by Katee Robert
He barely resisted rolling his eyes. No shit, that would tip them off. “Given enough time, I can trace this back to its source.”
“Don’t bother.”
He finally dragged his attention from the monitor to look at her. “What?”
“We know who’s responsible. Which employee of his does the action makes no difference. It’s our father.”
Ryu had absolutely no reason to argue that. He wasn’t even sure why he wanted to. “If I follow the trail, I can confirm for sure.”
“It’s a waste of time and resources.” She turned away. “Go spend time with your woman. You won’t have to play being lovestruck.” She was gone before he could pick apart her tone to find the bitterness beneath.
Ryu pushed to his feet, but Luca’s voice stopped him. “Don’t chase her down right now.”
He frowned. “I want to know what the fuck she’s thinking that has that tone in her voice.”
“You know what she’s thinking.” Luca kept scrolling on his computer. “She’s thinking that she’s scared about what comes next. She’s both happy and sad that we’ve found people—that you appear to have found someone, too. Amarante has always set herself apart from us, at least a little. Now the divide is wider and she’s feeling it.”
He stopped and really looked at his brother. “That’s some clear insight you have there.”
“I’ve been sidelined for months, Ryu. You think I just sit around with my dick in my hand the whole time?”
It was more than that, though. Luca’s fiancée, Cami, was off the island courting contacts in her home country of Thalania. Luca hated being stuck back here while she was gone, even though he had to know if there was one other place in the world where Cami was safe, it was in the palace with her brother, the king. Ryu chose not to comment on it. If his brother wanted to talk about it, he would. Instead, apparently he wanted to offer deep insight to Amarante.
“We’re going to stop her from doing something fatal.”
He typed something on the keyboard and sat back. “How?”
“What?”
“You heard me. How are we going to stop Te? Because you’re fucking brilliant and Kenzie and I are no slouches. We don’t have a solution, Ryu. We don’t even have anything resembling a plan. Te won’t stop for anything less than a fully fleshed out alternative option, and all we have is a vague ‘later on, we’ll get him.’” He shook his head. “She’s going forward with it. You know it. I know it.”
“No.”
“Yes.” Luca’s expression seemed set in stone. “We need to stop wasting time trying to stop her from doing it, and start focusing all our energy on ensuring she makes it out alive.”
“That’s impossible.” If it was anywhere else, they could manage it. Amarante would barely need their help. But the Warren had its reputation for a reason—it was why their father had chosen it, no doubt.
Luca finally smiled. “Since when has something being impossible ever stopped us?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? He scrubbed his hands over his face. “We’ll talk more about this later.” After he had time to process the shift in gears. After he’d figured out how to extract Esther without endangering her further.
After.
Right now, he craved the peace Delilah brought him. It was more than that, though. Even when she aggravated and frustrated him, she settled something in his chest that he thought would be jagged for the rest of his life. He’d been broken a very long time, and the winding path to healing had caused parts of him to fuse together wrong. It was why he could function mostly normal, but couldn’t stand strangers’ hands on him. For so long, the only thing truly good in his life were his siblings. The strength of their bond held true as they all fought their individual paths back to the light—or at least some semblance of it—but it couldn’t get them all the way there. Not after they’d lived in the darkness for so long.
With Delilah, he felt like he stood in the presence of the noonday sun. She warmed him just by existing, and when she turned her attention his way, it was like being lit up with fireworks. Amazing and slightly painful and something he wanted more of.
He loved her.
It didn’t matter that it was too soon or that they had half a dozen potentially deadly problems between them and a happy, relaxed life. With each step that brought him closer to her, his worries took a backseat to sheer anticipation. Their few hours apart felt like years. He needed her, and he needed her now.
Except she wasn’t in her room.
His phone rang as he headed for the main casino floor. “Yeah?”
“She’s at the club.”
Already? He glanced at his watch and winced. It was later than he’d thought, had definitely been more than a handful of hours since they parted ways. Of course she’d be back at work to keep herself occupied now that her wrist was feeling better. It was feeling better, wasn’t it? Guilt flared. If she tried pole work before it was fully healed, she might injure it permanently.
His fault. Something he’d spend the rest of his life making up to her, even if she healed perfectly and it was no issue going forward.
Ryu changed course and strode through the halls to the club. Unsurprisingly, it was mostly packed at this time of night. Also unsurprisingly, his booth was empty. The manager, Laura, caught him before he walked three steps into the room. “We have your usual seat ready. Delilah is the song after next.”
“Thanks.” Seconds after he sat down, his drink appeared.
There was no relaxing on the menu tonight. Not really. His mind wouldn’t stop racing even as his gaze lingered on the people occupying the tables around the stage and the dancer moving across it. There had to be a solution other than what Luca offered. They just hadn’t found it yet.
They had very few days left to find it.
A slow song slid through the speakers around the room. Ryu knew it was her even before Delilah strode on stage. She looked just as beautiful as ever, her black hair wild around her shoulders and dressed in an outfit similar to the one she had on the night they first had sex. She paused next to the pole and cast a searching look over the room before she settled on him. With the stage lights, there was absolutely no way she could see him in the corner booth, but her brilliant smile sure as hell made it seem like she had.
