Year of the Scorpio: Part Two

by Stacy Gail

  That was what set her apart from every other woman on the planet for him, he realized as need twisted deeper inside him. While everyone else fell apart, Dasha kept her shit together. Her strength was the sexiest damn thing he’d ever known.

  “Tonight’s attack seemed so personal, the way he thought he’d gain recognition for killing me,” she went on, frowning. “Recognition from whom? That has to mean something.”

  “You’re not to think about it anymore.” He sifted his fingers through her hair and reveled in its silky softness. Fuck, she was sexy. “It doesn’t deserve your time. It doesn’t deserve you. All you need to know is that I’ll keep you safe.”

  “But—”

  “Done talking now, Fearless.” He cupped the back of her head to guide her lips to his, and let the loneliness of the past two months melt away.

  My mind was spinning from all the crazy information Polo had just dropped on me—the contract on my life, the danger I was still in, how no one had bothered to tell me any of this, and that he’d allowed himself to be shot so he could play detective while under the guise of being a corpse. I was upset, confused, and frankly so full of Jubilee’s oatmeal I feared I was going to be ill.

  Then he kissed me.

  I didn’t want to be kissed. Or placated, or silenced, or whatever other kind of manipulation he’d decided to throw my way. What I wanted was to understand why the hell I’d been kept in the dark when it was my life that was at stake. And why, why, had he agreed to go through with some harebrained plan that made me believe he was dead? If I could understand all the angles, I was sure I’d be able to get rid of the persistent smoldering way down deep that burned in my chest whenever I thought of the agony I’d endured. That smoldering was something I refused to name or even acknowledge, because a good person didn’t get angry or upset about having someone return from the grave. They just counted their blessings and skipped happily off into the sunset.

  It was a blessing to have Polo back. He’d been dead to me, yet I had the miracle of his kiss back in my life.

  And what a kiss it was.

  The chaos in my head quieted as the sensation of his mouth filtered in. The way his lips melded to mine created a fusion so complete I could almost believe we’d never be parted again. I craved that oneness more than discussions or revelations. I craved to convince myself that this was real, that he was there with me and not a figment of my grief-ridden imagination. I craved to feel him moving inside me until I didn’t know where he ended and I began.

  I craved him.

  I wouldn’t let anything else matter. Not now.

  “No more interruptions.” His mouth never fully left mine as he spoke the words against my lips. One hand slid to my bra’s catch in the middle of my back while the other set about loosening the front of my jeans. “No more barriers. I’ve been dreaming of making you moan for two long months. I’m not about to wait any longer.”

  “Then don’t.” I shrugged the bra’s straps from my shoulders and tossed the wisp of lace to the floor, eager to feel the muscle-hard nakedness of his torso against me. I wasn’t exactly the curviest centerfold at the moment, but he didn’t seem to mind as the hand at my back crushed me to him while his other hand dived past loose denim and cotton to cup my sex.

  Until that moment I hadn’t realized that after Polo had “died,” the part of me that enjoyed intimacy had died with him. It hadn’t been a conscious thing. It was just that something in me held no hope of finding someone who fulfilled me as completely as Polo had, so my libido had put up the “Closed” sign and turned itself off.

  But as his hand invaded my panties, every nerve came roaring back to life, and I spread my legs wider to give him easier access.

  “Looks like I’m going to have to make you wet, aren’t I, beautiful?” His growl was like a rumble of thunder that vibrated through me, making my breath catch and my excitement skyrocket.

  “It’s possible you underestimate all the traumas I’ve had to endure recently,” I whispered, and couldn’t seem to stop myself from nipping at his lower lip and tasting it with a flick of my tongue. “Last night was just the cherry on top. You’re really going to have to put in some effort to make me feel anything at…ahh.”

  His finger slipped between my folds.

