Chapter 20 - Jagger
CHAPTER TWENTY
JAGGER
Ihold her gloved hand in mine as I lead her through the park. More snow fell last night, so about six inches is covering the ground now, but the path has been cleared for us.
Sly is walking about fifty feet ahead of us, and Pete and Dex are the same distance behind, giving us a little bit of privacy.
I feel a strange sort of nervousness as we stroll through the park.
I’ve never been on a date before. I wasn’t exactly a stranger to women, but I could count the number of times I’d slept with one on one hand, and I’d never been in a relationship before.
How could I? When I couldn’t speak and needed to hold a conversation by typing on a cellphone, the romance was completely lost.
It had never been like that with Wren, though. Even when I was in prison, and all we had were our letters, I could practically feel the chemistry and tension through the pages. I had been worried it wouldn’t be like that in person, especially when she learned I couldn’t speak.
But when we sat in the back of that SUV, and her big blue eyes turned to me, I knew there would never be another woman for me.
She saw me. Like, truly saw me all the way to my core just by looking in my eyes.
Somehow, just by looking at me, she seems to know what I’m thinking.
The sexual chemistry between us has always been so thick, and I know she feels it, too.
It’s why I’ve been all in from the beginning, and why I should have told her about Ivan.
Now that we finally have a moment alone together since we were taken, I decide to take this chance to talk to her about what happened without the looming threat of someone about to break in and catch us.
I direct her over to a nearby bench and brush off the snow, then help her take a seat beside me. The others stay back, out of earshot, and continue to observe our surroundings so we can focus on each other. I’m grateful for their presence.
“This park is beautiful,” Wren says, her face alight with curiosity as she gazes around at the snow-covered trees. Every day with her is like experiencing the world for the first time. She can find joy anywhere.
“You’re beautiful,” I sign, and she smiles, directing all that radiance at me.
“So are you,” she says softly, her eyes trailing over my face.
I shake my head. “I know I look rough. I’m covered in scars and tattoos and—” She grabs my hands, silencing me.
“I love all of those things about you. They’re sexy. Hot.” I take a second to study her. She’s a terrible liar, so I know she isn’t lying; that’s truly how she sees me.
Moving my hands to cup her face, I lean down and kiss her, taking my time as I make sure to taste every inch of her mouth.
She moans in approval, her gloved hands digging into my chest. I wish I could strip her bare right here and show her how much I care for her, but I wouldn’t expose her like that in public.
Nobody would ever get to see those parts of her, no one but us.
With a bit of reluctance, I eventually pull back before I completely forget where we are. Her dazed eyes blink up at me before another gorgeous smile graces her lips.
I drop my hands and grab hers as we lean back against the bench.
“Jagger, you remember last night, how Sly said you got to have that first because the rest of them had had my others?” I nod, unsure where she's going with this. “Well, I didn’t want to say anything at the time, but you actually had my first first.” When I tilt my head in question, she smiles at me, her tongue slowly trailing over her lower lip, as if she can still taste me there.
“You were my first kiss.”
That’s right. That feels like such a long time ago now. She had sworn that she would learn sign language and teach the others so I could communicate easily with them all. I hadn’t been able to hold back any longer. If I could have spoken, I would have told her I loved her right then and there.
I was already hers, but with those words, she had signed herself over to me forever. Nobody had ever tried to learn sign language to make things easier for me before. But she instantly saw that it was difficult for me to communicate and took immediate initiative to fix it.
And now that I could speak with the five of them so easily, I didn’t feel so invisible anymore.
She did that. She does that every day, making me feel seen when the world chooses to look the other way.
Lifting my hands, I sign, “I love you, tiny flame.” I tilt my head in thought. “That name doesn’t fit anymore,” I sign to her with a frown. “Your flame isn’t tiny, it’s massive.”
“Big flame doesn’t have quite the same ring to it,” she says with a grin.
“How about simply, my love?” I sign, in question.
“I like that,” she says before biting her lip, her eyes sparking with heat. I lean in and kiss her again, unable to stop myself.
Pulling back, I remind myself that there is something else I want to discuss. “I wanted to talk about what happened at Ivan’s home.” I regret the change in topic as the warmth fades from her, and she crosses her arms over her chest, nodding for me to continue, clearly not loving the topic.
