Chastity Flame (14 page)

She was just feeling the first wave of
an orgasm build when her phone went off. At first she ignored it as
Lars panted above her, flinging drops of sweat across her chest,
but then she realized that it might be something she needed to get.
"I'm sorry, but I really have to get that," Chastity said, pressing
her palm against Lars' chest.

"Shit! Not now!" he said, his voice
strangled as he tried to slow the momentum. He pulled out suddenly,
his prick waving with glee although the expression on his face was
agonizingly disappointed as he continued to pant.

"Won't be a mo," Chastity said,
rolling across the big mattress toward her bag where she rummaged
for the phone and caught it at last, thinking even as she brought
it up to her ear, this never happens in movies. "Hello?"

"Pauline?"

She knew the voice instantly.
"Yes?"

"Uh, I need to talk with you. It's,
um, me. Madcap."

"Oh, hi. Say, what was going on in
Brussels—?"

"We can’t talk like this. Can I meet
you?"

"Where?"

"Can I come to your room?"

"Do you know where I am?"

"Yes. And the room number. Can I come
up?"

"Can you give me, uh," she looked at
Lars, still hard as ever, an expectant look on his face. "Can you
give me fifteen minutes?"

"Sure."

Chastity hung up and looked at Lars.
"I'm really sorry, but it's business. I don't want to rush
you—"

Lars laughed. "I understand. As long
as you're not going to send me away like this," he gestured to his
erection, slick with her lubrication.

Chastity chuckled. "No, come over
here." She sat on the edge of the bed and Lars came around to the
side. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he thrust inside her
once more. "Oh, yeah. That's the way to do it," she complimented
him. Lars drilled into her more quickly this time, hammering away
at her as she twisted her own clit, the orgasm quickly rebuilding
its power. "Harder, harder!" she urged him and Lars leaned into the
task, working away with diligent concentration and she was bucking
up to meet him as the waves hit her again and again. Still he did
not come, but pounded against her, his balls flapping up against
her ass and, just when she was ready to scream with tension, he
finally began to shout and stagger as he came, too.

He leaned down to kiss Chastity and
she returned the gesture with pleasure, taking his cheeks in her
hands. "Sorry for the brevity of the evening," she said. "If
there's time, I will make it up to you tomorrow. I've been invited
to a very interesting party, perhaps you can come along with me.
There will be much to enjoy there."

Lars took the hint, sliding out of her
regretfully, caressing her wet slit with his hand and making her
coo with delight. He threw the condom in the bathroom and dressed.
Chastity kissed him goodbye, still naked, receiving his admiring
caress of her breasts with pleasure, before he finally went to the
door. "Hej hej," he said, slipping out into the hallway and closing
the door behind him.

Chapter Ten

Chastity jumped in the shower and then
wrapped herself in the fluffy white robe the hotel provided. She
had barely had time to put her hair up in a loose knot when there
came a soft knock at the door. Crossing the room, she opened it
slowly and sure enough, there was the wild-eyed Madcap, who darted
inside, closing the door behind him.

"Who was that guy?" he said, moving
nervously about the room.

"The desk clerk," Chastity said,
sitting down in the chair with her legs crossed.

"Why was he here?" He twitched the
curtains aside and peered into the darkness.

"Well, if you must know," Chastity
said dryly, "we were fucking."

He looked so nonplussed by that news
that Chastity almost felt sorry for him. "I—I didn't know," he
stammered at last. "I don't—" and then he lapsed into silence with
an awkward look. "Sorry."

Chastity shrugged. "What can I do for
you?"

"I need your help," he said at last,
his dark-rimmed eyes darting nervously around. "I know you can help
me."

"I'm just a reporter," Chastity said,
hands open helplessly.

"You're not." Suddenly the hacker
seemed focused. "Your phone tells me that much. I don't know
exactly what you are, but you have a good cover—I was following
your tweets—so you must be some kind of spy thingee."

"Well, I never heard it put that way
before," Chastity said lazily.

"There are people after me," he said,
a whine creeping into his voice.

"The people you were working
for?"

He winced a little at that. "Yes, yes,
alright. Yes. They weren't too happy after all that I took credit
for my work." His look was stubborn and fierce. "It was my work,
why shouldn't I?"

"I get the sense you're not a team
player," Chastity said with a chuckle.

"They hired me because they wanted the
best. Did they think I was going to hide my light under a
bushel?"

"Well, considering what they asked you
to do was stunningly illegal, yes, I suppose they did."

"Information wants to be free," he
shrugged, arms folded. "I'm a freedom fighter."

Chastity snorted. "Do you work for
free?"

"Of course not! Information is free,
but my skills aren't. It's not that kind of free."

She shrugged. This was going nowhere.
"Well, if my people are going to protect you, we'll need some
information from you about your people." Who are all these people
who need people, Chastity thought irritably.

"Alright."

"No problem turning on them,
eh?"

The hacker frowned. "They turned on me
already."

He was really just a kid. Chastity
almost felt sorry for him, until she thought about the damage he
had wrought. Fair enough, at least one man dead. "Have you been
spotted here?"

He looked nervous again, glancing
toward the window. "I—I think so."

"Could it just be that you’re jumping
at shadows?"

"A man tried to kill me!" He began
shifting around, twitching back the curtains again, looking in vain
for lurkers at the threshold of sight. Doubtless he could see
nothing but his own reflection, but he continued to gaze anxiously
outside.

