Marta Shearing was staring at her reflection in the mirror, her face flushed and her body still trembling. Few hours of sleep and a cold shower apparently weren't enough to shake away the sensation of Aaron's hands on her. After three months spent together, she wasn't really surprised anymore: she had stopped questioning the effect he had on her several weeks earlier. She wrapped herself tighter in the towel, her fingers brushing absently the writing on the top of it: Welcome to Singapore Inn. How they had managed to get in Singapore was still a mystery to her, but truth to be told, the whole past three months were nothing but a blur. They had moved from little towns to unknown villages non-stop and she had confused memories of different bus stations, several rooms in the middle of nowhere and uncountable faces. They had never stayed more than three, four days at best: the only time they had been almost two weeks in the same place, had been when she had got sick. She didn't even recall the name of the town or who had been the one giving her injections: the only thing she remembered was the fear in Aaron's gaze and her unfocused mind thinking that maybe he wasn't invincible after all.
Marta dried her hair with another towel, while looking at the man in the other room throughout the mirror. He was sitting on the bed, still in his naked glory, a sheet lazily wrapped around his hips and a map in front of him. A shiver run down her spine as she glanced at him, another thing she had got accustomed to in the past months. She sighed and turned her eyes off of him, trying to ignore the goose bumps on her skin and a very familiar sensation raising inside of her. It was pointless though, since a pair of strong harms were already encircling her from beyond and an hungry mouth had just found the side of her neck. She closed her eyes, leaning into him, as she felt the towel around her being ripped away and his hand reaching unceremoniously between her tights. He was just like that. He had never ask, he had just always taken what he wanted, how he wanted it. Pressed against his solid body, she had no power at all. And she didn't want to.
After that first time on the boat, Marta had often found herself wondering if everything she had known about sex until him was just a lame joke. The man was beyond good, that much was a given, but it wasn't just that. His strength was almost too much to handle and the scientist in her knew his physical enhancementhad probably a lot to do with that. The best part tough, was that among the sheets, Aaron let his modified nature took control, his manliness washing over her body effortlessly, owning her completely. They had hot, dirty sex, the unaffordable softness being part of another lifetime: she had never felt so much of woman as he made her feel. She hadn't put make up on in months, her clothes were anything but casual at best: yet she had never felt so much feminine, so much wanted, in her entire life. Her body was constantly glowing and her eyes had been sparkling in a way she wasn't really able to explain. She felt satisfied, she felt new energies running through her veins, she felt like the deepest, darkest part of her soul had suddenly awoken.
There were no limit or boundaries allowed between the two of them. They could not afford them and reality was, neither of them really wanted to have any. Marta had confessed him things she would have hardly admit even to herself before and she was fairly sure that Aaron knew her true colors way better than she did herself. She had never been this close to anyone, not to her family, not even to Peter and she knew exactly why: she had never depended on anyone before like she depended now on this strong, scary man who was now harshly kissing her. Air was less needed than him, because without Aaron that would be none to breath at all. And she was brave enough at this point to admit she wasn't just afraid of dying: she was afraid of losing him..
As he hold her up against the sink, licking his way down to her neck, she whispered in his ear
"What….? What if the last scientist alive was a big, fat ugly guy?"
Aaron smiled up at her, raising an eyebrow" Well, I wouldn't be doing this" As she moaned against his lips, he added "No Doc, definitely not".
Two hours later, Aaron was walking alone throughout the city's streets. He had left Marta soundly asleep in their room, leaving her a note on the bedside table: I'll be back in a few hours. Be ready to go. They had to leave. Again.
The past three months had been exhausting to say the very least. They had run from place to place restlessly , they had run so much that when Marta had fainted in his arms one day, he had actually been surprised that it hadn't happened before. There had been a few close calls since they left the boat, but Marta being sick had been the worst, by all means. He had felt powerless, helpless, as he had been watching her shattered with nausea, her whole body burning up with fever. Aaron had paid one of the kid of the guest-house to go, find a doctor and buy antibiotics, thinking that she had probably contracted some sort of intestinal infection. When two hours later a shaky, probably drunk guy had came, he had thought he would have killed the man on the spot if he had only try to come any closer to her. In the end, he had given Marta the injection himself, praying that he had been right. The morning after, seeing as she was doing definitely better, he had thought that maybe some kind God existed after all. But to make matters even worse, their prolonged stay and the yelling incident with the presumed doctor, had drawn attention to them and his agent instinct had kept screaming at him to get the hell out of there. Marta had been too weak even to move instead, and Aaron had had no choice but to wait. And off course, since luck had clearly been against them, the waiting had ended with a dead body a block away from their guest-house and a couple of bruised ribs for him. But when they had been finally ready to move again, just looking at a very healthy, smiling Marta, had made him think that yes, some God definitely existed.
