Frustrated by his inability to find the first aid kit, he pushed open the door to the bathroom. Only he didn’t find a toilet within. Much less any kind of bathroom. Instead, the door opened into a small, quaint bedroom. A stark room in comparison to the lavishness throughout the cabin. Tasteful all the same.
He recognized the contrast in an instant—Kadir’s true self showed in this private area. Outwardly he maintained the cover of wealth, luxury, and power. When he could close the door, he embraced whatever life he had known before. Simplicity. Organization. No vibrant
colors to draw attention away from the comfortable shades of tan and white.
Alexei also recognized he’d just stumbled into hell. He couldn’t pretend to ignore this room when it offered a solution to the privacy he craved with Sasha. The privacy he also despised. If he brought her back here, he’d forget she was a pampered princess who hadn’t shown the least bit of objection to a night of sexual games. That the vulnerable Irina he remembered didn’t exist.
He would fail to hold on to the knowledge that with England protecting her father, Sasha would remain cocooned in a world of wealthy games and sexual escapades. She might mourn Saeed now, but Saeed had poisoned her with sinful pleasures. It wouldn’t take long for her to forget her sorrow and find another handsome dick. Another pretty face to entertain her in bed.
Just like the women who’d been so anxious to welcome Alexei.
He shook his head to shake off the torment. No. He would never forget. He couldn’t allow that to happen. If it killed him, he would hang on to the despicable truth that Sasha had become a bored pet of luxury, and in time, she wouldn’t give a damn how much pleasure cost, or what price her lovers paid.
Closing the door, he backed out of the room. She’d have to make do with another bag of ice.
When he reached her side once again and looked down into those troubled blue eyes, he knew he was lying to himself. He needed the strange, unacceptable feeling she aroused when he was buried deep inside her, the life her body breathed into his. He’d been dead for far too long.
W
ithout a word, Alexei slid his arms beneath Sasha and lifted her off the divan, into the sheltering warmth of his muscular chest. Her breath caught somewhere between a gasp and a choke. When it worked free, she opened her mouth to question where he was taking her. His quick frown, however, along with the equally quick jerk of his gaze toward Grigoriy, kept her silent. Despite her better logic, she tucked her cheek against Alexei’s firm pectoral, her hand resting against his sternum.
This was her favorite place in all the world.
He walked her down the hall the way he’d come and through a pocket door into a tiny bedroom. When he took two strides toward the bed, and she began to understand his intentions, anticipation flipped her stomach upside down.
But there were so many questions between them. So many things she needed to understand. Things she needed
him
to understand—like the truth about her father and how she couldn’t return to Russia.
“Alexei?” she whispered.
“Shh.” His breath danced through her hair as he laid her on the brushed cotton bedding. “This is more comfortable.”
Sasha could hardly believe he’d brought her here so she would be more comfortable. She’d been perfectly content on the divan. It was long enough to stretch her legs and wide enough she didn’t feel like she would fall into the aisle.
The chips of darker emerald glinting in his eyes convinced her
Alexei had ulterior motives. The kind that involved nakedness and orgasms.
A ripple of excitement tripped down her spine as she watched him cross the room, close the door, then turn back to the bed. His eyes never left her during the short trip to her side. At her hip, the mattress gave with his weight. His large palm settled into the curve at her waist. Low and husky, his voice grated against her skin. “I’m not going to apologize for needing this.”
She knew she should stop him. Say something to stay the slide of his palm as it moved up her side to cup and squeeze her breast through the fine linen of her blouse. Pleasure shot through her pussy, moisture dampened her panties. This was insanity. And yet, Sasha couldn’t do anything but nod the heavy weight her head had become.
“I’ve thought of you so many times,” he whispered as he rolled his thumb over her hard nipple. The wince that flickered across his face told Sasha he hadn’t meant to voice the confession. Alexei’s heavy sigh spoke of resignation. “So many damned times.”
Then there was no more need for words. He moved over her, his mouth finding hers hungrily. She opened to his kiss without hesitation, welcomed the greedy tangle of his tongue. The world moved out from under her as if time experienced a rent. Sasha plummeted into the endless chasm of sensation Alexei alone knew how to create. She flattened her hands on his shoulders, curled her nails into the tight cords of muscle there, then looped her arms around his neck and urged his body into hers.
