Текст книги "Just To Be With You"
Автор книги: Bella Andre
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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ian was still holding Tatiana when David and Linda came out of the cockpit. “Are you both okay?”
“We’re fine,” Ian told them as he continued to stroke Tatiana’s back. “And in one piece. Thanks to both of you.”
Despite how shaky Tatiana was, she immediately asked Linda, “Are you feeling all right?”
Linda looked confused for a moment before she realized what Tatiana was asking. Putting one hand over her stomach, Linda reassured her, “I’m perfect. Junior here is already quite the flier, just like his parents.”
“We can’t apologize enough for this,” David said. “We had an eye on the incoming storm, but never would have taken off if we’d thought it would blow in that fast. Or that hard.”
Ian had flown more than a million miles with his pilots, and he’d meant it when he told Tatiana he trusted them. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.” But he needed to know something. “How long does it look like it will be until the storm clears?”
“Honestly, we’re not completely sure at this point, but I’d plan on at least a day, maybe two. We’ll do our best to stay on top of it and get you out as soon as it’s safe. Fortunately, we were able to get a message out on the radio,” David told them, “though we seem to be in a cell reception dead zone.”
They were all surprised by the sound of someone yelling outside the plane. The door nearly blew off when David opened it to find a man in a dripping yellow slicker standing on the tarmac. David lowered the stairs, then wrestled the door closed once the man was inside.
“Thank God you all got down safely. Welcome to Port McHardy. I’m Tim. As soon as we got word on the radio that you were making the emergency landing, I headed here. You were on your way to Alaska?”
“We were,” Ian confirmed, before introducing everyone and letting Tim know how much they appreciated his coming out to the plane so quickly. “Since we’ll be here until the storm ends, if you could take us to a hotel, we’d greatly appreciate it.”
“Be happy to. We don’t have any hotels here, but my sister runs a B&B. It’ll be a little tight in my car, especially with your bags and my pup, but I think we should all be able to cram in all right for the few miles through town.”
David and Linda left to gather up their things, and Ian turned his attention back to Tatiana. “How about we get off this plane?”
The breath she inhaled shuddered in her chest, but she smiled at him. “Getting off this plane is one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long time.” He kept her hand in his as she stood up, making sure her legs were steady before he let her go to grab her canvas bag and his own.
“Pretty wet out there, eh?” Tim said, a massive understatement if ever there was one. “I’d offer you an umbrella if it would help, but it would just blow away in this wind.”
By the time they’d all climbed into the car, they were soaked pretty much through. The front window fogged up on the inside and Tim wiped it away with his forearm as he headed away from the airport on a tiny country road.
A little black and white dog decided Tatiana’s lap was the best place in the car to plop his wet rump down. Tim said, “That’s Buster. He’s still a puppy and learning his manners. I can take him up here if he’s bothering you.”
“No, he’s perfect right where he is.” And when Buster stood up on her lap, then put his paws on Ian’s chest and began licking his face like he was a tasty dog treat, everyone laughed as Tatiana said, “Besides, it looks like he’s found a new best friend.”
The B&B was a small private home where Tim’s sister and her husband rented out a couple of spare rooms in the summer to the few travelers who made it all the way up to the northernmost point of the island. Tim had barely brought them inside and explained their predicament, when his sister did a double take. “Oh my gosh, you’re Tatiana Landon.”
Tatiana smiled. “I’m really sorry that we’re dripping all over your floors.”
“My floors have seen worse than this when the steelhead are running. Oh, I so wish my girls were home from university to meet you. They’d be absolutely thrilled.”
Her brother cut off her gushing to remind her why they were there. “This time of year, you’ve got both rooms open, don’t you?”
“Didn’t I tell you? Bryan and I decided to completely redo one of them.” She was clearly distraught to have to tell them, “I’m so sorry, but I’ve only got one room open.”
“David and Linda will stay here with you,” Ian said. When they immediately protested, he shook his head. “You’ve both already been too flexible where I’m concerned, and after what you pulled off getting us down safely through that storm, I insist. Tatiana and I will figure out something else.”
