12. Biology
Biology
Kelya
Iwave as he walks down to the dock.
I dump both glasses of champagne and the rest of the bottle down the sink in the galley.
Then I check the fridge, and while there’s no orange juice, it’s fully stocked.
In the trash, there are two empty bottles of orange juice.
How many FBI agents did it take to come up with the whole “I need to go out for orange juice” lie?
I start in the main stateroom. It’s hyper green where it isn’t cherry wood and black.
Everything is so fucking shiny. When finished, I spray down the second stateroom.
It’s construction-orange colored. Finally, the last one.
Pink with a bunk bed. I bet this would be the ideal sleeping arrangement Dave would want us to have. And he’d softly cry all night.
Poor married federal agent.
This pink room smells the most of cypress. It’s sweet and piney. Subtle. Like a breeze through their scaly leaves on a cool day.
The lights flicker, and there is a noticeable loss of electric buzzing. Weird.
I go back to the fly deck. The fucking power is out. What the hell. It keeps trying to come back on. The screen flickers, and the lights on the controls flash.
What the fuck…
Dave’s stupid government boat sucks. I walk to the edge just in time to see three men jump onto the swim deck. Shit. Fuck. I don’t even know what they are doing here, but I know it can’t be good.
I run into the boat and find myself in the pink cabin with the bunk beds. I shut the door as quietly as possible and listen through the wood.
Unexpectedly, I hear a sound, but it isn’t on the other side of the door.
It’s behind me.
There’s no scent. The fucking spray has descented the cabin.
However, there is, without a doubt, a person standing behind me.
The lights are out, and the window is covered, so it’s nearly too dark to see.
The person shifts closer. Just as I turn to see who is in this room with me, the lights flick on for just a second.
He’s tall.
Dark blonde hair, long face, sharp gaze, big eyebrows, and dark lips set in an angry frown. Facial hair from not shaving for about a week or so dots his cheeks. He’s young and handsome. Maybe thirty years old.
The light goes back out, and I hear voices on the other side of the door.
They’re shouting orders. He grabs me, like I weigh nothing, and stuffs us both in a closet.
If they open the door to the stateroom, it will cover the closet door with us shut inside.
He’s behind me, and I’m facing the inside door to the closet.
The way he holds me signals that I know this man.
His strong, corded arms hold me so fucking tight.
He’s crossed my arms in front of me and holds them together with his arms wrapped about me.
His hand covers my mouth. He holds my jaw closed just like last time.
Relief.
Relief sprouts in my heart, and its vines creep to my limbs, growing off the heat of his body behind me. I lean back into him, and he tightens his hold.
“You were going to steal this boat, weren’t you?
” my mystery man whispers in my ear. His voice is altogether lovely.
Deep and cracks on the edges. The omega in me hopes he’ll use his alpha voice again.
“Naughty omega. You just can’t help yourself, can you?
Drugs. Cash. Coins. Jewelry. You’ve been here mere days.
The damage you sow…” He sighs like a disappointed father.
“You know this thing is owned by the federal government? You were walking right into a trap.”
I smile underneath his hand.
“Did you know?” he asks again, shocked.
I nod.
“Why would you…” his lips move away from my ear, and I don’t like it. Come back. “Oh, you thought you could get away with it?”
I nod again.
“While I admire your confidence, and know you’ve earned it, I can’t have you arrested by the Feds.”
Oh no. He’s holding me in his big arms and telling me he admires me and my well earned confidence.
It’s no wonder my body lights up, and my mouth twitches, trying to smile, a reaction from that inner omega of mine.
Silly girl. I push past my inner omega’s tiny party she’s having and turn my brain back on.
Why would this stranger want anything at all to do with me? It doesn’t even make sense why he’s here. How does he know what I’ve stolen since my arrival? I have to ask real fucking questions.
Suddenly, doom covers my previous emotions. I don’t know who this man is, but he knows a lot about me. Not to be outdone, strange men are on the boat, shouting at each other and making their way into each stateroom.
There’s also the power failure…
I try to open my mouth, and he lets me go just enough for me to speak.
“The power. The lights. Did you do that?”
There’s a long pause, so long I think maybe I spoke too low.
Finally, he nods. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t do something stupid like steal a luxury yacht owned by the FBI.”
His thumb rests on my chin, and his fingers dance on my throat. His other hand loosens its hold on me. The blood rushes back into my arms.
