Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
I laugh at his stupid little game, shaking my head, hesitating. He reaches out and takes my hand, though, lifting and lowering our clasped fingers in a forced shake.
“Come on,” he whispers. “Try it.”
“Nice to meet you Rodrigo,” I murmur, flicking my eyes up to him, smirking a little.
“I’m a lion tamer,” he says, pitching his voice lower as he takes on his role. “I spend my days taming wild beasts and my nights…taming wild women. And who are you?” he asks, holding my hand tight. “Come on, Fay,” he urges in a whisper, giving me a little nudge with his shoulder when I hesitate. “You can be anyone.”
I tilt my head back, giving into it, my hair falling back over my shoulders as I look up into the sky and consider my options. “I’m Sister Mary Alexander,” I say finally, smiling to myself as I decide. “I’m a Benedictine nun. I make fancy marzipan and sell it on the streets of Austria to raise money for the orphans under my care.”
“Fay,” I hear Ivan whisper, snapping me out of my imaginary wanderings and drawing my gaze immediately back to him. I blink in surprise when I see a smile stretched across his face from cheek to cheek. “You’re so weird,” he says, shaking his head at me a little, a laugh starting in his chest.
“What!” I gasp, “you said I could be anyone I wanted ”
“That’s right,” he laughs, his grin growing, “you can pick anything in the world any fantasy at all and you pick a nun?”
“What!” I protest, leaning forward and laughing with him, joy running through me. “I liked The Sound of Music a lot when I was a kid ”
“Oh, so did I,” Ivan agrees eagerly, his words overlapping mine as he reaches out to grab me, pressing his hand against my lower back, “you actually hit the nail on the head, Sister Mary ” he mumurs, pulling my body closer to him so that I’m laying flat on the lounge and he’s curved over me. “This is actually working for me ”
“What!?” I shout, aghast laughing through my shock I was going for the opposite of that the least sexy thing I could think of
“Oh yeah,” Ivan nods, smirking down at me, moving the hand on my back to graze the side of my ass and move briskly down my thigh, his fingers teasing at the edge of my skirt, “I went to Catholic school I’ve been fantasizing about this for a long time ”
“What?!”
“Mmhmm,” he continues, “do you think you could say the rosary for a little bit, and like, look at me disapprovingly? Or, actually, could you get a ruler and slap me on the wrist just a couple times -“
I’m laughing so hard now that I can feel tears pricking at my eyes. Ivan goes along with me, our bodies shaking against each other at the ridiculousness of it, and suddenly I find myself a little bit in love with his sense of humor, his ability to take anything and twist it and make it fun.
“Well, Rodrigo,” I murmur a moment later when my laughter fades a bit. I’m smiling up at him, not allowing myself to think too much about what I’m doing as I raise my hands to run them through his blonde hair, my eyes roving over the tattoos on his neck, suddenly wanting, very much, to see the extent of them printed on his arms and his chest. “What do a lion tamer and a chaste nun do next? I don’t have any animals for you to tame. And there are no wanton women here.”
“Aren’t there, though?” Ivan murmurs, dipping his head to press his lips softly against my clavicle.
“No,” I whisper, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back, clearing the path for him to kiss his way up my neck.
A shiver runs through me as he does it, as he runs his mouth over the length of my jaw. “Liar,” he whispers, the word just tender breath against my ear.
I can’t help myself, then, as I turn my face to Ivan, a tiny moan on my lips that he snatches away with his mouth on mine.
I kiss him without remembering to breathe, so hungry for him that I forget myself hungry for his joy, his laughter, his ease and his jokes the way he lets me escape the rest of my world and lose myself in him. Ivan’s mouth is hot against me as he wraps me in his arms, twisting his body and me with it so that I’m all tied up in him, his back now flat against the cushions and my chest pressed on top of his as I take control of the kiss.
