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SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Nemo

A loud rumble of thunder and a crack of lightning shook the pier, the storm much closer than it had been when they arrived. He had one of Gem’s hands in his, and he was making serious speed toward the street end of the pier. He knew she was struggling to keep up, but she wouldn’t be struggling for long. When they reached the end of the pier and hit the sidewalk, he made a sharp U-turn, dragging her down to the beach toward a row of bathing huts along the divide between the grass and the sand. He picked the third one because it had a sign above it, “Welcome to the Hansen’s! Make yourself at home.” This one was likely to be more like a mini house inside rather than a storage shed. Within seconds, he had extracted his picks, made short work of the lock, and pulled her inside the shack just as the heavens opened up and poured down rain.

He’d been right. The family that owned this bathing hut was one that used the space like a tiny house for beach days. There were a couple of cots, some stacked lounge chairs, a table and four chairs for dining, and a bureau where they must have kept supplies. While there was no running water or electricity, he noticed they had a huge canister for collecting water, several bowls that were probably used to hold water, a large cooler, and a grill tucked in the corner.

No sooner had the door closed behind them, then Nemo had her back against it, the door relocked, and she was in his arms. His lips plundered Gem’s, pressing hard until she opened for him. Once he broke through that barrier, their tongues attempted to dominate the other into submission, but neither seemed able to gain the upper hand.

Their heads turned and tilted to get better angles. Hands speared through hair, pulling strands to bring the other closer, palms cradling skulls, and fingertips massaging away the sting of pulling each other’s hair. Teeth took nips at soft flesh and darting muscle in an attempt to subdue, and all the while, the rain beat against the flimsy tin roof of the hut, and occasional flashes of lightning briefly lit the darkness of the space.

Nemo pulled his mouth from Gem’s. However, his lips remained close to her skin, pressing soft kisses to her face, the underside of her jaw, and her hairline. She whimpered, clutching him desperately, as she tried to drag his mouth back to hers.

“Shh, sugar cat,” he soothed.

His hands went to frame her face, brushing the curls back in his never-ending quest to tame them. They were just like her. Glorious. Alive. Irrepressible. His eyes held hers, her pupils dilated to where the barest ring of blue surrounded the darkness. He began to take subtle deep breaths, then gradually let them out. After about a half dozen cycles, he felt her breathing align with his, and then a few more breaths later, he was able to ease them down completely.

Nemo’s eyes never left hers as his hands curved under and around her thighs, lifting her slight weight so that their hips matched up. She’d worn a short skirt tonight, which had already risen indecently when she wrapped her legs around his waist. Pinning her tightly to the door with his body, he used his hands to pull the skirt up around her waist completely, then allowed his palms to trail down the smooth expanse of her skin from her lower back to where her legs met his body. He lowered his head to rest in the crook of her neck, the tip of his tongue tracing the cord from shoulder to ear. Meanwhile, his hands were busy unbuttoning and unzipping his pants.

Gem gasped when his naked dick brushed against her core, the piercing at its tip teasing her through her panties.

“Shirt pocket, sugar cat.”

Her smile became impish. She dragged one hand down from behind his neck, around the collar of his shirt, then down the front of his T-shirt until it came even with the pocket on his pectoral muscle. If possible, it seemed as if she traced over to the pocket with her index finger even slower than she had been. She placed her palm flat along the pocket. She had to be able to feel the pounding of his heart beneath the material, even with the contents of his pocket between her hand and his chest.

Her delicate fingers reached in and pulled out one of the several foil packets he’d stashed there. As soon as he knew she had it, she started giggling. “Flavored? Seriously?”

“Huh?”

She showed him the packaging. The howl of laughter burst out before he could stop it. “Fuckin’ TB threw the box at me in the armory as a joke. Motherfucker opened up the box and switched out my brand for this shit. He’s so getting a confetti cannon inside his Humvee when we get home.”

“Can I help?”

