Chapter 23 Dillan
DILLAN
Find a man who sees the crazy in your eyes and matches it.
You’ll never be bored.
—Dillan’s Secret Thoughts
Hours later, Rome sleeps next to me, while my muse screams so loudly, my ears threaten to bleed until I pad downstairs to grab my laptop.
I woke up, suddenly knowing why the third act of this book hasn’t been working and exactly how to fix it.
I contemplate crawling into the comfy chair in Rome’s office, but why would I do that when his bed is just as comfy, the view is better, and the man sleeps like the dead?
Decision made, I walk right back upstairs, smiling as conversations between Radix and Draven fly through my mind faster than I can move.
My fingers itch for my keyboard.
This will be fun.
This is what I’ve grown to love about being an author.
When the characters speak so loudly, it almost feels like I’m not the one writing the book.
I’m just the one typing the words the characters feed me, hoping I can keep up with them.
And after having spent two full years with these characters, I know them well enough to know when that happens, the best chapters fly from my fingertips if I just embrace it. So I always embrace it.
Once I’m back in Rome’s room, I consider climbing back into bed, but the black leather chair in the corner of the room looks like it may work just as well, if not better.
I grab a pillow to use as a makeshift lap desk, curl my feet up underneath myself, and give it a go.
Pleasantly surprised when it’s actually comfortable, I slide my headphones over my ears, hit the noise-canceling option, press play on my Spotify, and get lost in my kingdom.
Badass Book Club
Kaleigh
Pretty sure Rome won book boyfriend of the year with that press conference.
I smile as Kaleigh’s text pops up on my MacBook. She has no idea.
Dillan
I agree.
Lexie
Oh. Yeah. That was HOT. We approve.
Lucky
Hey . . .
Lexie
Don’t worry, sweetie. You’re hotter.
I smile and laugh to myself at Lexie’s placating tone, like Lucky doesn’t have my little cousin’s entire heart, and decide to stir the pot a little.
Dillan
She has to tell you that. She married you.
Lilah
Even our mom thought it was hot.
Yeah . . . I may have ignored Mom’s text.
Jamie
And that goes in the something I never needed to know column.
Lilah
You might not want to know what she said after that then either.
Dillan
Yeah. I didn’t even want to know that.
Ryker
So when do we get together and actually talk about this book?
I pull up the calendar and check dates. The guys definitely don’t want to be part of the store’s book club conversation. I can just see how well that would go over when it inevitably got out on ESPN.
Dillan
Has everyone finished?
Jamie
Nope.
Lucky
Not yet.
Ryker
I have.
Rome
I’ve been a little busy.
My eyes fly to the bed where my man is sitting up, wide-eyed and wide awake and staring at me. Damn. He’s so hot.
Ryker
Poor baby. Man up and read it.
I watch Rome’s chest shake with laughter and wonder if I need to wipe the drool from my mouth. The idea of him reading my book just somehow became a turn-on, and I’m definitely here for it.
Rome
Trust me. I will.
His eyes lock on mine, and he pats the bed next to himself.
Killian
I finished.
Lilah
I’m so proud of you.
Killian
Awesome. Can we act out chapter twenty-two?
Jamie
Another thing I don’t want to think about.
Dillan
Okay. Everyone finishes the book, and we can meet after Rome’s fight.
I don’t wait for any answers before closing my Macbook.
Silently, I stand and drop the laptop to the chair, licking my lips as the beautiful man sitting up in bed stares at me.
Sleep pants ride low on his strong hips.
His ink covered, bare chest I’ve spent hours pressed against, is defined and perfect. And he has my book open in his hands.
“That’s a pretty sight,” I whisper, wishing today would never end.
Scared when it does, I’ll realize it was all a dream.
Rome’s gaze flares as if he can see my soul with those eyes I love so much. “Yeah, baby, it is. Why don’t you come back to bed?”
“Oh yeah . . . ?” I tease, and crawl across the bed, my sheer-white lace shorts and bra leaving little to the imagination. Not that he needs to imagine at this point. Not when he’s had his hands and mouth all over my body.
God, this man makes me feel sexier than I ever knew I could. “What do you feel like doing?”
His brows lift, and those eyes, already hot, grow impossibly hungry. Even now, after spending hours ignoring the world around us, it still feels like we need more.
The curve of his mouth hits me low in my belly as the hand not holding my book reaches for my face. “I’m reading, stellina.”
His words are slow and sweet, and wow.
Those words.
That voice.
This man . . .
“Must be a good part.” I swear I try to say it like I would anything else, but my voice is breathy in a way I don’t recognize. And without missing a beat, Rome picks right back up where he must have left off.
“She reaches down and takes my cock in her hand. ‘I’ve been numb for so long.’ Before I can ask her what she means, she strokes me once, then presses her tongue into my mouth. I have to fight the urge to flip her over and fuck us both into oblivion.”
He looks up. “Can’t say I don’t recognize what he’s feeling.” With the hand still holding my face, Rome traces my jaw with his thumb, and I turn into his touch and press my lips to the palm of his hand.
His grin grows cocky as his eyes drop back to the book.
“‘I need to feel tonight, Radix. Without war. Without worry. Without consequences.’ She kisses my chest. My abs. My lats. Then looks up at me and licks her lips, so close to the tip of my cock, I’d promise her anything just to get her mouth on me. ‘Please make me beg.’”
He lifts his gaze to mine and runs his thumb over my lower lip, pressing down until I suck it between my lips. “This is so fucking hot, baby.”
God yes, it is.
But it’s not my words that strike flame to the would-be fire. It’s his voice. It’s him.
“Women would pay anything to listen to you reading this to them,” I murmur, my cheeks flaming as it truly clicks that he’s reading my words.
Words he inspired, even if he didn’t know it at the time.
“You have no idea how incredibly sexy readers find narrators because of what they bring to books. I swear you’d be a millionaire if you put yourself on film reading it, and they could actually watch you too,” I tease, knowing the truth in my words.
An amazing narrator is worth their weight in gold, and this man could read a phone book and sound incredible.
Rome Beneventi is hotter than any man I’ve ever seen. Stick a book in this man’s hands and a few filthy words in his mouth, and you’d be set.
Husbands who? The rest of mankind be damned.
“You want me to read your book to your readers, Dillan?” he asks as he closes the book and sets it aside, his eyes shining back at me with a cocky smirk playing on his lips.
He pulls me onto his lap, and I feel his already-hard cock pressing against me again, and the unbelievably overwhelming wave of possessiveness I feel threatens to overwhelm me.
“Hell no,” I tell him and run my fingers through his hair. “I don’t want to share you with anyone.” I kiss his lips, then trail them down his body. “You are mine, Beneventi, and I’m greedy enough to not want anyone else to have any piece of you.”
“Fuck . . . I like the sound of that,” he groans as I drag my tongue down his pecs, tracing the lines of his abs.
“Good.” I look up at him through my lashes, and it’s my cocky grin growing this time. “Now read, handsome, and let’s see if I can do as good a job acting it out as I did writing it.”