by Kristi Gold
“Yes. I’d like a few good memories to carry with me after the bad ones tonight.”
His expression filled with remorse. “I am sorry I involved you in this. But I’m thankful that you are now safe.”
“So am I. I’m also thankful I met you.” Fiona tried to smile, yet it felt unnatural considering he would soon be gone from her life. “That was quite an adventure, huh?”
“More adventure than you or I bargained for.”
She toyed with the top button of his shirt. “I wouldn’t exactly refuse a certain kind of excitement that doesn’t involve crazy criminals in drag and guns.”
He breezed a kiss over her lips. “Neither would I.”
“Then why are we standing here?”
Without another word, Scorpio took her by the hand and led her into the bedroom. Once there, he seated her on the edge of the mattress, his gaze raking over her, homing in on the bodice of the dress. His expression went stone cold.
Fiona looked down and noticed the dark blotches splattered over her cleavage. Birkenfeld’s blood. She’d almost forgotten she still carried the reminders.
She looked up at Scorpio and saw something akin to torment in his eyes, as if he were reliving the moments, both those tonight and those years before. “It’s okay. I’ll clean it up.”
When she started to stand, he stopped her by nudging her gently back onto the edge of the bed. “I will do it.”
“I’m okay. Really.”
“I would prefer to do it.”
She lifted her shoulder in a nonchalant shrug when all the while she was battling tears over his kindness, his care. “Okay.”
After retiring to the bathroom for a few minutes, Scorpio returned with a washcloth and knelt in front of her. With his free hand, he loosened the clasp at her neck and the bodice fell to her waist. Then he began bathing her, carefully, until all the remnants of the blood were gone. But instead of standing, Scorpio tossed the rag onto the table and regarded her with intense dark eyes.
“Do you trust me, Fiona?”
“Yes.”
“Then lie back on the bed.”
Fiona did as he asked without hesitation because she did trust him. With all her hammering heart, she did.
While she watched, he shed his shirt then slipped out of his socks and slacks, leaving him completely nude before her. Naked and aroused and beautiful. She took every detail to memory, the breadth of his chest, the definition of his abdomen, the shading of masculine hair surrounding his sex. The faint welt at his side and the bandage on his thigh served as reminders of the night he had come into her life—a night that had changed her in many ways.
He leaned over and removed her dress, then her panties, hovering above her a few moments to take a long glance down her trembling body. After he leaned over and kissed her lips, long and leisurely, he propped two pillows beneath her shoulders and moved onto the bed at her feet.
“Do you trust me?” he asked again, stroking his fingertips up and down her instep.
“Yes,” Fiona managed on a ragged breath.
After bending her knees and nudging them apart with his palms, he trailed his warm lips over the inside of her thighs, first one, then the other, progressing upward over her pelvis before bringing his mouth to rest below her navel. She drew in a quick breath and released it on a gasp when he pressed his lips against the shading at the apex of her legs.
He lifted his head and fixed his black eyes on her face. “You have nothing to fear now,” he murmured. “I will give you no pain, only pleasure.”
Fiona gripped the covers at her sides and prepared for that pleasure, her eyes closed against the onslaught of sensation as his mouth covered her intimately and his soft, skilled tongue divined her flesh. All remembrance of tonight’s horrors disappeared on a strong current of desire—and love for this man who was taking her beyond all limits. A moan crawled up her throat and escaped as impending climax drove her to the edge of rationality, drove her to a place she had never really been before. Trembling turned to shaking, cold to heat, apprehension to elation under his mastery. And even though Fiona didn’t want any of it to end, she couldn’t hold back any more than she could hold on to her heart.
The climax consumed her, hard and furious, lifting her hips up from the force of it. But Scorpio didn’t stop. Didn’t even pause or let up long enough for her to catch her breath. He simply kept her captive with his mouth, with the ebb and flow of his tongue until once more, another climax claimed her as strong as the first.
Fiona covered her face with her palms to stop herself from crying out.
He pulled her hands from her face and held them against the solid wall of his chest. “Do you wish to continue?”
How could she not when he had shown her such total gratification? How would she ever find another man who moved her the way that he did, body and soul? Truthfully she probably never would.
“Yes,” she murmured, touching his cheek. “I want all of you.”
Darin kissed each of her palms. “And you will have all of me.”
No, not all of him, Fiona thought. She would never have his heart. Beyond tonight, this was all they would have.
In silent mourning of the inevitable loss, in silent praise of his beauty, she watched him take the condom from the bedside table and tear into the package with fingers that appeared to be shaking, belying his calm exterior. He was so tough at times, yet Fiona had begun to see the fissures in his emotional armor, like now as he came back to the bed and took her in his arms, stroking her cheek and hair with such tenderness. She could look at his face forever, could lose herself in him for hours at a time, or at least for the few brief hours before dawn.
“I need you,” she whispered as they faced each other.
Darin realized that Fiona had no idea how much he needed her. He shook with the force of his need, so much so he wanted to plunge inside her. But he silently cautioned himself to practice restraint, for as much as he needed to be inside her, he needed her complete trust more.