“I’ve got that space above my barn,” Tim offered, obviously thinking they were a couple. “My youngest uses it when he comes home from school.”
“Oh no,” his sister protested, “you couldn’t put guests up there.”
“A room above your barn sounds perfect,” Tatiana said. She turned to look at Ian, and even with her wet hair plastered to her head, she was so beautiful she took his breath away. “Doesn’t it?”
They all smelled like dog. His wool suit was destroyed. His entire schedule had just been thrown entirely out of whack. And they were going to be stranded on an island in a college kid’s room above a barn for who knew how long?
But as Ian looked down at Tatiana’s smiling face, he couldn’t bring himself to worry about any of it. Not when he’d just been given the most unexpected and precious gift of his life—a few more hours with her.
“Yes,” he agreed, unable to tear his eyes from hers. “It sounds absolutely perfect.”
* * *
“It really is perfect!” Tatiana declared when Tim let them into the private space he had created for his college-age son.
Straight out of Tatiana’s “one day I’ll live in the country” dreams, the floors were pickled pine, and the pine bed frame on the far wall looked to be homemade, as did the kitchen cabinets in the small eating area. There was an old TV set and baskets of games and movies, along with a comfy-looking couch that evidently pulled out into another bed.
They’d stopped by Tim’s home so that his super nice and pretty wife could load them up with some food to get them through to the next day. At Ian’s urging—in the event that someone in town heard Tatiana was here after being on a plane that had made an emergency landing and posted the news on Twitter or Facebook—she’d used Tim’s phone to leave a quick voice mail for her sister and agent, to let them both know she was fine. He’d also placed a couple of calls. One to Bethany so that she could make the necessary adjustments to his schedule and to let his executive staff know they should deal with anything urgent that came up—apart from Flynn, because he’d given the man his word that they would deal with each other directly. His second call was to the head of the company in Alaska he should have been meeting with right then to let him know what had happened.
Tatiana knew how important Ian’s Tuesday afternoon meeting with Flynn was, and she hated the thought of anything going wrong with the acquisition when he had put so much time and energy into it. But when she’d told Ian she hoped the weather would clear up in time for him to get back for it, instead of agreeing with her, he’d given her a look she hadn’t quite been able to read.
“If you need to use the phone in the house again,” Tim said, “just drop by and go ahead. We always meant to put one in here, but never got around to it. The doors are always unlocked, so no need to wait for one of us to let you in.”
“I can’t think of the last time I haven’t been near a phone or the Internet. What a gift that is,” Tatiana said, smiling at the man who had been their knight in shining armor all afternoon. “Thank you so much for everything, including this chance to unplug for a little while.”
“We really can’t thank you enough for putting us up like this,” Ian agreed. “If there’s anything I can do for you in the future, just let me know.”
“When I heard over the radio that your plane was having trouble, I was just praying you’d make it down in one piece. Had to have been pretty scary. We’re all just happy to help.”
But Ian was already handing him a damp business card. “This has all my contact information. I hope you’ll let me do something really nice for you and your family one day soon.”
“Well, thanks. And don’t hesitate to come on in if you need anything. Two more for dinner would be no problem if you change your mind.”
When he closed the door behind Tim, Tatiana told Ian, “It feels like we’ve landed in another world, another reality, doesn’t it?” She looked out one of the barn windows. “Even outside we can’t see more than a few feet in front of us. It’s as if the storm has blocked out every—” The chatter of her teeth suddenly made it hard to finish the word. “Everything.”
Ian lifted a hand to her cheek. “You’re frozen solid.”
Suddenly, she realized just how true that was, especially when he’d miraculously managed to stay so warm. “I’m sure I just need to get out of these clothes.” But it was darn near impossible to get them off when she couldn’t get her numb fingers to work right.
The next thing she knew, Ian had her in his strong arms and he was carrying her over to the bathroom. He turned the shower on, and when steam rose, he took them both under the spray, then put her back on her feet.
“I nearly got you killed in my plane. I won’t let you get sick, too.”
