And God was she fucking hot and sexy…
The seductress straddled me now as I lay on her bed propped against a stack of pillows, those long legs wrapped around me while she tried to guess what my tats meant. She’d guessed right that the words were part of a story. It was a part of a Japanese proverb about a boy who learned to fly. I’d gotten it because it reminded me of myself.
I hadn’t told her what the words meant yet because I was enjoying watching her move as she bent her head to guess the characters. Her breasts would bobble and sometimes her little pink nipples would brush over my chest.
Like now.
She shuffled over my cock, hardening me up again, so she could see the character next to the golden eagle on the side of my abs.
She cut me a saucy grin and purposely brushed her gorgeous breasts over the hard peaks of my pecs.
I knew she did that because she wanted me to touch her, so I did.
I reached forward and caught her nipples between my thumb and forefinger making her moan.
“I’m not sure which to enjoy more, you touching me or tasting me.” She straightened up and a hum fell from her lips.
“Maybe I should do both.” I smiled and pulled her close so I could suck her tits.
I closed my mouth over her right nipple and sucked hard. She ran her hand through my hair and held me to her while I sucked. I moved to her other breast and sucked hard making her wiggle her hips backwards and forwards over my already hard cock.
“Does that help in any way?” I asked loving the pleasure-filled look on her face.
She answered with a kiss. Kissing my lips like she wanted to consume me.
Consume was the best way I could explain it because that was what it felt like.
“I want you again,” she cooed against my lips. “I need you again, Xander.”
“Jia, I’m gonna die in this bed baby. Too much sex. Remember I’m an old man, can’t keep up with you,” I joked.
Of course it was a fucking joke and truth be told I would choose to die in this bed with her if that was my path.
She laughed. “Are you kidding me? Since when is thirty-six old?”
“Since it was ten years older than twenty six.” I was talking like it bothered me, it didn’t. Not one bit. I was just messing around with her.
“I don’t care how old you are. I’d still want this even if you were a hundred.” She laughed.
“A hundred? Wow Jia, that’s something else. I guess that makes me special.”
“It makes me want you again. Can I have you Mr. Cage?”
There was only one way to answer that question and it wasn’t with words.
I picked her up and settled her down on my cock that practically slid into her slick wet pussy.
She gasped and moaned from the intense pleasure while I kept a hold on her, leaning into her to kiss her.
“You can have me, Jia,” I told her but as I said that it felt like more. Like I was telling her more.
I never expected this.
To feel...
It started with the picture I’d first seen of her and I ended up like this.
“Ride me baby,” I told her, giving her free reign over me to do what she wanted and she did. Her hips started moving, exciting a raw sensuality that fanned the flames of the maddening lust that had consumed us.
Maddening lust that enslaved me to the essence of her.
She drove me wild. Everything about her drove me wild. Insane with everything.
She arched her back and I decided to help her out by pounding in to her in tandem with the grinding of her hips. It made her bounce up and down on my cock and the bed creak with every move.
It would have been no surprise if the wildness with which we rode each other didn’t end up breaking her bed.
When her passage quaked and tightened around my cock, I knew she was coming.
Exhaustion made me lose control. I couldn’t even try to keep a handle on it like the other times. Heat uncurled in my stomach and the animal hunger made me pound hard into her with carnal ferocity.
Every inch of me lit up with the fire that possessed us and we came together, sharing a mutual release.
She leaned forward, settling her arms around me, slumping against my chest as if her life force had been drained. It was only then I realized she must have been exhausted.
I held her and set her down to lie next to me.
Her eyelashes fluttered and she reached up to cup my jaw, kissing me.
“Hey,” I breathed, pulling away so I could look at her.
“Don’t stop touching me,” she answered on the edge of a labored breath.
“Not going to. Jia you should sleep.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. I don’t need sleep.”
“You do. You need to sleep at some point.” I grinned.
“Sleep will take you away from me,” she answered and closed her eyes for a few brief seconds.
I gazed down at her, not knowing what to say. She was right. Morning could come and catch me in her bed. It shouldn’t though.
I was pretty certain when morning came her father himself would come, or someone. It made sense that they would.
I couldn’t be in her bed when that happened. So this would be it.
“Was that too forward, or… telling too much?” She grinned.
“More forward than me telling you I wanted to touch you?” I asked.
“That’s different.” Her voice was faint.
“Sleep can’t take away something that happened. Nothing can.”
Another truth. We’d have this moment and I wouldn’t know what would happen next.
“We’ll be different.”
“Maybe…”
She looked away from me and when she looked back there was a twinkle in her eyes. She reached up and cupped my face.
“I had a nice night Xander Cage. I escaped with you, and I was happy.” Her hand stilled by my jaw and as I gazed down at the beautiful woman in my arms I realized I was happy too.
Tonight was… the first I’d felt like myself in years.
