Illicit Liaison (5 page)

His fingers went away and the brush came down repeatedly. Her ass felt like it was on fire, the pressure of his knees in her belly was tremendous, and her head thumped from the blood rushing to it.

His fingers slid inside her, the thong scraped against the sides of her labia and she cried out, her slippery oils coating his fingers as he worked more of them inside her. Her ass jerked up and down and just before she came, he withdrew. Her feet kicked and she tried to reach under his leg to rub her dripping sex but his hand captured hers and he chuckled softly.

“I have a better idea.”

He hauled her to her feet and dragged her over to the small table that sat nearby. He bent her over it and used a pair of her black silk stockings to bind her. He tied her hands behind her back and then used the second one as a makeshift gag, wrapping it around her face and tying it in a little knot right above her ear.

The thong slid down to her knees, he left it there, and she strained against the flimsy garment, attempting to rip it so she could spread her legs wider but the thong held.

His hands rested on her hips and the head of his prick teased at her lips, spreading the thick fluids across the engorged head. He moved inside her, thrusting into her hard and fast. His balls slapped against her body and his weight bore down on her slightly, making her wonder if the tiny spindly-legged little table would break below them.

Darien’s stiffened member filled her pussy, stretched her open and wide and she welcomed it, welcomed the sensation of him sliding along her walls and going deeper all the time. Her orgasm refused to wait any longer. It burst through her, the gag was wet from her saliva, and her hands strained against the other stocking as she sought to reach out, to touch his hard muscled body, to feel him as he fucked her.

She felt his orgasm. His cock twitched heavily and her walls were lubricated by his sticky and thick seed. Their mingled fluids dripped from her body and her legs shook, she was on the verge of a total collapse when the door opened and a woman in a light blue uniform stepped inside.

“Pardon, I am here to unpack…” her face went still for a moment then she vanished without another word.

Darien’s laughter rang out. He helped her to stand and took the stockings off her face and wrists. “I cannot believe she saw that,” Lolita gasped out.

“I’m sure they have seen plenty, it is a honeymooner’s paradise.”

“That is not funny!”

“Look at it this way, they will certainly believe we are newly married now.” He patted her ass and she yelped, the pain coming back with no pleasure this time. “You should get dressed so the nice lady can do her job.”

**

It was dinnertime and the villa’s guests had gathered for a meal and wine. The residents were diverse: Lolita and Darien, a couple from London who had inherited titles and wealth to go along with them and a rock star and his trophy wife, whose breasts threatened to overspill her low-cut blue dress.

The meal was spectacular but Lolita could barely eat. She took shallow sips of the wine, letting it rest on her tongue but she did not drink very much either.

Her gaze was constantly being drawn to the ring on Carmen’s hand. It sparkled and flashed on her finger and she had to fight off the urge to just grab it and run. Time was ticking away and guilt had set in, Jamie was being held captive and anything could be happening to her and here she sat, schmoozing with royalty and rock stars and dining on food that would make the most hardened of epicureans die with delight.

Darien knew what she was thinking; despite her best efforts, it was obvious she was lost in thought. The ring was an obvious diversion; her eyes kept sliding to it. That was dangerous and he knew he had to do something or she would let her emotions get the best of her and possibly get them killed.

He was willing to die with her if necessary or even die for her but he would be damned if he would die because of her.

His thoughts ceased. Had he just considered dying for her?

Carmen leaned closer to him and asked, “So what are your plans Brent?”

I am planning to steal your ring and get the fuck as far away from here as fast as possible
. He smiled. “Oh the usual, see if we can’t get on one of the boats and take a slow cruise, wine tastings and so on. I think Lily wants to buy a new hat or something tomorrow.”

He had been hoping the dig would make her sit up and take notice but she just smiled and lapsed back into her silence. They could not afford that silence and he wondered how to shake the rout of it without being too obvious. He knew she was worried about her sister, he did not blame her, but she had to pull it together.

“There was a stray cat under our window earlier,” the trophy wife said suddenly. “You could hear it yowling.”

Darien saw Lolita start and her face went crimson. That was just the thing she needed to focus her attention. She reached for her glass of wine and caught Carmen’s knowing grin. So the maid had reported what she had seen then, she was not surprised by that but it meant that things would be harder than she had originally thought.

Usually there was one disgruntled servant in a large house but nobody here seemed in the least bit inclined to be disloyal. She had sent out tentative feelers, nothing that would send out alarms but just test the waters and had gotten nothing. Darien had fared no better.

He had a nice tan on his face, he had spent the rest of the afternoon out on the patio next to the pool, soaking up the sun and swimming in the crystalline waters. She had watched him from the balcony even as she ran a reconnaissance on the villa, trying to figure out a way to get to Carmen’s room and out again without attracting notice.

