It was up in the air.
“Ivan, you think we live in two worlds. So, I can’t stop that. You don’t see me as just Blue, but as someone who has more money than you. I can’t change your perception, but I can choose mine. I can choose to live in your world with you. Our problem is solved. As for my father, I told you to ignore him. He’s banging a girl younger than me. He has no right to talk.”
Ivan couldn’t believe this.
He picked up her FBI Kevlar and carried it inside.
“Can I have the left side of the bed?”
“Blue.”
She was stopping this. She was ending this insanity. Her father had created a mess, and she was not letting his idiocy define her happiness.
“We will live here. We’ll be happy, and we’ll never have a moment where anyone can say that I didn’t love you. I adore you, Ivan. You’re the one. You’re the only man I’ll ever love, and if you end up dying in the line of duty, I’ll still only love you. I’ll go to my grave knowing that I made the RIGHT choice by following you. If we have kids, and they lose you, I’ll make sure they know each and every day that you died for your country, honorably. I’m not ashamed of you or your job. I’m proud of it.”
His heart skipped.
Kids?
Jesus.
He was going to have a stroke.
“But…”
“I choose you, Ivan. I’ll always choose you. I am madly, hopelessly, wildly in love with you. I’m struck stupid by your sexy smile. I’m amused by how you taught me to peel a banana upside down because that’s how monkeys do it. I’m in love with your home, your life, and your career. I’m in love with you. I want you. I’ll meet you in your world. We’ll sell my house, ditch my asshole father, and call it a day.”
“I can’t give you that life, Blue. I can’t even come close to what you deserve. I’m simple. I’m a soldier.”
And she’d never been prouder.
“Did you ask if I wanted that life? Did you ask if I wanted that house or money? No, you didn’t. Why don’t you ask me now?” she asked. “Why don’t you ask me what I want?”
Could he be this lucky?
Was it that simple?
“Do you want this life with me, Bluebell?”
She couldn’t help but smile when he called her that. She’d never had a nickname before him. It was always Blue. Now it was special.
It was more.
“I only want this life with you. All I want is you, Ivan. Just you.”
His heart skipped.
“I love you so much,” he said, pulling her into his arms to hold her.
She kissed him, and then wrapped her arms around his neck.
“So, can I stay here?” she asked, nuzzling him.
“Yes, Bluebell. You can stay forever if that’s what you want.”
“I’m down with forever. I don’t care where I live as long as I get to wake up beside you, Ivan. You’re the happiness. You’re the reason I’m alive. I want to be with you every second of every day.”
Ivan was able to breathe again, but something was missing. He kept thinking about his father and him telling him not to shack up with some woman.
It should matter.
It should count.
Ivan knew that this time, with Blue, he was making the right decision.
His heart told him to do it.
“Give me a second,” he said, as he headed into the kitchen to open the drawer that held his grandmother’s ring. Heading toward her, he dropped to both knees in front of her.
Her mouth opened.
“It’s simple like me, but we’ll pick you your ring together. I want you to have the ring my grandfather gave my grandmother. They were married for sixty years. It’s good luck in our family. I want sixty years with you. Marry me?”
He flipped the box open, and inside was this delicate band with tiny diamonds. It had scrolls that looked like flowers.
It was so pretty.
“I don’t want to pick out a ring, Ivan. I want that ring. That was meant to be mine. I can tell by looking at it. I love it. It means everything since it’s coming from you.”
His heart skipped.
His father had told him that the woman who loved him wouldn’t see the ring, but the man offering it.
Blue saw him.
He pulled it out of the box and slid it onto her finger. It fit perfectly and looked like it belonged on the hand of an artist.
The second it was on her finger, she giggled, bounced, and threw herself onto him.
“I caught a sexy man! This is the best day of my life! I caught a sexy soldier!”
He laughed.
From here on out, this was going to be the best days of his life. Blue was going to color his world.
Then she kissed him.
There.
On the floor.
She found his mouth with hers and dove in. He couldn’t help himself. The switch was flipped, and he wanted so much more at that moment.
Ivan wanted to christen his home with the amazing woman above him.
He plundered, his hands wandering across her flesh, as he tugged the shirt from her body.
She was staring down at him.
“Here?” he asked.
“Here,” she said.
Ivan was out of control. He tore her bra off, setting her free for his mouth and teeth to explore and feast.
He tormented her, nipping her breasts until she was begging him to do more.
She sat above him, and he wanted so much more.
Already his hands had the button on her pants open, and he was beginning to explore. His touch drove her wild, and him too. Neither of them was immune to that stroke of fingers through wetness.
“Ivan!” she moaned, as he rolled and pulled her to her feet. He wanted better access to her body.
He wanted all of her.
God!
