Dax’s warmth as his body covers me.
His heart is hammering in his chest against mine. And we lie with him still deep inside me until both of us have come down enough to talk without the need to draw in extra air.
“Fuck,” he sighs gently, moving his arms to hold my face between his hands.
He rests his forehead against mine and breathes in slowly before kissing me tenderly on the lips.
“Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I smile and move a strand of blond hair from his forehead.
“No. You didn’t hurt me.”
Relief washes over his face as he kisses me again. Then he stops and rises onto his forearms to pull out of me.
I don’t hide my wince fast enough and Dax is on me in a shot, cupping my face again.
“Rose?” His brows knit.
“I’m fine.”
He looks between my legs. “Shit. You’re not.”
He jumps up from the bed and rushes to the bathroom, then comes back moments later with a warm washcloth. He kneels between my legs and presses it to me gently, a frown marring his handsome face.
“You’re bleeding. Not much but… Jesus.” He scrunches his face up and wipes me with the cloth again.
“Show me.”
I prop myself up on my arms and Dax holds the cloth up. The tiniest smudge of pink is on it. It’s barely noticeable.
“I told you I’m fine.” I smile, but he frowns and looks between my legs again.
“I would never forgive myself if you got hurt because of me.” He blinks and keeps his eyes focused between my legs, where a delicious ache is setting in.
His eyes pinch as he cleans me up carefully. He says I am the beautiful one. But it’s him. He’s taking care of me like I’m hurt when I’m really not. But he’s not going to listen, so instead I lie back and enjoy the attention he’s giving me.
He’s completely focused on me. Before, his eyes were burning with desire for me. And now, they’re full of adoration and concern.
How can I be a fuck up if someone can look at me in this way? How can I be the failure I’ve cast myself as these past few years if I was those things? Then no one would want me, surely? No one would desire me.
My breath catches as Dax looks up and locks eyes with me.
If everything that has happened to my family was my fault, then no one would be able to look at me the way he is right now, like he sees my soul and thinks it’s perfect. Like he wouldn’t change anything about me. Not a single thing.
Blood rushes in my ears and my chest flutters as his lips move.
“What?”
“I asked you what you were thinking about? You look so serious.” His lips flatten. “It does hurt, doesn’t it?”
“No.” I sit up, warmth spreading in my chest as I reach out and stroke down the side of his face and along his strong jaw. “For the first time in three years, it doesn’t hurt quite so much.”
Then I smile.
His face softens until he’s smiling back. Then he wraps me in his arms and kisses me.
“Let’s take a shower.”
He pulls me up from the bed, walking backward with my hands in his, all the way into the bathroom. We get to the shower, and he lets go of one hand long enough to turn the water on, and then he takes hold of it again, pulling me in under the hot spray with him.
“You going to let me wash you?”
I bite my lip and stand on my toes, kissing him as the water runs down over our mouths. “Only if you let me wash you. I haven’t seen the tattoos on your back yet.”
Dax stiffens, the muscles in his broad shoulders tightening. “Okay. But I’m going first.”
I stand happily, my arms draped over his shoulders as he takes my shower gel and lathers it up between his hands before running them all over my body. He groans as my nipples harden when he washes my breasts, and his cock stiffens against my ass as I look at him over my shoulder while he washes my back. But despite the intensity his eyes have taken on, and the deep groans coming from his chest, he is the perfect gentleman, washing me gently with large, warm hands.
“Now you.”
I take the bottle from him and squirt some into my hands. I’m spoiled for choice where to start. I begin with his thighs and his cock, which is hard and thick as I slide my soapy hand up and down it. Dax sucks in a breath and watches me as I wash it, followed by his balls, but he makes no attempt to put it to use on me again, and I fight back my disappointment as he takes my soapy hands and leads them to his chest instead.
I let the suds rinse off and run my hands over his tattoos again like that night at his house where he was hurt.
“Now turn.”
He stiffens and stares at me.
“Turn around.” I look up and wonder if he’s still breathing. All the muscles in his shoulders and chest are tense, and a vein is throbbing in his neck beneath the bird’s wing. “Dax?”
A muscle in his jaw flexes and then he turns slowly, placing his hands up against the tiled wall so each muscle in his back ripples.
