Sweetest Surrender (14 page)

“Touch your breasts.” A soft demand.

Even though they’d made love many times over the last few hours, with the sun now coming up, streaming over the big bed, she felt almost on display for him. The sensation was exhilarating but also made her nervous. She might be comfortable with her body, but this was new to her.

With her past boyfriends she’d never had sex more than once in a night or day and no one had ever made her feel so aware of her body. Not like Vadim.

When she reached up and cupped her breasts, he shuddered and jerked his hips upward, pushing even deeper into her. She arched her back at the sensation, rolling her thumbs over her nipples, lightly stimulating them. The pleasure was connected to the pulsing between her legs. Each time she did, she clenched around him and he groaned.

To test him, she tried to move again, but he held her still, watching her with that intensely raw gaze. Slowly, he started rocking into her, but he wasn’t letting her move much, just enough that his cock rubbed against that elusive spot inside she’d only found with vibrators in the past. She realized she could come just like this as he continued to rock into her.

And when he let go of one hip and started rubbing her clit with his free hand, the orgasm built faster than she’d expected. Her stomach muscles clenched as the need magnified and she increased her own stroking, pinching her nipples between her forefingers and thumbs.

Vadim’s eyes narrowed on her fingers and he gritted out what she guessed was a curse in Russian under his breath. His own caresses increased and when he tweaked her clit, her orgasm slammed into her, taking her off guard.

Pleasure rushed through her to all her nerve endings, her sheath tightening around him as she let go. As her climax continued, he mercifully let go of her hip, letting her ride him.

He met her stroke for stroke, groaning as she leaned forward, her hair spreading over his chest. When he grabbed her ass, helping her move even faster over him, he shouted out his release, pumping until he was sated and she collapsed on his chest.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually he stirred beneath her, his breathing evened out. “I’m not going to get anything done with you here,” he murmured.

She laughed against his chest. “I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.” After a long moment, she asked, “Do you have to work today?”

“I’m working from home. And we still have more to talk about.” He ran a gentle hand down her back, the feel of his calluses making her shiver.

She loved his hands all over her body. Unfortunately, he was right. “Yeah, I know.” Sighing, she pushed up. “I’m going to shower—alone,” she added when his gaze darkened. “When I get out I’d love it if there was coffee waiting.”

He leaned up and brushed his lips over hers. “I think I can arrange that.”

She clenched around his half-hard length still inside her. Staring down into his eyes, she realized that she’d completely fallen for Vadim. Not halfway, she was full-on smitten with him. So much so that it should have scared her. There were so many layers to him, something she’d known from the moment they’d met, and she’d only seen some of them so far. She just hoped she wasn’t in over her head. And she really hoped that once she finished telling him everything about what she’d done to cover her tracks and her past that he wouldn’t judge her. The thought of seeing any sort of recrimination in Vadim’s eyes sliced at her insides with an intensity she couldn’t even think about.

Chapter 13

Angel stepped out of Vadim’s bathroom to find her bag of clothes and laptop on the neatly made king-sized bed. She thought it was sweet that Vadim had brought her things over so she could change—until she saw a couple of her clothing boxes near the window. Had he brought all of her things into his room? Not sure how she felt about that, she dressed quickly in jeans, a sweater and left her damp hair down. She’d run a blow dryer through it for a few minutes to get most of the wetness out but she was craving coffee—because tea wouldn’t cut it right now—and she knew they needed to finish talking about what she planned to do moving forward.

She was tired of living in fear but she’d also made a mess of things by using a different social security number. She wasn’t sure what to do about that so she hoped Vadim might have an idea.

She found him in the kitchen standing next to the island frowning at his laptop. Charlie was beside him, but perked up when she saw Angel. Immediately the dog went to the pantry door and nudged it.

“You’re going to spoil her,” Vadim murmured without glancing up from the screen, clearly reading something.

She ignored him and opened the door. “I have no shame buying her affection with treats. Besides, I can’t say no to her face,” she said as she handed Charlie two little bones. One for her to hide and one to eat.

When she shut the door she looked over to find Vadim watching her appreciatively. She was dressed casually but that hungry look in his eyes made her feel sexy. “What are you working on?” she asked as she headed for the half-full coffee pot on the other side of his computer.

“Nothing that can’t wait.” He half-closed the screen as he leaned against the counter. “You hungry? I can cook something.”

He cooked too? Oh yeah, she was done for when it came to him. “Coffee’s all I need, but thanks.”

He reached for her hips, tugging her close so she set her mug on the counter. “It’s no problem. And I hope that’s not
all
you need.” Lightly, he brushed his lips over hers and her entire body pulled taut in awareness again.

Grinning, she pushed at his chest and picked up her mug as she sat at one of the island chairs. “I’m really not hungry. By the way, why did you move all my boxes into your room?”

He shrugged, reaching for his own mug. After last night she’d thought she could read him pretty well but his expression was carefully blank. “Do you want to stay in the guestroom?”

“No, of course not, it’s just I won’t be here that long so…” She shrugged, trailing off.

He cleared his throat and, apparently deciding to ignore her comment, slid a small, wire-bound notebook with blank paper to her. “I need your real social security number, list of former addresses, parents’ names, school info, any info you have on Emile including his parents’ names. Also, whatever happened with your parents’ life insurance policy? Or didn’t they have one?”

She took the pad and pulled out the pen attached to the wire bound spine. Tapping it against the pad, she watched Vadim worriedly. “So you know that I didn’t use my social security number to gain employment at Cloud 9?”

