Sibling Rivalry Chapters 10 (The end)
Chapter 10:
“Hands up! And step away from the nightstand!” Jack exclaimed, knife in hand, as he came into the bedroom and saw Irina reach toward the drawer handle moments after Katya had left.
“Make me,” Irina taunted him, turning slowly, keeping her hand on the nightstand.
Jack smirked, careful to hold the knife in his hand to the side as he shrugged nonchalantly and said, “Well, if you want to leave me with the memory of the last Derevko lips to touch mine being your sister’s for any second longer than... Mumphf!” He smiled as her lips touched his rather...possessively, he thought happily.
“How does my kiss rate, compared to hers?” Irina could not stop herself from asking after she bit his lower lip lightly as she pulled back slightly.
“Irina, you have always been and will always be the one whose perfectly-glossed lips -- even in Cell Block A -- are the ones I want to touch....” Jack whispered, as he lifted his lips from hers reluctantly. “But it is true... that the way she kissed reminded me... For one second I thought....”
“What? That she was me? That I’d had plastic surgery---”
“No. Or at least I hope that’s not the plot line.” Jack shuddered. “In any case, plastic surgery wouldn’t account for the height difference. That would have required ---”
“Oh, yes. The molecular transponder. Which Ethan Hawke and Sydney destroyed ---”
“Ethan Hawke?” Jack asked, stroking her back with his knife-free hand.
“Well, does anyone remember the name of his character? That was the Ethan Hawke episode. And then there were the Faye Dunaway episodes... Wait. She looked at you... Did you kiss her?”
“I was afraid of her lips. There was so much collagen in there that I might have bounced backwards and fallen into The Practice.”
“Too true. And it would seem that the problem is women kissing you rather than the other way around,” Irina said, disgruntled.
Jack grinned and ran the knife lightly down her right arm as he asked slyly, “Like you did in the customs line in India?”
“Hmm.” She grinned. “Do I need to apologize for making untoward advances?”
“Ah. You want to play the apology game tonight?”
“Well, I see your knife is... ready. Well-sharpened, let us say?” Irina noted, pressing into her husband.
“True,” Jack said, using his free hand to squeeze her rear end and haul her against him. With the other he trailed the knife down the bare skin above the back neckline of her shirt. “Get on the bed.”
She laughed and then forced her face to mock solemnity as she said tremulously, “Oh, I’ll do anything! I’m so afraid of that big...sharp...scary... knife that’s pressing into me.”
He bit back a laugh and said fiercely as he rubbed her butt with one hand and resumed stroking her arm with the knife, “You should be. It will show you no mercy tonight. So, get on the bed.”
“I would, I truly would...” She batted her lashes and made her lower lip tremble. ”But I can’t! I just can’t!”
“You better have a good reason, an excellent reason for your failure to comply---”
“I do! I really do!” Irina said, biting her lip.
“And it’s---”
“You’re squeezing my ass so hard I can’t move to save my life!” She burst out laughing, then laughed again at the blank look on his face.
He shook his head and laughed. “So I am... Bad form on my part.”
“You get too easily distracted when we play these games, Jack. You really need to--”
“Have the research department write me a manual, why don’t you? I’ll study it religiously. Even give up Queer Eye to read it if it will help improve my performance. I spend so much time worrying about that. Because you always seem so unfulfilled and unsatisfied when you leave my bed.” He released her and stepping back, gave her a hard shove onto the bed. Putting the knife down, he stood back and bending over, unlaced her boots and one by one tossed them over his shoulder. “Don’t even think about it...” He warned as he saw her gaze flit to the knife. “It’s my turn to run the game tonight.”
“But...”
“But? You want to start with the butt? Fine. Turn over,” Jack grinned and reaching his hands out, flipped her over.
“Jack! What are you doing?” She craned her head around, desperate to see what he was about to do. Oooh, good, he was picking up the knife again.
“No, say it’s not so,” Jack teased as he ran the flat edge of the knife over her rear end. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous?”
