Intimate Strangers

by Danielle Taylor

  However, this time he refused to initiate, to possibly add to his humiliation. If Chelsea wanted him, she would have to be the one to say so, or show him.

  And then, he did possibly the most idiotic thing he had ever done.

  “Chelsea, I want so much more than your body,” he sighed at her lips. “I…I know you don’t love me, and…well, maybe you never will, but, would you give me the chance to try and win you over? I don’t want to miss another moment of Ruan’s life, and I certainly don’t want to be apart from you.” Tiaan didn’t open his eyes, too afraid to see disgust in hers. Instead, he forged on. “Will you marry me, Chelsea?”

  Silence.

  It ticked on for what seemed like forever, punctuated by the ticking of his watch, resting on the night table. With each passing minute, Tiaan realised he’d been wrong about everything he thought he saw in her expression. Finally he could take no more of the silence, which spoke volumes to him, mumbled a half-arsed apology, and began extricating himself from her bed.

  “No, don’t.” She held the sleeve of his t-shirt in a near death grip, a note of desperation in her voice. “Don’t go. You…you caught me…you surprised me, Tiaan, that’s all.”

  Still he didn’t open his eyes, terrified he might see a mocking smirk on her face.

  Deep down, he knew Chelsea wasn’t like that – or was it a sad hope he held like a flame burning for a long lost love?

  Either way, he kept his eyes clamped tightly shut. If he didn’t see the horrified look on her face, then it wouldn’t be real.

  “Christiaan, please look at me.”

  When he didn’t, she held her hands on either side of his jaw, straddled his hips, and sat there, waiting. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes slowly. She looked every bit the angel he imagined during his unlawful incarceration, the kind of woman who possessed the ability to hold a man’s heart captive for life. His own heart ached at the prospect she might still laugh in his face for asking that she marry him.

  “I was…um, I mean, I was thinking the same thing. Because, you know, you mentioned earlier today that you can’t stay in the country unless you have a visa, and I thought if we were married, maybe you’d want to stay. F-for Ruan. At least. I know, I mean, I heard you say that I um, that I annoy you, so I don’t expect…” She paused for a breath and he used this opportunity to intervene.

  “Despite what I may have said when I first arrived, you don’t annoy me. It’s all just me, I’m messed up and–”

  “Ask me again,” she blurted out.

  Filled with a renewed sense of hope, of possibilities for the future, he did as the beautiful woman demanded of him. “Chelsea, will you marry me?”

  Immediately, her mouth drew back into the most delectable of smiles. “Yes.”

  She had spoken the word and yet he still couldn’t fully accept it. Tiaan stared at her, open mouthed, while attempting to regain control of his body. Chelsea, the mother of the child he didn’t know he had, the woman whose memory kept him going through to most heinous of tortures, the woman he needed more than anything or anyone…

  She just agreed to marry him.

  With some effort on his part, Tiaan sat up, ignoring the stinging ache from his wounds, and cupped the angel’s face before feathering her lips with light kisses. Only when she moaned did he increase the pressure and give in to her wordless demands. She tasted of the cinnamon toothpaste she liked to use, warm and spicy. That combined with her milk and honey fragrance, and he was a damned goner.

  Keeping his movements and sounds as quiet as possible, he pulled Chelsea’s nightdress over her head, removed his shirt, and slipped out of his boxers. She was trembling above him, hands moving to cover her lower abdomen. He let his eyes take a slow wander down to the area, passing first by her breasts, larger and more rounded than he remembered. Further down, he followed the smooth line to her navel, and recalled tracing that same path at least ten times, to that sweet spot where her thighs met.

  Then his gaze settled on her hands, clasped tightly together over the area Ruan would have filled while she was pregnant. He wished then that he had been able to see her swollen with his child, blooming and brilliant. That had to be the sexiest thing he’d ever imagined.

  “Why are you hiding from me, Chelsea?”

  “It’s gross,” she whispered, too quickly.

