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SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Nemo

Several twists and turns later, they turned the corner into a back alley behind the houses. Nemo hauled the pixie into a darkened doorway to consider their options. “Midas?”

“Congratulations. You’re about to be boxed in. Idioot !” Nemo didn’t take offense. The more stressed Midas got, the more likely he was to slip into their native Afrikaans. Nemo also understood that it was equally possible that Midas was calling himself an “idioot” for allowing Nemo to get into this position in the first place.

Nemo looked down at the woman he had corralled into the corner of the doorway. “We’re in a bind, kitty cat.”

She looked at the nameplate on the door behind her, then back at him. “I can’t get to mine. Do you have lockpicks?”

He scowled at her. “Does a duck quack? Right pocket.”

He felt her sigh and pause before sliding her hand into his pocket. When her hand met with a hard object, he grinned. He just couldn’t help himself.

“ Your right, sweetheart, not mine. That particular key you’re holding opens up very different doors.”

Midas moaned. “Oh my god, bro. You didn’t.”

“You’re a dick,” she told him.

“You did.” Midas groaned.

“Dick or not, and I’m guessing that your pun was unintended, it doesn’t change the fact that the picks are still in the other pocket. How the hell are you such a good cat burglar when you don’t know your left from your right?”

She reached into his other front pocket and snagged the picks, then dropped to her knees to attack the lock on the door.

“If I’d known that’s all I needed to do to get you on your knees?—”

“You’re such a cunt,” she hissed. “I wouldn’t be in this position if your dumb ass hadn’t shown up tonight.”

“Nemo, she’s right,” Midas confirmed. “You’re being a cunt.”

“Go ahead. Report me to human resources, both of you. See what happens.”

A faint click sounded, followed by a quiet creak, and his little thief was through the doorway. Following her, he silently shut the door and locked it behind them. The room was pitch black, so to give his eyes time to adjust, he plastered himself along the wall next to the door. She was in the same position on the other side. Neither said a word—just listened to the foot traffic outside the door.

The gendarmes were coming from both ends of the alley now, methodically looking behind every trash can and dumpster, checking every doorway, and testing every door to see if it was locked. The handle of the door next to Nemo turned twice, but because it was locked, the officers continued down the alley. When they met up with their counterparts in the middle, they stopped to discuss their next move.

“They think we’re back up on the rooftops,” she whispered, translating their rapid French.

A radio squawked, and the officers received what sounded like orders if the volume and irritated tone were anything to go by.

“They know there’s been a break-in. The diamonds are gone.” She looked at him. “Except for the Jupiter Diamond.”

He dodged the question in her eyes by pulling his balaclava over his head and considering the darkness around him. His head felt sweaty from the hood and running. He ruffled his blond hair from its matted form by running his fingers through it repeatedly. “Where are we? It looks like my ouma’s attic.”

“It’s an antique store.”

“Ah. That explains it.” He shifted his attention. “Midas, what have you got?”

“I hacked into their radio frequency. You’re only slightly screwed. They’re fanned out all around the town. She’s correct. They’re definitely thinking you’ve gone back to the rooftops. No word yet on doing an internal building-to-building search.”

“Keep me updated.” He tapped his watch to mute him from his brother. Leaning back against the wall, he told her, “Midas confirmed your rooftops. Looks like we’re stuck here for a little bit.”

“Did you think I lied to you?”

“No, not really. But it’s nice to be sure.” His eyes adjusted to the room lit only by streetlamps through the window. “What is it with this town? No security force for a multimillion diamond display? No alarm system business with priceless antiques in it?”

She pulled her own balaclava from her head, her springy curls bouncing loose around her elfin face .

Damn. She’s even prettier than I remembered. Love those curls and those blue sparklers of hers.

Shrugging, she tucked the hood into her belt, then began removing her gloves. “It’s supposed to be ‘a quaint village from a time gone by,’” she quoted one of the tour brochures. “Security systems ruin the aesthetic.”

She wandered around the room in the dark, looking at the pieces she could see in the dim lighting.

“You look good, kitty cat.”

