Her naked body was wrapped around me as she slept. I could feel every inch of her against me. Tonight was different. We hadn’t fucked each other, not like we’d done in the past. What was it about this woman that drove me to the brink of insanity, in so many different ways? Despite the fact I was exhausted, I wanted her again. I wanted more. I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to watch her laugh, cook, blush. I just wanted more.

Gently, I lifted her leg off of me and got up, covering her with the bed sheet before grabbing my boxers, and walked out the room. I just needed to think, to breathe without the smell of our time together and her body clouding my mind completely. I checked in on Alaric, and, funny enough, he slept like his mother, his leg and arm over the pillow. I couldn’t help but smile, only leaving the door open a little bit before making way downstairs. However, with each step, I couldn’t get her words out of my mind.

“I thinking I’m falling in love first.” How could she say something so innocently? She even looked slightly embarrassed by herself. It was cute. She was cute and beautiful and sexy all at once, and each side of her tempted me. How the hell was that fair? How did she have so much control over me already?

I wanted to hear her moan for me again. I wanted to wake her up and bury myself in her again.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” I groaned, reaching into the fridge to get a bottle of water.

“You really want to go there?”

“Jesus Christ.” I jumped, the water slipping in my hands. Russell set the tray he was holding on the counter before throwing me a towel. “Thanks, why are you still up?”

“I could ask you the same.” He lifted a fork to polish. “But I already know the answer to that.”

“Do you now?” I sat down opposite him and reached for a spoon. He smacked my hands.

“Gloves.” He threw me a pair.

“You know you don’t have to do this, Russell. I don’t need to see my face in the silverware,” I muttered, pulling on white gloves.

“Since when?” He snickered. “The Dorian Rhys-Gallagher I used to know was a stickler for detail. Didn’t you once fire a maid for accidentally ruining one of your suits?”

“It was a hand-tailored William Westmacott. It cost more than she made in a year.”

“When you found out she was a widowed mother of two, you had her hired at The Van Thorp and gave her healthcare,” he said smugly, pretending to inspect the fork but really inspecting me.

“Not one of my finer moments.”

“Which moment? The one where you fired her or the one where you gave her another job?”

I kept polishing, not answering him.

“That is one of the many things wrong with you.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you don’t know which Dorian Rhys-Gallagher to be—the ruthless businessman who cares for only money and status, or the compassionate man who secretly donates a good portion of that money to dozens of charities around the world.”

I stopped staring at my reflection in the spoon. “I need to be brutal in business, you remember what they did to my father when he got sick. Everyone was trying to steal Rhys-Gallagher National right out from under him. They came to the hospital to trick him into giving up shares and signing over his stock. Compassion is weakness.”

“All I’ve seen in you this last week is compassion, especially with Ms. Thorne.”

I shook my head. “That’s different. She deserves compassion.”

“Why, because you’re in love with her?”

“I—I don’t know what you are talking about,” I muttered, and even I didn’t seem convinced by that.

“Are you really going to lie to me now?” He scoffed, shaking his head at me. “You sure went through a lot of effort to find her.”

“It’s complicated, and no, I’m not nice to her because I’m attracted to her. She’s been through a lot.”

“Get to know anyone, and you realize they’ve also had to deal with things.”

“Russell,” I groaned, frustrated. “Can we not talk about her?”

“What else would you like to talk about, Mr. Rhys-Gallagher? The weather? Your business portfolio? You and I both know she’s the only thing on your mind.”

“It’s complicated,” I said again.

He put the knife aside. “Because she once dated Donovan?”

I paused, shocked for a moment before speaking again. “Who told you that?”

He snickered. “I know you. There is no way in hell you would have gotten a woman pregnant and not known for five years. Besides, I remember she was here for Donovan’s wake, she broke down in one of the bathrooms.”

I fell silent, focusing on the silverware in front of me.

“I hope you aren’t feeling guilty.”

“Shouldn’t I feel that why? This is so messy we could hurt each other.” I knew that was the truth, but I was still sure I couldn’t give her up.

