In front of the mirror, she adjusted the high collar and unrolled the elbow-length sleeves. Librarian-on-crack all the way, or maybe somebody’s grandma. She was cool with that. All of last night was coming back. Dreams teased her mind, desire slammed her body, and right now, that needed to go.
Hastily, she brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and raced downstairs. The kitchen was empty. Both her parents had left for work. Should she call a cab? Would it matter if she was late twice in a row after being punctual all month?
Yes, it would. There was a meeting this morning, and fuck if she’d walk in late in front of everyone, after she’d overheard grumbling at lunchtime about a high school graduate taking a job undergrads should have had.
She found herself outside on the driveway, blinking in the sunlight, phone in hand.
“Hey, cutie,” called a masculine voice. “Everything okay?”
Brendan was strolling across her front lawn. The Jeep stood behind him in the O’Brians’ driveway.
“I — kind of screwed myself over,” she muttered.
“I was wondering. I didn’t see you out here like usual.” He stopped in front of her, crisp and clean in a button-down and tie, his hair freshly cut. “How would I start my day without our hug?”
Diana studied him. Brendan was giving her the same indulgent smile he’d given her friends at graduation. He clearly saw her as a little sister now. She was being an idiot, making something out of nothing, when nothing was all there should be.
But Brendan had been inside her. You don’t just forget that.
“You tell me,” she responded, edgy. Her body still buzzed from the dream. “How would you start your day? Would you be able to manage it?”
His smile was white, his dimples deep. “Hope I don’t have to find out. What’s going on?”
“I— went to a friend’s house late last night. She gave me a ride home and I left my bike. I was going to jog back and pick it up this morning, but I overslept…” God, this shouldn’t be awkward, but it was. “Can I get a ride with you?”
“No problem.” He beamed at her. “Hop in.”
In the Jeep, Brendan was back to his usual chatty self, telling her all about the great girl he was seeing at work and how the four of them should do a double date. It was either the best or the worst thing to hear right now. Probably the best. At least he wasn’t being huggy or ruffling her hair.
“I thought you weren’t into relationships,” she broke in.
“I’m not.” Brendan raised his eyebrows. “This is just for fun, cutie.”
“And relationships aren’t fun?”
He shrugged. “I’m not saying they’re bad. It’s nice to be with a special someone. But your options just aren’t the same.”
“Plus everyone’s special to you if you’re Brendan,” Diana added, sharper than she’d meant.
“Is something wrong?” His voice softened.
She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. They’d pulled up in front of the lab. “You know the nice thing about living in a shell? Things don’t get confusing. Or messy. Life is confusing sometimes.”
“Yeah.” Brendan leaned his head back against the seat. “It is.”
“For you, too?” Diana blinked. “Did you really just admit that you get confused?”
He straightened up and flashed his dimples. “I hear it happens. Or so people say.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn up the charm when I’m talking to you. Remember when you said I could tell you anything? Same goes for you.”
Brendan held her gaze. Long enough to see the starbursts of green and brown in his eyes, and how they differed ever so slightly from Ian’s. Leaning in, he kissed her cheek. Damn the way her body tightened when he did it.
“Have a good day, cutie. Next time you leave your bike because you’re smoking up somewhere, text me. I’ll give you a ride.”
“How’d you know?”
He laughed and waved her out.
Chapter Nine
The parking lot was huge, unfamiliar, and half-filled with cars. As Ian pulled the Jeep into a spot, Diana eyed the arena looming against the dark sky.
It was Ian’s turn to take her out. July fourth was tomorrow, and a few early fireworks already crackled in the distance.
“We’re going to watch sports?” she asked nervously as Ian put the car in park. He’d almost stuck to the speed limit on the way over. She had to admit, Ian’s driving was a lot more careful these days. But a feeling charged the air, a feeling she couldn’t name.
He grinned and leaned over for a kiss. She gasped when he bit her lower lip.
