by Robin Leaf
“Is this a negotiation, Cristiana? Or did you just make a demand?”
“It’s what it needs to be. However,” I move along his cock again, “I might be open to a few suggestions.”
“Date me.”
I smile. “I thought we established that already.”
“Exclusively.”
Nodding, I answer, “Absolutely.”
He runs his hands up my back and shoulders to cup my cheeks. Searching my eyes, he lowers his voice to almost a whisper.
“Fall for me.”
I grin, gripping his wrists and holding them to my face. “Working on it.”
He starts to move, and I take it as a cue to do the same. We work in unison, moving against each other, beginning slowly and building in pace.
“One more thing,” he says, running his lips up my neck to my ear. “Don’t tell anyone I work with about my Janet Jackson love.”
“Keep your end of the bargain, and your secret will be safe.”
I take the opportunity to really start to move. His hands find my breasts, cupping them, lifting one to his mouth. When he sucks my nipple hard, I squeeze his cock.
“Fuck,” he mutters, starting to move faster, abandoning my nipple to chase his orgasm.
I wrap my arms around him and lean in, sucking the skin at the base of his neck. I bite down softly, and his rhythm falters, swelling inside me, then stilling for a moment, before he moves again.
I feel him fill me, and I come around him, not the earth-quaking orgasm I had before, but it’s one that’s pretty nice in its own right.
I snuggle into his chest, and he wraps me in his arms. I feel something I’ve never felt before: cherished and safe.
“See, we could do that all the time if you let me keep you here.”
I laugh. “Shut up, güero. You’ll get that enough. Trust me.”
Every other part of my world is upside down at the moment. I deserve this, to feel safe in the arms of this man. To feel like my world isn’t spiraling out of control.
I deserve it, even if it’s just for now.
Thirty Two
Noah
Oh, how I’ve longed for this. A night in, watching a movie. I haven’t even watched a full movie since probably high school. But tonight, it’s less about the movie and more about the dream girl curled up next to me. Of course, all the opened and/or empty packages of whatever foods she found in my cabinets that she deemed edible surround us, as well as a few empty bottles of water and an energy drink.
“So, what did you think of my man Gump?” Cristiana asks as the feather takes off right before the credits roll.
I smile, moving the piece of hair that always seems to fall across her face.
“Now I get the quotes that Bryan and Fionn make all the time.”
She adjusts her position to face me, pulling her feet under her to sit on her knees.
“Okay, yeah, but did you like the movie?” she asks, bouncing cutely on her knees.
I bite my lips together, wondering what to say. “It’s impossible that all the things he did would have happened like they did.”
She rolls her eyes. “Well, duh, Noah. I know one person could never have had that much influence over so many historical things. You have to suspend your disbelief a bit.” She sits back down, laying her head on my shoulder. “Forrest Gump is my favorite movie, so watch the dissing of it.”
Wrapping her hands around my arm, she looks up at me with wide eyes.
“What’s your favorite movie?”
“Easy,” I say, kissing her forehead. “Braveheart.”
Again, she rolls her eyes. “Dios mío, that’s such a guy answer. Talk about historically inaccurate.”
“What?” I say, mock offended. “It’s not about the accuracy. It’s about the sacrifice. It also contains one of the best lines ever.” When she raises her eyebrows, I do my horrible impression of Mel Gibson’s horrible Scottish accent. “‘They may take our lives,’” I raise my fist of the arm she’s not holding, “‘but they’ll never take our freedom.’”
Leaning away from me, she squeezes my arm and shakes it.
“That’s your favorite line from a movie?”
“Yeah, I kind of live my life by it.”
She swats my chest. “Yet you wanted to take away my freedom.”
In a quick move, I flip her so she’s lying underneath me.
Running my nose up her neck, I hum against her skin, “Maybe it was all a ruse to keep you…” and move my hips into hers, “…close to me.”