“You’re the one who got me through the flight in one piece,” she protested. “I would have lost it if you weren’t there, telling me about all the fun you used to have with your brothers and Mia.” The warmth of the shower was heaven sent, but Ian’s warmth affected her even more. And though he was focused on taking care of her, the sensuality and attraction that had always sizzled between them was quickly rising up as he began to strip her icy clothes off. “It feels so good, being here with you.”
His hands stilled as his inner conflict showed in both his expression.
Ian was constantly trying to take care of everyone. His family, with the trusts he’d set up for them. His pilots, both by asking after Linda’s health and then by making sure they would be comfortable during their unexpected stay in town. Everyone involved with the Seattle Family Foundation.
And now her.
He thought he needed to pull away to “protect” her, and the truth was that she still didn’t know how to convince him otherwise. All she knew was that being here with him now, in their own private world, wonderfully captive in a storm, felt like the best thing that had ever happened to her. Especially when she thought about the way he’d opened up to her on the plane when they were running through her script together.
He’d told her about the safety nets he’d put into place so that his family would never feel vulnerable or scared again, and she’d known with absolute certainty that Ian would do anything in his power to keep from feeling that way himself. That he’d push away anything—or anyone—that made him feel vulnerable.
Wishing that she could find a way to convince him that he was safe with her, she said, “For as long as we’re here, for as long as the real world is beyond the storm, let’s pretend this is all there is. Just you and me.”
She was watching his face so carefully that she could see just how much her suggestion tempted him. Still, he tried to caution them both, a protector to his core. “The storm won’t last forever.”
“I know. But it’s here now. And so are we.”
She wanted desperately to kiss him. But she’d been the one who had made the first move on the night of her Oscar nomination, and had been the one to kiss him again on Friday night at the fundraiser.
This time, he had to be the one to decide.
His gaze was so dark, his expression so conflicted…before he uttered one low, heartfelt curse, then lowered his mouth to hers.
Ian’s mouth was so warm, felt so good, tasted so delicious, that Tatiana could have kissed him like that forever if he hadn’t needed to lift her sweater over her shoulders. She was yanking his shirt from his pants when he abruptly pulled back.
“Damn it, we can’t do this.”
“The real world doesn’t count here, remember?” She couldn’t keep the need, or the frustration, from her voice.
“I don’t have any condoms. There’s been no one but you since the wedding months ago, but—”
“I’m on the Pill.” She had already finished stripping away his shirt as she told him, “I’ve been on it for years to deal with bad cramps.”
He quickly ripped off the rest of her clothes and lifted her up so that her back was pressed flat against the tiles. His hands were everywhere at once—her breasts, her hips, then back up to thread through her hair so that he could take her mouth at exactly the right angle to drive them both to the brink of insanity.
“Every single second since Friday,” he said as he found her wet and hot and ready for him, the words resounding raw and deep in the small tiled shower, “I’ve wanted you again. You’re all I’ve been able to think about, Tatiana.”
“It’s been the same for me.”
And, oh God, when he entered her skin-to-skin, even bigger, even harder than she remembered, it felt so good that she moaned and arched her back and neck, heedless of the hard tile behind her head until she knocked into it.
He cradled her head in his hands. “Sweetheart? Are you okay?”
“I’m perfect. Just please,” she begged, barely noticing the slight throb in the back of her skull, “please don’t stop. You feel so good inside me like this, with nothing between us.”
The next thing she knew he was turning off the water and carrying her from the shower to the bed. She clung tightly to him, loving the way he moved inside of her as he took them across the room.
They dropped onto the covers in a wet tangle of limbs and their lovemaking was a perfect blur of desire and desperation as he stroked, aroused, possessed every last inch of her. She loved it, loved when he lost control, loved knowing she could do this to him when he was so utterly controlled in every other moment, even when it had looked like their plane might go down.
She knew she’d been all he’d thought of then, just as she knew she was all he thought of now. He was utterly focused on her pleasure, and her happiness, as he sent her tumbling heart-first into a climax that already felt so good she wasn’t sure she’d survive it.
