She wiped at blue eyes and I hoped with everything in me that the emotion I wanted to call love within them wasn’t a figment of my desperate imagination.
And I was more desperate than I could ever remember being.
If this didn’t work, I had nothing else to offer.
Emily wouldn’t be swayed by anything material, and whatever promises I wanted to make wouldn’t hold any weight until she believed she could trust me again.
I was all in, hanging on by a thread she could cut with a word.
And yet, I knew that I’d try again if she did.
“Explain this to me,” she said, holding up the drawing.
There wasn’t anything crazy about it, so I raised a brow and stared at her. “It’s a cupcake with a bite taken out of it.”
“Yeah, I put that much together,” she said, ponytail swinging from side to side as she shook her head.
A part of me growing louder by the second wanted to yank her head back by that tight bundle of hair and kiss and suck at her neck until she was begging for me to be inside of her. Surely, we could find a tree to duck behind and handle things before anyone came looking for us.
“What I want to know,” she continued, “is why this looks like a sketch for a tattoo?”
“Because it is,” I said honestly.
There’d never be another lie where she was concerned. I’d seen where that got me. Not just with her, but with my friends too.
If I hadn’t been so afraid of what they’d think of me if they knew the truth, I could’ve had their support from the very beginning. I would’ve never had to go to war against flour like I did for my attempt at baking. Seriously, it was a good thing that stuff came off easily enough or I’d still be covered.
I turned my neck to the side with nothing on it. “It can go right here. Bright as fuck. I’m gonna get every goddamn color they have available.”
Emily’s brows furrowed. She looked at the sketch Baron had drawn and back at me. I couldn’t tell what was going through her mind right then, and I’d lost the right to demand to know. So, I waited.
“You’re so weird, Ro.” She giggled. “I mean, I knew that already, but this is a reminder for sure. You couldn’t have gone with something less-crazy like a bracelet or a gift card?”
My nose curled. “Why the fuck would I get you a gift card?”
“Because that’s what normal people do?”
Oh, fuck this. Waiting was for losers anyway.
I reached out and hauled her against me, loving the breathy gasp she made once she crashed into my chest, crushing the sketch between us. Sliding it from her fingers, I folded the edges and put it back in my pocket without ever taking my eyes from the blue ones gazing up at me.
“Do I look normal?” I whispered against her mouth, watching her lashes lower and her gaze fall to my lips. “Have I ever pretended that I’d fit into a nice little box or that I wanted two point five kids and a house with a white picket fence?”
“You’re doing it again,” she breathed, body losing some of its tension. Her hands went up and around my neck, keeping us so close I could feel her softness everywhere. “We’ve got another decade to go—at least—before I want to hear the word kids come from your mouth again.”
I wagged my brows. “That wasn’t a no, Em. If you ever want to change that timetable just know that I’m down.”
She leaned in, placing a sweet, lingering kiss on my cheek. “Fifteen years. Make another jackass comment like that and it’s going up again. I have no intention of being a trophy on your shelf, LaCroix. One day, I’m going to have my own empire. And people are going to recognize my name before they do yours.”
I ducked low, smiling against her neck as my teeth nipped at soft skin. “Does it count if I’ve put a ring on your finger by then?”
She shrugged in my grasp, a low chuckle falling between us. “Maybe I’ll be one of those women who goes by their maiden name at work. It’ll be bad for the brand if people know I’m married to Death.”
Bad for the brand? Fucking hell I love this girl.
Catching her chin between my fingers, I lifted her head. “We can go back and forth on this as long as you want, but all I’m hearing is that I’m involved in this future you’re planning.”
Her nose wrinkled and it was the cutest damn thing.
“I guess so...” She tipped her head from side to side. “It’d be a shame to get rid of you when I was finally getting used to dealing with your mood swings.”
“Mood swings? Me?”
“Shut up and kiss me, Ro.”
Defiance ran in my blood.
It made me who I was today.
But I’d never been so glad to follow an order.
My hand slipped around her neck, cradling her head as my lips found hers. The first touch of her lips was tentative as we readjusted to each other. It barely took seconds for us to find our balance once more.
Her lips parted and she let me take more of her weight.
My tongue swept in even as I caught her ass with one hand and held her to me.
I devoured her soft sigh as our tongues touched, and if she had an issue with my dick stabbing her in the stomach the longer we stayed intertwined, she never voiced it.
The cold that had stuck to my bones from standing in the coming-winter air didn’t stand a chance against the warmth that started in my chest and spilled into the rest of my limbs while I stood there with her in my arms.
Mine again.
This time, I’d never let her go.
A shrill whistle broke into our reverie and my head turned, growl already forming.
Emily caught my face, bringing me back to her, and I thought I saw her middle fingers raised before I closed my eyes and surrendered.
“Fuck them.” She bit down on my lip and I groaned. “They can find something else to entertain them.”
“I love you, Emily Brennan.”
The words were out there without thought, without warning, without time to take them back and hope for a better opportunity.