“No questions, remember? You made the rules. Just keep an open mind, Diana. You look good tonight.”
“Just good?”
The parking lot was putting her on edge, making her stomach flutter. Streams of people, almost all men, prowled toward the arena under bright stadium lights. With this much testosterone flooding the open lot, she could barely imagine what it would be like inside.
“Sexy as fuck. Burning up the car.” One finger slipped into the sweetheart neckline of her dress, leaving a trail of fire over her creamy cleavage.
“Just tonight?” She really was stalling now.
“Twenty-four hours a day.” When Ian worked his finger between her breasts, she tensed with need. His eyes half-closed as she slid her hand up his leg, over well-worn denim, to cup a very hard bulge. “You’re a little tease, Diana,” he breathed. “It’s almost like you want me to do something about it.”
Jesus, Ian’s hand was inside her bra now, coaxing her nipple to a tight bud. If she tried, she could distract him. Get him hot and bothered enough to drive to the lookout point instead of taking her into the arena bristling with guys.
Could she? She’d never actually tried to seduce Ian, or anyone else. She hadn’t needed to.
But it didn’t feel honest. Why use sex to get her way? She didn’t need to be afraid of the arena. She was here with Ian. She’d promised to keep an open mind. She trusted him.
As she stepped out of the Jeep, Ian was already around the car and at her side, dropping an arm over her shoulders. She tried to match pace with his long stride. As they passed more and more people — more and more guys — she caught the sidelong glances. Men were checking her out. She’d begun getting used to eyes on her, but these were so…open.
The stares took her back to that Saturday night with the twins, less than a month ago, strutting between them to the club while heads turned. Tonight, she was wearing a white sundress with blue flowers instead of the clingy red dress, more sweet than sexy, but the attention made her face flush and her stomach lurch.
Heads also turned to Ian, in a “right on” kind of way. Ian’s possessive arm around her shoulders sent a clear message. And that, right there, spelled a world of difference from the club night.
The crowd was thick and rowdy when they walked into the arena. Guys were shouting, punching their hands. Rumbles stirred the clusters of people.
“Ian?” Diana gripped his hand. “What the fuck is this?”
“It’s okay, baby.” He squeezed her palm. “Stick close to me. Let’s get our seats.”
They made their way through the outer corridor to a door and up some stairs, where they had to climb over three obviously drunk twenty-something guys to get to their seats. Diana perched on the edge of her seat, looking around, her heart beating fast. Everything about this situation was new. She’d always put as much distance as possible between herself and any kind of athletic event. Rows of seats, rapidly filling up, surrounded a roped-off ring.
“Boxing?” she yelled over the noise in the room. “This is what you’re taking me to watch?”
“Just give it a try.” Ian grinned at her.
Diana grabbed his hand again. Bottles and cans were everywhere, and an alcohol-fueled wave rolled over the crowd. When two stripped-down guys stepped into the ring, muscles bulging and faces growling, mayh
em broke loose. Shouting, pounding, screaming. Diana felt lightheaded.
She forced herself to watch as the punches began. Cheers met each blow. When she glanced at her boyfriend, the wild look in Ian’s eyes was all animal, totally riveted on the fight. She’d seen that look before. Directed at her, when he was buried deep inside her, or about to be. Crouched over her bare curves, ready to fuck her with everything he had.
Seeing that primal energy pointed elsewhere — at two guys duking it out in a ring — made Ian seem very far away.
“Babe?” she shouted in his ear. “Are you there?”
“Oh yeah, I’m here. Woo!” He jumped to his feet, pulling her up. “Get him!”
Jesus. She was trying, really trying to get into this. At least, to see what Ian saw. It was obviously doing a lot for him.
“Damn.” He let out a loud whistle as a glove smacked a face. The crowd roared. Diana winced.
“How can they do that?” she yelled. “Do you know how many brain cells can be damaged from a blow? One concussion—”
“Don’t think, Diana,” Ian yelled back. “Just feel.”
