Prime Target (10 page)

I arch a brow. “Only one?”

Her cheeks flush pink. “Two boxes.”

Such a sexy combination of boldness and timidity. “Hopefully, it will be enough.”

Her eyes widen. “You have the wickedest look on your face right now.”

“Scared?” I ask as she hands me the condom. I take it out of the package and roll it over my hard length.

“Excited.” She rises up on her knees. “I’ve been waiting for months to do this with you.”

I grab my cock and guide it inside of her, grasping it firmly while she sinks down. She wriggles her hips, making a little helpless noise before I take pity on her and grab her hips, while simultaneously thrusting upward. She’s slick, taking me to the hilt.

Now I’m the one who’s helpless. I’m inside of her, joined in the most intimate of ways. For a moment, all I can do is sit there, my cock throbbing with every pump of my heart.

“Oh God.” She falls against me, her neck arching as I kiss it. “You’re so deep.”

“You’re so tight. So fucking tight and hot.” Her inner muscles squeeze around me and suddenly, I’m on the verge of coming. “Move, love. Move, baby. I can’t… I haven’t. Months,
solnyshko
.”

“Only me?” she asks. “No one else?”

She’s not asking if I’m a virgin. “Only you. No one else could come close. I wouldn’t let them. It’s like wanting a fire to light the sky after you’ve witnessed the sunrise.”

“
My
Roman,” she breathes.

“I am yours.” Until my last breath, I am hers.

She begins to move, her hips undulating in ways that make my eyes water. “That’s it,” I say, encouraging her to go faster.

Her breasts bounce in my face, and I capture a pert nipple in my mouth, sucking hard. She moves faster upon me, slamming her hips down and making the bed creak.

But it’s not enough. I want more.

I roll her to her back, grab her hips and pull them against me. Slowing my thrusts, I stroke her with infinite care and precision. This will last. I will last.

I cup her face, dusting my thumb over her jaw and then her lips. She looks up at me, eyes shining with…with… I close my eyes, not wanting to know the truth, because this—making love—means something to her. It’s not a means to an end, or merely a pleasurable physical act.

Everything this woman does is with her entire heart. But I can’t dwell on that. I can’t allow myself to accept that I’m special to her in any way.

Instead, I concentrate on how she feels beneath me, how she feels around me. She’s an exquisite torment to my soul. I have made her mine. She willingly surrenders to me. Yet, my future…
our
future is like writing in the sand, blown away by an unseen wind or by a crashing wave.

A possessive kiss drags me out my head. Everly slants her mouth over mine and flicks her tongue inside. I groan.

Her thighs tighten, as does the rest of her body. I slip my hand between us and rub her clit hard. She cries out, her body a perfectly erotic arc.

Scant seconds later, I join her, pouring everything into her, until my head drops to the pillow beside her.

We lie there, still joined, our hearts beating frantically, but as one. She presses kisses to the side of my neck, like she’d done after making me come before.

I feel her arms come around me, holding me tight, as if I’m about to leave. We lie there for minutes, perhaps hours, before I can speak again.

“I thought I’d lost you,” I murmur.

“Why is that?” she asks as I raise my head. She pushes back the hair that is plastered to my forehead.

“Bad dream.”

“You poor thing.” She kisses me softly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Not yet, you’re not.
I shove the thought away. “How about a shower?”

“Only if you take one with me. I have got to get my hands on this body.” She sighs lustily. “Roman, you’re like a work of art. You have all the right equipment to make me forget my name.”

“My body is yours.” When I pull out of her, I notice her slight wince. I feel more than a little satisfied at her expression. I rake my gaze down her curvaceous figure. “But only if yours belong to me.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m sure you’ve been with much prettier—”

I cover her mouth with my hand. “Say ‘
yes, Roman’
.”

Mutiny enters her gaze, and she opens her mouth slightly. I think she intends to bite me. Something I’m not opposed to in the least, but right now…

“Can’t you see how bloody alluring you are? You’re my very own Aphrodite.” Her gaze softens, and I lift my hand away. “Did you not feel how hard you made me? I’m not some green lad with a constant hard-on because my trousers rub me the right way, or because a pretty woman walks by. It takes more than that.
You
are more than that. Do you understand?”

She nods and finally says what I want to hear. “Yes, Roman.”

“Brilliant.” I swing my legs over the bed and stand up, fighting off a touch of vertigo. Jesus. What did Viktor give us?

“Let’s get in the shower.” I hold out my hand.

She eyes me for a second, and then she takes it.

E
merging from the
shower, I towel off and gather my clothes, checking my pockets and my black bag sitting on a table by the window before dressing. Everything is as it should be. My weapons, my passports, and my money are all there.

“Hey there.” Everly’s arms come around my waist.

I tense, my body ready to fight the unknown.

“It’s just me,” she says as if reading my mind.

Turning in her embrace, I lift her chin and press a kiss to her mouth. “Ready to eat?”

“Starving,” she says against my lips. “You really know how to make a girl work up an appetite.”

“Consider it a perk.”

Smiling, she pulls away. “Thank you for asking me to come with you. I was really nervous at first, but this is turning out to be a lot of fun.”

I raise a brow. “Just fun?”

She blushes charmingly, as usual. “Erotic fun?”

“Much better.” Perhaps this is how I can distract her. Keep her mostly in bed for the next two weeks and she’ll never know what’s happening beyond these walls. It’s deceptive and perhaps more than a little underhanded, but I want her in my bed,
and
I want her safe.

“After we eat, did you want to go see your grandfather?” she asks.

Tilting my head, I study her. “Sorry?”

“Your grandfather—the one who’s sick,” she says slowly. “You said he’d been transferred to a hospital here, because they specialized in what’s ailing him.”

