Page 26 of Black Mark's Heart

Zander stood up. "I will."

Everyone waited until Zander took Warren to the other side of the atrium and then surreptitiously found something to throw at Jeremy jokingly.

"Okay!" Jeremy laughed. "I put my foot in it. Sorry."

The rest of the night was a lot more relaxed. Jeremy and Cassandra took the boys home at seven, and Alex and Tabitha left around eight, my father following them out. Warren and Sophie were cuddled up on the sofa talking, while Jasper and Zander played the PlayStation in Zander's room. I started cleaning up.

When Sophie excused herself to use the toilet, Warren came to talk to me. He put a ring box on the kitchen bench. I knew what it was. My hand went to the necklace at my neck.

"He's not getting it back," I said quietly.

"He doesn't want it back, Mora." Warren shuffled uncomfortably, opening the box to show the wedding band and then closing it again. "He wants you to have the set. He said to tell you that the set shouldn't be separated."

I didn't touch the box. I looked at it for a long moment and then went back to cleaning. "You told him where you were going tonight?"

"I told him I was going to your house warming," Warren answered. "He doesn't know that you and Zander are living together or he would have invited himself along."

I nodded understanding. "How are things at work?"

Warren relaxed. "Good. Your replacement, Wendall, is really good. He's taken over Dare's diary completely now, so I have more time to work on my projects. The office is finally working how it should have twelve months ago, except Dare was too busy trying to seduce you to make it work."

I swallowed and forced a smile, "I'm glad it's working out."

Warren's face fell. "Shit, Mora, I'm sorry, that came out wrong. You were fantastic, and I would work with you again in a heartbeat. It's just that Dare was worried some of his extra-curricular activities would scare you off, so he didn't want you running his diary."

"It's fine, Warren. I understand." I did. Dare had explained to me why he restricted my duties at work.

Warren fidgeted. "You're back with Jasper?"

I nodded.

"Will you marry him?"

I exhaled heavily, "I can't see the future, Warren, but I doubt it. It would take..." Darius moving on, him breaking that last promise to me. That's what it would take for me to completely let him go. I took a breath and shook my head. "I doubt it."

Sophie came back into the room with a false smile on her face. I knew she'd listened to at least part of the conversation. "Well, I think it's time I headed home." Sophie came forward and kissed my cheek, "I'll see you tomorrow morning."

I had my monthly obstetrics appointment tomorrow. I nodded when she looked at me; Sophie's brown eyes assessing me as if she may see a tiny crack appear. After a moment, she nodded and stepped away to say goodnight to Zander and Jasper.

"Want me to give you a lift?" Warren asked Sophie as she grabbed her bag.

"That'd be great, thanks," Sophie smiled.

"I'll just get my stuff and say goodnight to Zander." Warren went to get his bag and stepped into Zander's room.

"If I bang him..."

"It won't cause problems, Soph," I smiled. "Well, until you go to marry him and Dare is part of the groom’s party. I don't think I could stand to be in a bridal party with him."

Sophie gave me a cheeky smile. "Eh! That's a few years off yet. By then, you'll have cranked out a couple of kids to one of the guys in that room, or that sexy drummer you write with, and all Darius Rafal will be is a memory of a really huge slong."

"That huge slong haunted my dreams for five years between meetings," I reminded her.

Sophie's eyes bugged out of her head. "And so it should! You lost the big V to that monster of a cock. I would have joined the convent or become a porn star. Could have gone either way really," Sophie considered.

I chuckled. No, she had never seen Darius's monster, but a few nights back, Tabitha, Cassandra, and I all went out to dinner with Sophie. The conversation inevitably turned to that subject, since three of the four of us had experienced it. Effectively, it was decided that contraception or not, that cock was made to get a girl pregnant. It was immediately after that conversation that I'd called Jasper. I was too horny to bear it anymore and I needed to be plowed. It was call Jasper or call Sophie's male escort, the one who managed to get her so over my brother that she could easily go to dinner with his new girlfriend.

"Ready to go?" Warren asked.

Sophie and I looked at him and started laughing. We were both so ready to go it wasn't funny.

Warren smiled, "What'd I miss?"

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