I thought I would give you a little taste of what happens between Melissa and Chris in between the end of No Rest For The Vengeful and the beginning of the next book.

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Chapter 1

Forty minutes after sending Jarkko and his crew to the bottom of the Caspian Sea, Melissa and Chris get off their dingy and onto their rented yacht. They go into the cabin where Chris starts the engine and powers in the direction of Derbent.

Melissa is standing between Chris and the controls while he has one arm around her holding her tight against him, spooning the little woman, with the other steering the boat. She fits nice and snuggly inside him as he operates the boat.

Melissa wonders if this will be too good to be true. She had been starting to fall for Ahmed while on their foray into Iran and she doesn’t want to lose Chris the same way. But in the line of work they do, happy ever after is likely nothing more than a pipe dream.

The last thing she wants is to fall in love again and have it ripped away from her so tragically. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have fun with this man, and he with her.

The two hours of sailing their rented yacht into port, with the rolling waves and Chris holding her tight in his arms as best he can while steering the boat, are a welcome respite from the stress of the past year. Not to mention the ten years before that.

As the boat pulls into the dock, Melissa turns to face Chris, puts her arms around his shoulders and pulls herself up to kiss him on the lips as he slides his free arm around her waist holding her in place.

“Where to now?” she asks.

“It’s best to get out of the country first,” he says. “I thought, however that we could do a ski trip in the Swiss Alps.”

“That would be great,” she says.

He sets her down on the floor when the dock hands call for the mooring lines to be tossed a shore. They leave the cabin, toss the lines to the dock hand and disembark the boat. Their rental car is waiting for them in the parking lot, they check around it to make sure no traps have been set before driving off.

Two hours later they are at the airport waiting to board the plane when the call for boarding comes over the intercom for their flight to Switzerland. On the plane, they have first class seats. Perfect for a large man like Chris, while little Melissa seems to be swallowed up by the cavernous seats.

Melissa looks to him, smiles and winks, “Want to join the mile-high club when the plane is at altitude?”

Chris smiles, kisses her on the forehead and says, “I would, but we can’t draw attention to ourselves.”

Melissa shrugs her shoulders and rests her head on Chris’ shoulder as the plane begins to taxi in preparation for takeoff. She knew he was right of course, and there will be plenty of time for them to have fun at the ski resort.

Chapter 2

Inside the ski chalet a porter brings their bags in and sets them inside the door. Chris gives him a tip of fifty Swiss Francs as Melissa is waiting outside the door.

“Are you coming in?” Chris asks her as the porter leaves the room.

She winks and smiles before answering, “You know what you are supposed to do here.”

“Really?”

She tilts her head to the side and gives him a mischievous smile.

“Fine then,” he says.

He slides one arm around her back and the other behind her knees and scoops her up cradling her in his arms. “Happy?”

“Yes,” she says, “I am happy as I can ever remember myself being.”

Chris shuts the door with his foot as he carries Melissa down the hall to the bedroom where he lays her down on the bed.

*     *     *

The next morning, they woke to the sounds of skiers leaving their own chalets. This resort had the ability to ski right out of the lodge to the ski lift. Both are naked under the sheets and kiss passionately as Melissa climbs on top to straddle Chris. Neither of them want to check out the scenery outside just yet, they want to check out the magnificent scenery inside the room.

She sits up straight and traces the lines of his ripped muscles of his pecs and abs with her index finger. “What day do we start skiing?” she asked.

He grabs her hips and squeezes, “Any day you want. I’m happy to do whatever you have in mind.”

“Of course, you are,” she says.

She leans over and reaches down to his pants pulling out the remaining two condoms from one of the pockets.

*     *     *

Two hours after their second love making session, Melissa and Chris are dressed in their ski suits and buying lift tickets that are good for the next five days.

“Want to try and piggy back me down the mountain,” she asked as they made their way to the chair lift.

Chris laughed and replies, “I wouldn’t need to try,” he said, “I’m sure I could manage you. But we’d probably lose our lift tickets.”

“Too bad,” she says, “it would probably be fun.”

They go to the lift and get on. Being a weekday, there are not too many people here, they have the four-person chair lift to themselves, enabling them to cuddle while on the trip to the top of the mountain.

