Chapter 16

One, two, three, four

Kenzie fell into the cathartic pace of counting her strokes as she did laps in the massive underground pool of the Lotte Hotel. The square blue tiles along the pool bottom seemed to glow like neon from the underwater pool lights. She felt weightless, as if she were swimming in a distant galaxy of glowing stars rather than a pool in Moscow.

She swam until her arms burned. With each stroke she tried to banish the memories of the horrors she'd faced.

Monte gripping her throat, squeezingwood splintering above her. Glass and splinters raining down on hergunshots piercing the night, louder than she'd ever imagined they could bebullets embedded in the wall where her head had beenbroken glass glittering on the expensive stone floors like hundreds of diamonds.

She'd never been close to death. She'd never seen the ugliness of true violence or crime. She had lived a sheltered life full of love, happiness, and her textbooks. Dinosaur bones over human bones. She could never have imagined the lingering stain the violence she'd experienced had made in her mind. Dark and yet bright, flashing there so as never to be forgotten, always dragging harder and faster until she thought she'd burst right through her own skin, powerless to erase the images from her brain.

So Kenzie swam faster. Long, furious strokes up and down the heated pool until her limbs felt like lead and her whole body was exhausted. Maybe, if she pushed herself hard enough, she'd be able to sleep tonight. Find peace in the dreamless absence from consciousness.

She gripped the edge of the pool, catching her breath, her cheeks flushed and her body buzzing with warmth. The room was silent except for her heavy breathing, and yet she felt something in the air. She looked up. She saw bare feet, inches from her hands. She tore her goggles off only to see Royce's thunderous expression staring down at her.

"Little Mac, I told you to stay in the room."

The last time she'd seen that expression, he'd been mad that she was pushing him on finishing his edits for her thesis paper.

She pushed away from the side of the pool, swimming into the center away from him. Royce was wearing navy-blue swim trunks, and he was bare-chested. The sight of him made her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth. God, he looked perfect, with corded biceps and a six-pack that didn't even look real. More like chiseled by a master sculptor.

He crossed his arms over his chest, scowling.

Finally, she found her voice. "I had to clear my head. I called the front desk, and he said the pool area was keycard protected. I thought it would be safe enough."

"Safe enough? Safe?enough? You think Vadym couldn't book a hotel room and get his own damn keycard? Because he would if he knew we were here. No place is safe." His voice deepened as he began to prowl around the edge of the pool until he reached the shallow end. He used the ladder to climb down into the pool, his movements slow and measured as he faced her, now chest-deep in the water. She treaded water, keeping a safe distance away. They both knew that since he'd spoken to her before he left that things had somehow changed. The barrier they liked to pretend was there between themprotecting them from crossing that dangerous, seductive linewas gone. Like an ancient wall that had crumbled to ruins, she could see him clearly across the destroyed barrier, mere feet away, within reach.

He's what you've always wanted. And now you can have him. The wicked whisper coiled like a serpent around her heart, blinding her to reason and rationality.

"You promised to obey my orders if I let you come, Little Mac. Orders are supposed to keep you safe. You owe me your submission."

"I thought I was safe," she said. "Nothing happened."

"Kenzie." His burning eyes held her still. "Just because nothing happened doesn't mean you're safe. This man, Vadym, he knows about you now. And he's one of the worst kind of men. These Mafia typesthey don't have souls. If he gets his hands on you"Royce closed his eyes briefly"I will never be able to find you again. That is a fate neither of us could survive."

This time she didn't see anger in his eyes, but the bright flash of fear. He'd been afraid for her, not angry. She swam closer, so close that her body stirred the water and currents against him.

"I'm sorry," she said.

His gaze moved over her, and then he took one slow step , curling an arm around her waist and dragging her into his arms so that her body pressed flush to his. Their faces were almost touching, and the heat of his body against hers filled her with a delicious burning arousal.

"You'd better tell me to stop," he warned. His voice was silky and seductive, but there was an edge to it that sent her senses spinning and her body humming to life the way she dreamed about in her darkest fantasies.

"Stop what?"

"This."

He crushed her lips to his in a violent, raw claiming. It was punishing, overpowering, and she moaned helplessly, wondering how he could own her with only a kiss. But then, nothing about Royce had ever been simple. His playful professor side, his brooding tortured side, his hard-edged dominant side, and this man here in the pool who was more animal than anything elseshe liked it all, liked every part of him. The complexity of his character shifted like the gems of a kaleidoscope, creating beautiful new mysteries each time they changed.

His tongue traced her lips, and she opened to him. Royce curled an arm around her neck, holding her captive, and she lifted her legs in the water, wrapping them around his waist. The hardness of his arousal rubbed against her, and flashes of white heat rolled through her, making her dizzy.

"Make me stop," he begged in a raspy whisper. "Make me, Little Mac, before I lose my fucking mind and take you here in this pool."

"I don't want you to stop."

"You should." He nuzzled her throat, kissing her, licking the drops of water from her skin. "Because I came down here to punish you, to spank your ass until my hand is bright red and you can't sit for a week, but now" He gripped her ass, lifting her on his body so she rocked against him. "Now I just want to rip your suit to shreds and bury myself inside you over and over until you pass out with pleasure."

Kenzie curled her arms around his neck, his desire for her electrifying her entire body. The moment she met Royce Devereaux, she'd known deep down that a part of her would always belong to him. Perhaps tonight he would finally take what was already his.

But he didn't. Instead he continued to kiss her, drinking of her lips like she was a bottle of fine scotch, savoring each second. Then he lifted his head. The gentleness that had softened the previously stern line of his mouth made her all the more hungry for him, but not just in a carnal way. She wanted to see him, see that expression all the time, as long as it was just for her.

