The McGilley Trilogy (26 page)

“I’m still fun, if you and Kayla will remember,” Donovan reminded them of their threesome with a slow drawl, “but there’s a time and place for everything. And now is not the time.”

Kayla just laughed at Donovan, trotted up to him and gave him a quick kiss before replying, “I’m starving. Is one of those a dessert pizza?”

Donovan rolled his eyes but then gave her a fond look of indulgence. “No, brat, but I brought you a dark chocolate candy bar if you behave.”

“For dark chocolate, I can do anything.” Ignoring all three men’s skeptical looks, Kayla took a seat and called over to Olivia, “Come join us, Olivia, and I’ll share my candy bar with you.”

An hour later Olivia was thinking it had been a long time since she let herself relax and have fun with friends. She enjoyed getting to know Kayla and listening to the way she teased Brett. That he was completely captivated with the younger woman was obvious and she found herself envying their relationship. Colin’s mood seemed to improve over pizza and by the time they were done eating and finished cleaning what they could that night; she was too tired to think about anything but falling into bed.

“Come on, I’ll walk you out.” Colin took her hand, let her make her farewells and led her outside.

“Are you going to be able to open next weekend?” she asked as he opened her car door for her.

“I think so, as long as the two windows get replaced this week, we should be good.” Bracing his hands on the car, he caged her in and looked down into those whiskey eyes that had captivated him since the first time he met her. “I, we, really appreciate you coming out tonight, Livie. Thank you.”

“It was the least I could do after all the times you’ve helped me. Colin, I’m thinking of selling the house,” she blurted out, silently hoping that by telling him her plans it would make it harder to put the decision off.

“Are you now? Are you ready for that step?” He didn’t know about her, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready for her to move on. That would give him even less excuse, at least in her eyes, to keep his distance.

“I think so, but I won’t really know until I take it.” Olivia wanted him to kiss her, was dying to feel his lips on hers again. She had known her body wanted his for some time now, but it was just lately that her mind had felt a similar yearning.

As she leaned into him, Colin couldn’t resist wrapping his arms around her, but dropping a kiss on her forehead was as far as he’d let it go tonight. He needed sleep, hopefully undisturbed sleep, and he wouldn’t get it if he gave in to the need reflected on her face, a need he felt also but was still determined to find a way not to give in to.

“I’ll see you next weekend. Goodnight, Livie.”

Colin grabbed a beer from his refrigerator, padded barefoot into the great room and sank onto his leather sectional with a tired sigh. Propping his feet on the coffee table in front of him, he took a hefty swallow of the cold brew as he reached for the remote to the big screen television. He couldn’t remember the last time he was home by ten o’clock on a Friday night, but he had to admit he was grateful for the reprieve after the past week. Due to a delay in the shipment of liquor needed to replace what was lost last weekend, they were unable to reopen tonight. After tracking the delivery, he was assured it would be there by early afternoon tomorrow, which was the last detail needed to get Casey’s back in business.

The vandalism perplexed him, as it did his brothers. The mayhem the intruder or intruders wrecked on the club was destructive, but in a juvenile way. If whoever is responsible was the same one who left the nails in their drives, it wasn’t feasible it was anyone that wasn’t at least of driving age which made the three of them suspect college age kids. It was the why that had them mostly perplexed and the inability to weed out the culprits that had them so angry.

Shoving aside those concerns for now, he flipped through the channels and quickly noted he hadn’t been missing anything in the way of nighttime television programming. As he rose to search through his movie collection for something to take his mind off the club and a certain woman who continued to plague his thoughts, the sound of a car pulling up out front diverted him to the front door. A timid knock on his door had him looking through the peephole to find Olivia teetering on his front step as a taxi drove away.

“Olivia, what are you doing out here?” Opening the door, he watched her stumble in and caught a whiff of whiskey on her breath. Aw shit, he knew he was in trouble if she was drinking hard liquor. His Livie usually drank wine and only sweet wines at that.

“Can I come in?” Olivia asked him, her eyes bleary but able to focus enough to see him scowling down at her.
Now, why the hell did that look have her panties dampening,
she thought sourly
, and why the hell did she have to want her husband’s best friend as much as she had wanted her husband?

