by Rose, Bella
“Let go, baby. Please. Just trust me,” he urged her in a strangled voice. He was close. She could tell. And he always waited for her. If she could just hold on a little bit longer….
But she couldn’t. Her body betrayed her, and she threw back her head and screamed his name as her body completely shut down. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her, and she barely heard his hoarse cry as he found his own release.
At some point, he’d carried her to the couch. Her muscles were completely limp as she pooled on top of him and waited for her mind to realize what she had just done.
“Tell me that didn’t mean something,” he whispered finally.
Pain gripped her heart when logic finally returned. She wanted to tell him that it meant everything to her, but she was far too proud. Drenched in sweat, she pushed herself to her elbows and stared down at him. “Chemistry, Dmitri. You don’t have to prove chemistry. Good sex, while a great way to relieve tension, isn’t what I’m looking for.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said softly as he reached up to frame her face with his hands. “By this, I mean all of this. I never meant to involve you. I never meant to get involved with you. And I didn’t mean to leave you for so long. I’m sorry Charley. I wanted to call you every day, but when I stood in front of you again, I wanted it to be a man you could be with.”
She felt her heart speed up, and it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that he was naked under her. “Your profession was never the problem.”
“But we’d be hiding from everyone, and your life is here. I didn’t want you to have to give that up,” he said softly. “I’m legit. I’ll stay legit.”
“Again,” she said with a hint of irritability. “Your profession was not the problem.”
“Then what? What do you want from me, Charley?”
She rolled her eyes. “If you don’t know, then I can’t help you.”
As she tried to push herself off him, he gripped her arms and flipped them over. He settled on top of her, and intensity flashed in his eyes. “You want me to tell you how I feel about you.”
“That’s not a tall order. If you want this to work, you need to be transparent with me.”
“And you?” Dmitri searched her eyes. “Will you be transparent with your feelings about me?”
Astonished, she stared at him. “Are you serious? My feelings aren’t transparent?”
He smiled. “You talk to yourself, Charley. For the most part, every emotion that you feel is written all over your face. Anger. Irritation. Disbelief. But if it’s an emotion that scares you, you lock it down. If it’s words that could hurt you, you never utter them. Charley Barns, I love you. I’m not afraid of what I feel for you. It came out of the blue, and the only thing I feared was that I couldn’t protect you.”
Hope swelled within her. “You love me?”
He nodded and reached down to kiss her softly. “I know that recent events make it hard for you to trust, but if you trust me, Charley, I promise that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy. Marry me.”
Charley couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t know how I feel about you, and you’re willing to marry me?”
“Oh, I know how you feel about me.” He smiled wickedly as he reached down and kissed her nipple lightly. “And when you’re ready, you’ll tell me.”
Her body shuddered under his touch. “But you want me to commit the rest of my life to you?”
Dmitri shifted his body so that he could run his hands lightly up her naked hip. “Marry me, Charley. Make an honest man of me. Force me to spend the rest of my life listening to you talk to yourself.”
She squirmed under his touch. “When I marry you, I won’t have to talk to myself, now will I?”
He paused his exploration of his body and stared at her. “Charley?”
“I love you, Dmitri. And I intend to spend the rest of my life making you pay for these past three weeks,” she said as she leaned up to kiss him. A thought struck her, and she leaned back. “Or am I marrying Anton?”
“Anton is my given name. By coming out to the authorities, I had to embrace my given identity.”
“Well, Anton, it will certainly be fun to explore this new ego of yours, but it doesn’t matter to me what your name is. I fell in love with the man who risked his life to save me. I fell in love with the man who gave up a lifelong obsession to see me safe. I don’t care what name you choose, so long as you are mine.”
“Yours. Forever.” He leaned back down to seal the deal with a kiss, and she could feel the truth in that kiss. Dmitri the Assassin had hidden in the shadows for years, but now she would spend the rest of her life in his arms.
And there was no place she’d rather be.
The End!
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Chapter One
The smoky air of Club 599 made Maggie’s eyes sting. She reached for Courtney’s arm, trying not to get lost in the shuffle of club goers. The dance floor was packed wall to wall with writhing, spinning bodies. It was a sea of humanity and Maggie felt like a salmon swimming upstream with no clue why she was doing it.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this!” Maggie had to yell in Courtney’s ear in order to be heard over the pounding music.
Courtney’s laugh sounded almost maniacal. “You know you love it! Besides, you never go out. It’s time to get you laid.”
“Yeah, I don’t know about that.” In fact, Maggie was absolutely sure Courtney’s idea was a bad one. “I’m not a one-night stand kind of girl.”
“Everyone needs to try it once.” Courtney dragged Maggie toward the bar. “Let’s get a drink and scope out the guys.”
Courtney bellied up to the long bar that stretched the length of the club. The chrome and glass monstrosity boasted colored lights that painted both the bartenders and patrons in an eerie glow. Maggie sighed. No matter what she ordered to drink, it was going to look like witches brew.
