Running her hand through his hair, she leaned in and kissed him.
“As long as you don’t stop kissing me, I’ll be just fine.”
Dace stood and carried her to the bedroom, where he placed her on her bed and began to take off his clothes. “I’ll never be the source of your pain, Ivy. Only your pleasure. And I promise to be slow and careful with you in this bed, but only until you’ve healed. Then I’ll show you all the ways I’ve missed you, and nothing will be slow and soft about it.”
Ivy moaned at his words, thrilled by his tantalizing promise, and she began to touch herself through her clothes.
“Take them off,” he ordered. “All of it. I want to see all of you while you’re doing that.”
Ivy sat up on her knees and pushed her yoga pants sans panties down before sitting back so she could kick the garment off at her feet. Her legs were bent, and she spread them wide when she grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Her eyes were locked on his, and they grew heavier with every touch to her own body.
Her hand swept down her chest and belly to her center, where she swirled her fingers around her core and let out a small moan before dragging her hand back up to her breasts where she toyed with her nipples through the thin clothing, causing them to harden.
“Take it off,” he said as he grabbed his length and gave it a long, slow stroke. “Show me what you want me to do to you.”
She smiled and spread her legs wider, opening to him while she released the simple clasp between her breasts and let them free. She shimmied the piece of fabric from her shoulders and went back to pleasuring herself. First, with her breasts, pinching and pulling at her nipples, then laid back. There was more pleasure in knowing he was watching her every move and seeing him rub and stroke in response than through the sensations she was swirling.
“Is that what you want from me?” he said in a low timbre as he climbed on the bed and kneeled between her legs, cock in hand. “Show me what you really want, Ivy. Where do you want to feel me?”
His words alone could have been her undoing and caused her breath to quicken as a flood of heat rushed straight to her center, and her hand followed. She circled and teased while Dace hovered above and watched every touch. She quickened her pace and added pressure while stroking her swollen core. Dipping her fingers in her hot center, she allowed them to glide over her with ease and pleasure, stroke after stroke. When she arched her back, she nearly stopped, waiting for him to join her, but he didn’t.
“Come, Ivy,” he said. “I want to watch you come.”
Her pace increased, and she lifted her legs off the bed, pulling her knees up and out, completely wide for him to see. She arched her back at the feel of his fingers sliding inside her while she continued to massage her most intimate part, and together, they brought her to her peak. He replaced his fingers with his length, filling her as she continued to rise and tighten around him. His pace, in and out, matched hers, and she came down around him, calling out his name as she rode him back, feeling him with every wave of pleasure as she pulsed around him.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he said before taking her breast in his mouth while he rode out her pleasure until he took his own, careful not to crush her. He turned them to their sides, still connected, while they caught their breath and readied for another round. He was just getting started, and so was she.
***
With Ivy sound asleep, Dace carefully slipped out of bed and slid on his pants. With his shirt in his hand, he stood in the doorway and looked at her in her bed, so still, so content, and for a moment, he wondered where this would go. They cautiously rekindled a relationship neither one of them quite understood or could define yet. They were invested in each other now – while still missing the piece that completed them – their son. A family? Definitely. A couple? Maybe.
Too much had changed for them to just pick up where they left off. Too much had happened. Hell, they had a child now. If anything turned their world upside down, it was that. Whether they would be working toward forever or just a for now, nothing changed the fact that, as he watched her sleep, it was clear he never stopped loving her. Not even a little bit.
Dace was grabbing his boots and turned to leave when Ivy said in a soft voice, “I love you.”
He paused, looking at her over his shoulder, and saw that she was still sound asleep. Was that for someone in her dream? Maybe Cash? Or was it for him? Dace shrugged it off and shook his head, which was full of so many thoughts, wants, needs, and even fears.
He needed to go for a ride.
CHAPTER 28
Ivy stepped off the elevator and into the building's parking garage where she was told to meet the team escorting her to an appointment. Most of her rehabilitation care took place at Watermark Tower without any issue, but today was a bit more complicated. She was having her cast removed and images done to make sure everything had healed as they’d hoped.
A quick trip to an imaging facility only a couple of miles away was what they told her. With the connections they had, it was nothing to reserve the space after hours when nobody, but essential staff would be there to operate the equipment.
When she turned the corner, headed for the fleet of vehicles lined up to escort them, Ivy paused. Dace and Cally were standing at the end of the staged caravan, hugging. He rubbed her back, she gripped his neck, and when all was said and done, they kissed each other’s cheek. As Cally walked away to get in her vehicle, there was a moment where their hands held, and they looked at each other in a way Ivy had never noticed. There was something there. A certain intimacy danced between them. They were something — a couple.
Now Ivy knew where Dace had gone the night before – from her bed to Cally’s, it seemed, and this was the morning after walk of shame. Though neither looked ashamed, it made sense, though. Ivy had been gone – Dace was a virile man and easy on the eyes, so of course, he’d had relationships in her absence. It just didn’t dawn on her that she’d returned right in the middle of one. And now she’d slept with someone else’s man not once, but twice.
Her lapse in judgment and desire to fill a missing piece of her led her to be the proverbial other women. She was such a cliché. When the other elevator dinged announcing its arrival, she was quick to move and not be noticed in such a state of…whatever it was she was feeling.
“You okay, love?” Eli said from behind her.
Ivy glanced over her shoulder and feigned a smile. “Yeah. Great. Hope I get this thing off today and get to keep it off.”
Eli noted her mood and traced her sightline when she turned her attention back to whatever she’d been trained on. He watched Cally get in her car as Dace looked on, tossing a wave Cally’s way. “Ah. Miss Cally.”
“Mm-hmm. It sure was,” Ivy said saltier than intended.
She had no right to feel anything where Dace and Cally were concerned, and frankly, it was none of her business. Cally was sweet, and Dace deserved sweet. Even if it wasn’t his thing, it didn’t matter, though, because she had no right to him. She lost that when she left.
It wasn’t like she expected him to drop everything, dump his girl, and come back to her. That would be selfish and wrong for either of them, even if they did have a child together.