by Tee, Marian
"No."
The two had answered at the same time, but what stunned Josiah was who had said what, and Damian, who normally asked him to mind his own business, was now suddenly singing a different tune and wanting him to get involved.
In times like this, it was best to side with the woman, and so Josiah simply said, "Let's head back before Naomi reports us missing."
"I agree," Sarah said quickly, and because she had yet to ask Damian not to say anything about Hardy to anyone, she held back to wait for Damian and curved her arm around the billionaire's as soon as he reached her side. "It's best to present a united front tonight of all nights, don't you think, big brother?"
The subtle warning wasn't lost on him, and Damian's lips curved in a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Quite right, little sister." But the moment Josiah turned and started walking ahead of them, he said under his breath, "Don't even fucking think this is over."
"Just please don't tell Josiah or Mom about this," she please. And as all eyes turned to them as they followed Josiah up the ballroom stage, she whispered, "Please, Damian. This is my problem to solve—-"
"Just give me his name," Damian murmured as they took position, "and he'll cease to be a problem."
He means he wants Hardy to cease existing at all, Sarah thought, but this she could only keep to herself as the live orchestra had already started playing and it was time for both Damian and her to join their parents in tonight's opening waltz.
Unlike Sarah, whose attention was focused intensely on not missing any steps, Damian hadn't any problems multitasking, and the billionaire continued to brood over Sarah's surprising show of stubbornness towards the other man. That it was possible for Sarah to actually have fallen in love with another man, Damian refused to consider at all. Sarah was his, dammit. Always had been, always would be, and no other fucking man, a married douchebag least of all, would change that.
When the music finally ended, a plan had already formed in the billionaire's mind, and no time was wasted in executing it. As soon as they finished making their bows to the stage and the curtains fell behind them, Damian drew Sarah close, and ignoring their parents' curious looks, took her with him to one of the rooms backstage.
The hallway backstage was dimly lit, and Sarah's heart started beating harder and faster for no reason.
Damian opened the first door to their right and flipped the light switch open, saying, "We'll talk here."
Since it was to her advantage that neither of their parents accidentally hear anything about Hardy, Sarah forced herself to nod and followed the billionaire inside the empty dressing room. She watched nervously as he closed the door shut, but as soon as he turned to her, anxiety simply got the better of her, and she blurted out, "I mean it about Hardy. If you tell Josiah or Mom about him, I will never forgive you."
The tremor in her voice told Damian how serious she was, and it was exactly what he didn't want...but needed to see.
"I can give you my word that I won't say a word to our parents under one condition."
For some reason, Sarah suddenly felt like she was about to enter into a bargain with the Devil, but a quick, wary glance at his features achieved nothing. His handsome face was a completely expressionless mask, and it left her no choice but to say slowly, "Alright. What do you want in return?"
"Something quite simple—-"
"I doubt that—-"
"Marry me."
Twelve
Marry him?
Had she really heard—-
"Marry me, Sarah."
Oh God. She might as well have been thinking out loud with how uncannily accurate his responses were.
"Marry me."
Sarah had the urge to laugh and cry at how easy it was for Damian to say such words. It only went to show how little he understood of just how much he had meant...and still meant to her.
"This is insane."
The jerkily spoken words had a muscle ticking in his jaw, and it was only then that he realized how much her answer mattered...and how much it would fucking hurt, for her not to say yes. He really had lost her, Damian realized with bitter regret. The old Sarah would have thrown herself in his arms the moment he asked her to marry him, but this one before him...
His fists clenched against his sides. She was over him now, fine. But she had fallen for him before without him even doing a thing. He could and would damn well make her fall in love with him again, and this time, he would love her the way she deserved.
When Sarah started for the door, it was to have the billionaire reach for her arm and force her to turn back to him.
"We haven't finished talking."
"What else is there to talk about?" she asked unevenly.
"I asked you to marry me—-"
Sarah shook her head. "Damian, please. Stop this. It's insane. It's just not—-"
"I'm not asking you to love me again."
It hurt to hear him say such words, and oh God, how she wished she could believe that the regret and pain in his eyes were true. But he had her hurt too much, had taught her too well. She had lost count of the times he had looked at her, talked to her in the past like he loved her, only to tell her she had misread things.
"I'm sorry," Sarah whispered. "I don't think—-"
"You want me anymore?" Damian's grip on her tightened. "That's easily resolved."
And then he was hauling her towards him.
"Let's just put it to the test."
Aghast and terrified at what those words were implying, she opened her mouth to say no...only to realize she had simply given the billionaire an opening, and the next thing she knew, his mouth was crushing down on hers, and the first thrust of his tongue inside her mouth instantly set her body ablaze.
Aaaaaaaaah.
For one moment, she simply stood there, unable to resist the temptation to savor the forceful thrusts of his tongue. Just one moment, she told herself feverishly. One moment...and then she forced herself to snap out of it. She started struggling, as hard as she could—-
The billionaire's dark head lifted, and blue eyes glittered down at her. "Stay fucking still..." The command was delivered in a soft, mocking voice that had her body shaking for all the wrong reasons. "...if you don't want me ripping your gown off."
