Page 77

Dimitry

DIMITRY

I pass Roman as I go below deck. He takes one look at my face and tilts his head down the stairs. “Abby’s good. I left her on the lower deck. I think she might have needed a minute.”

I nod, too wired and exhausted to have many words.

A burst of laughter erupts from the middle deck, and he grins wryly. “The tech geeks are having their warrior moment. You’d never know it was Bryce who blew the place up, from the way those girls are looking at Mickey and Pavel.”

I give a snort of laughter. “The Cardenas crew?”

Roman’s smile fades. “Long gone. I’m guessing Juan and Rodrigo have some hard conversations ahead.”

“No shit.” I exhale heavily. “It takes some balls, to fake your death so convincingly your own son holds a funeral for you.”

“They work by a different code than us.” He shrugs. “You know the truly bizarre thing? Turns out that Juan is actually my mother’s cousin.”

“Rosa?” I stare at him in surprise.

“Yep.” Roman nods. “Juan remembers her, back before she ran away to America. He told me Rosa’s father was a real piece of work.”

“Christ.” I shake my head. “Next thing you know we’ll discover Pavel is your long-lost fucking brother.”

“Not a chance. That prick is Iranian, did you know that?”

I smile wryly. “Of course I fucking knew. I hired him, remember?”

He tilts his head in acknowledgment. “My people skills are for shit.”

I laugh quietly. “Yeah, they are. But for some reason, we all love you anyway.”

We look at each other for a long moment, then Roman claps my shoulder. “We’ll talk later,” he says. “For Chrissakes, go and have a shower. You’re still covered in blood.”

I’m still toweling off when Abby walks into the suite, smiling tentatively.

Those fucking bruises.

They’re faded, but they’re still all I can see.

I drop my eyes.

“I can leave,” she says quietly. “If you need a minute.”

“No.” The word comes out more harshly than I mean. “No,” I say again, trying to modify my tone. “I don’t want you to leave, Skip.”

I don’t want you to leave ever again.

But before any of those conversations, there’s something I need to say, or else I’ll never be able to face her properly again.

I stand up, tying the towel at my waist. “It was me who beat you, Abby.” I face her squarely as I say it, but my voice rasps so hard in my chest it hurts.

“Before you went back into the compound. That’s why I made Rodrigo put a hood over your head.

I didn’t want you to know it was me, but I couldn’t.

..” My voice cracks, and I have to force myself to finish the sentence.

“I just couldn’t let that fucker lay his hands on you. I’m—”

I’m sorry , I was about to say. But I can’t.

What’s the fucking point in sorry , after you’ve put your hands on the woman you love?

Abby watches me, her face unreadable.

Fuck.

I don’t blame her. I hate myself. I can only imagine how she feels.

And I always knew those bruises might well spell the end between us.

Still—so would lies. And I’m not doing those anymore, no matter what happens now.

“I wouldn’t tell my father about that, if I were you,” she says slowly. “He actually seems to like you, and I’d rather not have family drama at our wedding.”

I take a ragged breath and stare at her, not trusting myself to speak.

“I wish you’d told me it was you.” Her voice is soft as she steps closer. One hand reaches out to touch my cheek. “I was in danger of actually liking Rodrigo for a hot minute there, for taking it so easy on me.”

I make a choked noise. “We can’t joke about this, Skip.”

“Oh, can’t we, muscle boy?” She moves closer, her hands sliding down my chest to the towel at my waist. “I don’t ever want to stop laughing with you,” she says, pressing her lips to my shoulder.

“When we’re laughing, there’s nothing I can’t face.

” She looks up at me, her eyes the deep blue of a midnight sea.

“It’s when the laughter stops that the darkness comes,” she says softly.

“And I don’t ever want to feel that darkness again. Not without you to laugh it away with.”

I inhale deeply, then slowly exhale, feeling the hard knot in my chest slowly begin to unravel.

My hands slide around her waist beneath the sarong, savoring the taut curves of her silken skin.

“Our wedding, huh, Skip?” I arch an eyebrow at her.

“Thought it was the man who was supposed to do the asking in this situation.”

“You already asked me, remember?” Abby shakes her head in mock rebuke. “Don’t think you’re getting out of it now. I seem to recall, back in Madrid, you telling me you would, and I quote, find the bastards who own the best jewelry shop in Madrid and wake them up at gunpoint if I have to .”

“Damn.” I grin down at her. “It’s true what they say about women and marriage, isn’t it? Just one sniff of an engagement ring...”

“Hey!” She playfully hits my arm. “Your words, and I’m holding you to them. I expect nothing less than a boulder on that finger, the minute we’re back in Spain.”

“Spain, huh?” My smile fades as I study her eyes. “Is that where we’re headed then, Skip?”

Her arms twine around my neck. “Are you good with that?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do next.” The future swirls in front of me, uncertain and confusing. “I’m not entirely sure what I even want to do yet.”

Abby stands on her toes and presses her lips to mine in a long, sweet kiss. “So we’ll work it out together,” she murmurs against my mouth. “Later.”

I nod against her lips, pulling her closer. “Definitely later.” I unknot the sarong as she tugs at my towel, and suddenly there she is, naked and hot against me, and I couldn’t give a flying fuck about tomorrow, or anything else but the silken feel of her on my skin.

“Come here.” My hands slide under her ass, and I groan as her legs wrap around me, her swollen folds opening against my cock. I rock her close, the base of my shaft against her clit, and take her mouth.

