Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5)

by Carole Mortimer

  Evie’s apartment, where Ian had spent a month of nights exploring and gorging himself on every inch of this woman’s passionate and responsive body, was the last place he wanted to be. But right now, he daren’t leave Evie to her own devices, knew exactly what she would do when his back was turned. Either go to Gregori, as she had originally planned, or she would do some investigating of her own, find out who else her brother owed money to, and then go to see one of them. Leaving her on her own right now wasn’t an option Ian felt safe taking.

  Evie’s stubborn expression told him her apartment was the only place she would go without putting up a fight.

  “Fine.” He nodded before closing the passenger door and walking round to the other side to get in behind the wheel and start the engine.

  “I—”

  “Are you about to break our agreement already?”

  Evie flinched away from the unmistakable coldness in the glance Ian gave her. She had only been going to tell him she still lived at the same apartment, but then she remembered he had told the other bodyguard her address last night when he instructed Ilia to drive her home. No doubt, as she was so predictable and boring, Ian had merely assumed she still lived there. Which she did. “Could I ask one question?”

  “One,” Ian confirmed grimly as he accelerated the car into the flow of traffic.

  “How long is my silence supposed to last?”

  “Considering you annoy the hell out of me every time you speak, until I say otherwise.”

  Evie frowned. “That seems a little one-sided.”

  “More than a little,” he acknowledged without apology.

  Had Ian always been this arrogant and initially Evie had been too bemused by his interest in her, and then totally sexually enthralled, to notice?

  Probably, she acknowledged self-disgustedly.

  Well, she had noticed it now, and it was irritating the hell out of her. He irritated the hell out of her.

  That realization was enough to cause her to give a snort of repressed laughter. She had spent the last three years yearning for a man she loved and desired but now wasn’t sure she even liked. Way to go, Evie.

  “Care to share the joke?”

  Her answer was another inelegant snort of laughter. Once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. That laughter continued even after the tears had started to stream hotly down her cheeks.

  “What the hell?” Ian pulled the car over into a side road and put it in park before turning in his seat to unfasten his own and Evie’s seat belt, and then pulling a now-sobbing Evie into his arms. “It’s all right,” he soothed. “Everything is going to be all—”

  “No, it isn’t!” She pulled back slightly to begin pummeling his chest with her clenched fists. “My brother is missing. I now know he owes thousands of pounds to unsavory people like Gregori Markovic.” She punctuated every second or third word by hitting Ian’s chest with those clenched fists. “And to make matters worse, I don’t remember you as being such an arrogant bastard. So much so, in fact, I’m not even sure I like you anymore.” She began to sob in earnest.

  Chapter 5

  Ian decided to let her cry for a few minutes, but when those tears showed no signs of drying up, he decided to put a stop to it himself. “Well, I’m glad you got all that off your chest. I’m not sure it was necessary to pummel it onto mine but—” He broke off as Evie reared back, her eyes blazing with fury.

  “Do not patronize me, you—you asshole—mmph.” Her words were cut off completely as Ian gave in to the temptation to kiss her into the silence he had demanded and she’d agreed to but so far not given.

  Her hands pushed against his chest even at the same time as her lips parted beneath his and she returned the kiss with the fiery passion Ian remembered so well.

  He had no idea how or why, but she always tasted of all his favorite things. Strawberries and cream with the sharp taste of a good malt whisky. Or maybe he just thought strawberries and cream and a good malt whisky tasted of Evie?

  Didn’t matter which. Her unique taste was like a drug that entered his system and controlled his every thought and action whenever he was with her.

  He groaned at the way the softness of her body molded perfectly against his.

  And the warmth of her hands against his chest caused his cock to harden in response to having her touch him again.

  He pulled her across the console separating them as he deepened the kiss. Her slight form fit easily between his chest and the steering wheel as he continued to ravish the sweetness of her mouth. Her arms moved up about his shoulders as he pulled the pins from her hair. Ian loving the feel of those silky tresses as he entangled his fingers in them to deepen the kiss even more, his tongue searching out and claiming every part of her mouth. Every part of her.

  It was the way it had always been with Evie. Pure pleasure. Heated desire. And a welling of happiness inside him so big, it felt as if it couldn’t and wouldn’t be contained by his rib cage, threatening to burst free. Exposing him.

  Opening him up to all sorts of pain.

  Opening them both to all sorts of pain.

  That realization was like a bucket of ice-cold water being thrown over him, causing Ian to break the kiss and pull back. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  Evie felt those five words like a hammer blow.

  I shouldn’t have done that.

  Words guaranteed to nullify and take away whatever it was that had preceded it.

  Evie had a choice. She could accept that dismissal for what it was, or she could challenge it. “Then why did you? And do not say it was the only way you could think of to stop me crying,” she warned before he could speak. “I know you have more intelligence than to think I would believe you.”

  “Then why do you think I did it?”

  “Nor am I about to be tricked into answering the question I asked you.” She gave him a reproving look. “That”—she gave a wave of her hand to encompass the fevered kisses and caresses they had shared—“no matter what you might have said before, has been building between the two of us since you arrived at the library earlier.”

