Wild Men of Alaska 04 - Wild Men of Alaska - Four Book Bundle

me.”
    “It will be my pleasure.” As soon as she said the words, realizing she was flirting, she regretted them. So much for taking sex out of it.
    “After you then.” He gestured toward the stairs.
    She didn’t want to be in a bedroom with him. But then that hadn’t stopped her from having the hottest sex of her life with him on a bear rug in front of the fireplace in the great room of this lodge.
    Hell, the bedroom would actually be safer. She’d broken the bed.

    “How am I to explain this?” Sergei regarded the splintered logs of the canopy bed. This was a lot bigger than a shredded sweater. Did the woman have superpowers? He looked at the bed, and then at Kate, then back to the bed. He ventured closer to investigate. She’d reduced the canopy to firewood. Gathering up the broken, splintered pieces, he stacked them along the wall. The four-poster bed could be saved with some woodworking, but the canopy was shot. He wasn’t up to counting the casualties of his books.
    The strength and determination Kate had to free herself was fantastic.
    “Impressive,” he said.
    “Thank you.” She attempted to bite back a smile without succeeding. The woman was enjoying this.
    So was he.
    “You’re very provocative, Katja,” he said, his voice huskier. His eyes traveled over her down to her long legs peeking out from the folds of the quilt. While she’d gathered up her clothes on their way upstairs, there hadn’t been time for her to dress.
    He needed to figure out how to keep her naked.
    A blush bloomed on her cheeks, and she shuffled on her feet. She held up the clothes in her hand and indicated the bathroom. “I should—”
    “No, you shouldn’t.”
    She paused in backing up toward the bathroom.
    “Ve vill make love again tonight, Katja. Getting dressed is vaste of time.”
    “That’s presumptuous of you to say.”
    “Is truth.” He turned more fully toward her, ready in case she bolted or attacked. “No more pissy-stepping around.”
    “You mean pussy-footing.”
    “Means same, no?”
    She shrugged. “I suppose so. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s pretty arrogant of you to assume I’ll meekly fall into bed with you again.”
    “There is nothing meek about you. I’d never make that mistake. I don’t trust you not to ruin another bed if I have to tie you to it in order to get some rest myself. And it’s not possible for me to share a bed vith you and not make love to you.”
    His words lay between them like the challenge they were. He couldn’t wait to see what she’d do.
    The bundle of clothes wavered in her hand as though they held the weight of her decision. Then she dropped them to the floor. “Fine. But you need to answer some questions for me first.”
    His heart stuttered.
    She’d actually discarded her clothes. Willingly agreed that they were making love again. Tonight.
    “Fine,” he returned though it was an effort to get words past the hope blooming in his chest and the blood in his body heading south. “I have questions also.”
    “Why would Perry want you to kill me?”
    While she asked the question impersonally, he saw the pain in her eyes, in the way she held her body, so straight as to break if touched.
    “The arms deal,” he said. “You knew too much. Soon you vould have figured out that he vas double-dealing. You are smart voman, Katja, and asked all the right questions. Therefore you had become liability.”
    “How were you told to do it? Kill me?”
    “It vas supposed to look like you had been raped, strangled, and then left for buzzards. Another unfortunate statistic for vomen traveling abroad alone, unprotected.”
    She swallowed hard, and her eyes flickered before meeting his again. “When did you decide not to kill me?”
    “Killing you vas never in my plans. I needed to use you to trap Perry...but I planned to bed you the moment I met you.”
    “Bed me?” Her eyes went granite.
    “Maybe I messed up translation. English not my first language, you understand.”
    “Not buying it, Sergei.”
    It was time to put her on the defensive. “How did you acquire one of Ivan’s kerambits?” Ivan had been his comrade, his partner, and had helped set up Perry.
    “He personally made it for me.”
    “And obviously taught you how to use it. Vhy is he helping you?”
    “You defected. Turns out he’s a bit angry about that.”
    “So he sought you out?” He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “And you didn’t think it vas coincidental