by Rachel Grant
She was resilient. Smart. Strong. He wanted to support her strength with his own, be her reinforcement as new challenges were tossed her way.
He was falling hard for her. How fucked up was it that she was the only woman he’d ever abducted? That he was all in on his final mission, and he’d finally met someone who made him want to defy his rules of detachment?
She was probably calling in a SEAL team right now to come and fry his ass. Because he was a dumbshit and refused to follow abductor/abductee conventions.
She had all the power. All he had was muscle he’d never use against her.
He stared at the pool of water and, without thinking, began to strip. He was hot, wound up. A swim would do him good. Nude, he dove in. At its deepest point, the pool was fifteen feet deep. He swam down, clearing his ears, the water a cool brine on his hot skin.
He groped in the darkness until he found the lip of the rock that edged the tunnel. Did he have enough breath to swim out? Yes. It was the return trip that would be the problem. He could swim around the island and climb the hillside, but there was risk there. Kayakers could be paddling in the channels between islands. They might not bat an eye at seeing a nude man circling the beach, but if they were questioned later, they’d almost certainly remember him.
As tempting as the vigorous swim was, he needed to keep a cool head. Like Ivy. Logic dictated he stay in the cave. No unnecessary risks.
If he screwed up, he’d be putting Ivy at risk as well. He had to be fair to her and live up to his promise to protect her.
He kicked for the surface and took a gasping breath when he reached it.
“Jesus! You scared the shit out of me!”
He smiled. Ivy was back. “Join me?”
She pursed her lips and canted her head. “I suppose I could put on a suit.”
“No.” His cock thickened in the cool water just thinking about getting a naked Ivy in the pool. “No suits,” he said.
As was her custom, she surprised him by stripping down right there in full view. She never did what he expected.
He couldn’t read this woman. Not at all. Which left him at a loss half the time, missing his greatest skill at a time when he needed it most.
She slipped into the water and swam directly toward him. Surprise again. He’d be better off if he considered the opposite of what he imagined she’d do, and work from there.
She slipped her arms round his neck as he treaded water. Her body was soft and slick against his, and his hands found places to grab to support her. He’d be lying if he claimed he hadn’t fantasized about making love to Ivy in this pool. The thought only occurred to him every thirty seconds or so.
“Did you call Curt Dominick?” he asked.
She stiffened in his arms. She’d been kicking and bobbing before, but now she was a weight in his hands, and he kicked to bring them both to the rocky edge, shallow enough for her to sit, with the globes of her breasts breaking the surface, glistening. Beautiful. He wanted to cup them with his hands as he sucked on her nipples and rolled them against his tongue.
But first things first. “Did you call the AG? Do we need to abandon this cave?”
She cradled his face. “No. I was going to…but I couldn’t. I’m afraid for you, Dimitri. If SEALs come at the wrong time, I’m scared they’ll kill you.”
“Any time will be the wrong time, sweetheart. If a team comes to your rescue, I’m a dead man.”
She pressed her mouth to his and slipped her tongue inside. Trying to give him a reason to live again?
He kissed her back. Damn. She might win with this. Right now, he very much wanted to live. To explore. To have. To bury himself deep inside and stay there. To watch her face as he made her come again and again.
He ended the kiss before he could be pulled in too deep by the promise of it.
He pushed back so a few feet of water separated them. “Why didn’t you shoot me when you had the chance?”
She held his gaze. Finally, she said, “Because I want to help you find a way out of this. Because I believe you care about my safety more than the DIA, who sent me here blind to the danger. And maybe even more than Curt Dominick, who told me to cooperate with you so you’ll help me find the AUUV.”
So she had reached Dominick. And he’d done his job, pushing her to cooperate with Dimitri. And now, that very order had her trusting Dimitri more than the US attorney general.
Irony.
He swam back to her side and climbed up on the rocks, his body sliding over hers. She opened her legs, and his hips settled between her thighs, his erection pressed to her clit.
She let out a soft groan as he rocked his hips, sliding over her as she thrust her pelvis into his. His mouth hovered above her lips. “There will be no happy ending for me, Ivy. You understand that, right?”
She nodded.
“There is only now. This moment. This is all the happiness I get.” He rocked his hips again.
She whimpered.
“I want to fuck you. To bury myself deep inside you and grab every inch of happiness from this moment that I can have.”
“Yes.”
His penis was at her opening. One thrust of his hips and he’d be home, but the condoms were over with the supplies. Control. He was a master of control. Time to exercise some.
He kissed her deeply, all while rocking his hips against hers. The rock had to be hard and jagged in places, hurting her back. Control. He’d do this right.
He lifted her up and set her on the gradual ledge of the pool. Her ass remained in an inch of water, her thighs in two inches. Her knees were submerged.
He nudged her thighs wide and kissed along her soft skin, moving toward her center. This he could do without putting his weight on her and hurting her. Without a condom. He licked her clit, then slid his tongue inside her vagina. She groaned and sighed and might’ve even purred. He planted his hands under her ass, lifting her from the salt water so he could better taste her.
Salty, tangy, Ivy.
