The RunAway Model

XVI. Game Changer

The game had changed.

He shouldn't have done it, said the big part of his brain later that evening. He lay wide awake looking at the ceiling of the cabin with Desiree sleeping right next to him facedown the bed, naked under the covers.

But they both knew this was coming, he reasoned. He bought her at the auction, didn't he? He should not feel as if he had done something big. It was just sex. He owned Desiree. So what the hell was his problem now?

"Can you quit it?" Desiree's sleepy voice asked beside him.

"Quit what?"

"Thinking. I can't sleep with your mind screaming like that."

"You're dreaming. Go back to sleep."

"For someone who literally jumped unto me, you think too much," she complained before turning away from him and pulling the covers over her head. "I should have known the tables would turn. I would have begged then."

"Shut up."

"Then go to sleep. You move too much when you're awake." Her voice trailed away as she spoke. She was falling asleep again and Theo wondered if she would even remember what she had said when she woke up that morning.

He didn't sleep another minute that night. He was wide awake thinking about the twins. There was a fat chance that Desiree was right. It was unusual for Berkeley to use kids as his cover. It was not usually done because they would always prove to be difficult to handle or even fool. And with the package's supposed high importance, taking kids might increase the chances of getting caught. But he did it anyway. He did it because the package was not some inanimate object. It was the twins.

The problem now was that Theo found it hard to believe that such kids could contain such information. He would be willing to agree that some digital chips were surgically inserted inside their body for extraction later on, but for their brains to be the actual chip, he wasn't as eager.

But if it were true, Theo was sure that those boys had been through a lot in the past. Wherever Berkeley had taken them from, it wasn't a good place. And whoever owned them in the past, whoever forced information in their minds and taken their abilities to such use was worse than anyone Theo had met. He could watch grown-ups be used and even killed, but children were an entirely different species in his book.

He had always wondered if he'd face this kind of problem and he had been avoiding it for as long as he could. He had always stayed away where children were concerned. Now, it came and he didn't know what to do.

*****

They were both in the tub later that day. Desiree thought that she might as well enjoy sex with Theo for it could land her at the right places. One, he seemed more relax. Two, any fear she might have felt toward him was completely gone. Three, he might consider help the kids. And lastly, she might just earn her freedom. The last one may take a long time but she was willing to wait. I just don't have to end up like Ms. Kane, she reminded herself.

She had her eyes closed while the water lapped around both of them. Theo was sitting right across from her, his hands on her knees.

"You have a tattoo," he said, running his hand over her right inner thigh.

"Uh-hmmm," she sleepily answered.

"Why a butterfly?"

"Are you seriously curious?" she asked, peering at him through heavy lids. He looked serious. Desiree sighed. "Just because. No significant reason."

He didn't press and pulled her toward him instead, the motion effortless because of the water. His hands went to her hips as he seated her on his lap, touching her everywhere his hands could reach. Her arms went around his shoulders and her head dropped at the crook of his neck. She liked the touch of his slippery skin against hers. She liked the smell of the soap and the gentle movement of the water. It was calming in a lot of ways.