by Tate James
13
Back upstairs in the room I had woken in, there was an array of stunning evening gowns laid out across the bed with a frantic Elena pacing back and forth in her deadly stiletto heels. She was chewing at her fingernails and undoubtedly destroying her perfect manicure, and when I stepped back into the room, she let out a startled scream.
“There you are! How the hell did you get out without anyone seeing you? You have no idea how worried I was! If anyone had seen you…” Her rambling was cut short by Vali pushing into the room behind me.
“Oh good, Elena is here with dresses. Kit, go and shower or whatever it is you girls do to get ready. Just be quick about it; I can’t be late for my own party.” He totally ignored the gorgeous brunette staring at him with her mouth hanging open while he stalked to the bed and began inspecting the clothing options.
She blinked her wide eyes at him a couple of times, as if at a loss for words, then opened her mouth with a determined scowl. For some reason, witnessing their lovers’ quarrel was not high on my to-do list, so I took the opportunity to shut myself into the adjoining bathroom.
Vali had said the party started in an hour, but my hair was already washed and clean and I didn’t particularly care if I made him late, so ran myself a bath in the massive spa tub. While the water filled, I piled my hair up high to keep it dry, then loaded the water with a healthy dose of floral-scented bubble bath from the assortment of products on the window ledge. The bath was an impressive, comfortable thing, sitting eye level with the window to offer a stunning view over the desert below, and once I had made myself comfortable in the warm water, it was so relaxing that my lids began drooping. Surely a quick nap wouldn’t hurt… just to soak some tension out…
When I woke, I was still in the bath, but the bubbles smelled like jasmine and the window offered a very different view. Was I back at the guys’ house?
Blinking my sleepy eyes a couple of times, I rubbed them with a wet hand and looked around. I was definitely in Wesley’s bathroom. How the hell had that happened?
“Kit, is it safe to come in?” Wesley’s voice called through the cracked door, startling the hell out of me.
“Is it, um, yes?” I’m so confused.
“Oh good,” he replied, coming into the bathroom with his hands tucked inside the deep pockets of his oversized hoody. “I know it’s only a dream, but it still doesn’t seem right to barge in on you naked, you know?”
“A dream?” I repeated, frowning at him as he took up his spot beside the bath where he had sat several times before to chat while I soaked. “Is that what this is? A dream?”
“Of course it is, silly. You were kidnapped, remember? And we still haven’t found you…” he trailed off, his shoulders drooping so low that I wanted to leap out of the tub and hug him. But this dream felt really real, and modesty kept me seated beneath the bubbles.
“Hey,” I coaxed. “Don’t give me that look. I’m sure you’re doing everything you can. Besides, this is a dream, so shouldn’t we be pretending none of that bad shit exists?” Why was I trying to make dream-Wesley feel better? If this was a dream, which seemed like the most logical explanation, then he was a figment of my imagination. Maybe it was my own guilty conscience manifesting as him. Dreams were weird.
Just to test the theory that this was a dream, I shut my eyes and focused hard to make something impossible happen. When I opened them again, Wesley had disappeared from his spot on the bathroom floor and rematerialized at the opposite end of the tub from me, still fully clothed.
“Hey!” he yelled, splashing around a bit and looking bewildered. “What the hell, Kit?”
A grin spread across my face as I shrugged. “What? You said it was a dream, so I thought I’d test the bounds of the imagination. You should take some layers off, though; it can’t be comfortable to bathe in clothing.” I gave him a playful wink but was dying to see where my dream would go on this one. Real-life Wesley would never strip down and take a bath with me, but dream-Wesley might…
The naughty smirk he gave me was exactly true to my imagination as he took off his glasses, setting them on the window ledge, then whipped off his soaking hoody and T-shirt all in one go.
Holy shit, who would have guessed a body like that was hiding under all that loose clothing? I chuckled, I guess I did. Kudos to my subconscious for coming up with this one…
“What are you grinning at?” Wesley asked, a grin of his own pulling at his mouth as he sat back in the water, his insanely ripped abdomen dipping out of sight beneath the bubbles.