I add more gel to my hands and slide them over his shoulders, soaking in all the tattoos on his back. They’re intricate, like his front. A mix of leaves and flowers surrounding a giant, ornate, central cross. Then on his lower back, to one side of his spine there’s a sun over water, its rays bursting up into the sky.
“Is it a sunrise or a sunset?” I ask as I trace my fingers over it.
“Sunset.” He tenses as I move my fingers lower, over the ripples in the water.
“Dax?”
I run my fingers over the pinched skin again and he stays silent.
“What happened?”
The ripples in the water are distorted where they cover a large scar on Dax’s skin.
“I wasn’t careful. That’s what happened.”
“What do you mean?”
He turns and wraps me in his arms, dipping his head to kiss my neck before he sighs. “I was stabbed. In jail.”
“What?” My blood runs cold as I turn to face him. He catches my lips in a kiss. “What do you mean? Who did this to you?” I ask, breaking our lips apart.
“It doesn’t matter.”
He tries to kiss me again, but I move back, flattening my palms over his chest.
“How can you say that?”
“Because it doesn’t. The guy’s still in there. And I’m out. That’s what’s important.”
“But he hurt you? What’s happening to him? Was he charged—?”
“The man responsible hasn’t gotten away with it.” He looks into my eyes. “You don’t need to think about him.”
“But did you—?”
“I always see things through, Rose. I’m committed. Okay? I always see things through.” He holds my face and takes my lips in another kiss, shaking his head as he draws back and looks into my worried eyes. “Don’t think about it.”
I blink up at him as my chest tightens thinking about him in there and what it must have been like for him. Away from Jasmin and Logan. His freedom gone.
“I’m so sorry for what you went through. You’re so strong.”
His lips curl into a half smile.
“I’m not half as strong as you. The external scars are easy. You just turn them into something else.”
He kisses me again.
Turn them into something else.
But what about internal scars? He can’t have gone through all he has and have none of those. Can he?
I wake from my dream. The room is dark. It’s the middle of the night.
Dax’s warm arm is wrapped around me, his hand resting on my hip as I lie snuggled into his side with my head on his chest.
After we showered together last night, I washed all of my makeup off and came out of the bathroom to find Dax sitting in bed, his arms stretched up behind his head, staring into space, deep in thought. He smiled when he saw me and beckoned me over, and I curled around him happily until I fell asleep.
There was no need for words. Just holding each other and kissing told me all I needed to know. Dax doesn’t see sex with me as something purely for him, like Gareth did. He was right there with me, baring it all. Both of us starved of human touch for so long. Dax from being physically caged. And me from caging myself.
I wanted the fairy tale once. The big wedding and the wedding night sex with the one love of your life. But watching Dax sleeping now, his kissable lips parted as he breathes softly, his bare skin darkened by so much ink, it’s obvious. The real princes don’t just fight for you. They give you the strength to fight for yourself. And they’re your loudest supporter when you do.
I look over at the mirror and press my thighs together as heat pools there.
“Watch yourself. You deserve to be worshiped.”
No one has ever said something like that to me. And the way Dax’s eyes glittered up at me as he said it… I know he meant every single word.
I run the backs of my fingers down his cheek and shuffle up the bed so I can kiss along his jaw.
“Hey, Sunbeam,” he murmurs sleepily, squeezing me with his arm.
“Hey, yourself.” I kiss along to his ear and then nibble on his neck.
“Can’t sleep?” There’s a smile in his voice as I continue sucking and kissing his neck gently.
“I did. But my dream woke me.”
“A bad one?” He sounds fully awake now.
I kiss my way down his neck, darting my tongue out to lick where the bird is as my eyes adjust to the dark.
“Kind of. I dreamed Casey was driving toward me in a car… aiming for me. I could see her through the windshield, and she was staring right through me.”
“You okay?” Dax presses a kiss to the top of my head as I dip lower and kiss along his collarbone.
“Yeah.” I push the heaviness in my chest away. If I refuse to acknowledge it, then it isn’t there. At least, not tonight. Not now. “I don’t want to think about it,” I say as I kiss the top of Dax’s chest. “I want to pretend it never happened. At least, until sunrise. Do that for me?” I look up at him and his eyes shine in the dim light.
He tucks my hair behind my ear. “If that’s what you want.”
I slide my hand over his smooth, hot skin, resting my palm on his chest.
“What I want now is you.”