Her head turned in his direction. He couldn’t see her face in the shadows, but he knew what he’d see if he could. Wide-open blue eyes that sparkled, but right now, they’d be like prey—frozen when it senses a predator nearby.

“Thank you,” she returned reluctantly. “So do you. What’s it been? Two years?”

“Little under,” he corrected nonchalantly. “I’ve been trying to trace you. The papers say you stole the Saturn Diamond. Was it you? In Gabon?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The smile was clear in his voice. “Yeah, it was you.”

The light shifted slightly as the moon came out from behind some clouds.

Yep, definitely predicted the startled look.

They stood in silence, staring at one another.

When he couldn’t resist any longer, he pushed off the wall and headed in her direction as best he could with all the furniture in his way. She backed up three steps, so he stopped.

“You afraid of me, kitty cat?”

Her chin tilted up. “No.”

He took another step in her direction.

She backed up another step.

“If you’re not afraid, then why are you backing up?”

“Strategic retreat,” she whispered .

For every measured step he took, she backed up another until finally, she was stopped by a three-drawer bureau with an attached mirror. Her butt hit the edge of its tabletop, and she instinctively crawled up onto it in a seated position, backing into the mirror when he was finally within touching distance.

“And here I thought you liked me. You seemed to when we met last time.”

“I don’t know you enough to like you.”

“Kitty cat. Seriously? My petting had you purring, and your little claws sank into my shoulder blades so deep I have scars.”

“That was a mistake.”

“One helluva mistake I enjoyed. You did, too.”

“Yes, well, let’s make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.”

Hands on her knees, he pushed them apart. “Oh, I’m all about a repeat.”

She gestured to his ear. “But your brother?—”

“Muted.”

He moved in. His hand threading through her mop of curls, he pressed his lips to hers. His other hand grabbed her hip and pulled her tight to his front, where the cradle of her hips came into contact with his hard cock. Her gasp to try and tell him something only served to let him swipe his tongue inside her mouth and flick against the roof before sliding along her tongue.

Oh fuck! There it is! That sugar taste! Fuck, how I’ve missed it.

Her hands were on his chest. She gave a half-hearted push to stop him, but then she groaned and gave up, allowing her hands to slide over his shoulders, up his neck, and anchor around his nape.

“This is a bad idea,” she managed to puff out. When he moved his mouth to her neck, she stretched her head to the side, giving him better access to nip at the cord and follow it down to where her neck met her shoulder.

“Bad ideas are my favorite,” he mumbled.

“We really shouldn’t,” she chastised. Her hands slid down to his waist, frantically pulling his shirt from his pants, grasping at the warm flesh underneath it.

His hand slid from her hip down to her thigh and guided it around his hip. “You’re totally right. We really shouldn’t.” His mouth agreed, but his brain was in total disagreement. His mouth hovered at the hollow in her throat as he pulled her hips even tighter to his, his hardness meeting her softness. “Christ, you feel so hot.” He groaned as he ground his cock against her core.

She whimpered. “I am so fucked.” The tone was resignation, not fear or anger.

“That was my plan.”

He let go of her and backed off just enough to reach behind him and pull his shirt over his head, throwing it behind him somewhere. As he was doing that, he watched her grab for the bottom of her shirt, crossing her arms at the waist, pulling it free of her leggings, and ripping it over her head to drop it on the floor next to the dresser. Her sports bra quickly followed.

While stripping off his belt, he fumbled in one of the pouches for a condom. As soon as he had it secured, he let the belt fall to the floor, and he returned his lips to hers. Their kisses were fevered and hungry, and her hands roamed over his tanned and muscled chest, dipping down to allow her fingers to trace the perfectly defined muscles of his abdomen. Foreheads resting against one another, she chuffed out her approval. “Mary, Mother of God, you’re even more fit than before.”

