“For someone who talks like he’s so concerned about my late husband, you’re sure doing a great job of imitating him."
Darius flinched. He ripped his hands away from me, taking a step back. The color drained from his face as he stared back at me. He opened his mouth and closed it again as if he couldn’t quite find his words.
“Sorry,” he said finally, hoarsely. “I didn’t—fuck.”
To my shock, he lowered himself onto his knees in front of me, the humble pose putting us at eye level. He took my hand from my lap—carefully, as if to make sure I wouldn’t jerk it away from him. He looked at it and then at me, so many emotions roiling through his cool blue eyes that I couldn’t look away.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I’ve been a prick since you got here, and I’m only making it worse. This isn’t how I wanted to do this. I just—I saw you with Felix—something snapped in my head. But I wouldn’t hurt you. I’d never be like that fucker you had to marry.”
My own anger simmered down. “Then what’s with all the yelling and the carrying me around?” I asked in a quieter voice.
Darius rubbed his forehead. “I thought if I could get you in here and we could just talk it out, if I could find the right way to tell you…”
“Tell me what?” I prompted when he fell silent. It seemed like the whole clamming up thing was spreading through the Rosano brothers like a plague.
He looked up at me, squeezing my hand. “I’ve tried to protect my brothers from dealing with a lot of the shit that comes with ruling a family like ours. I came down on you when you showed up thinking I was protecting them fromyou. But you were the one who needed protection—youhaveneeded it, all this time, while I was hating you and hating myself for missing the signs that you’d turned on us.”
I gripped his fingers in return. “I didn’t expect you to protect me, Darius.”
“I know. But I want to. There’s always been something about you… so fucking strong and fierce in that little body… I wanted you back then, and I want you now. If we could start over, do this right—you wouldn’t need to worry about anything. I won’t let my dad or your brother or any other prick fuck up your life ever again.”
A lump rose in my throat like it had at Felix’s declaration. I leaned forward and grazed my other hand over Darius’s short hair. He tipped into my touch, his gaze darkening with desire so potent it tingled over my skin.
“What if I feel the same way I did back then?” I asked. “What if I don’t know how to pick between the three of you? Maybe it’s selfish, but… I spent five years suppressing everything I wanted to cater to the men who thought they owned me. I don’t want to be trapped like that again. If I’m going to be with anyone, it’s got to be without any chains.”
Darius swallowed audibly. He stroked his free hand up and down my bare calf, and damn if my panties didn’t start to melt all over again. “I don’t know if I can stand by and watch you take up with every guy you like the look of. It killed me seeing you with Felix, thinking I’d lost my chance.”
“I’m not saying I want to fuck every guy who crosses my path. But the four of us made it work that one night seven years ago, didn’t we? Could you stand it if it was just your brothers? For now, anyway, while I’m figuring things out?” My lips twitched with a smile. “I think between the three of you, you’ll keep me too busy for me to even think about anyone else.” I’d never wanted anyone else anyway, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to admit that.
Darius paused. Then his hand slid a little higher, over my knee. To my relief, he offered a small smile in response. “I bet we would. Maybe I should get started on that right now, just to make sure those pretty eyes of yours don’t go wandering any farther.”
Before I could answer, he lowered his head to kiss the side of my knee. As my fingers curled against his scalp, he eased the skirt of my dress up in the wake of the path he was marking with his lips. His mouth seared my skin, edging closer to the aching core of me until I had to splay my legs farther apart.
Was this a good idea? I didn’t know. But it felt too good for me to come up with any arguments for stopping.
Darius pushed my skirt all the way up to my waist and grasped my panties. As he pulled them off, torturously slowly, an eager shiver raced through me.
“No biting?” I had to ask. “I hope you don’t have payback in mind.”
Darius chuckled, nothing but lust shining in his eyes now. “I fucking deserved that. You could have bitten me a lot harder, and I probably still would have. But you can consider this payback for all the times in the past week that I’ve come picturing you writhing and moaning under me.”
Then he pushed his face between my legs and swiped his tongue right over me.
I gave a little cry just at that first rush of sensation. Darius didn’t hesitate but got right down to devouring me. He might not have been planning to chomp on my delicate bits the way I had to him, but he brought the tips of his teeth to bear alongside his lips and tongue. They scraped over my clit, sending a spike of pleasure through me that surged even higher when he sucked down hard.
“Fuck,” I muttered, clutching the back of his head with one hand and the covers with the other.
As he lapped his tongue in and out of me, I rocked my hips to meet his thrusts. I’d just come harder than I had in years with Felix, and now an even hotter explosion was building inside me, expanding from my pussy through my body by the second.
Darius plunged two fingers into me while slicking his tongue back and forth over my clit. He pumped them in and out with practiced assurance I didn’t want to think too much about, stroking the perfect spot inside me.
His teeth grazed my clit again, followed by a more emphatic sucking. His other hand squeezed my ass. I moaned and bucked to meet him, and he hit me at just the right spot inside to send me soaring.
I careened on a wave of bliss and sank down through the heated afterglow as if gliding on a cloud. Darius didn’t let up. He eased up his pace only for an instant and then started working me over as emphatically as before.
Yet another knot of ecstasy swelled in my core. His curled fingers stroked against my G-spot, and his tongue circled my clit. He propelled me over the edge a second time in less than a minute, leaving me gasping and twice as boneless as before.
Darius nuzzled my pussy to provoke a few final sparks of pleasure and then grinned up at me, not just lust but undeniable affection warming his gaze.