Fighting Hard (8 page)

“You’re not wearing any underwear, Mia.”

“I know.”

“You bad girl…”

“Just for you, Nick. Do you like it?”

“You know I do.” His fingers were coated in her honey. “And I can feel that you do, too.”

He kissed her now, his tongue plunging in time to his fingers. He shoved her against the wall and she shuddered at his size and strength. His body trapped her in place and her hips moved back and forth on his hand, riding his fingers as he thrust deeper. He turned his hand palm-up and started making ‘come here’ motions inside of her. He was literally stroking her sweet spot and she sobbed.

“Nick… oh, God.”

With his other hand he lifted her leg and wrapped it around him. She clutched his shoulders and threw her head back, starting to lose control. The flickering started deep inside her, where his fingers were pressing and teasing, and she shook wildly as her whole body tensed for release. Then it started, the wave rolled over and over, and she gave a cry.

Nick watched her face as her climax started to break over her. Seeing Mia come was better than coming himself, in some ways. Just knowing that he was doing this to her, that she was letting herself go with him, was touching and hot and beautiful.

Mia opened her eyes and saw him looking at her, his gray eyes full of heat and emotion.

He smiled at her. “You are so gorgeous… and you’re all mine, babe.”

“I am,” she said.

“I want you to come for me, Mia. Now.”

She gasped as her pussy did exactly what he told it to do: it clutched and tightened on his fingers, the sensations getting stronger and keener. She gave a strangled scream as her orgasm was ripped out of her and her whole body went limp; if he hadn’t put her leg around his hips, she’d slide down the wall on to the floor.

Nothing better,
he thought.
Just nothing
.

Mia was sobbing, trying to catch her breath. He pulled his fingers out of her shaking body and wrapped her other leg around him. He lifted her gently and carried her to the sofa. They sat, Mia in his lap, her legs around him, her face buried in his shoulder.

When she started to cry, it took them both by surprise. Nick stroked her back and held her as close as he could.

“It’s OK, babe. It’s OK. I’ve got you.”

Mia didn’t know why she was crying after something that had felt so good, but she couldn’t seem to stop her tears. All she knew was that she felt overwhelmed and small, and she needed Nick to make her feel safe again.

Slowly, her tears stopped and her body relaxed on his. She pulled back and saw the worry on his face.

“I’m OK, Nick. I just – I don’t know what happened. It was just so – intense.”

He kissed her gently. “Good intense?”

“Very good.” She smiled at him as she felt his cock start to nudge her. “Maybe you want something intense, too?”

His eyes gleamed. “You know I do.”

Chapter Seven

Mia stood outside the café, shivering a bit in the winter wind. The forecast called for snow and she felt it in the air.

She had spent the past three weeks intensively doing research and all her leg-work had finally paid off: just yesterday a prostitute named Yasmine had told her about a former-prostitute she was still friendly with named Justine.

Apparently, Justine’s boyfriend was pretty involved in the kids-for-sex trade and Justine was being forced to take part. Yasmine asked Mia to try to convince Justine to flip on her boyfriend to the cops, to get away from him and out of the kiddie ring. But Justine was terrified, too scared to even make an anonymous call. The fact that she had agreed to meet Mia was nothing short of a miracle, and she had one condition: Mia came alone. No debate.

Mia had considered asking Nick to come with her and hang around, just keep an eye on things. In the end, though, she couldn’t break Justine’s confidence. After all, what she was asking the woman to do required great courage and trust – so Mia figured she’d better exhibit some of those qualities herself.

She glanced at the clock on her cell phone. Justine was almost an hour late. She wondered how much longer she should give her… maybe thirty minutes?

“Hey.”

She turned, startled.

“Hey.” A woman’s voice.

Mia squinted in to the dark side street.

“Over here.”

No way am I going in there.

She stepped closer, looking around.

“Stop there.”

Mia paused.

She knew she was being examined and she felt an urge to turn and run.

God, was this a mistake?

Then a woman stepped in to the light and Mia sighed with relief.

“Mia?”

“Yes.”

“You’re alone?”

“Yes.”

The woman came closer. Mia took in her dark eyes and blonde hair and tiny body. She looked terrified.

“Yasmine said I could trust you.”

“You can, Justine.”

Justine looked around again. “OK. Well, let’s talk.”

Mia nodded. “Is this café safe?”

“Yeah. Let’s go. You’re buying, right?”

“I’m buying, Justine.”

**

Mia’s neck was a bundle of stress. She massaged it as she stared out the window, watching the snow fall and waiting for her phone to ring. After another week and two more meetings and numerous promises of anonymity, she had finally convinced Justine to call her and give her the address where the kids were being kept, and every minute felt like an hour.

Come on, come on. Please Justine.

Her phone rang and she spun around and practically jumped on it.

“Hello?”

“Mia?”

“Justine. Thank God. Are you OK?”

