by Whitley Cox
Derrick shook his head again. But my mind was back at my hostel in Panama City. Eduardo was Panamanian, and he’d suggested I go to The Inca Treasure because his brother-in-law owned or ran or managed the place. I couldn’t entirely remember the connection. But I’m not a seasoned traveler, and I took his friendliness as good ol’ hospitality, ignoring every instinct I had that the guy could be shady. I wanted to see the good in people. My job had groomed me to always look for the worst, to find flaws, and now that I’d left that world, I was trying to see the best. But when I thought more about it, I remembered that when I had been waiting for my cab to the airport, I’d needed to run to the washroom, and I’d left my bag in the front lobby under his watchful eye. Had he put something in my bag?
I reiterated all this to Chase, while Derrick’s eyes grew wider and Chase’s brows pinched tighter.
“You have no idea what he could have put in your bag?”
I shook my head, hoping to God it hadn’t been drugs.
“Well, it didn’t trigger the security scanners at the airport, so…”
I swallowed, fear and dread tasting metallic on my tongue. This was not at ALL how this holiday was supposed to go down.
“Or,” Derrick started, giving Chase a sidelong glance before focusing all his attention back on me, “we were robbed simply because we’re white and appeared to have money. No foul play, nothing smuggled.” He rested a hand on Chase’s shoulder, which appeared to make the bald, blue-eyed mountain very uncomfortable. “I know you’re trained in all this subterfuge and spy stuff, but in this case, when we hear hooves we need to think horses and not unicorns.”
Chase made a rude noise in his throat and inconspicuously shrugged off Derrick’s hand. Derrick wrapped the other arm around my waist and pulled me close. I didn’t hesitate, and I slouched into him.
“Well, either way,” Chase said with a surly scowl, his demeanor clearly rattled. I was going to guess he wasn’t used to people challenging him or touching him. “Keep a low profile in Lima, okay? Gladys called the cops, and she scanned your passport when you arrived, remember? They have all your information. And even if you are innocent, guilty of nothing more than breaking a potted plant, the authorities would love nothing more than throwing your white ass in prison to earn some bail money.”
At that moment, I cursed myself for not having gone into international law. So instead I just nodded. Derrick nodded, too, though his was far less emphatic than mine.
That seemed to be enough for Chase at the moment. “Where’s your new hostel?”
“Not far,” Derrick said. “About six blocks.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Derrick rolled his eyes and was about to say something snarky, I’m sure, but just then he was called to order and had to go and plead his case for a new passport.
“Are you two married?” Chase asked, startling me out of my fog. I’d been rehashing what I’d just done at The Inca Treasure, the adrenaline still pumping through my body. It had felt really good to trash the lobby. Cathartic.
“No.” I shook my head. “We, uh…we actually just met in the airport in Panama.”
I thought for sure the caterpillars were going to jump on his forehead and he’d spin around and give me a wide mouth and face painted with judgment. But the man didn’t even flinch.
“In this case, Derrick might be right. It may just be horses. But just be careful, okay? Do you have a phone?”
I shook my head. No, the bastards had stolen that too. Maybe I should go and buy a cheapy phone. At least while we had our bald bodyguard present we could wander around the city with a bit more ease.
He grunted. “’K, we’ll go get you a phone. And then I’ll put my number in it. If you find anything in your backpack, or someone suspicious contacts you, you’re followed or whatnot, you let me know, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
I was busy studying the tile on the floor while Chase seemed completely content just sitting there looking straight ahead. I’m not even sure he was blinking. Was this part of training for whatever organization he was with? No blinking? I watched him out of the corner of my eye.
“Yes?” he asked slowly.
“Who are you with? Or if you tell me, will you have to kill me?”
He let out an exasperated sigh; his shoulders slumped just a fraction. “Have you heard of SEAL Team 6?”
I nodded.
“I’m not with SEAL Team 6.” He swallowed. “Let’s leave it at that, okay?”
Well, shit! That just prompted about one hundred other questions.
