His Ward (14 page)

Nicholi paused for a second. “Do you really need me to explain that to you? I mean, when a boy loves a girl, and they have feelings for each other, their feelings can turn sexual—”

Tionne slapped him on his shoulder. “Shut up. I don’t need
the talk
. I know about that stuff. What I’m at a loss about, though, is how to get Misha to connect sexual things to me.”

“Oh, I think the connection has been made. A long time ago, in fact.” Nicholi maneuvered her off the dance floor and close to the exit. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a money clip. Without counting them, Nicholi took several bills from it, then handed the money to her. “I’m going to give you a ten-minute head start. Go home and wait.”

“And…” Tionne hedged. That couldn’t be the beginning and end of his plan.

“And nothing. He’ll come after you, and we’ll see which side wins.”

So far, she wasn’t loving this plan. “He could just come up there and yell at me.”

“Or you can put those ten minutes to good use and not have anything but those heels on when he joins you.”

Tionne looked down at her shoes, then back at Nicholi, who was smiling down at her. “The heels?”

“Oh yes.” He nodded. “They’re a winner.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I’m tired of watching two of the people I care most about hurting themselves. He loves you. You love him. He’s just a little bit more stubborn than the average bear, which means it’ll be on you to show him just how grown up you are. Come on.” Nicholi walked her outside and had the concierge hail her a cab. He waited with her until the car pulled up, then opened the door for her. “Remember, nothing but the heels.”

Still not convinced, Tionne eyed him warily. “You really think I can do this?”

“To be honest”—he smiled—“at this point, I don’t think you’ll even have to try very hard.”

It still sounded too good to be true. “And if it fails?”

“Then tomorrow you and Lauren will eat a pint of ice cream, and I will pound his head into the floor for hurting you.”

Tionne could find no fault with this part of the plan. “So it’s a win-win.”

“Pretty much. You in?”

“You’re devious.”

Nicholi smiled. “I know.”

Amused, Tionne rose onto her tiptoes and dropped a quick kiss on his cheek. “Wish me luck.”

“You’re not going to need it.”

Tionne wasn’t so sure about that, but at this point, she was running out of options and fast.

Chapter Eight

Misha didn’t know what upset him more. That Tionne snuck out of the benefit without him knowing, or that she’d left with that…busboy. The busboy who’d been pawing her as if she belonged to him. A lie of grand proportions that Misha refused to let go unchallenged. To add insult to injury, his cousin had seemed a little too pleased with himself when he told Misha the news. The unmistakable pride that shone in his eyes had Misha seeing red, and he took a good five minutes to let his cousin know exactly what he thought of him and his ill-timed humor, using as many expletives as he could in numerous colorful ways. Instead of giving him the fight he was so desperately looking for, Nicholi seemed to preen with every insult, leaving Misha no choice but to leave the benefit frustrated beyond belief.

His anger stayed with him on the drive to her condo, and the little control he had on his temper was holding on by a mere thread by the time he ended up in front of her door. He harshly ordered his security to wait outside. Without giving any thought to knocking as he had the last time he’d been there, Misha unlocked the door and pushed it open, then stormed into the condo with murder on his mind.

The sound of the door clicking closed behind him was the only noise in the otherwise silent house. To his irritation, her living room was bathed in warm candlelight but void of actual people, which left only two other rooms—not including the bathroom—for them to be in. One was the kitchen, and the other was the bedroom, and Misha was more than sure they hadn’t come back to her place for a midnight snack.

As he made his way to her bedroom, a noise to his left caught his attention. He turned to head in that general direction only to come to an abrupt stop when he spotted Tionne standing alone in the doorway that led to her kitchen. She was far less dressed than when he’d seen her earlier. Gone was the ball gown, and in its place was a midthigh silky white robe. Her ebony tinted hair was in soft waves around her shoulders, and, much to his dismay, she was still wearing the heels she’d worn to the benefit. He’d thought they were sexy when they were accompanying her gown, but now they were downright indecent.

