Olivia wasn’t sure when her life had been turned upside down, but right now she didn’t care. All that mattered was the man in front of her, slowly unbuttoning his jeans. He shoved them down his hips, and all she could do was stare. She’d had his cock in her hands in the back of that town car, but somehow seeing it like this made everything so much more real. He was long and thick, and her hands itched to stroke him again.
But he took a step back.
She frowned. “No more teasing.”
“Trust me, teasing is the last thing I want to do right now. But condoms are a necessity, and I just realized that mine are up in my room.”
She bit her lip against the insane urge to tell him that it didn’t matter. It did matter. He was right. They had to be smart. Even if there weren’t diseases to think about, she wasn’t on birth control. She hadn’t been since she got pregnant with Hadley. She nodded. “Okay.”
Cillian yanked on his jeans and then he was on her again, kissing her like his life depended on it. She tasted herself on his lips, which was unbearably erotic. Maybe we could do it. Just this once…He grabbed her hand and pressed it between her thighs, exactly where she needed him most. “Touch yourself. I want you hot and ready for me when I get back.”
“I’m already hot and ready for you.”
He used a finger to push one of hers inside her, the double penetration making her eyes go wide. “If you’re not fingering yourself when I get back down here, I’m going to put you over my knee and spank you.” And then he was gone, striding away and leaving her naked on the desk.
She held her breath for a second. No way was he serious. He’s not going to spank me…is he? She idly stroked herself, picturing the look on his face when he’d placed her hand there. Wild and barely controlled and full of so much desire, it was a wonder they both didn’t burn in the inferno of it. God, he was so sexy, it drove her wild even when he was making her crazy. More than that, though, she liked the moments of quiet strength he showed. She’d never met anyone like him, and she was starting to come to realize that she could travel the world for the rest of her life and never meet another man who held up against the comparison of Cillian.
Stop it. Stop thinking so much before you ruin it.
Determined to sideline her thoughts, she circled her clit, but even the pleasure wasn’t enough to distract her. There’s no future with him, Olivia. You know that. Even if he wanted one, his family would never accept you, and you haven’t worked so hard to get you and Hadley away from the Romanovs just to switch them out for the O’Malleys.
The door opened, slamming her back into the present. She made a sound of relief when Cillian walked through and locked it behind him, his dark eyes hungry for her. Yes, this. This is simple and exactly what I need.
Liar.
It didn’t matter, though, because he’d shucked off his pants and rolled on a condom while she was arguing with herself. Then he was there between her legs, pulling her back to the edge of the desk so she had to cling to him to avoid falling. “Miss me?”
Yes. She flipped her hair out of her eyes and put as much attitude as possible into her voice. “You were gone five minutes. Plus, I was occupied.”
“Mmm.” He reached between them and pushed a finger into her. “Guess you don’t get a spanking. This time.”
“Arrogant.”
“You know it.” He notched his cock at her entrance, and paused.
She grabbed his chin. “If you’re about to ask me if I’m sure, don’t bother. I’m about to drag you to the floor and have my filthy way with you.” Then she kissed him, because the fact that he was checking to make sure she was okay every step of the way only made her heart ache for him more.
Thankfully, Cillian took her at her word. He held her hips tightly and pushed into her. The intrusion had her gasping, stretching her almost uncomfortably. She opened her eyes to find him watching her face, his gaze intent on her. “Lie back.”
“What?”
He let go of her hip with one hand and gently pushed on her shoulder, guiding her down onto the desk. “Relax, sweetheart. I’ve got you.” He pushed into her another inch, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Hurt her? She was pretty sure she might die if he didn’t keep doing exactly what he was doing. She wiggled until he let go of her hip and then moved, propping one leg over his shoulder and looping the other around his waist. The position shifted him a bit deeper and she moaned.
Cillian froze. “Olivia?”
She used her new leverage around his waist to slam down onto him, taking his cock the rest of the way inside her. “There!”
“Damn difficult woman.” He pulled out a little and pushed back into her. “I’m trying to be gentle with you, and you’re determined to make me lose my damn mind.”
“Gentle isn’t what we are.” It wasn’t what she wanted right now, no matter how much she appreciated the thought.
“It could be.” There it was again, that look on his face that she didn’t have words to describe.
It was too much, and somehow not enough. There was no way this could be uncomplicated—they’d burnt that bridge ages ago—but she didn’t want any deep discussions in this moment. She reached over her head to grasp the edge of the desk, loving the way he followed the movement, zeroing in on her breasts. “Are you complaining?”
