by Alexis Anne
“Is there a point to this?”
“There is,” I sighed. “He is clearly out for some fun. Easy pleasure. A good time had by both and that’s it. You can tell by the way he’s laughing and carrying on. He’s not curious about her life or getting to know all her mysteries. He just wants to know if she’s up for a good time.”
“So?”
“And Michael.” I turned her toward my oldest brother brooding near the back door. He leaned up against the wall with his arm slung over a pretty brunette. There was hunger in his eyes. The kind that could only be satisfied physically. She had the exact same look. “That man needs to get laid. I will bet you money he’s said less than twenty-five words to her. He needs an outlet and so does she.”
Jenni took a deep long breath before spinning away from the sight of Michael taking the woman’s hand and leading her outside. “I really don’t understand why you’re pointing out your brother’s conquests.”
I smiled. “So I can illustrate my point. Dominic is a totally different beast. He wasn’t out for a quickie with the beautiful art gallery manager. He had eyes for one woman and he wasn’t hunting for one night alone with you, Jenni.”
She swallowed hard and her voice shook as she spoke. “What do you think he was looking for?”
“A lot of nights. He wants to figure you out, he wants to uncover all those mysteries, he wants to take you out to dinner and get to know you.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I know people.” And it hit me how good I truly was at reading people other than my father. Growing up with so many men in and out of the house—men putting on a show and trying very hard to be a certain type of criminal—I got very good at trusting my instincts to tell the dangerous from the desperate. “Dominic is a good guy and his intentions are honorable. I’d bet money on it.”
“He’s one of the most accomplished drivers in all of Formula 1. He travels the world. He’s almost as rich as your father.”
“And none of that has a single thing to do with whether or not he wants to get to know you. Look,” I sighed, happy to be the one giving advice for a change, “you don’t have to take my word for it. Trust is earned, I get that. All I’m saying is that you should give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Don’t go jumping to conclusions because you’re scared.”
Her eyes went round. “I am not scared.”
I laughed. “You should be. When a man and a woman are that attracted to each other there’s no fighting it. It’s overwhelming…” my voice trailed away as my eyes fell on Darcy watching me from the shadows.
My heart skipped a beat.
“I’ll let you two be,” Jenni murmured, stepping away quickly.
Which was when I realized my father was waiting to speak to me. “Nicole, we have a situation.”
“You mean Ian?”
He cleared his throat, looking uncharacteristically out of control. “Yes. He had to leave early and he won’t be seeing you again this week. I will contact you in a few days with more information.” Then he turned and left without giving me a chance to reply.
8
My flat was not an option. Father had me watched day and night. I’d thoroughly checked every nook and cranny for surveillance and found nothing, so there was that at least, but my door was constantly monitored by no less than two Duncan Boys at any given time. Darcy could not visit me alone without Father knowing we were together.
But Theo and Darcy’s flat was another matter entirely. Visiting my brother was a totally normal thing to do. No one waiting for me outside needed to know I wasn’t really there for Theo and, knowing my brother, the flat was checked for surveillance on a regular basis. No one would know what we did inside.
“I say we do it,” Darcy said, clinking his beer bottle against Theo’s.
“Fuck yeah. Brothers in Arms.”
“Brothers in Arms,” Darcy repeated, solemnly.
“And what, pray tell, are you two up to?” I asked as I set my bag and coat on the kitchen counter.
“Tattoos,” Theo said with a nod.
“Tattoos?”
“Aye,” he dropped back into that Scottish brogue he had when he lived in Edinburgh. “It’s the start of a new era for us and we want to start it off right.”
There was some seriously heated brotherly love in this room and I got the impression some of it had to do with me. “New era?”
“We’re making our own way now. Father has decided to stop pushing me into the Boys as long as I take an active interest in Sutherland Industries. He gave Higgins his blessing to come work with me. He’s even agreed to stop pushing marriage on you for at least a year.”
“How did you manage all this?” I laughed.
“Money,” he said with a shrug.
“Money?”
He caught my eye and gave a little half-shrug. “It’s the only language he speaks. Why else do you think I’ve been working myself to death these last two years?”
So he could stand on equal footing with Father and be able to make demands like this. “And you included me in this deal?”
“All of us.” He swept his arm around the kitchen. “You two and Michael are my family. I intend to protect my family.”
It was temporary, but it was a relief. “Thank you, Theo.”
He threw an arm over my shoulder. “Anything for you.”
“So Darcy works for you now, eh?”
“Yeah, I plan on working him to death,” Theo laughed, stepping back to his beer.
“I’m working as his bodyguard until he finds someone who actually knows what they’re doing.”
My heart thumped faster. “Bodyguard? Theo, why do you need a bodyguard?”
He made a face. “There may have been one itty bitty little hiccup in my plan with Father.”
“And that is?”
He cringed just before he answered, probably because he knew full well I was going to kill him. “We’ve lost the protection of the Boys.”
“What?” I shouted.
Darcy was at my side before I could strangle my brother. “It’s all right,” he murmured against my ear. “We’ve got this under control.”
