“He did.” He pursed his lips in thought again. “I think maybe he knew—all along.”
I went to speak, but stopped, my shoulders sinking. “No. He knew since that first day he returned. Remember when he said I didn’t need to worry about my daughter seeking out Drake?”
David looked shocked for a moment before the surprise gave way for realisation. “I thought that was odd.”
“I’ll say.” I nodded. “Why didn’t he tell us then?”
“Because we were at odds, I guess—you and I,” he said. “And this information puts you both at great risk.” He touched my belly firmly. “No one can know.”
“And we need to get a move on killing Drake.”
“We do.”
“But…” An empty feeling stole the happy one. “What about Jason?”
“What about him?”
“He’ll be … he’ll die, David.” My eyes watered. “I can’t imagine a world without him in it.”
“I don’t care, Ara,” he said simply, with little to no emotion at all. “He
will
give his soul, because he loves you. You won’t even have to ask. And you will accept it as a gift, because I will not lose you again. Not after everything we’ve been through to be together.”
“But—”
“No.” He moved right in front of me and took both my hands, holding them between us. “We may not be fated for each other—hell, we weren’t even contracted to meet; you were always supposed to be his. But I will be damned if that means I should give you up because, despite it all Ara, I love you beyond measure and I love our daughter too much to either see her die or not be here to raise her.”
I looked down at my feet, picturing both those options.
“Tu m’appartiens.” He cupped the side of my face. “And that is still true. Heart, mind, and soul. I’m not noble enough to give you up so he can live.”
I smiled. “That’s the impurity of Man talking.”
He laughed. “Then I’m impure. So what? What’s changed?” He put both hands out, shrugging. “You still love me.”
“I do.” But he was right. I did also love Jason—just not in the same way. “How can you be so okay with losing your brother?”
“Because I've had time to process, since your dad and I talked, and I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot lately—the what ifs. And if it’s a choice of either you or I versus him…” He raised his brows with a half smile. “It’s
him
. Simple.”
“I just can't see it that way.”
“Yes, because you love him in a different way to what I do. But if you look at it as a choice between him or Bump.” He patted her. “There’s no argument. No guilt.”
I looked at him for long moment, then pushed past. “I need to talk to my dad.”
“Well, you can’t.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him. “He’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“I don't know. I just saw him get in the car with Arthur about thirty minutes ago.”
“Do you think maybe Arthur talked to him—about this?”
He considered that for a moment. “I’d say that’s highly likely.”
“Then, where would they be going?”
“Maybe to speak to Jason.” He shrugged. “I don’t care. This is the first afternoon I’ve had off in ages, and I don’t want to waste another minute on the echoes of the past. Enough time has been spent worrying about this contract and the feud between Drake and Lilith. Let’s stop.” He rested his chin against my brow, his hands on my waist. “Let’s just stand here in the silence of the present—where no one is coming for us, our daughter isn’t born, Jason is still here, and you and I are alone in our room—finally together again.”
“You’re right,” I said, and I let it all go. None of it mattered today. None of it had any bearing on my love for David, yet for some reason I was letting it ruin what could otherwise be a perfect afternoon. And without the looming dread of things that may or may not ever actually be, I could finally feel the energetic tingle of desire again—of a man and a woman standing behind a closed door. Away from eyes. Away from ears. With no real need to be wearing clothes.
David studied my curves, a corner of his lip between his teeth, his eyes small with what looked like humour. And he crossed his arms over his waist, gripping his shirt and rolling it up, flicking it across the room as it left his body. As he swept in and smoothed his hands down my ribs and onto the small of my back, I got a really good look at his body—the way it’d changed in such a short time. His arms were fuller, shaped and contoured in lines pleasant to the eye, but not overly muscled, like the knights. His chest and ribs gave way to a sleek set of muscles around his belly button; not a six pack, but maybe a four—hiding a little under his flesh. It was just enough of a change to set my entire body on fire.
His hands brought little bumps of cool out on my skin as he reached up under my top and unclasped my bra, freeing my heavy breasts.
“Ah, that feels so good,” I said, rolling my shoulders and neck.
He drew his hands out from under my top and cupped both breasts firmly, concentrating. “Pregnancy does nice things to your body.”
I laughed.
“Here,” he said, lifting off my top and bra and dropping them by my feet. “Let’s get a proper look at those.”
As his eyes rounded to take in the fullness, I felt bare and exposed, almost covering them with my hands. “Don’t you dare cover up,” he ordered, delicately tracing the curve with a curled hand, shaking his head. “The things I am going to do to you.”
My heart raced with excitement, shaking my breath. “Something like what you were doing to those girls?”
His lips parted in a breathy smile, eyes staying on my breasts, and I saw him truly consider it—more than he ever had before. “I’m not sure I’ll have a choice, Ara. I can’t…” He chewed his tongue, reconsidering his words. “I
like
sex that way. I can’t deny my own desires forever.”
I wedged my thumbnail between my front teeth shyly. “I think maybe I like it that way too.”
The smile remained as he took a long breath through it, then dropped to his knees like a weakened man. His perfect long fingers clasped my zipper and slid it down as he kissed the curve under my belly, moving those soft wet lips lower an inch at a time. And a rush of moisture and heat flooded me as the autumn air moved in where my underwear and jeans were, David shuddering as he caught the scent.
“It has been too damn long,” he whispered.
“Uh-huh,” was all I could muster, curling my toes and driving my fingertips into his soft, thick hair as he kissed the patch between my legs.
“You are never allowed to shave this off, got it?” he said into my hair.
“Why?”
