When they surfaced for air, Stryder captured Zoya’s mouth with his, demanding more of her taste. He couldn’t get enough of this woman. She was like a fucking drug, and she already had him addicted. He didn’t think it was possible for her to get any more beautiful than he already found her, but with the water droplets streaming down her creamy flesh, and her wet hair hanging haphazardly around her face, he didn’t want this moment to end. He wanted her again. And then again after that. Hell, there weren’t enough hours in the day for how much he wanted to continue fucking her.

Zoya broke away from the kiss and stared up at him with her big blue eyes. “Did we just… I mean…”

He spun her around and pressed his chest up against her back. He cupped her breasts with each of his hands and pressed his hard cock against the seam of her ass. Nibbling her ear, he whispered, “We did. Don’t overthink it.”

He wasn’t going to let her run once their lust was satiated and reality set in. It was normal, and he was just as guilty as doing that with women of his past as well. But this woman was too fucking special to allow her—and his—mind to get in the way of how he felt… and how he hoped to fuck she felt, as well. Yes, it was madness how fast everything was happening. They were in the middle of a life and death situation and really should be focusing on work, but her magnetic pull was just too much. When she’d stripped naked right in front of him and looked at him with those sultry eyes, the gloves had come off. He was a red-blooded man after all, so what did she expect? And Zoya was the hottest woman he ever had the pleasure of seeing completely naked. As he nibbled on the column of her throat, the memory of the dress falling from her on that stage flashed before him but in his mind, that didn’t count. That woman had been forced, terrified, every muscle tense, her limbs stiff. But now, holding her softness in his arms, feeling her relax against him, pliant, languid, he knew he’d never forget this moment. Zoya was stunning, pure yet sexy, everything he could possibly ask for.

“I don’t want to overthink. It feels so right,” she said as she tilted her head more to the side, giving him better access to nibble and kiss on her neck. Her tiny whimper of lust had his cock twitching.

“We feel so right,” he said between his seductive assault upon her neck, her shoulder, and her collarbone.

Massaging her breasts between his fingers, his cock throbbed even harder when Zoya moaned in pleasure.

“I don’t want you to stop,” she purred while reaching behind her, grabbing hold of Stryder’s ass and pulling him even closer to her perfectly-shaped behind. The act made his cock slide deeper within the cheeks of her ass, so deliciously close to her tiny puckered hole.

“Good, because I wasn’t planning on it.”

Lowering his hand away from teasing one of her nipples, he ran his fingertips down her firm belly to her mound, cupping it while he nearly growled into her ear. Zoya drove him absolutely insane, and he had to have her again. Finding her clit, he pressed lightly and moved his finger in a gentle and circular motion. He loved hearing the catch in her breath, and thrived on how it was obvious she enjoyed his touch and even wanted more when she gyrated against his hand. Stryder knew he could make her come this way, but he wanted to keep her on the edge.

Taking hold of his cock with his other hand, he guided his hardness past the folds of her pussy and thrust inside her silky warmth once more. Moaning loudly, he began pushing and pulling, feeling the walls of her sex squeeze tightly around him. The water of the lake flowed between their bodies as the small waves caused by their motion massaged their flesh.

Zoya clung to his hand that still rested on her pussy, joining his moans with her own. “Stryder,” she said repeatedly between her gasps. The sound of pleasure leaving her lips captivated him completely.

He had just had this woman, and yet fucking her again still gave him the tantalizing thrills of the first time. The passion built with every movement, and he felt another impending orgasm build. Pulling out of her tight pussy, he took hold of his cock again, but this time guided it to her puckered back entrance. He had to have her there. He wanted to claim her in all ways. Zoya was his, and after today, there would be no question. It was animalistic in belief. Primal. But Stryder could not fight the carnal urge to fuck Zoya where no man ever had.

As if they were connected by mind and not just body, Zoya bent over ever so slightly, aiding in his pursuit. She pressed against the tip of his cock when it reached the tiny hole. Her simple action silently told him she wanted him inside her ass just as much as he did.

She gave a sharp gasp as the tip of his dick broke the surface of her anus, and all he had to do was push. Very slowly, he stretched her, paying close attention to her mewing and whimpers for any sign of real distress or serious pain. When no real protest came, he remembered how she’d reacted that night on the stage. Where being whipped would have most women truly screaming in fear, this woman had reacted totally differently. Hell, Anson had to remind her to scream… to make the scene believable. His Zoya was proving to enjoy a bit of pain with her pleasure.

Wrapping her wet hair in his fist, he gave it a tug until she turned to look back at him. “Relax,” he coached. “Allow me to enter.”

Her eyes were glazed, her mouth slightly open as she nodded her understanding, and he could actually feel the walls of her hole loosen just a tad. It was all he needed to push a little further.