“We’ll take two Cosmopolitans,” Courtney yelled to the bartender.
The man waved his hand to let her know that he had heard her order. Maggie looked him over. The blond haired, blue-eyed Adonis could have played a bartender in a movie. Maggie leaned over, staring down the length of the bar and noticing that every last one of the bartenders looked exactly like this one. Obviously Club 599 had a type.
“So,” Courtney said, jabbing Maggie in the arm. “Anything catch your eye?”
“Other than your complete and total lack of regard for anything I say?” Maggie said grouchily. “Not really.”
“Ooo! What about that one?” Courtney pointed to a man, maybe late twenties, who casually leaned back against the bar with a beer in his hand.
Maggie grabbed her friend’s hand and yanked it back down. Did Courtney have to be so obvious about everything? “Could you at least pretend to be discreet?” Maggie frowned. “He looks like a player,” Maggie said doubtfully. She took a sip of her drink. It burned all the way down. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had alcohol.
“Sweetie, that’s what you need,” Courtney insisted. “You’re not looking for a relationship here. You just want to have a good time. Get back on the horse, so to speak. That means you need a guy that can really show you a good time.”
“Yeah, but I want one that doesn’t come complete with VD.” Maggie was about ready to bolt. “Look, Court. I know you have my best interests at heart, but we are very different people. I don’t think I can do this.”
About that time Maggie became aware of a man staring at her from across the club. The weight of his gaze made it feel as though the
re was no air in the room. Time seemed to slow and Maggie could not look away no matter how hard she tried. There was something utterly compelling about him.
“Mags?” Courtney’s tone suggested she’d been trying to get Maggie’s attention for more than a moment. “Ha! You see someone, don’t you? Who? I demand to know what’s going on.”
“Do you see that guy over there?” Maggie tried to be surreptitious about her pointing. Not that it mattered when Courtney was already rubbernecking to try and see who Maggie was pointing at. “Have you ever seen him in here before?”
“That dark-haired dude?” Courtney’s blond brows drew together. “He looks scary.”
Maggie tried to see what Courtney was seeing, but couldn’t. The man didn’t look scary to her, although he did appear intense. He was perhaps six feet tall and a bit more, a nice contrast to Maggie’s five feet eight inches. Most of the men she had dated over the years were barely tall enough for her to be able to wear heels. This guy wasn’t just tall. He was also broad. His shoulders were huge. They seemed to be straining against the confines of his dark-blue dress shirt.
“Why does he look like he’s wearing business casual instead of club wear?” Maggie observed.
Courtney laughed. “He’s probably a crime lord of some sort. You know, it’s like the Godfather. He’s only here to scope out a murder target or something.”
“You are so full of crap.” Maggie rolled her eyes. “I think you missed your calling. Practicing Family Law doesn’t suit you if you’re so eager to find a criminal to nail to the wall. I finally find a guy that catches my eye and you paint him into one of your overdramatic fantasies.”
“The guy is wearing black slacks and a dress shirt in a club.” Courtney waved to the sassy coral-pink dress that had taken Maggie days to pick out at the local boutique. “Don’t you want a guy who will appreciate what you’re offering?”
Maggie wondered if it was possible to explain to a perky blonde extrovert like Courtney that sometimes it was okay not to stand out. Maggie’s brown hair, brown eyes and slender frame sometimes made people think she was much younger than her twenty-five years. Maybe this guy had the reverse problem. Maybe he was really in his mid twenties, but looked thirty-five.
“He looks older.” It was Courtney’s turn to be doubtful. “Like much older.”
“What if I want an older guy?” Maggie made a face at her friend. “I’m supposed to be getting sex lessons right? So an older guy would definitely have more experience.”
“So go talk to him.” Courtney gave her a nudge. “Stop standing here asking me what I’d do and go do your own thing.”
Now that the chips were on the table, Maggie wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. “No. Let’s just go home. I’ve changed my mind. This was a bad idea. I’ll be mad at you for it later.”
“Hate to tell you, but it’s a little late for that.” Courtney downed the rest of her drink. “He’s totally coming over here. You know the drill. Text me in the morning. If I don’t hear from you by ten 10:00 a.m. I’m sending the cavalry.” Courtney shot Maggie the stink eye. “And for the record, I will be pissed. I want details!”
Jacob did not make a habit of picking up women in clubs or bars. In fact, he did not make a habit of picking up women at all. When he wanted a woman, one of his men brought one to him. By the time any female made it to his bed she had been vetted by his men until there was no longer any hint mystery about her. This was very likely the reason he was so bored, and probably why he found the female in the pink dress so fascinating.
He pushed his way past a group of dancers, earning several curses. He returned their dark looks with one of his own and they skittered away. He had discovered over the years that very few people could hold his gaze for long. This was another reason the brunette in the pink dress interested him. She had been staring.