He returned the caress by palming her small breasts. “Same for you. Watching your tight ass run across those roofs was the hottest thing I’ve seen in a long time. ”

Mouths were back on each other—messy, hungry, and trying to make up for lost time—while both sets of hands were trying to help the other person lose the clothing that remained on their bodies from the waist down. He unbuckled the belt with all the tools of her trade and dropped it to the floor. Shoving his hands into the back of her leggings, Nemo dragged them and her underwear down as she lifted her butt off the top of the dresser. When they were at her knees, he pulled just one leg off over her foot, then hitched both legs over his hips.

He felt cool air on his lower half as she shoved his pants down past his ass cheeks, then the warmth of her smooth palm on his skin as she grabbed his cock and began to stroke it.

Three… two… one…

She gasped.

He chuckled. “Surprise?”

“Is that…?”

“Mmm hmm.” His lips were back on hers. “Wait until you feel it inside you. You can thank me later.”

“Oh god,” she moaned out.

“Only me here, kitty cat. Focus.”

Taking his cock in hand, he made short work of securing the condom he’d pulled from his belt, then guided himself to her opening, which was just past the edge of the bureau top and in perfect position. He swiped his shaft through her arousal, the barbell of his piercing teasing her opening, even through the latex, then dragged it over her clit and back, causing her breath to hitch and her body to shudder. Finding himself quickly soaked in a new wave of her arousal, he immediately slid himself inside her, buried to the hilt. Both of them groaned at the breach.

“Hold onto the edge of the dresser,” he ordered against her lips.

When her fingers were curled with a death grip as requested, he leaned her back so that her shoulder blades were pressed against the cool glass of the mirror. One hand grabbed the heavy mirror frame while the other grabbed the opposite side of the dresser top, and he lost no time pounding into her with fast, deep strokes. Almost immediately, an orgasm began to ripple through his system. He could tell that she was in much the same situation because her legs were gripping his hips tighter than he’d ever felt, and her hips were canting off the top of the dresser to try and find the best angle.

He let go of the dresser to tilt her hips into a better position, and he knew the exact moment his piercing hit the right spot because she let out the start of a scream. Swallowing her sounds with his mouth pressed hungrily to hers, one hand went to get the needed leverage on the dresser to keep it from banging against the wall, and the other hand crept in between their bodies to find her clit. He pressed on it and began circular motions with his thumb.

Now I know what people mean when they say the earth moved!

He felt her walls squeeze him so tight, and a warm wave of fluid surrounded him inside her. He couldn’t have stopped his body’s reaction if he’d wanted to. For just a moment, he froze, buried deep, and felt his cum erupt from his cock. Every time he pulsed, he stroked deep, held, then retreated. When the pulsing from his shaft stopped, he switched to slow, measured strokes to ease her down through the aftershocks of her orgasm.

Hands down, the hottest fucking feeling ever. Mic drop.

Placing his forehead to hers, he gasped, “Jesus Christ, woman.”

She said nothing, merely tried to catch her breath between what sounded like sobs, her hands now curled over his shoulders.

His equilibrium restored, he slid his hands under her hips and hoisted her upright, his cock still hard and buried inside her, and turned to shuffle the three steps to the couch on display behind him. He sat down with her straddling him, arms wrapped tight around her waist, his head buried in the space between her bicep and her shoulder. His lips pressed soft, wet kisses to the top of her breast, and occasionally, his tongue would flick out to taste her skin.

Fuckin’ sugar everywhere. It’s a goddamn drug.

When he felt her breathing return to normal as well, he leaned back on the couch, his eyes locked with hers. His arms slid from around her waist, and he glanced up her torso, reaching up to brush some of her springy curls back, only for them to fall back to where they had been.

Stubborn. Like her.

His hands had dropped back down to where their bodies met in his lap. He ran his fingers lightly back and forth from where her ass met his thighs to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her skin was so soft. He never wanted to stop touching it.

“Well, so much for not repeating history.” She sighed. Her hands rested lightly on the tops of his shoulders, and her face pinched up. “Do you spend your whole life this hard?”

He winked. “Stamina is my superpower.”

She rolled her eyes. When she attempted to roll off his lap, he captured her by spanning her waist with his hands. “Where are you going, kitty cat?” He pulled her forward and nuzzled her neck. “Don’t you dare move. I’m not done with you yet, woman.”

