AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or her lover’s.
The fact she felt better for having showered and dressed in no way excused Darius’s arrogance earlier in ordering her to go and dress. “What are you doing here?” She tilted her chin in challenge.
He winced as he stood. “Asking for a do-over for earlier. Please,” he added huskily.
Mia felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders. “What did you have in mind?”
He stepped forward so that he could place his arms lightly about her waist. “Is this okay?”
“Yes.”
“And this?” He held her gaze as he slowly lowered his head until his lips could brush lightly over hers.
“Yes.”
He rested his forehead gently against hers. “I’m sorry for earlier. It’s no excuse, but I woke up to the sound of my brothers talking in the sitting room. Not just one, but all of them. I got up before any of them had chance to come looking for me.” He grimaced. “By the time I’d pulled some clothes on and joined them, Adam had arrived with Nikolai in tow.” He shook his head. “So far, I’ve had to listen to half a dozen differing opinions on how to deal effectively with this situation.”
Mia smiled ruefully. “None of which will be in the least relevant because Nikolai Volkov has already decided on what’s going to happen next. That man is scary as hell.” She felt an icy shiver down her spine just thinking of those cold, emotionless eyes.
Darius nodded. “He told me Gregori Markovic has given him carte blanche to deal with the Anthony Bart situation as he sees fit.”
She winced. “Do I want to know what that means?”
“Probably not.” Darius lifted his hands to cradle her face. “Last night—” He broke off as Mia pulled out of his grasp.
“If you’re going to say it shouldn’t have happened, then don’t,” she advised tightly.
It had been the most beautiful and emotional night of her life. One she didn’t regret for a moment, and she didn’t want to hear Darius say he regretted it.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Darius chided. “I was going to ask if it could happen again tonight. Tomorrow night too. And the night after that.”
“Oh.”
“Making love with you is amazing. The best. Unique and beautiful.”
Mia gave a shaky smile. “I think so too.”
Darius kissed her gently on the lips. “Last night was also the first in a long time that I haven’t woken up after being plagued by nightmares of what happened that day.”
Mia knew exactly what day he was referring to. “Maybe that was Honey’s presence rather than mine.” She’d gone to the bathroom during the night and seen Honey sleeping on the floor beside Darius’s side of the bed.
“It wasn’t,” Darius stated firmly. “Oh, I’m sure she helps, but she wasn’t the reason I slept through the night. Holding you in my arms gave me that peace. The two of us obviously need to talk—I’m well aware of how those words usually precede bad news, but this isn’t one of those times,” he assured when she stiffened. One of his hands returned to cradling the side of her face. “I would just prefer the two of us to be alone in the apartment when we decide to have that conversation.”
Mia looked up at him searchingly for several long moments, releasing a shaky breath when she could see nothing but warm sincerity in his eyes and the soft curve of his smile. She was a little ashamed of herself for thinking otherwise. Darius had done nothing to cause her to disbelieve or mistrust him.
Yes, he’d pushed that file about her into a drawer, but it wasn’thisfile, it had been compiled by a man named Rufus Wynter.
In every other way, Darius had been honest with her. In fact, he’d told her things about his past he hadn’t shared with anyone else, including his family. No doubt the Kingston men, several of whom had been in the military themselves, could add two and two together and come to a general consensus regarding the reason Darius had been injured in a bombing and left the army shortly after. But Mia knew he hadn’t shared the details of that day with any of them. Only she had been given that privilege.
She slipped her hand into his much larger one. “Okay.”
“Are you doing that ‘deliberately bamboozling the enemy with your compliance’ thing again?” he teased.
“No, I’m really just saying it’s okay. Besides, you aren’t my enemy.” She smiled shakily, overwhelmed with exactly what he was to her. “You never have been and never will be.”
Darius sobered. “Last night was…it was everything, Mia. I don’t have the words to describe how much it means to me.”
Her cheeks felt warm, and she knew she was blushing. “Then the sooner we go and listen to what Nikolai has decided we’re going to do, the quicker we can come back to bed.”