He snakes a hand around the back of my neck, gripping me gently and pulling me over him as he raises his lips to mine and kisses me until my nipples are hard against his chest. I moan as he turns his attention to my neck, his stubble grating against it and making me shiver in pleasure as he sucks and licks my skin.
“I said, I want you, Dax,” I murmur as he kisses beneath my ear.
“You’re sore,” he whispers, his voice full of guilt.
That’s why he never touched me again in the shower. He really does think he hurt me.
“It’s a nice sore. Not a hurt sore.” I slide my leg over him and push up to a seated position so I’m straddling his hips.
“Rose,” he groans in warning before gripping onto my hip bones with both hands.
I rub myself over his cock, which is already thick and hard beneath me. The metal from his piercing rubs over my clit and I shudder and suck in a breath.
“We can go slow if it makes you feel better.” I rise over him and wrap one hand around the base of him, lining him up. “I just want you again.”
“I could still hurt you—” His words die on his tongue as I circle down onto him, only managing to get a few inches of him inside me before my body resists. “Fuck, Rose.”
The pleasure in his deep growl of my name sends wetness flooding to my pussy, and I sink a little lower. It draws a low hiss that is so damn sexy from him as his fingers flex on my hip bones, that I am able to push myself down all the way, my body stretching around him happily and vibrating with need as his balls finally kiss my skin.
“See? It feels good,” I moan as I run my hands over his chest, admiring his tattoos.
I rise and sink back onto him slowly. He groans, dipping his chin to watch where his body disappears into mine.
I’m so full. So deliciously full with him inside me like this.
He digs his fingers into my hips and looks up at me with glittering eyes.
“You control the pace. I don’t trust myself with you like this,” he groans as I rise and sink onto him again.
“I trust you, Dax. You won’t hurt me.”
There’s uncertainty in his eyes as I place my hands on top of his on my hips. Then I pull gently, encouraging him to lift me up and then guide me back down onto him.
He watches me whisper his name. Then he lifts me without my help, groaning deeply as he pulls me back down onto his cock with a little more force.
I tip my head back, my hair flowing down my back as he helps me to ride him. Everything about sex with him is better than I thought it could be. Not that I have much to compare to. But I’m no prude. I’ve had a vibrator for years and know exactly how to get myself off. And I like watching porn that’s made for women.
I shudder as pleasure builds inside me and more wetness soaks Dax, running out between us and coating our skin.
Although, I’m sure Dax’s cock is bigger than any of the ones I’ve seen in porn. It’s definitely bigger than Gareth’s.
And Dax’s is pierced.
I bring my eyes back to his as he lifts me faster, fucking me at an angle that hits deep inside, sending pulses of pleasure thrumming through my body.
“Is that—?” I tingle deep inside.
“I promised it would feel good inside you.” Dax smirks as my eyes roll back in my head, and I whimper.
Fuck, this new angle makes me feel like I’m turning inside out with intense pleasure. I squeeze my eyes shut and press my fingertips into Dax’s chest.
“You need to come, don’t you, Sunbeam?”
I manage to nod as I cry out, not quite there, but so, so close.
His hand leaves my hip, and he presses his thumb to my clit.
“Dax…”
He circles once.
I force my eyes open and look at him. His eyes are intense, watching me. His lips are curved into a sexy smile.
He circles twice.
“Dax…”
My lip trembles as I gasp.
He tips his chin up. “There’s no better sight to me than watching you come. Show me.”
His eyes hold mine and he circles again at the same time as thrusting up inside me. His piercing drags over my G-spot as he pulls back, stealing my breath, and on the next thrust I explode around him at the exact second his balls hit my skin and he’s buried deep inside me.
“Dax.”
“That’s it… good girl,” he growls as his cock swells inside me, filling me at the same time as I pulsate around him in deep, consuming waves. He keeps dragging me up and down over his soaked cock with one strong arm as I shudder and shake. He grits his teeth and hisses, circling my clit and spreading our combined wetness over it until it’s throbbing again, and my core pulls in tight, taking me by surprise.
“Dax, I’m—”
“You’re going to come again? I know.”
“H-how?” I pant as the pressure builds inside me.
He groans as he continues fucking me.
“I know your body.” He sucks in a breath as I ripple around him and gasp. “The first time, your cunt pulled in tighter and got even hotter on my cock just before you came. It did it again a minute ago.” He groans as he thrusts up inside me again. “And it’s doing it again now. Fuck.”
