My body reached for a climax one last time and I screamed around Drake’s straining member. I needed them to know the moment was coming. As I crested the wave one last epic time, I heard Drake cry out and my mouth was filled with his thick, salty seed. He was followed almost instantaneously by Red, his cock expanding in the tight clench of my ass, before painting my guts. Campbell finished the trio, gasping and gazing into my eyes as he emptied his balls into my undulating body. The feel of all three of my men coming at once intensified my orgasm and my body shook between them, bouncing off their muscular bodies. They had all been inside me, and now it felt as if a part of them would never leave.
A little while later, we were all lying snuggled in as close an embrace as a foursome can manage, getting our breath back before the guys’ boss showed up. A question had been on my mind and I had to ask it now or never.
“Can I ask… I mean; I know you’ve been around and there have been girls. Have you ever done that before?”
The guys shared some looks between them before replying.
“We’ve been with women together before,” said Drake. “Because a mission called for it.”
“Or for fun,” admitted Red.
“There’s been the three of us and one girl, two girls, three girls – that’s happened a few times.”
“There were those five girls in Budapest.” Red shook his head. “That was a long week. That was definitely for work.”
“So yes,” Campbell continued, “we’ve done that before.” He stroked my hair. “But we have never done this before.”
“It’s never been like that,” Red agreed.
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
“You.”
Chapter 17
With their boss arriving soon, I was happy enough to let the guys use the shower first – one at a time, they’d shared enough for one day. I lay back in the bed, trying to focus on the happy thoughts rather than the melancholic. It was easier than I had expected. Hard though this parting was going to be, my brain still seethed with happiness left over from the last few hours. Sex of that standard – and quantity – is bound to make a girl pretty fucking happy, but when you pair it with the genuine love that can exist between two people, and then add two more, then happiness is no longer a strong enough word. If I never saw them again, I knew that I loved them and that they loved me. Maybe that was enough. To have had that genuine love story – maybe that was enough.
I had gone on my vacation to forget about my asshole ex-boyfriend and to maybe start to restore my trust in men as a gender. It was fair to say that Campbell, Red and Drake had eradicated even the slightest memory of what’s-his-name. He didn’t even exist anymore. How could he when I had been with men like these three? As for restoring my trust in men; I would have put my life in the hands of Campbell, Red or Drake without a moment’s hesitation. From day one they had deserved my trust; the most generous, most loving, most honest, most decent men I had ever known. I would trust them to the moon and back.
It would be a bad idea to project that trust onto the gender as a whole, but if there were three guys out there like that, then there were more, and I could find them. If I wanted. I wondered if I would ever really be able to move on from my secret agent lovers.
When Red left the shower, drying himself hastily and shooting me a grin, I went in. The rush of hot water felt as luxurious as everything else in Campbell’s hotel room. I had always prided myself on not being one of those girls who is just impressed by big bucks, but I had to admit that Campbell knew how to live.
After a nice long shower, the heat soothing the pleasant aches and tweaked muscles across my body, I got dressed and wandered in the direction of the living room. The suite was enormous, each room individually larger than any hotel room I had ever stayed in. There were voices issuing from the room up ahead as I approached, those of the guys and at least one I did not recognize. Presumably this was their boss or bosses, and yet the tone did not seem to be one of ‘well done, guys, great job’, which struck me as odd.
Without meaning to, I slowed as I got nearer, clinging to the shadows of the corridor, and finally stopping before I reached the door but within easy earshot so I could eavesdrop on what was being said. I felt guilty, of course, but that guilt evaporated when I heard my name.
“Jane,” said Red, sharply. “Jane Bond. That is her name, please use it. She is not ‘the asset’, she is a human being.”
“She’s a civilian,” Drake added.
“And we regret the necessity,” said the voice I didn’t recognize – dry, British, not very likeable.
“Necessity?” questioned Campbell. “I’m pretty sure that we’ve negated any ‘necessity’. This is preference.”
“Well, maybe it is,” the dry voice replied. “I have a preference for saving the world, rather than not. You know the deal in these circumstances.”
“These are not those circumstances,” snapped Red. “When this has come up in the past, we have done our duty to save the world. But taking these measures for safety’s sake? Just in case? That’s not who we are.”
What the hell were they talking about? I didn’t know but I didn’t like what I was hearing. Most especially as it seemed to revolve around me and something that the guys had knowingly kept from me.
“We’re not talking about killing anyone,” said the dry voice and I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to stop myself squealing in shock. “We are simply… securing her.”
“So she can be looked at by top men?” suggested Campbell.
“I’m sorry, what?”
The dry voiced man doomed himself still further in my eyes by failing to recognize the Indiana Jones reference.
“Nothing.”
“She will be well cared for.”
“She will be a prisoner,” said Drake.
“That’s a very negative way of looking at it.”
“What do you think will happen if we let her go?” asked Red, hotly.
