Page 21 of Johan. (Van Den Bosch #8)

Curiosity gets the better of me, and I ask, “Did you ever publish the report I read about Ubar? I had never heard of that city until Hannah mentioned it.”

Angela's smile fades slightly. “I did try, but after Amelia’s disappearance, Ludovic was very much against it. He made sure Cambridge wouldn’t endorse it and kept my research private.”

I nod, understanding the weight of her words. “That's unfortunate. Your work deserves recognition.”

Then, my gaze switches to Hannah. She's standing near the window, arms crossed, her posture rigid. Her face is serious, and there’s a clear glint of anger in her eyes.

The events of yesterday still hang heavily between us, unresolved and raw.

Her dark hair falls in loose waves around her shoulders.

She’s dressed in a casual sweater and jeans, a stark contrast to the formal setting I saw her in yesterday.

“Aunt Amelia knows that Ludovic is planning to launch a new expedition to the Shisr site in January.” Her voice is calm and matter-of-fact, completely disregarding the tension between us.

I nod. “That’s true. He gave me the research about Ubar and told me to study it thoroughly.”

“I assume you know everything about the Star of Ubar, then,” Amelia adds.

My eyes blink a few times, confusion deepening. “The what?”

Amelia chuckles, head shaking and she shares a glance with Angela.

“I knew he wouldn’t tell a soul about it.

” She goes to the table and retrieves from there a picture of a drawing she or someone else did of a long scepter filled with gems around the top.

“This is the royal scepter, made of gold and the most precious gems.”

“That’s Ludovic's obsession right there,” Angela says, her voice laced with a mix of irritation and resignation. She sits and leans back in her chair, crossing her legs as if she’s seen this scenario play out too many times before.

“He's going to do everything in his power to get his hands on it before anyone else does,” Amelia adds, her eyes narrowing with a sharp focus.

She shifts slightly, her fingers tapping rhythmically on the edge of the table.

“And once he does, he'll sell it to the highest bidder without a second thought.”

I lean forward, the weight of her words sinking in. “I need to find it before he does, then.”

Amelia’s gaze softens, as if she’s considering the gravity of my resolve.

“After Ludovic halted the expedition, I couldn’t let it go.

I kept studying the area, pouring over all the data we gathered.

I'm certain the Star of Ubar is hidden just a few miles from Shisr,” she says, her voice brimming with conviction, while her finger points to an area in the map. “Somewhere here.”

The room feels charged, every word heightening the urgency. I break the tension, my tone casual but with an undercurrent of importance. “Ludovic has a dinner with the Omani ambassador on Monday. He actually invited me, but I turned him down.”

“You need to go,” Amelia interrupts, her voice firm. She places her hand flat on the table, her eyes locking onto mine. “We need to know the current state of the sites. If any other teams have been working in that area, we have to be ahead of them.”

I pause, glancing at everyone around me. There's no other option. “Alright. I'll go, then.”

Amelia exhales, relieved. “Good.” She straightens up, her expression hardening. “Johan, whatever Ludovic tells you, remember this: he’s a manipulative man. There’s nothing sincere in anything he says. Don’t let him get into your head.”

“I know.” I nod, a bitter smile forming on my lips. “Judging by his daughter, I can only imagine he's as much of an asshole as she is.”

Angela glances at her watch, the soft ticking suddenly noticeable in the quiet room. She looks up with a sense of urgency and rises from her seat. “Amelia, it's time to go.”

“Oh, right,” Amelia says, snapping out of her thoughts. She grabs her bag and smoothly slides it over her shoulder. A small smile plays on her lips as her eyes drift between Hannah and me. “You two can stay here if you’d like.”

Hannah, who had been quietly listening, finally speaks up, her voice tinged with disappointment. “You're leaving already?”

Amelia pauses by the door, offering a reassuring smile. “We'll meet again soon, I promise. Besides,” she adds, glancing between the two of us, "it looks like you two need to talk.”

We exchange goodbyes, and as Amelia and Angela leave the apartment, the door clicks shut with a finality that makes the room feel suddenly vast and quiet.

I exhale, the tension between Hannah and me returning in the absence of our visitors.

The silence stretches for a beat too long before I finally speak.

