The Siren Scent Pt. 02

He stepped to her side and reached out to touch her face. Instantly she turned her head to kiss his fingers. Instinctively, he bent down and cupped her face. When he pulled away, she whimpered, so he did it again, and this time, remembering Lamia's admonition, he kissed her. Her mouth was full of passion.

He thought about freeing her but, being cautious, decided to leave her bound to the table. He sat down beside her, and as she stared at him with longing, he couldn't resist running his hands over her body. She groaned at his touch and arched herself up as much as the ropes would let her, trying to get more.

She began to pant now, and her obvious arousal spurred a similar response in him. No longer hesitant, he climbed up on the table and knelt between Kayla's legs. Then he ran his hands up the material on her thighs. The higher he went, the greater the heat he could feel coming through.

The garment she wore was very thin, but there seemed to be no closures he could unfasten. He looked questioningly at her and she seemed to understand immediately. "There's a button at the throat and another at the waist. Squeeze them." His fingers found them, and when he squeezed, the stitching at the seams somehow released. Then the material itself began to retract, and in an instant Kayla was lying on the table wearing nothing except a band around her neck and another at her waist. The sight of her nude, bound body excited him. Hurriedly he shed his briefs and lay down on the woman's body.

Her head came off the table enough to whisper in his ear. "Please be gentle -- you are my first."

He pulled back, startled and uncertain, but she showed no hesitation. He felt the heat from her body and saw the desire in her eyes. Lust built within him, and any remaining reservations vanished. He began to caress her, wanting to enjoy her body, wanting to be sure she was ready. She gasped as his hands found her breasts, and when he gently squeezed her nipples, she gave a little squeal as they hardened.

After a few minutes of that, Colin reached down between her legs to gauge the extent of her readiness. When he touched her lower lips, he found they were already dripping with her moisture. He stroked the length of her opening, and, finding her enlarged clitoris, he circled and squeezed it. Immediately her hips arched up as high as her bonds would allow, and she began to whimper. "Please, please, don't make me wait any longer. I need you in me so badly."

Her words inflamed him, and he rolled back on top of her, letting his penis slide up and down over the lips of her vagina. She began to moan, and he could wait no longer. Positioning himself at her entrance, he pushed until the head of his penis penetrated her. "Oh!" she gasped out, and then began pumping her hips again, trying to force him deeper. He needed no further encouragement, and slid all the way into her in a single, continuous motion. There was some slight resistance, and then he heard her crying again. "Are you alright?" he asked, pausing.

"It feels so wonderful," she gasped. "I never knew it would be like this. Please make love to me now."

With her encouragement, he began a steady rocking motion of his hips, making slow thrusts into her heat. Feeling the muscles in her vagina begin to respond, Colin maintained a gentle pace, taking the time to let Kayla build. Sensing her happiness, he couldn't help kissing her face -- not only her mouth but her eyes, nose and forehead.

When he thought she was ready, he gave her a full, firm stroke. "Oh!" she gasped again, and then her body strained to meet his. "Oh, Colin, oh, Colin, please, Colin," she wailed over and over, and his own pleasure increased with her response. Their passion built steadily and strongly, and when he felt her muscles go rigid in orgasm, he followed her into his own climax.

The kitchen wasn't cold, but he felt her shivering slightly beneath him. He moved his legs outside hers and covered her arms with his own in an attempt to warm her. Although the light was dim, he could make out the smile on her face, and despite everything that had happened earlier, he felt glad.

When he lay his head beside her face, she twisted to whisper in his ear. "I know I can't have you. I know you are hers. But thank you, thank you for sharing yourself with me this way. This is something I'll always remember."

He lifted up enough to look into her eyes. "I . . . I don't really know what to say."

She smiled. "You don't need to say anything, dear Colin." Then she grew more intense. "But there is something I need to ask of you."

His eyes formed the question.

"Please make love to me one more time. And Colin, this time don't hold back."

He sat up to look at her, and what he saw now was a female animal bound and exposed for his sexual pleasure. The image stirred something primeval within him, and he growled and flung himself onto her. When he pressed her into the table, he found that she was equally hot: hot to the touch and hot with desire. Now he could smell her arousal in the air, and when he aligned his penis with her vaginal lips, he found her open and needy. Animal instinct transformed him into a beast maddened by lust, and he plunged himself deep into her. She cried out, but in pleasure, not pain. And when he began to thrust into her as fast as he could, she arched her hips to ask for more.