He laughed harder. “Sugar cat, you can bomb his car yourself. I’ll be your lookout. Dare I ask what flavor it is?”

Holding up the packet to the moonlight, she looked at the label. “Cowboy Carl’s Every Flavored Cock,” she read off the packet. “Seriously? Who comes up with this shite?” She tore the corner off the packet and gave it a tentative lick. “Black licorice.”

“Eww.” He made a face. “At least they’re not lubed on the inside with ginger or anything.” Then he shuddered. “Ouch.”

He moved to take the packet from Gem, but before he could, she ripped it open the rest of the way with her teeth and spit the top piece off to the side. She slid it from the packaging and shoved the foil back in his pocket. What happened next… his brain wouldn’t wrap around it, no matter how much it tried.

When he reached for the condom, she shook her head. “Put me down.”

He felt his heart rate pick up again. Hands still palming her ass, he eased his weight off her against the door and helped her slide down his body. He was frozen for a moment, but that was all the time she needed. She dropped to her knees between him and the door, and his brain flew to the moments in Riquewihr when she was in much the same position, trying to pick the locks of the antique shop.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Joke’s on him. Black licorice is my favorite flavor.”

With that final statement, Gem popped the condom in her mouth. He watched her intently as her hands slid up his legs from shin to thigh to hip. His cock pointed straight at her, a bead of precum already welling at the tip, and he used every ounce of his control to keep from hauling her up his body to slam her back up against the door. Gripping her hands at his hips, he let her surround the tip with her mouth, smoothing the latex down his shaft.

She took her time, and he felt his eyes try to roll back in his head. Her lips were rounded to the rolled material, pressing firmly to his cock as she moved down his length. After about three inches, he felt her back off him, a teasing tip of her tongue sliding along his dick to test how well the material was fitting to the skin on the underside.

Don’t stop! Whatever you fucking do, don’t stop!

Firm pressure on the second downstroke took the condom another inch past where she’d previously stopped, and on the way back, he watched her bare her teeth and lightly drag them along the latex.

“Fuck, sugar cat! More.”

He agonized through a repeat of her actions, pushing the condom farther down on his dick, then barely dragging her teeth back up toward the tip.

“You can go a little harder, pretty baby.”

On her next pass, he felt her teeth pushing the last of the material around him. He worried he was crushing her fingers as he clamped them to his sides, but her hum of laughter at his panting breaths, squeezing fingers, and twitching hips told him she was more than good with his reactions.

He tried. He really did. But his palms could no longer remain on top of hers. He speared his fingers through her curls to shape around her skull and hold her head firmly. He didn’t force it, but with each subsequent stroke and glide from her to him, he encouraged her to go just a little deeper until, finally, she buried his cock in her throat, her nose pressed deeply into his skin.

“Fuck, sugar cat,” he ground out. Or at least he thought he said it. Maybe it was just in his head because he knew he wasn’t thinking clearly. It just felt too good being buried in the warm, wet heat of her mouth.

Gem’s response was to drag her index fingers down the Adonis belt grooves leading to his cock, and then she made a sharp detour so that her hands could wrap around his ass cheeks and pull him even tighter to her. There was a humming sound that came from her, then the flat of her tongue began to massage the underside of his cock. At least, what was in her mouth and not her throat.

What the hell? She did not… Oh my god, yes, she did because she’s doing it again. Marry this woman! Marry her now! Tie her up! Carry her off! Hide her in a cave!

The tip of her tongue fluttered at the base of his shaft, retreated, and then he felt her jaw drop like a cobra. Her tongue slipped past her lips and curled along the front of his balls. As he opened his mouth to thank any god he could come up with for her lack of gag reflex, the pool of saliva she had generated coated him, allowing her to bring them inside her mouth along with his dick. Between her reflexive swallows, the massaging tongue, and the incredible amount of saliva she was generating, he wasn’t going to last long.

The only thing that would make this better is if there was no condom. I’m not sure whether to thank TB or spray ginger on all the cotton swabs in his bathroom.

