“Is that a blister on your finger?” I ask Larissa when she sits down at the cafe, our normal meeting spot. “Did Jessica get you to help her in the garden?”

“Without even asking,” Larissa says, looking at the pink and white spot on her thumb. “Ah well, it's out of the way, I can take care of it later. If I get creative, maybe I can needle Father Giacamo into thinking I got this from something that'll have him creaming his cassock. So... have you fallen for her yet?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I ask, surprised at the sudden change in topics, and Larissa laughs. “What? You keep this shit up and I'm not paying the bill this time.”

“Come off it, Rodrigo. I saw the way you looked at her, and that kiss. You've got feelings for her,” Larissa says with a twinkle in her eye. “Very dangerous, especially considering the other problems in your life.”

“Like I don't know that,” I comment, refusing to agree with Larissa's accusation. “Considering I broke my own damn gate last night.”

“Hmmm.... you know what? Let's skip the cafe, just walk with me,” Larissa says, and I agree. We leave the cafe and Larissa goes over to my truck. “Up in the hills?”

We start off, and in the privacy of my truck Larissa finally opens up. “The Sultan isn't going to let this go, you know.”

“I figured. I'd hoped that by just taking care of his bitch boy that I'd be clear enough. I don't want this to come to a head between us,” I reply, lying. After all, that's exactly what I have been ordered to do, although if Larissa knew that and who ordered it, she's try and kill me herself. “It's a big fucking world. Even the Mediterranean is pretty damn big when you consider it all.”

“It is a big world Rodrigo, but the word I'm hearing is, The Sultan's got something personal with you. He's not going to let this go, especially because it seems he looking for proof on something.” We stop at the top of a hillock that overlooks the city, and I get out, sitting down on my tailgate. Larissa joins me, not sitting down but just leaning against the sidewall, watching me to see what my reaction is.

“Proof on what?” I ask finally after a minute, and Larissa shakes her head, even as a cold ball of fear starts to spread through my chest. There's only one thing that there could be proof on.

“I don't know. Something to back up why he doubts you, why he doesn't want you as the capo for North America. Before it was just professional I think, but after what you did to Leon, it's not just professional any more,” she says, sighing. “You better have eyes on both sides of your head.”

I nod, frustration building inside me. “Why are you telling me this?”

Larissa shrugs. “Two reasons. First, and the smaller one is, I offered your slave my friendship. The fact is, I like the woman. And keeping you alive keeps her safe and happy, whether you want to admit your feelings for her or not.”

“I don't....”

“Don't give me your bullshit right now, Rodrigo,” Larissa says, cutting me off. “I know how to read people, even better than they read themselves. But that's only a small reason. The fact is, I have a personal reason in this as well. If you and The Sultan do come to blood, I know who I want to remain standing afterwards, and that's you.”

“Why?”

Larissa goes quiet, and I wonder if she's going to answer, and when she does, her voice is quiet, different than anything I've ever heard before from her. I wish I could see her, but the moon is hidden by clouds, all I can see is her outline in the darkness. “How old were you when you first killed someone, Rodrigo?”

I think for a moment before answering. “Twenty four. I'd gotten into plenty of fights, shit goes down you know, but the first time I knew I killed someone? Twenty four. I was working a delivery for Scoglitti when the stupid mick who was supposed to take the shipment decided that instead of paying full price, he'd pull a gun on me. I was faster.”

“I was eleven,” Larissa says softly, her voice more emotional than I've ever heard before. “I've told you a little about my childhood in Greece, but for me, childhood ended when I was ten years old. That was the day that I was taken... and sold.”

“You were a slave?” I ask, and Larissa nods. “As a child?”

“The Network might be one of the biggest players around, but there are smaller operators who cater to... more extreme tastes,” Larissa says. “The man who stole me from my home, he sold me in the underground slave markets in Jeddah. The man who bought me was one of the richest men in Mecca actually, who made a lot of his money off of fleecing the annual Hajj pilgrims, charging obscene amounts of money for shit they didn't need. He kept me... and when I was eleven, I started puberty. He said that since I was now a woman, I would serve him as a woman.”