“Well, you’re not the expert with the knife that I am--”
“Or your sister, right? Maybe I should call her back to give me... lessons?” Jack asked, ostentatiously reaching for the cell phone in his pocket and put it on the top of the nightstand.
“Give me my phone and let me---” Irina held her hand out.
“I’ll give you something in that hand very shortly, but it’s not going to be your phone. There’s no one either of us needs to call. So, lie back down,” Jack ordered, waving the knife at her.
Irina laid back down and looking over her shoulder, smiled as she wiggled around. “Is it going to be bigger than that little cell phone? What you’re putting in my hand, because as you may remember I have big hands---”
“Hmm. Just another way we match. But hold still,” Jack ordered, his left hand beginning to slice the side of her pants, his right hand on her hip to keep her in place. “I mean it!” He pinched her butt. “I don’t want to be sewing up your ass tonight, when if you would just hold still I could be---”
“I don’t want to. I want to...” She took a breath and he paused, careful not to cut her. “Wiggle,” she said, with a grin as his hand went down over her butt.
“You can wiggle all you want shortly, in fact, I think...” Jack said, smiling. “I’ll use this knife to make sure you wiggle. On the bar.” He whipped the pants off of her.
Irina rolled her eyes. Then looking down at her clothes which were rapidly becoming shreds, she complained, “You know, it’s terribly unfair that you’re still completely clothed and I’m rapidly becoming naked.” She held very still as Jack sliced the shirt off inch by slow, agonizing inch.
“Terribly...” Jack agreed, as he sliced through the back of her bra and pulled it off, tossing it somewhere.
She looked at it and sighed. “It’s a good thing I always bring extra clothes with me when I visit since most of them ended up in the rag bin.”
“Well, those that didn’t get cut into strips and creatively recycled, anyway,” Jack said, pointing at the end posts of the bed. They looked at each other and smiled. Jack bent his head and resumed his work with the knife, beginning to cut one side of her panties apart.
“You know what else is terribly unfair, Jack?” She waited. Then rolling her eyes, she said, “Jack! You seem more interested in slicing off my panties than my conversation.”
“Shocking. Simply shocking.” Jack grinned.
“I’m talking about a shocking inequity to be sure,” Irina said, looking down at her naked body and comparing it to her husband’s fully clothed one. She tugged at his shirt as he leaned over her.
Jack put the knife down on the nightstand and whipped his clothes off.
“Was that it?” Jack asked as he climbed back on the bed and pulled her close to him. They both sighed as their skin met.
“No, there is another inequity---”
“That there are episodes where Weiss’ eclair fetish got more screen time than I did?” He asked and stroked her hair.
“No, go back to Season 1,” Irina suggested, wrapping her arm around his neck.
“Hmm. Donovan the dog got more screen time than I have in certain episodes lately...” He trailed off as she tunneled her hand into his hair and began playing with it.
“What happened to that dog?”
“Went into the same black hole as the blonde agent that showed up in one episode in Season 2. Or--”
“I worry about that dog. But no, no, don’t start making a list of all the missing characters and unresolved plot devices or this story will take as long as a certain other story. I’m talking about something much shorter. Arvin Sloane.”
“What about him? And make it quick or talking about him will make me lose all interest in the proceedings and I’m sure you don’t---”
Irina spoke up quickly. “It’s unfair that you got to cut off Arvin’s finger that time.”
“True. Life was good then. But, honey, how about for your birthday...?” Jack paused.
“Yes?” Irina asked eagerly. “I can’t wait. You think of the best gifts.”
“That’s because I know you. How about this? For your birthday, you can cut off anything of Arvin’s you want when we take him down. I’ll hold him down for you and you can use that knife you love so much.”
“Promise?” Irina asked eagerly, her eyes shining, gripping his arms tightly.
Jack shrugged. “Promise. Anything for you, of course, because I love you.”
“Cutting off some body part of Sloane’s is.... So thoughtful.” Irina snuggled into him. “You are the best husband ever.” She gave him a smacking kiss.
“Just don’t ask me to gift wrap whatever body part it is that you remove.”
