Protecting Olivia

by Riley Edwards

  I laughed at her use of a curse word so shortly after she had corrected her sons. She might’ve called them a pain, but the love Essa had for her family was unparalleled.

  “Would you all please not scare Olivia away before I get to talk to her? My whole life I wanted a sister, and now my dumb brothers are gonna scare you off before I get to keep her,” Arabella spoke for the first time.

  I didn’t know if the butterflies in my belly were because I was freaked out that Essa and Bella said they wanted to keep me, or if it was from the excitement they wanted to.

  “Don’t let her fool you. She acts sweet and innocent, but she is trouble. She’ll rope you into her crazy schemes if you’re not careful,” MJ said.

  “Shut up, MJ. I am not.”

  “Right.” He smiled at Bella.

  “Ma!” Bella whined.

  “Sorry, Figlia, he is not wrong.”

  My head bounced around as they continued to bicker with one another. My gaze landed on Leo. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest watching me with his family. Peace washed over me. This was where I belonged. There was no doubt in my mind. Essa said I was made for him and they had been waiting for me. The truth was, they all were made for me, and I had been waiting for them.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Leo

  I spent the night watching Olivia charm my family. She did nothing special, she didn’t need to. My family had fallen in love with her just as fast as I had. There was something about her that was captivating. That should’ve scared the fuck out of me, but it didn’t. I’d been around the block enough times to know that what I felt for Olivia was different. It was real. If there had been any sliver of doubt, it disappeared the second her soft tongue grazed mine. The current that sparked between us bonded me to her in a way that was unbreakable. It was like our souls had melted together.

  My whole life Ma told me and my brothers that we’d know when we met the woman that God had intended for us. Each of us thought she was full of shit and dismissed her. Luca and MJ would never believe me if I told them that I thought Ma was actually right. Olivia was proof. They’d have to feel it themselves.

  After the week we’d had, family dinner was exactly what we both needed. It was what I needed. Every Sunday if I wasn’t on an op, my ass was planted at Ma’s table. It wasn’t because that was what was expected, though it was. It was because I needed them. I was close to every member of my team, they were my second family. We fought together, we bled together. I was bonded to them in a way that very few people could understand. However, my family grounded me, reminded me that I was more than a hired assassin sent in to kill bad guys so the government could deny involvement. Dinners around Ma’s table reminded me why I do what I do – so they could be safe. I would take the hash marks on my soul if it meant my brothers, sister, and Ma could breathe easy and not have to know what evil looked like.

  By the time we pulled up to my apartment Olivia looked dead on her feet. I felt a little guilty I had subjected her to all the ridonculous behavior. My brothers were the worst, telling her one wild story after another. She fit right in and laughed along with them, encouraging my siblings to tell her more. Arabella looked like she had a shiny new toy on Christmas morning, a sister she could play with. And Ma, I hadn’t seen her so happy since before my dad died. Her family was getting bigger. She welcomed Olivia into the family without reservation. That did freak me out. I figured Ma would put Olivia through her paces. Instead, she cried and thanked me for bringing her a daughter. Crazy woman.

  Now I was done fighting the pull between us. The mission objective had changed. I would do everything in my power to tie her to me. She repeatedly had told me she was ready. But the poor girl had no clue what full steam ahead really meant. She was about to find out, and I was willing to wear her down if she fought it.

  This was it.

  I pulled into the underground parking and parked. I was suddenly nervous, a wholly new feeling for me. I didn’t get nervous – not on a mission, not with a woman, never.

  “Everything alright?” Olivia asked, when I didn’t get out of the car right away.

  “Perfect,” I answered.

  “Then why are you staring out the windshield into space? Have you changed your mind?” she whispered the last part.

  “Fuck no,” I said little more abrupt than I had intended. “Truth? And I can’t believe I’m telling you this, only further hammering home how I feel about you. This is new for me. I’m scared that all of this will be too much for you and you’ll run. I’ll chase you down if you do, but I’m not used to this feeling. Hell, I’m not used to feeling at all.”

