In the next second, she was gone, disappearing around the door to the bathroom.
Startled, he just had time to slide his hands from her shoulders to her hips before she spun away, gave him a quick brilliant glance over her shoulder and disappeared into his bedroom through the door from the suite.
Every cell of his body seemed to have gone hot and hard.
He smiled, tasting her still on his mouth, the impression of her body against his still vibrating through him.
If he’d known it was that easy to get a kiss…
He looked at Ryan. Who grinned.
“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” he said. “Forget your lame honky shit, boss, I’d be all over that.”
Taking a deep breath, Ky couldn’t argue the point.
Except he wasn’t Ryan…and Raissa was his employee, he reminded himself. As young as some of his grad students, beautiful, sexy…and maddening.
“I’ll be right out,” he said.
Ryan looked at him. “Sure you will.”
To his regret, Ky knew he would be.
Stepping into the room, he gathered up the clothes from the chairs where he’d flung them carelessly to air and grabbed his toiletry kit before his eyes wandered to the shower stall through the open bathroom door.
Raissa was in there, the water pouring over her hair, the brief frosted glass door both concealing and revealing her incredible body. He could see just a shadow of high firm breasts, tight abdomen and firm bottom. Her hands slid over her skin, lathered it…
His whole body went hot and hard.
She was his employee, he reminded himself, again.
And again.
Then there was the memory of the bruise on her face from where the turk in the square had struck her.
For a second his vision went dark and he took a breath, sparing one last look as she tipped her head back to let the water stream over her hair once more and then he stepped out of the room.
Raissa turned. She felt a presence in the room beyond. Had she heard the door close?
She looked but there was no one there.
A little disappointed, she stepped out of the shower and then glanced in the mirror at the darkening bruise on her cheek. There was another over her ribs. She sighed. They ached.
But it felt so good to be clean she sighed with pleasure.
And there was a bed.
With a grin, she threw herself on it. It had been so long since she slept on anything like it. The memory pierced her, tightened her throat but she fought it away, wallowing in the luxury of the bed…and fell asleep sprawled on the coverlet, curled around one of the pillows. It smelled like Ky, the musky scent of healthy male and she smiled.
That was how Ky found her when he went in to check on her, the dim light from the other room falling across her sprawled and lovely body…asleep. Completely naked, her hair in a brilliant spray across the pillows and bed, her arms curled around his pillow. Her breasts were partly hidden by her arms, leaving only the curve of one visible but the rest of her, the smooth curves and lines of her back…
She was beautiful, her bottom as tight as he’d imagined, her shapely legs sprawled and that hint of a breast, rounded, full…his body tightened…
The urge to touch her, to run a hand over that silken skin, golden in the pale light of the lamp, was nearly irresistible, to push her back on the pillows, to devour her…
Ky took a breath and drew a corner of the coverlet over her to keep her warm. Nights in the desert could be cool.
His mouth was dry as he caught one last glimpse of her lovely body before letting the coverlet drift over her, snagging the spare pillow for himself and stepped quietly out.
It was a long time before he slept.
Chapter Eleven
Ky was asleep when he heard a faint sound. He reacted instantly out of habit and training. He realized only a second too late who it was that slipped quietly through pre-dawn light of the living room of the suite wearing one of his t-shirts before he caught her wrist and yanked her toward him.
She yelped softly as he caught her in his arms.
He was wearing only his shorts, not anticipating a nearly pre-dawn snack raid.
Smiling, he knew that was exactly what it had been. She’d fallen asleep before dinner had been delivered and he hadn’t wanted to wake her just to eat. Like the others, she’d worked hard. Unlike the others, she’d gone toe to toe with their assailants. He thought she deserved the rest. If she awakened, he would have ordered more food if it had been necessary but there was plenty left over.
Just the thought brought back the memory of her fluid grace as she fought, the abaya flowing with each movement.
For some reason he found the memory incredibly arousing, as he did her slender body against his.
He looked down into wide, startled blue eyes, at her soft mouth as she gasped, caught off-guard for once.