Walking around the streets of Singapore, Aaron wondered when exactly Marta had become his first and only concern. Maybe it had been that first night on the boat or maybe it had been already back in Manila. He shrugged mentally: it didn't matter, not to him. For the first time in his entire existence not only he wasn't alone, he was also with someone who trusted him completely. And for the love of God, he couldn't understand how she managed to do that.
He kept walking until he finally found his destination. He scanned the street, then he entered the bar he had been looking for, ignoring the "closed" sign on the door. He hadn't even made a few steps when four guys surrounded him. He looked at them for less than a moment, immediately making a mental plan to take them out. They were probably not going to do anything to him, he was quite sure of that, but it was better be safe than sorry. When one of them moved closer to Aaron, a fifth man appeared from the shadows. He was bold ,a huge scar covered his left cheek and he had an unmistakable Russian accent in his voice.
"Don't even try. You'll be dead before you can reach him" the man said and immediately the guy approaching Aaron stopped in his tracks. Aaron nodded towards the bold man calling him by his first name.
"Dimitri"
"And how should I call you, my friend? We have known each other for years and I'm pretty sure your name has never been Frank" as Aaron wasn't answering, he shrugged " well.. whatever..". He sat into a chair in the room, studying the man in front of him, which in turn, wasn't even flinching. " Are you armed?"
"Off course"
Dimitri laughed at his answer, then he gestured at his goons to go away while Aaron approached him and sat next his chair "Well, if you were here to kill me you'd have done it already. So, what can I do for you?"
"I need a favor" Aaron said simply.
" We all need something my friend. We all do". Dimitri smiled at him, but there was no warmth in it. He was warning him.
Aaron didn't even bother to worry " Yes, but if I am not mistaken you do own me a favor" Then he whispered "How's Nicole?"
Dimitri paled at the name. He closed his eyes for a moment, sighing deeply. " Are you threatening me? What the hell do you want?"
" When you were playing international criminal, back in the day, I let you and your kid live" he trailed off for a moment to make the concept even clearer " It's time for payback. I need two things from you, then we will be even and you'll never see me again" As the man nodded Aaron kept talking " First, I need weapons and I think you know what I like" Dimitri nodded again, staring at Aaron.
" Second, I need a passage". Dimitri looked at him confused, but Aaron raised an eyebrow in amazement. " Oh, now you're going to tell me you don't know anything about a cargo-ship with some of your precious storage in it, which is leaving in" he looked at his watch "less than four hours? Really?"
Dimitri looked at him shocked " How do you…"
Aaron cut him off " You should know better, shouldn't you?" he threw the man an icy smile " This is what I need: you tell your people you need a nice, little cabin for a very dear friend of yours. Everyone is going to be nice to her because she's under you responsibility.."
Dimitri interrupted him "Wait, wait. It's a she? I thought you needed.."
"Your people have already hired me for this little trip two days ago. You should really start looking for someone smarter"
Dimitri laughed amused, looking at Aaron with some kind of admiration " You've always been the best of the best"
But Aaron ignored him completely " Any of your guys come close to her, or even look at her in a way I do not like, I'll send them back to you piece by piece and I'll take down this little smuggling ring you have going on here. You tell anyone about this little arrangement we have, and I'll make sure the last thing you see it's me finishing what I started in Moscow. Are we clear?"
Dimitri nodded in agreement "You'll find anything you need on the ship.."
As Aaron stood up to leave, Dimitri spoke "You know.." amusement clear in his voice " I would have never guessed it was going to be you.." he paused waiting for Aaron to look at him " the one taken down by a woman"
Aaron just turned away and left the bar. He soon disappeared in the dark of the night.