“Have you lost your fucking minds?” I hissed. That protection was the only thing that had kept Dan Christie from having them both killed.
“Donald isn’t putting the word out on the street and Dan is so deep behind bars he’s lost all his control,” Darcy explained.
“Plus, we’re old news now,” Theo shrugged.
“You paid people off,” I guessed.
“I may have done that, too.” He gave me a lopsided grin as if that would somehow make all of this better.
I rolled my eyes and tried to bury all my fears in my hands, but it didn’t work. All I saw were the bright lights of squeezing my eyes shut too tightly. “If either of you die I will follow your ghosts into the afterlife and kill you a second time.”
Theo grinned. “I’d love to see a painting about that.”
I glared at him. “It’s a good thing I love you.”
“The feeling is mutual, sister dear.”
We sat around goofing off and joking around for at least an hour before Theo turned up the stereo system and disappeared into his room, leaving me alone with Darcy.
The air crackled.
What it was crackling with, I wasn’t positive. Energy, for sure. But there were also nerves, memories, hopes, and the ghosts of Christmases past. The other night had been passion—pure instinct fueled passion. But this? This was a calculated decision made with a cool head.
Well, as cool as either of our heads ever got.
“So…” I sighed.
He rubbed his hands down his thighs. “So?”
“Do things look different in the light of day?” My nerves ticked higher and higher with each passing second until I thought I might puke.
“They do,” he rumbled.
Yeah, I was definitely going to puke. “In what way?”
His finger slid u
nder my chin and turned my head so that we were nose to nose. “For one, you’re fucking beautiful.”
I blushed like it was my first compliment. “I look different today?”
“Yeah, you do.”
I loved it when his accent turned thick. Darcy—and Theo, for that matter—had been different in Edinburgh. They’d been a bit wilder. Darker. More dangerous.
Yes…that was it. I still felt a frisson of excitement for that man who’d struck out and held his own with professional thieves. Darcy had taken on that dark, dangerous bad boy persona like a second skin.
And I’d fallen even harder.
“How do I look different?” I whispered, my body heating.
“Yesterday you looked like Nicki.” His finger didn’t move from its spot below my chin, and his eyes held steady as he spoke. “Beautiful, sexy, haunted, Nicki.”
“And today?”
His eyes lit up and his eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. “Today you look like you’re mine.”
My core ached with need and I squeezed my legs together. Why oh why did that simple possessive growl turn me on? There had to be something wrong with me.
His eyes dropped to my lips. “That scared you.”
“A little.”
“Why?” He was about to pull back from me so I grabbed his biceps—his strong, incredibly flexed biceps—and held him in place.
“All I’ve wanted my whole life was an opportunity to escape my father’s grasp and here I am all hot and bothered because a guy called me his.”
His lip twitched. “You liked it.”
I squeezed my thighs tighter. I liked it entirely too much and each possessive growl from his throat only turned me on more. “I do.”
“Well then. I think we owe it to ourselves to properly explore what this means. Bedroom. Now.”
“Explore?”
He smacked my ass. “Bedroom, woman.”
I yelped and scurried, kind of excited by this demanding turn of events. “What exactly does exploring entail?” I asked as he closed the door and turned his dark eyes on me.
He drank me in one inch at a time, his erection very clearly growing inside his jeans. “Well,” he took one slow step towards me, “I thought we should start with the one place we know the least about: the bedroom. We’ll work our way out from there.” He was halfway across the room now.
“I like that.”
His eyes twinkled. “Undress for me.”
It was a command and a suggestion all rolled into one, and I appreciated that Darcy didn’t jump headfirst into limit testing. I tugged on my shirt, then paused.
His eyes froze on my hands, comprehension dawning. “How did it make you feel when I told you what to do?”
And that…that right there. That was the thing I couldn’t name but needed to find the words to explain. I shook my head as I spoke. “I didn’t like it at all. It was…”
“What you hear everyday.”
I nodded.
I needed different. I needed Darcy to be different.
He stepped into me and cupped my face. “Nicki, love. Gorgeous. Will you please undress for me? I’d love to watch.”
And like magic, my hands unfroze. I pulled my shirt over my head. Something intense happened when he asked that. It came from deep inside like a pulse or an earthquake splitting the earth in two. It cracked me open in the best way.
Darcy grinned. “Oh yes. My girl very much likes to be asked.”
His girl? I wasn’t so sure I liked that at all.
He chuckled. “Got it. The word girl is officially removed from my vocabulary.”
I shrugged as I slid my trousers down my legs. “You can’t blame me for that one. I’ve waited a long time to be more than a girl to you.”
I was on my back with Darcy between my legs in a fraction of a second. “You’ve never been a girl to me.” He ground his hips into mine, his erection spiking pleasure against my clit. “You were always this fully formed woman. Maybe too early…” His eyes unfocused. “Yeah. A woman before you were supposed to be. Reluctant, but up to the task.” He nipped at my lower lip then slowly sucked it between his.
Maybe that was part of the too early spark—Darcy hadn’t been ready to grow up and I’d already taken it on. Seven years between us, but somehow life shoved us into the same hole together.
