Threat: Follow up to Stranded but not Alone (Dragoslava Connection) (22 page)

“How do I thank you for listening, after dropping all that on you along with the contents of my stomach? You must think I’m a basket case?” she asked graciously.

Was she serious? “You don’t thank me. I thank you,” he corrected, closing his fingers over her hand in his lap. “A few days ago you couldn’t look me in the eye when we found you in that cabinet. Now you let me hold your hand while you walked through one hell of a nightmare to let me see the pain you live with because you trust me,” bringing her hand to his lips, to press a gentle kiss to her palm. “You’re an amazing woman, Bethany Cansler.”

She toed hay away from around the legs of the table with her boot and held his hands to her heart. “I think it’s time you had something soft next to you in bed, don’t you?” she snuggled close to his chest.

“It’s past time.” Could she hear his heart pounding?

“Then we’ll eat dinner in your cabin tonight,” she said, nipping his chin between her teeth. Bethany leaned back abruptly. “You’re planning. I can feel your heart racing.”

“I thought of a way to bring Mark out, but I’m leery about bringing you into it.”

Bethany closed her arms around his neck. “If you want to help me, let me help bring him out. Whatever it is, I’m willing to do it to stop this.”

He didn’t want her to be the one he used as bait. Time for choices was gone. “You do exactly as I say,” he lowered his face to hers.

“What do I do?”

“Call GCT Holding’s. Accept their offer.” He brought her face to his. “Mark will come for you thinking he’s won, and that’s exactly what we want him to think. Be careful, Beth, a cornered dog will bite.”

She blinked, nuzzling her forehead to his in a gesture full of love he felt streaming through his body.

“Then what? How do I get him to confess?”

“You don’t. You get him to talk. Get him to trust you. He’s going to suggest going out on a trail. But you make him stay in the barn. Try and get him to tell you who held you in the cabinet and sent the lingerie?”

“And you’ll be outside the barn?”

“Me, Seth, Crazy, and a few instructors. I won’t let you be alone. I hate even asking you to do this.”

“I can do it.”

“You don’t even know what it is or if it’s dangerous? Don’t bat those thick lashes at me, Bethany. I’m serious. You take on things without regard to your safety, and I can’t lose you.”

“That’s my point, Khail. I’m tired of being afraid, looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for some crazy freak to jump out with a knife. Don’t shut me out now, please.”

Don’t shut her out. If it were up to him, they’d be on a beach in the Cayman Islands right now. Did she know how hard this was for him? He tugged her face closer to his and blew out a long exaggerated breath staring into pleading brown eyes. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Khail, from the knives, lewd letters in my email, to people staring at me from across the room. I’m not living my life afraid of my shadows.”

“You think I like keeping you in a glass box, knowing some freak’s out there ready to hurt you? I want you to smile and be happy, but I want you alive more.” He wrapped his hand in her hair dragging his fingers through the length watching it curl over his hand. “I don’t want you to live like that either.” She watched him swallow his worry to give her a smile.

His chest burned knowing he was sending her into the fire, but this was the only way to make the bottom feeders come to the surface.

“Remember, tomorrow, meet him in the barn. No place else.”

He let her lead him to the ladder with a hand hooked in the pockets of his jeans. “You have a hot tub on the back deck, right…?”

“Why?”

“I’m certain I’ll need it in the morning. Let’s go to bed.”

The Alps wore a fresh new blanket of snow this evening, sparkling under the waning daylight, slipping behind its tall peaks. Its beauty fed romance to the atmosphere of their first time together as they left the chalet making their way across the parking lot to his cabin.

Inside, the flame in the fireplace roared with a flick of the remote from Mikhail’s fingers before he held her in his arms to kiss her face.

“Give me a minute to take care of a few things then I’m yours,” he offered, while his hands smoothed down over her hips holding her to his groin. A few minutes was all she could spare. His perfect impressive length nudged her sex. His blue eyes held a patience she’d long since abandoned after deciding this would be their night to embrace the next level of their relationship.

Not by the door. Pressing herself to his hard chest after removing his jacket, she said, “I’ll take a shower while you do whatever.”