  “You won’t have to chase me. I won’t run.”

  She says that now. But she is twenty-five and has her whole life in front of her. She could have a man without a cargo ship full of guilt and memories. She could have a man that is not scarred on both the outside and inside.

  “Do you want to know what I was thinking when I was sitting in your mom’s house? How good it felt to be there. How much I loved them already. That I hoped they would accept me because if they didn’t, and I lost you, I would never recover. And I thought your mom was wrong. I was not made for you. Leo, you were made for me. Not to save me from bad guys, but to save me from a lonely, loveless life. Because if you hadn’t come into my life, that’s what it would’ve been – a half-life.

  With a few words, this woman soothed my fears.

  “One last thing. You know what I do for a living. You know that most of my ops are top secret. I cannot tell you about them, or where I’m going. Most of the time I won’t know for how long. When I leave for work, you have to know I go out with the intention of killing someone. I’ve never thought what my job would mean to someone else because I’ve never considered bringing anyone else into my life.”

  I waited for her to fully comprehend what I did. When I said I was going hunting, I meant that literally. Only I wasn’t hunting cute, furry, defenseless animals. I was hunting the human variety of animals.

  “Will you come straight home to me after you get back?” she asked.

  I wasn’t sure she was grasping what I was telling her. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  “Yes, Leo. I fully understand what your job entails. It has no bearing on how I feel about you. I’m proud of what you do. I don’t need to know the details. In fact, it’s better that I don’t. I will not get in the way of your job, I’ll stand next to you, and wait for you to come home. Now will you come straight home to me in DC or will I need to meet you in Annapolis?”

  Silly girl. She thought she still lived in DC.

  “Annapolis,” I answered.

  “Perfect. You call me when you land back in Baltimore, and I’ll hightail my ass to see you. My insurance will probably skyrocket with all the speeding tickets I’m going to get. But I don’t care.”

  She still wasn’t getting it.

  “Olivia, I want you here in Annapolis,” I told her.

  “And I will be. As soon as you call, I’ll be right here. Promise.” She smiled at me.

  “No, tesorino. I want you in my apartment – permanently,” I explained.

  Her smile faded, and she cocked her head to the side. “I don’t think I’m understanding.”

  “I want you to live here, with me.”

  “What? Are you crazy?” she asked.

  Now she was getting it.

  “I told you, full steam ahead. There’s no use waiting. I know what I want.”

  “This isn’t full steam ahead. This is breaking the speed of light, or sound, or whichever is faster. I can’t move in.”

  She was fucking hot when she was flustered. I wished I’d waited to have this conversation in my apartment.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “What if you don’t like how I brush my teeth or how I spit the toothpaste in the sink, or how I fall asleep reading with the light on? Or what if I’m a slob and leave my girly shit in your bathroom. I have
a lot of it you know. And I own a lot of shoes. What if you don’t want my shoes taking up your closet?”

  “Stop. I don’t give the first fuck how you brush your teeth or how you spit. That’s a lie, I care if you spit.” He paused to smile at me. “Lucky for you I don’t have much in my closet, so there’s room for your shoes, and if there’s not, you can use the second bedroom for a closet. Same for the bathroom. Hell, we’ll buy a house to fit all your girly shit if we need to. And check this woman, you will never again fall asleep reading when I am home. After I’m done with you, you’ll be too rung out to think about a book.”

  A sly smile playing at her lips gave way to a hundred-megawatt smile that I never wanted to see directed at another man. It was a smile that made me want to hand her the world.

  “Can we buy a house in Ma’s neighborhood so I can be close to her when you’re gone?” she asked.

  “Upstairs, now,” I demanded.

  Olivia’s smile faded. “What’s wrong?”

