Evie believed him. For some reason, she had always trusted Ian with the responses of her body, and she trusted him with them now.
She felt the pleasure rising higher and higher and then crash over and become completely overwhelming as Ian continued to thrust and claim until she was a quivering, melting mess, her breath caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
Ian’s arms moved about her when her knees buckled and she began to slide to the floor. “Are you okay?”
A blush heated her cheeks. “That was— I feel a little light-headed.”
He chuckled softly. “That probably has nothing to do with my lovemaking and more to the fact you haven’t eaten anything today.”
It was true the two of them never had gotten around to eating lunch, and the bowl of cereal Evie had eaten for breakfast seemed a long time ago too.
The delicious smell of food wafting from the kitchen area was causing her stomach to churn in protest at that lack of food.
Tension ate up calories. Lovemaking ate up calories. Arguing ate up calories, and she and Ian did more of that than they did anything else.
Her legs definitely still felt shaky, and she was also feeling more than a little self-conscious of her nakedness now the euphoria of her climax was starting to fade. She grabbed the towel from the floor and wrapped it around herself. “Don’t you want me to…?”
“Want you to what?”
She snorted her exasperation. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it isn’t going to work, so stop teasing me. You know exactly what I meant.”
“I do.” He stroked his hand down the warmth of her cheek. “But we have all night.”
Evie swallowed. “Ian, we aren’t going to spend the night together.”
His brow lowered. “I told you I was staying here tonight.”
She nodded. “And I heard you. But that new couch you don’t like pulls out into a double bed. If you stay, that’s where you’ll be sleeping.”
“Isn’t that a little like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?”
She snorted. “Likening yourself to a stallion now?”
He shook his head. “I’m wondering why the hell I have to sleep on the couch when I know your bed is big enough for two people.”
“Because this is my apartment, and if you stay, that’s where you’ll be sleeping.”
He scowled. “You know, this new assertive Evie could get old very quickly.”
She chuckled softly at his disgruntled expression. “I’m going to dress while you cook the pasta.”
“I’d really rather you were naked.” His voice had lowered huskily. “I would enjoy looking at and touching your bare pussy whenever I want.”
Her eyes widened, and warmth colored her cheeks. “I am not eating my dinner naked!”
“You’ve done it before.”
She remembered. She also remembered Ian sweeping all the dinner things off the table so they could make love on top of it. “Well, I’m not doing it again now.”
“I’ll undress too, if it makes you feel more comfortable,” he offered throatily.
Less embarrassed maybe, but certainly not more comfortable. Ian fully dressed was disturbing enough. Sitting down to eat dinner with him completely naked precluded her not being able to eat at all. It also meant the two of them sharing a bed tonight would be a given.
“One of us might spill hot Bolognese sauce on ourselves,” she teased. “Which would be very uncomfortable and maybe take some explaining if it’s bad enough to have a doctor look at it.”
He sighed his disappointment. “Okay, go and dress. Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. And, Evie,” he added as she turned away. “This conversation isn’t over.”
Evie hadn’t for a moment thought that it was.
Chapter 7
“That was really good,” she praised once she had finished eating, the two of them seated—fully dressed—at the dining table in the breakfast area of her kitchen. She had also opened a bottle of red wine for Ian to drink with his meal. Just because she didn’t drink alcohol was no reason why Ian shouldn’t.
Not that this was a formal dinner by any stretch of the imagination. Evie was now dressed as casually as Ian, in jeans that had probably been washed a few too many times, and an overlarge T-shirt that had once been Adam’s.
“Still think I’m a selfish, heartless bastard?” Ian prompted.
She winced. “I was angry with you when I said that.”
“But you meant it, didn’t you?”
She looked at him searchingly. “And that bothers you?”
“Of course it bothers me.” His eyes appeared black, the dark brown iris completely swallowed up by the pupil. “I’m a bastard, maybe, but I’m not selfish or heartless.”
She met his gaze. “Tell me you didn’t deliberately make love to me in the hallway after Trevor left in order to prove a point?” She saw the truth of that accusation in his eyes. “That’s what I thought.” She sighed.
“You said there would be no regrets,” he reminded her as he sipped his wine.
“I don’t regret a thing, Ian. It’s your own motivation I’m questioning. Why you felt the need to make that claim at all when I had already assured you Trevor and I were not involved in that way and never have been.” It also made complete nonsense of Ian’s earlier disparaging comments. “You didn’t answer my question as to why you deliberately push people away.”
“I believe I was very close to you earlier,” Ian taunted.
Evie’s gaze remained steady on his, although she felt the warmth that colored her cheeks. “I’m not talking about physically, and you know it.”
Ian did know it, yes. As he also knew he wasn’t going to discuss the reason for that with Evie. Not now. Not ever. “I answered. You just didn’t like the answer I gave you.”
“Because it was flippant and insincere.”
Ian raised mocking brows. “You don’t believe I like fucking women? Fucking you?”
