Phoenix:
18:
Completion
2005
Harvardville, USA
Exhausted, Ashley sat against the tent wall, listening to Leon finish putting things to bed.
This was the second longest day of her life.
The level of betrayal was abounding in this place. The terrorist in question turned out to be Frederic Downing, the scientist on staff for the creation of the T-Virus. He'd made a deal to sell it on the black market along with the G-Virus. He was working with the fat Senator.
He tried to cover his tracks by imploding his damn lab. It had nearly killed Claire, who was there with him, unaware he was the bad guy. Ashley and Leon had raced in with Angela to find her damn brother was the bleeding heart fool behind the outbreak in the airport. He'd been trying to call attention to the virus that had killed his family.
He'd done it in a way that left no pity for what he'd become because the fool injected himself with the G-Virus to show the world what happened. And he killed dozens with his selfish act.
From the ashes of the burning lab, Ashley got the joy of seeing again what Leon could do. And she didn't doubt anymore the guy could dodge lasers. He moved like a videogame character, a step ahead, a move beyond. Swift and mercilessly brilliant.
They couldn't save Angela. She sacrificed herself trying to prove her brother was still human. He'd ripped her head from her shoulders for the effort. As the blood flew, Ashley felt like she'd swallow horror in a way that she was choking.
She'd staggered and nearly went down when Leon grabbed her and commanded, "RUN!"
Right.
Run.
No time to think about Angela's head rolling across the floor like discarded trash.
They ran. The fire came. The monster came.
A handful of moments before, they skidded into the water and went down, down, down as the fire ate the world above them. The water turned red, it turned white, it turned pretty, and it popped with some kind of ethereal light. Ashley sank, forgot to hold her breath, and panicked.
Leon clutched her to him and pressed his mouth to hers.
The second he did, she calmed. She inhaled, and she breathed. Breathe, he'd told her so often, just breathe.
She did it.
And she was damn glad they'd had them practice underwater until she could withstand minutes without air.
When they surfaced, the damn thing came for them again. Soaked, they split their focus. Leon gave her commands. He was sharp; he was clear. She listened, responded, and the training she'd undergone kicked in to wash away the fear or the hesitation.
She leaped. She dodged. She rolled. She fired.
She felt like a weapon.
She felt like a warrior.
And it was amazing.
The monster tried to take them with it when it went. She dangled from Leon's hand over the side and wasn't afraid. She couldn't feel fear. She couldn't feel anything but the surety on his face. She held on because he'd taught her to hold on. Hold on and never let go.
And when the thing tried to take her with it, she used Krauser's knife to free its curling claw from her leg. She hacked at it, and it wailed. It fell, screaming for blood, screaming for release.
It tumbled into the fire and died screaming its sister's name.
When the adrenaline abated, when the fight was over, Ashley shook so hard she had to sit by the tent and wait for him.
Her hands quaked. Her breath hurt. She hurt. A couple of hard knocks and being tossed around told her she wasn't immortal. She was human. And she was hurting.
The rain felt good on her face as she leaned against the tent and let the adrenaline seep away, leaving her trembling and spent. Angela's rolling head kept flashing through her mind. Fighting against nightmares, she still slipped into sleep while she waited.
And she woke as he set her down on the toilet in the bathroom of her suite.
Surprised, Ashley muttered, "Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to sl-"
Leon covered her mouth. He shook his head. "It's ok. It's fine. You weigh nothing, Graham. And this ain't my first time carrying a woman. I am, you see, a hero."
She gave him a droll look. He grinned. And she couldn't stop smiling back as she stated, "Goddamn...that was..."
She lost the words and shrugged. He nodded, "Yeah. That's exactly what it is."
He rose and checked the shower temperature he'd made for her. "You should get in here. It'll feel good, trust me."
She had no doubt. She rose and watched him head toward the door, "Leon?"
He paused, glancing back at her. He was filthy and quite bloody and a little bruised. He looked like what he was - a survivor. And all joking aside, he was also the word he hated to hear her say. He was a hero.
