PROTECT and SERVE (A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) (51 page)

I couldn’t just utter them fearfully.

He needed to understand their conviction.

I repeated it, fiercer this time: “I… love you.” As I did so, I let my fingers firmly wrap around his shoulders, pulling him deeper into the kiss.

With the powerful swipe of an arm, Dalton shoved a bowl of fruit and few misplaced possessions clean off the counter.

I let him shove me down to the surface, unbuckling my jeans and tugging them down my thighs. Ripping them off and yanking my panties down, I felt the cold surface and shivered…

Until his hot, yearning breath took me away.

He kissed down just above my eager pussy. The pressure sent a burst of intoxicating emotion through my core.

“Oh god, Dalton,” I murmured peacefully.

He slipped into place beneath my thighs, hoisting them over his shoulders. His strong fingertips dug into my skin as he secured me around his face, kneeling against a stool to hold himself into position.

I felt the flicker of his tongue against my clit, and just like that, I was undeniably his once more.

With the expert precision I’d come to expect from my experienced, talented lover, Dalton easily flicked the button of passion with the tip of his tongue. Diving into my hood, he lapped with broad strokes, teased with varied pressure, flicked the edge, and brought down his lips to push down upon my tender, needful clit.

“That feels
so good, baby…
”

Dalton continued downward, licking up the juices that began to lubricate my wet, demanding pussy. I could feel myself growing wetter and wetter for him. I loved every last little flick of his tongue and firm kiss from his lips.

“You taste so good, Clara. It drives me wild how much you love this… and how mouthwateringly
wet
you get, just for me…”

I opened my mouth to reply, but he was sucking on my tender clit again, driving me wild. I felt his fingers move, and then he was parting me with one of his digits.

“Your fingers are so big…”

He pushed inward, my pussy tight enough to love the width of his finger. After he primed me briefly, his lips still thrumming against the bead of my passion, I felt a second one join the first.

“You’re so fucking
tight
, babe. I can’t wait to have my thick, huge cock back inside you…”

His fingers curled in a
come hither
motion, instantly finding the bundle of nerves that needed him so much. He stroked carefully, drawing his fingers in and out as he pulled his mouth from my hood. His pussy-stained lips planted wet kisses along the seams of my thighs as he worked my body, and then onto the supple flesh of my thighs themselves.

“I need your cock, baby. Fill me, please…”

He withdrew from between my thighs, gently leading me back down from the kitchen island. I pulled off my top and unlatched my bra...

I couldn’t stop myself.

My fingers dove for his buckle, ripping his pants open grasping his hot, steaming cock. I started to part my lips around it, but Dalton stopped me.

“No way, babe. Not tonight. I’m so hot for you right now that I could come down your throat in an instant… and I want it to be inside you.”

I nodded, standing up to pluck the wrapped condom from his teeth.

“Alright then,” I smirked. He watched me with animalistic hunger, clearly turned on by my display of aggression.

Dalton drew me up, his eyes hot with desire. “That was hot, but
I’m
in charge,” he informed me, twirling me around and pushing me up against the nearest wall.

My palms instinctively caught up around my shoulders as he ripped off his clothes, dropping them in a scattered heap all around.

Within an instant, his hot, heavy body was pressed up against mine. With lust that only deepened in intensity, I felt small and awed under his pressure.

“Fuck me, Dalton,” I whispered hungrily.

I could swear that he straight up
snarled
in response as his hand clamped around my hips. The other one stroked his bulbous crown against the slickened lips of my opening.

He lasted a few seconds, teasing my body, until I felt his punishing length thrust into the steaming gash between my thighs.

“Oh god, you’re so
big
,” I gasped.

How could I have possibly turned THIS down?

Both of his hands planted against the backs of mine, threading our fingers together as his body pinned me against the wall.

“You aren’t leaving again,” he murmured with words laced in pure, fervent hellfire.

“No,” I replied. “Never.”

His pelvis thrust against mine again, and I quivered from my lips down to my toes. I had become so wet with anticipation that he was hilting himself up into me.

“
NEVER. AGAIN. You belong to ME.
”

“That’s right, baby,” I moaned with overwhelming satisfaction. “I’m all yours… I’ll never, ever try to leave again…”

His length slammed into my sopping pussy again, hard enough to almost send stars ricocheting through my head. The intense pleasure was crippling my higher brain function, reducing me to a babbling and shivering mess beneath his blazing touch.

“Tell me how badly you need this, Clara.
Convince me
that you will
never
put me through this last week
ever again
.”

“Oh god, Dalton,” I trembled, “you fuck me so good. I’ll never go. Not today, not tomorrow, not in a million fucking years. Your cock was
made
for me. I’m a mess without you. I need you, always and forever. Whatever you want, whatever we’ll need, together…”

He pressed his lips to my ear, tugging at the lobe before delivering a kiss that left my entire body wobbly with quaking need.

“That’s right, babe… and I will
always
be here,
always
ready to protect you… whatever comes, we’ll face it. Together.”

