When he came round, he was horrified to find that they were on the floor. Holy fuck, how did that happen? The coffee table was overturned, books scattered everywhere, her glasses on the rug, the phone beeping, fallen out of its charger. Becca lay beneath him, gasping for breath beneath his weight. Arms clutching his neck. One leg wrapped around his waist, the other twined around his ankle.
He started to lift himself off, his muscles weak and trembling with the aftermath, and felt her pussy clench around him, echoing the cling of his arms. Unwilling to let him go. It was nice. He liked it.
Which was weird, for him. That kind of move from a woman after sex usually made him feel suffocated.
He had no idea what he’d done in those last few moments during that…was it a blackout, for Christ’s sake? He was almost twice her size. He hoped he hadn’t hurt her. That she didn’t hate his guts.
“Sorry,” he whispered, studying her face.
She smiled, with her eyes closed. “You’re weird, Nick.”
“I know,” he said, in heartfelt agreement. “You OK?”
She stretched luxuriously beneath his weight. “First, you make me come like never before, and you thank me. Then, you make me come again and again and again…and what do you do? You apologize.”
“I lost control,” he growled. “I could have hurt you.”
“News flash,” she said. “You didn’t. And I doubt that you even could.” Her eyes opened, suddenly somber. “Not during sex, anyway.”
He slowly withdrew himself from her clinging sheath, but she twined both arms around his neck and squeezed. “Nick? I have to tell you something.”
He braced himself, gut clenched against the ache of nameless fear in his gut. “Yeah? What?”
“If you do your standard post-sex routine and get all mean and grumpy and sour, and run out on me, you aren’t ever going to have to worry about Vadim Zhoglo again.”
He started to grin, warily. “I won’t?”
“No, you won’t,” she said. “Because I’ll kill you myself.”
He almost collapsed right on top of her as the shudder of laughter cut him off right at the elbows. He got to his feet, with some difficulty, peeled off the extremely full condom. Then he pried off his shoes, and shoved down his jeans, stepping out of them. “I’m not running off,” he assured her. “See? I can’t. I’m naked. Just ditching the latex. OK?”
“Hurry back. I mean it.” Her voice was steely.
He did, still shaking with silent hysteria. But when he came back into the room and stared down at her gorgeous body lying on the ground, his laughter suddenly faded away. It bothered him, to see her lying naked on the floor. She looked too helpless there. Too vulnerable.
He’d rather see her naked bouncing through a field of flowers, or naked in a bathtub, or naked in a forest cascade. Better yet, naked tucked snugly into a soft bed. And him on top of her.
His cock started to stir, and grow heavy and long between his legs. He crouched down and pulled her to her feet. “I didn’t run away. But I’m warning you right now. I’m a chronic insomniac.”
“Yes? And so? What of it?” she asked crisply.
“Since I can’t sleep, I’ll let you take a wild guess as to my top favorite alternative bed activity,” he offered.
Her eyes dropped to his cock, which had stretched out to full length and was now starting to do the super duper hydraulic lift trick.
“Good God,” she said faintly. “You’re kidding.”
“Does that look insincere?”
“But don’t you need to rest? Don’t you ever relax?”
“Nope,” he said. “I hope you don’t, either.”
She let out an explosive breath. “If you can’t relax after sex like that, then you’re in a world of hurt, buddy.”
The laughter that wrenched through him threatened almost to turn into sobs. He wrestled it down as he kneeled to pull the rest of the condoms out of his jeans pocket, and then waved the long, dangling strip of silvery foil packages in her face before he scooped her up, cupping her ass so that she straddled him. “Tell me about it.”
“Hey.” She wiggled halfheartedly, and then clamped her thighs around his waist. “Is this another of your sleazy, manipulative games?”
He kicked her bedroom door open. “Of course. That’s a given.”
He couldn’t be bothered to get rid of the mountain of pillows, so he tossed her into the midst of them, and jumped on her. She giggled and shrieked and struggled as he wrestled her into position, ripped open a condom with his teeth, expertly smoothed that sucker into place.
He’d meant for this one to be playful. Lah di dah, frolicking around in the piles of fluffy lace pillows like a couple of horny bunnies. As always, though, things took a turn. Straight into a place he’d never been, had no procedure for, no rules, no training. No clue.
First, it was that searing, electric moment of connection, staring into her beautiful eyes as he started pushing his cock into her. Then that shivering, aching swell of emotion, as the pleasure intensified into something almost unbearable. The laughter petered out, the smiles faded. They just stared into each others’ eyes, awestruck.
All he could do was hang onto her and fuck desperately.
Something was happening to him, something huge and unstoppable. As natural as the sun rising, and just as miraculous. He had to close his eyes against it, bury his face against the pillow to muffle the sounds he was making, soak up the hot damp from his eyes.
They clung to each other as his body hammered against hers. She clawed at him, raising herself, inciting his frenzied thrusts with her clutching fingers, her wild cries, and he was blasting off, oh God.
She found her way over the brink with him, and they were flung out together by the force of it, across infinite inner space inside their minds but, amazingly, together. He didn’t lose her, in that lonely place.
They were fused. One glowing, perfect entity.
That perfect bliss dissolved into consciousness again. He forced his heavy eyelids to open and stared into the darkness.
His chest felt hot, so soft. He marveled at it. Speechless, limp. Terrified, that it might desert him again, as mysteriously as it had come. Leave him cold and constricted as a clenched fist once again.
Part of him pleaded: Let me feel it. Please. Let me feel it.
And the other part: You’re going to pay for this in blood, dickwad.
He grabbed her damp, limp body almost defiantly. She murmured in her sleep, but didn’t wake. Thank God. He was in too much of a state to feel all of this crap, and deal with her feelings too.
This stuff was tricky. A guy had to walk before he tried to run.