He sat back and allowed himself to become lost in her dance. Before, he’d had the illusion that it was all in his head that she danced for him.
Tonight, it felt like reality.
Delilah inched her skirt down her hips in a sinuous move, working the fabric all the way to her ankles as she bent in half, facing away from the audience.
Ryu managed to drag his gaze from her and take in the people watching with rapt attention. Every single one of them wanted to tug her panties to the side to bare her completely. Every single one of them wanted to touch, to taste, to fuck.
Bastard that he was, he got off on the fact that he was the only one who’d be inside her tonight.
He swallowed half his drink in a single shot because Delilah had moved on to her top. She did something to the clasp that had it dangling from her arms and teased covering her breasts before she let it drop.
Then she danced before them wearing nothing but heels and her panties. Every bit of blood in Ryu’s body surged into his cock. He hadn’t thought she could get more attractive, but now he knew the exact sound she made when she orgasmed, and that she had a sly sense of humor even when fucking, and that her loyalty to her sister rivaled his to Amarante. It all came together into a woman unlike any other. One who seemed almost as if she was made for him.
Like they fit.
It would take him time to convince her of that. She’d suffered too much trauma over too many years to believe in happy endings that came without strings.
Hell, he had, too.
It didn’t matter. They’d fight their way through her danger and then through his war, and they’d come out the other side to figure out what life without a threat hangi
ng over their heads felt like. He had to believe that. He didn’t have any other choice. They’d save her sister. They’d find a way to save his, too.
Her dance didn’t last long enough, but that was okay. There would be other nights and more dances, both public and private. Ryu finished his drink, adjusted his pants, and headed for the private rooms. They were supposed to keep up appearances, but really he just wanted to see Delilah, to touch her, to reassure himself in the oldest way possible that she was okay. That they were okay.
She didn’t make him wait long.
He’d barely settled onto the couch when she stepped through the door. Tonight she wore a deceptively simple lingerie set. A black bra offered her breasts up, the lace giving glimpses of her nipples. Her black lace thong gave the same peekaboo down below. Garters and thigh-high stockings completed the picture.
She took his fucking breath away.
Delilah smoothed her hands down her body. “You like?”
“I like you in everything.”
“Good.” She walked to him, a little swing in her step that had his cock jumping in his pants. She made to go for the stage, but he snagged her wrist and towed her close. “Let’s start with a lap dance.”
She raised her eyebrows but obediently straddled him, her body moving to the pulsing baseline of the song almost absently. “You look worried.”
“I found someone has hacked our system and can access all the cameras.”
She didn’t so much as miss a beat. “So that’s how they knew we had sex before.”
He hated that she’d been put through that. Hated that someone had watched what they’d done without permission and tainted it. “I fully intend to make them pay for that.”
“Good.” She reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. No matter how many times she did this, no matter that they’d had sex now, his whole body went tight and the world stilled at the sight of her breasts.
“You’re perfect.”
Delilah laughed and caught his hands, guiding them to cup her. “This is against the rules but …” She rolled her hips, rubbing herself against his cock. “Maybe we can fudge the lines a little bit.”
Fuck, he wanted to. He wanted to so much he couldn’t see straight. But he refused to put her in a situation where being with him would be used against her. Not Again. “The cameras.”
“Oh. Those.” She gave him a saucy smile. “I had them turned off before I came in.”
That surprised a laugh out of him. “One could almost believe that you planned on taking advantage of me.”
“That’s because I am.” She kept her hands over his, running them down her body and back up again. “I know we played pretend, but I want the real illicit fucking in this room with you.” She released him and slowly undid the buttons of his shirt to push it aside. Ryu stroked his hands down to cup her hips, letting her guide them.
For now.
She quickly undid his pants as well and he lifted his hips so she could shove them down. Then Delilah just …looked at him. Like he was her favorite kind of candy and she couldn’t decide where she wanted to start first. “You’re perfect.”
How could she look at him like that, knowing what she did about Ryu and his past? He didn’t know. He suddenly didn’t care. Delilah was a fucking gift, and Ryu would be damned before he did anything other than cherish her.
She pushed off him and slowly eased her panties down her legs. She’d put them on over her garters, the little tease, and so the black lace and tights framed her pussy once she moved to stand before him again.
As if Ryu could resist a temptation like that.
He pulled her forward and hooked one leg over his shoulder, opening her. This close, he could smell her desire, and it made him crazy. He dragged his tongue over her, savoring her. The moment seemed to stretch out, a bubble of unbroken time, but it burst when Delilah dug her fingers into his hair and towed him back to her pussy.
Ryu leaned back against the couch, bringing her with him, and licked her with the frenzy he’d had building in him since watching her dance. He needed her to come, he needed to be the reason she did, he needed to taste and touch and fuck until they beat back the lingering fear the arose when he thought about their future.
