Don’t do this.
Don’t fucking do this.
OLIVIA
“Good morning.”
Will’s husky voice filled the room. My heart ricocheted off the walls of my chest a few dozen times before settling into a panicked rhythm. Oh, God.
I pulled my hand away from Ian, but I couldn’t move any farther. He had me all but pinned against the counter. Then his touch fell away, and he stepped back. That small relief took the edge off my panic, but nothing about his stolid expression implied that he was rattled by Will’s presence.
If Will cared, he didn’t show it either. He was dressed already, in jeans and a blue collared shirt that set off his eyes. He opened the cabinet and pulled out a mug.
Ian walked past him. “Help yourself to breakfast. I’m going to get some sleep.”
Will didn’t look up as he poured his coffee. “Long night?”
“You know it.”
The corner of Will’s mouth lifted. That small sign of levity lifted away a little more of my anxiety about what he’d walked in on.
But what the hell was I thinking? There was something really wrong with me. Apparently lust was a contagious disease that had taken over my mind and my body since I’d met Will. He’d kept me up late, and just as I’d slip off to sleep, he’d come at me again. I’d welcomed it. I’d opened for him, accepted him, let him bring me to the brink again and again and then push me over until I barely knew my own name. I seemed to only know his, crying it out like a prayer every time he’d let me come.
The man fucked like a god, and now, after months of no action, I couldn’t get sex off my brain. One look at Ian’s shirtless tattooed body had me clenching in places that were already very well used. And even if I’d only spent a night with Will, somehow those places already seemed to belong to him. But did they?
I brought my hand to my mouth, trying to ignore the tingle in my lips that Ian’s closeness had inspired. Like the truly wanton creature I’d become, I had wanted him to kiss me. There was no doubt.
Ian disappeared down the hallway into his room, and Will was watching me now. My heart thundered in my ears. I wanted to say something, but his careful gaze seemed to say it all. He walked over to me casually, taking Ian’s place in my bubble and caging me with his arms on either side.
Shaking his head with a soft sigh, he said, “Oh, Olivia. Beautiful, sexy girl. What are we going to do with you? I leave you alone for a few minutes, and Ian has you in his clutches.”
I expected an edge in his tone. Bitterness or a hint of anger. But I sensed nothing like that. Still, I was riddled with unexpected guilt.
“It was nothing,” I said, trying to convince myself of my own words.
“A kiss?”
“He didn’t kiss me.”
He cocked his head, his gaze fixed on my lips. “An almost kiss? You wanted his lips on you though.” He traced the bow of my mouth. “I’ll bet you wanted even more than that.”
Was he teasing me? Taunting me because less than twenty-four hours into our purely sexual relationship, I’d nearly betrayed him? Was exclusivity implied? We hadn’t negotiated those terms.
“Will…I’m sorry.”
He hushed me, pressing his finger to my lips. His thoughtful gaze seemed to search mine. I was exhausted, aroused, and completely mixed up. I hadn’t even been with Will long enough to comprehend what it would be like to lose his presence from my life. Inherently I knew I didn’t want that. But I had no idea how far I’d let things go with Ian. That alone frightened me.
“I don’t know what came over me. He just…”
“He wants you. The way I want you.”
A silent moment passed between us, those few words lingering and echoing through me. He bent and kissed me softly. He lowered his hand to the tender place between my legs, where I was shamefully wet.
His eyes went dark, and all signs of humor left his expression. “I don’t care if Ian started this. I’m going to finish it. Because I can’t get enough of you right now.”
In one swift movement, he lifted me onto the island. My heart couldn’t slow down.
“Are you sore?” He shoved the hem of the shirt up.
“A little, but—”
“Lie back.”
I froze. I was naked under his shirt. And we were far from alone in the apartment.
He lifted an eyebrow and spoke with more force. “Lie. Back.”
I lay back on the granite as he spread me. “What are you— Ah!”
