by Lia Lee
His eyes went wide, and she couldn’t help but laugh. “Mortified” was a term that would apply nicely to this situation. He appeared to have been knocked on his ass by her comment. How cute.
“You see me as stiff and unbending then?”
“You treated me like a whore the other night.” She just threw that out there for good measure. “You acted as if my behavior was somehow reprehensible and that I was corrupting your goodness. Do you have any idea what a snob you are?”
“I suppose I hadn’t considered it that way.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a sip of his coffee. “I find you fascinating. My life is governed by rules. Yours seems to be a free-for-all.”
“So come play on my side of the fence,” she said with a careless shrug. “You’re a grown ass man. You’re going to be a father. Take that stick out of your ass and try to have fun for once. Life is too short to spend it worrying about what other people think about you.”
Oh yeah. She’d just rocked his whole damn world. How insane was it to think that the idea of coloring outside the lines for one second was so earth shattering to this man? She knew he was capable of loosening up. She’d danced with him. He was so different then. It was as if he could actually let go and be himself for once. The rest of the time he was too worried about being the man everyone else wanted him to be.
***
ALEX DID NOT have words to express what he was feeling. Not in English, Russian, Croatian, or any of the dozen languages he spoke could he verbalize what he was feeling inside. Perhaps this was what drew him to Maddie so forcefully. She lived her life.
She rose abruptly from the table. “It’s time for my walk down on the beach. You want to come with me?”
“Now?” He stared dumbly at her and thought of the dozen or more phone calls he needed to make. Vladimir had returned to Moscow, and Alex needed to check in with his friend. “I have tasks to complete.”
She shrugged. “Then I guess you stay here and complete them. I’m going walking.”
“Take Ivan or Igor with you.”
“I always do,” she told him with a derisive snort. “If you paid any attention, you would have noticed that in the last few days.”
He had no answer for that. He was right in the middle of negotiating a merger between two of his subsidiary companies. He’d been rather tied up with work lately.
Or if he was honest, he would say that he’d been rather tied up with work for most of his adult life.
Okay. All of his adult life.
Alex stood up. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
“Really?” She raised her eyebrows. “Damn. I owe you an apology.”
“Why?”
“Because I wouldn’t have bet a penny that you would leave work for an hour or two and just enjoy yourself at your vacation home.” She pointed to Ivan. “You win.”
Alex gazed at his long time bodyguard in shock. The man was actually smiling for starters, but it was also obvious that Maddie had a sort of rapport with Ivan that Alex did not. It wasn’t just disconcerting. It was disheartening. When had he become so predictable, insulated, and sedate? Or had he truly always been this way?
“Come on then,” Alex said brusquely. “Shall we go down from here?”
She was already headed toward the stone steps that led from the terrace to the beach. The staircase had been carved and created from the rocky wall that provided the foundation for his home. It had initially been one of the features that had drawn him to the estate itself. He had craved the privacy and the space.
“It’s so beautiful here.” There was a note of wistfulness in her voice that made him wonder what she was thinking of.
“Would you like to stay someplace like this?” he wondered. They hadn’t spoken at all about where she would live once the baby was born.
Maddie glanced back at him as she reached the bottom step. She took one dancing step and then buried her toes in the pale, perfect sand. “I could never stay someplace like this for good.”
“If you did not have to work, you could be wherever you wanted.” Alex needed her to know that he would care for her, and yet he could not bring himself just to say the words.
“I could never be a kept woman.” She tossed him a dirty look over her shoulder. “I like to work. I like to feel independent. If you want a kept woman, you should have fucked one of my sisters. They love to be taken care of.”
He hadn’t meant to put his foot in his mouth once again. How many mistakes would he make with this woman? “I meant no insult.”
“I know you didn’t.” She gathered her skirt in her hands and began twirling her way across the beach. “You can’t help the way you are. You throw money at problems to solve them instead of just trying to reason things out.”
“I suppose I do.” He shrugged and followed her. He realized belatedly that he was going to completely ruin the cuffs of his dress pants. “You have to admit that method is generally the way the world works.”
“Perhaps,” she allowed. “Do you want our child to grow up thinking that money and power solve everything?”
He didn’t even have to consider it. “No.”
“What do you want this child to be like?”
“Likeable.” The word came unbidden to his lips. “I want this child to be easy with others in ways that I never seem to be able to grasp.”
“Like me,” she said with a gleeful laugh. “That’s what you’re getting at.”
She sprinted away from him, heading right for the ocean. He started to follow and then stopped. Was she actually going into the water? What was she doing? She was dressed! He was dressed.
***
MADDIE HIT THE water and kept going. She lifted her skirts and felt the sea spray rise around her body. She laughed and spun and kicked at the water until she had made a grand mess. Then she looked back at the shore and saw Alex standing there with a bemused expression on his handsome face.
“Come on in. Chicken!” she called out. “What are you afraid of? You can buy a dozen new suits and not even think about that one if it’s ruined. Live for once!”