“That’s my girl,” he said, pausing so she could take a moment to adjust to his girth. God, she was absolutely amazing in her submission. “Are you all right?”

“Yes… yes, Sir. It stings… burns a bit, and it feels like I can’t take any more. But it also feels so good.”

His cock twitched at both the respectful address and the knowledge that even like this, doing such a taboo sexual act, he could give Zoya pleasure. He moved his finger, which still rested on her clit, hoping he could give her even more.

“I’m going to go a little deeper,” he warned. “Can you relax a little more and accept me?”

She nodded and moaned loudly. “Your finger. Your cock inside me. All of it…” she gasped loudly when Stryder pushed even deeper, “is going to make me come again.”

“Good girl. Come while my dick is in your ass. Come for me, baby.”

He wasn’t going to last much longer, but waited until he could hear her repeated moans of absolute desire become cries of completion. The spasms of the velvet walls of her ass around his cock were all it took for him to explode inside her. Electric jolts of pleasure ran through every vein in his body. Forget balls deep, he’d not had even half his cock inside and yet never in his entire life had he experienced something so erotic, so tantalizing, and so fucking unbelievable.

It took Zoya turning around and kissing him gently on the mouth to convince him that he hadn’t just died or had an out of body experience. Every ounce of skin on his body buzzed in delight. This woman had captivated not only his body, but his entire being. Pulling her against his chest, he bent and kissed the top of her head. “That was… you are amazing.” Feeling her shudder, he was about to ask if she was all right when he realized that he could feel goose bumps on her skin as he caressed her back. “You’re cold.”

“The sun is setting,” she said, snuggling a bit closer.

Looking at the sun lowering in the horizon, he realized that they were still in the lake. Pulling her by the hand toward the shore, he reluctantly had to admit that making love in the lake any longer could quickly get uncomfortable if they both got chilled.

“After that, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk back to the house, let alone jog,” he said with a smile as they reached their pile of clothes.

Zoya giggled as she began putting her clothes on her wet body. “Don’t worry. I’ll take it easy on you. You definitely worked out all my built up angst.”

He watched in fascination as she covered a body he hoped he’d be seeing naked again—and quickly. “I didn’t expect our run to lead to that. But I’m glad it did.”

“Me too.” She pulled on her shorts and then tilted her head, staring at him with a growing smile. “Are you going to get dressed or just stand there gawking at me?”

Stryder quickly looked down to where his clothes still lay in a pile on the grass. The woman bewitched him with her beauty and thrilled him with her total lack of guile as she said exactly what she was thinking. “I can’t help it. I have to take it all in. What if I don’t get to experience something like that ever again in my lifetime? I have to burn this picture into my brain forever.”

Zoya giggled again, which was a sound that was quickly becoming one of his favorites. “What if I promise you that more experiences like just now will come?”

“Well, then that is a promise I plan to make you honor.”

“Come on,” she said as she bent down and started putting on her shoes. “I want to beat you back to the ranch. I like the sound of you panting for air behind me.”

He knew his growl was hampered by the grin he couldn’t contain at her sassiness. “Not as much as I’m going to like the sound of you panting as I properly fill your ass the next time.” Her widening eyes and her quick inhale had his cock twitching as he pulled on his clothes. He might have wondered if she was frightened except for the fact that she gave a giggle before turning to run back the way they’d come. Feeling more alive than he had in a long time, he pulled on his running shoes and took off after her. He didn’t even attempt to catch her. The sight of her rounded, bouncing behind was absolutely the most perfect view.

When they entered the house, Anson was in the living room waiting. “Stryder, I need to see you in the operations room. I just called Maddox and Pops, who are both at the stables. They will be joining us as well.”

“Do you need me?” Zoya asked. She looked down at her body. “I was hoping for a shower.”

“No, go ahead and shower. I don’t need you for this, but feel free to join us when you are through if you want.”

Stryder held Zoya’s hand for a minute and stared into her eyes. “Are you going to be all right?”

She smiled and shocked him yet again by kissing the end of his nose. “Yes. I do know how to take a shower by myself. I’m sure I will be fine not under your watchful eye for a few moments.”

He kissed her on the lips, not caring that Anson was standing right there, watching their entire exchange. “I don’t like leaving you alone. Get used to it.” And he meant every single word of it. He was damn near obsessed with Zoya, and it was getting even worse as each hour went by.

“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him again. “I’ll see you after my shower. I’m sure I can find my way back to the bat cave.” She gave a wink and then smiled at Anson with a slight blush before heading toward her room.

Stryder looked at Anson, who leaned up against the door jamb with his arms crossed against his chest, a smug expression on his face.

