Renaissance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 5) (21 page)

His mouth rested at her ear.  “It better have been today, Daniels.  Right before you called me,” he said calmly.

She smiled on a groan.  “It may have been a day or two ago.”

He pushed into her and rolled his hips.  “When?” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” she gasped out.

“Liar.  Tell me or I’m stopping,” he teased.

“There’s no need for such drastic measures,” she purred, his hand now massaging her scalp.  She gripped the pillow.  “It’s only been a few days,” she began.  “Maybe, I don’t know, five or six days.”

“Five or six days?” he growled.  Then he took over her body, gripping her hair and pushing into her with such force it stole her breath.

“Six,” she moaned loudly.  “I think it was six,” she laughed, feeling more alive than she’d ever felt in her life.  “Right after the dinner party.”

“Fuck, Tiff,” he said between gritted teeth.  “Made me wait,” he stuttered and slammed into her.  It was so tight this way with her flat on her stomach and her knees bent.  “Made me wait six days,” he ground out and took no mercy on her.  Just pounded away, moving her up the bed yet holding her down by the hair for their pleasure.

A low rumble began in her chest and soon she was screaming at the brilliant sensations coursing through her.  She shouted loudly, bright stars now exploding everywhere.  She clawed at the sheets and buried her face in the pillow, screaming some more as he continued his frenzied assault until he stiffened behind her and spilled into her.  The sound he made behind her was animalistic and made her arch back into him, seeking even more connection.

His breath came hot and heavy on the back of her neck. “I want to smell you.  Devour you, I want to do such nasty things to you, Tiff.  You have no idea.  I swear, I want to fucking,” he ground into her as he growled, “
own
you.  I want you to be
mine
.”

Did he have any idea the effect his words had on her?  It was like she’d taken a hit from the most potent drug, she was flying so high.

“Every man who looks at you, I want him to know he can’t have you.  I want him to know you’re mine.  Do you understand?”  He sounded angry, unhinged.  His hand massaged her scalp then squeezed her hair again.

She moaned, “Yes.”

“Say it.”

“I understand,” she said, turning her head to look at him, nuzzle him.  And she did understand.  She felt the same way.

That move gentled him significantly and he dropped his head to the side of hers, where he rested his mouth on her cheek.  Then he whispered something to her.

...and her world changed.

She moved her head again to try to look back at him and his eyes collided into hers.

“What?” she whispered.

“When I said I was coming after you, I meant it.”

“No, I mean, what did you just say?”  Her heart beat so erratically, she feared she’d pass out.

“You heard me.”  His eyes continued watching her.  There was silence as they stared into each other’s eyes.  He never looked away, just waited.

A bubble of disbelief, joy, excitement, possessiveness, sheer and perfect com
plete
ness hit her. 

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod...

And still, he lay on her back, deep inside her with her head turned back to see him looking into the recesses of her soul while he murmured so matter of factly, “I’m not going back.  So, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”

She laughed.  Then laughed again.  Then in a frenzied grapple of arms and legs they shifted their bodies so they were facing one another and she attacked his mouth, wrapping herself around him and kissing the shit out of him.

He moaned into her mouth, voraciously kissing her back, their hands all over each other.  She said in between licks and bites, “Do you mean it?”

“Are you calling me a liar?” he teased, then moved his mouth to a nipple and pulled it into his mouth, sucking it hard.

“Say it again,” she begged, pulling at whatever hair she could wrap her fingers around on his head.  His laugh vibrated around her breast and caused her to cry out.

“I’m no dummy.  I’m not saying it again until you tell me what you’re thinking.  And you will,” he said so confidently.  “So, I can wait.”  He moved his lips to the other breast and bit down lightly. 

“Shit,” she breathed.  His mouth was insanely good at this.  “I think about forever when I’m with you too,” she blurted, repeating his earlier words back to him.  “Now
you
say it.”

His mouth found hers and smiled as he rubbed it with his lips.  The smile depicted such a combination of emotions, she couldn’t put her finger on just one.  But they were all wonderful.

“You didn’t make me wait very long,” he chuckled.  He kissed her again.  “What did you want me to say again?  That I’ve come to respect and like you as a friend?” he asked softly.

She shook her head, knowing he was toying with her.

He kissed her cheek.  “How about how fucking adorable you are when you babble?”

She shook her head again, touching his face.

“Did you want me to tell you that you’ve come to touch my heart with your love for these kids?  Or how proud I am when I think about what my mom would say if she could meet you?”  He swallowed.  “She would’ve loved you, and she would’ve told me to snag you and not let you go.”

She blinked, trying to keep him in focus through her watery eyes. 

“So,” he continued while kissing her face, “this is me snagging you.”  He looked down at her.  “My sexy, sweet, tempting tall glass of water who slays me every time I see her.”  Then he kissed her mouth, only to break away a moment later.  “Is that what you wanted me to say?”

A little sob escaped before she could contain it, and he stroked her face with such tenderness another one bubbled up in her chest.

“What do you want me to say, Tiff?” he asked so softly.

She swallowed around the lump.  “Tell me what you said before.  Again.”  All of her vulnerability showed on her face and was heard in her voice.

“You take my breath away and make me want to pound my chest, Tiffany Daniels.  I want to mark you.  I want to take care of you and protect you because that’s in my DNA,” he smiled.  “But I want to be your partner.  I want to be with you in the sweetest and dirtiest of ways.”  He nipped at her lower lip, then whispered, “I’ve been wanting you more and more each day, but now it’s just the beginning.  And,” he said, finally getting to the phrase that had started it all, “I really do think about forever whenever I’m with you.” 

