Chapter 17 ARTEMIS
I woke from my nap in the middle of the night.
Maya was snoring beside me, hugging a pillow in a vice grip.
My head continued to throb and ache—with each of the pulsations in my head, a flicker of an image, a flash of light cracking through my brain almost. It was the sound of bullets, the harshness of a gun ripping through a skull. It’s all I could think about.
Everything I wore was creased up and slightly stiff as I walked out of the bedroom to the lounge, where Donovan was laid on a sofa, staring at the light above. He shuffled a deck of cards on his chest, splitting them in two, then looking at the two numbers on the deck.
“Damn,” he grumbled, lowering the cards and seeing me standing in front of him. “Jesus, don’t do that.”
“You’re supposed to be on duty,” I said.
“So are you,” he grumbled, shuffling upright on the sofa. “How was your nap?”
“It was so nice,” I said. “But my head is killing.”
Donovan stood in a huff. “Get your ass in here,” he directed me into the dining room. “Maya ordered a lot of food. It’s all very edible still. And water, you need to hydrate at all times. Just teach your dick it doesn’t need to piss all the time.”
Now I was grumbly. I wanted my morning—evening hug and maybe even a little more intimacy. I wasn’t asking for the world, I was just asking for a part of it. The cute part. The one I was sure would cure my headache.
“Are you ok though?” he asked again and now was my chance.
“It’s all—in my mind,” I let out.
He pulled me into that hug with force, patting my back and rubbing circles. “This is normal,” he whispered. “You might never get used to it, but you will learn to let it not get to you.”
“I want to sit on the sofa for a bit.” It made sense.
I wouldn’t always be stuck with the images.
Something worse was bound to appear that would scar me in a way I might never recover.
Fucking hell. What was I doing here? All for revenge.
All for a man. All to show him I was stronger. I had to do this for me.
We went back to the sofa where we continued to stay cuddled up together. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I was hungry to spend time with Donovan alone. Something had changed between us, and it was so special, I wanted to make sure he still felt it.
Donovan kept me close with his hands around me, secured in place. He kissed me on the cheek. “I got orders to keep her from talking about her benefactor, who we’re still not allowed to know.”
“Is that what was happening when I took my comms out?” I asked, lifting a hand to my ear. “Wait. I didn’t take it out.”
“No, I did, and I wasn’t going to let you sleep with the thing in, Jinksy’s a talker,” he said, turning his head to show me he wasn’t wearing his either. “So, what do you think about your second job?”
I shrugged. “It’s—a lot like babysitting, and Maya is great, she’s the client, so—”
“No,” he said quietly. “Whoever she works for is the client. They’ve put is in charge of babysitting, and I had to put her to bed on orders.”
I’d recalled some of it in a blur, mostly when Maya would kick me from the other side of the bed and snore. Wine drunk would definitely do that to you. I was lowkey jealous she got to do that. If I was able to get drunk and forget what I’d seen and heard today, I’d be a lot happier.
“Thoughts?” he added.
“I’m just—thinking,” I grumbled. “Do you think she’s like me?”
“Like you?”
“Yeah, like, when I’m, you know, being bratty and stuff, is that what I’m like, putting the spotlight on me and just trying to get attention.
” It poured right out of me. I was still lost in what I wanted from life—I thought I knew, I thought I could go through it killing all the evil people.
But to do that, it meant, I had to know evil, and it soured something in my stomach.
“A little bit,” he said, his face wincing up to break the news. “It’s not that bad. With you, I know you’re doing it for me, and you either want—” he smacked his lips. “Sex, or spankings. And ultimately, that leads to sex.”
I pouted, shuffling around on the sofa, I laid my head across his lap with my legs dangling across the arm of the chair. “I’m trying to be tougher, I’m trying to meaner, like you.”
“Please don’t be like me,” he said quickly and quietly, staring down at my face, rubbing his thumbs under my chin. “I promise you, I’m not what you want to aspire to be, Art.”
“I know, but you’re the only guy I’ve ever really—really loved,” I said, tearing stinging my eyes. “And you left me.” Choking up. I didn’t know if I could be this raw right now. “You just left me, and I think you’re a huge dick for that.”
