her chills. “So you want to get hurt now?” He paused. “Or do you want more than a physical relationship? And why me?”
Even with the hot water pouring over her, she wrapped her hands over her breasts as if the chill continued.
“Maybe we should get out of the shower?”
“I like it here. You can’t hide anything from me.” He ran his index finger along her neck and continued down her sternum. “Now, my questions.” He removed his touch.
“You didn’t satisfy me when I…when we had sex.” His eyebrows rose. “I don’t mean that way. You were perfect. Physically perfect.” She ignored his smirk. She needed to finish. “I know you won’t hurt me, rather you always save me. And I do know what happened the first time, two years ago. I just wouldn’t acknowledge it because then I’d be closer to you. I wasn’t ready for that.”
“You’re ready now?”
The water felt comforting on her back. “The only thing that I can tell you is that something is different about how I feel about you.” Her breath faltered a moment, then she forced herself to continue. “We have to start a new life, literally. I can’t promise anything, but I want to try. I want to try to love you.”
He picked up the soap and began to rub suds down her back. With her face bent into his chest, he said, “What if I’m not ready to try?”
Her head snapped up and her mouth flew open without a word. She moved back from his closeness as a drip of adrenaline caused her to raise her voice and say, “You let me say all this and you’re not interested?”
He grabbed her and crushed her against him and took his turn. “I’ve let you have your way every time. Every time a little more than work interfered with our life, and I do mean ‘our life’ as work is our life. I never suggested, started, or forced you to do or think anything.”
She tried to pull away and he tightened his stronghold around her. “It’s your turn to listen.” His voice softened. “I’ve been interested in you since the day, or at least the week, we became partners. I missed the time we weren’t on the same operations, yet felt relieved that I didn’t have to worry about you getting hurt or killed under my surveillance.”
She squirmed and he loosened his grip. “I’m not demanding a commitment. I do want you to admit that you have some love for me, and that’s why you want to ‘try.’”
He dropped his arms. Careful with her words, she said, “A commitment should be a lot less scary than our work, but it’s not. Yet.” She put her hands on his chest, kneading her fingers in his firm flesh as if this would give her strength. “I have to trust myself this time. If I don’t, I’ll lose you and I know that’s not something I want to face.”
“Is that it?”
“No.” She looked into his dark, passionate eyes. Reaching to the back of his neck, she pulled his lips to hers. Her mouth covered his, delicately, then with eagerness. She couldn’t search the wet warmth of his mouth with her tongue fast enough. She had to stop and make her final statement before her body took over. “No, that isn’t it. I’d like to keep falling in love with you, if you’ll let me.”
Her hair clung to her neck and touched her shoulder as the water poured onto her. He stared at her. Then his eyes shifted and he gazed down her body, little by little. Her hands remained behind his neck, ready to drop if he didn’t accept her offer. His stare came back to her eyes, equally dark and intense. Lips twitching, they slipped into a smile. “I always let you do what you want.”
They understood each other as much as they could on short notice. She lifted her chin little by little until Cal covered her mouth with tender lips. The feeling ignited her as if she hadn’t ever done this before, as if she hadn’t felt his kiss. She certainly hadn’t with anything but a raw need.
He gently pulled on her upper lip, then the bottom. As if his hunger escalated, he kissed with more strength, tilting her head back. His tongue swam the moist cavern he created in her mouth. Her mind focused entirely on the sparks rocketing off her taste buds.
Without stopping the best kiss ever, he swung her around and walked her backward against the far shower wall. Only spatters of water reached them. If they laughed, or cried, or murmured excitement, the shower omitted the utterances.
With silent communication, they talked with their bodies. She ran her hands from his chest to his hips. Every part of him felt better than she imagined, or remembered.
Cal kissed her neck, running his mouth down to her shoulder blades. She dropped her head to the side and watched. She noted the dark stubble on his face. She’d interrupted his shower. She saw the gash on the outside of his left upper arm. It must hurt. She’d take care of that later.
