Page 10 of Claimed By my Best Friend

“What exactly am I supposed to be looking at, Darrell?”

“This,” he says, raising and arm and pointing with the other to a spot over his ribs. My gaze follows his hand, and at first, I have no idea what exactly I am supposed to be looking at…until I see it.

My heart skips a beat as I process what this means. “What is this?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper as I trace the shape with my eyes. Angel wings with a halo in the middle above a series of numbers—the date we met—stamped in bold, dark ink on his skin.

“I’ve had it for almost two years.”

“I…I mean…” My mouth runs dry as I struggle to find the words to respond, but I have nothing.

Grabbing my hand, he brings it to his side. His muscles tense under my fingers when I graze the tattoo. How the hell did I miss this? It’s not like he walks around shirtless, but I’ve seen his bare torso plenty of times over the years. “I wanted you closer to me, and I thought this was the only way it would ever happen.”

Wait. “What?”

“I want you, Paula.” A flare of possessiveness crosses his gaze, and a moan climbs up my throat when he wraps his armaround me and yanks me hard against him. “I have wanted you from the moment I saw you.” His gaze drops to where my breasts are crushed to his chest and my cleavage is exposed by my gaping robe. “You have no fucking idea how many times I’ve jerked myself raw with thoughts of you running through my mind while you were asleep in the next room.”

This makes no sense.He wants me?“B-but, earlier… You regretted what happened. I saw it in your eyes!”

Darrell drops his forehead to mine, a muscle popping in his jaw. “I panicked,” he confesses. “Right there in that room, I had everything I have ever wanted and more. It felt unreal. Out of my control. What you saw in my eyes was not regret, but panic.”

I want to dissect why he would react that way, but my mind keeps spinning on one point. The one thing that changes everything. “You want me?”

“No, Paula,” he chuckles without mirth. “I don’t just want you. Ineedyou. I am in love with you. My feelings are not all pure and innocent. No, I want to bend you over every surface in this place and fill you with my cock. Rut you so hard, you will be feeling me for days. I want to break the face of every man that dares look your way.” He tugs at the belt holding the robe in place, and it slips open, revealing my nudity underneath. “I want to lock you away from the world so no one gets to see you or have you. No one but me gets to bask in the warmth you radiate.” I’m breathing hard when he traces his fingers over my neckline and down to my tits. I whimper when he rubs his thumb over a nipple, causing it to pebble under his teasing fingers. “Didn’t you feel it earlier when I kissed you or when my tongue was lapping at your pussy?”

“I did… I felt it.”I want to feel it again.

“How about now? Do you feel how hard I am for you, angel? How much I need you?” he growls, pushing his erection against my stomach.

“I do,” I breathe, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, feeling his tense muscles relax under my fingers. “I feel it.”

“Then trust me when I say that you are the only woman I have ever felt this way for, Paula,” he rasps, dropping his mouth to the curve of my neck. A storm of heat drops to my stomach when he grazes his teeth over my skin. “You are the only woman I have ever loved. The only one I would kill for. Give my life for.” Wet heat slicks the space between my thighs when he rakes his teeth over my ear.

“I feel the same way,” I whimper, pushing back to look into his eyes. Falling a little deeper for his ocean blues when our gazes lock. “Lord help me, but I feel the same way about you, Darrell. I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you at the fair, and now…I want all of you. I want to belong to you. Only you.”

His eyes light up with lust and something equally feral. Something that makes my breath catch in my throat. Darrell leans in and brushes his mouth gently over mine. It’s soft. A simple touch of lips, but it’s enough to send a tremble racking my body. “I ruined our moment back at the studio,” he says, his mouth so close to mine I can almost taste him. “Let me fix it, baby. I’m going to lick that pussy until I’ve made it up to you.” His hands drop to my back, then lower, and he squeezes my ass. “Get you all wet and needy before I press inside you.”

“Y-yes, I want that too.”

In one swift move, he lifts me in his arms, and I wrap my legs around him, twining my hands on his nape. My mouth seeks his with a desperate need to be kissed as he carries me to my bedroom, and all I can think is…finally.

All those nights dreaming of this moment, and it’s all falling into place. Everything is happening as it was always meant to.

There is a jaded voice at the back of my head that tries to dampen this moment by poking holes of uncertainty into my mind—like the small matter of my father not approving of my friendship with Darrell, and how he will be even less thrilled about our love and the fact that I know next to nothing about this man’s past—but I push the voice back. I kiss Darrell hard and hope that he silences all the negative thoughts.

None of that matters. Nothing matters but this moment with this man.

Chapter Five

Darrell

I almost ruined things between us. I’m a man who craves control, but when it comes to her, I have none.

Paula makes me feel things I never have before. Around her, my heart beats differently. It’s faster and louder and jackhammers all over the place. I can play the cool guy all I like, but with Paula, I am nothing but a man who is helplessly in love with his best friend. A man whose thoughts, actions, and feelings revolve around her.

Only her.

Fuck, but there are secrets between us, most of which are on my side. At some point, I will have to explain that the thought of confessing everything to Paula and then losing her once she learns about my past is what caused my panic. Christ, will she want to be with me once she finds out that I have a permanent record?

“I love you,” I growl as I slowly lower her to her back on her bed. She’s naked, perfect from head to toe, and I can’t waitto make her mine. After so many long nights of imagining this moment, it’s here now. “You are mine now.”

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