Nicholai drew back slightly. “Why did it get dark?”
“I just thought it would be nicer in the dark.” Julie brought her hand to her kiss-swollen lips unsure where the dream headed.
Suddenly the sun returned, bathing the lovers in its warm light. “I want to see your face as I ravish you. I want to see the passion in your eyes when you come for me. We will make love in the light, so I can see each and every lovely…sexy…inch of your magnificent body.” Nicholai punctuated each adjective with a kiss on her neck.
Julie’s head lolled back when Nicholai continued to assault her senses with his ministrations. Since this was a dream, she decided to live with the light.
Besides, I want to see his magnificent body as much as he wants to see mine, she thought as Nicholai’s lips started a path down her body.
A low moan pushed from her lips. Heat curled in her tummy, and her legs wiggled of their own volition.
Nicholai kissed his way to her stomach and took the weight of her breasts in each hand. She arched into his touch as he kneaded them gently, teasing her nipples into hard peaks with his thumbs. He followed his kissing trail back up and sucked one of the peaks into his mouth. His tongue swirled the pink pebble while his freed hand made its way to the juncture between her thighs.
There he teased her sensitive nub with his thumb as his fingers slid in and out of the silky folds nestled beneath. Pleasure built quickly within. Fostered by Nicholai’s skillful touch, it rose until Julie screamed her release. Side to side her head turned while she gripped the blanket with both hands.
Nicholai watched, as he said he would, while she came for him for the first time. Julie’s eyes focused on his, while the last waves rippled through her body. Nicholai looked down on her with intense hunger. Her breaths puffed heavily with the weight of her ecstasy.
A look of male satisfaction was wiped away by something darker. “I must go for now, my dear,” Nicholai informed her.
“Why?” she cried, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt. Her body ached with need. She frantically wanted him buried inside her.
Nicholai ran the back of one hand gently over her cheek. “Our time for tonight has come to an end, but I will return again.”
His comment confused her. It was daytime in the dream. What did he mean by “our time for tonight”?
“Please stay with me a little longer. You didn’t get to…I mean I’m the only one who…”
Nicholai smiled, seemingly pleased she cared about his pleasure. “Giving you pleasure, gives me pleasure. I live to see to your needs, milady.” He tipped his head in a salute.
“Will I see you again?”
“Oh, yes. We shall meet again, soon. The approaching dawn is forcing me to leave, but nothing in the world could keep me from seeing you again.”
Julie closed her eyes to the dream world and wished her dream man was real.
Her eyes fluttered open. In the dim light of the rising sun, she thought she saw a wisp of smoke. She rubbed her eyes, and it disappeared, much like the knight had.
Her knight in shining armor.
How amazing he’d been. Her mind had done her proud coming up with him. Of course, no such man existed in real life, but oh, to think of the dreams she would have, with her knight as the star. Her heavy eyes drifted shut, and Julie hoped sleep might take her back into Sir Nicholai’s arms.
Chapter 5
Nicholai paced the floor of his bedchamber and let out a series of foul curses. He berated himself for the shared dream. With Julie radiating so much emotional pain, he only meant to slip into the dream to steer it in a positive track. He’d intended to ease her suffering and perhaps gather a bit of information about his beloved, but instead he’d lost self-control and the direction he allowed the dream to take shamed him. At any time, he could have changed its course, but he allowed his lust for his heartmate to rule. As a result, he had only learned about her body, not her soul.
But at least she wasn’t in pain anymore. A smirk crossed his lips. Yeah, definitely not in pain, not after the way he pleasured her.
His cock, still hard from the excitement created by the shared dream, throbbed with each beat of his heart. He pounded his fist into the opposite hand in frustration, not from being denied his own release, but because once in the dream, his desire took on a life of its own. He found his lust rose to consume him and take control.
Nicholai removed his clothes with a little more force than necessary and balled up his shirt before he chucked it across the room. It hit the wall and dropped to the floor. He followed suit with his pants, which pooled into a heap on top of his shirt.
The frustrated vampire made his way to the bathroom and turned the faucet full force to the left. A cold shower was exactly what he needed. Hoping to force the need from his body, he turned each of the six heads in the large shower so they cascaded on him. The frigid water shocked his system into submission. But still, he could not tear his thoughts away from his heartmate and the passion that flowed between them.
He closed his eyes, then leaned his forehead against one wall as the shower heads pounded their icy fists onto his lower back. When images from the dream pushed into his mind, Nicholai took a deep breath. Needing a distraction, the Alpha washed his hair and body thoroughly, attempting to scrub away his lustful thoughts.
It worked. Thank the Fates.
Once his libido died down, he exited the shower and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around his waist, then moved to the double vanity. After pulling a comb through his hair, he eyed his reflection in the mirror. I need a way to win Julie, and sexual encounters in a dream world are not the way to do it.
He needed a plan, but daylight had come. It pulled at him, begging him to rest. After patting down with the towel, he climbed in between the cotton sheets on his bed. Nicholai interlaced his fingers behind his head, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep, but his mind would not cooperate. Images of Julie haunted him like an ethereal muse. They urged him to create a plan to win his love.