He eyed the desk then sent those warm eyes to her in a half-lidded apology. “Wait for me.” He blinked, rocking her side to side around the warming space backing her close to the wall beside the fireplace. “Then I’ll get a look at those bruises on your hip from the fall down the slope once we go to bed.”

Once they go to bed, had been the last of his words she’d clung to as he shuffled over to the desk beneath the window.

Making use of her time, she’d gone into the bathroom and undressed. Donning his brown robe she waited perched on the edge of his desk. Watching him, work always thrilled her. Watching him think was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. Something about the intensity of his attention on the numbers and the slight tilt of his head sending black waves to curl over the tip of one ear, had her fingers flexing on the wood. The restless way he ran a hand through those waves when the numbers didn’t add up sent a tingle up her spine. His legs falling open when he reclined in the chair, frustrated, made the caress of air against her breasts uncomfortably sensual. The gentle tapping of his pencil’s rhythmic tune on the wooden surface of the desk and that knowing smile that pushed at the corners of his mouth, when it all came together, sped up her heart rate.

Thirty minutes passed and Bethany gave up and jumped in the shower. Scrubbing a towel in her hair when she emerged to find Mikhail still at the desk, she stood at his back wrapped in a towel.

“Sweetie, how much longer?” she asked eager for him to join her on the bed and held the bath sheet close to her breasts. He rubbed his head between her breasts when she rested against the back of his head lacing her arms around Mikhail’s neck nudging the collar of his sweater with her fingers.

He pat her hand, bringing it to his lips. “Beth, you feel good and smell like candy,” he told her, kissing her fingertips. “Why don’t you go into the kitchen and pour us some wine. There’s a bottle of red in the kitchen help yourself.”

She didn’t want wine she wanted him. He groaned when she ran her tongue along his ear and massaged her hands down his chest over the muscles under his sweater. Closing her hands on its hem she worked it up until he lifted his arms and let her take it all the way off.

Bethany stopped and stepped back, irritated he wasn’t responding to her. “Am I boring you, Mikhail? You’re just typing away on the keyboard as if I’m not back here half naked.”

“Come here,” he said pushing the chair back to hook his arm around her waist. He settled her on his lap and tipped the screen for her to see. “Read it, please.”

Mr. Shamochernyi,

I thought you would like to know on those samples you sent. The handwriting samples from the guest suite matches Mark Farber and the other sample from the note on the bag is inconclusive. The fingerprints weren’t clear enough.

But on the email account, that was hacked into from outside of the company at a private residence. I’m waiting on the report. Munson doesn’t know I’m checking, so I’d keep this under wraps until I find out exactly from where.

I’ll keep you informed.

RK

“My connection in the forensics office down town is a client,” he said excited. But she was horny.

She leaned back against his chest his arms came around her breast his mouth on her neck. They had a solid lead to go with what they’d heard in the loft.

“Glad you got excited over something if not me.”

He smacked her hip making her yelp. “I wasn’t ignoring you, baby,” he soothed, rubbing her inflamed flesh. “I’ve been hoping to get this email all day, praying he found something we could use as evidence.” He tugged playfully at the thick towel snug over her breasts. His other hand he wiggled his index finger beneath her hand stroking the gently grooved skin of her palm. Tracing each line until Bethany rested her face to his cheek, puffs of air warming his skin as she kissed along his lip. “I’ll never ignore you baby don’t you know that by now?”

“As long as I’ve made us wait, this…your patience feels more like uncertainty.”

He let out a deep sigh. “Hesitance, not uncertainty, I assure you. I’m a rich man, Bethany, very rich,” he said slipping his hand between her thighs caressing the curve of her knees down to her calves. He played each finger to trail up to spell his name out on her skin. “Women came to me for what I could give them. An expensive evening in an expensive hotel followed by an absurdly expensive blow to my ego, but you want me in my humble cabin wrapped in my well-washed towel, a homemade rustic meal made by my mother and nondescript bedspread on an average king-size bed. Let me enjoy how good this feels.”

The little things in life held the biggest place in the heart, and she reveled in knowing she was his space filler. When he pat her hips she got to her feet leading him to the bed and begun to remove the towel.

