“Casey?” he said.

  “Kurt?”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No. I just fanny-dialed you,” she said.

  “Fanny…”

  “You know. The old joke. You sit on your phone and it places a call.” God, this was embarrassing. The fact that he sounded as sexy on the phone as he did in person didn’t help matters. “I’m sorry I disturbed you.”

  “You didn’t,” he said. “You’re sure nothing’s wrong?”

  “Nothing except for my clumsy fingers. Did I wake you?”

  “No.” A slight hesitation. “I am in bed, though.”

  In a flash, the images crowded in on her brain. Kurt, with the day’s stubble of beard on his jaw, his hair disheveled from his pillow. The heat of his body beneath the covers. Her own bed grew hot the more she thought of him.

  “What are you doing?” he said quietly.

  “I’m in bed, too.” She didn’t mention Buster. The cat could find his own excitement. “I was just reading one of my books.”

  “A bodice-ripper?”

  “Yeah.” If he didn’t know what that implied, the cover she’d shown him would give him an idea.

  “I ought to try one of those someday.”

  “Most guys should.” She didn’t add that romances could teach men how to be better lovers. Somehow, he seemed like the type who’d figured out on his own how to please a woman.

  “Why don’t you tell me about the one you’re reading?” he said.

  Whoa, now there was an invitation if she’d ever heard one. “Are you sure? Usually, only women read these books.”

  “I want to know what you read,” he said. “Tell me what was happening right before you fanny-dialed me.”

  “The story is about a woman who stows away on a pirate ship. She and the captain are falling in love.”

  “Yes, but what are they doing?”

  “Kind of what we were posing for this morning.” Only that morning hadn’t been just a pose. He’d really kissed her, continuing after the cameraman left. He’d really revved her motor, and he’d really achieved a tantalizing erection. Nothing fake about any of that.

  “I want the details.” Even through the phone, his voice came sexy and low. Exactly how he’d sound with his head on the pillow next to hers.

  “It’s pretty explicit,” she said.

  “I don’t mind. Do you?” His voice was soft and kind of shy and definitely sexy as all hell.

  “I guess not.” She’d tried for nonchalant and emitted a croak.

  “Then, go on. Tell me all about it.”

  “They’re lying on a bed the pirate made on the deck of his ship. He’s ordered all the other pirates to stay below decks or walk the plank.”

  “He sounds a little bloodthirsty,” Kurt said.

  “It’s just a book. You want a hero who’s a take-charge kind of guy.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll remember that.”

  Taking mental notes, was he? Planning another encounter for the two of them? They had a date, more or less, for her to hear him sing in a club. Maybe he had another kind of singing in mind, as well—the kind one does during a really good orgasm.

  “Go on,” he prompted. “Tell me every detail.”

  “Well, she’s a virgin, so he has to be gentle with her.”

  “I got it,” he said. “Take charge but gentle.”

  “Yeah.” That pretty much described a romantic hero—the kind of man she’d love to have stash his boots under her bed. Could Kurt be that guy? “So he goes slow as he makes love to her.”

  “Mmm. I like the sound of that.”

  Casey melted inside, and not just in the whimsical sense but literally. The scene in the book had excited her enough to send her reaching for her vibrator. Talking to Kurt in this way had caused moisture to collect between her thighs. She’d really need Mr. Happy Buzz after this conversation. Unless, of course, they went all the way over the phone.

  Right about now would be a good time to find out where this was headed. She’d tell him something graphic and see how he reacted. If he backed off, she’d tell him good night and search for some relief in the drawer.

  “After the pirate has aroused the woman with his kisses, he unlaces her bodice and takes her breast in his hand.” Casey held her breath waiting for Kurt’s answer.

  “Does it frighten her?” he asked.

  “No, she likes it.”

  For a few seconds, he didn’t say anything, but then, he released a low sigh. “Would you like to touch your own breast and pretend I was doing it?”

  “I would.”

  “Then, do it. I’m giving you permission to do anything that feels good.”

  Bingo. Phone sex. They were going to talk each other to orgasm. Or they would, as soon as she got the huge fur ball off her bed. Who cared if Buster stuck around while she used her vibrator? Sex talk with a man who looked and sounded like Kurt was another matter. She couldn’t have the cat walking on her face at a critical moment.

  Still holding the phone to her ear, she tossed back the covers and grabbed Buster with one arm. He let out a rowr of protest, but she managed to hold onto him as she crossed the room. Then, she dumped him into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

  “What’s that?” Kurt asked. “It sounded like a cat.”

  “My neighbor’s. I took care of him.” She plopped down on the bed and pulled the covers back over her. “Where were we?”

  “You were going to touch your breast,” he said. “Then, you were going to tell me how you like it.”

  She didn’t remember the last part, but what the hell? She unbuttoned her pajama top and reached in to cup one breast.

  “I’m squeezing it, and I’m going to tug on the nipple.” She did, and the pressure sent a charge all the way through her to where more moisture was collecting between her legs. “Oh, that’s good.”

  “Is the nipple stiff?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Roll it with the pad of your finger and tell me how that feels.”

