Still Alive Pt. 03

He saw Ashley in the mirror approaching him from behind, modestly dressed in a thick terry bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her hair.

"G'morning," he said with the toothbrush between his lips.

"To you, too. I put that stuff in here before I got in the shower. Thought you might need them."

She wrapped her arms around his upper torso and held onto him even when he bent over the sink to rinse. She laughed when his bending body lifted her feet from the floor. His reaction was muffled by the towel he held to his face. She released him when he stood back upright.

"Can I ask you something?"

She nodded.

"What's the last thing you remember about last night?"

"You were worried that I was drunk, and me getting a bit snooty with you. I want you to know I wouldn't have regretted it for a second if you … I get it. You made the right call. You were protecting not just me, but yourself. It was smart. Are you hungover?"

He shook his head.

"Then can I have a kiss?"

"Absolutely," he answered with a whisper, wrapping his arms around her to draw her into him.

"More, please," she whispered, her lips still touching his.

He loosened the towel from her head and let it drop to the floor. He ran his fingers through her damp hair, temples to shoulders, as he offered his tongue to her. She sighed audibly as she took it between her lips.

Ashley withdrew mere inches from his gentle embrace, untied the belt around her waist, and shrugged off the robe. His expression thrilled her to her core.

He felt his jaw slacken as he took in the sight of her small breasts and dark nipples which hardened in the cool air. His mouth watered. He drew her bare, dewy body to him.

"How's this for consent?" she cooed before suckling his earlobe. She pivoted her hips, pressing her lower tummy into his hardness.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he whined.

"Doing what? What's wrong?"

"You've had a shower. I haven't since before I picked you up last night wearing a uniform which, unlike your beautiful dress, wasn't exactly breathable. I've only washed above my shoulders, and I don't think you'd appreciate that. But you? Jeez. You smell so nice, and you're minty, too. You're absolutely gorgeous, Ash."

She laughed easily. "I'm not even put together yet."

"Yes, you are, and you know it."

"Well, thank you," she said with an honest smile. "If that's the case, I'm going to go for a jog in a bit. Want to join me?"

"I wish I could, but I don't think I can run in these sweats. I'd be tripping over myself. Then there's the matter of not having proper shoes."

She chuckled. "Speaking of your uniform, I'll give you a hundred bucks if you can run a 5K in it."

"You'd lose it. I've done far longer with far more."

"Then let me take you to your hotel so you can change."

"Motel."

"Whatever. We can get breakfast, too."

"Deal. Sounds great."

She removed her bathrobe and towel from the floor. "I'm going back upstairs to finish getting ready. Give me ten more minutes."

He watched her beautiful bare bottom as she walked away. When she was halfway down the hall, she looked over her shoulder and smiled.

In less than half an hour, her GR86 pulled up to the door of his motel room. He stepped out in his still-bare feet, folded his seat forward, and extracted his uniform from the back bench.

"Want to come in?" he asked. "It's going to take me a few to put this away and get changed."

"Sure," she said, shutting off the engine. She followed him inside after he unlocked the door with a card. "Wow. Nice ."

Mark laughed lightly at her sarcastic evaluation.

"Why did you take a room here? I mean⁠—"

"I'm used to roughing it, you know? I prefer saving as much of my paycheck as I can. They're going to disappear now, but what I've saved should cover things for a while."

Ashley sat at the foot of the bed as Mark reorganized the elements of his uniform and placed them all in various boxes or on hangers which went into a garment bag. His cover and shoes had their own boxes. He stepped to the bathroom with a pair of boxer briefs. When he returned, she studied the shape of his incredibly fit physique as he pulled on running thermals and a snug tee. He donned shorts, also in black, and a light jacket.

She grinned at his delightfully cute modesty as he sought to hide particular areas from the prying eyes of others. The grin faded as she realized she was becoming aroused watching him lose the grossly oversized clothes he'd borrowed and replace them with workout gear which fit him perfectly.

"National Mall?" he suggested, sitting next to her to put on a pair of ankle socks and his shoes.

"You're reading my mind. There's a new restaurant in the Shops at Crystal City I've heard is really good. How's that sound?" she asked, watching him slowly, awkwardly tie his runners.

