Damen (The Marquette Family Book Two) (14 page)

Jada tapped Heaven’s shoulder. “Are you listening to me? Never mind. Don’t answer that. All you can think about is getting back to your husband.”

Heaven drew in a shaky breath. “My husband. Is that weird or what, Jada?”

“It’s not weird. It’s great, and you’ll get used to it soon enough and start calling him fool.”

Heaven laughed. “I will not.”

Her friend cackled. “I’m just kidding, but I know how you feel. This is new and wonderful and scary at the same time. All I know is he looks like the sensitive type.”

“Sensitive?” Heaven thought about it. “I guess you’re right. Damen was always pretty blunt about blurting out his thoughts, but he was never unkind and always thinks of others. He’s so sweet.”

“You love him?”

“Yeah, I love him very much.”

“I know you, Heaven.” She pointed a finger at Heaven. “You’re scared he doesn’t love you, but he married you.”

She nodded, too unsettled to say why.

“It’s not about the kids.”

Was the freaking woman reading her mind?

“It’s about a man and a woman. He is the sensitive type, and nobody needs that kind like you need it. You tried to hide how bad it was with that asshole Leon, but we could guess. We didn’t know how far he crossed the line, but we knew he wasn’t the nicest to you in private. I tried to get you to leave and offered you a place to stay.”

“I know.” Heaven heaved a sigh. “I just didn’t want to drag anyone else into my problems.”

“Now you’ve got Damen. He looks like the real deal, Heaven. Hold onto him, and if there’s ever any misunderstandings, talk it out together. I want to see you completely happy and satisfied. Else, I’m flying back down and busting his balls for him.”

“Ouch.” Heaven laughed. “You saw what happened with their cousin. Really think you have a chance with the bodyguards?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I want to try something anyway. They’re so big and muscular. Yummy.”

“Remember Marco?”

Jada growled. “I should have stayed single. Crap, what am I saying? You’re all set. Go find your husband and let him convince you he loves you.”

Heaven let Jada shuffle her out the door. She hadn’t meant to give the impression she was unsure of Damen’s love, but it must have been written all over her face. He had admitted he loved his ex, might still love her, but he had also offered himself to Heaven to have for always. Maybe Heaven should tell him what she really wanted.

“Psst, Heaven.”

She stopped and looked behind her. Damen stood at the office door signaling to her. Heaven headed back his way and tumbled forward as her husband hurried her into the office. He encircled her in his arms and backed her to the door, trapping her with his body. Heaven brought her hands up to his face and stroked along his jaw. Her heart beat faster, and she leaned in to nibble his bottom lip. He smelled so good, and already she felt his hard-on pressed against her belly.

“We’re not having sex in here,” she announced.

He grinned. “I wasn’t planning on it. Not that I’m not tempted, but I’ve heard stories about Creed and Shada.”

“Ew.” She managed to get out of his hold and walked over to his area. “They didn’t do it on your desk, did they?”

“Probably not.”

She glared at him. He smirked.

“Why do I have the feeling you’re just pretending to be grossed out by the thought?”

“I never said I was grossed out.” He strode over to lean against the desk and patted his chest. “I need you in my arms.”

She tried to keep the smile hidden from her face but melted into his hold. Damen’s fingers danced along her spine, sending chills of delight racing over her skin. She nuzzled his chin and kissed it then sought his lips. He slanted his mouth above hers and parted her lips. Heaven welcomed his tongue into the warm recesses of her mouth, eager for more. Her pussy throbbed to be filled with his dick, but she knew that would come later when they were alone.

After some time, she drew back and flattened her palms on his chest. She tried to look into his eyes but failed because she was so damn nervous. “Damen.”

“Hmm?”

“Um, you said…” Courage failed her, but she blew out a breath and dredged up more from her toes. She was glad he waited in silence rather than rush her. “You told me your body is mine, right?”

“Yes, and we solidified it today.”

“What if I don’t—”

“Don’t want my body? I’m not convinced.” He plucked a taut nipple she didn’t even realize he’d seen. Heaven smacked his hand away.

“No, that’s not what I mean, Mr. One-Track Mind.”

He chuckled, and she realized he’d just used it as an excuse to do what he just did.

“What if I want more than your body?”
Oh jeez, I shouldn’t even be asking him this five minutes after we’re married. We had an agreement. I can’t ask for more.

“Tell me what you want, Heaven.”

She dared to peek up at him. His beautiful eyes were trained on her, calm, self-assured. She waited a beat, and he pushed his glasses higher with two fingers. Her heart fluttered.

“What if I told you I want your heart too?” She raised her chin higher. “What if I said I want you to love me, to be
in
love with me and
only
me?”

“Hm, that’s an interesting concept.”

