Flesh and Heroes

T jumps out.

"Ladies," he says politely.

He kisses Ms. Mystery on the cheek.

"Hi, Mom," he says.

Mom????

"Hello, dear," she says and pats his cheek. "You clean up nice."

He takes out his keys, opens the door, deactivates the alarm. He ushers us in. His phone rings. "Yes, Lord Centrell. She's safe with me. So is your niece."

I imagine I can hear his sigh of relief.

"No, no, I think it's better they stay with us, at least for the night."

T does a lot of nodding, and 'ah-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh'ing, and then hangs up.

"Michele, Monique, meet Susan, my mum." He gestures. "Ladies, meet my esteemed associate, and lovely girlfriend, Effie." T gestures to me.

"Girlfriend?!!" both countesses say.

"I'm not dead, or blind," T says. "You ladies are spellbinding, but Effie captured my heart from the get go."

Aw.

"What happened at the house?" Michele asks.

"Is my family okay?" Monique asks.

T shrugs. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Your dad paid me to take care of the two of you."

The girls look at each other.

"For now, we're going to assume everyone in your family is okay."

"Who's hungry?" T's mom asks. "We didn't get a chance to have dinner. Anyone who interrupts dinner? Very uncivilized."

"Hell of a party," I say. "Went out with a bang."

The girls look at us. Apparently they didn't think we were very funny.

"Opa!" T says.

They smile at that.

"You know what we need?" T asks. "Alcohol. Let's go in the kitchen."

T ushers us in the kitchen. He poured us good shots of vodka, and we all knocked them back. I got an immediate buzz.

"Food," I say.

"I'm on it," T says.

He starts pulling things out of the freezer.

I remember the necklace in my bra that surely cost more than my house.

"If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'm going to go change."

They all nod, and I hot-foot it upstairs to the bedroom. It's a relief to get out of my dress and bra. There's a small safe in the closet, but I don't know the combination. I put the necklace in the fake bottom compartment of my suitcase. It won't help if someone tries to steal the whole suitcase, but under the circumstances, it's the best I can do.

I put on a more comfortable bra, jeans, and pink sweatshirt. I take my hair down and carefully put my hair sticks away. I draw a brush through my hair and fluff it up a little. Check my make-up. I leave my dart necklace on, just in case. Those girls looked feisty.

I go back down toward the kitchen. The food smells good. As I'm walking in, everyone is speaking French.

Mental sigh.

Conversation completely stops when I enter the kitchen.

T fixes me a plate.

"What is this?" I ask.

"Schnitzel and spatzel," he says.

"Okay, right," I say.

"I also have chocolate."

"Bring it on."

I eat everything on my plate. Pretty good.

The Bobbsey twins don't stop talking. The more they talk, the less horny I become. I left my ball gags at home.

I smile at T. Maybe he knows what I'm thinking. You do become pretty good at mind reading in our business.

We finish dinner. It's probably around midnight. I think there's probably no TV in this place. Europe. Rental house. What do I know? Maybe it's hidden in a cabinet.

T shows the cousins to their rooms, which are thankfully downstairs, but they're in no mood to retire. They had expected to party, and midnight it not early for them.

I am suddenly hit with terrible jet lag. Everything crashes at once. The drop of adrenaline. The relief that T is okay. The drop from the tension about working the switch of the necklace. The heavy food digesting in my stomach bringing all my energy to my center instead of my brain.

"I'm so tired. Did I party? I feel like I partied."

Everyone looks at me. I remember the limo ride.

"I pre-partied," I say.

T smiles.

"Everyone, I must bid you a fair adieu." See? I do know some French. "I'm afraid I've turned into a pumpkin." Hey, I am Cinderella after all. How strong was that vodka?

I turn to T's mom. "It was nice meeting you."

"I'm sure we'll talk more later, dear."

Yikes.

She takes my hand in both of hers and pats it.

"I'm staying at a hotel just down the block. I'm sure I'll see you in the morning. Great job."

I nod.

T sees his mom out the door and resets the alarm. He comes back to me and whisks me off my feet. He looks over his shoulder at the countesses. "Ladies, I'll be back down in a minute."

He carries me up to our bedroom. I open the door; he shuts it behind us with his foot.

T is gentle when he tucks me in.

"No threesomes without me," I say.

He laughs. "Never."

I smile.

T leans down over me, as if to kiss my cheek, and my temperature spikes. "Where's the necklace?" he whispers in my ear.

"It's in my suitcase," I whisper back.

His tongue darts out and takes a quick taste of the sensitive skin behind my ear, and I shiver.

Almost faster than I can track, he jumps off the bed, and opens my suitcase. He finds and opens the hidden panel in about two seconds flat. I smile. Ya gotta love a professional. Efficiency is definitely sexy.

T puts the necklace in the safe. He comes back to the bed and leans over me. His face is glowing with excitement, lust, and maybe... love.

"I'm horny," I say, "but I don't think I'm up to a third time today. Not after intercontinental travel, escaping a building exploding, and my first time tasting schnitzel."

"Ah well," T says. "There's always tomorrow."

*

Dear Reader,

If this story pleased you, then please be so kind as to honor me with a high five. I'm begging you! Mr. Big and Effie are begging you. We're shameless. It's terrible. It's only a mouse click away. The power is under your clever little fingers.

I've never been to Switzerland. Or ridden a snowmobile. Or stolen a necklace. I may have done some other things in the story however. :) I was referring to schnitzel, what did you think I meant?

If you liked the story, drop me a note. Tell me what you liked and why, and how you feel. I love to hear from readers. (PG comments only please.) I read every note, and welcome corrections, suggestions, and positive feedback, and am always looking to make new connections with authors and readers.

You can leave a public comment or use the contact tab on my author page to get in touch with me. If you'd like to leave your first name and last initial, feel free to do so. I really want to know what you think. It just takes a minute.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks, sincerely;

MJ