Billionaire's Holiday Bride: A Bad Boy Christmas Romance Read online

  December was a cold month in D.C. but Chloe suddenly felt overly warm, and had to resist the urge to fan her face with a hand, feeling her normally dark brown skinned cheek flush a pretty scarlet. The look in his eyes deepened to something else. Hunger.

  Their gazes met for less than a second but the moment seemed to drag out, time slowing immeasurably as she felt trapped, unable to look away.

  “kogda zvezdy vyravnivayut…” he murmured, his deep voice soft, and slightly husky in the midmorning air.

  “What?” His whispered words pulled her out of her trance, and she took another step back, overwhelmed by her intense reaction to a complete stranger.

  “Oh, it’s just something I say sometimes, when I’m feeling lucky.”

  “Yeah, and what is that?”

  He took a deep breath, and then released it on a huff of cold air before slowly answering, staring into her eyes.

  “It means ‘when the stars align’…”

  Chapter 2

  Chloe took a rattled breath, looked down at her watch and shrieked. “Oh my god! I am so, so screwed!” She started running back toward the capital building, the man left standing, staring at her with dark blue eyes already forgotten as she rushed to now twenty minute late meeting with the senator.

  “Hey, wait!” the accented voice called after her, but she just kept running, trying to still her racing heart. She finally made it, flashing the security badge she had clenched in her hand, and hurried inside the building.

  Alexei stopped, panting, just as the dark angel disappeared into the security only area of the capitol building. Her image was seared in his mind, his body twisting painfully with arousal at the stark image of her staring up at him with big, almond shaped amber eyes, high, regal cheekbones, and that sinful mouth. That mouth was made for doing things that had his entire body tensing again.

  He shook his head, trying to banish the distracting image. Quickly, he walked up to the security desk.

  “Hello, I was wondering where that woman was going? About this tall,” he held his hand up to the middle of his well-muscled chest. “Long dark hair, beautiful eyes.”

  The security guard chuckled, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I can’t tell you that.”

  “On, no, it’s not what you think!” he protested, holding up the cream colored, coffee stained coat still clasped in his hand. “She dropped her coat, I just wanted to return it.”

  “Well, if you want to leave it here, I can return it to Ms. Smithson when she comes out.”

  “No, that’s alright,” Alexei said with a charming smile that never failed to get him what he wanted. “I think I’ll just wait and return it myself.”

  The guard just shook his head again ruefully before waving him back away from the secure area. Alexei took the coat and wandered over to a fountain that had long since been shut off during the winter months, and sat on the edge of its empty pool to wait.

  “Thank you so much, Senator Shields, that interview was…quite informative.” Chloe put away her notes and the tape recorder, her mind already whirring with ideas for the article. She stood, and took his offered hand in an overly firm handshake. “And again, I apologize for my tardiness.”

  “Please, Chloe,” He had insisted on calling her Chloe half way through the interview, talking to her as if she were a star struck teenage girl instead of the multi-award winning political journalist that she was. “Think nothing more of it. I look forward to reading your article.”

  Chloe just smiled as she grabbed the oversized wool jacket, and walked out of the room. Unfortunately, she didn’t think Senator Shields would be as pleased as he might hope after ready her scathing report of his poor foreign policies and the many bills he had try to put through to raise taxes on the lower class, as well as raise wages for himself. He was one of the highest paid senators, and yet, passed less than a quarter of the bills as many of his fellow senators. It just didn’t add up, and if Chloe was good at anything, it was hunting out the truth, no matter where it led her.

  And it had led her into some pretty messy situations in the past. But you couldn’t be a good investigative journalist without taking a few risks, at least that’s what her mentor had always told her. And Chloe had found it to be true over the past few years of working for herself.

  She walked out of the building, memories from her past rising and falling in her mind, and didn’t even notice when the large blond haired, blue eyed man stood up from his seat at the turned off fountain, and began following her.

