Page 62 of Russian Rescue

“I can’t ask you to do that for me,” I said instead of the I love you too that I couldn’t believe was begging to come out.

“You’re not asking. And I’m not even offering. It just is. I will never feel about another woman the way I feel about you, and I’m not the kind of guy to dick some girl around while I’m secretly pining for another. I’m yours whether you want me or not. Even when you’re old and gray, and those fabulous tits of yours are sagging, I’m still going to want you.”

I gasped at his comment, then started to laugh. “My tits are never going to sag.”

“Oh yes they are. You’re seven years older than me, you dirty cougar. I’m going to still be looking all kinds of sexy when you’re starting to fall apart. But don’t worry, I’ll love you anyway. And I’ll even push your wheelchair around when you’re a hundred and all disheveled, and I’m still fit and youthful.”

“When I’m a hundred, you’ll be ninety-three. You’ll be in a wheelchair right beside me.”

“Then we’ll have rolling races.”

He grinned widely, and the visual of Wes and I racing each other in wheelchairs made me dissolve into laughter.

“I hate to break up your ‘talk,’” Knox said, “but the line of cars going in is growing. I have no idea where you two went off to, but I just think you should wrap it up and get your asses back in the line to go get this mission done.”

Wes and I made a face, then I flipped on my comms. “Yep. We’re on our way back, now.”

“Good,” Knox said. “I hope your ‘talk’ was productive.”

“Sure was,” Wes said after he flipped his comms back on. “We had to, uh, practice our Russian.”

“More like French, I bet,” Knox said with a snort.

“Shut up, Knox,” I warned. “Just keep your eyes on the cameras, and we’ll be back in a few.”

“Roger that.”

I slid off Wes and tugged my dress back down before collapsing back into my seat. “Okay. Knox is right. We need to stick to our schedule. Let’s go.”

Wes buttoned up his pants then popped his seat back up. “Let’s do this.”

When he started the car, I flipped down the mirror and fixed my smudged lipstick and repined the pieces of hair that had come dislodged. By the time we got back in line, I no longer looked like a teenager who’d been making out with her boyfriend at the drive-in movies. And with the release in my body, my mind was now focused on the mission ahead.

Get Wes out alive.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Wesley

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It took everything I had inside me not to drop my jaw and walk around staring in awe at all the sights inside Petro’s mansion. I’d never been inside any place as fancy as this one. But instead of staring like a starstruck kid, I had to remember the role I was playing... a powerful, rich man prepared to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to help the children.

Or fund a terrorist cell if I really did donate the money.

“Champagne?” a server asked as she went by.

“Don’t mind if I do.” I picked up a glass, but when I went to take a drink, a subtle shake of Piper’s head reminded me that we weren’t here to party, and I needed all my wits about me.

“Hold it to blend, but don’t drink it,” I whispered to her, repeating her advice from earlier.

She lifted her glass and clinked it to mine, but neither of us took a sip.

“You ready to do this?” Piper continued her slow saunter around the room, and I stuck to her side, her hand resting on my bent elbow. Every man in the place had his eyes glued to her, and I couldn’t blame a single one. In her red dress with her matching red lipstick and fiery locks, she looked like the hottest thing any one of them had ever seen. Even though every woman in this lavish party was dressed to the nines, none of them held a candle to the gorgeous one on my arm.

“I’m ready. We move when the auction starts, right?” I passed a glance around the room, then raised it up the grand staircase in the center and over to the second-floor hallway I needed to bypass undetected. Two guards stood in front of the hallway in black suits, their arms crossed tight over their expansive chests.

“Yes. Everyone will be busy bidding, and we know Petro will be up on stage running the auction. You remember how to get there? Remember the plan?”