It must have been difficult for him to choose to be so vulnerable. He had to know that she would see his implacable nature. The warrior in him that was so deeply ingrained that it was impossible to ever stamp out. That edge of hardness she would come up against at times. The silky flow of midnight black hair against that terrible fall of snow and blood sent a spiral of heat curling through her. It was soft and sensuous and very unexpected—a statement of healing love. Her Stefan was every bit the artist as he was the assassin.
And then the last tumble brought a black pitchfork with the set of golden wings covering it. His fallen angel with clipped wings.
His
. He’d claimed her for his own, and she saw clearly he meant it. She was his salvation, his joy, his reason. The devil had claimed his angel.
Outside she could hear the soft wind fluttering through the leaves of her Japanese garden and inside, she could hear her own heart beating. She moistened her lips, carefully making certain that she had turned the cell enough times that she had managed to see everything. Every scene would always be different, but each one would always be a glimpse into Stefan’s soul. She could barely find the strength to lower the scope when she found it so enthralling. Her hands were shaking, her body trembling. He was claiming her with every turn of the kaleidoscope and God help her, everything in her responded to his call.
She moistened her lips. Without thinking she clutched the scope to her heart, her gaze meeting his. “This is an incredible gift. Thank you.”
“Give yourself to me.”
Her heart did that funny little flippy thing inside her chest as her stomach did a slow roll. His voice was low, so quiet it was merely a thread of sound, but there was no denying he was making a statement. A demand. She’d challenged him and he’d more than accepted it. Stefan hadn’t tried to soften his true nature, it was there in the cell he’d made, the weapons, including a small garrote he’d twisted from metal.
“I just gave myself to you, Judith. I handed over whatever was left of Stefan Prakenskii. Give yourself to me.”
She drank him in. He was a big man, all muscle, no soft edges, but she could drown in his blue-green eyes, get caught up in his reluctant smile and burn hot under his touch. He would be hers completely; she had seen that in his single-minded purpose. “If you left me I’d be shattered,” she admitted. “You have to know whether or not you’re capable of staying.”
“When I make a commitment, Judith, it’s forever. And I expect the same of my woman.” It was as much a warning as a promise. “She has to trust me, have faith in me, as I will in her. I don’t know how to do things by halves. Be certain it’s me you really want, angel.”
“I’m taking a lot of things on faith, Stefan.”
“I know I’m asking a lot of you. I’ve never been a good man. I’ve lived by a code and tried never to allow an innocent in harm’s way, but I’ve killed, Judith. Many times. And I’ve used what I know to get information from other agents. The things I’ve done I’m not proud of, nor am I ashamed. That’s been my life. I’d like to say that part of my life is over, but until Ivanov is dead and Sorbacov realizes we won’t be a threat to him unless he pursues us, I can’t promise that.”
Judith nodded. “I still think we should talk to Jonas.”
“I have no idea how to be in a relationship, and I’m bound to make mistakes. I’m not a social man. Hanging out with people is not something I’ll ever be comfortable with.”
“I noticed that.” She couldn’t help the beginnings of a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. I’m very good at socializing.”
He walked purposefully over to the French doors and closed them, securing the locks and once more setting the alarm.
Judith rolled her eyes. “Don’t you think that silly alarm is rather useless?”
“It will keep everyone else out.” He turned to face her, his brilliant gaze drifting over her, hunger growing in the depths of his eyes. “Take off your clothes. I prefer you wearing only that gold chain and all that soft skin.”
She felt heat rush through her and settle low. Her nipples reacted, growing into hard pebbles. Color crept up her neck. She felt almost weak with wanting him. There was something so sexy about the way he took command. She loved that he belonged to her. And he did. She had known it the moment her spirit had merged with his. It was comforting to know she could let go with a violent storm of emotions and he could handle it.
“Judith.”
The soft impatience in the way he said her name sent another surge of heat coursing through her veins. Electricity sparked in the room. She caught the edge of her shirt almost without thinking and pulled the material over her head. His swift inhale sent a shiver down her spine.
