Forbidden Love with the Marine(24)
Chapter Nineteen
Olivia didn’t want to talk. She wanted to make love. Hot, passionate, make-up reunion sex. But first she helped Ivan dress and place light bandages around his knuckles. He changed into a fresh shirt and they sat on the living room couch while he made her tell him all she’d been up to since he was gone.
“What do you think?” she groaned in remembered agony. “I’ve hardly slept a wink for weeks, wondering what happened to you. Everyone thought I was going insane.”
He let out a sigh. “It got a bit hairy, but the mission went okay. I almost got blown up when a grenade was thrown at me but I managed to spring out to safety. I still got hit by the impact and lost consciousness. Thankfully, the hostage had already been rescued and my other squad guys were on hand to help me out to the waiting helicopter. I’d been recuperating at a base hospital for the past weeks. I would have called, but I only regained consciousness a few days ago. And when I realized I was coming back soon, I decided to keep it a surprise. Well...a surprise is what I ended up getting. That’s for damn sure. I’m sorry for not calling. I didn’t realize you were so worried.”
He shoved a hand over his head and blew out a breath. “Hearing you scream back there in the shadows and thinking I was too late to get to you...”
Olivia felt him shudder for a moment, and she laid her head on his shoulder. “But you weren’t too late. I don’t think you ever could be.”
He let out a harsh laugh. “And that was the one fear I had in all those moments when shit got real during the mission. I’d lost the hope of ever being seeing you again; or that I couldn’t make it back in time to prove how much I cared. The only thing that mattered was getting back home to you. And all I kept thinking, over and over, was “I should have told her I loved her. Now I might never get that chance.”
Olivia’s heart sang and she was now staring right into his face. “What are you trying to tell me, Ivan Lance? Because from the start I’ve been getting so many mixed signals from you that it gets my head spinning. I mean, we shared the most special night two people can have and the next morning, you couldn’t wait to see the back of me.”
She felt his hand tip beneath her chin as her eyes fell to hide her unbidden tears. “Hell, Liv...I was scared,” he said gently though his eyes looked angry at himself as he shook his head suddenly. “Do you even...can’t you see what you do to me? I keep wanting you like crazy yet thinking I don’t deserve you; that I couldn’t handle anything long-term. And there was of course the matter of having been like a big brother to you all these years. It made me feel weak knowing I couldn’t fight what was happening with you. I kept thinking I’d failed myself and your parents’ trust. Especially your Dad’s. Like I’d taken advantage of your vulnerable feelings for me.”
“And now?” she asked softly, eyes drawn to his lips and their beautiful, firm curve. Why were they still talking and not kissing? But she still did want to hear what he had to say.
Ivan exhaled heavily. “Now...I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not going to do much good without you. I tried to fight it; tried to tell myself this was just something you’d outgrow soon enough – or that I’ll lose interest. Bottom line is that’s never going to happen – not in my case, at least. I’m never going to be strong enough to keep my feelings for you at bay and even if it makes me feel weak, then it’s a damned good weakness. Because I’d rather have that than be unhappy without you. I love you, Olivia.”
Those three simple words were like the icing on the cake. That and the burning look of passion glowing in his eyes. Olivia’s heartstrings thrummed and she cupped his jaw, her fingers grazing over the sexy shadow of a beard there.
“So...you think my feelings for you can be outgrown?” she asked mildly, trailing her hand down his broad torso to rest on waistband of his jeans. He sucked in a breath.
“What do I have to do to prove I know exactly what I want when it comes to you, Ivan Lance?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, I...”
Leaning forward, Olivia cut him off with a kiss. Her lips melded tight to his in an unpracticed, impassioned quest, and hearing him groan deep in his throat made her belly churn even more with lust. Her fingers worked quickly on his jeans fastenings before shoving her hand down the elastic of his boxers. Their breaths caught at the same time when her fingers closed around his burgeoning cock.
He said her name against their lips, and she fed him her tongue which he instantly swallowed whole into his mouth. That gesture made Olivia realize exactly what she wanted to do right then.
After stroking her fingers lovingly up and down on his magnificent cock, she broke the kiss amidst his growls of protest. Smiling sensually, she pushed him until his back was resting against the couch. Then she got on her knees in front of him and separated his legs. Her hands skimmed up his ripped thighs to grasp his springing cock. Holding his hooded gaze, Olivia slicked up and down his shaft with a hand that looked tiny compared to his massive member.
In moments he was totally rigid with a look on his face that could scorch skin. Licking on her lips to wet them, Olivia held tight to the base of his cock before lapping her tongue across the dripping slit.
The deep, rough sound he made when she licked his crown made Olivia’s * twang. She was sure she was wet as a sponge down there. Still staring deeply into his eyes, she flicked her tongue all over the carved tip, humming with appreciation at the taste of his sweet-and-salty precum. Slanting her head, she held his shaft just against her cheek before laying her tongue flat upon the side of his shaft and giving it one long lollipop lick from stem to crown.