His sudden seductive attack took Sakura by surprise, and her reaction was to stay stock-still. Then, when she felt his urgency, she obliged by kissing him back and opened her mouth for him.
The moment she did so, Darcy plunged his tongue in, stroking her and playing havoc with her. Then his kiss became softer, slow, and gentle. It was then Sakura sighed with pleasure, and she groaned as her whole body became weak. She held on to him for dear life as he concentrated his attention on her lips once again, nibbling on her flesh.
Between kisses, he managed to whisper, “God help me, but I think I might just go insane because of you.”
Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “I love you, Darcy. I really do, but please be patient.”
“I hate this sneaking about,” he said with a passion. “I just want you to be mine.”
She could sense the pain in his voice, and she sympathized with him. Guilt erupted within her for making him suffer. God, she felt like a villain, and her stomach churned sickly at the thought that she was responsible for such a horrible thing.
She said, “Only one day more and I’ll give you both my answer. I promise.”
“I know,” he said. “I can wait one more day. It’s not the end of the world.” He tilted her face to the side then and smiled darkly. “It looks like I can’t let Sebastian be the only one to brand you.”
Sakura blinked, confused.
Darcy buried his face against the right side of her neck and then slowly and seductively kissed her.
God, she could feel his firm lips and the wet heat of his tongue as he stroked her skin. And then he sucked at the flesh, which made her body squirm in ecstasy as she held on to him. Her mind went completely blank as she gasped for breath, and her heart raced while he continued to suck. He was wild. He was passionate. And he was driving her senseless.
When he finally moved back, she was dazed and flushed. Because she felt as though she had no strength left, she collapsed against the wall and slid down to the floor.
Darcy came along with her and cradled her in his arms. “Sorry. I think I might have overdone it.”
Once she managed to regain her senses, Sakura smiled at him. She whispered softly, “What’s with you Princeton brothers? Are necks your family’s fetish or something?”
Darcy gave her a sly smile. “Maybe.”
Sakura didn’t like the fact that he was giving her an evasive answer. But really, to have both Sebastian and now Darcy taking an interest in her neck in one day?
“Can you walk? Or would you rather I carry you back?”
Sakura raised her eyes to him again. “No. I’m fine. I can walk.” She held on to him as she rose to ensure she wouldn’t fall again.
Once she was confident that her legs were steady and she had no trouble walking, she rested her palms on his chest and made him move back a little to give her some space.
She licked her lips and then said, “I’m going to have to tell you, like I told Sebastian this morning, to please stop seducing me until I’ve made my decision, Darcy.”
“Oh? You told Sebastian to keep his distance?” he asked with one raised brow.
She nodded. “Sure did. And anyway, I must go now. Kay and Keri are probably wondering where the heck I am.”
With that, she turned on her heel and headed back toward the door. She was about to open it when Darcy halted her by holding her wrist.
She turned to him with questioning eyes.
“I love you,” he said, his gaze dark.
Sakura gave him a smile in return. “I love you, too.”
Then he let her hand go, and she opened the door and rushed down the stairs.
When Sakura came into the ladies’ makeup room a few moments later, Kay and Keri seemed relieved.
“Sakura, finally,” Kay said. “We’ve been waiting.”
Sakura blushed. She knew she was late and had kept them waiting. Of course, it wasn’t exactly her fault, but she couldn’t tell them she’d been dragged away by Darcy to some secluded spot so he could have his way with her.
As she came to sit down, she noted that both Tara and Alaina were currently in their seats, having their hair and makeup retouched. Tara was once again on her phone, texting, while Alaina was reading another fashion magazine.
Kay quickly went about undoing Sakura’s hair while Keri went about retouching her makeup. It was then that both Akira and Jane walked in through the door.
“Hello, everyone,” Akira said cheerfully as she made her way toward her seat.
A chorus of hellos came from Sakura, Kay, Keri, and the two other makeup artists, Jenny and Lena, currently working on Tara and Alaina respectively.
Jane came over to see how far they had gotten working on Sakura. A few seconds later, she said, “Haven’t got very far, have we?”
Kay said, “Sakura was late.”
“Sorry about that,” Sakura said apologetically.
From the next chair, Akira asked, “You were late? But you left a while before us.”
Sakura blushed. “Well, I, erm…”
Jane sighed. “I knew it! You got lost, didn’t you?”
Sakura shook her head. “No, it’s not that.” After all, it wasn’t that hard to simply get from the ground floor of the hotel to the top floor via the elevator. So, how could she get lost?
Kay was just lifting Sakura’s hair and brushing it when she expressed in astonishment, “Another one?”
Her voice was so loud that it caused Sakura to jump in surprise and drew everyone’s attention to them, including Tara’s and Alaina’s.
“What is it?” Sakura asked.
Curious, Akira came around to see. “What’s another one?”
Kay chuckled merrily. “Sakura has another love bite. This time on the right side of her neck.”
“Really?” Keri asked, taking an interested peek. “Oh, there it is. Hmm… It’s pretty new, isn’t it? The bruise?”
Jane moved in as well and took a good look at Sakura’s neck.
Akira said, “Wow! That’s one passionate bite.”
Embarrassed, Sakura covered her neck with her hand and shooed everyone away. “Nothing to see here.”
Akira was having none of it. She firmly removed Sakura’s hand and examined the bruise as though they had found gold. She chuckled as she said, “Sakura, you’re being loved, aren’t you?”
Jane nodded in agreement. She looked at Akira and asked, “Which one do you think did this?”
“Can we please stop talking about this now? And please stop looking at my neck, Akira.”
