Black Knight, White Queen (14 page)

“What happened to him?” she asked.

“I went back to Moscow just before coming here. I hadn’t been back for a couple of years, and I just wanted to tell him about this tournament. A win will boost my rankings and hopefully put me in contention for the World Chess title. I wanted him to know. But…”Aleks stopped, his hand stilling on the bottle of beer. “He wasn’t at the park where he usually was. Then one of the other old men told me he’d passed away the month before.”

Izzy’s heart constricted. Aleks was too far away to reach over the table so she reached under it and put her hand on his knee instead, wanting to touch him, to provide some comfort in any way she could. “I’m sorry.” He was warm, the denim rough beneath her palm and she felt him become very still.

Slowly his gaze came to hers, the distant, cold look fading. Replaced by something far more intense. He didn’t say anything but beneath the table his hand covered hers, holding it there, pressing down.

The space between them came alive with tension.

Aleks’s hand drew hers higher so her palm pressed flat against his thigh. His eyes had gone silver in the dim light of the booth. Molten with a familiar heat.

“I think it’s time to go back to the hotel,” he said, a faint rough edge to his voice.

Izzy spread her fingers on his thigh, the heat of him making the tightness in her chest go away, making her heart race. “I haven’t finished my beer though.”

His expression became intent as she stroked her thumb back and forth, feeling the muscle flex beneath her hand. So powerful. So strong. And yet so vulnerable too. He hid it beneath all that ice and yet it was there. Complex, fascinating man.

“Yes, you have.” He moved, her hand falling away from him as he got to his feet. But then he held out his own to her. “Come with me.”

Desire had begun to burn in her blood, heat rising. A tease hovered on her lips, but she found she couldn’t say it, the atmosphere too intense for jokes or flirting.

So she said nothing, swallowing as she got to her feet. And put her hand in his.

The night outside was vibrant with neon and music and the noise of the crowd. But Izzy became quiet and still, her concentration narrowing down to encompass the man who walked beside her. To his hand holding hers. To the warmth of his skin, the feel of his fingers.

They didn’t speak as they got a tuk-tuk to take them back to the hotel. Aleks let go of her hand as they rode through the city in silence but she didn’t protest. The tension pulled tighter and somehow not touching him, having the warmth of him so close she could feel it but not doing anything about it was even more erotic than holding his hand.

The hotel lobby was quiet as they made their way to the elevators, enclosing them further in the small bubble of tension that stretched and stretched between them.

In the tiny space of the mirrored elevator, Izzy leaned against one wall while Aleks leaned against the opposite one, their gazes locking. Holding. He made no move toward her, just looked at her, desire naked on his face.

It made her shiver, made everything inside her draw tight, made her breathless.

The elevator stopped, some people preparing to get in. Aleks’s attention didn’t waver and neither did the expression on his face. He kept looking at her as if he wanted to eat her alive.

Perhaps the people noticed the electricity in the air because their chatter stopped and one of them said, “Uh, perhaps we’ll get the next one.”

Izzy barely heard. Her consciousness had zeroed in on Aleks standing opposite her. Looking at her. A replay of their first meeting only a day ago, only this time so much was different.

This time the barriers were down between them.

The lift pinged and Aleks put his hand on the door, holding it open. Izzy pushed herself away from the wall, her heart beating so fast it felt like it was going to come out of her chest. She tried to calm her breathing as she walked down the hall, but nothing was going to ease the ache between her thighs, the desperate need to be close to him, touch him. Nothing except Aleks.

She could feel him walking just behind her, a tall, dark presence, and the thought of what would happen once they were inside the suite made her almost want to run just so she could get there quicker. Have him faster.

At the door to the suite she waited while he swiped the card through the reader and as he did so, she noticed his hand shook.

Her patience, already frayed, snapped completely. “Aleks,” she said in a thick, choked voice. “Hurry.”

The door opened and she was pulled through into the darkness beyond. His hands were on her hips and as the door closed behind them, he pushed her up against it, his breathing loud and as fast as hers.

In the dark, she could only just make out his face as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. The hungry expression on it stole the breath from her lungs. She reached up, wanting to pull his mouth down for a kiss but he grabbed her wrists, held them tight.

“This time I want you to tell me what to do,” he said hoarsely. “I want you to give the orders.”

She stilled, the breath catching in her throat. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” He let her go but didn’t move away. “Tell me what to do, Izzy.”

He was giving her a gift, she knew that. A rare gift. And though part of her just wanted him to rip her clothes off and have her immediately, she knew that to do so would be to deny both of them. She didn’t have the patience to move to the bedroom—she wanted his touch too badly, too much—but she could take it slow right here.

Izzy fought to get her breathing under control, trying to get her voice to work. “Kiss me then.”

Aleks took her face between his hands. His eyes were nearly black in the darkness of the room, his breathing accelerated as he looked down at her. Then, so slowly she wanted to scream with frustration, he bent his head.

It was an achingly light kiss, a gentle brush of his mouth against hers. A first kiss.

Izzy shuddered, her mouth opening beneath his. She wanted to grab him, kiss him harder, hungrier. But this kiss had a sweetness to it that hadn’t been there before.

She closed her eyes, hardly able to breathe as Aleks began to explore her mouth with exacting care and gentleness. A soft groan escaped her as he stepped closer, his body pressing against hers, the hard wood of the door against her back.

“More,” she whispered and he gave her more, a hand at the back of her head, angling it so he could explore her even further. The kiss changed, became deeper and yet no less exquisitely tender.

