Chapter 2
Rio snuggled further into her bed, her thought process being that if she buried herself deeper into her covers, she would fall asleep. She needed to, her and Agatha’s first mission was tomorrow, and she wanted to be well rested.
After what felt like days of tossing and turning, she gave up. She flicked on the lamp on her bedside table and grabbed her book (Rooftop Gardening: Hidden Secrets) that she had taken from the library and rested her back on her headboard. Rio hoped reading would help her fall asleep. She didn’t understand why she was so nervous. She had been on numerous missions before, why would this one be any different?
It was different because this time she had a wife.
Just then said wife knocked on her bedroom door. Rio suggested they sleep in separate beds; Agatha didn’t disagree although Rio did catch the slight disappointment in her voice.
“Come in,” Rio said.
Agatha stepped inside. She was wearing a deep purple short-sleeved silk button-up night shirt and matching shorts.
“I just wanted to tell you goodnight,” Agatha said.
Rio stirred. Was it hot in here? “Goodnight,” she said as she lifted her hair which was falling past her shoulders into a ponytail on top of her head.
She knew she shouldn’t have. She was only wearing a thin tank and by lifting up her hair she was revealing her uncovered breasts to Agatha. She was giving the other woman an invitation to look at the buds that would be poking through her top.
Rio knew and she did it anyway.
She wanted Agatha to look. This wasn’t very detached of her.
Rio licked her lips as she watched Agatha’s eyes drop to where she wanted them to and then return her blue gaze to her brown.
Agatha quirked an eyebrow, Rio shrugged in response.
'Your move,' Rio said without saying it.
Agatha regarded her for a long moment, her eyes flicking between Rio’s chest, lips and eyes.
A smirk painted Agatha’s lips before she walked over to the bed and perched herself on the edge.
Rio shook her head, “You’re too far.”
“Am I now?” Agatha teased. She pulled the covers off of Rio’s legs, reached over to where she was sat, grabbed at her waist and slid her across the bed towards her.
It didn’t surprise Rio that Agatha was strong regardless of her height and physique.
The two women held each other in each other’s arms for a moment simply staring at one another.
Fuck, Rio thought. Agatha and those deep blue eyes were going to be a big fucking problem.
“Is it bad I’ve been thinking about kissing you all day?” Agatha asked.
Rio prayed she wasn’t blushing. She shrugged, “Why are you thinking about it still? Just do it.”
Agatha laughed at that. “Excellent point.”
And before Rio could think, Agatha brought her lips to hers.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Rio was in big fucking trouble.
Agatha’s soft lips attacked hers with a ferocity she had never experienced before, not even with the girlfriends she had dated for years. Not once had they kissed her the way Agatha was kissing her now after not even twenty-four hours of knowing each other.
Rio grabbed at the long, dark, thick locks of the woman that she had wanted to run her hands through the moment she had laid eyes on her.
Agatha moaned into Rio’s mouth. “You taste…so…good,” she got out in between wet kisses.
Rio whimpered at her words. She was in big fucking trouble.
Rio woke with a start.
Her sheets stuck to her skin, sweat dampened her forehead, a ball of tension was wedged between her legs.
Really? A sex dream about her new wife already? How was she going to survive this marriage?
Rio knew she couldn’t give in to her desire; it would just mess up the whole thing…right? Like it wouldn’t make sense for her to cross that line with Agatha because it would mess with their professional dynamic.
She could always get a new partner; Rio thought it would be worth it…
No, no.
Rio wouldn’t, couldn’t.
She was a good agent, she had never had a problem with professionalism before and she would not start today, even for the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on.
To get through this, all Rio had to do was detach. She could do that easy. That meant, no getting to know Agatha and no letting Agatha get to know her. That meant keeping all conversations work-related and avoiding her at all costs around the house. The attraction to her wouldn’t go away but at least Rio could keep it to just that, mere attraction.
***
Their first mission was to deliver a package to an address Hihi would give them once they had received the package. The package in question would be carted around by an elderly woman who would be going to collect it at a café five blocks from their house.
According to Hihi, the woman would be collecting the package at ten am.
Agatha and Rio got to the café at eight.
Rio ordered a double espresso, and an all butter croissant and Agatha ordered a flat white with an almond croissant. The two women sat with their eyes glued to the café door simultaneously sipping their coffees and eating their pastries.
