Chapter 4 #2
“He was forces too, and had never got over the fact that he’d failed advanced training, while I got through. It pissed him off. I pissed him off. He liked to test me when I was home on leave, until one day his test became…shall we say, a little more intimate?”
“Did you survive it?”
“Clearly, I did.” Amber’s face froze as she remembered. “He got no further than a quick grope. He wouldn’t have got that far if I’d expected him to do something like that while my mother was in the room. I suppose now that was just further proof of his contempt for both of us.”
“You had a lucky escape.”
She laughed without humor. “You could call it that. My father had insisted I learn judo from the age of five. He said every woman should be able to defend herself, so I kept it up. Even as a young teen, I wanted to honor his memory, and that was something concrete I could do.”
‘You must have loved him very much.”
“I adored him,” she said bluntly.
“And your stepfather?”
“He was an arse. I was a black belt by the time he assaulted me. He thought he could take me on, and he ended up in hospital. My mother took his side and asked me to leave. He beat her to death shortly afterward. So, no,” she said.
“You don’t need to worry about me. No one can get at me through those I care about, because there’s no one left. ”
“Why did you leave the forces?” Alexei frowned. “Why Hard News? Why investigative journalism?”
“My mother’s death shattered me. I was determined to see my stepfather brought to justice, and I did.
He’ll be locked up for the rest of his life.
I started to think about life after the forces.
My job at Hard News was suggested by the forces resettlement officer—and not entirely by coincidence, I think now.
My training as an investigative journalist was supposed to be all action, which appealed to me enormously, but it turned out to be no action—until I was given this assignment.
Maybe this assignment isn’t a coincidence either. ”
“Maybe you’ll never know.” Alexei’s face remained expressionless.
“I think you and I share some similarities,” she said.
“You do?”
“The same desire to right wrongs and expose evil? I want the chance to keep on doing it.”
“So write your stories,” Alexei advised. “You know what they say about the pen being mightier than the sword. It also gives you the excuse to visit places that are closed to a lot of people, where you will see things and experience things that can be helpful to a certain type of organization.”
“To your type of organization?”
“Amongst others,” he agreed.
“So I’m undergoing yet another critical assessment,” she guessed. “And if I’m successful, are you suggesting I continue to investigate and release information that helps you?”
“You’re still a long way from that,” he assured her.
“So long as we’re on the same side?” It was Amber’s turn to assess Alexei.
“You can assume that’s the case,” he confirmed.
“You do have one advantage over me.”
“Only one?” he pressed.
She ignored the faint mocking tone in his voice. “You have the ability to remain detached, and I’m not sure I do.”
He raised a brow at her confession, but then his expression hardened again.
“I’m detached because I have to be, because anything else can cost lives.
If you feel too much, you’ll be a liability to my organization.
If you want to stay, that will have to change.
One of the first rules of investigative journalism is to keep emotion out of it, surely? ”
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll have to do better than that.” He glanced at the door. “This interview is over. You’re dismissed.”
So, had she gotten the job or not? Amber left and closed the door with a soft click.
Alexei sent such conflicting messages. His main purpose in life seemed to be unsettling her.
To date, he had a hundred percent success rate in that direction.
She felt wrung out by his questions, and aroused from nothing more than being close to him.
She had to get over her response to him. She could fantasize all she liked about the steely-eyed Russian taking control of her pleasure along with everything else he controlled, but she was wasting her time if she thought she could ignite a spark of genuine interest in those cold, assessing eyes.
When Russian Thunder moored at the first of the Canary Islands, his crew would disembark to spend Christmas Day on shore.
That would leave him and Amber alone on board.
The day after Christmas, they would sail to Isla Celeste, where she would have to pass the scrutiny of Dante, Diego, and Cesar.
He had no doubt that she would, but imagining them finding her as intriguing as he did seriously pissed him off.
Cutting Amber from his mind, he spent the rest of the day planning the next polo match on Isla Celeste.
Hard, dangerous, and unforgiving, polo was exactly the type of relaxation he needed to take his mind off his work—all of it.
The game was both a hobby and an excuse for him and the rest of the Blood and Thunder team to get together with other like-minded individuals.
The league table, which the Blood and Thunder team currently headed, was the public face of a private army.
Cut Amber from his mind? Seriously? Thoughts of her had plagued him all day, and now he couldn’t sleep. Swinging naked out of bed, he tugged on a pair of jeans. Exiting onto the deck, he leaned over the rail, staring out to sea. And only then realized that he had company.
“Alexei—”
Amber seemed as shocked to see him as he was to see her.
“You got through security again?”
“I do seem to be making a habit of it,” she agreed.
“And just happened to find yourself outside my suite”
Mashing her lips together, she looked more as if she was trying to stop herself laughing than acting guilty. “I was wondering if your arm had healed.”