  But after a moment, she felt a prickle between her shoulder blades, her gut instinct telling her that something was about to happen, something big. Chloe had learned to always listen to that instinct. It had broken some of the biggest stories in her career. The feeling intensified, sending shivers over her entire body, and she stopped, right there in the middle of the sidewalk. She cast her amber colored gaze around, and it collided with dark blue.

  She paused, irritation and desire warring as he threw her that lopsided half smile that had made her toes curl in her high heels earlier that morning. Chloe tilted her head to one side, examining him as he neared. Damn, the man was sexy, she would give him that.

  “Are you following me?” She demanded, a touch of humor coating her voice like honey.

  He chuckled as he stopped just a foot away from her, standing closer than he should have, and she hated that her breath grew weak.

  “No, I’m not following you.” He stated, his accent rolling towards her in the chill, winter D.C. air. He held up her coat, which she hadn’t even realized he had still been holding when she had bolted for her meeting. A light blush suffused her dark cheeks.

  “Oh.”

  “Oh? That’s it?” He chuckled again, and her body tightened in desire at the husky sound. This man was downright dangerous. “No, ‘you stole my coat’?”

  “Well, you did steal my coat,” she threw him a mysterious smile. “But I stole yours, so I figured we were even.” Hesitantly, she shrugged out of the coat, instantly missing its warmth, and the musky, masculine scent that emanated from it. She took back her own, trying to ignore the shock wave that flew through her system at the accidental brush of their fingers. She noticed the hungry gleam in his ocean blue eyes. Maybe not so accidental.

  “Meet me tonight.”

  Chloe shook her head automatically. “I don’t think so.”

  “Come on, go out with me.”

  “Thank you for returning my jacket.” She said as she took a few much needed steps backwards, away from his magnetic charisma. It would be so easy to say yes to him, she thought. Which is precisely why I’m saying no. The thought churned through her head, but she regretted it even as she turned to walk to where her car was parked several blocks away.

  She was sure she could feel his blue eyed gaze staring at her the entire walk.

  Chapter 3

  Chloe sat drinking in the golden hued lights and jazz infused ambience of the upscale downtown club. Lalo’s was her favorite club in D.C. and where she always went to unwind after a long, especially stressful or confusing day. A place where she could go and leave work at the door, bee whoever she wanted for the night.

  She swirled the dirty martini in her hand, watching the clear liquid move fluidly in the glass before taking a drink, purring at the decadent taste. Perfection. A sharp, masculine inhale had her quickly opening her eyes, and elicited a gasp of her own as she took in the now familiar, devastating features of the mystery Russian man who had haunted her thoughts all day. He was a big part of the reason she was at Lalo’s that night. And as if her thoughts had conjured him, there he was.

  Unbidden, her gaze swept down his magnificent body. Clad in an impeccably tailored all black suit, his eyes gleamed even sharper at her as he took his own turn looking her over. This morning she had been wearing a classy, stylish, yet work appropriate skirt and button down blouse. The consummate professional. Now she was anything but.

  A tight black dress hugged her ample curve
s in all the right places as she sat crossed legged on the red velvet settee, making the already impossibly high slit ride even higher. Her cleavage, more than a handful, was helped by the support of a sexy, black lace bra that pushed them up until they were barely covered by the low neckline.

  He drank her in, and she couldn’t stop the thrill that shot through her at the look of raw desire shining in his ocean like eyes. She let out a husky laugh, and Chloe couldn’t help but notice the way his body tensed in pleasure as the sound wrapped around him, combining with the sultry Jazz music already floating in the air.

  “Now I know you’re following me.” She tapped the seat next to her, and he swept forward, again sitting way closer than he should be. Too close. And again, as before, she completely lost her breath to this man. He really has to stop doing that, she thought to herself. But she couldn’t deny his effect on her. It was powerful, intense. More than anything she’d felt in as long as she could remember. Could she even remember a reaction like this to someone?

