Staring Into the Eyes of Chance (8 page)

Chance almost laughed out loud over her response to Trevor’s charm. She went from hard-nosed to sweet-soft in a matter of a Trevor smile.

“Chance, I’m taking this sweet darlin’ for a little walk. We’ll be right back directly.”

Lindsey melted into Trevor’s side.

“I’ll have her for an hour or so, just to let you know how much time you’ll have with Olivia.”
Trevor spoke pack-talk on the way out the door.

Chance knew exactly what room he would check out next.

Chapter Eight

Olivia closed her eyes and sank into the fragrant honey-almond scented water. Her friend knew exactly what it took for relaxing Olivia’s sensitivities. She blanked out the wretched sounds, smells, and images of the massacre in her barn.

Chance floated into her thoughts, his warmth, his unwavering strength, and his way of standing up to Lindsey. She acknowledged he was a liar, and yet her psyche told her something else. He cared for her. He protected her, above everything else he wanted to stay. Why?

She sensed him near and opened her eyes. He sat on the bench beside the tub, studying her, with a look of appreciation for what he saw, which sent a warm blast straight down her center, ending in her core.

“Why?” she asked, and couldn’t fathom the “why” of her question. Olivia sat naked in front of him without inhibitions dragging her lower into the water. A need deepened, pulling away her negative issues with him. She sensed his need for her, unspoken, but thick in the air between them.

“Because you deserve the truth, I want you to know me, and because I care about you.” Chance’s gaze held hers, heating her body, and at the same time sending chills down her spine.

“You’ve been lying from the moment we met. You did have animals in your truck, didn’t you? And you drugged me yesterday, too. Why? And while you’re at it, tell me why I sense you when I’ve never sensed people before?” Her questions came softly spoken, not the interrogation she’d earlier imagined heaving at him. She wondered if the questions even merited any answers. His gaze continued holding hers, and the sizzle in her core became wanton. The realization left her empty inside, longing. She wanted him, and his heavily lidded eyes and slightly parted lips intimated he might feel something similar.

Chance pulled his shoes and socks off. She watched him stand and unbutton his shirt, sliding the sleeves down his muscular arms. His chest of flat planes lightly dusted with shiny black hair moved, marking his strength, and muscles rippled down his mid-section as he undid his belt and jeans. He stepped out of the pool of denim. No underwear, his arousal thick and heavy, and all for her.

“Olivia?” Her name rolled off his lips in a question and caught her off guard. Her psyche buzzed for action, quiet his need; her need. He stood like a god above her, his gaze never leaving her, causing an electric rush through her veins. Her legs parted ever so slightly, as did her lips.

“Chance,” she whispered, more sultry than she’d ever spoken before.

Chance moved down the steps in one smooth motion, his body sinking below the water in front of her. Water swirled around her, and then his knees touched her inner thighs. He ran his fingers down the sides of her face, gently tucking tendrils of hair behind her ears. His hands cupped each side of her jawline and he lowered his head, brushing her lips with his. A soft moan escaped, drawn from deep in her throat as his tongue gained access into her welcoming mouth.

His tongue trembled against hers, exploring, touching, licking, each gentle connection sizzled luscious passion inside her. Her arms linked around Chance’s neck, and then her fingers buried into the curls at his nape, clinging for the want of him. His erection pressed into her belly with a comfort she’d all but forgotten.

Chance slid his hands around Olivia’s bottom and lifted her onto a step, the top half of her body out of the water. He lowered his head and suckled her nipple, while his finger and thumb rolled her other. Every touch sent searing fire into her belly.

“You’re so beautiful,” Chance rasped. His lips roved over her nipple as his words tumbled out.

Olivia gasped with the intimacy of his words and the pleasure of his hot breath along her breast. She arched her back, pressing deeper into his mouth. He molded his palm around her other breast, squeezing and massaging.

“Oh God. Chance, this isn’t me.” An admission she threw out too late, or too soon, only a small part of her cared.

“This is exactly you. Let yourself go, Olivia. Let me pleasure you.”

Chance slid his hand down her belly and into her crevice. Olivia leaned back against the steps. His fingertips grazed her most sensitive folds. Her psyche reached for him, wept for his attention, and again she sensed his urgency for her. He tweaked her clit, strummed and circled it, pressure building and spiraling out. Waves swilled within, pulsing along with his rhythm.

