Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“You did that all right,” I muttered.
“You need to date.”
My stillness came back at his words. That was, it did after my head snapped back to look at him.
“Why aren’t you dating?” he asked, his words gruff, forced.
I could hear the emotion. I could even feel it.
And it ticked me off.
“Oh, are we chatting now?” I asked back. “Are we buds? You show with the means to save my sister a lot of heartache.” I waved the envelope in the air then tossed it to the side. “We share about our lives, then you vanish for a couple of months. Where are my manners? Would you like a glass of wine?”
“Stop it,” he grunted.
I was lamenting sitting on the lounge section, because even if it was comfy, it was a pain in the behind to get out of gracefully.
Even so, I was so mad, I scrambled out, took my feet and put my hands on my hips, ignoring how Darius’s beautiful brown eyes watching me do that made me feel, and asked, “Are you dating?”
He dropped his head but lifted a hand, palm out my way, and said to his boots, “Fucked up. Apologize. Not my business.”
“It’s not?” I demanded. “How’s the couch look, Darius? It’s nice, isn’t it? Liam is into plants. He makes me let him water them. I have to follow him around—”
He lifted his head and dropped his hand.
“Stop it,” he bit off.
I didn’t stop it.
“And he begs me to take him to the nursery so we can buy more, which I can afford, seeing as my baby daddy gives me three times more than I make in a —”
I didn’t finish that time, because one second, he was four feet away.
And the next, he was towering over me and right in my face.
“Don’t ever fuckin’ call me that.”
He was trying to intimidate me.
I was so done with this dance, I wasn’t about to be intimidated.
“Why not? That’s what you are, aren’t you? You don’t even ask to see him.”
“I don’t exist for him.”
“You’re standing right here.”
“I don’t exist for you either.”
“My couch and car and bank account says different.”
“You’re not gonna want, and neither is he.”
“Well, rest assured, you aren’t falling down on that job. It’s just other jobs you aren’t up for.”
I saw the anger flare in his eyes. It was intense, burning.
But that didn’t intimidate me either.
“What jobs you want me to see to, Malia?”
“How long you got?” I asked. “Because I have a list and you might want to take notes.”
His voice got warm, sexy…lewd. “Like you said, baby, I’m right here. What you need?”
And now he was trying to be an a-hole.
I wasn’t buying that either.
But he wanted to play with fire, we’d see who’d get burned.
“I haven’t had a man touch me since I was sixteen, you could take care of that.”
Another flare in his eyes, surprise.
And something else.
Something deep.
Possessive.
Hungry.
Okay, dang.
It was me about to be burned.
It would turn out I was right. I just had no idea how much I would love dancing in that fire.
His arms closed around me, and his mouth slammed down on mine, and I should have stopped it. If he was going to hang around, we had so much more to talk about.
I didn’t stop it.
He kissed me, and more fool me, I kissed him back.
Three years since we kissed.
Even longer since we took it further, but he was in my life, in my business, in my heart, I couldn’t stop it.
This time, I wasn’t going to tear myself away.
I needed it.
No.
I needed Darius.
I tried to pull him down on the couch.
He resisted, and fear took hold of my soul, because one thing I’d learned these last few years, when Darius was done, he was gone.
But he said, “No, baby, not on the couch. Not this time, not our first since…will he wake up?”
“He’s a sound sleeper.”
That was all I said, all he needed.
He let me go but took my hand and we were up the stairs before I could blink.
We were in my dark bedroom before I could get my head straight.
And then he was kissing me again, so I wasn’t thinking about anything but that.
He might be hungry, but I was starving.
Starving for his warm skin and the touch of his hands.
Starving for his mouth on mine, his tongue in my mouth, dancing with mine. His lips on my neck. The crush of his arms around me.
Then my shirt was off. His shirt was off. He went after my jeans. I went after his.
Both of us only in underwear, he leaned into me, and I fell to my back on my bed, Darius on top of me.
Oh man, he felt good.
Even so, I rolled him to get more of him.
He rolled me to get more of me.
I squirmed under him to push down my panties.