She stopped kissing me.
Blood that had almost been at a boil flash froze.
Then thawed all over again as she jumped in my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist so I could hold her up.
She kissed me again, slowly, softly, drugging me with everything her.
“You better, LaCroix. I am a fucking catch.”
A laugh blasted from me that power washed the last, clinging specks of blackness from my soul.
“That you are, Cupcake.” I growled when she bit my lip again, harder this time. “That you damn well are...”
Two hours.
That was how long I’d managed to keep from mauling Emily in front of our friends and her family. I would’ve patted myself on the back for my restraint if I thought I had a chance in hell of holding onto it any longer.
Since my attempt at baked goods had been completely inedible—as evidenced by the box in the trash can after Chrom got brave enough to take a bite of one—Emily took it upon herself to make a few batches of cookies. She hadn’t even been ruffled when everyone felt the need to specify what kind of cookies they liked.
The end result was a kitchen counter covered in chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and macadamia nut cookies.
I watched her from my spot in the living room with the others while she washed her hands and put things away. There was a smudge of chocolate on her cheek that she hadn’t noticed, and enough will to overpower a comic book character was the only thing keeping me from strolling in there and licking her face in front of everyone.
Then she shattered my wall without even trying.
She unveiled the secret weapon when she leaned over, ass wiggling in the air as she put something underneath the counter.
My blood made an executive decision, redirecting itself, and my skin got too tight for my body.
I stood, interrupting whatever conversation was happening around me. My attention had been elsewhere the entire
time anyway. I caught Mrs. Brennan’s scowl and Chrom’s grin as I made my way into the kitchen, obviously making a scene, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
I’d been without her for too long, and if I didn’t have her to myself soon, I was going to explode.
Catching Emily around the waist, I turned and pressed her against the sink. I filled the space between her legs and her breath caught, brows lifting. A slight shift of my hips was all it took for her to feel my straining length, and I met her raised brow with mine.
Ball is in your court, my expression said.
We have an audience, she told me with a pointed glance.
I put my lips against her ear. “Hear me when I tell you that I care less and less by the second.”
Emily shivered against me, fingers digging into my arms. My mouth found her neck and the noise she made was not meant for a room full of people by any means. It burned through more precious time we didn’t have before I said fuck it and ripped her clothes from her body, damn the consequences.
“Mr. Brennan!” Chrom said from behind me. “I knew there was something I meant to ask you. Was that a brand new Kamado Joe ceramic grill out there on the patio? I’ve heard good things about what it can do to a steak.”
“I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet...” Mr. Brennan paused, and I swore I could feel his eyes on my back. “Do you know your way around a grill?”
Chrom laughed. “You’ve seen me on the field, right? Can’t move like I do without a healthy supply of meat. I think steaks were one of the first things I learned how to cook. Y’all go get it started and I’ll get some stuff ready. Might as well put it to good use before it’s too cold.”
Emily and I looked at each other as the patio door slid open and the sound of chatter in the house tapered off. When Chrom stopped beside us, he wore a shit-eating grin while he shooed us away.
“Get the hell out of here before we end up scarred for life,” he said. “It’s going to become apparent real quick that I don’t know how to make anything but steak.”
He didn’t have to tell us twice.
Emily pushed me away long enough to lace her fingers with mine and send us both hurtling up the steps. She crashed through a door into a time capsule, and I was briefly distracted by all the pink in the room, including the sheets on the princess style bed.
I whistled. “Are you sure you don’t own a tiara or speak to animals? This room screams storybook princess.”
“Do you want the room to scream, or me?”
I turned in time to see her shedding layers. The flowy shirt was gone, and her breasts swayed from side to side as she worked her skirt down her hips. She made it to her knees before I was on her, pushing her back so that she fell against the bed.
“You’re not taking this from me,” I told her, fingers skimming down soft thighs to take hold of the fabric.
Her saucy grin gave me life. “Less work for me. Have at it.”
I tossed her skirt aside and worked my way back up her body, dragging my tongue from her calf to her inner thigh. Stopping right above her mound—her musky scent in my nose—I pressed my tongue to damp fabric and watched her writhe before I ripped them off her in the next breath.
“Been too long,” I muttered once she was bared to me, eyes fastened to her slick, pink folds.
“It sure has.” She sat up quickly, using her momentum to push me away. “Get out of those clothes, now. You can apologize to me with your tongue when we’re not in a hurry.”
“Gladly,” I growled, stripping as fast as humanly possible.
When I covered her body with mine again, she ditched her bra, tossing it into the unceremonious pile we’d left behind. With nothing else between us, I grasped her hips and hauled her to the middle of the bed before dropping in for another kiss of those delicious, pink—
Her finger stopped me.
My eyes opened.
She smirked and beckoned me closer. “Multitask, Ro. Put that big brain—and that big dick—to work and get inside of me. Now.”
“Are you going to say please?”
She wrapped her legs around me instead.
For the sake of my throbbing pulse, I decided that had to be good enough.
