by Kim Knox
A smile twitched over Alena’s mouth. “With the strength you’ve given me.”
He looked up. “I’m honoured.”
Alena turned the hot glass of tea in her fingers, keeping her breath calm in the following silence. Now she had to bring up another disturbing subject. Their betrothal.
“You’ve changed, you know, Vadim.”
He turned back to the sideboard, pouring tea into a glass. “As have you.”
Alena gave him a mock scowl. “We have to talk.”
“I know.” He handed her a plate piled with food and sat down beside her. He snagged a slice of toast from her and weathered her glare. “I didn’t expect this to happen, either.”
“The betrothal?” And the word still sounded strange. The next words drove a knife into her gut. “I won’t hold you to it. The Talars are conservative. What we’d just shared”—she forced a smile to quirk her mouth—“meant immediate marriage and twenty years of penance.” Alena wished she had an appetite, so she could eat something, have an activity to focus on rather than wait for Vadim’s relieved laughter. “In that moment, I’d absorbed their strong, puritanical attitude. The betrothal became an imperative.”
Vadim let out a slow breath. “Thank you for offering me a way out, Majesty.”
The knife in Alena’s gut twisted. “What I’ve become will stabilise, I’m certain. I won’t need two men permanently in my bed.”
“That’s a relief.”
And the knife dug deeper. She had thought they’d shared a connection and hoped that, even though the idea of a betrothal was a rush, they might share time together. It seemed her instincts had veered wildly off course concerning the flight-captain’s interest in her. “Good, so that’s sorted.” She sipped at her tea, the large gulp scalding her throat.
Tears sprung. She swallowed and denied the wetness of her eyes came from anything other than too-hot tea. It made no sense, her attachment to Vadim, and she wanted to happily blame it on her insane genes. Maybe when the wildness of her body settled, she wouldn’t miss him. Much.
Vadim’s gaze had fixed on the closed door of the breakfast room. His jaw tightened.
“I made an oath,” he said, “to serve you and protect you from all enemies. I don’t intend to give that up.”
Alena blinked. Emotion had her mind fuzzy, and she ached for the detached clarity that had aided her in the war room. But anything to do with Vadim, and she couldn’t remain detached. “I’m not asking you to resign your commission.”
Silver eyes held her, and something lurked in their depths that she couldn’t quite read. “Then what do you want of me, Majesty?”
Bitterness edged his voice, and now she was confused too. “We will obviously have to remain together until whatever you did to me settles.”
He gave her a short nod. “I will then return to Beta-Aretias-4.” He flicked a glance around the gilded room. “I’m not designed for the imperial court.”
So much for her simple chat. Of course she could order him, order him to do absolutely anything. But she wasn’t her ice-hearted mother. She stared into her dark tea.
In some ways, it would have been easier had she transformed into the ice monster she first feared. “Your service to me means I can offer any post you wish, Vadim.” She risked a look up, the need to order him to stay burning on her tongue. But she would not be a duty-fuck. “I will miss you.”
Alena almost winced at that admission. How to sound needy, when he wanted nothing more than to run to the far edge of her territories to escape her.
The familiar muscle jumped in his jaw, and Alena ached to stroke away his unease.
He put his tea on a small table and turned to her. “I realise that we don’t know each other.” He pulled a face, and a flush stained his cheeks. It was endearing. Talar embarrassment could grip even the most fearsome warrior. “Besides obviously sharing marathon bouts of sex.” His expression became solemn. “In the few short years I knew my father, before he died, he instilled a deep respect for Talar customs.”
“That probably explains the rush into betrothal.”
Vadim gave a curt nod. “Yes, Majesty.”
The use of the title irked her. “Can we go back to your calling me Alena?”
“Thank you. Alena.”
The soft curl of his voice around her name had her heart flip-flopping. Damn, the man drove her insane. “You were saying?”
Vadim straightened. “I don’t want to end the betrothal. I understand that, with your preference for Sacha Ivanovich, this could become awkward, but…”
Alena stared at him, and the sudden pain in her chest had to be her heart turning over. “Sacha?”
