by Lynne Graham
‘I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed.’ Her voice was all over the place because she couldn’t hold it steady. She was out of breath and her heart was racing; excitement was already overwhelming Abbey. Just thinking about the pleasure about to be unleashed on her eager body sent her from cool to hotter than hot in the space of seconds.
Nikolai laid her down against the pillows like an artist arranging a tempting display. His spectacular dark golden eyes raked over her with unhidden heat and appreciation and it was balm to her squashed ego to recognise the strength of his desire.
‘I’d like to keep you in bed for at least a week.’
Her body pulsed with longing at the mere mention of such an indulgence.
‘So, the deal is…’ Nikolai breathed huskily, kissing a haphazard path down over her quivering body and teasing at the shallow indentation of her navel. ‘The deal is that before I go any further, you agree to stay here with me every night-’
‘All week?’ Abbey gasped, slender fingers smoothing his black hair in a caressing motion that came as naturally to her as if she had been doing it all her life.
‘All week and every night for two weeks,’ Nikolai emphasised with determination.
‘Two weeks? And if I say no?’ she enquired in a small voice.
Nikolai smoothed a carnal hand up over her slender shaking thigh to stroke his fingertip over the most sensitive spot in her entire body and provoke a startled gasp of response from her. ‘Say no and you get turfed out of bed and sent home in disgrace for behaving like a one-night stand.’
An incredulous giggle at that threat was dragged from Abbey. ‘You’re blackmailing me with sex?’
His fingertip inscribed an erotic circle of unbearable sensation and her hips jerked and her lips parted on a pleading whimper that she couldn’t hold back. ‘Yes. It’s a novelty to be with a woman who can’t be bought with diamonds. So what’s your answer?’
‘Yes, it has to be yes.’ If he had turfed Abbey out of bed just then she would have screamed with frustration. She couldn’t resist him. His lean hands parted her thighs and he pressed his mouth to her stomach and she trembled at the touch of his lips and his tongue on her sensitised skin. She remembered her wretched sense of betrayal earlier and marvelled that she was now in Nikolai’s bed and content to be there. As his exploration travelled in a much more intimate direction, shock snaked through her in a rousing wave. She protested; he ignored her. She stopped thinking, she stopped arguing, because her very senses were suddenly centred on the tender flesh at the heart of her womanhood and the exquisite torment of sensation he was using to win her acquiescence. Her excitement climbed until the first flutters of orgasm low in her stomach grew into a hurricane of meltingly sweet pleasure that whirled her up as high as the heavens and made her cry out his name.
‘And now it’s my turn again,’ Nikolai breathed unevenly, tugging her up and rearranging her on her knees in front of him.
His hands hard on her hips, he entered her slick wet heat with irresistible force. She gasped at that bold entrance, wildly aware of his every tiny movement. He reached down to fondle her breasts and stroke the taut peaks to pouting buds of tingling responsiveness. His powerful thrusts were fiercely thrilling and she was in a state of such extreme stimulation that she was totally out of control. He drove her to another shattering climax and she collapsed down on the bed, her senses spinning from the overload of excitement and her body exhausted by the abandoned response he had extracted.
He turned her over, framed her hectically flushed face with his hands and kissed her breathless. Struggling to breathe normally again, she responded by wrapping her arms round him and hugging him tight. Emotion was surging through her in a scorching volley and she couldn’t define what it was or restrain it. His passion exhilarated her to the very depths of her being, but what made her cling was the fact that in his arms she felt amazingly special and safe.
Nikolai tensed; he hadn’t expected affection from her, but she was snuggling into him like an extension of his own body. In another moment he would go for a shower to cool off, but, in the meantime, he would let her hug him to her heart’s content. He was quietly confident that while she was fully engaged in kissing and hugging him she wasn’t thinking about Jeffrey the cheat.
