Christmas Tsar (Blood and Thunder 1)

And then they were smiling into each other’s eyes with the type of understanding that only lovers have, and everything was all right again.

He lowered her down to the bench and arranged her legs over the wide spread of his shoulders. She came the moment he touched her. That was how she felt about him. Alexei moved deep to take her completely. Throwing his head back, he lost himself in pleasure, while she was completely possessed by him, body, soul, and mind.

What am I doing? Where is this going?

Ever sensitive to her smallest change of mood, Alexei forgot about his own pleasure and stopped moving. That made it worse. She wanted this too much. She hadn’t realized how deeply embedded he’d become in her heart. And she knew he shunned close relationships. She knew that, so what was she doing?

“Amber?” Searching her eyes, Alexei kissed her, and he kept on kissing her until she relaxed, but inside, she knew. He was like an island. He was like the fabled Isla Celeste, a destination to enjoy for a short time before moving on. That was how she should be thinking about him, but she was having a major fail in that department—

“Do I have your full attention, myshka?”

She smiled ruefully. “Stop with the mouse.”

“Stop with this too?” he queried, moving his hands so they cupped her buttocks.

She groaned with pleasure as he slowly rolled his hips from side to side. “You don’t play fair.”

“Do you want me to? Why don’t you just let go, when you know you want to?”

He knew her too well. It was so easy to do just that—too easy.

Alexei took her from one peak to the next a

nd showed no interest in slowing down. He was devoted to her pleasure, and her ecstatic cries rang around the viewing room while the marine life provided a silent spectacle behind them.

“Isn’t it your turn?” she asked at last. She didn’t wait for Alexei to reply. She arranged herself on the bench with her hips held high, tempting him. Her reward was his ragged groan of pleasure. Much later when they were still entwined, she teased his lips with hers for the pleasure of watching his hard mouth soften into a smile, and when he kissed her back, there was so much feeling between them, it overwhelmed her.

“Tears, myshka?”

“Exhaustion,” she lied, brushing off her reaction and the tears with a smile. If she said too much, she’d drive him away, and whatever time they had left, she was going to hang on to it with everything she’d got.

“Bed?” he suggested.

“Yours or mine?” she asked as they kissed and kept on kissing.

“Mine,” Alexei whispered.

Should she be quite so happy about that? Wasn’t this slipping deeper into his life everything she’d vowed not to do? But could she stop herself, even had she wanted to? Inhaling deeply, she closed her eyes and knew the answer to that was a definite no.

~o0o~

“Happy Christmas!” she called out as she backed into Alexei’s stateroom with a tray.

“What’s this?” he asked, opening one eye.

“Room service?”

“Excellent,” he murmured, raising himself up in bed to view her dressed in a skimpy robe.

Putting the tray down on the side, she sat cross-legged on the bed in front of him.

“Presents?” he exclaimed, frowning as he weighed up the contents of the tray.

“Only little things,” she explained.

“You didn’t tell me you’d bought presents.”

“But these don’t count, because they’re only small. Well, aren’t you going to open them? You can’t expect Santa Claus to bring the reindeer all the way out here only for you to ignore his lovely gifts.”