The Debt: An Irish Mafia Romance (Downing Family Book 2) Read online

  Fate decided for me as I looked around.

  The two women walking toward me hadn’t noticed me yet, too busy talking to each other, although the brunette seemed to do more of the talking while the blonde simply listened.

  I stared at Daria. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed her until that moment.

  My heart beat a little faster, and blood roared in my ears.

  I took a deep breath, and in that moment, she looked up and saw me.

  Her step faltered. Isabel glanced at her, curiously. Then, she also looked up and saw me.

  A slight grin curled Isabel’s lips.

  But I only had eyes for Daria.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Daria

  I’m dreaming…

  That was my first thought when I saw Brooks standing outside the school.

  It was a perfectly logical thought, too, because why in the world would he be standing outside my school in the middle of the day, here in New York, when he was supposed to be in Miami?

  He’s looking for you.

  I didn’t let the thought settle and refused to contemplate it. It made no sense. He had no reason to be looking for me, did he?

  That led to my next thought. He’s here to warn me. Duardo is still after me.

  I must have looked panicked because Isabel took my hand and squeezed gently. “It’s okay, Daria,” she said softly.

  I hadn’t realized I’d stopped in the middle of the sidewalk until she started to pull me along with her—right to Brooks.

  Rendered mute, I said nothing as Isabel went up onto her toes and kissed Brooks on the cheek. “What are you doing in New York?”

  Brooks barely glanced at her before looking at me. “Business. My father sent me to handle a few things with contacts here in the city.”

  “Oooo-kaaayyyy…” Isabel drew the word out. Gesturing to the school, she asked, “And is Madame Burov one of those contacts?”

  “What? No.” He shook his head, eyes still on my face.

  “So what brings you to the school?” Isabel asked. She shot me a look and winked, but I was still too busy trying to deal with Brooks standing a few feet away to wonder what could possibly be going through her mind.

  “I’m here to see Daria.” He met Isabel’s eyes as he said it but then immediately looked back at me. “Can we talk?”

  I cleared my throat twice and thought I might be able to respond. Maybe. My voice came out soft and hesitant, but at least I was able to form words.

  “I’ve got class. I need to get back inside.” But there were so many more words that didn’t escape my scattered thoughts. I need a few minutes away from you. Seeing you again almost hurts.

  Maybe, once I’d gotten a grip on what was happening, I could handle talking to him.

  But Isabel, ever helpful, leaned into me. “Don’t worry about class. I’ll tell Madame Burov you’re not feeling well. There’s that stomach thing going around, and you know how she is about germs.”

  Burov was a germophobe. While she wasn’t particularly tolerant of her students missing class, she’d been known to dismiss a student if they so much as sniffled in earshot.

  “But…” I looked from Isabel back to Brooks then back at her.

  “Go talk to him,” she mouthed.

  I assumed that’s what she said. It was really the only thing that made sense; I was too dazed to really concentrate.

  But I didn’t want to just talk to him. I wanted to fling myself at him, hold him, kiss him, be close to him for as long as possible. But I shouldn’t talk to him. I’d already become too involved with this man. I should have known better. It wasn’t like Isabel hadn’t tried to warn me. Even Brooks’ sister Briar had advised me to keep my distance.

  It wasn’t until Peaches had described, in great detail, to me and some of the other dancers, just how effin’ hot Brooks was and what a monster he was in bed that I truly understood the depths of my mistake in getting caught up with the sexy man standing before me.

  Physically, he was a monster in a good sense. But mentally, he was the type of monster that tore a person apart and went on to the next. After all, he’d been with her just the night before he kissed me, put his hands on me.

  Sean had made it clear that I was just one of many.

  I’d been right to leave Miami.

  But here he was…

  He held out a hand.

  I stared at it, uncertainty warring with that need to be with him.

  I shouldn’t do this…

  Isabel spoke up, breaking my concentration as she nudged my shoulder with hers. “Go on, you. Before another one of the students sees you and ruins your chance. Go talk to him.”

  She winked at me and cut around us both, leaving us standing on the sidewalk.

  Brooks still held his hand out.

  I turned my back on him and started to walk. Away from the school. I had no doubt Isabel would have Burov convinced that I was sick to my stomach, about ready to explode from both ends, as she once told me when she had a stomach virus. If I walked back into the school now, it would look like I’d asked Isabel to lie for me.

  Brooks caught up with me easily and fell into step next to me.

  Neither of us spoke.

  Without any particular destination in mind, I just walked along the sidewalk. I found myself taking the narrow path that ran between two older buildings that now served as apartments, seeking out the small public garden that I’d found by accident a few months earlier.

  It had been winter then, and the garden had been empty.

  But today was a warm, beautiful day and the garden was still empty.

  Settling on one small, wrought iron seat that had been designed to torture the butt, I focused on Brooks’ face as he stood over me.

  “Why are you here?” I asked him.

  “I came to see you. Haven’t you figured that out already?”

  He watched me with those intense eyes that seemed to see right through me.