She was surprised when he actually did as she challenged. He walked straight to her. The power that emanated from him smoldered around her and rendered her unable to walk away. This was the Alex she loved! This was the man who enthralled her. And when he took her in his arms and slammed his mouth down on hers, she could barely breathe for wanting him.
She dropped her skirt, and the fabric swirled around their legs along with the waves. She twined her arms around Alex’s neck and let him claim her mouth as he continued to make love to her with his lips and tongue. Their teeth clicked together as he angled his mouth and drove deeper again and again. She was so hot for him at this moment that she could almost forget the last few days. Almost.
Chapter Fourteen
Their wet clothes were sitting on the polished bamboo floor of his bedroom, but Alex didn’t care. Maddie was naked on his bed, and that was all that mattered right now. She was propped up on her elbows, a bemused expression on her beautiful face. Her dark red hair was tousled and lay against the curve of her breast.
He took a ragged breath. “Turn onto your belly. I want to touch your back.”
A strange expression flitted across her face, but she did as he told her. The creamy expanse of skin on her back was incredible. Alex put a knee on the bed and reached for her. He smoothed one palm down her spine. She arched into the contact, her buttocks flexing as she wriggled with anticipation.
He began to kiss her shoulders. He laved his tongue over her satiny skin and savored the salty, feminine taste of her. It was so good. He loved the way her breath hitched as he hit a particularly sensitive spot. Then he reached the base of her spine, and she whimpered. He put his hands on her inner thighs and forced them apart. The position opened her pussy to his exploration.
Still kissing her lower back, he delved between her legs to find her wet and ready for him. He smiled with eagerness. “Get up on your knees.
”
She squirmed into position, keeping her knees spread and her pussy wide open. The warm, wet flesh was his to play with and enjoy. He traced her inner folds and felt her quiver. Finding her clit swollen and needy, he circled the tiny nub until her arms and legs were trembling.
“Come for me, Maddie,” he ordered.
Her reaction was instantaneous. The overwhelming sense of power he got from watching her climax at his command was intoxicating. He slid one long finger into her pussy and felt her clench hard around him. He rotated his wrist and gently put pressure on the pad of muscle just inside her opening. She gasped and moaned. The broken sound echoed around the room and only made him want her that much more.
His cock was hard and heavy between his legs. The tight sensation of his balls was almost painful. He moved into position behind her and rubbed himself against her wet cleft. Her creamy fluids smeared across his skin, the heat of her searing him. She was so ready he could almost feel her body begging him to fuck her. He touched her back once again just to admire the arch of her spine as she reacted.
Positioning himself at her entrance, he drove in with one hard stroke. She cried out. If there were words within that sound of want and need, he could not understand them. Then he began to pull all the way out only to slam back inside her pussy as hard as he dared. The long, slow strokes sent him spiraling to an even higher plane of arousal. There was a roaring sound in his ears, and he snarled and growled as he entered Maddie’s body with deliberate strokes.
***
MADDIE WAS GOING to die of arousal. Being on her knees meant that her clit got almost no stimulation. The resulting tease was almost more than she could bear. It felt so good to have his long, thick cock sliding in and out of her pussy, but she needed more. The temptation to reach between her legs and rub her own clit was incredible. She panted and moaned, and still she could not come.
Alex began to speed up his pace. His body slapped against hers in a rhythm that was just below the pace she needed. She cried out in frustration and gripped the sheets in her hands as she hung on for the ride.
“Tell me what you need,” he demanded. The tone of his voice was harsh and gravelly.
She whimpered. “My clit. I need to touch my clit.”
“Then touch it. Make yourself come for me, Maddie. Do it now.”
She made a desperate, animalistic noise and let her face hit the surface of the bed. She turned so her cheek was against the sheets. Reaching between her legs with one hand, she groped for her sex and finally found what she needed. She moaned and whimpered as her experienced fingers rubbed a quick circular rhythm over her own clitoris. There it was. She could feel her orgasm now. It was a tiny pinprick of heat in her core that quickly blazed to full flame. Her pussy clenched around his cock, and she exploded in a haze of warm juices, undulating muscular contractions, and exquisite pleasure.
Then Alex shouted something in a language she didn’t understand. He slapped her ass cheek with one hand. The stinging sensation couldn’t touch the intense pleasure he was giving her. His fingers bit into her backside as he held tight and thrust hard. She felt the heat of his ejaculate as he filled her body with his essence.
He seemed to come forever. She was still gasping as tiny aftershocks made her body quiver and shake. She could feel his cock pulsing inside her. It was startling to be so closely joined with this man. And when he rolled to his side and took her with him, she realized that his cock was still embedded in her pussy.
Maddie’s brain was on overload. She couldn’t think past the moment at hand. Alex was holding her so tenderly in his arms. There was semen smeared on the insides of her thighs, and she felt like a total mess. But it didn’t matter. Nothing did. She had finally busted through that wall of his—again. Perhaps she would have to keep doing it over and over again until he stopped retreating from her.
It was a daunting task.
***
ALEX WONDERED IF it was possible to die from great sex. He had no notion of what Maddie might or might not be thinking in this moment, and he was learning that it was better to not even try and anticipate it. So instead of worrying about it, he held her close and gently traced circles against the silky skin of her back. It felt so good to hold her in his arms. He felt somehow complete in ways that he was not when he was alone.