  “I can definitely bring the effort,” he murmured, scrubbing his bearded cheek against my jaw to make my neck arch. His mouth took advantage of the position, opening up on the side of my neck. He sucked on my skin as if I were his favorite flavor, while at the same time he stroked my cleft. At first he merely teased me, gently skating over the hyper-sensitive nub of my clit before moving on, only to repeat the process. It was as maddening as it was delightful, and I squirmed in his lap as the hunger built deep in my belly, my intimate flesh tingling and swelling until I ached.

  “There’s my beautiful Dasha.” His voice caressed my ears, a velvet purr that kicked off a surge of wetness I could feel. I moaned soundlessly as the erotic sensations began to seep through my system like a drug. “I knew I could get that engine started. Does this feel good, beautiful?”

  “You know—” I interrupted myself with a jagged little gasp when he unexpectedly applied pressure to that vulnerable cluster of nerves, making my body jolt with an inundation of pleasure. “You know it does. Polo…damn it, just hurry up and fuck me.”

  “You said I needed to put in the effort, and I think you were right about that.” His mouth moved down my throat to the curve of my shoulder. And all the while his finger circled and pressed, circled and pressed, driving me slowly insane. “I don’t like it that you weren’t wet and ready for me. That’s a first, and I want it to be the last. I just have to remind your body that it loves being near me, and it loves what I can give it. This might take a while, so sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  I wanted to tell him that I’d enjoy any ride as long as he went along with me, but he chose that moment to lean over me, his body making mine bend back over his supporting arm. His head dropped so that his tongue could draw greedy, tasting circles around first one areola, then the other. As I arched into him, he drew a tightly beaded nipple into his mouth and sucked so hard it was as though he’d brought every nerve in my body to that single point of contact.

  And all the while, that clever hand in my panties kept tormenting me without mercy.

  “I can’t.” Rolling spasms of pleasure rippled through me, so close to becoming that glorious big bang of release. Those ripples made my body writhe and muscles quiver, and the tension pulsing through me had become deliciously unbearable. “I can’t hold on. Polo, I…oh, God.”

  “Let go, Dasha.” The breath that carried his command feathered across my overheated skin before he lowered his head once more. This time he took the taut peak of my breast between his teeth and toyed with it relentlessly before looking into my eyes. “Come for me. Come for me now.”

  At his words, the tingling started deep in my belly and exploded outward, a massive eruption of tension and rapture that blocked out the world. I would have been oblivious to my cries if they hadn’t torn at my throat, while ecstasy shimmered through my every nerve.

  God, how I’d missed this.

  I was still wallowing in the receding ripples of euphoric sensation when suddenly the lap I was reclining on vanished. There was a crash as he swept the food tray to the floor with a sweep of his arm. A second later my back took its place, the glossy surface cold against my heated flesh. A heartbeat after that, and my jeans, panties and one remaining shoe were peeled off, and he propped my feet up on his shoulders as he sat once again.

  “Polo…”

  “It’s my turn to eat my fill. Here’s hoping that food did the trick and you’ve got enough energy to keep up with me. Spread wider for me, beautiful.”

  Twin shivers of anticipation and uncertainty bolted through me, but since I wanted to see how far I could go as well, I followed instructions.

  Fascinated, I watched Polo’s dark head lower between my knees, his hands s
liding under my ass to tilt me up at just the right angle to meet his descending mouth. When his tongue licked its way between my folds—a wet and fabulously new sensation for me—my hands reached for the edge of the table on either side of my head while my hips shamelessly lifted to rub against that amazing, magical mouth.

  “Yes.” The breathless encouragement left me in a dizzy rush, and seeing his dark head bent over my openly exposed pussy was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. And for what I was feeling…

  God.

  It wasn’t just beautiful.

  It was heaven.

  “I love this,” I whispered, barely conscious of what I was saying. Barely conscious of anything except the relentless circling of his tongue against my clit and the underlying reverence of his every move. If it was possible to feel worshipped through touch alone, Polo made it happen. Because of that, it wasn’t long before I was once again scaling the airless heights of another bone-melting orgasm. “Oh, God. Ohhhh, God…”

  A satisfied growl came from him while my muscles vibrated with crushing tension, and he pushed me without mercy toward the edge of absolute bliss. I was so wet, so achy and needing my emptiness filled with his thick cock, that I could only moan while my eyes stung with tears I didn’t even try fighting.

