But it wasn’t true. One look into those hazel eyes, and she’d known Ian in a way she’d never known another person in her entire life. If she believed in something like reincarnation, she’d say that she had loved him in a past life, because the connection, the knowing, the—dare she say it—loving was so intense, and illogical, but there it was.
This was the craziest thing she had ever considered doing in her entire life, but there was no consideration. She needed this man. He was hers as much as she was his. It had been written before either of them was born, and they both recognized it. To not obey would be the sin.
She noticed the neat and orderly living room as he steered her down the hall to the room at the end—to his bedroom. There were windows on three of the four sides of the room, all with thick green growing things crawling over the outside of the old-fashioned panes, which cast a beautiful green and yellow hue throughout the space.
Here she saw evidence of a tumultuous night’s sleep, the covers and sheets falling off onto the floor. She looked behind her and saw Ian, still, just staring at her. She knew that an unmade bed was an anomaly, just as she knew so many other things about this man, that she should have no way of knowing.
“Do you need the words, Ian? I’m here in your bedroom,” she whispered.
He walked up to her, “Yes, you are here. I think that is answer enough.” He crossed behind her and with a quick jerk, pulled all the bedding to the floor. He then turned and lifted her up and gently deposited her onto the middle of the bed.
“You’re beautiful, Livvy, in every way imaginable.” He saw a quick flutter of her eyes, and correctly interpreted it. “What? What makes you think you’re less than beautiful, sweetheart?” he questioned gently.
“Scars. I have scars now.” Then in the golden green glow of the room, Ian took his slow sweet time divesting Olivia of each article of her clothing until she was lying naked in front of him. He traced the surgical scars, the one on her shoulder, and the one near her heart where her lung had been punctured and her ribs had been pinned together. Then the two scars at her belly. She wept as he traced them.
“Children?” he asked, inexplicably knowing her.
“It’ll be more difficult, but yes, I can.” Her smile dazzled.
“Good.” He bent down and stroked those two scars with his tongue. “Olivia, the scars only make you more beautiful. You surviving to be here with me, that’s true beauty. I would have never lived without you.” She knew he was speaking the truth.
“Ian, I don’t understand, how can this possibly be real?” Olivia struggled up onto her elbows, looking at this man in front of her.
“Livvy, I don’t understand it. What’s more, I don’t live in the world of fantasy. Up until three hours ago, I lived in the world of facts. I like numbers, hard evidence, and scientific proof, those are the things that make me happy.” For just a moment, Olivia caught a glimpse of Ian’s bewilderment and it reassured her. He was just as baffled as she was. But as quickly as it came, that look was gone. “Three hours ago I learned a new fact. I love you, I want you to belong to me, I think you have before, and I want you to now, but I can’t be sure that you will. That’s why I’m going to take what I can right now. I know that for right now, we’re meant to be together. I know that as surely as I know my name is Ian Ransom. Olivia Prescott is mine.” Olivia dropped back onto the bed.
“Oh…Okay,” she agreed weakly. Then she quickly raised herself back up again and looked him dead in the eye. “Ian Ransom is mine for now. Right now, in this moment, you belong to me.” Her voice was firm.
“Oh, yes.” His eyes darkened as they roamed down and then up again to meet her eyes. “Yes, Livvy, we belong to each other.”
“Joshua,” she said, biting her lip, tears swimming in her eyes.
“I know. I love him, too. I don’t know how, but we’re going to make all of this right.” He looked down at her steadily. “Trust me.” She swallowed and nodded. “But for the rest of today and tonight, it’s just you and I, nobody else.” He waited for her nod.
Ian eased off the bed, and Olivia watched in greedy fascination as he stripped off his clothes. His body was made for a woman to admire and appreciate. His muscular chest was covered in hair the way she liked, and it tapered down to a six-pack abdomen. Olivia felt her mouth water. Then as he unbuttoned his jeans, pulled those away with his boxer briefs, and presented her with his thick cock, she was sure that drool was going to come out of her mouth. Here she had been expecting more of those surreal, almost otherworldly moments of connections, but now she had fallen head first into lust.