  Gently, he eased her hands away and examined the flesh. “It’s beautiful.” Tiaan pressed a string of reverent kisses over her lower abdomen. Turning his gaze upwards, he locked on to her eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

  Slivers of moonlight waltzed over the smooth planes of her face, illuminating the rosy glow on her cheeks. That blush crept down her neck, colouring her chest as well. “I’m plain,” she argued, and badly, at that.

  “No.” He shook his head. “You’re perfect, Chelsea. I wish you could see what I see when I look at you. I wish I could show you, somehow.”

  ~~~

  Is this actually happening, right here, right now? Chelsea wondered, her eyes riveted to the face of the man who just asked her to spend her life with him.

  He had honestly surprised her with that one. The very last thing she expected him to come out with was marriage – especially since she had been thinking the same thing, if only to keep him in the country so he could stay with Ruan.

  All thoughts fled from her mind when Tiaan brought a lightly trembling hand to her navel and slowly slid it up, between her breasts, to hold against the pulse point on her throat. Her name passed over his lips reverently. “I don’t deserve you, my darling, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting you, needing you. I-I…I can’t stop myself, you’re in my system. If you marry me, I’m going to want all of you.” He swallowed. “Can you give me that?”

  Somewhere between the moment she opened the Fournier’s front door to find him standing there with a fully chastised look on his face and here and now, Chelsea had begun to lose her heart to this man. Oh, at first she wanted to hate him, to despise everything about him. Tiaan obviously had other plans which involved seduction of the hot and sweaty kind. Around this man, she became a boneless, needy woman, and only he possessed the necessary skills to please her.

  The words were on the tip of her tongue but she wouldn’t grant them access to pass. In place of an admission that she was falling for him, Chelsea said, “Yes, I can.”

  Her answer obviously thrilled him. Tiaan growled low in his throat and then fastened his mouth over her right breast. Pain and pleasure mingled at the use of his teeth, rolling her nipple between them. The hand he held at her throat glided down to knead her other breast, pinching and tugging. He strummed her body with the hands and lips of a skilled lover, and knowing that he would soon belong to her forever was enough to have her rocking over the stiff length of him beneath her.

  A powerful need built up low in her belly and common sense was overridden completely when she felt his thickness pushing at her entrance. Chelsea raised herself up a little until he slipped through her folds and, without hesitation, she took him deep inside in one thrust. Tiaan sat up and she shoved her face to his neck to help muffle the sound of her moans.

  “Fok, Chelsea,” he hissed, driving into her harder, faster. He took her mouth with his, breathing the air from her lungs.

  Just like before, she gave into the intense passion they shared. Chelsea rocked her hips, taking what she needed from him. Tiaan pounded beneath her with the dedication of a man who promised his lover nothing but the most fantastic sex and a guaranteed orgasm. Much like the one she felt quickly blooming and about to burst.

  Head thrown back and tongue held between her teeth, Chelsea fought to keep from screaming out. He did that thing he had done many times before in the hotel room, something with the rough edge of his thumb and a swirling pattern over and around the extra-sensitive nub at the top of her folds. Her entire body grew rigid and a soundless cry garbled in her throat. Everything went black for a few seconds.

  Tiaan held her close to his chest but di
dn’t let up his assault on her until he had finished emptying himself inside her. His hands moved gently over her hair, drenched with sweat, like the rest of her. It was exactly as she remembered. At least that was one thing they’d have in their future. Incredible, earth shattering sex.

  It’s much more than that, she thought, too embarrassed to meet Tiaan’s eyes as he leaned back onto his pillow and pulled her with him. She had gone and lost her heart to the most mystifying man on the planet.

  “Chelsea,” he sighed, sounding rather pleased with himself. “When I first arrived here, I was horrible to you, my darling. Never again. I swear it.”

  Their bodies were still connected while she drifted off, those words echoing inside her mind.

  Eleven

  “I won’t take no for an answer, Carstens.”

  Tiaan huffed, knowing the battle he currently faced with Mac was a losing one.

  “Just go get Ruan and yourself in the car. There’s no point in racking up unnecessary fees in long-term parking. You guys have no clue how long you’ll be there. Who knows? They may surprise you have a change of heart.”

  “Or,” he began quickly before the other man said something else ridiculous, “they’ll turn us away from their doorstep and I’ll get some kind of legal documentation that says those bastards can never see my son. Ever.”

  Last night with Chelsea had been wonderful. They moved to a new place in their relationship – a word he had never used when referring to himself and a woman other than his mother – and he finally felt deserving of her affections. Tiaan wanted her love, but didn’t know if he had any to give back in return. Not that he didn’t care about her, but because he wasn’t sure exactly how to love.

  However, the anger had returned no thanks to her comment about how her parents wanted her to get rid of Ruan. He had sat beside the crib, staring at the tiny sleeping form through the rungs from the moment Chelsea fell asleep, until Ruan woke up, searching for something to eat. He knew that there was still some milk down in the refrigerator so Tiaan had gone down and read the instructions on the fridge, which were for Kayla and Mac, as their names on the top of the sheet indicated, and warmed a little up. Holding Ruan was one thing. Feeding him, another completely.

  While his son suckled at the milk in the bottle, Tiaan had fallen even deeper in love with him and made a silent vow that he would never leave Ruan or Chelsea. They were his life now.

  “I’d do the same damned thing,” Dunlop growled, thick arms folded over his chest. “But until you actually need to worry about it, just…get…in…the…car,” he spoke the words through clenched teeth, in his ‘do as I say this instant’ voice.

  A smile pulled one half of his mouth back, completely involuntarily. “Right away, Sir.” He saluted mockingly with his free hand.

  Mac grumbled something incoherent and motioned to the porch after he opened the front door. Ruan sleeping in the car seat he held, Tiaan exited the house and headed for the vehicle he had rented for Chelsea to drive until he had his SUV sent up from Washington. From this moment on, he’d only feel comfortable letting her drive something large and bulletproof – with or without Ruan in the car. Chelsea assisted him in anchoring the car seat, with some belt and clip thing, hidden down the back of the seat, and pulled the normal belt over to secure it in place. He slipped into the back seat, behind Mac, and took Chelsea’s hand in his.

  Soon, they’d be taking off for Toronto. They’d face her folks together and he’d be there to hold her hand if they refused her and Ruan. He smiled at her, his way of letting her know that he was there, and he’d always be there for her.