“Oh, I’m sure you do. Like fucking women, that is.” Her gaze became challenging as he immediately scowled at her use of that word. “But that answer has nothing to do with the question I asked you.”
“What the hell do you want, expect, from me?” He snapped his impatience. “Will an outpouring of emotional crap satisfy you? Such as I had a terrible childhood? My mother and father didn’t understand me? My first girlfriend broke my heart and I’ve never loved again since? I was bullied and beaten in the army? Is that the sort of rubbish you want to hear?”
“Only if it’s the truth.”
It wasn’t. His mother and father were great people. He hadn’t loved his first girlfriend, so she couldn’t have broken his heart. He had loved the years he’d spent in the army; most of the friends he had now were from that time. His childhood had been amazing. It had been much, much later when his life fell apart.
He stood up abruptly and took his plate with him as he crossed the kitchen before rinsing the plate and loading it into the dishwasher.
Evie’s heart sank as she watched Ian, knowing by his rigidly controlled movements that something he had said to her had hit too close to home. But what?
His parents.
His childhood.
The army.
His first girlfriend.
Something had most definitely disturbed him about their conversation.
“What are you staring at?”
Evie flinched at the aggression in Ian’s tone. The wince that followed was guilt laden as she realized she was staring at him. But only because she was—
Was what?
Analyzing him, as he had accused her of doing?
“I’m sorry, I was miles away and didn’t realize I was staring,” she dismissed lightly. “Did you find out anything new from your phone calls earlier?” Changing the subject seemed the best thing right now.
Ian’s brow cleared. “Nothing concrete. I have people checking into it.”
“What people?” She wasn’t sure she liked t
he idea of these other nameless people, ones she didn’t know, being privy to that sort of information about her family.
“My people.”
“Who are?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
“Yes, I do. Adam is my brother, and right now, he’s missing.”
“And I know how this stuff works, okay?” he reasoned as she continued to frown. “More importantly, I know the people who know how it works. So just leave me to do my thing in my own way, okay?”
“Do I have a choice?” she snapped.
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.” She picked up her own plate and crossed the kitchen to repeat the same process of rinsing and then loading it into the dishwasher before switching the machine on. “Do you want to watch something on TV?” She would have preferred to go to the privacy of her bedroom, but it was far too early to go to bed, and if she did, it might look like an invitation rather than her needing to escape. “I think I might even have a superhero movie somewhere,” she added teasingly.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re humoring me?” Ian muttered as he followed her through to the sitting room.
“Because I am?” She searched through the movies in her collection until she found the one she was looking for. “The hero in this is pretty hot.”
“And that’s the reason you bought it?”
And the fact the hero looked a little like Ian. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.
“This isn’t half-bad.” Ian had taken off his boots and stretched full length on the couch while Evie put on the movie.
“Comfortable?” She gave him a pointed glance over her shoulder.
“It’s not as wide as your last couch, but I’m pretty sure it’s big enough for two.” He scooted over to make room for her as the movie started.
Evie was tempted, but if she lay on the couch with him, they were going to be snuggled up pretty intimately together. Much as she longed to be in Ian’s arms again, she didn’t think it was a good idea. There was no doubting the sexual attraction between them was still off the charts, but it only masked the tension and didn’t resolve the cause of it.
She gave a shake of her head. “I’m fine in the armchair, thanks.”
“Please yourself.” Ian settled back against the cushions to watch the movie as Evie sat in the chair across the other side of the room.
She instantly felt miserable at his easy acceptance of her refusal. Which was ridiculous when she was the one who had made the decision it was safer if she stayed away from him.
“Do you have any popcorn?”
“Popcorn?” she repeated dubiously.
Ian nodded. “I always eat popcorn when I watch movies.”
“Not that I’m aware of.” And as she did the food shopping, she was very aware.
“Nachos? Crisps? Chocolate?” He was starting to sound desperate.
She stood up. “I’ll go and see what I can find.”
She found a packet of nachos and a dip, something she occasionally put out when she had company or Adam joined her for dinner.
Adam.
Merely thinking of her brother, worrying about where he could be and what might be happening to him, caused an overwhelming tide of despair to wash over her and almost brought her to her knees. As it was, she had to lean back against one of the kitchen units and close her eyes to calm what she recognized as a panic attack. She’d had them occasionally as a child but never as an adult.
“Bend over and take deep breaths.”
Ian was slightly out of focus when she opened her lids. The kitchen floor was also dipping and swaying.
“Bend.” Ian put his hand on her nape to guide her down so that her face almost touched her knees. “Deep breaths.” He came down on his haunches beside her. “What brought this on? Was it something I did or said? I know I can be brash at times.”
She shook her head. “I was thinking about Adam. I’m just so worried about him.”
“You don’t always have to be brave or in control.” His voice was as soothing as the hand gently caressing her nape.
Her smile was self-derisive. “I’m very rarely the latter where you’re concerned.”