“It’s not a concept!” His continued amusement pissed her off, but she had come this far, and she couldn’t turn back. Damn it to hell, she loved him. She loved him over a decade ago, and that love might have died down or disappeared over the years. Their reconnect and the way he treated her these days brought it all back with a vengeance. Heaven began to think Damen had influenced some of the changes in her. She could have gotten the ball rolling by moving to New Orleans, he gave the decision momentum. Either way, she was bolder, stronger, and determined to speak up for herself. She wanted what she wanted, and she needed to make it crystal clear. “I want your heart, Damen!”

“Oh, my sweet Heaven.” He leaned closer to her face and kissed her cheek as one would a child. “That’s impossible.”

She stiffened.

“I can’t give you what I don’t have.” He drew back and looked into her eyes. She tried to move, but he held her trapped against him. Their bodies met from her belly down. Her airway was beginning to close. If she passed out, would he let her hit the floor for being stupid enough to push for more than they agreed on? No, Damen wasn’t like that. He’d catch her every time, even if he was pissed off at her, and that’s what made it so hard to be with him like this.

A coldness washed over her. “Oh. I should have known…”

Damen brushed a thumb across her lower lip. She swallowed.

“Heaven, when I first met you, you were like a breath of fresh air. I was awkward and gangly and too full of my own intelligence. You swept it all away in an instant because when I spoke to you, I forgot who I was. You were from another world, or a star, and I craved you so badly.”

She pulled her mouth away from his touch. “I already know how much you want me physically.”

“No. You don’t.”

Heaven glared through a sheen of tears.

“You can’t understand, but I don’t mind showing you each day. Besides, it’s more than that. As I said, you were something different to me, an enigma I had to figure out. I didn’t understand what I was feeling. You could almost call it an obsession. I identified it back then as lust. You disappeared before I could figure you out for myself.”

She didn’t speak again but lowered her gaze. The lump hadn’t lessened in her throat but lodged there like it had become a permanent fixture. Well, this wasn’t the first time she had been hurt. Maybe over time she could learn to stay with him and let it be enough. She wouldn’t back out or give him up. That part was firm in her mind.

“Heaven?”

“What?” She snapped the word, irritated and hurt at the same time.

Damen touched his forehead to hers. “It looks like you still don’t understand.” He drew in a breath and blew it out. “Let me make it plain. I can’t give you my heart when you already have it. I don’t own my heart. You do.”

Heaven’s mouth fell open. Grinning like a damn idiot, Damen shut it with one finger. The bastard. He had to know he’d scared the hell out of her and tore her apart. She put space between their faces and frowned into his. That’s when she saw it. Damen let the mask fall away. Damen—her husband—hid his emotions behind jokes and good humor.

He loved her. Heaven remembered the time she had caught the look in Creed’s eyes when he looked at Shada. She recalled the jealousy that had washed over her to think of a man feeling for her the way Creed felt about Shada. Here was Damen, expression wide open, showing her he cared.

Just in case, she said, “Say it. I want to hear the words.”

He cupped her face with both hands. “I love you, Heaven. I loved you then, but I didn’t know what it meant to love a woman like I love you. I loved you when I met my ex and when I came to love her, I still loved you.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Are you serious? How can you be sure?”

“Because you’ve always been there. I felt guilty, like I was betraying her. I didn’t let myself fantasize about you, but I was fully aware I held you in a special secret place. No one but me knew I hadn’t gotten rid of you completely.”

“Damen, I don’t know what to think about that. I feel bad for her.”

“Don’t.” He frowned in confusion. “Or do if you want. Don’t misunderstand me. I convinced myself you were gone for good because that’s what you wanted. I believed the life I lived after that was the life I would continue to lead, and Vida would be a permanent part of it. That’s why I was able to love her and why I was able to be...affected…so harshly when she left.”

Affected, he said. She smiled because Damen was still a man who didn’t feel comfortable sharing all his feelings. He’d been hurt by his ex-wife leaving him. Now she understood it a little better herself. Damen loved her, and she left. He thought his life with Vida would be different. Instead, Vida left too. That’s why Damen had pushed for her and him to get married practically the moment they met again.

“You refused to let me get away again,” she said.

He made a noise of agreement.

“I admire you, Damen.”

He groaned. “I’d rather you say you love me.”

She laughed. “I love you.”

He snatched her close and kissed her lips for a long, dizzying time. After a few frenzied heartbeats, he released her to speak.

“I was going to say, before I was rudely interrupted,” she teased, “that I admire you because in the face of me leaving and Vida, you didn’t give up.”

