Chapter 25
Kiera clung to me as I drove a path through the packed dance floor. Those who didn’t step out of the way fast enough were shouldered to the side, but if any of the clubgoers were upset, I didn’t hear their complaints over the blaring music.
Not that I would have cared.
The only thing in the world I cared about was already in my arms.
I moved us to the side of the building, away from the thick of the crowd and the direct line of the sound system. Then, resting her back against one of the support columns that reached the ceiling, I let her slide down to the floor.
The instant Kiera’s feet hit the floor, I bracketed my arms on either side of her, caging her in.
“What the hell were you doing?” I demanded, raising my voice to be heard above all the background noise. “I told you to stay with my brothers.”
She bit into her lip, shifting uncomfortably within the prison of my arms. “I…I don’t think they like me.”
“They’re mobsters, Kiera. They don’t like anyone,” I told her plainly. “The important thing is they would never hurt you. They understand what you mean to me.”
She shook her head, refusing to look me in the eye. “How can they know that? I don’t even know.”
My brows pulled together. What the hell was she talking about? Of course, she knew. I’d repeated it like a damn mantra the last time we’d made love.
But just in case she’d somehow missed it, I moved in closer, sliding my hands down the column. I stopped just short of touching her. So close that with every breath, the swell of her breasts barely brushed against the jacket of my suit.
Then I leaned down and whispered against her ear, “You’re mine.”
The shiver that ran through her body, from the tips of her toes to the top of her head, left no doubt that she’d heard me perfectly.
“But what does that mean?”
“I thought I was pretty damn clear about that earlier today,” I said, moving one of my hands off the cold, lifeless column and onto the lush, giving swell of her hip. “But I’m more than willing to show you again if you need a refresher.”
She swiveled her head around to look me in the eye. Did she have any idea how seductive that forest-brown gaze of hers was? How it made me itch to enfold her in my arms, slide her into the shadows behind the column, and take her right then and there?
And that impulse only intensified as I watched her nervously wet her lips. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then say what you mean.”
A tight, humorless smile flashed across her face. “You sound just like your brothers.”
“Did they say something to upset you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Kiera nervously bit into her lip, hesitating before answering. “Just that you’re in love with me.”
“And you find that upsetting?”
She didn’t answer that, but at least she stopped trying to wriggle out of my grasp and met my gaze straight on. “Is it true?”
“Funny. I remember asking you a similar question about an hour ago.” I couldn’t help the smile that teased at the corner of my lips… even if it was laced with more than a touch of dark judgment. “A question you refused to answer.”
“I answered,” she objected, shaking her head.
“You lied,” I shot back, refusing to let her off the hook. “You can’t demand the truth while hiding your own secrets, Kiera.”
Shame flashed in her eyes, intense enough that when she finally opened her mouth, I expected either another denial or lie—anything but the visceral gut punch her words delivered.
“My secrets keep me safe,” she said. “I figured you, more than anyone, would understand that.”
In an instant, all the judgment I felt disappeared. I let go of my hold on the column to gently cup her cheek as I pressed my forehead against hers.
“You don’t need them anymore,” I told her. “I’m the one who keeps you safe now.”
To hammer home the point, I tilted her head back and kissed her…hard.
Even though it had only been hours since I’d felt her beneath me, the second I felt her soft lips opening and the flick of her tongue against mine, my blood surged. In that moment, I realized it didn’t matter how much time passed or how many times I’d lose myself inside her. I’d never get tired of her.
Never.
When Kiera finally pulled back from the kiss, her lips were flushed and her eyes glazed. Gone was the frantic, almost panicked energy from moments before, and in its place was another kind of fire altogether—one that was just as powerful, just as urgent.
“Dorian.” She practically purred my name.
“Yes, Kiera,” I answered.
“Your brothers told me something else, and I want to know if it’s true.”
“What’s that?”
“They said…” She hesitated as her gaze drifted to the side. Her shyness mixed with her innocence was a dead sexy combination. “They said you’ve fucked a lot of girls in this club.”
“It’s true,” I answered before cocking my head to the side. “Does that upset you?”
“Actually, I think it’s kind of…hot.” She still wouldn’t look at me as she shook her head, but she shivered as I traced the pad of my thumb over her cheek. “But this place is so crowded. Where did you do it?”
Her voice had dropped down, turning husky. That certainly wasn’t the sound of detached academic curiosity.
“There are lots of dark secret places in here,” I rasped against her ear, letting my breath wash over her sensitive skin. “You just need to know where to look.”
“Like where?”
“Shadowy corners, back hallways, an unlocked closet,” I rattled off a handful of the spots where I’d led the girls who’d come before her.
“What about behind a beam like this one?” She bit into her lip again. “Is it dark enough?”
Already rock hard, my cock pressed almost painfully against the fly of my pants at the suggestion.
“It is,” I answered. “But it would be risky this close to the dance floor. Someone might come into the alcove.”