Akira tilted Sakura’s head to one side. “So, which Princeton brother did this to you, Sakura? Come on. Out with it.”
Suddenly, Tara snapped, “God! It’s getting noisy in here.”
That drew everyone’s attention to her, and Sakura noticed how pissed the woman was. She also didn’t miss the fact that Tara was glaring at her as if she would like to strangle her.
Akira said, “Well, sorry for being loud.” Turning back to Sakura, she continued. “Was it Sebastian?”
Sakura shook her head in the negative. At the same time, Keri said, “No, I don’t think it was Sebastian this time,” as she prepared the foundation.
Jane raised her brow at Keri. “This time?”
Kay said, “There’s another one on her left.”
Upon hearing this, Akira tilted Sakura’s head the other way. “Oh, there it is. It’s faint.”
“That’s because I covered it up with foundation this morning,” Kay said.
“This morning?” Akira asked.
At Kay’s nod, Akira frowned. Then she turned her attention to Keri and asked, “Do you know anything about this one?”
Keri, now mixing the foundation, said, “If it was from this morning, I suspect it must have been done by Sebastian, since I saw him coming in here when Sakura was alone.”
Upon hearing this, Sakura blushed.
Keri continued. “And about fifteen minutes ago, I saw Darcy taking Sakura up to the roof, so I assume the right one is his.”
Akira whistled in appreciation, while Sakura went bright red with embarrassment. She couldn’t believe Keri had glimpsed the brothers sneaking about and meeting up with her. More so the fact that the jolly woman had even surmised which brothers had given her the hickeys. To be sure, the woman had great sleuthing skills.
At this point, Tara snapped loudly, “Can you lot just shut up!” She brushed aside Jenny, who was applying some blusher on her face. “I can’t stand the noise in here.” She came to glare at Sakura as she said coldly, “You think you’re someone special, don’t you? Climbing your way up from the thick of the mud. Why don’t you just accept the fact that you’re a parasite who likes to suck on other people’s generosity to survive? Why can’t you just leave so everyone else can live in peace? Why don’t you just leave the Princeton brothers alone?”
Everyone in the room could only listen to Tara’s ranting in disbelief. They’d known she had a temper, but they didn’t know it was this bad.
Sakura, on the other hand, listened calmly. She knew Tara’s personality too well, and had been on the receiving end of the woman’s sharp tongue too many times to count, since they had been little in fact, and this little harangue had no effect on her, as it would have before.
She said, her voice gentle but firm, “Are you done berating me yet, Tara?” Noting that Tara only stood there staring silently at her, she continued. “Please, before you say such petty things to other people, why don’t you look at yourself first? Surely, you, of all people, know what I’m talking about. After all, you’re an expert at sucking up to other people and manipulating them just to get where you are today.”
Sakura’s relentless comeback made the others look at her in a different light. She wasn’t the quiet doormat most suspected her to be. Both Akira’s and Jane’s eyes were sparkling with pride at their friend.
Tara went bright red and marched across the room toward Sakura.
Sakura, of course, knew what was coming and stood in defense as Jane, Kay, and Keri all drew back in alarm. Meanwhile, Akira stood solidly beside Sakura, her arms folded across her chest.
Tara came to a halt inches in front of her and sneered. “What did you say, bitch?”
Calmly, Sakura repeated, “I said, you should look at yourself before saying such petty things to others. Just because you’re jealous the Princeton brothers no longer regard you as their sister, you take out your anger on someone else.”
Tara was heaving now, her hands fisted tightly by her sides. “Me? Jealous?” She chuckled darkly. “And what? Do you think they regard you as their sister? I don’t even think they remembered you until you met them again last year at Mary’s wedding.” She flicked her gaze to Sakura’s neck, to the love bites on her flesh. “To them, you’re just their fucking whore.”
That had everyone gasping loudly in disbelief.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at the other woman.
“Tara!” Alaina snapped, which drew everyone’s attention to her. “Stop it! That’s enough.”
Tara went red in the face as she turned her attention to Alaina now. She was heaving with anger as she said, “Wow! The first time ever I’ve seen you defending your adopted sister. What made you change sides, Princess Alaina?”
Alaina didn’t reply. She just sat there staring at Tara.
Dismissing Alaina, Tara turned to glare at Sakura once more before leaving the room.
Sakura, of course, was stunned. Not for the fact that Tara had lashed out at her and then Alaina, but that Alaina had told Tara to shut up at the most critical point of her verbal attack. Was Alaina in some way helping her? Sakura didn’t know, and she was both confused and interested in what type of friendship Tara and Alaina were currently having. Sure, she’d heard that they were fighting, but was it deep and damaging, or merely the trivial kind that friends had sometimes?
Jenny sighed. “I didn’t know Tara had such a bad temper. Wow! She really freaked me out a little bit there.”
Lena said, “Are you going to get her back? I mean, we have to finish her up soon.”
Jane said, “It’s all right. I’ll go and get her.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s my job, after all.” With that, she headed toward the door.
Jenny sighed with relief that she didn’t have to deal with the pissed Tara.
As she sat back down, Sakura watched Alaina. She noted that the woman made quick eye contact before returning her attention to her magazine.
Akira asked, “You okay?”
Sakura turned her attention to her friend and nodded. “I’m fine.”
“Did you expect something like that to happen? Was that why you were so worried before?”
Sakura shook her head. “Not really. I was more worried about messing up the photo shoot and ruining Mr. Tachibana’s day.” She chuckled merrily.
“I see,” Akira said, nodding.