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Danielle's Dangerous Hero Writing Challenge Story (Captive/Kidnap): Shadow Tryst
message 252:
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Sep 20, 2010 07:10PM)
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The flight was uneventful. Surprisingly, Karina dozed off. She could only fight the fatigue so long, and this man seemed to sap energy from her body like he was a vacuum. At the same time, he made her feel hyperaware of everything. Much to her surprise, she woke up on the plane’s final descent into the Dublin International Airport, and her head was resting on a hard, warm pillow. The scent of woodsy cologne and clean male permeated her nostrils. A sense of misleading comfort filled her in those short moments before she came to her senses. Attempting to be nonchalant, she slowly raised her head and sat up in her seat. Karina avoided his gaze, but she heard a quiet laugh, which told her he was well aware of ‘slip.’
Karina used the minutes before the plane landed on the runway to regain her composure. The flight was fairly short, but the catnap did help to re-energize her. In her mind, she went over the plan that Alexei had carefully outlined, searching for a way to turn things to her angle. In truth, Alexei made a formidable ally, but she had to remember she was on one team, her own. She knew that he’d sacrifice her without a moment of remorse if he deemed it expedient. She was no match for an assassin of his caliber. Yet, she was an intelligent woman, and her problem-solving skills had served her well in her twenty-five years of life. She felt she could see her way out of this.
Deep down, Karina knew there would be a price to pay for the mortal sin she had committed. She had ended a man’s life, even though she hadn’t pulled the trigger. Karina hoped that her penance would not continue to come at the hands of the very agent of her sin. However, it seemed like a divine sort of justice.
Her gaze landed on his profile for a brief moment. He had a male beauty that seared her. It was becoming more difficult to ignore that beauty, the longer she spent around him. Not so long ago, she had feared him, she still did. Thatfear was tinged with a wariness that made it hard to see him as an attractive man. Yet, every hour, that elemental allure that he wore like a layer of skin called to her. Deliberately, Karina turned her gaze away, and outside. Dublin was cloaked in a gray layer of mist. Through the mist, she could see how very green the land was. A sharp pain accompanied the memory of her father describing Ireland. He’d spent time here as a boy. Even though he hadn’t been back for many years, his eidetic memory allowed him to describe it perfectly. It is a green that seems too vibrant to be real, yet it is. He’d smiled then, brushing her cheek. There’s a bit of Irish green in your eyes, my geneth. He always called her ‘girl’ in Welsh. Her heart squeezed, and Karina thought she’d suffocate as the wave of anguish hit her.
She hadn’t realized that she’d frozen until she felt the weight of Alexei’s gaze on her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Karina shook her head. The pain made her hoarse. “Nothing.”
“Are you motion sick?” Alexei asked, his Russian accent suddenly rather pronounced.
Karina forced herself to make eye contact. “No, I’m fine.”
Alexei regarded her with a skeptical cast to his black eyes. “We’ll soon be on the ground.”
And that much sooner she’d be free. She’d find somewhere to crawl to lick her wounds that festered and bled freely, even two years later. She nodded.
His stare still penetrating deep under her skin, he added, “I’ll need to make a stop, and then we’ll head to Sullivan’s lair.”
Karina nodded. She couldn’t string words together just yet. But, she’d get herself composed. The two years had given her the ability to handle the attacks of melancholy and pain. She knew that there was no alternative. She had to go on. For her parents.
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Karina better get ready, because Alexei is going to be bad in Dublin and they are going to be sharing a room? Yep, he'll be bad.
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lol Danielle, he's a bad boy! I know their type.
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I hope Alexei doesn't feel like getting near water with Karina. His heart will jump out of his body.
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Take your time with your story. You don't have to rush anything. If you don't feel like writing or don't have the time to write right now, take a break.
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Alexei is so yum......I love these Russians so much. Have ever since Feehan's Drake Sisters series. Is it just me, or are Russian endearments way more sexy than any other language?
