Shuttered Truth

Dónal

I re-read the tickets one last time before I slipped them into the inside pocket of my suit jacket. I'd been lucky enough to get some of the last seats for the play and the last night was tonight. It seemed, if you were inclined to think that way, that the fates had lined things up for my date with Leona.

I met her at the bottom of the stairs to her apartment and couldn't believe how beautiful she looked in a simple ensemble of black boots, black slacks and a dark blue silk shirt. As she came to the last stair I reached for her hand and she laughed lightly.

"I wasn't sure what you'd planned, is this ok?" she asked and I nodded.

"Sei stupendo, little lioness, to quote my brother."

She reached up and released one of the collars of my shirt from underneath the suit jacket the backs of her fingers brushing my neck. My Adam's apple bobbed as I swallowed.

"You look good," she said softly and my heart swelled. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I'd heard that in my life time from a woman other than my mother and Callie.

Pavel and my two brothers emerged from Ryan's office and crossed the nightclub to us. Pavel handed us our earpieces.

"This time there is two way communication. If you wish to speak with us simply tap the outside of the earpiece and it will activate a microphone."

"Hawthorne is leaving his home and driving towards the city centre," the mobile surveillance unit reported.

"Niamh is driving you tonight and we've already got people at your first location."

We said our goodnights to my brothers who were reluctantly staying behind and I guided Lee down into the underground garage where the SUV was waiting.

Several times on our way into the city Lee asked me where we were going but I refused to spoil the surprise. When we pulled up outside the Gate Theatre her eyes widened and she tried to see the name of what was playing here before we got out of the car.

We went inside and began to climb the staircase that led to the theatre and when I showed our tickets to the attendant Lee squeezed my arm.

"Oh, I've been trying to get to see this play for a while," she said with excitement as we moved into the auditorium and I led her to our seats.

The play was 'The Speckled People' by Hugo Hamilton and had come from his own memoir. It was about a young boy named Hanni who lived in rural Ireland in the 1950s with his Irish father and German mother and I'd thought Leona would like it because of her grandfather's German roots and her own parents.

"Fionn told us about your background so I thought you might like it," I leaned in and whispered into her ear that didn't have an earpiece. As my breath lifted some soft hairs at her neck she shivered.

"That was thoughtful, thank you," she turned her head and our lips brushed. We both pulled back, neither comfortable with displays of affection in this kind of public setting. Granted I didn't mind people watching when I was part of a scene at the club but generally I'd move to a private room if things became sexual. Just before the lights dimmed I caught the flush of pink across her cheeks and ticked that box for today.

When the interval lights came up and she turned to me I could see wet trails down her cheeks where she'd been moved to tears. I offered her the handkerchief from my breast pocket and she laughed softly.

"I hope this isn't expensive," she joked as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose and then stuffed it into her handbag.

"So what do you think so far?" I asked and we began to discuss the nuances of the play and how it was similar to and different from her family's experiences. Soon the lights dimmed again and we settled in for the remainder of it. Lee slipped her hand into mine and I held it loosely but each nerve ending where our skin made contact was like a wild fire. When the cast took their bows we stood and applauded with the rest of the audience.

I shrugged into my coat and helped Leona with hers and then we joined the throng to begin the shuffle to the main exit.

As we passed a particular row of seats, Leona stiffened beside me and then tapped her earpiece.

"Hawthorne is in the auditorium," she whispered and I looked over her head to where her focus had just been. The man I now recognised rose from his seat and turned his back to us, pretending to look for something in his coat pocket but his attention was obviously on us.

"Confirmed, eyes on Hawthorne," Niamh spoke over the comms and we saw her standing in the doorway. She'd obviously parked the car and had been waiting outside.

He shuffled along the row of seats he was in and without turning towards us began to ascend the centre steps towards the back entrance of the auditorium. Niamh relayed his movements as we continued our slow escape.

Every instinct in me wanted to chase him down and beat the living daylights out of him for the fear that now trembled through Leona at my side. I wrapped my arm around her instead and crushed her to me.

Two male members of the backup security team joined us outside the theatre and we stepped into the shadow of a doorway to regroup.

"Hawthorne has retrieved his vehicle and is driving out of the city, you are in the clear," Pavel announced and Leona blew out a breath.

"I had booked a late supper but if you'd rather just go home, that's fine," I suggested, stroking her back in comforting circles. When she looked at me her gaze held a steely resolve.

