Russian Hitman's Innocent American (7 page)

“Hush,” he said softly. His other hand slowly trailed up her side over the fabric of her shirt. When he reached the side of her breast, she struggled to pull away. “Charley Barns. You have nothing in your background to indicate that you’re anything more than a student. You drink and party too much, but your grades are passable. So how exactly did you survive my lovely Daphne? She’s quite good. I trained her myself. She’s the best both in and out of bed. So how did you best her?”

“With a baseball bat and an intense dislike of being attacked in my own home,” Charley spat.

“I heard the streets of Boston are rough. Perhaps you’d let me hire you. You’d never have to worry about finding money again.”

Charley couldn’t suppress her snort of disbelief. “You want me to fight for you?”

“Oh no. With a body like this, I want to hear you moan. The thought of you and Daphne grappling in bed is already getting me excited,” he said as he bent down.

Terrified that he was going to kiss her, she tried to wrench out of his grasp, but all she could do was turn her head.

His lips grazed her throat.

“I have to decline,” she ground out when he finally let her go.

“Pity. Well, I’d normally have you taken out back and executed. I have no doubt that your threat is an empty one. You don’t seem the type to involve the lives of your friends in this mess. But since my dinner guests would balk, I’m inclined to let you leave,” he said as he leaned back. He nodded his head, and Charley felt his guard grab her roughly by the arm.

“Miss Barns,” he said, just before the guard threw her out the door. “I trust that if this Dmitri tries to get in touch with you, you’ll contact me?”

“If I agree, can I safely return to my house?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” he asked in an amused voice.

“No.”

“Then I suppose we’re done here.” He waved his hand, and the guard pulled her out of the room.

“My phone?” she asked as he threw her outside.

The man looked at her stoically, and she sighed. Someone drove her rental up, and she slid in to the car. As per Dmitri’s instructions, she drove to a crowded bar, parked, and threaded her way through the crowd outside the door.

After a few minutes, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the shadows. By the time she followed Dmitri out of the parking lot, she was close to tears.

***

He didn’t say a word to her as they drove back, and she couldn’t even look in his direction. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Ivan pawing at her. She could still feel his hands on her naked skin, and she wanted to vomit.

As soon as they pulled into the hotel, she was out of the car and running toward the room. Before she could even shut the door behind her, she was pulling off her clothes. Her skimpy glittery top landed on the bed. Her pants dropped to the floor. She didn’t even care where her underwear landed as she rushed to the bathroom. Without missing a beat, she was under the warm water and scrubbing vigorously at her skin.

“Stop.”

Hearing the harshness of his voice, she whirled around. Dmitri was yanking open the curtain and grabbing the cloth for her. “Stop, before you hurt yourself.”

“Get away from me,” she hissed as she reached up and closed the curtain. Wrapping her arms around herself, she turned and pressed herself against the cool tile.

The curtain opened again, and she didn’t even bother to open her eyes. “Please just leave me alone,” she whispered. “I just need a minute.”

She listened to the sound of the metal rings scraping across the bar, and she felt the cloth running along her back. Stiffening, her eyes shot open. He was standing right behind her. “Just relax,” he said gruffly. “I know you feel that you need to be clean, but I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Did he not even realize that it wasn’t possible to relax when he was naked and standing so close to her? She inhaled sharply as the washcloth ran down her back. She felt the slick suds of the soap trail down her body, and soon the memories of Ivan disappeared.

“What did he do?” Dmitri asked softly in her ear. She fought the urge to lean back against him. This was supposed to be making her calm, but as the cloth came up over her shoulder and ran down her arms, it brushed ever so lightly against her nipple.

“Nothing. He just said some dirty things and eyed me like I was naked,” she said in a shaky voice.

He didn’t say anything as the cloth moved to her other shoulder. This time, she turned into it, and it did more than just graze her nipple. Her breath hitched as it made contact. This wasn’t right. She was supposed to be angry at him. Instead she was more turned on than she had ever been in her entire life.