I nodded. “Together.”

Even in my lustful haze, I knew what we were doing. We were signing a verbal contract, an unbreakable oath –
us against the world, forever.

He pulled me from the wall, scooping me into his arms. As he kicked his discarded clothes out of the way and carried me to his bed, I felt the finality of this decision.

When he lowered me down to his sheets, I pushed him onto his back, took his cock in my hands, and began to straddle him.

“Wait, Clara, are you sure–?”

I smiled down at him, filled with love, longing, and desire… and soon, I knew, I’d be filled with his red-hot seed, too.

As I shoved my hips down hard
around his incredible cock, feeling him inside me without a shred of hesitation between us, I gasped out our promise once more:

“Together.”

W
ith a start
, I woke up in the middle of the night. A sluggish glance at the alarm clock nearby told me that it was the wee hours of the morning, and I silently, carefully extracted myself from Clara to pour a glass of water and clear my head.

Strolling across the apartment, I glanced over at my roommate – conked out in the easy chair again, snoring away in front of the television.
Wasn’t expecting him tonight. That would have sucked if he’d walked in on the sex…
He had fallen asleep during a Netflix run, and the next episode was queued up and waiting for a response.

Nope,
I thought to myself, clicking the television off.
That’s a great job almost burning permanent pixels into my nice flat-screen, asshole.

I thought about rustling him from the couch to scamper off to the guest bedroom, but I was in a good mood with the recent revitalization in my relationship, and he wasn’t exactly bothering me here.

Just this once,
I thought to myself.

As I quietly slunk off to the kitchen, guided by the moonlight from the window above the sink, I pursued my original mission: refreshment. A quick glance in the fridge didn’t turn up any appealing alternatives, so I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured myself some water.

Refreshed, I set the glass in the sink and smoothed out my palms against the counter on either side. As my fatigue slowly uncoiled itself in my head, freeing up some room for thought, I reflected on what the future probably looked like for us.

I didn’t know what was going to happen with that whole
traveling the world
thing. As much as I wanted Clara in my life, I couldn’t ignore that I had little intention of remaining in the States – it wasn’t where I was born, and it wasn’t where I wanted to really be. The truth was that I didn’t have the faintest clue of how I was going to reconcile her feelings with those facts…

What made that especially difficult was that she was dedicated to continuing her school. I wasn’t about to rip her away from a possible future, just to join me around the world.

Well… we can cross that bridge when we come to it
, I thought to myself. I reasoned that there wasn’t any point to worrying about it until the time properly came.

That’s when something else entirely suddenly jumped out at me. I was almost floored with the severity and suddenness of it.

The Carlyle Fortune,
I thought with horror.

With all the other factors in place, it hadn’t really occurred to me that my grandparents would be
pissed
about this if they ever found out. To my astonishment, I had considered the impending claim on their money such a done deal that I never stopped to wonder how a revelation like this would affect them.

If there was one thing that could destroy any chances of that prize, it was perceived incest. A scandal like this would instantly spell the end of my inheritance forever.

Fuck. I didn’t think about that!

All of my womanizing and drinking had fallen beneath their radar so far, but this was playing it
way
too close to the chest. For the first time in my life, I had to seriously consider the fact that I might lose my rightful claim to their money.

“Was I so blinded by love that I only just thought of this
now
?” I asked myself. “Why
now?
How didn’t this not factor in before?”

Unsurprisingly, no answer drifted up from the shadows to offer any guidance.

It didn’t really matter, I realized.

I’d risk it all for her.

After all, I reasoned quietly to myself, I’d supported myself this far. From the beginning, I had pulled myself up by my own bootstraps.

My career in the marines had taught me everything I didn’t already know about self-reliance and determination. I had a few connections from my time serving. Plus, the GI bill was going to fund any degree I wanted.

Thank you, dear old Uncle Sam.

That major life choice had prepared me for any major detours or hiccups – something I’d factored in before I joined, but now that I was leaping over my grandparents’ last few hurdles, it comforted me to remember the backup plan.

It certainly didn’t hurt that I already had a very small war chest of funds in a bank account. If I played it safe and didn’t take anymore last-second flights across the country, I was probably going to be just fine.

Maybe I’ll just have to take school a little more seriously,
I told myself.
That’s all. Everything else will fall into place.

Confident in this direction, I slipped back into bed with Clara. Still mostly asleep, she murmured something incoherent, but I quietly assured her that everything was fine as she curled up against me again.

And for a few more hours, that was true.

In my sleep, I ignored the vibrations of my cell phone against the end table. This same state of slumbering ignorance overrode my marine training and extended to the sound of my front door being unlocked, and someone calling my name… I groaned in my sleep, thinking I was dreaming again.

I was only barely aware of the sound of my bedroom opening. When I’d slipped back into bed in the night, lost in thought, I’d forgotten to lock it again.

“What in God’s name…?”

My eyes flew open.

Was that…?

It can’t be.

