And then he reached out and grabbed her forearm to tug her arms from under her breasts. He slid his fingers down to her hand and held it against the top of the table. He searched her face. Again. “You squeezed your legs together when I took your hand.”
What? Did she? She glanced down at her lap and found her thighs pressed together. Her pussy clenched. Surely he couldn’t know that. “So?”
“Dominance. I took your hand, deliberately pulled you out from behind your wall, and you liked it. You like the power exchange. You like it when I force you to feel. You even set yourself up for it sometimes.” He nodded at her chest where she’d had her arms crossed. “Even now. Daring me to stop you from hiding.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes I will. Sometimes I’ll let you have that card and leave you wanting.”
She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she had to fight to keep her thighs from squeezing tighter.
He continued. “When we’re having sex, I’ll make you feel. I’ll take you places most women never go because they’re too afraid to let go of control, even in the bedroom. Give that to me. I know you can. You have. You will again. You’ll do it until it’s normal for you. Second nature.”
“Ivan, I don’t have a normal when it comes to sex,” she reminded him. This was her normal.
He grinned. “True. Better for me. I’ll paint your normal. But it won’t match your romance books. So wipe that out of your head. And…it will spill out of the bedroom. It’s a different kind of dominance I feel when we’re in the real world.
“Where in the past I’ve only felt the need to control a woman while I was in her bed, with you I feel even stronger about it when I’m not in your bed. And that’s because I’m so flipping into you that I don’t want anything to happen to you. It scares the fuck out of me every time you’re not right at my side. Even in the night, I have wandered to your room to reassure myself you were still there. Many times I have cracked the door open, unable to breathe until I knew you were still safe.”
He stopped talking to squeeze her hand. “That’s not going to happen anymore, by the way. I’ll sleep like a baby with one hand always on your pulse.”
She melted. Totally oozed into the floor, leaving a puddle. She had to glance down to make sure she was still in the chair.
“What I’m saying is I need you to cut me some slack when we’re anywhere but here. I might freak out irrationally. Go with it. Don’t give me any lip. I’m only doing what my gut tells me to keep you safe.”
“Okay.” She nodded. She would give him that. It made sense.
“Okay?” He narrowed his gaze, unsure of her response.
“Yes. I understand. You need to know I’m safe. It’s nice, actually. I’ll give you that.”
One second he was sitting catty-cornered from her holding her hand, and the next second, he pushed his chair out, reached for her, and hauled her out of her chair and into his lap. His lips were on hers immediately. He kissed her deeply. Thoroughly.
She melted more, threading her fingers in his hair. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss. Her body went from soft to needy in moments. Maybe she would be sore tomorrow. But it would be worth it.
Something slipped into her consciousness. A sound. Pounding.
Knocking.
Knocking.
She jumped off his lap at the same moment he stood and twisted around to face the door. He had a hold on her waist, steadying her.
∙•∙
“Shit,” he muttered as he glanced at their nakedness. “Go to your room. I’ll get it.”
He nudged her toward the hallway and then snagged his jeans off the kitchen floor, grateful he’d left them there.
Seconds later he was across the room, zipper up, button done, eye to the peep hole. Nikolav.
Shit.
“Ivan, you in there?”
“Hang on. Let me get the alarm.” He reached for the panel while glancing around the room. There didn’t appear to be any specific evidence that anything happened. His T-shirt was on the floor, but at least Alena’s nighty and panties had come off in her room.
Jesus.
He opened the door, running a hand through his hair. “Nik,” he greeted a little loudly.
Nikolav scrunched up his face as he entered. “What took you so long? I could have picked the locks by now.” He turned around to face the door as he shut it behind him. “I was afraid I’d set off the alarm if I opened it myself.”
“Pizza.” Ivan pointed at the table where two-thirds of the pizza still sat untouched. Alena hadn’t eaten a single slice. In fact with only one beer present, it looked like Ivan had been dining alone. Good.