  “You were upset—”

  “I said I’m not buying it, Ian.”

  He drew in a deep breath. “You’re a hard woman, Evie Bishop.”

  “Where you’re concerned, yes. I’ll admit you threw me earlier, hurt me, with your boring and predictable comment. But here we are again, only a short time later, kissing each other as if our next breath depended upon it.”

  “I never could resist a woman’s tears.”

  “Stop lying to me, Ian!” She snapped her exasperation with him. “I can feel how much you want me.” There was no hiding the hard length of his arousal pulsing beneath her thighs.

  Evie still had no idea why Ian wanted someone like her. She only knew that he did. They were as different at night and day, and yet the attraction zinged between them every time they met. And it flashed out of control whenever they were alone together. It wasn’t the reaction of a man who found her boring or predictable.

  “You don’t like me anymore, remember?” Ian drawled.

  Evie gave him an irritated glance as she climbed back to the passenger side of the car. “I said I wasn’t sure whether or not I did, but keep this up, and I’ll know for certain!”

  Ian added tenacious to the list of Evie’s other attributes. It was one he could quite well do without when it came to him.

  “Talk to me, Ian,” she encouraged softly. “Tell me what it is that makes you deliberately keep people at arm’s length.”

  He closed his eyes briefly and was immediately assailed with painful images flashing behind his lids. Images that still occasionally filled his nightmares but which he could usually manage to keep at bay when he was awake.

  He gave a shake of his head as he opened his eyes and banished those images to the back of his mind, where they belonged. “Don’t start analyzing me,” he derided. “Because if you do, I guarantee you’ll find I’m like every other
man you meet. We’re pretty basic creatures. When we’re attracted to a woman, we like to fuck them. When we’ve had enough, we say good-bye.”

  “Not always,” she reminded him sharply.

  He sighed. “Never going to forgive me for that, are you.”

  “No. And if you were trying to shock me with that comment about fucking, then you didn’t succeed.”

  Ian frowned his displeasure. “I’m not sure I like that word coming out of your mouth.”

  “Then don’t use it to me.”

  “Fine.”

  “Now drive me to my apartment, please,” she repeated firmly.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And don’t try pulling that don’t talk and do as your told crap with me again, because I won’t tolerate it.”

  Ian wondered if it was normal for his cock to get hard—harder—when a woman started ordering him around. Hell if he knew anymore. His cock certainly seemed to like Evie giving him orders, at least. “No, ma’am.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Patronizing me isn’t allowed either.”

  “Care to tell me what is?”

  “You can drive me home.”

  “Yes, ma—Evie.” Ian decided not to annoy this assertive Evie any further and instead put the car in drive and turned the vehicle around and then back into the flow of traffic.

  Which was when his thoughts returned to Evie’s earlier statement. She wasn’t sure she even liked him anymore?

  That hurt more than it should have. More than Ian wanted it to.

  So what had he thought would happen? That while he was off traveling the world the past three years, acting as bodyguard for politicians, movie and rock stars, and bedding some of them too, that Evie was sitting in England heartbroken over “the one that got away”? Was he really that conceited?

  It wasn’t a question of being conceited.

  Then what was it?

  Evie was his, damn it. Ian had known that from the moment he saw her still seated in the auditorium three years ago once the bullets stopped. And she was totally wrong about his pursuit of her having been a bet he’d made with Liam: even then, if the other man had said so much as a wrong word about her, Ian would have taken his head off.

  He still would.

  “You changed the couch.”

  Evie turned from dropping her shoulder bag onto the coffee table, her eyes wide. “I’m surprised you noticed.”

  “I liked the old one better. It was wide enough for both of us,” he added huskily.

  She felt the warmth in her cheeks as she recalled the amount of times she and Ian had made love on that old couch when they hadn’t made it as far as the bedroom.

  Maybe that was one of the reasons she had decided to get rid of it six months after Ian disappeared from her life. It was an attempt on her part to get rid of those memories of him too.

  If that had been the case, then it hadn’t worked. Oh, after the first few months, he was no longer the first thing she thought of each morning and the last thing she thought of at night, but she challenged any woman to easily forget Ian once the two of them had been to bed together. Or “fucked,” as Ian had put it.

  For Evie, it had been so much more than that.

  She gave him a bright, insincere smile. “Just as well, then, that your opinion on my couch or anything else is of absolutely no importance to me.”

  “Ouch.” Ian gave an exaggerated wince. “How about I make us a pot of coffee?” He didn’t wait for her answer as he walked through to the kitchen area and took the coffee from the fridge and the filter from the cupboard before adding them both to the coffeemaking machine.

  His familiarity with where things were kept in her kitchen gave Evie a painful pang, which quickly turned to irritation. Ian had long ago given up the right to this familiarity.

  Evie moved to take the tin of coffee out of his hands and return it to the fridge. “I said you could bring me back to my apartment. I didn’t say anything about you staying long enough to drink coffee.”