Happy tears streaked down her cheeks as she grabbed his face to kiss him over and over.  He hadn’t said the words ‘I love you’ but he may as well have.  After a few moments, she said, “I’ve wanted you since 4th of July.”

“God, woman,” he groused.  “You really know how to hide it.”

“You made me so nervous, which is unexplainable to me, considering I’ve been around the block a few times,
and
I’ve been married.  It’s very disconcerting, I might add.  I don’t like the effect you have on me.”

The gleam in his eye caused her to swat his arm.  He ducked playfully but grabbed her hand, and hummed, “I do.  I love making you nervous.  I thought I just annoyed you for some unknown reason.  You always disappeared whenever I entered the room.  I know after a few months we developed a friendship, but I didn’t realize there was an attraction.  Emily hinted at it, and I hoped that on New Year’s things had shifted.”

“I’m the ex-wife of a politician and the daughter of two diplomats.  I know how to hide my feelings with a smile on my face.  Or apparently make myself scarce when I’m around a man who I think is hot,” she joked.

His eyebrow went up.  “How hot?”

She shrugged.  “You’re alright.”

He dipped his head and captured a nipple again.  She gasped at his sudden movement.  “You sure about that?”

She breathed out a whimper, “Better than alright.”

“You can do better than alright,” he murmured, then scraped his teeth over the nub only to sink them in a little bit more.

She let out a deep groan.

“What was that?” he encouraged around the tightened skin.

“Hot, so hot, super hot,” she stuttered as her body sizzled under his mouth.

He kissed up her body and nestled back in so their faces were next to each other.

“I really didn’t know you liked me on New Year’s.  Well, the kiss certainly made me wonder.  I’ve heard it was mind blowing.”

“I never realized how arrogant you were, Doctor,” she grumbled. 

“Hey, you’re the one who said it was mind blowing.”

“That’s because you had me all jumbled.  Normally, I never would have fed your ego so willingly.”

He kissed her neck.  “No?  But you like my kisses, don’t you?”  He continued consuming her neck, lighting up all of her nerve endings until they were screaming.

She sighed, leaning into him, and made some kind of noise.  Then, she admitted, “On New Year’s I wanted something to happen.  I just wanted to be healthy first, for both of us before starting anything up.  I was scared.  I didn’t feel whole yet.”

“How do you feel now?”  His fingers tickled up and down her side.

“Perfect,” she whispered, and snuggled into his neck.   

“So you made me wait for six days.  Why?”

“I liked your daily presents.”

“I hope you were able to make sense of my intentions.”

“I think the Kama Sutra book made them pretty clear.”

“Did you like that?” he smiled.  “So, you made me wait six days because you wanted to see all my presents?”

“Well first, I didn’t call because I didn’t care for your uppity tone with me at the dinner party in the back hallway.”  She leaned up and nibbled on his neck.

“So you were getting back at me?”

“A little,” she said, sucking the skin between her teeth.  “Then, I really did have a ton of work to do and I wanted to make sure that when I did call you, my workload would be done and I could be focused only on you.”

“Mm, I can’t fault that thought process.”  He hugged her tighter.  “I’d say we’ve come a long way from the day in the cafeteria.”

She made a sound of agreement.

“When I saw you walk in that day, with your new haircut?  Shit, Tiff.  I nearly jumped you in that red dress.”

“You kinda did.  With that hug of yours,” she smiled.

“I couldn’t wait to touch you.”

She got serious for a moment.  “I didn’t want to be that woman who threw herself at a man when he was already dating someone.  I would never do that.”

“I know.” 

“But I was so ready to tell you my feelings.  Well, I thought I told you my feelings but I don’t think you picked up on all of my subtleties.”

“I didn’t.  All I heard was that you wanted to date, and the reality hit me that I couldn’t have you.”

The silence settled around them a moment.

“Are you going to tell me what happened with Katrina?”

He took her hand and played with her fingers.  “She’s moving.”

Tiffany blinked.  “Oh.”

“Her mom is getting worse.  Apparently, on one of her last visits there, she interviewed for a position at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and got the job.  She wasn’t going to say anything to me until it was definite, and irony of all ironies, it became definite this last time she was visiting her mom.  When I called her about the concert, one of the reasons why I think she was so accommodating, for lack of a better word, to our situation was because she already knew she would be moving.”

Tiffany processed that for a moment.  “Is she okay?  About her mom, and you, and everything?”

“Strangely, she is.  Her sister is out there, so I think she’s been missing being close to them, especially after her mom got sick.”  He got a faraway look.

“Are you okay?”  She was hating the thought that he’d miss her, but she kept reminding herself that Katrina had been a good friend to him.

He looked at her a little confused.  “Yeah.  Why?”

She shrugged.  “I know you two are good friends.”

He squeezed Tiffany’s hand.  “We are, but I’m fine.  She needs to do what she needs to do.  Her family comes first.” 

“When did she tell you?”

“She gave me a heads up that she had some changes coming when we were driving to Jeremy and Ryann’s, then in the back hall right before you came out of the bathroom, she just said it.”  He pushed the hair back from her face.  “She knew, Tiff.  She knew I had feelings for you and she and I never really meshed in a romantic way.  It was more of an experiment, really,” he said dryly.  “She kind of wondered what it might be like with us and wanted to try it out.  She made a comment in that hallway right after she told me she was moving.”  He grew quiet for a moment.  “She said she was releasing me.  She knew I had another woman in my life who I really wanted to focus on.  And then you walked out of the bathroom,” he said, letting that comment hang.  “Had she not said anything, you and I still would’ve had that conversation.  I’d been planning on ending it with her.  It had been past time to make things right between you and me, Tiff.”