I flex my jaw and step right up to him. “You’ll be in a shallow grave before you get anywhere near Kayla’s hair.”
He eyes me. “Big words. I’m not a fan of shallow graves, you see, so unfortunately for you, I brought some insurance.”
He tips his head at something, and suddenly four figures creep out from the shadows of the house and surround the base of the stairs where Kayla and I stand. One guy I could handle. Two would be hard, but doable. But five on one? I can’t win with odds like that, and a fight would only rile this guy up. Who knows what he’d do to Kayla if he was angry?
“Say good-bye to your boyfriend, Kayla, before someone gets hurt,” Big Joe says. “We need to get on the road.”
One of the goons reaches for Kayla’s arms and I knock his hand away, stepping in front of her more fully.
I look at Big Joe. “Let’s talk this out. You need twenty thousand dollars, right?”
He nods.
“Will you accept payment in diamonds?”
“Of course.”
“And if you get your money’s worth, you’ll leave Kayla alone—forever?”
He shrugs. “I have no business with Kayla other than her mother’s debt. If she pays up then I’m gone for good.”
I nod. “Kayla,” I say quietly, without turning to look at her. “Go get my mom’s necklace.”
I hear her suck in a breath. “But Daren—”
“Nothing in this world is more important than you—especially not a piece of jewelry,” I say in a serious tone. “Go get it. Please.”
A beat passes then she hurries up the stairs. I hear her shuffle down the hall and through my room, my eyes on Big Joe the whole time. She comes back downstairs with the familiar box and hands it to me.
Our eyes meet when I take it and, right here, in this crazy moment, I know what real love looks like. What it tastes like, smells like. I know what real love feels like, and it feels like home. It feels like Kayla Tuner, believing in me. It feels like everything I’ve ever done right in a pair of bright blue eyes. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her. No necklace, no amount of money, not even the very last breath pulled from my chest is more important than the girl standing beside me.
I hand the box over to Big Joe. He opens it and examines the string of diamonds with small noises of approval.
He slants his eyes to me. “This is a hefty piece of bling. You might be ripping yourself off here.”
I glance at Kayla. “Not even a little.”
I have the most priceless thing in the world.
Big Joe inhales through his nose again. “Tell you what. Me and my associates here will leave the two of you unharmed tonight, and I will arrange for these diamonds to be authenticated by someone I trust. If these are, in fact, real then the two of you will never see me again. However, if these diamonds are fake, and you’ve wasted my time, you will see me again and there will be much…” He eyes Kayla then me. “Harm. Understood?”
I nod, wishing I had the power to rip his limbs from his body. “Understood.”
“Very well.” He motions to his goons to leave then stretches a smile over his face. “Have a good evening.”
They exit the house and I immediately turn around to face Kayla. “Are you okay?” I touch her head, her arms. I know she wasn’t hurt but I just need to touch her. I lead her up the stairs and away from what just happened.
“I’m fine,” she says, looking at me in concern. “But you just gave away your mother’s necklace—your favorite memory.”
I shake my head as we reach my bedroom. “It was a token of a happy time with my parents, nothing more. There’s no amount of diamonds I wouldn’t give up for you.”
“Daren…”
“I’m being serious.” I step closer and hold her face, swallowing. “I know this sounds crazy, but I love you, Kayla Turner. And I’ve never loved anything more.”
39 Kayla
My lips part as I stare up into his deep brown eyes in the moonlight streaming into his bedroom doorway through the upstairs hallway window. Is Daren Ackwood really confessing his love for me? My heart flutters as I search for the right words to convey everything I’m feeling.
“I love you, too” is all I come up with. There really aren’t any better words. “So I guess we’re both crazy.”
He smiles. “I guess so.”
I smile back and then his lips are on mine, kissing me desperately, again and again until I’m out of breath and grasping at his shirt collar. Tugging and pulling, I manage to pull his shirt off so I can feel my body up against his. I like how strong and big he is when we’re standing together, how he can look down on me but not make me feel powerless. He walks us inside his room, shuts the door, and presses me up against it in the now total blackness of his room, kissing my neck and throat as I exhale in bliss and savor the feel of his mouth on my skin.
I go for his pants but he traps my hands at his zipper, moving us over to fall onto the mattress as he starts kissing me all over again. His touch conveys unspoken things, filling me with hope for the future and peace for the present. And his lips pour into me beauty that’s unseen and worthiness that’s unearned.
“Wait, wait,” I say breathlessly and Daren pulls back. I climb on my knees and tug the piece of cardboard from his bedroom window, letting the moonlight fill his room so we are no longer in complete darkness. “I want you to see me.”
A wide smile stretches across his face in the soft blue light of the moon. Returning to the mattress, I stretch out on my back as he crawls over me and looks into my eyes. And oh my God, he is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Not because he’s handsome and symmetrical, with a broad chest and rippling ab muscles. But because he has a loving heart. And that heart loves me.
40 Daren
I take her face in my hands, stroking my thumbs over her cheeks as I tilt her head to the side and kiss her. My tongue slides into her mouth and roams over the tender flesh inside, loving how soft and warm she is.
Her body melts against mine instantly, and she relaxes in my arms, running her own up the sides of my body so she can bury her hands in my hair. Gripping the hair at the base of my neck, she tugs on it and I groan into her mouth.
Her soft hands, running over my skin and moving around my body, wrap me in a comfort I’ve never experienced before.
She arches her back and lifts up, her body trying to get closer to mine, and I run my hands down her rib cage and to the hem of her shirt. Pulling it up, I expose the pale skin of her belly before lifting it higher and taking it off completely, leaving her in only her bra. Slipping my hands around her back, I remove that too, exposing the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen. Large and full and perfectly round, they lie in my hands as I squeeze them gently.
“God. You’re beautiful,” I say.
Lowering my mouth to one of her nipples, I cover it with my lips—but I don’t suck on it, not yet. Instead I watch her squirm beneath me, wanting my wet mouth to pull her nipple into its hot depths, but not being able to control it.
With my mouth set against one nipple, my fingers play with the other, gently grazing over it before softly plucking at it over and over. She arches her back even more, and now her hips are shoved against mine.
“Daren…” she breathes out. “Please.”
I pull her nipple into my mouth fully and she moans in pleasure. God, that’s a hot sound. I press my body between her legs, keeping her from arching any more than she already is as I move to her other nipple and do the same until both nipples are wet and beautifully erect in the moonlight from the window.