Chapter 29: First Impressions

“So, what do you think Billie and Ian are doing right now?” Sara asked as she and Van sat on her living room floor cuddling in each other’s arms. He was in his usual position, his head beneath her chin, his arms around her waist, and she had her back resting against the couch. In the background, soft jazz was playing: Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me.” Sara continued to run her hands through his hair and ever so gently kissed his forehead.

“Tell me a little bit about Ian and I might be able to guess what they’re doing at the moment,” Van replied, not bothering to move from his comfortable position.

“Ian’s a very shy guy when it comes to women. In the last couple of months, we’ve had very limited contact, unless you count what’s happened around here. But he’s still quite hesitant about the whole dating thing. He had no idea how to react when Billie asked him out this morning. It was pretty funny, yet sad at the same time. Irons was such a bastard. I can’t believe he’d leave Ian out of the loop on this sort of thing,” Sara explained.

“You mean to tell me he’s never been with a woman?” Van asked in complete surprise, his head moving out from beneath her chin to stare into those deep green eyes.

“Yeah, never. Billie is technically his first date,” Sara answered.

Van gave her a worried expression. “Oh, shit. You really picked the wrong woman to set him up with for a first date,” he said.

“She’s can’t be all that bad,” Sara replied, but the worried look continued to penetrate her eye line. “Can she?”

“I hope not,” Van answered. He looked up at her pulling her clothes off and crawling onto the couch, his expression quickly turning from worried to wicked.

"Please don't tell me what I think you're gonna tell me," Sara said, giving him that look. Van crawled over her and straddled her body. He grabbed her wrists, bringing them over her head and leaning over as to kiss her. "Does this have anything to do with that hot oil, chocolate, and bananas?" She asked closing her eyes expecting to feel his lips at any second.

"Something like that," he said as she felt something cold on both her wrists and heard a click.

Sara looked up to see the handcuffs that bound her wrists. Before she even knew what was happening, Van was off her and bound her ankles in the same fashion.

"Oh, you are a bad boy, Van. How long have you had this planned?" She smiled down at him mischievously.

"Let's just say it has been a fantasy of mine since you rode into the Candy Store on your Buell for the first time," he said as he was reaching behind the couch.

He straightened out and, sure enough, in his hands was the hot oil, chocolate, and the banana.

"Umm, Van… What in the world are you gonna do with that banana?" she asked, looking at him disbelievingly.

"You'll just have to wait and find out," he said smiling. He picked up and opened the chocolate paint then poured into onto her stomach.

"Ahhhh, Van," Sara whimpered as she tried to curl around her stomach, as if to protect it from the cold chocolate.

Glaring at Van as he picked up the banana and crawled between her legs, she said, “Van, you are so not gonna put that in anything.”

Van smiled up at her wickedly and said, “Yes, I am, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” as he peeled the banana and threw the peel to the floor.

Slowly, he extended it towards her, at it got closer, Sara started to wiggle away, closing her eyes and whimpering, “Van, don’t.” Feeling something graze her stomach, Sara's eyes shot open as Van pulled a chocolate covered banana to his mouth for a bite. Sara shrieked at him with laughter, "VAN, YOU DIRTY ROTTEN PIECE OF SHIT!"

Looking at her in pure innocence, he asked, "What, you wanna try some?" as he dipped the banana back into the chocolate then brought it to her mouth.

“Mmm…” Sara moaned, lapping up the access chocolate on her lips, but soon stopped when Van started to help her. “You’re so bad,” she purred after their lips parted.

“I can be worse,” Van replied, dipping his finger into the chocolate still on her belly and gently smearing it over her nipple. “Oops, my bad. I’d better wipe that off,” he added, bending over her and gently guiding it into his mouth. Sara let out a low moan, her skin crawling with ecstasy.

“Oh, VAN!” she cried as he continued to suckle her until both nipples were hard as rocks. “You keep this up and I don’t think I’ll be able to hold out much longer.” He gave her another mischievous grin before moving his lips to the chocolate still clinging to her stomach. Sara wriggled beneath his relentless licking, her body going into an all out frenzy, begging to be let go. She wanted him bad, if not worse, than he wanted her.

