Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! I didn’t… I wasn’t…

How did I get myself into these situations?

I peeked through the blinds at the scene outside the office. At least three police cars were now parked outside with their doors open like shields, armed police arrayed around them. Actually armed, like, with guns! I’d never even seen a real gun before today.

“Release the girl and come out with your hands on your head,” came the instruction from the loud speaker.

I raked my hand through my hair, which was getting long now since I’d had no chance to get it cut in months. Then I looked over at the woman curled up in the corner of the room.

This was like that time, many years ago, when my mum walked in on me stealing her underwear. It was not what it looked like. Okay, fair enough I was stealing the underwear, but only because I had to! It wasn’t like I was going to do anything with them. My brother had threatened to tell this girl at school I liked her and…

I shook my head. Underwear was not important right now. The point was she looked at me like I was the worst kind of pervert; if I’d been stealing anything else it wouldn’t have been so bad.

So, okay, I was stealing from the insurance company vault. But the girl in the corner was a complication. She was the difference between stealing underwear and something less incriminating. Now I wasn’t just a desperate thief, I was a hostage taker.

She sobbed and my chest tightened. The building was supposed to be empty; it was Sunday afternoon for crying out loud! But she came out of nowhere. I practically walked into her as I sauntered out of the vault room still tucking bonds into my holdall feeling very pleased with myself. Panicking, I’d yelled at her to get on the floor and stay there. Fifteen minutes later here we still were.

“I’m sorry,” I said, crouching next to her. “Please don’t cry, I won’t hurt you. I just need to figure out what to do.”

She flinched away from me. I stood and backed away.

Shit, shit, shit. I could just imagine this whole thing hitting the news. I peeked out through the blinds again. Yep, two news vans at the end of the street already. It was as if the police had known I’d be here before I even arrived they were here so prompt. If only they’d shown that kind of dedication when my life was burning before my eyes then maybe… but that was irrelevant now.

I slid my back down the wall and sat with my hands resting on my drawn up knees. As far as the press were concerned I was probably a terrorist, a rapist and every other kind of despicable monster.

I slumped forwards with my head in my hands. How could I get out of this? Think!

“Are you okay?” the girl asked. I looked up and found her frowning at me.

I laughed. “I cannot count the ways I am not okay.”

“But you had to realise this would happen, right? Crime never pays.”

“Neither does your fucking insurance company.”

She uncurled a little. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I wasn’t a criminal till your company fucked up my life.”

If they’d paid out on my claim I would never have been broke and homeless, I wouldn’t have turned to a loan shark out of desperation and I wouldn’t have someone waiting at the end of the week to break my legs.

She looked away as if I’d slapped her round the face.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it was your fault or anything.”

She timidly looked up. “What happened?”

“Someone burned my house down.”

Her frown returned. “But you were covered for fire damage, right?”

“There was enough evidence to show it was deliberate, but not enough to incriminate anyone. Therefore the company slapped a big fraud sticker on my file and saved themselves a quarter mil.”

“Oh God, I’m sorry.”

“Ha, like I’d burn all of my possessions to get a cash pay-out that I’d just have to use to replace everything anyway.”

“Actually I’m here today because I quit on Friday,” she said. She got up and walked over to sit next to me. “This place makes my skin crawl. I came to clear out my desk.”

For the first time I actually looked at her. She was comfortably on the round side of slim, with soft curves. Her rear nicely filled up her jeans which flared out at the bottom over scruffy trainers. She wore a festival t-shirt layered over a long sleeve top. It was a very tom-boyish outfit, but it made her look cute. Waves of dark hair framed her sweet round face.

I felt a little tingle as she sat next to me. With everything that had happened, it had been a while since I’d been with a woman. My girlfriend at the time of the fire had showed her true colours when I needed somewhere to stay. It had turned out the reason we always met at my place was because she was married. Lying bitch!

“What’s your name?” the girl asked.

“Um…” Should I tell her? She could tell the police… oh who was I kidding? The only way I was leaving this building was in handcuffs. “Simon.”