Abbey was still revelling in the sensual touch and taste of Nikolai. The minute a thought about her late husband tried to intrude she shut it out. She told herself that she was moving on, finally moving on. She supposed embarking on an immediate affair with a notorious womaniser was a very bad move to make in the circumstances, but the damage was done, and when Nikolai looked at her or touched her free choice truly didn’t seem like one of her options. Something that had nagged at her earlier returned to her mind and curiosity prompted her to try to clarify the issue.
‘When you were talking about your father and grandfather you never once mentioned your mother,’ Abbey remarked abruptly.
Nikolai tensed and then pulled free of her hold entirely. ‘No, I didn’t, did I?’
Abbey stiffened and turned to look at him. His devastatingly handsome face was set as cold as ice and she reacted angrily to the feeling that she was being snubbed. ‘I gather that’s a conversational no-go area as far as you’re concerned. It’s a bit of a joke, that, when you’re fresh from paying someone to investigate and report on my late husband’s every move from birth!’
‘My background is not something I talk about,’ Nikolai growled, tossing back the sheet he had pulled over them while they lay there.
‘I didn’t particularly want to talk about my late husband’s undying love for another woman tonight either,’ Abbey snapped back at him without hesitation, ‘but nobody respected my privacy!’
Nikolai shot her a murderous look of censure. She had the tact of an elephant. Others respected his reserve. He wasn’t accustomed to having to answer awkward questions. ‘I’m going for a shower.’
‘Get Sveta to draw up a list of subjects I must avoid…otherwise it’s likely to be an endurance test of a fortnight!’ Abbey muttered feelingly, cut off by his attitude. ‘You react like offended royalty.’
Nikolai showered, angrily recalling the fact that he had planned to take her into the shower with him, but now she had spoilt the mood with her nosy questions. Offended royalty? His nostrils flared. He was not that spoilt or that far removed from ordinary people. How could he be when he had once known what it was to go hungry and cold? But then, how could Abbey have known what not to say when she had no idea of what his background was? His own curiosity had made him plunder her private life for answers without hesitation, he conceded grimly.
Tears flooded Abbey’s eyes all too easily. She knew she was being over-sensitive, but it had been a long and emotionally exhausting day. The last thing she needed just then was the discovery that she had become intimate with a guy ready to freeze her out for the most minor infraction of his rules.
Without warning, the bathroom door shot open again to frame Nikolai’s big powerful frame in the doorway. With wet black hair plastered to his well-shaped skull, he was dripping water everywhere. ‘Join me in the shower and I’ll tell you what you want to know, lubimaya moya.’
An involuntary smile drove the tension from her compressed mouth. She wondered if he thought that more sex was the answer to every problem and reckoned that he was basic enough to think that. But she was determined not to blow hot and cold, as he had put it, and, having committed herself to a course, she was not one to turn back. She got out of bed and although it was a challenge for her to walk naked across the depth of that room in front of him, she did it with her head held high.
‘I love your body,’ Nikolai husked in reward as he snatched her up off her feet and carried her into the shower with him.
His powerful uncompromising masculinity stirred Abbey beyond bearing. She linked her hands round his neck and stretched up and he accepted her invitation with passionate force, crushing her ripe pink mouth beneath the hungry demand of his.
That fast, that easily, Nikolai lit a fire of longing inside her again. His rigid erection butted against her belly and he lifted her with easy strength, his hands cupping her hips as he held her over him. ‘So much for the shower I was promised,’ Abbey muttered.
‘I can’t stop wanting you,’ Nikolai growled and something of his surprise and resentment of that apparent fact was etched in his lean hard-boned features. ‘I have you once and it’s not enough.’