In one fluid motion, he picked her up, turned her, and had her tucked underneath him—her back slouched against the couch, her ass at the end of the seat, and him on his knees between her legs. She made an effort to slide out from under him, but he buried himself a little deeper, making sure to drag the piercing at the tip of his cock across her G-spot as he went. When she wiggled to try again, he stopped her by covering a nipple with his hot, wet mouth.

“You need to stop that,” she groaned. He grinned against her breast as her arms told him the complete opposite by curling around his neck and cradling his head closer.

“Not happening,” he mumbled before his tongue began flicking as fast as a serpent’s tongue over the nub. He let his cock slip free of her, the barbell giving a quick tap against her clit when it bounced back slightly. Removing the condom as he went, his mouth continued to track down the front of her, stopping to kiss each of the tattoos he hadn’t had a chance to investigate the last time they’d been together.

She’d added to her art. The first time they’d met, she’d had a partial sleeve of skulls and diamonds. No surprise on the latter. There had also been tattoos on her back, although he’d never had a chance to look at them, and she also had a tattoo of a snake slithering around her ankle and down toward her toes.

Since then, she’d finished the sleeve on her left arm and started one on her right. She also had a couple more tattoos peppered across her shoulders, and from what he’d seen in the mirror, she’d added more to her back. But the one that caused a bark of laughter was one just to the left of her belly button—an image of Saturn. He looked up into her face, smirking as he pressed a kiss to it, then traced its rings with his tongue. “Not in Gabon, my ass.”

“I happen to have a very intense interest in astronomy,” she deadpanned.

He rolled his eyes at her. “I notice there’s an open space here next to it. Any plans for other planetary orbs to make an appearance?”

“That’s something for future consideration, I’m afraid.” She threaded her fingers through his longer hair on the top of his head. “You left the Jupiter Diamond behind. That’s what the gendarmes were saying. You took the moonstones but left the big prize. Why?”

He ripped his gaze away from hers and concentrated on her tattoos as he considered how to answer her question. Things had changed since he met her almost two years ago. Not that they’d exchanged much information in the past thirty or so minutes they’d been reunited. Just bodily fluids, for the most part. But the stakes were definitely higher than before for both him and her.

“I was hired to take the moonstones. Nothing was said about the other. So I left it.”

She smacked him up the backside of the head. “Are you barmy? The value of that one diamond is, at minimum, five times that of the ninety-five rocks you stole. You could have just swept it up with the rest and kept it for yourself.”

“Could have.” His mouth drifted down to the top of her mound, pressing a light kiss to the skin. He could taste a mixture of her sweat, her arousal, and the sugary flavor that was uniquely her.

A hand slid under his chin and pulled his focus back to her. “Seriously. Why?”

He shrugged. “Knew you’d be coming for it eventually. Know it means something to you. I don’t need it. I’m a lot of things but being greedy isn’t one of them. At least, not for diamonds.”

“You don’t need ninety-five diamonds. You want those.”

“It’s just a job, kitty cat. Now shush. I have a much more important job to do here. Mainly, rock the rest of that missing universe on your skin.”

He put his mouth on her, his tongue licking her from hole to clit, swirling around the nerve center, then repeating the action. A hand fell to the back of his head and pressed firmly as he began the third swipe across her flesh. His chuckle against her skin told her he got the message of “stay here” and proceeded to fuck her with his tongue, making her come a second time.

Still on his knees between her legs, Nemo was once again tracing her rings of Saturn, this time with his fingertip. He smirked to himself and chuckled, again struck by the Saturn tattoo.

Her hand threaded through the hair on the crown of his head. “What’s so funny?”

He rested his chin on her skin just below her belly button. “I was thinking about your tattoo and how you are definitely a heavenly body yourself.”

She snorted and shook her head. “Your pickup lines aren’t getting any better.”

“I’ve already had you. Twice. I don’t think I’m picking you up anymore.” The wattage of his smile dimmed, but it was actually more sincere. “Made you laugh. Nothing I like better than seeing your smile. Still makes me feel warm all over.”

