by Sam Cheever
Her body contracted around his throbbing flesh and he gritted his teeth to ride it out. All he really wanted to do was plunge into her, fast and furious, until he joined her in that incredible ride, but he didn't want their first time together to be marred by a too speedy release so he forced himself to stay completely still until her body eased into the final, toe curling aftershocks of her orgasm.
Her body gradually softened beneath him. Alastair slid himself into her more deeply, enjoying the delicious friction as her wet heat clenched him with residual tension. When he'd buried himself completely, he stopped, wriggling gently so that his body brushed against the hard bud of her clitoris.
Angie moaned and moved her hips as if encouraging him to move faster, harder. Alastair grabbed her hips with both hands. “Not yet. Relax."
She complied with a tiny whimper that made his blood heat. The tingle of anticipation he'd been feeling surged into a flood of expectation that rushed through his system and left him vibrating with need. He slid his throbbing shaft slowly back out, stopping just before the thick head pulled free, and wriggled his hips to tweak her clitoris gently. Then he plunged back in, deeply, aggressively, and stopped again. He groaned as their bellies met at the end of the thrust. Angie whimpered again, vibrating with the desire to make him move, but she stayed still as he'd asked her to, biting her lip and watching him with need-charged eyes.
Alastair wriggled his hips so that his body brushed against her clitoris again and Angie cried out. Just like that she went over the edge, screaming his name as her body quaked in a violent climax that nearly ripped all reason from his mind.
Alastair realized he was lost as her body clenched his, pulling release from him as easily as her cries ripped away his restraint. He growled and jerked into movement, hard and fast, plunging into her without a thought for anything beyond the next wave of pleasure, the next shared breath, the next slide of silky, fragrant skin against his.
His nearly frantic thrusts were eagerly accepted by her pliant, trembling body. Her eyes glazed under the buildup of another earth-shattering orgasm. This time when she crashed over the edge, she took him with her. As her body clenched and pulled at his he threw back his head and climbed into the vortex with her, groaning into the black, night sky as his world shattered into a mirage of feelings, sensations, and toe curling emotional bursts.
Alistair's body stiffened under its final surge and then slammed one last time into her soft, grasping haven, erupting into her as she softened in wondrous release beneath him.
They lay there for several minutes, kissing softly and reveling in the aftermath of the violent emotional storm. Then Alastair reluctantly rolled off of her warm, pliant body and stretched out beside her, pulling her against his side so he could continue to touch and explore.
Angie closed her eyes and gave a shuddering sigh. She felt like her bones and muscles had turned to rubber. When she moved she felt a new soreness that made her smile. She felt good. Really good. And she wanted more.
She opened her eyes and looked at Alastair, he smiled down at her. “Hey."
She smiled back, “Hey yourself."
He leaned over her and settled his lips onto hers. Angie breathed in the addictive male scent of him and sighed against his lips. She could stay there, just like that, forever.
But then something brushed against her foot and she broke the kiss, looking down.
Something huge, blue, and glowing stood in the sand beside her feet, looking at her. The thing made a high pitched chirping sound and twitched deadly looking claws.
As she instinctively jerked her feet away, the glowing blue thing lowered its front end and lifted its deadly looking tail into the air. Angie's scream burst through the night like gunfire.
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Chapter Twelve
Alastair threw an apple at the giant bug and missed. The deadly looking, neon stinger on the end of the tail swung toward the apple and smacked it, hard, spraying juice into the air in a barely visible arc.
He looked around for something else to throw at the monstrous bug. Grapes ... no, not likely to do much harm. Napkins ... ah no. A chicken leg? Alastair shook his head, too hard to aim. His head swiveled as the thing chirped angrily at him. Panicking and out of weapons, Alistair grabbed the picnic basket and dumped it out. He flipped it over and flung it toward the ground in front of his feet, just as the angry neon bug started scuttling rapidly toward him.
He gave a less than manly scream and leapt away, but the basket, amazingly, landed over the thing and settled into the sand, safely trapping what Alastair suspected was the world's biggest scorpion. He realized he was shaking and laughed at himself. Expecting the bug to burst from under the basket or do something incredible like burrow its way out, Alastair looked around for Angie, fully intending to force her back into the bunker.
She was nowhere to be seen.
* * * *
* * * *
The phone rang in a dark, otherwise silent office and a figure in a leather desk chair swiveled away from the windows behind the desk to answer it.
"Have you found them?"
"They've been taken to the military base in Ethosburo."
The figure in the dark office swore colorfully. Then he thought about it for a bit and said, “Do we have anybody there?"
"No. But we know of someone we might be able to get information from. He worked on the crew that built the desert training area on the compound. He should know something about getting in and out."
The figure in the chair thought about this for a minute. “Can you get the information without him figuring out why you want it?"
"I think so."
"Thinking so isn't good enough. If he suspects why you're asking you'll need to kill him."
An uncomfortable silence followed this. “Okay."
"Keep me posted.” The figure hung up the phone and swiveled away from the desk. The Indianapolis skyline looked beautiful in the clear night. Just on the horizon it looked like a storm might be brewing.
