TEN

 

 

Had Dale seriously been delusional enough to think the guy walking next to her was sweet and generous?

Ugh!

“Fiancé?” she whispered through clenched teeth as they passed through the rear doors of the posh hospital. “I moved in tonight? Starting a family right away?” She tried her best to stay quiet because their entourage was surrounding them.

Lukas didn’t respond, and she wasn’t sure what exactly she should have felt at that point other than sheer panic.

Trapped? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Afraid? Bing-fucking-o.

How about safe? Uh, she was surrounded by four dangerous men, one of which seemed pretty damn taken with her, so, yeah, she’d check that fucking box.

And, finally, embarrassed? Fuuuck.

She could barely smile her thanks when Adam held the helicopter door open for her. Certainly couldn’t speak it. She threw herself into the aircraft and whipped around to face Lukas who gracefully entered after her. The door closed and silence fell.

She waited for a few seconds, her chest pumping, her heart slamming furiously against her ribs.

“Aren’t they getting in?” she finally asked.

“Not yet.”

She looked out the tinted windows to see three broad backs. Good. “Then maybe you can explain to me why I have bus tracks all over my fucking back when all I did tonight was come here to do something nice for you and your father. How dare you introduce me to that surgeon as your fiancé! How dare you tell your father I moved in with you! How dare you announce that we’ve decided to have babies together! Lukas! Do you have any idea how I feel right now? How fucking furious I am?”

He was staring at her with an alarmingly empty expression on his face, but his jaw was jumping every few seconds. “You live with a man?”

The quiet malice in his tone had her sitting back with a thump. Her lungs were burning, and her face felt hot as hell. “What?”

“Answer the question.”

The slowly spoken demand had her immediately identifying with anyone he’d ever interrogated and did what she was told. “I did. Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Four months.”

He winced. “You shared his bed for four months?”

Was this guy for real? “No.”

He came forward so quickly her eyes fluttered. “You will tell me this story without prompts from me, Magdalena. Or I will send my men to your former home with instructions to disarm the warning system and burn the goddamn building to the ground while the tenants sleep in their beds. Do you want that on your conscience?”

Her face cooled remarkably fast as the blood left her head. “If you overreact like this all the time, why ever would I trust you enough to marry you and have your children?” Not that she was considering it.

Calm stole over him from one blink to the next. “You’re right. I am overreacting again.” He stroked his hands over her shoulders and down her arms to the tips of her fingers before sitting back in his seat. “You do that to me, and I can tell you, it isn’t as unpleasant as you might think.” He waved a hand for her to speak.

She didn’t. It was as if her saliva had turned to glue and sealed her mouth shut. She wasn’t a toy monkey. Put a coin in and watch her go. He could go fuck himself.

She wrapped her arms around her middle and looked out the window.

Aaaand after what must have been the longest four or five minutes of her falling-apart life, she brought her attention back to him. He was waiting. His hooded gaze rested on her, his grey eyes hungry, predatory. His hands were folded one over the other in his lap.

“I could stare at you all night.” His tone was gravely, the edges rough and invasive. “Take your time. Gather your thoughts. And tell me about him.”

So much of the fight left her in that moment. She wanted to tell him about Liam. After all, what was there to hide? Only the one small detail. “I teach yoga at a studio during the day, and he’s a regular in my class. I moved in with him because I was ready to…leave home, and we eventually slept together. Apparently, he needed more than I would ever have given him, and he just might find it with the girl I came home to find him cuddling with on the sofa.”

His hands fisted so hard his knuckles turned white. “What’s this boy’s name?”

She frowned, thinking of blond, blue-eyed Liam who’d turned twenty-seven this past January. “This boy?”

“A man is not disloyal. A boy is.” He took his phone out and waited with his finger poised over a blank page. “Did you love him?”

She made a face. As if. “Considering I haven’t thought about him once since moving out, I can honestly say no. I liked him. He was a friend of sorts.”