He lifted her hips higher, cupping her bottom with one hand while the fingers of his other drove her mad with desire. She reached for him, grasping his velvet hardness, touching, gently squeezing, fingertips circling its mushroom ridge.

“God, Olivia,” Chance groaned. “It’s been too long.”

Want and need directed her fingers, she must please him. He thickened and trembled under her fingers. She’d never known this experience, and his passion crept inside her, leaving her panting for all of him, inside her.

Olivia shimmied backward up the steps, his fingers snuggled deep inside her passage, pushing and prodding. She pulled him up with her fingers wrapped tightly around his arousal. Olivia lay on the tile floor, thighs splayed wide. His sensual gaze cracked the cold and bitter rock she’d been guarding deep within. He gently unwound her fingers from his erection. His fingers moved in and out, matching the beat of her heart. Her hips rose of their own accord, undulating.

Chance slowly pulled his two fingers out and a shiver quaked through Olivia’s body, her hips arched high, waiting for his re-entry. He stretched her further, fingers inching in with an added third. His free hand cupped her bottom, holding her in mid-air. He lowered his head, melding into her folds. A shock of heat blazed through her as his tongue touched her clit, drawing it into his mouth and suckling.

Olivia’s thighs trembled, her whole body weak with pleasure, prickles of electricity shimmering through every cell. Her hips thrust against his mouth and fingers, steadily increasing the building passion.

“Chance, fill me, come inside me,” she breathed. Her fingers coiled in his hair and attempted to pull him up. But Chance continued pumping his fingers, delving deep and pulling out, and then plunging even deeper. He nipped her sensitive clit and sent her over the edge, like a lightening strike. Ripples of sensation boiled through her core and out, tapping every nerve ending. She gasped for air as her center convulsed in an absolute all-consuming rush.

Chance gently removed his fingers, causing another convulsive response on the inner walls of her passage. Olivia’s hips jerked toward his departing fingertips. She threw her forearm over her eyes, breathing heavy. Dampness trekked down her temples.

“My intention wasn’t to make you cry,” Chance whispered near her ear. His body stretched down the side of hers, his thigh laid across one of hers. He kissed her ear, licked away the tear and took possession of her mouth. His arm crossed over her breasts and pulled her onto her side, his arousal searing her belly. He picked her forearm away from her eyes and dropped it at her side.

“Open your eyes and look at me, Olivia. You can sense me, open your senses and tell me what I’m feeling.”

Chance’s breath touched her lips, firing another charge through her body. She opened her eyes and met his gaze. His eyes mirrored her soul, she saw herself. She also sensed him, honesty, need, want, and…love? Her eyes opened wide.

“Tell me what you sense,” he whispered, again his breath melted into her skin.

“Honesty, need, want,” Olivia said.

“What else?”

She frowned as his eyes lost focus for moment and she lost the strong feeling of connection with him. It happened so fast she almost doubted it occurred at all, although her senses made it clear she wasn’t wrong.

“What just happened? Something snapped inside you like a stick,” Olivia said, studying the change in Chance’s expression.

“I’ll be damned. You are really something special.” Chance kissed her, short and sweet. “I hear company coming.”

Olivia sat up. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Believe me. Lindsey will be here in about two minutes. You best get dressed, and I need the hell out of here or she’ll stake me to a wall.”

“Yeah, she’d do that, too.” Olivia grabbed his hand and steadied herself as she stood and then held him from walking away. “We still need to talk. I don’t fully understand what just happened here, but my heart is invested, whatever ‘it’ is. And, there’s something my psyche is picking up that you’re not sharing with me. Honest, means no lies, Chance. I can’t do lies. Life is too short.”

Chance kissed her again, full mouth, steamy, body to body, skin to skin. He broke apart from her, leaving Olivia shaken, yearning for more.

“We need clothes, fast.”

Chance quickly dried with a towel Olivia tossed at him. He dressed, kissed her one last time before exiting the bathroom. She took a little more time dressing and combing her hair.

A sharp rap on the door announced Lindsey before she walked in.

