Free The Russian Seduction by Nikki Navarre

toward the South Gate Marine post, reminding herself and him that backup was only a phone call away, if she needed it. But the tactic backfired when the maneuver put Kostenko between her and the door. He moved with the speed and confidence of a man who risked his life, gambled everything on strength and cunning, took calculated chances and saw them pay off in spades.
    “I really can’t break this appointment. He’s a senior NATO official.” Alexis put more space between them, until her back brushed the wall. He’d blockaded her neatly, which wasn’t part of her game plan. But she’d always been at her best in a tight spot. Nerves fluttered low in her belly, little jolts of anticipation clenching between her thighs.
    “I’m afraid you aren’t a very talented liar, Alexis.” His eyes sparked with cold fire as he closed in. “Let me offer a word of caution. When it comes to detecting subterfuge, I’ve had a lifetime of experience.”
    She tried for an ironic smile. “Actually, I’m a perfectly serviceable liar, captain. It’s one of my job requirements.”
    “A job that fails to fulfill you.” His mouth tightened in one of those humorless smiles, his features intent as he towered over her. “A career whose bars are closing in around you. Every time your government promotes you, they shrink the size of your cage, don’t they? Though I’m certain you hope that if you sacrifice enough for your country, someday a certain contentment will result, yes? In time, you’ll come to embrace your chains, and your prison will feel like freedom.”
    “No! That’s not true at all,” she exclaimed, fighting a sudden, senseless surge of panic. “Frankly, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
    The scent of him was thick enough to taste, dark and complex as thirty-year Scotch. Mixed with the smooth silk of tobacco that would turn on any woman whose urbane and sophisticated father had smoked.
    “Captain, what are you doing here?” she demanded, heart jumping with the charge of danger. “And please don’t insult my intelligence by talking to me about ‘dialogue’. I said everything I was authorized to say last night.”
    “It’s not an official event. And I’m taking the Deputy Minister’s place, which will correctly be viewed as an affront.” His voice thickened as he braced one arm against the wall above her head. “Besides, damn it, I can’t keep away from you.”
    Backing her tight into the corner with his body, he leaned in and kissed her, hard and hot. And it was like nothing she’d ever known, nothing like the fumbling eager intimacies of the forgettable men she’d allowed into her bed over the years. All mannerly, well-bred men she’d felt certain she could control.
    Victor Kostenko didn’t kiss the Undersecretary’s daughter, the pedigreed phenom who’d made Political Counselor faster than any woman ever had. He kissed her like a man staking a claim, utterly certain, tasting like the bite of expensive cognac—and going straight to her head. He kissed her like he wanted to crawl deep inside to explore all her secrets. And wasn’t that what she suspected him of?
    God, she didn’t care. Her knees weakened as a surge of raw need rolled through her. Moaning deep in her throat, she clutched his lapels with both hands and hung on. Needed to keep him right there—no, pull him closer. Though they couldn’t get as close as she wanted, with both of them wearing clothes.
    His low growl made her shiver as the muscled length of his body nudged against her. One hand lodged against her bottom, eased her up against him until her thighs slipped apart, giving him the access he wanted.
    The hard bulge beneath his trousers brushed against her sweet spot. Gripped in a vise of need that caught her undefended, she arched into him, spilled breathless sounds into his mouth as he rocked against her. The rhythmic pulse of desire coiled tight inside her. In another few seconds, God help her, she was going