The v Girl (11 page)

Chapter 1
5

We’ve kissed for so long
that my lips feel swollen. It’s been a nice make out session, but neither of us has dared to move things forward.

Rey’s clothes are on the floor, and I’m still wearing my white tank and underwear. We haven’t ever seen each other naked yet, and our clothes feel like a barrier. Someone has to take the lead.

I put his hands on the hem of my tank. He gasps, but takes the invitation along with the top. A rush of self-consciousness makes me blush; I have some imperfections here and there. What if he compares my body to his ex’s flawless figure? But Rey’s eyes tell me he doesn’t find any fault in my body and he leans to kiss the skin above the edge of my bra.

I close my eyes and moan. His mouth follows the line of my bra. The feeling of his lips on my skin makes every nerve and fiber of my body buzz in anticipation. His hands on my back fumble to unhook my bra.

A sound startles us, and we pull away from each other.

Aleksey is at the entryway, looking at us with disapproval. His voice sounds forcefully casual. “I was looking for Dr. Velez. Obviously he’s not around.”

Rey jumps off the bed. Aleksey briefly glances at my pointed nipples showing under my bra while I hastily fumble for my tank and shorts. Rey notices it, too, and his expression changes from surprised to angry. He throws a sheet over my barely dressed body.

Aleksey points a finger at Rey but his eyes are on me. “You might not know this, Starviller, but this is my clinic. Dr. Velez can stay as part of the personnel, and by extension his family. But you’re wearing your welcome out, Diaz.”

Rey’s face contorts with fury. “This isn’t your clinic and you have no business in here.”

“I’m the leader of the Accord unit that built this clinic. Respect visiting hours.”

Rey strides toward Aleksey, fuming. “I don’t remember
you
carrying brick after brick to build the clinic.”

Derisively, with an almost bored expression, Aleksey points toward the door, indicating that Rey should leave. It only irritates Rey further.

“You have no authority here! I won’t take orders from you,” Rey snaps.

“And I won’t take seriously a guy with the head of his penis on full display.”

I suppress a nervous giggle. In
truth
, the erect top portion of Rey’s penis shows above the band of his underwear. If I weren’t so embarrassed, I’d find it funny.

Rey doesn’t find any humor in the situation. He slides his pants up, fuming. His bulky muscles bulge in rage. Before I can blink, he throws a punch, aiming at Aleksey’s massive chest. The Accord cop easily blocks the blow. That only infuriates Rey, who hurls himself against Aleksey. I haven’t ever seen Rey attack anyone with such intensity.

Aleksey, on the other hand, doesn’t need to put much energy out to block Rey’s attacks.
The ex-soldier looks as though he’s only toying with Rey to enrage him.

Rey hasn’t had the training of a soldier, but he’s very strong and never gives up. After several failed tries, he manages to land a right hook on Aleksey’s jaw. Aleksey’s eyes turn murderous. I’ve seen those eyes before. If Aleksey uses his full force on Rey, he’ll kill him.

“Enough!” I yell. Neither pays any attention.

I take the broomstick and make a swing at them. Both stop to stare at me.

“I said enough!” I make my voice stern. “You two! Leave my room now!”

None of them move. They glare at each other, fuming.

Aleksey shakes his head. “I won’t go until I’m sure he’s gone.”

I turn to Rey, the one I’m sure can be reasonable. My eyes plead with him.

His response takes me aback. “I won’t leave you alone with
my
Angie.”

When Rey realizes what he’s just said he blushes and seems ready to bolt out of the room. Was he thinking about her while we were touching?

Aleksey turns to look at me, a malicious look in his eye. “You want to give your
virginity
to someone who mistakes you for someone else?”

The V-word. So unnecessary. My fists clench and hot anger courses through me. I miss those times, not long ago, when I couldn’t picture Aleksey as someone capable of speaking in full sentences. If he’s going to say things like that, I’d rather he just shut up.

Rey’s ready to fight again, but I stop him. He leaves the room after throwing a dark look at Aleksey that says:
I’ll get you back for this.

“Now it’s your turn to go,” I say acidly “As soon as you tell me why you’re here—and don’t give me that ‘searching for my father’ crap.”

“I saw your friend coming up, but never saw him climbing down. I assumed he wouldn’t stay with his brother. That maybe he needed a warmer bed.” He looks me up and down. “Not that I blame him.”