“I won’t. Like most men you can’t use gift wrap and scotch tape to save your life.”
“I never claimed to be MacGyver.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve seen you get yourself out of some pretty tight spots.”
“Honey, you’ve got that backwards. I specialize in getting into some pretty tight spots.” Jack said, grinning as he pulled her on top of him.
Irina laid down on top of him, rubbed her cheek against his chest
Irina looked up quizzically. “Did you sense a break in the space-time continuum for a moment there?”
“I didn’t notice anything. Although... wait. I thought I heard something...”
“Not those damn wallets opening again,” Irina said fiercely.
“No. More like a sigh. Or many sighs. You didn’t give the security codes to anyone but Katya, did you?” Jack asked suspiciously.
“Just my mother. And Elena. And this brunette woman with a notepad who told me that she was working on some story---”
“Irina!”
“Okay, maybe that was a mistake,” Irina admitted.
“That woman is always poking around in my head!”
“But as long as she doesn’t poke around anywhere else and you don’t poke anyone but me.” She shrugged. “There is no one here. I checked the entire house out thoroughly before I waited for you in here.”
“If you’re sure...” Jack said dubiously, looking around the bedroom carefully. Finally, he nodded and sighed. “Now where were we?”
Irina smiled and laid her head back down on his chest. Sighing as he rubbed her back, she said, “Happy. I’m happy.”
“It doesn’t take much to please you.”
“Oh...” Irina laughed, as she slid her hand downward. “I’d say it takes much, very much to please me.”
“As long as it’s my...much,” Jack said huskily.
“Jack...” Irina said, as she leaned over her husband. “You know, don’t you? That my love for you is not a contrivance?”
“That - and my relationship with Sydney - is about the only thing that hasn’t been a contrivance since Panama.” He put his hands into her hair and pulled her down for a kiss.
“What game do you want to play?” Irina asked, when the kiss ended. “The knife game where we take off--- Oh, wait our clothes are already off. Oh. I know. The insertion game?” She asked eagerly as she wiggled around on top of him. “We could play that right now, I see. No waiting. And I really like that game.”
“I remember Panama,” Jack agreed with a grin. “You definitely did like it, even though you didn’t know you were playing it.”
“You still owe me for that transmitter.”
“I suppose I do. So..” He sighed, melodramatically and flung his arms out. “Do your worst. I’m tough I can take it. Go ahead,” he sobbed.
“It is my turn....” Irina said, rolling her eyes. “I get to torture you now.”
“Go ahead. I dare you. I’ve been sedated, electrocuted, beaten... Oh, wait, and then there was the time my wife whupped me upside the head in front of that smarmy, smug--”
“Jack... I think we’ve already played the apology game for that minor, little, tiny really...”
“Speaking of something tiny... I suppose if you really wanted to torture me you could have that foppish frog come in and lick your face in front of me.”
“Honestly, there was so much competitive testosterone in that cell, I don’t know why you two didn’t just pull it out and see who could pee farther. Although I must say...” she smiled, looking downward, “That if the size of the equipment is any indication---”
“Do you really want to continue this conversation? Because if so, I suggest we get out the video from London because that woman had a truly tremendous---”
“No! And Jack, I really think we’re even now. You played tonsil hockey with my sister, after all.”
“No puck action occurred.”
“No pucking?”
“No, the only goal into which my hockey stick will be going is yours,” Jack said, shifting her around on top of him.
“Mmm. You always did know just how to hit the sweet spot.”
“Speaking of which, I thought we were going to play the apology game.”
“Again?” Irina sighed and rolled her eyes, even as she laughed.
“Yes, with the contents of the drawer, that I filled just for you.”
“Truth be told, I’d rather you fill something else.”
