Dermot Ross
If I found myself in hell for all of eternity, I would be perfectly content. I’d already experienced heaven, and it was in the form of a radiant, green-eyed woman that had managed to fuck up my entire universe in a span of seconds. That shouldn’t have been possible. I’d spent my entire life completely unaffected by people, exactly how I had preferred it. Then I’d seenher.
I wish I could tell you I was being dramatic, but I’d felt the air practically get bulldozed from my chest when I’d finally looked up to where my cousin had been. I had been so caught up in my own thoughts that I hadn’t considered why he was calling me outside. I should have been more careful, because I’d fallen right into the trap, and when I’d first looked up, the only thing I’d been able to see was green.
Possibly the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. Her glowing, tan complexion and bright, interested gaze had been overwhelming as I’d found a part of my chest beating that I hadn’t even been aware existed anymore. Not to say I didn’t have a heart… but I sure as fuck hadn’t used it in years. That was all before I even realized she was in my cousin’s arms, because frankly, it hadn’t mattered.
The woman was a goddess among men, and I knew the longer I was around her, the worse this pull would get. I had never reacted so intensely to someone. It was unhealthy. It was sick. Dahlia Aldridge was absolutely dangerous, and not just to me. I didn’t trust how I would react in situations that included her.
I no longer questioned why King acted how he did. His words from this summer had started to click together in a larger network of understanding. I’d thought his obsessive interest in the woman had been amusing at best, but now I understood that there was absolutely nothing fucking funny about it.
This was unnatural. This was impossible. The emotion coursing through me was enough to bring me to my knees.
My gaze followed her apple-red dress and lithe tan frame as she walked up the stone steps of her massive estate, a bright smile on her face as she offered a small twirl before disappearing through the front door. Walking seemed like such an average descriptor for how she moved. Floated? That seemed to work better. My fingers twitched as I fought the urge to go after her. Talk about fucking scaring her off.
My eyes traveled up the stone steps of the impressive structure she lived in, the large stone columns and massive ferns creating a tropical, almost British Colonial shaded paradise that was not only alluring but encouraged one to explore. I felt like I was on the edge of discovering the rarest treasure, and I knew it was right within reach, just through that large archway that led into their house.
Holy fuck, I needed to get out of here.This town. This country. This had been a horrible idea. A horrible idea that seemed like the pathway to the sweetest reward. I swallowed, trying to not think about how sweet she would taste, imagining her curvy little frame pressed up against me as I devoured those bright red lips. Her sugary scent surrounded me, making my cock pulse. I’d been uncomfortably hard since the moment I first saw her.
My jaw clenched, wishing that this pull was just physical. That would have been easy enough. This was different, though… this pull was something else.
I wanted to know everything about Dahlia.
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to calm my pulse by taking deep breaths so I didn’t do anything drastic. The last thing I wanted to do was scare the woman off by acting like a fucking nut job. Although she should be scared, because I sure as hell was terrified. My thoughts were irrational. I’d never, in my entire life, felt such a tsunami of lust as I did when first setting my gaze on Dahlia in my cousin’s arms.
Bloody hell, this was so fucked up. I grunted, opening my eyes, realizing that closing them only made it worse. I couldn’t get her curious smile or the way she blushed out of my mind.
Why the fuck did I find that attractive?
I had absolutely never found that type of mannerism attractive. The women I had been with in the past had been the exact opposite of Dahlia in every single way. There hadn’t been any love lost between them or I, because there hadn’t been any strong emotions. Attraction, sure, but that was all I ever allowed myself to feel. No one had inspired anything differently, as it was. So why the fuck was this happening now? Was this my punishment for being such a cold, mean bastard?
Probably.
It didn’t take away from the fact that I loved how she blushed. Would she blush if I told her how I wanted to take her on the ground like an animal? Damn it. A woman like Dahlia deserved better than that, than me, but there was an uncontrollable urge to claim her that was buzzing through my chest and head. What did I do with these emotions? I’d never felt this out of control, this irrational.
I didn’t even feel ashamed for practically running away from her upon our first meeting. I had been hit with so many emotions, and the fact that Iknewexactly how Kingston felt about Dahlia didn’t help. She’d been a constant topic of conversation throughout the entire summer, and I found myself recalling every small detail my cousin had mentioned about her in passing. Nothing he said compared to seeing her in person, but I was finding it impressive—and slightly worrisome—just how observant Kingston was. Like, obsessively.
I was damn positive there wasn’t anything he didn’t know about Dahlia, and I found myself jealous that he knew her so well. That he had such an important part in her life.This was going to be an issue.I was man enough to admit that I was not only overwhelmed, but suddenly in way over my head.
“How has she been?” King demanded. His smile disappeared the minute that she was out of sight, the cousin I knew well falling back in place. The sudden change made me feel better. Made me feel like I could breathe again, because there was something normal about this situation, something that I could rely on.
It had taken me off guard how happy she had seemed to make him whenever they talked during the summer, but after today? I understood it completely. It was like the woman warmed and softened everything around her into a whirlwind of sweetness. It should have disgusted me, but instead I found myself craving it.
Craving her. Craving the soft affection she seemed to offer those around her.
Turning back towards their conversation, I didn’t even bother trying to pretend I wasn’t listening to them. Hell. Every time she and King had talked on the phone this summer, I’d found myself listening to the sound of her sweet, intoxicating, sleepy voice. I should have predicted the problem then. Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken the warning my subconscious had offered when I’d been so attracted to her mere voice… so here I was.
“I don’t know.” Sterling ran a hand through his hair and offered him a concerned look. “I want to say better, but I have a feeling she’s still getting those bullshit messages. She said she shut down her personal social media accounts, but whenever we try to ask her about it, she changes the topic.”
“We tried pushing it a few weeks ago, and I swear to fucking Christ, King, she almost cried,” Lincoln added, his face paling at the concept of her tears. I didn’t blame him. My chest squeezed, feeling uncomfortably tight at the idea of her crying, even though it was only in my imagination.
Trying to distract myself from my obsessive thought pattern revolving around Dahlia, I mentally noted that Lincoln’s talking cadence was slightly slower than his brother’s. I thought I could detect a very small, barely noticeable stutter that he had clearly worked on getting rid of for some time. It was possible I was imagining it, but it gave me something to focus on figuring out… until his next words had my thoughts sliding right back in Dahlia’s direction again.
“I can handle a lot, but not her crying,” he admitted, his jaw clenching.
My eyes moved back towards Dahlia’s house once again, almost involuntarily, hoping to catch another glance of her. Fuck. I needed to stop. I’d always had a slightly obsessive personality—it was something King and I had both inherited from our fathers’ side—but never in my life had it been focused on a goddamn person before. I could already see me excusing myself to do crazy shit in the name of either figuring out more about her or keeping her safe.
I needed to hop back on the family jet and get the fuck out of here. I wouldn’t, though. I knew I wouldn’t.Shit.I wanted to be angry at her for inspiring this, for bringing me to this level. I knew it wasn’t her fault, though—she’d barely said a few words to me. It wasn’t her fault that I had fucking problems.