He smirked, his tongue delving back into my mouth, the protest on my lips dying instantaneously. I ran my hands along his back, reveling in the feel of his hard muscle, memorizing the planes of his body. Goosebumps rose on his skin at my touch, and I smiled, pleased with the effect I had on him.
“I didn’t hear a please, Princess,” he needled, and I bit his bottom lip. “Close enough,” he conceded, rising onto his knees.
The Christmas tree provided enough light for me to see his sculpted upper body. I was tempted to applaud or whistle—maybe one day I would—but licking him seemed like a much better option. I took the opportunity to appreciate him, letting my hungry eyes rove over the muscles of his chest, down to his abdominals chiseled into eight tight sectors. His pajama bottoms were tented, and I abandoned my plan to run my tongue all over him for the moment.
“Stand up,” I commanded, mouthing a ‘please’ to go along with it.
He got to his feet. I wasted no time hooking my fingers into the waistband of the flannel pants, drawing them down, and revealing his erection. My eyes widened at his size. His cock tempted me, begging me to wrap my lips around it. I plunged, going for gold, gagging when the head hit the back of my throat.
“Jesus Christ, Vivian,” he cursed, yanking on my hair, holding me back. I looked up, worried I’d done something wrong. “Are you trying to unman me? Do that again, and I’ll come down your throat.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and darted my tongue out, circling the head. It was all I could reach with him holding me back. If I made him come this quickly, I didn’t know if I’d ever get my ego to deflate.
A pearl of liquid beaded on the tip of his cock, and I greedily licked it. He loosened his grip without releasing me, and I leaned forward, running my tongue down his long, thick shaft and closing my mouth around one of his heavy balls. Daniel hissed, threading his fingers through my hair. This time I traced the throbbing vein under his shaft. I circled the head before sucking it into my mouth. Inching lower, I took him in more slowly this time.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life,” he praised. I sucked as I released him, skimming my teeth along the sensitive skin before becoming more aggressive and taking his length back into my mouth.
Daniel cradled my head as I sucked on him. When he nudged the back of my throat, I swallowed, taking him deep. I’d never felt so sexy in my life. Admiration filled his eyes when he eased up and guided me back down. I wanted to make him come, watch him fall apart because of me.
“Enough. I’m too close.” He pulled my head back. “I wasn’t finished,” I protested.
Daniel laid me on my back and got on top of me. “You’ll have my come soon enough, V, but the first time you do, it’s going to be inside you.”
Daniel slipped a finger inside me, and I moaned as he stroked that sensitive spot. After he added another, he said, “Damn, Vivian. You’re so tight.”
I shut him up by kissing him, and he didn’t stop me, his fingers working in and out of me until I shuddered, my cries of pleasure floating into his mouth.
“Thank you,” I panted when we came up for air. “For what, V?”
“For making me feel like I never have before.” “I take it that’s a good thing?”
I’d gotten him to do that small-smile thing, but tried to play it cool.
I took his face in my hands. “It’s the best thing.”
Daniel shifted off me, moving to the box of condoms. He hesitated by my shoes, fingering the worn leather. “I have to put them back on.”
“Why?” He couldn’t have changed his mind. I had to have him. We’d already started this, and I wasn’t ready to stop.
“I want you wearing them while I fuck you.”
I stuck my foot out faster than you could say Baryshnikov. He slipped the shoes back on, tore open a condom packet, and rolled it down his length. Immediately, I had visions of him stroking to orgasm, and seeing that in the flesh very soon became a top priority. My stomach dipped as he crawled back on top of me, drawing me back to the moment, the tip of his erection nudging my entrance.
His hair was a mess from my fingers, his eyes bright with desire, shining this intense passion down on me. “Vivian, you’ve ruined me.”
He pushed inside of me, my tight center putting up some resistance. I was reeling from his words and the look on his face, stunned by his free admission. I could see it was true, that look of love intensifying the deeper he drove into me.
When he was fully seated, we both sighed and he stilled, letting our bodies acclimate to one another, though they felt as natural together as breathing.
“Everything,” I whispered.
His eyes widened a fraction before he closed the distance between our mouths. “Everything.”
I welcomed him, holding him snugly in place, gripping him as he withdrew. The pace with which he entered me again was excruciatingly slow. I needed him to take me faster. But he did as he pleased, just like he’d promised, claiming me with every thrust.
“Damn it, Daniel. I need you.” I dug into his back and raised my hips to meet him.
“I know, Vivian,” he soothed, kissing my forehead, slowing even further.
“Daniel.”
His grin was wicked. He was enjoying every second of this sweet torture. “Do you feel how perfectly we fit together?” His cock filled me so completely, I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began. “You were made for me.”
God, he stole the breath from my lungs. “You were made for me,” I corrected with a kiss.
“It is impossible to argue with you when you always have a valid point.” He slid out of me completely and pushed back in.
“Then don’t waste your time doing it,” I said.
Daniel thrust into me without mercy, and I cried out in surprise. “Is this a waste of time, Vivian?”
“No. God, no. This is why time was invented.”