Twenty minutes passed and both pastries were finished. Rio wouldn’t have minded except having food in her mouth stopped Agatha from trying to talk to her. At any moment, Agatha might try to initiate a conversation with her. She didn’t want that.
“So,” Agatha said after another ten minutes of silence.
Fucksake.
“How did you sleep?”
“Fine,” was Rio’s short response. She tried to ignore the way Agatha’s head jerked slightly at her abrupt bluntness.
Neither woman spoke for a beat, the sounds of the café filled their ears until Agatha said, “And I slept fine too, thanks for asking.”
Rio pretended as if she hadn’t heard, her eyes never left the door she was watching.
“Okay,” Agatha continued to Rio’s dismay. “Where did you grow up?”
Rio fought off the smile that wanted to inch its way onto her lips at the fact that Agatha was not disheartened by her rudeness.
“Can we not,” Rio said. “I’m trying to focus on the mission.”
“The mission hasn’t started yet,” Agatha replied.
Rio let out a short huff. “The mission started as soon as we left the house,” she eyed Agatha briefly, watched her furrow her eyebrows before Rio returned her gaze to the door.
There was another stretch of quiet before Agatha said, “So are we just supposed to sit here in silence then?”
“Well, we can’t, you won’t shut up,” Rio grit out.
To Rio’s surprise, Agatha laughed. “Okay. Woke up on the wrong side of bed today princess?”
“Don’t,” Rio spat. Rio was a lot of things, but a princess was not one of them. The poor abandoned girl who barely survived high school was not a princess. She couldn’t have been if she tried.
Agatha narrowed her eyes before nodding.
Luckily for Rio, the woman they were waiting for came through the door and Agatha’s attempts at making conversation halted.
***
Okay…what the fuck?
She was supposed to be watching the woman who had just walked in and the man she was having a conversation with, but she couldn’t focus. Her eyes kept falling back on Rio. What had she done between the time the two women had conversed in the study to now that had pissed Rio off so much?
What happened to the prospect of getting to know each other? She had seen it, that little bit of Rio’s personality she had invited her to look at. Would that be it? Was it all just a game to Rio? She’d give Agatha scraps and then snatch those back eventually too?
“She’s leaving,” Rio said, ripping Agatha out of her thoughts.
The two women shuffled out of their respective booths and ran out of the café to chase the elder woman. Agatha spotted her rounding the block to their left. Trying not to break into a sprint, the two darted down the street.
For an elderly woman, she sure moved fast. They kept losing sight of her. Agatha thought maybe the older woman knew she was being followed by the way she kept changing her course of direction so abruptly.
The woman had turned ten corners before she walked into a theatre.
“Shit,” Agatha said.
“It’s fine,” Rio replied. “I’m going in, you stay out here in case she comes out.”
Agatha nodded. She fumbled around in her pocket until she found what she was looking for. She lifted her hand up to tuck Rio’s hair behind her ear.
“Woah,” Rio said jerking her head back. “I…you…” she spluttered.
Agatha arched a brow. “I was just going to put your com in.” She waved the intercom in front of Rio’s face so she could see it. “Here, sorry. You can put it in.”
Rio’s face flushed red with embarrassment. “No…erm…it’s okay, you can do it.”
“Are you sure? Because it seems like you don’t want me to-”
Rio cut her off. “It’s fine.”
Agatha narrowed her eyes in teasing suspicion before she placed the intercom in Rio’s ear.
“Right…so I’m gonna…” Rio didn’t finish her sentence before she practically bolted into the theatre.
Agatha shook her head and laughed. Had she done that on purpose to freak Rio out? Yes. Rio wanted to play games, Agatha could too. Her previous relationship made her a master at them.
Agatha heard Rio talking to the ticket warden, he wasn’t letting her in. There was a moment of silence before she heard Rio telling him she found her ticket, she had then asked her ‘mother’ where her ticket was, to which Rio’s fake mother said she had never seen Rio in her life. Agatha heard Spanish in her ear and then the interaction was over.
Rio spoke Spanish? How much hotter could this woman get?
“Okay, so what’s happening?” Agatha said as she paced outside the theatre.
She got no response.
“Rio?”
Her phone vibrated in her pocket.
