“Tell me—”
“Theo!” She screamed his name loud enough to make his ears ring, bucking beneath him, her inner muscles gripping him with a strength that never failed to amaze him.
He gave in to his own release, plunging and thrusting and pushing himself into her with wild, uncontrolled strokes until they ceased to be two separate people, their souls joined in a way that Theo knew would last the length of his lifetime.
It took a long time for him to come down off the postorgasmic high, but when he did, it was to find himself on his back, with Kiera looming over him.
“Next time,” she said, her eyes downright smoky with satiation. “Next time it’s my turn.”
His eyes opened wide. “You mean—”
“Screw Misha.” She made a face. “Not literally. I’m not going to let him ruin something that clearly needs to be a part of our lovemaking regime. OK?”
“OK,” he said, smiling as she snuggled into his side. He was filled with a sense of quiet elation. He had shown Kiera that she had nothing to fear from him, and been rewarded with her trust. Nothing could stop him from making sure she was insanely happy with him. Nothing, and no one.
FOURTEEN
When I came out of the bathroom the following morning, I found Peter once again in my duffel bag. Theo sat on the floor next to him, my things spread out before them in a semicircle.
“I thought I’d take a quick look before we let Jake at your belongings,” he explained. He gestured toward the small stack of things. “This is all of it, yes?”
“Yes.” I looked at my pathetic collection of clothing. “I wish now I’d let you give me those things you bought for me. I feel like the poor relation compared to Harry.”
“They’re in my suitcase,” Theo said, picking up my paperbacks, shaking them in case something was stuck in them.
I stared at him in surprise. “What? I thought you sent them back?”
“No, you told me you didn’t want them and to send them back, but I thought that every now and again I could sneak one into the dresser, and you wouldn’t notice it.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him.
He grinned. “All right, I knew you’d notice. But I hoped to soften you up over time. I still have the bracelet, too, and plan on working on you to accept that, just as soon as life settles down for us.”
“I don’t need jewelry, Theo,” I said, fully cognizant that I was being more obstinate than was necessary. I went over to the suitcase that Richard had packed for him. “Are you sure it’s here and not back in New Zealand? Oh.” Underneath a couple of pairs of pants and underwear, two familiar carrier bags lay somewhat squashed.
“I thought you might want them.” He ran his hands over the Zen garden tray, pressing the edges like he suspected it might have a secret compartment. “I just told Richard to grab the clothes, though, and not the shoes.”
I pulled out the items, sticking all the teddies back in the bag, thought for a moment, then pulled out the one in champagne-rose lace, and added it to the stack of clothing. Theo waggled his eyebrows at me.
“You only get this if you are very, very good,” I told him, taking the clothing with me into the bathroom.
“Oh, I am. I really am. Ask anyone. Except my brother,” he called after me. “He’s clearly jealous of me.”
When I returned to model a blue-and-white-striped knit off-the-shoulder shirt, and a navy blue midthigh skirt, he whistled. “Look at your mama,” he told Peter, who was sitting between Theo’s legs, banging my Zen rocks together. “She’s got a pair of legs on her, doesn’t she?”
I gave in to a little eye roll. “Like you couldn’t see that in the leggings?”
“Oh, I could, and I did. It’s just different when your legs are bare.” He leered at my legs, making a lovely wave of warmth wash up from my chest.
I knelt down next to my two menfolk, eyeing my meager possessions. “I take it you didn’t find a secret compartment in the tray?”
“No,” he said, making a face as he stared at the now neatly stacked clothing. “I made a thorough search of the bag, as well. I don’t suppose there is anything buried in your deodorant stick?”
I shook my head. “I bought everything in my cosmetics bag after I left Misha.”
“Then I just don’t know where it could be, assuming the drive is real, and he’s not insane.”
“No no no,” Peter agreed, grabbing for another rock, smacking it on the other two he had.
I picked up the last one, running my fingers around its pleasing smoothness. “There’s just nothing, Theo. How are we going to make Misha understand that?”
