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“I left you some hot water,” he said.
She heard the slur in his voice as she drew the sheet up over his waist. It was impossible to ignore his utter maleness, the lean, ropy muscles taut and moving across his back. “Thanks. Are you okay?” and she leaned over, moving her hand lightly across his shoulder, still moist from his recent shower. She felt his muscles tense slightly beneath the tracing of her fingertips. Just getting to touch him like this, to see him without clothes, excited her. Daria felt a little guilty, the pleasure of seeing Nik like this was overwhelming to her feminine senses. Even in the low light, she saw so many small scars across his shoulders and scattered across his long, broad back.
“Fine,” he mumbled.
“Go to sleep. I’ll be back in a bit.” She saw his short, spiky lashes close, his tightened mouth begin to relax. Nik was already asleep. Daria stood back, wanting to touch him, wanting to give him some care. The man was beautiful, his clothes had hid so much of him. Her heart twinged with worry because, even in sleep, she saw the tension around his eyes and the corners of his mouth. They were in a changing op and it could spell disaster… even death… for either or both of them. Wanting to placate his worry, she slid her palm across his shoulders, trying to sooth away some of that awful load he silently carried on them.
Then she went and showered. By the time she came back to the bedroom, it was midnight. The revelry and merry-makers down below had decreased greatly, but she could still hear the drums being banged further down the hill. It wouldn’t stop until two or so in the morning and she was grateful that the sounds were mostly muted. Only a small nightlight in the bedroom shed some grayness into it. She had washed her hair, and it lay around her shoulders, still slightly damp. Wearing a flannel, knee-length nightgown, because there was no heat at night in the apartment and it got chilly, she padded quietly back into the bedroom.
Nik was still on his stomach, face partially buried in the pillow, snoring softly. He was sleeping deeply and Daria knew he needed it. Today must have been a special hell. Standing over him, she saw that he’d pushed the sheet and blanket off his body. Only the towel was still partly clinging to his waist. He had long legs with knotted calves, telling her how much he’d walked out in the jungle. Right now, the stubble of his beard darkened his rugged looks, calling to her, making her desire amp up. Nik looked like a young boy in his sleep, so much of the tension he carried dissolving and leaving him vulnerable.
The lotion he had massaged her with was still on the bedstand. Driven to do something to help him, she decided to massage his shoulders and back. She wasn’t trained in massage, but Daria had been under the hands of so many over the years that she felt she could do a reasonable enough job on Nik’s back. Knowing he was Spetsnaz trained, she knew of his muscle-memory reactions. To suddenly start to massage him could startle him out of sleep, and he’d react without thinking, possibly injuring her. This was something Daria took seriously.
Taking the bottle in her hand, she carefully sat down on the edge of the bed, placing her hand gently on his left shoulder. She leaned close to his ear.
“Nik? I want to massage your back. Are you all right with that?” His mouth moved and his brow wrinkled. “Nik? It’s Daria. May I massage your back for you?” She watched him slowly come up from deep sleep beneath her husky voice. His fingers flexed on the pillow and he made a low noise in his throat.
Daria took that as a yes. Some part of his mind was aware of her presence now. Most importantly, his mind registered that she was not a threat. She stood, hiked her nightgown up, and straddled the backs of his thighs, taking care not to put weight on them. The folds of her nightgown settled around her knees as she put the lotion in her palms and then rubbed them together. This was something she was looking forward to: touching Nik. And right now, her heart beating a little in anticipation, Daria spread her hands wide across his shoulders, slathering the unscented oil across his magnificent body.
His back gleamed in the low light as she followed Nik’s long, powerful spine. She heard him groan softly. His eyes remained shut and he was utterly relaxed. Her lower body flexed and heated up as she thought about making love to this man who provided care, with his life on the line, for so many others. Fingers digging in just enough to make those tight muscles begin to release along his vertebrae, she watched his sleeping features. A soft smile pulled at her lips as she continued her ministrations, following the lines and curves of the powerful muscles across his back. Her hands were not soft, rather calloused and strong. With each stroke of them, however, she felt and saw Nik’s body begin to truly relax. The amount of stress he carried within him had not been obvious until just now. He was a man caught between two worlds, and one of them was deadly to him.
