We're getting more into the nitty-gritty of the plot in the coming chapters. There's a little bit of an obvious trope here but it butted in during writing so I ran with it...
Would love to hear readers' thoughts on what they think of this - I don't think there's a huge amount of Red/OC fic out there...
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The queue was already rounding the first corner when Dembe pulled up a few hundred yards from Kaholo. Red and Sophie, who insisted that she was using the second admission, were already wearing their bands but with the number of people in the line, it looked like they would be waiting for hours.
"Plan B?" Dembe shrugged and Red nodded his head.
"Most definitely."
"What's Plan B?" Sophie asked as the two men stepped out of the car, conversing quietly between them. Red grabbed Sophie's hand and pulled her towards the back of the queue which, fortuitously, was right at the fence they had cut earlier. A cursory glance told Red that the boundary was still unsealed. That was a spot of luck.
He smiled briefly at Sophie as they stood in the queue.
"Follow my lead," he said quietly and she groaned, telling him that if he said that one more time...
She didn't get to finish her sentence. A man bumped her as he stumbled past, gasping and grasping at people's arms for help. He pulled two of them from the wall towards a parked car before collapsing and starting to convulse. The crowd in the queue began shouting for help and stepping closer to see what was happening.
Red tugged Sophie's arm and, after a quick glance around, pushed her through the hole in the fence before following her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the building, out of any spotlights that might have alerted the angry crowd outside to their deception.
So far, so good.
They reached the exit door and Red stepped close to have a look at the seal.
"Keep watch," he told her sternly and she positioned herself in such a way that she could see but not necessarily be seen from the road. The commotion was still going on and two security guards were now helping the man to his feet. She found out later that it had been Dembe, creating a distraction to allow them access to this alleyway.
Red had taken a blade from his pocket and was trying to slide it between the two doors, poking for the quick release catch.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath as the blade slipped out of the gap. She grimaced as she looked down at him, suddenly aware of how close he was to her bare skin. She felt herself flush slightly – she'd put it down to the humidity of course.
A sudden shout and the distant sound of wire rattling.
"Red, we've got company," Sophie told him quickly.
"This isn't working," Red tried again to no avail, "Does the guard look culturally sensitive?"
"What? What kind of question is that?" she hissed, her eyes darting between him and the alleyway. Red spotted her wide eyes and caught sight of the guard, about 20 meters away from them.
"Never mind, we'll take our chances," he stood and locked eyes with her, "Follow my lead, ok?"
She was about to launch into an argument when he pulled her tight to his chest and kissed her. Shocked, she froze until he teased her lips with his tongue and she realized that, number one, this was something they had to sell for their own good and, number two, she really wanted to kiss him. She opened her mouth and let their tongues entwine, whimpering when she heard a soft moan from him.
His hands fell to her hips and he pushed her back against the wall, his hips grinding into hers as their kisses became more and more passionate.
When they broke, breathless, Red latched his lips onto her neck, one hand sliding from her hip onto her ass as he groaned into her skin, the smell of her perfume intoxicating him, the balmy softness of her skin feeling like silk under his lips. He could feel his body reacting to her proximity and, as much as he would like to just continue what they were doing, he hoped for both of their sakes that they were about to be interrupted.
A shout suddenly broke them apart. Looking punch drunk, Red looked at the guard, a gigantic beast of a man who made Dembe look like a pygmy. The man spoke quickly in Arabic and Red shrugged, shook his head, and held up his hands all at once.
"English?" he asked weakly.
"What the hell are you doing? You can't be down here?"
Red looked at Sophie and then back at the guard, and then laughed good-naturedly, pointing at the door. The guard peered at him, a mixture of confused and disgusted.
"I'm sorry. My wife and I got locked out. She saw this door and...well, we're trying for a baby and, apparently this is the optimum time to get pregnant. Like, right this minute. I swear, my friend, we are living second-by-second on her calendar. Some days," he laughed to himself, really getting involved in the story, "Oh my god, some days, I come home from work, I barely get in the door when BANG she's got me against the wall. I'm not complaining, but I'll tell you what, you guys might have three wives but believe me, I'm barely able for the one that I have!"
The guard looked utterly perplexed. He looked from Red to Sophie and back. Red reached his hand around Sophie's waist, pulling her close to him.
"What do you say, pal, do us a favor and let us back in? We'll behave, I promise."
The guard, either charmed by their story or just plain confused pulled a walkie-talkie from his pocket and said something in Arabic. A moment later, the door swung open and another equally beefy looking guard stood aside to let them in.
Red thanked both of them and grasped Sophie's hand in his, pulling her along the corridor towards the sound of dance music. As soon as they were out of sight of the guard, Red stopped and leaned back against the wall, exhaling a breath that felt like he'd been holding it for a year.
He didn't realize he had closed his eyes in relief until he was opening them in surprise at the feel of her body pasted against his.
"Are you insane?" she murmured in his ear. To the outside world, they looked like a couple whispering sweet nothings to each other.
"I don't know, what does it say in my MI5 file?"
She looked at him.
"Was that the only excuse you could come up with?"
He exhaled again, his heart rate only starting to return to normal.
"Well, when you're caught necking in a Muslim country with highly stringent public indecency laws, yes, it was the first thing that sprang to mind."
She raised her eyebrows in a look of disbelief – lucky they were down a dark alley or they could have been arrested. That would have been all she needed.
"Besides, don't act like you didn't enjoy it," he added in a low tone that made her shiver.
"I'm still shaking," she pointed out. He smirked, sliding his hands onto her hips and letting one run up along her spine in a very deliberate move.
"You're shaking, but not all of it's because of fear," he said pointedly.
They held each other's gaze for a moment, each daring the other to break. His hormones were raging, he wanted nothing more than to whirl this woman around and let his body mold into hers against the wall. But time was of the essence and they still had a lot of work to do.
Having said that, he couldn't help edging closer and placing a soft, chaste kiss on her lips. He felt them open for him and he deepened the kiss very briefly before pulling away. He smirked and jerked his head in the direction of the main body of the club.
She gulped and nodded, twisting her fingers between his and, for the first time without annoyance, following his lead.
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