Hot anger burns through my veins, and I glare at him. I’ve been looking forward to my deflowering for so long, and he had to ruin it and make fun of me. He knows I want this, and not only did he interrupt, but he has the nerve to say these things.

He makes his way to leave the room, his red cape swishing as he turns around.

Aleksey is near the door when my knife almost hits him. Years of military training makes him duck reflexively. The knife nails his cape to the wooden wall, making him stop. I take pleasure in his look of surprise when he turns to see me.

My body shudders in fury. “You told me I could take this room, but that doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do with it! If you want, I’ll move out. But never, ever, enter my room again.”

I hear the sound of his cape ripping as he frees it from the knife, but by then I’m walking through the corridor furiously. I’m almost at the courtyard when I turn to glare at him one last time. He’s glaring back, looking positively enraged.

He says loudly enough for me to hear, “Your curiosity will get you hurt.” His voice is full of contained anger.

Seething with fury, we walk opposite directions.

Who does Aleksey think he is? I’ll sleep with whomever I want, wherever and whenever I please. And I’m not about to let Rey overthink things again now that I finally have his full acceptance.

There are still two hours before curfew. I get back to my room, put on my cloak and call Poncho. I’ll go to find Rey, and we’ll finish what we started before Aleksey’s interruption.

“Among the fluctuation of the river currents, an abyss as green as the sea, its extension and profundity as immense as the ocean opened before me: The eyes of a beautiful girl.

I succumbed into that abyss instantly like a man who falls from the highest cliff into the ocean …

… and I drowned.”

General Fürst’s journal

Chapter 1
6

It’s almost dawn, and the
river’s sloshy sounds harmonize with the loud chirping of the birds. Poncho runs excitedly and submerges himself in the water. I don’t come here just for Divine and Joey. I come for the peace and beauty of this solitary place. The orange flowers look more colorful than ever as a warm, soft breeze rustles them.

Aleksey hasn’t come to the river for two days. Fine by me. Just thinking about his arrogance brings a scowl to my face.

I lie down and let my mind wander. After that night in my room, Rey’s opened up the door that I thought for sure we’d closed. But now that I know he won’t reject me if I ask him to take my V, I won’t.

I stretch my arms above my head and close my eyes.

That night, as soon as I made the decision to go to Rey’s, Poncho started barking as though possessed. A helicopter full of Patriot soldiers arrived, and I hid in my room the entire night. Rey was too stressed that night because of Duque. He should think it through; prove to himself that he wants me again. Maybe if we let things flow, I can have a magical sexual debut with him. It won’t ever match my idealistic expectations, but it’ll be somehow enough.

I’m lost in my thoughts when the air starts to charge with a heated magnetism. He doesn’t make a sound as usual, but I know he’s standing next to me. Clearly, we aren’t happy to see each other, but I want to keep things civilized. “General Fürst.”

He nods briefly without looking at me and sits in his usual spot. I sit up, inhaling deeply. He doesn’t smell like alcohol today.

His muteness extends for an hour in which we do nothing but enjoy the view. Perhaps the key to his speech is booze, and he needs alcohol to communicate. Well, that’s unacceptable. He’ll talk to me normally, no drinks involved.

“You know, that thing you said I … um … was curious about. What you so rudely interrupted—” He’s still impassive, but I can tell he’s listening. I inhale deeply. “Curiosity isn’t what motivates me. I know what
it
is about. Even before I became a ... you know …” I’m trying to make him say
voyeur
. It doesn’t work.

“I have plenty of reasons to lose my V. None of them are curiosity. I was eight the first time I saw a couple doing it.”

The tiniest twitch of his eyebrow tells me he’s fighting to keep a poker face.

“It wasn’t intentional. They were my parents.”

He’s now preoccupied
with his cape, but he has to be grossed out.

“I entered their room without knocking first. They’d quarreled that night, so I thought he was hurting her.” I cringe at the memory. “They became extremely embarrassed and dressed quickly. Mom put me to bed and the very next day I got the bees and flowers talk.”

“From your mom?”

Ha! There! I got an answer. I grin. “Both of them.
Don’t wince. There was no morbid curiosity on my part, and it took me years to realize what happened that day.”

I throw a pebble into the current and he finally looks up. A thrilling sensation runs through my veins when those perfect blue eyes look into mine.

