“Scream louder and Zareb will be here in a second,” he murmured and lapped and nibbled at her until she was squirming under his talented mouth. “You are soaking wet, sweetheart.”

Unexpectedly, she sat back on the chair, bent her torso and pushed her nose on his face. “Stop torturing me and make me come.” She took his mouth in a bruising, brief kiss that showed her desperation. Lying down again she shoved his face down between her thighs. “Now. NOW!”

He laughed again and his muffled voice had an unescapable note of authority in the only word he said, “Ask.”

“Please,” she didn’t ask. She demanded.

“Please, what?” He raised his lids enough for her to see his flaming green eyes as he lapped softly at her clitoris and brushed his fingers around her slit.

Fuck me, Alistair Connor. “Tongue me. Finger me. Fuck. Me.” Sophia felt his warm breath against her tender flesh as one finger plunged inside her. Then two. Stroking, filling her.

One loud moan after another left her mouth as he continued to lick and fondle, his tongue exerting firmer pressure, his fingers plunging in faster.

He unrelentingly stoked her desire higher and higher until a hard and fast orgasm exploded inside her.

She bit her lip to avoid screaming, but a strangled sound left her mouth anyway as he continued to suck and probe her with his fingers, giving her no time to recover from the climax.

Alistair felt as her body started to tremble again and he pushed himself over her. His eyes held her still as no bondage ever could, in a hungry, wolfish stare, consuming her as he made his way into her body.

“Alistair,” she gasped and her nails dug into his biceps, “I love you.”

He slammed into her to the hilt and closed his eyes, stilling over her, with his head thrown back, reveling in the words and the tight feeling of her body gripping his. “Say. It. Again.”

The gorgeous sight of his neck and chest muscles and the stretching feeling of his invasion made her moan with pleasure. Her hands were shaking when she cupped his face and made him look at her.

“I love you,” she breathed on his mouth before kissing him and lifting her hips, demanding fulfillment. She wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her fingernails into his shoulders as he thrust, gathering her in his arms so close to his body that there wasn’t any space between them.

“Love me,” she whispered, “I’m yours.”

“Yes. You’re mine,” he breathed against her ear, taking her lobe in his mouth as he moved his hips slowly. Pounding and circling. Kindling her fire.

“Now,” she commanded as the edge drew nearer. “I’m-”

“No. Not yet,” he groaned against her neck, nibbling it as he hammered deeper and faster as if wanted to bury himself in her. “Wait for me.”

She spurred her feet on his buttocks, flexing her hips up, biting his neck as she spasmed around him, throwing him over the edge.

A lustful groan came through his clenched teeth as he pushed inside her, again and again, not wishing it to finish, not wanting to let go, holding onto her as if she were his lifeline.

“Again. Don’t stop,” he heaved, desperate, “again.”

His primal cry crashed through her last locked door and filled her with a savage need. She breathed in his masculine scent and raking her nails on his back, feeling his throbbing desire rippling through his muscles. She bit his earlobe, struggling to keep another orgasm at bay as she felt herself becoming hotter.

Waiting for him, she tightened and loosened in a rapid crescendo around his arousal, pulsing and sending raw energy through his spine, before bucking her hips up as her fingers pushed his buttocks down, forcing him even deeper, “Come. For me.”

His hoarse shout filled the night as he let his desire consumed him in a blazing fire and burst radiantly through her in a dizzying climax, an unrivaled force that robbed her of all senses and intelligible thoughts.

The warm water and a large hand roaming over her waist and hip, brought Sophia back to earth. Alistair was holding her in his arms inside the black marble pool. When her eyes fluttered open, she saw Alistair’s smiling eyes gazing at her with so much love inside them that she sighed aloud.

“You are certifiable,” she murmured, putting her head on his shoulder.

“Aye,” he whispered to her, tightening his arms around her. “Since you said you love me the last of the sanity I had flew away.”

“You’re debauching me. I have never done anything so, uh-”

His smile darkened and a proprietary glint shone inside his eyes. His mouth trailed a warm path on her neck, making her moan.

“Exposed? Dangerous? Fulfilling?” he said in between nibbles from her neck to her ear, ending on her bottom lip as the hand behind her knees moved to caress her intimately. “Want to do it again?” he demanded as he swirled in the water and pressed her against the pool wall, wolfishly smiling down at her and surveying her naked body.