Ian looked at her from under his lashes, and a quick grin flashed over his face as he easily read the direction of her thoughts. Olivia prayed it was because his were travelling along the same lines, and then he marched over to the drawer of his nightstand and pulled out an entire box of condoms and put it on top. He ripped open a pouch and covered himself and then slid onto the bed. He looked down at her. She was lying with her arms to her sides, looking up at him. He stopped and studied her, considering, and she grew restive at his perusal. She lifted one arm up toward him, but he smoothly grasped it and put it back down at her side and continued his survey.
Finally, he moved her arms, so that they were over her head. “Grasp your right wrist with your left hand.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It pleases me.” And that was all the answer she required. Her hand felt cold where it touched her wrist. It must have been from all the waiting. She had turned apprehensive. After she had done what he asked of her, Ian Ransom smiled, and all coldness fled, and instead her body was suffused with warmth. “You must keep them there, can you do that for me?” he asked.
She nodded, and then asked, “Now what would please you?”
“Many things.” He traced the backs of his knuckles down the insides of her arms, down and down until he reached her armpits. Who knew that would be an erogenous zone? He continued down the side of her ribs, hesitating just a moment over that scar, and then he brushed over the undersides of her breasts. “You have lovely areolas, so lightly pink, surrounding such deep rose nipples.”
Olivia squeezed her thighs together at the first pulse of juice beginning to moisten her folds. “It would please me if you would spread open your legs so I could see your cunt.” Olivia squeezed her thighs tighter. Not because she didn’t want to please Ian, but because the request shot liquid heat to her core, causing need to gush from her body, and she was trying to contain it. He merely continued to focus on her, waiting. Olivia worked to get her body’s reactions under control. When she finally came to the realization that it was impossible, she did what would please him, slowly parting her legs.
“Wider.” He stared at her intently.
Olivia knew he could see where her fluids had actually smeared the insides of her thighs when she had tried to contain them. Then as she parted her legs wider, at his request, she felt fluid actually drip from her pussy down toward her rear entry, causing her butt cheeks to clench. She knew he noticed. His gaze missed nothing. She didn’t just feel nude, she felt naked. No wonder he had said she needed to keep her hands above her head, he had known that she would instinctively want to cover herself.
“What pleases you, Olivia?” Ian asked.
“You. Everything. I don’t know,” she finally answered, her body arching up in supplication.
“Okay, I can work with that.” He slid down the bed so that his head rested upon her belly, and for a moment, he looked up at her face, between her breasts. Blue-green eyes tangled with hazel. Then the almost auburn whiskers scraped through the light blonde curls of her mound, before going lower and grazing her clitoris, causing her to scream and jerk, her climax slamming through her in one crazy and sublime instant. Ian continued to softly move his chin up and down, backward and forward, side to side on the sensitive nub, wresting every tremor of pleasure that he could from Olivia’s overwrought body. Olivia finally couldn’t bear it, and she managed to
breathe out the word stop. Ian heard her, and he looked up. “You, inside me. Now, Ian. I need you.” She could see the glitter of his hazel, their intensity matching hers. He moved upward, enveloping her, his chest hair abrading her nipples. She undulated against him. “Please, don’t make me wait.” Eye to eye, he thrust smoothly to the root, and she sighed in satisfaction as they were finally joined as it was meant to be. She clenched and he moved inside her, his presence filling a piece of her that had been alone forever. It were as if an empty piece of her personal puzzle finally clicked into place. For an instant she gave thought to Joshua. He was still firmly inside of her heart. Ian hadn’t pushed him out, he had merely shoved his way in. How could it be possible for two men to be so deeply entrenched in one woman’s soul? Then she felt him begin to move and she was incapable of thinking about anything other than the man who was thrusting inside of her.