  ~~~

  At first, Chelsea thought they were going through an earthquake. The shaking of the vehicle reminded her very much of the four-point-one earthquake she’d been in back home in Ontario a number of years ago in the first and only earthquake she had experienced.

  Seconds after the jerking of the vehicle she heard the crunch of metal, what sounded an awful lot like tires being shredded – once she had accidentally driven in the out section of a building with intense security protection and her car’s tires were torn to bits so she knew that sound all too well – and the shattering of breaking glass, Chelsea’s head hit the seatback in front of her.

  If not for her seatbelt locking and holding her body in place, she might have blacked out from connecting with the small screen Mac had installed for Kayla and Erik to watch during long road trips.

  A voice called out. Unfamiliar.

  She heard her name.

  Chelsea groaned. She felt drunk, despite having had no alcohol since the night she spent with Tiaan in his hotel room.

  What was going on?

  Her arm, when she attempted to raise it, to reach to her left and touch the car seat that Ruan was in…

  RUAN!

  She forced her eyes open but saw nothing through the sticky, warm stuff covering her face.

  Pain shot through her shoulder and she cried out, throwing up the eggs and toast she had eaten for breakfast not long ago.

  “Baby,” Tiaan’s voice called out to her, his hand going through her hair. “Tell me what hurts, have you broken anything?”

  His words and his voice brought up a deluge of tears which, mercifully, cleared some of the sticky substance from her eyes. “M-my shoulder,” she told him, looking out through the fog covering her gaze.

  Something touched the area again, winning an agonized shriek from her. Chelsea heaved again, bringing more half-digested food to the floor.