Can't wait for more!!
message 263:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Sep 24, 2010 12:41PM)
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message 266:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Sep 26, 2010 01:26PM)
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Alexei rented a sleek sports car, a Porsche’ Carerra. Part of the image, he’d said. Standing next to the black creation of metal and the embodiment of testosterone, it just made him look even more fatally dangerous, and far too attractive. He tipped the rental employee after the man loaded their luggage in the trunk. The short and rangy, young blond man gave Karina a subtle onceover that showed that he liked what he saw. With a parting look of jealousy at Alexei, he waved and went back inside. Karina walked over to the passenger side, but Alexei beat her to it, opening the door. He dismissed her mutinous look, taking her arm, and handing her into the car. Closing the door behind her, he glided over to his side of the car.
Karina buckled herself in, watching Alexei do the same and get the car started. He navigated himself with confidence out of the airport. But then, she’d never seen him less than confident since she’d met him. He always had that air of steely control about him. Even when he was about to torture her. To take her mind off that, she asked him something that had been on her mind since Lyon.
“Why did the saleswoman call you St. Julien?”
“Because it’s part of my name,” Alexei answered without looking.
“You are related to the jeweler?”
“She was my grandmother.”
Karina stared at him in shock. He must be worth millions. She couldn’t ask the question that plagued her. It was too rude.
“You’re wondering why I kill people for a living?” Alexei did it for her.
“It’s none of my business,” Karina muttered, staring out the window.
“Because I’m good at it.” The words were delivered in a cool, matter-of-fact tone. There was no arrogance. It was simply at statement of truth, as far as Alexei was concerned. Based on the efficient manner in which he had ended Fleming’s life, Karina had no reason to dispute it. She had nothing else to say to it. For her to judge him would be ridiculous. She had her own sins to deal with.
“Where are we going first?” Karina asked, seeing that Alexei was driving into the city, instead of out into the countryside, where Sullivan lived.
“To pick up some supplies,” Alexei answered, rather cryptically. Karina had the feeling those supplies weren’t the kind you could pick up at your neighborhood superstore. As Alexei drove into the rougher part of town, her instincts told her exactly what he was after.
He pulled up to a storefront that had seen better days in a neighborhood tourists would be warned to avoid after dark. The streets were somewhat littered with trash, and at twilight, there was no more than a steady stream of people walking around. They didn’t make eye contact with Alexei, as he got of the car. He was the kind of man who exuded a menace that told it’s own story. Although he was always intimidating, Karina could see that he was playing that up. No one was going to take a chance at stealing his car, even if it drew car thieves like honey. He came around to her side of the call, strolling with the liquid grace of a leopard. When he leaned down and opened the door, he said, “You should come in. You’ll be fine with me.” Then he took her arm, like she was a princess and he was her prince, escorting her to the ball.
Karina found she couldn’t look away from him. There was a slight smile on his face, emphasizing a small dimple in the exquisitely-chiseled planes of his face. She felt this completely bizarre urge to lick that dimple. Now, it was official. She truly had lost her mind. If she was finally ready to indulge her hormones, this man was not a good starting point.
“Play along with me,” he said. His dark eyes commanded her to follow his orders, but his tone suggested he expected nothing less.
She nodded. What else was there to do? His arrogant assumption that she would follow his orders implicitly made her want to misbehave, merely on principle. But she was not foolish enough to try him. She’d bide her time, and break free of him, eventually.
They entered the building, which had a scrummy sign in the window that said, ‘Paddie’s End of the Rainbow Pawnshop.’ Once glance showed Karina that Paddy had overestimated the allure of his business. A cheerful bell rang, but it did little to dispel the low-rent appearance of the place. The shelves were full of merchandise that Karina suspected that few people would want to buy.
There was a slouchy, middle-aged man sitting behind the counter, which was made out of thick glass. He was reading a dirty magazine, or so Karina guessed by the appearance of the cover, which was clear from the way the man was holding it up as his mouth moved when he sounded the words.
The clerk slowly lowered the magazine, not particularly embarrassed at his choice of reading material. His colorless eyes behind thick glasses landed on Alexei, and brightened in recognition. “Well, if it is Bardin.”
Clearly this was another name that this man went by, Karina surmised. He nodded in recognition, at any rate.