“Pizza keeps you from opening the door.” He stated rather than asked.
“Oh. I was in the bathroom,” Ivan muttered as he headed toward the table to clear the mess.
“Where’s Alena?”
“In her room.” Please let her be hearing enough of this to keep from stepping back out here naked.
A second later he heard the shower. Thank fuck.
Nikolav slumped onto the couch as if he were exhausted.
Ivan dropped the uneaten pizza, grabbed two more beers, and turned to join his friend. He took a spot on another part of the sectional and reached across to hand Nikolav a beer. “What’s wrong? Where’s Belinda?”
“She’s with Haley. I dropped her off. They needed girl time, whatever that means.” He snorted as he twisted the top off his bottle and took his first draw. And then he sighed. “I feel uneasy.”
“Thank God it’s not just me.”
“It’s like I can’t put my finger on anything specific, but some shit is about to go down.”
“Agreed.” Ivan had been thinking he was losing his mind. It had taken every ounce of willpower not to jump up from the table while Alena was ranting and order her to get into a small locked box for the duration.
Instead he’d forced himself to remain calm and pretend to be sane.
“Belinda, she’s working so hard night and day to dig up shit about Yenin from the eighties. All sorts of shit. You wouldn’t believe what she’s found out. And it scares me to death. What if someone figures out what she’s doing or how much she knows?”
Ivan nodded. “I hear you.” Thank God Alena wasn’t as deeply involved in shit like the other women. Belinda insisted on working this story as a journalist. Haley couldn’t be stopped from helping the homeless, even though she’d been abducted from the streets herself and spent two weeks undergoing God knew what at Yenin’s lab. And Katie. Shit. Katie was a doctor. She’d been the one to open the flood gates when she realized first Dmitry and then Leo had unusual antibodies in their blood.
Alena had come to the US and immediately been sequestered by her brother. Ivan could understand why she was stir-crazy, but he was also glad she didn’t have a high-profile job that put her in even greater danger every day.
“I spoke to Leo earlier. He says the FBI is picking up the pace. They feel like they’re close.”
Ivan smirked this time. “Leo’s contact said this?”
“I guess.”
“Do you think we’ll ever meet this man? The secret contact?”
“Who knows? Probably not.” Nikolav took another drink of his beer.
»»•««
It was late by the time Nikolav left. Ivan felt bad about Alena. She hadn’t ever come out. Ivan made excuses for her that she’d claimed to be tired and had probably gone to bed. He’d specifically listened to how long the shower was on and then couldn’t decide if he hoped she would come out and join them or stay in her room.
He wanted to see her. Touch her. Finish their conversation. Hell, he’d just been inside her a few hours ago for the first time. It was horribly inconvenient for Nikolav to stop by. But he couldn’t very well tell Nik that.
His friend had no idea Ivan was into Alena. And though it didn’t need to be a deep secret, Ivan hadn’t discussed it with Alena yet. So he left it alone.
After locking the door an
d setting the alarm, Ivan cleaned up the kitchen and turned out the lights. He headed down the hall to his own room first to shed his jeans and grab a pair of boxers. If Alena was truly asleep, he didn’t want to wake her. And he sure wasn’t going to be so presumptuous as to slide under her covers naked.
It was forefront in his mind that the last conversation they’d had revolved around her wanting to have sex again. His dick hardened remembering the way she’d made her point clear. But he hadn’t been kidding when he said she would be sore. She was damn tight. He knew it had hurt at first, and he didn’t want to see that strained look of pain on her face again anytime soon. Not when the simple way to avoid it was to let her have at least a day of rest.
After her speech, he hadn’t intended to argue the point further, but the spell had been broken when Nikolav arrived.
No way in hell was Ivan sleeping alone, though. First of all, Alena would read him the riot act if she woke up and found he’d gone to his own room to sleep. And second of all, he wasn’t kidding when he told her he would finally be able to sleep several hours in a row if he had his arm around her body, ensuring she was safe.