The rant he’d perfected on the way up to her condo died suddenly behind his lips. Misha had been prepared for a lot of things when he came bursting in, but out of all the scenarios that had played on a loop in his mind, he’d never imagined the one before him now. Tionne in all her glory.

“You’re late.”

Tionne’s softly spoken words pulled him back from the edge of insanity, but just barely. “Am I interrupting?”

“Does it look like it?”

He made a show of looking around the candlelit room before turning his attention back to her. “A bit, yes.”

“Well, you’re not. Are we alone?” she asked as she brought her hands to the belt of her robe.

“I should be asking you that question. Anyone in here I need to kill?”

Her lips twitched as if she was trying to suppress a smile. “Not at this point in time. The guards?”

“Outside. Why? Think I’ll need them?”

“Not at all.” To his utter surprise, Tionne untied her belt, then took off her robe, dropping it carelessly to the floor as she revealed exactly what she was wearing beneath it. Absolutely nothing.

“What are you doing?” he murmured once he was able to get his lips to move again.

“I think it’s fairly obvious.”

“Think again.”

“I’m trying to seduce you, silly.” She started toward him slowly, with a sultry smile on her lips and a come-hither swing to her hips. “How am I doing so far?”

“Moja draga…” he whispered. “Don’t do this to me.”

She stopped just inches from him. The sweet smell of lavender wafted off her, teasing his senses with its subtle floral scent. “Do what?”

“Tempt me.”

“You know, for a while there, I didn’t think I ever could. Tempt you, that is.”

Misha let out a harsh sound that could barely be mistaken for laughter. “You are wrong. So very wrong.”

“You’re admitting you want me, then?”

“Too much.”

“How can you ever want someone too much?”

“I’m the savage they all accuse me of being, because when I’m with you, when I see you, hell even when I just hear your voice, it takes everything inside me not to just possess you. Mark you. Claim you for the world to see.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It is, because you’re young, too young for the way I feel about you.”

“Which is…”

“Utterly and completely obsessed,” Misha said, finally admitting out loud to her the deepest part of his heart.

“Still waiting for the bad part, because, so far, I’m not seeing it.”

Misha choked on a bitter laugh. “How can you? I’ve held you close to me, discouraged you from dating, when I should have, by all rights, let you go.”

Instead of looking condemningly at him, Tionne seemed slightly amused. “Do you really think I didn’t date in college? That I didn’t have chances to be with other men?”

Well, isn’t that obvious? “Yes.”

“Uh. No.” She laughed. “Your guards are good but not that good. If I’d wanted to, I could have made love several times over, but I never did, because the only person I could ever imagine being with was you.”

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself involved in.”

“I do. You’re a controlling egomaniac who I just so happen to be desperately in love with. Sometimes your bad outweighs your good, but even when that happens, I still love you.”

“You can’t say things like that and expect I’ll ever allow you to walk away.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

Misha just shook his head. “Dammit, Tionne. You need to be with someone your own age. Someone who doesn’t have to travel with guards or look over his shoulder. Someone who can give you time to find your own life and not try to tie you down with marriage and kids right now like I want to.”

“Let’s clear something up. I’m not an idiot,” Tionne said with a hint of frustration in her voice. “I know things aren’t going to be rainbows and butterflies all the time. You come with baggage and scary people and control issues. And you’re right. I’m not ready to be tied down to anything but a bed for now, and I probably won’t be for a while. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want it. I want to have a family, and when I do get married and have kids, I want it to be with you, because no one else compares to you. No one else could.”

Sighing, he laid his forehead against hers. “Tionne.”

“I’m yours. Whether you stay tonight or leave, I’m always going to be yours, because I love you.” Tionne cupped his cheeks in her hands and pulled back a little so they were staring into each other’s eyes. “Do you hear me? I. Love. You. If you don’t love me back, that’s one thing, but if you do, then show me.”

Misha considered himself to be a strong man, but even he wasn’t strong enough to fight this. “You might grow to regret this, but I never will.”

“Misha.”

“Yes.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

So he did.

