Mission Of Desire Part 6

Nicole didn't answer her-there wasn't any point. She hadn't really thought that far ahead-all she'd cared about was getting out of here. She bit her lip and dug her fingernails into her palms.

"Go back to your room and get some sleep." Kira waved her hand dismissively.

Nicole's hand tightened on her knife as anger surged through her, but before she could even think of making a move, Kira lunged forward. She caught Nicole's wrist, pressing her thumb against the muscles there in such a way that the knife fell from her grip and dropped to the floor.

"Let go of me!" Nicole demanded, trying in vain to shake Kira off, but the effort was useless. Her grasp was like a steel vise.

"There are cameras everywhere, but lucky for you, I'm on duty again tonight. I have to admit," she lowered her voice, "it was rather entertaining watching you skulk about like some character in a bad movie, but I was afraid you'd accidentally trigger an alarm and wake up Stella and Bogie. They both need their sleep, especially tonight."

The amus.e.m.e.nt in Kira's voice pushed Nicole beyond angry. Provoked to her breaking point, she remembered the handwritten note on the Russian memo she'd found. "You failed!" she hissed. "You didn't win my trust, and you never will."

In response, her hand was gripped even tighter, producing a pins and needles tingling in the tips of her fingers.

"I hate you," she added childishly.

"You say that," Kira whispered as she took control of Nicole's hands and backed her roughly into the corridor's hard wall, "but your body tells me otherwise." Kira's looked down Nicole's shirt and jeans. In spite of everything-her anger and distrust, she felt her legs getting weak and her lower stomach fluttering with arousal.

Her body was indeed betraying her.

She could feel her nipples grow suddenly sensitive, grazing against the fabric of her bra as a curling vortex of heat traveled like a lit fuse across the inner lining of her loins. There were only six or so inches separating them, and Kira's subtle scent invaded the small s.p.a.ce like a fragrant cloud. She wanted to shout a loud denial to Kira's all-too-accurate a.s.sertion, to break free and run, but her hands were suddenly released and a long, slender finger was placed against her lips to silence her.

"Shh, no more words between us," Kira purred in the dim light.

Nicole felt her resistance waning.

"I can't keep fighting it either." Kira's voice was like warm, liquid silk.

"Fight what?"

"This."

Kira's hands softly cradled Nicole's face in a tender clasp. Kira leaned forward and gently kissed her. Nicole melted in surrender, unable to stop herself from arching into Kira's warmth. She opened her mouth to accept the tentative tip of Kira's tongue, savoring the sweet taste and essence that was her.

All the tension of their encounters had been building to this moment between them, the tone of their kiss one second coaxingly sweet and the next punishing as they each struggled with the raw pa.s.sion they roused in each other.

All rational thought seemed to have left Nicole completely, her physical being now nothing more than a wanton ent.i.ty of tingling nerve endings and unfathomable aching, but then, suddenly, a rush of chilling cool air swooped in between them, jerking her down from the blissful realm she'd been floating within. She lifted her head, weak and bewildered, her lips still quivering from the unrestrained intensity of the kiss they'd just shared.

"Go back to your room, Nicole," Kira ordered, her voice strangled and guttural. She took an unsteady step backward.

The fluorescent lighting was flickering to life overhead. Dazed, Nicole blinked hard, adjusting to the blinding luminance with great difficulty. When she eventually did, she saw an icy contempt in the blue eyes that just a moment earlier had been feverishly bright with need and desire and pa.s.sion.

"What's all the commotion here?" Stella asked reproachfully from somewhere beyond the haze of desire that was shaking Nicole's ability to think clearly. "It's very late, little one. You need to sleep," Stella suggested softly, closer now. "Soon you'll be able to go home."

When the fog cleared Nicole saw that Kira was already halfway down the pa.s.sageway. Stella, her mouth a thin line of disapproval, was casting one very dark look at her colleague's retreating figure.

Chapter Ten.

Once the door to her room was closed, Nicole tossed her duffel bag to one side and dropped down to her tender knees, gulping in several deep, ragged breaths of air. What had just happened? She put a hand to her lips. She could still feel the soft, warm imprint of Kira's mouth on her own. Trembling, she reached down to touch the cold cement beneath her in an effort to cool her burning desires. This is what it must feel like to be struck by lightning and survive, she thought. Her nerves felt jittery, her muscles weak and rubbery. What was wrong with her? How could this woman have such an effect on her?

The unsettling, frightening truth was that if Stella had not interrupted them, she wouldn't have been able to stop. She recalled her encounter with Danielle-and was amazed by how much that experience paled in comparison. Now she finally understood what was meant by s.e.xual chemistry-that basic, primal attraction from inside that was impossible to resist.

An image flashed inside her head. With horrible clarity she recalled Kira's face when Stella had switched on the lights. She physically winced as she saw again the derision in the blue eyes staring back at her. Nicole felt her insides clench with humiliation.

What was I thinking? That the one they all call Ice Princess had become so overwhelmed by pa.s.sion for me that she'd simply lost control?

