Omega (Alpha #3) (3 page)

“Jesus, Kyrie. I still can’t breathe right, I came so hard.”
 

I curled into him. Gripped the back of his neck, lying completely on top of him, pressing my lips to his throat. “Valentine, I don’t—I don’t even have words for what that was.”
 

“You’re okay, though?”

I lifted up enough that he could see my eyes, and see that I spoke the truth. “So much more than okay. I loved it, loved everything about it, but I don’t think we can do that very often. It was just…so fucking intense I don’t think I could handle it every time.”

 
“It
was
incredible. But yeah, not all the time.”
 

We were quiet for a while, in the special place where we needed no words. We weren’t sleeping, just utterly content in each other, holding on, breathing, skin to skin, heartbeat to heartbeat.
 

And then I felt his cock under my belly, hardening.
 

Still we needed no words. I reached between us and stroked him to life, slid him into my slit, fed him inch by inch into my pussy. I pressed my lips to his throat, crushed my hips to his, laying on top of him, my thighs gripping his sides. I took his face in my palms and turned it to mine and kissed him breathless, fucked him senseless, riding him until he was crazed and I was gasping and sweating, kissing him all the while, until we were writhing in utter synchronicity, right to the edge. And then, moments before we came, I went still. I pressed him onto the bed, stopping him. I held him down, my hands on his shoulders. I sat upright and looked at him.

“Look at me, Valentine,” I said. He rested his hands on my thighs, and his eyes went to mine. “Don’t move.”
 

Sitting upright, his cock filling me, his beautiful blue eyes on mine, I rode Valentine slowly, rocking on him, grinding on him, bracing myself with my palms at the V of my thighs. I rolled my hips in broad, wide circles, lifting so he was almost out, sitting on him so he was fully in, stretching him away from his body, riding, riding, riding.
 

Sweat coated his gloriously muscled body in a sheen, and he fought to remain still.
 

I felt him nearing the edge, and slowed. I waited, holding him stretched away so he couldn’t release. I waited some more until he tensed, until he was shaking all over with need. I touched my clit with one finger while he watched, holding us still, fluttering so he wouldn’t lose the edge of near-orgasm. I fingered myself—

And then I came, falling forward, flinging my arms around his neck and writhing as he spurted his seed into me, flooding me with his wet heat, and we were groaning, mouths sloppily seeking and kissing, until there was only the orgasm still detonating in both of us, simultaneously.

When at long last the waves and shudders ceased, Roth pulled out of me. He rose and padded to the bathroom for a towel, came back and rolled me onto my back, parted my folds with gentle fingers and cleaned me with the towel, and then climbed back in bed next to me.

Another long, drowsy, lazy, sated silence ensued, both of us utterly spent.

My mind wandered and I wondered idly if we’d made port yet, but decided I didn’t care.
 

His voice rumbled, my ear to his chest. “I was going to make it a surprise, but I’ve decided against that.”

“Make what a surprise?” I asked.

“The reason we’re going back to the States.”

“Which is?”

A pause. “Well, business aside…it’s for us.”

“First, what’s the business aspect of the trip?”

“I’m selling off a bunch of holdings and properties. Including the tower in Manhattan. I’m liquidating a bunch of assets and I’ve got to be there to finalize the sales.”

“You’re selling the tower?”

He nodded. “Yep. It’s time. I want to build a place together, you and me. Somewhere that’s ours.” A sigh. “Plus, we’re going to need a ready flow of cash for…preparations, I guess you could say.”

“Be clear, Roth. Explain what you mean by ‘preparations’.”
 

“Staying off the grid properly and effectively is a difficult thing to do. Even more so when you’re as wealthy as I am. See, most of my capital is…imaginary, essentially. It’s real, in the business sense and in the business world, where I have contacts at every bank, all over the world. But if you want to be off the grid, investment properties and net worth are meaningless. Cash is king, out here. And being
worth
tens of billions of dollars is no good to me unless I can convert it to cash, or make it readily available in cash. But, especially in the quantities I’m going to need, that is hard to do. As for why?” Roth paused, his hand idly caressing my side. “Honestly, Vitaly is still a very real threat to me, to us. He’s out there somewhere, waiting, biding his time. He’s a big venomous spider with a very elaborate web, just waiting for us to set one of his strands to vibrating. I need to find a way for us to vanish entirely, or I’ve got to take him out. Neither proposition is easy.”