“I’m Josie. You know, I might be able to help you find your case file. If you had it you could sue their arses.”

I laughed. That possibility had occurred to me before, but how could I take on a massive company when I couldn’t even afford a solicitor?

“What does it matter? I’m gonna get arrested as soon as I walk out of here.”

“Why?”

“Huh?” I looked at the holdall full of bonds.

“If you put the bonds back, what have you done wrong?”

“Put the bonds…” A vision of Gary ‘The Fist’ O’Neil, a man I had recently been introduced to by my creditors, flashed up in my head. “No I need that money!”

“Why would you need money in prison?”

“I… I…” She had a point.

“Look, you don’t want this, right?”

I turned towards her, using the motion to edge a little further away. “Why would you want to help me?”

Her eyes widened as they met mine and she gasped. “I… I don’t know.”

What was wrong with this picture? Oh right, the bit where she was supposed to be my hostage! The last thing I needed was to add sexual assault to my list of convictions.

I scrambled to my feet. “Look, back off, okay. You don’t know me.”

“No, I just… you don’t seem like a bad guy, just someone who got screwed over. I’m sorry, I was only trying to help.”

“Well you shouldn’t.”

She stood up with me. “Shouldn’t what?”

A squeal from the loud speaker outside made me jump. “We repeat, release the girl and surrender yourself. You have ten minutes to comply.”

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered.

Josie put her hand on my forearm. “Shh, calm down. We can fix this, okay?”

“I don’t know, this is so fucked up.”

Her eyes darted about as if she was thinking things through. “Okay, listen. How did the police find you?”

“I thought you… I don’t know.”

“Well it wasn’t me, so it must have been the alarm...” She frowned. “But then, how do they know about me?”

She shook her head. “We’ll work that out later. Right now you need to put what you stole back and remove any trace that it was ever touched. Can you do that?”

The calm, controlled assurance in her voice was comforting. I nodded and picked up the holdall.

“Wait, I need your surname and address to find your records.”

I gave her my details and then sloped off to rectify my crime. I re-stacked the bonds and wiped down ever surface I could remember touching and a few I was fairly sure I hadn’t. Thank god I hadn’t damaged the vault breaking in. I’d just used a substantial bribe to get the code; a further advance from Mr The Fist’s employers.

When I came back to the room Josie was gone. Oh fuck! What the hell had I been thinking? Could I really be that dense? I know, I’ll leave my hostage alone with my name and my details and what I look like. Fuck! How had she tricked me so easily? Maybe because I wasn’t supposed to be a sodding criminal!

I was still contemplating the depths of my stupidity when she appeared at the door, panting, clutching a sheaf of papers.

“Got it.” She stuffed the papers into her bag.

“Huh?”

“Your file.” She glanced at her watch. “We only have a couple more minutes. Look, I was thinking. It was one of the security team that suggested I come in today. He said he’d leave the building security off.”

“I thought I paid them off. Two guys. To get me past the security and give me the code for the vault.”

“I think they set you up, and they chucked me into the mix to make sure the police paid attention.”

“So what the fuck do I do now?”

She smiled. “It’s okay, you just walk out of here.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No I’m not. Nothing has been stolen. You just tell them you were here with me, to help me with clearing my stuff out.”

She glanced at her watch again.

“But they have guns,” I said.

“You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s going to be fine.”

She quickly ran through the cover story and made me repeat it back to her. My head was in a daze, I’d long since stopped trying to figure out what was going on.

“This is your final warning,” came the call from outside. “Surrender yourself now.”

My chest tightened and I started hyperventilating. Josie leaned in pressed her lips to mine. I hesitated, I shouldn’t be doing this; she was my hostage. But her lips felt so soft and sweet. Calming. Of course for a hostage she seemed to be surprisingly in charge. She slid her hand into mine and I squeezed it.

“Come on,” she said.

She shoved a box of her things into my arms and took up her bag. Then she led me to the front door and out into the sunlit street to face the world.

***

That afternoon was one of the most exhausting of my life. The police questioned me over and over. When the interrogation started to lean more towards a lecture about wasting police time I knew I’d gotten away with it. They finally released me without charge just before ten pm.

