Chapter Twelve

Chapter TwelveSitting at my dinner table a few weeks later, I placed my cutlery on my mostly empty plate. “Damn, Briar, that’s harsh.”Opposite me, she waved away the comment. “The whole thing was pitiful and you know it.”“Ah come on, it wasn’t that bad.”“There was no plot.”“It was a dolphin show. It didn’t really require a plot.” I glanced at both Izzy and Inaya, who looked on the verge of laughing.It was Izzy who’d suggested that we all venture out for the day. Each of us had tossed out ideas for possible trips, and we’d eventually settled on going to the zoo. It wasn’t something we’d done as a group before. Afterward, we’d come to my apartment to have dinner together.Briar had been moody and surly throughout the entire day. She only mumbled beneath her breath whenever we called her on it.She sniffed. “Whatever. I wasn’t entertained.”“You did have fun feeding the meerkats, though,” I pointed out.“Who’d have thought they growled like little Tasmanian devils?” Inaya shook her head in disbelief, balling up her used napkin before then dropping it on her plate. “I really did not expect that.”Briar opened and closed her mouth a few times. “They were cute,” she eventually allowed.Izzy pointed at her. “That’s the first nice thing you’ve said about anything that happened today.”Briar frowned. “It is not.”Snorting, Izzy leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. “You complained about the monkey house—”“It reeked.”“—you whined about the size of the tiger enclosure—”“The cats need more space.”“—and you decided that the ‘zoo people’ were lying that there were wolves there.”Briar swept her gaze over us all. “Okay, when have any of you ever seen a wolf at that zoo?”Never, to be truthful, but I wasn’t exactly a regular visitor. Since I’d sooner talk about what put her in this ornery mood, I rested my hand on her arm and urged, “Tell us what’s really wrong. Because we all know it’s nothing to do with the zoo.”She uttered something too low for me to hear.“Is it Alondra?” I asked, referring to her mother.Briar exhaled a heavy sigh. “Partially. The annoying woman did an interview where she painted a very pretty picture of herself as a single, dedicated mother who has always been my role model—yes, she actually claimed that. More, she swore that no award she won beat hearing me say that she was my inspiration. The only thing she ever inspired me to do was put as many miles between us as possible. Worse than all of that, she insinuated that my dads had little to do with me when I was growing up.”I gaped. “You are joking.” Her dads had practically raised her all on their own.“I wish I was.”“God, that woman needs the biggest bitch slap ever.” Her face hard, Inaya drummed her fingers on the table. “I don’t know what would piss me off more in your shoes, Briar—that she’s a shit mom, or that she presents herself to the world as the perfect mom.”“The latter.” Briar placed her elbows on the table and thrust her hands into her hair. “It’s so offensive to my dads. They pretended that they weren’t all that bothered by it, but I know they were. I ripped her a new one over the phone this morning. It was not a pleasant conversation. Mere moments after I hung up, my phone rang. It was Grover to let me know that he’s met someone. A woman he’s actually serious about.”I double-blinked. “Oh. Wow.”“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jealous or hurting,” said Briar. “I … I was going to say I’m happy for him, but that’s not really true. I don’t feel much one way or the other about it. Which is cold, isn’t it?”Inaya gave her a soft smile. “It’s not cold. You two simply didn’t click on any level. You might have worked in bed, but that was pretty much it. You weren’t even friends, were you?”Briar shook her head. “Neither of us were emotionally invested in each other or our arrangement.”“But you didn’t want it to be over yet,” I guessed.Briar grimaced. “Well, it’s an inconvenience. That’s literally all I feel. Inconvenienced. I doubt it would have affected my mood at all if it wasn’t a double whammy of him and Alondra.” She sank back in her chair. “My dads will be nothing short of relieved that he’s out of the picture, I’m sure.”“Maybe you should try dating one of the dudes that your dads keep pushing you toward,” Inaya suggested. “A lot of them are hot so, if nothing else, you’ll have fun objectifying good-looking guys over a meal or something.”Briar’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t feel the need to date anyone. I don’t mind being single. But, you know, a girl’s gotta eat sometimes.”“There’s a lot of delicious grub in the basement of the Vault,” said Inaya. “It’s a verifiable feast. Go munch.”Briar snorted. “I could say the same to you.”