“Were you?” he commented skeptically. “As you can see. It’s healing nicely, thanks to your prompt attention.”
“The doctor’s prompt attention,” she countered crisply, taking none of the credit for his care.”
“They taught you some useful skills in the army,” he observed.
“You too,” she said.
She was barefoot in pajamas, with her shining hair cascading around her shoulders like a cloud. She looked young and innocent. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find her clutching a teddy bear. Knowing she was combat trained and far from na?ve only added to her allure.
“Couldn’t you sleep?” she asked.
Her impertinence astounded him, but even in flannelette pajamas, partly concealed by one of the ship’s robes, she looked like the hottest thing on two slender legs. “How did you get past security and onto this deck?”
She gave him a reproving look. “Are you questioning my right to fresh air?”
“Not at all.” He rested back on the rail. “I’m just curious as to how you slipped past my guards yet again.”
“We were chatting, and they were relaxed. I guess they didn’t notice when I turned left instead of right. Don’t blame them,” she added quickly. “Everyone who comes on board is thoroughly checked out.”
“They told you this?”
“All I’m saying is, your guards have got no reason to suspect the worst of me.”
“Unlike me?” he suggested.
Her slender shoulders lifted in a shrug. “You suspect everyone.”
“With good reason, it seems.”
“So, what led you to this job?” she prompted. “Strictly off the record, of course.”
“Of course,” he agreed dryly. “Everything I say to a journalist is off the record.”
“Unless you give me permission to use what you tell me, then it is,” Amber insisted. “And I’m not solely a journalist, as you very well know, any more than you’re solely a…billionaire?”
“I didn’t just find a money tree. I have to work for everything I’ve got.”
“I don’t doubt it, but how did you get started?”
“Like everyone else, I put one foot in front of the other.”
“Yes, but you went halfway around the globe, while the rest of us are marking time. I’m fascinated by how you came so far so fast. What is your backstory, Alexei?”
“That’s none of your business,” he snapped, closing down that line of questioning.
“You can’t blame me for being curious,” she said. “It’s hard for me to forget how much I’ve told you, and how little, if anything, you’ve told me.”
“And that’s how it’s going to stay,” he assured her.
Leaning against the ship’s rail, she braced herself to ask the question nagging in her mind. “So no mini-oligarchs or a glamorous wife or even a girlfriend waiting for you?”
“I’m surprised you’re interested.”
She blushed faintly. “Just mildly curious,” she admitted.
“No boyfriend?” he parried.
“That’s none of your—”
A raised brow was all it took to remind Amber that she hadn’t gotten the job yet.
“No one who can keep up with me,” she amended, replacing tension with good humor.
They stared at each other. He liked a woman who could stand up to him. Amber certainly could. It appeared she liked him too. A lot.
They came together like a clap of thunder.
He dragged her close. She grabbed hold of him.
He wrestled her away so he could stare her in the eyes.
He had to be sure there was no ambiguity in them.
He saw what he’d expected. She wanted him.
He wanted her. She was aroused and wanted sex as much as he did.
“What’s wrong?” Alexei demanded when she went still in his arms.
As much as she wanted him, she’d guessed he’d discard her when he was done, and was probably thinking, was that what she wanted? Was she prepared to risk, if not her heart, then at the very least, her self-respect?
Gazing heavenward, she huffed out a breath and shook her head. “Billionaire warrior and fledgling reporter?” Angling her chin to stare up at him, she slanted her lips. “Does that sound likely?”
“It doesn’t need to,” he ground out. His engines were firing on all cylinders. He wasn’t interested in delay.
“Because everything you do is short-term?” she challenged.
“Because you should stop putting us in a box,” he argued. “Instead of fixating on billionaire and journalist, why don’t you try Alexei and Amber instead? I think you’ll find that they’re quite a good match.”
In spite of herself, coming from Alexei, that thrilled her. “Alexei and Amber?” she repeated.
“Just don’t get too fond of it,” he warned.
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” she assured him spikily.
But it would be hard not to, Amber thought as Alexei pressed his body against hers, until her softness yielded to his hard steel.
“That’s good,” he approved, dropping drugging kisses on the side of her neck.
Good? She could lose control from his kisses alone.
When she whimpered with pleasure, he laughed softly and showed her no mercy at all.
Teasing the seam of her lips with his tongue until she parted them for him, he plundered her mouth, tasting and greedily possessing as he mimicked the act they both craved.
She groaned softly with need. If she’d been hungry for Alexei before he kissed her, she was ravenous now.
And then he ramped up the pressure beyond bearing when he murmured in her ear, “I’m going to kiss you, touch you, and pleasure you, until you come so hard, so many times, I’ll have to carry you to bed because your legs won’t hold you.”
“How long have we got?” Exhaling shakily, she smiled against his mouth.