One hand moved from the back of her skull to smooth back the rebel curl. “Make sure you get every bit of that licorice taste, woman, because I’m going to fuck you stupid in about twenty seconds,” he warned.

She winked at him.

She fucking winked at me!

He chuckled. “Something wrong with your eye, sugar cat?”

He caught the naughty twinkle in her eyes as she watched him from down below, and she made a huge show of backing off his cock. The groan she pulled from him was long and low. “Please remind me to thank TB for the prank condom.”

Nemo stopped her from wiping up the spit with her denim jacket sleeve. Instead, he pulled her to her feet, then picked her up and pinned her to the door once again. He made sure her skirt was completely up around her waist, his soaked cock dragging across the small triangle of material covering her mound. Meanwhile, his mouth dropped down onto hers, feeling the slickness of her skin against his face, and he made sure to drag his cheeks against her mouth to spread it on him. He groaned against her lips. “I fucking love you messy,” he admitted. “Didn’t get to taste that pussy, but at least I feel like I was between your thighs, sucking up all that sugar.”

He backed up to the lounge chair stored along one wall and threaded his fingers into the waistline of her panties, skimming them down her legs, making sure they didn’t get caught around her shoes. Before pulling her knees up around his hips, he growled, “You want control, sugar cat? Hop on.”

She kneeled above him, straddling his thighs. He was about to make sure she was ready for him, but she was too fast. One tiny hand gripped his cock, she shifted slightly, and then he was buried in her, her channel so slick there was no resistance.

Nemo’s hands grabbed Gem’s waist. “Warn a guy, would ya?” he groaned out.

She rose up and slid back down, grinding against him. “Where would the fun be in that?” she teased.

He slid down the lounger a few inches so that his lap allowed her more room to move, and he was in a leaning-back position so that he could see more of what was happening. When she bottomed out on him the second time, he stopped her movements by gripping her so firmly he worried he’d leave bruises. Later, he’d kiss each fingerprint in apology, but he wasn’t going to last very long at this rate. “Sugar cat, you’ve gotta stop moving. My dick is all in—in more ways than one—but I’d like this to last a little bit longer than sixty seconds.”

When he wouldn’t let her move, she changed her tactic. “I thought you were giving me control, Sawyer? Maybe I want it so hard and fast that it makes me believe you can’t bear to be without my pussy squeezing your cock.” Her hips swiveled and ground down on him as best they could. He felt his dick swell further, and her walls grip him tighter, massaging him with each pulse, each breath.

“Please, sugar cat, ease down,” he moaned.

She whispered, “Why, burglar boy? Can’t take the heat?” Her hands latched onto his, where they gripped her hips and pried them loose. Nemo found they were suddenly above his head, and she was curling his fingers around the top of the lounge chair as she lay on top of him, plastered to his chest, resting her mouth against his ear. “Leave them there, or I’ll stop.”

Nemo groaned as her lips and teeth grabbed onto his ear lobe. “Suck on that any harder, and you’re going to remove the gauge.”

“Maybe I want a souvenir,” she quipped back.

“No way.” He poured every ounce of truth into his next statement. “Souvenirs imply memories of places you once were, and I’m not a place you once were anymore. I’m the place you are .”

She froze in his lap. “Nemo, I?—”

“No, Gem.” He looked at her intently. “Just, no. We’re not talking about this now. But we will be talking about it. Right now, though, all my brain power has been removed and sent in reserve to other parts of my body, and I refuse to ruin this moment. We’ll deal with the rest of ‘us’ when we get back home.”

A crash of simultaneous thunder and lightning shook the beach shack as he gave a quick, sharp punch up of his hips, making sure he dragged himself across her top inner wall on the way, drawing a hiss of pleasure from her. He watched her eyes glaze over as her head tipped back, and her fingers dug into his shoulders hard, her short fingernails leaving half-moon indents where she gripped him. He held himself in place.

