Agent finds a Warrior (11 page)

I glanced over to her to see what her
reaction was, only to see tears coursing down her cheeks. What had
I done wrong?

She smiled radiantly at me then in the midst
of the tears and I realized that I was experiencing the phenomena
of happy tears. I’ve never understood the concept of it myself. The
process of crying when you are happy just didn’t make sense, but I
could see that was the case for Zora.

She seemed to be speechless. All she could
do was smile and cry. She leaned back against my side then, only
this time her arm went around my back to hold me even as mine held
her to me.

Sometimes it was fun to give and this was
definitely one of those times. It was so gratifying to know that
I’d both surprised her and possibly made one of her dreams come
true. I wanted to do that for her again and again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zora leaned against Elon side as her heart
pounded within her chest. She was going to a ball!

She was going to dance again! She wasn’t
just going to be dancing though. She was going to be dancing with
Elon!

She shivered involuntarily, as she imagined
what it would be like to be led in the moves of the dance by
Elon.

She had felt so brazen earlier in her
attempt to please him visually by unbuttoning her shirt. Many men
would set up an event like Elon had just as a reward for what she’d
done, but that wasn’t the case with Elon. Before a button had come
undone he had already been involved in a plan to surprise her with
something he knew would please her.

How many women could say they had a man who
thought of their welfare ahead of any gain for themselves?

She was going to a ball! She’d always
dreamed of this, but out on her own and distant from any man she’d
never had the ability to go to one much less enjoy it like she knew
she was going to with Elon.

“
I know the hearts of man and there is
nothing hidden from Me. I see the secret desires and it pleases Me
to grant those to whom I will.”

The infilling of heavenly thought
overwhelmed Zora.

Oh! She was going to cry again! She’d never
been so happy in her life before!

She’d been in there for two hours surely she
was about done?

I’d dropped her off earlier at the dress
shop before checking in at the Grand Imperial. I’d even picked up
my tux for the evening and I’d done all of that within an hour. Now
I’d been sitting here for over an hour. What was taking her so
long?

The possibilities of what could have gone
wrong were starting to plague me, when she abruptly appeared coming
from the dress shop. She still wore a smile so everything must be
all right, at least I hoped so.

I got out and opened her door for her,
“Everything okay?”

“Perfectly fine honey.” She said before
leaning up on her toes to kiss me on the cheek.

I blinked a couple times to clear my
thoughts or better put regain order to them.

“Don’t we need to take your dress with us?”
I asked thickly, but she shook her head no.

“They’re delivering it to the hotel. Can we
go to dinner now? I’m starving!” She was smiling, but her smile had
a predatory cast to it and her eyes were sparkling like a tigress
on the hunt in search of prey. I’d had woman look at me in a
predatory light before, but this was the first time that I’d ever
wanted to be caught.

I parked the car along the rundown looking
street in an even more rundown looking part of the ancient Italian
city. Disappointment was written all over Zora’s face and I had to
bite back a smile. Appearances could be so deceiving.

“Well this is it.” I said exuberantly and
she gave me a dumbfounded look of puzzlement. I had to get out of
the car before I burst out laughing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zora couldn’t believe it. His idea of a
romantic dinner was a rundown looking bar, whose patrons were
likely rats from the looks of the place!

Why would he bring her to such a place?

This couldn’t be happening! He was ruining
the evening!

Her door opened and Elon said, “Mon cherie
if you would please?”

The happy tone of his voice alerted her to
something going on behind the scenes. She glanced at his eyes and
saw that they were full of mirth directed at her. He was up to
something!

Well she could play along at that game too.
She got out and he took her hand and led her into the rundown
bar.

The place did not disappoint her low
expectations of it. Upon entering she saw not one, not two, but
three rats scurry for cover. Elon called out hearty hellos in
Italian to the extremely disreputable denizens of the place, who
heartily responded in kind.

Zora couldn’t help but think this was all a
big mistake somehow. Elon kept leading her through the bar to the
far end and opened an old door that creaked hard with protest. He
gestured down the dark corridor that was dimly revealed before her
by old incandescent light bulbs.

The lights gave off more darkness than
usable light and the ceiling was strewn with cobwebs. She gave Elon
a look that told him to go fly a kite.

He laughed and grabbed a hold of her hand
and tugged her into the dim corridor after him. The corridor ended
at another door, which Elon kicked open and then they stepped out
onto a deserted alleyway.

The odor of backed up sewage wafted up to
permeate the air. This night was going from bad to worse in a
hurry.

They came to a sturdy looking wooden door
and Elon rang an old bell that was there. An old woman stuck her
head out of a window up above in the building next to the door. She
called out a greeting upon apparently recognizing Elon and he
responded in kind. The old woman pulled on a cable and the door
unlocked and swung wide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stood for a moment enjoying Zora’s shocked
face before I gently pushed her on through the open doorway.

“What is this place?” She exclaimed.

“No one quite knows why, but this street was
blocked off from the city grid many years ago. Few know of it other
than the local residents and they keep it a secret for fear of the
place being mobbed by tourists. It truly is an excellent example of
late Roman architecture at its finest.”

The street was like a time capsule of the
past and its residents helped to keep it that way. It was a
cultural treasure to them and I could tell as we walked by massive
stone pillars with artfully crafted stone chapters and bases that
I’d surprised Zora all over again.

She was looking all around in amazement. I
pulled her around a corner of an old marketplace and gestured to
something ahead of us, “Now this is perhaps one of the worlds
hardest to find hole in the wall restaurants.” I said smugly
reveling in my second success of the day of completely overwhelming
my woman with surprise and delight. This dating thing really was
fun.