  She did and let out a soft cry.

  “Good?” he asked.

  “Oh, man.” She reached to her other breast and gave it the same treatment. A lover’s touch there had always given her pleasure, but she never would have guessed a voice on the other end of a phone call could heighten the experience. Kurt had magic. Could she work the same spell on him?

  “Are you hard?” she asked.

  “I’ve been hard since I first heard your voice.”

  She nearly groaned out of excitement and frustration. She could use a good, hard cock right now, and his had felt like a beauty pressed against her earlier.

  “Are you touching yourself?” she asked.

  “I don’t need to.”

  “I want you to,” she said. “I give you permission.”

  “Yessss,” he breathed.

  “Are you getting bigger?”

  “Can’t. I’m fully erect,” he said.

  What that image did to her. She could so picture the swollen head of his cock pressing for entrance into her pussy. She was wet enough to take him. She couldn’t have him tonight, but one way or another, she had to come.

  As the ache inside her became a throb, she snaked her arm under the waistband of her pajamas and pressed her hand into her pussy hairs. Sure enough, they coated her fingers with moisture.

  “What’s our pirate doing now?” Kurt asked.

  “He’s found the heroine’s clit, and he’s stroking it.”

  “Do that to yourself.”

  As soon as she touched herself, her arousal ratcheted up to inevitable. She rolled her clit much the same way she had her nipple, and it reacted, growing ultra-sensitive. Her mind slid into the hazy world where nothing existed besides her body and its needs.

  “What’s happening now?” Kurt said.

  “I’m going to climax. What about you?”

  “You first,” he said. “A considerate lover always waits for his partner.”

  She continued rubbing her clit, her fingers moving faster and harder on it. If she’d had any control at all, she would have held back to make the pleasure last, but she’d pushed herself too far to stop now.

  “Are you touching yourself now?” he asked.

  “Yes.” The sound came out like a cry.

  “Are you going to climax?”

  “Can’t…oh, God…talk.”

  “Good. Let me finish you. Picture me spreading your legs so I can take my place there. Imagine my cock sliding between the lips of your pussy.”

  Yes, yes. What she’d give to really have him now, pumping into her so she’d have his swollen cock inside her when the spasms started.

  “I want you so much I can’t wait,” he said. “I set a rough pace for us, but you need the coupling as much as I do.”

  Did she ever. The orgasm gathered inside her, like a storm ready to wash over her. She never stilled her fingers but continued teasing her clit, pressing and rolling.

  “Do it, Casey,” he said. “I want to hear you come.”

  The pressure built, surging through her, and finally burst free. She cried out when it hit her. For long seconds, the climax held her in its grip, and then her pussy broke into spasms. Good. So good.

  When it ended and she got her brain back, she curled up into a ball and rolled onto her side, still clutching her phone to her ear.

  “Did you finish?” she whispered.

  “Soon.” His voice was tight.

  “Okay. Picture me sucking on your dick. Imagine my lips around the head and then sliding down the shaft.”

  He muttered something in German. Garbled enough that she wouldn’t have understood it in English, either.

  “Imagine me stroking your balls while I swallow your cock,” she said.

  He didn’t answer with words any longer. Instead, he only made gasping sounds and grunts. The language of a man at the very end of his control.

  “I can tell you need to climax,” she said. “I can taste the droplet of pre-come.”

  He released a strangled sound that built to a shout. In his bed, he’d be holding his cock as it shot semen against the sheet. Someday, she’d have to watch that for herself. Then, she could hold him through the afterglow.

  Several seconds later, he sighed. The happy sound of a man who’s had a good orgasm.

  “Was it good, Casey?” he said.

  “Amazing. How about you?”

  “Amazing’s a good word.” He took a breath that was rather like a yawn. “I’ve never done anything like that.”

  “Neither have I.” Even if she had had phone sex with someone else, it wouldn’t have been like that.

  “I’m not normally so…” His voice trailed off. “So brave, I suppose.”

  She laughed. “You have to be brave to talk dirty on the phone?”

  “And sing in coffee shops and pose for pictures without even knowing how they’re to be used.”

  “Risks,” she said. “That’s just life.”

  “It hasn’t been my life,” he said. “Until now.”

  “You can’t be careful all the time.”

  “I suppose I can’t...now.” Another pause. “Say, Casey. I’d like to see you.”

  Of course, they both knew what “see” meant—hot and heavy monkey sex. “I was going to hear you sing at the club.”

  “Sooner,” he said. “I don’t know when I’ll get the job.”

  “I’m free tomorrow night as soon as Phil’s finished with me.”

  “Shall I meet you there, say at five?” he said.

  “Better make it six to be on the safe side.”

  “Six o’clock tomorrow.” This time he definitely did yawn. “Sleep well.”

  “You, too.” She shut her phone and set it on the table. For the first time since Kurt had started talking dirty to her, she noticed mewing from the other side of the bathroom door. Buster wanted out, and he wouldn’t let her sleep until he got exactly what he wanted.

  She got up and opened the door, and the cat went straight to the exact center of the bed again. She climbed between the covers and shoved him over.

