AUTHOR'S NOTE, DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU: This chapter contains SEX. Not graphic as I've seen more graphic content on this site than this is, but SEX. The rating for this story is now going to be changed to an M.

--

Alex thought about her often. She was the only ghost who kept haunting his sweetly tortured dreams—the angel he woke up to, the reason he couldn't sleep sometimes for thinking about her. But she was also gone—two long, empty years was testament to that. She was the reason he and Sabrina had failed, the reason he could barely look at other girls without seeing her. And her smile was the one thing he dreamed of achieving again above all else.

He went through school almost mechanically now. MI6 hadn't called on him for months after she'd left, and he had only been on three missions after that. It was a pity, because missions were the only thing breaking up his now monotonous life without the answers that he wanted.

The days blended together, and he made friends, hung out at the mall, became a normal teen again. But he found it left him wanting the thrill of adventure, the addicting adrenaline again.

He only hoped that she was satisfied.

--

Two years ago, she could be called anything but naïve. The Triads had stolen what was left of her childhood, her innocence, and she had had to grow up fast. And there wasn't anything left to do, but improve.

Kristen closed her eyes; she could almost taste it. Sweet victory, sweet vengeance. After flying to Washington DC with Shen, they'd been brought into CIA headquarters, and miraculously, Kristen had gotten them to hire her. As an agent or whatever else they wanted her to be.

At the moment, an assassin.

But an assassin was the sole role she had been playing for the past two years, and she was damned good.

Her eyes opened again, and she crouched from the rooftop that she was on, peering through the gun's marker. Silently, she rotated the gun's point until the crosser marked the victim's heart, and squeezed the trigger.

Dr. Three, the final remaining Scorpia executive, the formerly super-powered organization's torture master was gunned down at 14:05 in Paris, February 13th.

As Kristen disappeared and mass confusion erupted in the neighboring building, she was taken back two years in her memory.

She and Shen on a mission.

Scorpia executive board member Levi Kroll.

Alex, appearing when he shouldn't have.

Her, distracting him and shooting the bullet.

A car veers into her path, and she opens door to the backseat, gets in and the driver hits the pedal and races off.

"Happy birthday, Alex."

--

A few days later, she found herself in a darkening skied London, after having gotten a vacation from Mr. Smith, the CIA equivalent to Alan Blunt. She smiled suddenly, and pulled down the hood of her black and white sweatshirt down to her eyes as the taxi drew closer to a certain address.

It stopped; she got out and paid the driver a few banknotes. When he made to find the difference, she said, "Keep the change," and walked away from the cab. The sun had set; the sky was a cool blue-grey now.

Kristen took a deep breath as she went up the steps and rang the doorbell, smoothing out her navy skinny jeans and forcing herself not to tap her black and white Converse clad feet.

Jack Starbright answered the door.

Kristen flipped her hood back and said, "Hello Jack. Mind if I come in?"

The housekeeper was stunned at her appearance. "Wait, aren't you—"

"Kristen, yeah. Is that a yes?" Kristen could barely disguise her impatience. The agent in her was setting off alarms that were ringing in her ears—she was out dressed like she normally would, her hood was down and she needed cover now.

Jack let her in, suspicious reading plainly on her face. "You're looking for Alex aren't you? Well, he's not here."

Kristen blinked. "I can come back later if—"

"He's not doing any more of those missions!" Jack said loudly.

Kristen let out a slightly insolent laugh. "I'm not here to recruit for a mission."

Just then, speak of the devil; Alex appeared in the doorway, investigating the visitor and proving that Jack was lying.

By the looks of it, he had just got out from a shower and thrown on loose-fitting jeans and a t-shirt. He took in Jack's stance, and then spotted Kristen, and froze.

"Hi Alex," she gave him a crooked smile.

Jack saw the look on Alex's face, Kristen's smile, and sort of got it.

Alex turned to Jack and said, "Mind if Kristen and I have a chat?"

"Its fine," Jack muttered, and left the room to prepare dinner.

Alex still didn't move from his position next to the door frame. "Do you want to go to the park and talk?"