Alexei stepped forward as the clerk opened a door and came forward, shaking Alexei’s hand vigorously. That surprised her. Karina would have thought Alexei too paranoid to shake hands with someone. The smaller man gave Alexei an affectionate pat on the shoulder. “It’s been way too long!”
“Indeed it has, Eamon,” Alexei replied.
Eamon’s eyes landed on Karina, giving her a thorough assessment. He whistled. “What a foine woman you have here,” he said.
Alexei’s arm went around Karina’s waist. “So I tell her, every chance I get,” he said smoothly. He leaned down and brushed a kiss on her cheek. It was done so casually, it seemed to be an unconscious habit.
Eamon scratched at a bristly cheek. “Niever thought I’d see Master Sargeant Bardin do such a thing. Always seemed to have no particularly fixation on the ladies.” He thought about how it sounded, glancing quickly at Karina. “Not to say he doesn’t like women. Just not a skirt-chaser, like some of the lads.”
Karina suppressed a laugh. She glanced up at Alexei, and saw humor in his dark eyes.
Eamon looked a bit nervous. “Ah, weel. You know I niever did have a good lock on me tongue.”
“Not true at all, my friend. You know how to keep the important secrets. Or else you wouldn’t be here today,” Alexei said.
It sounded like a threat to Karina, but Eamon’s expression eased. “True enough. Here to see Byrne, I suppose.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Weel. He’ll be happy to see you.” He leered at Karina. “And he’ll appreciate the sight of your lovely lady.”
He led Alexei and Karina through the doorway he’d opened. They went through a dingy corridor and up to another door. He fished a cardkey out of his knit blazer and swiped a state of the art-looking keypad. A green light flashed and the door unlocked. Opening the door, Eamon went first, and Alexei and Karina followed him into a room was pristine and as well organized. From floor to ceiling, the walls were lined with weapons. Guns, knives, even what looked like a rocket-launcher, at least from the movies Karina had seen.
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She’d bide her time, and break free of him, eventually.
Poor Karina, she's still in denial. And oh goodie...more weapons! More weapons means more action later in which Alexei kills/maims/wounds bad guys in order to protect his woman.
Loving it...can't wait for more!
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Another thing, Alexei seems like the guy that would smile at a man, just before he kills him for looking at his woman.
Those men better watch how they be paying Karina attention.
I know that I could be wrong. This is what I see. :)
message 269:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Sep 26, 2010 01:21PM)
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Alexei is being good-natured about his friends checking out Karina. But, in general, he's pretty possessive/jealous. You're not wrong, Arch.
Sorry it's taking so long to get anywhere. Thanks for reading. Have an enormous headache, so I probably won't get any writing done today. I'm reading Black Ice, so I'll probably get some inspiration.
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message 274:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Oct 26, 2010 07:03PM)
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Chapter Ten (con't)
A tall, muscular man stood up from a bank of computers. His black hair was buzzed short to his head. When he turned around, Karina saw that he was very good-looking, with jewel-toned blue-green eyes. His features were rugged with a nose that was prominent and quite aquiline. It fit his overall appearance of menace. He wore olive green pants and a sweater in a slightly darker shade. He was as well-groomed as Eamon wasn’t. A slight smile spread over thin, but attractive lips. “Well, if it isn’t the Mechanic in the flesh.” He waved off Eamon, who departed the way they came, the door clicking behind him somewhat ominously.
Karina glanced at the man who was probably Byrne somewhat nervously. A look at Alexei showed that he was completely relaxed, so she decided to follow his cue.
Byrne came forward and enveloped Alexei in a bear hug that might have broken a smaller man. He was of the same height as Alexei, and slightly more bulky in the shoulders and chest. His accent was Irish, but with a lighter lilt than Eamon. To Karina’s surprise, he broke into Russian, which she understood fluently, although she schooled her expression to show that she didn’t.
“Long time no see,” he said in that language. His gaze traveled over Karina in a way that she was starting to get familiar with. After all, had happened quite often today. She wasn’t sure she liked it, unless it was Alexei looking at her that way. “And what a tasty piece you’ve brought with you.”
“I’m in town on business.”