“Move, Nemo.”

“That was just a reminder that I’m inside you. No way am I moving anymore, Gem. You wanted control, so you’ve got it. I want you to fuck me . Use me to get yourself off. I’ll enjoy whatever you do simply because it’s you.”

The look on her face was one of uncertainty. He gave her a single nod to encourage her. “I’ve got you, sugar cat,” he whispered.

She leaned back, hands on his thighs behind her, so that his cock was buried as deep inside her as it could get. Now upright, she began a slow up-and-down pace on his shaft, grinding his piercing against her G-spot for maximum effect. Then, once she had a comfortable rhythm for herself, she began to add a twist from left to right with her hips that helped grind her clit against the base of his cock with each dragging motion. He felt her increase her speed, struggling to maintain both the internal and the external friction, working hard to get her release.

Nemo had always been in charge of what they’d done in the past. With her blow job moments ago, she’d made a decision on her own of what she wanted, and he found it heady as fuck. Not that a submissive partner was a bad thing, and not that she didn’t actively participate once he set things in motion, but she’d never made the first move on anything. Not even with prompting. This version of Gem was what he imagined her to be like when she worked a job solo. Confident. Brazen. Independent. It was difficult not to take over, but he wanted her to see herself in her glory .

She wasn’t a talker, but he heard her cues in the whimpers and panting breaths she began to make. She was close to imploding, and he couldn’t wait to feel it. His eyes drifted down her body to watch it move over his, and his eyes caught the wink of the moonstone piercing in her belly button.

Fuck! So hot that she put that diamond there. She marked herself with me, whether she realizes it or not.

His eyes drifted to the floor. The lightning through the back window depicted her shadow there as if she were playing out a voyeuristic scene in a movie, suggesting she was fucking someone but giving no clue as to the other party involved. Head tossed back, her throat was exposed, and he had just enough light to see her pale skin glow in the dark, shadows passing over her face and arms as she moved in the frame of the window. Leaning low in the lounge chair gave him a fabulous view of her movements and reactions, but it wasn’t enough. Nemo slid down just a touch more, which brought more of her into the frame of the lightning flashes through the window.

Nemo turned his gaze back to where they were joined together. He marveled at the slickness her body created. The shine of her left behind on him. The tightness of her muscles as she gripped his cock inside her. “Fuck, that’s so it. Right there.” He groaned. “You squeeze me so tight. So hot. So wet. Come for me, sugar cat. I want you to come so hard you see stars.”

Her breath hitched, her eyes rolled back in her head as it dropped back onto her shoulders, and he felt two things happen simultaneously. Her weight slammed down on him, and her inner walls squeezed him impossibly tight. There was a flutter he rarely felt with a woman, and his heart raced.

Nemo’s control snapped, and his arms came off the chair to grip her waist. He needed to watch this bomb go off more than he’d needed anything else in his life. “Need you to get yourself off, pretty baby. Play with your clit for me. ”

Gem wasted no time doing as he asked. He watched the fingers of her right hand drift down her body, then slide into her pussy to separate her lower lips to reveal her clit. Creating a vee with her fingers and pressing the flesh back from her hard pearl, she used a single finger to tap it several times, then rubbed the nerve bundle in tight, fast circles. When he felt her body clench him even tighter within her walls, he used his upper-body strength to lift her completely off him. It was a little bit of a struggle because her body did not want to let go of him, but he won the battle, and she was barely an inch over him when her body completely let go.

Then she screamed, her release bursting out of her at supersonic speed and power, soaking her and him. He’d never seen anything like it.

Bet this chair has never seen that kind of action before!

He felt Gem’s body begin to collapse as soon as the flood was over. He pulled her close, a hand to her lower back, the other around her shoulders as she started to shake. Then he heard the sobs. She was completely overwrought.

