Christmas Tsar (Blood and Thunder 1)

by Susan Stephens

  “Maybe you’ll never know.” Alexei’s face remained expressionless.

  “I think you and I share some similarities,” she said.

  “You do?”

  “The same desire to right wrongs and expose evil? I want the chance to keep on doing it.”

  “So write your stories,” Alexei advised. “You know what they say about the pen being mightier than the sword. It also gives you the excuse to visit places that are closed to a lot of people, where you will see things and experience things that can be helpful to a certain type of organization.”

  “To your type of organization?”

  “Amongst others,” he agreed.

  “So I’m undergoing yet another critical assessment,” she guessed. “And if I’m successful, are you suggesting I continue to investigate and release information that helps you?”

  “You’re still a long way from that,” he assured her.

  “So long as we’re on the same side?” It was Amber’s turn to assess Alexei.

  “You can assume that’s the case,” he confirmed.

  “You do have one advantage over me.”

  “Only one?” he pressed.

  She ignored the faint mocking tone in his voice. “You have the ability to remain detached, and I’m not sure I do.”

  He raised a brow at her confession, but then his expression hardened again. “I’m detached because I have to be, because anything else can cost lives. If you feel too much, you’ll be a liability to my organization. If you want to stay, that will have to change. One of the first rules of investigative journalism is to keep emotion out of it, surely?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “You’ll have to do better than that.” He glanced at the door. “This interview is over. You’re dismissed.”

  So, had she gotten the job or not? Amber left and closed the door with a soft click. Alexei sent such conflicting messages. His main purpose in life seemed to be unsettling her. To date, he had a hundred percent success rate in that direction. She felt wrung out by his questions, and aroused from nothing more than being close to him.

  She had to get over her response to him. She could fantasize all she liked about the steely-eyed Russian taking control of her pleasure along with everything else he controlled, but she was wasting her time if she thought she could ignite a spark of genuine interest in those cold, assessing eyes.

  ~o0o~

  When Russian Thunder moored at the first of the Canary Islands, his crew would disembark to spend Christmas Day on shore. That would leave him and Amber alone on board. The day after Christmas, they would sail to Isla Celeste, where she would have to pass the scrutiny of Dante, Diego, and Cesar. He had no doubt that she would, but imagining them finding her as intriguing as he did seriously pissed him off.

  Cutting Amber from his mind, he spent the rest of the day planning the next polo match on Isla Celeste. Hard, dangerous, and unforgiving, polo was exactly the type of relaxation he needed to take his mind off his work—all of it. The game was both a hobby and an excuse for him and the rest of the Blood and Thunder team to get together with other like-minded individuals. The league table, which the Blood and Thunder team currently headed, was the public face of a private army.

  Cut Amber from his mind? Seriously? Thoughts of her had plagued him all day, and now he couldn’t sleep. Swinging naked out of bed, he tugged on a pair of jeans. Exiting onto the deck, he leaned over the rail, staring out to sea. And only then realized that he had company.

  “Alexei—”

  Amber seemed as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

  “You got through security again?”

  “I do seem to be making a habit of it,” she agreed.

  “And just happened to find yourself outside my suite”

  Mashing her lips together, she looked more as if she was trying to stop herself laughing than acting guilty. “I was wondering if your arm had healed.”

  “Were you?” he commented skeptically. “As you can see. It’s healing nicely, thanks to your prompt attention.”

  “The doctor’s prompt attention,” she countered crisply, taking none of the credit for his care.”

  “They taught you some useful skills in the army,” he observed.

  “You too,” she said.

  She was barefoot in pajamas, with her shining hair cascading around her shoulders like a cloud. She looked young and innocent. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find her clutching a teddy bear. Knowing she was combat trained and far from naïve only added to her allure.

  “Couldn’t you sleep?” she asked.

  Her impertinence astounded him, but even in flannelette pajamas, partly concealed by one of the ship’s robes, she looked like the hottest thing on two slender legs. “How did you get past security and onto this deck?”

  She gave him a reproving look. “Are you questioning my right to fresh air?”

  “Not at all.” He rested back on the rail. “I’m just curious as to how you slipped past my guards yet again.”

  “We were chatting, and they were relaxed. I guess they didn’t notice when I turned left instead of right. Don’t blame them,” she added quickly. “Everyone who comes on board is thoroughly checked out.”

  “They told you this?”

  “All I’m saying is, your guards have got no reason to suspect the worst of me.”

  “Unlike me?” he suggested.

  Her slender shoulders lifted in a shrug. “You suspect everyone.”

  “With good reason, it seems.”

  “So, what led you to this job?” she prompted. “Strictly off the record, of course.”

  “Of course,” he agreed dryly. “Everything I say to a journalist is off the record.”

  “Unless you give me permission to use what you tell me, then it is,” Amber insisted. “And I’m not solely a journalist, as you very well know, any more than you’re solely a…billionaire?”

  “I didn’t just find a money tree. I have to work for everything I’ve got.”

  “I don’t doubt it, but how did you get started?”

