Sebring

  “Believe,” she said like she was rolling that word around her mouth, and even if he’d asked that of her before, and she’d promised she’d give it to him, she looked like she still wasn’t sure how it tasted.

  Fuck, but that family of hers did a number on her.

  “Believe,” he said firmly.

  He watched her press the side of her head in the pillow and her tone was one of surprise like she’d just noticed something.

  “You like where we’re going?”

  He beat back a laugh and instead gave her a squeeze, sliding his leg deeper between her thighs.

  “Uh, yeah,” he pointed out the obvious.

  “Our duty to give the earth that beauty?”

  That wasn’t said with surprise.

  It was wonder.

  “Yeah, baby,” he replied.

  She shifted her hands flat across his skin from his back to his chest.

  “I…well, I like you, Nick.”

  Instantly, his body started shaking with humor he couldn’t control.

  “Well, that’s good,” he replied.

  She pressed hard into his chest and whispered, “Please don’t laugh.”

  He stopped laughing.

  “I like you, Nick,” she repeated.

  Fuck.

  She didn’t mean that.

  She meant more.

  “I like you too, Livvie,” he whispered back, rolling into her.

  “And I like where we’re going,” she told him, almost shyly.

  Fuck.

  He settled on her. “I’m glad, honey.”

  “I want three babies.”

  Oh yeah.

  His choice, he’d stop at two.

  She wanted to give him three, he’d give her that.

  He dropped his mouth to hers.

  “You want three, we’ll have three,” he murmured against her lips.

  “Think about the mountains, sweetheart,” she replied. “I think we both could use some peace.”

  He was looking at mountain properties on Monday.

  He ran his hands down her back, over the irregular skin at the small to her ass. She didn’t flinch, didn’t move away, didn’t have any reaction at all.

  He was getting somewhere in a lot of ways.

  “I’ll think about it,” he muttered.

  “Good,” she whispered.

  He let her say the word then he slid his tongue in her mouth.

  She slid her fingers in his hair.

  When he was done kissing her, he moved to work her throat as he trailed a hand around and up toward her breast.

  “I love how easy it is for you to make me believe,” she said in his ear.

  Shit.

  He wanted to make love to her again, do it slow, make it last.

  She got any sweeter, he was going to have to fuck her.

  “Baby?” he called.

  “Yeah?”

  He curled his hand around her breast.

  “Shut up.”

  “Okay,” she breathed.

  He grinned against her skin and rubbed his thumb over her nipple.

  One of her hands convulsed in his hair, tugging it. The other one started gliding down his spine.

  Olivia shut up.

  So Nick took his time and made love to her.

  * * * * *

  6:56 – Saturday Evening

  Nick in a suit, no tie, and Olivia in heels and a little black dress that he liked a fuckuva lot, walked out of the elevators at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas.

  They barely hit the public space when three guys walking by them slammed into each other as their eyes remained glued to Liv when she and Nick passed.

  Nick looked from the men down to the woman he held close in his arm.

  She was oblivious.

  Nick was smiling.

  They walked right out the front.

  They got in a taxi.

  And for the first time, Nick took his woman out to dinner.

  * * * * *

  11:58 – Saturday Night

  Her ass on a velvet couch beside him, but most of her weight pressed up against him in a bar that felt suspended in a cocoon of crystals, her eyes carefree and happy, Olivia announced, “I need another cocktail.”

  She was beyond tipsy, heading straight to shitfaced.

  Nick didn’t mention that to his girl.

  He looked across the space, caught the waitress’s eye and jerked up his chin.

  He felt Liv’s hand at his stomach sliding across and he tipped his head down to look at her again.

  “Thanks, baby,” she whispered.

  He didn’t reply.

  Instead, he drank in that look in her eyes, feeling her pressed tight beside him.

  That was his.

  He’d earned that.

  After he gave himself that moment, he took what he earned, tipped his head down and kissed her.

  When he released her mouth and looked back at her face, he knew that wasn’t enough.

  So the next party that passed by, a couple, he stopped them.

  “Sorry,” he said. “But can you get a picture?”

  The guy with his girl looked to Nick, then to Liv, and nodded, taking Nick’s phone that he’d engaged the camera and was offering.

  “How fun! Vegas memories,” Olivia cried. Her arm already wrapped around his stomach, she burrowed closer.

  The guy smiled, his girl smiled. He aimed, touched the button and gave Nick back his phone.

  “Have a good night, bud,” he said as he put his arm back around his woman and started to lead her away.

  His woman waved.

  Olivia kept snuggled to him but waved back.

  “Thanks, man,” Nick muttered and looked down at his phone.

  Olivia again burrowed in.

  “Ooo, sweetheart,” she cooed. “That’s a good one.”

  It wasn’t, she was wrong. The first picture of them wasn’t good.

  It was brilliant.

  Olivia tucked tight to his side, her head tipped back, her cheek resting along the underside of his jaw, a big smile on her face you couldn’t miss even if you could only see half of it.