It was impossible; she had guards everywhere masquerading as staff. They were always around, keeping her apart from her guests even as she rubbed elbows with them. The house was a maze. The rooms Carmen resided in were utterly unreachable form the inside, every time she got close to the section of the landing that led to her rooms someone appeared and asked her if they could assist her in some way. She pretended to be lost a few times then gave up the ruse, knowing she was going too far with it and bound to get caught.

She knew the answer was to come in from the outside but even that seemed like a nearly impossible feat with the alarms and guards and guests. Once upon a time she would have relished the challenge but worry over Jamie was muddling her thoughts.

Depression was weighting her down and she could not rid herself of it. She was going to fail Jamie. That thought brought panic.

Dinner finally ended and Darien pressed a glass of red wine into her hand as they walked to their room. She protested, saying she did not want it but he insisted and she drank it, too despondent to keep arguing. Warmth flooded through her and she sat down, trying to get her thoughts to form some cohesive pattern.

Weariness overcame her and she slumped down in the chair. Her body was relaxed and her thoughts drifting away. “It’s okay, trust me.” Darien said as he led her to bed.

“It’s not okay,” her eyes filled with tears and his heart squeezed in s
ympathy. “Jamie is not like you and me. What if they hurt her, what if they…?” She could not finish that thought and he did not need her to. She was her sister’s keeper, that was apparent and he knew it was not a duty she took lightly. His fingers were warm as he undid the tiny buttons that fastened her dress. She tried to bat his hands away but he just kissed her forehead and kept on, tucking her into a pair of silk pajamas and then under the sheets.

Her eyes closed and he backed away slowly. Her breathing was soft and slow, her body so slim she was barely visible under the covers and the auburn wig had fanned out from her face, emphasizing how drawn and pale she was.

Her sister meant a lot to her, he had no ties to anyone; no bonds as deep as that one but for a moment he wished he did. Then he turned away and left the room.

**

Lolita woke up with a dry mouth and pounding headache. As she slowly sat up her belly rolled and she had to blink several times to get things to come into focus. Her first thought was that the colored contact lenses that she was wearing had dried out and she needed to put some drops in her eyes. The second thought was that she had been drugged.

The other half of the bed was stone-cold. There was the sound of running feet and shouts from below, she could not seem to comprehend what was going on, but then it all became very clear.

She jumped out of bed and dashed for the door, she eased it open a crack in time to hear Carmen yelling that she had been robbed!

Oh shit. Someone else stole the damn ring before we could get to it.

That thought made no sense but it was the first thing that popped into her mind, mostly because she wanted so badly for it to be the truth although she knew it was not.

The drugs had not been very strong it seemed, just strong enough to knock her down a little while. She glanced at the clock. It was nearly three am and dinner had ended fashionably late, around eleven. That meant she had been out for hours and Darien…Darien had stolen the ring from Carmen somehow or another.

The full import of the situation hit her. Darien was gone and the ring was missing. He had sold her out, the alarm had been raised and it would not take long to figure out that the rock stars down the hall had not stolen that damn thing nor had the uber-wealthy couple from London. That would leave her and her missing bridegroom as suspects.

She dressed as quickly as possible and grabbed her cash and papers. The briefcase they had been hidden inside was the only thing she took with her when she used a sheet to help her shimmy down from the balcony and make her way across the back lawn to the fence and the ocean beyond.

Darien had betrayed her and that hurt more than she would have liked to admit. She should have known better than to trust him.

Illicit Liaison Book 3: Eternal Attraction

Lolita melted into the shadows below a large olive tree as men came past; above her on the balconies, she could see the rock star and his trophy wife standing there frozen and stunned while Carmen’s staff searched the premises.

She waited for a bank of clouds to pass over the bloated silver face of the moon then headed for another tree nearer the wall surrounding the property but she froze halfway there. A giant dog, obviously starved and pissed off, was stalking the grounds. He would sniff her out very quickly if she did not do something.

There was a fountain in the center of the courtyard. There were several risks involved: the dog would spot her or a human would before she could make it there, someone form above would see her even if she did make it into the fountain and she would drown before she could figure out her next move.

Deciding any action was better than inaction she counted to three and headed for it, using the trees and the scant cover of the flower gardens to help her make it unseen. She went into the fountain without a sound, the water closed over her head and she clutched the briefcase tightly to her chest as she duck walked along the bottom of the fountain’s pool so that she was directly below the spraying water. The spray was heavy and wide and she knew it would cover her better than anything else available to her now.

The force of the spray was far greater than she had counted on and she had to struggle not to bounce to the surface like a cork popping out of a champagne bottle. Air bubbles streaked past her face, reminding her of her own need to breathe. Her chest ached and her lungs throbbed, she felt like she was going to burst if she did not draw a breath.

