“No condom,” he groaned against the corner of her mouth.He hadn’t even brought one on the ship with him, that was how little he’d expected to hook up with anyone.Was it too much to hope that she might have one stashed somewhere?
“Me neither,” came her muffled reply, confirming his worst fears.They should probably stop now then, before things became too heated, and he might not be able to.But then, he was nothing if not inventive, and they were many ways he could pleasure her without resorting to penetration.Why should he let this magic moment get away from them?Leaving her mouth, he wriggled his way down her body, shrugging the restrictive coverings away from his shoulders and loosening them from underneath her hips.
Using his tongue, he dipped into the contours of her body as he went; her collarbone, over the mound of her breast then down into the slight concave of her stomach, and up over her jutting hipbone.His actions dragged cool air in around their warm bodies, and he could see the skin of her torso pebbling; while the fire had taken the chill off the room, it certainly wasn’t the ideal temperature to be naked making love in here.But she didn’t seem to mind, as her fingers strayed to scratch long arcs down his back, then run up to tangle in his thick hair, her head thrown back in abandon as she relished his tongue on her skin.
He made his way, down and down until he found the juncture of her thighs, moving aside her panties, so that he could tease with his tongue until she was writhing on the bench, finally opening for him.Jiro had a skillful tongue; he knew this without being conceited.Many women had told him just how good he was.And now he put his skills to good use, licking and tasting, sucking and pressing until Aurora’s hands clamped in his hair and she rocked her hips up and down with his rhythm.It didn’t take long before she tensed around him, then called out his name, long and loud.He rode out her climax with his tongue, his own cock pulsing with need as he pushed her harder and harder until she collapsed, gasping onto the bench.
He moved back up to her head, so they lay panting, side by side, as she recovered, small shudders still wracking her body.
After many long minutes, she whispered into his ear, “That was…um… Let’s just say that was intense.I’m usually a slow-burn kind of girl.”
He levered up onto one elbow to look at her.Was she blushing?He wasn’t sure exactly what to take from her comment, but he was pretty sure it was a compliment.If she didn’t normally climax this fast, then he’d done a good thing.Perhaps she was even telling him she had never come on a man’s tongue before, and if that was the case, then he needed to do it again, soon.
“But.”She tilted her head coquettishly, the blush completely forgotten now.“I think it’s my turn to find out a little about your preferences now.”She pushed him down, and levered her leg over his body, so she was now the one on top.
“Oh, no,” he protested.“You don’t need to…Oh, God…” But it was too late, and he never finished his sentence, couldn’t in fact speak any more, as she tugged down his boxer shorts and her lips descended upon him, her fingers typing out a tattoo upon his skin as she ran her hands up and down his body, and then expertly wrapped them around his cock.He’d always prided himself on his self-restraint when it came to controlling his own climax.But with Aurora…
All thoughts disappeared as he let his body’s carnal cravings take over.It didn’t take him long, he was almost ashamed at how quickly he came.He was consumed by the moment, crying out in ecstasy as he pulsed and writhed, completely losing control.But he had already been so hot and hard watching Aurora climax that it probably wasn’t surprising.For the second time in only a few minutes, they lay side-by-side, panting and replete, Aurora with a small, smug smile hovering on her face.
“I like that I can make you lose it like that,” she said, lifting her chin onto her palm so she could look down at him.
“I like it too,” he replied, surprising himself.He’d been the commanding one in all his previous relationships.Not that he was superior to women, just that he liked to be the one to control the ebb and flow of sex.It was different with Aurora, somehow.He’d started off controlling the situation, but she’d taken over with such ease.She hadn’t dominated him so much as encouraged him to be himself.He was surprised at how playful she was during lovemaking; almost the complete opposite of her everyday persona.Maybe taking off the uniform helped remove the constraint she had to keep in her professional life.
As she stared up at him, the glint of firelight reflected off one of her earrings, and he reached up a finger to touch it.Up close, he could see they were actually made of filigree strands of silver, intricately woven into a heart shape.“These are beautiful,” he said.
“Thank you.”An emotion that he couldn’t quite pin down flittered across her face before she smiled and added, “They were a present for my eighteenth birthday.Jewelry is usually a no-no when I’m on duty, but these studs are small enough to pass inspection.”So, it was as he thought; women in the force weren’t really allowed to wear earrings, but these seemed special to her.Just as he began to wonder who had given them to her as a present, her features puckered, and her smile turned upside down.“But now I guess we have to get back to reality.”Of course they did, but that didn’t make him any less sad that this precious moment was coming to an end.“I’m not going to psychoanalyze this thing we did today.There’s too much else going on in my life right now.I just want you to know that it was good,” she added.
He reached up and gently laid his hand along the side of her cheek.“It was very, very good,” he clarified, then kissed her long and deep, to seal their accord.
This time when she moved to get up, he let her go.She got out of their makeshift bed and went over to stoke the fire, which had died right down while they were otherwise occupied.Jiro stared at her body in open appreciation, admiring the way her lacy underwear highlighted her curves.One day he would get her completely naked, but today it was enough just to see her like this.
“Your clothes are not completely dry yet, but they’ll have to do,” she said, testing each of the garments she’d draped over the table and chairs next to the fire to dry.He wasn’t looking forward to putting damp clothing back on, but if he hadn’t been so stupid in the first place, then he’d still be warm and dry.Then again, if he hadn’t been so stupid, he might not have just been intimate with Aurora in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods, either.He knew which scenario he preferred.