There was little more than thin cotton between them.
Raissa suddenly found herself pressed against a naked, beautifully muscled and very attractive male. Involuntarily she skimmed her hands across the smooth hard muscles of his chest, over his tawny skin as a strong arm wrapped tightly around her waist. She swallowed hard, her vision darkening with desire. She’d been hungry for one thing when she awakened, prowling for the remains of the food she could smell on the tray but now she was hungry for something else entirely.
Her breath shuddered in her chest.
Raissa’s breath caught at the look in his eyes and a yearning pierced her, the intensity of her desire drawing her eyes to his mouth involuntarily, to that full bottom lip. The desire to nibble on it…to suck on it…made her dizzy.
Her mouth went dry.
Ky’s eyes were drawn to the thin strap of one of his t-shirts, too large for her by far, falling down her shoulder and revealing the ripe full curve of her breasts. The thin cotton barely clung to them, only that thin scrap of cloth hiding what he hadn’t yet seen. And wanted to, desperately.
He bit back a groan, fighting the nearly overwhelming desire to see that last bit of fabric drop away, he was far too aware of her hips now pressed against his and the hardness of him against her firm belly.
Then he looked into her face, at the mass of her sleep-tousled hair tumbled around her fine features, those fascinating blue eyes looking at him with growing awareness as she came more awake and recovered from her own surprise.
Her lips parted, the bruise on her cheek barely visible in the soft, pearlescent pre-dawn light.
He wanted her, now, and badly, his body going hot and tight and hard.
A breath escaped her, her eyelids fluttered as her gaze locked on his mouth.
Slowly, Ky lowered his to hers, just a brush, a taste as he tightened his arms around her, as her mouth responded to his, moved beneath it, opened for him. Avidly, hungrily, he took it and she met him as desperately, her own mouth hungry beneath his. He felt her hands slide into his hair to draw his head down to seal his mouth more tightly against hers. A small sound escaped her as he tightened his arms around her.
At last…was all Raissa could think, all she wanted to know.
His mouth felt wonderful on hers, the taste of him, clean and clear, she drowned in it as she combed her fingers, finally, deep into his thick dark hair.
That firm hard body felt even better against her. It had been so long since she’d been touched, since she’d been held.
His arms closed around her.
Ky slid down his hands down her back to press her against him, to feel her full breasts against his chest, as her body seemed to melt into his, turn fluid against him as their tongues met, dueled, tasted. It fueled the fire within, stoked it until it was burning hot and wild. She sucked lightly on his tongue and he groaned as her hips shifted against him. He slid his hands down to her bottom, cupped the tight, firm globes in his hands, pressed her against his aching hardness.
He wanted her…had wanted her from the beginning, from the first moment he saw her.
Taking a handful of her hair he held her immobile as he brushed his mouth over the satiny skin of her cheek, to nibble on her earlobe as pleasure made her quiver. Heat roared through him as he brushed his fingers over the fullness of one breast, felt the nipple harden beneath the thin cotton.
Raissa trembled as she felt the touch.
Someone knocked at the door.
“Professor Farrar?”
The waiter, with breakfast. They were leaving this morning.
Both of them looked at the door.
Ky swore softly, steadily and inventively…and then looked down at Raissa, still trapped in his arms.
Her beautiful eyes were glowing, brilliant, her mouth soft, swollen from the force of his on hers.
The wakeup calls would already have been made, Ryan, John and Komi would be on their way, they would be there at any moment.
For a moment, though, he captured her lovely face in the curve of his palm…and she looked back at him, her brilliant blue eyes glowing.
Raissa gazed up at the strong lines of his face, the high cheekbones, the square jaw, the slightly aquiline nose and those dark, beautiful eyes, even as her own hand rose to trace the line of his beard where it framed his full mouth. A burst of heat went through her once again. Her thumb brushed that full bottom lip.
She smiled as she lifted her gaze to meet his once again.
Those beautiful blue eyes, so soft, so sure, were going to destroy him one day, Ky thought.