“Once again, you leave me no choice but to agree with you.” He sounded exasperated, but he looked perfectly happy. I wrapped my legs around his waist, digging my heels into his back, encouraging him to move.
He sank into me balls-deep, and I moaned at how perfect he felt. “You lied to me,” I said as he plunged and retreated.
Daniel fully withdrew and stopped moving, ignoring my cry of protest. “About what?” He looked concerned.
“You are romantic.”
He relaxed and sank back into me. “I assure you, I am not.” I glanced over his shoulder at the twinkling Christmas tree and mouthed ‘liar’. “Is it a crime to want to make you happy?”
“As long as I do the same for you, then no.” An orgasm stirred, taking me by surprise.
“Are you sure you want to come now, V? Because once you do, I’m going to be right with you,” he promised.
“I don’t have much of a choice,” I said breathlessly.
He withdrew, and the sensation subsided a fraction. “I’m going to teach you to control it, until I can make you come with only a look.” I didn’t believe that was possible but was in no frame of mind to argue. He pumped slowly in and out of me, driving me to the edge of bliss once more. When he sensed that, he withdrew again, and I cursed, but he whispered so softly I could barely hear him. “Trust me. Hold off as long as you can, and when we go over, we’ll fly.”
Three more times he took me to the edge, and on the fourth, he gave me the command to release, and we soared together. His raw pleasure was a sight to behold, intensifying my own. He hadn’t lied to me. The orgasm went on for days, Daniel prolonging it with a flick of his tongue over my sensitive nipples.
“That was beautiful, Vivian.”
I flushed with joy, my body alive, my heart overflowing as we remained joined together. “I love you too.” I dropped the bomb and then kissed his cheek, trying not to laugh at the look on his face.
He blushed, resting his forehead on mine. “You can’t,” he said hoarsely.
“Yes, I can. I do,” I told him.
“Vivian.
” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t want you to.”
“You can’t stop me, so don’t even try.” When he opened his eyes, there was pain there I wanted to take away. “Daniel, I’m not trying to hurt you. But I promised you all of me. That’s what you said you wanted. So I’m giving it to you.”
“Please, Vivian,” he pleaded, his voice troubled.
I touched his cheek. “Hey. I’m not going to hide how I feel from you.” My voice was gentle but firm, and he nodded. “If you wanted something meaningless, we wouldn’t be here now.”
“I-I can’t.”
I looked at him with a soft smile. “You already do.” He clung to me, and I held him, listening to his heart drum. “We’re not on desperate ground.”
He lifted his head, surprised at my Art of War reference. “It feels like I always am,” he confessed.
“Not with me.”
“Especially with you. You’re dangerous for me.”
I brushed my lips across his. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Chapter 32
DANIEL
* * *
Present
* * *
THIRTEEN HOURS.
That was all it took for Donato to have me out on bail.
“I was just getting comfortable,” I grumbled as I climbed into the back of his car next to my lawyer. Day was just breaking. Donato looked like he hadn’t slept at all. Funnily enough, I had.
“You’re lucky I’ve got friends in the right places,” he said, passing me a glass of whiskey as his driver pulled out into the street. Donato took a long sip of his own drink like he’d been waiting all night to do it. Then he looked at me almost pleadingly. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What needs to be done.” I stared out the windows, a peek of sun coloring the sky salmon. I had a new appreciation for the ability to move about as I pleased. As long as I didn’t leave Manhattan until my trial. Donato’s machinations had helped me avoid house arrest or an ankle monitor.
“We spent three days holed up in Connecticut. You could have mentioned you were planning to confess to murder.” Kane Zegas lit into me as he tossed his phone onto the seat beside him.
I shrugged, in no mood to explain my actions to my lawyer.
Realizing I wasn’t going to respond, he continued. “We can’t retract the confession—”
“I don’t want to,” I interrupted.
Zegas ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t need you fighting me at every turn. The feds will do enough of that,” he snapped. “The main component we have going in our favor is the lack of evidence.”
Donato shifted in his seat and tossed back the remainder of the amber liquid in his glass. I’d hardly touched mine.
Zegas, persistent fucker that he was, kept talking. “I’m working to ensure there isn’t another copy of that autopsy report you had. Alvarez says the evidence is all circumstantial, and there’s relatively little forensics to go on. Most of what they had is either missing or deteriorated beyond use.”
“I’ve confessed. What more do they need?” I said, blasé. I knew that was enough to keep me in prison and Donato out.
Donato threw his glass at the back of the seat in front of us. “Stop this nonsense!” he roared. Zegas snapped his mouth shut, and I sat stoically. “He’s done enough to you. Do not let him take away your life.”
“And letting him take yours is okay?” I leveled Donato with a look I’d learned from him.
His jaw worked, and his grip tightened on his knees. “We will figure this out. I know enough people to get us out of this.”
I leaned my head against the back of the seat. “I’m tired of trying to get out of everything. I’m tired of doing things that I need to get out of.” I let my eyes flutter closed. I was just tired.
“Hang in a little while longer. I never should have kept you in this for so long.” Regret tinted Donato’s words. I hated what I was doing to him, but I still needed something from him.
