Threat: Follow up to Stranded but not Alone (Dragoslava Connection) (19 page)

He looked so sad.

“Who are you racing against other than yourself?”

“Every man who crosses your path,” he confessed, burnishing her lips with slow tight strokes from his across the luscious seam slightly parting hers.

She leaned back, breaking the connection. “Come on Khail, let’s be honest with each other,” she urged with a gentle smile curving the corners of her mouth. “You, me, every person in the valley and up here on the mountain knows my heart belongs to you. I love you.”

His chest rose beneath her. “Don’t ever do that to me again…shutting down instead of talking to me. And if you ever…ever go to another man to talk instead of me… I don’t care who he is—” Hesitating, he peered deeper into her soul and she saw all she needed to know…they were a solid couple. She caressed his face in her hands and kissed his lips forgetting how cold it had become so close to the water. They needed this. Mikhail nudged her nose with his. “I’m your man…nobody else…something needs fixing, you come to me.”

She slipped her hands in his back pockets molding them around his muscled butt she loved watching walk to his car when he’d leave her condo on Friday nights, both of them hot and horny yet not giving in to their desires to go to bed.

“I don’t even know how to love another man, Khalil. In Arizona after momma’s surgery all I thought about was jumping your body the minute I got off the plane.”

Loud laughter exploded from his chest as he rolled her over to lay atop his body, large hands crushing her to him. Had she missed a joke? What happened?

He kissed her; deep, purposefully maddening in the way he played his tongue across the seam of her lips blowing her mind making her give in. Warmth crowded her under the coat collar as his mouth moved down to nip and suckle along her throat heating her where the snow had found her skin.

He moaned and laid against her, then he lifted her into his arms as he got to his knees cradling her to his chest, lacing her arms around his neck she buried against the curve of his shoulder.

“Hell I love you woman…I love you so damn much, Bethany Cansler.”

Shoving at his chest, Bethany dragged at his jacket sleeve. “Bear…bear…bear.”

“Shit!”

Mikhail hefted her onto her horse so fast then slapping his rump to get her out of there, she never saw what happened other than Mikhail telling the bear to go home.

She was dating Dr. Do-little in a three-piece suit.

Mark was his uncle by marriage. She never saw that coming.

Up early the next morning, inside the barn farthest from the chalet, hard at work, Bethany curled her feet behind her in the ratty chair. She reread the text she’d received last night from Mikhail after she rode back to the chalet at a hundred miles an hour getting away from the bear Mikhail swore wasn’t going to eat her. Yeah right. It had teeth so it ate, and she was meat.

“The bear was a domestic cub from my neighbor, who raised it after its mother was killed a few months ago. It is back in his shelter. Everything’s okay. Except, you ran my horse to exhaustion so I’m taking that out of your salary to have him checked over by the vet…. Meet me in the loft at six am, and I’ll explain everything. I think I know who our stalker is.”

She had no idea if he was serious about the vet fee, but she’d pay it. That bear scared the hell out of her yesterday.

Spreading out two sheets of lined paper, she leaned on her elbows tapping a pencil on the desk staring at two words, one above each column on the paper.

She’d written
Suspect
and
No Motive
in bold capital letters across the top of the paper.

There’s no reason to track people solely on their accessibility to her account. Anybody can find her if they wanted her bad enough. They needed to know who would go the distance to harm her. Or Mikhail.

The scent of rich dark coffee coupled with a sweetness filled the air as Bethany turned and watched the loft opening.

Heavy footsteps pounded up the creaky wood rungs on the old ladder resting against the hundred-year-old wood floor and Mikhail’s black hair showed first over the split railing along the open floorboards. Then his wide shoulders emerged. She could almost feel the air rolling away from him in a great billowing haze.

She was still horny from yesterday, watching his cream-colored Henley stretched taut across his broad chest, gripping his biceps. The gasp she heard came from her lips.

Shifting on her seat, she watched him. Loose fitting dark jeans with just enough hug on his thighs to make the zipper stand out accentuating the size of his cock. And a body made for denim.

Bethany propped up on her knees in the chair; the visual pulling her up like a marionette. “Good morning sunshine. Ready to get to work?” she asked excited to see him and get started.