Gently, he moved the arm that was around her shoulders so that he could support her neck with his hand. He remained pressed tight to her body, his free hand running through her hair. “That’s it, sugar cat, let it out,” he whispered. He pressed kisses to the side of her hair as he reassured her. “You did so well. Just breathe. I’ve got you. Shit, that was the sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. So fucking hot.”

The storm outside began to lose power just as the storm inside Gem subsided. He sat up, scooped her up as he stood, turned, and straddled the chair in the opposite direction, laying her down like a baby in a crib, a hand palming the back of her head, the other under her ass. He kissed his way down her body—lips, chin, hollow of the throat. When he reached her belly button, the tip of his tongue orbited her piercing, giving a gentle tug to the moonstone gem with his teeth, and she let out a giggle as she weakly tried to fold in on herself to prevent him from continuing to tickle her there. Smiling in amusement, he moved to the top of her mound, her clit, and then he began the process of licking her clean.

When she finally regained her voice, she covered both of her eyes in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

Continuing his work, he chuckled. “Guess you should be in control more often.”

She glanced at him from between her fingers, quickly tightening them back to cover the heat spilling across her face. “And I really can’t believe you’re doing that.”

His tongue took a long, slow swipe between her outer and inner labia, making sure to get all of her taste. “Fuck yeah, I’m ‘doing that.’ Why wouldn’t I?”

“Eww,” she complained and slapped his shoulder. “It’s gross.”

He lifted his head up. “What’s gross?”

“That.”

“Your cum? Hell no! Hot as hell that you can do that, and there’s no way I’m going to allow any of your sugar to be wasted. I’d lick it off myself if I could. I’m flexible, but not that flexible,” he teased.

She paused. “Do you need me to…” She gestured to him.

“Need you to what?”

“You didn’t finish.”

“Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. I’m good, sweetheart. I made you feel good and that’s all that matters right now.”

Her eyes blinked twice. “You never say or act the way I expect you to.” She sat up on her elbows. “Can I ask you something?”

He ignored her stare, continuing to kiss and lick down her thigh to her knee. “Of course. ”

“Why me?”

Nemo began the same process but up the other leg. “Why you what?” he murmured against her flesh.

“If I listen to your team, you’ve slept with the entire single population of L.A. and half of the rest of the single females in the world. So I get it—I’m single, I’m female, I’m convenient. But you keep saying these things that make it sound like I’m different.”

He gave one last swipe to her clit, causing her to shiver, and then he folded his arms over her belly, laying his chin on top of his hands.

He sighed. “I’m not sure this is the best time to get into this.”

“Nemo, don’t dodge the question.”

He stared intently at her. “You really don’t know?”

“How would I possibly know the answer to the question?”

Nemo’s index finger drew patterns on her Saturn tattoo, his eyes looking at what he was doing, but he wasn’t really seeing what was in front of him. “Because, tiny, you are different. When we met, you stole every sensible thought from my head. No other woman has ever made me forget myself.”

She frowned.

“You literally fell into my arms when I least expected anything to happen. You brought out all the protective instincts in me that I had never felt before. You tempted me to cherish you without doing anything other than just being you. I was stupefied by your gorgeous eyes that looked so sad, the tight little body that could bend itself into a pretzel. I couldn’t have walked away if I’d tried.

“And when I got inside you.” He closed his eyes, groaned, and lowered his forehead to her belly, his voice muffled. “You were Circe leading a sailor to his death. Even though I knew you would destroy me, I went to you anyway. And I’d do it again.” His lips kissed her belly tenderly. “And again.” Another kiss. “And again, until I was nothing but a useless shell of a man,” he whispered.