“You fought back,” I whisper, and Larissa nods. “How'd you get away?”

“His wife... well, one of them at least, took pity on me,” Larissa says. “She made it look like a suicide, and since I'd technically been adopted by the man, she sent me away on a legal note. It was all she could do, but it wasn't much of a mercy, it was just a one way ticket on the first flight out of Jeddah. I ended up having to become a street kid, and then worked my way up from there.”

“How'd you get into doing what you're doing then?” I ask suddenly, the echoes of Jessica's question months ago to me bouncing around in my head.

Larissa laughs bitterly. “As I grew into my teens, I figured out that I'm very good looking, Rodrigo. So I was a street kid with no money, no way to get a formal education, but with looks that had men offering me money to do most anything to them. And no matter where I went, it was the same. Berlin, Paris, London, Beijing, Sydney, it didn't matter. Men wanted to fuck me, and they would give me nearly anything to do it. So I learned what it took to survive, and then educated myself in the meantime. Before you ask, no, I don't like the slave trade even though it's part of our business. And I don't hate The Sultan because of his beliefs, despite the bastard who I killed being Muslim. I've met just as many bastards who pray to the cross as the crescent.”

“Me too,” I admit, thinking that when it comes to assholes, no religion has a monopoly. “So you deal with the parts you don't like?”

“Pretty much. But like I told Jessica, what we do, it's better than what some of the options are. Still, nobody in The Network seems to enjoy the slave trade as much as Omar Al Gazi. Of us all, he's the one I could see doing the same disgusting shit that led to me not having a childhood. At least the women we trade in now... at least they've had a chance to be little girls. I don't know if that makes it better or worse, but they at least got to be little girls.”

I nod, saddened and feeling even more trapped and frustrated. The fact is, if I could shut down the slave trade I would. I know it'd make me a hypocrite, Jessica always had a choice in her submission, if not the rest of her service. But I wasn't lying to Jessica when I said that it'd go on without me. It all would go on without me, which is the hardest truth of being Deep Cover.

“So you don't like The Sultan,” I finally say, dismissing my own guilty feelings. “Yet you like me. And I own a slave.”

Larissa laughs. “Rodrigo, if you weren't so damn deadly, you'd be sweet in a twisted way. I know you, and in talking with Jessica, you have always given her the choice. About the only thing you didn't give her a choice in was in actually being your slave. I bet if she'd been stubborn enough, you'd have kept her in that downstairs cell, well fed and well cared for this whole time.”

I chuckle, she's right. “You know me pretty well, Larissa.”

“Which is why I'm on your side in this. Oh, don't doubt it, there's something in it for me, too. If The Sultan meets his end, I've got my own contacts in Israel and some of the more Western friendly countries in the Mideast. Nobody would be better positioned in The Network to keep up the flow of trade to there. I'm so ready to get out of the whole fuck 'em and then kill 'em trade. Don't mind the information brokering so much, but seriously... you watch your ass, Rodrigo.”

* * *

It's nearly ten thirty when I get home, Jessica letting me in and I see the pistol next to her thigh as I drive by, just increasing the frustration that I'm feeling. I know there's nothing I can do about it, and getting out of my truck, Jessica can see my feelings. “What's wrong, Master?” she asks, her gray eyes searching my face. “Bad news?”

“Nothing I didn't already know, and nothing I can do anything about,” I grumble. “Which just frustrates the hell out of me.”

“Is there anything I can do?” she asks. “Anything?”

I think, and a wonderful, silly idea comes to my mind. “Yeah... let's play a game.”

“A game?” she asks, perplexed but interested. “What is it?”

“Hide and seek,” I say, chuckling when Jessica gives me a raised eyebrow. “Oh, there's going to be stakes in this game. Sexual stakes.”

“Really?” Jessica asks, a small smile spreading on her naughtily angelic face. “And what would those be?”

“I give you a ten minute head start, where I'll stay in the training room. You can hide anywhere within the walls of the villa. After those ten minutes, I have a twenty minutes to catch you. If I do... I'm going to be rough. If I don't, I'll be gentle.”

