Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Darius watched my hand move, then his eyes sliced to my face.
I glared at him.
He scowled at me.
For the life of me, I couldn’t say who made the first move.
Though, I thought it was the both of us.
I went at him.
He came at me.
He was bigger, stronger. He had me up against the wall and then we were kissing and tearing at each other’s clothes.
I couldn’t tell you who gave up on the clothes-tearing thing first either, but I again thought it was the both of us.
He’d yanked up my skirt and pulled down my panties.
I stepped out of them at the same time I unzipped his jeans.
My blouse was half unbuttoned and his tee was misshapen, but we left them as they were.
I reached in, pulled him out and stroked…long and tight.
He groaned and I gasped when he lifted me up.
He pinned me to the wall then drilled into me.
My head flew back and hit wall.
Yes.
He thrust and grunted, “Mouth, baby.”
I bent my neck, gave him my mouth, and wrapped him up with my arms and legs and held tight as Darius fucked me into the wall.
Eventually, all he was giving me overwhelmed me, and I tore my mouth from his.
“Harder,” I begged.
“Can’t,” he gritted.
“Harder,” I demanded.
“Can’t, baby. I’m close.”
“Har—”
I cut myself off, whimpering and moaning through a sharp, sweet, long, beautiful orgasm. He went harder, faster, drawing out my climax, then he tucked his face in my neck and groaned, long and low.
I had my cheek against his temple, was fiddling with one of his short twists in my fingers and taking him in. His spicy, earthy smell. His strength surrounding me. His big cock still buried deep.
He moved his head so his lips were at my ear.
“He needs a growing man’s room,” he whispered there.
“Okay,” I replied.
His arms around me got tight. “Fuck, I miss you.”
I closed my eyes, and it was me who shoved my face in his neck.
It took me a second to build up the courage, but I did it and then it was also my turn to put my lips to his ear.
“Whenever you’re ready, however long it takes, we’re waiting for you.”
“Don’t,” he grunted, the word hoarse, raw.
“Baby, you’re giving him the room he’s been begging me for. You don’t think it’s true. But you prove it. Over and over again. You’re worth waiting for.”
He pulled me off him, dropped me to my feet but held me to the wall until my legs were steady under me.
He also tugged down my skirt.
Only when I was standing on my own power did he step back and tuck himself away.
He didn’t look at me.
“I know what you do,” I shared.
His head snapped up and his gaze pierced mine.
“And I don’t like it,” I said. “But I understand why you do it. And we’ll be waiting for when you’re done doing that too.”
He said nothing, just stood there looking into my eyes.
I said nothing more either, just stood there, drinking in the man I adored.
Then he made a move to go.
When he had his hand on the doorknob, I called out, “I love you.”
He turned to me then and said, “You’re beautiful. You’re crazy. You’re too damned loyal. And you’re a huge pain in my ass.”
I smiled at him.
He shook his head.
And then he was gone.
* * * *
It wasn’t long after the incident against the wall in my bedroom when I found myself in the underground parking of an office building on 15th Street in LoDo.
I knew he showed because the cameras I saw everywhere caught me leaning against the door of my car and someone at Nightingale Investigations headquarters told him I was there.
Nightingale Investigations being Lee Nightingale’s private detective agency.
Where Darius now worked.
This was not something Darius told me.
Oh no.
It was something Tony shared with me, seeing as he was surprised Darius had turned his back on the life that had kept him away from me and our son, and we were not together.
One could say, when I learned this, I was surprised too.
But that was only a very small part of what learning this knowledge made me feel.
Hence, why I was standing right there.
But I didn’t move when he showed.
I didn’t because I was drowning in sorrow, in disappointment. So much, I didn’t even have it in me to feel rage.
He stopped in front of me.
“Malia,” he greeted.
“You’re out,” I stated flatly.
“Malia—”
“You got out, you’ve been out for a while, and you didn’t come to us.”
“You don’t understand.”
“No, I don’t. And that’s tired, Darius Tucker. And you know it.”
“You think my boy wants an ex-drug dealer as his dad?”
He asked that, and he wasn’t done talking.
But I was done listening.
“I think it’s clear you don’t have the balls to find out.”
His head jerked like I’d slapped him.
But…
Fuck that.
It was official.
It had been a good run.