  It was primal, instinctive. And she had learned long ago to always listen to her instincts.

  Chloe leaned close, flashing a view of the top of her breast that she knew he didn’t miss as she placed her martini glass on the small side table next to him.

  “So, the question is,” she flicked a look up at him through a thick fringe of dark lashes. “Why are you following me?”

  He sat for a moment, just staring at her, blinking as is seeing her for the first time, and she was struck again by the honest emotion shining in his eyes. Here was a man who wasn’t afraid of his feelings. He cleared his throat before slowly replying.

  “Actually, I think the question is,” he paused, taking a sip of her drink, his lips laying over the exact spot where hers had just been. It made her whole body clench in need. “What is your name?”

  Chloe was so distracted by the desire rampaging through her at the simple gesture, she missed his question. “I’m sorry…what?”

  He grinned at her, that same devastatingly charming grin. He knew exactly what he was doing to her, and Chloe found, she didn’t care. Slowly, achingly slow, he reached for her dark fingered hand, encompassing it in his own pale, much larger one. That touch branded her, and she had to fight the urge to pull her hand away, or run it over his hard body.

  “I said, what is your name, krasivyy.”

  “Chloe, my name is Chloe Smithson.” She said on a trembling breath. “And you?”

  He leaned even closer, until his lips touched the edge of her ear causing an eruption of shivers across her body. “My name is Alexei Dobrovski, krasivyy.”

  “What do you keep saying? Is that Russian?’

  He nodded, staring at her deeply before answering. “It means ‘beautiful one’.”

  Chloe’s breath stalled again in her chest as she sat back, trying to see if he was just selling her a line, but again all she saw was honesty and sincerity shining back from the endless blue depths of his eyes.

  “So, what do you do, Chloe Smithson?” He reclined, throwing one powerful arm over the back of the settee, and his spell was momentarily broken, and she could breathe again.

  “I’m, um, I’m an investigative journalist. I cover the the politician’s here in D.C.”

  “Well, I bet there’s a lot to keep you busy here, anything interesting you’re working on?” Chloe settled easily into the familiar, and safe, topic of work. Much safer than him calling her his ‘beautiful one’.

  “Not much honestly. The same old thing as always, crooked senators, and politics as usual I’m afraid.”

  “Crooked senators?” he said, and he reached to take another drink from her glass. She braced herself this time, ready for her intense reaction to him.

  “Yeah, nothing major, just a normal day of work for senator Shields.” She mumbled as she watched, unable to look away as he took a deep pull of the liquor. He set the glass down, and her brain returned to normal. This man really was dangerous, she thought.

  “Should I order us another?” she said with a slight smirk in Alexei’s direction. He returned her smile with one of his own, a new, deeper light shining in his dark blue eyes.

  “How about we get out of here?”

  Chloe was already shaking her head no when he stopped her with the lightest of touches, hand to hand. It was as intense as it was unexpected.

  “Please, Chloe.”

  It was the please that got her, the honest desire shining in her eyes and her own body’s reaction to him had her nodding in affirmation to him before her brain had even had a chance to catch up with the rest of her. Before she knew what she was doing, she was standing, her hand still tucked firmly in his, and he was leading her outside into the cold, December’s night.

  Chapter 4

  They had reached the front door of his penthouse hotel room before doubts started swirling through her lust and liquor befogged mind.

  “Alexei, maybe…” Her words trailed off as he looked at her. Just looked at her.

  “If you have any reservations, Chloe, krasivyy, tell me now.” He dropped the softest kiss she had ever felt on her right cheek, before whispering against her cold flushed skin. “If you want to leave, that’s no problem. I’ll be sad. Very sad,” he chuckled roughly, and his breath tickled her cheek, “just say the word, and I will take you home. I might hold your hand the whole way.” He added the last part with a playful grin that eradicated any last niggling doubts. She sighed into him, running her hands up the front of his chest, twining them around his neck.