“I see,” Jessica says, crossing her arms. She bites her lip, then leans in and kisses me on the lips. “See you in thirty one minutes, Master.”

Jessica takes off into the darkness, which in the countryside on a cloudy night is nearly complete. I shake my head, going into the training room where I think about what Larissa said. Am I getting real feelings for Jessica? I don't know. I do know that her amazing body and even more amazing mind drives me wild, and that I want her more now than ever. Even thinking about the hunt and the fun we're going to have has me hard in my pants, and as I count down the time on my watch, I still think about Larissa's comment.

Do I have feelings for Jessica?

Does it matter? She's mine either way, and we have fun together.

My watch beeps, and I leave the training room, going out into the darkness. I listen carefully, not feeling that upset that Jessica doesn't know that I've had FBI training plus more. Going through night recon training with the Marines is no fucking joke, and I can hear most of the roughly one acre space that makes up the walled portion of my villa. It helps, I can move through the space quickly if quietly, listening for any of the telltale sounds that a person in hiding makes. There's nothing though, and either Jessica's a ninja or she's not outside the house.

I go into the first floor, checking my watch, I've got eight minutes left. Plenty of time, as long as Jessica doesn't do something silly like jump from a window. I don't want her to, so I move through the first floor carefully, checking each room quietly. I pause, looking in her first room, remembering Larissa's comment that even if Jessica had refused everything I'd have kept her fed and taken care of. She's right, I would have. Maybe I am a hypocrite, but it's enough of a distinction that I can sleep peacefully over it.

The first floor's empty with five minutes left, so I climb the stairs quickly, checking my living room before going through to the kitchen. I find Larissa's pistol on the counter, I'll have to remind her it isn't safe to do that even when I'm home, and then I move on. The pantry, Jessica's bedroom, and I've got less than one minute left when I move into my bedroom. There's unfortunately a lot of spaces here, and part of me is tempted to let her ride out the time when I hear a shuffle and a giggle from behind me, and I go into my bathroom, finding her hiding in the shower. “Gotcha.”

“Aww.... and I only had how much time left?” Jessica asks in a mock disappointed voice. My watch beeps, and she giggles again. “I win.”

“What?” I ask, surprised, and Jessica crosses her arms and grins.

“You said if you caught me. You haven't caught me yet, you haven't put those strong, sexy hands on me before the time was up. Now Master, do we need to take this to the Hide n' Seek Supreme Court?” she asks, and I have to admit, she's got a point.

“Are you a chemist or a lawyer?” I ask, laughing. Did I say her mind turns me on? Her mind is the sexiest thing about her, which considering her body, means I'm surprised I don't have a constant stiffie. Jessica reaches for her shirt and starts unbuttoning it, revealing her remarkable, sexy cleavage in one of her newer bras that I bought her. Okay, her body and mind are maybe a tie. “Ah, distracting me now?”

“No Master,” Jessica says, her fingers still unbuttoning. “But I was thinking... let's call it a draw, and you can be a little rough right here in the shower?”

Her fingers reach her waist and she pulls her shirt open other than the knot that she used to tie it off around her waist, revealing the bountiful curves of her breasts, making me hum happily. She's curvier than a classic pinup model, and with her lips twitching in a smile, she's seductive and one of a kind. Still, I have to maintain some image of control. “I don't know... what if I want to take you to the training room instead?”

“Please Master?” Jessica pleads, coming closer and putting her hands on my shoulders. “I had a naughty thought today, and I was kind of hoping... well, the shower would be better for it.”

“What's that?” I ask, and Jessica stands on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear.

“Please Master... I want you to fuck my ass. I'm begging you.”

I grin, pulling her into an embrace and reaching down, grabbing the twin handfuls of her ass and kneading. “So... you're just giving me your ass cherry? You know I can't turn you down when you beg.”

“I'm all yours Master,” Jessica moans, leaning her head back and showing me her collar as well as the enticing valley between her breasts. “And the shower would be cleaner... more relaxing.”

“It'll still hurt,” I warn her as I lean down and suck on the curve of her neck, kissing along the hollow of her throat as I half squat to tug at her leggings. God bless yoga pants as the smooth skin of her ass is soon revealed to me, and I stand back, both of us breathing hard.

