The Assassin's Salvation (Mandrake Company) (26 page)

He drew back, his breathing heavy again. “I need you.”

“I know.”

She ran her hand down his side to his waist, then through his curls, smiling when she found his thick hard shaft ready again. He groaned, and his own hands returned to roaming across her body. She was still wet and thought she could have invited him into her right then, but his head lowered to her breast, and he took her nipple in his mouth again. Her core throbbed in response, and her own breath quickened.

“What would you have done at the spa if we had been in that room alone?” she whispered.

“Taken you to one of those sofas,” he whispered, his tongue worshipping her breast as his fingers trailed south again. “And then to the massage table. Then to the pool. Maybe up against the wall.”

“All of that?”

“Yes. When I picked you up… and you wrapped your legs around me… I could barely keep from… tearing off our silly suits and thrusting into you.” He continued to pleasure her breasts as he murmured his response, but his words made her ache for him almost as much as his tongue’s treatment.

“I wanted you too. You felt so good against me.” She slid her hand along his length, inviting him to bring it closer. “Hard,” she whispered, feeling mischievous. “Big.”

He lifted his lips from her glistening nipples, his eyes intense as he gazed at her, his hand massaging her inner thigh. That humor returned to his eyes again, along with an equally mischievous glint as he said, “You made it that way.”

“Team effort, eh?”

“Absolutely.”

He came up, face to face with her again, kissing her, and his fingers drifted upward from her thigh to her lips. When he rubbed his thumb against her, she forgot her jokes, lost the capacity to think them up. That animal craving took over her mind, and she greedily hoped that he would give her that intense pleasure all over again.

He parted her once more, finding her throbbing center of desire. She was ready and wanted to tell him so, but his kisses were keeping her mouth too busy for words. His thumb rasped against her, and she pushed against his hand, on the verge of flinging her legs around him. She wanted him in her so badly she couldn’t think of anything else.

She was squirming and panting when he finally broke the kiss to whisper, “Are you ready?”

All she could do was nod vigorously. His fingers kept stroking her, pulling her toward that delicious edge. If he didn’t enter her soon, she would take her own fingers down there and look for that spot she had never known about before tonight.

But he shifted his weight atop her, his swollen penis touching her lips now. It was much larger than his finger, but she trusted him not to hurt her. He had been her protector since she met him, before she had even realized he felt that loyalty to her, before she had any idea how badly he wanted her. His need burned in his eyes now even as his shaft pressed against her lips, asking for permission to enter.

She gripped his shoulders and spread her legs, pressing upward with her hips, nudging him into her.

His muscles tensed beneath her grip, and with his eyes devouring her, he looked like he wanted to bury himself in her with one great thrust, but he paused and whispered, “It’ll hurt at first. Do you want it quick or slow?”

“Quick,” she said before she had time to think about it.

He hesitated, sweat dripping from his hair and into her eyes, then nodded once. He plunged into her like a coiled snake striking. Even though Jamie had expected it, the tear of flesh and surge of pain startled her, and she gasped, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

Still in her, his swollen penis filling her to the brim, Sergei leaned close, his fingers brushing the side of her face. “Are you all right?”

Jamie nodded, the pain and shock already subsiding. He kissed a tear at the corner of her eye, and she blushed, embarrassed by her response. But then, he shifted within her, stirring that pleasure back to life, and her embarrassment faded, replaced again by desire. He kissed her other eye, then found her mouth, his lips salty with her tears. His length rubbed inside her, easing out so far that she thought he meant to leave. She whimpered a protest and grabbed his ass, wanting to keep him close, wanting to alleviate the throbbing that had returned to her body, wanting to feel that exquisite sensation from before.

He smiled against her lips and pushed back into her. “You feel so good,” he whispered.

Sensations flooded Jamie as he pumped in and out, picking up speed, and at first, all she could manage to do was to kiss him back. But she soon found herself pushing into him every time he thrust into her, wanting him deeper, wanting him to fill her, to tip her over that edge. Every time they came together, she came closer to finding that explosion of pleasure that he had given her before. His lips left hers, and he buried his face in her throat, kissing it and grazing her with his teeth, his hot breaths whispering across her damp flesh. She sensed his need in the power of his thrusts, in the way his breathing grew short and rapid. Or maybe that was her own breathing. She dug her fingers into his ass and matched his every stroke, harder, faster, needing all of him in her. He nipped at her earlobe at the same time as he thrust into her, and she cried out, her passion exploding in a crescendo.