He stepped close to her, close enough that his masculine scent enveloped her. “Sometimes when I look at you, I have to remind myself you’re real. You’re so beautiful to me, everything about you,” he confessed and caught her up as if she weighed no more than a feather.
Judith, still holding the racer-back tank top, circled his neck with her arms and held on as he carried her from the room. He didn’t stop to use the light switch or close the door, but she felt a surge of power and the two things happened almost simultaneously. She sucked her breath at the realization that Stefan wasn’t simply telepathic, or a shield for her emotions, he was capable of telekinesis. Locks opened for him and he could move objects, a rare talent.
“Your spirit amplifies my abilities,” he said as he took her up the stairs. “I felt it the first time we shared an erotic fantasy. I didn’t know if I initiated it or you did, but the power was incredible. You must have felt it.”
She couldn’t wait for the bedroom. She kissed his chin, the corners of his mouth, and then settled her lips quite firmly over his. Liquid gold poured into her veins and moved through her body in a slow, delicious thick molasses in the summertime heat. The feeling was exquisite, and she couldn’t stop kissing him. She loved his taste, all that masculinity, the spicy, sexy demand in his mouth when he kissed her back again and again.
She seemed to float, and somehow was in the bedroom, Stefan going down to the bed with her, kneeling over her as he kissed her, his hands sure on her shorts, stripping them from her hips without pause. His mouth trailed fire from her throat to her breasts, robbing her of breath and sanity. Her body trembled with hunger for him, her hips and legs moving restlessly beneath him in an agony of need.
Often she felt so completely and utterly alone and empty. No one had ever made her feel the way he did—so filled by him. He poured into her mind, just as she poured into his. They filled each other, so that there were no empty spaces, no shadows, only a complete merging of spirits.
His tongue flicked her nipple, his teeth bit down and she arched into him, offering him her full breasts, aching now, needing his attention. Her arms circled his head, holding him to her while he feasted. Whips of flame connected her breasts to her weeping feminine channel. Fire sizzled through her so that she cried out, nearly sobbing with her need to feel him inside her.
“Take your clothes off. This time, I want to see all of you,” she gasped.
He lifted his head, his ever-changing eyes dark with turbulence, with lust. “Are you certain you’re ready for that, Judith? My body’s a little banged up.”
She touched his face—that beloved face, so perfectly sculpted. It was a man’s face, no sign of the boy long gone from his spirit. She traced the scars with shaking fingertips. “Let me love you, Stefan,” she whispered. “These things that have happened to you shaped you into the man I want. Let me have you completely.”
Stefan wordlessly knelt above her, his eyes growing even more brilliantly blue-green. His hands dropped to the buttons of his shirt and he slowly opened the edges and shrugged the material off. She bit down hard on her lower lip. His chest was crisscrossed with scars and old wounds. There were slashes across his belly and around his hip, disappearing into his jeans.
Judith ran her finger along the edge of one long scar that led into his waistband before opening the jeans herself. She tugged them down to his knees, her eyes widening as his heavy erection jutted into her face. Scars marred his thighs and one edged across the hair above of penis. There was no doubt he’d been through battles.
Stefan slid one leg off the bed, shed the jeans and followed suit with the other, holding his position above her, turning just slightly so he could follow the angle of her body, straddling her, allowing her to take a good look at the roadmap of scars. Judith twisted her body slightly, giving herself a better angle to examine every scar, her fingers whispering over them reverently. She leaned up to press a series of kisses over every line.
Stefan closed his eyes and just allowed his body to feel. She was a miracle, bringing him to life. He had always commanded his body when he seduced a woman. He’d never given himself to her, never allowed her to touch him, to claim him as Judith was doing so if he loved her a little more than other men loved their woman, he felt not only was it acceptable, but it was entirely understandable and he forgave himself for his loss of discipline and control.