He still had the condom on, but his dick was hard enough to keep the thing in place, and would probably remain in that state for as long as he was anywhere in Becca’s proximity. So he stayed put, staring down at her face as she slept. Admiring how beautiful she was. The touseled mop of curls against the white pillow, the sensual weight of her sweet, sexy body, snuggled up to his. Heavy and warm and limp with perfect trust.
He got worried that she’d get chilled, after all that heaving and bucking and sweating, but it was a complicated business, getting the blankets and sheets tugged down beneath her sleeping body without waking her up. She finally stretched and yawned, and gave him a radiant smile that made his heart hurt like someone was squeezing it.
“You’ll get cold,” he said gruffly. “Let me get the covers over you.”
“Not a chance,” she said lazily. “You’re like a bonfire.”
Since she was definitively awake, he decided to get rid of the latex and its liquid load. By the time he came back to the bedroom, he’d come to a decision, as final as it was outrageous.
And he was prepared to enforce it. By any means necessary.
“Get up and get dressed,” he said. “You’re coming with me now.”
She sat up, looking bewildered. “Nick? What on earth?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “If I can’t persuade you to get out of town and go into hiding, the safest thing for you is to come with me now,” he explained grimly. “I know of a safe place you could stay.”
She shook her head, in helpless confusion. “And all that carrying on you did about how Zhoglo’s gunning for you, and therefore I’m safer far away from you? Blah blah blah?”
He widened his stance, clenched his fists. “I can’t stay away from you,” he admitted. “Particularly not now. So I’m not going to try. The next best thing is to stick to you like glue. Any butthead mobster comes within fifty yards of you, I’ll blow his ass off.”
“Ah, thank you, I think,” she said faintly. “Is this some sort of courtship ritual on the planet that you’re from, Nick? How very romantic. I appreciate the depth of feeling behind it.”
“Cut the sarcasm,” he said harshly. “I’m dead serious.”
She hesitated, doubt plain on her face. He sensed that she was trying to choose her words carefully, so as not to push his wacko paranoid buttons. Which bugged the shit out of him still more.
“Nick, I don’t think that Zhoglo will have any way of finding me—”
“I know some people,” he went on, his voice roughening from pure desperation, “who can keep you safe. Even if I get wasted. And they could help you get a new identity, too. If it came to that.”
Becca recoiled at his words and wrapped her arms around her chest, as if she were suddenly cold. “Nick,” she whispered. “It’s not so simple. I’ve got family. They count on me. I can’t just disappear.”
He said something filthy in Ukrainian in a savage undertone.
“I cannot come with you now,” she said, her voice quietly stubborn. “I have to go to work. I have responsibilities. I’m in real danger of losing my main job already, and I can’t afford to. I’m helping my brother and sister out with college costs.”
Nick scowled. “Mind if I point out the obvious? They can get their own fucking jobs.”
“Excuse me?”
“They can’t count on you if you’re dead. You’re coming with me,” he repeated, but he could tell from the look on her face that he’d lost this round. She wasn’t going to play along. Damn the stubborn woman. He fought the impulse to put his fist through her wall. He did not do shit like that. Ever. That was the kind of thing his father had done.
She cleared her throat. “Nick, try to be reasonable,” she coaxed. “I’m going to be at the Cardinal Creek Country Club all day long. Do you really think I’m likely to run into the Ukrainian mob there? It is, let us say, not a multicultural institution. They would do a background check on the Queen of England before they served her a cup of tea. It’s actually embarrassing, how snooty and exclusive the place is.”
But I want you with me, I want you safe, I want iron and steel and concrete and electronic walls around you, layers of them. He wanted to scream it, but his own knee-jerk macho pride was reasserting itself.
He’d be damned if he’d grovel and beg.
“Who are these friends of yours, anyhow?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Never mind,” he said sourly. “If you’re not going to take me up on my offer, then why the fuck do you care?”
She made an irritated sound. “Don’t get all pissy and offended on me, Nick. I don’t deserve that.”
“Think about it,” he said roughly. “Just think about taking a vacation from your life and disappearing for a while. Please, Becca.”
After a moment, she inclined her head. “I’ll think about it,” she said quietly. “But I’m going to work today. We’ll see how things go. OK?”
He rubbed his eyes, and squinted at the clock. He’d been here for about three hours. No calls from Raine in the vid room so far, but he should get back there soon to spell her, or Seth would rip both his legs off. He looked at Becca’s naked body curled in the bed.
Well, hell. Maybe Raine could cope for a little while longer.
“I want to see you again,” he told her. “Tonight.”
A naughty smile curved her lips. “I would like that.”
“When do you get off work?” he demanded.
She thought about it for a moment. “Tomorrow—that is, today, I guess, I’ll probably get off some time after midnight. Not before.”
He was appalled. “Midnight? What the fuck do you do there until fucking midnight?”
“Calm down,” she soothed. “It’s a farewell banquet. I organized the event weeks ago. Some big shot cardiologist is retiring. Midnight is a hopeful estimate, with all the stuff I have to take care of afterwards.”
He thought about it, and realized that maybe it was better that way. He couldn’t get away from those vid monitors before midnight anyway. Maybe later. This way, he knew where the hell she was. The burr beacon he was planning to insert in her cell phone would help too.
“Will you meet me after?” he asked.
She looked puzzled. “Sure. Here, you mean?”
He shook his head. “No, not here. At a hotel. My neck is prickling. I don’t like being in one place for too long. He’ll get a fix on me.”
She nodded, clearly humoring him. He tried not to be annoyed.
“I’ll find a place, get checked into it. I’ll text you the hotel and the name I’m checked in under. When you get off work, go straight there. Don’t go home. You’ll have to wait for me for a while.”
“Good Lord,” she murmured. “So cloak and dagger.”