Debauched in Diamonds Read online

  Near the back, Lori exited her office. From his left came Darci. His heart pounded a little harder and faster at the sight of her. She was wearing the same outfit she’d worn when he met her and the tie necklace was where he expected, teasing him with the way it lay just above the curve of her cleavage.

  “Victor.” Lori shook his hand. “What’s going on?”

  Darci moved to Lori’s side, facing him, close enough for him to see the thumping of her pulse and smell the seduction of her perfume. He wanted to forget about tiaras and sashes and swallow Darci whole, but instead forced himself to focus. “A last-minute need for Lindy’s bachelorette party.”

  The women cocked their heads, listening.

  “It seems the bride-to-be sash and tiara Katie ordered didn’t arrive and she will only settle for spectacular.” Or so she’d said three times in the time it took the elevator to descend to the first level.

  “When’s the party start?”

  He checked his watch. “Fifty minutes. And I still need to get whatever I, or hopefully you, come up with to Katie.”

  “I have Lindy’s measurements. I’ll get a sash together in no time,” Lori assured him. “Darci, do you have a tiara in the vault?”

  “Of course.” She met his gaze and nodded. “Follow me. We’ll find something.”

  “Jenny,” Lori said, “can you have Shayna come see me? I think she’ll have what I need for the finishing touches.”

  “You bet.” Jenny was picking up the phone as Lori headed back to her office and Victor followed Darci.

  The sway of her hips and shoulders as she moved across the room made him want to reach out and touch her. He had to resist, though, because he still didn’t know why she’d retreated.

  In her office, he expected her to point him toward the sitting area while she headed to the vault. When he veered that way, she stopped him. “Come to the vault. It’ll be faster.”

  He nodded and followed her through the back door of her office into what could only be described as an elegant warehouse section. Near the back corner was a giant black vault with a keypad beside the heavy door.

  “I’m not sure this was what I pictured when you said vault.”

  “It keeps the gems safe,” she said with a shrug as she entered her code and opened the door. He stepped into the vault with her and was surprised when she closed them inside.

  Lights recessed into the walls of the vault lit the space up as bright as the lobby. Narrow shelves at a slight downward angle lined the walls above cabinets of drawers. A black, fabric-covered island sat in the middle of the vault with more drawers in it. Enough jewels to fill two high-end stores sat on the shelves and he could only imagine what was in the drawers.

  “You don’t trust your co-workers enough to leave that open while you’re in here? Or do you just want to be locked up with me?”

  “Neither.” Her tone was deadpan and though she didn’t roll her eyes at him he could easily picture her doing it. “I’m just cautious with all the clients who are around.”

  “So you really don’t want to be alone with me? Here or anywhere else?” The questions didn’t belong in the workplace, but she was close and he’d missed her too much to ignore the opportunity.

  She was seemingly unaffected by him, though, as she moved to a wall of drawers. Opening a drawer and pulling a tray out, she moved to the island. “You’re fun to be with.”

  “So much so that you haven’t spoken to me or come over in two weeks.”

  “I’ve been busy.” She opened a drawer in the island and pulled out two white cloth gloves. Handing him one, she slid the other one on. “These are the smaller tiaras made with cubic zirconium instead of real diamonds. If you’d like, I can loan one out for the night.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “For Lindy, yes.”

  His sister had struck again with her way of wriggling into someone’s heart and making them willing to rewrite the rules for her. He reached for a small one that had a row of red stones along the base. It would have gone perfectly with Lindy’s dress, so he figured it was a safe bet.

  “How about this one? It looks like the one she wore at the bridal show.”

  “Great choice, and it is.”

  Victor watched silently as Darci slid open another drawer in the island, retrieved a silver box with the Tulle and Tulips logo on the lid and put his choice inside. She said nothing as she turned to put the tray back into the drawer, yet the moment her back was to him, Victor moved.