Nemo raised his head to look her in the eyes again. “When we ran into each other two years later, I couldn’t believe my luck. But then—poof—you were gone again. For the next four years, I searched for you in all the wrong places.” He reached for her hands, laced their fingers together, and drew them to her waist, where he held them. “I wish I could take every one of them back, sugar cat.” His eyes burned. “I tried to convince myself that I could fuck you away, but all it did was make me feel worse. Miss you more. I hated what I was doing, but I couldn’t stop because that meant I’d have to face the fact that no one else would do. If I could take it back?—”

She moved their hands to cover his mouth, and she shook her head. “I don’t care if you fucked ten women or ten hundred. That wasn’t what I was asking. It might seem needy, girly, whatever, but I don’t understand this need you seem to have to conquer me. You’ve already had me. Three times now. And you don’t do repeats, so it’s odd to me that you’d return to the scene of the crime, as it were.”

He smiled. “You’re the only one who makes me feel like I matter. The only one who I really want. The only one who makes sex move the earth for me. The only one I want to commit to in every way. No one else completes me.”

He let Gem free one of her hands, which she brushed over the top of his head, threading through the glued-up hair, separating some of the tangles that managed to settle in his short strands. Her fingertips smoothed down the sides, then traced around the shell of his ear and traveled to his swollen lips from making love to her with his mouth. “I think those are all lovely sentiments, but when this is done, and I go back to contracting for Mythos, you’ll go back to your playboy ways. It’s part of you, Nemo. It’ll always be part of you. It’s just… who you are. And while our paths may cross again in the future, even leading to more sex, I don’t know if it’s truly in you to commit to anyone but yourself and Midas. Even your friends see that.”

He felt anger rise from deep inside his belly. “You honestly believe I couldn’t make a promise to you and keep it?”

She smiled sadly at him. “I think you truly believe, right now, in this moment… maybe even over this short-term period… you could commit, but it would fizzle sooner rather than later. You might not cheat on me, but you would eventually move on.”

Nemo extracted himself from between her legs and stood at the side of the cot. He yanked the condom off his cock, pulled up his pants, buttoned them, zipped them, and shoved the condom in his pocket. He snagged her panties from where they lay on the floor and handed them to her.

“We should head back to the hotel. We’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

He watched Gem swallow tightly, aware that she’d hurt him, but no apology or backtracking came from her mouth. She simply stood, pulled down her skirt, and put on her underwear. Absently, she smoothed her hair back.

Silently, he headed to the door, opened it, and waited for them to pass through. Nemo and Gem walked side by side back to the hotel, but this time, there was no hand-holding, no tucking her into his side to keep her warm, whether she was cold or not. He was thankful it was a short walk.

When they got to the room, Nemo opened the door, then held the key out to her. “Phone.” He held his hand out.

Reaching into her back pocket, she removed her phone and handed it over. He clicked into her contacts and added several series of numbers. He extended the phone back to her. “Make sure to bolt the door. Don’t open it for anyone but a member of the team, no matter what the reason. Midas is next door. Waters and Demon are across the hall. TB and Steel are just two doors down and will come running if you text them. One of them will collect you at five o’clock.”

She looked up at him, her eyes sad and filled with regret. “You’re not staying?”

“No. I don’t think it would be a good idea.” His voice went softer, but he knew it was clear that he was still mad. “You’re safe as long as you stay inside. I’m going to head to the airport. Scheherazade is probably confused without me there, anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Nemo.”

“Don’t be,” he said tightly. “You’re probably right. I’ve always been an asshole on the inside. The pretty candy coating on the outside only covers that up. It doesn’t make up for it.”

“You know that’s not true,” she chastised. “Asshole is never a word I’d use to describe you, and I don’t think anyone else would either.”

Nemo shrugged, attempting to hide the hurt. “Asshole. Irresponsible. Playboy. They all essentially add up to the same thing. Incapable of being taken seriously.” He felt his mask solidifying in place. “Go inside, Gem. Bolt the door. Go to bed.”

She gave him one last look, then passed into the room and closed the door. He waited until he heard the bolt flip over, then he turned on his heel and went to the elevator. With each step he took, he felt colder. And when the doors closed on him and the empty hallway, he held his head high, his face expressionless. But inside, the shutting of the door was a loud thunk, closing any opportunity to have his pixie in his life.