"Perfect. I'm hungry."

"I am, too."

She straddled his knees and sat atop them as she looked deeply into his eyes. Finding his right hand, she brought it between their bodies. She curled her fingers through his and studied three fingertips which had yet to begin regrowing nails. She suspected they never would and felt vicarious pain at what Mark had endured when they were forcibly removed.

"I'm so sorry I didn't get my men to you sooner," Ashley whispered, kissing the scarred beds. Glistens of tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"I need to confess something," she continued, her voice thickening. "At first, you were nothing more than another assignment. An asset to be recovered. You were a code , Mark. Your code name was … it was Jackwagon ."

He reflexively chuckled at the aptness of it.

"Don't laugh," she said. "It's not funny. I wasn't the one who picked it, but, at the time, I didn't care. I didn't care! You were an object. My next job. I am so sorry you had to go through this."

She held his hand and kissed his healed wounds again. He gently extracted it from her grip with his other, then used both thumbs to remove the tears on her cheeks.

"Hey. Haven't you figured it out yet?" he asked. "You saved my life. You said last night that you purposefully distanced yourself early on, and I think that was wise. The way my CO, Adam, Erin, and even Shannon described you, you were like all pro. Hell. I got that sense from the general last night. But with me, well … when you began letting the true you start showing and I was introduced to your incredible personality, like I said, it spooked me. I realized you were … different, and so … I don't know how to describe it. All I know is that I don't want to be scared of you anymore."

"Then don't be. I'm a Persian kitten, remember?"

His hands encircled her slender waist as she kissed him intensely, slipping her tongue as far into his mouth as she could. He pulled her tightly to him, her knees bending, her calves curling next to his thighs. She felt him becoming erect against the gusset of her running pants as he softly stroked the smooth, taut fabric covering her toned rump as they kissed.

"I feel you," she whispered with a tremble in her voice, moving herself against the firmness she felt between her legs.

He groaned audibly.

"Am I hurting you?"

"I was kinda worried, but no. Not at all."

"Good." She leaned back to look at him. "God I want you so bad right now."

"Huh-uh. This place is a sty. Maybe I should switch to a nicer establishment," he whispered, his breath caressing the side of her neck, causing gooseflesh as he kissed it.

"How 'bout you get your stuff packed. We can walk to the office so you can check out, then go back to my place."

"Yeah?"

"Yes," she whispered with a slow nod as he stroked her warm bottom with his palms.

The drive took almost fifteen minutes. An eternity. Ashley felt the gusset of her running pants becoming damp.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked as they neared her neighborhood. She unlocked her iPhone, opened an app, and handed it to him.

"What am I looking at?"

"The boiler is in the cellar. It takes a couple of minutes for hot water to go up four floors. I start the shower before I get out of bed. Select the second preset."

He chuckled at the novelty of a fixture that could be operated from anywhere in the world. The app bleeped in acknowledgment of the command. Martel groaned, squeezing her thighs together.

Mark watched Ashley in anticipation, as well as the app which displayed a temperature which began rising to the programmed target.

She pulled her car into her garage, exited, and waited for Mark by the door to the garden level of her brownstone.

When he stepped to her, she grasped him and brought his mouth to hers. They held hands as they climbed three flights of stairs. She noticed him looking about as they ascended.

"I'll give you a tour in a little while if you want, but not now. The water's hot," she said.

Ashley sat on a bench at the foot of her bed and began untying her shoes. Before she could remove them, Mark knelt in front of her, gently pushing against her knees. She relaxed and allowed him to part her legs. His pupils dilated when he saw moisture in the crotch of her pants. He leaned forward in rampant anticipation and inhaled slowly through his nose.

"You weren't wrong," he whimpered. "It's very hot."

He nuzzled into her. Her aroused scent inebriated him, and the warmth rising from her hidden secrets fueled his own. She mewled and sent her fingers through his hair when she felt his nose and lips against her pussy.

He followed her into the ensuite where they hurriedly pulled garments from each other. Wright's breath hitched when he saw a tattoo in the diagonal of her left thigh and tummy. Due to her proximity when she dropped her robe earlier that morning, he'd not seen the four-inch-long stiletto as black as the hair near it. A tongue of red, orange, and yellow flame rose from the tip of the blade.