Somewhere in the house a door slammed. Desire and the afterglow of sex dulled Alex’s senses, but something in his brain told him that he needed to be waking up. He shook his head and listened again. The bedroom door was closed. There was a flurry of boots outside. Then a shot rang out, and Alex knew something wasn’t right.
Maddie yawned. “What’s going on?”
He took a breath to answer, but never got any words out. The bedroom door creaked, and Alex’s reflexes went into high gear. Maddie had already started to squirm, but he reached for the duvet and pulled it up over the two of them. She squeaked in surprise as he wrapped his entire body around hers and rolled them off the far side of the bed.
The floor was hard, and they hit with a thud. But at least they weren’t on the bed when the door slammed open so hard that it bounced off the opposite wall. Alex braced his hands on either side of Maddie’s body, which was beneath him.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
Popping up onto his feet, Alex turned to face their attacker and was shocked as hell to discover himself facing his cousin Yuri. The man was holding a gun. It was pointed at the bed, and he looked confused.
“Where is she?” Yuri demanded in Russian.
Alex didn’t wait to find out what Yuri’s intentions were. They were pretty obvious already. “You little bastard!”
Diving for his cousin, Alex wrapped his arm around the smaller man’s neck and twisted. At the same time, he balled up his fist and slammed it into Yuri’s face. The crunch of cartilage and bone might have ordinarily stopped Alex, but he was sick and tired of his family thinking that this behavior was somehow all right. With this in mind, Alex pounded Yuri’s gut and then landed a few blows to his kidneys. Finally, he dropped the man to the floor and gave him a good kick.
“Alex!” Ivan appeared in the doorway holding his arm. “The little bastard shot Igor and managed to wing me.”
“Is Igor all right?” Alex’s gut clenched tight. If his mother’s machinations resulted in Igor’s death, he wasn’t sure what he would do.
“He’ll be fine. Dominic is already taking him to the hospital.” Ivan was breathing hard. He looked wildly around the room. “Where is Maddie?”
“Right here!” Her arm shot up from the far side of the bed. “I feel like a pancake since Alex basically used me for a gym mat, but I’ll survive.”
“My God, the baby!” Ivan roared. “Dominic will bring the doctor! Don’t move.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. Apparently his men were more in tune with Maddie than even Alex had suspected.
Maddie was already getting to her feet. On the floor in front of Alex, Yuri was rolling around and holding his gut as though he’d been stabbed.
“You have killed me!” Yuri whined. “I am only doing your mother’s bidding!”
Alex snorted. “I gathered that. And you may go home and tell that bitch that I’m unappreciative of her motives, her methods, and her goals.”
“She only wants what is best for you,” Yuri argued.
Alex wasn’t buying it. “She always has, and always will, want only what is best for herself.”
He gestured to Ivan, and the massive bodyguard scooped Yuri off the floor like garbage. “I will put him on a plane back to your mother.”
“I would guess her private plane is waiting at the airport in Dubrovnik. Just send him there and save us all the trouble.” Alex was so done with this crap. All of it.
***
MADDIE COULD NOT interpret the expression on Alex’s face. He looked defeated, which wasn’t like him at all. Was he giving up somehow? Was he tired of fighting his family just because he seemed to want to be with her and their child?
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“Alex?” She anchored the duvet around her breasts to remain decent. “Are you all right?”
“Me? Of course.” He waved off her concerns. “The question is whether or not you are all right. I cannot believe we let an assassin get so close, and in my own home!”
“Well, he sort of belongs here,” Maddie pointed out. “I imagine it was fairly easy for him to get access just because he’s your cousin.”
Alex exhaled a gusty sigh. “Perhaps you are right. Perhaps we need to be someplace where I have no connections or previous history established. Where would you like to go?”
The first answer that came to mind was that she wanted to go back to New York, but she knew he wouldn’t go for that. The next thing that popped into her head was the ranch in West Texas. Anyone from his family would have a far more difficult time fitting in there and taking pot shots at them if her aunt’s ranch hands were involved. They were like a pack of coyotes when it came to protecting their own.
“Let’s go to Texas,” she suggested. “My aunt would welcome us at the ranch, and I think that would give us some time to figure things out.” What she didn’t mention was the fact that they might actually be running like this for the rest of their lives. When did it end? Would his family ever accept her and their baby? Or would it be a constant flitting from place to place trying to stay ahead of assassins and angry family members?
“Texas?” He looked dubious. “I suppose we could give it a try. I would like to meet your family.” Then he gave a wry chuckle and scratched the back of his head. “Since you’ve already met my family, I don’t suppose it could be worse.”
She tried to laugh, but couldn’t quite manage. Obviously he’d never met a male Texan.
Chapter Fifteen
From a quaint Croatian coastal town to a ranch in the middle of nowhere West Texas. Jet lag was not Alex’s main concern, but culture shock certainly was. He had been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but the amount of flat prairie around him at this moment wasn’t just overwhelming. It was frightening.