Liberty stopped trying to avoid eye contact with Rurik and opted for glaring at him. “It’s not enough that you hosed a poor innocent man down, and then made him fall, you tied him up and gagged him too?”
Bill leaned and let out a loud whistle. “Well, now you’ve gone and done it, Commie. You’re about to get a whole lot of American Liberty in your face.”
Chapter Eleven
Rurik did his best to land on something close to rational thought, but everything except the urge to make contact with the young woman before him was gone. He knew the optics of the situation she’d barged in on were bad. That in her eyes, he was a dick, but that didn’t stop him from wanting her.
The very hand he’d been doing stretches with minutes prior flexed, his fingers reaching in her direction, as if they too were struggling with the need to be near the woman.
He wasn’t sure which house she’d originated from, or how long she’d been watching the events unfolding with Bill, but it was clear she wasn’t pleased with him. Even scowling she was stunning. Her long hair, which if he had to guess was light to medium brown when dry, was plastered to the side of her face, partially obscuring his view of her. Her huge chocolate-brown eyes seemed to soak in everything at once, all while making him think about what it would be like to look down at them from above.
As thoughts of being horizontal with her flooded his mind, an uncomfortable tightening in his jeans demanded his attention. Try as he might, Rurik couldn’t recall the last time he’d been turned on so intensely, or at all for that matter.
I’m not broken after all.
Without thought, Rurik reached down and adjusted himself.
Liberty’s gaze snapped to the act.
Bill laughed. “Yeah, he’s not gonna need to borrow any of my girlie mags.”
Rurik cocked his head in a way that left him staring directly at Bill.
The little man had the nerve to wink.
Rurik growled.
Bill stuck out his tongue.
Rurik groaned.
Flashing a wide smile, Bill tugged at the fake beard he was wearing, wringing it out as he did. Water dripped freely down the front of him, reminding Rurik that Liberty had walked in on him hosing down Bill.
As more water dripped from Bill’s beard, Rurik swallowed his pride. “I am sorry I took a hose to you.”
Bill blinked several times and made a dramatic showing of sticking his pinkies in his ears to clean them. “Come again?”
Rurik growled again. “Sorry.”
“Didn’t know you had it in you,” said Bill, taking hold of the lapels of his jacket and puffing his chest proudly. “That’s my boy. A chip off the old block. An apple that didn’t fall far from the Iron Curtain.”
“You can be quiet now,” said Rurik.
Bill grinned. “I could, or—”
“Bill,” said Liberty, her voice sliding over Rurik like silk. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Healthy as a horse,” he replied before tugging at the fake beard once more. “I know a guy who can turn into a horse. Bet he’s hung. Should have asked him to change in front of me so I could verify.”
Liberty’s face reddened before her gaze slid to Rurik’s groin. She nodded slightly and then stopped as if catching herself.
As Rurik stood rooted in place, his entire body acutely aware of the proximity of Liberty, he knew he more than cared what her opinion of him was. He didn’t just want her to like him, he needed her to.
His bear stirred, agitated by the notion the beauty standing before him in a wet shirt that was molded to her every curve might only ever see him in a bad light.
Worry began to build in the back of his mind like moss on a rolling stone as he kept staring at her. She’d seemed to come out of nowhere while he’d been in the process of trying to clean Bill. There was a chance Liberty had come from the house across the street.
The very one Rurik had been tasked with watching.
If she had come from there, that would mean she was a person of interest and possibly with The Corporation.
No, he thought, shaking his head somewhat at the idea the goddess before him was working with the enemy.
Her eyes held a mix of curiosity and irritation, but nothing about them or her said she was a foe—that she was in league with the enemy.
If his body’s response to her was any indication of what his instincts were telling him, she could be trusted. And it was all too easy to imagine himself staring down into those very eyes as he drove himself in and out of her.
The idea of it all struck him hard enough to take his breath away. The more he thought about touching her, about what it would feel like to have her beneath him, the more his legs felt as if they were going to give out on him.
“Hey, Red Army,” said Bill, cutting through the moment with the finesse of a chainsaw.
Rurik leveled an annoyed gaze upon him. Did the man have to make everything difficult? Couldn’t he just for once be quiet?
“You’re into her. We can all see that.” Bill lifted a hand, then wiggled his fingers in Liberty’s direction. “Ask her out or something. Think she wants to go stand in a line with you at a zoo to see a bear? Heard your people like lines. Does it take you back to the good old days, you know, when the Soviet Union was a thing? And I think we both know you have a thing for bears. Good times.”
“Do