Delilah’s cries mingled with the music as she rode his face with complete abandon. With complete trust. Her thighs locked around his head as she came, and Ryu didn’t stop playing with her clit until she smacked the top of his head and he let her melt down his body.
He wasted no time pulling her close, rolling on a condom, and guiding his cock into her. It felt like coming home. Every. Single. Time. For a second, Ryu simply held her to him, as close as two people with different heartbeats could be.
She smoothed her hands down his chest and grinned. “I still can’t get over being able to touch you.”
“I like it.” Especially like this, his cock sheathed fully inside her, her body wrapped up in his. Ryu kissed her as he began to move. Long slow thrusts as he took her mouth. Her tongue slid along his even as she lowered her hips to meet each thrust. Perfection. Everything about this moment, about her, was absolute perfection.
He leaned back so he could cup her breasts, playing with her nipples just the way she liked. “Everything about you is perfect.”
She laughed, the sound low and infectious. “You’re obligated to say that given our current activity.”
“Doesn’t make it less than the truth.” He skated a hand down her stomach and circled her clit with his thumb. “I want to feel you come around my cock.”
Her dark eyes went a little glazed. “Keep doing that, and you’ll get your wish.”
“As my lady commands.” He didn’t stop. The smooth roll of her hips went ragged, and he clasped her with his free hand to keep the rhythm. “That’s it. Just like that.”
She came. Fuck, but he’d never get enough of the wild abandon on her face when she orgasmed. He could spend a lifetime chasing this moment over and over and over again. Ryu hooked an arm around her waist and toppled her onto the couch. He took her mouth even as he gave himself over to the sheer joy of fucking her. Rough and wild and she clung to him, kissing him back just as fiercely.
I love you.
I know it’s too soon, but I don’t give a fuck.
I love you.
He managed to keep the words inside. Barely. Ryu orgasmed hard enough that the room spun slowly around him. He slumped down, the couch wide enough that he could wedge himself next to her instead of crushing her with his weight. “Damn.”
“That about covers it.” Delilah kissed his throat, his jaw, his mouth. “That was exactly what I needed.”
He ran his hand over her hip, tracing the garter belt. “What time are you off?”
“Uh …” She snagged his hand and lifted it to look at his watch. “A couple hours.”
He wanted to tell her to blow off the rest of her shift, but that was an asshole selfish thing to do, no matter how much he wanted to just be with her without all the other bullshit hanging over their heads. Ryu hefted himself back to a seated position, bringing her with him. “Stay with me tonight when you’re done?”
Delilah smiled. “Why don’t you stay with me? Just go to my room and make yourself at home. I’ll be in after my shift.”
It felt so …normal …to make arrangements like this. Wasn’t it normal? He couldn’t be sure. “You don’t mind?”
“I kind of like the idea of coming home to you.” She carefully stood and looked down at herself. She looked like she’d just been fucked, her brown skin flushed and her lips swollen from his kisses. Her pussy was … Fuck.
He hooked a finger through her garter belt and towed her closer. “You have time for another private dance?” He cupped her pussy and pushed two fingers into her.
Delilah widened her stance, letting him fuck her slowly with his fingers. She arched into his touch. “I, uh, yes.” She gave him a wicked grin. “But it’ll cost you.”
He leaned down and gave her cli
t a quick flick of his tongue. “Good. Because I’m not done with you yet.”
CHAPTER 17
Delilah woke to the sound of ringing. She blinked into the darkness of her room, momentarily disorientated because she wasn’t alone. She ran her hand down Ryu’s arm where he’d draped it over her side, and he responded by cuddling her closer to nuzzle the back of her neck. She smiled despite herself. After the club, he’d come back here, and if her legs worked right this morning, she’d be really surprised.
The sound that woke her started up again. Ringing. She knew that sound.
Delilah shoved Ryu’s arm off her and rushed to the dresser where she’d left the phone after they got back to Pleasure yesterday. He already knew what she’d done, so there was no reason to hide it anymore. She snatched it up. “Yes? Hello?”
“Bring Pestilence to New York within the next forty-eight hours or your sister pays the price.”
Click.
She held the phone out, half certain that she’d imagined the whole thing. She hadn’t. Of course she hadn’t. When Delilah recognized that they’d escalate, she hadn’t anticipated this.
They wanted to kill him.
That’s the only reason they’d use her to lure him out of the safety of the Island of Ys. They wanted to take him, to hurt him, to eventually kill him because no way would they release him afterward. If she did this, she was accessory to the murder of a man she cared deeply about.
If she didn’t do it, they’d kill Esther.
Delilah braced her hands on the dresser and took several gasping breaths. Oh god. They really wanted her to choose between the man she’d gone and fallen for and the sister she’d spent her whole life protecting. An impossible situation, even before she lost her heart to Ryu.
“It’s okay.” And then he was there, pulling her into his arms and holding her close. “You’re not doing anything I didn’t ask for.”
She clung to him. She took the comfort he offered even though she had no right to. “You heard?”
“I heard.” He smoothed a hand down her hair. “I thought they might try something like this. It’s an opportunity.”
