Wild Fire

by P. M. Briede

  “What are you talking about?” I countered, pulling away from him. Did Olivier think I wanted to see Wesley? That that’s why I asked Paige to get me back in?

  “You still love him,” Olivier acknowledged.

  Hearing him voice feelings I’d packed away broke the locks on them. “Yes.” Before I could say anything more he clasped my hand and dragged me into the house.

  He collapsed onto his couch with closed eyes, as his head fell against the back. I was stunned, yet again, by the sudden change in his demeanor. He’d been happy at lunch, pensive on the drive home, raging in the garage, and now he was grief stricken. Finally, saying words I’d known to be true for a while now but hadn’t wanted my voice to give them permanence, I confessed. “I don’t want him anymore.”

  Olivier’s eyes shot open but he didn’t move. “What are you saying?” he pressed, his voice husky and eyes burning so severely that they were white.

  “What did you think at lunch?” I inquired.

  At his quizzical look, I repeated the question. “I thought … I thought … I thought that maybe you needed me.” He stammered at first but once he started the words sped off his tongue.

  “I do,” I answered but Olivier didn’t hear me.

  “I thought I’d finally become the man you’d give your heart to for the last time. I thought you’d finally exorcised his ghost from your soul. I thou…”

  He finally stopped when I erased the distance between us to lean over and kiss him. When my tongue penetrated his mouth, he reached for my hips and pulled me down until I straddled his lap. I kissed him the way he’d kissed me weeks before in the elevator, passionately. Demanding his full understanding, I pressed my chest into his. One of his hands slid up my back to cut off any escape I may have sought from his hungry lips. He needn’t have worried, I didn’t want one.

  My hands were cupped around his jaw and I dropped them to his shoulders and gripped his shirt in my fists. My heart was pounding as I undulated against him. His groans resounded deep within him and I was struck with a sudden need to touch him, to run my fingers along the hills and valleys of his chest. With a breathy voice, I checked to make sure his thoughts were in line with mine. “What else did you think at lunch?”

  After a bit of a tussle with me, Olivier was able to free his bottom lip from my teeth. Chuckling, his fiery white eyes shone at me. “I thought I’d finally get to show you all the depths of my love.” The words changed his visage as he stared at me, anxiously anticipating my answer. “And discover all of yours.”

  That’s what I’d hoped he wanted because it was what I wanted too. With his lips sealed in mine, I slid my hands down his chest and along his pant line to gather the bottom of his shirt. I pulled back just enough to give us room for me to lift his shirt over his head and was rewarded with an unhindered view of his torso. There’d been hints of how sculpted it would be that I’d caught through tanks and t-shirts but I’d never seen his bare chest before. Well except for the night of the attack but I hadn’t really been in a frame of mind to appreciate it.

  I’d planned on returning my lips to Olivier’s but the desire to explore my newest discovery overwhelmed me. I dipped my head to taste his newly exposed flesh as my fingers drifted across the lines of his abs. At my unexpected touch, he tensed then relaxed. He left me to my intense studies but his pelvis was growing more insistent as he ground my hips into him. “Carissime, when do I get a turn?” he huskily begged.

  Giggling, I extricated myself from Olivier’s grasp and stood. He was so tall that even sitting on the couch with me standing, I didn’t tower over him. His eyes were trapped in mine as his hands reached for my shirt and pulled it off. The shirt broke our gaze and when I returned my eyes to him I found his riveted on my breasts. Tentative arms encircled my back and I felt his fingers at the clasp of my bra. “May I?”

  “Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in the bedroom?” I asked, abruptly embarrassed that I’d been so caught up in my more carnal cravings that I hadn’t moved this upstairs.

  His hands froze at my back as he lifted his chin to look into my eyes. “I would love nothing more. But, Charlotte, do you think you’re ready to have me on top of you as I pin you down on the bed and claim you? You still haven’t been able to be between me and, well, anything, and that’s without the crush of my body against yours.” I hadn’t thought of that since I’d been too preoccupied with my lustful needs. Olivier’s fingers deftly unclasped my bra and followed the lines of the shoulder straps as he caressed my skin up and over my shoulder then slid it down my arms. “I suggest we get you used to my touch and how I feel inside you before we attempt anything more traditional.”