He used the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and made his way to her room next. When he opened her door, he found her under the covers, sound asleep. She’d left a small night-light on in the bathroom.
It made him smile because he figured she didn’t normally leave the light on.
He left it alone and rounded the bed to the far side. When he eased under her fluffy white comforter, she didn’t stir. When he turned onto his side and set his head in his palm to look at her, she remained just as still.
Her face was toward him, her mouth open slightly in slumber. She was on her belly with her hands tucked under the pillow. Her long, blonde hair spread out around her like a halo.
She was beautiful. He could watch her all night.
Instead, he lowered himself onto the pillow and inhaled deeply of her scent. It soothed him. He might prefer to stay up looking at her, but he needed to sleep. He had to work out tomorrow morning. And he would be fighting Friday night. A lack of sleep would never bode well in the cage.
He closed his eyes, but there was no way to keep his hands to himself. He needed Alena in his arms.
She only briefly stirred when he snuggled closer to her side and set his hand on her lower back. And then he was at peace and let himself drift away.
It seemed like moments passed before he awoke to the smell of coffee and light streaming into the room. When he rolled onto his back, he found the source of the scent.
Alena sat on the edge of the bed. She wore a silky lavender robe, and she held a mug of coffee in her hands. “Hey sleepy.” Her smile was worth every second of the last two months of torturing himself to get to this point in their relationship. He wouldn’t take it for granted. For the rest of his life he wanted to wake up to that smile.
“Black?” he asked as he lifted onto his elbow and peeked into the mug. “You don’t drink black coffee.”
“No. It’s not mine.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “Please tell me we don’t have any other unwanted guests.”
She giggled. “Just you and me.” She held out the coffee.
He tugged himself to a sitting position and took it from her. “Bless you.”
“You slept late. We need to get going.”
“I slept like the dead, and it’s because I was in your bed.” He winked at her and then took a sip. “You have a way of calming and soothing that’s uncanny.”
“Glad I could help. It wasn’t the way I saw the evening going, and I’ll admit I might have stomped around a bit having a tantrum when Nikolav showed up to ruin my plans, but when I finally calmed and lay down, I fell asleep instantly.”
“No dreams?”
“Not one.” She twisted to face him, climbed more fully onto the bed, and crawled slowly into his space. “I could get used to having you in my bed.”
“I hope so because I don’t intend for you to sleep alone again as long as I’m alive.”
“That sounds perfect,” she said as she lowered her face to kiss his lips. “I’m going to shower. We need to get moving.”
He nodded. “Right behind you.” And then he watched as she flounced off the bed and headed for the attached bathroom. Her ass was barely covered by the silk robe. He had also enjoyed the way the front gaped open, giving him a glimpse of deep cleavage.
Yeah, he could get used to this. And he fully intended to.
Chapter Sixteen
The clinic had only been open a short while, and Alena was in the middle of rearranging Katie’s books on her shelves when the door opened behind her. She spun around to find someone stepping into the office.
“Belinda?” Alena came around the desk, slightly shocked by Belinda’s appearance. “You okay?” She wasn’t dressed for work. Normally she looked professional when she went to Chicago Multimedia, where she was working on a long-term project—the very investigation upsetting all of their lives currently. Today, she wore a pair of faded jeans, tennis shoes, a T-shirt, and a ratty gray sweatshirt that had seen better years.
Where was Nikolav? He didn’t often let her out of his sight. Not since they met through her best friend Haley, who happened to be dating his best friend and Alena’s brother, Mikhail.
Belinda looked downright scared. And that wasn’t like her. Nothing got to her, it seemed. Not a random bombing under the L or food poisoning or falling for a serious dominant like Nikolav. Today, something had gotten to her.
Belinda slumped onto the worn leather love seat and sighed. “Not even close. And I need you to keep that to yourself.”
Alena could tell Belinda was seriously stressed. Something happened. Something bad. “You know I’d never say a word. Can I get you something? Water at least?”