She lifted her nose out of the water and drew a long breath. Her eyes were open and the moon shone down, a large and distorted circle. She could see very little else past the shooting water but she could make out the blurred figures of men running past and once the dog came to the lip of the pool and stood there, obviously confused. She sank as low as possible then, holding onto the bottom of the jets to keep her body as far down as possible and by the time she felt safe enough to raise her nose again for a breath of air she was close to losing consciousness.

The ordeal seemed endless and there were moments when she wanted to give up, to let go and draw that breath even though it would mean she would never draw another. Her body ached, the jets battered at her constantly and her mind froze and locked into numbness.

When she could see nothing above the water but sky, she cautiously lifted her face, allowing just the upper half to rise above the water level. There was the sound of dogs barking and loud swearing coming from the villa but the grounds were quiet. She scanned the rooftops and spotted two men patrolling along them, looking into the grounds for the intruders. There was a glint of moonlight on steel and she waited it out, they did not seem to have any preordained rhythm, they just kept walking back and forth. She had to make a decision and fast so she waited until the first one had turned and the second was beginning his approach to run.

She made it closer to the wall and took shelter under another large olive tree, hoping its branches would give her enough cover while she figured out her next move. Just as she was preparing to move again an arm snaked around her waist and a hand clamped down tightly on her face, silencing her cries.

“There you are,” whispered into her ear. “You were supposed to still be asleep.”

She bit his palm hard and he flinched, she felt a twinge of satisfaction at that but it died down as headlights speared into the darkness, probing the grass around the driveway. They both froze, any move could alert a sharp pair of eyes, and if the car kept on its path the beams would pick them out clearly.

Darien pulled his hand off her mouth and whispered, “Any ideas?”

The car halted. The bright white lights stopped five feet short of the spot where they were and the ambient light from those beams did not quite reach where they stood, motionless. They both knew breathing could give them away and they were both hoping that the car’s passengers would not be able see them past the teeming shadows around them.

The whole thing was a cluster fuck. Darien had counted on being able to grab the ring and then grab Lolita, who should have still been unconscious, then disappear out of the villa and Italy before dawn. Now there were pearly streaks on the far horizon and the car that had just pulled up disgorged a figure that was impossible not to recognize. Carlos had come and he was pissed.

This was all they needed; now they had two pissed off mobsters to contend with in their lives. He surveyed the grounds and felt a cold thrill in his vitals when spotlights began to go on across the grounds.

“I have an idea,” Lolita whispered in a barely audible voice close to his ear, cupping her hand so sound would not travel.

“It better be a damn good one or we are going to die in the next three minutes.”

“How brave are you?’

The challenge in her voice made him grin despite the circumstances. “As brave as you need me to be.”

“Buckle it up cowboy; we are going for a ride.”

Darien let her go. Lolita waited until Carlos was walking toward the villa, followed by his goons. The front door burst open and Carmen emerged, her face mottled with rage and tears. The rock star and his trophy wife, both looking incredibly shaken up, and the other couple also appeared. Behind them was a man pushing a cart loaded sky-high with luggage.

“Are you thinking…”Darien began.

“You bet.” Lolita replied.

They waited until the passengers were inside Carlos’s limo and the man loading the luggage was engrossed in his task. Everyone else’s attention was focused on Carmen. Darien hit the man loading the luggage once, a neat hard chop that toppled him into the trunk. He went in soundlessly, his eyes already glazing over.

Darien shoved the luggage cart to one side. It toppled down a small hill out of sight and he gave Lolita, who was already in the trunk tying up the unconscious man, a huge grin before he entered the trunk too and slammed the lid down. Instantly the darkness enfolded them.

“I think we make a great team.”

“I think you are a fucking lunatic who tried to betray me and could not get out of dodge fast enough. As soon as this car stops I am going to kill you.”

“If that is what you feel you need to do,” his voice was tinged with amusement and she wanted to slap his face, which she was positive wore his usual arrogant expression, but she could not judge the distance well enough to do it.

Lolita began to shiver from delayed shock and cold. Her clothes were still wet and her body ached. The after effects of the drugs were beginning to tell on her system and Darien held her, smoothing her tangled hair back from her face as the car rolled away from the villa.

“You lost your wig,” he whispered.

“I kept the suitcase.”

“That is how I knew they had not gotten to you before I made it back to the room.”

“You were not coming back.”

Darien sighed. The woman was damned stubborn. Could she really think he had meant to double-cross her? Well, he had drugged her and… shit… “I never meant to leave you there, Lolita. I would never have done that.”

“There is no honor among thieves. Do you know why sayings like that are around? Because they are true enough that people began to see it.”

Darien fell silent. He knew she was far too angry and hurt to be reasonable so he decided he would simply let her be and when she calmed down he would then talk to her.