Vaguely he heard her moaning, and found himself grunting to match her. Passion that strong could not last long, and the two bodies quickly soared toward an impossible peak. He heard her shriek as she reached orgasm; his own roar followed only seconds later.

He was holding her so tightly that he knew immediately when she began to cry again. Before he could ask, she reassured him. "It was so good, exactly what I needed, exactly what I'd hoped for. Even if I never experience it again, I'll never forget."

After a minute he gently wiped the tears off her cheeks and then climbed off the table. Darting away into another room, he returned moments later with a blanket which he tucked around her. "Thank you," she said, "for this and for . . . everything." She stared at him with an intensity that moved him. "I love you, Colin," she whispered

Before he could think of a reply, she stopped him. "And Colin, please tell Lamia I love her too."

When he got back into bed, Lamia was awake. "Two times? You had to do it twice?"

He blushed. "Hey, you were the one who forced me to go in there. And anyway . . ."

"Shut up, you idiot," she said with a smile, and pulled him into her embrace.

A Visitor and a Problem

When Lamia awoke the next morning, she found her husband staring at the ceiling, a pensive expression on his face. When she inquired about it, his brows furrowed. "Babe, I really feel uncomfortable about last night. I'm still not sure why you thought I had to do that. I really felt weird afterwards, Babe. She told me she loves me -- and you too, for that matter."

Lamia gave a smile that Colin couldn't read.

"And I was surprised, Babe, she told me she was a virgin -- she said I was her first."

Now Lamia looked surprised. "I didn't know that." Then she grew thoughtful. "But you were my first. Maybe that explains why . . ." But before she could finish, they heard a loud pounding on the tavern door. When they hurried out, they found Diego Torres pacing anxiously on the sidewalk. After he saw them, relief flooded his face. "I got here as quickly as I could, but I guess you were able handle the situation."

Colin and Lamia exchanged a quick glance. "If you hadn't called me," Lamia told their friend, "it might have been too late for Colin. But we managed to uh, handle the situation, and we captured the would-be assassin."

"How the hell did you manage that? Their agents are something else. Did you . . . wait a minute, was the assassin male or female?"

Again the couple exchanged a glance. "Definitely female," Colin confirmed. "Actually, we've got her tied up in the kitchen."

A knowing look came over Diego's face. "Aha! I bet you used your hormones on her, didn't you?" When Colin sheepishly nodded, Diego asked, "Can I talk to her?"

"I don't see why not," Lamia answered, and led him back to the kitchen. But when the three of them walked through the door, all they found were the ropes lying on the table. "Oh my God, she got away!" Diego exclaimed. He pulled out his sidearm and began to scan the area.

Before he could go far, however, they heard more knocking on the front door. Hurrying back to the entrance, they found their former prisoner standing there, a cardboard box in her hand. "Sorry I went out without telling you. There's a great bakery down the street." She held up her package. "I brought pastries."

Colin exchanged glances with Lamia, both wondering how the agent had managed to escape so easily. But there clearly wasn't a problem, so Lamia turned to Diego. "Um, Diego, meet Kayla. Kayla, this is Diego Torres, our friend and former commander."

"Oh, I know all about Diego," the dark-headed woman said with a nod as she passed around the box. "I was supposed to kill him too." Seeing her would-be victim's startled reaction, she hastily added, "Of course, that was before last night." Then she took a big bite of a Danish, and Diego relaxed a little.

Over pastries and steaming coffee, Lamia explained the sequence of events to the skeptical commander. He listened quietly, but Lamia noticed that he kept one hand near his pistol. When she had finished, Diego looked at Kayla carefully. "So you don't want to kill Colin and me anymore?"

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "I love Colin now, and Lamia too. I could never harm either of them. And since you're their friend, I wouldn't want to cause them pain by harming you."

He shot a questioning glance at Lamia, but she only nodded vigorously in confirmation of what Kayla had just said. "She's not going to hurt any of us, Diego. She wants to help us."

"Okayyyy," he said dubiously, then turned to Colin. "Regardless of Kayla's loyalties, I really don't understand why Gunderson sent her to kill us in the first place. My ex-colleague Henderson said everyone in the Service thought we were dead. They even held a memorial for us. If Gunderson wanted everybody to think we're dead, why send someone out to try to assassinate us?"

