Often (Iron Orchids Book 4)

by Danielle Norman

  “I never understood how you wore those long clothes during the summer, it had to be miserable.”

  “The Lord’s love will keep you cool?”

  “Is that a question?” I asked her totally confused.

  “I don’t know. I’m just trying to throw out possible reasons to see if you buy any of them because I never did.”

  “Nope, not buying it either.”

  “How Sophie and I ended up as friends is beyond me, but I’m grateful that we did. I doubt I would have made it out of my teenage years with any sanity if it weren’t for her and her mom.” Leo let out a laugh. “Did Sophie ever tell you how I had to keep clothes at her house? Every time she and I would go to the mall or buy something, I had to hide it from my mom so she wouldn’t throw it away. Eventually, Sophie’s mom gave me the closet in the spare bedroom.”

  “No. I had no idea your mom was so strict.”

  “She was. Sophie would bring me clothes every day and I’d change in the bathroom before school. Then, I’d change back after the bell rang at the end of the day.”

  “And your mom never found out?”

  “Nope. I’m pretty sure I would have been homeschooled if she had.”

  “It’s just you and your mom?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then where did the love for motorcycles come from, I mean, don’t take this wrong but I can’t exactly see your mom on a motorcycle.”

  Leo coughed then brought a hand up and smacked her chest. “Hm um, no. I can’t see that in a million years.”

  “So what led you to wanting to become a mechanic? I mean, you probably know mine since you used to come to all my model rocket competitions.”

  “I think it was the change. When I moved out, I went extreme. From long hair to super short. From skirts to jeans, and women in the kitchen to a man’s world in the garage. But in the end, I think that I found me. I like who I am.”

  “I like who you are too.” I took Leo’s hands in mine and couldn’t fight this feeling that I had for her. God, if she only knew all those times had laid the foundation for what I was feeling now.

  When we were finished, we headed back to her apartment, the night passing faster than I had wanted. I stopped at the door but refused to go in. I glanced down and was lost in her vibrant green eyes. “Tomorrow night, you and me.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “A date, a real date. Where I pick you up, take you out, and convince you how beautiful you are. Then I try to dupe you into believing that I’m a fucking catch.”

  Leo closed her eyes, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to be romantic. I wanted to dip her, sweep her off her feet, devour her. But instead, I leaned forward and lightly kissed her forehead. “I’ll call you in the morning and let you know what time.” I turned and strode off, which was harder than I would have thought it would be mainly because I was harder than I would have thought. Hard from a simple fucking kiss. I needed to get home. Tonight it would be me, my hand, and one hot memory of the night I answered my phone and heard a mysterious caller masturbating.

  13

  Ian

  Opening my search engine I typed Seasons 52 only to get frustrated when I landed at their website and discovered that their online reservation calendar was currently offline. Snagging my phone, I dialed the number and waited for someone to pick up. Really, in today’s modern world, I was shocked that this stuff wasn’t fixed immediately, ugh. After making my reservation, I disconnected and immediately called Leo.

  “Hello?”

  “Mornin’, babe. I made reservations for tonight at seven. I’ll pick you up about thirty minutes. before is that okay?”

  “Ian...”

  “What? Don’t you want to go out?”

  “Yes. But...well, I’m not that kind of girl.”

  “What? The kind who eats?”

  “You know what I mean. I’m not a fancy girl. Guys don’t want to take me out.”

  “We have reservations tonight at seven at Seasons 52. You can wear jeans or a skirt or whatever, I don’t care. Hell, you can go naked for all I care. Wait, forget that. You can go naked after dinner when only I can see you. Truthfully, though, I just want to go somewhere decent with you away from all of the drama. Got me?” She didn’t say anything, but I swore I could hear her nodding by the subtle swishing sound coming through the receiver. “Leo, you still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “I’ll pick you up at six thirty, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Leo and I hung up, and I looked at my watch. That had taken a whole five minutes. Today was going to be slow as hell. It was kind of like when you went on vacation as a kid. It took forever to get there but coming home when you knew that you had school the next day seemed to fly by.

  I headed out of my office and out to the lab area where our team was working on a few simulation projects. When I passed Taylor, she was smiling a bit too sweet for my taste.

  “Good morning, Ian.”

  “Yep.” I lifted my hand in a mock salute and kept walking, hoping that she didn’t see me shudder. The woman made my skin crawl. If it weren’t for her father being my boss, I’d file something with HR. But I knew in the long run I’d be the one who ended up being fired. I just needed to bide my time. The head boss of our company changed about once every five years, his time should be coming up soon.

  Taylor was shoved to the back of my mind when I turned down the hallway that led deeper into the building. I needed to troubleshoot a failed piece of hardware for the Army RW-CAM project that I’d been working on. It stood for Real World Corrective Action Missile. In other words, this hardware needed to be fixed because it would be used in action during real world problems, troops didn’t get the chance to test it, they would just be instructed how to use it and then hope for the best when their life was on the line.

  This was the part of my job that I loved, the grittier side where suits weren’t the appropriate attire. My last boss allowed us to wear khakis and cargo pants if we weren’t presenting in a government meeting but our current boss wouldn’t allow that. It had to be fucking suits and ties all the fucking time.