Maybe not, but Ian knew she was always brave. On the surface, at least. Because she’d had to be. Mainly because her father had been an alcoholic and her brother always expected someone else—Evie—to dig him out of whatever hole he had dug for himself this time.
It hadn’t taken Ian long to realize Evie coped with that responsibility by being the sensible one in the family. The unflappable one. The one who never made waves herself. Always calm. Always in control.
Except with him.
From the beginning, she had given him that control. Trusted him in a way no other woman had, with her body and herself. The more Ian had come to know her, how reserved she was with other people and her emotions, he had realized what a gift that was.
And still he had walked away.
Because he had to, damn it.
He couldn’t… He daren’t stay. Because the longer he remained, the more chance he had of hurting her and the harder it would have been for him to leave when the time came. As it was, it had almost killed him to let her go. To know he would never see Evie again. Never hold her in his arms. Never make love with her again.
Unbelievably, in the past twenty-four hours, he had done all of those things again.
Oh, Evie had been angry with him at first, furious in fact, but ultimately, it hadn’t mattered. The two of them were together again now. And Ian wasn’t leaving this time until he knew Evie was absolutely safe.
He kept his hand on her nape as he helped her to straighten up. “Feeling better?”
“A little.”
“You really don’t have to be brave with me, either,” he assured her gently.
Tears suddenly flooded the deep blue of her eyes. “Please don’t be nice to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because—because if you are, I might fall in love with you again, and I may not survive when you leave a second time.”
Jesus.
He swallowed. “You were in love with me?”
Evie almost laughed at the stunned expression on Ian’s face. Almost. Because the awe that followed made her heart ache. As if it had never occurred to him she had been in love with him three years ago. Evie wished she hadn’t told him now either.
She really had to lighten up this conversation. “You don’t have to look so worried.” She punched him in the arm. “I was admitting to being in love with you then, not now.”
“You never said so.”
She raised mocking brows. “Well, of course I didn’t. The man is supposed to say it first, and as you were never going to, neither did I.” It had been her one saving grace after Ian left, her last shred of pride, that she had never told him how much she loved him. “But don’t worry, I soon got over it. Once I accepted you were just like one of those superheroes you tell me you love to watch and read about. Nothing but smoke and mirrors. A myth.”
“Thanks.” He frowned. “I think.”
Evie laughed softly. “Men like you are the reason so many women end up discontented with their life. No mere flesh-and-blood man could ever measure up.”
“I’m flesh and blood,” he protested.
“But you also save women from being shot in auditoriums. Stop them from confronting the arch villain. And rescue them from a night at the opera with Clark Kent.”
Ian started to grin. “You don’t like the opera?”
She shook her head. “I know I’m supposed to like it, but it actually bores me so much, I want to fall asleep.”
“And Clark Kent?”
“He bores me too.” Saying it out loud made Evie realize it was true.
Trevor was courteous and kind, took her to wonderful restaurants, liked to talk about books and the theatre, and he always kissed her modestly on the cheek at the end of the evening.
Evie felt comfortable in his undemandin
g company, and she knew he felt the same way about her. She also knew that at some time in the future, Trevor was going to ask her to marry him so that they could continue being comfortable together. He made no secret of the fact he had considered his first wife to have been the love of his life and that he was now looking for companionship, not love or passion.
Until yesterday, Evie had thought she was going to accept his proposal when it came.
Twenty-four hours of Ian Knight, and she knew she could never settle for comfortable when she had experienced such delicious excitement and intense sexual pleasure with him.
She had experienced delicious excitement and intense sexual pleasure. The bulge in Ian’s jeans showed he was still sporting a very large and very long erection.
“What are you doing?” Ian eyed her uncertainly as she gave him a gentle push toward the kitchen table. “Evie?” he questioned sharply as she unfastened the button on his jeans. “Don’t you want to watch the movie?” Her answer was to give him another push in the chest so that he sat down abruptly on one of the chairs.
Evie laughed softly as she lifted and then removed his T-shirt before sliding gracefully down to her knees in front of him and sliding the zip down on his jeans. “Lift up.”
“I don’t think—”
“Thinking isn’t allowed at the moment.” She eyed him sternly. “I’m a woman on a mission, Ian, and you really don’t want to mess with me right now.”
“I don’t?” He lifted up enough for her to be able to slide his jeans and boxers down to midthigh.
“Definitely not.” Evie’s mouth watered at the sight of his fully aroused cock as it jutted up toward his navel. It was just as thick and long as she remembered, engorged veins running along its length, with pre-cum leaking from the slit at the tip. She heard Ian groan as she reached out to curl her fingers around that silky hot and throbbing flesh. “Still want me to stop?” She stroked her hand down toward the root, holding him there tightly as she ran her tongue across the sensitive tip. She could feel the tremors that shook his body as she lapped up his pre-cum.
“Only a moron would want you to stop now, and I’m not a moron.” But he did sound slightly breathless.
Good. Evie wanted him to be as disconcerted and open to her as she had been to him earlier in the hallway.
Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5) Page 7