I watched as her eyes took in what I had
gestured to. Before us lay a pillared grape arbor from which
lanterns hung down casting their warm light into the richly
entrenched mood of antiquity all around us. Little wooden tables
dotted the veranda beneath the arbor, each table bearing its own
candle and checkered tablecloth.

“It’s perfect! You’re perfect!” She said on
a breathless exclamation of emotion.

I chuckled in good pleasure. I was far from
perfect, but if she wanted to think so of me well, I was fine with
that.

I led her towards the idealic setting loving
the way that she sort of melted against my side as we walked. I
pulled out a chair at one of the tables near a large pillar and she
sat down smiling.

“Well aren’t you the gentlemen.” She said
coyly in as playful a mood as I had ever seen her.

I leaned down to her ear and said, “On the
contrar mon cherie. In this setting I am but the tramp in the
presence of a lady.”

The smell of her skin was just too much and
my lips pressed deeply against the side of her neck in a kiss for a
long moment. I felt a quiver course through her whole body and I
drew back from the kiss. I hadn’t left a mark, but I had left an
impression.

I walked around the table and her eyes
followed me. Her eyes seemed to be on fire and I relished their
heated intensity that I had helped spark to an open blaze.

As I sat down a rotund shaped maître d’
appeared, “Ahh senor Elon what a pleasure it is to serve you once
more and what is this? You have brought a gem of the finest quality
to grace our humble abode.” The man said, as he melodramatically
bowed toward Zora.

“You do our humble establishment too great
an honor to grace it with your unsurpassed beauty!” The maître d’
infused out further in what appeared to be genuine sentiment.

Zora blushed with pleasure at the man’s
platitudes to her beauty as her dark eyes sparkled like chocolate
diamonds surrounded by veins of smoky quartz.

The maître d’ straightened and turned to me,
“Perhaps being familiar with what we have to offer you would
perhaps know best what’s your lady would desire, yes?”

Before I could speak Zora said, “I know what
I want. Do you have spaghetti?”

“We do! It is one of our finest entrées! And
for you Sir?”

Again before I could speak Zora cut in,
“We’ll share. You don’t mind sharing with me Elon do you?” She
asked provocatively and I hesitated from saying anything completely
overwhelmed by the sheer weight of her erotic appeal.

Spaghetti wasn’t my thing, but there was
something else going on here. “Spaghetti it is Marco.” I said never
taking my eyes off of Zora.

Marco backed away from the table his eyes
sparkling as they flipped back and forth between us.

I had thought to carry on a pleasant dinner
conversation, but words didn’t come. We just stared at each
other.

The predatory light was back in her eyes and
I felt deliciously out of any element that I had ever been
comfortable in before. She was seducing me and I was enjoying every
moment of it.

The spaghetti came with a flourish, along
with wine. The spaghetti was all on one plate and Marco left too
quickly for me to ask for another.

I glanced up from the spaghetti at Zora, “I
guess we’ll have to scooch a little closer to each other.”

My eyebrows rose, as instead of answering
she got to her feet. Her face was temptation itself.

She walked around the table toward me
dragging a finger on the checkered tablecloth as she came. Reaching
me she turned and sat sideways across my lap.

Her left arm drifted along the top of my
shoulder as her fingers speared into the hair at the back of my
head in a caressing fashion.

She turned her head to the side and picked
up the fork on the plate and began to twirl the spaghetti around it
slowly. Lifting the fork she brought it to my mouth and pressed it
against my lips. Eating was the last thing on my mind, but
dutifully I opened up and chewed what I had been given.

She watched my lips for a long moment and
then her eyes rose to mine as she held the fork up, “I’m hungry
Elon. Would you?” Her lips fell open and my heart started beating a
double rhythm.

I took the fork and twirled it in the
spaghetti as she had done and then I watched her pull the bite off
the fork. I watched her mouth move, to paralyzed to do anything
else, but enjoy the movement of her beautiful face in motion.

She recaptured the fork from my loose grasp
and soon had another bite before my mouth. I accepted it, but it
was a messy bite.

She set the fork down and wiped the sauce
off my cheek with one finger. I swallowed my food too spellbound to
chew it any longer. She brought her finger to her mouth and slowly
sucked it clean.

This woman had driven me up the wall and
down the other side and I just couldn’t take it any longer. My
fingers speared into her hair and I held her head for my kiss, even
as her hands held my head to hers with equal passion.

This had not been how I had imagined our
first kiss going. It was far hotter, because she had made the
effort to make it so and I loved her for it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The old cook came trundling out from the
kitchen her bulk matching that of her husband the maître d’. Her
tired eyes found her husband leaning on the counter his double chin
propped up by both of his folded hands, as his face bore a sappy
grin as he stared outward at the tables in the arbor.

Her gaze followed his and her eyes lit up in
shock at the sight of the couple seated together who were busy
kissing each other’s faces off. She turned in continued shock to
her husband, “Marco! What did you put in my sauce?”

Marco came unglued from the counter and
wiggled his bushy eyebrows at her before pulling her close, “Only
the magic of love my pet. It goes something like this!” He finished
as his lips smacked onto hers.

She giggled and pushed away smacking him on
the butt and he responded in kind with a grin. Both of them then
turned and leaned on the counter in companionship, as they watched
the young couple lost to the world in each other arms continue to
kiss.

The sight reminded the old couple of when
they had been young and first in love with each other. Those had
been good days and they enjoyed seeing someone else enjoy what they
had and still did.

It was 8:30 and I was ready to go, but Zora
hadn’t materialized from her part of the suite yet.

My eyes closed as I leaned up against the
wall by the door and remembered our dinner together. To be truthful
I hadn’t really eaten much, but instead of being hungry for food I
found myself hungry to experience more intimacy with her.

I groaned in frustration. I had four plus
hours of dancing ahead of me and all I wanted to do was throw my
wife on the bed and discover everything there was to know about
her.