His mouth landed between my legs. He centered his tongue on my pool of arousal, spreading moisture up and over my clit. I tensed, but he held my thighs apart, continuing his assault on my pussy.
He moaned against me. “Christ, you taste good.”
I sighed. The counter was cool and hard against my back, a stark contrast to the heat and softness of his mouth as he ate me like a starving man.
I was barreling into the orgasm before I could think better of our position and my vulnerability… But he probably liked that. Maybe that was what this thing with Ian was about—capitalizing on a weak moment. But hell, if this was my punishment, I could handle it.
I threaded my fingers through Will’s hair, holding him to me as I shifted my hips against his mouth. I swore nothing in my life had ever felt this purely…erotic.
I had no idea what made me open my eyes.
I sensed Ian before I saw him. His energy drew my gaze toward his. As Will moved between my legs, Ian’s muscular frame filled the threshold to the hallway that led to his room. His hands pressed against the walls on either side. His dark lips were parted and wet.
He was watching, like a goddamn voyeur. And because I was drunk on lust, I didn’t care. And I didn’t think. My hands left Will’s dirty-blond locks. I skimmed up my thighs and hips, lifting my shirt up over my breasts. Cupping each breast, I gently twisted my nipples. They were sore and sensitive from the night before, and the pain shot right to my core. I was so close…so aroused and climbing higher with every passing second.
With one hand on the wall, Ian brought his other to the place where his erection visibly grew beneath his sweatpants. He bit down on his lip and squeezed, giving me the briefest view of its impressive girth. His abs tightened with the motion, and in that moment, he was all muscle and feral lust. It was too much. Two beautiful men and their attentions fixed on me…open…vulnerable…
I moaned when Will began rotating between the pressure of his fingers and the exquisite texture of his tongue on my clit. Good God…
Something inside me detonated. I couldn’t take it. I was falling and then flying high and crashing hard into another incredible orgasm.
My eyes closed. I cried out loudly, bowing off the counter. The orgasm seemed to ride out in waves, marked by my breathless cries and Will’s dedicated lapping against my oversensitive clit.
As the pleasure tapered off, little aftershocks rippled through me. When I opened my eyes again, Ian was gone and Will stood before me. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and lifted me upright.
“I have to go,” he said breathlessly.
“But…”
I reached for him, but he caught my wrist.
“If I let you anywhere near my cock right now, I’m going to be even later than I already am.”
I pouted my lip a little. “Okay.”
“See me tonight.”
The hint of desperation in his voice made me want to give him everything. All of it, all the time.
A vague memory of me telling him he couldn’t beckon me whenever he wanted floated across my mind. I didn’t really care about that, not in my current mind-set, anyway. But through the fog, I remembered that I did have plans.
“I would, but I’m having dinner with my brothers.” Being gone last night most likely would have already raised suspicions. I couldn’t bail on our weekend dinner, even if Maya was probably going to grill me about Will again.
“Are you going to make me wait again?”
I s
mirked. “Not too long. I promise.”
“Call me after. If I can’t feel you, I want to hear you.” He brought his mouth over mine, kissing me tenderly. “How can I want you this badly already?”
I kissed him back, the same question echoing in my mind…
WILL
“So what do you say?”
“Huh?” I lifted my gaze from my picked-over lunch and focused on the man seated across from me.
I’d agreed to this meeting with my father, but as soon as the conversation turned to the fund he wanted me to take over, my thoughts had drifted.
To Olivia. I shouldn’t have let her stay over. I’d planned to break her down, shatter her until she was screaming my name. I wasn’t expecting to ravage her all goddamn night. I couldn’t leave her alone. And this morning, seeing her with Ian… Jealousy wasn’t a word in our shared dictionary when it came to feelings associated with the women we fucked. But something had tightened in my gut when I saw her in his arms.
