Heads or Tails (54 page)

Ivyanne sucked in her breath. ‘You could forget me so
easily
?’

Tristan’s inside’s melted. Instinctively, he reached out for her and gently cupped her jaw in his fingertips. ‘Oh sweetheart no-’ then Tristan caught himself, and fury washed over him. He tugged his hand away as though scalded. ‘Oh come on!’ He erupted. ‘You’re leaving me with nothing! Let me have my anger! Let me try to move on, and fast! I know this is hard for you, and it’ll make
you
feel better to tell me that I’m precious and you’re a confused fool and someday you might regret this like your mother did and blah, blah, blah…. but I’m sorry-it’s only going to make
me
feel
worse
. I got out of there, not just for Lincoln’s sake, but for mine.’ A tear slipped down his cheek. ‘Just looking at you now is breaking my heart even more. If you ever cared about me at all-you’d just leave...
please
…’

Ivyanne stepped forward, between his open knees, and cupped his face. ‘I’m not going to regret my decision,’ she said softly. ‘Just as I’m not going to regret making love to you tonight.’

A shock ran through Tristan as the seawater pooling around her feet seeped under his own. It started at his brain, caused a spasm in his chest and then shot right to his groin. ‘You want to do
what
now?!’ He was too stunned to move as her fingers feathered down his shoulders and along his biceps.

‘You heard me,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t come up here to talk-I know damn well that’s not going to make you feel better. I came up here to do what we need to if we’re ever going to move on with our lives.’

‘Ivyanne this is insane!’ Tristan was certain that she’d lost her mind completely. Was this
his
doing? ‘I know you’re split in the middle and we’ve been tolerant of that-but to expect us to forgive you for
this
is-’ Tristan’s was fighting for breath as Ivyanne’s fingertips landed on the sides of his waist and stroked up his ribs, her gaze watching the movements of her hands with reverence, like he was a pretty statue she was considering buying. He shivered, feeling her fingers working her will by promising pleasure over his responsive flesh and pushed her hands away. ‘No!’ he snapped. ‘I
won’t
do it!’

‘I’m your queen, and you’ll do as commanded.’ Ivyanne said, taking her sweatshirt and pulling it over her head, forcing his riveted gaze to watch her lithe body flex as she stripped down to a pale lavender bra and jeans. When she’d flung it clear, she lifted her knee to rest on the bed beside his hip, the moisture of her wet jeans soaking through his pants to his skin as she pulled his lips to the taut flesh beneath her belly button possessively. ‘This brilliantly carved body isn’t going
anywhere
until I’ve had my way with it one more time.’

Tristan was instantly light-headed with desire. ‘This isn’t fair…’ he moaned, filled with self loathing as his body defied his heart by sampling her salty, damp skin with eager lips. He pressed his forehead into her instead, trying to resist, and breathed her in deeply. She and the ocean were one and the same. If sunsets and sunrises had a taste, they would have hers. ‘I once thought that this would get me over you but it only makes it that much
worse
...’

‘I know and I’m sorry-but I don’t want you getting over me that easily. I couldn’t bear it.’ Her hands were raking through his curls wildly, her voice breathless. ‘I’ve become far to used to having the world’s most resplendant man at my beck and call.’

‘You’re cruel.’ He snapped, his eyes opening when he felt her body shift away. She was on her knees now and planting hot, messy kisses along his stomach muscles as one of her hands cupped his erection and rubbed it through the silk. He was throbbing-his brain, his heart, his erection-all of it pulsed at her touch. ‘You’re going to hell, you know that? How can you bait me into breaking my heart more than you already have?’

Ivyanne’s lips found his tattoo and she lifted her eyes to his, smiling against his skin. ‘You’re the one who took a sweet little mermaid and made her an insatiable siren. It’s too late to take that back, so why not just take what I’m offering and shut the hell up?’

Tristan swore he could feel blood vessels popping all over his body-he was the victim! She’d drawn him in and incapacitated him with that very first look on the pier-and again with that kiss at the resort!

