The Russian's Tender Lover (The Sisterhood) (17 page)

“Damn right I am,” he growled and moved so he was fully on top of her, one leg already pressing between both of hers, his erection hard and ready for her. “And I don’t think I’m going to let you leave until I’m completely satisfied. I don’t like the results when you leave earlier than I’m ready.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I thought you were all about making sure I was satisfied.”

He smiled a moment before his mouth covered her nipple. “I believe I did that last night. Several times, in fact.” His mouth moved over her nipple, teasing, licking and biting until she was writhing underneath him. “Did I fail to satisfy you last night?” he asked as he moved to the other breast. “Because I’m more than willing to ensure that you are completely satisfied.”

“I was!” she screamed, her hands clasping his head as she tried to pull him away. But he wouldn’t let her, his attention completely focused on increasing the intensity before moving on.

She tried to wiggle out from underneath him, but he stopped her with the very expedient method of sliding inside her. That stopped her trying to get away, but she didn’t stop moving. “Okay, prove your point, big guy,” she said and gasped as he proceeded to do just that.

As he slid in and out of her, moving in just the right way to increase the pleasure, Darcy’s head moved back and forth on the pillow while her arms reached up and held on with all her might, trying desperately to keep up with him and stay as long as he could. But in the end, he wouldn’t let her hold off. He knew her body too well by now and she was simply too expressive in her words and movements for her to hide her reactions. By the time he climaxed, she’d already tumbled over the cliff twice and lay limply by his side, her arms no longer able to hold onto him as he’d taken too much of her energy once again.

As he lay beside her, kissing her shoulder, her neck, her arms, she sighed with the beauty of being with this man at this time. “A week ago, I never would have suspected this side of you,” she said and rolled over so her chin was resting on his chest. “What do you do, exactly? I mean, I know that you purchase things like hotels and grocery stores but what do you personally do for the company?”

He raised one eyebrow and looked down at her. “Why are you so out of touch with the business world? My company has been in the news lately for several large acquisitions.”

She shrugged and pulled the sheet up to cover her backside. “I try not to get too involved in people’s lives that I don’t know. It happens too often to me so I don’t read the gossip columns. Matt reads them to me when I’m mentioned, but he’s sort of a tracker, so to speak.”

She felt him still but didn’t understand it and looked up at him. “What’s wrong?” she asked carefully, her eyes no longer slumberous as she looked at his suddenly angry face.

“Who the hell is Matt? And you never told me who Fred is and why would some other guy be reading you tabloid crap and another guy be lonely since you’ve been gone for so long?” he growled.

Darcy tried to hide the smile but he caught her anyway. “Don’t lie to me, Darcy,” he said and stood up from the bed.

Darcy sat up as well and shook her head, pulling the sheet up to cover her nakedness, still not able to be as casual about sex and her body as he obviously was. “Are you jealous by any chance?” she asked.

He whipped the sheet off of her and lifted her into his arms, carrying her into the bathroom. “I don’t care who this Matt guy is but he’d better be gay if you want to hang around him, Darcy. You’re mine, dammit!”

His words warmed her heart and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “He is.”

At the entrance to his shower, he looked down at her, letting her legs drop as he turned on the jets. “He is what?”

“Gay. And very much in love with a guy named Dave who is a very talented veterinarian.”

She could see the tension ease instantly with her reassurance and he pulled her closer, kissing her gently. “Thank you for that,” he said softly a moment before taking her hand and pulling her into the shower.

She smiled and enjoyed the feeling of the water cascading over her sore muscles. “You’re thanking me for being honest with you?”

“And for not trying to make me jealous. Usually it doesn’t work, but that doesn’t mean other women haven’t tried it. Who is Fred?”

Her smile faded quickly and she looked away, grabbing the soap and stepped into the water, making space between herself and his magnificent body. “You’re seeing other women?”

He watched her and shook his head. “I’ve had mistresses in the past.”

She concentrated hard on not turning around and screeching like a fish wife. “I see,” was all she could get past her lips.

“You’re the only mistress I currently have.”

She swung around, one fist clenching the soap and the other clenching her fingers as if she were about to take a swing at him. “I’m no man’s mistress!” she grated out. “Don’t ever call me that again!”

He rubbed his hands down her arms, taking her hands in his. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand why that term bothers you so much but I won’t ever use it to refer to you again.”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Thank you,” was all she said.

“I need to go to Paris this weekend. Will you go with me?”

She leaned back against him and shook her head. “No.”

He smiled as his hands continued to work their magic. Her mouth said no, but the fact that she’d already given him her body, and the way she leaned against him, told him so much more than she was willing to admit just yet. Time, he reminded himself. He needed to give her more time.

“Will you help me then?” he asked.

“Help you how?”

“I need to find that irresponsible fiancé for my sister and deal with him.”

She froze for a moment, then forced her muscles to relax. “Yes. As long as you tell me how you’re going to deal with him.”

She felt him shrug as he thought about his reply. “The man currently has a trust fund of approximately ten million dollars that he lives off of. I’ve been considering ways to eliminate that income from him, force him to get a job, perhaps.”

She looked up at him, startled. “That’s all? You’re not going to…hurt him?”

He laughed. “Oh, making him find some sort of employment will definitely hurt him. He’s a worthless idiot and making him earn a living will be extremely painful and humiliating. I’ll make sure none of his friends will take him in either so he can’t leech off anyone.”

