“Quit being such a drama queen,” he said, squeezing her shoulders. “Unless you’re willing to admit you’re more like your mother than you realize. You lost your house, and yeah, that’s a bitch. But look what you’ve gained. A daddy for Cammie. Relatives who love you. And a new home if you’re willing to think outside the box.”
“Except for my time in school, I’ve never lived anywhere but California.”
“Me, either. But it turns out, I love New York City. And I think you love Wolff Mountain. You’ve damn sure talked about it nonstop for the last two and a half weeks.”
“What about my parents?”
“Your folks are a hell of a long way from needing a nursing home. They have their own life with all its crazy excitement. And we have these things called jets now that fly cross-country. Don’t you think it’s time for you to have everything you want?”
“I’m scared, Jeremy. He hurt me so badly the last time.”
“You were a kid. Now you’re a grown woman. And besides, he knows I’ll kick his ass if he’s mean to you.”
They both laughed, arm in arm, feeling the warmth of a southern California sun. It was a long way to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Turning her back on what was but would never be again, Olivia walked back across the street, Jeremy at her side. As they paused, looking at each other over the top of the car, she grinned at him. “We’ve got to find you a nice woman, Jeremy Vargas.”
He chuckled, sliding into the car and turning the ignition. “I like being single,” he said. “Let’s concentrate on you for now.”
Seventeen
Olivia’s return to Wolff Mountain was anticlimactic. The big house was virtually empty save for the staff who went about their work so unobtrusively that it seemed as if phantoms ran the place. The head housekeeper welcomed Olivia politely and was able to explain the whereabouts of almost everyone.
Annalise and Victor had taken Cammie to Charlottesville to buy her new clothes for school. Jacob was working in his lab. Gareth and Gracie were repainting a room at their house.
Only Kieran’s activities were a mystery. Supposedly he was still on the mountain, but no one had seen him since breakfast.
Olivia freshened up in her suite and changed into casual clothes, glad to be alone for the moment. Her composure was in shreds. She had returned to Wolff Mountain for a brief visit because she missed her daughter terribly, and because she and Kieran needed to talk about custody arrangements. Cammie had been told her mother would stay a week. Olivia was not sure she could hold out that long. Returning to the mountain gave new life to her regrets.
She had pondered Jeremy’s advice about fighting for what she wanted. And if she had believed it was possible to win, she would have. But she was a realist. The situation was beyond compromise. She and Kieran were too different. End of story.
All she needed now was closure. It would help if Kieran would go ahead and fly away. Then maybe her heart could finally accept that the two of them were never meant to be.
Olivia grimaced at the state of Cammie’s room. Apparently without her mother around, she had forgotten every one of Olivia’s lectures about keeping her toys and things tidy.
The housekeeper hovered in the doorway, bringing an armload of fresh towels. “Sorry about the mess, ma’am. But Mr. Kieran said that if I cleaned up after the little one, she’d never learn responsibility.”
Surprised and impressed, Olivia nodded. “He’s right. I’ll have a chat with her at bedtime tonight.”
“She’s still a baby.”
“Yes. But not too young to learn how to be neater.”
The older woman smiled and excused herself, leaving Olivia to wander the halls, familiarizing herself once again with the sights and sounds and smells of the “castle.” Kieran and his brothers called it that when they wanted to tease their father, but the description wasn’t far off.
At last, she gave up on finding anyone to talk to and decided to take a walk. When Cammie came back, there would be little time for quiet reflection. It was a perfect summer afternoon, the moist air heavy with expectation. A day for dreaming…a day when time seemed to stand still.
Passing the turn to Gareth’s house, Olivia wandered on, across the back of the property and deeper into the woods where the forest was cool and shady and the wind whispered secrets.
She needed to talk to Kieran about their future as a blended family. And it should be done in private. Which likely meant she’d have to wait until after dinner. Contact between the two of them had been virtually nonexistent since she left. Cammie got on the phone most evenings and Annalise always chatted when Olivia called. But Kieran was mysteriously unavailable whenever Olivia asked about him.
She had no clue as to his state of mind. And no idea what he expected of her.
Thinking about the intimacies they had shared made her face flame, even though she was alone. For three weeks she’d had trouble sleeping, tormented by memories of Kieran’s lovemaking. In his arms, she’d felt complete…content.
As if she had conjured him out of thin air, he appeared suddenly, pushing aside a low-hanging branch of maple, ducking beneath it and stopping a few feet away. Hungrily she looked her fill. His shoulders were still as broad, his dark eyes as wary and unreadable as ever. Ripped, faded jeans covered the lower half of his body, but his torso was bare.
A faint sheen of sweat covered his chest.
He leaned against a tree, his indolent pose at odds with the intensity of his gaze. “You’re back.”
“Yes.” She nodded, as if he might not have understood the word.
“Is Vargas with you?”
“Jeremy? No.” Frowning, she wondered why he asked. “How are things with Cammie?”
His expression softened, making him look younger, happier. “She’s great. We’ve been fishing, hiking… I taught her how to play checkers.”
“Sounds fun.”
“You’ve done a great job with her, Olivia. You should be proud.”