  With that, one of his hands cupped one of my breasts as he took the other in his mouth. I moaned as I arched against him, wrapping my arms around his neck and shoulders to steady myself. Not wanting any discourse between them Olivier suckled and kneaded them both in turn. When I could stand no more, I implored, “Charissimus, I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

  He didn’t immediately relieve me; instead his tongue flicked my erect nipples. “Olivier, please!” my begging merged with a moan. Taking my hands in his, he stood and rubbed them against his engorged need. In turn we freed the other from our pants and undergarments. I expected him to sit back down and pull me on top of him. However, he didn’t. With him guiding us, we shifted until the back of my calves met the front of the couch and he pushed me back until I was sitting.

  I looked at Olivier with concern. “Do you dare trust me?” slipped through his lips. He knelt and maneuvered himself between my legs, running his hands up my inner thighs. “You don’t think you can wait any longer? I have thought and dreamt of this moment with you for years, Charlotte. You’ll never fully be able to understand the depths of my need but I plan to give you some idea.” He drove two fingers swiftly and skillfully inside me as his mouth again found my breast. The dual sensations swept through me as a raging inferno obliterates a forest during a drought and I bucked against him.

  Not ceasing in his scheme to push my need for him close to his own, I had no idea how long he was going to make me wait for him to stake his claim. Emptying my mind of my remaining thoughts, I focused on how he felt. Since I’d let go of all other distractions the orgasm rocked my body. Before I could voice my pleasure, Olivier’s mouth was on mine effectively snuffing it out. Once my moans died to whimpers and my body’s quaking diminished to miniscule trembling, his mouth freed mine. His eyes were still the raging white fire. “Are you satisfied or do you crave more?” he breathlessly queried.

  His fingers were no longer inside me but they hadn’t stopped stoking the next firestorm. They fondled my nub and skimmed my surface. My throat burned from my stolen screams and I couldn’t put into words how much more of him I wanted. At my motion to sit up Olivier backed away from me, not wanting even a hint that he might be hindering my escape. I trapped his wrist with my hand so he couldn’t pull his back, and slid my hips forward to slip him back inside me. My free hand dropped between us and ensnared him to build his passion to meet my own. “So it’s more then?” he concluded raggedly.

  As I licked my lips, I nodded before a burn traveled through me causing my head to fall back. Being the stronger of us, Olivier broke the grip of both my hands and climbed up onto the couch next to me. He threw his arms across the back of the couch and spread his legs. Then with a sly grin his eyes caught mine as he issued his challenge. “Then I dare you to come and claim me.”

  Moving with more speed than I knew I possessed, I crawled on top of him. I didn’t care if I looked wanton. All I could focus on was filling myself with him. Perched above him, I slowly took him inside and moaned to release the ecstasy it brought. His eyes grew wide while he sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Take me, Charlotte. Make me yours,” he growled.

  I bit my lip, pressed my chest into his, and began a tenacious rhythm. His eyes closed as he groaned. “Charissimus, put your arms around me,” I instruction him. Olivi
er’s arms coiled around me and clutched me to him. His tongue invaded my mouth, setting my blood on fire. Finding a powerful tempo, he thrust himself deeper and deeper into me. The fire spread from between my legs throughout my entire body. I swear I could feel the ends of every hair I had. His skin grew warm to the touch, making it feel like I was being consumed by flames inside and out. I had to catch my breath so I tore my lips from his. He wasted no time before burying his face in my cleavage. My arms and hands clung to him for dear life as they wrapped around his head and my fingers tangled in his soft curls. Our synchronized moans matched the ever building pitch. The only thing cooling me down was the sweat sliding down my back, chest, arms, and legs.

  Just when I didn’t think I could handle anymore, he somehow shifted and perfectly hit my most sensitive of spots. I exploded into thousands of bliss filled pieces. But like before, when the ecstasy was about to pass through my lips, Olivier reclaimed my mouth with his. Almost as if my verbal response was some kind of nourishment to his libido.

