Page 32 of Drowning in the Deep

I took my time, making sure to clean every inch of him. By the time I got to his cock, it was fully awake and aware of my presence, hardening with every brush of my hand against him.

I’d just finished washing him off when he couldn’t handle the stimulation anymore. Without a word, Daemon lifted me off the shower floor and pressed my back to the tiled wall. He entered me quickly, in one precise stroke, leaving me gasping for air. I was turned on for sure, as I always was in his presence, but it still caught me off guard. I dropped the loofah and moved my hands to his shoulders, steadying myself as he pounded into me, clearly doing his best to relieve the stress he’d been feeling.

His breath was warm on my cheek as he grunted and groaned, one hand sliding up my waist to cup my breast while the other kept a firm grip on my ass. It was difficult in the soapy situation to keep from losing my grip, but within a matter of seconds, I was lost to the world, my mind only able to focus on how good he felt and how badly I wanted to alleviate whatever pain he’d been feeling.

It didn’t take too long before he began to reach his peak. By then, I was almost there myself, pulses of electricity shooting through my body as my core began to tighten around him. He grunted a little more loudly, and I braced myself, waiting for the earth-shattering orgasm that was about to wrack both of our bodies.

When we came, it was hard.

We held on to one another, bodies shaking, my head slamming against the tile as I threw it back, which did nothing for my headache, but at the moment, I felt nothing except for the sheer bliss Daemon had sent washing over my body. It lasted several seconds, and then, as he pulled out of me almost as abruptly as he’d entered me, I felt myself sinking to the floor.

Daemon said nothing, only separated himself from me and washed his hair with my hibiscus shampoo. I retrieved the loofah and washed myself a bit. My hair was wet now, so I needed to go ahead and wash and condition it or else it would be a mess tomorrow. But then, it would probably be that way anyway since I wasn’t planning on staying up until it dried.

We finished showering in silence, and then Daemon stepped out, grabbing my towel off the hook by the shower. I turned the shower off and wrung the excess water out of my hair before stepping out and grabbing a towel from the cabinet. When we were both as dry as possible, we went to my bed.

Without a word, he crawled beneath the blanket naked but left the blanket pulled down for me. I kept a towel wrapped around my damp hair and slid in next to him. Daemon pulled me to him, removing the towel and tossing it aside. With my head on his chest, he held me close, and I let my eyes close, willing to lie there silently wondering what was wrong rather than ask a question that could send him storming out the door again.

I wanted to help him. I wanted to be there for him in a way no one had ever been before, but I wasn’t sure I knew how. I’d have to learn how to love him right if I was ever going to make him stay. As I began to drift off, it was clear to me that I had fallen hard for this man, and there was nothing I could do to disentangle myself from him now.

Even if it meant the death of me.

CHAPTER22

DAEMON

Waking up in Elisa’s bed was a bit euphoric. For a few moments. I forgot everything that had happened the night before and lost myself in her naked body. But then it all came crashing back to me. I pulled myself up, got dressed in my bloody clothes, and left before she even had a chance to tell me good morning.

Now, dressed in a clean suit and making my way to the fish tank conference room, it was all fresh in my mind. How we’d taken out the Savages, finally got a bastard to talk, how he’d implicated the La Rosas, and how Nico had paid the ultimate price.

It was my fault Nico was dead. After all, I’d been the one to insist he be there. In this life, we were at risk all the time. I could be knocked off through a window walking down the stairs, or I could even be killed by someone I trusted—like my father had been. Nothing was ever a guarantee. Nevertheless, if I hadn’t asked Nico to come, he’d be lying next to his wife in his bed right now.

It was important that I find a way to let that go at the moment as I entered the room ahead of everyone else. If I didn’t stay focused, Ma would find a way to weasel her way into the conversation and attempt to make herself relevant. I couldn’t have that. I needed her to think she was being pushed out. Of all the remaining capos, only two supported her, but it was enough. They were both powerful. Leo Zarnov and Viktor Yushenko. They’d been two of my father’s best friends, so why wouldn’t they back my mother now?

At least the Latvians were out of the picture. That should go a long way toward proving I knew what the fuck I was doing.

My brothers entered the room first. “Good morning, brother,” Vin said, looking only half awake. “Didn’t give us much time to get here this morning.”

“It’s almost ten o’clock,” I reminded him. “How long do you need?”

He didn’t say anything, only collapsed into his chair, looking blurry-eyed.

“He hasn’t gone to sleep yet,” Mikel noted. “After we burned the place down last night, he stayed up drinking all of the vodka we’d found in the house before we charred it.”

“Not all of it,” Vin argued, but he clearly didn’t have the energy to put up much of an argument.

Dezzy looked at me and shrugged, a silent show of support in his eyes. They knew why I’d called this meeting so early this morning. I wanted to get on with it. The rest of the syndicate leaders needed to know the situation, that we’d taken out the Savages and discovered who had been behind their attacks to begin with.

The rest of the capos, as well as my mother and some of our lieutenants who were always invited, began to filter in as the clock neared ten, the time I’d called the meeting for. Mother looked well rested and ready to tear into me. Everyone else seemed to be suffering from a late night or too much alcohol, maybe both.

Waiting for everyone to get settled, I thought over what I’d been planning to say. Again, I wished Elisa was with me, just as I had the last time I was in this room facing these same advisories. Why I thought it made me stronger to have her with me, I wasn’t sure, but there was no denying I longed for her.

I opened my mouth to welcome everyone to the meeting, but before I could get a single word out, Ma jumped in. “Well, what is this all about, Daemon? Are you here to apologize for getting Nico slaughtered last night?”

I took a deep breath and did my best to recenter myself. I couldn’t blame her for being upset by Nico’s death, but she needed to let me handle the conversation the way I saw fit. “Nico’s death was an unfortunate result of the raid on the Savages’ homebase last night,” I began. “It’s regrettable indeed. But the purpose for calling this meeting is to tell everyone what we discovered from our visit to the farmhouse formerly run by the Savages.”

“Formerly?” Leo asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

“That’s right. Last night, we went in and destroyed them. We burned down their secret facility and killed every single one of them that was at the location, which included their leader.” Vin perked up at that since he’d been the one to throw a knife through the bastard’s throat. “They are officially a snake with no head at the moment, and since we took out the majority of them, I don’t think we need to worry about them anymore.”

---