21. Hazel

Chapter 21

Hazel

I an stood up with me in his arms. I hadn't realized how strong he was until that moment. He lifted me with such ease that I gasped loudly and clung to him. I thought I would fall, but he didn’t drop me. His arm wrapped around my waist, holding me in place while my legs were wrapped around his torso.

I met his eyes again, and I saw a small smile on his lips. The amusement in his eyes told me he’d been laughing. “It’s not funny.”

“I just didn’t know you scare so easily.”

“Well, maybe if you had warned me before—”

He claimed my lips again, cutting off the rest of my sentence. I placed my hand on his shoulder and slowly slid it up to the side of his face. Ian pulled me even closer to him so he could deepen the kiss. When he pulled away, we were both out of breath.

“Where’s your room?” he asked.

“My…” It took me a moment before his words registered. His kisses had a way of scattering my brain cells and leaving me temporarily incapable of thinking.

“Your room, Hazel.”

I couldn’t really speak so I just pointed to the door. Ian walked us to the room. He opened the door and carried me inside, all without letting my feet touch the ground. Light flooded the room when he hit the switch and I watched Ian’s reaction to seeing my room for the first time.

“I’m surprised you don’t have any posters with my face on it. I expected to see one on a dart board or something.”

“I have a whole shrine where I draw devil horns on your pictures. It’s in the other room,” I said. I kept my face solemn so he wouldn’t know I was joking.

Ian laughed and pecked me on the lips. “You have a terrible poker face.”

I was going to argue with him but he kissed me again, a proper kiss this time. My argument melted away with that kiss. Ian lowered me onto my bed. He straightened and undid the rest of his shirt buttons.

My eyes widened slightly when I saw his body. I knew he had to work out because he was an athlete but I never expected him to be so… ripped. I sat up and ran a finger across his toned abdomen, up his chest, and down his biceps.

Ian took my hand when it reached his. He brought it to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on the back of my hand. My heart literally skipped a beat at that. It felt so unusual to have him be this gentle with me but I had to admit that I loved it.

He reached behind me and slowly pulled the zipper of my top down. When I put on this two-piece earlier today, I had no idea that Ian would be taking it off me later. The top landed on the floor and the skirt followed shortly after.

Soon we were lying in each other’s arms and all that mattered was giving him as much pleasure as he was giving me. I didn’t expect to end the evening in Ian’s arms, but I couldn’t complain. The kiss he’d given me last time still lived rent-free in my head. This time we were spending the night together.

The next day, I woke up in bed with Ian. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting an ethereal glow on Ian’s perfect form. No wonder he was so arrogant. He had a godlike physique.

His chest looked hard but when I laid my head on it, it felt strangely soft. His arm was around my waist, and he held me to him while our legs intertwined under the sheets. I felt so safe in his arms that it was almost terrifying.

He made me feel protected, something I didn’t even know I wanted. With him beside me, it felt like nothing, and no one could hurt me. I was scared of how safe I felt with him. I shouldn’t be feeling this way.

I’d spent despising Ian and now, I could feel myself falling for him. That feeling scared me. Loving Ian was the most terrifying thing I could ever imagine. He would never reciprocate my feelings and even if he did, what then?

How could we be in a relationship after so many years of animosity?

Ian was still asleep or at least I thought he was. He moved slightly and when I looked up, I saw his eyes were opening. “You’re overthinking it,” he said.

“I’m not overthinking anything.”

“I can genuinely feel how tense you are. Stop overthinking. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.”

I wanted to argue with him, mostly from instincts rather than because I disagreed with him. Arguing with Ian came naturally to me. It’s what we’d been doing for years. But this… what we did last night, it was a whole new territory. It was a line we’d never crossed before and there was no going back.

Ian sighed. “You’re still overthinking it.”

“No, I’m not!”

He sat up and pulled me with him. “Shower with me. It will help take your mind off things.”

“I seriously doubt showering with you will help—”

He cut me off with a kiss just like he had done last night. “You can’t keep doing that,” I said when he pulled away.

Ian didn’t say anything else. He simply stood up and carried me to the bathroom where we showered together. I laughed and fought against him while he held me under the running water. His wet hair fell over his face and his laughter filled the room.