‘Have it your way! You always do!’ He growled and reached down, reefing down the cups of her bra until her breasts bounced free, exposing her to his greedy gaze and then cupped them both savagely, bringing her up to his mouth so he could violate them with his excited tongue. Her supple flesh filled his palms and mouth and her scent  dominated his senses. Ivyanne gasped and then her hands were back in his hair. He groaned, how he loved it when she did that! How he’d miss it! He knew he should stop, but his desire combined with the strength of the moon and her relentless pull at his very being overshadowed his moral outrage at being used for sex or stabbing Lincoln in the back, who had technically saved his life but rendered it worthless by stealing the girl.

‘Tristan
yes
!’ Ivyanne breathed, and he could feel her racing heart against his lips and that only angered him more. How stupid was she to not see that this would never go away?

‘I should tease
you
,’ he whispered. ‘Get you all worked up and then toss your prick teasing ass
out
.’

‘Mmm…’ Ivyanne’s hand snaked down the front of her jeans, her fingers disappearing from view. ‘You’re going to make me do this myself baby…?’

Tristan felt like he’d been knocked off the rocks by a wave of her creation again only this time, the water was boiling. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ he jerked her hand out and opened her button fly, tugging her skintight jeans down her flared hips. When he spied her lacy lavender thong and matching garter belt, he began to hyperventilate. Knowing she’d gone to so much trouble just to seduce him against his will and prolong his suffering wiped his conscience clean. He yanked her jeans to her ankles and roughly  hitched one of her legs over his shoulder, forcing the cuff to slide off that foot and her lace covered sex to ram up against his waiting mouth.

‘Guess what?’ He whispered against her, lifting a finger and inserting it slowly inside her, going straight for the place he knew her to be most responsive, no holds barred. Ivyanne stiffened all over and then moaned, rocking her hips.

‘What?’ She breathed.

‘You picked the wrong night to toy with me. You’re not leaving this room until I’m done with you,’ he slipped in another finger and she trembled. ‘And I am not letting anything come between me, and this, least of all, protection.’ He pushed the lace of her panties aside and suckled on her intimately. ‘So stay at your own risk.’

‘Oh god!’ Ivyanne came apart then and there, blowing Tristan’s mind and threatening every other organ’s control. She seized around him and he kissed her again, matching every pulse with a gentle tug of his lips then worrying the spot with his tongue until she was jerking, going limp.

‘That wasn’t god,’ he whispered. ‘It was me.’ Elated but knowing that he had to act quickly if he didn’t want her release to equal sobriety, Tristan rose, hoisting her so that her still shuddering thighs locked around his waist, tugging on the tie of his pants as he did, which slid easily to the floor and puddled at his feet.

‘Yes, you...’ Ivyanne’s arms went around his shoulders and she smiled lazily at him. ‘
My
Tristan.’

He groaned, loving the words and loathing the truth to them. He was ruined for anyone else and she knew it and was gloating! And damn it but he wanted her more for being so proud of it! He closed his eyes, sank his teeth into her bottom lip and jerked his hips up rougher than he would have in any other circumstance, impaling her wet sex and crying out when the world exploded. Ivyanne moved against him, rising only to sink again and he gasped, shocked by her demanding and oh so welcoming little body.

‘
Ohh
…’ Ivyanne’s tongue slipped into his open mouth and a sob escaped her. ‘
Yes
. Take me..’

Tristan’s eyes opened, shocked as he realized that he could have been inside a stranger. Who was this heartless, fixated girl, hell-bent on ruining them all by disregarding everyone’s feelings? He knew she had a wild side but this wasn’t right. It didn’t make sense. Had something happened to warp her mind that evening? Was she taking control because Ardhi had threatened hers? Was this about him at all?

‘Ivyanne..’ he tried to tell her that they had to stop but his body wasn’t having any of it and he drove himself up and into her again, feelings tears of absolute perfection sear his eyes, hot and wet, like her.

