“Or,” Belinda hedged, “there was no policy on immunizations, and they weren’t distributed rampantly in orphanages in the late eighties at all.”
Everyone froze for a moment.
Nikolav groaned. “You’re suggesting a conspiracy that would have been enormous.”
“I am. But how is that so hard to believe after finding out you were given a strange experimental drug twenty-five years ago before the fall of the USSR that seems to have made you immune to everything, including the common cold?”
“Oh, it’s bigger than that,” Nikolav added, wincing.
“There’s more?”
“We heal fast too.”
“Seriously?” She twisted in her seat to face him more fully.
He nodded. “Dmitry was the first to fall under Katie’s suspicion. He had a kidney injury that seemed far too healed for how long he’d sustained it. And then Mikhail was jumped in an alley after a fight a few weeks ago. He broke four ribs. They’re completely healed.”
She stopped breathing, her eyes widening as if she could absorb this information better if she could see more of the room.
Katie spoke calmly at her side. “It was a coincidence I happened to take a blood sample from Dmitry a year ago. I was testing his blood to make sure his kidneys were functioning properly. I stumbled upon the antibodies by accident. Or my lab guy did.
“And then when I saw Mikhail’s rib X-ray, I was suspicious. Turned out he had the same antibodies.”
“And we know now we all do,” Leo added.
“Shit. That’s…impossible to grasp.”
“You’re not kidding.”
“You don’t think you can’t die or anything, do you?” she asked the room at large.
Katie shook her head. “Not going to go so far as that, no. Because the right injury would end a life before it had a chance to heal. A gunshot or something. And we don’t know how far the drug extends. Cancer? Stroke? Heart attack? There’s no way to know until it happens to one of them.”
“How many others could be out there?” Belinda thought out loud.
“No idea,” Leo responded. “But Mikhail believes only a handful of kids received both the early shots and then the later ones. Probably the first shot was the experimental drug, and the second set of shots were the live cultures to prove the drugs worked.”
“But this could be huge. There could be hundreds or thousands of people in Russia today who’re living with this strange ability to heal.” Her mind raced with the possibilities. She’d give anything to get on the next plane to Russia and investigate this further.
And she fully intended to bring it up to her boss tomorrow.
“How is it the government hasn’t brought all of you in to poke and prod you like mice?” She glanced at each of them.
Nikolav smiled. “Because they don’t know about it.”
“What? The FBI…?”
“Isn’t breathing a word of what they know to anyone.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because they care more about catching Yenin in the act and stopping him from killing others, or worse—distributing this drug on the black market. If they let any other branch of the government know about us, their case would be blown to shit. The CDC would take over, and we’d all be sent to Atlanta to become lab rats.”
“I’m shocked they haven’t found out already.”
“And now you know why it’s so important for you to keep this inside this room. If you breathe a word of it to a single soul, the entire case could blow to shit.” Nikolav lowered his hand from the back of the couch to cup her shoulder. “None of us want to become guinea pigs, but more importantly, we want to keep it under wraps until Yenin is caught and put away for life.
“We don’t want one more person to die. And no one hopes for a mass drug distribution marketed as some sort of fountain of youth. The repercussions are enormous.”
She whispered the unspoken, “Because you still have no idea what the long-term effects are.” Suddenly she wanted to pull this man into her embrace. The burden he lived with…
“Hey,” he hugged her into his side, “I have no intention of dying anytime soon. After all these years, the most likely scenario is the drug gradually becomes ineffective, leaving us all vulnerable in ways we can’t anticipate.”
“But you can test that theory from time to time, right?” She looked toward Katie.
“Perhaps. We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
“So a faction of the FBI is working on this case, and they aren’t sharing it with any other government agency,” she reiterated.
“Right. But they aren’t sharing it with many of their own, either. Most of the agents put on our detail are operating on the instructions that they keep us safe. They aren’t privy to what they’re guarding us from. It’s not uncommon,” Leo said.
Belinda pinched the bridge of her nose and leaned into Nikolav’s side. She glanced down at her lap. “I sure took a lot of notes,” she mumbled.
“It’s all up here,” Nikolav stated, pointing to his temple. “Don’t worry.”
“Trust me. I’m worried for lots of reasons, but none of them have anything to do with not taking proper notes. I can’t print this shit, anyway. Probably never.”
“And now you see why I don’t want you out of my sight. Yenin undoubtedly knows you’re a reporter and working this case. He would sooner blow up the entire city of Chicago with a nuclear weapon than have any of this leak out. Which means he’d go to incredible extremes to ensure it doesn’t happen.”
She nodded. She didn’t have an argument to trump his line of thinking.
Chapter Sixteen
It was after dark when Belinda led Nikolav down the hall of her fifth-floor apartment and handed him the keys. She was exhausted. And her head was still reeling from overload.
Nikolav unlocked the door and turned off the alarm before she followed him inside.
She glanced around, rubbing her arms at the thought that someone might have entered while they were gone and planted something. And she wasn’t picturing the Russian Mafia. She was stuck on the idea that the FBI had someone working for the enemy.