  “I think it’s dislocated,” Tiaan murmured, stroking her cheek. “I’m going to push it back in for you–”

  “No! Just leave it.” As if on cue, her stomach muscles clenched, ready to empty the organ completely.

  But Tiaan wasn’t listening. He whispered, “One, two, three,” and grabbed her arm, shoving it into the socket.

  The loud crunch hurt, oh God, did it ever. Seconds after screaming her pain out, Chelsea felt the world disappearing altogether in a sea of ink-thick darkness.

  ~~~

  “Mac!” Tiaan slapped his friend on the back of the head – hard.

  His anxious gaze flicked back to Chelsea. Stuck in his seat, there wasn’t much he could do for her at the moment. The impact had completely crushed the door to his belt and the damned thing wouldn’t budge. And though his leg wasn’t broken – he had complete feeling and nothing hurt – it too was stuck in the door.

  “MAC!”

  “Wha?” Mackenzie leaned back in the driver’s seat, cradling his brow. “The fuck?”

  Ruan was fast asleep. Tiaan didn’t know how he did it, but the little babe slept through the entire ordeal. “Mac, I need you to help Chelsea. I’m trapped in the door. She’s just blacked out.”

  Rage filled his old friend. Tiaan read it easily in the squaring of shoulders, the loud exhaled breaths through his flared nostrils, and grumbling deep in his chest. “Carstens, very slowly, reach for the two handguns beneath my seat. Hand one to me. Then, cover yourselves.”

  The fuck? indeed. But Tiaan knew better than to waste time glancing about for the source of Mac’s distress. As he was told, he fumbled beneath the driver’s seat and found two weapons strapped there. Quickly, he gave one to Mac. The other, he flicked off the safety, checked the clip, made sure he was loaded and ready to go, then checked out his shattered window.

  Two men in black combats were advancing from the left. Tiaan swung his eyes right. One more.

  Shit, shit, shit!

  “Keep yourself together, Carstens!” Mac hissed in his usual commanding manner which never failed to gain his attention.

  Right, he thought, taking aim at one of the two men approaching his side of the vehicle. They weren’t police officers, nor were they EMTs. Their gait, not to mention the weaponry hooked to their waists, thighs, ankles, and in the many pockets of their vests, it all added up to one thing.

  Military.

  Not Canadian military, either. The Southern drawl he caught when one
of them called out an order could only have come from the Lone Star State.

  Tiaan shoved one hand in his eye, rubbing it, and then replaced his hand at the gun. It had to be a coincidence.

  But both he and Mac didn’t believe in such things.

  “You seeing what I’m seeing?” Mac growled from the front seat.

  “Ja.”

  “Protect Ruan at all costs.”

  He didn’t need to be told twice.

  With surprising speed – to anyone who didn’t know the man – Mackenzie kicked out the last of the shattered glass from the passenger side window and aimed at the man there. He fired off four shots in swift succession.

  Tiaan blinked.

  React, man!

  Right.

  Weapon aimed, he pulled at the trigger, catching one of the two men approaching from the left in the neck. He went down, futilely clamping a hand on the wound.

  Two down, he thought, aiming for the third man.

  Tiaan blinked again.

  There was no one else.

  Had Mac taken him out while he’d been busy?

  Something hard slammed into his temple and Tiaan was shrouded in deep nothingness.

  ~~~

  Jolted to the right, his heavy head drooped to touch his shoulder. Ma must have been grabbing his father’s arm while he drove again.

  Tiaan snuggled back in the bench seat of his parent’s station wagon, dreaming of returning home to the Land of Milk and Honey. So much beauty, untamed, rugged. He didn’t like it here, this fake and commercial place.

  Someone tried to wake him up. Father, no doubt. He opened his mouth to say, ‘piss off’ but he choked on them instead.

  So dry.

  Felt like his throat was closing up.

  “Christiaan!”

  Christ, I just want a few minutes to myself with no bickering!

  “Tiaan!”

  Fok, he thought, working harder to ignore them.

  “CARSTENS!”

  At that, he knew he wasn’t in the back of a car with his parents arguing up front. The only time anyone called him Carstens was at work.