“C’mon, honey. Don’t make it too easy, I want to play a game. I’ve been thinking about this for a while--”
“Oh, alright. If we must....” Irina sighed, although her eyes were sparkling with curiosity as she watched Jack reach toward the nightstand. “It’s your choice. Will it be the apology game?” She asked. He grinned back at her as she continued, “What game? What game?” Irina asked eagerly. “The professor game? Did you get new glasses?” Jack shook his head. “Wait... Do you have feathers?” Jack shoot his head again. “Let’s see...Oh! How about the prisoner--warden game? I like that game. A lot.”
“You like being the warden. You have a control fetish,” Jack accused.
“I like reenacting what might have happened in that cell in Kashmir if Sydney weren’t opposite you, watching.”
“And if you hadn’t given me the world’s biggest Excedrin headache with that overly zealous head smack?”
“Oh, you forgot about that by the time we got on the plane to go home from Kashmir.”
“I forgot about that by the time you snuck into the plane bathroom with me when Syd and Vaughn fell asleep on the way home.”
“You rejected me after kissing me nearly to death! You sent me back to sit down! You got me---”
“I got you alright. That flight was a little torturous for you, wasn’t it?” Jack said innocently, looking down at his hand.
Irina looked up sharply. “Wait. That’s what this drawer is. The torture game.”
Jack opened the drawer and looking up at her, smiled slowly. “You’ll love it You reach in and pull out an item and have to use it to get the other to do or say what you want.” Jack grinned and swiped his hand around inside the drawer. “Whatever shall I choose?” He closed his hand around something she could not see, as he added, “I come prepared---”
“Not yet, but I’m hoping--- Jack, c’mon get on with it. I want to see what you’ve got.”
“You can see and feel what I’ve got, can’t you?” He grinned and began pulling items out of his nightstand drawer. “Gun?” She shook her head. He tossed the gun onto the floor and showed her another weapon. “Knife?”
“Nope. Besides I like my own knife best, the one you gave me.” She nodded approvingly as he tossed the knife aside.
“Ah well, we all have our preferences.” He held up a length of cording with a raised eyebrow.
“No. Leaves a mark on the skin and we can’t have that.” Irina shook her head again. “Well, at least not tonight.” She thought again. “Or right now. Maybe later. I can always kiss away the redness--”
“Hmm. Kissing the redness... I can live with that idea,” Jack said with a leer.
Irina rolled her eyes. “What’s next?”
“The wedding cuffs?” Jack asked eagerly, pulling them out and dangling them in front of her. “I do like these, I must tell you. So much more useful than a blender.”
“I don’t know. I could use a new blender in my lab for mixing up---”
“I told you. You need a centrifuge for that mess you’ve been trying to call---”
“It’s a margarita, Jack. Not the ebola virus.”
“The way you mix a margarita, one might prefer the ebola virus,” Jack muttered, then grinned when she slapped at him. “But honey? The cuffs?”
“Hmm. Maybe later. I mean, we do have to use the gifts we were given, don’t we?”
“Absolutely.” Jack said solemnly, although his eyes were laughing as he tossed the cuffs to the floor. “We can’t lie on our thank you notes and say we love the gift if we haven’t actually used them. We need to test them out so we can be truthful in our expression of gratitude.”
Irina agreed. “Of course. And after all, lying is such a foreign concept to either of us.”
“Did you know it’s not really a lie if you say it in a foreign language?” Jack asked, as he once again reached into the drawer.
“Ah. Like drinking Diet Coke with chocolate cake cancels out the calories?” Irina asked, tracing a design on her husband’s chest with her index finger. “Speaking of which, do you have any dessert in the house?”
“I thought it was that the calories didn’t count if you eat off of my plate.”
“Hmmm,” Irina said as she slid down his body. “Speaking of eating off your plate....”
Jack smiled. “I really have to thank Katya for her big sister advice,” he said softly. Then he tapped her on the head. “Hey. Those cuffs she gave us as a wedding present? Your side of the family, you write the notes.”
“Damn. I hate writing thank you notes.” She shook her head against his abdomen as he tossed the cuffs to the pile of discarded torture items on the floor.
“You have a year to respond,” Jack reminded her. “But email thank you notes do not fulfill etiquette requirements, I must tell you. I know I’m deeply offended when I save someone’s life and all I got is an electronic greeting from a secure email server.”
