Icy Control (15 page)

“Is that story all over the place?” she asked, bemused.

“Every paper and many of the tabloids are running with it in various formats,” he confirmed. “I’ve been tempted to purchase one of the sleazier magazines, which had run with the byline ‘
Secret Chinese code proven false—a secret plot to destabilize Britannia and start war with France
’! Which is just…”

Sally chuckled as he shook his head.

“Come on, admit it, Bobby,” she teased. Hugging him tightly, he enjoyed the feel of his warm, strong frame next to her. “You’re going to buy a copy on the sly in a day or two when no one else is paying attention. You’ll hide it in a closet somewhere.”

He chuckled and she knew from the faint flush of color in his cheeks she’d guessed correctly.

“I just can’t help but laugh at the lurid turn of phrase. Promise you won’t tell my secret?”

Even though she knew he was kidding, she replied with sincere honesty.

“I won’t breathe a word to a soul, Bobby.”

He pressed the pad of his thumb to her lips, and for a moment they lost themselves in the special bubble that was just the two of them. She saw the moment he refocused his eyes and he came back to the point at hand.

“They’ve got the basics of the details correct. The views and commentary vary slightly, but the core message seems to be getting through. And as we’d hoped, the Gallery jumped on the opportunity when it was presented as a new propaganda tool. Plans are already underway with select details being ‘leaked’ to keep interest flared and keenly alive.”

“I might start a scrap book,” Sally said, quite serious.

“What? Of this stuff?”

“Of course, why not?”

Rob grimaced. “Most cases don’t end up anything like this. On the rare occasion it makes the papers, it’s practically unrecognizable as the truth we’ve uncovered. It’s not always their fault, we’re often responsible for misleading them, but this is an almost unique circumstance.”

“I’m still going to get every paper and keep them,” she insisted, stubborn in her own way.

Rob turned, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her thoroughly.

“Maybe that’s a good idea. There have been many differences in this case, but I’ll always remember it as the one we came to finally be together. I love you so much, Sal.”

Sally grinned, knowing this love between them might falter or hit a rough patch, but nothing could shake them. She knew it with a certainty like she knew the sun would rise the following morning.

He kissed her again, and she hungrily explored his mouth. It was minutes later she realized she’d become distracted. With a moan she pulled away, breathing hard. She decided to share her surprise after they’d eaten. Something about their conversation made her want to wait just a little longer before she revealed her news. She knew she had to share before her big reception at the gallery the following week, but it didn’t feel right changing the subject from something so serious onto herself.

“That food smells delicious. I worked through lunch and am starving. Let me just quickly wash the paint off my hands.”

Rob nipped at her full lower lip then released her.

Sally moved to the far side of the room and started to wash her hands. It was only when she looked up as she turned off the tap that she noticed Bobby had become curious and wandered over to the piece she’d been putting the finishing touches on.

It was the surprise she’d been working on for him.

Nerves fluttered in her stomach.

She’d been adamant this last painting be included. Bobby had been caught up in meetings, debriefings and the seemingly never-ending cycle of reports, so she’d not had what felt like the right time and place to show him this final, very special, piece.

She smiled and the final thought clicked into place. Of course. She couldn’t take it to him—he needed to go to it.

The painting was almost done. Bold, bright colors splashed over the canvas making it pop, to her eye. The sky was a warm blue, the sun low on the horizon. It was still light, but clearly dusk was not far away. The sky bled out to a darker navy the farther from the setting sun it went.

Front and center was a tall, dark-haired man and a shorter brunette walking arm in arm. The figures resembled herself and Bobby, but the lines were very slightly blurred, letting the viewer interpret it for themselves. She watched as Bobby peered closer. She grinned.

He’d evidently noticed the picture was like two meshed over each other. The man wore a dark suit like Bobby so often did, but there was a hint of armor, of a breastplate maybe, just hidden beneath the surface.