Darcy laughed, delighted with his plan. “I’d love to help you create a useful member of society. What do we do first?”

“We have to find the spineless idiot first.”

“Won’t that be easy enough?”

“Obviously not since the company I hired can’t find him yet.”

She took the soap and started lathering up his chest. “Since you said he broke up with your sister because he believes he’s in love with me, it seems like a simple solution for me to just go to a night club and have him come to me.”

“No. I don’t want you in those places again.”

“Why not?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I have it all worked out so that the bar tender is a friend and I can even have body guards around me. My driver knows the drill and is very dependable.”

He was already shaking his head before she finished. “Darcy, that’s not the real you. And I don’t like the fake one.” He pushed her under the spray and started rinsing her hair. “I have another connection with a different private investigative firm and he’s assured me that this company can pretty much work miracles. I’ll contact them today and will see how quickly they can unearth the weasel.”

“Are you going to let your sister marry the man?”

Sergei shrugged. “If she still wants him when he’s working, she can have him but she has to deal with the consequences as well and live off of whatever income he can generate. I won’t give her an allowance once she’s married.”

“Why would she want a man who would go off trying to find a mystery woman he’s barely even met.”

He shrugged and pulled her forward for a kiss. “I have no idea why anyone would hie off to some foreign country just to find you,” he teased.

In response, she smacked his shoulder and stepped out of the shower, pulling at one of the fluffy towels and tossing one to him as he chuckled behind her.

Chapter 14

“Are you sure you’re not too tired for this meeting?” Sergei asked as they stepped out of the limousine in front a building called Titan Securities. They’d flown back to the United States early this morning after Serge had arranged t meet with this new security firm. He’d been told that the head of security seemed to be able to work miracles at finding various people.

“I’m fine,” she said but he pulled her closer, wrapping his arm warmly around her waist.

Darcy smiled in response, loving how protective he was of her. She reminded her of her brother when she’d been smaller and it gave her a glow of happiness she couldn’t ever remember feeling. Her feelings for this man grew exponentially as he led her up to the front desk of the impressive lobby.

“We’re here to see Mitch Sargent. Tell him Sergei Anchova is here for our meeting.”

The uniformed security officer snapped to attention at both names and Darcy smothered a smile at how other people reacted to Sergei’s name. He looked down at her with a smirk, letting her know that he knew what she was thinking; that other people actually respected his power even if Darcy herself scoffed at it.

They were directed towards an elevator that whisked them up to the executive floor where a secretary met them with a polite smile. They were then led into a large office where an extremely large man stood up behind a desk, extending his hand first to Sergei and then to Darcy.

“It’s good to finally meet you,” Mitch said to Sergei. “I’ve read a great deal about your acquisitions and you have an impressive success rate in turning companies around.”

Sergei nodded back. “I’ve heard good things about your company as well.”

With the greetings out of the way, Mitch showed them to a sofa and chairs area where he invited them to sit down. “I’ve read through the reports you sent me from your other investigators,” he was saying, his eyes glancing over to Darcy’s occasionally. He continued to talk, discussing the possibilities and the other leads his agents had been able to obtain to find Nicolai.

Darcy watched carefully, her mind telling her that something was wrong. Why did Mitch keep glancing at her? It wasn’t the kind of glance that was polite, as if he were trying to incorporate Darcy into the conversation, even though both men knew that she wasn’t needed.

No, these glances were a bit more curious, as if…

Darcy went cold, and then hot at the possibilities. The phone calls to Betty earlier, the feeling that she needed to hide, to get away. The call Matt intercepted at the clinic….they all indicated that Marco or her father were after her.

Was it possible that Marco had hired this firm to find her? If Titan Securities had been recommended to Sergei, why wouldn’t others have recommended the firm to Marco?

It made sense, she thought and her mind frantically worked to figure out a way to escape, to leave the building without being caught or her suspicions detected.

She waited until there was a pause in the conversation, then said, “Excuse me, would you mind if I slipped out to visit the ladies’ room?”

Sergei looked down at her, his eyes looking at her curiously.

Mitch stood instantly. “Of course. My secretary will show you the way.”

Darcy stood as well and smiled at Sergei. “I’ll be right back.”

Mitch called his secretary and whispered something in her ear.

“This way, ma’am,” his secretary said as she led the way down the hallway.

Darcy walked into the bathrooms and waited, wondering if the lady would be outside still waiting for her. When she peeked out, the hallway was clear, but she didn’t wait for that status to change.

At the end of the hallway, there was a staircase. Rushing down the thick carpet, she raced against time, suspecting that Mitch’s secretary had been stationed to watch for Darcy.

Darcy took the stairs almost two at a time, twisting her ankle in her need to speed out of the building. Her heart was pounding and her hands were barely able to hold the stair railing, but the fear of being pulled back home by her father or brother was just too terrifying for her to contemplate slowing down. She’d been gone for too long so she had no idea what her father’s plans might be for her.

This man was not going to bring her back, she told herself with determination.

At the lobby floor, she stopped and took a deep, calming breath and counted to ten. With a shaking hand, she smoothed her hair, made sure her purse was securely over her shoulder, then stepped out into the steel, marble and glass lobby.

Strolling casually up to the security desk, she smiled politely at the security guard. “Would you mind delivering a message to Mr. Sergei Adrokov? He’s currently in a meeting with Mitch something or other,” she said, acting a bit flighty so the guard wouldn’t be suspicious.