Page 44 of Capturing Victory

She looked up at him, dark eyes pleading with light. “I just need some space.”

“I will never give you that,” he said, his words falling like hammers. He was relentless. This was Ivan. The man who built an empire from nothing, the man who conquered everything around him.

Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Why?” she asked desperately. “What do you want from me? You don’t want my hacking skills, you don’t want me to help you make more money, what could you possibly want from me?”

He lifted a hand and cupped the back of her head, caressing her, before clenching his fingers in the strands, controlling her by forcing her to look up at him. Tears spilled from her lashes as she took in the terrible storm of emotions he was always so careful to keep at bay. No longer. Now he wanted her to see what he kept from the world. The grey wrath that, once unleashed, could cause devastation. “I want your love,” he said simply, his cool voice at odds with the war going on in his gaze.

She opened her mouth to speak but a sob emerged instead. He tilted his head and kissed her, despite the salt of her tears tainting the taste. His kiss was gentle at first, but quickly turned to a devastating assault. What he once might have asked for, he now demanded. He gripped the back of her skull in one hand, his fingers twisting in the strands of her hair, holding her immobile, while his other hand wrapped around her waist and yanked her firmly against him.

She clutched his shoulders, twisting her fingers in his shirt and holding tight while she continued to sob wildly in his arms, the echo of his words hammering through her brain. She didn’t participate in the kiss, couldn’t participate in her current state. It didn’t matter. He took over completely, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, showing her who was master. White lightening streaked pleasure through her brain, sizzling every part of her body. She moaned in his arms, giving herself up to the experience.

Finally, he tipped his head back, releasing her lips. But only by a few centimeters. When he spoke, his words rushed hotly over her wet mouth, swollen from his brutal kisses. “I’ll be everything to you, sweetheart. I promise, I’m keeping you forever.”

She stared up at him, the emotions so overwhelming she could barely speak. Her lips shook when she opened her mouth. How had he come to mean so much to her, so quickly? Finally she whispered, “I think I want that too.”

His hands tightened, almost unbearably and his eyes snapped grey fire down at her. “Then choose to stay with me, choose to stop running.”

She reached up and wrapped her arms tight around his neck, clinging to him as though he were her lifeline. “Okay,” she whispered.

And she meant it. The ties to her past started to loosen and fall away. The misplaced loyalty that had bound her to Father meant less and less. Logically she’d always known he hadn’t really cared for her. That the sterile room he’d kept her in during her early teen years, the food he provided, the equipment he’d given her hadn’t been the same as love. But without anything else to latch on to, without any other comparison she’d allowed the man who’d rescued her from the streets of Mumbai to fill her mind with hate. Now it was time to let go of Father and embrace the man who professed to love her. Right or wrong, this was the path she wanted to take.

The look of intense relief on Ivan’s face told her she’d given him something precious, something far better than all the riches he could have conquered on his own. Despite the tears still wetting her cheeks she smiled. “It’s too much work to hate a man determined to love me even when I blew up his island and caused thousands of dollars of damage to a Tiffany’s store.”

“Hundreds of thousands,” he corrected her. “The money doesn’t matter. I’ll buy you a hundred islands and a dozen jewellery stores. Blow them all to hell if you want.”

They stared at each other, feeling the sizzle in the air as their undeniable attraction raced between and around them. It had taken them several weeks to get to this moment of perfect synchronicity. Months even as Ivan had chased her across the globe intent on capturing the tech genius that teased him.

His fingers clenched against her. “How’s your arm?” he asked huskily piercing her with his uncanny eyes.

She caught her breath and enjoyed the sensations swirling in her belly. He wasn’t really asking about her arm. She could feel the shift in tension between them from loving to sexual. He wanted her and he wanted her right now. She licked her lips and glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “It’s better, doesn’t really hurt anymore.”

“Is it better enough?” he demanded, a hard edge to his voice. He wanted her bad, but he wasn’t willing to take any risks.