It almost felt like a redemption from the vengeance I’d sought. Vengeance that was always eating away at my soul.
Always seeking vengeance, never resting. Never able to stop thinking about what had been taken away from me.
Tonight was a break, and in that break, something cracked the wall I’d placed up around my heart. Something Jia did to me. I didn’t know what it was.
Maybe it was just… her. The effect she’d had on me, and I hadn’t been able to resist it.
Tonight I’d escaped with her and went to a place I never thought I’d see again. Somewhere I could just be myself.
“I was happy too,” I told her and it felt more like a confession.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips and her eyes fluttered shut, closing as sleep took her. Within seconds she drifted into sleep and her hand floated down to her side.
I stayed where I was, just watching her.
Watching her and thinking.
Thinking about the warning logic screamed to me. It all came back now, full force. Rushing in on me. Logic and reality.
I was never supposed to get involved with her.
A week.
That was how long it took to change my mind.
It had been a week since this whole mission came about with its crazy path.
Usually I wouldn’t care. A job was a job.
This was just the first time in a long time that my heart came into question.
My heart had been closed for business for the last five years.
I wasn’t sure how this woman had found the key to unlock the door to it.
What was worse was everything else.
She was Giovanni’s daughter and when I’d said I had a job to focus on I really did mean that. It just wasn’t the job she’d thought.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do. It seemed now that whatever I did for good or bad she’d
end up getting hurt.
Chapter 16
Xander
* * *
I must have slept for a max of an hour.
That was all I’d spare myself at the time I fell asleep. It was a good two hours after Jia.
I’d laid next to her thinking, until sleep took me too. Then soon got up and got dressed.
I ventured into the sitting room and got lost in her paintings and sculptures. Lost in her talent. It was a shame to see someone so talented being restrained from living out their dreams.
Europe would suit her. I’d gone many times as an agent. But there was just one time when I guess I couldn’t think of my visit as part of the job.
It was with Claire. We were both on leave for a week and she insisted on us going to Paris. She wanted to do the whole tourist thing and start with a tour of the Louvre, then on to visiting the sites and end our nights with dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower.
We’d done that every night. It was on that last night that I’d decided that the next time we went back I’d ask her to marry me. At the time we’d been together for over ten years and I’d wanted to take that next step with her.
It felt like I had my life in order and knew what I was doing. Marriage and the future with her. It was strange to think that I’d gotten to that point already in my life.
Then things changed when she was killed.
It was like I’d been lost ever since.
Thinking of Claire made me think of Jack. I’d resurfaced out in the open and he still thought I was dead. It didn’t seem fair. If all went as planned though, he’d be the first person I contacted.
I sat on the sofa and admired a painting Jia had done of a lake. It was my way of savoring the last traces of being here. The minute I walked out of this house I’d have to step out of the illusion of distraction last night created and face the music.
The Chameleon was in my presence last night. There just like that and in the same room. It was enough to tell me that I truly, truly had big things to worry about.
As the sun brightened and brought the new day footsteps sounded on the porch and a shadow moved by the window.
Someone was here.
I expected Giovanni, but I suppose I should have also expected the person who came through the door.
Armand. The prick.
When he saw me his face contorted into a frown.
“You can leave now,” he ordered, dismissing me.
“I don’t remember asking your permission,” I threw back. I didn’t know who he thought he was talking to.
“Xander Cage, just in case you didn’t know, I really don’t like you and it wouldn’t be wise to piss me off.”
I stood and got up in his face. “Armand, prick, I really don’t like you either and I don’t give a flying fuck about what pisses you off. It is you who shouldn’t fuck with me.”
I’d had enough of him thinking he could talk to me any old way. And, just because he thought I was after the woman he wanted. He didn’t have to do anymore thinking because I’d had her.
He smirked. “Testy, testy. I hope you had your fun last night keeping her bed warm for me.”
“I wonder if it’s the same kind of fun you had with the waitress,” I spat back. “Let’s do this, play it like this: you don’t ask me where my dick’s been and I won’t ask you about yours. Also, from where I’m standing I was pretty certain you seriously pissed off the boss last night. So if I were you, I’d tread softly.”
I didn’t want to leave yet. I wanted to stay until Jia woke up but it was best for me to leave.
I had to check in with Ethan and Wes. They were going to want to know what had happened last night. Wes would have heard the commotion through the wire but I switched it off from the moment I got in the car with Jia. I always switched it off when I spoke to her.
I didn’t wait to hear what the prick was going to say next. I walked out but glanced back up the stairs to Jia’s bedroom before I went through the door.
Sleep didn’t take me away from her. It took her away from me.
I contacted Ethan and Wes and headed to the meet-up office near my apartment.
They were both there when I arrived.
Wes looked worried.
“You alright man?” he asked.
I tipped my head and sighed. “I’m good.”