He shook his head. “Oh, no, baby. I did give up. I was what you call a player for a long time. Women were for physical pleasure, and even if I didn’t sleep with them, I flirted. It’s what I did. Then I made a friend who blatantly told me I had my head in the sand, nursing a broken heart, and I needed to deal with it. She said I was too old to not deal with my emotional issues and that I was clinging to the past.”

Heaven laughed. “Wow, blunt. Who was that?”

“Shada’s sister.”

“Really? You have to tell me about her.”

“Not now,” he insisted. “Right now, I’m thinking of a way to get you out of here so I can make love to you for the rest of the day.”

“We have guests, sir.”

“They will understand, especially my brothers.”

“No way.” She wiggled out of his arms and started toward the door. “We have to cut the cake and thank everybody for sharing our day with us.”

He groaned where he leaned on the desk. Heaven reached a hand out to him. As she did, her heart swelled, ready to burst out of her chest.
He loves me, he loves me,
she chanted in her head like a child.

“Coming, husband?”

“Mmm, I like the sound of that. “Yes, wife, I’m coming. Wait, how soon can that be literally true?”

She rolled her eyes, and they returned arm in arm to their guests.

Chapter Fourteen

“I didn’t expect this,” Heaven said as she hit a few keys on Damen’s piano. They had the whole house to themselves because Shada and Creed had the kids. “I can’t believe Creed agreed.”

Damen handed her a drink, and she took a sip before he claimed her lips in a kiss. “It’s just for one night. Shada wants to see what it’s like and see if as she says she won’t ‘lose her damn mind.’”

Heaven laughed. “That sounds like her.”

“Why are we in here?” He frowned at the room she liked, with hardwood floors, arm chairs, a fireplace, and even a couple bookshelves built into the wall with more knickknacks than books filling them.

“I like this room, but why do you have a piano?”

He shrugged. “I thought I’d learn to play. Turns out I love the guitar too much.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

He grinned. “Well, then Gideon might want to someday. It will be here if he does.”

Heaven sighed. “Sometimes I worry about him.”

“Don’t.” He tugged her to her feet and led her into the hall. “If I’m right, Gideon’s genius lies in a different direction than book smarts.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I think music speaks to him on a level most of us could never understand.”

“Like a prodigy?”

“If he played, probably yes. He learned what I taught him in an instant, but I suspect he’s not going in that direction.”

“How so? You’ve lost me.”

Damen paused by a settee in the hall, and she wondered why the hall even needed one. Who cared? She loved this historical styled house and wouldn’t change a thing other than Gideon’s room. “Composition, production, Gideon might enjoy it all, and I want to see how far he can go. Not like my dad did, working in dives for pennies and drinking it away. We have the means to help our son, Heaven, and I want to do it. Are you with me?”

“Definitely.”

“Good. Now about this sexy body right here…” He slid a hand over her belly, and she caught his wrist.

“We can’t do it in the hall.”

“It’s our house. Why not? No one’s around.” He wiggled his eyebrows. She shook her head at him. Heaven turned to run off, but Damen caught her and drew her backward into his arms. The man had the buttons undone on her pants in a heartbeat and his hand inside her panties. “What do we have here?”

“My cootchie. Get out of there.”

“Never.” She gasped when he parted her folds and slid a finger inside her. Damen groaned. “You’re already wet.”

“I’m n-not,” she lied and sagged against him. He stroked into her heat and out again, driving her desire higher. At the same time, he squeezed her left breast through her blouse and bra and then, unsatisfied, he shoved the material aside to pinch her nipple. She whimpered. “Damen, the bodyguards.”

“They’ve been ordered to give us space.”

“They won’t go far.” She moaned again when he began circling her clit.

Damen loosened her pants even more and pushed them along with her panties over her hips. Anybody arriving would get an eyeful, but her husband didn’t care. He kept rolling a thumb over her bud until she was shaking with a need to release. Her pussy throbbed, and her inner muscles coiled in anticipation of it.

“Open your legs a little more, Heaven.”

“Damen.”

“A little more, baby.”

She complied, and he pushed four fingers into her heat. He worked them in and out while holding her to his chest, one breast engulfed by his palm. The man refused to stop but increased his pumping into her slick sex until she forgot about the bodyguards.

“Damen, I’m going to come!”

He groaned in her ear. “You’re so wet, that’s exactly what I’m waiting for.”

“We could have…we…” She lost her train of thought. An orgasm shattered all resistance, and she screamed in pleasure. From the hall, which was a wide-open space, her voice echoed all over the house. She had expected Damen to cover her mouth, but the bum let her go for it.

Before Heaven could come down from her high, she heard steps on the second floor. Damen moved behind her, but instead of ending their lovemaking session, he whisked her around to face the wall and the settee. She had a moment to gather a breath and then he plunged his cock into her pussy from behind. Heaven cried out his name. He held onto her hips and pushed deep. She tumbled forward, one knee on the settee, a hand on the wall. Damen followed and didn’t allow their bodies to part for a second.

