Dare to Touch (18 page)

Olivia shrugged in his arms. “I appreciated it. I think it took a lot for her to come see me, and I believe she was sincere.”

He blew out a long breath. “For what it’s worth, I do too.”

“She wants to get together for lunch sometime.”

Now
that
Dylan wasn’t sure about. Those two women together would either make his life easier or give him another uphill battle with Olivia.

“I said okay.” She rolled to the side so she could meet his gaze. “I know she’s important to you. Like Callie’s important to you. So I can be an adult. I want to give something to you for once.”

His chest grew heavy at her words. “Liv—”

“Shh.” She shut him up by crawling into his lap and sealing her lips over his.

Her tongue slipped into his mouth, her body adjusted to his, and he was lost. In her kiss, he felt everything she didn’t—couldn’t—say. Her silken tongue slid against his, over and over, until her hips were rolling against him in time to the rhythm she set.

He groaned and cupped her head in his hand, holding her in place so he could taste her more thoroughly, more deeply. He couldn’t get enough of just this simple kiss.

Her small hands gripped his shoulders as she rocked her sex against his aching cock, which demanded he strip her and thrust into her waiting warmth. But he wasn’t in the frame of mind to take more just yet, not when
this
was so damned good.

He continued to kiss her, to make out like he hadn’t done since he was a teen, when the ringing of a cell phone intruded on the perfect moment.

She lifted her head, and he felt the loss of her lips on his.

“It’s mine and I say ignore it,” she said.

Good by him. Whoever it was could take a flying leap.

He slid his hands around her waist, needing to touch her skin, and nuzzled his face into the side of her cheek. “You smell so damned good it makes me hard just breathing you in.”

She moaned and nipped at his lips. They continued their lazy kissing, Liv arching and rocking into him, her sex hitting his pubic bone with every subtle move she made.

“Dylan, God, I could come just like this.” Her fingers pinched his shoulders through the soft cotton of his shirt.

“Then do it, baby.”

She arched her back and rolled her hips, pressing her sex into his groin, her breath coming in short pants until she stiffened and groaned, riding against him to completion. It was so incredibly sexy, such a turn-on that his own release was building, but no way was he coming in his pants. He was saving that pleasure for the minute he thrust inside her.

She fell against him, sated, and he wrapped his arms around her. They breathed together until she shifted and met his gaze.

“Your turn,” she said, her eyes heavy-lidded, her lips well kissed.

“I’m not going to argue except you’ll be coming again along with me.”

His hands touched the hem of her shirt when her cell rang again. She narrowed her gaze. “Let me get rid of whoever it is.” She scrambled off him, grabbing her purse and digging for the phone.

She glanced at the cell screen. “Marcus,” she mouthed to him.

She answered, sitting down beside Dylan again and tipping the phone so they both could hear. “Marcus, what’s up?” she asked.

“Miss Olivia, I need you.”

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Home.” His voice dropped. “Just come over.”

“What’s wrong?”

Silence followed.

“Marcus, what’s going on?” Olivia asked, sounding worried.

Dylan grabbed the phone. “Marcus, it’s Dylan Rhodes. What’s wrong?”

The other man’s words weren’t coherent, and even Dylan grew worried about the slurred mess. “I’m on my way,” Dylan said and hung up, all thoughts of sex with Olivia receding from his brain.

“
We’re
on our way,” Olivia said in a firm voice. “Do not think you’re going without me, Dylan. Marcus called me and—”

He shut her up by sealing his mouth over hers, his tongue thrusting inside. He slid his hand behind her head and tugged her back. “Liv?”

“Hmm?” she asked, dazed but obviously very much aware of what was going on.

“I was going to say okay, let’s go together.”

A flush rushed to her cheeks. “I just assumed—”

“I don’t want you to get hurt, but I know damned well you’d just follow me there. Now are you ready?”

She nodded.

