The Perfect Weapon: Chapter 2017: Part 1 3rd post
NOTE: Part 1 of this chapter is uploaded in three posts. 3 of 3.
Chapter 2017: Part 1 concluded
“Are you thirsty?” Irina asked, handing Jack the water bottle while deciding on her next move.
“Why, yes. I am. Dying of thirst.” Jack took a sip, then glanced down at the juncture of her thighs. Just in case, he could distract her. “Honey.”
Irina looked down at him suspiciously at the tone of his voice. That silky quality always made her nipples harden and yesss. The look on his face... He was planning something. But ha! She curled her fingers inside her chain and watched his face change from smug to needy. How enjoyable it was to have him where she wanted him. “I do have some of Zamir’s Indian rum packed...”
“Do you?” Jack raised an eyebrow. Given the fact that they’d sparingly snacked on crackers and cheese, that rum would be potent. Although nothing in this life was as potent as the sight of his wife, naked, with the setting sun behind her. He really should take a picture.
“Yes. And...” Irina pulled out a bottle of the rum and shoved it at him. “You’re going to need it.”
“Why?” Jack asked suspiciously as Irina bent over another of her packs. As much as he was enjoying the view he knew better than to think it came without a price. “What are you pulling out this time, Pandora?”
Irina whirled around and held up a camera. “You still owe me those pictures.”
“Pictures? I have no idea as to what you are referring.” Jack uncorked the bottle and took a long swig. He had a feeling that she was right about his needing a drink.
“Jonathan Donahue Bristow.” Irina tapped her foot on the carpet. She was going to reshoot those pictures or shoot him.
“Shit. I was hoping you were going to forget about that,” Jack grumbled and took another drink. Then he looked up at her. Maybe this would work. “But you know, there is a slight problem with that idea.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. As I reminded you in Panama, I’m no longer a twenty-three year old kid-“ Jack sighed and looked regretful. “So as much as I would like to uphold the contract between us, I find myself horribly embarrassed at my woeful inability to-“
“Oh, give me a break!” Irina exclaimed in the flat American accent she knew made Jack smile.
Jack hid his smile and shook his head. “I don’t have the same recuperative powers I did then and really, honey, you’ve simply worn me out...” He sighed again and lay on his back, putting the back of his hand on his forehead. “I believe I might require a nap...”
Irina bit her lip. She would not laugh, she would not laugh. By the time he cautiously opened one eye, she was looking down at him blandly and as if she did not realize that his polysyllabic ramble hid anxiety. He really did not want to have his picture taken. What. A. Shame. “Of course, Jack...” She said in a sweet tone, that had Jack immediately jacknifing into a sitting position. “If you want to take a nap, go right ahead. I can still get my pictures after all.”
“While I’m asleep?” Jack took another drink; he had a feeling being a little tipsy was to his advantage.
“Of course. After the day we’ve had, you’ll probably have interesting dreams as your brain processes the events of the day and...” Irina shrugged. “I’ll just wait.”
“You’ll just wait?” Jack snorted.
“Of course. I can wait. And plan.”
“Plan what?” He would just repeat her words back to her, Jack decided. What the hell, Judy used that strategy and it seemed safe enough.
“Oh, my next little...” Irina gestured around the oasis. “Excursion for us two.”
“Excursion? What kind of excursion?” Jack knew that the odds of an excursion for the two of them being safe were infinitesimally small, oh about the size of the thinking capacity of his brain right now.
“Well, I was thinking of the BOB dress...”
“The BOB dress?” Jack parroted. He curled his fingers into the carpet and hoped she wouldn’t notice.
“Yes. I see you do remember the BOB dress.” Irina glanced down at Jack’s clenched hands and smiled as he immediately smoothed them out. “I was thinking that we might play a game in which I’m the foreign operative sent to seduce information out of a stalwart, upright American naval officer.” Why not? She liked that particular uniform. She’d tell him that; you didn’t get what you wanted in life if you didn’t tell people what you wanted. Lesson learned. “In a white dress uniform.”