“I am concerned,” said dry voice, “as you should be, that LeSoeur will get hold of her. She is the direct descendant of the priestesses of Tet-Ra, an essential part of the ritual. She cannot be allowed to fall into his hands.”
I was what?
They had lied to me. They had told me, explicitly, that the maiden needed to complete the ritual could be anyone. But no, it had to be me. Which meant…
The implications poured in on me like molten lead. Our meeting could not have been by chance. All that stuff they had said about LeSoeur following me because Campbell and I had spent the night together was a lie.
And they had needed it to be a lie, so they could keep me in the dark.
Tears sprang to my eyes as I realized what this meant. When Campbell had come up to me in the bar, he had known who I was. He had set out to seduce me, so they could later claim that LeSoeur’s interest in me was because of him. That wonderful night of passion we had shared had been based on a lie, and so had everything since.
“He needs all three of the elements,” Campbell insisted. “If we’re keeping two of them safe then I don’t see how letting her go is a problem.”
He was standing up for me, they all were, but I was no longer sure that mattered to me. They had lied. I had trusted them and all I had been to them was a piece in the puzzle, another element to be kept away from LeSoeur. Had it ever been anything more than that? Had any of the emotions been real? Had the sex even been good for them? Or was it all just ways to keep me sweet and keep me close?
“LeSoeur is a man with resources,” dry voice went on. “If he were to ever find a way into our vaults…”
“There’s no way,” argued Red.
There was a pause.
“She knows too much.”
“There’s the real reason,” growled Drake. “You’re not trying to save the world or keep her from LeSoeur. You’re worried she might tell people what she knows. You’re covering your own ass.”
“Everything else I said is true,” dry voice
defended himself. “Maybe you’ve gotten too close to this person to see it. Her existence is a danger. You knew that when you took the assignment on and you had your orders if LeSoeur got too close. Or have you forgotten?”
A silence followed.
What orders? I wondered.
“You were under orders to kill her rather than let LeSoeur take her,” dry voice spoke again. “Would you have done your duty?”
I held my breath in the pause that followed.
Campbell spoke. “No. I don’t know that we would.”
“I don’t think that you would, either,” said dry voice. “You’re all good agents, but this girl has turned your heads somehow. Pretty girl – it happens, even to the best. But that’s why you get no say in this decision. You care about her too much.”
If they’d cared about me then they’d have told me the truth.
I didn’t stay to hear the end of the conversation. I didn’t need to know what plans they had for my future because I had plans of my own, and those were the only ones that counted. It didn’t matter what the guys said or did to defend me, it didn’t matter where they stood or the lengths to which they might go to protect me. They had lied to me. They used me. They had fucked me under false pretenses. The last week had been the best of my life and now it was all tainted with their betrayal.
I should have known better than to trust men.
In Campbell’s bedroom, I took the jewel and the dagger from the drawer and put them into my bag. They would come after me to get the stuff back - of course they would, but right at that moment all I wanted to do was hurt the guys. By taking these things, I could sabotage their mission, get them in trouble with their boss, maybe even get them fired. In one stroke, I could make everything they had done to me worthless. If they had thought they could use me and get away with it then they didn’t know who they were fucking with. Jane Bond took no prisoners.
As an afterthought, I also took some cash from Campbell’s wallet – he wouldn’t miss it and escaping wasn’t cheap.
I left the hotel room as quietly as I could, took the elevator down to the lobby and got a cab to the station. From there I could go to Nice, where there was an airport. I wasn’t sure how long these things took – I wasn’t a big traveler – but perhaps I could be back in the U.S. by this time tomorrow. Back to my old life. That was what they’d wanted, wasn’t it? And I would never see them again. Well, they had wanted that as well, hadn’t they?
I paid the cabbie too much, because it wasn’t my money, and hurried into the station. There was a train leaving for Nice in two minutes and I rushed to be on it. I found myself a quiet carriage, sat down and closed my eyes, waiting for the world to stop rushing, wishing that all the images that flowed through my brain were not of the guys I had gone so swiftly from loving to hating.
There was the sound of someone clearing their throat.
I opened my eyes and found two men sitting opposite me. One wore a Panama hat and dark glasses; I had last seen him on an island in the Caribbean. The man seated beside him I had only seen once before, through the temple doors on the island of Lareo. His manic eyes stared at me from beneath their heavy lids, looking at me with something like greed, like an addict who has found his next fix.
“Miss Bond. I’ve been expecting you.”
Chapter 18
LeSoeur’s private plane was so luxurious that I think even Campbell would have been happy with it. But comfortable though the white leather seats were, I found it impossible to relax. I had delivered all three elements into the hands of the supernatural supervillain and self-styled witch doctor, LeSoeur. I had doomed humanity. Also, I was tied to the seat, which made it difficult to get comfy.