The painting was a blending of fantasy and reality—a specialty of hers, like the children playing with pixies and fairies—there but not quite at the same time. The woman wore a flowing summer dress, but it had an old-fashioned, almost princess style cut to it. Her face was turned to the man, her gaze blissfully happy. She hoped some of the female viewers would notice the faintest twinkle of a tiara in the woman’s hair.

The couple were walking in the park, hand in hand, and the closer the viewer studied the portrait, the more she hoped they would see. That was her intention, at least. There was a dragon hidden amongst the trees, and she’d made the outline of a ring of fairies dancing on the edge of a shallow pond.

A lot of the smaller items she’d purposely left hazy, so everyone might see something slightly different.

An imp peeked out over a large rock and there was the faintest outline of a sword in the growing shadows at the man’s hip and outstretched arm.

The city was in the background, where the man and woman headed toward the horizon, but some of the buildings had almost fortress-like qualities and turrets near the towers. It was a magical piece, and Sally held this painting very dear to her heart.

She hoped Rob would see how much of her heart and soul was in it.

“Do you think it’s very obnoxious of me to cast myself as the princess?” she asked when she couldn’t take the silence anymore. She hated to interrupt, but she was dead curious and more than a trifle nervous for his reaction.

“I love it, don’t you dare sell this piece. I’ll buy it for the flat. Like you, it will be perfect in there. And no, it’s not obnoxious. You’re my princess, my heroine, my everything. I think you deserve diamonds and jewels of all kinds.”

“I’ll be happy with just having my prince and my happily ever after,” she murmured and went into his arms. She loved how perfectly they fitted together.

He bent and scooped her into his arms.

Sal laughed and clung tighter to him.

“Bobby, wait, what about dinner?”

“I’m famished,” he insisted. “We can take the food back to my place and reheat it there. Right now I’m going to ravish my princess and be the conquering hero you continue to portray me as.”

“Well now,” she murmured then kissed his neck. “A girl can’t argue with that then, can she?”

She let him carry her up the winding stairs, though the thin metal wasn’t really made for two people at a time. Rob set her feet to the floor of the small loft area and Sally immediately went to work. She reached out and pushed his expensive jacket from his shoulders. Rob bent to remove his shoes, then his socks.

As was becoming the norm for them, what started as a sweet, slow revealing of their flesh was soon hasty and desperate. In seconds they were both naked. Sally grabbed Rob’s hands and pulled him with her onto the bed.

“Oh, no you don’t,” he chuckled. “This time I want to be in charge. You make me lose my mind, Sal. I want to indulge in some fantasies this time.”

She raised an eyebrow, curious and feeling cocky that she apparently wielded such power over him.

“Okay,” she said slowly, “what did you have in mind?”

“Nothing too sinister,” he reassured her. “Or not this time. I just seem to always find myself rushing after you, not enjoying the thrill of having you here.”

She shivered when he palmed her naked breasts, using his fingers to toy with her hard nipples. Suddenly, doing things Rob’s way didn’t sound like something she should fight.

“Go for it, Bobby,” she purred. “What would you like?”

Without answering, he lowered his hands from her breasts to her hips, manipulating her body so she rested on hands and knees upon the bed. She could feel the heat radiating from his skin as he followed her onto the sheets. The thin, wiry hair on his thighs scratched her ever so faintly and heightened her awareness of his large frame lurking behind her.

He probed her labia lips with one finger, and caressed his thumb over her clit. Gasping, her body reacted like she’d been struck by lightning. Her nipples hardened further, her skin got goosebumps and her pussy grew damp. He stroked over her plump flesh with his fingers, the digits caressing her.

She glanced behind her, and the look of ecstasy on his face was enough to have her heart pounding. He drank her in with those dark eyes. She loved the flush over his skin, proving he wanted her as much as she him. When she moved one hand back to touch him, he shook his head.

“Not this time, Sal.” His voice was deeper than usual, lust thickening it. “It’s my turn.”

She grinned wickedly. “That means next time is mine,” she warned him.

He nodded.

Satisfied, she turned back, her heart jolting as he thrust three fingers deeply inside her. When he stroked her arsehole with his other hand, her legs wobbled and the breath rushed out of her lungs.

