Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

The Only Dream I Had Was You

“C’mere, baby,” Darius murmured.

My eyes went to him first.

Looking up those ridged abs and swelling pecs to his handsome, lazy face, I had no choice.

Even though I was into what I was doing, I slipped his cock out of my mouth, and kissing my way there, I crawled up his body.

Once I got there, both his hands went into my panties at my behind, those and my bra the only things I was wearing (sunshine yellow, like my mood of late), and he muttered, “These off. You on.”

I felt my eyes go hooded as I dipped to the side, wheeled off my panties, then climbed back on.

I positioned him and took him, sinking down, Darius sinking in, filling me, and my spine arched, my head falling back.

I started moving and Darius spanned my hips with his hands.

“Slow. Look at me.”

I looked to him and moved slow.

“Christ, you’re so fuckin’ beautiful,” he murmured.

“You are too.”

His mouth curved, then he caught his lip in his straight, white teeth when I tilted my hips on a downward slide.

“Fuck,” he bit.

“Okay?”

His fingers dug in. “Fuck yeah.”

I moved and watched him, felt him, smelled him, reveled in him.

He watched me, the tensing and releasing of his fingers encouraging my movements, controlling my rhythm.

Finally, his hand slid over my hip and in, his finger hitting the spot, and I had no choice. I bounced faster, harder.

“That’s it, baby,” he growled.

“I wanna kiss you,” I told him.

“I want your show,” he replied.

His finger put on more pressure.

My head fell back again.

He got his show.

“Yeah, arch into it, Malia,” he grunted, his hips now thrusting up.

“Baby, I’m gonna—”

I yelped because I was flying off.

Before I could blink, he was behind me, hand in my back pushing me down, then both to my hips hauling me up to my knees, and he pounded back in.

“Yes,” I hissed, bucking into him, searching for it again, finding it again, I shoved my face in the sheets and whimpered.

I was so, so close.

Hands at my ribs, he pulled me up to impaled on him, thrusting up as I bounced, his hand cupping my breast, the other one narrowing in on the exact right spot between my legs.

My head fell back to his shoulder.

“Can’t get enough of you,” he growled into my ear.

“Same,” I pushed out.

“Never get enough,” he grunted.

“Same,” I breathed.

“Go, baby,” he encouraged.

I bucked against him as the orgasm roared through me.

He set me down gently so I was genuflected before him again, but then drove into me relentlessly until I heard and felt his take him.

He stroked slow and sweet through coming down, his thumbs moving over the swells of my booty, before he pulled out, used my hips to turn me to my back, and carefully, he settled some of his weight on me, some into his forearm in the bed.

“Yeah?” he asked.

Still drifting through my aftermath, I only had it in me to nod.

He kissed me, deep and wet.

Then he ran his nose along my jaw before he asked, “You want me to clean you up, or you wanna do it?”

“I’ll do it.”

“In a bit,” he ordered.

I felt my soft smile, but those same lips said, “Bossy.”

He chuckled then lifted his head to look at me.

Shifting his weight a little more to the side, he put his finger to my face and grew fascinated with tracing every curve and swell and hollow. My eyebrow. Cheekbone. The edge of my lower lip. My cupid’s bow.

I didn’t want to break the mood, which felt like a warm cocoon of Darius’s brand of sweet, but I also felt a niggle of worry, so I asked, “Are you okay?”

His gaze came to mine. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

God.

My man.

I clenched my teeth, shook off his finger and used his shoulders to pull myself up so I could hide my face in his neck.

It was after the Rock Chick party. It had been fun. Everyone came, including my parents and Miss Dorothea (but not Danni and Gabby, and I didn’t ask why they weren’t there, if they weren’t invited, or if they refused to come, like I didn’t ask why they weren’t at Liam’s game…maybe they didn’t like football, or at least, for now, I was going with that).

I got mildly tipsy.

I got not mildly concerned by how captivated Liam was with the extreme testosterone brigade floating around (one could just say, Darius fit Lee’s team really well, if the Rock Chicks were the most beautiful white women in Denver, the Hot Bunch were the most beautiful men, though they weren’t all white).

