Disclaimer: The characters belong to Guy Ritchie and the setting is an imitation of the one in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

Part Five

She had lost a lot of blood and was floating in a twilight of semi-consciousness. Soap felt her body becoming rigid when he laid next to her. She felt him only as a cold intrusion in the safe sanctuary of the blankets.

Gradually, her muscles relaxed, as she got more comfortable. This intimacy bothered him at first. She had no idea it was him, but she loosened up. Was she that easy? Spooning against the first warm body that came her way? His sleep-deprived brain was torturing him with idiotic ideas. His hungry flesh was betraying him.

He witnessed horrified an uncontrollable, growing erection. She moved her round, firm bottom, trying to get closer to him, trying to get warmer. She rubbed it carelessly against his hardened flesh. He stifled a moan and fought fiercely the urge to put his arm over her, to fondle her, to learn every delicate curve in her body.

She started shivering again, in pain or maybe just cold… All his lusty thoughts melted for the moment in sincere concern. She pushed herself harder into him and reached for his arm. Reluctantly, Soap let her pull his arm over her waist. As the shivering didn't cease, he tightened his hold.

He was embracing her, under the pretext of warming her up. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The man rubbed her thigh briskly, to help the circulation. The contact with her bare skin brought back the desire, full power. Soap remembered there was an easier way to warm her up. And he was quite up to it. He thrust his hips against her, wishing to enter her body, hardly keeping his hands from wandering all over her. He could feel the desire escalating inside, his mind was invaded by pictures of him, tearing off her panties, unbuttoning his trousers and….

*No!* he said to himself. *I can't take advantage of her like this*

Addie started struggling in his arms, in a vivid nightmare. The towel wrapped around her head loosened. Soap felt the lashes of her wet hair across his cheeks. Trying to put the towel back, he felt her body shift under him. His face was two inches from hers.

It was so easy to kiss her. What would be the harm in that? She'd never remember. He just had to lean a little over her and he'd taste it again. The bliss he'd experienced only a few months ago was just a touch away, waiting for him to dare.

Soap was playing with this thought when Addie opened her eyes. For a second he feared her reaction. But she didn't scream, didn't pull away. She just lifted her head and kissed him.

This insignificant, superficial contact cost Soap his control. He launched a devouring attack, trying to make up for the lost time.

Soap was a great kisser, due to his compulsory patience, but now, having the opportunity to go beyond this frustrating stage, he became a voracious, rushed lover.

He wanted her so badly, that his passionate kissing grew to the intensity of biting. Only when he felt the salty taste of her blood on his tongue, he stopped. Addie arched her back and moaned in what he took as pain. Several drops of blood on her neck seemed black on the pale skin, in the raw moonlight. He tried to get away, ashamed of his lack of control, but she hung on to him.

*She's still cold* he thought and gave up the escape attempt.

Addie wanted to bury her head in his chest, but she couldn't turn on her left side because of the wound. She pulled his arm in a futile effort to get him on the other side. She couldn't say the words, but, luckily, Soap got the point. He passed over her, very self-conscious of his stiff cock, poking boldly through the fabric of his trousers. On top of her, he couldn't help looking into her hazy eyes. Her gaze showed clearly that she wasn't aware what she was doing.

She put her palms on his face, looked deep into the troubled green waters of his eyes and whispered a truth too long hidden

"I want you so much…."

Soap had learned his lesson. He put everything in an attempt to control himself. He continued his movement, landed on the other side of the bed and folded her in his arms. Addie fell almost instantly in a restless sleep.

~~~~~

Her continuous stirrings, accompanied by enticing moans and daring caresses all over his strained body, kept him up all night. The dawn rescued Soap from the source of frustrating arousal. He rushed to the bathroom for a good old-fashioned morning jerk off. When he returned, Addie was still sleeping peacefully. He sat on the edge of the bed.

"Wake up, kid" he shook her gently, trying to ignore the previous night's events.

Soap's face, early in the morning, was a delicious site for Addie. She smiled at his exhausted apparition and reached for him. The contact with his chilly, freshly shaven face woke her to reality. She wasn't dreaming!

"What happened?" he didn't give her time to awake properly.

"I don't know what you mean" she tried to buy time to erase the night's fantasies.

"You got here soaking wet and bleeding. There has to be an explanation for that"

"Yeah. There has to. I don't have it"

"Stop playing, Addie! Tell me!"

"The truth is… I don't remember" she frantically looked for another topic of conversation. "Who undressed me?"

"Bacon" he offered a redeeming truth. "How are you feeling?"

"Not that bad. How do I look?"

"Fine. You' sure don't wanna go to a hospital?"

"No. I'll go to the bathroom"

She waited for him to turn around, but he didn't understand.

"Where are my clothes?" she gave him a hint.

"Oh, there they are"

Damp, dirty and half torn. She draped herself in the blanket and went to the bathroom.

Soap tried not to think of her body, crushing the idea of grabbing the blanket off her.