He plucked the remote from the nightstand and pushed a button. Tchaikovsky, his favorite composer, played through the stereo speakers. As “Waltz of the Flowers” serenaded him, Nicholai tried once again to sleep. His mind fought to devise a plan of action. He concentrated on the soft music, trying to quiet his turbulent thoughts, but sleep eluded him as he lay in his massive bed. His eyes flew open, and he forced them closed again.
He tossed and turned, battered his pillow in a futile effort to make it comfortable. After several fretful hours, he gave up on sleep and decided to replay his plan to win Julie in his mind.
Chapter 6
After sleeping late and having a leisurely breakfast at the inn, Julie and Penny toured the Kremlin. Julie stared in awe when they approached Moscow’s Cathedral of the Annunciation.
In stark contrast to the white building, sunlight softly burnished the gilded domes of the cathedral with light and shadow. The white and gold reminded Julie of the angel costumes she had made the girls one Halloween. Tears pushed into her eyes at the memory of those little angels.
“Give me the camera,” Julie commanded. “You get to be the model for this shot.”
With Penny in front of the church, Julie let the camera hide the escaped tear running down her left cheek. She steeled herself against the memories that tried to flood her mind.
“That’s enough,” announced Penny when Julie kept clicking the shutter. “Let’s move on. I want to make a true panoramic walking picture tour for my students.”
“You mean like a virtual tour?” Julie handed the camera to Penny.
“Exactly.” A wide smile lit Penny’s face. “Why do you think I’ve been snapping pictures all day?”
“Then we’d better hurry, if you want to see the whole Kremlin today.”
For hours, they walked inside the Kremlin. The pair went through Lenin’s Mausoleum, admired the Broken Bell statue that had never rung, and strolled past a green oxidized cannon that had never fired. Penny
took pictures of everything allowed.
As afternoon fell toward evening, they stopped in front of a green tank with a large red star painted on the side. Penny positioned Julie next to the vehicle. The thick cashmere scarf wrapped around her neck and the black trench coat she wore were not enough against the frigid December air. Even with the wool lining in the coat, she shivered when the wind whipped around her. She forced herself to remain still and smile when Penny stood across from her, camera in hand.
“You get into the picture this time.” Julie motioned for her friend to switch places with her.
“No, my students don’t want to see me,” Penny protested with a shake of her head.
“They don’t want to see me either,” insisted Julie.
“I want to be able to prove you were here. Now smile.” Penny lifted the digital camera in front of her face as Jules squinted against the sun. “Say Vladimir Putin is scootin’,” called Penny, then she waited for Julie to flash her smile before she clicked the camera button.
Julie walked around the tank, admiring the grandeur of it. They appeared much smaller in pictures. Four of them lined up stoically as if ready to defend the Kremlin from a military onslaught.
She went around the front and regarded the barrel mounted on the turret. The distraction caused her to run headlong into a woman whose blonde hair hung down well past her waist.
“Oh, excuse me,” Julie attempted to say in Russian.
With its wide eyes and flared nostrils, the woman’s startled face said more than words could have.
Penny jogged up to join her. “She meant excuse me, not squeeze me,” corrected Penny, speaking Russian much better than Julie had.
“Da,” the woman replied tersely. She gave Julie a sideways glare as she passed, and a snarl pulled at one corner of her mouth.
“Sorry,” Julie called out in English. “How do you say ‘sorry’ in Russian?” she asked her friend.
“Pra-stEE-te,” informed Penny.
“Prostite,” called Julie back over her shoulder toward the woman. “Dang, did you notice the way she looked at me?”
“Well, Jules, you did ask the woman to squeeze you.” Penny laughed. “I might be a little upset too if you had run me over, then asked me to squeeze you.”
“She looked like I disgusted her.”
Penny wrinkled her nose. “Maybe you smell bad.”
Julie slapped at her friend’s biceps, and the two women laughed.
“Look, never mind. Don’t worry about it. It’s over and done with. Listen, I’m getting hungry again. Do you want to go to the GUM and get something to eat?”
“Thought you’d never ask!”
Julie had waited all day to go to the GUM, and it didn’t disappoint with its three parallel arcades centered around a fountain. Light flooded through the building’s glass roof to illuminate the souvenir stands, foreign stores, and designer boutiques that filled the space. Being Moscow’s State Department Store, the GUM was the largest mall in Moscow. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling, and Christmas trees lined the walkways, adding to the ambiance.
Tray in hand, Julie turned around from her place in line and watched Penny sit at a round table under a red umbrella. The tables were arranged on a bridge that spanned the walkway three floors below. It afforded them a wide view of the Christmas shoppers milling about. With its elegant interior, the place appeared more like a palace than a shopping center.
Penny pulled the red pompom hat from her head. When her fine hair stuck straight out from the static, she smoothed it down, then glanced up and smiled as Julie meandered up to the table.
“Here you go, fresh off the grill.” Julie placed the tray in front of Penny and sat across from her friend. “It’s nice to relax for a while after all the sightseeing.”
“I believe we walked about a hundred miles today.” Penny crossed her legs and stabbed her rigatoni.