That was very appropriate. Because another kind of storm had been building in Indianapolis for a very long time. And soon, somebody was gonna get very wet.
* * * *
* * * *
Angie emerged from the cave with a large kitchen knife in one hand. Her face was pale but she stalked toward him with determined steps. She was still naked and her firm, round breasts bounced happily as she stalked toward him, Alastair watched her, smiling widely. She had a pair of combat boots shoved on over her bare feet.
"Nice boots."
Angie stopped beside him, the large knife held point upward in her hand and her large, green eyes scouring the sand around them for signs of the enemy. “Where is it?"
Alastair pointed to the overturned picnic basket. “What are you gonna do, filet it?"
She stared at the basket and shivered.
"Come here.” Carefully avoiding the huge knife, Alastair drew her into his arms. “Thank you for coming back to rescue me from the demon under the basket. It seems you're making a habit of saving my life."
She shrugged. “What's that motto? Leave no man behind?” He felt her lips curve into a smile against his chest.
Alastair laughed. “Well, thanks, Marine."
Angie lifted her head from his chest and grinned up at him. Then her eyes swung to the basket. “What is that thing?"
"I think it's a scorpion."
"Do we have scorpions in Indiana?"
"Apparently we have really big ones."
The first, fat drop of rain hit their heads and they looked up. Overhead the sky had grown dark and roiled with a thick, grey cloud cover. The drops started coming a little faster.
A strong gust of wind had Alastair grabbing up the lantern, the blanket they'd been lying on, and Angie's hand. “Let's go. It looks like we're sleeping inside tonight."
* * * *
* * * *
Brita climbed out of her car and headed toward the house. From the back y
ard a cacophony of canine sounds greeted her. “Okay, okay, I'm coming,” she told the frantic canine crew. This announcement only set them off more. The whole crew launched into song as she turned the key in the front door lock.
Brita just shook her head and smiled.
Her cell phone rang as she was settling her purse and keys on the foyer table. Looking at caller ID she saw it was her partner again. “Talk to me."
"You aren't gonna believe who just called me."
Brian Davies was a big guy. Strong looking, with a square jaw, close cropped light brown hair, and broad shoulders. His pretty blue suit looked expensive and fit him like it was made for him. His white shirt was crisp and clean and set off the gently tanned skin of his face and neck nicely. He smelled good too.
"Mr. Davies.” Brita greeted him as she shook his hand. “Thank you for coming in today. We're anxious to locate Miss Burns. Do you know where she is?” Brita slid into a chair across the table from Brian Davies.
He shook his head. “She was staying at the Conrad up until about an hour ago. But I have a feeling she won't be there when I get back."
Brita glanced at Bud and he nodded, heading out of the room to send somebody to the pricey downtown Indianapolis hotel. Then she looked back across the table at Davies. “What makes you think she'll run?"
He shrugged. “Instinct. I have really good instincts about people ... which I should have listened to months ago where Debra was concerned."
Brita cocked her head at him. “What do you mean?"
Davies sighed. “She's just different, Detective Muldane. She always wants ... more. She's never satisfied."
"Greedy? Ambitious?"
He nodded. “I guess you could call her those things.” He looked up at Brita. “I thought for a while I was falling in love with her. But this whole mess made me realize it wasn't love.” He smiled a bit self-consciously. “I've always considered myself a smart guy, Detective, but I was pretty much a dope on this one."
Brita smiled at him. “Don't be too hard on yourself, Mr. Davies. We're all suckers for love occasionally.” Just the tiniest note of bitterness crept into Brita's voice and she quickly straightened her shoulders, refusing to let her problems with Percy interfere with her job.
But Davies had noticed, “You too, Detective?"
She stared hard at him for a moment and then sighed, nodding. “Unfortunately, yes."
Davies grinned at her. “Well,” he passed her his card, “if you ever find yourself in need of companionship, I'd love to take you to dinner some time. Just to talk."
Brita's golden brown eyes widened, she'd just been propositioned in the middle of an investigation. Amazing. Shaking her head she focused a newly hostile look on him. “I don't mix business with pleasure Mr. Davies."
He shrugged, looking back down at the hands he had folded together on the table.
"Mr. Davies, if you consider yourself smart and a good judge of character, why are you working for a putrid piece of sewer flotsam like Mr. Bigg?"
Davies’ head shot up and his eyes narrowed. “How do you know that I work for him?"
She snorted, “Come on, Mr. Davies, we're not stupid."
He held her gaze for a moment and then gave a humorless, self deprecating laugh. “I joined the company right out of college. I was pretty full of myself and thought I was gonna change the world. I didn't want to believe the things my friends and family told me about the guy. He offered me a lot of money."
Brita gave him a knowing smile, “And now?"
"He hasn't brought me into his inner circle. I don't know anything for sure, but I've been trying to find out exactly what he's into for the last year. I figure if I can help shut the guy down it might go a little ways toward salvaging my soul for taking the job with him in the first place."
Brita frowned, “Mr. Davies, do yourself a favor and just quit. You don't want to mess around with guys like that. He'll eat you for a mid-morning snack and then hack you up again and give you to his dogs."
