Christmas Tsar (Blood and Thunder 1)

“For now,” he agreed.

“Then, I guess I’ll take now,” she said, trying to sound equally offhand.

Amber fired him up like no other woman before her. He’d never met a woman so dismissive, so provocative, or so challenging. His natural male desire to master, tame, and pleasure was eating him alive. And every inch of the way, she threw up a challenge. He liked that.

“You just want the act and satisfaction,” she accused him.

“Don’t analyze. Just feel,” he advised, running his hands very lightly over her for the pleasure of feeling her tremble beneath his touch.

“Are you determined to tease me?” she demanded huskily.

“What do you think?” he murmured, kissing his way down her neck.

“I think you’re stone here…” She touched his chest over his heart.

‘And what’s the cure for that?” he demanded softly.

‘Turn up the heat?” she suggested.

He laughed. “If I’m stone, you’re all yielding curves and needy places. But not in here,” he added, brushing her silky hair back from her face. “In here...” He tapped her head. “You’re as knowing as you are beautiful.”

“Oh, am I?” she whispered.

“Yes, you are, which is why I know you need this as much as I do.”

Her lips pressed down in rueful disapproval. “This is just sex to you, isn’t it?”

“What else would it be?” he demanded softly.

Amber shook her head. “How can you be so cold?”

“How can you allow yourself to reach this level of frustration without wanting to move on?” he reasoned coolly.

“Because satisfaction is never a given—not even with the most sophisticated toy,” she retorted, which made him smile.

“Is that all I am to you? A sex toy?”

And when she shrugged, he said, “You’re no better than me.”

“Accepted,” she gasped out when he lightly cupped her breasts.

Drowning in her wildflower scent, he rasped his stubble lightly against her neck until she exhaled on a soft cry. He pushed her pajamas pants down and helped her step out of them, and then he backed her up until her legs were pressed hard against the bed.

“Don’t you think you’re overdressed, Alexei?”

“My clothes can wait. Open your legs,” he commanded softly.

“And just stand in front of you, while you…?”

“Why not?” he said.

She opened her mouth and said nothing, but she did as he asked. Slipping a hand between her thighs, he explained, “Let me do this.”

She stood still, listening as he worked her, her breathing speeding up as the pressure began to build. “I can’t—”

“You can’t what?” he said quietly.

“I can’t stand here and let you do this.”