"It will take a few days to get your new identity set up. In the meantime, you'll be safe here. Now, there are some important things you need to know," Jack said as he dropped her bags next to the couch.
"Wow, this is so amazing," Kaya said as she twirled around to take in Jack's apartment.
"Kaya, listen to me. Kaya, focus!" Jack said, and hoped he'd injected the right amount of gentleness into his voice to soften the command. Trying to get Kaya to do anything was like herding cats, but yelling at her would have been like shouting at kittens. He'd never met anyone so…disarming.
Her round blue eyes focused on him and she smiled radiantly.
"Yes, Jack?" she said in a breathy, expectant way that caught him completely off guard.
For a split second, he forgot what he was going to say. Then his senses returned to him with a roar of blood rushing in his ears.
"There are five things I want you to remember. Can you do that? Remember five things?"
Her lips were parted slightly as she nodded.
"One, stay away from the windows. Understand? Don't go near the windows," he repeated in the vain hope that it would drum it into her head. "Two, don't answer the door for anyone. No one, you understand? Three, don't leave the apartment. If you want to go somewhere, I'll take you. I don't want you to go out by yourself."
"No windows, don't answer the door, and don't leave, right?" she asked, like a child remembering her multiplication tables.
"Right," he said. As an afterthought, he added, "That's very good, Kaya."
A delighted smile lit up her face, bringing a spark to her often glassy eyes. She draped her arms around his neck, pressing the length of her body against his.
"Your voice is so sexy," she purred in his ear.
"Thank you," he said dryly. He gently tried to extricate himself from her grasp, but she would have none of it. She raised herself up on her tiptoes and kissed him. Her lips were soft. She tasted sweet, like the coke she had drunk in the car on the way over. She pressed meltingly hot kisses to his neck and his body responded in the only way it could when faced with such a merciless assault. This is a terrible idea, his brain supplied, but he firmly told it to shut up.
Jack ran his hands down her back, feeling her muscles tense as she pulled him down to get better access to his mouth. Instead of bending awkwardly over her, he cupped her ass and lifted her up. She was surprisingly light. She wrapped her lithe legs around him, and he easily balanced her weight as he walked them towards the bedroom.
They collapsed onto the bed in a flurry of hands and mouths and discarded clothing.
"Oh, wow!" she said as she took in the collection of scars across his chest. Jack frowned. "You're so beautiful!" she breathed.
He searched her face for signs of sarcasm, but she was entirely serious, her eyes wide with a sincerity and honesty that he rarely encountered in his world.
"You're very kind," he replied, and was rewarded with another one of her brilliant smiles.
She resumed her enthusiastic assault on his neck and ears and chest and nipples. Her leg slipped up around him and he felt her heel pushing insistently against his lower back. She gasped as he entered her. The last time he'd done this was…his brain balked. An image of Irina flashed in his mind's eye, and he ruthlessly pushed it away. Kaya's teeth nipped lightly at his neck and he was grounded again in the here and now. She raised her hips to meet him and they quickly set up a fluid rhythm. He palmed her breasts, and they seemed to fit his hands perfectly. She moaned with pleasure, which he took as a positive endorsement. Her moans changed to excited cries as their pace crescendoed into a desperate sort of frenzy and then suddenly he felt her clenching spasmodically around him, which completely sent him sailing over the edge.
He laid down next to her and tried to control his ragged breathing and the rapid pounding of his heart. Kaya snuggled up against him with a sigh of contentment. She drew lazy circles over his chest with her fingers, making him shiver.
"Wow," she said simply.
"Agreed," Jack said.
He couldn't even remember what the fourth and fifth things were that he was going to tell her.