Playing with Fire: A Standalone Dark Romance

Chapter Fifty

It’s been a week since the attack.

My bruises and cuts are healing, the aches and pains almost non-existent now. The evidence of what happened is fading but my nightmares remain.

Arms band around me, my skin slick with sweat, hair stuck to my forehead and heart still pounding inside my chest, so hard I can feel it thumping.

Malakai’s hand rests above it as he uses his other arm to bring me in closer. “Shh,” He soothes, voice roughened with sleep, “I’ve got you.”

I let my hand curl around his arm, letting the warmth of him seep into my skin and the feel of him bring me back to earth.

“You’re safe, Olivia.” He whispers, more alert now. I turn, knowing his face is right next to mine, making our noses brush.

“I’m sorry for waking you.”

“Never apologize for needing me,” he rasps.

I can’t even correct him. I do need him.

“Does it go away?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” He admits, tightening his arms.

During the day it’s easy. I’m so busy I don’t have time to think about it. I’ve taken over the event planning at the hotel full time, and between that and the general running has kept me focused. In the evenings, I’m wrapped up in Malakai or spending time with Willow or the guys, but it’s in my dreams, when I’m most vulnerable, I’m back in that hallway.

True to his word, Malakai assigned me a bodyguard who follows me everywhere. Including to the bathroom though he waits outside. It had shocked me when he first followed me there thinking he was actually going to come inside, but he’d laughed at my horror and stationed himself against the opposite wall.

The only time he isn’t with me is when I am with Malakai. There’s been a few days when Malakai hasn’t been here and I’d thought I’d be alone, but my bodyguard turned up not five minutes after Malakai had left.

His name is Carl, an ex-veteran in his late forties who is, quite honestly, terrifying to look at. He’s nice enough though, a little quiet but I hadn’t expected much conversation from him.

It almost felt silly to have him, to have to explain to people who he was, especially since nothing at all has happened since that night at the event. There hasn’t even been a sniff of danger.

I’d said all this to Malakai, but he’d refused to let him go. How long will I need a bodyguard?

What even is the threat?

Malakai has his secrets locked up tight, I know they have something to do with the long evenings he spends up in the meeting room. He tells me to stay away, and I do, but I see the men coming in, so many of them, all suited, most older with a few younger ones around Malakai’s age dotted within.

Were they all part of the organization Malakai owns? The one where he controls hired killers and makes a profit from people dying? How deep do his crimes go? Just how evil is the man currently holding me to shelter me from my nightmares?

He killed two men for me.

Have there been more I don’t know about? My thoughts wander to Bradley, my ex, and his sudden death after I told Malakai about him. Surely, it’s coincidence, right? It was a tragic accident; he fell off a damn cliff for goodness sake. Malakai didn’t have anything to do with it, right!?

Why isn’t that terrifying me like my almost abduction is?

“I can hear you thinking, Olivia.” He grumbles.

“Oh, stop it, no you can’t.”

“Wanna bet?” He shifts onto his back, pulling me with him so I’m now laying across his firm, warm chest. His heart beats steadily beneath my ear, his fingers running up and down my naked spine. It’s something he does a lot, touches me this way with light moves, like a feather on my skin.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Malakai,” I chide softly.

He chuckles, the sound of it rumbling and vibrating beneath my ear, further chasing away the lingering fear left behind by the nightmare.

“You grind your teeth when you’re thinking too hard,” he says softly.

“Sorry, what?” I try to move off him so I can see his face, but he holds me down.

“I didn’t think much of it at first,” He says, “But whenever you’re thinking really hard about anything, you grind your teeth.”

“I do not.”

“You do, kitten.” His voice is light, full of amusement. “So, what are you thinking about?”

I swallow, “Did you kill Bradley?”

I feel his body stiffen beneath mine and my eyes go wide, all the confirmation I need. I start to wiggle and squirm to get off him, not in fear but so I can process the information.

He does not let me go. “Olivia.”

“You killed him!?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god.” I keep fighting but I know it’s no use. Malakai isn’t the type of man to let go. Ever. “They said he fell off a cliff!”

“Technically, he did,” Malakai says, loosening his arms just a touch so I can push up and look down on him. There’s a dim glow in the room, enough for me to make out some features but mostly, he’s covered in shadow. “He just had a little help with the fall.”

“You pushed him.” I accuse.

“I didn’t.”

My eyes narrow even though he can’t see it, “You hired someone to push him.”

“Yes.”

“Who?” I ask, needing to know everything but also wanting to know nothing at all. I shouldn’t have asked. His death doesn’t affect me in any way, I wasn’t and am not sad about it, the guy was a prick but still… he died because of me.

“Is that important?” He counters.

“Yes,” I breathe, “I need to know.”

“Sebastian and Killian were hired to do the job, Dean helped.” He sighs, “I requested it to look like an accident, so no one asked questions.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because he hurt you,” He answers immediately, the promise and conviction in his tone stealing my breath.

“You can’t kill everyone that hurts me in some way, Malakai!”

“I can and I will.”

He suddenly flips us until his very naked body is pressing mine back into the mattress.

“You do not understand, Olivia. There are no lengths I will not go to.”

“You’re crazy,” I breathe.

“No, you’re just mine.”

His mouth crashes against mine with fervor, it stuns me enough that I don’t fight. And then I’m kissing him back with as much demand since he’s been treating me like a fragile little doll all week.

But this? Now?

He’s acting like a man who’s been starved and I’m his first meal.

Hands grip and bruise where they hold, rough and possessive as he grinds his hard cock against my pussy, teasing me. It would be so easy for him to just sink inside, to take what he so clearly wants right now but he doesn’t.

“My twenty-four hours is starting now.” He growls into my mouth.

“What?” I push him away a little, trying to ignore the way his dick is pressing against my throbbing clit, “No, I have things to do!”

“Tough shit, kitten,” he nips my lip, “The prize was a twenty-four-hour period of my choosing, to be taken when I want it. I want it now.”

“Right now!?” I gasp.

“Right now. The next twenty-four hours belong to me, Olivia.” He starts to move down my body, kissing and sucking my flesh, “And I intend on starting them by eating your cunt until you beg me to stop.”

I cry out as his mouth latches onto my pussy, sucking and licking against my clit until I can feel myself dripping and my knees start to shake. His fingers join his torture, sinking into me as he flicks his tongue on that sensitive bud until my head throws back and I cry out, my orgasm shattering through me so unexpectedly, I can’t help but scream.

The intensity continues, my muscles contract as he keeps going, keeps working until the pleasure almost becomes painful.

“Malakai!” I cry his name, fingers tugging on his hair.

He only intensifies his ministrations, fucking me harder and faster with his fingers, moving his mouth messily over me and that one orgasm rolls into two.

“Oh fuck!” I scream.

My legs tighten around his head but still, he does not stop.

And that promise of eating me until I beg him to stop becomes a little bit more real.