“I’m sorry,” Van apologized as he pulled away from her.

Sara was panting by now as she asked, “So, when’s the hot oil gonna come into play?”

“Right after I wash you off. No sense in getting the bed dirty,” he replied, standing up.

“Hello!” Sara nearly yelled as he began to walk away. Van turned back to see what her problem was then realized she was still handcuffed. “A little help here…”

“Oh, sorry, I almost forgot,” Van said as he quickly uncuffed her. Sara rubbed her wrists when the handcuffs were finally pulled off of them. It felt good to finally sit up. But before she even had a chance to recover, Van dragged her up onto her feet and into the bathroom. They wrapped around each other before either one had time to turn on the shower.

Sara’s blood was boiling, and, mixed with hot water, it only increased her sex drive. She was more than ready to take Van on that night. She had to; it was probably the last time they’d be able to do something so crazy and spontaneous. As the water flowed over their bodies, Sara could feel he was ready to take her on also, and as they quickly became one, she dug her fingers into his skin, letting out a deep howl. It felt so good.

“Ohhhh! VAN!” Sara was crying as he pressed her up against the wall, their lips finally falling upon each other. She wrapped her leg around his waist for better leverage. Her knees almost gave way when Van started to hit that precise spot, making her ache and moan against his lips.

“Please, don’t stop,” she panted. “Don’t… stop! Don’t… Ohhhhh! Ohhhhhhhh! OHHHHHHH!” Sara wailed when she finally felt her impending orgasm burst. The shockwave radiated throughout her body, and before she had time to take a few breaths, Van hit his own release and sent her into euphoria once more.

They held onto each other for support as their breathing became normal once more. Still, Sara was reluctant to let him go. She knew her knees would give way once Van pulled away from her and only prayed that he’d catch her before she hit the shower floor. As he stepped back, she braced herself against his strong arms just in case her prediction came true. Luckily it didn’t, but she still felt a bit shaky.

“You’re so good,” Van whispered as he nibbled on her earlobe. Sara looked at him, the love present in both their eyes, then leaned in for a delicate kiss.

“Come on, I think it’s about time you used that hot oil,” she seductively replied, turning off the shower and stepping out to dry herself off. After both of them were devoid of any water, Sara led Van into her bedroom. He laid her out on the bed, face down, and grabbed the bottle of rose scented oil from the nightstand.

“Just sit back and relax,” he ordered as his hands moved to her shoulders. She began to ease up as her breathing became deeper.

Sara reached up to take Van’s hands and led them around her waist, past her chest, and to her breasts so he could massage them. She pulled herself up into his lap as he kissed her neck, softly nibbling at her skin. Sara spread her legs as she reached down to guide him into her throbbing depths. Before letting him indulge, she took the bottle of oil and poured some into her hands. Sara reached down once more and lightly coated him, then she let him into her.

Van could feel himself slip inside easily. Finding that this wouldn’t take much effort, he thrust himself in and out, teasing her, making her moan and sweat. His hands kept a hold of Sara’s breasts while he squeezed them every time he pushed into her. A moan escaped her lips every time he went deeper, grazing her most sensitive spot and making her arch her back against him. Finally, they both came together in one hell of a body rocking experience. Sara fell onto the bed, barely able to breathe while Van lay on top of her, exhausted.

“Damn, we gotta do that more,” she commented, panting.

“Please, not now,” Van begged. “I can’t move.”

Sara giggled, “Alright. Later then.” She stretched out beneath him and closed her eyes. Sara was definitely tired. This entire experience had worn her out. She yawned and was soon fast asleep. Van gently rolled off her body and covered her with a blanket as he lay beside her and watched as her chest went up and down with each breath.

“Good night, my love,” he whispered, kissing her forehead lightly.

*~*~*

“Ian Christian Nottingham… I love the way that rolls off my tongue,” Billie said as she leaned closer to him over their table at Windows. He had taken Sara’s suggestion, but began to regret it. Billie was getting too close for comfort, but he had to give her credit. She was absolutely beautiful. Her hair was just as dark as Sara’s used to be, but her eyes were a crystal shade of blue and showed very little emotion, if any. Ian began to think that she was trying to keep herself hidden until she became comfortable with him, but the tone in her voice suggested otherwise. Oh, she was already comfortable; she just wanted to be comfortable to the point where their clothes were on the floor of her apartment.

Billie picked up her glass of red wine and took a sip. She looked into his deep caramel brown eyes, which were having a hard time hiding what he was feeling. Ian was anxious, and she could tell. It was like he had never been out with a woman before. But how could that be? He was drop dead gorgeous! What woman hasn’t he shared a bed with? Billie knew Sara had to have given him a little before her trip out here, just how much was the question.

“Wilhelmina Chambers… How did you get Billie out of that?” Ian questioned, sitting back a bit in his chair to keep his eyes from making contact with hers. He had that feeling she could easily read him by just looking at him.

“I don’t know. I guess it has something to do with Wilhelmina deriving from William, hence Billie,” she tried to explain as best as she could. “It all started when I was back in school. I got sick of people mispronouncing my name, so I just told them to call me Billie because it sounded cool. How ‘bout you, Nottingham ? Why do most people call you by your last name?”

“It goes back to my military training,” he answered.

“Military, huh?” Billie replied. ‘No wonder you’re so beefy.’ She shook her head. Sex had been on her mind ever since she saw Ian. Why couldn’t she let it go? It was a question she was finding harder and harder to answer. He was everything a man should be; tall, dark, handsome, and house trained from what she had seen earlier.

“Yeah, the special forces, a unit called the Black Dragons,” Ian continued to explain. He was leaving anything and everything out about his connection to Kenneth Irons. That was the last thing she needed to know.

“So, what do you do now?” Billie kept questioning. She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.

Ian went stiff, but he should have expected the question to come up in their conversation at some point during their night out. “Um… well…” he stuttered, but was quickly saved by the food. The waiter had arrived at the table with their order. But not long after he left did Billie question him again about his employment.

“Where do you work now?”

“I worked for Kenneth Irons as his head of security, but now I don’t do much anymore since he… fired me,” Ian answered as truthfully as he could. He really didn’t want to lie to Billie. She was proving to be the honest one that night, especially after telling him about the undercover case that turned her on to heroine. He was glad that she had explained it to him, especially since he thought she might possibly go into relapse. She had been tempted during one of her other cases involving the same man that turned her onto the drug, but she apprehended him, therefore releasing her demons.

“Kenneth Irons, the billionaire?” Billie asked in disbelief. “Shit! What did you do to get yourself fired from that job?”

“Let’s just say we had a little disagreement about something,” Ian replied with a dry smile.

“Oh, one of those, huh? I know what you mean,” she said. “I have those with Van and Deaq all the time. Those two are the biggest idiots in the world, but at least they get the job done.”

“Tell me about Van. Is he a good cop?” Ian turned the tables. It was about time that he started asking the questions.

“He’s a very good cop. I can’t tell you how many times he’s proved that to me. I might make it seem like I absolutely hate him, but I don’t think things would have gone down if he wasn’t around. You know, I think he pushes himself too hard. He blames himself for his partner’s death. You know he and Deaq’s brother, Andre, were partners, right?” Billie replied. Ian shook his head, but he did know all the details. He just wanted to her it from her. “I’m not gonna give you the entire story. That would probably take all day and all night, but I can tell you Van’s been beat up over it for the last few months. I don’t think he’ll ever get over it.”

“Sara is the same way. She blames herself for all the people that have died around her,” Ian said without thinking. He quickly shut his mouth when he realized he had broken the rule that Sara had told him not to break, the one which he wasn’t supposed to talk about her in front of Billie unless it was to bitch and moan.

“What do you mean?” Billie asked, becoming a little intrigued by what he had just told her.