“I’m sorry, Charley. I never thought Ivan was like that. Of course, it’s been a long time since I knew him.”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” she muttered. She stilled as the cloth swept up her hips and higher up her side. When it came forward to circle over her abdomen, she couldn’t help but lean back against him.

His erection settled between the cleft of her thighs.

“What do you want to talk about?” His breath was hot in her ear, and for a moment, she thought his tongue would flick over her sensitive skin.

She didn’t want to talk. Charley just wanted to give into the desire that had taken over ever since she laid eyes on him. She wanted him to take control of her body.  The washcloth moved up and slowed just under her breast. “Dmitri,” she said softly.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said thickly. “I didn’t want you to hurt yourself, but this is a bad idea, Charley. Tell me you know that this is a bad idea.”

Moving her hips softly, grinding into him, she captured his hand in hers and moved it over her breast. “I know it’s a bad idea,” she said clearly. “But right now, I don’t care. I just want something to distract me.”

Dmitri dropped the cloth, and he immediately rolled his thumb over her nipple. She arched her back at the sudden streak of pleasure and gasped.

“You have sensitive breasts,” he muttered in her ear. “I like that.”

“Funny. I took you for an ass man,” she retorted. Suddenly, he dropped her breast and whirled her around. She slapped her hands against the tile as he roughly shoved her against the wall.

“What makes you think I don’t enjoy both?” he asked teasingly as he slid his fingers over her cheeks. Instinctively, she pushed her ass out and bent over. A grumble of approval sounded low in his chest, and she gasped as he propped one of her legs up on the ridge of the tub.

He slid first one finger and then two over her folds and across her sensitive clit. “Fuck,” she ground out as pleasure shot through her body. Immediately he released her, and she nearly wept in disappointment. If he touched her again, she was ready to explode like a firework. “God, what are you doing?” she gasped.

One finger slowly entered her, and she moaned. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about how I would take you if I got the chance. I could take you like this. Pound you from behind and pull your hair until you screamed my name. I could turn you around and hoist you up against the wall. Imagine just how deep I could slide into you.”

She whimpered as he slowly moved his finger in and out. Just that one finger was enough to set her on edge, but it wasn’t giving her the satisfaction that she needed. “I don’t care how you take me,” she ground out as she tried to fuck his finger faster. “I just need you to do it now.”

“Patience,” he chuckled. “I’ve waited a long time for this.” He pulled his finger away and pressed against her body. His erection slowly slid along her slick folds. “I could drag you to the bathroom floor and fuck you with your ankles up to your ears. I could let you straddle and ride me until you fall apart. What do you want, Charley? Tell me how you want it. Now. Tell me now.”

On the brink of madness, Charley slapped her hand against the tile and whirled around. His eyes bore into her as she pushed past him and pressed his back to the tile. He slowly slid down, and she straddled him. In one quick move, she slid her body over him until he was pushing deep inside her. “Deep. I want it as deep as it can go,” she rasped as she slithered her hips to take more of him.

“Shit, Charley,” he hissed as he grabbed her hips. “So wet. So tight.”

“God, I need more. Damn it, Dmitri, give me more.”

Leaning over, she pressed her lips roughly to his. As his mouth opened to accept her kiss, he slammed her hips down until he was buried inside her and swallowed her shriek. She flattened her hands on the tile, desperate to hold on to something, as he thrust himself faster and deeper inside her. Every part of her trembled as she rubbed over that intense sweet spot.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “Oh, fuck.”

“That’s it, baby. Take it.” He buried his mouth in the crook of her neck and suckled on her skin. When his hands left her hips to pinch and roll her nipples, her body only moved faster. Desire coiled inside her and readied to strike at a moment’s notice. She was seconds away from losing it, but she wanted it to last. She wanted it to last forever.

“Let go, Charley. Let go for me, baby.”

“I don’t want it to be over,” she muttered.

He pressed his lips to hers and shifted his body so that he was moving even deeper inside her. “It doesn’t have to be. We have all night. Just let go, sweetheart.”

