Beautifully Forgotten (35 page)

“Good idea.”

They lay in bed an hour later completely spent. Lucien had Darcy tucked in his arms with her back to his chest, his fingers idly running up and down her stomach.

“I was coming to see you,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I was being gentlemanly by suggesting we take it a day at a time, but I’m not much of a gentleman.”

She looked back at him and his grin was boyish and wicked all at once.

While watching him, she saw his expression turn serious. “Tell me about the visit to your mom.”

She turned into him. “Your comment about what was in it for her to get involved in my life again was rattling around in my brain. When I arrived at her apartment, there was a delivery man dropping off a case of vodka.” Anger surged through her again just thinking about her mother, and Lucien, being so attuned to her, noticed it.

“What’s that look for?” he asked.

“I think she was delighted to tell me about the role she played in what happened to our child; I think she actually got off on it.”

She saw the fury burning in his eyes, but his voice was soft, almost tender, when he replied, “As sad as it is to say, I’m not surprised by her behavior. Are you?”

“No.”

His arms tightened around her and he spoke with conviction. “We will find our child.”

“I know.”

“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”

It was almost too much to bear, knowing their child was out there and they didn’t know him or her. Lucien seemed to sense how painful it was for her when he added, “Too soon.”

“Yeah.”

She needed to lighten the mood because she was dangerously close to losing it. She rested her head on her hand. “I was at Allegro when your fan club arrived. They were talking about you like a piece of meat.”

Seeming to sense what she needed, Lucien replied. “Really?” He wiggled his brows at her. “Do tell.”

Her response to that was to elbow him in the stomach, which earned her a laugh.

“I didn’t like hearing them talk about you as if you were public property. They even mentioned me and how they wouldn’t mind a threesome.”

Lucien leaned up a bit at that and Darcy thought he was going to say something provocative and was prepared to hit him again, but she was completely taken by surprise by what he did say.

“Sharing you? No way in hell.”

“What?”

“It’s not really my thing to begin with, but my focus is completely on you, now that you’re back in my bed.”

She straddled him at those words, taking him into her hand. She settled onto him, moving down his hard length, which earned her a moan of approval. His hands found her hips as she started to move, slowly, like he had done with her earlier. It started off as lazy and teasing, but as the orgasm tightened in her belly, she threw her head back and rode him hard until she came.

Lucien sat up to suck her breast into his mouth before he flipped them, lifted her hips, and started to really move until he followed her with his own release.

Darcy’s eyes closed as complete contentment filled her. She felt herself slipping into sleep when Lucien rolled her nipple and tugged.

“Let’s go out.”

“What?” she answered, but couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes.

“Come on, I’ve a need to take my lady out.”

Darcy was tempted to roll onto her side, but she liked what he was doing to her and how her body was responding to it.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Allegro.”

There was a note of something in his tone, which made her lift her heavy lids to look at him. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing. Come with me and then we’ll come back and start round two.”

“Let’s skip the middle part and go right to round two.”

He pressed a kiss on her belly before he climbed from bed. “Come on.”

“I need a shower.”

“No.”

She sat up in time to see him pulling on his jeans, and knowing that he wasn’t wearing anything under them was going to be very distracting.

“Why can’t I shower?”

“Because I want my scent on you as a reminder of how it got there and how it’ll get there again later.”

“Oh my God.”

“Now get dressed. The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back.”

Darcy was turned on. She had been since Lucien decreed that she couldn’t shower. Once they’d entered the club, Lucien made his usual rounds, keeping her at his side the whole time, before he ordered her a drink at the bar. His lips moved to her ear.

“Where are the ladies you were talking about?”

“Changed your mind?”

He smiled, but with an intensity that had the place between her legs throbbing in time with her heart.

“The table near the stage, the three blonds and a brunette.”

He took her hand and guided her through the crowd, heading in the direction of his fan club.

“What are you doing?” Darcy hissed.

His hand tightened on hers, but he didn’t answer. As soon as they saw him coming, they started fluffing their hair and batting their lashes. Darcy wanted to vomit.

“Ladies, are you enjoying your evening?”

“More so now,” the tall blond, who had mentioned the threesome, purred. Darcy wanted to yank her hair, hard.

“We haven’t seen you around. It’s been too long.” The brunette said, tilting her head and closing her lips around her finger. Darcy almost laughed; honestly, could she be any more obvious? Why didn’t she just take off her dress, climb on the table, and spread her legs? On second thought, with the way she was eying Lucien, she might yet.