“All I ask is that you protect what’s mine. The owner of that diamond will take retribution any way she can get it. I need to know nothing will happen to either of them.” I couldn’t speak their names.
They were separate from this life, but I had to have eyes on them. For my own sanity, I needed reassurance he’d be there for them should the need arise.
“I’m insulted you think you have to ask,” he spat. We looked at each other for a long moment, all we meant to each other hanging in the air. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I took the coward’s way out and changed the subject.
“Any progress on who actually started this clusterfuck of a mess? Alvarez has to know who turned you in, Donato.” He was an FBI agent for God’s sake. We should have known that from the start.
“No. Whoever took the tip is keeping the source close. There’s nothing.” Frustration rippled from him.
“I keep wondering who? Who stands to gain? And why now? No one gives a shit about justice for my father. The obvious answer is Angelone. All the pieces add up, but it doesn’t feel right,” I mused. These were the questions that plagued me. I had enemies, but none who would have a real reason to touch this, or even to know about it. There were plenty of other ways to sink me if someone truly wanted to. This was personal. A message. Whoever it was liked that I couldn’t figure out their identity. I was at their mercy. On their timeline.
“The sooner we come up with a name, the more smoothly this will go,” Zegas said without looking up from his phone.
“It’s not Angelone.”
I snapped my head toward Donato. “How do you know that?” “I asked him,” he said simply.
“And you believe him?” I asked incredulously.
“He learned about the potential arrest and used it to his advantage, but he didn’t start this.” The annoyance in his voice was contagious.
“How did he find out?”
“That’s a question I don’t know the answer to.” Donato cracked his neck on one side and then the other. “He’s been warned to stay the fuck on his side of the city.”
My head lolled to the side, and I watched the buildings go by. Traffic was fairly light at this hour. I just wanted to go home, except I couldn’t really call it that anymore. My home was in a shithole apartment that didn’t even have a proper bedroom. She was probably sleeping on a worn-out sofa and living out of a suitcase. My phone pulsed in my pocket, begging for me to check that blue dot. I ignored it. I could wait until I had some privacy to check on her. After the night I’d had, I needed Vivian as much as I ever had. I wanted to get lost in her.
But I couldn’t. This mess was just getting started. I wouldn’t be selfish when it came to her. At least knowing that she had a chance for something more than my dark world gave me a sense of peace.
“Alvarez will stall as best he can,” Donato assured me. “Is he trustworthy?”
“He’s done all he can to work with me over the years. There’s always the possibility that someday he won’t, but right now, we really don’t have a choice other than to trust him.”
A roundabout answer for maybe. I hated relying on other people.
I looked out the window again and registered where we had been heading. “What are we doing here?” The car turned down the side street next to Donato’s building and into the underground garage.
“We’ve lots to plan. Namely your defense,” Zegas shot back.
I wasn’t interested. “This has been fun gentleman, but I don’t need a defense. I’m going home. Both of you have better things to do, and I’ve got a charity event to prepare for.”
When I’d asked Giselle to come with me to the Heart Ball, I hadn’t accounted for an arrest. Since I wasn’t in jail anymore, it was too late to cancel, though I wouldn’t even if I thought she’d understand. This was the way I paid tribute to my mother’s memory. If I was a no- show, somehow that would disappoint her. I couldn’t handle hurting anyone else I cared about.
I ignored the strenuous protests that tra
iled after me as I got out of the car and went straight to the 57th Street subway station. Everything counted now, my time left as a free man limited. Glutton for punishment that I was, I had to do things where I felt close to Vivian. Riding the subway was just one of them.
She’d be disappointed in me when she found out what I’d done, and that hurt. But I’d promised her from the very beginning that I’d fight for her. This was the only way I knew how.
As I walked down the stairs into the bowels of Manhattan, a glimpse of glossy black hair flashed in the crowd in front of me. Vivian. I picked up my pace, shoving past people to catch up. She was always there when I needed her most. I was alive again just seeing her. Except as she stopped on the platform for the train, I realized my mind was playing tricks on me. The woman wasn’t my Vivian, didn’t really even look like her. I was a desperate man. Desperate and
delusional.
And as the train rumbled to a stop beside me, I accepted that fate.
Chapter 33
VIVIAN
* * *
Present
* * *
“I CAN’T BELIEVE you’re living here again.” Muriella peered around the arsenal of beauty products in her arms to make sure she made it to the next step down the stairs of my apartment building.
“Watch your step. This one’s loose,” I warned her.
“This is not the place for you,” Muriella insisted, dodging the rickety wood.
We made it to the bottom and burst through the front door. Stone jumped out of the waiting limousine.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had all this shi—I mean, stuff?” He gave both of us a stern look. “I could’ve helped.”
Without asking, he took the load from Muriella’s arms and piled it in the trunk.
“Ready to do this?” he asked as he took my bags.
“As I’ll ever be.” My stomach did a somersault at the prospect of seeing Daniel. So much was riding on this evening at the Heart Ball. Muriella had worked her magic, and now it was up to me and Stone.
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