“You could get caught,” she agreed.
“That’s always a risk,” I told her. “But it’s also part of the allure.”
“Everything I’ve ever done has been behind closed doors,” she confessed. “I’ve never fooled around in public. It sounds…dirty.”
“It is if you do it right.”
“Would…would you…” Her cheeks burned bright with a mixture of embarrassment and lust.
Even though I knew what she was dying to ask, I wasn’t about to let her off easy. I wanted to hear it from her lips. “Would I what, Kiera?”
She closed her eyes. I could tell she only had the courage to either look me in the eye or ask me to fuck her brains out, but not both.
“Would you ever want to do something like that with me?” she asked.
“You mean like this?”
Hooking my arm around her waist, I slid her around the back of the column with me. The moment we were swallowed up by the shadows, I flattened my palm against the base of her spine and slid it up to the nape of her neck. Tangling my fingers in her hair, I pulled her in for a searing kiss that left her panting.
I didn’t give her any time to catch her breath before spinning her around in my arms, so she faced the column. Instinctively, her hands grasped the sides as I curled my fingers and raked them up her thighs.
The deafening beat of the music still pounding all around us, I had to lean in close to make sure she heard me. “Is this what you want?”
Her dark, loose hair, cascading down her back, bobbed as she nodded.
But that wasn’t enough. I wanted to hear her say it.
So I pressed my chest flat against her back, bringing myself close enough to graze my teeth against her ear lobe this time. “I said, is this what you wanted?”
I felt more than heard her gasp as I hiked up the hem of her dress, exposing her rounded ass. When she didn’t answer right away, I gave it a playful smack. She let out a startled cry, but the stream of electronic dance music pouring out of the speakers masked the sound.
When she finally answered me, her voice was just as shaky as the rest of her.
“Y-Yes.”
“You want me to scratch that itch deep inside you?” I continued. “The one you can’t control when you’re with me?”
She nodded again. “Yes.”
“You want to give into the animal side of yourself? That part of you that doesn’t care where we are or if we get caught? The part that demands satisfaction?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Why?” I gripped her hair as I pressed myself more fully against her. “What made you beg me for this and not someone else?”
The answer didn’t come quick this time. Instead, I felt her panting breaths—in and out, in and out—as I clung to her tight. But I stayed patient, confident I could wait her out.
“You know why,” she reluctantly answered a second later.
“Tell me anyway,” I growled. “Tell me why you’re hiding out in the shadowy corners of a nightclub with a dangerous criminal, begging me to fuck you senseless.”
“Because…”
That was the last hesitation I could stand.
I spun her around in my arms, forcing her to meet my gaze. Then, looking her dead in the eye, I lifted her up, wrapping her legs around my waist and resting her back against the beam.
“Tell me, Kiera,” I commanded before throwing open the button and zipper of my pants. “If you want this, you need to tell me now.”
My cock burst free, and I prayed she wouldn’t call my bluff. At this point, with the warm, wet heaven of her cunt so close, I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull away if she refused.
“Because you’re the only one that I trust,” she admitted. “You’re the only one that makes me feel this way.”
Close—but still not enough. There was only one thing I wanted to hear.
“Tell me that secret, Kiera,” I demanded. “Tell me the truth.”
Her body trembled, whether with nerves or anticipation, I wasn’t sure. All that mattered was that her gaze was open and honest when she opened her mouth again.
“I’m afraid I’m falling in love with you,” she said. “That’s the truth.”
“That’s fucking right,” I roared victoriously.
I pivoted my hips forward, immediately plunging myself inside her depths.
It was true—I’d screwed my share of women in clubs like this over the years, but none came close to making me feel what Kiera did. The differences went beyond her soft curves and sultry voice. It had nothing to do with the deep brown color of her eyes and everything with the way she gazed at me with them.
The way she wrapped her arms and legs around me and held on tight.
The way she cried my name over and over again like a prayer.
I might have been trained for a life of crime, but I was still an educated man. I knew that people like me, people capable of great violence, weren’t known for being overly emotional.
Some would say I was cold, devoid of empathy, and therefore incapable of love.
But those bastards didn’t know what the fuck they were talking about.
Maybe my brothers were right. After all, I cared more about Kiera than myself. Her safety and happiness were far more important than my own. If that wasn’t love, then what was?
The sweet walls of her cunt drew taut around the shaft of my cock, gripping it as her body began to tremble. My balls tightened as the tension inside her grew and grew with every stroke.
I’d been with her enough times now to know how close she was. I could interpret every shiver that ran through her body and read the expression of ecstasy on her face. I knew to speed my thrusts when her head fell back and to tighten my grip on her hips as her back began to arch.
And when I felt her internal shivers turn into uncontrollable quakes, I knew it was time to stop holding back my own climax and come deep inside her.
And once we’d both managed to catch our breaths, I knew it was time to take her back where she belonged—my home.