What he wanted was to bury himself in her body, taking everything that she had to offer him and so much more. Ivan wanted this woman more than he wanted to breathe.
She was life.
She was his life.
Only, he knew that this should be important, and he wanted to give her that and so much more. Ivan wanted to show Blue that she mattered to him and that she always would be his first priority.
Instead, he was going to make tonight, as they commemorated getting engaged, memorable.
He wanted to make her moan.
He wanted to make her cum.
Moving her toward his big leather couch, he shoved her back and then yanked her pants free. She sat there in a tiny pair of panties, and his heart skipped.
He pulled off his shirt and got ready for one hell of a christening of his…their couch.
“You look beautiful, but I missed dinner. I’m hungry. I’m going to dine first, and then I’ll get you pizza,” he said, and it was true.
He wanted her.
Ivan wanted her bare, naked, and against his body.
“I’m sorry, Bluebell,” he said. “Forgive me,” he muttered.
“For?”
He struck.
He tore the panties from her body. The rendering of material stole both their breaths, as did the sight of him dropping to his knees.
Blue watched, and her heart quaked. She wanted him so badly that she shook from that need.
Ivan tugged open his cargo pants. He was hard, like steel, and needed to find his way into her body.
She watched him as he was preparing for that delicious slide into her body to fill her.
Only, he wasn’t quite ready yet.
He had to taste her.
He had to devour his sweet Blue.
She moaned as he moved her legs over his shoulders, so he could have access to her. Ivan was sure their neighbors across the street were getting one hell of a view.
It turned him on even more.
She was his, and he was never sharing his treasure with another man. Blue had crossed his path for a reason, and she was now weari
ng his ring.
She was his girl.
As his mouth teased, tormented, and drove her wild, he could feel her shake.
She was close.
He nipped her.
The first orgasm hit, ripping her from the edge in pleasure and throwing her into the spiral of colors.
Only, he didn't stop.
Ivan continued, pushing Blue through the pleasure right into that delicious pain. He didn't let up, even as she begged and pleaded for him to fill her.
Oh, he would.
Soon.
Blue couldn’t breathe. Ivan had one hell of a gift when it came to pleasuring her. He was a master at oral skills.
“More,” she begged, burying her hands in his hair. She never wanted him to stop.
Never.
There was never a moment she felt more alive than right then.
As he drove her insane, she could feel the tremor of need flowing from him. His mouth became desperate as he took her along for the ride.
She loved him desperate.
When he nipped her, she fell again.
Ivan was rock-hard, and he needed to find that slick slide into the heat. He wanted to make her cum again, but this time riding his dick.
The second her eyes fluttered open, he buried himself in that wetness.
She gasped at the invasion.
Then he began the rough, wild ride.
It was hard.
It was fast.
Ivan leaned over her body, making sure she was a prisoner beneath him. She was trapped as he took what he wanted from her. They were punishing strokes meant to remind her that he was her man.
ONLY him.
She moaned in pleasure, holding on for the punishing ride, and Blue had never felt anything better in all of her life.
This was perfection.
“You’re mine,” he hissed, refusing to look away from her.
Oh, she was aware.
He thrust into her body harder and cuffed her wrists with his hand above her head on the couch. That sweet spot would make her cum over and over again.
“Ivan!”
“I’m going to be your husband, and you’ll never stray. Promise me, Blue!” he ordered, hitting that one spot.
She fell again, the orgasm overtaking her.
Ivan wouldn’t stop.
He couldn’t.
As she floated up, her hands were now trapped at her sides. She was pinned with hands and erection. Blue couldn’t move, but she could stare up into his eyes.
His sweet.
Brown.
Eyes.
The eyes of her husband-to-be.
Her heart skipped at the mere thought that this sexy man was going to be part of her forever.
It was amazing.
“I love you,” she offered out of the blue.
His heart kicked.
“I love you, too, Bluebell.”
Ivan slowed the strokes down, planning to drive them both insane until they came this time as one.
“God, Blue, I can’t live without you,” he whispered, watching himself slide in and out of her body.
They were one.
She moaned.
As she moved toward another orgasm, suddenly, he stopped. The wetness of his erection only made the visual that much hotter for him.
He was getting close.
Now he wanted to see her above him. He wanted to see his fiancée bouncing above him.
“Ride me.”
He rolled, moving to sit on the couch, and she didn't hesitate to give him what he wanted. As Blue straddled his lap, Ivan repeatedly began pulled her down, trying to drive her wild.
She was there.
“Oh God!”
He hung on, praying for control as his fingers gripped her hips.
As she began moving, he forced her to stare into his eyes.
“I’ll love you until I die.”
Her heart skipped.
“Ivan, my love,” she whispered. “Fall with me. Fill me.”