“At the top of the mountain, we could do the mile-high club,” Melissa says.

“You really want to do that, don’t you?” he asks.

“Not in the snow,” she says, “it would probably cause cramps or frostbite. But if we take the company plane ever again, the FAA doesn’t have to know.”

Chris laughed at that and said, “I’m sure we can put up some blankets around our bed.”

They continued their chat until they got to the top of the hill. They checked the trail map and decided to take a green trail that was made for beginners at skiing to warm up their legs. It’s been many years for both of them since they’ve been on the ski hill.

“Shall we race and say, last one down’s a rotten egg?” Melissa asks.

“How about, whoever wins the most races down the hill gets to choose where we eat tonight and what position we do when we get back?”

“You’re on, cowboy,” she says.

They take off down the trail, Chris is so far leading the way. After several twists and turns, Chris wins the race to the lineup of the chair lift. Hopping back on the chair they again snuggle on their way back to the top. This time they choose one of the blue trails marked for intermediate skiers.

Again, Chris wins the race to the lineup at the chair lift. On their third run of the day they choose a double black diamond – a trail for the most advanced skiers. This trail is pocked with moguls all over the trail and is almost a straight down vertical drop.

Melissa goes first and takes a couple turns sliding down over the tops of the moguls. Chris gives her a ten-foot head start before taking his turn down the trail expertly taking the moguls like they’re child’s play. Halfway down the trail, Chris passes Melissa and beats her to the bottom of the trail.

“We should give you a handicap,” Melissa says. “Like you have to beat me by ten seconds in order for the race to be won.”

“Sore loser, are you?”

“You outweigh me by more than a hundred pounds, so gravity works in your favor.”

“Should have thought of that before you wanted to make this a race,” Chris says.

She makes a pouty face and playfully swats him on the shoulder before they get on the chairlift for the ride to the top.

The rest of the day went by with Chris winning every race to the bottom of the trail. When they get in their chalet, they take their ski suits off and are standing in the middle of the living room dressed in sweat pants and hoodies.

“Where are we going for dinner?” Melissa asks.

“There’s a steakhouse at the resort,” Chris says as he puts his hands on her waist and hoisting her up so she’s eye level with him and kisses her on the lips. “I thought we’d make love in the shower and then go to dinner.”

“Sounds like a great plan.”

“It certainly does,” he answers as he carries her to the bathroom.

He sets her down and they undress each other and turn the water on getting the temperature just right. Chris puts a glob of shampoo in his hand and lathers up Melissa’s hair. She stands in the water stream letting the shampoo rinse from her hair as Chris squirts shower gel on her chest and starts lathering up her whole body.

She spins around in the shower stream letting the suds rinse off her. When she’s completely rinsed, Chris bends down sliding his arms around her waist and lifts her off the shower floor.

Chapter 3

Melissa and Chris sit down at the table in the back of the restaurant, they are seated as close to the emergency exit as possible. Chris has his back to the wall and Melissa is seated in the chair to his left giving them both the ability to see the restaurant, in particular the front door for anyone who might enter. As they scan the restaurant, their waitress approaches them and asks if they would like to start with anything to drink.

Melissa orders an iced tea and Chris says he’ll take water. They peruse the menu as the waitress leaves to fetch their drinks. When she returns, they both order the New York Striploin with steamed veggies and baked potato, she writes down their orders and leaves them to place their order.

As she walks past a table several feet away from them one of the men slaps her on her backside and grabs her spinning her around.

“When’s our food coming miss?” he asks, drunkenly slurring his words.

“I’ll check for you,” the waitress says. She tries to pull away from him put he holds her tight and tries to pull her onto his lap.

“I want a lap dance first,” he says. He moves to kiss her as she is trying to pull away asking him to let her go. “No chick says no to me.”

Melissa jumps up from her table and rushes over grabbing the back of the man’s head and slamming his face into the table. She yells into his ear, “When a woman says to let her go it means you let her go, got it ass hole?”

She lets him go and blood flows freely from his broken nose as he sits up straight in the chair. The man’s three friends jump up sending their chairs crashing to the floor. Chris has now joined Melissa standing behind her.

“Three big tough guys on one little girl?” Melissa mocks them.

