The Royal Flush (Knights of the Darkness Chronicles(Book Three)) (23 page)

There was a knock on the door jarring Natasha out of her deep sleep. She immediately became aware of the cold body that was holding her close. Regretfully, she removed Xavier’s hands and climbed out of the bed. She turned around gazing down at the two sleeping figures and smiled. Darian held Xavier in his arms, in the same way as Xavier had held her in his own. The knocking on the door continued reminding her of the reason why she had awakened in the first place. She pulled on her blue feathery bathrobe Elise had bought her to match Elise’s pink one. Natasha had giggled when she first saw the fluffy, feathery cuffs, collar and trim, but cherished the gift. God bless Elise’s extravagant taste in fashion, besides, she was French; who could blame her. Natasha tied the bathrobe and walked to the door, opening it to find Billy on the other side.

“What’s the matter?” she asked curiously.

“Hey, Natasha, your friends are here to see you, they said they needed you to go with them somewhere,” Billy said with a shrug.

“Oh yeah! I’m running late!” Natasha exclaimed. She looked at her watch, it was a little past noon. “Shit, I’ve got to get ready. Tell them I’ll be right down.” She attempted to close the door, but Billy stopped her. She looked him. “What’s wrong?”

“They said they wanted to talk to you before you got dressed,” Billy replied.

A look of confusion flashed across Natasha’s face as she wondered what they wanted to talk about. She closed the bedroom door behind herself and walked downstairs to where they were waiting. She entered the living room and saw four people sitting in chairs. Three she recognized, one she didn’t. All eyes were looking at her.

Adrian smiled. “Well, don’t you look dreamy?” he teased as he gazed at her feathery bathrobe.

“Thank you, and not another word about my robe.” Natasha said. “Now, what’s going on?”

“Well, there has been a slight change in plans. Since Darian said you were going to go with us, we decided to add a little 'something' to today’s meeting. You’ll need to put this on,” Sergio said, handing her a box.

Natasha took the box and looked at him, then Adrian questioningly. She opened it and saw a skimpy, black leather outfit with matching leather spiked-heeled boots that zipped up the back. She looked up at Sergio, shocked.

“Before you begin to protest, listen to the plan, hear me out,” Sergio pleaded.

Natasha held her thoughts
and
her protest. “State your case.”

“Okay, we don’t want to seem like a group of people who don’t know what we’r
e doing. So we will be acting today. I’ll be the gangster that got the drop on the deal that went bust last night. You’ll be my kinky, sex-crazed, hot-to-trot piece of ass

”

“

‘Piece of ass’?”

“What? I’m just trying to get you into the mindset, hence the s
exy leather ensemble and heeled boots. Okay, would you prefer lover?” Sergio asked; one eyebrow cocked.

“I would.”

“Very well. You’ll be playing the role of my kinky, sex-crazed, hot-to-trot lover.”

“That’s better, but are you sure you have enough adjectives there?” Natasha remarked.

Sergio snorted with a smirk. “Very funny. Nagesa, Adrian and Justin will be my body guards. That’s Justin over there.” He gestured to a young man with spiked dark brown hair and light brown eyes. His tanned golden skin was flawless and smooth. He was dressed in a dark gray tank-top and black jeans and stood about six feet. He was extremely handsome bordering on pretty.

Natasha couldn’t tell his age, but she suspected he was older than he looked. She struggled to comprehend Sergio’s plan

their plan. She wasn’t sure if she could be a sex-crazed, hot-to-trot, slut or ‘piece of ass’ as Sergio had put it. She didn’t even know how to begin to pull it off. She looked at Justin, “Nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” Justin replied in a silky, mascul
ine voice.

She turned back to Sergio shaking her head. “I don’t know about this plan.” She reflected on her own acting ability and remembered being booed in grade school when she had played the lead in a class play she had written. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in her life. It still hurt her a little whenever she thought about it... just a little. Old, painful memories die hard.

“Natasha I know that you probably have no idea how to pretend to be a sex-crazed slut, I mean, lover,” Sergio said. “I’ll give you some pointers.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Have experience in this area, do you?”

“I’ve moonlighted,” Sergio joked causing her to laugh before continuing. “The reason why I think it is a good cover; is because it will allow you to run your fingers over the man and his belongings without him suspecting anything past you being a sex fiend. You’ll have a tough enough party with you to pull it off. Do you think you can handle it?”

Natasha reflected on his words, nodding.

“I’ll have you know that I was voted the worst actor in grade school,” she warned.

“What about high school,” Adrian asked playfully.

“High school, too, now that I think about it.” Natasha lifted the tiny leather outfit up so that she could look it over. There were straps, slits, buckles, hooks and zippers all over the ensemble. “What is this contraption?”

“What? It’s a dress,” Sergio said, darting a glance at the black get-up.

“This isn’t a dress, I’ve seen dresses before, and this isn’t one of them.” She had
no
idea how she was going to even get into the damn thing.

“Trust me, it’s perfect. Why don’t you go upstairs and put it on. We’ll wait here.” Sergio gently nudged Natasha towards the staircase.

Taking the hint, she went to her own bedroom and laid the leather garment on the bed, after her shower she returned, taking up the dress and studying it. When she thought she figured it out, she began dressing. Shortly after climbing into the outfit, she called for help... literally. Seconds later, there was a knock on the door.

“Natasha, are you all right?” Sergio asked concerned.

“No... I’m stuck!” she whined. She could hear Sergio laughing softly to himself on the other side of the door. “Stop laughing and come help me!”

“Okay, okay, here I come... are you decent?” he teased, opening the door.

