StrokeofMidnight (5 page)

Rowyn moved close, circled a fingertip around his nipple
then raked a nail over the puckered tip. He sucked in a lungful of air and his
gut clenched. The dusky peaks may have been smaller than her nipples, but they
were no less sensitive. He wanted her mouth on him.

As if hearing his wish, she dipped her head to his chest and
lapped at his flesh. He hissed in pleasure and clasped her head to him. She
coiled her tongue around the hard bump, flicking and sucking.

“Here,” he ordered and didn’t wait way for her to obey but
steered her head to the neglected tip. As she closed her teeth around it, he
couldn’t contain his rumble of pleasure. The woman’s mouth should have been labeled
a lethal weapon—lethal to his control, lethal to his sanity. Lethal to his
soul.

He tugged her head up and crushed a kiss to her mouth. At
the same time, he walked her backward until she bumped the edge of the
mattress. As soon as she fell on the bed, he covered her—his mouth continued to
maraud hers, his chest pressing her breasts, his thighs bracketing her legs,
his cock grinding into the soft give of her stomach.

Rowyn tipped her chin up, disconnecting their mouths. She
dragged in much-needed air. “Darius,” she pleaded, clutching his firm ass,
biting into the taut flesh with her fingernails and silently begging for the
deeper, harder stroke of his cock in her pussy. She felt so empty. She needed
to be penetrated, opened, stretched…filled. Her hips writhed underneath his and
she tried to shift upward and maneuver his rigid length over her sex.

“No,” he objected, nipping her jaw. “Not yet. I want to eat
your sweet pussy before I fuck it.” The blunt, sexual words almost hurtled her
into orgasm. Her pussy spasmed and clenched. “Tell me you want it, sweetheart.
Tell me you want my tongue deep inside you.”

“Yes…” she moaned the reply and, as Darius slid down her
body, planting kisses between her breasts and on her stomach, she scratched his
back and shoulders. “Please, Dar—”

The first swipe of his tongue through her slit tore a
piercing scream from her throat. Her back arched off the mattress and he
grasped her hips to hold her still for his mouth. His hungry rumble vibrated in
her sex.

“God, it’s good.” He stabbed at her clit with his tongue
then curled it around the sensitive nub. She jolted beneath him and he
tightened his grip. Ruthlessly he lashed and suckled, driving her to the very
brink before drawing her back, only to start all over again. Yet when he tilted
her hips at a higher angle and slanted his head to thrust his tongue into the
entrance to her pussy, she came undone.

Pleasure consumed her, coursed through her like a living
thing. It seemed as if she became a being without thought, one who existed
solely on feeling and emotion. She writhed and bucked, hoarse cries falling
from her lips and punctuating the wet sounds of his suction on her pussy.
Against her protests, he withdrew from her sheath. After murmuring a low
reassurance, he latched on to her clit once more and buried two fingers in her
pussy. Rowyn released a strangled cry and rocked her hips in time to the hard
thrusts.

“Darius,” she begged, clawing at the bed sheets. “Please let
me come. I need to…” The tempo increased—he flicked faster and finger fucked
her harder. The orgasm swirled low in her back, her pelvis. Like a runaway
train picking up speed, it rocketed closer and closer until…

She screamed. Her body stiffened, jerked. Release rolled
through her, over her. Darius nursed it, lapping at her clit, stimulating her
sex with slow, shallow stabs of his fingers, bringing her down but also
building the pleasure up again.

“I need to be inside you,” he growled and jackknifed off the
bed. In seconds he’d grabbed his pants off the floor then removed his wallet
and the condom tucked in the fold. With hurried movements, he sheathed his cock
with the latex and climbed back onto the mattress. He knelt between her spread
legs and rubbed his hands up her calves to her inner thighs. He brushed the crease
where her legs and torso met with his fingertips. “Wider, sweetheart. Open up
for me.”

Heart pounding, she stared up at him and submitted to his
command. Anticipation—and just a bit of feminine apprehension—fluttered in her
stomach. But the hunger to have his cock spread her with its special burn,
taking her to the delicious edge that rode pain and pleasure, overrode
everything else. She needed it—longed for it.