  Nick had his arm around his girl, looking at the camera, smiling right at it.

  They looked carefree. They looked happy.

  She looked carefree.

  She looked happy.

  Yes. It was brilliant.

  The waitress delivered her cocktail.

  “Awesome,” she murmured, leaning toward it.

  Nick nodded at the waitress.

  Having nabbed her drink, Liv leaned back and caught Nick’s eye.

  “I think it’s time to gamble,” she declared before taking a sip.

  He grinned. “Whatever you want, Livvie.”

  She grinned too before she swung her drink to the side, reached her mouth up to his and touched it.

  Her eyes a hint away, she whispered, “Let’s go, Nicky.”

  They went. He took her exactly where she wanted to go. He did anything she wanted to do.

  He gave her everything it was in his power to give.

  And he’d keep doing it, in Vegas, in Denver, on the moon if they landed there.

  Just to keep his girl carefree.

  And happy.

  * * * * *

  3:32 – Sunday Morning

  The Do Not Disturb sign was again on the door.

  Nick was slightly inebriated.

  Livvie was smashed.

  After dinner and then after dinner cocktails, Nick had lost three thousand dollars at craps.

  After Nick dropped that load, Liv had won three hundred dollars at the slots.

  She crowed.

  She also rubbed it in.

  So when the door to their room closed behind them, Nick set about evening out their night’s score.

  In took him a while, and as usual, she didn’t play fair.

  This time, he didn’t either.

  But it was a game he knew she didn’t want to win.

&n
bsp; So when he got her naked on her belly in their bed, he shoved a hand between her legs, cupping her pubic bone. Kneeling at her side, he yanked her up to her knees, ass in the air, as he held her down with a firm but gentle hand wrapped around the back of her neck.

  He then moved his hand from between her legs and reached to the nightstand, pulling open the drawer.

  In it was a short-handled paddle made of cushioned, soft brown leather that he’d brought with him and put there when she wasn’t looking.

  He took it out and rubbed it along her ass.

  He heard her soft gasp, but she didn’t move nor did she protest.

  He buried a grin.

  Fuck, she was so his.

  Time for her to admit it.

  “Who do you belong to?” he asked.

  She pushed against his hand at her neck and pressed her ass into the paddle.

  He landed it across her cheeks. The crack rent the air. Her hips jerked then her legs locked but Nick could still see them trembling.

  “Who do you belong to?” he repeated.

  She didn’t move.

  He bent over her.

  “Olivia, who do you belong to?”

  Sneak attack, she reached out a hand and cupped his balls.

  That felt so fucking good, he bit his lip to bite back his groan and again smacked her ass with the paddle.

  He heard her whimper into the covers. The good kind of whimper. The kind of whimper she made that he felt in his cock.

  “Who do you belong to, baby?” he asked.

  She gently massaged his balls.

  Christ.

  “Who do you belong to, Livvie?”

  She slid her knees farther out on the bed.

  Christ.

  He ran the edge of the paddle between her legs.

  Her entire bottom half started trembling.

  “Who do you belong to?” he pushed, still stroking her.

  She strained her ass up farther.

  He gave her what she was asking for and again paddled it.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Fuck yes.

  “Who do you belong to?”

  Nothing.

  He swatted her.

  She slid her hand up, wrapping her fingers around his cock.

  No, she didn’t play fair and he fucking loved it.

  “Who do you belong to, baby?”

  She stroked him.

  He gritted his teeth and spanked her. And again. And again.

  She twisted her head around in his hold, lifting her eyes to his.

  “You, Nicky, I belong to you.”

  “Cock, Liv, now,” he grunted, letting her neck go.

  She twisted at the waist instantly. Keeping her ass in the air, she swallowed his cock whole.

  Fuck.

  Yeah.

  He growled before dropping the paddle and sucked his thumb into his mouth. He shifted it to her hole, pressing the pad in.

  She whispered, “Please, Nicky,” against the head of his dick.

  He fucked her ass as he watched her suck him off.

  Right before he would come in her mouth, he slid his thumb out and ordered gruffly, “Up, baby. Face the headboard, hold on and give me your pussy.”

  She wasted no time, slid him out and positioned.

  He wrapped an arm around her belly, took hold of his cock and positioned the head.

  “Who do you belong to, Livvie?” he whispered in her ear.

  She twisted her neck and caught his eyes.

  Hers were shining green so bright and burning, he felt branded.

  No.

  Not felt.

  He just was.

  “You,” she moaned, and his hand was forced from between him as she drove down and started fucking herself hard.

  Magnificent.

  He took over.

  She arched her back and let him.

  Even better.

  Grunting, whimpering and groaning, they fucked, they did it hard, Nick took her there and then Olivia took Nick there.

  She was cleaned up, the lights out and he was drifting to sleep when his woman murmured against the skin of his chest.

  “Do you, um…have a crop?”