"No, I'd like to get some food and he's gone so...fuck him. Where are we headed?"

The hotel restaurant was a short walk across the street and up a little from the theatre. Pavel reorganised the security details, allowing some of them to clock off since there didn't seem to be any immediate threat.

By the time we were leaving several hours later I'd told her my entire life story. I'd never talked about myself as much but when she was impressed by my business degrees I knew she'd probably had enough to drink. Niamh brought the SUV to the curb outside the restaurant and we climbed into the back. Leona wrapped her body around mine like a cat and punched the button for the privacy screen to engage.

"So Mr Vincenzi, what else do you have planned to do with me tonight? After all there are several hours before dawn," Leona began to press kisses along my jaw so it took me a few seconds to realise that someone was clearing their throat in our ears.

"Just so you are aware," Niamh said quietly, "Miss Roach's microphone is still active."

Leona flushed red again and tapped her earpiece while I replayed our dinner conversation. Knowing that Pavel worked for the government made me worry that perhaps I'd given too much information to him but I had to trust that his only interest right now was chasing a serial killer.

"Now, where were we?" Leona asked as she climbed over me and spread her thighs so that she straddled my lap. Her hair fell in a curtain around our faces and she braced herself with one hand on the back of the car seat.

"Are you drunk, little lioness?" I asked and she shook her head.

"Typsy? Sure. But fully cognissss..." she stumbled over the word cognisant and I grinned while she frowned.

"Fully aware of what I'm doing."

"Is that so?"

"Mm-hmm."

She leaned back a little and pushed back the edges of my coat and suit jacket. She began to unbutton my shirt and then she slid her hands inside, her fingertips brushing lightly over my skin but leaving a trail of deep sensation behind. I pushed her coat off her shoulders and it fell to the floor of the SUV with a slight thud. Our hands knocked against each other as I unbuttoned her blouse and slipped that away as well so that she was left in just her bra.

I shifted my hips beneath her so that my now hardening shaft settled against her core and she shuddered. I kneaded her breasts through the material of her bra but then I circled her body and unclipped it.

Her hands roamed out of my shirt and down towards my trousers and she had just reached between us and cupped my shaft in her hand when the engine died and the front door opened and closed.

The silence that descended awoke my brain. We were back in the underground garage and Niamh was waiting outside to escort us in. I tapped my earpiece.

"You can all..." my voice cracked and I cleared my throat, "fuck Lee," I blurted as she squeezed me.

I recognised the chuckle of Ryan.

"I think my brother is trying to tell you all to stand down. Remove your earpieces but don't shut down the comms," he instructed and I remembered they would have been listening in all evening.

"We're signing off now," Pavel confirmed and we heard the crackle of them disconnecting. Footsteps faded and the lift pinged and I knew Niamh was gone.

"Do you mind if we listen in?" Fionn asked, his voice husky and low and Christ even to me it sounded sexy. If the dampness I could feel on both Lee's and my crotches was anything to judge by she found it sexy too.

"Are the four of us alone?" she asked and we assured her we were.

"Tell us what you're doing, Bella. We only have audio," Fionn requested and she glanced down at me.

"I'm topless but still have my boots, slacks and underwear on and Dónal..." her breath puffed out as I rolled my tongue around each of her nipples in turn, "still has all of his clothes on."

Her petulant tone had us chuckling.

"We're face to face on the back seat and his shirt is open so I can see his gorgeous chest."

She ground down onto me and I groaned.

"What are you doing, Leona," Ryan asked and she laughed.

"I'm straddling him and we're ...we're...dry humping."

Her face flushed red and so I told them that and she swatted my arm.

She fumbled between us and unbuckled my belt and opened my trouser button and zip. The bulge of my shaft filled the void and she moved back into position sinking as low as her spread thighs would let her. I lifted my hips.

"Ride me, little lioness. Ride me until we both come."

Hips undulated and the friction of our clothing over our tender skin began to build the pressure inside. The expression of desperation on her face matched my feelings. She threw her head back and I slid my hands up her chest onto her neck.

"Will I choke you with my two big hands wrapped around your pretty neck?" I asked not seeking her approval but filling in the visual for my brothers.

"I'm going to slap those beautiful breasts until you beg for mercy."

The sound of my hand slapping her swinging breasts filled the silent car and she yelped and moaned and grunted towards her release.

"Can you hear her, brothers?"