"A dagger?" he asked.

"I think I'll get a cover-up because I don't ever want you to think I have any intention of burning you."

"Ash, your before is important to me, but not as much as your now . Change nothing. Your tat, your work nickname, your car's plates … nothing ."

He placed his palms below her ears. Each peered into the other's eyes so intently it was as if their souls melded. She grasped his muscular backside and pulled him tightly to her, feeling his steel throbbing. He brought her mouth to his and lightly bored his teeth to her lower lip, feeling her quiver and hearing her whimper at his tempered aggressiveness and the flavor of his kisses.

She watched, feeling her arousal mount as the glistening man lathered. She soaped her hands and gently cupped his sac.

"I'm worried about hurting you. Please tell me if⁠—"

"You're not," he growled and widened his stance. "Your touch feels … God it feels so good."

She then took him into her soapy hands to cleanse his hardness, smiling as his instincts drove him to thrust in her grip. He pulled away when he neared the edge. She removed the wand from the showerhead's center and helped him rinse.

Mark took her lightly in his hands and brushed her nipples with the pads of his thumbs, watching them swell and harden. "May I?" he asked in a tone of voice she found marvelously alluring.

"Yes, please. Yes ," she answered when he made his intentions obvious with a touch of a finger to his lips. "Anything, Mark."

He knelt to the marble-tiled floor and placed his lips around a nipple. Her throaty moans and the firm grasp of his hair, pulling him tighter to her chest, signaled volumes. One of his hands made its way up her thigh. She moaned when two of his fingers penetrated her slickened sex and his thumb found her swollen clit. He placed his lips around her other nipple, suckling her breast, craving her ferally.

His fingers became glazed with her sugar. Her fingernails clawed at his shoulders as a furiously fast climax poured through her entire being. She watched his eyes roll back when he placed his fingers to his nose, then his tongue.

She moaned as he nursed her little mounds again. "I want to taste you ."

She released him. She knelt after he stood and brought his cock into her mouth, taking in his drizzle, playing the tip of her tongue to his opening to find more. His hoarse moans and grunts sent euphoric shivers down her spine.

"God, Mark. I want … I need you."

She rose and pressed a button on a panel. The shower stopped, but her craving to be filled didn't. She reached to a niche and pulled from it a towel for him then removed her own. She stepped out of the en suite bathroom and crawled atop her bed. Once he settled onto his back, she straddled him and took him slowly, watching his eyes as she brought him deeper inside.

"You're so tight," Mark groaned in blissful agony.

She grinned intensely as she rocked her hips against his, drawing him in to his hilt. She rode him with vigor and grunted roughly as another climax pummeled her. His own made him cry out as she grasped his shoulders with her hands and her calves wrapped behind his thighs.

Warmth poured through two souls as their lips joined in blissful afterglow. His still-hard member inside her pussy made the oneness complete. He cradled her head on his chest while she played with its hair and softly hummed. He repeated her sounds in echoes.

When he softened to the point his flesh slipped out of her, she scooched a few inches higher, looking him squarely in the eyes with a serene smile. She placed her lips on his and kissed them slowly, warmly, and gently while he cupped her bottom in his palms. He traced his fingers softly down her spine, through her cleft, enjoying and learning her body's contours and textures. Her muscles clenched involuntarily when they drew over a spot between her cheeks. She giggled softly.

"Can I give you a compliment I don't know how to say without sounding lecherous?" Mark asked.

"Please do. The more, the better."

He chose different words because of her answer. "Your tiny booty is absolutely divine ."

She smiled curiously. "Lecherous and divine? Last night, you told Ernie to shove his laconism and said I addressed him with a diminution of his name. You then described a crap-ton of incredibly detailed techie-techie. You're definitely no crayon-eater."

"If you ever tell him I do crosswords too, I'll come after you."

"Like you just did?" she coyly said. "I'm going to call him as soon as I can."

"Ash, you're an incredible woman."

"Last night, you said you don't think you deserve someone like me. I've begun to feel the same about you."