  So caught up in my own pleasure, I missed any hint if he’d found his yet or not. By the way he was still moving inside me, I didn’t think he had. When the orgasm simmered I opened my eyes to look at him expectantly. “Nope, we’re not finished,” he confirmed with a devilish smile. “After that display, I think you can handle more, and I am definitely going to be the one to give it to you.” A mischievous countenance held him.

  Bracing myself for his thrusts again, it surprised me when Olivier untangled my arms from his neck. His hands slid to either side of my waist and pushed me away until I was standing. He scooted lower until he was reclining more into the back of the couch before turning me around. He guided my hips until my legs were folded on either side of him, his chest pressed into my back, and I was hovering over him. At my hesitation when he put pressure on my hips to descend and take him back inside of me, his lips were in my ear. “I thought you trusted me?” he challenged. One of his hands made its way to position his fingers between my wet folds. My sharp intake of breath was met by his powerful upward thrust. “Come down with me.”

  Doing as he commanded, I tensed as he started working me inside and out. His breathing was labored in my ear as he nibbled my lobe and neck. “Relax into me,” Olivier whispered, this time instructing me. “You’ll find more pleasure there.” When my back encountered his chest it was met by the rapid hammering of his heart. For every swift plunge he took into my depths, his heart beat at least four times. I arched my neck to rest my head in the curve of his neck between his shoulder and head. I wanted to moan but bit them back because for the first time I was hearing him voice his burgeoning bliss. He was groaning and grunting and panting in my ear. The knowledge that it was my body which was doing this for him was a heady drug. He’d been right; truly taking all of him in did bring me more pleasure.

  His free hand traveled up my stomach to find and fondle my breasts. With nothing else to do with my hands and arms I placed them on top of his, encouraging the attentions I liked best. Doing so was like I’d fueled the fire burning within both of us. “Charlotte, I’m close. Come with me.” Olivier’s strokes gained speed as did his breathing. Trapping my fingers in his, he lifted our arms from my breast until his hand could also catch my face. It cupped around my jaw line, turning my face to his to one last time silence my vocal responses to his prowess.

  His eruption was the final ignition source for us both. While before he’d kissed me to keep me silent, his lips couldn’t keep him from voicing his own ecstasy. “Charlotte, I love you!” he declared between groans and overlapped my moans and “I love you, Olivier!” It was the first time I’d said the words and though I felt foolish for saying them during sex, it didn’t make them any less true.

  When Olivier finally stopped pulsating inside me, he shifted us until we were spooning on the couch. I snuggled into him and enjoyed the pleasantries our intimacy had to offer: the strength of his arms as they held me, the warmth of his body, how his breath tickled the back of my neck. His body still quaked against mine and I knew if he offered more, I’d take it.

  After a few minutes the arm draped over my side moved so he could cup and fondle my breast. “Did you get enough, charissimus?” I purred.

  “Eternity wouldn’t be enough with you, carissime,” he admitted, drawling in my ear. It was a moment before he spoke again. “Did you mean it, Charlotte, or was it just the sex talking?”

  I knew what Olivier was asking, so I shifted until I was on my back. I wanted him to see my face, to look into my eyes, and know I was speaking from my heart. “You mean do I love you?” He nodded slowly. Cupping his cheek, I brushed my lips against his. “Let me say it again. I love you, Olivier. Now tell me what you think.”

  Saying nothing, he pulled me up on my side and crushed me to him. His fingers ran down my side, along the curve of my butt, and down my thigh until it found my knee. Bending it, he wrapped my leg around his and slid back inside me.

  Chapter 14

  Lying naked in Olivier’s arms the morning after our reentry into the campaign events, I thought through everything that had happened the night before. Olivier and I were officially a couple but seeing my ex had been more trying than I’d anticipated. I never got close enough to Wesley for us to speak and I hadn’t really tried but I found I regretted that choice this morning. For me to truly move on, I needed some form of closure and that meant facing him.