Of course I was still flat broke and had a looming appointment with ‘the fist.’

I stood on the side of the street outside the police station trying to figure out my next move.

“Hey,” Josie called from behind me.

I turned and she walked over.

I ran my hand down my face and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say, you were amazing. Thank you.”

She smiled shyly and I had a fleeting vision of her lying back on soft pillows as I made love to her. Wrong, so wrong. I couldn’t, not after what had happened. Besides, I had nothing to offer her.

“These are for you,” she said, handing me the papers from the office. God only knows how she’d kept them hidden from the police.

“What will you do now?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Fuck knows. Get my legs broken by a big Irish thug I guess.”

“What? No.” She bit her lip and moved closer.

“I’ll find the money somewhere,” I said. “I have three more days, how hard can it be to find ten grand in three days?”

“Come and stay with me,” she blurted out.

“What? No I couldn’t.”

“Yes you could, I’m telling you, you can.”

Her eyes shone with nervous anticipation, like she was scared of my rejection. There was a name for this, some special name for captives getting attached to their captors or something. If I accepted I’d be taking advantage of her, wouldn’t I?

“It’s really no trouble,” she added. “I have a spare room if you don’t want to… well, you know.” She trailed off.

I felt a warm glow of arousal as her cheeks flushed pink. So cute, so clever and strong. She’d just saved my arse and was now offering more help that I didn’t deserve.

“Only if you’re sure,” I said. Weak! I was just a weak opportunistic bastard.

“I’m sure,” she said, giving me an excited smile.

She led me to her car and drove me to her home; a small two bedroom flat.

As she let me in and pointed out where the bathroom and kitchen were, I found myself wondering who was the captor and who was the captive.

I pushed the feeling aside and kicked off my shoes by her door.

“Thank you so much for this. I don’t think I could have faced a night on the streets after everything today.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll get us something to eat if you like.”

“Thanks, I’m starving. Can I, um, can use your shower?”

She found me towels and some shampoo and left me to it.

The warm water soothed my frayed nerves and washed the tension from my body while my mind wandered to thoughts of Josie. Normally I was more one for tall, skinny blonds, but there was something about her. Something that made me yearn for her, deeper than just a desire for her body. Not that her body wasn’t pushing a surprising amount of my buttons too.

I absently stroked my stiffening cock, imagining the feel of her lips on mine and what it would be like to cup her generous breasts in my hands, tug on her nipples with my teeth as I eased ‒

The door cracked open and I froze. Not that she could see me behind the curtain.

“Simon? Sorry, I just thought… would you like me to wash your clothes for you?”

“Um, sure, whatever,” I forced out, still holding my cock in my hand.

With a few rustling sounds she scooped up my clothes and left. I was a bad person, jerking off over her! Bad, bad person. I finished up my shower hoping my erection would fade, but I couldn’t keep my mind off her.

Cleaner than I’d been in weeks, I dried myself off with Josie’s fluffy white towel and… ahh, right. Couldn’t get dressed; she had my clothes. I fixed the towel round my waist. It did very little to cover the signs of my excitement. I should have just beat one out to get it over with, but, it felt wrong.

Instead I kept my hands in front of me and walked out into Josie’s flat.

The sound of quiet singing reached my ears and I followed it. Josie had headphones in and bounced around her kitchen as she prepared the food, singing along to some indie rock track. I watched her for a minute, feeling a lot of things I really hadn’t expected. Chief among them, a warm glow in my stomach.

She jumped when she spotted me lounging in the doorway, and then her eyes passed over my body and she flushed pink. Something in me snapped. Wrong or not, I wanted her.

I crossed the few feet between us in two long strides and grabbed her hips. She had just long enough to gasp before I brought my lips down to hers for a deliciously long, moist kiss.

She pressed her body against mine and I slid my hands round to her back. It felt weird to be leaning down so far to kiss a woman. Weird, but strangely right. I crushed her up against the kitchen counter and she let out a little moan.