  I’d gotten immersed in scanning the schematics of the latest design and was trying to figure out why the first prototype worked but the second one didn’t when someone shouted my name.

  “Bye, Ian.”

  I tossed a hand in a careless wave before checking my watch. It was already after five. After securing the hardware, I headed out of the test area and raced back toward my office. I needed to get home, shower, and get to Leo’s.

  “Why the hurry?” Taylor stood and came around her desk and reached out one hand to grab me, but I sidestepped her.

  None of your fucking business was what I wanted to say, but of course, I didn’t. Instead I ransacked my brain for another way to tell her to mind her own business. How could I get this woman to understand that she was the assistant. She needed to keep all questions strictly to business.

  “I’m meeting Leo.”

  “Leo?” I didn’t know if she thought she pulled off clueless, but she hadn’t, and it grated on my every last nerve.

  “You met her at my brother’s wedding.”

  Taylor nodded. “Well, have fun. See you tomorrow.” Taylor waved her fingers in that stupid-girl-flit thingy as she said goodbye.

  I turned before she said anything else and was out of the building. Taylor was normally so intrusive and the fact that she hadn’t been was alarming, but I was too excited that I wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

  I had never imagined myself as being the sort of guy to lose his cool over a girl, but Leo did it to me.

  When she answered the door she took my breath away. “You’re stunning.” I cupped her face and trailed my thumb along the top of her cheek. I didn’t want her to forget how hot she looked so I made a mental promise to tell her every day.

  “You too,” she mumbled softly when I pulled away.

&n
bsp; I escorted her to the car and was determined that tonight I would show Leo exactly how sexy she truly was. Opening the passenger door, I held her hand as she slid in. A part of me was glad that I was making her nervous.

  Once I was in and driving, I broke the silence. “Tell me about your cat.”

  “Throttle?”

  “Yeah. Why Throttle? How long have you had her?”

  “I’ve had her about a year. Actually, Vivian found her last year outside Sixes. I fell in love with her.”

  “And you decided Throttle because of motorcycles?”

  “Yes and no. When Ariel, Stella, and I were trying to come up with a name for our group somehow we got onto the name Throttle Cats.”

  “Isn’t that a cartoon?”

  “That’s exactly what Ariel said.” Leo laughed at my comment.

  “What? I’m serious, I thought that was the name of a kid’s cartoon.”

  “You’re thinking of Thunder Cats. Anyway, clearly we passed on it. But for some reason, the name stuck with me. So when Vivian told me that she found this kitty the first thing I thought of was Throttle Cat.”

  “That’s her full name? Throttle Cat Scarvoni?”

  “Yep.” Leo smiled, and by the time we were walking into the restaurant, we were both in a great mood.

  “May I help you?” a young woman dressed all in black asked.

  “Yes. We have a reservation at seven under the name Christakos.”

  I held my hand at the base of Leo’s neck. I liked having her near, in my grasp.

  “I’m sorry, sir. Did you say seven?”

  “Yes. Seven. Christakos, C-H-R—”

  “Of course, sir. I see your name, but your reservation was at six. I’m sorry but you’ve missed it.”

  “That’s impossible. I made it myself.”

  “Sir. It’s right here.”

  “You made a mistake. Can you please just seat us?”

  “I would be happy to add your name to the waitlist. We are currently quoting about ninety minutes.”

  I felt a tug on my hand and glanced over at Leo. “Just forget it. Let’s go.”

  “No. I made the reservation. It isn’t my fault they’re incompetent.”

  “Excuse me.” A gentleman came over and stood next to the woman. “What seems to be the issue here?”

  “Hi, my name is Ian Christakos, this morning I called in a reservation for seven o’clock. Now your hostess is telling me that we missed our reservation and”—I brought my watch up to see the time—“it is five minutes before seven.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Christakos. Let me see what I can do.” He tapped the computer screen then looked at the hostess for an explanation.

  “His reservation says six not seven and we are booked.” She held up her hands as if to say there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  I watched as he tapped a few more buttons.

  “Mr. Christakos, I see the problem. Your original reservation was made at ten oh seven this morning—”

  “My only reservation, I only called here once.”

  “Well, someone called on your behalf at ten-thirty and changed the reservation to six o’clock.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “As much as I understand your frustration, please understand where we are coming from.”

  “Whatever.” I was livid. Furious. There had to be some mistake because I’d made that reservation for seven. Turning to Leo, I ducked my head, saying, “I’m sorry, babe. I promise to make it up to you.”

  “Let’s just leave. It isn’t a big deal. I’d rather get something and go home. I’ve lost the desire to eat out. I have a feeling that I’m bad luck.”

  But it was a big deal, to me at least. I didn’t think that Leo had ever had anyone show her that she was worth pampering, and I wanted to, I needed to do this and prove to her that—

  “Will you do me a favor?” I asked the manager, whom I had a feeling would do just about anything to get me out of his waiting area.

  “Of course.”

  “Can we place two orders to go?”

  “Absolutely. Here’s a menu. Take a second to look and let me know.”