“You’re probably wondering about my plan,” said LeSoeur, who had barely stopped talking in a thin, unpleasant voice since the train. He had an accent that I couldn’t quite place, and this, combined with his strange appearance – he could have been virtually any age, nationality or ethnicity – made him seem to be from nowhere and everywhere. An elemental presence. Presumably that was what he had been aiming for.
“Not really,” I lied, trying to match the coolness that the guys might have shown in this situation. “Why do bad guys always feel the need to tell you the whole damn plan? Haven’t you heard of an in-flight movie?”
LeSoeur laughed a high piping laugh. “You put up a good act, Miss Bond, but I know that you do not belong in this world. I know everything about you. You may not be aware of it, but I even heard your conversation with your good friend Sarah about taking a vacation, and was able to be there waiting for you. I do hope you are now feeling more sexually fulfilled.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Being tied up did at least stop me from shaking with fear, and I tried to keep the terror out of my voice.
“Excellent,” LeSoeur nodded. “A vibrant sex life is a vital component of all around good health. Why, I myself…”
“Please tell me about your plan,” I interrupted, before I was forced to make use of one of the paper sick bags.
“Ah,” LeSoeur’s manic eyes brightened. “I knew you were interested. We can pick up the other subject again later.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Some of the things I have to tell you may surprise you.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Now,” LeSouer sat back in his seat, “there is good news and bad news. The good news is that while your blood is vital for the successful completion of the ritual – it needs to be drawn by the dagger and spilled on the jewel, which is then placed in the volcano shrine – your death is not. A relatively small amount of blood will suffice.” His eyes gleamed. “I was thinking of slicing open your palm.”
Though the thought made my skin crawl, it was nice to hear that I was not to be sacrificed as advertised, but I did not feel like I was getting the full story.
“What’s the bad news?”
“Yes, well,” LeSoeur continued, “I’m afraid it does seem likely that you will die shortly afterwards, as an indestructible army of zombie dead crawls out of the volcano to feast on the flesh of humanity. Those on the island will surely be their first victims, yourself included. I, as the man who completed the ritual, will be immune, as will anyone under my protection.” He pursed his lips. “I do not find myself inclined to place you under my protection. Perhaps that is lacking in chivalry but I get the feeling that you do not like me.”
“Well, you have kidnapped me.”
LeSoeur nodded. “I suppose an adversarial relationship is the best that can be hoped for in such circumstances. Ah well, c’est la vie. You get eaten by the zombies. But don’t feel bad about it. You’ll be in good company. A large percentage of humanity will be destroyed in the zombie apocalypse I am about to bring about.”
I had to ask. “Why?”
LeSoeur frowned, an expression to which his waxy features were ill-suited. “What do you mean?”
“You’re human. Why are you trying to destroy humanity?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how to answer a question like that. Honestly, it’s like you’re speaking another language. Why does the mountaineer climb the tallest peaks? Why does the sailor sail the most dangerous seas? Why do I destroy humanity? Because it’s there.”
Because you’re nuts, I added mentally. Clearly, there was not going to be any reasoning with this man, my best hope was…
What?
He held all the cards. I had given them to him. I found myself torn between thoughts of self-loathing guilt, and anger at the events that had driven me to the rash act of stealing the jewel and the dagger. Obviously I had done something dumb and the world was going to pay, but didn’t I deserve some sympathy after the way I had been treated? That was for the history books to decide. Assuming there were any.
Now I understood what the man with the dry voice had been talking about. Locking me up or even killing me to save the world might have been the right thing to do.
And yet, the guys had been unwilling to do it
.
Of course, killing someone you like, someone you’ve been intimate with, is bound to be hard. But they were trained for this sort of thing.
And yet, they couldn’t have done it.
For all my anger at their lies, I began to wonder if, despite everything, they maybe had cared for me. If what Campbell had said to his boss were true, then they would have struggled to choose between me and the world. That was a pretty big deal when you thought about it.
None of which got me any closer to escape.
The man in the Panama hat entered. “We are starting our descent, sir.”
“Thank you, Knox,” LeSoeur raised a hand, regally. He turned back to me. “The ritual will be performed at sunrise tomorrow. I think that’s most appropriate, don’t you? The dawn of a new era, as it were. The history books will call it, The Age of LeSoeur.”
“Do zombies write history books?” I asked.
“I’m sure a few can be trained. And I may well spare many of the artists. That’s what the Mongols did; spare the painters, the writers, the playwrights and so forth so they can recall your glorious reign.” He nodded to himself, his eyes more manic than ever as he dreamed of his imperial future.
The plane landed on an island, far smaller than Lareo, dominated by a mountain that rose, tall and black, above the green jungle that surrounded it on every side. Smoke puffed from its summit, tinged red by the fires that flared from within.
“The breath of Tet-Ra,” declared LeSoeur. “Into its fiery maw, sacrificial victims were poured by the hundred to appease its wrath. Tomorrow morning, those victims will rise again to bring the planet earth to heel under the command of its new master. Me.”
Her Shadow Harem: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 13
