Chapter 12

 

London, England

 

Sophia woke with a heavy arm over her naked body. A glance at the clock beside the bed said it was nearly five a.m. That knowledge settled like a weight in her gut. Their night was over, but what a night it had been.

Her body was sore in the best possible way, and she had no doubt her thighs would ache with the reminder of how he’d held them open as he drove into her body over and over. The thought alone made a delicious warmth slide through her.

Sophia was struck by the odd sense of ease she felt. Even though she knew she needed to leave, she couldn’t help spending a moment basking in how good it felt to simply be held. Feeling his hard cock at her back made her smile a little. How was that even possible after all the times he’d taken her throughout the night?

She moved to lift his heavy arm, but instead of letting her go, he tightened his hold and issued a commanding, “нет!” Nyet? No?

It seemed her Russian was demanding, even in sleep. His gruff tone made her grin widen.

When she tried to free herself again, it was like a steel band had wrapped around her body, and though she liked it, she really needed to get up.

That hold did things to her. It was another reminder of all the dirty ways he’d restrained her and how hard she’d come because of it. This man had made it his job to exploit her needs to their fullest, turning every gasp into a cry until she writhed and lost all sense of time and space.

She sighed. “Viktor, I need to go.”

The thought of leaving the warmth of his bed was becoming more difficult by the minute, but she didn’t have a choice.

If she were another woman, she’d be more than happy to stay in bed with him until they were forced to seek food. She wasn’t free to do that, and she didn’t like the pang in her gut that came with that knowledge.

She tried sliding down his body because she needed the distance from him more than ever, and he wasn’t waking. The process of her attempted escape moved her ass against his hard cock. His throaty groan slid over her, and his weight pushed into her, his hips grinding into her ass as he nuzzled her throat. She moaned.

His sleep-roughened voice rolled over her senses in the same way as his big body covered hers. She had no idea what he said, but she hoped that meant he was waking up because she was ready for more even though she knew she was too sore to follow through.

“Viktor, I have to go.”

He cursed, apparently waking this time because he released her and rolled onto his back. The room seemed charged with tension, but she was coming to terms with how bereft it felt to lose his warmth.

“Come to me tonight.” It was a demand.

She stayed silent as her emotions battled with those words. Wasn’t it too dangerous for her to see him again? He made her want things. He also eased her tension like nothing ever had.

She sighed. “I can’t.”

“I will get you out.”

That wasn’t the problem. “I don’t need your help leaving.”

He’d gone still in the dark. She wondered what he was contemplating. “What will it take to get you to come to me tonight?”

She smiled. The man was certainly used to getting what he wanted. She couldn’t resist teasing him. “What are you offering?”

He levered his body so that he could look down at her. The room had very little light, but she could see his features. “Anything you want.”

“Dangerous words for a billionaire.” It was a poor attempt to lighten the mood because her breath caught at how serious he appeared.

He stared down at her. “What will it take?”

After a few tense moments, she finally shook her head. “Not tonight.”

He glared. “When?”

“You’re a demanding man.”

“You enjoy my demands.”

His words were definitely true. After a moment, she found herself relenting, “Tomorrow night.”

He looked ready to interrogate her, so she moved away from the bed, away from his assessing stare. She had one guard, and Jen needed to sleep at some point. Staying awake an entire night after her shift two nights in a row wasn’t something Sophia could or would ask of her. It wasn’t wise on many levels. Or maybe she just wanted a night to come to her senses and back out. Either way, he didn’t need to know her reasons.

“Tomorrow.” His authoritative tone suggested he knew what she was thinking.

She searched the floor for her underwear before remembering they’d been torn off. Sophia stilled, realizing that this would be her first walk of shame. She’d never shared a bed with a man and been forced to find her way home in her evening wear. She mentally shook her head, feeling only novelty as opposed to the regret she should probably be feeling.

As she slid on her dress, he came up behind her and slowly zipped it up. The action was far more intimate than when he’d taken it off, and she forced herself not to lean into him.