His eyebrows furrowed together, as if that should be obvious. “Yes. The number you’re using is from an infant who died—it’s in the file I have. I thought you saw that.”

She shook her head, relief spilling through her like a waterfall that he didn’t seem to be angry. “I hadn’t seen it. I thought…” She broke off, not wanting to admit her fears. “Ah, in regards to the insurance policy we got the runaround with them. They said their death wasn’t covered even though accidental deaths were. My brother was the one who handled everything since I was in no state to do anything at the time. After he died, I didn’t really think about it.” She’d paid for his funeral, then using a college friend’s contact, she’d paid for a new ID.

His frown deepened. “Include the name of the insurance company with your other notes. Do you have the policy number?”

“I’ve got the info on my laptop.”

He seemed to relax at that. “Good. I researched the history of the social security number you’ve been using. I assume you bought new credentials?” When she nodded, he continued. “You only just started using the number at Cloud 9, so did you have a different ID before?”

She shook her head. “No. The year and a half before I started working at the Cloud I was working mainly in dives that were willing to pay me under the table. Things got a little dicey at the last restaurant I worked at. It was this little place out in the middle of freaking nowhere New Mexico. Things were fine at first, but a couple months into my job the owner’s son started working there as a chef and started harassing me. He made it clear that he knew I was being paid under the table and basically threatened me with calling the police. He thought I was on the run from the cops, which is clearly wrong, but still, I realized that if I kept working in places like that I’d be opening myself up to harassment and worse. It was scary using my fake credentials, I wasn’t even sure they’d work, but…” She shrugged, not needing to finish. Clearly it had worked. Which was good because she’d paid enough money for the fake paperwork.

As another thought occurred to her, she bit her bottom lip. “Crap. What will happen at the restaurant and with the IRS? If I reclaim my life I need to start using my real information.” She was pretty sure her crime of using a fake social security number was at least considered fraud or something.

“I’ll take care of it.” Vadim’s voice was so full of authority, it threw her off balance.

“Just like that? How?”

“You haven’t worked at the Cloud long enough to file taxes. They’ll be sending out the 1099s in about three weeks, and they haven’t filed anything yet. I’ll talk to accounting—after Wyatt—and we’ll say that a wrong number was entered by mistake. Nothing that can’t be undone.”

Some of the tension resting on her shoulders eased, but the thought of using her real information again was frightening after living in hiding for so long. It seemed as if Emile had found her anyway, but still, her stomach twisted in knots, the coffee she’d already had seeming to turn to lead.

Vadim reached out, gently cupping the side of her face with one hand. “We’re going to figure all this out.”

She leaned into him, sliding off the chair and wrapped her arms around him. She’d been alone for so long, afraid to tell anyone the truth about who she was, she felt like a sponge now, just soaking up all Vadim’s strength. “I’m just scared to go back to work I guess.”

Vadim stiffened and pulled back to look at her. “You’re not going in to work until we find this guy.”

“What?” She couldn’t afford to just
not
work.

“I’ve already talked to Sierra and you’ve got the next week off. At least.” He sounded so freaking high-handed, as if his decision was final, that she gave his chest a little shove.

She didn’t care that Vadim was right in this, it pissed her off that he’d just made the decision without asking her first. “So you called my boss and made a decision without thinking to ask me?”

For the first time since she’d met him, Vadim looked like a deer caught in headlights. Okay, more like a tiger in headlights. His expression was wary.

“It’s not a trick question, Vadim.” She sat back on the chair at the island and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I should have asked you first?” he said, clearly confused.

“Uh, yeah.”

“But it doesn’t make sense for you to be in public with Emile out there. He’s likely already vandalized my car and you seem sure he’s the one who spoke to Mr. Botkin.” The tone of his voice was like he was talking to a small child.

Which lit the fuse on her annoyance. “I know, I get that. But I don’t want someone making decisions for me. I could have called Sierra on my own.” She would have preferred it.

He looked as if he wanted to argue, but instead nodded. “I’m sorry.”

Some of her anger evaporated. “It’s okay. I just…I don’t like anyone making decisions for me, okay?” She’d had so much control in her life taken from her that even the little things being taken away rubbed her the wrong way.

Something like concern flickered in his pale eyes, but he nodded. “Okay. I’m going to be here most of the day working on tracking down Emile. But tomorrow I’ve got a full day with Wyatt…and I would like to have a friend stay here with you.”

Angel figured he’d already asked his ‘friend’ and resisted the urge to smile. “A friend?”

He lifted a shoulder. “One of the security team.”

She couldn’t even imagine how expensive it would be to give her a bodyguard for a day. “Your house is safe and you’ve got an impressive security system. Plus you’ve got Charlie.”

The dog trotted into the kitchen then and made a soft whining sound near the pantry door. “No,” Angel said to her, knowing that even if she wanted to spoil the dog, she couldn’t do it every time.

Vadim gave her a ghost of a smile as Charlie headed for her food bowl instead. “I would feel better to have someone here. And I would like him to teach you some self-defense moves. Nothing too intense, just enough training to give you moves so that you can do enough damage to someone then run.”

“Can’t you teach me?” After seeing him take out those guys at her apartment complex she had no doubt that he was skilled enough.

“I could, but if your hands are all over my body we’ll end up naked more often than not.” He half-smiled, but she knew he was right.

Even thinking about those kinds of teaching scenarios with Vadim made her body heat up. She put a pin in that for now because the thought of learning more self-defense than she’d picked up in the few classes she’d taken in college was wildly appealing. But… “Won’t that be really expensive? To have someone stay here?”

He blinked, as if that was the last thing he’d expected her to ask. “No.”