“Sweetheart, I’m inside you again. Things can’t get better than this.” He pulled out and slammed back into her. “Actually, I lied. The only thing that could make this better is feeling you coming around my cock. I’ve been losing sleep revisiting fucking you in the alley, and I’m craving that feeling like the best kind of whiskey.”
It wouldn’t take much. Her earlier orgasm had her primed and ready, and the friction of him sliding in and out of her only heightened the sensation. She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her clit, mirroring what he’d done to her earlier. “Then make me come, Cillian.”
She hadn’t thought his eyes could get darker, but they did. “Your wish is my command.” His thumb stroked her clit as he pounded into her, making her breasts bounce and forcing her to cling to the desk to avoid being fucked right off it.
She loved every second of it.
Pressure built low in her stomach, spiraling through her with each combined stroke of his cock and thumb. She thrashed, but he had her pinned in place, and all she was capable of doing was taking it. “Cillian—”
“I’ve got you.” One more circle of her clit and she was at the edge. Another one and she was tumbling over, releasing her death grip on the desk to hold a hand over her mouth and muffle her cries. The pleasure went on and on, until she was sure she couldn’t take another second of it. She was vaguely aware of his strokes becoming more irregular, and his hands gripping her hips tightly as he came, her name on his lips.
He slumped over her, his ragged breathing a match for hers. “Five minutes.”
It took her brain a few seconds to catch up. Surely he doesn’t mean…“You just made me come twice. You just came.”
“Yeah.” He pressed a kiss to first one breast and then the other. “But I’ve been wanting to get inside you again since that first time. You didn’t really think that once was going to be enough, did you?”
He sucked her nipple into his mouth, and against all reason, her body started readying itself for round two. Oh my God. She dug her fingers into his hair as he leisurely explored first one nipple and then the other. Olivia was starting to fear that she’d never get enough of this man.
Which was a damn problem, because there was no way this thing between them could be permanent.
*
Sending Olivia to bed alone was one of the hardest things Cillian had ever done. But duty called, and Aiden would blow a gasket if he didn’t get some kind of answers soon. He ran his hand down her spine as they walked into the bedroom, and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. “I’ve got some work to do.”
“Sounds good. I’ve got some sleeping to do.” She climbed into bed and pulled the covers over her head. It was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
It was official. He’d gone and fallen for Olivia Rashidi, half sister to a man who was emerging as an enemy to the family.
He shook his head and pulled on a pair of sweats, going through all the reasons it was a totally legit choice to climb into bed with her. Ultimately, it was the desire to let her sleep while she could that had him padding out of the room and down the stairs to the study. He grinned at the desk, the memory of what they’d been doing a few short hours ago flashing through his mind. We’ll have a repeat later.
The computer took a few minutes to boot up. They’d replaced the old dinosaur last year with a laptop, so it was quick work to open his e-mail and find the documents Aiden had sent him. Apparently the business owner, Mr.…Cillian checked the files…Mr. Diaz, had kept electronic records of everything. There were the profit/loss reports for the last year, and they were detailed right down to the last dollar. That made his life a little easier. As Devlin had taught him, the Internet was forever. Once something was uploaded, it was damn near impossible to erase it.
Lucky for him. Not so lucky for Mr. Diaz.
He cracked his knuckles and got to work. It was a slow and tedious process to peel away the layers, but he’d never be a hacker like his little brother had been. What Devlin could do in twenty minutes took Cillian nearly a full damn day.
Several hours later he sat back and sighed. Getting into the bank records wasn’t difficult because he had their guy’s name and account numbers, but the account the money had been sent to was a dummy one. Why didn’t they just take out cash? Pretty stupid to do a wire transfer, even if it’s routed through several accounts.
It didn’t make any sense. None of this made any sense. It was almost like they were being left a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. Since Cillian knew how that story ended, he wasn’t optimistic about what he’d find at the end of this search. He stood and stretched, trying to decide what the next step was. Even if the account was a shell, the money had to go somewhere. It was just a matter of tracking where it ended up.
A smell had him turning toward the door. Bacon. He walked out of the study, moving slowly because he could hear Olivia chatting with her daughter. Well, she was chatting. The kid was giving enthusiastic answers that might or might not have been English.
He stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and watched Olivia move around the kitchen. She’d found stuff for pancakes somewhere and had one that looked suspiciously like Mickey Mouse going on the frying pan while another pan cooked bacon. Hadley danced around the kitchen, singing some melody that he might have been able to place if half the words weren’t mumbo jumbo.
The whole picture made his chest ache.
What would it be like if this was my life and every day started like this?
Olivia turned and smiled. “Hey, I hope you don’t mind. We were hungry, and I had the sneaking suspicion that you hadn’t eaten anything.”