“They’ll see,” she whispered, but her eyelids were heavy from the pleasure of him being inside her.

Damen encircled her in his arms. He curved his body over hers, molding to her butt and shoving her blouse and bra up to cup her breasts. “They wouldn’t disrespect us that way.”

“We’re in public.”

“We’re in the privacy of our home, and I’m going to make love to my perfect wife all over this house.”

“Damen,” she protested one last time.

He covered her mouth with his and pushed his tongue between her lips. She couldn’t help sucking lightly on his tongue. Damen allowed it for a few seconds and then drew back. “Tell me you love me, baby. I want to hear it again.”

He pumped into her, their skin sticking from perspiration. Heaven loved the hardness of his thighs and the heat from his body. She let the fear go. “I love you, Damen.”

“I love you too, Heaven.” He moved his hand from her breast to her belly and lower to cover her mound as his dick glided in to the hilt. “Can I come in you?”

She looked back at him, eyes wide. He stilled, waiting. She swallowed and nodded, and then Damen was pumping deep into her pussy. His breath came in short, noisy bursts as he pushed, and bent forward, arching her back, and taking all of him. Damen jerked, and his hot seed flooded her sex.

“Damn, that felt good,” Damen moaned. He pulled her up and slid out of her. They both moaned and kissed. Her husband turned her to face him. “I don’t think I’ve had enough.”

“Upstairs this time,” she demanded.

He sighed. “Fine. You win.”

They started hand in hand toward the stairs. Heaven scarcely got her pants pulled up enough to walk straight let alone avoid flashing anyone. A familiar ding sounded throughout the house, and they both froze.

“Crap, who’s that?” she squeaked.

“I’ll see.”

Heaven held onto him. “Your junk is hanging out, and so is mine, and we’re…gooey.”

He chuckled. Damen spun around to face her and whipped her into his arms. He took the stairs at a jog and reached the top in seconds. “Guy, the door,” he called out.

“Yes, sir.”

Heaven looked around to see where the bodyguard spoke from, but Damen whisked her into their bedroom, kicked the door shut, and laid her on the bed. She had enough time to slide to the edge of the bed when there was another knock on the bedroom door. Heaven frowned. “Wasn’t this supposed to be our alone time?”

Damen seemed just as confused about the interruption. He stood looking down at the front of his pants as if he tried to determine whether to take them off or zip them up. “Who is it?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Damen,” Guy called through the door. “But there’s a man here who claims to be Ms. Heaven’s father.”

Heaven blinked in disbelief. “That’s not possible.”

“Professor Alfred Burk,” Guy said.

Heaven glanced at her husband, who hadn’t spoken since Guy announced who was at the door. She studied his expression and knew right away, he wasn’t surprised by the announcement. She stood up and faced him, hands on her hips. “You knew he was coming, didn’t you?”

Damen tried touching her cheek, but she ducked her head away. “I didn’t know. I hoped he would days ago.”

“What?”

He sighed. “Remember when you asked me what I was up to? This is what. I contacted him and had a long discussion with him about you. I tried to invite him to come down and give you away, to behave for once like a father should. Don’t be mad, Heaven, baby.”

Her mouth fell open. “I’m not mad. I can’t believe you did that for me. He was your friend.”

“You’re my wife. There’s nothing I want more than to make you happy.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I can’t get over how amazing you are.”

He raised her chin and frowned down at her. “If you want me to send him away, I will. I realize maybe I jumped the gun, and I shouldn’t have pushed. He might have ruined our wedding day if he showed up without any warning. I can make sure he never hurts you again.”

She laughed. “That sounds like you’re the mob, and you’ll get the boys to ‘make him disappear.’”

“Hm, maybe I should develop mob connections next.”

She smacked his arm, and he grinned.

“No, I don’t hate him, Damen, as much as I kind of wish I did. He showed up, so I’ll see what he has to say for himself. If he’s critical of me and tells me I’m not good enough for you, I’m having Weaver toss his ass out on the front lawn.”

Damen kissed the top of her head. “That’s my girl. Don’t worry. One false word, and Guy will help Weaver do it. Fair enough?”

“Fair enough. But first, my dad can wait until I take a shower. I’m not going down there smelling like sex.”

Damen followed her toward the bathroom. “Well, you’re looking a little tense. Let me help you.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He held up one hand and laid the other over his chest. “Honestly, the best way to relieve stress and tension is through lovemaking in the shower. Come on. Let me show you.”

“Damen Marquette, you’re impossible.”

“Yes, I am.”

The End