The ending of her poem for Ian rushed into her mind.
Too fast
To think
Too fast
To know
Can’t see, can’t hear, can only feel
She did feel, with Ian. She felt everything. But she didn’t want the energy in the arena. When a fist smashed a jaw and a head bounced back, she clapped her hand over her mouth. Her free fingers found Ian’s arm and squeezed, hard.
“Diana?” His eyes, wide and dark, focused. “Shit. You’re not okay.” Large palms cupped her face. He turned away from the fight. “Say something. Do you need to go outside?”
“No.” She swallowed. “I’m okay. This is just — a lot.”
“Too much?” Emotions warred on Ian’s face, pulled between the fight and her. As he blinked, his face cleared. His hands on her face felt warm and steady. “Say the word and we’ll leave.”
“I promised to trust you. I can do this.”
“No, I knew this was a long shot. I thought maybe you’d be curious. We don’t have to stay.”
“You paid for tickets. I can tell you’re really into it.”
She shouldn’t be surprised. Ian had always been extreme. Competitive at sports, finding scrapes, pushing the limits. She’d learned as a kid that the only way with Ian was fight back, fight harder. But all the pranks, the rule-breaking, the rebelling — the person who got injured in those escapades was always Ian.
“You hate this.” His voice cut through her thoughts. “You’re freaking out.”
“I’ll stick it out,” she yelled over the uproar. Something dramatic had happened in the ring. One guy was getting up from the floor. “This matters to you. I want to understand what you get out of it. If it’s too much, I’ll go out there and wait for you until it’s over.” She pointed up the seats to the exit.
Ian shook his head forcefully. “This isn’t a place for you to be alone.”
She saw his point. “I want to feel what you feel.”
He leaned close and pressed his forehead to hers. The din of the arena dimmed.
“Diana, you don’t have to prove yourself every fucking minute of the day. You’re not gonna earn an A for doing the things you don’t want to do. I’m not making you a good girlfriend report card. It’s okay. You don’t have to feel what I feel. You shouldn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
Ian took a breath. “Just trust me on that.” He squeezed both her arms.
Diana glanced at the ring, then at Ian’s serious face.
“Can we step outside for a minute?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Taking her hand, he led her up the stairs and out the nearest door to a quiet spot in the outer corridor. Diana leaned against the wall, cool concrete meeting her sticky skin. Ian loomed over her.
“Jesus, you’re pale,” he muttered.
“I’m always pale.” She tried to laugh.
“Used to be, you mean. You’ve been out in the sun this summer, probably for the first time in about five years. Getting the cutest freckles.” He traced a line down her nose.
“You’re just distracting me,” she murmured.
“Yep.” Ian gave her a little smile, but his face was flushed. Sweat glistened on his forehead. When she touched his wrist, his pulse throbbed against her thumb.
“The first time I was here,” he said abruptly, “me and Brendan came together. We were thirteen, and we told our parents we were going to the movies. This was after you moved away. I don’t know if they would have cared, but we were so used to making shit up, that’s what Brendan told them. We got a ride with someone older. We got here, and Brendan wasn’t into it. He liked the thrill, but after we did it once, he was like, okay, on to the next thing. What's our next stunt? Brendan's not big on fighting. But I kept coming back alone. I’d find a ride and sneak out. I liked watching the fights by myself. He knew, and he covered for me, but he didn't like it. It bugged him that I had a thing I did alone. He never said so. But I knew.”
Diana’s head tipped back as Ian cupped her cheek. “I thought you didn’t keep tabs on each other.”
“Sure, in college, although we’ve been together more than apart.” Until now, Diana added silently. “But in high school and before that, fuck yeah, we were always together. Except for this place.”
“You love coming here and being alone.”
“I love coming here and I wanted to show you.”
“Then let's stay,” she said quickly. “I can handle it.”