She pushes against my chest and giggles; it’s a beautiful sound. I sit up, pulling her with me.
Gesturing toward my semi-hard cock, she wrinkles her nose. “Put that thing away before you poke someone’s eye out.” She resumes her curled-up position, snuggled into my side. “We need to take a break on the sex, güero. I think you and your verga gigante sprained my vagina. I need a vagina splint for all your… enthusiasm, not to mention the fourteen orgasms you gave me.”
Vagina splint has me chuckling as I kiss her forehead. “It’s only been seven.”
“Are you really keeping a running tally?” she asks, pulling back to look at me with her eyebrows raised.
“Yup.” I tap my forehead. “Good memory. Although I could see how you would think one orgasm from me could count as two regular ones.”
She laughs, pushing on my side. “Oh, shut up, tonto.” She pushes her hand against my side a couple more times. “Maybe you should go work out to get rid of all that sexual tension. You’re getting soft.”
I smile at her sass. I’m not the least bit soft, and she knows it.
“Aren’t people supposed to let themselves go when they’re in a relationship?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Standing, she places her hands on her hips. “Slow down, güero. We haven’t even been on an official date –”
I pout playfully. “Wait… This wasn’t a date?”
“— so no using the ‘R’ word yet.” I watch her ass flex as she walks around the couch.
“Seven of my double-stuffed orgasms says we are in a relationship.” She walks to the hallway. “You can’t be going to get more food.”
She laughs. “No, I gotta go pee.”
A knock at the door gets me standing, but before I open the door, I yell down the hallway, “Let me know if you need me to bring you ice for your injury.”
Hearing her laugh makes me smile as I open the door.
“Did you hurt her?” Fionn asks, looking like he’s contemplating hitting me.
God, he’s such a nice guy, I almost feel bad for what I’m about to say.
“She says my big dick sprained her vagina,” I blurt, just because I know it’ll embarrass him. “You disappeared earlier, so we –”
“We have a problem,” he interrupts, unaffected, setting down Cristiana’s suitcase he kept for her next to the couch, and moves to my computer. “Scotty says that somehow The Sippers got ahold of the crime scene photos of Crissy’s apartment.”
The Sippers is kind of a quasi-tabloid TV show. Two sisters, originally from Canada, interview guests while sitting around a kitchen discussing books, TV shows, movies, and celebrities’ pictures that the show either takes or buys from paparazzi. They’re generally positive, cutely presuming things and making mild judgments about all topics, all the while sipping from either oversized coffee mugs or wine glasses, depending on the time of day the show is taped. It’s their schtick, with the name of the show playing on the sipping of the coffee and the last letters of “gossipers.”
After a few clicks, Fionn turns the monitor toward me. There are seven pictures, all showing the destruction, except –.
“Wait, something’s off.” Fionn notices the irregularities in the internet pictures at the same time I do and stands to retrieve the folder off the side table. Opening it, he compares the folder’s contents to the images on the screen. “These aren’t the pictures the cops took.”
I study them closer, glad to know he see
s what I did. “Are you sure Dan gave you all the pictures?”
“He told me he did.”
“If he said he did, then he did.” I pick up a picture and look at it carefully. “Do you think someone at the crime scene took those to sell them to the tabloids?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “I mean it’s possible.”
“What’s possible?” Cristiana asks, walking up to look over Fionn’s shoulder. Her brows scrunch and the thumb goes to her mouth. After a second, she asks, “How did The Sippers get those?”
“We’re trying to figure that out, Crissy.” Fionn clicks to enlarge a picture. “First we have to figure out who took them. These aren’t the crime scene photos.”
When he clicks another picture, a flash of something catches my eye.
“Wait, click on that one.” I point to an image. “Look.” I hold up a crime scene photo taken from a similar angle. “The window isn’t broken.”
Cristiana gets close to both of us. “Is it possible the perp took these?”
Looking over my shoulder, I raise my eyebrow. “The perp?”
