Two more minutes, I think, and bury my nose in Hazel’s hair.
“You awake?” she says, softly.
“Yes,” I say. “What time is it?”
“Eight-thirty,” she says.
“I should go,” I murmur in her ear, but I run one hand down her side from her ribcage to her hip, her skin perfect and soft beneath my hand.
My cock is working again. I was already hard when I woke up, but as I stroke her side Hazel just barely arches her back, pressing herself against me, and my erection throbs.
I need her, so much it’s visceral, like there’s a raging tornado twisting deep inside me and this is the only thing I can do to keep it from destroying me.
I close my fingers around her hip and pull back. She arches again, harder now, and reaches her hand around to pull my head to hers, twisting her torso. I raise myself on my other elbow and we kiss hard, tongues in each others’ mouths, as she rocks against me.
I groan into her mouth and she tightens her hand in my hair. I’m nearly dizzy with lust and want and the pure, primal sensation of need, and I touch the backs of her thighs and then push my hands between them until my fingers are on her slit, already slippery and wet.
She wraps a fist around my cock and I slide my fingers past her clit and relish the way her body gives a tiny jolt, like my touch is electric. Hazel moans as I rub her, and before I know it, she’s guided the tip of my cock to her entrance.
“Condom,” I gasp. “Nightstand.”
“Are you clean?” she whispers.
“Yes,” I say. She’s warm and practically throbbing against me, and my mind is slowly blinking out.
“Then it’s fine,” she says. “I have an IUD.”
I’m not exactly sure what that is. If I were smarter I’d find out, but right now, all I know is that it means I’m about to fuck Hazel skin to skin. I kiss the back of her neck slowly and she sighs.
There’s a goddamn knock on the goddamn door.
We both stop, holding our breaths, as if the knock could have possibly been an accident.
The knock sounds again, louder this time. I roll onto my back.
“Otvali mudak blyad,” I growl.
“Fucking motherfucker,” Hazel fumes, and rolls off the bed. She finds the robe and pulls it on as I get up, putting on pants and at least getting my arms through my shirt.
There’s yet another knock as Hazel heads for the door, and I stay back, just out of sight as she pulls it open.
“Niko,” she says, sounding surprised.
“Good morning,” he says. “Sorry to bother you, but we can’t seem to find the King.”
She pushes one hand through her hair.
“Come in,” she says, sounding like she’s admitting to stealing candy.
I’m buttoning the last button on my shirt as Niko comes in, but if he’s surprised to find me getting dressed in Hazel’s room, he doesn’t show it.
“There’s a problem,” he says, crossing his arms.
I stand. Hazel perches on the arm of a chair, holding her robe closed tightly.
“The populist faction of the USF has taken Yelena Pavlovnova hostage,” Niko says quietly.
Hazel gasps. I stop, one cuff half-buttoned.
“Yelena?” I ask.
“What happened?” asks Hazel at the same time.
Niko looks from me to her and back.
“Yes, Yelena,” he says. “She disappeared from her father’s villa sometime yesterday. No one is exactly sure when, but we received a photo of her with today’s paper about thirty minutes ago.”
“Is she okay?” says Hazel.
“Relatively speaking,” Niko says carefully. “She didn’t look visibly harmed.”
“Why did they take her?” I ask.
Now I’m pacing the floor. I had just let myself think that things were starting to look up for us, and now a canyon has cracked open beneath my feet, threatening to swallow my whole country.
What the hell could they possibly want with Yelena? She can’t tell them anything, and she certainly doesn’t know anything.
“They’re willing to release her in exchange for a meeting,” Niko says. “They set the terms, but they want to do it on neutral ground.”
Neutral ground is a fucking joke. Right now, there’s no such thing, because everywhere within reach of the USF is dangerous.
I shouldn’t even be considering this. If this is their negotiation strategy, their next step will be worse.
But they’ve got Yelena. Of all people, she doesn’t deserve this.
“I’d be a sitting duck,” I say.
“They don’t want to talk to you,” Niko says, and pauses.
I turn and look at him, and he looks at Hazel.
“They want to talk to you,” he tells her.
“No,” I say.
“Me?” Hazel says.
“No,” I say again, getting closer to Niko.
Like fuck is Hazel going out there, risking capture and possibly her life. Yelena’s a nice girl, but the hell I’m trading Hazel for her.
“Why me?” Hazel asks Niko quietly.
“It doesn’t matter, because you’re not going,” I say.
“Kostya, shut the hell up and let Niko tell me what’s going on,” she says, shooting me a glare.
“I’m not risking your life for hers,” I say.
“You don’t even know what’s going on yet,” she says.
“I don’t need to know,” I say. “You’re not meeting with anyone. You’re going home to the U.S., where it’s safe, the second I can get you out of here, and that is all you’re doing.”
I’m terrified. The thought of Hazel putting herself in danger like this, with people who’ve already kidnapped one woman, makes me sick to my stomach.
“They want to meet with her because she’s American,” Niko says loudly over our arguing.
We both look at him.
“That’s what we think, anyway,” he says, his voice quieting. “It’s a show of good faith on their part.”
Hazel chews a thumbnail. A black hole opens in the pit of my stomach, because this is quickly becoming about much more than tiny Sveloria.
All three of us know what the show of good faith is: the USF can kidnap Svelorian citizens with impunity, but the moment they take an American, the United States military will drop the hammer. Fighter jets from the U.S. base in Turkey could be here in twenty minutes.
They would have to be insane to risk hurting an American citizen.
“The idea might be worth entertaining,” Niko says.
“No,” I say. “I’m not sending her to do my dirty work with people who’ve already proven they’re willing to hurt innocent women.”
“How many innocent people are gonna get hurt if this drags out?” Hazel says, her eyes flashing. “You’ve gotten lucky with casualties so far, Kostya, but if you dig in your heels, they’re going to think they’ve got no choice.”
“If we deal with them now, this ends with governmental reform,” Niko says. “If we ignore this, we might risk a coup.”
“I’m getting dressed,” Hazel says, and walks to her bedroom, closing the door behind her. I stalk to the French doors that lead to the balcony and stare out at the sea. Niko follows, and we stand in silence together for a long moment.