He leaned down to kiss me, but I put a hand on his chest to stop him. His eyes clouded with lust. “Are we still playing that game?” he asked. “Want me to interrogate you?”
Just those five words, combined with his accent, were enough to turn my insides to liquid heat. But I shook my head and sat up. “Wait,” I said. I was sifting through my mind like a gold panner, trying to find the few tiny gold flakes and crush them together. “He’ll take the jet?” I asked slowly.
Luka nodded. “It’s my prize possession. Everybody knows that.”
I thought of the jet and its luxurious leather seats. The smiling pilot—
That was it. That was the other thing that had sparked something when I’d heard it—when Luka had said he worried about Vasiliy’s staff. He cared about the people under him. I remembered how the jet’s crew had responded to him. “They’re loyal to you, aren’t they? The pilot and co-pilot?”
He looked puzzled. “Yes. But once Olaf arrives and tells them he’s taken over, they’ll have no choice.”
“But if you contacted them...maybe they could help us?” I grabbed Luka’s arm. “Maybe they could help us get Olaf alone?”
He blinked at me twice. Then he suddenly kissed me, wrapping me up in his arms and pulling me against his chest. “I love you, Arianna Scott,” he said.#p#分页标题#e#
And then we just stared at each other. It was the first time he’d said it. My eyes searched his and the flame within those clear blue pools of ice was burning bright, now. I knew he meant it.
I kissed him, slow and deep. We explored each other as if it was our first time. If we’d met without all the baggage, in some other universe, this is the point we would have reached—all sins forgiven, all defenses down. His warmth was soaking into me through every place we touched, from my lips to my groin, and I felt the ice inside me shudder and finally explode. Underneath, the parts of me I’d thought were lost forever started to glow and swell, alive again. It felt like we’d found our way onto the path we were always meant to be on. And it was the best feeling in the world.
When we finally broke the kiss, he held my head between his hands and just looked at me, letting me know that this was it, that we’d be together forever, now. If we survived.
He pulled out his cell phone and started the app that located the jet. “Good. They haven’t disabled my account, yet. I can still check—Yes.” He smiled. “There’s a trip scheduled. From my usual airfield to New York.” He showed me the screen. Six passengers were listed. Four of the names I didn’t recognize—bodyguards, presumably. But two of them I did. Olaf and Adam.
“If we could get Adam,” I said, “And some evidence, maybe his laptop...I might be able to prove to my people that he was a traitor.”
“Everything we need will be on that plane,” said Luka. “They’re leaving in two hours. Let’s go.”
The airfield was just outside Moscow. That meant going through a roadblock staffed by a mixture of police and Ralavich’s men. I grabbed Luka’s hand as our taxi drew close. I was pretty sure I wasn’t recognizable in the wig and make-up, but Luka still looked pretty much like himself.
“It’ll be fine,” said Luka, not very convincingly. He fingered the handgun under his jacket. I counted four armed men at the roadblock. If it came to a shootout, I knew we’d last a few seconds, at most.
As we neared the roadblock, I suddenly threw myself on top of Luka, straddling him. His knees pushed the hem of my dress up a little.
“What—” he started
“Shut up and kiss me,” I said. And kissed him hard and deep, trying to keep my head between his face and the window.
His hands came up to grab my ass, then slid up to my waist. His tongue danced with mine, my own desperate, scared pants mixing with his.
The cab driver muttered something about us paying extra.
We stopped again. I kept my eyes tight closed, but I knew we must be at the roadblock. Right outside the window, they’d be watching us, comparing us to the descriptions they’d been given. I kissed Luka frantically, grinding on his lap, praying it would be enough to distract them.
There was a knock on the window. Shit! I could feel the eyes of the men outside.
I broke the kiss for a second. “Pull my dress down,” I panted frantically into his ear, keeping my eyes closed.
Luka hesitated. He could feel them staring at us, too.
“Do it right now,” I panted, “Or we’re both dead.”
He yanked the shoulder straps of my dress down, taking my bra with it. My breasts spilled out, throbbing in the freezing air. I bucked and ground against him, feeling the men’s eyes on my naked chest—