She shrugs. “I watch a lot of Cops.”
I stare at her for a second. How she remains so calm is a mystery. It would be completely acceptable for her to be freaked out by someone breaking into her apartment, but this girl… wow. She’s either in total denial or amazingly okay with all this. I don’t understand how she can be. I’m a little rattled, and I’m a SEAL… well, a former SEAL.
Fionn clicks on another picture, and we wait for it to load on the screen.
“Look there,” I point to the edge of the screen. “Is that an elbow in the mirror?” He blows up the picture. “If so, it’s wearing what looks to be a black jacket. The person I saw at the scene was dressed in a black hoodie.”
“So it is the perp,” she says, a little too proud of herself.
“Unless it’s one of the millions of other people who own black clothing.”
“But with the unbroken window and the black sleeve, whoever fucked up my apartment probably took pictures and sold them to that pinche show, right?” She moves from biting the side of her thumb to biting her thumbnail. “Maybe that was their goal. Stage something so they can make a profit?”
The thumb thing seems to be a nervous habit, meaning she’s probably not as okay as she wants us to believe.
“It seems like that’s what happened, Cristiana,” I say, trying to remain neutral. I’ve learned that if I try to comfort her when she’s like this, she’ll react with an emotion, just not the emotion she’s actually experiencing, opting usually to pick a fight with me. “But until we know for sure, we’re going with the plan we came up with earlier.”
“Great,” she sighs, throwing herself down in the chair. “Beefy babysitters who tattle on my every move. Just what a girl always wanted.”
She needs a second, so I focus back on Fionn. “We need to tell Dan so he can get a warrant and find out where these pictures came from.”
“We can try that,” Fionn says carefully, “but the media is notorious for not giving up sources, especially to the police.”
Cristiana grunts, rubbing her hands through her hair. “So, what do we do?”
I smile. “Well, we call your brother.”
She shakes her head. “What, to rough up the producers of the show? Ricky manages legit MMA fighters. They’re not exactly muscle for hire.”
Chuckling at her assumption, I shake my head.
“We’re not suggesting roughing anyone up. This is a job for Matt, not Ricky.”
Blinking, she stares for a minute. “What can Matty do to help?”
I pull out my cell phone and smile, deciding to follow through on my promise and let Matt tell her what he does on the side for me.
“Hey, waa’sup, Kermit,” Matty answers.
I have to smile. Kermit is the nickname he started calling me when he was twelve and found out that SEALs are often referred to as frogmen. It’s the only frog name he knew.
“Matt-ee-o, can you spare some time to come visit your sister? She’s at my building right now.”
The distinctive sound of a clicking keyboard echoes through the line. I hope I’m not interrupting homework.
“Nana’s back? And she’s with you? Are y’all finally together?” I hear a slamming noise then shuffling. “Holy shit, does Mama know? Did she flip?”
Jesus. I didn’t think about this. He sounds so excited about the prospect of us, too. Cristiana and I haven’t discussed how to handle telling people about us yet. Shit, what do I say?
“No, it’s not… well, it’s not exactly, um, like –”
“Of course you’re not. If you were, I would’ve heard by now. But I also didn’t hear Nana was back. You know, I think it’s pretty shitty that I chose Cal Tech over MIT to be closer to her, and she ditches me for a year to go on tour with some douche.”
That boy and his ADHD. It makes me snicker. “So, can I tell her you’re coming?”
He sighs. “I mean I guess I can put my busy college life on hold for my favorite sister.” The way he says it, I know he’s joking.
“Busy college life, huh? Have you even gone to a party yet?”
“I party all the time,” he answers dismissively.
“Yeah, but with girls?”
He grunts. “Fuck you, Kermie. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Cool. Bring your own coconut water. You might be here awhile.”
“Already packed.”
I end the call and turn to a stunned Cristiana.
“You have my brother drinking pinche coconut water?”
