Maybe that was something worth considering for Delilah. Maybe I didn’t need to dominate every conversation with my presence and my words. Maybe I could just listen.
“I don’t need to tell you that I made similar mistakes with Sarah, and that I very nearly lost her as a result,” Cassius went on. “That period where I’d thought I’d lost her? Fucking brutal, Adrian. Absolutely fucking brutal. I do sincerely hope that if your honesty with yourself makes you realize you want Delilah, the woman, not Delilah’s pussy, then you get her. But I would never wish that period of darkness on anyone.”
“It’s nothing I haven’t experienced before,” I growled.
“Not to the degree that you will feel.”
I took a sip of my vodka. Cassius did the same with his bourbon.
“It’s almost like you’re saying I should surrender instead of control,” I said with a sarcastic laugh.
Cassius said nothing.
And then it began to click.
What I had sarcastically laughed off might very well be the key to what I wanted.
To fuck Delilah purely for the thrill of it, I just needed to do what I was doing now. Control. Exert. Show off. Be the King of Diamonds.
But there was a world of difference between fucking a woman and being with a woman. Cassius’ sudden shift in personality,from ruthless, hard single man to still cold but more gentle engaged man, made sense now in that light. It had required a paradigm shift of sorts.
In order to have the woman—not the pussy—I wanted, I needed to release control. I needed to surrender to the vulnerability and honesty it required. And I needed to not keep looking back for it.
“It’s not almost,” I muttered in between sips. “It is.”
“Yes,” Cassius said, barely audible, but audible enough.
So.
The big brother turned out to know a thing or two about having a woman. Not about manipulation, but about having genuine intent.
Which meant, per Delilah’s words, my next move couldn’t be a power play. I couldn’t take her to my penthouse and fuck her. I couldn’t take her to one of my casino’s top floors and flaunt my wealth to get my dick sucked.
I needed something more… real.
As strange as it sounded, though, I almost didn’t know how to do that. In a weird way, by being a fit billionaire, I’d never really had to work for a woman. Instead of being a starving man trying to talk his way into a meal, I had my choice of a buffet of women. But Delilah was above that; she always had been. She’d briefly allowed herself to come to me—maybe even nearing coming for me—but she was too strong to let herself surrender to a single moment.
But that was a minor concern.
I had always figured out a way forward to what I wanted. I might need some more time to think, some more time to consider the options, but I would not fail. I had not failed in building an empire, I had not failed in being the King of Hearts, and I would not fail at this.
“You have given me what I sought, Cassius,” I said. “I suppose you have your fiancée and possible baby to run home to.”
“No baby at the moment,” Cassius snorted. “Not even one developing right now. But I do have someone I love to run to.”
That felt like a thinly veiled shot, but I let it slide. Cassius had actually proved helpful. Let him get the victory shot in.
Even if that’s just you reading into what’s not there.
“I will see you soon, Adrian,” Cassius said as he walked past me. “Do keep me updated. It would be good to know what a journalist might be writing about us.”
I chuckled.
But the statement drove home an important point.
As much as I now knew the right path forward, I still had to tread carefully.
I was playing a very delicate game, and if I crossed the ever thin lines of vulnerability and excitement into power and domineering, it wouldn’t just affect Adrian Vale.