He collected my tears and wiped them against his shirt.
“I left because my life is dangerous, everyone I’m close to eventually vanishes, and when you—” he couldn’t look at me now.
“When you appeared behind a guy, baseball bat in hand during our last job together, I knew you wanted more than just siccing me on them. You’ve always wanted more of the action.
I’ve always wanted you in the background. ”
Pushing myself up on an elbow, almost going for his balls with it. I was on his thigh, digging in. “You’d rather I was a fairy at Sanctum then?”
“No, no, no,” he said, his voice raising with each one. “I wanted you to get your degree, get a job, and live a different life. Not this one.”
I rolled my eyes, this time wishing I’d gone for his balls. “You keep saying that, but I signed Mercy’s contract,” I said, gritting my teeth, “I’ve killed people now. I’m no longer as innocent as the person you’re clinging to.”
“I know that, I know, I just—I need to remember we’re different people now.”
“Except, still the same,” I said, resting my head on his lap again. “Because I still love you, you know.”
“I know, and I still love you,” he said. “I kept thinking about those months we spent together. We must’ve gotten hundreds of people trying to traffick caught.”
Rolling my head on his lap, I came face-to-face with my friend, his dick. It was bulge up inside the sweatpants shorts he wore. “Are you going commando?” I asked, seeing the tip of his cock perfectly outlined.
“Yeah, I didn’t have a pair of clean underwear, so I figured nobody is going to see me now,” he said. “I washed my boxers in the sink with some handsome. They’re drying on the heated towel rack.”
“You know we can get clothes cleaned here,” I told him. I’d remembered reading about all the amenities this room had—or should have, including on-call laundry services. “Or sent over from Sanctum.” I prodded his cock again. It was getting bigger.
“What are you doing?”
“I want a starter,” I said, slipping two fingers into the waistband, slowly, I swished them around, deeper, feeling his head—already wet. I pulled my fingers out and licked the precum clean. “Mhmm.”
“That all?” he asked. “Because my dick isn’t a starter, it’s a main course, and a dessert.”
Looking around, we were alone. “Then let me have it.”
“No demanding,” he said, fingers under my chin, pushing my mouth closed.
“Please, can I have it?”
“See, you can be a good boy.” He ruffled his fingers through my hair.
“Now, come eat.” He slipped this sweatpants off so easily, sitting bare ass on the chair, his dick curved up, and as I touched it, it almost inflated in my hand, growing big and thick—just how I remembered. “Remember to give it a kiss first.”
On the floor on my knees, between his legs, I gave the tip of his glossy cock a kiss—letting it create a sticky lip gloss that dried a little too quick, making my lips hard—but not before I transferred it over in kisses to Donovan.
I sucked his cock the way I knew he liked it, two hands on his balls, one hand occasionally brushing a knuckle up against his taint and feeling the throb of his cock in my mouth, followed by his moans—they were the moans of being told I’d done a good job.
A couple of minutes into it, and my stomach rumbled, I wanted my full reward.
“You know that tongue thing—” Donovan started before throwing his head back with a hand over his mouth to suppress his moans. “I’m—”
The tongue was one of the strongest muscles—right?
Well, it was for me, and what better way of showing that muscle off than by using it to massage and coax the droplets of precum out of him.
I wasn’t going to let go of his cock until his load was in my belly—better this way than the other, no clean up required.
Donovan grabbed hold of the sofa cushions and moaned. My knuckle right below his balls, just massaging and getting close to his ass. It was off limits for toys and such, but a finger here and there.
“Do it,” he whispered.
The finger slipped inside, just the tip, or enough of it to curve and touch on his prostate.
He came instantly, no secondary massage needed, he shot his load all the way down my throat, I was gulping it down the way I could an icy water in the Miami heat.
I even licked the shaft clean, and watched him twitch from the way I wagged my tongue against the underside of his cock.
I received a secondary droplet of cum as my reward.
* * *
For the second time, Maya walked in on us on the sofa in the morning. We had been cuddled up for a while, we eventually slept, although not sure if Donovan did more than just close his eyes.