The moments melted away as Daria focused her sniper intensity upon her hands gliding across his back. Here and there, her fingers ran into ridges of flesh she knew were from old injuries. The oil gleamed and she saw the white scars in stark relief beneath it. His back told so many stories, and Daria wanted to hear every one of them. Nik intrigued her, and they hadn’t had the time to plumb the depths of one another hardly at all.
But her body wanted him without reservation. She could feel the dampness between her thighs as she leaned her weight downward, guiding the heels of her hands across his muscles. This was like making love to him without the act itself, but he’d helped her in much the same way last night. Nik’s compassion ran his heart, his life. Daria couldn’t even conceive the thought of him not being in the medical world in some capacity. She ached to have some quality time with him, but knew it wouldn’t happen anytime soon. Probably never, what with Pavlovich here. Their op was broken. They were on their own, scrambling, unsure what direction their lives were taking. Oddly, Daria didn’t feel the danger. Maybe because Nik’s fierce protectiveness was shielding her. She didn’t know. There was a trust she’d given this man who smiled and played with babies. Who had so gently cared for her. Who had understood the impact of the knife wounds she’d garnered. Who had held her while the storm that had built inside her for the four months since that attack had raged on, and who had scoured her clean of its trauma. Nik was healing to anyone he touched, especially her. She saw the dried strands of his black hair across his brow, giving him a boyish look. The urge to sift her fingers through his hair, to ease it back into place, was real. Daria resisted, absorbing the warmth of his flesh, the relaxation of his muscles, as she coaxed the stress out of him.
She had lost track of time until she looked at the clock on the bedstand. It was onea.m. Leaning down, she placed a kiss against the nape of his exposed neck. Nik snored off and on, telling her he was deep in his sleep, telling her how badly he’d needed this healing downtime. His skin had a wonderful fragrance to it and, as her lips lifted away, she dragged his male scent deep into her body. Straightening, she lifted her gown and eased off him as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb him.
Nik mumbled something she couldn’t make out as she pulled the sheet and blanket across his body, tucking him in. The room was damp and chilly now. She went and washed her hands off in the bathroom, dried them, and came back to the bedroom. He had moved to his right side, face still buried in the pillow.
She climbed in her side of the bed. Her body was throbbing. It couldn’t happen. He had no condoms and she didn’t want to accidentally get pregnant. Being a mother wasn’t part of her world-view right now. As Daria slid beneath the covers, bringing them up, she couldn’t stop herself. She curved the front of her body against his back, settling into it like well-matched parts that had long missed one another. She was almost as tall as he was and that helped Daria curl herself against Nik. He didn’t even move, his exhaustion clearly making him unaware of her nearness. It didn’t matter. She felt his warmth, his quiet strength, the slow, shallow in-and-out of his breath. Her breasts rested lightly against his back, her hips nestled against his buttocks, her legs lay parallel to his.
Closing her eyes, contentment Daria had never known before washed through her like a new, pink dawn appearing on the darkened horizon of herself. The scent of Nik made her relax, his bulk and size made her feel safe while their situation was anything but. She eased her hand up along his ribcage, her fingers flowing across it, coming to rest above his slowly-beating heart. The sprinkling of dark hair across his massive chest tickled her slightly-curved fingers as she utterly surrendered herself over to Nik.
The last thought Daria had was that she wished she could wake up in the morning with him, make slow, exploratory love with this man, and give him the pleasure he so richly deserved for all the sacrifices he’d made for so many. He was the most selfless man Daria had ever met. The desire to give back to him was fierce within her. She ordered herself to sleep. Tomorrow would come all too quickly, and it was going to be an explosive day. Daria didn’t know how she knew that. She just did.