And when he stared into her eyes as he finally let himself go, too, she knew with perfect certainty that he’d truly never meant to hurt her. Because everything he’d ever done, even pushing her away, had been because he cared.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Can I ask you something?”
Ian’s lungs still burned with the need for oxygen. The need to take Tatiana, to possess her and make her his, had become such an obsession that desire obliterated common sense every time he touched her. Hell, so much as looking at her or catching her scent in a room made him go a little crazier.
Now, in the aftermath of crazy, they were tangled in each other on the small bed, with the quilt bunched beneath their damp, naked bodies. He growled, “If you’re going to ask me why...”
She laughed, her breasts bouncing against him as she said, “I’m pretty sure I already know why this time. Although—” She gave a little nip at his shoulder. “—I may ask you later, anyway, just to see you get all riled up. But only because I never quite know what you’re going to do or how you’re going to take me when you’re like that.” She made a little hum of pleasure. “A little rough. A little angry. A little fast. A little hard.”
Even as a fresh hit of need nailed him, guilt rose. “Tatiana, I shouldn’t—”
“I’ve told you again and again, you should. In fact, speaking of all the things the two of us should be doing together...” She purposely left him hanging there for a few seconds, not because she was an actress who knew how to play her audience, but because she was a beautiful woman with an innate sense of just how to make her lover crave her more with every second she spent in his arms. “I know I don’t have the sexual experience you do—”
“Jesus, if you knew anything more we might never make it outside a bedroom ever again.”
Did she have any idea how sensual her answering smile was? Clearly, she liked the idea of being locked in a bedroom with him forever. And because something told him her question would likely do more than just rile him up, he decided to do whatever he could to get her to forget all about it. But though she let him roll her beneath him for yet another heated kiss that he couldn’t resist taking from her, when he made himself pull back for a moment to let her breathe, he could see that she hadn’t forgotten what she wanted to say. His beautiful, brilliant girl never did.
His?
No, she wasn’t really his, he reminded himself silently, and brutally. But even as he thought it, his hands tightened on her.
Only here, in this strange island world so completely separated from reality, could he let himself possess her.
Only for as long as the rain and wind drove the leaves from the trees outside, and the rough waves of salt water carved out chunks of the cliffs, could he reach for her and know that she was right there reaching for him, too.
Only for this rare moment in time when he was completely cut off from phones and computers could he devote himself entirely to the beautiful woman beside him.
The storm outside, he knew, would end too soon. But the storm inside of him would rage, crashing between desperate desire and the knowledge that what he had to offer could never be enough for Tatiana.
Ian came out of his swirling thoughts to find Tatiana’s eyes, clear and sparkling, on his. How many of his thoughts had she read? Too many, he was sure. Enough that sometimes he might as well just speak every thought he had out loud.
“Go ahead, ask your question,” he said, in a voice rough with desire—and affection for her that grew from moment to moment.
“Well, I was hoping while we’re here and real life is on hold for a little while, maybe you could teach me…” This time she didn’t draw out her words to tantalize. She did it because she was clearly embarrassed. Her skin was flushed as she finally said, “Things.”
“Things?” The word came out strangled from his throat. “You want me to teach you things?”
“Yes.” Such innocence, even as she made the sexiest request on the planet. “Sexy things.” There was another pause, another moment of obvious bashfulness, before she lifted her bright eyes back to meet his. “Please.”
It was the sweet and simple please that got him. That, and the fact that for all his legendary self-control, in this small room, on this island, in the throes of this storm, he was lost.
Completely, utterly lost in Tatiana. Even when he knew better than to drag either of them deeper...
She watched him, clearly confused as he got up off the bed and walked naked—and aroused—across the room to pick up one of the red-painted wooden chairs. Deliberately, he set the chair at the foot of the bed and sat down on it.
“Touch yourself.”
He could see a thousand new questions pop up in her eyes, but she finally settled on only one. “Is this your way of saying yes?”
He didn’t smile, though he wanted to. He didn’t reassure her, either. She’d said just minutes earlier that it turned her on when he was a little rough. A little hard. Lord knew his erection was as hard as it had ever been from nothing more than looking at her sitting sweet and naked on the crumpled quilt.