  “Please, Polo,” I whispered, my body undulating in a wild rhythm that I couldn’t stop. “Please, please I need you inside me, I need you to fuck me so hard, please do it, do it, do it…”

  Even incoherent speech evaporated from my grasp as the pleasure abruptly began to sink in on itself—doubling, trebling, concentrating into a purity of the sweetest sensation. Breathless cries heaved out of me with every gasp, and this seemed to be a signal for him to move deeper into my sex, his lips closing over my clit to suck on it like candy.

  I broke.

  Mindless ecstasy flung me out of my world and into another, excruciatingly blissful place. I thought I had known pleasure with him, but this was on another plane. It was the vibrant return of life—not just his life, but my own—and I never wanted it to end.

  I was never fully aware of Polo coming to his feet, jerking down his jeans and briefs and rolling a condom in place. I just knew he was suddenly, gloriously surging inside me, stretching my intimate walls that seemed almost virginally tight after being without him for so long. It was so intense, that abrupt merging of his thick, iron-hard cock with my body, that I came again, clenching hard around his shaft that fit me so well. That sent him over the edge right along with me, his deep groan of satisfaction mingling with mine. It was a beautiful sound, and one I never thought I’d hear again.

  It took a small eternity for the eddies of pleasure to fade away, and he worked inside me all the way through, the slick, hot glide of him making me shudder. I didn’t even know I was crying until he’d picked me up, carried me the short distance to the bed and laid me on it, pausing just long enough to pull the bedclothes out from under me. He then turned away to deal with the condom, and within a minute he was back, sliding in beside me and pulling me close to curl against his side.

  “You okay?” His voice was gratifyingly rough, and he held me as if he had plans to never let me go. I pressed closer, because that was exactly how I felt when it came to holding onto him.

  “I am now,” I whispered, letting the tears flow. “I am now.”

  Chapter Six

  My footsteps echoed as I stepped from the elevator leading up to Polo’s penthouse.

  The foyer was cavernous, with ceilings so high they disappeared into the encroaching darkness. The copper-plated doors were off their hinges and scattered on the ground, and I stared at them in mounting horror. What sort of force could possibly take those huge doors off their hinges and scatter them like broken toys? Certainly nothing I ever wanted to face.

  Where was Polo?

  I went from one room to the other, dozens of huge, ballroom-sized rooms, until I realized that was I no longer in Polo’s penthouse. Somehow I’d returned to my childhood home, the Vitaliev estate, but it wasn’t exactly how I remembered. Because of that, all too soon I became lost and had no clue how to find my way back. When I got to the massive foyer I thought I might be able to find my way out, but the front door wasn’t where it should have been. Nothing was where it should have been. Every room I’d traveled through was empty and twisted all wrong.

  A sudden clatter, like a metal mixing bowl being dropped on the floor, reached my ears.

  Then a screeching, like heavy furniture being moved, sounded closer.

  A door slammed right next to me, though there were no doors in sight.

  My breath came in light gasps I couldn’t muffle.

  Something was in there with me, something that had ripped copper-plated doors off their hinges. I should have paid attention to the warning of those doors, but I hadn’t. Like an idiot, I’d walked face-first into a trap baited with the appearance of a comfortable, familiar world that I had thought was mine.

  But it was a lie.

  None of this world was mine.

  I didn’t belong here.

  I picked up my pace while the fear grating along my nerve endings grew into outright panic. If Polo was somewhere within this strange place I had to find him. He had to know that we were in danger.

  A sharp exhalation from behind me froze me in my tracks. The stab of fear that shot through me was so intense it hurt, making me whimper even as I whirled around, a scream bubbling up my throat.

