“Which is why your career as a criminal was so short-lived and unproductive.” Declan sent him a tight-lipped grin. “I need your help, Trick. I need you to take her.”
Because I can’t let her go.
Trick studied Declan’s body language with astute green eyes for a moment and then stepped forward to reach carefully for Jennifer. Taking a few steps back, he set her on her feet and pulled up her shorts gently. “I think a breather is in order, yeah?” he said as he untied her tank top. “Declan, why don’t you go grab a drink while I give her a little tour of the Kelley mansion?”
That might be a good idea. He needed a minute to catch his breath. He didn’t want to scare her.
“Trick?” Jen looked up at the blond with a frown, but something in his expression made her nod slowly. “Okay. I’d like that.”
“I’ll be in the library.”
Trick walked away with Jen in tow and Declan heard her say, “He has a library?” before he turned and forced himself not to follow them.
He hadn’t been consciously planning for this to happen today. Jennifer had been right to hesitate—it was too fast and she didn’t know him well enough to make an informed decision.
But when she got into his car, shared her safe word and let him spank her bare pussy, waiting had no longer been an option. His darker urges had won out over his common sense. He’d practically kidnapped her.
She said yes.
What if she hadn’t? He hoped he would have been able to turn around, but a part of him wondered. All he’d known was he needed to get her here. In his home. Under his roof.
Declan found his way to his personal sanctuary and glanced briefly at the shelves overflowing with books, the Botticelli on the wall, the long desk covered in paperwork and novels and the recliner where he spent most of his nights on his laptop, working on lectures. The house was too large for one man. He spent most of his life in three of its rooms—the library, the kitchen and the bathroom.
Trick harassed him about it. Said he needed to stop living like a moody ghost in a castle and make more friends. “Have a party. Rent out a few of these rooms to circus folk and make some extra pocket change. Get a horse. I hear rich people love owning horses. It could graze in your living room and you wouldn’t even notice.”
Declan flipped open a book, his lips quirking at that memory. Trick was probably right, but Declan didn’t want any of that. He wanted something entirely different…and they were already here. Now he just had to figure out what to do with them.
And how to hang on to them.
“I thought you’d forget about that drink you need.” Declan looked up to find Trick in the doorway, the bottle of champagne in his hand.
“Why did you bring that?”
“I thought it was the best way to celebrate the start of our new adventure.”
Declan frowned as he watched him work on releasing the cork. “Where is she? She shouldn’t be alone after I…”
Trick chuckled. “She’s doing great. She was more in shock at the size of this place than her naked arrival. It was cute. But the second she saw the master bath, she lost her mind and made a lot of incomprehensible but happy female noises. I gave her arnica gel for the marks and left her to experience the wonder that is your shower. Showers relax her, and I thought you and I should touch base before we take the next step.”
The cork popped and Trick caught it before it hit something valuable. Declan leaned heavily on his desk. “The next step of our adventure? How can you be this relaxed? She came to see why I was loitering outside of her apartment and… Well, you saw what I did to her.”
“I did. She didn’t seem to mind, Declan.”
His fingers flexed as he remembered how much she didn’t seem to mind. “She’s too young to know any better.”
“I won’t tell you how stupid you sound sticking with that argument. You don’t believe it.”
“She’s young, sexually speaking. The quick-finish fiancé you told me about? A few months of reckless behavior at a fetish club? She’s still experimenting.”
“Don’t forget all those hours she’s clocked in bed with me.” Declan glared, but Trick just shook his head in disgust. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were grading her. I didn’t come prepared.”
“I’m not—” Declan took a calming breath. “I’m not grading her. I’m trying to make sure that we don’t end up hurting her or scaring her away.”
That I don’t go too far, the way I did with you. That I don’t ask for too much. He didn’t have to say it.