“With or without the hat?” Jack lifted the bottle to his lips. Geez, this stuff was really nasty. What had they been thinking that night he’d poured it on her and licked it from her skin? Well, he knew what he’d been thinking - that she tasted better than anything he’d ever tasted, better than toast, better than - Oh, she was still talking.
“Oh, with the hat, of course.”
“Of course. The hat is a good prop.” Yup, keep talking about clothes. Women could talk about clothes forever, right?
“Naturally. Of course, I’d have props of my own.”
“Would you? Besides the dress?” Jack looked at her arm. Would she wear an armband again? He’d liked the armband.
“Besides the dress, I would be wearing that armband you liked so much...” Irina drew an imaginary circle around her bicep. “And...”
“And?”
“And my chain.” Irina brushed both hands around the chain. “And a pair of high heels. They’re useful too.”
“So they are. And what else?”
“What else?” Irina smiled and straddled his thighs the way he liked. This time, she had him. How she liked knowing that. “Let’s review.”
Jack groaned at hearing his words from Panama thrown back at him. She was about to sink his battleship again. Or continue to raise the periscope on his submarine. Either way, he was hers. “Review...”
“What I’d be wearing. Let’s see... It would have to be at a party - that’s why you’d be wearing those dress whites. It would be night time, the end of the party. And you would be tired of playing the political game and would have sought a moment of relative solitude in the bar area.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. She had given this game some thought. “And into my relative solitude would walk...”
“Out of all the gin joints...” Irina began. When Jack said nothing, she nudged his thigh with her foot.
Jack stopped looking at her legs and looked up into her face. “Oh. Casablanca. I doubt Ingrid Bergman would be wearing as much makeup as you wore with the BOB dress.”
Irina rolled her eyes at his blatant hint. Jack and his dislike of her heavy makeup. The man was like a dog with a bone...Speaking of which...Yes. She smiled slightly as her gaze dropped down the length of his body. “You’re right. And since I love Casablanca, I think I’d go with her more minimalist approach.”
“Really.” Jack’s eyes dropped down Irina’s body. He liked this minimalist approach. All she was wearing was her ring and the chain. Yes, that approach worked well with him. Yes. “So...You’d approach me in the bar, wearing that BOB dress, high heels, and the armband?” Jack asked eagerly. This game was one they really should implement. He curled his hands around her ankles.
“Yes. And I’d...” Irina ran her hand up her hips, over her torso and then cupped her breasts. “I’d start talking to you and then I’d casually lean into you, so that my breasts brushed against you.”
Jack growled impatiently, “Let’s cut to the chase. You’d seduce me and we’d find a room and then you’d discover all of my secrets-“
Irina leaned over him and deepened her accent. “And then you’d discover mine. That under the dress all I’m wearing is the chain.”
“You’d...” Jack gulped, then growled at her, his voice rising with each word. “You’d be naked except for the chain? You would have spent the evening wearing that dress, walking around, talking to people wearing nothing but the chain underneath?”
“Yes...” Irina touched the chain again. “Although perhaps you’d prefer it if I was also wearing that armband or those high heels too?”
“Prefer...” Jack choked, then groaned as she knelt over his body, her soft curls brushing against his hardness.
“As I recall from the night of the necklace, you enjoyed it when I was naked under my little black dress at the party-“
Jack grinned in remembrance, as he brushed her hair back over her shoulders. “That was...If I’d whipped off the dress in the parking garage and found you wearing the chain, I would have taken you on the hood of the car right there rather than waiting until we got home.”
“I’m not in favor of waiting until we get home,” Irina said, tracing her fingers down Jack’s thighs. “And I see that I don’t have to-“
“No, actually-“
“No, actually I don’t.” Irina picked up the camera and smiled triumphantly. “Because I can see you’re ready now to hold up your own end of the bargain.”
“You led me down the path-“
“To a destination you wanted to reach.” Irina stepped back and framed a shot. She began clicking the shutter button. “Or else you would have stopped me the moment I started to talk about BOB.”
“You got me.” Jack smiled slowly, his mouth quirking into that lopsided grin that made Irina melt. She sighed, then began to click away. She had never had a photograph of the smile that had first won her heart. Later, she would review her pictures and this one would become her favorite, the one she enlarged and to Jack’s embarrassed chagrin, kept in a frame near their new wedding photograph, near his favorite photograph of her in the sari.