The scrape of his hard chest against her sensitized nipples provoked her into a soft, needy whimper. He smelled exactly as she had remembered, clean with a faint twist of citrus. His flavor though—Sasha couldn’t remember Alexei being so rich. Like expensive imported NoKA chocolate, beneath a layer of tantalizingly sharp darkness lay the sweetest confection she had ever known. She couldn’t get enough. She needed more.
Flattening her foot on the mattress, she leaned her bent knee into
his hip, urging him to settle between her legs. His weight pressed her into the mattress. Beneath his dress pants, the hard ridge of his cock nestled against her clitoris. Sasha moaned into Alexei’s hot mouth.
He swallowed down the sound, and his kiss took on more languor, aggressive demands ebbing into a gentle play until his mouth left hers altogether and he lifted his head. His lustful gaze scorched into her. The hard fall of his breath stirred the fine blonde hairs on her forehead. He pressed his cheek to hers, grazed her sensitive skin with the coarse stubble along his jaw.
The pleasant friction sent another bout of delightful shivers surging through Sasha’s body. She dropped one hand to his waist, plucked his shirt free, and slipped her fingers beneath to explore his warm flesh.
“Ah, Sasha,” he murmured against her temple. “Tell me you don’t hate me.”
Her hand stilled at the base of his spine. Hate him. How could she explain that feeling had never once struck? If she confessed to the truth, she’d look weak, sound like a fool. She
should
hate him. And yet…she didn’t. After everything, even after all he’d done to destroy her life, she could not hate Alexei. Turning her head, she met his gaze. “Alexei, I—”
He closed his eyes, but not before he could shutter away a flash of anguish in those green depths. “Lie to me, princess. I need to believe.”
It was a plea he hadn’t needed to utter. She lifted up into him and caught his lips with hers. “I don’t hate you,” she whispered against his mouth.
A low snarl rumbled in the back of his throat a second before his mouth crashed into hers and claimed her savagely. His hands speared into her hair, holding her head in place, imprisoning her to the fierceness of his desperate kiss. She met the stroke of his tongue eagerly, tugged on the hem of his shirt, pushing it up, exposing his abdomen, equally desperate to feel the warmth of his skin against hers.
When that moment of blissful contact came, Sasha let out a plaintive mewl. Blessed torture. Perfect.
Nowhere near enough. She hooked an ankle around his calf and levered her hips into his, stroking herself against his hardened cock.
Alexei tore his mouth away with effort. “Easy, princess,” he rasped. Bracing his hands on both sides of her shoulders, he lifted his upper body away from hers. The faintest hint of a smile touched the corners of his mouth. “Don’t ruin me for the race. I’m already halfway to the finish.” The faint smile disappeared as he lowered his head and grazed his teeth along the delicate shell of her ear. “I want to be inside you when I come,” he whispered. The tip of his tongue flicked against her earlobe. “I want you to come around me. I need that. Can you give it to me, princess?”
Oh, dear, sweet heaven above—she almost climaxed right there. A low moan slipped off her lips, and she gyrated against the taunting press of his cock. “Yes,” she exhaled.
God, yes.
Rocking back to his knees, he yanked off his belt and tossed it over the edge of the bed. His large, powerful hands formed around her hips, his gaze dropping to the juncture of her thighs where she knew her shameful wetness dampened the gauzy fabric of her lightweight pants.
She liked the way he looked at her. The way raw desire flashed between flickering wonder that made her feel like she was the only woman he had ever wanted. Sasha wouldn’t delude herself into believing that fantasy, but he was definitely the only man she wanted this way.
And he was taking too damn long.
Leaning forward, she popped the button at his waist and pulled the zipper down. His cock jutted arrogantly forth from a nest of dark curls. She wrapped her hand around the hard length and brushed her thumb over the wide head. Satin over steel—she craved the taste of him she’d had so long ago.
Alexei’s hips tensed. His breath came out in a hiss.
Watching his face, she worked her hand down his erection, then back up. Eyes closed, he barely breathed. “Sasha,” he bit out through clenched teeth.