“I know it'll hurt Master,” Jessica says, unknotting her shirt and peeling it the rest of the way off along with her bra before stripping her leggings off. “But with you, it always the good hurt.”

Jessica gets in the shower and turns the water on while I strip, the water glistening off her skin like diamonds even when I open the door. She takes the handheld sprayer down and playfully squirts me with it, her eyes laughing before I take it from her and kiss her hard, our tongues immediately dueling around each other in twisting, writhing patterns even while I press her against the glass wall, squeezing her ass and making her moan deeply into my mouth again.

“It'll hurt, but it'll feel good too the way I'm going to do it,” I promise her. “Turn around.”

Jessica immediately obeys, bending over slightly and pushing her ass back towards me. If she weren't a virgin I'd want to take her asshole right now, but the first time... she deserves gentleness. I massage her instead, squeezing roughly on the outsides but more gently as my right hand moves towards the center. Jessica gasps when my fingers brush over her tight puckered hole and I rub. “Master.... oh that doesn't hurt at all....”

“Take a deep breath and relax,” I command as I slip a finger inside, watching her face tighten before she remembers her training and opens up more, my finger slipping deeper. I finger fuck her asshole slowly, Jessica bending over more to loosen herself up more before I add a second finger. She whimpers in pain, but doesn't say anything as my fingers pump in and out of her tight asshole, the water helping to relax her ring. “Does it still hurt?”

“A little Master... but it's good too,” Jessica gasps. “Can I rub my clit?”

“I encourage it,” I chuckle, watching as Jessica reaches down and starts rubbing. She relaxes more as the dual sensations mix, the pain being carried away the way it's supposed to, and soon both of my fingers are plunging in and out of her ass easily. “Very good, my pet. Next is my cock.”

“Master... yessss...” Jessica groans, her fingers still rubbing her pussy and clit while I line up. “Thank you Master.”

Words jump to my mind but I don't let them out, and instead line my cock up with the winking pucker of her asshole. It's hard at first, but Jessica pushes back, opening her ass as best she can, and the sight of my cockhead disappearing into her ass is so erotic that I'm stunned at the gift this beautiful woman is giving me.

Entering Jessica's ass for the first time is like nothing I've ever felt before. Around her ring she's almost painfully, impossibly tight, but as my cock breaches her most tender of inner secrets the rest of her is a warm softness that is better than any other ass I've ever felt. I go slow, short soft strokes that gently open this angel up to my total deflowerment, and when my hips touch the smooth globes of her asscheeks the pain's gone for her, leaving nothing but the pleasure of being taken totally and fully. “Master...”

“Hold on,” I groan, pulling back before stroking in fully. We both gasp, I can't help it she's so amazing and the sensations running from my cock through my body are almost unbelievably good. We fall into a good pace, my hips taking their time guiding my cock in and out, filling my pet over and over. Jessica's lost, her nipples tight when I reach around and stroke them, nearly coming as I show her the deep, intimate pleasures of assfucking.

“Oh fuck... fuck... fuck me... yes Master,” Jessica groans, her brain being overloaded with the sensations. I speed up, her eyes flying open at the feeling of my cock pounding her tender, precious ass, my hips smacking into her voluptuous curves. “Master! Oh fuck I love it!”

“Take it all, that's it,” I encourage, getting rougher as her body relaxes and she can take it. Jessica's one of a kind body responds as we go faster and faster, my cock riding her tight ass and both of us finding total pleasure and abandonment in the feeling. I speed up more, my balls boiling to unleash within her tight bowels, and she grunts, both of us losing the ability to speak as we get closer and closer.

Jessica comes first, her ass clamping around the base of my cock as she screams, the water spraying unfelt into her face as I plunge one more time before joining her, coming deep and hard into her ass. We freeze, both of us wanting this moment to last forever, and I make a decision that I know can change my life from this moment on. Actually, it's not even a decision, it's more like just knowing something, the knowledge exploding in my head as powerfully as my orgasm.

Regardless of what it takes, no matter else... I have to have Jessica with me.