“Chance looks pretty smug out there, like he swallowed my friend while I was distracted with Trevor.” Lindsey stared at Olivia through the mirror and then whirled Olivia around. Lindsey glared at Olivia’s mouth. “Oh my God. You’re wearing kissed lips, not just a little kissed lip action, but majorly swollen and eaten kissed lips.”

Olivia’s face heated, spreading warmth all the way down until it touched her toe nails, like a guilty teenager.

“Look at you.” Lindsey turned Olivia back toward the mirror. “You had sex with that freak. No wonder he looks like he swallowed my friend, because he did. What in the hell are you thinking, Olivia?”

Olivia swung around and faced Lindsey. “How old are you?”

“What does my age have anything to do with what you just did?”

“Answer my question.”

“Thirty-two. So, what?”

“Well, I’m old enough to be your mother. Yes, we’re friends, dear friends, but I’m old enough to know what I’m doing. Even if it’s a mistake, this has been an experience I’ve never known before, and…I deserve it.”

Lindsey’s mouth snapped shut, and she stood in one of her wide-eyed stances.

“Stop it. Don’t look at me that way.” Olivia patted Lindsey on the shoulder. “You’re not my boss, even though I love you like family. I can have a good time with whomever I choose, just like you do.”

“You’re in shock. You’re sensitivities are haywire, you just said they were, and then you go and do it with freak-man.” Lindsey walked toward the door.

“God, Lindsey, you make it sound so dirty, when it was anything but that. He gave me exactly what I needed, and he wanted to please me. I’ve never experienced the feeling of a man wanting me or actually wanting to satisfy my needs before…ever. You can’t imagine how wonderful I feel right now. Even after all the tragedy that’s just happened here. Don’t wreck it for me.” Olivia wanted Lindsey in agreement, or at least for her to agree to disagree. She needed Lindsey neutral with Chance, at least for now. Olivia didn’t want another scene of Lindsey being rude to him.

“All I’m saying is, you’re not acting like yourself, and I hate the thought of someone taking advantage when you’re not yourself, like the freak in the other room.”

“Please stop calling him a freak, that’s like calling me a freak because I’m attracted to him. You don’t know him.”

“And neither do you.”

“I know him better in two days than I knew my husband of thirty-four years.”

“No comment.” Lindsey threw the door open and stomped out. Olivia followed her, afraid of what she’d say to Chance, but thankfully Chance had gone outside. Most likely he heard Lindsey’s raised voice, which made Olivia feel that much worse.

She followed Lindsey all the way out by the driveway, where Chance was talking with his three associates. Olivia watched Lindsey walk over to Trevor and whisper something in his ear. He smiled huge and sexy, like she just gave him a sordid promise. She giggled, flirty-like.

Olivia didn’t really know Lindsey around men, didn’t understand her possessiveness or her anger. They never went anywhere together where there were single men, only stopping at the restaurant or café in town.

Chance’s cellphone rang, and he wandered off while answering it. Trevor shuffled Lindsey around the side of the barn, and Dir and Jase were standing beside their truck, looking uncomfortable. Olivia’s psyche picked up two healthy nervous animals. She studied them and her psyche registered more anxiety.

“Thank you for taking care of my barn, for being here and helping out.”

“That’s sort of what we do. All in a days work,” Dir spoke up. Both young men stepped away, almost like they were afraid of getting near Olivia.

“Have I done something offensive to either of you? I’m feeling like I have leprosy or something.” She chuckled in an attempt at making light the discomfort running rampant in the air between them.

“I guess we’re being a little cautious with you because you’ve had a rough day. We’re not really sure how we can make you feel better,” Jase said, staring at the ground.

“I have some cinnamon applesauce muffins inside if you’d like. I can warm a couple up. After being here all day I imagine you’re both starving. Maybe you’d like a sandwich or something?” Olivia stepped a bit closer, and both men looked at each other. It appeared they had their own secret signals, which she never saw, but she sensed a similar reaction that she experienced with Chance earlier, like a stick snapped between them.

“Honestly, it’s okay. The least I can do is feed you after all you’ve done for me. Please come inside and sit, I’ll fix you both a sandwich.” Olivia watched them physically relax their stance, both nodding in unison. “Okay, let’s go inside.”