'What's this? The crucifixion?'
'Very good, Belle,' Pietre said, 'But I prefer, 'Virgin on the Rocks.'
Belle laughed, a short barking sound then turned away from the image as though unable to bear watching it. 'Marco called earlier. The K2's were fine, but they're getting nuke hungry.'
Pietre let the deliberate change of subject go unremarked, concentrating on the business. 'Could be a high- profit month.' They smiled at each other. 'Let’s buy ourselves bordello?'
Belle's laughter tinkled around the room. 'I'll call Marco.'
'Thank you, my darling,' Pietre replied absently. 'I want to study our Wendee a while longer.'
Belle moved away, but when he glanced up a moment later he found her hesitating at the door, her small hand closed over the heavy brass doorknob with spider like delicacy. The contrast between her fragile exterior and the inherent cruelty he knew to be in her had never been more striking.
He licked his lips, letting the contrast work on him, remembering the times that small hand had wielded a whip with savage efficiency. The pain — endless pain, alternated with the most exquisite pleasures she could devise. Pietre remembered that more than one lover had gone insane under her ministrations.
'Don't fall in love with her,' Belle warned lightly, and Pietre pulled back from his reverie to address the underlying concern in her voice. Was it possible that his Belle, his ruttish, swaggering pixie was feeling threatened by their latest player?
He glanced back at the screen, at Belle's perceived antagonist. 'So convenient that this one is named Wendee, though. Isn't it?' he remarked guilelessly. 'I've waited so long for a Wendee.'
There was a telling pause, then, 'She's not beautiful.'
To her credit, Belle had tried to sound objective but Pietre sensed the spite.
'No,' he agreed, 'not beautiful, despite Christophe's eager avowals. But she has something.' He stared at the screen. 'There's a knowingness in her eyes, an invitation. And her lips are very full. See.' He paused the scene before them.
Wendee was watching Christophe as Xavion thrust into her from behind. Her lips were pouted seductively.
'Looks like she wants to suck cock,' Belle observed.
'Yes, Christophe's I would say, from the way she's watching Josh.' Pietre let the scene continue to the point where the boy opened his eyes. 'Such pain,' he said appreciatively, feeling Christophe's tortured eyes move him, just as they had Wendee.
He watched the boy's reluctant orgasm, then replayed the scene to concentrate on Wendee's. 'She really is a hedonistic creature. I wonder if she realises it yet?'
'She knows,' Belle said, the jealousy undisguised this time. 'She's wallowing in it.'
'Perfect.'
Chapter Twelve
'Your knowledge of the stars betters my own.' Xavion's surprise revealed a chauvinism so obviously intrinsic to his nature that Dee found herself charmed, rather than irritated by it. 'You must teach me more,' he commanded, poking the fire with a stick.
It's glow was faint, casting large phantom shadows around the cavern, but they held no menace for Dee. Xavion had said she was safe, and his presence alone assured her of that.
Seated at his side, she paused in the devouring of a slice of rockmelon to raise her eyebrows. 'Oh really?'
An almost smile hovered on the edges of his sensuous lips. 'But only if it gives you pleasure.'
'Actually, it does,' she relented, dropping her rockmelon rind into the flames, watching it crackle and spit as its remaining juices evaporated and rose in a spiral of smoke. 'I miss Astronomy. It was my life.'
Xavion's eyes searched hers for a moment before he said, 'Then if time allows, we will speak of it again.'
'If time allows?' She frowned. 'I didn't know we were on a schedule.'
'All things are finite,' he replied as though that were an answer to her question. Then he turned back to feed the fire.
Dee sighed, taking a peeled mango from the banana leaf parcel at her side. She bit into it thoughtfully. How long would she be allowed to stay? Pietre could tell her, but in the twenty-four hours since she'd arrived he'd yet to make an appearance.
And who were these 'Lost Boys' he'd left her with? Not merely a randomly selected group of stunning men, as she'd first thought. There was between them an understanding that indicated they'd been a 'tribe' for some time before she'd arrived.
Xavion especially interested her. His speculations on the creation of the universe were fascinating — not religious, but laced with a spirituality Dee found as intriguing as the man himself. Yet within him she also sensed the pragmatism of the soldier, the man who would obey orders regardless of his inner-voice.
She'd enjoyed this time spent alone with him, exploring an intelligence she guessed was as lonely for stimulation as her own. Unfortunately, it had reminded her of a past she'd been determined to forget. A past that apparently didn't want to be forgotten.
Was she destined to always crave the gratification of her intellect in the same way her body now craved the physical gratification Pietre's fantasy had provided her with?
She was staring into the flames, deep in thought, when she felt Xavion's touch — a light pressure at the corner of her mouth. She turned as his thumb, now smeared with mango juice rose to his own lips for tasting. 'The breakfast is to your liking?' he asked, the cool, wet thumb returning to skim the other side of her mouth.
'Very much,' she assured him, wondering if the choice of food had been deliberate. The exotic flavours and textures had undoubtedly contributed to her current level of semi-arousal. That, and anticipation of what the new day would bring.
'I was worried it might not prove substantial enough,' Xavion said, pulling a sticky strand of her hair away from where it had fallen onto the mango. He tucked it behind her ear. 'You have such a voracious appetite.'
Their eyes met, and with the ease of their enforced familiarity, his hand dropped to cup her breast, stroking the nipple lightly until it hardened in approval.
She continued her breakfast, biting into the succulent mango, tearing away the soft flesh that clung to its seed.
His hand slid lower and she felt her body stirring, overriding her previous thoughts with nerve-messages to the pleasure centre of her brain. She stopped eating and licked her lips.
'Is there anything else? Any… meat?'
How easy to forget the brain and concentrate on the body. In a deliberate furthering of her own arousal, she slipped the luscious fruit into her mouth, sucking it, moving it in and out, closing her eyes as its nectar ran over her chin and trickled down to her chest.
Would Xavion, watching, imagine her mouth working on him that way?
Her breasts tingled in anticipation of the touch, which when it came was the soft brush of his tongue licking between her breasts. Her nipples tightened, but he ignored them, following the trail of sticky liquid up her throat and over her chin.
By the time he arrived at her mouth she'd discarded the mango and was waiting, daring him to take her there in front of the fire. The others were outside somewhere. It was the perfect time.
'I'm still hungry,' she said.
'Hmm, meat? Let me see.' He licked at her lips, little lapping caresses. 'There might be some turtle left.'
Her lips parted, but he didn't kiss her. He pulled back a little, breathing her breath, looking into her eyes.
She rested her sticky hand on his chest, feeling his strong heartbeat beneath her palm. It was fast. 'I don't want turtle,' she said.
'Fish?'
Her fingertips trailed down, teasing his stomach before settling on his loin cloth, covering the hard flesh she
