Page 59 of Tempest

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Saturday

When Ryan started to wake up, he sensed something was wrong. Moving his arm, he realized that Ivy wasn’t within his reach. That was the first time in over a week that she wasn’t snuggled up next to him when he woke, with her hair spilling over his chest. Opening one eye, he saw that she was on the opposite side of the bed and she was facing away from him. Maybe she was still mad. He moved over toward her and wrapped his arm across her middle. That was better.

“Good morning, honey.” He leaned over, pressed his mouth against her neck and let her warm honeysuckle scent fill his lungs. This is what he wanted to wake up to every day. Her warm body wrapped around his. Something about the way he behaved yesterday made her mad enough to sleep on the opposite side of the bed.

Somehow he’d made her think that he didn’t trust her to handle herself with Stuart. Which was as far from the truth as could be. He didn’t trust the sorry son of a bitch, and he didn’t want Ivy anywhere near him. Especially when he was making those veiled bullshit threats. If anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. It was overprotective and paranoid, but that’s who he was. The chance of that changing was pretty slim. This was just something that she was going to have to accept about him. He would keep her safe and happy no matter how mad it made her. Running his hand over her warm skin, he felt her move under his caress. Maybe he should make a grand gesture to show her how much he cared. He thought about that story she told him about the baby piglet. Maybe he could get her one and see if that helped.

In the meantime, he could give her some pleasure and see if it would put her in a good mood. Hell, it made his mood damn euphoric. Gently he rolled her on her back and lifted himself over her. He rested his weight on his arms and began running his mouth over her skin. He started at her neck, because that always made her shiver. A small moan escaped her lips as he ran his tongue along her ear. Moaning was good. He continued his assault and moved over her collarbone, her chest, and finally her breast. Taking her nipple into his mouth, he savored her taste. Sweet. Lifting his eyes briefly, he saw that she was looking down. “I’m hungry, so I want you to lie back and let me feast.” A ripple of laughter made her stomach move, and he inched further down her body, kissing a hot trail of kisses.

He pressed her legs apart and he held her open. “Mmmmm.” He slid his finger through slick folds and felt her move under his touch. Even if she was mad, it didn’t stop what happened between them. The evidence of her desire told him that. Sliding his tongue from back to front, he swirled his tongue over her tight bud. Her hips moved against his mouth, and he continued to torture her with his tongue and lap at her sweet honey. Pushing a finger inside, he felt her clamp down. “Show me, Ivy. I want to feel you lose control.” Sliding his mouth over her bud again, he sucked hard, pushed a second finger in and searched for the spot that would unravel her mind. One more lash of his tongue and a stroke of his finger had her exploding. He lapped up her juice, lifted himself above her, and pushed into her wet heat in one thrust. The last of her orgasm milked him as he began to move in and out slowly.

This was heaven. “This is the best place in the world, and I want to have this with you every day.” Her eyes widened at his statement, and he didn’t care if it was too much. It was true. She owned him and needed to know. When her legs tightened around his waist as her fingers dug into his shoulders, he picked up the pace. The tension built in his spine and he was seconds away from emptying himself. “Come,” he shouted as her body contracted around him. Big jerking motions were all he was capable of as his orgasm exploded through his body. Waves of exquisite pleasure rolled over him as he emptied himself into her welcoming womb. His arms almost gave out as he collapsed next to her with his face buried in her hair. “Mornin’.”

“Yes,” she mumbled. Her hand rested against his back and he closed his eyes. If they started off this way every day, then whatever happened in the middle wouldn’t matter. They had to start off connected, so when he screwed up, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

“Waffles,” Ivy said as she rolled on her side.

“Okay.” A smile formed on his mouth, because whatever he did had been forgiven. If you made waffles for someone, it meant that you weren’t mad anymore.

***

The sound of Ivy’s phone ringing woke Ryan up. Lifting his head, he glanced at the clock and noticed that they’d been asleep for over an hour. Ivy buried her head into her pillow and pulled the sheet over her head. He picked up her phone and saw that it was someone from Bellows Energy. He answered the call. “Ivy Bellows’s phone. Yeah, hold on.”

