1941002110 (R) (17 page)

He reached for the switch and they were plunged into darkness. But it wouldn’t take long for the light from outside to illuminate him for her. Behind him, the top of the Eiffel Tower shone over the rooftops and her heart felt light and free, at least for now.

Who didn’t want a romantic evening in Paris with a hot guy, even if that wasn’t the real purpose of this visit?

Chase reached for her thong again, and she levered herself up so he could slide it from beneath her. Her bare ass was cold when it hit the counter, but she was too excited to care.

Chase was about to fuck her—and she was certain it would be good, at least for a little while. Until he got off and she pretended she had too. Until reality came crashing down.

But then he pushed her back on the counter until her ass was right on the edge. When he pressed an openmouthed kiss to her belly, she wasn’t sure what was happening—until he slid his tongue around her belly button and down, down, down into the wet seam of her sex.

“Oh God,” she gasped as he pushed her open with his fingers and sucked her clit.

“
Oh Chase
will do,” he said, his voice muffled, his breath hot against her slick pussy.

He pushed a finger into her, slowly and carefully, his mouth never stopping the magic it was doing to her. When he started fucking her with his finger, she moaned at the sensations wreaking havoc on her body. He added a second finger, fucking her slowly and deliberately while he licked her hard and soft, fast and slow.

Sophie’s body tightened quickly, spiraling inward until she was on the verge of an orgasm so intense she thought she might scream when it happened.

“Chase, please… please,” she panted.

She was so close and so afraid it wouldn’t happen, that he would stop for some reason, that she’d never reach that peak she was straining for.

But he didn’t stop. He spread her wide and devoured her with a skill and intensity that sent her over the edge so hard she saw stars. She didn’t scream—she couldn’t make a sound at first, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move…

And then the spell snapped and she dragged in a breath, her body trembling and tingling as if she’d been hit by lightning. Chase stood in front of her now, looming over her, his height blocking the view of the tower in the background.

“You okay, baby?”

“Okay? I think I’m shattered beyond repair.”

He chuckled. And then he gathered her up and lifted her against him.

“You’ll hurt yourself,” she protested, but he only laughed as he started walking toward the bedroom.

“I outweigh you by at least seventy pounds. And I’ve had to carry men my size through battlefields, so don’t you even start that shit with me. Carrying you is easy compared to a full ruck and an injured teammate.”

She believed him, especially considering the ease with which he navigated the room. He kicked open her bedroom door and carried her in, depositing her on the bed and coming down on top of her.

Then he reached up and the light snapped on as he found the lamp.

She turned her head and closed her eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Looking at you.”

“I gathered that. Why?”

He laughed, a low, deep, almost menacing sound in his throat. “Because I want to watch your face as I sink my cock into you. And the next time you come, I want to see it happen.”

She knew she was blushing, but she made herself open her eyes and turn her head so she could look up at him. And, heaven help her, he was beautiful. All hot, hard, perfect muscle hovering over her. He rippled when he moved, and it was a sight to behold.

He let his gaze drift down between them, over her curves and pale flesh, slowly taking her in. And, for once, she felt beautiful instead of nervous. He made her feel like that with the way he looked at her.

It hit her that he really meant it when he said she was beautiful. Oh, she knew she had a face that made men turn and stare sometimes, thanks to her mother—but she didn’t have the body, and she knew that too.

Until now. Now she believed what she saw on Chase’s face. He was into her. This wasn’t a chore to him. A task. The boy who would never talk to her when they were teenagers was now looking at her like he could eat her up with a spoon.

And that thought made her blush because he had eaten her up. Eaten her up and made her fall apart spectacularly with his fingers buried inside her and his tongue sliding over her clit again and again.

“What’s on that pretty mind of yours?” he asked.

“I think you know.”

He skimmed his fingers between her legs, against her clit, and her back bowed. “This.”

“Yes…”

“You want more?”

His fingers moved back and forth, barely touching her but eliciting a response nevertheless.

“Yes.”

He dropped his head and licked her nipple. “You’re going to have to be more explicit than that. Tell me what you want, Sophie.”

She moaned, grasping his head to her breast. “You’re evil, you know that?”

“Consider it payback for that shit you pulled when we were driving to the airport.” He lifted his head and looked down at her, his expression serious. “You were pretending and I know that. But don’t pretend now. Tell me what you want, Soph. What you
really
want… and I’ll give it to you better than you’ve ever had it.”

He made her shiver. “Arrogance isn’t attractive, Chase.”

He snorted. “Hell yes, it is. Especially when it involves sex. I’m good and I know it. That should make you happy, not annoyed.”

She reached for the button fly of his jeans. He was right. “I want to feel you inside me. I want to come that way—and I never have before, so now you know the challenge you face.”

She could feel fresh heat wash over her skin as she said it, but what the hell? He needed to know, though maybe that was a mistake too, because what if it was bad after all and he didn’t want to stop until she came—and she couldn’t?

Like he could be bad after what he’d just done to her.

He lifted himself until she could finish unbuttoning his jeans, and then he kicked them off and his cock sprang free, standing up straight and tall—and intimidating. Yep, that was the word.

It was huge and veined and, hell, would she survive being impaled by that thing?

She very much wanted to find out.

He picked up his jeans and pulled a condom from the pocket. She watched him tear it open and roll it on, every move sensual and hot. In fact, she could watch him stroke himself until he came, his head rolling back and his eyes closing as he shot semen onto her belly.

Maybe she’d tell him she wanted that the next time.
The next time.