  I drew in a slow breath, then let it out as my mind raced. Hope had me wanting to jump up and dance. But nerves kept me in my seat. Nerves, and the echo of the misery I’d been feeling ever since Peaches told me about her run-in with Brooks.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have time for a booty call, Brooks,” I heard myself saying, my tone remarkably steady, placid even.

  Frost chilled his eyes, and he paced closer.

  Iron screeched over the brick that had been used to form a small sitting area in the garden. The sound of him dragging the chair closer to mine was like an icepick in my ear.

  “I didn’t come here for a booty call, Daria.”

  I averted my gaze, unable to handle that penetrating stare.

  I could still feel it though, cutting into me, stripping me bare, seeing all the things I’d fought to keep under control, almost from the first time I met him.

  “I know your reputation, Brooks,” I said finally. I stared at a beautiful blooming bush that served as the focal point of the garden. I focused on it so hard, the leaves blurred together. “I was warned. Even before we so much as kissed.”

  He was quiet a moment, but I felt his irritation burning the air. When he shifted on the chair, I had to fight the urge to look at him.

  “What exactly do you mean…you were warned?” he asked, voice grim.

  “Just that. Isabelle and Briar both told me that you were something of a player.” Although that was being polite—player hadn’t been the word used.

  I gave into his silent command that I look at him.

  He had wrapped his hands around the top edge of the iron chair and was now squeezing it so tight, his knuckles had gone white.

  “A player,” he said softly.

  “I also met one of your…ladies.” Folding my hands in my lap, I studied them. My nail polish was peeling. I’d need to give myself a manicure soon. Isabel always asked me to go with her, but I didn’t have the money to waste on such luxuries, and I wasn’t letting her constantly pay for me.
<
br />   “Explain that,” Brooks demanded.

  I picked at the edge of the polish where it had curled up on my left thumb, giving the task far more attention than it needed as I struggled to find the right words to respond. I shouldn’t have mentioned anything about Peaches.

  “Daria…” He spoke with a low growl in his voice.

  Jerking my head up, I stared at him. “I met Peaches, okay?”

  He looked blank for a minute.

  “Have you been with so many women that you’ve forgotten their names?” I demanded. “You slept with her the night of the rehearsal dinner. The day before you and I…” I stopped, mouth going dry as I remembered those stolen few minutes.

  “The day before I put my hands on you, kissed you, and made you come?” he suggested in a silky tone. “Before that?”

  He seemed too close to me now. I could almost imagine the heat from his body against mine, and when I breathed in, I caught a hint of the intoxicating scent that clung to his skin.

  I stood up so fast, the spindly legs of the chair wobbled. Moving a few feet away from him, I swallowed, and my heart raced. Memories of that night danced through my mind and to my horror, my knees threatened to melt right then and there.

  I could feel my nipples drawing tight in sensory memory, and down lower, things went soft and damp.

  “If you’re just looking for somebody to play around with, Brooks, I’m not that girl,” I said after a few more seconds. I wished my voice sounded even a little convincing, but I’d managed to get the words out. That counted, right? “I’ve got enough on my plate just dealing with school. I need to focus on that, on my career.”

  “So…”

  His voice came from just behind me, and I spun around, staring at him in surprise. The old-fashioned iron chairs were anything but quiet, and yet I hadn’t heard him stand or walk toward me.

  My heart sped up even more, pounding hard enough now to make me breathless.

  Brooks reached up and curled his hand around my neck, drawing me closer.

  “Your career. That’s all that matters? That’s all you want, Daria?”

  “It’s not about want. It’s about need.” My voice wavered, and I saw his eyes darken as he stared down at me.

  “You want to talk about need?”

  He’d moved in just the slightest, and now I could feel my breasts brushing against his chest. The contact had me gasping.

  “We can talk about need, Daria, if that’s what you want.” He rubbed his lips against mine, then murmured, “I need this…”

  Then he was kissing me.

  Any chance I might have had at pushing him away evaporated in that hot, torrid kiss that had me pressing up against him and curling my arms around his neck.

  His tongue stole inside my mouth, and I closed my lips around him, sucking lightly. He groaned and reached down, cupping my hip in his free hand and drawing my lower body in until I felt his cock pressing hard against my belly.

  “This is need, Daria,” he murmured against my lips.

  Yes…

  He rained kisses down my neck and sank his teeth into the curve there, biting me.

  “This is need…” he said again, rocking forward with his hips.

  Yes. Yes, it was.

  This was need. This was madness. This was everything I’d been denying myself, and I couldn’t do it anymore.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Daria

  The hotel he took me to defied description.

  It was beyond luxurious, and I couldn’t keep from swiveling my head and looking around as he led me to the elevator.

  The walls were a soft ivory, and the wooden floors gleamed. Subtle accents of gold and red everywhere. Chairs and couches in the same soft ivory as the wall invited guests to sit around clusters of tables, beneath the dimmed lights, next to the crystal sculptures.

  In the elevator bank, I caught sight of a huge crystalline chandelier that gave off a soft, warm, golden glow.