Maybe, just maybe, she'd be one too one day.
"Thank you for bringing me."
He laughed lightly, "It's the job, Ashley. Honestly? I was hoping this might turn you off of it."
Her brows flew up, "Really?"
"Sure," he shrugged, "Sims are one thing. Training another. This? This is it. This is what you'll do. It's all you'll do. The first mission is usually where agents make it or break it."
"...how'd I do?"
He half grinned at her, "You did good, rookie."
Ashley shifted on the toilet seat. "Are you ok with this?"
He tilted his head, "This?"
"Yeah, this," she waved her hands around in circles, "this that we do. This, being all there is. Is it enough?"
Their eyes held as he answered softly, "Sometimes. Sometimes, it's enough."
Ashley smiled. "When?"
His mouth twitched, "When the company is good. Take that shower."
And he closed the bathroom door to leave her alone.
Leon leaned on the door and drew three sharp breaths. He should go. He should leave. He knew that. He wasn't doing her any favors by hanging around. There was no room in his life for what he was starting to want from her.
Which was what?
What did he want?
He wanted her. He knew that. He wanted to feel her and fuck her and touch her. But what else? What? But he knew that too. He wanted to hold her and keep holding her.
And that was the messy part.
The fucking was easy. He'd satisfy it, and it would be over. Maybe if he fucked her, he'd get over the rest of it. Maybe that was how he purged this urge to want more.
Maybe it was just fucking her and being done with it.
But his heart was very clear that that...that wasn't enough. It wouldn't be. It couldn't be. He'd denied her that first night because she was pure. She was pure and sweet and hopeful and soft. If he used her, if he took her, she wouldn't be anymore. She'd be soiled by him.
And he soiled the things he touched. Unlike Midas, he didn't turn things to gold when he touched them; he turned them to shit. He didn't want her to turn to shit because he had to have her.
The right thing to do was leave her alone. He knew that. Everyone kept telling him to leave her alone. They were trying to protect her from him. But he wasn't trying to hurt her. He wasn't trying to do anything but absorb some of that light she carried inside her like a torch that never dimmed.
And he was so tired of fighting.
He was always fighting - monsters, politicians, destruction, death...himself. He was always fighting. What happened if he just stopped fighting himself?
Could he be happy?
Ashley listened to him outside her door. He was still out there. She knew that. It was a curious thing about him. He was always there. He never really left her alone. If she called out now, he'd come running. She knew that.
They'd been so careful since she'd touched him in the shower last time. Something had shifted. They both knew that. It was sex, sure, but it was something more. And it was risky. Nero was sniffing around. The rumors would start if she chose to spread them.
Was it wise to keep playing a dangerous game with each other?
Was it?
Ashley stepped into the shower. She soaped up and let the heat make her feel amazing. Her bones immediately enjoyed the release.
She survived her first mission. She'd done well. She'd killed. She'd responded. She'd acted without thought. She'd saved lives. She'd saved lives.
The warmth of that was almost as good as the shower.
There was a rustling in the bathroom. She listened to Leon looking for something and slid open the shower door enough to see him. He glanced at her and explained, "Toothpaste. I just brushed my teeth and ran out."
Quietly, Ashley teased, "Thief."
He was in a black T-shirt and jeans. His feet were bare, his gorgeous face tired beneath the slicked-back fall of his hair. The muscles in his arms bunched as he showed her the tube with a little sheepish smile as he confessed, "I promise to give it back."
The warmth in her bones had her mouth saying, "I took your soap earlier when I was in your room."
He blinked. She held his eyes. And he answered quietly, "How can I shower without soap?"
Without looking away, she returned, "You can borrow mine."
He put his hand out. She put her wet palm over his and curled her fingers around his wrist as she stated, "It's on the top shelf here...I can't quite reach it."
She tugged him forward. He let her as she breathed, "...help me, Leon."