“What?” Stryder asked.

“Pulling a Maddox, I see.”

“A Maddox? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You damn well know what I mean,” Anson teased. “Falling for your save?”

“Whatever.” Stryder began to walk toward the operations room but then stopped. “Maybe I am. Would that be so awful?” he said without turning around to face his brother.

“Just be careful.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“It’s not you I am worried about. Zoya has been through a lot and is in a vulnerable state. You aren’t always the easiest person to deal with and have the power to shatter what’s left of her.”

Stryder turned to glare at Anson, growing annoyed with their little brotherly talk. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”

“Not on purpose, you wouldn’t. I know that.”

“But what? I would hurt her by accident?” Stryder started walking toward the operations room, hearing the clomp of Anson’s boots close behind. “Come on, dude, give me a little credit.”

“You just have a lot of demons to deal with, is all. When have you ever had a successful relationship?”

The door to the cave opened and they both walked in. “I’ve never wanted a relationship before.”

“And you do now?” Anson asked.

“I… well… fuck, dude! Why are you being so damn nosey?” His temper was growing. He didn’t like getting grilled by anyone, especially by one of his brothers.

“Because we have a lot to do. I need both of your heads still in the game. It does us no good if you are both too busy fucking or fucking with each other’s minds.”

“I’m not going to fuck with her head! So drop it!” Stryder entered the operations room and plopped down in a chair, spinning it around to look at his brother. “What do you take me for? Some freakin’ monster or something?”

“No. I just know how every single relationship you have ever had has ended. And it’s never pretty.”

“Fair enough.” He had to give that fact to Anson. “But Zoya is different.”

“How?”

“Hell, I don’t know. She just is.”

“So different you could tell her about your past?” Anson asked as he sat across from Stryder.

“We told her about our past at The Flying Pig.”

Anson rolled his eyes. “Whatever, dude. You know damn well what I am talking about. I love you, brother, but your past is pretty damn fucked up. That part of the story, you managed to leave out while eating BBQ.”

“So?”

“So if this girl is different, then you should have no problem opening up to her.”

This conversation was heating Stryder up more than the run back home had. He was uncomfortable, losing his temper, and wanted to drop the topic now. “What the fuck did you call me in here for anyway? To bust my balls about Zoya?”

As if on cue, both Maddox and Drake walked into the room.

“What’s going on?” Maddox asked.

Like the professional he was, Stryder wasn’t the least bit surprised when Anson changed gears instantly, flipping a switch to turn a monitor on. In bold, black lettering was a list of names with contact information underneath. “This is what I have been working on since we returned from Russia.”

Stryder leaned in and studied the list, noticing Montez’s name amongst the others. “Fuck, man! Is this the guest list for the sex auction in Moscow?”

“Yep,” Anson said.

“How did you get hold of this?” Stryder asked, not doubting his brother’s abilities but still wanting to make sure his source was correct.

“I recognized some faces at the auction, and with Zoya’s incredible portraits, facial recognition software was able to identify a few more. Once I had names, I did a bunch of digging. This isn’t the sort of auction where hundreds of invitations go out to just anyone. The invitations didn’t just get sent into thin air, either. I knew there had to be a master list somewhere. And if I couldn’t get a hold of the initial invitation list, I knew there would be a list of attendees. No way would Vasily Poplov not know who was attending that night and how to reach them again. As you can see, the man has quite the powerful black book.”

“We got the fuckers!” Maddox said, slapping his hand on his thigh.

Drake walked over to Anson and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Good work, son.”

Stryder continued to study the list as his heart suddenly fell to the soles of his feet. He had to blink several times to make sure what he was seeing on the screen was correct. Suddenly he understood why he’d gotten the impression that, while Anson was proud of what he’d accomplished, he wasn’t really pleased with the praise he’d just been given. “Fuck me…”

Maddox’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“That motherfucker Poplov knew it was us the entire time,” Stryder said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“What are you talking about?” Drake asked, looking at the screen to see what Stryder was examining.

“Look.” Stryder pointed. “Our names are on that list. Our real names.”

All the men in the room looked at where Stryder was pointing.

“That’s impossible,” Maddox said, though it was clear by the look on his face that he saw the same thing Stryder did.

On the long list of attendees were also the names Stryder Steele and Anson Steele. And right under the names was the address to The Black Stallion Ranch. Seeing it was like a punch to the gut.

“We thought we were fooling him with our aliases, but Poplov knew,” Anson said, his blond head nodding.

“Fuck me,” Stryder repeated. “He’s one smart son of a bitch. He knew the entire time.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Maddox said.

“Why wouldn’t he just have had you boys killed?” Drake asked, rubbing his chin in contemplation.

