Everlasting - Iris Johansen [23]
“Guards can be bribed and palace guards aren't nearly as uncorruptible as your brother would like to think.”
“A bribe takes time,” Kira said skeptically. “The last time we broke her out of prison it took three weeks for Clancy and me to find a susceptible guard and persuade him it would be safe to take a bribe. You're only allowing yourself a little over twenty-four hours.”
“I'll manage.” He didn't look at her as he shrugged out of his suede jacket and tossed it next to her suit jacket on the couch. “Trust me.”
“You seem to be saying that quite a bit lately,” she said with a sigh. “I don't have a great deal of choice, do I?”
“You won't be sorry.” He smiled. “Now I think you had better put on your shoes again and take me to see Marna. It would be a good idea to let her know what's in the wind so she can be prepared.”
“I thought we'd go later and have dinner with her.”
He shook his head. Karpathan and Stefan will assume we'll want to have dinner alone. We're lovers, remember?”
How could she forget? All he had to do was look at her and she remembered how his mouth had felt on her…“All right,” she said quickly as she walked to where she'd kicked off her high-heeled shoes beside the couch. “I'd forgotten.” She slipped them on and gave her hair a cursory pat. “I'm ready.”
“Not quite.” He walked toward her. “We've been alone in this suite for almost an hour, and we're supposed to be unable to keep our hands off each other. You look much too proper.”
She didn't feel at all proper. Her heart was beating so fast she expected it to leap out of her breast at any moment. “Really?”
He nodded slowly. “Really. Since we're going to be on public display, we should opt for authenticity.” He took her in his arms. She hadn't thought her heart could race any faster, but she was wrong. “I told you I didn't like to do anything unless I could concentrate my entire attention on it,” he said. His fingers tangled in her hair and he gently tugged her head back. “Open your mouth, love.”
His tongue moved very delicately at first, slowly exploring the smoothness of her teeth and the dark cavity of her inner cheek, toying teasingly with her tongue. Then, with a sound that was a half-growl deep in his throat, the delicacy was gone. His tongue was spear-hard and his hands were hot and restless, running up and down her spine as if he couldn't touch enough of her.
A low, keening cry trembled in her throat as she arched into his body, her mouth opening wider to take more of him. His tongue was moving rhythmically, hotly, and his hands slid down to cup her buttocks and lift her into the hollow of his hips. Arousal. Stark, hungry, shocking. She gasped and pressed herself closer with a little incoherent murmur.
Then, suddenly, Zack was stepping back, his chest moving heavily with the harshness of his breathing. He looked down at her flushed cheeks and bruised lips. “That's better,” he said thickly. “But not quite good enough.”
“No?” she asked dazedly.
His hands were quickly unbuttoning the pearl buttons of her silk blouse and drawing the material away from her breasts. He unfastened the front opening of her bra. “Stand still, love. It will only be a moment.”
Then his mouth was enveloping her nipple and suckling gently. His hand framed the swollen mound, pumping rhythmically as his teeth pulled and his tongue soothed.
Stand still, he had told her. She couldn't have moved if she had tried. She couldn't do anything but look down at his dark head bent over her breast and watch as his lips and tongue moved on her flesh and drove her to the edge of insanity. Her breasts were lifting and falling as if she were running and she had to open her mouth wide to get air to her oxygen-starved lungs. Every pulling tug, every teasing brush of his tongue seemed to be connected to a burning wire which led to the apex of her thighs.
Then his head was lifting, his eyes, dark and wild and brilliant, staring into her