“Please,” she whispered and held her arms outstretched to
him, inviting him into her embrace. Her personal space. She wanted to breathe
him in, the scent of sand and sex that clung to his skin. Darius accepted the
invitation, sliding over her and melding his mouth to hers in a kiss that spoke
of lust and passion. Yet the tender glide of his lips—once, twice, before his
tongue plunged deep—hinted at a gentleness that exceeded need.

He pressed his chest to her breasts and she couldn’t help
but subtly twist her torso to rub her hard, aching nipples over his muscles.
She gasped as the spear of pleasure shot directly from the stiff tips to her
pulsing clit. With a tilt of her pelvis, she stroked her drenched folds over
his cock. The pressure dragged a long moan from her.

Darius continued to make love to her mouth as he planted his
hands on either side of her head and levered his torso off hers. A moment
later, his cock head prodded her pussy.
Finally.
She tore her mouth away
from his and turned her head to the side, eyes squeezed shut.

“Uh-uh.” The low, sexy tone licked over her skin seconds
before his tongue blazed a path up her neck to nip her earlobe. “Don’t turn
away. It’s you and me.”

“I’m not turning away,” she contradicted his assumption.
Rowyn returned her gaze to his and drank in the gleaming blue eyes,
kiss-swollen lips, flushed cheekbones and hard jaw. “I just want to remember
every moment. For later.”

He stared down at her, silent for several long seconds. Then
he lowered his lashes, bent his head, brushed a soft caress over her brow—and
thrust forward.

She gasped. Her neck arched and she clutched his arms in a
hang-on-for-dear-life grip. So full. God, so good.

“I want in, Rowyn,” he demanded softly in her ear. “Six
months, sweetheart. I want in now.” He nipped the curve of her ear and laid a
kiss just below her lobe, steadily surging forward and withdrawing. With each
thrust and retreat, he claimed more of her pussy. The heavy weight of his cock
and the power of each stroke stretched her sex and she spasmed around his hard
stalk. He gave her less time to become accustomed to the invasion but Rowyn
found she didn’t need it. No, she’d longed for the steady pleasure-pain burn,
welcomed it.

“That’s it.” The praise delivered in the tender but rough
voice thrilled her, arrowing a shaft of delight from her heart to the hot, wet
place he fucked with determination. “Damn, you’re tight. And so wet. A little
more, sweetheart. Just a little…”

He flexed his hips and groaned. His body stiffened over her.
The mask of passion that claimed his face captured her fascination. Lips drawn
into a tight line, teeth clenched so hard a tiny muscle jumped along the strong
line of his jaw. Nostrils flared and dark lashes lowered in a hooded, sensual
stare that had her pussy clenching around his fully embedded cock. A long, low
hiss escaped his lips and blue fire leaped in his eyes.

She lifted her legs and locked her ankles just above his
tight ass. A raw, hungry growl rumbled in his chest and as he shifted, his
heavy sac grazed the stretched folds of her sex. Another sensation to add to
the ecstasy overload she found herself tossed into. She stared into the face of
desire, her pussy filled to capacity with it. She took in a deep breath and
inhaled the scent of sex from his skin—and still she craved more.

“Are you okay?” he asked. She registered the question, but
how the hell did he expect her to answer when he did that circle thing with his
hips, setting her clit on a one-way ticket to orgasm? She couldn’t reply, so
instead she squeezed the muscles in her sex, clamping down on his cock. When he
grunted above her, Rowyn figured he received his answer.

“Fuck,” he muttered and proceeded to do just that—fuck her.
He rode her hard. With every long, plunging stroke of his cock he shoved her
closer to the precipice of release. She cried out, sobbing her pleasure that
penetrated not only her flesh but her heart, her soul.

The mattress bounced beneath them. The headboard banged out
the wild rhythm he set with his driving hips. And she held on to him through it
all, trusting where he would take her. As the orgasm swelled, it seemed almost
frightening in its intensity, in its power. Yet she threw herself headfirst
into the blaze, knowing—believing—he would be there to catch her.

Chapter Six

“The prince chased her, but outside the palace, the
guards had seen only a simple country wench leave. The prince pocketed the
slipper and vowed to find and marry the girl to whom it belonged.”—Cinderella

“Not this shit again.”—Darius Fiore

The aroma of freshly brewing coffee tickled his nose and
Darius inhaled.