“He allowed us to buy and walk out the door with Zoya. The real question is why would he do that?” Anson asked, clearly having trouble wrapping his head around the idea even though he’d had a head start as the compiler of the damning list.

Anson was by far the smartest man Stryder had ever known, and he had to hand it to Poplov that he’d managed to stump his genius brother.

“I think it was Poplov’s way of telling us that he isn’t afraid of us,” Stryder suggested. “He stood right there, addressing us as Gardenzio and Niven. I can’t even begin to imagine how he managed not to laugh his ass off. Fuck me…”

“Yeah, we heard you the first two times,” Maddox said, ignoring his brother’s growl. “Look, I agree with you, but he also has to know we are on to him. He knows exactly who we… all of us are, what we look like, and evidently what our plan is.”

Drake gave a chuckle and shook his head. “This is Vasily Poplov’s ‘fuck you’ to the Steele family.”

Another thought came to Stryder. “Anson, exactly how hard was it to compile this list? I mean, there’s a lot of names on here.”

“Are you thinking Poplov knew we’d get a hold of this list?” Anson asked, not taking his eyes off the screen of names.

“We have to assume so.” Stryder ran his hand through his hair. “From this point on, we have to assume he knows what our plans have been all along.”

“Shit. Maybe it was too easy but do you really think he would give up the names and addresses of all these men so freely?” Anson asked. “These men would kill him if they knew he just willingly gave them up.”

Stryder smirked. “Poplov doesn’t give a fuck about these men or their privacy. Why should he? He not only got his money, he is a megalomaniac. He considers himself invincible,” he said, hating that the bastard had one-upped them—but he had. Stryder would have never guessed this in a million years. He wasn’t one for being duped or outwitted.

“We have to change up the plan,” Drake began. “Poplov was expecting that we would be at that auction. Hell, after what happened to Legeaux, I wouldn’t put it past the bastard to have been holding it especially for us.”

“Do you think we have a mole? Maybe on Hadi’s side? Maybe my insider who got a hold of two invitations for us. Maybe Poplov was feeding us the information we thought we got on our own,” Stryder thought out loud. He couldn’t quite put his finger on how Poplov had known.

Drake pulled out his phone and began texting. “It doesn’t matter now. Mole or not, Poplov knows. I’m texting Hadi now and filling him in, and warning him to be extra cautious.”

“I still don’t understand why Poplov let us leave that night. He could have easily killed us. He allowed the ruse to continue the entire time. He even gave us papers to make leaving Russia easier. It doesn’t add up,” Anson said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Maddox agreed.

“Unless…” An idea came to Stryder that very well might be the answer to Poplov’s motives. “Unless he wanted us at that auction because he handpicked every other person who would also be there.” When Maddox was about to interrupt him, he held up his hand. “Hear me out. What if Anson and I were not his only enemies on that list? What if he had a reason to bring down every single man who was in that room that night? What if Poplov knew we would be returning to the ranch with the intent to rescue each woman and destroy the man who purchased her?”

“So he had this all planned?” Anson was starting to see exactly what Stryder was thinking.

“Exactly.” Stryder nodded. “He was handing us all the men he wanted out of the picture on a platter. He was using us.”

Drake, his hand on Stryder’s shoulder, nodded. “Then each man has to either have something that Poplov wants, or runs some enterprise that is undercutting his profits.”

Stryder instantly connected the dots his father had laid out. His eyes lifted to the list, focusing on one name. “Juan Montez… he runs the cartel in Argentina, and we aren’t talking chump change.”

“So, by drawing us in, Poplov now feels he has free assassins to do his dirty work,” Maddox added, understanding where Stryder was coming from.

“Gotta hand it to the man. Smart. He would just sit back and watch us make each one of those bastards at the party suffer, and he wouldn’t have to lift a finger. He’d just reap the benefits,” Stryder said, completely seeing the big picture now.

“And now?” Anson asked. “What do we do now? We still have to save all those women. Montez has Natalia. I don’t give a shit what Poplov plans, but I plan on rescuing that poor girl with or without you guys.”

“No need to go rogue, bro,” Maddox reassured him instantly.

“I promised you we would rescue her. We will,” Stryder said. “That part of the plan doesn’t change at all. So what if Poplov is using us to do his dirty work? I don’t mind getting dirty.”

“Damn straight,” Anson agreed. “We’ll get as dirty as we need to.”

“But what Poplov doesn’t know, is that when we are done, and we are covered in the filth of fucking humanity, we won’t forget about him. He showed his hand,” Stryder said.

“But the Steeles are damn good card players,” Drake said, with a look of determination Stryder rarely saw on his face.

“The man’s going down.” Stryder would make damn sure of it.