[1] Midnight Lips | Ghost

𝐂𝐇. 16

VALENTINA
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     I was late for the meeting. Oh, I was so late and I still needed a few minutes to get to the other side of the base, to that conference room everyone was scheduled to come to today for some reason. Why the hell was it so far away from our dorms?

After the night I had, I didn't even have the time to put an alarm. As soon as I got back to my room, I threw myself on my bed and with a smile, I was asleep after a minute.

My stomach did something close to butterflies, remembering the night I had. Simon's hands and fingers, words, breath, eyes...

Seconds, minutes, moments later, I didn't know, but I think I was still coming when Simon pulled his fingers out because my hips buckled and I couldn't help but whimper, already feeling empty inside. And God, if I didn't want more.

"Valentina?"

"Mhm?" I opened my eyes and met his soft brown ones.

Simon stroked my hair back from my face in a tender way that had me screaming in awe. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

I smiled, drunkenly. "So fucking good."

Simon chuckled, and I watched how he pulled my bathrobe closed and tied it up in the middle. When he straightened, my eyes traveled down his perfect abs and my insides clenched. I wanted to trail my hands down too, to feel his muscles flex under my palms, to feel him pant as much as I did.

And then I stopped breathing because... wow. The bulge in his pants was surprisingly huge.

I frowned. So what about him? I knew he said that it was only about me, but I couldn't leave him like that, right? I couldn't leave him aching.

Simon stood up, pulling me up with him. I swayed a little and gripped his shoulders to steady myself. He hugged my waist in return.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Don't worry about me, darling." He stroked my lips once, and it somehow felt like a kiss from him. My heart did something close to flipping over. "Now be a good girl and go back to your room."

"Simon... How can I leave you like this?"

"Valentina..."

"Let me take care of you." My hands trailed down his abs until I placed one of them on his bulge. And oh God, he was big, so big and so hard and so hot under my palm, that I almost fell to my knees for him.

But he stopped me. Simon placed his hand over mine and gently pushed me away, toward the door. "Not tonight," he grunted, sounding like he was in pain.

"But..."

"Return to your room now, Valentina."

I couldn't understand why he didn't let me take care of him. I knew he wanted me to do exactly that. But no means no, so even if his eyes told me to get on my knees, his words didn't say so.

Simon led me to the door and opened it for me. Before I could step out and run into my room, I turned around to thank him. I gripped his shoulders and got on my tiptoes, coming closer to his face to plant a tiny kiss on his covered cheek. I could tell that took him by surprise because his body tensed.

Ignoring that, I leaned in to say into his ear, "Thank you for tonight." I didn't give him time to respond, I turned around and rushed out of there.

*ೃ༄

"You're late," was the first thing I heard from Alejandro when I entered the conference room, and I knew it was just to piss me off, so I didn't bark back.

"My alarm didn't go off," I said instead as I took a seat beside a grinning Soap MacTavish.

The room wasn't filled. Actually, the only one I didn't expect in here was Philip Graves, yet he stood at the end of the table glaring down at his iPad. Nobody sat next to him, but a few seats down his right sat Rodolfo, followed by an empty seat that looked to be Alejandro's.

Then I met those eyes. Simon sat right across from me, one arm leaning against the back of his chair and the other one laying on the table. He was wearing a black dress shirt, the top buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, looking incredibly handsome and delicious.

He was also wearing black gloves and that black skull mask, and it made me notice how everything about him today was such a tease. From the gloves to his sleeves, there was bare skin. From the collar of his shirt to the end of his mask, there was bare skin.

Oh, wasn't he delicious? I wanted to trail my tongue from his—

"Coffee?" Alejandro's voice jolted me out of my dirty thoughts as he appeared next to me, holding a cup of coffee. I smiled at him and thanked him after he set it in front of me.

It was starting to get hot in here, wasn't it? I opened the khaki shirt I was wearing and pushed it down my shoulders, leaving myself with only a green tank top. That wasn't enough, my skin was getting hotter, so I threw myself air with my hand and glanced at Simon.

He wasn't looking into my eyes anymore but down my chest, only for a split second before he noticed I caught him staring. Memories from last night crept into my mind, and from the way his eyes darkened, I knew he was thinking the same obscene things.

The edge of my lips turned up, and I tilted my head in a teasing way. Simon sat up, one arm hiding under the desk while he leaned his other elbow on it, and looked away.

"Hey, I was thinking..." Soap got my attention as he turned his body toward me and leaned closer. "How do you like to be called other than your name and that Chilena thing?"

"Val or Vale."

He scrunched his nose. "Do you have a middle name?"

I took a sip of my coffee. "I do, but I'm not telling you that."

"Okay, then... What's your favorite fruit?"

I laughed. "You're not calling me my favorite fruit, Soap."

"Oh, come on," Soap groaned dramatically, "my mates' nicknames came from something they liked. We got Kiwi, Ace, Spork, Dandelion, Hot Cheetos, Mango, Rapunzel—"

"Rapunzel?"

"Oh, I knew that'd get your attention." He leaned closer, his voice lowering. "That's a very fitting one. Jacques Bean. He's got this long blond hair he refuses to cut, and he also admitted to adoring that movie called Tangled. Rapunzel was the most accurate one."

I laughed again. "Okay. Okay. So, if your friends' nicknames come from something they like, I gotta know... Why do you like soaps?"

Soap rolled his eyes.

"Is it, like, a specific soap? Like maybe hand soap or body soap or shaving soap."

"Oh, piss off!" Soap fell back on his chair. "You're being fucking annoying right now."

I grinned. "How about a specific brand? Like Dove? I mean, I don't blame you, soaps are cool."

"Aw, you think I'm cool?" Soap placed a hand over his chest, recovering back to teasing me.

"I didn't say that."

"But you did say that."

"Are you hand soap?"

He smirked. "Body soap."

"Oh my God. You're a fucking perv." I rolled my eyes, but couldn't hold back my smile. Soap was funny to be around, always teasing or trying to make a smile grow on your face, and he always succeeded.

Soap barked a laugh and shrugged. "You asked."

"True. Next time remind me I shouldn't ask you dumb questions."

"Captain Price," Simon suddenly spoke, getting everyone's attention as he stood at the end of the table now with a laptop in front of him.

Price's voice came through the speakers. "We've got a problem."

*ೃ༄
TO BE CONTINUED...