Damn. Smelling it was like foreplay to the main event—that
first delicious cup.

He reached over his head, opened the cupboard door and
removed two mugs the hotel provided. As he waited for the pot to finish, he
glanced toward the closed bedroom door. He regretted not leaving it open so he
could look in on the sleeping figure of the woman who’d shared his bed and her
body with him last night. Unlike the previous time they’d been together, he’d
woken up next to her this morning. A grin curved his lips. Who would’ve guessed
Rowyn Jeong was a cuddler?

The last of the coffee trickled into the pot, and after
filling both ceramic cups with the dark brew, he added cream and sugar to one
and left the other black. On bare feet, he turned and exited the small
kitchenette, mugs in hand. He’d barely made it across the living area when a
knock sounded on the hotel room door. Frowning, he shot a glance at the digital
clock on the kitchenette counter. 7:56 a.m. Who could that be?

Darius set the steaming cups on the small table beside the
couch and headed toward the door. With a twist of his wrist he had the lock
unbolted and the door opened. Surprise sang through him.

Cindy Harrison.

Rowyn’s younger sister smiled up at him, lovely and fresh in
a yellow summer dress that complimented her caramel skin. Her dark hair curled
around her shoulders and framed a face that most likely mesmerized every man
she met.

Except him.

She didn’t have hair that fell down her back in a waterfall
of dark silk. Her eyes, while a very pretty hazel, didn’t possess the striking
tilt of the outer corners. Nor were they the beautiful, mysterious brown that
could gleam with passion or blaze with anger. Cindy’s petite slenderness
couldn’t compare to the statuesque, curvy body that seemed built for
fucking…for loving.

No. Cindy, with her traditional loveliness, didn’t hold a
torch—fuck, a candle—to her older sister.

“Can I come in?” she asked, flashing the dimples in her
cheeks.

“Of course.” Darius shifted back and allowed enough room for
her to enter the hotel suite. Her gaze dropped and flicked over his bare chest
and the black pants he’d dragged on but had left unbuttoned. Hell, he’d
intended to wear them only long enough to make coffee. Spending the morning
making love to Rowyn didn’t require clothes.

“I woke you,” she apologized, stepping past him. “I wanted
to catch you before you started your day.”

“No, it’s fine,” Darius said.
As long as we get this over
with quickly.
“What can I do for you?”

Cindy wheeled around on her dainty heels, her smile
widening. “I’d like to invite you to breakfast and then show you our beautiful
city.”

The irony over how her ploy mirrored the one he’d sprung on
Rowyn the day before amused him. At least he’d brought coffee, while Cindy had
shown up empty-handed.

“That’s very considerate of you, but actually, I toured Boston
yesterday.” He slid his hands into the front pockets of his pants. “And you’re
right. Your city is beautiful.”

“Oh.” She pouted and he had a hard time determining if her
disappointment was genuine. “Well the offer for breakfast is still open. I would
love to treat you to a hot meal and spend time getting to know you before you
leave.” She moved closer to him, lowering her lids as she raised a hand and
laid her fingers on his chest. “We won’t have an opportunity to be alone at
Daddy’s party tonight.” She lifted her lashes and traced a small pattern over
his skin. “I really would like that…quality time with you.”

Well shit. Wasn’t this just…awkward.

“Cindy,” he said and moved backward. Her arm fell to her
side and a faintly puzzled frown creased her brow as if she couldn’t comprehend
his lack of response to her touch. “I appreciate the offer. I do. But I have to
decline. Thank you, though.”

“I don’t underst—” She narrowed her gaze on the table beside
him. The table where he’d placed the two coffee mugs before answering the door.
A moment of silence passed as her scrutiny skipped over the couch
and—dammit—landed on the discarded clothes draped across the sofa arm.

Fuck.

Her hazel eyes returned to him. He braced himself for
indignation and was taken aback by the delight that twinkled in her eyes. She
smiled and an inexplicable sense of foreboding fluttered in his stomach.