"Sure," Kristen followed him through the side door, and they walked in silence for the five minutes it took to get to the nearest gardens. She snuck a look at him through the corner of her eye—he had grown, he was now taller than her by two or so inches. His brown hair was streaked through with golden highlights—by the sun, she supposed, and he was more muscular now.

Alex seated himself on a wooden park bench, and she did the same next to him.

He was trying to figure out what to say.

"Why are you back?" he asked.

"I want to catch up with old friends," she answered honestly. It was really the reason why she was back.

Alex glanced at her, trying to read if she was being sarcastic or not. What he saw was genuine.

"For real," a corner of her mouth turned up.

"Where's Shen?" he asked.

"I don't know. Killing his time somewhere down town. I'm supposed to call him with your answer later."

Damn, she was good, Alex thought. With his curiosity, it was obvious that he would ask, 'what answer?' That phrase perfectly set him up for it. Knowing this, he still walked into it.

"Answer for what?" he asked.

She looked him in the eye, and he saw years of experience, experience that she shouldn't have gone through.

"Go with us to the South of France?"

That he had not been expecting. "What for?" he asked.

"Like I said, I want to catch up with you."

"Why should I go with you when you were the one who left me?" his voice was soft, and Kristen could read pain and hurt in it.

She sighed. "If you go with, I'll answer anything you want."

"Anything at all?"

"Alex, it's the south of France. Beaches, hot sun, everything that is a perfect vacation. Shouldn't that be temptation enough?"

"I still want my answers though."

"Fine then. Will you come with us?"

"Yes. I will."

"You'll have to tell Jack that."

"So be it."

--

Two days and a couple thousand dollars later, Alex and Kristen were sitting next to each other on a plane to Paris.

"Why are you still in the business? Why didn't you get out?" Alex asked the girl sitting next to him.

Kristen turned her head and looked him square in the eye; he briefly wondered what she had done to give her the paranoid, extremely careful persona that seemed to come naturally to her now. And the fighter's grace that she moved with.

It wasn't easy watching her when she was equipped to survive in a world the two of them had no business in.

"Did you think I could go back to my old life? You know it doesn't work like that. There's never any going back for us. Us two? We know that. You can't, after you've done the deed, made the enemies and pulled the trigger. What no one understands, except us, is that when they pull us into this, they shatter a life."

He understood that.

"I wish I could. But I would miss at least half of the whole school year on assignment; people would start to ask questions. I don't have anyone to live with any more except Shen, and people are strange about that sort of thing. And you know that this life isn't easy on you. People would think that I'm just trouble." Alex gently traced the range of tiny cuts and green bruises on her arm with his finger.

He understood that too.

"A job?" he asked.

She smiled thinly. "I was fourteen when I left England, left you after that one mission." Here he flinched. "Shen and I were in it together, so he went with me. No one would employ a fourteen year old with a junior high education; especially one with no family, just another teenager with me. Now, at sixteen, there is only a handful more people who would hire me. Even with my family's life savings, I've got a long way to go. I want to do things in this life. I want to help people, live out what I want to do…I want to help my country. And of course, money. I have to have that too. It's a job, Alex. A dangerous job, alright, but I'm good at it. It pays."

"You're a patriot," he stated, hating that word.

"If you call it that. There's not many better causes I can believe in."

"Is your government one of them?"

She didn't answer that.

"Did you ever finish your education?" he reverted, wondering if she would ever tell him of her life.

Her real life, not the cock and bull story that she fed others. And not just parts of her real life, all of it. Alex wanted to really understand her.

"I self taught what I needed to know. Shen helped me a lot as well—he went to one of the best international schools in China. And as far as entertainment, I read. A lot."

That was all she said for the rest of the ride.

--

Shen had reserved two rooms in the luxury hotel overlooking the beach—one for he and Alex, and one for Kristen.

Kristen and Alex had gone on ahead and were walking along the beach shore when she suddenly grinned wickedly, and pushed him into the freezing waves. Sputtering, he surfaced, shook his head like a dog and chased after her, bringing her down on top of him in the water.

Laughing, she tugged him out to where Shen stood, lecturing them on the dangers of not using sunscreen and if they didn't take off their clothes soon, it wouldn't just be their bathing suits that would be full of sand.

