“I don't know if I should. If I look awake and perky, your professor might just eye fuck me for the entire period. If I look sleepy and surly, maybe he'll leave me alone,” Daniel grumped, then he shook his head and dragged his hand through his hair. “Oh well, fuck it. Let him stare.”
I smiled. “Good decision. Come on, let's get that coffee.”
Class went well, and Daniel and I were in a good mood when we got back to the house, even though it was Julius's turn to take over for a few hours. “Sorry, the nap was nice, but I need more if I'm going to be good for tonight,” Daniel said as he stood at the base of the stairs. “Sure you'll be okay?”
“We'll be fine, won't we, Julius?” I asked, grinning at the older enforcer. “You can help me with mixing my paints for my project I'm working on.”
Daniel slept from six until ten, waking up a bit after Mom and Uncle Carlo got home.
“Well, I'm glad he'll be up in time for the night watch,” Mom said, giving me a meaningful look. “And how are you feeling?”
“The new email is good, even though I know it's kind of a bit of window dressing,” I said. “And I know things are at a standstill on other fronts, but I'm taking progress where I can.”
Mom gave me a look. “Is your good mood from the email, or from something else? Someone else?”
“Mom, let's not go there,” I said. “Not now. Not yet.”
“All right, dear. I just want you to know, I was thinking of talking with Carlo after all this mess is done. I'd like you to have a little freedom to make your own choices, Adriana.”
“Thank you, Mom. I appreciate it, no matter how futile your speaking to Carlo is. But for now, I think I'm going to go to bed.”
Mom nodded, looking at the doorway where Julius was sitting in the other room, slightly sprawled in his chair and reading a Sports Illustrated. “Okay. You aren't going to stay awake until Daniel can sit outside the door?”
“I guess,” I said, grinning. “Think you might want to catch some TV with me to kill some time?”
We had just gotten to the TV room when my phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. It was a text message, and I pulled it up.
There must be some misunderstanding.
- You Know Who
“Damn, not again,” I whispered under my breath. It's like he knew exactly when Daniel didn't have my phone.
“What is it, honey?” Mom asked, turning white when she saw the text. “Are you okay?”
“I'm not going to let him terrorize me,” I said. “He's twisted up my life, made me a prisoner in my own home, and I need to be babysat everywhere. I'm going to set this aside. We can tell Uncle Carlo and Daniel about it later, but for the next hour or so, let's just watch some TV.”
I thought I had put it out of my mind, even casually mentioning it to Daniel when he woke up and met Mom and me in the living room. Going to bed in my room, I even closed my eyes with a smile, thinking not only of what Mom had told me, but the little smile of approval she gave me as Daniel escorted me to my room.
Everything changed as I slept, and the fear I'd been repressing slipped out from under the tight control I'd been keeping myself in. I don't know what had caused it—perhaps it was seeing Daniel frightened earlier, maybe it was Vincent's text message, but most likely, it was the combination of the two.
In my dream, I was in Daniel's car with him, the two of us pulling into the parking lot at school. As Daniel was coming around to let me out, suddenly, something burst out of the bushes, tackling him from behind and driving him to the ground. I couldn't see exactly what happened, except for the gout of blood that geysered up into the air, in the sort of dream-state unimaginable amount that looked like it was a foot wide and spewing in gallons per second.
I screamed in my dream, ripping open the door to the car and running. “Mama, come here, mama,” whoever was chasing me said in Vincent Drake's voice. “Come and feel my invisible touch.”
I tried to run faster, but of course, as this was a dream, I was going nowhere. Instead, I could feel him gaining on me, his stench filling the air with the reek of blood and death.
My feet tangled up, sending me tumbling to the turf. I screamed, certain that I was going to die, when I was jostled awake, finding Daniel staring at me. “Shh, Ade, shh . . .” Daniel whispered, holding me close. I could hear the hammering of his heart in my ear as he hugged me against his chest. “It's just a dream, I'm right here, it's just a dream.”