He came a moment later, his body shuddering with release, his essence flowing into her. It was a strange sensation, but one she decided she liked. She smiled against his throat, wrapping her arms around him and encouraging him to collapse on her, pleased to know he was spent.

He lay atop her and nuzzled her neck, then kissed her ear again, gently this time, as if to apologize for the bite. As if that bite hadn’t been delicious.

“You are all I dreamt of,” he whispered, “and more.”

The adoration in his words brought moisture to her eyes all over again. She rubbed her face against the sinews in his neck and kissed him. “I dreamed of you too,” she confessed.

“Did you?” He didn’t sound like he quite believed her. He brushed his lips along her jaw and to her lips, smiling as if to tell her it was okay if she hadn’t.

“After the spa. After licking your stomach.” She kissed him and met his eyes, hoping he knew she was telling the truth, that she thought he was amazing. “I woke up one night and rubbed myself with my hand while I thought of you.”

“Huh.” He looked a little pleased with himself, and she was glad she had told him.

He shifted his weight to the side, pulling out of her, but staying close. He laid his arm across her belly and kissed her shoulder. “I’d like to watch that sometime.”

She blushed at the idea, but nodded shyly. It seemed fair. She had watched him.

She snuggled into his arms, drowsy after the long day and—she smiled lazily—the long night, but she was enjoying the moment, the feel of Sergei against her back, and she was reluctant to let herself nod off.

Sergei stirred after a time, not sleeping yet, either.

“Jamie?” he murmured, nuzzling her neck.

“Yes?”

“We can wait for the morning to talk about it if you want, but I need to know soon if you still want to go down to Laframboise’s cloud city with me.”

“Of course I do.” She kissed his arm. “Don’t you need me for the job application plan?”

“With the whole company here now, Mandrake pointed out that we have more resources available to us. He also pointed out that you’re… not trained in combat the way the regular crew is and offered to send an engineer down for the robot-job ploy.”

“Oh. Is there a female engineer on the ship?” She couldn’t think of one, but she was still learning names.

“Er, I don’t think so. Does that matter?”

“I asked Ankari to have her friend, Fumio, make fake identities for us, so we would appear to be from one of the cities. The job description said locals preferred, remember? I’ll have to talk to Ankari, but she said we should have them by… er, now, I guess. One for a woman and one for a man. We’ll need to dress in costumes, of course, but things get a little iffy when you’re trying to pass yourself off as the opposite sex. Especially for a big, brawny mercenary. Even Commander Borage is over six feet and has the shoulders of an ox.”

“Ah, hm. Looks like I might have to take you.”

“Disappointed?”

“Not at all.” Sergei kissed her neck, then rested his head on the pillow beside hers. “I doubt Commander Borage is a good snuggler.”

“He might be a decent masseur.” Jamie grinned over her shoulder at him. “Working with tools all the time, twisting and turning things… He probably has strong hands.”

“I had no idea you were so enamored by massages.” Or a sixty-year-old engineer, his narrowed eyes said.

“I’ve recently become so.”

“If you mention Fergusson’s thug from the spa again, I’m going to bite you.”

Her grin widened. “Promise?”

For a moment, he looked like he would say something witty—or wicked—in response, but a fearsome yawn interrupted him. “Hm, perhaps not. Not right now, anyway. I
will
promise to give you a massage when we finish our mission. I also have strong hands.”

“I’ll look forward to that then.”

“Good.”

Chapter 14

When Sergei strolled into the mess hall with Jamie late the next morning, he had to bite his lip to keep from grinning like a love-struck fool. Even if he was one. The night before had been wonderful, and the morning’s shower ensured he would be in a brilliant mood all day, even if those cubicles were so tight that he had been in danger of having a soap shelf rammed up his butt the whole time. The awkwardness had been worth it, oh, yes. Maybe he would find a nice spa with warm pools and ample showers to take Jamie to for her massage, a very chaste no-orgies-allowed spa.

