A Tangled Web

by A. Claire Everward

  He shifted on top of her, their bodies finally fully against each other, his eyes holding hers so that she would see him, see it was him even as she felt him. Her arms came up around him, her fingers digging into his back as his entry shocked her body into reacting. She gasped as he moved deeper, filling her, his movement slow, gradual, knowing how hard he was, how gentle he needed to be. She watched him as he watched her, saw the struggle of need and restraint in his eyes, felt it in his every move, and let herself be with him. Holding tightly on to control, his own body unbearably strained, he moved in long, deep, pleasuring strokes, each thrust feeding need yet creating a new one in its wake, until finally their bodies moved together in unison. He did not let go, did not let himself climax until he saw the surprise on her face, heard her cry out as the shock of the release she had been so sure was impossible came, piercing through her, breaking through nightmares past and washing them away forever.

  As his heart settled, he raised his head and kissed her, then shifted off her, gathering her to him. He closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her. His. She was finally his.

  She let herself be drawn to him, inching closer. There was no pain, had been no pain, although she had been so afraid there would be, worried that she was forever scarred. There had been nothing but his hands, his mouth, his body on her, in her, the need he had awakened. The way it, the way he had felt, touching her, being with her, she couldn’t believe it, hadn’t thought it was possible. But then she hadn’t thought she could fall in love, either.

  Her body felt different. Different than she was used to. Everything in her felt different than she was used to. And lying in bed with him, wrapped in his arms, his body naked against hers, it felt right. It felt amazing.

  As her mind calmed along with her heart, she let out a soft, wondering breath.

  He felt it and shifted a little so that he could look at her, never letting go of her. “Are you okay?” he asked gently.

  She blushed under his gaze. “Yes, I was just . . . I didn’t think it could be this way, for me.” Her blush deepened. “Or that I could be . . .”

  He touched his lips to hers. “In love and in bed.”

  She laughed softly.

  “In love and in bed with me.” His kiss deepened.

  She let herself just be with him, feel him against her as if in a sensuous dream. Except that it wasn’t a dream, it was real, so amazingly real.

  It was the small hours of the night when they finally slept, and a bright sun was up when Ian opened his eyes. The woman he loved was asleep beside him, on her back, and he remained still, not wanting to awaken her, wanting her to stay just as she was, so peacefully at rest, so trusting in him. His gaze moved over her. Her body was half-covered with the same sheet that no longer covered him, her chest rising and falling with each soft breath that came out of her slightly parted lips. His eyes flickered down, to the curve of a breast, to a long leg, the sheet covering just enough, exposing just enough. His wife, he thought with wonder. The first time he actually wanted to wake up beside a woman in his bed, and it was his wife.

  It had been her since that first day, he realized, and knew he could never let her go.

  She turned to him in her sleep, the sheet slipping off, baring her, the movement bringing her body against his, almost but not quite touching. He fought the urge to close the distance, to touch, to take. And waited.

  She opened her eyes, feeling him close to her. Her eyes met his and focused. She didn't move back, didn't distance herself from him. Instead, she moved just a bit closer and touched her lips to his.

  In an instant he deepened the kiss, bringing his body against hers. He rolled her to her back, and she ran her fingers through his hair, every inch of her body responding to his. Remembering, caring, he held back, began to shift his weight off her, but she stopped him.

  “Don't, Ian, don't hold back,” she said, her eyes on his, wanting him to destroy all remnants of what had been, what had kept her from a life, from him. There was nothing of the resistance, the fear, none of that, only strength in the eyes that met his.

  “Tess.” He shook his head. He wanted, still wanted too much, was afraid he would ravage, worried he shouldn’t.

  She held his eyes. Hers were intense. “It has to be real for both of us. Not just for me. And I want you to take it away, take it all away for good, all but you. It should only be us when we’re together, Ian. No one else. Nothing else.”

  His eyes darkened, need taking over, and he shifted back to her, his mouth closing on hers, the kiss open, taking, taking everything he wanted. His lips moved down her neck, her chest, nothing slow, nothing tender about them now, closing on a warm, firm breast even as his hand moved down her body. His groan mixed with her intake of breath as he touched her, found her wanting him. She arched against him, wanting to feel it again, what she had already had with him, but he raised his eyes to look at her.

  “Not yet,” he murmured as he kissed her again, his tongue teasing, “Not this time,” and he lowered his head back to her body, wanting, needing more. His mouth pleasured her, roaming her breasts, moving slowly down a firm belly, and she gasped in surprise as he continued down, parting her thighs, as his tongue glided gently, skillfully, took her. She began to call out his name but was left breathless, unable to do anything but grasp the sheets she lay on. Her body screamed with what he was doing to her and she couldn’t, simply couldn’t hang on, and when he stopped, moved back up her she fell back, breathed, tried to breathe, but his fingers replaced his mouth, brought her over the edge, then up again, this time bringing her just short of full release. Her body was tense under his mouth and his hands, sensitized to an edge, and there was nothing, nothing but him when he finally drove into her, filling her with a single thrust, her fingers slipping on his back as he thrust into her again and again, as he raised her hips to enter deeper, not holding back, neither of them holding back, freedom taking them both all the way to powerful release.

