by North, Cara
He hung up the phone and looked at her. She was paying attention and probably heard most of the conversation since he didn’t move from where he was sitting. He wanted to. He communicated the thoughts to his limbs, but they betrayed him because he too liked being close to her despite his current mood.
“Everyone will be there?” she asked.
“Everyone isn’t a lot of people. Just my mom, my brothers and their respective partners, and my little sister.” Bo looked at her a moment. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He wanted to touch it, but held back. “We should probably figure a few things out before going don’t you think?”
She nodded and asked, “Like what?”
“Like what we are doing here. You got what you wanted from me. You got married and you had sex. If you want an annulment I just need to know. I don’t want to take you to meet my family under the false pretense that they are going to get to see a real wedding if there isn’t a chance that you are interested in finding out if there should be.” He laid all of his cards on the table.
“I want to. I am that girl, Bo. I know I haven’t been acting like myself lately, but I really do want to give this a shot. I mean, you’re the kind of guy that comes along once in a lifetime, you know?” She had those eyes on again. The big puppy ones that made his heart melt and his chest tight.
“You don’t know that,” he said softly. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“Sure I do.” She placed her hand on his thigh. The touch sent sparks of interest to his groin. “I know that you were patient enough to wait for an opportunity to ask me out, which means you are honorable enough not to step in between a relationship. Though I wasn’t always in a real relationship, but you couldn’t have known that.”
He made a humph sound.
“I know that you were willing to marry me on a whim because you knew it was the wrong thing for me to do and didn’t want anyone else to do it.” She bit her lower lip.
“How do you know that?” he asked and arched a brow at her.
“I saw you push the oranges.” She blushed. He felt heat creep over his own neck and cheeks at the revelation.
“I…can’t exactly deny that.” He wanted to.
“I also know that no one else would have done what you did after what I did to you. You forgave me, and then you were so careful and so…” He leaned over and kissed her. He didn’t want to hear anymore. When he pulled back she said, “You think I’m crazy don’t you?”
“I’m not in any real position to judge you since I am just as responsible for all this as you are. I could have said no.” He admitted it to her as much as to himself.
She looked at him a moment and her hand came up to his cheek. She said, “You look tired. The meds must be kicking in again.”
He nodded.
“Then show me your bedroom.”
If she only knew how many times he had imagined her saying something like that to him. He picked up the glass and finished the water. She took another sip and then followed him to the sink where she handed him the glass and he placed them both in the sink.
“I’ll grab my bag,” she said and started for the luggage.
“I got it.” He then headed through the massive home to the bedroom.
***
Ivy was certain that any bed was a good bed to be in with Bo. She needed to convince him to trust her now that he was not sure he could. “What time do you want to wake up?”
“I just need a nap.” He removed his clothing one item at a time giving her a strip tease he wasn’t intentionally aware of. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to lie down with you. If I can’t sleep, then I’ll look at my phone and read e-mails or something. I probably need to figure out how to use it anyways.” She shrugged. Mathis, her personal assistant had insisted she upgrade her phone or he threatened to quit. She didn’t blame him really. It took her five minutes to send one text message with that dinosaur she had.
“You don’t know how to use your phone?” She smiled as his eyebrows moved in different directions. That was a new expression for her to see. She liked it. It was somewhere between disbelief and curious.
“I’ve had it a day longer than I’ve been married. So no, not really.” She shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed to remove her shoes as he crawled into it wearing only his underwear. She had on a comfortable dress. She pulled it up and over her head and then watched him watch her as she let it fall to the floor next to the bed.
She was only in her underwear too.
“You don’t want to hang that up?” he asked.
“No.” She reached her hand out and stroked his chest. This was something they were already comfortable with. She could communicate through physical contact what she was unable to say in words. At least she hoped she could.
His eyes followed the trail of her hand, and he was surprised when it made a turn at his hip to smooth up his back. She smiled. Good. He needed to know she wanted more from him than just sex. “Turn over and I will massage your back. I’m sure you’re due after all the work you’ve been doing lately.”
He rolled as she pulled and asked with a bit of a chuckle, “What work? When you left Sleepers it folded within weeks.”
She had to think about how to word it so it didn’t sound as egotistical as it felt. “I image it has been years’ worth of work without someone to do this.”
He didn’t say anything. She pushed her fingers into the muscles on his back and asked, “Bo?”
He didn’t respond. She dug in a little harder and said, “Are you kidding me? Who have you been with?”
“Jeeze, Ivy. I didn’t say I was a saint. Yeah, I have wanted you for a while, but what good would waiting like a monk do me? Getting fired up about it now is useless. No one was special to me, if that’s what you’re asking.” He rolled and she lifted to let him face her. She wanted to punch him square in that perfect nose of his. He smiled up at her. “You’re really jealous aren’t you?”
“Yes!” She wasn’t going to hide her feelings from him. “Was it that girl? You know the one so don’t look at me like that. From Sleepers. The assistant.”