  The elevator doors slid open, and he led me inside. I moved to the back and looked outside the clear glass that made up three of the car’s four walls. Ironwork edging in each of the corners of the far back wall of the elevator car gave it a frame of sorts.

  A little dazed and dazzled, I turned to Brooks.

  Before I could say anything, his mouth was on mine.

  I groaned.

  He shoved a hand into my hair, dislodging the pins that held my bun in place.

  I didn’t care.

  My hair soon spilled down my back, and he combed his fingers through it as he continued to kiss me.

  There was a faint ding, but neither of us noticed.

  It wasn’t until somebody discreetly cleared a throat that either of us pulled away.

  I blushed as I realized the elevator doors were open and somebody waited at the entrance to board. “Going up?” the older gentlemen said, a smile in his eyes.

  Brooks led me over to the wall without answering, his hand seeking out mine. I shivered as he rubbed a slow circle on the back of my hand with his thumb.

  How such a simple touch could send such rippling sensations through me was a mystery.

  Our fellow passenger stepped off after a few floors, leaving us alone again.

  I braced myself, but Brooks didn’t pull me back up against him.

  A fine tension seemed to emanate from him, and it ramped up the edginess I’d been dealing with since seeing him near the school.

  Once the doors opened onto his floor, he led me from the elevator, and we walked down the hall to one of the three doors this floor boasted.

  We stepped inside one of them, and I muffled a gasp at the decadent luxury that spilled before me.

  But I had no more than a couple of seconds to take it in before Brooks was in front of me. I tilted my head back to look at him and had no time to brace myself before his mouth slammed down on mine.

  He kissed me like he’d been dying to do just that.

  It was a kiss that took, consumed, and possessed me.

  It was a kiss that had me reaching for him, but the moment my hands touched his chest, he caught both my wrists, dragging them down and pinning them at the small of my back.

  I opened my mouth to protest.

  He tugged backward, using his grip on my hands and the wall of his chest until I was arching my spine.

  He pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to the midline of my chest.

  I shivered.

  “I won’t be gentle, Daria. If you can’t handle that, call this off now,” he told me.

  But I couldn’t have forced myself to speak in that moment if I had to.

  He straightened, drawing my body up with his, although he still gripped my wrists.

  His eyes on mine, he reached between us.

  I was still in my dance leotard and tights. For lunch, I’d thrown a simple wrap-around skirt on, and now he deftly untied the bow at my waist. That was all it took for the skirt to fall away, landing in a heap of fabric at my ankles.

  He let go of my wrists to skim both of his hands up over my hips, closing them around my waist.

  “You are insanely beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes roaming over me. “I’ve thought a hundred times about seeing you again. I’m still waiting for you to dance for me.”

  “If I try to dance now, my knees will give out,” I admitted, my cheeks heating with the truth of the words.

  A wolfish smile curled his lips. “Some other time then.” He pressed his thumb to my lower lip and added, “You will dance for me, Daria.”

  Silent, I nodded.

  He stripped my leotard and tights away, leaving me to stand naked in front of him. A shiver raced through me. My nipples peaked, already stiff and tight. As his eyes roamed over me, I fought the urge to bring my arms up to cover myself. Silly, being nervous, because he’d seen me naked before.

  But the intent, probing look in his eyes left me unnerved.

  “Brooks?” I whispered.

  “I already told you, I can’t b
e gentle. Not today.”

  Any reply I might have made was lost as he hauled me up against him and kissed me once again, his mouth greedy and hard, impatient, like he wanted to devour me.

  His hands cupped my ass, and when he boosted me up, I automatically wrapped my legs around him, clinging to him for balance.

  He moved a few steps, and I gasped as the cool surface of the door pressed into my back.

  Brooks lowered me back down to my feet, and I pressed my hands to the door in an effort to steady myself.

  He dragged his zipper down and freed himself, watching me all the while.

  I couldn’t resist the urge to look down at him, and I whimpered when he wrapped his hand around his fat cock.

  He stroked himself, slowly, the movements almost casual.

  “Do you want to suck my cock?” he asked, voice rough.

  I nodded, licking my lips in preparation.

  “Get on your knees and do it.”

  I followed his orders, leaning in to brush a kiss on the blunt head.

  He shoved a hand into my hair and twisted it until the locks were wrapped around his wrist, giving him control of my head. “Suck my cock, Daria.”

  I opened for him, and immediately, I understood what he’d been warning me about—I can’t be gentle.

  He fucked his way into my mouth, falling into a rhythm that was quicker, rougher than before.

  I took as much as I could and wished to take more.

  One of his hands controlled my head while the other cupped my cheek, and I could feel him staring down at me as he thrust.

  “Take more,” he said, voice rough.

  He bumped against the back of my throat and said it again, “Take more.”

  I tried but tensed and gagged myself. He eased back. “Relax…breathe through your nose. Swallow my cock, Daria.”

  He kept up those cajoling little demands as he moved, and soon, I fell into the spell of them and did just what he ordered. I relaxed. This time, when he bumped the back of my throat, I let him angle my head, and I swallowed.