She wrapped her legs around his head and gasped and panted as he devoured her, alternating between slow and fast strokes, working her into a frenzy without bringing her to the edge of orgasm.
God, he loved this. He stroked her with his thumb as he paused to gaze up at her face. So beautiful, the way she gave herself over to him. She was all in the moment. Taking the pleasure he gave her, eager for more.
His tongue alternated between vagina and clit while his cock throbbed with arousal. When he reached his final moment, he hoped this would be the memory that ran through his mind. Ivy giving herself up to him. The sounds she made as he learned her body and gave her exactly what she wanted.
On the edge of coming apart, she pulled back from his mouth. He followed with his hand.
“No, Dimitri, we’re moving to the sleeping pads, where you can fuck me properly.”
He laughed and followed her from the pool. She went to the supplies first and grabbed a box of condoms he’d stashed with his toiletries.
She turned to face him. “Did you bring these here when you stocked the cave before we met?”
He shook his head. “No. I grabbed them when we abandoned Liberty. I didn’t really think we’d need them.”
She wrapped a hand around his erection and stroked the length of him. She smiled wickedly and dropped to her knees. “We could get by without them,” she said, then took him deep into her mouth.
He groaned and braced a hand on the cave wall, off-balance from the intensity.
She released him and looked up at him. The tip of his penis on her lips. Such a beautiful sight. “But I’m glad you brought them. Because I want this. I want you. I want to be thoroughly fucked.” And then she took him in again, a long, slow slide as deep as he could go.
She sucked down and back, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt anything this good. But then, he couldn’t remember anything beyond this moment, anything other than Ivy’s mouth on his cock.
“You’re my first uncirc
umcised penis,” she said. She played with his foreskin, pulling it back and licking the exposed head, swirling her tongue around it. Then she took him deep, as much of him as she could take, all the way back.
His hips bucked. “You don’t”—he let out a low groan—“seem put off by it.”
She sucked on him as she slid up the shaft, then released him from her lips and stroked some more. “Hell, no. It’s fun.” She gave him another lick. “I never really thought about it before, but it’s just more skin. It’s you. It’s beautiful. Hot. And I can’t get enough.”
This wasn’t the slow lovemaking he’d claimed to want, but to hell with it. If all he could have was this, he’d take it.
Ivy was giving herself to him, freely. She was going down on him and enjoying it as much as he’d enjoyed going down on her.
“Time for me”—he firmed his stance and moved his hands from the cave wall to cup her face—“to fuck you properly.” He pulled back from her mouth.
She whimpered. “I’m not done.”
He put his thumb in his cock’s place, and she sucked on it.
He squeezed a breast with his free hand. “Get on the air mattress. On your belly, ass in the air so I can see you.”
Her eyes widened at his commanding tone, and she released his thumb and obeyed.
He paused to stare at what had to be the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Ivy MacLeod presenting her beautiful, wet body.
He grabbed a condom from the box and planted himself behind her. He licked her clit, then dipped his tongue inside. She turned her face to the mattress and groaned.
“Make as much noise as you want, sweetheart. We’ve got this whole island to ourselves.”
“That’s part of what makes this so hot. I feel like I’m living my darkest fantasy—one I didn’t know I even had.”
“Being fucked by a spy in a cave on a deserted island?” He wouldn’t call himself her captor, because she wasn’t a prisoner. He could only hope that wasn’t the fantasy she was referring to.
“Exactly.” She reached between her thighs and stroked her clit. “Touch me, Dimitri.” She slipped two fingers inside her vagina.
“God, that’s hot.”
“And it’s yours.”
He licked her again, then he slipped the condom on. He positioned himself on his knees behind her and reached around her thigh to stroke her clit as he pressed the tip of his penis against her wet slit. In one thrust, he was in deep, and she let out a groan of satisfaction that bounced off the cave walls.
He stroked her clit as he thrust, all thoughts of going slow long gone in the wake of the heat. She was slick and tight and hot and his.
All his.
She rose up on her hands, lifting her breasts from the mattress. He cupped one breast while he stroked her clit with his other hand. She let out a guttural sound as her vagina clenched around him. “Harder,” she said. “Don’t be gentle. Squeeze. Pinch. And fuck.”
He squeezed her breast and pinched her clit as he thrust into her with the force she demanded. The sounds she made morphed into a drawn-out moan that was as hot to his ears as her vagina felt on his cock. Her elbows gave out as she came, and she dropped to the mattress, her ass still high as he pounded into her and stroked her clit. She grabbed the blankets in her fists and groaned. “Yes. Oh. God. Yes.” A litany of pleasure he was making her sing.
Fucking beautiful. She was beautiful. The arch of her back, the roundness of her ass. The way his penis disappeared inside her body. Everything about the moment was glorious.
He came. Hard. Fast, and so very hot. He groaned as his body spasmed and pulsed with ejaculation, the pleasure of it as intense and consuming as he’d ever felt.
He collapsed on top of her, then shifted his weight to the side, rolling with her so he stayed inside her in a spooning position.
He was torn between wanting to nibble on her neck and wanting to pass out. He settled for cupping her breast. “You’re an amazing woman, Ivy.”