After a few hours in the sun and sand, they began walking back to the hotel. Kristen's long hair was full of brine and sea water—giving it surprisingly pretty waves. All of them had darkened at least two shades, despite the fact that they all had worn three layers of sunscreen. Shen had made sure of that. He pushed away the memory of her leaning in to smooth out the sunscreen on his face, his shoulders, her bikini top brushing against his chest and back.

Alex tried not to look at the contrast her navy and white bikini made against the golden glow of her body. It had been bad enough that she had looked carefree—well, at least as carefree as anyone in the business could look.

They reached the hotel and entered, and as Shen checked them in again, Alex asked Kristen, "How am I going to pay for this?"

She shrugged. "I'm paying for you."

Shen got the keys and politely turned down an escort to the rooms.

"Why?" he asked, eyes widening at the copious amounts of money the hotel was sure to charge.

"When you reach the stairs, take the left one," the clerk was telling Shen.

Kristen walked off, leaving him behind.

Shen shrugged. "She wants to."

After seeing their rooms—they were huge, beautiful and so elegant—Shen took them to dinner at a restaurant that had to be as high class as their hotel. Despite the good food, Alex noticed Kristen didn't eat nearly as much as he did, and the trio merely caught up with each other in news.

Alex learned that she had earned millions just by selling secrets to the US government and going on those missions, as well as what she'd been doing these past two years: sneaking into every major country and carrying out operations. This was the first time she'd asked for a vacation.

Soon they moved back to the hotel.

Alex knocked on the connecting, slightly ajar door lightly a few hours later. Shen had already gone to sleep and it was barely midnight.

He heard a light, "Come in," and so he did, closing the door securely behind him. Kristen had taken a shower but kept the bikini on—why?

She looked as good as she had in the white sand and teal water from where she sat on the bed.

"Shen's already gone to bed," he said, almost roughly. Even though he was used to her body by now, it still disconcerted him.

"I want to talk," she said simply and gestured for him to sit down next to her.

"About?" he noticed goosebumps along her arms.

She didn't answer him for a slight while, and then blew out her breath.

"Before I left the UK," she started. "I said that I had to save myself from crashing too soon."

Alex remembered that day clearly—oh, how many times had he wished he could've run after her, stopped her, asked her what the kiss had meant?

"And before that, I kissed you," she continued. He stiffened. "I know you felt something in that kiss," she was looking at him now with a combination of tender longing, and gentle want overlaid with a glittering need.

"If you did, then why did you leave?" he asked roughly, hoarsely.

"If I asked you to do something for me, I'll answer anything," she pressed on.

"I'll do it," he answered immediately.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

She wondered how she was supposed to word it. "Fuck me, Alex," she said simply.

His brown eyes widened. God, how she could get lost in those eyes. "Kristen! But—out of everything—"

"Alex, you gave me your word," she whispered. "God, Alex, just once. Just tonight. Please…will you?"

"Why?" he asked. Her eyes pleaded with him to not ask too many questions—he thought that if he did, she might break down in tears.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know afterwards."

He sighed. "If I hadn't already promised you, I don't think I would do it."

She smiled, and without any warning kissed him, kissed him hard and deep, like the way she had dreamed of kissing him for more than two years.

Alex let her push the both of them over and kissed her back from his position under her. Kristen tasted sweet, and hot, and he realized that he liked it.

His hands slid down her body, loving the feel of supple muscle underneath creamy skin.

She let out a soft moan—everywhere his hands traced; fire danced beneath his touch and it felt amazing.

Kristen left a trail of wet kisses down his neck and pulled off his T-shirt roughly. She could already feel his arousal and it only served to make her want to rip off all his clothes off faster.

Groping for the zipper on his jeans, she unzipped his fly and tore his pants off so they could feel each other even more intimately.

