Page 173 of Piece You Saved

I blink in surprise. “What’s ready?”

Dariel tightens his arms around me. “I’m picking you up now,” he says into my ear. “Wrap your legs around me.”

“Why would you do that?” As he lifts me, I do it, confused about what’s going on.

“I said I had something for you.” He carries me out of my bathroom, past a still-glowering Kade. I reach out, snag his hand, and smile at him. He stops glowering to smile back.

“What thing is that?” I ask as Dariel stalks out of my bathroom, my room, and then down the hallway toward his bedroom. Aden and Kade bring up the rear.

Dariel doesn’t respond. He doesn’t need to because we pass through his bedroom and enter his bathroom, where a large, claw-foot tub filled with a steamy and fragrant bath awaits. “Oh! Is this for me?”

“It is,” Dariel quietly admits. “Kade?”

They must have pre-arranged all of this because as Kade pulls me into his arms, Dariel strips, carelessly tossing his clothes to the floor.

I’m back in Dariel’s arms seconds later, and he steps into the bath, sinking into the steamy warmth as I straddle his thighs.

“Is this another apology?” I ask him as the warm water eases my muscles.

“I’ve learned you enjoy baths.” He kisses me lightly on the lips. “And I’m learning that I enjoy giving you a reason to smile.”

No wonder Aden said Dariel was the one women fell in love with if this is the stuff he has in his arsenal.

I lean into his kiss, sliding my palms up his muscled arms and looping them around his shoulders. “You’re not telling me that you stripped and brought me here just for me to bathe?”

He leans his head on the edge of the bath. “I did.”

I raise my brow. “And the thing I’m sitting on?”

His lips twitch as he strokes his hands up and down my back. “Ignore it.”

My eyebrows must touch my hairline. “Ignoreit? Are you being serious?”

Kade snorts. “Try not to sound so outraged, angel. You’ll give him a big head.”

He surprises a laugh out of me and a smile from Dariel. It’s a new smile, one I haven’t seen before. Makes sense when I can count his smiles on the fingers of one hand.

“You don’t laugh enough,” Dariel murmurs.

My amusement fades. “I was just thinking the same about you.”

“Well.” He resumes stroking a hand up and down my back in a way that’s becoming as hard to ignore as the cock nestled between my thighs. “If you promise to laugh more, I’ll smile more.”

“That sounds like a weird agreement,” I say.

He shakes his head, his amusement fading. “I haven’t had a lot of reasons to smile,” he quietly admits.

“I didn’t have a lot of reasons to laugh,” I say in the same quiet tone.

“Then it’s not weird.” He strokes his hand up my back, sliding his palm around the nape of my neck and drawing me toward him. His kiss makes me sigh as I lean into him.

He parts his lips, deepening the kiss. As I shift restlessly on top of him, the bulbous tip of his cock bumps my core, making me tingle there, as if he wants to push inside me.

Instantly, he breaks away, breathing heavily. “Stop.” He squeezes his eyes shut as he fights for breath. “I didn’t bring you in here for this.”

I study him, curiously. “Then why did you?”

“You like baths,” he says with his eyes still closed. “And I needed to hold you.”

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