She added with an airy toss of her head, “At least now I’ll have a standard by which to judge my next series of partners.”
Silent as a cat, Rafe’s coiled body ate up the distance between them. Pouncing on her, he grabbed her arm and jerked her toward him. He shoved her against the wall, his body shaking with anger. She felt his heart hammering against her chest… but then it could have been hers. She gasped, stunned at his fury.
Pressing his lips hard against her ear, he issued a low guttural warning.
“If another man so much as touches you, I’ll kill him.”
He added, his voice harsh with suppressed rage, “Don’t test me, Nicki.”
~~~
Katya reached over and refilled Nicki’s glass, emptying their second bottle of Pinot Noir in the process.
“It’s not as if he can have it both ways, darling.” Katya sighed. “Although knowing Rafe as I do, I’m confident he not only thinks that he can, but he believes it’s his right to do so.”
She shook her head and grinned as she removed the cork from yet another bottle of wine. “Poor baby. I almost feel sorry for him.”
“What?” Nicki cried, rising up on one elbow. After storming out of Rafe’s office she’d fled to Katya’s room. Alternately crying and raging for what seemed like hours, she’d lodged herself on the chaise lounge in Katya’s suite and hadn’t moved in the last hour except to proffer her wine glass for more healing liquid.
She continued, sputtering with anger. “You feel sorry for that arrogant.…”
Katya put up her hand to ward off another tirade. Nicki was actually relieved. Her head was pounding. She didn’t know how much more rage she could handle. She was drained.
Katya frowned as if pondering a difficult problem. She nodded thoughtfully.
“No, there is only one solution. You will have to seduce him.”
“What?” Nicki shrieked again. She rose up then pressed her hand to her pounding forehead. “Are you crazy, Katya? Haven’t you heard a word I have been saying? He’s decided he won’t have me. He won’t take me.”
“I understand, honey.” Katya soothed. “All the more reason you will need to seduce him.”
Nicki didn’t hide her anger. “Apparently you do not understand, Katya. I do not want to be anywhere near Rafe Boudin. I hate him. Despise him.”
Katya waved her away dismissively.
“Yes, yes, yes. I understand.” A wicked smile quirked the corner of her mouth. “You’ll have to trust me, Nicki. Anger—masked as hate—is a powerful aphrodisiac.”
The leap of sensation in her groin at Katya’s provocative assertion, confirmed that Katya might to be on to something. The more Nicki thought about it, it seemed exactly what she needed to do. She would make love to him—then she would leave him, turn her back on him. And this time nothing that the conceited despicable man could do would keep her from leaving.
As good as that solution sounded, her excitement nevertheless quickly crashed. Deflated, she turned to Katya whose eyes were sparkling with mischief.
“But…but how, Katya? Rafe won’t come near me. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t insist that I leave ISA immediately.”
“It’s simple.” Katya grinned. “We’ll use the best weapon we women have.”
Nicki frowned, despair swallowing her earlier elation.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Honey, I know you don’t believe me right now. You are angry with Rafe. Hurt. You will have to trust me, Nicki. Rafe loves you. More than either you or he can imagine. This is not about your “status” or level of experience. Rafe is scared spitless. He knows if he ever gives into the passion he feels for you, he will never recover. He’d be lost to you forever.”
Nicki hesitated. She knew in her heart that Rafe did love her and God knows, she loved him. But she also knew that he was determined to push her away. His hateful actions made that abundantly clear.
Weariness threatened to swallow her. “I know you mean well, Katya, but I don’t think you understand how determined Rafe is to drive me away.”
“That’s why we will have to use the best weapon we have against him,” Katya repeated with a cocky grin.
Nicki couldn’t help but smile at the excitement in her friend’s eyes.
“And what my wise woman friend, would that weapon be?”
“Easy. Another man.”
Nicki gasped. “Oh, my God, Katya. You are crazy. Rafe told me that he would kill any man who as much as touches me!”