Rio: you know you can’t talk in theatres, right?
Agatha snorted. Somehow, she knew Rio was being sarcastic and wasn’t having a dig at her.
Agatha: Good point. What can you see? Is the woman still there?
Rio: she is.
Agatha: …And?
Rio: nothing. nothings happening.
Agatha threw her hands up in the air dramatically.
Agatha: Okay??? Well, why not?
As soon as she had hit send a message from Rio popped up.
Rio: okay she’s swapped packages with a woman. this package is bigger.
This was followed by:
Rio: she’s leaving, get ready to follow her.
Right on cue, the old woman walked out of the theatre meters away from Agatha.
What should she do? Tackle the woman right here and now and get it over with? No, no she couldn’t do that, this had to be done well.
Agatha followed the older woman down the street, grabbing a parcel out of the FedEx delivery van she passed. She turned off the main street into a side alley and ran. She had to get in front of the woman.
The side alley had her come out at the perfect spot meters in front of her target. Agatha walked with her head down just in case the woman recognised her before she pretended to trip. She caught on to the other woman and pulled her to the floor. Both packages fell to the ground.
“Oh, I am so sorry,” Agatha apologised. “I’m so clumsy.” She helped her up.
Agatha grabbed her package and handed it to the woman. “Are you okay? Do you need help getting to where you are going?”
The old woman shoved Agatha off of her grunting.
“Okay, well just let me know,” Agatha called to her retreating form.
She smirked before she picked up the elderly woman’s package, tossing it in the air before catching it again.
Agatha heard a laugh. She spun around to see Rio beside herself.
“Did you just tackle an elderly woman? She was pushing seventy.”
Agatha smiled; this was the first time she had heard Rio’s laugh. She liked the sound of it.
“Hey,” Agatha held her hands up. “You gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”
Rio’s phone pinged. She pulled it out from her back pocket and clicked it on.
“I’ve got the address for the package, let's go.”
***
The two women stared up at the white mansion before them. This was it? This is where that elderly woman’s package needed to end up? To Agatha, this didn’t add up.
Rio nodded her head in the direction of the stairs before them and Agatha followed the silent command. Once they had climbed the stairs, Rio knocked on the front door. A scrawny teenage boy opened it, he was dressed in a waiter's uniform.
Agatha furrowed her eyebrows. What the hell?
“We have a package,” Rio said.
“Finally,” the boy ushered them inside. He pointed them towards the kitchen down the hall and then scurried off into the house.
Agatha took in the marble exterior of the place, she hated it, it reminded her of home.
The two women walked into the kitchen where they were met with a circus. Waiters were running about the place, chiefs were screaming at said waiters for running about the place. Agatha and Rio glanced at each other. What was this mission?
They looked severely out of place. Rio was wearing a white fitted long-sleeve top, flared jeans and leather jacket, and Agatha was wearing a light blue button-up blouse, grey blazer and grey work trousers.
“You must have the package,” a woman said, snapping the pair out of their trance.
Rio nudged Agatha in the side with her elbow.
“Er…yes, here,” she said handing it to her.
The woman took it gratefully, placing it on the table.
Agatha and Rio craned their necks to watch the woman open the package.
When the woman did it revealed…
A cake.
Agatha almost screamed. A cake? A fucking cake?
She wanted back into the main field immediately. Fuck The Smith's Programme, the rest of her career would not be spent hand-delivering cakes!
“It’s a bit smudged, did you drop it?” The woman said, pointing at the purple icing that had smeared down the left side of the rectangular white cake.
Agatha clenched her fits.
“Yes,” Rio said hastily. “That was my fault.”
“Hmm,” the woman hummed. “Nothing can be done. Did you want to stay and try some? I’m sure I could sneak you a slice before we serve it to the guests.”
“We’re good, thank you,” Rio said.
Agatha could feel Rio’s eyes on her, she didn’t care. She was fucking fuming.
Two waiters came over, took the cake and carried it out with the rest of the food headed out of the kitchen.
“Okay then,” the woman said.
Rio nodded before pulling Agatha forward by her blazer.
Agatha didn’t know when her feet started complying but soon, she found herself outside of the house again. She turned to face it still in utter disbelief.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Rio mumbled.
“Tell me about it. I thought our first mission would be-”
Agatha got cut off when the house exploded.