After a few deep, intense kisses Josie wriggled free. Without breaking the kiss she reached out and turned off her hob by feel. I chuckled; that level head of hers was the reason I was here and not locked up right now.

She turned us both until she had her back to the door and then backed up, leading me to her bedroom. I followed eagerly and scooped her up into my arms as we crossed into the room. She wrapped her legs round me, her breath shortening.

I dropped her onto the bed and stretched over her.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” I said against her lips between soft lingering kisses.

“Why not?”

“Because, I shouldn’t be taking advantage of you.”

She slid her hand between our bodies and rid me of my towel with a cheeky wink “You’re not, I’m a big girl; I know what I want.”

She wrapped her fingers around my cock and I moaned as she stroked me. God I hadn’t realised how much I needed the release. She shoved my hip and I rolled off of her, onto my back. Following me fluidly, she straddled me and lifted her layered tops over her head. I sat up and grabbed her arms while the fabric still covered her eyes and she giggled.

I watched her straining forward, searching for my kiss and felt that warm glow return. I stroked my thumb across her lips and she flicked her tongue out. The moist tickling pressure made my cock throb. I groaned and kissed her, tugging her top free above her. Her arms dropped down around my shoulder and she slid her fingers up into my damp hair.

“You make me feel amazing, Simon,” she whispered.

“Josie,” I moaned.

I forced her down onto her back again and moved down the bed to remove her jeans. I tugged them off and took in the sight of her body, clad now only in mismatching black pants and a simple white bra.

I found myself thinking that I’d never been with anyone so perfect, even though I’d been with skinner women. Josie’s beautiful curves did unexpected things to me. I wanted to devour her, worship her. And I never wanted it to end. I didn’t want this to be a one-time fling; I wanted her to be mine.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said.

She smiled but looked away.

“Hey, no, I mean it.” I put my fingers on her chin and turned her head back toward me. “You are.”

Her chest heaved with shallow breaths and I ran my hands over her body. She closed her eyes at my touch. When I lightly tickled my fingers over her mound, through her pants, she gasped and arched her back a little. A wave of tingling anticipation washed through me when I felt the damp fabric, already soaked through.

I moved over her, pressing my cock against her crotch and stomach and then teased aside the fabric of her pants to trace my finger between her wet, swollen lips.

I could have rammed myself into her willing embrace right then, but I wanted to make love to her, not fuck her. I pulled her pants down and off and then made her sit so I could take off her bra. As it fell away she collapsed back onto the bed and followed her. I dropped my head to her breast and took the taut bud of her nipple into my mouth. Her hands clasped behind my head, holding me in place.

I slowly and tenderly covered her whole body in hot, wet kisses, tasting her skin and exploring her. Finally I made my way between her legs and she tensed in anticipation. I blew gently on her slick folds and then lightly kissed her clit. She let out a small cry and I grinned to myself.

I licked and nibbled her gently, building up to giving her clit the attention it needed. Her sweet juices tasted divine and I lapped them up eagerly. After a pause to let the tension reach breaking point I shoved two fingers into her and sucked on her clit at the same time.

“Oh, fuck!” she cried. Her pussy went into spasm around my fingers and she arched her back. I pulled back to watch her orgasm. Nothing turned me on more than seeing the rippling, pulsing contractions of a woman’s pleasure. I had to admit I hadn’t expected her to cum so quickly.

I teased her clit with soft licks to extract a few more shuddering waves from her, and then moved up to lay beside her. She grinned at me, sat up and shimmied down my body, drawing her breasts over my stomach and cock until she was low enough to take me into her mouth. She teased me lightly at first but wasn’t long until she was drawing me in deep and giving me long, fast strokes with her mouth. She massaged my balls with one hand and gripped my shaft in the other.

I growled, trying to hold back.

She brought me to the brink of orgasm and then stopped and held me still. For a second I was sure the simple continued pressure of her hand around me would be enough to tip me over, but then the feeling subsided.

“Oh fuck, woman. What are you doing to me?”

She giggled and shuffled up until my cock engaged with her body. “Making you cum hard inside me.”