Kristen had already forgotten her previous theory that he was only doing this for her as his warm fingers traced molten patterns down her skin. Alex made a muffled sound low in his throat and undid her bikini top, letting the fabric fall to the ground. Her skin was blazingly warm and as his hands rose to caress her, she lowered her head to his chest and began a series of catlike licks. God, it felt absolutely sinful; her hot mouth sucking on his tender skin and her tongue rasping across it—the feeling was dizzying and he was glad that she was on top. He briefly wondered how it would feel to have her heated mouth around him, her tongue licking him to point of madness…

Without any warning, as Kristen pulled off his boxers, her body shifted, and the feel of splintering heat traveled lower…

Just as suddenly as she had yanked off his pants, she closed around him. Alex made a guttural sound and instinctively bucked his hips. Kristen smiled that kind of smile that let him know she was so turned on by it and sucked, hard.

It took his breath away. He glanced down to see that same smile as she sucked again, and again without stopping.

The bottom row of her teeth scraped against his length and goose bumps erupted along his arms as he tried to stifle his groan. Each hard suck and tender lick brought him closer and closer to the edge and his eyes rolled up in their sockets at the intense pleasure she gave him.

He was this close from going over when she released him.

"You promised," Kristen breathed, sucking on his neck as she returned her attention to him.

Alex remembered as clearly as ever. But no way in hell was he going to do it without protection.

"Here," she tossed him the packet that had lain on top of the table next to the bed. Deftly, he smoothed the condom into place, gently pushed Kristen onto her back and slid off her bikini bottoms.

Alex ran his lips on the smooth skin of her inner thigh, and tested her with slim fingers. What he found there—silky heat, and so ready for him—was almost as good as having her mouth around him. Kristen writhed under his touch, begging and panting for him.

He made good on his promise.

Sinking into her, he let out a strangled moan. When her tightness gave way—it was like nothing he had ever felt before—he needed her, he needed release, needed to be deeper…

Below him she was moving against him frantically, her kisses starting an explosion of heat down his chest, her tongue swirling around his nipple as it hardened…

A sort of primal instinct took over him and he pulled out before pushing back, so deep he couldn't go any further. Kristen's breath whooshed out of her as he did it again, and again…and she panted for him.

Alex didn't realize that underneath him Kristen felt the urge to give everything to him, through the pleasure that was so intense she couldn't think. Somehow, when he wasn't paying attention, she was on top of him, sliding up and down and he groaned at the tightness that engulfed him. They were both caught in a thick haze of intense pleasure, and needed gratification now.

He pushed up at the same time she pushed down and they continued their increased pace, a dance that only ever grew more intense.

Finally he came, and judging by the ecstasy that colored her scream—muffled by his mouth—she had too. Alex flipped their positions again and pulled out of her so slowly that her eyelids closed and her head dropped backwards onto the pillow. Gently, he lay down next to her and wrapped the blanket tight around them.

The next morning:

Alex woke up when Kristen shifted, blearily opening her eyes. He felt kind of nervously apprehensive at how they were going to face each other.

She laid her head on his chest and sighed contently and his arms wrapped around her waist protectively, instinctively. He hadn't expected to feel much—as it was at her request—but it had been amazing, she was amazing and suddenly he knew he wanted to stay with her. Right now, he felt the best he had in forever.

Then he remembered that Shen was extremely intimidating and overprotective of her, and hoped that he wouldn't completely massacre him for sleeping with Kristen.

"What time is it?" said girl asked, gently sucking on his collarbone. Alex resisted the urge to groan, and forced away his arousal as memories of last night began to flow.

"Umm," he twisted in the hotel's bed, "eight twenty six.'

"Good. Shen won't be up till at least eleven."

She kept licking him, and it was horrible to tell her to stop, but he wanted answers. Answers about last night.

Alex flipped her over, pinning her arms behind her back with his own weight so that her face was pressed into the pillow.

"Sorry," he muttered, "but I can't think when you're doing that. You promised you'd answer any questions—so why did you want me—us, to do that?"

Kristen had a grin on her face, despite the compromising position. "You remember Chad?"

"Clearly." Their first kiss together and Alex still thought she had done it to get the gun and revenge.

"I wasn't lying then."

He went still. When he had accused her of precisely what he had thought, she had told him that the gun was just a bonus. And that Kristen had wanted to "do that for awhile now"…

"So, you—" he broke off. The wording wasn't quite right in his mouth, and he wanted to hear it from her.