“I can’t talk long… I had to leave the house and find a pay phone and Danny will be wondering where I am.”

“OK.”

“You sure you want the address?”

“Yes.”

“You can’t ever, ever tell anyone where you got it. Not even that guy at the Project.”

“I know, Justine. I promise I won’t tell anyone your name. Not ever.”

Justine was silent.

“Justine?”

It took more courage than most people will ever really understand for Justine to give Mia the address. But Mia understood completely, and she was still and quiet for a very long time after the women hung up. She hoped that Justine lived long enough to get out and away from Danny. The signs of physical abuse that Mia had seen on her face and body were haunting her dreams.

Her phone rang again and she saw that it was Tom from PIP. She sighed.

“Hey, Tom.”

“Mia. You talked to your source?”

“I did. And they gave me the address.”

He was silent. “Who is this person, Mia? Are you sure you can trust them?”

“I’m sure. And I’m not going to tell you, or anyone. I promised.”

“Mia, come on! This isn’t a game…”

“I know that, Tom. And it isn’t for
them
either. If these people knew that someone on the inside had ratted them out? My source would be dead.”

“Look, I get that. So tell me. Just me.”

“No, Tom. I’m sorry.”

She felt his frustration through the phone. “Mia, come on. If I knew for sure that the source was reliable, then I could get the police more willing to get involved.”

“You’ll have to do that without a name, Tom. This is the way it is… we all have to work with it.”

Tom sighed. “OK, Mia. We’ll do it your way. Tell me what you know and I’ll inform the police. What’s the address?”

**

“So the person called and gave you the address where this guy is based?” Nick said. “This disgusting piece of shit who exploits kids?”

“Yeah.”

He walked over to her, watching her closely. She looked wrecked: stressed and exhausted and something else. Scared? Worried? Guilty?

“Are you OK, Mia?”

“I don’t know.” She stared at the towering piles of papers covering her table. “I think maybe… I’m in over my head.”

A chill passed over him. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure… something feels wrong.”

“OK, hold on.” Nick sat down and took her hands. “Are you telling me that these people may know who you are?”

“Oh, no. No way.”

“You sure?”

“Completely. I’ve been careful to the point of paranoia and I’ve only talked with one person about everything, and not even totally openly.”

“Tom.”

“Yes.”

“OK. So, what feels wrong?”

“I don’t know. Something. I just – when I was doing all my work in Thailand and Macau and Hong Kong in to sex trafficking, I learned early on to trust my instincts, even when they made no sense.” She sighed. “And my instincts are sending up big red flags all over the place here.”

Nick wrestled with himself. His impulse was to demand that she stop right now, that she just drop the whole damn thing. He wanted to grab her and bring her to his place and lock the door. He wanted to hide her away from this whole sordid business and keep her safe.

But he knew that Mia would never stand for it; she’d tell him that this wasn’t about her, it was about those kids. She’d say that she was a professional researcher in to this kind of thing, and that she’d taken every precaution possible to take. And she’d be right. The fact that she’d refuse to stop, refuse to back off, was just one more reason that he’d come to adore her.

“So what do we do now?” he asked.

She looked at him. “Nothing. I carry on. And you don’t stop me.”

“OK, I’ll try. But… I’m worried about you.”

“I know, Nick.” She smiled at him, a real smile. She looked like herself again and he was hugely relieved.

“I just – I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He got to his feet, agitated, running his hands through his hair over and over. “If I lost you… I don’t know, Mia. I don’t think I could take it.”

“You’re not going to lose me, Nick.” Mia stood up and moved in to his arms. “I promise.”

“You do? Really promise?”

She kissed him, loving him in his surprising vulnerability. “Really, really.”

He held her and felt afraid for the first time in a long time: he knew that what he’d told her was true. He knew that if anything happened to her – if she got hurt – he’d lose his mind.

I need to be close to her, as close as I can be. Right now.

He lifted her chin and kissed her, fierce and desperate and almost harsh. She didn’t flinch from his rough touch: she understood what he needed and what he felt. She responded and he moaned.

She broke away and pulled him in to the bedroom. He followed, pulling at her clothes, shedding his own. He pushed her on to the bed, almost panting in his need to be sure that she was there with him. He had to hold her close, know that she was safe and real and whole.

Hands shaking, he rolled on the condom and stretched out on top of her. She opened her arms and legs and he entered her in one impatient, thick movement. She gasped and took him fully, loving that they just got down to what they wanted, no waiting, no words.

They stared in to each other’s eyes as he thrust and she lifted to meet him, over and over again. For Nick, nothing in his life had ever felt like this: he was totally connected to another human being, emotionally open and naked. He blinked at the sudden tears in his eyes.

