Weather the Storm (Security Specialists International #3) (38 page)

“Oh, God. Oh, God.” She gulped, but couldn’t keep the sickness from coming up her throat. She rolled to her side and vomited copiously on the rocky ground.

Danger. Sit up. Get up. Run.

Her primitive brain, her little voice of reason and sanity, or whatever that spoke to her in times of need and danger was correct. But her body wouldn’t cooperate. She’d pushed herself as far as she could go. Her muscles were limp. Her wound shot pains up and down her right side. Her left side had taken the brunt of several falls and she was fairly sure the throbbing left ankle wouldn’t hold her even if she did get up. She could not physically move one more inch.

“You killed Ziv.” Demidas kicked at her side. He stood over her, snorting like an enraged bull. “I should kill you here and now.”

“Do…it,” she gasped like an asthmatic marathoner. Yes, she was crazy. But she was also in danger of losing consciousness. She’d only have one chance to kill him, so she goaded him to pick her up. She had to be close to him in order to make her last chance at winning count.

“No, killing would be too easy,
suka
.”

Yeah, she was a bitch—a vengeful one.

As Demidas bent over and grabbed her shoulders, a howl unlike any she’d ever heard echoed around the clearing. The sound was filled with pain and rage.

But she knew who’d made it with every fiber of her being.

Her man. Her mate. Vanko.

*

When Jose’s sister had crawled over the edge of the path, bleeding, bruised, and scratched, Vanko knew all caution could now be thrown to the winds. Elana was alone with Demidas. His only thoughts were to get to Elana. Kill Demidas. He’d shoved past Jose, and with the hounds of hell on his heels, he practically flew down the rocky slope.

As he approached the base of the hill, the wind carried Elana’s scream, then her shout, “Bleed, you fucker. Bleed!” With those chilling words, he knew her time had run out. His woman was fighting for her life.

Using the rope railing, he alternately slid and stumbled down the rocky path. As he turned a corner and shoved past some foliage, he came upon a sight that chilled him to his bones.

Elana. On the ground. Lying so still. Blood on her. Demidas leaning over her, his arms outstretched to touch her.

“No-o-o-o!” he howled to the night sky like a wolf who’d lost his mate.

Then one of her legs moved. She was alive. But not safe.

Rage unlike any he’d ever felt raced through his blood. Demidas was not allowed to touch her, hurt her anymore. Vanko flew over the last ten feet separating him from Elana as if he had a jet propulsion pack on his back. He tackled Demidas and the momentum took both men over the rocky ledge around the grotto and into the water. The impact as he hit the water shot pain over his skin. He ignored the pain and kept his hold on the man who’d dared to hurt his woman.

Demidas was large and nowhere nearly as athletic as he was. He was also rumored to be deathly afraid of drowning. Vanko would help him conquer that fear—because dead people had nothing to fear.

The two men struggled and fought for the upper hand. Demidas was strong, but was losing oxygen. Vanko kept him submerged. Using his agility, he flipped Demidas whenever the man attempted to surface for a breath. Vanko would fight here until Demidas was forced to take a breath and a lung full of water. No way was the bastard leaving the water alive.

Vanko kept his eyes open, conserving his oxygen even as he kept Demidas below water. The moonlight filtered into the pool and clearly outlined both their bodies. Then extra light was added. The Colonel and his sons added their LED flashlights, now unshielded, to the mix.

Then Vanko saw Demidas’s Achilles heel―a darkening bruise on Demidas’s throat as if someone had punched him in the windpipe.

Why not finish the job?

Vanko used a rolling move and locked his arms around Demidas’s neck in a triangle submission hold and applied pressure to the man’s neck where the bruise had glowed an eerie purple in the illuminated water. He blew out a slow stream of bubbles and kept Demidas’s head under water and the pressure on his windpipe. The man’s flailing limbs slowed until Demidas opened his mouth and took in water. He was done for. To nail the lid on the coffin, Vanko placed his hand on one side of the man’s neck and gave it a quick twist.

Spots streaming across his field of vision indicated he’d come to the end of his oxygen. He surged to the surface with an arm still around Demidas’s neck. John came to his assistance and took Demidas from him.

