Page 10
Joelle
For a home wrecker, the woman looked ordinary.
Beautiful, but nothing about her spoke of danger that would warrant security.
“What do you want?” she asked in a bitter tone.
The Irish woman smiled like she’d expected the hostility.
“Just to introduce myself.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way or do, but I have no interest in meeting you.”
“You know who I am?” She nearly beamed with delight. Something was off about her eyes. She seemed to take pleasure in making Joelle uncomfortable with a gleam of pure spite. “I’m Shannon.”
“Good for you, Shannon. Now it’s time you leave.”
“No, I don’t think I will. I’m here by invite, after all.”
“I doubt that.”
“Oh, believe it, Joelle.” She smiled, sipping on her champagne. “Vivianne and I are in similar circles.” Trent’s mother. The host of the party.
Shannon wasn’t an interloper, Joelle realized. She was someone who belonged, and that made her more nervous. A stack of questions piled into her head. The main one was where her father met this woman.
“If you embarrass my mother, I’ll make you pay,” Warned Joelle. “You stay away from her.”
“There’s only one person I want to punish, and it’s not your mammy. She should cut your father’s cock off and bake it into a pie.”
“You knew he was married.” Joelle hissed quietly, seething yet trying to remain calm. However, all she saw in her mind was dragging this woman out by her hair before she could horrify her mother. “You’re not innocent in this. But now that it’s over, you won't leave.”
“Is that what he told you?” she clicked her tongue. “He’s so naughty.”
Joelle didn’t respond because she locked eyes with Diamond, and he understood the situation when she read his lips. “ Fuck .” And then he gracefully charged through the crowd toward her. Davey, she noticed, spirited her parents away.
Noticing this, Shannon took a final sip of champagne and set it down.
“It was such a pleasure to meet you, Joelle. I think we could be friends.” And she slipped into the crowd.
Un-fucking-believable.
When Diamond reached her, she was so angry that she grabbed his arm for support without thinking. Needing an anchor for all of her anger.
“That was her.” She hissed. “She’s here, Diamond, with my mother!”
“We took your parents into another room. Come with me.” An arm moved around her lower back and forced her down the long hallway, weaving them between the hard-working servers.
“How dare she come here! And talking to me like she knew me.”
The one she was angry with was her father.
“Keep it together a second longer, Joelle.” Warned Diamond, his hand squeezing her hip.
He found somewhere and hurried her into the room, no bigger than a walk-in closet.
“That woman needs to go.” She gritted through her teeth. Woman. She was barely that. It made her feel sick that her father could have an affair with a woman younger than his daughter.
“It’s already taken care of.” He told her. “She’s being shown out of here as we speak.”
Her temper was still right on the surface.
The woman’s announcement of the affair would have devastated her mother.
Diamond, with a piercing stare, warned, “You’re not going out there unless you calm down.” A smirk appeared on his face. “You look like you want to murder someone. It’s not very festive, Joelle.”
“Fuck Christmas. Fuck this whole situation.
“I’m furious that she’s at the same party as my mother. And then talking in a condescending way to me!” She turned around and kicked the cabinet, hurting her foot, but it was worth it.“Why did you drag me away?” she swirled around to glare at Diamond. “I could have taken her.” She not only outweighed the harlot, but Joelle had a lot of anger that would fuel a girl-fight.
“My priority is to you,” he said gruffly.
And though Diamond meant that professionally, Joelle’s belly swirled with heat at the implication that she would ever be a priority romantically to someone.
Despite his rough edges and blunt tongue, he was a devastatingly handsome man. If he put the same intensity into a relationship as he did his job, he would make some woman an exemplary partner.
And now she felt a slither of anger for a selfish reason.
She was spending too much time around him.
She was a job to Diamond, nothing more.
Switching her mind back to a safer topic, she knew she’d have to talk to her father. If nothing else, this embarrassment must have woken him up to what he was doing and the trouble his actions caused his family.
“Is it possible for us to intercept her?” She pushed off the unit, intent on pulling open the door.
A brawny arm caught Joelle around the waist, bringing her back into his space. “No, that isn’t happening.”
She blinked. “You can’t tell me no.”
“Just did, babe. You’re not getting near the woman again. She shouldn’t have been able to get that close to you in the first fucking place.”
“She needs to know this has to stop; following my father here is crazy. To what end? She was dripping with rubies. If that woman is hurting for money, I’m a virgin.”
She saw his Adam’s apple bob with a swallow.
“There’s shit you don’t know about her. You stay away from her, Joelle. I mean it. She won’t have the chance to get near you again because I’ll be there. But if it happens, you walk away, do you understand?”
“What does that mean?” She thought it was more than just a broken heart. Despite her father's discretion, Joelle had an uncanny ability to spot things others overlooked. She overheard stuff she wasn’t meant to hear. The situation was unsettling, especially the decision to hire bikers for protection. Why not call the police? Why not use official bodyguards?
Because bikers would do things an official lawman couldn’t?
“It means be careful.”
He was avoiding telling her, and that made her mad, too.
“You’ve been around us enough now to see this isn’t right. And you keep something serious from me? That woman was feet away from my mother, Diamond. She could have said anything to her, done anything to her.”
“No, she couldn’t. We had eyes on her.”
“Not when she approached me, you didn’t,” she accused tightly. Diamond’s expression grew even more severe.
“This fucking party,” he hissed quietly through his teeth, again dragging a hand over his hair, and she realized he did it when he was frustrated. “People got in my way. I couldn’t get to you without mowing them down.”
Now, they were throwing glares back and forth in a silent battle of wills.
Joelle opened her mouth to speak, but he pressed a finger on her lips.