All the more reason to let him seduce her. Once he’d had her, that feeling would surely go away. Getting possessive over Olivia wouldn’t serve anyone. I’d promised her nothing but pleasure. Either of us could deliver on that. And the arrangement between Ian and me had been set months ago. Why renege and screw up a good thing?
He could have a taste, but I wasn’t letting her go. In fact, not knowing when I’d see her again was proving a constant distraction. In my youth of privilege, I’d managed to stay away from the hard drugs that I could easily afford, but I imagined this might be what it was like to come off a really good hit of heroin. I was tired and restless, and I wanted to crawl inside of this woman next chance I had. Lose myself there and hide away from the problem that was currently looking me in the face.
Bill Donovan was aging before my eyes. The investigation had been underway for months and clearly had taken a physical toll on my father. More of his hair had turned from brown to white, and his eyes seemed tired. The stress was eating at him. I almost felt sorry for him.
“You look terrible,” I finally said.
He exhaled and rubbed along the deep grooves on his forehead. “I guess that’ll happen when you’re facing jail time.”
“You sound so certain.”
His expression didn’t change, but his shoulders hunched slightly.
“Was it worth it?”
He shook his head. “I ask myself every day. It’s easy to cut corners when you’re flying high. Christ, people do it every day.”
“So you don’t regret it.”
“Obviously,” he snapped. “I fucking regret it now.”
I clenched my teeth. Bastard. His only remorse was getting caught. “I’m afraid I can’t help you, Dad.”
He dropped his fist on the table loudly enough for the silverware to rattle. “Goddamnit, Will. I need you to step up. I let you fuck around long enough. Didn’t I? I gave you fun money, whatever you needed to get the girls, get your little ventures going. Playtime is over. We’re talking about real money here. The kind of money that ensures the next four or five generations of our family are taken care of.”
“I can’t do this. I’m not like you.”
“Despite being raised with a silver spoon in your fucking mouth, you are. You’re money wise. You’re good with people. You can wheel and deal and make people feel safe writing you checks. You were born for this. If I thought for one second you’d fuck it up, trust me, I wouldn’t have wasted my time grooming you to take things over. I just didn’t think it would have to be so soon.”
“You understand that I’ve never wanted any part in it?” I’d wanted to tell him for so long, and somehow, now that his ruin seemed imminent, the words could finally come.
“This isn’t a life sentence, Will. If Reilly or I get indicted, the investors will bail, without a doubt. We need you to come in and instill confidence. Become the figurehead for a while until the dust settles and one of us can take over again.”
I laughed and shook my head. “This guy—your business partner—skimmed millions from his friends so people like you could get fat kickbacks. You really think there’s anything I can say that’s going to convince investors to let you continue playing with their money?”
“There’s a six-month lock-up on the investments. That gives us time to repair the damage. But I can’t do it alone.”
“You mean you can’t do it from behind bars.”
The grooves between his brows deepened. “Nothing is certain right now. I told you. We need to plan for contingencies.”
He was right about one thing. Nothing was certain. Nothing about his tone or demeanor was confidence inspiring, and the way the news was spreading around, Bill Donovan and the future of Reilly Donovan Capital was heading south. The suggestion that I could do anything to unfuck the situation seemed unlikely.
The instinct to help my father, even as I disagreed with it in principal, still nagged at me. Was the fund really clean? I couldn’t imagine being part of the company. If the money was tainted at all, I had no choice. I wouldn’t go down the way my father was going down. That much I knew.
Chapter Six
OLIVIA
“Oh, good, you’re here. You have to tell me everything.” Maya pushed a glass of wine into my hand as I entered her kitchen.
Darren straightened from checking on the food in the stove and exchanged a look with Cameron. “What’s going on?”
“Never mind. Come on, let’s go sit.” Maya waved him off and pulled me toward the dining room area where Vanessa was already sitting at the long table with her wine.