He stepped into the kitchen. All he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and reacquaint himself with her body, but he was conscious that they weren’t alone. It wasn’t his place to set the limits on their relationship when it came to what went down in front of Hadley. So he stopped a few feet away, willing to take his cues from her. “Is Mickey Mouse for me?”
Hadley tugged on his sweats. “No!”
“That’s right, baby girl, it’s Minnie Mouse.” She gave him a stern look. “Cillian isn’t educated on the finer points of Disney characters, but we’ll get him up to speed, won’t we?”
She turned those inky dark eyes on him, and said in a serious voice as she raised her arms, “Up.”
There was no mistaking that meaning. Hoping like hell that he wasn’t stepping on any toes, he bent down and picked her up. She arranged herself against him and then turned that adorable grin his way. He grinned back. This wasn’t so hard. When he glanced at Olivia, he found her watching him with a strange look on her face. “What?”
“Nothing.” She turned back to the stove and flipped the pancake. “I hope you like your bacon borderline burnt.”
“Works for me.” What had he missed? He shot a look at Hadley, but she was busy tracing his tattoo with one chubby finger, a look of concentration on her face. Obviously he’d be getting no epiphanies from that corner. He shifted the kid into a more comfortable position. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing. Not having her underfoot really helps.” There was still something off in her voice, but he didn’t think now was the time to call her on it.
Maybe she was regretting the sex? Or maybe she was worried about her ex and Dmitri? Fuck. He didn’t know how to do this. He’d always gone out of his way to keep things uncomplicated in the past, and Olivia was complicated on more levels than he could count. “Sure.” He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and walked out of the kitchen to meet Mark on the back porch. The man didn’t look like he’d spent the night hoofing it through the woods around the house, but who knew? “Anything?”
“We’re clear.”
“Good.” It didn’t mean that someone wouldn’t follow them, but so far so good. When he’d checked the perimeter last night, he’d been more than satisfied with how they had things set up. It wasn’t a rock-solid wall between him and Olivia and the rest of the world, but for someone who didn’t know these woods to get past them, it’d be a challenge most enemies wouldn’t be up to. “You and the boys want something to eat?”
“We got it covered. Thanks.” Mark’s gaze went to the toddler on his hip. “It’s not my business—”
“You have an opinion. Let’s hear it.” He already knew what it was about—Olivia. Better to get it out there than to let Mark ponder on it and have the subject fester. Or, worse, talk about it with the other men and risk some distorted version of the truth getting back home before he had a chance to do damage control. If you told them first, you could spin this however you want.
No. Not yet. He had to talk to her first. He refused to do anything else.
Mark fell into an at-ease position. He’d done a few stints overseas, but when it came time for him to come home to Boston, he’d had a hell of a time adjusting to civilian life. It was Aiden who heard he was having trouble—from Mark’s cousin, Liam—and offered him a job. The O’Malleys weren’t exactly the military, but they sure as hell weren’t civilians, either. It turned out to be a weird limbo that Mark flourished in. The man focused on a spot just over Cillian’s shoulder. “If this woman is someone who might be putting your family in danger, then you should think long and hard about keeping them in the dark.”
Olivia wouldn’t hurt his family. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t a danger. It was a distinction he wasn’t comfortable thinking about, but that he’d have to face sooner rather than later. Cillian sighed. “I’ve got it covered.”
“If you say so, sir.”
Hell, Mark had to be really uncomfortable for him to start calling Cillian sir. There had to be something he could say to make this right. He thought hard. “I’m giving you my word, Mark. Nothing I’m doing here is going to hurt the O’Malleys.” He hoped.
“Good.” Something in the man relaxed a little. “In that case, I’m going to go relieve Grant.”
“Just make sure you’re getting enough sleep, too.”
“Sleep is for the dead, Mr. O’Malley.”
Cillian watched him walk away, wondering if he’d just made a promise he had no way of keeping. Coming out here hadn’t gotten them a pass on the danger—only a reprieve. They still had to figure out a solution that would keep Olivia off Dmitri’s radar and prevent a conflict between his family and the Romanovs. With the Sheridans and possibly the Hallorans backing them, they’d most likely win. But “most likely” wasn’t a sure thing, and he already knew too well what war sometimes cost.
He walked back into the house. In the kitchen, Olivia had the Minnie Mouse pancake dismantled and covered in syrup. Whatever had been wrong before was apparently resolved, because she smiled when she saw him. Damn it, he hated that he was about to wipe the joy right off her face. “We’ve got to talk, sweetheart.”