CHAPTER 5
TERINA
Present
My orgasm isan atomic blast igniting me from the inside out. I can’t fathom how such a storm could have built so quickly. A handful of minutes, and my entire body is glowing with radioactive pleasure.
I usually take longer to reach the finish line. My body was primed for release, and I choose to believe that is entirely due to the lengthy lull since the last time I touched myself. It has nothing to do with the scene that played out in my head while I fingered myself with that devious little bullet teasing my swollen clit. Nothing about DiAngelo screwing me against the outside of my parents’ house, pounding into me from behind, was hotter than any other fantasy I’ve ever had.
Not remotely.
Whatever the reason, the orgasm was exactly what I needed. Now I?—
DiAngelo’s masculine rumble follows two sharp knocks at the door. “Time to come down.”
My thighs snap together so fast my skin claps.
Sweet mother of God, I hope he didn’t hear that.
“What?” I’m so damn disoriented that I can’t scrape together a thought.
“Dinner. It’s time to come down for dinner.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” I holler a bit too loudly.
Dinner. That’s right. I need to get dressed for dinner.
I bolt into action, throwing myself together faster than a pop singer manages a mid-concert costume change. The whole time, I reassure myself that even if DiAngelo heard my thighs slap together, he wouldn’t have a clue what I’d been doing. It could have been my hands clapping for all he knows. Maybe I was scrolling, saw a hilarious video, and slapped my thigh with hysterical silent laughter.
It could happen.
Dinner is a master class in artful avoidance. I engage with my family as though all is forgotten while successfully pretending DiAngelo doesn’t exist. My gaze never strays in his direction. His stare, on the other hand, borders on obsessive. It heats my skin like shards of sunlight on a crisp winter morning.
I bask in my refusal to acknowledge him, despite the temptation. And that temptation is incessant. I want to see the turbulence in his multicolored irises. I want to confirm he’s as unsettled by me as I am by him. But I hold strong throughout dinner, not caving once.
“You square things away with D?” Renzo asks me after we eat while the others are relaxing in the living room. I slipped away to go to the restroom and find my brother waiting for me in the hallway when I return.
“What do you mean?”
“Did he smooth things over?” Creases settle into my brother’s forehead.
“No, why?”
Renzo frowns. “When he came down after getting you for dinner, I caught him smiling. I was hoping he’d apologize and that maybe you two had come to an agreement.”
Tremors of unease tickle the skin on the back of my neck.
“That would have been nice, but no. He’s not exactly the apologetic type.”
“It’s not that,” Renzo starts with a sigh. “He takes protection duty very seriously. It’s nothing personal.”
I clear my throat to hide my scoff because everything about our encounter outside felt very,verypersonal, but I’m not about to tell my brother that.
“I get it, and I’m not planning to give him any trouble, so you can stop worrying.” My smile is genuine because I truly don’t want to make this situation any harder for Renzo than it already is. He must sense my sincerity because his features soften before he pulls me into a warm hug.
“Thanks, Rina. I really appreciate that.”
“You’re not leaving, are you?” DiAngelo’s baritone voice is rugged in a way that only maturity can accomplish. He’s a few years older than Renzo, which puts him close to ten years older than me. The innate authority in his words refuses to allow me to ignore him any longer.