He breathed deep through his nose. “A woman should look like a woman.” His hands moved up the backs of my legs to cup my bottom then, and he mumbled, “Hang on tight,” as he propped one foot to the ground and lifted me into the air.
I grabbed his shoulders, trying to bend my knees to hold on with my legs, but we landed on the bed with a bounce before I had much time to panic. And his mouth went down from the patch of hair right into the wet folds. I wasn’t sure now where my moisture began and his ended, but the flooding sensation, when his tongue slipped up inside me, was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. He parted the cleft with both hands, sliding his thumbs up with the moisture, making my whole body dip down into the bed. Everything twitched inside me, pulsing so hard my body screamed out for him to enter me—to feel the thickness, the fullness of him where he hadn’t been for too long.
He laughed softly, his hot breath like a hairdryer on my inner thighs. “I can read your mind, Ara.”
I groaned, rolling my spine in a catlike arch. “Then fuck me.”
“No way. Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to torture you a little first.”
I gripped the blanket under my head. “I can’t take it.”
“You won’t believe how much you can actually stand,” he said, and ran his tongue all the way up me from a place no tongue had ever been to the soft skin just above my hair. “And when I finally let you cum, you are going to
explode,
” he added.
I let out a little squeak. “I’m going to explode now.”
“If you do,” he said in his deepest, most menacing whisper, “I
will
punish you.”
My lip sunk between my teeth and I grinned at the ceiling. “I like the sound of that.”
He smacked my leg hard, rubbing a flat hand over the pins and needles after. “I like the sound of
that
.”
I flexed my leg where it hurt. “I like the way that feels.”
“Good.” He stood up and unbuttoned his jeans, parting them only enough to show his white underwear. Then he looked at me with a kind of darkness that I only ever saw when he was hungry, as he reached down, grabbed my hips, and flipped me onto my belly, pulling my hips backward until I ended up on my knees. All the blood rushed into my shoulders, the weight of the baby making my belly feel fuller.
“What are you doing?” I asked, feeling a bit exposed.
“Nothing you can’t handle.” He grabbed my wrists and twisted them behind my back so my shoulders and breasts sunk heavily into the bed.
I pushed my hips back to keep the pressure off Bump.
“Stay like that, or I’ll tie you up,” he warned.
Part of me wanted to stay put, but a bigger part wanted to test him—and kinda wanted to be tied up. So I brought my arms back down to my sides and tried to push up to look at him. But he smacked my bottom. Hard. And I screeched, laughing into the covers then as a cold wind rushed past me, and David appeared across the room.
He opened one of his packing boxes, still sitting by the coffee table, and dug through, holding up a small, silky white rope, hiding something else behind his back.
“What are you doing with that?” I asked cautiously.
“Quiet.” He appeared behind me again, his knee tucked against the back of my thigh as he leaned over, stuffing a cotton rag between my teeth and tying it behind my head. “I’m not playing nice with you anymore, Ara. I’ve wanted to fuck you this way for so long now.” He untangled a few strands of my hair from the gag, ripping them slightly. “And I don’t need to pretend with you anymore. You’re clearly just as twisted as I am.”
I submitted willingly as he tied my wrists behind my back and repositioned my hips, taking them higher.
“Just—” His face appeared beside mine on the bed. “If I hurt you—”
I’m fine,
I thought.
He looked hesitant. “I know. But please tell me if it’s too much.”
You’ve had plenty of practise abusing me, David.
My eyes smiled because my lips couldn't.
I think you know my limits better than I do.
He smiled back and pressed his hand into the bed before disappearing behind me again. And with permission to let the monster out,
My David
slipped quietly backward inside himself, releasing the vampire. I could feel it. And I wanted it bad.
He shoved something hard and straight right inside me, as far it’d go, and as he parted it wide, hitting the highest point of my G-spot, I realised it was his fingers. My toes spread and then curled, my insides trembling around his fingers. I thought about the piano then—how he plays so gracefully, with such precision and passion, and the way he played with my body was no different.
“I’m warning you,” he said, pressing one hand firmly down on my tailbone. “Don’t cum.”
I bit down on the cotton gag, swallowing the pool of saliva that formed under my tongue.
“I wouldn't normally do this, but I love you, so I’m gonna tell you before I bite you, okay?” he said, waiting until I nodded. “It
is
going to hurt.”
I braced myself, feeling completely vulnerable and a little scared, as he lowered his face to my bottom and kissed a spot there—right between where his fingers entered me and the hole no one had
ever
entered. And despite what I ever thought I would feel with someone that close to me there, I felt nothing but excitement, revelling in the wetness and warmth of his lips on my perineum.
“Get ready, Ara,” he whispered. “This
will
sting.”
I shut my eyes tight, clenching my thighs as the venom raced through me, his teeth cutting deeply on the inner folds of my vagina. And it hurt. Badly. Stung so fiercely I screamed in the back of my throat. But I also liked it—felt the muscles inside me tighten around his finger like they never had before. And I couldn't help it. I had to let go—had to give my body what it wanted. I felt the hot, thick moisture rush down his fingers as blood spilled from under his lips, warm and fast, dripping up my tilted body and onto the sheets.
He stopped drinking abruptly and slid his finger out from inside me. “I warned you not to cum.”
I didn’t care. My whole body shivered with the bliss of orgasm. He could do anything he wanted to me now and not one hair on my body would twitch.
“Don’t think of this as submissive behaviour from me, Ara, but I can’t look at you while I do this,” he said, but I could hear a smile in his voice. “If I see those pretty eyes smiling back up at me I’m going to break character and make love to you instead.”