20. Dario
DARIO
My head pounds. I don’t remember a lot about the night before, but from Liana’s reaction this morning, I need to apologize.
But first, I need a shower. Badly.
I wash away the sweat and the scotch and the French perfume and dress casually in a pair of sweats and a tank top.
I don’t have any plans today—we're all waiting with bated breath for Friday, when we’ll find out what Beth knows—if anything.
I run a hand through my damp hair and exit my bedroom, walking down the hall to Liana’s room. I knock softly on the door.
“What?” she barks, and I puff out my cheeks before I swing the door open.
She sits on the edge of the bed, dressed now in a sundress.
“Going out to the pool?”
“Thought about it,” she says, picking up a straw hat and turning it over and over in her hands.
“You’re welcome to go anytime.”
She nods and looks up at me. “What do you want?”
“I just wanted to... apologize.”
“For what?”
“For drinking too much. For being an idiot, I don’t know.”
“It’s fine.”
“It doesn’t seem fine. You kind of stormed out of my room—”
“Only because I shouldn’t be sleeping with you. It... complicates things.”
“Does it?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Yeah, it does. You shouldn’t be worried about who I’m dating. I shouldn’t be worried about who you’re dating.”
I frown, my stomach dropping into my stomach. “Why? Do you want to date someone else?”
She huffs out a breath, looking up at me with flashing gray eyes. “If I did, would you let me?”
“Hell no. We’re married now.” The words come out before I realize what I’m saying.
“Temporarily.”
“Temporarily or not, belissima, you’re my wife now and I don’t share.”
“But you’re allowed to go out to a strip club.”
I groan, pacing around in a circle, my hands clenching into fists and relaxing again.
“Why do you care, Li? You don’t want anything to do with me.”
“It’s a double standard, that’s why,” she blurts out, and I roll my eyes.
“Sure, that’s why you’re mad. It has nothing to do with you being possessive or jealous—”
“You of all people can’t preach to me about being jealous!”
Her voice is almost a screech and I grit my teeth, trying to stop from getting angry.
“Don’t I have a right to be? You had a baby with someone else months after we broke up, Li.”
Her eyes soften. “I...”
Then she closes her mouth. Right. She doesn’t have anything to say now.
“Just give me his name.”
She squeezes her eyes shut, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger.
“His name doesn’t matter, Dario.”
“It fucking matters to me!” I yell, unable to keep my voice at an even decibel. “You were fucking someone else while I wasn’t sober for three fucking months, Li, it fucking matters.”
She hitches in a breath, but she doesn’t speak. Doesn’t tell me she’s sorry. Doesn’t explain it away. She just sits there, frozen.
“I went to a strip club last night because you’ve been cold to me,” I say quietly after she remains silent for a few minutes. Her eyes focus on mine. “I did it because... because you hurt my feelings.”
“Dario—”
“And I get it,” I go on, pacing and babbling like I’ve lost my goddamn mind. Maybe I have. “You moved on and now you’re stuck here again and you hate it and you hate me but... I’m just trying to help you, Li. Trying to make it easier on you. Not harder.”
“I didn’t... I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
I nod tersely. “I didn’t mean to hurt yours, either. I was trying to make you jealous, I guess.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, it worked.”
I can’t help the smirk that spreads across my face.
“Did it?”
I walk into her room, shutting the door behind me.
She freezes. “What are you doing?”
“Apologizing,” I mumble, kneeling in front of the bed, putting my hands on her hips. I slide my fingertips under the elastic on her hip, tugging down her panties. I kiss her calf as I slip them off her, dropping them on the floor.
“You don’t have to—”
But I cut her off by pressing my face against her sex and latching my lips around her clit. She rocks her hips forward and I groan against her.
I fucking love it when she rubs my face in it.
My dick plumps in my sweats but I ignore it, moving my hand to slide two fingers into her. She moans out my name and I suck harder, arching my fingers up.
I find that rough spot just inside her that makes her back arch, makes her toes curl, and I slide my fingertips along it, gently at first and then roughly.
I suction her clit between my teeth and she cries out, the sound muffled by her hand as she rolls her hips against my face, coming around my fingers.
The way she clenches around them makes my mouth water. I keep at it until she’s whining and pulling at my hair.
I pout slightly as I look up at her, mouth parted.
“I wasn’t done.”
Her face flushes and she scrambles backward. “You can finish inside me.”
Fuck.
She doesn’t have to ask me twice.
I stand, my sweats already tented, and take hold of her ankles, yanking her ass to the edge of the bed.
She squeaks and then smiles. I grin down at her, taking myself in hand as she spreads her thighs wide. I just look at her for a moment, at that glistening hole I’m about to fill.
“Dario, stop,” she whimpers, starting to close her legs but I grunt and take hold of her thighs, keeping her spread-eagled.
“Think you’re wet enough for me, baby?” I ask, leaning down to spit between her lower lips. My saliva tracks down to her entrance.
She moans out my name, her gray eyes unfocused as she spreads herself even wider.
I grit my teeth as I slowly push into her, wanting to ram my way home. But I hold myself back. I like to watch her come apart on my cock.
“Li,” I groan, fucking her in slow, deep strokes.
“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.”
She slides her head to one side, her eyes squeezing shut. I stop my strokes after thrusting into her deeply.
I frown, taking her chin roughly in my hand and forcing her to look at me.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Her breath hitches and her pussy clenches around my cock. I hiss in a breath.
“Give it to me, Dario,” she whimpers. “I’ll take whatever you give me.”
“Damn right you will,” I murmur, and pull almost all the way out of her before sliding back in, setting a steady, brutal pace.
She goes limp under me after a few more strokes, her mouth parted as her hips keep rocking forward toward my thrusts. She’s clenching around me like a vise and I’m not going to last much longer.
Her breasts bounce one more good time and I cry out, my hips stuttering as I come inside her.
She stays limp and I pull out of her, slightly worried.
“Li?”
She looks at me but her gray eyes are unfocused and she has a dopey grin on her face.
Fuck me. Did I just fuck my ex—the one who hates me and tried once to kill me, mind you—into subspace?
“Are you okay?” I drop down beside her, drawing her into my arms. She used to always want to cuddle when she got like this.
She instantly presses her ear to my chest as if listening to my heartbeat, and I wonder if she can feel my pulse stutter, because it feels like it’s skipped a beat or three.
She hums against my t-shirt as I adjust myself back into my pants. She curls into me, sleepy, doe-eyed, beautiful.
God, it hurts just to look at her.
“Go back to sleep,” I command, knowing she won’t unless I order it. She’s so pliant when she’s like this, all blissed out.
She pouts slightly, her lips parting and I can’t stop myself from kissing her. She makes a happy sound in the back of her throat.
Goddamn it.
Goddamn it. I knew I’d fallen for her again, but I didn’t know it would still hurt this badly.
I can’t help thinking about her ex, and I tighten my arms around her as she drifts off. Did she do this with him? Did she cuddle up next to him after he—
Nope. That’s something I’m not going to think about. Rage threatens to black out my vision but I don’t let it.
I should enjoy this while I can. Because tomorrow, she’s probably going to hate me again.