His hands feel like they’re everywhere, all over my body, and I want them there and I slip my own hand beneath his shirt, feeling the flat stretch of his stomach, the ridge of the v of his muscles as they disappear into the top of his pants
But suddenly I gasp, pulling away remembering another stomach another stupid pair of pants
I sit straight up, aghast, staring down at Ivan.
“Fay,” he says quietly, sitting up, looking at me with concern. “What’s wrong?”
I just stare at him, appalled at myself. How could I Kent was
“It’s all right,” Ivan whispers, putting out a tentative hand and brushing a curl of my hair behind my ear. “It’s okay. We don’t have to. Do you want to go inside?”
“No,” I breathe, shaking my head, my body starting to calm down.
Because, of course, Ivan isn’t going to make me do anything I don’t want to. I realize that, as I stare at him.
The real problem is that I…I don’t know what I want. And with everything that happened with Kent the intensity that grew between us until it broke until he broke I hadn’t realized…that maybe this, with Ivan…
Maybe this is what I want? Want more?
Or…is it just Ivan is the one in front of me right now…and after twenty-some years of celibacy something has broken in me and I just want to have sex with everyone
I sigh and hang my head, shaking it, so terribly confused. “No,” I say, closing my eyes and letting myself rest. “Can we just…can we just stay out here?”
“Of course,” Ivan responds instantly, leaning back against the cushions and looking at me with concern. He takes my hand and tugs on it, inviting me to come close and relax. I move to sit next to him, putting my head on his shoulder, knowing that he’ll let me take the lead. That he won’t push.
We’re quiet for a long minute, Ivan reaching for two more beers from the bucket and handing me one. I take it, giving him a little smile, truly grateful that he’s…well, that he’s being so nice to me.
“So, Rodrigo,” I say with a little sigh. “Tell me how you grew up.”
And he does. Ivan invents a long story for Rodrigo for me, of his childhood raised by panthers and his early years in the sands of the Sahara, including weird twists and heart-wrenching turns that have me laughing long into the night. A few hours later, my head still pillowed on Ivan’s shoulder, I fall asleep listening to the sound of his voice.
________________________
The next morning the dawn light wakes me, rudely peeking through my lashes and invading my sleep. I rub my eyes, the early-morning air cold and dewy against my skin, and look to Ivan slumped against my side, still asleep.
I smile as I look at him and raise a hand to softly brush his hair back from his handsome face. Ivan flinches a little at my touch and then I watch him blink awake. As he does I think about the intimacy of that of watching someone wake up, of their body still pressed to yours.
“Hey,” he says, his eyes falling on me.
“Hi,” I whisper, unable to keep the smile off my lips. It comes, unbidden, whenever he looks at me like that.
“You’re pretty,” he mumbles sleepily, lifting a lazy hand to tug one of the rumpled stands of my hair.
I laugh a little, opening my mouth to deny it, but I’m interrupted by the sound of the sliding door opening to the deck. We both flinch a little, turning towards the man standing there, dressed in black. One of Kent’s guys.
“It’s time, miss,” he says, his voice serious. “He wants you home. Now.”
“Oh?” I ask, biting my lip with disappointment. “No breakfast?”
Slowly, the guard shakes his head. I turn my attention back to Ivan, but his eyes are on the guard.
“Can you give us a minute?” Ivan says to Kent’s man, using a tone that reminds me that Ivan, too, is the head of a criminal organization. The guard hesitates but Ivan twists his head a little, his mouth tightening, letting the guard know that it wasn’t really a question. Sighing, the guard goes back inside, closing the door behind him.
“Can I tell you something Fay? Before you go?” Ivan asks quietly, his voice more serious than I’m used to, and definitely too serious for dawn. “Just between us?”
I cock my head to the side, some instinct in me prodding me to pay attention, so I sit up and look him in the face. This is…different, than the carefree Ivan I know, who always acts like he can handle anything. Instead, now, there’s real worry in his eyes.
“Okay,” I breathe. “Sure.”