“Which approach are you leaning towards?” I asked.

“Vanishing, to be honest. Not because I want to run away from him, but because I’m smart enough, and know him well enough, to know I’m not entirely willing to start a war. And that’s what it would take. Now that Gina is dead and he realizes his sanctum can be assaulted, he’s going to be on high alert. And he has access to many, many times more men and weapons than I do. I’m worth more, financially, but he’s a wily old fox with a network like no one else in the world. To go after him, to try and kill him…it would take a full-on war.” He touched my chin, and I craned my neck to look up at him. “There’s been enough bloodshed.”
 

I nodded. “Yes, there has. I’ll go where you go, and I’ll support whatever you decide to do. I just…I don’t want to spend my life being afraid, either.”
 

“So, you’d go after him, then?” Roth seemed surprised.

I took a moment to think. “I’ve had a taste of death. The thought of going through anything like that again makes me sick. Seeing you or Layla or Harris get hurt…I’m not sure I could handle that. But at the same time, I’m not willing to run away from him for the rest of my life. I’d rather make a stand, or even go after him if that’s what it takes. I’ll shoot him myself, if I have to. I’ve done it once, I can do it again.”
 

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ve got some ideas, which is why we’re heading up to the States.”

I rested my chin on his chest; stared up at his piercing blue eyes. “You said there was another reason we are heading back to the States, one that has to do with us.”
 

He took my hand in his, my left hand, the one with the two-carat diamond engagement ring, his thumb nudging the ring side to side on my finger. “It’s been six months since I proposed. I think it’s time to do something about that, don’t you?”

“Do something about it?” I felt breathless. “Like what?”

“Like get married.”
 

I just stared at him, blinking, thinking, trying to process his suggestion. “Why now?”

Roth frowned, brow furrowing. “Why not now? I love you more than life itself. I want you to be mine forever. I want you to become Kyrie Roth.”
 

“Yes, it has been six months, but Vitaly is still out there. I don’t know if I could ever really relax knowing that he’s still looking for us. We’ve got Layla here for her own safety, and we’ve got Harris and his team on high alert on our behalf. I want to get married, I really do, but I’ll be with you no matter what. I’ll change my name, if that’s what you want.”

He blew out a breath, frustrated, confused. “I’m not following, Kyrie. Just a bit ago on the deck you were suggesting a house in the suburbs with kids. Now you’re saying you don’t want to get married?”

I sat up, put my back to the headboard, and scraped my thick blond hair backward. “Roth, no, I’m not saying I don’t want to. I just want to know why now. Is it what
you
want, or are you doing it because you think it’s what
I
want?”
 

“Both, actually. Does it really matter
why
, though?”

“Yes! It really does matter. It’s marriage, Roth. It’s not something to take lightly.”

He didn’t answer right away. “I guess maybe I see it differently. Anyone can get married. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s just a ceremony, a piece of legal documentation. Unless you make it meaningful, that’s all it is.”

I laughed, but it wasn’t entirely mirthful. “You’re not making any sense. Why do you want to get married if it doesn’t mean anything? It seems like you’ve got your arguments confused.”

He stood up, paced to the window, naked. Even in the midst of what was shaping up to be a pretty serious argument, I couldn’t help appreciating his taut, muscular ass, the rippling muscles of his back, his broad shoulders, the fall of his blond hair.
 

“I’ll admit I didn’t see this coming, Kyrie. I thought you’d be all over this. A chance to see home again, maybe get your brother to walk you down to the aisle to me.”

“First, where’s home, now? This ship? New York? Detroit? Second, I love Cal, but I’m not sure I want to risk his safety by bringing him within a hundred miles of us and our problems. He’s an innocent kid.”
 

“Home is wherever we are, I suppose. Here on the
Eliza
, France, New York…but I see your point. As for Cal, Harris has two of his guys in Chicago, keeping tabs on him. I doubt he even knows they’re there, but they’ll make sure no one else is sniffing around him.”