A few minutes later, Derrick re-emerged. “Well, they believe I am who I say I am. But it’ll be a couple of days before I can get a new passport, so I’ve got to stick around Lima for a bit.”
I fell into line with the two men after we’d reclaimed Derrick’s new laptop and Chase’s phone from security, and we made our way back out to the street. Derrick’s fingers linked with mine on instinct. How could it be instinct when we’d only known each other for twenty-four hours? But instinct or not, it felt good, and I held on to him, happy that I didn’t have to travel alone anymore, happy that I had someone to share this with.
Chase flanked me on the other side, and I felt tiny, like a child between two big sexy men. But as handsome as Chase was, as much as he radiated alpha-male waves out to everything with two X chromosomes, making them swoon and cream their jeans, I was more attracted to Derrick. The ball of energy around him wasn’t red like Chase’s, and it didn’t scream alpha to the rooftops. Yet, he was no less dominating, no less confident; it was just a quieter confidence, a more inherent and reserved dominance. People seemed to flock to him, but he didn’t demand their attention they way some alphas do. It just happened organically.
And besides, I was done being with a man whose job was dangerous and could get him killed. I’d lost Ray because his job had been dangerous, going out onto a boat in the middle of the ocean to collect samples. Who would have thought a biologist’s job would be life-threatening? And I’m sure if this Chase guy had a woman, she was saying a prayer or two every night because the man’s job was not safely pushing a pencil behind a desk, it was out in the field running intel on slimy drug dealers and human traffickers. No, Derrick was safe, his job was safe, and he made me feel safe, and that’s exactly what I needed.
We took our leave of the bossy bald bodyguard a little while later after both Derrick and I had gotten new phones and exchanged numbers with Chase. He even let us stop and grab breakfast, though we had to get it to go. By the time we had made our way back to the hostel, it was nearly lunch. We took our food up to our room, where thankfully all the other roommates were out. They’d mentioned going and doing a tunnel and cave tour, so we quickly ate our breakfast and then took advantage of the empty room (not that that stopped us) and humped like adrenaline-fueled bunnies. I’d hardly had a chance to finish my ceviche and undercooked French fries before Derrick was on top of me, peeling away my clothes and biting my neck, ordering me up onto all fours.
But as we laid there in post-coital comas, atrophy in our limbs and sweat on our brows, I felt something in him change. He didn’t move, he didn’t say anything, but the aura around him shifted, and he pulled away from me. He was mad. It was the same vibe I’d gotten after we’d checked into this place when we’d followed Elissa and Matt back, right after we’d been robbed. He was withdrawn and contemplating something.
“Derrick?” I whispered.
He made a noise in his throat but didn’t say anything.
“Y-you okay?”
I looked up into his face; he was staring straight up at the slats of the top bunk, a muscle twitching along his strong jaw.
“A-are you mad?”
More silence.
“Are you mad at me?”
A long, deep exhale. “What you did today was incredibly reckless, Piper.”
I turned to face him, angling myself up on my elbow so I was looking down on his face so that he couldn’t
help but look up into my eyes. Those deep and stormy grays were fixing me with a steely stare. “What I did?”
“Going back to the hostel and antagonizing Gladys the way you did. You could have gotten seriously hurt; you could have gotten killed.”
My lips parted, and I went to say something, but the conviction, the fear, the anger in his eyes stopped me.
He swallowed. “Seeing the panic in your eyes like that, when you ran into me on the sidewalk after you left the hostel, and then finding out the cops were after you — you scared me half to death.”
We’d just met. He hardly knew me. Why was he getting so emotional?
He must have sensed my skepticism, because his face softened just a fraction, and his hand came up and cupped my cheek. “I know we haven’t known one another very long, but it’d seriously suck if you got hauled off to prison or stabbed in the street…” His lip lifted into a barely discernible smile. “Just saying.”
