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Victor and Spoils
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“I’m not going to lie,” Duke drawled as they emerged from the Accademia Gallery into the shady plaza between the wings. “I don’t see what all the hullabaloo is about David. He’s not even entirely Michaelangelo’s work. And his eyeballs are off.”
Beside him, Caitlyn rolled her eyes, but refused to be drawn into his mischief.
“I liked that Ninfa Arnina much better.”
The Ninfa Arnina, translated as the Nymph of the Arno, was one of the first full-body figures sculpted by Bartolini after his return to Florence from Paris. The river nymph was so lovely that before the sculpture was even complete, it had already inspired a poem by Benedetti.
Not that Duke knew who either of them were. She knew he didn’t care either. What he’d liked was that the statue, like so many Renaissance pieces, was fully nude. And female.
“Now that was a spectacular piece of work,” he continued, deliberately egging her as they wandered towards the exit. “The way her hair’s pul
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“Caitlyn? Darlin’?” Duke ran his fingers along the bumpy ridge of her spine, gently calling her back from where her dreams had taken her. Where he couldn’t follow, he thought jealously. Rising from the bed, he padded the short distance across the bedroom and picked up his phone, utterly unselfconscious about his nudity.A quarter ‘til four. There was still time to get back to the Piazza del Duomo, and to climb the cathedral’s dome, if she was up for it.Up for it. He snorted to himself, setting his phone down.When wasn’t she up for something? For as delicate and fragile as she looked, the woman had the stamina—and interestingly, the drives—of a hormonal teenaged boy, chest-deep in the throes of puberty. His gaze swiveled to where she lay in the bed, barely covered by the tangled sheet like the Ninfa Arnina.A slow smile curled his lips and he prowled towards her, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. He liked thinking about her drives. He liked engaging them even more.He grazed his
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“I’m a little disappointed that the cathedral’s baptistry is closed for renovations,” Caitlyn muttered as she and Duke waited for their reserved time for climbing the dome. He glanced down at her, amused and a little annoyed to find her rapidly skimming the Opera Di Santa Maria Del Fiore’s brief blurb about the cathedral’s dome, the Duomo, and its history on his phone. He liked having her undivided attention. Liked how her toffee-colored eyes focused, sparkling and flashing her interest. Leaning towards her, he dipped his head and caught her earlobe between his lips. Immediately, her head shot up and she stifled a little gasp with her hand over her lush mouth. “You’d have had to cut your nap short if we’d been able to tour the baptistry,” he whisper-drawled. Caitlyn nearly groaned aloud as he nipped her earlobe, then gently sucked the brief sting of pain away. She eyed him with an arched brow. “We had time after my nap. What we’d have had to cut short
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Rachel barely recognized the hollow-eyed face of her transparent reflection in the glass doors of the hotel as she approached them, dragging her luggage behind her. She wasn’t the kind of woman who made a habit of being miserable, but at this point, she was giving it serious consideration. The life-sustaining nicotine-coffee-chocolate buzz she’d subsisted on since the truck stop earlier in the day had long since worn off and she’d been running on fumes for hours. Her skin felt gross and she was sure she must stink after two days without a shower, even if she’d been blessed to spend most of it in refrigerated air. She’d long since passed the point of hunger, and now, she was fairly certain she’d be too exhausted to eat, regardless of the quality of the meal presented her. The automated doors slid open as she triggered their sensor and she turned exhausted eyes to the front desk. “Rachel?” Pausing, she pivoted toward the sound of her name. Dex.
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Her heart leapt joyfully at Duke’s encouraging words. Basking in the warmth radiating off of him, Caitlyn drew nearer, pressing her body lightly against his. What had happened at the door had been frightening—she’d never seen him with so little control. Even swept as she was into the storm of passionate sensations he stirred, she still retained at least that much presence of mind to hear what he was saying, to know what he was doing.So much instinctive drive was flattering too, she had to admit. To hold a man like him so enthralled. Even now, he was responding—his fingers leaving hers to caress along the bumpy ridge of her spine, his head dipping to nuzzle her neck. To control him—and herself—she was going to have to be firm.“Duke,” she pressed at his tattooed forearms insistently, forcing him to release her, and pulled out of reach of his lips. “I love what you do when you touch and kiss me, but I want to learn what you like too.”With a wry grin, he tucked his hands behind his bac
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Leaning against his chiseled chest, Caitlyn wrapped her arms around the back of his neck in an extended stretch. Then she wiggled and flexed with no particular grace and absolutely no idea what she was doing, rubbing her bottom against the heated steel of Duke’s erection. With her heart racing in a frenzied thumping, she waited for his reaction. Rapt, he gently enfolded her in his tattooed arms, closing one large hand at her throat and pressing her into his strong, warm body. She was so primed that she gasped as his questing palm brushed over the sensitized tips of her breasts and squeezed lightly before angling downward to skate across her abdomen. He was making a beeline for her pleasure zone’s command central. Too fast. Already she could feel herself being sucked in to his seduction and overpowered. “Wait.” His hand stilled and he nuzzled into her neck, forcing his breathing to steady as he inhaled the florally-female scent off her skin and fought the dema