Tionne groaned as his tongue swept boldly in her mouth. Her intent was to silence his protest, but his brand of shutting up was so much better. And so were his kisses. Tionne never knew a kiss could be this good. She’d hoped, dreamed even, but nothing she ever imagined compared to the real deal, because it wasn’t just tongue and lips, it was sweet and tender and yet somehow still sexy and sensual. It was so much of everything that it was easy for Tionne to lose herself in his taste. In his touch.

Without breaking away from her mouth, Misha wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her a few feet off the ground. She gasped into his mouth, surprised at the sudden motion, then relaxed back into him as he began to walk them to her bedroom.

How he was able to walk and kiss her at the same time was beyond her. She didn’t question it. She just enjoyed it—a little too much—because when they reached her room and he lowered her feet to the floor, she sighed her disappointment into his mouth.

Misha pulled back, breaking the kiss in the process, then swooped down and slipped his hand beneath her knees and picked her up.

“What?” The word was barely out of her mouth, before Misha sent her sailing backward onto the bed. Tionne laughed as she bounced on the mattress. “Well, that works too.”

Misha looked around the candlelit room and smiled. “Looks as if someone was busy. Were you so sure I was going to cave?”

“Sure? Not at all. But I was hopeful.” She leaned over and opened the nightstand next to her bed and extracted a condom. After closing the drawer, she rose to her knees and waved it like a prize for him to see. “Very hopeful.”

“I’m not sure whether I should be alarmed at how prepared you are or happy.”

“Happy,” she said as she made her way to the foot of the bed on her knees to where he was standing. “Very, very happy. I’ve had plenty of time to stew over this moment.”

“You’re not alone.”

“No?”

“No.” Misha shrugged off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. “Sometimes it feels as if I’ve been waiting all my life for this, moja draga.”

“You would never have known it from my end.” Tionne dropped the condom on the bed, then went to work on the buttons of his shirt.

“We have a lifetime to make up for my mistake.”

A lifetime. Tionne liked the sound of that. “Yes, we do.”

Finally reaching the last button, Tionne noted Misha had taken out his cuff links, allowing the shirt sleeves to hang loose. She pushed the material off his broad shoulders to expose his chest. She briefly heard the clunk of metal as Misha dropped the links where they fell as the shirt slipped off his body. Tionne didn’t care where his clothing landed, because her gaze was locked on him. Only slightly dusted with a smattering of hair, his hard-earned muscles were visible to her naked eye. She reached out and ran her hands over his chest, lightly flicking over his nipples, surprised when she received a groan of reaction. She glanced up to his face, wide-eyed at the leashed desire she saw there.

“Did you think your hands on my body would leave me unmoved?”

“I want to see all of you, touch all of you.” Tionne grasped his belt buckle. “Now.”

Misha pushed her hands away but made quick work of the last barrier between them. He lowered his zipper and pushed his pants, along with his boxers, down his hips and legs in one fell swoop, leaving him blessedly bare. Tionne wasn’t sure when he’d lost his shoes, and at this point she wasn’t going to ask; she was too busy staring at the prize jutting out in front of him.

Tionne let out a soft gasp as she got her first glimpse of his shaft. She wasn’t a novice by any means. Lord knew she’d seen her fair share of porn, but none of the men on-screen compared to Misha in living color. His cock was long, thick, and hard, and it was standing at attention as if it was just begging to be touched.

It was a plea Tionne was more than happy to oblige. She reached out and took him in hand. Her touch was tentative at first, but Tionne had waited way too long to let nerves slow her down now. She leaned forward to take him in her mouth, eager for her first taste of him. To her disappointment and surprise, Misha placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back.

“Don’t you want me to—”

“Me first. Lie back, moja draga.”

Well, when he put it like that, who was she to argue? Tionne sat back on the bed and scooted back a bit before laying her head down on the pillow. She lifted her legs until her knees were bent and her heels were flat on the mattress. Misha climbed up after her and picked up one of her legs. He pressed her knee toward her and took her shoed foot in hand.

“Love the shoes.”

Tionne thought back to Nicholi and smiled. “They’re a real crowd-pleaser.”