"Good point," Colin agreed. "For that matter, that whole Salician mission stunk from the beginning. Why were we sent to kidnap the daughter of a high-ranking ally?"

Diego nodded. "I never understood that mission either. If we'd succeeded, it would have caused a major rift in the Confederation. What did we have to gain from that?"

"And here's another thing," Colin added, "they told us Princess would be unguarded." He nodded toward his wife. "There was no mention of the deadliest -- and prettiest -- bodyguard in the galaxy."

The three of them shared a smile, remembering how that episode had turned out. But Diego immediately grew thoughtful. "It's almost as though they set us up to fail. Were they trying to send a message to the Salicians? But that doesn't make any sense either." He pointed at Colin. "If you'd been killed and the rest of us captured, it still would have been a huge black-eye for the Confederation."

He turned back to Kayla. "Are you sure you weren't supposed to capture us and bring us back?"

"Oh, no," she said brightly, "I was supposed to find you both and sanction you." Then the import of her words struck her, and her smile crumpled to a look of shame. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't ..."

Diego interrupted her before she could apologize. "Listen, Kayla, this is important: were any other assassins dispatched to find us?"

She looked up at him though moist eyes. "No, it was just me and my handler."

"Your handler! Who is that?"

"The guy you mentioned: Henderson."

"That son of a bitch!" Diego snarled. "I bought his little sob story all the way." He looked quickly at the others. "That means that if Henderson doesn't hear from Kayla very soon, he'll know she failed. And that means we'll have a visit from another assassin on Frontier 4 very shortly."

Lamia and Colin looked at each other apprehensively; they'd only just avoided death the night before. But Kayla had a look of relief on her face. "I can help you," she said eagerly. "All I have to do is to let Henderson know I succeeded and tell him I need to meet with him. Then, I can eliminate him before he can communicate with Gunderson."

"That's a good idea, Kayla," Lamia spoke up, "except can we not eliminate him? I don't want to be involved in a cold-blooded murder. Can't we just stash him somewhere where he can't get away and communicate with anyone?"

Colin was nodding now. "Yeah, I've got a friend with a place way out on the pampas where he grazes his herd. We could leave him out there without any weapons or comms. He'd be stuck with no one to talk to but the sheep."

"Alright, that it would solve our immediate problem," Diego grudgingly agreed. "But if Gunderson doesn't hear from Henderson soon, he's going to send another operative. Not only that, but we still don't know what game Gunderson is playing."

"Gunderson is the key to this whole thing," Colin burst out. "The only way we can protect ourselves is to grab him somehow and force him to explain this whole mess. If we could, maybe we could clear ourselves and escape this whole nightmare once and for all."

Torres shook his head. "Even if we could get to Terra undetected, how would we ever get close enough to Gunderson to grab him? He's the head of Fleet Intelligence."

"I have an idea," Kayla piped up, and they all turned to look at her. "Gunderson's expecting to hear from his team. Why don't I send a message -- let him know I succeeded but Henderson didn't make it. He'll order me to return for debriefing. I go back and you three come with me."

"That might get us through Terra's defenses, but once we're there, Gunderson will probably order you to report in to headquarters. There's no way we could ever pry him out of there." He paused and thought some more. "Besides, the Fleet is sure to scan your ship, Kayla. If they see any unreported living beings on board, they're likely to search you."

"So how about this," Colin offered. "What if you and I 'tag along' in Kayla's wake aboard the Gyrfalcon. If the Fleet focuses on her ship and we're cloaked to the maximum, we might be able to get past their sensors."

Torres was dubious. "That might work, but we still have the problem of getting our hands on Gunderson. Kayla, you may be a crack assassin, not you're not a marine assault squad. Even if you got to him, you'd never get him out of headquarters."

Lamia had been listening with growing irritation, and now she spoke up. "In the first place, you're not going to leave me behind. In the second place, the answer is to lure Gunderson away from headquarters. The way to do that is to make him think the threat has not been completely eliminated." She pointed at Kayla. "Suppose you wait to contact him until you're in route back to Terra. You report that you've taken care of Diego and Colin, but you've captured me. You kept me alive because you think I've got critical information, information that will be released automatically if I'm dead. Hopefully, that will make him want to see what he's caught, and I'll bet he won't want to do that where lots of others might see or hear."

