Her panties though, he slid down her legs all the way.
“What are you doing?” she heard herself ask as she propped herself up on her elbows.
Danil arched an eyebrow at her, stuffing her underwear in the front pocket of jeans that were quite obviously straining around his massive erection. “I’m keeping them.”
“You’re keeping my underwear,” she repeated blankly.
He cocked his head sardonically at her as he started to put her legs back into her jeans, yanking them back up her legs, none too gently. “You have others, yes?”
“Yes, of course, I-” Dora pushed in frustration at her hair that kept falling across her brow. She needed to stop fucking stuttering and say what she meant. He was just so discombobulating. “Does that mean that we’re done here?”
She waved her hand between the two of them.
“For now, yes,” he told her, buttoning her jeans and locating one of her socks. “I told you I wouldn’t fuck you in the back of a car like a teenager.”
“Oh,” Dora said, flopping back and letting him slide her socks and then her boots back on her feet. “I just thought that meant you were going to fuck me in the back of the car like a grown man.”
Danil let out a surprised chuff of a laugh. Dora felt the pleasure of having made him laugh, something that she suspected was quite rare.
He leaned forward, a look of arrogance and pride crossing his face. It was one that Dora was beginning to recognize quite well. “Trust me, ptuška. You are not ready for me to fuck you.”
Now Dora was the one laughing, shaking her head at his pride. “Whatever you say, lawman.”
He reached forward in the car and handed her her leather coat. He wasn’t even close to being satisfied, Dora could see the evidence of that in the fit of his jeans. But he was swinging out of the car, crossing to her door and opening it for her. She supposed he was the kind of man who really knew how to be patient. She inwardly shrugged. She wondered what that was like. She was the kind of person who needed everything now.
She folded herself out of the car and stretched tall, letting the cool morning air wash over her face.
“Well,” she said, stretching one arm and then the other. “Despite the lack of sleep and the night in jail, I actually feel like a million bucks right now.”
That arrogant look swept over Danil’s face again. “This does not surprise me. Are you sure you can drive? You look a bit drunk. Satisfied and drunk.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll drive just fine, Belarus.” She glanced at her watch. “But I should get going.”
Something crossed Danil’s face. Something slightly annoyed. Like he didn’t want her to go. But then he was stepping back from her. “Me as well. I’ve got to be in court in an hour.”
“Well,” she said, falling back on her natural charm, the thing that had gotten her through so many moments. She rose up on one toe and put her arms around his neck. Jesus, he was tall. “Thanks for the wake-up call, sailor.”
She smiled up at him, expecting him to grin back, to pick up the thread of her lighthearted tone. But he didn’t. He stared down at her, his eyes suddenly that same intensity that they were when she’d first met him. “You are welcome, Pandora.”
He scuffed her hair over her forehead. She was making light of the moment, he could easily see that. And he supposed he could join her there. But he didn’t want to. He wanted her to see that to him, it wasn’t a joke. He wasn’t sure what it actually was. But he was damn sure it wasn’t a joke.
Leaning down, he caught her in a quick kiss. He didn’t let it spin out, the way he wanted to, but it was still deeply personal. He kissed her with the knowledge of someone who had tasted her everywhere. He knew her flavor. And now he knew the sound she made when she let herself dissolve into pleasure. It was one that he kept close, inside. He replayed it in his head as he watched her get into her car. She hit the gas, jolting the car onto the road in exactly the kind of reckless driving he could have predicted from her.
Danil watched her drive away, and still he just stood still. Simply replaying her gasping breath. The way she’d said his name. She’d been pleading with him. Asking him for something that he hadn’t even known he could give her.
CHAPTER FIVE
Two mornings later, as the sun rose over the mountains, Danil sweated like an ice water glass on a summer’s day. He gritted his teeth and picked up his pace. It was the last hill before home and he was going to sprint up it if it fucking killed him. Which it might. He’d run over forty miles in the last three days and still his body raced toward a finish line he couldn’t reach.