Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
“Did you really offer to help him bury a body?”
Royal was gone. The door had just shut behind him as he exited, and Marley hadn’t been able to hold back the question another moment. She needed the truth, and it was long past time Declan spilled all of his secrets to her.
Declan’s hand pressed to the wood of the giant door. Two heavy, wooden doors made up the entrance way. Both had elaborate carvings on them. Roaring lions.
Declan had offered to let Royal stay the night. Royal had refused. He’d made a quick phone call and had a mystery friend waiting to pick him up. Royal had stayed only long enough to ask some questions about Declan’s abduction. Like Marley, Royal had wanted to know one main thing…
Who hates you so much that they abduct you and want to torture you in a dirty, dank basement? Because when it came to hate, that was on a whole other level of twisted. A level that terrified Marley.
But Declan had given no answers. Other than… I have a lot of enemies.
“I offered to bury the body. Seemed like a helpful thing to do.” His broad back was to her. “You should go up to your room.”
Or she should stay exactly where she was. Marley chose to stay. “The house seems extra quiet tonight. No staff are here, are they?” They were alone, she knew it.
“The minute Royal got in the limo, I sent a text ordering everyone else to leave.”
“Including James?”
“Everyone. No one can know my brother’s secrets.”
She rocked forward onto the balls of her feet. “I was here while you grilled him. And while he grilled you. I know the secrets that both of you possess.” Though she felt as if she’d only skimmed the surface with the two men. I want more.
“You’re my fiancée. Sooner or later, you’ll know everything about me.” He shoved away from the door. Turned toward her. “Every single dark part. You’ll wish you didn’t know, but it will be too late by then.” A reckless smile curved his lips as he began to close in on her. “Maybe it’s already too late.”
Her breath came out in a fast rush. “I’m not your fiancée. I’m your PI.” An important distinction.
His smile dimmed. “I fucked you three hours ago.”
One hand fanned her face because she suddenly felt hot. “Has it been three hours? Already?” And he’d been keeping track?
He stopped right in front of her. “You’re not wearing panties.”
Her thighs tightened. Her sex clenched. “Good of you to remember that important piece of information.” It had been way awkward talking to the men minus underwear. But if she’d left the room to correct that situation, she might have missed vital intel.
The wall was right behind her. He put his hands on the wall, on either side of her body, caging her as he leaned in close. “How many times do I have to tell you? Good has nothing to do with me.”
Her hands rose to press lightly to his cheeks. “And how many times do I have to tell you… you don’t have to lie to me? ”
He blinked.
“You are not your father. I get that he was screwed up.” Oh, boy did she get it. Talk about a deranged mind bent on causing pain and wreaking havoc. “I get that he hurt you. I get that he?—”
“He probably fucking murdered my mother. You get that, too, don’t you? She left him. Got sick of being the wife of a killer and a monster and a freak who only knew obsession, not love. She ran away, and he couldn’t let her go. He could never let go of the things that belonged to him. So he chased her down—or he had his men do it—and they ran her off the road. Her car exploded. She died in a fiery blaze, and I was left without my mother. Without my brother. I was left to be raised by him.” His expression seemed cut from stone. “What do you think that did to me? What do you think he made me become?”
“Declan…” Her hands remained on him. And, helpless because his pain hurt her more than she would have believed possible, Marley did the only thing that she could think of to stop the sorrow and rage that poured from him. She rose onto her toes. She pulled his head toward her. Her mouth pressed to his. Tenderly, softly. Lovingly. Did he get that? Did he get that she didn’t see him as some terrible evil? Because he wasn’t. The more she was with him, the more she saw him as…
Her Declan.
“You don’t want to do this,” he growled against her mouth.
“Do what?” Marley breathed right back. “Kiss you?” Love you? A bit too late for that part because Marley feared she was falling fast. Being pulled deeper and deeper into Declan’s web with every moment that passed and every painful secret that was revealed.
Declan thought he was evil. He was so wrong. She’d stared evil dead in the eyes. She knew exactly what it looked like. She knew how evil’s touch felt. She knew the pain evil could bring.
Declan didn’t bring pain. He brought pleasure.
“I want to fuck you right now.” A savage rumble from him.
Did it look as if she was going to say no? “Um, I’m kissing you.” Another tender kiss. “Please take the kisses as a clear yes for what happens next.”
But his head lifted. His gaze—oh, that hazel burned. The gold was the strongest color blazing at her. “You kiss me softly, and I just want to fuck you hard.”
Marley swallowed.
“Right the hell here. I want to lift you up against the wall and fuck you here. ”
Emotions swirled around them. Dark needs. Desires. Tension. “What’s stopping you? As you already noted, I’m not wearing any pant?—”
He lifted her up. Pushed her until her shoulders hit the wall. His tongue thrust into her mouth. No tender kiss. No softness or comfort. Just hard, driving lust. A desire that was unchecked. A need that would consume her.