However, they were all nice men who were openly pleased that Darius had Liam and me, free and clear.

So even if they looked like they could topple an entire government in their spare time just for shits and giggles, and that was why Liam was captivated by them, I let it go.

I was down to let everything go because I was residing on my happy-goodness cloud, and I liked it there.

And with what Darius just said, that happy goodness got happier.

I pulled it together, dropped back to the pillow, and blurted, “Tod’s planning our wedding.”

I was preparing to endure a major flip out that I’d let that slip.

Because…too soon.

Waytoo soon.

But Darius just said, “Good. Roll with that. Eddie said, once Sadie maneuvered their mothers out of the process, Jet didn’t lift a finger. And Luke told me Tod treated Ava like she was a queen, got her everything she wanted. They only had an issue because Luke told her he wouldn’t dance at the wedding with her.”

This was a surprise. The man I saw with Ava that night seemed besotted with her, in a badass, super-macho way, of course.

“He didn’t dance with his bride at his wedding?”

“He told her he wouldn’t, but he absolutely did.”

“This doesn’t scare you?” I asked. “Tod already planning our wedding, I mean.”

“Why would it scare me?”

“Because we’re on day three.”

He grinned. “Baby, I just came hard. I don’t got it in me to do the mathematic gymnastics. But even so, I know three hundred and sixty-five times eighteen does not equal three.”

What was he saying?

“What are you saying?”

He appeared bemused. “What do you think I’m saying?”

“It sounds like you’re saying you’re okay Tod is planning our wedding.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“But we’re not engaged.”

He shifted so he could look down at our (mostly, I still had my bra on) naked bodies in his bed, then he looked around his bedroom, lingering on my night cream, lotion and book on what had become my nightstand.

For good measure, he announced, “I got all new hangers, three new shirts, two new pairs of jeans, five new sweaters, and two new pairs of boots.”

“Winter is coming,” I mumbled. “I want you covered.”

His body started shaking as he asked, “What do you think we’re doing here?”

“Figuring out if we can hack it after all the heartache and drama.”

“No. We’re gonna hack it. Liam took your cue, sweetheart, and after watching films with the team this morning, he went to your house and packed two big bags and brought more shit here. Tomorrow, we’re gonna go back and get more of your shit and his shit and bring it here. We’re gonna hack it. We’re gonna go the distance. And you’re both gonna take my name. Now, you can do that just by asking a judge to change it. But I want to see what dress you got in store for me at a wedding.”

The fluffiness of my happy-goodness cloud got exponentially fluffier, but still, I said, “I got an earful of stories tonight.”

I knew by the light in his eyes he knew what stories I was talking about, even if he asked, “Yeah?”

“Indy was living with Lee the first day her troubles started. He was living with her a couple of weeks later when they were done, and that was it. They’ve never been apart since. Much the same with Jet, Roxie, Jules, Ava—”

“I was around for all this, babe.”

“Is that what’s happening with us?”

He shrugged a single broad shoulder. “Naturally.”

“Should I be worried this is going so fast?”

I could tell he was fighting laughter when he replied, “Again, we disagree that three hundred and sixty-five times eighteen is fast.”

“This is different, Darius, and you know it.”

Something shifted in him. I could feel it in his body, and I could see it on his face.

This wasn’t lighthearted, after-sex talk, even if that talk was about a wedding.

Now this was something very different.

“I was your first. Was I your only?”

“Yes,” I answered truthfully, if a bit mortifyingly, but that mortification flew out the window with the hot flash of possession that sparked in his eyes, making those long, long, long dry spells totally worth it.

“You weren’t my first. But after you, you were my only.”

Wait.

What?

Oh.

My.

God.