Her body tingled as he rounded his hand on her breast. He licked her skin and followed with soft sucks on her rigid nipple. Her body began to move in time with the pressure. She swung her head around as surges of blood heightened her sensitivity, then returned her stare to the man, the man she felt a stirring of need for as his attention moved down her excited body.
Letting go of her breast, he caressed her hips and her thighs as his mouth made a path down her belly. Her breaths became shaky as he slipped his hands between her thighs. How could she have missed the intensity last time? How could she have waited so long to let her body signal her mind to give in and take a chance?
His mouth followed and she felt him drink what he created, what dripped from her sensitivity. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and her hips pushed into his face, looking for more.
His mouth and tongue moved around her sex with expertise.
She pulled back from the hard-to-resist sensations, and pulled at his shoulders. Tipping her head down as he looked up, she pleaded with her eyes.
“Not yet. I want us to feel it together, at the same time.” Mary touched his lips with her fingertips.
“Trust me, I’m feeling everything.” Cal bent to take more of her, yet she backed off.
“Come up by me.”
He obliged as he slid his body against her stomach and chest and stood up. His arm gripped her thigh, pulling it against his hip. She felt his hardness near her heat and let out a moan of encouragement while she pushed her pelvis to him.
“Wait.” He froze for a moment as she reached over the edge of the tub and retrieved the hidden protection. “I wasn’t sure, so I looked in your bag just in case.” She ripped the package with her teeth. He placed his hand over hers as it trembled with anticipation. Watching him grow strong and hard, he guided her hand as the safety slipped onto his erection.
She tossed the wrapper overboard. He took the cue and didn’t hesitate to dive deep inside her warmth. She felt him push harder and deeper, not allowing her to recover. She didn’t want to.
His hands slipped behind her and cupped her buttocks. With a yank of his strong arms, she felt attached to him as he reached further inside with his excitement. Tight against him, she gasped as another thrust sent waves of pleasure through her.
Stunned from his ability, as none of her former casual sex partners ever offered her this feeling, she let her head fall back and lifted her chest to him. She’d give him everything and pay the price later, if that’s what she had to do. She trusted him, yet how can anyone trust with one hundred percent certainty?
Interrupting her internal conversation, he dipped his head to her chest and ravaged her breasts with his lips and tongue. She let herself melt into his strong arms as they protected her. Everything is what she wanted right now. She didn’t realize that her hips
began to grind against him until he lifted her up and sunk his throbbing limb as far as her body would allow.
Held against the tile, she reached for his behind and gouged her fingers into the firm flesh. She pulled into him, letting out gasps with each of his return thrusts as her body kindled into a flame of ecstasy. He filled her deeper, harder, and she tightened her grip as a request for more.
She interchanged his name with God as he controlled her pleasure with each move of his hips. “Oh God, Cal, I want you. Let me have you.” She tightened her thighs around his hips, not wanting to let go and allow the rivulets of sensation to end.
He stopped moving with a final plunge and held her in place as their bodies became rigid and pulsed together.
I hope this isn’t the last time. Her thought included more than the fantastic sexual experience.
Chapter 43
Cal held her against him, smelling the freshness of the remnants of soap clinging to her shoulder. When his muscles began to relax and take on the after-exhilaration drain of energy, he eased her back on both feet.
The water had turned lukewarm at some time, although the heat they created had kept him from noticing until now. He wanted to keep her with him for more than a tryst in the shower, for more than a brief interlude.
Turning around to shut off the stream of water, he hated to think that the spell of the moment may be broken when they sat down to discuss their next move.
Mary leaned against the back of the shower with her eyes closed as he pulled back the steamed door. She hadn’t left and dressed in a hurry. That must be a good sign.
He placed his hand on her waist. Her eyes fluttered open followed with a small smile of complete contentment.
Taking the curve of her lips as a welcome sign, he guided her body against his and began with a tender hug. Her arms circled him and returned the gesture. Encouraged, he left a long, soft kiss along her neck before he let go.