"Out of the question," Colin said firmly. "That's way too dangerous, Lamia. Diego or I can play that role just as well."

"No you can't," his wife replied. "He knows you and knows your abilities. But he doesn't know about me. Besides, in addition to being able to overcome him physically, I've also got my own secret weapon I can use to eliminate his resistance."

Diego nodded his head. "Your hormones. She's got a point, Colin."

They argued for a while longer, with Colin vigorously trying to dissuade his wife, but, in the end, no one could come up with a better way to go after Gunderson. "The one thing we know for sure," Diego told them, "is that Gunderson won't be expecting us to show up on Terra."

Having reluctantly agreed to the plan, Colin made arrangements with friends and the staff to mind the tavern while they were away. Meanwhile, Kayla and Torres managed to detain Henderson and maroon him in the middle of nowhere out on the pampas.

Face-off at the Farm

The next step was to set off in two ships for Terra, with Diego and Colin flying cloaked in the Gyrfalcon, and Lamia and Kayla returning in her small scout ship. Kayla's transmission to Gunderson produced exactly the kind of response they'd hoped for. He praised her for eliminating Torres and O'Malley, and cursed her for leaving Lamia alive. But after his initial rage, he concluded that Kayla's prisoner might be valuable and that an interrogation was in order.

"Shall I bring her to headquarters?" Kayla asked innocently.

"No!" her boss snapped. He paused for several seconds. "Take her to these coordinates and wait for me to get there. Then we'll find out what we have."

When Kayla passed the coordinates on to the Gyrfalcon, Colin and Diego were surprised. "The satellite shots show what looks like a farm out in the country. In fact, those coordinates will put Kayla down in a pasture next to what appears to be a large horse barn," Colin reported.

"Maybe it's Gunderson's," Diego suggested. "The word around Intelligence was that he owns quite a spread somewhere away from the capitol. In any case, it certainly looks like it's secluded enough for him to conduct an interrogation without prying eyes and ears around. That's an advantage for us."

Hastily the four of them put a plan together. Kayla would take Lamia to the barn under guard and wait for Gunderson to arrive. Diego and Colin would land in an area where they could more easily conceal their ship, then make their way on foot to Gunderson's farm. If Gunderson was alone or had only a couple of agents with him, Lamia and Kayla felt confident they could handle the situation. If there were more, Colin and Diego would try to catch them by surprise and even the odds. All of them were uneasy about the unknowns, but they were committed now.

Holding a STEP pistol at Lamia's back, Kayla prodded her "captive" into the barn. As they entered, a couple of horses nickered at the unfamiliar scents, but soon quieted. There was no sign of Gunderson. They held their silence and waited, fearing spy devices might be observing them.

Suddenly, an inner door swung open noisily, and, to their surprise, a man in a spacesuit stepped out, a STEP in his hand. "Gunderson!" Kayla exclaimed. "You startled me."

He gestured toward the assassin. "Tie the little elf-girl to that support over there, then step away."

Shooting Lamia an uneasy glance, Kayla hastened to do the Intelligence Director's bidding, making sure not to tie her friend's bonds too tight. Then she stepped to one side as Gunderson looked on.

"You're probably wondering what the spacesuit is all about," he said pleasantly to Lamia. "It's simple, really. I know all about your 'enhancement,' my dear, so I wanted to be sure you couldn't work your wiles on me."

He turned to Kayla. "You see, Kayla, Henderson was able to report back about your new friends and your little change of allegiance. I guess you didn't know about that nano-transmitter embedded in his buttocks."

Immediately she raised her pistol and fired at him, but the "stun" setting proved insufficient to penetrate the spacesuit. His own strobe pulse, however, hit her full in the chest, knocking her unconscious. She flopped back in the hay, her body twitching occasionally.

He spun back toward Lamia, and she reluctantly stopped struggling with the rope that bound her. "As for you," he went on as if nothing had happened, "I wouldn't hold out much hope that your two white knights will rescue you. I've had a squad of Marines hidden in position around the barn since last night. As soon as Torres and O'Malley make their appearance, they will be dealt with" -- he gestured at Kayla -- "as she was supposed to have done already. As for you, I'm going to have our people take you apart in the lab so we can replicate what was done to you. If you don't resist, we might even use anesthetics."