  She finally found the energy to shift under him and he raised his head and looked down at her with the eyes of a man who for the first time truly had it all.

  “Good morning,” he said softly.

  “Hi.” She colored a little, a lot, and he laughed and covered her mouth with his.

  They came downstairs to an empty kitchen. The coffee machine stood ready on the counter and brunch was laid out on the dining room table, but Graham was nowhere around. Ian busied himself with making their coffee, then handed Tess hers and leaned back on the counter, sipping his, looking at her. He’d given her a robe after they’d gotten out of the shower, and, as he’d hoped, she had stayed with it, not putting any clothes on. Neither had he.

  “Where is Graham?” she asked.

  “I’m guessing he knows and is giving us some privacy.”

  “Good,” she said softly.

  He smiled.

  When they did go out of the cabin, it was to a small beach north of it, not the one they’d arrived at but an exquisite wild stretch of golden sand at the end of a tree-flanked path from the back of the cabin. They stood on a knoll overlooking the beach, watching as the gentle sea rolled in playfully, as if trying to get the attention of the man lying on the sand. But Graham was too busy with his supersized tablet, watching a movie again, of all things.

  “Graham vacationing,” Tess mused. “A contradiction in terms.”

  “He loves it here. As long as he has enough of his movies and favorite shows with him.”

  “Too bad Lina isn’t here.”

  “Next time. She had some things to take care of in the house and is then going away for a few days to visit her family, something she’s been wanting to do.” Ian nuzzled her neck, his arms wrapped around her. His kisses sent delicious sensations deep down her and she leaned back into him, her eyes fluttering closed. Groaning, Ian tugged her gently away from the view and back into the lush forest. There was a natural waterfall pool further inland, a lovely, peaceful place. Peaceful and private, and that’s all h
e wanted, needed right now, more of that privacy with her.

  Twilight had fallen by the time they returned to the cabin, wrapped up in each other. Graham was in the kitchen, muttering busily to himself. Going upstairs, they found Ian’s clothes organized beside Tess’s in the closet of the master bedroom.

  “Subtle,” Ian remarked, and Tess caught her lower lip between her teeth and buried her face in his shoulder, color rising in her cheeks. I didn’t know this could be, she thought. I had no idea I could be happy.

  “I can’t believe we’re going back tomorrow.” She stretched leisurely on the warm sand, clear blue sky high above her as far as the eye could see.

  “We’ll come back here.” Beside her, Ian rolled over, bringing his body alongside hers, no longer thinking twice about the contact, about putting his weight on her. “Tess,” he said, and she turned her gaze to him. He caressed her cheek. “When we go back home, will you move in with me?”

  “Ian,” she said softly.

  “Share my bedroom. My bed. Be my wife and let me be your husband as should be, as should have been from the beginning. I know we haven’t done things in the conventional order, but we’ve still arrived at the right place.” He stopped, waited. He had phrased and rephrased the question in his mind over and over again in the past days, hoping she would say yes. He needed her, loved her. God, he loved her.

  “I love you, do you know that?” It came out before she even knew she meant to say it, and what she saw on his face made her bring her arms up around him and draw him down to her.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Tess got out of the Bentley, her husband holding the door open for her, and stood looking at the house as she had that first time, six months earlier. And as he had that first day, her husband waited patiently, giving her time. But unlike on that day, this was home now. She was returning here as Ian Blackwell’s wife in every sense of the word.

  She turned to the man whose eyes now had so much love for her in them, and he touched his lips to hers, knowing what she was thinking of. They walked in together, their arms around each other, as Graham, who had returned more than a day before them, held the door open.

  “Welcome home, Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell,” he said, trying with little success to maintain a formal expression.

  “What are you doing up so late, Graham?” Ian asked. It was well past midnight.

  “Oh, I don’t know, sir. Closure maybe?” Graham allowed himself a smile. “Lina wanted to be here to welcome you home, Mrs. Blackwell, but I talked her into going to sleep. She wants to make some of the jam you like early in the morning, and fresh bread.”

  Tess smiled. “It’s good to be home.”

  Bidding them a good night, Graham left them, walking away with a hum.

  They walked up the stairs hand in hand. Upstairs, Tess looked left, toward where her room used to be. She thought about the long way she had come, the long way both she and the man who was now truly her husband had come. Beside her, Ian stood quietly. When she turned to him he nodded and led her to the master bedroom.

  He opened the door, but didn’t go in, instead stopping in the doorway and waiting for Tess to go in before him. She took a surprised step in. The room didn’t look the same as it had the one time she’d been in there. Gone were the dark, masculine colors, the ambience that accompanied the room of a man. It was now made up in creamy, cozier shades, down to the walls, the soft carpet, the separate sitting area before the closed balcony doors, with its comfortable chairs and sofas, the marble of the fireplace opposite the bed. The bed. It wasn’t the one she’d seen in here last time.

  “When did you have the time?” she asked incredulously.

  He smiled and came into the room, closing the door behind him. She still wasn’t used to all that money could do.