Thank God Katie had graciously cooked dinner for them. The woman was an amazing cook, and Belinda didn’t have the energy to lift a finger. “I’m exhausted. And I don’t even have a good reason. Mental overload, I guess.”
Nikolav smiled. “You’ve been bombarded with a lot of information. It’s understandable. Why don’t you take a long, hot bath? I’ll pour you a glass of wine.”
She stared at his retreating back as he headed for the kitchen area. Moments like these made him seem like the epitome of the perfect man. Without argument, she left him to head for her bedroom and attached bath, where she stripped off her clothes and climbed into the tub while it was still filling.
It was a relief to get out of those jeans. Spending the day without a barrier between her skin and the denim had been a very bad idea. It kept her far too aware of her sex and made her squirm more often than she would have liked, which only exacerbated the problem.
She added a long squirt of bubbles directly into the stream of hot water coming out of the spigot and leaned back to close her eyes. She was almost asleep when a noise forced her to bolt upright to find Nikolav standing in the bathroom, holding a glass of red wine.
“Shit. Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. How do you keep from drowning?” he teased as he handed her the glass.
She took several sips and set the glass on the edge of the tub. And then she let her gaze wander up his body from his bare feet to his bare chest. How many times had she seen him in nothing but low-hung jeans? Too many to count. How many times had she seen him naked? Never.
Her exhaustion faded as she watched his muscles flex with every movement. Bold. She needed to be bold. “Why don’t you get in? The tub’s large enough for both of us.”
Nikolav cocked his head to one side and fought a grin. “You trying to get me naked?”
&n
bsp; “Yes.” Why lie?
“You think that’s going to increase your chances of getting laid?”
“Yes.” Another truth.
He chuckled, but he popped the button on his jeans at the same time.
She didn’t try to hide her interest while she watched him lower the zipper and shrug the denim over his hips.
Lord.
Oh. My. God.
She’d been right. Large men with huge muscles indeed had large cocks to accompany them. Or at least this man did.
“You want to scoot forward a bit so I can sit behind you? Or do you want me to just stand here while you look your fill?”
She jerked her gaze from his cock to his face. She should be embarrassed. Part of her was. There was even the faint trace of a flush crawling up her cheeks. But Nikolav was cocky and confident and obviously didn’t mind her staring.
She smiled coyly and tipped her head to one side. “You’re giving me options?”
He chuckled as he stepped forward. “Woman…” And then he set his hands on her shoulders to push her toward the center of the tub and climbed in behind her.
She closed her eyes as his cock nestled against her back.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her against him.
Her head landed on his shoulder.
“So many bubbles,” he whispered against her temple.
“Adds to the mystery. Don’t want to reveal all my assets at once.”
“Hmm. You think I didn’t see all your assets this morning?”
“You might have forgotten.”
“Not likely.” He stroked the underside of her breasts so lightly she barely felt the tips of his fingers. But her nipples stiffened, and she had to squeeze her legs together to get a grip on her arousal.
She reached for her wine and took a sip, hoping the deep red Merlot would calm her.
Nikolav lowered his hands to lift her legs, which he set on the outsides of his thighs, spreading her open wide. He then cupped her breasts more directly and thumbed her nipples. “You have amazing tits.”
She didn’t speak. She couldn’t. So open and vulnerable.
While one hand worked her nipple, pinching and twisting it, the other hand smoothed down her belly toward her pussy. “So smooth here,” he commented when his fingers stroked over her bare mound. “How do you get it this soft?”
“Wax.”
“Ah. Do you do that yourself?”
“Hell no.”
“Sounds painful.”
“It is. But I’ve never liked having hair there. I’ve done it for years.”
“Mmm. I’m not complaining. It’s sexy as hell.”
Her arms were trapped at her sides next to his thighs while he stroked his fingers between her folds and across her clit. Slowly.
“Stay still for me, baby,” he muttered. “Let me make you feel good.”
She moaned, letting her head roll back and forth over his shoulder. She managed to kiss the underside of his jaw.
When he pushed his middle finger deep inside her, she braced her feet and lifted her ass off the bottom of the tub. “Nikolav…”
He pulled the finger out. “Sit, Belinda.”
She lowered her butt back to the porcelain, panting.
“That’s a girl. I love to watch you come, but you’ll do it on my terms.”
Her heart raced. She would have been sweating if she weren’t buried in the water.
The only noises in the room were the sounds of her heavy breathing and the popping of thousands of bubbles. The floral fragrance filled her nose every time she inhaled. Nikolav was going to smell like her bubble bath.
“You want my fingers inside you?”
“Yes. Though I’d prefer your cock.” When was he going to fuck her? Was he even human?
He chuckled lightly. “That’s my goal. Make you want it.”
“Please,” she begged, setting her hands on his thighs and gripping the firm muscles with her fingers. “I’ve never wanted anything so badly in my life.”