Lolita felt a sense of sorrow along with the justification that filled her at his silence. The guilty never proclaimed their innocence very long.

**

The limo slowly wound through traffic, Darien pushed the button on the inside of the trunk that would allow it to open from inside, keeping one hand on the edge so as to keep the driver from seeing it pop open. He knew a signal would light up on the dash once it was open but he doubted the driver would see it for a minute or two, he would be too busy trying to get through the mess of traffic that was Rome’s rush hour.

Carmen had sent her guests to Rome with her apologies and regrets and while they had not known just how bad things would be for the thief if caught they were all too well aware that they had narrowly escaped some major unpleasantness, the least of which was the loss of their own personal possessions. Darien had been standing near the door of the study when Carmen had told her guests that she had to ask them to leave to keep them safe from the same thief that had stolen her precious ring and he had not been surprised at the alacrity with which they had agreed.

“Grab that suitcase,” he said to Lolita, who had just finished checking the bonds of the now-conscious and very angry man who was sharing the trunk with them.

She did not ask why, they needed clothes and they needed to look as if they blended in. She grabbed the Louis Vuitton suitcase and matching makeup case while Darien snatched up a Ghurka suitcase. They exited the trunk as the car made a slow turn in one of the circular roundabouts. They landed on the sidewalk, looking for all the world as if they belonged there, only one woman noticed their departure from the trunk of the car, and they were gone before she had time to really register what she had seen.

They hurried down a side street and found a tiny alley that led them to a slightly darkened dead end. They dug through the bags, Lolita crowing in triumph when she realized hers was filled with not just clothes but Hermes and Marc Jacobs handbags. She was not so happy with the fit of the clothes though. She had grabbed the suitcase that belonged to the busty trophy wife.

She wound up with a pair of white leather pants that were just a shade too tight, a black silk blouse, a red leather jacket, a pair of dark sunglasses, and white and black striped heels with red bottoms.

“This is the tackiest outfit I have ever worn,” she said as she pulled her hair up into a loose knot and applied makeup and perfume.

“Look at this one,” Darien responded. He wore a blue and black striped suit jacket, black t-shirt, skinny-legged black jeans and a pair of acid-orange Converse. Lolita burst into laughter; she just could not help it.

“You look ridiculous.”

“At least we do not look like we are trying to be invisible.”

“Hiding in plain sight is the best option when hiding is not an option.” Lolita agreed.

“Being invisible in these clothes is not an option at all.”

“We can’t stay in Rome. Those two space cases are bound to scream to high heaven when they find out their stuff is gone and once the driver sees the other guy in the trunk, which is more than likely happening right now, we will not be safe anywhere in this country.”

“We are going to get out of here, don’t worry.”

They left the alley, walking briskly and ignoring the stares of the passersby. They headed for the bus station, their eyes scanning the streets for any sign of the car or the couple whose clothes they were wearing.

In the crowded bus terminal, they bought tickets and stood around, in full view of the many travelers. Darien ducked into a small store and bought two tee shirts emblazoned with tourist slogans. Lolita pranced around, shaking her ass in the skintight pants and stepping down so hard that the heels of her already noisy shoes made loud clicks that rose over the din.

She ducked into a bathroom, put on plain jeans and a tee shirt, wiped the heavy makeup from her face, and slid on a pair of relatively low-heeled sandals. She pulled her hair down and parted it on the other side, brushing it until it hung sleek against her cheeks.

Darien was in blue jeans, the other tee and plain sneakers, and both of them had ditched the expensive luggage, although Lolita had kept the Hermes bag and the jewelry she had found as well, figuring she deserved some sort of remuneration from the ordeal.

Darien had snagged a backpack from a small shop and he shrugged it on. They grabbed and unfolded giant maps of the city in front of their faces and walked a few blocks before hailing a cab.

**

They were on the run again and this time it was even more desperate. They were running from Interpol officers who had known exactly what ID’s they were carrying. They had narrowly escaped capture at the airport and now, huddled into seats on the back of a city bus they were both keyed up and anxious but working hard to maintain their happy tourist facades.

Darien had a destination in mind, he knew if they made it there, they would be safe and be able to get fresh ID’s and even a good night’s sleep. Nobody at the incredibly exclusive and highly secret club wanted or needed the attention of police, which meant they would close ranks and keep silent.

He was worried though, he had no idea of how Interpol could have known their assumed names, and that they had known them was further proof that someone knew whom they were and was determined to see them dead or captured.

Why? That was the question and there was no answer there. He was smart enough to know that there had to be a reason and a connection but right now, they did not have the time to sift through the issue.

They got off the bus and walked a few blocks. The day had waned while they had run from place to place and they were both hungry and tense. Darien kept shooting surreptitious glances at Lolita, her strength had impressed him from the start, but it was apparent that both of them were running on empty.