  “You even replaced . . .” She indicated the bed.

  “I thought it fitting. Our bedroom, our fresh start.”

  “How long did you plan it? This is perfect, it’s . . . us.” She looked at him. “Yes, it has us written all over it.”

  “I made a few calls before we left Sydney.”

  “After I said yes.”

  “After you said yes to coming with me to the island, to staying with me. Before you said yes to fully sharing my life, and my bed,” he confessed.

  “And if I hadn’t said that second yes?”

  “I would have used one of the guest bedrooms until I would have convinced you. This is meant to be our bedroom.”

  “You thought about everything,” she said.

  “Yes, I did. Come see.” And he led her down an internal corridor on their left to two walk-in closets, side by side, both filled with their clothes, then to a double bathroom, where her things were laid out alongside his. It was, in every way, their bedroom.

  “Lina will now take care of this room together with Graham,” he said.

  “Won’t he mind the intrusion?” Things had been a certain way in this house, in Ian’s life, for as long as Graham had been with him.

  “Intrusion?” Ian laughed. “He meant it when he said he’s been waiting for us to be together. Do you know he actually told me I was a fool for not admitting I love you much earlier?”

  She looked at him in astonishment.

  “His words. In Sydney, when I told him that I intend to offer you the option of leaving me. And then he threatened to go with you if you do decide to leave.”

  Her jaw dropped.

  “I’m not kidding.” He took her in his arms and kissed her.

  She answered his kiss, but then took a step back, away from him, as she realized something. “Oh.”

  His brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

  “He knows . . . he and Lina, they know we’re here. I mean, here.” For most of her adulthood she had been a private person in an isolated life that hadn’t included quite a few things others were used to, had a chance to get used to.

  Ian stared at her, then swooped her off her feet, laughing, and strode to the bed.

  “No, no way.”

  “Yes way. We need to try our new bed.”

  “Fine, we’ll sleep. Just sleep.”

  “You know, we’re married. People have assumed we have sex for quite a while now.”

  That, she hadn’t thought about. “That’s different. They assumed, we didn’t. And people in this house knew we didn’t.”

  “I think they already know we do. I remind you Graham knew what we were doing on the island.”

  “That was different, too. It was . . . Never mind, I don’t care. We’re not doing it again. Not here. We’re not. Ever.”

  “We are. A lot.” They tumbled together on the bed.

  “I’m not doing this while people know we’re doing this.”

  “Okay, but I will.” His mouth locked on hers and his hands were already on her, finding her under her clothes. She started to speak, but her thoughts had no chance against what he could so easily do to her now.

  By the time her skin was bare against his, nothing else existed.

  “You still thinking about them?” He was lying prone on top of her, feeling her heart racing against his chest.

  “About whom?”

  He raised his head to look at her, grinning. Suddenly remembering, she pushed at him. “Oh my God. Get off me!” she said, and started laughing.

  He buried his face in her neck, nuzzling, feeling the laughter reverberate through her. I’m happy, he realized with astonishment. I really am happy.

  He shifted off her and sat up, and reached into the top drawer of the nightstand on his side of their bed. When she saw what he had in his hand when he turned back to her, she sat up too, perplexed.

  “I ordered this when I came back here, while you were still in Sydney,” he said as he opened the small box he was holding.

  Tess’s hand came up to her mouth.

  He took her left hand in his and fingered lightly the two rings she had on. “I thought,” he said, “that these were no longer right. We are more now, as
is our marriage. It’s real, we are real, while these rings are a lie.”

  He slipped off both rings, then did the same with the one he had on his own finger and put them all on the nightstand. Then he took one of the two exquisite rings from the ring box, not a simple band anymore but a delicate weave of white and rose gold, intertwining perfectly, as they themselves had. “This ring,” he said, looking at her, “is my choice, as you are.” And he slipped the ring on her finger, then kissed it.

  She could barely see through the mist in her eyes. As he proceeded to take the ring meant for him out of the box, she took it from him and slipped it onto its rightful place. Saying nothing, unable to say anything, she kissed him.

  “The other rings I will keep, I think,” he said, kissing a tear away from her cheek. “To remind us.”

  “Our story,” she said.

  “Yes. Our story.” He found her lips with his.

  She woke up in the morning with the new day playing gently on her face through the delicate curtains, and opened her eyes to see Ian propped up on his elbow, watching her. She reached out and touched his cheek.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Blackwell,” he said in a way that made her heart sigh.

  “Good morning, Mr. Blackwell,” she answered softly.

  Buttoning his cuffs, Ian walked to the bathroom. He stopped in the doorway. His wife was checking her makeup in front of the mirror. She let her hair down, shaking it lightly, and he watched her, mesmerized. She caught his gaze in the mirror, walked over to him and kissed him, a long, sensual kiss that had his heart and his mind reeling. He held her to him, her body a perfect fit to his.

  “Let’s go back to bed,” he murmured against her mouth.

  “We have Robert and Legal and Internal Security and who knows who else in less than two hours.”

  “Screw them.”

  She laughed and kissed him again, her hands running down his back. Nothing was more tempting than him, being with him.