“It seems a shame that it’s the only time I see you anymore, Alexei. And this from a man who saved your life a time or two.”
“I believe I’ve reciprocated,” Alexei said.
Byrne nodded. “That you have. Well, I imagine you don’t have much time for visiting.” He looked over at Karina. “Do you want her to be here now?”
Alexei shrugged. “She’s fine.”
“If she’s alright with what you do, then you should keep her.”
“I might at that,” Alexei said. Karina had to work very hard not to startle with shock at his words. There was no way he was keeping her. No way. Instead, she glanced around the room, surveying its martial contents.
Alexei pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his shirt pocket. He handed it to Byrne. “This is what I’ll need.”
Byrne scanned it briefly. “This will be no trouble at all.”
Alexei pulled out a thick wad of cash from his pocket. He handed to Byrne, who didn’t bother to count it. Instead he sat it on his desk.
“Just give me a few minutes to get everything together.” Byrne pulled a briefcase off the shelf, setting it on the desk. With a click, it was open. He walked over to various shelf and pulled guns and ammo off, settling it into the foam pockets of the briefcase. The last item he grabbed was a large, thick knife inside a holster which he handed it to Alexei. Alexei strapped the holder onto his trim waist, with the knife facing backward. Karina assumed he would use a jacket to cover it up. She couldn’t help but wonder how he expected to get into Liam’s compound with this hardware.
As Byrne loaded weapons into the suitcase, he chatted with Alexei. “How is your business?”
Alexei shrugged. “There are always people who want problems taken care of. I assume it’s the same with people wanting merchandise,” he replied. His voice sounded deceptively smooth, if not innocuous. Karina had come to realize that she liked the resonance of his speech against her ears.
Byrne laughed. Karina felt his aquamarine eyes land on her. “Would you like to sit down, my dear?” he asked courteously in his accented English. “I know I’m asking you late.” His eyes traced their way down her body, lingering on the few feet of her legs exposed past the hem of her skirt. “I do like a tall drink of water, so I admit that between my bit of business here, and the lovely visuals, I forgot my manners.”
Karina might have spent more than her share of years avoiding the dating scene, but she knew when she was being flirted with. She managed a polite smile. “I’m just fine.”
To her surprise, Alexei’s tone became cold as ice as he spoke to his friend. “Tell me, Byrne. In our years fighting side by side, have I ever allowed you to use my hardware?”
Byrne looked at his friend, his observant gaze missing nothing. His smile seemed not to waver in the slightest, even though Alexei’s tone had more than a little menace to its quality. Whatever message Alexei was delivering, Byrne seemed to pick up on it, although his ‘no’ seemed to lack any trepidation. But then, Karina doubted that much intimidated the Irishman.
Bryne looked away long enough to secure the case. “You always were bad about sharing,” he said, handing the case to Alexei.
Although the case was full of more weapons and ammo than Karina had seen in her life, Alexei took the briefcase with his right hand, displaying no visible effort. He walked the few steps over to Karina, draping his free arm around her waist. Instinct drove Karina to make eye contact. “I’ve always been a selfish bastard about what’s mine.” This dark eyes traveled over Karina’s face as though he was taking inventory. They lingered on her lips, and Karina felt the burn. She felt the urge to tilt her head up, to accept his kiss. Only she didn’t, and the kiss never happened. Instead, Alexei looked back at his friend, as if the scene had been a display for Byrne and nothing more.
“That you have been. Message received—loud and clear, my friend,” Byrne said, that small smile quirking up the side of his lip, and revealing a dimple Karina suspected the tough arms dealer
wouldn't want to own up to. “Only you can’t kill every man who looks and flirts at your woman.”
Alexei seemed to consider the unwanted advice. “Why not?”
Byrne burst into laughter. Karina couldn’t do much but try to regain her composure. If Alexei had been acting just then with the blatant brand of possession in his eyes, he was a very good actor.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Byrne said, sotto voce.
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Nice Installment.
Alexei is bad and bold. I like how he made it clear to Byrne that Karina was his without coming out and saying that she was his.
Dangerous bad boys tend to speak in a language of their own and I love it!
I can't wait to read the next installment. Take your time.