And she wondered why she was complaining when she liked that, when indeed she gloried in having that power over him. He was kissing her with ravenous desire when he tumbled her down on top of the towels he had thrown on the floor. But just as he established her readiness, he released her again with a groan of impatience and vaulted upright to return to the bedroom. ‘I need protection…’
Even as her restive hips pressed against the hard floor below her, seeking some form of relief from the tormenting ache he had roused, she appreciated the fact that he wasn’t taking any risks. When he returned to her he found the taut jut of her nipples and the slick wet heat between her thighs with his mouth and his skilful hands and reduced her to honeyed, purring compliance before sliding over her and sinking into her and introducing her to the wickedly exquisite pleasure all over again. In the aftermath of satiation, he kept her close and she shut her eyes, so tired and drained she was ready to sleep.
‘I don’t know who my mother is. I don’t even know her name. I know nothing about her,’ he admitted gruffly.
Her eyes stung with tears of emotion, her heart swelling with sympathy on his behalf and understanding of why he preferred not to discuss his background. ‘That must be very tough for you,’ she said in a wobbly voice.
Nikolai lifted his tousled dark head and looked down at her and saw the sheen of moisture on her cheeks. Shocked that she was distressed on his behalf, he stroked her cheekbone in a soothing gesture. ‘I’m a tough guy. I’m used to it.’
‘Were you an abandoned baby?’
Nikolai shook his head. ‘No. My grandfather chose to take me on. He was a diplomat and he had to be inventive in how he registered my birth when he took me back into the Soviet Union. The name on my birth certificate was a fake and he told me that when I was a kid, and that he would explain everything when I was old enough to understand. Unluckily for me he died very suddenly and he took the secret to the grave with him.’
Abbey marvelled that his father had not been prepared to fill in the gaps for him and only then understood just how bleak his experience of family ties must have been as a child. ‘It doesn’t matter who brought you into the world-it’s who you are now that’s important,’ she told him chirpily.
‘What a great thought for the day!’ Nikolai mocked, gazing down at her and noticing how translucent and pale her skin was and how shadowed her eyes were. ‘You’re exhausted.’
‘Hmm…’ Abbey mumbled and she didn’t remember another thing until she woke up the next morning to the distinctive and familiar sound of her mobile phone ringing.
‘Ignore it,’ Nikolai urged, his arms tightening round her.
Abbey was warm and unbelievably comfortable. She wanted to snuggle, not move away, but her conscience was twanging.
‘I can’t ignore it. It’s probably Caroline. I was upset when I left her last night.’ With a rueful sigh, Abbey snaked away from Nikolai and scrambled up.
Her phone was in her clutch bag, which she had left lying on the dressing table the night before. As she had assumed, the call that she had missed had been from her sister-in-law. Calling Caroline back only took a moment. As it was still only six-thirty in the morning she was surprised that the subject was work-related. Evidently, however, Mr bin Hashim, the Middle Eastern banker who owned the house she was trying to acquire for Nikolai, had tried to contact her the night before to arrange an early meeting with her that very morning. It was imperative that she did not miss that appointment and offend the man.
‘I’ve got an appointment and I haven’t even got any clothes to wear!’ Abbey exclaimed, and then stared in horror at her reflection in a wardrobe mirror for her hair was a fluffy nest of wildly messy curls.
‘I’ll send out for clothes for you. I want you to stay and have breakfast with me.’
‘I can’t. This is work,’ she responded in a tone of urgent appeal.
‘I’m holding a massive party here tomorrow night and you’re going to be my hostess. Isn’t that work as well?’ Nikolai traded unanswerably.
‘This is a very important appointment,’ Abbey groaned.
Nikolai was already using the phone by the bed to rap out instructions in Russian. He held out a shapely brown hand. ‘Come back to bed…’
Abbey went pink and averted her attention from him. She was as stiff as a board and walking was a challenge. ‘I couldn’t…er…comfortably,’ she told him awkwardly.
Comprehension lit Nikolai’s keen gaze as he registered that he had been too demanding. ‘I’ll settle for just holding you, lubimaya.’
‘Even if I can’t stay for breakfast?’ Abbey was already yanking a comb with painful strokes through her hair in the bathroom.
‘If you don’t I’ll be angry.’
