by T. K. Leigh
“Then why do you constantly keep fighting it?”
She stared into his deep green eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
He crushed his lips back to hers, invading her mouth. “Hold on tight, beautiful.” He held on to her thighs and she tightened her grasp around his neck as he carried her up to the bedroom, slowly lowering her delicate frame onto the bed.
Olivia kept her eyes trained on him as he quickly stripped out of his clothes. Climbing on the bed, he planted soft kisses down her collarbone, slowly lifting her shirt over her head. She bucked him with her hips.
“Something I can help you with?” he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
“I need to feel your flesh on mine, Alex. I’ve missed this. Please.”
“Your wish is my desire.” He lowered his body down hers and swiftly helped her remove her jeans and panties before making quick work of her bra.
He raised himself back up, their eyes meeting. “Have I told you how much I’ve missed you?” He caressed her forehead in an affectionate manner. “I’m not talking about just these past few weeks, Olivia,” he said sweetly. “When I was growing up, too. I missed you so much. I never gave up hope that I would find you. You’re my heart. I love you, Olibia.”
She grabbed his neck and forced her lips to his mouth, invading it with her tongue and running her fingers up and down his back. She was so overwhelmed with emotion at Alexander’s passionate words.
“Alex,” she said breathlessly, tearing her mouth away from his while he gently nibbled at her neck. She threw her head back, giving him easier access. Her body flamed with lust and yearning from his attentive touch.
“What is it, Olivia?” he asked between kisses.
“I need you.” She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Please, Alexander,” she implored, closing her eyes as millions of tremors ran through her veins. He wasn’t even inside her, but she felt like she was ready to fall apart. She was experiencing the same amazing sense of excitement from his closeness as she did the very first time she set eyes on him on State Street back a year ago.
“Say it, Olivia,” he whispered against her neck. “Please. I need to hear those words come out of your mouth.” His voice was soft and sincere.
She opened her eyes, gazing at the boy with green eyes. “Alexander, I need you to make love to me.”
He brought his hand up to her face, gently caressing her cheek. She leaned into him as he lovingly admired her. “You are so beautiful, Olivia,” he whispered, brushing that one wayward curl out of her eyes. His lips met hers, their kiss delicate as he ran his hand up and down her body, savoring every inch of her silky flesh.
She moaned into his mouth, his hand leaving a trail of fire as it roamed her body. “Please, Alexander. I need to feel you.”
He grinned. “You will. Let me love you, Olivia. Good things come to those who wait.”
She threw her arm over her head, ready to fall apart from just a simple brush of his hand. “I’m dying here. Please.”
“Patience, beautiful,” he winked as he lowered his head, gently licking her collarbone, his lips traveling down to her breasts. He circled her nipple with his tongue, blowing on it. Olivia arched her back in response, savoring the warmth of his tongue and the cold air on her chest. “I love your breasts, Olivia,” he said sweetly. “Just one of the many things about you that I love.” He returned his mouth to her, licking and sucking as he made his way down her body.
Her breathing became ragged in anticipation when she sensed his warm breath between her legs. She was pretty sure that the second she felt his tongue on her, she would come undone. Her mind raced as she thought how one person could have such an effect on her. It was unlike anything she ever thought possible. Maybe it was because they belonged together, like Alexander had said time and time again.
“Alex,” she moaned when she felt his tongue press on the most sensitive part of her body.
He slowly traced over her swollen clit, sucking gently as he worshipped her with his mouth. “I love the way you taste, Olivia. I know I say that all the time, but I just can’t get enough of you.” He returned his tongue to her, continuing his circular pattern. He loved being able to please her like this.
Olivia moved against him, needing some sort of release after weeks of frustration. “Please, Alex.”
“What, love?” He glanced up, watching her chest heaving. A smile crossed his face when he saw how she responded to him, even after everything they had endured those past few months. “Is it too much? I’ll stop.”
“Don’t you dare!” she screamed. “I’m close, Alex, but I don’t want to come yet.”
He eased a finger inside her, knowing that was going to send her to the brink and over in a matter of seconds. He knew her body, and he loved being able to give her what she needed, even if she didn’t even realize what that was.
She moaned out, the sensation of Alexander’s tongue and finger too much, pushing her body higher and higher before crumbling beneath his expert tongue. Her orgasm consumed every fiber of her being as she shook on the bed.
“I’ll never tire of giving you what you need, Olivia,” he said, raising himself and hovering over her. “That’s my only mission in life. To give you everything you need. I’ll never keep anything from you again. I promise, and I mean it.” His face was full of sincerity.
Olivia grabbed his head, pulling it down to hers, and kissed him with more passion than she ever had. She couldn’t imagine her life without Alexander in it, and she never wanted to go through another day without him by her side.
“Please, Alex. Make love to me,” she begged once more. She wanted to feel the love he had for her, even though she felt it with the way he looked at her day-in and day-out.
He positioned himself between her legs and slowly entered her, filling her as he leaned down, his movement gentle. “I love you, Olibia,” he said quietly as he communicated with his body exactly how special she was to him.