“Oh, God, Darcy…” I moaned as he ground against me, lighting me up from the inside in a way that only ever seemed to come from him.
I certainly didn’t light up for myself this way.
And those insane parties where I really couldn’t remember much after the drugs came out, or before I woke up naked between two guys? Those simply didn’t count as anything other than desperate acts of lashing out.
This? This was purposeful. Intentional.
And damn if it wasn’t the most amazing thing ever. Heroin, cocaine, pills, and marijuana had nothing on the high I got from being with Darcy.
“Do you like it when I turn you on first, or do you like having me inside you?” He asked the question even as his teeth grazed my nipple under my bra. My hips jerked up, seeking friction.
“Turn me on.”
“Put your hands in my hair. Show me where you want me.” I liked this delicate balance between subservience and power. He was telling me what to do, but to do what I wanted. It was a new and exciting way to live.
So I took full advantage, guiding his mouth over my bra, encouraging him to tease me through the fabric while I writhed beneath him. My fingers worked without thinking, stroking his locks, then fisting and pulling to ask for more on my other nipple.
When I arched, he arched, then he snuck a hand beneath my back and found my clasp, fumbling for several seconds before the bra snapped free. “Damn I love the needy way you move under me.” His voice wasn’t much different than a moan as he slid my bra straps down my arms and flung it across the room.
I was nearly naked now and Darcy was still fully clothed. “Lose the shirt.”
But he shook his head instead of doing as I asked. “Oh no. Once I start taking off my clothes it’s over. My giant cock is inside you and I won’t stop pounding until we’re both done.”
I was breathless just from the thought. “What’s wrong with that?”
“I won’t know anything new about you.” He leaned back over me, holding his lean, taut body over mine. “And I want to know exactly what makes you moan my name.”
I may have, possibly, whimpered at that.
Maybe.
Okay, I totally did. The intense look in his eyes, the heat of his body so close but so far, the smell of skin, and the words? Oh, God…those words would visit me in my sleep for years to come. I want to know exactly what makes you moan my name.
That’s why I was his. He wanted to know me, know how to please me, because he wanted to make my life better. Pleasurable. Being owned by Darcy didn’t mean slavery, it meant being understood on a cellular level by someone who cared.
So when he asked if I thought wrapping my hands around his headboard slats and holding still while he explored my pussy was a good idea, I practically screamed, “Hell yes!” Because when he made suggestive commands like that, I had an option to say no.
And I really, really liked that he knew me well enough—cared enough—to know that most of his sweet commands would lead to my complete compliance.
“You are the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen. I want to watch you all day. All week,” he said between licking and sucking my clit. “I’m warning you now, Nicki. I’m a visual guy. I like to watch. Everything.”
I bit my lip to hold in another moan as an image of me working myself to orgasm with Darcy watching from the corner, hand on his cock, eyes wild for more, filled my mind. I’d been forced to be on display, to play and act my whole life. I knew how to put on a performance and right now I was grateful for those skills because I wanted more than anything else to be what Darcy wanted.
Fuck that. I wanted to be what he needed.
&nbs
p; Today I’d let him play, but tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow it was my turn.
“Did I hurt you last time?” His finger paused as I jerked at his touch.
“No…yes. Sort of?”
His chuckle was a rumble more than anything else. “Which is it darlin’?”
“You didn’t hurt me, but you’re,” I sat up and bit my lip, taking in the sight of Darcy with his fingers petting me. “You’re rather large and I haven’t had sex in a while. I was shocked. Not hurt.”
“That’s why I didn’t fuck you the second time. I could feel it.” His fingers teased and finally he eased one large digit inside. I hissed because it stung, but then the sensation was replaced by the sweetest relief: pleasure. “And I’m not going to fuck you tonight either.”
“I can take it.”
His eyes cut me a warning glare more shocking than words. Oh the things that man could do with his eyes were deadly. “Let’s get one thing straight. In this bed I decide if my dick is used for your pleasure.” I swallowed because…damn. Just damn. “I want to fuck you six ways from Sunday and I won’t be able to do that if you’re sore and hurt. Today I will take care of you and you’ll let me, Nicki. That’s not a command, that’s a promise. And tomorrow? Tomorrow we’ll see how you’re feeling. When you’re ready we’ll take it slow. We’ll figure this out. And when we figure it out I will fuck you blind with my giant dick.”
I grinned. “You’ve been dying to say that ever since I said you were large.”
“Oh, hell yes.”
“It’s not small.” His cock was gorgeous, as far as cocks went. It was long and thick. Very thick. But it was the vein that ran along it—it was so strong and prominent—it was as if it promised a good time.
His lip twitched up in another of his half-smiles. “Say it again.”
I arched an eyebrow and narrowed my eyes on his groin. “What? That you have a great big giant cock and I can’t wait to have it stretch me open again?”
He moaned in the back of his throat. “Oh Nicki…if you do that in bed?”
Something came over me. Something wicked. I prowled across the bed like a lioness, lip between my teeth, eyes locked on the bulge in his jeans. “Do what in bed?”