Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Diana

How is this man’s tongue in my mouth?

He holds me tightly, and I grab his shoulders, try to wrench myself away from him.

But his kiss…

His kiss is giving me something I can’t deny…

His tongue is velvet, his lips so soft and full, and he tastes of chocolate and cherries.

And of musk and spice and something that’s uniquely him.

He tastes of a dragon.

I melt into him for a moment, explore his mouth with my own… Until?—

I push harder against his chest, breaking the kiss. I wipe my lips with the back of my hand.

“What the hell was that?”

“Tell me you didn’t enjoy it,” he growls.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Say it, Diana.” He brings a finger to my lip. “Say you didn’t enjoy that kiss, and I’ll be out of here by morning.”

I gulp, sucking in a breath. My heart is beating so fast, I feel like it might pop right out of my chest.

My body is on fire, the heat culminating between my legs.

A shiver runs through me—so odd, the chill against the heat.

My nipples are hard, and all I can think about…

All I can think about…

“I’m waiting. Say it. You want to get rid of me by morning? All you have to do is tell me you didn’t enjoy that kiss.”

I swallow. “I didn’t enjoy that kiss.”

But my voice cracks, and I have a hard time with the words.

“Very well.” He moves to shut his door.

But I stick my bootie-clad foot in it.

His hazel eyes are on fire. “What is it?” he demands.

“You know very well what it is.” I wag my finger at him. “Who do you think you are, kissing me like that?”

“You kissed me back, Diana.”

He’s not wrong, but I lie anyway. “I did not.”

“My tongue may have been in your mouth, but yours was in mine as well.” He narrows his eyes. “It was a phenomenal kiss, Diana. As phenomenal a kiss as I’ve ever experienced. Shame you didn’t enjoy it.”

Oh my God. I squeeze my thighs together, trying to ease the ache between them.

“Is there anything else?” he asks.

I open my mouth to reply, but only a soft sigh flows out of me.

And then I do something completely stupid, completely out of character, but it feels more right than anything I’ve done in a long time.

I grab his shoulders, pull him back into me, and mash our mouths together once more.

Our lips slide together, our teeth, gums, tongues.

All of it, all in this kiss.

Is it the two glasses of wine I drank? Is it my attraction to Antonio from earlier?

Or is it just Dragon?

Dragon… A man who affects me like no man ever has.

He groans into my mouth, and I feel it vibrate all the way to my toes.

He’s a beast.

Not the kind of guy I’d ever go for…

But I crave the beast in him.

I crave the darkness in him.

I crave all of him.

He pulls me into his room, and in a moment my back is against the wall, and his hardness is grinding into my belly.

What does his dick look like?

I want to see his naked body, feel his rippling muscles. Untie his hair from its band and run my fingers through his long strands.

All the while he’s devouring me with his kiss.

Eating me whole, and I welcome it.

I should stop this.

I know better.

He was just arrested for soliciting a prostitute, for God’s sake.

But my body betrays my thoughts. I can’t bring myself to care about any of that.

I want to dive into his darkness, embrace it, become part of him.

Sunlight is overrated.

We kiss and we kiss and we kiss. I wrap my arms around his neck. Sometime between leaving Teddy’s and getting arrested, he put the band back in his hair.

I yank on it, pull it, not gently, and then I thread my fingers through his hair, its texture silky and soft, as I moan into his mouth, deepening the kiss.

He grinds his erection into me harder, and my God…

I’m pulsing.

I move my hands out of his hair, slide them over his shoulders, down his slim hips to his ass. I grab his butt cheeks, standing on my tiptoes so that my clit is hitting the hardness beneath his jeans.

Damn… How long has it been since I’ve had a climax?

Too long, as I’m ready to come right now from a good dry hump.

I grind into his groin, still tangling my tongue with his?—

Until he’s no longer kissing me.

He’s a foot away from me, piercing me with those gold-flecked hazel eyes.

“Don’t start something you’re not going to finish,” he snarls.

Chills skitter over my spine.

This is my get-out-of-jail-free card.

My chance to escape.

He’ll be gone by morning—or so he says—and I’ll never have to lay eyes on him again.

Until, of course, the band plays at one of my family’s gatherings on the western slope.

Fuck.

I’ll never be free of Dragon.

And what drives me even crazier?

At this moment, I don’t want to be free of him.

“I’m waiting for your answer,” he says, his voice low and husky.