She looped her good arm around his neck and pulled herself boldly up against him, pressing her breasts against his hard chest. Heat swirled between them, flaming higher with each touch. This was the first time Jaya had gone into Ivan’s embrace without hesitation. She pressed her lips against his throat, tracing first the hollow with her tongue and then his Adam’s apple when it bobbed against her mouth. He groaned and clenched his hand against the back of her head.

“I need you to touch me, to make love to me, Ivan,” she whispered into the flesh she’d just licked.

His hand tightened in her hair until his hold was nearly punishing. He tipped her head back against the bar, his eyes devouring her face seconds before his mouth took hers in another sweeping kiss. She shoved her tongue back against his, tightening her fingers against him and pulling him hard against her. Heat sparked through her body, raging higher and higher, an inferno that threatened to burn out of control now that she was giving herself permission to have this man.

Ivan’s response to her wholehearted enthusiasm was to take her harder than ever before. He gripped her face in both hands, pulled her against him and lost every ounce of the prized control he’d spent a lifetime cultivating. She moaned into his mouth, reached up and slid her hands into his hair, holding him close while he fucked her mouth with relentless strokes. She jumped when she heard a smash, but he refused to release her. Another smash told her they were rattling the bar so hard bottles were dropping to the floor.

Ivan wrapped an arm around her waist, lifted her off the floor and turned them around in a sweeping circle. He strode to his desk and shoved everything aside, heedless of what it was. Everything that got in his way went crashing to the floor. As her ass touched the surface she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. He growled appreciatively and reached back to shove the sandals off her feet. Once they were gone he shrugged his holster off. Her eyes flew wide when his gun hit the floor with a thud. He didn’t seem to care. He gripped her neck and pulled her back up into his embrace, his lips meeting hers again, the rasp of his chin scraping her flesh with the desperation of each kiss.

They clung to each other as though it were their last moment. As though discovering each other for the first time but unable to slow down long enough to explore. Jaya wanted to touch him, wanted to run her hands over masculine shoulders and broad muscles, but he kept knocking her hands aside in his furious assault on her senses. She heard the tearing of fabric but had no idea whether it was her clothes or his. She felt his fingers between her legs, strong and sure, stroking and pressing with relentless intent.

There was no build up, no foreplay. Suddenly he was there, shoving his fingers relentlessly inside her. She threw her head back against the desk with a shriek and pressed her knees to the side lifting her hips in desperate supplication. He shoved her panties to the side and removed his fingers, flicking her clit on the way out. She cried out again, this time in disappointment.

“Look at me,” he demanded, reaching between them and unzipping his pants.

She tilted her head up in time to see the piercing look of desire and blatant possession just before he pressed himself against her and then leaned forward, using the hardness of the desk to thrust full-length inside her. Jaya gasped at the fullness of his intrusion, reaching up to grip his shoulders, digging her nails into his shirt.

He took her with long, fierce strokes, his eyes never leaving her face. She locked eyes with him and refused to look away, understanding that this moment meant something. This was the first completely consensual coming together. She was giving him her free will and agreeing to stay. Equal ground.

He leaned over her, gripping her so tight the space between them virtually disappeared. His strokes became shorter, shallower and more brutal as his hips slammed her into the desk. She wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face against him and held on, clinging to the man determined to take everything from her, but give her more in return. He turned his face into her neck and bit down on the flesh between her shoulder and neck. Pleasure burst through her and she came in a wild rush of colour and hot, sizzling sensations. Her head fell back and she opened her eyes to stare into the bright sunlit sky through the window behind them while he continued to wring every last lingering bit of orgasm from her body.

With a savage, satisfied grunt he tipped over the edge of orgasm, joining her in the blissful, floating world he’d sent her spiralling into moments before. He dropped his head and buried it into the thick cloud of her hair, spread out all around them on the desk.

She tilted her head and looked down. “I think you might need a new laptop,” she said breathlessly.

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