Page 18 of By His Side

He had a way of letting out tiny little whimpers that made it hard not to come. I wouldn’t, though, not before he did. He could accuse me of many things, but he wouldn’t get to say I was a terrible lover. Hiscock felt perfect in my hand: tight and hot, pre-cum already smearing the head and helping with the lubrication as I pumped him.

Teeth fastened around my shoulder as Darien grew close. He could have broken the skin and I would have kept going, nothing mattering but getting to see him fall apart. When it happened, it was as beautiful as I’d expected, Darien holding nothing back as he let out a keening wail, his handsome face contorting and hot cum covering my fingers to make everything deliciously slippery as I kept pumping. There was no watching a sight like that and not coming myself, pleasure surging through my body as my cum mixed with his.

Then the only sound in the room was ragged pants, both of us wrecked. I’d automatically wrapped my arms around Darien to hold him to me, bare skin pressed against bare skin, rapid heartbeat to rapid heartbeat. “Now that’s a meeting,” I said, amusement seeping into my words. “You give the best service.”

I’d meant it as a joke, but it didn’t land right. I knew that as soon as he went stiff in my arms. When he struggled free, I let him. I could hardly keep him there against his will, no matter how good it might feel to have another person close, to have Darien close.

He spied a box of tissues once he was on his feet, my mother keeping them in an old-fashioned white silk box decorated with pink flowers. He plucked out a big wad and scrubbed at his cum-soaked abdomen with a fastidiousness the task didn’t warrant when it was cum, not radioactive waste. His head was down, so I couldn’t see his expression. I didn’t need to, though, his agitation written in every hard line of his body. Look up regret in the dictionary and there would be a picture of Darien by it. It was understandable. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by it.

“It’s not funny,” he eventually ground out as he threw the tissues into a bin. “And I don’t appreciate you laughing at me.”

“Laughing at you?” Following his cue, I tugged my jeans and underwear back up, deciding that sitting here with my cock hanging out perhaps wasn’t the best way of dealing with his antagonism. “I wasn’t laughing at you.”I would never laugh at you.

Where had that thought come from? It was way too soon for soppy sentiments to come to the fore. Besides, after Julian, I wasn’t sure I’d ever trust another man. Sex might be on the menu, but anything more than that, no thank you. That’s what made Darien a perfect person to mess around with. Well, that and his good looks and tight body.

Darien was attempting to rectify his state of undress. He’d fastened his shirt and retrieved his tie from the floor, but in his agitation was struggling to knot it correctly. “Come here,” I offered.

No surprise that he didn’t do what I asked. I grabbed him, pulling him in front of me so I could inspect him. He tried to fend me off, but I kept a tight hold. “Shhh… I’m helping. Let me.”

He might have fastened his shirt, but in his haste he’d missed a button. There was nothing I could do about my fingers being slightly sticky as I undid them and then buttoned them correctly before reversing my earlier actions to tuck it back into his trousers. Then I took the tie off him, our gazes meeting as I lifted his collar and wound it around his neck.

His eyes were whirlpools of emotion as he stared back at me. “I promise I won’t tell a soul about what just happened between us. I’ll take that secret to my grave if I need to.”

Darien’s lips quirked slightly in the first shred of amusement I’d seen from him in some time. “Bit melodramatic, don’t you think?”

A few deft movements of my fingers and I had the tie knotted. I tightened it, making sure it was straight as I worked the knot up to his neck before pulling his collar over it. “I’mbeing melodramatic! You were the one acting like the moment your cock came out, your timeas a probation officer was over. I’m just pointing out that nothing has changed just because you got off.”

“And I’m just supposed to trust you, am I?”

The doubt in Darien’s words made me remember who I was. Something about letting go had temporarily lifted the burden of being an ex-criminal who’d spent seven years in prison. “Yeah, you are.” I held his gaze without blinking. “Because I mean it. No one will hear what happened from me. And I mean no one. Who am I going to tell, my mother?”

The words didn’t have the desired effect, abject horror appearing on Darien’s face. “Oh my God, your mother. What if she’d walked in on us?” He swallowed, the action seeming to take some effort. “You didn’t think of that, did you?”

“Actually,” I offered, my voice calm. “I did. She’s away until tomorrow, so there was no chance of her arriving home.” I retrieved Darien’s jacket from the floor and helped him into it, smoothing the fabric over his shoulders as an excuse to touch him more, which was bizarre really when only a few minutes ago I’d had his cock in my hand. “I don’t suppose you’d stay for a cup of tea?” It sounded so provincial after sharing sweat and cum, but that didn’t stop me from making the offer in my reluctance to find myself alone again. There was only so long you could rattle around a house without going crazy.

Darien shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Because you have somewhere else to be, or because you’re dead set on escaping as soon as you can?” I laughed as indecision flashed across his face. “Don’t worry. I won’t make you answer that.” I watched as he gathered up his papers and stuffed them back into his briefcase, and then followed him to the front door, stopping him before he could open it. “Wait.”

His sharp intake of breath as I crowded him against the wall fed my ego. Darien just having come seemed to make no difference to the effect I could have on him. I reached up slowly and smoothed his hair down. “You look like someone has dragged you through a hedge backwards. I’d hate for someone to take one look at you and think, now there’s a man who’s just had a good orgasm.” Darien’s lack of response except for a blink had me preening inwardly. It pleased me to throw him off balance, and had done since our first meeting. It was the reason I’d known that the attraction unfurling in my gut was mutual.

I cupped his cheeks and took the liberty of leaning forward to drop a soft kiss on his lips. “Just so we’re clear, I’d like what happened today to happen again. More, hopefully.” I let my gaze slide down his body to his crotch. “Next time I’ll blow you. Make you see stars.”

“There won’t be a next time. This was a one-off.”

His words might have been convincing if he hadn’t accepted the kiss like it was his due. I moved closer. So close I could feel his body heat. “There will be.”

“Not if I pass you off to someone else. That way, I never have to see you again.”

“I have an inkling that if you could pass me off to someone else, you’d already have done it. There are how many PO’s in your office? Four? Five? I’m guessing Katherine being out of play already makes it more difficult, and I’d bet you weren’t Katherine’s first choice.”

Darien’s expression said I’d hit the nail on the head, but that he wouldn’t admit it. I let go of him and stepped back, waving a hand at the front door only a meter away. “Safe journey home. I’ll see you soon.”

He left without saying anything else and I watched him through the window. This time Darien didn’t linger in the car. Anyone would have thought he was in a rush to get out of here. That didn’t dampenmy euphoria, though. I actually felt good for the first time in an age. Darien Quinn would be the perfect distraction from how shitty my life was.

Chapter Eight

Darien

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