After moving over her, he braced on extended arms, keeping his lower body angled away. “Do you still trust me?” he asked again.
“Yes,” she murmured.
He moved his legs on either side of her hips, waiting to hear any protest or to see any fear. Instead she gripped his shoulders and pulled him toward her, welcoming him with a tender smile and vibrant green eyes hazy with the desire he knew was reflected in his own eyes.
Darin entered her with a slow glide, then paused to look at Fiona, her hair a russet halo framing her face, contrasting with the white satin pillow. She did not look wary or uncomfortable, but he had to be certain before he continued. “Are you—”
“Don’t hold back. Promise me?”
“I promise,” he said, making a vow to a woman for the first time in eight years. If only he could give her more than this act, more of himself. All of himself.
Darin slid his hands beneath her bottom, bringing Fiona up to meet his thrusts. They moved together, uninhibited, their bodies joined, as well as their mouths, as if they could devour each other. As if they could not receive enough of this pleasure to be satisfied. As if they had always been lovers.
“More,” Fiona murmured when Darin broke the kiss to draw a breath. “I want to feel you more.”
Darin pulled her legs around his waist and set a wilder rhythm in answer to her plea. His heart thrashed in his chest as he journeyed closer and closer to climax. A mild oath directed at his body’s impatience filtered through his brain, the final coherent thought as he slipped farther away, farther into a world created by Fiona’s touch, her scent, her wet heat surrounding him, pulling him deeper into oblivion until he could no longer fight the searing release.
He shuddered over the impact, held her closer although he felt as if they were still not close enough. A long time had passed since he had been so attuned to a woman, so replete that he felt almost weak. Yet he still craved her nearness, even as his pulse slowed and his respiration returned in s
low measure.
He continued to hold her close to his heart until he became mindful that she was taking all of his weight, remembering how much she despised feeling trapped. But when he shifted to move off her, she hung on to him and whispered, “Stay.”
And he did, wishing that he could remain with her indefinitely. Until he could once more be the man that he had been before tragedy had stolen his faith and shattered his world. A man who had freely loved and been loved in return.
Tonight Fiona had given him her total trust. Tomorrow he would leave her to return to Texas before departing to Obersburg. He had no choice; he’d given the royal family his word. Aside from that, believing he could open himself enough to be the man she needed was nothing more than an elusive dream, even though what he felt for her had begun to seem surprisingly real. And for the first time in years, he felt alone no more.
“What time is it?”
Fiona posed the question with her cheek resting against Darin’s shoulder, her fingers drawing random designs through the mat of hair on his chest. She was too boneless to lift her head, too afraid to look at the bedside clock and discover that the time for him to leave had come.
“Two hours before dawn,” he said, brushing a kiss across her forehead.
Fiona wished she could turn back time, return to the distant past when they had enjoyed each other’s company without the threat of a criminal hanging over them. Go back a few hours when they had showered together until the water had turned tepid, touching and exploring with greedy hands and mouths. They’d returned to bed and eaten cheesecake together, compliments of room service and on the house because of Darin’s heroism, according to the waiter who’d delivered the tray.
Scorpio had laughed when Fiona fed him with their shared fork, and he moaned when she’d done some terribly wicked things with the burgundy sauce lining the dessert plate. And to think she hadn’t cared all that much for raspberries, but she had cared about Darin Shakir enough to return the pleasure he had shown her. But he’d only allowed the intimacy for a few moments before they’d made love again, utilizing the pink condom provided by Peg, again bringing on their laughter.
Right now Fiona no longer felt like laughing. She seriously wanted to sob, to beg him to stay a little longer—forever. If only she could find the courage to tell him she loved him, but so far that courage had escaped her.
She could find out a little more about him, if he was willing to talk. “Did you know your former fiancée long before she was…uh—”
“Killed?” His tone was as rigid as his frame. “For several years. We were to be married in a matter of weeks before the incident.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did it happen?”
If his silence was any indication, he did mind, so Fiona decided to let it go, until he said, “Tamra was shot by the man who had killed my uncle, the king. He was an extremist who’d opposed my uncle’s forward thinking, a coward who preyed on a woman, who meant nothing to him, in order to punish the royal family. That day she was meeting me in the village for dinner. We were celebrating the news she had received that morning. She was going to have my child.”
Oh, God. “She was pregnant?”
“Yes, and she was so happy. I could see it in her face as she began running toward me. Then I saw the car and I knew it was him, but there was nothing I could do to prevent it since I was unarmed. I had also dismissed my bodyguards so that we could have the evening alone. When the sound of a single gunshot rang out, I could do nothing for her aside from holding her in my arms and watching her die.” He ran a hand over his eyes, as if trying to erase the images or maybe even in an effort to stop the tears.
It was becoming all too clear to Fiona what Darin had suffered and why he had so effectively closed himself off to emotions and to his legacy.
She remained silent, determined not to put him through any more torture, but he chose to continue without any prodding. “I trained with the military for a year, learned how to shoot well, then I joined a group of soldiers assigned to track him. He almost escaped when one man fired at him and missed. But I did not.”