Her hair was in knots. She tried to tame it, but it didn’t cooperate. At one point in the night, they’d showered together, which meant she was the definition of hot mess as she slipped on her high heels. Her mother would be completely scandalized, so it was a good thing her mother wasn’t there to see it.

She saw the communication device on the mantel and headed for it.

“You can leave it here,” he suggested smoothly.

“My guard will need to see that it’s charged,” she countered, feeling a pang of guilt. She hadn’t been lying, but that wasn’t the entire truth, either. The blocker had been used to get his audio and video feeds. Jen wanted to see what the Russian was up to, to see if he was dangerous to Sophia.

Sophia decided she’d rather not know if he was hiding something terrible. The night had been too good to ruin its memory with whatever awful reality potentially lay in those feeds.

He walked her out of the bedroom in only the slacks he’d thrown on. He was so incredibly sexy that she had a hard time focusing on anything but the fit of the material. When they opened the door, she saw Jen sitting at a table with a pile of cash in front of her and three silent Russians around her. “Sorry, boys. Time to get back to work.”

The woman piled up her money with deft efficiency before allowing Ivan to lead the way to the garage.

Jen did a fast sweep of the car before letting Sophia get in. “Were you able to get a signal to the others?” Sophia asked once they were alone.

Jen’s lips flattened for a moment. “Maybe. The fact that nothing blew up was a good sign. Your Russian’s security is top of the line.”

Sophia’s heart rate kicked up a fraction. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing I can put my finger on. Something just felt off, but considering we stayed all night and nothing bad happened, I’m confident the tracker in my heel still transmitted. Cade and Sean must have cooled their heels in their hideout.”

Sophia’s cheeks heated at the knowledge that her nighttime activities weren’t even a little private. At the very least, Cade and Sean knew she’d stayed the night with a potential blackmailer. The fact that Jen hadn’t sounded an alarm would have had the mercenaries either smirking or itching to blow something up. It was a toss-up with Sean in the mix. Cade was the more controlled of the two.

She closed her eyes. If her friends didn’t already know, they would soon enough.

Forde’s insistence on sending men had seemed like overkill because Viktor didn’t have a reputation for hurting women. His past was a bloody one. That was a widely known secret within the underground. But she also knew there were lines he reportedly didn’t cross.

That knowledge had been gasoline to an already-blazing obsession she’d long enjoyed fanning, which was why she seemed to defend a man who’d manipulated her into coming to him.

She didn’t need to look a Jen to know she was scanning the streets as her thumbs drummed on the steering wheel. “Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?”

Sophia sighed and told Jen about her night in broad strokes. Her friend was silent as she absorbed everything Sophia admitted to. Her reasons for believing Viktor sounded flimsy when repeated aloud, but Jen didn’t argue or lecture. “Did you at least get him out of your system?”

Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth only made her feel like a teenager, so she stopped the unconscious gesture. Sophia rolled her neck to ease some of the building tension as they surged through the quiet streets on a meandering route to the house. “Yes and no.”

Jen shot her a look.

“I said I’d come back tomorrow night.”

She could almost feel her friend’s surprise in the stretching silence.

“I think that calls for more details. I was ninety-eight percent sure no man could live up to nearly a decade of expectations. I have to say I’m impressed.”

Sophia snorted indelicately. “I’m surprised you gave him two percent.”

“I gave him one more based on the look in your eye when you told me about the hotel.”

“Well, he blew all expectations out of the water. Your two percent odds be damned.”

“Glad to hear it. That doesn’t mean I’m on board with the tactics he used to get you to come to him.”

Sophia slanted a glance at her friend before adding, “Agreed. Though I needed it.” She wouldn’t have gone to him otherwise, and it had been incredible.

But was it wise to go for seconds?

Ever astute, Jen drawled, “I won’t argue that you needed it. So why the frown?”

“Because he makes me want things I can’t have.” Simple things. Beautiful things people took for granted, like being held in the morning. Things she had too many secrets to have with anyone.