“Good,” Ethan empathized.
I sat next to Wes and looked from him to Ethan.
“What the hell happened, son?” Ethan asked.
I pressed my lips together and thought of how I’d start. With him I’d always thought it best to lay out the cards on the table in an objective way so I wouldn’t show my true feelings.
In this instance my true feelings and instinct told me we needed the bigger picture.
I proceeded to tell them what happened and as expected when I got to The Chameleon, shock took them.
I ended my recount at that. They would have known I took Jia home and didn’t need to know what happened past that. They didn’t need to know that I’d just added to my list of things to worry about.
“Well there was nothing to report from the streets,” Ethan stated. “The team watching Giovanni reported that he was on the streets with his knights for the most part checking things out, then went home. That’s all. No secrets meetings with anybody. And, they never saw him meeting with anybody who looked like The Chameleon. So I think it’s safe to say he still has the prints.”
I sighed with relief. I knew if anything had happened I would have been told well before now but it was still good to hear it be confirmed.
It never meant, however, that the worry was over. Last night highlighted that we had a mountain load of shit to think about.
“Good, but Ethan last night was bad man.” I frowned.
“Look,” Wes cut in. “I know I’m not part of your secret tribe but this screams of shit to me. We need to know more.” He directed the comment to Ethan.
“We do need to know more, Ethan,” I added.
Ethan tensed. “We’re working on it.”
“That gives me fuck all man. If The Chameleon was there last night it suggests some important meeting should have taken place. It could have been the initiation to get the blueprints, or if not it could have been at the very least a meeting to touch base.” I truly doubted that The Chameleon would have just been there to play poker. “Ethan, the problem in this is that I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. I don’t know what time I have.”
“Neither do we.” He sighed with exasperation opening out his palms . “I know that sounds quite unlike us but we don’t know any more than what I’ve said. sketchy
What worries me is that we never picked up on The Chameleon’s presence last night. No one someone saw him going into the hotel or leaving.”
That was absolutely something to be worried about. There would have been a conversation with Giovanni or something to make the arrangement for him to be there. It was The Chameleon though. I was used to hearing about his stealth abilities and covert actions. The worry of that was what made this so screwed up.
“Okay, let’s think pick apart the situation and get back on track. I think Giovanni still has the prints,” Wes said. “Intel says he was on the streets with his guys checking things out. And, I’m looking at everything in a logical manner. I take it The Chameleon gets gone after a job like this. I don’t think he would go to a poker game if he was there to pick up the prints. I feel more like he was there to touch base.”
I nodded agreeing. “I think you’re right. So… let’s brainstorm over what we do know. Last night these other people came into the casino. Putting The Chameleon aside, we’ve also got them to worry about.”
We could speculate on the other stuff, but the shootout was a rude awakening of the shit.
Wes nodded firmly. “Yes, we absolutely fucking do. How’d they get in? And with guns?”
“Exactly.” I straightened up and looked at them both. “All I know is that on my first meeting
with Giovanni I was a search short of being stripped. Yet these guys came in and sat there, mingling like they were part of the crew. The only way they could have done that was if someone let them believe that.”
“A rat,” Ethan surmised.
“A fucking rat,” I corrected. It was one of the things I’d thought of but wasn’t sure about. I still wasn’t a hundred percent, but I thought I needed to factor in that it could be a possibility.
If there was one thing I knew, it was that in situations like my present debacle people had prices and could be bought if the price was right. In this set up I didn’t know who the rat could be.
Wes chuckled. “Fuck, this just keeps getting better and better. Now we have to determine who the rat is.”
I shook my head. “The rat will reveal him or herself eventually.” That was the point of trusting no one. If you were always mindful that people had prices, you had that part covered. “The focus is who those other guys are and why they were there.”
“Well they obviously must have come to kill Giovanni,” Ethan answered.
I looked at him because I wasn’t so sure. The bullets flew and I didn’t see much after I grabbed Jia but what got me was the issue of timing.
I looked to Wes and knew he could tell what I was thinking.
“If they were there for Giovanni why didn’t they kill him the minute he entered the room. There was a delay,” he surmised.
“There was a delay indeed.” I nodded. “They took that shot moments after The Chameleon came in. The meeting started, Giovanni asked where Armand was and the shooter made himself known. What if they came for him - The Chameleon specifically?”
I thought the order of what had happened was significant. Ethan however did not seem to think so.
“It’s too speculative, Xander. There’s no way of knowing that. You know how that man operates. The only person who would have known he was going to be at the meeting would have been Giovanni himself.”
“What if it wasn’t? What if someone else found out? The rat.” I raised my brows.
“Sure, that could have happened but I’m not sure our thoughts should be directed to that.”
“Ethan, if these people want the prints and no one knows where Giovanni is keeping them, why would they want him dead?” Wes asked. His words were an echo of my thoughts.
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