“Good job. I could’ve done it in half the time, though. We could work on your technique.” Such half-assed praise coming from a SEAL made Vanko laugh.

Andy swam to Vanko and paced him to the edge of the grotto.
God, he must look worse than he felt.

“Elana…is she…” Vanko’s gaze swept the area as he pulled himself onto the rocky ledge and let Devin pull him to a standing position.

“She’s fine.” Colonel Walsh strode over with Elana in his arms. Her eyes were open, and she looked at him with love and concern.

“Vanko,” she cried out. “Are you okay?” Tears glistened on her cheeks like silver beads in the moonlight.

Vanko reached for her. The Colonel, a big smile on his face, handed her over, and then hovered until he was sure Vanko had her safely within his arms.

“I am now.” Vanko kissed her, his tongue thrusting deeply, taking her breath and then giving her his. He hugged her close, his face buried in her neck, and shuddered at the thought of how close he’d come to losing her. He lifted his head, kissed her gently this time and then looked into her wet, shining eyes. She gazed at him as if he were her everything. God knew she was his.

Ten days later, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas

Vanko shut the door to the bridal suite. He and Elana were officially husband and wife. The wedding chapel at the Bellagio had been filled with their guests—Elana’s uncles, her former co-workers from the Georgetown University library, his sister’s family, the Walshes, and the rest of the SSI family. Everyone else was still at the reception that Keely and Ren had given them as a wedding gift. No one blinked an eye, or said a raunchy word, when he and Elana had left after cutting the cake and dancing the first dance.

“Vanko, husband—” Elana walked to him, reached up and played with his bow tie. She slid a finger over the black satin and then down onto the pleated tuxedo shirt and then she began removing studs, dropping them on the floor. “—you are way overdressed,
sladkie.
”

“And you aren’t?” He loved the teasing look in her silver-gray eyes and the smile on her glossy pink lips. Loved the fact she no longer winced in pain when she moved.

In the ten days since the final confrontation with Demidas, Elana had spent two days in a hospital in Miami. Vanko had slept in the narrow hospital bed with her, holding her through her nightmares. Then they’d spent a week in her apartment in D.C., where he made her rest from the whole ordeal. Vanko had not gone past the sexual limits—oral sex and frottage—he’d determined were best for her while healing. She’d argued she was fine, but he had not been swayed. He wanted her healthy for their wedding night—tonight—when he would claim her fully for the first time.

Elana stopped undressing him. “You’ve got that look again.” She massaged the line on his forehead. “Vanko, I’m fine. You made me wait ten full days during which I haven’t lifted one finger.” She trailed her finger down his nose and then onto his mouth where she traced his lips. “So, let’s finish getting naked so you can make love to your wife.”

“Wife.” He sucked her teasing finger into his mouth and then let it slip out. “I like the sound of that.”

“Oh, God, so do I…husband.” She leaned back and shot him a sly glance from between her lashes. “You know…I have nothing on under my dress…but skin. So, you
are
the one who is way over-dressed. Now do something about it.” She shoved out of his arms and turned her back. “Unzip me, please.”

“Nothing? Nothing…under…” Vanko whispered the words against her ear as he unzipped the skin-tight, very short, white dress she’d worn for the ceremony. He pushed her silky brown hair to the side and placed a biting kiss at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. “All this time—”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Yep, naked. All through the ceremony. While we greeted guests. While we danced. I didn’t want anything to slow you down. I want to be your woman and your wife…the sooner, the better. So get a move on,
masik
. I need you so much I ache.”

Vanko growled at her words and stripped off the dress. He held her steady as she stepped out of the little nothing she’d worn. “Don’t move,
dushka
. Stay right where you are. Let me look at you.”

She giggled, but didn’t move.

He stepped back, toed off his shoes, and stripped as he took in her naked back, her sweet, round and oh-so-firm ass, her long legs ending in dainty feet in fuck-me heels. He palmed his erect cock and squeezed hard at the base with the hope he could hold off coming until he was in her for the first time.

“Turn around,
lyubimaya
.” His words came out guttural. God, could he sound any more animalistic? He didn’t want to scare her with his lust.

