The Russian's Dangerous Game (4 page)

Rocco looked down at the woman, her head was bent low and his stomach lurched at the confusion he saw
in her posture. “Brianna,” he said, lifting her head with a gentle finger. The confusion was even more evident in her green eyes and he kissed her tenderly.

She might be nervous around him, and her trembling indicated that was the case. But for his part, he’d never been this affected by a woman. He still wanted her, but he wanted her willing and passionate.

“Don’t be afraid of me,” he said, his voice low and husky. “That place is too loud and chaotic,” he told her gently. He slipped his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders. “And I don’t think it’s really your scene.”

Brianna smiled gratefully as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of his jacket. Immediately,
she felt the heat from his coat surround her once again. It was different this time because it wasn’t actually his body. But it still felt wonderful. She was more secure, more confident covered like this as well. He was so tall that his jacket was longer than her dress, coming down to the middle of her thighs.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling brightly up at him. She clutched the jacket around her, something twisting inside of her at how gentlemanly he was being. It was strange, she thought. She’d never expected
that this side of him existed.

“Will you have
a cup of coffee with me?” he suggested.

Her smile actually brightened and she immediately nodded her head. “That would be nice.”

The elevator doors opened and he led her out into the black night and straight into a waiting limousine, the driver slamming the door as soon as they were inside.

She shifted on the seat, not sure what to think or to do. Everything with this man seemed different than her other dates.
Then she looked up at him and she caught something in his eyes, something that resonated within herself.

Rocco looked down at her, saw the instant her realization hit her and he groaned. All of his good intentions went out the door with that pleading in her eyes. She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her and he wasn’t strong enough to stop himself. A split second later, he lifted her onto his lap and kissed her, his hands holding her close. There was only a small moment when she stiffened before he felt her curl into him, her body almost wrapping around him while her arms moved up to his shoulders. He felt her hands move from his shoulders to his hair, then back down again and he was lost.

His hand moved the jacket out of the way, sliding along her body over the clingy dress that he wanted to peel off of her extraordinary figure. She was so soft, so perfect, every part of her fit into his hands as if she were made for him.

Rocco realized that his driver had stopped and looked up, his mind slowly registering that they were at his home. Lifting her out of the car, he carried her into his house, kissing her the entire time.
There was only one pause on the stairwell when her fingers touched his neck. He almost dropped her, so shocked by the lust that shot through him when her tender fingers touched him that he put her feet down, pressing her against the wall. His intention was to get a better grip on her but she arched against him, her legs shifting against his and his hand slipped down her bare leg and then slowly moved upward, his hand finding the delicate lace of her underwear, caressing her intimately.

Her gasp of surprise was almost his undoing. Lifting her into his arms once again, h
e didn’t relent until he’d laid her down on his bed and even then, his mouth moved from hers down to her neck, nibbling as he slowly found the zipper on the side of her dress.

Brianna felt the zipper slide down her body and sighed happily as the tight material released its hold on her body. She stretched, arching up so that his hand would touch her…yes! Right there! She wasn’t wearing a bra, no room inside the dress. And when his hand covered her breast, she thought she might just burst into flames right there.

Rocco had thought that the rest of this woman’s body was perfect, but as he peeled the dress down over her hips and dumped it on the floor by his bed, his body heated up exponentially. He looked down, getting even more excited as he watched her nipples pucker under his exploring fingers.. Everywhere he touched, she sighed with pleasure or whimpered with need. It was driving him crazy, needing to possess her, to shower her with kisses and touch every inch of her skin to discover all her softness for himself.

Lifting up, he ripped his clothes off of his body,
then came back to her, his legs moving in between her own. With one hand, he slipped down her body, exploring her thighs and her hip. When her legs automatically opened for him, he moved into place, his finger slipping inside her heat. When he discovered her wetness, felt her hips rise up to meet his hand and saw the way her mouth opened up as he invaded her body, he could no longer slow down. He reached over and grabbed a condom from his side table, sliding it over his body and then pulled her closer once again. When he slid into her heat, he couldn’t believe how perfect she felt. It was like coming home and finding that it wasn’t enough all at once. He felt a strange resistance, but wasn’t sure what it was and he couldn’t slow down enough to figure it out, needing to bury himself in her heat fully.

Br
ianna felt his invasion. For a moment, she was brought back to reality, shocked at what she was doing. But then his body moved against hers and all anxiety dissipated. She inhaled sharply when there was a brief moment of pain, but after that moment, she was too desperate, not sure what to do but needing him to do something, anything to ease this terrible, wonderful ache.