“Of sorts.”

“Yes. I don’t have those.”

His brows drew together. “Friends.”

She nodded.

“Why?”

She shrugged and looked out the window.

“When was it you found him with the girl?”

“Today. Well, technically, it was yesterday.”

His expression lost its killing edge, softening as he lowered the phone to his lap. “You’ve had a busy day.”

“Yes, I have,” she admitted, feeling maddeningly weepy because his voice had gone all squishy.

“You’re handling it beautifully.”

A ball of emotion lodged in her throat and she wanted to take a fork to it. She would not go all girlie with this guy! “Thanks,” she shoved out. “An explanation or two from you would be helpful. Feel like offering it now?”

“When you give me his name.”

She shrugged again. Not happening. Liam didn’t deserve a wedge of glass jammed into his brain. “Never mind. By the way, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your father. Sometimes I talk before thinking, and I did that earlier.”

She was gifted one of his rare full smiles that made her entire body sing.

“You did not embarrass me, Magdalena. Quite the opposite.”

“I told your father we were going home to fuck, Lukas.” She looked to make sure their goons weren’t listening. “I can’t believe I did that.” She dropped her face into her hands because she was impatient to get to it. Gawd. “Just kill me now.” She reached out and put a hand on his knee. “Not for real though.”

She heard him shift, and then he was cupping her face and bumping her hand out of the way with his nose. She wasn’t really in the mood to kiss until she felt his mouth on hers and flames began licking at her wherever their bodies came into contact. When he parted her lips with his tongue, she participated because she couldn’t help herself. Until she remembered the men a few feet away outside the doors.

She tried to pull away. “Your goons—”

“Will not interrupt.” Back he pulled her.

“Because you do this a lot?” she asked, holding him off with inches between them. The sickest feeling took up residence in her stomach. Jealousy. Its sharp edges were jagged and dangerous, and so unfamiliar they frightened her.

“Because I will let them know when I need them.”

She laid a hand on his hard thigh. “Oh.”

“But I have had other women. I won’t deny that.”

She wouldn’t have expected him to. “How old are you?”

“Thirty-four.”

“I’m twenty-two. That’s quite the leap in years, huh?”

He leaned back and looked down at her body. Had he felt her shiver? She gasped loudly when he brushed a knuckle over the visible bead that was her nipple.

“That seems to interest you,” he drawled.

She didn’t comment. No sense in letting him know she’d always found older men attractive because they seemed more capable of taking care of their women than the young, cocky ones concerned about nothing more than how their pecs looked in a shirt.

She wasn’t sure if she couldn’t protest or just didn’t want to when Lukas dragged her over until she was straddling his lap. He placed his hands on her ribs and spread his fingers before caressing her. Up and down he moved. Slowly, deliberately. On his third pass, he didn’t stop below her breasts but listened to her silent plea and came up to cup them. He measured their weight, kneading them, heating them through the thin material of her dress with the fire coming from his palms. He held her eyes as he stroked his thumbs across her nipples, causing shards of pleasure to lance through her. She had to open her mouth to get some air into her lungs.

“Now you get handsy?” There was a tremor in her voice that mortified her.

He didn’t respond but to get her nipples between his thumbs and fingers. He pinched. She felt the beauty of it right down to her soul.

“I’ll do this to you when we get home. Only, you’ll be naked.”

Her head bobbed in a nod. She couldn’t resist him physically. Couldn’t deny that. And she didn’t want to resist him, she remembered. Have some sex and leave; get on with her life. Where had that plan gone?

He rolled her nipples and licked his lips as her back arched all on its own, offering him everything.

Everything?

“This boy you lived with,” he said as he watched his hands work on her. “The one who cheated on you.”

“He only kind of cheated. We were more friends-with-bennies than anything else,” she said distractedly.

“He never made you feel the way I do.”

She didn’t answer that but to make a quiet sound that could have meant anything.