“Thank you, Miss Manners. Now...What else do you have?” She moved back up to straddle him.
“Hmm. Let’s see.” He pulled out a small assortment of the tiny airplane size bottles of alcohol. Then sighing he tossed them aside. “It would take a lot more than that to have any effect on either of us.”
“Save them for later. I have an idea for the rum.”
“I bet.”
“You hope.”
“That too.” Jack swiftly reached up and pulled his wife down for a quick kiss. “What else do I have in my drawer of torture? Given your abilities to withstand standard forms of interrogation, I can see I might need to get inventive....” He rummaged around. “Ah...” He swung his hand back and forth and a loud discordant clang echoed in the room.
Irina covered her ears. “No.. No. Not a cow bell. Please!”
“Aha! I think we’re on to something here,” Jack smiled as he pulled out a triangular dinner bell.
Irina flung the triangle aside and listened with satisfaction as it landed on the pile and with a metallic ping rolled off the pile and onto the floor where is subsided all by its lonesome. “My sister is tweezing that to death right now. Surely you can do better, Jack.”
“Oh, I can do better. Now... this, this would work... Pure torture,” Jack said, grinning as he pulled out a photo in front of her face.
“My eyes!” Irina shrieked. “Please no! No! I beg you, not that!”
Jack waved it around. “Ah ha! I have found the best torture known to womankind--”
“A naked photo of Arvin Sloane!” Irina hit him on the shoulder. “This is...evil, truly evil, Jack Bristow.”
“I know,” Jack grinned unrepentantly.
“This is.... unconstitutional!” Irina protested. “Cruel and unusual punishment. Give me the truth serum, I see a syringe in there...Or, anything, anything but that!” She threw herself down on top of him and clutched his arms in her hands.
Jack held up the picture and grinned. An evil grin, Irina thought as she cringed as he crowed triumphantly, “I have you now, don’t I?”
“I’ll do anything you want... I promise. Anything. Just take it away!” Irina moaned, burying her face in his neck to avoid seeing the horror.
Jack tossed the photo aside. Putting his arms around his wife and holding her loosely, he whispered in her ear, “All I really want is more time with you.”
“To save the show from the triangle?” Irina said, sliding her hands up his chest.
He shook his head. “No. For me. For Sydney.”
“I know. I promise, I’ll.. spend more time with you from now.”
“You... What?” He stared at her in shock. She was actually taking her big sister’s advice? She was taking anyone’s advice? He really needed to spend more time talking to his in-laws. Or... maybe not. But then again, he and Irina’s mom did have good conversations about Queer Eye and her personal favorite, Fear Factor. She contended that the hosts were sick puppies who had nonetheless given the interrogation department some excellent ideas.
“Jack... I’m hoping to stay for a few days...”
“You are?” Jack asked incredulously.
“You will call in sick,” Irina ordered.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “But I’m never sick. Even after I was nearly electrocuted by Geiger, I was back at work the next day, bright and early.”
“And that was totally believable too. Are you sure your parents didn’t do a Project Christmas on you, make you into one of those Energizer Bunnies?”
“Are you complaining suddenly about the fact that I can keep going and going and going?”
“Hardly!” Irina smiled.
“Hmm, but you’re the one with the soft... tail...” Jack whispered, as his hands curved around her. “Will you stay here if I promise to pet you properly?”
Irina smiled, then realized, “Wait. You never told me. What did happen to Vaughn’s dog?”
“Field agents really can’t have dogs. He had to give it away. Cats are best for field agents...” Jack grinned as he slid one hand down over his wife’s now bare belly.
“Are they?” Irina asked giving him that sidelong glance that had always seemed particularly feline to him.
“Mmm. Especially those who purr in Russian. Are you going to purr for me tonight?”
“Make me.”
“Hmm. What else do I have in the drawer?” Jack asked, with a smile, but made no move to reach into it, given that his wife had taken his hands in hers.