~~~~~

In front of the mirror, Addie reviewed the signs of the previous night. The bites, the bruises, the black circles, yep, they were all in place.

*What am I going to tell them?* the crumpled face asked her from the mirror.

*Where am I gonna shop now? Max was the safest option I had…Mark's gonna be so pissed. And he's the nice one… Jesus, what am I gonna do?*

Now that the pain was gone, the panic kicked in, full force. The explosives had to be delivered in three days. Or someone would deliver her head. Or her family would go first.

Soap's voice from the other room broke the stream of terror.

"You OK in there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" she hoped the door muffled the tears in her voice.

~~~~~

When she came out, Tom and Ed were back. The interrogation started.

"You gave us quite a fright" Tom opened the shooting gallery.

"What on Earth were you up to?" Ed wasn't concerned with courtesy matters.

"Oh, nothing much"

"You crawled here half dead! Out with it!"

"Like you've never done something like that"

Ed's murderous look convinced her she was going the wrong way about it. So, she tried another approach.

"I was stealing apples and the neighbours dog" she swallowed the s in a nick of time "bit me" she finished with a smile.

"Try a little closer to the truth this time"

"You've always believed in tough love" she tried to get more time annoying him.

"Don't even think to piss me off"

"I wouldn't want to do that! Not take away your precious control"

"You really don't want to see me mad!" he growled at her.

Soap and Tom were watching the duel with the same impression, a lovers' quarrel. The very thing they feared was beginning under their very eyes. Everyone knew that Ed's fights always had a sexual subtext.

"What are you guys still doing here?" Bacon slammed the door behind him.

"Trying to get the truth out of this brat"

"Did you eat?" he asked her.

"Just woke up and they started badgering me" she thought Bacon would soften them up.

"Where were you anyway?"

*Drat!*

"Well?"

"I'd rather not tell you"

"I don't care what you'd rather!"

Bacon was the last guy in the world she wanted to annoy.

So, she unwillingly told them a short version of the truth. She'd been recruited by an extremist English organisation that tried to turn the IRA's weapons against themselves. Her brother, Kevin, died in their service. She just followed in his tracks. That was the reason her parents exiled her to London in the first place. In order to test her loyalty, they gave her the task to get certain explosive materials. She told them about the deal with Max.

"Max was arrested yesterday" Bacon informed her.

"It figures"

"What's wrong with you? How could you get mixed up in something like that?"

Addie's eyes were throwing flashes at Ed.

"At least I didn't do it for money, Doc Holliday, the fastest card player in the West!"

"What did you do a stupid thing like that for?"

"It's in my blood. My brother died in that war. It's not the evening news for me. When a bomb goes off there, someone I know might have died!"

They'd never seen her like that. Never knew about her past, about her ideals. Ed had never seen her as passionate about anything. He realised she'd grown up.

"What's done 's done" Bacon tried to ease the tension. "Let's figure out what can we do to get out of these pickles"

"I'm leaving then, boys. To each his pickles"

"Hold on, kid! You don't think we're leaving you to deal with by yourself"

"Bacon, I appreciate it. If there's anything I can do to help you, tell me, but it's my mess and I'll sort it out"

"Bacon's right" Soap stepped in. "We're going through it together. No point arguing" he added to her incipient protests.

"Yeah, like you'd have involved me in your troubles otherwise"

"This is the situation. No need to dwell in hypothesis" Tom approved.

"So, what is your situation?"

It was their turn to bring her up to speed. Big Chris asked them for a favour. A very well paid one. He had started his own loan shark "company" with Harry's "inheritance". Things had run pretty smoothly until about a month ago, when two of his clients had disappeared. He'd asked the guys to smoke the buggers out. And since their instincts in the illegal boxing matches had cost them a pretty penny, they needed the money.

~~~~~

The action, in the next chapter!