“Touch. Yourself.” Each word was spoken as a command, because for all her strength, for all her determination, it was obvious to him that she also loved giving herself up to his dominance in the bedroom. Not every time, perhaps, but definitely tonight.
While he taught her things.
Jesus, he thought as his erection pulsed hard between his thighs, he wanted to pounce on her, wanted to take her again and again until he’d figured out a way to burn through his fierce need for her. Instead, he forced himself to remain on the chair as she blushed and began to slowly slide her hand on top of her stomach.
She bit her lip, the flush now moving from her cheeks to spread over her breasts. “Do you want me to touch my breasts? Or...between my legs?”
He didn’t stop his lips from curving into a smile this time. Of course, as an actress, she would ask him for direction. And he would give it to her. Only, it wouldn’t be anywhere close to the kind of direction she was expecting.
“I want you touch yourself the way you have, alone in your bed, naked beneath the sheets, since the day you met me at the wedding.” Her eyes grew even wider as he said, “I want you to show me if my own fantasies about you were right.”
“You fantasized about me?”
“I thought you wanted me to teach you things,” he replied in a deceptively gentle voice, “but from the way you keep stalling with more questions, maybe you aren’t serious, after all.”
That was all it took to persuade her to shift on the bed so that she was lying on her back with her legs falling open on the messy bed covers. From his perfect vantage point, he could see that she was still aroused from their earlier lovemaking, the smooth skin between her thighs plump and slick. Her hair was wet and tangling over her shoulders, where a few marks from his lips and teeth were starting to come into stark bruised relief against the pale skin. There was no order whatsoever to any part of the picture she painted before him...and yet, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever set eyes on.
Order, he was beginning to believe whenever they were together, was vastly overrated.
She brought her hands up to her breasts and as she softly cupped them, her eyes fluttered closed. Looking as if she was going deeper into her imagination, into the fantasies she’d once created about the two of them, her hands squeezed, pinched, caressed her soft flesh and nipples that grew harder by the second. When a low moan fell from her lips, he decided it was time to push her a little farther.
“Very pretty,” he said, wanting her to know how much he appreciated, and approved, of what she was doing before he shoved her all the way past comfort. “But I want more, Tatiana.” Hell, he wanted so much from her that it was nearly ripping him to shreds.
“Tell me what you want, Ian. Tell me and I’ll do it.”
“I want you to tell me what I’m doing to you in your fantasies.”
Her hands nearly slipped from her skin as a number of different emotions—surprise, lust, fear, along with determination to see this through—raced across her beautifully expressive face. But when only lust and determination remained, she held his gaze as she began to speak in an intoxicatingly sensual tone.
“After we met at the wedding and you shook my hand, I couldn’t forget the way it felt. Your hand was so big, so warm, and rougher than I thought it would be for a businessman. I couldn’t stop thinking, fantasizing, about what it would feel like if you were touching me somewhere else.” She didn’t so much as blink as she told him, “Everywhere else.”
He swallowed hard as she moved her hands away from her breasts to slide over her neck, and then to her flushed face. “I wondered what it would feel like if you held me still so that you could kiss me exactly the way you wanted to. And how it would be if you fisted your hands in my hair—” She moved one hand from her cheek to her damp locks. “—so that I had to go wherever you decided to take me.” Her hips shifted slowly up and down on the bed in a rhythm that told him just how ready she already was to take him again. “I wanted so badly for you to take me.”
She was whispering now as she ran her hands back down over her neck, her collarbones, and then the upper slope of her breasts. And, oh, how he’d wanted it, too, wanted to take her every single second from that first handshake. Knowing that she’d been just as hungry, just as desperate for him, didn’t just send him all the way to the edge, it nearly tipped him into the abyss. But if he moved, if he spoke, he knew she’d stop confessing her erotic fantasies to him, so he stayed exactly where he was, even as he watched her fingers move over her nipples, rougher on the second trip so that her flesh stood hard on the tips of her full breasts when she finally continued her journey down over her ribs.