  “Not a damn thing. You have no idea how right everything is. I knew I should’ve waited to have this conversation somewhere where could I lay you out and devour you. Tesorino, whether you meant to or not, you just sealed your fate. There is no running, there is no stopping. My dad had his ring on my Ma’s finger in two weeks, and you thought that was fast? You ain’t seen nothing.”

  I rushed her out of the car and into the elevator. I didn’t speak to her on the way to my apartment because I needed the time to get myself under control. I wanted tonight to last, I wanted to show her what her words meant to me. How she’d slipped into my life and tied me in knots.

  I didn’t bother showing her around her new home – there was no time. I pulled her through the living room into the master bedroom at a fast clip, slowing down only to shut and lock the bedroom door behind us. I pulled my Sig from my holster, checked the safety was on, and put it on the nightstand. First order of business after we got her settled in was to teach her how to shoot. It was a must. There would always be a gun on the nightstand. She would have no choice but to learn how to use it.

  “Shower.” One word was all I was capable of saying. My body was on fire. I had never needed to feel a woman as badly as I needed Olivia. This was different. I wasn’t looking for just a sexual release; my body ached to feel her. For the first time, I craved the intimacy of the act. I wanted to lay myself bare in front of her. For better or for worse, I wanted to let her see every part of me. She deserved nothing less.

  Olivia didn’t answer and started to undress. I followed suit, pulling my tee over my head. My eyes never left Olivia’s body. The more skin she revealed, the more my eyes hungrily ate her up. She was stunning. I felt like I was ten feet tall when her pretty brown eyes caught fire and her chest heaved with every intake of breath. I never thought that the simple act of undressing could be so erotic, the best kind of foreplay. I forced myself not to reach out and touch her. My hand shook with the need to rip the rest of her clothes off her body in an effort to hurry things along.

  When we were both naked, I took her hand and walked us into the bathroom. Once the water was warm enough, I pulled her in the shower and gathered her in my arms. I cradled her face in my hands and brushed her cheeks with my thumbs. She was so small next to me. I bent down and brushed my lips against hers. “You are so beautiful, my tesorino.” Finally, I kissed her the way I had wanted to for days. Our tongues glided in a dance that could only be described as triumphant. I consumed her, sucked the breath from her body and in exchange gave her mine. It was the single most intimate moment I had ever experienced. Not that it surprised me, it was Olivia.

  When I finally pulled back, she was breathless and flushed. Perfect.

  “Turn around and face the wall.” I was so much taller than she was I needed to be behind her to touch all the places I wanted to. She did as I asked and my hands immediately cupped both of her breasts. Heavy, full, and so fucking soft in my hands. I squeezed them and plucked at her nipples until her ass was rubbing against my hard cock pressed at the small of her back. I dared not look down, the sight of my cock on her bare skin would make me explode. Her breathy sighs turned into desperate moans. She was there.

  “Are you ready?” I whispered in her ear, flattening my tongue on the soft skin below her lobe and licking down to her sexy collarbone.

  “Yes,” she whined.

  I slid my right hand down her flat stomach until I reached her neatly trimmed curls. Normally I like a closer shave, but the sexy landing strip she left gave me just enough hair to tug. Her deep throaty moan that followed told me she liked it, too. My hand found her wetness, and I couldn’t wait any longer. A few hard circles around her clit before I pushed two fingers inside of her.

  “Leo,” she panted.

  “I’ll get you there,” I promised.

  I only hoped it was before I came all over her back. Her ass was grinding on my cock harder, faster. I doubled my efforts and stroked the top wall of her pussy and pinched her nipple with my left hand.

  She came on my hand with a low sexy whine calling my name over and over. I removed my fingers and shut off the water, uncaring that neither of us had actually washed. I needed a bed and her wrapped around my cock.

  Fuck drying off, I didn’t care that we were both soaking wet when I laid her on the bed and crawled over her.

  “I don’t want anything between us,” I told her. “I’m clean, we’re tested every month at work. I haven’t been with a woman since my last test.”

  Olivia looked up at me, some of the fog clearing from her eyes. “I’m clean. Promise. I was tested after…you know.”