I sigh.
“Who are you?”
Before he can answer, there’s a loud slam against the closet door. I fall back into his arms in alarm. We resume our old position. Someone has opened the door to the stateroom, and many footsteps follow in after.
“It’s clear! No scent. No sign of her. She’s not on the boat.”
“Fuck!” A man slams his fist against the door, and I jump. “He gave her plenty of time! Why didn’t she take the bait?!”
“And where the fuck did she go?!”
“I told you the orange juice thing wouldn’t work. She probably got suspicious.”
“And then what?” a third man asks. “She threw herself off the side? That doesn’t explain the power failure or the signal dampener on our camera feed. We lost visuals almost as soon as she boarded.”
Cypress. He messed with their signals. Did my stalker come to my rescue? His arms pull me in closer.
“The power is off, but we have a signal again. Maybe she’s no longer here. She could have walked on with the dampener.”
“Good chance, yes.”
Cypress smiles against my ear. He’s stopped the dampener. It must be in here with us. His thumb absentmindedly strokes my forearm. His hold is so tight on me that I’m up on my toes. It feels utterly amazing. He breathes near my ear, and I want to beg for his alpha voice to tell me what to do again.
The men in the room are still talking.
Or arguing.
But I have Cypress holding me so close, like he may lose me if he doesn’t use every muscle in his body to keep me confined.
I just want him to wrap me up with more of himself.
I will myself to feel the danger of this situation, but I can’t.
I only feel heat, pressure, and confinement. Magnificent confinement.
“Stop,” he says so quietly in my ear.
Stop what? My labored breathing? My thighs rubbing against each other almost imperceptibly?
Or maybe…he huffs out through his nose to tell me.
My scent. I’m getting turned on in this tiny closet with a crew of FBI agents looking for me on the other side.
If they smell a turned on omega, I’ll be toast.
He carefully moves his hand from my arms to a bag he has across his body.
“It’s a gel. It’ll mask your scent.” Two fingers come up to my line of sight, and in the low light, I see them coated in a dollop of gel. I can’t think of a reason to use a gel on me…oh fuck me—he doesn’t mean for me to put that on my pussy, does he?
The voices on the other side of the door continue to argue.
“I don’t give a fuck if she didn’t try to steal the boat! We have piles of evidence against her. We should make the arrest as soon as we get eyes on her again.”
Fear zaps through me. Piles?
Cypress tries to get me to take the gel again, moving his hand in front of my face.
I shake my head.
He breathes hard to indicate he’s unhappy about my rejection. His other hand has found its way to my hip, and again, his thumb strokes my body.
“Now,” he growls, still no alpha command. The agents might be able to tell the influence being used for the act. An alpha bark works because of the influence one puts into it. Those around can identify that influence, even if they don’t hear the command.
I shake my head again.
He pulls me into him, hard. “I’ll do it. If you won’t.”
The idea of him touching me down there nearly tips me over the edge. He sucks in a shocked breath. He can smell my arousal. If he can smell it…
He tugs at my shorts, and I don’t make any move to help him.
Or stop him. He unbuttons the top, opening them up.
It’s totally silent on the other side of the door.
Fear that perhaps they can smell me finally undoes me.
I take his gel-covered hand and thrust it into my panties.
He holds my mouth shut with his other hand, anticipating the moan I may let out, and he’s right.
I bite my tongue to stop it. My stalker glides his fingers over my pussy, painting me with the scent blocking gel.
My knees give out, and he holds me up without effort. He’s angry though—I can feel the anger in his body—but his touch against my pussy is so soft and careful.
He keeps his hand on my sex for a beat after the application.
“Don’t be a fucking idiot. We’ve chased her across three different continents. If we don’t catch her doing something big, this gets reassigned, and we are fucked. We still don’t know who she is. We almost had her. We just need to be patient. Come on, let’s search the boat again.”
They leave, shutting the door behind them.
Cypress spins me around and cups my jaw, forcing me to look at him.
“If I tell you to do something to save your fucking skin, you do it! Am I fucking clear? Fighting me on that nearly cost us.”
“Who are you?” I snap back at him.
He pushes me away, but still moves his hands down to button my shorts. I slap his hands away and do it myself. My pussy is slick with his gel and my…slick, and I need a second to get my bearings.
“Tony.”