“It seems I do understand after all,” she murmured. “Rain
check on the breakfast? Maybe the next time you’re in town?”

Darius nodded, still confused by her reaction, but the man
in him who cringed at the thought of female hysterics was grateful. “Count on
it.”

“I’ll see you tonight, then.” She turned and, with a wiggle
of her fingers, waved good-bye and left the suite.

Darius remained rooted next to the couch. He stared at the
spot where Cindy had stood, bemused. And he’d considered Rowyn an enigma.
Apparently her stepsister shared the trait. With a shrug, he picked up the
still-warm cups and headed toward the bedroom. And the woman sleeping there.
And thoughts of waking her up with coffee. Followed by hours of sex, sweat and
tangled sheets.

With the skill a juggler would have envied, he balanced the
two mugs in one hand and twisted the doorknob with the other. The second shock
of the day resonated through him and panic nipped at its heels. He imagined how
he appeared, standing in the doorway, holding coffee and staring at Rowyn as
she roamed about the room in the robe the hotel provided. Preparing to run.
Again.

Hurt and anger grappled for dominance until he couldn’t
distinguish one from the other. They melded into a fiery mass that lodged under
his breastbone.

After what they’d shared yesterday and last night, she would
still run from him. Still jump from their bed and leave him as if he were that
one-night stand when she had become so much more to him.

“Going somewhere?” he asked, brow arched as he set the cups
on the long dresser nearest the door. His mild tone didn’t betray the emotion
that blistered his chest.

“That was Cindy,” she said and crossed her arms in a gesture
that seemed less defiant and more protective. “I have to get out of here.”

“Your sister is gone.” He dropped his hands to the pants
zipper and, in a deliberate motion, lowered it. The only sound that penetrated
the stillness in the room was the rasp of the metal teeth separating. Rowyn’s
gaze followed the motion and widened in alarm.

“What are you doing?” she asked sharply.

Darius didn’t answer, letting his actions speak for
themselves as he lowered the pants down his hips and thighs. He stepped free of
the material and stood before her bare-ass naked. Her stare jerked from his
hardening dick back to his face. Her expression of dismay and arousal would
have been amusing if he wasn’t so damn pissed.

On silent feet, he stalked across the small space between
them. He assumed her surprise allowed him to tug the terrycloth belt free, but
her paralysis lasted only a moment. Rowyn clutched the lapels to her throat
with both hands.

“Darius,” she protested as he gripped the material under her
fists and pried the robe loose. “We can’t…” The words died on her lips as the
cloth slipped down her arms and pooled on the floor behind her.

“Yes?” He stepped forward. And groaned. Her breasts with
their hard dark nipples pressed to his chest chased away his hurt and anger. A
gnawing hunger remained. A hunger he’d believed had been satisfied countless
times the night before. He was beginning to think it could never be sated. He’d
be granted a respite maybe, but never fully gratified.

He ground his cock against the softness of her stomach. On a
low growl, he cupped her ass and held her still as he circled his hips,
stroking his dick against her, needing the sweet pleasure of skin-to-skin
contact. With a soft, ravenous moan, Rowyn surrendered. She lifted her arms and
wound them around his neck. Their mouths met halfway. Tongues dueled, entwined
and licked. He changed the angle of his head and dove deeper, demanding all she
had to give him. Her taste. Her moans. Her submission…her heart.

In moments, Darius lowered Rowyn to the bed. She spread her
thighs wide and he settled into the natural vee and welcoming heat of her
pussy. The swollen lips gloved his cock and he couldn’t resist sliding his
shaft through the wet slit. He grunted with pleasure. She whimpered as his cock
head bumped over her engorged clit. The pretty pink button he’d sucked and
teased countless times hours before peeked from between the folds as if begging
for attention. Shifting up, he ground the base of his cock against it and
satisfaction surged through him at Rowyn’s hoarse cry. With a low curse, he
rolled off her and reached for one of the condoms he’d tossed on the bedside
dresser at some point during the night. In seconds, he tore the small foil
packet open, rolled the lubricated latex over his erection and returned to the
woman on the bed who represented ecstasy and paradise. The breath hissed from
between his lips as he reclaimed his position between her thighs.