“Grab the headboard, Sal,” Rob ordered.

After only the faintest of pauses she did so. He pumped his fingers inside her, caressed her inner walls for obeying.

The world exploded in color behind her closed eyelids. Breathing became difficult, but who needed air when her body sang under his ministrations? The world narrowed to the perfect bubble encasing them.

Noting else mattered.

For years she’d known Rob to be a man of total control, able to compartmentalize himself and stay strong when he needed to do the work he did. But she’d never imagined him to be such a determined lover. He played her body to perfection.

Sweating, she pleaded with him. “Now, Rob. My clit, stroke it harder. I need to come.”

“Not yet,” he said.

She gnashed her teeth, caught somewhere between bliss and pain from being deprived of the orgasm she could sense just out of reach.

She wanted to feel his thick cock, wanted that inner stretch she loved when he penetrated her fully. She wanted his fingers pinching her nipples and to lose all sense of reality as he took her to heights she’d never believed possible.

Sally unclenched one hand from the headboard, but she hadn’t even managed to move it before his voice rang out sharply.

“Put that back, Sal. My turn, remember?”

“Then fucking do it,” she panted, almost crazy for completion.

He continued to toy with her, though. He’d thrust the fingers inside her, but then stop before she could angle herself to force him to tease her G-spot. He’d tweak her nipples, or rub his thumb over her puckered back hole with his other hand, but then move on before she could push herself over.

She needed to come. Urgently. The desire he’d worked up in her was like a ball cramping inside her chest and stomach.

Release was only a few breaths away.

Then finally,
finally
he withdrew the fingers inside her. She sobbed in relief. Rob shifted on the bed, reached out to grab a foil packet, and she couldn’t help herself. Sally pressed on his shoulder and pushed him onto his side. She took the condom from his hand then broke it open.

With a grin that made her heart melt, Rob let her have her way. He lay down on his back, his erection stiff and proud, jutting out from his body. She sheathed then straddled him.

“Don’t think you’re getting off that easy,” he murmured.

Too far gone to care what he meant, Sally lifted herself off then guided him into her pussy. She exhaled loudly as they came together, his thick, hard length pressing deeply into her body and satisfying her the way she’d craved for years.

When she canted her hips up, she didn’t think anything of the fact he moved a hand down around her bottom. It was only when she felt him spread her arse cheeks with his fingers that his earlier comment suddenly meant something.

Each time she sank on him, he caressed the tip of his finger over and around her tiny hole. Teasing her while she rode him hard.

“I don’t think—” she started, but rational thought left her as he found some nerves just on the edge of her entrance. Shuddering, she struggled for breath. “I’ve not done that before, Bobby.”

“And we won’t this time,” he replied. “I don’t have the patience right now to prepare you properly. Think of it as a hint of what will come when I take my turn.”

Heat washed over her, a confusing mix of emotions she didn’t have the energy to sort through—embarrassment, eagerness, pleasure and a small well of desire. Things would never be boring with Bobby, that was a certainty.

She leaned over him, pressed her breasts into his muscled chest. In doing so, she knew that she exposed her arse better for him. He teased around her small hole. Rob thrust his hips up as she moved her pelvis. Together they fucked each other, and Sally couldn’t breathe so hard did her heart pound.

She loved this man more than anything. Life was perfect.

In seconds they were both coming, yelling loudly with their climaxes. Sally felt colors in every shade wash over her, the perfection of the moment only heightened with Rob’s naughty finger prying into her arse. He didn’t get far—his finger so big and her hole so small—but the nerves sang with pleasure and pain, a blend that sent her pulse skyrocketing. The heat of his cock pulsing inside her pussy.

They collapsed onto her bead. Sweating and panting.

When Sally caught her breath, she chuckled, feeling proud of herself.

“You hijacked my turn,” Rob said.

Although his words were strong, there was no heat or threat behind them. Or none she couldn’t handle.

“You were taking too long,” she said. She stifled a small yawn.

“We can eat later,” Rob agreed. “But I get another go.”

“Not a chance, I want to be in control next time.”