“I know, I know. That’s what makes this the perfect plan.”
“What? I get one of the men to play around with me and Rafe kills him? And then what, Katya. I take them on one by one until Rafe comes to his senses and agrees that losing more men is worse than making love to me?”
Katya shrieked with laughter.
“No, silly. Not one of the men here. They’re off limits. Besides they’re all in love with you as well so it wouldn’t be fair. God, honey, even now, Caleb is about one smart crack away from losing his dangly parts. Trust me, Rafe is about ready to blow.”
“Then who, Katya? Some poor sap I pick up off the street and convince him one night with me is worth dying for?”
Katya chortled. She grabbed both of Nicki’s hands in hers and pulled her down next to her on the bed. Her eyes danced with anticipation.
“Hear me out, girlfriend. I promise you. The only person who is going to enjoy this ‘seduction’ more than you and Rafe, is me.” She added with a broad grin. “And of course all of the men who get to sit back and watch their little ‘hotstuff’ take down the big bad Rafe Boudin.”
Chapter 20
Katya clapped her hands in delight. “Oh my God, Nicki, you look stunning! I actually feel sorry for Rafe. The biggest problem we’re going to have is getting you out the door before he can grab you and lock you in a cage.”
She bubbled with laughter, then seeing Nicki’s face, she added, “Honey, don’t worry. Both Caleb and Grayson are as excited about this plot as I am. They know exactly what they need to do. But, damn, when they see you, they may decide the hell with Rafe and haul you off to sample the wares and never bring you back!”
Nicki laughed but couldn’t hide her nervousness. They had been so busy today that she’d barely had time to think about the outrageous plan Katya had hatched. Even after she and Katya spent several hours going through her wardrobe, it had all still seemed like a lark, not something she would actually do. Katya was stunned at Nicki’s gorgeous array of lingerie. Pawing through gobs of lacy bras, every kind of thong and panties imaginable, and a whole wardrobe of garter belts and silk stockings, Katya couldn’t hide her amazement.
“Damn, Nicki. No wonder you are a virgin. If any guy got an inkling of the kind of packaging you have for that sensational body of yours, he’d never get his tongue back in his mouth. Where did you get all of these sexy things? You could open a store. The only thing you seem to like more is those ‘fuck me’ shoes. What do you have, thirty pairs? I promise you, Nicki, you get down to this layer of underwear and a pair of those shoes, and our Mr. ‘I don’t do virgins’ will be crawling on his hands and knees begging for you.”
Nicki smiled. “Well, for one thing, I have a very indulgent father. I don’t think he picked out the underwear himself. But just like all the weapons he gave me over the years, he found a munitions maker he trusted, and ordered whatever the expert recommended. I’ll bet there are lingerie shops in Paris that rely on my father for a quarter of their annual business.”
While Katya oohed and aahed and finally settled down to choose between a hot pink silky set and a black lace ensemble, Nicki screwed up her courage. If anyone could answer the questions she had it was Katya.
Knowing that her cheeks were flaming she forced herself to ask Katya the questions tormenting her since she and Rafe were together.
“Here’s the problem, Katya. Rafe has already seen some of this underwear and he really seemed to like it. At least at first. But
then he still pulled away, or a better description is that he pushed, no shoved, me away.”
When Katya frowned, clearly ready to argue, Nicki held up her hand to stop her.
“No, let me finish. I think the problem is that I look like I know what I am doing—that I have a lot of experience, just like I have all these sexy clothes and shoes and lingerie but when it comes down to …doing it…well, let’s face it, Rafe’s big concern is that I am a virgin. He obviously isn’t interested in dealing with a woman that he has to train. And Katya there’s only so much you can learn in books, someone has to be willing to be a guinea pig, show me the basics.”
Nicki could tell Katya was trying not to laugh and she turned away before the tears burning her eyelids embarrassed her.