Izzy reached for him, pressing her hands against the hard wall of his chest. Utterly lost in the taste of him and the heat of the kiss. She wanted him so much, so passionately, yet at the same time she was quite happy to stand there, lost in his kiss for however long he wanted to kiss her.

“Izzy,” he growled softly against her mouth. “Tell me.”

Shit, that’s right. Orders. “Uh…I want…I want you to take my clothes off.”

“Here?”

“Yes, here.”

He lifted his head, his hands moving to the knot that held her blue silk wrap around her. Again that tremble in his hands as he undid it, and she had to fight the urge to cover his hands with hers and to hell with all this order stuff.

But she didn’t. Fingers clenched, she waited while he slowly peeled the blue silk away from her, shivering as the material dropped to the ground, baring her. She heard the breath go out of him.

It felt like he was looking at her naked for the first time.

His hands moved to her wraparound Thai trousers, pulling the tie that held the waistband shut so that they fell into a puddle of blue cotton at her feet. Then he looked into her eyes, slid his fingers into the waistband of her lacy briefs at her hips, began to ease them down.

She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his. The Apocalypse could have happened right outside and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her entire world had shrunk to the feel of his fingers on her skin, the tightness of the fabric as he pushed her underwear down her thighs, and the silvery gleam of his eyes in the darkness.

Then he dropped to his knees in front of her and she trembled as he pulled the briefs down, his fingers closing around first one ankle then the next, lifting each foot so he could take the material entirely off her.

His breath warmed her thighs as he swept his gaze up her body. “You smell of sex, Izzy.” He put a light hand on her abdomen. “I want to taste you.”

God, she wanted him to. But she’d come the moment he put his mouth on her. “No. I’m too close. I want you inside me.”

Slowly he rose to his feet, dark and powerful, towering over her. Fully dressed while she remained naked. Unbearably erotic because she knew where the power lay: with her.

Desire clogged her throat. She liked this slow, gentle Aleks but that wasn’t what she wanted right now. She’d gotten too close to the edge.

Izzy raised her arms above her head and crossed her wrists, leaned back against the door. “Now, Aleks.”

“Now what?”

“Fuck me.” She arched her back. “Now.”

Aleks’s gaze stayed on her as he reached behind into the back pocket of his jeans and took out a silver packet.

“Put it on.” Her voice sounded cracked. “And do it quickly.”

With ruthless efficiency that ramped up her desire even more, Aleks undid his jeans and dealt with the condom. At another time she would have done it herself, but by now she’d gotten past the slow stage entirely.

He stepped closer still, sliding one hand beneath her thigh and drawing it up and around his hips, tilting her pelvis back so she was open and ready for him. Then with his other hand he gripped her wrists, still held above her head, pressing them back against the wood. Holding her still.

He thrust deep and hard into her.

Izzy cried out, tears starting in her eyes, her head going back against the door as the orgasm began to sweep through her, unstoppable and intense. “Ah dammit,” she gasped, her whole body shaking. “No. I…didn’t want that…so soon.”

He bent his head, his mouth brushing her neck. “If you’re thinking we’re finished, you’re wrong.”
 

Then he began to move and Izzy, sensitive tissues stretching to accommodate him, groaned.

Pleasure uncoiled like a whip. He felt so good inside her. So unbearably good.

“Look at me, Izzy.”

And she did, his gaze burning into hers as he moved. The world fell away. Nothing else in it but him. His dark, intense face. His silver gaze. His cock inside her. The pleasure he gave her.

“Aleks,” she whispered as it all began to get overwhelming. “Oh God…Aleks.”

He gripped her tightly, his touch grounding her as the pressure increased and became impossible to bear.

Izzy cried out his name again, a desperate prayer as another orgasm broke over her, an explosion of pleasure so intense it felt like she would break in two. She sobbed, feeling him move faster, harder, his powerful body shaking as his own climax hit, her name groaned into her neck as he turned his face against her skin.

She couldn’t move for a long time afterwards, standing with the hard wood against her back and Aleks’s warm body against her front.

Something had changed, she felt it deep in her soul. Something was different.

Then he lifted his head and looked down at her, and she knew what it was.

Sex had broken the walls between them completely so that now they stood without guards or defenses. Naked to each other.

“Who are you, Izzy?” he asked roughly. “You’re amazing.”

And just then, while he looked at her, she felt like she was amazing too. “You’re pretty incredible yourself,” she managed to croak out.

The expression on his face altered and he smiled. Sensual, wicked, with a slightly boyish edge. It wasn’t a smile she’d ever seen anything like before, and it made her heart stop in her chest.

The world shifted around her. Around him. A dizzying change in perception.

Oh shit. She was in trouble. Big, big trouble.

Her knees buckled and his arm tightened around her, the smile disappearing to be replaced by one of concern. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Her voice had gone even more hoarse and thick. “I’m just…”
Falling for you.

“Tired?” He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Tired, yes.”

“Hmmm. I think I remember promising you a bath. Perhaps now?”

Izzy couldn’t seem to think. Her mouth had gone dry. This couldn’t be happening. She didn’t want it to be happening. Falling for a guy she’d only known two days. This was supposed to be an escape, a pleasant interlude before she carried on with her travels. A holiday fling.

And tomorrow she’d be leaving because that’s what they’d agreed.

“A bath,” she echoed blankly. “Yes. A bath.”

He touched her cheek gently. “There’s something wrong, Izzy? What is it?”

I’m falling in love with you and I don’t want to.

She swallowed. “Nothing. You’re right, it’s just tiredness.” She put her arms around his neck. “Come on, let’s have this bath then.”

He picked her up, carried her into the bathroom and set her down on the marble vanity while he ran the bath for her.