Turns out, finding contractors capable of stepping into our shoes isn’t exactly easy.
A small, very petty part of me enjoys that, while Raiden pretends he doesn’t, but I’ve caught him grinning to himself on more than one occasion. What can I say? He’s a smug bastard who gets off on knowing he’s the best, and watching people attempt to claim his throne has been pure entertainment for him.
We’ve talked about starting our own agency eventually. The idea lingers between us like a loaded weapon sitting on the table—dangerous, tempting, and probably inevitable. I love what I do. Always have. The rush of it, the strategy, the way the world narrows down to one objective, and the clean satisfaction that comes with finishing the job.
I miss the thrill, but for the first time in my life, I’m not in a hurry to chase it, because right now, life has never looked so good. Right now, life looks like the South of France, and I fucking love it.
Our home sits along a quiet stretch of coastline where the air always smells like salt and the citrus trees growing along the property. At night, the only sound is the waves rolling in against the shore. Every morning, the sun rises slowly over the water, turning the whole sky orange and pink in a way that still feels a little unreal after spendingmost of my life in the darker corners of the world.
Most mornings, I wake before Raiden, slipping out of bed just long enough to watch the sunrise from the balcony with a cup of coffee in my hand. He usually finds me there a few minutes later. Always shirtless. Always perfect. And always ready to rock my world.
Life has slowed down in ways I never thought possible. We cook together. We swim in the ocean. We argue about stupid things like whose turn it is to buy groceries or whether Spikezilla and Needles are achieving world dominance or barely surviving under my care.
Every now and then, when things get a little too quiet around here, Raiden looks at me with that look in his eye and says something like, “So, how would you feel about running our own operation?”
I usually smile. Not because I’m ready to dive back into that world just yet, but because I know when we do, we’ll do it together. If the past has proven anything, it’s that the two of us are damn near unstoppable.
For now, though? The world thinks we’re dead, the agencies are scrambling, and Raiden is currently in the shower . . . which means I’ve got about five minutes before he comes out, dripping wet, acting like I’m personally responsible for distracting him from whatever plan he was pretending to make. But let’s be honest, the only plan either of us has is to have him buried inside of me, screaming his name.
Fuck, life is good.
I take another sip of my coffee and smile out at the endless sea.
The bathroom door opens, and Raiden steps out in a cloud of steam, dragging a towel through his hair before letting it fall aroundhis neck. Water droplets slide down his chest and over the hard ridges of his stomach, tracing the familiar paths I’ve memorized more times than I can count.
A loose towel hangs low on his hips, barely doing its job, and he looks entirely too pleased with himself for a man who just walked into the room half-naked.
My gaze drifts slowly from his shoulders down over his chest, lingering for a moment on the lines of muscle running across his stomach before dropping just a little lower. The man looks like he walked straight out of a goddamn sin catalog.
Then my eyes drag their way back up to his face.
I don’t even pretend to look away. Not subtle. Not embarrassed. Not even a little ashamed of the full-body inspection I’m giving him. Because shit, why not look at something so incredibly delicious if it’s presented to you like a goddamn snack? Honestly, at this point, it would be rude not to admire him.
Raiden catches it immediately. He always does, and his mouth curls into that slow, knowing smirk he gets when he realizes exactly what I’m thinking, like he’s already ten steps ahead and enjoying every second of it.
His shoulders roll back slightly as he steps further toward me, completely aware of the effect he’s having and absolutely shameless about using it. He leans back against the stone edge, his body so relaxed that it somehow makes him even more delicious.
“See something you like, Firecracker?”
I lean back in my chair and let my eyes drag over him one more time, slow and deliberate as I linger on the sizeable bulge hidden beneath his towel, mapping out the whole shape of his massive cock, before meeting his gaze again.
“No,” I say flatly, barely able to hide the hunger in my tone. “I’m just making sure all the important parts are still there.” His brows lift, and my lips quirk with a grin. “Would’ve been a shame if the one useful thing about you suddenly detached and ran away.”
His brow arches, and he slowly pushes off the stone edge, looking at me like a predator stalking his prey. “The only useful thing?” he questions, his tone so low and gravelly it wakes up something deep inside of me.
“Mm-hmm.”
“It seems you must have forgotten what my fingers and tongue are capable of.”
Oh shit.
Raiden doesn’t stop until he’s standing right in front of me, and I hastily put my mug down, never knowing where this could go. He reaches down and grabs me, effortlessly lifting me straight into his arms before striding back over to the stone edge that peers off into the world beyond.
He settles me on my feet, the backs of my legs brushing against the harsh stone as he pulls at the string holding my silk robe closed. His fingers slip inside, trailing over the silk and up toward my shoulder before pushing it over my skin, his heavy gaze locked on my body asthough mesmerized by my skin.
The silk falls to my elbow at one side, exposing my breast as it goes, and I immediately feel the cool morning breeze brush against my skin, my nipple pebbled under the sensation. Raiden groans and goes straight to the other side, repeating the process.
The robe falls all the way to the ground, the soft material brushing over my skin with ease, and Raiden’s fingers grasp my chin, slowly bringing my lips almost to his. “Baby, your life insurance doesn’t cover what I’m about to do to you.”