“Just think, Penny, we still have an evening of shopping ahead of us.” Anticipation made Julie’s smile reach her eyes.
She loved shopping, and the GUM had been at the top of her must-see list for the trip. It didn’t matter how many miles they had already walked today; when it came to shopping, Julie had the energy to go.
“This place is so big. I’m not sure we can see it all before closing time tonight.”
Julie nodded in agreement and took a bite of the lasagna she had ordered from the Bosco Café. The food tasted delicious and not what she’d expected. Eating gourmet Italian food in the Russian Kremlin made her smile at the contrast.
“What’s got you so happy?” Penny popped another bite of rigatoni into her mouth.
“Good food and a night full of shopping ahead of me. What’s not to be happy about?”
“Only you would be looking forward to more walking.”
“Think of it as more shopping, not more walking,” offered Julie.
Unease crept over her skin, making goose pimples dot her flesh. Apprehension blanketed her, unsettled her. She glanced over each shoulder, took in her surroundings, but everything seemed in order.
A couple hugged by a Christmas tree. A mother tugged the arm of her child who obviously didn’t want to leave the toy store. An older gentleman sat down at the table beside theirs. He smiled and gave a little nod in her direction when he noticed her looking.
Julie forced a tight smile. Though she did not see anything amiss, Julie couldn’t shake the notion of being watched.
Chapter 7
After a quick shower, Nicholai carefully chose his attire. He picked a dark blue sweater and jeans. He took a moment to glance at his reflection in the mirror, liking what he saw. Suddenly, he realized how silly it was to be concerned about how he looked. If everything went according to plan tonight, Julie would not know he had been in her room, let alone see him. He shook his head at his reflection. I’m acting like a fool. He assumed that tended to happened to a male when he found his heartmate. After all, both Stephan and Marcus did ridiculous things once they’d found their mates. Nicholai chuckled. It must be a typical reaction for a male—to lose all common sense when thinking of his woman.
He descended the stairs to the first floor of his home and grabbed the peacoat from the closet. He shrugged into the dark jacket, wrapped it tightly around his lean body, and checked the time on his watch. Well after midnight, he should find Julie sleeping soundly in her hotel room.
He sent his senses out into the night to make sure he did not detect any unrest. Sensing nothing unusual, Nicholai cinched the belt around his waist. With the ease of centuries of practice, he scattered his particles to the wind and reformed in the hotel room of his beloved.
He stood next to her bed, expecting to find her beautiful face framed by a pillow. The bed, still made with the quilt tucked beneath the pillows, appeared pristine and quite empty.
Where is she? It’s midnight. Panic crept up his spine like the stinging tentacles of a giant jellyfish. It prickled his skin. He fought down the wave of dread threatening to consume him. Surely if something had happened to her, he’d know. He would have experienced it as he had the previous night when her nightmare gripped her hard with fear.
He took a deep, calming breath and tried to figure out where she might be at this late hour. Did she or her friend mention something yesterday about their plans for this evening?
As Nicholai replayed their conversation from the day before, he heard female voices in the hallway and tuned his preternatural hearing toward the door.
“Penny, that was the best! I had a fun time. What a great surprise. Thank you for taking me to Red Square today.”
“Of course. I’m sorry we got back so late.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” assured Julie.
The hell it is, thought Nicholai. My heartmate should not be out this late, in a foreign country no less, alone and unprotected. Does the woman have no common sense?
“But I am definitely tired,” Julie continued.
“Yeah, me too, but we sure had an enjoyable
day.”
“All right, I’ll see ya in the morning.” With that, a key slipped into the lock, and the deadbolt turned. His body dissolved into an invisible mist. Hovering above the bed, he watched his mate enter. The sight of his mate made his heart sing.
Julie closed the door and slid the chain lock into place after bringing the deadbolt home to rest. He stayed insubstantial while she got ready for bed, brushed her teeth, and crawled between the sheets.
He waited, watched the rise and fall of her breasts beneath the sheets with each breath, reveling in the knowledge he would soon be treated to this sight every night—once she agreed to be his. Her breaths became longer, smoother. Her eyes flickered back and forth behind her lids, indicating she dreamed.
Nicholai materialized silently alongside the bed and ran the back of his hand down her cheek. He needed to be with her, beside her, the draw unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
He intended to slip into her dream and gather information about his love—that was all. But the tempting sight of her lying on the bed stirred his desire.
No male could resist the pull of his female. The need to lie down next to her was too strong to fight, he placated himself by deciding to remain on top of the red and gold quilt to make sure things didn’t become too tempting.
When the mattress sagged under his muscular weight, Julie instinctively rolled toward him. She snuggled against his chest. He automatically wrapped one arm around her waist and hugged her to him in a gentle embrace, careful not to wake her. He inhaled her lilac scent.
A sense of peace and tranquility moved through him as he held the other half of his soul. Lying next to her, holding her, made him complete. It seemed so right. When she moved against him, the sinuous slide of her leg against his made his libido stand up and take notice. He closed his eyes and slipped into her dream.
Alpha Lover Page 3