His grip on my hips tightens as my body does exactly what he says and hugs him hard as I come again with a cry.
“Good girl. Good fucking girl, Rose,” he growls, his eyes fixed on my face.
He continues fucking me, his cock still hard as he rides the remnants of his orgasm out. Knowing that I’m full of his cum only lengthens my orgasm as I moan and sink down onto him greedily. I gaze down at him, breathing through my mouth, relishing each pulse and wave, until they’re all but gone and only a beautiful, calming warmth remains.
“You’re beautiful.” He places both of his hands on my hips and strokes up and down slowly. “So fucking beautiful.”
We can see each other clearly now. The room doesn’t even seem that dark anymore now that my eyes have adjusted.
I smile and place my hand over his compass tattoo, tracing the pointer with the tip of my finger. “I think you’re beautiful.”
I run my fingers over more of his tattoos, and he watches me with an easy smile on his face. Then he takes my hand and lifts it to his lips, kissing it as his eyes sparkle.
“What am I going to do with you, Sunbeam?”
I don’t know why Dax asked what he should do with me. Because he didn’t seem to need any help in deciding to fuck me a further two times before the sun rose. Each time he was a little less gentle than the time before. He knows he isn’t hurting me now. After making me come more times than I can count, it must be obvious to Dax that sex with him is the other end of the spectrum from pain for me.
The more of him I get, the more I want.
I roll onto my side in bed as he comes out of the bathroom with just a towel around his waist, water droplets glistening on his skin like crystals.
“What time’s your meeting?”
He rubs another towel over his hair as he comes over to the bed to kiss me.
“Not until nine. But I need to do something first.”
I frown as he breaks the kiss and walks back into the bathroom. It’s 7 AM. Where does he need to go this early?
Seven o’clock. That means it’s still the middle of the night in New York.
“Dax?”
“Rose?” he calls back, making me smile.
“Can I get my phone?”
I gave it to him last night, and getting it back was the last thing on my mind. But like I said to Dax about my dream last night, and not thinking about it until sunrise… well, my brain must have been taking notes, because now all I can think about is how many messages Casey will have left me. Because I know she won’t have stopped trying to reach me. Sandbox to casket.
I screw my eyes up and take a deep breath as a pang of pain slices through my chest.
“Sure. It’s in my jacket.”
I slide out of bed and grab Dax’s black hoodie that I still have and pull it on as I walk over to where he discarded his jacket last night. I reach into the pocket and pull out the phone.
Marcus: Everything’s set. I’ve got the plans and the gear. These fuckers aren’t going to know what’s hit them.
I read the message again. And then a third time.
I should put the phone back. I should have put it back the second I saw it was Dax’s and not mine.
Plans and gear?
“I like you in my clothes. You look cute.”
I drop the phone back inside Dax’s jacket pocket in a flash as he walks out of the bathroom dressed in his black suit pants and shirt from last night with the sleeves rolled up.
I lift my eyes to the large mirror as he walks up behind me and sweeps my hair away from my neck so he can kiss it while he looks at me in the reflection.
“So fucking cute,” he growls, sliding his hands up my thighs and lifting the bottom of the hoodie, smiling as he sees I’m bare underneath it. “How the fuck am I supposed to get anything done at work now, seeing you and knowing what’s underneath all those sexy little skirts you wear.”
I lean back against his chest, tilting my neck to the side so he can deepen his kisses against it. “The same way I’ll get things done knowing what’s underneath yours.”
“Under my sexy little skirts?” He arches a brow, and I giggle. “Right.” He kisses my neck one final time and drops the hem of the hoodie so it covers me up. “I won’t be long.”
“Where are you going?” I turn as he reaches the bedroom door.
He smiles. “I won’t be long.” He pulls his jacket on and then reaches into the pocket. “Here.” He strides back over and hands me my phone, then holds my face and kisses me on the lips. “Stay naked underneath this until I get back.”
I bite my lip, and he chuckles as he leaves. Then the car engine roars to life outside.
I walk over to the bed and fall back onto it with a huff. What’s he even doing at this time in the morning? Maybe he’s gone back to the main house for a change of clothes before his meeting. But then why would he come back here after? And why would he tell me to stay naked?
I turn my phone on and gnaw on my lip as it springs to life.
Fifty-three text messages. Seventeen voicemails.
Fuck.
