‘And she knew this?’
‘She knew more than I did,’ Dax said. ‘I think now that… the Trystan situation just gave me the excuse that I needed to put my mark on her.’
‘So I did you a favour?’
‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ Dax said. ‘I’ll be in touch if I hear anything tonight.’
On leaving Mauri, his intended destination was the mansion garage. But as he descended the main stairs, he saw Brad enter with his entourage. As soon as Brad saw him, he stopped and said something to his colleagues, who glanced at Dax then all scurried away.
‘What do you want?’ Dax asked when he reached the bottom of the stairs. It was obvious from the way he’d dismissed all witnesses that Brad had something to say.
‘I heard about Ivy, about the bounty, I’m sorry.’
‘Are you?’ Dax asked. He and Brad had a relationship of avoidance in that they tried their best not to be around each other when either was in a sticky spot. Brad observed him with an interest that betrayed his true motive. ‘I’m not sticking around. You can keep your empire.’
Brad relaxed enough to smile, though the gesture was false. ‘Mauri is known for always getting what he wants.’
‘You and I both know that we’re incapable of working together,’ Dax said. ‘We don’t trust each other.’
‘No, we don’t.’
‘So I’d hazard that’s why you’ve kept your head down while Ivy and I have been around.’
‘I’m not going to encourage you to stay, although my father wants me to.’
‘You’d rather have needles stuck through your eyes,’ Dax said. ‘Don’t worry, Brad. It’s all yours.’
Mauri did have a talent for encouraging everyone around him to defer to his wants. Brad didn’t want Dax to stay, but he didn’t want to go against his father’s wishes by asking Dax to leave either.
‘If you find out anything about Ivy’s situation I’d appreciate a heads up,’ Dax said.
Brad might be on the suspect list, except Dax couldn’t fathom any motivation. Brad wanted them gone, and he’d know that Mauri would use this threat as a chance to keep the couple here. The possibility still existed that Mauri wanted Ivy gone with the belief Dax would fall into line without her, which was another reason Brad had no motivation to get Ivy out of the picture.
Brad nodded and turned to depart the foyer in the direction his staff had gone. Dax continued his journey to the Stark mansion garage where he got a car and drove off the property to head for the beach house. It would take an hour or so to get there. Serg was still back at Mauri’s, but there would be plenty for him to do while Dax dealt with Ivy and tonight they would all need to be at their best to pick out the threat.
After lunch Ivy had needed another distraction, so she went for a dip in the bathtub in the downstairs family bathroom, it was the only tub in the place. With waterfall taps and recessed lighting, the gleaming tile was dazzling, but the water had felt good seeping into every crevice of her body. After an hour or so in there, she was beginning to prune, so she climbed out, drained the water and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body.
She ducked into the kitchen for a drink of rehydrating juice and washed her glass then went into the living room with ideas of going upstairs to the bedroom. When she was halfway across the room the front door opened, and she froze. Wearing nothing but a towel she wasn’t in much of a position to defend herself against danger.
But when Dax came in, her hackles fell, and her shoulders went down as her smile rose. ‘You have never in the history of the world been early in coming back to me,’ she said. With outstretched arms, she altered her path to aim for him.
‘You’ve been in the pool all this time?’ he asked, scrutinising her body.
‘I was in the tub,’ she said, opening her towel to flash him. Tucking it back in, he blinked his eyes and smiled when she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck. ‘Does this mean that you’ve found what you were looking for?’
He kissed her and brushed some damp tendrils of hair from her forehead. ‘You naked is actually exactly what I’m looking for.’
Tossing his keys into his opposite palm, Dax twined their fingers and led her up to the bedroom at such a pace that she had to hold onto her towel to prevent herself from losing it. He closed the bedroom door, dropped his keys then pulled her towel out of her grasp to whip it away across the room.
‘Hey!’ Ivy objected, but he was already taking her to the bed.
‘Take that stuff out of your hair,’ he said, lifting one foot and then the other to pull off his boots.
She had her hair up so that it wouldn’t get wet in the bath because she’d already washed it after being in the pool. Doing as he asked, Ivy flipped her head forward to shake her locks loose, and when she flipped back, he was shirking his jeans.
‘I thought you had work to do today,’ she said. Taking appearances as they were he’d come home to have sex with her only a few hours after leaving her with promises he would return that night. Either he’d deciphered the threat already or something else was going on.
Dax enveloped her waist and walked her backward. Taking her weight off her feet, he laid her on the bed and lay on his side beside her. Scooping her hair up, away from her face, he began to kiss her neck. The attention of his hand went to her breast, massaging her, he kept on kissing, bringing his mouth over her jaw to her mouth, he opened to tease her tongue, but her eyes hadn’t closed yet.
‘Dax,’ she said, turning her head to the side to break their kiss. That didn’t put him off, he slipped one of his legs between hers and began to nudge her ankles apart then drove his thigh higher to press into her simmering centre. ‘Dax, what’s going on?’
‘Hush,’ he said. Removing his mouth from her breast, he forced a hand around the base of her skull, holding her in place to receive his kiss.
The press of his erection progressed inward from her outer thigh, trailing its path with beads of his passion, he seated his pelvis between her thighs and kept on kissing her. Sometimes Dax just needed to be active, and if he was frustrated, then this action might help to bring him clarity.
So opening her arms and closing her eyes, she gave him his kiss back, surrendering to the want of her husband because explanations would come after. His hips rose then he was sliding into her, the occupying length of him took its time to reach its hilt. But he drew back and plunged in, the easy entry wasn’t a prelude to soft love making, now that Dax had softened her to his will, he found her wrists and took them in his hands.
Forcing them high above her head, he kept hold of her and elevated his torso. The fast pace of his hips matched the ferocity of fever in his focus which drilled into her. Ivy might have touched his face or tried to soothe him if she had the use of her hands, but his fingers remained locked around her wrists. Exerting dominance over her body was something that her husband did well, when he needed something from her he took it, and that was what he was doing now.
He pushed in and began to bob himself in her, keeping the oscillating movements short he edged no more than in inch of himself in and out of her meaning he remained deep. But the fountain within her gushed around him, easing his motion and aching for him to move with the same speed as he had before.
She was close to the climax he always delivered. She didn’t want to lose this brimming swell of pleasure aching to burst and send her surging into bliss.
‘Get to it, big boy,’ she breathed, wheezing out the oxygen occupying her lungs. ‘Come on, give me what I want.’
‘What you want,’ he hummed and sucked in a breath before plastering his mouth over hers. His tongue drove into her mouth, the penetrating suction matched the mire of their joining and when he retracted his mouth she gasped for breath. ‘You want cock, you just lay there and took it, no questions, no permission, you just want it.’
Rocking his hips high, Dax shoved the head of his dick into her cervix, and she winced. ‘I’ve got to let a guy like you get his rocks off,’ she murmured. ‘No lies here, the way you fuck me tells me everything about you.’