Authors: Naima Simone
StrokeofMidnight (7 page)
And hey, she had a job waiting for her. She grinned under
his kiss and Darius drew back to return her smile.
“I have something for you.”
“Gifts already?” She perched on her toes and nipped the
sensual curve of his bottom lip. “You’ve given me a job. What’s next? The
corner office?”
“No,” he drawled with a shake of his head. “That belongs to
me. I will let you seduce me in it, though.”
Rowyn snickered and waited as he slipped his hand into his
front pocket. “You are all,” her eyes widened, “heart,” she finished hoarsely,
her gaze riveted on the delicate gold chain and pendant that dangled between
his fingers.
Tears clogged her throat. Trembling, she touched a fingertip
to the tiny crown etched into the jewelry’s smooth surface. Memories flooded
her, and suddenly she stood with her father eight years ago as he smiled and
watched her open his gift.
I love you, Daddy. And I miss you.
Darius fastened the chain around her neck and the pendant
felt familiar against her collarbone. Like a homecoming.
“It’s a perfect fit,” he murmured.
“Yes,” Rowyn agreed and lifted her gaze to meet the quiet
joy in his. “We are.”
Epilogue
“Cinderella returned to the palace, where she married
the prince, and they lived happily ever after.”—Cinderella
“Okay, so fairy tales aren’t for suckers.”—Rowyn Joeng
“No, open your eyes,” he murmured. “I want to see.”
Rowyn obeyed the low command and lifted her lashes even as
her pussy pulsed with echoes of the orgasm that had just ripped through her
body. The soft glow of the lamp on the desk cast its golden glow over Darius’
face and chest as he leaned forward, and she remembered another time when he
had issued the same demand. And he was just as beautiful now as he’d been that
first night they’d spent together. His lips gleamed with her cream and the
stark white of his gaping shirt was a sharp contrast against his golden skin.
God, he was beautiful.
She uncurled her fingers from the edge of the desk above her
head and flexed the stiff digits.
“See what?” she asked and lowered her arms. She fiddled with
the top button of her silk shirt. He narrowed his gaze on the gesture. She
smiled and pushed the first disc through the eyelet. In seconds, the shirt
gapped wide.
“Go ahead,” he ordered softly. Rowyn complied. As he lowered
his hands to the thin leather belt at his waist, she opened the bra snap
between her breasts and peeled the cups to the side. His soft growl filled the
room and renewed desire flooded her pussy as she fixed her gaze on his
movements, waiting for the first glimpse of his cock. Darius released the
buckle and dragged the zipper down, then reached inside his slacks and pulled
his dick free.
She slicked her tongue over her lips, hungry. Again. The
thick column of flesh capped with that smooth, bulbous head never failed to
send a spear of lust straight to her pussy. He stroked his hand up the ridged
length and her groan joined his. She palmed her breasts and pinched the
nipples.
Oh God.
She rolled her hips and arched her back. It was so
good. It was always this good with him.
“You know what I want to see?” he asked, his voice a husky
caress over her sweat-dampened skin. Darius gripped the root of his cock and
with a jerk of his hips, impaled her pussy. She pressed her head into the hard
wood of the desk and a cry tore from her throat. “That,” he grunted, drew back
and thrust forward again. “That’s what I need.”
He loomed over her, his palms flattening next to her head
and his arms caging her. In the warm lamplight, the wide gold band gleamed on
the ring finger of his left hand. The sight of it pleasured her as much as the
cock that parted her swollen pussy. She closed her eyes and this time Darius
didn’t demand she reopen them. He rested his forehead against hers and their
breath mingled.
“Open for me, sweetheart,” he whispered. Eager, she lifted
her legs and locked her ankles behind his back. She clutched his arms and held
on to him as if he were her port in an erotic storm. The base of his cock
ground against her clit and shoved her closer to the orgasm that hovered just
out of reach.
“Darius,” she pleaded, straining toward him.
“I have you.” He took her mouth in a burning, hard kiss. “I
have you, sweetheart.”
She gave herself over to him. He rode her hard, fast. He
plunged his cock over and over into her pussy, stoking a fire that roared into
a conflagration and consumed her in its flames. Her scream echoed in the
shadowed office as Darius urged her to take more, go for more. He continued to
fuck her and before her heart slowed after the first orgasm, another rocketed
through her. This time Darius followed her. He threw his head back and his dick
jerked and pulsed inside her sex, hot spurts of semen flooding her rippling
flesh.
Rowyn held him as he bucked and shivered above her. When he
settled his weight over her, skimmed soft lips over her jaw and murmured words
that were lost against her skin, she smiled.
“Do you think everyone knows what goes on in your office
when we ‘work late’?” she asked, rubbing her palm over his dark waves.
His smile tickled her skin as he swept his lips over her
cheekbone.
“What a man and wife do together is their own business…even
if it is in the office.”
“Right.” Rowyn chuckled and the pleasure that shivered
through her had more to do with the man pressed to her than the words he’d
whispered in her ear. Sometimes it was hard to believe Darius had reentered her
life only eighteen months ago. So much had changed, the least of the adjustments
being her relocation from Boston to Seattle. The biggest transformation had
been her.
No longer under the dysfunctional influence of her family,
she’d become the woman she’d dreamed of being for so long. Open. Carefree.
Confident. Beautiful. Darius had not only offered her a top position in his
company, he’d given her something more valuable. Laughter. Trust. Faith. Joy.
Finally, she had her happily ever after.
“I have to go pick up Wanda at the airport in an hour,” she
reminded him even as she tightened her arms around his shoulders and pulled him
closer.
After a couple of visits to Seattle, her best friend had
decided to leave Harrisons’, accept Darius’s job offer and move to the west
coast. These days Rowyn couldn’t stop smiling. And she owed it all to this man
who had swept into her life and made her a princess in her personal fairy tale.
Her smile widened. Her father had been the first man to call
her a princess and had engraved the words on her necklace. Last month, Darius
had become the second when he’d added
mia principessa
—my princess—underneath
the Korean endearment. If she hadn’t been in love with him already, she would
have fallen that day.
“I love you, Darius.”
He lifted his head and stared down at her, the corner of his
mouth lifted in a sexy quirk.
“I love you more, Mrs. Fiore.”
About Naima Simone
I was born the daughter of a
sharecropper…okay, maybe not. But I am the daughter of a pastor, from whom I
inherited my love of romance. The man can preach a mean Song of Solomon!
(There’s that plug, Daddy! You can pay me later!)
Although my first book starred a
cucumber named Fred, my first romance came several years later in the seventh
grade when I wrote myself as a heroine opposite Ralph Tresvant from New
Edition. Through the power of my pen and imagination, Ralph took one look
across a crowed stadium, met my dark, mysterious gaze, fell passionately in
love and serenaded me in front of everyone—once we had the inevitable fight, a.k.a.
black moment, and made up with a passionate declaration of love and fidelity.
The same story reincarnated itself many times over the years—with Donnie
Wahlberg from New Kids on the Block, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and, as
recently as last night, Vin Diesel.
Though the characters have
changed, my love of love has endured. Shaping the lives of the unique men and
women who experience the first, hungry bites of lust, the dizzying heights of
passion and the tender, healing heat of love—nothing compares to it. Except
maybe discovering new material for love scenes with my husband, the head of
Research & Development!
Naima welcomes comments from
readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
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Naima Simone
Print books by Naima Simone
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Stroke of Midnight
ISBN 9781419942143
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Stroke of Midnight Copyright 2012 Naima Simone
Edited by Violet Hughes
Cover design by Irene Adler
Photos: Fotolia.com
Electronic book publication November 2012
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