It was a joyous thing, his thick shaft an intrusion her whole body welcomed. She bent her knees so she could gain purchase and push up to meet him. Never had she felt so greedy. He planted an arm beside her, his hand a soft counterpoint as it reverently brushed over her sensitive breast as his other hand roughly grasped her buttock, pulling her up, grinding her closer.
“Ian, I want to touch you,” she gasped out.
“No,” he answered jaggedly. “I won’t last.”
She kept her eyes locked on his face as his hand slid down her thigh and lifted her leg, up and up, over his shoulder. He watched her intently as his next thrust hit her at a new angle, lighting up a new set of nerves that had her shouting out in surprised wonder. He surged again and again, lighting up her senses, taking her up that rapturous climb to climax. Each time she was close, he would soften his strokes until he saw perspiration blossom across her torso, and her head was shaking back and forth.
“Please, Ian, I need it. Please, Ian. I’m begging you.”
“Who do you belong to, Olivia?”
“You, Ian, I belong to you.” He dropped down to lick up the tears that dripped down her temples.
“Yes, Livvy, you belong to me.” His voice was hoarse with satisfaction as he thrust a last time, catapulting them both into rapture. Later, Olivia would wonder what gave him more satisfaction, the climax or her capitulation.
They talked long into the afternoon, taking time to touch and taste. Avoiding all mention of Joshua and the future, just sharing those parts of themselves that helped to explain this connection. They found that their need for logic and order melded perfectly. They laughed at one another’s stories. Ian explained how he was often slow to pick up on the emotional aspects of a situation, how he loved her easy acceptance and understanding of him. His self-awareness just made her love him more.
“Please, let me taste you,” she entreated after he had brought her to completion again with fingers and tongue. He lay back on the bed, but she shook her head. “I want to kneel in front of you.” She watched his eyes darken and the slight tremor of his hand as he caressed her hair.
“I would like that.” He stood up and laid a pillow at his feet, guiding her to her knees.
Olivia looked at the cock that was right in front of her and reached around, grasping his firm, warm buttocks. She stroked her cheek against him and pressed her face deep into his groin, inhaling the rich scent of his musk. She sighed in pleasure, and she could feel the hand in her hair tremble in response.
“Livvy, your passion overwhelms me.” She drew back, still rubbing her cheek against the thickness of his shaft, until finally her lips met the plum-colored head of his cock. She licked her lips in anticipation, then opened her mouth and drew him inside the warm cavern of her mouth, glorying in the taste of Ian. She moved her tongue around until it touched the sensitive spot where the head met the shaft. She moved her tongue in lazy circles around that spot and gave an internal smile when he moaned in response.
Ever so slowly she sucked him in deeper, then she would pull slowly back and tenderly lave that spot again, layering sensation on top of sensation until he was alternating between moans and groans, both of his hands now tangled in her hair. She took a deep breath through her nose, and then sucked him deep to the back of her throat.
“Oh, Livvy, you’ve got to stop.” She felt him pull at her hair. She knew he was close, and that made her happy. She drew back slowly, laving his spot, and then quickly taking him deep as he clutched her close. “Honey, no. I’m going to come. You—must stop.” She just pressed closer and gripped his ass tight, and then she was rewarded with his essence. The taste of Ian was everything she could have hoped for. Afterward, he pulled her up, covering the both of them, and then they slept, tangled together.
When he woke in the morning, she was gone. He immediately knew that she had left the house. When he tried calling her cell phone, it went directly to voice mail. He tried again and again. He debated with himself for an hour before calling over to the Reynolds-Booth house.
“Hello,” Josie answered.
“Hi, is Olivia there?”
“Joshua?” she asked.
“No, this is Ian Ransom,” he identified himself.
There was a long pause. “She left early this morning for Boston.”
“Thank you, Josie.” Ian hung up.