I rolled my eyes, but then his face grew hard again. He was seriously pissed, but seeing as we weren’t really together, and he wasn’t my boyfriend, the line where he could get legitimately upset was very fuzzy.
“Don’t do anything like that again, okay?” The edge to his voice was starting to dissolve. “I like you…and I’d hate for something to happen to you.”
My hand landed on top of his, and I closed my eyes and leaned my face into his palm, nodding. “Okay.”
His eyes took on a wicked gleam. “Save your inner beast, the one with the temper and the fire and the rage, for the bedroom, okay? Let your beast out on me.”
I lifted one eyebrow skeptically. Finally, he smiled. I was not a sex beast. I was not a dominant in any way, shape or form. I might be a hothead and have my bossy moments in my everyday life, but in bed, I was begging to be dominated.
“Go savage on me, woman. I can take it.” Big, straight, pearly white teeth glowed back at me, while his eyes twinkled with all kinds of mischief, the frustration from earlier having seemed to evaporate and join the smell of sex in the air.
I turned my head and took one of his fingers into my mouth, biting it just hard enough to hear him inhale.
“Yeah, like that…but really let those claws come out, let those fangs drop and go mental. Give it to me.” I lunged forward and nipped his chin, so far out of my comfort zone. But he was telling me to be a beast, so in a way, I was still obeying orders.
“More.” His free hand drifted down beneath the blankets to where I was once again growing wet and hot for him.
I grappled for his back and brought him on top of me, letting my nails rake him from shoulder blades to buttocks and back, all the while my teeth continued to drag along his skin, tasting him, claiming him. I clamped down hard on his deltoid when his fingers brushed my clit, and his mouth captured my nipple. The man was a multitasker, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. Playing my body like an instrument he’d known since birth, a prodigy, and we’d only just met.
I felt his cock prod the apex of my thighs, and I spread my legs wider for him, welcoming him home. He slid in with ease, my pussy clenching around him, reveling in the feeling of being full once again.
He started to hammer into me, splitting me open, while his pelvic bone rocked against my clit in an oh so wonderful way.
“Don’t fucking do that again!” He said with a snarl, rearing up and pulling out, only to slam back in, hitting my cervix and making me hiss in pain in the process. Wait. Wasn’t I the one who was supposed to release the beast? And yet here he was, as feral as they come and fixing to fuck or fight. I’m not saying I didn’t like it; this just hadn’t been the plan. I opened my mouth to say something, but he changed the angle, and all I could do was gasp from the sudden rush of pleasure.
He glared down at me. “Don’t be reckless!”
More hammering, more pleasure. He hit my cervix again, more pain. Yes. Oh God. Yes. Pain, pleasure, it all felt so good. It all made me feel so alive, so craved. He was punishing me for my behavior in the best way possible, making my body hum, making me scream for him and plead for forgiveness, for release.
He growled. “Say it! Say you’ll never put your life in danger like that again. Say it!”
I nodded and swallowed, our eyes suddenly locking, blue to gray. So much emotion poured out of him that I found myself verklempt and unable to speak. So, I just nodded again and again and again, until I felt like my head was going to fall off.
“I need to hear you say it, Piper!” His tone was thick with longing and need, only it wasn’t just the need to hear me come; there was a deeper need, a darker need.
“Yes,” I finally squeaked. “I promise never to do anything reckless like that again.”
“Good!” And then he picked up speed and vigor and fucked me until tears streamed down my cheeks and I’m pretty sure I met God.
5
After our multiple afternoon delights, which had wound up being more intense and revealing than I ever could have predicted, we found ourselves restless and agitated with the fact that we couldn’t go out and explore. Mind you, after the way the city had treated us, a part of me didn’t really want anything to do with Miraflores anyway. But I at least wanted to have the option to boycott it.
I felt bad that my behavior had put a proverbial target on Derrick’s back, and I urged him to go out and explore on his own if he wanted to. Perhaps without me, he wouldn’t draw so much attention, but he didn’t seem interested. Instead, we spent the afternoon lounging up on the top floor of the hostel, enjoying the hazy sky and blistering sun, while drinking pisco sours and swimming in the pool when the mood struck us. We’d also booked our flight to Cusco and our hostel. No sense wasting time being disorganized and without a plan of action.