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I soooo wanted that kiss to happen, but you wrote it perfectly. It was actually more sexy this way.
Awesome job!
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Yes, Alexei is. Karina is his woman and he will kill every man that make the mistake and think that she's theirs.
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message 280:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Dec 24, 2010 06:53PM)
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“How the mighty have fallen,” Byrne said, sotto voce.
Alexei actually cracked a smile then. “I suspect your time will come too.”
Karina was convinced she could make a career in Hollywood. She was a darn good actor, considering she’d managed to keep her features clear of her understanding of what the two men were talking about.
“Well, I hope you survive.” Byrne gave Karina another thorough glance. “So you can spend lots of time with your woman, and possibly make some babies. She’s got the hips for it.”
It took immense effort for Karina not to give the man a bone-melting glare at that. She halfway suspected he was onto her and was saying it to test her. She refused to give him the satisfaction. Instead, she acted as though his look had made her uncomfortable, although she was unclear at what he’d said.
Alexei nodded. “I would enjoy making babies with her…very much. Perhaps I will get started on that project fairly soon.”
He loosed Karina’s waist long enough to give Byrne a firm handshake, one which Byrne returned, along with a male bonding-hug. “Let me know if you want some work over here. I have some contacts looking for a man of your skills.”
Alexei appeared to ponder his words. Unease filled Karina. Although she’d known what Alexei was, a killer, probably a mercenary as well, she didn’t like the thought of him putting his life at risk, willy nilly. It was completely irrational, and she knew it. Alexei was nothing to her. They had no future, and she should be very glad about that. Besides, he was good at bringing death, and there was no reason why that should change just because their lives had intertwined so intimately.
Besides, he wasn’t into her that way. He was just playing with her head, playing her along to keep her docile. And as convincing as he was, no matter how fast he made her heart beat, no matter how much his kisses made her bones turn to liquid, she couldn’t forget that.
Byrne waved at her, saying his farewell in his deep, melodic Irish accent, but in English. “Farewell, my lovely. Perhaps I will see you again in the future.” He tipped an imaginary hat to her. “You have my admiration , to think you could tame such a one as he.” He winked at her. “Perhaps you have a sister you could introduce me to.”
Karina composed her face into a cheerful smile. “Unfortunately not. I’m an only child. And an orphan.” Why she told him the last, she did know.
His smile faded. “You are not alone any longer.” He gestured towards Alexei with his head. “This one will take very good care of you.”
Karina forced herself to look fondly at Alexei. “So I’ve found.” There was small grain of truth in what she’d said. Like the sting in the tail. That was the very thing that made it so hard to think of him as her enemy.
Alexei placed his hand at her waist, pushing her forward. “We should go. I promised Karina I would spend time with her while I’m not working. It was the only way she’d let me go in peace.”
Byrne laughed. “Already under her thumb, I see.”
“Yes,” Alexei said in a way that sounded very Russian. “And what a beautiful thumb it is.”
“That it is.” Byrne waved them farewell, before turning back to the computers.
Alexei escorted Karina through the hallway, one hand clasped around her waist, the other clutching a suitcase full of death. As many things he did, he walked with a casual grace, as if he bought a plethora of weapons daily.
They heard the buzz of the gate before Eamon opened it. He had the same leer on his face. “It’s glad I am that you stopped by today, Alexei. If only to look upon the face of your beautiful woman.”
“Did anyone ever tell you with a an old flirt you were?” Alexei asked.
“Some have said so,” Eamon replied cheerfully. “But I truly mean it this time.”
“Well thank you,” Karina said. She was oddly charmed by the disheveled Irishman. And it helped that he was the most normal person she’d met in a while. He was like someone’s grandfather, which made her wonder how he’d made the acquaintance of the two dangerous men she’d just been in that unnerving room with.
Eamon grinned wider, seemingly captivated by her smile.
Alexei looked at his watch. “Now that you have drooled all over my woman, I will be off.”
“Don’t get killed,” Eamon said. “You’re too good a customer to die on us,” he added. “We barely keep this pawn shop in the black.”
“Well, we know it’s just a cover.”
