Dark Destiny by Avelyn Paige
StoneFace
Never in my wildest,most fucked-up dreams would I ever have imagined I’d be excited about showing off a hair bow to a woman. And if any one of these motherfuckers knew it, I’d likely be a dead man.
Nevertheless, Penny looks like she belongs on some reality TV show for dogs, and I can’t wait to see Delilah’s reaction.
From the corner of my eye, I watch Elscher as he goes about his training with his own dog, but I keep my gaze focused toward the door, waiting to see those round hips and gorgeous eyes come walking through.
Not good, hombre,I think to myself. But just as quickly as the thought floats through my head, I shove it away and perk up when Delilah walks in.
I continue working with Penny, squatting low to the ground as I teach her to roll over. She’s nearly got the trick nailed, which doesn’t surprise me, seeing as I’m pretty sure she’s a genius of the K9 variety.
Penny does a perfect rollover, just as I see one of the guards flirting it up with Delilah. He leans in close, his face right near her ear. If he gets any closer, I’ll rip his fucking lips off and feed them to my dog.
Delilah throws her head back and laughs at whatever the douche fucker says, but then walks away. Why does it piss me off so much that she’s still laughing?
“Well, hello, Penny,” she sings as she draws closer. My instinct to grab her and yank her to me grows stronger as I glare over her shoulder at the guard, who is now staring at her ass. “Oh, wow! Mr. Darby, her hair is incredible.”
I smile. “Thanks. Those bows are a bitch, but we figured it out.”
“His celly did it, Miss Lilah,” Buddy outs me. “StoneFace broke all the bows but one.”
I turn and throw a dog treat at him. “Mind your own business, fucker. Friends don’t rat friends out.”
Buddy giggles and focuses back on his dog.
When I turn back, Delilah is still crouched down, petting Penny, but her eyes are on me. There’s something there, in her expression, that makes my heart rate soar. A softness, a fondness, and it’s directed right at me.
“Thought you could get one over on me, did you, Mr. Darby?”
Shrugging, I chuckle.
“Your trainer is kinda naughty, isn’t he, Penny?”
Penny lets out an excited yip of agreement and flops on the ground to roll over.
Delilah giggles and stands, muttering something about rule number four before she wanders away, making brief visits to each of the other inmates.
Once she’s made her way around the room once, and in some cases, returning to a couple of the inmates twice—I know this, because I counted—she returns to me.
“Hey, I’ve got a bunch of obstacle course equipment I need to pull out for today’s training. Can you come give me a hand?”
Mr. Dead-if-he-flirts-with-her-again overhears her request. “I’ll help.”
Delilah smiles at the guard and shakes her head. I can’t help but do an internal fist pump when I see that her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “The more the inmates help, the more it helps with being rehabilitated. They need to fully immerse themselves into the program.”
The guard studies her for a moment, then turns his attention to me. “You help her carry shit. Leave the door open. If I hear so much as a fucking peep out of you, I’ll throw you in solitary indefinitely. We clear?”
I try to hold back my sneer, but it’s pointless. I used to be the master of controlling my facial features. It’s one of the reasons I’d gotten the name StoneFace back when I was just a prospect.
Since meeting Delilah and Penny, I was losing my touch.
“He understands,” Delilah assures him as she motions for me to follow her.
The utility closet is on the far side of the massive room, which means I get to watch her ass sway in those bell-bottom jeans for the entire walk.
Heat builds inside my pants. At this point, I’ve been in lockup for a couple of months, and I haven’t even seen another woman. No sex. No porn. No five minutes alone to even take matters into my own hands, in the very literal sense.
Fucking hell.
Delilah opens the door and steps inside. “So, this side of the room here is all of our equipment. We need to pull it all out, and then I’ll get everyone to help us set it up.” She steps up to a tall shelf and reaches for a pile of small orange pylons.
As she pops up on her toes and lifts her hand, I swallow at the sight of her creamy smooth skin. I’d give anything to run my fingertips across that tiny patch of skin, straight to the button right below it.
Suddenly, the whole shelf begins to wobble, and Delilah’s balance wavers. She grabs onto the shelf for support—a dangerous move.
Rushing forward, I reach above her and grab onto the medicine ball that had almost dropped onto her head and steady the shelf. As my front meets her back, Delilah lets out a shocked gasp and spins around.
My hand is still up high, holding the ball in place on the shelf. My chest is now pressed against her breasts, feeling them rise and fall with every breath she draws in. Her eyes are wide and innocent as she gapes up at me, her lips parted in surprise. And, if I’m not mistaken, desire.
A desire that rivals my own.
Allowing the ball to roll into my hand, I remove it from the shelf and drop it to the floor beside me. Once my hand is free, I spear it up into the hair at the nape of her neck, place my other hand on the perfect curve of her ample hip, and kiss her.
Her lips are luscious and warm, and so fucking soft, my knees start to wobble.
She tastes of apples and cinnamon, and her hair is everywhere, surrounding me. I need more, want more, so I take more.
Drawing her closer, I press her against me and deepen our scorching hot kiss while trailing my fingers down her side until the palm of my hand is cupping her ass.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Delilah tears her lips from mine and pushes her body back against the shelf, putting as much distance between us as physically possible. Her eyes are wide and shocked and absolutely terrified.
The tips of her fingers come up to touch her slightly swollen lips. “No,” she whispers. “No, no, no. We can’t, Rhett.”
She pushes against me as she speaks, her words erupting from her mouth, but doing very little to diminish my need for her.
“We can’t,” she repeats, pushing past me to collect a large red and yellow tunnel. “Let’s get this stuff and get set up. Can you grab that box horse over in the corner and put it at the far side of the course?”
She’s still talking as she exits the closet, leaving me alone with my burning lips and my very prominent hard-on.
Fuck. That was stupid. I never should’ve kissed her like that. I’m lucky she didn’t scream bloody murder and run into the arms of that pussy ass guard out there.
Pissed off, and even more sexually frustrated than I was before, I grab the box horse and lift it, along with its base, and take it to the part of the main room she’d indicated.
Delilah is busy scurrying in and out of the closet, bringing out various tunnels and pylons.
When I return to the closet, I grab the large, dog-sized teeter-totter and make my way toward the door.
“Rhett?” Delilah calls from behind me.
I turn, just as her lips crash into mine. Her fingertips claw at my arms, drawing me closer, and I don’t resist at all. Instead, I drop the teeter-totter, ignoring the clatter it makes as it hits the floor, and press her against the wall, my lips moving with hers in perfect, heated harmony.
“Miss Walker?” the guard calls out, his footsteps drawing nearer.
Reluctantly, I tear away from Delilah and take a step back, just as he steps into the room. “Everything okay? I heard a bang.”
He eyes me with suspicion.
“Yeah,” she says, her voice more air than sound. “Yeah. I, uh... I knocked over the teeter-totter, and Mr. Darby is just giving me a hand.”
Her hair’s a mess, her chest heaving, and her lips are perfectly swollen, but this jackass doesn’t even notice. Instead, he nods and goes back to what he was doing.
“Let’s get this stuff out there before we get into trouble, shall we?”
She doesn’t look at me again, but that’s okay, because she’d given something to me when she gave me that kiss. She’d given me herself. If only I could be the man to keep her.