Davies grimaced, “Quite the visual, Detective."
It was Brita's turn to shrug. “Not much of an exaggeration though, I'm afraid."
He nodded but didn't say anything, just stared at his folded hands.
"What do you think Miss Burns is up to?"
His head shot up, “Up to?"
Brita nodded. “Why hasn't she come forward and told the police she's escaped?"
He frowned, “I'd rather not answer that."
Brita stood up and walked over to the water dispenser against the far wall. Grabbing a paper cone she dispensed some of the icy liquid into it. She held it toward Mr. Davies and he shook his head. She took a long sip before redirecting her penetrating, golden gaze toward him. “She's going to get herself killed."
He jumped as if jolted with a thousand volts of electricity. Then he sighed. “I know. That's why I came to you."
Brita sat back down. “So?"
He looked up at her, his hazel eyes filled with sadness, “She made a phone call when I was at the Conrad with her."
Brita waited and sipped.
He blew out a breath and stood up to pace.
Brita continued to wait.
Finally he turned to her and shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks with obvious frustration, “I think it was to the kidnappers. She's demanding ten million dollars."
Brita just whistled.
* * * *
* * * *
Percy closed his office door and glanced as his watch. Nine O'clock, Brita should be home. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and punched in her number. The phone rang several times and then her voice mail kicked in. He left a message asking her to call him and disconnected.
She wasn't answering his calls. He would have to go to Plan B. Maybe some roses. Percy took the elevator down to the ground floor and headed out of the building, waving at the security guard on the way out. “Good night Fred."
"Good night Mr. Honeybun.” The elderly man nodded toward Percy as he opened the door and walked out into a light drizzle under a roiling sky and some pretty scary wind. Typical Indiana summer weather. His car was parked a couple of blocks down the street in a lot. Normally he enjoyed a brisk walk after a hard day of inactivity in the office but the current weather wasn't exactly conducive to a pleasant stroll. He put his head down and tried to pull his suit coat up over his head, grimacing as fat raindrops plopped onto the expensive material of his custom made coat. Praying that at least the heavy stuff would wait until he was in his car and headed safely toward home, Percy picked up the pace.
He was only a block from the lot where his lone Mercedes sat under a bright street light when a huge clap of thunder exploded overhead and the skies opened. He didn't even hear the large, dark colored car pulling up beside him or see the big man jumping out of it.
His first awareness that he wasn't alone on the street came when a huge, rock hard fist connected with his jaw and he hit the sidewalk hard, head first. The light of the street lamp faded quickly behind his eyelids as unconsciousness pulled him into its grip.
* * * *
* * * *
"It's a giant desert hairy scorpion.” Clovis informed them. “We brought hundreds of them in from Arizona."
Angie gave him an incredulous look, “Uh ... why?"
Clovis grinned, “We've done everything we could to make the training ground as accurate as possible. Of course these are little guys compared to some of the scorpions our guys will encounter in the Middle East."
Alastair grimaced, “This is one big assed bug, Clovis. How big do these suckers get?"
Clovis shrugged, “The long tailed African scorpion can get up to eight inches long. This one's only about five inches long ... squishable."
Angie made a moue of disgust, “Maybe you want to squish that under your boots, but I certainly don't."
The thing looked ugly but harmless in its big jar. Clovis had arrived several moments earlier with a particularly hefty looking Marine who hadn'
t seemed at all concerned by the giant bug under the basket. He'd simply pulled a pair of gloves out of the jeep and scooped the thing into the jar they'd found in the bunker's small kitchen. The Marine, whose name was Private First Class Linus Jeeves, was currently making pancakes for them in their kitchen.
Alastair stared at the jar and shivered, “I guess I've figured out why the lantern has a black light in it."
Clovis grinned, “I thought about warning you but it seemed like it would be more fun if you figured it out for yourself."
Alastair frowned at his brother, “Gee thanks, we could have been killed."
Clovis snorted at this, “Nah. This fella wouldn't have killed you. Mostly you would have been a little sore and maybe numb in the bite area. Of course you could have foamed at the mouth a little."
Clovis turned to share a grin with Private First Class Linus Jeeves, who was choking back laughter over his pancakes.
Angie scowled at Clovis, “Very funny, Clovis. You know payback's a bitch right?"
Clovis’ grin widened, “Bring it sister. I have seven brothers. If you think you can do anything to me that hasn't already been done you're delusional."
Angie favored him with a “look” and the grin slid away.
"Obviously you aren't aware that the female mind can be both devious and vengeful, Master Sergeant Honeybun. We can conjure up methods of torture you haven't even dreamed of. I personally have left many a man quivering and drooling and begging me for pity with nary more than a single glance or a casual word, supplied at the right time in the right place."
Clovis gulped visibly. “You don't scare me."
Angie's smile wasn't very nice. “We'll see won't we?"
Alastair laughed.
Clovis frowned at him, “Right there, in that moment, she looked just like mom didn't she?"
Alastair nodded, “She did indeed, bro."
Angie slanted them a glance, “And did you fear your mother, Clovis?"