“Aye, but the Tax Authority does wonder how we manage to stay in business here.”
“If they ask too many questions, just kill them and hide the bodies.”
Alexei said it in such an inflectionless manner, Karina glanced up at his face to see if he was kidding. He didn’t smile, but there was the merest glint to his black eyes that suggested he was joking.
Eamon laughed loudly, slapping his leg. “That one. He seems as though he has no sense of humor. And then he surprises one.” He looked at Karina. “You’ll have your hands full with this one.”
“So I noticed,” Karina said dryly.
“Shall we go, my sweet?” Alexei asked, pouring on the French charm. And darn her, she wasn’t anywhere near immune enough to it.
“Yes,” she said rather hoarsely. Sullivan would be expecting them.
Eamon waved farewell, and the left the scrummy little shop, which Karina now knew was a front for a high-tech arms sale business. She wished that she was back in the normal world where pawn shops were the real thing, and sophisticated men like Alexei Bardin didn’t even know she was alive.
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I have a feeling that Alexei is going to be bad once they get back to their place. He'll be watching her hips.
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I kind of wanted to capture that male-bonding vibe with Byrne and Alexei. It was kind of fun. I intend for Alexei to be very bad, hopefully soon!
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message 285:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Jan 06, 2011 07:43PM)
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Alexei’s rented car was exactly where he left it. And now, Karina completely understood why it hadn’t been disturbed, and why Alexei had no concerns about it being stolen. It was pretty obvious that the neighborhood that the run-down looking pawn shop was the front for a very dangerous business run by a very dangerous man, with friends of the same caliber.
Alexei, ever the gentleman, held her car door open, and then he closed it behind her when she eased her way into the low-slung car. She felt rather than saw Alexei’s eyes on the short length of leg exposed by her skirt riding up. She felt it like a burning caress. Karina studiously avoided making eye contact with him. Her equilibrium couldn’t withstand it right now. She was too busy trying to take in everything. The fact that she worried about this man, and his dangerous lifestyle. He was no longer her tormentor, no longer merely her arm of vengeance against Sullivan.
After he had looked his full, Alexei closed her door. She heard the trunk pop, and felt the gentle thunk of a heavy suitcase full of various instruments of death as he set it in the trunk. He closed the trunk and walked over to the driver’s side of the car. By the time he was easing into the driver’s seat, Karina had plastered an expression of unconcern on her face.
She gave Alexei the directions to Sullivan’s house, and he was on his way. The silence throbbed between them. Full of things that were unsaid. Things that Karina didn’t want to say. What could she put into words to create a fiction of casuality, when there was nothing of the sort between her and this man?
Hopefully this short journey she had embarked on with him was coming to an end. But, even the thought of never seeing this man again created a sense of wrongness in her. Stockholm syndrome, she told herself. He’s a good-looking man. Very suave. He’d given her a sense of safety, as paradoxical as it seemed. Although at first she feared for her life with him, now she feared only for her emotional well-being.
Karina snuck a glance at Alexei. His profile looked as though it was carved out of stone. He would have been so at home in one of those high-profile fashion magazines, except he didn’t look like a half-grown boy like many of the male models. His years of experience were carved on his face, although they didn’t make him appear jaded or aged, but merely like a man should look. Karina forced herself to look away. The longer she looked, the more she wanted to touch. Her crazy brain even thought about what it would be like to pull his head down to hers when the car stopped, to steal a kiss, instead of being the passive recipient of his kisses.
“So we need to discuss the game plan,” Alexei finally spoke. His voice was low-pitched, smooth, casual, as though he was asking her what she wanted for dinner.
“You tell me,” Karina said.
“It’s easier if you are cooperative.”
“Believe me, I’m all cooperation,” Karina assured him. Mentally she even saluted him.