She lifted them to her mouth and kissing each one in turn, put them on her waist. Leaning down to touch his lips with her own, she whispered, “All you need to make me purr, make me do anything you want is your hands, your mouth...your love. That’s all you need.”
“How fortuitous,” Jack said softly, as he rolled his wife under him. “Because those items are all extremely portable. You don’t even need those amazing pants of Katya’s---”
Irina hissed, “I don’t need those pants because I plan on making sure that you and I are together as much as possible from now on. So shut up about her. Stop trying to make me jealous. I swear I’m going to have nightmares.”
“Hmm. Come here and let me see if I can give you sweet dreams,” Jack argued as he bent his head to hers.
“No, don’t do it that way,” Irina said, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder and shoving her away.
“Irina, really, she was doing just fine,” Jack protested, then swallowed his words as Irina’s mouth closed over him. “Okay, that’s pretty good too.”
“Pretty good?” Katya questioned, with an uplift to her eyebrow. “I can assure you that I can do better than pretty good.”
Irina’s breath hissed out and she removed her mouth. Jack groaned. “C’mon...”
“You assure me? You can do better than me? Oh really? Well, show me. Prove it,” Irina said and waved her hand over Jack’s body. “Show me.”
“Yeah. Show me,” Jack mumbled. “Please.” Then burst out laughing at the look of consternation on his wife’s face as she realized that her temper had just boxed her in. She had just told her sister to--
Irina gasped and sat up like a shot. Oh, she wiped her forehead. Just a dream. She sighed with relief, feeling Jack’s warmth next to her. Lying back down next to him, she pressed her body against his and began kissing his shoulder. He should wake up. Now. She needed to stake her claim on him again. She shook his shoulder.
“First of all, you left lipstick on his dick. That’s a fashion faux pas. Don’t you remember anything from the academy? This is why I was the valedictorian and not you.”
“Really? He didn’t seem to mind when I left lipstick on his lips. When I kissed him. In public.”
“Maybe he was just too polite to wipe his mouth in front of you.”
“Maybe... someone could put their lips on me now? Somewhere?” Jack asked hopefully.
“It should be me, no?” Katya asked. Smiling, she added, “Since I did not acquire my code name for my resemblance to the bird, the swallow.”
“But the truth is, Katya,” Jack said, groaning. “That I love your sister and even if she’s an amateur, I’d really rather have her---”
“Amateur!” Irina growled.
He grinned. Her buttons were so easy to push. Then he gasped as Irina poked him in that bandage over his liver.
“Ouch!” he exclaimed.
“Jack! Wake up!” Irina said, poking him.
Jack, coming awake immediately as always, murmured, “What...Oh. How disappointing.”
“What’s disappointing?” Irina asked suspiciously, having heard certain words mumbled in his sleep that made her... concerned. Words like lipstick and... swallow and...
“Oh, nothing.”
“Jack...”
“Well, I dreamed - and honestly, honey, what man wouldn’t? - that you two were sharing me and---”
“Let’s be honest, Jack. The two of us would probably kill you.”
Jack sighed. “Ah well, that’s undoubtedly true. If your sister is anything like you... But then again, what a way to go.”
Irina pushed him to his back and sat on top of him with a plop. “Geez!” he exclaimed. “You are not going to punish me for a dream, are you?” Then he looked at her, her obdurate face and arms crossed over her chest under her bosom... Well, that wasn’t so bad, after all, he decided, staring at her breasts that quivered with every deep breath she took. “Although if you really wanted to, I’d let you---”
“Letting me has nothing to do with it! You, you... It’s my turn for that drawer!” She rummaged in the drawer. “Ah, ha. The old standby.” She held up a syringe.
“Truth serum?” Jack shook his head and then began stroking his hands along her skin. “You don’t need to use drugs to get the truth out of me.”
“Hmm. What would be most effective....The water torture? Or, I know, footage of Quentin Tarantino acting---”
“Or audiotape of Sydney’s attempts at foreign accents?” He shook his head. “Nope. There is something much... simpler that would render me helpless in your hands. If hands is the route you want to take.” He smiled.