And just like that, she broke wide open. Throwing her head back, she screamed his name as the intense orgasm rolled through her. Her muscles spasmed around him, and he tensed and grunted as he seized and slammed into her one last time.

Collapsing on top of him, she’d barely noticed that the water had run cold. He gathered her in his arms and carried her out of the shower and onto the bed. She wasn’t even aware of the change until hours later, when he woke her up with his tongue on her nipples and his thumb stroking the fire inside her all over again.

Chapter Seven

“It’s strange how I’ve never seen you before,” the woman said in a husky voice as the man ran his hands down her legs. “I come here all the time.”

He didn’t reply as he nuzzled her neck. Her whispers turned into moans as he pushed her against the wall of the alley and shoved her dress up to her waist.

“Tell me your name,” she begged. “Tell me who is doing these things to me.”

He only pushed his fingers inside her. Sex was rarely a pleasure these days. He didn’t do it chase the demons away or drown himself a mindless orgasm. Sometimes it was to pass the time. Sometimes it was to divert curious glances.

Tonight it was for information.

As he freed his erection and pushed himself inside her, the woman locked her legs around his waist and grunted at the invasion. She was wet and warm, but she was hardly tight. She sought money, but tonight, she would get both money and pleasure.

“Tell me where to find him,” he whispered in her ear. Roughly pulling her head back by her hair, he nipped at her neck. “Give me an address.”

“I can’t,” she gasped. “He’ll kill me.”

Slowing down his thrusts, he pulled back and stared into her eyes. “You fuck men every night in this alley. I’ve watched you. And I’ve been disgusted with your desperately fake sounds of orgasms. Tell me what I want, and I’ll make every single muscle in your body shake with pleasure.”

“Oh God,” she cried out as he stilled his body completely. “Don’t stop.”

He reached down and circled her clit almost lazily with his thumb. “Tell me what I want. He’ll never have to know it’s you. No one will get hurt.”

She drew in a few haggard breaths before spilling the address. With a satisfied grin, he pushed her against the wall and began to pound her. Her nails dug into his shoulders as her cries turned into wails and screams. And when she convulsed around him, he dropped her to the street without finishing and zipped himself up.

“Clean yourself. And don’t say a word about me,” he snarled. Counting out a few bills, he tossed them on her. He’d stayed in the shadows. She would never be able to describe his face.

And now he had what he wanted to get another step closer.

***

The morning sun filtered through the window, and he watched as it bathed her in light. For a moment, he was astounded by her natural beauty. Her dark curls spread out over the pillows, and the sheets were rumpled around her naked body. He watched as her chest rose with each breath she took.

And he knew without a doubt that if he didn’t find a way to keep her safe, he wouldn’t get many more moments like this.

Charley was the first woman he’d ever woken up next to. Usually his trysts involved finding a weak spot and pressing it until he got the information that he wanted. Sometimes it was just an hour or so of releasing pent-up frustrations before sending them on their way. Sometimes he just left them.

It had felt so natural to wrap her in his arms as they fell asleep. She’d nestled against him like they’d done it all their lives, and he slept easily. Too easily.

If someone had attacked them, he wouldn’t have been on his guard. She made him soft. She made him weak, but he had no idea how he was going to let her go.

“I know I’m gorgeous first thing in the morning, but if you keep staring, it’s going to get creepy,” she murmured as she yawned and smiled at him. He could only chuckle softly in response. “You’re already dressed. How disappointing.”

“Charley,” he said hesitantly. “About last night.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed herself up. “You can save yourself the speech. I’m sure it goes somewhere along the lines of last night being a one-time deal. I get the impression that you don’t settle down. Don’t worry. I’m not planning our wedding.”

He felt both relieved and disappointed. “I apologize for the position that I put you in last night. I had no idea that Ivan would touch you. It won’t happen again.” His voice was stiff and formal. It helped him hide the desperate need to kiss her again.

“Please tell me that it was worth it.”

He hesitated. Truth be told, he did get some information last night. “I haven’t had time to look through the pictures that I took. I’m not really even sure what I’m looking for.”