“I’m not sexually ignorant. I’ve observed … I’ve read books.”

He looks at me intensely. “You’re ignorant, Miss Velez. You just don’t realize how much you still have to learn.”

“Because I’m all theory and no practice?”

He nods and lays down on the grass with his hands under his head.

“Mr. Fürst, I’m not so untouched anymore. I’ve been kissed in intimate places.” My collarbone and cleavage are private places, aren’t they? Although I wish my breasts had been kissed, too. And I wish this conversation didn’t turn me on.

He looks frustrated. “If you’re so determined, why don’t you take a random guy?”

How do I explain that for me, sex isn’t just a physical act of rubbing genitals together for pleasure? I don’t know why, but I want him to understand.

“Seeing my parents like that left a mark on me.
When they were together, they became a single entity. Because of them, I’m convinced there should be a connection between sex and being one. Sex and being in a long, committed relationship. Sex and being in love.
What I feel for my
friend is—” Every time I mention Rey, his brow deepens.
“
Not exactly that,
but I have feelings for him. And—” I shake my head.

The wind ruffles his long hair
. “It would be a huge mistake. I agree with your sister. You go through too much trouble just to check this off your to-do list.”

I sigh.
I’ve never opened up like this to anyone, but something about him tells me he’ll listen.
“There’s no to-do list. There’s recruitment.”

Aleksey nods. Maybe he’s always quiet because he’s a good listener. The word
recruitmen
t has brought a look of disapproval from the cop
. I know he understands me now.

“You might think I’m silly. All this love talk—”

Kind blue eyes meet mine. “Not at all. There’s logic, even poetry, in your expectations.”

Just then,
Divine and Joey arrive at the meadow. She smiles widely when she sees Aleksey’s back and gets immediately into action, showing off more than usual. “Enjoy it, sick perverts!” she shouts. I answer with a grin.

She practically tears Joey’s clothes off. In seconds, they are both naked, and she’s clinging to him, her legs wrapped around his waist. Joey presses her back against a tree and slides his hands down to rest on her buttocks.

I watch, fascinated. Out of the corner of my eye I notice he’s looking at me. Then, to my disappointment Aleksey takes out a flask. I reach for it. “Let me drink a little of what you have.”

His voice is stern. “Just a sip.”

It tastes horrible. But I use that as an excuse to drop the
flask and let the liquid pour out. “Oops!” I put on my most innocent face. He doesn’t look angry at all. On the contrary, there’s a hint of amusement in his eyes as he looks at the lovers antics.

My desperation to lose my V always makes me forget that sex has a fun side, too. The way they’re clenching their bodies now as he struggles to keep his hold on her; it isn’t as arousing as it’s comical. Aleksey fights a smile while I’m openly grinning.

Joey loses his grip on Divine for a second, and his erection goes on full display.

“Small …” He hesitates as though he’d offend me if he said the word
penis.
“… Thing.” He wouldn’t offend me, but I don’t want to remember
his
thing at this moment.

“Mm, let’s call it
the truth
,” I say quietly.

He bursts out laughing. “The
truth
? You can’t handle the
truth
!”

I’ve never seen him laugh before. His joy makes him look younger, and God! He looks so damn hot when he’s happy.

I’m done
. So is Divine. I stand up silently and climb my way back home.

He catches up with me. Throwing him a sideways look, I see him smiling crookedly.

“So you want to discover the truth? The naked truth?” He makes it sounds so dirty and so sexy that I don’t answer. Aleksey has an effect on me that affects my speech and my heart’s rhythm. It’s a combination of arousal and the fear I have for soldiers.

Poncho jumps happily around us. As we climb our way to the city, the road becomes too uneven. A wave of heat travels toward my lower body every time he puts his hand to the small of my back to steady me. Something I’ve been dying to know comes to my mind. I have to ask him now that he’s unusually talkative. “Your proposal, the one you gave me some days ago ... I’m still considering it. Do I have a deadline?”

He shakes his head.

“But even if I don’t accept, will you train me at driving and swords?

Aleksey answers as if this should be obvious. “I’ve already agreed to that. I won’t back down now.”

“If I accept your proposal, but refuse to have sex with you, what do you gain?”

He gives me his hand to help me step up a rock. “Hard to explain.”