“I’m relieved to hear that.”

“I told you I’d keep an eye on everyone. I know you’ve sort of kept your distance from him, for his own safety. And I know that’s hard for you. And I just… I hate that you’ve had to do that because of my problems, because of my past.”

“It’s
our
past now, and
our
problems. Not just yours. We’re in this together.” I got out of bed and padded over to him, pressing myself up against his back. “I love you, Valentine. And yes, I want to marry you. However, whenever, wherever. And as long as you can promise me he’ll stay safe, I’d love a chance to see Cal.”

“I can’t give you a traditional wedding, Kyrie. I can’t give you a wedding with your parents on one side and mine on the other, or a little white church, or months and months to make arrangements and compile guest lists.”

I kissed his shoulder. “I don’t care. I’m not the kind of girl who’s spent her whole life picturing her wedding. I mean, maybe when I was a little girl I thought about it, daydreamed or whatever, but after Dad died, I just…I didn’t have time to think about that. I shut it down. It wasn’t relevant anymore. And now, with you, I love you and I’m with you, no matter what. Whether we get married or not, whether we have a permanent home or not, it’s you and me together. That’s all that matters to me. Yeah, I want stability. I’d love a real home, something of
ours
. But I’m not sure we can have that yet, not while Vitaly is out there, plotting his revenge or whatever it is he’s doing. But, if you want to plan us a wedding, I will marry you in a heartbeat. I’d be proud to be Kyrie Roth.”
 

“I’m going to set up a meeting with Harris, today, to tell him about our wedding plans. We’ll work out the security angles and then give you the safety parameters, so that you and Layla can get to work planning our wedding.”

“How about
you
plan the wedding, and just let Layla and me pick dresses and flowers? That’s all we care about anyway.”
 

“If you mean it, that would be infinitely easier. We’d find a good defensible location, fly in whomever we want, get security arranged…but still create a beautiful event.”

“I just have one request,” I said.

“What’s that, love?” He twisted in place, putting our bodies chest to chest. He palmed my backside possessively.

“Can we get married somewhere warm and sunny? It’s interesting and all, being down here in Tierra del Fuego, but it’s a little chilly.”
 

He laughed. “Sure, darling. We can do that. Somewhere warm and sunny it is.”

2

DISCUSSIONS

Life onboard the ship had its own patterns and routines, and everyone, from the Captain down to the deckhands, was engaged in keeping this huge craft running smoothly. Layla and I also had our own routines. We spent a lot of time during the day in what Roth called “the salon”, or the living room, watching movies, reading, listening to music, playing cards. But Layla was right in that without a job to do, boredom was a constant specter of life aboard a ship. Especially when, like Layla and me, you were used to working all the time or studying for classes or just living life.
 

Roth had arranged for Layla to finish her degree via online courses, using his encrypted satellite internet signal, but that only occupied so much time. I audited classes here and there, studying whatever interested me, but I wasn’t working toward a degree; I just didn’t see the point.
 

As for Roth…he was always busy. He stayed in constant communication with Robert, his business guru in New York, staying abreast of the few businesses he’d not already liquidated. He always seemed to be on a call via encrypted satellite phone. And when he wasn’t on the phone, he attended to what seemed to be an endless stream of emails. And when he wasn’t doing that, he and Harris spent a lot of time behind closed doors.

Usually, the four of us all had dinner together and, typically, it was a pretty lively affair. It had become another one of our onboard rituals, I guess. Harris was often gone a lot during the day, taking the helicopter from the ship to whichever shore was closest, doing some mysterious business or other. He never really said, and I never asked. But he was almost always back onboard ship for dinner.
 

Dinner that night was anything but lively; in fact it was slightly awkward. Layla’s mood hadn’t improved since she’d left the deck earlier in the afternoon. She wasn’t even looking at Harris nor really talking to me. Harris was his usual taciturn self, except maybe more icily silent. Roth appeared to be lost in thought, working through plans, I supposed. Even under the best of circumstances I wasn’t the best at idle chatter, and tonight I had even less to contribute in the conversation department.