Vadim winced. “He’s a Volkov Prince. Worthy of you.”
“Yes, your mother was only a grand duchess and your father a senior admiral. Nothing there worthy of an empress.”
Vadim pinched at the bridge of his nose. “Now are you being sarcastic? I’m tired. I have a knot in my gut the size of a fist, and all I really want to know is that at some point—maybe in the far, far future—you and I can have a life together.”
Alena gaped at his sudden rush of words. “You and I…?”
The mask of the soldier slid down hard and fast over his face, and with a sharp pang, Alena realised she’d hurt him. She was such an idiot. She scrambled to put her glass and plate on the table. Taking a deep, calming breath, she knelt in front of him. Her hands hovered over her knees, not certain she could or should touch him. Alena risked a light stroke of his knee through the black serge of his uniform.
“I want that.”
“You do?” His hand inched closer to hers, his fingertips almost touching. “I know that the ritual changed me, but I still have my core beliefs in place. I can’t promise that I will ever be comfortable sharing you with Sacha.”
Her fingers locked through his, and the warmth and strength he offered eased the tightness. Alena gave him a wicked little smile. “It’s not a problem now, is it?”
“Are you kidding me?” Heat flooded his face. “Did I just say that?” His eyes narrowed. “What have you done to me, Alena Petrova?”
Her smile grew. “What would you like me to do?”
Vadim’s hand framed her jaw, his thumb stroking over her bottom lip. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Seems we’ve played complete personality swap. I usually accuse Sacha of that.”
His thumb stilled. “About him…”
“We’re all acting on genetic instinct.” She nipped at his thumb tip, and he hissed.
“I’m not going to deny that I need him right now. Sacha’s been my friend for years, and it’s never really been more than that.” Alena pushed herself closer, sliding between his thighs. She stopped only centimetres from his mouth. “But you? You’re under my skin, deep in my bones. Thoughts of you have filled the past few days.” Her head tilted, and she focused on the smooth line of his mouth. “It’s been bloody annoying.”
“Same here.”
His breath brushed warm and familiar against her lips. She could almost taste him…
“Lust fades, Alena.”
“Is that what this is?” She couldn’t resist the temptation of his bottom lip, sucking it into her mouth. Grazing it with her teeth, she sighed before she let him go. “I want it to be more, but I had my mother as my first example. Affection, tenderness…”
“Love?”
“That too.” She couldn’t say the word. Her mother had instilled it as an unacceptable human frailty. “None of those emotions were ever encouraged.” Her focus fixed on the glistening wet of his lip, her thoughts firing. “Was that the weakness? For the past three generations, the empress and her immediate heir have been more machine than human.”
“You’re changing the subject,” Vadim said softly.
“I am, aren’t I? Sorry.” Her gaze lifted from his mouth. “I don’t want it to be simply lust.”
The warmth in his eyes tightened her heart. “Trust me. It isn’t,” he murmure
d.
Heat bloomed in her chest, and she wanted to believe him, but… “Don’t play games with me, Vadim.”
“Says the woman who wants to tie me to a bed…” Alena snorted, just as she knew he meant her to. “It’s not a game.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “From the moment I saw you, I felt something more than lust.”
“Terror, maybe?”
Laughter burst from him, and he pulled Alena into an unexpected hug. “That too, believe me.”
Alena buried her face in his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. His arms wrapped tight around her, and she let out a slow sigh. Her arms snaked around his back, finding hard muscle under her searching fingers. Only Sacha had ever hugged her before, and that thought had a smile pulling at her mouth. The only other human she had hugged with her clothes on. No, the brief hugs in the aftermath of sex didn’t count. And Vadim’s strength, the press of solid heat and muscle against her body, made her feel protected, feel human. “So much more than lust,” she murmured.
“Love?”
His breath stirred her skin. Wrapped in the protection of his arms, the small word didn’t scare her. Alena closed her eyes, and her body relaxed against him. “At first sight? Isn’t that a myth?”
