He stopped suddenly and slowly lowered his hand to his side. “I don’t know you like this. A proper wife would—”
“Become your punching bag anytime you disagreed with her? I don’t think so.” She watched him as she would a snake that was coiled and ready to strike.
He took another determined step forward, fist clenched by his side. Von tensed, bringing both hands up in a classic boxing stance. Derrick halted.
“No more,” she told him in a strong, commanding voice. “No more telling me what to do, or when and how to do it. I’m a grown woman. I make my own decisions. If I want to wear makeup, I will. If I want sugar-loaded drinks late at night, I’ll have them. I’ll continue to work the job I love, no matter how you feel about it because it’s my job, my life. And if I want to have sex with Sean, a man who loves and desires me, I will and I won’t feel guilty about it because I’ve discovered that I love him, too.”
“While I’m glad to hear you finally admit that you love me, I wish you’d have told me first, and not him.”
Both Von and Derrick swung toward the bedroom door where Sean stood leaning against the door jab, looking rumpled and sexy wearing only his pants with the top button undone. Despite his relaxed pose, Von could feel the angry tension in him. One wrong move on Derrick’s part and Sean would spring.
“I can’t believe you betrayed me like this after I saved your life,” Derrick muttered angrily.
Sean arched an eyebrow. “Well, now, I reckon we’re even—or am I ahead?—since I didn’t kill you yesterday when you hit my woman, and you’re still breathing now after threatening her again.”
“Your woman?” Derrick snarled.
“Yeah, mine. Thank you for giving her to me. I would have taken her from you anyway, after seeing the way you treated her, but your stupidity made it easy,” Sean drawled.
Von held her breath. The tension was so great, she was afraid any movement would cause it to explode and the two would be at each other’s throats—again.
Derrick glanced angrily back and forth between the two of them. “You two deserve each other. Backstabbers. I hope you both burn in hell. Give me my ring back,” he demanded of Von.
“Here, catch,” Sean told him. When Derrick glanced in his direction, he tossed the engagement ring. “We don’t need yours. I plan on buying Von a better one today. Now that you have what you came for, feel free to leave.”
As Derrick fumbled with and scrambled to retrieve his ring from the floor, Von opened the door and moved out of the way. She wouldn’t put it past Derrick to try something.
Derrick took one last look at the two of them and then stormed out of the apartment. Von closed and locked the door behind him, then sank onto the carpet, still clutching the doorknob, her knees too weak to support her.
“Hey, are you all right?” In seconds, Sean was by her side, cupping her face. “You’re trembling.”
She leaned into his hand. “Just shaken. I’ve never stood up to him like that before.”
“Well, it’s about damn time you did.”
“I’m not weak, you know. I just hate confrontations,” she defended herself.
“Hey!” He lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. “I never said or thought for one moment that you were weak. You are a pleaser by nature, and when you love, you love with your whole heart. There’s nothing wrong with that. Derrick simply took advantage of your generous nature.”
Von closed her eyes and nodded, not sure she agreed with his assessment but willing to give herself the benefit of the doubt. God knows she’d beat up on herself enough lately. Maybe it was time to give herself a break.
“I thought you were asleep. How much did you hear?”
“I’ve been awake since you left the room. I thought I told you not to be gone long?”
His disgruntled tone made her smile. “I got distracted.”
“Well, I was horny,” he complained.
“Poor baby. You didn’t get enough last night?” She reached out and cupped the bulge in his pants. “How about we take care of your little problem now?”
“It’s not little and I’m no longer in the mood,” he huffed in a snooty voice, turning his head away. Then he slanted his eyes, looking at her from out their corner. “Of course, I could be with a little effort on your part.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Goofball.” Von shoved at his shoulders and rose to her feet. “I’m going into the kitchen to cook breakfast.”
Sean caught her by the hips and buried his face in her mound, his breath hot on her clit through the thin material. “I know what I want to eat.”
“Sean...” she said warningly.
“I’m hungry. Feed me, woman.” He gripped the caftan and began raising the hem.
Von slapped at his hands. “Quit, you crazy man! I need sustenance. A body can’t live on love alone,” she told him in her grandmother’s voice.
“Really? Let’s see.” He rose and tossed her over his shoulder, carrying her rapidly back to the bedroom.
Von laughed, needing this light-hearted moment after the stress of her confrontation with Derrick. Sean flipped her onto the mattress and came down on top of her.
She circled his neck with her arms. “You know, if I don’t eat I’ll waste away.”
“Mmm, can’t have that.” He gazed at her cunningly. “Tell you what. You satisfy my hunger,” he glanced meaningfully at her prone body and rubbed his now erect cock against her mound, “and afterwards, I’ll take you to any restaurant of your choosing and feed yours. Deal?”
She smiled. “Deal.”
“Good. Now let’s get rid of this.” As he struggled to get the caftan off her, he grumbled, “Woman, what is it with you and night clothes that swallow you whole?”
Von was laughing too hard to answer.
Chapter Eleven
Much later, Von stood naked before the mirror, arms raised, brushing her long hair. An equally naked Sean stood behind her, his rampant cock riding the small of her back as he nibbled one of the many passion marks on her neck. The stroke of his tongue on the small bruise sent fire streaking through her formerly sated body and she shuddered.
“Stop that! Haven’t you had enough?”
“Of you?” He palmed her breasts and toyed with the nipples. “Never.”
Insatiable. That’s Sean, and all that male potency was focused on her. The thought was enough to make her lightheaded. To take her mind off her reaction to him, which would land her right back in bed, she studied their images in the mirror.
Sean, with his tan, wasn’t too much lighter than her caramel colored complexion. The skin on his hands was almost darker than her pale breasts. While Von wasn’t racist, as a black woman raised in the deep south she never dreamed she’d end up with a white lover.
Suddenly, Von lowered her arms and leaned closer to the glass, noting all the small discolorations on her body. Bite marks, every single last one of them. Some were mere pricks. Others, like the ones on her shoulder tendon, were deeper and darker. She could see the clear imprint of teeth.
Von had a vague memory of Sean clamping down on her shoulder and the resulting orgasm that had rocked through her system with his action. She planted her hands on the dresser and tilted her head to the side, her face mere inches from the mirror.
“What’s wrong?”
“I look like a chew toy.” Her gaze traveled from her neck to her shoulders. There were small puncture wounds around her areoles and one love mark on the side of her right breast. Her left arm had a small bruise on the bicep and so did her right forearm. Although, now that she thought about it, Von did that one herself when she’d bitten it to keep from screaming.
She realized Sean had gone still as a statue behind her, his gaze locked on her body, his expression unreadable. Von wagged her behind until Sean’s erection was snuggled between her butt cheeks. “Hey!”