Big and imposing he halted and yawned, his chest swelling with the inhale. She chewed her lip. The way he exhaled was just as good, making thick dense muscles strain under the cotton fabric molded over every dip and valley. Tousled and cranky Mikhail was still the sexiest man she’d ever known.

“Hey.” He held up the large black mugs, waving the salacious scents to arouse her enough for her to want to taste it. “I got tea, and I got coffee…you’re getting tea, sunshine. You’re perky enough for both of us.”

She could learn to wake up to Mikhail every morning. The casters rattled on her chair when she leaned back getting comfortable. “You’ve not woke yet and before you get all the way over here breathing on me, tell me you brushed your teeth at least or swished a capful of mouthwash?”

The floorboards whined with each footstep he landed across the room. The tea smelled like oranges. “Only one way to find out,” he teased. His mouth lowered and fresh mint filled her lungs.

He tugged her hair making her head fall back and bushed his lips over hers. A sweet and delicious morning kiss, and the pleasant scent of his skin she could get accustomed to.

How are you awake Bethany, when I’m the walking dead struggling to keep my eyes open?”

“Stop exercising right before you go to sleep and maybe you can close those lids before two am.” She poked fun knowing he worked off his sexual tension when they dated, but two months was too soon in her opinion. “Do you still do that?”

He squeezed his brows together. “I’m up to five hundred sit-ups a night.”

She rolled her eyes. He was so full of it. “I don’t doubt the sit-ups, you’re in great shape, perhaps we should let you go to sleep with a different workout tonight,” she teased.

“Don’t tease a bear, Bethany. Sliding your shapely jar of honey in my face to take it away won’t end well. I’ll lick you from head to toe as you beg me to stop.”

“I’ve never teased you, and I won’t take it away once I offer it to you.”

“You’re right, you haven’t. But you don’t have to be naked for me to want you.”

“Then let’s get to work and figure all this out, and then later we’ll figure out a way to cut back on those sit-ups.”

Taking her face in his hands, Mikhail kissed the bridge of her nose. “You’re sleeping in my cabin tonight…got it?”

Would she have time to shave her legs?

“Okay.” She kissed his hands then turned to her tea. They both knew yesterday was an important step in them finding the love again. “Everybody was surprised when you fired Martha.” Especially her.

He sighed and walked around the space his arms stretched overhead in a back-cracking arch. “Nobody talks to you that way. I don’t care who they are.”

“Thank you…okay back on track,” she directed fighting the humming in her body to straddle him here on the table. “If Mark’s behind this, which I don’t doubt anymore, who’s working with him?”

He moved the dial on the heaters then looked out over the railing down to the barn.

Coming back to the table, he kissed her again. “Let’s get to work.” He perched on the edge of the old wooden desk. “What have you got so far?” His accent held a little fire from her comment. They were good at flirting, but she needed to understand him on a deeper level.

She angled the paper so he could see on the desk. “I thought about what you said in the forest about the diversity program, the other companies, and Mark. When I was in the cabinet, the thing I remember about the guy was his size and his thick accent. At first I thought it was the detective when I heard him speak then Greg, then your father, and that’s when I knew I couldn’t slap that on anyone until I was certain.”

“…Greg…I hadn’t thought of him, but what’s his motivation to go after you?” He shook his head. “Men like that need money to sabotage their jobs. It’s all they have.”

“And he’s similar to Crazy, as far as being a stickler for structure. On the scavenger hunt, he was always teaching me to be aware of my surroundings and just very teacher-like.”

“Hmm…” Mikhail groaned. “I noticed the second day on the stump. Is that what he was telling you, how to survive if you were ever attacked again?”

“Don’t say it like that; he sounds like a serial killer. No he’s attracted to me, but I don’t think he liked me at first, said he thought I was a snob then relaxed once we started talking.”

“Another beast you’ve calmed with your voice,” he urged cupping the back of her neck where her nerves were the most sensitive, running his fingers down her spine. “A pleasant woman is candy to a gruff soul, Bethany I keep telling you you’re more attractive than you realize.”