“Changing the subject again?” Vadim placed a soft kiss on her neck, and she shivered. He pulled back so that he looked at her. What Alena found in his eyes caught her breath. “I’ll wait for you to catch up.”
“You…”
“I love you.” He placed a soft kiss on her mouth. “Of course, this has nothing to do with your beauty, wealth, power, and your total humiliation of the whole Talar fleet.”
Humour lifted his face. “All right, I’ll admit it, maybe the last one added to how I feel.”
“My genes have been a bad influence on you.” She laughed. “And that’s not a sentence I get to say everyday.”
“No, I imagine not.” Vadim wet his lips, and a spike of lust shot through Alena. His eyes narrowed. “What? I thought Sacha had to make three?”
“Well, we can call him back from the Academy of Sciences. Hell, he’s probably not left the palace yet.” Her body flushed, remembering the aching fullness of both men inside her … and she would have that again, but a sweeter warmth chased after it. “Or, until my new genetic structure settles, we discover the joys of you wearing a prophylactic.” She shrugged. “No absorption, no need for Sacha.”
Vadim winced. “You make it sound so pleasant.”
“Well…” Her hands brushed his shoulders, playing over his lithe muscles. “You can always watch Sacha again. See his hands slide over my hip, fingers hooking to find every sweet spot. Dip and stretch.” Vadim’s gaze darkened, desire and anger thickening in equal measure. She gave a happy little sigh and tilted her head. “You know how wet I’ll be… So wet, he can slick his cock and slide…”
“He’s not slicking anything!” Vadim’s low, anger-fed words rushed heat through her flesh.
“Then we have a deal?”
Vadim’s chest rose and fell as the burst of anger left him. “We always had a deal, Alena. But when it’s us, it’s just us. No Sacha.”
Alena pushed herself to her feet and held out her hand. Her gut twisted with guilt.
“Sorry,” she murmured. Her fingers gripped his. “He’s a necessity. You, I want.”
A smile lifted his mouth. “Better.” He glanced at the table laid for breakfast and the sideboard groaning with food. “We should eat first.”
“We’ll do what Sacha did.” Within a few minutes, they’d piled food into a deep, silver fruit bowl. She caught Vadim looking at her. “What?”
“You’re the empress. Haven’t you got servants that can whip up another table full of food?”
She popped a grape into her mouth. “I was taught not to be wasteful and that I had two perfectly good hands. The Spares had to be useful. Not mythical.”
“You’re not spare, anymore.”
His hand pressed briefly against her shoulder, and she gripped his fingers. “I know.”
She turned and handed Vadim the bowl, piled with food. “And since I’m too good to carry it, you can.”
“I walked straight into that, didn’t I?”
Alena smirked at him. “Yes,” she said.
A network of private passageways linked the breakfast room to her suite. She palmed open her door and stepped into her old room. Sunlight flooded the little sitting room with its soft rugs and silk-covered couches, all a little worn around the edges. “My old room,” she said, opening the double doors to her bedroom. “Sacha-free.”
Vadim dumped the bowl on a dressing table. “But you and he…”
“Mother never approved of my friendship with him. The city banned him from my rooms.” She shrugged. “Genetically, he was the potential knowledge-giver for Eva too.”
“This is all very complicated.”
“Not anymore.” And that truth was bittersweet. The Talar had wiped out all of her family. Vadim drew her into the protection of his arms, and the pain tightening her chest eased. She breathed in his scents of spice and clean male skin. Her heart skittered. He was right … and it was time for her to catch up. Alena closed her eyes. “I love you,” she murmured into his neck.
Vadim squeezed her until a half-laugh, half-gasp, escaped her. He grinned and brushed her hair back from her face. “About time.”
Alena scowled at him. “For that you strip. Now.”
She felt the stir of his cock. His mouth curled into a wicked smile. “What about breakfast?”
“I’m hungry for something else. Now I order you to strip, Flight-Captain.”