Dylan made it to Marcus’s house in record time. If there’d been a cop on the road, he’d have definitely been pulled over, but someone was looking out for him. He pulled to a stop by the curb. The huge house Marcus had bought after he’d signed his big contract loomed in front of them.

Dylan grasped Olivia’s hand in his, holding on tight as he led the way. The front door was ajar, and when a noise sounded from inside, Dylan shoved the door open farther and stepped into the dimly lit foyer, Olivia by his side.

“Marcus?” Dylan called.

Without warning, the lights flicked on, nearly blinding him with their intensity, and he blinked to adjust his sight. And, without warning, Olivia screamed as her hand pulled out of his.

*     *     *

One minute Olivia’s hand was warm and secure in Dylan’s, the next, she was pulled against a hard body.

She jerked away, but whoever had her held on tight.

“Don’t move,” Wendell said, shoving a gun into her side. Behind her, his wiry frame was hot and sweaty. Olivia’s mouth ran dry, and fear rushed through her.

“You son of a bitch,” Dylan said, facing Wendell, who Olivia had thought was in an Arizona jail for illegal possession of a handgun and holding Olivia against her will, among other things.

“Where is Marcus?” she asked, hoping the other man was okay and could somehow help them.

“In the kitchen. I asked him to call and get you here, and he did.”

Marcus had set them up? Olivia thought she might get sick.

“He’s a good little cousin—or he was until
you
got in the way.” Marcus prodded her harder with the weapon.

She winced and Dylan took a step forward.

“Stay back! I’ve got the bitch
and
the gun.”

Dylan came to an immediate halt, his hands raised.

Olivia tried to think if she could get herself out of this without anyone being hurt. Drop to the floor? He’d shoot Dylan. Kick into him? Again, he had the gun. Frustration along with dread washed over her again.

“Wendell, put the gun down,” Dylan said in a deceptively calm voice. “You don’t want to get yourself in more trouble with the cops.”

“I won’t get in any trouble. Marcus will.
He
called her. He got you both here. Drugged and at gunpoint. But nobody knows that except me.”

Olivia breathed out a relieved sigh that Marcus hadn’t deliberately led them here. “Where is he?”

“I put something in his drink, and he’s passed out cold. So when they find you two shot, nobody will question who did it.”

Dylan sucked in a breath. “Why would you frame your family member?” he asked in an obvious attempt, at least to Olivia, to keep the man talking.

“What family? Marcus stopped treating me like family. He cut me off and told me to go home. I shoulda been the one to make it big. I was a better player than he ever was till I got hurt. It shoulda been me!”

A familiar refrain. Marcus had obviously heard it enough to believe it. She wondered if Wendell had ever taken responsibility for anything that had gone wrong in his life.

“And it’s all
her
fault. She put him in those classes. She thinks he can make his own decisions. I’m sick and tired of hearing about what Miss Olivia said,” Wendell muttered, his tone biting. “She and Marcus are both gonna pay. And since you’re here, so are you,” he spat at Dylan.

The gun dug into her ribs painfully, but she held her reaction in, not wanting Dylan to lose his temper and end up being the one hurt.

“I’m sure Marcus would still help you with money, even if you couldn’t be here with him in person,” Olivia said, trying to reason with Wendell.

“Shut up! You know that’s not true.”

“This makes no sense, Wendell. Think, man. You can still get out of here before you do something you can’t take back,” Dylan said. His hands were raised in the air, but he attempted a step toward Wendell.

He twisted the gun in her side, and she gasped loudly, her eyes tearing from the pain.

“Why should I just give up? I got nothing and I should have had everything. My cousin made it big in the NFL, and I had access to the good life until
she
interfered and told him to get rid of me. Then she hooked him up with dumb-ass financial classes and people who told him to look out for users. Now he thinks I’m one of them.”

Dylan held her gaze. She didn’t trust him not to try to save her at his own expense.