Alexei chuckled, and Karina wondered if he found the same thing funny that she did. In her case, it was more of a cold-edged irony. She’d found safety with the most dangerous man on earth. She’d fled across that earth to get away from her enemies. Now she was walking right into the abode of her enemy, with the man who was probably more of a threat to her than the man responsible for her parent’s brutal murders. Yet, he had promised he wouldn’t hurt her, and if she believed anything, she did believe that. Her situation did have a hilarity, if one were looking from outside. Where she was sitting, it was so unfunny.
message 286:
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Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Jan 06, 2011 08:06PM)
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Alexei regarded Karina calmly. He admired her that she was able to appear so composed. He knew how bizarre the setup with Byrne must have seemed to a novice, a suburban American girl like herself. She’d handled herself well. And Byrne had definitely been testing her, making those suggestive comments in Russian that gave Alexei all kinds of bad ideas, well, stimulated him to act on thoughts he’d already had. When Byrne made that comment about her breeding hips, Alexei had gone stone hard. Luckily, no one was looking south at that moment.
And damn him, Byrne had suggested that Alexei was going to set up house with Karina. Like he needed to be reminded of how much he liked that idea, however improbable it was. Always good at hiding his manipulations, except to a master at the game like Alexei, Byrne had scoped out the situation within a few moments. Byrne saw the rock on her finger, and Alexei was instantly disinclined to assure him that it was for show. Not when he liked the idea that Karina wore a mark of his private possession on her. Yeah, the modern world tried to act like women didn’t belong to men. But most men who appreciated the value of women knew different. They weren’t their slaves, but they were precious to men, real men, not bastards who thought women were empty bodies to be used and discarded. Although Byrne had always been more of a ladies man than Alexei, they both shared a respect and consideration for women that went bone deep. They just showed it differently. Alexei stayed away from women, by and large. He kept his darkness to himself. The kind of woman who could handle that, and craved its expression from a man wasn’t the kind of woman he wanted.
On the other hand, Byrne had a real eye for ladies. He liked them curvy, beautiful, smart, and exotic. Byrne only dated black women, and it was clear that Byrne had picked up that Karina was of that heritage. Byrne didn’t poach on other men’s territory…much. If he hadn’t known that Karina was very much Alexei’s, he would have made a play.
Alexei didn’t doubt that for one second. Byrne’s cold blue gaze was considering as much. Alexei had kept his cool. Just barely. He made it clear in the most explicit way that Karina was off-limits (when he said he didn’t share, he meant it), and he didn’t miss Byrne’s acknowledgement of that, not without a flash of humor in his old mercenary comrade’s normally frosty gaze. Even now, the way Byrne had pretty much stripped Karina naked with his eyes, with the very experienced gaze of a connoisseur of women, made Alexei want to show Karina in every way that counted who she belonged to. Not that he had time for such a thing. When he had the opportunity, he was going to do exactly that.
Alexei saw her hiding her thoughts from him, and it made the intentions burn in him like a brand on everything that made him a man. He wanted her open to him, emotionally. When finally claimed her body, he wouldn’t settle for just the physical. He wanted her full surrender. Even if he knew that Karina was way too smart to give him that kind of surrender. It just made him want it even more.
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Poor Alexei, he had to endure being in the present of Bryne - a man that he knew loves black women. A lot of bad boys don't have patience with allowing other men to size up their woman. Bryne is one lucky man. I'm sure that Alexei could have killed him without blinking his eyes.
I can't wait to see what Alexei have up his sleeves, when he and Karina get back to their place.
Karina should take charge. Make that bad boy sweat. After all, he's in need of a cold shower, right?
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I'm waiting patiently for the next installment.
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A bad boy is bad, when he walks very confident in his bad boy shoes.
Hey Alexei wears jeans right? It's something about a bad boy and jeans. :)
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message 300:
by
Danielle The Book Huntress , Loves 'Em Lethal
(last edited Jan 28, 2011 08:07PM)
(new)
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Alexei swore inwardly. He needed to think about something other than how much he wanted this woman. What he wanted to do to her. “Are you hungry?” he asked, his voice sounding way too gruff, as though he was not under his usual iron control.
“Huh?” Karina asked. Her hazel eyes met his quickly and then bounced away, making him wonder what she was thinking. What she was trying to hide from him now.
“Hungry? Do you need to eat? It’s been a while since we ate, and you declined a refreshment at the café in the airport,” Alexei explained carefully. He kept his eyes on the road, not on her, save that brief moment when their eyes had melt. Even still, she was in his mind, every detail of her, glowing bright.