Mia saw them and felt a huge rush of tenderness for him. She lifted her hand and wiped the tears away gently, whispering that everything was OK. Nick buried his face in her throat and drove in to her harder and harder, desperate to be as deep inside of her as he could. He closed his eyes and marveled that being with Mia was a whole different experience than being with any other woman. This wasn’t fucking and this wasn’t sex. For one of the first times in his life, Nick truly understood what it meant to make love to someone.

Mia clutched his back as the pressure built inside of her. He twisted his hips to find her secret spot, hidden so deep, and she gave a cry. Again and again he plunged his cock in her, and he was shaking now with the effort to not give in to his own pleasure, to wait for her.

“Come for me, babe,” he whispered. “Come hard and take me with you.”

At his words, she lost all control. Her pussy responded to his command, helplessly, and she screamed as her climax broke over her. He grunted and slammed in to her as hard as he could, loving how her muscles caressed and pulled at him. He gave one final thrust and exploded inside of her, shuddering and calling her name.

They lay holding on to each other, Nick’s body pressing down on hers, Mia relishing his weight. She stroked his hair and kissed his neck.

“Nick? You OK?”

He gave a strangled laugh. “Umm. Debatable.”

She pulled back and looked at his face. He looked amazingly soft and bewildered right now and she kissed him, her lips lingering on his.

He carefully pulled out of her and covered her sweet body with the sheet. He went in to her bathroom and looked in the mirror, wiped tears from his cheeks. His eyes widened as he suddenly realized that he wanted to go back in to the bedroom and tell her that he loved her.

Holy fuck. No, no. That’s too much, too fast. I’ve only been with her for two months!

He held on to the sink and stared at himself.

Shit. How did I let myself get in this far, this fast? Goddammit. I need to get out of here, now. I need to think.

“Nick?”

“Yeah… I’ll be out in a sec.”

He returned to the bedroom and looked at Mia curled up in her bed. She was so beautiful and sweet and amazing and he couldn’t be anywhere near her. If he went to her now, he’d say something fucking stupid and irretrievable.

He started to put on his clothes. Mia sat up, a puzzled look on her face.

“You’re going? Now?”

“Yeah.” He put on his jeans, looked around for his t-shirt. “Yeah. I…ummm. I want to get to the club early tonight. Do some inventory.”

She watched him, took in his panic and discomfort. “Nick… what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just need to go.”

Mia watched, silent. She was sure this had to do with his tears, with his heartbreaking show of vulnerability, and she wasn’t about to push him.

“OK. Do you still want me to drop by the club tonight?”

“What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Whenever.”

“So I’ll see you later.”

“OK. Bye.” And he was out the door.

Mia lay back in bed, hurt and upset, but trying to see it from his side. She was sure Nick would think things through and be fine again. After all, admitting that they had come to care about each other wasn’t a disaster, right?

**

Fucking disaster. Jesus Christ. How did this happen?

Nick was on auto-pilot: pouring drinks, smiling at women, taking credit cards and giving correct change. The only thing he could think about was Mia reaching up to wipe his tears, so gentle and tender, and he felt like dying of embarrassment all over again.

You are wide open, Spencer. Wide open and primed to be hurt when she moves on or when it all ends. You fucking idiot.

“Well, hey there, handsome.”

He blinked and looked at the gorgeous woman in front of him.

Long blonde hair, deep tan even in December, huge breasts, slim hips. Her skirt barely covered her crotch and that top she was wearing gave him more than a glimpse of luscious cleavage. He looked down and saw her nipples winking up at him.

“Hi,” he said. “What can I get you?”

“An Appletini.”

“Sure.” He moved away and started to mix the drink. She sat down at the bar, her large blue eyes watching his every move.

“So,” she said. “How’s your night tonight?”

He glanced at her. “Not bad. You?”

“Hmmm. A bit dull.” She smiled. “I’m looking to shake things up a bit.”

“You don’t say.” Nick brought her the drink. “How are you thinking about doing that?”

She looked him up and down. “I’m not sure. Maybe you have some ideas?”

He was back on familiar ground now; this was how his life had been for twelve years – until two months ago, when Mia walked in to this club.

God, this is just so much
easier
. Dumb flirting, stupid come-ons, easy sex, no names, no strings. And nobody fucking cries.

He knew that his old devastating smile was on his face and he walked around the bar now to sit next to her. He leaned forward to give her the best view of his arms and chest. Her eyes roamed over his muscles hungrily.

“I may have an idea or two,” he said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They gazed at each other and the distance between them lessened. He touched her leg and she made a sound of assent. He moved closer and kissed her. He flicked his tongue in her mouth and she gasped.

“How’s that for an idea?” he said.

“Not bad for a start, handsome,” she said. “Any more ideas like that?”

“Many.” Nick ran his hands between her inner thighs. “Many. I’ll show you.”

**

“Hey, Mia. How’s it going, sweetie?” Adam grinned down at her and thought how cute she looked all bundled up in her huge coat.

“Good, Adam. You?”

He shrugged. “Freezing my ass off out here.”