He pinched her harder and lifted his knees to make her slide down so that his thick erection met her needy pussy. “Did he, Magdalena.”

She moaned when an arrow of desire ripped through her, connecting her nipples to her pulsing core. “Never,” she gasped, feeding his already overblown ego.

“I didn’t think so. But the little prick hurt you.”

“Not really. He just proved again that people are shitty.” She covered his fingers and squeezed them so he’d squeeze her again. “Feels so good when you do that.”

“I want to strip you and fuck you right here. I’d like the boys and anyone walking by to hear you pound on the windows and scream when you come on my cock. Are you a noisy lover?”

Her ability to speak deserted her.

“I think you’re a noisy lover. Tell me what gets you to the point where you lose your mind? What don’t you like, yagodka? Do you have any hard limits?”

Did she have what? God, she could barely think. This man was taking her over. He wasn’t only tearing her walls down faster than she could throw them up, he was making her forget the damn things were there for her to use.

She placed her hands flat on his chest. His heart was beating steady and strong. “I…don’t know. You can do anything you want to me. With me. On me.” She shrugged. “Whatever.”

His mouth firmed into a hard slash “Is that so? Then I guess we’ll head to a club downtown that allows select patrons to perform for the elite crowd. I’ll tie you to a platform that has perfectly placed cut-outs, and I’ll fuck you while more than a hundred masked onlookers masturbate into troughs some of the more adventurous visitors have been known to bathe in at the end of the night.”

Dale shoved his hands off her and hammered down a Keep Out sign as she slid off him and moved to the side. Her lips were curled, and goosebumps rose so fast on her body they actually caused her pain. “No. No, no, no. Not that kind of anything. Fuck, Lukas.” She shuddered. “I’ve obviously given you the wrong impression.” Goddamn him. Was he one of those? “Seriously. I’m not a whore to be used in front of others. I know that sort of shit goes on, and I’m not one to judge, but I’ve never had any interest in being a part of it.”

She stiffened and slapped at him when he reached across to slip his hand under her hip. He ignored the protest and pulled her over until their legs touched. “Thank you. That is what I wanted when I asked what your hard limits were. An actual answer with a short explanation. No public displays, and no sharing. Noted, and appreciated.”

She gave him a wary look.

He sighed. “I have been to one too many parties where bodies fucking was the offered entertainment. But my self-respect has always been too healthy for me to consider participating. Observing also lost its appeal very quickly. That’s not to say I’m prudish and don’t have a perverse streak because I do. I simply wanted some basic information in order to avoid doing something you might not be comfortable with.”

Not appreciating that he’d regularly attended such lewd parties, she looked around the space they were in and wondered what the hell he was talking about, considering where they were. “What was your plan?” she said, not hiding her sarcasm. “To bind my hands and feet together with your tie and prop me on the floor while you give it to me up the ass?” When he gaped at her, she snapped, “Well? What else could we possibly do in here that would be considered perverse? Your men are standing right outside the door, and I’m sure a chopper cop is going to knock on the window any second because we’ve been parked here for a long time and that’s probably a no-no.”

His face was tight with a smoldering desire. “Is that something you would be open to trying in the privacy of our bedroom?”

Should it bother her that he so readily waded through her shit and focused on what mattered? And would she try it? Yes. If not only because he’d just pleased her beyond belief by asking her to try rather than telling she would.

But she wasn’t stupid. She knew who held the master key here. “Would you?” And had he presumptuously said their bedroom?

“Hard and rough or slow and gentle; whatever you need, in whatever position you desire. I’ll be at your service.” He brushed his lips across hers in a kiss that was whisper soft. “Then, once you’re feeling secure, I’ll take over, and we’ll cross a few lines. But I’ll never bring you to a place you don’t want to go. You have my word.”