"I can't say it," she said flatly, words slightly muffled. "I…lo—But what else is it when I care so damn much about you?" Alex sighed and pulled her back upright. She appeared perfectly fine, except for that slight hint on embarrassment in her eyes. He put his hands on either side of her face gently, tilting it and murmured, "I don't need to hear it. Blimey, are you blushing?" he noticed that her cheeks were borderline fever warm with faint pink splotches in the middle, and she winced, pulling out of his hold.

"If you want to call it that. Any more questions?" Kristen changed the subject quickly.

Alex just lay back down and pulled her with him, nuzzling her neck gently. He was torn between laughing at her display of emotion—which she obviously didn't do too often—and kissing her, because somehow what she had said was exactly what he had wanted to hear.

She sighed lightly, and resumed her teasing kisses, careful not to meet his eyes.

"Aren't you sore at all?" he asked. "I don't think I was that gentle."

Kristen blinked at him. "Just a little bit. It's fine—I've gone through worse pain."

"I'm sure you have."

She just yawned. Then her face lit up with something, and her lips grinned wickedly.

"What are you thinking about now?"

"I'm thinking," she murmured, "That I want a shower. And not alone."

He grabbed her waist and rolled the two of them out of the rumpled bed. "I'm game."

Kristen ran her lips down his collarbone one more time before letting him pull her to the large, marble bathroom.

Once inside, she closed the door and, upon turning around, was bent over the wide, grey and white swirled counter.

The marble was cold, and goosebumps erupted along her skin as his hot mouth circled one of her nipples. The feeling of the coolness pressed into her back and the hot damp around her breast made her shiver violently.

"Aaaaah-lex," she moaned, drawing out his name and struggling to right herself. "The shower," she reminded him hoarsely.

He liked how she responded to him honestly. It was enticing and a boost to his ego that he could make her feel like that; especially with Kristen being…her.

She pushed the two of them closer to the shower, and twisted the handle inside it to the hottest temperature.

The water started out freezing, effectively turning her nipples hard and getting rid of his arousal. Alex pressed her against the wall, kissing her mouth and tracing patterns against her inner thigh. Moaning, she rocked her hips to feel his fingers with more pressure against her, and was caught unawares when his fingers pressed inside her silky heat and sucked in a breath harshly.

Alex realized that the water was warming up, and scissored his fingers to loosen her walls while sucking on her neck and supporting her against the tile interior of the shower.

Hot blasts of boiling water sprayed their bodies and thoroughly soaked what it could of them. Soon, Kristen's long locks were being tangled with water, something that Alex's own short fair hair would never do.

His fingers thrust faster and faster inside her, and he felt her twist against him, needing release but not knowing how to find it. She whimpered—God—it almost hurt, it felt so good, and she didn't want him to stop, and he didn't…

With a shudder, she came hard, gasping and panting for breath. Wordlessly, she kissed the corner of his mouth as he straightened up, still holding her waist.

"Why didn't you…" she gestured what she didn't say.

Alex cracked half of a smile. "No condoms in the shower love."

Heat pulsed under her skin as she registered his smoky voice and intensity of his eyes.

"Forgot to tell you I'm on birth control," she rested her head on his chest, letting the steaming water rush over them.

He shrugged. "Good to have extra backup." Alex reached for a bottle of shampoo and squeezed out a generous amount.

Kristen looked up and he gently massaged her dark hair, marveling at the contrast between the white foam and her locks. Stepping to the left put her out of the water and he let the shampoo clean her hair without any dilution from the water, then pulled her back into the spray. His right hand's strong, lean fingers combed through her thick hair, brushing out most of the tangles while his other held her back to his chest.

She would have purred if she were a cat. To have him take care of her, love him as tenderly as this was something she hadn't thought could happen. But it did, and she wanted to return the favor.

Her hand full of minty body wash, she rubbed his skin all over, slightly fascinated at the way it foamed on his skin. So fascinated that she didn't notice his hands working soap onto herself.

With a wry smile, she caressed his muscles again before grabbing the shampoo bottle and running her fingers through his hair, gently massaging his temples, putting pressure through her fingers. When she was done with that, he bent his head into the direction of the water and let the foam rinse clean.