“Hm?” A smile played on her lips as she gave him a firm squeeze. Beneath her thumb, a bead of pearly moisture gathered. She slid the slick wetness over the head of his cock, then nearly bent in half to lick it off.
Alexei stopped her a breath away from her target. Her chin in his hand, he tipped her head up. “I want your mouth on me.”
She chuckled. “If you’ll let me go—”
“But I want this more.” His mouth swept down to hers, his tongue sliding past her parted lips and gliding over hers. As he kissed her, he gathered her buttocks in his hands and lifted her against his body. When he had molded her so close not even air could wedge between them, he slid his hands up her ribs, his thumbs brushing the sides of her breasts until she wanted to squirm to escape the consuming pleasure.
Her body was afire, her pussy throbbing, and Alexei was taking his damned time. She broke the kiss, in dire need of air. “Alexei, please.”
His hands tangled in her long hair as he eased her onto her back once more. “Don’t move,” he instructed as he slid off the bed.
Sasha bit down on her lip to silence a cry of protest. He couldn’t be abandoning her. She’d held his cock in her hands, felt its burgeoning weight, knew the heat that throbbed in his veins. He wanted her as much as she wanted him—what in the world was he doing?
Her fears subsided as Alexei merely tugged his shirt over his head, then shucked his pants. In full naked glory, he stood at the side of the bed. Her memory hadn’t failed to recall the splendor of his body. Corded muscles rippled across his chest and shoulders as he crouched over her. When her palm smoothed down the line of fine dark hair on his abdomen, the tight washboard there jumped beneath her hand. He was everything she remembered. Perfect in so many ways.
In many more he exceeded what their one incredible week together
had seared into her brain. A scar across his right pectoral that he hadn’t possessed before glinted in the dim light. Fine lines of strain creased the corners of his beautiful eyes, telling her in the two years they’d spent apart he had witnessed incomprehensible things. His mouth, though every bit as glorious as it had been then, held a tightness that made her want to do whatever it took to smooth away those harsh creases.
She traced one tight line with her index finger and looked up into his fathomless gaze. “You never smile.”
He blinked, but didn’t otherwise acknowledge her observation. Instead, he plucked open the buttons down the front of her blouse and pushed the flimsy fabric off her shoulders. She arched her back, helping him remove the garment, and breathed deeply as he reached behind and unclasped her bra. Slowly, tenderly, he pulled the straps down her elbows, over her wrists, then dropped it on the floor.
Alexei removed the rest of her clothing just as thoroughly. What his hands didn’t touch, his gaze did, and when she finally lay before him naked, shaking with anticipation, she felt more appreciated than she had ever felt before.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured as he traced the back of his hand around the curve of her breast. “You were pretty then, but now you’re breathtaking.”
The unexpected praise warmed her from the inside out. She reached up to capture his hand and pressed a light kiss to his knuckles. “I’ve missed you, Alexei.”
He huffed a short breath of disbelief. With a shake of his head, he cupped the side of her face. “Ah, princess, you know just what to say, don’t you?”
Before she could fully process the veiled insult, he moved over her and drew her nipple between his teeth. The pinch of pain startled her, but the firm pull as he sucked ebbed the sting into sheer pleasure. She arched her back, thrusting deeper into his mouth. His free hand covered her opposite breast. The flick and twist of his fingers and thumb
mimicked the wicked skill of his mouth and tongue until she whimpered from the torment of it all and writhed beneath the building ecstasy.
Then he was gone, his delightful mouth skimming down the centerline of her body, the tip of his tongue delving into her navel. Lower still, until his breath warmed the wet folds of her pussy.
His hands slid down her thighs to her knees, then long fingers glided up the sensitive inside of her legs, easing them apart. “Open up for me, princess.”
Sasha’s body trembled as she parted her thighs. She watched his face as he dipped one finger into her seeping flesh and slicked upward to swirl it over her clit.
“So pretty,” he murmured as he stroked her again. “So perfectly wet.”
His voice unraveled her. She moved against his caress, unable to stop her body from seeking what it wanted. Pressure stabbed through her womb, pulsed between her legs.