A helpless laugh escaped her even as her heart thundered against her chest, and it took everything in her not to let her body yield against his hardness. "I know what you're doing," she accused him. He was swearing because he knew how much it turned her on, and it was for the same reason he was putting on this overbearing Dom act.
"It's not going to work—-"
"Won't it?" He saw her open her mouth to answer back, and he said swiftly, "Shut up."
Her eyes widened.
"Or I'll fucking shut it for you."
A sound escaped her, something that was part-laugh and part gasp, but the truth was in her eyes, with the way they were turning misty and dark with emotions she couldn't quite control. Yearning. Confusion. Excitement. Fear. And most of all, a shadow of the love that used to turn her eyes into stars, every time she had looked at him—-
And that shadow was enough, Damian told himself fiercely. All he needed was a goddamn place to start, and if lust was all she had left for him, then he would take what he could get, and work with it.
He cupped her chin, so she wouldn't be able to look away. He wanted her eyes to see only him as he told her the truth.
"You want me."
She started shaking her head, but he wouldn't let her.
"And you're going to show how much you want me right now."
Her eyes widened in disbelief while his gleamed with danger.
"You made me a promise before, remember? I still have it in my phone."
While Sarah had no trouble understanding exactly what he was talking about, she couldn't quite make herself believe that he still had in his phone the text she had sent him all those years ago. That was just too impossibly sentimental for someone like him to do, and—-oh my
God!
The billionaire had held his phone up for her to see, and Sarah's own damning words from the past stared back at her.
Sarah: If you come back today I'll give you a blow job. No questions asked before or after.
When she felt Damian's fingers loosen its hold, Sarah immediately sprung away from him while wrapping her arms around her body. "You can't hold that against me—-"
"Ah, but I can, love, and I will." Blue eyes smirked at her. "Because you want me to hold it against you," he purred. "You want me to force you into doing it. Command you to do what your body's dying to feel—-"
Her arms tightened around her body in a futile attempt to control its shaking, and she shook her head in wild denial of what he was saying. "No—-"
"Yes." Damian calmly pulled out one of the vanity chairs and unfolded his length on it. "And we're starting right now." He crooked a finger at her. "Get on your knees, love."
Oh God. The most feminine parts of her began to throb and moisten at the sinful invitation in his voice. God, oh God. He was so, so, so...sexy. Just at his hottest and sexiest, every time he indulged her fantasies and turned himself into a cocky bastard like he was doing now.
"Come, Sarah."
No. Don't. Stop. Her mind was screaming the words over and over, but the desire that had enslaved her body easily overruled it, and Sarah found herself taking one shaky step forward. And then another and another.
"Good girl."
Until she was standing between his long, muscular legs, her mind a complete mess, and her body a mere, melting and shuddering mass of yearning.
He tugged her hand, just one soft but firm tug, and she found herself obeying his silent command as she slowly fell to her knees.
"Do you think you can handle taking my cock out of my pants?"
Sarah gulped. "I t-think so."
"Then do it." Damian watched Sarah lower her head, amused despite everything else when he saw her brows furrowed with concentration as she slowly and carefully reached for his pants. "It won't bite, love," he teased.
"I know." A tiny smile curved over her rosebud lips as she spoke, and it had Damian biting back a groan. Fuck. He had thought he had himself in control, but clearly not, with the way the mere sight of Sarah's smile had him breathing hard.
It took an agonizing eternity before she was finally able to pull his cock out of its confines, and by that time he was breathing hard and tightly gripping the chair's armrests to keep himself from grabbing her head and plow her lovely, little mouth with his already engorged dick.
"What now?" He saw Sarah lick her lips nervously after speaking, and fuck, but it was just too much temptation to handle, and he had to bend down and fist her hair so he could have another taste of her mouth. She gasped at the first contact, clearly taken by surprise, but a moment later, he felt her completely surrendering herself to his kiss, her lips parting wide open as her tongue gently stroked up to meet his. The sweetness of it rocked him, and he found himself growling against her lips.
"Fuck."
And this of course had her whimpering. She was a cute, dirty little girl like that, with the way her body came alive with every swear word he threw out.
Damian forced himself to end the kiss and pull away before he completely lost control. Both of them were panting, and he found himself cursing anew when he saw her swollen lips and the way her chest was rapidly rising and falling under her gown.
"Do you know how fucking sexy you look right now?"
Sarah shook her head.
"It makes me want to fucking eat you, every fucking inch of you—-"
A shudder rocked her body, so powerful it had her unconsciously grabbing his knees for balance.
"Fuck." The mere touch of her fingers clutching his knees was too fucking much. "Take me into your mouth now, Sarah."
The edge of desperation in his voice made her feel heady. All these years, he had always seemed so in control when they were together, and so to see and hear him like this...
She had the upper hand at this very moment, but instead of taking advantage of it, instead of using it to turn the tables around and make him feel how he used to make her feel, every time he walked away from her—-
Sarah found herself reaching for his cock with trembling hands, with only one aching thought in mind.
I want to please him.
And so she bent her head to take his cock into her mouth.
