Lazlo’s Last Stand

to uncover her nipples. Finding them pertly erect in spite of the comforter’s cozy warmth, he smiled. “I do know that. The truth is, I don’t want you anywhere near Cassandra until she’s been neutralized. In fact,” he added fervently, “if I could find a way to send you off-planet, I would. She’s vowed to kill you, you know. And I believe she means it.”

“But you said it yourself,” Lucia said, looking at him along her shoulder, her mouth set in a stubborn pout he was sure she had no idea made it look more delectable than determined. “It’s you she really wants.”

“I believe I’m a bit more able to look after myself than you are.”

Oh, the confident smile, the lazy arrogance in his half-closed eyes…Even though Lucia knew what he said was true, and even though she knew the smile and the arrogance had more to do with what his hand was doing to her than what he’d said, she couldn’t resist twisting around to stare pointedly at the fading bruises on his torso and murmuring, “Oh, yes, I can see that. What if-”

“Lucia,” he interrupted in a stern, warning tone, without causing the slightest interruption in the slow sensual way his thumb was circling the rigid tip of her breast. “Don’t make me play the I’m-your-boss card.”

She valiantly narrowed her eyes and swallowed before attempting to speak, but still, the words came out slurred. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I think you know I would.” She felt him shift behind her, felt the warm flow of his breath on her naked shoulder. “Since I can tell you’re going to leave me no choice…” She felt his mouth move in clever ways that shivered her skin into goose bumps and made all the nerve-rich parts of her swell and sing shamelessly, and entirely against her will. “I’m making it an order.” She tried to turn her face away, but with a single finger touched to the underside of her chin he brought it back so that his steel-dagger eyes could stab relentlessly into hers. “Lucia Cordez, you are to stay here and catch me a mole, whilst I return to Paris to see what has become of the agency formerly known as the Lazlo Group. That is a direct order.”

He leaned slowly forward and touched his lips to hers. Warm and firm and satiny, they moved over hers with the skill of an artisan, and she closed her eyes and her mind and gave herself up to him, and knew in that terrifying moment that this man, Corbett Lazlo, was not only her boss and her lover, but also master of her heart and soul. My love…when did you become everything in the world to me? Painter of my heart’s dreams…maker of my soul’s music…

“You are not to follow me until I tell you it is safe to do so. Do I make myself clear?”

A shudder shook her and she opened her eyes, trying desperately and without success to free herself from the web of enchantment he’d woven around her. She wanted to be angry with him, fight with him, scream at him in fury, but instead, she wanted him to make love to her. And the worst of it was, she knew he knew it.

How had she let this happen? When had he become master of all her being? Master of her heart and soul-that was one thing. Master of her body? Well, okay, some of the time. When she allowed it. But master of her mind?

Never.

“Perfectly,” she purred.

“Promise me.” She could see the wariness in his eyes. The man really did know her too well. “Promise me, Lu. I want to hear you say it. You will stay here until I tell you it’s safe.”

“I promise.” She whispered it, surprised by the ache that had come to her throat from out of nowhere, and even more by the tear that was making its way slowly down her cheek.

He kissed it away, then took her mouth so sweetly, so tenderly, she knew he’d misunderstood the reason for the tears. He couldn’t know it was the lie, not the promise, that was breaking her heart.

“Don’t cry, edesem,” he said huskily. “It’s going to be all right, you know. I just don’t think I could bear it if anything happened to you. You’ve become part of me, you see. From now on, for the rest of my life, you are a very important part of me.”

She touched her finger to his lips and in a choked voice, said, “Promise? I want to hear you say it…”

His smile was beauty itself. “Yes, love, I promise to love you dearly, cherish and protect you for the rest of my life. How’s that?”

She couldn’t answer, but only stifled her gathering sobs in his mouth. And she thought, Will you still love me, my dearest one, when I’ve broken the very first promise I made to you?

Corbett felt the shudders that racked her body and recognized them for the struggle they betrayed. He knew his Lucia very well, and knew what it had cost her to make him such a promise. And, to be completely honest with himself, he didn’t entirely trust her to keep it.

Which was why before he left tomorrow he intended to make it very clear to Josef and Kati that they were to make absolutely certain she did.

For now, though, he was only glad the conflicts had been resolved to his satisfaction, and with the woman he adored softly, sweetly compliant in his arms. He still felt his lovemaking skills somewhat hampered by his injured ribs, but the tenderness he felt for her, and his gratitude for the way she’d given in, he hoped would make up for that.

The fact was, he’d never before made love in the grip of such powerful emotions. He felt they’d changed him in ways he hadn’t begun to understand yet, but which scared him a little. He knew for certain that when he left this house tomorrow he wouldn’t be the same Corbett Lazlo he’d been when he’d arrived. What he didn’t know was… would he be less strong because he had so much to lose? Or all the stronger for having so much to fight for?

For now, there was, thank God, Lucia. Only Lucia.

It confounded and amazed him how happy he was to be with her, touching her, kissing her, hearing her earthy little sounds of pleasure. Before Lucia, sex had been at best mildly enjoyable, on those occasions when he’d had needs of his own to be met, and at worst a chore that left him feeling soulless and depressed. Even with Cassandra, as wildly exciting as that liaison had been, there’d also been an element of fear, of danger, involving, at times, a good bit of adrenaline. He’d never gone to bed with her without feeling at least a smidgen of dread.

But Lucia…making love with her was complete and utter joy. He wondered if it might be because her love for him matched his for her, and that he didn’t have to be anything other than who and what he was. He didn’t have to think about what he was going to do, what way to touch her, what part of his body to put where. All he had to do was feel, and his body fit naturally with hers, and everywhere they came together there was only sweetness and pleasure.

He didn’t have to wonder what might please her, or whether he was pleasing her. He knew his simply being pleased her, knew it because she told him with every breath she took. She told him with her shining, tear-filled eyes and kiss-swollen lips. Told him with the way her skin grew moist and dusky and her body trembled and writhed closer to him when his fingers gently stroked its tender places. Told him with the way she hesitated, at first, when he kissed her thighs and belly, asking her with his touch to let his mouth caress those tender places…then yielded to him with complete and total trust.

That trust and the way she opened her body to him touched him deeply. He felt it more intensely than any pain, as if she’d opened his heart and physically touched him there. Penetrating that most intimate part of her body with his tongue seemed to him a sort of parallel to what she was doing to the most intimate part of his being. And when, as he kissed her deeply, then more deeply still, he heard her sharp cry, and while he held her close with his mouth and hands through her body’s shuddering, throbbing release, he felt the echoes of those same responses swell through him like a tsunami after an earthquake.

In its aftermath he held her in his arms and comforted her while she sobbed, and she held him tightly, too. And he wondered who needed the comforting more.

He’d gladly have held her like that until she fell asleep, but she wouldn’t hear of that, especially when her wandering hands found him hard and hot and in some discomfort still. She wouldn’t let him take it slowly for her sake, either, but quickly, firmly guided him, kneeling, between her thighs. As she opened her body to him, her eyes and lips smiled up at him, lush reminders of the welcome waiting for him there.

And so, whispering her name in awe and love, he pushed himself between her still moist, still swollen folds and felt her softness give way to him and her warmth envelop him. Felt her hands stroking him…belly, buttocks, thighs. Felt them press the aching place in the small of his back, press it hard there, urging him deeper, deeper…then releasing the pressure as her body moved in perfect sync with his.

All too soon, he felt her hands grasp and hold him tightly as the spasms caught him and his muscles clenched so fiercely they seemed to be trying to turn him inside out. And in the midst of that cataclysm he heard her whispering over and over the words he’d said so often to her: