Chapter Five #3
“My intentions?” Sully repeated, his voice a low rumble I could feel vibrating through his chest against my cheek.
I thought he might scoff or even tell Tonio it wasn’t any of his Goddamned business, but he didn’t.
“I intend to keep her safe. To give her a choice about her own life and follow her wherever she wants to go.” His arms remained steady around me, his heartbeat a metronome against my ear.
And my heart raced at his words. God, help me, I wanted so much to believe him. To finally have someone choose me.
I expected Tonio to bristle at the implied criticism, but he merely nodded as if Sully had confirmed something he already suspected. “And if her choices put her in danger?”
“Then I’ll be there,” Sully replied without hesitation. “Not to control her decisions, but to back her play. Whatever it is.”
My throat tightened at his words, and I looked up into his face.
He was staring at Tonio intently, the truth of his words in his expression.
How long had it been since anyone had offered support without strings attached?
Yet here was Sully, promising not to change me but to stand with me, scars and flaws and all.
And the man had spent exactly one night with me.
“Bold statements from a man who’s known her for what? A few hours?” Tonio’s tone remained even, but I caught the slight edge beneath the surface.
“When you know, you know,” Sully countered. “Sometimes a few hours is enough to know what matters.”
I should have pulled away then. Should have established my independence, made it clear I didn’t need either man fighting over me like some prize to be won.
That would have been the smart play. Instead, I leaned farther into Sully’s warmth, my arms sliding around his waist in a gesture that surprised even me.
His body tensed momentarily in surprise before relaxing, his thumb tracing a gentle stroke against my shoulder blade.
Tonio didn’t miss the movement. “Is this what you want, Darby?” he asked, his voice softening almost imperceptibly. “Him? This club?”
The direct question caught me off guard. I’d expected arguments, threats, perhaps even an attempt to forcibly remove me from the compound. Not this quiet request for confirmation of my own desires.
“Well, I don’t know much about the club, but they let me in with no questions and gave me privacy when I needed it.
So, yes,” I said, the single syllable carrying more vulnerability than I’d intended.
I cleared my throat and tried again. “Yes. This is what I want.” I didn’t fully understand the truth of it until the words were already out, hanging in the air between us like a confession.
I wanted to add the obligatory “for now” qualifier but couldn’t manage it.
The funny thing was, I thought I saw approval in his gaze.
For the briefest of moments. “I see.” He straightened his already immaculate suit jacket.
“I won’t force you to return with me. But this doesn’t end our connection, Darby.
You’re still my daughter, regardless of where you choose to sleep at night. ”
“I don’t need a father,” I said, but the words lacked their earlier venom. And, Goddamn the man, he recognized it too.
“Perhaps not. But you have one nonetheless.” He turned his attention to Sully. “I’ll be checking in regularly. And should anything happen to her while in your care, you’ll answer to me personally.”
“Understood,” Sully replied simply.
Tonio nodded once. “My men will handle the situation with Jenkins and his associates.” This he directed at neither of us specifically, as if sensing Knuckles or another club member might be listening.
Wouldn’t surprise me. One only had to look at Knuckles to know there was nothing that happened within his home he didn’t know about.
With a final, lingering look at me, he moved toward the door.
“The offer remains open, Darby. When you’re ready to know your family, I’ll be waiting.
” Then he was gone, his footsteps fading down the hallway, leaving behind only the faint scent of expensive cologne and the ghost of a connection I wasn’t ready to acknowledge.
For several long moments, neither Sully nor I moved. I remained in the circle of his arms, face pressed against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. I wasn’t sure what to say, how to process everything that had just happened.
Sully broke the silence first, tugging me along back the way we’d come.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice gentle in a way that made my chest ache with unfamiliar emotion.
Off in the distance I heard the men speaking but didn’t really care what they discussed.
All I knew was Sully was taking me away from them.
“I’m good.”
We hurried back across the yard to his apartment. Sully didn’t let go of my hand at any time during the short walk. Once inside his home, he pulled me back into his arms and held me.
“That was… unexpected,” I admitted after we’d stood there a moment.
“Which part?” A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “Your father showing up, or me claiming you in front of him?”
“Both?” I found myself returning his smile despite everything. “Especially the part where I didn’t punch you for making decisions about me without consulting me first.”
His smile widened. “Figured the punch might be coming later. Besides. Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.
” His hand cupped my face as he grazed his thumb gently over the bruise on my cheek.
“For what it’s worth, I meant what I said.
You’re with me now. If you want to be.” The words hung between us.
I should have felt trapped, cornered. Instead, I felt something dangerously close to hope.