Slowly, their shared shower came to an end, Alex turning off the water and wrapping them both in thick white towels.

Kristen blew her hair dry and thought to put on lingerie at the very least and left the bathroom back to the bed, where Alex was, watching television. Pulling the covers over them, she rested her head on his shoulder to watch what he was watching. Without taking his eyes off the series airing, he pulled her onto his lap and she discovered that he'd put on a pair of boxers.

She also realized that it might be the last happiness she'd have. Disconcerted, frowning slightly, Kristen closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

Thinking about how uncertain her life was gave her goose bumps. Alex noticed, and he began rubbing her skin to give her warmth. He was so good to her she could have wailed. If she didn't come back, he wouldn't ever know how or why not, and he would ask himself forever if it was because of him. It was horrible to hurt him like that but she didn't have a choice, especially if she wanted him, but also to shield him from a world he didn't want any part of, a world that he'd rejected years before. A game that she was still playing, about to risk it all.

What was worse—she didn't know if he was still seeing that Sabina girl.

She released her breath, and breathed in his warm scent again. No matter what happened, she wouldn't regret anything. Not when she'd been able to do what she'd always wanted.

--

They had been brought to MI6 France headquarters that looked more like a museum than Royal and General Bank. The wood paneling gave the office a falsely warm air. Mrs. Jones sat behind a cherry wood desk, opposite Shen, Kristen and Alex respectively.

Unbeknownst to her, though, as she questioned the CIA agents about why they were there, Kristen's right hand laid gently on Alex's upper thigh, absently, lightly, tracing patterns on his jeans. He took her hand and squeezed gently.

Giving Jones a cheap excuse about wanting to catch up with old friends—something she knew the woman wouldn't buy, but warned her that Kristen wouldn't be giving up secrets any time so, the trio left.

Afterwards, Shen lead them back to the beach, where they stood there for ten minutes.

"What are we waiting for?" Alex shifted uneasily. He didn't like it here, in another country and in plain view with no cover.

She was completely relaxed. "CIA. They'll be here within five minutes."

True enough, a black, shiny car pulled up and three men dressed in obviously expensive navy suits got out and walked towards them. Two of them grabbed Alex, handcuffing him and forcing him into the sand with one smooth movement.

"What the—" Alex writhed, feeling extremely duped.

Kristen shook her head, stopping him. "I'm sorry Alex, its procedure. Don't worry about it."

The last, sandy brown haired man had stopped a few feet in front of her and she lifted an eyebrow.

"Trace!" there was no mistaking the surprise in her voice, as the two of them veered off to near the car—too far for any of them to hear.

Alex glanced suspiciously at him. There was a familiarity that Kristen greeted him with that made him wary, and—maybe, just a bit jealous. Just a little bit.

"Relax," Shen muttered. "Trace is fine. Colleagues, you know. Trustworthy."

Back with the man himself, Trace held Kristen at arm's length and scrunched his face up. He looked over where the British boy—Rider—knelt. Rider had an air of wariness at this new intruder—and was that possessiveness that he saw?

Trace looked at Kristen for a second and gave a low whistle. "You look like a cat that just got the cream. Getting laid by Alex Rider is pretty flashy, even for you." It was a good thing that the rest of the men were far away enough so that they couldn't hear.

Kristen glanced back at said teen and murmured, "You know how I do Trace. Go for the gold and all. But let him go. He's clean, got nothing on him."

"Someone like him must have something, however small, like a scalpel, on him. Or MI6 might be tracking him."

"I would know if he did wouldn't I? Uncle doesn't need to know how," referring to their country's government with the old nickname 'Uncle Sam'.

Trace nodded. "Seems like I'm keeping more than one secret nowadays anyway."

"Hm. Any word on my car?" Kristen asked.

"They've got it in London. Isn't it supposed to be the guy who has a hot car that he dotes over, and then the sexy girl? Not the girl with a hot car and the sexy guy?"

"Screwing up stereotypes is probably the least of my worries."

"Good point there."

Kristen padded towards Alex, and the men unlocked his handcuffs and moved away respectfully.

"Sorry about that," she murmured, helping him up. "Standard," repeating what she had said earlier.