"Little Mac, you're going to kill me." With great reluctance, he let her go. She slipped away from him in the water, and for a moment she almost went under because she was too busy drowning in his eyes to remember to tread water.

"Let's get you upstairs. I'm starving, and you didn't order any food yet."

Kenzie was a little too stunned to speak. She climbed out of the pool after him. He offered one of the fluffy white towels from a rack against the wall and collected her goggles from the side of the pool.

"Do you swim to chase your demons away?" Royce asked as they walked to the elevator doors.

She tilted her head. "Demons?"

"The way you were swimming, it was like something was chasing you."

"Oh." She flushed. "I justI can't stop seeing that night in your house, like awful flashes from a horror movie. I wanted to exhaust myself so I could forget."

"Did it work?" Royce asked as he dried off with his own towel.

"A little bit," she admitted, but she couldn't tell him that kissing him had banished it almost completely. She wasn't sure what kind of reaction she would get from that. All she knew was that by kissing her professor, she'd crossed the line. A line she'd sworn she would never cross.

When they got back to the hotel room, the smell of food hit Kenzie's nose, and her stomach rumbled. Hans came out of his room through the connecting doorway and gave Royce a questioning look.

"Everyone have a nice swim?" he asked.

Kenzie smiled at him. "Yeah. Sorry I wasn't here when you got back." It was clear he was being protective. Hell, he probably figured Royce had gone down there to paddle her ass, but he hadn't.

"Good. I ordered dinner. Borscht, kulebiaka, and pelmeni." He nodded to the small coffee table in front of the massive TV.

Kenzie grabbed a change of clothes and then dashed in the bathroom, getting back into her jeans and sweater. She ran a comb through her wet hair and plaited it into a braid before she emerged from the bathroom. Royce was outside waiting, his own clothes in his arms. Their eyes met as they traded places, and she blushed as she let him pass.

Back in the living room, Hans lifted up a bowl of a red substance. "Borscht. Beetroot soup with a dollop of sour cream and dill."

He held it out and she took it, lifting it to inhale the scent. She'd heard of borscht before but not the others he'd mentioned. She peered at a plate that looked to be dumplings. "What are those?"

"Pelmeni. Basically meat-stuffed dumplings. Looks like they served it in a tomato sauce." Hans plucked a pelmeni out with a fork and ate it. "Yep, tomato sauce. Not too spicy." Then he pointed out a sort of puffy pastry-like food. "That's kulebiaka. Good stuff, puff pastry wrapped around fish, hard-boiled eggs, rice, onion, and chopped dill."

Kenzie wrinkled her nose. "You lost me at pastry and fish."

Hans's booming laugh was irresistible, and she giggled along with him.

Royce emerged from the bathroom wearing jeans and a black sweater. He pushed up the sleeves, baring his muscled forearms, and he grinned when he saw the food.

"Pelmenis!" The light on such a gorgeous, panty-dropping face was devastatingly attractive. Kenzie was certain if he ever reacted to her with that sexy, charming enthusiasm, she would die on the spot. She and Royce took seats on the couch, Hans in the chair, and they dug into the food.

"How did the gun thing go?" Kenzie asked after a minute.

"The 'gun thing' went well." Hans pointed to black heavy-duty hard plastic cases propped against the wall by the closet. "But if we're lucky, we won't need to use them."

"Did you find anything out about this Vadym guy?" she asked as she dipped her spoon into the borscht.

Hans and Royce exchanged meaningful looks, but neither spoke.

"Seriously, guys? Just tell me. I can handle it."

Royce set his plate down and leaned back, stretching one arm around the back of the sofa. "Vadym doesn't just smuggle fossils. He smuggles people too."

"And by smuggling, you mean" She did want to say the words, too horrified if they were true.

"Human trafficking," Hans said.

Kenzie suddenly lost her appetite. "Oh God." She couldn't imagine the living hell those people suffered. And then she remembered that Vadym knew about her, knew where she livedeverything. It was just like Royce had said. She really was in danger.

"Kenzie." Royce spoke her name in a gentle whisper. "Breathe, babe. You're turning blue."

Her lips parted, and air rushed into her lungs. "Will he come after me?"

"No," Royce growled, his brown eyes glowing with fire. "He'll never touch you."

Despite the assurance in his voice, she saw a shadow in his eyes, a hint of something he was holding back.

"You're keeping something from me. What is it?"

"We know where he'll be tomorrow night. At a club, a BDSM club. Hans and I are going to go there and put a stop to all this."

"Okay" Kenzie waited for whatever it was he still wasn't telling her.

"There is a catch. I need a submissive to enter the club. No unattached Doms allowed." Royce moved a hand behind her on the couch so his fingertips stroked the back of her neck soothingly. "I need a submissive to get in, and you want to help. Do you want to come with us?"

"What?" Was he asking her to go as his sub? Fear and excitement dueled inside her, and her heart pounded in her ears hard enough that she almost couldn't hear anyone over the roaring.

"Little Mac, you okay?" Royce was staring at her as though he feared she might collapse.

"I'm fine." The word escaped breathlessly as she pulled at the end of her braid, embracing the sting of the tug because it helped clear her mind.

"You'll be safe, I promise. Hans will be there too."

Sure, the idea of a crazed Russian mobster was scary, but that wasn't the only thing she was afraid of. She was afraid of becoming Royce's sub. The intimacy of a BDSM relationship, even if they were just pretending, could be overpowering and overwhelming. Things between her and Royce had changed so much already. Being his sub would cement that change forever. Neither of them would ever be able to deny or forget what would happen at this club.