Then he did move and she thought she was going to scream. She lifted her hips, trying to adjust to his size and he shifted even deeper! She couldn’t believe how full she felt, how perfect! It
was as if she were finally whole, as if something had been missing all her life and she hadn’t even known it.

She closed her eyes, pressing her lips closed as she tried to…nope, that wasn’t going to work. She arched again, feeling her body strain closer, reaching for something, gasping as he pressed into her again and again. She heard strange sounds, but had no idea that those sounds were coming from her, that he was watching her from above and having trouble holding back. And then she felt something new, his hand down there and…she had no idea what was happening but the most incredible, intense and pleasurable wave washed over her and she held on tightly, unaware that her nails were digging into the muscles of his shoulders or that he was right behind her with his own climax.

She couldn’t breathe but didn’t care, couldn’t feel anything but that shockingly intense feeling of pure bliss. She was floating, drifting on a wave of happiness so wonderful, she didn’t even want to open her eyes, instinctively knowing that she didn’t want reality to intrude on this moment. As she drifted off to sleep, she was only vaguely aware of the source of warmth leaving her, but smiled when it returned.

Rocco came back from the bathroom and looked down at the incredible woman sprawled out on his bed, her curls
spread out on his pillow and all he wanted to do was make love to her again. He never stayed with a woman after sex. Hell, he never brought a woman back to his place for sex, always going to her place so he could leave afterwards. But he couldn’t pull himself away from this woman. The thought flitted through his mind that he could go down to his office and work, or even use one of the other seven bedrooms in the house. He rejected both options and pulled the sheets over his lovely lady, pulling her against him. He reached out and turned off the light, smiling in the darkness as Brianna curled up against him, her delicate hand smoothing across his chest.

He liked this woman, he thought suddenly. He didn’t really know her, had barely even spoken to her, but he
instinctively liked her as a person.

Rocco was just about to close his eyes, to rest for only a moment while enjoying her softness against his side, when something suddenly occurred to him. It was so startling, he almost jerked with the realization that Brianna had been virgin! He’d felt the resistance, had seen the flinch in her face but had been too overwhelmed by the need to bury himself inside of her to take a moment to understand. He hadn’t ever been with a virgin before,
and was astonished that someone as lovely and sexy as Brianna hadn’t ever been with another man.

Damn! The smile that formed on his face in the darkness was only a mild reaction to
what he was thinking. Inside, he was feeling on top of the world and he pulled her even closer against his side, feeling both protective and possessive. He’d give her a few minutes to sleep, then would wake her up and start the whole process over again. Much slower this time around. Much more thoroughly too.

Brianna sat up and gasped, looking around in the darkness as the horror of what she’d actually done penetrated through her sleep-muddled mind.

She looked down
and saw the man sleeping on his stomach. His hand reached out, automatically reaching for her since she’d just knocked it off.

“No!” she whispered,
then covered her mouth with her hand when the man shifted in his sleep. He was obviously reaching for her and she quickly scooted out of range, holding the sheet against her nakedness. When he continued to reach for her, she pushed a pillow closer to him and breathed a silent sigh of relief when he pulled the pillow closer, accepting that the stuffing was her.

She pushed her hair out of her eyes, still
trying to come to terms with the fact that she’d just had sex! This wasn’t really happening, she told herself. She hadn’t gone home with a guy she’d just met, had she? This was only a nightmare and she would wake up in her own bed with her soft, fluffy pillows surrounding her and everything would be back to normal.

She’d barely had a conversation with the man and she’d gone and slept with him?
Impossible. But as she looked around, the evidence of her body’s betrayal was all around her.

She had gone to that nightclub to find evidence that the man was a horrible person and she’d ended up in bed with him?

No, this could not have happened.

But as she slipped out of the bed, she felt t
he tenderness in her thighs as well as in more intimate places. And as she stood up, she realized that she was sore in places that weren’t normally sore, even after a really hard run or workout.

Impossible, she told
herself, even as she pulled the sheet off of the bed just in case this wasn’t a dream and the huge man sleeping on the enormous bed might wake up. She didn’t want to be here if that actually happened. She had to get out of here.

Her story! Good grief, she
’d forgotten all about the big reveal story! She grabbed her dress and her underwear, blushing at the previously pretty, white lace that was actually torn now. She didn’t care! She picked her clothes up off of the floor, running into the bathroom in her haste to get dressed. She couldn’t believe what she’d done but more importantly, she had to get out of here.

