Breathe.
Lark shook her head, gasping for air.
Breathe!
Her right hand hovered over Kostya’s head, before landing on the soft gold pelt of his hair.
What was it I need to do?
She raised her knee, then let it fall to the side.
“Good girl,” his rough voice rumbled. She could feel his whisper against her secret flesh, then the fiend pushed those wicked fingers into her needy body again.
“Kostya,” she wailed. He suckled her clitoris and her head fell back onto the mattress, all thought wiped out of her mind. All she could do was feel.
A wicked tempo increased—in her body, in her mind, in her heart.
“Breathe,” he whispered.
“Please?”
Is that my voice? Why do I sound so far away? So weak?
“Please, Kostya, I need you.”
Lark sighed with relief as he stood up and unbuckled his belt. Kostya’s every movement caused a different muscle to flex. It was like she was seeing some kind of sensuous performance being played out just for her. When he shoved down his briefs, Lark sucked in a deep breath. Kostya’s cock was as big as the rest of him. Her shocked gaze flew up to his face, and he must have read her trepidation.
“Easy, sólnce.” Kostya walked to the side of the bed and sat down, his fingers sifting through her hair before gently kissing her. This kiss was different; Lark could taste herself, her pleasure, on his tongue. It was sinful. No, it wasn’t; it was decadent.
Kostya wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her onto his lap, giving her the time and reassurance she needed.
“I’m not a virgin,” she said grumpily.
Kostya laughed.
“I believe the bill for equal rights for women should be ratified.”
“So do I,” Kostya said as he continued to chuckle.
Lark hit his arm.
“Fine. You’re hung like a horse,” she burst out. “Now you know what’s bothering me. Satisfied?”
Kostya threw back his head and bellowed out a laugh. “You’re killing me, sólnce.”
“Better you than me,” she muttered.
Kostya stroked his thumb over her nipple and she shuddered. He scraped his teeth against the skin behind her ear. “You’re gorgeous,” he whispered.
Lark twisted on his lap and grabbed his big hand that was resting on her tummy and dragged it between her legs.
“You feel like liquid silk.” His whispered words made her quiver and his clever fingers were sending her to the stars.
The warm duvet cushioned her as she reached up for Kostya. She had to wait as he sheathed himself, then he was there, right there, taking her into his arms. How could she be worried about anything when she felt this safe?
Lark trembled when Kostya parted her folds. When the head of his cock nudged against her tender flesh it felt like the most intimate moment of her life. Their eyes locked and she could swear she saw something far beyond caring, something so much deeper than just affection, but how could that be?
“Are you ready?” His lips brushed against hers.
She nodded.
Slowly he pressed forward, squeezing his girth into her tight channel.
Breathe.
Lark relaxed and started to feel a shivering warmth expanding through her body. The feel of Kostya inside her was incredible, and the deeper he went, the more pleasure she felt.
Heat, she was feeling so much heat. It dazzled her. She gripped his ass. She knew her nails were biting in, she should feel bad about it, but she didn’t give a flying fig.
Kostya turned her cheek and she looked up at him, trying to discern all the emotion she was seeing in his eyes.
Apprehension.
Assessment.
Concern.
But then…
But then, underneath everything, there was Kostya and his sparkle of joy. He slowly grinned and Lark’s nails unclenched. They slid up his back and she wrapped her legs around his waist and smiled.
“You made it, sólnce. You survived,” he teased.
“Nobody.” She gasped as he slowly pulled out, deliciously torturing her.
“What?” he asked as he pushed back in.
“Ahhhhh,” she arched up. The movement sent sparks shimmering up her spine, then boomeranging back down to her needy core. “Nobody likes a know-it-all,” she huffed out.
Kostya laughed as he kept himself still.
“Kostya, I might have survived, but you’re not going to live long if you don’t start moving again.”
The laughter faded from his eyes, but before she could worry, she saw his entire visage transform. This was no longer the man that she had laughed and dined with here in the United States. Instead, she was in bed and surrounded by the warrior who had protected her in Afghanistan.
Kostya gathered her close and started a gentle thrust that she felt from her toes to her fingertips. The slow glide in and out soon morphed into a sensuous dance, where he led her like a virtuoso. Lark swayed to music that only they heard, a rhythm known to only the luckiest of lovers.