Even if it were possible to have more, relationships burned out. There were very few happily ever afters. The couples that lasted in her world were no more than business partners, and even that kind of arrangement required trust. How could she trust a man with not only her secrets, but with the secret lives of all the people she cared about? She couldn’t. Her work meant something to her. This life had started with the vacant eyes of a dead boy, but if she were truly being honest, it had really begun as a kind of atonement for the evils in her own family.

Jen jolted her out of her thoughts. “Sleeping with him was the mistake.”

“I know.” She was well aware she’d been playing with fire, but she’d been spent and had felt safe in his arms. Safe and more alive than she could ever remember feeling.

They parked just as a soft orange glow burned from the horizon, warming the edges of the gray clouds beyond.

Jen scanned the area diligently as she exited the vehicle, sidling around it and opening Sophia’s door when she was confident they were alone. Mostly alone, anyway. Somewhere in the shadows lurked their mercenary backup. Cade and Sean were staying at Riot’s sprawling mansion across the street.

Porch lights flickered through the filigree of heavy iron gates and lush canopy of old elms of the home in question. She didn’t see the men, and no sound permeated the quiet streets. Even the winds were calm, though that didn’t make it any warmer. Sophia rubbed her bare arms, wishing she’d considered a wrap. It was colder in the chilly early morning than it had been last night.

She lifted her head, taking in a deep breath of fleeting freedom, which smelled suspiciously like damp leaves, as she followed her guard. Their discreet entry through a shrubbery path was secured by hidden facial-recognition cameras. After they were through, Jen lifted a storm grate in the grass. Both grate and hidden door opened as one, and they climbed down to the cool, decades-old stone passage.

“I’m going to check out his audio and video files now. Go get some rest before you have to make a breakfast appearance,” Jen instructed. Checking data was something her friend would be able to do in the adjacent house’s high-tech “bat cave,” as Forde fondly named it.

“Let me know what you find.” A part of her didn’t want any bad news about the Russian, but she apparently had a modicum of self-preservation left where he was concerned.

*****

Viktor eyed his men after returning from the garage. He hadn’t wanted Sophia to leave, and he wasn’t used to having to compromise.

His men were glaring holes at the table when he approached. There was no missing the mess of snack bags and coffee mugs surrounding a pile of discarded cards.

With a glance, he was able to see the hands. “Am I to believe the woman took all your money?”

They grumbled in Russian but didn’t deny it before he walked back into his rooms, grinning. His men played poker all the time and boasted about their skills often enough.

His amusement fled when he entered his private space and hit the remote for the curtains.

He had a lot to consider. He’d had the woman in his bed for one night, and he already craved more of her. He had been willing to give a great deal to have her again, whether she’d believed him or not. She matched him as if made for him, and the sweet innocence mixed with her fiery passion made a lethal pairing that called to him in ways he couldn’t explain. She hadn’t held back any part of herself while in his bed. He nearly groaned, remembering the shock glazing her eyes every time she’d come for him. Her lack of lovers seemed at odds with her needs. But she had blazed fiercely for him, and he was determined to play with that fire until it burned out.

After a few moments, Ivan found him looking out at the lightening skies of the courtyard. Viktor didn’t look back when the door clicked shut behind the man. “Has she returned safely?”

“Yes.” Her rented home was a few streets away, so close yet not so easily achieved. Their time together posed more than its share of challenges.

He turned at the charged silence. “The blocker?”

Without serial numbers, they had no way to narrow it to a buyer even if she’d left it, but Viktor generally did a cursory check of people or groups who purchased equipment. He was more than certain Porenza had not been on the list.

Ivan gave a slow nod. “None of the buyers on file have links to the princess or her family.”

The shadows in Ivan’s gaze made Viktor’s shoulders tense. “What is it?”

“Pavel noticed a faint radio signal ping the security system.”

Viktor narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Why am I just hearing about this?” He knew the answer already. Ivan was his second in command for a reason. He was a friend and skilled as his head of security. Plus, his men loved their guns, and he had plenty, far more than most countries, it often seemed. Not that he imagined the princess would mount some kind of attack on his home.