I was in no mood to read my depressing book, so instead, I downloaded an e-book onto my new phone while Derrick flipped through the pages of his Ultimate Traveler as if it were an action-packed thriller and not a fact- based, outdated list of hostels and restaurants.
Elissa had been right; it was a party hostel. No matter what time of day it was, bass, loud and heavy, beat around the building, and it was no different up on the pool deck.
“Did you know that Lima is home to one of the oldest higher-learning institutions in the New World? The National University of San Marcos, which was founded in 1551 during the Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas.” He tipped back his beer and lifted his aviator-clad eyes up to meet mine. All I saw was my own reflection, and I was giving him an amused half-smirk. “What?” he asked.
I giggled. “I can’t figure you out. Beast in the sack. Bossy as fuck, but then you’re also this adorable, fact-spewing nerd.”
Even though I couldn’t see his eyes I didn’t need to to read his body language, and suddenly I found myself beneath him, in front of everyone on the pool deck.
He stretched himself on top of me. “I’ll show you who’s a nerd, woman.” He went to grab my hand, and I can only assume, whisk me back to the bedroom, when our plan of more naughtiness was suddenly interrupted.
“There you are,” Elissa sang, coming up beside us, looking incredible in her hot-pink bikini. Matt was in her wake, board shorts hanging low and a towel draped around his neck.
“How were the caves? Or were they tunnels?” I asked. Derrick moved back over to his own lounger and took a swig of his beer. I followed suit and took a sip of my pisco sour, this drink that Elissa had introduced to me the night before and had quickly become an addictive favorite. Pisco was a clear brandy local to Peru and Chile, and bartenders added fresh-squeezed lemon or lime, simple syrup, and a frothed egg white. It was cool, tart and refreshing, like summer in a boozy glass, and I was already on my fourth for the afternoon.
“Tunnels.” She grinned, pulling up a lounge chair next to me. “They were cool. Is that a pisco?”
I nodded and took another sip, frowning when I realized it was empty, my straw making that slurpy sound at the bottom.
Derrick chuckled. “Empty?”
I pouted and nodded again.
He stood up and nodded at Elissa; she grinned with a wink.
“Fear not m’ladies, for I shall replenish your beverages.” And he sauntered toward the bar, looking sexy as hell in his black board shorts, while Matt loped after him.
Somehow, I’m not entirely sure how it happened, we spent the entire day up on the pool deck. Before I knew it, it was dark out, my stomach was rumbling, and I was drunk. We ordered burgers from the hostel kitchen, because in addition to being a nightclub, a hostel and a rec center, apparently, the place also cooked up some righteous dishes, local and Western alike. I practically had an aneurysm from how good my burger tasted. My inner sex goddess busted out some serious moans and groans with each messy bite, while my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I’m pretty sure I heard angels singing behind me. Greasy and gooey, with so much cheese and what, at first, I thought was going to be weird but ended up being wonderful, an over-easy fried egg, it was the perfect meal to chase away the hunger pangs and balance out all the alcohol that was currently coursing through my bloodstream.
“Let’s play a game!” Elissa announced, staggering where she stood, the two of us having donned beachy summer dresses over our bathing suits, as we all continued to sit up on the pool deck, the entire rooftop having been converted into a nightclub. There were strobe lights and disco balls, smoke machines and even louder music than before. I’d thought it had been loud during the day, but now I found myself having to yell just to hear my own thoughts.
I nodded and sipped my drink. I’d lost track of how many pisco sours I’d had. I was beginning to think my blood was slowly being replaced with pisco, but at the moment things were feeling so good, so I didn’t really care.
“Let’s play ‘would you rather,’ and if you’re the odd man out, you have to drink.” And then over walked Matt with a tray of shots.