“I’m just waiting for the right snack to come along.”Knuckles wrapped on my front door, and my entire body immediately brightened because I knew exactly who was here.Inaya’s mouth curved. “Ooh, speaking of delicious, that’ll be Danton.” She tossed back the last of her drink. “Come on, girls, let’s leave them in peace to do the dirty.”I tried telling them that they didn’t need to go immediately, but they all gathered their purses and jackets. I walked to the front door and pulled it open. My stomach did an excited little flip at the sinful sight of Danton. Probably always would.He hadn’t grumbled about me eating with my friends tonight instead of with him. I’d thought he might, given that I’d spent most of my day with them and he had a habit of monopolizing a lot of my time—though not in an unhealthy way. But he’d told me to enjoy myself and that he’d pick me up later to drive me to his place.He stalked straight into my personal space, dipped his head, and pressed a kiss to my mouth. “Hey, baby. Hmm, I like the dress.”I smiled. “You should. You bought it.”Looking at my friends as they gathered behind me, he inclined his head and greeted, “Ladies.”“Don’t mind us, we’ll get out of your hair,” Briar told him, slipping on her jacket.Inaya gave me a quick hug and then slid her gaze to him. “Thanks for letting us borrow Cat for the day.”Frowning, I said, “Borrow me?” just as Danton told her, “You’re welcome.”I looked at him. “Did you honestly just say that she’s welcome?” Like I was a car he’d loaned out for a few hours?His brow pinched. “It’s a polite response to someone who expresses gratitude, and you want me to be polite to your friends.”I narrowed my eyes at the purposely obtuse bastard. “I’m not an item to be borrowed.”His eyes dancing, he put his mouth to my ear. “Ah, but you are in a sense, aren’t you? Toys are items, remember.”I shook my head. “Whatever.”Hugs and goodbyes were exchanged before my girls headed out. Alone with Danton, I admitted, “I half-expected you to turn up early in the hope that your simple arrival would hurry them along.” It would have worked.“I thought about it.” He ghosted a finger from my temple down to my jaw. “Decided against it.”“Why?”“I demand many things from you. I take up a lot of your time and attention, and I’m going to keep doing it. But I don’t want you to ever feel suffocated or oppressed or isolated. Your friends are important to you. Good to you. I want you to have them in your life, even if I don’t much like letting them borrow you,” he added, his eyes lighting with humor.I squinted and gently poked his chest. “Enough with the borrow thing.”His mouth kicked up. “Stop bitching at me and go get your shit so we can go.”“Bitching?”“Yeah, bitching.”I set one hand on my hip. “As it happens, I was—”“Do you want to stand here arguing about jack, or do you want to go to my place so I can bend you over something and fuck your brains out?”I did a slow blink. “We can argue another time.”“Good. Now go get your shit.”***Bent over the arm of his sofa as Danton railed me from behind, I did my best not to scrabble at the leather cushion one side of my head rested on.There’d been no foreplay for me when we got inside the apartment. But I hadn’t needed it. I’d gotten plenty damp from how many times he’d roughly tugged on my hair and squeezed my nape—two of my hot buttons—as I’d blown him during the drive here. He’d discovered exactly how wet I was after caging me against the elevator when he jammed two fingers inside me.We’d stumbled out of the elevator kissing and stripping, and then I’d suddenly found myself bent over the sofa. I was free to moan and gasp as much as I wanted, but not to speak or move or come.At first, I’d been glad that I was allowed to make noise. But then I realized just how hard it was to remain limp at the same time. I wasn’t used to doing one without the other.Twice I’d accidentally moved, and my punishment had been three swift, hard spanks each time. Which wasn’t the part that truly bothered me. No, it was that once my ass was on fire, he roughly grabbed two fistfuls of it and sped his pace. It was a sheer miracle that I hadn’t spat out a curse—which would have earned my poor butt more slaps.“I put something in your purse last night when you weren’t looking,” he said, pounding hard and deep. “You didn’t notice, did you?”My head almost snapped up. No, no, I hadn’t. And I nearly said as much, which he would have delighted in taking out on my ass. Tricky bastard.“To be more specific, I put it on your bunch of keys.”It was a struggle to hold back a frown—he’d have noticed it for sure.“A key for my elevator,” he added. “You’ll need it, since you’ll be moving in with me this weekend.”What in the fuck?He slowed his pace, still tunneling deep. “I gave you time, Cat. Then I gave you more time. And a little more. You’ve officially ran out of it. You’re moving in with me.”Could he be more high-handed?He draped his front over my back and grazed the back of my shoulder with his teeth. “You want to, Cat. You know you do.”I did, yes, but there were things to consider.“You keep harping on about how we haven’t been together long; how it’s best to take shit slow.”Excuse me, I wasn’t ‘harping on.’ I’d made very good points.He swiveled his hips just right, reared back, and then buried himself inside me once more. “Over eight months ago, I fucked you in the Vault for the first time. You’ve been mine since that night. There was nothing fast about how we moved at first. It might not have felt like we were building anything, but we were. Mostly trust—that ain’t easy for people like you and me, who don’t trust easy.”Looking back, I could see that he was right. We had been building the foundations for something bigger. I just hadn’t consciously acknowledged it until now.Another delightful swivel of his hips. Another deep thrust. “Neither of us do well with attachments either; we both grew up feeling like they were weaknesses. My experiences made me feel that way. Your father put it in your head by using any love you felt for others against you. That acted as a barrier for us.”It had. I’d fought the feelings that crept up on me … until there’d come a point where I couldn’t anymore. And I hadn’t only walked away because I’d thought that he cared nothing for me; I’d done it because my natural reflex to forming attachments was to fear that they’d be used to hurt me.“My point? We needed slow back then. We even needed that break we had to push past what doubts we had left so we could clearly see what we truly wanted. It had to happen that way, and it did.” He bit my shoulder hard, and I almost hissed. “But we don’t need to move slowly anymore, and I’m done with it. I want you living with me. What we have is nothing close to temporary. You’re it for me, I’m it for you.”I swallowed, a slight ache in my throat. He’d said it all so matter-of-factly, but not coldly. Just with the sheer confidence of a man who was absolutely certain that he’d keep the woman he’d claimed.“So, this weekend, you’re moving in.” He straightened and smoothly pulled back his hips. “And later on, when you’re more sure of us, you’re gonna marry me.”Everything in me went still.He sank inside me again. “Because you love me, just as I love you. And I won’t rest until you’re completely fucking tied to me.”Oh fuck, I might cry.“You want a small wedding, we’ll do that. You want a big production that’s gonna take a whole goddamn year to plan, fine, go all out.” He flexed his hips, sending his cock even deeper. “For now, we’ll live in sin, I don’t mind that.”I gasped as a hand wrenched at my hair, snatching up my head.“Say it,” he bit out, his breath fanning my cheek. “I want to hear the words.”I swiped my tongue over my dry lower lip. If he punished me for speaking I was gonna ream his ass. “I love you.”He hummed. “And what are you going to do about it?”“I’m going to move in.”He let out a low growl. “Yeah, you fucking are.” He shifted his angle slightly and started roughly snapping his hips back and forth, hammering into me; hitting this amazing spot inside me. “Come, Cat.”The snarled words triggered my release, and I freaking soared as it took me. He pounded harder and harder as I screamed, my pussy clamping tight around his cock. I heard him curse, felt his fingers dig harder into the globes of my ass as he rammed deep; felt the pulsing of his cock and the hot splash of his come as he exploded.His body curled over mine as our orgasms began to subside. We stayed there like that, panting and trembling.Minutes later, he nuzzled the crook of my neck. “Love you, baby. More than anything.”A lazy smile pulled at my lips. “Your words, my mouth.”“No taking back what you said before. You’re moving in with me. And you’re gonna be wearing my ring on your finger pretty soon after that.”“Will you get down on one knee?”“No. I’m gonna propose while my cock’s deep inside you.”My smile widened. “You’ll get a yes, just so you know.”“No, I won’t,” he said, pulling out of me. “Because you won’t be allowed to talk or move.”I gaped. Standing upright, I turned to face him. “Hang on, you expect me not to react at all when you ask me to marry you?”“Who said anything about asking?”“Proposals are offers, not dictates.” I wasn’t sure that he actually understood that.“If I ask and you’re allowed to speak, you could say no.”“I’ve already told you I’ll say yes.”“Then you don’t need to say it again, do you? Which means I don’t need to ask.”I shook my head. He was unbelievable.He picked me up and carried me into the bathroom, where he propped me on the vanity.“I am not staying in doll mode when you propose,” I told him as he gently swiped a small cloth between my legs to clean me up.“Think of it as a challenge. A challenge that will come with a reward.”I felt my brows lift in interest. “What kind of reward?”He let out a pensive hum. “Well, you’re forever pestering me to let you choose what room we use at the basement. How about I let you book one for a change?”A grin shaped my mouth. “Oh, yeah, that works.” Because then I could book what Izzy and Briar called ‘the revenge room.’ It was in fact the lap dancing room.He and I had never used it because Danton liked to run every element of the show. He would loathe being the one who had to keep their hands to themselves. Ha.His eyes narrowed slightly. “I don’t like the look on your face right now. It’s almost evil.”I chuckled and curved my arms around his neck. “Relax. You’ll like what I have in mind.”“You’re lying.”“Yup. But think of it as a challenge.”He squeezed my hip. “Tell me what you’re planning.”“Only if you tell me when you’re going to propose.” I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he clamped his lips shut. “Then we’ll both keep our secret for now.”“I will find out what you’re plotting.”Not until it was too late for him to do anything about it. Oh, he would freak.“You’re wearing that evil smirk again. I don’t like it.”“Then you’d better kiss it right off my face, hadn’t you?”His lips canted up. “Hmm, good idea.”