“Who’s your friend?” the brunette somehow managed to ask around the finger she was sucking on.

Lucien leaned closer to the brunette. “She’s everything.”

And then he turned and drew Darcy onto the dance floor, wrapping her in his arms, and holding her close.

“Why did you do that?” Darcy asked, looking around him at the women who were watching them with dropped jaws. She wasn’t certain, but she thought she might have seen tears in the brunette’s eyes.

“Just making it even.”

Darcy pushed at him, feeling her temper starting to stir again. “What does that mean?”

Humor turned to sincerity. “You claimed me at sixteen, so I claimed you right back. And with that group of gossiping divas, in under an hour the entire place is going to know that you aren’t just some girl, but that you are my forever girl.”

Her anger immediately fled. “Good answer.”

His hands moved down her back to her ass and he pressed her close so she could feel the hard length of him. “Let’s go home so I can claim you again.”

“Darcy, could you please come in here?” Lucien called from his office. A moment later she appeared in his doorway.

“Yes?”

“Close the door.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked as he came from around his desk. He said not a word but took her mouth in a kiss. He’d been thinking about that mouth all morning. And she was actually breathless when his lips lifted from hers.

“Mr. Black. I’m not sure that is appropriate office etiquette.” Her voice wasn’t steady and her eyes were soft with desire.

“No?” He slid her skirt up over her hips and felt the lacy edge of her thigh-high stockings. “What the—” He’d never seen anything more sexy and instantly he was rock hard. His voice shook from raging lust. “You cannot wear these little skirts with these”—his finger ran along her thigh—“and not expect me to take you up against the wall at every opportunity.”

The coy look in her eyes made him grow even harder as he said, “You little vixen. You
want
me to take you up against the wall.”

She brushed her hair behind her shoulder and suddenly he wanted his fingers buried in those onyx strands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

In the next minute, she was up against the wall with her legs wrapped around his waist as he worked his zipper. He moaned when he pushed into her and felt her body squeezing him. Her eyes glazed over and her thighs held him tightly as he moved deeply inside her. It was rough, fast, and so fucking good that he knew he was going to be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

He dropped his head on her shoulder. “I may have to fire you, otherwise we’re never going to get any work done.”

Her fingers raked through his hair. “I can behave if you can.”

“That’s a big if.”

“Lucien.”

He lifted his head at the seriousness of her voice.

“I want to know who took this away from us. I want to know who took our child and why. I want justice. Hell, I want revenge.”

“You and me both. We will find out, I promise you.”

T
race was at Everything when his phone rang.

“Yeah.”

“It’s Lucien. Can you meet me at Sapphire in about twenty minutes? I need your help.”

“I’m leaving now.”

When Trace arrived, he was surprised to see that Lucien had called Rafe and Kyle too. He reached them and pulled out a chair. “What’s up?”

“I’m sorry to call you in the middle of the day, but I need help. Darcy was pregnant when I left St. Agnes. I’ve thought about this every moment since I found out about the baby. She was pregnant. Can you imagine how terrified she had to have been to be alone and pregnant at sixteen? What could that bastard have said to make her believe that it was better for me that she face pregnancy alone?”

“And the baby?” Kyle asked.

“She was told she lost it, but her mother finally confessed that she lied. That she was paid to lie, probably by the same bastard who came to see Darcy that day.”

“What! What the fuck for?” Trace demanded.

“I don’t know, but I want to find my child.”

“Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?” Rafe asked.

“No, but he or she would be almost fourteen now, growing up as we had, believing that they were forgotten. They deserve to know the truth, deserve to know they have a mother who has mourned their loss every day for fourteen years and a father who would move heaven and earth for them. I want to give them what we all were denied: a family.”

“Fuck yeah. What do you need?” Trace said, which made Lucien smile.

“I can’t be everywhere at once, but I need to find out who was on duty the night Darcy delivered the baby. Clearly it wasn’t just her mother this man paid off. Josh is already looking into it, but he’s going to need help; so much time has passed that there’s going to be a lot of researching and legwork just to find everyone.”

“Whatever you need, you’ve got it,” Trace said, then asked, “And Darcy?”

Lucien’s smile filled his face. Trace chuckled. “I’m guessing by that look you are working it out.”

“Hell yeah.”