“Gotcha.” Irina smiled in agreement. “I have you.”
Jack blinked in remembrance of things past, to a time when he had thought he had her. And so he had, he had used her weaknesses to find a new strength. Just as she was now. A circle. “So you do...” He agreed in a hoarse whisper, then reached for the bottle again. “What do you want me to do?”
Irina licked her lips. “Get up on one elbow and with your free hand, touch yourself.”
Jack slid his damp hand across his hip and down his thigh. He watched Irina’s tongue touch her bottom lip as she raised the camera and looked through the display. The last time she had done this, he could see only her mouth as she shot him, but with digital cameras he could still see her face. Good. He would need to see the desire in her eyes in order to do what she wanted now. “Talk to me again about this game with you wearing the BOB dress...Paint a picture for me of how sexy and beautiful you’ll look,” Jack demanded as he leaned on one elbow and reached down to himself with his free hand.
Irina nodded. She watched the deliberately-sexual movements of his hand as he aroused himself and her and yet she knew that the innocence with which they’d approached this moment so long ago was gone. They both needed - the truth. Yes. The truth had not changed. “Jack...” She said slowly. “Do you remember what I said about those pictures, the last time? I said you were beautiful to me. You still are. Show me...”
Jack looked up into her eyes and saw the same deep desire he’d known would be there, the need she’d displayed so many times, from the first kiss to the way she’d looked at him in the hot tub in Panama to the glass cage the day she’d returned to him. Over and over she’d shown him and now...he moved his hand and showed her.
Judy turned her back to pull on her shirt and gasped when hard hands grasped her waist and spun her around. “Don’t hide from me now...” Dave said in his deep voice, rumbling with soft laughter.
“If you’re not nice to me, I won’t permit you to see my purple lingerie again,” Judy threatened.
“You do realize that I’m going to end up with some unusual fetishes, don’t you?” Dave began to button Judy’s shirt with gentle hands, hoping to soothe any embarrassment she might feel. “For the rest of my life, every time I see a spoon - a poor, innocent, spoon - I’m going to get a hard on!”
Judy began to laugh and reached up to touch Dave’s smile lines. It was impossible to stay angry with a man who made light of himself as much as he gently teased her. “And you do realize that Julian will have figured that out?”
“Oh brother.” Dave kissed her, then rolled his eyes as he stepped back to retrieve his own clothes. “Speaking of him, where do you think he’s spent the time during this particular unfortunate incarceration of mine?”
“I’m sure he spent part of it tormenting Vaughn and part of it engaging in some very innocent flirtation with Arezou under Nia’s watchful eye.”
“Arezou needs a more extensive education...” Dave began as he finished zipping up his jeans and looked around for his shoes. He had worn them in here and they must be somewhere. After all, it wasn’t as though the room was big enough to lose even a paper clip. Yeah. He looked around. It was tiny and small and...no, the walls were not closing in on him. Nope. He shrugged. How easy it had been when he’d just let go of his fear, with the help of someone who was competent and caring and...blonde.
Dave looked over at Judy, waiting patiently and smiled at the deep affection she displayed so openly in her blue eyes. In private, anyway. He could happily live with that. He could happily keep talking with her for a very long time. “Don’t you think? Do you think Nia might be able to take her in so she could get an education in India or-“
“We can talk about it while we eat dinner and wait for Jack and Irina to return.” Judy walked toward the door and pulled it open. “Come on.”
“Wait.” Dave pulled Judy into his arms. “Thanks again for helping cure me of my claustrophobia.”
“Oh, you’re not cured yet!” Judy smiled smugly.
Dave bent his head and kissed her smiling mouth. “I’m not?”
“No. I think the spoons may lead you to many interesting but tiny locations.”
“Maybe...we can discuss those interesting but tight locations...” Dave slid his hands over Judy’s buttocks and pulled her hard against him. “Over dinner?”
“Maybe...” Judy looked over her shoulder with a smile. “We’ll have soup. And pudding and-“
“More spoons?” Dave groaned in surrender as he followed her, wherever she was leading.