“I'm really sorry about yesterday.” My voice is quiet, almost pleading. “You and Conrad didn’t deserve that snarky comment I made.”

Hannah stands near the window, arms crossed over her chest, her eyes distant as she looks outside.

The fading evening light casts shadows across her face, highlighting the guarded expression she wears.

She finally turns to face me, her voice cold but controlled.

“You're right. We didn’t deserve it. But that’s not why I’m mad.

” She takes a few slow steps toward me, her eyes narrowing slightly with each one until she’s standing directly in front of me.

“I'm mad because you got too drunk to leave the party with your parents, and instead, you ended up sleeping with Astrid.”

I flinch inwardly at the accusation. “Oh,” I mutter, searching for the right words. “But nothing happened, I promise.”

She lets out a short, bitter laugh, shaking her head. “And why should I believe that?”

Taking a deep breath, I take one step forward, closing the distance between us. Gently, I hold her arms and look straight into her eyes. “Because I love you, Hannah. You're the only woman I want to be with.”

For a moment, she stares back at me, the skepticism still lingering in her eyes.

But then, something shifts. With a wicked, playful glint in her eyes, she pushes the map aside and hops up onto the table, crossing her legs in a deliberately coy manner.

Her lips curl into a mischievous smile. “Why don't you come here?” she asks, her voice softer now, almost teasing. “I'm done talking for now.”

The shift in her attitude and the energy in the room is so thick I can taste it.

All I can do is stare, her words searing into me, a command I can't even imagine disobeying.

I'm at her feet before the thought has a chance to settle, leaning forward, hands braced on the tabletop on either side of her legs. One inch. That’s all the space separating us now.

“Satisfied?” I manage through the thick fog that seems to have surrounded us in this darkened room. The only other place I'm aware of is the spot between her thighs, where I'm suddenly desperate to be.

Hannah answers with a kiss, her mouth suddenly on mine, her tongue swiping along the seam of my lips, requesting, no, demanding entrance.

I grant it without a second thought. She tangles her hands in my hair, pulling me impossibly closer, and I find my hands reaching for her thighs, the skin beneath the denim heating my palms.

I need more of her. I need to see her. Taste her. Make her quake beneath me. Give her that same all-encompassing desire she makes me feel. “You're testing me,” I tell her. “This is not the place for this, Hannah.”

“Any place that we're together is the right place,” she insists, pulling my head to the side and pressing searing kisses to the skin of my neck. I feel like I'm on fire and willing to be consumed. But there's something, some self-restraint that refuses to give in so easily.

“Hannah,” I growl, but she simply takes it as a challenge.

With a sultry laugh, she bites the juncture where my shoulder meets my neck.

Before I can take another breath, my fingers are fumbling on the fly of her jeans, and she's wriggling them off, her ass bumping things off the desk in her hurry to get them off. Within moments, she’s bare from the waist down, her pale blue cotton panties taunting me with what they hide beneath them.

“Amelia could come back any time,” I tell her, fingers dimpling the soft flesh of her thighs. “But I think you like that, don't you? The thrill of being caught?”

“Johan, stop talking.” Her hands slide to my belt buckle, deft fingers swiftly undoing it before I even register that's what's happening.

“What are you doing?” There's nothing but amusement in my voice as I urge her to sit up just enough to slide her panties down her legs. “I didn't realize you're such a bad girl.”

She doesn't answer, but damn it, if her answering giggle doesn't almost break the last of my resolve.

My zipper is next, and then I'm pushing my pants down enough to set myself free.

Her slim legs wrap around my waist, drawing me forward, and I let out a groan when I finally settle against the V of her thighs, feel the moist heat that awaits me and sets my blood boiling.

My lips capture hers, swallowing the soft sigh that escapes her.

“Oh God,” she moans softly, mingling with my own huffs of pleasure. Hannah shifts, obviously trying to position me at her entrance, and as much as I want to comply, there’s no need to rush. If she wants me to fuck her right here now, we’re going to go at my pace.

“Not yet.” Taking my cock in my hand, I slide it upwards through her wet folds until the blunt head moves over her clit, repeating the action again and again with the slow pistoning of my hips. Her low, needy sounds of approval are music to my ears.