Ian hesitated a bit before he finally answered, “Sara lost someone she loved, a man by the name of Daniel. I wasn’t too fond of him, but you could tell her heart belonged to him from the moment they laid eyes on each other. Their relationship lasted for a very short time, only a couple of days, then he was attacked and killed…” ‘By my hands, then hers,’ Ian thought, the guilt washing over him when he realized where her hatred of him stemmed from. Sara had yet to forgive him for nearly killing Daniel even though Ian knew it was inevitable.

“Wow, those two really are perfect for each other,” Billie commented, pulling Ian out of his reverie.

“How so?”

“Losing people they loved, fucked up families, both are cops… the list goes on.”

“What about your family?” Ian questioned. That was the only thing not mentioned in her file.

“My family?” Billie replied in surprise, her voice almost raising an octave. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about tonight. She had managed to avoid it with previous boyfriends, but Ian looked to be determined in finding out more information about her. Billie took a big gulp of her wine, then put down her glass when she realized her hand had begun to shake.

“My family,” she sighed. “I wouldn’t even call it that. For me, there was no such thing as family. I had an alcoholic for a foster father and a hooker for a foster mother. My real parents died when I was baby. I don’t know how. I was shuffled around so many homes until I finally ended up with those bastards when I was sixteen. When I lived with them, there was nothing but physical and mental abuse. It was so horrible, I knew I had to run, and run fast, which I did. I was on my own for a few years before I started at a community college and worked my way through school and the academy. I became a cop so that no other people would ever have to suffer what I suffered, but I sorta got sidetracked as you can see.”

Ian slowly nodded his head. He had noticed her hesitation to tell him at first. Now he knew why. It must have been one painful experience to recount. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Ian apologized, his hand shyly moving over hers.

Billie looked up and smiled at him, her blue eyes shining in the candlelight. A single tear slipped down her cheek, and Ian quickly reached over to wipe it off. The feeling of her soft, golden skin beneath his fingers startled him. She and Sara were so much alike. Billie put her hand over his when he began to retreat and held it against her face.

“You’re a very sweet guy, Ian. Why aren’t you married?” she asked suddenly. It was hard for Billie to believe that someone so absolutely wonderful didn’t have a wife. If she had met him in college, there was no doubt in her mind that they’d probably already have two kids right now.

Ian looked away, the though of Sara and her waning interest in him permeating his mind. She was supposed to be his one and only, but that was not going to happen now that she had Van. “It’s complicated,” he finally answered.

“How can it be so complicated? You’re not gay, are you?” Billie questioned, praying to God that he wasn’t. There was a dread present in her clear blue eyes as she gazed at him.

Ian almost laughed at her assumption. “Of course not,” he replied. “Why would I be here with you if I were?”

“I don’t know. You just seem too good to be true. You’re drop dead gorgeous, you’ve got this amazing personality, and you’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever been out with. It’s hard for me to believe that someone hasn’t snatched you up yet,” she said.

‘Too good to be true… You have no idea,’ Ian thought, his eyes sagging to his dinner, which neither of them had touched. They were too deep in conversation to even think about food. He looked up at her again, this time avoiding her beautiful eyes in hopes that he wouldn’t see the pain he felt for being unable to tell her the truth.

Billie could see that Ian was trying to avoid the subject. She suspected he was hiding something from her. He did have a significant other in the past, but something must have happened to leave him so unable to speak about it. Who knows, it might have been as recent as yesterday that it occurred. She decided against treading into that territory and saved her questions for a later time. Billie began to pick at her enormous Cesar salad, trying to figure out what to say next that would break this uneasy silence that had settled between them. She looked up at Ian to see him staring out the large glass window, his eyes scanning the city as if to capture every detail of it.

“So, what do you think of LA?” Billie finally spoke up when almost ten minutes of silence passed between them.

“It’s very different from New York . It’s a lot more laid back than I expected,” Ian replied, still not moving his gaze away from the falling darkness of the city.

“Well, that’s LA for ya,” she said. This conversation was going nowhere fast. Billie put down her fork and her hand immediately went to his cheek so she could look into those beautiful brown pools. “Ian, why are you here with me?” Billie asked once they had each other’s attention.

