Little Dove Read online

  “I don’t work now,” Boian replied with a smirk, “I’m the Orphan King, the leader of the underground. I have never worked, except to stay alive.”

  “I’m sorry to hear this,” Dimitri said, “but this money will mean you can come above ground, leave your life behind and live in luxury.”

  “But I like my life,” Boian said and stood, “keep your money, Russian. There’s nothing you could offer me now that I don’t already have.” He made towards the door. Dimitri scribbled some information on the back of one of his many fake business cards. He stood and blocked Boian’s exit.

  The young man reached for his weapon, but hesitated as Dimitri held out the card. “This is the banking information. If you ever decide to take the money, this is what you’ll need to access. There’s the account number, the routing number and the access code. If you ever need me, for anything, call the number on the front and I’ll do whatever I can to assist you.”

  He stepped back and allowed Boian to leave the room. As he walked through the door, Boian turned and asked, “Who should I ask for? I mean, if I ever need to call.”

  Dimitri said, “The Beast,” and Boian left. Dimitri called down the hall to him, “You should put some ice on that jaw as soon as possible or it’s going to swell.”

  Boian gave no indication that he’d he heard and kept walking.

  Dimitri sat back down at the kitchen table and ran his hand over his head, thinking about Sanda’s death and what he hadn’t told Boian. Sanda had taken him as a lover although she had been several years older. Dimitri had learned a lot from her, about pleasing a woman, but after her death he’d purposefully forgotten it all.

  She had been insistent that he didn’t lose his humanity; from the moment she met him. He had been called The Enforcer then, and she counseled him to never become what they wanted him to be, less than human himself. He had almost opened his heart to her, but circumstances and emotions had all been wrong for him.

  It wasn’t until Columbia had come along that he’d realized that love, hearts opening, sex, obsession…it wasn’t a choice. With Sanda he had enjoyed her company and loved listening to her wax poetic after a good fuck. With Columbia he hadn’t had a choice, she had broken in through the front gate and stormed his heart with the military precision of a barbarian queen. He smiled and wished Sanda could have met Columbia. The older woman would love his little dove, but he knew Columbia would have her claws out and be spitting fire if she had met Sanda.

  He turned his phone on and checked it. There were about a hundred texts from Columbia in the last few hours he’d had it turned off. He stood and left the room; he would have time to read her frantic messages on the flight back home. The meeting had gone faster than he’d expected, no talking about old times or going to the bank to make sure everything was in order.

  Now he would go back to his little dove, the only reason he existed these days, and the one thing in the world that kept him from becoming the beast in anything but name.

  CHAPTER TWO

  COLUMBIA

  “Have you gotten anywhere with that last intel?” Columbia asked Nico again. She couldn’t tell if he’d been ignoring her or hadn’t heard her the first time. She was getting agitated, she felt like they were about to get a huge lead on Sergei’s whereabouts. She was almost salivating, thinking about killing the fucker.

  “Can you back off for just a minute and let me think?” Nico snapped at her. He had been unusually quiet and more than a little short tempered the last few days. Columbia considered making a joke about man PMS, but decided against it when she saw Nico drum his fingers on his desk. That was his tell, his nervous tic. When he was extremely stressed or angry, he always tapped his fingers.

  She had an idea what was bothering him but couldn’t bring herself to give it a voice. The exact same thing was bothering her, which is why the two of them were sniping at each other constantly.

  Dimitri had gone for four days. He’d insisted on going alone, he had some face-to-face business that had to be conducted in Prague. Columbia had thrown such a fit at being left behind that Dimi had ordered Nico to stay with her, to keep her calm after he left.

  This was the third day, he would be back tomorrow but it couldn’t come soon enough. Columbia felt like taut wire, fraying and ready to snap. She’d spent the time pacing, barely eating, not sleeping...and hunting down every last thing she could find about Sergei.

  It became the reason she breathed, the reason she got out of bed after a restless night and the reason she still went to spar with Nico every day. She was going to kill Sergei so she could let Dimi out of her sight without going stark raving mad.

  “Come on,” she whispered and chewed a dry piece of skin on her thumb.

  “Would you please cut that out?” Nico said and tilted his computer screen towards her.

  “What?”

  “The chewing, the fidgeting, the sighing...it’s all driving me insane,” he said, “I get it, but Dimitri can take care of himself. He’ll be just fine.”

  Columbia dropped her hand to her lap and narrowed her eyes at Nico. She knew in her heart that Dimitri could take care of himself, but there was this constant underlying anxiety full of the, “What ifs…” All the possible things that could go wrong, from his plane crashing to Sergei trapping him and taking his life. There were a million possibilities that would prevent Dimi from coming home to her, and her mind happened to spin them all along on a constant thread of worry.

  “I know,” she said, “I know he’s fine and I know he’ll be home…but what if?”

  Nico pursed his lips and replied, “You have to let that go. Just know he’ll be safe and you’ll be with him tomorrow. Now take a look at this.”

  Columbia ignored his pat advice; she wouldn’t believe Dimitri was safe until he was in her arms, that was just the way it worked at the moment. She leaned forward to see what Nico had found and took a moment to clue in.

