Chapter 24
"Domino"
The water pounded against my shoulders, hot enough to fog the glass and drown out the noise in my head.
It wasn’t working.
I planted my hand against the tile, head dipping forward as Ajori’s image replayed—clear, vivid, and uninvited—as she stood in my wing like she belonged there, sunlight catching her skin.
She had no business walking around that damn house, wearing a fitted mocha dress with thin straps that hugged every sinful curve like it was hand-sewn by temptation itself.
Even the gloss on her lips pissed me off because I kept thinking about tasting it.
She didn’t just stroll through the house; she disrupted the fuckin' peace. And the worst part? I couldn’t have her.
Boss’s daughter… off limits.
“Damn it. What is it about this girl?” I muttered, dragging a hand down my face.
But my body didn’t care about rules, loyalty, or the throne I was supposed to protect. All it knew was her, the way she looked at me, and the way she said my name.
Damari.
I braced my hand harder against the tile, jaw tight as the memory shifted.
I saw Ajori in my head, and not the innocent version either, but the one where her lips were parted, her back was arched, and her moans bounced off the walls instead of her laughter.
“Beneath that exterior is probably a good man,” she’d said.
I let out a low breath, shaking my head slightly.
I brushed it off then, but she wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t made for softness, but Ajori made it tempting.
My hand dropped lower, gripping my dick as the tension I’d been trying to ignore finally took shape. The more her voice played in my head, the tighter my grip came. Soon, my strokes turned rougher and less controlled. The release came quick and hard.
“Fuuuuuuuuck…” A deep grunt escaped my chest as I leaned my head against the tile, water washing over me like a false baptism. Still, the craving remained inside my bones.
The water kept pouring, but I stood there until my breathing steadied and the fire dulled into something I could live with.
I hadn’t let a woman get close to me like that in years… not in my space… not with coffee between us as if it meant something. And now here she was, walking into my world like she didn’t know how dangerous it was to be wanted by a man like me.
I shut the water off and grabbed a towel, wrapping it low around my waist. Steam clung to the mirror as I stepped up to it, staring at my reflection through the fog.
“You trippin’,” I muttered.
My jaw flexed.
“She don’t belong to you.”
But even as I said it, the thought of her staying just out of reach burned through me. And that was the part that scared me most because I never wanted what I couldn’t have.
Until now.