Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5) Page 9

  Ian winced at Evie’s accusing tone. Nikolai might be being polite at the moment, but Ian doubted he would continue to be so if Evie continued to talk to him in this aggressive way. “Evie—”

  “It is my business to know,” Volkov confirmed over Ian’s warning, his pale gaze narrowed on Evie. “The Fescaru family only recently moved some of their scamming operation to London. As it does not interfere with Markovic business, it has been allowed.”

  “What happens when it ceases not to interfere with the Markovic business?” Evie scorned.

  “I think it’s time we thanked Nikolai for his time and the information and allowed him to return to his wife and daughter,” Ian put in firmly.

  “But—”

  “Evie, quit while you’re ahead, hmm?” he advised harshly.

  She scowled at him. “I need Mr. Volkov to give us a more precise location so I can go and talk to Cezar Fescaru and have him release Adam.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere near the Fescaru family.” The violence Ian had heard connected to the Romanian mafia since they moved to London made every other mafia family, of whatever nationality, look like a load of pussies. Adam was of use to them right now, but the Romanians wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate Evie if she became a problem. Ian’s hands clenched at his sides with the need he felt to put them around Adam Bishop’s throat for having involved his sister in this dangerous situation.

  “I don’t think it’s your decision where I do or don’t go,” Evie answered tartly.

  His mouth thinned. “I’m making it so.” The Romanians would eat Evie up and spit her out again without a second thought.

  “Well, you can just unmake it.” She glared. “Because I’ll do whatever I have to do to get Adam free of their clutches.”

  Ian could feel a nerve pulsing in his clenched jaw. “You won’t succeed in doing that by rushing over there completely unprepared and without backup.”

  “You can be my backup if you feel so strongly about it,” she challenged.

  He frowned his frustration. “So you can get us both killed?”

  “I have no intention of anyone being killed. I just want my brother released,” she maintained stubbornly. “And if you won’t come with me, I’ll go on my own.”

  “Nikolai, a little help here, please,” Ian appealed to the other man.

  The Russian smirked. “I made the necessary inquiries and have told you what you wanted to know. It is now up to you to keep your own woman in check—”

  “I’m not his woman!” Evie was red-faced with outrage.

  “In this situation, that’s exactly what you are, and don’t ever think otherwise,” Ian snapped. “And I say you aren’t going anywhere near Cezar Fescaru.”

  Her eyes glittered with temper. “I’ll do what I damn well please, and you can take your macho-man crap and stick it where the sun don’t shine!”

  “We’ll continue this discussion after Nikolai leaves,” Ian stated icily. “Thank you for taking the time and trouble to come here personally to inform us where Adam is, Nikolai. I appreciate it,” he added pointedly for Evie’s benefit.

  The Russian nodded. “If you need time away from Utopia to spend with Miss Bishop, then I believe your cousin Ethan is now back in England.”

  Ian wasn’t even going to bother asking how Nikolai knew that when he hadn’t. “I’ll call him.” Maybe. Ethan could sometimes be as hotheaded as Evie was now proposing to be.

  “I also want to thank you, Mr. Volkov.” Evie now felt decidedly uncomfortable at her lack of manners toward the Russian. After all, the man had taken time away from his wife and baby daughter to come here. “You’ve been very kind.”

  Nikolai’s expression softened as he looked at her. “I realize listening to Ian’s warning of caution is not what your instinct tells you to do, but you really should do so on this matter. Cezar Fescaru is not someone you should trifle with.”

  All the more reason, in Evie’s opinion, why she couldn’t just leave Adam to their mercy.

  No matter what he had done to deserve it.

  Chapter 9

  “What were you doing in my bed this morning?” Evie had decided, while Ian was out of the room escorting Nikolai to the door, that her best form of defense was attack. Because she was not going to be stopped or diverted from finding Adam. By anyone.

  Ian raised mocking brows, as if he knew exactly what she was doing. “The new couch wasn’t as comfortable as it looked.”

  “And you thought that gave you the right to get into bed with me?”