Resting her palm against the side of his face, her smile became softer. “That’s sweet.”

He shrugged, gave her belly a chaste kiss, and slid his hands under her waist to pull her close. “Just the truth.” He thought back to the first time they made love two years earlier. He rimmed her belly button, remembering she was ticklish there, and sure enough—she giggled and tried to push him away.

I love her laugh. I love her smile. She’s perfect .

They stared at one another, saying nothing, both lost in their thoughts.

Finally, Haskell spoke. “Can I see them?”

“The moonstones?”

She nodded.

He winked at her. “I wondered how long it would be before you asked.” Straightening up on his knees, he looked around for his pants. He stretched to reach where they’d been dropped earlier and patted the legs in the dark. Once he found the pouch secreted in an inside pocket, he tossed it from one hand to the other. He pulled open the velvet bag, then proceeded to pour them onto her flat stomach.

She giggled. “Is this what they mean by ‘dripping in diamonds’?”

He laughed, watching her as she picked up one of the stones, holding it up to the moonlight, turning it this way and that to catch the sparkle.

“So beautiful.” She sighed.

She definitely loves her diamonds.

“Yes,” he agreed. “Nothing more beautiful in the world.”

Haskell’s eyes darted from the diamond to him, seeing that he wasn’t looking at the stone she held but at her with unabashed attraction. There was concern in her eyes, and he felt her retreat from the tender moment they had been immersed in only moments ago.

She has no clue how beautiful she is. How is that possible?

With a sigh, she placed the diamond with the others. “Why were you hired to take these stones in particular?”

“According to the client, they were stolen from them in the first place. Best we could tell, they were telling the truth.”

He swept up the diamonds carefully in several handfuls, trying not to knock any off onto the couch or floor, and put the bag back into the pocket designed to keep items safe. However, he placed one that was larger than the others in her belly button. He admired it as it winked in the moonlight. “That looks nice.”

She laughed at him. “You are such a git.”

He rescued the diamond, placing it on the end table next to the couch, then slid his hands back under her. He pulled her into a sitting position and kneeled upright so that he could plaster himself to her. “Kiss me, kitty cat. I need more of that sugar.”

A beeping in his ear woke him. He sat up, a spasm in his lower back reminding him that he’d just spent several hours fucking and sleeping on an antique couch not meant for nocturnal activities. He tapped his watch.

“Yeah?”

“Lose something?” Midas asked.

Nemo looked around. “Dammit, she’s gone again!” He ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it when he reached the ends in the back.

“Getting late, bro. Shop opens in two hours. Someone’s probably going to be there soon. You probably should head out.”

“Did you see which direction she went?”

“North. She didn’t get the moonstones, did she?”

Nemo checked his pants pocket. The bag was still there. When he looked at the tabletop, the stray diamond was missing. “She took a souvenir,” Nemo admitted. “But just one.”

Midas snorted. “Luckily, that works out. We need to replace one with a fake anyway. Waters wants us tracking these stones. He thinks they’re going somewhere beyond the original owners.”

“Any idea why?”

“Nothing yet, but he thinks they’re headed for Italy. I didn’t ask why he thinks that.”

Nemo began to dress. “All right. I’m on my way back to the rendezvous point. I’ll let you know when I’m at the airport.”

“I’ll be available until I know you’re there. Safe travels.”

Nemo heard the distinctive click as Midas severed his connection. Once dressed, he snuck out of the shop and through the street that he’d come down with his little cat burglar in the wee hours of the morning.

When he reached the edge of town, he looked back at Riquewihr with a sigh.

Au revoir, Le Chatte Noire. We will meet again. And when we do, you will not be getting away for a third time.

With that final thought and a resigned smile, he rubbed at the low ache in the area of his chest. He slipped into the forest’s edge, jogging a roundabout path to where he’d stashed his motorcycle the night before. Within ten minutes, he was back on the road and headed to the small airport where his ride awaited, his brain replaying the stolen hours during the night.

Even as he allowed himself to drift into sleep on the airplane, his dreams were filled with a mop of springy blonde curls, vivid blue eyes, and an impish smile.