Belinda shook her head. “No. Thanks.”
Two seconds later Katie entered. She exchanged nearly identical words with Belinda and then pulled up the totally ridiculous out-of-place fiberglass green chair to face Belinda while Alena took a seat next to her on the love seat. Alena would have gladly left the two women alone, but when she mentioned it, Belinda shook her head. “Stay. Whatever happens to me concerns all of us.”
Belinda leaned to one side and pulled an envelope from her back pocket. She handed it to Katie with shaky hands. Katie’s face went from tight and reserved to wide and shocked in less than thirty seconds. When she finished reading, she handed the page to Alena.
Alena took it and dipped her face to read the words.
Shock didn’t cover it. No wonder Katie’s eyes had been so concerned. As Alena read the threatening letter that demanded Belinda trade herself for her cousin by five o’clock, she heard nothing else that was spoken.
Oh my God. Alena’s hands shook as she continued to hold the paper, reading it again. Surely she misunderstood. It had to be from Yenin. He was holding Belinda’s cousin Rena hostage.
Alena’s chest tightened. She jerked her attention back to the other two women when she realized Belinda was pleading with her not to tell Ivan or Mikhail.
Alena sat straighter. “Are you crazy? If Ivan or Mikhail find out about this, they’ll send me to Siberia for safekeeping.” That wasn’t funny. She had no idea why she said it. She’d been held prisoner in Siberia for six months before being rescued by men hired by Abram Gromov. She didn’t intend to ever return to Russia because of it.
Katie handed a phone to Belinda. “I texted Taylor. She won’t answer. But she will show up soon.”
Both women seemed inordinately calm under the circumstances.
Belinda kept rubbing her palms on her jeans, but she wasn’t freaking out and running around screaming like Alena would have been.
Alena couldn’t breathe. This was serious. She stared at both women in disbelief as they discussed something about telling Taylor and not mentioning any of this to the guys.
Seriously? That was the plan? Alena wouldn’t dare break Belinda’s confidence, but sh
e didn’t think this plan of keeping things from the men was a good one. The guys were seriously going to be pissed when they found out.
When Belinda finally tossed out her concern about Nikolav killing her, Alena finally spoke. “Get in line. Ivan and Mikhail are going to freak.”
Katie stood. She had patients waiting. She needed to keep up the appearance that nothing was wrong.
Alena consoled Belinda as best she could while they waited for Taylor. They discussed the wisdom of not informing the men to kill time. But it only took about ten minutes for Taylor to show up.
Alena was once again taken aback by Taylor’s ability to disguise herself. This time she had made herself appear to be about seven months pregnant, tucking her hair into her shirt so it looked short. Alena had to do a double take.
Belinda caught Taylor up on the note she’d received, the demand to trade herself for her cousin, and the fact that they hadn’t told any of the men yet.
“How the hell does Anton Yenin know what story you’re working on?” Taylor asked rhetorically.
Belinda pointed out the obvious. “We know there’s a mole in the FBI. Could that be it?”
Alena felt the room closing in on her as the two of them discussed the possibilities and plans to lead Yenin down the wrong path by planting ideas within the FBI to ferret out the mole. By the time Taylor mentioned a safe house, Alena had nearly made herself sick with nerves.
“I think you should consider going with Belinda.”
Alena cringed. “I figured you’d say that.”
“It’s so much safer. I think we’re close to solving this, but I don’t want any more bodies added to the death toll.”
“My brother would freak. Ivan would too if I disappeared without telling him.” Alena’s spine grew rigid.
There was no way to fix this problem. If she called Ivan, he would drop everything, head to the clinic, and puff out his chest. Besides, Belinda did not want Nikolav to know. Telling any one of the guys was the same as telling them all.
She didn’t like the plan. It made her stomach lurch to consider the idea of going to a safe house without telling Ivan first. She wasn’t kidding. The man would seriously freak. And he’d have to get in line behind her because fleeing behind his back made her want to vomit.
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