A crooked smile tugged his mouth. “No big deal. Like I said, it was a long shot. We don't have to like all the same things, baby. We're never going to.”
“What keeps you coming back? Don't you want to do it instead of just watch?”
“Do what?” Ian's voice was very quiet now.
“Let it all out. Be yourself. Lose control, instead of being the person everyone expects you to be, including your brother. Playing the part everyone expects you to play. Even if you're the bad twin and the rebel, that's locked you up so tight that in the end, you’ve just played by the rules.”
Ian’s eyes widened. In the space before his answer, she heard scraps of conversation from passersby, a loudspeaker announcement, a muffled roar from inside the arena.
“If you think that's about losing control —” he jerked his head toward the stadium door — “you don't understand boxing.”
“I know it's not,” she said impatiently. “I’m talking about you and why you come here. You've seen me let go. You've told me to fall apart, and I have. But you're holding back. I'm not talking about drinking or doing drugs or crashing your car or being crazy out in the world. I'm talking about you,” she took a deep breath, “and me.”
“You don't want to see me lose it, Diana.”
“Oh, I so fucking do.”
His fingers tightened on her arms.
“You're so soft,” he muttered.
Diana sucked in her breath. A shadow clouded his eyes. Animal lust. She'd seen it before, God knows she had. But no matter how dirty he'd talked, devoured, fucked, there'd always been some self-control.
Ian's darkening eyes, his handsome face relaxing as he gripped her arms, told her the control wouldn't be there tonight. His growl sent desire winding between her legs.
“And you're so hard," she breathed.
She pushed her hands against his T-shirt. His pecs fit her palms. Her heart rocketed through her chest. Impulsively, she pulled his hand there to feel her pulse.
Ian blinked. For an instant, the fog of lust cleared.
“If you don't like it, you have to tell me to stop.” His voice was thick. The air around them was thick. She was dizzy with the promise in Ian's deep rumble, wedged between his body and the wall. “Because otherwise, I won't stop.”
“I’ll tell you.” Her throat was dry. Talking was harder now.
A firm leg
prodded her thighs, opening them, pushing in the blue and white flowered material of her dress. A cock pulsed against her belly. Hands dropped to her hips, squeezing, and his hazel eyes filmed over again.
“So soft everywhere,” he grunted, like he was talking more to himself than her. His gaze on her body, his fingers on her curves — he wasn't trying to drive her crazy. He was taking greedy pleasure in looking, in touching. In having. Taut need arrowed though her body, and she jerked under his touch. “What I want to do to you…”
“Show me,” she whispered.
“You really want this?”
“Show. Me.”
Ian pulled her from the wall, planted a hand on her back, and walked her swiftly down the stairs. His palm burned through her dress. She hurried to keep pace with his long stride. In two minutes, they’d left the hustle of the arena behind and were in the Jeep.
Twisting the keys in the ignition, he floored the gas before she’d buckled her seatbelt. The Jeep shot backwards, then roared out of the parking lot. Diana grabbed the handle above the door.
“Jesus, Ian,” she half-laughed, half-gasped.
“Where are your parents?” His voice was low, unrecognizable. A slow finger traced her thigh.
“Out. At an event somewhere.”
“Good. I’m gonna take you in your room.”
She shivered. “Can you wait that long?”
He laughed softly. “Don’t push me, baby. I don’t think you want to do that.”
“I do, actually.”
“Don’t.”
Diana shuddered at the word. Ian’s face was dark.
His finger burned a path across her creamy thigh to slip into the softness between her legs. She bit back a moan. He threw a glance her way as he stepped on the gas.
“Are you holding back, bad girl? Are you keeping quiet with me?”
“You said not to push you.” Her breath was coming in pants as Ian insistently squeezed her crotch. But she put a little tease back in her voice. “Can you handle me, Ian?”
“You’re going to find out. Now do all the fucking moaning you need to do, you hot slut, because this is only a warmup.”
The Girl in Between Page 12