“I love you, too, Alex.” Her nerves tingled as she met his tender pace. She grabbed his face and brought his mouth back to hers. “I just can’t stop kissing you,” she explained with a smile on her face before planting another passionate kiss on him. “I don’t ever want to stop tasting your lips.”
Alexander beamed. “Good.” He slowly flexed toward her, his breathing becoming ragged. “We’ve come a long way from those cootie shots then, haven’t we?”
Olivia grinned, running her fingers up and down his back, savoring the feeling of his muscles beneath her hands. She felt his movements become erratic and knew he was ready to fall apart. She ran her tongue across his neck. “I’ve always loved you, Alex,” she whispered. “Always.”
Her sweet words filled Alexander’s heart with more love than he thought possible and he shuddered, his orgasm taking him by surprise. “I can’t survive without you, Olivia. You’re my heart, and I’ll die without you.” He pushed into her until the last of his tremors subsided, slowly withdrawing from her and pulling her into his body. “Sleep now, beautiful Olibia.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
RECOLLECTION
“DADDY! DADDY! LET’S PLAY a game!” a young Olivia exclaimed when she saw her father walk into her family’s large beach estate. He had been gone for weeks and she missed him. She loved to play with her mama, but her daddy played lots of fun games with her, too.
“Hi, princess. What game did you want to play?”
Olivia spotted several small chests stacked against the bookcase in the great room. “Let’s play Treasure Map, but this time, I’m hiding the treasure!” she answered excitedly, running over and grabbing one of the closed chests.
Olivia’s father smiled. “Okay. Do you think you can do a good enough job at hiding it? I’m pretty good at finding things, Livvy.”
She beamed. “Daddy, please. Where I hide this, you’ll never find it. I can’t wait to draw you a map!” She ran out of the room. “You better not cheat, Daddy!”
&
nbsp; He chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it, princess.”
Later that night, Olivia climbed out of her bed, trying to be quiet so that she didn’t wake her sleeping parents. She tip-toed down the hall and out the basement door that led to the beach. Running quickly down the private beach, she came across the old dilapidated pile of rocks. She knew she wasn’t supposed to go near them, and that made it the perfect hiding spot. Plus, her daddy wasn’t nearly small enough to fit in the cave-fort that she and her best friend could squeeze into. She gingerly crawled inside and buried the chest underneath the sand in the cave. She smiled to herself. Her daddy would never find the chest there.
~~~~~~~~~~
OLIVIA’S EYES FLUNG OPEN, taking in the pitch black room. Of course, she thought to herself. It was all starting to come back to her. Alexander was right. Seeing photos and items from her past was helping her remember. She recalled playing that Treasure Map game with her father. He wasn’t around a great deal, but when he was, she loved playing games with him.
She gently pried herself from Alexander’s arms and legs, sitting up in bed and staring at the beautiful man next to her.
Her stomach churned and she began to feel nauseous. Dashing from the bed, she ran down the stairs, locking herself away in the guest bathroom and vomiting up the contents of her stomach. Shit, she thought to herself. Shit. Shit. Shit. As she continued to lean over the toilet, she did the math in her head.
Flushing the remnants of her dinner down the toilet, she leaned against the wall, trying to figure out what to do. Her period was several weeks late, and she was never late. The past few days, she had been feeling slightly nauseous, but she thought that was due to stress. Now, she was starting to rethink everything.
Raising herself off the floor, she took in her appearance in the mirror. She didn’t look any different. “I don’t think you change overnight, Libby,” she said to herself, standing on her toes and looking at a side-view of her stomach.
Shaking her head, she opened the door to the bathroom, not wanting to think about what it all meant. She wasn’t ready for that yet, not until she could be sure her friends would be safe.
Making her way toward the couch, she debated what to do. After her dream, she finally had an idea about the Treasure Map game she used to play with her dad, but there was something about that memory that was telling her that those papers weren’t buried where she thought. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it so, for the time being, she had to trust the memory that she did have.
As she continued looking through the boxes, memories flooding back every time she found something else, she felt Alexander’s arms slink around her. He leaned down and softly kissed her shoulder.
“Morning, love,” he said. “I woke up and you were gone. I hate that.” His face was in the most adorable pout Olivia had ever seen. She wanted to bite his lower lip as it protruded out.
Her heart raced at the thought that she might be pregnant with his child. She debated whether she should say anything, but if she did and it ended up being true, he would never let her out of his sight. He couldn’t know, for the time being. She wasn’t even sure that she really was pregnant. Smiling, she raised herself off the ground, brushing her lips against his. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t sleep knowing all this stuff is down here,” she lied.
“You have the rest of your life to sort through it all.”
She exhaled slowly. “I know. But I’ve been trying to figure out who I am for years. Having all this information here at my disposal is a little overwhelming.”
“I get it.” He planted a kiss on her forehead, walking toward the kitchen and popping a pod in her coffee brewer. “Coffee?” he asked.
Olivia nodded, watching as Alexander made her a coffee, a warm feeling overtaking her. It felt as if she finally knew where she belonged, almost as if she finally had a family. Almost.