“I knew that if—when—you took me, it would be good, better than anything I’d ever known.” Her mouth curved up into a sexy smile as she brought one hand back up to her breasts and let the other move lower, then lower still, until her fingers hovered just above her sex. “I was right.”
Her fingers had barely slicked over her clitoris when Ian could no longer hold back from touching her, too. On a deep groan of need, he got up from the chair, moved to the bed, and slid one finger, then two, into her. She lifted her hips into his hand, but when she began to slide her own fingers away, he said, “No, I want you to keep touching yourself.”
“But you’re—”
“Needing to be closer to you.”
The words that should have come out simply as sexy, ended up being about so much more. Because as much as he wished he could hide from her just how deeply and strongly she affected him, in moments like this when she gave herself entirely up to him, he couldn’t find a way not to give her at least part of himself, too.
“I need it, too,” she said, and then just as he’d told her, she continued sliding her fingers over herself in a circular pattern that matched perfectly the deliberately slow pace he’d set between her thighs. She watched through heavy-lidded eyes the way their hands worked in unison over and into her, to bring her higher and higher with every stroke, with every swirl.
“Did you ever dream of this? Of both of us touching you this way?”
“No.” The short word was little more than a gasp as he pushed just a little deeper, a little harder. “In my fantasies it was always just you touching me. Never both of us.” She shook her head, admitted, “I didn’t know we could do this together.”
“So much,” he said in a low voice, “there’s so much we can do together. Like this.” He took one of her nipples into his mouth. And as he suckled it, both of their hands naturally picked up the pace between her legs.
Now that he knew just how sweet, how soft, how hungry she was, every time he had her only made him wild with craving more of her. “I want all of your orgasms to be mine.” He’d already taken too much from her, but he couldn’t control the urge to want more.
“They are yours. Only yours, Ian.”
He loved the way his name fell from her lips again and again, growing more and more ragged as they both took her closer to her climax. On a light scrape of his teeth over the tip of her breast, he growled, “Come for me. Only for me, sweetheart.”
A sob tore from her throat as she went completely taut at his command, then broke apart, inch by gorgeous inch, beneath his mouth and hand and her own, as well. Nothing in the world but Tatiana would ever be this beautiful, this precious.
Between Thursday night and today, she’d come apart again and again for him. But his utter lack of control meant that he needed to see more, needed to feel more, needed to take her up even higher, needed to be right there as she experienced greater and greater pleasure, until he was absolutely certain that she had nothing left to give to him. And maybe then, he told himself, he would finally be able to sate his desperate need for her.
He wouldn’t let her recover, not wanting to let her catch her breath or think or do anything but feel. She was still trembling as he moved to kneel on the rug beside the bed. Putting her legs over his shoulders, he found her core to be deliciously hot and wet against his lips and tongue. With his fingers still moving hard, fast, and deep into her, he nudged her own hand away from her sex.
This time, there was no slow buildup to her climax, no need to coax—or demand—that she come apart for him. And as one orgasm spiraled into another, though she’d already given him so much more than he deserved, when he moved again to his feet and gripped her hips in his hands to pull her to the edge of the mattress, he couldn’t catch his own breath.
All he could do was feel.
A heartbeat later he was completely inside her and he couldn’t look away from her beautiful eyes, so green and so full of love for him.
She’d done exactly what he told her to do from the moment he’d pulled the chair up to the foot of the bed, but now she surprised him by reaching up to wind her hands around his neck and kiss him so sweetly that before he knew what had happened, she’d rolled them over so that he was flat on his back and she was on top.
They’d moved straight from lesson one to lesson two, but this time he wasn’t the teacher.
She was.
And, Lord, the things she taught him as she kissed him hungrily while rubbing her breasts over his chest and grinding her hips into his.
He’d never known desire could be this sharp, this sweet, this overwhelming.
He’d never known a woman could be this soft and this strong, this innocent and yet so beautifully sensual all at the same time.
And he’d never known, until they drove each other higher before reaching the pinnacle of the storm together, just how high it was possible for a man to reach...or how far it was possible for a man to fall.