“Tony, I don’t know what you’re doing here, but until you fucked with their equipment, I was doing fine. If anyone should be pissed, it should be me! I had a plan. Kind of.”
“Your plan was to still steal the FBI boat?”
“Yeah, it would have been fine. I would have taken it to Aguadilla, gotten off, and flown outta dodge. I had a flight all lined up.”
“Kelya, there is no way…”
Alarm bells go off, and I nearly panic. I haven’t heard my name said aloud in years. Years! No one knows my name. The FBI doesn’t even know who I am. The only time I’m reminded of it is staring at my mother’s emails.
“Don’t say my name like you know me. Who the hell are you?”
He grinds his teeth, and his hair falls over his eyes. God, he’s so alluring. My head can rest right under his jaw. I’d like to climb him like a tree. I’d like to absolutely worship…
“I’m no one. Don’t worry about it.”
I shake my head. He’s not alluring. He’s an asshole.
“Alpha, we’re trapped in a closet together. I don’t know you from Adam. Tell me why I shouldn’t go running into Dave’s arms to get away from you?“ I stab my finger into his chest with my last word to drive my point home.
“If you were so worried about me, you wouldn’t have slicked yourself just by being in my arms.”
“You’re blaming my biology?”
“Your biology nearly got us found out.”
“You’re not answering my questions, Tony.”
“Figured that out, did you?”
I’m so worked up I don’t realize he is leaning against the wall with me pinned underneath him.
“If you just quiet down, I have a plan to get us out of here.”
I roll my eyes.
“We? Us? No, Cypress, there’s no we. There’s only me. And I do much better without some meddling tree-sized alpha.”
His lips twitch.
“You will listen to me, Kelya…”
“Absolutely not. You will listen to me.”
“I’m done. You are impossible.”
He moves the bag in front and rifles through it. It’s where the descenting lube came from, and where I stole it a second ago and put it in my pocket.
I don’t know what his next move is, but I don’t care. As soon as he moves a little, I’m running out of here. I’m much better on my own and can figure this out.
Before I get a chance to see what he’s produced, he spins me around, and cords are being wrapped around my wrists.
“What the hell!” A sash goes over my mouth, and he ties it tight at the base of my skull. He drags us down and continues tying me up in knots. My heart races in alarm. I’m struggling against the binds, but he’s too strong and too fast. His whole body overtakes mine like I’m a fly caught in his web.
“My name is Tony Racine,” he whispers in my ear.
“My scent is cypress. It’s nice to know that you smelled me before.
I know you’re plenty capable, but it scares the hell out of me how close you come to disaster every twelfth hour, Kelya.
The FBI is tracking a series of international robberies, and they’ve figured out your patterns. You cannot behave as you have been.”
His nose touches my ear, and he takes a breath. I wait for him to keep going because I know he’s got more to say. At this point, he’s made it clear which one of us is in control. Though, if my calming heart is any indication, I don’t seem to mind that this dynamic has been made clear.
“I will cut the camera feed again and make a break for it, then you make a lot of noise and get caught. Tell them a man came aboard and tried to kidnap you, heard them, got scared, and stuffed you in a closet. You’re welcome, by the way.
If you took this boat like you planned, you’d be on a one-way flight back to the mainland in custody, never to be heard from again.
Your ID is in your back pocket, Penelope.
It’s a much better fake than the one I already took from you.
You’re from Corpus Christi. Unbonded, unaffiliated omega.
You’ve never been overseas. Go back to the hotel.
Do not leave. If you do, you and I and the federal agents out there know your next stop will be Toronto.
“ I suck in a shocked breath. How does he know that?
With his alpha voice, he says, “Do not leave Viejo San Juan.”
His nose slides down to my scent glands on my neck—which are currently inert—and he attempts to smell them anyway.
These scent blockers not only prevent my scent glands from producing, but they also block my unique omega scent from being part of my sweat, slick, skin, hair, and saliva.
I’m more unknown than a beta. Betas don’t have scent glands, but they still have a subtle, unique smell in their body. I have nothing.
His lips cast over my neck again, such a barbaric act. Shivers race up and down my skin. Even the hair on my head stands up. I clench my thighs and hold back an involuntary moan.
There’s another long pause, and then his tongue lays down over my sensitive skin. I need more oxygen than I’m getting, and the sash over my mouth is soaked in my hot breath.
A disappointed sigh comes out of the alpha, then he abandons me.
What a motherfucker.