“That assistant?” he asked.
“Yes that one. The blonde one with the boobs out to here.” She moved her hands to show him. He tried to hold back a laugh.
“Nah, she was too young for me.” He said it so playfully that Ivy doubted he understood that watching them flirt was the straw that had broken her back. It was the catalyst that pushed her over the edge. The seething jealousy of his, not anyone else’s, but his attention being focused on another woman in such a way was what drove her off the set. It was freaking her out and she had to get away from it.
“Hey.” He reached up to touch her face and she leaned back. He slid his hand down and grabbed the front of her bra and pulled it and her forward and down to face him. “Hey. Look at me. I’m not going to build this on lies all right? I haven’t been with anyone in like six or seven months besides you. I used protection. I went out with someone else a few times, but it didn’t work out.”
“Obviously.”
“You’re so spoiled.” He let the front of her bra go, and it popped against her chest causing her to gasp in surprise at the sting.
She couldn’t deny it. Aside from the money she gave to her parents, her sister, and the people who worked for her, she had enough to get whatever she wanted whenever she wanted and usually did. Not to mention being a celebrity had its perks. Designers wanted their clothes seen in magazines. It was a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to send some items over for her to wear or carry than to pay for advertising.
“I don’t like to share. I had to share my whole life and I don’t have to now. I don’t want to.” She sat back up and looked down at him. “So yeah. I get jealous. Is that a crime?”
“No.” He smiled. “I’ve always been jealous of anyone with you. I could only convince myself to tolerate Jonas because I’ve known Jed for years. The others
, you have no idea how difficult it was to watch you smiling or flirting with those idiots. I understood the acting part. I didn’t like it, but I understood. It was when you weren’t pretending to like them that burned a bit.”
He stared a moment and asked, “Does that make you happy? You’re smiling now.”
“Kinda,” she admitted. She bit into her lower lip and reached for the hand she had avoided earlier. She picked it up and moved it to his original destination, her face. “Is that wrong?”
She didn’t let him answer before she turned her head slightly and took his thumb into her mouth. His expression softened. She could feel him growing hard beneath her ass since she was sitting practically on his dick. His eyes half closed as he whispered unconvincingly, “I really do need to sleep.”
“Then go to sleep.” She leaned over as he slipped his hands around her back and pulled her towards him.
“I am so tired,” he said as he rolled them over until he was on top of her. “But I won’t be able to sleep like this.”
“You were better off in your last position if you wanted to sleep.” She traced her fingers around the smooth flesh of his chest circling his nipples and then up to his shoulders.
“Bring your legs up,” he said and guided them until he could slip her panties off. He didn’t let her put them back down. Instead, he kept her awkwardly lifted with her calf muscles on his shoulders.
“What are you doing?” she asked, but knew he was working his underwear off.
“Giving you what you want.” He tested her with his finger and realized she was already turned on, already slick. “Since when?”
“Since you took your shoes off.” She sucked in a breath as he pushed his fingers inside.
“That does it for you?” He laughed.
“You do.”
“Good to know.” He positioned the head of his cock at her opening and slid in. She was aware of the depth, the pressure the angle created. “Too much?”
“Never.” The word slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
“Damn good to know.”
***
Bo reached out to turn off the alarm clock next to his bed. He felt around and realized she was not there with him. She had put him to sleep all right. Muddled his brain, mixed his emotions, and then sex. He realized the one wave they were both riding was the one they surfed naked. Maybe it would be enough to build from. Maybe not, but he could feel his hope rise as she entered the bedroom with a plate in hand.
“Is that a peanut butter sandwich?” he teased.
“Don’t hurt my feelings.” She handed him the plate as he sat up. She sat the glass of water next to the bed on the night stand as she took a seat next to him. He mouthed the words thank you. “Can we go by my place to grab some things before we go to dinner? I don’t want to wear anything I have here. I want to make a good impression.”
He bit into the sandwich and nodded.
“I had Mathis go over with a cleaning team to ensure there was not any peanuts or products made with peanuts there. Is it all nuts or just those? I told him to get rid of everything just in case and to make sure they bleach it.” She watched him take another bite of the sandwich. “I hope it’s good. I’m not much for the whole food, good food, whatever you call it plan.”
“I call it the stay alive plan.” He winked at her. She didn’t appreciate the humor. “What do you eat? You ate what I ate at the hotel. You didn’t seem to…oh, I get it.”
“I was afraid to order anything different.”
“You can’t let this become such a burden. You can still have peanuts and peanut products; you just have to be careful about it. I interact with people who eat them all the time, but I don’t kiss them, I don’t hug them, I don’t share drinks or food with them. I don’t want you to deprive yourself on my account.” He looked at the sandwich and asked, “What did you eat?”
“Some fruit and cheese.” She didn’t like thinking about the risks he faced out there. She could manage to eat what he ate. He had the kind of diet her trainer at the gym kept telling her to get on. The only problem she had so far was that there didn’t seem to be any meat anywhere.