Her heart was beating so hard, and his was echoing it. He didn't want to go. He hadn't wanted to go since the moment she'd clung to him in that kitchen. He wanted to fucking just stop...just stop...and let himself be still with her.
The door slid closed behind him as he joined her in the spray. It was a mistake. He knew that. It was a mistake to touch her again. It was a mistake that might cost her her integrity.
But he didn't care.
He couldn't care.
He didn't even want to care.
But his mouth said, "I'm gonna hurt you. I can't promise you anything, Ashley. You know that."
Her eyes were blue and bright as she returned, "...I don't care."
And it was how he knew they were on the same page. In this, they were together.
Her eager hands caught his shirt. They ripped it over his head. It splatted on the floor of the shower. They went for his belt together. And Ashley found the zipper of his jeans to jerk it down.
While she pulled it with a metallic whoosh, Leon caught her face to turn it up to him. They kissed as his jeans pooled at his feet. He kicked them aside as his hand grabbed the soap from the shelf about her and squirted it all over his chest and head.
Ashley slid her palms through it, over him, soaping, sliding, smoothing, and scraping lightly with her nails. She speared fingers into his hair to slick it back to see him better. His hands cupped her breasts to lift them to his sucking mouth. He had a moment of thinking - keep your damn boxers on.
And her hand slid down his hips to take away that one stupid barrier.
They tumbled. They splatted with the rest of his forgotten clothes. Her soapy hands touched everywhere. They took and molded. His cupped and stroked. Down her back. Down her ass. Between her thighs from the back side and between.
Those sweet hands of hers cupped his cock and palmed his balls. She rolled the length of him between her hands as the water hit them both, and that soap slid down the drain.
He tried to hold on to common sense. He tried to remember logic. But his balls were so blue and ready that they nearly hurt.
He echoed her touch on his body. He fingered her almost crudely. His digits slid into her body while her thighs snapped around his hand. He worked her mercilessly while she tried to hang onto his dick and copy the feelings. She ended up letting go of his dick to grab his shoulders and try to hold on as he forced her hips into a ruthless ride on his hand. His left hand slid between her folds to stroke her clit, his right plunging between her thighs until she didn't know if she was wet from the shower or his hammering fingers inside her.
A small cry of surrender came from her mouth as she gripped handfuls of his hair and almost hung against him. His fingers fucked into her body while she grunted, cried out, and came with a high-pitched squeal against his mouth. But it wasn't mercy; no, it was just the beginning of his conquering of her.
She knew that. She'd invited it.
She was ready.
But a shiver of fear slid through the pleasure and found a home in her belly. Fear that he'd find her lacking. Fear he'd find her pathetic.
Fear he'd turn her away.
His hands caught the back of her thighs. He lifted her around his front, and she went, clinging. He pressed her into the shower wall, and Ashley gripped his face as they fought to control each other's mouths. Leon adjusted her around his front and drove his tongue into her as he stroked her slick pussy behind her back. She was engorged and still thrumming from orgasm.
He had to work those fingers into her body to stretch and stroke her.
Ashley keened. She gasped as he fingered roughly while he palmed her ass. His fingers sliding up and down her slit and along the folds of her where she pressed against his groin, legs looped around his hips, ankles crossed over his ass. When his left hand caught her face to hold it for the relentless assault of his tongue, Ashley tried to eat him from the mouth down.
Voice harsh, Leon demanded, "Tell me what you want."
Wildly, inhibitions tossed aside under greed, her mouth begged, "Oh, fuck me...ok? Just do it. Please? Please."
She didn't know what she was asking. But he didn't care, and he didn't even want to care. He was tired of waiting.
She had a moment to think she'd burn alive. She'd burn alive if he didn't stop making her feel this way. She'd burn al-
And she felt his cock replace those fingers in her body. There was no time for her to be sure. No time for her to second guess it. He just clutched her to him and thrust into her so hard it made her scream into his mouth.
