Chapter 3
The next morning, at 5:58 a.m., James entered the gym.
Natalia was already there.
“What are you doing here?” he asked dropping the two fifty pounds weights he had brought with him.
“You told me to meet you here for training.”
“No, I told you to meet me at 6 a.m. sharp. It is 5:58, you are not on time. That’s fifteen push-ups.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am, and now it’s twenty. I am your coach and you do as you are told.”
Natalia bit her lip and dropped to the floor to perform the twenty push-ups.
“You may think that I’m exaggerating and that I am being overly correct but out there, two minutes can decide your fate,” James explained watching her. “You will have to learn to follow your orders to the exact detail. I’m not going to invest months of training into you, just to have you killed the minute you set foot into the real world. Are we clear on that?”
Natalia nodded, finished the set and got back to her feet.
“Good,” said James eying her critically. “Let’s see what we can make of you then.”
The following weeks, James spent at least four to five hours a day teaching Natalia everything he knew about weapons, martial arts and survival techniques. And soon he had to admit to himself that he truly enjoyed the training sessions with her. Natalia was quick-witted and strong-willed, she was uninhibited by him but still respected him, and within a short amount of time, she was better than any of his more experienced training partners.
However, this wasn’t going to last forever.
“Today will be our last training session,” James said as he entered the gym one afternoon. “At least for a few weeks.”
“Why?” Natalia asked in surprise.
“I’m going on a mission. I don’t know how long it will take but it’s probably going to be about a month.”
“Oh.”
He tried to read her face but couldn’t. “Is there a problem, agent?”
She looked up and shook her head. “No, sir. No problem.”
“Fine. There’s no need to postpone training any further then.”
“No.”
They set off to their daily routine of strength and endurance training but there was a stifling atmosphere throughout the entire session. Natalia was quieter than usual and James himself felt a strange heaviness of heart that he couldn’t explain.
He tried to convince himself that he was just anxious because of the upcoming mission. He had got used to life in the facility, to the daily training sessions with Natalia, and to the feeling of not being in constant peril of his life. The mission would change this and he simply had to get used to being in the wild again. That was all it was. It had nothing to do with Natalia or that he would miss her or something stupid like that.
A sudden pain in his back jolted him out of his thoughts. Blinking he realised that he was lying flat on his back on the mat, a grinning Natalia standing above him.
“You weren’t focussed, soldier,” she smiled. “A wise man once told me to never let my thoughts wander when I’m fighting.”
“That man should have listened to himself,” James replied with a half-smile and grabbed her hand that she was holding out to help him up. But instead of getting up, he pulled her down to him, and before either of them knew what he was doing, he had her face in his hands kissing her desperately. To his relief she didn’t pull away but, after a moment of surprise, returned the kiss, her lips sweet and soft on his, her fingers buried in his hair, her warmth striking a spark within him that he had long forgotten.
Sitting on his lap she had her legs wrapped around him, her body pressed against his while his metal arm held her close, his real hand vanishing beneath her shirt, exploring the soft skin of her flat stomach, her back, her breasts.
“James,” she whispered softly, pulling away from him reluctantly. “We mustn’t do that. Not here, not … ever.”
He knew that she was right. If anyone ever found out about this, their punishment would be gruesome. However, he felt like he was willing to risk it for her. He longed for her, wanted her, wanted to do more things than there were names for to her. Only the knowledge that she would be punished as well made him stop.
“You have no idea what you’re doing to me,” he said hoarsly leaning his forehead against hers. “Schulz should never have brought you here. I’m not a good man. I do horrible things and I won’t stop. When I’m gone, Ruginov will take over your coaching. I will ask Schulz to leave it that way, even if I return. It is better this way. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” Natalia said kissing him again. “I know it is wrong and we mustn’t go any further, but we’ve got this moment and no one can ever take it from us.”