Her touch felt like the very first time. He knew he would never forget this moment. The slide of her hair over his thighs was so damned sensuous his cock swelled to a painful aching. He brought his hand to the thick length, circling it lightly to ease the terrible craving while she took her time imprinting on his body with her fingers.
His heart jumped when he felt the brush of her tongue along his thigh. Her hands slipped around the column of his leg, holding her torso up while she lapped her way up the inside of his leg. His heart stood still a moment, then began to pound as her tongue found his scrotum. There was no hesitation on her part, only an eagerness to bring him pleasure and claim him with the same determined efficiency as he’d claimed her.
He had always been the seducer, always making certain his chosen target succumbed fast to his expertise. And he’d never expected—or allowed—a woman to give him the same pleasure, not like this. Not a complete takeover of every one of his senses. After his training he had been unable to function without his brain working, judging his mark and reading always, always what was best for her pleasure in order to carry out his mission. His mind actually hazed over, enhanced by her spirit element, seduced by this woman he had fallen fast and hard for.
Her hands moved up to his buttocks, massaging, gripping as she kissed her way up his cock, her tongue dancing over the thick veins and around the dark head. His breath left his lungs in a rush when her mouth slipped over him, as tight as any fist, hot and moist and velvety soft. His heart nearly exploded. He caught her shoulders and lowered her onto the bed, her head slightly over the edge while he knelt above her. The angle allowed him to slide his cock more deeply into that amazing haven. His hands found her breasts, rolling and tugging on her nipples as she suckled, the pull strong, then gentle. Her tongue danced over him, flat and hard, then licking like a little kitten.
He fought for air, fought for a little control. Sex was just that—sex, another tool, a weapon. But she turned it into something far different, something so far removed from what he’d ever known that he didn’t have a chance against her. Emotion burst over her along with pure sensation, turning his brain to mush and his body to fire.
She made a sound, a plea, the vibration running through his body until he trembled with the need to thrust into her.
Please.
Oh God. That small plea. So generous. So Judith. His woman. She wanted to give this to him, to allow him to surrender to the sheer carnal desire of using her body for his exclusive pleasure. She was asking nothing in return and God help him, he couldn’t help but feel love rising with the lust, intertwining until the two were no longer separate, but tightly woven together, bound for all time.
She’d found a way inside him to break through that solid steel door his trainers had so brutally erected to block all emotion and close him off. She’d crept in with her soft serenity, with her exotic, generous, compassionate nature and she’d found a way to lead him to another world, one he’d never imagined he could enter. His eyes burned along with his chest as he fought for air, fought for balance. It was far too late; she swept him into her heart on a tidal wave of sheer desire.
Her mouth tightened, sliding along his shaft, unable to take the full length of him, but she didn’t use her hand to stop him, trusting him, willing to give him her best. She wasn’t tutored like the women he’d been with, but her joy and completely giving nature wrapped in such a feeling of love transported him close to euphoria. If there was a subspace where every sensation came together, merged into ultimate pleasure wrapped in emotion—he was there.
His hands gripped her hair, holding her head still. He started as gently as possible with his body screaming at him, getting her used to his control. She didn’t fight him, not when he slipped another inch into her, feeling her throat close, squeezing down on him. He threw his head back and held her still, his head back, letting the amazing sensation wash through him. She took a breath when he pulled her head back and he began a rougher rhythm, sliding deep and holding there for a moment, experiencing paradise.
Her hands gripped over his thighs and cupped his tight balls, massaging gently and then as he slipped deeper, gripped again. He could feel his body growing hotter and hotter, until the boiling heat made his thrusts harder to control. The seduction of her mouth wasn’t helping. In fact, she encouraged him with her hands and mouth.
“Moya angel, ya tebya lyublu,”
he said between his teeth, the words torn from somewhere deep inside of him. Love was such an insipid word for the emotion welling up inside of him like a volcano. He had to stop before it was too late, and never once in his life had that ever happened to him.
Very reluctantly he loosened his hands in her hair and, closing his eyes, pulled away from the paradise of her hot mouth. “I want to worship your body tonight, Judith.”