Their grunted replies told me all I needed to know.

I focused on where our bodies met, sinking into the feeling so that we'd come together because I sensed she was close. Her thighs shook violently and she had clumps of my coat gripped in her hands. Sweat ran from my hairline down my forehead because she was right I was way too clothed for this.

My brothers were grunting in my ear and instead of finding it gross it added to my own arousal.

"Can you hear what you're doing to us, little lioness? Can you hear how you drive all of us crazy? Only you can do this."

"Oh...please...I need..." she panted out the words, shaking her head and as if we'd rehearsed it my brothers and I responded as one voice.

"Come for us."

She shattered. Her back arched and I had to grab hold so she didn't fall off my lap. Her hips bucked along with mine and we ground into each other for that last bit of sensation. She drenched us in her juices and I drenched us in my cum.

Over the comms my brothers roared their own releases and then she collapsed onto me.

I wrapped my coat around her as she fought to get her breath back.

"Fuck, that was wild. I so wish I could have recorded it," Fionn growled. Lee shivered and so I pushed her up and got her coat from the floor. She fed her arms into the sleeves and I began to button it instantly mourning the sight of her breasts and those intriguing tattoos. I eased her off me and onto the seat and she sighed. I buttoned my clothes up, climbed over her to exit the car and leaned back in, lifting her into my arms. I kicked the back door closed and since the garage was locked up I didn't worry about securing the car.

"I can walk," she mumbled into my chest.

"Why would you when you don't have to?"

"Good point," she agreed and snuggled deeper into my arms and my insides twisted with a blast of emotion I wasn't sure how to handle.

"Can I sleep at your house?" she asked quietly and without answering I changed direction and headed for the door that led to number 12.

I used her thumbprint to open the door and she became a bit more alert.

"You have access to the house this way as well as using the key."

She looked around as we entered the ground floor. There wasn't much to see here and so I headed for the stairs that fed up through the entire five floors. The house was tall and narrow with one or two rooms tops on each floor. As I passed the doors of my brothers' bedrooms I rapped with my knuckles but then kept going.

Leona peeped over my shoulder as Ryan fell into step behind us.

"Are you enjoying yourself, Leona?" he asked and she laughed.

"Absolutely."

I rapped again and Fionn joined our convoy.

"Whose bed will I sleep in?" Leona asked.

"Yours."

I told her and she frowned a little.

"You have a bed in our house," I explained.

"You mean the spare room, right?"

"No, this bed was made just for you."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, we ordered it the day after you watched us in the garden and we made this room yours."

"Did you really think I'd be that easy?" she asked her tone irritated at what might have been seen as arrogance on our part.

"Not at all," "No way," Ryan and Fionn chimed.

"Absolutely not...but," I said looking down into her face. She blinked several times, "we hoped."

I left those words in the silence and while they might have sounded like emotional blackmail they weren't. Those words were the truth.

I shouldered open the door to the bedroom that was at the top of the house and spanned the entire floor, except for a generously sized ensuite bathroom. I set her onto her feet and Fionn and Ryan surrounded her. I dropped a kiss to her forehead and began to unbutton her coat. Once it was open, Ryan took it off her from behind. I hooked my thumbs into her underwear and hunkered to pull them down her legs and she stepped out.

Fionn snatched them from my grasp and brought them to his nose.

"Fionn," she gasped, "they're gross."

He inhaled deeply and she watched.

"I happen to like gross," he announced, tossing them over his shoulder. We walked her towards the bathroom and when she stepped inside her eyes went wide at the shower area. It was at least 2 feet square and had a seat and small hand holds dotted here and there. There was a large centre rainfall shower head, side-on water jets and a more standard removable shower head to one side.

While she stood transfixed we stripped off and Ryan reached around her to turn on the water.

She turned and then stepped back slightly.

"Oh my..." she exclaimed, pressing her hands flat to her now rosy cheeks.

"Are you all showering with me?" she asked.

"Only if you want us to," Ryan replied and so we waited.

"Just showering?" she asked and again Ryan replied.

"It's your call, Leona. You know we'll never do anything you don't want us to do, right?"

"Just showering...I'm tired," she said and stepped in under the water.

Within fifteen minutes we were all washed and surrounding her in the extra large bed we'd had custom built. She lay on her back and we formed a kind of triangle around her with our bodies, each of us on our side facing into her. She truly was the centre of our world both physically and emotionally.