One Last Night
Flicka von Hannover
Safety.
If there was anywhere in the world that Flicka von Hannover felt safe, it was in Dieter Schwarz’s arms.
When she’d been a little girl and a teenager, he’d carried her away from danger more times than she could count.
When she’d taken him as her first lover, half the reason had been because she’d felt safer with him than with anyone else.
Plus, there was the amazing way his hard muscles twisted around his body, his slow smile she sometimes earned, and his acerbic sense of humor, and the shielded danger in his gray eyes.
Yeah, okay. Those, too.
And now, as he carried her to the bed, her trust in him blossomed.
Yes, there had been some years and some things that she didn’t understand, but maybe he’d had reasons to leave. Maybe there were things she didn’t know.
Maybe she didn’t want to think about them, anyway.
Maybe she just wanted to be with him tonight.
He settled her on the bed so that she was sitting up, which was weird. Usually, he laid her down and climbed on top of her.
Well, notusually.
Before.
Now, he sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her close to his chest. She had rubbed a cologne sample on his neck while they were shopping, and the faint scent lingered on his skin, a trace of sweet wood, citrus, and musk.
He held her as traffic whirred outside the window and the sunlight dwindled in their small room.
No, this wasn’t what she wanted.
She wanted sex, notcuddling.
Dieter Schwarz didn’tcuddle,at least not before and during sex.In bed, he was rough and dirty and in control of every move she made.
Afterward, sort of, if you could call the dominating way that he handled her body to be cuddling. It was more like making sure she knew he still controlled her and could touch her anywhere he wanted to. Sometimes, he’d made her orgasm again, just for his amusement, she suspected. Just to watch her be helpless under his hands.
Before, when they had been together in London, he had beenaggressiveall the time. When she was with him, she didn’t have to think, didn’t have to worry, and didn’t have to be in control. She just had to hold on for dear life and respond.
His hand trailed up her neck, and his fingers wove into her hair.
He said, “There’s something we need to talk about.”
“Talk?We’ll have hours and hours to talk on the plane tomorrow,” she said.
“We need to talk now,” he said, “before we get on the flight tomorrow.”
Flicka lifted her head from his shoulder. “I don’t want to know. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it tomorrow. I can’t deal with even one more thing today. I can’t get a divorce from that wandering shlong for two more months. I have to hide from him all that time, or he’ll have his Secret Service kidnap me.” Her fear flared into anger. “He’ll make it legal, you know. He’ll have Monaco’s parliament pass some bill so that ‘repatriating’ me to Monaco is legal, no matter what they have to do to make it happen. Kidnap me, drug me, knock me out, tie me up and stuff me in a golf clubs travel bag. He’ll do whatever it takes. I have to hide, and I don’t know whether to hide in a cave or under the floorboards of a house orwhat.I just know that I have to do it to survive.”
Dieter hugged her closer to his chest, and he kissed her temple. “Nevermind. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” He kissed the side of her face, near her ear, and his lips slid down to her neck. “There’s nothing we need to talk about tonight,Durchlauchtig.”
Flicka dropped her head back, a groan already in her throat, and she tried to forget about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Dieter’s hands on her back moved to her waist. His touch and his mouth made it easy to let her mind unclench and drift away.