The restaurant manager enters the fray, “If you’re going to fight you are to take it outside.” He is backed by four beefy security men. “I’m not joking about this either, all of you are to leave right now, I’ve already put in the call for the police.”

Chris and Melissa agree to leave without further incident. The man who’s nose she broke is given a rag to cover over his face and his friends help him leave the restaurant. One of them yells at Melissa, “You were lucky this time.” He let loose a few curse words at her before they went to their own chalet.

“What’s for dinner now?” Melissa asks.

“Let’s just order room service so we can avoid any more confrontations.”

Melissa looks up at him and smiles, “You think I shouldn’t have done that?”

“Stopping the guy from harassing the waitress? You were right to do so,” Chris says. “But to smash his face on the table? You should try and keep a low profile. And that means not breaking people’s faces.”

She laughs and says, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They get back to their chalet and order room service from the steak house they were just kicked out of. The two of them snuggle on the couch with Melissa sitting on his lap and he has both his arms around her waist. Will this be the love that finally lasts? Melissa thinks as Chris presses his lips to hers. They hold the kiss for several seconds, one of the best kissers ever.

The knock on the door breaks them from their reverie and Melissa gets off his lap as Chris stands up and walks to the door while opening his wallet and taking out the fifty dollars in cash. However, he made an uncharacteristic mistake by not checking the peephole on the door before opening it. As soon as he does a pistol is stuck to his forehead and the four men they had a fight with at the steak house push their way in. Chris’ hands are up in a surrender pose.

The man with the broken nose now has it covered with a bandage and cotton stuffed up his nostrils, he gives Melissa his dirty look with his upper lip turned up in a snarl. “You think you can humiliate me in public in front of my friends and not pay a price you little bitch!”

The man with the gun pointed at Chris’ forehead says, “We’re going to have a little fun with your little lady right in front of you. And what a pathetic man you are, can’t protect your little woman and keep her safe.”

Another of the men is recording the whole thing on his cell phone camera while the fourth man takes out some rope from his jacket pocket and pulls a chair. “You’ll get a front row seat to us doing your girl.”

Chris smiles and winks, “I don’t think so boys.”

With his left hand he pushes the gun out of the way of his head while simultaneously twisting his body to fully clear the line of fire. He shoots his right hand down to the man’s groin, grabs hard, twists and pulls. The man doubles over loosening his grip on the gun allowing Chris to gain control of it. He proceeds to slam the gun down on the back of his head knocking him out.

Meanwhile Melissa slams a roundhouse kick into the right knee of the man who’s nose she broke earlier, this time breaking his leg. The man falls to the floor and she grabs his nose and he starts screaming.

“You really should learn to respect women,” she yells in his face, “not to mention, never underestimate your opponent.” She lets go of his nose and slams her elbow into his jaw knocking him out.

The man who had the rope starts to pull out a knife and Chris rushes him, trapping the man’s knife hand with his own free hand and starts to pummel him in the face with the gun.

The one who was recording the event on his cell phone had his back to Melissa and didn’t see she won the fight against his other friend it never occurred to him that a woman could ever beat a man up, pulls out his own knife and raises it. Before he can stab Chris, Melissa jumps on his back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck to put him in a sleeper hold. He starts trying to spin and thrash around to throw Melissa off his back shocked that such a tiny woman can hold with so much strength and force. Before he can slam her against the wall, he blacks out from the blood supply being cut off to his brain.

With all four of their adversaries now unconscious, Melissa and Chris proceed to hog tie all four of them before making the call to the police. The police arrive within twenty minutes, review the video that was recorded on the cell phone and determine the obvious that Melissa and Chris were acting in self-defense and don’t press charges. With their injuries, the four men are put in ambulances and taken to the hospital for treatment before getting sent to jail.

Their food had arrived while they were waiting for the police and they finish what they hadn’t eaten before the cops arrived. “So much for maintaining a low profile,” Melissa says smiling at Chris as they put the dishes in the dishwasher.

After Melissa closes the dishwasher, Chris bends down and kisses her on the lips and slides his arms around her waist before standing up straight lifting Melissa off the floor. She wraps her legs and arms around him and they continue with their heavy kissing as he carries her over to the wall pinning her against it.