“Nothing.” Lies! Biting my lip, I admired the tattoo on his chest and tried not to drool. “I guess you weren't lying about that tattoo after all.”
“I would never lie to you, Kit,” he responded with a small frown. “I wish we knew where you were right now. You must be so scared and thinking we don't care enough to save you.”
“Don't be absurd, Wes.” I shushed him, sitting forward in the bath to catch his face in my wet hands. “Of course I don't think that. And you underestimate my ability to save myself. I will be home before you know it.”
Our faces were only inches apart, and for the first time I noticed the stunning sky blue color of his eyes and the lush lashes most girls would kill for.
“Um, Kit?” he murmured, those gorgeous eyes widening.
“Hmm?” I asked, distracted by the feel of his slightly rough cheek beneath my hand. I slid it further up his jaw to tangle in his shaggy blond hair.
“Um, I can see, I mean to say, your ah…” He was blushing and stuttering like the first time we had met, and it took me a moment to understand what he was saying. When I had leaned forward in the bath, I had lost my bubble covering, and my naked chest was very much exposed. I wasn't a small-breasted girl by any means, so he would have had to be blind not to cop an eyeful.
“What? It's just a dream, Wes. You can look… if you want?” Holy crap, do not tell me dream-Wesley isn't interested. Can you be embarrassed in a dream?
“I don't know, Kit. It feels wrong…” He bit his lower lip exactly the way I wanted to for him. “Is it wrong to have a dirty dream while you're in the hands of kidnappers?”
Oh my God, stop it conscience! Stop manifesting my own guilt into dream-Wesley!
“Is it? It's not a situation I find myself in often,” I told him honestly. “But if it is just a dream, then what's the harm? More to the point, who's to know? Fuck knows you'd probably never let me do this in person.”
“Let you do what?” he asked, his breathing a bit heavier and his pupils dilating as he darted quick glances down at my chest, then back at my face.
“This…” I sighed. Then, before I could let my imagination ruin it with the most realistic scenario—Wesley rejecting me—I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. Pausing, I reveled a moment in the new and exciting feeling of his lips against mine.
Shit, it felt so real. Dreams like this should happen every night!
Cautiously, his lips moved beneath mine, kissing me back ever so softly. For once I held back, letting him take the lead, curious to see where my dream would take this. I’d never realized I had put so much thought into Wesley's kissing technique before, but I must have because dream-Wesley took my silent cue and ran with it. His lips parted, tongue slipping out and hesitantly swiping along the seam of my lips. I happily responded, opening and allowing him entry.
The moment our tongues touched, it was like a switch was flicked in him. His hands came up from the water to caress my sides, sweeping closer to my chest with every thrust and move of his mouth against mine until finally he clasped my breasts in his hands. I let out a sigh of satisfaction against his mouth, pressing harder into his palms in encouragement.
“Shit,” he mumbled, pulling back from my mouth to look at me with sexy, sleepy eyes. “This is… insane. I'm not going to be able to look you in the eye next time I see you.”
“Hush, it's a dream. Let's just go with it.” I pulled at his lower lip with my teeth, and he gro
aned, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me to straddle him. Water sloshed everywhere at the abrupt movement, and I grinned, having gotten a satisfactory response from him.
My grin dropped quickly as my naked crotch met with his rigid shaft straining against wet denim. “Fuck.” Crushing myself hard against him, I swore and grabbed his hair once again to press my mouth back to his as waves of pleasure began rolling up from between my legs.
“Oh my God, Wes…” I panted, rubbing hard against his denim while his hands reclaimed my breasts, his fingers finding my nipples and rolling them deliciously.
“Who is Wes?” a velvet voice interrupted, and I froze.
“I am a little offended; here I was thinking you might be fantasizing about me,” the voice continued, and I snapped my eyes back open.