“You are so easy.”
“For you,” he agreed softly, kissing the skin of her wrist, her hands planted on the bed on either side of his head. “Guess what would work on me?”
She grinned. “Kisses?”
“Let’s see. I bet you can even kiss better than Katya. If you try really hard.”
Irina began to raise her hand, then stopped when she saw the laughter in his eyes. “Jack...”
“I do love knowing a new way to push your buttons.” Jack smiled, as he slid his left hand inward from her waist and then slowly downward. “All of them.”
“Mmm. You do know the best way to get a head start... Mmm. “ Irina groaned, then catching sight of her phone, smiled. She made a show of reaching for the drawer. “But I do want to check out this drawer.”
“Go ahead. But speaking of a head....” He arched his hips up into her.
“Jack!” She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand back after hitting a number on her speed dial. “But I want you to tell me something.”
“Anything,” Jack whispered, as he levered himself up to apply his mouth to her skin.
“If you could....” Irina slid down on him and smiled as he groaned. “If you could go back in time, and Cuvee was offering Katya and I those rosters again...and you had the choice.. Who would you---”
“Who would I pick? Honey, I’d pick you. Of course. I love you. You do know that, without any doubt, don’t you?”
“I know you do. You’re giving me a grenade launcher for Valentine’s Day, aren’t you?” Irina said smugly.
Jack scowled. “Well, there goes that surprise! Who told you that?”
“Oh, that kind of intel--”
“Intel is political. This is personal, which makes it... Gossip! It was your mother, wasn’t it? I knew, I knew I should have never called her last week to find out your preferred munitions dealer!”
“Oh, but it’s so sweet that you went to so much trouble.” Irina smiled. Then poking him in the chest, she added, “But speaking of trouble. That dream... Were you comparing us...”
Jack shook his head. “In my dream I rejected her offer. And why would I feel the need to compare?” He pulled Irina’s face to his. “I know I have the best already.”
“Jack... Was I....out of all the women...?”
He grinned. “Were you the best? Is that what you want to know?” She nodded. “Hmm. I’ll need to think about it. Let me run through the in my mind. Let’s see, first. Hmm. You know, I’m not getting any younger, my memory is not what it used to be. Perhaps we should review those tapes--- Ouch!”
“Jack....”
“Honey.” Jack squeezed her hips and said slowly and clearly. “There never was and never will be anyone to compare to you. In any way, shape or...” He sent a lecherous gaze up and down her body. “Form.”
“Then I win.” Irina nodded and said it loudly.
“You always will. You always were the best. Because I love you.”
“Ah. Then I really do win.”
“Always. No contest.”
He lifted his hands to pull her down. She stopped him and grabbed for her phone on the nightstand. “Ha! Hear that, Kat!” Irina called out, lunging for her phone to crow into it triumphantly. She snarled, ”Did you hear that? See? Told you. I win! You tramp!”
“You had to pry those words out of him. Bitch,” Katya said with a smile in her voice. “And Jack, just remember, the offer and I are always...open.”
Jack burst out laughing as Irina slammed the phone across the room. Rolling his wife underneath him, he cupped her face in his hands. “Yes, I love you, I’d pick you. The tall skinny brilliant one. And let’s see, Katya was the shorter, cute, manipulative one. It does make one wonder just how she might manipulate---”
“You’re dead.”
“Mmm. So kill me already.” He rolled again until they were lying next to each other. He urged her, “Go ahead. Your weapon of choice. Gun? Knife? Syringe? Whatever weapon you want to torture me...”
Irina groaned. “God, how I love it when you talk like that.” She lifted her body over his.
“God, how I love it when you move like that.”
“Let me prove to you that I’m the better sister.” Irina urged. Jack nodded happily.
Much later, Jack whispered to no one in particular, “Thank god for sibling rivalry.”
“I heard that!” Irina said sleepily.
Jack sighed deeply. Then taking a breath, because he knew it might be his last one, he asked, “So....I understand there’s a third sister somewhere?”
THE END