“I see you found a new bed,” Maya chuckled. Spinning in front of us, showing the way her silk dressing gown fanned. “Is breakfast ready? I remember what I did last night. I just hope I don’t get into trouble for it.”
Donovan was rushing around trying to look professional. “Yes, breakfast has been added to the food in the dining room,” he said quickly, trying to hide the fact he was in sweatpants shorts, standing behind the sofa. “Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”
She shook her head. “Are you going to have breakfast with me?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’m going to get dressed, and then I will.”
“Oh my god, come on, it’s the morning, nobody wants you in a suit all day, must be annoying as hell,” she said, gesturing with a hand thrown out. “Anyway, come have breakfast with me. Then, I need you for another trip outdoors.” She clapped twice excitedly. “It’s gonna be fun.”
I hated seeing myself and my behavior in her, especially when I knew how much Donovan hated being bossed around—this actually must’ve been his hell. He didn’t say anything back, just nodded and stopped hiding behind me.
“It’s protocol to be dressed professionally,” Donovan said as we walked into the dining room with so much food—far too much for just the three of us to eat. “But I suppose it stops me from getting syrup all over my nice clothes.”
“Exactly,” Maya said. “Oh, they’ve prepared an entire fruit section. Pancakes!” She walked around the table of food. “Scrambled egg. Oh my god. Are these acai bowls? I’m in heaven.”
Every interaction made it feel like she was me, loving all the perks of richness—but not knowing how to behave around it. I was mentally going around the table, screaming inside about all the food they had.
“They’ve given us an industrial-sized coffee dispenser too,” she said, at a table against the wall there were two large silver hot water and coffee urns.
I raced right to them. “If I knew they brought coffee in, I’d have been in here sooner.”
“It doesn’t have that coffee smell in the room, which I kinda enjoy,” she said, pouring black coffee into a mug. “You’ll want to use plenty of sugar.”
Donovan must’ve heard because I felt his heat ray gaze burn right through me.
“I like it bitter,” I told her. I had grown to enjoy the taste of black coffee—no sugar, mostly because that’s all Donovan had let me have, and the added bonus of him looking at me with a smile to see I was following his orders. I got it again.
We sat down to eat and I made sure not to pig out. I knew I had a lot to process and I wasn’t going to starve or eat my feelings, I needed that happy middle ground, wherever Maya was right now—except se was probably stabilized by the wine.
A knock came at the front door, sending Donovan into action mode. “I’ll get it,” he chair screeched as he left. it. I watched under the guise of staying behind to protect Maya.
There wasn’t much chatter at the door, and neither of us had our comms in. He had his gun out, and was ready to fire. From my view, he disappeared when he walked towards the front door
“Hi, I’m from Martin & Beck,” a voice came.
Maya jumped from her chair before running to the door. “My lawyers,” she said.
“Lawyer,” the voice corrected. “Maura Beck. I’m only here because the partners would like to talk with you. Alone.”
She nodded. “Ok. Sure, I’ll go get—”
As I walked closer, it was a woman dressed in a suit. She had a messenger bag cross body. She pulled something out of it, and Donovan’s hand was still firmly on his gun.
“It’s going to be a video call,” she said. “And it’s just for you and me.”
Maya waved at me and Donovan. “They’re my protection detail, I have to bring them in.”
She shook her head. “They can stand outside the room. This is important, Maya.”
“Got it, the FBI have taken all the boxes, and someone is going through and fact checking my article as well,” she said. “So, soon, even if—”
The woman stopped her with the raise of her hand. “I’m sorry, can we go somewhere now?” she asked. “Everyone at Martin & Beck appreciates your business, but please appreciate the time. We’ve got a lot to go through.”
“Ok, well, you two can get set up in the—in the guest bedroom,” Donovan said. “There’s no balcony or anything, so I trust you to be who you say you are for now.”
“I recognize her too,” Maya said.
“Sometimes the enemy is right beside you,” Donovan said, with a smirk as he looked at me. “I’m kidding, of course. But I will need to see your ID once I’m dressed.”
I nodded to that. I wondered just how much Jinksy had been trying to tell us. I bet that gentle giant was pissed—but not pissed enough to send someone to check on us.