Warriors

CHAPTER 38

The bedside phone jangled. Alex opened his eyes, sighed, and looked at his watch. Two o’clock in the bloody morning. Who the hell?

“I can hear you snore,” a vaguely familiar female voice said when he picked up.

“Ah. So sorry.”

“I like it.”

“Really? So few women do.”

“I’m not like most women.”

“How very fortunate.”

“Try not to be a rude, sexist pig if you can possibly avoid it.”

“Sorry. How is that you can hear me snore?”

“You’re loud.”

“But still.”

“I’m right next door.”

“Ah.”

“I hear everything.”

“Surely not everything.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Is there no privacy at all in this damned hotel?”

“Apparently not. You’d best behave.”

“Behave, is it? And if I don’t?”

“I’m not sure. Is your door locked?”

“Of course.”

“Unlock it.”

“Yes, dear.”

Click.

She’d rung off.

He replaced the receiver, yawned, and swung his long legs over the side of the bed. Feeling the cold against his naked skin, he grabbed his navy silk robe. The scant remains of his nightcap stood beside the phone, and he snatched up the glass and downed the dregs.

“Bottoms up,” he said, laughing softly to himself, while he idly scratched his bare stomach inside his robe. “Or at least one certainly hopes so.”

There came a tapping at his chamber door.

“Miss Li, I presume?” he said, opening it a crack.

She bowed her dark head, bent from the waist, and pressed her palms together.

“At your service, Lord Hawke.”

“I do like the sound of that. Won’t you please come in?”

“Come into my parlor, said the fly to the spider.”

He thought about that a moment and laughed. “Quite a good one, that. So you’re the infamous Spider Woman I’ve heard so much about.”

She smiled and stepped inside. She was wearing a sheer black peignoir thing that barely covered her bum. Black silk stockings held up by intricate lacy suspenders with small red ribbons at the fasteners. Black high-heeled Jimmy Choos and nothing else. Her quivering breasts were a bulging miracle encased in transparent silk. She smiled, the tip of her tongue darting out for the briefest moment before she spoke.

“My room is much nicer.”

“Pity you had to leave it.”

“We’ll see, I suppose.”

“Drink?” he said, picking up the bottle of Gosling’s by the bed.

“No. But you go right ahead. Do you need it?”

“I don’t know yet. But I think not.”

“Good boy. Look at you. You are like a little boy. So full of hope and expectation.”

“Hmm.”

“What are you hoping for, Lord Hawke?”

“At the moment? I’m hoping you’re not a lesbian.”

“I’m not, I assure you,” she said.

“Good. That’s settled, then. Thank you. Have we met before?”

“Don’t you think you’d remember these?” she said, freeing her breasts from captivity.

“Yes, I suppose I would, wouldn’t I?”

“You appear to have an erection.”

“Do I?”

“Don’t be shy. It’s flattering. The much-loved compliment left unsaid.”

“You had me at ‘Lorelei.’ Down there on the moonlit terrace.”

“I noticed. Shall we fuck, Lord Hawke? Or not?”

“I can’t think of any good reason not to.”

“I like to be on top.”

“Surprise, surprise.”

“Lie down, Lord Hawke.”

“Bossy, bossy.”

“I said, lie down!”

He did, smiling up at her, and said, “Tell me, dear. Did you leave your riding crop at home?”

She laughed and stroked his cheek.

“So sorry to disappoint you, darling. Yes, I did.”

“It wasn’t me I was concerned about. Darling.”

“What do you like, your lordship?” she said, climbing onto the bed and arranging herself astride him. Leaning toward him, she dipped the tops of her breasts creamily into the soft light of the bedside lamp.

He sighed involuntarily at the sight of her.

She smiled and took him gently in her hand, guided him slowly inside her. With another, deeper sigh of pleasure, he yanked the thin straps of the peignoir completely off her shoulders and cupped her heavy breasts in his hands, caressing her erect nipples with infinite tenderness.

“Let’s see. What do I like? Oh, yes. Sex,” Hawke said. “I do like sex. Always have.”

“Vanilla, one would suppose, m’lord. How mundane and haute bourgeois of you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You know what I mean. Tell me what you want.”

“I aim only to please, darling. Besides, you’re my guest of honor. I’ll follow your lead. Where are we going with this magical sexual mystery tour?”

“I would say a bit of kink, ordinarily. It’s where my oh-so-deviant tastes lie. The sting of the crop and all that. Delicious. But it’s so bloody hard to lug around all that kinky paraphernalia when one goes out for an evening of romance. Don’t you agree?”

“Hmm. Cumbersome. Awkward, too, arriving for a passionate fling in one’s spiffy black Range Rover towing a U-Haul for all one’s erotic bondage appliances.”

“You’re funny. I knew you would be.”

“Thanks. Now shut up and fuck.”

“Say that again.”

“Shut up and fuck.”

“Yes. Do that some more. Deeper. Yes. Like that. A little harder. And slower. Oh, yes. Yes… like that. Right there. On my clit.”

Harder. Slower. Harder.

“Good?” he said.

“Good. Yes.”

“You’re very beautiful, Lorelei.”

“So are you. But I’m only after your money, m’lord. You are rich, I suppose… oh, yes, please, don’t talk now, just fuck me.”

“I will.”

“Don’t stop that. Come. Now. I want to feel it inside me. And then if you’re a very good boy, I’ll let you make me come.”

His back arched involuntarily and a cry escaped his lips.

Exhausted, they lay side by side in the dark. Two glowing orange coals hovered above their faces as they inhaled their cigarettes.

“That was good,” she said.

Hawke said, “Last time? The woman I was with said ‘Was it good for you?’ ”

“Really? What did you say?”

“I said, ‘Weren’t you there?’ ”

“Good one.”

“Do you always smoke after sex?” he asked her.

“I’ve no idea. I’ve never looked.”

When Hawke awoke the next morning, the girl was gone. She’d written her mobile number in red lipstick on his bathroom mirror. A bit theatrical, he thought.

He picked up the phone to order a pot of black coffee.

A bit odd, that one. Too cute by half, perhaps. Some kind of an agenda?

He considered a moment, and then rubbed her lipstick number out with the cuff of his terry bathrobe sleeve. Uninvited trouble already came his way with sufficient regularity. The very last thing he needed was to invite more.

Little did he know that he already had.