“He got you,” I whispered, watching as the door to my room finished closing from the momentum of Daniel's throwing it open to come in my room. “He killed you, then was going to kill me.”
“I'm still here,” Daniel promised me. “And I won't die without knowing you're safe.”
I clung to him, his strength and now familiar scent giving me comfort. My terror changed, my desire for comfort becoming an overwhelming desire for reassurance, for human contact. Nuzzling against him, I lifted my lips up, brushing them over the warm skin of his throat. “Ade.”
“Shut up,” I said, tasting his skin for the first time. “I need a man tonight, not a bodyguard.”
He stiffened for a moment, then pushed me back, the hunger in his eyes matching the fire that was building inside me. For so long, we'd flirted with each other, both aware of the other but not doing anything about it other than some words, and we were at the point of no return. He pushed me onto my back, pausing above to look at me with an expression on his face I'd never seen a man give me before. It was like he knew what he was about to do was suicide, but he didn't care. I needed him, he needed me, and the rest of the world didn't matter.
His lips were soft but strong as we kissed for the first time, our tongues immediately coming into contact and tasting each other. I'd never been kissed with such fierce passion before, all consuming and powerful. His tongue caressed mine as his hands found the hem of my t-shirt, pushing it up and grabbing my breast, his fingers squeezing and kneading the skin until I was gasping. My nipple was teased and tweaked with every movement of his hand, and he let go of my lips to run the tip of his tongue around the curve of my ear and inside, sending sparks of pleasure down my body. “Daniel . . .”
He stopped for a second to look me in my eyes. “Don't worry, I won't hurt you.”
“I want you to hurt me. Hurt me in a good way.”
Reaching down, I ran my left hand over the bulge in his pants, and it was intimidating. “Ade.”
“I know,” I said simply, looking him in the eye. “I didn't tell you before, but you talked in your sleep during your nap.”
He nodded, accepting my statement, and reached into the pocket of his pants. He took out his wallet and set it on the nightstand next to me. Climbing off, he opened up the billfold and took out a foil packet. “For later,” he said, showing me the condom. I was shocked. The diameter was huge. “Safety first.”
Daniel's grin broadened, and he peeled off his shirt. He folded it up carefully, setting in on the floor before pushing his shoes off with his toes and taking off his pants. I wasn't sure what to think. I just lay there with a sense of destiny as I undid the drawstring on my pajamas and pushed them down my hips. I still had my panties on when Daniel reached forward, taking my wrists in his iron grip, and froze me. “What?”
“Not so fast. I want to take those off myself.”
He climbed onto the bed, still wearing his boxer briefs that bulged out obscenely, barely hiding what was contained inside. His chest was chiseled in the dim light of the bedside lamp he'd flipped on when he came in to comfort me, and I reached forward, tracing the muscles under my fingertips. “You're amazing.”
“No,” he replied, kissing me again before working his way down, his mouth finding my nipple and sucking on it strongly. “You're amazing.”
He kissed his way down to the waistband of my panties, and with agonizing slowness, started rolling them down. I could feel the anticipation build as he kissed each fraction of an inch of freshly exposed skin, smiling all the while
.
I reached down and ran my hand over his scalp, lifting my hips slightly to let him finish pulling my panties off, where he set them down on the mattress next to my hip. I was nearly begging him to use that amazing tongue on me, and he hadn't even touched me yet.
Daniel grinned up at me as he opened his mouth and let his tongue hang out wolfishly. “You're never going to be the same.”
“Good,” I whispered back. “I don't want to be.”
He lowered his tongue, and the first trace of him up the lips of my pussy left me paralyzed in pure pleasure. I'd never felt anything like it before, like every nerve in my body was lit up at the same time, all of them screaming in joy. When he reached the top, Daniel looked in my face and smiled, this time not with arrogance but with happiness. “I think you like it.”
“More. Please, more.” I couldn't help it. Normally, I was the forceful one in bed, but Daniel had me asking and practically begging.
