Often (Iron Orchids Book 4)

by Danielle Norman

  I scooped her small body into my arms and carried her to her bedroom, not breaking our fervent kiss. Slowly, I laid her on her bed as my mouth traveled down the soft skin of her neck. Her fingers wove through my hair, and I didn’t realize that I could be more aroused until she whispered my name, then I knew I was a goner. My hands slipped under her blouse, lifting it up and over her head before effortlessly unhooking her bra, and she grinned as her fingers played with the button of my jeans.

  “You’re so good at this,” she mumbled.

  “Stay still,” I ordered as I unzipped her jeans and kissed along the newly exposed skin.

  I let my eyes feast on her perfection. She was so beautiful. I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice it until Kayson’s wedding. God, I must have been blind.

  “Kiss me head to toe,” she spoke in an almost begging tone.

  And I did.

  Trailing kissing from her neck down to her chest, all the while my hands were frantically caressing the smooth skin of her thighs. Peppering tiny kisses on her chest, taking time to worship her left breast, I fed on her taste and swam in the tiny noises I was pulling from her. I made circling patterns with my tongue. When she pulled me in closer, I let go of her breast and continued my journey of kisses down her stomach.

  She groaned in protest, and I smiled against her skin.

  “Getting greedy, are we?” I teased as I planted kisses between her legs.

  “Yes,” Leo gasped in response, and I stayed there for a few seconds, sucking her folds and only letting them go when she asked for more of me.

  But I wasn’t finished, I continued my journey down her thighs, careful of her still healing road rash, and didn’t stop until I reached her toes, just as she ordered.

  “Kiss me bottom to top. Please, head back up.”

  And I obliged again, this time starting at her toes.

  I kissed and sucked the skin of her legs and thighs. Each red spot that puckered up was a mark of my ownership of her gorgeous body. I wanted to make this woman happy, please every inch of her. I would do anything she asked me to do.

  When my mouth landed on top of the strip of hair between her legs once more, she pulled me closer. She groaned when I sucked her clit, and my cock throbbed harder under my pants.

  “Now focus on the middle,” she whispered.

  I obliged.

  I gently traced my fingers over her delicate skin, licking her length with nothing but this unbridled hunger. Her feet wrapped around the small of my back and her moans were enough response for me to know that she was enjoying it. Her screams flooded the room and she hissed in pleasure when I sucked her clit while kneading her ass cheeks. We were doing all of my sexual fantasies and the mental picture alone was so hot, it almost made me come.

  Leo was so fucking wet, and her juices were sweeter than I have ever imagined. She tasted so fucking good that I couldn’t wait to get inside her. Digging deeper, I slipped my tongue in her entrance and sucked her harder. Her breaths were growing heavy with each second that passed.

  Her body shivered under my touched, and I knew she was about to come. And I couldn’t let that happen. Not yet.

  I pulled away and kissed her mouth, letting her taste her own desire. She was so fucking stimulating. I didn’t think I could wait any longer.

  14

  Leo

  My lips were dry so I dampened them with my tongue. And that seemed to be the only invitation Ian needed. I couldn’t believe how bold I was acting, but after his lecture in the car, something in me felt emboldened with Ian.

  He lowered his head, kissing me savagely as if he couldn’t get enough. His lips were warm and soft and tasted of me, but I wanted him. Hard thighs slid between mine, his hips moving against me, having their own private dance—a slow, calculating gyration that fed the pulsing heat that throbbed between my legs.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful. You’re driving me crazy, woman.” He cupped my breasts, gently squeezing them.

  “This feels so good,” I whimpered, breaking my lips from his.

  Tenderly, he kneaded my breasts between his strong hands. His lips fell on my neck, and he sucked softly against my skin. Running my hands up and down on his back, I swallowed hard feeling impatient to see his hard erect cock. And as if he knew what I was thinking, Ian stopped and slid off the bed. I watched, my breath hitching in my throat as he took off his clothes piece by piece.