She desperately needed a shower, but didn’t want to risk it. She pulled her clothes on and turned off the light before she opened the bathroom door again. Even though she’d spent several hours in this room, she still had no clue where the door was. She stood there, her eyes blinking to fight back the tears until she finally found the door. With her shoes dangling from her fingers, she raced for the door, almost tripping in her haste to be free from the room of her ultimate humiliation.

She didn’t realize that tears were streaming down her cheeks until she felt a drop fall on her arm. She angrily wiped it away, then did the same to her cheeks. She was a professional! Other journalists probably did this kind of thing all the time so what was the horror? She should just put one in the “Cool” column because even she knew that the sex last night…or was it still night…had been shockingly amazing. She’d heard her co-workers talk. She knew that sexual encounters like her experience with Rocco were one in a million.

And
as she wiped the tears of humiliation and embarrassment off of her cheek, she was even angrier with herself that her pep talk didn’t make her feel better. She was being juvenile! Women had sex with men all the time. Why was this time so devastating?

Because she’d
been wanting to share her first experience with someone special. She had wanted her first time to mean something, a gift to a man who would appreciate who she was and how much sex meant to her. Someone who cared about her and planned to spend the rest of his life with her.

Instead, her first experience
with a man had been with someone she not only had met at a dance club, but a man she was investigating because she suspected he was a really bad human being.

How had her instincts let her down so badly? Why had she given in to the desire last night?

Well, to be perfectly honest with herself, she hadn’t done a great deal of thinking last night. She hadn’t had time to contemplate whether to give in to her desire. Rocco wasn’t the kind of lover who let one think. It was pure experience, pure aggressive, sexual need. There was no point during the past several hours when she could have come up for air and told him no.

And following on with that honesty, she hadn’t wanted to say no. Not until now when reality had slapped her in the face with her morals.

She couldn’t believe what she’d done, and was about to turn away, wanting to rush out of the bedroom but something caught her eye, a flash of something on the floor. Her fingers flew to her ears and she realized that the small, pearl earrings she’d worn earlier were missing. She bent to investigate and discovered the object was one of her earrings. She felt for her other pearl and almost sobbed out loud when she realized that the other one wasn’t in the vicinity. These were her lucky earrings! She only wore them when she really needed a confidence boost. They hadn’t really given her much luck tonight though.

“Nikki, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. Nikki had given her
and Rachel a pair of these on their graduation night and they’d been so special to her. Now they were gone and she wanted to curl into a ball and cry out her desolation.

But that would have to wait, she told herself. She had to get out of this house but as she looked down the hallway, it was so long. She took a moment to pick up his tie
that had come off in the middle of the hallway and fold it neatly on a table with a lovely painting of…good grief! The man had a Monet in his hallway! She cringed to think what he kept in his living room or dining room, areas where they might have a place of honor!

Maybe it was a fake, she told herself, not believing it for a moment.

She moved silently down the hallway, creeping down one way only to come to a dead end so she tried another hallway. It took her three tries before she finally found the staircase. She gasped when she looked down the long, winding staircase. He’d carried her up these stairs? She had a vague recollection of that happening, but since he’d stopped to kiss her several times, she hadn’t really gotten to look around. Or breathe. Or think.

She was actually blushing when she reached the middle of the stairs, remembering all that they’d done on these stairs, how he’d touched her, kissed her, made her body go up in flames. They’d barely made it to his bedroom and she shivered as the memory of what happened in that bedroom came back to her.

She wished she could blame it on the alcohol, but she’d barely had anything to drink. He’d only bought her that one drink and he hadn’t given her time to really taste it before they’d left to go up those stairs….And the dancing!

She might not know how to dance with anyone else, but with Rocco…
she blushed with the memory of how they’d danced last night. It wasn’t possible, she thought with a rush of her breath. It must have been someone else last night.

A large, bulky man stepped into the hallway, startling her.
She looked up into his eyes, her heart sinking at his stern expression.

“Does Mr. Antoniv know that you are leaving?” his deep voice asked.

Brianna bit her lip, not sure if this man was going to let her leave if she didn’t have his boss’ permission.

Pretend to be sophisticated, she told herself firmly. Pretend this happens all the time!
“I didn’t want to wake him up,” she said, trying to stop the trembling of her chin. “I’ll just see my way home,” she told him softly and started moving again.

The man hesitated for a moment,
then nodded briefly. “I’ll have a car take you home,” he replied and Brianna breathed a sigh of relief when he obviously wasn’t going to keep her here until his boss was revived.

“That’s not necessary,” she said, forcing a little laugh. “I can get home in a cab.”