Fortunately, there were only a handful of people at the tables, so it probably didn’t matter if a goofy smirk or two slipped out. Nobody was paying attention to him, anyway. Most of the diners were pretending not to notice the heated voices of Mandrake and Ankari. She was sitting at a table, finishing breakfast, while he leaned against the porthole beside her, gesturing and snapping out a few monosyllabic words in response to whatever she was saying—her tone was quieter and sounded more reasonable. Placating, almost.

“That’s weird.” Jamie waved toward the arguing couple. “They weren’t doing that last night.”

Sergei had no trouble guessing at what they
had
been doing after Mandrake’s near misses with the bounty hunters. Seeing Jamie hurt had definitely incensed Sergei and made him want to share his feelings with her all the more, not to hold anything back. He hadn’t meant to spurt out his love for her, but he was delighted that his brash impulsiveness had somehow turned out in his favor.

Belatedly, he wondered at Jamie’s comment. She was already heading over for coffee and breakfast-themed meat logs, so he couldn’t ask, but maybe running into those two last night had prompted her interest in seeking him out. Well, he wouldn’t object. He would happily embrace whatever had brought her to his door. And to his bed.

Mandrake looked in his direction, and Sergei realized he was grinning again. He tamped it down. Nobody would take a grinning assassin seriously.

“Why don’t we sit over there?” Jamie had returned with two logs and two cups of coffee, his black and hers with cream—it delighted him to see that she had remembered how he liked his—and she nodded toward a table on the opposite side of the mess hall.

Sergei accepted the cup. “Are we avoiding anyone?”

He needed to tell Mandrake about the fake IDs and that he had to take Jamie on the mission. Mandrake was probably already irked that Sergei had made his first appearance of the day so late. Judging by the fact that he was wearing his typical I’m-on-duty leather duster and only had a coffee cup in hand, he had been up for a while and eaten breakfast long ago. Of course, he might be irked by something else. Ankari looked irritated as she jabbed a fork into the end of a yellowish-green omelet log.

“No, not at all.” Jamie smiled brightly and very obviously avoided Ankari’s eyes when she looked in their direction. “I just thought you would like some privacy.”

“Interesting. I haven’t known you long, but I can already tell when you’re lying.”

“I’m not sure that’s much of a coup.” Jamie’s smile turned into a grimace. “I do it poorly.”

“You didn’t walk in on them, did you?”

“No,” she said quickly, almost huffily. “They walked in on
me
if you must know.”

“Ah.”

Her cheeks flushed a delightful shade of pink. Deep pink. “It’s more my shuttle than theirs. I’m the pilot and engineer and do all the maintenance and, and… a shuttle isn’t an appropriate place for lovemaking,
anyway
.”

Once again, Sergei found himself struggling to hold back his smirk. “Not like a shower.”

She glowered at him.

He touched her shoulder. “You can sit over there if you like, but I need to report to him. That job fair is less than twenty-four hours away, so we’ll need a ride back planet-side soon.” As he walked away, he added, “Thank you for the coffee,” and smiled, curious if she actually would sit by herself instead of coming over to join them.

Sergei didn’t know Ankari that well, but he doubted Mandrake would be fazed by having someone walk in on him—or vice versa. That had to have happened dozens of times in his career. In the close quarters of a military—or mercenary—ship, there weren’t a lot of secrets. The lack of women on an infantry troop carrier didn’t necessarily keep randy things from happening, either.

“…don’t see why you can’t wait until
after
he deals with Laframboise,” Mandrake was saying as Sergei approached.

“The senator wants to see me tonight—tomorrow their time. She pushed things around to work in a meeting before the
Albatross
is scheduled to leave orbit.”

“We can stay longer if necessary.”

“So I should wait to meet with the government representative until
after
you drop off those crates full of contraband?”

“Food isn’t contraband,” Mandrake growled. “And I doubt a couple of gardening druids are going to offend anyone.”

“For all they know, your druids are military advisors who want to help overthrow the government.”