I did? “Ah, yes, sorry. Making love to you made me forget my reason for being here.”

Bemused, she shakes her head. “Look, I’m ready whenever you are. But…maybe in the meantime, we could buy more clothes, because I’m wearing my last set of clean ones.”

“Of course.” I had told her I would buy more clothes for her, since we had to pack in such a hurry to come here. “After we eat, we’ll go straightaway.”

She releases me and goes to the bathroom to finish getting ready. I watch her as she brushes her hair and dabs lip gloss on with her pinky finger. Just those simple acts make me exhale in pleasure.

I turn away, knowing I don’t deserve the pleasure she brings me.

“My Roman,” she breathes, while I’m deep inside of her.

Mercilessly, I shove the memory away and concentrate on my surroundings, something I should have done hours ago. Carefully, I pull the curtains aside and peer out.

At first, like a drunk man becoming sober, I don’t recognize the buildings or the river running past the hotel, or the cobblestone street, and I have to take a deep, sustaining breath.

I look again, the beat of my heart steadying as I realize where we are.

Hotel Pariz, Prague, in the Tower suite.

A black Mercedes pulls up to the curb. The driver opens the door and two men, both tall and blond, step out. I clench my jaw as one of them glances upward.

Sebastian Romanov.

I check my mobile. There’s still no answer from Vladimir. So I text him again, while watching him walk to the hotel entrance with my brother—
In Prague. Urgent.—
and then toss my phone on the bed.

While Everly hums as she moves around the room, I track my target. Sebastian and our father seem comfortable with one another. I am not envious of Sebastian. I don’t feel anything at all toward him. The last time I spoke to Vladimir was over two years ago, and it was cordial more than anything else.

He knows I don’t care about reclaiming our lost years together. I have no desire to make peace, because I’m not at war with him in the first place. I accept my father for who he is, for who he will never be, and stay the hell away.

I doubt Sebastian feels the same way or has the opportunity to feel the same way. Our younger brother, Christian, is the exception. He uses every opportunity to tell Vladimir to sod off—until recently, that is. Love is funny like that, and, by all accounts, Christian is very much in love with his wife.

Now
that
, I envy—the freedom to love and be loved in return. The freedom to move anywhere you want and settle down, without fear of reprisal from an organization that rarely allows its members to leave alive.

Could I leave? I’ve never thought of it before. I glance back at Everly. She smiles at me and shrugs into her coat, lifting her hair up and out. It falls around her shoulders in soft waves.

Before her, I never had a reason to leave.

*

We stop at
the entrance to a rather dingy-looking cafe. She gives me an odd look. “You want to eat lunch here?”

“You will love the food.” Honestly, I have no idea if she will love the food or not, but Vladimir and Sebastian are across the street, dining outside, where anyone could come by and blow off their heads. People would scream and cause a big commotion, but no one would see enough to tell the authorities. No one ever does.

“That place looks more…inviting. We can sit outside,” she says, already pulling on my arm.

“No. I prefer this bistro.” It’s quiet, without much traffic, even at dinnertime. The tables by the window would provide just the right amount of cover and view of my half-brother and father.

Viktor would expect me to do this. Normally, I would do this. I learn my targets’ habits—where they eat, where they sleep, and who they screw.

It’s all carefully choreographed, you see, much like the steps I’m trying to teach Everly without her knowing there’s a dance at all.

Everly sighs, longing in her eyes as she gives the restaurant across the street one last look. “Fine.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I dip my head to whisper in her ear, “I promise to make it up to you when we get back to the hotel room.” I bite her lobe and then suck.

She gasps and angles her head slightly. “You’d better.”

Reluctantly, I let her go and open the door. We walk inside, and thankfully, the interior does not match the exterior.

“It’s so pretty in here!” Everly exclaims.

Paintings hang on every available surface, while small vases of flowers adorn each table. White lace tablecloths cover them, and chairs made of a light-colored wood are ready for customers.

“We would like a table with a view of the street,” I say.

“Yes, sir,” the hostess murmurs.

She leads us to a table by the window, and I pull out a chair for Everly. After she sits, I take my spot of choice, with my back against the wall.

Everly looks at her menu, her brow furrowing. “I need some help reading the menu, or I’m going to end up ordering goat butt.”

“Goat butt is in season this time of year,” I say, reaching out to grab her chair and pull it closer to me.

She flicks her gaze to me and slides closer. “Is it?”

“That’s what it says on the menu.”

Her gaze narrows, and she shakes the menu at me. “Don’t get between a woman and her food.”

The server appears, and I order for the two of us. Everly’s eyes have narrowed into slits. The little witch doesn’t trust me to order her food, but she trusts me to take her on a trip halfway around the world?
Women
…

I grab her wrist and take the menu away, handing it to the server. Her wrist is so delicate, but she has such power over me that it can bring me to my knees. I brush my mouth over the knuckles of her hand. “I could dine on you.”

Her lashes flutter. “I think you ate enough earlier.”

With a grin, I slide the tip of one finger across my bottom lip. “I still haven’t had my fill of you. In fact, I think some room service is in order—dessert only. I have the urge to paint your nipples with ice cream and—”

“Can I paint you, too?” she asks, giving me pause.

“You want to lick ice cream off me?”

Biting her lip, she nods. “You can’t be the only one having all the fun.”

“I like that you’ve decided not to be so reserved with me,” I say.

Everly blushes to the roots of her hair. “You remember our conversation about that?”

“Don’t be embarrassed.” I cover her hand with mine. “Actually, I find it charming. I find you charming. If you want to be reserved, I’m happy to coax you out of your shell. If you want to be wild, then I’m happy to bend you over my knee—”