Hannah continues to wiggle and sigh and urge me to move faster, but I refuse. This is all part of my game. Our game.

“Johan,” she gasps, her hands coming to my biceps and squeezing. “Oh, please.”

“Just a little while longer.” Gathering up the hem of her sweater, I let my hands venture upwards while I continue to thrust, stroking the bottom of her breasts.

The second I realize she’s not wearing a bra, I stop teasing and take both full mounds into my hands, teasing and plucking at her nipples.

At the same time, I keep the barest hint of pressure against her swollen clit with the head of my cock, sliding slowly, keeping her right on the edge where I want her.

“You can go without your orgasm for a few minutes, right?”

“It will take less than thirty seconds if you’d stop teasing me.” Her nails score the skin of my arms, and I know there will be little half-moon marks there tomorrow.

God, it’s never been like this with anyone else; no one’s made my pulse race or my hands shake, or tempted me to give a single woman everything I have before. Hannah is unlike any other.

Her hair brushes my arm, and she meets my gaze, her own darkened with passion and want. Pushing her hair back, I capture the locks between my fingers, loving the way they slip like silk against my skin. With my other hand, I cup her jaw, my thumb brushing over her swollen bottom lip.

“Promise me, Hannah.” Leaning close, I kiss a slow trail along her jaw to her ear. “That you'll stay with me.”

She shivers in my arms and arches closer to me, even as I pick up the pace of my thrusting. When I nip at the spot just behind her ear, her response is instantaneous.

“Of course I will.” When she slips her fingers into the hair at the base of my skull, my pulse spikes.

“Good.” I reward her with a deep, soul-searching kiss but then pull back, my hands on her hips. “Now, turn around.”

A throaty moan is the only acknowledgment I get, and as she's turning, I bury my nose in her neck, breathing in the fruity smell of her shampoo and the fragrant lotion she wears. Lust rushes hot through my veins, settling in the region below my belt.

“Bend over,” I command. Hannah complies immediately, placing her hands on the table and arching her back.

God, I want to draw this out, really make her writhe with every moment.

The little seductress deserves it for teasing me.

But all that goes out the window as I grasp the base of my cock and notch the head at the soaking entrance to her pussy.

The throbbing and aching become too much, and I sink into her in one movement.

She’s so tight that it feels like absolute heaven.

All I can do is stand there, let my eyes drift closed, and lose myself in the overwhelming sensation. Hannah seems equally affected, with her low hums and slow undulations of her hips.

But eventually, the need for more takes over, and I grasp her hip with one hand and bring the other up to fondle her breast again, my hips picking up a slow rhythm as I fuck her from behind.

As I bring her higher and higher, I feel her inner muscles tightening around my cock, making it harder and harder to maintain my slow pace.

It’s my curse to want to torture her this way, driving us both insane as we teeter on the edge.

When it gets to be too much, I growl my frustration, “Hannah… you're killing me.”

“Do it.” Her desperate whine is a dead giveaway that she’s nearly ready to combust. “Fuck me like you mean it.”

Shifting my weight, I take the hand from her breast and twist my fingers in her hair, fisting it just enough to make her hum with pleasure as I begin to really let go.

Pulling her upright, I reach down and run my middle finger through her sopping-wet slit until I reach her clit.

She's gone rigid with the anticipation of her orgasm.

I can feel my body tighten with each stroke of my cock, heat pooling in my stomach, the muscles on my arms bulging with the force of my desire to release inside of her. There's nothing like coming at the same time as your lover, and I want that for us here. So fucking much.

All at once, Hannah starts to shudder, and my name passes from her lips in a tortured moan.

Her inner walls are spasming, milking my cock for all it's worth.

I capture the sounds of her cries with my mouth, turning her head to the side and leaning forward, kissing her as I finally stop holding back.

Hot blood rushes in my ears, and my muscles burn in the sweetest way.

My orgasm crashes over me, my skin erupting in gooseflesh, the sound of my voice chanting her name filling the air.

I collapse on her and slide her forward, my arms banded around her and her chest pressed against the table.

“You'll be the death of me,” I mutter into her sweet-smelling hair, and she laughs, sounding completely wrung out and content.

“Maybe. But what a sweet death it will be, right?”