While Darren and Cameron stayed busy in the kitchen, I was essentially sandwiched between my brothers’ wives. Two new sisters in the space of a year. Our family was growing faster than I could keep up with. A week didn’t go by without one of us hosting a family dinner, a ritual that kept our close family even closer. Except none to date had included our parents, a fact that I regretted.
We were a stubborn family. My brothers had broken out on their own not long after college, defying our parents’ wishes for their futures, and nothing had been the same after that. Long periods of silence, awkward dinners, tense holidays, and words that couldn’t be unspoken. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one keeping that line open between the two broken halves of our family, but I wondered if I’d always be able to do that.
“So what happened last night?” Maya’s voice was hushed.
I glanced back to the kitchen, worried that we were still within earshot of my brothers.
“Did you meet someone?” Vanessa’s light-green eyes brightened.
“Um…” How did I respond to that? “Sort of.” Technically I’d met Will. The rest fell into a very weird category that I wasn’t sure I could really talk about.
Vanessa smiled broadly and leaned in. “Who is it?” She clasped her wineglass, and her diamond shone brilliantly in the light.
Maya quickly answered for me. “Will Donovan. He’s the investor for the new gym.”
“Oh, wow.” She blinked. “Wait, that’s Bill’s son, right?”
I nodded, and her excitement dimmed. Her days at Reilly Donovan Capital had been short-lived, but I knew from Maya that she carried a lot of resentment toward her ex-boss, David Reilly. Thankfully, she’d landed a much better position at the Youth Arts Initiative, the very one that Will’s father had defrauded. Still, I wasn’t ready to hold anything against Will. From what I could tell, their business dealings were very separate, and the few words he’d shared on the matter seemed weighty with disappointment.
“So you still haven’t really answered my question. What happened? Did you stay over?”
I glanced back at my brothers, who weren’t saying anything but weren’t making eye contact with me either. I wanted to give Maya the benefit of the doubt and assume that the pregnancy hormones were altering her better judgment. She was all but throwing me to the wolves with this line of questioning.
“We had drinks and talked. We’re getting to know ea
ch other better,” I said, aiming for the most diplomatic answer I could. It beat admitting that the man had spent half the night dedicated to pulling multiple orgasms from me.
“Sounds promising. When are you seeing him again?”
I shrugged. “I let him know I had plans tonight, so I’m not sure.”
Maya clapped her hands. “Oh, we should have him over for dinner one night. That would be perfect.”
Cameron approached the table, serving dishes in hand. “Probably not the best idea to mix business with…family.”
Maya frowned. “Ironic, don’t you think? Since we’re all family and half of us work for the family business.”
“That’s different,” he answered tightly before sitting down beside her.
“How?”
The way Maya was glaring in his direction told me Cameron wasn’t going to win this argument tonight. His lips formed a thin line, and he plated up his food. The rest of us followed suit, and I was grateful for the moment to have something to do with my mouth other than discuss Will.
Darren dropped down into the seat beside Vanessa. He leaned toward her and kissed her square on the mouth. She smiled under the kiss.
When she returned to her food, he whispered in her ear, “Beautiful.”
Her cheeks colored a lovely shade of pink, and she nudged him back with her elbow. We ate in silence for a few minutes before Vanessa spoke up.
“Liv, are we all set for the shower next weekend? Do you need me to do anything?”
“No, I think I have it covered,” I said.
We both glanced to Maya, who shot us a smile. She knew we’d been arranging a baby shower for her, but other than the date, everything else would be a surprise.
“Boys invited?” Darren asked between bites.
Vanessa nudged him again, harder this time. “No. Girls only.”
“Ah, that’s too bad.” He shot her a wicked grin, like he was pretending to be disappointed.
I’d almost welcome the comic relief he’d bring. He had a way of softening my mother. She loved her sons, and even though I knew she got under Darren’s skin too, he seemed to absorb the blows better than the rest of us did.
Over the Edge: The Bridge Series: Book Three Page 6