He pulled the sheet away from her head and patted her arm. “Honey, it’s Ken, who runs security for the company. It’s an emergency.” That got her attention, and she sat up and shoved her hair out of her face. He handed her the phone and waited.

“This is Ivy. Oh, my God. Is anyone hurt? Okay. Thank you for calling. I’ll be down as soon as I can.” She turned the phone off and let it drop into her lap. “Two of the wells in the Regan Field have blown up and are on fire.”

“Maybe Stuart was serious about his threats,” Ryan said, as he got out of bed and grabbed his phone. “I’ll put a team together and get down there.”

Ivy jumped out of bed and threw her hands on her hips. “Maybe you should ask me what I want to do?”

“I see that we’re not done with our fight from yesterday, and I expect it’s going to be a big one as soon as we have time. Right now you have some oil wells on fire, and I know a thing or two about that, considering I’ve spent most of the last ten years in the Middle East. I also happen to have some friends who were there with me. Rick lives on his family ranch, which is about an hour from here, and has a helo. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to call him and get down to Midland and see what’s up.”

“All you have to do is explain things to me. I’m fairly intelligent and I process information quickly.” Stomping around him, she went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

“That didn’t go well,” he mumbled to himself. He dialed Rick and hoped he was available. When he’d gotten into town, he’d touched base with him and asked if he’d run back up if he needed it. Maybe he could run up and get Mac and one of his dogs on their way to Midland. They could have Ken give them the lay of the land and then secure the wells. What a shit storm. Things just went from bad to worse, and on top of it, Ivy was mad at him. They didn’t have the luxury of working it out right away, but eventually they would.

***

Ryan sat at the kitchen table with Ivy, Colin, and Phoebe. He had about an hour before he had to be at the Blakely Ranch Airfield. He’d spoken with Ken, and he was going to meet them at the Bellows Energy corporate offices. There was a helipad on the roof where they could pick him up. “I’ll meet you at your dad’s house tonight.”

Ivy spared him a glance and nodded. “Phoebe is monitoring the information coming in from the company working with the fire department to put out the two fires. We’ll stop at the hospital and visit with the men who’ve been injured and then go over to Daddy’s house in Midland. It has seven bedrooms, so there should be plenty of room for everyone. I’ve arranged for a rental car to be delivered to the offices, so you’ll have transportation.”

Colin looked at his tablet. “Garret got me in touch with a private investigator, and they have someone tailing both Nelson and Stuart. We’ll be aware of their movements from here on out.”

“We’re coming in like the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” Ivy said quietly. “I don’t know what else to do. We have too many moving parts, and we don’t know who to trust. We need to go through everyone’s records and then decide who we should terminate. Stuart didn’t do this on his own. Let’s make sure that he didn’t have someone on the inside.”

“Agreed,” Colin said.

Ivy stood and looked at the table. “Let’s go clean this mess up.” She turned and walked back into the bedroom, and Ryan followed.

After he zipped his duffel, he waited for Ivy to finish packing. “We don’t have a lot of history together, so I know you don’t trust me yet. Something like that takes time. It was true when I was in the Navy and I know it’s true in civilian life. As SEALs we learn from the moment we walk onto the base in Coronado that our success is predicated on how well we function as a team. Every exercise, every moment is dedicated to that idea. Working together and trusting that your brother is doing his job and has your back is why we’re so successful at our job.

“You and I are a new team, so we have some kinks to work out. Please know that every action I take is with your safety and happiness as my first priority. I know you’re capable of doing everything yourself. I just need you to let me do what I’m good at. I can’t let anything happen to you because it would break me.”

“This is an extreme situation, and I have a lot to learn,” she said quietly.

“We have a lot to learn together.”

He grabbed her suitcase and his bag and started to walk out. Stopping at the door, he looked over his shoulder. “Did Colin spend the night in the guest house?”

“Yes, he did.” Ivy lifted her bag on her shoulder. “He better not screw it up, because a woman like Phoebe comes along only once.”

“I have a feeling he knows that,” Ryan responded as he walked down the hall. He recognized that Ivy was his shot at happiness and they were meant to be together. He silently congratulated himself, because he knew it before she did. Not bad for a dumb sailor.

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