Chapter 6
“She won’t take my calls,” Joshua said. He threw another rock into the surf. Ian just sat there in the lawn chair watching his friend. He could feel the waves of pain radiating from him. It’d been a week since Olivia’s abrupt departure. Ian had never felt so empty or so helpless. At least he understood what had happened. Joshua was in shock and in so much pain, it was killing Ian.
“I can’t figure out what I did. What went wrong?” Three more rocks went into the ocean, and Ian was sure Joshua was going to throw his arm out.
“Maybe it wasn’t you,” Ian ventured.
Joshua turned on him, his eyes raging. “You hated her from the get go. You never even met her, but you were sure this would happen. I heard it in your voice every time I talked to you, while you were in Phoenix.” Ian flinched. He couldn’t deny it.
“It had to have been me. I had to have pushed too hard before she was ready. I told her I loved her, but she never said it back. But I was so sure she felt the same way.” Joshua flung himself down into the chair beside Ian. “I bought her a ring.”
“Fuck.”
“I hadn’t given it to her. I planned to the night before she left, but she never showed up. She must have guessed, and that’s why she left. I scared her off. I needed to take it slower.” Ian thought he might throw up.
“She wasn’t even well yet. The doctors were still recommending another three weeks before she headed back to Boston to start work. And the police still haven’t caught those goons who almost killed her.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What goons?” This was the first time Ian had heard about any goons.
“I told you about that,” Joshua said dismissively. “She still needs her rest, and I bet since she’s been back to Boston she’s been ass-deep in AHC. God knows how many migraines she’s had.” He got back up and picked up more rocks, and threw them into the surf. Ian got up and followed him, grabbing his arm, forcing him to face him.
“What fucking goons?” Ian demanded.
“The goons that almost killed her. It wasn’t homeless people like they first thought, it was two guys in suits. They think it was a simple matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But she’s been having some weird flashbacks about the conversations they had before they dumped her, and I’m worried it might have been more than that. I’m thinking it could have had something to do with her charity, and she could be in serious trouble.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ian demanded. At that moment, Joshua finally looked at his friend. Really and truly looked at his friend. The only sound was the water from the Puget Sound lapping up to shore.
“Jesus, Ian, you’re acting like you give a shit. Would you just drop it? Don’t pretend to care now th
at she’s gone.” Joshua paused. He bent and picked up more rocks, and looked at them, turning them over in his hands. “Fine, she dumped me. I’m a big boy, I can live with that, but I think something is really wrong, and I can’t leave her to fend for herself. I’m going to Boston.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Joshua looked up at his friend, stunned.
“You don’t know Olivia Ann. Hell, you don’t even like Olivia Ann. Seriously, I don’t need that kind of tension going on, there’ll be enough between her and me.” Joshua dropped the rocks and started toward his house.
“I said, I’m going.” Ian’s voice was implacable.
Joshua turned to look at his friend. He walked closer, so that he was just a step away, and really looked at his friend again, and then said very quietly, “What am I missing here, Ian?”
Ian didn’t say a word, just stared back at Joshua.
“Answer me, Ian. You never met Olivia Ann, and now you’re going to come to Boston with me? You don’t know her. You don’t like her. You’ve never met her. Isn’t that right, Ian?”
Ian just stood there, looking Joshua straight in the eye.
“Fucking answer me,” Joshua yelled in his face.
“The day you were in Snoqualt.” Ian stopped and closed his eyes. Knowing this was the end of twenty years of brotherhood, he fought back tears. He opened his eyes, and they were dry as he continued. “That day, I asked her out to lunch. I figured she was stringing you along. I wanted to talk to her. You’re right, I didn’t trust her. I didn’t believe her. I wasn’t going to allow her to hurt you. God, Joshua, she was so beautiful.” Ian paused then said quietly, “She was, she is…everything.” Then, he stopped. What was the point in continuing? Joshua knew.
“And Olivia?”
“She recognized me, recognized what we were to one another. She told me she was going to leave—leave you, leave me. She saw it all so clearly.”
Protecting Olivia [Fate Harbor 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 8
