he strips out of his clothes completely and dives in, swimming ten or so rapid lengths before clambering out of the pool and walking over to me.
“How you doing?” he asks as he leans in for a kiss, icy droplets raining down on me.
I remember what seems like years ago, when he swam up to me in this pool, bracketing me in and making my heart pound. My heart still pounds when he’s around, but not from fear.
“I’m okay. I spoke to Grandma a couple of hours ago, and Grandpa is doing good. They think he can come home in a week or so. I’ve tentatively told her that I might be going to live in Greece and that they can some stay. I think I ought to frame it as a long holiday at first, or she’ll freak out. I know my gran, and she likes her home comforts. I’ve sold it to her as the sun and sea being good for Grandpa’s recuperation.”
“Good. Once they’re there, I’m sure they’ll love it so much they’ll want to stay.” He kisses my neck, and I shiver.
“How are you doing?” I ask him.
He sighs. “Okay. Wanting this fight to be over now.”
“Really.” I nudge him in the ribs with my elbow. “I thought you’d be relishing the mayhem to come.”
“Once upon a time,” he says. “Not now. Not with you in the picture. I thought about sending you away,” he says.
My stomach sinks.
“Only for the next few days,” he clarifies.
“And?”
“And, I don’t think it will be any safer. You’re with me and all the men here. I want you to go down to the basement and stay there. It has a panic room of sorts. Not one of those fancy things you see in the Hollywood movies, but it can be bolted from the inside, and it’s a heavy lock. I’ll send one of the men to stay inside with you. Only come out when he says it’s safe, okay?”
“I’ll be scared to death stuck in a tiny room in the basement. I’d rather be up here with you.”
“No, baby. You need to do this for me. Please?”
I bite my lip and nod. My eyes trail down his body, and his cock stirs under my scrutiny. “I think I’ve healed enough for a bit of fun, don’t you?” I ask him.
“Depends how vigorous this fun might be.” He smirks.
“On a scale of one to ten, maybe a five vigorous.”
“Five vigorous sounds safe.” He leans over me, kissing me.
I reach out and touch his cool, wet skin. My fingers travel over the bumps and ridges of his torso, noticing a small scar on his hip I’ve not taken in before.
“How did you get this?” I ask. I expect him to say from a bullet or something equally dramatic. Instead, he laughs.
“When I was a kid, we used to play this game. One of us would lie on a skateboard and go down this steep hill near where I lived, then another would pile on. One day, I was the one piling on, but I missed. For some reason, I grabbed the legs of the kid on the skateboard and got dragged. Gravel embedded my flesh, and that’s the scar.”
“I thought it would be a bullet or something.”
He turns, showing me the scar on his left shoulder. “This is a bullet wound.”
I stare at it. “Really?”
“Really.”
I get up, stretching, and stand by him. “Let me kiss it better,” I say.
He lets me tenderly kiss the patch of skin and then he lifts me and carries me into the steam room. He takes my clothes off, and the warmth in the air mixes with the heat between us. Once he has me naked, he turns me around, so I’m pressed against the glass. “Do you know the door’s not locked,” he says.
“What?” I start to pull away.
“No, baby. Stay exactly where you are.”
I struggle a bit, but he holds me in place. “What if one of your men comes in?”
“Then he’ll see how hot you are, and he’ll be jealous as hell.”
It shouldn’t, but the idea turns me on. A lot.
I’d never want another man touching me, but one of K’s men seeing us? Not just me, but both of us, and how magnificent we are together? I can’t deny it gives me a thrill.
“He’ll want you,” Konstantin says. “But he won’t get to touch any part of you because that’s a death penalty so far as I’m concerned.”