Page 51 of Cyn
She watched pleasure play across his features, his eyes still closed, as if savoring the feel of her as he moved inside her.
“Beni?” she managed to ask as her own body responded to his slow and steady attentions.
“Christ, I should wake up like this every morning,” he said through his tightened jaw. His pace altered the slightest bit, moving a bit faster.
“Beni?” she asked again, mostly to goad him into thinking he hadn’t distracted her enough yet. Predictably, he responded how she’d hoped, and he moved a hand down, gripped her hip, and tipped her upward, pressing against her with every thrust. She bit her lip to keep from telling him how good it felt—she wasn’t yet ready to let him know he’d been successful in distracting her—but she did tighten her ankles, pulling her hips even closer to his.
His pace had increased again, and she could tell from the look on his face, even though his eyes were still closed, that he was close. Even as his pleasure started to take hold, he recognized she wasn’t quite with him, and so with the next thrust, he stayed buried, pressing himself against her clit. Her breath caught at the sudden, focused stimulation, and without conscious thought, she started grinding against him, reaching for the orgasm that was hovering on the fringes. He rocked into her, going deeper and deeper, and then suddenly it caught. Heat flowed from her belly, down her legs, and to her toes that curled into themselves as she gripped Joe even tighter around the waist.
“Aw, fuck,” Joe said, his fingers digging into her hip as he rocked harder and harder against her. She moved with him, drawing out the delicious tinglings that had her arching her back and drawing him deeper. Then it broke, and she grabbed hold of him with every part of her body, her thighs shaking with the strength of her orgasm. A strangled sound escaped her and distantly, she heard Joe let out an animalistic growl as he pushed into her one more time with enough force that her head hit the headboard. Heat poured from him and into her, and his pulsing release brought on another small flutter of pleasure.
Braced above her, Joe remained still as a statue except for his breathing, which was coming in deep, labored breaths. Not sure they were going to obey her wishes, Cyn slowly unhooked her ankles and let her legs drop to the bed. Joe opened his eyes and looked down at her. She reached a hand up and brushed it against his bristly cheek. “Good morning,” she said, not bothering to hide a smile she was sure could be categorized as dreamy.
He smiled down at her, then lowered his head and brushed a kiss over her lips. “Good morning. I think I like Saturday’s a whole helluva lot better these days. Although,” he said as he rolled away and onto his back, “I think I might need another nap.”
She raised herself up on her elbow and rested a hand on his chest. His own came up and covered hers, pressing her palm against his chest. “I’ll not argue with you,” she said. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that I have some work to do today. Did you hear from Beni?”
His eyes closed again, then he shook his head. “I’ll call her when you start working on the stuff Lucy sent you last night.” After a beat of silence, he spoke again. “I wish there was more I could do to help. I know your intelligence work isn’t really something I can help with much, but this isn’t a government op. This is something you’re investigating because a Somali pirate can’t be bothered to send you a note to tell you what’s going on. I feel like I could be doing more.”
She considered brushing off his concerns but stopped herself. If the roles were reversed and Joe needed help that she couldn’t provide, it would bother her, too. Being bound by different laws, though, there wasn’t much hecoulddo. “Talk to Beni this morning, and then we can work together on infiltrating the chat rooms. Lucy sent transcripts from some prior conversations of the fictional avatar, so I know what kind of language to use and that sort of thing, but it couldn’t hurt to have your eyes on it, too. I’m not a native speaker of American English and that slips out sometimes.”
“You’re giving me something to do to make me feel better, aren’t you?” He smiled as he asked.
She leaned down and kissed his chest. “Maybe. But I know I wouldn’t like it if I couldn’t help you, and it truly would be a help to have you checking my communications. You can also help me check the dossier if someone starts asking questions. It would be great if I didn’t have to switch my focus from the chat boards to flipping through the file Lucy sent.”
He opened his eyes and studied her. Yes, she was giving him a task that she didn’tneedhelp with, but she’d been speaking the truth when she’d said it would help.
“I could do it on my own,” she said. “But if we can do it better as a team, then we should do it as a team. Assuming you want to.”
He continued to study her, and she started to wonder if maybe she’d said something to offend him. But then he launched himself up and over her. Again. Only this time, it wasn’t a sexual move, though he did lower his lips to hers and give her a very thorough kiss.
“We’re going to figure out this couple thing, aren’t we? Despite all the weird hurdles we’re likely to encounter?” he asked after ending the kiss.
She didn’t know what the future held for her and Joe any more than he did. They’d both been around the block enough to know that the next year, the next month, the next minute was never promised. But she heard what he was asking.
She nodded. “I think that’s the best promise we can make each other,” she said. “That we’ll continue to try.”
He brushed another kiss across her lips, then rolled over the other side of her and rose to stand beside the bed. Holding his hand out, he spoke. “Then I think we have a few things to do today. Together.”
* * *
“What exactly is that?” Devil demanded in her usual cool tones. Six, Devil, and Nora were all standing behind her, looking over her shoulder as she navigated yet another level ofSerrated Serpent. It wasn’t quite noon and Lucy hadn’t been in touch yet, so Cyn had chosen to pass the time by playing the stupid video game.
“I think it’s a lizard tail,” Nora said.
“But it has horse-like…wait, no, that’s a goat’s body, isn’t it?” Six asked.
“The face,” Devil said. “I don’t even know what to do with that. It looks like a cross between a pug, an alligator, and a pig.”
“Well, if you ladies have found any leads, I’d be happy to end this session and follow up,” Cyn said. As she thought, no one said anything. It wasn’t that they hadn’t found things on each of the young men they’d looked into because they had. But what they’d found hadn’t given them any new leads; it had only lent more credence to their belief that the men were involved in some bad shit and, most likely, plotting to commit an act of terrorism. It was frustrating as hell.
“This diagram looks like it was drawn by someone with some training—not an architect or anything, but someone with training in angles and proportions,” Nora said, looking at the printout of the building schematic Cyn had given her when she’d arrived.
“Like an engineer?” Six said, her voice considering.
“Or maybe someone with a mathematics, specifically geometry, background?” Devil suggested.
“Doesn’t matter who drew it if we can’t find a building to compare it to,” Cyn said over her shoulder as she took out another monster. Someone on her team shouted in glee, and she cringed.