It was almost laughable. It had all been just another of her twisted mind games-manipulating Nicole for her own purposes, using her s.e.xuality as a means to an as yet unknown end.

Writhing in shame and mortification, Nicole curled into a tight ball and leaned back against the closed steel door only to feel something hard and obtrusive poking at her tailbone. It was her knife. She didn't remember bending and retrieving it during her mad exodus. She picked it up and stumbled over to her bed. She fell down atop the blankets despondently. There would be no escape. She was stuck here, a prisoner for as long as they wanted to keep her.

At some point, she dozed off. One minute she'd been wondering just what information Kira had hoped to obtain from her tonight if their kiss hadn't been disrupted, and the next thing she knew, Stella was standing over her, one hand pressed lightly down upon her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Time to go, kid."

Nicole blinked.

"Get up. We've got only a few minutes."

"What's going on?" she moaned once she managed to remove her tongue from where it was plastered to the roof of her mouth. She pushed her tangled hair from her face, wiped a crumb of sleep from her eyes, and made to sit up, disoriented.

"You're going home."

"Home?" Nicole repeated with effort, trying to make sense of the word. Was she dreaming? She couldn't be serious, could she?

"C'mon, get up," Stella urged as she tugged the blanket from the bed. "Bogie's waiting."

"Bogie?" Nicole sat up sleepily. "But I just went to sleep."

"It's four thirty in morning. Bogie and I will hike with you to a spot where a helicopter can land. That's why we have to move fast! It will take you to Nairobi and," she flashed a bundle of official-looking papers in her face, "from there you'll get on a plane that will take you back to Washington DC."

Nicole was instantly awake. The events of last night came flooding back into her mind.

The kiss.

A blissful sensation rippled down her spine when she thought of Kira's lips upon her own; the taste of her, the wondrous feel of being pressed so closely against her.

"Don't you want to go home, little one?"

Nicole lifted her face to Stella, her eyes bright as she fought to control her emotions. "I've wanted out of here from the moment I arrived," she declared, tossing back the blanket and getting to her feet.

After washing her face, brushing her teeth, and tossing the rest of her clothes into her already half-packed duffel bag, she was strolling down the very pa.s.sageway she had meant to use for her escape plans last night. She watched with wide, disbelieving eyes as Stella peeled back the sleeve of the black sweater she was wearing and began punching keys on the same type of electronic device Kira had worn around her wrist upon their arrival. In response, internal mechanisms churned and twisted loudly before the steel doors magically parted to allow them access to the rusty ladder leading up to the forest.

"Okay, so I was wrong. The bolts and locks are real," Nicole murmured aloud in a defeated voice only she could hear.

"Bogie's already above. Ready?"

Nicole cast a blank glance backward, confused by her own feelings.

She knew she should be ecstatic her incarceration was finally coming to an end, yet...it felt like some invisible force was telling her to stay. The rational part of her brain knew it was absurd nonsense, but as she watched the steel doors close firmly behind her, she felt like she was relinquishing hold of some intangible but extraordinarily significant dimension to her life.

She would never see Kira again.

Ever.

She shook her head.

The only explanation for this illogical sentimentality was a condition she'd studied in one of her psych cla.s.ses-it was called Stockholm Syndrome. It was a psychosis in which hostages or kidnap victims slowly begin to feel affection for their captors.

"Yep, that's definitely gotta be it," she reasoned, climbing up the shaft with a manufactured enthusiasm.

Once outside, she pushed the tiny ache in her chest away from her thoughts and inhaled deeply. Fresh air. The perfumed breeze was filled with the uniquely pungent scent of Kenyan vegetation. Every pore in her body tingled. After several days inside the bunker and breathing recycled air, the cool splendor of the early-morning dampness was invigorating. She looked up. The sky was clear and the stars sparkled, but she didn't recognize a single constellation.

"The sun won't be up for a bit," Bogie informed her, shining an industrial-sized flashlight on the artificial rock so Stella could reset it back on its concealed hinges.

"We have a two-mile walk ahead, but without the benefit of daylight, the trek will be hard. Don't fall behind," he advised. "And stay alert. This isn't a park."

"Okay," Nicole replied, still too confused to make much sense of anything. For the first twenty minutes of the hike, as her body adjusted to the chill of the early morning as well as Bogie's rapid pace, her mind remained preoccupied with images of Kira and that earth-shattering memory of their kiss. She said nothing to her two hiking companions, not even questioning the details of her sudden release or the intricacies of her transport back to the Unites States. But finally her brain cells fluttered to life.

How do I know where they're leading me?

Her heart dropped into her empty stomach. All was serene and quiet, no sound other than their footwear falling softly on the dirt and the occasional crunch of foliage as they pa.s.sed under or over a bush. The moon was a fading silvery crescent as the sky slowly began to lighten. Stella looked back at her and Nicole could see concern in those big dark eyes.

"Okay, kid?"

Stella. She liked Stella. The eccentric Ukrainian wouldn't do anything to hurt her, Nicole was sure of that.

She trusted Stella.

Wham!