  I hadn’t had the chance to study and admire his body the first time we had sex, so I took my time. Letting my eyes trail over his olive, sun-kissed skin, his wide chest, and lean and strong arms that made me feel safe when they were wrapped around me.

  When I looked lower, all there was left was his boxer briefs, and a trail of dark hairs—almost curly—that led from his chest down his belly and disappeared beneath. I swallowed hard when my sight landed on the bulge inside his boxers, I did that, me, Leo, I could turn Ian on.

  Proudly, Ian removed his underwear, revealing his glorious erection. He was big, long, and thick for me.

  I groaned, and my mouth watered.

  He grinned, crawling onto the bed with me. “What are you thinking?”

  “You’re beautiful,” I mumbled, running my fingers over his chest, following the trailing hair on his stomach down until I could wrap my hand around his hard length.

  “No. You are beautiful,” he hissed the words through his teeth as he inched out of my hold and lowered his lips to my neck. “Ethereal,” he whispered against my skin, kissing lower until his mouth found its way back to my breasts, sucking them, taking my breath away in a good way—very good way.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, but he caught them, intertwining them with his, this time, holding my hands over my head. In anticipation, I could feel my insides humming with excitement.

  Ian grabbed a condom, but I shook my head. “I’m on the pill.”

  Our eyes locked and held, neither of us blinking as we both took in the enormity of what I had just said and what that meant.

  He dropped the foil packet and then positioned himself so he could rub the tip of his cock against my core, and I moaned in response, my hips tilting upward, trying to get him to enter me. But he continued his actions, teasing me. Instinctively, I locked my ankles around his waist, and gasped as he went inside me. He was so big that the first thrust was painful.

  “Damn...” His word was little more than a growl.

  As soon as he started moving, my muscles relaxed around him and pure pleasure began to vibrate through me in overpowering waves.

  He moved in an increasing intensity, pushing my pleasure higher and higher. His slick length sliding in and out, the demanding thrusts were all designed to send me right over the edge of bliss.

  “Please...” I cried breathlessly, digging my fingers into his back.

  “Say my name,” he said between heavy pants, increasing his speed as we were both reaching our climax.

  “Yes...yes...hell yes...” I whimpered when his thrusts turned more powerful.

  “Say it.”

  “Ian!”

  “Louder, baby,” he commanded. “Give it to me.”

  That was my undoing. I came violently. My walls quivered, my back arching up and off the bed.

  “Yes, yes—” I cried, legs locking tighter around his waist.

  He kissed me and claimed my body once more before he himself reached his own peak. Moaning against my mouth, he exploded deep inside me, our muscles tightening and hearts racing.

  A flash of delight crossed his face when he looked at me with contentment as we tried to get our breaths back. I stroked his back with a hand and played with his hair with the other.

  “That was awesome,” he mumbled as he tucked his mouth against the crook of my neck, collapsing on top of my body.

  “Yeah.”

  “I needed this,” he whispered.

  I smiled, quite pleased. He had no idea how much I did, too.

  When I woke the next morning, I was sweating. It didn’t ta
ke long to figure out why either. Ian’s body put off a lot of heat, and he was wrapped around me. Holy hell. Ian was in my bed. I was in Ian’s arms. We had spent the night together. How was it in all of this chaos, when everything was so wrong that this one thing could be going so right? My chest tightened and fear washed over me. What if this was the carrot, that thing that was dangled in front of me just before the bottom fell out. With that scary thought, I burrowed myself closer against him and fell back asleep.

  The next time I opened my eyes, I was alone in my bed and someone was pounding on my door. I buried myself deeper into my covers and tried to ignore it.

  The knocking just continued.

  Fuck.

  What now?

  Knocking at my door couldn’t be a good thing. I turned over and realized that Ian was gone. Pulling myself up, I got up and threw on some sweatpants and a T-shirt and meandered to my door. Peering through the peephole I smiled at what I saw on the other side.