I blink several times. “You didn’t ask a question. You made a demand of me. You demanded that I not start something that I don’t intend to finish.” I close the distance between us so that there are no more than a few inches between our mouths. “I finish everything I start, Dragon. But I didn’t start this. You did.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he growls. “I may have kissed you first, but I stopped. The second kiss? That was all you.”

I can’t deny his words. Can’t deny them because they’re the God’s honest truth.

“So tell me, Diana,” he continues. “What is it that you’re looking for tonight? Are you horny? Did Antonio not fulfill your needs?”

Before I can stop myself, my hand flies up, and I slap him across the face.

“Antonio is a gentleman. We didn’t do anything. I wasn’t looking for…”

He meets my gaze, his cheek beginning to redden. “You’re looking for what then, Diana? A breath-catching make-out session? Some long, slow, and languid lovemaking?” His face darkens. “Because if any of that is what you’re looking for, you won’t find it with me.”

“Won’t I?”

He runs a finger from my neck down to the tips of my thumb, nearly making me collapse to the floor. “I can only take you into hell, Diana. You won’t get hearts and flowers from me.”

I draw in a breath. “Maybe I don’t want hearts and flowers.”

“Are you sure you want a visit from an honest-to-God demon?”

I step backward, my breath pitching. My heart is already stampeding, but it nearly stops at his words.

He takes a step toward me, closing the distance between us. “Because that’s what you’ll get with me. I can satisfy you. I can make your body hum with desire.” He takes another step. “But you won’t get hearts and flowers. You won’t get love, Diana.” One final step. He’s less than an inch away from me. “You’ll only get lust and wrath…and a little bit of gluttony.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What about sloth? Which other deadly sins are you ready to give me?”

“I don’t have to give you any sins,” he says. “Because I am sin, Diana. I am darkness. I live in hell on earth, and that’s where I’ll take you.”

Goose bumps take over my flesh until I’m convinced I’m an icicle. An icicle with a heated core.

Do I really think Dragon is hell on earth?

No.

But do I think he thinks it?

He must, or why would he say it?

I’m not looking for love. But I’m not looking for hell, either.

I don’t think he is hell.

But what I crave now is a little bit of his darkness.

If I have to go to hell to get it?

I’m ready to go.

Like I said, sunlight can be overrated.

You get too much of that? You crave a little darkness.

Dragon has darkness in abundance.

What if this isn’t me?

What if my craving for a little bit of his darkness sends me into a spiral I don’t want?

Diana’s a good girl.

Diana always does the right thing.

Diana would never follow a rock star to Europe like her baby sister did.

Of course, Brianna ended up getting her heart’s desire after taking the risk and leaping without a net.

But Dragon isn’t my heart’s desire.

I don’t know what that is.

All I know is this moment.

And in this moment? I want Dragon Locke more than I’ve ever wanted any man in my lifetime.

“Well?” he asks, his voice low.

“Give me a minute.”

“How many minutes do you need? Because I learned a long time ago to live for the day. For the minute. The goddamned second.” He places his hand around my waist and draws my body against his. “Because your life can be over in an instant.”

I part my lips, stop my jaw from dropping.

He’s an addict, yes. He’s had a rough night, getting arrested for something he claims he didn’t do.

He’s not talking about either of those things.

No. He’s talking about something else entirely.

Something inside him—something that gives him his darkness.

I clear my throat, will my voice not to stammer. “I don’t believe that you’re hell. That you’re sin.”

The gold flecks in his eyes are almost glowing, perhaps with the fire and brimstone within him.

“Then you’d be wrong.”

I set my hands on my hips. “Maybe I want a little darkness in my life.”

“A little darkness is one thing, Diana. I’m a whole other thing.”

“I’m not sure what to say.”

“If you think you’ve been a good girl all your life, and you think taking a man with a little bit of an edge to bed will be some kind of experience , then you’re like a lot of women I’ve known.” He grips my waist, his nails digging into my flesh through my sweater. “But let me make one thing abundantly clear. If that’s what you’re looking for? Look elsewhere. Because you can’t even begin to know where I will take you.”

I gulp. “The only person who believes you’re that dark inside, Dragon, is you.”

“I’m done talking.” He advances toward me. “I want you. I want to sink my cock inside your sweet little cunt more than I want my next breath of air. But I won’t force you. I may be sin, but I have my limits.”

I breathe out sharply. “Then I’m right. You’re not darkness personified.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You think because I’m not a rapist I’m not dark? Think again, sweet girl. I can and will take you to hell.”

I shrug then, my body on fire. “Do it, then. You think you’ve been to hell and back? Take me there, and then I’ll tell you how dark you truly are.”