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What escaped him was something between an agonized howl of pain and a bitter growl of frustration. But he yielded. Setting her on her feet gently, Duke separated them. Then he took an unsteady step back, pivoted so his back was to her and took a seat on the side of the bed. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, then fell back to stare blankly at the ceiling, his chest heaving and ropey veins standing out along his neck and shoulders, down into his tattooed forearms. His eyes slammed closed and he exhaled a sharp breath. He could have overpowered her like he had at the door. But he’d given her his word, and he’d kept it. Now he’d given her infinitely more. He’d set her free. Liberated her from her own insecurities. Unshackled the bonds of the past that had kept her prisoner. Elated, Caitlynn pushed herself off the wall and stumbled to the side of the bed. Duke’s breath left him with a soft ‘oophf’ as she fell upon him, but there was no tim
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“Rachel, you’d probably feel better if you ate something,” Dex said quietly, reaching for his cup of espresso. Ignoring him, she glanced at her watch and scowled, then sat up straighter and craned her neck, skimming the people at the other tables in the hotel’s restaurant. “Where are they? You said they’re usually down here for breakfast by seven. It’s seven fifty-five.” Sighing heavily, Dex used the time it took him to set his cup down to rattle off a mental ten-count. “The operative word was ‘usually’, Rachel. If I knew where they were, I wouldn’t be here having my meal ruined by your frenzied tapping and annoyed huffing. Maybe they came earlier.” “We were down here at quarter after six!” Not willingly, he thought, but remained silent. He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes slowly, his jaw clenched. “Fine. Maybe they’re late. Maybe they’re having breakfast somewhere else or getting room service. There’s not a way for me to answer your question or I
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Tucking the thin parcel under his arm to hold it, Duke pressed his thumb against the biometric security lock at the lab door, then entered his security code. When the door released, he pulled it open, then closed behind him. He stopped in the entry room, juggling Caitlyn’s package between hands to don his long, white lab coat and a pair of safety glasses. “Hey Paula.” He gave his wife’s lab worker a polite smile and nod as he passed through the wet lab between the aquarium racks teeming with zebra fish. “Hi Duke. She’s in at the microscope.” “Thanks.” On the opposite side of the room, he passed through another door into the main laboratory space, a generous work area with water-resistant flooring, provisions for tissue cultures, microscopy, cell cultures and chemical prep rooms outfitted with biological safety cabinets. Immediately, he spotted his wife. As he’d been advised, Caitlyn was seated at one of the sturdy laboratory tables before a microscope
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“Alex!” she breathed, starting forward when he raised a violently shaking hand towards her. His thin mouth opened in silent accusation and supplication. Then both Dex and Duke were turning her, one on each upper arm with a firm grip. They propelled her swiftly through the hidden door. “Duke, the latch,” Dex ordered as they rushed into the narrow passageway. He pointed at the door, then reached for the switch to reconnect his communication equipment. “Knight 2 and 3. Asset acquired. Allie, we could use an exit plan.” As Duke released her, Caitlyn jerked herself free of Dex’s grasp. She flung herself at the door. “No! He needs my help!” Ramming the bolt home, he pivoted and grasped her by the upper arms. “Caitlyn!” he snapped harshly, shaking her once to get her attention as the light dimmed to nothingness. “No matter what he did to stay alive before, you can’t save him now.” “You don’t know that!” she cried to the darkness.
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“Caitlyn!” The lump of stone that had become his heart leapt into Duke’s throat with ringing alarm. “Shut your mouth, you worthless whore!” Alex jerked the pistol at her furiously. “How dare you even speak to me like that!?” A soft gasp escaped her and she took a step backwards, closer to Duke and the meager amount of safety he presented as Alex advanced on her. She'd intended to provoke him. This was a much bigger reaction than she'd anticipated. “You have no idea! No fucking idea how I felt having to squat just to stand in your shadow!” His vicious words spat at her through clenched teeth. His bourgeoning rage scorched over her, filling the tiny antechamber with its malevolent presence. “You don’t know what it’s like to have your life’s work—the epitome of your creativity and intelligence— shown up and disproven by some pathetic little girl who refuses to see potential! To watch as you dusted your hands of it, like everything I did wa
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Frozen in place and unable to turn away, Caitlyn watched the violence of the wild seizures as Tommaso thrashed on the hard stone floor. Each second that ticked away was a new horror as her potent chemical cocktail took effect. Within seconds, the man’s uncontrolled muscle spasms had pulled bones from joints or outright snapped them. His respirations turned into hiccupping gasps, shallow and forced and his skin flushed dark red from the fierce pounding of his heart.And then it was over.As a physician, she knew what the man’s final second had involved and she gagged, stumbling backwards a few steps knowing that she’d caused it. Catching herself with one slim hand on the edge of a lab table, she crashed to her knees and vomited. Like pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at Agent Richards, it had been too easy—far too easy to kill.She gave a weak sob, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Even with Duke’s words in her head, she knew that until she reached her foul captor’s ch
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“Knight 1. In position,” Jay drawled lazily through the comms, and Duke couldn’t suppress his grin. Both he and Jay were uncomfortable, but there hadn’t been time to develop a full-scale assault plan. At most, they might get twenty-four hours before Caitlyn was either killed or sold to another terrorist group. They’d already lost seven and half hours just getting to her location. They couldn’t afford to wait. A few seconds after, Dex’s acknowledgement hissed through his earpiece. “Knight 2. In position.” Ignoring the brief bursts of chatter through his comms, Duke reached for another handhold, and pulled himself up the sheer face of the cliff on the ocean-facing side of the stone fortress. A hot twinge of pain shot along his nerves from his shoulder, as the numbing medication wore off. He gritted his teeth against it, continuing his climb. Of course, they had the benefit of some of the most advanced surveillance equipment in the world, and arguably the most brilliant mind to opera