The fire is slow, a burn that starts at the base of my spine and climbs upward in a delicious wave of sensation.

The soft heat of her mouth on mine.

Her long limbs twined about me.

The sensual circling of her hips over my cock, teasing us both as I grip her ass and pull her harder onto me.

I walk us to the wall, and she gasps as I push her against it, her head going back and her hands clutching my hair as I bend my head to her breasts, my mouth closing over one nipple then the other.

I push my shaft deep between her sweet, slick folds, savoring the feel of my length slowly moving against her.

She grinds into me, moaning softly as my tongue swirls over her breasts.

There’s an almost lazy, somnolent air to our lovemaking that feels different, sweeter somehow, and I suddenly realize what it is.

It’s not going to be the last time we do this.

The realization hits me so hard it makes me pull back. Abby’s eyes open slightly as my thumb strokes her face.

“Every time, Skip,” I rasp, my shaft pushing slowly against her, holding back from what we both want, “every time we’ve ever done this, I’ve thought it might be the last. We’ve always fucked like there was no tomorrow. Like we might never do it again.”

Her lips curve in a sensual smile. “But now,” she whispers, “it’s different, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” I spin her away from the wall and lay her down gently across the bed, splaying myself over her, my mouth on her breasts again, cock nudging tantalizingly against her as she gasps. “Now it’s forever, Skip. And I plan to take my sweet, fucking time.”

Abby gives a gurgle of laughter that becomes a sigh as I move down and cover her with my mouth.

My tongue slips between her folds, and she arches off the bed with an inarticulate cry, clutching my hair convulsively.

My hands go under her ass and spread her wider.

I bury my face between her legs, losing myself in the impossibly swollen heart of her, my tongue exploring every secret crevice until she’s writhing beneath me.

“Oh, fuck,” she pants, tensing under my mouth. “Dimitry. You have to stop. I’m going to come...”

I slip a finger inside her.

“ Ah! ” She arches on the bed as I stroke the spongy part inside her, and then I feel it, the savage clench of her around my finger, the sensual pulsing against my mouth, and I almost lose my fucking shit right there.

I ride her orgasm to the final spasm, then lighten the touch of my tongue as the ferocity subsides.

But I keep my finger inside her, barely grazing the still-pulsing mound within, feeling the slow, rhythmic response as I keep her on the edge.

She’s moaning, her entire body rippling under that barest of touches.

“Only you,” she gasps. “Only you can keep me here, Dimitry.”

My cock is so hard it’s pounding between my legs, desperate for the oblivion of being inside her.

“I want you in my mouth. Oh ,” she gasps as my finger strokes her again.

“No.” I trace the outside of her lips with my tongue, and she shivers. “I don’t want your mouth, Abby.” I stroke my tongue over her navel, then move slowly upward, taking her nipple so she cries out helplessly, her whole body lost in writhing sensation.

I slide my finger gently from her and she moans, spreading her legs wide in a silent plea.

I move upward, the head of my cock poised just beyond her slick opening, and put my mouth to her ear.

“I want my cock inside you,” I murmur. I nudge the head just inside her and almost fucking lose it completely.

“Oh,” she gasps, clutching at my shoulders.

“I want to fuck you until you forget your own name, Skip.” I slip another inch inside, gritting my teeth to maintain control, and arch my hips upward, touching the secret place inside her.

Abby screams, loud enough to shake the whole fucking yacht.

I smile darkly as the ripples inside her turn into slow, pulsing waves and slip a pillow beneath her hips.

“Oh.” Her head turns first one way, then the other, her lips parted. “Oh, fuck, Dimitry. I want you inside me properly.”

“Hmm.” I stroke the head of my cock against the soft mound inside her. Watching her helplessly lost in sensation is the sweetest fucking torture I can ever imagine. “Tell me what you want, Skip,” I murmur, rocking slowly as her moans turn into rhythmic cries. “Tell me.”

Her eyes open slightly, glazed and lost. “I want your cock.” She moans, linking her hands behind my neck, and then she opens her eyes slightly wider, her mouth curving in a slow, sexy smile. “And I want you to fuck me, Dimitry. I want you to fuck me hard .”

Oh, Christ.

No goddamn chance I’m holding on after that.

I raise her leg and surge into her to the hilt.

“Oh, fuck .” Her eyes roll back, her legs wrapping around me, her hands sliding down my back, pulling me inside her hot, sleek depths.

“Yes,” she cries softly against my ear. “Oh God, Dimitry. Yes .”

Fuck. Her velvet sheath closes around me, and I almost lose my fucking mind .

She rises to meet me, and suddenly I don’t want to hold back anymore, no matter how much fucking time we’ve got.

“God, Abby.” I plunge into her, hard, and then she’s pressed against me, twined about me, crying out with the soft gasps that drive me insane.

I drive into her until there is nothing but the insanely intense rise coming through my whole body, the dark savagery that I’ve only ever been able to find inside her.

I feel it coming from a distance. Abby screams again, her walls clench fiercely around me, and I roar as climax hits, exploding the darkness inside me into a thousand shards of brilliant light.

For an endless moment I stay there, amid the blinding light hitting every cell of my body, driving away the past and the future and everything in between.

There is just Abby and me, in the place we’ve always found together, one that belongs to neither what has been or will be, but simply to the rich, timeless soul we share.