Gone were my sexy blond Brainiac and the jasmine-scented bubbles. I was back in the bath at Vali's house in the desert, and the owner in question was standing over me with a seriously heated look on his face.
My brain slowly woke up as I blinked a couple of times, pulling myself back out of the intensely real dream before I clicked on what he had just said. Or more to the point, what he had just seen. My bubbles had all but evaporated, leaving no doubt in my mind that he could clearly see two fingers of my right hand sunk deep inside my own pussy while the other gripped my breast tight.
“Well,” I said in an offended voice, deciding to roll with it. “That was awfully rude of you to interrupt before I was done.”
“Oh, please,” he replied with a smirk. “Do continue.” He sat down on the edge of the bath near my feet and made no attempt to disguise the lust on his face as he stared at the fingers still inside of me.
It'd serve him right if I did finish myself off in front of him.
For far too long, I very seriously considered it. It seemed wrong though, when the pent up orgasm banging at my door was for Wesley, not Vali.
Sighing, I shook my head and withdrew my hand, reaching out of the tub to grab a towel. The damn thing was out of reach.
“Here, allow me,” the blasted sexy Romanian offered, picking up the towel and holding it out for me to step in to.
Fuck it, not like he hasn't already seen all of me. I hardened my spine and stood straight up, stepping out of the water and into the waiting towel with his laserlike gaze raking over every inch of me.
“Did you need something?” I asked politely with only a tiny edge of snark to my tone.
“So many things…” he purred, giving me a look hot enough to start a forest fire somewhere. Then he winked at me and turned to leave the bathroom.
“Party has already started. You're late. I left your dress on the bed and will be back to collect you in five minutes.” With that, he was gone again.
A heavy breath of air that I hadn't even noticed I was holding puffed out of me, and I collapsed onto the edge of the tub.
What the fuck was that?
14
The dress that Vali had picked out, or Elena had, was a gorgeous, midnight blue satin thing with straps that left my entire back exposed and a sweeping train dropping from the full skirt. It was an incredible fit for me, which made me suspect it wasn't one of Elena's hand me downs, as she was a fair bit shorter than I was.
Unfortunately, despite hunting just about everywhere, I couldn't find any underwear left out for me, so once again I was going commando. In normal situations, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but after the dream I had just had, and the state I had been left in, I really prayed this fabric wouldn't show any damp spots.
With impeccable timing, just as I slipped my feet into the matching midnight blue Jimmy Choos, also in my exact size, Vali reentered the room without any warning. Rude.
“Don't you ever knock?” My eyes narrowed at him in a scowl. My frustration, like so many other emotions, liked to manifest as peevishness.
“To enter my own bedroom? No. I don't.” He arched his eyebrow at me, and I glanced around me once again. That explains all the men's clothes.
“Fair enough,” I muttered, stalking out of the door, which he held open in a gentlemanly gesture. “So, what are we supposed to be doing until this escape happens?”
“Quiet,” he shushed me sharply. “There are far too many unfriendly ears in my home tonight. Here, you'll need this.” He held out a scrap of lace to me, and I took it gingerly.
“What…” Is it the missing underwear? “Oh, a mask. This is a masquerade party?” He just rolled his eyes at me, as if to say: no shit, Sherlock, I just handed you a mask.
Taking the hint to shut up, I tied the mask onto my face. As we approached the staircase, Vali pulled another cloth mask from his suit pocket and tied it onto his own face.
Damn that man was sexy.
“Just try your best to be the perfect party companion, yes?” he muttered, steering me down the staircase with a firm hand on my exposed lower back. Heat seemed to be radiating up from where our skin was touching, and I had to stop myself from leaning closer. God only knew what had gotten into me lately, but lusting after a murderer didn't seem like the sanest move I had ever made.
I cleared my throat and took a few quicker steps to dislodge his hand from my back. “And what do you expect your perfect party companion to do, exactly? What time is it anyway? It's still light outside.”