  “Like everyone else, I put one foot in front of the other.”

  “Yes, but you went halfway around the globe, while the rest of us are marking time. I’m fascinated by how you came so far so fast. What is your backstory, Alexei?”

  “That’s none of your business,” he snapped, closing down that line of questioning.

  “You can’t blame me for being curious,” she said. “It’s hard for me to forget how much I’ve told you, and how little, if anything, you’ve told me.”

  “And that’s how it’s going to stay,” he assured her.

  Leaning against the ship’s rail, she braced herself to ask the question nagging in her mind. “So no mini-oligarchs or a glamorous wife or even a girlfriend waiting for you?”

  “I’m surprised you’re interested.”

  She blushed faintly. “Just mildly curious,” she admitted.

  “No boyfriend?” he parried.

  “That’s none of your—”

  A raised brow was all it took to remind Amber that she hadn’t gotten the job yet.

  “No one who can keep up with me,” she amended, replacing tension with good humor.

  They stared at each other. He liked a woman who could stand up to him. Amber certainly could. It appeared she liked him too. A lot.

  They came together like a clap of thunder. He dragged her close. She grabbed hold of him. He wrestled her away so he could stare her in the eyes. He had to be sure there was no ambiguity in them. He saw what he’d expected. She wanted him. He wanted her. She was aroused and wanted sex as much as he did.

  “What’s wrong?” Alexei demanded when she went still in his arms.

  As much as she wanted him, she’d guessed he’d discard her when he was done, and was probably thinking, was that what she wanted? Was she prepared to risk, if not her heart, then at the very least, her self-respect?

  Gazing heavenward, she huffed out a breath and sh
ook her head. “Billionaire warrior and fledgling reporter?” Angling her chin to stare up at him, she slanted her lips. “Does that sound likely?”

  “It doesn’t need to,” he ground out. His engines were firing on all cylinders. He wasn’t interested in delay.

  “Because everything you do is short-term?” she challenged.

  “Because you should stop putting us in a box,” he argued. “Instead of fixating on billionaire and journalist, why don’t you try Alexei and Amber instead? I think you’ll find that they’re quite a good match.”

  In spite of herself, coming from Alexei, that thrilled her. “Alexei and Amber?” she repeated.

  “Just don’t get too fond of it,” he warned.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t,” she assured him spikily.

  But it would be hard not to, Amber thought as Alexei pressed his body against hers, until her softness yielded to his hard steel.

  “That’s good,” he approved, dropping drugging kisses on the side of her neck.

  Good? She could lose control from his kisses alone. When she whimpered with pleasure, he laughed softly and showed her no mercy at all. Teasing the seam of her lips with his tongue until she parted them for him, he plundered her mouth, tasting and greedily possessing as he mimicked the act they both craved. She groaned softly with need. If she’d been hungry for Alexei before he kissed her, she was ravenous now.

  And then he ramped up the pressure beyond bearing when he murmured in her ear, “I’m going to kiss you, touch you, and pleasure you, until you come so hard, so many times, I’ll have to carry you to bed because your legs won’t hold you.”

  “How long have we got?” Exhaling shakily, she smiled against his mouth.

  Chapter Five

  “On the bed,” Alexei instructed as he backed her across the stateroom

  Maintaining eye contact as he pushed the robe from her shoulders, she challenged, “Are you sure you can make time for this?”

  “Oh, I can make time,” Alexei assured her. Freeing the buttons down the front of her top, he trailed one rough-edged fingertip very lightly between her breasts. “Do you have any idea how hungry you’ve made me?”

  “Enough to distract you?” she suggested.

  “For now,” he agreed.

  “Then, I guess I’ll take now,” she said, trying to sound equally offhand.

  Amber fired him up like no other woman before her. He’d never met a woman so dismissive, so provocative, or so challenging. His natural male desire to master, tame, and pleasure was eating him alive. And every inch of the way, she threw up a challenge. He liked that.

  “You just want the act and satisfaction,” she accused him.

  “Don’t analyze. Just feel,” he advised, running his hands very lightly over her for the pleasure of feeling her tremble beneath his touch.

  “Are you determined to tease me?” she demanded huskily.

  “What do you think?” he murmured, kissing his way down her neck.

  “I think you’re stone here…” She touched his chest over his heart.

  ‘And what’s the cure for that?” he demanded softly.

  ‘Turn up the heat?” she suggested.

  He laughed. “If I’m stone, you’re all yielding curves and needy places. But not in here,” he added, brushing her silky hair back from her face. “In here...” He tapped her head. “You’re as knowing as you are beautiful.”

  “Oh, am I?” she whispered.

  “Yes, you are, which is why I know you need this as much as I do.”

  Her lips pressed down in rueful disapproval. “This is just sex to you, isn’t it?”

  “What else would it be?” he demanded softly.

  Amber shook her head. “How can you be so cold?”

  “How can you allow yourself to reach this level of frustration without wanting to move on?” he reasoned coolly.

  “Because satisfaction is never a given—not even with the most sophisticated toy,” she retorted, which made him smile.