It hit Nicole so quickly her knees went weak and she lost her balance.

Win her trust.

How stupid could she be?

Kira hadn't failed. She'd won.

Nicole had blindly followed Stella and six-foot-five Bogie into the African wilderness with no protection other than the knife bobbing up and down somewhere in the folds of her luggage.

"Here she comes!" Bogie suddenly announced.

They'd emerged from the forest into a flat, treeless valley glistening with the first brilliant rays of the dawn's warm red-gold light. Bogie was pointing a large ebony finger toward the eastern horizon. Nicole lifted her eyes to the sky, the warmth of the sun's yellow beams warming her cold cheeks as the sounds of a helicopter grew closer.

"It's beautiful," Nicole breathed in awe. Her fears and apprehension left her now that the helicopter was in sight. She really was heading home.

And she was trying to relish her first and only African sunrise, but Stella was now pacing in a circle, her eyes darting nervously back and forth.

"I must tell you something!" Stella shouted to Nicole over the increasing noise of the approaching copter.

Nicole recalled Stella's face last night when the lights flickered on. There was no doubt from her expression Stella had known something had occurred, but did she actually witness the kiss between her and Kira? What was it she wanted to say to her now? Stay away from Kira, she is mine? But there had been no glint of malice in those black eyes last night, no dull hurt shining from their depths; only disapproval mixed with censure, and those sentiments seemed to have been aimed at Kira.

"Shevchenko, it will work itself out in time!" Bogie shook his bald head. "Leave it alone!"

Stella volleyed back, "Time is something we don't have!" There was another comment, but her husky accented words could no longer be heard, dissolving into the bl.u.s.tering currents of air blasting across the gra.s.s. The helicopter was landing just a dozen feet away, making conversation near impossible. She continued to look imploringly at Nicole, her dark eyes intense. Frustrated, the dark-haired Ukrainian reached into a leather satchel she'd been carrying across her back, grabbed what appeared to be the airplane paperwork and a pen, and scribbled something on the outside of the ticket jacket before shoving it into Nicole's canvas bag. Bogie grabbed Nicole's hand and pulled her toward a tall, broad-shouldered man emerging from the helicopter's c.o.c.kpit.

She looked back toward Stella and waved as if she were saying farewell to a friend rather than some fantastic character from the most bizarre episode of her life, which already seemed like a dream. Bogie winked at her before giving her a mock salute.

"Ready to go for a ride?"

Nicole nodded at the tanned, rugged pilot and within minutes they were airborne. The hilltop with its hidden underground burrow vanished from her sight. She reached inside her bag to retrieve the ticket jacket Stella had given her, searching for the words she'd written in such haste. There they were, scribbled along the frayed edge of an advertis.e.m.e.nt for an American Express card: Remember the Tin Man.

What the h.e.l.l was that supposed to mean?

And what had Bogie meant about it working itself out in time? What would work itself out in time?

"You okay back there?" The dark blond pilot asked once they'd been flying for a few minutes. She saw he'd removed his aviation headphones and was waiting for her to respond.

"Great!" she mouthed, giving him the thumbs up.

"We have a quick detour to make before we land at the airport!"

A frisson of alarm curled up inside Nicole's stomach as her mind ran wild with crazy possibilities. Yet her instincts told her the good-looking pilot with the gorgeous hair, American accent, and chiseled features was harmless. He practically reeked of s.e.xy charm, from his perfect white-toothed grin down to the engaging twinkle in his dark blue eyes.

"Why don't you come sit up here next to me? It's a much better view, and this way we won't have to keep yelling at each other!"

Nicole maneuvered up to the c.o.c.kpit.

"You can't leave Africa without having a glimpse of one of the most breathtaking sights you'll ever behold," he said into his microphone after handing Nicole an extra headset, watching as she placed it over her ears.

The domed windshield offered a completely different perspective than the rear pa.s.senger seat window. Miles and miles of unpolluted earth filled her view. There were no roads, no vehicles, not even one building to stain the majesty of the African landscape. The pilot reached under his seat and produced a pair of binoculars for her to use, a sly smile twisting his lips just before he grabbed the throttle and veered the copter south.

"Helicopters are noisy. So I don't disturb the animals, I'll have to stay up a good height, but you'll still get quite an eyeful."

Nicole nodded, pleased he was thoughtful enough to consider the well-being of the wildlife. She adjusted the scope of the binoculars to fit her face and settled back into her seat to enjoy the ride. When he pointed a tanned finger, she took a few seconds to focus the binoculars, and gasped. Less than twenty minutes later, she'd seen herds of gazelles galloping across the plains, a family of giraffe foraging through the spa.r.s.e branches of an acacia tree, and a lone rhinoceros bathing in a pool of muck and glaring at them severely enough so Nicole was glad she was out of his reach.

"This is the Masai Reserve. It's protected against hunters and poachers. If we had time, I'd take you to the Mara River, but at least this morning you'll get to see the march of the wildebeests."

They were heading back north, and just to the left of the copter, Kira could make out a lengthy train of what looked like moose, and she said as much aloud.