“No,” he said, pressing her hands away. “Let me.” In one lurid sweep, he eyed her from head to toe. “Good lord woman, you take for granted that I’ve held you in my arms and kissed your lips, but until what happened in the loft, and that was less than an appetizer, I’ve never seen what’s under those swaying skirts and long pants. Or straining against the pearl buttons on the silk blouses you wear to the office.” He pressed his hands against her belly. “You honestly didn’t like the peach lingerie I bought you?”

He wanted to discuss that now. “You tried to bribe your way back into my life with frilly lingerie.”

“True…” He ran a finger of the swell of her cleavage. “I make million dollar deals daily, have fired entire departments, but haven’t you noticed when it comes to you, I look for approval. You’re where I go to plug up and recharge. I can be a man with you, not just the owner of Heinemann’s,” he explained, sounding wounded.

“You have beautiful taste, Khail,” came out almost on a shy admission. Uncertain she cared to learn of the other women he’d bought pretty gifts for; she played with the edge of her towel.

Lifting her chin, he kissed her nose. “I’ve never bought lingerie before.”

“Never?”

“You’re the first woman I’ve ever bought anything for,” he said coolly, as if it were no big deal he didn’t care about the other women. He meant what he’d said about kiss and go.

A flash of excitement coursed through her when his fingers grazed her belly. He snaked his hands under the towel. When he dropped to his knees, he stared up at her while tracing the edge of her hipbone with his tongue, and she sucked in a breath. She could hardly form a word and didn’t need to try. Mikhail grinned up at her gripping his hands to her hips kissing and nibbling around to her behind.

She jerked back at the salacious sprinkle of electricity that minor connection sent through her. He did it four more times, and she tunneled her hands in his hair writhing against his face.

“You like that?” he asked, wiggling the curve of her butt, dragging his knuckles between her thighs down to her knees.

“It’s a start,” she said breathy with anticipation of what that tongue would do if she didn’t stop him biting along her calves.

She wanted him so bad, wanted him inside her body, tasting her, whatever he wanted, and she needed it now.

The tickle of his nails down her thighs had her dropping her head back releasing a moan.

“Oh, hell you’re beautiful, Bethany, and wet,” he said drawing out the compliment on a slow confession. He knelt before her. She closed her hands around his face and brought her mouth down to his for a kiss. Holding the connection, he got to his feet and took over darting his tongue in and out of her mouth, but his fingers continued in the wetness between her legs. Mikhail moaned into her mouth. “A year ago when you walked off the plane, I fell in love with you, and dreamed of you like this in my arms.”

How sweet. She’d thought he was perfect all tall with a patient smile. He’d approached her as if they were long lost friends reconnecting with a hug. He’d gathered up her carry-on and led her out to a Range Rover. That surprised her knowing he was in line to become the owner. She’d fallen for him right then and there.

“I drove you around myself unable to let any other man put you in their car and be alone with you.”

“Mmm… that impressed me,” she let him know with a low moan. “Don’t worry, you can fix the clothes part and as far as the loving part…that’s why it hurt…I’ve loved you and had no idea why.”

“And now,” he said rubbing his fingers between her thighs, playing in the moisture building from his touch. “How do you feel about me now?”

“I’m in love with you, Khail. I am,” she revealed in a smaller delicate voice barely recognizable to her ears. It wasn’t a secret, not to either of them, only she was mad for this man, naked in her lust after their confessions earlier. “And still the word doesn’t embody what’s growing in my soul for you.”

He nibbled his teeth along the curve of her ear. His fingers working in and out of her body, as if a piece of fruit, he tested for ripeness and delighted in what he found, soft and juicy ready to be tasted, eaten… devoured.

“For me, the word love is not complete enough to express what I feel when I look at you. It’s overused and misunderstood, making it a vile four letter word used in place of the truth to manipulate the other person when their actions aren’t from the heart,” he confessed on a whisper drawing his hand down the center of her back to rest on her hip.

She spoke while the delicious sensation moved along her spine. “Then what would you call it when your heart teaches you to steal another person’s breath with a glance?”