He drove deep and she cried out her pleasure, loving the open-mouth kisses he delivered along her arched neck.
How can it be like this? How?
“It’s you. It’s because of you,” Kostya answered a question she hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud. When he took her nipple in his mouth, she started to shake so hard she would have lost their connection if he hadn’t held her so close.
“Kostya,” she moaned.
He lifted his head and all she saw was the blue of his gaze as she shot into a universe of bliss.
“Kostya!” she wailed.
That was all, that was everything. Just Kostya.
He woke up as soon as she slipped out of bed, missing her warmth. When was the last time that he had slept this well? Hell, he couldn’t remember. He rolled over and picked up his watch and saw that it was four in the morning. He laid back down and thought about what he would do when Lark came back to bed. That’s when he saw her move from the bathroom to the door of the suite.
“Lark? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. Go back to sleep.”
Hmmm, interesting answer. She did not say she would be right back.
Kostya threw back the covers and padded out to the living room. Lark was booting up her laptop and she didn’t hear him come up behind her. He stood there a few moments. He didn’t intend to peek, but he couldn’t help but notice that she had a set of headshots on her computer, all men, with their names and titles listed beneath them. It was reminiscent of how Dr. Lord and her team had been displayed.
“Who are they?”
Lark jerked as her head swiveled to look back up at him. “You scared me.”
“I didn’t mean to. Who are they?”
“They all work for Sanofi Manufacturing and Analytics. I’m pretty sure that a couple of them, or maybe all of them, are involved in brokering trade secrets.”
“Brokering?”
Lark turned away from her laptop so she could give him her full attention. “Kostya, if you want to have a real conversation on what I’m working on, you’re going to have to, at the very least, put on your boxers.”
“Honey, I wasn’t wearing any boxers.”
He watched as her eyes widened.
“Seriously?”
“Panty lines,” he dead-panned.
“You are kidding me, aren’t you?” a blush crawled up from underneath some skimpy piece of froth that she must use as a robe, but it really was nothing more than an invitation as far as he was concerned.
“God, you’re easy.” He thrust his fingers through her hair and bent in for a deep kiss. Still honey and peaches. Kostya’s other hand slid inside her robe, found her taut nipple, and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. She moaned, and he stored that sound along with every other memory he’d gathered since they’d arrived in her hotel room.
He pulled her up out of the desk chair and carried her back to the bed.
“I need to work.” She protested.
“You’re not sounding married to the idea,” he teased as he fell down onto the bed with her. “Give me some incentive to let you go.” Kostya pulled her robe off her.
“Okay. I will.” She scraped her fingers through his chest hairs and down his stomach until she circled his cock. Lark squeezed him, but it was too soft. Then she stroked up, then down. “Is this incentive enough?” Her whisper was a purr.
“Lick your hand and do that again,” he choked out the words.
As he watched her tongue slide across her palm, pre-cum trickled from the tip of his penis. Then her hot little hand was back, and as if she read his mind, she gripped him harder. Her touch had him gasping for breath.
“Convinced?”
“Huh?”
What in the hell is she talking about?
“Kostya?” She pumped his cock again.
He looked into her twinkling blue eyes.
Game on!
Her plump tits swelled in front of him like a feast. He ducked down and swallowed a tip deep into his mouth, relishing the feel of her satiny, soft flesh as he suckled it. He swirled his tongue around and around her nipple until she cried out his name. He didn’t even care that she was working him with two hands and he knew he wasn’t going to last. Nothing mattered but the feel of her, the taste of her. Her nipple was diamond-hard, and her cries got louder as he gently bit at her taut peak.
Her hands left him and she shoved him away.
“Fuck me! Hurry. Now!”
Kostya shoved her legs apart and looked down. So pretty, so wet, and all his. He placed his cock at her entrance.
“Fuck me,” she groaned as he jerked away from her. “Condom!” He leaped off the bed and grabbed at the strip of condoms he’d left on the nightstand sometime during the night. He bit one open and came back. Lark was writhing on the bedspread. Even through his sexual haze, he couldn’t help but glory in the fact that he had Lark Sorensen waiting for him with as much eager anticipation as he was feeling.