  “I thought I needed a decent night’s sleep after only managing to snatch two hours yesterday morning, yes.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come to the library yesterday.”

  “You said you needed help finding Adam.”

  “You said you couldn’t give it.”

  “I changed my mind.”

  “How was I to know that?”

  “Evie, are you deliberately trying to antagonize me?”

  Guilty color warmed her cheeks. “No, of course not.”

  “You know.” Ian leaned back against the breakfast bar, arms folded in front of his bare chest. “Considering how everyone, including me, has gone out of their way to assist you in finding Adam, your present attitude shows a distinct lack of gratitude for that help.”

  “I—”

  “Pick an argument with me, by all means. I have broad enough shoulders. I can take it.” He shrugged. “But what did you think you were you doing, talking to Nikolai in that disrespectful way, after he left his wife and daughter to come all the way across the city to see you?”

  Her shame deepened.

  “Also, what the hell are you wearing?”

  “I… What?” Evie gave him a sharp glance at this sudden change of topic.

  “I asked what you’re wearing.” Ian pushed away from the breakfast bar, his gaze raking critically over her appearance. “You never dress like that.”

  “Like what, exactly?”

  “To be noticed.”

  Her chin rose. “There’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing.”

  “Isn’t there?”

  Evie looked down at herself. Admittedly the jeans were a little tighter than she usually wore them, but they were clean and ironed. As for the pink vest top… It was a little more revealing than she normally wore, but she happened to like wearing it. Besides, it was cool and feminine. Truth be told, she hadn’t wanted Nikolai Volkov to see her as someone who was boring and predictable, when the Russian would have drawn his own conclusions regarding the relationship between her and Ian.

  “What I wear or do not wear is none—”

  “—of my business,” Ian finished in a hard voice, his arms falling back to his sides. “I’m getting a little tired of you telling me that. It’s barely eight thirty on a Sunday morning, and I already feel exhausted by this constant conflict between us.”

  “Then—”

  “Do not tell me to fuck off again either.” His eyes were that dark and dangerous black Evie knew to be wary of.

  She winced. “Then stop telling me what to do.”

  “When it’s for your own good? No, not going to happen,” he bit out decisively. “Volkov is a serious bad-ass who survived growing up on the streets of Moscow. His loyalty to the Markovic family is unshakable. For some reason, he has a friendship of sorts with my cousins and has helped them out on several occasions. Since I started working at Utopia, he seems to have accepted me too. But don’t ever—and I mean ever—underestimate what that man is capable of.”

  Evie felt a shiver run down the length of her spine. She had known Nikolai Volkov was dangerous before she went to Utopia on Friday evening. With Ian here today, she had forgotten to be in awe of the other man. Because she had known Ian wouldn’t let Nikolai do anything to hurt her.

  Right now, she could feel the frustration coming off Ian in waves. But even as she sensed that, it began to change and grow to other churning emotions, ones she could see reflected in his eye
s.

  Emotions that caused the flush in her cheeks to deepen, her skin to tingle and feel sensitized, and caused the hairs on her bare arms to stand on end. There was a clenching deep inside her which grew in intensity the longer she stared into the dark depths of Ian’s eyes. A sexual energy pulsed between the two of them, electrifying the air around them, so that it seemed all either of them could see was each other.

  It was overwhelming.

  It also threatened to swallow her whole, so that nothing and no one else mattered but Ian.

  She couldn’t do this again. It would break her—

  “Don’t.” He stepped closer, the heat from his bare chest and the heady aroma of his male musk instantly invading her senses and making it difficult to breathe. “Don’t go there, Evie,” he murmured softly, his hand gentle against her hair. “Not now. We’ve both had a shitty couple of days. I’m short on sleep, and I can’t stand to see you flinch away from me again right now.”

  That was some admission from a man who never admitted to any emotions other than sexual ones. “It isn’t you.” She shook her head. “It’s—”

  “Please don’t say it’s you, like one of those bad cliché breaking-up speeches.”