  “Is that all I am to you? A sex toy?”

  And when she shrugged, he said, “You’re no better than me.”

  “Accepted,” she gasped out when he lightly cupped her breasts.

  Drowning in her wildflower scent, he rasped his stubble lightly against her neck until she exhaled on a soft cry. He pushed her pajamas pants down and helped her step out of them, and then he backed her up until her legs were pressed hard against the bed.

  “Don’t you think you’re overdressed, Alexei?”

  “My clothes can wait. Open your legs,” he commanded softly.

  “And just stand in front of you, while you…?”

  “Why not?” he said.

  She opened her mouth and said nothing, but she did as he asked. Slipping a hand between her thighs, he explained, “Let me do this.”

  She stood still, listening as he worked her, her breathing speeding up as the pressure began to build. “I can’t—”

  “You can’t what?” he said quietly.

  “I can’t stand here and let you do this.”

  She was clinging to his arms. “Stand up straight,” he insisted. “Let go of me. Don’t touch me. Just concentrate on what I’m doing to you.”

  “I can’t, I’ll fall over,” she admitted with an edge of hysteria in her voice. “I can’t do this—I can’t hold on—”

  “Yes, you can,” he said sternly. “And you will. You will take everything I have to give you, and you will not release until I give you permission to do so.”

  Her body was out of her control. Alexei was in complete charge of her pleasure. That thought alone would have been enough to tip her over the edge, if his steely stare hadn’t been so commanding. She wanted to obey him in this alone. She wanted to feel the pleasure that only he could bring. His skillful touches, rapid little brushes growing firmer all the time, were setting up the sweetest, strongest clenches she’d ever known. Her entire body was awash with sensation.

  “I’ve got no idea how long I can take this,” she admitted with a healthy dose of pleading in her voice.

  “You will take it,” he told her evenly, staring into her eyes as he worked her with more intent than ever. “And you will not let go until I tell you to.”

  She was on the edge, hovering. Alexei kept her there for the longest time. And then, quite suddenly, he pulled his hand away and stopped. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  Placing his hands on her shoulders, he dipped his head to stare into her eyes. “Now,” he murmured.

  “Oh—fuck!” She let go. She had no option with a seismic event beating down on her. She was vaguely aware that she was making a lot of noise as she bucked repeatedly toward Alexei. Her hips were working as if his hands were still on her, and he had to save her from collapsing to the ground. Holding her steady, he kept her in front of him as the wild dance of pleasure continued.

  “Better now?” he murmured when she was quieter.

  She came to, to find him holding her safe in his arms. Alexei’s eyes were calm and assessing, with just the faintest suggestion of amusement in them when she groaned. “You fucking brute…”

  “On the contrary, I am a skilled technician who takes great pride in his work.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, “Like I said before, you’re stone cold.”

  Alexei enjoyed bringing pleasure, but he prided himself on remaining detached. Why was he like that? While he had been pleasuring her so expertly, she had lost touch with reality, but he hadn’t lost touch with anything. Sex was a necessary pastime for Alexei, an essential part of life, like eating and drinking and breathing, but no more than that.

  Keep emotion out of it? Wasn’t that what she told herself to do? So why was she lifting up her face for his kiss? Tasting him, kissing him, inhaling his scent, and feeling his arms tighten around her was something she knew couldn’t last forever, so why not claim it now?

  ~o0o~

  The intensity of Amber’s response had surprised him. Pressing her down on the b
ed, he stretched out his length against her. She was so tiny, so passionate, so tender, so vulnerable, and so utterly different from any other woman he’d ever known.

  “Slowly,” he cautioned when she reached for him. “Pleasure is supposed to be savored.”

  “Oh,” she exclaimed with disappointment. “Can’t we just glut ourselves instead?”

  Trying not to laugh was his biggest challenge. He had never associated sex with fun, which made it hard to keep his usual detachment from a woman who refused to acknowledge that sex was a fact of life and simply a function like any other, and who insisted on behaving instead as if it were something so much more.

  Winding her limbs around his, she snuggled close. “You’re very forward,” he observed.

  “Must be making up for lost time,” she purred contentedly.

  “And you’re certainly no lady,” he added, making her laugh as she mapped his erection enthusiastically through the painful constriction of his jeans.

  “You should take them off,’ she told him, adopting a concerned expression. “You could cut off your blood circulation and do yourself a really serious injury.”

  “You’re something else,” he said, reaching for his belt buckle.

  “No. Let me do that,” she insisted, shaking her head. Putting her tiny hand over his, she took her time, turning the tables on him and leaving him in agony.

  He raised his hips so she could snap his belt from its loops, and then he settled back on the pillows so she could work on his zipper. No woman had ever taken the initiative like this before. It was an experience that both intrigued and frustrated him.

  “Now, take them off,” she instructed, having eased his zipper down. “You’ll feel so much better when you do.”

  “Thank you, Nurse,” he murmured dryly. Swinging off the bed, he dumped his jeans.

  “And built to scale,” she said.

  “Changed your mind?” He shot her a look.