Her breath vanished when hot desire pooled between her thighs, “You are going to kill me.”

“With love, I hope,” he breathed as he started the sweet torture all over.

Chapter 28

Ashford Steel Industries.


Tuesday, April 13th, 2010.


7.45 p.m.

The intercom double buzz informed Scott that his boss was ready to receive him. He gathered all his clippings, arranged them neatly in his black leather folder, straightened his dark-gray tie and headed to Ethan’s office. He pushed the door open after a fortifying breath.

Ethan looked up from his computer screen and motioned for Scott to sit, “A minute, Scott.”

“Would you like water and coffee, sir?” Scott asked.

Barely suppressing an amused smile at the predicable behavior of his assistant, Ethan answered, “Yes, please.”

He finished his work and leaned on his Aeron chair to watch Scott’s profile, his glazed watery blue gaze and long thin pale hands caressing the red and gold designs on the navy background of the delicate Imari porcelain.

Ethan grinned thinking of what would happen if he shouted at Scott right now. He shook his head at the silly thought and waited patiently as his assistant served his coffee and Bling water and sat down in front of him.

Scott opened the folder and fished out his white handkerchief and Montblanc pen from his suit breast pocket. Beads of nervous sweat appeared at his forehead which he immediately mopped. He cleared his throat. “Sir, I have good and bad news. What do you want first?”

Ethan smiled. He was in an exceptional mood after signing the contract to supply steel to the Brazilian government. Sophia really was his lucky charm. He couldn’t have imagined that a personal trip would bring such immense profits. It had to be really bad news to dampen his mood. “The bad first.”

“All right,” Scott mumbled, breathed and launched into it, “Leibowitz’s computer security system is almost unbreakable. Ghost is still working on it. He’s been exchanging ideas with other hackers, but Leibowitz’s technicians noticed the first attempts and reinforced their firewalls and cryptography. However,” he raised a finger to emphasize, “we were already inside her personal email account, iPhone and home computer and they didn’t discover it. Her security impressed Ghost, but it was nothing one of the best hackers in the world could not surpass,” Scott boasted the hacker’s qualities as if they were his. “You can access her schedules and all her data from your computer.” Scott rounded Ethan’s desk with a sheet of paper in his hand, squinting at the instructions on the sheet and typed in a long sequence of commands as he kept explaining, “Ms. Leibowitz backs everything up to a cloud. Oh. I’ve secured an ally inside her house. Acting under Ghost’s directions, he bugged her phone lines and tapped her TV and internet lines.” Gabriela’s face appeared on Ethan’s screen with Sophia’s desktop icons at the bottom. Scott rightened his posture and puffed out his chest, proud of his achievement. With a stylishly wave of his hand, he presented the mirror of Sophia’s computer. “Here you are, sir. She is all yours.”

“Good,” Ethan drawled, approaching the screen, “very good, Scott. Don’t bother anymore with Leibowitz Oil. I’m only interested in her personal life. Is she back?”

“Not yet.” Scott clicked on an icon and Sophia’s mail box appeared on the screen. “George V in Paris. Tomorrow.”

“That’s interesting.” Ethan rested his chin on his hand and leaned back in his chair. “What else can I do from here?”

8.21 p.m.

When the door closed softly behind Scott, Ethan walked to his bookshelf and stopped in front of his grandfather’s photo. His lips curled and he raised his eyebrow.

See, Niarchos? Do you see, old man? I’ve surpassed you. I’ve learned.

No one betrays me anymore.

No one fools me anymore.

No one!

France, Paris, VIII Arrondissement. Hotel George V.


Wednesday, April 14th, 2010.


6 p.m.

Alistair settled a sleeping Gabriela higher on his shoulder and turned to look at the grand lobby with its immaculate marble columns and floors, highlighted by pink, lilac and purple orchids that glowed with beauty.

“This is the type of place that you imagine just can’t get any better, but it continually surpasses our expectations.”

“I always stay here because of Gabriela. There are few hotels in Paris that receive children like George V.” She looked around as well and her eyes sparkled. She licked her lips as if she could taste the scented lobby.