“Who the fuck asked you to interfere? Any of you?” Wendell continued his tirade, his voice wild, the gun digging deeper, bruising her skin.

She swallowed past the pain. “Maybe if you hadn’t caused Marcus and the team unwanted publicity, we wouldn’t have had to get involved,” she said, trying to explain and force him to be reasonable.

“This was supposed to be easy!” Wendell ignored her, ranting like a spoiled child.

A spoiled child with a deadly weapon.

“You can still get what you want,” Dylan said to the man. “Marcus can send money home, and you can be the big man there.”

“Even I know there’s no fun in being the big man in East Bumfuck,” Wendell muttered. “I’m done talking to you.” He raised his gun and aimed it at Dylan, as if Wendell knew he’d have to go through Dylan before taking out Olivia.

“No!” she screamed, hoping to distract Wendell.

Just then, the sound of a loud roar echoed through the house. A huge body came flying forward, slamming into Wendell, tackling him and knocking Olivia sideways against the nearby closet door.

She glanced over in time to see Marcus slam his fist into Wendell’s jaw with a sickening crack.

“Freeze!” Dylan yelled, standing over both men with Wendell’s gun in his hand, which he must have retrieved from the floor.

Marcus rolled off his cousin and held up his hands, looking more like an overgrown kid than a man.

Suddenly sirens rang out in the air.

“I called the cops,” Marcus said, slumping against the nearest wall.

Wendell started to rise, but Dylan leveled the weapon at him. “Just give me a fucking reason.”

The police burst through the door, guns drawn. Dylan immediately dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air.

Olivia remained curled around herself as the cops sorted through what had happened, until finally they checked Dylan’s ID, confirmed the story with Olivia and Marcus, and snapped cuffs on Wendell, who’d skipped bail in Arizona and had a warrant out for his arrest.

No sooner had they released Dylan from questioning than he pulled her up and into his arms, her entire body shaking. She grabbed on to him and held on, as he ran his hand over her hair and down her back, keeping her pressed tightly to him.

Chapter Eleven

B
y the time Dylan brought Olivia back to his place, he was ready to jump out of his skin. The presence of the police at Marcus Bigsby’s house was on the news in no time, and the rest of the story spread just as quickly. Television news crews and paparazzi showed up before Dylan and Olivia had been released by the police. Eventually the cops led them out a back door and escorted them to Dylan’s, where he fielded calls from Ian and the team’s PR team while Olivia took a long, hot shower, to—in her words—wipe the stench of Wendell off her body.

He was in shock from how quickly the events of the night had gone down. One minute they’d been ready to make love here, in his apartment, the next, she’d been held at gunpoint, and Dylan’s life had completely flashed before his eyes. A life without her in it—and it hadn’t been worth living.

He stripped to his boxer briefs and crawled onto the bed to wait. Folding his arms behind his head, he stared at the ceiling, forcing himself to stay calm.

A few minutes later, the shower had stopped, and Olivia walked into his bedroom wearing one of his large tee shirts. He loved her wearing his clothes. He loved her, period. Nearly losing her merely confirmed everything he did want with her. Family. Kids. A full, happy life and one she was completely capable of having, if only she’d let go of her fears.

She curled into him, but her phone was full of messages and still ringing with family members checking in. And there were a lot of Dares for her to reassure, starting with Ian and her mother. She reassured each and every person, insisting she was fine and she didn’t want company—that she needed to be alone. She’d send him a wink and continue with each call.

She was on her fourth or fifth sibling—Dylan had lost track which—when he realized she was speaking to Avery. These sisters had a dynamic that was easy to recognize, and he grinned as he listened to Olivia volley sarcastic comments in between promising that she’d never been in any real danger. A lie if Dylan had ever heard one. He still shuddered when he thought of Wendell and the gun he had shoved into Olivia’s ribs.

“Don’t worry,” Olivia said. “I promise you I’m fine. It was a freak thing. It won’t ever happen again.”