“That’s it.Soak my fingers so I can taste your sweetness,” I whisper against her lips as I steal kiss after kiss between her moans.
“Yes! Oh!Oh god!”
Her leg on my hip and arms around my neck cling to me tighter through the last of the tremors.
When her body goes completely limp, I remove my fingers from her and shove them into my mouth.
“Mmm,” I moan around them, closing my eyes as I savor her pleasure.
When my eyes open again, Alina is watching me suck my fingers clean, her cheeks rosy red with arousal.
While I know that she’s only making this offer for her brother, I’m going to selfishly take her up on it. “We have a deal,dikaya koshka.”
She gives me a shaky nod, like she’s surprised herself and me too. Then, she lets me go to tug down her dress and slips into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.
I strip off my clothes on the way to my room and don’t even bother with lights before getting into the shower.
And under the hot spray of water, with my erection in my hand, I let myself picture Alina on her knees, her lips eagerly, urgently stretching around my shaft like she can’t wait to taste me a second longer, her cheeks hollowed out, determined to suck my fucking soul from my body.
I tell myself I’m just working off tension for the job ahead, but even in the dark I know the truth.
I’m already planning for nights with Alina that our contract doesn’t cover.
12
Alina
The city looksdifferent today as we ride along the FDR. The never-ending traffic is slow-moving as usual, and the sun is out, puffy white clouds moving silently above the skyscrapers. But it feels like there’s a dark storm following the SUV.
I’m strapped in the back with Dominik, the faint smell of leather and gun oil filling my lungs and a question burning a hole through my chest: What does it say about me that I offered to sell seven nights of my body to save my brother’s life? That I let him touch me that way last night, just to get my way today?
I tell myself it was strategy when I traded my body for Archer’s life, not because something in me leaned toward Dominik like it already belonged with him.
I wish I could blame our kiss that became more on the wine, but I only had one glass.
I may need more than that tonight.
I’m trying not to think about what happens later. The only thing I’m certain of is that I doubt I would’ve made that same agreement with just any man.
Part of me must trust Dominik. And I guess I can finally admit to myself that I’m also attracted to him, that there’s a connection between us. As bizarre as that is to imagine, it’s true. I want him, more than I’ve let myself want anything in a very long time.
It frustrates me to no end because I shouldn’t. Right now, I should be focused on the confrontation with Archer, nothing else.
Dominik sits angled toward me, one arm along the seat behind my back, wearing his usual intimidating dark suit. The driver up front is silent, concentrating on maneuvering through the heavy, midday traffic. Viktor rides shotgun next to him, the bald man’s hands resting on his knees, relaxed and fearless. Behind us, Petrov’s SUV remains at a polite distance with other men.
“Vest,” Dominik says quietly. He reaches back to the empty third row of seats and removes one, then holds it out to me.
“Do you really think that’s necessary?” I ask as I take it from him. It’s lighter than I expected for bulletproof fabric.
“Yes, it’s necessary unless you want me to take you back to the penthouse.”
Fine. I try to slide it over my summer dress and get tangled in straps, stupid and clumsy and suddenly too hot under my collar. Dominik’s hands come up, large and steady, to untwist the mess I’ve made.
“Arms up,” he says.
I lift them. He guides the vest down, tightens one strap, then another. His knuckles brush the side of my breast, and my breath jumps in that annoying way my body has decided tobetray me with lately. Dominik notices. Of course he does. I hate that my body answers him faster than my brain does.
His eyes lift to mine for a second as if thinking about the similar sounds I made last night, but he’s polite enough to not comment. He pulls a final tab snug at my ribs, close enough that my pulse has to go around his touch to keep moving.