She didn’t know if there would even be a next time, but this time she spread her legs as he settled between them, his hand still gripping his cock, his eyes hot as he slid the head of his penis against her pussy, wetting it before he pressed into her entrance.

“Oh,” she moaned, her back arching as he slid all the way inside her. She felt full, almost too full, but it was a good feeling. An amazing feeling as he stretched her wide, creating tension against sensitive nerve endings.

“Holy shit,” he said when he was deep within her, their bodies quivering with energy and sizzling with heat. “You feel incredible.”

If she could’ve talked at that moment, she’d have said the same thing.

Sophie wrapped a hand around his neck and dragged him down to her, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. It was either do that or lose her mind and start saying shit she wouldn’t remember the next day. She’d never in her life needed what she needed right then.

“Fuck me, Chase,” she whispered against his mouth. “Make it good.”

22

^“
Y
ou are certain it was her?”

Grigori Androv stood in his Manhattan office, staring at the view of the Hudson River. He’d been on edge for the past few days, angry that his men couldn’t seem to find Sophie Nash and recover his flash drive.

But they’d gotten a break yesterday when Open Sky hacked the shipper’s database and found where Sophie had sent the package. He’d immediately ordered Sergei onto a plane bound for France. Once there, Sergei would use men from the Paris operations to watch the apartment and intercept the package that was due tomorrow.

And now they’d gotten another lucky break, because it seemed as if Sophie was planning to show up personally to collect it. When she did, his men would grab her. Then Grigori would send her to the auction in Monte Carlo where she would fetch a nice price.

Small compensation for all the trouble she’d caused.

He didn’t care that her parents were wealthy or that her father was a famous musician. They would never find her, nor would they connect him to her. Open Sky would make certain of that. When they were finished, Sophie would have a checkered past involving drug abuse and illicit sex. No one would be surprised that she’d disappeared.

It was risky, but he got off on risk. Lived for risk. Risk made him hard.

“It was her,” Sergei said. “It took me a while to figure it out. I knew she seemed familiar when I saw her in the terminal—but she has black hair, and she was wearing glasses and speaking with a British accent. It wasn’t until I got close enough to see her eyes that I knew.”

It was a stroke of good fortune that Sergei had gotten on the same plane as Sophie. If Grigori had made him return to New York first, that would not have happened.

“And she’s with a man?”

“Yes—and they were very affectionate with each other.”

Grigori gritted his teeth. “Presumably this is the man she went to see in Maryland.”

“I think so, yes.”

They knew next to nothing about the man Sophie had gone to. Grigori had the usual people looking in the usual places—but there was very little to find other than the man’s name, which was Chase Daniels, and that he was in the United States Army.

It was highly disturbing that Sophie had gone to see this Chase Daniels. In all of Grigori’s time with her, she’d never mentioned a potential boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. Part of what Grigori did was find out everything he could about a girl’s situation—her parents, her connections, who would miss her, who would look for her—and Sophie had never once talked about a man in her life. She’d mentioned her parents, but he’d gathered that her relationship with them was troubled. A definite plus for him.

Chase Daniels was not a plus. He was an unknown element.

“And the building where she sent the package?”

“It’s in the seventh arrondissement. It’s entirely residential, an apartment on the fifth floor. Sophie Nash and the soldier have not appeared there yet, but we are watching.”

“I want her alive, do you understand? I want the package and I want her unharmed. No marks, or she will not bring as high a price. Do what you need to do with her companion.”

“Of course. Have I ever failed you?”

Sergei had been with Grigori from the beginning. They’d grown up together in the orphanage and they had a bond few shared. They were brothers, but without the blood tie. “No.”

“And I won’t start now. I will get the girl and the package. You will have them both very soon.”

T
HIS WAS NOT
what he was supposed to be doing, and yet there was no way he could do anything different right now. Chase’s balls were so tight it hurt, and he wanted nothing more than to fuck Sophie hard and fast until he lost his load and his balls stopped hurting.

But shit, he wasn’t going to do it quite like that. No, he was going to make this last because it might be the only night he ever had with her.

He started to move as she kissed him hard, her teeth mashing against his, her moans feeding into his throat. He fucking loved it the way she moved beneath him. It was almost as if she didn’t quite know what to do, but she was quickly learning.

The bed rocked against the wall as he upped the pace, pounding into her like a crazed animal. And he was crazed because he’d never felt quite like this before. He’d fucked a lot of women, and some of them had been pretty freaky in bed. Sophie was plain vanilla in comparison—and for some reason that turned him on at a whole new level.

She was soft and sweet and hot, her moans and gasps like a drug to his senses. Everything he did was to elicit another sound out of her.

His name—that’s what he really wanted. His name drawn out long and low, like a dying word. A gasp of surprise. Of necessity.

He’d never much cared what a woman said when he was fucking her, though he expected to hear his name. Now he
needed
to hear it.

“Sophie,” he groaned into her neck as he tore his mouth from hers, needing air. Her flesh was damp and sweet, and he sucked the skin of her throat. He didn’t care if he left a mark. Hell, he wanted to leave a mark. He wanted to brand her as his for as long as he felt like this.

However long that might be.

He put a hand beneath her ass and lifted her higher, changing the angle, fucking her harder. She arched her back, lifting her hips to meet him.

He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t get close enough like this. He got to his knees and lifted her legs, putting her ankles against his shoulders. She looked up at him with so much trust, so much belief, that he wanted to fulfill every fantasy she’d ever had.