“Tonight, was the first time I ever saw you in a dress and heels,” he said when he pulled his face away from her for a few seconds.

He starts nuzzling her neck as she replies, “Sometimes I like being the girly girl, but most often in our line of work, I need to be the tom boy.”

“I love you every way,” he says moving his lips back to hers. He slides one of his hands up her dress and slides her panties down an inch. “Up against the wall was the position I had planned before making love in the shower.”

“Go for it then,” she says. She arches her head back as he slides himself into her.

Chapter 4

Melissa wakes up in the morning and rolls over in the bed to find Chris is not there. The smell of bacon and eggs wafts in through the open door of the bedroom and she rolls out of the bed, takes Chris’ shirt that was lying on the floor and puts it on. A shirt that fits like a glove on a well-muscled man of over two hundred pounds fits like a loose dress on the ninety-pound Melissa.

“Hello sleepy head,” Chris says as she walks into the kitchen.

He bends down and kisses her as he dishes out the food onto two plates. She sees the time on the clock reads ten in the morning. They won’t get as much skiing in today. They sit down to eat their breakfast and start chatting about which trails they will hit today as they peruse over the trail map.

“All black and double black diamonds today,” Melissa says.

Chris nods his agreement, “Shall we have the same bet as yesterday?”

“No,” she says, “remember you outweigh me by over a hundred pounds, so gravity benefits you more than it does me.”

“Okay, well, this time it will be your turn to decide where to eat and what to do after,” he says.

She smiles and leans over to kiss him. “I’d prefer to avoid any confrontation, so we’ll order room service.”

When they finish their breakfast, they get dressed and head out for the chair lift. Snuggling on their way up to the summit, they kiss a few times before disembarking the lift and head over to the black diamond trails.

There’s a group already ahead of them and they wait their turn to take the trail. Twisting and turning their way down the hill, they get to the bottom in seven minutes. Back on the chair lift, they snuggle again on their way back up. This romance might just last, she thinks as they hold a kiss for several seconds.

The day goes by quickly, one of the best vacations she’s had in her life. Maybe because when she was with Danil and under his thumb, she was never really on vacation. This is a non-working holiday, the first one she’s had in eleven years.

Before ordering room service they take a shower together again, get dressed and decide to head out for some sight-seeing and window shopping. Hand in hand they walk through the village and check out the souvenir shops. No purchases made, they want to travel as light as possible, it would likely be just a matter of time before they are called on another mission. Any souvenir might get lost, and whoever finds it might trace it back to here and then to them.

Out of one of the shops, two young men rush out running towards Melissa and Chris. The shop keeper sticks his head out and yells, “Those two just robbed my store, call the police.”

As the two start to pass Melissa and Chris, she sticks her foot and trips one of them sending him face planting to the concrete. His partner turns to face them, Chris does a palm heel strike to the man’s jaw sending him to the ground unconscious.

Others crowd around and take the guns away from the criminals as Melissa and Chris depart the scene. When they get back in their chalet Melissa says, “Low profile doesn’t seem to be in the cards for us.”

“Next time we don’t interfere,” Chris says.

Melissa picks up the room phone and orders room service, two burgers with fries when Chris gets a text message on his cell phone. He checks it out and grimaces, vacation is over for him.

“What is it?” Melissa asks.

“I’ve got a quick job to do,” he says.

“So…”

“I’m sorry, I won’t be able to back pack through Scotland with you.”

She purses her lips, hopefully this doesn’t happen often, “They don’t want me with you?”

“Not on this one,” he says.

“One last night together, right?”

He shakes his head, “I’m sorry, but I have to go within the hour.”

He starts packing his bag with Melissa’s help and is about to depart when their food arrives. He pays the delivery driver and kisses Melissa good bye telling her he’s sorry and that he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to see her again, and leaves the chalet taking his food with him.

Melissa pulls out three bottles from the minibar, flops down on the couch and chugs back one of the drinks and starts nibbling on the burger, I have to stop getting so attached to men. She drops the burger on the floor, kicks it across the living room, then empties out all the bottles from the minibar. Spend the rest of the night blotto and then it’s off to Scotland, she thinks, it really was too good to be true.