She rolled to her back, causing him to slip from her body. She turned her head and met his gaze. “I don’t want you to give up, Dimitri. Promise me you’ll try to find a way to live. To get out of this—whatever the situation is you’re in. I know people. Curt can help you cut a deal—”
His body went from hot to cold in the blink of an eye. That fast, his contentment vanished. That was what this had been about for her?
Once again, she’d surprised him. Jesus. Maybe she had called Curt from the hilltop. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn the attorney general had ordered her to fuck him into surrendering.
Chapter Twenty
“Well, aren’t you the patriotic soldier?” Dimitri said with a sneer in his voice. “I didn’t take you for someone who’d use her body for a mission.”
Cold shot through Ivy as he launched himself from the bed. She scooted backward and hit her head on the cave wall, momentarily stunning her from speaking. She rubbed the back of her head and tried to get her bearings. Finally, she managed a weak-sounding “What?”
“Give it up. You aren’t the best actress. Jesus. Did Dominick order you to fuck me? Or was that all improv?”
If he’d been next to her, she would have slapped him. As it was, she was rendered speechless by a mix of hurt and rage. She’d just surrendered her body to him as completely as she could, and his first response was to accuse her of being a whore and then say she was lousy at it?
Anger broke the mute barrier, which was good, because if hurt won, it would be with tears. And she’d be damned before she’d cry in front of him over his insults. “You complete and utter ass. I don’t fuck for my country—between the two of us, I’m not the one who’s a spy. How many women have you fucked for the job? I hope you had the decency to do a better job with them.”
She grabbed her clothes and yanked them on. She wanted to dive into the pool to wash his sweat from her skin, but she’d feel less vulnerable clothed.
“A better job? You didn’t seem like you were having a terrible time.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’m a better actress than you think.” God, how was it that they were even having this argument? What had she done?
But she knew what she’d done. She’d fucked a spy. Again.
She was too stupid to live.
Clothed, she headed for the stairs to the upper chamber.
“Where the hell are you going?” Dimitri asked.
“As far away from you as I can get.”
“Don’t try to leave the island, Ivy.”
“I’m not stupid.” But she was. So very, very stupid. Part of her had wondered if she was falling in love with the spy. She couldn’t get much dumber than that.
She reached the bottom step before he caught her arm and swung her around to face him. “Why did you fuck me?” he asked. “Were you trying to get me to surrender?”
The pain in his eyes caused her own heartache to find its voice. “No,” she whispered.
“Why, then?” he asked again.
“Because I wanted you. I’m sorry you found me lacking, but I wasn’t acting and had no agenda.” She yanked her arm from his grip.
“I found you lacking?” He shook his head. “When did I say that?”
“You accused me of being a whore, then said I’m not the best actress.” Her hands shook as humiliation engulfed her. She curled them into fists to fight the emotion from seizing control. “I said what I did because I’m a dumbass and what we just did meant something to me. But not anymore. Go ahead and give up, but don’t expect me to give a damn when you’re gone.”
She turned and ran up the steps and crawled through the tunnel, determined to get away from him before tears fell.
She reached the top of the island where the solar panels were set up, and curled up at the base of a tree.
This was why she’d given up sex. She’d forgotten it was the heartache that accompanied emotional attachment that had killed her libido.
It was debilitating to have opened herself up to som
eone so completely—whether it was the man she’d married or a spy she’d picked up at a party—and have him turn so ugly, so insulting, right at the moment when she was most vulnerable.
She’d wanted to give Dimitri a reason to live—a reason to fight. Such a fool to think she could be that reason.
Apparently, Patrick was right. She was lousy at sex. She had the social skills of a robot and only another computer could ever love her.
She swiped at her tears with the heels of her palms. On one level, she knew Dimitri had lied when he claimed the sex wasn’t good, and Patrick was just plain full of shit. But it was hard not to internalize when she’d had so much invested in her marriage, and Dimitri was the first man she’d been with since then. She was rusty, and, well, they hadn’t exactly had a normal relationship progression.
That thought made her laugh as well as cry. The last three words didn’t belong in the same sentence when it came to Dimitri.
She blotted her face with the hem of her shirt. She needed to get her emotions under control and get back to work, or she’d never escape this nightmare.
She stared at the wet blotches on her shirt. Proof Patrick was wrong. She wasn’t a damn robot. She felt as deeply as the next person. Patrick had been the coldhearted prick. He’d just covered it better with his veneer of charm.
“Why did you divorce Patrick Hill?”
She jolted at the question and bumped her head again—this time on the tree trunk. She hadn’t heard Dimitri’s approach.
“Go away,” she said.
“You misunderstood me. Before. When I said you aren’t that good an actress, I wasn’t talking about the sex.”
“I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck. Go away.”
“Sex, being with you, was amazing. You’re amazing.”
“Great. You can post that on Yelp if they have a whore page.”
“I was out of line.”
She finally lifted her head and met his gaze. The mouth she’d devoured—and which had devoured her. Those lips had felt so good on her…everywhere. “Ya think?”