Snapping to attention, I glanced over at the bedroom door. Dad was standing there, his eyes confused and his mouth agape. Worse still was that Sarah was standing behind him, holding her trembling hand over her lips.

“Guys, what the hell are you doing… here…?”

A terrifying realization dawned on me.

Clara is still here.

My eyes followed their gaze to her awakening form. Clara sleepily lifted her face from the pillow, looking over at our unexpected guests. A few seconds of groggy recollection later, it was as if a pail of freezing water had been thrown in her face.

“Dad?
MOM?
”

The two pairs of us were staring in horror at each other, processing what had just happened.

Holy shit, they found us in bed together.

My dear step-mum was the first to speak, mustering up just enough strength for a few damning syllables. “Clara… what the
fuck?
”

Clara realized that her chest was exposed, and ripped up the blanket to cover herself… and in the process, briefly revealing my own naked form.

“Good
God!
” Our parents cried out, exposed to the sight of my flaccid – but still intimidating – royal package. Without a moment’s thought, they slammed the door shut – putting a condemning barrier between themselves and us.

The damage was done, and I wasn’t going to cower away from this like some frightened animal. Instead of covering myself, I jumped out of bed and quickly tossed on a pair of boxers.

“Dalton…
DALTON
,” Clara whimpered, gazing up at me from beneath the covers.

“I’ll handle this,” I whispered.

She looked away, shrinking with horror as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee. I stepped out of the bedroom just in time to see the front door close. It didn’t escape my notice that my
other
guest, Pete, was wide-eyed in the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, dude, I recognized your Dad. He called and woke me up, saying that it was some kind of an emergency–”

“Not. Another. Goddamn.
Word.
” I hissed at him. “You have
no idea
what the fuck you’ve just done.” His mouth snapped shut as I darted out the door after my parents.

“
Wait!
” I called out after them.

Dad was holding the door open for Sarah, who was covering her face and ducking into the passenger seat. “I don’t know what the
hell
we just saw in there, son, but we’re leaving.”

“What the hell are you even
doing
here?” I demanded to know. “You just barge in and walk straight into my goddamn bedroom?”

“Maybe if you’d pick up your fucking phone,” Dad growled, holding his own up, “we could have avoided whatever the
fuck
is going on in there. I’ve been calling and texting you off-and-on for almost an hour!”

“Pete said you told him there was an emergency. What the hell is going on?”

Overlooking the present disaster, this wasn’t like my father. He looked like a bundle of nerves, and I suspected that started before he even pulled up to my place.

Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s your grandparents,” he explained, leaning backwards against the hood of his car. “In their infinite wisdom, they’ve decided to come back into town. No warning, just a missed call and a voicemail in the middle of the night. They’re already here. We’re on our way to pick them up at the airport now.”

“Did they explain what they wanted?”

“How the fuck would I know? You remember what they were like during the wedding, they’re probably just here to lord over all of us again…”

I felt really bad all of a sudden.

Dad was clearly a wreck, especially after just witnessing what he probably considered incest between his only son and his single stepchild… and then heading straight into the lair of a pair of vicious dragons.

“I’ll grab my keys, I can be there in–”

“Stop,” he immediately commanded me, his voice booming. The look on his face was a mixture of crushing disappointment, absolute revulsion, and boiling anger. “Sarah and I are going to drive to the airport, without
either
of you, and we’re going to figure out what the fuck is going on. You two are going to stay
away
right now.”

“For how long?” I demanded.

“Until they’re gone. However long that takes,” he snarled. “The last thing I need right now is for
them
to get involved in… this.”

“I didn’t know she was Sarah’s!” I yelled. “I met her first, and I already fancied her. I couldn’t help falling for her, you don’t–”

“Falling –
falling
for her?” Dad laughed, trying to keep the hysteria out of his voice. “You stupid git, you were always fucking impulsive, weren’t you? Couldn’t just
snog
your sister, you had to
shag
her? We’re not talking about this right now. I am
laughably
ill-equipped for this
bollocks
,” he snarled, sliding around to the driver’s door.

“Dad, you’ve gotta listen to me –”

My father slammed another door between us, twisting the keys in the ignition. As I rounded to his side of the car, I realized that Sarah was crying into a tissue.

“Dad–”

The tires squealed as he wrenched the car backwards in an arc, flying down the road and around a corner. After a few seconds, he was out of sight and rumbling from what must have been one
horrendous nightmare to another.

There was no point in trying to follow him, so I dejectedly stepped back inside and locked the door behind myself.

Clara was dressed in her clothes from last night, sitting at the dining table and staring blankly into space. The window was nearby, so she likely saw and heard every last syllable of that.

At a complete loss, I shrugged at her.

“So, that could have gone better.”

She glanced at me, all emotion stripped from her eyes. “Dalton, what the fuck are we going to do?”

Prepared to console her and offer some bulletproof plan to resolve everything, I parted my lips to speak. When nothing came, I realized that we were truly, honestly fucked.