  “Alexei…” She whispered up at him, twirling the hair curling softly at the nape of his neck as he looked down at her.

  “Yes, krasivyy.”

  “Take me inside.”

  She barely had the words out of her mouth before he had the door flinging open, and was dragging her inside. Gone was the suave charmer from the club, or even the playful man from moments ago. Suddenly, Chloe felt like the man in front of her was the real Alexei, the one that always shone from the depths of his eyes. The one that always seemed to take her breath away.

  They barely made it through the large double doors before his lips were fiercely on hers. Chloe absorbed the luxurious, expensive penthouse suite adorned with priceless artifacts and original paintings, but it was all gone in a flash, drowned out by him. It was overwhelming.

  “Wha…Alexei…” Her words, and breath, stalled as he crowded her back up against the heavy wooden door they had just walked through. His lips suddenly on hers drove away any other thoughts in her head, until all she could do was feel. Feel the way his lips moved over hers, so much softer than she thought, and so, so much more deadly. Feel the press of his hard body against her soft, luscious curves. His hand, still holding hers, pressed her wrist against the door over her head, making her arch her back, pressing their bodies even tighter together. Heat crashed into her like a molten wave.

  His lips moved incessantly over her rosy, kiss-swollen lips, over her cheek, across her jaw and latching onto her neck sending another dark wave of heat rolling threw her body, taking the last of her reservations with it. She felt like she was melting, suddenly glad for the support of the door at her back as Chloe was sure she would have been just a puddle on the floor otherwise.

  Alexei inhaled deeply, taking in her scent where it was most potent, at that spot where the slope of her shoulder met the line of her delicate throat. He couldn’t contain the low growl that rumbled out of his chest at the delicious scent.

  “You are so beautiful.” His rough growl whispered over her sensitive skin, making goose bumps rise where his hot breath landed just below her ear. His accent wrapped around her, sinking deep into her skin, making her squirm helplessly against his much larger body.

  His shaking hands trailed fire as they swept down the outside of her still upraised arms, grazing the very edges of her breasts down the dip of her waist to settle, one on either hip. Her gripped tightly as he pulled her even closer, at the same time pressing all of himself flush against h
er. And it was that trembling that undid her completely.

  Chloe heard his ragged, labored breath as he rested his forehead against the door beside her head, his hair tickling her cheek.

  “Alexei..”

  “Shhh”

  “But Alexei…”

  “Hush,” The word was soft, but she could sense his urgency, “just…give me a minute, krasivyy.”

  But she didn’t want to give him a minute, not a single moment. She wanted him wild and out of control, thinking only of taking her, loving her, satisfying the ache that had grown to overtake every thought in her mind as she pressed impossibly close against him.

  “Please, Alexei.” She pushed her hips roughly against his. “I need you.”

  Her words were like a switch, and in the next instant, she was lifted in his powerful arms and being carried to another room in the maze that made up the expensive penthouse suite. The entire time he had been carrying her, his lips and hands hadn’t stopped moving, working her over until she felt like a trembling mass of jelly in his strong arms.

  He laid her gently in the center of the bed, standing back to look at her. But she didn’t want him to look. She needed him to act.

  As seductively as she could, she bit into the soft, full bottom lip, already kiss-flushed and swollen. Thankful for the skimpy dress she was wearing, she easily found the two straps that were the only thing keeping it on her body, watching him watch her as she slowly unclasped them and slid the material apart, striping for him in the moon lit dimness of the bedroom.

  It was more than he could stand, and he was on top of her the next instant, somehow shedding his shoes, pants, and shirt in the short trip from where he was standing to the bed.

  “Ty moy.” he said roughly, incredibly softly against her neck. Chills rolled down her back past her spine around her hips. His hands were everywhere, touching her, feeling her, making her body erupt with a type of dark pleasure she never knew existed.