“What guarantee I have you won’t try anything else?”

Aleksey pats Poncho’s head. “No guarantees. Take it or leave it,” he says harshly. “But if it makes you feel more secure, you can bring your dog.”

“Why do you talk to me more than to others?”

He takes his time before answering. “Maybe because you’re a voyeur. I like that you’ve found a safe, harmless way to express a part of your sexuality. You may be inexperienced, but you’ve got a kink.”

“The same kink you have.”

“This is not my kink.”

I ask even if I know he won’t answer. “What’s your kink?”

He looks away, and we walk in silence for a while across a steep road flanked by trees. I hate that he knows so much about me while he remains a mystery.

“I hate that you’re hiding the
truth
.” I cover my mouth to suppress a giggle.

He stops walking abruptly and grabs my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. His hands on my shoulders cause a surge of warm sensations to spread all over my body. “Stop the jokes. You can’t handle the truth. You need to start with basic training before moving on to heavier practices.”

I want to say something, but my tongue refuses to cooperate.

His voice is raspy, low, and seductive. “I can teach you. If you want.”

I break eye contact, feeling my cheeks warm. Aleksey doesn’t use words much, but when he does, he makes electricity course through my veins. I force my voice to sound steady. “Only the basics?”

“Or whatever you want. You dictate the pace of our … lessons.”

I look at him in disbelief. Is he serious?

“It will be educational to me, too,” he says confidently.

“Educational? How?”

His accented voice comes as a sexy growl. “I’ve always had it … rough. I’ve never been with a V-girl. Being gentle, taking my time
with you
sounds … incredibly sensual to me.”

“You’d get bored.”

He shakes his head. “Why you care? This is about you.” His eyes travel all over my body. It doesn’t feel offensive. It feels sensual. “Regardless, sex is an instinctive act. You may be one of those birds that can fly immediately, or you may be the bird that crashes to the ground because you stepped out of the nest when you weren’t ready. You need guidance.”

I realize we’ve been unconsciously leaning toward each other. I step back, but he closes the distance again. His subtle, clean, masculine scent intoxicates me.

“I’m your best option. I have enough experience to guide you, teach you, and protect you from harm. If you want to, of course.”

“What harm?”

He brushes my cheek lightly with his enormous finger. The touch electrifies my skin. “Harm from other guys, from your friend, from yourself.”

I think about his size, knowing I’m not ready for this man. “If I don’t want to go all the way …”

“Then we won’t.
If you want to, this could be an addition to the other skills I’ll train you on …”

I keep stepping back, shortening the distance to the trees. “Wouldn’t that be fraternizing? You’re not supposed to fraternize with Nats. They’ll deport you.”

He looks at me as though I’m crazy. “So? The world if full of places for us to go if you wanted to come with me.”

He’s deluded
. No country would admit me without a passport tattoo. But hearing those words from his deep, masculine voice is heaven. “They’ll execute you.”

“I’ve put my life to risk for others ever since I joined the Army. It’d be a nice change to risk my life for something I want for
me
.” H
is humorless face smolders. “I crave you.”

Aleksey craves me
. My cheeks warm at his words, and I don’t know what to say. He looks as though he has been dying to let those words out for a while. His eyes look at me expectantly. I can recognize his lust but … is there a difference between
lusting
and
craving
?

I shake my head. It doesn’t matter, anyway. He is an ex-soldier, and he looks more dangerous and violent than actual soldiers, so he’s off-limits. But I’m overwhelmed with feelings I haven’t ever felt before.

I look at him questioningly.
“I don’t know anything about you.”

The cop looks down at himself and smiles wickedly. “You know my feet are big. What is left to know?” So many things. Like who are the people he cares for.

For a few minutes I bombard him with questions.
‘Who taught you to play bass?’ ‘Who do you fight for?’ ‘Is there anyone waiting for your return?’
and others of the sort. He gets closer to me with each question he politely refuses to answer. We stand very close to each other and electricity sizzles in the air. I forget what I was about to ask.

My back finally hits a tree. I can’t step back anymore, so I tread to my side, stepping on a rock. This position erases our height difference. He presses his palms on the tree trunk next to my head, trapping me.

Looking at me intently, he takes a strand of my hair and twirls it before putting it behind my ear. The way his hand lingers at my earlobe leaves my skin tingling.