“When did this happen?”

“After she told the guard she was staying.”

“What did Pavel say?”

“The frequency indicates a compact VTS150.” A coin-sized piece of radio-signaling equipment that would fall under the radar of most security systems, white noise, or jamming equipment because it was set to a specialized frequency that was set beyond those specialized pieces. It would have been pressurized and only detectable by specialized systems and, even then, only when activated.

Viktor had given the order not to be disturbed, but he still wasn’t pleased. The question was, had it been his princess or the guard sending a message? “Did the guard do anything in that time?”

“The woman shifted at that exact moment. The cameras were trained on her, so it wasn’t missed. He thinks it was in a shoe.”

His princess had backup watching the house… in case he tried to harm her? That thought pleased him. He did not approve of her going out with only a single guard. But he would have the identity of who had received that ping.

Viktor felt more than curious at this new information. The actions, along with the equipment, were more suited to covert operations than that of a hired guard, even a high-tiered security guard assigned to royalty. What was the crown princess of Porenza involved in that warranted the need and awareness of such equipment? His memory conjured up the image of her climbing the hotel wall.

It wasn’t the act of an overachieving guard. The technology would have been out of the woman’s pay grade. His princess had somehow acquired the equipment. He’d read the guilt in Sophia’s eyes when she’d taken the jamming device under the pretense of ensuring it was charged. He had little doubt she knew what that device would do. That was exactly why he’d offered to let her leave it.

Ivan nodded slowly. “If our system wasn’t keyed to it, we wouldn’t have known.” His man was talking about the other equipment. The ping.

Viktor nodded absently.

“The half-mile radius should have made it easy to discover who got the message. Not authorities. We check them,” Ivan practically growled.

Ivan was correct; old habits and paranoia had been ingrained in Viktor at birth. His men always monitored law enforcement at all levels. He had the funds and equipment to make it simple enough.

“Should have,” he murmured. Yes, they should have found their mysterious friends, yet Ivan’s frustration proved they’d come up empty in their search. He flexed his fingers.

“The jammer?”

“The system locked down. They will get nothing,” Ivan confirmed.

He turned to look at Ivan. That device alone sold for tens of thousands of dollars, and to his knowledge, the princess’s bank accounts were ruled by her brother. Was she sent after something of his? No. That didn’t feel right. He’d forced both meetings. Her suspicious activities started before their first encounter.

“I want the list of everyone who ordered both pieces of equipment.”

His man nodded.

“Did her guard say or do anything else?”

Ivan nodded. “She described all the precautions she put in place should anything happen to her or your princess. She also refused to allow her phone to be turned off. Pavel looked it over. It was clean. No contact numbers, only thumbprint-access apps. Pavel hacked them remotely later. One was to forward an alarm from another device. Another was for an intercom, as she’d said. Everything was routed in a way that hid her location. She acted as if it had been set up for this meet alone, but that was a lie.”

“It’s too professional.”

His man nodded. “She insisted it was in case the royal guards found the princess missing. I believe that. But it seemed like more.”

He nodded. It was all in line with a princess escaping her security, so who did her guard signal and what had it meant? “I want to know who received that signal.”

Ivan shook his head, brows furrowed. “The signal cut off before it was tracked. The physical grid search found nothing. He is attempting to hack security cameras of surrounding homes. Nothing yet.” After a moment of silence between them, Ivan finally spoke. “Do you think her a threat?”

Viktor shook his head. His instincts said no. But what was she up to? First, her guard had lost his men, twice, and now she had someone hiding out beyond the shadows. He would bet the unknown person had been there to cover her back as she entered the home of a potential blackmailer. That made the most sense.

There was more to his princess than she showed the world, and he wanted to know what that was. He would have all her secrets. He told himself he wanted them because she would be sharing his bed and had accessed his home.

“Reschedule New York. Cancel all evening appointments here. We’ll be staying in London for two weeks.”