“What’s the problem, then?”
His eyes crease at the corners, tense. “What would it do to everyone at the club? Everyone who is thinking right now that they are safe and protected.” I’m beginning to understand, when he adds, “The second the tabloids got ahold of this story, yes, my secrets would come out, but so would the secrets of every person there. The tabloids would never stop. They would dig and dig and dig until every well-known member there was exposed.”
I raise my brows at that. “So there are a lot of famous members?”
“Famous?” he repeats. “No, not famous, per se, but they’re important.”
“Like, judges, people who work for the city?”
He smiles. “Many members do not live in the city. It’s safer that way.”
I blink in surprise. “I would never have guessed how many people live such exciting sex lives.”
Darius chuckles. “From kindergarten teachers to librarians to multi-millionaires, my club hosts them all.”
“And they’re not worried about being exposed?”
“No, privacy is taken seriously, as you can imagine,” he explains. “Hence why I don’t want the tabloids anywhere near my club. And the second I out myself as the owner, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
“I see,” I say, totally understanding now. “You’re not protecting yourself anymore, you’re protecting everyone else?”
He nods.
“Always the hero,” I comment.
He snorts, lying on his back, both arms behind his head. “I really wish you would stop saying that.”
“You shouldn’t wish for that.”
“Why?” he asks, staring up at the ceiling.
“Because then that means I no longer care to remind you how amazing you are.”
A pause.
A long, heavy pause full of questions.
Then, “I deal a lot with things that aren’t so pretty,” he says softly. “It’s a cutthroat world, and my daily dealings with people can be brutal. You say I’m a hero, but believe me, I’m not.”
He’s still staring up at the ceiling, avoiding me, and I see his ghosts around him now. I press my hand to his chest. “Maybe not to everyone, but to the people who matter, you are. And that’s what counts.”
I’m facing him one second and then he’s yanking me on top of him, positioning me to straddle his waist. One look into his face, I realize he’s doing what he always does, avoiding the conversation where I praise him, where he has to show emotion, where he has to be something beyond the cool and very collected Darius Bennett.
Though with his rock-hard body beneath mine and the look of hunger in his eyes, I decide to avoid the conversation, too. Because in the end even I know while I like our conversations, going down that intimate path will lead us to nowhere good.
I allow him to turn his back on the conversation and embrace desire, as he cups my face and pulls me down to him, my chest to his, and seals his mouth over mine. Each swipe of his tongue draws heat into my lower body, making me need him more than ever before. His hard cock is beneath me, tempting me, and I can’t stop myself from sliding down just a little bit until I reach the tip of him.
His kiss turns more urgent, rougher with masculine aggression, and his low growl brushes sensually across me. Skin against skin, I decide to dip down farther, taking more of the tip of his cock inside me. I want him, every single bare inch of him.
He stops me, grasping my hips. “Do you still have your IUD?”
“Yes,” I whisper, arching, desperate to take him in nice and deep.
He chuckles, a gravelly laugh, grasping my hips tighter, pinning me to him. “I’ve recently been tested and all results came back negative.”
I fight against him, trying to break free of his tight hold to somehow get his big, beautiful cock inside me. “I never have unprotected sex.” Except with you…“I want this, Darius. Let me.”
His smile is sinfully perfect. “Then take me,” he whispers so gently. So very unlike him.