I yelped, my teeth unlatching from his skin.
He instantly released his bite.
I grabbed my hurt shoulder, staring. Shocked. He had never hurt me before. It had only been the possibility of it that had scared me. Now that he had, I did not know what to think of it.
He shook his head, walking toward the bathroom. “You bite me, I’ll bite you back.”
I rubbed my shoulder, gawking as he moved into the bathroom…and stepped directly into the shower, putting us both under the water’s spray.
I was fully clothed. He was wearing a towel. I still had my tennis shoes on!
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted in a rasp, my voice not recovered.
“I’m showering, Ms. Forter.” His stared. “I haven’t actually done that yet. If you look carefully, I still have dirt in my hair. All I did was wet that towel,” he jerked his head at a soaking towel that lay on the bathroom floor with dirt streaks on it, “and wipe off with it, and get my hair wet. I was listening the whole time. Your father’s going to be very pleased with that money.” When my jaw dropped, he murmured softly, “I wouldn’t have let her hurt you. I thought she would get off you when I made my presence known.” He shook his head. “She’s really…” He sighed heavily. “She needs some damn sleep. She’s not doing well right now.”
Oh.
As I blinked water out of my eyes, the water was pooling where my body was bent at the stomach and pressed up against his chest. “You’re still bad news.” That much was true.
He shrugged, easily lifting me up and down with the motion, the pooling water rippling and splashing. “I can’t deny that. However, in my defense, when I choose a lover, I take care of that woman. I won’t let anyone harm you.” His expression turned forbidding. “If they try, they will be dealt with.”
I tried not to gawk. “I’m just asking for trouble if I let this happen.”
His expression slowly altered into sensual knowing confidence, his eyes spiraling to shark hungry. “The trouble is half the fun. The other half is all in how you get into trouble.”
I felt my eyebrows come together. “Tell me you didn’t teach your children that.”
He chuckled. “I’ve taught my children many things, but not that. That’s all mine.”
I nodded. “That explains a lot.”
He shoulders shook. “Thank you.”
I sighed in exasperation. “I should be running from you right now.”
He smiled, and it was a little daunting. “My legs are longer. I would easily catch you.”
I pointed a finger right at the tip of his nose. “You don’t play fair.”
His smile turned wicked. “No, I don’t.”
Still a little overwhelmed, I swallowed and immediately grimaced. “My throat hurts.”
His grinned disappeared, and he set me on my feet right under the spray, my curls instantly plastering to my head. As the water ran over my face, he gently lifted my chin, bending to view the damage. I shut my eyes against the water’s onslaught. I felt his fingers probing lightly, and I flinched.
He cursed quietly. “You’re going to have a nasty bruise. It’s already swelling.” He released my chin. “I’ll be back in a second.”
“All right,” I rasped as he got out of the shower. I started stripping down. I tried not to swallow too much as I peeled my clothing off. I tossed the items out onto the tiles, listening to Daniil speak in Russian since he had not shut the door. I quickly rubbed hotel shampoo that smelled like roses into my hair, feeling the dirt and grime wash away down my body. As I scrubbed my scalp and picked through my curls, I heard him step back into the shower.
His hands were suddenly over mine, and he murmured deeply, “Let me do that.” I pulled my hands away, and wiped the water out of my eyes as he started running his fingers through my curls, untangling them. “Are you good with us?”
Even though I felt overmatched around him most times, I nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
A rumble sounded from his throat, and I opened my eyes to see him staring at my breasts. My rosy nipples puckered instantly under his regard, and his hands faltered before they started working through my curls again; his eyes searing as they slowly traveled down my body, landing and staying at the juncture between my thighs. “Red curls on top and below.”
“Strawberry blonde,” I mumbled, glancing down, dazed from what just his eyes did to me. I did not wax or get one of those silly lines some women got, but I kept them short and trimmed neatly. It was much cooler that way.
He did not seem to hear me as he stared, his gaze traveling back up to my breasts before he licked his full lips. I let my eyes fall below his waist, and the soaking towel he still wore was glued to his front. I blinked, seeing his massive erection in damn fine detail. I had not actually seen him hard while naked; it had been dark in his bedroom, now I was about to.
I quickly ripped the towel off him, startling him from his eye-voyage. He instantly gripped my hair brutally, but I hardly felt it because I was too busy gawking. “Big.” That was all I could manage to say. And it was an understatement. No wonder sex had hurt at first. He had the largest cock I had ever seen.
A pained sound came from him, and my eyebrows snapped together as I tore my gaze away to look into his eyes. Honey brown eyes were darting all over my body, and his hands started moving quickly through my hair as he rumbled, “Your throat probably hurts too badly to do anything now, doesn’t it?” He was breathing shallowly. Thank God. So was I. He tilted my head back, washing the soap out of my hair.
Eyes closed, I grinned. “If you think what that bitch did to me is going to keep me from enjoying my evening, you’re wrong.”
His hands tightened in my hair, and I flinched, and instantly, he gentled his hold. “She’s not a bitch. She’s just going through a few issues right now.”
I opened my eyes, glaring at him even as the sight of him turned me on. “She damn near killed me. That’s a bitch in my book.”
His jaw clenched, and he focused on washing my hair before he sighed. “Ember’s probably a topic we should stay away from.”
I sighed too. “Agreed.” His son loved her, and she loved his son. Daniil loved them both. It was probably best not to call her a bitch, even though I most definitely thought she was, and my bruised necked backed up that opinion.
He picked up the soap, but I took it from him. I explained, “We need to hurry and get clean. I have a deadline I need to make, and taking it slow isn’t going to work for me tonight.”