  It was a passenger manifest for a private jet that had been making regular flights from Moscow to Paris. A single person rode each flight in both directions, one Vasily Lavrov. She looked at Nico for clarification.

  “That’s Sergei!” he said and pointed at the screen. “We’ve got the bastard! He’s been making regular visits to Paris for some reason...although if I know him, it’s got to be about a woman.”

  “How do you know?” Columbia asked, studying the name again.

  “That was the name of his right hand man, one of the men Dimitri killed during the fire. Sergei always was a lazy, smug bastard, never trying too hard to keep himself hidden. The only reason we’ve had nothing on him all this time is because he has excellent people working for him.”

  “Are you kidding?” Columbia asked, looking at Nico and back again at the screen. She forced herself to focus on the name, willing the letters to open up and reveal Sergei’s secrets. “So now what? We know he’s in Paris, what do we do about it?”

  “His next trip looks like it will be in two weeks. I’ll go and do some recon. He probably won’t notice me, and from the looks of things he’ll be traveling alone. Let’s find out who he’s visiting and bang, you’ve got him!”

  “This is amazing!” Columbia cried and threw her arms around Nico. He pulled back stiffly, never completely comfortable with Columbia’s easy manners around him. She let go and moved her chair back on its wheels, smiled and simply gloated. They’d found him.

  She stood and said, “I’m going for a swim.” She needed to work off some of her nervous energy and celebrate a little. They’d been at this for days now and both were exhausted. “Are you coming with me?”

  As expected, Nico stood and said, “I’ll keep an eye out for you.” It was strange, since Hong Kong they’d been with Nico a couple more times, but when Dimitri wasn’t around, Columbia felt nothing for him. Dimitri was the most powerful psychological chastity belt, she thought, she couldn’t see any other man when she had him on the brain.

  They left the house and crossed the sprawling
lawn towards their private beach. She had to hand it to Dimi; he had done well with this accommodation. She was free here, she felt feral and full of vigour. The ocean reminded her of Vancouver and the night skies made her feel connected to something more powerful than herself.

  She turned around to see Nico following several feet behind her. It amazed her, that even though she felt no sexual thrill for him when her heart, mind and... pussy...were all pining for Dimi...but he gave her nothing. Such was Dimi’s power that even in his absence, Nico dared not cross into his territory. Columbia marveled that she had once considered jealousy a display of love, now she understood that Dimi’s powerful ownership was more obvious than any grasping need for control.

  He could leave them alone because he knew they would never cross a line. And he was correct.

  “Come on,” she yelled and ran ahead, “the water will be heavenly and we need to celebrate your big find!”

  She stripped off her clothing as she made it to the sand. She was laughing at the freedom of this simple act, naked in the outdoors in the middle of the day. Her scars no longer bothered her, she barely recognized the terrified girl who had been frightened to go to the beach with her environmental group.

  She stood at the water’s edge, turned around and saw Nico deliberately look away. It gave her a thrill to know that Dimi’s presence kept him from staring at her. She felt like she wore a sign declaring her, “Property of Dimitri.” It made her grin as she backed into the warm Mediterranean Sea. The waves lapped at her ankles and she watched Nico making sure his line of sight did not cross over her naked body.

  She turned suddenly and rushed into the waves. She dove under and swam as far as she could before her lungs tightened and she needed a breath. Swimming naked was exhilarating, but any time she was naked, her longing for Dimi sharpened to a fine edge. She wanted him here, running his hands along her body, picking her up and impaling her on his cock.

  She swam a little farther and turned back to the beach. Nico was standing on the grass at the edge of the sand, his arms crossed and watching for her. “Come in!” she called to him and waved.

  “I’ll watch from up here,” he called back and walked onto the grass. Columbia was struck with a sense of longing, not just for Dimitri, but also for the comfort of his presence. She turned and swam farther, pushing herself to go deeper than she had ever gone before.

  She worried about the undertows here, currents that might sweep her away, but the compulsion to escape her aching loneliness was overwhelming.

  She turned back to the house again and was a little alarmed at how far she’d gone. She looked back at the open water and decided against swimming farther. She almost dared herself to head out even longer, but good sense took over. She no longer possessed the fatalism she’d once had concerning her personal safety. She wanted to stay safe for Dimi; she owed it to him.

  She fell into an easy crawl, finding a meditation in the rhythm of the strokes. As she surfaced briefly she saw somebody else on the grass with Nico. She started and stopped her movements, concentrated on the figures and realized her Dimi was home early. She yelled just as he pulled his fist back and hit Nico squarely on the jaw.

  “What are you doing?” she cried out and started to swim for shore. He pissed her off, attacking Nico for no reason; he was such a brute at times. Her excitement and anger gave her speed and she was at the shore in a moment.

  “Why did you do that?” she yelled at him as she found foothold on the sandy bottom.

  He was storming down the sand towards her. His shoes were off and he was stripping as he moved in her direction. She stood in the water and enjoyed the sight of her brute, her man, removing his clothing.

  “He wasn’t watching you,” he said and plunged in towards her, his suit jacket falling to the sand behind him. “He was left here to care for you, and he wasn’t doing his job.”

