I jerked against him when loud pounding sounded on his door.
“Dare,” Johnny called out, his voice laced with frustration.
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“It’s the third time he’s tried to get you to leave. I think you should go before he comes charging in here,” I murmured, squeezing him tighter before reluctantly sliding off him. I tried to smile, but the possibility of Johnny doing exactly that was too real. “I need to go anyway.”
“We need to check in with someone, but it’ll only take ten minutes. Fifteen tops. Be here when I get back.”
I squinted my eyes at him, but kept my tone teasing. “That sounds sketchy and very mob-like.”
Dare’s chest moved with the force of his laugh, his eyes bright with amusement. “Check in with a business partner. Johnny’s only coming with me because I don’t trust him anywhere but by my side.”
I didn’t trust Johnny at all.
His fingers trailed over my waist and down my thigh, his touch and stare begging. “Stay,” he breathed, the plea enough to make my heart race and my will crumble.
I bit at my lip, trying to remember why I needed to go. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” Surprise lit his eyes, that carefree smile spreading across his face.
“Yeah.” A laugh bubbled free when he wrapped me in his arms, pulling me close to kiss me. “But only for a few more hours. If I don’t go soon, I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to get back to you.”
Even with Kieran gone, it felt like tempting fate.
That smile of his froze. Worry and something like anger swirled in his eyes. “Then I’m not going. I’m not wasting the time I have with you.”
“Go.” When his jaw hardened, I laughed and pushed against his chest. “Go. We’ve already spent hours locked in here. My body needs to rest. I need to shower.”
One of his dark brows rose, a mischievous grin suddenly playing on his lips. “Oh, then I really think I should stay.”
“No, you need to go. You have to check in with that business partner.”
His only response was a slow shake of his head as he shifted us to lay me on the bed.
I tilted my head back, my laugh pouring free as he dipped his head to place teasing kisses on my neck.
“Dare, my body is so worn out,” I whined, my protest weak and forgotten by the time his lips reached the swell of my breasts.
I arched, silently begging—and immediately sagged back against the bed, bursting into laughter when my stomach’s growl filled the room.
Dare’s shoulders shook with his silent laugh. His dark eyes were dancing when he lifted his head to look at me. “Jesus.” Bending to press his lips to my stomach, he mumbled, “Point taken. I’ll bring back food.”
I watched as he stood from the bed and went to his bathroom to clean up, my smile still uncontained by the time he was walking toward me again, jeans on and pulling a shirt over his head.
He slowed, his expression unreadable as he searched my face. “That smile,” he whispered as he bent to kiss me. “Been waiting my entire life for something to make me feel the way that smile does.”
My heart ached, crying out in pain from being torn in two over this man.
Because I knew he was sincere. And I knew one day those words, the raw emotion in them, they would all be gone. Replaced by hatred.
“Don’t go,” he pled, an edge of worry to his voice.
“I’ll be here,” I promised.
Until the very end.
The knob suddenly twisted, the door moving with the weight of whoever was on the other side. My heart stopped before taking off as I scrambled to fold the towel over my naked body.