‘Don’t stop!’ She whimpered, lifting and sinking again. ‘Don’t hold back! Just let go so we can start again! And I couldn’t care less about protection...the sooner you get me pregnant, the better.’

Tristan had been going to take her breast in her mouth, but now he froze. A beat passed, and then he lifted his face to hers. ‘
What
did you just say?

Ivyanne kissed him gently behind his ear, on his tattoo and smiled. ‘I know I know, the chances of a Court getting knocked up within a century let alone before our wedding are pretty long, but if anyone can manage it,
you
can.’

Tristan gripped her shoulders and pulled her face back so he could look her in the eye. ‘
Our wedding
?’ he repeated, dumbfounded. His muscles turned to jelly and he sank down on the bed, keeping them locked together in every sense. ‘As in, you and
I
?’

Ivyanne’s face broke into a brilliant smile. ‘Why did you think I was here? To offer myself up like some consolidation prize?’ she clucked her tongue. ‘I’ve got to say, I’m a little let down that you’d think so
little
of me…’

‘Ardhi was telling the truth?!’ He yelped. He reached for her left hand and held it to his face, gaping when he saw the bare knuckle of her ring finger. ‘B-But-I saw it! You were wearing Lincoln’s
ring
-’

‘Ardhi forced it onto my hand for kicks,’ Ivyanne whispered. ‘I handed it back to the rightful owner an hour ago, and
he
tossed it into the ocean.’ Her fingers laced through his and she kissed his knuckles, her eyes shining up at him. ‘And then I came for you.’

Tristan’s blood was rushing in his ears. ‘
Me
?!’ He repeated. ‘You want
me
?’

Ivyanne raised an eyebrow. ‘Who
doesn’t?
’

Tristan’s grip on her tightened so that he feared he might break her and yet couldn’t make his muscles relax. Oxygen flooded him as adrenaline threatened to overwhelm his heart. ‘Ivyanne if you are fucking with my head just to get some I swear to lucifer that you will pay-’

Ivyanne’s lips were on his, a strangled cry escaping her throat as she wrapped herself around him like a sea snake. Tristan was too shocked to return the kiss-he was afraid to move in case he woke up from the most magical dream he’d ever had.

Ivyanne pulled back. ‘Tristan you’ve spent three months teasing me with what could be!’ she gasped against his lips, twisting her fingers in his curls, panting against his mouth. ‘I love you but if you delay this one second longer I am going to die!’

Tristan’s heart lifted into his throat. He kissed her back finally as joy shot through his bloodstream and pumped into his faltering heart. In one smooth movement he turned her around, laying her on the bed beneath him as tears pricked his eyes again.

‘How? Why?! What about-’

‘Telling Lincoln we don’t have a future together was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ Ivyanne whispered. ‘But telling you good-bye would have been
impossible
.’ She caressed his cheek. ‘I left that window open for you tonight sweetheart.’ She smiled through her own rapidly pooling tears. ‘And that’s why I was wearing...
what
I was wearing. I’d figured it out earlier, and so I came upstairs, started planning our wedding and waiting for you... to come and put us
both
out of our misery.’

Tristan was trembling. ‘The bathroom window? What made you think I’d even check that?’

‘Because you’re
stubborn
.’ She said with a smile. ‘And I wanted to mess with you head a little...But yes, I knew you’d come. Nothing is ever a lost cause to you, and even when it is, you go down fighting. It’s one of the reason why that crown of dad’s will suit you so well.’

Tristan chuckled, but sobered quickly, stroking her hair adoringly. ‘But when you said it-when Ardhi said it-you looked so...
ashamed
. Like you’d been caught in a lie you’d hoped to get away with it.’

‘No. I was only sorry that Lincoln had to find out the way he did.’ She traced his lips. ‘And I’d planned on telling you... pretty much the way I’m telling you now.’ She scowled. ‘I’m annoyed that you didn’t have the faith in me to believe it, but in some ways, it’s good that I get to surprise you all over again.’ She touched his nose. ‘The look on your face is
priceless
.’