  “Always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.” Polo stepped out of the darkness, bleeding from his mouth and chest, his hands covered in dark, glistening red as he tried to put pressure on the horrible wound in his chest. A cry of dismay tore my throat raw as he walked toward me with Jubilee by his side, her wickedly manicured hand coming up over his to also become drenched in blood. “You weren’t supposed to be here, Dash. You weren’t supposed to know. You’ve ruined everything.”

  “I was trying to save you.” When I tried to make the words, no sound came out. It was as though someone had turned my volume off and I could only speak in my head. “I’d do anything for you, just like you’d do anything for me, right?”

  He didn’t answer, just watched me as blood poured from his mouth and chest.

  “Polo? Right?”

  Without warning, I began to sink into the floor. Frantically I looked down and saw that it had turned to quicksand and I was already up to my knees. “Polo, help me. I’m going to die…”

  He just stared at me. “I love you, Dasha Vitaliev.”

  Hearing those words—words he’d spoken to me right before he died—hit my heart like a sniper’s bullet. “Polo, reach for me, please—”

  Jubilee shook her head. “Look at that little bird, getting caught like that. She must be a real idiot.”

  I barely glanced at her before lunging toward Polo, arms reaching. “Please, please help me out of this. I’m dying…”

  He stepped back. “Didn’t you hear me? I said I love you, Dasha Vitaliev.”

  “Don’t you understand what he’s saying?”Crouching down at the edge of the quicksand, Jubilee smiled at me. “Let me help you understand, darlin’. If a man truly loved you, he’d never leave you alone to suffer like this. And you are suffering, aren’t you, little bird?”

  Then she rose and turned to Polo just as he reached for her and kissed her deeply, his hands all over her breasts while I flailed my arms in his direction.

  “Help me. Oh God, please pull me out. Get me of this hell, please!”

  He didn’t look my way as the quicksand closed over my head.

  I awoke with a strangled scream, clawing at the bedclothes that were trying to suffocate me. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t fucking breathe…

  “Oh, darlin’. Did you have a bad dream?”

  This time there was no holding back my scream. I jerked away from the direction of the voice so violently that I almost fell out of bed. Clutching at the bedclothes, I snapped around to the far side
of the room where Jubilee Lafitte was busy laying out clothes on a leather armchair near a mahogany armoire. Today she was dressed in such a staid outfit—a calf-length wool skirt with matching blazer, a buttoned-up white blouse, horn-rimmed glasses and her platinum blonde hair pulled back in an uptight chignon—that for a moment I thought I might still be dreaming.

  “Uh...how…?” My heart was still trying to beat its way out of my chest. With the lingering wisps of my nightmare still clinging to me, I glanced at the other side of the bed to comfort myself that Polo really was still alive. Instead, all I found was empty bed.

  Gone. Polo was gone.

  He’d left me alone.

  Again.

  I dragged a shaky hand through the tangle of my hair as an acid-hot surge of anxiety streaked through my system. Had I just dreamed it all? I often woke up believing Polo was still alive, only to have the sick weight of reality flatten me into nothing. Was this just another horrible trick of my mind?

  Jubilee made a sympathetic noise. “Poor little bird, not even half-awake. I’m sorry about that. Polo told me I wasn’t to wake you while I brought in a few things for you to look at, so I feel awful if I disturbed you.”

  “Polo?” Relief washed through me at the confirmation that he was in fact still alive, to the point where I nearly burst into tears. Ugh. Believing in Polo, not believing in Polo… I was one emotional train wreck that just kept on wrecking. “Where is he? Is he here?”

  Jubilee waved a vague hand in the direction of the door. “He said he had to meet up with some associate to go over who jumped you last night, so he asked me to babysit you. Are you sure I didn’t bother you? You look like you could do with a bit more rest.”

  “I promise, you didn’t bother me at all.” Not in the way she thought, anyway. Thankfully the dream image of Polo making out with Jubilee while he let me die was fading fast, so I was almost able to pull off a smile as I struggled to a sitting position. That was when I realized my clothes were still in an embarrassing heap over by the table. “Um, do you happen to know the time?”