Vadim released her and slid slow hands down his shirt buttons. The tantalising reveal of his muscled chest, the light spatter of hair chasing down into the band of his trousers, had her mouth, her fingers, itching to taste him. His fingers moved to his trouser buttons, each one pulling away to reveal more of his delicious flesh. All too soon, he stood naked before her. Sliver eyes held her, hot and needy. “Your next order, Majesty?”
“On the bed.”
Vadim obeyed, stretching out on the wide mattress. His gaze followed her as she hunted through drawers until she found what she needed. She shucked her clothes and grinned at him, holding up grey silk scarves. “Now I get what I’ve wanted since we first met.”
Vadim laughed. “We only met less than two days ago, Alena.”
She ran a finger over the sole of his foot, and he jerked. “Oh, ticklish.” Slipping the first scarf around his ankle, she bound him to the bedpost. “It definitely feels longer.” She bound his other leg. Moving to his arms, she wrapped silk around his strong wrists, tied him to the bedposts, and climbed onto the bed.
Vadim’s cock already strained with a full erection. Alena ran a light finger along its length, and he hissed. Grinning, she straddled him, rubbing slick flesh over him until he groaned. Her heart thudded, and she wanted nothing more than to sink down on him, grind against him until they both screamed…
Alena leaned forward and stole a kiss from his mouth. The muscles in his arms jerked, flexed, the sudden snap of silk sharp in the small room. She smiled against his lips. “Now I get to lick and suck and nibble every mouth-watering inch of you … until you beg me to stop.”
“You’re evil.” But his breath was short, and his hips strained to find her.
Her mouth brushed his ear. “I learned from the best.”
She teased and played as she explored the solid strength of his arms, his chest, the hard, defined muscle of his stomach. His taste swept through her, familiar and salt-sweet.
The rub of her flesh over his hot skin had her breath ragged, and she ached to slide down on him. But she planned to go through with her threat. Vadim had to beg.
His body already shuddering, he jolted up with a sharp gasp when her tongue-tip circled the sensitive head of his cock. She dropped away to discover the joy of his biteable thighs, and he groaned, cursing her.
Alena grinned and slid her mouth ov
er the firm muscle of his thigh, edging back to the crease of his leg. She ran her tongue along the underside of his cock, licking him from base to tip—
“Enough! Stop. Fuck me.”
Alena grinned. “Well … since you asked so nicely.” She sat up and slid the gossamer-thin prophylactic down over his cock. Vadim jerked his head up to watch her, his eyes hot, his hips pumping into her hand.
Alena straddled him, and with a sigh, sank down, down onto him with a slow moan.
Vadim’s head fell back into the pillows, and his hips pushed her upwards. “Alena, please move. Please.”
She found a deliberate rhythm with his thrusts, and tendrils of orgasm twisted and tightened low in her belly. Faster, their mingled gasps and moans, the slap of her flesh against his spurring her on. Her clitoris throbbed, ached, and her fingers rubbed over its hot slickness. Sharp pleasure shot through her, and her spine arched. Vadim groaned, and through the haze of her near-release, she found him watching her, his eyes heavy with want. Her other hand cupped her breast, teasing out the hardened nipple.
Vadim growled, and his hips slammed upwards, again, again, Alena grabbing at the approaching fire of her orgasm. His gaze held her, desire and desperation burning through her … until with a cry, her orgasm swept over her in a rush of heat and rolling pleasure. Vadim followed her, his body slumping under hers.
Alena collapsed boneless against his sweat-damp body. She kissed his neck. “Nice,” she murmured.
“Untie me.”
Slow hands tugged at the tightened knots that held his wrists, and she found herself enveloped in a breath-squeezing hug. She laughed and snuggled down against him.
Vadim shifted, and Alena muttered curses as he untangled his ankles from the scarves.
He rolled the thin polymer from his cock, knotted it, and with a perfect pitch, threw it into the disposal unit. Its silver edges swirled shut.
His mouth covered hers in a slow, sweet kiss. “Better,” he murmured, wrapping himself around her.
Alena laughed. “Nice shot.”
“Saying years of practice would be wrong, wouldn’t it?”
She bit her lip. “Yes.”
“Then, wow, first time lucky.”