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

8. Blast Off

CHAPTER EIGHT

Blast Off

He never ceased to surprise her.

From the moment they met, Sever threw her for a loop, and she hadn’t been let off the loop-de-loop yet. Sometimes he was at the controls, like when he’d break out an amazing Tantric technique or crash a girl’s night out, but more often the loop was unintentional; as subtle as his choice of shirt, or a rare glimpse into his everyday life.

This was one of those glimpses. As they hoisted the sails a few miles from shore, Sever dutifully followed Vikram’s orders, treating his butler like a respected friend. Clearly, Sever was confident enough—and trusted her enough—to dispense with appearances and drop the Master of All Trades bit for a day. It was endearing, and sexy, and also... white t-shirt.

Ivy didn’t want to ‘sit there and look pretty’, like Sever had suggested she do, so she joined the sailing lesson. Or, she tried. Vikram might as well have been speaking in tongues. Wing the jib! Pull it hand tight in the cleat!

“What it how where in the why?” Ivy asked Vikram, finding herself holding an important rope. She turned to Sever. “He’s just makin’ stuff up now, isn’t he?”

“Here.” With a sly grin, Sever took the rope, stood behind her and said at her ear, “I’ll show you a bowline.”

Saucily, she quipped, “Right here in front of Vikram?”

“It’s a knot, you dirty girl.” He inhaled at her hair and looped the rope into said knot, instructing, “The rabbit pops out of the hole, runs around the tree... an’ pops back down the hole.” He yanked it taut on a ring. “Easy.”

Okay, if he internally used that mnemonic device while he tied her up on his plane, she might die from the ironic cuteness. “What kindergarten did you go to? At mine, they stopped at bunny ears.”

“I was very advanced.” Standing back, he wiped his brow, looked around, and sniffed. “And we’re off.”

“Oh. Hey.” The sails billowed and the boat plowed through the ocean, Vikram at the wheel. Warm wind, salty air, blue water, clear skies, Sever Mark... Southern California had its perks. “And look, you can totally sail. There is nothing you can’t do.”

“Lot more to it than knots.” Taking her hand, he signaled cryptically to Vikram, sat in a shady nook and pulled her onto his lap. “But I’m learning.”

She climbed aboard with a sideways smile. “Your unquenchable thirst for knowledge inspires and frightens me.”

“Not knowledge,” one arm around her waist, he moved her hair out of her face, traced her clavicle, “Power. Through self-reliance.”

“Just in case you suddenly have no choice but to sail to Fiji.”

His hand paused at her breast. “Depends what the jury says, I expect.”

The jury? Oh, that jury. Jason’s case. “You wouldn’t run. Would you?”

“No, I wouldn’t. ...’Less you came along.” He teased a fingertip down her bare navel. “Could be fun, sailing the seas with a wanted man? Pirate’s life and all that?”

As much as she wanted to avoid the subject of Jason or Roxie or anything that didn’t involve the trajectory of his fingertip, Ivy had to tell him: “He’s not pursuing the case.”

His reaction was contained, skeptical, with no inflection. “He’s not.”

Arms around his neck, she shrugged. “He let it go.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“I didn’t.”

“So he dropped it,” he processed, searching her eyes. “Just like that.”

“Pretty much,” she said. “Bottom line, you’re free, and I’m here with you.” She straightened her posture. “Look how pink and blonde I am!”

Getting the message, he let out a chuckle, and let it go. “Oh, I’m looking. Although...” he traced the inner lines of her triangle top and got all naughty boy again, “Few pink bits I haven’t seen just yet.”

That vocal register drop melted her every time. “Oh, yeah?”

Slowly, he slid both triangles outward, revealing her nipples. “Ahoy. Hidden treasure.”

With flirty lips, she said, “Guess you’ll have to plunder me,” and he stiffened in his khakis.

“One more treasure,” he rasped, hooded eyes falling to her bikini bottoms. “Best for last.”

She blushed, glanced toward the wheel.

“Vik can’t see us, and he’d never try.”

Ivy moved off of him and slid backward along the built-in couch. He parted her legs, doffed her sandals and kissed her foot before placing it on the ledge beside him.

“Show me,” he said.

How did he make her feel bashful and brazen at once? Watching his eyes, she pulled the fabric aside, and gave him a peek.

“That is pink,” he said, touching her inner thigh. “Not very blonde, though.”

She smirked. “It’s not very anything right now.”

“There’s a little at the top. Just how I like it.” He licked a line down her leg, starting at her ankle and ending with his nose in the patch of fine brown hair he liked while he plundered her hidden treasure.

Back arching, Ivy held his head and moaned.

With two fingers, he spread her labia apart. Licked right up the center and kissed her clitoris.

“Ohhh...”

Sever opened her wider, using both hands this time, and teased her into a craze with his impossibly soft kisses. Then, he stuck his tongue inside of her, and flicked.

“Yeah!” She smacked her head on the unforgiving fiberglass behind her. “Ow.”

When she opened her eyes, he was above her, cradling her head in his hand. “You all right, love?”

“Fine,” she insisted breathlessly, laughing at herself. “That was an ‘ow’ of shock. I’m good.”

“You sure? Don’t need ice?”

“No ice,” she said, unzipping his pants. “Next part please.”

“We could go below, to a cozy bed.”

“I like the wind and water thing.”

He smiled at her, licked his come-shined lips. “Can I ask you something?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you always get this wet, this quick?”

She shook her head. No one, but no one, had ever caused such an outpour. “And I’ve never—that gushing thing? I didn’t even know I could do that.”

“Just for me?”

She knew she shouldn’t say it, but he had a truth serum effect on her. “Just for you.”

Chest puffing up, a hint of a sneer twitching his lips, Sever took off his shirt and balled it under her head. “Better?”

“Better.”

Eyes glazed with lust, he nodded. “Gonna plunder your brains out now. D’you mind?”

“I’d mind if you didn’t,” she said.

Sever yanked his pants off, settled between her thighs and slid his erection over her pinkest, wettest crevice.

She loved him in that shirt, but his muscles gliding under his skin, accentuated by sweat and sunshine? Equally arousing.

There was something stuck to his inner arm. “What’s...?”

“Nothing,” Sever said. “Nicotine patch.”

She frowned at it, wondering if her complaints about the aroma were to blame. “‘Cause of me?”

“No! It was—time, to...” He stopped, sighed and relented, “Yeah.” He raised his focus to her eyes as he said, “You make me want to last a little longer, that’s all.”

Ivy’s heart unexpectedly swelled. He’d quit smoking to stay alive . For her. “That’s...”

She didn’t know what that was.

“Look, can we save the precious moments for after I shag you senseless?”

“Yes please,” she said, and deadpanned, “I hate porcelain figurines.”

That made him laugh. “Now you’ve done it! Here you are, looking like a fucking birthday cupcake, and I can’t violate you.”

“But, I wanna be violated,” she pouted. “That’s why I’m a cupcake.”

“But you’re so sweet, and funny , and adorable, and...” He looked at her exposed breasts as he said, “sexy, and hot — It’s back.”

“Oh, good,” she breathed, thrilled that her nipples had mind-control powers. And that they were demanding quality time with his tongue.

Sever reared back, slipped in, and they groaned together. He pulled her closer by the hips to fill her to the root, and just held her there a moment, savoring the sensation.

Legs closing around him, she bowed and flexed, and for no good reason, she laughed.

He looked into her eyes, thrust his hips faster and firmer, and she let herself be his for a weekend.