“Don’t give me another worry, Khail. Let’s concentrate on ending this so we can move on.”

He sat up bracing his hands to the table. “Just be careful around him. Now narrowing down the suspects we should go after those that know and associate with Mark.”

“Makes sense,” she replied. “Should I call Glenda since she’ll know his inner circle?”

“Yeah call her,” he said. In her pocket, she gathered her cell and punched number two for Glenda.

“If I don’t answer, I’m having fun somewhere or at work. Leave me a message.”

“Hey Glenda when you get this call me back. I need to ask you something confidential,” she left the message and then ended the call. “If she’s in the area she’ll call back.” Steam rose from the mug now at her lips. She blew air over the top, cooling her tea, the orange aroma filling her nose as she took a sip. “There has to be more than bragging rights.” The hot tea warmed her body as it slipped down her throat.

“Enough money to share.” His fingers rubbed distractedly over one brow. “Twenty five grand—bonus and a separate dividend check at the end of the year.”

Her jaw went slack. “You get twenty five thousand dollars for the idea of bringing me over?”

Mikhail drank his coffee, set it down then penned a few names. “The idea has to work and bring in a profit for the firm.”

Bethany set down the tea and dropped back in the chair. It creaked and popped, but the truth just hit her. “You guys are fighting over the revenue my hard work is bringing the firm? Tell me I’m mistaken, Mikhail.”

“There’s more than money involved at this level. Twenty-five grand to investors on this level is what a thousand is to most people. It’s not worth going to prison over. At this level it’s about notoriety and many companies are watching you.”

“And you?”

“My promotion was a rank change.” Mikhail brushed a finger over hers rubbing circles over her knuckle. It was more arousing than it should have been. “How many firms have approached you more than once?”

One,
she thought.

“Just GCT Holdings,” she said. “Mark…”

“Everything is to get you to leave Heinemann’s…and me.” Mikhail stressed the last few words.

Now they were getting somewhere. “Knowing this opens possibilities for other employees to be mad at me for getting the position.”

Mikhail groaned. “Don’t add another problem, Bethany. We have enough to deal with, and I’m up to four Motrin a day with a threat hanging over you,” he admitted pressing a palm to his forehead. “But you’re right. It’ll make their offer look that much better.”

“And if you cheat me out of my profits, I’ll be more than willing to walk away.”

“Cheat you!” He drew back, his brows squeezing together. “Why cheat you?”

“Calm down.” She eased the tension she witnessed in his stiff shoulders. Mikhail was the epitome of a businessperson but he held a fierce possessiveness about him at the time that she found hauntingly sexy. He used it to get his clients the best of every deal and with her he wanted to possess her, not consume but he craved all of her attention. “All I’m saying is if we were at each other’s throat, that’s how it would look once I found out there’s money involved. I would see it that way,” she added. “And by you never clarifying what happens to the employee who’s bringing in all this revenue, what should I have thought? Shouldn’t they—me—be compensated?” How could he keep something like this from her? It’s her money. “You’re making it easy for them to lure me away from Heinemann’s by keeping secrets from me.”

Mikhail pushed off the desk, walked behind her placing his hands on her shoulders massaging the tension from her neck.

“Am I wrong to want my money?”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. You’re the first employee, Bethany, to make it through a year in the program.”

She turned her face up to see him at her back. “Khail, it’s a legitimate question, not a jab at you.”

He cupped her chin holding her face up to his stare. “From someone else, it’s a question. From you, woman, it’s a slap in the face.”

She loosened his fingers holding them to her lips. “You don’t see it, because you have millions, and it doesn’t affect you the same. I have my savings and investments and no, a missed paycheck won’t leave me destitute, but this is my sole support, Mikhail. If I have money coming, I’d like to know.”

She sucked in a breath when his lips caressed her throat, dotting soft kisses up along her jawline until he’d covered her lips in a long hot kiss. Bethany dropped her head back giving his tongue full access to her mouth.

He pulled back smoothing hair off her forehead, followed by a gentle kiss. “You’re right…but would you have given me a second chance if I waved money in your face first?”

“You should know me better by now. Tell me about the money, Mikhail.”