I am such a lucky bastard!
As soon as he knelt down between her spread thighs, she reached for him, pulling him down, but he wasn’t having any of it. Lark was a petite little thing; what’s more, they’d played hard last night so she had to be sore, so he was damn well taking his time.
She saw him pause.
She drew up her knees and lifted her head. “What part of hurry did you not understand?”
Kostya laughed.
How does she keep making me laugh?
“I understand the concept, sólnce, but I’m the man so we’re doing it my way.” He said it just to piss her off. It was so much fun pissing her off.
She struggled to push up onto her elbows, but before she could, Kostya leaned over and bestowed the gentlest of kisses on her lips. Then he raised his head until her dazed eyes locked with his. “I’m teasing, Lark. In here, in the bed we share, we are always equals. Having you with me is a gift that I will never take lightly.”
Her smile was beautiful.
He settled down beside her and lifted her leg over his hip. For long moments, they just hugged, breathing in one another’s scents, finding peace as they listened and felt one another’s heartbeat.
Kostya finally reached between them and found her slick and ready for him, but he tested her with his fingers, watching her closely for any signs of distress.
“I’m fine, you oaf.” She hit his chest and laughed.
Kostya slowly rolled them over and she rested on top of him. “So now I’m in charge, right?” she asked as she raised her eyebrow and positioned her core above his hips.
“If you think you can handle it.” He smiled.
The way she fondled his cock as she placed it at the mouth of her vagina had him sweating. Now he was the one wanting to shout, ‘Hurry’. But he didn’t. He loved watching her enjoy this moment as she slowly slid down, taking just half of his aching erection before pulling back up. Then she pushed back down, taking a little more.
She pulled back up again. Her eyes closed, a blissful smile on her face.
“Why are you punishing me?”
She shoved down harder and her smile got bigger.
“Shhh, I’m concentrating.”
I always wondered how I was going to die.
Kostya couldn’t take his eyes off Lark. Her expression was rapturous and because of the way her breasts swayed he was sure he was going to start drooling.
Up and down.
Up and down.
Up and all the way down.
“Fucking finally!” he roared as he sat up and grabbed her around the waist.
Her eyes shot open. “What?”
At last, he was completely sheathed inside her warmth. He shoved up with his pelvis and Lark arched backward over his arms. Her breasts thrust up for his delectation, but that wasn’t what he wanted. He grabbed her hair and brought her mouth up so he could slam his lips onto hers.
Need.
Kostya couldn’t get enough, not close enough. His tongue drove deep into the recesses of her mouth. Like the slick, hot channel that clenched around his cock, her mouth welcomed him.
“Ouch!” he reared back.
She’d bitten his lip.
He saw her wicked grin a moment before her nails dug deep into his scalp and dragged him back for another scorching kiss. Kostya rolled them over, their sweat-soaked bodies twisted on the sheets, he didn’t know where he ended and she began.
Lark was moaning but he wasn’t worried, not this time. Her legs were wrapped so tightly around him that it was a wonder she wasn’t cutting off his circulation. And the way she met his every thrust was like she heard the same melody he did. They matched perfectly.
Her nails scratched through his hair downward, then dug into his shoulders. He’d have marks for days. He loved it.
Lark panted and trembled. He could tell she was close, but he wanted her out of her mind. He kept up his steady thrusts and worked his right hand between their bodies until he found her swollen clit.
“Too much,” she cried when he brushed his thumb against her nub.
Bullshit.
Kostya saw her indecision. He pressed down hard on her bud and she whined out his name.
“Too much?” he asked as he thrust in again, and then lightly pinched her clit.
“I don’t know,” she wailed, her head thrashing against the mattress. “Kostya, I don’t know.” She hit the back of his shoulder with a fist.
Heat cascaded from the back of his head and sped down his spine. He wasn’t going to last. Kostya grabbed her ass with his left hand, tilting her up for an even deeper thrust, then pinched her clit hard.
Lark shrieked his name. Her smile was glorious.
Kostya covered her mouth with his as his head exploded.
Stars.
Snapping, exploding stars. Bursts of white like the first Fourth of July fireworks show he’d ever seen in America. So beautiful.
He’d found freedom.