Page 81 of Lethal Torture

“No. We just plead stupid, tell the cops we didn’t know she was a uniform. They think we’re all idiots anyway.” The man’s voice turns darker. “Anyway, it isn’t her we came for. It’s Melikov who’s the problem. Our orders are to get her, alive if we can. Dead, if not.”

The two men have paused right beneath us, by the sound of it. My heart has slowed to nothing more than a dull thud, and I barely dare to breathe.

“Surely she’s not still here.” The other man sounds skeptical. “Didn’t she get away with the rest of them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” He sounds uncertain.

“Let’s check the fence again.” Slowly, horribly slowly, their footsteps start to recede.

I stay frozen against the wall, my heart suddenly racing, heat and then ice rushing through my veins. For a long time, until the voices are completely gone, neither of us moves.

Then, in a swift movement, Luke is right in front of me, heat radiating from him in a dangerous wave. His huge hands grip the steel ridges on either side of my head like he wants to bend them, the knife still between his fingers. His eyes glitterin the dim light filtering through the holes. I can feel his barely restrained savagery, smell the blood and cordite on his body.

My mouth is dry, fear still pounding through me. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

Luke’s mouth twists contemptuously. “No, you’re not.” He doesn’t move.

My breath stops, my entire being consumed by his nearness, the raw power of his body so close to my own.

I’m cripplingly aware that I’m naked except for a few scraps of underwear. And that Luke’s tight-fitting boxers are completely incapable of disguising the hard need trapped behind them.

Lust, pure and fierce, hits with an urgency that turns my limbs to molten heat.

Luke’s eyes bore into mine.

My lips part, my body arching toward his like a magnet to a lodestone.

Then his mouth is on mine, and the world disappears.

19

LUKE

I couldn’t stopthis if I wanted to.

I’m not sure I could stop even if Zinaida begged me to.

She tastes like fire and feels like sin, and I’m close to mindless with wanting her.

One of my hands is still holding a knife. My other slips under Zinaida’s ass, lifting her against the wall. Her legs wrap around me, swollen heat pressing down onto my hand, her mouth fierce on my own as her hands tangle in my hair.

I’m hard with lust and adrenaline, my cock pounding so savagely it’s painful. I push her against the wall, groaning as my shaft comes up against her luscious folds. Her hands drop to my boxers, urgently pushing them down. Her tongue is in my mouth, her body twining against mine like an acrobat, and I fucking need to be inside her.

I slip the knife blade beneath the edge of her knickers, and she momentarily freezes at the touch of steel on flesh.

I turn the blade upward and slice through the silk.

“Bastard.” Zin’s choked gasp of laughter dies in her throat as she kisses me fiercely, hands clutching at my shoulders, her legs twining about my waist as she writhes against me. Her underwear falls to the floor, followed by the knife dropping silently atop our discarded clothes.

I should stop.There are men out there who want us both dead.

And for some reason I don’t want to examine too closely, the hard edge of danger only makes me want her more.

My hand goes into her hair and she moans, her head falling back as my mouth finds her neck. She smells of savagery, of the perfume that’s been driving me insane for weeks.

Maybe they’re the same thing.

Her mouth under mine is sweet and hot, and I take it over and over, lost in the taste of her, in the fierce hunger I’ve been trying to contain from the moment I saw her. I lift her higher and slip one hand between us, groaning into her mouth when my fingers find her wet and wanting, her clit so swollen it pulses under my thumb. I slip one finger inside her.