“You are in and you’re about to topple over. Why are you here, drunk?” Taking her hand, he pulled her into the den and sat her on the couch before squatting down in front of her. Dressed in a pair of old, faded jeans and a sweatshirt with the Sheriff’s emblem on it that had to have belonged to Doug by the way it dwarfed her, she looked lost and forlorn, her eyes swimming with confusion as she stared back at him.

“I don’t know,” she whispered tremulously. “Maybe because you’re always the one I think of when I don’t know what to do, then again, lately you’re always the one I think of no matter what. Little Maddie died yesterday, did you know that, Colin? That sweet little baby that never had a chance to leave the hospital and go home with mommy and daddy, never had a chance to be a little girl, she just…never had a chance. And now her parents have to go home to an empty nursery that never got used. I could use a drink.”

Colin pushed her shoulders back against the couch as she started to rise and pinned her with a hard eyed glare. “You’ve had enough, I think. You’re already going to regret this tomorrow morning. Thank God you had enough common sense left to take a cab instead of driving out here yourself. You should have called me, Livie.” She always became too emotionally involved with her patients. It was what made her so good at her job and so hard for her to cope at times like this.

“I love it when you call me Livie, did you know that? You’re the only one who does and that makes it special. I couldn’t call you; I had to get out of the house. I did it Colin, there’s a For Sale sign in the yard, only I didn’t realize, I didn’t know…”

“How hard it would be?” Damn he hated seeing her so sad, looking so broken up. Her rambling told him she had a lot to cope with this week and apparently it had come to a head this evening. He had spent the past five days thinking almost nonstop about her and what step he was willing to take with her next. He had been leaning toward giving in, giving her everything she wanted, including sex with him, until she could move on without him. As hard as he knew that would be on him, he simply was at the point where he had to step away or see this through. He had managed to get through the past three years being her friend after spending that one night with her, he could do it again. At least, that was what he had convinced himself he could do. “Let me get a pot of coffee going then we’ll talk.”

“Then I’ll just be an awake drunk, you moron.” Pushing past him, Olivia stood up, swayed then moved away from him to pace. “You and Doug always said that only time sobered a person up.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of giving you something to warm you up. You look chilled,” he replied coolly. It was obvious she’d had a hell of a week and was teetering on an emotional tightrope that had her floundering for a safety net. “Doug wouldn’t begrudge you moving on, Olivia, and that includes finding a new place to live.” Taking a seat, he watched her pace, his heart breaking for her.

Olivia whirled to face him, waited until the room stopped spinning again before focusing on that dark face and those bright green eyes that were focused so intently on her. Colin had been the lone port in the storm of grief that had consumed her for three years, and now he was the only ship she wanted to sail on. But what did he want? Anger resurfaced, the same anger that had driven her here, anger at Doug for leaving her, for not being here when she needed him, and anger at Colin for being here but not giving her what she wanted, what she needed. He couldn’t seem to even give her the one thing she wanted more than anything else, the feel of his cock filling her again, taking her to a height of pleasure so intense it obliterated the pain of the past and gave her hope for the future. The fact that she wanted and needed him more and more each day only made her angrier because she knew he didn’t want her, not the way she was coming to realize she did him.

“Then why does it feel like a betrayal? And why do I want...” She paused before asking him why she wanted him so much and had enough wits left about her to say instead, “I’m angry at him, Colin, and that’s just wrong, but, damn it, I need...”

Colin reached for his now lukewarm beer and took a hefty swig, afraid he knew what she wanted, afraid he was going to give it to her, and afraid, no matter how he had convinced himself otherwise, that he wouldn’t be able to move on afterward as easily as she will. “You’ve got to know by now I’ll give you what you need, Livie. Tell me.”