His praise made her uncomfortable. “Thank you.”
Straightening, he rubbed the back of his arm across his forehead. “I could use a drink. You ready to go back to the house?”
He held out a hand, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch him, afraid that she might resort to begging. It was not a pose she wanted to assume.
Kieran’s face darkened when she pretended not to notice his gesture. In silence, they made their way back.
He made a beeline for the kitchen, where a pitcher of fresh-squeezed lemonade sat ready on the granite countertop, the sides of the glass container glistening with moisture.
As she watched, he poured two glasses, handing one to her. Their fingers brushed. A spark of electricity arced between them. Over the rim of his tumbler, his gaze tracked every move she made as she drank.
“I want to show you something,” he said abruptly, draining his glass and putting hers in the sink, as well.
Puzzled, she followed him up the stairs all the way to the attic. One corner of the massive room had been partitioned off and a door added. Kieran ushered her inside.
She stopped, her progress halted by awe and amazement. A second enormous skylight had been cut into the roof, permitting rays of pure, brilliant sunlight to shine down on what appeared to be every art supply known to man. Brushes, canvases and easels. A top-of-the-line desk. Towels and turpentine. Palettes and paint.
Turning in a slow circle to take it all in, she said, “What is all this?”
He paced, not looking at her as he spoke. “A studio for you to use…when you’re here.”
Torn between confusion and despair, she touched him on the shoulder, halting his restless motion. “I don’t understand.”
They were so close she could see the muscles in his throat work as he swallowed. “I was hoping this could be your new home. Permanently.”
Desperately she searched his face for clarification. “That’s very kind of you, but I wouldn’t want to impose on your family.�
�� And she needed distance to survive.
He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Then marry me,” he muttered. “And you’ll be family.”
Wincing, she pulled away, backing clumsily into a ladder-back chair that held an artist smock. “We’ve been through this,” she said. “You’re Cammie’s father now. I’ve brought papers that give you shared custody. Fifty-fifty. Even if all three of us occasionally share the same roof, it isn’t necessary for you and me to be married.”
“It’s necessary to me,” he said quietly.
“I’ll bring Cammie often. Every time you come home. You needn’t worry that I’ll try to keep her from you.”
“Olivia,” he said abruptly, running both hands through his hair. “For God’s sake. You’re not listening. I love you.”
She bit her lip. “You want me,” she corrected, not willing to be duped by her own wistful heart.
“Of course I want you. More than my next breath. These last few weeks have been hell. All I can think about is stripping you bare and sinking into you until we both die from pleasure. So yes, I do want you. But what I said was that I love you. Till death do us part. For eternity. Am I making myself clear?”
“You’re shouting,” she said, her teeth chattering with nerves. She wanted so badly for this scene they were playing out to be real, but caution held her back.
Cords stood out on his neck as he squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You weren’t this much trouble at twenty-two.”
“And you weren’t Kieran Wolff. So I guess we’re even.” She picked up a small paintbrush and tested the sable bristles on the palm of her hand. “I’m not sure it would work.”
“What?” he asked, confusion replacing annoyance.
“A long-distance relationship. Seeing each other only once or twice a year. Annalise told me your pattern. Father’s Day, and sometimes Christmas. That’s not much for Cammie and me to hang our hats on.”
The string of curses he muttered beneath his breath was extraordinary for its variety and complexity. She was pretty sure the imprecations covered five or six languages.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and smashed his mouth to hers in a kiss that was not at all elegant, but that made her knees wobble. She tasted his desperation, her own dawning hope. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she moaned when his fingers plucked roughly at her tight nipples through the thin fabric of her blouse.
She wanted him so badly, she felt faint from need, weak with hunger.
Kieran came up for air at last, his chest heaving. She was pretty sure her fingernails had left scratch marks on his back. He stared down at her, telling her with his eyes the wild and wonderful truth. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
“Today?” She tried to move back into her safety zone, but he had his hands at her hips, immobilizing her for the moment.
“Ever,” he said flatly. “Do you believe me?”
“But what about your job?”
“I’ll get someone to sub for me in September. Everything else can be passed off to other architects and engineers.”
“What will you do?” This sudden about-face was mind-boggling.
He slid his hands up her waist until they landed beneath her breasts. Weighing each one with a gentle lift, he bent to kiss her again, this time with agonizing gentleness. “First of all,” he said, his words slurred as he moved his mouth over the skin of her throat. “I’ll build our house…and a swing set…and a corral for the pony…and—”
She put her hands over his lips. “You’re serious?” It didn’t seem possible. “You think you can give it up cold turkey? No more jetting round the globe? No more frequent flier miles? No more mosquito nets and hard hats?”
He bit her finger, enough to sting. “I have no reason to leave,” he said simply. “Everything I want and need is here if you’ll stay with me.”
Tears stung her eyes. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” she begged. “I couldn’t bear it if you changed your mind.”
“God, Olivia. I know I kicked the shit out of your ability to trust me, but you have to believe me. If you give me another chance…if you’ll make a family with me, you’ll never regret it. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you scream my name, night after night. It will be so loud, the neighbors will complain.”