His dick ripped away for that last shield she'd had against him. He seated himself fully inside her in a move so possessive that he grunted when he claimed her. And he couldn't stop himself from grinding himself inside just enough to set off every sensor in his cock from tip to base. She bled, the pink blending in the swirling soap at their feet, and the pain was nearly too much. Her hands grabbed his shoulders like she'd push him away, and Leon commanded hoarsely into her mouth, "Stop. Look at me and stop."
Ashley did, weeping a little, "...you hurt me."
She'd forgotten that she'd almost begged him to. Of course, she had. It was easy to forget in the nearly cloying need that surrounded them.
His eyes flickered, "I know. I had to. The first time hurts...and it passes. Look at me and wait for it."
She did. She held his eyes. The ache inside of her was somehow okay. It was okay. Because he was the ache inside of her. He was inside her. Completely. She breathed softly, "...you're too big for me."
His eyes twinkled as he grunted, "...easy to say that when you don't know any better. Trust me; I ain't that big."
He felt huge in her. He felt like he was taking over every piece of her, from belly button to knees. His cock was claiming her from womb to breached passage. His hand shifted to stroke her, and he found her clit at the top of where he'd split her in half. He stroked that hungry little nub while her body squeezed him. It made her tighten up, the greedy walls of her trying to encourage him to cum in her. A dangerous game he was playing, he thought as he stroked her and her body creamed, barebacking a virgin in the shower like a fool.
But he wanted to feel her. This first time, he wanted to feel her fucking cunt as he claimed her. It was selfish. It was. He knew that too. Selfish to want to be her first and do it raw. But he didn't care. Something about it made him nearly wild with need for her.
And it was echoed in the look on her face. She felt it too. She wanted it too. And he let them both have it.
"Do you want me to stop?"
Ashley shook her head. He stroked her, stroked her, stroked her, and her eyes crossed as the lust nearly choked her, and her body went tight with sheer delight, "Oh, god no...no, please. No. Leon..."
Breathlessly, Leon kissed her again. Eyes open, they shared tongues and sampling lips. And he started to move inside of her. He hitched her up tighter to him. Ashley's body ached with it as he slid in and out slowly, sweetly. The sucking walls of her body welcomed him home. With a small mewl, Ashley whined, "...it hurts."
Leon kept holding her, moving in her, and making her cling as the pleasure started beneath the ache as he promised, "...this too shall pass."
The angle was more shallow than he wanted. But she clung to him so sweetly and desperately that he couldn't bring himself to put her down yet. When she gasped in his arms and begged, "...oh my god..."
He knew what she wanted. He knew it. She didn't know, not exactly, but why would she? He lowered her legs to the floor and cupped her face, kissing her until her fluttering lashes opened and her eyes landed on his face. He promised, "Trust me."
He turned her against the shower door. Ashley's thighs quaked, her belly jerked and held, and her pussy throbbed with use, but it wanted more. It wanted more and more and more. How could it ache and still want more?
That was the story of her life.
And the thing that happened every time she touched him. She ached, and she craved more and more and more.
He caught her right leg and lifted it. She felt him slide against her back. Her breasts pressed into the glass as her hands landed on the slick surface and found purchase. Leon leaned over her shoulder, caught her throat, tilted her face to him, and kissed her. His tongue claimed, and his dick echoed it.
His shaft twitched as it slid between her ass cheeks. It dipped along her swollen pussy lips. And it plunged hungrily into her engorged passage. The ache started again. Immediate, complete, Ashley keened as she creamed around the invasion. But her body welcomed him like it was made for him. It snuggled his cock right up inside her pulsing cunt and milked him.
The angle was sharp, and it was merciless. He started slow but steady. Ashley swallowed his tongue like her body swallowed his dick. He kept one hand on her throat to guide her to the rhythm of his mouth, and the other tilted her hips just a little, holding her leg up under the knee to plunge into her. Something happened when he tilted her. Something wonderful happened. He found some spot that was excruciating with pleasure.