  “I have a date, big guy,” she said as she scratched Buster behind one ear.

  Reality finally sank in. By this time tomorrow night she’d either have been utterly or completely fucked or would be in the process. Handsome Kurt with his gorgeous voice and even more gorgeous cock would be hers. Just try to doze off thinking about that!

  *

  At two in the morning, Kurt gave up trying to force himself to sleep. He’d have to pray for quiet at the UN today so he wouldn’t have to face Petrov and Ricci bleary-eyed. And he’d have to get by Grace somehow without having to explain why his nerves were ragged from lack of sleep.

  He had a date with a woman he’d just met, and both of them understood clearly how the evening would end. His body was fine with that plan. In fact, part of his lack of sleep came from erections whenever he contemplated the details. She’d sounded so hot when she came, her voice starting in a low croon and ending up on a high note of ecstasy. Tonight, he could hear that directly from her lips. He could watch her face contort with pleasure and a flush of excitement color her neck and chest. He could take pride in all of that, even as he moved inside her, and then he could rush to the pinnacle himself.

  Damn it. If he didn’t stop those fantasies, he’d become hard again. He’d have to get through the day hoping no one could see the front of his pants. What in hell had come over him, and how could he break the spell, at least until six o’clock?

  He knew one man who’d gone through a recent infatuation. His brother had fallen in love with an American woman and had just married her. Kurt didn’t know Casey well enough to love her, but she could certainly wreak havoc on his hormones. Dev must have gone through that with Felice. Maybe he’d have some idea how to get his libido under control.

  Kurt mentally calculated the time difference between New York and Danislova. It would be morning there, a bit early but not outrageously so. He picked up his cell phone and went into the kitchen. After flicking on the light, he dialed Dev’s number and waited for the call to go through.

  “Hey, Kurt. What’s up?” Dev answered, his voice hoarse from sleep.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “Felice and I were about to get up.”

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” As a newly-wed, Dev would know what Kurt meant by “anything.”

  “No,” Dev said. “At least, not yet.”

  “Hello, Kurt,” Felice called from the distance.

  “If this isn’t a good time, I can call back,” Kurt said.

  “Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t it two in the morning there?”

  “Two thirteen.”

  “This must be important,” Dev said.

  “It isn’t, really. Or maybe it is, but not too much.” The fact that a woman was making him do wild things—things a man in his station certainly didn’t do—could matter if the man in question were a member of the royal family and an ambassador.

  “You want to clarify that, dear brother?” Dev said.

  “It’s a woman.” There they were. The three words that had promised trouble for men since the beginning of the species—it’s a woman.

  “Is she there now?” Dev asked.

  “I should think not. I only met her yesterday morning.”

  “Then, what’s the problem?”

  “She might very well be here tonight.”

  At the other end, Dev let out a hoot. “Fast work, my brother.”

  “Don’t you think that’s…well...unwise?”

  “You’re not a hermit, Kurt,” Dev said. “You’ve had lovers.”

  He had, several. But he’d never had sex with any of them within two days of having met them, and his affairs had all been discreet with women who could keep them secret. Casey…Lieber Gott, he didn’t even know her last name…didn’t seem the discretion type. He was picking her up at work, for heaven’s sake.

  “So, what’s the problem with this one?” Dev said. “The timing doesn’t matter if she’s right for you.”

  “She has me doing things.”

  “Things? What things?” Dev said.

  Telling Dev all the craziness of the last twenty-four hours would embarrass the hell out of him, but if he’d called his brother for advice, he’d have to give Dev all the details. He took a deep breath and plunged right in.

  “I posed for a book cover.”

  Silence followed that announcement. After several seconds, Dev cleared his throat. “What kind of book?”

  “Not one on the history of Eastern European royalty, I’m afraid.”

  “Kurt…what kind of book?”

  “A mystery, I think. I was a gumshoe.”

  “Gumshoe?” Dev said to Felice.

  “Detective,” she answered.

  “She…Casey…works for a man who writes detective stories.” Kurt mentally girded himself for his next confession. “The cover will look like the books Felice reads.”

  “One of those?” Dev’s voice rose higher in pitch than Kurt had ever heard before.

  “Casey and I were in what’s called a clinch.”

  “Father will have a brain event if that gets out,” Dev said. “And Ulrich will make himself sick laughing.”

  “Friedrich and our brother must never find out.”

  “They’ll notice when the book comes out, don’t you think?”

  “They’re going to cut my image off at the chin so no one will recognize me,” Kurt said. “It will only show my naked chest.”

  Dev laughed then. Kurt had to sit and listen to his brother guffawing about his bare chest on display for the book-reading public. After a bit, Felice came on the line.

  “What did you say to my husband to make him laugh so hard?” she said.

  In the background, Dev started to sputter. “Kurt…naked chest...bodice-ripper.”

  “Your naked chest is going to be on a book cover?” Felice asked.

  “That’s my understanding.”

  Then, she was laughing, too. Wonderful. Hilarity in stereo and all at his expense. Eventually, Dev came back on the line.