He smiled at me, lowering his head once again. All thought other than pleasure was driven from my mind by the first touch of his tongue on my pussy again. Energy and light flooded my body, my thighs trembling and wanting more of his amazing, electric tongue. My spine shivered as he kept going, my hips quivering as I started to grind upward into his hungry mouth and tongue, unable to control myself. I'd never felt this much pleasure before, such a pure ball of sexual excitement building within me, and I wanted more and more.
Dimly, in the back of my mind, I was aware that Daniel had slipped his fingers inside me, working them back and forth both to open me up for his cock and to add to whatever voodoo his tongue was doing to me. All I knew was that I was in heaven and that I didn't think it would ever stop.
Suddenly, his tongue moved directly to my clit, and what I thought was heaven before increased tenfold. I clutched at my sheets, balling them in my hands as something exploded inside me, silent and joyful and amazing all at the same time. My heels drummed into his strong back, uncontrolled and desperate. Daniel held my hips tight, pushing with his hand on my pussy as I rode whatever the hell it was out, until I collapsed into the bed, spent. “What the hell was that?”
“Don't tell me you've never had an orgasm before,” Daniel said in disbelief as he crawled up between my legs, kissing my lips. The musk of my juices stained his mouth, and I loved it. It meant nothing would ever be the same between us again, and I was glad for it.
“Of course, dummy. But nothing like that before,” I said, thinking back. After experiencing that, no wonder some women became nymphomaniacs. “Never in my life.”
“It gets better,” he promised, kissing me softly. “Want to help me with the condom?”
“What I want is to forget the damn thing and totally feel you inside me,” I said while reaching over to grab the packet.
He got to his knees and pulled down his shorts. His cock jumped out, bobbing in the soft light, and I gasped at its perfection. Long, thick, with a flared head that I knew would thrill every nerve inside me. I was suddenly struck with the urge to bend over and suck it, even though I had my doubts I could even get it all the way into my mouth. He was power and sex personified, a deity in the flesh.
Hesitantly, I reached out with my hand, wrapping it around his shaft, or at least trying to. It was hot, steely hard but silky, like he knew the impressive tool was too much for a lot of women to accept, so it did its best to ease the penetration. And that is what this was for, there was no doubt. Daniel, from his bubble butt to his ripped abs to the thick cock, was a man built for sex. “Dan . . .”
“I know,” he reassured me. “Don't worry.”
I looked up at him, and suddenly I didn't. I trusted him with my life, and I was ready to trust him with more. Instead, I gently stroked his cock and handed him the condom packet. “Take it out, and I'll put it on.”
Even with the obvious larger size, Daniel's cock was nearly too large for the condom, and he grimaced slightly as I rolled it down to the base. I gasped, kissing his chest and nuzzling under his jawline.
He ran his hands up and down my back and kissed my neck. We were on our knees, his cock trapped between us, hot and throbbing and demanding my attention.
I adjusted myself and laid back, spreading my legs as far as I could, accepting him in between and on top of me. “Change me. Make me yours.”
There was a moment of fear as his cock slid inside me, spreading me open. I thought he was in, but I felt myself being opened wider, wider than I'd ever thought I could be, and still I didn't think the head of his cock was fully inside me. My body rebelled, pushing back at the too-large intruder, when somehow, he slipped inside, all the resistance disappearing in a rush of fullness.
“Just know one thing, Ade.”
“What?”
Daniel paused his hips and looked me in the eye. “I've wanted this my whole life.”
I pulled him to me, our lips meeting to seal our bond. I moaned into his mouth as he began thrusting, filling me slowly, making me his. I realized the truth as he filled me more and more, that his words were absolutely true. He may have been with other women, he may have fucked them raw and left them begging for more, but I was the one he really wanted.
I cried out when Daniel's hips met mine for the first time, and he grimaced, his face tight. “No!” he whispered urgently, bringing his fingers to my lips and shushing me. “Your uncle is sleeping upstairs, remember?”