"Tried to kill you here?" Chastity
prompted. They were going to have to move. Pity. She had looked
forward to the party and having some Danish.

Madcap stared at her, uncomprehending.
After a moment, he finally said, "Oh, no. Not here.
Aalborg."

Chastity was certain she did not
reveal the surprise of pleasure this information gave her. Her
vision had been correct. "Who was it? Did you see them?"

"They were just these guys, you know,"
he said irritably. "They cornered me in a bar. The only reason I
got away was because a fight broke out over football and the entire
place erupted into madness. The guys who were trying to take me got
taken down by some Arsenal fans as it happened."

"Figures," Chastity laughed. "And you
legged it?"

"I grabbed a taxi and headed for the
train station. I got here and wondered where to go next, but when I
checked the net it seemed safe to stay here at present. There's a
good community of savvy folk. I knew I could get a couple of couch
surfing situations, so I've been moving around, laying low. When I
spotted you coming here, I knew things were looking up."

"I was your ticket out?"

"I figured you could help," he
shrugged. "I knew you were more than you said you were."

"So now?"

"Um," he said looking suddenly
perplexed. "You, er, you help me?"

"And I would do that
because..?"

He stared at her blankly. "Isn't it
your job?"

"My job," Chastity said coolly, "is to
defend the security of our nation."

"But, but—" Apparently he didn't
really know what to say, instead looking miserable and defeated. "I
said I would give you information."

"Yes, but I could just torture you for
that and then leave you here." He needed to know how seriously he
had fucked up, Chastity decided. He needed a lesson.

The surprise on his face was apparent.
The thought had certainly not occurred to him and now he was
worried. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Isn't what you do
illegal?"

He swallowed. "I suppose." His misery
was growing. "But I could help you!"

"How?"

"My skills," he said, a glimmer of
hope springing up. "I could do work for your people. I can do all
kinds of stuff."

"We'll see," Chastity said, feeling
uncomfortably like a parent. "I'll get in touch with my people.
I'll see what I can negotiate."

"Thank you," he said with genuine
relief.

"Is there something else I can call
you by the way? You really don't seem like a madcap, you
know."

He looked more struck by that than by
the suggestion that she might hang him out to dry. "But I've been
Madcap since I was twelve!"

"There must be another name," Chastity
said, feeling irritable.

"But I thought you had fake names,
undercover stuff."

"We do. Always. But they're not names
that draw attention to us," she said, getting up to grab her bag
and open it on the bed. "It's important not to be noticed. I know
that will be hard for you. Clearly you like the crowds." She
started filling the bag with her carefully rolled
clothes.

"You can call me Keith," he finally
said, his voice just barely audible. "It's my surname. I hate my
first name."

Chastity turned to regard him, a
sweater in her hands. "All right, Keith."

He sighed. "It's going to take some
getting used to, Pauline."

Chastity laughed. "You will
adapt."

A terse call to Monitor resulted in
new plans: they were to head to Stockholm and meet up with another
op, who would take the hacker to a safe location. "Why can't I stay
with you?" he whined to Chastity when she told him.

"We have been seen together by too
many people. It's for the best," she added, softening her voice a
little even though the youth annoyed her considerably. They were
standing in the lounge, ready to board the small shuttle flight to
Sweden. Both had been issued new passports that had arrived by
messenger within an hour of the initial call to Monitor. Keith had
been impressed.

"I had to work through a bunch of
people to finally get a really good passport that worked. Made a
lot of promises," he added. "This is much better."

"Remember your name, at least for the
next few hours," Chastity reminded him. It was second nature to
her, but it was all novelty for him. For once, she was rather
amused, seeing her world through his eyes. It looked far more
exciting that way. He was eager to do "spy stuff" as he said. Keith
kept up a constant stream of chatter that distracted Chastity
throughout the short flight.

Arriving in the city centre, Chastity
looked around. It had been years since she'd been in Stockholm, but
it was still beautiful. She had decided to stay at her favorite
hotel and explained its culinary history to Keith, who clearly was
not listening, as he had his mobile out.

"You're not using that, are you?"
Chastity asked incredulously.

"I'm not saying where we are," the
hacker answered stiffly, stung that she had thought he was such a
dolt.

"It doesn't matter! If you could track
me, don't you think someone could track you?"

He frowned at that. "But I don't
think—"

"No, you don't," Chastity huffed. If
his phone had been triangulated, they needed to move now. She
hailed a cab and asked the driver for a budget hotel
recommendation. He took them to a chain hotel and they got out,
Chastity still angry and Keith sullenly moping.

"Don't bother unpacking," she snapped
when they got to the room. Deciding it would be best not to use her
own mobile, Chastity went to the room phone, got an outside line
and dialed the international reply code. She had barely replaced
the handset when it rang. "Our location might have been
compromised," she muttered into the receiver. They offered new
coordinates for the exchange. The sooner the better, Chastity
thought, hanging up.

Chapter Eleven

"I didn't mean to do it, you know,"
Keith said for the umpteenth time, while Chastity ignored him. In
another half hour they could leave for the Gamla Stan and their
rendezvous in front of the Riddarhus. She regretted having already
finished the novel she had tucked into her bag. There were probably
newspapers in the lobby, but it was probably best not to stir from
the room.

A knock came at the door. Chastity
looked to the hacker. "Get in the bathroom," she said quietly. He
stared at her, so she added, "Now!" That made him move.