Niall snapped the door shut, locking it tight and I realised he had a bag tucked under his arm as he led me to his BMW.
He opened the passenger door for me like a real gent and I gave him a curtsy, too enthralled with the idea of going on the hunt to worry too much about the other guys. Sure, I’d miss them. But I’d fill them in on the whole story when I got back, and maybe Niall would let them come play killer next time.
Niall took off down the drive at speed and I snapped my belt into place, getting myself cosy in my heated seat and enjoying the sensation of feeling like I’d peed myself without being wet. Niall played some Eminem while he drove us away into the night and we both sang the words at the top of our lungs – although he kept laughing at me, saying I got the words wrong even when they were definitely right.
We eventually pulled up on a country road where there were no streetlamps and Niall killed the engine, turning to me as he pushed a cigarette between his lips. I instinctively grabbed the lighter from the cup holder, igniting it and holding it up for him. He inhaled deep, the cherry burning bright between us in the dark and making my pulse skip and dance.
He exhaled the smoke from one side of his mouth and it coiled around me like a snake, inviting me closer.
“Can I try?” I asked and he chuckled around the cigarette before plucking it from his lips and sliding it between mine.
“I told ya I don’t wanna be responsible for killin’ ya, lass. Certainly not like this. If I killed you, it would be a damn poetic thing. Blood spilling, every star in the sky crying out to save ya, but you’d be mine and no force in this world could take you from me in yer final moments. Your life and your death would be mine; I’d take one and hand you the other in the most brutally beautiful way I know how.”
Fear and lust blazed inside me and I almost forgot the cigarette perched between my lips as I stared at this man who promised me oblivion so easily. It was tempting to ask to die at his hands. If I hadn’t wanted to live so much, I’d have given him that privilege a long time ago.
“Now take a drag, but don’t get addicted,” he commanded and I did so, drawing the smoke into my lungs as deeply as I could. I coughed hard and the cigarette exploded from my lips, sparks flying everywhere as smoke poured from my mouth and Niall laughed so loudly, I could hear it on the inside of my head.
“Well, that settles that easy enough.” He swiped up the cigarette, pushing it back into his mouth and toking on it as I struggled to regain my composure.
“I think I like it,” I said through a wheeze, though I was pretty sure what I really liked was the taste of him that had lingered on it. If I was gonna be an addict, it wasn’t going to be for some smoky stick. It was going to be for the hot killer man sucking on that smoky stick.
“Alright, now, take off those sparkly clothes and put this on.” He unzipped the bag at my feet and took out a black bikini, pushing it into my hands.
I gaped at him in horror. “But there’s no sparkles. Or spangles. Or even any jangles!”
“That’s the point. Now don’t pout, I have somethin’ special for ya to wear once we’re inside.”
I tried to peek in the bag to see it, but he caught me by the throat, shoving me back into my seat. “Don’t spoil the surprise,” he growled and my heart whizzed around my chest like a wayward snitch trying to evade Harry Potter.
I started stripping and Niall shifted around in his seat, opening his window so the smoke filtered out of it and looking away from me as I said goodbye to each of my pretty items until I was butt naked, pouting at the plain black bikini.
I pulled it on with a sigh, securing it in place before pulling off my wig and tossing it into the footwell, my real hair tumbling down around my shoulders.
“Are ya done huffing and pouting yet?” Niall asked as he turned around and his gaze fell to my little tits which probably looked like grapes in comparison to the melons he was used to on his fiancée.
“What in the fuck is that?” he pointed at the sequins I’d pulled off of my leotard and sprinkled over my cleavage.
“It’s pizazz, Niall. God you’re so boring,” I huffed as he leaned in and brushed them off, taking his time to make sure he got every bit. His large palm was rough against my flesh and my mouth dried up like a desert in a drought as he worked to get rid of every sequin, even when I was pretty sure there weren’t any left.
“Right. Well then.” Niall cleared his throat, sitting back in his seat and flicking his cigarette butt out the window.
He started pulling his clothes off until he was down to his swim trunks and I took in the ink on his muscular body with heat burning between my thighs. The Devil on his forearm was watching me knowingly, like it could see every dark desire I had for this man that his inky self lived upon.
I shook my head at it in a warning, daring it to tell on me then Niall leaned across me, his arm brushing my leg and the heat of his body sending a dagger of pleasure right to my clit.
He took a black backpack out of the bag then stepped out of the car barefoot as he slung it over his shoulder. “Come on then.”
I climbed out over his seat, following him as he shut the door and locked the car, tossing the keys into the bag then leading the way along the dark road where the fog swirled thickly.
The heavy thump of music carried from somewhere up ahead and I glanced up at Niall, waiting for him to tell me the plan, but he said nothing as he turned down another quiet lane and came to a halt beside a wooden fence. He whistled softly as he took a hammer from his bag and used the spiky end to prise a couple of boards off of the fence, making a cheeky hole just for us.
He led the way through the gap and I followed him, my feet sinking into some damp grass as the mist hung about us.
“Perfect night for sneaking,” Niall commented as he guided the way through the dark towards a haze of lights in the distance. As we got closer, I realised we were approaching a house and my heart beat harder as I recognised it as the judge’s home.
Music blared from inside, a party clearly underway and I frowned as I looked to Niall. “Didn’t Mateo say we should come here when there’s not a load of people about?”
“Yes he did, Spider,” Niall said, looking to me seriously. “And that was a very dull idea indeed, and I don’t take stock of those. This here is a challenge, and I like that. Besides, who doesn’t love a little murder at a party?”
I grinned at that and Niall caught my hand, towing me off to one side of the house, circling around it until the pool came into view.
Steam plumed up from it and Niall chuckled as he pointed out the open barrier between the indoor and outdoor pool. But there wasn’t a sole in the water. It was a way inside without a single thing to stop us.
“See how lucky I am?” Niall muttered. “A damn Leprechaun lives in my soul, I tell ya.”
He dragged me up to the pool, moving around like he knew where every blind spot was on this property. And he probably did. He was a professional hitman after all.
He reached into his bag and took out a slim pen knife, stepping behind me, drawing my hair back over my shoulders and winding it up around the knife before sliding it into place, leaving shivers kissing my neck from his touch.
Niall used a little ladder to climb down into the water and I guessed his backpack was waterproof because he didn’t seem bothered by it getting wet.