“And I love that. I want you to keep feeling that way.” His fingers trailed back between her legs and spread her lower lips open. He pushed the hood back from her clit and tapped it with his thumb. “I’m gonna make you come so many ways you won’t be able to count them.”
“As long as one of those ways involves you inside me, I’m good with that,” she whispered against his neck, fighting to find the words to speak.
“You’re going to have to develop some patience, my Italian beauty. Because my cock isn’t going to thrust into you any time soon.”
“What?” She lifted her head and twisted her neck to see him directly. “Seriously? Why?” The huge bulge of his arousal currently pressing into her back had to hurt.
“Anticipation is half the fun.”
“But, no. You can’t just…”
He smiled, his eyes dancing with mirth. “Of course I can. I’m in charge.”
She twisted around a few more inches until she was nearly sideways between his legs and reached her hand down under the water to wrap her fingers around his length.
So unbelievably thick.
Surprised he let her touch him, she stroked her fist up and down the shaft.
And then he grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “Enough, baby.” He righted her with her back against his front again, resettled her legs straddling his, and wrapped his arm around her belly. His lips landed on her ear. “Did you touch yourself while I was getting the wine?”
She flinched. “No.” She’d done nothing but doze and relax.
“Good girl. Keep your fingers away from your pussy and your tits, got it?”
“So demanding.”
“Yep.”
“You’re testing me.”
“I am.”
“To see if I can submit to you.”
“Exactly.”
“And if I can’t? What if I fail?”
“You won’t.”
Lord, he was cocky.
She shuddered as he slipped his middle finger back into her, not half as sure as he was that she could be so submissive.
∙•∙
Nikolav nibbled her ear while he fingered her. He loved the way her mouth fell open when she was so far gone she didn’t know it. He loved the way her pussy gripped his finger so tight. It would take some effort to work her open enough to accept his cock without hurting her.
He loved the little sounds she didn’t know she made as he brought her closer to orgasm.
It might kill him to withhold his own pleasure, but it was so going to be worth it. He wasn’t kidding. He wouldn’t take her tonight. Or tomorrow night, either. He wanted her to be sure. Because after he had his cock inside her sweet pussy, it would be damn hard to walk away.
Of that he was certain.
It would be much easier to let her go after Yenin was caught if he hadn’t experienced paradise. And he knew she would be his in every sense of the word the moment he took her in that final act of intimacy.
He could toy with her and bring her to orgasm dozens of times. And he intended to. But not that way. He needed to be strong. His cock would get its relief either with his hand, her hand, or her mouth if she desired, but he’d hold back the final act until she understood fully what it meant to be his and was certain she could handle his level of dominance.
For a lifetime.
Anything less would be devastating.
He smoothed the hand cupping her breast up to her face to brush a lock of her thick dark hair away from her cheek. Meanwhile, he kept fucking her slowly with the one finger. In. Out. In. Out.
She was amazingly sensitive, her emotions running across her face as he watched.
Gasps. Whimpers. Her mouth would fall open and then pinch shut. She licked her lips. Inhaled through her nose. Blew out a breath. Sucked in a sharp one.
So fucking sexy.
He’d be grateful for a lifetime if she would agree to be his.
Until then, he would settle for watchi
ng her blossom. Because it was clear she had few sexual experiences in her life. No way had she had sex in years. And the way she bucked into his hand…
He added a second finger, making her stiffen and grab his thighs again with her dainty fingers. The fight to keep her butt on the bottom of the tub was evident on her face.
She would learn.
An orgasm was so much sweeter when the submissive let him control the pace and timing. He wanted to yank her out of the tub and strap her sweet body to the bed. And he would. But at the moment, he just wanted to enjoy the expressions on her face while he teased her mercilessly.
When she got too close, her mouth falling open wider, her breath hitching, he backed off, removing his fingers and circling her swollen clit.
When her body relaxed marginally back against his, he thrust those two fingers back into her.
She arched her chest out, her nipples dancing on the surface of the water, tempting him to suckle them.
Finally, he pulled his hand away from her pussy and lifted it to cup her breast, flicking the tip with his thumb.
She struggled to breathe. The sweet, sweet sound of a woman in need.
There was nothing sweeter in the world.
“The water’s getting chilly,” he whispered to draw her attention.
“Mmm. I wouldn’t know.” She wiggled her ass against his cock, and he gripped her hips to hold her still.
“Imp. Let’s get out. Move to the bedroom.” He released her to haul himself to standing and stepped out of the tub.
She looked up at him with huge eyes. “Not sure I can move. My legs don’t belong to me.”
He smiled as he grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around himself. And then he leaned over and helped her out with his palms at her waist. “You steady?” he asked as he settled her on the oval rug.
She nodded. “I think so.”
He released the water to drain and grabbed a second towel to wrap around her. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a band, tendrils of it escaping to plaster themselves to her cheeks and neck.
“Come on.” He took her hand and led her to the bedroom and across to the bed. It was still unmade from the night before, and he shoved the sheet and comforter out of the way. He patted the mattress. “Sit on the edge. Lie back.”
Submit (The Underground Book 4) Page 14
