Page 34 of Russian Rescue

“You’ll what, Piper? Put your money where your mouth is. Literally.”

She pursed her lips and gave a quick glance to mine again. “Fine. It’s a bet.”

With certainty she was imagining kissing me, and feeling confident she liked it, I spun toward the target, aimed, and let the knife fly. I held my breath until it smacked directly into the center of the mark on the tree.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, shocked I’d actually done it.

“Holy shit,” she echoed quietly behind me.

With a proud smirk, I turned around to face her. The confidence she wore like a protective cloak faltered, and she stared at me, blinking those long eyelashes surrounding shocked eyes.

After a few long moments of staring, she exhaled a breath. “You won. A deal’s a deal.” She stood up straight, lifting her chin high. “Go ahead. Kiss me.”

I stalked toward her with passion igniting inside of me, and the predatory motion forced her back a step. The confidence in her eyes waned when her back butted up against a tree. I swallowed up the last of the distance between us, then caged her against the tree with my arms. She wedged her lip between her teeth when I leaned down, my lips ghosting hers as her wide eyes watched me.

After letting her squirm for a moment with our lips just a breath away, I whispered, “I may have won that bet, but I’m not going to kiss you.”

Her breath hitched. “Wh-why?”

I slanted my chin down, letting her see the desire igniting in my eyes. “God knows I want to. I’ve been dreaming of kissing you since the first time I laid eyes on you.” I let my words linger, then I leaned down a little closer. “I’m not going to kiss you just because you let me kiss you. When I kiss you, it’s going to be because you can’t stand not feeling my lips on yours any longer. Then, and only then, will I kiss you. So, you decide, Piper. Is the moment now, or is it later? Because I have no doubt the moment you can’t stand to not kiss me even a second longer is coming.”

Her full lips parted in a soft gasp as her breathing quickened and her gaze drifted over my mouth.

I waited... my heart rattling my ribcage as I held my ground. The longer we stared at each other, the more it confirmed her feelings for me were real. This was Piper. If she didn’t like what I was doing, I’d be unconscious on the ground. But she remained quiet. Thinking.

Thinking about kissing me.

A dream I’d never dared imagine would come true now hovered just outside my lips.

But before hers moved up to mine, the phone rang, and she jumped.

“So later it is,” I whispered confidently, then pushed off the tree. “You just kiss me when you’re ready. I’ll wait.”

Piper remained leaning against the tree, her dazed look following me as she reached into her pants and pulled out her sat phone.

“He-hello?” she mumbled out. “Yeah. Marcus. Hey.”

I went back to practicing my knife throwing while I listened to her conversation with Marcus. From the sounds of it, he had a plan to get my sister out, and relief washed over me. I knew he would come up with something. He always did.

After a few minutes of talking, Piper bid him goodbye.

“What did he say?” I asked impatiently.

“We have a plan. Marcus is working with Oleg now to secure the equipment we need to breach. He’s been checking in on your sister through the link you sent him, and she’s still there and doing good.”

I closed my eyes and let the words soothe my anxiety. We had no cell reception out here and only had the sat phone. There’d been no way for me to log back in and check on Amanda, so I’d sent Marcus and Knox the login info to access the security feed and monitor her.

“They haven’t hurt her?”

She shook her head. “No. They haven’t. They’re treating her well. Our plan must have worked. They know you’re alive, so they want her alive and well to leverage against you.”

“Thank God.” I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Marcus should have everything by tomorrow night. From what he’s figured out, our best bet is to have Knox drop us in from the roof, repel down, breach through the windows and grab her. He’s never seen more than five guards there at a time, so we shouldn’t have an issue just the two of us taking them out then grabbing Amanda. We can fast rope with her down the rest of the building and have a getaway car waiting below. Knox will be waiting outside of town to pick her up and fly her home.”

“I’m coming with.”

“You can’t,” she argued. “You’re too recognizable. If they have anyone watching cameras in Moscow, you could be spotted and blow the whole thing. You have to stay right here at the cabin.”