  When Leo and I climbed back into the car, I set the large to-go bag in the backseat. She reached over and grabbed my hand that I had just set on the gearshift and squeezed. There was a smile on her lips, but her eyes didn’t twinkle. It was obvious that she was disappointed.

  “Are you catching on? I’m jinxed. Something is wrong with me.”

  “What? Why are you saying that?” I started the engine. “I promise there is nothing wrong with you. In fact, from what I can see everything is very, very right with you.”

  “Things just don’t go the way they’re supposed to. I’m a walking disaster,” she said jokingly. But the bitterness in her voice pierced me like a knife.

  “Leo, you are not jinxed or a walking disaster. You are incredible, and I find myself thinking about you all the time. Things that just a few weeks ago I had no problem doing alone, I now want to do with you. So, every time you disparage yourself, I take it personally. I think you’re beautiful, sexy, and smart. When you say the opposite, you are basically calling me a liar.” Every word of what I’d just said was the truth and she needed to hear it. This woman was driving me crazy maybe because I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what my feelings were.

  “Okay.”

  Facing forward, I put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “I know the perfect thing that would go with this,” Leo said while looking at the food that was in the backseat.

  “What?” I asked. She was finally smiling. Thank God.

  “Wine.”

  “Wine it is,” I agreed, maneuvering the car toward the nearest ABC liquor store. I ran in and bought the most expensive red I could find.

  Leo grinned madly the whole time we drove to her apartment, which had me smiling right along with her. I’d been berating myself up over this clusterfuck, but there was this weird feeling that everything was turning out exactly how it was supposed to be.

  “Care to share why you’re so happy?” Her eyes twinkled, and I would have done anything to keep that look in her eyes.

  “I know that you are going to find this dumb because, well, look at you. You’re gorgeous, Ian. You’re used to going out with women that are well...not like me.”

  “And this makes you smile?”

  “No. I’m smiling because I was nervous about going to dinner. I’m a homebody. I’m a beer and wings kind of girl. I’m happy doing just what we are doing. A bottle of wine and staying in and just chilling.” She tilted her head to meet my gaze. “I know you’re upset about tonight, but I’m not. I’m happy that things got fucked up.”

  “Then I’m glad it all worked out. Let’s go eat.” I grabbed the bag of food and the bottle of wine before getting out of the car and walking around to get Leo. “I’m going to bring in some jeans and change if that’s okay with you?” I asked as I reached for my overnight bag from the backseat.

  “Sure. Here, let me take that.” Leo took the to-go food from me.

  We headed into her apartment holding hands. There was something very comforting and well, domestic about this. When we got inside, Throttle meowed and jumped onto her usual spot on the sofa. I set the wine on the counter and went to change. When I came back out into the living room, I had to fight back my rising desire for Leo. She was barefoot and moving around her kitchen collecting things. When she handed me the glasses, I filled them.

  Taking our food and wine into the living room we settled on the sofa. Flipping through the stations, she stopped. “How about this?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll be Maverick. You can be Goose.”

  We settled back in the sofa and ate and watched Top Gun. “This movie is a classic. I can’t believe it came out before I was even born.” Leo snagged a green bean and held it to her mouth, pretending to sing into it as the guys sang “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”

 
; I had never seen this side of Leo, and I loved it. Shit. Not loved...liked, I meant I liked it. I liked this side of her.

  When we got to the part where Goose was killed and Leo started to sniffle, I liked her a little more. It didn’t matter how tough she pretended to be, Leo was tender. She caught me grinning and narrowed her eyes at me.

  “What? That’s his best friend. His poor wife. Stop, don’t laugh at me. You don’t get it.” Leo met my eyes and stared deep. “Once things start to fall, they all fall. Before you know it, you are in this cyclone and there is no coming out.”

  I pulled her against me, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and one around her small waist. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes, lingering in the comfortable silence as the heat from Leo’s small body warmed me. Made me feel alive.

  “You know that things will get better, right? Everyone has bumps in the road and things they are forced to go through. You’re one of the strongest women I know, Leo. I have no doubt you will make it through this mess.”

  I breathed in and looked down, only to find her looking up at me. Her mouth was slightly parted, and her breathing was uneven. She was blushing, and that had every muscle in my body tensing up. And that included my cock.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered in her seductive, sultry voice.

  Unable and unwilling to say no, I leaned in closing the distance between our faces. Her mouth was soft, silky smooth against mine. Our kiss was tender at first. I never thought I could kiss someone as if I were afraid I might break her. But with Leo, I did. I wanted to treat her with care and make sure I was doing what she liked. I wanted to please her, to make her happy. But more than that I wanted to make it up to her for running out on her Sunday morning after the wedding. I wanted to go slow and remember every inch of her body that somehow seemed to be murky in my mind from all the scotch that I’d drunk that night.

  She shivered.

  And I realized that I just wanted every single one of her fucking shivers to be because I gave them to her.

  Leo moaned, and that was my undoing. I lost every bit of control that told me to be gentle and kissed her with intense need, devouring her mouth. Her arms wrapped around my neck. I nibbled and bit her bottom lip, and she responded to my kisses with the same amount of hunger.