~~~~~~~~~~
“IT FEELS SO GOOD to be out of that fucking house of death and disease,” Kiera said Saturday afternoon as Olivia helped lead her to the couch. The hospital finally cleared her for home rest and the police had released her house so it was no longer considered a crime scene.
“K, are you sure you want to stay here?” Mo asked, his eyes full of concern.
“Jack, stop it. I’m not going to have this conversation with you every day. I need to stay here. I need to make new memories in this house…with you.”
Olivia warmed at her friend’s sweet words, and Mo’s beaming smile in response. They were so happy together.
As she sat visiting with Kiera throughout the weekend, the location of the documents lay heavy on her mind, as did the constant bouts of nausea and headaches. She felt guilty for not telling anyone that she knew what those guys were after, but she knew that Alexander and the rest of her friends would not allow her to do what she had to do.
Monday morning, Olivia woke up before Alexander, running into her bathroom, hoping he wouldn’t hear as she threw up once more. She made a mental note that it would probably be best to finally take a pregnancy test, but she wasn’t sure she wanted confirmation of that fact.
Slowly opening the door and peering at the bed, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Alexander hadn’t moved. Gingerly walking back to the bed, she crawled in beside him, hoping he hadn’t noticed she was gone. Her heart raced when he groaned, stretching, before pulling her body into his. “Morning, beautiful,” he murmured into her ear. “You okay?”
She turned to face him. “Of course, I am. Why are you asking that?” She searched his face, looking for any indication that he had heard her.
A mischievous grin spread across his mouth. “Well, just making sure you’re not sore after last night.”
She playfully punched him, relieved that he hadn’t heard her throwing up. “You’re so full of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a little,” he replied, his eyes bright. “But you still love me.”
Olivia smiled in response, snuggling against his chest. “Of course I do.”
~~~~~~~~~~
ALEXANDER TURNED TO OLIVIA later that morning as they stood by her front door, saying good-bye. “I can have all those boxes brought over to the penthouse. I miss having you there. So do Runner and Nepenthe,” he said.
She exhaled loudly. “I know. I miss them, too. I want to do this here. I don’t know why. I just do.”
He hesitated, wondering why she felt so strongly about that, but he didn’t want to make her angry with him yet again. It wasn’t worth it. Anyway, Marshall and Carter had agreed to sit watch outside of her house for the time being. “Okay, beautiful. Whatever you need.” He leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.
“I’ll see you later on,” she said, brushing her lips against Alexander’s.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she replied, watching as he walked down the steps and into the waiting SUV, Martin at the wheel.
Throughout the morning, she sorted through more boxes, still trying to figure out why she didn’t think the documents were buried in the chest.
Just when she was ready to give up, her phone began ringing. She was surprised to see Simon’s number appear on the screen. A smile crossed her face as she thought about how he had become someone she could depend on over the last few months, someone who would give her the advice she so desperately needed. “Hey, Simon.”
“Hi, Libby. I was just checking in on you to see how everything’s going. I heard about Melanie. How are you holding up?”
“I’m doing better. He came clean, Simon.”
His heart began racing. “What do you mean?”
“Alexander told me everything about my past. He sent over all this stuff his father had kept.”
“His father?” Simon asked in confusion.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” she replied quickly. “That’s not important. What is important is that all these photos, trinkets, stuff like that, have helped me remember things. I’m starting to figure it
out. I know what those guys are after, Simon.” Her voice was excited and pressing at the same time.
“So, where is it?” he asked urgently.
Olivia hesitated briefly. She didn’t want to actually tell anyone the location. What if he found the documents and they got into the wrong hands because he was careless with them? Until Olivia could be certain they would be protected, she didn’t want to divulge the location to anyone.
“Come on, Olivia. You can trust me.”
“I have a pretty good idea, but I’m not entirely sure. I don’t want to say anything until I’m certain about its location.”
“I’ll come over and we can go get it now,” he said rather impatiently. “I mean, let’s go where you think it could be. Might as well try, right?” He laughed nervously.
Olivia immediately became suspicious of Simon. He was acting odd…almost a little too eager to help. She recalled their conversation several months ago during her run. At one point, he had said that he was paid to date her for the sole purpose of obtaining information about her past. It was entirely possible that he didn’t change things around in prison and was still on the payroll. Perhaps it was all a front. That would explain a lot of things. Why he was being so nice to her. Why the guy in Kiera’s house had gotten away even after Simon said he was out cold.
She sank into the couch, angry at herself that she didn’t see it all beforehand and now she had told him that she remembered. “Simon,” she said calmly, trying to hide her nerves. “I’m still trying to figure everything out.”
He exhaled loudly, his irritation apparent. “Well, you do that, Libby. I gotta go.” He hung up the phone, leaving Olivia with her unsettled thoughts about what she had just divulged to him.
She thought about letting Alexander know of her suspicions, but that would mean telling him she had been speaking with Simon. She knew for a fact that he would not handle that information well. He would make sure that she couldn’t leave the house without heavy security presence and, when the time came and she figured it all out, she needed to be able to get away without a tail following her. She had already begun to formulate a plan. But would it work?