With a serious expression, he advanced until he loomed like a centurion, leaving the room devoid of air as she strained her neck to look up at him.
The surrounding space grew syrup-thick with conflict. It snapped and coiled. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with forced inhales.
“Bluebell, shut it,” he groaned, suddenly gripping the hair at her nape to control her head and prevent her from moving. Her neck tipped back, and then thick, perfect lips slammed down on hers before she knew what was happening.
On some level, Joelle knew it was a tactic to derail her rushing thoughts or to transfer the anger onto him through the medium of mouths.
But all Joelle felt was a kiss that melted her into a puddle. It rushed heat to all her erogenous zones until she was a woman made up of electricity and screaming desire.
Joelle groaned and fisted Diamond’s shirt. His body was so warm her fingers ached to feel his skin directly on hers. If he planned for a brief lip collision before withdrawing, he would need to pry her off because she leaned in and opened her mouth. That’s when she felt him grunt, turning his head slightly to the side. Diamond must have changed his mind as his lips started moving on hers, kissing her with abandonment.
Whatever flickering attraction had been between them, it ignited in that tiny room and set fire to every bit of surface around them as she clung to Diamond and went along with how he plundered her mouth in wicked, delicious ways. Flicking his tongue over hers, she mewled for more until he gave her more, and the pleasure washed over her.
Never had a kiss felt so right and so addictive .
Perfect kisses didn’t happen. Not to her.
But this was utter perfection from the get-go, and she moaned into his mouth, swallowing his grunt as she pressed closer. Then she felt his hands on her outer thighs, gripping her tightly before his hands stroked up her sides and took hold of her head.
Heat exploded in her core. She felt more turned on from only a kiss than she had tumbling around in bed with someone.
His control was wholly exciting.
No one had ever just taken a kiss from Joelle before.
They’d always asked permission. Bland politeness, nothing like Diamond, just taking her mouth in his rough way.
He only touched her in a single spot on her bare nape, and Joelle felt ready to rip his clothes off. It was like his fingers had zapped her with static energy, engulfing her in hormonal flames.
The pressure from his hands in her hair and being devoured like she was Diamond’s last meal had Joelle practically grinding against him. Their height difference was apparent until she was suddenly hoisted into the air and deposited onto the cabinet. He hadn’t even detangled their mouths to do it.
Joelle would be impressed if not for the distracting tongue in her mouth.
Shards of pleasure zipped through her.
Diamond’s kiss ensnared her focus and demanded her devotion and submission. And with a moan, she wanted to give him everything.
His free hand moved from her throat, then down the front of her dress. She instinctively widened her legs, and the material pushed up her thighs, totally exposing herself. If he were to look down, he’d see her cotton panties for sure.
Joelle brought Diamond closer by his shirt, and he stepped into the space her open legs had made. He bent over her, using his hand to angle her head back so he could feast and steal her air.
He was devouring her like she was his favorite dessert.
Had a kiss ever felt this wild? This freeing?
She felt weakened by desire, yet empowered by his passion.
Suddenly, the crush she’d been suppressing for days hit her like a ton of bricks.
Within seconds, Diamond had ended their kiss long before she was ready to relinquish his gorgeous mouth, leaving her dizzy from his rapid release.
Whereas he looked calm as he stared into her eyes, she felt reckless and ready to have sex with him right here.
He maintained his grasp on her nape, and without the distraction of his kisses, she felt increasingly self-conscious under his watchful eyes.
“You’re not gonna call that guy, Joelle. He’s a fucking tool.” He rasped, still too close to her mouth, that her brain hadn’t recovered yet, and her body had developed a new craving for a biker who could kiss like it was his vocation.
What did he say?
Oh. It took her a moment to catch up. Was he talking about Trent?
He rose to his height then and scrubbed a hand through his blond hair. The silver chain around his thick neck was especially bright against his tanned skin, and Joelle’s mouth watered.
She had to get it together and not stare at the guy like a lovesick fool just because they’d kissed.
A kiss he’d used to redirect her anger.
Which had worked.
“You don’t know Trent.” Though his eyes flared, he didn’t issue her any forbidden rules like she’d wished he would.
“I’m not following you around on dates.”
“You’d have to. That’s in the job description.” She needled. When Diamond dropped his gaze, his eyes heating, she remembered her legs were still open at the knees, and she quickly snapped them shut and slid down to the ground. Joelle swiftly turned, her gaze fixed on the mirror, assessing the damage to her face.
She looked thoroughly kissed.
Her rosy cheeks, fading lipstick, and bruised, swollen lips told a story. She looked over to find his eyes narrowed, fixed on her like a hawk. In that moment, his savagery intensified. She boldly used her thumb to remove her lipstick from his lower lip.
“You have me all over your mouth.”
His answering grunt went directly to her pussy.
Even if he hadn’t meant it or wanted to do it, Joelle couldn’t help but admit that it had been the most unforgettable kiss of her life.
After making herself presentable as best as she could, she faced him.
“I’m ready to go home.”
Diamond only nodded and opened the door.
“I should find Trent to tell him goodbye.”
“No,” he growled behind her, and Joelle’s spirits lifted slightly as she walked out before him, swaying her hips in hopes his eyes were fixed on her ass.
She waited until he got in step with her, feeling protected and every bit as womanly as his hand brushed against her waist. Every woman in the place was checking out Diamond.
The social climbers were jealous of Joelle being the woman Diamond was with, making her smile bright and festive.
She spoke without glancing at him, allowing him to guide her with a hand on her lower back. “I like your name, River. And you kiss pretty nice for a biker, too.”
She heard him growl, low and warning.
It made her smile even more noticeable.