“I’ve lived a long time, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. Relationships that are messy are the ones that change our lives forever. It’s the one people write songs and movies and books about. It’s the one we all secretly want. Who wants a plain love story? Who does that inspire?”

“Don’t you think we should take it slow? We’ve barely gotten to know each other.” This wasn’t a movie. We couldn’t just fall love with each other, even if we had said we would. Not in such a short time.

“Hogwash.”

“Excuse me?”

He lifted the fork up to check it and blew on it one more time before saying, “I said hogwash. No one really wants to take love slow. People only say that when they’re scared of being hurt. You want slow because you’re scared of her.”

“The last thing I am is scared—”

“You were close to your mother, and she died. You tried to be the good one for your father, and he died. Then your brother left, came back, and died. When people leave you one by one, it isn’t normal to want to slow down loving something else. It’s easier to be slow because then you can plan your exit before you get hurt again.”

He was pulling no damn punches.

“How do you know if it is real love and not just two desperate people begging the other to never let them go?”

He laughed. “You just asked me, ‘how do you know if it’s real love or real love’, you know that right?”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I. What is love but two people, for whatever reason, saying 'never let me go’?”

I sighed and muttered, “How much am I paying for this therapy session?”

“You don’t want to bring up my salary. I might demand a raise.”

I scoffed. “You have to be the most well-paid butler in the state, and what the hell would you do with more money? You don’t go anywhere or have, uh….”

“Have anyone?” He smiled. “I do…believe me I do.”

“Who?” I asked, stunned. He’d never said anything in all the years I’d known him.

“That is for me to know. Honestly, do you think I just sat around waiting for you to come up here? I have a life, too. I’ve just been waiting.” He put the silver away.

“Waiting for what?”

“You.” He was completely serious. “I’m waiting for you to be happy, really happy, so when I leave it won’t feel like another person walking away from you. I’m waiting for you to be so happy, you want me to go and be as happy as you are.”

“Russell—”

“Ms. Thorne.” He smiled over my shoulder, and I turned to see Luella dressed in my shirt, which was barely short enough for her, allowing me to see her beautiful long legs.

“We are back to Ms. Thorne, Russell? I’m hurt.” She crossed her arms, and I really wished she hadn’t, because I couldn’t help but notice her breasts lift.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, please excuse me. Here I thought everyone had gone to bed.”

They shared a look. Luella, for some reason, seemed embarrassed and brushed her dark hair behind her ear.

“What was that?” I asked, taking off the gloves.

“What was what?” she asked, backing to the fridge, then removing a bottle of water.

“That look between you two.”

“It was nothing,” she said, but the way she avoided my eyes made me feel like it wasn’t just nothing. I wondered what exactly Russell had been telling her about me.

“Are you all right?”

“I was too hot to sleep.” She drank and fanned herself.

“Hot flashes?” I grinned.

“Says the man with gray hair.”

“What? I do not—” I was about to pull out my phone to check when she laughed at me.

“Not funny. Hot flashes were a stretch for you, but I could really have premature gray hair.”

She sat in the chair beside me. “Would that be so bad?”

“Being in my early thirties and having gray hair? Yes. It’s the second worst thing to happen to your hair. The first is going bald.”

“You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you,” she sang cheerfully. “Can you put your early onset midlife crisis on hold so I can tell you some good news?”

“I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything.”

She held up her phone.

“What am I looking at?”

“It’s over, Dorian.” She took a deep breath. “I paid it all off. I’m free. Thanks to you, I can finally put this all behind me.”

“Wow.” It was the only word that came to mind as I stared at the receipt of her wire transfer to an offshore account. As great as this was, it annoyed the hell out of me that she’d had to pay this scum, even though she had all but given up every part of herself for them already.

“Your mouth says ‘wow’, but your face says ‘this sucks’.”

“Sorry. This is good. I just wished it didn’t have to be done—”

“I know, but now it’s over, and I’m so happy I want to dance.” She was already dancing, right there in my kitchen. She punched buttons on her phone and music played. “Come on.”

“I’m good.”

“You have to celebrate with me.” She pulled me out of my seat.

“I only know how to waltz.”

“Don’t think about it, just go crazy.” She snapped her fingers and spun around me, and like an awkward teen at a school dance, I swayed back and forth.