She melted all over the fucking place. Where wouldn’t she go with him, she wondered as desire sprinkled with gratitude fogged her brain. Within the drifting clouds, a scene came alive in her mind. Her, naked body bent in half and covered in sweat, helpless and moaning, her chest and cheek pressed to the carpet. Lukas behind her, also naked, his expression fierce as he thrust his thick, lubed—

His hard rap on the window sent her arms splaying like she was about to fall off a building. Three doors opened in the next second and their guards filled the helicopter. She quickly strapped herself in with clumsy fingers then froze when Lukas slid his hand between her knees and loosely gripped her leg as the engine started.

“Don’t ever play poker, yagodka,” he said for her ears only.

Milan, who’d taken the seat across from them, handed over their headsets and they put them on, but there was no chatter in her ears. She released a slow, silent breath and forced herself to relax against Lukas as they took off. What had he seen in her expression? Just how far she’d go with him?

Of course, that was what he’d seen. Because she also had a perverse streak that she hadn’t yet explored. Sex with Liam had been nothing but missionary. She’d figured he was either careful with her because she’d been a virgin, or he just hadn’t been very adventurous. She would never have put him on the spot by asking, and that had left her feigning sleep much of the time or begging off saying she had her period. It was mean, but, at that time, sex hadn’t been about pleasure.

But the thought of experimenting with Lukas…

A moan tried to escape into the rattle and hum of the chopper. At least now she finally appreciated how important the role of chemistry was when seeking out a sexual partner. She didn’t just want to fuck around with this man. She felt she needed to. Need. God, even the word made her blood heat.

She hugged his arm and stifled a yawn as her head landed on his shoulder. The minute they got back, she was getting them naked…mmm…she would touch him everywhere…kiss him all over…die of pleasure when he did the same…she would look into his eyes as she rode him…kiss him some more…love him so hard…

Her eyes slid closed and sleep claimed her before she could correct that last one.

 

***

 

Lukas stood next to his bed where he’d just settled a sleeping Dale in her place on the right. As he’d carried her in, he’d been tempted to shake her or knock her head into a doorjamb to “accidentally” wake her on the way upstairs. But that would have reeked of desperation. And even though he was desperate to have her, he would never go so far as to display that fact.

Or had he already?

He didn’t know, and, shockingly, didn’t care.

As the morning light began to glow outside the doors across the room, he reached out to touch her cheek, feeling its softness. Twenty-two years old. He ran his finger down a strand of hair that looked like a winding, inky path leading to her navel. She seemed older. He laid his hand across the flat expanse between her hips. She was soft-hearted but didn’t appear to like the trait. He caressed her lightly enough that he wouldn’t disturb her. Trustworthy and strong-willed, too. And smart. He bent and kissed her lips. Highly sexual.

His phone buzzed, making him curse in his head. He straightened and pulled it out quickly in case it was Yuri.

It was Samuel.

He went into the closet to get undressed as he obeyed the terse text demanding a call.

“Are you home?” he asked when he heard his brother’s voice.

“Farah is, but I’m at the hangar. You’re going to want to come out here.”

He stopped in the middle of shrugging out of his suit jacket. “Why?” Aside from the one on the property that housed the chopper when not in use, they kept two hangers at a small airport near Channelview. But only one of them was used for conducting business they wanted kept private.

“Maksim’s red flags popped up for a reason, and we have ourselves some company.”

“I’m on my way. Don’t you dare kill anyone.”

“We’ll be waiting.”

Pulling his jacket back over his shoulders, he walked out of the closet feeling the presence of his gun under his arm. He debated whether or not to wake Dale to tell her he was going out, but in the end, stayed quiet as he closed all the blinds to darken the room.

After silently shutting the door behind him and starting down the hall, he texted the boys to get back out to the chopper.

Because this directly involved his father, he refused entry to the guilt knocking on his door. He wasn’t putting business ahead of Dale by leaving her alone on her first night/day in her new home.

He was simply being the man his father had raised.