“We’re going to have to rely on the detectives to dig up something on him,” he answered, rubbing his jaw, instantly making my fingers itch to do the same. I loved the line of his jaw, loved the angle it made from the long planes of his face, and the way it smoothed into his chin. Just the thought of that jaw rubbing on my inner thighs right before his mouth possessed me had me shifting restlessly. “If we can get a charge to stick to him, we can—”
The thought of tasting Theo the way he’d tasted me hung tantalizingly large in my mind. A little part of my mind rejected such an idea, the memories of Misha forcing me to do such things all too fresh in the nightmare part of my brain, but I told myself that being made to do something and wanting to do it were two entirely unconnected things.
I slid a glance down at the fly of Theo’s jeans, and wondered if we could let Peter visit his cousins just long enough for me to prove to myself that I could enjoy giving him pleasure.
“Kiera.”
“Hmm?” Perhaps when Peter went down for his nap? That was usually a good solid hour, and if we had the nanny to help if he woke up early, then I could spirit Theo away and have at him.
“Do you see what I see?”
“Your crotch?”
He turned his head slowly, his eyes simmering with sapphire heat. “No, although now I want to know why you answered that. But it’ll have to wait. My question was regarding this.”
I glanced down to where he gestured. Peter was still pounding my Zen stones together, but one of them had broken.
“Oh, he broke it. There must have been a stress fracture—” I stopped when I realized that the stone wasn’t broken. The two halves had separated cleanly, and beyond them, sitting between Peter’s naked little feet, was a small rectangular metal object.
Theo picked it up with the tips of his fingers, holding it up for us to see. “That looks like a tiny flash drive,” I said in a voice that sounded strangled even to my ears.
“It sure as hell does.” He took the broken stone away from Peter, slipping the flash drive into a space inside it. “Where did you get this rock?”
“The same place I got the others—from Swami Betelbaum’s shop ... oh.” I examined the other half of the stone. “This one is different. It’s not really rock.”
“No.” His gaze was speculative. “I believe it’s one of those security devices used to hide valuables. This looks like it’s made of some form of stone polymer mix.”
“Holy crap,” I said, the full implications hitting me. “I really did have his flash drive.”
“Yes.” Theo’s eyes met mine. “And I’d very much like to see what’s on it.”
“You and me both,” I said, getting to my feet and picking up Peter when Theo got out his laptop. We sat on the bed while he plugged in the flash drive, and quickly looked through the folders contained on it.
“That looks like spreadsheets,” I said, frowning at the familiar Excel symbol. “But I don’t know what those are.”
“Financial statements,” he said, clicking quickly through the folders. “Those are bank records that have been exported. And this ...” He stopped and gave me a long, speculative look.
“What?” I asked.
He clicked a couple of times, then turned the laptop so the screen fully faced me.
“Borland House, South Church Street, George Town, Grand Cayman, CJ,” I
read aloud. “Dear sir/madam, enclosed is your log-in information including secure password for account number 433/pre/19iJ2FFM. Per your request, the account has been set up for GIRBAC, Mikhail, Chebet Imports, 222 Old Treasury Building, Mauland Court, Wellington, New Zealand. Is this one of those offshore bank accounts? The kind people who do hedge funds and such use?”
“Yes.” He smiled a long, slow smile. “And we have his account number and password.”
“Holy shit,” I said, feeling the moment called for a little profanity. “No wonder he was so frantic to find me.”
Theo reclaimed the laptop and tapped on the keyboard. “I’ll just turn on a VPN and go check the account.”
“What’s a VPN?”
“It allows me to mask my IP and location,” he said, giving a wry twist to his lips. “Jake would skin me alive if I let anyone trace me back to him. Ah, there we go. Now let’s see what dirty little secrets your ex has...”
He stopped talking, his eyes narrowing on the screen.