Within half an hour a brand-new outfit was delivered to the bedroom and she was able to don the black trouser suit and blue silk shirt quickly. Nikolai, magnificent in a navy pinstripe business suit worn with a fashionable dark shirt and light tie, accompanied her down to the main hall. ‘I’ll see you at eleven in my office,’ he told her drily. ‘If you don’t show, I’m sacking you.’
‘For goodness’ sake, Nikolai,’ Abbey began in frustration. ‘Don’t be so unreasonable-’
‘Polite requests are wasted on you,’ Nikolai countered, dark eyes hard as granite.
His manservant was in the act of letting Sveta in through the front door. The beautiful elegant blonde strolled in with a business case and greeted them both. Abbey was hugely embarrassed to be found in Nikolai’s apartment at that hour of the day, a sensation that was not dimmed by the obvious tension in the air that she could see the other woman picking up on.
‘I’ll see you later,’ she told Nikolai in a rush, reluctant to say anything more personal with an audience present and even more reluctant to confide that when she said later, she meant very much later.
Sveta said something in Russian and Nikolai translated. ‘The paparazzi are waiting outside in droves.’
Abbey’s face turned a dulled red. The very idea of advertising the reality that she had spent the night with Nikolai for the benefit of the international press made her cringe. In his world, she thought unhappily, privacy seemed a virtual impossibility.
His security team saw her safely into the waiting car. She tortured herself with self-loathing all the way to her appointment with the banker. She was a woman who always liked to control her own destiny and she had embarked without thought on an affair with a male who was demonstrating a disturbing desire to control every hour of her day. She was furious with Nikolai on that score and had every intention of telling him so. Mr bin Hashim had decided to sell the house, which improved Abbey’s mood, until she called in at Support Systems where her brother chucked a tabloid newspaper down on her desk and demanded to know what was going on.
Abbey compressed her mouth when she saw the photo of herself with Nikolai, the distress on her face obvious. It had been taken outside her apartment building the night before. ‘It wasn’t Nikolai who upset me-’
‘I’m aware that Jeffrey’s been exposed as a love rat-yes, Caro finally spilled the beans last night. But aren’t you asking for trouble getting mixed up with Nikolai Arlov on the rebound?’
‘I thought you were delighted and convinced that he’d be good for business.’
‘I don’t want to see you getting hurt again.’
On the rebound, Abbey repeated inwardly as she left the office to meet with Nikolai. Even though it was six years since Jeffrey’s demise, she supposed that phrase most accurately described what was happening
to her. Knocked off balance and hurt and humiliated by the unlovely truth about Jeffrey, she had gone overboard when Nikolai had made her the target of his attentions.
On the balance side, however, she was quick to console herself with the reflection that she had no naïve expectations of Nikolai Arlov. She did not have any kind of a future with him. She was well aware that Nikolai was only interested in a short-term affair and then in all likelihood she would be history by the end of the month. It was surely no coincidence that he had specified she spend two weeks of nights with him? Was that as long as he imagined his interest would last? She had grown up a lot since Jeffrey, she told herself bracingly. There was no way that she was about to fall madly in love with Nikolai!
CHAPTER EIGHT
A BBEY was ushered into Nikolai’s presence the very moment she arrived on the top floor of the Arlov Industries building. It was fifteen minutes past eleven o’clock.
‘You’re late,’ Nikolai breathed with sardonic bite.
‘I’m here. Don’t be petty,’ Abbey told him, lifting her chin in a direct challenge. ‘And I think you’ll be pleased that I kept that other pressing appointment this morning. It was for your benefit.’
Nikolai watched in silence as she brought up pictures of the property on her laptop. His ebony brows pleated in immediate recognition. ‘How did you find out?’
‘That you admired the house? All thanks go to Sveta. She told me about it, suggested a price and discussed tactics. She was very helpful,’ Abbey told him frankly.
Nikolai was hugely impressed by her honesty and her attitude. She knew how to network and she was willing to share the praise and rewards of a successful outcome.