No, he knew they would, as would that smile.
He brushed her rippling silken hair back over her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the corner of one of those lovely eyes.
“The boys will be here any minute,” he said, softly.
“Ah,” she said and then quickly came up on tiptoe to give him a quick kiss.
No more explanation was needed.
Grasping her arms, he held her there, a breath away from his lips, to look down into those incredible eyes.
This time he claimed her lips softly, gently, traced his tongue over them and felt her breath brush across his mouth in a sigh of pure pleasure.
Setting her down, he turned her and swatted her lightly on that firm tight bottom.
“Go,” he said and she went, tossing a smile back over her shoulder as she did, her eyes brilliant, pausing a moment at the door to glance back saucily and give him a good look.
His entire being was suddenly focused on the sight of her standing there, wearing only the thin t-shirt and panties, her lovely, full, tip-tilted breasts swelling against the thin fabric.
Go, he thought, before I follow you, waiter be damned, Ryan and John be damned.
She went, her tight bottom a torment in itself as she ran lightly and gracefully into the other room.
At his summons the waiter brought in breakfast, closely followed by a sleepy Ryan, who looked around blearily until Raissa came bouncing out of the bedroom at the scent of the food, wearing one of Ky’s shirts buttoned only across her breasts so that flashes of her belly showed and a pair of his shorts hanging loosely on her slender, curved hips.
“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Ryan said, reverently as he raised his eyes to the sky.
Glimpses of the curve of her breasts were visible each time she leaned forward, oblivious to the effect it had on those around her.
Ryan wasn’t the only one to find it maddening. The sight of her wearing his shirt and shorts just about set Ky on fire. It was sweet torture.
Seemingly oblivious, Raissa settled to perch on one arm of the settee, popping a piece of buttered toast into her mouth and closing her eyes to savor the taste.
She was going to drive him insane, he knew it. His only consolation was that at least he would know what was doing it, how he was going to get there…and how fast.
Then he met her eyes, the light in them danced mischievously and he couldn’t help but smile as she offered him a piece of toast.
“Want some?”
Her eyes were sparkling as Ryan grinned at her.
Leaning close, he said, softly. “Keep it up, I think he’s folding…”
Raissa looked at him and laughed.
Glancing over at them Ky looked at them suspiciously and gave Ryan a warning look. Both looked far too innocent. Raissa’s eyes were wide, amused and far too wise.
Her eyes met Ky’s and she smiled, slowly, impishly.
She was going to drive him insane.
Chapter Twelve
The airport was tiny, just a single runway, a poorly maintained remnant of the British presence from World War II but good enough for his purposes, Ky thought as he ran through the pre-flight check on the six-seater Cessna. His plane. His. Bought and paid for with his own money, it was his baby.
Ryan, Komi and John loaded the plane with their luggage. They’d finished the last of the packing only an hour or two before.
He glanced at Raissa incredulously as she watched what he was doing with apparent fascination.
She was still wearing one of his shirts for lack of anything better but it was buttoned now from collarbone to tail.
It was clean but far too big, making her look even younger than she was, with the sleeves rolled up enough times it made her wrists look slender and fragile.
Ky found he had to remind himself of the events of the souk, of her skill there, she looked so young and vulnerable. And that kiss. He remembered the taste of her, the feel of her mouth beneath his, vividly, her body molding fluidly against him. So did his body, tightening at the memory.
“I can’t believe you’ve never flown before,” he said, chasing those thoughts out of his head.
She smiled, a little abashed. “This will be my first plane ride.”
Ky shook his head in amazement as he checked off the last of the details although it really wasn’t that surprising. Few people in this part of Egypt would have flown. Raissa, orphaned, undocumented, scrambling to make a living, would have never gotten close to an airplane.
Having the big old Cessna was handy when traveling in this part of the world, Ky had found. Provided you could get to it you could get out of any town in a hurry. You could travel from one place to another without having to worry about bad roads, ancient vehicles and even older buses slowing you down.