  “We can’t break up when we’ve never been together,” she dismissed.

  “Stop being so damned defensive and admit that whatever was between us three years ago is still there. Because I know damn well you can feel it too.” He took her hand in his and placed it against the burning heat of his chest.

  Of course Evie could feel it. She had done so the moment she saw him again at Utopia. Whatever attraction—madness—had brought them together last time, it was very much still there. On her side, at least. Ian seemed to be saying it was still there for him too.

  “You asked me why I was in your bed when you woke up this morning,” he continued softly. “I was there because after you went to bed last night, I lay in the darkness of the sitting room for over two hours, so bloody tired I ached. I desperately needed to fall asleep, but all I could see and feel every time I closed my eyes was you. The heat and softness of you. The way you snuggle your ass against me when I cuddle you from behind. The snuffling noise you make when you turn over and press your nose against my chest.”

  “I do not!” It was only a halfhearted protest.

  “Yeah, you do,” Ian murmured indulgently. “I wanted that, Evie. I wanted it so bad, I could taste it. I could taste you. I couldn’t stay away any longer. I fooled myself I only meant to look at you while you slept— Yeah I’m aware that sounds a little creepy, but you really do look cute when you’re asleep,” he defended as she gave a snort. “Except once I was there, beside your bed, I couldn’t leave again. I was careful not to wake you as I got beneath the covers, and I had every intention of leaving before you woke up this morning.”

  “Except you didn’t.”

  Ian sighed. “I fell asleep almost as soon as I cuddled up to you. I was still there when you woke up. I don’t think I’d moved all night.” It was the best night’s sleep he’d had for… A long time. Was three years a long time? Probably, he conceded. “It was wrong of me, and I accept that I took advantage of the situation. But I give you my word I didn’t take advantage of you.”

  She laughed softly. “I know that.”

  “How?”

  She snorted her derision. “Do you really imagine I could ever sleep through you making love to me? Please!” All laughter left her face. “I’m tired too, Ian. Tired of dealing with Adam’s behavior. Most of all, I’m tired of the two of us fighting.” She moved her hands on his shoulders. “I would much rather we made love than continued to fight.”

  All the air whooshed from Ian’s lungs, leaving him feeling light-headed and not altogether sure he’d heard her correctly. “But you’re angry with me.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “That was quick.”

  “I’m a woman of mercurial moods,” she teased.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not,” she conceded. “But I really am so weary of the fighting.”

  “What about Adam?”

  She sighed deeply. “If what Nikolai says is true, and Adam really is working voluntarily for the Fescarus, then he doesn’t sound in any immediate danger. Delaying going to him by another hour or two isn’t going to make any difference to him.”

  “If Nikolai says that’s the way it is, then it is,” Ian said with certainty.

  “I know,” Evie accepted heavily. “Where did I go wrong with Adam, do you think?”

  He grimaced. “I believe that’s the universal question of all parents who find they have created a monster by overindulgence and continually making excuses for the behavior of their offspring.”

  Tears pooled in Evie’s eyes as she looked at him. “Adam is a mess, isn’t he.”

  “Yes.” There was no point in Ian lying about it or even trying to soften the blow. Adam Bishop was a fuckup, and a selfish bastard who had finally pissed off the wrong people, and he was now paying the price for that mistake. He had also taken up enough of Evie’s thoughts and emotions for one morning. “Are you wearing a bra beneath that top?”

  Her cheeks blazed with color. “The straps show if I do.”

  “There aren’t any straps showing now.”

  “No.”

  Which meant she wasn’t wearing a bra. “Are you trying to kill me?” Ian groaned, slowly pulling the tank top out of the waistband of her jeans so that his fingers could caress the warm, silky flesh of her abdomen. The soft pad of his thumbs stroked the underside of bare, uptilting breasts.

  “I’ve called a ceasefire for the moment,” she conceded huskily.

  “Good.” Ian claimed her lips with his own. Her taste was intoxicating, effervescent, like an expensive champagne that went straight to his head and other parts of his body. But he wasn’t interested in his own aching arousal right now, wanted only to explore and claim every inch of Evie’s mouth as his own.