Ian was dumbstruck by the question. His eyes easily told Billie he was confused and appalled by her question. He simply didn’t know how to answer her. “Why I’m here with you?” he replied, still a little confused.

“Yeah, I know Sara had some part in it, but why did you go out with me tonight?” she asked again, clearing a few things up for him.

Ian continued to remain quiet, contemplating his reasons. Yes, Sara did have a big part of it, but there was another reason he had accepted Billie’s invitation. He was attracted to her. She was absolutely beautiful, even though her beauty paled in comparison to Sara’s. “Because…” Ian began. “Because the moment I saw you, I knew I had to get to know you better.”

The smiled on Billie’s face told him everything. She was more than happy to hear his answer. Her hand guided his face closer to hers as she leaned over the table and kissed him. Even though it was completely unexpected, it felt so right at that moment. Her lips were soft and giving, exactly like Sara’s, but her kiss was much different. Instead of being sweet, soft, and simple, Billie was aggressive, fast paced, and very erotic, to say the least. It left Ian breathless as they pulled apart.

“Let’s blow this Popsicle stand and go back to my place,” Billie suggested in a husky voice. ‘Oh, the things I’m gonna do to you tonight,’ she thought with a wicked smile.

The two left the restaurant soon after, Billie leading the way to her place in a hurry. Her sex drive was revved tonight, and nothing was going to stop her from getting her way with Ian. As they pulled up to her place and stepped out of the car, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into her building. Safely inside, she leapt into his arms and her deep exploration of his lips began. They made it all the way into her living room before Ian pulled away, breathless and utterly surprised.

Billie pushed him down onto her black leather couch and pounced on top of him before Ian had time to figure out what she was doing. She was at it again, this time slipping her hands beneath his jacket and pulling it down his shoulders. Ian pulled away once more, holding Billie back when she tried to pounce him again.

“Stop, please,” Ian almost had to beg.

“What? Why!” Billie almost yelled as she glared at him.

“Because…” He really didn’t want to tell her he had no experience in the area she was about to take him to, even though that little episode with Sara taught him quite a bit. Still, he didn’t know that much. Billie continued glaring at him as Ian looked up at her face. “Because…” he mumbled, “I don’t know what to do.”

Billie’s mouth dropped as her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Oh, my God! You mean…” He simply nodded his head. “Holy shit! You mean to tell me you’ve never been with a woman?” Ian continued to shake his head. “Oh, wow! That’s just too weird. Were you a monk or something?”

“No,” Ian replied. “I was just looking for the right girl.”

Billie nodded, unable to figure out what to say next. “So this is your first time, huh?” Again, he nodded. “Okay, then we’ll just take this nice and slow.” Ian looked at her as if she had just slapped him in the face. “Don’t give me that. You heard me.”

“But…”

“Trust me, Ian. I’m a good teacher. Just follow my lead and you’ll be just fine,” Billie reassured him. She placed her hand on his chest and could feel his heart thundering beneath it. He was definitely scared shitless, but this was something that would help him later on in life. Billie smiled at him, her deep blue eyes shimmering in the darkness as her hands worked the buttons of his shirt open.

Ian picked her hands up off his chest and brought them to his lips, laying a kiss on each. “I trust you are, my Lady, but for my first time, I would like to be in love and have her love me in return. I want to make love, not just have sex,” he said, looking deep into those blue pools of Billie’s eyes as he cupped her chin and caressed her cheek. “I would really love to get to know you better, but tonight, I think I should go before the temptation gets the better of us. May I have the pleasure of your company tomorrow night?”

Billie looked into his eyes in total amazement. She couldn’t believe any guy would turn down sex then ask her out again. “Yes,” was all she could muster. Ian stood up and bent down to place a soft kiss on her cheek. She closed her eyes, still amazed by what had happened.

“I will be here at seven tomorrow night, my Lady,” Ian said then kissed her other cheek. When Billie opened her eyes, he was gone.

Chapter 30: My Immortal

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