  “Baby, I wasn’t telling you that because I don’t trust you. I was more asking you if you were okay with us not using a condom.”

  “I’m not on birth control,” she said with disappointment in her voice.

  No birth control, I didn’t need to think about what the ramifications of my next words meant. I knew what I wanted. I felt my heart pound in my chest, and suddenly everything clicked into place.

  “I’m good with that. But, tesorino, if you’re not, I’ll grab a condom.”

  Unmoving, I waited for her to answer. Too afraid that if I even flinched my unruly cock would find her awaiting heat and it’d be too late for discussions. I wouldn’t take this choice from her.

  “I am, too.” She smiled.

  I reached between us and palmed my cock, rubbing the head against her clit. “You’re sure? A hundred percent. I’m not going to pull out. You’re okay if we make a baby?”

  Never in any realm of my imagination did I think I would ever be having this conversation with a woman. I double and triple checked the condom every time I had sex. Hell, I would never even use a condom that a woman tried to supply.

  My cock was throbbing with anticipation when she finally answered, “I’m okay with making a baby. Now please fuck me, Leo, I’m going to die if you don’t,” she begged.

  I lined my cock up with her entrance and pushed the tip in, wetting it and pulling back. She was tight, I’d have to work my way in slowly or I’d hurt both of us.

  I was a little more than halfway in when she started to thrust her hips up to meet mine. “I’m not going to fuck you, Olivia. I’m going to love you,” I whispered and slid home.

  I stayed planted inside of her, rocking my hips, making sure to grind her clit with my movements. When her moans turned into sobs, I knew I needed to hurry this along.

  “Lock your ankles behind my back and put your hands above your head. Hold on tight, baby.”

  She did as I asked providing me with the leverage I needed. I gathered both her hands in one of mine above her head and went to work giving her long hard thrusts.

  My eyes rolled in the back of my head with the first spasm of her pussy. Once her orgasm broke and she tightened around my cock, heat rushed up my spine and my balls tingled. With one last hard thrust, I stayed planted and let myself go. The pleasure was unbearable, there was no stopping the moan that tore from
my chest and my toes curling as I spilled into her. No barrier, nothing between us.

  Nothing had ever felt sweeter.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Olivia

  Nothing could bring me down. My head was bopping to the song playing in my mind on repeat, …walking on sunshine, oh-oh… I couldn’t ever remember a better morning than this. Leo was absolutely right. After last night, the last thing that was on my mind was a book. After he got us up and dried us off, he ripped the wet comforter off the bed, and we slept tangled together like a pair of baby kittens. Full contact sleeping, that’s what it was.

  Not a single nightmare.

  He got up and made us breakfast then excused himself to the extra bedroom which was set up as an office slash gym and said he needed to check in with Zane.

  I made myself busy looking around his, I mean our, apartment. There wasn’t much to look at really. It was definitely a bachelor pad, it was neat and tidy but lacking a woman’s touch. That surprised me; I figured that Bella or Essa would’ve pushed their way in and decorated for him. He had a kickass balcony off his dining area with a great view of the water.

  Leo came up from behind and wrapped his arms around me. “How are you feeling today?” he asked.

  My face heated at his question remembering last night. “I’m a little sore,” I admitted.

  “Good, I like knowing you’ll have a constant reminder of me all day.” He kissed the side of my neck, heating other parts of my body. I pushed my ass back, happy to see I wasn’t the only one affected by the memory.

  “Oh no, wildcat. We need to talk first.”

  “Okay.” I sighed.

  I really didn’t want to talk. I wanted to climb back into bed with him for the day and forget everything around us.

  “Your ma is on the way over here. I thought it better than us going to her. With beltway traffic this time of day, I’d say we have an hour and thirty minutes.” That snapped me out of my good mood. “We also need to sort your apartment in DC. I can have movers over there tomorrow, or if you want to go and pack, we can do it when I get back.”