End With A Bang (Slap/Bang Duet #2)

5. Official

CHAPTER FIVE

Official

Of all the things Ivy imagined they might do together in this sordid affair, giggling like BFFs in on a private joke never once made the cut.

But that’s what they kept doing. It was only when their eyes met, and it didn’t last long, but it happened every single time.

They hadn’t talked much, partly because she was still recovering from the neverending powergasm, but also because neverending powergasms, it turned out, made her ravenous—and with a snap of his fingers there was a smorgasbord of tasty delights to sample. Factor in the natural high, with her senses extra amped, and each new bite became THE Best Thing She’d Ever Eaten.

On his stomach beside her, considering a strawberry, Sever sent her another sidelong glance, she sent one his way, and it happened again. The giggling. The absurdity of it made them laugh more.

Unable to take it any longer, she asked, “What?”

“Nothing!” As if he were some kind of innocent bystander.

She accused him with a calamari ring. “Stop it.”

He shook his head, beatific. “Never.”

“God,” Ivy said, cheeks warm, and focused on the taste of calamari.

“That’s me.”

She smirked. “You were all Shy Guy an hour ago. Now you’re The Almighty?”

He twisted to his side to face her. “You make me feel a lot of things, Ivy.”

She loved the way he said her name. He didn’t say it, he breathed it. Made it sound like the prettiest name in the world; like it was sophisticated and exotic—not a weed that ruined home exteriors or evoked images of a Batman movie.

He gently brushed her hair off of her neck. “An’ that was two hours ago.”

“It was not.” She checked her watch. So it was. “Oh. That was... so... long.”

“Thank you.”

Playfully, she shoved him. He held her hand to his heart and flopped onto his back with a big ole’ satisfied sigh.

“Hello, protein? Variety?” Ivy wiggled a cluster of fried tentacles over his face. “A man can’t survive on après -sex fruit alone.” She leaned in to add, “Don’t make me the only one with squid mouth.”

He bit it out of her hand.

“Good boy.” In her periphery, she noticed that those words, and the way she was petting his chest, had an interesting effect. On his penis.

Still chewing, he gave her a naughty look.

“ Down, boy,” she chastised his stirring loins. “Act your age.”

Sever put an arm behind his head, nearly upending the fruit platter. “He’s emotionally stunted, I’m afraid.”

She moved the platter away from him, then placed an errant bunch of grapes on his navel, making his skin quiver. She put two cold apple slices on each of his nipples as she said, “How do you keep it up so long? And then all over again?”

“Astounding, i’n’it?” He waggled a brow. “I can go a whole day if I want.”

“Thank you for having mercy on me.” Adhering to his side, she draped one bent leg over his thighs, grabbed two grapes from his navel and popped one in her mouth, one in his. “Come on. You can tell me. What’s your secret?”

“I don’t take anything, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Actually, I thought it might be tantric.”

He smiled and confided in a whisper, “I could be a yogi, all the tricks I know.”

She bit her smiling lip. “Will you teach me some?”

His fingers whispering over her whip marks, he breathed in. “Yeah, I’ll teach you. One condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You only do it with me.” Their eyes met, and she saw how serious he was. Of course, he couldn’t know that she wasn’t having sex with Jason. She’d never told him. But he had to know she couldn’t let Jason see her backside. The marks were still healing, and they were impossible to explain.

“It’s a deal.”

He squinted at her, reading her eyes. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “Only with you.”

They kissed, ardently, again—and she rubbed her inner thigh on his erection and got achy again—until she noticed that the sun’s nightly show had begun.

“God, look at the sky from up here,” she sighed. “This view makes me sick, it’s so sexy.”

“It’s yours whenever you want it.” Sever picked one apple slice off of his body, gave it a munch and held the other to her lips. “Nice and ripe.”

He must have known what he did there. “Tempt me twice, shame on me .”

Finishing the apple slice himself, Sever said, “I mean it. Keep the key, come and go as you like.”

“Shush.” Ivy didn’t want to think Future thoughts. She wanted to think Here and Now thoughts. “Sunset.”

“Oh. What’s it saying?”

She poked his chest. “‘Pay attention’. That’s what it’s saying.”

“Where are you going?” He tried to hold onto her as she climbed over him.

“Front row.” Her feet touched the ground and her trembling legs nearly gave out. Ignoring his snicker, she hobbled to the best seat in the house: a gold chaise, parallel to the wall of windows. Instead of viewing the sunset head on, she lay across the chaise, tucked her feet beneath her, and bowed backward for a deep thigh stretch.

When she looked his way, Sever was still on the bed, cheek propped on his hand, watching her with afterglow eyes. She hadn’t meant to give him a sexy naked yoga demo, but that was clearly how he interpreted it.

She liked the way his hair looked in this light; it highlighted the few streaks of silver that broke up his natural color, a deep burnt umber.

She sat up and patted the upholstery. “Come. Sit.”

He did as she said, only he sat astride the chaise, facing her.

“Don’t look at me, look at the sunset.”

With a pout, he said, “But you look so luscious, all bathed in orange smoglight.”

Snidely, she said, “Way to ruin the magic.”

“That’s what all that hazy orange is, you know.” Nosing closer, he teased her like a little boy coming at her with a creepy crawly, “Bad, evil pollution.”

“Evil or not, it’s beautiful. Look at it.”

Quieted, he kissed her shoulder, put an arm around her, and followed her gaze.

The sun sank out of sight and the sky looked like a painting: brilliant yellows, oranges and reds at the horizon, merging with shades of purple that darkened into a deep indigo blue. She itched for her art toolbox and a canvas.

Well, that was a feeling she hadn’t had in a while.

“Come to Catalina with me,” he whispered at her ear.

“Huh?”

“Got a sailboat at the Del Rey harbor. You and me, sunset on the water. Any weekend you want, or just for a day, we could...”

She couldn’t. Excursions meant excuses which meant lying in the faces of people she didn’t want to think about and...

He stiffened, let her go. “Bad idea. You’re right. Forget it.”

“No, no,” she assured him, squeezing his knee. “It sounds great. Really. Really really... but?—”

He nodded, squinting out the window. “Too fast.”

“I’m still getting used to this wild ‘hotel room’ idea.”

“Yeah. I just... When you’re around, I?—”

She touched a finger to his lips, ran her nails down his naked torso and murmured, “Cinnamon and roses fall to the ground?”

His eyes smiled at her. “Like that, yeah.”

“I wish I didn’t have to feel so guilty,” she whispered. “But I do. Don’t you? Just a little?”

“A little,” he admitted, transfixed by her wedding ring as he rubbed it side to side. “I know I’ve betrayed him, more ways than one. I know he’ll hate me ‘til the day I die, and rightly so. But you’re not his, and you never were.” He raised his gaze to hers. “You’re mine. And I’m yours.”

She stared into that golden hour gaze of absolute conviction, of intense adoration, of possession and surrender, knowing that there were things she should have said in response. She should have tried to prove him wrong, prove herself independent, prove that he was being an impractical romantic... but he’d taken her breath away.

“Come wash off with me before you go.”

In a trance, she took his hand and followed him to the bathroom.