Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 (9 page)

“Hmm?” Nicki refocused. “Nothing too deep, I promise,” she said. “It’s so incredibly beautiful here—and so peaceful.” She gestured to the coastline with her wine glass. “Which is amusing given what goes on in this country. It’s not peaceful at all, I’m sure. But from out here…”

“Altering distance can provide an enhanced perspective,” Stefan said. He laid his napkin on the table, then stood. He reached out a hand and she put her fingers in his, feeling the zing of anticipation when he drew her to her feet. “For example, I find my perspective improves greatly when I’m closer to you.”

He turned her in his arms until she was facing outward again, her back to his chest. She could feel the pulse of his heartbeat in this intimate embrace and the strength of it startled her. Stefan was alive, real, more than she had ever experienced in a man before. He was capable, yes, but it went beyond that. She never once had felt endangered today at the scavenger’s encampment, when by all rights she should have. And the moment Tamas had urged her to move into Stefan’s sight line, she’d experienced an almost surreal sense of calm—her heart steady, her mind certain.

She felt the same way now. Stefan covered her hands with his and brought them up, so that both his hands and hers were crossed over her heart. She closed her eyes and leaned back at him, willing the tears that sparked behind her eyes to go away. He didn’t understand the significance of what he was doing. He didn’t understand the symbolism of protecting her greatest weakness. And there was absolutely nothing sexy about a girl who cried the first time she had sex with a guy. So tears were so not going to happen.

“I suspect you are thinking too much again,” Stefan said, leaning forward to brush his lips against her hair. “For a woman of action such as you, it’s a surprising defense.”

Nicki snorted, and her tension unraveled that much more, her back muscles easing until she leaned more heavily against Stefan’s rock hard chest. “I should be asking whether this particular activity is moving our mission forward, shouldn’t I,” she said, smiling as he tightened his hold on her. She was surrounded by the strength of his body, its solidity. This may be ground that she hadn’t covered in some time, but Stefan moved without hesitation.

He dropped his head down near her ear, his breath soft against her hair. “I assure you, this is absolutely essential to ensuring the mission goes off without a hitch. You trust me, don’t you?”

With my life.
The words were so forceful in her own mind it was a miracle she hadn’t spoken them out loud. Instead she managed a breathy “Of course.”

“Then I think it might be best if I tell you what to do at this point. So there’s no confusion.”

Nicki stiffened a little, and Stefan’s chuckle was deep and rolling, filled with masculine certainty. “And here I thought you could take direction. Going back on your word, Nicki?”

The tension filled her to bursting then crested over again, and she sighed against him. “Not at all. You ask for it, you get it, though. So be prepared.”

“Then I think this will work out for us both.” He loosened his hands on hers. “Turn around. I want to see you.”

Obligingly, Nicki turned in Stefan’s arms. No sooner had she done so than he lifted his hands to her face, drawing her closer to him. His lips brushed hers and she caught her breath as he nuzzled her mouth. “You taste like the sky,” he murmured, and his voice held a note of wonder that made her stomach tighten and her limbs feel a little too loose, too unsteady.

She lifted a hand to his chest, feeling the steady beating of his heart. He leaned back from her and stared at her intently. “I want to make love to you underneath the open sky,” he said, his lips quirking into a rueful grin. “Unfortunately I can only trust my men so far.”

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t expected that. “Would they spy on you?”

“I would if I were them. So this is the better option.” He held out a hand and pulled her back into the shadowy confines of the room, but he left the large French doors open to the deck, the brilliant sky beginning to turn a soft orange. In the shadows, Nicki almost felt self-conscious again, but Stefan didn’t give her a chance to back down.

“Now where were we,” he murmured, stepping close to her. “Oh yes.” He dropped his head to hers as his hands came up to cradle her face in his palms. “Yes, much better.”

This time, when he kissed her he didn’t restrain himself to nuzzling her lips. He pressed firmly, insistently, and her lips opened naturally against his, the silky intrusion of his tongue foreign and right all at once. Her heart rate did pick up then, but only in the best possible way, and she wrapped her fingers around his. He pulled away from her and his eyes glittered with intensity. “I think the next directive is definitely that you surrender your clothes.”

A strange flare of power shivered through Nicki. Sex to her had always been merely recreational, but with Stefan, all of the sudden it felt momentous, like every second was something she wanted to preserve in her memory banks. She stepped back and grimaced down at her serviceable tank and cargo pants—perfect for a walk into a scavenger’s den, but not for seduction. “I’m afraid there’s no easy way to do a strip tease with these,” she said.

“That’s good,” Stefan said. “Because I have no interest in waiting for one.” He walked her backwards until the back of her legs hit the bed. “If you’re not out of those clothes in the next thirty seconds, however, I can’t be responsible for what I do.”

“Noted.” She pulled off her tank with one tug, then dropped her pants to the floor, leaving her standing only in her underwear. She thought Stefan would stop her—after all, he’d seen her this naked already—but he didn’t. So with a slight hesitation, she reached behind her back to unhook her bra, letting it fall forward.

If she had any doubts about how he would react to her body, his expression of profound pleasure resolved them.

“Perfect,” he muttered.

Stefan was nearly out of his head with need as Nicki reached down to shimmy her panties down her legs, her body everything he knew it would be—and not simply because he’d seen her with a swimsuit plastered to it a few hours before. Her muscles moved sleekly beneath her skin, and practically shouted of her strength and flexibility to take on any challenge.

He wasn’t sure she was ready to take on him, but he was more than willing to find out.