He pinned her to the wall even as he yanked up her dress. Shoved it toward her stomach. She heard the hiss of a zipper and knew he was going to do it. Fuck her right there. No preliminaries. No foreplay. Just fucking. Maybe it was what they both needed. Oblivion and then?—
“No!” Declan’s head whipped back.
What? He didn’t want to have sex with her? Pain iced her heart. Why did?—
“Pleasure first for you, always.” Then he was lowering her back down. No, wait, he was dropping to his knees before her. He parted her thighs. Lifted her up, angled her, and he?—
His tongue slid over her clit.
“ Declan!” A choked scream.
He held her easily, with a strength that was both ferocious and chained and sexy all at the same time. Her shoulders hit the wall again. Her head tipped back as she gasped and moaned because his tongue was utterly relentless on her. Again and again, he licked at her clit. Wild strokes of his tongue as if he could not get enough of her. And then his tongue swirled and dipped into her.
Her heart thundered. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut as her whole body tightened in preparation for the orgasm that barreled toward her. He was working her clit again. Strumming her with his tongue. Sucking and kissing with his lips and she was—coming. Coming against his mouth on an explosion of pleasure that detonated through her body.
She could barely pull in a breath. The pleasure hit her in waves that churned and crested. Over and over. An orgasm that just didn’t seem to stop.
And he—he was rising. Lifting her even higher. Her eyes opened. Her legs wrapped around his hips. Her dress was hiked up at her stomach, and he was pushing the head of his cock into the slick, eager entrance of her body.
His face had locked into a tight mask of primitive need. A lust that couldn’t be controlled. Just the broad head of his cock had dipped into her, and it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
“Marley…” Guttural.
She loved it when he said her name that way.
Her hips slammed against him, and she took every inch of him inside. A flash of discomfort filled her—because there was a whole lot of Declan—but oh, that discomfort vanished in an instant and then there was only pleasure. So much consuming pleasure as she rode him. As his hands bit into her waist and he lifted her up and down, up and down. Faster. Harder. His hips pistoned against her, and her hands clamped around his upper arms as she held on for the wildest ride of her life.
Another climax hit her. Blasted without any buildup or notice, and she could only cry out as the pleasure pulsed through her.
“Feel you…squeezing me.” Each word was thick with lust. “So fucking good…every inch of you…perfect. Mine. ”
She could feel him. All of him. Driving into her ruthlessly. Over and over. And?—
“Tight. Hot. You’re all around me, sweetheart. That tight pussy is—fuck! ” Declan stiffened.
Her eyes had closed once more. She opened them. His stare had turned even more ferocious.
“There’s nothing between us.” His jaw clenched. The words were bitten off. “Nothing. I have to?—”
He started to pull back.
She squeezed him even harder.
“ Marley… ” Declan withdrew.
“Come in me. I want you, in me. ”
He slammed deep again. Savagery covered his face. He withdrew. Drove into her. Withdrew, drove and?—
He pulled out of her.
“No!” Marley cried. She’d wanted to feel him inside her when he came.
And…
He shuddered against her. Snarled her name. She felt something wet on her inner thigh.
“Fucking coming on you,” he rasped. “Wanted to be in you. Fuck, yes, but I didn’t have a rubber. Might have already been too late. Sonofabitch, what am I going to do with you?”
What an odd question. “Keep me, of course.” She wrapped her arms around his neck as a languid tiredness crept through her body. “What else would you do?”
He blinked. Stared at her as if he’d just?—
“Yes.” Soft. “What else would I do?” Declan straightened his clothes. Pulled down her dress.
She frowned at the stickiness on her skin. But then he was sweeping her into his arms and carrying her up the stairs. And she just settled against him. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.” Her soft confession. He wasn’t the only one who would give up secrets. She’d share hers with him, too.
He hesitated. “Marley.” Deep. Dark. Rumbly. “I’m carrying you up the stairs right now. How about you don’t say things that might cause me to stumble and drop you?”
“You wouldn’t drop me.” Her eyes closed. “I trust you.”
Silence. But he was moving again. Going up the stairs. Holding her tightly, but tenderly. “Yes, I can see that.”
He strode forward. They must have reached the landing and were headed to the bedroom. She forced her eyes to open even when she really just wanted to sleep. Apparently, a whole lot of good orgasms in one night could wreck a woman. Who knew?
Me. I know now.
But this was important. She needed to ask him a big question. “I trust you,” she said again. “Do you trust me?”
He entered the bedroom. Not the room she’d been using. A bigger, darker room. Heavy furniture. Lots of books on overflowing shelves. A laptop on a desk to the side. His room.
He put her in the bed. Stripped her. Stripped himself. Got a soft, wet cloth and carefully wiped her body. Then crawled in bed beside her. He pulled her against him, and it felt right to be there in his arms. Warm and safe.
And it was only as she drifted to sleep that Marley realized Declan hadn’t answered her question. But maybe his silence was the answer.
He didn’t trust her.
Was there anyone in the world that he did trust?