He completely ignored her, simply lifting his cell phone to his ear and saying something in what she suspected was Russian but had no idea if it might be another dialect or true Russian. She wasn’t exactly up on her Slavic languages at this point in her life.

She tried to walk around him
, but he politely stepped to the right, effectively blocking her exit.

She glared up at the man, refusing to allow him to intimidate her. He might be bulky, but he wasn’t nearly as tall or as muscular as the man she’d just left upstairs.
“I’m going to walk out of that door,” Brianna said, trying not to clench her teeth in frustration but suspected that she was missing the mark on her attempt.

He bowed slightly and she suspected that the movement of his lips was
almost a smile, an attempt to reassure her but he completely missed the mark with that effort too. “We will see you safely home,” he countered.

Brianna didn’t let her mouth fall open, but only because she was
still grinding her teeth. “Get out of my way,” she told him firmly, trying to use the voice that her friend, Nikki, would use. It always got results. Men didn’t mess with Nikki. She was too tough, too strong and too determined. Well, no one really messed with Rachel either, but more so because she didn’t really acknowledge men. They were simply roadblock in her career path that she either ignored or stepped around. Brianna was going to learn to be like her friends even if it killed her.

Imagining Nikki’s expression, she straightened her shoulders, raised herself up to her full height of five feet, six inches and zoned in on Nikki’s persona.
But still concerned that she might come across as too mean, she smiled as kindly as possible while she said, “I’m going home and I’m not getting into any vehicle you provide. So please step out of my way.” Had she been too polite? She worried for all of five seconds but when the man simply stood his ground, she was sure that she’d been too polite.

Her shoulders slumped and she looked down at the ground. “Please, just let me leave. I’ve made a colossal mistake and I just want to go home.”

Thankfully, the man wasn’t immune to her pleas but he wouldn’t relent. “Why don’t you wait in here for only a moment? A car will be brought round and will drive you home. It is three o’clock in the morning, ma’am. Mr. Antoniv would not be happy if I were to let you leave without an escort.”

Brianna looked up at the man’s face and suddenly, it didn’t look as tough or stern as she’d originally thought. “What’s your name?” she asked with as much
courage as she could muster under the circumstances.

The man hesitated for a moment, obviously not used to people seeing him as a human being. “You may call me
Stu,” he said with a small bow of respect. “Please, ma’am,” he said, holding the door open for her. “It will only be a moment.”

Stu watched as the delicate beauty stepped into the office. He wanted to get her tucked away so he could wake his boss, thinking that this woman was special to him. Stu had been with Rocco Antoniv ever since the man had made his first million and a death threat had been issued. Stu had been hired by Rocco to find the person who had delivered the death threat and ensure that
the person was prosecuted. Stu had never left Rocco’s side since that point in time. Stu had worked for many people over the years, but none had been as generous and moral as Rocco Antoniv. And Rocco had never brought a woman home before so that in itself was a signal.

Brianna leaned against the
now-closed doors taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. She wasn’t being kidnapped, she just needed to sneak by an overly protective body guard. She could do this. She looked around at the room, not recognizing anything. The driver had pulled up in front of this house earlier in the evening but other than the dark bedroom and curving staircase, she hadn’t seen much of anything else.

The twelve foot walls were impressively filled with books on three sides with tall windows facing the front of the house. The room felt comfortable, as if Rocco worked in here a lot. There was a computer on the corner of the large, elegant desk, but no papers were lying on top of the polished surface. Obviously, Rocco kept his work hidden from view, a fact she should have known about before she’d fallen into bed with the man.

There was a comfortable-looking set of leather club chairs set off to the corner and two more formal-looking chairs placed in front of the desk. Everything looked very normal, if elaborately expensive, but she suspected there were locks and security measures all around. There was no way she could hack into the laptop on the corner of his desk, or even pick the locks on that enormous looking desk.

She stopped her mind suddenly, looking around
as her mind registered something her eyes had caught a moment ago. Sure enough, his sports jacket was lying against one of the chairs. Was it...? She glanced behind her at the still-closed door, then over at the jacket. She didn’t have time to think, not knowing how long she had. Within moments, her shaking fingers were digging through the pockets of his jacket and she found the paper. As soon as her fingers touched it, she froze for a fraction of a second. Was she doing something illegal? Her mind quickly went through the potential issues but she just didn’t know enough about the law. Perhaps if she were a police officer, this would be illegal search and seizure, but she wasn’t sure what her legal standing was here. At a minimum, this was probably unethical, wasn’t it?