  In two steps he was at her back, close enough to catch the smoothness of her powdery scent, yet just far enough away to keep her shoulder from brushing his chest. Unless she stepped back.

  He expected her to turn after closing the drawer, but she didn’t. She stood right where she was, breathing steadily if the rise and fall of her shoulders were a true indicator, and leaned her head just a little to the right.

  The distance between them was only inches, easily spanned with a lean or partial step. Decision was a battle between desires and self-preservation. Self-preservation won, kept his feet stuck to the floor.

  He studied her neck, the flow of muscles and tendons beneath the skin, the path of the veins, the rhythm of her pulse. Heavy thickness grew in his throat, forcing him to swallow as he raised a hand and traced one fingertip along the length of her neck.

  “Darci.”

  Releasing a tiny moan, she leaned into him. Heat penetrated his shirt and skin, warming his body. He placed a second fingertip against her neck, moving them in tiny circles.

  “Can I see you tonight?”

  “You’re seeing me now, Victor.”

  He rubbed his nose against her hair, drawing her in deep. The moment filled the gap he’d felt in his soul since he’d last seen her. Turning her to face him he lassoed her with his arms and lifted her off her feet to carry her to the island. The moment her ass met the black fabric she opened her legs so he could move close.

  “At the risk of changing the rules of our agreement…” he whispered as he slid his nose along the path his fingers had taken. His fingers outlined her necklace. “I miss you.”

  Darci rested her hands on his hips, something she’d done almost daily in the time they’d been together. Her fingers sought gentle purchase in his skin, awakening a base need.

  “I want to strip you naked, cover you in diamonds and feast on you for hours.”

  Her legs shook as she wrapped them around him, hooking her ankles at his back. “That could be fun.”

  “Everything with you is fun, Darci.”

  “That fact is coming back to me.”

  His body, already eager, responded with a hardening determination. A determination to have her naked and covered in diamonds. A determination to make it impossible for her to step into the vault again without thinking of him.

  It was nothing less than she’d done for him on his office couch. Her infiltration was so complete he found himself sitting where they had, rubbing the spot where she’d sat as if he could feel her beneath his hand.

  “So.” She flicked the flap of his belt free of its loop. “Are you going to devour me?”

  His hips surged forward, his stomach muscles trembled and his brain damn near short-circuited. He rested his lips against her, feeling rather than kissing. “You make it tough to say no.”

  “Then don’t.”

  She sounded as breathy as he’d sounded raspy, which only made restraint that much tougher. “I have to. For now.” He kissed her, tentatively, tasting the sweetness that was Darci. “I have to get that tiara delivered.”

  “We have interns to run errands for us.” She pulled at the belt.

  He stilled her hands, squeezing her fingers and breathing deep to maintain control. “We’d still have to leave this vault. And the secret would be out.”

  “You’re right.” She tucked the belt’s tip back into its loop, but kept her hands on him. “I hate it, but you’re right.”

  He hated it more, because every hushed touch o
n his body and each rushing breath across his lips lured him deeper into her spell until he was no longer falling for her.

  He was entirely lost.

  Chapter Nine

  Darci changed clothes, again, settling on her softest jeans and a racerback tank as she counted the minutes dragging by. Before leaving the vault, Victor had invited himself and Groot over. She’d tried bowing out, asking about Jeffrey’s bachelor party. The excuse fell flat when Victor said it was the next night, after the rehearsal dinner.

  The prospect of another evening with him excited her. It also terrified her, because she had to tell him she needed to end their agreement.

  After the few moments in the vault, moments when she’d been forced to face how badly she craved him, moments when she’d felt the spark of life he lit in her soul, moments when she’d wanted to shout for all to hear that she’d been missing him relentlessly, she’d been weakened. Desire was shoving need aside and stomping it into the mud of reality.

  She answered the door quickly, maybe a little too quickly, when he knocked. Groot greeted her with a lick on her hand. After getting her devoted attention for a couple of minutes he moved to settle on the floor at the end of the couch.