“That fetish of yours for this chain is a weakness. You do realize that.” Irina sighed as she finished taking pictures, set the camera aside, and sank to her knees next to Jack.
“Whatever.” Jack wrapped his arm around her waist and tumbled her down next to him.
“It’s not whatever, though, is it?” Irina pressed, wanting to understand. She looped her arms around his neck and slid her leg over his, enjoying the feel of the hair-roughened hard muscles of his thigh under her skin. Jack tugged on her chain, tracing the circle with his fingertips. They both sighed. A simple moment, a simple pleasure she would never again take for granted. “You still wouldn’t like it if I visibly wore it in public, would you? That was the only time you were ever possessive and-“
“We are going to talk about this, aren’t we?” Jack asked in resignation.
“Judy said-“
“Judy said. Judy said to talk and talk and talk.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Do you know how perfect Dave is for her? He never stops talking.”
“Well, that works for her. What works for me is devising new and ever more tortuous ways of making you talk.”
“I can devise ways of keeping you silent...” Jack cupped her cheek and drew closer, smiling happily when she closed her eyes and tilted her mouth to meet his. In the quiet circle of their arms, they did not hear the sound of the water or the call of the birds in the trees until one particularly loud bird cried out and they both jumped.
“Soooo, Jack...” Irina leaned on one elbow and used her free hand to trace a pattern of circles across Jack’s chest. She looked up and watched the bird who interrupted them with a glare. At least it wasn’t one of those damn seagulls. When Jack squeezed her waist, she looked back down at him. “You survived my little game.” She smiled as she felt the heavy, rapid beat of his heart. “Quite well, it seems.”
“It wasn’t....awful.” Jack sighed melodramatically and covered his face with his forearm. He sighed again, then carefully lowered his arm to peek out from under it. “It was...horrible. I may never recover.”
Irina began to laugh and laugh. Peeking out like that he reminded her once again of the little boy he had once been. A sight he allowed only her to see, when he was particularly relaxed and completely happy. How different he was now than the first few months after she had returned. Then, he had worn his suits and his dignity like armor, she remembered. Now, he was naked to her in all ways. She reminded herself, as Judy had forced her to admit was a useful strategy in avoiding mistakes, that privilege of seeing that aspect of his personality was just that, a privilege. And a private pleasure. Only Jack could make her laugh like this, like...the little girl she had never had a chance to be. “You...” She choked out, lying on top of him, cuddling into his warm broad length. “Are such an idiot.”
“And you love me.”
“And I love you.” Irina kissed his chest. “Now tell me about this chain, sweetie. Because frankly, you’re right. We’re not kids any more and I’m...tired too. I admit it. Tell me.”
Jack nodded and tightened his grip around her waist, then loosened it to pull at the chain, as he’d done so many times in the past. “I think this circle of gold is...intimate. It’s erotic to me, you know that. Because it’s private. And for me...The way I feel about you is so deep, it’s so...private. It’s sexual, yes. Very sexual to me, but it’s also about...the love I feel for you and you for me, the connection between us...” Jack huffed out a breath. “Damn it, I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”
Irina nodded, fully understanding the chain’s meaning. “The rings are a public symbol. For me, those rings are a necessity to make it clear to everyone else that we belong together. But you-“
“Since I’m not pathologically possessive?”
“Shut up. But for you, the chain is not only an erotic accessory, it’s a symbol of the intimacy that exists just between us. Just for us. I understand. I won’t visibly wear it in public again, Jack.”
“Really?” Jack smiled in surprised pleasure. “But...you would wear it under the BOB dress, right?”
Irina smiled. “Whatever you want. Whatever you want, as long as it’s within my power, I’ll give it to you.”
“You gave me freedom. Then and now. And I? What do I give you?” Jack pressed, wanting her to say it.
“You give me... a place to belong to. A family to belong to. A home. A...querencia.”
“Yes. And that’s what home, a family should be. Not what we knew as children. But what we’ve made together as adults. A safe haven. A querencia. Now, let’s go make another one.”
“Yes. Let’s go home.” Irina agreed. They stood up and took the steps forward to their new life.
TBC at Chapter 2017: Part 2: 1st post