“I can't help it,” I groaned as he pulled back, biting my lip as he pushed forward again. I tried with all my might, but I cried out again, a little less loudly this time, but still loud enough that Daniel looked away, panicked. Not wanting to lose him, to lose the moment, I looked wildly to my left and right, seeing my night shirt still on the bed. I grabbed it. “Here. Use this.”
Daniel considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Only if I have to.”
Lowering his lips to mine, he kissed me again while he thrust, his mouth swallowing my moans and adding to the sensation. I'd never been stretched this way, and I wanted it again and again. My hips tried to rise up to meet his thrusts as his cock slid in and out, but he was so powerful, I was hammered down to the mattress even before I had a chance to move.
I held on desperately, my body racked with feeling as Daniel pounded me. I knew he was unleashing years, perhaps even as he said, a lifetime's worth of pent up passion and desire, and I wanted it all. I wanted to be his, to give myself to him every night of my life, if only he'd make me feel this way again.
“Daniel . . .” I groaned in his ear. “I'm going to come.”
“Me too,” he grunted back, taking the wadded up cotton of my shirt and shoving it in my mouth. He had to, pulling back so that he could get the great gulps of air he needed to thrust into me, his body shimmering in sweat and his face intent on mine. His arms were planted in my pillow on each side of my head, and he stared into my eyes as we crashed over the edge.
I had thought the sensation of his tongue had been the most ecstasy a woman could feel and not die, but I was wrong. My second climax crushed the first like it was just a small tickle, my scream muffled by the cotton I bit down on even as my hands clawed at his back. I felt his flesh give way under my short fingernails, and I watched as he shuddered, his cock expanding before twitching, his climax crashing over him and leaving me feeling more of a woman than ever. I had caused this wonderful man to lose that much control. I had drawn it out of him, and I was proud of the fact.
Daniel took the cloth from my mouth, kissing me tenderly, completing the act of making love. What we'd done left one thought in my mind as I was chased down into my sleep and my dreams. “I'm yours . . . be mine . . .”
Chapter 12
Daniel
I awoke after my doze with my damnation in my arms, and for the moment, I couldn't have been happier. If I was to be damned, there were a lot worse ways to go than to wake up with Adriana Bertoli nestled in my arms, her fiery hair cascading over my left arm and chest, the soft weight of her right breast resting in my palm, her hips sn
uggled up against me. In the soft glow of her bedside lamp, she was an angel, even with her eyes closed.
I sighed and kissed her forehead, knowing how much had changed for me, even with just that one time. First, I was damned, a dead man walking. The reason was simple. There was no way in the world I could even think of not wanting her again. Her final whispered words as she fell asleep captured me more than her body had, as perfect as it was.
If I couldn't resist her, then I knew it was only a matter of time before Don Bertoli found out. We could be together on only the third Tuesday of each month in a random hotel a thousand miles from Seattle, and still, somehow, he would find out. That's just the way things happened with him, and part of the reason he was such a good boss. And once the Don found out I'd been with Adriana, regardless of whether Margaret approved of it, I'd be found dead within twenty-four hours.
The second thing that surprised me as I held her in the quiet hours of the night was that I didn't feel the immediate need to wake her for another round. My cock wanted it. I could feel it hardening against her ass. It was rip, roaring, and ready to go. It wanted this moment for as long as I could remember, and just once wouldn't do. Even still, I didn't feel the emotional need. Normally, I was a sexual-timed all-you-can-eat buffet, seeing just how much I could get done in the amount of time before the woman's body gave out into utter exhaustion. With Adriana, though, I felt differently. Let her rest, my heart said. She's special. There will be more to come.
With a start, I wondered what time it was. Twisting my neck painfully to look behind me, I saw that it was nearly three thirty in the morning. I'd been out for a while. The staff would start to wake in an hour or so, but more importantly to me was that the outdoor patrols hadn't come back in yet. They were under strict orders. Once the doors were locked and the security system was armed, nobody went in or came out until the morning staff went on duty at five. There were even outdoor bathrooms if someone had to take a piss. Still, I couldn't be sure someone didn't have a case of insomnia.
Inked: A Bad Boy Next Door Romance Page 26