  I unlocked and opened.

  “Good morning.” I greeted Stella as she slid her sunglasses back on top of her head and used them as a headband.

  “Morning, puff? It’s like ten. Come on, we are meeting Katy and Vivian for an early lunch. Let’s go, let’s go.”

  I stepped back to let Stella in and caught a small sign taped to my door. “What the fuck now?”

  I reached out to remove it, but Stella grabbed my wrist. “Don’t.”

  “Why? That isn’t my name, I’m not Helen and my last name isn’t Waite.”

  “Exactly, now when anyone asks where you live, you can say go to Helen Waite.”

  Go to hell and wait. I got it. I shook my head and decided I was going to leave it. If for no other person than for myself, I needed something to smile about.

  Stella moved into my kitchen, and I headed back to my bathroom to jump in the shower.

  “Want some coffee?” Stella hollered.

  “Sure.”

  When I emerged from my room, showered and partially dressed, Stella was holding a cup out and waving a piece of paper in the air. She had a shit-eating grin on her face. “Thanks. What’s that?”

  Stella read: “Leo, I like this. Thanks for last night. Ian,” and then handed me the paper. “Looks like you have some explaining to do. Dish.” Stella sipped her coffee and swung her legs back and forth like it was Christmas morning.

  “What? I’m not sure what to say. He’s trying to help me figure out who is behind the motorcycle sabotage but other than that we are taking it slow.”

  “Let me see if I understand you. In his quest to help you clear your name, something happened in which he felt the need to thank you for last night? Wow, that must be some help.”

  “Shut up.”

  Stella held up her hands. “Just saying. I mean, he’s helping you. You thanking him would make sense. Him thanking you for last night makes me think you are hiding something.”

  “What? He stayed the night. He took me out, but there was some mix up at the restaurant, and our reservation was screwed up so we came back here.”

  “What do you mean your reservation was messed up?”

  “I’m not sure. He said that he made it for seven, but they said he called and changed it to six. So, by the time we got there, they had given our table away. It doesn’t matter, I preferred coming back here anyway.”

  Stella ran one finger along her bottom lip then stopped to tap her nail on her teeth.

  “What? You know when you do shit like that it scares the fuck out of me.”

  “Do what? I’m just sitting here.”

  “Exactly. You’re being quiet, which means that your mind is left unattended to wander aimlessly and concoct shit.” I squirted some gel into my hand and ran it through my hair to give it a few little spikes before moving to the bed where I took a seat to put on my boots.

  “No. I’m just pondering how someone from the wedding claimed to have seen you messing with the bikes. Taylor was at the wedding. You called Ian’s work, and she wouldn’t let you talk to him. Then the night that Ian wants to take you out, suddenly your reservation is fucked up. Call me crazy, but I would say that it seems as if your life has gone batshit crazy ever since Taylor came into the picture.”

  “It has, but I would hardly call her being a bitch the main reason my life has gone to hell.”

  “Doesn’t it? What if the person messing with the bikes is Taylor?”

  “Really? I don’t think she’s smart enough or willing to risk getting grease on her hands.” I stood and picked up my coffee.

  “And searching on the internet would probably tell her how to do all of those things, right?”

  I grabbed my keys and slid my phone into my pocket. It was hard to fathom the thought that someone would be so desperate to orchestrate all of this over a guy. Especially a guy who had made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t interested.

  “I guess. The only problem with that theory is that she didn’t know about Ian and me until the wedding, so it’s really unlikely that she would have had the time to research how to change brake pads let alone be able to do it quickly before anyone noticed.”

  “True...” She paused and then shrugged. “How about you?”

  “What about me?” Already taking the defense.

  “Have they found whoever it was who actually ran you off the road?”

  “No.”

  “Did you actually see who ran you off the road?” Stella was on an all-blame Taylor warpath.

  “Well...no.”

  “Exactly.”

  Walking into Panera, I smiled at the sight of Everly, Vivian, and Katy sitting in a large booth.

