YURI (Her Russian Protector #3) (29 page)

I thought of all the ways this setup could go wrong. "How good are you at poker?"

"I'm not as good as Mikhail or Tari but I'm all right."

"What if you lose?"

"It doesn't matter. As long as Jerry doesn't win—and he won't—the painting will end up in my hands tomorrow night."

"You sound very confident."

"I refuse to go into that game feeling anything less."

That was one strategy for keeping his head in the right place. "Are all of your friends already in town?"

"I saw a helicopter flying out to Misha's yacht a while ago. Tari came with him apparently. Archer and Niels are at a hotel in Monte Carlo. They invited us to a party they're having but I declined."

"Because of me?"

"No." He rubbed my back. "Because I'm tired and because I don't think you'd like the kinds of parties those two throw."

My curiosity wouldn't let me rest. "Um…what kind of party is that?"

He hesitated. "Let's just say those two are deeply into a certain lifestyle that involves a lot of leather and collars and riding crops."

Pushing up on my palms, I stared down at him. "No way! You have super kinky friends?"

He laughed. "These two make Dimitri's restraint fantasies seem like child's play."

"Wow." I started to put my head back down on his chest but another thought gripped me. Holding his gaze, I asked, "Have you ever been to one of their parties?"

He reluctantly nodded. "Once, seven or eight years ago, I went to the private club the pair owns in London. It was an eye-opening experience."

Feeling fluttery with excitement, I drew my initials on his bare chest. "Did you like what you saw?"

"Some of it aroused me but most of it was too far outside my comfort zone to make feel anything but distaste. I had my ass beat enough as a child to associate only pain and suffering with canes and paddles and whips. It does nothing for me."

I sensed he didn't want to take a trip down memory lane to his childhood in that rotten orphanage so I let that comment go. Instead, I focused on the part that interested me most. Walking my fingers down his tummy, I asked, "What did you see that aroused you?"

As if reading my mind, he shifted his hips. "Niels showed me to a private room. It had one of those one-way mirrors like you see on cop shows. You know, for interrogation rooms? I could see the group in the room but they couldn't see me."

My heart started to race as he described the risqué scene. I swept my hand over the tented fabric rising higher and higher just below his navel. "What were they doing?"

"There were four of them. Three men and a woman," he clarified. "They'd set up this kinky interrogation-themed fantasy. By the looks of it, the woman was supposed to be a hooker. The men were police officers. They were making damn good use of their cuffs."

I slipped my hand into his pajama bottoms and encountered his hot, naked skin. My fingertips brushed the steely heat of his erection. "Tell me more."

His breath hitched in his throat as I grasped his cock and stroked him slowly. "It was the first and only time I'd ever seen a real woman take more than one man. Not a porn star, you understand. It was—intense."

I let my hand move lower and cupped his heavy sac. Not sure I'd like the answer, I asked the question that had me a little worried. "Is that something you want to try in real life?"

His chuckle rumbled through his chest and into my cheek. "No. I think that there are some fantasies that are best left in that realm." Reaching down, he covered my hand with his. "I think I'd probably end up in jail if I had to watch another man touching you." He paused. "Unless you wanted to—"

"No," I hastily interjected. "I'll admit the idea of it is rather sexy. Maybe I'd even enjoy watching it from afar but actually letting two or three men go at me? No. It's not for me."

"I'm sure that has something to do with the places we came from, Lena. What others find illicit and titillating loses some of its erotic appeal when you've watched pimps force prostitutes into cars to be used and debased."

What he said made sense. The sort of violence I'd been forced to witness at such a young and tender age hadn't been a good thing. No doubt it had colored my outlook on all aspects of my life.

"But I don't want to think about those ugly things," Yuri decided. "I want to make love to you here in the middle of the Mediterranean."

"What? Out here?"

"Where else?"

"But someone might hear or see us!"

"This section of the ship is very well hidden." He dragged me onto his lap. "As for the other, you'll simply have to try to be a little quieter than usual."

I moaned as Yuri's lips moved across that ticklish spot on my neck. "I'm not sure I can do that. You make me lose all control."

"Oh, you know how to stroke my ego." He pushed my hand against his erection. "Now be a very good girl and stroke my cock."

"Like this?" I clasped his rock-hard shaft and stroked from the very base of him to the tip.

He groaned loudly. "Just like that…"

"Before you get too relaxed, you might want to remember that I'm not carrying a condom tonight. So unless you've got one hidden away somewhere in these pajamas of yours…"

His frustrated growl sent shivers through me. "Wait here. I'll be right back."

We untangled ourselves. While he darted into the bedroom, I stood up long enough to peel off my night clothes and place them on the pile of paperwork. Resting on my tummy atop the chaise, I placed my cheek against my arm and waited for him to return. The cool breeze washed over me. The sound of waves crashing against the boat provided the most wondrous soundtrack.

"I wish you could see yourself right now."

I glanced back at Yuri and found him staring down at me with such love and hunger burning in his pale eyes. "How do I look?"

"Delicious." He put a knee onto the chaise. "Sexy. Like some otherworldly creature." He kissed his way up my calf and thigh to the curve of my buttock. I inhaled a shocked breath as he gave me a love bite on my plump flesh. "You look like a dark-haired siren."

A pleasured sigh escaped my lips as Yuri caressed my back and crawled over me. With his hand planted next to my shoulder, he held most of his weight off of me. His other hand moved between my thighs. "Lift your ass for me."

I happily complied. When his hand applied gentle pressure to my thighs, I widened them even more. As he nipped at my nape and whispered the dirtiest things, Yuri used those skilled fingers of his to make me so wet. I clawed at the all-weather fabric of the chaise and rotated my hips as he worked me into a frenzied state.

