“Great. Thank you,” she tells whoever is on the other end of the line as she yawns and ends the call before handing me her phone. “Search Theia DeLaurentiis.”
“What?” I press my lips to the side of her neck, no longer giving a shit about weak knees.
Dillan puts her phone in my hand and faceplants back against my chest. “Search it. Google her. Google the book. I don’t know. Check Facebook, for all I care. Just look up that name.”
“You mean your name?”
“I mean the one I took from you, Beneventi,” she teases like the fight yesterday never happened.
“Fuck, Ryan,” I groan and sit up, dragging her with me. “One day, Beneventi’s the name you’re going to take.”
She bites down on her bottom lip, hiding a small smile as my fingers fly across her phone screen, googling her pen name, and—Holy. Shit—“Dillan... It’s out. You’ve been outed.”
Fuck.
“I haven’t been outed,” she assures me as my phone rings again, and a text comes through hers at the same time. “I outed myself.” She pushes away from me and wraps her arms around her knees. Her beautiful blonde hair spills over her shoulders in soft waves, framing her face, and my girl looks like she’s at peace. “It’s where I went yesterday. I met with my new team, and we came up with a plan. Turns out, Mom was right. My team is the best.”
“Why would you do that? I was going to?—”
“What?” she asks and takes her phone back, tossing it to the bed and crawling into my lap. “You were going to what, Rome? Throw the fight? Walk away from everything you’ve been working for? There was absolutely no way I was letting that happen. You don’t get to do that for me.”
“I would have figured something out,” I tell her, knowing we spent most of last night strategizing, but until we find this piece of fucking shit, our strategy wasn’t all that sound. “It’s my job to protect you,principessa. Not the other way around.”
Dillan wraps her arms around my neck and digs her fingers into the back of my head, kneading my scalp, loosening the tension that’s grown since the call in the car yesterday and had only gotten worse until now. “That’s not how partners work, Rome. This time, it was my turn to protect you. My chance to keep you safe. I was never going to let you throw a fight for me. And the best way to eliminate that option was to remove the threat. If he can’t use me against you, and your team has already basically proven it’s not you in the sex tape, what else can this crazy asshole do?”
“This isn’t what you wanted. I would have found a way...” I slide my mouth over hers, soaking her in. The feel of her body pressed to mine. Her weight on me. Her heart beating against mine. “This is the one thing you’ve avoided.”
“Yeah. But it was time to be stronger than my fear,” she whispers against my lips. “And do you want to know why I could do that?”
I slide my arms under the old Crucible tee she slept in and wrap them around her waist, my fingers pressing into her soft skin, and kiss her so deeply, I’m not sure either of us remembers her question. Dillan tugs my hair and wraps her legs around my waist as she rocks against my hips, a small sigh slipping past her lips, and she forces her mouth from mine.
“I could do it because I had you. You keep talking about protecting me, but you’re not even seeing that you protect me every day—because being with you made me stronger. You and your words and your actions. Your belief in me. Your complete acceptance of everything I’ve told you, without doubt, without judgment. Without trying to tell me what to do or how to do it. The way you support me and my decisions without wavering.”
She skims her thumb along my temple and tilts her head, the sweetest fucking smile I’ve ever seen gracing her face. “You taught me to protect myself. Not with my fists, but with my actions. And you made it easier because I know you’re standing behind me while I do it. I know you have my back. I never had that before.”
“You’ll never not have it again.” This woman...Fuck,she guts me. “I see you, Dillan. I see all of you, and I want all of you.”
“I see you too, Rome. Promise me you’ll never keep anything from me again. Not in the name of protecting me or anything else. I want it to be you and me against the whole damn world. But no lies. No hiding. Not with each other.”
I bend my head and kiss her palm, then press it over my heart. “Never again, baby.”
“Do you still want me to come tonight?” she asks, nervously dragging her teeth over her lip.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because this is probably going to be news all weekend,” she says shyly. “My team and I planned out the next month’s worth of press releases and announcements yesterday. I don’t want to take anything away from you.”
“I’m so fucking proud of you, Dillan. Yes, I want you there in the front fucking row. Right where I can see you. I want Ryker on one side of you and Lucky on the other, so no one can get near you. And I want you in the damn cage with me when I win.” I spin us around and slam her back to the bed, swallowing her and pressing my cock against her core. “And then I want you right here, in my bed, celebrating.”
She squirms beneath me, and that damn shirt rides up even more. “Just this bed?”
“Fuck no. I want you in my bed, our bed, every night. I’d ask you to move in with me, but you’re already there, and I’m a fucking asshole who has no intentions of letting you leave.” I run my knuckle over her silk panties and watch her eyes close. “Say yes, Dillan, and I’ll give you what you want.”
“Are you blackmailing me into living with you?” She laughs, all sorts of fucking breathy, and my cock gets impossibly harder.
“It’s worked for us so far,” I tease and slide the silk aside. “What’s it going to be, Dillan?”
I circle her clit and watch her eyes open and pupils dilate.