  Turning to close the door, she found herself facing Victor. He stood just inside the door he’d already closed and stared at her.

  In one of those rare moments of clarity, the world around them dropped away. Agreements and expectations, assumptions and speculations faded. They neither blinked nor moved nor spoke. Only their breath stirred the air.

  In unspoken agreement they moved, closing the spanning distance. Unlike the rushed strip fests seen on TV shows, they moved slowly toward her bedroom. Kissing, unbuttoning, stepping out of shoes, stripping, touching, brushing.

  Her flesh pricked with chills of arousal as she kicked her jeans aside and reached for the belt he’d stopped her from unbuckling earlier. Her fingers shook as she unsnapped and unzipped his trousers.

  His caresses traversed her skin in a flurry of butterflies that went from her head to her feet. Inside and out, with the whole of her being, she craved him, hungered for the freedom he delivered.

  He bit lightly into the skin by her collarbone as his hands, palms flat against her back, slid up and beneath her bra. A simple twist later and the strap popped free and the cups sagged beneath her breasts. He kept his palms flat and constant on her as he eased the straps down.

  When the straps cleared her hands, he linked their fingers and moved his mouth to hers. Firm and commanding, his tongue pressed against her lips, seeking entrance. She opened. He explored.

  Her body heated to the core. Her panties surpassed damp and went straight to wet. Speeding to the line of desperation, Darci tugged on his hands and pulled him to the bed. Leanly muscled, his weight over her was a delicious pressure.

  She eased a leg up the outside of his and hooked her heel beneath his ass cheek. He pressed against her, aroused and hot. Her panties slid along her pussy, ratcheting her hunger to the next level.

  “Victor. Please hurry.”

  “I’ve been too long without you to rush this.”

  He resumed his kiss and irritated her further by rubbing his erection against her again.

  Two can play this game.

  She hooked her second foot below his ass and arched her hips up, pressing against him, soaking his boxer briefs with her desire. His kiss grew more passionate. She pressed more aggressively.

  He moved her hands, still linked with his, above her head. His fingertips dug into the backs of her hands. He moaned. She pressed against him again, dug her heels in for control.

  Her thighs shook with the effort to control her moves, but he was beginning to tremble more than she’d felt him tremble before. In response, she began to tremble until all that mattered was Victor and having him inside her.

  Dropping her hips back to the mattress, she slid her feet up to his hips and dipped her toes into his elastic waistband. She nipped his bottom lip as she pulled the waistband over his erection and then pushed the cotton down his legs. He laughed as he moved, scooting her farther onto the mattress as he crawled with her.

  “Someone’s in a hurry.”

  Leaning up as much as she could with his body above hers she pressed against him until he released her hands and moved to his back. Rising up, she stripped her panties and tossed them to the floor.

  “Guess I missed you too,” she said as she settled back over him.

  With her hands braced on either side of his head, she locked her gaze with his and angled her hips to take him inside.

  Satin smooth, he glided in. She lowered herself until she felt his head pressing against her g-spot. Orgasm nearly took her instantly, but she bit down on the inside of her bottom lip, using the pain to pull her from the brink.

  Victor placed his hands on her hips, digging lightly into her flesh, and pulled his hips forward. Like they’d moved from the living room, slow and reflective, they kept their gazes locked and settled into a rocking rhythm that maneuvered them closer.

  Closer to release. To satisfaction. To oblivion.

  With every pulse of his body against her, her inner core contracted. Her lower back, the muscles wrapping her spine, her neck, her legs, her buttocks. All of her contracted into one massive knot of anticipation and need.

  Her breath came in tiny pants and gasps as her lungs tightened with the rest of her. Her head buzzed and her face flamed.

  She wanted to ride him hard and fast, to rocket into orgasm’s orbit, but his grip on her hips hindered her movements, and instead of the longer driving thrusts she’d grown to expect from him he moved in short, blunt pumps that kept the pressure on.

