Page 27 of Homecoming

“It’s like they said, the land rights. Now that I think back, I vaguely remember something about it. I searched through some of the old files from the storeroom in the basement and from the little I’ve been able to read, Mikah was telling the truth. They do own the land—and the clause about the visitation is true as well.”

“What is all this stuff?” Kat toys with the papers and maps strewn across the desk. “Are these drawings of a house? Whose house is this?”

“Well, I was hoping it might be our house—a house of our own. I’m fed up living in the pool house. It’s cramped and too close to the damn swimming pool with everyone in and out all the time. I need somewhere quiet. And I thought it might be nice if we have some proper space of our own. Somewhere we couldplayin peace.” He grins with a deep, meaningful stare as he holds her cheek and kisses her more passionately.

“Are you serious? You’re going to build us a house?”

“I am indeed. I even think there’d be room for a library, if you want one?”

“A separate library… with shelves and books and… Are you kidding me?” she smiles.

“Ah... that got your attention.”

“Well, you know how much a good book can really turn a girl on.” She laughs and massaging her hand up his chest, Kat leans forward on tiptoes and plants a kiss on his lips. Her breathy whisper, her hands in his hair, the thud of her pulse beating against his chest, sends hormones surging through his bloodstream. It turns him on, and Kat can hear the low growl rising inside him.

Darius places the glass on the tableandagain taking her cheeks in both hands, he smothers her mouth with his.

“Wait…” she holds him back. “Where? Where are you planning on building this house?”

“There’s a piece of land in a clearing behind the main house. Come... I’ll show you.” Taking her hand, he leads her to the deskandbrushing the creases from a large paper map spread out on the desk, he circles the location with his finger. “It’s close enough for you to check on the pups but secluded enough to afford us some privacy.”

“Wow, I am going to be spoiled. Noah’s building me a cabin and now you’re going to build me a house—with a library,” she grins. “How’d I get to be so lucky?”

“I don’t know, but I guess that’s the perk of having three grown men doting on your every whim.” His tongue caresses a line along the curve of her neck as her scent teases his nostrils.

“Don’t you mean two grown men and one stupid idiot?”

“Hey, don’t keep ragging on Digby. He’s doing his best. What’s going on with you? What’s he done so wrong to upset you like this?”

“Nothing. Sorry, it’s just…” she sighs loudly. “Nothing. It’s me, not him. It’s just sometimes I feel like I’m bonded to him, but I’m not sure I’m in love with him—or if he loves me. Sometimes I feel like he wants to be free of the tie. Maybe I should set him free and let him be with someone else?”

“Kat, don’t make any rash decisions based on one stupid mistake. You only just returned home. Give him a chance. I’ll talk to him, tell him to up his game. The one thing I do know is he loves you very much. You not being with him—that can’t even be a consideration.”

“You told me once that I’d have to choose between you and him. You said one day I would have to make that choice.” She swallows the urge to cry.

“Yeah, and then along came Noah,” he smiles. “Things change.”

“Ohwhy is my life so complicated?” Kat sighs. “Why can I never feel satisfied? Why do I need all three of you to make me feel whole? Things would be so much easier if I could just choose one of you to be with?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s meant to be this way. Maybe you won’t ever have to choose—maybe fate will choose for you. For now, just enjoy what you have. And this house, it’s not about you having to choose. It’s just a space for us to be together. Noah will have his space and we will have ours. Kat, we will get through this and find a way to make it work, but at the end of thedayno matter what happens, you and Digby are bonded—neither Noah nor I can change that. That bond is so much more than the mark on your neck. Besides, you have pups and that’s something I know I can’t give you.”

“But what if you could? What if there was a way for us to have a family and pups of our own?”

“Shhh…” He kisses her neck and the touch of his lips, the feel of his tongue, and the pheromone-laden scent of him close sends a cold quiver down Kat’s spine. As he unbuttons her shirt, his mouth trails to her breast, and he gently bites in light kisses around the full plumpness of her flesh—careful with the tender and obviously swollen mound. He moves down her stomach and continues with his kisses. Pressing her back against the desk, the growing bulge in his pants groans against hiszip,and with each satisfying lick of her warm skin, his dick hardens more.

“Darius, wait. Sorry, I can’t do this. I can’t go all the way with you. I’m not ready—physically for anything too demanding.”

“I know. I know your body’s not ready. I understand that,” he smiles. “Doesn’t mean we can’t go some of the way though, does it? I miss you. I missed your touch on my skin.”

“And I missed touching you.” She laughs, her hand stroking gently against the back of his neck. “How much did you miss it?”

He takes her hand and places it against his groin. “This much.”

“Oh my God, I forgot what that felt like.”

“Do you want to see it? Touch it for real?” He smirks with a cocked brow as he unfastens the buckle of his belt.

Kat grins and taunts a bite of her lip as she grapples with the crisp linen of his immaculate shirt. Sliding a hand down the firm of his taut biceps, she smoothes her palm over his broad chest laid bare before her while her index finger draws a line around the scar of her name burned deep into the muscle. The inked pattern links intricately with the ones already etched on his body and makes it seem as if she’s always been there, a part of him.

---