She laughed and hiccupped a sob at the same time. “There are no neighbors,” she pointed out, caught by the image of Kieran making her cry out as she climaxed.
He scooped her up in his arms and crossed the room. “Did you notice I had the interior design team include a settee? All great artists have settees.”
“Is that so people can pose for me?” She lifted her arms obediently as he undressed her with more urgency than care.
“It’s so I can screw you,” he panted, now working on his own clothing. His gaze was fixated on her chest. “Lie down.”
She didn’t have to be told twice. It was either that or melt into a puddle on the floor.
He came down between her legs, shifting her left foot to prop it on the back of their makeshift nest. His thumbs traced the folds of her sex, gathering moisture and spreading it on the head of his erection. The shaft was long and hard and throbbing with eagerness.
Kieran groaned, closing his eyes. “I love you, Olivia.” Positioning himself at the mother lode, he plunged deep, wringing a cry from her and filling her so completely, she forgot to breathe. He stilled for a moment, allowing both of them to absorb the shattering pleasure.
Inside her, he flexed. She gripped handfuls of his hair as he bent to taste her breasts, one after the other, licking and suckling them until she sensed her first orgasm in the wings.
His hands moved, sliding under her bottom to lift her into his thrusts. She clung to him, dizzy and panting. “Kieran…” She didn’t know what she wanted to say, what she needed him to hear.
“I’m here, honey. Always.”
The vow… and the swivel of his hips that ground the base of his erection against her sweet spot sent her over the edge. The climax lasted forever, raking her body with shivers of sensation that rode the edge of pain and ecstasy.
Before she had fully recovered, he went rigid, his back arched in a rictus of release that lasted for long, shuddering seconds.
Minutes later, maybe hours, she recovered the ability to speak. “I love this settee,” she muttered, licking a drop of sweat from her upper lip. The sun warmed them like a benediction. Kieran’s weight was a delicious burden, his shaft still pulsing with aftershocks.
“Hell,” he said, his body shaking with laughter. “I didn’t wear a condom. I swear, woman. Around you I take leave of my senses.”
She stroked his hair, staring up at a sky so blue it seemed to go on forever. Peace, utter and infinite, filled her heart, her mind, her soul. “I’d like to be pregnant again,” she whispered, daring to dream of home and hearth with the man she loved.
Wolff Mountain was a wonderful place to grow up. And now that she’d experienced the fear generated by violence and danger, she decided that being tucked away from the world wasn’t altogether a bad thing.
Kieran sat up, rubbing his eyes. “I haven’t slept at all since you left. This wedding has to be soon. I want you in my bed. Every night.”
“I want that, too.” She bent down to rescue her bra and blouse. “Annalise strikes me as someone who would love to plan just such an occasion.”
“We can set up a large tent…to keep the paparazzi at bay. Unless, of course, your parents don’t mind being photographed.”
She laughed. “You never know with them. My mother does love keeping count of how many times her face appears on the tabloids. She thinks they’re sleazy gossip rags, but she hates being left out.”
They managed to dress, but it was a slow process. Kieran kept interrupting her to nibble her rib cage, caress her bottom, bite her earlobe. Finally, completely clothed except for her shoes, she looked at him. “Do you think anyone is home yet?”
&
nbsp; He zipped his fly. “Who knows? Why do you ask?”
She cupped him boldly, her fingers squeezing softly as she found his sex tucked in the front of his jeans. “I’m still not sure I’m not dreaming. Maybe you could take another shot at convincing me.”
By the time they ultimately made their way back downstairs, they were eager to share their news. Kieran used his cell phone to convene an audience for afternoon tea, and soon, in the large, formal living room, the entire clan was gathered, including Annalise’s brothers and father.
Cammie spotted her mother and ran across the room, throwing herself into Olivia’s arms. “You’re back. You’re back.”
Olivia hugged her, feeling uneasy at being the cynosure of all eyes. “I surely am. Have you been a good girl while I was gone?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Victor stood up, his weathered face beaming. “I think some introductions are in order…and perhaps a formal announcement?” He looked inquiringly at his youngest son.
Kieran moved closer, putting his arms around Cammie and Olivia. “Six years ago, Olivia and I met each other at Oxford. But as you all know, we Wolffs attended college under false names. When I left suddenly to come home in the aftermath of Dad’s heart attack, Olivia and I lost touch. But she had my baby.”
Olivia wondered if she was the only one who noticed the crack in his voice.
He continued, scanning the room, his gaze landing one by one on the faces of the people who had shared tragedy with him in the past. “My traveling days are over,” he said quietly. “Olivia has agreed to marry me. My next design project will be our new house here on Wolff Mountain.”
The whoops and hollers that erupted rattled the rafters. Cammie and Olivia and Kieran were engulfed in a barrage of hugs and kisses and congratulations. Olivia enjoyed every moment of it. The Wolffs were not a normal family, but they were her family…from now on.
She managed to get their attention, and the room quieted. “Thank you all for welcoming me and for being so sweet to Cammie. This will be pretty close to a shotgun wedding as far as the time frame goes, but if Annalise is willing, I’m going to let her handle all the details.”
A Touch of Persuasion Page 16