His fingers drove through her hair as her mouth worked hard to accommodate the sheer girth of his cock. He wasn't even more than a few inches in, and she was already having trouble with just how juicy and fat his cock was. Was this truly a normal size for men or—-
Ah!
Damian had used his hips to push another inch of his cock into her, taking Sarah by surprise, and she choked and almost gagged.
"Fuck. Was it too much?" Damian started to pull out immediately but stopped when her fingers squeezed hard around his cock in seeming protest. When he looked down, it was to see her slightly shake her head up at him. No, her eyes answered him with a stubborn glint of warning. Don't pull out.
And fuck if that didn't have him swelling even more inside her mouth, and his fingers shook as he stroked her head. "Alright, love." It was pure work to keep his voice calm and steady when his body was urging him to start fucking her mouth. "Let's take it slow and easy..." Even if it killed him.
Since Sarah had a deliciously small mouth, it took a while before her lips managed to stretch wide enough and for her tongue to get used to working around the thick width of his cock. After that came the remaining length of his erection, and Damian found himself exhibiting the patience of a saint as he penetrated her mouth at a controlled pace, waiting for Sarah to relax before pushing another inch in. It was agony at its most exquisite, but every second also proved well worth his torment. By the time all twelve inches of his cock were deep inside her throat, both of them were primed for pleasure, with Sarah fiercely gripping his thighs as her head enthusiastically bobbed up and down his length.
Damian did his best to prolong the moment, but then she started experimenting, her mouth squeezing tightly around his erection as she sucked hard—-
"Fuck."
It was her only warning, and then he was shooting his cum down her throat, and Sarah worked furiously hard to swallow every creamy, salty drop. A part of her wondered why she wasn't disgusted or in despair by the fact that she was swallowing the cum of a man she was supposedly over with. But the much larger part of her just didn't care.
This...this was Damian Fox, the man she had been in love with for years, and it meant everything, to hear his groans of pleasure and feel his powerful body shudder as his cum flowed down her throat.
Thirteen
The first day of Naomi's birthday weekend had been a huge success, and with photos of the party taking over social media, Sarah wasn't surprised when she saw the crowd of fans and paparazzi waiting outside Fox Lodge's parking lot the next day.
"Free PR is always good PR," a cheerful voice piped up from behind her. "Or so I like to tell the sheikh."
Sarah was already grinning even before turning around, having recognized the voice. "You made it!"
"We were supposed to make it here yesterday," Hyacinth admitted after their quick exchange of hugs, "but something came up at work, and Marwan and I ended up having to record another episode."
"What's important is that you're here," Sarah told her friend.
Hyacinth gestured to the crowd outside, which had just gone wild at the arrival of her brother-in-law, Sheikh Tarif Al-Atassi, and her sister Anisah. "Look how cute my sister is acting."
Prior to marrying the royal sheikh, Anisah had worked as a royal tutor for the kingdom's American queen and was rather infamous for her strict, schoolmarmish ways. This side of her was glaringly evident now, with the way her lips pursed every time she saw girls clamoring for her husband's attention.
"Do you think she'll ever get used to it?" Sarah asked with a grin.
&nb
sp; "Never," Hyacinth said brightly while curling an arm around her friend's. "But enough about her. I'm famished. Where do we eat?"
Ten minutes later, and Sarah and Hyacinth were sharing one of the cozy booths in J & N's, which was basically the hotel's upscale version of a diner. Since it was only seven in the morning, there still weren't that many people around, with most of the guests choosing to sleep in.
Sarah asked the other girl about Sheikh Rayyan, whose engagement to Hyacinth was yet to be disclosed to the public.
"Not coming," Hyacinth said with a sigh. "Busy with work, as always."
Sarah was about to murmur words of comfort when a commotion outside their window caught her attention. The crowd had gone wild again, girls jumping up and down - oh.
Hyacinth, seeing Sarah's grimace, turned her gaze to where the other girl was staring at. Oh. "And here I thought you were over him," she teased.
Sarah quickly snapped her gaze back to her friend. "Of course I am."
"Uh huh." Hyacinth was clearly unconvinced. "Just promise me I have dibs when you guys make it official. You two are perfect for my show."
Sarah glared at her friend. "Very funny." Since the title of Hyacinth's show was Fuck Being Politically Correct, it was easy to tell which aspect of her relationship with Damian the other girl was alluding to.
"I'm serious, and it will be fun—-"
"What's going to be fun?"
Sarah jerked in surprise at hearing Damian's voice. Shit. She looked up, and there he was, looking his usual gorgeous self with a denim jacket thrown over his plaid shirt and jeans.
"I wanted you two to guest in my show—-"
Sarah kicked Hyacinth under the table, but it was too late.
"It's a deal," she heard the billionaire say easily.
What?
"If you let me have breakfast alone with my stepsister."
Sarah groaned at the amount of innuendo he had injected in the last word while the same thing had Hyacinth grinning. "It's a deal, Mr. Fox."
And Hyacinth was gone faster than one could say wait, leaving Damian to comfortably slide in her place on the opposite side of the booth.