  “I left him,” she said and swam closer to him. She stood in the waist deep water and reached for him. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her. Instantly the last few days disappeared and she was at home again. She pulled back and added, “I told him to come with me, but I swam out on my own.”

  He touched her cheek with the back of his hand. She saw he had split the skin on his knuckle, and it was fresh. She shivered, her heat making her body react at his touch. “He should never have let you swim that far,” he said softly and kissed her forehead, “it’s been torture for me, away from you, I was overcome with rage when I saw you out there. To think after we’ve done so much to protect you, and the sea could sweep you away from me. I hit him without thinking, but I would do it again for his foolishness.”

  She couldn’t argue with him, she felt too uplifted by him being home, back in her life and back keeping her from harm. His white dress shirt was getting wet from the spray; it clung to his broad chest and invited her to tear it off of him.

  She obliged, no words, just a simple, savage motion with her hands and the expensive hand carved mother of pearl buttons went flying back into the sea. Poetic, being returned from whence they came. “I can take care of myself,” she said and dragged the damp shirt off his body, “I’m more than capable now, you know that.” She leaned forward and nibbled his nipple, took the little nub in her teeth and rolled it carefully. He drew a sharp breath and his cock pressed against her wet body.

  He fumbled with his pants. “These need to come off,” he said with a warning, as if she didn’t comply he was going to leave nothing but shredded cloth in his wake.

  She did comply. Her hands were shaking with anticipation as she unbuttoned them, slid the zipper down and rolled the waist away from his skin.

  The dampness made it difficult and she was slower than he liked. He moved his hands on top of hers and dragged the pants from his body. His cock sprung free and he bent to pull them off his feet.

  She dropped to her knees in front of him, the water at neck level in this position. “Get up,” he commanded and moved to pull her to her feet. She couldn’t though; she wanted his cock more than anything else in the world at the moment, so she shrugged him off.

  She looked up at him, his eyes met hers and she fell into the intense heat of their contact. She never understood the power of a gaze until she knew the power of his love. “I need your cock, I need this,” she said and opened her mouth for him.

  She saw a flare up of lust in his eyes, like a signal, and he wrapped his hands in her wet hair and pulled her onto him. She almost gagged at the urgency, his force, as the head hit the back of her throat. She was practiced now though, breathed through her nose and relaxed her muscles to accept him. She watched his face as he slowly fucked her mouth. She maintained suction as he drew back, and then slid forward, filling her throat as easily as he filled her cunt or her ass.

  “Play with your clit,” he ordered and held her face against him, she could feel his cock pulsing deep on the back of her tongue. She whimpered and reached down for her pussy.

  She was submerged and ran her hand down her body, feeling her scars slippery and smooth in the warm water. It was an added sensation, to be engulfed as she touched herself. She fingered her clit and moaned against Dimitri’s cock, this seemed to set him off and he started to fuck her mouth again.

  “I missed you,” he said and held her head still so he could slide his length inside of her, “I missed this. I missed your mouth, your cunt...you.”

  She was smiling, inside at least, her mouth was entirely too stretched by his girth to form any sort of smile. He missed her, maybe as much as she had missed him. She still wondered about the cut on his hand, she’d have to pry for details about his trip later.

  She ran her finger along her clit to match the rhythm of his pumping cock. It felt as though her breath matched perfectly, and the sea joined in time. The waves crested as he thrust, and retreated as he pulled back. She inhaled and exhaled in perfect unison, her clit throbbed and his cock pulsed and everything felt right with the world.

  He jerked back and said, “
Not now, I want your cunt,” as his cock slid out of her mouth. He showed incredible control and held back his orgasm. “I want to fill you with cum, I want it dripping from you, covering you,” he added and pulled her up and into his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist. “I want to mark you, to leave my scent on you and remind you how empty you are without me.”

  She was surprised by the swift motion of his body and how easily he picked her up, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her cheek to his chest. She could hear his heart pounding, definitely matching time with hers. She said, “I know how empty I am without you Dimi. I was lost when you were gone, I was a pathetic mess of a woman longing for one thing.”

  “And what was that?” he asked and she looked up.

  “I think you know,” she smiled. He pulled her up a few more inches, she tilted herself to receive him and he slid his cockhead along her slit.

  “This?” he questioned and matched her smile. “Did you long for my cock, splitting you open and fucking you into madness?”

  “Fuck yes,” she said, her voice demanding in its need, “fuck me, Dimi. Fuck me hard.”

  The waves lapped at her feet dangling in the water so she pulled them up and tried to wrap them completely around Dimitri.

  “Not so fast, little dove,” he said and pulled away, leaving his cock resting at the top of her V, nestled in her swollen lips. “I want you to beg, I love it when you beg.”

  “I don’t want to beg,” she said, “you know I want it, you know I always want it, why should I beg for something that pleases us both?” Damn her stubborn streak, she thought, why must she always make this tougher for both of them? Why was she so addicted to the game?

  “You know you’ll beg me for my cock,” he replied and smiled wider, “even before I loved you, even when you were bound by me and felt the sting of my whip and didn’t know if I was going to fuck you or kill you...even then you wanted to give in, to beg.”