Christmas Tsar (Blood and Thunder 1)

“Are you disobeying me?”

“I certainly am.” She arched her back a little more.

Removing her thong in one easy action, Alexei captured her buttocks in a firm grip and chastised her exactly as she’d hoped he would.

“You are so deliciously plump in all the right places,” he commented huskily as he dropped kisses on the glowing swell of her bottom. “And now so very pink as well.”

There was no finesse now and none needed. They both had the same goal in mind and worked with the same need to reach climax, and when it came, it was so powerful, they were lost to pleasure for the longest time. Amber was sitting up, clinging to Alexei as their hips worked furiously together, and no sooner was that peak conquered than they chased each other over the next.

“I don’t think we’re going to make the party,” Amber commented much, much later.

“Do you want to?” Alexei enquired, but as he was kissing and nibbling the back of her neck in a way that made her arch her back again as much as she could for him, she couldn’t really make a sensible reply. “Will you be missed?” was the best she could come up with.

“Do you care?” he demanded softly.

“I’m only concerned about you and the part you played in the match. Won’t people want to congratulate you? Shouldn’t you be there with your team?”

“Just once more, then,” he suggested.

She shared an intimate smile. “At least.”

He watched Amber interacting with his team and with their guests. What the hell? She was easier with them than he was. She was easier with everyone than he was, including the British ambassador, who was a crusty old man and irritable at the best of times with everyone, but not with Amber, it seemed. The after-match party was being held on the grand terrace of Cesar’s glorious home overlooking the beach and was packed with the great and the good. Amber had exceeded her brief to arrange caterers for the party and was introducing people and laughing with them easily as she checked that everyone had everything they needed. She was the consummate hostess. She had it all down, even to approaching the band to make a request.

His heart banged in his chest when she turned to look at him. The band had just struck up a slow, moody love song.

I will never forget how you kissed me…

He got a horrible feeling she was saying good-bye to him with a song, and had to tell himself not to be so ridiculous. She wouldn’t leave him. Why would she? They had a second Christmas to look forward to just around the corner on January the seventh.

What a fucking stupid thought. What did Christmas or any other day matter if Amber was leaving him?

She wouldn’t leave him. She couldn’t—

Could she?

He was only aware of Amber on the crowded dance floor. Having fixed her gaze on his, she drew him in until they were standing toe to toe. He took her in a light hold, as if she were a dream that might dissolve too soon. I think I love you. He played around with the phrase in his head as he dropped lingering kisses on her shining, fragrant hair. And he still had the nagging feeling that this couldn’t last. Even when he had reassured himself that there was no way off the island, except by boat, helicopter, or private jet, none of which Amber had access to, he couldn’t shake it.

She had no reason to leave, he told himself firmly, and if she did want to go, he’d take her.

Tears burned behind Amber’s eyes as the words of the song she’d chosen tore another strip off her heart. Being in Alexei’s arms felt so right, so good, but she couldn’t build a future on a dance or on fabulous sex. Nor could she work alongside Alexei, wanting him as she did, body, heart, and soul, when he resolutely pushed her away. Even with his teammates, there came a tipping point when Alexei got back on his ship and sailed to some new destination without them, so what chance did she have? Enjoy this dance, she mused, because tomorrow doesn’t come with guarantees. And, look on the bright side, Amber reflected, beating off dejection at the thought of turning her back on her dreams and Alexei. It wasn’t every party where she could hitch a lift back to London on a private jet, which was what the British ambassador had offered her.

Chapter Ten

She had slipped away while he was rehashing the match with the team. He’d been distracted longer than he had intended, as the Spanish opposition had joined them to organize a rematch. Pride demanded that the Spaniards got their chance for revenge. It had ended up with eight men facing each other like boxers before a fight. Unflinching, unblinking, radiating pure aggression, until the moment the details were ironed out, when the tension vanished completely and they were all the best of friends again. It was only then he realized that Amber had left the party. Deciding there was only one place she could be, he checked the stable, but she wasn’t there.

“She’s leaving,” one of the stable lads told him.

“Leaving?” Leaving where? Leaving the island? Impossible. Leaving him? Entirely possible. He couldn’t even defend his behavior. They had danced as if they were the only two people left in the world and then he’d casually walked off to join his teammates.

He ran to the bunkhouse and was relieved to find the light on. He went to the room that had been allocated to Amber and walked straight in. She was bent over her rucksack, which she was packing on the bed. His sudden entrance made her jump.

“When were you going to tell me?” he demanded.

“When will you learn to knock?” Straightening up, she regarded him steadily.

“Come off it, Amber,” he flared impatiently. “What’s going on?”

“That’s what I wondered earlier this evening, when you joined your friends and forgot about me.”