"Do you want me to fuck you now?" His thrusting fingers kept me hovering right on the edge. "Do you want my cock, Yelena?"

"Yes! I want you. I want you now."

His throaty groan filled me with such anticipation. He backed off just long enough to sheath himself and then grabbed my hips, hauling me up onto my knees. "You'd better hold onto something because I'm burning up for you. I can't hold back."

That was all the warning I received before he thrust roughly into me. Moaning, I urged, "Don't hold back. I want you. All of you."

He tangled his hand in my hair and found a hard, fast rhythm that made my damn toes curl. Gripping the back of the chair and the cushion, I held on for dear life as Yuri pounded into me from behind. The perfect angle of his penetration hit all the right spots. I pressed my face into the thick cushion and howled with sheer delight as the first waves of ecstasy punched through my core.

But that wasn't enough for him. He seemed determined to make me come again and again. His hand slipped around to my front and down to the spot where our bodies joined. My inflamed clit still pulsed from that first powerful orgasm when he started to roll his fingertips across the swollen bud.

I shrieked his name into the cushion and prayed the French or Monegasque version of the Coast Guard wasn't about to swarm the boat. My aching breasts brushed against the rough fabric of the chair. The rasping sensation left my nipples tingling. Every nerve-ending in my body seemed electrified now.

When I climaxed for the third and final time, I hardly made a noise. A high-pitched squeak was all I could manage as Yuri jackhammered my pussy. The rapturous waves crashed over me again and again, dragging me down in the blissful undercurrents until I could hardly pull a breath into my lungs.

With one final, powerful thrust, Yuri found his release. He jerked rapidly and groaned my name over and over before collapsing against my back. We fell down onto the cushion. After a few moments, Yuri found enough strength to roll off of me and onto his side. I felt him move away just long enough to deal with the necessities before spooning me.

Panting and shaking, we interlaced our fingers against my belly. He pressed a loving kiss to my cheek before laughing softly. "We'll be lucky if Vasya doesn't bust that door down in the next ten seconds." He pinched my backside. "I thought you were going to be quiet?"

I reached back and smacked his hip. "I thought you were going to go easy on me."

"Never," he whispered. "I intend to make every time that we're together one you'll remember."

I was confident he'd have no trouble achieving that goal.

Chapter Seventeen

"Are you ready for this?"

Yuri finished fastening his cuff link and enjoyed the sight of Lena in only a fluffy white towel. Her pouty lips were still slightly swollen from that wickedly perfect blowjob she'd just given him. He tried to burn that erotic image of her into his mind.

Grinning mischievously, he said, "Kitten, after that
good luck charm
you just gave me in the shower? I can face anything."

She giggled and slid her arms around his waist. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of her small, warm body pressed against his. "I really love you for doing this."

He smiled warmly. "I know you do."

Certain she was already worrying, he caressed her arm. "I want you to stay in the master suite tonight. I've already arranged a special dinner for you—but I gave orders to cut you off after two drinks," he teased. "I remember what happened the last time you were upset with me."

She rolled her eyes and whacked his arm. "You're never going to let me forget that I drunk-dialed you."

"Never," he said with a grin and pecked her cheek. Rather somberly, he added, "I'm sure that stupid dossier I ordered will probably be something you never let me forget."

A sad smile played upon her lips. "I want to say that I'll never bring it up but I won't make promises I can't keep. I'm sure that at some point you'll piss me off and I'll whip that out to verbally smack you with a few times."

"I know how shallow it makes me sound but I truly didn't think it would hurt you when I ordered it done. I simply saw it as the quickest way to get the information I wanted so I could understand you."

Simply talking about his colossal mistake made his stomach churn painfully but Lena soothed the ache with a gentle squeeze of his hand. "I know why you did it and I do believe you when you say that you didn't realize how it was going to blow up in your face. I trust that you won't do something like that again."

"I learned my lesson."

"Good." She hopped up onto the marble vanity and watched him finish his dressing routine. "That's an awfully spiffy outfit for a poker game."

"Niels sets the dress code. I'd prefer to kick back in a polo shirt and jeans but Niels prefers that we play as
gentlemen
."

"Uh-huh," she said dryly. "This Niels guy sounds rather pretentious."

Yuri laughed. "You have no idea."

"But he's a good friend to do this for you."

"A very good friend," he agreed. "Outside of Nikolai, Dimitri and Ivan, he's one of the few men I truly trust."

"Even though he's a dirty, kinky bastard?" she asked with a cheeky grin.

"Especially because he's a dirty, kinky bastard," Yuri replied before swooping in for a kiss. "Promise me you won't sit down here and worry all night. I have this under control. We'll get the painting tonight. Nikolai will arrange everything once the painting is secured. Tomorrow we'll fly straight to Mexico to get your father."

Hope flared in her dark eyes. "I won't worry. You just concentrate on playing a damn good hand of poker."

"Done."

When he claimed her mouth this time, he gave her towel a tug. As the damp ends of the plush cotton fell away from her body, he ran his hands all over her luscious curves. He cupped her breast and lightly pinched her darker nipple between his fingertips. She hissed but not with pain. The way she arched into his touch and sprouted goose bumps told him she liked the little bite of discomfort. Bending down, he soothed the reddened peak with his tongue.

She ran her fingers through his hair. "Yuri…"

He bit down gently and made her yelp. "No time to finish this I'm afraid."

"What?" She glared at him. "Are you really going to get me all hot and bothered and take off?"