“Are you still hungry?” He looked genuinely concerned about it. She shook her head no. “You sure?”
“I’m positive. Besides, we will eat at this thing tonight, right?” she asked as she stood up. “I’m really excited about it. Anxious. I want them to like me. I know my family will love you. I just hope…”
“When will I meet your family?” he asked suddenly.
“Whenever you want to. It’s just my parents, my sister, her husband, and my nieces and nephews.” Ivy watched him get out of bed and noticed he was hard again. Her gaze fixated on his erection and her mouth dropped open a bit.
“That’s not for you.” He laughed as he covered it with his hand.
“It better only be for me.”
“Let me clarify, that’s not for you right now.” He headed to the bathroom.
She heard the shower turn on. She fished the phone out of the pocket on the dress and attempted again to figure out how to access her e-mail. Mathis, bless him, had e-mailed her the directions. As if that helped!
She was ready to throw it across the room by the time he emerged fully dressed. She had seen the closet when she took her own shower once he fell asleep. It was massive, the size of her bedroom and nowhere near full. The entire house seemed like it was more than he wanted, though it was more than anyone ever needed. He could have easily filled it up, but he chose not to. It was like he was waiting for a good reason to downsize.
“Let me see it,” he said and held out his hand. She handed him the phone and he asked, “What do you want to do with it?”
“Set up my e-mail.”
“Okay, let me see. Well here’s the problem, sweetheart. You already have your e-mail set up. Let me show you.” She watched the steps but couldn’t get past the thump in her chest when he called her sweetheart. “Okay?”
She nodded.
“Anything else?”
“I’d like to access my music. I have five songs on this thing and I’m not really sure how they got there.” She hated feeling technologically incompetent, but she had avoided the constant contact until she could avoid it no more.
He showed her in a few easy steps.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” He winked.
“Thank you.” She could feel her cheeks warm.
“Anything else?” This close she could smell his soap, the aftershave, and she relished the scents.
“I uh…don’t have your number.” It was such an odd thing to say to a man when married to him.
He took her phone and then leaned in and kissed her cheek. He snapped the picture of them. Then he put in his information and attached that picture to it. She held out her hand and said, “Now yours.”
He handed her his phone. When she turned to kiss him on the cheek, he turned to kiss her lips. The picture said more than either of them verbalized. She looked at it. “My eyes are closed.”
“So are mine.”
“You look really happy in this picture.”
“So do you.”
She looked at him and admitted, “I am happy.”
“So am I.” He leaned in and kissed her again. He wrapped her in his arms and groaned. “We need to go now or I won’t want to leave.”
She laughed. She really loved the way he made her feel.
She almost tripped over her own feet as her brain processed the word love.
Chapter 4
Bo walked into the house and was in love with it instantly. He couldn’t help remark, “This place is perfect, sweetheart. How did you find it?”
“Mathis, my assistant. He is amazing. He’s been working in Hollywood since he was seventeen. He could have a lot of different jobs if he wanted them, but he likes the flexibility of assisting. Apparently there are also perks. Though he hasn’t told me what all of those are.” Ivy turned and said, �
��Do you want the tour?”
“Yeah.” He really did. He was already trying to figure out how to convince her to go back to plan A and stay in her home instead of his. “Do you love it here?”
She stalled, “I can love any house as long as I’m welcome in it.”
“Yeah, but you would rather be in your house, right?” He followed her through the halls and looked into rooms as they went. It wasn’t a mansion. It was just a large house. It wasn’t creepy and museum like. It was warm and welcoming. “Did you decorate it all yourself?”
“Most of it. Mathis helped with that too,” she said as she led him to the back yard and the pool.
“I’m starting to get a bit jealous of this Mathis person.” He looked at the pool and thought how much more he liked the long square design over his intricate system.
A man’s voice sounded from behind them and said, “You should be. I’m fabulous.”
Bo turned to see a slight man, short, perky, and obviously gay. Either that or he was color blind, because the combination of his outfit was something else. He strolled over and extended a hand. Bo accepted it and said, “Hello.”
“Lord, Ivy. You said you were going hunting, but I didn’t expect you to bring home this buck.” Mathis made no attempt to hide his approval or his perusal. He had a feeling it was a test and Bo laughed. “And you’re not afraid of me? Well. I like.”
“Afraid of you?” Bo quirked a brow.
“Well, not every burly straight man can handle a little ogling or teasing from a diva like me.” Mathis looked from Bo to Ivy. “Now darling, I have put three outfits on the bed for you. I like the second one the best, but that only means you will chose something else. When do you want me to return from this vacation you are insisting I take?”
Ivy was obviously not ready to talk about it in front of Mathis, but thankfully he wouldn’t let her get out of it. A few cryptic comments back and forth and Ivy broke down and said what she needed to say, “I don’t know where I live right now. How can I tell you to come to work? Just give me a week or two to figure it out okay?”
