I moan and press up against him, running my hands over the rippling muscles in his back. He quivers with restrained desire, and I can’t help but wonder what it’d take for him to open his cage and let his leashed power rush out to crush me beneath his weight.
“Darian,” I whisper as he trails kisses down my neck and back up to my abused lips, silencing his name on my panted breath with his tongue, his hands in my hair as he angles my head to kiss me deeper.
Who knew Darian’s mouth on mine could be so addictive and that the feel of his weight could be so delicious? He settles on top of me, careful not to suffocate me with his big body.
My mind is afloat in a sea of heady desire while I explore the shifting muscles in his broad back. Darian whispers my name between nipping kisses, his large hands roaming every inch of my body and pulling on my hair. We make out like teenagers.
We kiss like there’s no tomorrow.
As though yesterday never existed andnowis all there is.
This moment.
Us.
I’ve never experienced a kiss like this, never felt it burn away my defenses like wildfire, but here we are—aflame in an inferno of desire.
Darian breaks the carnal kiss to trail the bridge of his nose over mine, a softened look entering his eyes.
While Darian’s default expression is one of complete boredom, the way he’s looking at me now is unlike anything I’ve seen in the short time I’ve been chased and tormented by his demons. For once, Darian isn’t hiding behind a mask. What stares back at me is the boy behind the hardened exterior.
His throat rolls as he flicks his gaze between mine, but before I can recover from the emotions in those blue depths, he slams his lips back onto mine and hooks my soul with an iron fist. The truth stares me in the face as he rips it from my chest—no other man will ever hold a candle to this broken monster.
This is damnation.
Maybe I’m already in love? Is it possible? Could I love a man so deeply involved with the Exodus?
I don’t find an answer to my question because his lips descend on mine with unyielding passion, making me lose all train of thought as I clutch his T-shirt.
Every man I’ve kissed has tried to remove my clothes and take advantage, but Darian is content moving on top of me in his T-shirt and briefs like a wave lapping at a shore. His hands touch and squeeze, driving me insane with need, but he never tries to take it further. Not this time. I’m truly screwed.
He has my heart surrounded on all fronts, and no deep trenches or reinforced forts can protect me against this moment. So I do something I’ve never let myself do—I throw my weapons down in surrender and let Darian Delacroix invade and conquer.
Defeat has never tasted so sweet as it does when he whispers my name into the kiss and tangles his fingers in my hair.
Maybe I can take up arms tomorrow when the enemy lies asleep, sated and defenseless. Or maybe I’m lying to myself.
After lunch,Darian leaves the house to attend whatever shady business he’s involved in. I shudder just thinking about it. For all I know, he could be involved in human trafficking side of Exodus.
Wait. What if he is? No, he wouldn’t. But the doubt lingers.
While he’s a damn good kisser and hung like a horse, the truth remains that I don’t know anything about Darian or his involvement in the Exodus and my father’s disappearance. These thoughts have gone through my head a lot lately. My head and my heart are at war.
My lips still tingle from his heated kisses earlier, and my bruised heart thumps harder every time I recall how he felt andlooked on top of me, how he touched me like he wanted to carve his initials on my soul.
No, dammit. Now is not the time to think about my husband and the witch spell he has cast on my withering resolve to avenge my father’s murder.
“You better know what you’re looking for,” Lauren says, taking up her stationed position behind the door to listen out for sounds.
Once Darian left the house, I hightailed it to his office with his password memorized and a heavy weight of self-doubt on my chest. I shake that feeling off now as I settle in his desk chair and exhale a nervous breath. I can do this. I can find the kind of information Beaumont needs.
But why? Why does he want it?
You know why. Don’t be naïve.He wants to blackmail Darian. Whatever he hopes to find on my husband’s laptop is bad enough to ruin him. So the question is, do I hand it over to Beaumont, or use it against Darian myself?
Flashbacks of when Beaumont cornered me in the dress shop and tweaked my nipples invade my head, making my skin crawl at the sensation of his phantom fingers.
I rest my elbows on the desk and massage my temples. If I don’t find compromising information, Beaumont will make true to his promise and do what? Rape me? Kill me? He’s wrong, though. I’m not Darian’s weakness. Given the choice, Darian wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in my skull. I’m not special to him. A couple of kisses and a fumble in bed don’t change the fact that he forced me into marriage because of my last name and the family fortune attached to it. I’m not foolish enough to think that he cares about me.