Disentangling himself from the coverings, he got up with a groan.The rough floorboards were cold beneath his bare feet, and the chilly air pebbled his skin.Definitely time to get dressed.They climbed into their clothes in silence, and he went to stand in front of the fire to get warm again.He watched as Aurora ran her fingers through her hair, doing her best to untangle it, before tying it up in a complicated knot at the nape of her neck once more.Watching her was almost as intimate as what they had just done under the covers.He didn’t think he would ever get tired of glimpsing that simple little gesture.
What would the owners of this cabin think when they came back to it?Would they be surprised to find someone had stayed here?Or was this a common occurrence?Aurora had said something along the lines that people up here left their cabins purposefully unlocked for just these types of scenarios.The benefit of savings someone’s life far outweighed the risk of their cabin being ransacked, it seemed.But this would never happen in America; people there were way less trusting and way less trustworthy.
“What’s the plan now?”he asked.
“I’m gonna walk up that hill behind the cabin and see if I can find some sort of reception.We need to call this in, and get units out here pronto to clean up this mess.But it would be better if you—”
“I’m going to come with you,” he interrupted, knowing that she was about to tell him to stay in the cabin where it was warm.She narrowed her dark eyes in his direction, and he knew she was mentally debating whether to let him come with her or not.“Aurora, I know you think you have a job to do, and I know I've been really bad at following orders so far, but we are a team now.Whatever you do, wherever you go, I’ll be right there beside you.I got you into this, and I want to get you out of it.”He understood that if she told him to stay in the cabin and he was stubborn enough to refuse, he would still be just asbad at following orders, but he was hoping she didn’t push the point.Logically, he knew that she was a trained police officer, and should be able to handle any situation she might find herself in; point in case, rescuing him and then bringing down a sniper all within the space of a few minutes.But if something happened to her out there, and he wasn’t there to help, he would never forgive himself.
“Fine,” she said at last.“You should know that if you come with me, I’m also going to try to call Mårten.If I get through, I want you to talk to him.Will you do that?”she challenged.The inspector would probably need to be convinced that the FBI should be involved in this case, and he should be the one to put his brother’s case forward, so he willingly agreed with an emphatic nod.
For a few seconds he weighed up his next question, but it was important to their game plan from here on in.“What about finding Taro?”he asked.“I know we need to call in police backup, but what if the guy on the other end of those messages finds out?Will that put Taro in danger?”
“Not sure about that one yet,” she admitted.“Now we’ve turned your phone off, he can’t track us that way.I believe he was probably using the sniper as his other method of shadowing us.With him gone, the kidnapper will probably be wondering what’s going on, but will hopefully still be in the dark for a little while longer.”
“Unless he had more than one henchman out there,” Jiro replied darkly.Aurora merely shrugged at that, but it was one more reason that Jiro was determined to accompany her.
The next few hours were spent in the cold, first talking on the phone to Viskten and then waiting for the other police units to arrive, which took nearly two hours.Aurora insisted they wait down by the lake’s edge, but periodically, they returned to the cabin to get warm—his clothes were now dry, but standing around in the dark as the temperature plummeted was not fun.Aurora told him they should be glad that at least it wasn’t blizzarding, as that would make it very uncomfortable.Swedish people were nothing if not practical.
The first hint that this might turn into a bigger situation than he’d thought came when all the other cops arrived on their snowmobiles.It seemed like there were hundreds of them, but in actual fact they were probably at least fifteen, which felt a bit like overkill.It wasn’t like there was a whole gang of Yakuza hordes to be vanquished out here; it was just him and Aurora, and she’d already neutralized the threat.He also hadn’t realized that a cop discharging a gun was such a big thing—she was only returning fire, defending herself from a man intent on killing them.But as soon as Inspector Dalström arrived, he strode up to Aurora and officially relieved her of her weapon, which was then sent away for forensic testing, almost as if she was a suspect in a murder rather than an avenger of evil.He also advised her there would be an inquest into the shooting, and asked her to hand over her badge, placing her on desk duty until further notice, which shocked Jiro.But Aurora did everything she was asked without question, clearly understanding the formalities better than he did.Later, she confirmed that whenever there was a police-involved shooting, a strict protocol had to be followed.It was only then he realized this was the first time she’d had to follow that protocol; this was the first time she’d discharged her weapon while on duty, and again that sharp twist of guilt stabbed him through the gut.It was his fault she was going through all of this.
The frozen lake was then set up almost like a scene from a murder mystery movie, with bright lights, people milling around—some of them in white suits, which Jiro assumed were forensics.Once Aurora had walked the inspector through the whole sequence of events, she and Jiro were sent to the cabin, supposedly to stay warm.But he knew it was to keep them out of the way.At least someone had thought to bring them food and hot beverages, which helped to revive Jiro considerably—the chocolate bars Aurora had been keeping in her pocket were now sodden and inedible.
His conversation with Inspector Viskten had gone well.Aurora’s partner seemed like he was a man who had his head screwed on right, because he said if Aurora believed Jiro’s claims, then so did he.He was going to place a call to his friend in the FBI and get back to them once they returned to HQ.