“That is not going crazy, Dorian.”

“For me it is.”

“Then get crazier. No one can judge you. Dance like no one is looking.”

I copied her movements, turning, jumping, snapping my hands… Dancing. For some reason, I couldn’t stop laughing. When the music slowed, so did we, smiling at each other.

“That’s how you dance like no one is looking,” she said, trying to catch her breath.

My heart was racing, and it wasn’t from dancing. I took her hand, pulled her closer to me, and kissed her lips.

LUELLA

My whole body was on fire when we finally made it to his room. He stared at me as if I were the most important person in the world. His lips hovered over mine, but he didn’t kiss me. I leaned into him, and he lifted me off my feet. Placing me in the center of his bed, he kissed down the side of my neck. I shivered when he cupped my breasts and rubbed his thumb over my nipples. He kissed his way down my stomach. He sat up, slipping a hand between my thighs, two of his fingers already inside me.

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he whispered.

I rocked against his hand, chasing pleasure. Another finger entered me. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

“You amaze me.” We tongue-kissed each other heatedly.

All too soon, he left me, his tongue circling my nipples once more on his way down between my legs. He spread them and kissed my clit. I wrapped my legs around his head and clutched the headboard as his tongue explored me. I cried out and bit my lips. It felt so good. He was too good. When he licked and sucked me, my toes curled, and as he did, I didn’t want him to have his way again.

Pulling him by his hair, he came up and licked his lips, that damn smile of his teasing me. I pushed him as hard as I could until he fell back on his back. His eyebrow rose, and I kissed his chest just like he’d done to me.

“Ah…” He hissed when I bit his nipple gently, his hands rubbing my back. But I didn’t stop there. I kissed all the way down to his waist. “Lulu…”

I heard him inhale as I kissed the length of his cock and then licked back down. He was hot against my lips, and the more I kissed, the more he throbbed. I licked the tip of it, and he jerked forward. I just grinned, doing it again and again, moving so slowly I could tell he was frustrated.

“Goddamnit, Lul—oh.”

I looked up at him as I took him into my mouth, and when I took as much of him as I could, deep into my throat, his mouth fell open. I felt his hand on my head, thrusting into my mouth, unable to hold back. Soon, he was eagerly fucking my mouth, my hand stroking the part of him I couldn’t fit into my mouth.

“Fuck…” He cursed as he came in my mouth. “You are driving me insane.”

“Good, the feeling is mutual,” I whispered, wiping my mouth.

His eyes were full of lust, and something else, something more. He brought me closer and kissed my lips, and the fact that he was tasting himself on my lips turned me on more than it should have.

Dorian

God, she was so fucking beautiful. I didn’t have any other words to describe her other than the epitome of beauty.

“Oh…” She moaned on her knees, holding on to the bed frame, her ass slapping against my hips as I took her from behind.

“Fuck,” I hissed, she was so tight I couldn’t hold back anymore. I grabbed her breast with one hand and slipped the another between her legs and over her wet pussy.

“Dorian!” she screamed out as she came, the whole bed moving with us. I wanted to hear her cry out for more. She was mine, mine and only mine.

“Lulu!” I moaned into her neck as I came inside her. Breathing hard, she rested her head against the bed frame as I slowly pulled out of her.

I felt like my chest was going to explode as I laid back on the bed.

“That was amazing,” she said softly, moving to lay on top of me. The damn vixen took pity on me and smiled. Didn’t she notice that the moment she smiled, I was back to being weak?

“Kiss me,” I told her.

And she did, I wrapped my arms around her, she held onto me. Without breaking apart, we kissed and rolled around in our bed before we had to break away for air.

“Wow,” she said, taking deep breaths as she lay on top of me.

“Wow,” I repeated, stroking her back.

“I feel like I’m on fire. You?” she asked, sitting up on top of me.

Her hair was wild, her nipples hard. Her olive-toned skin begged to be touched, and her beautiful eyes made me want to drown in her.

“You don’t want to rest, do you?” I grinned.

She bit her lip. “No.”

“What am I going to do with you?”

“Love me more.”