Nik slowly awoke,the drowsiness bone-deep within him. He felt like a swimmer who was far below the surface, struggling to rise upward, but finding each effort almost impossible to make. His mind was offline, but his senses were fully open and he inhaled the subtle scent of woman, of a spicy fragrance, and she was in his arms, her body curved against his own. It had to be a dream, a torrid one. He’d had so many over the years just like this. And this time, it seemed so damned real that, as he slowly moved his head, he felt the silken strands of her hair against his cheek and nose. What was real? What was not? There was a languidness that invaded his slowly-awakening body, a sense of calm as he savored her warm curves resting against him. Where they met, his lower body eagerly consumed her contact. She was soft, rounded and, as he moved his hand down her long back, feeling fleecy softness of the flannel material beneath his calloused fingertips, his mind sluggishly came back online.
Nik barely opened his eyes. Gray light was invading the room from around the closed blinds. It was quiet on the street. No sounds.Thank God.His vision was blurred and he fought waking up because this dream would dissolve like the others always did. Only… she sighed and he felt her moist breath against his bare chest, her head tucked beneath his jaw. And then his senses enlarged and he felt sleep being torn from him fully as he realized this was real. It wasn’t a dream.
For a moment, Nik was groggy with confusion. Daria’s hair was soft against his jaw and chin. She was trustingly curled against him, her arm around his waist, holding him even in sleep. He knew now that the fleece-like softness he’d felt in his half-dream had been the material of her nightgown as he lightly moved his fingers down her spine. She stirred. He stopped moving his hand. Realizing he’d awaken Daria if he moved too much, Nik groaned softly and closed his eyes, saturated with her fragrance, her slender, firm form against his, her breath moist and slow against his chest. Slowly, he remembered yesterday, the pressures and stress, and then, coming home to Daria. He’d gotten a shower and stumbled into bed. She had covered him, and that was the last he remembered.
Or was it? His brow furrowed as he lay there absorbing her against him. One of Daria’s legs was laying across his, almost in a possessive way, and he liked that about her. She was, after all, military. She had courage and confidence and he liked that she boldly asked from him what she needed. He was more than willing to give her everything. His mind gyrated as he lay there with her sleeping innocently in his arms. Never mind that his erection was far more awake than he was presently. He’d awakened with it, the throbbing becoming insistent, sending fire up through him, fueling his hunger for her, wanting her body and soul.
Was it his imagination? Had Daria massaged his back last night? Nik couldn’t remember exactly, only as fragments that had drifted down into his drowsy senses. He vaguely recalled she had said something close to his ear. He acutely recalled her breath flowing across his ear, the moisture, and how sparks of heat radiated powerfully from his ear straight down to his lower body. What had she said? With no clear memory of it, Nik still recalled that he’d been so damned relaxed, that he’d groaned. Or had he? He squinted open his eyes, the grayness of the ceiling staring back at him. He ached for Daria. He had no condoms. He wouldn’t put her at risk. Not in this kind of fluid, changing situation. Above where her hips met his, his erection was nestled sweetly against her rounded belly. It made him feel potent. Strong. Hungry.
A pounding knock rattled through the apartment.
Instantly, Nik jerked up, releasing Daria. He threw off the covers, grabbing the towel that had come undone, wrapping it around his waist. The pounding at the door didn’t stop. He heard Daria moan and move.
“Stay here,” he told her thickly, jerking open the bedroom door and just as quickly closing it behind him.
Nik answered the front door. Brudin was standing there, glaring at him.
“Korsak wants us to meet in fifteen minutes. Get your ass down to the hotel.”
“All right.” Nik slammed the door in his face and locked it. Anger warred with terror. He turned and saw Daria coming down the hallway, her face drowsy, her hair mussed, making her look incredibly fetching. She looked like a young, innocent college-aged woman and his erection twitched beneath the towel he held together with his hand.
“It was Brudin,” he told her roughly, meeting her halfway across the living room. He grazed her cheek. “I have to be down at the hotel in fifteen minutes. Korsak’s calling a meeting.”