  He grinned through the dark at the ceiling.

  He’d been wrong.

  She was not the woman of his dreams.

  She was the woman beyond even a dream.

  “I so own you,” he muttered back.

  “Whatever,” she returned, sounding disgruntled but doing it snuggling closer.

  “Tie you too,” he declared.

  She made a noncommittal noise but her body pressed closer to him.

  “Blindfold,” he went on.

  “Whatever,” she repeated with added emphasis.

  “Gag as well. Plug your ass. Go all out.”

  Liv shifted against him. “Whatever, Nicky. Now shut up.”

  “You just came hard for me after I paddled your ass then fucked it and you’re getting turned on just talking about getting more,” he pointed out.

  She lifted her head and snapped, “Shut up, Nicky.”

  He aimed a hand and cupped her face.

  “You gotta know, baby, you own me too.”

  She melted into him again, pressing her cheek to his palm.

  He leaned to her, touching his mouth to hers.

  “Now go to sleep,” he ordered when he was done.

  She bent in, brushed her mouth along his jaw and then settled back into him.

  Liv snuggled close.

  Nick held her as she did.

  And they fell asleep.

  * * * * *

  9:25 – Sunday Night

  They were belted into the plane, prepared for landing, and Olivia had fallen to the side, her head on his shoulder. Their forearms were up on the armrest and they were holding hands.

  “Can we do that again?” Nick heard her ask.

  He turned his head and kissed the top of hers.

  “Yeah,” he answered and shared, “Take you to the mountains, maybe next month.”

  “That’d be nice,” she murmured, tightening her fingers in his hand.

  He didn’t reply, just watched the flight attendant going about her business.

  “I wanna be safe.”

  He again turned his head, this time to look down at her as she lifted hers from his shoulder and looked up at him.

  “I wanna be free,” she went on.

  “I’ll get you there,” he promised.

  “No, I mean, I…it’s…” She shook her head but kept at it. “It’s not your job. I need to sort it out. I don’t know how I’m gonna manage that…the last time I tried to leave the family, it didn’t go too well—”

  Nick cut her off, “Babe, it is my job.”

  Her gaze grew confused. “It’s my life, Nick.”

  “Not anymore.”

  She continued to look confused with the addition of mildly annoyed. “So now that you’ve decided where we’re heading, my life is yours?”

  She’d had enough of her life being anyone’s.

  But she was sort of right.

  “No,” he answered. “Now that we’re on the same page about where we’re heading, that future is ours. It’s not just you anymore, Liv. And it’s not just me. It’s us. That future, our future, is about the both of us. I want you to be safe and free and have your own life, but if I’m not wrong, we’re both agreed that life is gonna have me in it. If that’s the case, it’s my job to look out for you. There’ll be times and ways you’ll look out for me. But now, with this, with what happened the last time you tried, I want you safe while I pull it off. So this time, it’s my turn.”

  “You’re not wrong,” she said softly, something new he liked a helluva lot shining from her eyes. “We’re both agreed.”

  He grinned. “I know.”

  She grinned back, it was small but it came easy.

  He still felt it in his gut.

  He hoped he made it so her happiness came at him so much, that feel
ing stopped, at the same time he hoped it didn’t.

  “Just so you know, I love Vail, but my favorite is Winter Park,” she announced. “It’s fun and beautiful and not as hoity-toity.”

  His grin got bigger. “So noted.”

  “You want me to find a VRBO?” she asked.

  “Knock yourself out,” he answered.

  “You’ll have to give me some dates,” she told him.

  “I get to the office, I’ll get them.”

  She gave him bright, happy eyes and a hand squeeze before she dropped her head on his shoulder again and fell quiet.

  He held her hand.

  They landed.

  Nick hung back so she disembarked before he did.

  He knew (and didn’t like) that she’d have to get her bag alone and lug it to her car alone.

  He simply went to his car alone, something he also didn’t like.

  Twenty-five minutes later, he slid through the back gate of her house and let himself in one of her pool doors with the key she’d given him. He also turned off her alarm with the code she’d given him.

  She joined him fifteen minutes later.

  When she did, they shared a drink in front of the TV. Olivia conked out during the news. Nick woke her and helped her to bed.

  Her head hit the pillow, she crashed.

  But Nick lay with her pressed against him, staring at the ceiling, knowing the time had come for him to get shit done.

  He lay there knowing it and wondering how the fuck he was going to get her safe and free.

  He lay there knowing it, needing to do it, and also knowing he’d spent a weekend with his woman in Vegas, two two-hour plane rides where they weren’t fucking, eating, drinking, whispering about important shit or having fun, and he still had not come clean about where he was with her when they began.

  It was good they’d had Vegas. She was relaxing into what they had. She was believing. She was trusting.

  Tomorrow.

  That shit had to come out tomorrow.

  They’d needed Vegas.

  Now it was time.

  Nick had learned a lot since sorting his head and his life.