  “For the life of me, I will never figure out why you like this place, Katy.” I looked around just to make sure that there were no children and then still lowered my voice. “Next time, we are eating somewhere that has food that actually sticks to your fucking ribs.” I patted my stomach for emphasis.

  “How rude.” An older woman from the booth next to our table forced herself into our conversation.

  “Oh, pipe down. She cussed, it isn’t like she smacked a kid or something.” Stella shrugged as if she didn’t care, which she didn’t.

  Vivian, Everly, and Katy buried their heads in their hands to hide their expressions.

  “Uh-oh, someone poked the bear,” Vivian whispered.

  “Oh, now I see. I should have guessed.” The woman wasn’t letting up.

  “See? See what?” Stella encouraged the woman to continue.

  “Well, I just thought that she”—the woman pointed to me—“was uncouth and vulgar with her language, but now I see the two of you all cuddly. Your generation is ruining this country.”

  “You mean the generation that your generation raised? Is it our fault you were bad parents?” I held up a hand, telling the woman not to respond as I turned back to the girls. “Let’s order some food.”

  “You should respect your elders.” The woman huffed indignantly as she pushed her plate away from her.

  I grabbed Stella’s elbow and squeezed. Whatever was about to come out of her mouth wasn’t going to be good, and I really didn’t want to get into a bigger fight with an elderly woman.

  “I think we should go somewhere else.” Everly stood, holding her stomach as she fought back her laughter.

  The four of us followed Everly out, walking next door to Noodles & Company instead.

  “How are you feeling? You’re moving a lot better,” Katy said once we were all seated in a booth.

  “Better. It’s amazing how you forget about your body’s pain when your life seems to be spiraling.”

  “Stop. You know that none of us think you’re guilty, right?” Vivian’s soft hand patted mine.

  I nodded. If only their unwavering belief in me was enough to stop the spin.

  “I was talking to Carter...” Vivian said, and I gave her my full attention. “I guess there have been a few other things that have happened to the bikes, and they are trying to put all of the pieces tog
ether.”

  “Really? Like what?” My first thought was of who else had been hurt.

  “Tires slashed, throttle cables cut, jiffy stands screws loosened.”

  “Those are all petty things, nothing quick. What’s going on? Even the jiffy stand would take some time. Someone would have to loosen the screws then wait and eventually they’d rattle loose so that when the deputy stopped and put his stand down the bike would fall over.”

  “I asked him if they even know whether or not it was a girl. You and I both know that the average woman can’t lift a Road King if it tipped over without some help. I mean, come on, think of how long it took us when we were all practicing with Piper. You taught us all about leveraging and how to find the perfect balance so we could. But you think that is common?”

  She was right. That bike was far too heavy for the average woman to lift. “You’re a genius, Vivian.” That’s when it hit me, the jiffy stand.

  “What? Care to fill a sister in?” Stella bounced her focus back and forth from me to Vivian.

  “Whoever did the jiffy stand would have needed to be able to semi support the bike while they loosened the screws. I know I doubt that I’d be able to hold that much weight. We’re talking close to a thousand pounds. And let’s be honest, if I can’t do it, then odds are there aren’t any women who’d be able to do it. Fuck, I do this every day for a living. Well, I used to.”

  “You will again. We just need to figure all of this out. Divide and conquer.” Stella pointed in the air. “It’s times like this, I really miss Ariel and her mad note taking skills.”

  Katy fumbled in her purse and pulled out her phone. “Who needs a notebook when there is an app for that.” She winked and then started tapping away as we tossed out ideas.

  “I’ll see what Carter knows.” Stella offered.

  “You know Mike had a Road King; not his deputy bike but he had a personal Road King.” We all shut up and listened as Vivian talked about her late husband, he’d been killed in the line of duty. It’d only been a year and a half, so she still didn’t talk about him often. “I haven't been able to bring myself to sell his bike, so I have it in the garage. If you need to try anything, use his bike.”