Page 92 of Diamond In The Rough

Inhaling and filling my chest until bursting, I exhale again and turn the handle.

I already smell the change in the air. I feel how my room is cooler than everywhere else, purely because of how I decorate it.

Pushing the door open, I release it and simply… wait. I swallow the nerves in my throat, and watch as Tiia takes in the scene laid out in front of her.

“It’s like a jungle.” Awed, she lets go of my hand and steps ahead of me, turning in a circle to study the ivy climbing my walls.

Fronds spray from a large planter bursting with a palm. Pots with draping spider plants hang from the ceiling, creating a curtain-like effect of green and white.

“Holy shit, Micah.” She runs the tips of her fingers along anything she can touch. Philodendrons. Fig leaves. A rubber plant, and colorful displays of succulents. She ducks under a cascading string of hearts, and grins when Bastard charges into the room before I get a chance to close the door.

He gets twenty seconds to explore. Then he’s leaving and I’m closing us in.

From now until forever.

From now until we’re over.

“Is that my pothos?” She cuts a line through my room toward the very pot I stole from her shop not all that long ago. Her eye for detail is sharp, considering there are countless others that look the same in this room, all climbing the walls and flirting with the lights in the ceiling. “It looks…” She stops in front of the plant and smiles. “Alive.”

“I moved it from the greenhouse earlier today and put it up here. Damn near impossible to kill a pothos.” I follow her and stop only when my chest touches her back. My hands go to her hips and my lips, to the side of her neck. “The fact you did says you’re kind of special.”

“And you’re kind of a jackass.” She laughs, but she doesn’t pull away from my touch. She doesn’t mind that my cock rests against the small of her back. Or that my breath bathes her flesh. “It wasn’t my fault the pothos was dying. It belonged to Jakeline. I was just the waterer when I remembered.”

“You remembered too often.” I slide my hand around to her belly, splaying my fingers wide. “You were suffocating the poor thing with love.”

“The tragedy.” I don’t see her face, so I can’t know for sure, but I’d bet my entire family and our fortune that she rolls her eyes. “Where’s my monstera?”

“Still in the greenhouse.”

“You don’t like it as much? It’s been relegated to outside?”

“Consider my room where patients go for recovery.” I nip at the back of her neck, pleased when she jumps. “The greenhouse is where I send those who need the ICU.”

She sniggers. “Ass.”

“Honest.”

“Yeah?” She deserts the pothos, not yet noticing the two-hundred-thousand-dollar pirate’s desk just feet from where we stand, and turns in my arms until we’re face to face. Chest to chest. She drapes her arms over my shoulders and fingers the hair at the back of my head. Searching my eyes, she nibbles on her plump bottom lip. “Honest? So you’ll tell me now why you’re so sad.”

“I’m not sad.” I lean closer and feather my lips against her warm neck. “I’m horny.”

“You’re crude and unkind when you’re feeling threatened.” She fists my hair and pulls me back again. “Your mom? Joseph Wilkes?”

“Two very separate subjects. They have never, and will never, connect. One is dead, and the other will probably die before the year is out.”

“You intend to kill him?”

I shake my head in short, disinterested turns of my head. “I doubt I’ll have to. He’s a messy dude who enjoys pissing off powerful men. He’s hungry for notoriety, no matter the cost. I doubt he’ll survive to see Christmas.”

“He’s threatened your family.”

“A lot of people threaten my family.” I pinch her chin between my thumb and finger and draw her to her toes. “It’s the way of life as a Malone.”

“You thought I was a danger to your family.”

My lips curl, finally, something to smile about. “My mistake. Do you want to go home?” I press a kiss to her lips. “I could get you a ride into the city at any time. You just say the word.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” she counters smoothly. “Not interested anymore?”

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