“I think I want to be,” I whispered, the admission dragging itself from somewhere deep inside me.
The kiss, when it came, was tentative at first, a gentle press of his lips against mine.
He was careful of the cut on my lip, the pressure soft enough that it didn’t hurt but firm enough to make my pulse quicken.
I slid my hands up his chest to his shoulders, fingers curling into the cotton fabric of his shirt as if anchoring myself to him.
The hesitation lasted only moments before something seemed to spark and catch fire between us.
Weeks of wanting and trying to forget exploded in a sudden surge of need that left us both breathless.
Sully tangled his fist in my hair, tilting my head back as he deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine in a way that made heat pool low in my belly.
“Need you,” he murmured against my mouth. “Fuck, Darby, I looked everywhere for you.”
The raw honesty in his voice undid something in me. I kissed him harder, ignoring the sting of my split lip, wanting to taste his hunger, to feel wanted in a way I never had before.
Without breaking the kiss, Sully began walking us backward, guiding me to the bedroom. My back met the wall beside his door, his body pressing against mine as he ran his hands down my body to my ass, territory he’d mapped once before in that hotel room and now felt like a lifetime ago.
“Ribs,” I gasped when his touch skimmed too close to my injury.
He immediately gentled his approach, his hands finding safer purchase on my hips. “Sorry,” he murmured, pulling back to look at me with concern. “We should stop --”
“Don’t you fuckin’ dare,” I growled, pulling his mouth back to mine. “Just be careful.”
The laugh that rumbled through his chest vibrated against me. “Demanding little hellcat,” he said against my lips, but I could hear the affection in his voice.
We stumbled through his door, clothes coming off in a frantic rush. I’m not really sure how we both got undressed, but the feel of his body beneath my hands sent both a familiar and thrillingly new jolt of pleasure through me.
When we finally reached his bed, he laid me down with a gentleness that contrasted sharply with the urgent need evident in his eyes, in the hard press of his cock against my thigh.
He hovered above me, careful not to put pressure on my injured side, his gaze raking over me with such naked desire that I felt beautiful despite the bruises marking my skin.
“Tell me if I hurt you,” he said, his voice strained with the effort of restraint.
I reached up to trace the line of his jaw, the curve of his lips. “You won’t.”
And he didn’t. Even in his most possessive moments, when his teeth grazed my shoulder, when he dug his fingers into my hips hard enough to leave bruises, he remained achingly aware of my injuries.
He moved with a controlled strength that made me feel simultaneously protected and desired, a combination I’d never experienced before.
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he whispered against my breast, his tongue circling my nipple in a way that made me arch beneath him.
When he finally positioned himself between my thighs, his cock pressing against my pussy, I felt none of the usual urgency to take control, to set the pace. Instead, I surrendered to his lead, trusting him to take care of me in a way I’d never trusted anyone before.
He entered me slowly, giving me time to adjust to the stretch and fullness of him.
The reverent care in his movements brought unexpected tears to my eyes, which I blinked away before he could see them.
When he began to move, it was with a deliberate rhythm that built the tension inside me gradually, inexorably, like a tide rising toward shore.
“Sully,” I gasped, clinging to his shoulders as the pressure built. “Please.”
He knew what I needed without me having to explain.
His pace increased, his thrusts deeper but still mindful of my injuries.
One hand slid between us, his thumb finding my clit with unerring accuracy, putting just enough pressure to send me flying.
My orgasm crashed over me with an intensity that left me crying out his name, my body clenching around him as waves of pleasure washed through me.
He followed moments later, his face buried against my neck, my name a prayer on his lips as he shuddered above me.
After, as we lay tangled together in the aftermath, his arm a protective weight across my waist, I waited for the familiar panic to set in.
The need to leave, to run, to protect myself from the vulnerability of connection.
It was the pattern of my life. I’d find a momentary pleasure, then disappear before attachments could form, before I could be hurt or abandoned again.
But the panic didn’t come. Instead, I found myself with my hand splayed over one side of Sully’s chest, my body relaxed against his in a way that should have terrified me. The absence of my flight response was more frightening than any danger I’d faced tonight.
“You’re thinking too loud,” Sully murmured, pressing a kiss to my temple.
I smiled despite myself. “Just wondering when I became the kind of woman who stays.”
His arm tightened fractionally around my waist. “Is that what you’re doing? Staying?”
The question hung between us, weighted with possibilities I’d never allowed myself to consider. For the first time in my life, running felt like the harder choice.
“Yeah,” I said finally, the single word carrying the weight of a promise I wasn’t sure I knew how to keep. “I think maybe I am.”