I reached between us, lining myself up with her entrance as our tongues tangled. My exhales became her inhales and vice versa, and that continued until I tilted my hips and surged forward, forcing the air from her lungs on a long glide that ended with her nails in my back and her ankles locked above my ass.
“Don’t stop,” she begged.
As if I had any intention of doing something that fucking stupid.
Grasping the tattered fragments of my self-control and drawing them around me, I grinded myself inside her as deep as I could go. My dick nudged the end of her tight pussy, and each time it did, she’d bite down on some part of me. Whether it was my lips, my shoulder, my neck, I didn’t care. Her pleasure was of the utmost importance, and anything else was secondary. She was going to leave her marks on my body for everyone else to see, and I couldn’t think of anything I would rather wear than the honor of belonging to Emily Brennan.
Cupcake lover.
Caring friend.
Ambitious princess.
And all fucking mine. Just like I was hers.
“Ro...”
The sound of her panting my name was too much. My balls drew up, reminding me just how long it’d been since I allowed myself a release. And to think, I’d hardly cared about engaging in this intimate act before she came along.
Now, I was just another fiend.
She’d done this to me. Made me crave her. Lilith. She’d be worth the trip to hell.
“I missed this,” she said softly. Emily cried out when I caught her nipple between my teeth and rolled it on my tongue. “I missed you. More than I thought possible.”
My pace increased.
I gave it to her harder, faster, rocking the bed against the wall. She took every thrust like her body was made for me, and I desperately tried to think of anything other than how her clingy walls squeezed and milked at my flesh.
“Because this was destined,” I said, hovering above her.
Her eyes opened, searing me from the inside out all over again with the heat in them. “You believe that?”
I nodded, everything down to my toes flexing as I continued to withhold my release. The effort was fucking killing me. The sweat that gathered between us was evidence of it.
And the sight of her body flushed and pliant beneath me? It wasn’t helping. Not in the least.
“No one got to me,” I told her, our bodies moving in perfect unison. “Nothing bothered me. Then you barged into my life and gave me a lecture, and instead of running you away like I would’ve done anyone else, I listened.”
She kissed my chest, pussy clamping tighter around me. “Then you were a jerk.”
“Then I was a jerk,” I agreed, breathing ragged. “And that’s never going to change completely. But you made me confront something I hadn’t wanted to for years. You made me see past myself.”
Emily buried her face in my neck, but I still heard her when she said, “I’m already in love with you, Ro. Stop trying to make my heart explode.”
“Your fault,” I groaned, pressure building at the base of my spine. “You broke me that day you ruined my shirt. I just didn’t know it yet. Take some responsibility.”
Whatever response she was about to utter ended when her inner walls spasmed and trembled around me. A scream ripped out of her throat, and I barely clamped a hand over her mouth in time to be bowled over by my own release. Eyes closing, I grunted as I spilled myself inside her.
We trembled against each other, sharing another long kiss before I let my forehead drop against hers.
Her legs slowly unwound from my waist and she blew out a breath. “I hope Chrom is just as distracting as he thinks he is.”
“Why is that?” I mumbled, too worn out and at peace to care about opening my eyes yet.
; Her fingers idly drifted through my hair. “Because I need something to drink, a shower, and another round of this.” She rolled her hips and my dick flexed, stepping up to the challenge. “Possibly not in that order.”
“Then I guess one of us should get up.” My fingers found hers, lacing them together.
“You first,” she said, giving mine a squeeze.
I grinned. Whether it was fate, destiny, or pure, dumb luck. I knew one thing for a fact.
I was happy, and that was more than I’d ever expected.
Epilogue
Emily
There were several hundred people in or around the LaCroix mansion, and Ambrose had made it his mission to try and glare at every single one of them.
His frown briefly disappeared behind the red cup he held to his lips. “How did I get talked into this again?”
The this he was referring to happened to be a gigantic house party. We’d all been a bit stressed out as the weeks went by, waiting for whatever surprise Kaylee Vandyke had in store for us to explode. So, when Mrs. LaCroix had mentioned that she and her husband were going out of town for Halloween weekend, I’d kindly asked what she thought about us throwing a party.
After a harrowing speech on what would happen if anything was out of place when they returned, she’d given me approval. I’d then roped the Tarots into helping me store everything valuable and get the decorations prepped. The first part of that had been no issue whatsoever. The second...
Well, let’s just say that Renata climbed a ladder to hang a string of bats all of two times before calling in a professional designer and their team to do the rest.
The end result turned the home into a haunted mansion of epic proportions. Lights strobed. Music pulsed. Hallways looked more like gateways to hell with fog rolling across the floor. It was perfect. Almost as much as the costumes.
I bumped him with my hip, not bothering to hide the wide grin on my face. “Complain all you want to, Ro. I’m too busy patting myself on the back to care.”
“I’m wearing a fucking toga,” he said. “I look like a goddamn frat bro.”
Defiant Prince: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Black Rose University Book 1) Page 40