At that moment, I felt truly captivated by him. I could feel him slowly taking residence in my heart. I knew it was unwise to give my heart to Ian but love always trumped self-preservation. Still, I couldn’t help feeling scared. All of this was so unexpected.

Ian kissed me as water fell over us and all my fears washed away.

We finished in the shower, got dressed, and moved to the kitchen. I sat at the counter while Ian prepared breakfast. Before long, a savory scent filled the air. I glared at Ian’s bare back. He’d slipped on his trousers and I was wearing his shirt.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” I said, still glaring at him. Was there anything he couldn’t do?

“There’s nothing I can't do, Hazel.” His reply was the perfect response to the question on my mind. “You should know that.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him. “Does arrogance come with the job? Are all hockey players this arrogant?”

“Would you believe me if I told you they inject us with it about once a month?” Ian asked as he placed a plate in front of me.

“Actually, yes.”

He laughed and took the seat beside me, dropping his own plate as he sat. “Bon appétit.”

I took a bite of the food and had to purse my lips to keep from moaning. Guess there really isn’t anything he can’t do. We ate in silence with the occasional joke about Ian’s cooking skills. I refused to admit he was actually good at it.

When we were done, we moved to the living room. I pulled out my laptop so we could go over the latest findings in Emily’s case. We’d been avoiding each other since that first kiss and during that time, I found out some new information.

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” Ian claimed before I could even tell him what I found out.

I lifted a brow in response. “Yes, you were. But it’s fine because I was avoiding you too.”

“I would never go to such lengths just to—

I took a page from his playbook and kissed him to shut him up. Ian smiled against my lips, clearly pleased that I’d used his move on him. I tried to pull away, but he held me close and deepened the kiss.

“Ian… we have to focus,” I said, still trying to pull away even though I was kissing him back.

“Trust me, I’m very focused right now.”

“Seriously. We have to focus.”

“Okay, fine,” he said, and he shifted slightly away from me so we wouldn’t get distracted again.

“Thank you. Now let's…” I paused and looked down at my shirt where Ian had already undone three buttons. “When did you even do this?”

He smiled sheepishly at me and I shook my head as I buttoned the shirt. “Okay, so from what I gathered, it seems Olivia was having an affair with Fred.”

Ian’s smile fell away instantly and his eyes widened. “Wait. Fred as in Emily’s husband, Fred?”

“Yes.”

“So, Olivia, the woman who reported that her friend was missing, was actually having an affair with said friend’s husband?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Wow.”

I nodded. “I know, right?”

“How did you figure that out anyway?” “It wasn’t easy, but I found a post Olivia made on an online forum. She wrote it to ask for advice. At first, I didn’t make the connection because the names in the story were different. She used pseudonyms for their names.”

I opened my laptop and pulled up the tab where I found Olivia’s story. “Her name here is Ophelia, Emily is Elizabeth, and Fred is Finn. Ophelia and Elizabeth are best friends. In the story, she talks about how Ophelia met Finn first. She fell in love with him, but Finn married Elizabeth and she was heartbroken. Ophelia was hurt by the betrayal. To her, she’d been wronged when her best friend chose to marry the man she loved. She attended the wedding with her broken heart and did her best to support their union. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get over her feelings for Finn which was why she started sleeping with him.”

I handed the laptop to Ian so he could read the story for himself. I still couldn’t believe that Olivia found a way to defend her actions in the story. Even if she had feelings for Fred before he married Emily, she should have respected their marriage regardless.

There was a chance Emily didn’t even know about her feelings for Fred. Talking to Emily was a much better solution than having an affair with her husband.

Ian placed the laptop on the center table when he was done. He’d never met Olivia, but I could tell he was struggling to reconcile two very different people in his head. There was the Olivia I met and told him about. The woman who was desperate to find her friend and would do anything to speed up the process.

And then there was the woman we’d just read about. The one who despised her best friend for stealing the love of her life. This version of Olivia seemed more interested in hurting Emily rather than helping her.

It made me wonder if she was behind Emily’s disappearance. After all, she was the last person to see her and it was very suspicious that Olivia was currently nowhere to be found.

Had Emily’s kidnapper been right under our noses all this time?