“Why did you stop?”
She shrugged. “I’m terrified, to be honest. I sketch sometimes, or I work on little crafty projects. I can decorate rooms all day long. But I look at my box of paints, and I’m petrified.”
“What are you scared of?”
“I’m not sure. Nothing ever feels right. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to be perfect, Ian. Art has nothing to do with perfection.”
“If you can understand that, you can get past it. You can rise above whatever is holding you back.”
“I’d like to think that, but it’s not so easy.”
I traced the wave of a sun ray, a path I must have traveled a hundred times while my dad worked here, a short train ride away from the home I’d grown up in. Liv was worried about perfection. I was already too broken to reach for those heights.
“Mosaics are born from imperfection. Broken pieces come together to make something beautiful, almost like they were fated to fit together and become what they are,” I said.
Knowing that Olivia had abandoned her art hit me in the same place where I felt my father’s death—the place where memories reminded me of all the days the cancer had robbed him of.
I let my hand fall back to my side. “After my dad died, I couldn’t work for a while. I decided I needed a break. I couldn’t stick white subway tile to a wall without thinking about him, let alone try to do him justice on something like this.”
“But you got past it.”
“Yeah. I missed him so damn much. I finally broke down and took a job, and when I did, I realized it was the only way I could keep him close enough. Nothing else gave me relief. Doesn’t take away the pain, but it keeps him close.”
“And your tattoo…that keeps him close too.”
I remembered her touch that morning in the kitchen, painful but oddly welcome. And without having to tell her, she’d known. The mosaic stretching across my skin was homage to him, to the pain I couldn’t quite let go of.
“It does.”
“It’s really beautiful. I’m sure you’ve made him really proud.”
Her words wrapped around me, seeming to crawl inside and make me want to have her even closer. I caught her cheek, reveling in her soft skin. I’d had her this way before, so close but just out of reach.
“You’re beautiful too, Liv. Inside and out. Perfection doesn’t exist, but if it did, it already exists inside you. All your doubts, your flaws, your fear. Use all of it. Don’t waste it because you think the world won’t love every stroke.”
She swallowed, and her eyes glistened with emotion. “I’ll try,” she whispered.
Whatever hurt was there, I wanted to take away, swiftly and completely. I pulled her into my arms and pressed my lips to hers. I flicked my tongue along the seam of her lips until she opened for me with a sigh. Then her tongue and her taste were all mine. I drank from her like she was cool water on a summer day…like she was the one thing I never knew I needed.
Leaning into me, she curved her soft body along the hard planes of mine. I guided her arms around my neck, and the kiss deepened. When she moaned, everything went out of focus but her. Heat ricocheted through me, hardening my cock. I wandered my touch over her curves, where her clothes molded tightly over her perfect body. Cupping her ass, I pressed her against my erection, adding more tension than relief to my current situation. She gasped, tightened her hold on me, and answered with the smallest movement of her hips, adding more friction between us.
I kissed her breathless, trying and failing to control my raging desire. I could have her here, somehow. But she deserved better, and I wanted to take my time with her. I longed to unwrap her, taste every inch of her incredible body, and fuck her slowly until she begged for more. I couldn’t do that here, even as my cock ached to find a place inside her.
“Liv…goddamn, I want you, but we can’t do this here.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Her soft words puffed against my lips.
“See me tonight.” My voice was need and desperation. I had to have her. I couldn’t wait much longer…
Her questioning gaze flickered up to mine. “What about Will?”
Goddamn Will. I didn’t especially want to share her, but if she hadn’t already been his, she wouldn’t ever be mine. Plus, he’d already warned her about us. The truth was I would have her any way I could…
“See us.”
Chapter Nine
OLIVIA
My hand shook as I hit the button that would take the elevator car to Will and Ian’s apartment. We’d talked about this, but that didn’t change the fact that I was scared to death of what I was walking into. A sexual situation with not just one dominating man that I couldn’t bear to resist, but two.