  He stroked his tongue along the length of hers and felt her body quiver in reaction. He was rewarded with more of that trembling as he licked and tasted that warm cavern for long and pleasurable minutes.

  The stroke of Evie’s tongue was a swirl of pleasure curling about his. Wet and hot, in the same way her pussy would feel wrapped about his cock.

  Desire wove its spell about the two of them, igniting a wild passion that surged and swelled. Only the sound of their ragged breathing filled the expectant air when Ian broke the kiss to trail his lips across her cheek, over the delicate shell of her ear, and then down the creamy column of her throat.

  He could see her breasts as his lips moved lower to the bare swells visible above the tank top. Swollen nipples pressed against the soft cotton material, begging to be touched and played with. Ian cupped a hand beneath one of them as he suckled that turgid bud into his mouth, gently as he heard her initial gasp and then with increasing suction as Evie began to tremble and shake in reaction. His arms tightened about her as she gave low groan of pleasure and her nipple swelled in his mouth.

  Her tank top was satisfyingly wet by the time Ian’s mouth released her nipple and he raised his head. “Can we take this off?” He didn’t wait for her answer as he clasped the bottom of the top and pulled it up and over her head. “You are so beautiful,” he groaned as he cupped both her breasts in his hands before kissing each of the bare nipples in turn.

  Evie thanked God for the genes, probably passed on by her mother, which allowed her breasts to be firm and upstanding despite their size. Her nipples were a deep rose color as Ian rolled them between his thumbs and index fingers. She closed her eyes as a river of pleasure coursed through her and caused a flood of wet and aching, swelling heat between her thighs.

  Fitted jeans suddenly felt too tight as her clitoris and labia swelled in response to that pleasure. That pressure was relieved a little when Ian unfastened the top button and zip on her jeans before his hand slipped beneath the lace of her panties.

  �
��God, your naked mound feels so fucking sexy,” Ian groaned raggedly as his fingers parted her folds to stroke along the swollen lips. “It’s like touching wet silk.”

  Evie was too aroused to feel embarrassed. Besides, she couldn’t think of or feel anything else as Ian’s fingers swirled softly and then more firmly over her clitoris and wet folds. “If you stop now, I may just have to kill you after all,” she warned achingly, those pulses of pleasure deepening inside her.

  Ian chuckled huskily. “I’m not going to stop, Evie. I never wanted—want to stop,” he corrected gruffly as his mouth returned to pleasuring her breasts.

  Evie gasped as she felt a finger breach and then enter the welcoming heat of her sheath, the muscles there contracting in response. That first finger was joined by a second, the soft pad of Ian’s thumb now stroking and pressing the throb of her clit.

  It was all too much. Ian was too much. He always had been.

  “Let go,” he encouraged, his breath hot against her wet nipple. “I’m here. I won’t let you fall.”

  She gave a choked laugh. “I wouldn’t be in this state at all if you weren’t here— Oh God…” Pleasure exploded and then throbbed and swelled through her whole body, from her head to her toes, when Ian curved his fingers and stroked the knot of nerves inside her at the same time as his mouth drew hard on her nipple.

  She felt the release of her juices, those spurts wetting his fingers and the intensity of her release continuing to crest and swell in never-ending waves of such intense pleasure, she remained standing only by clutching on to Ian’s bare shoulders.

  “Only me, Evie!” he rasped harshly as he pulled his fingers out and rubbed that wetness all over her pussy lips before raising his fingers and putting them in his mouth and slowly licking off all her juices. “God, you taste so good,” he groaned. “Tell me you only come like that for me and no one else.”

  “No one else, Ian,” she repeated obediently, her body still racked with the aftershocks of her release. “Just you.”

  His eyes were dark and gleaming. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

  “I’m not.” How could she have responded to anyone else like this when Ian had been her only lover? When his touch was the only one she knew? The only one she had ever wanted.