Goran knew that the guard didn’t know much and he needed a way to get Calista out of the room, but not to blow her cover. There might be other questions that would occur to them and the guard might know that answer.
So he moved quietly over to the second room and started making some noise, hoping the sounds came across as what it would sound like if he were climbing back up through the trap door.
“Calista!” he bellowed, loud enough to be heard for a ways.
He heard a bit of whispering, then Calista slunk out of the room, appearing scared as she cowered slightly, pressing her shoulders against the wall.
As soon as she was out of the guard’s line of sight, she pulled the door closed and…transformed back into the cool, confident woman!
“Where the hell were you?” he roared, slapping his hand down against the wooden wall.
Calista smiled, her eyes twinkling with that conspiratorial glimmer that he thought was so hot!
“I’m sorry, Your Highness!” she replied in a relatively loud voice.
Goran was too impressed and he couldn’t hold back any longer. He eliminated the two steps that separated them, his arm whipping out to wrap around her waist. A second later, he had her pressed against his body and he was kissing her. Hard!
And even more astounding, Calista was kissing him back. In fact, her arms were wrapped around his shoulders and her surprisingly muscular legs wrapped around his waist and she was kissing him with as much passion and intensity as he was feeling. Swinging her around, he set her down on the counter in order to move his hands more freely.
He jerked her forward, her hips shifting against his lengthening erection as she tilted her head back to deepen the kiss. Again and again, his mouth slashed over hers, his tongue invading the moist heat of her mouth, doing to her lips what he wanted to do to her body! When he felt her fingers in his hair, pulling his head down to hers, he almost lost control. It was only by sheer force of will that he pulled his body back from the brink, his breathing ragged as he slowed the kiss, then pulled away. He stared down at her, unable to stop his hands as they continued to shift and slide against her bottom, her back, her thighs…anywhere he could touch her.
Calista gasped, shivering as his fingers dove into her hair, pulling her head further back as Goran kissed her again. She couldn’t get enough of him. A part of her mind told her to stop this insanity, but the other part of her brain warned that if he stopped, she might actually cry! Pulling him closer, she shifted against him, pressing her body closer, needing more of him than might be possible!
The muffled sounds of something thudding finally broke through the haze of lust surrounding both of them, but Calista was furious that Goran was the first to pull away.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. That’s when she realized that her fingers were in his hair, pulling on the soft strands. Not just her fingers, but her entire body was tangled with his! Her legs were tight around his waist and her body strained to get closer.
“I think that our prisoner is trying to escape his bonds,” Goran explained, his voice a low, rumbling sound that tingled over her skin, sending her nerve endings clamoring for another kiss. Just one more!
“I should go investigate.”
Calista stared at him, still trying to understand what he was saying. Investigate? But wouldn’t that take his very delectable body away from hers?
She replayed the words in her mind. Then did it again. Straining to comprehend what he was saying. Neither of them moved until another, louder, thud caught their attention.
In that moment, both of them jerked away as if they’d been burned. Calista’s breathing was still ragged, but she lifted a trembling hand to cover her mouth. She could feel how swollen her lips were from his kisses, and she tried to hide the fact that she was so affected.
“I’m going to check on him,” Goran announced.
“Right,” she replied, then waited until he’d walked down the short hallway before she looked around. Suddenly, Calista realized where she was sitting, perched on the very edge of the rough board that was acting as a countertop, and she jumped down, walking as far away from that spot as possible in the small room. Pressing her shoulders back against the thin wood of the wall, she stared at the spot where…what had happened? She’d…kissed…Goran? She’d actually kissed him? And…just yesterday, she’d vowed that she would extricate herself from an engagement with a man who was boring and tedious and…didn’t want her!
Hmmm…perhaps that last part wasn’t true. Her mind thought back to the pressure of his…well….him, against her body. He wasn’t just interested, he was impressively interested!
She heard the sound of sharp words, but wasn’t sure what Goran was saying to the man tied up in that other room. Regardless, she took the few moments of privacy to pull herself together.
So when Goran stepped out of the room again, she was busy pulling open cabinet doors, pretending to search the contents for…whatever might be helpful, something that might extricate them from this situation.
“He’s still secured,” Goran announced as soon as he stepped back into the small room. “But I think we should figure out how to get out of here. I doubt that we’ll remain safe once the next shift arrives.”
“I agree.” She turned around, her hands holding two cans of food as she looked at the shelves, the floor, the trap door and…anywhere that wasn’t Goran.
“About what happened a moment ago…” he started off.
Darn it! Trust him to be direct about an uncomfortable situation! She shook her head, unwilling to deal with that problem at the moment. “It was a moment of insanity. We were just…” she searched her brain for a viable reason for what had just transpired between them. “Let’s just pretend that it didn’t happen.”
He glared down at her and Calista knew that he wasn’t going to “pretend”.
“Calista, we should…”