  Ian leaned back against one of the kitchen units, arms folded in front of his chest as he watched Evie fill the coffee machine with water before switching it on. “The agreement was we would both come to your apartment and not go to a hotel.”

  “No—”

  “Yes. Because you can’t be trusted, Evie. As soon as I leave here, I know damn well you’ll rush over to Utopia later on tonight and demand to see Gregori. As you intended doing last night before I stopped you.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “What you need and what you’re getting are two different things.”

  She tilted her chin in challenge. “Meaning?”

  “Meaning I’m spending the weekend here with you. That way I can ensure you stay put.”

  “You are not staying here for the weekend,” she protested.

  “Oh, but I am,” Ian assured her mildly. “I told you, I’m off duty for the next couple of nights, and I can just as easily make any phone calls I need to make from here as I can my own apartment.”

  Too late, Evie realized her mistake. She didn’t want Ian staying here. Not only did it not leave her free to do the things she needed to do—which was obviously his intention—but it was also too reminiscent of the past. As he had just shown with the easy familiarity with which he moved about her kitchen.

  Her lips thinned. “I need to find Adam.”

  “And I’m going to do that for you.” Ian nodded. “But from here. Why don’t we both have a coffee, and then, while I’m making my calls, you can go and take one of those bubble baths you find so relaxing?”

  The baths she had taken with Ian in the past hadn’t relaxed her at all; in fact, the opposite. A bath on her own sounded tempting but… “You’re suggesting I take a bath when my brother is missing?”

  “I’ve said I’ll find him for you. I’ll also make us something to eat when I’ve finished my calls.”

  “When did you become so domesticated?”

  “I’ve always been able to cook,” he defended. “There was just never any call for it in the past.”

  Because they had always eaten out before coming back here and making dessert out of each other.

  “I showered this morning.”

  “Not the same,” Ian dismissed.

  No, it wasn’t. “Fine, I’ll have some coffee and then take a bath,” Evie snapped. “But if you find out anything about where Adam is from your phone calls, I want to know about it.”

  “Yes, ma’a— Sorry.” He held his hands up in surrender as she glared at him. “Give me a break, hm? I’m having a hard time adjusting to this new assertive Evie.”

  “Well, I suggest you get over it, and quickly,” she taunted. “Because she’s here to stay.”

  If anything could have possibly made Ian want Evie more than he already did, then it was the flashes of fire and determination he had seen in her today. He had always known she had courage from the fact she hadn’t fled in hysteria at the sound of gunfire the night they met. But this was something else. A self-confidence to stand up to him and anyone else who stood in her way. It was incredibly hot. And totally distracting.

  Which was something Ian couldn’t allow right now. Evie was right in that Adam had to have disappeared somewhere. It was up to Ian to find out if that disappearance had been voluntary or forced. He also needed to find out those things before Evie decided to take matters into her own hands again. And possibly ended up getting herself in as much trouble as her brother was. As it was, Ian had no intention of leaving her here alone and vulnerable.

  He knew the subterranean world Adam had become involved in well enough to know that if the men Adam owed money to couldn’t find him, then they would find the next best thing and use it as leverage to make him pay up.

  Evie.

  Lying back in the perfumed bubble bath, her hair secured at her crown to prevent it from getting wet, wasn’t having its usual soothing effect. And it wasn’t difficult for Evie to know the reason why it wasn’t.


  It was the six foot four inches of toned muscle and arrogance in her kitchen right now preparing dinner for both of them from whatever he could find in her fridge and freezer.

  This whole thing was starting to feel surreal. The surprise of meeting Ian again last night at Utopia. Having him visit her at the library today. Now being in her apartment, knowing he was just feet away in her kitchen.

  She would have given anything three years ago to have had him here again. To be spending the weekend with him.

  But all this time later, she had moved on, made a different life for herself. It might not be anywhere near as exciting as being with Ian had been, but it was still her life, and she had forged it inch by painful inch from the ashes of her life after Ian left. He had no right to think she would ever accept him walking back into her life and taking it over again.

  Which meant he had to leave, whether he wanted to or not. This was her apartment, and she had the right to say who stayed and who went. She was resolved—

  “Not going to happen.”

  She spun round so sharply to look at Ian as he stood casually leaning against the doorframe that it caused the bath water to swell and almost spill over the side and onto the terracotta tiles.

  “Get out,” she gasped even as she sank beneath the bubbles to hide her nakedness, embarrassed color blazing in her cheeks as she glared at him.

  He stayed exactly where he was. “I’ve seen it all before.” He shrugged. “Right down to the birth mark at the top of—”

  “I said get out!” she repeated through gritted teeth.

  “—your inner thigh—”

  “Get out, get out, get out!” She stood up in the bath, no longer caring about her nakedness. As Ian said, he’d seen it all before anyway, and too much had happened in the last two days for Evie to now calmly accept Ian’s total invasion of her privacy.

  Ian couldn’t have moved if he had wanted to—and he didn’t—as Evie stepped out of the bath. He was far too distracted by the way the bubbles clung to the tips of her breasts, the slope of her belly, and then down to— Jesus! Her mound was completely bare of the dark curls he had been expecting.