“Darius—”

“It’s me for you, it’s you for me. You were right all those years ago, Malia. We were meant to be. Not one woman would put up with what I put you through, grasping hold of the shit ton of love she has for me to get her through, except you. No other woman would wait for me to sort out my fucked-up life so I could come to her clean and redeemed. Except you. Part of me burns. I hate it that you gave up so much of your life waiting for me. But the rest of me, babe, the rest of me knows, if I didn’t know I had your brand of love waiting for me, I’d still be in that life. I’d be lost to it. I’d be someone no one would want to know. I would have lost everything. My mom. My sisters. My brothers. Everything.”

My heart was beating wildly as I refuted, “That isn’t true. Everyone believed in you. Everyone, Darius. Indy. Ally. Lee. Eddie. Your mom. My mom and dad—”

“That means a lot, Malia, but you know.” He dipped his face to mine. “You know, it was you who saw me through. You and Liam.”

“Oh no!” I exclaimed, because they were coming so fast, I couldn’t hold them back, so I covered my face with my hands to hide them.

Darius wrapped his fingers around my wrists and pulled them away.

“No hiding,” he growled. “No burying this emotion. You know it. Don’t you?”

I shook my head, fighting his hold on my wrists.

“I saw myself in your eyes every time I was with you,” he pushed. “The only time I felt like me was when I was with you. You grounded me. You anchored me to me.”

“Stop it,” I pleaded.

“I love them, all of them, and the faith they had in me. But you sacrificed your life and your dreams to wait for me.”

“The only dream I had was you.”

“You wanted to be a lawyer.”

I twisted from his hold and framed his face. “Darius, if I wanted to be a lawyer, I’d be a lawyer. Look where I am. The only dream I had was you.”

After I finished speaking, it felt like a concussion of emotion buffeted us, like the room had imploded, but it had not.

“I want you to take my name,” he said, his words raw, guttural, so much so, they scraped across my skin in the most insanely beautiful way.

“I’ll absolutely take your name.”

“I want Liam to have my name.”

“Can he keep Dad’s name too?”

“One in the middle?”

“Agreed.”

“Deal.”

Then he kissed me, pushing my legs open, and he was inside me.

This time, it was fast. Rough. Fiery.

It wasn’t making love.

It wasn’t fucking.

It was a branding.

I was his, Darius was searing that into me with his hands, his lips, his teeth, his cock.

I took it, my back arched, my thighs pressed tight to his sides, my arms around his shoulders holding on as each thrust jolted my whole body.

And I came for him on a loud mew of his name before he buried himself deep and came for me.

He stayed planted as he grunted, “I hurt you?” in my ear.

“Not even a little,” I whispered, still clamped on tight.

He was still at my ear when he said, “I want you to think about giving me another baby.”

“I don’t have to think about it. I want a little girl. Talia is getting older. I need a princess to put in frilly dresses.” I paused then added, “Though, I’d take another boy. Boys are the best.”

He shoved his face hard in my neck.

The tears gathered in my eyes again.

“You won’t miss the first steps this time,” I whispered.

“Quiet,” he groaned.

I fell silent.

Darius covered me, keeping me warm, shutting out the world, making it just us.

Eventually, though, he had to shift. We had to sleep. We had a big day the next day. Not only dinner at his mom’s, but I’d just decided we were filling his truck, and my car, and Liam’s.

We could rent my place furnished for a while.

See how that went.

And then decide if we wanted to sell.

So yeah, there it was.

I came up the rear.

But it was official.

I was a Rock Chick now.

“I’m gonna clean you up,” he said.

“Works for me.”

He lifted his head to kiss me.

Then he set about taking care of me.

Although Liam had undoubtedly learned his lesson that first night, since then, neither Darius nor I slept naked. So when he came back after taking the washcloth to the bathroom, he brought my nightie from the hook on the back of the door. He nabbed my panties from the floor. He gave both to me then went to get his plaid pajama bottoms.

I didn’t exit our bed as I shimmied into my nightclothes.

Darius turned off the lights and joined me.

We cuddled in the middle.

“So what do you think?” I asked him in the dark. “Spring wedding? Summer?”

“I don’t give a shit, if, when it’s done, God and country know you’re mine, I’ll be there. And we’re gonna do a lot of dancing.”

I smiled into the shadows.

“Summer it is.”