“Listen to me,” he demanded and cupped her face, holding her
head captive between his palms. Her lashes fluttered then lifted and he stared
down into her glazed eyes. “
Here
is where you belong.” He emphasized
“here” with a small movement of his hips, and then penetrated her pussy with
one hard thrust that sheathed half his erection. “And
here
is where I
belong.” Again he punctuated the word with another stroke that buried him
balls-deep inside her sex. Her shocked gasp heated his lips as, for the first
time, she took his cock in two short thrusts.

“There you go,” he whispered and dipped in her mouth for a
short kiss. “Fuck, I can feel your pussy shivering around my dick, baby.” He
groaned and pressed his forehead to hers. “This is where
we
belong.” He
rolled his hips and stroked his pelvis over her clit. When she lifted her legs
and encircled his waist, the balls of her feet settling in the small of his
back for a long ride, he withdrew, emitting a groan at the exquisite pleasure
of her flesh dragging over his sensitive shaft. “Don’t try to leave again,
Rowyn,” he murmured, voice hoarse with lust and a fierce need that had nothing
to do with his cock and everything to do with his heart. “I won’t let you go
again.”

And with that promise thrown between them, he proceeded to
make love to her, branding her as she’d already done to him.

* * * * *

“Thank you.” Rowyn nodded as she accepted the glass of
champagne from the server. God, she hated these tedious parties. She lifted the
drink to her lips and sipped, not in the mood for the alcohol or the social
event. She would have preferred to remain locked up Darius’ hotel room with
him. Or over him. Under him.

A small smile curved her lips. She hid it behind the rim of
her glass, but nothing could suppress the warmth that unfurled in her belly.
The last two days had been…magical. From walking among the shops of Boston
hand-in-hand to the hours of hot sex…No. Not sex. Making love.

For her, she’d made love last night and this morning. In one
afternoon, Darius knew her like no other person. His compassion and kindness
had rubbed balm over the wounds in her soul and his touch had conveyed how
special he found her. Rowyn had felt beautiful. Even…loved.

She slammed the mental brakes and skidded all over the road
called “happily ever after.” One night—okay, two and a half days—didn’t make
their ending a fairy tale.

Let’s face it. I’ve known so little love, it would be a
simple leap to confuse affection and great sex with something deeper. Don’t be
a fool.

Her smile dimmed. Pamela, her mother, couldn’t give her
love. What made her think Darius would?

“You look like you have the weight of the world on your
shoulders,” Wanda said in lieu of greeting as she pressed her cheek to Rowyn’s.
“Someone with champagne in her hand should not appear so serious.”

Rowyn snorted. “I’m just answering the royal decree to
attend this event. I have exactly”—she shot a discreet glance at her wrist—”one
hour and forty-three minutes before I can leave.”

“Come on, Ro,” her friend drawled. “One would think you
weren’t excited to be here.” They stared at each other for a long second before
snickering into their champagne glasses.

“When did you get here?” Rowyn asked.

“About fifteen minutes ago.” Wanda fell silent and—her
brown-eyed gaze inscrutable—studied Rowyn. “I heard about the potential merger.
And the women’s fashion division being the guinea pig.”

Rowyn shrugged with forced nonchalance. That particular
knife had yet to be yanked from her heart. “It’s Daniel’s company to run as he
sees best.” The company line. And so much bullshit.

“That’s bullshit,” Wanda snapped, echoing her thought. Her
friend edged closer and lowered her voice, but her fury rang as clear as a
bell. “He is your stepfather. There were other departments to consider and
choose from. Departments almost as profitable too. I bet he didn’t even tell
you what he’d planned.” At Rowyn’s silence, Wanda’s full lips thinned into an
angry slash. “What an inconsiderate, conniving asshole.”

“Inconsiderate, yes. But not conniving,” Rowyn contradicted
and earned a glare for the effort.

“You’re defending him?” The other woman’s voice dropped to
an ominous level and Rowyn smiled. To be championed was a rare occurrence and
her friend’s rage on her behalf felt…well…good.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m not defending him. But to
call him conniving suggests he actually contemplated how I would feel and made
a decision to be sneaky. Daniel didn’t even
consider
me in his decision.
I was a nonfactor.”