She turned slowly, and he heaved a sigh of blessed thanks. Her cheeks and chest were flushed with her arousal, and he spotted wetness glistening on her inner thighs and naked labia. He almost lost control when he recalled the afternoon in her bed when he’d shaved her mound and then licked her to two orgasms before she begged him to stop.

Thank God she was as ready as he was.

He covered the few steps between them and swept her into his arms, then carried her toward the huge bed, already turned back for the night. A bucket of ice with a bottle of champagne stood by the bed and on an adjacent cart were all sorts of finger foods, both sweet and savory, to fuel their energies for the night ahead.

“Who ordered the food and champagne?” Her arms around his neck, fingers ruffling through his hair, Elana nuzzled his throat and then peppered little biting kisses along it.

“Keely thought of it.” Vanko chuckled. “She said she wished she’d had food by the bed when Ren made love to her for the first time. They had to get up, get dressed, and go to the Lodge to eat because Ren had no food in his house. She didn’t want us to starve or have to call room service.”

“I’ll have to thank her next time we meet.” Elana bit his ear lobe and then sucked on it. His balls tightened and he had to force himself not to come before he’d even placed her on the bed.

“You’ll have lots of time. Because after we return from our honeymoon, you’ll be her next-door neighbor. My cabin is about three hundred yards from her and Ren’s home.” He turned her face toward him and placed a nibbling kiss on her lush lower lip as he lowered her to the sheets.

Keely and Elana had hit it off when they’d met yesterday at the breakfast buffet. Keely had even recalled seeing Elana sitting in her lecture when she’d visited Georgetown.

“Vanko,” she held her arms toward him, “come to me.”

“Shoes off first.” He sat by her feet and removed her very sexy heels, and then massaged each foot and used his thumb along each arch. “Feel good?”

Elana moaned. “Yes-s-s, but I know something that would feel better.” She stretched like a cat, which made her back arch and thrust her breasts up. The nipples were tightly ruched and a beautiful rosy pink that would turn red once he sucked and teased them.

“What would that be?” He placed a kiss on the delicate ankle he held and then laid the foot on the bed. He got up and moved to the head of the bed, then stood there smiling down at the vision she made—all pale creamy, blushing skin and luxurious mink-brown hair set off against ivory cotton sheets woven so finely they glistened like silk.

“You—” she reached and cuddled his balls before taking his cock firmly in hand as he’d taught her, “—this—in me.”

She trailed her other hand down her body and swept a finger between her labia and held up the finger shining with her cream. “This is all for you. No other man has ever excited me the way you do. No other man has ever cared for me the way you do.”

Tears trailed down her face, but her eyes and lips smiled at him. “No other man has loved me the way you do. Love me fully…please. I want to be yours in every way.”

Vanko gently moved her hand off his erection, kissing the palm before placing her hand on the bed. Then he climbed onto the bed and covered her precious body with his. He braced himself on his elbows as she twined her arms around his neck. He leaned down and kissed away a tear on her cheek.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips.

Chasing another tear as it swept down her jaw, he muttered to the sensitive spot under her ear, “I adore you.” She shivered delicately and moaned as she turned her neck, allowing him more access.

He sucked and nibbled at a trail of tears pooling along her collar bone. “I will worship you with all that I am every single day of our lives.” He lifted his head. “Don’t let me hurt you tonight. Promise me.”

Elana lifted her head and whispered against his lips. “You could never hurt me.” Then she sucked on his lower lip before thrusting her tongue into his mouth and kissing him as if he were the only sustenance she’d ever need in the world.

Groaning in the back of his throat, Vanko unleashed his inner beast and took control of the kiss. Every breath he took tasted of her. Every moan she made vibrated throughout his body and settled in his groin, making him crave her even more.

Breaking away from the sinfulness of her mouth, he took an oral journey down the wonderland that was Elana’s body. He trailed his tongue along her shoulder then swept it down and over her clavicle. Braced on one forearm, he cupped a luscious breast and swept a thumb over the beaded nipple as he sucked, nipped, and laved its sister.

Elana’s cries and gasps of pleasure made him harder and satisfied his alpha nature. He was pleasing his mate and that made him happy, but soon he wouldn’t be able to hold back any longer. Before he could claim her fully, she had to find her pleasure first.