She slid down onto me, groaning and I almost lost it. “Whoa, whoa, ooh, oh fuck, Josie, you feel so good.”

She began to ride me and I put my hands on her hips to slow her down; I wanted this to last. After a little while I pulled her down onto my chest and she stretched her legs out so she was lying fully on top of me. We rocked together, kissing sweetly. I’d never felt more connected with a woman, which seemed impossible since I’d only just met her.

My cock slid over her clit with each gentle thrust and soon she was trembling on the brink of another orgasm.

“I need more,” she gasped. “Harder.”

I held her close and rolled her onto her back, staying inside her. Her silk soft flesh gripped and sucked at me as I drove against it and she clutched at my shoulders, staring into my eyes.

“Oh fuck, Simon, I’m going to cum again, I’m… I’m…”

I kissed her and slowed down just a little. She kept her lips locked against mine as her whole body jolted with her release. I joined her a few seconds later, pumping my load deep inside as while she still rippled around me.

***

Afterwards we lay together quietly for a while, both trying to get a grip on the intensity of the emotions we’d felt.

Josie’s stomach broke the silence with a loud growl. We both laughed, shared a loving kiss, and I released her to find some clothes. She pulled on pants and a t-shirt and went to rescue the half cooked meal.

I slid my legs under her duvet to keep warm and lay back with a slightly manic grin on my face. Josie was gone about ten minutes and I had just started to doze off when she came back and shoved a bowl of pasta into my hands. We sat together quietly eating and sharing little, affectionate looks and touches.

When I was done, Josie took my plate, stacked it with hers and set it to one side.

“Simon, I want to give you the money you need,” she said, quite plainly.

“No way,” I said. “Everything you’ve done for me so far is incredible, it really is, but I can’t take so much from you.”

“I’m not offering to give it to you, I’m offering to loan it to you, but at slightly reduced rate of interest. Namely no broken body parts.”

“But ten grand though? You can’t have that much just lying around.”

“I do, some money I inherited.”

I leaned in and stroked her cheek. “Stop. Think about what you’re saying. You can’t just give a complete stranger your life savings.”

She put her hand over mind. “You’re not a stranger and I’m not afraid you’ll disappear with my money.”

“Why not?”

She stared at me for a moment and then sighed. “Tell me you didn’t just feel what I felt and I’ll take back the offer.”

“I…” What, that ‘I think I’m falling in love’ feeling? The one that made my knees feel week and my whole body glow? “No, I did feel it.”

She smiled. “Then take the money, pay off your debts and make it up to me later.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening here. She trusted me, although she had no reason to. But she was right; I wasn’t going anywhere. My whole vision of my future had just re-aligned itself to include Josie, which was a very disconcerting feeling.

I pulled her into my arms and kissed her sweetly. “Are you sure you want this? I’m kind of a geek really. I had my own business doing software development from home, until it burned down that is. I’m really untidy, I always leave things to the last minute and I have a habit of getting myself into trouble.”

“Well I’m kind of a geek too,” she said, smiling up at me. “I never finish anything before I get distracted by my next project and sometimes I get so immersed I forget to eat and sleep. My mother is the most irritating, interfering woman you will ever meet and I have a habit for sticking my foot in my mouth.”

I had this absolutely insane urge to propose to her. I didn’t even know where it came from, just some primal instinct to put my claim on her.

“If we do this… Josie I swear I will work my arse off to make it up to you. And, even if you change your mind about me, I promise I will pay you back every single penny.”

She grinned and gave me a playful shove. “You’re damn right you will.”

I shoved back, gently pushing her down onto the bed and nuzzling against her neck.

***

So that was how I met the woman who turned my life around. My self-assured hostage for all of fifteen minutes, she somehow inserted herself into my world in one day.

Mr The Fist was duly denied the pleasure of my incapacitation and with Josie’s help I set about suing the insurance company. Three months later I was awarded the full amount of my claim and thirty grand of expenses and lost earnings. That night I took Josie out to celebrate and proposed to her.

Guess my luck works both ways.