She muttered, anger creeping into her voice, “I know what you are thinking. How could someone get to be 26 years old and not know anything? But you don’t understand. Between my father and Griorgi and Maiya, I couldn’t go to school without an armed escort. My father was terrified that something would happen to me. By the time I was a teenager, there was always at least one bodyguard somewhere close behind. Even if they tried not to get in my way, who wants to date a girl who has a 250-pound driver who carries a poorly concealed weapon and only speaks Russian? Then when my body started looking like it does now, everyone thought I was a slut and I gave up. Besides, I’d rather fight men then date them. That’s what I really know how to do.”
Nicki knew she sounded bitter but the memory of all those lonely years of being on the outside looking in were hard to swallow. Just as it was hard to think how silly she had been to “save herself” for the right man, assuming he would want her that way. She looked up and was gratified that Katya had stopped grinning.
Nicki gave an impatient shake of her head. She needed Katya to understand.
“I think the reason I have all this sexy stuff and dress the way I do, is because I like the way it makes me feel. It makes me feel desirable, special. And it’s why I did this.”
Having showered, Nicki was naked under her bathrobe, waiting to see what Katya finally decided she should wear.
She tossed her head then nonchalantly opened her robe showing Katya her belly ring and her tattoo.
Katya jumped back, her eyes widening in astonishment. Her hand flew up to cover her mouth which was as wide open as her eyes.
She choked back a strangled gasp then whispered, “Jesus, Mary, Joseph!”
Looking from the tattoo to Nicki’s face, she visibly struggled for what to say next.
“I have to ask, Nicki. Any chance Rafe saw that?” She asked pointing to the outrageous decoration.
Nicki raised her chin and glared at Katya.
“Yes he did, and that’s when it became clear that he didn’t want to make love to me.”
She jerked her robe closed and turned to go into the sanctuary of her bathroom, but Katya grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She tugged at her forcing her to sit down beside her on the bed.
“Uh uh. Oh no you don’t. Don’t you dare misunderstand. Yes, I am stunned, almost speechless, but only because that is the most outrageously sexy thing I have ever seen in my life! Almost as beautiful and sexy as the woman wearing it. Trust me, when all this is over, the next thing we are going to do is make sure that before I go back to see my husband I’m going to have one of those on me!”
When Nicki giggled, not sure how to respond, Katya continued.
“Now I understand everything, even better than I did before. Nicki, Rafe is wild about you. He sees all that innocence bound up in a package that screams sensuality and he is crazy with lust. Damn, honey, no wonder he is scared. He’s already in love with you and convinced he can’t have you and then he sees that?” She pointed to the space between Nicki’s thighs now hidden by the robe. “I’m surprised that he didn’t run for the hills instead of just declaring that you were off limits.”
Katya stood up and rifled purposefully through the three inch pile of lingerie on the bed, then pulled out a pile of white froth.
“THIS is what you are going to wear. Rafe thinks he doesn’t want a virgin? Let’s see how he does with this.”
Chapter 21
Rafe paced across the room, rubbing at the tight muscles ringing his neck. He wondered when he’d get to the point where they didn’t ache. For now there was far too much going on. He and the team had been working since early morning, as each report came in from the men in the field, Nicki added it to the information base she’d built. She’d dedicated one of the screens on the wall to each of the young men they were interviewing. Beside each young man’s picture was a detailed biography, and a long list of connections to the kidnapped girls. As new information came in, she added it to the profile, further enriching their data base.