“No.” I hold my hand out, helping her stand. “It’s our code.”
“Code? Code for what?”
I smile. “I have to let him tell you.”
Thirty Three
Cristiana
“So you’ve got my baby brother hacking for you now?” I screech, not believing my ears.
“Not exactly?” Noah says, smiling nervously.
I narrow my eyes, feeling my nostrils flare and my anger well up to dangerous proportions. Taking a step forward, my fists ball at my sides.
“Okay, yes, but it’s not what you think,” he says, backing up, actually looking intimidated by me.
Taking a deep breath, I try to cool the lava of words I’m about to spew forth from my mouth. “Well, then please enlighten me,” I say on an exhale, flinching a bit in his direction, “before I kick your ass.”
His hands come up, a weak attempt to calm me, and he comes very close to laying them on my upper arms. It’s wise that he doesn’t.
“I own a full-service security agency, which includes body guarding, as you know, but it also includes providing state-of-the-art security systems for businesses that require… let’s call it ‘specialized protection.’ I needed someone with Matt’s abilities to test the systems, suggest improvements to protect against the possibilities of overrides, and eliminate the susceptibility to viruses that might take them down.”
“He’s only nineteen.” I look at Mateo, and my anger starts to morph into pride. “You can do that?”
He blushes and looks down, nodding. He’s never usually embarrassed by his accomplishments, so this is a bit strange.
But I still feel like a horrible sister for not knowing how brilliant my kid bro really is.
“I mean I knew you got a full ride to Cal Tech for the computer thing, but I expected you to be the next Gates or Jobs. I certainly didn’t know you could do all this stop-a-spy stuff.”
Something in the way he shoots a glance to Noah tells me they share a secret. My pride melts into a big fat vat of suspicion.
“Wait,” I address Noah, taking another step toward him, “how did you know he could do all this?”
I look between the two of them. Matty is colored with shame and the inability to look at me, and I’ve never seen Noah try so hard to keep a neutral face before. They’re hiding something from me. Something big.
“I don’t know wha
t’s going on between you two, but if you have my brother breaking laws on a regular basis, I will hurt you.”
“I don’t,” he says, crossing his large arms over his rippling chest.
I’m pissed, yet my clit pulses.
“You just asked him to.”
He leans down to get in my face. “Yeah, for you.”
Memories of earlier when we were in the same standoff flash before me. My face flushes, and I can feel my breathing accelerate. I’m two seconds from climbing this cabrón for the second time today. God, one angry sex match with this man apparently means I’ll get turned on every time he pisses me off.
“He caught me,” Mateo blurts, hopefully misinterpreting my arousal as only wanting to rip Noah to shreds.
Turning to my brother, I step his direction. “Caught you doing what?”
He stares at me, biting his lips together.
“So help me God, Mateo, if you don’t tell me, I’ll call Mom and tell her to go look for the scorch marks on her wedding dress, and then I’ll tell her how they –”
“I hacked into one of his client’s computer systems,” he looks sideways at Noah, “and transferred money to an offshore account.”
Wait. My smart, sweet baby brother is a thief? Stunned, I bring my hand to my head, mainly to keep it from blowing off my shoulders.
“You… you stole… you fucking broke the law?” I seethe from my clenched teeth.
Noah steps in front of my brother before I can kill him.
“He hacked into Jason’s financial firm’s computer system, one that was supposedly un-hack-able. Jase noticed the money missing from a trust fund he managed and asked me to investigate. I got my computer guy on it, and he found the hacker.” He looks at Mateo with what looks a lot like pride.
“This is nothing to be proud of!” I scream, throwing my hands up in the air. “What the fuck is wrong with both of you?”
“Nana,” Matt whines, “I did it for a good reason. My friend’s dad took away her trust fund. She legally had access and he took it away just because he didn’t like the college she chose. So, I skimmed a little off the top, and I was going to invest it for her. Legally, it was her money once she turned eighteen.”