“I guess that made you feel somewhat vindicated.”
“I felt nothing. No satisfaction. No joy in what I had done. Only a numbness that I have carried with me for some time now.”
That he still carried with him, Fiona decided. Obviously, she was not the woman to get him over his heartache, and that made her so very sad. She settled for kissing his lips and nestling close to his side, absorbing his heat and in some ways his grief. She had left behind a man and a mother who hadn’t understood her, and now she had found a man who seemed to know and embrace all her secrets, yet he couldn’t give anything to her beyond physical pleasure.
Just another chapter in the sad, sad story of Fiona’s life.
“What time does your plane leave?” Fiona asked as they walked hand in hand through the airport.
They traveled past a bank of slot machines creating a noisy furor that only added to Darin’s sour mood. “It should be here now,” he said, slowing the pace.
Fiona looked around as they continued past several commercial gates. “What airline?”
“It is a private plane.”
“I guess that shouldn’t surprise me,” she said.
They continued on in silence until they reached the area where Darin was directed to meet the plane. He spotted Alexander Kent immediately and beside him stood Ryan Evans, David Sorrenson, Clint Andover and Travis Whelan, all five of the Cattleman’s Club members who had been involved in the mission with Darin from the beginning. He was taken aback by their appearance, since he’d expected only Alex to escort him back to Texas. Yet he shouldn’t be shocked. Everything they had accomplished, they had done so as a team up until Darin had been assigned to track Birkenfeld.
Ryan held up a hand in a wave, but Darin stopped and faced Fiona. “My party has arrived.”
Fiona glanced at the group and frowned. “Are all those guys law enforcement?”
“In a manner of speaking. We are all members of the same organization.”
“A top secret organization, I take it.”
“Yes.”
Fiona sent him a bright smile that Darin took to memory. “And I suppose there’s nothing I can do to make you talk?”
He leaned over and whispered, “You have already done that, and quite well.”
“Anytime,” she said, a hint of sadness in her tone. “I’ll be here if you ever decide to come back to Vegas. If you ever need a friend.”
Darin recognized that he did consider her a friend, as well as the consummate lover. He saw her as a woman he hated to leave more than she realized. A woman who had dissolved his defenses and touched a part of his soul. But he had to leave her. He had somewhere else to be, another mission in another country. Normally that would bring about anticipation. Today he lacked in enthusiasm.
“I have seen to it that your apartment will be repaired,” he said.
“I can’t go back there. I’m going to see if I can stay with Peg and Walt until I finish school in a few weeks.”
“After you complete your studies, what will you do?” he asked.
“I hope to find a good job in a hotel. Maybe someday own my own place.”
For some strange reason, Darin was hoping she would ask to come with him. “Then you will not be seeking adventure somewhere else?”
She released a humorless laugh. “I think I’ve had my fill of adventure for a while. I’ll just be thankful for what I have. A nice dog, a decent job and a good future if I play my cards right.”
He palmed her face and rubbed his thumb down her delicate jaw. “I wish you only the best of luck. I hope you have all that you seek in this lifetime.”
She laid her palm on his hand and said, “And if there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.”
“You can kiss me goodbye.”
Once again she glanced at the men standing nearby, looking on with expectancy and blatant
curiosity. “You mean you’re going to put me in a lip lock right here in front of all the guys?”
Frankly, Darin did not care who witnessed their affection. He had no doubt he would bear the brunt of their questions on the trip back, but kissing Fiona one last time, holding her, would be well worth the harassment he would most surely endure from his friends.
On that thought, he kissed her deeply, releasing all the gratitude, all the desire, all the caring he felt for her in that moment.
Even when a whistle sounded along with, “We’ve got to go, Shakir,” they kissed a few moments longer before parting, their gazes still fixed on each other. Darin longed for more time with her. He would like nothing better than to return to the hotel, spend the day in bed with her in his arms instead of the day on a plane with five men.
“Take care, Scorpio,” Fiona said, then landed her palm on his buttocks. “You have a really great derriere. See? I know some French, in case I ever get to Paris.”
Darin brushed a kiss across her lips and gave her a smile. “I will miss you, Fiona. More than you know.”
She stood on her toes and whispered in his ear, “And I love you, too, Darin Shakir.”
With that Fiona turned and walked away, leaving Darin alone in stunned silence. She loved him, and he did not understand why she had waited so long to tell him. But worse, he felt the same about her, and he had not bothered to tell her. Yet somehow she had known, exactly as she had known his pain, his grief. She had dared him to love her, and he had effectively taken the bait.
A hand patted his back and Darin turned to find Ryan Evans standing beside him, the others gathering nearby. “Well, I’ll be damned. Looks like the sheikh not only caught a criminal while he was here, he also caught a fine-looking redhead. Is that the woman Birkenfeld tried to kill?”
He craned his neck to watch Fiona until she disappeared from sight among the masses. “Yes, that is her. Fortunately, she was unharmed.”
“Thanks to you,” Kent said. “I’m assuming she’s the one who aided you during the mission.”