He nodded, his features softening slightly when he looked at her. "What now?"

"They're just checking on us after MI6's little surprise. They'll be leaving now, I suppose. And we need to get you back to London."

"What about you?" Alex asked. "You and Shen." Something didn't add up, and he vaguely wondered why she was acting differently than the day before.

Her gaze met his straight on. "I'm on assignment."

"Which is?" he was hardly surprised, after everything she'd told him.
"Take out the Gentleman."

--

Shen stood eye to eye with Alex back in London. Kristen was long since gone. "I know you want to know why she came out of nowhere just for those two days in the south of France with you."

"Why?" Alex asked roughly. He was in no mood for sugarcoating and delays. Not anymore, with Kristen gone, and he left behind with no answers. Again.

Shen hesitated. "You know about the Gentleman, right?"

Alex nodded slowly. The Gentleman had taken out his old friend, Paul Roscoe's father. "Yeah. A damn good assassin that sends flowers to his victims' families."

"A few weeks ago, Kristen got approached by our Head of Department for a mission. It was to take him out of the game after too many of our people got shot down. You know who he is, you know the stakes. It's your life or mine, especially with that target. And she's willing to lay down hers for a government that only ever made her life more dangerous," he said bitterly.

"Patriot," Alex spat out. He had heard of nationalists, and patriots—that was common in Europe—but someone like Kristen? Her government couldn't care less about her individually, just needed someone to get the job done.

She deserved better.

"Naturally, she accepted. And because of the stakes, I'm thinking she's cleaning up whatever the hell she wanted to do in life in case she doesn't come back from this mission."

Alex remembered vividly the night he had entered her room, where her dark, burning eyes had practically begged him to take her, just once. Her hot kisses that trailed down his chest, her slim fingers everywhere…

He cared about her too…enough to save her? He wondered. Yeah. Alex did.

Kristen had told him that she loved him, in not so many words perhaps, but he felt their chemistry and the sexual tension between them was undeniable.

Had she seduced him for sex, or for the sex with him?

He wouldn't know unless he heard it from her. But he also remembered her warm laugh, slow, shy smile and tender fierce love, and the two amazing days that he'd spent with her. And she was already preparing to move in on the deadliest killer on Earth. Once, he might have gone to Yassen Gregorovitch—the man who had known his father, and the man whom his father had saved for one favor. And he was the most capable person in the world who could have helped him. But Yassen's debt was already repaid—he was dead, by refusing to kill Alex.

For him to find out all the answers, he would have to make sure she succeeded—by following her.

"And?" he asked, wanting to keep Shen talking.

"She found you for a reason," the darker man answered simply. "I don't know what it is—I'm perfectly content keeping it for a surprise—but it's obvious that she doesn't expect to be coming back."

Doesn't expect to be coming back…

"You want me to make sure she succeeds."

Shen looked at him again. "Like I said, I don't know what the two of you did—I have a hunch that my guess is right—but it's obvious that you, at least, care about her. I can tell you where she's gone, give you a head start."

"Why don't you go yourself?" Alex challenged.

He grimaced. "CIA is adamant about her going alone. Less to conceal, less chance we'll be found out you see. And because of our bond, they're keeping extra thorough ties on me."

"I'm going." Alex had already made up his mind before Shen had told him the rest. He was going to find out the truth about the woman who had plunged into his life two years ago, disappeared and come back three days ago only to have a one night stand with him.

"Alright. Here's where she is…"

--

Two days later, Alex touched down in Belgium.

--

OK, so I fused a long since written event with the original chapter, so this is a HUGE chapter. I really want to know what you guys think!

Q: Is the sex really necessary?

A: I think it is. After they do it (something that Alex obviously values highly), she's gone at the end of this chapter, and it creates more questions for him than Kristen does clearing up the old ones. So, they'll meet again.

This story should be wrapping up soon, because I hear that Crocodile Tears is set for a December 1st release date and I already know that this story's plot is nothing like CT is slated to be.

Review Replies:

xXxSmidgexXx: Glad to hear it! What about this one?

NienkevH: Did you like this one too? I should be updating more frequently now!