“Is it that bad?” I asked, feeling my blood run cold with fear. I clutched Peter so hard he squawked and banged one of the Zen stones on my hand. I set him down and gave him his chew toy, trying to see the screen, but Theo closed the lid and pulled out the flash drive, tucking it into his pocket.
His face was grim.
“Don’t you even think of leaving this room,” I told him when he stood up and turned like he was going out the door. “Not without telling me what has you looking like you’ve turned to a very handsome Greek marble statue.”
His lovely dark blue eyes were guarded when he faced me. “Do you have any issue at all leaving Peter here with Harry and Jake?”
“No,” I said. “You mean to go into Athens? Do we have to see someone at a bank? I’m sure he’d be fine if we had to leave him overnight, although we’d have to ask your sister-in-law first.”
He took my hand, his thumb rubbing over my fingers while he obviously picked his words with care. It was that fact that scared the crap out of me, making me grip his hand with fingers that shook. “I think we’re going to be gone a bit longer than overnight. We have to go back to New Zealand, Kiera.”
“Why?” I didn’t want to say the word, didn’t want to know the answer, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t hide away any longer. I had Theo and Peter now, and if that meant confronting Misha, then so be it. “So we can give Misha back the flash drive? We could just mail it or courier it to him, couldn’t we?”
He shook his head. “We’re going to have to talk to the police there. No, not police—the Financial Action Task Force.”
“Who are they?” I desperately fought the urge to run, to drag Theo and Peter to somewhere safe, where we could hide.
“They handle money laundering and terrorism financing. Jake had to deal with them on an investment in Australia about ten years ago, when the man trying to broker a deal turned out to be laundering money.” His thumb swept a path across my hand again. “You can stay here, sweetheart. I won’t make you go back if you would rather not.”
“This isn’t something we could do from here?” I asked, knowing the answer even before the words left my mouth. If this was something Theo could do without traveling all the way back to New Zealand, he would.
“We will need to meet with them in person. They’ll have to take statements. Fingerprints. And I want to make sure that they don’t let any potential dirty cop allow your ex to get away.”
“You are the bravest person I know,” I told him, so overwhelmed with love that the words just came out. His eyes widened in surprise at the words of praise. I tipped my head back and kissed him, letting my lips savor his mouth.
He was sweet and hot, and just the taste of him on my lips started tingles in my private parts. He filled my heart with joy and lit my soul with love. He was the man I had waited my whole life for, and I was so profoundly grateful for him that I was willing to do anything to have a future together. “I love you, Theo. I love you so much that even though I want to drag you and Peter to the nearest cave and hide there, I’m going to do what you want. Because I trust you with every bit of my being. So, husband, let’s go to New Zealand and nail that bastard.”
“I’m going to fulfill every last erotic thing you’re thinking right now,” he promised, chucking Peter under the chin. “And then I’m going to tell you just how proud I am of you, and how I can’t imagine living my life without you. But first, I need to convince Jake to let me use his private jet so we don’t have to wait around at airports.”
He left before I could make a pointed comment about his brother owning his own jet. It hadn’t seemed as bad when Theo hired one to get us out of Australia, because he felt a need to get us safely out of Misha’s reach. Besides, I told myself, hiring wasn’t the same as owning.
“Welcome to Wonderland, Alice,” I told Peter. He burbled and no-no-ed, which I took to mean he wanted to find his cousins for a little playtime.
I found Harry outside on a lush green lawn, with the younger children splashing in a wading pool, while the older girls, Melina and Thea, raced around in swimsuits, chasing each other and throwing themselves into a full-sized pool. Both girls seemed like they were born to the water, and Harry, who sat under a shaded table, called a reminder to them not to roughhouse in the water before she turned and greeted me.
“There’s the youngest Mr. Papamaumau. Does he like to play in the water? I brought out an old pair of Nicky’s swimmers,” she said, smiling where the five-year-old Nicky was playing with a bunch of dolphin toys in the wading pool. Rose, a year younger, was carefully and delicately picking out each blade of grass that floated on top of the water.
