“And the doorman’s dog.” I handed her a tablet. “I have put all the data and specs here so you don’t have to actually rummage around in my garage if you want to steal something. My tech is not worth dealing with Marcus Licinius Crassus. The next time he bites you, I’m turning him into a rug. It’s all right here, organized and compiled in order of most valuable to least. Also, if you’re feeling better, we’re going into the city on Monday to rehearse for the Christmas concert. Maestro sent the music with congratulations on your Dani Divine musical debut. He loved it.”
She grabbed my wrist, her grasp so strong that my bones creaked. “You saved Maestro, and the dog, and my cello, and you’re giving me all your valuable tech? Why?”
I gazed at her for a long time, smiling until my bones creaked. “You’re going to break my wrist if you aren’t careful.” Having her touch me with that much intensity felt so good. So right. If she shattered every one of my bones, I’d probably die happy. Except that I needed to stay alive to protect her. Less from danger and more from loneliness.
“Sorry.” She pulled away, wrapping her arms around herself, so confused, so lost, so vulnerable, that I couldn’t help but pick her up again and carry her to the double bed and climb in it with her, both of us wearing too many clothes.
I nosed her hair. She smelled so good. So much like herself. “Daniela, I liked you the first time we met, on top of that tower, when you kissed me in public. I liked you enough to think about you quite often even before I knew your family or your horrible cousin. When you came to Las Vegas to destroy me, I had no objection to it, as long as your cousin fell as well. But when you asked me to protect you, to give you my name, to hide you fromthose who hurt you, I took that seriously. I love you, Daniela Delavigne Dagger. I’ve loved you from the moment you broke my nose. It was only compounded when I woke up in the desert with a scorpion on my face. You’re everything I want to keep.” I kissed her forehead and then nudged her with my chin as I looked at the wall across from the bed. “Do you like them?”
When she saw the collection of glass knives, she gasped and gripped my hand, again too tight, but at the same time, not tight enough.
“Whose are they?” she asked in a breathless voice.
“Yours,” I murmured, running my nose down the side of her neck. Would she mind terribly if I used my tongue? I’d been so good about not tasting her for far too long. “I’ve been collecting them since that time on the tower when you didn’t stab me.”
Her breath caught, and my aching for her grew exponentially.
“I left my knives at the hotel.” She gripped me without taking her eyes off the wall.
I kissed her neck. “Pity. They’re from all over the world. Each one has a story that I’d like to tell you sometime, but first, I want to be intimate with you.”
She bit her lip, looking from the knives to me and then to her cello, sitting there looking priceless. Maybe she needed to play her cello, to make sure it was all right after Philippe had it in his hands.
“Intimate in what way?”
“I think we’ll start with kissing.” I kissed her shoulder. “Then move to caresses,” I said, running my fingers over the inside of her wrist. “Then tasting.” I licked her neck, barely a taste, but she sighed and shifted against me, softening as we sank into the down mattress.
“You mean sex?” She said it so softly and hopefully. Was anything more ridiculous than Daniela asking me to have my way with her?
“No. I mean lovemaking,” I said, gazing into her eyes and kissing her until she wrapped her arms and legs around me like she’d never let me go. Too tight would never be tight enough.
40
VILLAIN
Love making.
I finally understood what Dirk’s evil villain plan was, and it had worked perfectly. He’d used me to destroy Philippe, which was a much better revenge considering Philippe’s unhealthy obsession with me, and it fit the crime, since Philippe had attacked Dirk’s sister instead of going after him directly, like Dirk destroyed him. Also, and most shocking, Dirk had turned me from his greatest threat to his most loyal defense, all with the price of Maples’ surgery, a cello, and Toni, who he would have protected anyway because of Nitro.
After being wrapped in Dirk’s strong arms, covered in his lips and words, there wasn’t anything else. I’d forgotten fear. His lovemaking was music, chocolate, and everything else that brought me to life. It was the last straw, the final stroke of genius that completely slew me. He was going to keep me addicted to him because that was part of his plan, to turn me to his side and keep me there. If that wasn’t his plan, he would fail, and he wasn’t an idiot, not in any realm, so he wouldn’t seduce me so utterly if he didn’t want to keep me.
I lay in bed with him, every piece of my body feeling whole for the first time in as long as I could remember. I felt him beside me, but I couldn’t close my eyes, not when the world was so perfect, when I felt so good. I was curled up against his back, my arm wrapped around his chest, which he covered with his incredibly capable hands.
Was it true? Was he just setting me up for an even bigger betrayal? For a moment my heart pounded faster, but I couldn’t panic when I was curled against his back, still drowning in his sweet, sweet love. Love? Could he love me the way I loved him? Maybe that was also part of the plan.
I slipped out of bed, unable to hold still. It would be simple enough to check whether or not he meant this to be permanent. I grabbed his pink fluffy robe and went into the living room to find Toni sitting on the couch, watching Scooby Doo on her phone. I sat down with the tablet on my lap. This was the first time we’d been alone together since I left Boston determined to ruin my husband.
I frowned down at the pink diamond for a moment before turning to Toni. “What do you think that his master plan is?”
She raised a pastel-blue brow. The other brow was pastel yellow. Sometimes her style choices seriously confused me. “Making you fall in love with him and keeping you forever.”
I nodded, slightly more settled. “It’s the logical conclusion that I came to as well, but I thought I’d check these files to be sure. He knows that if he gives me this tech, I can’t steal it.”
“That’s one of the truths of life. Can’t steal something you already have.”
I flipped it on and stared at the screensaver for a moment of Maples looking groggily up from an operation table. Dirk had been there; no, he’d been in Las Vegas, but someone had been there taking care of the doorman’s dog. My chest constricted,and my skin felt itchy. What I needed to do was go back to bed and hold onto Dirk until I stopped feeling so dizzy.
“He has a dog? Are you going to steal that?”