Upon entering, he caught first glance of Natasha and laughed boisterously. She had managed to entangle herself inside the dress so badly that it actually looked painful. The top of her head poked through one of the arm sleeves, her right arm jutted out of the collar, while her left arm was stuck inside the dress, only her fingers were seen dangling through a slit. She looked like a complete mess. He continued to laugh holding onto the door handle for support as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Natasha groaned.

“I hate you for this. Stop laughing and help me!” she pleaded.

Sergio felt pity for her and fought to regain his composure. Walking over to her, he began unzipping and unbuckling some of the straps, freeing her head and arms.

“How did
this
happen?” he asked still chuckling. “When I bought this dress, I didn’t see it as a torture device. But now… ”

“Oh, shut up. I thought I was putting it on right, I should have stopped when I put my arm through this hole here, it didn’t feel right,” Natasha said innocently.

“Yeah, it doesn’t look right either. Are you in pain?” Sergio asked, then he laughed again. “You should have unzipped it first.”

Natasha grimaced as she raised one foot bringing it down, stomping Sergio’s toes, knowing it wouldn’t hurt him.

“Hey! Now, behave yourself… or I’ll leave you this way,” Sergio taunted. His laughter trickled as he looked at her. “All right, all right, I’ll stop laughing, but if you could see yourself, you’d see why it’s so hard to look at you and not laugh. Here, slide your arm through this end.” He helped her slide her arm out of the dress. When her arm was freed, he stepped back. “You have the dress on upside-down, or sideways… shit, I don’t know what the hell’s going on.”

“And you bought the damn thing! You’ve got some nerve making fun of me. Plus the dress is tight as hell,” Natasha said in her defense.

“I made sure it was one size too small so that your breasts would sit on top of your chest like two mountains.” Sergio smiled wickedly.

“I’m telling Elise.”

“I bought her a red one just like it. Now, I trust you can take it from here, or do you think you’ll need the ‘
Jaws of Life
’?” he teased.

“You want me to stomp your other foot?”

“Let me give you some privacy.” Sergio chuckled as he walked out of the bedroom.

Natasha stuck her tongue out at the closed door then slid the dress off, turning it right-side up and climbed back into it. The second time was much easier than the first. Sergio was right, she should have unzipped it. She would have had she known that was an option. Next, she slid on the six-inch spiked heel boots, rising unsteadily then making her way to the mirror to look at herself from head to toe. To her own amazement, she never thought she could look like that. The dress accented all of her womanly curves, making her look all the more voluptuous and sexy. She ran her hands down the length of the dress and smiled wickedly.
A girl could get used to this,
she thought.
Sergio might have started something.
The dress itself was high above the knee, way higher than what she was used to. The sewn-in bustier lifted her healthy bosom high on her chest, which she did like, and they did look like two mountains.

“God, if they were up any higher, I wouldn’t be able to see a damn thing,” she mused.

The dress had revealing peek-a-boo slits across the midriff and back exposing her flesh. She liked the ensemble in spite of herself. It was something she would never have bought on her own. She turned around to get another view and thought about her lovers. She wondered if they would like to see her in something so daring and decided that she would ask Sergio if she could keep the dress afterward. She didn’t think he would say no. After applying make-up much in her idea of a harlot, she left the room, confident that she could pull off the look at least.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Adrian said breathlessly when he laid his eyes on Natasha scantily clad in the black leather dress. “Now, I wish the whole mobster boyfriend gimmick was
my
idea. Well, at least I found the dress.”

“Yeah, but I paid for it.” Something dawned on Sergio. “Hey, I thought you were gay?” he asked, shocked by Adrian’s
appraisal
of Natasha.

“Bisexual,” Adrian corrected, never taking his eyes from Natasha.

Sergio rolled his eyes, mumbling something about people being “greedy”.

“Do I look passable?” Natasha asked.

“You have my vote,” Adrian said, Justin nodded in agreement. Nagesa simply looked on, remaining silent.

“I’m going to have fun today,” Sergio said. “You look ... delectable.” He grinned feigning a lust-filled pant.

“Oh stop it before I tell Elise,” Natasha joked, though she wouldn’t admit it, she loved the attention.

“Tell,” Sergio said with a mischievous grin.

“You behave yourself.” Natasha pointed her finger at him like a scolding mother.

Sergio nodded with a wicked grin.

“Shall we?” He raised his arm and Natasha slipped hers through his. They left the mansion heading towards the drop location.

They pulled into the parking lot and climbed out of the car. The entire drive over, Natasha had been listening to them give her pointers on being a seductress. She practiced, hoping to be in character by the time they reached their destination. She looked at the other car parked in front of theirs. A man climbed out of the Boa XL32, he was African-American, about six feet four dressed in a dark blue suit. A strong breeze blew his blazer open, causing a “cape-in-the-wind” effect. Natasha hated to admit it, but she thought he looked pretty cool. Just like the first night she met Darian. The wind playing in his hair, and blowing his coat made Darian look completely
delectable
to her then, too.

“Do you have my merchandise?” he yelled across the parking lot. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, though Natasha suspected that the shape-shifters could still see his eyes as clearly as if he weren’t wearing any sunglasses at all.

“I do,” Sergio said, thickening his Italian accent. “Do you have the money?”

“It’s right here.” The other man held up a black briefcase with gold-plated locks. “Let’s do this, shall we?”

Sergio was wearing an all-white linen suit. A jacket, slacks and white t-shirt completed the ensemble. He reminded Natasha of a really cute vice cop from an old popular eighties television show. The others were dressed in similar outfits, different colors, all but Justin who wore jeans with a t-shirt and Natasha who was beginning to sweat under her leather get-up. They walked over to the man, making sure to keep eye contact.

“What’s your name?” Sergio asked.

“Why do you want to know?” asked the man, a sneer on his lips. “As a matter of fact, I do believe that’s my line. By your accent, I can tell you’re not the same person I spoke with last night.”