“A bribe takes time,” Kira said skeptically. “The last time we broke her out of prison it took three weeks for Clancy and me to find a susceptible guard and persuade him it would be safe to take a bribe. You're only allowing yourself a little over twenty-four hours.”
“I'll manage.” He didn't look at her as he shrugged out of his suede jacket and tossed it next to her suit jacket on the couch. “Trust me.”
“You seem to be saying that quite a bit lately,” she said with a sigh. “I don't have a great deal of choice, do I?”
“You won't be sorry.” He smiled. “Now I think you had better put on your shoes again and take me to see Marna. It would be a good idea to let her know what's in the wind so she can be prepared.”
“I thought we'd go later and have dinner with her.”
He shook his head. Karpathan and Stefan will assume we'll want to have dinner alone. We're lovers, remember?”
How could she forget? All he had to do was look at her and she remembered how his mouth had felt on her…“All right,” she said quickly as she walked to where she'd kicked off her high-heeled shoes beside the couch. “I'd forgotten.” She slipped them on and gave her hair a cursory pat. “I'm ready.”
“Not quite.” He walked toward her. “We've been alone in this suite for almost an hour, and we're supposed to be unable to keep our hands off each other. You look much too proper.”
She didn't feel at all proper. Her heart was beating so fast she expected it to leap out of her breast at any moment. “Really?”
He nodded slowly. “Really. Since we're going to be on public display, we should opt for authenticity.” He took her in his arms. She hadn't thought her heart could race any faster, but she was wrong. “I told you I didn't like to do anything unless I could concentrate my entire attention on it,” he said. His fingers tangled in her hair and he gently tugged her head back. “Open your mouth, love.”
His tongue moved very delicately at first, slowly exploring the smoothness of her teeth and the dark cavity of her inner cheek, toying teasingly with her tongue. Then, with a sound that was a half-growl deep in his throat, the delicacy was gone. His tongue was spear-hard and his hands were hot and restless, running up and down her spine as if he couldn't touch enough of her.
A low, keening cry trembled in her throat as she arched into his body, her mouth opening wider to take more of him. His tongue was moving rhythmically, hotly, and his hands slid down to cup her buttocks and lift her into the hollow of his hips. Arousal. Stark, hungry, shocking. She gasped and pressed herself closer with a little incoherent murmur.
Then, suddenly, Zack was stepping back, his chest moving heavily with the harshness of his breathing. He looked down at her flushed cheeks and bruised lips. “That's better,” he said thickly. “But not quite good enough.”
“No?” she asked dazedly.
His hands were quickly unbuttoning the pearl buttons of her silk blouse and drawing the material away from her breasts. He unfastened the front opening of her bra. “Stand still, love. It will only be a moment.”
Then his mouth was enveloping her nipple and suckling gently. His hand framed the swollen mound, pumping rhythmically as his teeth pulled and his tongue soothed.
Stand still, he had told her. She couldn't have moved if she had tried. She couldn't do anything but look down at his dark head bent over her breast and watch as his lips and tongue moved on her flesh and drove her to the edge of insanity. Her breasts were lifting and falling as if she were running and she had to open her mouth wide to get air to her oxygen-starved lungs. Every pulling tug, every teasing brush of his tongue seemed to be connected to a burning wire which led to the apex of her thighs.
Then his head was lifting, his eyes, dark and wild and brilliant, staring into her own. “I think that should do it.” His voice was hoarse and strained. “If I look like you do, there won't be any doubt about what we've been doing.” His hands were trembling slightly as he fastened her bra and then buttoned her blouse. “Come on. Let's get out of here or we'll never get to see Marna today.” His hand was beneath her elbow, propelling her toward the door.
Her knees felt like warm butter and she wasn't sure they'd support her. “Your methods are a little drastic. Was all that really necessary?”
He opened the door. “No, the kiss alone probably would have been sufficient to create the effect we needed for our audience.” His eyes dropped compulsively to her full breasts pushing against the silk blouse. They were still swollen and taut and became even more so under his burning appraisal. “The rest was for me. I wanted to see you. I was hungry again. I think I'll always be hungry now. When we were in the throne room, all I could think of was how much I needed to have you on my lap as you were this morning, half-naked and wanting me, making those soft little sounds that-” He broke off, took a deep breath, and then let it out very slowly. “Later.” Then he closed the door behind them and nudged her gently forward into the highly polished oak hallway. “I think it would be a good idea if you led the way, Kira. I appear to have lost my sense of direction at the moment.”
The two armed guards standing before the double doors of Marna's suite were garbed in the elaborate dark blue dress uniforms of the Tamrovian army and reminded Zack vaguely of stage extras he'd seen in an operetta he'd attended in Paris. They failed to challenge Kira as she opened the door and gave Zack no more than a passing glance.
“Not exactly razor-sharp security,” Zack murmured to Kira as he followed her into the elegant suite and closed the door. “This may be easier than I thought.”
“Stefan lets me come and go as I please,” Kira said. “And everyone in the palace will have been told about you by now.” The door opposite the sitting room opened and she was suddenly running toward the tall woman dressed in black who stood quietly in the doorway. “Marna!”
Kira was immediately folded in the woman's strong arms, her diminutive frame appearing even slighter in contrast with Marna Debuk's massive build. Zack hadn't remembered her as being that tall. The Gypsy towered over six feet and vaguely resembled a lady wrestler. The features of her face were harsh and blunt and her dark, shining hair was clubbed just below her ears. That impassive face didn't look any different from the way he remembered it over fifteen years ago. Her black eyes were just as snapping bright, her face as inscrutable and ageless as the day he'd first seen her when he was a boy of nineteen.
Her arms were hugging Kira with the fierce maternal affection of a grizzly, but her eyes met Zack's over Kira's head. “You came.”
He smiled faintly. “You knew I would.”
“Yes. I knew.” She gave Kira one final embrace and slowly released her. “It is done?”
“No.”
Marna's expression sharpened. “Why not?”
“Because I am not a chitka,” he said softly.
Her face clouded with anger. “I wanted it d-” She broke off and then gave a deep, booming laugh. “No, you are not a chitka,” she said, shaking her head. “You never were, Zack. Though in this case I wish you had been. It would have been easier for me.”
“And for me too. But the easy way is not always the best way.”
Kira was looking from one to the other with exasperation. “I'm still in the room, you know,” she said pointedly. “I have the distinct feeling that I've just become invisible.”
“Go sit down, Kira,” Marna said, not looking at her. “I must talk to Zack for a minute. We have things to discuss.”
Kira turned obediently away and then suddenly whirled back to face them. “The hell I will. I'm not an infant to be sent out to play while adults talk.”
Marna's eyes widened in surprise and then darkened with a touch of sadness. “It has already begun then.”