  Finally, when she’d fought between battle and release until her eyelids quivered and her lip bled from her biting down, he eased farther back and thrust deep. A growl rumbled out of him as he dug his head into the pillow and held her tight against him.

  She dropped her head back and groaned long and loud with the ravenous release.

  She’d wanted fever. He’d shown warmth.

  She’d wanted simplicity. He’d shown complexity.

  She’d wanted no-strings sex. He’d shown connection.

  He’d been pushed into her life by his sister and her meddlesome friends, and as nice as he’d seemed she hadn’t been interested. They’d been tricked into a lunch, and his quick mind and humor had intrigued her, but she’d still resisted. He’d offered her an easy-to-escape agreement, and she’d tried to escape it.

  He’d been inescapable, though, because even when she didn’t see him, even when he wasn’t popping messages up on her computer, he stayed in her mind. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about how easy being with him was, or how he always put her before himself. He’d cleaned his home for her and went out of his way to make his sister’s big day perfect.

  Collapsing against him, with their skin slick with sweat and their hearts racing, Darci wasn’t prepared to vocalize it in the moment, but she found herself sharing the sentiment she’d run from.

  Victor had scared her when he said he was falling for her. Suddenly, though, she understood, or faced the truth, of why she’d run. It hadn’t been fear of being trapped or abandoned. It had been fear at how much she might be willing to give up for him, because she’d been falling too. And it would take the tiniest nudge for her to be completely gone.

  Chapter Ten

  Victor sat at the end of the wedding party’s table and watched Lindy and Jeffrey in the center. They leaned close, foreheads resting together and Jeffrey tracing Lindy’s necklace as he spoke. Her shoulders shook with a small laugh and her cheeks flushed.

  Knowing what pictures entered his own mind when he thought of Darci and her tie necklace, Victor easily imagined what Jeffrey said. Shaking the thought of his sister’s sex life away, he turned his attention to the crowded reception hall abuzz with chatter and clinking dishes.

  He hadn’t expected to see Darci working the wedding with some of the staff
from Tulle and Tulips, but she was there, mingling with the guests to make sure they had everything they needed.

  If there had been the slightest hiccup at any point during the day, he hadn’t heard about it and Lindy didn’t seem to have either. The only thing that could have made the occasion more perfect would be if Darci were sitting at his side.

  No sooner did the thought enter his mind than an image of her in some out-of-control dress covered in bling snapped into place. Picturing her at the wedding party table as his bride and him as her groom was such a simple idea. And just as simply the idea became a dream he wanted to see come true.

  Preferring to take things as they came, and easily sidetracked by his computer, planning had never been Victor’s strong suit, yet as he ate the meal before him, he watched Darci and a plan began to unfold.

  Through the dinner and the toasts and the cake cutting and the bride and groom’s first dance, he planned. When he moved onto the dance floor with Lindy, he was still planning.

  “You okay?” she asked. “You seem preoccupied.”

  He shook his head and smiled. “Just feeling inspired by my baby sister.”

  “Yeah?” She flexed her hand in his as he shifted her away from a couple moving too close. “Inspired in what way?”

  “It’s a secret,” he whispered conspiratorially.

  Lindy leaned close and looked up with a glimmer in her eyes. “Would this secret have anything to do with whoever you cleaned your apartment for?”

  “I told you, I needed laundry.” Predictably, Lindy hadn’t stopped trying to figure out whom he’d cleaned up for. If his plan unfolded like he wanted, she’d know before the day was out.

  “And I told you, you’re a lousy liar. There’s a woman.”

  He kissed her temple and held her close. “You females always want people paired off.”

  “I want you happy, Victor. I want you to find someone who accepts you and loves you because of your quirks instead of in spite of them. You deserve that.”

  “I have you, don’t I?”

  “Not the same thing.” She smiled softly as Jeffrey moved past with his mother. “You need someone to hold your hand while you read your comic books. Maybe even read them with you.”