Across the club Jacob saw his man, Sasha preparing to intervene if someone should threaten Jacob. The presence of his security detail was almost suffocating. Yes. He was the top ranking man in the Dolohov crime syndicate. That got old so very quickly. For once Jacob wanted to be a normal man with normal desires. At the moment, his only desire involved the slim woman in the short pink dress with legs long enough to wrap around his waist. Jacob wanted to stab his fingers through all of that long, dark hair and feel her surrender everything to him.
Even in the smoky club he could see her eyes widen and her rate of breathing increase. She was nervous and excited. Perfect. Jacob felt his lips curve into a smile and hoped it wasn’t too rusty with disuse. “Hello, can I buy you a drink?”
She looked at a loss momentarily, and then she rallied. “Yes, that would be wonderful.”
“Bartender,” Jacob said sharply. He saw the young man snap to attention, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste to tend to Jacob. “Get the young lady another drink.” Not a request, but an order.
“Wow, talk about attitude,” the brunette commented.
Jacob noticed her blond haired companion sidling away to pursue a conquest of her own. He dismissed the other woman in his mind and focused on this one. “My name is Jacob. And you are?”
“Charmed, I’m sure.” She was laughing. This woman was actually laughing at him! Then she offered a smile that held a certain edge. “My name is Maggie.”
“Maggie.” He tasted her name, finding that he liked the everyday sound of it. This was perfect. She was perfectly ordinary. “And what brings you to Club 599, Maggie?”
“Oh you know, just hanging out with friends.” She cast glance in the direction of the blonde.
“Why do I get the feeling that statement barely scratches the surface of why you’re here?” He watched her unconscious body language, trying to get a read on her.
Her expression was almost playful. He found it charming. She wrinkled her nose at him. “What? A girl can’t go out unless she has some secret agenda?”
“I didn’t say that,” he protested. “I simply suggested that you seem as if you’re here for a reason.”
Her brown eyes could only be described as frank. She hid absolutely nothing from him. It was refreshing, and perhaps a little shocking. “I suppose I came to this club to find a candidate for my attempt at a one-night stand.”
“And how has that been working out for you?” he asked, deliberately keeping his tone casual.
“I don’t know. I suppose you had better ask me in the morning.” The expression on her face was enchanting. Then she put her face in her hands, her cheeks flushing bright red. “I can’t believe I just said that. It’s probably the alcohol. I don’t drink much and I’m a total lightweight.”
Jacob waved away any concerns about her being too bold. He found he liked it. “Do you have a strategy?” He warmed to the conversation, feeling the usual coolness he carried with him dropping away. “Generally when men do this sort of hunting we have a strategy.”
“Well my friend there”—she gestured to the blonde—“has a vast deal of experience with one-night stands.” Maggie sighed. “I would call her a serial one-nighter myself. But she decided it would work best to come to this club, pick up a player who was capable of showing me a good time, and then get a hotel or something.”
“And do you think this tactic would work for you?” He sensed she did not.
The bartender delivered her drink and she took a sip. Jacob watched her slim throat move as she swallowed and imagined what it would feel like to see her swallow his cock.
“Actually, I think she’s crazy.” Maggie airily waved a hand. “I mean, how do you figure out who pays for the room or where to go? And going to some strange guy’s house is like begging to star in a Lifetime movie. Bringing him to my place would be tempting fate to give me a stalker.” She pushed her full lips into a pout. “It’s really quite hopeless.”
Jacob leaned in closer. He inhaled the scent of her and found her delectable. The phrase “I want her” did not begin to describe his natural attraction to this woman. His body was already respond
ing to her. His cock swelled to full hardness, tenting his slacks and making it necessary for him to stand closer to the bar than he would have normally liked.
He let his breath whisper over the sensitive shell of her ear. “What if I were to tell you that I have a suite at the hotel across the street? Would that ease your mind?”
“Hmm,” she murmured. “I suppose that would help.”
“Then shall we dispense with the small talk and head for my suite?” He was actually teasing, but her expression said she was considering it.
“I should be up front about a few things first,” she told him.
Her repetitive candidness amused Jacob. A man would never be bored with Maggie. “And those things are?”
She heaved a giant sigh and puffed out a stream of air that sent the soft tendrils of hair around her face flying. “It’s been nearly two years since I had sex. And I have to tell you that it wasn’t that good.” She seemed to reconsider. “I don’t mean to say that I’m no good at sex. Although I suppose its rather difficult to say that about yourself. You need another person to help you determine skill, don’t you?”
“I would think so.” Jacob struggled not to laugh. “I would be most happy to end your dry spell and help you decide if you need practice between the sheets.”
“Okay, that is the cheesiest pickup line ever.” She actually rolled her eyes at him. People never did that. It was truly a novel experience.
“And yet you set me up for that line with your baffling desire to tell me of your suspected lacking in bedroom skills,” he pointed out. “I was only giving you the obvious response.”
“Damn, you’re absolutely right.” She threw her head back and laughed loud and long.
The sound of her laughter was a truly beautiful thing. Jacob felt himself responding. Yes. He wanted to sink into Maggie and lose himself in her delightful body, but it was her mind that was captivating him with each second that passed.