“I think he’d like that,” I said, and peeled off Peter’s clothes in order to wrestle the waterproof pants over his diaper.
Peter was no-no-ing happily when I put him in the water, although he didn’t want to sit still for me to put sunblock on him.
Once he’d been suitably protected, I sat on my heels next to the wading pool, ready to rescue him if the older children played too rough, or if he tipped over into the water. “Harry, if Theo and I had to go away for ... for a couple of days, would you be open to watching Peter?”
“Of course,” Harry replied immediately. “I’d be delighted to have him, even if he wasn’t such an easy baby. Nicky, he’s not hurting the dolphin by chewing on it. His gums hurt and it makes them feel better to chew on things.”
“I should have brought out his chew toy,” I mused, watching absently as Peter gnawed on the fin of one of the herd of plastic dolphins that floated in the pool.
“His what, now?”
“Chew toy. He likes chewing on it. I hate to leave Peter, but Theo thinks we’re going to have to go to New Zealand.”
“Really? Why?”
She leaned forward, her hands on her knees, while I told her about finding the flash drive in my Zen rock. “What did it say that had Theo so upset?” she asked when I was done.
“I don’t know.” I shaded my eyes to watch two tall men stride across the lawn toward us. Theo was clad in his favorite pair of shorts, which I sourly noted Richard had managed to pack, and a tank top that let me admire the ease with which all his muscles worked in unison. Iakovos likewise wore a pair of knee-length shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, and I had to admit that he wasn’t hard on the eyes at all, but I couldn’t see why he made number three on the bachelor list while Theo was shoved down to number ten. Theo might not be as tall or imposing as Iakovos, but those blue eyes set with very black lashes could make my knees melt. And the line of his jaw ... and chin. And that spot on his neck that I was forever wanting to bite.
“Hoo, it’s a little hot in here, isn’t it?” Harry said, fanning herself as she watched the men approach.
“Very,” I said, swallowing a couple of times.
“Do you ever look at them—well, in your case, Theo—and wonder just what the hell you did to deserve such gorgeousness all rolled up in fabulous man-ness?” Harry asked, her e
yes on her husband.
“Every. Single. Day,” I said.
“Have you seen other women give Theo the eye yet? The first time someone clearly made a play for Yacky, I just wanted to mess up his hair so he wasn’t so damned gorgeous.”
“It doesn’t work,” I said, my eyes narrowing as I thought of some woman trying to get her clutches on Theo. “It just makes them look like they’ve had a vigorous night of lovemaking.”
She was silent for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Yes, I can see where that might backfire.”
I gave her a quick smile. “I’m going to rely on you to give me pointers on how to pick off the chickies who think they can touch Theo.”
“I have an entire list of things I say at parties. Also, spilling things on the interlopers works wonderfully. So does stepping on their tiny elfin-like toes.”
“That sounds very specific.”
“It is.” She made a face. “Not anymore, because the woman in question is dating a man, or so Dmitri told me.”
“Dmitri?”
“Yacky and Theo’s cousin. He’s in the US right now, but he should be coming home next week. You’ll see him then.”
“No, she won’t,” Iakovos said as he and Theo stopped in front of us. He bent to kiss Harry before duly admiring one of the toy dolphins that his son showed him. Peter got very excited and no-no-ed Theo, splashing the water with a dolphin.
“Why won’t she?” Harry asked.
“We’re leaving in an hour, just as soon as the jet is ready to take off.” Theo glanced down at me. “Can you be ready?”
“Yes, but we want to know what you saw in the Cayman bank that made you want to go right now,” I said.
“The amount of money that was held in the bank was not that of a small-time crook,” he answered. “Your ex is clearly involved in a very big money-laundering scheme, the sort of big that is beyond individuals and is used by terrorists, extremist groups, or countries.”
I shook my head, unable to process the idea of Misha having that much power. “You’re kidding. Misha?”
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