He wanted that and so much more.
Ivan wanted all.
As she rode his dick, his whole body reacted. He watched the bounce of her pert breasts, the slim line of her ribs, and then he saw it.
His ring.
It was all he could take.
“I’m going to cum,” he hissed, battling to hold on for a few more strokes until she could join him.
It was so hard.
She whimpered, and her body began milking his.
“I can’t hold on,” he warned, and they both fell, him filling her with everything he had. Ivan’s body emptied into her in wave after wave of wet, erotic heat.
He was spent.
Ivan had nothing left to give. They’d had an emotional evening, and he just wanted to hold her.
Blue’s head rested on his shoulder as she floated back to reality.
“So, you really want to live here?” he asked.
“I want to live with you. I don’t care where it is,” she admitted. “You’re home, Ivan, not the house. I don’t judge you by what you have. I judge us by what we have together.”
He saw that.
“How many bedrooms do you have at your house?” he asked.
“Six.”
“I have two.”
She knew how to settle this.
“How many babies do you want?” she asked. “I can picture you with a whole flock of babies all over you. Piggyback rides, playing tea party, and snuggling on cold days as we watch cartoons.”
There was never a more beautiful visual in his mind—only that wasn’t true. He pictured Blue on their wedding day. That was the only thing that could compete with five or six kids.
God!
For the first time in his life, he wanted to be a father and have that existence. He wanted that with her.
“We can’t stay here.”
“We can live at my place and you can bring all your furniture. We’ll swap it out.”
He looked freaked out again about how big it was, and how she got it.
“Blue, I don’t want your father thinking I can’t support my wife. I don’t want him to think…”
“It’s just a house. For the record, my trust fund didn’t pay for it. I did as a doctor. I earned that house with all those years of studying, learning, and never having anyone want to be near me. To you it’s money. To me, it’s about my sacrifice. Let’s us make it a home. Your sacrifice for the country mattered, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let my sacrifice matter, too, Ivan.”
She had a point, and he’d never thought to look at it from her perspective.
“You can have the left side of the bed. We’ll put my things in your house and make them ours.”
And there it was.
He found a way to compromise. She’d worked just as hard for that house as he had for his. Blue should be able to keep it and fill it with children, laughter, and love.
She gave him a kiss.
“My place has a pool and a hot tub. I’m betting that will feel good on your body after a rough day protecting Elizabeth,” she offered.
“Hot tub?”
“It will also have me naked in it.”
“Sold.”
He didn’t have to think twice about that one. It was a no-brainer.
“I really meant what I said about the ring. We can pick out any one to go with it.”
“I want this one. It’s meant to be mine. I can tell when I look at it.”
Ivan loved that she was smiling at it like it was the best treasure in the world.
She loved him.
She really loved him.
Blue Garrick, the doctor turned Fed, saw through it all, and wanted him for all his tattered, damaged glory. That was a beautiful thing, and he knew it.
She loved him.
Ivan.
The soldier.
The bodyguard.
The man.
In that knowledge, he found the most beautiful thing.
&n
bsp; He found his true love.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Friday Night
Eleven
When he saw her coming, he was excited. He knew that this was going to have to be done right the first time.
He thought about all the things that his mentor had taught him.
He thought about all the ways this could go wrong, and all of the ways it could go perfectly right.
That was what he chose to focus on, and that alone.
Cautiously, he waited for her to head out to her vehicle, and that was when he got ready. From beside the building, he waited until she passed him, and then he jumped out, grabbed her, and shoved the blade deep into her body.
He felt the give, as her spinal cord was severed, and the end of her life came.
Her brain was disconnected, and she was now dead.
He pulled her to her vehicle, tossed her inside, and then leaned over her body.
There he raped her.
Violently.
When he was done—and only then—he yanked her shirt up, and he left the signature.
He shoved the note into her mouth, grinned down at his masterful work, and he called it a night.
As he called his mentor, his proud voice and words were enough to make the man’s night.
He could tell.
He’d done good—even if he didn’t admit to taking her after she was dead. That would be their little secret, and what his mentor didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
After all, he had to make the killing his. While he’d trained him and made him, this was his signature.
Not the ‘C’.
Not the blade.
The rest.
It was him.
After it was all said and done, he was one step closer to getting what he wanted.
He wanted to be a killer.
He wanted to be the one people paid to do the job right the first time.
He wanted to be richer than any other SOB.
And he would.
Because at some point, the student would become the master.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Fort Whitefox-Blackhawk
One A.M.
When he woke, he was gently tucked against bodies, and again, it was confusing as hell. Chris was nestled against Callen, Elizabeth was wrapped around the back of him—her face beside his neck, and Ethan was behind her. He could feel Ethan’s fingers on his hip, holding him in place.
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