“When you wrote to us about your so-called date with Ivan, I had this terrible feeling that it was him. But I wasn’t certain.
But when you sent us the note with his initials IS, I knew for sure.
I didn’t want to tell the others while I was stuck in a cell with them.
What if they turned on me? I’d have nowhere to run. ”
I pause my signing to make sure she’s catching all my words, and she nods, so I continue. “After I met you in person, I didn’t want one of the first things we spoke about to be him. I wanted us to get to know each other without that looming over us.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t want you around if I knew?
” she asks. It’s a fair question with only one honest answer.
I nod, and she purses her lips at me. “Jagger, I wouldn’t have cared, even back then.
But I understand why you waited. I still wish you had told me instead of him, but I’m not upset.
It doesn’t matter anyway. It doesn’t change anything. ”
“Why are you so perfect?” I ask, which brings the smile back to her face. “I really am sorry. I hope you trust there’s nothing else I’m keeping from you? I’ll never keep anything from you again.”
“I know,” she says, reaching forward to cup my cheek. “And I love you, too, Jagger.” This time, she’s the one to lean forward and kiss me. It’s over too quickly, but she manages to suck on my lower lip as she pulls away, leaving me wanting more.
She pushes to her feet as she asks, “Shall we?” I offer her my elbow, and she slips her arm through as we carry on our stroll.
As we come to the place where the path bends around a large pond, there are a lot more people around, and the guys narrow the gap between us, with Sly only twenty feet in front now.
I feel Wren’s hand tighten on my arm and glance down at her and find her frowning. I take a second to scan our surroundings. There are probably a dozen people or so around here, but none of them look like they could be Ivan’s men. It’s mostly families and couples.
I try to assess what Wren is looking at and realize it’s a group of three women ahead on our left, looking at Sly and giggling to themselves.
Ah. She’s jealous.
Internally, I grin. There’s something about her jealousy that’s so attractive, even if it isn’t aimed my way. It’s just seeing that fire in her that has my cock jerking to attention.
As Sly moves closer, they step out onto the path in front of him. He tries to move around them, but they block his path and start talking to him.
“Hi, I haven’t seen you around here before,” one woman says in Russian.
“I don’t speak Russian,” he says curtly, trying to move around them, but they easily block his path, not letting him pass without physically moving them out of his way.
Wren lets out a small growl as we stop walking and watch.
“American?” the woman asks in a heavily accented English, her eyes lighting up like she’s just struck gold, as she glances at her friends.
“What brings you to Moscow?” another woman asks in English.
“I need to go,” he says, trying to brush them off as he glances back at us and sees Wren’s angry face.
“But we want to talk to you,” the third woman tells him, placing her hand on his arm.
Wren rips her arm from me and bends down, scooping up a large handful of snow and pressing it together in a ball, then, before I even realize what she’s doing, she pulls her hand back and lets it fly. It ends up smacking the second girl who spoke on the side of her head.
She gasps loudly in shock, as they all turn to look at my tiny flame. ‘Cause right now she looks like a spark about to ignite into a full fire, raging at anyone who gets close.
“What the fuck?” the woman screeches in Russian.
I’m just shocked Wren managed to hit her; she usually has terrible aim.
“Are all Russian women stupid, or is it just you three?” Wren asks, stepping closer. I follow her, ready to jump in if necessary, since all three women have at least six inches on Wren. But my money is still on my tiny flame.
“You care to say that again?” The first woman asks, turning to face her fully.
“I’ll say it again in Russian so you don’t misunderstand,” Wren says patronizingly. “Vy vse russkiye zhenshchiny takie tupye, ili eto tol’ko vy troye?”
The women curse at her in Russian while Wren grabs Sly's wrist and pulls him behind her, as if she’s protecting him.
His wide eyes turn to me, as if he doesn’t know what to do, and Pete snorts, telling me he and Dex are now standing right behind me.
“God, she’s adorable when she goes all firecracker,” Pete says with a sigh.
I nod. Firecracker, that’s a good word to describe her right now. She looks ready to explode.