“I’m kind of feeling under—hey!” Nicki gasped as he bent forward and flattened her on the mattress, half tossing her toward the head of the bed where a dozen pillows waited to cushion her fall. Then he climbed after her, his hands sliding up the outside of her legs as he rose to his knees.

“You’re still dressed,” she said, giggling as leaned into her, tasting the laughter on her lips. “And maybe you’ve never done this before, but you’ll definitely not want to be dressed for the next part.”

“Maybe I’ll kiss you for a while first,” he murmured, deepening the kiss for a long, silken moment. Strangely, however, she didn’t relax. He pulled away and met her searching gaze. “You don’t like to be kissed?”

Her return smile was quick, but a touch of uncertainty remained. “I really, really want to see you without your clothes on. Any of them.”

He recognized the overture for what it was, and rolled with it. “Perhaps you could help me out with that.”

“I definitely can,” she murmured. She lifted her hands to the edge of his shirt and pushed it up, the heels of her hands pressing against his abs, then his pecs as she bunched the material up in her fingers. She pushed the shirt over his head then focused on his chest, the appreciation in her eyes sending a jolt of awareness straight through him, pooling in his groin. In fact, his cock was presently the most aware part of his body, by far.

Her gaze dropped to his waist, then further down, and her smile turned satisfied. “See? I told you clothes would quickly become a liability.”

He sat up, but stayed on his knees and she unbuckled his cargo pants and pushed them down over his hips, dragging his boxer briefs with them. But while his legs were trapped with his pants around his thighs she shifted her hands, reaching forward to cup his balls in one palm while the other encircled his shaft.

“I see what you mean,” Stefan said as she squeezed him, but Nicki wasn’t paying any attention to him anymore. She moved with surprising speed to take him deeply into her mouth, the burst of sensation so immediate and shocking that he sucked in a breath in a startled gasp—then she slid away from him.

“Like that?”

“I—” before he could complete the thought she leaned forward again. Stefan’s sight dimmed as she sucked hard, her light grasp on his balls growing more insistent. This time when she broke free, she was more intent.

“You really need to lose the pants,” she muttered, shimmying out from underneath him.

“I thought I was the one giving directives.” Nevertheless, he let her push him to the side onto the wide mattress, and he rolled over onto his back as she yanked what remained of his clothes free of his legs.

“Trust me, this is for the good of the mission. You’ll thank me later.” She positioned herself between his legs and leaned down once more.

“I think I’ll be thanking you right now,” he said, his words ending on a moan as she nuzzled his stiff erection.

“Mm,” Nicki responded, the vibration of the word making him shudder in response. “I think I’m going to be taking over from here, if you don’t mind?”

Stefan groaned. “I want you to do whatever you want,” he said, and she glanced up at him, her eyes alight at the guttural rasp of his voice.

“Really?” she asked.

“Really.”

“Then what I want to do is this.” Nicki drew her face along the side of his engorged shaft as she watched him. “I want to suck you until you come.”

Stefan couldn’t stop his eyes from flaring wide, but Nicki was staring at him, that curious mix of confidence and uncertainty there, hovering right below the surface. “Nicki,” he warned as she dipped down between his legs again, her gaze tracking his the whole time. The sight of her burnished red hair spilling over her shoulders and onto his skin was driving him to distraction, and she hadn’t put her mouth over him again. “That’s not all that’s happening here.”

She winked at him. “That’s up to you, soldier,” she said, and she sank over him again, her mouth moving slickly down his shaft.

Stefan fell back against the pillows. This absolutely was
not
how he envisioned the evening to start—or to finish. But all his plans were scrambled as Nicki tightened her hold on him as she pulled away again, her tongue flicking over his head once, twice, driving him almost mad with need before she took him deep into her mouth once more. The pressure inside him built and crested, and though he could resist the urge to finish, he definitely didn’t want to resist.

He wasn’t thinking especially clearly, but then Nicki watched him from between his legs, her mouth freeing him once more as she tilted her head up, her gaze pinned on his face, clearly trying to read every nuance of his expression. This mattered to her, somehow, being able to give him pleasure before she took any for herself. And while Stefan was used to running everything, from ops to diplomatic envoys on down the line, he got the unerring sense that this was not something he should run. This was something he should let go, something he wanted to let go, something his body very much was urging him to let go.

“Nicki,” he growled as she dropped over him again, and the tight wet hold of her lips sank slickly down his length, then pulled up again, her fingers fanning out to flutter against the base of his ball sac. His eyes practically rolled back in his head. “Nicki, you should be very sure of what you want to have happen here.”

She pulled free to speak against it, the words creating a new and opposite vibration as her breath hushed over him. “I’m sure,” she murmured, circling the head of his shaft with her tongue. “I’m very sure.”

She pushed down again, once, twice, and he surged up to meet her stroke for stroke, until the tide of need rose too high for him to call it back. Gasping out a warning, he grabbed the sheets into tight fistfuls as his back arched and his body surrendered to a release sharp and full enough to make him want to collapse. Nicki clamped her hands on either side of his hips, bracing herself, bracing him, as he gritted out her name in wonder and a little shock, the power of his release more than he ever expected, more than he’d experienced in longer than he could remember.

At length she pulled away and rolled off him, but when she would have left the bed he snaked out an arm, yanking her back until she sprawled in the soft sheets.

“You stay right here,” he said, with enough command in his voice that she blinked, startled. “It’s time I took back control of this operation.”

Chapter Eight

Nicki rolled to the side as Stefan left the bed. She pulled up the sheets to half cover her body, suddenly chilled with the absence of him. She watched him pad across the room to the bar, where a second bottle of wine sat in a large silver urn. He’d apparently planned on them being together long into the night, she realized with sudden clarity. The man was nothing if not confident.