They spent several quiet minutes of solitude simply kissing and caressing each other's bare skin.

"You know what?" Ashley whispered.

"Hmm."

"I was stuffed a while ago, but I'm starving now."

Wright laughed hard. "Jeez you're a naughty kitty."

"What can I say? You completely wrecked the plan for the day."

"Your fault, but I'll happily take the blame."

The two quickly freshened themselves before dressing.

Ashley stepped to her dresser, removed a pair of black cotton t-back panties and slipped them on. She caught Mark watching with a cute, inquisitive grin.

"No one but you needs to know how wet you make me. There's a new diner a couple of miles away. Jog or drive?" she asked, pulling jeans and another pair of running pants from a drawer since her others had been made deliciously messy.

"Run. Definitely run," he decided for two distinctly different reasons. The first was because he found her form to be incredibly fit and attractive. The second was because he needed the exercise.

Once all was settled, they departed on fleet feet.

When they reached and entered D'Addario's Diner, they were shown to a table. Both declined the immediate offer of coffee, instead asking for iced water. A QR code on the tabletop navigated to an online menu where Mark selected scrambled eggs, toast, and hashbrowns. Ashley ordered fruit salad and yogurt.

She caressed his calf with a foot, watching his smile appear with hers.

When their food arrived, Ashley's eyes widened. "I'll trade some of mine for a bite of yours."

"Deal," he said, selecting a peach slice from her dish with his fork.

She swatted his hand playfully and took his utensil away. She brought the fruit to his mouth. He smiled warmly and accepted the bite she offered. She daubed his lip with her thumb. Using the same fork, she stabbed some crispy bits of potato and egg.

The pair continued feeding little morsels of their selections to each other.

"Oh. I just remembered something I wanted to ask you," Wright said. "Last night, in the conference room at the hotel, you made a gesture with your hands that looked like you were telling me 'later.'"

She smiled brightly and nodded. "You caught that, huh?"

"You know American Sign Language?"

"Only a wee bit so far. I started studying it when you were in St. Louis."

"Why?"

"Because I learned from your CO that your mother is deaf. I'm betting you're fluent in ASL, and willing to double the bet that you are in Spanish, too."

"You planning on Skyping my mom or something?" he said with a chuckle.

"Not exactly, but since you said you were learning nihongo , I thought I could learn another language you'd understand. Nihongo means⁠—"

"Japanese," Wright interrupted.

He stared into her dark almond eyes, watching her take a little bite of fruit between her lips and chew it slowly.

"That's incredible, Ash. I love that idea," he said, signing it, too.

"Don't go too fast. I've only started the course."

Mark grinned as Ashley demonstrated the basics she'd learned. He signed a few simple phrases. She said them aloud needing only minor corrections before they returned to using verbal speech.

"I'm going to tell you about something that might happen at Wolfram. The important word here is 'might,' because it's not guaranteed. I'll say it's probable based on what happened yesterday. Wolfram's GM is considering offering you a position."

Mark's brows arched in surprise. "What? What brought this on?"

"I've been bugging him about you. He's aware of your travel history, as well as your talents. I think he sees how you'd be a perfect addition."

"On one of his logistics teams?"

"I wouldn't want him to put you in harm's way. In fact, I've stepped out of that role."

"Why? You're good at it. What are you going to do now?"

"What I've been doing for the last month. A couple of weeks after you and I met face to face, Wesson suggested a new role and tasked me with the responsibility of forming a training division. I'd beta-tested a two-day course with some higher ups at Teegram Limited, one of our clients. It was talking to them about how they can pay closer attention to their surroundings, reading rooms, faces, et cetera, to detect potential ways they can be entrapped. An ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure."

"That makes a ton of sense."

"I asked Wesson to consider bringing you on to help with it. I can't do it all myself. You have a skillset on the opposite icecap to mine and could add so much more value. You'd be working for Wesson directly. We'd be peers. I've been developing a game plan, and he's going to announce it by the end of the year."

"Huh," Mark said, his brows crunched, as he studied the blankness of the tabletop. "That does sound challenging."

"If  . I'm thinking it'll happen because of some of the things Ernesto said last night."

"Like what?"