Chapter Eleven
Claire
My laughter echoes through Draven’s kitchen the following morning as he chases me in circles around the marble island. I’m barefoot and wearing one of his T-shirts, my fingers sticky from the most delicious apple tart he fed me for breakfast. My hair is loose and wild from another night of marathon lovemaking. I’ve never felt so much happiness at once.
Wait, no. I’m even happier ten seconds later when Draven comes roaring around the island and snatches me up with an arm around my waist, tossing me up into his arms and raining growling kisses down on my face.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” he says.
“Draven, you can’t eat me breakfast!” I squeal as he bites playful at my neck.
“Says who?”
“Me!”
“Well, it’s your opinion versus mine and I’m the chef in this family.”
I’m thrown down on the couch a second later, Draven looming above me in his morning ensemble of loose black sweatpants and no shirt. His long, talented fingers dig lightly into my ribs, and I squirm around with breathless protests over being tickled, although he can probably tell how much I love it. This carefree side of him. His penchant for fun that is showing itself more and more often. Not to mention, when we play these lighthearted games, his casual displays of strength excite me. Make me feel…fragile. Sweet.
Playful.
With darkening eyes, Draven nudges my legs apart and kneels between my thighs on the couch. Biting my lip, I hurry to tug down the hem of the T-shirt before he sees my bare pussy, but I cover myself too late and he clucks his tongue at me.
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“What have I said about tempting me?” Both of our attentions are drawn to the rising ridge in his sweatpants. “There are consequences.”
“I didn’t mean it,” I whisper, holding a section of my shirt over my sex, though I know he can see everything that surrounds it, such as the highest section of my thighs that connect to my bottom. “I-I can’t close my legs.”
“That’s right. You can’t.” His warm hands coast up the insides of my thighs. “They always seem to be wide open around me. Are you trying to tell me something?”
I’m hit with such a rush of warmth beneath my navel, I can’t respond. Can only lie there and attempt to control the rapid breaths firing in and out of my lungs.
“I’m not allowed to put my cock there, little girl,” he says, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist. “Stop showing me what I can’t have.”
Watching him through my eyelashes, I release the hem of the shirt and reveal myself to the dominant man who stares down at me, rapt, his guttural groan making me shiver. “Oops,” I pout. “My hand was getting tired. I couldn’t hold it anymore.”
Slowly, Draven drops down on top of me, my thighs trembling around his hips as he presses down harder, harder, flattening me, all while looking me right in the eye. Such intense focus on me that I swear I’m the only person in the universe. To him, I think I am.
We’re so wrapped up in each other, I don’t hear the phone buzzing right away. It’s only after a few seconds that I realize the device is vibrating on the coffee table to my left. “Goddammit,” he says through his teeth, leaning down to drop a fervent kiss on my tummy, followed by my moist flesh. “I know that’s my brother calling. We should have been at the restaurant fifteen minutes ago.”
I gasp, searching around the room with my eyes for a clock, finding one on the cable box beside the television. “Oh my gosh. I totally lost track of time.”
“I wonder why,” Draven says, dragging his tongue in a circle around my belly button. “I haven’t left you alone since we got home last night. Poor girl.”
“Happy girl.”
He lifts his head and grins, studying me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, caressing his cheek. “Crazy happy.”
For long moments, he stares at me, a deep, abiding love displayed on his face. I could lie there for hours while he looks at me like this, but his phone rings again. “You know what?” Draven says, sounding thoughtful. Slightly dazed. “Fuck work.”
I lift an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’re not going to work today. Fuck it.” He grabs his vibrating phone off the coffee table and stands, looking down at me. “Pierre. Yeah, no shit. I know we’re not there.” He listens fora moment, the tinny gripes of his brother filling the air. “There should be enough sauce to make it to the dinner shift. After that, you’re on your own. We’re taking the day off work to get married.”
I slap a hand over my mouth to stifle a gasp.