“Um, no. Too nervous to eat,” she said.
“You don’t eat enough as it is.”
“How would you know?” Karina asked testily.
Alexei smiled, glad he’d jarred her smooth composure, like she did to him, merely by being in his vicinity. “You’re thinner than you should be.”
Karina shook her head, and he saw the motion out of the corner of his eye. “I always ran heavy…before. I’m probably more at normal weight now.”
“According to whom? I like my women cuddly,” Alexei said. In truth, he had always liked a woman with curves, when he indulged himself, which was rare. Karina was in fact, delicious as she was, but the tight look of her face, the way her bones felt so prominent beneath the skin of her arms and legs, despite her abundant curves of her bosom and hips, suggested that she could use some feeding. It brought to life that urge in him, fostered by his grandmother, to nurture through cuisine. Grandmother St. Julien had always been one for enjoying food. By nature, most French didn’t carry extra weight, but that didn’t mean they were obsessed with being thin. It was not the case. It was more of a balance of healthy eating, active lifestyle, and allowing one’s culinary treats within reason. And for some, smoking. Sadly, that had been Grandmother St. Julien’s habit, one that lead to her death at the age of sixty-four from lung cancer. But the time she’d been in his life, she’d smothered him in love and food, often both.
For Grandmother St. Julien, whenever Alexei had come to see her in the summer; tall, lanky, and thin from a metabolism that couldn’t keep up with what he ate, he was a challenge and an avocation. She would take care of beloved grandson, when she had him with her. She always made those snide comments, under her breath in French that he understood very well, against his father, that he was not taking care of her cheri Michel. Yet, Alexei’s thinness was not due to any sort of deprivation, despite the then Communist regime in Russia. Even though most suffered under the strict regime of the Soviets, his family had fared well. His father not only was an industrialist who made billions, but he was very chummy with those in power. He had whatever he wanted, while the masses did without. That was the joy of the system for those with power. Until it all came tumbling down when Anatoly Bardin made an enemy out of a crony. And everything changed. The bitter thoughts made Alexei’s hands tighten on the wheel, for just a fraction.
He brought his mind back to the present situation ruthlessly. The past was no place for him. That was all behind him. Russia was a place that belonged to the boy who had lived so idyllically in a fool’s paradise. After he’d joined the Soviet army, saw a bit of the world, entered the private soldier world, he vowed never to return there. The man, well he knew that paradise was not for once such as he.
Alexei allowed himself another look at Karina. She beckoned to him like an illusory glimpse of glory. Illusory because it would only be fleeting, and come at some cost. He wasn’t in her good books, not the way he’d treated her. And he wasn’t much good at playing nice. The few entanglements he’d had with women were brief and very much about the physical. Women who wanted nothing more. They saw the dangerous beast that he was, hard-bodied from his soldiering, and ‘nice’ wasn’t part of the desired package. He took what they offered, because it was an easy solution to dealing with the adrenaline buildup, the sexual need that usually spiked after a mission. Some of his fellow soldiers, then mercenary compadres in the following years, went home to their girlfriends, called their favorite call girls in town, but he had neither. Only the next woman he met at some random bar. Not so many at that. Because it never satisfied. After those moments when Alexei left the tangled sheets of each convenient sexual partner’s bed, his body might have felt sated, but there was a lingering emptiness that at the time, he’d preferred. Feeling nothing was easy, the best course. But eventually, empty sex palled, like a too-rich meal that left the partaker unsatisfied. And no sex was better.
Even though he didn’t have a legion of conquests to his name like Byrne, he knew how to please a woman. Something told him Karina was fairly inexperienced. He could seduce her, and it wouldn’t be that hard. She was vulnerable enough. And vulnerable women were always easier for a man who knew women. Which was why he’d never had anything to do with them. Except her. She wasn’t a woman he’d pass up. Not when she was the only woman he wanted.
He spotted an inn on the side of the road, and pulled off the roadway, taking the exit that lead to it. “We’ll eat before we go to Sullivan’s.”
It's so hard to write this story a piece at a time.