Building on Nicki’s timeline and information she’d gathered, a clear pattern began to emerge. Three of the young men were from Washington D. C., all sons of politically connected lobbyists and lawyers. Dillon and Ethan were friends of Sophie and knew one another. Nick was Cindy’s friend, and had never met Ethan and Dillon until Nicki set up a joint interview. Nicki determined from her conversations that all three boys were basically preppy kids, in over their heads. At least in the beginning, they were more concerned that their parents would find out they were doing drugs, than they were about their girlfriends. All of the boys admitted they used drugs—and were used to paying far above street prices to get the designer drugs they’d become accustomed to. The three each told Nicki in separate conversations that they knew about the parties, but none had attended. All three insisted that they had warned their girlfriends not to attend, either. They had been put off, or more likely scared by the cloak and dagger elements of the invitations and the fact that they wouldn’t know where they were going until they got there. The only information the three boys agreed on was that they knew something was wrong when they didn’t hear from their girlfriends but all of them had lied to Sophie’s and Cindy’s parents when they had frantically called to see if the boys had any information. All of them were horrified when they learned Sophie and Cindy still had not returned home. At that point they agreed to talk to the two ISA agents Rafe put on their tail. Not that they had a choice. Nicki set up the meetings and implied that she would attend. When all three boys waited in the trendy coffee shop where Nicki told them she would be, they ignored the two broad-shouldered men in khaki pants and black t-shirts striding toward them. Taking in the wraparound dark glasses and beard shadows, the young men mistakenly pegged their interrogators for gym rats or tough guy wannabes cruising for babes. Only when the two fierce looking men plopped down at their table and indiscreetly bared the ankle holsters holding their weapons, did all three kids crumble.
~~~
Hillary Chamber’s boyfriends were a different matter. Both Rob Nichols and James Trenton refused to talk with Nicki. In colorful language they suggested she do anatomically challenging things to herself, as well as to get the fuck out of their lives or they would sic the NYPD cops on her.
Rafe pulled at his chin when he listened to the message for the first time. His eyes flashed with anger listening to their gutter talk. Between the two of them they had a virtual thesaurus of ugly words to describe the different parts of a woman’s anatomy and they used all of them in their threatening messages to Nicki.
Rob was particularly descriptive. “Listen you slutty bitch. You ever call this number again and I’ll have the NYPD so far up your ass you won’t walk right for the next five years. And that’s after I’ve given you a taste of what I do to uppity c—”
“Turn it off.” Rafe broke in.
He turned to the group at the conference table and singled out Cameron and Daniel, both of whom were former Delta Force and served with Rafe on numerous missions. Cameron’s military-short haircut, square jaw and stealthy carriage screamed former Special Ops. Daniel’s handsome Hispanic features and soft voice had charmed many women… and misled as many opponents. Except for Grayson and, of cour
se, Rafe, Daniel was the most respected hand-to-hand fighter on their talented team. Neither of them looked like a man you’d want to meet in a dark alley, or a well-lit one. As two privileged young ne’er do wells were about to find out.
“Cameron, I want you and Daniel to set up a private meeting with these two. Take them somewhere quiet where they can get to know you the way I know you. From what Nicki’s learned these assholes are our best source yet. Apparently Senator Chambers was right about one thing; Hillary’s friends are as scummy as he thought they were. Only these two are high class scum. They both went to Groton and are in their first year at Princeton, even though they barely graduated from high school. They’re nineteen years old, and already members of the jet set.”
Dragging on his cigarette, Rafe continued with a thoughtful frown. “There’s a good chance they might have attended one or more of the parties where our girls were. If they did, lean on them hard. Then put them away somewhere for a couple of days where we have access to them and no one else does. I’d have them arrested for screwing a minor, but no sense making it hard for our friends at the NYPD. From what I’ve seen of their sealed rap sheets, these two are as badass as they come. They’d be in prison ten times over by now, if it weren’t for their parents’ money and a corrupt legal system. What makes them interesting is that given their familiarity with the drug scene they might have connections to the gangbangers that our Russian friends have hooked up with. Let’s see if they’re more willing to chat after a couple of days in a hell hole without Daddy running interference.”
As the two men gathered up their files and turned to leave, Rafe followed them to the door. Running his hand through his hair, he tossed them a conspiratorial wink.
“I envy you guys. I’d like to question these two myself. But given that I can’t, I need you to be my wingmen. Give them a taste of how I deal with fuckers who think their trust funds and parents’ social standing gives them the right to disrespect women and threaten a member of ISA.”
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