  Olivier, Paige, and I had watched Wesley and his guard dogs like hawks the night before. Paige had been right, Wesley was enamored with Abigail and the brunette had whispered in his ear all night. Every time my eyes rested on her from across the room I knew I could describe her in exact detail but when the line of sight was broken, my body would teem with an unseen fire and all the details I’d committed to memory disappeared. It was extremely frustrating.

  Other than Tristan most of the campaign staff and aides treated me like a leper. They avoided me in most cases yet I could hear their whispers behind my back. However, Alexander and Regina couldn’t have been more thrilled to see me again. “Sweet Charlotte, it has been too long!” Alexander exclaimed as he greeted me with a hug. They were equally generous with their effusions towards Olivier, never acting as if it was odd that all the partners had changed among our two couples.

  “Dear girl, how I’ve missed you,” Regina welcomed me. “Walk with me.” She interlinked our arms and we moseyed away from our men. Olivier made to follow me until she tsked him. “It was such a relief when we learned you were safe after your home was broken into. You’re a bit of a catastrophe magnet, aren’t you?” We walked and talked, well she talked and I listened, until Olivier retrieved me about an hour later.

  “How’d you fair?” he asked. I hadn’t learned anything. The few opportunities I’d gotten to ask Regina about Banks she became just as tongue-tied as everyone else. “Not great, but we were invited to Alexander’s birthday bash on Friday.”

  “Were we?” Olivier was leading us to rejoin Tristan and Paige. “Did we accept?”

  “Accept what?” Paige asked. She and Tristan had met us halfway. Paige took a sip of her wine while she waited for my answer.

  “An invitation to Alexander’s birthday on Friday.” I glanced at Olivier as I answer. “Yes, we did. Please tell me you guys are going too.” They nodded.

  My memories were disturbed when Olivier ran his hands along my body and rubbed his arousal into my back. “Come back to me, carissime.” His lips found my neck and I tilted my head away to give him more access.

  “I never left you. I’ve been right here the whole time.” I giggled as his breath tickled me.

  He pulled me on top of him and kissed me before chuckling. “You are still the most terrible little liar I’ve ever met,” he teased between kisses. “I said your name three times, Charlotte, and you never acknowledged me. Where were you?”

  “Not where you think, charissimus. Besides you have my full attention now. So what are you going to do with it?” I challenged him. His
lips recaptured mine as his fingers tangled in my hair and his pelvis arched into me. I shifted and took him, letting him make love to me as he’d done every morning and night since we first consummated our relationship. We’d tried a few times with him on top of me but each time I felt more sickened then excited. Luckily he didn’t seem to mind having me atop or beside him.

  I’d never spent an entire day in bed making love and being made love to before. It was astonishing to learn that, at least for one day, I could live off the sustenance provided by the love of a man. There was one point when I felt so connected to who and what Olivier is that I thought his fire, which burned deep in my abdomen, would consume me from the inside out.

  That night I woke up to face the dark in a cold sweat with a familiar pounding behind my eyes. It had been months since I’d had the fire dream and I wondered what brought it on this time. Amazed Olivier hadn’t felt me bolt upright, I reached out for him only to be disappointed when I found his side empty.

  The clock said it was my least favorite time in the morning, two forty-two. I made to lie back down and sleep off my headache, but I could hear Olivier’s muffled voice, and not inside my mind. Curious, I threw on a robe and stumbled down the hall, following the sound of his voice. My search ended on the stairs. He was standing in the den, naked, with his back to me. I crouched on the stairs, leaned into my knees, and eavesdropped on his conversation.

  “I told you, that’s not why we went. … She has no interest in him. … It’s none of your business how I know. … Yes, I’m aware that she’s my responsibility. … It’s under control.” Under control? His words from weeks before flittered through my mind, by being their lover; I’d gain their trust and get them to use their skills to accomplish what I needed. Is it possible I wasn’t unique but another notch on his bedpost? “That won’t be necessary. … No, we will be there. … No, I can’t keep her from going. … If I don’t go with her then she’ll just find another way. At least if I’m there too I can keep her from him. … You can threaten me all you like but you will not lay a hand on her!” He suddenly savagely threw the phone at the couch. With his hands covering his face he turned.