As we descended the staircase to the ground floor, I took a look around at the party below. It looked like no expense had been spared, which was in line with the rest of Vali's opulent house. When I had made my escape attempt out of the window earlier, all I had seen was his bedroom and the library he’d dragged me back into. On the opposite side of the house from his room, the side away from the cliff, it was a literal sprawling mansion like you'd see on MTV's Cribs.
The party was situated through a marble-floored lounge area and out onto a patio surrounding an outdoor heated pool, and the late afternoon sun was casting a beautiful, golden glow over everything.
“It’s about… four thirty or so. Sun is about to set.” The warmth in his voice had me glancing up, and I found him gazing at the horizon. “I love this time of day. It looks like the whole world is on fire.”
Once again, the strange feeling of familiarity struck me, stronger now that he wore a mask and his eyes were being isolated.
“Come on,” he said, breaking the train of thought I was chasing. “We need to drink, dance, be social. Please try to speak as little as possible, and you'll be home to Wes before you know it.” He twitched a tiny grin at me, and I blushed red, suddenly thankful for the mask I was wearing.
Cannot believe he walked in on that. Despite my embarrassment, the reminder made my thighs clench and my nipples harden against the thin fabric of my dress.
A sharply dressed waiter holding a tray of full champagne flutes floated over to us, and Vali reached across me to grab two. It was no coincidence, I was sure, that his jacketed arm brushed across my chest where the fabric was noticeably raised. Bastard.
After hours of smiling politely and biting my lip to keep quiet—around the time midnight was approaching—my feet felt like they were about to fall off and I was just a little bit tipsy. More than once I had used the drink in my hand as a tactic to keep from running my mouth at some of the disgusting, sexist, and downright rude things that some of these men had said to me. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that these partygoers were not the most upstanding citizens of society.
Luckily my body seemed to be metabolizing the alcohol at lightening pace, so even after seven straight hours of champagne top-offs, I still had my wits about me.
“Are you ready?” Vali murmured into my ear as the DJ called over the mic for everyone to grab a fresh drink. His lips brushed against my lobe, his warm breath fanning across my neck, and I knew my skin was breaking out in gooseflesh.
“Of course. Let’s get the hell out of this place. Such a dump.” I turned my nose up jokingly at his lovely mansion, and he snickered. He had been a surprisingly pleasant date all evening.
�
�Let's move then.” He winked at me with one of his gorgeously familiar eyes and grabbed my hand, leading me through the crowded dance floor of drunk people dripping in jewels.
All of a sudden he stopped, and I stumbled. My momentum in the stiletto heels pushed me forward, and he caught me against his broad chest.
“What—” I gasped, but he cut my confused question off, grabbing the back of my head with one massive hand and crushing his mouth to mine. I froze. My eyes wide and staring straight into his, which were equally wide. His other hand gave me a sharp, subtle pinch on the waist, and I got the message. Someone was watching us that required a show of the submissive little slave he had just purchased.
My eyelids dropped closed because kissing someone with my eyes open was just downright creepy, and I felt his hand smooth over the spot he had just pinched, then continue around to my back and down to grab my ass like some sort of caveman staking his claim. My natural instinct was to slap him, but I forced myself to relax as I wound my arms around his neck. I couldn’t resist giving him a subtle warning by sinking my fingernails a bit deep into the soft flesh behind his ear.
He laughed against my mouth, the bastard, then used his lips to pry mine apart, deepening our kiss to something definitely no longer fit for public. Despite my best efforts to remain detached, my body was responding. Dampness slicked my thighs, and a girly moan escaped my throat as he dominated me.
Time seemed to slip away as we embraced, but we both broke apart suddenly when the midnight countdown began. Everyone around us yelled out the numbers with the DJ, and Vali quickly glanced over my shoulder, then grabbed my hand once more and took off out of the room at a pace just short of running.
“Sorry,” he muttered once we were clear of the partygoers. “My esteemed father was watching us. I didn't want to raise his suspicions. He already thinks I am a failure as a crime lord; the last thing I need is him finding out I helped you escape when there is seven million dollars resting on your head.”