Doug had always made her tell him when she got to this point, when the frustration or the disappointment of her job overwhelmed her, but tonight she didn’t have the words. Thanks to her alcohol floating senses, though, she could get up the nerve to show him. Walking over to him, his eyes never left her face until her trembling fingers went to the snap and zipper on her jeans. She watched his eyes narrow as she lowered it, watched his nostrils flare as she pushed her pants down to her thighs and heard him groan as she draped herself over his hard thighs. “Master, please…”

Aw, hell
, Colin thought as he rested his palm on her right buttock. How could so much emotion and need be conveyed in those two words and how was he supposed to resist the plea behind them? Stroking her soft flesh, he watched her lithe body relax, heard the soft sigh of compliance that escaped her and felt her buttocks clench in anticipation. For such a slender woman, her ass was surprisingly lush, malleable but firm, her cheeks hiding the rosebud temptation of her back orifice.

Without a word, he smacked her right buttock hard, drawing a startled gasp from her accompanied by a lift of her hips, a silent plea for more. Another swat on her left buttock yielded a matching hue, a slow glide between those pink globes to lightly graze the seam of her pussy showed glistening proof of her arousal. “How does this help, Livie?” he asked as he slapped her again. “Do you think you deserve to be punished for wanting to live even though Doug is gone?”
If so
, he thought
, then he deserved to be horsewhipped.

“Maybe,” Olivia admitted as the fiery burn of his next blow spread down to her pussy and had her sheath pulsing with the need to be filled. “I don’t know, all I know is it helps.” Three more swats landed in rapid succession and had her moaning as she embraced the pain, let it consume her, until it was mixed with the building pleasure so thoroughly she couldn’t differentiate between the two. Tears filled her eyes as her buttocks swelled with painful heat, a heat that could be felt in her pussy, a pain that had her teetering on the edge of climax, a climax that promised to take away the pain.

“Please, Colin, Master, please,” she whimpered as his hard hand continued with its barrage of slaps without letting up.

Colin swore as he felt his defenses crumbling. Instead of easing up on his blows then caressing her abused flesh with soothing strokes, he stopped abruptly and flipped her over on his lap, her red face and drowning eyes more than he could resist. “What do you want from me, Olivia?” he asked her harshly. “How far do you see this going?”

“I don’t know, I just know I want you, I need you. Can’t that be enough for now?” The feel of his denim covered hard thighs under her sore ass was an added enticement she didn’t need and she knew there would be a damp spot on those jeans when she got up.

“I think you need a cold shower then we’ll see what, or who you want.” Colin stood, tossed her over his shoulder, stripped her shoes, jeans and panties off of her then strode down the hall to the master bathroom. He had no idea why he was angry, didn’t know why he felt like taking that anger out on her, but then again, he had no idea why he felt half the things he felt about her. All he knew for sure was that this was his last chance to avoid crossing a line that threatened to cost him the tenuous hold he had on her.

Chapter Sixteen

The floor swam dizzily below her as Colin carted her down a hallway and into a bedroom with cream colored carpeting, his finger lightly stroking over her damp labia all the way. Olivia sensed his anger was directed more at himself than her, she just didn’t know why. When he entered his bathroom and lowered her onto a warm tile floor, she sighed in bliss. “You have heated floors. That’s so awesome.”

Colin looked down at her face, at the closed eyelids and lips turned up just slightly and felt a pull that just fueled his irrational anger. Swiftly pulling the sweatshirt over her head, he picked her up and thrust her into the large shower then reached behind her and turned on the four shower heads. Her eyes flew open and a shocked squeal of surprise rent the air as the cold water bombarded her from all angles.

“You bastard, turn it off!” Olivia sputtered as the shock of the cold spray roused her from her stupor enough to question what the hell she was doing pursuing a man who didn’t want anything but friendship. “Colin, I mean it, turn them off.” The shower stall was huge, big enough she could move towards the glass door where he stood blocking her exit and be out of most of the spray.

“You coherent enough to know what you’re doing, what you’re asking for?” he asked her coolly before raking her nudity with a slow, appraising look.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she replied, “I have enough sense to know I want heat.”

Reaching behind her, Colin flipped the nozzle and hot water replaced cold, the sprays warming her immediately as she stepped back under them. She took a moment to savor the warmth, turning her back to him as she tried to figure out what his problem was. After a few moments of unnerving silence, she turned back around to see him standing there completely naked, his cock a hard, seeping testament to his arousal.