Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
10
Jason
Soren has fallen for Aslin. Hard. They’re fucking with desperation, having the kind of sex that inevitably precedes separation. I am now officially fucking worried. Aslin is mixed up with the mafia, and Soren is obsessed with her. There’s no walking away from what we’ve gotten ourselves into. We thought we were keeping her, but in the end, she’s the one who has trapped us.
I listen to their mutual cries of orgasm, knowing that Soren is sinking himself into a mire he’s not going to escape easily. Aslin is a sticky, dark, dangerous little thing. The worst part of this is that my cock is hard just listening to her. I want her as well. I need her as well. She has an addictive quality, a vulnerability combined with a relentless strength.
All I can do now is stay clear and try to maintain some kind of objectivity. We are no longer alone in the forest. Someone always has to stand guard. Tonight, that is me.
And a good thing too, for no sooner are they screaming their mutual orgasms than I hear a boat approaching quietly. The motor softly putts along toward us.
“SOREN!” I shout his name and go for the guns again. This time, they’re already out and loaded. We are on alert.
Soren comes running, doing his pants up as he comes. His shirt is ripped. She’s a wild fucking animal, our Aslin.
We meet the boat with weapons raised. The second visit is unlikely to be friendly. If they’re back, it’s because they’ve found out she’s here. Any decent amount of inquiry would lead to that conclusion. Aslin was transported here by locals. They’ll share that intel happily for a small fee. I am expecting an assault. The prow of the boat slides into view slowly, cutting little rivulets and ripples into the river.
“It’s just me!” Barry calls out over the misty water. “Don’t fucking shoot me.”
“Barry?”
He’s not lying. He is alone. He pulls the boat up to our little dock and gets out, hands raised. I lower my weapon. Soren never picked his up.
Soren
This isn’t the kind of post-coital encounter I expected. I’m grateful to Jason for standing guard while I lost myself in Aslin. I didn’t hear her fate coming up the river. I didn’t sense the danger that has been wrapping itself around us slowly but surely since she arrived, an unseen anaconda of consequences.
“I came back to talk to you,” Barry says. “I know she’s here.”
“How?” Jason grunts the question.
He nods toward the glittery plastic martini glass sitting up by the fire pit. “Either one of you going to tell me that’s yours?”
“No.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he says. “I don’t give a shit about this. It’s a domestic spat. We’re not here to hurt her. We’re here to take her back to her husband.”
His words hit me like a charging elephant, knocking the air out of me.
“She’s married?”
“She didn’t tell you?” He shrugs. “Doesn’t surprise me. From what I hear, she’s a real piece of work.”
Jason laughs. The sound isn’t amused so much as it is the acknowledgement of what feels inevitable. Of course there’s more to her story. Of course she hasn’t told us what’s important. Aslin doesn’t tell anybody anything she thinks she doesn’t have to. She keeps the world in the dark. She’s terrified that someone else might have some kind of real knowledge of her.
“Aslin!” I call out to her. She is still nearby. She didn’t run when she saw Barry. Maybe she knows him too. Or maybe she was listening earlier and knows he’s not one of the people who plans to hurt her. Either one could be true. She’s tidied herself up a little, pulled on new khaki pants, tucked her olive blouse into them. She’s a neat little jungle explorer full of her own mysteries, but at least she meets my eye as I ask the obvious and inevitable question in the form of a statement.
“You didn’t mention you were married.”
“I’m not married. I mean, I am. Technically. I did marry Luca. I had to. I couldn’t take his money if it wasn’t also my money.” She smiles at me, as if that should explain everything. And then she keeps talking, making matters exponentially worse. “You know what. I’m glad you know this. Because now you know I didn’t actually do anything wrong.”
She’s absolutely conscienceless. When she tells me she’s done nothing wrong, and I get the feeling she really believes that to be true.
“You ran out on your husband and slept with two other men,” Jason says. His expression has become hard and closed. He’s open minded, but not that open minded. Nobody likes a cheat. It’s one thing to be shared between two of us, it’s something else to choose to run out on a marriage.
“He forced me to marry him,” she says. Jason and I exchange looks. We do this a lot around Aslin. We’re checking in with one another because we can never quite be sure she’s telling anything remotely close to the truth. Also, she just said that she had to marry him to get his money, and now she’s claiming that he made her marry him. She’s not coherent even within two of her own sentences.