He brushed it, and she gasped loudly, her ass clenching, her thighs seizing. Her pussy cinched so hard around him that he grunted and groaned. And Leon demanded, "Yeah...there. There?"
She squealed sweetly, "...oh god...oh god...there."
He stopped being slow and steady.
And he hammered her.
It was ruthless. It was loud. The water sloshed. The slick slurping sound of her body accepting his was punctuated by her crying out each time his balls slapped her thrusting ass as she pushed back against him to take more. When she started jerking in his arms like she'd touched a live wire, Leon stroked her clit with the hand holding her throat. He rolled his fingers against her, feeling each brutal claim of his cock into her as he did it. Visceral, he thought as he took her and let the possession roll over him until he was blind from it; it was visceral to feel himself claim her while he fingered her.
He pinned one of her arms behind her back when it started flailing and looking for something to stop it. He let her leg lower back to the ground to steady herself. He angled her hips again and used that restraining arm to tug her back on him. And he rode her.
He rode her.
Ashley thought there was no other word for it. He rode her body. Her breasts squeaked pressed against the glass. She started making some sound that might have been a leaky balloon. She shoved back against his invasion without knowing if she was helping or making it worse for them both. She didn't care. She just let go. She let go and fucked back on his body while he tried to conquer every part of her.
The ache turned into a boil of greed. She felt it happen as she screamed wildly, and the orgasm thrust into her groin like a knife. It almost hurt. It was painfully wonderful. She came so hard it made her scream turn into a whimper as tears slid down her face, and she cried. She cried with pleasure. It was insane. It felt so good she couldn't stop it. She just kept on crying.
The fucking slowed down. He eased out of her and spun her around. She clutched him to her, and he dragged her in to hold her. They clung. She cried madly against his chest, and he thought - my god, this girl was like a wonderfully honest storm in his blood. Her wild crying somehow healed him even as he was hoping like hell it wasn't from pain.
She went on tiptoe. She buried her face in his neck. She sobbed and grabbed his back as his angry and denied dick twitched against her belly. His hands twisted in her hair and clutched her so tightly that he thought they might blend into one being.
Ashley kissed along his jaw. She kissed along his cheeks. She crab-walked her hands up his back to turn his face down to her to kiss him. He backed her into the shower door and kissed her back. Hungry. Slick. So needy. It wasn't the same, not exactly. It was like starving things looking for food.
When the kiss broke, her thighs kept quaking and quivering. Her body kept jerking. She kept crying as she gushed into his ear, "Oh my god, Leon..."
His mind said - fuck, don't say it.
And she wept, "I love you."
Damnit.
Damnit.
That's what he'd been trying to avoid here. That's what he'd been trying to stop. He knew that now when he wasn't boiling with fucking need for her. He didn't want to use her. The fucking asshole that he was. He'd done it. He'd fucked a virgin, and now she loved him.
His mind said - why not just love her back, you stupid dipshit?
Could he?
Should he?
Hell, he didn't know. He liked her a lot. Maybe more than he'd ever like another girl. More than his first girlfriend before Raccoon. More than Mira, who he'd thought was it for him. He had feelings for Ashley that were very real, very scary, and very good. What was he afraid of here? That he'd love her and like it?
No...that he'd love and lose her.
That was it. That was as simple as it was. If he loved her, he had something to lose. And he'd just found her...he wasn't ready to lose her yet.
He didn't know if he'd survive it again.
So, he held her in the shower and kissed her. He let her cry with pleasure and happiness. He felt it. He wanted to feel more of it. It felt good and bad and great and awful. Goddamn, he was a mess.
The most complicated sex he'd ever had.
He leaned back to see her face. She smiled up at him so purely and perfectly that it resonated in his bones. The most complicated sex he'd ever had...and worth every complicated moment of it.
Because being with her made him feel...happy. For now, that was all he wanted. To be happy with her. The rest? That all came later. His dick twitched to remind him it hadn't cum either.
But he didn't care. Because that was all later. All later. Now was just about holding her...and being happy.
